The door of the apartment stood ajar and he walked in. Athalie, still
in her evening gown, rose from the sofa before the fire, dropping the
white Angora, Hafiz, from her lap.
"It's so good of you, Clive," she said, offering her hand.
"It's good of _you_, Athalie, to let me come."
"_Let_ you!" There was a smile on her sensitive lips, scarcely
perceptible.
He dropped coat, hat, and walking stick across a chair; she seated
herself on the sofa, and he came over and found a place for himself
beside her.
"It's been a long time, Athalie. Has it seemed so to you?"
She nodded. Hafiz, marching to and fro, his plumy tail curling around
her knees, looked up at his mistress out of sapphire eyes.
"Jump, darling," she said invitingly. Hafiz sprang onto her lap with a
quick contented little mew, stretched his superb neck and began to rub
against her shoulder, purring ecstatically.
"He'll cover me with long white hairs," she remarked to Clive, "but I
don't care. Isn't he a beauty? Hasn't he seraphic eyes and angelic
manners?"
Clive nodded, watching the cat with sombre and detached interest.
She said, stroking Hafiz and looking down at the magnificent animal:
"Did you have a pleasant evening, Clive?"
"Not very."
"I'm sorry. Your party seemed to be such a very gay one."
"They made a lot of noise."
She laughed: "Is that a very gracious way to put it?"
"Probably not.... Where had you been before you appeared at the
Regina?"
"To see some moving pictures taken in the South American jungle. It
was really wonderful, Clive: there were parrots and monkeys and
crocodiles and wild pigs--peccaries I think they are called--and then
a big, spotted, chunky-headed jaguar stalked into view! I was so
excited, so interested--"
"Where was it?"
"On the middle fork of the upper Amazon--"
"I mean where were the films exhibited?"
"Oh! At the Berkeley. It was a private view."
"Who invited you?"
"Captain Dane."
He looked up at her, soberly:
"Who is Captain Dane?"
"Why--I don't know exactly. He is a most interesting man. I think he
has been almost everything--a naturalist, an explorer, a scout in the
Boer War, a soldier of fortune, a newspaper man. He is fascinating to
talk to, Clive."
"Where did you meet him?"
"In the office. Mr. Wahlbaum collects orchids, and Captain Dane looked
up some for him when he was on the Amazon a short time ago. He came
into the office about week before last and Mr. Wahlbaum introduced him
to me. They sat there talking for an hour. It was _so_ interesting to
me; and I think Captain Dane noticed how attentively I listened, for
very often he addressed himself to me.... And he asked Mr. Wahlbaum,
very nicely, if he might show me the orchids which are in the
Botanical Gardens, and that is how our friendship began."
"You go about with him?"
"Whenever he asks me. I went with him last Sunday to the Museum of
Natural History. Just think, Clive, I had never been. And, do you
know, he could scarcely drag me away."
"I suppose you dined with him afterward," he said coolly.
"Yes, at a funny little place--I couldn't tell you where it is--but
everybody seemed to know everybody else and it was so jolly and
informal--and such good food! I met a number of people there some of
whom have called on me since--"
"What sort of people?"
"About every interesting sort--men like Captain Dane, writers,
travellers, men engaged in unusual professions. And there were a few
delightful women present, all in some business or profession. Mlle.
Delauny of the Opera was there--so pretty and so unaffected. And there
was also that handsome suffragette who looks like Jeanne d' Arc--"
"Nina Grey."
"Yes. And there was a rather strange and fascinating woman--a
physician I believe--but I am not sure. Anyway she is associated with
the psychical research people, and she asked if she might come to see
me--"
He made an impatient movement--quite involuntary--and Hafiz who was
timid, sprang from Athalie's lap and retreated, tail waving, and ears
flattened for expected blandishments to recall him.
Athalie glanced up at the man beside her with a laugh on her lips,
which died there instantly.
"What is the matter, Clive?"
"Nothing," he said.
His sullen face remained in profile, and after a moment she laid her
hand lightly, questioningly on his sleeve.
Without turning he said: "I don't know what is the matter with me, so
don't ask me. Something seems to be wrong. _I_ am, probably.... And I
think I'll go home, now."
But he did not stir.
After a few moments she said very gently: "Are you displeased with me
for anything I have said or done? I can't imagine--"
"You can't expect me to feel very much flattered by the knowledge that
you are constantly seen with other men where you and I were once so
well known."
"Clive! Is there anything wrong in my going?"
"Wrong? No:--if your own sense of--of--" but the right word--if there
were such--eluded him.
"I know how you feel," she said in a low voice. "I wrote you that it
seemed strange, almost sad, to be with other men where you and I had
been together so often and so--so happily.
"Somehow it seemed to be an invasion of our privacy, of our
intimacy--for me to dine with other men at the same tables, be served
by the same waiters, hear the same music. But I didn't know how to
avoid it when I was taken there by other men. Could you tell me what I
should have done?"
He made no reply; his boyish face grew almost sulky, now.
Presently he rose as though to get his coat: she rose also, unhappy,
confused.
"Don't mind me. I'm a fool," he said shortly, looking away from
her--"and a very--unhappy one--"
"Clive!"
He said savagely: "I tell you I don't know what's the matter with
me--" He passed one hand brusquely across his eyes and stood so,
scowling at the hearth where Hafiz sat, staring gravely back at him.
"Clive, are you ill?"
He shrugged away the suggestion, and his arm brushed against hers. The
contact seemed to paralyse him; but when, slipping back unconsciously
into the old informalities, she laid her hands on his shoulders and
turned him toward the light, instantly and too late she was aware that
the old and innocent intimacy was ended, done for,--a thing of the
past.
Incredulous still in the very menace of new and perilous relations--of
a new intimacy, imminent, threatening, she withdrew her hands from
the shoulders of this man who had been a boy but an instant ago. And
the next moment he caught her in his arms.
"Clive! You _can't_ do this!" she whispered, deathly white.
"What am I to do?" he retorted fiercely.
"Not this, Clive!--For my sake--please--_please_--"
There was colour enough in her face, now. Breathless, still a little
frightened, she looked away from him, plucking nervously,
instinctively, at his hands clasping her waist.
"Can't you c-care for me, Athalie?" he stammered.
"Yes ... you know it. But don't touch me, Clive--"
"When I'm--in love--with you--"
She caught her breath sharply.
"--What am I to do?" he repeated between his teeth.
"Nothing! There is nothing to do about it! You know it!... What is
there to do?"
He held her closer and she strained away from him, her head still
averted.
"Let me go, Clive!" she pleaded.
"Can't you care for me!"
"Let me go!"
He said under his breath: "All right." And released her. For a moment
she did not move but her hands covered her burning face and sealed her
lids. She stood there, breathing fast and irregularly until she heard
him move. Then, lowering her hands she cast a heart-broken glance at
him. And his ashen, haggard visage terrified her.
"Clive!" she faltered: he swung on his heel and caught her to him
again.
She offered no resistance.
She was crying, now,--weeping perhaps for all that had been said--or
remained unsaid--or maybe for all that could never be said between
herself and this man in whose arms she was trembling. No need now for
any further understanding, for excuses, for regrets, for any tardy
wish expressed that things might have been different.
He offered no explanation; she expected none, would have suffered
none, crying there silently against his shoulder. But the reaction was
already invading him; the tide of self-contempt rose.
He said bitterly: "Now that I've done all the damage I could, I shall
have to go--or offer--"
"There is no damage done--yet--"
"I have made you love me."
"I--don't know. Wait."
Wet cheek against his shoulder, lips a-quiver, her tragic eyes looked
out into space seeing nothing yet except the spectre of this man's
unhappiness.
Not for herself had the tears come, the mouth quivered. The flash of
passionate emotion in him had kindled in her only a response as
blameless as it was deep.
Sorrow for him, for his passion recognised but only vaguely
understood, grief for a comradeship forever ended now--regret for the
days that now could come no more--but no thought of self as yet,
nothing of resentment, of the lesser pity, the baser pride.
If she had trembled it was for their hopeless future; if she had wept
it was because she saw his boyhood passing out of her life like a
ghost, leaving her still at heart a girl, alone beside the ashes of
their friendship.
As for marriage she knew it would never be--that neither he nor she
dared subscribe to it, dared face its penalties and its punishments;
that her fear of his unknown world was as spontaneous and abiding as
his was logical and instinctive.
There was nothing to do about it. She knew that instantly; knew it
from the first;--no balm for him, no outlook, no hope. For her--had
she thought about herself,--she could have entertained none.
She turned her head on his shoulder and looked up at him out of
pitiful, curious eyes.
"Clive, must this be?"
"I love you, Athalie."
Her gaze remained fixed on him as though she were trying to comprehend
him,--sad, candid, searching in his eyes for an understanding denied
her.
"Yes," she said vaguely, "my thoughts are full of you, too. They have
always been since I first saw you. I suppose it has been love. I
didn't know it."
"Is it love, Athalie?"
"I--think so, Clive. What else could it be--when a girl is always
thinking about a man, always happy with her memories of him.... It
_is_ love, I suppose ... only I never thought of it that way."
"Can you think of it that way now?"
"I haven't changed, Clive. If it was love in the beginning, it is
now."
"In the beginning it was only a boy and girl affair."
"It was all my heart had room for."
"And now?"
"You fill my heart and mind as always. But you know that."
"I thought--perhaps--not seeing you--"
"Clive!"
"--Other men--other interests--" he muttered obstinately, and so like
a stubborn boy that, for a moment, a pale flash from the past seemed
to light them both, and she found herself smiling:
"A girl must go on living until she is dead, Clive. Even if you went
away I'd continue to exist until something ended me. Other men are
merely other men. You are you."
"You darling!"
But she turned shy instantly, conscious now of his embrace, confused
by it and the whispered endearment.
"Please let me go, Clive."
"But I love you, dear--"
"Yes--but please--"
Again he released her and she stepped back, retreating before him,
until the lounge offered itself as refuge. But it was no refuge; she
found herself, presently, drawn close to his shoulder; her flushed
cheek rested there once more, and her lowered eyes were fixed on his
strong, firm hand which had imprisoned both of hers.
"If you can stand it I can," he said in a low voice.
"What?"
"Marrying me."
"Oh, Clive! They'd tear us to pieces! You couldn't stand it. Neither
could I."
"But if we--"
"Oh, no, no, no!" she protested, "it would utterly ruin you! There was
one woman there to-night--very handsome--I knew she was your mother.
And I saw the way she looked at me.... It's no use, Clive. Those
people _are_ different. They'd never forgive you, and it would ruin
you or you'd have to go back to them."
"But if we were once married, there _are_ friends of mine who--"
"How many? One in a thousand! Oh, Clive, Clive, I know you so
well--your family and your pride in them, your position and your
security in it, your wide circle of friends, without which circle you
would wander like a lost soul--yes, Clive, lost, forlorn, unhappy,
even with me!"
She lifted her head from his shoulder and sat up, gazing intently
straight ahead of her. In her eyes was a lovely azure light; her lips
were scarcely parted; and so intent and fixed was her gaze that for a
moment he thought she had caught sight of some concrete thing which
held her fascinated.
But it was only that she "saw clearly" at that moment--something that
had come into her field of vision--a passing shape, perhaps, which
looked at her with curious, friendly, inquiring eyes,--and went its
way between the fire and the young girl who watched it pass with
fearless and clairvoyant gaze.
"Athalie?"
"Yes," she answered as in a dream.
"Athalie! What is the matter?"
She turned, looked at him almost blindly as her remoter vision
cleared.
"Clive," she said under her breath, "go home."
"What?"
"Go home. You are wanted."
"_What!!!_"
She rose and he stood up, his fascinated eyes never leaving hers.
"What were you staring at a moment ago?" he demanded. "What did
you--think--you saw?"
Her eyes looked straight into his. She went to him and put both arms
around his neck.
"Dearest," she said "--dearest." And kissed him on the mouth. But he
dared not lay one finger on her.
The next moment she had his coat, was holding it for him. He took his
hat and stick from her, turned and walked to the door, wheeled in his
tracks, shivering.
And saw her crouched on the sofa, her head buried in her arms. And
dared not speak.
* * * * *
There was an automobile standing in the street before his own house as
he turned out of Fifth Avenue; lighted windows everywhere in the
house, and the iron grille ajar.
He could scarcely fit the latch-key his hands were so unsteady.
There were people in the hall, partly clad. He heard his own name in
frightened exclamation.
"What is it?" he managed to ask.
A servant stammered: "Mr. Clive--it's all over, sir. Mrs. Bailey is
asking for you, sir."
"Is my father--" but he could not go on.
"Yes, sir. His man heard him call--once--like he was dreamin' bad. But
when he got to him Mr. Bailey was gone.... The doctor has just
arrived, sir."
For one instant hope gleamed athwart the stunning crash of his senses:
he steadied himself on the newel post. Then, in his ear a faint voice
echoed: "Dearest--dearest!" And, knowing that hope also lay dead, he
lifted his young head, straightened up, and set his foot heavily on
the first step upward into a new and terrible world of grief.