Part 9 (1/2)
”We have to live,” said Mike, ”since nature has so willed it, but I fully realize the knightliness of your revolt against the principle of life.”
John continued his admonitions, and Mike an amused and appreciative listener.
”At all events, I wish you would promise not to indulge in improper conversation when I am present. It is dependent upon me to beg of you to oblige me in this. It will add greatly to your dignity to refrain; but that is your concern; I am thinking now only of myself. Will you promise me this?”
”Yes, and more; I will promise not to indulge in such conversation, even when you are not present. It is, as you say, lowering.... I agree with you. I will strive to mend my ways.”
And Mike was sincere; he was determined to become worthy of Lily. And now the best hours of his life--hours strangely tense and strangely personal--were pa.s.sed in that Kensington drawing-room. She was to him like the light of a shrine; he might kneel and adore from afar, but he might not approach. The G.o.ddess had come to him like the moon to Endymion. He knew nothing, not even if he were welcome. Each visit was the same as the preceding. A sweet but exasperating changelessness reigned in that drawing-room--that pretty drawing-room where mother and daughter sat in sweet naturalness, removed from the grossness and meanness of life as he knew it. Neither illicit whispering nor affectation of reserve, only the charm of strict behaviour; unreal and strange was the refinement, material and mental, in which they lived. And for a time the charm sufficed; desire was at rest. But she had been to see him, however at variance such a visit, such event seemed with her present demeanour. And she must come again! In increasing restlessness he conned all the narrow chances of meeting her, of speaking to her alone. But no accident varied the even tenor of their lives, the calm lake-like impa.s.sibility of their relations, and in last resort he urged Frank to give a dance or an At Home. And how ardently he pleaded, one afternoon, sitting face to face with mother and daughter. Inwardly agitated, but with outward calm, he impressed upon them many reasons for their being of the party. The charm of the Temple, the river, and glitter of light, the novel experience of bachelors' quarters....
They promised to come.
CHAPTER V
Mike leaned forward to tie his white cravat. He was slight, and white and black, and he thought of Lily, of the exquisite pleasure of seeing her and leading her away. And he was pleased and surprised to find that his thoughts of her were pure.
The princ.i.p.al contributors to the _Pilgrim_ had been invited, and a selection had been made from the fast and fas.h.i.+onable gang--those who could be trusted neither to become drunk or disorderly. It had been decided, but not without misgivings, to ask Muchross and Snowdown.
The doors were open, servants could be seen pa.s.sing with gla.s.ses and bottles. Frank, who had finished dressing, called from the drawing-room and begged Mike to hasten; for the housemaid was waiting to arrange his room, for it had been decided that this room should serve as a lounge where dancers might sit between the waltzes.
”She can come in now,” he shouted. He folded the curtains of his strange bed; he lighted a silver lamp, re-arranged his palms, and smiled, thinking of the astonished questions when he invited young ladies to be seated among the numerous cus.h.i.+ons. And Mike determined he would say that he considered his bed-room far too sacred to admit of any of the base wants of life being performed there.
It was well-dressed Bohemia, with many markings and varied with contrasting shades. The air was as sugar about the doorway with the scent of gardenias; young lords shrank from the weather-stained cloth of doubtful journalists, and a lady in long puce Cashmere provoked a smile. Frank received his guests with laughter and epigram.
The emanc.i.p.ation of the women is marked by the decline of the chaperon, and it was not clear under whose protection the young girls had come. Beneath double rows of ruche-rose feet pa.s.sed, and the soft glow of lamps shaded with large leaves of pale gla.s.s bathed the women's flesh in endless half tints; the reflected light of copper shades flushed the blonde hair on Lady Helen's neck to auroral fervencies.
In one group a fat man with white hair and faded blue eyes talked to Mrs. Bentham and Lewis Seymour. A visit to the Haymarket Theatre being arranged, he said--
”May I hope to be permitted to form one of the party?”
Harding overheard the remark. He said, ”It is difficult to believe, but I a.s.sure you that that Mr. Senbrook was one of the greatest Don Juans that ever lived.”
”We have in this room Don Juan in youth, middle age, and old age--Mike Fletcher, Lewis Seymour, and Mr. Senbrook.”
”Did Seymour, that fellow with the wide hips, ever have success with women? How fat he has grown!”
”Rather; [Footnote: See _A Modern Lover_.] don't you know his story?
He came up to London with a few pounds. When we knew him first he was starving in Lambeth. You remember, Thompson, the day he stood us a lunch? He had just taken a decorative panel to a picture-dealer's, for which he had received a few pounds, and he told us how he had met a lady (there's the lady, the woman with the white hair, Mrs.
Bentham) in the picture-dealer's shop. She fell in love with him and took him down to her country house to decorate it. She sent him to Paris to study, and it was said employed a dealer for years to buy his pictures.”
”And he dropped her for Lady Helen?”
”Not exactly. Lady Helen dragged him away from her. He never seized or dropped anything.”
”Then what explanation do you give of his success?” said a young barrister.
”His manner was always gentle and insinuating. Ladies found him pretty to look upon, and very soothing. Mike is just the same; but of course Seymour never had any of Mike's brilliancy or enthusiasm.”
”Do you know anything of the old gentleman--Senbrook's his name?”
”I have heard that those watery eyes of his were once of entrancing violet hue, and I believe he was wildly enthusiastic in his love. His life has been closely connected with mine.”