"Tony Standish, you must be blind and crazy!" she burst out tempestuously. "I won"t come to Auchinleven if Don Carlos is to be one of your house party. I won"t! Surely you must have seen for yourself that Don Carlos has been making love to me on every possible occasion for weeks? Yes, right in front of your very nose, Tony. He said he would see to it that we were fellow-guests for the shooting--and now you have invited him to Auchinleven!"
"I--er--I say, Myra, this is news to me," exclaimed Tony, flabbergasted. "You--er--you don"t actually mean to say that Don Carlos has been making love to you in earnest? I can"t imagine his doing such a thing. I mean to say he--er--he seems an awfully good sort, although he is a foreigner, and he and I have become quite pally.
He seems quite a good sport, and he does not strike me as being the sort of chap who would poach on another fellow"s preserves. Really, Myra, this is quite a shock!"
"If you are referring to me as your "preserves," Tony, Don Carlos has certainly been poaching--or trying to poach," said Myra. "He persists in making love to me and refuses to be rebuffed, and he has repeatedly sworn that he will take me from you and make me his own at all costs."
"The deuce he has!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Tony, surprised, indignant, and fl.u.s.tered. "I say, Myra dear, I--er--I wish--er--I wish you"d told me this before--I mean before he and I became pally, I had no idea he was really making love to you. No idea, I a.s.sure you. If I"d known, I certainly wouldn"t have invited him to Auchinleven or accepted his presents. Now I don"t know what the deuce to do. I"m in a frightfully awkward position. Frightfully awkward!"
"Frightfully awkward!" Myra mimicked. "Oh, Tony, don"t be such a duffer! Unless you want to lose me, you"ve got to tell Don Carlos de Ruiz--and tell him very, very plainly--that his attempts to make love to me and win me away from you have got to stop. You"ve got to warn him off."
"Why, of course I will, darling," said Tony, in fl.u.s.tered haste.
"Confound the fellow! I should not have believed it of him. Never heard of such outrageous conduct. I"ll go and see him at once, Myra, and warn him that if he dares to attempt to make love to you again I"ll--er--I"ll show him! Yes, by Jove!"
He rushed off, full of righteous indignation but still feeling he was in a "frightfully awkward position," to interview Don Carlos, whom he found wearing a silken dressing gown and stretched out luxuriously among cushions on a settee in his suite at the Ritz.
"My dear Standish, how good of you to return my call so soon!" cried Don Carlos, rising with a welcoming smile as Tony was shown in. "I am truly delighted to see you. You know what a pleasure is an unexpected visit from a friend when one is feeling bored. Sit down and make yourself comfortable, my dear Standish, and let me mix you a drink."
"Er--no, thank you," said Standish, disarmed to some extent at the outset, for he felt it would be boorish and "bad form" to have a row with a man who seemed to hold him in high regard. "No, I won"t have a drink. As a matter of fact, Don Carlos, I have called to see you in connection with--er--with a delicate personal matter."
"My dear Mr. Standish, I am flattered that you should make me your confidant, and I shall be only too pleased if I can a.s.sist you."
"a.s.sist me! Hang it all, sir, you--er--you don"t seem to understand!"
spluttered Tony, taken aback again, but determined, nevertheless, to "have it out" with the Spaniard. "I--er--I haven"t called to take you into my confidence or anything of the sort. I have come to demand an explanation."
"An explanation?" Don Carlos raised his black eyebrows in seeming bewilderment. "An explanation? Concerning what, Mr. Standish?"
"Concerning your outrageous conduct, sir," blurted out Tony, trying to look fierce, but succeeding only in looking hot and embarra.s.sed.
"Concerning Myra--Miss Rostrevor. She tells me you have persistently been attempting to make love to her ever since you first met her, and have even gone so far as to ask her to throw me over and elope with you! What the deuce do you mean by it, sir? Miss Rostrevor, as you are well aware, is engaged to be married to me. How dare you make love to my fiancee?"
CHAPTER IV
Don Carlos"s eyebrows rose still higher, his lips twitched, and Tony Standish got the impression that it was only with difficulty he was refraining from laughing outright. That angered him, and his ruddy face became still redder.
"Well, what have you to say for yourself?" he demanded, after a pause.
"This is no laughing matter."
"My dear Mr. Standish, what can I say for myself?" Don Carlos retorted, quietly and gravely. "Your demand for an explanation places me in a most embarra.s.sing position. How should one answer in the circ.u.mstances. If Miss Rostrevor has told you I have been making love to her, I cannot deny the accusation without casting doubt on the word of the most charming and beautiful girl in the world. Yet if I admit that Miss Rostrevor is justified in her accusation, you may decide I have been acting dishonourably, and I shall lose your friendship.
Condenacion! Was ever man placed in such an awkward position!"
"Look here, you will certainly make matters worse if you dare to insinuate that Myra was not telling the truth," exclaimed Standish hotly.
"I quite appreciate that, my dear Mr. Standish, and I realise, also, that Miss Rostrevor would be justified in hating me if I dared to cast doubt on her a.s.sertions," said Don Carlos more gravely than ever, with a sigh and a shrug. "So I must, perforce, confess that I have been making persistent love to Miss Rostrevor ever since I first met her, and--well, I am quite prepared to take the consequences. How do you deal with such a situation in England? In my country we would fight a duel, and the lady would marry the survivor. Should you think of fighting a duel, however, Mr. Standish, it is only fair to warn you that I am an expert swordsman and a dead shot. How shall we deal with the matter?"
Baffled, and at a loss to know how to deal with the situation, Tony Standish glowered at him, with the uncomfortable sensation that he was making a fool of himself, and that Don Carlos was inwardly laughing at him.
"It isn"t a matter to jest about," he said stiffly. "That sort of thing isn"t done in England, and I must ask you to refrain from approaching Miss Rostrevor again."
"I am desolated, senor!" exclaimed Don Carlos, with a despairing gesture. "I find it difficult to understand the English conventionalities in the matter of love-making. If you were Spanish, my dear Standish, you would not complain of my making love to your betrothed unless you were unsure of her and were afraid of my winning her away from you. If you regard me as a dangerous rival, and the adorable Miss Rostrevor takes me seriously, and you are afraid----"
"That isn"t the point, Don Carlos," hastily interposed Tony, beginning to regret having made so much fuss. "I--er--I am willing to believe that you have not seriously been trying to steal Myra"s affections away from me, or that possibly Myra may have taken you too seriously."
"How can a mere man hope to read what is in the heart of a woman?"
responded Don Carlos, helping himself to a cigarette. "Our Spanish girls, if they think an accepted lover is not sufficiently devoted and attentive, will complain that another man is making pa.s.sionate love--thus arousing the lover"s jealousy and re-firing him with ardour; and a married woman will invent a lover and complain of his attentions for the same reason, if her husband"s love seems to be cooling."
"I say, Don Carlos, are you suggesting that Myra complained for that reason--because she thinks I"m not keen enough?"
"My dear Standish, I am not suggesting anything. I am merely trying to explain the psychology of the women of my own country as I understand it. Yet I doubt if Englishwomen differ very greatly, after all, from their Latin sisters where affairs of the heart are concerned. Won"t you have a cigarette?"
Tony accepted a cigarette from the silver-and-cedar-wood box that was slid across the table to him, and he lit it with thoughtful deliberation. Had Myra complained about Don Carlos making love to her just to keep him "up to scratch," he was wondering, and found himself more puzzled than ever. He knew that lots of men had been, and probably still were, in love with Myra, and that fact made him the more proud to be her accepted lover. He recalled Myra"s boast that there was no horse or man she could not master, and he found it a little difficult to believe she was really scared of Don Carlos.
"In my country, Mr. Standish, a man betrothed to a girl as beautiful as Miss Rostrevor would feel almost insulted if his friends did not openly envy him and protest themselves hopelessly in love with the young lady he had won," resumed Don Carlos. "The lady herself would feel slighted if the friends of her betrothed did not continue to attempt to make love to her. To profess to be heartbroken because she belongs to another, and to make love to a betrothed girl or a married woman, is surely paying an indirect compliment to the accepted lover or husband, as well as a direct compliment to the lady."
"Humph! I hadn"t thought of it that way," commented Tony drily. "It would never have occurred to me for a moment that in making love to Myra you were paying me any sort of compliment. Here in England, Don Carlos, any man who persists in making love to an engaged girl or a married woman is asking for trouble. Of course, I can appreciate the fact that most women would feel flattered by the thought that a man like you had fallen in love with them, even if you were only pretending out of a desire to be polite, but--er--well, obviously Myra appears to be more annoyed than flattered. Perhaps, as I said before, she has taken you too seriously."
"Or possibly not seriously enough," responded Don Carlos, his grave face crinkling into a smile. "I am hopelessly in love with her, my dear Standish, and mean to make her fall in love with me. What are we going to do in the circ.u.mstances?"
"Really, I don"t know, Don Carlos," answered Standish, deciding that the other was jesting. "It"s frightfully awkward. Frightfully!
Er--you see, old chap, Myra says she won"t come to Auchinleven for the shooting if you are going to be one of the party, and--er--well, as you can understand, that places me in a frightfully awkward position."
"I fully realise that, Mr. Standish," said Don Carlos very gravely, after a long pause which increased Tony"s embarra.s.sment. "I, also, am now placed in an awkward position. I have told many of my friends and acquaintances to-day that I have been invited to Auchinleven for the shooting by my friend Mr. Antony Standish, and now I shall have to explain to everyone that the invitation is cancelled because my friend fears I shall continue to make love to his fiancee, and Miss Rostrevor fears I may abduct her, persuade her to elope with me, or something of the sort. Yes, decidedly a difficult situation!"
"Here, I say, Don Carlos, you"ll make me and Myra the laughing-stock of London if you tell people that!" Tony protested, looking quite distressed. "Myra will be furious with me and with you, and--er--I--I suppose you are thinking I am a mean sort of skunk. I"m frightfully sorry! I say, old chap, can"t you suggest some way out of the difficulty?"
"Well, possibly if I were permitted to have a talk with Miss Rostrevor, and explain why I have been making love to her, she might understand matters better and raise no objection to my figuring as a guest at Auchinleven," said Don Carlos, after another thoughtful pause.
"Jolly good idea!" Tony exclaimed. "I"m quite sure if you explained matters tactfully to Myra she would understand you have really only been trying to pay her compliments. Myra"s a good sort, and I feel sure she will accept your explanation."
Don Carlos made no immediate response. He dropped his cigarette into an ash-tray, rose to his feet with a sigh, and strolled to the window of his sitting room to gaze out absently across the Green Park.
""There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not: The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid,"" he said at length, as if to himself. "So it is written in the Book of Proverbs."
"Er--I say, old chap, I--I hope you are not going to take this too much to heart," remarked Tony, again feeling puzzled and uncomfortable. "If only Myra understands and appreciates what your love-making meant----"
"I shall be happy--provided she responds in the way I desire," broke in Don Carlos, swinging round suddenly from the window, his face lighting up into a smile again. "Of course, if Miss Rostrevor is afraid of me, or if you are afraid I shall take her from you and desire to cancel your invitation on that account, I----"
"There isn"t any question of that, Don Carlos," Tony interrupted in turn. "At least, I--er--I don"t think Myra is afraid of you. I fancy she has merely misunderstood your intentions."
"I should not have imagined that to be possible," said Don Carlos.
"However, when I have discussed the situation with the charming lady, perhaps she will decide to allow me to be a guest at Auchinleven. I warn you, my dear Standish, that I shall not promise to refrain from making love to her, and will continue to try to win her heart. I think I can take the risk of your challenging me to mortal combat."
He looked with a challenging smile at Tony, who laughed, imagining that he was making a jest of the whole affair.
"I hardly fancy it will be a case of "pistols for two; coffee for one,"" Tony said; "and I feel sure you will be able to make peace with Myra. As a matter of fact, Don Carlos, I am beginning to wonder now if Myra has been pulling my leg. She has played jokes on me more than once before and made me feel rather an a.s.s."
"Perhaps on this occasion the charming lady is playing a joke on both of us," suggested Don Carlos lightly. "Let us drink a toast to her together, although we are such deadly rivals."