We were silent for some moments. At last, abruptly--"My dear fellow," I
said, "I should take some satisfaction in seeing you immediately leave
Homburg."

"Immediately?"

"To-day--as soon as you can get ready."

He looked at me, surprised, and little by little he blushed. "There is
something I have not told you," he said; "something that your saying that
Madame Blumenthal has no reputation to lose has made me half afraid to
tell you."

"I think I can guess it. Madame Blumenthal has asked you to come and
play her game for her again."

"Not at all!" cried Pickering, with a smile of triumph. "She says that
she means to play no more for the present. She has asked me to come and
take tea with her this evening."

"Ah, then," I said, very gravely, "of course you can't leave Homburg."

He answered nothing, but looked askance at me, as if he were expecting me
to laugh. "Urge it strongly," he said in a moment. "Say it's my
duty--that I _must_."

I didn't quite understand him, but, feathering the shaft with a harmless
expletive, I told him that unless he followed my advice I would never
speak to him again.