“If I could only see her for three minutes!” he said, in his despair, as he rose and went to the window.  “Why should she go away from her friends if she is in trouble?  Besides ourselves and the people in the theatre, she knows no one in this country.  If she goes away back to her acquaintances in Italy, she will not say a word; she will have no sympathy, no distraction of any kind; and all the success she has gained here will be as good as lost.  It is like Nina to say she blames no one; but her sending me back those bits of jewelry tells me who is to blame—­”

Estelle hesitated.

“Can I say?” she said, in rather low tones, and her eyes were cast down.  “Is it not breaking confidence?  But Nina was speaking of you—­she took me into the shop in Piccadilly to show me the beautiful gold cup—­and when I said to her, ’It is another present soon—­it is a wedding-ring soon he will give you—­’”

“Then it is you who have been putting those fancies into her head!” he said, turning to her.

“I?  Not I!” answered Estelle, with a quick indignation.  “It is you!  Ah, perhaps you did not think—­perhaps you are accustomed to have every ones—­to have every one—­give homage to the great singer—­you amuse the time—­what do you care?  I put such things into her head?  No!—­not at all!  But you!  You give her a wishing-cup—­what is the wish?  You come here often—­you are very kind to her—­oh, yes, very kind, and Nina is grateful for kindness—­you sing with her—­what do you call them?—­songs of love.  Ah, yes, the chansons amoureuses are very beautiful—­very charming—­but sometimes they break hearts.”

“I tell you I had no idea of anything of the kind,” he said—­for to be rated by the little boy-officer was a new experience.  “But I am going to try to find Nina—­whatever you may choose to do.”

“I respect her wish,” said Mlle. Girond, somewhat stiffly.  However, the next moment she had changed her mood.  “Mr. Moore, if you were to find her, what then?” she asked, rather timidly.

“I should bring her back to her friends,” he answered, simply enough.

“And then?”

“I should want to see her as happy and contented as she used to be—­the Nina we used to know.  I should want to get her back to the theatre, where she was succeeding so well.  She liked her work; she was interested in it; and you know she was becoming quite a favorite with the public.  Come, Miss Girond,” he said, “you needn’t be angry with me; that won’t do any good.  I see now I have been very thoughtless and careless; I ought not to have given her that loving-cup; I ought not to have given her any of those trinkets, I suppose.  But it never occurred to me at the time; I fancied she would be pleased at the moment, that was all.”

“And you did not reflect, then,” said Estelle, regarding him for a second, “what it was that may have brought Nina to England at the beginning?—­no?—­what made her wish to play at the New Theatre?  Ah, a man is so blind!”