He slid the decanter across the table invitingly, and Tony helped himself to a drink, still imagining that Don Carlos was jesting, and deciding that Myra had again made him feel "rather an a.s.s."
"Cheerio!" he drawled, raising his gla.s.s after Don Carlos had poured himself a drink. "All the best!"
"The toast is Miss Myra Rostrevor, the loveliest and most adorable girl in the world, and may her lover get his heart"s desire," cried Don Carlos gaily, and drained his gla.s.s.
"Thanks awfully!" said Tony. "It"s frightfully good of you, my dear chap, not to take offence, and I feel sure you will be able to win Myra over."
"It is my most ardent desire to win Myra over, my dear Standish," said Don Carlos, as Tony rose to go. "Pray convey to her my most respectful salutations, and beg her to receive me this afternoon."
It was with mingled amus.e.m.e.nt and exasperation that Myra listened to Tony"s account of the interview. She could not help feeling that Don Carlos had turned the tables on Tony, and now had it in his power to make her look ridiculous.
"I think he is the most conceited and impudent man in the world," she commented. "And he"s clever! If I refuse to go to Auchinleven, he will tell the world it is because I am afraid of falling in love with him. If you withdraw your invitation to him, he will explain it is because you are afraid he might persuade me to elope with him. He will flatter himself we are both afraid of him, and the affair will become the joke of the season."
"Yes, I realise that, Myra," drawled Tony. "He"s got that laugh on us, so to speak, and I think it would be best to save our faces by pretending the whole affair was a sort of practical joke on your part.
I don"t suppose he"ll try to make love to you again, and even if he does you will know he is not in earnest."
"Tony, you duffer, let me a.s.sure you he is very much in earnest, and he means to take me from you," said Myra. "And I warn you, my dear, that I should probably have fallen for him and jilted you if he wasn"t so inordinately proud of himself and hadn"t boasted that he would compel me to love him. As it is, I am not sure that I am not in love with him."
"I say, Myra, you"re not pulling my leg again, are you?" asked Tony, tugging at his little sandy moustache and looking worried. "I"m in a frightfully awkward position, as I said before. I like the chap immensely, and I think he"s too much of a gentleman to poach--although, of course, foreigners have a different code of morals from us, and aren"t to be trusted where women are concerned. I--er--I don"t quite know what to do, but, of course, I"ll do anything rather than risk losing you."
There flashed into his mind as he spoke Don Carlos"s remark concerning women complaining of another man"s attentions in order to bring a husband or a lover "up to scratch," and he had what he would have described as a "brain wave."
"I say, I"ve got a bright idea, darling," he continued, before Myra could speak. "Let"s solve the difficulty by getting married at once.
I"ll get a special licence, and we"ll set a new fashion by entertaining a house party in the Highlands during our honeymoon. Even the boldest man would surely hesitate to make love to another man"s wife during her honeymoon. What do you say?"
Myra pursed her red lips and wrinkled her brows in thought, and Tony took her indecision to be a good sign.
"Say "yes," darling," he urged. "You know I"m most tremendously in love with you and frightfully keen, and you will have no further reason to feel afraid of Don Carlos when you are my wife."
"I"m not afraid of Don Carlos," snapped Myra. "Oh, Tony, don"t be so dense and exasperating! Almost I wish now I had never told you about the tiresome and conceited creature"s love-making... Besides," she added, inconsequentially, "I don"t want to get married yet, and if I did marry you before we go to Scotland Don Carlos would pride himself it was to protect myself from him, and it would be worse and more dangerous if he made love to me as a married woman. Oh, Tony, my dear, I"m getting mixed, but maybe you understand what I mean. I"m not afraid of Don Carlos, but I don"t want to give him any chance of going about boasting that I am in love with him."
"I don"t think he would do that, Myra," said Tony. "He seems an awfully decent sort of chap. If you"d heard his explanation, you would understand that he was really only paying us both a compliment by pretending to make love to you. I do hope you"ll see him, my dear, and let him explain and apologise. I don"t understand why you"re so cross with me, darling."
He looked so absurdly pathetic that Myra"s irritation gave way to amus.e.m.e.nt, and her lovely face dimpled into smiles.
"I"m not really cross with you, Tony, my dear, although I do think you have made rather a mess of things," she exclaimed, and gave Tony an affectionate pat on both cheeks. "It will be interesting and amusing to listen to Don Carlos"s explanations and apologies--if any... Oh, yes, Tony, I"ll see him, and I think I shall manage to take some of the conceit out of him."
As it happened, Lady Fermanagh had an engagement that afternoon, and Myra was alone when Don Carlos de Ruiz was announced. Myra had been doing some hard thinking, and she was feeling sure of herself as she rose to greet her visitor, who bowed low before smiling into her eyes.
"I have called to offer my congratulations, dear lady," he said, in his deep, caressing voice.
"Congratulations? On what, pray?" inquired Myra very coldly. "I understood from Mr. Standish that you were calling to offer apologies for having annoyed me."
"I have come to proffer both apologies and congratulations," said Don Carlos slowly, twin imps of mischief dancing in his laughing eyes. "I have come to tender my most humble apologies for having so far, apparently, failed to melt your icy heart and fire it with the love that burns within me; to congratulate you on being the first woman who has ever taken exception to my making love to her. And to congratulate you, also, on being such an excellent actress."
"Actress? What do you mean?"
"Your pretence of annoyance, dear lady, is such a fine piece of acting that almost I am persuaded you are not in love with me and have steeled your heart against me."
"Please go on being persuaded." Myra"s tone was intended to be sardonic. "So far it seems to me you have called to pay yourself compliments instead of to offer apologies. Apparently you explained to Mr. Standish that your love-making was intended as a compliment. Let me tell you, Don Carlos, if that is so I want no more of your compliments."
"If I believed that, sweet lady, life would lose its savour and become but a bleak existence," responded Don Carlos. "I prefer to believe that you love, yet refrain, and that your complaint to your fiance is an indication that your resistance is weakening, that you fear unless you are able to avoid me you will inevitably surrender to the call of love."
"Your overweening conceit would be laughable if it were not so irritating," Myra retorted curtly. "I want to tell you bluntly that unless you give me your word of honour not to attempt to make love to me I shall refuse to go to Auchinleven if you are to be one of the party, and that will leave Mr. Standish no alternative but to cancel his invite to you--and explain to his friends that his reason is my objection to you."
The smile died out of Don Carlos"s eyes, and he regarded Myra gravely and silently for a few moments.
"I promise you I shall not make love to you while we are in Scotland,"
he said at last. "It will be desperately hard to resist the temptation, but I promise to refrain. And I never go back on a promise."
"Good! In that case we can let bygones be bygones and be friends,"
exclaimed Myra, and impulsively held out her hand.
Don Carlos raised her fingers to his lips and kissed them, and the boyish smile came back to his face.
"Let me warn you, however, my dear Myra, that although I speak no word of love, my heart and my eyes will be making love to you all the time, and every fibre of my being will be loving you and longing for you," he said. "I shall be planning new ways of overcoming your resistance and inducing you to confess that you love me. Always my heart will be calling and calling to you."
"As long as you do not badger me with your attentions, as you have been doing, it will not concern me what is happening to your heart,"
remarked Myra, forcing a laugh. "You can even pretend to be heartbroken, if you think the role will suit you."
"No, the role of broken-hearted, rejected suitor would not please me,"
laughed Don Carlos. "I shall be the strong, silent man, biding his time, confident of eventually gaining his heart"s desire. Meanwhile I am congratulating myself on having made it possible to fulfil my boast that I should be your fellow-guest in Scotland for the shooting."
"You have my leave to congratulate yourself as much as you like, Don Carlos, and to hand yourself as many bouquets as you like," said Myra smilingly, "but I shall hold you to your promise not to attempt to make love to me."
"I promise you, Myra, I shall be as silent as a Trappist monk, so far as talking love to you is concerned," Don Carlos a.s.sured her. "My promise, however, only holds good for the duration of our stay in the Highlands. After that----"
"Tony and I are going to be married in the Spring," interrupted Myra.
"I think not," said Don Carlos with great earnestness. "You will be mine, dear heart, before the Spring flowers have finished blooming."
"Oh, please don"t start being absurd again, just after promising to be sensible!" protested Myra.
"You will be mine, dear heart, before the Spring flowers have finished blooming," repeated Don Carlos. "Sweet lady, you may take that as another promise made in all seriousness. I love you, and I have sworn----"
"Let"s change the subject, Don Carlos," interrupted Myra again.
"Oblige me by making your promise not to make love to me date from this minute."
"As you will, beloved," said Don Carlos, with an exaggerated sigh; and Myra could not decide whether or not he was laughing.
CHAPTER V
His demeanour as her fellow guest at Tony Standish"s shooting lodge at Auchinleven, where he arrived about the middle of August, piqued and perplexed Myra. Not only did Don Carlos keep his promise to refrain from making love to her, but he seemed to avoid her as much as possible, and was only formally polite when they happened to be thrown together.
Yet he made love to practically all the other ladies of the party, and obviously set the hearts of several of the younger ones fluttering.