"Can you forgive me?" he said.
But Madame, rising to her feet, leaned lightly upon his shoulder,
toying with the petals of the orchid in his buttonhole.
"I think it was the perfume which that foolish Ah Li lighted,"
she whispered, looking intently into his eyes, "and it is you who
have to forgive me. But you will, I know!" The silver bell rang
again. "When you have come to see me again--many, many times,
you will grow to love it--because I love it."
She touched the bell upon the table, and Ah Li entered silently.
When Madame de Medici held out her hand to him Deacon raised the
white fingers to his lips and kissed them rapturously; then he
turned, the Gascon within him uppermost again, and ran from the
room.
A purple curtain was drawn across the lobby, screening the caller
newly arrived from the one so hurriedly departing.
IV
THE LIVING BUDDHA
It was past midnight when Colonel Deacon returned to the house.
Rene was waiting for him, pacing up and down the big library.
Their relationship was curious, as subsisting between ward and
guardian, for these two, despite the disparity of their ages, had
few secrets from one another. Rene burned to pour out his story
of the wonderful Madame de Medici, of the secret house in
Chinatown with its deceptively mean exterior and its gorgeous
interior, to the shrewd and worldly elder man.
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