"He doesn't consent."
"Then you mean--?"
"He wants time to think it over."
"Time? There _is_ no time--did you tell him so?"
"I told him so; but you must remember that he has plenty. He has taken
twenty-four hours."
Mrs. Newell groaned. "Oh, that's too much. When he thinks things over
he always refuses."
"Well, he would have refused at once if I had not agreed to the delay."
She rose nervously from her seat and pressed her hands to her forehead.
"It's too hard, after all I've done! The trousseau is ordered--think
how disgraceful! You must have managed him badly; I'll go and see him
myself."
The Baron, at this, turned abruptly from his study of the Place Vendome.
"My dear creature, for heaven's sake don't spoil everything!" he
exclaimed.
Mrs. Newell coloured furiously. "What's the meaning of that brilliant
speech?"
"I was merely putting myself in the place of a man on whom you have
ceased to smile."
He picked up his hat and stick, nodded knowingly to Garnett, and walked
toward the door with an air of creaking jauntiness.
But on the threshold Mrs. Newell waylaid him.
"Don't go--I must speak to you," she said, following him into the
antechamber; and Garnett remembered the dress-maker who was not to be
dislodged from her bedroom.
In a moment Mrs. Newell returned, with a small flat packet which she
vainly sought to dissemble in an inaccessible pocket.
"He makes everything too odious!" she exclaimed; but whether she
referred to her husband or the Baron it was left to Garnett to decide.
She sat silent, nervously twisting her cigarette-case between her
fingers, while her visitor rehearsed the details of his conversation
with Mr. Newell. He did not indeed tell her the arguments he had used
to shake her husband's resolve, since in his eloquent sketch of
Hermione's situation there had perforce entered hints unflattering to
her mother; but he gave the impression that his hearer had in the end
been moved, and for that reason had consented to defer his refusal.
"Ah, it's not that--it's to prolong our misery!" Mrs. Newell exclaimed;
and after a moment she added drearily: "He has been waiting for such an
opportunity for years."
It seemed needless for Garnett to protract his visit, and he took leave
with the promise to report at once the result of his final talk with
Mr. Newell. But as he was passing through the ante-chamber a side-door
opened and Hermione stood before him. Her face was flushed and shaken
out of its usual repose of line, and he saw at once that she had been
waiting for him.
"Mr. Garnett!" she said in a whisper.
He paused, considering her with surprise: he had never supposed her
capable of such emotion as her voice and eyes revealed.
"I want to speak to you; we are quite safe here. Mamma is with the
dress-maker," she explained, closing the door behind her, while Garnett
laid aside his hat and stick.
"I am at your service," he said.
"You have seen my father? Mamma told me that you were to see him
to-day," the girl went on, standing close to him in order that she
might not have to raise her voice.
"Yes; I have seen him," Garnett replied with increasing wonder.
Hermione had never before mentioned her father to him, and it was by a
slight stretch of veracity that he had included her name in her
mother's plea to Mr. Newell. He had supposed her to be either
unconscious of the transaction, or else too much engrossed in her own
happiness to give it a thought; and he had forgiven her the last
alternative in consideration of the abnormal character of her filial
relations. But now he saw that he must readjust his view of her.
"You went to ask him to come to my wedding; I know about it," Hermione
continued. "Of course it is the custom--people will think it odd if he
does not come." She paused, and then asked: "Does he consent?"
"No; he has not yet consented."
"Ah, I thought so when I saw Mamma just now!"
"But he hasn't quite refused--he has promised to think it over."
"But he hated it--he hated the idea?"