Part 43 (1/2)

”Oh, go on,” says Hescott, seeing she is dying to speak. ”A secret told to me is as lost as though you had dropped it down a well.”

”You must remember first, then, that I should never have told you, only that you seemed to think she _couldn't_ get married.

It”--hesitating--”it's about Margaret!”

”Miss Knollys!” Hescott stares. ”What has she been up to?”

”She has been refusing Colonel Neilson for _years!”_ solemnly. ”Only this very night she has refused him again; and all because of a silly old attachment to a man she knew when she was quite a girl.”

”That must have been some time ago,” says Hescott irreverently and unwisely.

”A very _few_ years ago,” severely. She rises. She is evidently disgusted with him. ”Come back to the house,” says she. ”I am engaged for the next.”

”A word,” says Tom, rising and following her. He lays a detaining hand upon her soft, little, bare arm. ”You blame her--Miss Knollys--for being faithful to an old attachment?”

”Y-es,” says t.i.ta slowly, as if thinking, and then again, ”Yes!”

with decision. ”When the old attachment if of no use any longer, and when there is someone else.”

”But if there was an old attachment, and”--Hescott's face is a little pale in the moonlight--”and practically--no one else--how then?”

”Eh?”

”I mean, if”--he comes closer to her--”t.i.ta, if _you _had known a man who loved you before you were married, and if when you did marry--”

”But she didn't marry him at all,” interrupts t.i.ta. ”He died--or something--I forget what.”

”Yes; but think.”

”There is nothing to think about. He died--so _stupid_ of him; and now she is making one of the nicest men I know miserable, all because she has made up her mind to be wretched for ever! So stupid of _her!”_

”Has it ever occurred to you that there is such a thing as love?”

asks Hescott, looking at her with a sudden frown.

”Oh, I've heard of it,” with a little shrug of her pretty shoulders; ”but I don't believe in it. It's a myth! a fable!”

”And yet”--with an anger that he can hardly hide, seeing her standing there so young, so fair, so debonnair before him--so insensible to the pa.s.sion for her that is stirring within his heart--”and yet your friend, Miss Knollys, is giving up her life, you say, to the consecration of this myth.”

t.i.ta nods.

”Yes; isn't she silly! I _told_ you she was very foolish.”

”You a.s.sure me honestly that you don't believe in love?”

”Not a bit,” says t.i.ta. ”It's all nonsense! Now come in--I want to dance. And remember--remember, Tom, you have promised not to breathe a word about what I have told you.”

”I promise,” says Hescott in a slow sort of way; he is thinking.