Volume Ii Part 32 (2/2)
”Of course, to go with the hair,” put in Betty.
”I said I thought he'd better give me some dinner before we talked it out. Then he looked embarra.s.sed and said there were friends coming. I replied, '_Tant mieux.'_ He inquired fiercely whether it was the part of a gentleman to thrust himself where he wasn't wanted. I kept my temper, and said I was too famished to consider. Then he haughtily left the room, and presently a servant came and asked for my luggage, which I had left at the station, and showed me a bedroom. Ancoats, however, appeared again to invite me to withdraw, and to suggest the names of two seconds who would, he a.s.sured me, be delighted to act for me. I pointed out to him that I was unpacked, and that to turn me out dinnerless would be simply barbarous. Then, after fidgeting about a little, he burst out laughing in an odd way, and said, 'Very well--only, mind, I didn't ask you.' Sure enough, of course I found a party.”
George paused.
”You needn't tell me much about the party,” said Betty, nervously, ”unless it's necessary.”
”Well, it wasn't a very reputable affair, and two young women were present.”
”No need to talk about the young women,” said Betty, hastily.
George bowed submission.
”I only mentioned them because they are rather necessary to the story.
Anyway, by the time the company was settled Ancoats suddenly threw off his embarra.s.sment, and, with some defiant looks at me, behaved himself, I imagine, much as he would have done without me. When all the guests were gone, I asked him whether he was going to keep up the farce of a _grande pa.s.sion_ any more. He got in a rage and vowed that if 'she' had come, of course all those creatures, male and female, would be packed off. I didn't suppose that he would allow the woman he loved to come within a mile of them? I shrugged my shoulders and declined to suppose anything about his love affairs, which seemed to me too complicated. Then, of course, I had to come to plain speaking, and bring in his mother.”
”That she should have produced such a being!” cried Betty; ”that he should have any right in her at all!”
”That she should keep such a heart for him!” said George, raising his eyebrows. ”He turned rather white, I was relieved to see, when I told him from her that she would leave his house if the London affair went on.
Well, we walked up and down in his garden, smoking, the greater part of the night, till I could have dropped with fatigue. Every now and then Ancoats would make a dash for the brandy and soda on the verandah; and in between I had to listen to tirades against marriage, English prudery, and English women,--quotations from Gautier and Renan,--and Heaven knows what. At last, when we were both worn out, he suddenly stood still and delivered his ultimatum. 'Look here--if you think I've no grievances, you're much mistaken. Go back and tell my mother that if she'll marry Fontenoy straight away I'll give up Marguerite!' I said I would deliver no such impertinence. 'Very well,' he said; 'then I will. Tell her I shall be in Paris next week, and ask her to meet me there. When are you going?' 'Well,' I said, rather taken aback, 'there is such an inst.i.tution as the post. Now I've come so far, suppose you show me Trouville for a few days?' He muttered something or other, and we went to bed.
Afterwards, he behaved to me quite charmingly, would not let me go, and I ended by leaving him at the door of an hotel in Paris where he was to meet his mother. But on the subject of Fontenoy it is an _idee fixe_. He chafes under the whole position, and will yield nothing to a man who, as he conceives, has no _locus standi_. But if his pride were no longer annoyed by its being said that his mother had sacrificed her own happiness to him, and if the situation were defined, I _think_ he might be more amenable. I think they might marry him.”
”That's how the man puts it!” said Betty, tightening her lip. ”Of course _any_ marriage is desirable for _any_ woman!”
”I was thinking of Mrs. Allison,” said George, defensively. ”One can't think of a Lady Ancoats till she exists.”
”_Merci!_ Never mind. Don't apologise for the masculine view. It has to be taken with the rest of you. Do you understand that matrimony is in the air here to-night? Have you been talking to Lady Madeleine?”
”No, not yet. But how handsome she's grown! I see Naseby's not far off.”
George turned smiling to his companion. But, as he did so, again something cold and lifeless in his own face and in the expression underlying the smile p.r.i.c.ked little Betty painfully. Marcella had made her no confidences, but there had been much gossip, and Letty Tressady's mere presence at the Court set the intimate friend guessing very near the truth.
She did her best to chatter on, so as to keep him at least superficially amused. But both became more and more conscious of two figures, and two figures only, at the crowded table--Letty Tressady, who was listening absently to Edward Watton with oppressed and indrawn eyes, and Lady Maxwell.
George, indeed, watched his wife constantly. He hungered to know more of that first scene between her and Lady Maxwell, or he thought with bitter repulsion of the letter she had confessed to him. Had he known of it,--in spite of that strange, that compelling letter of Maxwell's, so reticent, and yet in truth so plain,--he could hardly have come as a guest to Maxwell's house. As for her revelations about Cathedine, he felt little resentment or excitement. For the future a noxious brute had to be kept in order--that was all. It was his own fault, he supposed, much more than hers. The inward voice, as before, was clear enough. ”I must just take her home and be good to her. _She_ s.h.i.+rked nothing--now, no doubt, she expects me to do my part.”
”Do you notice those jewels that Lady Maxwell is wearing to-night?” said Betty at last, unable to keep away from the name.
”I imagine they are a famous set?”
”They belonged to Marie Antoinette. At last Maxwell has made her have them cleaned and reset. What a pity to have such desperate scruples as she has about all your pretty things!”
”Must diamonds and rubies, then, perish out of the world?” he asked her, absently, letting his eyes rest again upon the beautiful head and neck.
Betty made some flippant rejoinder, but as she watched him, she was not gay.
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