The Duke found great difficulty in carrying out his intention on that
Saturday. For a Duke to escape from a lady-pack brought there especially
to hunt him is no easy task! He had reason to believe that his hostess
would not aid him either, and that it would be impossible to appeal to
her sympathy, because he was quite aware that he would withhold his own,
had he to look at the matter dispassionately as concerning someone else.
It was a fool's errand he was bent upon in all senses of the phrase. But
as this conviction forced itself upon him, the desire to see and talk
with Katherine grew stronger.
It happened that she lunched downstairs. At such a large party as this,
that meal was consumed at several small tables of six each, and of
course the secretary was not placed at His Grace's! Indeed, she sat at
one directly at his back, so that he could not see her, though once in a
pause he heard her deep, fascinating voice. When later in the hall
coffee and cigarettes had come, Katherine passed near him to put down a
cup, and he seized the moment to address her.
"In twenty minutes, I am coming from the smoking-room to the
schoolroom--please be there."
Miss Bush gave no sign as to whether or no she heard this remark, which
was made in a low voice with a note of pleading in it. If he chose to do
this, she would make it quite clear that she would have no clandestine
acquaintance with him, but at the same time she experienced a delicious
sense of excitement.
She was seated before her typewriter busily typing innumerable letters,
when she heard his footsteps outside, and then a gentle tap at the door.
"Come in!" she called, and he appeared.
His face looked stern, and not particularly good-tempered.
"May I stay for a moment in this haven of rest, Miss Bush?" and he shut
the door. "In so large a party, every sitting-room seems to be
overflowing, and there is not a corner where one may talk in peace."
Katherine had risen with her almost overrespectful air, which never
concealed the mischievous twinkle in her eyes when she raised them, but
now they were fixed upon the sheets of paper.
"Your Grace is welcome to that armchair for a little, but I am very
occupied. Lady Garribardine wishes these letters to go by this evening's
post."
"I wish you would not call me 'Your Grace'," he said, a little
impatiently. "I cannot realise that you can be the same person whom I
met at Gerard Strobridge's."
"I am not," she looked up at him.
"Why?"
"It is obvious--I was me--myself, that night--a guest."
"And now?"
"Your Grace is not observant, I fear; I am Her Ladyship's secretary."
"Of course--but still?" he came over quite close to her.
"If I had been the same person as the one you met at Mr. Strobridge's,
you would not now have been obliged to contrive to come to the
schoolroom to speak to me."
A dark flush mounted to his brow. She had touched a number of his
refined sensibilities. Her words were so true and so simple, and her
tone was quite calm, showing no personal emotion but merely as though
she were announcing a fact.
"That is unfortunately true, but these are only ridiculous conventions,
which please let us brush aside. May I really sit down for a minute?"
Katherine glanced at the clock; it was half-past three.
"Until a quarter to four, if you wish. I am afraid I cannot spare more
time than that."
She pointed to the armchair which he took, and she reseated herself at
the table, folding her hands. There was a moment's silence. The Duke was
feeling uncomfortably disturbed. There had been a subtle rebuke conveyed
in her late speech, which he knew he merited. He had no right to have
come there.
"Are you not going to talk to me at all, then?" he almost blurted out.
"I will answer, of course, when Your Grace speaks; it is not for me to
begin."
"Very well, I not only speak--I implore--I even order you to discontinue
this ridiculous humility, this ridiculous continuance of 'Your Grace,'
resume the character of guest, and let us enjoy these miserable fifteen
minutes--but first, I want to know what is the necessity for your total
change of manner here? Gerard and Gwendoline knew that you were Lady
Garribardine's secretary that night, but they did not consider it
imperative to make a startling difference in their relations towards
you because of that, as it seems that you would wish me to make now."
Katherine looked down and then up again straight into his eyes, a slight
smile quivered round her mouth.
"That is quite different--they know me very well--and dear Miss
Gwendoline is not very intelligent. I have been there before to help to
entertain bores for Mr. Strobridge and Lady Beatrice, but that night I
was there--because I wanted to see--Your Grace."
Here she looked down again suddenly. The Duke leaned forward eagerly;
this was a strange confession!
"I wanted once to talk to a man as an equal, to feel what it was like
to be a lady and not to have to remember to be respectful. So I
deliberately asked Mr. Strobridge to arrange it--after I had heard you
speak."
The Duke was much astonished--and gratified.
"How frank and delicious of you to tell me this! I thought the evening
was enchanting--but why do you say such a silly thing as that you wanted
to feel what it was like to be a lady? You could never have felt
anything else."
"Indeed, I could; I am not a lady by birth, anything but! only I have
tried to educate myself into being one, and it was so nice to have a
chance of deciding if I had succeeded or no."
"And your verdict was?" he raised amused eyebrows.
She looked demure.
"By Your Grace's words just now, I conclude that I have succeeded."
"Only by my words just now? I thought we had had a rather pleasant and
interesting hour of conversation as fellow-guests."
"Yes--You are not shocked, then, when I tell you that I am not really a
lady?"
"No. The counterfeit presentment is so very perfect, one would like to
hear the details of the passage to its achievement."
Then she told him in as few and as simple words as she could--just the
truth. Of her parentage, of her home at Bindon's Green--of Liv and
Dev's, of her ideals, and her self-education, and of her coming to Lady
Garribardine's.
Mordryn listened with rapt attention, his gaze fixed upon her face--he
made brief ejaculations at times, but did not otherwise interrupt her.
"You can understand now how entertained I was at the things which you
said to me that night, can you not?"
Thus she ended her story, and the Duke rose and sat down upon the edge
of the table quite close to her; he was visibly moved.
"You extraordinary girl. You have upset every theory I ever held. I
shall go away now and think over all you have said--Meanwhile, I feel
that this is the only way in which I can show my homage," and he took
her hand with infinite respect and kissed it.
Then he removed his tall form from the table and quietly left the room.
And when she was alone, Katherine gently touched the spot where his lips
had pressed; there was a quite unknown emotion running through her.
She found it very difficult to go on with her work after this, and made
a couple of mistakes, to her great annoyance. Nearly an hour passed. She
got up from her typing, and after changing her blouse, went down to tea,
her thoughts not nearly so calm as usual.
Was her friendship with this man finished? Had her frankness
overreached itself? Just what did that kiss mean? Here was a character
not so easy to read as Gerard Strobridge's. Here was a will perhaps as
strong as her own. Her face was very pale, and those concentrated
grey-green eyes looked stormy and resentful.
The Duke reached the smoking-room and was seated at the writing-table
only one moment before the room was invaded by Lady Garribardine.
"Poor Mordryn! You had to take refuge here! I fear those charming
creatures I have invited for you are proving a little fatiguing."
"Frankly, Seraphim, they bore me to death."
"Two others are coming of a different type presently. But you are safe
in this corner. Most of them do not know I have moved the smoking-room
to this wing."
"I think it is a great improvement."
Her Ladyship looked at him out of the tail of her eye, but she said,
quite innocently:
"Yes, Gerard always says so." Then she left him to his letters, with a
word as to tea and a cosy talk in her boudoir after it.
So Gerard liked this room, too! Miss Bush was with him at the House. She
dined at Brook Street. Then Mordryn frowned and looked the very image of
the Iron Duke, and did not even begin to write an order which he had
intended to send his agent. His mind was disturbed. Every word Katherine
had said had made a deep impression upon him.
The father an auctioneer--the grandfather a butcher! And this girl a
peerless creature fit for a throne! But if she were fit for heaven,
there were still quite insurmountable barriers between even ordinary
acquaintance with her. He rather thought he would leave Blissington on
Sunday night.
Then he frowned again. Gerard Strobridge was a charming fellow. Seraphim
adored him--he was often here--he liked the smoking-room! Somehow the
conversation must be turned, when he was alone with his friend
presently, to the subject of Gerard.
Then he found himself going over every minute sentence that had fallen
from Katherine. What a wonderful, wonderful girl! How quite ridiculous
class prejudices were! How totally faulty the reasoning of the world!
At tea, he did not converse with Miss Bush, but he never lost the
consciousness of her presence, and was almost annoyedly aware of a
youngish man's evident appreciation of her conversation. So that his
temper, when he found himself in Lady Garribardine's sitting-room, was
even more peevish than it had been on the evening before.
Katherine had preceded him there, but had left ere he arrived. She had
brought some letters for her mistress' inspection. When this business
was finished, she said quite simply:
"His Grace came up into the schoolroom after luncheon to-day. He appears
to have been confused over my two identities. I explained to him, and
told him who my father was, and my mother's father, and how I have only
tried to make myself into a lady. It did not seem fair that he should
think that I was really one born."
Lady Garribardine looked disagreeable for an instant. She, too, had to
conquer instinct at times, which asserted itself in opposition even to
her heart's desire, and her deliberate thought-out intentions. One of
her ancestors had put a retainer in chains for presumption! But her
intelligence crushed out the folly almost as quickly as it arose, and
she smiled:
"And, of course, the Duke at once said he could not know common people,
and bounced from the room! Katherine Bush, you are a minx, my child!"
Katherine laughed softly.
"He did not say that exactly--but he did go away very soon."
"'He that fights and runs away!'" quoth Her Ladyship; "but I don't think
you had better let him come to the schoolroom again. Martha will be
having her say about the matter."
Katherine reddened. That her dear mistress should think her so stupid!
"I did not intend to. It is very difficult--even the greatest gentlemen
do not seem to know their places always."
"A man finds his place near the woman he wants to talk to--you must not
forget that, girl!"
"It is a little mean and puts the woman in a false position often."
"She prefers that to indifference. There is one very curious thing about
women, the greatest prude is not altogether inwardly displeased at the
knowledge that she exercises a physical attraction for men. Just as the
greatest intellectual among men feels more flattered if exceptional
virility is imputed to him, than all the spiritual gifts! Virility--a
quality which he shares with the lower animals, spirituality a gift
which he inherits from God. Oh! we are a mass of incongruities, we
humans! and brutal nature eventually wins the game. Animal savagery is
always the outcome of too much civilisation. And unless the dark
ages of ignorance fall upon us once more, so that we can again be
sufficiently simple to believe _en masse_ in a God, I feel our cycle is
over and that we shall be burnt out of time."
Then presently, as her secretary was moving towards the door, Her
Ladyship remarked irrelevantly:
"Look here, girl--Do you think it is in your nature ever to love really,
or are you going to let brain conquer always?"
"I--do not know," faltered Katherine.
"Love is the only thing on earth which is sublime. This evening until
you come down after dinner, I recommend you to read the 'Letters of
Abelard and Heloise'."
* * * * *
The Duke talked of politics for a while when he came into his old love's
sitting-room--and then of books and ideas, and lastly of Gerard. Was he
happy with Beatrice, after all?
"Yes, they do very well together. Beatrice is bred out of all natural
emotions. She is sexless and well-mannered and unconsciously humorous.
They go their own ways."
"But Gerard was always an ardent lover. Has he had no emotions since the
Alice Southerwood days?"
"A transient passion for Läo Delemar, and since then a deep devotion
elsewhere--quite unreturned, though. It has rather improved him."
The Duke unconsciously felt relief.
"Unreturned?--that must be a new experience for him: Gerard has every
quality to attract a woman."
"This one is infinitely too proud and too intelligent to waste a thought
upon a married man."
"It is a girl, then! How unlike Gerard's usual taste!"
"Yes--Mordryn, shall you open Valfreyne quite soon?"
"Immediately--I shall have a party for Whitsuntide, if you will honour
me by acting hostess."
"All right--if I may bring my _personnel_ with me--a large order! I
can't stand the racket without Stirling and James and Harmon, my
chauffeur--and Miss Bush."
"All are perfectly welcome--especially Miss Bush. She appeared an
extremely clever girl when I had the pleasure of talking to her."
"Yes, she is a wonderful creature. I am thinking of marrying her off to
Sir John Townly."
The Duke leaned forward, his voice was quite shocked.
"How inhuman, Seraphim! John Townly must be sixty, at least."
"My dear Mordryn, that is only seven years older than you are, and I
look upon you as hardly yet at the prime of life--and beggars cannot be
choosers, the girl is of no family. Neither for that matter is Sir John.
It will be suitable in every way----I suppose you will let me have a say
as to the guests for the Whitsuntide outbreak, eh?"
"Naturally--but spare me any too overmodern widows, or any further
breakers in of my sensibilities!"
Seraphim laughed, and they set about making the list.
But when the Duke had gone to dress, she looked long into the fire,
something a little sentimental and yet satisfied in her gaze.
"Dear Mordryn--Gerard and the smoking-room caused him uneasiness; it
would not have done for that to continue, because of the unpleasant
reflection that G. is a married man. Sir John was splendid--but Mordryn
is no fool. I must now really oppose him in every possible way----I am
not sure if, after all, I shall take her to Valfreyne."
And the Duke, as he dressed, said to himself that he did not understand
women. Here was Seraphim, a creature with the kindest heart, yet so full
of that distressingly feminine matchmaking instinct which was the curse
of her sex, that she was ready to pitchfork this charming, living,
fascinating young person into the mouldering arms of old John Townly!
The idea was simply revolting to contemplate, even if beggars could not
be choosers! And then suddenly he seemed to see the auctioneer father
and the butcher grandfather and the home at Bindon's Green!
He walked down to dinner in a subdued mood.