Part 19 (1/2)

”It _is_, perhaps, losing its first gloss,” I answered, inspecting my hat closely. I cared not a bit for Julian's sneers; for the smell of the flesh-pots of Kensington had laid hold of my soul, and I was resolved to make the most of the respite which my system gave me.

”What salon is to have the honour today?” he asked, spreading himself on my sofa.

”I'm going to the Gunton-Cresswells,” I replied.

Julian slowly sat up.

”Ah?” he said conversationally.

”I've been asked to meet their niece, a Miss Eversleigh, whom they've invited to stop with them. Funny, by the way, that her name should be the same as yours.”

”Not particularly,” said Julian shortly; ”she's my cousin. My cousin Eva.”

This was startling. There was a pause. Presently Julian said, ”Do you know, Jimmy, that if I were not the philosopher I am, I'd curse this awful indolence of mine.”

I saw it in a flash, and went up to him holding out my hand in sympathy. ”Thanks,” he said, gripping it; ”but don't speak of it. I couldn't endure that, even from you, James. It's too hard for talking.

If it was only myself whose life I'd spoilt--if it was only myself----”

He broke off. And then, ”Hers too. She's true as steel.”

I had heard no more bitter cry than that.

I began to busy myself amongst some ma.n.u.scripts to give Julian time to compose himself. And so an hour pa.s.sed. At a quarter past four I got up to go out. Julian lay rec.u.mbent. It seemed terrible to leave him brooding alone over his misery.

A closer inspection, however, showed me he was asleep.

Meanwhile, Eva Eversleigh and I became firm friends. Of her person I need simply say that it was the most beautiful that Nature ever created. Pressed as to details, I should add that she was _pet.i.te_, dark, had brown hair, very big blue eyes, a _retrousse_ nose, and a rather wide mouth.

Julian had said she was ”true as steel.” Therefore, I felt no diffidence in manoeuvring myself into her society on every conceivable occasion. Sometimes she spoke to me of Julian, whom I admitted I knew, and, with feminine courage, she hid her hopeless, all-devouring affection for her cousin under the cloak of ingenuous levity. She laughed nearly every time his name was mentioned.

About this time the Gunton-Cresswells gave a dance.

I looked forward to it with almost painful pleasure. I had not been to a dance since my last May-week at Cambridge. Also No. 5, Kensington Lane had completely usurped the position I had previously a.s.signed to Paradise. To waltz with Julian's cousin--that was the ambition which now dwarfed my former hankering for the fame of authors.h.i.+p or a habitation in Bohemia.

Mrs. Goodwin once said that happiness consists in antic.i.p.ating an impossible future. Be that as it may, I certainly thought my sensations were pleasant enough when at length my hansom pulled up jerkily beside the red-carpeted steps of No. 5, Kensington Lane. As I paid the fare, I could hear the murmur from within of a waltz tune--and I kept repeating to myself that Eva had promised me the privilege of taking her in to supper, and had given me the last two waltzes and the first two extras.

I went to pay my _devoirs_ to my hostess. She was supinely gamesome. ”Ah,” she said, showing her excellent teeth, ”Genius attendant at the revels of Terpsich.o.r.e.”

”Where Beauty, Mrs. Gunton-Cresswell,” I responded, cutting it, as though mutton, thick, ”teaches e'en the humblest visitor the reigning Muse's art.”

”You may have this one, if you like,” said Mrs. Gunton-Cresswell simply.

Supper came at last, and, with supper, Eva.

I must now write it down that she was not a type of English beauty. She was not, I mean, queenly, impa.s.sive, never-anything-but-her-cool-calm-self.

Tonight, for instance, her eyes were as I had never seen them.

There danced in them the merriest glitter, which was more than a mere glorification of the ordinary merry glitter--which scores of girls possess at every ball. To begin with, there was a diabolical abandon in Eva's glitter, which raised it instantly above the common herd's.

And behind it all was that very misty mist. I don't know whether all men have seen that mist; but I am sure that no man has seen it more than once; and, from what I've seen of the average man, I doubt if most of them have ever seen it at all. Well, there it was for me to see in Eva Eversleigh's eyes that night at supper. It made me think of things unspeakable. I felt a rush of cla.s.sic aestheticism: Arcadia, Helen of Troy, the happy valleys of the early Greeks. Supper: I believe I gave her oyster _pates_. But I was far away. Deep, deep, deep in Eva's eyes I saw a craft sighting, 'neath a cloudless azure sky, the dark blue Symplegades; heard in my ears the jargon, loud and near me, of the sailors; and faintly o'er the distance of the dead-calm sea rose intermittently the sound of brine-foam at the clas.h.i.+ng rocks....

As we sat there _tete-a-tete_, she smiled across the table at me with such perfect friendliness, it seemed as though a magic barrier separated our two selves from all the chattering, rustling crowd around us. When she spoke, a little quiver of feeling blended adorably with the low, sweet tones of her voice. We talked, indeed, of trifles, but with just that charming hint of intimacy which men friends have who may have known one another from birth, and may know one another for a lifetime, but never become bores, never change. Only when it comes between a woman and a man, it is incomparably finer. It is the talk, of course, of lovers who have not realised they are in love.