"Of course I felt it--but then I was myself
altogether to blame. I importuned you for what you couldn't give.
Remembering that, wasn't your action the most sensible, and really
the kindest?"
"I don't know," Olga murmured, in a voice just audible.
"Of course it was! There now, we've done with all that. Tell me more
about your life this last year or two. You are such a brilliant
person. I felt rather overcome----"
"Nonsense!" But Olga brightened a little. "What of your own
brilliancy? I read somewhere that you are a famous man in Russia
----"
Piers laughed, spontaneously this time, and, finding it a way of
escape, gossiped about his own achievements with mirthful
exaggeration.
"Do you see the Derwents?" Mrs. Florio asked of a sudden, with a
sidelong look.
So vexed was Otway at the embarrassment he could not wholly hide,
and which delayed his answer, that he spoke the truth with excessive
bluntness.
"I have met Miss Derwent in society."
"I don't often see them," said Olga, in a tone of weariness. "I
suppose we belong to different worlds."
At the earliest possible moment, Piers rose with decision. He felt
that he had not pleased Mrs. Florio, that perhaps he had offended
her, and in leaving her he tried to atone for involuntary
unkindness.
"But we shall see each other again, of course!" she exclaimed,
retaining his hand. "You will come again soon?"
"Certainly I will.
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