"What"s up? What"s happened? Who"s this fellow?" he asked breathlessly. "A burglar? Have you shot him, Carlos?"
"No, I think I have merely dislocated his elbow," Don Carlos answered, without taking his eye off the brawny burglar, who was now sitting up nursing his damaged elbow and muttering curses through his clenched teeth. "He tried to shoot me when I surprised him as he was trying to force the door of Miss Rostrevor"s room. You"d better "phone for the police and have the house searched in case he has accomplices."
"You can save yourself the trouble," growled the burglar. "I"m on my own. When you "phone for the police, ask "em to fetch a doctor with "em. You"ve broken my ruddy arm, d.a.m.n you!"
"Considering that you did your best to murder me, you dog, you can think yourself lucky that I did not kill you as soon as I got possession of your pistol," retorted Don Carlos, who had recovered his breath.
There was little sleep for anyone at Auchinleven that night. The local Police Inspector and a Constable arrived after a long interval and took the burglar away, after making a search of the house, a.s.sisted by the servants, without finding any accomplices of the man in custody.
Next morning, of course, Don Carlos was the hero of the hour, and everyone was lavishing compliments and congratulations on him for having tackled an armed burglar single-handed and getting the better of the desperado.
"I thought I heard someone prowling about in the corridor and got up to investigate," Don Carlos explained. "The fellow seemed to be trying to force the door of Miss Rostrevor"s room, and when I challenged him he whipped out a pistol and fired at me. Fortunately for me, he missed, and before he could fire again I grappled with him, managed to get a grip on his arm, and dislocated his elbow by a trick taught me years ago by an old wrestler."
"I wonder why he was trying to force my door, which was locked and bolted, instead of discovering if some of the other doors had been left unlocked," said Myra. "Oddly enough, I fancied I heard someone trying my door some time before I heard the shot. And I still think there was more than one burglar concerned," she added, with a direct and challenging glance at Don Carlos.
"The Police Inspector tells me the man a.s.serts he had no accomplices or confederates," said Don Carlos, his face expressionless. "It is strange, nevertheless, that he should have attempted to force his way into your room in preference to any other."
"Very strange!" agreed Myra. "And how fortunate for me that I should have happened to take the precaution of locking and bolting my door.
Oddly enough, I had a sort of presentiment that if I did not bolt my door something dreadfully unpleasant might happen. Normally, you see, I don"t bolt the door or lock it. It I do, it means that I have to get up when my maid brings my morning tea. But the night before last I seemed to have a warning, so last night I took precautions against any unwanted visitor. I shall always lock and bolt my door in future."
"Isn"t there an old saying that love laughs at locksmiths?" inquired Don Carlos, his expression still sphinx-like, but his eyes twinkling.
"You looked delicious in your nightie and boudoir cap, Myra."
"I shall remember to put on my dressing gown next time I am expecting burglars," responded Myra, flushing slightly. "Thank you for saving me, gallant sir."
She was wondering whether it was Don Carlos or the burglar who had tried her door, and she could hazard a guess as to why Carlos had happened to be in the corridor at two o"clock in the morning.
"I am thinking of becoming a burglar myself, dear lady, but please do not wear your dressing gown on that account," laughed Don Carlos.
"I am wondering what might have happened if I had left my door unlocked," said Myra, a.s.suming a thoughtful expression, but avoiding Don Carlos"s eyes. "I feel half-inclined to leave it unlocked and unbolted to-night and risk the consequences."
Again, however, she was careful to bolt and lock her bedroom door when she retired that night, but again she sat up in bed, as on the previous night, waiting and watching. And again, in the early hours of the morning, she saw the door handle turn, and she trilled out a laugh, hoping that the would-be "burglar" would hear it.
She continued to exercise her impish arts of tantalisation and her wiles of fascination on Don Carlos during the remainder of her stay at Auchinleven. Sometimes she would seem, metaphorically, to throw herself at his head and appear to be eager to surrender herself, at other times she would completely ignore him, and make open love to Tony in his presence. As time went on she realised that she was driving the Don almost to distraction, and she gloried in her powers.
"I feel certain that I have made him fall in love with me in earnest,"
Myra reflected triumphantly. "He boasted that no woman could resist him. Women have been his playthings, and he must have fooled many.
Now he is being fooled himself. I think he is desperately in love with me now."
She was right in her surmise. Don Carlos"s love for her had become a burning, consuming pa.s.sion. It needed the exercise of all his will power to keep it under control, and continually he had to curb his ardent pa.s.sion and remind himself of his promise not to make love. But he was biding his time and had made a vow that he would make Myra pay in full for her coquetry.
The house party broke up at length and the guests dispersed, Myra and her aunt returning to London for the "Little Season" and to equip themselves for the winter cruise in Tony"s yacht, which was being refitted at Southampton.
Don Carlos had begged to be allowed to call, and both Lady Fermanagh and Myra had said graciously that they would be delighted to see him at any time.
"My thanks to you for having succeeded in keeping your promise," said Myra, as they parted. "Accept my congratulations."
"One reaches Heaven by way of Purgatory," responded Don Carlos cryptically. "I am looking forward eagerly to our next meeting, when I shall be free to express myself."
Expectant, and a trifle apprehensive, Myra awaited events. Nothing happened. A week elapsed without her seeing, or hearing from, Don Carlos, and when she made inquiries about him she learned from Tony that he had returned to Spain.
"Said he had some business matters to attend to, and wanted to arrange for our entertainment at his place out there," explained Tony. "He promised to be back in time to join the yacht at Southampton."
Myra was piqued. It hurt her pride to think she had not made a conquest after all, and had merely been flattering herself in imagining she had made Don Carlos fall in love with her.
"What a fool I feel!" soliloquised Myra. "I was confident he was in desperate earnest and was crazy about me, and I have been wondering how to resist and repel him. He shows how little he cares by going off to Spain without even calling to say good-bye, and with never a farewell note. Oh, what an exasperating creature!"
Another ten days pa.s.sed uneventfully, and Myra found herself oddly discontented with life and things in general. It was a dismal November afternoon, she had no engagements, and was feeling utterly bored as she took tea alone in the drawing room of her aunt"s house in Mayfair, when, to her astonishment, Don Carlos de Ruiz was announced. Her heart gave a convulsive leap at the mere mention of his name, and it was throbbing faster than its wont as she rose to greet him, although she a.s.sumed an att.i.tude of cool indifference.
"Sure, and it"s seriously annoyed with you, I am, Don Carlos, and you needn"t expect me to say I"m glad to see you," she said in her musical Irish voice as she gave him her hand. "How very rude of you to disappear without even a word of farewell. Rude, did I say? Perhaps crude would be a better word. How rude and crude to dash back to Spain to attend to some matter of business when you had been trying to pretend to be hopelessly in love."
"Not "hopelessly," Myra," Don Carlos responded quietly, raising her fingers to his lips. "Never have I been "hopelessly" in love, for always I have been sure at heart that I should win.... So you have missed me, darling, and now your heart is throbbing because I have come back to you? I am glad. I went away without a word in the hope that by so doing I should punish you for your cruelty in tempting and tantalising me as you did at Auchinleven."
"Tempting and tantalising you!" exclaimed Myra, and trilled out a laugh. "And you think, you conceited man, that you were punishing me by going to Spain for a fortnight or so without even having the politeness to say au revoir! How very amusing! And how very crude and rude! Didn"t you understand I was paying you back in your own coin at Auchinleven by pretending to be in love? So you went away with the idea of punishing me!"
"I found it necessary to return to my home in order to take precautionary measures against the bandit, El Diablo Cojuelo, who is evidently planning fresh mischief," Don Carlos explained. "Now I have come back to you to redeem my promise."
"Your promise?" queried Myra, forcing herself to meet his ardent glance. "I don"t understand. What promise?"
"My promise to kiss you in the way you wanted to be kissed by the man who loves you," said Don Carlos quickly; and before Myra realised what was happening she was crushed close to his breast and he was kissing her as she had never been kissed before, hungrily, fiercely, pa.s.sionately, ardently.
For a few minutes she found herself, in some mysterious way, robbed of all powers of resistance. Don Carlos"s lips were crushed on her own, and his burning kisses seemed to be drugging her brain and drawing the very heart out of her. Then suddenly she struggled and broke from him, her lovely face aflame, her bosom heaving tempestuously, her breath coming and going in sobbing gasps.
"How dare you! Oh, how dare you!" she panted. "You brute! You brute!
I could kill you!"
She dropped limply into a chair and covered her burning face with her hands. She was trembling, her heart was throbbing as if it would burst, and her brain was in a turmoil. Don Carlos stood silent for a few moments, his dark eyes still aflame with ardour as he looked down at Myra. He, too, was trembling slightly, and a spot of hectic colour glowed on each cheek-bone.
"Why blame or reproach me, Myra darling?" he said at last, his deep voice vibrant. "Remember that you tempted me, challenged me. It was to me that you spoke, and not to Standish, when you said you wanted to be kissed by the man who loved you, and not by a cold-blooded Englishman. I promised you that night I would kiss you in the way you longed to be kissed, in the way I longed to kiss you, and I have fulfilled my promise--in part. Myra, belovedest, the nectar of your lips has increased my longing a thousandfold. Tell me, darling, that my kisses have fired your heart with the love for which I crave, and----"
"I hate you, hate you, and I shall never forgive you for this!" burst out Myra pa.s.sionately, starting to her feet. "Go away at once, and don"t dare to come near me again. How dare you, how dare you kiss me like that! If I were to tell Tony----"
She broke off with a sharp intake of breath, for at that moment the butler tapped at the drawing room door and opened it.
"Mr. Standish," he announced; and Tony walked in, as if he were an actor taking his "cue."
Antony Standish could (but didn"t) boast of a "Varsity education, and he prided himself on his smartness, but he was far from being "gleg at the uptak"," as the Scots say, and his powers of observation and deduction a.s.suredly would not have qualified him for a position as a Scotland Yard "sleuth." Seemingly he was quite unconscious of the electrical atmosphere as he entered, and quite failed to notice Myra"s agitation.
"Hullo, Don Carlos! What a surprise!" he cried breezily. "How are you, old fellow? ... h.e.l.lo, Myra, my dear. Thought I"d blow in on the chance of finding you at home this beastly afternoon and cadge a cup of tea.... Where did you spring from, Don Carlos? Thought you were still in Spain. Tremendously glad to see you again, old man. When did you get back? You"re looking tremendously fit."
"Thank you," said Don Carlos, forcing a smile as he shook hands. "I got back to London less than an hour ago, and hastened to call on Miss Rostrevor to a.s.sure her of my undying regard--and to redeem a promise."
He darted a side glance at Myra, who was nervously biting her lips and trying to compose herself.
"Awfully nice of you, old chap. Glad you"re back," drawled the un.o.bservant Tony. "I say, Myra, dear, aren"t you going to offer me a cup of tea? I suppose I may smoke as Lady Fermanagh isn"t here?"
Myra found herself at a loss to know how to deal with the situation.
To tell Tony what had happened would inevitably lead to a painful scene, perhaps even to violence; to refrain from telling him would seem like condoning Don Carlos"s conduct. She was torn by conflicting emotions and could not make up her mind how to act. Act, however, she did, in a literal sense, for although her heart was still throbbing wildly and her mind was in a whirl, she managed somehow to a.s.sume an almost casual air.