Part 14 (2/2)
”I--I was told--” he stammered; but Lionel, who was now inclined to laugh, broke in on his confusion.
”Did Miss Burgoyne say you weren't to come away without shaking hands with me--is that it?” he asked, with a smile.
”Y--yes,” answered the young gentleman, blus.h.i.+ng furiously.
”Oh, very well, there's no trouble about that,” Lionel said, and he gave him his hand for a second; after which the love-lorn youth somewhat hastily withdrew, and no doubt was glad to lose himself in the busy crowd of Piccadilly.
That same afternoon Lionel drove down to Sloane Street. He was always glad to go along and have a friendly little chat about musical affairs with the eagerly enthusiastic Nina; and, as this particular evening was exceedingly fine and pleasant, he thought he might induce her to walk in to the theatre by way of Belgrave Square and the Green Park. But hardly had they left the house when Nina discovered that it was not about professional matters that Lionel wanted to talk to her on this occasion.
”Nina,” said he, with befitting solemnity, ”I have great news for you. I am saved. Yes, my life has been saved. And by whom, think you? Why, by Miss Burgoyne! Miss Burgoyne is the protecting G.o.ddess who has s.n.a.t.c.hed me away in a cloud just as my enemy was about to pin me to the earth with his javelin.”
”There is to be no duel, Leo?” she said, quickly.
”There is not,” he continued. ”Miss Burgoyne has forbidden it. She has come between me and my deadly foe and held up a protecting hand. I don't know that it is quite a dignified position for me to find myself in, but one must recognize her friendly intentions, anyway. And not only that, Nina, but she sent me a bottle of lemonade yesterday! Just think of it!
to save your life is something, but to send you lemonade as well--that is almost too much goodness.”
Poor Nina! If this careless young man had only looked at the address on the wrapper of the bottle he could easily have guessed whose was the handwriting--especially recognizable in the foreign-looking _L_ and _M_.
That timidly proffered little gift was Nina's humble effort at compensation; and now he was bringing it forward as a proof of Miss Burgoyne's great good-nature! And it was Miss Burgoyne who had intervened to prevent this absurd duel--Miss Burgoyne, who knew nothing at all about it until Nina told her! Nina, as they now walked along towards Const.i.tution Hill, was too proud to make any explanation; only she thought he might have looked at the address on the wrapper.
”Seriously,” he said to his companion, ”seriously, Nina, she has put me under a very great obligation and shown herself very magnanimous as well. There is no doubt she was offended with me about something or other; and she had the generosity to put all that aside the moment she found I was embroiled in this stupid affair. And, mind you, I'm very glad to be out of it. It would have looked ridiculous in the papers; and everything gets into the papers nowadays. Of course that young idiot had no right to go and tell her about the duel; but I suppose he wanted to figure as a hero in her eyes--poor devil! he seems pretty bad about her.
Well, now that her intervention has got me out of this awkward sc.r.a.pe, how am I to show my grat.i.tude to her? what do you say, Nina?”
But Nina had nothing to say.
”There's one thing I can do for her,” he continued. ”You know how fond actors and actresses are of t.i.tled folks. Well, Miss Burgoyne is going down to Henley Regatta with a lot of other professionals, and I am going too, with another party--Lady Adela Cunyngham has got a house-boat there. Very well, if I can find out where Miss Burgoyne is--and I dare say she will be conspicuous enough, though she's not very tall--I will take Lord Rockminster to pay his respects to her and leave him with her; won't that do! They have already been introduced at the theatre; and if Rockminster doesn't say much, I have no doubt she will chatter enough for both. And Miss Burgoyne will be quite pleased to have a lord all to herself.”
”Leo,” said Nina, gently, ”do you not think you yourself have too much liking for--for that fine company?”
”Perhaps I have,” said he, with perfect good-humor. ”What then? Are you going to lecture me, too? Is Saul among the prophets? Has Maurice Mangan been coaching you as well?”
”Ah, Leo,” said she, ”I should wish to see you give it all up--yes--all the popularity--and your fine company--and that you go away back to Pandiani--”
”Pandiani!” he exclaimed. ”Here's romance, indeed! You want us both to become students again, and to have the old days at Naples back again--”
”No, no, no!” she said, shaking her head. ”It is the future I think of.
I wish to hear you in grand opera or in oratorio--I wish to see you a great artist--that is something n.o.ble, something ambitious, something to work for day and night. Ah, Leo, when I hear Mr. Santley sing 'Why do the nations'--when I see the thousands and thousands of people sitting entranced, then I say to myself, 'There is something grand and n.o.ble to speak to all these people--to lift them above themselves, to give them this pure emotion, surely that is a great thing--it is high, like religion--it is a purification--it is--'” But here she stopped, with a little gesture of despair. ”No, no, Leo, I cannot tell you--I have not enough English.”
”It's all very well,” said he, ”for you to talk about Santley; but where will you get another voice like his?”
”Leo, you can sing finer music than 'The Starry Night,'” she said. ”You have the capacity. Ah, but you enjoy too much; you are petted and spoiled, yes? you have not a great ambition--”
”I'll tell you what I seem to have, though, Nina,” said he. ”I seem to have a faculty of impressing my friends with the notion that I could do something tremendous if only I tried; whereas I know that this belief of theirs is only a delusion.”
”But you do not try, Leo,” said this persistent counsellor. ”No? life is too pleasant for you; you have not enthusiasm; why, your talk is always _persiflage_--it is the talk of the fas.h.i.+onable world. And you an artist!”
However, at this moment Lionel suddenly discovered that this leisurely stroll was likely to make them late in getting to the theatre; so that perforce they had to leave these peaceful glades of the Green Park and get into Piccadilly, where they jumped into a hansom-cab and were rapidly whirled away eastward.
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