How Monica falls a prey to the green-eyed monster--How Mr. Kelly
improves the shining hours--And how Brian Desmond suffers many
things at the hands of his lady-love.
For the next few days the sun is conspicuous by its absence, and Jupiter
Tonans, with all his noisy train, is abroad. There is nothing but rain
everywhere and at all hours, and a certain chill accompanying it, that
makes one believe (with "Elia," is it not?) that "a bad summer is but
winter painted green."
The light is dimmed, the winds sigh heavily, all through these days, and
on the hills around, "the hooded clouds, like friars, tell their beads
in drops of rain."
But on Thursday evening it clears a little,--not sufficiently to allow
one to wander happily through shrubbery or garden, but enough to augur
well for the morrow, when the much longed for dance at the Barracks is
due.
And, indeed, when Friday dawns all nature is glorious. O'er sea and land
there floats a brightness indescribable, with no fleck or flaw upon its
beauty. In every nook and glade and hollow is glad sunshine, and a soft
rushing breeze that bids the heart rejoice, and uplift itself in joyous
praise to the Great Power who calls the heavens His Throne.
Birds are singing upon every bough, to give the day "good-morrow," and
the small streamlets, swollen by past rains, are chanting loud but soft
harmonies to the water-pixies, as they dash headlong towards the river
down below.
"No tears
Dim the sweet look that Nature wears."
but rather a smile is on leaf, and flower, and waving bracken. And on
Monica, too, as, with glad eyes and parted lips, she steps lightly into
the shadow of the old porch at Moyne. No sweeter presence ever honored
it. Leaning against one of the pillars, she steps forward, and gazes
almost gratefully at the merry sunbeams, as they creep up in homage to
her feet and then go swiftly back again.
She is dressed to-day in a pale blue batiste gown, that rivals in hue
the delicate azure of the skies above her. Her large black hat is a mass
of Spanish lace, her long gloves are of the same sombre shade, and so
are her shoes, though relieved by buckles. With that smile upon her
lips, and the subdued expectation in her eyes, she looks the
personification of all that is tender, pure, and lovable.
"Are you ready?" asks Kit, joining her. "The carriage is coming round."
"Quite."
"All but your fan: where is that?"
"Ah! true; I forgot it. It must be on my table. I----"
"No, do not stir. I will get it for you. It would be a shame to send you
on any errand that might destroy your present pose, you look so like a
cloud, or a thing out of one of Kate Greenaway's books."
"It is very rude to call me a thing; it is disheartening, when I
believed I was looking my best," says Monica, laughing. Somehow Kit's
praises always please her.
Then the carriage does come round, and they all get into it, and start
for their seven-miles drive, a very slow seven miles, at the end of
which they find themselves in the small town of Clonbree, mounting the
steep hill that leads to the Barracks, which are placed on almost
unsavory eminence,--all the narrow streets leading up to them being
lined with close cabins and tiny cabins that are anything but "sweets to
the sweet."
Entering the small barrack-yard and finding a door hospitably open, the
Misses Blake go up a wooden staircase, and presently find themselves on
the landing-place above, where they are welcomed effusively by Mr. Ryde,
who is looking bigger and hotter and stouter than usual.
Captain Cobbett in the largest room--there are but two available in
these rustic barracks--is trying vainly to find a comfortable corner for
old Lady Rossmoyne, who is both deaf and stupid, but who, feeling it her
duty to support on all occasions (both festive and otherwise) the
emissaries of her queen, has accepted this invitation and is now
heartily sorry for her loyalty.
She is sitting in durance vile upon a low chair, with a carpet seat and
a treacherous nature, that threatens to turn upon her and double her up
at any moment if she dare to give way to even the smallest amount of
natural animation: so perforce the poor old woman sits still, like
"patience on a monument smiling at grief," and that her own grief, too,
which, of course, is harder to bear!
"_So_ glad you've come! We were quite in despair about you; but better
late than never, eh?" says Mr. Ryde to Monica, with a fat smile. There
is rather much of "too solid flesh" about his face.
"I daresay," says Monica, very vaguely: she is looking anxiously round
her, hoping, yet dreading to see Desmond.
In the next room can be heard the sound of music. "My Queen" is being
played very prettily upon a piano by somebody. Dancing is evidently
going on, and Monica, who adores it, feels her toes trembling in her
shoes.
"May I have the pleasure of this?" says Mr. Ryde. "I've kept it for you
all along, you know. If you tell me you have already given it away, I
shall feel myself aggrieved indeed."
"Was there ever so silly a young man?" thinks Monica, and then she says
aloud, "No, it is not promised," and lets him place his arm round her,
and reluctantly mingles with the other dancers. To do him justice, he
waltzed very well, this fat young marine, so it cannot be said that she
has altogether a bad time, and she certainly feels a little glow of
pleasure as she pauses presently to recover her breath.
As she does so, her eyes rest on Desmond. He, too, is dancing, and with
Olga Bohun. He is whispering to his partner, who is whispering back to
him in a somewhat pronounced fashion, and altogether he is looking
radiantly happy, and anything but the disconsolate swain Monica has been
picturing him to herself. He is smiling down at Olga, and is apparently
murmuring all sorts of pretty things into her still prettier ear,
because they both look quite at peace with each other and all the world.
A pang shoots through Monica's heart. He can be as happy, then, with one
pretty woman as with another! She by no means, you will see, depreciates
her own charms. All he wants is to have "t'other dear charmer away."
At this moment she encounters his eyes, and answers his glad stare of
surprise with a little scornful lowering of her lids. After which, being
fully aware that he is still watching her in hurt amazement, she turns a
small, pale, but very encouraging face up to Ryde, and says, prettily,--
"You said I was late, just now. Was I?"
"Very. At least it seemed so to me," says Ryde with heavy adoration in
his glance.
Feeling, rather than seeing, that Mr. Desmond has brought his fair
companion to an anchor close behind her, Monica says, in a soft sweet
voice,--
"I didn't _mean_ to be late. No, indeed! I hurried all I could; but my
aunts are slow to move. I was _longing_ to be here, but they would make
no haste."
"You _really_ longed to be here?" asks he, eagerly. "Well, that _was_
good of you! And now you have come you will be kind to me, won't you?
You will give me all the dances you can spare?"
"That would be a great many," says she, laughing a little. "You might
tire of me if I said yes to that. The fact is, I know nobody here, and
_certainly_ there is no one I care to dance with."
"You will have another tale to tell later on," returns he, gazing with
unrepressed admiration at her charming face. "Before the avalanche of
worshippers descends, promise me all the waltzes."
"Are my dances, then, so necessary to you?" with a swift upward glance.
"They are, at all events, the only ones I care for," returns he,
clumsily, but heartily. "All the others will lie in the scale with
duty."
"'Every subject's duty is the king's; but every subject's soul is his
own,'" quotes Monica, lightly. "Why dance unless you wish it?"
"Because my soul is _not_ my own," responds he, with a sigh. "I am bound
to dance with every undanceable woman here to-day, or they will go home
and revile me. You _ought_ to be sorry for me if you aren't."
"Well, I am," says Monica; "and so you shall have every waltz on the
programme."
With this she lets him take her in his arms again, and float away with
her to the strains of the waltz then playing, and far away from
Desmond's jealous ears.
"Well, I had no idea it was in her," says Mrs. Bohun, in a breathless
sort of manner, when Monica has quite vanished. "All that was meant for
you, you know; and how _well_ she did it!"
"But _why_ should it be meant for me? What have I done that she should
so ill use me?" says Desmond, also breathless. "And you speak of her as
if you admired her and she ought to be praised for her conduct when you
have just heard from my own lips how devotedly I am attached to her!"
"I cannot help admiring genius when I see it," says Olga, with a gay
laugh. "She made up her mind--naughty little thing!--to make you
miserable a minute ago, and--she succeeded. What can compare with
success! But in very truth, Brian," tapping his arm familiarly with her
fan (an action Monica notes from the other side of the room), "I would
see you a victor too, and in this cause. She is as worthy of you as you
of her, and a fig for one's cousins and sisters and aunts, when Cupid
leads the way."
She has thrown up her head, and is looking full of spirit, when young
Ronayne, approaching her, says, smiling,--
"This is our dance, I think, Mrs. Bohun?"
"Is it? So far so good!" She turns again to Brian:
"'Faint heart never won fair lady,'" she says, warningly.
"I cannot accuse myself of any feebleness of that sort," says Desmond,
gloomily. "As you see, it all rests with her."
"Perhaps she is afraid of the family feud," says Olga, laughing. "One
hears such a lot about this Blake-Desmond affair that I feel I could
take the gold medal if examined about it. There!--what nonsense! Go and
speak to her, and defy those dear old ladies at Moyne."
"You were talking about that pretty Miss Beresford?" says Ronayne, as
Brian moves away.
"Yes. But, sir," archly, "dare you see beauty in any woman when I am
by?"
"Oh that I could see you really jealous, and of _me_!" returns he, half
sadly, looking at her with longing eyes. "If I thought I could make
your heart ache for even one short minute, I should be the happiest man
alive."
"_Boy_, you mean! Oh, traitor! And would you have me miserable for your
own gratification?"
"It would be for yours later on. For that one moment you would gain a
slave forever."
"And unless I am wretched for that one moment, I cannot gain my slave?"
"You know the answer to that only too well," returns he, with so much
fervor that she refuses to continue the discussion.
"Talking of jealousy," she says, lightly, with a glance at him, "it is
the dream of my life to make Rossmoyne jealous,--to reduce him to
absolute submission. He is so cold, so precise, so English, that it
would be quite a triumph to drag him at one's chariot-wheels. Shall I be
able to do it?" she turns up her charming face to his, as though in
question. She is looking her very sweetest, and is tenderly aware of the
fact; and, indeed, so is he.
"I suppose so," he says, in answer to her, but slowly and reproachfully.
"But I must have help," says Olga. "_Some_ one must help me. You?--is it
not?"
"I?" with strong emphasis. "What should I have to do with it?"
"Not much, yet I count upon you. Why, who do you think I am going to
make him jealous about? Eh?"
"How should I know?"
"How shouldn't you? Why it is of you,--_you_!" with quite a delicious
little laugh. "So you will have to dance round after me all day for the
future until your mission is fulfilled, and try to look as if you
_really_ loved me."
"You have mistaken your man," says Ronayne, quietly: "you must get some
one else to help you in this matter. It is not for me, even if I did not
love you; I should scorn so low a task."
"Love is an idle word," she says, her eyes flashing.
"It may be--to some. But I tell you no man's heart is of so poor value
that it can be flung hither and thither at any one's pleasure,--no, not
even at the pleasure of the woman he adores. You will seek some more
complaisant lover to be your dupe on this occasion. I decline the
office."
"You forget how you speak, sir!" she says, proudly; yet even as she
gives way to this angry speech a gleam of deepest admiration so lights
her eyes that she is obliged to let her lids fall over them to cover the
tell-tales beneath; her breath comes and goes quickly.
Something like relief comes to her when Lord Rossmoyne, stretching his
long neck round the curtain that half shields the cushioned recess of
the window where they are sitting, says, with considerable animation,
for him,--
"Ah! so I have found you, Mrs. Bohun."
"You have indeed, and in good time. I am pining in prison, but you have
come to deliver me."
"If I may."
"Such a dreary little spot, is it not? I don't know what could have
induced me to enter it."
"Ronayne possibly," says Rossmoyne, with an unpleasant smile.
"Oh, dear, no!" contemptuously: "I came here of my own free will. We all
do foolish things at times, I have not danced this last because Mr.
Ronayne prefers pleasant converse. I don't. I thought you would never
come to seek me. What were you doing?"
"Hunting for you, and thinking every minute an hour. These
curtains"--touching them--"were jealous of you, and sought to hide you."
"Well, don't be so long next time," she says, looking up at him with a
smile that a little more pressure would make tender and laying her hand
on his arm.
She moves away. Ronayne, drawing his breath somewhat savagely, sits down
on the sill of the window and gazes blankly into the barrack-yard below.
He has still her programme in his hand, and is crumpling it
unconscionably, hardly knowing what he does. But, if disturbed in mind,
it is always _such_ a comfort to smash something, be it a piece of
pasteboard or one's most intimate friend.
She had forgotten her card, probably, and now it is almost useless.
Ronayne's heart is full of bitterness, and he tries to swear to himself
that for the future he will cleanse his heart of this coquette, who
cares no more for him--nay, far less--than she does for her little toy
terrier. Yet, even as these stern resolves seek vainly to root
themselves in his breast, his eyes turn again to the room beyond, and
make search for the siren who is his undoing. She is still, of course,
with Rossmoyne, and is all smiles and pretty blushes, and is evidently
both content and happy.
"I am a fool!--a madman!" he says to himself; and even as he says it
his eyes light on Owen Kelly, who by chance is looking at him too.
Crossing the room, the latter (as though drawn by the melancholy eyes
that have met his) soon reaches the window where Ronayne stands
disconsolate.
"Why so pale and wan, fond lover?" he says gayly, but with so kindly an
intonation that even the most pugnacious could not take umbrage at it.
Now, Mr. Kelly's knowledge on all matters is so clear and precise that
Ronayne does not dream of deceiving him in this matter.
"Of course you will laugh at me," he says, "but somehow I don't mind
_your_ ridicule much. It means only this, that I have just found out
that she cares nothing at all for me."
"_She_, being Mrs. Bohun? Well, my dear lad, if an elderly gentleman's
experience is of any use to you, you may have it cheap. _I_ believe she
cares a great deal for you. Lookers-on see most of the game, and I would
back you against Rossmoyne any day."
"You are a very good fellow," says Ulic Ronayne, "the best I know; but I
understand you. You are only saying that to console me."
"I am not, in faith: I say it because I think it."
"I wish I could think it."
"Try. 'If at first you don't succeed,' you know follow out the
inestimable Watts's advice, and 'try again.' There's nothing like it: it
gets to be quite a game in the long run. I thank my stars," laughing, "I
have never been a slave to the 'pathetic fallacy' called love; yet it
has its good points, I suppose."
"It hasn't," says Ronayne, gloomily.
"You terrify me," says Mr. Kelly, "because I feel positive my day is yet
to come, and with all this misery before me I feel suicidal. Don't my
dear fellow! don't look like that! Give her up; go and fall in love with
some little girl of your own age or even younger."
The "even" is offensive, but Ulic is too far gone in melancholy to
perceive it.
"It is too late for that kind of advice," he says: "I want her, and her
only. I don't know how to describe it, but----"
"There are chords," quotes his friend gravely.
"Just so," says the miserable Ronayne, quite as gravely; which so upsets
the gravity of his companion that it is with difficulty he conceals his
ill-timed mirth.
"What is that mutilated article in your hand?" he asks at length, when
he has conquered his muscles.
"This--eh!--oh, her card, I suppose," says Ronayne, viciously. Yet even
as he speaks he smooths out the crumpled card, and regards it with a
dismal tenderness as being in part _her_.
"You're engaged to her for the next," says Mr. Kelly, looking over his
shoulder: "what an unfortunate thing! If I were you," mournfully, "I
should go home. Get ill. Do _something_."
"And so let her think I'm wasting in despair because she prefers
another? No, I shan't," says Ronayne, with sudden animation. "I shall
see it out with her. If she chooses to cancel this dance well and good,
but I shall certainly remind her she promised it to me."
"Rash boy!" says Kelly, with a sigh. "As you refuse to hearken to the
voice of common sense, and afflict yourself with a megrim, I leave you
to your fate."
So saying, he turns aside, and, having gone a step or two, finds himself
face to face with Miss Beresford.
"This dance is ours," he says, mendaciously, knowing well this is the
first time they have met this evening.
Monica laughs: to be angry with so sad a visaged man as Owen Kelly would
be a cruelty.
"I am glad of it," she says, "because I do not want to dance at all; and
I think you will not mind sitting with me and talking to me for a little
while."
"You remember me then?" he says, shifting his glass from one eye to the
other, and telling himself she is as pretty as she is wise.
"I think so," shyly, yet with a merry glance; "you are that Master
O'Kelly, of Kelly Grove, county Antrim, who is the bright and shining
light of the Junior Bar."
"You do indeed know me," returns he, mildly.
"'Thy modesty's a candle to thy merit,'" quotes she, wickedly, in a low
tone.
At this he smiles sadly (a luxury he rarely permits himself), and,
taking up her hand, lays it on his arm.
"Come," he says, "I will sit with you, and talk with you, when, and
where, and for as long as you like. The longer the greater bliss for me.
The spaciousness of these halls, fair madam, as doubtless you have
perceived, gives wide scope for choice of seats. In which secluded bower
will it please you to efface yourself?"
Monica glances from one small room to the landing-place, and from the
landing-place to the other small room beyond, and naturally hesitates.
"There is another stairs besides the one we ascended," says Mr. Kelly.
"I saw it when first I came: would _you_ like to see it too?"
"I should indeed," says Monica, grateful for the hint, and, going with
him, suddenly becomes aware of a staircase, leading goodness knows
whither, upon the third step of which she seats herself, after a rapid
glance around and upwards that tells her nothing, so mysterious are the
workings of a barracks.
Mr. Kelly seats himself beside her.
"I suppose it is my mission to amuse you," he says, calmly, "as I dare
not make love to you."
"Why not?" says Monica, quite as calmly.
"For one thing, you would not listen to me; and for another, I don't
want my head broken."
Monica smiles, more because it is her duty to than for any other reason,
because after the smile comes a sigh.
"I know few knights would tilt a lance for me," she says; and Kelly,
glancing at her, feels a quick desire rise within him to restore
sunshine to her perfect face.
"One knight should be enough for any one, even the fairest ladye in the
land," he says.
"True; but what is to be for her who has none?" asks she, pathos in her
eyes, but a smile upon her lips.
"She must be a very perverse maiden who has _that_ story to tell,"
returns he; and then, seeing she has turned her face away from him, he
goes on quietly,--
"You know every one here, of course."
"Indeed, no. The very names of most are unknown to me. Tell me about
them, if you will."
"About that girl over there, for instance?" pointing to a dingy-looking
girl in the distance, whose face is as like a button as it well can be,
and whose general appearance may be expressed by the word "unclean."
"That is Miss Luker," says Kelly. "Filthy Lucre is, I believe, the name
she usually goes by, on account of her obvious unpalatableness (my own
word, you will notice), and her overwhelming affection for coin small
and great."
"She looks very untidy," says Monica.
"She does, indeed. She is, too, an inveterate chatterbox. She might give
any fellow odds and beat him; I don't believe myself there is so much
as one comma in her composition."
"Poor girl! What an exertion it must be to her!"
"Musn't it? Especially nowadays, when one _never_ goes for much, real
hard work of any kind being such a bore. That's her mother beside her.
She is always beside her. Fat little woman, d'ye see?"
"Yes, a nice motherly-looking little woman she seems to be."
"Horribly motherly! She has a birthday for every month in the year!"
"How?" says Monica, opening her eyes.
"I don't so much allude to her own natal day (which by this time I
should say is obscure) as to her children's. They came to her at all
seasons, from January to December. There are fourteen of them."
"Oh, it _can't_ be possible! Poor, _poor_ soul!" says Monica, feeling
quite depressed.
"She isn't poor; she is very well off," says Mr. Kelly, obtusely. "Much
better than she deserves. So don't grieve for her. She glories in her
crime. Well, it's 'a poor heart that never rejoices,' you know: so I
suppose she is right. There's Miss Fitzgerald: do you admire her?"
"I am sure I _ought_," says Monica, simply; "but I _don't_."
"You have the courage of your opinions. Every one down here admires her
tremendously. I agree with you, you know, but then," softly, "_I_ am
nobody!"
"Perhaps you think I am jealous," says Monica. "But indeed I am not."
"What a baby you are!" says Mr. Kelly. "_Who_ could suppose you jealous
of Bella Fitzgerald? 'Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere,'
and I shouldn't think the fair Bella would have _much_ motion if put in
comparison with you. She always calls 'a spade a spade, and Branson's
Essence of Coffee,' etc. In fact, she is material."
"That means she has common sense. Why call her 'material'?"
"Never mind. It is quite _immaterial_," says Mr. Kelly, tranquilly,
after which silence reigns triumphantly for a moment or two, until a new
figure presents itself on a small platform below them.
"Ah! there is Desmond," says Kelly. "He looks," innocently, "as if he
was looking for somebody."
"I hope he will find her," remarks Miss Beresford, with some acerbity
and a most unnecessary amount of color.
"Perhaps he is looking for _me_," says Mr. Kelly, naively.
"Perhaps so," dryly.
"At all events, whoever it is, she, or he, or it, seems difficult of
discovery. Did you ever see so woebegone a countenance as his?"
"I think he looks quite happy enough," says Monica, without sympathy.
Kelly lets his languid gaze rest on her for a moment.
"What has Desmond done to you?" he says at last, slowly.
"Done?" haughtily. "Nothing. What _could_ he do?"
"Nothing, I suppose,--as you say. By the bye, I have not seen you
dancing with him this afternoon."
"No."
"How is that?"
It is an indisputable fact that some people may say with impunity what
other people dare not say under pain of excommunication. Owen Kelly, as
a rule, says what he likes to women without rebuke, and, what is more,
without incurring their displeasure.
"How is what?"
"I thought that day at Aghyohillbeg that you and Desmond were great
friends."
"Friends! when we have only seen each other two or three times. Is
friendship the growth of an hour?"
"No. But something else is." He looks at her _almost_ cheerfully as he
says this. "But neither you nor I, Miss Beresford, have anything to do
with that flimsy passion."
"You mean----"
"Love!"
"_Is_ there such a thing?" says Monica, wistfully, whereupon Mr. Kelly
says to himself, "Now, what on earth has that fellow been doing to her?"
but aloud he says, in his usual subdued tones,--
"I don't know, I'm sure, but they say so, and perhaps they, whoever they
may be, are right. If so, I think it is a dangerous subject to discuss
with _you_. Let us skip it, and go on. You haven't told me why you are
not dancing with Desmond."
"_Why_ should I dance with Mr. Desmond?"
"Because it is not always easy to have a refusal ready, perhaps,
or----He has asked you?"
She would have given a good deal at this instant to be able to answer
"No;" but the remembrance of how he pleaded with her for one waltz that
evening at the end of the Moyne meadow comes between her and her desire.
So she says, "Yes," instead.
"And you would none of him?"
"_No._"
"It isn't my part to ask why," says Kelly, with quite a miserable air;
"but still I cannot help wondering how _any one_ can dislike Desmond."
No answer. Miss Beresford is looking straight before her, but her color
is distinctly higher, and there is a determination about her not to be
cajoled into speech, that is unmistakable. Having studied her for a
little, Mr. Kelly goes on,--
"I never know whether it is Desmond's expression or manner that is so
charming, therefore I conclude it is both. Have you noticed what a
peculiarly lovable way he has with him? But of course not, as, somehow
he has the misfortune to jar upon you. Yet very few hate him. You see,
you are that excellent thing, an exception."
"I do not hate him," says Monica; and, having thus unlocked her lips
against her inclination, she feels Owen Kelly of Kelly's Grove has won
the game; but she bears him no ill will for all that. "It is the cause,
it is the cause, my soul!"
"No! well, hate is a bitter word, and an unmannerly. I am sorry, then,
that you dislike him."
"Not even that."
"You mean, you regard him with indifference!"
"Yes, exactly that," says Monica, with slow deliberation.
"I am sorry for it. He is a man upon whom both men and women smile,--a
rare thing,--a very favorite of Fortune."
"She is fickle."
"She may well be dubbed so, indeed, if she deserts him at his sorest
need. But as yet she is faithful, as she ought to be, to the kindest,
the sincerest fellow upon earth."
"Sincerest?"
As this repetition, and the fine sneer that accompanies it, escape her,
she becomes aware that Desmond himself has come to the foot of the
stairs, and is gazing at her reproachfully.
"Here is fickle Fortune's favorite literally at our feet," says Owen
Kelly; and, before Monica can say anything, Brian has mounted the two
steps that lie between him and her, and is at her side.
"If I may not dance with you, may I at least talk to you for a moment or
two?" he says, hurriedly.
"Certainly," with cold surprise.
"I don't think three of us could sit together comfortably on this one
step," says Mr. Kelly, with a thoughtful glance at its dimensions,--"not
even if we squeezed up to each other ever so much; and I am afraid,"
mournfully, "Miss Beresford might not like that, either. Would you, Miss
Beresford?"
"Not much," says Monica. "But why need you stir? Mr. Desmond has asked
at the most for two moments; they will go quickly by: in fact,"
unkindly, "I should think they are already gone."
"And yet he has not begun his '_talk_.' Make haste Desmond. Time, tide,
and Miss Beresford wait for no man. Hurry! we are all on the tiptoe of
expectation." As Mr. Kelly says all this in a breath, he encourages
Desmond generously to "come on" by a wave of his hand; whereupon Brian,
who is not in his sweetest mood, directs a glance at him that ought to
annihilate any ordinary man, but is thrown away upon Kelly, who is
fire-proof.
"Some other time, then, as I disturb you now," says Brian, haughtily,
addressing himself pointedly to Monica.
"By no means," says his whilom friend, rising. "Take my place for your
two moments,--not a second longer, remember! I feel with grief that Miss
Beresford will probably hail the exchange of partners with rapture.
'Talk,' says Bacon, 'is but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love;'
and as she would not let me discourse on any topics tenderer than the
solar system and the Channel Tunnel, I have no doubt she has found it
very slow. Now, _you_ will be the--er--other thing quite!"
With this speech, so full of embarrassing possibilities, he bows to
Monica, smiles at the gloomy Desmond, and finally withdraws himself
gracefully from their view. Not without achieving his end, however: they
both heartily wish him back again even while he is going.
"What have I done?" asks Desmond, abruptly, turning to Monica, who is
gazing in a rapt fashion at her large black fan.
"Done?"
"Don't answer me like that, Monica. I have offended you. I can see that.
But how? Every moment of this wretched afternoon, until you came, I
spent wondering when you would arrive. And yet when at last I _did_ see
you, you would vouchsafe me neither smile nor glance. In fact, you
looked as if you _hated_ me!"
"_Every_ moment?" sardonically.
"Every one."
"Even those spent with Mrs. Bohun?" To save her life she could not call
her "Olga" now.
"With _her_?" staring in some surprise at his inquisitor. "Well, it
certainly wasn't quite so bad--the waiting, I mean--then. Though still,
with my mind full of you, I was----"
"You were indeed!" interrupting him hastily, with a contemptuous smile.
"Certainly I was," the surprise growing deeper.
"I wonder you are not ashamed to sit there and confess it," says Miss
Beresford, suddenly, with a wrathful flash in her eyes. "I shall know
how to believe you again. To say one thing to me one day, and another
thing to another person another day, and----" Here she finds a
difficulty in winding up this extraordinary speech, so she says,
hurriedly, "It is _horrible_!"
"What is horrible?" bewildered.
But she pays no heed to his question, thinking it doubtless beneath her.
"At least," she says, with fine scorn, "you needn't be untruthful."
"Do you know," says Mr. Desmond, desperately, "you are making the most
wonderful remarks I ever heard in my life? There is no beginning to
them, and I'm dreadfully afraid there will be no ending."
"No doubt," scornfully, "you are afraid."
"If I allow I am," says Desmond, humbly, "will it induce you to
explain?"
"You want no explanation," indignantly. "You know very well what you
confessed a while ago,--that--that--'_you were_'! _There!_"
"_Where?_"
"Flirting with Olga Bohun!"
"What?"
"You did. You know you did. Oh, what perfidy! Only a moment since you
declared it openly, shamelessly; and now you deny it! Why I wouldn't
have believed it, even of _you_. How _can_ you pretend to forget it?"
But that there are tears born of real emotion in her great eyes, Mr.
Desmond would assuredly believe she is making a vast joke at his
expense, so innocent is he of any offence.
"If by some unfortunate method," he says, calmly, "you have
metamorphosed any speech of mine into a declaration relative to a
flirtation with Mrs. Bohun, you have done an uncommonly clever thing.
You have turned a lie into truth. I never said even one spoony word to
Olga Bohun in all my life."
"Then why," in a still much-aggrieved tone, but with strong symptoms of
relenting, "did you say you were?"
"I don't remember saying it at all," says poor Mr. Desmond, who has
forgotten all about his interrupted remark.
"Then what were you saying to Olga just as I came in?"
"Oh! _that!_"--brightening into a remembrance of the past by the
greatest good luck, or the quarrel might have proved a final one (which
would have been a sad pity, as so many right good ones followed it).
"You stopped me just now when I was going to tell you about it. When you
came this evening I was dancing with Olga, and talking to her of _you_.
It was some small consolation."
"But you were smiling at her," says Monica, faltering, "and whispering
to her--_whispering!_"
"Of you. You believe me? Monica, look at me. Do you know I really think
that----"
But this valuable thought is forever lost. Glancing at his companion, he
sees a change come over the spirit of her face. Her eyes brighten, but
not with pleasurable anticipation. Quite the reverse. She lays her hand
suddenly upon his arm, and gazes into the landing-place beneath.
"There is Aunt Priscilla!" she says, in an awestruck tone. "She has just
come out of that room. She is, I _know_,"--a guilty conscience making a
coward of her,--"looking for me. She may come here! Go, Go!"
"But I can't leave you here alone."
"Yes, you can; you can, indeed. Only try it. Mr. Desmond, _please_ go."
This she says so anxiously that he at once decides (though with
reluctance) there is nothing left him but to obey.
And, after all, Aunt Priscilla never looks up those stairs, but passes
by them, dimly lit as they are, as though they had never been built; and
Desmond, unknowing of this, goes sadly into the dancing-room, ostensibly
in search of Kelly, but with his mind so full of his cross little love
that he does not see him, although he is within a yard of him at one
time.
Now, Mr. Kelly, when he quitted the fateful staircase, had turned to his
right, with a view to getting some friend to lounge against a doorway
with him, but, failing in this quest, had entered the dancing-room, and
edged round it by degree,--not so much from a desire for motion as
because he was elbowed ever onwards by tired dancers who sought the
friendly support of the walls.
Reaching at length a certain corner, he determines to make his own of it
and defend it against all assailants, be they men or Amazons.
It is a charming corner, and almost impregnable; it is for this very
reason also almost unescapable, as he learns to his cost later on.
However, he comes to anchor here, and looks around him.
He is quite enjoying himself, and is making private comments on his
friends that I have no doubt would be rapturously received by them could
they only hear them, when he wakes to the fact that two people have come
to a standstill just before him. They are engaged in not only an
animated but an amicable discussion, and are laughing gayly: as laughter
is even more distinguishable in a crowd than the voice when in repose,
Mr. Kelly is attracted by theirs, and to his astonishment discovers that
his near neighbors are the deadly enemies of an hour agone,--_i. e._,
Mrs. Bohun and Ulic Ronayne.
No faintest trace of spleen is to be discovered in their tones. All is
once more sunshine. Past storms are forgotten. They have evidently been
carrying on their discussion for a considerable time whilst dancing,
because it is only the very end of it that is reserved for Mr. Kelly's
delectation. He, poor man, is hemmed in on every side, and finds to his
horror he cannot make his escape. This being so, he resigns himself with
a grim sense of irony to the position allotted him by fate, and being a
careful man, makes up his mind, too, to derive what amusement from it
that he can.
"So you see everything depends upon judgment," says the fair widow,
fanning herself languidly, but smiling archly.
"A good deal, certainly."
"_Everything_, _I_ say. Determination to succeed, and the power to do
it, are strong in themselves; but judgment tempers all things. And how
few possess all three!"
"I, at least, am grateful for that. If every one was endowed with those
three irresistible forces, I should have a bad chance. I should be but
one among so many. Then it could only be decided by brute force."
"What could?" asks she, turning a fair but amazed face up to his.
"Oh, nothing!" returns he, with some confusion. "Only some silly thought
of my own private brain,--not the part I was devoting to your argument.
Forgive me. You were saying----"
"That there is a tremendous amount of feebleness in most natures. The
real clever thing is to be able to see when an opportunity for good
arises, and then to grasp it. Most people can't see it, you know."
"Others _can_!" says Mr. Ronayne. As he speaks he passes his arm round
her pretty waist and smiles saucily into her eyes.
"What!" exclaims she, smiling in turn, "am I an opportunity, then?"
"The sweetest one I know, and so I seize it," says the audacious youth;
while Mr. Kelly, behind, feels as if he was going to sink into the
ground.
"You don't understand what the word means, you silly boy," says the
widow, laughing gayly.
"Don't I! I only wish I might parse and _spell_ it with you," says
Ronayne, his spirits rising; at which answer, I regret to say, pretty
Mrs. Bohun laughs again merrily, and suffers him to lead her away into
the dancing-circle without a rebuke, leaving Mr. Kelly limp with fear of
discovery.
Now, his imprisonment being at an end, he leaves his corner, and,
braving the anger of the dancing people, walks straight through their
midst to the door beyond, ready to endure anything rather than the
eavesdropping, however innocent, of a moment past.
Filled therefore with courage, he sallies forth, and on the landing
outside encounters the two Misses Blake clothed for departure, with
Monica and Kit beside them. Terence is still bidding adieu to Miss
Fitzgerald whose tall charms have worked a way into his youthful
affections.
Desmond is standing at a little distance from this group; Mr. Ryde is in
the midst of it. He is expostulating with Monica about the cruelty of
her early departure, in a tone that savors of tenderness and rouses in
Mr. Desmond's breast a hearty desire to kick him. Then Mr. Ryde carries
on his expostulations to where Aunt Priscilla is standing; and Brian
tries vainly to gain a last glance from Monica, if only to see whether
the treaty of peace between them--interrupted a while ago--has been
really signed or not.
But Monica, either through wilfulness or ignorance of his near locality,
or perhaps fear of Miss Priscilla, refuses to meet his longing eyes. For
my part, I believe in the wilfulness.
Kit, who is always like the cockles of ancient fame, "_alive O_," sees
his disconsolate face, his earnest, unrequited glance, and Monica's
assumed or real indifference, and feels sad at heart for him.
Deliberately, and with a sweet, grave smile, she holds out to him her
small hand, and, regardless of consequences, gives his a hearty squeeze.
Most thankfully he acknowledges this courtesy; whereupon, of her still
further charity, she bestows upon him a glance from her dark eyes that
speaks volumes and assures him he has in her a friend at court.
Then all is over. The two Misses Blake go slowly and with caution down
the steep staircase, Monica and Mr. Ryde (who grows more devoted every
minute) following, Terence and Kit bringing up the rear.
During the drive home the Misses Blake (who have thoroughly enjoyed
themselves) are both pleasant and talkative. As the old horses jog
steadily along the twilit road, they converse in quite a lively fashion
of all they have heard and noticed, and laugh demurely over many a small
joke.
Kit of course, is in raptures. Her _first_ party and _such_ a success!
She had danced one set of quadrilles and one polka! _two_ whole dances!
Ye gods, was there ever so happy a child! She chatters, and laughs, and
rallies everybody so gayly that the old aunts are fain to die of
merriment.
Yet Monica, who might--an' she chose--have had two partners for every
dance, is strangely silent and depressed. No word escapes her: she leans
back with her pretty tired head pressed close against the cushions.
Perchance little Kit notices all this; because when any one addresses
Monica she makes answer for her in the most careless manner possible,
and by her sharp wit turns the attention of all from the sister she
adores; yet in her heart she is angry with Monica.
Once only during this homeward drive something occurs to disturb the
serenity of the Misses Blake. Kit, in one of her merry sallies, has
touched upon Miss Fitzgerald; whereupon Aunt Priscilla, mindful of that
late and lingering adieu of Terence, says, suddenly,--
"And how do _you_ like Miss Fitzgerald, Terence?"
"She's delightful, aunt!" says the stricken Terence, enthusiastically.
"Perfectly enchanting! You never met so nice a girl!"
"Oh, yes! I think I have, Terence," says Miss Priscilla, freezingly. "I
am, indeed, _sure_ I have."
"There's something about her right down fetching," says Mr. Beresford,
giving himself airs. "Something--er--_there_, but difficult to
describe."
"A 'je ne sais quoi young man,'" quotes the younger Miss Beresford, with
a sneer. "She's tall enough to be one, at any rate. She is a horrid girl
I think."
"You're jealous," says Terence, contemptuously. "Because you know you
will never be half as good to look at."
"If I thought that," says Kit, growing very red, "I'd commit suicide."
"Tut! You are too silly a child to be argued with," says Terence, in a
tone that is not to be borne.
Kit, rising in her seat, prepares for battle, and is indeed about to
hurl a scathing rebuke upon him, when Miss Priscilla interrupts her.
"What is this great charm you see in Miss Fitzgerald, Terence?" she asks
slowly.
"That is just what I cannot describe, aunt."
"I should think you couldn't, indeed!" puts in Kit, wrathfully.
"But, as I said before, she is delightful."
"She _may_ be," says Priscilla, the most damning doubt in her tone. "She
_may_ be, my dear. Forbid that I should deny it! But there are some
delightful people, Terence, that are not good for us."
Somehow, after this, conversation dwindles until it is gone. Terence
sulks; Monica moons; Kit ponders; the Miss Blake snooze: and so at last
home is reached.