"It"s true," he murmured; "you _are_ the most beautiful thing in this beauty-ridden town."
"You"ll spoil me, Clive."
"Is that possible?"
"I don"t know. Don"t try. There is a great deal in me that has never been disturbed, never been brought out. Maybe much of it is evil," she added lightly.
He turned; she met his eyes half seriously, half mockingly, and they laughed. But what she had said so lightly in jest remained for a few moments in his mind to occupy and slightly trouble it.
From their table beside the bronze-railed gallery, they could overlook the main floor where a wide lane for dancing had been cleared and marked out with crimson-ta.s.selled ropes of silk.
A noisy orchestra played imbecile dance music, and a number of male and female imbeciles took advantage of it to exercise the only portions of their anatomy in which any trace of intellect had ever lodged.
Athalie, resting one dimpled elbow on the velvet cushioned rail, watched the dancers for a while, then her unamused and almost expressionless gaze swept the tables below with a leisurely absence of interest which might have been mistaken for insolence--and envied as such by a servile world which secretly adores it.
"Well, Lady Greensleeves?" he said, watching her.
"Some remarkable Poiret and Lucille gowns, Clive.... And a great deal of paint." She remained a moment in the same att.i.tude--leisurely inspecting the throng below, then turned to him, her calm preoccupation changing to a shyly engaging smile.
"Are you still of the same mind concerning my personal attractiveness?"
"I _have_ spoiled you!" he concluded, pretending chagrin.
"Is that spoiling me--to hear you say you approve of me?"
"Of course not, you dear girl! Nothing could ever spoil you."
She lifted her Clover Club, looking across the frosty gla.s.s at him; and the usual rite was silently completed. They were hungry; her appet.i.te was always a natural and healthy one, and his sometimes matched it, as happened that night.
"Now, this is wonderful," he said, lighting a cigarette between courses and leaning forward, elbows on the cloth, and his hands clasped under his chin; "a good show, a good dinner, and good company.
What surfeited monarch could ask more?"
"Why mention the company last, Clive?"
"I"ve certainly spoiled you," he said with a groan; "you"ve tasted adulation; you prefer it to your dinner."
"The question is do _you_ prefer my company to the dinner and the show? _Do_ you! If so why mention me last in the catalogue of your blessings?"
"I always mention you last in my prayers--so that whoever listens will more easily remember," he said gaily.
The laughter still made the dark blue eyes brilliant but they grew more serious when she said: "You don"t really ever _pray_ for me, Clive. Do you?"
"Yes. Why not?"
The smile faded in her eyes and in his.
"I didn"t know you prayed at all," she remarked, looking down at her wine gla.s.s.
"It"s one of those things I happen to do," he said with a slight shrug.
They mused for a while in silence, her mind pursuing its trend back to childhood, his idly considering the subject of prayer and wondering whether the habit had become too mechanical with him, or whether his less selfish pet.i.tions might possibly carry to the Source of All Things.
Then having drifted clear of this nebulous zone of thought, and coffee having been served, they came back to earth and to each other with slight smiles of recognition--delicate salutes acknowledging each other"s presence and paramount importance in a world which was going very gaily.
They discussed the play; she hummed s.n.a.t.c.hes of its melodies below her breath at intervals, her dark blue eyes always fixed on him and her ears listening to him alone. Particularly now; for his mood had changed and he was drifting back toward something she had said earlier in the evening--something about her own possible capacity for good and evil. It was a question, only partly serious; and she responded in the same vein:
"How should I know what capabilities I possess? Of course I have capabilities. No doubt, dormant within me lies every besetting sin, every human failing. Perhaps also the cardinal, corresponding, and antidotic virtues to all of these."
"I suppose," he said, "every sin has its ant.i.thesis. It"s like a chess board--the human mind--with the black men ranged on one side and the white on the other, ready to move, to advance, skirmish, threaten, manoeuvre, attack, and check each other, and the intervening squares represent the checkered battlefield of contending desires."
The simile striking her as original and clever, she made him a pretty compliment. She was very young in her affections.
"If," she nodded, "a sin, represented by a black piece, dares to stir or intrude or threaten, then there is always the better thought, represented by a white piece, ready to block and check the black one.
Is that it?"
"Exactly," he said, secretly well pleased with himself. And as for Athalie, she admired his elastic and eloquent imagination beyond words.
"Do you know," she said, "you have never yet told me anything about your business. Is it all right for me to ask, Clive?"
"Certainly. It"s real estate--Bailey, Reeve, and Willis. Willis is dead, Reeve out of it, and my father and I are the whole show."
"Reeve?" she repeated, interested.
"Yes, he lives in Paris, permanently. He has a son here, in the banking business."
"Cecil Reeve?"
"Yes. Do you know him?"
"No. My sister Catharine does."
Clive seemed interested and curious: "Cecil Reeve and I were at Harvard together. I haven"t seen much of him since."
"What sort is he, Clive?"
"Nice--Oh, very nice. A good sport;--a good deal of a sport.... Which sister did you say?"
"Catharine."
"That"s the cunning little one with the baby stare and brown curls?"
"Yes."
There was a silence. Clive sat absently fidgeting with his gla.s.s, and Athalie watched him. Presently without looking up he said: "Yes, Cecil Reeve is a very decent sport.... Rather gay. Good-looking chap. Nice sort.... But rather a sport, you know."
The girl nodded.
"Catharine mustn"t believe all he says," he added with a laugh. "Cecil has a way--I"m not knocking him, you understand--but a young--inexperienced girl--might take him a little bit too seriously.... Of course your sister wouldn"t."