"Of course I forgive you," she said. "You have been so good to me."
"Good!" I cried bitterly. "I"ve been harsh, unreasoning, super-critical from the day I met--"
"Hush!" she said, laying her free hand upon my arm. "I shall never forget all that you have done for me. I--I can say no more."
I gulped. "I pray to heaven that you may be happy, Aline,--happier than any one else in the world."
She lowered her head suddenly, and I was made more miserable than before by hearing a quick, half-suppressed sob. Then she withdrew her cold little hand and turned away to follow Colingraft who had called out to her.
I saw them board the train. In my heart there was the memory of a dozen kisses I had bestowed in repentant horror upon the half-asleep Rosemary, who, G.o.d bless her little soul, cried bitterly on being torn away from my embrace.
"Well," said Billy Smith, taking me by the arm a few minutes later, "let"s have a bite to eat and a cold bottle before we go to bed, old chap. I hope to heaven she gets through all right. Damme, I am strong for her, aren"t you?"
"I am," said I, with conviction, coming out of a daze.
He led me off to a cafe where he seemed to be more or less at home, and where it was bright and gay for him but gloomier than the grave to me.
I drove the car home the next day. When we got down at the garage, Britton shivered and drew a prodigious breath. It was as if he had not breathed for hours. We had gone the distance in little more than half the time taken on the trip down.
"My word, sir," was all he said, but there was a significant tremor in his voice. It smacked of pride.
Mrs. t.i.tus placidly inquired how we had got along, and appeared quite relieved when I told her we had caught the train at K---. Jasper, Jr., revealed a genuine interest in the enterprise, but spoiled it all by saying that Aline, now prematurely safe, was most likely to leap out of the frying-pan into the fire by marrying some blithering foreigner and having the whole beastly business to do over again.
"How soon do they go?" asked p.o.o.pend.y.k.e late that afternoon, after listening to Mrs. t.i.tus"s amiable prophecies concerning Aline"s future activities, and getting my hara.s.sed ear in a moment of least resistance.
"I don"t know," said I, hopelessly. I had heard about all I could endure concerning his lordship"s magnificent estates in England, and the sort of a lord he was besides. "There"s nothing to do but wait, Fred."
"She is a remarkably fine woman but--" He completed the estimate by shaking his head, trusting to my intelligence, I suppose.
We waited two days for word from the fugitives. Late in the afternoon of the second day, Britton returned from town with a telegram for me.
It said:
"Cargo safely aboard _Pendennis_, Captain Pardee commanding. Clear at two to-day. Everything satisfactory. (Signed) C. G. RAFT."
No sooner was this rea.s.suring news received than Mrs. t.i.tus complacently set about having her trunks packed. The entire household was in a stew of activity, for she had suddenly decided to catch the eight o"clock train for Paris. I telephoned to reserve accommodation on the Orient Express from Vienna, and also to have it stopped at the town across the river, a concession secured at a no inconsiderable cost.
She was to travel once more as my mother.
"You will not fail to look us up when you come to New York, will you, Mr. Smart? Mr. t.i.tus will not be happy until he has expressed to you in person his endless grat.i.tude. You have been splendid. We shall never forget your kindness, your thoughtfulness, your--your forbearance.
I--I--"
Upon my word, there were real tears in the dear lady"s eyes! I forgot and forgave much in recognition of this instant of genuine feeling on her part. It was not necessary for her to complete the sentence so humbly begun.
Their departure was made with some degree of caution, Mrs. t.i.tus rather considerately reminding herself that my interests were at stake. I saw them aboard the train; she played her part admirably, I will say that for her. She lifted her veil so that I could bestow a farewell filial kiss upon her cheek. Jasper, Jr."s, eyes popped very wide open at this, and, as he shook my hand warmly at parting, he said:
"You are a wonder, John,--a sure enough wonder. Why, hang it all, she doesn"t even let dad do that."
But Jasper, Jr., was very young and he couldn"t understand.
At last we were to ourselves, my extensive household and I. Late that night I sat in my study considering the best means of reducing my staff of servants and in computing, with dismay, the cost of being a princely host to people who had not the least notion what it meant to do sums in economic subtraction. It was soon apparent to me that retrenchment, stern and relentless, would have to follow upon my wild though brief season of profligacy. I decided to dismiss the scullery-maid.
I was indescribably lonely. p.o.o.pend.y.k.e was worried about my pallor, my la.s.situde. At the end of a week, he took it upon himself to drop a line to the Hazzards, urging them to run out for a visit in the hope that company might take me out of myself. All attempts to renew my work on the ill-fated novel met with utter failure. The power of mental concentration was gone. I spent most of my time in the garden.
The Hazzards came and with them the joyously beautiful Betty Billy.
p.o.o.pend.y.k.e must have prepared them for the task in hand, for they proceeded at once to transform the bleak, dreary old castle into a sort of hilarious merry-go-round, with me in the very vortex of it all. They succeeded in taking me "out of myself," I will say that for them. My spirits took an upward bound and, wonderful to relate, retained their alt.i.tude in spite of all I could do to lower them. I did not want to be happy; I figured that I owed it to my recently aroused temperament to be permanently unhappy. But the wind blew another way and I drifted amiably with it, as a derelict drifts with the currents of the ocean but preferably with the warm gulf stream.
We had word from Mrs. t.i.tus, in London, that negotiations had been reopened with the Count, and that a compromise might be expected. The obdurate n.o.bleman had agreed, it seemed, to meet Jasper t.i.tus"s lawyers in Paris at no distant date. My chief concern however was for the Countess herself. That she had successfully reached the high seas was apparent; if not, the newspapers, which I read with eagerness, would have been filled with accounts of her seizure. We eagerly awaited the promised cablegram from New York, announcing her safe arrival there.
Smith joined us at the end of the week. I nerved myself to question him about the Englishman.
"Splendid fellow," said he, with discouraging fervour. "One of the finest chaps I know, eh, George?"
"For an Englishman," admitted Hazzard.
"He"s a gentleman, and that"s more than you can say for the rag-tag of n.o.bility that paid court to Aline Tarnowsy. He was in love with her, but he was a gentleman about it. A thoroughbred, I say."
"Good looking?" I enquired.
"Well, rather! The sort of chap women rave about. Ask Betty. She was mad about him. But he couldn"t see anything in her. I think she hates him now. He had eyes for no one but the fair Countess. An awful grind on Betty. She"s used to something different."
Hazzard studied the clouds that drifted over our heads. "I wonder if Aline cared anything for him."
"I"ve always believed that she liked him better than she cared to admit, even to herself."
"I fancy he"ll not let any gra.s.s grow under his feet, now that she"s free," said Dr. Hazzard.
"Think she"ll have him?"
"Why not? He has a much better position in England than Tarnowsy has here, and he"s not after her money. I hate to say it, but Aline is a seeker after t.i.tles. She wouldn"t be averse to adding "your ladyship"
to her collection."
"Oh, come!" I protested. "That is a nasty thing to say, George."
"She may have been regenerated," he said obligingly. "You know her better than I do, old chap. What say?"
"I didn"t say anything," I muttered.
"I thought you did."
I hesitated a moment and then purged myself of the truth. "As a matter of fact, I have reason to believe she"s in love with Amberdale and has been for a long time. I"m not saying it in disparagement, believe me.
G.o.d knows she"s ent.i.tled to something decent and fine in the shape of love. I hope he"s good enough for her."
They looked at me with interest, and Smith broke the momentary silence.
"Oh, he"s good enough for her," he said, with a queer smile.