"No, no," said the journalist, brusquely. "She is quite right there. Oh, it would be all right if she were herself. She would make short work of Lady Henry. But, Mademoiselle Julie"--for she glided past them, and he raised his voice--"sit down and rest yourself. Don"t take so much trouble."
She flung them a smile.
"Lord Lackington is going," and she hurried on.
Lord Lackington was standing in a group which contained Sir Wilfrid Bury and Mr. Montresor.
"Well, good-bye, good-bye," he said, as she came up to him. "I must go.
I"m nearly asleep."
"Tired with abusing me?" said Montresor, nonchalantly, turning round upon him.
"No, only with trying to make head or tail of you," said Lackington, gayly. Then he stooped over Julie.
"Take care of yourself. Come back rosier--and _fatter_."
"I"m perfectly well. Let me come with you."
"No, don"t trouble yourself." For she had followed him into the hall and found his coat for him. All the arrangements for her little "evening" had been of the simplest. That had been a point of pride with her. Madame Bornier and Therese dispensing tea and coffee in the dining-room, one hired parlor-maid, and she herself active and busy everywhere. Certain French models were in her head, and memories of her mother"s bare little salon in Bruges, with its good talk, and its thinnest of thin refreshments--a few cups of weak tea, or gla.s.ses of _eau sucree_, with a plate of _patisserie_.
The hired parlor-maid was whistling for a cab in the service of some other departing guest; so Julie herself put Lord Lackington into his coat, much to his discomfort.
"I don"t think you ought to have come," she said to him, with soft reproach. "Why did you have that fainting fit before dinner?"
"I say! Who"s been telling tales?"
"Sir Wilfrid Bury met your son, Mr. Chantrey, at dinner."
"Bill can never hold his tongue. Oh, it was nothing; not with the proper treatment, mind you. Of course, if the allopaths were to get their knives into me--but, thank G.o.d! I"m out of that _galere_. Well, in a fortnight, isn"t it? We shall both be in town again. I don"t like saying good-bye."
And he took both her hands in his.
"It all seems so strange to me still--so strange!" he murmured.
"Next week I shall see mamma"s grave," said Julie, under her breath.
"Shall I put some flowers there for you?"
The fine blue eyes above her wavered. He bent to her.
"Yes. And write to me. Come back soon. Oh, you"ll see. Things will all come right, perfectly right, in spite of Lady Henry."
Confidence, encouragement, a charming raillery, an enthusiastic tenderness--all these beamed upon her from the old man"s tone and gesture. She was puzzled. But with another pressure of the hand he was gone. She stood looking after him. And as the carriage drove away, the sound of the wheels hurt her. It was the withdrawal of something protecting--something more her own, when all was said, than anything else which remained to her.
As she returned to the drawing-room, Dr. Meredith intercepted her.
"You want me to send you some work to take abroad?" he said, in a low voice. "I shall do nothing of the kind."
"Why?"
"Because you ought to have a complete holiday."
"Very well. Then I sha"n"t be able to pay my way," she said, with a tired smile.
"Remember the doctor"s bills if you fall ill."
"Ill! I am never ill," she said, with scorn. Then she looked round the room deliberately, and her gaze returned to her companion. "I am not likely to be fatigued with society, am I?" she added, in a voice that did not attempt to disguise the bitterness within.
"My dear lady, you are hardly installed."
"I have been here a month--the critical month. Now was the moment to stand by me, or throw me over--n"est-ce pas? This is my first party, my house-warming. I gave a fortnight"s notice; I asked about sixty people, whom I knew _well_. Some did not answer at all. Of the rest, half declined--rather curtly, in many instances. And of those who accepted, not all are here. And, oh, how it dragged!"
Meredith looked at her rather guiltily, not knowing what to say. It was true the evening had dragged. In both their minds there rose the memory of Lady Henry"s "Wednesdays," the beautiful rooms, the varied and brilliant company, the power and consideration which had attended Lady Henry"s companion.
"I suppose," said Julie, shrugging her shoulders, "I had been thinking of the French _matresses de salon_, like a fool; of Mademoiselle de l"Espina.s.se--or Madame Mohl--imagining that people would come to _me_ for a cup of tea and an agreeable hour. But in England, it seems, people must be paid to talk. Talk is a business affair--you give it for a consideration."
"No, no! You"ll build it up," said Meredith. In his heart of hearts he said to himself that she had not been herself that night. Her wonderful social instincts, her memory, her adroitness, had somehow failed her.
And from a hostess strained, conscious, and only artificially gay, the little gathering had taken its note.
"You have the old guard, anyway," added the journalist, with a smile, as he looked round the room. The d.u.c.h.ess, Delafield, Montresor and his wife, General McGill, and three or four other old _habitues_ of the Bruton Street evenings were scattered about the little drawing-room.
General Fergus, too, was there--had arrived early, and was staying late.
His frank soldier"s face, the accent, cheerful, homely, careless, with which he threw off talk full of marrow, talk only possible--for all its simplicity--to a man whose life had been already closely mingled with the fortunes of his country, had done something to bind Julie"s poor little party together. Her eye rested on him with grat.i.tude. Then she replied to Meredith.
"Mr. Montresor will scarcely come again."
"What do you mean? Ungrateful lady! Montresor! who has already sacrificed Lady Henry and the habits of thirty years to your _beaux yeux_!"
"That is what he will never forgive me," said Julie, sadly. "He has satisfied his pride, and I--have lost a friend."
"Pessimist! Mrs. Montresor seemed to me most friendly."
Julie laughed.
"_She_, of course, is enchanted. Her husband has never been her own till now. She married him, subject to Lady Henry"s rights. But all that she will soon forget--and my existence with it."
"I won"t argue. It only makes you more stubborn," said Meredith. "Ah, still they come!"
For the door opened to admit the tall figure of Major Warkworth.
"Am I very late?" he said, with a surprised look as he glanced at the thinly scattered room. Julie greeted him, and he excused himself on the ground of a dinner which had begun just an hour late, owing to the tardiness of a cabinet minister.
Meredith observed the young man with some attention, from the dark corner in which Julie had left him. The gossip of the moment had reached him also, but he had not paid much heed to it. It seemed to him that no one knew anything first-hand of the Moffatt affair. And for himself, he found it difficult to believe that Julie Le Breton was any man"s dupe.
She must marry, poor thing! Of course she must marry. Since it had been plain to him that she would never listen to his own suit, this great-hearted and clear-brained man had done his best to stifle in himself all small or grasping impulses. But this fellow--with his inferior temper and morale--alack! why are the clever women such fools?
If only she had confided in him--her old and tried friend--he thought he could have put things before her, so as to influence without offending her. But he suffered--had always suffered--from the jealous reserve which underlay her charm, her inborn tendency to secretiveness and intrigue.
Now, as he watched her few words with Warkworth, it seemed to him that he saw the signs of some hidden relation. How flushed she was suddenly, and her eyes so bright!