A SHOCK AND A SNUB OR TWO
It was the maid. It was also Mrs. Sorel, who pushed past Celine and
darted into the hall.
"My darling!" she shrilled at sight of Marise. "You look as if you'd had
a most horrible shock!"
It was just this that the girl had had: the shock of her life. She,
undesired--_not_ a temptation! Alone with a man--a mere brute--who had
the strength and the legal right to take her against her will, but
remained cold; did not want her.
She might have believed this statement to be a sequel to that hint about
"hurting her feelings if he liked," but Garth's face was cold. It might
have been carved from rock. It looked like rock--that red-brown kind.
There was no fierce, controlled passion in the tawny eyes, such as men
on the stage would carefully have betrayed in these situations, or such
as men had far from carefully betrayed to her in real life, disgusting
or frightening her at the time: though afterwards the scene had pleased,
or--well _flattered_ her to dwell on in safe retrospect. It was rather
glorious, though sometimes painful, she'd often said to herself, the
power she had to make men _feel_. Yet this Snow-man didn't feel at all.
He simply _didn't_! You could see that by his icicle of a face.
"You mustn't worry, dear Mums," soothed Marise. "I'm doing the best
thing for everyone: keeping up appearances! And as Major Garth dislikes
me--I am not his style, it seems--I'm perfectly safe. Safe as if I were
in our rooms, with you."
Garth gazed gravely at Mrs. Sorel. "She's safer than with you, Madame. I
assure you she's as safe as--as if she were in cold storage."
Mary gasped.
Marise laughed.
But she felt as though she'd read in a yellow newspaper that Miss Sorel
was the plainest girl and the worst actress in the world.
* * * * *
Mums was persuaded to go, at last, after having upbraided her daughter,
with tears, for forcing them all--including Lord Severance--into such a
deplorable, such a perilous situation.
As for the peril, after Garth's words, and still more his _look_, all
thrill of danger and the chance of a fight, with a triumphant if
exhausting close, had died. Marise felt dull and "anti-climaxy," and
homesick for her friends, the dear public who loved and appreciated her.
Celine remained to undress her mistress, having (despite Mrs. Sorel's
advice) brought various articles from Marise's own room. When at last
the bride was ready for bed in a dream of a "nighty" fetched by her
maid, Celine thought of the jewels on a table in the salon.
By this time the room was empty, Garth having retired like a bear to his
den; and the Frenchwoman took it on herself to transfer the valuables to
the bedroom adjoining. "They will be safer here," she said. "Unless
Mademoiselle--Madame--would like me to carry the cases to the other
suite and put them in the care of Madame his mother."
"No, leave everything here," directed Marise.
She had made up her mind not to keep the gifts. They were beautiful, and
she wouldn't have been a woman if she'd not wanted them. But she wanted
still more the stern splendour of handing the spoil back to Garth,
advising him to return the jewels whence they came, since _only
millionaires_ should buy such expensive objects. But she would not of
course take a servant, even Celine--who knew everything and a little
more than everything--into her confidence.
She gave the Frenchwoman a key (which had been handed her by Garth) to
use in the morning, when the time came for early tea, a bath, and being
dressed. Then, when the maid had departed with a click of the outer
door, an idea sprang into the mind of Marise. At first she thought it
would not do. Then she thought it would. And the more she thought in
both directions, the more she was enmeshed by the idea itself.
Only half an hour had elapsed since Garth went to his room. The man
wouldn't be human, after what they'd passed through, if he had gone to
bed. Marise was sure he had done no such thing: and she fancied that she
caught a faint whiff of tobacco stealing through the keyhole of that
stout locked door between their rooms.
At last she could no longer resist the call of the blood--or whatever it
was. She switched on the light again, jumped up, and looked for a
dressing-gown. Bother! Celine hadn't brought one--had taken it for
granted she would use that wonderful thing which Garth's taste--or the
taste of some hidden guide of his--had provided.
Well, what did it matter, anyhow? She would slip it on--and the
sparkling gold and silver _mules_, too. She glanced in the long Psyche
mirror. She _did_ look divine! Even a rock-carved statue couldn't deny
that! Gathering up the jewels, she unlocked the door which led into the
hall, and tapped at the door of Garth's room, adjoining her own.
"If you're not in bed," she called, "come out a minute, will you? I've
something important to say."
All that was minx in Marise was revelling in the thought that presently
Garth would suffer a disappointment. He would imagine that she wished to
plead for grace from him. Then, before he could snub her, she'd give
_him_ the snub of his life--just as he had given her, Marise Sorel, the
shock of hers!
Garth did not answer at once. The girl was hesitating whether to call
him again, when his voice made her start. It sounded _sleepy_! "I _am_
in bed," he said. "What do you want? Is it too important to wait till
morning?"
"It's merely that I wished to put the jewels which were left in the
salon into your charge," Marise replied with freezing dignity. "I do not
think they are safe there."
"Wouldn't they be safe enough with you?" came grumpily--yes,
grumpily!--through the closed door.
"No doubt. But I don't wish to have the responsibility, as I don't care
to accept them...."
"Oh, I see! Well, if that's your decision, it doesn't matter whether
they're safe or not. Leave the things in the corridor if your room's too
sacred for them. If that's all you want, I shall not get out of bed."
What a man!
"One would think you were a multi-millionaire!" Marise couldn't resist
that one last, sarcastic dig. "So I may be for all you know. Do what you
like with the silly old jewels."
Marise threw the cases on the floor as loudly as she could. She knew
that the outer door was locked, and that Celine would be the first
person in, when morning came, so the act wasn't as reckless as it
seemed. But it was a relief to her nerves at the moment.
The filmy dressing-gown, the sparkling _mules_, the hair down, the
general heartbreaking divineness, were _wasted_.