"
"Then we ain't," she whispered, "New Year or not."
"You defy me," he said, raising his voice so that the doctor might hear
the words.
"Yes," she said.
"Doctor, do you hear?"
He seemed suddenly bent on forcing a quarrel. Doctor Levillier felt again
that sense of dread and horror which had attacked him now more than once
of late in Valentine's presence. This time the sensation was so acute
that he could scarcely combat it sufficiently to reply.
"I hear," he murmured.
"Julian!" Valentine called. "Julian, come here. Miss Bright wishes to
tell you something."
Julian turned round.
"Now, lady of the feathers!"
But Cuckoo burst into a shrill little laugh. Her head was spinning again.
"I've nothing--nothing to say," she cried out. "Give me some more
brandy."
"Very well. Let us all drink to the health of the New Year."
Valentine filled the glasses--Julian's with absinthe--and gave the toast:
"The New Year!"
They all raised their glasses to their lips simultaneously. One fell with
a crash to the ground and was broken. It was Julian's.
"I won't drink it," he said, doggedly, looking at Valentine.
There was a silence. Then Valentine said, calmly:
"Have you an animus against the thing you don't yet know?"
It was sufficiently obvious that he alluded to the year just coming in
upon London.
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