George Harcourt was called suddenly to Rome that morning and so even
hearing him talk further about the Bulteels was denied me for the time.
I passed some days of the cruelest unrest. There was no sign of Alathea.
I allowed Maurice to drag me out into the world and spent my evenings
among my kind.
A number of my old pals have been killed lately, such an irony when the
war seems to be drawing to a close! There is still an atmosphere of
tension and unrestfulness in the air, though.
After an awful week George Harcourt came back and dropped in to see me.
I opened fire at once, and asked him to tell me all that he knew of the
Bulteels, especially his old brother officer Bobby.
"I have a particular reason for asking, George," I said.
"Very curious your speaking of them, Nicholas, because there has just
been the devil of a fuss in the French Foreign Legion about that
infernal blackguard; it came to my knowledge in my work."
"Has he been cheating at cards again?"
George nodded.
"Tell me from the beginning."
So he started--many of the bits I already knew. Lady Hilda had been a
great friend of his and he dwelt upon the life of suffering she had
had.
"There were a few years of frantic love and some sort of happiness, I
expect, and then funds began to give out, and Bobbie's insane desire to
gamble led him into the shadiest society, at Baden-Baden and Nice, and
other warm spots. Poor Hilda used to go about with him then in a shamed,
defiant way, running from any old friend, or staring over his head. I
happened upon them once or twice in my wanderings; then I lost sight of
them for some years, and the next thing was someone told me the poor
woman had broken down and was a nervous wreck, and two children had been
born in quick succession, when the first one was about eleven years old,
and the whole family were in miserable straits. I think relations paid
up that time--with the understanding that never again were they to be
applied to. And since then I have heard nothing until the other day it
came to my ears that the eldest girl--she must be over twenty now, was
supporting the entire family. One of the children died lately, and now
Bobby has put the cap on it. I am sorry for them, but Bobby is
impossible."
Oh! My poor little girl, what a life! How I longed to take her out of
it!