Part 17 (1/2)
”Why?”
”I don't know--perhaps to see if you were really so very different from what you are now.”
”I was--utterly.”
”What were you like?”
”I can't remember--but I was utterly different.”
As she ceased speaking, Bellairs glanced over the rail to the river bank. Two blue-robed donkey boys stood there trying to attract his attention, and pointing significantly to their gaily-bedizened donkeys.
”Shall we go for a ride?” he said to Lady Betty. ”Just along the river bank? Then we shall see Lord Braydon as he sails back. Mdlle. Leroux won't miss you. Shall we go?”
Betty hesitated. But she could do the invalid no good by staying. So she a.s.sented. Bellairs helped her to the bank and placed her in the smart red saddle. He motioned the boys to keep well in the rear, and they started at a quick, tripping walk. As they went, a white face appeared at a cabin window, staring after them, the face of Clarice, who had with difficulty lifted her throbbing head from the pillow. She watched the donkeys diminis.h.i.+ng till they were black shadows moving along against the sky, then she began to cry weakly, but only because she was too ill to be with them. Her gift of prophecy failed her at this critical juncture of her life, and she had no sense of a coming disaster, as she lay back on her berth, and gave herself up once more to pain.
That evening Lord Braydon asked Bellairs to dine on the dahabeeyah, and he accepted the invitation. Clarice was still in durance, having entirely failed to pa.s.s her headache on to Lady Betty. After dinner Lord Braydon went into the saloon to write a letter to England, and Lady Betty and Bellairs had the deck to themselves. He was resolved to put his fate to the touch; for, during the donkey ride, he had discovered the change in Betty which he had so eagerly desired, the change from warm friends.h.i.+p to a different feeling. The girl had not acknowledged it. Bellairs had not asked her to do so; but he meant to. Only the thought of his treachery to the woman lying in the cabin below held him back, just for a moment, and prompted him to talk lightly of indifferent things. But that treachery had been a necessary manoeuvre in his campaign of happiness. He strove to dismiss it from his mind as he leant forward in his chair, and led Lady Betty to the subject that lay so near to his heart.
”You love me?” she said presently.
”Yes--deeply. You are angry?”
”How can I be? No, no--and yet--”
”Yes?”
”And yet, when you told me, I felt sad.”
Bellairs looked keenly vexed, and she hastened to add:--
”Not because I am--indifferent. No, no. I can't explain why the feeling came. It was gone in a moment. And now--”
”Now you are happy?”
He caught her hand and she left it in his.
”Yes, very happy.”
Bellairs bent over her and kissed her--as he lifted himself up a white hand appeared on the rail of the companion that led from the lower to the upper deck of the _Hatasoo_. Clarice wearily dragged herself up.
She was wrapped in a shawl and looked very ill. Betty ran to help her.
”I thought I must get a little air,” she said feebly. ”How d'you do, Mr Bellairs?”
She sank down in a chair.
Bellairs felt like a man between two fires.
Two days later Lord Braydon gave his consent to his daughter's engagement with Bellairs, and Lady Betty ran to tell Clarice. She had not previously said a word to her friend of what had pa.s.sed between her and Bellairs. He had begged her to keep silence until he had spoken to Lord Braydon, and she had promised and had kept her promise. But now she rushed into the saloon where Clarice was playing Chopin, and, throwing her arms round her friend, told her the great news. The body of Clarice became rigid in her arms.
”And the king has consented,” Betty cried.