"No; he is pleased. He thinks you are sure to say something in his
favour, and jumps at the opportunity."
"Is that why you sent for me?"
"To hear your counsel--yes. As it is you who have planted me in this
quandary, you had better at least tell me what you would advise?"
"That I leave to your own heart." He was conscious that prudence would
have touched the string more lightly.
"You are so uncomplimentary as to have forgotten what I told you, and
not so long ago. I don't own the thing. At all events, it is of the
smallest."
"So is what we see of the moon," said Wareham, pointing to a slender
crescent.
Anne smiled, for a woman who talks of heartlessness does so to be
contradicted.
"Well, it appears to me that you put forth little on behalf of your
friend."
"One doesn't praise the people one loves." He dared not look at her,
but her nearness thrilled him, and he had not thought to be thus
together again in the mysterious dusk of a northern night. She was
silent for a time; when she spoke it was to say slowly--
"If you tell me that you honestly wish it, I may--perhaps--"
But he had started up impatiently.
"Good heavens, am I your guide? I have nothing to do with it. I wash
my hands of all!" He added with a strong effort, "Let me say that you
could not choose a better fellow, and that he loves you with his whole
heart."
"How big is that?" Anne demanded, in a mocking tone.
The question jarred. He loved, but did not like her so well as before.
"You, at any rate, have no reason to doubt its generosity," he answered
gravely. "And one thing I will ask of you--do not cause unnecessary
pain."
"The situation is none of my creating. Give me credit at least for
having done my utmost to avoid painful positions. You, or fate, have
baffled me, yet now you refuse to interfere, and I do not pretend to
answer for myself."
She pushed away the plate of strawberries, and leaned back among the
rugs and furs, her face pale in the half light, her voice cold. Wareham
was still standing, when Hugh came back and glanced from one to the
other.
"Have you persuaded him?" he inquired.
"Mr Wareham?" said Anne carelessly. "I should not venture to attempt
it."
"Time's nearly up," Hugh announced. "In a quarter of an hour we shall
be at Vadheim, and Colonel Martyn wants to know if you have seen the
brown rug?"
"Tell him it is here," she said, with a little eagerness; and Hugh was
turning away when Wareham stopped him.
"Stay," he said. "I will go."
He did not return. Lights shone out ahead of them, and there was a stir
in the vessel, and an uprising of sleepers, for this is the point where
those bound for Northern Norway leave the Sogne. The professor's voice
was heard, acutely insistent. Colonel Martyn came to look for Anne and
his rug. The lights resolved themselves into illuminated windows of a
square inn, and, with no movement about it, this midnight illumination
had an almost spectral effect.
A procession of good-byes followed.
"Good-bye, Mr Wareham," said Mrs Martyn, with a laugh. "High ideals
may be very fine things, but they don't pay, and you had better have
stayed."
"Lucky man, with a tender chop in sight!" muttered her husband.
As Anne passed out she turned a smiling face towards Wareham, but if he
had feared or hoped for a farewell word, he was disappointed. She said
no more than "Good-night," and put a warm hand into his. He had
prepared himself for words, but silence knocked aside his defences.
"We are friends?" he asked eagerly.
She lifted her eyebrows, still smiling.
"I should never reach your ideal of friendship. Keep it for Mr
Forbes."
Hugh pressed in from behind, laden with bundles.
"Here's everything, as far as I can see, but if you find anything, Dick,
leave it with Bennett in Bergen. You're a villain, not to come along
with us." Then, in a whisper, "Wish me well, old fellow!"
He had only time to spring on shore, the vessel backed slowly away from
the pier, the figures faded into darkness, the spectral inn presented
its squares of steady light. Wareham stood watching, then, with
something like a groan, turned away, and flung himself down where Anne
had sat among the luggage.