When Friday night came and Katherine was ready to get into the taxi with
Miss Gwendoline d'Estaire, she felt exalted as she had never done in her
life.
This evening would be the test of her powers--If she failed, then she
would know that such high goals were not for her, and so she must
curtail her aspirations. _But she would not fail._ It might be that the
Duke would not be drawn to her--it was impossible to tell from that one
afternoon what his temperament could be--but at all costs she must not
fail in being a cultivated lady, a guest among equals, and so to take at
least that place in his regard.
There was something almost diabolically whimsical in the fact that one
passionate would-be lover was deliberately arranging that his lady
should meet a possible rival! Gerard Strobridge appreciated this point
as he stood before the cheerful wood fire in the morning-room in Brook
Street, awaiting his guests.
The bores, of course, came first, and then Katherine and old Miss
Gwendoline d'Estaire, and last of all, not more than five minutes
late--His Grace.
He was quite abnormally distinguished looking in evening dress, which
when dissected did not prove to be remarkably different from that of the
others, but which yet possessed some subtle quality entirely apart from
theirs, in its bygone suggestion. His manners were most courtly; he
recognised Katherine at once and shook hands with her. And then dinner
was announced.
Gerard sent the lady bore in with the Duke--himself taking old
Gwendoline, and leaving Katherine to the husband, so that Katherine sat
next His Grace at a little round table.
She was looking quite beautiful in a new black frock, as simple as the
old one, and with some of her favourite lilies of the valley tucked into
the belt. Mordryn felt constrained to talk to his partner until after
the fish--the host, by a tactful interruption, drew away her attention
and left him free, and then without hesitation he turned to Katherine.
Her heart was beating fast, and the excitement made her eyes dark and
her cheeks pale, but she did not lose her head, and indeed felt an extra
stimulant to her brain power.
He began about the debate on Wednesday. The whole thing was rather a
mockery since they were robbed of all power now in the House of Lords,
and could only make mild protests, but not enforce their opinions. Was
Miss Bush interested in politics?
Katherine said that she was, but thought it rather a degrading
profession now, with paid members making their living out of their
seats. And so they spoke for a little upon this theme, and the Duke
found himself agreeably entertained. He liked her deep voice, and above
all her extraordinarily good hands.
"Bush?" he said to himself. "I do not remember to have heard the name
before--the mother perhaps had the breeding. Those hands do not come
from the shrubbery or the common!"
Now Katherine began to talk of travels. She knew that all people enjoyed
discussing theirs on their return.
She would much like to visit the East. She had always been thrilled with
Kinglake's description of Damascus in "Eothen." Was it really a city "of
hidden palaces, of copses and gardens, and fountains and bubbling
streams"? His Grace's eyes expressed real interest now, not so much that
they should discuss Damascus, but that a modern girl should have read
Kinglake and deeply enough to quote him correctly! He also knew his
Kinglake, and had that potent gift of memory which never stumbles in its
manifestations.
He continued the subject with enthusiasm and found that this charming
young woman was familiar with all the subtlest shades. They had touched
upon passages of peculiar beauty concerning the Dead Sea, and the girls
of Bethlehem and the wonderful desert sun, and were in the middle of
those dedicated to the Sphinx, when the Duke became aware that a sweet
was being handed and that dinner was more than half over! With infinite
discretion the host had never allowed the flow of conversation to flag,
so that no pause among so small a company should bring this promising
_tête-à-tête_ to a close. Katherine should have a fair field if he could
procure it for her.
But His Grace's good manners reproached him for his negligence to the
lady he had taken in, and he turned from the contemplation of
Katherine's regular profile with reluctant dutifulness, inwardly
determining to continue Kinglake and other things when they should all
be safely in the drawing-room. These people would surely play bridge.
What a capital thing cards were if one had strength of mind enough to
enforce one's own selfishness in not playing them!
Katherine now used her best endeavours to be agreeable to the bore
husband, and spoke of subjects which were in his ken. And Gerard,
watching her, admired the progress of his pupil. No one of his world, or
any world, could have been a more polished or enchanting guest. And his
pride in her numbed the pain he had felt all the day.
Then the conversation became general, and gave fresh opportunity for
Katherine to show her powers of repartee.
Yes, the quartette played bridge, and began it almost immediately the
men joined the ladies upstairs. Mr. Strobridge had carefully not allowed
the talk to stray to any personal subject while they were alone in the
dining-room, in case the Duke should question him about Katherine. If
so, he would have been forced to say who she was, and that would spoil
her plans perhaps. How she meant to get out of the dilemma afterwards he
did not speculate. All pretence was so foreign to her nature. But that
was her affair; his only concern was that this evening should be without
flaw.
The Duke found a place on the sofa beside Katherine as soon as the rest
began their rubber, and here he could look at her undisturbed and
without craning his neck.
He admired her extremely. She was the exact type which pleased him,
distinguished and well-bred looking. He liked the way she spoke, with no
distressingly modern slang in her phrases. She must evidently have been
most carefully brought up in a really refined home! Could she be a
relation of the d'Estaires? But to ask questions of this sort was not
his method, and he turned the conversation back to "Eothen" again and
kindred things.
Katherine was in the seventh heaven; she was blooming like a glowing
hot-house plant and seemed to radiate sweetness and serenity. Every now
and then she let her eyes meet his dark-blue ones, with that strange
magnetic look in hers which she knew would compel his interest.
They spoke of music and poetry, and then of pictures--pictures in
general--and lastly those of Blissington.
"Did she know Blissington well?"
Yes, she knew it very well, and that enigmatic smile hovered for a
moment round her lips. Mordryn was surprised at it.
"It contains some recollections for you which are humorous, then?"
"Yes--very humorous."
"Won't you tell me what they are?" His most attractive clear-cut face
came a little nearer to her in his interest.
"Some day you will know."
"How fraught with meaning! 'Some day I shall know!' Not to-night, then?"
"No, for to-night we are guests at a dinner-party and are talking about
literature and music and art."
"But I want to talk about you--May I not?"
"I do not see why you should. I am just a person whom you will never
really see again--I mean, never really talk to again--so why waste time
in unprofitable investigations?"
"How do you know that they would be unprofitable?"
Katherine looked down at her own white hands folded quietly in her lap,
then up again and straight into his eyes.
"This night week if you chance to think of this evening, you will
realise how right I am as to their complete unprofitableness!"
[Illustration: "'You are ready for the great adventure?'"]
"You speak in riddles."
She shrugged her shoulders slightly and smiled.
His Grace found himself distinctly curious.
"Why should you be so sure that I shall never really see--or was it
speak to--you again? Do you then live on some desert island off the
north of Scotland, by chance?"
"In a much more inaccessible place than that." Her eyes sparkled with
some unfathomable expression.
"Iceland?"
"There is an ice barrier surrounding it."
"I shall have to give it up, and you will tell me yourself out of
gratitude, for ceasing to tease you."
Katherine leaned back on the soft green silk cushions of the sofa. She
was looking most alluring in her new rôle of honoured guest. It was so
delightful to be perfectly at ease and able to lean there, and not sit
bolt upright in a chair in an attitude of respect. The Duke found the
sight of her extremely soothing.
"You come to London sometimes, I expect?"
"Yes, for a part of the year."
"Ah! I thought so! I did not believe that Iceland produced such a
polished creature. You know you are quite unusual, Miss Bush. You have
consented, without apparent reluctance, to talk upon interesting
subjects to a wearied and middle-aged man, and you have not spoken of
golf or dancing--and you have not smoked!"
"I do smoke sometimes, but only when I am doing some tiresome mechanical
work like typing."
"Typing?--I suppose it is useful--but what can you have to type? Are you
writing a book?"
Katherine gave a sudden soft laugh, infinitely provoking; it made the
blood run in Gerard Strobridge's veins, and he viciously played a knave
while quivering with a sense of rebellion. He knew what it meant when
she laughed like that! When would this ghastly evening end?
And Katherine half whispered: "No, not writing one, but trying to learn
out of that greatest volume of all time--the book of life!"
"What can you know of life?" The Duke asked the question as Gerard
Strobridge had asked it long ago. "Protected and pampered and kept from
all but its pleasant sides--what can girls of our class know of life?"
"Tell me, then, what it is--since I could not be supposed to know?" and
her mouth still looked mischievous as well as her eyes.
The Duke thrilled a little.
"Life is either a muddle through, or an achievement. And it contains
good things and bad things, and passions--and it is forever trying to
express itself, and proclaim its meaning quite regardless of laws."
"'Tis not to stalk about and draw fresh air,
From time to time, or gaze upon the Sun."
"Oh! it is a splendid thing!" Katherine cried, and her voice vibrated.
"And unlike the _Spanish Student_, I shall not 'grow weary of the
bewildering masquerade,' 'where strangers walk as friends and friends as
strangers.' And even if they did, the unexpectedness of it would be
delightful!"
Mordryn looked at her. At the fresh, young firm, smooth cheeks, the
living red, voluptuous mouth, the ashen-hued hair, every strand of which
seemed to be specially alive and to hold its own silvery glitter. And
then at her strange, compelling eyes, and he sighed a little. She seemed
such an embodiment of vital things.
"You are ready for the great adventure?"
"Quite, and I mean to know everything before I grow old and
indifferent."
He sighed again.
"Age does not always produce indifference; it would be merciful if it
did."
"There can be no need really to grow old. Age comes because people lose
their grip on things."
"Probably. But responsibilities and sorrows and disappointments age. You
have no doubt a very sheltered life, and so it seems to you that all is
easy."
Katherine laughed again softly. It was so delicious to think of the
reality in contrast to his supposition!
"My life is indeed sheltered--by a very strong shield, but not by the
one your words would suggest."
"No? What then?"
"It is not at all interesting to talk of me; I have already told
you so--Why do you persist? I would much rather hear of foreign
countries--Italy, for instance. I have never been there."
There was not the least subjective deference in her manner to him. It
was as if an equal were talking to one of her own brain calibre and that
equal a woman, who had a right to be humoured. Women--especially
girls--were not wont so to treat him, but were always more or less
impressed by his great position, or his aloofness, or his satirical but
courteous wit. He had sometimes an expression of contemptuous, amiable
tolerance, which was eighteenth century and disconcerting. It made all
but the most simple or most highly cultivated among them slightly
uneasy--Was he laughing at them? They were never quite sure.
He found himself piqued now, and in no mood to be balked, so he
contradicted Katherine.
"You may not find yourself interesting to talk about; it chances that I
do. I wish to know what it is that shields you so effectively."
"A clear idea of what I want, I expect, and a strong enough will not to
be much buffeted about by any wind of opinion."
"What a _rara avis_! And you look so young!"
"I am twenty-three; that is fully grown."
"And what is it you want?"
"To be free to soar--to see the world--to feel its throb--to demonstrate
some of my ideas."
"On what subjects?"
"The meanings of things--and why they are--and the common sense aspect
of them. Then one could help humanity. Lady Garribardine is my ideal of
what a woman should be. There is nothing small about her; she is as big
as a great man and far more sagacious."
"There I am with you!" and his voice became eager. "Her Ladyship has
always been the perfection of things feminine, in my opinion. You know
her well?"
"Extremely well. She is not afraid of her views and principles. She is
really an aristocrat. She believes in herself, so everyone believes in
her, too!"
"Most of us are shaky about ourselves."
"You are not--I shall turn the tables now and say I want to talk about
you! What does it feel like to be a Duke?--A real Duke, not a _parvenu_
or one who makes a laughing stock of his order."
He smiled; she was a most engaging and audacious young person, because
she did not speak with childish artlessness, but with deliberation.
"It feels a great responsibility sometimes, and a thing of very little
consequence at others. It enforces perhaps a standard of behaviour which
it is difficult always to follow. If the circumstances of my life had
been different when I was younger, I should have endeavoured not to let
our order slip into impotency; now the whole modern political outlook
disgusts me so that I seldom speak in the House."
"That is very wrong of you, and cowardly." She was quite fearless. "You
should never give up a fight or remain passive when what really belongs
to you is being filched from you. If you do, as a band, you deserve to
be put aside. You should fight with the same fierceness with which those
Radicals do who know they are shams, but are indeed in earnest to obtain
their own ends."
"You are quite right. There are some women who stimulate in all ways,
who are, as it were, sent into the world as electric dynamos. They get
the best out of everyone; they make men work better and play better--and
love better."
He looked at her now with his fine eyes sparkling, but flirtation was
far beneath his feet. To his mistresses he was a master, a generous,
tolerant, contemptuous master; to his friends like Lady Garribardine the
essence of courtly consideration; to the general company politely aloof.
But to the woman who could arouse his love, what might he not be!
Katherine thought this, and a quiver ran through her of a kind she had
never experienced before, so that her composure was not so perfect as
usual when she answered:
"If one really knew exactly what is love!"
"You have no dim guess at it, then?" He was quite surprised that it
should interest him to know what her reply would be.
"Yes, I have--more than that. I know that some phases of it make
one feel mad, agitated, unbalanced, animal, even motherly and
protective--but what it could be if it touched the soul, I cannot
fathom."
The Duke did not speak for a moment; he was filled with wonder and a
growing admiration, admiration which extended even beyond the very real
appreciation of her beauty. Her mentality was so far above the average,
her directness so interesting. There was not the slightest trace of pose
in anything she said--And that last speech--what possibilities it opened
up! She knew something of one side of love then, evidently!
"Do you realise what your words imply?"
"Yes."
"That you have loved someone--in that way--once?"
"Yes, I have--It is a way that frightens one, and makes one more than
ever sure that there must be something else. Do you know that there
is--you who have lived your life?"
Her face was pale and cool as moonbeams. She seemed to be talking in the
abstract, for all the personal question. The Duke found himself quite
unaccountably moved, and was just about to answer eagerly, when at that
moment the host joined them from the other drawing-room; the rubber was
over, and he felt he must do his duty and not make too obvious a point
of leaving the pair alone.
"Come and see the miniatures, Mordryn," he said. "We must not forget
that it was their lure which brought you here to-night."
His tone Katherine well understood, it contained for all its surface
graciousness some bitterness underneath.
There was general movement after this, and no more private confidences
could be exchanged, so that Miss d'Estaire and Katherine left, with His
Grace's answer to the latter's question still unspoken.
And Gerard Strobridge, as he pressed Katherine's hand in good-nights,
whispered:
"Have I done well--and are you satisfied?"
The firm clasp of her cool fingers was his answer.