Part 21 (1/2)
”I think, in common fairness, it is my turn for an innings again,--don't you?”
She laughed, and lifted her shoulders, evading direct reply.
”Does that mean that you care nothing, one way or other?” There was smothered pa.s.sion in his tone.
”And if it does? What then?”
”Gad! How coolly you stab a poor devil, whose worst sin is that he is in----” But before the word was out, she checked him sharply.
”Major Garth!--How _dare_ you?”
Her white-hot anger seared both his vanity and his heart. But he had courage of a sort: and he stood his ground.
”A man in my case will dare anything. Besides, you have insight enough to have known it these many weeks; and why should the plain statement anger you, when evidently the plain fact does not?--Tell me that.”
The question smote her to silence. For she could not tell him: neither could she answer hotly and break with him for good. Throughout the coming week, at least, their intimacy must remain intact; and beyond it her mind refused to look. She saw herself caught in a tangle of her own making: a hot wave of vexation at her helplessness, at her cruelly false position, fired her face from chin to brow.
But Garth, noting the phenomenon, interpreted it otherwise.
”You find my riddle unanswerable?” he questioned almost tenderly: and was met by a lightning-flash of denial.
”No. By no means! The answer is simple enough. Unhappily you cannot wipe out--the fact. But you can avoid expressing it: and you must,--unless you are prepared to lose everything.”
”By Jove, no!--I keep what I have gained,--at any price. And at least your proffer of friends.h.i.+p gives me better right to monopolise you than that chap Desmond can lay claim to. But he appears to be privileged.”
”He is privileged.”
”How so?”
”Simply by being the right sort of man.”
Garth scrutinised her keenly.
”And a V.C. into the bargain--eh? I don't mind betting that's half the attraction. Just a showy bit of pluck, dashed off at a hot-headed moment--and you women turn a man into a G.o.d on the strength of it! The fellow got his chance, and took it--that's all.”
It is of the nature of small minds to disparage great ones; and in general Quita would have dismissed the matter with a light retort. But in her present mood, the man's petty personalities jarred more than usual. ”I think we won't discuss Captain Desmond,” she said without looking round. ”To pick holes in a man of that quality only seems to accentuate one's own littleness.”
”Yours--or mine?”
”Both.”
”By Jove--but you're frank!”
”Have you ever known me otherwise?”
”Can't say I have.--But I'm hanged if I know what's come to you these last two days! Except that you are always far too alluring for my peace of mind, you hardly seem like the same woman.”
The truth of his a.s.sertion wrenched her back to a lighter mood.
”What an alarming accusation! Is any healthily intelligent and progressive human being ever the same for many weeks together?