CHAPTER V
HE ENGAGES BOTH HIS WORD AND SWORD
"Our destination, monsieur," the girl indicated briefly, with a dainty little nod of her head.
Half stupefied, the Irishman managed to get himself—somehow—out of the vehicle. Wholly fascinated, he made haste to turn and assist the woman to alight; for a moment her gloved hand rested in his broad palm—her hand, warm, soft, fragile …! But, almost immediately, it was gone; O'Rourke found himself bowing reverently, and, he felt, idiotically, over space. He recovered himself, and followed the girl, his eyes aglow with a new, clear light.
Their fiacre had halted before a certain impressive mansion on a broad boulevard—a hôtel familiar to the Irishman in a way, and yet nameless to him. Rather than mansion, the building might be termed a palace, so huge, so impressive it bulked in the night. Seemingly a fête of some sort was in progress within; the windows shone with soft radiance, faint strains of music filtered through the open entrance, at either side of which stood stolid servants in gorgeous livery after the English fashion.
From the doors, down the steps to the curb, ran a carpet under an awning. The girl tripped nonchalantly up the steps, as one knowing well the place, and gave a whispered word or two coldly to a footman who bowed with a respect which struck the Irishman as exaggerated.
They passed through an elaborate vestibule banked with
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