Part 31 (2/2)

”Oh, thank you, dear Mrs. MacDonald,” exclaimed the little woman, radiant with pleasure--for I've found out that her two great desires are to keep her youthful looks, and to be intellectually worthy of the vanished doctor. ”I'm sure _you_ are not in the _least_ altered, though it must be seventeen years----”

”Oh, my dear Mrs. James, don't--_please_ don't!” cried Mrs. Bal, laughing and dimpling, and holding up both gloved hands in mock prayer.

”Don't mention the number of years. This is getting to be simply awful.

Shock after shock!” She laughed again, glancing roguishly at Barrie. ”I want you all to come to my sitting-room--this very minute--to hold a council of war. It's most necessary. You dear, pretty child”--this adorably to her daughter--”how much more mischief have you done already?

How many people have you let into the ghastly secret?”

Barrie hung her head, and looked down. She must have known that sympathetic eyes were on her, and have wished to avoid them. ”There's only Mrs. West and--and--I suppose her friends the Vannecks--and Mr.

Douglas--a Lieutenant Douglas----”

”Horror! Their name is legion. What a sc.r.a.pe. Well, I must appeal to their mercy. Please come up with me, everybody, and we'll talk it over and see what's to be done. There isn't a moment to lose.”

By this time I began to guess what she was driving at, though the dazed expression of Mrs. James told me that she was still in the dark.

We got into the lift and were shot up to the next floor, nothing being said on the way except a conventional word or two about the motoring weather. ”I came in a friend's car--I'll tell you all about it,” Mrs.

Bal added as she led the way to her rooms.

The two maids had arrived on the scene already. Doors were open; luggage was being taken in under the direction of the red-haired ones; but in the large sitting-room there was no sign of confusion. Quant.i.ties of flowers adorned it, in tall gla.s.s vases and gilded baskets tied with ribbons. Signed photographs of royalties and generals and judges, the latest aviators and successful explorers, all in monogrammed silver frames, were scattered on mantel and tables and piano-top. There were plump cus.h.i.+ons of old brocade on the several sofas and lounges. The largest table had a strip of rare Persian embroidery laid across it, and was graced rather than laden with novels, boxes of sweets, and silver bonbonnieres. Evidently the maid who had come in advance had had her hands full!

”I must have pretty things to give me a home feeling. Touring would be too horrid without that,” she laughed. (Mrs. Bal laughs often in private life; what clever woman with dimples does not?) ”Now, sit down, and let us discuss this desperate situation. But first--come here, Barribel. I want to look at you.”

Barrie came. Mrs. Bal caught the girl's hands, and held her out at arm's length.

”You pretty creature!” she exclaimed. ”Oh!” and she threw an appeal to us. ”To think I should be the mother of THAT! Isn't it simply appalling?

But I can't be, you know. I can't be her _mother_. Now _can_ I? I've told her already--I had to decide in a flash. I admire her immensely, and we're going to be fond of each other and the greatest chums. But we must be _sisters_.”

Then I knew what she had whispered to make Barrie start and blanch. She had said, ”I won't be your mother.” And Barrie had turned involuntarily to Somerled because she had felt herself unwanted and her heart was breaking.

All this was preparing me for a career of villainy, though I must say in self-defence that it was Aline who lit the match. ”The woman tempted me, and I did eat!”

”Come and sit by me, lovely doll,” said Mrs. Bal, pulling the girl down beside her on the most cus.h.i.+ony and comfortable sofa. ”So you are the baby! I haven't forgotten you. I've thought of you a _lot_--really a lot. But you never seemed _mine_, you know. _They_ wouldn't let me feel you belonged to me. They were so good! Of course I had to leave you for--for them to take care of. They thought they knew everything about babies. I dare say they were right. I _had_ to escape. I couldn't have lived with them another day, in that awful house. But I've been oh, _so_ proper, and good, really. Even they could have hardly been shocked. And I've hired three red-haired watch-dogs. But it isn't only myself I want to talk about--it's you. I do think you're the prettiest thing I ever saw--though I oughtn't to say so, perhaps, because I believe we're alike. Aren't we, Somerled?”

”In some ways, not in others,” dryly returned the gentleman addressed.

”Oh, I know the differences are in her favour--Diogenes! All the more reason why I can't possibly own her for a daughter. My yearly profits would go down a hundred per cent. And although she's perfectly _darling_, and I'm going to love her--as a sister--she couldn't have come to me at a worse moment.”

”Oh--why?” pleaded Barrie, speaking for the first time.

”Because--you may as well hear this, all of you, since I've called you to a council of war. I want you to realize”--and she gave each of us a look in turn: a lovely, characteristic ”Mrs. Bal” look--”that I'm on my knees to you. I've thrown myself on your mercy. You've got to help me out. The truth is”--she began taking off her gloves and looking down at her own hands, her rings sparkling as the pink and white fingers were bared--”the truth is, I'm a little--a tiny little bit--tired of acting.

I'd like to leave the stage in a blaze of glory while everybody wants me and there's no one to take my place. There's only one trouble--I'm so horribly extravagant. I always have been. I'm afraid I always shall be.

I make heaps of money, but I can't save. If I say good-bye to the theatre, I shall want millions. I don't feel I can rub along on less. So that means--I shall have to marry somebody else's millions, for I haven't got the ghost of one of my own.”

As she explained her position she looked deliberately past Somerled and out at the window. This made me sure that a vague suspicion of mine was founded on fact. Mrs. Bal had angled for Somerled, and he had been one of her few failures. She couldn't be pleased at encountering him again as her daughter's self-appointed guardian and champion. It seemed to me that the situation complicated itself, to Somerled's disadvantage; therefore--it might be--to the advantage of the next nearest man, myself.

<script>