He raised his eyebrows, "That's not cynical," he protested. "You have
to take folks the way they are, and not the way you think it would be
pretty to have them. It mightn't be the most dignified position for the
king, but I never did see the use of dignity that got in the way of
your having what you wanted."
She looked at him with so long and steady a gaze that only her patent
absence of mind kept it from being a stare. Then, "I think I will go
for a walk by myself," she said.
"Sure, if you want to," he assented, "and I'll take a nap under this
magnolia tree. I've been working late nights, lately."
When she came back after an hour, the little inclosure was quite still,
and, walking over to the magnolia, she saw that the young man had
indeed fallen soundly asleep, one arm under his head, the other flung
wide, half buried in the grass. For a long time she looked down gravely
at the powerful body, at the large, sinewy hand, relaxed like a
sleeping child's, at the eagle-like face, touchingly softened by its
profound unconsciousness.
Suddenly the dark eyes opened wide into hers. The young man gave an
exclamation and sat up, startled. At this movement she looked away,
smoothing a fold of her skirt. He stared about him, still half-asleep.
"Did I hear somebody call?" he asked. "I must have had a very vivid
dream of some sort--I thought somebody was calling desperately to me.
You didn't speak, did you?"
"No," she answered softly, "I said nothing."
"Well, I hope you'll excuse me for being such poor company. I only
meant to take a cat-nap. I hope we won't be too late for the train."
He scrambled to his feet, his eyes still heavy with sleep, and pulled
out his watch. As he did this, Miss Midland began to speak very
rapidly. What she said was so astonishing to him that he forgot to put
back his watch, forgot even to look at it, and stood with it in his
hand, staring at her, with an expression as near to stupefaction as his
keen and powerful face could show.
When she finally stopped to draw breath, the painful breath of a person
who has been under water too long, he broke into baroque ejaculations,
"Well, wouldn't that _get_ you! Wouldn't that absolutely freeze you to
a pillar of salt! Well, of all the darndest idiots, I've been the----"
With Miss Midland's eyes fixed on him, he broke into peal after peal
of his new-world laughter, his fresh, crude, raw, inimitably vital
laughter, "I'm thinking of the time I loaned you the franc and a half
for your lunch, and hated to take it back because I thought you needed
it--and you rich enough to buy ten libraries to Andy's[137-1] one! Say,
how did you keep your face straight!"
Miss Midland apparently found no more difficulty in keeping a straight
face now than then. She did not at all share his mirth. She was still
looking at him with a strained gaze as though she saw him with
difficulty, through a mist increasingly smothering. Finally, as though
the fog had grown quite too thick, she dropped her eyes, and very
passive, waited for his laughter to stop.
When it did, and the trees which had looked down on Marie Antoinette
had ceased echoing to the loud, metallic, and vigorous sound, he
noticed his watch still in his hand. He glanced at it automatically,
thrust it back into his pocket and exclaimed, quite serious again,
"Look-y-here. We'll have to step lively if we are going to catch that
train back to Paris, Miss Midland--Lady Midland, I mean,--Your
highness--what _do_ they call the daughter of an Earl? I never met
a real live member of the aristocracy before."
She moved beside him as he strode off towards the gate. "I am usually
called Lady Agatha," she answered, in a flat tone.
"How pretty that sounds!" he said heartily, "Lady Agatha! Lady Agatha!
Why don't we have some such custom in America?" He tried it
tentatively. "Lady Marietta--that's my mother's name--don't seem to fit
altogether does it? Lady Maggie--Oh, Lord! awful! No, I guess we'd
better stick to Miss and Mrs. But it _does_ fit Agatha fine!"
She made no rejoinder. She looked very tired and rather stern.
After they were on the train, she said she had a headache and preferred
not to talk and, ensconcing herself in a corner of the compartment,
closed her eyes. Harrison, refreshed by the outdoor air and his nap,
opened his notebook and began puzzling over a knotty point in one of
the French Royal Grants to LaSalle[138-1] which he was engaged at the
time in deciphering. Once he glanced up to find his companion's eyes
open and fixed on him. He thought to himself that her headache must be
pretty bad, and stirred himself to say with his warm, friendly accent,
"It's a perfect shame you feel so miserable! Don't you want me to open
the window? Wouldn't you like my coat rolled up for a pillow? Isn't
there something I can do for you?"
She looked at him, and closing her lips, shook her head.
Later, in the midst of a struggle over an archaic law-form, the
recollection of his loan to his fellow-student darted into his head. He
laid down his notebook to laugh again. She turned her head and looked a
silent question. "Oh, it's just that franc and a half!" he explained.
"I'll never get over that as long as I live!"
She pulled down her veil and turned away from him again.
When they reached Paris, he insisted that she take a carriage and go
home directly. "I'll go on to the reading-room and explain to your
hired girl that you were sick and couldn't wait for her." Before he
closed her into the cab he added, "But, look here! I won't see you
again, will I? I forgot you are going back to England to-morrow. Well,
to think of this being good-bye! I declare, I hate to say it!" He held
out his hand and took her cold fingers in his. "Well, Miss Midland, I
tell _you_ there's not a person in the world who can wish you better
luck than I do. You've been awfully good to me, and I appreciate it,
and I do hope that if there's ever any little thing I can do for you,
you'll let me know. I surely am yours to command."
The girl's capacity for emotion seemed to be quite exhausted, for she
answered nothing to this quaint valedictory beyond a faint, "Good-by,
Mr. Harrison, I hope you----" but she did not finish the sentence.