"But what did you do that for?"
Christine did not trouble to answer this question. Hickson, who had been suffering far more than any one, rushed to the rescue.
"Miss Fenimer did not do it on purpose, Wickham. She happened to be standing--"
"Oh, is that what your sister meant?" said Christine, as if a sudden light dawned on her. "Tell me, Nancy darling, do you really think I hit the horse on purpose, so as to have an uninterrupted evening with Mr.
Riatt? How you do flatter men! It"s a great art. I"m afraid I shall never learn it."
For the first time, Riatt found himself looking at her with a certain amount of genuine admiration. This was very straight fighting. "They have the piratical virtues," he thought, "courage, and the ability to give and take hard blows."
Mrs. Almar was not to be outdone. "Well," she said, "I may as well be honest. I can imagine myself doing it, for the right man. And we should have had an amusing evening of it, which was more than we had here, I can tell you. We were very dreary. Mr. Wickham tried to relieve the monotony by a game of piquet, but I"m afraid he did not really enjoy it, for he has not asked me to play since." And she cast a quick stimulating glance at Wickham, whose usual inability to say nothing again betrayed him.
"Oh," he said, "I enjoyed our game immensely."
"Good," answered Nancy. "We"ll have another this afternoon then."
"Indeed, yes," said Wickham, looking rather wan.
"After Mr. Riatt has gone," said Nancy distinctly. She knew that Laura had had no opportunity to convey this intelligence to Christine, and it amused her to see how she would support the blow. Christine"s expression did not change, but her blue eyes grew suddenly a little darker. She turned slowly toward Riatt.
"And are you leaving us?" she asked.
"Sorry to say I am."
"What a bore," said Miss Fenimer politely. Hickson"s simple heart bounded for joy. "She"s refused him," he thought, "and that"s why he"s rushing off like this."
"Yes," said Ussher, "I should think he would want to go home and take some care of himself. It"s a wonder if he doesn"t develop pneumonia."
Christine smiled at Riatt across the table. "They make me feel as if I had been very cruel, Mr. Riatt," she said.
"Cruel, my dear," cried Nancy. "Oh, I"m sure you weren"t _that_," and then intoxicated by her own success, she made her first tactical error.
She turned to Riatt and said: "Don"t forget that you are dining with me on Wednesday evening." She enjoyed this exhibition of power. She saw Laura and Christine glance at each other. But they were not dismayed; they saw at once that Max had not been playing his hand alone; he was going not entirely on his own initiative, and that was encouraging.
Riatt, who perfectly understood the public protectorate that was thus established over him, resented it; in fact by the time they rose from the table, he was thoroughly disgusted with all of them--weary, as he said to himself of their hideous little games. He hardened his heart even as Pharaoh did, and he felt not the least hesitation in according Laura the promised interview, for the reason that he felt no doubt of his own powers of resistance.
He permitted himself to be ostentatiously led away, upstairs to her little private sitting-room, with its books, and fireplace, and signed photographs, and he pretended not to see Nancy Almar"s glance, which was almost a wink, and might have been occasioned by the fact that she herself was at the same moment gently guiding Wickham in the direction of a card-table.
Laura made her cousin very comfortable, in a long chair by the fire, with his cigarettes and his coffee beside him on a little table, and then she began murmuring:
"Isn"t it a pity Nancy Almar is so poisonous at times! She isn"t really bad hearted, but anything connected with Christine has always roused her jealousy--the old beauty and the new one, I suppose."
"I wonder," said Riatt, "what is the difference, if any, between a pirate and a bucaneer? Miss Fenimer and Mrs. Almar seem to me to have many qualities in common."
"Oh, Max, how can you say that? Christine is so much more gentle and womanly, so much--"
"My dear Laura, we haven"t very much time, and I think you said you wanted to talk to me on a business matter."
Laura Ussher had the grace to hesitate, just an instant, before she answered: "Oh, yes, but it"s your business I want to talk about. I want to speak to you about this terrible situation in which Christine finds herself. Do you realize that Nancy and Wickham between them will spread this story everywhere, with all the embellishments their fancy may dictate, particularly emphasizing the fact that it was Christine who made the horse run away. It will be in the papers within a week. You know, Max, just as well as I do, that it wasn"t her fault. Is she to be so cruelly punished for it? Can you permit that?"
"It"s not my fault either, Laura."
"You can so easily save the situation."
"How?"
"By asking her to marry you."
"That I will not do."
"Are you involved with some one else?"
"I might make you understand better if I said yes, but it would not be true. I"m not in love with any individual, but I know clearly the type of woman I could fall in love with, and it most emphatically is not Miss Fenimer"s."
"Yet so many men have fallen in love with her."
"Oh, I see her beauty; I even feel her charm; but to marry her, no."
"Think of the prestige her beauty and position--"
"My dear Laura, what position? Social position as represented by the hectic triviality of the last few days? Thank you, no, again."
"Dear Max," said his cousin more seriously than she had hitherto spoken, "you know I would not want you to do anything that I thought would make you unhappy. But this wouldn"t. I know Christine better than you do. I know that under all her worldliness and hardness there is a vein of devotion and sweetness--"
"Very likely there is. But it would not be brought out by a mercenary marriage with a man who cared nothing for her. If that is all you have to say, Laura, let"s end an interview which hasn"t been very pleasant for either of us."
"Oh, Max, how can you abandon that lovely creature to some tragic future?"
"You know quite well she is going to do nothing more tragic than to marry Hickson."
"And you are willing to sacrifice her to Hickson?"
"My dear Laura, I cannot prevent all the beautiful, dissatisfied women in the world from marrying dull, kind-hearted young men who adore them."
Mrs. Ussher stared at him in baffled, unhappy silence, and in the pause, the door quickly and silently opened and Christine herself entered. She looked calm, almost Olympian, as she laid her hand on Laura"s arm.
"Let me have just a word alone with Mr. Riatt," she said; and as Laura precipitately left the room, Christine turned to Riatt with a rea.s.suring smile. "Don"t be alarmed," she said. "Your most dangerous antagonist has just gone. I"ve really come to rescue you." She sank into a chair. "How exhausting scenes are. Let me have a cigarette, will you?"
She smoked a moment in silence, while he stood erect and alert by the mantel-piece. At last, glancing up at him, she said:
"I suppose Laura was suggesting that you marry me?"
He nodded.
"Laura"s a dear, but not always very wise. You see, she thinks we are both so wonderful, she can"t believe we wouldn"t make each other happy.
And from her point of view, it is rather an obvious solution. You see, she does not know about that paragon in the Middle West."
"She existed only in my imagination."