Part 10 (2/2)
It seems to me, my dear, that as well as trifling with Don Carlos, you are trifling with your own heart, and you are not playing fair with Tony.”
”I mean to get even with Don Carlos,” Myra responded, stubbornly, with an impatient toss of her red-gold head. ”It will be amusing to see the man who boasted that no woman could resist him chagrined and broken-hearted because Myra Rostrevor has laughed at him and made his boasts seem foolish.”
”You have had your warning,” exclaimed Lady Fermanagh abruptly. ”Don't expect any sympathy from me if you get burnt as a result of playing with fire.”
She swept out of the room, and as the door closed Myra made a moue, flung herself down in the armchair again, and lit her cigarette.
”d.a.m.n him!” she said fervently.
CHAPTER VIII
So many people had been invited to the Cavendish ball that there was scarce room to dance. Myra caught sight of Don Carlos several times, and her heart beat a trifle fast when at last she saw him making his way through the crowd towards her during an interval.
”May I have the pleasure and honour of dancing the next with you, Miss Rostrevor?” he inquired, with his usual courtly bow. ”The floor is becoming less crowded now the news has gone round that supper is being served.”
Myra's first impulse was to snub him, but she refrained, rose without a word as the music re-started, and they glided round together to the lilting refrain of the band. Both were extremely graceful and accomplished dancers, and several other couples ceased dancing to watch them, giving them the centre of the floor.
”Are you afraid to look at me, cara mia?” whispered Don Carlos, after a few minutes. ”I want to look deep into your dear blue eyes and try to read what is in your heart.”
”I am afraid the result would be a shock to your overweening vanity, Don Carlos,” responded Myra coldly, still avoiding his eyes. ”I am very angry with you, and I am surprised you should have had the audacity to ask me to dance with you before even attempting to offer any apology for your outrageous behaviour of this afternoon.”
”Dear, darling, delicious, delectable lady, why should I apologise for taking up your challenge and redeeming my promise?” Don Carlos asked.
”Why profess to be offended with the man who loves you so pa.s.sionately for taking a few of the kisses for which he was craving and hungering?
What is it your great Shakespeare wrote that fits our case? ... Ah! I have it! ...”
He sang the words softly, fitting them to the rhythm of the air the dance-band was playing:
”_'A thousand kisses buys my heart from me; And pay them at your leisure, one by one.
What are ten hundred touches unto thee?
Are they not quickly told and quickly gone?
Say for non-payment that the debt should double; Is twenty hundred kisses such a trouble?'_”
”Oh, you are an utterly outrageous and impossible man!” exclaimed Myra, half-annoyed, half-amused, and at heart a little fascinated withal.
”Even if I did flirt with you at Auchinleven to amuse myself, you had no right to take my teasing seriously--you, who are such an experienced flirt and philanderer, and who do not expect women to take your love-making seriously and laugh at them if they do.”
”I expect you to take my love-making seriously, Myra,” he answered.
”Your expectations will not be realised, Don Carlos, and if you attempt to repeat your conduct of to-day there will be trouble,” said Myra, forcing herself to meet his ardent eyes unflinchingly. ”It is unsportsmanlike to try to excuse yourself by throwing the blame on me, pleading, like Adam, 'The woman tempted me.' You might at least express regret for your conduct.”
”I have no regrets, Myra,” murmured Don Carlos. ”I have tasted the nectar of your lips, and now I hunger for a banquet of love.”
”In that case you will surely die of starvation,” said Myra, with a light laugh.
”Dios! how you torture me, Myra!” muttered Don Carlos frowningly. ”I hoped you would tell me you had found your heart, that my kisses had at last awakened it. I love you, love you with every fibre of my being, and you--you love, yet you refrain.”
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