On his return to the Plaza Mr. Sam Gwent tried to get some conversation with Manella, but found it difficult. She did not wait on the visitors in the dining-room, and Gwent imagined he knew the reason why. Her beauty was of too brilliant and riante a type to escape the notice and admiration of men, whose open attentions were likely to be embarrassing to her, and annoying to her employers. She was therefore kept very much out of the way, serving on the upper floors, and was only seen flitting up and down the staircase or passing through the various corridors and balconies. However, when evening fell and its dark, still heat made even the hotel lounge, cooled as it was by a fountain in full play, almost unbearable, Gwent, strolling forth into the garden, found her there standing near a thick hedge of myrtle which exhaled a heavy scent as if every leaf were being crushed between invisible fingers. She looked up as she saw him approaching and smiled.
"You found your friend well?" she said.
"Very well, indeed!" replied Gwent, promptly--"In fact, I never knew he was ill!"
Manella gave her peculiar little uplift of the head which was one of her many fascinating gestures.
"He is not ill"--she said--"He only pretends! That is all! He has some reason for pretending. I think it is love!"
Gwent laughed.
"Not a bit of it! He's the last man in the world to worry himself about love!"
Manella glanced him over with quite a superior air.
"Ah, perhaps you do not know!" And she waved her hands expressively. "There was a wonderful lady came here to see him some weeks ago--she stole up the hill at night, like a spirit--a little, little fairy woman with golden hair--"
Gwent pricked up his ears and stood at attention.
"Yes? Really? You don't say so! 'A little fairy woman'? Sounds like a story!"
"She wore the most lovely clothes"--went on Manella, clasping her hands in ecstasy--"She stayed at the Plaza one night--I waited upon her. I saw her in her bed--she had skin like satin, and eyes like blue stars--her hair fell nearly to her ankles--she was like a dream! And she went up the hill by moonlight all by herself, to find HIM!"
Gwent listened with close interest.
"And I presume she found him?"
Manella nodded, and a sigh escaped her.
"Oh, yes, she found him! He told me that. And I am sure--something tells me HERE" and she pressed one hand against her heart--"by the way he spoke--that he loves her!"