Except in rare cases the ceremony of marriage among Japanese is still
unmodified by foreign innovation. These people prefer to regard it as
the most intimate of social functions, a family sacrament, a transition
to be made in grave silence, not in the buzz of comment. Congratulations
may follow, they never precede, a wedding.
In the case of Prince Hagané, his official necessity for a wife appeared
significantly enough in the engraved cards of invitation, sent out by
hundreds, to announce weekly receptions (beginning with a certain
Friday) held by the Prince and Princess Sanétomo Hagané in the residence
of the Minister of War. That word "War," printed so smoothly among
high-sounding titles, bore little relation to the dark clouds of
conflict pouring in about Port Arthur and spreading a sombre pall above
Manchuria. Dark, too, was the shadow cast upon the hearts of loyal
Nipponese. For a lull had come, a mysterious silence. Explanations were
not offered to the people. Dead bodies or fragments of bodies, were
still brought home for burial; new troops, by midnight, threaded city
streets and crowded the railway stations, bound for the front, yet no
sounds of battle came. It was as if a wheel had stopped, throwing out
the entire mechanism of a well-ordered campaign. At the Imperial Palace
in Tokio conferences were held daily, Hagané, of course, being present.
Sometimes Sir Charles Grubb and his American colleague were called.
Yuki noted the deepening gloom on her husband's brow. In his scant hours
of home-staying he seemed, now, only half-conscious of her existence or
its relation to himself. Once or twice he had roused himself to answer
kindly enough some question of hers regarding the coming reception.
Meanwhile Gwendolen and the young wife were together daily. The "old
times" at Washington, to which they so often tenderly referred, as to an
epoch centuries removed, gave promise of recrudescence. They laughed,
giggled, ate olives, made fudge, and otherwise enjoyed themselves. If
the absence of Pierre and the buoyant Dodge saddened at times these
innocuous revelries, each girl hid her own regret.
Mrs. Todd, as Gwendolen prophesied, had melted instantly. The friendly
visit of the Princess Hagané, the gentle pleading of the schoolgirl
Yuki, unchanged in spite of her new glittering husk of rank, surprised
that small camp of prejudices in its sleep, and soon waved a bright
laugh of victory. At the next visit of Mrs. Stunt, however, before the
Medusa-like disapprobation of that noble countenance, Mrs. Todd froze
timidly again, to be again sun-thawed by Yuki, and recongealed by Mrs.
Stunt, until the will-power of the good lady took on, through too
frequent tempering, not, indeed, the elasticity of a Damascene blade,
but rather the pithiness of an honest vegetable left in a winter nook.
During a softened interval Mrs. Todd had promised to stand in Yuki's
receiving line. Even at the moment she had given a few sentimental sighs
for Pierre, and made a mental reservation that she would "explain" to
his satisfaction. When Mrs. Stunt turned a hard, reproving eye, she fain
would have rescinded altogether, but this time both Mr. Todd and
Gwendolen upheld her. Thus bravely seconded, she dared for once defy her
mentor. Mrs. Stunt made gestures of acrid resignation, and turned her
face away. During the afternoon she concocted several choice paragraphs
for "The Hawk's Eye."
A clear, blue day in early March dawned for Yuki's first reception.
Sunshine coaxed new flowers from the springing lawn, and rolled apples
of joyous discord among the crows and sparrows. The two chief
decorators, Gwendolen and Yuki, had not dared to rely on the day for
external brightness. Draperies added to the long shapeless windows hung
ready to exclude sunshine and storm alike. At Gwendolen's suggestion,
candles and quaint candelabra were to give the key-note to decoration.
Old junk-shops and second-hand dealers in temple brasses had been
rummaged with rich results. Branching clusters of tapers sprang
everywhere from plain spaces on the walls. Standing candelabra and
quaint single candlesticks occupied tables, mantels, and the tops of
cabinets and book-shelves, alternating with bowls and vases of cut
flowers. The wall-lights, placed tactfully but a few feet above the head
of an average man, threw into softened shadow the vast and
disproportionate ceiling. Yuki's delight was pleasant to witness. She
never could have dreamed--as she often told her friend--that the old
lecture-hall could look so well. The garish hangings and unspeakable
oil-paintings became inconspicuous, and were further softened by wreaths
of smilax and other imported hot-house vines. As the opening hour
approached, Yuki became more and more excited, though her efforts after
matronly calm were apparent. Even the knowledge that Pierre would
certainly come that afternoon should not daunt her. Nothing had been
heard from him since that one interview at Kamakura. Of this Yuki had
not spoken, not even to Gwendolen. Well, let him come, and give her
pain! She deserved it! Still would friends be left, Gwendolen, and Mr.
Todd, and the dear mother, Iriya, and--and her husband, Hagané. Her
troubled heart faced round to him, but it was as if she stood before a
stone precipice. He was too great; she too close.
All through the forenoon of that busy day presents had been arriving.
The flood-gates of official recognition had been thrown wide. Gifts of
flowers, of fruit in wonderful baskets, of growing plants in exquisitely
glazed hana-bachi, came in embarrassing confusion. Baron Tsukeru, who
united a passion for Japanese peonies to a more exotic devotion to
orchids, sent a great lacquered tray heaped with broken rainbows,
hoar-frost, and strange, flying insects turned to flowers. Old Prince
Shirota, who had been present at their marriage, sent to the prince and
his new princess a box of eggs, together with a humorous poem, saying,
"May each smooth egg betoken a life of wedded happiness, and may each
year bring an heir. So shall joy and the house of Hagané be immortal!" A
cabinet minister sent a case of champagne, also with a poem; but his was
paraphrased from Tennyson. Sweetmeats, oranges, and loose flowers came
literally by cartloads.
The great central offering, however, was a heap of exquisitely wrought
confection representing blue waves, with a pair of Miyako-dori, birds
symbolic of conjugal felicity, floating upon the sugared sea. This gift,
placed reverently upon a little table to itself, needed no card. Upon
the unpainted side of the satin-wood box in which it was fashioned,
shone the Imperial insignia, a gold chrysanthemum with sixteen petals.
The master, twice during the forenoon, had rolled up to the door in his
carriage, gone into his private office, closed the doors tightly, and
busied himself with desk-drawers and papers. In a few moments he emerged
and drove away without having spoken. On a third visit, he came into the
drawing-room, in search of Yuki. She and Gwendolen were at the far end,
both looking upward and talking (one in English, one in Japanese) to a
bewildered servant on a stepladder, who paused to listen, his face
copper-yellow among the loops of smilax. Neither heard Hagané until he
was fairly upon them. Yuki gave a start; but Gwendolen brought down
level eyes and smiled at him. He spoke first to the guest, holding her
hand closely for an instant, and uttering some conventional, though, in
this case, sincere expressions of gratitude for her kindness to Yuki. He
then asked of Yuki the exact hour at which the reception was to
commence. He spoke in English. "Four, your Highness," answered Yuki, in
the same tongue. "I shall be in this apartment at four," he said, and
then took his departure.
The two friends watched through the window as he stepped under the porte
cochére and entered the carriage.
"Your husband is a king among men, my Yuki."
"It does not become a Japanese wife to admit so."
"The hair he leaves on his barber's floor tingles with more manliness
than the whole body of Pierre Le Beau."
"It does not become the one who has made Pierre suffer to say so."
"Pshaw! Nonsense! He enjoys his suffering. But of course I might have
known you would make some such retort. Do you want me to try to keep him
away from you this afternoon, or is it part of your penitence to assist
him in insulting you?"
"Oh, help keep away, if you can!" gasped Yuki. "Prince Hagané will be
standing by me then. I wish most of all for him not to be annoyed."
"I wonder whether you realize, small Princess--" Gwendolen began, then
suddenly stopped. Her look, as she scrutinized the upturned face, was
singular; her tone, more curious still. She closed her lips tightly now,
as if to forbid the thought to come, shook her blonde head, and facing
back to the window tapped a hollow rhythm on the pane.
Yuki's cheeks grew hot. "Some one--some one need me, I think," she
murmured, and literally ran from the room.
* * * * *
Prince Hagané, punctual to the instant, fresh from the hands of his
man-servant, impressive, unforgettable, in dark native robes of silk,
took his place at the head of the receiving line. Yuki wore a robe and
obi of splendid brocade, too heavy for an unmarried woman, but now
befitting the dignity of a peeress. The colors were her favorite gray
and pink, shot through with threads of silver. In her dark hair were
pink orchids, the living flowers. She wore no jewelry but a broad gold
band on her wedding finger,--a concession to her Christian
principles,--and a clasp to her obi-domé, or flat silken cord which
holds the great folds in place. This clasp represented intertwisted
dragons. Like the ivory pin which she and Pierre had broken, it was an
heirloom in her father's family.
The new kinswoman, little Princess Sada-ko, was to be near her, above
Gwendolen in the line, but lower than the matron, Mrs. Todd. Mr. Todd
had "begged off." So also had Yuki's parents. Onda, in fact, spurred by
his dread of meeting foreigners, found good pretext for visiting a
village nearly a day's ride away.
Guests had not begun to arrive. Even the Todds (Gwendolen had gone home
two hours before to change her dress) had not yet made appearance.
Hagané stood quietly in his place, and let his gaze move slowly through
the changed and decorated rooms. The candles gleamed with intense yet
softened brilliancy. In an adjoining parlor he could see the corner of a
long table spread with rich food. Servants in livery moved about,
noiseless as shadows. A distant door was opened. The flames of the
candles leaned all one way, fretted a little, then stood upright. A few
drops of wax trickled over to the floor. Instantly a servant came with
knife and saucer to scrape up the hardening substance.
The old Prince Shirota sat in a low chair near the fire, with a late
American magazine on his silken knees. Iriya hovered near, devouring
with proud eyes this vision of her daughter consorting on equal terms
with princes. Servants stole everywhere, soft, sleek, gentle, like
well-fed animals.
A curious expression grew in the eyes of Hagané. His mouth writhed into
a harsh and ugly smile which did not pass. Yuki felt the change in him,
glanced up, and shrank a few inches further from his side. He did not
notice her. He had been reading, but a few hours before, the written
report of a Japanese spy, one of the few who had escaped alive from the
very citadel of Port Arthur. The conditions of that fortress were
plainly stated: food in abundance, ammunition, men, stone walls
practically impregnable, a brave man in command,--all things in Russian
favor; and yet by Japanese life that stronghold must be taken, by death
the national honor be restored. As their Emperor read, and laid the
paper down, he had bent his head, as if praying, and one hand had
covered his down-bent eyes. Hagané shivered at that memory. Hunger,
privation, cold, the agony of wounds untended, the deeper agony of
remembered little ones soon to be fatherless, praying now in distant
mountain villages,--this must the Japanese know to full measure. Food
and shelter in Manchuria could alleviate, and for such alleviation,
money was the only aid. Food, clothing, shelter, ammunition! Why, the
very candles fanning out a brief existence on these walls would feed a
brave battalion for a week! The table yonder, spread with delicacies for
foreigners already gorged,--that long table would bring peace nearer by
a hundred cannon detonations. The outer world, civilization so-called,
demanded that tawdry ostentation still show her front.
"My Lord--your Highness," whispered Yuki, barely touching his sleeve,
"has aught offended you?"
He looked down into her anxious face. His noble scorn melted into
sadness. "Nay, Yuki, I was but counting the lives of soldiers by these
candles on the wall."
"Lord, so have I thought, even to the point of weeping; yet you had told
me to make some display, to have things fair to look on."
"I blame you not, my good child. There is no fault at all in you; yet
the smell of that rich food sickens me. I long to be in the field with
men; to share their handful of cold rice, their shred of salted fish. I
hate the silk upon me, the soft rug at my feet, the smiling
servants,--how can they smile? When the foreign manikins arrive, it will
be hard fighting for me not to laugh at them,--to throw, like some stung
cuttle-fish, the inky substance of my scorn--why should they laugh and
feast? But, little one, I rave. You have never heard the old volcano
growl before? Well, I shall be calm now; let us draw pink clouds about
me, and set spring flowers among the fissures of my soul."
"I fear you not, my Lord, I but adore your spirit. I, too, in my weak
woman's way, have had a thought. Shall we not purchase less rich food
another time, and fewer candles? Instead, I shall buy thread and cloth
and cotton. I will this very day invite the women here to weekly meeting
for sewing. Princess Sada has been telling me that many are already
started. We can make bandages, clothing, cover for your brave men. Into
the texture we shall weave our very hearts. Tears of pity may, indeed,
soothe noble wounds no less than the ointment of our surgeons. Shall it
not be so, my husband? May I speak to my friends to-day?"
Hagané had lifted one hand to his mouth while she made eager speech. It
was steady enough when he answered. "You have pleased me, little one,
greatly have you pleased me. I shall speak of this even to our Sacred
Sovereigns."
Gwendolen came bounding in like a child. "Do you recognize me, Yuki?"
she cried, pitching her long cloak backward. "Of course Prince Hagané
would not."
She stood before the two, a shimmering vision of white, touched at
intervals by gleams of primrose hue. Hagané smiled. "If I mistake not
greatly, it is the entire costume worn by Miss Todd when first I was
honored to make her acquaintance. You called the ball a débutante's I
think."
"Heavens, Yuki, think of his remembering! I see now, Prince Hagané, that
you are truly a great man. What on earth have you been doing to your
prince?" she added in a lower tone, as Hagané stepped forward to greet
Mr. and Mrs. Todd. "He doesn't look a day over thirty-five, and
handsome--He is the noblest-looking man that ever I saw!"
Mrs. Todd, resplendent in her favorite mauve satin, violently adorned in
butter-colored lace, took her place next to Yuki. She liked well the
importance of the position, yet kept furtive glances scurrying toward
the door in outlook for Pierre and Mrs. Stunt. It was the apparition of
the latter that she dreaded most. She trembled in recalling Mrs. Stunt's
threat of forbidding and condemnatory conduct. "Not in Yuki's own house,
my dear Mrs. Stunt," she had pleaded. "Don't go to the reception at all
if you disapprove so of their behavior. Wait until you meet them
outside." To this Mrs. Stunt had replied only by tight lips, and a
glance of incorruptible virtue, as one who should say, "Get thee behind
me, Satan!" Mrs. Todd envied her friend the rigidity of her moral
nature.
Mrs. Stunt came among the very first. Although small in stature, she
never failed to make herself conspicuous. She had acquired an air of
patronage, of condescension. If a person or a group of persons continued
to converse within the first few moments of her appearance, she had a
way of looking at the offenders, of singling them out, that was never
thereafter forgotten. On this occasion she was resplendent in a new gown
of silvery gray silk, very tight as to bust and hip, and a trifle scanty
as to skirt. A reason for this insufficiency showed in the yokes and
sleeves of the Misses Stunt, lank, timid damsels of fifteen and thirteen
respectively, who followed with unquestioning eyes their energetic
mother. Each had a pinkish frock hung from a "guimpe" of silvery gray.
Kind-hearted Mrs. Todd literally held her breath as this important
person bore, like a small nickel-plated naphtha launch, straight to the
dark sea-rock of her host. The tight gray waist had the sheen of armor.
Mrs. Todd watched for the steely reflection in her friend's bright eyes.
They were now lifted to the face of Hagané. But no!--barbed lightnings
did not flash admonition from their depths. Never were blue china beads
more free from righteous indignation than those upraised orbs. She
literally grovelled, first at the feet of Lord Hagané, then before his
bride. Yuki received her gushing compliments with unsmiling lips. This
made no difference. The Misses Stunt were then signalled to grovel.
Mrs. Todd's mouth, opened in incredulity during this brief scene, had
forgotten to close. Something like indignation tingled through her full
veins. Was Mrs. Stunt after all the hypocrite Gwendolen said she was?
"Mrs. Stunt!" she called eagerly. Surely some explanation could be made.
The valiant one swept by her with a nod. She gave but one short
sentence, back-flung, "Dear Mrs. Todd, how very warm you're looking!"
Princess Sada, whose title Gwendolen took pains to enunciate distinctly,
came in for her share of compliment. The American girl next her,
half-angry, half-hysterical with suppressed laughter, was hastily
whittling a mental arrow, her keen eye searching, meanwhile, for some
weak spot in the self-love of her foe. Mrs. Stunt, scenting
trouble,--her perceptions in this regard were canine,--would have
avoided the girl, but farther down the line were more Japanese. Another
princess might be stowed among them. Mrs. Stunt could not relinquish a
possible princess. She gathered up her mantle of effrontery, and went to
her doom.
"Oh, Mrs. Stunt, not that high, fashionable hand-shake between old
friends," cried the clear, sweet voice. Guests now poured into the
doors. Many paused to hear the next sound of that pleasing voice. "I
can't tell you how glad I am that you have met at last my friend Yuki,
the Princess Hagané! You have talked so much about her, and now you have
really met. I saw Yuki's joy in the meeting. You were intoxicating in
your sincerity, dear Mrs. Stunt, a pewter-mug literally frothing with
felicitations! Why, and here is Miss Stunt and Miss Leonora Stunt! Yes,
I am glad to see you both; but move on, children; you must get mama to
bring you with her on some of her frequent visits to the Legation!"
Mrs. Stunt carried her tarnished pewter bravely down the line. She was
actually dull, leaden-toned with rage. It was not so much Gwendolen's
impertinence that stung her, but the fact of the loud, clear voice,
pitched for all to share. Whatever Mrs. Stunt's good opinion of herself,
she could not but realize that most of those who overheard rejoiced in
the Stunt humiliation.
The moment she had spoken, Gwendolen regretted it. "A mean, tawdry,
contemptible bit of revenge!" she muttered to herself. "I feel already
nearly as vile as she." The girl looked up to meet her father's deep-set
eyes. A pathetic little moue, a single pleading gesture, and the
tenderness returned to them; but his first look rankled.
It had been decided between Mr. Todd and his daughter that he should
remain near some door or window in the thick of arriving-time, where at
each loud carriage entrance he could draw aside the drapery and try to
recognize the equipage. When the French coat-of-arms appeared he was to
signal Gwendolen. Of course Le Beau would accompany his chief. The two
now were inseparable. The only plan which Gwendolen's thought had
suggested was to intercept Pierre at the door, and with what wit and
invention then came to her aid, try to separate him from his evil
genius, Ronsard, and, if possible, keep him away from Yuki.
Dodge entered airily alone. He wore a crimson carnation in his
buttonhole and dove-gray "spats" above his patent leather shoes. Seldom
now did he accompany the Todd family to any social function. Gwendolen
had been asked by her parents the cause of this sudden aloofness, and
they had received in turn the ambiguous and not altogether respectful
reply, "How should I know? Am I our secretary's keeper?"
Dodge paused now near the door through which he had entered. The rooms
were filling rapidly. His clear, dog-like eyes of hazel brown threaded
the crowd, resting the fraction of an instant on each form. He searched,
apparently, for some special object. Gwendolen, in her pretty
débutante's gown which should, by rights, have evoked pensive memories,
received but the usual light stroke of observation. The brown eyes shot
on past her, swept around the walls, came back to the door where the
owner of them stood, and then turned about to the entrance hall. "Ah!"
said Dodge, under his breath. The eagerness of the sound carried it to
Gwendolen's ear. She saw him disappear. A moment later he re-entered
with Carmen Gil y Niestra, languid and beautiful, in cream lace and
crimson carnations.
The two young people came down the line together. Yuki gazed with some
curiosity on the face of the Spanish girl. Gwendolen waited for them.
She held herself like a young Empress receiving coronation
felicitations. The white débutante's dress seemed to become alive as
Dodge neared it. One long tulle fold streamed after him as he went by.
Gwendolen caught at it angrily.
Mr. Todd touched his daughter on the shoulder. She slipped out quietly
to the hall-way, threw on the long dark cloak she had left there for the
purpose, and was in the doorway before the French barouche had entirely
stopped. Pierre issued first, and without having observed her, stood
ready to assist his chief. He gave a nervous start as Gwendolen touched
him. "Let the count go in alone," she pleaded. "I must speak with you."
The minister now emerged, a pendulous and unstable bulk. Gwendolen flew
to his side. He looked into a face vital with excitement, hurt pride,
vague apprehension. Her eyes were fairly black, her usually pale cheeks,
red as Carmen's flowers. Her beauty smote the old sensualist with
delight. "Mon Dieu, Mademoiselle, but you are lovely," he murmured
partly to himself. Ignoring physical disadvantages, he paused to make
her a deep and courtly bow, his hand pressed reverently upon that
portion of his torso where, beneath layers of unhealthy fat, squatted
the small toad of his heart with the cross of the Legion of Honor about
its neck.
"I am glad that you think me lovely at this moment," said the girl,
coquettishly, swallowing hard her rising disgust. "I want you to help
me. Please go in without Pierre. Do not let the usher call his name just
yet. I must speak alone with him."
Count Ronsard's admiration was supplemented by a shrewd and
contaminating look. He and Pierre crossed glances. The minister bowed
again, this time with less ceremony. "Whatever beauty asks is already
granted."
He whispered something to a servant who had stepped up to take Pierre's
place. The servant hurried in before. Ronsard climbed heavily, alone,
the two stone steps of the portico. Gwendolen had drawn near Le Beau,
when the bawl of the usher, in a voice unusually loud and distinct,
arrested her. "His Excellency Count Ronsard, Minister of France,
Monsieur Pierre Le Beau, Second Secretary to the French Legation."
Gwendolen caught her breath. Her eyes began to blaze. At this instant
Count Ronsard, now on the top step, gave a cry, tottered, and would have
fallen but for Pierre's agile spring.
"My ankle, my infernal ankle! I have sprained, perhaps broken it!" he
groaned aloud in English. "Your arm, my son, I cannot walk alone."
Thus supported, he limped heavily into the drawing-room. Yuki hurried to
meet him. A low cushioned chair was wheeled for his convenience. He
dominated at once the entire assemblage. Formal greetings ceased. Half a
dozen different nationalities crowded in to inquire about the accident.
He and Pierre took turns in explanation. French, German, Spanish,
Italian, English, Japanese, each was answered courteously in his own
tongue. Yuki sent upstairs to her medicine-case for bandages and
liniment; but this attention the gallant count repelled. His boot would
keep the swelling down, he said, until the sick chamber of his own house
could be reached.
Gwendolen let fall her cloak in the hall way; whoever would might rescue
it. Slowly she entered the drawing-room, paused near the interesting
group about the sufferer, and stood watching, her whole slight frame in
a hot tingle with impotent anger. No mark of pain rested on the flabby
countenance of Ronsard. Pierre looked far more ill. This fact but added
to Gwendolen's uneasiness. Yuki had a tender heart for human suffering.
She heard the count's brave self-control admired, and her disgust turned
to a mental nausea. For the moment no counter-stroke occurred to her.
Even the keen eyes of Prince Hagané were, apparently, deceived. He stood
near the Frenchman expressing grave concern. Yuki, perforce, remained
within calling of her afflicted guest. Hagané at length moved off.
Pierre, Ronsard, and Yuki were together, a meeting that Gwendolen had
striven against, and plotted to prevent. Gwendolen fancied that her
schoolmate already turned more wan, that she trembled and shrank from
the low words that were spoken. She was a white dove picked upon by
vultures. Mrs. Stunt stood across the room gleaning items with her
steely gaze.
Discomfited, utterly worsted, Gwendolen trailed slow steps down the
lighted vista. She longed for her father, but now he and Prince Hagané
had begun to talk. A vacant window, half-hidden in trailing vines,
allured her. She hurried to it, threw aside the curtain, and looked out
into the deepening twilight. All of this fair March day had been blue
and windless. The night was a bowl of liquid sapphire, a deep aerial sea
into which the house had been lowered, like a great illuminated bell. So
tangible, so intense, was the outer blueness that it seemed to
Gwendolen, should she lift the sash an inch, a gentian tide must gurgle
in through the fissure, steal along the wall to the shadowy floor, and
silently fill the long rooms with a purple flood.
That moment brought to the girl her first tinge of worldly bitterness.
Heretofore, with the one exception of her quarrel, things had seemed
naturally to come right just because she wished it. Even in dreams,
things always came right for her. Now, by some shabby turn of fortune,
the reverse was true; failure marked every effort. Being young, healthy,
and totally unacquainted with real sorrow, it was inevitable that she
should luxuriate in an imaginary despair. She stared into the night,
envying its cool blue depths of silence and oblivion. She raised long
lashes to the stars, gleaming faintly now like small phosphorescent
mushrooms springing on a damp blue field, and wondered, sighing, whether
on those distant planets lived any girl so miserable as she.
"Miss Todd," murmured a low voice. She wheeled back to the lighted room
with a gesture so sudden that two large tears splashed upon her cheeks.
Dodge stood beside her half-abashed, altogether eager, deeply flushed by
the late battle with his pride. Gwendolen's heart gave a bound toward
him, then sank down whimpering. The girl, too, felt an overwhelming need
for tears. One kind word more from Dodge, one faint concession on her
part, and she must surrender utterly, bend down with her face hidden,
and sob out her anxieties and her relief. Oh, if they were but alone,
and she could "make up" as she longed to do! But now, because all eyes
might turn to them, because she had not the self-control to explain, his
tenderness must be met by scorn, in self-protection she must lash
herself to stoicism by blows rained on him. She drew herself upright. He
could not see how feverishly one primrose-colored hand clutched the
window-frame. "You have--mis-taken your--corner, Mr. Dodge," she jerked
out in a voice that needed to balance every word, like an acrobat on a
wire. "Miss Niestra is, I think, in another part of the room."
"I have, as you say, mistaken the corner. I shall not offend again,"
said Dodge.
The girl's heart called out after him. She bit her lips to keep back the
gush of tears. "Now he will hate me forever and ever! He'll never want
to speak to me again," she told herself. She threw her head back, and
stepped out into the light. Scrutiny would help to steady her. Count
Ronsard still held court, his two attendants being Pierre and Yuki.
Gwendolen's generous heart flared into new anger for her friend. "What
are my stings to Yuki's!" she cried to herself. "Those two men are
devils to torture a woman as I know they are doing!" Gwendolen felt a
sense of returning energy. She had found a definite task.
Count Ronsard, who flattered himself that he understood all women, to
whom raw débutantes were as glass candy jars in a village shop-window,
felt a little surprise, perhaps even a little excitement, as Gwendolen,
smiling like a tall white angel, bore down upon him, and announced, in
her sweetest voice, that she had come to "keep him company."
Enlightenment and a challenge lay in her two next sentences. "Bring me
that footstool, Pierre. Yuki, darling, let me take your place now as
ministering angel to the count. Other guests may need you."
Like a snowy bird of Paradise flecked with gold, she perched beside the
caged Frenchman. He saw through her feint as clearly as she had seen
through his. Having avowed himself incapable of walking, he had no
choice but to remain where he was, or to return home. In sheer
intellectual delight at the girl's wit and daring, he yielded himself to
her snare. Her sentences enwrapped him in bright skeins. Excitement gave
her pungency. She realized that she had never talked so well, and even
in the midst of it regretted that it had to be wasted on an "old pig."
Pierre hovered about sullenly until released by a nod from his chief. No
further speech did he obtain with Yuki. Gwendolen noted, with malicious
satisfaction, how close the young wife kept to her husband's side, how
tenderly the great man leaned and spoke with her. Together they now
moved through the crowded rooms, delivering invitations to the
sewing-meeting on the following Monday, the first to be held. The air of
the room crackled to eager acceptances. Mrs. Stunt's was the explosion
of a small torpedo. Tranquillity and her usual pale-rose flush came back
to the face of the little princess. Gwendolen's sparkling eyes jeered
light into those of Count Ronsard. The man was a great man in his
distorted way. As yet life's greatest values were, for him, of the mind.
Rising at last with ostentatious and smothered groans, as he prepared to
limp to his waiting carriage, he gave the girl her meed of praise.
"Mademoiselle," he said gravely, "it would be a happy day for France
were you to become the wife of one of her diplomats."
"Merci," said Gwendolen, with a French curtsy. "The profession allures
me, but--an American diplomat will be good enough for me!"