Part 28 (1/2)
”Philip, you do not understand. I--I cared for n.o.body then . . . and my uncle said he was in danger of bankruptcy . . . and Mr. Bulmer undertook to help him if I would consent. . . .”
”Yes,” agreed Philip, with an air of pleasant detachment, ”I see. You are in a first-rate fix. I was always prepared for that. c.o.ke told me about Bulmer--warned me off, so to speak. I forgot his claims at odd times, just for a minute or so, but he is a real bugbear--a sort of matrimonial bogey-man. If all goes well, and we enter Pernambuco without being fired at, you will be handed over to the British Consul, and he will send a rousing telegram about you to England. Bulmer, of course, will cause a rare stir at home. Who wouldn't? No wonder you are scared! It seems to me that there is only one safe line of action left open.”
Iris did not respond to his raillery. She was despondent, nervous, uncertain of her own strength, afraid of the hurricane of publicity that would shortly swoop down on her.
”I wish you would realize how I feel in this matter,” she said, with a persistence that was at least creditable to her honesty of purpose. ”A woman's word should be held as sacred as a man's, Philip.”
He turned and met her eyes. There was a tender smile on his lips.
”So you really believe you will be compelled to marry Mr. Bulmer?” he cried.
”Oh, don't be horrid!” she almost sobbed. ”I cuc--cuc--can't help it.”
”I have given some thought to the problem myself,” he said, for, in truth, he was beginning to be alarmed by her tenacity, though determined not to let her perceive his changed mood. ”Curiously enough, I was thinking more of your dilemma than of the signals when we were overhauled by the _Sao Geronimo_ this morning. Odd, isn't it, how things pop into one's mind at the most unexpected moments? While I was coding our explanation that we were putting into Pernambuco for repairs, and that no steam yacht had been sighted between here and the River Plate, I was really trying to imagine what the cruiser's people would have said if I had told them the actual truth.”
His apparent gravity drew the girl's thoughts for an instant from contemplating her own unhappiness.
”How could you have done that?” she asked. ”We are going there to suit Senhor De Sylva's ends. We have suffered so much already for his sake that we could hardly betray him now.”
Hozier spread wide his hands with a fine affectation of amazement.
”I wasn't talking about De Sylva,” he cried. ”My remarks were strictly confined to the question of your marriage. I know you far too well, Iris, to permit you to go back to Bootle to be lectured and browbeaten by your uncle. I have never seen him, but, from all accounts, he is a rather remarkable person. He likes to have his own way, irrespective of other folks' feelings. I am a good guesser, Iris. I have a pretty fair notion why c.o.ke meant to leave our poor s.h.i.+p's bones on a South American reef. I appreciate exactly how well it would serve Mr. David Verity's interests if his niece married a wealthy old party like Bulmer. By the way how old is Bulmer?”
”Nearly seventy.”
Even Iris herself smiled then, though her tremulous mirth threatened to dissolve in tears.
”Ah, that's a pity,” said Hozier.
”It is very unkind of you to treat me in this manner,” she protested.
”But I am trying to help you. I say it is a pity that Bulmer should be a patriarch, because his only hope of marrying you is that I shall die first. Even then he must be prepared to espouse my widow. By the way, is it disrespectful to describe him as a patriarch? Isn't there some proverb about three score years and ten?”
”Philip, if only you would appreciate my dreadful position----”
”I do. It ought to be ended. The first parson we meet shall be commandeered. Don't you see, dear, we really must get married at Pernambuco? That is what I wanted to signal to the cruiser: 'The _Unser Fritz_ is taking a happy couple to church.' Wouldn't that have been a surprise?”
Iris clenched her little hands in despair. Why did he not understand her misery? Though she was unwavering in her resolution to keep faith with the man who had twitted her with taking all and giving nothing in return, she could not wholly restrain the tumult in her veins. Married in Pernambuco! Ah, if only that were possible! Yet she did not flinch from the lover-like scrutiny with which Philip now favored her.
”I am sure we would be happy together,” she said, with a pathetic confidence that tempted him strongly to take her in his arms and kiss away her fears. ”But we must be brave, Philip dear, brave in the peaceful hours as in those which call for another sort of courage.
Last night we lived in a different world. We looked at death, you and I together, not once but many times, and you, at least, kept him at bay. But that is past. To-day we are going back to the commonplace.
We must forget what happened in the land of dreams. I will never love any man but you, Philip; yet--I cannot marry you.”
”You will marry me--in Pernambuco.”
”I will not because I may not. Oh, spare me any more of this! I cannot bear it. Have pity, dear!”
”Iris, let us at least look at the position calmly. Do you really think that fate's own decree should be set aside merely to keep David Verity out of the Bankruptcy Court?”
”I have given my promise, and those two men are certain I will keep it.”
”Ah, they shall release you. What then?”
”You do not know my uncle, or Mr. Bulmer. Money is their G.o.d. They would tell you that money can control fate. We, you and I, might despise their creed, but how am I to s.h.i.+rk the claims of grat.i.tude? I owe everything to my uncle. He rescued my mother and me from dire poverty. He gave us freely of his abundance. Would you have me fail him now that he seeks my aid? Ah, me! If only I had never come on this mad voyage! But it is too late to think of that now. Perhaps--if I had not promised--I might steel my heart against him--but, Philip, you would never think highly of me again if I were so ready to rend the hand that fed me. We have had our hour, dear. Its memory will never leave me. I shall think of you, dream of you, when, it may be, some other girl--oh, no, I do not mean that! Philip, don't be angry with me to-day. You are wringing my heart!”