Craven remembered at that moment Braybrooke"s remark in the club that Lady Sellingworth"s jewelry were stolen in Paris at the Gare du Nord ten years ago. Did Miss Van Tuyn know about that? He wondered as he murmured something non-committal.
Miss Van Tuyn now tried to extract a word of honour promise from Lady Sellingworth to visit her in Paris, where, it seemed, she lived very independently with a _dame de compagnie_, who was always in one room with a cold reading the novels of Paul Bourget. ("Bourget keeps on writing for _her_!" the gay girl said, not without malice.)
But Lady Sellingworth evaded her gently.
"I"m too lazy for Paris now," she said. "I no longer care for moving about. This old town house of mine has become to me like my sh.e.l.l. I"m lazy, Beryl; I"m lazy. You don"t know what that is; nor do you, Mr.
Craven. Even you, Seymour, you don"t know. For you are a man of action, and at Court there is always movement. But I, my friends--" She gave Craven a deliciously kind yet impersonal smile. "I am a contemplative.
There is nothing oriental about me, but I am just a quiet British contemplative, untouched by the unrest of your age."
"But it"s _your_ age, too!" cried Miss Van Tuyn.
"No, dear. I was an Edwardian."
"I wish I had known you then!" said Miss Van Tuyn impulsively.
"You would not have known _me_ then," returned Lady Sellingworth, with the slightest possible stress on the penultimate word.
Then she changed the conversation. Craven felt that she was not fond of talking about herself.
CHAPTER III
That day Craven walked away from Lady Sellingworth"s house with Miss Van Tuyn, leaving Sir Seymour Portman behind him.
Miss Van Tuyn was staying with a friend at the Hyde Park Hotel, and, as she said she wanted some air, Craven offered to accompany her there on foot.
"Do!" she said in her frank and very conscious way. "I"m afraid of London on a Sunday."
"Afraid!"
"As I"m afraid of a heavy, dull person with a morose expression. Please don"t be angry."
Craven smiled.
"I know! Paris is much lighter in hand than London on a Sunday."
"Isn"t it? But there are people in London! Isn"t _she_ a precious person?"
"Lady Sellingworth?"
"Yes. You have marvellous old women in London who do all that we young people do, and who look astonishing. They might almost be somewhere in the thirties when one knows they are really in the sixties. They play games, ride, can still dance, have perfect digestions, sit up till two in the morning and are out shopping in Bond Street as fresh as paint by eleven, having already written dozens of acceptances to invitations, arranged dinners, theatre parties, heaven knows what! Made of cast iron, they seem. They even manage somehow to be fairly attractive to young men. They are living marvels, and I take off my toque to them. But Lady Sellingworth, quite old, ravaged, devastated by time one might say, who goes nowhere and who doesn"t even play bridge--she beats them all. I love her. I love her wrinkled distinction, her husky voice, her careless walk. She walks anyhow, like a woman alone on a country road. She looks even older than she is. But what does it matter? If I were a man--"
"Would you fall in love with her?" Craven interposed.
"Oh, no!"
She shot a blue glance at him.
"But I should love her--if only she would let me. But she wouldn"t. I feel that."
"I never saw her till to-day. She charmed me."
"Of course. But she didn"t try to."
"Probably not."
"That"s it! She doesn"t try, and that"s partly why she succeeds, being as G.o.d has made her. Do you know that some people hate her?"
"Impossible!"
"They do."
"Who do?"
"The young-old women of her time, the young-old Edwardian women. She dates them. She shows them up by looking as she does. She is their contemporary, and she has the impertinence to be old. And they can"t forgive her for it."
"I understand," said Craven. "She has betrayed the "old guard." She has disobeyed the command inscribed on their banner. She has given up."
"Yes. They will never pardon her, never!"
"I wonder what made her do it?" said Craven.
And he proceeded to touch on Miss Van Tuyn"s desire to get Lady Sellingworth to Paris. He soon found out that she did not know about the jewels episode. She showed curiosity, and he told her what he knew. She seemed deeply interested.
"I was sure there was a mystery in her life," she said. "I have always felt it. Ten years ago! And since then she has never stayed in Paris!"
"And since then--from that moment--she has betrayed the "old guard.""
"How? I don"t understand."
Craven explained. Miss Van Tuyn listened with an intensity of interest which flattered him. He began to think her quite lovely, and she saw the pretty thought in his mind.
When he had finished she said:
"No attempt to recover the lost jewels, the desertion of Paris, the sudden change into old age! What do you make of it?"
"I can make nothing. Unless the chagrin she felt made her throw up everything in a fit of anger. And then, of course, once the thing was done she couldn"t go back."
"You mean--go back to the Edwardian youthfulness she had abandoned?"
"Yes. One may refuse to grow old, but once one has become definitely, ruthlessly old, it"s practically impossible to jump back to a pretence of the thirties."
"Of course. It would frighten people. But--it wasn"t that."
"No?"
"No. For if she had felt the loss of her jewels so much as you suggest, she would have made every effort to recover them."