"You have the laugh on Don Carlos de Ruiz now, my dear, but don"t forget the old proverb that he who laughs last laughs best. Actually, it is not a laughing matter at all, but a crime to break a man"s heart in jest."
"You don"t really suppose that Don Carlos is heart-broken, do you, Aunt?" asked Myra.
"Frankly, I do not," responded Lady Fermanagh. "I don"t quite know what to make of it. My idea is that Don Carlos probably guessed you had boasted you would make him fall in love with you, and he may either be pandering to your vanity by leading you to believe you have succeeded in your object, or else trying to make a fool of you. Be careful, my dear! It isn"t safe to trifle with men of the type of Don Carlos de Ruiz, as I have told you before."
"Pouf! If he has actually fallen in love with me, he is more likely to make a fool of himself than of me," Myra exclaimed.
"One never knows," Lady Fermanagh responded. "I believe you are half in love with him as it is, Myra, and if he cared to exercise all his powers he might be able to induce you to break with Tony."
Myra shook her red-gold head, but at heart she knew her aunt might be right.
"Your idea, as you have admitted, was to make Don Carlos fall in love with you in earnest, because he had made love to you in jest,"
continued Lady Fermanagh. "You wanted to have the satisfaction of "turning him down"--to use the ultra-modern expression--and laughing at him for losing his heart. Take care, my dear Myra, that he does not turn the tables on you again."
"How could he?" asked Myra, feeling somewhat piqued.
"Well, it might amuse him to protest that he is heart-broken, to persuade you to take pity on him and forsake Tony, to confess yourself in love with him, and then in the end to remind you of his boast that no woman could resist him, and explain that he did not want you, had merely been testing his powers and taking revenge for your coquetry."
"Surely, he wouldn"t be such a beast!"
"He might--and more particularly if he is in earnest," said Lady Fermanagh gravely. "No man likes being laughed at, except when he is appearing on the stage as a comedian. A man in love is particularly sensitive to ridicule. I wonder how many murders have been committed in Spain as a result of girls inducing men to make fools of themselves?"
"Oh, Aunt, don"t be absurd!" interposed Myra. "Are you suggesting that Don Carlos may murder me? Do you antic.i.p.ate his plunging a stiletto or some sort of Spanish dagger into my heart, or committing suicide on our nice clean doorstep, because I do not reciprocate his pa.s.sion?"
She trilled out a laugh and her aunt had, perforce, to smile.
"One never knows," she said again. "My advice to you is not to take any further risks, and not to attempt to gloat over Don Carlos. And I think you should fix the date for your marriage to Tony Standish and make a good resolution to break no more hearts."
"And join a Dorcas society, and wear flannel next the skin, and woollen stockings and flat-heeled shoes!" Myra added frivolously. "Thank you _so_ much, Aunt Clarissa!"
CHAPTER IX
Sure of her own powers, but uncertain of her own heart, Myra could not make up her mind in advance what att.i.tude to adopt towards Don Carlos at their next meeting, and wondered what his att.i.tude would be towards her. Would he profess to be heart-broken, or continue to make pa.s.sionate love to her at every opportunity?
She was left wondering, for Don Carlos left London that very day, after explaining to Tony that he had been called to Paris on important business.
"Said he might be away for a week or two, but promised he would make a point of getting back in time to join our yachting party," Tony informed Myra. "Just as well, perhaps, what? Give him time to get over having fallen in love with you, darling. Asked me to give you his humble and dutiful regards--I believe that was his expression--and to a.s.sure you he never broke a promise. I suppose he meant his promise to be back in time to join us at Southhampton."
"I suppose so," Myra equivocated. "I don"t believe he is in love with me, Tony."
"I don"t see how anyone could help being in love with you, darling,"
responded Tony gallantly. "My idea is that poor old Carlos is hard hit, and has probably gone to Paris to pull himself together, so to speak, and to avoid meeting you for a bit."
"Paris is so consoling!" commented Myra satirically. "Just the sort of quiet, soothing place where a heart-broken lover can find solace! I shall waste no sympathy on Don Carlos."
She was piqued and puzzled, and a little exasperated by the thought that Don Carlos was playing a joke on her.
"He probably thinks I am deeply in love with him, and flatters himself I shall be hurt and grieved by his sudden departure," reflected Myra.
"Perhaps he thinks he is paying me back in my own coin, and he will find me ready to fall into his arms, so to speak, on his return. If so, I can promise him a disappointment."
She tried to put Don Carlos out of her mind, but she found herself thinking of him continually. Often in her dreams she was again enfolded in his arms with his lips crushed on her own, and she would wake with her heart throbbing wildly.
Tony never managed to set her heart throbbing in the same way. Myra wished he could and would. Perhaps it was her dreams of Don Carlos that caused her to be particularly nice to Tony during the next week or two, and to try to persuade herself that she was really in love with him.
No word came from Don Carlos, but he duly presented himself aboard the _Killarney_, Tony Standish"s yacht, on the appointed day. And he looked as little like a heart-broken, forlorn lover as anyone could imagine. Indeed, he seemed to be in exceptionally high spirits, talked gaily of the enjoyable time he had had in Paris, explaining that he had combined business with pleasure.
He made no attempt to speak to Myra alone on the first night aboard, and joined a party of men playing poker in the smoking-room, in preference to dancing.
"He is really the most baffling and exasperating creature," Myra told herself. "I expect he thinks he is vexing me by being so casual, the conceited fellow. I am annoyed with myself for feeling annoyed."
She encountered Don Carlos next morning, when she went up on deck from her state room to take a stroll before breakfast, and he greeted her smilingly.
"Buenos dias, senorita," he said, with a gallant bow. "I start the day well by meeting you, my Myra. Has absence made your heart grow fonder, my heart"s desire?"
"Yes, I am fonder of Tony than ever," answered Myra lightly. "I think I really ought to thank you, Don Carlos, for pretending to Tony that you had fallen in love with me. I was vastly amused, but Tony actually took you seriously, and he has been the most adorably devoted lover ever since. I am half inclined to suspect that you must have given Tony some lessons in love-making!"
Don Carlos flashed a searching glance at her, and his smile faded.
"If I thought that Standish would hold you to your promise to marry him, knowing that you love me, I should kill him," he said, quietly, calmly and deliberately.
"In that case, Tony is a doomed man," commented Myra, with a mocking laugh. "But perhaps the fact that I do not love you will induce you to spare his life," she added hastily. "Don"t you find it rather difficult to be melodramatic and to talk farcical nonsense before breakfast, Don Carlos?"
"I am debating with myself how best to get rid of Standish," responded Don Carlos unsmilingly. "An opportunity may present itself during this cruise. I do not wish to kill him, and would much prefer him to surrender you to me voluntarily. But if he is obstinate, and if you persist in refusing to obey the dictates of your heart to break with him, he, as you have said, is a doomed man."
So earnest was his tone, so serious his manner, that Myra felt her heart contract, but she forced herself to treat his speech as a joke.
"Don Carlos, you are an impossible person!" she exclaimed. "Do you want me to rush away and warn Tony that his life is in danger? Shall I ask the captain to order two of the crew to play the part of Scotland Yard detectives, shadow your every movement and keep guard over Tony?
You don"t really expect me to take you seriously, do you?"
Before Don Carlos could answer, Tony, together with two or three other members of the party, came up the companion-way.
"Hallo, people, what are you looking so solemn about?" cried Tony cheerily. "Not feeling sea-sick, are you, what?"
"Good morning, darling, so glad you"ve come," said Myra, and tilted up her face for a kiss. She seldom greeted her betrothed with a kiss if there were others present, but she guessed the display of affection might annoy Don Carlos. "This dreadful man has been trying to make my blood run cold," she added smilingly, with a challenging glance at Don Carlos. "I think he must have spent most of his time in Paris at the Grand Guignol, and it has turned his brain. I"m afraid he is suffering from some sort of homicidal mania, poor fellow."
"I warn you, good people, and you, mine host in particular, that I am in a murderous mood," said Don Carlos gaily. "Miss Rostrevor has driven me insane, and I may go Berserker at any moment."
"Splendid, old chap!" laughed Tony. "What about attacking the breakfast with savage fury? There goes the gong...."
It was a beautifully calm day, and after breakfast most of the company a.s.sembled on the promenade deck, some to lounge and smoke and chat or read, others to play quoits or deck billiards.
For once in a way Myra did not feel particularly energetic, and she sat down on a comfortable deck chair beside her aunt and several other women and girls seated in a group gossiping and exchanging badinage with two or three men of the party standing by their chairs or lounging against the rail.
Tony Standish and Don Carlos were standing together, both leaning against the rail, and Myra lay back in her chair with her hands clasped behind her head, studying and comparing them through half-closed but keenly-observant eyes.
She noticed that as Don Carlos talked and laughed he was fingering a bolt under the rail behind him, saw him slide the bolt back, and she was in the act of sitting up and calling out to him to be careful, to point out that the part of the rail against which he and Tony were leaning was that which is swung open to make way for a gangway, when Don Carlos straightened himself and took a pace forward.