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The Danger Mark, a novel by Robert W. Chambers |
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Chapter 11. Fete Galante |
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_ CHAPTER XI. FETE GALANTE The forest, in every direction, was strung with lighted lanterns; tall torches burning edged the Gray Water, and every flame rippled straight upward in the still air. Through the dark, mid-summer woodland music of violin, viola, and clarionet rang out, and the laughter and jolly uproar of the dancers swelled and ebbed, with now and then sudden intervals of silence slowly filled by the far noise of some unseen stream rushing westward under the stars. Glade, greensward, forest, aisles, and the sylvan dancing floor, bounded by garlanded and beribboned pillars, swarmed with a gay company. Torchlight painted strange high lights on silken masks, touching with subdued sparkles the eyes behind the slanting eye-slits; half a thousand lanterns threw an orange radiance across the glade, bathing the whirling throngs of dancers, glimmering on gilded braid and sword hilt, on powdered hair, on fresh young faces laughing behind their masks; on white shoulders and jewelled throats, on fan and brooch and spur and lacquered heel. There was a scent of old-time perfume in the air, and, as Duane adjusted his mask and drew near, he saw that sets were already forming for the minuet. He recognised Dysart, glorious in silk and powder, perfectly in his element, and doing his part with eighteenth-century elaboration; Kathleen, tres grande-dame, almost too exquisitely real for counterfeit; Delancy Grandcourt, very red in the face under his mask, wig slightly awry, conscientiously behaving as nearly like a masked gentleman of the period as he knew how; his sister Naida, sweet and gracious; Scott, masked and also spectacled, grotesque and preoccupied, casting patient glances toward the dusky solitudes that he much preferred, and from whence a distant owl fluted at intervals, inviting his investigations. And there were the Pink 'uns, too, easily identified, having all sorts of a good time with a pair of maskers resembling Doucette Landon and Peter Tappan; and there in powder, paint, and patch capered the Beekmans, Ellises, and Montrosses--all the clans of the great and near-great of the country-side, gathering to join the eternal hunt for happiness where already the clarionets were sounding "Stole Away." For the quarry in that hunt is a spectre; sighted, it steals away; and if one remains very, very still and listens, one may hear, far and faint, the undertone of phantom horns mocking the field that rides so gallantly. "Stole away," whispered Duane in Kathleen's ear, as he paused beside her; and she seemed to know what he meant, for she nodded, smiling: "You mean that what we hunt is doomed to die when we ride it down?" "Let us be in at the death, anyway," he said. "Kathleen, you're charming and masked to perfection. It's only that white skin of yours that betrays you; it always looks as though it were fragrant. Is that Geraldine surrounded three deep--over there under that oak-tree?" "Yes; why are you so late, Duane? And I haven't seen Rosalie, either." He did not care to enlighten her, but stood laughing and twirling his sword-knot and looking across the glittering throng, where a daintily masked young girl stood defending herself with fan and bouquet against the persistence of her gallants. Then he shook out the lace at his gilded cuffs, dropped one palm on his sword-hilt, saluted Kathleen's finger-tips with graceful precision, and sauntered toward Geraldine, dusting his nose with his filmy handkerchief--a most convincing replica of the bland epoch he impersonated. As for Geraldine, she was certainly a very lovely incarnation of that self-satisfied and frivolous century; her success had already excited her a little; men seemed suddenly to have gone quite mad about her; and this and her own beauty were taking effect on her, producing an effect the more vivid, perhaps, because it was a reaction from the perplexities and tears of yesterday and the passionate tension of the morning. Within her breast the sense of impending pleasure stirred and fluttered deliciously with every breath of music; the confused happiness of being in love, the relief in relaxation from a sterner problem, the noisy carnival surging, rioting around her, men crowding about her, eager in admiration and rivalry, the knowledge of her own loveliness--all these set the warm blood racing through every vein, and tinted lip and cheek with a colour in brilliant contrast to the velvety masked eyes and the snow of the slender neck. Through the gay tumult which rang ceaselessly around her, where she stood, plying her painted fan, her own laughter sounded at intervals, distinct in its refreshing purity, for it had always that crystalline quality under a caressing softness; but Duane, who had advanced now to the outer edge of the circle, detected in her voice no hint of that thrilling undertone which he had known, which he alone among men had ever awakened. Her gaiety was careless, irresponsible, childlike in its clarity; under her crescent mask the smiles on her smooth young face dawned and died out, brief as sun-spots flashing over snow. Briefer intervals of apparent detachment from everything succeeded them; a distrait survey of the lantern-lit dancers, a preoccupied glance at the man speaking to her, a lifting of the delicate eyebrows in smiling preoccupation. But always behind the black half-mask her eyes wandered throughout the throng as though seeking something hidden; and on her vivid lips the smile became fixed. Whether or not she had seen him, Duane could not tell, but presently, as he forced a path toward her, she stirred, closed her fan, took a step forward, head a trifle lowered; and right of way was given her, as she moved slowly through the cluster of men, shaking her head in vexation to the whispered importunities murmured in her ear, answering each according to his folly--this man with a laugh, that with a gesture of hand or shoulder, but never turning to reply, never staying her feet until, passing close to Duane, and not even looking at him: "Where on earth have you been, Duane?" "How did you know me?" he said, laughing; "you haven't even looked at me yet." "On peut voir sans regarder, Monsieur. Nous autres demoiselles, nous voyons tres bien, tres bien ... et nous ne regardons jamais." [Illustration: "She dropped him a very low, very slow, very marvellous courtesy"] She had paused, still not looking directly at him. Then she lifted her head. "Everybody has asked me to dance; I've said yes to everybody, but I've waited for you," she said. "It will be that way all my life, I think." "It has been that way with me, too," he said gaily. "Why should we wait any more?" "Why are you so late?" she asked. She had missed Rosalie, too, but did not say so. "I am rather late," he admitted carelessly; "can you give me this dance?" She stepped nearer, turning her shoulder to the anxious lingerers, who involuntarily stepped back, leaving a cleared space around them. "Make me your very best bow," she whispered, "and take me. I've promised a dozen men, but it doesn't matter." He said in a low voice, "You darling!" and made her a very wonderful bow, and she dropped him a very low, very slow, very marvellous courtesy, and, rising, laid her fingers on his embroidered sleeve. Then turning, head held erect, and with a certain sweet insolence in the droop of her white lids, she looked at the men around her. Gray said in a low voice to Dysart: "That's as much as to admit that they're engaged, isn't it? When a girl doesn't give a hoot what she does to other men, she's nailed, isn't she?" Dysart did not answer; Rosalie, passing on Grandcourt's arm, caught the words and turned swiftly, looking over her shoulder at Geraldine. But Geraldine and Duane had already forgotten the outer world; around them the music swelled; laughter and voice grew indistinct, receding, blending in the vague tumult of violins. They gazed upon each other with vast content. "As a matter of fact," said Duane, "I don't remember very well how to dance a minuet. I only wanted to be with you. We'll sit it out if you're afraid I'll make a holy show of you." "Oh, dear," said Geraldine in pretty distress, "and I let you beguile me when I'm dying to do this minuet. Duane, you _must_ try to remember! _Everybody_ will be watching us." And as her quick ear caught the preliminary bars of the ancient and stately measure: "It's the Menuet d'Exaudet," she said hurriedly; "listen, I'll instruct you as we move; I'll sing it under my breath to the air of the violins," and, her hand in his, she took the first slow, dainty step in the old-time dance, humming the words as they moved forward:
"You are quite perfect, Duane; keep your head level, dear:
"Our betrothal dance," he whispered. "Shall it be so, dear?" They looked at each other as though they stood there alone; the lovely old air of the Menuet d'Exaudet seemed to exhale from the tremulous violins like perfume floating through the woods; figures of masked dancers passed and repassed them through the orange-tinted glow; there came a vast rustle of silk, a breezy murmur, the scented wind from opening fans, the rattle of swords, and the Menuet d'Exaudet ended with a dull roll of kettle-drums. A few minutes later he had her in his arms in a deliciously wild waltz, a swinging, irresponsible, gipsy-like thing which set the blood coursing and pulses galloping. Every succeeding dance she gave to him. Now and then a tiny cloud of powder-dust floated from her hair; a ribbon from her shoulder-knot whipped his face; her breath touched his lips; her voice, at intervals, thrilled and caressed his ears, a soft, breathless voice, which mounting exaltation had made unsteadily sweet. "You know--dear--I'm dancing every dance with you--in the teeth of decency, the face of every convention, and defiance of every law of hospitality. I belong to my guests." And again: "Do you know, Duane, there's a sort of a delicious madness coming over me. I'm all trembling under my skin with the overwhelming happiness of it all. I tell you it's intoxicating me because I don't know how to endure it." He caught fire at her emotion; her palm was burning in his, her breath came irregularly, lips and cheeks were aflame, as they came to a breathless halt in the torchlight. "Dear," she faltered, "I simply _must_ be decent to my guests.... I'm dying to dance with you again, but I can't be so rude.... Oh, goodness! here they come, hordes of them. I'll give them a dance or two--anybody who speaks first, and then you'll come and find me, won't you?... Isn't that enough to give them--two or three dances? Isn't that doing my duty as chatelaine sufficiently?" "Don't give them any," he said with conviction. "They'll know we're engaged if you don't----" "Oh, Duane! We are only--only provisionally engaged," she said. "I am only on probation, dear. You know it can't be announced until I--I'm fit to marry you----" "What nonsense!" he interrupted, almost savagely. "You're winning out; and even if you are not, I'll marry you, anyway, and make you win!" "We have talked that over----" "Yes, and it is settled!" "No, Duane----" "I tell you it is!" "No. Hush! Somebody might overhear us. Quick, dear, here comes Bunny and Reggie Wye and Peter Tappan, all mad as hatters. I've behaved abominably to them! Will you find me after the third dance? Very well; tell me you love me then--whisper it, quick!... Ah-h! Moi aussi, Monsieur. And, remember, after the third dance!" She turned slowly from him to confront an aggrieved group of masked young men, who came up very much hurt, clamouring for justice, explaining volubly that it was up to her to keep her engagements and dance with somebody besides Duane Mallett. "Mon Dieu, Messieurs, je ne demanderais pas mieux," she said gaily. "Why didn't somebody ask me before?" "You promised us each a dance," retorted Tappan sulkily, "but you never made good. I'll take mine now if you don't mind----" "I'm down first!" insisted the Pink 'un. They squabbled over her furiously; Bunbury Gray got her; she swung away into a waltz on his arm, glancing backward at Duane, who watched her until she disappeared in the whirl of dancers. Then he strolled to the edge of the lantern-lit glade, stood for a moment looking absently at the shadowy woods beyond, and presently sauntered into the luminous dusk, which became darker and more opaque as he left the glare of the glade behind. Here and there fantastic figures loomed, moving slowly, two and two, under the fairy foliage; on the Gray Water canoes strung with gaudy paper lanterns drifted; clouds of red fire rolled rosy and vaporous along the water's edge; and in the infernal glow, hazy shapes passed and repassed, finding places among scores of rustic tables, where servants in old-time livery and powdered wigs hurried to and fro with ices and salads, and set the white-covered tables with silverware and crystal. A dainty masked figure in demon red flitted across his path in the uncanny radiance. He hailed her, and she turned, hesitated, then, as though convinced of his identity, laughed, and hastened on with a nod of invitation. "Where are you going, pretty mask?" he inquired, wending his pace and trying to recognise the costume in the uncertain cross light. But she merely laughed and continued to retreat before him, keeping the distance between them, hastening her steps whenever he struck a faster gait, pausing and looking back at him with a mocking smile when his steps slackened; a gracefully malicious, tormenting, laughing creature of lace and silk, whose retreat was a challenge, whose every movement and gesture seemed instinct with the witchery of provocation. On the edge of the ring of tables she paused, picked up a goblet, held it out to a passing servant, who immediately filled the glass. Then, before Duane could catch her, she drained the goblet to his health and fled into the shadows, he hard on her heels, pressing her closer, closer, until the pace became too hot for her, and she turned to face him, panting and covering her masked face with her fan. "Now, my fair unknown, we shall pay a few penalties," he said with satisfaction; but she defended herself so adroitly that he could not reach her mask. "Be fair to me," she gasped at last; "why are you so rough with me when--when you need not be? I knew you at once, Jack." And she dropped her arms, standing resistless, breathing fast, her masked face frankly upturned to be kissed. "Now, who the devil," thought Duane, "have I got in my arms? And for whom does she take me?" He gazed searchingly into the slitted eye-holes; the eyes appeared to be blue, as well as he could make out. He looked at the fresh laughing mouth, a young, sensitive mouth, which even in laughter seemed not entirely gay. "Don't you really mind if I kiss you?" He spoke in a whisper to disguise his voice. "Isn't it a little late to ask me that?" she said; and under her mask the colour stained her skin. "I think what we do now scarcely matters." She was so confident, so plainly awaiting his caress, that for a moment he was quite ready to console her. And did not, could not, with the fragrant and yielding intimacy of Geraldine still warm in his quickened heart. She stood quite motionless, her little hands warm in his, her masked face upturned. And, as he merely stared at her: "What is the matter, Jack?" she breathed. "Why do you look at me so steadily?" He ought to have let her go then; he hesitated, wondering which Jack she supposed him to be; and before he realised it her arms were on his shoulders, her mouth nearer to his. "Jack, you frighten me! What is it?" "N-nothing," he continued to stammer. "Yes, there is. Does your--your wife suspect--anything----" "No, she doesn't," said Duane grimly, trying to free himself without seeming to. "I've got an appointment----" But the girl said piteously: "It isn't--Geraldine, is it?" "_What_!" "You--you admitted that she attracted you--for a little while.... Oh, I _did_ forgive you, Jack; truly I did with all my miserable heart! I was so fearfully unhappy--I would have done anything." ... Her face flushed scarlet. "And I--did.... But you do love me, don't you?" And the next moment her lips were on his with a sob. Duane reached back and quietly unclasped her fingers. Then very gently he forced her to a seat on a great fallen log. Still looking up at him, droopingly pathetic in contrast to her gay debut with him, she naively slipped up the mask over her forehead and passed her hand across her pretty blue eyes. Sylvia Quest! The sinister significance of her attitude flashed over him, all doubt vanished, all the comedy of their encounter was gone in an instant. Over him swept a startled sequence of emotions--bitter contempt for Dysart, scorn of the wretchedly equivocal situation and of the society that bred it, a miserable desire to spare her, vexation at himself for what he had unwittingly stumbled upon. The last thought persisted, dominated; succeeded by a disgusted determination that she must be spared the shame and terror of what she had inadvertently revealed; that she must never know she had not been speaking to Dysart himself. "If I tell you that all is well--and if I tell you no more than that," he whispered, "will you trust me?" "Have I not done so, Jack?" The tragedy in her lifted eyes turned him cold with fury. "Then wait here until I return," he said. "Promise." "I promise," she sighed, "but I don't understand. I'm a--a little frightened, dear. But I--believe you." He swung on his heel and made toward the lights once more, and a moment later the man he sought passed within a few feet of him, and Duane knew him by his costume, which was a blue replica of his own gray silks. "Dysart!" he said sharply. The masked figure swung gracefully around and stood still, searching the shadowy woodland inquiringly. "I want a word with you. Here--not in the light, if you please. You recognise my voice, don't you?" "Is that you, Mallett?" asked Dysart coldly, as the former appeared in the light for an instant and turned back again with a curt gesture. "Yes. I want you to step over here among the trees, where nobody can interrupt us." Dysart followed more slowly; came to a careless halt: "Well, what the devil do you want?" he demanded insolently. "I'll tell you. I've had an encounter with a mask who mistook me for you.... And she has said--several things--under that impression. She still believes that I am you. I asked her to wait for me over there by those oaks. Do you see where I mean?" He pointed and Dysart nodded coolly. "Well, then, I want you to go back there--find her, and act as though it had been you who heard what she said, not I." "What do you mean?" "I mean exactly that. The girl ought never to know that what she said was heard and--and _understood_, Dysart, by any man in the world except the blackguard I'm telling this to. Now, do you understand?" He stepped nearer: "The girl is Sylvia Quest. _Now_, do you understand, damn you!" A stray glimmer from the distant lanterns fell across Dysart's masked visage. The skin around the mouth was loose and ashy, the dry lips worked. "That was a dirty trick of yours," he stammered; "a scoundrelly thing to do." "Do you suppose that I dreamed for an instant that she was convicting herself and you?" said Duane in bitter contempt. "Go and manufacture some explanation of my conduct as though it were your own. Let her have that much peace of mind, anyway." "You young sneak!" retorted Dysart. "I suppose you think that what you have heard will warrant your hanging around my wife. Try it and see." "Good God, Dysart!" he said, "I never thought you were anything more vicious than what is called a 'dancing man.' What are you, anyhow?" "You'll learn if you tamper with my affairs," said Dysart. He whipped off his mask and turned a corpse-like visage on the younger man. Every feature of his face had altered: his good looks were gone, the youth in his eyes had disappeared, only a little evil lustre played over them; and out of the drawn pallor Duane saw an old man peering, an old man's lips twitching back from uneven and yellowed teeth. "Mallett," he said, "you listen to me. Keep your investigating muzzle out of my affairs; forget what you've ferreted out; steer clear of me and mine. I want no scandal, but if you raise a breath of it you'll have enough concerning yourself to occupy you. Do you understand?" "No," said Duane mechanically, staring at the man before him. "Well, then, to be more precise, if you lift one finger to injure me you'll cut a figure in court.... And you can marry her later." "Who?" "My wife. I don't think Miss Seagrave will stand for what I'll drag you through if you don't keep clear of me!" Duane gazed at him curiously: "So _that_ is what you are, Dysart," he said aloud to himself. Dysart's temples reddened. "Yes, and then some!... I understand that you have given yourself the privilege of discussing my financial affairs in public. Have you?" Duane said in a dull voice: "The Algonquin Trust was mentioned, I believe. I did say that you are a director." "You said I was hard hit and that the Clearing House meant to weed out a certain element that I represented in New York." "I did not happen to say that," said Duane wearily, "but another man did." "Oh. _You_ didn't say it?" "No. I don't lie, Dysart." "Then add to that negative virtue by keeping your mouth shut," said Dysart between his teeth, "or you'll have other sorts of suits on your hands. I warn you now to keep clear of me and mine." "Just what _is_ yours?" inquired Duane patiently. "You'll find out if you touch it." "Oh. Is--is Miss Quest included by any hazard? Because if the right chance falls my way, I shall certainly interfere." "If you do, I shall begin suit for alienation within twenty-four hours." "Oh, no, you won't. You're horribly afraid, Dysart. This grimacing of yours is fear. All you want is to be let alone, to burrow through the society that breeds your sort. Like a maggot in a chestnut you feed on what breeds you. I don't care. Feed! What bred you is as rotten as you are. I'm done with it--done with all this," turning his head toward the flare of light. "Go on and burrow. What nourishes you can look out for itself.... Only"--he wheeled around and looked into the darkness where, unseen, Sylvia Quest awaited him--"only, in this set, the young have less chance than the waifs of the East Side." He walked slowly up to Dysart and struck him across the face with open palm. "Break with that girl or I'll break your head," he said. Dysart was down on the leaves, struggling up to his knees, then to his feet, the thin blood running across his chin. The next instant he sprang at Duane, who caught him by both arms and forced him savagely into quivering inertia. "Don't," he said. "You're only a thing that dances. Don't move, I tell you.... Wipe that blood off and go and set the silly girl's heart at rest.... And keep away from her afterward. Do you hear?" He set his teeth and shook him so wickedly that Dysart's head rolled and his wig fell off. "I know something of your sloppy record," he continued, still shaking him; "I know about your lap-dog fawning around Miss Seagrave. It is generally understood that you're as sexless as any other of your kind. I thought so, too. Now I know you. Keep clear of _me_ and _mine_, Dysart.... And that will be about all." He left him planted against a tree and walked toward the lights once more, breathing heavily and in an ugly mood. On the edge of the glade, just outside the lantern glow, he stood sombre, distrait, inspecting the torn lace on his sleeve, while all around him people were unmasking amid cries of surprise and shouts of laughter, and the orchestra was sounding a march, and multicoloured Bengal fires rolled in clouds from the water's edge, turning the woods to a magic forest and the people to tinted wraiths. Behind him he heard Rosalie's voice, caressing, tormenting by turns; and, glancing around for her victim, beheld Grandcourt at heel in calflike adoration. Kathleen's laughter swung him the other way. "Oh, Duane," she cried, the pink of excitement in her cheeks, "isn't it all too heavenly! It looks like Paradise afire with all those rosy clouds rolling under foot. Have you ever seen anything quite as charming?" "It's rotten," said Duane brusquely, tearing the tattered lace free and tossing it aside. "Wh-what!" she exclaimed. "I say it's all rotten," he repeated, looking up at her. "All this--the whole thing--the stupidity of it--the society that's driven to these kind of capers, dreading the only thing it ever dreads--ennui! Look at us all! For God's sake, survey us damn fools, herded here in our pinchbeck mummery--forcing the sanctuary of these decent green woods, polluting them with smoke and noise and dirty little intrigues! I'm sick of it!" "Duane!" "Oh, yes; I'm one of 'em--dragging my idleness and viciousness and my stupidity and my money at my heels. I tell you, Kathleen, this is no good. There's a stench of money everywhere; there's a staler aroma in the air, too--the dubious perfume of decadence, of moral atrophy, of stupid recklessness, of the ennui that breeds intrigue! I'm deadly tired of it--of the sort of people I was born among; of their women folk, whose sole intellectual relaxation is in pirouetting along the danger mark without overstepping, and in concealing it when they do; of the overgroomed men who can do nothing except what can be done with money, who think nothing, know nothing, sweat nothing but money and what it can buy--like horses and yachts and prima donnas----" She uttered a shocked exclamation, but he went on: "Yes, prima donnas. Which of our friends was it who bought that pretty one that sang in 'La Esmeralda'?" "Duane!" she exclaimed in consternation; but he took her protesting hands in his and held her powerless. "You happen to be a darling," he said; "but you were not born to this environment. Geraldine was--and she is a darling. God bless her. Outside of my sister, Naida, and you two--with the exception of the newly fledged and as yet mercifully unregurgitated with vicious wisdom--who are all these people? Ciphers, save for their balances at their banks; nameless, save for the noisy reiteration of their hard-fisted forebears' names; without any ambition, except financial and social; without any objective, save the escape from ennui--without any taste, culture, inspiration, except that of physical gratification! Oh, Lord, I'm one of them, but I resign to-night." "Duane, you're quite mad," she said, wrenching her hands free and gazing at him rather fearfully. "I think he's dead sensible," said a calm voice at her elbow; and Scott Seagrave appeared, twirling his mask and blinking at them through his spectacles. Duane laughed: "Of course I am, you old reptile-hunting, butterfly-chasing antediluvian! But, come on; Byzantium is gorging its diamond-swathed girth yonder with salad and champagne; and I'm hungry, even if Kathleen isn't----" "I _am_!" she exclaimed indignantly. "Scott, can't you find Naida and Geraldine? Duane and I will keep a table until you return----" "I'll find them," said Duane; and he walked off among the noisy, laughing groups, his progress greeted uproariously from table to table. He found Naida and Bunbury Gray, and they at once departed for the rendezvous indicated. "Geraldine was here a little while ago," said Gray, "but she walked to the lake with Jack Dysart. My, but she's hitting it up," he added admiringly. "Hitting it up?" repeated Duane. "For a girl who never does, I mean. I imagine that she's a novice with champagne. Champagne and Geraldine make a very fetching combination, I can tell you." "She took no more than I," observed Naida with a shrug; "one solitary glass. If a girl happens to be high strung and ventures to laugh a little, some wretched man is sure to misunderstand! Bunny, you're a gadabout!" She made her way out from the maze of tables, Bunny following, somewhat abashed; and Duane walked toward the shore, where dozens of lantern-hung canoes bobbed, and the pasteboard cylinders of Bengal fire had burned to smouldering sparks. In the dim light he came on the people he was looking for, seated on the rocks. Dysart, at her feet, was speaking in an undertone; Geraldine, partly turned away from him, hands clasped around her knees, was staring steadily across the water. Neither rose as he came up; Dysart merely became mute; Geraldine looked around with a start; her lips parted in a soundless, mechanical greeting, then the flush in her cheeks brightened; and as she rose, Dysart got onto his feet and stood silently facing the new arrival. "I said after the third dance, you know," she observed with an assumed lightness that did not deceive him. And, as he made no answer, he saw the faint flicker of fright in her eyes and the lower lip quiver. He said pleasantly, controlling his voice: "Isn't this after the third dance? You are to be my partner for supper, I think." "A long time after; and I've already sat at Belshazzar's feast, thank you. I couldn't very well starve waiting for you, could I?" And she forced a smile. "Nevertheless, I must claim your promise," he said. There was a silence; she stood for a moment gazing at nothing, with the same bright, fixed smile, then turned and glanced at Dysart. The glance was his dismissal and he knew it. "If I must give you up," he said cheerfully, at his ease, "please pronounce sentence." "I am afraid you really must, Mr. Dysart." There was another interval of constraint; then Dysart spoke. His self-possession was admirable, his words perfectly chosen, his exit in faultless taste. They looked after him until he was lost to view in the throngs beyond, then the girl slowly reseated herself, eyes again fixed on the water, hands clasped tightly upon her knee, and Duane found a place at her elbow. So they began a duet of silence. The little wavelets came dancing shoreward out of the darkness, breaking with a thin, splashing sound against the shale at their feet. Somewhere in the night a restless heron croaked and croaked among the willows. "Well, little girl?" he asked at last. "Well?" she inquired, with a calmness that did not mislead him. "I couldn't come to you after the third dance," he said. "Why?" He evaded the question: "When I came back to the glade the dancing was already over; so I got Kathleen and Naida to save a table." "Where had you been all the while?" "If you really wish to know," he said pleasantly, "I was talking to Jack Dysart on some rather important matters. I did not realise how the time went." She sat mute, head lowered, staring out across the dark water. Presently he laid one hand over hers, and she straightened up with a tiny shock, turned and looked him full in the eyes. "I'll tell you why you failed me--failed to keep the first appointment I ever asked of you. It was because you were so preoccupied with a mask in flame colour." He thought a moment: "Did you believe you saw me with somebody in a vermilion costume?" "Yes; I did see you. It was too late for me to retire without attracting your attention. I was not a willing eavesdropper." "Who was the girl you thought you saw me with?" "Sylvia Quest. She unmasked. There is no mistake." So he was obliged to lie, after all. "It must have been Dysart you saw. His costume is very like mine, you know----" "Does Jack Dysart stand for minutes holding Sylvia's hands--and is she accustomed to place her hands on his shoulders, as though expecting to be kissed? And does he kiss her?" So he had to lie again: "No, of course not," he said, smiling. "So it could not have been Dysart." "There are only two costumes like yours and Mr. Dysart's. Do you wish me to believe that Sylvia is common and depraved enough to put her arms around the neck of a man who is married?" There was no other way: "No," he said, "Sylvia isn't that sort, of course." "It was either Mr. Dysart or you." He said nothing. "Then it _was_ you!" in hot contempt. Still he said nothing. "Was it?" with a break in her voice. "Men can't admit things of that kind," he managed to say. The angry colour surged up to her cheeks, the angry tears started, but her quivering lips were not under command and she could only stare at him through the blur of grief, while her white hands clinched and relaxed, and her fast-beating heart seemed to be driving the very breath from her body. "Geraldine, dear----" "It wasn't fair!" she broke out fiercely; "there is no honour in you--no loyalty! Oh, Duane! Duane! How could you--at the very moment we were nearer together than we had ever been! It isn't jealousy that is crying out in me; it is nothing common or ignoble in me that resents what you have done! It is the treachery of it! How _could_ you, Duane?" The utter hopelessness of clearing himself left him silent. How much was to be asked of him as sacrifice to code? How far was he expected to go to shield Sylvia Quest--this unhappy, demoralised girl, whose reputation was already at the mercy of two men? "Geraldine," he said, "it was nothing but a carnival flirtation--a chance encounter that meant nothing--the idlest kind of----" "Is it idle to do what you did--and what she did? Oh, if I had only not seen it--if I only didn't know! I never dreamed of such a thing in you. Bunny Gray and I were taking a short cut to the Gray Water to sit out the rest of his dance--and he saw it, too--and he was furious--he must have been--because he's devoted to Sylvia." She made a hopeless gesture and dropped her hand to her side: "What a miserable night it has been for me! It's all spoiled--it's ended.... And I--my courage went.... I've done what I never thought to do again--what I was fighting down to make myself safe enough for you to marry--_you_ to marry!" She laughed, but the mirth rang shockingly false. "You mean that you had one glass of champagne," he said. "Yes, and another with Jack Dysart. I'll have some more presently. Does it concern you?" "I think so, Geraldine." "You are wrong. Neither does what you've been doing concern me--the kind of man you've been--the various phases of degradation you have accomplished----" "What particular species of degradation?" he asked wearily, knowing that Dysart was now bent on his destruction. "Never mind; don't answer, Geraldine," he added, "because there's no use in trying to set myself right; there's no way of doing it. All I can say is that I care absolutely nothing for Sylvia Quest, nor she for me; that I love you; that if I have ever been unworthy of you--as God knows I have--it is a bitterer memory to me than it could ever be to you." "Shall we go back?" she said evenly. "Yes, if you wish." They walked back together in silence; a jolly company claimed them for their table; Geraldine laughingly accepted a glass of champagne, turning her back squarely on Duane. Naida and Kathleen came across. "We waited for you as long as we could," said his pretty sister, smothering a yawn. "I'm horribly sleepy. Duane, it's three o'clock. Would you mind taking me across to the house?" He cast a swift, anxious glance at Geraldine; her vivid colour, the splendour of her eyes, her feverish laughter were ominous. With her were Gray and Sylvia, rather noisy in their gaiety, and the boisterous Pink 'uns, and Jack Dysart, lingering near, the make-up on his face in ghastly contrast to his ashen pallor and his fixed and unvaried grin. "I'm waiting, Duane," said Naida plaintively. So he turned away with her through the woods, where one by one the brilliant lantern flames were dying out, and where already in the east a silvery lustre heralded the coming dawn. * * * * * When he returned, Geraldine was gone. At the house somebody said she had come in with Kathleen, not feeling well. "The trouble with that girl," said a man whom he did not know, "is that she's had too much champagne." "You lie," said Duane quietly. "Is that perfectly plain to you?" For a full minute the young man stood rigid, crimson, glaring at Duane. Then, having the elements of decency in him, he said: "I don't know who you are, but you are perfectly right. I did lie. And I'll see that nobody else does." _ |
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