Part 44 (1/2)
”Mrs. Wilson is here, sir,” was the answer. ”She said to carry you here. James is inside to tell you what to do.”
A footman was indeed within, waiting for him.
”Mrs. Wilson says will you please come to her, sir,” the man said, and led the way upstairs.
The sound of gay music, growing louder as he advanced, filled Wynne's ears. He began to feel disquieted, and once half halted.
”Are you sure there is no mistake?” he asked.
”Oh, no mistake at all, sir,” his guide answered. ”Mrs. Wilson has arranged everything. Leave your hat and cloak here, sir, if you please.”
Maurice mechanically did as requested, but as he threw off his outer garment the opening of a door let in a burst of music which seemed so close at hand that he was startled. He was in what was evidently a coat-room, the attendant of which regarded him with open curiosity; and he realized suddenly that he must be near a ball-room.
”Where am I?” he demanded.
”It's the ball, sir, that they has to end the season before Lent. It's Lent to-morrow, sir, as I thought you'd know.”
Maurice stared at him in amazement and anger.
”There is a mistake,” he said. ”Give me my cloak.”
”Indeed, sir,” the man said, holding back the garment he had taken, ”Mrs. Wilson said, sir, that I was to say that she particular wanted you to come fetch her in the ball-room, sir; and I was to bring you without fail.”
”You may send her word that I am here.”
”Please, sir,” the man returned, in a voice which struck Maurice as absurdly pleading, ”she was very particular, and it's no hurt to go in, sir. She'll blame me, sir.”
Maurice looked at him, and laughed at the solemnity of the man's homely face. A spirit of recklessness leaped up within him. He said to himself that at least Mrs. Wilson should not think that he dared not come.
”Very well,” he said. ”Show me the way.”
”Thank you, sir,” the servant said, as if he had received a great favor. ”It's not easy to bear blame that don't belong to you.”
He opened a door into an anteroom thronged with people laughing and chatting. The sound of the music was clear and loud, with the voices striking through its cadences. Across this he led Wynne, to the wide door of a ball-room flooded with light and full of moving figures.
XXVI
O WICKED WIT AND GIFT Hamlet, i. 5.
The brilliant glare of lights, the strident sound of dance-music, the enlivening sense of a living, vivaciously stirring company of gayly dressed merrymakers, a.s.sailed Maurice as he followed his guide across the anteroom. At the door of the ball-room he was for a moment hindered by a group of men who were lounging and chatting there. All his senses were keenly alert, and he perhaps unconsciously listened to hear if there were any comment on his appearance in such a place. He had not realized what he was coming into, and now that it was too late for him to withdraw without sacrificing his pride, he saw how incongruous his presence really was. Almost instantly he caught a name.
”By Jove!” one of the men said. ”Isn't the Wilson in great form to-night! That diamond on her toe must be worth a fortune.”
”She saves the price in the materials of her gowns,” another responded lightly. ”I never saw her with quite so little on.”
”No material is allowed to go to waist there,” put in a third.
”She has two straps and a rosebud,” yet another voice laughed; ”and nothing else above the belt but diamonds.”
”Her very smile is decollete” some one commented. ”This is one of her nights. When I see Mrs. Wilson with that expression, I am prepared for anything.”