Part 55 (1/2)

”Then let Willie Enslee lock us out.”

She saw that he was in a frenzy. He had the bit in his teeth. He would bolt in a moment. She thought hard and swiftly. Then she said:

”There's just one way. When I was playing chambermaid to-day I wandered about and found the servant's stairway in the service wing. It leads down into the kitchen. We could get from there into the dining-room and the drawing-room. There's a great window there--well cut off from view.

I don't think Willie or anybody would see us there. Listen for Willie's door, and when he has gone down into the front hall, slip out and tiptoe down the service stairs to the kitchen and wait for me there. Will you?”

It was a nauseating role to play; but he was bent upon making a last appeal to her before they returned to town on the morrow. He whispered his a.s.sent to the elaborate deceit, and made a whirlwind of the last measures of the tune, ”Dancing with the devil; oh, the little Devil!

dancing at the Devil's ball!”

And then he and Persis, dizzy on the swirling floor, reeled to chairs and sat gasping for breath. Mrs. Neff, pa.s.sing on Willie's arm, urged Forbes to give Alice the next dance, and he obeyed, surrendering Persis to Enslee, who was so elate with triumph that only the braggart pomp of the tango could express him.

Alice was lonely and forlorn, and so much in Forbes' mood that they were unintentional parodies on each other. Forbes remembered his talk with Senator Tait, and, feeling that Alice was desperately in need of comfort, told her the whole conversation. If she resented the discussion of her affairs and her mother's plans, she kept silent; but when he told her that Senator Tait had vowed to help her defeat Mrs. Neff's match-making plot by giving Stowe Webb a position she became a maenad of joy. She italicized every other word, and declared herself insanely grateful. She declared now that she simply idolized the Senator, and had always thought him the most adorable of men in every respect except the quality of husband.

”I'm afraid he won't give Mr. Webb much of a salary to begin with,”

Forbes said, to moderate her fantastic hopes.

”Oh, I don't care how little it is,” Alice panted, ”so long as it's enough for us two to live on, if we have to live in a Harlem flat eleven stories high and no elevator!”

She made so startling a contrast with Persis that Forbes regretted thinking her shallow and hysterical. Under her volatile explosiveness was evidently a deep store of loyalty, as under Persis' reposeful manner was a s.h.i.+fty uncertainty, a terror of consequences. ”Still waters run deep” was plainly as fallible as any other proverb, for very shallow ponds may lie very calm, and very spluttering geysers may come from far underground.

But it is one thing to approve and quite another to love. Forbes admired Alice, but he loved Persis. He approved Alice as much as he distrusted Persis. But he loved Persis.

CHAPTER XLII

There were not many more dances before Willie, in his new capacity of Bened.i.c.k-to-be, declared for early closing hours, and ordered his guests off to bed, warning them that the next morning the caravan would set out on its return betimes in order that Persis might ”break the news to her father as soon as he got back.” So Willie phrased it, and flattered himself that it was rather considerate and tactful to put it so.

When good-nights were said, and Forbes had gone to his room, Ten Eyck came in to smoke a night-cap cigar. His words were congratulatory, but his intent was sympathetic.

”You looked a bit cut up, old boy,” he said, ”when Willie, with his usual tact, exploded the news of his marriage. I hope you weren't hit too hard. I warned you, you know.”

”I know,” said Forbes; ”I promised you I wouldn't take Miss Cabot seriously. I--I admit I was surprised. That's all. And it rather shocks me to think of so--so--of her tying up with a man like Enslee. That's all.”

”It's her own choice,” said Ten Eyck. ”And it's a good choice. She can't bankrupt the Enslee estates, and she'll earn all she squanders. Being the wife of Willie Enslee is not going to be any sinecure, believe me.

”And the sooner she's married to Enslee and beyond your reach, the better for your peace of mind and the efficiency of the U. S. A. Get back on the job, Forbesy. You're too important a man to be wasting yourself even on a siren like Persis. I believe in sirens, and I like to hear 'em sing; but they don't convince me one little minute, and I drop anchor at a safe distance from the reef. Promise me you won't let Persis haunt you. Get yourself a pretty canary and forget the siren, eh what?”

”That's the best of advice,” Forbes a.s.sented.

He thought that he sounded convinced; but Ten Eyck shook his head and masked a sigh as a yawn.

”Am I as deadly as all that? And papa always told me that the man who gives the best of advice might better have saved his breath for blowing out his candle. Instead of more advice I will now do so. Good night!”

And he closed his door.

Forbes knew that Ten Eyck was right, and told himself so. He told himself that common decency, self-respect, Persis-respect, and respect for the rights of a host and a fiance forbade him to keep tryst with Persis. And having resolved that the one thing he ought not to do was to sneak down the servants' stairs, he sneaked down the servants'

stairs--after he had put out his light, opened his door delicately, and waited till he heard Enslee open his door and tiptoe down to the entrance hall.