THE COUNTESS, THE COUSIN, AND THE CRITIC
Out in the streets they paused. A theatre or any place of amusement was
out of the question, for Cicely dared not stay out later than half-past
nine. Then a luminous idea came to Douglas.
"Why on earth shouldn't you come to my rooms?" he asked. "I can give
you some decent coffee and read you the first chapter of my novel."
She hesitated, but barely for a moment.
"It sounds delightful," she admitted. "I'll come. Glad to. Isn't it
lovely to be in this great city, and to know what freedom is--to do what
seems well and hear nothing of that everlasting 'other people say'?"
"It's magnificent," he answered.
He beckoned a hansom, handed her in, and somehow forgot to release her
hand. The wheels were rubber-tyred and the springs easy. They glided
into the sea of traffic with scarcely a sense of movement.
"Life," he said, "is full of new sensations," holding her fingers a
little tighter.
"It is our extreme youth," she murmured, gently but firmly withdrawing
them. "In a year's time all this will seem crude to you."
"In a year's time," he answered, looking down at her, suddenly
thoughtful, "I will remind you of that speech."
She sighed, but her gravity was only for a moment. She was chattering
again gaily by the time they reached the street where Douglas's rooms
were. He led her up the stairs, ill-carpeted and narrow. His room had
never seemed so small and shabby as when at last they reached it and he
threw the door open.
She walked at once to the window. The Houses of Parliament,
Westminster, the Thames, were all visible. A hundred lights flashed
upon the embankments and across the bridges, away opposite, a revolving
series of illuminations proclaimed the surpassing quality of a
well-known whiskey. Westwards, a glow of fire hung over the city from
Leicester Square and the theatres. She gazed at it all, fascinated.
"What a wonderful view, Douglas!" she exclaimed. He rose up, hot from
his struggles with a refractory lamp, and came to her side. A sound of
bubbling and a pleasant smell of coffee proclaimed the result of his
labours.
"I have never yet tired of looking at it," he answered. "I have no
blind, as you see, and at night I have had my writing-table here and the
window open. Listen."
He threw up the sash. A deep, monotonous roar, almost like the incoming
tide of the sea, fell upon their ears.
"You hear it," he said. "That is life, that rolling of wheels, the
falling of a thousand footsteps upon the pavement, men and women going
to their pleasures, the outcasts and the parasites bearing them company.
It is like the sea. It is always there. It is the everbeating pulse of
humanity."
He closed the window and led her to an easy chair.
"Cissy," he said, "do you know, this is what we always talked of, that I
should write a story and read it first to you? Do you remember?"
"Yes," she answered softly, "I remember."
"We didn't anticipate this." He looked around. "Don't judge me
altogether by my surroundings. To tell you the truth, when I started I
went too much to the other extreme. I discovered I had made a mistake,
so I sold up and found myself in debt. I am earning plenty of money,
but I have to economise to get clear. This novel is going to set me
straight."
He took some loose pages up in his hand. She looked over his shoulder.
"You haven't improved a bit in your writing," she exclaimed. "Do let me
type it for you."
"You shall, with pleasure," he answered. "I believe you're the only
person who could read it."
She laughed and took her coffee from him.
"Please light a cigarette," she begged. "I loathe the taste, but the
perfume is delightful."
He obeyed her, and she arranged the lamp so that the light fell upon the
sheets which he had gathered up into his hand. Then she leaned back in
her chair and listened.
* * * * *
"Well?"
She sat up and faced him, her face flushed with excitement, her eyes
flashing soft fires.
"There is nothing I can say beyond this," she cried: "it is the sort of
book which I always hoped and believed that one day you would write."
"You like it?"
"Like is no word. It is magnificent."
He laughed at her.
"If all my critics were like you."
She sighed.
"I am only afraid of one thing," she said. "When it is finished and
published you will be a great man. You will be so far off. I think I
wish that it were not quite so clever. It makes me feel lonely."
He came over and sat upon the arm of her chair. She was very sweet,
very dainty, very pretty.
"Cissy," he said, "you need never be afraid of that. Whatever might
happen in the future, I shall never enjoy an evening more than this one.
It rests with you to say whether we may not have many more."
"With me?"
She looked up at him quickly. From where he sat he could see her bosom
rising and falling quickly. Then he started suddenly away--Cicely sat
up in terror, grasping the sides of her chair. There was a sharp knock
at the closed door.
"Is Mr. Jesson in?" a soft voice asked.
"Who is it?" Douglas cried, in blank amazement.
The door opened, and a woman, in a long opera cloak and rustling skirt
gathered up in her hands, glided in. It was the Countess de Reuss.
* * * * *
She stood in a little halo of lamplight, a diamond star flashing in her
hair, and her neck ablaze with gems. She was dressed to make her bow
presently in the presence of Royalty, her dress _decollete_, her figure
superb, her jewels famous throughout the world. Cicely looked at her
and gasped--Douglas was speechless. She herself maintained a
magnificent composure, although she had, as a matter of fact, received a
shock.
"I admit, my friend," she said, holding out her hand to Douglas, "that
my visit is unusual, but I can assure you that I am not a ghost. Try my
fingers, they are very real."
Douglas recovered himself and drew a long breath.
"I am very glad to see you," he said, "but if I had had any idea that
you really wished to see me I would have spared you the trouble of
coming to such an outlandish place."
"Oh, I can assure you that I have rather enjoyed it," she answered him.
"My coachman believes that I am mad, and my maid is sure of it. Won't
you introduce me to your friend--your sister, perhaps?"
Douglas preserved his composure.
"This is my cousin, Cicely Strong," he said, "the Countess de Reuss.
The Countess de Reuss was very kind to me, Cicely, when I was ill. I
think I told you about her."
Cicely was timid and nervous, nor did she at all understand the
situation.
The Countess nodded to her kindly.
"You have a very clever relation," she said. "We are all expecting
great things from him. Now let me tell you, Douglas, why I have come.
There are two men coming to see me to-morrow whom you positively must
meet. One is Mr. Anderson, who owns the great Provincial Syndicate of
Newspapers, and pays enormous prices for letters from London, the other
is an American. I've asked them purposely for you, and you see I've
taken some pains to make sure of your coming."
"It is very good of you," Douglas replied. "I will come, of course,
with pleasure."
"At eight o'clock," she said, gathering up her skirts into her hand.
"Now, good-by, young people."
She nodded pleasantly and turned away. Douglas took the lamp and
hurried to the door.
"You will let me see you to your carriage," he said.
"Cissy, I shall only be a moment. Do you mind the darkness?"
She answered him blithely. The Countess laid her delicate fingers upon
his arm, and held up her skirts till he could see her shapely feet with
diamond buckles carefully feeling for each stair.
"My friend," she exclaimed, "what ill taste you have shown. You are
abominably lodged."
"I am not a chooser," he answered; "but at least here I can pay my way."
She laughed at him.
"Bourgeois."
"Maybe. I believe my ancestors were shopkeepers."
"And the little cousin?" she said, looking at him sideways.
"She is the dearest little girl in the world," he answered, heartily.
"I am not sure that I approve of her, though," the Countess said gaily,
"not, at any rate, if it has been she who has kept you away from me all
this time."
There was a more personal note in her conversation, the touch of her
fingers upon his arm was warm and firm. Thinking of these things,
Douglas did not hear the rustle of a skirt behind him as they stepped
out upon the pavement. The Countess saw it and kept him talking there
lightly for a moment. When at last she let him go, and he ran upstairs,
he nearly dropped the lamp he was carrying in surprise. For his little
room was empty. Cicely was gone.