Part 30 (2/2)
”Promise me, dear,” she said-”please promise me.”
She did not realize what she had called him; nor, indeed, did he, until days afterward, too late to turn it to account; though what he answered worked far more to his profit, than had he used the chance offered by an inadvertent endearment.
”I promise,” he said; ”I ought not to; but because you wish it, I promise-now will you tell me?”
She looked up at him gratefully-and such women as Elise d'Essolde can say much with their eyes. They had mounted the steps and were on the terrace; she pointed into the Park.
”It was in the j.a.ponica walk,” she said; ”I was waiting for you, when Lotzen came upon me, seemingly by accident--”
”There are no accidents with Lotzen,” Moore broke in.
”It may be, but he chose to treat it so;-I tried to pa.s.s-he stopped me and begged forgiveness for his brutal rudeness of the other day; I forgave him indifferently, hoping to escape quickly, and tried again to pa.s.s. He caught my wrist, and demanded a kiss, and that I walk with him to the lake. I was close against the hedge, and it was in my struggles to get free from him that the sharp thorns tore my gown. He let me thrash out my strength, holding me all the time by this wrist; presently, when he was about to kiss me by main force, I bit him in the hand, and escaped, running at top speed, and in fright and exhaustion collapsing where you found me.... That was all, Ralph,” she ended.
Moore's intense repression found some relief in a long breath.
”All!” he said, rather huskily; ”all! ... well, all I ask is, some day, to have him against me, sword in hand.”
”Your promise!” she exclaimed.
He smiled down at her. ”The promise holds, child, as you well know; but this affair of the Book may work an opportunity.”
”If it does, take it,” said she instantly.
”Trust me, my lady,” he answered, as he left her at the small door used only by the Princess and her privileged intimates.
”Your lady?” she echoed across the sill-her natural witchery increased four-fold, in his eyes, by the tumbled hair-”your lady-perhaps.”
In the hallway, just at her own room, she met the Princess, who, woman-like, marked at a glance every detail of her disordered attire.
”Good heaven, Elise,” she exclaimed, ”what has that Adjutant of mine been doing to you?”
”Practicing sword tricks on my skirt,” said she, holding it up to show the rents, ”and learning to be un coiffeur.”
”He seems to be as uncommonly proficient in the one as he is deficient in the other,”-then looked at her questioningly; ”but seriously, Elise, what happened?-if you care to tell me.”
”The Duke of Lotzen found me alone in the j.a.ponica walk.”
The Princess struck her hands together angrily.
”Lotzen! oh, Lotzen!” she exclaimed; ”some day-did Moore come on him there? If he did, the some-day is already here.”
”Fortunately, no, since I escaped unharmed.”
”Unfortunately, you mean-it saved to the world another scoundrel.”
”And Ralph would be a fugitive in disgrace,” said Mlle. d'Essolde.
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