wasperhaps the most vivacious. With a sable cape about her shoulders shesat next him, with her father on her left, laughing and criticising thegroups, the spirit of Carnival having already entered her Southernblood, as it had that of the merry, light-hearted Nicois themselves.
At last she drove home with her father and the Prince, while the monarchof cap and bells was placed in the handsome pavilion erected for him,there to preside over the corsos, vegliones, and the battles of flowersand confetti which for twelve days, until his immolation on Mardi-Gras,would render Nice a town gone mad with frolic.
The Promenade was bright as day beneath the full moon, the featherypalms waved lazily in the breeze, and the dark waves broke with musicalmonotony upon the pebbly beach. They had alighted at the gate of thepension where the Captain had taken up his quarters, when the Princesuggested to Liane that they should go for a stroll, as it was stillearly. To this she assented, and the Captain went indoors and satalone, silent and wondering, while they crossed the deserted esplanadetogether and walked in the moonlight by the shore.
"So you have enjoyed yourself to-night, _ma petite_?" Zertho said,after they had been chatting some time.
"Immensely," she answered. "Carnival is not fresh to me, but it isalways amusing. Every Nicois enjoys it so thoroughly. I love thesegay, happy, contented people who are still Italian although French.They are so different from the English."
"You hated them once, I remember," he observed, with a smile, pausing tolight a cigarette.
"Ah! that was in the evil days. One's enjoyment is always gauged byone's pocket."
"Then according to that theory I ought to have a larger measure of thisworld's pleasures than the majority of people--eh?"
"You have."
"Ah, no, Liane," he sighed, becoming suddenly grave. "True, I havewealth, a house in Brussels, an estate in Luxembourg, a yacht in yonderport, and a villa here upon this promenade, yet there is one thing Ilack to render my happiness complete."
"What's that?" she asked, rather surprised at the unusual tone ofsadness in his voice. Her smiling lips suddenly quivered with amomentary dread--a dread of something she could not quite define.
He had paused at one of the seats at the end of the plage, and with aalight courteous wave of the hand invited her to sit. Slowly she did asshe was bid, and awaited his reply.
"I have not yet found any woman to sufficiently care for me," heanswered at last, in a quiet impressive tone.
"You will surely have no difficulty," she said with a strange ring inher voice. She had not suspected that he possessed a grain ofsentiment, for long ago she had noticed that he was entirelyunimpressionable where the charms of women were concerned.
His manner suddenly changed. He sank into the seat beside her,saying,--
"There is something, Liane, I want to say to you I've said it so oftento myself that I feel as if you must know it." She sat quite still. Hehad grasped her small hand in his, and she let him keep it, questioninghis face with a bewildered gaze. "You must know--you must haveguessed--"
She turned pale, but outwardly quelled the panic that sent the blood toher heart. "I must tell you the truth now--I love you."
With a sudden movement she freed her hand and drew away from him.
"Me!" she gasped. Whatever potential complicity had lurked in herheart, his words brought her only immeasurable dismay.
He bent towards her again. "Yes, you!"
She felt his hot breath upon her cheek, and put up her hand withimploring gesture. He looked at her with almost frenzied admiration, asif it were only with fierce resolve that he restrained himself fromseizing her in his arms and closing her mouth with burning kisses. Hiswhole frame quivered in the fury of repressed excitement, insomuch thatshe shrank from him with involuntary terror.
"Can't you tell me what it is that makes me repugnant to you?" he askedquickly.
"You are not repugnant at all," she faltered hoarsely. "You are notrepugnant, only--I am indifferent."
"You mean that you don't care about me one way or the other."
She shut her lips tight. Hers was not a nature so passionate as that ofmost Southerns, but a loving one; feeling with her was not a singlesimple emotion, but a complicated one of many impulses--ofself-diffidences, of deep, strange aspirations that she herself couldscarcely understand--a woman's pride, the delight of companionship andsympathy and of the guidance of a stronger will; a longing for betterthings. All these things were there. But beside them were thoughts ofthe man she had vowed she loved, the man who was ruined and who couldnot for years hope to make her his wife. She looked at the glitteringmoonlit sea, with the light steadily burning in the far distance atAntibes, but no answer escaped her lips. The silence of night wascomplete save for the rhythmic swish of the waves at their feet.
At last, after a long pause, her words came again, shudderingly, "Oh,what have you done?"
"By Heaven!" he said, with a vague smile, "I don't know. I hope noharm."
"Oh, don't laugh!" she cried, laughing hysterically herself. "Unlessyou want me to think you the greatest wretch in the world."
"I?" he responded. "What do you mean?"
"You know you are fooling me," she answered reproachfully. "You cannotput your hand on your heart and swear that you actually love me."
A quick look of displeasure crossed his face, but his back was towardsthe moon and she did not notice it.
"Yes--yes, I can--I will," he answered. "You must have known it, Liane.I've been abrupt, I know, and I've startled you, but if you love me youmust attribute that to my loving you so long before I have spoken."
Her troubled breast heaved and fell beneath her rich fur. She gazed athim with parted lips.
"It is a question from me to you," he went on, "the question of mylife."
"No, don't think so," she protested, "please, don't ask it."
"Then don't answer it, Liane. Wait--let me wait. Ask yourself--"
"I know my own mind already," she said slowly, with earnestness; thenperceiving, as suddenly as she had all the rest, how considered herassertion might appear, she went on, still with the quietness ofclear-seeing and truth-telling: "things come clear in an instant. Thisdoes, that I could not have thought of. I am already betrothed toanother; that is why I cannot accept."
"You can't expect me to be satisfied with that," he answered. "I, whoknow myself, and who see you as you do not see yourself. It is I whoask: who want to take a great gift. I am not offering myself," he wenton rapidly. "I am beseeching yourself--of you."
"I have not myself to give," she said calmly.
"You mean you love someone else," he said, with a hardness about thecorners of his mouth.
"Yes," and the long eyelashes swept downward as she answered.
But Zertho paid no attention to her reply. "During the years I haveknown you, Liane," he went on, "the thought of you has been as asafeguard against my total disbelief in the possibility of woman'sfidelity. I knew then that I revered you with my better self all thewhile--that, young as you were, I believed in you. I believe in younow. Be my wife, and from this instant I will devote all the love inme--and I have more than you think--to you alone."
"Prince Zertho," she said, in honest distress, "I beg you won't go on!I respect your devotion and your kindness, and I don't want to inflictany hurt upon you; but oh! indeed, you must not ask this."
"Very well," he said sadly, rising to his feet. "Let it all be. I willnot despair. You know now that I love you, and ere long I shall ask youagain as I have asked. Defer your answer until then."
"Let us go back," she urged, shivering as she rose. "The wind has growncold;" and in silence they together retraced their steps along thedeserted Promenade.
An hour later, when Liane had gone to her room, the Captain, at Zertho'srequest, walked along to the Villa Chevrier, and found his friendawaiting him in the handsome salon.
When the servant closed the door the Prince was the first to speak.
"T
o-night I have asked Liane to become my wife," he said harshly,standing with his hands in his pockets.
"Well?"
"She refuses."
"As I expected," answered her father coldly.
"As you wish, you mean," retorted Zertho.
"I have already explained my views," the other answered, in a deepstrained voice.
"From her attitude it is evident that you have not spoken to her, as wearranged," said the other angrily.
"I have said nothing."
"Well, you know me sufficiently well,