HER FIRST KISS
"I was never," she declared, "quite so pleased to see any one in all my
life. I was wondering whether it would occur to you that I was
starving."
He set the tray down for her, placed a chair in front of the table, and
busied himself opening the wine. All the time he was looking at her.
"Whatever have you been doing to yourself?" he asked at length.
She laughed softly.
"Oh, I had to amuse myself somehow," she answered. "I've done my hair a
new way, rearranged all my ornaments, and really I don't think a man has
a right to such a delightful manicure set. I felt terribly nervous in
the lavatory, though. I could hear some one in the billiard-room all the
time."
"That's all right!" he declared. "I've locked the door there, and have
the key in my pocket. No one can get in from that side."
"Please talk, and don't watch me," she begged. "I'm ashamed to be so
hungry."
He smiled and helped her to some more chicken. If he talked he was
scarcely conscious of what he said. All the time his eyes kept straying
towards her. She had taken off her jacket and was dressed simply enough
in a blouse of some soft white material and a dark skirt. Everything,
from the ornaments at her neck, the dull metal waistband, and the trim
shoes, seemed to him to be carefully chosen, and the best of their sort.
She wore no rings, and her fingers had the rosy pinkness of health. If
she had seemed graceful to him before in the drawing-room of Runton
Place, and surrounded by some of the most beautiful women in the
country, she seemed more than ever so now, seated in the somewhat worn
chair of his little studio. The color, too, seemed to have come back to
her cheeks. She seemed to have regained in some measure her girlishness.
Her eyes were ever ready to laugh into his. She chattered away as though
the world after all contained nothing more serious for her than for any
other girl. Duncombe hated to strike another note, yet he knew that
sooner or later it must be done.
"You are quite sure that you will not have anything else?" he asked.
"Absolutely, thanks! I have never enjoyed anything so much in my life."
He glanced at his watch. It was half-past eleven.
"I am afraid," he said, "that I am going to be a nuisance to you, but
one's friends often are that. I want to be your friend. I want to prove
myself such. I am not an inquisitive person, by any means, but fate has
declared that I should be your inquisitor. There are some questions
which I am bound to ask you."
Her face grew suddenly grave.
"There is so little," she murmured, "which I can tell you."
"We shall see," he answered. "In the first place, Lord Runton has been
here. He is one of my oldest friends, and a very good fellow. He came to
tell me that Von Rothe had been robbed in his house of some valuable
papers. He came partly to ask my advice. All the time I was sitting
opposite to him, with those papers in my pocket."
She looked at him strangely.
"Perhaps," she said quietly, "you gave them up to him."
"I did not," he answered. "You know very well that I did not."
"It was your duty," she said in a low tone.
"Perhaps so. On the other hand," he continued, "you trusted me. The
papers are safe."
"Does he know that you have them?" she asked.
"He knows nothing!"
She looked at him steadfastly--not with any appearance of doubting his
word, and yet as though she were revolving something in her mind
concerning him.
"I am thinking," she said, "how much better it would have been for both
of us if we had never met."
"The fates thought otherwise," he answered. "I searched Paris for you,
only to find you at my gates. The fates meant you to be my friend. We
must be careful not to disappoint them."
She shook her head a little wistfully.
"You have been very good to me," she said, "but you don't
understand----"
"Precisely!" he interrupted. "I don't understand. I want to. To begin
with--what in this world induced you to throw in your lot even for an
hour with the man who called himself Fielding?"
"I can answer no questions concerning myself," she said sadly.
He smiled.
"Come," he said, "it isn't so serious as all that, is it? Sooner or
later your friends are sure to find you, and they will not be content
with such a statement as that. You were summoned one day to Paris by or
on behalf of your brother, who had unaccountably disappeared there. You
immediately appear to have followed suit. You had no friends in
Paris--neither, I think, had he. I believe I am correct in saying that
you had neither of you ever been there before. If your brother has
fallen into bad hands, and if those same people are trying to work upon
your fears by leading you into this sort of thing--well, I have friends
who are powerful enough to bring you safely out of any den of thieves in
the world. You are in an impossible situation, my dear young lady.
Nature never meant you for an adventuress. There is no necessity for you
to become one. Why do you look at me like that?"
There was terror in her face. He had hoped to reassure her, to give her
courage. On the contrary every word he spoke only seemed to increase her
distress.
"Oh, I am afraid!" she murmured. "I wish I had taken my chance. I ought
not to have burdened you for a moment with my affairs. I have given you
the right to ask me questions which I cannot answer."
He was perplexed.
"If you have given promises to these people----" he began.
"Oh, there is no question of promises," she interrupted. "I am here of
my own free will. I refuse to answer any questions. I pray only if you
would be generous that you ask me none, that you keep me until
to-morrow, and let me go, not only from this place, but out of your
life. Then indeed I will be grateful to you."
He took her hand in his. She yielded it without any attempt at
resistance, but it lay in his palm a cold, dead thing.
"I am only concerned for your good," he said gently. "It is your
happiness only that I am anxious for. You were not born or trained for a
life of lies and crime. I want to save you from it before it is too
late."
"What I do," she said slowly, "I do of my own free will."
"Not quite, I think," he answered, "but let that pass. Listen! If you
will not talk to me about these things, will you talk to my friend,
Jarvis Spencer? He is a gentleman, and a journalist by profession, but
he is also one of the cleverest amateur detectives in England."
She held up her hands with a little gesture of horror. Her eyes were
alight with fear.
"No!" she cried. "No! A thousand times, no! Don't let him come near me,
please. Oh, I wish I could make you understand," she continued
helplessly. "You yourself in Paris only a few weeks ago were in terrible
danger. A girl who only gave, or meant to give, you information about my
brother and me was murdered. You, too, would have been killed if you had
found anything out."
He would have answered her lightly, but the memory of Mademoiselle
Flossie lying dead upon the bed in that gloomy little room suddenly rose
up before him, and the words died away upon his lips. He was silent for
a moment, and glanced again at his watch. It wanted only five minutes
to twelve. He came and leaned over her chair.
"Phyllis," he said, "what am I to do about you? I cannot let you go out
of my life like this. No, you must listen to me for a moment. When
Pelham sent for me after you had disappeared he showed me your picture.
I am not exactly the sort of man of whom knight-errants are made. I have
never gone a mile out of my way to meet any woman in my life. My life
here has seemed of all things the best to me. I am a dull, unambitious
sort of fellow, you know, since I settled down here, and I expected to
go on for the rest of my days pretty much in the same way. And yet when
Pelham showed me your picture it was different. I made him give a copy
to me. I told him--liar that I was--that I could not carry the memory of
your face in my mind, when it was already engraven in my heart. And I
went off to Paris, Phyllis, like the veriest Don Quixote, and I came
back very sad indeed when I could not find you. Then you came to Runton
Place, and the trouble began. I did not care who you were, Phyllis
Poynton, Sybil Fielding, or any one else. I let the others dispute. You
were--yourself, and I love you, dear. Now do you understand why I cannot
let you go away like this?"
He had both her hands in his now, but her face was turned away. Then
without any warning, there came a soft rapping at the door which led
into the library.
Duncombe reached it in a couple of strides. He opened it cautiously, and
found Spencer standing there.
"I thought it best to let you know," he said, "that a carriage has
stopped in the lane. If I can be of any assistance I shall be here--and
ready."
Duncombe nodded and closed the door. The girl was sitting upright in her
chair, with the old look of fear in her eyes.
"Who was that?" she asked quickly.
"Spencer," he answered. "He discovered your presence here, but he is
perfectly discreet. He knocked to tell me that a carriage has stopped in
the lane outside."
She was white with fear, but he only laughed, and stooping down would
have taken her hands once more. But at that moment an unexpected sound
intervened. The deep silence of the house was broken by the ringing of
the front door bell.
Duncombe started back. The girl half rose to her feet.
"The front door!" he exclaimed. "The servants will have gone to bed. I
must answer it myself."
She clung to him with a sudden abandon. She was white to the lips.
"I am afraid," she moaned. "Don't leave me alone."
He glanced towards the window.
"By Jove, it may be a trap!" he exclaimed. "Let them ring. I'll stay
here with you."
They stood hand in hand listening. His head was turned towards the door,
but the gentle pressure of her fingers drew him round. Her face was
upturned to his. Something of the fear had gone. There was an eager,
almost desperate, light in her softened eyes, and a tinge of color in
her cheeks. He caught her into his arms, and their lips met. She
disengaged herself almost immediately.
"I don't care," she said with a little laugh. "That is the first kiss I
have ever given to a man, and very likely it will be the last. You
won't be able to say that I have gone away without paying my bill. Now
go and open the front door, Sir George."
He hesitated for a moment.
"Say only the word, Phyllis, and no one in the world shall ever take you
away."
She did not even answer him. He left her with a little sigh.
"Spencer," he said, "if you hear the slightest noise in that room go in
and shout for me."
Spencer nodded. The front door bell rang again.