Mrs. Lennox was giving one of those little dinners for which she was
justly famous. To-night it was in honor of Monsieur Jules Grémond, the
young African explorer who was paying a flying visit to the States. To
meet him were Miss Davis, a débutante whose prettiness could always be
counted on to make a picture; Miss Marston, whose cleverness it was
thought would interest him; and Kenneth Landor, whose attentions to Miss
Davis had been rather pronounced during the season. Opposite his wife
across the round table sat Mr. Lennox, than whom there was no more
delightful host.
They had not been long gathered about the table before Mrs. Lennox was
conscious that her guests were lacking in that subtle attraction toward
one another which is absolutely indispensable to the success of a small
dinner. Monsieur Grémond, between her and Miss Marston, appeared to be
listening in a most politely conventional manner to the girl who was
making commonplace conversation with frequent pauses during which he
turned to Mrs. Lennox, with whom he immediately fell into interesting
talk. Kenneth Landor was singularly distrait. At first he had
appropriated Miss Davis with his usual devoted air, but after a bit this
languished and he, too, turned so often to Mrs. Lennox, next whom he
sat, that Miss Davis first pouted and then in a fit of pique plunged
into a violent flirtation with Mr. Lennox, much to that person's
amusement. Mrs. Lennox found it necessary to throw herself into the
breach here, there and everywhere, but under her skillful manipulation
the talk at last became general and animated.
The interest of the table naturally centered on Grémond, who managed
adroitly to keep the conversation off himself, thereby winning the
admiration of his hostess--she rather enjoyed a lion who did not roar.
Finally, with the arrival of the savory which followed the dessert--for
Mrs. Lennox had adopted this English custom, she had the satisfaction of
seeing Miss Marston and her husband deep in talk, Miss Davis and Kenneth
"frivoling" as was their wont and was herself free to enjoy a
tête-à-tête with her guest of honor.
"Your country is a source of endless interest to me, Madame," the
Frenchman was saying, "but it is as nothing to your women. They rival
ours--even surpass them."
"I am afraid we are in danger of being told that too often," laughed his
hostess, gaily.
"Some things bear repetition, Madame."
"Have you known many of us, Monsieur?" she asked, interested. "I think
you said you had been over here before."
"Yes, nearly two years ago, before I started off to Africa. It was
indeed the cause of my immediate start for Africa," he said with a
retrospective air. "Then, too, Madame, America became very dear to me
through my friendship with Sidney Renshawe--we were like brothers
together in Paris."
"Ah, yes, I know, he speaks of you with great affection. He will be up
from Virginia in a day or two, will he not?"
"Not before I am off. I go to New Orleans on important business and from
there to California, but I shall stay with him here on my return. Ah!
you cannot dream what he has been to me," he cried with Gallic
enthusiasm, "he--and one other."
"Will you come and tell me about it later, Monsieur, when you have
finished your cigars?" she said softly, picking up her gloves and giving
the signal to rise.
"Madame is very good," he murmured, bowing low as he stood aside for her
to pass.
Left together, the three men drew near and by a common interest caused
Grémond to talk of his explorations for fully half an hour, which time
was all too short to his listeners, who were greatly interested in the
man as well as in what he had done. Though they had just met him within
the week he was well known to them through Renshawe, a warm friend of
Kenneth and the Lennoxes and the half hour over their cigars would
unquestionably have lengthened out indefinitely had the women not been
waiting for them in the drawing-room.
The party had expected to go to the opera together, but when the men
rejoined the women they found a change of plan, Miss Marston having
secretly confided to Mrs. Lennox that she had been "on the go" so
steadily for weeks that it would be bliss to keep still, and "Couldn't
we all spend the evening here instead?" Pretty, disdainful Miss Davis,
seeing in this suggestion possibilities of a prolonged tête-à-tête with
Kenneth Landor, was enthusiastic in seconding it; while Mrs. Lennox
acquiesced gladly--she had put in an exhausting day at various
charitable organizations and was more tired than she cared to admit. As
for the men, they were loud in their acclamations of delight over what
Mr. Lennox called "the joy of a home evening." Accordingly they left the
formal drawing-room and repaired to Mrs. Lennox's sanctum, a unique room
finished in ebony, the dark wood relieved from somberness by a deep
frieze of Pompeiian figures done in red, while bits of this vivid color
were everywhere conspicuous in the furnishing. In all its appointments
it showed the touch of a strong individuality and expressed in its way
the æsthetic side of Mrs. Lennox's nature. It had also what in a woman's
room made it distinctive--space. Mrs. Lennox was a person who liked free
scope for her body as well as her mind.
The guests, therefore, distributed themselves about comfortably and Miss
Davis found herself exercising her fascinations upon the distinguished
foreigner, who encouraged her by undisguised admiration, which indeed he
had given her throughout dinner by glances meant to convey what the
distance of the table between them made it impossible to say. But the
paying of excessive compliments to a girl like Miss Davis, who cares
only for that sort of thing from the masculine sex, sometimes palls and
Grémond was just thinking a bit longingly of his charming hostess when
that individual approached them.
"Miss Davis," she said, "Mr. Landor has been proposing a game of
billiards. He wants you to help him beat Miss Marston and my
husband--they have already begun to play, I believe. Will you join
them?"
"Do Miss Davis, will you?" urged Kenneth, who always enjoyed the game.
Miss Davis looked at him and rose by way of answer. She had long ago
discovered that her eyes did considerable execution. Then with a glance
at Grémond which said that he too might follow her, she went with
Kenneth across the hall into the billiard room.
Mrs. Lennox sank into a curiously carved old ebony chair, against which
her bare arms and shoulders gleamed white. She was gowned in black,
unrelieved except for the rope of pearls wound twice around her throat
and hanging in a loose chain to her waist; but the severity of outline
was exceedingly becoming to her slender figure and the absence of color
emphasized the beauty of her skin, which was as fair and soft as if she
were twenty instead of forty. She sighed a little as she leaned back in
her chair, and Grémond reaching for some cushions from a divan near by
tucked them in behind her comfortably.
"Madame is tired to-night," he said.
"Monsieur Grémond," turning her head the better to see him, "I feel as
if I should offer you a thousand apologies. I had planned a gay evening
for you and instead you are becoming initiated into intimate home life.
We are already treating you like one of the family. Fancy!"
"A privilege not accorded to many; is it not so, Madame? I feel
flattered beyond all telling."
It pleased her that he was quick to recognize this as unusual treatment
of the stranger within her gates and she said cordially, "I felt when I
saw you that we should not make the usual beginning. It is a little
peculiarity of mine that I steal into people's lives in the middle--when
I like them. I have never analyzed it, but I trust to my instincts and I
am not often mistaken. Now you," she said, leaning languidly back on her
cushions, "you interest me and I've sent them all off to play billiards
that we may have a quiet little talk together. I want to hear more of
what you were telling me at dinner, if I may."
"Madame is very good," he said again. "We were speaking of Sidney
Renshawe, were we not?"
"Of him--'and one other,'" she quoted, watching his eloquent face.
His black eyes softened and he leaned forward a little, using his hands
in frequent gesticulation as he began to talk. "I am reminded, Madame,
of a certain witty English author who said that Columbus discovered
America but America discovered him. To paraphrase him, I should say that
two Americans discovered me--dear old Renshawe and the most charming
little girl I ever knew."
"Yes?" she said.
"But for those two, Madame, I might have been--anything!" He shrugged
his shoulders expressively. "The one had faith in me, the other taught
me to have faith in myself. She was my inspiration." It seemed as
natural to him to confide in this charming woman as if he had known her
all his life, and in this he was not unlike the majority of people in
whom Mrs. Lennox showed an interest, for she had that divine gift which
for lack of an English word we call "simpatica"--an open sesame to all
hearts.
She was listening very quietly, but the look on her face was one of
absorbed attention as Grémond went on.
"For several years, Madame, I had been formulating my African plans, but
I lacked distinct purpose until I knew her. She had the American idea
that a man must accomplish something in the world. She thought I should
prove myself capable of the great things I talked about."
"She can scarcely have reason to find fault with you now," the woman
said.
"I hope not, Madame, when she knows what I have tried to do and how much
more I shall do when I return."
"Are you going to tell her--soon?"
"Soon?" with a quick indrawing of his breath, "as soon as I can get to
California, but alas! that will not be for many weeks. I am not sure
that she will want to listen to me, Madame, but I shall make her; I
must."
"You met her in Europe, I fancy?"
"On the contrary, I met her in Southern California in one of the big
hotels where I was stopping. She was living there and we were thrown
together constantly, laughing, dancing, riding--a gay life. Now and then
when we touched on serious subjects I was amazed and moved by her great
comprehension and high ideals."
"Does she not know what a powerful factor she has been in your life?"
she asked.
"Not yet, Madame. I went away with my heart full of her, but said no
word. I felt I had not the right on so short an acquaintance and before
I had really accomplished anything."
"Perhaps not, my friend, but I am not sure that I altogether agree with
you. I feel that she liked you, with possibly more than the ordinary
liking, and a girl wants some sign."
"I wrote her once, asking her to hold me in remembrance; was that a
sign, Madame? It was all I dared to make. It seemed to me it was deeds
and not words that were wanted."
"It was both, Monsieur, if you will allow me to say so, for without
words how could a girl know that deeds were done for her sake alone?"
"I thought she would know it all because I loved her so," he faltered.
"Oh, you men, you men!" Mrs. Lennox cried impatiently, "how you do
expect a woman to take things for granted! Forgive me, Monsieur
Grémond"--leaning forward and touching his arm--"but sometimes I get
very cross over it."
"Oh Madame, Madame!" he exclaimed impetuously, "you cannot think, you
cannot mean I have made a mistake?"
"Indeed, no," she replied reassuringly, seeing how his confident manner
had changed to despair, "but I do mean that the ways of women are not
more enigmatical than those of men--_some_ men," she qualified.
He laughed, glad to have the tension of the past moment broken by her
light tone. For a moment neither spoke. Across the hall came the faint
clicking of the billiard-balls.
"We must join the others, Monsieur," the woman said at last.
"May I thank you for the pleasantest hour I have spent since my
arrival?" he said earnestly as he rose.
"The pleasantest--as yet. Eh, Monsieur?" with a charming smile.
"As yet, Madame," bowing gravely over her hand which he had taken in
his.
"Then will you come to me again, when you return and tell me _all_ about
it?" with a faint pressure of her fingers in his.
"May I, Madame? Ah, that will be a privilege indeed!" and stooping he
kissed her hand.
A moment later they had joined the others.