The following morning, as she stood clipping the roses, Dermott
McDermott leaned over the hedge.
"Will you marry me, Katrine?" he said, with no salutation whatever.
"Will you wait," she inquired, "till I've finished cutting the roses?"
"But I'm in earnest," he announced.
She held the clippers in her gloved hand to shade the sun from her eyes,
regarding him in her friendly, companionable way.
"Dermott," she said, "what makes you such a liar?" The word as she spoke
it of him seemed almost a compliment.
"You've been associating, I fear, with some narrow and confined spirit,
who repeats things exactly as they occurred. I've more imagination!" he
explained, with a laugh. "Why should I not change things a bit?" he
continued. "Every Irishman's got to have one of three vices: whiskey,
love-making, or lying. Mention me one of any distinction who had none of
these!"
"There was St. Patrick," Katrine suggested, a laugh held under her
eyelids.
"He's so remote you can prove nothing against him. Take another that I
have later news of."
"Wellington."
"He was never an Irishman."
"And Burke."
"And I'm thinkin', begging your pardon, Mistress Katrine, there was a
lady to be explained away in his case. No," he said, waving her
suggestion far from him, "all the Irish are alike. They've, as I say,
one of three vices. I lie, that's why I'm so interestin', especially to
the ladies. Suppose I say: 'Old Mrs. O'Hooligan was tripped by a dog in
the lane yesterday!' Who cares? Not one soul in a thousand! But instead,
with a gesture: 'Did ye hear of the startling adventure of Mrs.
O'Hooligan? She was coming home at midnight from a sick friend's' (it's
well to throw in a few sympathetic touches if ye can). 'Suddenly an
animal, a strange animal, came by, something like a mad bull' (of course
you can enlarge or diminish the animal as required; in the mist of night
I have found a black cat very telling). 'She saw the vision quite
plainly. It passed, touched her, there was a word in the air whose
significance she was unable to determine, and in the morning the friend
was well--or dead.' For conversational purposes it makes no difference."
He wore a broad smile as he spoke, looking down at her with great love
and devotion.
"Ye see, Mistress Katrine, the ladies like a little exaggeration.
There's Mrs. Ravenel likes me fine, and says it's my temperament; and
Peggy of the Poplars is crazy about me; and hundreds in the two
continents who'd marry me at a second's notice. I'm a great lover," he
laughed somewhat uneasily, keeping his eyes averted, and adding, "when I
don't care! Ye see, a woman doesn't mind a bit of exaggeration in a
man's love-making," he went on. "Now there was Antony, who threw a world
away. What's that! One world! I'd tell her I'd throw away a universe of
worlds. Why not be extravagant! It's all," he laughed again softly,
"it's all 'hot air,' anyway."
"And yet you're a truthful person, Dermott McDermott. There's none can
tell the truth more bravely or with greater nicety than you," Katrine
broke in.
"When I've need of it, and it's an affair of men," he answered. "Oh, I
still know Truth when I meet her. We've not fallen out altogether, but I
stick to it that she's very dry company. But this discussion, after all,
is merely academic," he said, with a droll smile. "I have come to you in
a perturbed state of mind. You have refused to marry me thousands of
times, it is true; but I am noble, and forgive. To-morrow I am having
some delicacies sent me from the North. My cook is a duffer. Now, I
thought, why can't Katrine Dulany and I have a little dinner, with Nora
to prepare it, Mr. Ravenel asked in, and all be happy together?"
"I don't think Mr. Ravenel can come. There are visitors at Ravenel
House," Katrine explained.
"He can-and I think he will-leave them for one evening," Dermott
answered.
* * * * *
"I'm the only human being alive that ye've not hypnotized, Frank
Ravenel!" Dermott cried, with a laugh, as the three of them sat at
dinner at the Old Lodge the evening following this talk. "The only
person ye've ever known, probably, who did not fall under the charm of
the ways and the eyes of you." There was flattery in this of such a
subtle kind that Katrine looked quickly from one to the other, for with
woman's intuition she had long since felt the antagonism between them.
"Ye see," Dermott went on, "I underrated the South when I came here. You
Southerners understand people as I think no other folk on earth
understand them. That's your great strength," he said, addressing
himself entirely to Frank. "Now, in a business matter I might, though
I'm by no means sure of it, get the better of you." His eyes were bland
and frank as he spoke. "But where you would always have the advantage is
in knowing the people you may trust. It's a great gift that. The
greatest knowledge of all is to know people, and it seems to be an
instinct with you, Mr. Ravenel!"
Again Katrine looked from one to the other, mystified, as Francis sat
smiling under this flattery.
"Shouldn't there be accompanying laurel wreaths with this unsolicited
testimonial, Mr. McDermott?" he inquired, with a laugh.
In a second Dermott took warning, left the subject, and was galloping
over conversational fields furthest from compliments to Frank.
"About the trouble over your Senator here from North Carolina. I'd a
talk with the President concerning him, and it was mentioned, though
hiddenly, that the White House does not want him returned."