"'What is your name, pretty little girl?'
"I told him it was Luna Holmes. Then he drew from his robe a box made of scented wood, and, opening it, took out some sweetmeat which looked as if it had been frozen, and gave me a piece that, being very fond of sweet, I put into my mouth. Next, he bowled the hoop along the ground into the shadow of the treesit was evening time and beginning to grow darksaying, 'Run, catch it, little girl!'
"I began to run, but something in the taste of that sweet caused me to drop it from my lips. Then all grew misty, and the next thing I remember was finding myself in the arms of the younger Eastern, with the nurse and her 'cousin,' a stalwart person like a soldier, standing in front of us.
"'Little girl go ill,' said the elder Arab. 'We seek policeman.'
"'You drop that child,' answered the 'cousin,' doubling his fists. Then I grew faint again, and when I came to myself the two whiterobed men had gone. All the way home my governess scolded me for accepting sweets from strangers, saying that if my parents came to know of it, I should be whipped and sent to bed. Of course, I begged her not to tell them, and at last she consented. Do you know, I think you are the first to whom I have ever mentioned the matter, of which I am sure the governess never breathed a word, though after that, whenever we walked in the gardens, her 'cousin' always came to look after us. In the end I think she married him."
"You believe the sweet was drugged?" I asked.
She nodded. "There was something very strange in it. It was a night or two after I had tasted it that I had what just now I called my awakening, and began to think about Africa."
"Have you ever seen these men again, Miss Holmes?"
"No, never."
At this moment I heard Lady Longden say, in a severe voice:
"My dear Luna, I am sorry to interrupt your absorbing conversation, but we are all waiting for you."
So they were, for to my horror I saw that everyone was standing up except ourselves.
Miss Holmes departed in a hurry, while Scroope whispered in my ear with a snigger:
"I say, Allan, if you carry on like that with his young lady, his lordship will be growing jealous of you."
"Don't be a fool," I said sharply. But there was something in his remark, for as Lord Ragnall passed on his way to the other end of the table, he said in a low voice and with rather a forced smile:
"Well, Quatermain, I hope your dinner has not been as dull as mine, although your appetite seemed so poor."
Then I reflected that I could not remember having eaten a thing since the first entrée. So overcome was I that, rejecting all Scroope's attempts at conversation, I sat silent, drinking port and filling up with dates, until not long afterwards we went into the drawingroom, where I sat down as far from Miss Holmes as possible, and looked at a book of views of Jerusalem.
While I was thus engaged, Lord Ragnall, pitying my lonely condition, or being instigated thereto by Miss Holmes, I know not which, came up and began to chat with me about African biggame shooting. Also he asked me what was my permanent address in that country. I told him Durban, and in my turn asked why he wanted to know.
While I was thus engaged, Lord Ragnall, pitying my lonely condition, or being instigated thereto by Miss Holmes, I know not which, came up and began to chat with me about African biggame shooting. Also he asked me what was my permanent address in that country. I told him Durban, and in my turn asked why he wanted to know.
"Because Miss Holmes seems quite crazy about the place, and I expect I shall be dragged out there one day," he replied, quite gloomily. It was a prophetic remark.
At this moment our conversation was interrupted by Lady Longden, who came to bid her future soninlaw good night. She said that she must go to bed, and put her feet in mustard and water as her cold was so bad, which left me wondering whether she meant to carry out this operation in bed. I recommended her to take quinine, a suggestion she acknowledged rather inconsequently by remarking in somewhat icy tones that she supposed I sat up to all hours of the night in Africa. I replied that frequently I did, waiting for the sun to rise next day, for that member of the British aristocracy irritated me.
Thus we parted, and I never saw her again. She died many years ago, poor soul, and I suppose is now freezing her former acquaintances in the Shades, for I cannot imagine that she ever had a friend. They talk a great deal about the influences of heredity nowadays, but I don't believe very much in them myself. Who, for instance, could conceive that persons so utterly different in every way as Lady Longden and her daughter, Miss Holmes, could be mother and child? Our bodies, no doubt, we do inherit from our ancestors, but not our individualities. These come from far away.
A good many of the guests went at the same time, having long distances to drive on that cold frosty night, although it was only just ten o'clock. For as was usual at that period even in fashionable houses, we had dined at seven.