One day he went to see Imogene, and while Effie Bowen stood prattling to him as he sat waiting for Imogene to come in, he faded light-headedly away from himself on the sofa, as if he had been in his corner at the cafe. Then he was aware of some one saying "Sh!" and he saw Effie Bowen, with her finger on her lip, turned toward Imogene, a figure of beautiful despair in the doorway. He was all tucked up with sofa pillows, and made very comfortable, by the child, no doubt. She slipped out, seeing him awake, so as to leave him and Imogene alone, as she had apparently been generally instructed to do, and Imogene came forward.
"What is the matter, Theodore?" she asked patiently. She had taken to calling him Theodore when they were alone. She owned that she did not like the name, but she said it was right she should call him by it, since it was his. She came and sat down beside him, where he had raised himself to a sitting posture, but she did not offer him any caress.
"Nothing," he answered. "But this climate is making me insupportably drowsy; or else the spring weather."
"Oh no; it isn"t that," she said, with a slight sigh. He had left her in the middle of a german at three o"clock in the morning, but she now looked as fresh and lambent as a star. "It"s the late hours. They"re killing you."
Colville tried to deny it; his incoherencies dissolved themselves in a yawn, which he did not succeed in pa.s.sing for a careless laugh.
"It won"t do," she said, as if speaking to herself; "no, it won"t do."
"Oh yes, it will," Colville protested. "I don"t mind being up. I"ve been used to it all my life on the paper. It"s just some temporary thing.
It"ll come all right."
"Well, no matter," said Imogene. "It makes you ridiculous, going to all those silly places, and I"d rather give it up."
The tears began to steal down her cheeks, and Colville sighed. It seemed to him that somebody or other was always crying. A man never quite gets used to the tearfulness of women.
"Oh, don"t mind it," he said. "If you wish me to go, I will go! Or die in the attempt," he added, with a smile.
Imogene did not smile with him. "I don"t wish you to go any more. It was a mistake in the first place, and from this out I will adapt myself to you."
"And give up all your pleasures? Do you think I would let you do that?
No, indeed! Neither in this nor in anything else. I will not cut off your young life in any way, Imogene--not shorten it or diminish it. If I thought I should do that, or you would try to do it for me, I should wish I had never seen you."
"It isn"t that. I know how good you are, and that you would do anything for me."
"Well, then, why don"t you go to these fandangoes alone? I can see that you have me on your mind all the time, when I"m with you."
"Oughtn"t I?"
"Yes, up to a certain point, but not up to the point of spoiling your fun. I will drop in now and then, but I won"t try to come to all of them, after this; you"ll get along perfectly well with Mrs. Amsden, and I shall be safe from her for a while. That old lady has marked me for her prey: I can see it in her glittering eyegla.s.s. I shall fall asleep some evening between dances, and then she will get it all out of me."
Imogene still refused to smile. "No; I shall give it up. I don"t think it"s well, going so much without Mrs. Bowen. People will begin to talk."
"Talk?"
"Yes; they will begin to say that I had better stay with her a little more, if she isn"t well."
"Why, isn"t Mrs. Bowen well?" asked Colville, with trepidation.
"No; she"s miserable. Haven"t you noticed?"
"She sees me so seldom now. I thought it was only her headaches----"
"It"s much more than that. She seems to be failing every way. The doctor has told her she ought to get away from Florence." Colville could not speak; Imogene went on. "She"s always delicate, you know. And I feel that all that"s keeping her here now is the news from home that I--we"re waiting for."
Colville got up. "This is ghastly! She mustn"t do it!"
"How can you help her doing it? If she thinks anything is right, she can"t help doing it. Who could?"
Colville thought to himself that he could have said; but he was silent.
At the moment he was not equal to so much joke or so much truth; and Imogene went on--
"She"d be all the more strenuous about it if it were disagreeable, and rather than accept any relief from _me_ she would die."
"Is she--unkind to you?" faltered Colville.
"She is only _too_ kind. You can feel that she"s determined to be so--that she"s said she will have nothing to reproach herself with, and she won"t. You don"t suppose Mrs. Bowen would be unkind to any one she disliked?"
"Ah, I didn"t know," sighed Colville.
"The more she disliked them, the better she would use them. It"s because our engagement is so distasteful to her that she"s determined to feel that she did nothing to oppose it."
"But how can you tell that it"s distasteful, then?"
"She lets you feel it by--not saying anything about it."
"I can"t see how--"
"She never speaks of you. I don"t believe she ever mentions your name.
She asks me about the places where I"ve been, and about the people--every one but you. It"s very uncomfortable."
"Yes," said Colville, "it"s uncomfortable."
"And if I allude to letters from home, she merely presses her lips together. It"s perfectly wretched."
"I see. It"s I whom she dislikes, and I would do anything to please her.
She must know that," mused Colville aloud. "Imogene!" he exclaimed, with a sudden inspiration. "Why shouldn"t I go away?"
"Go away?" she palpitated. "What should I do?"
The colours faded from his brilliant proposal. "Oh, I only meant till something was settled--determined--concluded; till this terrible suspense was over." He added hopelessly, "But nothing can be done!"
"I proposed," said Imogene, "that we should all go away. I suggested Via Reggio--the doctor said she ought to have sea air--or Venice; but she wouldn"t hear of it. No; we must wait."
"Yes, we must wait," repeated Colville hollowly. "Then nothing can be done?"
"Why, haven"t you said it?"
"Oh yes--yes. I can"t go away, and you can"t. But couldn"t we do something--get up something?"
"I don"t know what you mean."
"I mean, couldn"t we--amuse her somehow? help her to take her mind off herself?"
Imogene stared at him rather a long time. Then, as if she had satisfied herself in her own mind, she shook her head. "She wouldn"t submit to it."