II
THE ADVENTURE OF THE SUPERCILIOUS _ATTACHE_
The Count must have been an adept in the gentle art of quick-changedisguise; for though we telegraphed full particulars of his appearancefrom Louvain, the next station, nobody in the least resembling eitherhim or his accomplice, the shabby-looking man, could be unearthed in theParis train when it drew up at Brussels, its first stopping-place. Theymust have transformed themselves meanwhile into two different persons.Indeed, from the outset, I had suspected his moustache--'twas so _very_distinguished.
When we reached Cologne, the Cantankerous Old Lady overwhelmed me withthe warmth of her thanks and praises. Nay, more; after breakfast nextmorning, before we set out by slow train for Schlangenbad, she burstlike a tornado into my bedroom at the Cologne hotel with a cheque fortwenty guineas, drawn in my favour. 'That's for you, my dear,' she said,handing it to me, and looking really quite gracious.
I glanced at the piece of paper and felt my face glow crimson. 'Oh, LadyGeorgina,' I cried; 'you misunderstand. You forget that I am a lady.'
'Nonsense, child, nonsense! Your courage and promptitude were worth tentimes that sum,' she exclaimed, positively slipping her arm round myneck. 'It was your courage I particularly admired, Lois; because youfaced the risk of my happening to look inside the outer case, andfinding you had abstracted the blessed box: in which case I might quitenaturally have concluded you meant to steal it.'
'I thought of that,' I answered. 'But I decided to risk it. I felt itwas worth while. For I was sure the man meant to take the case as soonas ever you gave him the opportunity.'
'Then you deserve to be rewarded,' she insisted, pressing the chequeupon me.
I PUT HER HAND BACK FIRMLY.]
I put her hand back firmly. 'Lady Georgina,' I said, 'it is very amiableof you. I think you do right in offering me the money; but I think Ishould do altogether wrong in accepting it. A lady is not honest fromthe hope of gain; she is not brave because she expects to be paid forher bravery. You were my employer, and I was bound to serve myemployer's interests. I did so as well as I could, and there is the endof it.'
She looked absolutely disappointed; we all hate to crush a benevolentimpulse; but she tore the cheque up into very small pieces. 'As youwill, my dear,' she said, with her hands on her hips: 'I see, you arepoor Tom Cayley's daughter. He was always a bit Quixotic.' Though Ibelieve she liked me all the better for my refusal.
On the way from Cologne to Eltville, however, and on the drive up toSchlangenbad, I found her just as fussy and as worrying as ever. 'Let mesee, how many of these horrid pfennigs make an English penny? I never_can_ remember. Oh, those silly little nickel things are ten pfennigseach, are they? Well, eight would be a penny, I suppose. A mark's ashilling; ridiculous of them to divide it into ten pence instead oftwelve; one never really knows how much one's paying for anything. Whythese Continental people can't be content to use pounds, shillings, andpence, all over alike, the same as we do, passes _my_ comprehension.They're glad enough to get English sovereigns when they can; why, then,don't they use them as such, instead of reckoning them each attwenty-five francs, and then trying to cheat you out of the properexchange, which is _always_ ten centimes more than the brokers give you?What, _we_ use their beastly decimal system? Lois, I'm ashamed of you.An English girl to turn and rend her native country like that! Francsand centimes, indeed! Fancy proposing it at Peter Robinson's! No, Iwill _not_ go by the boat, my dear. I hate the Rhine boats, crowded withnasty selfish pigs of Germans. What _I_ like is a first-classcompartment all to myself, and no horrid foreigners. Especially Germans.They're bursting with self-satisfaction--have such an exaggerated beliefin their "land" and their "folk." And when they come to England, they donothing but find fault with us. If people aren't satisfied with thecountries they travel in, they'd better stop at home--that's _my_opinion. Nasty pigs of Germans! The very sight of them sickens me. Oh, Idon't mind if they _do_ understand me, child. They all learn Englishnowadays; it helps them in trade--that's why they're driving us out ofall the markets. But it _must_ be good for them to learn once in a waywhat other people really think of them--civilised people, I mean; notGermans. They're a set of barbarians.'
We reached Schlangenbad alive, though I sometimes doubted it: for my oldlady did her boisterous best to rouse some peppery German officer intocutting our throats incontinently by the way; and when we got there, wetook up our abode in the nicest hotel in the village. Lady Georgina hadengaged the best front room on the first floor, with a charming viewacross the pine-clad valley; but I must do her the justice to say thatshe took the second best for me, and that she treated me in every waylike the guest she delighted to honour. My refusal to accept her twentyguineas made her anxious to pay it back to me within the terms of ouragreement. She described me to everybody as a young friend who wastravelling with her, and never gave any one the slightest hint of mybeing a paid companion. Our arrangement was that I was to have twoguineas for the week, besides my travelling expenses, board, andlodging.
On our first morning at Schlangenbad, Lady Georgina sallied forth, verymuch overdressed, and in a youthful hat, to use the waters. They arevalued chiefly for the complexion, I learned; I wondered then why LadyGeorgina came there--for she hadn't any; but they are also recommendedfor nervous irritability, and as Lady Georgina had visited the placealmost every summer for fifteen years, it opened before one's mind anappalling vista of what her temper might have been if she had _not_ goneto Schlangenbad. The hot springs are used in the form of a bath. '_You_don't need them, my dear,' Lady Georgina said to me, with agood-humoured smile; and I will own that I did not, for nature hasgifted me with a tolerable cuticle. But I like when at Rome to do asRome does; so I tried the baths once. I found them unpleasantly smoothand oily. I do not freckle, but if I did, I think I should preferfreckles.
We walked much on the terrace--the inevitable dawdling promenade of allGerman watering-places--it reeked of Serene Highness. We also drove outamong the low wooded hills which bound the Rhine valley. The majority ofthe visitors, I found, were ladies--Court ladies, most of them; allthere for their complexions, but all anxious to assure me privately theyhad come for what they described as 'nervous debility.' I divided themat once into two classes: half of them never had and never would have acomplexion at all; the other half had exceptionally smooth and beautifulskins, of which they were obviously proud, and whose pink-and-whitepeach-blossom they thought to preserve by assiduous bathing. It wasvanity working on two opposite bases. There was a sprinkling of men,however, who were really there for a sufficient reason--wounds orserious complaints; while a few good old sticks, porty and whisty, werein attendance on invalid wives or sisters.
HE CAST A HASTY GLANCE AT US.]
From the beginning I noticed that Lady Georgina went peering about allover the place, as if she were hunting for something she had lost, withher long-handled tortoise-shell glasses perpetually in evidence--the'aristocratic outrage' I called them--and that she eyed all the men withpeculiar attention. But I took no open notice of her little weakness. Onour second day at the Spa, I was sauntering with her down the chiefstreet--'a beastly little hole, my dear; not a decent shop where one canbuy a reel of thread or a yard of tape in the place!'--when I observed atall and handsome young man on the opposite side of the road cast ahasty glance at us, and then sneak round the corner hurriedly. He was aloose-limbed, languid-looking young man, with large, dreamy eyes, and apeculiarly beautiful and gentle expression; but what I noted about himmost was an odd superficial air of superciliousness. He seemed always tobe looking down with scorn on that foolish jumble, the universe. Hedarted away so rapidly, however, that I hardly discovered all this justthen. I piece it out from subsequent observations.
Later in the day, we chanced to pass a _cafe_, where three youngexquisites sat sipping Rhine wines after the fashion of the country. Oneof them, with a gold-tipped cigarette held gracefully between twoslender fingers, was my languid-looking young aristocrat. He was blowingout smoke in a laz
y blue stream. The moment he saw me, however, heturned away as if he desired to escape observation, and ducked down soas to hide his face behind his companions. I wondered why on earth heshould want to avoid me. Could this be the Count? No, the young man withthe halo of cigarette smoke stood three inches taller. Who, then, atSchlangenbad could wish to avoid my notice? It was a singular mystery;for I was quite certain the supercilious young man was trying his bestto prevent my seeing him.
That evening, after dinner, the Cantankerous Old Lady burst outsuddenly, 'Well, I can't for the life of me imagine why Harold hasn'tturned up here. The wretch knew I was coming; and I heard from ourAmbassador at Rome last week that he was going to be at Schlangenbad.'
'Who is Harold?' I asked.
'My nephew,' Lady Georgina snapped back, beating a devil's tattoo withher fan on the table. 'The only member of my family, except myself, whoisn't a born idiot. Harold's not an idiot; he's an _attache_ at Rome.'
I saw it at a glance. 'Then he _is_ in Schlangenbad,' I answered. 'Inoticed him this morning.'
The old lady turned towards me sharply. She peered right through me, asif she were a Roentgen ray. I could see she was asking herself whetherthis was a conspiracy, and whether I had come there on purpose to meet'Harold.' But I flatter myself I am tolerably mistress of my owncountenance. I did not blench. 'How do you know?' she asked quickly,with an acid intonation.
If I had answered the truth, I should have said, 'I know he is here,because I saw a good-looking young man evidently trying to avoid youthis morning; and if a young man has the misfortune to be born yournephew, and also to have expectations from you, it is easy to understandthat he would prefer to keep out of your way as long as possible.' Butthat would have been neither polite nor politic. Moreover, I reflectedthat I had no particular reason for wishing to do Mr. Harold a bad turn;and that it would be kinder to him, as well as to her, to conceal thereasons on which I based my instinctive inference. So I took up a strongstrategic position. 'I have an intuition that I saw him in the villagethis morning,' I said. 'Family likeness, perhaps. I merely jumped at itas you spoke. A tall, languid young man; large, poetical eyes; anartistic moustache--just a trifle Oriental-looking.'
'That's Harold!' the Cantankerous Old Lady rapped out sharply, withclear conviction. 'The miserable boy! Why on earth hasn't he been roundto see me?'
I reflected that I knew why; but I did not say so. Silence is golden. Ialso remarked mentally on that curious human blindness which had made meconclude at first that the supercilious young man was trying to avoid_me_, when I might have guessed it was far more likely he was trying toavoid my companion. I was a nobody; Lady Georgina Fawley was a woman ofEuropean reputation.
'Perhaps he didn't know which hotel you were stopping at,' I put in. 'Oreven that you were here.' I felt a sudden desire to shield poor Harold.
'Not know which hotel? Nonsense, child; he knows I come here on thisprecise date regularly every summer; and if he didn't know, is it likelyI should try any other inn, when this is the only moderately decenthouse to stop at in Schlangenbad? And the morning coffee undrinkable atthat; while the hash--_such_ hash! But that's the way in Germany. He'san ungrateful monster; if he comes now, I shall refuse to see him.'
HAROLD, YOU VIPER, WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY TRYING TO AVOIDME?]
Next morning after breakfast, however, in spite of these threats, shehailed me forth with her on the Harold hunt. She had sent the_concierge_ to inquire at all the hotels already, it seemed, and foundher truant at none of them; now she ransacked the _pensions_. At lastshe hunted him down in a house on the hill. I could see she was reallyhurt. 'Harold, you viper, what do you mean by trying to avoid me?'
'My dear aunt, _you_ here in Schlangenbad! Why, when did you arrive? Andwhat a colour you've got! You're looking _so_ well!' That clever thrustsaved him.
He cast me an appealing glance. 'You will not betray me?' it said. Ianswered, mutely, 'Not for worlds,' with a faltering pair of downcasteyelids.
'Oh, I'm _well_ enough, thank you,' Lady Georgina replied, somewhatmollified by his astute allusion to her personal appearance. He had hither weak point dexterously. 'As well, that is, as one can expect to benowadays. Hereditary gout--the sins of the fathers visited as usual. Butwhy didn't you come to see me?'
'How can I come to see you if you don't tell me where you are? "LadyGeorgina Fawley, Europe," was the only address I knew. It strikes me asinsufficient.'
His gentle drawl was a capital foil to Lady Georgina's aciduloussoprano. It seemed to disarm her. She turned to me with a benignant waveof her hand. 'Miss Cayley,' she said, introducing me; 'my nephew, Mr.Harold Tillington. You've heard me talk of poor Tom Cayley, Harold? Thisis poor Tom Cayley's daughter.'
'Indeed?' the supercilious _attache_ put in, looking hard at me.'Delighted to make Miss Cayley's acquaintance.'
'Now, Harold, I can tell from your voice at once you haven't rememberedone word about Captain Cayley.'
Harold stood on the defensive. 'My dear aunt,' he observed, expandingboth palms, 'I have heard you talk of so _very_ many people, that even_my_ diplomatic memory fails at times to recollect them all. But I dobetter: I dissemble. I will plead forgetfulness now of Captain Cayley,since you force it on me. It is not likely I shall have to plead it ofCaptain Cayley's daughter.' And he bowed towards me gallantly.
The Cantankerous Old Lady darted a lightning glance at him. It was aglance of quick suspicion. Then she turned her Roentgen rays upon my faceonce more. I fear I burned crimson.
'A friend?' he asked. 'Or a fellow-guest?'
'A companion.' It was the first nasty thing she had said of me.
'Ha! more than a friend, then. A comrade.' He turned the edge neatly.
We walked out on the terrace and a little way up the zigzag path. Theday was superb. I found Mr. Tillington, in spite of his studiouslylanguid and supercilious air, a most agreeable companion. He knewEurope. He was full of talk of Rome and the Romans. He had epigrammaticwit, curt, keen, and pointed. We sat down on a bench; he kept LadyGeorgina and myself amused for an hour by his crisp sallies. Besides, hehad been everywhere and seen everybody. Culture and agriculture seemedall one to him.
When we rose to go in, Lady Georgina remarked, with emphasis, 'Ofcourse, Harold, you'll come and take up your diggings at our hotel?'
'Of course, my dear aunt. How can you ask? Free quarters. Nothing wouldgive me greater pleasure.'
She glanced at him keenly again. I saw she had expected him to fake upsome lame excuse for not joining us; and I fancied she was annoyed athis prompt acquiescence, which had done her out of the chance for afamily disagreement. 'Oh, you'll come then?' she said, grudgingly.
'Certainly, most respected aunt. I shall much prefer it.'
She let her piercing eye descend upon me once more. I was aware that Ihad been talking with frank ease of manner to Mr. Tillington, and that Ihad said several things which clearly amused him. Then I remembered allat once our relative positions. A companion, I felt, should know herplace: it is not her _role_ to be smart and amusing. 'Perhaps,' I said,drawing back, 'Mr. Tillington would like to remain in his presentquarters till the end of the week, while I am with you, Lady Georgina;after that, he could have my room; it might be more convenient.'
His eye caught mine quickly. 'Oh, you're only going to stop a week,then, Miss Cayley?' he put in, with an air of disappointment.
'Only a week,' I nodded.
'My dear child,' the Cantankerous Old Lady broke out, 'what nonsense youdo talk! Only going to stop a week? How can I exist without you?'
'That was the arrangement,' I said, mischievously. 'You were going tolook about, you recollect, for an unsophisticated Gretchen. You don'thappen to know of any warehouse where a supply of unsophisticatedGretchens is kept constantly in stock, do you, Mr. Tillington?'
'No, I don't,' he answered, laughing. 'I believe there are dodos andauks' eggs, in very small numbers, still to be procured in the properquarters; but the unsophisticated Gretchen, I am credibly informed, isan
extinct animal. Why, the cap of one fetches high prices nowadaysamong collectors.'
'But you will come to the hotel at once, Harold?' Lady Georginainterposed.
'Certainly, aunt. I will move in without delay. If Miss Cayley is goingto stay for a single week only, that adds one extra inducement forjoining you immediately.'
His aunt's stony eye was cold as marble.
So when we got back to our hotel after the baths that afternoon, the_concierge_ greeted us with: 'Well, your noble nephew has arrived,high-well-born countess! He came with his boxes just now, and has takena room near your honourable ladyship's.'
Lady Georgina's face was a study of mingled emotions. I don't knowwhether she looked more pleased or jealous.
Later in the day, I chanced on Mr. Tillington, sunning himself on abench in the hotel garden. He rose, and came up to me, as fast as hislanguid nature permitted. 'Oh, Miss Cayley,' he said, abruptly, 'I dowant to thank you so much for not betraying me. I know you spotted metwice in the town yesterday; and I also know you were good enough to saynothing to my revered aunt about it.'
'I had no reason for wishing to hurt Lady Georgina's feelings,' Ianswered, with a permissible evasion.
His countenance fell. 'I never thought of that,' he interposed, with onehand on his moustache. 'I-- I fancied you did it out of fellow-feeling.'
'We all think of things mainly from our own point of view first,' Ianswered. 'The difference is that some of us think of them from otherpeople's afterwards. Motives are mixed.'
He smiled. 'I didn't know my deeply venerated relative was coming hereso soon,' he went on. 'I thought she wasn't expected till next week; mybrother wrote me that she had quarrelled with her French maid, and'twould take her full ten days to get another. I meant to clear outbefore she arrived. To tell you the truth, I was going to-morrow.'
'And now you are stopping on?'
He caught my eye again.
CIRCUMSTANCES ALTER CASES, HE MURMURED.]
'Circumstances alter cases,' he murmured, with meaning.
'It is hardly polite to describe one as a circumstance,' I objected.
'I meant,' he said, quickly, 'my aunt alone is one thing; my aunt with afriend is quite another.'
'I see,' I answered. 'There is safety in numbers.'
He eyed me hard.
'Are you mediaeval or modern?' he asked.
'Modern, I hope,' I replied. Then I looked at him again. 'Oxford?'
He nodded. 'And you?' half joking.
'Cambridge,' I said, glad to catch him out. 'What college?'
'Merton. Yours?'
'Girton.'
The odd rhyme amused him. Thenceforth we were friends--'two 'Varsitymen,' he said. And indeed it does make a queer sort of link--afreemasonry to which even women are now admitted.
At dinner and through the evening he talked a great deal to me, LadyGeorgina putting in from time to time a characteristic growl about the_table-d'hote_ chicken--'a special breed, my dear, with eight drumsticksapiece'--or about the inadequate lighting of the heavy German _salon_.She was worse than ever: pungent as a rule, that evening she was grumpy.When we retired for the night, to my great surprise, she walked into mybedroom. She seated herself on my bed: I saw she had come to talk overHarold.
'He will be very rich, my dear, you know. A great catch in time. He willinherit all my brother's money.'
'Lord Kynaston's?'
'Bless the child, no. Kynaston's as poor as a church mouse with thetithes unpaid; he has three sons of his own, and not a blessed stiver toleave between them. How could he, poor dear idiot? Agriculturaldepression; a splendid pauper. He has only the estate, and that's inEssex; land going begging; worth nothing a year, encumbered up to theeyes, and loaded with first rent-charges, jointures, settlements. Money,indeed! poor Kynaston! It's my brother Marmaduke's I mean; lucky dog,_he_ went in for speculation--began life as a guinea-pig, and rose withthe rise of soap and cocoa. He's worth his half-million.'
'Oh, Mr. Marmaduke Ashurst'
Lady Georgina nodded. 'Marmy's a fool,' she said, briefly; 'but he knowswhich side of his bread is buttered.'
'And Mr. Tillington is--his nephew?'
'Bless the child, yes; have you never read your British Bible, thepeerage? Astonishing, the ignorance of these Girton girls! They don'teven know the Leger's run at Doncaster. The family name's Ashurst.Kynaston's an earl-- I was Lady Georgina Ashurst before I took it intomy head to marry and do for poor Evelyn Fawley. My younger brother's theHonourable Marmaduke Ashurst--women get the best of it there--it's aboutthe only place where they do get the best of it: an earl's daughter isLady Betty; his son's nothing more than the Honourable Tom. So onescores off one's brothers. My younger sister, Lady Guinevere Ashurst,married Stanley Tillington of the Foreign Office. Harold's their eldestson. Now, child, do you grasp it?'
'Perfectly,' I answered. 'You speak like Debrett. Has issue, Harold.'
'And Harold will inherit all Marmaduke's money. What I'm always afraidof is that some fascinating adventuress will try to marry him out ofhand. A pretty face, and over goes Harold! _My_ business in life is tostand in the way and prevent it.'
She looked me through and through again with her X-ray scrutiny.
'I don't think Mr. Tillington is quite the sort that falls a prey toadventuresses,' I answered, boldly.
'Ah, but there are faggots and faggots,' the old lady said, wagging herhead with profound meaning. 'Never mind, though; _I'd_ like to see anadventuress marry off Harold without my leave! _I'd_ lead her a life!I'd turn her black hair gray for her!'
'I should think,' I assented, 'you could do it, Lady Georgina, if yougave your attention seriously to it.'
From that moment forth, I was aware that my Cantankerous Old Lady'smalign eye was inexorably fixed upon me every time I went withinspeaking distance of Mr. Tillington. She watched him like a lynx. Shewatched _me_ like a dozen lynxes. Wherever we went, Lady Georgina wassure to turn up in the neighbourhood. She was perfectly ubiquitous: sheseemed to possess a world-wide circulation. I don't know whether it wasthis constant suggestion of hers that I was stalking her nephew whichroused my latent human feeling of opposition; but in the end, I began tobe aware that I rather liked the supercilious _attache_ than otherwise.He evidently liked me, and he tried to meet me. Whenever he spoke to me,indeed, it was without the superciliousness which marked his mannertowards others; in point of fact, it was with graceful deference. Hewatched for me on the stairs, in the garden, by the terrace; whenever hegot a chance, he sidled over and talked to me. Sometimes he stopped into read me Heine: he also introduced me to select portions of Gabrieled'Annunzio. It is feminine to be touched by such obvious attention; Iconfess, before long, I grew to like Mr. Harold Tillington.
The closer he followed me up, the more did I perceive that Lady Georginathrew out acrid hints with increasing spleen about the ways ofadventuresses. They were hints of that acrimonious generalised kind,too, which one cannot answer back without seeming to admit that the caphas fitted. It was atrocious how middle-class young women nowadays ranafter young men of birth and fortune. A girl would stoop to anything inorder to catch five hundred thousand. Guileless youths should be thrownamong their natural equals. It was a mistake to let them see too much ofpeople of a lower rank who consider themselves good-looking. And theclever ones were the worst: they pretended to go in for intellectualcompanionship.
I also noticed that though at first Lady Georgina had expressed thestrongest disinclination to my leaving her after the time originallyproposed, she now began to take for granted that I would go at the endof my week, as arranged in London, and she even went on to some overtsteps towards securing the help of the blameless Gretchen.
We had arrived at Schlangenbad on Tuesday. I was to stop with theCantankerous Old Lady till the corresponding day of the following week.On the Sunday, I wandered out on the wooded hillside behind the village;and as I mounted the path I was dimly aware by a sort of instinct thatHarold Tillington was following me.
H
e came up with me at last near a ledge of rock. 'How fast you walk!' heexclaimed. 'I gave you only a few minutes' start, and yet even my longlegs have had hard work to overtake you.'
'I am a fairly good climber,' I answered, sitting down on a littlewooden bench. 'You see, at Cambridge, I went on the river a great deal--I canoed and sculled: and then, besides, I've done a lot of bicycling.'
'What a splendid birthright it is,' he cried, 'to be a wholesomeathletic English girl! You can't think how one admires English girlsafter living a year or two in Italy--where women are dolls, except for abrief period of intrigue, before they settle down to be contented frumpswith an outline like a barrel.'
'A little muscle and a little mind are no doubt advisable adjuncts for ahousewife,' I admitted.
'You shall not say that word,' he cried, seating himself at my side. 'Itis a word for Germans, "housewife." Our English ideal is somethingimmeasurably higher and better. A companion, a complement! Do you know,Miss Cayley, it always sickens me when I hear German studentssentimentalising over their _maedchen_: their beautiful, pure, insipid,yellow-haired, blue-eyed _maedchen_; her, so fair, so innocent, sounapproachably vacuous--so like a wax doll--and then think of how theydesign her in days to come to cook sausages for their dinner, and knitthem endless stockings through a placid middle age, till the needlesdrop from her paralysed fingers, and she retires into frilled caps andTeutonic senility.'
'You seem to have almost as low an opinion of foreigners as yourrespected aunt!' I exclaimed, looking quizzically at him.
He drew back, surprised. 'Oh, no; I'm not narrow-minded, like my aunt, Ihope,' he answered. 'I am a good cosmopolitan. I allow Continentalnations all their own good points, and each has many. But their women,Miss Cayley--and their point of view of their women--you will admit thatthere they can't hold a candle to English women.'
I drew a circle in the dust with the tip of my parasol.
'On that issue, I may not be a wholly unprejudiced observer,' Ianswered. 'The fact of my being myself an Englishwoman may possibly tosome extent influence my judgment.'
'You are sarcastic,' he cried, drawing away.
'Not at all,' I answered, making a wider circle. 'I spoke a simple fact.But what is _your_ ideal, then, as opposed to the German one?'
He gazed at me and hesitated. His lips half parted. 'My ideal?' he said,after a pause. 'Well, _my_ ideal--do you happen to have such a thing asa pocket-mirror about you?'
I laughed in spite of myself. 'Now, Mr. Tillington,' I said severely,'if you're going to pay compliments, I shall have to return. If you wantto stop here with me, you must remember that I am only Lady GeorginaFawley's temporary lady's-maid. Besides, I didn't mean that. I meant,what is your ideal of a man's right relation to his _maedchen_?'
'Don't say _maedchen_,' he cried, petulantly. 'It sounds as if youthought me one of those sentimental Germans. I hate sentiment.'
'Then, towards the woman of his choice.'
He glanced up through the trees at the light overhead, and spoke moreslowly than ever. 'I think,' he said, fumbling his watch-chainnervously, 'a man ought to wish the woman he loves to be a free agent,his equal in point of action, even as she is nobler and better than hein all spiritual matters. I think he ought to desire for her a life ashigh as she is capable of leading, with full scope for every faculty ofher intellect or her emotional nature. She should be beautiful, with avigorous, wholesome, many-sided beauty, moral, intellectual, physical;yet with soul in her, too; and with the soul and the mind lighting upher eyes, as it lights up--well, that is immaterial. And if a man candiscover such a woman as that, and can induce her to believe in him, tolove him, to accept him--though how such a woman can be satisfied withany man at all is to me unfathomable--well, then, I think he should behappy in devoting his whole life to her, and should give himself up torepay her condescension in taking him.'
'And you hate sentiment!' I put in, smiling.
MISS CAYLEY, HE SAID, YOU ARE PLAYING WITH ME.]
He brought his eyes back from the sky suddenly. 'Miss Cayley,' he said,'this is cruel. I was in earnest. You are playing with me.'
'I believe the chief characteristic of the English girl is supposed tobe common sense,' I answered, calmly, 'and I trust I possess it.' Butindeed, as he spoke, my heart was beginning to make its beat felt; forhe was a charming young man; he had a soft voice and lustrous eyes; itwas a summer's day; and alone in the woods with one other person, wherethe sunlight falls mellow in spots like a leopard's skin, one is apt toremember that we are all human.
That evening Lady Georgina managed to blurt out more malicious thingsthan ever about the ways of adventuresses, and the duty of relations insaving young men from the clever clutches of designing creatures. Shewas ruthless in her rancour: her gibes stung me.
On Monday at breakfast I asked her casually if she had yet found aGretchen.
'No,' she answered, in a gloomy voice. 'All slatterns, my dear; allslatterns! Brought up in pig-sties. I wouldn't let one of them touch myhair for thousands.'
'That's unfortunate,' I said, drily, 'for you know I'm going to-morrow.'
If I had dropped a bomb in their midst they couldn't have looked moreastonished. 'To-morrow?' Lady Georgina gasped, clutching my arm. 'Youdon't mean it, child; you don't mean it?'
I asserted my Ego. 'Certainly,' I answered, with my coolest air. 'I saidI thought I could manage you for a week; and I have managed you.'
She almost burst into tears. 'But, my child, my child, what shall I dowithout you?'
'The unsophisticated Gretchen,' I answered, trying not to lookconcerned; for in my heart of hearts, in spite of her innuendoes, I hadreally grown rather to like the Cantankerous Old Lady.
She rose hastily from the table, and darted up to her own room. 'Lois,'she said, as she rose, in a curious voice of mingled regret andsuspicion, 'I will talk to you about this later.' I could see she wasnot quite satisfied in her own mind whether Harold Tillington and I hadnot arranged this _coup_ together.
I put on my hat and strolled off into the garden, and then along themossy hill path. In a minute more, Harold Tillington was beside me.
He seated me, half against my will, on a rustic bench. 'Look here, MissCayley,' he said, with a very earnest face; 'is this really true? Areyou going to-morrow?'
My voice trembled a little. 'Yes,' I answered, biting my lip. 'I amgoing. I see several reasons why I should go, Mr. Tillington.'
'But so soon?'
'Yes, I think so; the sooner the better.' My heart was racing now, andhis eyes pleaded mutely.
'Then where are you going?'
I shrugged my shoulders, and pouted my lips a little. 'I don't know,' Ireplied. 'The world is all before me where to choose. I am anadventuress,' I said it boldly, 'and I am in quest of adventures. Ireally have not yet given a thought to my next place of sojourn.'
'But you will let me know when you have decided?'
It was time to speak out. 'No, Mr. Tillington,' I said, with decision.'I will _not_ let you know. One of my reasons for going is, that I thinkI had better see no more of you.'
He flung himself on the bench at my side, and folded his hands in ahelpless attitude. 'But, Miss Cayley,' he cried, 'this is so short anotice; you give a fellow no chance; I hoped I might have seen more ofyou--might have had some opportunity of--of letting you realise howdeeply I admired and respected you--some opportunity of showing myselfas I really am to you--before--before----' he paused, and looked hard atme.
I did not know what to say. I really liked him so much; and when hespoke in that voice, I could not bear to seem cruel to him. Indeed, Iwas aware at the moment how much I had grown to care for him in thosesix short days. But I knew it was impossible. 'Don't say it, Mr.Tillington,' I murmured, turning my face away. 'The less said, thesooner mended.'
'But I must,' he cried. 'I must tell you now, if I am to have no chanceafterwards. I wanted you to see more of me before I ventured to ask youif you could ever love me, if you could ever suffer me to go throughlife w
ith you, to share my all with you.' He seized my trembling hand.'Lois,' he cried, in a pleading voice, 'I _must_ ask you; I can't expectyou to answer me now, but _do_ say you will give me at least some otherchance of seeing you, and then, in time, of pressing my suit upon you.'
Tears stood in my eyes. He was so earnest, so charming. But I rememberedLady Georgina, and his prospective half-million. I moved his hand awaygently. 'I cannot,' I said. 'I cannot-- I am a penniless girl--anadventuress. Your family, your uncle, would never forgive you if youmarried me. I will not stand in your way. I-- I like you very much,though I have seen so little of you. But I feel it is impossible--and Iam going to-morrow.'
I ROSE OF A SUDDEN, AND RAN DOWN THE HILL.]
Then I rose of a sudden, and ran down the hill with all my might, lest Ishould break my resolve, never stopping once till I reached my ownbedroom.
An hour later, Lady Georgina burst in upon me in high dudgeon. 'Why,Lois, my child,' she cried. 'What's this? What on earth does it mean?Harold tells me he has proposed to you--proposed to you--and you'verejected him!'
I dried my eyes and tried to look steadily at her. 'Yes, Lady Georgina,'I faltered. 'You need not be afraid. I have refused him; and I mean it.'
She looked at me, all aghast. '_And_ you mean it!' she repeated. 'Youmean to refuse him. Then, all I can say is, Lois Cayley, I call it purecheek of you!'
'What?' I cried, drawing back.
'Yes, cheek,' she answered, volubly. 'Forty thousand a year, and agood old family! Harold Tillington is my nephew; he's an earl'sgrandson; he's an _attache_ at Rome; and he's bound to be one of therichest commoners in England. Who are you, I'd like to know, miss, thatyou dare to reject him?'
I stared at her, amazed. 'But, Lady Georgina,' I cried, 'you said youwished to protect your nephew against bare-faced adventuresses who weresetting their caps at him.'
She fixed her eyes on me, half-angry, half-tremulous.
'Of course,' she answered, with withering scorn. 'But, _then_, I thoughtyou were trying to catch him. He tells me now you won't have him, andyou won't tell him where you are going. I call it sheer insolence. Wheredo you hail from, girl, that you should refuse my nephew? A man that anywoman in England would be proud to marry! Forty thousand a year, and anearl's grandson! That's what comes, I suppose, of going to Girton!'
I drew myself up. 'Lady Georgina,' I said, coldly, 'I cannot allow youto use such language to me. I promised to accompany you to Germany for aweek; and I have kept my word. I like your nephew; I respect yournephew; he has behaved like a gentleman. But I will _not_ marry him.Your own conduct showed me in the plainest way that you did not judgesuch a match desirable for him; and I have common sense enough to seethat you were quite right. I am a lady by birth and education; I am anofficer's daughter; but I am not what society calls "a good match" forMr. Tillington. He had better marry into a rich stockbroker's family.'
It was an unworthy taunt: the moment it escaped my lips I regretted it.
I WAS GOING TO OPPOSE YOU AND HAROLD.]
To my intense surprise, however, Lady Georgina flung herself on my bed,and burst into tears. 'My dear,' she sobbed out, covering her face withher hands, 'I thought you would be sure to set your cap at Harold; andafter I had seen you for twenty-four hours, I said to myself, "That'sjust the sort of girl Harold ought to fall in love with." I felt sure hewould fall in love with you. I brought you here on purpose. I saw youhad all the qualities that would strike Harold's fancy. So I had made upmy mind for a delightful regulation family quarrel. I was going tooppose you and Harold, tooth and nail; I was going to threaten thatMarmy would leave his money to Kynaston's eldest son; I was going tokick up, oh, a dickens of a row about it! Then, of course, in the end,we should all have been reconciled; we should have kissed and madefriends: for you're just the one girl in the world for Harold; indeed, Inever met anybody so capable and so intelligent. And now you spoil allmy sport by going and refusing him! It's really most ill-timed of you.And Harold has sent me here--he's trembling with anxiety--to see whetherI can't induce you to think better of your decision.'
I made up my mind at once. 'No, Lady Georgina,' I said, in my gentlestvoice--positively stooping down and kissing her. 'I like Mr. Tillingtonvery much. I dare not tell you how much I like him. He is a dear, good,kind fellow. But I cannot rest under the cruel imputation of being movedby his wealth and having tried to capture him. Even if _you_ didn'tthink so, his family would. I am sorry to go; for in a way I like you.But it is best to adhere to our original plan. If _I_ changed my mind,_you_ might change yours again. Let us say no more. I will goto-morrow.'
'But you will see Harold again?'
'Not alone. Only at dinner.' For I feared lest, if he spoke to me alone,he might over-persuade me.
'Then at least you will tell him where you are going?'
'No, Lady Georgina; I do not know myself. And besides, it is best thatthis should now be final.'
She flung herself upon me. 'But, my dear child, a lady can't go out intothe world with only two pounds in pocket. You _must_ let me lend yousomething.'
I unwound her clasping hands. 'No, dear Lady Georgina,' I said, though Iwas loth to say it. 'You are very sweet and good, but I must work out mylife in my own way. I have started to work it out, and I won't be turnedaside just here on the threshold.'
'And you won't stop with me?' she cried, opening her arms. 'You think metoo cantankerous?'
'I think you have a dear, kind old heart,' I said, 'under the quaintestand crustiest outside such a heart ever wore; you're a truculent olddarling: so that's the plain truth of it.'
She kissed me. I kissed her in return with fervour, though I am but apoor hand at kissing, for a woman. 'So now this episode is concluded,' Imurmured.
'I don't know about that,' she said, drying her eyes. 'I have set myheart upon you now; and Harold has set his heart upon you; andconsidering that your own heart goes much the same way, I daresay, mydear, we shall find in the end some convenient road out of it.'
Nevertheless, next morning I set out by myself in the coach fromSchlangenbad. I went forth into the world to live my own life, partlybecause it was just then so fashionable, but mainly because fate haddenied me the chance of living anybody else's.