Part 20 (2/2)

”Oh! she asked him to read, did she?” Then he swore, very slowly and conscientiously, as if he meant it.

”Why the deuce do you swear like that?” asked the Duke. ”If it is not true that she has refused him, you ought to be very glad.” And he stuffed a disreputable short black pipe full of tobacco.

”Why, of course I am. I was swearing at my own stupidity. Of course I am very glad if she has not refused him.” He smiled a very unhealthy-looking smile. ”See here--” he began again.

”Well? I am seeing, as you call it.”

”This. They must have had a talk yesterday. He was here with me, and suddenly he got up and said he was going to read with her. And you say that she asked him to read with her when he went to where you were.”

”Called out to him half across the deck--in the middle of my story, too, and a firstrate one at that.”

”She does not care much for stories,” said Barker; ”but that is not the question. It was evidently a put-up job.”

”Meaning a preconcerted arrangement,” said the Duke. ”Yes. It was arranged between them some time yesterday. But I never left her alone until she said she was going to lie down.”

”And I never left him until you told me she had gone to bed.”

”She did not lie down, then,” said the Duke.

”Then she lied up and down,” said Barker, savagely playful.

”Ladies do not lie,” said the Duke, who did not like the word, and refused to laugh.

”Of course. And you and I are a couple of idiots, and we have been protecting her when she did not want to be protected. And she will hate us for ever after. I am disgusted. I will drown my cares in drink. Will you please ring the bell?”

”You had better drink apollinaris. Grog will go to your head. I never saw you so angry.” The Duke pressed the electric b.u.t.ton.

”I loathe to drink of the water,” said Barker, tearing off the end of a cigar with his teeth. The Duke had seen a man in Egypt who bit off the heads of black snakes, and he thought of him at that moment. The steward appeared, and when the arrangements were made, the ocean in which Barker proposed to drown his cares was found to consist of a small gla.s.s of a very diluted concoction of champagne, bitters, limes, and soda water.

The Duke had some, and thought it very good.

”It is not a question of language,” said Barker, returning to the conversation. ”They eluded us and met. That is all.”

”By her wish, apparently,” said the other.

”We must arrange a plan of action,” said Barker.

”Why? If she has not refused him, it is all right. We have nothing more to do with it. Let them go their own way.”

”You are an old friend of the Countess's, are you not?” asked the American. ”Yes--very well, would you like to see her married to Claudius?”

”Upon my word,” said the Duke, ”I cannot see that I have anything to say about it. But since you ask me, I see no possible objection. He is a gentleman--has money, heaps of it--if she likes him, let her marry him if she pleases. It is very proper that she should marry again; she has no children, and the Russian estates are gone to the next heir. I only wanted to save her from any inconvenience. I did not want Claudius to be hanging after her, if she did not want him. She does. There is an end of it.” O glorious English Common Sense! What a fine thing you are when anybody gets you by the right end.

”You may be right,” said Barker, with a superior air that meant ”you are certainly wrong.” ”But would Claudius be able to give her the position in foreign society--”

”Society be d.a.m.ned,” said the Duke. ”Do you think the widow of Alexis cannot command society? Besides, Claudius is a gentleman, and that is quite enough.”

”I suppose he is,” said Mr. Barker, with an air of regret.

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