The Kingdom of the Blind | Page 4

don't know of my guests and I'll introduce you."
The young man, leaning upon his stick, greeted his aunt and murmured
a word of apology. He was very fair, and with a slight, reddish
moustache and the remains of freckles upon his face. His grey eyes
were a little sunken, and there were lines about his mouth which one
might have guessed had been brought out recently by pain or suffering
of some sort. His left arm reclined uselessly in a black silk sling. He
glanced around the little assembly.
"First of all," he said, bowing to the French actress and raising her

fingers to his lips, "there is no one who does not know Madame Selarne.
Lady Patrick, we have met before, haven't we? I am going to see your
husband in his new play the first night I am allowed out. Mr. Daniell I
have met, and Lord Romsey may perhaps do me the honour of
remembering me," he added, shaking hands with the Cabinet Minister.
He turned to face Geraldine Conyers, who had been watching him with
interest. Lady Anselman at once introduced them.
"I know that you haven't met Miss Conyers because she has been
asking about you. This is my nephew Ronnie, Geraldine. I hope that
you will be friends."
The girl murmured something inaudible as she shook hands. The young
soldier looked at her for a moment. His manner became almost serious.
"I hope so, too," he said quietly.
"Olive, come and make friends with my nephew if you can spare a
moment from your young man," Lady Anselman continued. "Captain
Granet--Miss Olive Moreton. And this is Geraldine's
brother--Lieutenant Conyers."
The two men shook hands pleasantly. Lady Anselman glanced at the
clock and turned briskly towards the corridor.
"And now, I think," she announced, "luncheon."
As she moved forward, she was suddenly conscious of the man who ad
been talking to Madame Selarne. He had drawn a little on one side and
he was watching the young soldier with a curious intentness. She
turned back to her nephew and touched him on the arm.
"Ronnie," she said, "I don't know whether you have met Surgeon-Major
Thomson in France? Major Thomson, this is my nephew, Captain
Granet."
Granet turned at once and offered his hand to the other man. Only

Geraldine Conyers, who was a young woman given to noticing things,
and who had also reasons of her own for being interested, observed the
rather peculiar scrutiny with which each regarded the other. Something
which might almost have been a challenge seemed to pass from one to
the other.
"I may not have met you personally," Granet admitted, "but if you are
the Surgeon-Major Thomson who has been doing such great things
with the Field Hospitals at the front, then like nearly every poor crock
out there I owe you a peculiar debt of gratitude. You are the man I
mean, aren't you?" the young soldier concluded cordially.
Major Thomson bowed, and a moment later they all made their way
along the corridor, across the restaurant, searched for their names on
the cards and took their places at the table which had been reserved for
them. Lady Anselman glanced around with the scrutinising air of the
professional hostess, to see that her guests were properly seated before
she devoted herself to the Cabinet Minister. She had a word or two to
say to nearly every one of them.
"I have put you next Miss Conyers, Ronnie," she remarked, "because
we give all the good things to our men when they come home from the
war. And I have put you next Olive, Ralph," she went on, turning to the
sailor, "because I hear you are expecting to get your ship to-day or
to-morrow, so you, too, have to be spoiled a little. As a general rule I
don't approve of putting engaged people together, it concentrates
conversation so. And, Lord Romsey," she added, turning to her
neighbour, "please don't imagine for a moment that I am going to break
my promise. We are going to talk about everything in the world except
the war. I know quite well that if Ronnie has had any particularly
thrilling experiences, he won't tell us about them, and I also know that
your brain is packed full of secrets which nothing in the world would
induce you to divulge. We are going to try and persuade Madame to tell
us about her new play," she concluded, smiling at the French actress,
"and there are so many of my friends on the French stage whom I must
hear about."
Lord Romsey commenced his luncheon with an air of relief. He was a

man of little more than middle-age, powerfully built, inclined to be
sombre, with features of a legal type, heavily jawed. "Always