Part 27 (2/2)

”Foolish thing! Is it not Christmas night, and are you not the belle of the ball?” And he held out his arm and they whirled off. It gave him immense pleasure to hold her in his embrace--but something in the scent of the violets in his scarlet hunt coat brought back to Katherine with a sickening thrill of anguish and longing the remembrance of Lord Algy and the Sat.u.r.day night in Paris when they had danced in masks and dominoes at a Bal Tabarin. Oh! the pain of it!--Suddenly the whole present melted away from her--the dreams of the future, the pride in her conquest of the past! The pa.s.sionate woman in her cried aloud in wild longing for him, Algy--her darling, her dearly-loved mate! How plain were these other young men!--How tired and old Gerard Strobridge looked! At that moment she would have thrown her whole ambitions away into nothingness, to be clasped once more to Algy's heart! Her cheeks became ashen white and her strange eyes grew shadowed and fierce, and Gerard Strobridge was brought up sharply out of his intoxication of emotion by the look in her face.

”What is it, child?” he asked anxiously, holding her close.

”Let me go--let me go!” she cried wildly, breaking from him near the staircase recess. ”I--I--cannot bear it--I would like to get out of all this!”

He was intensely astonished, but he saw that she was trembling, and well as he knew women he could not fathom the reason of this strange outburst. Katherine recovered her composure almost immediately and gave a short mirthless laugh.

”I am awfully stupid,” she faltered. ”I cannot think what came over me.

I believe it must be because I am unaccustomed to parties, and it is getting late.”

”It is not yet eleven o'clock--but come and have something to drink--I see a tray down there in the long hall,” and she let him lead her to it and pour out some champagne and seltzer for her, and then they sat down.

He saw very well that something had deeply moved her, and his perfect tact would not permit him to refer to the occurrence, but caused him rather to talk soothingly of ordinary things--and in a few minutes he saw that the normal whiteness had come back to her face. But nothing would induce her to dance any more, and although she continued doing whatever was expected of her during the rest of the evening--and s.n.a.t.c.hed flaming raisins in the snapdragon with das.h.i.+ng indifference to pain--he knew that she was doing it all as an automaton, and that the living, vital, magnetic Katherine was no longer there, and that this pale, quiet girl whose hand he held presently in the deserted corridor was only too glad to say good-night.

”Dear child,” he whispered, as he kissed it with homage, ”I don't know what it was that caused it, but you have evidently seen a ghost, and now go to bed, and forget everything but that we have all had an awfully happy Christmas, and I want to tell you how pleased I am that you have worn my flowers to-night.”

”--Your flowers! Oh! yes, I ought to have thanked you for them before--they were lovely, but now they are dead,” and she unpinned them carelessly--almost as if she did not like them any longer to touch her--and threw them in the big open grate.

”Good-night--and thank you for your kindness,” and she was off down the pa.s.sage and up the side stairs.

And when Gerard Strobridge joined the rest of the party in the drawing-room, he had a cigarette between his lips, as though he had been having a smoke, and it required all his polished skill to bring himself back to talking gaily, and to looking what he did not feel, into Mrs.

Delemar's sparkling eyes, before they all parted for the night.

Meanwhile, Katherine Bush had reached her room and had flung herself into the armchair. This would not do--she must steel herself against giving way to weakness like this. Why had the scent of the violets in another man's coat had power to affect her so that every part of her being cried out for Algy? As though the suppressed emotions of her heart would no longer obey her will--and must proclaim themselves her master!

It was shameful feebleness, and she indignantly resented the dominion that love still held over her. She sat there reasoning with herself, but nature reigned stronger than any other thing at the moment, and the memory of her lover obsessed her. She seemed to hear his voice and feel his kisses, until the agony of longing for reality grew unbearable, and she fell forward and lay there on the rug before the fire beating the floor with her hands. It was as the despair of some fierce savage caged animal crying out for its mate. Her whole face altered, the most intense pa.s.sion blazed from her eyes--and whitened her cheeks. Could Gerard Strobridge have seen her he would indeed have been moved.

”Algy! Algy--My darling, my love--Come back to me, I want you. My dear, my dear!--”

She sobbed with agony--and then worn out at last--”Oh! G.o.d!” she wailed.

”Can whatever comes be worth it--after all!”

But by the morning she had crushed emotion and came down ready to a.s.sist with the huge Christmas tree for the tenants' children, with her usually composed face.

But that pa.s.sion denied should have exacted this anguish frightened her a little. All her will should be used to prevent such madness ever holding sway again.

CHAPTER XVI

Lady Beatrice remained until the Sat.u.r.day, greatly to her husband's satisfaction and relief. He had manoeuvred this arrangement with much skill, and Lao's vanity felt satisfied, and indeed gratified, by the belief that the presence of his wife was causing Gerard untold suffering and disappointment! The preliminaries of the game were so very agreeable! and when they could be prolonged by fate so that there was no fear of losing the other partic.i.p.ant in them, nothing could be more to her taste.

Pa.s.sion, like that which Katherine Bush knew, would have appeared as something absolutely shocking and horrible to her--indeed, she would have agreed with Mabel Cawber in considering it as most unladylike!

The circ.u.mstance of the Christmas night dance had left a feeling of mystery with Gerard Strobridge, which did not detract from his interest in Katherine Bush. That some strong upheaval had taken place in this strange young woman's soul he did not doubt.

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