Mrs. Admaston pulled aside the long curtains of green silk. She turned
the oblong handle which released two of the windows, pulled it towards
her, and drank in the fresh night air.
How fragrant and stimulating it was. How pure, and how different from
the horrid, scented air of the sitting-room!
"'From the cool cisterns of the midnight air my spirit drinks repose,'"
Peggy quoted to herself; and she did, indeed, seem to be bathed by a
sweet and delicate refreshment, a cleansing, reviving air, which washed
all hot and feverish thoughts away and made her one with the stainless
spirit of the night.
The black masses--the black, blotted masses--of the trees in the
Tuileries gardens cut into the sky-line. But even now, late as it was,
innumerable lights twinkled over Paris, and a big honey-coloured moon,
which shamed the firefly lights below, and seemed almost like a harvest
moon, had risen and was staring down upon the City of Pleasure.
In front of the window was a balcony, and, lightly clad as she was, the
girl went out upon it and with an impulsive gesture stretched out her
arms to where the Lamp of the night, depended from a little drift of
fleecy-white and amber-coloured clouds, swung over Paris.
"O moon," she said, "dear, round, red moon, I am going to be good! I
really, really am. I am going to turn over a new leaf; I am going...."
There was a sharp whirr, hard, metallic, and insistent, from the room
behind.
The telephone bell was ringing.
Peggy started--the world called her back. In her mind, as it were, she
put down her good resolutions on the balcony and hurried in to see who
had rung her up.
She fluttered up to the telephone, caught the receiver to her ear, and
spoke breathlessly:
"Well, who is it? What? Yes. Who is it? Oh! Where are you? Chalons! You
have arrived, then? What?"
A voice, not over the telephone wire, but behind her and in the room,
came to Peggy's disengaged ear.
She started violently and turned round as if upon a pivot.
She saw standing before her a slim, tall, clean-shaved man, anywhere
between thirty and forty. He was in evening clothes--that is to say, he
wore a dinner jacket and black tie. His hair was dark and curly and
grew low upon his forehead; his eyebrows were beautifully pencilled; and
below them two shrewd, mocking, and yet somehow simple and merry eyes of
a brilliant grey looked out upon Mrs. Admaston. The nose was aquiline;
the lips, a trifle full, were nevertheless beautifully shaped. They were
parted now in a smile.
"Who is it? Let me speak, Peggy?" Collingwood said.
Peggy looked at him. "Oh, how you startled me!" she cried, with a little
shriek of alarm and embarrassment. Then without a further word she
fluttered towards the door of her bedroom, dropping the receiver of the
telephone, which hung by its twisted cord and swung this way and that.
Roderick Collingwood took a couple of quick, decisive steps to the wall.
He caught up the receiver.
"Hello! That you, Ellerdine? Yes, just finished supper. What? What? 2.34
to-night--I mean this morning? What time do you reach Paris? What?--five
o'clock?"
He turned round to Peggy, who was standing by her bedroom door. "They
are coming on here," he said.
"Now?" the girl asked.
"Yes! they get here at five." He caught up the receiver again and
pressed it to his ear, leaning forward to the mouthpiece.
"I say, Ellerdine--I say, why not wait for us at Chalons? What? You have
decided not to go on? Very well. We will wait for you."
He placed the receiver of the telephone back upon its rest, and turned
the handle to ring off. Then he looked at Peggy, walking slowly towards
her as he spoke.
"Ellerdine is vexed," he said.
Peggy's face was the most alluring pink, her eyes looked angry.
"Please leave the room," she said.
Collingwood stopped. "I am sorry," he said. "I heard the telephone ring,
and before I knew where I was...."
Peggy cut him short, pointing to the door on the left-hand side of the
room, the door not far from that which led into the corridor. "Is that
your room?" taking a couple of steps towards him.
"Yes," the dark man answered; "the hotel was full--it was the only room
left. Don't be vexed, Peggy."
The girl's face had a sort of hard impatience in it, though mingled with
something else also--something very difficult to define. "Wait," she
said. "That door was locked when I tried it before you came in to
supper. Did you unlock it?"
Mr. Collingwood laughed a pleasant, musical laugh, which seemed to
resolve the somewhat tragic note of Mrs. Admaston's voice into
nothing--to make it seem rather unnecessary and absurd. It was a
thoroughly boyish laugh.
"Why, Peggy," he said, "what a very serious mood you are in! Unlock it?
Of course I unlocked it, when I heard you at the telephone. I thought
you would not mind. Besides, I wanted to know what Ellerdine was up to.
Come, come, Peggy; this is not the first time we have been together so
late."
Peggy looked at him with wide eyes. "Oh, but it is different," she said;
"we are in a strange hotel--by accident. Colling, it was by accident,
wasn't it?"
He started, bent forward a little, and answered her with great
eagerness.
"Of course, of course; surely you did not think----"
"Oh, I don't know what I thought; but I feel so funny, so nervous."
Collingwood laughed again--really, it was the most reassuring and
musical laugh. "Peggy nervous?"
"Well, it is rather alarming," Peggy replied.
Collingwood laughed once more, and stepped up towards her. "But rather
nice--isn't it rather nice?--what, Peggy?"
There was something so irresistibly amusing in his voice and smile that
Mrs. Admaston began to bubble over with laughter.
"Isn't it rather nice?" he went on, crossing over to the little
switch-board and putting out the big central light which depended from
the roof. "Isn't it rather nice?"
Peggy had entrenched herself behind the little table on which supper had
been laid. She was obviously tremendously amused, but she made a great
effort to be serious. "Colling!" she said, "it is mad. Supposing anybody
knew!"
Collingwood was quite calm. He treated the whole thing as if it were the
most ordinary occasion. He strolled lazily over to the fireplace, took a
cigarette-case from his pocket, a cigarette from it, and struck a light.
"How can anyone know?" he asked.
Peggy seemed alarmed once more.
"No! Colling, please don't light a cigarette. It is too late. I must go
to bed."
Collingwood's only answer was to blow out a cloud of smoke, to cross
over to the sofa and throw himself upon it.
"Not yet," he said. "Don't be unkind, Peggy. Just one cigarette. Just
one, in front of the fire--which, by the way, is out,--and then
bye-byes."
"Well, one cigarette, but only one," Peggy said.
Collingwood sat up. "Good little Peggy," he said in a low, quiet voice;
and then, raising his head, he looked at her intently with his brilliant
grey eyes.
Peggy looked him straight in the face also, and then the spirit of
mischief, the excitement of this odd meeting, got the better of her
prudence. She came to the back of the sofa and leant over it. "Isn't
Peggy going to have one?" she said.
The man took his cigarette-case from his waistcoat pocket, opened it,
and gave her a cigarette. Her face was tantalisingly close to his, and
she noticed, well enough, that his hand was trembling as he did so. She
kept her face close to his just half a moment longer than the situation
required.
Collingwood's voice began to shake also. "Now, Peggy, you little devil,"
he said.
"Why is Peggy a little devil?"
With a slim brown hand, which, despite all the man's _sang-froid_, still
shook like a leaf in the wind, he lit the cigarette for the girl,
looking up into her face as he did so.
"Either I mistake your shape and making quite,
Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
Called Robin Goodfellow."
There came a little bubble of laughter from Peggy, which seemed to
remove all diffidence from Collingwood. "How are you, my friend Puck?"
he said.
Peggy perched herself upon the head of the sofa. "Oh, Puck was an imp of
mischief," she said.
"Well?" he asked.
The girl puffed her cigarette contentedly for a few seconds; then she
bent towards him, swinging her little brown-shoed foot. "Tell me,
Colling," she asked: "why weren't my boxes registered?"
"Well--of all the suspicious little demons I ever came across!
Registered?"
"Yes, registered."
"Well, I suppose that fool of a porter at Charing Cross forgot to do
it," Collingwood replied.
"It was a bit of luck, wasn't it?" Peggy said.
Collingwood seemed to be thinking of something else. He was gazing at
the end of his cigarette and not looking at her at all. "Yes," he said
in an absent-minded voice.
"I wonder----" Peggy went on; and then suddenly she stopped, and
Collingwood looked up with a start.
"I wonder," Peggy continued, "what the Attwill will think?"
"Think?" he answered. "She can jolly well think what she likes."
"I don't much mind what she thinks," Peggy said; "but I'll bet she's put
some rotten idea into Ellerdine's head. Colling, I don't like
her--really I don't."
Although Peggy did not notice it, the man's voice became slightly
strained. The lips assumed an appearance of somewhat exaggerated
indifference, but there was a glint of watchfulness in the eyes.
"You don't like Lady Attwill?" he said.
"That's it," Peggy replied. "Where does she get her money from?"
Collingwood started slightly. The girl did not notice it. "I don't
know," he said a little uneasily.
"Is that true, Colling?" Peggy asked, with mischief in her eyes.
"By the way, has she any?" Collingwood asked.
"Well, if she hasn't, how does she do it?"
"By her wits, my dear."
"Ellerdine doesn't go in for wits," Peggy remarked.
"Poor, dear Dicky! he is the diplomatic failure of the century."
"I suppose he is, but it is an ill wind that blows nobody good. The
Empire's loss is Attwill's gain."
Collingwood laughed. "Well," he said, "she's the only post he has been
able to keep."
"I don't know that he can afford to keep anything. Can he be in love
with her, do you think?"
Collingwood puffed slowly at his cigarette.
"My dear Peggy," he said, looking her up and down with a curious
meditative gaze--"my dear Peggy, if a man loves a woman he doesn't
leave a comfortable hotel to travel all night in a slow train with her.
Ellerdine is as likely to spend his money on a home for lost cats as on
the Attwill."
"She's a very attractive cat," Peggy said.
"He doesn't care two straws about her," Collingwood replied quite
definitely.
"Then why did he come?"
"To please you--for no other reason."
"Anyway, I don't like her," Peggy said. "Do you? I believe you do,
Colling."
Collingwood jumped up from the sofa. "Now, stop that, Peggy," he said.
The glint of mischief in Peggy's eyes glowed more strongly. "She's a
very attractive woman," she said.
"Well, she's not the sort of woman who attracts me," Collingwood
replied, sitting down again upon the couch and tapping impatiently with
his foot upon the carpet. He seemed disturbed, uneasy, under the
influence of some suppressed emotion.
Peggy stroked her nose with one little finger, and then she leant down
towards Collingwood. "What sort of woman attracts you?" she said in a
low voice.
Again the man jumped up, and a keen observer would have noticed that
tiny beads of perspiration had come out upon his forehead like seed
pearls.
"Peggy," he cried, "you are a tantalising little fiend!"
Peggy shook with laughter. She was absolutely happy. "I suppose I ought
not to have said that," she bubbled.
"Why not?" he asked, and into his voice came something of deep yearning,
and the note of passion restrained till now, broke through all reserves
and all defences at last.
"Why not?" he said. Again his voice grew in emotional force and power.
"Why not, Peggy? I love you when you are in this mood. I love you in all
your moods, dear."
Peggy slid down from the end of the sofa and moved a little way towards
the door of her bedroom. "What about that cigarette?" she asked, and
there was a distinct note of nervousness in her voice.
She had provoked the beginnings of passion, and, having done so,
womanlike, she was startled and afraid.
"Cigarette," he said. "Oh, I haven't finished it yet. But listen! Peggy
darling, you must listen!"
She was really startled now. "Not to-night, Colling; you promised," she
said. "Now, Colling, go--please go!"
"I can't go, Peggy; I love you so!" he answered.
"Please, Colling, don't talk like that!"
Now his voice became almost dogged, though it lost nothing of its power.
"I can't help it," he said; "I love you!"
The girl clutched nervously at her tea-gown and shrank back nearer yet
to the door.
"Don't talk of love," she said in a low voice.
He took three quick steps up to her, and again she shrank away, not this
time into the sure defence of her bedroom, but towards the window.
"Don't talk of love?" he said, and his voice reverberated and rang with
feeling. "Why not? It is in the air--the very night is charged with
love. You cannot look out on a night like this and not think of love."
"Don't, Colling; you frighten me," she said.
"Oh, but why should my love frighten you, my Peggy? My darling, it is
brightness, tenderness, and love that you want. I know how monotonous
and dull your life must be. Good God! don't I know it? Am I not always
thinking of it? Poor little Butterfly! What a flutter you make to be
free, to warm your dainty wings in sunny places! Peggy, sweetheart, I
want to show you the sunny places."
"Please go, Colling!" she said, and her flute-like voice was tremulous
with fear. "Please go, Colling! It isn't fair. I am afraid. You see, I
am so fond of you, and I am such a _little_ Butterfly!"
He held out his hands towards her, palms upwards, with a curious
foreign gesture which showed how greatly he was moved. "I can't
go, Peggy," he said. "I want you so badly--want you for my
own--to-night--to-morrow, all the nights and all the days. I have been
very good. I have always done what you have told me. I have come and
gone just exactly as the whim has struck you. Ah! you know how deeply,
how dearly I love you!"
She moved past him with a sudden, gliding step, and placed the settee
between them.
"I only know you are my friend, my very dear friend," she said.
"No! no! no!" he cried, coming after her.
"Yes--only that friend!"
"Lover! Peggy," he said passionately. "I am a man--devoured by love of
you. I have waited for you--longed for you--and now----" With a sudden
movement he caught her in his arms, straining her to him wildly,
showering kisses upon the shining coronet of her hair. "We're alone,
Peggy," he cried, "just you and I!" and his voice rang with triumph.
"We're alone! There are no others in the world--no others! You are mine,
Peggy, mine at last!"
She struggled in his arms, her face pale as linen, her voice with a note
of almost shrill alarm.
"Colling, I can't bear it--you will spoil everything. Do help me,
Colling! I don't love you like that. I'm sorry if it hurts you. I'd
rather die."
There was a note in her voice of such absolute sincerity, mingled with
fear, that he opened his arms and let her flutter away.
The passion upon his face changed and melted into something else.
"My God!" he cried. "You would rather die----"
He stumbled rather than walked towards the sofa and sat down upon it,
burying his face in his long lean hands, that trembled exceedingly.
"My God!" she heard him whisper to himself; "she would rather die!..."
Peggy had followed him, and she stood at the end of the sofa, aghast at
what she had done. She began to speak slowly and nervously.
"Colling, don't do that. I really can't bear that you should think me
unkind. I like you too well to let you do anything that would spoil our
happiness. I am not unkind--really I am not. Have not I shown how fond
of you I am? We have been such good friends!"
"Friends!" he said bitterly, without looking up from his hands.
His voice was so cold, so charged with misery and sudden realisation,
that it cut the girl to the heart. She went round from the back of the
sofa and knelt at his feet, stretching out her hand timidly, and
touching the sleeve of his coat.
"Colling, dear, what else can we be?" she said.
He looked down at her, and for a moment his voice did not soften. There
was a quiet, dogged misery in it.
"We have passed the merely friendship line," he said; "and you know that
well enough, Peggy. That has been passed a long time. You would not have
left London with me if we had only been friends and nothing more. Were
we only friends when we used to sit up together night after night at
Ellerdine's house? Do 'friends' speak to each other as we have spoken?
Why, you have only to touch my hand to know that I burn with longing."
"Colling, you mustn't say such things!"
He jumped up roughly, leaving her kneeling upon the floor, and passed
with rapid steps to the window.
"Friends!" he cried, and his voice had a razor edge to it. "Friends!
It's not true! Do friends run the risks that we have run? For God's
sake, here and now let us be honest with each other. Why, we haven't
even tried to fool society! For Heaven's sake, Peggy, don't let's try to
fool ourselves!"
Peggy rose slowly to her feet, trembling all over. "Colling! oh,
Colling!" she said in a piteous voice, "surely people don't think we
are----"
"People don't think! People are only too glad to think. You know well
enough what is said about others----"
Her face grew paler still, her eyes were wide with fear and slowly
dawning realisation. She clasped both hands to her breast, and the light
shone upon the rubies set in the old Moorish bracelets that she was
wearing.
"Oh!" she said.
He came up to her again.
"Peggy, you don't care, do you?"
"Don't care, Colling!" she gasped. "Tell me, do people think we are----"
"Think!--how can they help thinking it? Haven't we given them every
reason?"
"No, no, no! Oh! I hate to think of that! We have only been very fond
friends. Why should they think otherwise?"
There were tears of agony in her voice. She kept clasping and unclasping
her hands.
"Oh! I suppose it is all my fault," she said brokenly--"all my fault. I
don't think ungenerous things of others. I have been too trusting--too
confiding. Why should people thing such things? I only wanted a good
friend, a companion."
He still stood by her, looking at her keenly, and the bitterness in his
voice did not die away. "Friends! Oh yes, I know! You wanted someone to
pet you, to pamper you. What you wanted was someone to satisfy all your
vanities--your yearning for devotion, for adulation, for sense of power.
I know! You wanted all the joys and none of the risks. That sums up the
whole thing in a nutshell. There are lots of women like you. They drive
men mad--make drunkards, gamblers, swindlers of them. I have seen it
often enough. I have seen men fall out and lose themselves among the
army of crooks that throng the second-rate shows. But I won't let you
drive me mad."
The bitterness in his voice was terrible. His words seemed to scourge
her, to lash her like a whip. She stared at him in helpless amazement
and misery. He had paused in his rapid torrent of speech, and as he saw
her distress he seemed to be a little touched.
"Peggy!" he said, and once more the note of passion came into his voice,
while the anger died out of it--"Peggy! I mean you to be mine. There
will be a crash soon--that is certain. Admaston will take notice of what
everybody is saying about us. He will come out of his political shell,
wake up, do things, put an end to it at once and for ever!"
"Oh, my God! What have I done!" the girl cried.
"Done! What have you done to deserve your husband's neglect? Why, he
doesn't even know that you exist. His heart beats by Act of Parliament.
He'd a thousand times rather address a village meeting than spend an
hour in your company. Are you to pass your youth in the company of----"
"Stop! stop!" she cried. "Say what you like about me--scold me if you
like, but say nothing against him. You do not know my husband. We are
neither of us fit to mention his name. He is a big man, and he loves
me."
"But, Peggy, you won't say that you love him?" Collingwood said, with a
curious note of perplexity in his voice. The situation, tragic as it
was, got a little bit beyond him.
"Love him?" she answered. "I don't know. I have had no chance to love
anyone the way you regard love."
Collingwood put his hands into his pockets, swung round upon his heels
and swung back again. "I see," he said; "you mean you don't love
Admaston, and won't love anybody else?"
"Oh, I don't know," Peggy replied; "but I certainly don't love anybody
else. You think I am neglected. That is absurd. It was my father's wish
that we should marry. George knew that I did not love him. He trusts me
fully. There will be no crash."
He heard the note in her voice which told him that she was trying to
persuade herself that her fears were groundless, and smiled rather
grimly.
"There will be," he said. "You take my word for it. No man--not even
Admaston--can stand _ridicule_ for long. Remember, I mean to win you. I
shall marry no one if I don't marry you."
She tried to speak lightly.
"Colling, don't be so silly! You are one of the best matches in England.
You will marry a beautiful girl who will lead society and make you a
very proud and ambitious man. Don't shake your head--that's only because
you want to be gallant. Heavens! how I would do things if I were a man!
You, with all your talents and your money, ought to rise to any
position."
"You are mad about position," he said impatiently.
"Yes," Peggy answered. "I like men who have some big purpose in life and
who fight the world and win."
"Like George Admaston!" Collingwood answered, and now for the first time
there came a glint of malicious and real ill-humour over his face. It
came and passed in a second, but it had been there.
"Yes," Peggy replied; "like George Admaston! He is a fighter, Colling. I
think many women would love George. He is not the butterfly
type--but----"
"But he has all the luck," Collingwood broke in fiercely. "I could do
anything if you were with me. I must have something--or someone--to
fight for. My nature must be baffled. There must be obstacles in the way
for me. I have a wicked streak in me somewhere that turns red when I
can't get what I want. Peggy, you must let Admaston get a divorce."
The words seemed to strike her dumb. All colour had left her face long
since, but now almost all expression went from it also for a moment. It
was as if she had been struck some paralysing blow.
He was watching her keenly, and as he noted the effect of his words a
spasm of pain went through him, though he showed nothing of it in his
face or manner. He loved her, he loved her dearly; there was no doubt
about that. He hated to give her pain, yet he felt he was being cruel
only to be kind. She must face the situation once and for all, and then
perhaps everything might be right. The situation, serious as it was, was
very largely of his own creation. Seeing no other way, he had
deliberately endeavoured to compromise Mrs. Admaston. All his plans, all
his ideas, had been directed to this end. He wanted to force her
husband's hand and to marry Peggy after the divorce. He loved her
wildly, madly, passionately. He would have been a perfect husband to
her--there can be no doubt of that.
But his love was selfish. In order to win this woman for his own he was
ready to subject her to all the indignities and all the shame of a
process in the courts. In his overmastering desire, her reputation, her
honour, mattered nothing to him. It was she that he wanted, and any
means should be taken to achieve that end.
Men like Roderick Collingwood have few guiding principles in life, save
only those of their own appetites. Of course, the public school and the
university have given them a certain code. They must pay their gambling
debts, they must do various other things of that sort; but as far as any
conception of the morality and decency, which have made England what it
is, is concerned, they are absolutely without it.
He nodded at Peggy, driving home the words.
"Divorce! Oh, you mustn't talk like that. You know how it hurts me," she
said at last, when she had recovered a little. "Really, really, you are
mistaken. I am quite satisfied with my life--only, sometimes when I am
foolish I feel just a bit lonely and neglected."
He turned on her almost with a sneer. He was bitterly hurt and angry,
and there is no doubt that, from his point of view, he had reason for
complaint. She had led him on. She had flirted outrageously with him.
She had deliberately done her best to be provocative. Her intentions,
doubtless, were innocent enough as far as any dishonour to her husband
entered into the question. But her love of adulation, her vanity, her
desire of power, were all gratified by her conquest of him; while at the
same time she still had a real and genuine friendship for a man who,
with all his faults, was essentially charming, good-natured, and kind.
"Then you have deceived me!" he cried.
"Colling, don't say that. I never meant----"
"Never meant? Good heavens! I told you six months ago that I loved you,
and ever since then you have let me go here and there with you, and I
have told you of my love again and again."
"But you have always been so good. You have never been unkind to me
before to-night."
"Good God! Unkind! Why, most men would have divorced their wives on far
less evidence than we have furnished. And all the while you have
accepted the position without a murmur. You don't know what you have
done."
"Colling, what do you mean?"
"Mean?" he answered. "I mean that you have led me to believe that you
didn't care what we did--what people said about us. Mean? I mean that
the call of love is in the spring, Peggy, whispering to you and me.
Mean? I mean that I am a man and you are a woman--our souls stand bare
to one another--that I love you and that you love me."
He sprang at her and caught her up in his arms once more.
"I don't love you, Colling! Let me go!" she cried.
"I can't let you go! It is my hour! It is your fault as well as mine!
Kiss me, Peggy! You have tortured me long enough! Kiss me!"
He held her tight, tight! His face blazed. There was a fury in his
voice.
At that very moment when he stopped speaking and was gazing down at her,
while she lay for a moment almost passive in his arms after her first
fight and struggle, a loud, sharp, clear sound rang out in the room. It
was the bell of the telephone upon the wall.
"Ellerdine!" Peggy said.
"Let him ring," Collingwood answered.
They stood there for another moment clasped together, and once more the
insistent summons of the bell came.
"No, no," Peggy cried; "answer him, please!"
With an odd, instinctive gesture Collingwood put his arm right round
her. Before he had been straining her to him passionately. Now there was
something protective in his attitude.
And again the bell whirred.
At last with great reluctance Collingwood stepped up to the wall and
caught up the receiver.
"Well, well!" he said. "Who is it? What! Ad----Admaston!"
A voice which was robbed of all ordinary qualities shivered out into the
room.
"My husband!" said Peggy.
Collingwood made a warning gesture with his left hand, telling her to
keep quiet.
"Yes," he said; "we took the wrong train. Yes, Collingwood. Yes, it is
he speaking."
"Where is he?" came hissing to the ears of the man at the telephone.
Again he motioned her to silence, giving a slight impatient tap with his
foot upon the carpet.
"Oh yes. We have just finished supper. What? I can't hear you
distinctly. You want to speak to Ellerdine? Hold the line a moment; I'll
call him."
He put down the receiver upon the table and ran up to Peggy, who was
shaking like a leaf in the wind.
"He wants to speak to you, too, I think," Collingwood said in a low,
fierce whisper; "but perhaps you had better not."
"I can't," Peggy answered, swaying this way and that as if about to
fall. He put out his arm and steadied her.
"All right, darling," he said; "it is all right!"
"Where is he? London?" she said.
"I didn't ask," he replied. "Wait a minute!"
He hurried to the telephone again. "Hello! Ellerdine has just gone out.
Hello! Where are you speaking from? Damn! We're cut off. Hello! Hello!"
He listened for nearly half a minute, taut and strained as a greyhound
on the leash; then he flung the receiver angrily upon the bracket.
"We're cut off," he repeated, looking at her almost stupidly, as if the
situation was beyond him.
Collingwood said nothing for a little time. At last he spoke. "I didn't
think of that," he said. "Can he have had us----"
"What? What?" she almost shrieked.
"Followed?"
He plunged his hands into the pockets of his dinner-jacket and bent his
head, thinking deeply. Then he looked up at Peggy. "Peggy," he said at
length, "rumour--he has been ridiculed into action--the crash has come."
The girl held out both hands towards him as if warding off a blow. "Go,
go!" she cried; "please go! I sha'n't speak another word to you
to-night. Go at once!"
"I can't leave you now, Peggy. I just worship you."
"I shall ring for my maid," she said, and moved towards the bell-push.
"No, don't do that. Don't be cruel, Peggy!" he said, in a voice instinct
with agonised pleading. "Don't be cruel, Peggy! No, no! Don't ring!"
"I shall," she said firmly, and stretched out her hand.
"Peggy, trust me. I love you better than anything in the world--better
than myself. For you I will sacrifice wealth, honour."
"Honour!" she cried.
"I'll do anything to win you. Everything I have done has been to win
you--to have you for my own. You know it is true. Peggy, before God, I
believed that you loved me too. Don't judge me harshly--oh, don't do
that!"
Peggy put out her hand and pressed the bell-push.
"I must be alone," she said in a dull, muffled voice.
He saw that it was useless, that he had failed, that the plans of months
had all miscarried, that everything was over for him as far as she was
concerned. Undisciplined as his nature was, baffled and disowned as he
felt, he nevertheless showed himself rather fine in that moment. He made
an almost superhuman effort at self-control--and succeeded.
"All right, Peggy dear," he said. "Don't be afraid. Everything will come
right. Good night." With one last lingering look at her he left the
room, closing the door which led into his own.
Peggy sank down upon the sofa almost over-mastered by her rising
hysteria, limp and half unconscious.
She lay there breathing hurriedly, and with her eyes closed, when the
corridor door opened and Pauline came rapidly into the room.
"Madame!" she cried.
Peggy gave one great sob of relief.
"Pauline!--you have not gone to bed?"
"No, madame! I was so anxious about you I could not sleep."
"Oh, my head is bursting!" the girl cried; "there is a pain like the
thrust of a sword in my head."
"Poor darling!" Pauline said, her voice guttural with excitement, her
trembling hands passing over the young girl's form with loving,
frightened caresses. "Poor darling! There is something altogether wrong.
Just now, when I came down, I saw a man standing at your door
listening."
"At that door?"
"Yes. Twice I have seen him to-day. He was at Boulogne; I saw him
looking at your boxes. Then just after supper he came in--when I was
speaking to the waiter."
"Then we have been followed," Peggy answered, breaking down utterly.
"Pauline, I feel that something dreadful is going to happen. Stay with
me--don't go back to your room. Soothe me, Pauline, as you used to when
I was little and afraid of the dark."