Camelia during the next few days was conscious of an expectant pause.
There was a page to be turned. She kept her own hand from it; for a day
or two, at least, she would not stir a finger; and if Perior chose to
turn it, the turning bound her to nothing--would probably reveal mere
blankness, whereon he might inscribe an affectionate dedication for her
new life. In that case the new chapter would be hymeneal; indeed, it
seemed inevitable that she should marry Arthur Henge; the waiting volume
seemed inevitably that of her married life.
But her thoughts were not with Arthur. They fixed themselves
persistently on Perior. Let him come--write the friendly dedication,
certify, by his blessing, to the sincerity and wisdom of her choice; or
else, was it not possible that he might dash the volume out of her
hands? No doubt she would pick it up again. Still, to see him dash it
down would be eventful. Therefore, she waited, more breathlessly than
she quite realized.
The last act of the drama had left her with no spite at all against
Mary--its chief but insignificant factor. She was not resentful on the
score of Mary's revelations; on the other hand, Mary's charitable
reticence did not move her to gratitude. After all, it was a very
explicable reticence; her own confession to Perior had lent it the
kindest glamour. For Mary to have told Perior all would have been a
humiliating plea for his negative; and the negative he could not have
given with sincerity. Mary had felt that. No; Camelia's analysis
disowned any obligation; but neither was she conscious of the least
anger. A mean revengefulness was not in her nature, she was as easy
towards Mary as towards herself; she quite saw that to Mary she must
have seemed horrid, and that perfectly atoned for the whines in which
poor Mary had probably indulged. She was sure the whines had not been
spiteful. She could imagine Mary injured, but not at all spiteful; and
on their first meeting after the portentous dressing-room scene, her
eyes rested in blankest serenity upon her cousin's flushed and miserable
face.
She felt serenity and blankness to be tactful kindnesses, and they were
very easy. The thought of Mary hardly stirred her deep, still absorption
in the purely dual problem, for, after Mary's ride--and Camelia missed
him then--Perior did not come again.
The trial of strength in silence, they the two opponents facing one
another for the test, filled her days with an excited sense of contest.
It was not made more complex by outer jars. Mr. Rodrigg was unavoidably
called away for a fortnight, and Sir Arthur might still be evaded,
though Lady Henge's brow had grown gloomy. Camelia rather enjoyed the
grave inquiry in the looks bent upon her by her future mamma (oh yes,
almost without doubt, future mamma); but she did not intend to brighten
them by the announcement of that fact until her own good time. Lady
Henge's gloom and Arthur's patience touched only the outer rings of her
consciousness. For Perior did not come. At the end of the first week her
patience was out-worn; the detachment of mere contemplation became
impossible. She essayed a flag of truce. Let it be peace, or, at all
events, more close, more keenly realized warfare.
"Are you never coming to see me again?" she wrote. "Please do; I will be
good."
Perior laughed over the document. It was merely the case of the cat
again dignified by its persistent absence. His reply was even more
laconic. "Can't come. Try to be good without me." The priggishness of
this pleased him, and would probably amuse her. He did not want to hurt
her. Neither did he intend that she should hurt him. She probably
guessed that.
The note gave her a mingled thrill, anger and pleasure. That he should
not come showed more than the priggish intent to punish; that pedagogic
mask did not hide his fear; and that he should fear meant much. He
wanted to punish her, yes; and that he could succeed was very
intolerable; but that was his only strength, held to amidst a weakness
he would give her no chance to exploit. His cowardice was complimentary,
but since she was helpless against it Camelia was angry with her cat.
Strength, after all, is largely a matter of situation, and to stand in
the street vainly cajoling one's pet on the house-top gives one all the
emotions of acknowledged inferiority. To turn her back and walk away
was the natural impulse of Camelia's exasperated helplessness; she hoped
that the cat would watch her, and feel badly as she turned the corner,
for she determined to delay no longer decisions of far more importance,
as she assured herself, than the ridiculous dwelling on such a trifling
matter as a recalcitrant cat. The acceptance of Arthur Henge could be no
longer evaded after this fortnight of evasions, each turn and twist
leading her more inevitably to the centre of the labyrinth. Sir Arthur
could hardly have a doubt of the final answer, though its postponement
and her son's attitude of smiling patience might bring the gloom to Lady
Henge's forehead.
"I do not like to see you played with, Arthur," she confessed; and her
look said as much to Camelia, who, in her absolute security, only
frolicked the more in her leafy circles.
"I enjoy it, mother," Sir Arthur assured her, "it's a pretty game; she
enjoys it and so do I. She is cutting up a surprise cake, and I am sure
of her giving me the slice with the ring in it."
"A rather undignified game, Arthur," said Lady Henge in a deep tone of
aggrievement, and Sir Arthur was sorry that Camelia, for the moment, had
effaced that first good impression; but he would not see that he was
aggrieved. He knew that he sat in the heart of the dear labyrinth, and
Camelia's peeps at him through the hedges, her slow advances and swift
retreats, were all charming, and not too bewildering when one was
trained to them.
Mrs. Fox-Darriel, however, was both aggrieved and impatient. Her long
visit bored her badly, and Camelia's smiling impenetrability irritated
her. Her impatience almost descended to grossness.
"What a hostess you will make, Camelia, at Laversley Castle. I see you
on that background of Grinling Gibbons and Titian. To be almost the
richest, probably the cleverest, certainly the prettiest woman in
England. What a future! An unending golden vista--widening. And for a
base of operations, Laversley. Such tapestries, my dear, such
porcelains, such a library and park. All in the hollow of your hand."
Camelia stretched it out. "Yes," she said, surveying its capabilities,
"I have only to close it."
"You will close it, of course."
"No doubt," said Camelia blandly, a blandness that snubbed and did not
satisfy her friend's grossness.
But under the blandness something struggled. Must she close the hand?
Would no power outside her hold open and unstained by greed that pretty
palm? The absurdity of the accusation gave her the melancholy comfort of
an only half reassuring smile. Sir Arthur's excellence, not his
millions, had turned the scale; yet the accusation, for all its folly,
cut. And Perior did not come. He too joined forces with fate, made the
closing of the hand inevitable. She defied him with the sustaining
thought, "Sir Arthur is best, best in all. I close my hand on his heart
because no better heart could be offered me."