Part 15 (1/2)

”If you can bear it?”

She leaned an elbow on the marble railing that protected the terrace, and, s.h.i.+elding her eyes from the moonlight with her hand, affected to gaze at me dramatically. ”Have no distrust,” she bade me. ”Who and WHAT is the glorious stranger?”

Resisting an impulse to chime in with her humour, I gave her so dry and commonplace an account of my young friend at the inn that I presently found myself abandoned to solitude again.

”I don't know where to go,” she complained as she rose. ”These other people are MOST painful to a girl of my intelligence, but I cannot linger by your side; untruth long ago lost its interest for me, and I prefer to believe Mr. Jean Ferret--if that is the gentleman's name. I'd join Miss Ward and Cressie Ingle yonder, but Cressie WOULD be indignant! I shall soothe my hurt with SWEETEST airs. Adieu.”

With that she made me a solemn courtesy and departed, a pretty little figure, not little in attractiveness, the strong moonlight, tinged with blue, s.h.i.+mmering over her blond hair and splas.h.i.+ng brightly among the ripples of her silks and laces. She swept across the terrace languidly, offering an effect of comedy not unfairylike, and, ascending the steps of the veranda, disappeared into the orange candle-light of a salon. A moment later some chords were sounded firmly upon a piano in that room, and a bitter song swam out to me over the laughter and talk of the people at the other tables. It was to be observed that Miss Anne Elliott sang very well, though I thought she over-emphasised one line of the stanza:

”This world is a world of lies!”

Perhaps she had poisoned another little arrow for me, too. Impelled by the fine night, the groups upon the terrace were tending toward a wider dispersal, drifting over the sloping lawns by threes and couples, and I was able to identify two figures threading the paths of the garden, together, some distance below. Judging by the pace they kept, I should have concluded that Miss Ward and Mr. Cresson Ingle sought the healthful effects of exercise. However, I could see no good reason for wis.h.i.+ng their conversation less obviously absorbing, though Miss Elliott's insinuation that Mr. Ingle might deplore intrusion upon the interview had struck me as too definite to be altogether pleasing.

Still, such matters could not discontent me with my solitude. Eastward, over the moonlit roof of the forest, I could see the quiet ocean, its unending lines of foam moving slowly to the long beaches, too far away to be heard. The reproachful voice of the singer came no more from the house, but the piano ran on into ”La Vie de Boheme,” and out of that into something else, I did not know what, but it seemed to be music; at least it was musical enough to bring before me some memory of the faces of pretty girls I had danced with long ago in my dancing days, so that, what with the music, and the distant sea, and the soft air, so sparklingly full of moons.h.i.+ne, and the little dancing memories, I was floated off into a reverie that was like a prelude for the person who broke it. She came so quietly that I did not hear her until she was almost beside me and spoke to me. It was the second time that had happened.

CHAPTER XII

”Mrs. Harman,” I said, as she took the chair vacated by the elfin young lady, ”you see I can manage it! But perhaps I control myself better when there's no camp-stool to inspire me. You remember my woodland didoes--I fear?”

She smiled in a pleasant, comprehending way, but neither directly replied nor made any return speech whatever; instead, she let her forearms rest on the broad railing of the marble bal.u.s.trade, and, leaning forward, gazed out over the s.h.i.+ning and mysterious slopes below. Somehow it seemed to me that her not answering, and her quiet action, as well as the thoughtful att.i.tude in which it culminated, would have been thought ”very like her” by any one who knew her well.

”Cousin Louise has her ways,” Miss Elizabeth had told me; this was probably one of them, and I found it singularly attractive. For that matter, from the day of my first sight of her in the woods I had needed no prophet to tell me I should like Mrs. Harman's ways.

”After the quiet you have had here, all this must seem,” I said, looking down upon the strollers, ”a usurpation.”

”Oh, they!” She disposed of Quesnay's guests with a slight movement of her left hand. ”You're an old friend of my cousins--of both of them; but even without that, I know you understand. Elizabeth does it all for her brother, of course.”

”But she likes it,” I said.

”And Mr. Ward likes it, too,” she added slowly. ”You'll see, when he comes home.”

Night's effect upon me being always to make me venturesome, I took a chance, and ventured perhaps too far. ”I hope we'll see many happy things when he comes home.”

”It's her doing things of this sort,” she said, giving no sign of having heard my remark, ”that has helped so much to make him the success that he is.”

”It's what has been death to his art!” I exclaimed, too quickly--and would have been glad to recall the speech.

She met it with a murmur of low laughter that sounded pitying. ”Wasn't it always a dubious relation--between him and art?” And without awaiting an answer, she went on, ”So it's all the better that he can have his success!”

To this I had nothing whatever to say. So far as I remembered, I had never before heard a woman put so much comprehension of a large subject into so few words, but in my capacity as George's friend, hopeful for his happiness, it made me a little uneasy. During the ensuing pause this feeling, at first uppermost, gave way to another not at all in sequence, but irresponsible and intuitive, that she had something in particular to say to me, had joined me for that purpose, and was awaiting the opportunity. As I have made open confession, my curiosity never needed the spur; and there is no denying that this impression set it off on the gallop; but evidently the moment had not come for her to speak. She seemed content to gaze out over the valley in silence.

”Mr. Cresson Ingle,” I hazarded; ”is he an old, new friend of your cousins? I think he was not above the horizon when I went to Capri, two years ago?”

”He wants Elizabeth,” she returned, adding quietly, ”as you've seen.”

And when I had verified this a.s.sumption with a monosyllable, she continued, ”He's an 'available,' but I should hate to have it happen.

He's hard.”

”He doesn't seem very hard toward her,” I murmured, looking down into the garden where Mr. Ingle just then happened to be adjusting a scarf about his hostess's shoulders.

”He's led a detestable life,” said Mrs. Harman, ”among detestable people!”