"Jove! Here's a crush!" laughed Archie Neville. "Delighted to meet you
again, Mrs. Wingarde! How did you find the Lakes?"
His good-looking, boyish face was full of pleasure. He had not expected
to meet her. Nina's welcoming smile was radiant.
"Oh, here you are, Archie!" she exclaimed, as they shook hands. "Someone
said you were out of town, but I couldn't believe anything so tragic."
"Quite right," said Archie. "Never believe the worst till there is
positively no alternative. I'm not out of town, and I'm not going to be.
It's awfully nice to see you again, you know! I thought the sun had set
for the rest of the season."
Nina uttered a gay little laugh.
"Oh, dear, no! We certainly intended to stay longer, but Hereford was
summoned back on business, and I really wasn't sorry on the whole. I did
rather regret missing all the fun."
Archie laughed.
"Hereford must be doing dark deeds then," he said, "of which he keeps
the rest of the world in complete ignorance. The markets are dead flat
just now--nothing doing whatever. It's enough to make you tear your
hair."
"Really!" said Nina. "He gave me to understant that it was something
urgent."
And then she became suddenly silent, meeting Archie's eyes, and aware of
the surprise he was too much of a gentleman to express. With a cold
feeling of dissatisfaction she turned from the subject.
"It's very nice to be back again among my friends," she said. "Can't you
come and dine to-morrow and go to the theatre afterwards?"
Archie considered a moment, and she knew that when he answered he was
cancelling other engagements.
"Thanks, I shall be delighted!" he said, "if I shan't be _de trop_."
There was a touch of mockery in Nina's smile.
"We shall probably be alone," she said. "My husband's business keeps him
late in the City. We have been home a week, and he has only managed to
dine with me once."
"Isn't he here to-night?" asked Archie.
She shook her head.
"What an infernal shame!" he exclaimed impulsively. "Oh, I beg your
pardon! That was a slip."
But Nina laid her hand on his sleeve.
"You needn't apologize," she said, in a low voice. "One can't have
everything. If you marry--an outsider--for his money, you have to pay
the penalty."
Archie looked at her with further indiscretion upon the tip of his
tongue. But he thought twice and kept it back.
"I say, you know," he said awkwardly, "I--I'm sorry."
"Thank you," she said gently. "Well, you will come to-morrow?"
"Of course," he said. "What theatre shall we go to? I'll bring the
tickets with me."
The conversation drifted away into indifferent topics and presently they
parted. Nina was almost gay of heart as she drove homeward that night.
She had begun to feel her loneliness very keenly, and Archie's society
promised to be of value.
Her husband was waiting for her when she returned. As she entered her
own sitting-room, he started up abruptly from an arm-chair as if her
entrance had suddenly roused him from sleep. She was considerably
surprised to see him there, for he had never before intruded without her
permission.
He glanced at the clock, but made no comment upon the lateness of the
hour.
"I hope you have enjoyed yourself," he said somewhat formally.
The words were as unexpected as was his presence there. Nina stood for a
moment, waiting for something further.
Then, as he did not speak, she shrugged her shoulders and threw back her
cloak.
"It was a tremendous crush," she said indifferently. "No, I didn't enjoy
it particularly. But it was something to do."
"I am sorry you are feeling bored," he said gravely.
Nina sat down in silence. She did not in the least understand what had
brought him there.
"It is getting rather late," she remarked, after a pause. "I am just
going to have a cup of tea and then go to bed."
A little tea-tray stood on the table at her elbow. A brass kettle was
fizzing cheerily above a spirit stove.
"Do you want a cup?" she asked, with a careless glance upwards.
He had remained standing, looking down at her with an expression that
puzzled her slightly. His eyes were heavy, as if they wanted sleep.
"Thank you," he said.
Nina threw off her wraps and sat up to brew the tea. The light from a
rose-shaded lamp poured full upon her. She looked superb and she knew
it. The knowledge deprived her for once of that secret sense of fear
that so brooded at the back of her intercourse with this man. He stood
in total silence behind her. She began to wonder what was coming.
Having made tea, she leant back again with her hands behind her head.
"I suppose we must give it two minutes to draw," she remarked, with a
smothered yawn. "Isn't it frightfully hot to-night? I believe there is
thunder about."
He made no response, and she turned her eyes slowly upon him. She knew
he was watching her, but a curious sense of independence possessed her
that night. He did not disconcert her.
Their eyes met. Hers were faintly insolent. His were inscrutable.
At last he spoke.
"I am sorry you have not enjoyed yourself," he said, speaking rather
stiffly. "Will you--by way of a change--come out with me to-morrow
night? I think I may anyhow promise you"--he paused slightly--"that you
shall not be bored."
There was a short silence. Nina turned and moved the cups on the little
tray. She did not, however, seem embarrassed.
"I happen to be engaged to-morrow evening," she said coldly at length.
"Is it important?" he asked. "Can't you cancel the engagement?"
She uttered a little, flippant laugh. She had not hoped for such an
opportunity as this.
"I'm afraid I really can't," she said. "You should have asked me
earlier."
"What are you going to do?"
There was a new note in his voice--a hint of mastery. She resented it
instantly.
"That is my affair," she said calmly, beginning to pour out the tea.
He looked at her as if he scarcely believed his ears. He was silent for
some seconds, and very quietly she turned to him and handed him a cup.
He took it from her and instantly set it aside.
"Be good enough to answer my question!" he said.
She heard the gathering sternness in his tone, and, tea-cup in hand, she
laughed. A curious recklessness possessed her that night. She felt as if
she had the strength to fling off the bands of tyranny. But her heart
had begun to beat very fast. She realized that this was no mere
skirmish.
"Why should I answer you?" she asked, helping herself to some more cream
with a hand that was slightly unsteady in spite of her effort to
control it. "I do not see the necessity."
"I think you do," he rejoined.
Nina said no more. She swallowed her tea, nibbled at a wafer with a
species of deliberate trifling calculated to proclaim aloud her utter
fearlessness, and at length rose to go.
In that moment her husband stepped forward and took her by the
shoulders.
"Before you leave this room, please," he said quietly.
She drew back from him in a blaze of indignant rebellion.
"I will not!" she said. "Let me go instantly!"
His hold tightened. His face was more grim than she had ever seen it.
His eyes seemed to beat hers down. Yet when he spoke he did not raise
his voice.
"I have borne a good deal from you, Nina," he said. "But there is a
limit to every man's endurance."
"You married me against my will," she panted. "Do you think I have not
had anything to endure, too?"
"That accusation is false," he said. "You married me of your own accord.
Without my money, you would have passed me by with scorn. You know it."
She began to tremble violently.
"Do you deny that?" he insisted pitilessly.
"At least you pressed me hard," she said.
"I did," he replied. "I saw you meant to sell yourself. And I did not
mean you to go to any scoundrel."
"So you bought me for yourself?" she said, with a wild laugh.
"I did." Wingarde's voice trembled a little. "I paid your price," he
said, "and I have taken very little for it. You have offered me still
less. Now, Nina, understand! This is not going on for ever. I simply
will not bear it. You are my wife, sworn to obey me--and obey me you
shall."
He held her fast in front of him. She could feel the nervous strength of
his hands. It thrilled her through and through. She felt like a trapped
animal in his grasp. Her resistance began to waver.
"What are you going to do?" she asked.
"I am going to conquer you," he said grimly.
"You won't do it by violence," she returned quickly.
Her words seemed to pierce through a weak place in the iron armour in
which he had clad himself. Abruptly he set her free.
The suddenness of his action so surprised her that she tottered a
little. He made a swift move towards her; but in a second she had
recovered herself, and he drew back. She saw that his face was very
pale.
"Are you quite sure of that?" he asked.
She did not answer him. Shaking from head to foot, she stood facing him.
But words would not come.
After a desperate moment the tension was relaxed. He turned on his heel.
"Well, I have warned you," he said, and strode heavily away.
The moment she ceased to hear his footsteps, Nina sank down into a chair
and burst into tears.