Lady Sellingworth heard Rocheouart"s strong, manly young laugh.
"That"s just like the d.u.c.h.ess!" he said. "She"s simply made of humour and always. .h.i.ts the nail on the head. And how clever of her to give the right name to the ball herself instead of leaving it for some pretty girl to do. The Hags" Hop! It"s perfect! If she hadn"t said that, you would have before the evening was out, and then all the charming hags would have been furious with you."
The girl laughed, and she and Rocheouart pa.s.sed Lady Sellingworth without noticing her and went into the ballroom.
She looked at them as they began to dance; then she looked at the d.u.c.h.ess of Wellingborough, who was also dancing.
The d.u.c.h.ess was frankly middle-aged. She was very good-looking, but she had let her figure go. She was quite obviously the victim of the "elderly spread." Her health was excellent, her sense of humour unfailing. She never pretended to anything, but was as natural almost as a big child. Although a widow, she wanted no lover. She often said that she had "got beyond all that sort of thing." Another of her laughingly frank sayings was: "No young man need be afraid of me." In consequence of her gaiety, humour, frankness and hospitality she was universally popular.
But that night Lady Sellingworth almost hated her.
The Hags" Hop!
That terrible name stuck in Lady Sellingworth"s mind and seemed to fasten there like a wound in a body.
As Rocheouart"s partner had foretold, the name went all over London.
The d.u.c.h.ess"s _mot_ even got into a picture paper, and everyone laughed about it. The d.u.c.h.ess was delighted. n.o.body seemed to mind. Even Lady Sellingworth forced herself to quote the saying and to make merry over it. But from that day she gave up dancing entirely. Nothing would induce her even to join in a formal royal quadrille.
Before his return to Paris, Rocheouart came to bid her good-bye.
Although she was still, as she supposed, madly in love with him, she concealed it, or, if she showed it, did so only by being rather unnaturally cold with him. When he was gone she felt desperate.
Her imp had perhaps controlled her during the short time of Rocheouart"s final visit, had mocked and made her fear him. When she was alone, however, he vanished for the moment.
From that time the hidden diffidence in Lady Sellingworth was her deadly enemy, because it fought perpetually with her vanity and with her almost uncontrollable desires. Sometimes she was tempted to give way to it entirely and to retire from the fray. But she asked herself what she had to retire to. The thought of a life lived in the shade, or of a definitely middle-aged life, prolonged in such sunshine as falls upon grey-haired heads, was terrible to her. She was not like the d.u.c.h.ess of Wellingborough. She was cursed with what was called in her set "a temperament," and she did not know how to conquer it, did not dare, even, to try to conquer it.
She soon forgot Louis de Rocheouart, but his place was not long left empty. She fell in love with another young man.
Eventually--by this time she had almost ceased to struggle, was not far from being a complete victim to her temperament--she seriously considered the possibility of marrying again, and of marrying a man many years younger than herself. Several women whom she knew had done this.
Why should not she do it? Such marriages seldom turned out well, seldom lasted very long. But there were exceptions to every rule. Her marriage, if she made it, might be an exception. She was now only forty-eight.
(She had reached the age when that qualifying word is applied to the years.) Women older, much older, than herself, had married mere boys.
She did not intend to do that. But why should she not take a charming man of, say, thirty into her life?
The mere thought of having such a husband, such a companion in Number 18A, Berkeley Square, sent a glow through her mind and body. What a flood of virility, antic.i.p.ation, new strength, new interests he would bring with him! She imagined his loud, careless step on the stairs, his strong ba.s.s or baritone voice resounding in the rooms; she heard the doors banged by his reckless hand; she saw his raincoats, his caps, his golf clubs, his gun cases littering the hall. When she motored he would be at the wheel instead of a detached and rigid-faced chauffeur, and he would whirl her along, taking risk, all the time.
But would he be able to love her?
Her diffidence and her vanity fought over that question; fought furiously, and with an ugly tenacity. It seemed that the vanity conquered. For she resolved to make the trial.
Many striking advantages were on her side. She could give any man a magnificent social position, could take him into the heart of the great world. Her husband, unless he were absolutely impossible--and of course he would not be--would be welcomed everywhere because of her. She was rich. She had unusual charm. She was quick witted, intelligent, well read, full of tact and knowledge of the world. Surely she could be a splendid companion, even a great aid, to any man of the least ambition.
And she was still very handsome--with difficulty.
She and her Greek alone knew exactly how much trouble had to be taken to keep her as she was when she went among people.
She had not been able to do much with her mind. It seemed uncontrollable by her. There was no harmony in her inner life. The diversities within her were sharp, intense. In her kingdom of self there was perpetual rebellion. And the disorder in her moral life had hastened the aging process more even than she was aware of. Underneath the artificial beauty of her appearance she was now older than her years.
But she was still very handsome--with difficulty.
She hardened herself after the fight and resolved that, if she chose, she could still make almost any man love her. That she could easily fascinate she knew. Most people were subject to her easy charm and to the delightfully unaffected manner which no amount of vanity had ever been able to rid her of. Surely the temporarily fascinated man might easily be changed into the permanent lover! Fear a.s.sailed her certainly when she thought of the danger of deliberately contrasting with her maturity the vividness of youth. To do what she thought of doing would be to run a great risk. When she had married Lord Sellingworth she had provided herself with a foil to her beauty and to her comparative youth. To marry a young man would be to make herself the foil. He would emphasize her age by his lack of years. Could she dare it?
Again she hardened herself and resolved that she would dare it. The wildness in her came uppermost, rose to recklessness. After me the deluge! She might not be happy long if she married a young husband, but she might be happy for a time. The mere marriage would surely be a triumph for her. And if she had three years, two years, even one year of happiness, she would sing a _Laus Deo_ and let the deluge close over her head.
She began, in woman"s quiet but penetrating way, to look about her. She met many young men in the world, in fact nearly all the young eligible men of the time. Many of them came to her house, for she often gave parties to which she asked not only the "old guard" and the well-known men of the day, but also the young married women. Now she began to give small dances to which she asked pretty young girls. There was a ballroom built out at the back of her house. It was often in use. The pretty young girls began to say she was "a dear" to bother so much about them.
Dancing men voted her a thundering good hostess and a most good-natured woman. In popularity she almost cut out the d.u.c.h.ess of Wellingborough, who sometimes gave dances, too, for young people.
Really through it all she was on the watch, was seeking the possible husband.
Presently she found the man with whom she could imagine being almost desperately happy if he would only fall in with her hidden views. They were so carefully hidden that not one of her friends, not one of the "old guard," suspected that she had made up her mind to marry again and to make what is universally called "a foolish marriage."
His name was Rupert Louth, and he was the fourth son of an impecunious but delightful peer, Lord Blyston. He was close upon thirty, and had spent the greater part of his time, since his twentieth year, out of England. He had ranched in Canada, and had also done something vague of the outdoor kind in Texas. He had fought, and was a good man of his hands. His health was splendid. He was as hard as nails in condition, and as lively and ready as they make them. Many things he could do, but one thing he had never been able to do. He had never been able to make money. His gift lay rather in the direction of joyously spending it.
This gift distracted his father, who confided to Lady Sellingworth his fears for the lad"s--he would insist on calling Rupert the lad--for the lad"s future. Here he was back on the family"s hands with expensive tastes and no prospects whatever!
"And he"s always after the women, too!" said Lord Blyston, with admiring despair. "He"s been away from them so long there"s no holding him."
After a pause he added:
"My dear Adela, if you want to do me a good turn find the lad a wife.
His poor mother"s gone, or she would have done it. What he wants is a wife who can manage him, with a decent amount of money."
Without exactly saying so, Lady Sellingworth implied that she would see what she could do for Rupert.
From that moment Lord Blyston pushed "the lad" perpetually towards 18A Berkeley Square.
Rupert Louth was fair and very good-looking, reckless and full of go.
And wherever he went he carried with him an outdoor atmosphere. He cared nothing for books, music, or intellectual pursuits. Nevertheless, he was at home everywhere, and quite as much at ease in a woman"s drawing-room as rounding up cattle in Canada or la.s.sooing wild horses in Texas. He lived entirely and wholeheartedly for the day, and was a magnificent specimen of dashing animal life; for certainly the animal predominated in him.
Lady Sellingworth fell in love with him--it really was like falling in love each time--and resolved to marry him. A wonderful breath of manhood and youth exhaled from "the lad" and almost intoxicated her. It called to her wildness. It brought back to her the days when she had been a magnificent girl, had shot over the moors, and had more than held her own in the hunting field. After she had married Lord Sellingworth she had given up shooting and hunting, had devoted herself more keenly to the arts, to mental and purely social pursuits, to the opera, the forming of a salon, to politics and to entertaining, than to the physical pleasures which had formerly played such a prominent part in her life. Since his death she had put down her horses. But now she began to change her mode of living. She went with Rupert to Tattersalls, and they picked up some good horses together. She began riding again, and lent him a mount. She was perpetually at Hurlingham and Ranelagh, and developed a pa.s.sion for polo, which he played remarkably well. She played lawn tennis at King"s Club in the morning, and renewed her energy at golf.
Louth was really struck by her activity and competence, and said of her that she was a d.a.m.ned good sport and as active as a cat. He also said that there wasn"t a country in the world that bred such wonderful old women as England. This remark he made to his father, who rejoined that Adela Sellingworth was not an old woman.
"Well, she must be near fifty!" said his son. "And if that isn"t old for a woman where are we to look for it?"
Lord Blyston replied that there were many women far older than Adela Sellingworth, to which his son answered:
"Anyhow, she"s as active as a cat, so why don"t you marry her?"
"She"s twenty years too young for me," said Lord Blyston. "I should bore her to death."
It had just occurred to him that Rupert could be very comfortable on Lord Sellingworth"s and Lord Manham"s combined fortunes, though he had no idea that Lady Sellingworth had ever thought of "the lad" as a possible husband.
Other people, however, noticed the new development in her life.
Every morning quite early she was to be seen, perfectly mounted, cantering in the Row, often with Rupert Louth beside her. Her extraordinary interest in every branch of athletics was generally remarked. She even went to boxing matches, and was persuaded to give away prizes at a big meeting at Stamford Bridge.
Although she never said a word about it to anyone, this sudden outburst of intense bodily activity at her age presently began to tire, then almost to exhaust her. The strain upon her was great, too great.
Whatever Rupert Louth did, he never turned a hair. But she was nearly twenty years older than he was, and decidedly out of training. She fought desperately against her physical fatigue, and showed a gay face to the world. But a horrible conviction possessed her. She began presently to feel certain that her effort to live up to Rupert Louth"s health and vigour was hastening the aging process in her body. By what she was doing she was marring her chance of preserving into old age the appearance of comparative youth. Sometimes at night, when all the activities of the day were over and there was no prospect of seeing Rupert again until, at earliest, the following morning, she felt absolutely haggard with weariness of body--felt as she said to herself with a shudder, like an old hag. But she could not give up, could not rest, for Rupert expected of everyone who was not definitely laid on the shelf inexhaustible energy, tireless vitality. His own perpetual freshness was a marvel, and fascinated Lady Sellingworth. To be with him was like being with eternal youth, and made her long for her own lost youth with an ache of desperation. But to act being young is hideously different from being actually young. She acted astonishingly well, but she paid for every moment of the travesty, and Rupert never noticed, never had the least suspicion of all she was going through on account of him.
To him she was merely a magnificently hospitable pal of his father"s, who took a kindly interest in him. He found her capital company. He, like everyone else, felt her easy fascination, enjoyed being with her.
But, like Rocheouart of the past days, he never thought of her as a possible lover. Nor did it ever occur to him that she was thinking of him as a possible husband. He always wanted, and generally managed to have a splendid time; and he was quite willing to be petted and spoilt and made much of; but he was not, under a mask of carelessness, a cold and persistent egoist. He really was just what he seemed to be, a light-hearted, rather uproarious, and very healthy young man, intent on enjoying himself, and recklessly indifferent to the future. He was quite willing to eat Lady Sellingworth"s excellent dinners, to ride her spirited horses, to sit in her opera box and look at pretty women while others listened to music, but it never occurred to him that it would be the act of a wise man to try to put her fortune into his own pocket at the price of marrying her.