"My first!"
"And your first defeat?"
"I suppose it is," he admitted cheerfully. "I rather expected to win, too."
"You must be very disappointed, I am afraid."
"I have lost," he said thoughtfully, "a gold cup. I have gained--"
She half rose and shook out her skirts as though about to leave him. He stopped short and found another conclusion to his sentence.
"Experience!"
A faint smile parted her lips. She resumed her seat.
"I am glad to find you," she said, "so much of a philosopher. Now talk to me for a few minutes about what you have been doing in Africa."
He obeyed her, and very soon she forgot the well dressed crowd of men and women by whom they were surrounded, the light hum of gay conversation, the band which was playing the fashionable air of the moment. She saw instead the long line of men of many races, stripped to the waist and toiling as though for their lives under a tropical sun, she saw the great brown water-jars pa.s.sed down the line, men fainting beneath the burning sun and their places taken by others. She heard the shrill whistle of alarm, the beaten drum; she saw the spade exchanged for the rifle, and the long line of toilers disappear behind the natural earthwork which their labours had created. She saw black forms rise stealthily from the long, rank gra.s.s, a flight of quivering spears, the horrid battle-cry of the natives rang in her ears. The whole drama of the man"s great past rose up before her eyes, made a living and real thing by his simple but vigorous language. That he effaced himself from it went for nothing; she saw him there perhaps more clearly than anything else, the central and domineering figure, a man of brains and nerve who, with his life in his hands, faced with equal immovability a herculean task and the chances of death. Certain phrases in Fred"s letter had sunk deep into her mind, they were recalled very vividly by the presence of the man himself, telling his own story. She sat in the sunlight with the music in her ears, listening to his abrupt, vivid speech, and a fear came to her which blanched her cheeks and caught at her throat. The hand which held her dainty parasol of lace shook, and an indescribable thrill ran through her veins. She could no more think of this man as a clodhopper, a coa.r.s.e upstart without manners or imagination. In many ways he fell short of all the usual standards by which the men of her cla.s.s were judged, yet she suddenly realised that he possessed a touch of that quality which lifted him at once far over their heads. The man had genius. Without education or culture he had yet achieved greatness. By his side the men who were pa.s.sing about on the lawn became suddenly puppets. Form and style, manners and easy speech became suddenly stripped of their significance to her. The man at her side had none of these things, yet he was of a greater world. She felt her enmity towards him suddenly weakened. Only her pride now could help her. She called upon it fiercely. He was the man whom she had deliberately believed to be guilty of her father"s death, the man whom she had set herself to entrap. She brushed all those other thoughts away and banished firmly that dangerous kindness of manner into which she had been drifting.
And he, on his part, felt a glow of keen pleasure when he realised how the events of the day had gone in his favour. If not yet of her world, he knew now that his becoming so would be hereafter purely a matter of time. He looked up through the green leaves at the blue sky, bedappled with white, fleecy clouds, and wondered whether she guessed that his appearance here, his ownership of Iris, the studious care with which he had placed himself in the hands of a Seville Row tailor were all for her sake. It was true that she had condescended to Bohemianism, that he had first met her as a journalist, working for her living in a plain serge suit and a straw hat. But he felt sure that this had been to a certain extent a whim with her. He stole a sidelong glance at her--she was the personification of daintiness from the black patent shoes showing beneath the flouncing of her skirt, to the white hat with its cl.u.s.ters of roses. Her foulard gown was as simple as genius could make it, and she wore no ornaments, save a fine clasp to her waistband of dull gold, quaintly fashioned, and the fine gold chain around her neck, from which hung her racing-gla.s.ses. She was to him the very type of everything aristocratic. It might be, as she had told him, that she chose to work for her living, but he knew as though by inspiration that her people and connections were of that world to which he could never belong, save on sufferance. He meant to belong to it, for her sake--to win her! He admitted the presumption, but then it would be presumption of any man to lift his eyes to her. He estimated his chances with common sense; he was not a man disposed to undervalue himself. He knew the power of his wealth and his advantage over the crowd of young men who were her equals by birth. For he had met some of them, had inquired into their lives, listened to their jargon, and had come in a faint sort of way to understand them. It had been an encouragement to him. After all it was only serious work, life lived out face to face with the great realities of existence which could make a man. In a dim way he realised that there were few in her own cla.s.s likely to satisfy Ernestine. He even dared to tell himself that those things which rendered him chiefly unfit for her, the acquired vulgarities of his rougher life, were things which he could put away; that a time would come when he would take his place confidently in her world, and that the end would be success. And all the while from out of the blue sky Fate was forging a thunderbolt to launch against him!
CHAPTER x.x.xIV
"And now," she said, rising, "you really must take me to Lady Tresham!
They will think that I am lost."
"Are you still at your rooms?" he asked.
She nodded.
"Yes, only I"m having them spring-cleaned for a few days. I am staying at Tresham House."
"May I come and see you there?"
The man"s quiet pertinacity kindled a sort of indignation in her. The sudden weakness in her defences was unbearable.
"I think not," she answered shortly. "You don"t know Lady Tresham, and they might not approve. Lady Tresham is rather old-fashioned."
"Oh, Lady Tresham is all right," he answered. "I suppose I shall see you to-night if you are staying there. They have asked me to dinner!"
She was taken aback and showed it. Again he had the advantage. He did not tell her that on his return he had found scores of invitations from people he had never heard of before.
"You are by way of going into society, then," she answered insolently.
"I don"t think I"ve made any particular efforts," he answered.
"Money," she murmured, "is an everlasting force!"
"The people of your world," he answered, with a flash of contempt, "are the people who find it so."
She was silent then, and Trent was far from being discouraged by her momentary irritability. He was crossing the lawn now by her side, carrying himself well, with a new confidence in his air and bearing which she did not fail to take note of. The sunlight, the music, and the pleasant air of excitement were all in his veins. He was full of the strong joy of living. And then, in the midst of it all, came a dull, crashing blow. It was as though all his castles in the air had come toppling about his ears, the blue sky had turned to stony grey and the sweet waltz music had become a dirge. Always a keen watcher of men"s faces, he had glanced for a second time at a gaunt, sallow man who wore a loose check suit and a grey Homburg hat. The eyes of the two men met.
Then the blood had turned to ice in Trent"s veins and the ground had heaved beneath his feet. It was the one terrible chance which Fate had held against him, and she had played the card.
Considering the nature and suddenness of the blow which had fallen upon him, Trent"s recovery was marvellous. The two men had come face to face upon the short turf, involuntarily each had come to a standstill.
Ernestine looked from one to the other a little bewildered.
"I should like a word with you, Trent," Captain Francis said quietly.
Trent nodded.
"In five minutes," he said, "I will return here--on the other side of the band-stand, say."
Francis nodded and stood aside. Trent and Ernestine continued their progress towards the stand.
"Your friend," Ernestine remarked, "seemed to come upon you like a modern Banquo!"
Trent, who did not understand the allusion, was for once discreet.
"He is a man with whom I had dealings abroad," he said, "I did not expect him to turn up here."
"In West Africa?" she asked quickly.
Trent smiled enigmatically.
"There are many foreign countries besides Africa," he said, "and I"ve been in most of them. This is box No. 13, then. I shall see you this evening."
She nodded, and Trent was free again. He did not make his way at once to the band-stand. Instead he entered the small refreshment-room at the base of the building and called for a gla.s.s of brandy. He drank it slowly, his eyes fixed upon the long row of bottles ranged upon the shelf opposite to him, he himself carried back upon a long wave of thoughts to a little West African station where the moist heat rose in fever mists and where an endless stream of men pa.s.sed backward and forward to their tasks with wan, weary faces and slowly dragging limbs.
What a cursed chance which had brought him once more face to face with the one weak spot in his life, the one chapter which, had he the power, he would most willingly seal for ever! From outside came the ringing of a bell, the hoa.r.s.e shouting of many voices in the ring, through the open door a vision of fluttering waves of colour, lace parasols and picture hats, little trills of feminine laughter, the soft rustling of muslins and silks. A few moments ago it had all seemed so delightful to him--and now there lay a hideous blot upon the day.
It seemed to him when he left the little bar that he had been there for hours, as a matter of fact barely five minutes had pa.s.sed since he had left Ernestine. He stood for a moment on the edge of the walk, dazzled by the sunlight, then he stepped on to the gra.s.s and made his way through the throng. The air was full of soft, gay music, and the skirts and flounces of the women brushed against him at every step. Laughter and excitement were the order of the day. Trent, with his suddenly pallid face and unseeing eyes, seemed a little out of place in such a scene of pleasure. Francis, who was smoking a cigar, looked up as he approached and made room for him upon the seat.
"I did not expect to see you in England quite so soon, Captain Francis,"
Trent said.
"I did not expect," Francis answered, "ever to be in England again. I am told that my recovery was a miracle. I am also told that I owe my Life to you!"
Trent shrugged his shoulders.
"I would have done as much for any of my people," he said, "and you don"t owe me any thanks. To be frank with you, I hoped you"d die."
"You could easily have made sure of it," Francis answered.
"It wasn"t my way," Trent answered shortly. "Now what do you want with me?"
Francis turned towards him with a curious mixture of expressions in his face.