Helena was having breakfast by the open window of her bedroom in her
cousin's house. It was not yet nine in the morning, and, though she had
been dancing till three o'clock, she had already had her bath, and was
feeling as fresh as if she had had eight instead of hardly more than
four hours in bed. Outside the square was still empty of passengers, and
the pale primrose-coloured sunshine of a London June shone on a wet
roadway and rain-refreshed trees, for a shower had fallen not long ago,
and through the open window there came in the delicious smell of damp
earth. But she gave little heed to that or to the breakfast she was
eating with so admirable an appetite, for her brain, cool and alert in
this early hour, was very busy over her own concerns. Soon she would
have to go down to Cousin Marion and see if she could be of any use to
her, for it was quite worth while doing jobs for Cousin Marion, as she
always paid kindnesses back with a royal generosity. And she must get
some flowers to give a welcoming air to Archie's room, who with Jessie
was expected back to-day. That also would not be a waste of the time she
might have spent more directly on herself. She would get some for
Jessie, too, for she had the character of unselfish thoughtfulness to
keep up. It would be unnecessary to pay for them, for she could get them
at the shop where Cousin Marion dealed.
Helena had enjoyed the most entrancing fortnight, during which time she
had occasionally thought of Silorno, and had oftener talked of it to
Cousin Marion, for she had that valuable social gift of appearing to
talk with keen attention of one thing while she was thinking about
something quite different. She could easily interject "Dear Archie, it
will be nice to have him back," or "Darling Jessie wrote me such a
delicious letter: she is enjoying herself!" and if Cousin Marion
expressed a wish to see the letter, it was equally easy to say that she
had torn it up. Meantime her brain would be busy with recollections of
the day before, as they bore on her plans for the day to come. They
might go off on to tangents for brief spaces, but her well-ordered and
singly-purposed mind was never long in recalling them to their main
topic.
Helena had made something of a sensation during these last weeks. She
was not beautiful, but she was quite enchantingly pretty, and her mind
had the qualities which might rightly be supposed to underlie that
delicious face and inform those slim, graceful limbs. Nothing seemed to
mar her good-nature and her superb gift of enjoying herself. It was
worth while being agreeable to everybody, and if her lot happened for an
hour or two a day to be cast with elderly bores, she was indefatigable
in her attention to them at the time, and in telling their friends
afterwards how immensely she had enjoyed talking to them. It paid to do
that sort of thing, provided that it was done with a gaiety that made it
appear genuine and spontaneous: if your appreciation came bubbling out
of you, no one suspected you of design, and she seemed the most
designless, delicious girl in London, for it is next to impossible to
see through an object that dazzles you. To crown all these gifts, she
had the intensest power of enjoying herself, and there is not another
key that unlocks so many doors. In this whirl and mill-race of
entertainment which characterized the last gay summer that London would
see for long, there was no time to make friends, but only to take the
scalps of enthusiastic acquaintances. That perhaps was lucky for her.
But Helena, as she finished her breakfast, recalled her mind from these
shining experiences, except in so far as they bore on the theme that
insistently occupied her. There was no doubt, especially after that
quiet talk in the paved garden outside the ball-room last night, that
Bertie Harlow was dazzled, according to plan. Heaven only knew when he
had last been to a ball, for he was close on forty (Helena had naturally
looked him up in a Peerage, since she liked to know about her friends),
and she felt pretty certain that he had danced with no one but her. You
could perhaps hardly call his share of the performance dancing; he had
"stepped a measure," and twice trodden on her toe; but, after all, it
did not matter whether your husband danced or not, since naturally, when
those relations had been arrived at, he would not dance with you. Many
women no doubt, when they were married, would think it an advantage that
their husbands did not dance, since then they would not dance with
anybody else. But it was not in Helena's nature prospectively to grudge
him such amusements, should he desire them, when once she had got him.
But she had to get him first, and to do that she had to keep him
dazzled. He must not get accustomed to her.
Helena had a very strong belief in the desirability of simplifying life.
This did not in the least imply that she thought there was anything
attractive in the simple life: her simplification amounted to this, that
she formulated exactly what she wanted, and then without deflection of
aim did the very best with her efficient armoury of weapons to get it;
while the second clause in the simplification of life was to find out
what irritated or bored you, and with all your power eliminate it from
your existence. If you could not get what you wanted without getting
something that bored you, it was merely necessary to ascertain how the
balance between these conflicting interests lay. As practically applied
to the case in hand, she was aware that Lord Harlow bored her, though
not badly, and that his nose irritated her. That she would almost
certainly get used to, while on the other side of the scale were
quantities of things she liked. She liked immense wealth, position, and
the liberty she would undoubtedly enjoy if she married this amiable man,
whom so many had tried to capture. That in itself was an incentive to
her pride, and, without being a snob, she saw no objection to being a
Marchioness.
But here the simplification ended, and a complication intruded itself.
It was not so long ago that she had sat under the stone-pine with
Archie, and seen his face glow in the darkness as he drew on his
cigarette. In point of attractiveness there was naturally no comparison
between her cousin and this amiable middle-aged man; but, owing to the
impossibility of even the most limited polyandry, it was clearly no use
to think of marrying them both, and all that was left was to choose
between them, supposing, as she most sincerely did, that it was, or soon
would be, for her to choose. Certainly she was not in love with Archie,
if she took as an example of that the ridiculous symptoms exhibited by
Daisy Hollinger, who by some strange freak was in love with Lord Harlow.
Helena had behaved very wisely over that, for she had instantly seen the
advantage of becoming great friends, in her sense of the word, with poor
Daisy, who poured out to her a farrago of amorous imbecility, and Helena
was sure that she was not in love with Archie like that. Anything so
insane seemed incomprehensible to her (and was).
But Archie was a dear--she had quite wished he would kiss her that
night, of course in a cousinly fashion, which she would have scorned to
be offended with, whereas she did not in the least look forward to the
moment when Lord Harlow would kiss her. Apart from that, the
simplification of life came in again, and against Archie there were
certain items which it would be imprudent to disregard. His father was a
drunkard, and Archie himself had been consumptive as a child.
Consumption ran in families, for Archie's brother had died of it; and so
perhaps did drunkenness, though she did Archie the justice of trying and
failing to remember that she had ever seen him drink wine at all. These
were serious objections in a husband.
There was another, perhaps not less serious. She knew from Cousin Marion
that Uncle Jack had lately lost a great deal of money; there was even
the question of shutting up or letting the London house next winter. Of
course, if she married Archie, they could not spend the winter down at
Lacebury, or live with poor Uncle Jack; but London, as wife of an
impoverished son, would be very different from London as the wife of a
very wealthy man who, so to speak, was nobody's son. Finally, there were
certain stories that Cousin Marion had told her about queer messages and
communications that had come to Archie, while he was still a child, from
his dead brother. That seemed to Helena's practical mind pure nonsense,
and yet she had been pleased to hear that, since he was but young in his
teens, these rather uncomfortable phenomena had ceased. She felt that
she did not believe in them; but, though they had no real existence, she
disliked the thought of them. And, though it was so long since there had
been any repetition of them, they might (though they were all nonsense)
crop up again. She had no belief in ghosts, but she would not willingly
have slept in a haunted room. The dead were dead, whereas she was very
much alive.
Well, it was time to dress and go down to Cousin Marion. This long,
frank meditation (for she was always frank with herself, which perhaps
was the reason that she had so little of that commodity to spare for
other people) had helped considerably to clear her mind and provoke
simplification. And, like a good housewife who will permit no waste of
what can possibly be used, she thought she would have a very useful
function for Archie to perform when he arrived that evening.
She found Lady Tintagel busy with her morning's post. There was a
quantity of invitations, most of which, owing to press of others, had to
be declined, and Helena having marked each of those with an "Accept" or
"Refuse," laid them aside to answer. There was one, where the Russian
dancers were to perform, which she very much regretted having to say
"no" to, since that evening was already filled, and wondered if by any
contrivance it would be possible to manage it. A glance at Lady
Tintagel's engagement book showed her that the prohibiting acceptance
was for a dinner and concert at Lady Awcock's, where all that was
stately and Victorian spent evenings of unparalleled dreariness. Helena
had already produced the most favourable impression on Lady Awcock by
listening to her practically endless dissertations on political society
forty years ago, and she thought she could manage it.
"And shall I enter all the invitation you accept in your
engagement-book, Cousin Marion?" she asked.
"Yes, my dear, will you? That's really all I have for you this morning.
What will you do with yourself?"
Helena gathered up cards and engagement-book.
"I think I shall stop at home," she said. "You often do want something
more, you know, and I hate not being here to do it for you."
"Nothing of the sort. There's the motor for you if you want to go and
see anybody."
Helena considered.
"Oh, I should like to do one thing," she said. "It won't take long. May
I get some flowers for Archie's room and Jessie's? Flowers do look so
cool and refreshing when you've been a day and a night in the train."
"Of course you may. It was nice of you to think of that. But then you do
think of rather nice things for other people."
"Oh, shut up, Cousin Marion," laughed the girl.
* * * * *
Helena retired to the table in the window with her materials and
proceeded to execute a very neat and simple piece of work. The entries
in Lady Tintagel's engagement-book were only made in pencil, and she
erased the inconvenient Lady Awcock's name from the evening some
fortnight ahead and wrote in its place that of the giver of the Russian
party, to whom instead of a refusal she sent a line, in her cousin's
name, of grateful acceptance. Then she wrote a charming little letter of
penitence to Lady Awcock, abasing herself and at the same time pitying
herself. She had done the stupidest thing; for she had accepted Lady
Awcock's invitation on an evening when they were already engaged. The
letter proceeded: "I can't tell you how disappointed I am, dear Lady
Awcock, for I was so looking forward to another talk with you, and to
hear more of those interesting things you told me; but perhaps, if I
have not disgusted you beyond forgiveness, you would ask me again some
day. And would you be wonderfully kind and not tell Lady Tintagel what a
stupid thing I have done, for she lets me keep her engagement-book for
her, and if she knew, I am afraid she would never trust me again."
This last touch thoroughly pleased Helena; it was confiding and
childlike. For the rest she relied on Cousin Marion not happening to
remember that they had once accepted an invitation to Lady Awcock's,
and, even if she did have some impression of it, her engagement-book,
with no such entry appearing in it, would show her that her memory had
played her false. But probably Cousin Marion would remember nothing
whatever about it; indeed, in the multiplicity of engagement, it seemed
to Helena that the risk she ran was negligible.
Helena found time to go to Victoria to meet the travellers that
afternoon, and to reflect, as she waited for the boat-train to come in,
that she in her cool pink blouse and her skirt of Poiret stuff would
certainly present a very refreshing contrast to poor Jessie in
dishevelled and dusty travelling-clothes. She did not in the least want
Jessie to look bedraggled except in so far as she herself would gain by
the contrast, for she was good-natured enough not to want any one to be
at a disadvantage as long as that did not add to her own advantage.
Jessie was a dreadfully bad sailor, too; but it was quite enough that
she should have travelled for a night and a day, without hoping that she
had had a bad crossing. Helena merely wanted to appear fresh and
brilliant herself. At length the train came in, and, though she quite
distinctly saw Archie step out, she continued searching for him with her
eyes in the crowd, until he made his way up to her.
"Ah, my dear," she said, "how lovely to see you! And don't be cross with
me for coming to meet you if it bores you to be met at the station. But
I did want to welcome you. And where's Jessie? There she is! Jessie
darling, what fun!"
Archie did not look as if he was at all bored to be met at the station.
"That's perfectly ripping of you," he said. "I am glad you came. We've
been baked and boiled all the way from Silorno. And the crossing! I
thought it was always calm in the summer."
"Archie, don't allude to it," said Jessie.
Helena took her sister's arm.
"Darling Jessie, I am so sorry," she said. "Archie's a wretch for
mentioning it. Now you go straight to the motor and sit there quietly.
Archie and I will see to your luggage."
If Archie, as is probable, drew the contrast he was intended to draw
between the sisters, Helena on her side drew another between him and
Lord Harlow. There he stood, looking eagerly at her as they waited the
emergence of their trunks, face and neck and hands so tanned by the sun
that every one else looked ill and anaemic by him. He was tall and lithe
and slender, with the quick movements of some wild animal, and in his
brown face his blue eyes shone like transparent turquoises. He seemed an
incarnation of sun and sea and wholesome virility, and, as the thought
of the rather heavy Kalmuck face of Lord Harlow, and staid aspect
suitable to his forty years, she almost wondered whether, in her
estimate made this morning, she had allowed enough for personal charm.
But there had been other factors as well, and who knew whether below
this engaging exterior there were not planted the seeds of tragic
outcome? But it was certainly pleasant to reflect that his exuberance of
young manhood would, she made no doubt, be all hers if she made up her
mind to want it. In any case, was there another girl in London who had
so attractive a second string to her bow?
Archie had, on the appearance of one of their pieces of luggage,
insinuated himself into the crowd and Helena was left outside, when a
sight odd to see at a station attracted her attention. Beyond, the
platform lay empty, and out of some porter's shed there, there bounded a
big tabby cat with a mouse in its mouth. Its tail switched, its eyes
gleamed with the joy of the successful hunter; but it did not prepare to
eat the mouse immediately. It trotted a little farther off, lay down,
and, depositing its prey, dabbed at it softly with velvet paws and
sheathed claws. It even let it run a few inches away from it, and then
gently shepherded it back again. Once it let it seem to escape
altogether, gave it a start of at least a couple of yards, while it
watched it with quivering shoulders, and then playfully bounded in the
air, and reminded it that it was not its own master. Then there came a
dismal little squeak as from a slate-pencil; the poor mouse's troubles
were over, and a pleased cat blinked in the sun and licked its lips.
Helena followed this gruesome little drama with an interest that
surprised and even rather shocked her. She was altogether on the side of
the cat; the cat, according to its lights, was not being cruel, it was
merely doing the natural thing with a mouse. It happened to like teasing
its prey, letting it think that it had escaped, sheathing the claws that
had caught it, and playing with it. There was nothing horrible about it:
the cat was doing as nature intended it to do. She was rather sorry for
the mouse, but that is what came of being a mouse... And there was
Archie, triumphant, with a porter and his rescued luggage. Archie had a
way with officials: he smiled at them in a confident, friendly way, and
they always did what he wanted and never searched his traps.
* * * * *
There was a dance somewhere that night, but Helena, letting the fact be
reluctantly dragged out of her that there was such a thing, only said
how nice it would be to go to bed early.
"Are you tired, dear?" asked Lady Tintagel.
Helena made a little deprecating face, the face of the prettiest little
martyr in the cause of truth ever beheld.
"No, I can't exactly say I am," she said. "I think--I think I was
speaking on behalf of Archie and Jessie."
"But I'm not tired either," said he. "Let's go to somebody's dance. I
can't dance an atom, but Helena shall teach me. There's nothing like
practice in public. What dance is it, by the way?"
"Oh, that's all right," said she. "It's your Uncle and Aunt Toby. But,
Archie, I'm sure you're tired."
"But I'm not, I tell you. It's whether you want to go."
Lady Tintagel struck in.
"If you all go on being so unselfish," she said, "you will never settle
anything. Try to be selfish for one moment Helena; it won't hurt. Do you
want to go?"
"Enormously," said she, with a sign of resignation.
"And you, Archie?"
"Dying for it. Let's call a taxi."
"And you, Jessie?"
"I should hate it," said Jessie very confidently.
The matter, of course, was settled on those lines, and Helena was duly
credited with having wanted to go enormously, but with having done her
utmost to efface herself for the sake of others. This was precisely the
end she had in view all along, and now, having had the dance, so to
speak, forced on her, she was quite free to enjoy herself. She had
produced precisely the impression she wanted on Archie and his mother,
and, though it was likely that Jessie, with her long familiarity with
such manoeuvres, was not equally unenlightened, she knew, by
corresponding familiarity, Jessie's loyalty. She gave a little butterfly
kiss to Cousin Marion, and a murmur of delighted thanks, and went to her
sister to finish up this very complete little picture.
"Darling Jessie," she said, "go to bed soon and sleep well. I shall
tiptoe in, in the morning, and, if you're still asleep, I shall tell
them not to wake you till you ring. May I do that, Cousin Marion?"
Jessie understood all this perfectly well, and her mouth had that curve
in it that might or might not be a smile.
"Good-night," she said. "Have a nice dance, and teach Archie well."
To speak of luck is often nothing more than another mode of expressing
the success that usually attends foresight; chance favours the wise
calculation. Helena last night had dropped the most casual hint to Lord
Harlow that she was probably going to this dance to-night, but she was
satisfied that he had been attending, and was not unprepared to see him
there. Even if she had not been able to come, she suspected that he
would do so, and her absence would have been delightfully explained to
him afterwards. But there he was, not dancing, but standing about near
the door of the ball-room, and quite obviously interested in arrivals.
Undoubtedly he saw the brilliant entry of herself and Archie, but she
contrived to put a few of the crowd between herself and him as she
passed near him, and for the present gave him no more than a glance and
a smile, a downdropt eye, and then one glance again, and passed with
Archie into the ball-room. There an ordinary old-fashioned waltz was in
progress, and not one of those anaemic strollings about which were
becoming popular, and she slid off with her radiant partner on to a
floor not overfull. She had a moment's misgiving when she remembered
that Archie had said he couldn't dance, for it would vex her to appear
in the clutch of a bungler; but, after all, Archie could hardly be
awkward if he tried. Immediately all her fears vanished, for they had
hardly gone up the short side of the room before she knew that if any
one was the bungler it was she. She might have guessed, from seeing him
walk and move, that he could dance; what she could not have guessed was
that anybody could dance like this. They floated, they glided; it was
the floor surely that moved under them; it was the wind of that
swinging, voluptuous tune that wafted them on as in some clear eddy of
sunlit water.
"But, my dear, you said you couldn't dance," she exclaimed.
"Oh, this sort of thing," said he. "I meant the steppings and crawlings
of the new style."
Helena was too content to talk; her whole being glowed with the
satisfaction of this flowing movement. The floor got ever emptier: lines
of expectant fox-trotters and bunny-huggers stood round the wall, but
none of them objected to watching for a little longer the entrancing
couple who now had the floor almost to themselves. Couple after couple
dropped off and stood looking, and to Helena's gleaming eyes they passed
in streaks of black and white and many-coloured hues as she and Archie
moved ever more freely and largely over the untenanted space. She could
just see the faces of friends as she passed, and knew that Lord Harlow
had come in and was standing by the door. There was no question of luck
in that; he was but doing what she knew he was obliged to do. Then the
web of sound that poured out of the gallery grew more brightly coloured
as it quickened to its close, and still Archie and she moved without
effort as if they were part of it and of each other. And then the whole
fabric of that divine dream of melody and motion was shattered, for the
dance was over.
Archie had not spoken either since he intimated that he had alluded to
steppings and crawlings, and now he paused for a moment in the middle of
the room, breathing just a little quickly and bewildered as with some
dazzling light. Ever since he had put his arm round the girl and taken
her hand in his, he had had that sense of sinking into sunlit waters,
where he arrived at his true and naked self. Now he had swum up again,
and he was clothed in black coat and white shirt, and Helena was
standing a step apart from him, and every one else at the edge of the
room was very far away. Instantly a mingling of wild consternation and
triumph seized him.
"Oh, Helena, were we doing that all by ourselves?" he said. "How
frightful! Let's get out of it. But wasn't it divine? May we do it again
soon? Or will they have nothing but crawlings?"
It appeared that crawlings were to be the next item, and Archie noticed
that in the crowd that now came about them again a particular man had
his eye on them, and was unmistakably burrowing towards them.
"Yes, Archie; of course we will," said the girl. "Go and see your aunt,
and ask if we may have another waltz ever so soon. Oh, here's Lord
Harlow; I want to introduce you."
This was done, and Lord Harlow turned to Helena again.
"I feel as if I had been present at some Bacchic festival," he said in a
very precise voice. "But you should have vine-leaves in your hair, and
er--your partner a tunic and a thyrsus. I feel myself as prosaic as a
Bradshaw. But may I be your Bradshaw?"
Helena looked from one to the other; if she had had a tail she would
certainly have been switching it.
"Ah, do," she said. "A Bradshaw is quite indispensable. Archie, go and
get a thyrsus--will a poker do, Lord Harlow?--and persuade Mrs. Morris
to have another waltz before long."
Now that the sheer animal exhilaration of that adorable waltz, which
quite precluded talking, was over, it seemed perfectly suitable, as she
plodded along the weary way of the fox-trot, to talk again, and in
answer to Lord Harlow, who had not caught Archie's name, she said:
"Yes, Lord Davidstow. Surely I told you about him" (she knew that she
had purposely not done so). "He is Lady Tintagel's son, with whom I am
staying."
Lord Harlow quietly assimilated this as he turned slowly round.
"And does he do other things as well as he dances?" he asked.
"I think he does," said she, "though I never really thought about it.
When people are such dears as Archie, one doesn't consider what they do.
They just are."
"He certainly is. He appears very much alive."
"Yes, he's madly alive."
She gave him a swift glance, and, guessing she had gone far enough on
that tack, she put about.
"I think it's possible to be too much alive," she said. "It's like a
hot-water bottle that is too hot: it burns you. But you can't help being
carried off your feet by it--I don't mean the hot-water bottle."
He paused a moment for the purpose of phrasing.
"I must weight you with a Bradshaw," he said. "That will keep you to
earth. We can't spare you."
Helena laughed.
"You say things _too_ neatly," she said. "What a delicious notion! What
have you done all day?"
"I have waited for this evening."
"And I hope it doesn't disappoint you now that it has come," she said.
"It is up to my highest expectations just now," said he.
Suddenly it flashed into Helena's mind that this was the temperature of
his wooing. He was engaged in that now: those neat and proper sentences,
turned as on a lathe, were the expression of it, they and the mild
pleased glances that he gave her; and yet, discreet and veiled as it all
was, she divined that, according to his nature and his years, it was
love that inspired it. She found it quite easy to adjust herself to that
level, and if his kiss (when the time came for that) was of the same
respectful and finished quality, she could deal with that too. But she
wondered how Archie would make love... It was necessary to fox-trot a
little longer, and, while trotting, trot also conversationally, and with
intention she let herself press a little more against his arm.
"Oh, I am glad of that," she said lightly. "It is such a dreadful pity
when people are disappointed. But I think I would sooner anticipate
something nice and fail to get it, than not anticipate at all. Can you
imagine not looking forward to the delicious things you want?"
"Do you want very much?" he asked.
"Yes, everything. And I want it not only for myself but for everybody."
She made the mental note that he was very shy, for he had nothing in
response to this, except that his shirt creaked. But that suited her
very well; she did not want him to follow this up, just yet.
Meantime the sedate marchings and retreats and occasional revolution of
the fox-trot went decorously on. The room was very full, and, when there
was nowhere to march to, they stopped where they were and marked time
and rocked a little to and fro. Then perhaps a narrow lane opened in
front of them, and they waddled down it, brushing shoulders against the
hedges. She had seen Archie go to Mrs. Morris, after which he had
appeared for a moment in the gallery where the band was, and now he was
back again, standing near the door and watching her. She gave him little
glances from time to time, elevated her eyebrows as if in deprecation of
this unexhilarating performance, or smiled at him, guessing that he had
arranged for another waltz.
At last the end came, the fox-trotters ceased to clutch each other, and
walked away with about as much Terpsichorean fervour as they had been
dancing with. Dull though the last twenty minutes had been from that
standpoint, Helena felt quite satisfied with it, while motion--or
perhaps emotion--had made her partner hot; he gently wiped his forehead
with a very fine cambric handkerchief.
"Perfectly delicious," he said. "I should have liked that to go on for
ever. And how long shall I have to wait before it begins again?"
Archie had sidled through the crowd up to them.
"Helena, we're going to have another waltz at once," he cried. "Don't
let us waste any of it."
She laid her hand on his arm.
"We?" she said. "Are you quite certain?"
"May I say 'we' also?" asked Lord Harlow.
She turned towards him, but her hand still rested on Archie, and he felt
the slight pressure from her fingertips.
"Oh, I was only teasing my cousin," she said. "I had promised him
another waltz. But, later, may I borrow my Bradshaw again?"
The band struck up, setting her a-tingle for the repetition of what had
gone before.
"Oh, Archie, come on," she cried. "_Au revoir_, Bradshaw."
Alert for movement, with the heady tune of the waltz already mounting
into them like wine, they stepped off on to the floor. It was like
stepping on to some moving platform; it and the tune, without any
conscious effort of their own, seemed to carry them away. But Archie had
one question to ask before he abandoned himself.
"Bradshaw?" he said. "I thought you told me his name was Harlow."
She gave a little bubble of laughter.
"Oh, that was only a joke," she said. "He told me that you and I were
like a Bacchic festival, and he felt as prosy as a Bradshaw in
consequence."
"But what does it matter to him what we are like?" asked he.
"Well, it was a compliment; he meant it nicely," said she. "Don't let us
talk; it rather spoils it."
* * * * *
Helena reviewed those manoeuvres when she got home that night, and she
congratulated herself on the neatness and efficiency of her
dispositions. She felt sure that she had stirred up a livelier ferment
in Lord Harlow, and had also managed to inspire him with a vague
distrust and jealousy of her intimacy with Archie. She suspected that he
was a little sluggish in his emotions, and this would serve admirably as
a stimulant. She quite realized that she had not yet brought him up to
the point of proposing to her, for his inured bachelor habits would want
a good deal of breaking; but it was clear to her that she had made a
crack in them, and that the judicious use of Archie might be profitably
used to widen that crack. Under the influence merely of her charms, he
might hold together for a long time yet, and she wanted him, if she
could have it entirely her own way, to propose to her about the end of
the season. The effect of Archie constantly with her would be
cumulative: it was not a wedge that would cause him to fly into
splinters forthwith; it would just widen the crack, prevent it closing
again, and then widen it a little more.
And meanwhile it was extremely pleasant always to have this wedge in her
hand, to hammer from time to time, as it suited her main plan, and at
others to stroke and play with. She was not in love with Archie, but it
made her purr to see that he was certainly falling in love with her, to
dab him with sheathed claws, to wish that he had those material
advantages which had made her choose the elder man. It clearly served
her purpose to use him, and the using of him gave her pleasure. But the
pleasure was secondary--it was the assistance he gave her in breaking up
Lord Harlow that was of primary importance.
* * * * *
Archie brought all his gaiety and charm to bear on his love-making.
Falling in love did not appear to him, at this stage, anything but the
most exhilarating, almost hilarious experience. The flirtation that
Helena seemed to be having with Lord Harlow amused him enormously; not
for a moment did he believe that Helena meant anything. Lord Harlow was
not the only man on whom Helena exercised the perfectly legitimate
attraction of her extreme prettiness and her enthusiastic child-like
enjoyment.
"Oh, every one is so kind and so awfully nice," she said to him one day
as they returned from an early morning ride. "I love them all by the
handful."
"Including the Bradshaw?" asked he.
"Yes, certainly including the Bradshaw. Don't you like him? He likes you
so much."
Archie considered this.
"I don't know if I like him or not," he said. "I don't think I ever
thought about it. He doesn't matter. But you matter awfully to him. Did
you know that you are the most outrageous flirt, Helena?"
"Archie, how horrid of you!" said she. "Just because I like people, and
to a certain extent they like me. Why should I be cross and unpleasant
to people, as if it was wicked to like them?"
"Well, if you'll give me long odds I will bet you that the Bradshaw asks
you to--to be his 'ABC' before the end of the season," said Archie.
"My dear, what nonsense!" said she, with a sudden thrill of pleasure.
"What can have put that into your head?"
"I can see it. That's the way a man like the Bradshaw looks at a girl
when his--his affections are engaged. He looks as if a very dear aunt
was dead. He has _amour triste_."
That certainly hit off a type of gaze to which Helena felt that she had
been subjected, and she laughed.
"Well, I'll give you five to one in half-crowns," she said.
"Don't. Some day I shall have twelve and sixpence."
They turned and cantered back along the soft track. The dew of night had
not yet vanished from the grass, and the geometric looking plane-leaves,
the rhododendrons, and the flower-beds were still varnished with
moisture, and, early though it was, riders and foot-passengers were
plentiful. Probably the day would be hot, for the heat haze,
purplish-brown in the distance, was beginning to form in the air, softly
veiling the further view. Presently they dropped again into a
walking-pace, and Helena, whose mind had been busy on Archie's
description of a certain sort of love-lorn look, spoke of a subject
suggested by it.
"How do you think Jessie is?" she asked.
"That's exactly what my mother asked me last night," said he. "She's
rather silent and preoccupied, isn't she?"
"That struck me," said the girl. "I thought perhaps she wasn't very
well, but she told me there was nothing the matter. Darling Jessie is so
reserved. She never tells me anything. Certainly she looks well: do you
think she has anything on her mind?"
"I don't see what she could have. But it's odd that it has struck all of
us."
Helena sighed and shook her head with a pretty, unreproachful air.
"I sometimes wish that Jessie would make more of a friend of me," she
said. "I try so hard to get close to her, but all the time I feel she is
keeping me at arm's length. It would be lovely to have a sister who
would admit me to her own, own self. But I always have to tap, so to
speak, at Jessie's door, and she so often says she won't open it."
"Was she always like that?" asked Archie, seeing that Helena's eyes were
dim and bright.
"Yes, but lately I think it has been worse. I wish Jessie would let me
in. However, I am always waiting, and I think Jessie knows that. It is
no use pressing for confidence, is it? One can only wait."
This picture, so simply and pathetically conveyed by Helena of herself
waiting, a little dim-eyed, for Jessie to admit her, was very
convincing, and Archie wondered at the contrast between the two sisters,
the one so childlike in her confidence that all the world was her
friend, the other holding herself rather detached, rather aloof, without
that welcoming charm of manner that surely was the expression of an
adorable mind. It was not wholly the light of his dawning love that
invested the sketch with such tender colouring, for there was a great
finish and consistency in Helena's presentation of herself which might
have deceived the most neutral and heart-whole of observers.
Such was the first impression: then suddenly some instinct that lay
below the surface surged up in rebellion against it, and washed the
tender colouring out. It told him that the impression was a false one,
that Jessie, so far from being callous and self-centred, as was the
suggestion conveyed by Helena's words, was of faithful and golden heart.
And then, looking idly over the crowd that was growing thick on the
broad gravel walk, he suddenly caught sight of Jessie herself looking at
them. She was some little distance behind the rails that separated the
ride from the path, and she instantly looked away, spoke to a girl who
was with her, and strolled on. But Archie felt quite sure that she had
seen them.
He turned to Helena.
"Surely that is Jessie," he said to her, pointing with his whip.
Helena had seen her also, and she smiled rather sadly, rather wistfully.
"Yes," she said. "But she doesn't want us, Archie."
And at that the instinct which had spoken to him so emphatically a
moment before sank out of hearing again, and the colour returned to
Helena's deft little sketch.