"Quoting Henley, aren"t you, Don Carlos, and trying the effect of pathos by way of a change?" retorted Myra. "How amusing! As far as I am concerned, you can "break your heart on my hard unfaith and break your heart in vain..." Don"t grip my hand so tightly. You are hurting me."
"I will hurt you if you are trifling with me and making mock of my love," said Don Carlos quickly, through clenched teeth. "Don"t try me too far, Myra. Beware lest my love turns to hate!"
"Beware lest my love turns to hate!" mimicked Myra, and trilled out a laugh. "You are talking like a character in an old-fashioned melodrama. Should I play up to you by crying, "Unhand me, villain,"
turning deathly pale, and screaming for help. Don"t be absurd! ... We won"t dance the encore. But if you will promise to be sensible and refrain from talking extravagant nonsense, you may take me in to supper."
She felt certain that she had both hurt and puzzled Don Carlos, and she gloried in the thought, flattering herself that she was really taking her revenge. She was completely mistress of herself again, sure of her own powers, and during supper she laid herself out to be "nice," with almost devastating effect, playing on the emotions of the Spaniard like a skilled musician on a sensitive instrument. Deliberately she encouraged him, only to rebuff him when she had inflamed his ardour, deliberately she set herself to excite his pa.s.sions, only to reward him with a cold douche of ridicule.
"I believe the man is actually in love with me," Myra soliloquised, smiling in self-satisfied fashion at her reflection in the mirror as she undressed that night. "He was grinding his teeth in sheer mortification and looking quite murderous when I told him he was boring me, and I went off with Tony. Yes, I think I am taking my revenge.
What a triumph if I find myself able to twist round my little finger, so to speak, the man who boasted no woman could resist him!"
Yet when she fell asleep she dreamed that she was again in the arms of Don Carlos with his lips crushed on her own, and that she was returning his pa.s.sionate kisses with fervour and straining the Spaniard close to her heart although Tony (in her dream) was looking on, feebly begging her to desist and to kiss him instead, and Lady Fermanagh was standing by protesting in solemn tones that she was "playing with fire."
"What an utterly absurd dream!" Myra reflected, when she woke with her heart thrilling queerly. "I wonder what particular and peculiar kink in my mental outfit made me enjoy kisses in my dreams which I hated while I was awake? How flattered Don Carlos would be if he knew!"
An hour or so later she chanced to encounter Don Carlos while she was taking her morning gallop in the Row, and he brought his horse abreast of hers, saluting in his usual gallant manner.
"You tortured me last night, Myra, but in my dreams I got full recompense," he said, after formal greetings.
"Really! How fortunate for you!" drawled Myra, with well-feigned lack of interest. "Do you flatter yourself even when you are asleep?"
"It was an extremely vivid dream, Myra," continued Don Carlos, ignoring the jocular question. "I dreamed you were in my arms, straining me close to your breast, and returning my hungry kisses with pa.s.sionate ardour. We were drinking Love"s cup of rapture together, my beloved and I, giving and taking all."
With her own dream still vivid in her memory; Myra was startled. Her heart seemed to miss a beat, she felt the hot colour rush to her face, and she bent forward to stroke her horse"s neck lest her expression might betray her if she met Don Carlos"s eyes.
"How utterly preposterous!" she commented. "However, it is said that dreams are contrary. Incidentally, I meant what I said when I told you I should refuse to talk to you if you persisted in being sentimental.
Good morning!"
Being Irish, Myra Rostrevor was by nature more than a little superst.i.tious and inclined to attach some importance to dreams and omens, and she rode away feeling just a tiny bit scared at heart, and wondering uneasily if perchance Don Carlos de Ruiz was a thought-reader.
"Sure, and I don"t know what to make of you, Myra," she whispered to her own reflection in the mirror, as she changed from her riding costume into a morning frock. "I don"t know what to make of you at all, at all! And I don"t know what to make of Don Carlos, either. I don"t know if you are in love with him or not, and I"m not sure but what if he kissed you again you might make a fool of yourself and give up the idea of making a fool of him.... Oh, if only I knew whether he is in earnest or not!"
Myra was almost afraid to attempt to a.n.a.lyse her own feelings and emotions, and could come to no decision concerning either herself or Don Carlos. She continued to "blow hot, blow cold" every time they met, sometimes treating him with studied coldness, at other times flirting with him beguilingly, but always taking precautions against giving him any opportunity to kiss her again.
Meanwhile Tony Standish had taken Lady Fermanagh"s advice, and he was wooing Myra with all the fervour and pa.s.sion of which his somewhat phlegmatic nature was capable, wooing her as if their betrothal was yet to be, instead of an accomplished fact. Hardly a day pa.s.sed but he brought or sent some expensive trifle, together with flowers, chocolates, or cigarettes, with a.s.surances of his undying affection.
His tributes of devotion made Myra feel just a trifle guilty, made her wonder, too, if Tony had decided that the love-making of Don Carlos was something more than make-believe, and he was trying to make sure of her.
"Oh, Tony, dear, you make me feel as if you were buying me!" she exclaimed one afternoon, when her lover presented her with a diamond pendant. "Why have you given me such lots of presents lately, you extravagant old thing?"
"Well, darling, I want to show you how much in love with you I am,"
answered Tony, looking quite bashful. "I am tremendously in love with you, Myra, honour bright, and I"d do anything to prove it. I"d--I"d give my life for you, sweetheart. Honestly, it would break my heart if I lost you."
"Tony, what makes you talk of losing me?" Myra asked quickly.
"Oh--er--nothing, really, but--er--well, you"re so beautiful, and fascinating, and attractive, and all the rest of it, and I know there are several men who are in love with you and would like to cut me out if they could," explained Tony. "I say, dear, I don"t mean that I think you"d let me down and go back on your promise to marry me.
Er--you weren"t in earnest, were you, darling, when you talked about letting Don Carlos fall in love with you at Auchinleven, and making me jealous? Please don"t mind my asking, but I"m rather worried, to tell the truth."
"Worried because you think I may be in love with Don Carlos?"
"No, Myra, not exactly, but because I know he is in love with you. He told me so himself last night."
"He told you so himself!" exclaimed Myra, startled.
"Yes. Placed me in a rather difficult position. I suppose it was really rather sporty of him. I don"t know if I should tell you. He called on me and said he was afraid he"d have to ask me to release him from his promise to be my guest on the yachting tour. Naturally I asked him why, and he told me frankly that he had fallen in love with you."
Myra"s heart beat a trifle faster as she listened.
"Said he thought it was only right I should know, and that he supposed it wouldn"t be playing the game according to English ideas if he made love to you and tried to win you from me while he was my guest,"
continued Tony. "I didn"t know quite what to say, except that I was sorry."
He looked at Myra expectantly and a little anxiously as he paused, and Myra laughed involuntarily. But her heart was still behaving rather oddly and she felt her face flushing.
"How absurd, Tony!" she exclaimed. "Do you think he was in earnest?"
"Oh, yes, he seemed to be in deadly earnest," replied Tony. "Er--I didn"t quite know what to do about it, as I said before, but it suddenly occurred to me that if I let Don Carlos withdraw his acceptance of my invitation it might seem like an admission that I had not complete faith in you and was afraid of losing you. You see what I mean, Myra?"
"More or less," said Myra, rather bewildered. "But surely you don"t mean that you pressed him to come, knowing he would go on making love to me?"
"I didn"t exactly press him, but I told him that if he felt he must decline my invitation because he was in love with you, we should naturally have to decline his invitation to Spain for the same reason,"
responded Tony. "I told him he ought to have known you were only amusing yourself to pay him out, and that he should have known better than lose his heart after you had objected to his attempting to make love to you. So eventually he laughed and said if I wasn"t afraid of him as a rival he would come. I hope you don"t mind, darling. I told him he hadn"t an earthly hope."
"It is nice to know you are so sure of me that you have no fear of a rival," commented Myra drily, after a momentary pause.
"I say, Myra, do you mean that, or are you being sarcastic?" asked Tony. "What could I do in the circ.u.mstances? Perhaps I shouldn"t have mentioned the matter to you at all, but--er--I thought you might feel rather flattered to know that you have made another conquest, and you know you said you weren"t in the least afraid of Don Carlos. I thought, too, that you"d take it rather as a compliment if I showed I had complete faith in you. You didn"t really want me to display jealousy, did you?"
"I don"t know, Tony," replied Myra evasively. "If the positions were reversed and I were engaged to Don Carlos and you had been making love to me, I expect he would have killed you by now, and perhaps strangled me into the bargain."
"Englishmen don"t do that sort of thing," remarked Tony, looking hurt.
"If you mean you would prefer me to behave like an emotional foreigner----"
"Oh, Tony, dear, don"t be absurd!" interrupted Myra, her mood changing.
"I see how you looked at the matter, and I know I should be glad you have such faith in me. But don"t you think Don Carlos may regard your indifference to his rivalry as being almost in the nature of a challenge?"
"I hadn"t thought of it that way, Myra, but in any case I know you"ll be able to keep Don Carlos at a distance if he should try to make love to you again," answered Tony. "Sure you"re not vexed with me, dear?"
"I don"t know whether I"m vexed or pleased, amused or scared, but I am certainly thrilled," said Myra. "To think that Don Carlos, who boasted that no woman could resist him, should confess to you, that he has lost his heart to me!"
"I couldn"t help feeling rather sorry for the poor chap," remarked Tony. "I should feel ghastly if I had fallen in love with you after you had become engaged to another man, and knew there was no hope."
"Don"t be too sure there is no hope for Don Carlos," said Myra provocatively; but Tony"s look of piteous dismay caused her to relent almost instantly, and she kissed him.
Long after Tony had gone, Myra sat lost in thought, her heart still thrilling. Don Carlos"s confession was, of course, a compliment and tribute to her powers of fascination, and naturally Myra was flattered; but she was also more than a little puzzled.
She could not quite fathom Don Carlos"s motive for telling Tony Standish he was in love with her, and she realised that Tony had been cleverer than he knew. By telling her of Don Carlos"s confession and a.s.suring her that he had complete faith in her he had, as it were, placed her on her honour not to forsake him.
"I wonder what wise Aunt Clarissa would advise?" mused Myra. "I must tell her that although she said I was playing with fire it is Don Carlos, apparently, who has got burnt."
"You certainly appear to have reason to flatter yourself on your success as a coquette, Myra," commented Lady Fermanagh drily, after listening attentively to Myra"s story of Don Carlos"s confession to Tony, and, incidentally, without making any mention of the fact that she had already heard the story from Tony himself over the telephone.