Part 24 (1/2)
Bayford tackled it at once, asking the questions and answering them herself, so as to get it out of the way.
”Well, how is Regina? Very much the same, of course. I don't suppose you'll see any change in her now, until it's for the worse. Poor thing!
one could almost wish, in her own interests, that our Heavenly Father would think fit to take her to Himself. Now, I want to talk to you about something serious.”
Mrs. Bayford made herself comfortable in a deep, low chair, with her feet on a footstool.
”I suppose you've never guessed,” she asked, at last, ”why Marion has been with me all this time?”
”I did guess,” Miss Lucilla admitted, with a faint blush, ”but I don't know that I guessed right.”
”I expect you did. No one could see as much of her as you've done without knowing she had a love-affair.”
”That's what I thought.”
”It's been a great trial,” Mrs. Bayford sighed, ”and it isn't over yet.
In fact, I don't know but what it's only just beginning.”
”Wasn't he--desirable?”
”Oh yes; very much so, and is so still. It wasn't that. He was all that any one could wish--old family, position, t.i.tle, good looks, everything.”
”But if Marion liked him, and he liked her--?”
”I could explain it to you better if you knew more about men.”
”I do know a--a little,” Miss Lucilla ventured to a.s.sert, shyly.
”There is a case in which a little is not enough. You've got to understand a man's capacity for loving one woman and being fascinated by another. I think they call it double consciousness.”
”I don't think it's very honorable,” Miss Lucilla declared, in disapproval.
”A man doesn't stop to think of honor, my dear, when he's in a grand pa.s.sion. Bienville has honor written in his very countenance, but this was an occasion when he couldn't get it into play. It was perfectly tragic. He had already spoken to Robert Grimston in the manliest way--told all about himself--found out how much Marion would have as her _dot_--and got permission to pay her his addresses--when all came to nothing because of another woman.”
With this as an introduction it was natural that Mrs. Bayford should go on to repeat the oft-told tale in its entirety, lending it a light that no one had given to it yet. With the information she already possessed from Diane's letter it was impossible for Lucilla not to recognize all the characters as readily as Derek Pruyn had done, while she had the advantage over him of knowing Marion Grimston's place in the action. It was a dreadful story, and if Miss Lucilla was not more profoundly shocked it was because Mrs. Bayford, by overshooting the mark, rendered it incredible. None the less she agreed with Mrs. Bayford on the main point she had come to urge, that Diane, on one side, and Marion and Bienville, on the other, should be kept, if possible, from meeting.
”Not that I think,” Mrs. Bayford went on, ”that Raoul--that's his name--would ever take up with her again. Still, you never can tell; I've seen such cases. A fire will often blaze up when you think it's out. And now that everything is going so smoothly it would be a thousand pities to throw any obstacle in the way.”
”Everything is going smoothly, then? I'm glad of that, for Marion's sake.”
”Yes; it's practically a settled thing. When it seemed likely that he would return to France by way of New York, Robert Grimston wrote me to say that if anything happened it would have his full consent. Things move rapidly in Paris, and the whole episode is as much a part of the past as last year's styles. Then, too, everybody there knows now that Raoul didn't kill George Eveleth; and, of course, that removes a certain unpleasant thought that some people might have about him.”
”Have you seen him yet?”
”I heard from him this morning. He asked if he could call on Marion and me this afternoon. You can guess what was my reply.”
The nature of this having been made clear, Mrs. Bayford went on to express her fears as to the complications which might arise from the chance meeting of Bienville and Derek on the steamer, of which the former had given her information in his note. Nothing would be more natural now than for Derek to invite Marion and Bienville to dinner; and there would be Diane!
”I think I can relieve your mind on that point,” Miss Lucilla said, trying to choose her words cautiously. ”There would be no danger of their meeting Mrs. Eveleth just now, as she has left Dorothea for the present.”
There was so much satisfaction to Mrs. Bayford in knowing that, as far as Diane was concerned, the coast was comparatively clear, that she gathered up her skirts and departed. After she had gone, Miss Lucilla's sense of being the pivot of a romantic plot was heightened by the appearance of Diane. She came in with her usual air of confidence in her ability to meet the world, and if her pale face showed traces of tears and sleeplessness, its expression was, if anything, more courageous. Had it not been for this brave show Miss Lucilla would have wanted to embrace her and hold her hands, but, as it was, she could only retire shyly into herself, as in the presence of one too strong to need the support of friends.