At dinner-time Loring had another shock. This was the sight of Belinda
in evening dress. It was the full glare of her beauty that now smote
him, together with the sense of her having become suddenly some one
else. This was another person altogether--a new Linda. And yet Belinda
had sought to temper the effect of her first appearance thus attired.
She had a superstitious feeling that her coming-out ball at Newport was
to mark an important crisis in her life. Her gown for that occasion had
been carefully selected in Paris (by her--not by her mother). That is,
she had selected the gown as the one in which she meant to burst upon
Loring in the full splendour of her new womanhood. The ball would
furnish this opportunity.
She was sorry to have to lessen that cherished effect, even by this one
appearance in demi-toilette. So she had chosen the soberest gown in her
wardrobe. It was of dark purple chiffon. The long, _mousquetaire_
sleeves veiled her glinting arms. Her white breast was also veiled. But
nothing could subdue the flame of her ruddy coronal of hair. An oval
mole, black as her eyebrows, lay in the hollow of her white throat--one
of those outrageously perfect imperfections with which Nature loves
sometimes to seal her masterpieces. This mole was the final touch on the
heady lure of Belinda's beauty.
Loring's eyes were drawn to it unwillingly again and again. He marvelled
that he did not remember it. He even wondered if that "little devil!"
had not painted it herself upon the snow of her throat.
And whenever he looked at the soft, jet-black mole on the white throat,
that kiss of two years ago flamed in his blood as it had not flamed at
the time of its bestowal. But he was decent enough to be ashamed of this
feeling. He answered Belinda rather briefly on the few occasions that
she spoke to him. Somehow he did not trust her. Somehow (though this he
did not acknowledge to himself) he dreaded her. And he glanced from her
to Sophy--telling himself how much more really beautiful Sophy was in
her soft grey and pearls than Belinda in her pansy purple and rococo
necklace of amethysts and strass. But for the first time, against his
will, Sophy's beauty struck him as cold. And yet it was not cold,
though, within it, Sophy herself felt chill and numb. She, too, was
obsessed by Belinda. It was not so much the girl's flaring good looks
that obsessed her, but the thrilling, imperial youth of her. Sophy felt
as a wilting, cut rose might feel, looking from its crystal vase upon a
vigorous sister-blossom still rooted in the warm earth. It was a
wretched sensation. Sophy hated herself for feeling it, and yet each
time that she glanced at Belinda it swept over her afresh.
The dinner was rather flat. Only Mrs. Horton was in really good spirits.
She was quite elated and happy over the idea of Belinda's going to stop
with Sophy at Newport. Her "coming out" would be much "smarter" and more
brilliant under Sophy's chaperonage than under poor, dear Grace's.
Belinda, for her part, was rather depressed by Sophy's appearance in the
grey gown that filmed like smoke about her beautiful bare shoulders.
Belinda had not taken in quite how lovely her rival was when she had
first seen her that afternoon in plain white linen. And just as her
youth troubled Sophy, so the mystery of experience in Sophy's dark-grey
eyes troubled Belinda. She had a moment--one bitter, stinging moment--of
feeling not _quite_ so cock-sure about the future.
And Harold Grey, nervously eating far more than he wanted in his effort
not to look too often at Belinda, was thinking how sure he was that his
mother would pronounce her "not quite a lady," and yet how much more she
attracted him than any of the most genuine "ladies" that he had ever
seen. "Don't be an abandoned ass," he kept telling himself. "You're an
infant's tutor with a fat salary paid you to keep your place. Now keep
it--confound you!"
Loring knew that his mother had some old-fashioned prejudice against
having champagne served every day for dinner, and as a rule he
submitted, though grumblingly, while he was at Nahant. But to-night he
felt that he must have the cheering beverage at all costs. Besides, his
mother was ill in bed upstairs. Old Biggs looked like a disapproving,
Methodistic owl when the order was given. It violated his principles as
Mrs. Loring's butler of twenty years' standing, to serve champagne to a
family party of five.
"I'm afraid it will hurt your mother's feelings, Morris," Sophy
ventured, as Biggs left the room with a very rigid gait.
"Pooh! Why need she know? Such a silly notion, at any rate! And we ought
to drink Linda's health--after her two years in foreign parts. You like
champagne, don't you, Linda?"
"You bet!" said Belinda. She flashed both rows of teeth in pleased
anticipation.
"Linda!" expostulated her mother, just as in old days. She turned
appealingly to Sophy:
"Now I ask you _what_ was the use of my sending her to an expensive
Pension school in Paris for two years, if she comes back talking like
this?"
"Oh, for God's sake, let her be natural, Aunt Nelly!" put in Loring. "If
you only knew how refreshing it is to hear one's own lingo after six
weeks or so of England!"
"Didn't you like England, Morry?" asked Belinda.
Loring grinned in the direction of Harold Grey.
"Mr. Grey's presence keeps me from answering with entire candour," he
said, a veiled sneer in his voice. He disliked the presence of Bobby's
tutor in his household extremely. Harold Grey was an acute young man. He
realised this dislike on Loring's part, and returned it with vigour but
discretion. He thought Bobby's step-father "just a bit of a cad." He now
said composedly:
"Pray don't consider me."
But Loring replied: "Oh, there's plenty of time ahead! I'll give you my
sentiments in private, Linda."
Belinda glanced from him to Sophy.
"But _you_ like it, _don't_ you?" she asked.
"Yes. I love England," Sophy answered quietly.
Harold Grey had a "cult" for his pupil's mother. He thought her very
wonderful in every way. Now, when she said in that deep, sweet voice of
hers that she "loved England," he felt that she was really to be
worshipped. And he wondered for the many hundredth time, _how_ she could
have married that "gaudy cub." Dependence of position made Harold even
harder on his employer than Lady Wychcote had been. But then he shrewdly
guessed that it was really the wife and not the husband who employed
him. He was already aware of the antagonism that existed between Loring
and Bobby. "Breakers ahead there, I should say," he told himself.
At Sophy's reply to Belinda, Loring cast an irritated glance at her and
said:
"Oh, Sophy's an out-and-out Anglo-maniac--quite rabid on the subject, in
fact. You can't take _her_ opinion. You wait till _I_ talk to you,
Linda!"
Neither the look nor the tone escaped Belinda. She also saw that Sophy
winced from them--that colour stole into her face and that her lips
tightened a little. Here was a useful sidelight. So Morry was as hotly
American as ever! That was good. Then Sophy must jar on him at times;
for Belinda had decided that she was not very American, not even very
Southern. Belinda thanked her stars that she herself was so aggressively
a daughter of Columbia.
"See how severe Sophy looks at my daring to jest on such a sacred
subject," Loring continued. "By Gad! Sometimes I believe she wishes that
we'd remained a Colony of Great Britain!"
("Blithering brute!... Can't you see she's only annoyed because you're
jawing this way before _me_?" thought Harold Grey wrathfully.)
But the truth was, that Loring had never forgiven Sophy for the off-hand
lesson read him by John Arundel. He half suspected that she had "put him
up to it, by gad!" That visit to England had left a big bruise on his
_amour propre_. And he "took it out" on Sophy now and then in some such
way.
The champagne was served. Belinda's health was drunk. She finished that
glass and began another.
"Be careful, Linda," cautioned her step-mother. "You're not used to
wine, you know."
All Belinda's dimples began to play like a throng of elves.
"Oh, _Mater_!" she cried. She leaned forward and squeezed Mrs. Horton's
dry, brown hand in her velvety white one. "You're too innocent and
guileless to run loose in this wicked old world by yourself ... you
really are!"
"What do you mean by that extraordinary speech, Linda?"
"Why ... as if the girls at the Pension didn't get bottles of fizz
smuggled in to them, any old time! Why, whenever we had a spread on the
sly, _some_body's cousin, or brother, or mash slipped us a quart or so
of champagne...."
Mrs. Horton looked really aghast. Loring roared. Harold Grey couldn't
take his eyes off those twinkling dimples, but in his heart he said: "By
Jove! She's a larky little baggage!"
Sophy was the only one who took it calmly. She had decided all of a
sudden that there was a good deal of "bluff" about Belinda--that she was
of the type that enjoys "shocking people." She said with a smile:
"I don't think you need look so horrified, Eleanor. I believe that
Belinda is taking what she'd call 'a rise' out of us."
Belinda only laughed, but she was vexed that Sophy should have seen
through her. She had not given her credit for such astuteness. The fact
was, that she had never had so much as a sip of champagne while at
Madame de Bruneton's excellent Pension. But she found this family meal
very dull, she hated seeing Loring in the bosom of domesticity.
However, she won more by her impish tarradiddle than she had looked for.
Morris turned to her with something of the old devilment in his eyes and
said:
"By Jove, Linda, I hope it's not all bluff! I hope you _are_ a
good-enough little sport to enjoy a glass of wine. Good cheer loves
company as well as Misery."
Belinda took it in like lightning. Sophy was one of the prigs who do not
care to drink even in reason. Poor Morry!
She smiled at him, letting her eyes turn full on his for the first time.
"Of course I enjoy it!" she said. "I _love_ the funny little
'razzle-dazzle' feeling it gives me! But the greatest part of the fun is
drinking it _with_ some one.... Some one you like, of course."
"By George, you're a little brick, Linda! Have some more...."
"No," said Belinda, still smiling, and putting her hand over her glass.
"'Enough's' _heaps_ better than a feast.... I like to sparkle, but I
don't want to boil over...."
"Oh, Belinda! _Belinda!_" said her step-mother.
Sophy came to the rescue.
"An old negro said the best thing I've ever heard about the way that
champagne makes one feel," she remarked lightly. "I gave him a glass one
Christmas at Sweet-Waters. He'd never tasted champagne before, and I
asked him if he liked it. He said: 'Laws, Miss Sophy--dat I does! I
feels like I'se done hit dee funny-bones all over me!'"
While every one was laughing at this, she rose. Harold Grey excused
himself to "write letters." "Good riddance!" Loring muttered to Belinda,
as Harold disappeared and they followed Sophy and Mrs. Horton towards
the drawing-room.
Loring was in his usual after-dinner state--not tipsy, but over-excited.
He flashed a side-glance of appraisal. "You've bloomed into an
out-and-out beauty, Linda. But I don't suppose you need me to tell you
that."
"I think I rather do, Morry."
"Oh, cut it, Linda! Don't try the 'maiden-modesty' act on me.... You
know as well as I do that you're a dazzler."
They had lingered by the front door, instead of going on into the
drawing-room. A full moon was rising. As Belinda stood in the open
doorway, one side of her face and figure was silver, and one golden from
the hall lamps. She looked like a wonderful figure of mingled fires. In
the strange illumination of her face, her eyes burned dark and full. She
and Loring leaned against the opposite door-jambs, gazing at each other.
"I can't get over your being 'grown up,'" Morris said a little thickly,
as she did not reply to his last remark.
"Yes ... I'm 'grown up,'" she said softly. She kept looking at him. Then
she looked at the sea, then she looked back at him again. "It's nice ...
being a woman," she added, still in that very soft voice.
"'Nice'?" asked Loring, with a short laugh. "You find it 'nice'?"
"_Very_ nice," said Belinda.
She smiled suddenly. Her teeth glistened with a strange silvery lustre
in the moonlight.
"Why?... Don't you?" she asked, her voice slightly shaken as by withheld
laughter. It was going to be easier, after all, than she had thought.
She did not realise that Bacchus had as much to do with it as Venus. She
only knew that Morris was vibrating to her nearness, that his blood was
trembling in him.
As he did not answer, she put out her hand and laid it lightly on his
breast.
"Don't you?" she said again.
"Don't I what?" he asked rather crossly.
That hand was like a white flame to his drink-stirred blood.
"Oh, Morry!... What a fraud you are!..."
She laughed smotheredly like Lorelei through some soft, warm wave. "What
an awful fraud you are, Morry!... You pay me compliments and all the
time you're thinking what a nuisance it's going to be, having me at
Newport this season!"
Loring looked at her oddly. Then he looked down at the white hand which
still lay against his breast.
"Take your hand away, Linda!" he said curtly.
She took it away and turned it about before her in the moonlight, gazing
at it consideringly.
"Poor little old hand!" she breathed pityingly. "You've offended the
king...."
She held it up between them, again laughing.
"Must I cut it off?" she asked teasingly. "Will you cut it off for me
and 'cast it into the fire'?"
Loring said nothing. He leaned there looking at her darkly. He hated her
and desired her. It was the old emotion, under whose stress he had once
kissed her, magnified tenfold.
She straightened suddenly and was close to him.
"Why are you so horrid to me, Morry?" she said, in a vehement whisper.
"What have I done to vex you? I think it's cruel of you ... my first
evening at home ... my first 'grown-up' evening with you...."
He saw her lips trembling. It made him quite breathless to see those
full, rich lips trembling so near his.
"I don't mean to be horrid," he said constrainedly.
"But you are ... you _are_!..." she insisted. Her voice hummed with
passion like a 'cello string. "You _are_!..." she repeated. "What have I
done that you should order me not to touch you--as though my hand were
poisonous?"
"I ... I'm nervous this evening...." he said lamely. He knew that he
should have turned and gone forthwith into the drawing-room. He simply
couldn't. The Purple Emperor aroma--the Belinda magic--held him
thralled. Belinda wanted to fall forward on his breast and have her
laugh out in the dark warmth of his embrace. But the time was not yet.
Some day they would laugh together with love's wild, kiss-broken
laughter over this comic interview. But not now.
"Are you sorry you were so horrid?" she murmured.
"Oh, yes ... naturally!..."
She had her velvety finger-tips against his mouth in a flash.
"Then kiss it ... beg its pardon!" she said.
Loring snatched down her hand and ground it between his.
"Linda! You little devil!... You little _devil_!..." he said.
He pushed her from him, then swung her to him violently. He loosed her
hand and gripped her hard by both shoulders. This grip was brutal and
painful. She found it delicious to be hurt by him. That was her type.
"Let me tell you ... let me tell you," he gasped, and this gasping voice
also filled her with joy, "you'll play with fire once too often, my dear
... just once too often.... Burns don't make becoming scars.... Now
leave me alone!"
He flung her off in good earnest this time, and strode away to the
library. His pulses were racing--his blood pounding. He was scared. He
did not mean to be false to Sophy for a worldful of Belindas. Not that
his love for Sophy was what it had been. The old ardour was clean gone.
He found her cold. He felt cold to her. Yet something in him clung
blindly to what had been--to the revealed self in him that Sophy had
once called forth.