Tall and well made, Lontaine had the good colour of men who care enough for their bodies to keep them keen and clean of the rust that comes of indoor stodging. The plump and closely razored face seemed perhaps a shade oversize for features delicately formed, and the blue eyes had that introspective cast which sometimes means imagination and frequently means nothing at all more than self-complacence. He affected a n.i.g.g.ardly moustache, and when he spoke full lips framed his words noticeably. His habit was that of a man at ease in any company, even his own, who sets a good value on himself and confidently looks for its general acceptance.
He talked well, with a.s.surance, some humour, and a fair amount of information. He had lived several years in the States, off and on, and on the whole approved of them. In fact, he might say there were only two sections of the country with which he was unacquainted, the South and the Pacific Coast; defects in a cosmopolitan education which he hoped to remedy this trip, as to the Coast at least. He had pottered a bit with the cinema at home, and it was just possible he might think it worth his while to jog out to Los Angeles and see what was to be seen in that capital of the world"s motion-picture industry. England, he didn"t mind admitting, had a goodish bit to learn from America in the cinema line.
They were far too conservative, the cinema lot at home, behind the times and on the cheap to a degree that fairly did them in the eye when it came to foreign compet.i.tion. On the Continent, too, the cinema was making tremendous strides, while in England it was merely marking time.
If you asked Lontaine, it was his considered belief that the really top-hole productions of the future would come of combining American brilliance of photography and investure with European thoroughness in acting and direction.
This by no means unintelligent forecast was uttered with an authority that impressed even Lucinda, elaborately uninterested as she was.
Conscious of a rather pleasing deference in Lontaine, who was addressing himself to her more directly than to any of the others, she maintained a half-smile of amiable attention which would have deceived a sharper man, and let her thoughts drift on dreary tides of discontent.
Hour by hour the conviction was striking its roots more deeply into her comprehension that life with Bel on the present terms was unthinkable.
And yet--what to do about it? She hadn"t the remotest notion. Obviously she would have to arrive somehow at some sort of an understanding with Bel. But how? The one way she knew had failed her. And she knew no one to confide in or consult.
Her father had died several years before her marriage, her mother soon after. Of her immediate family there remained only an elder sister, married and living in Italy.
She saw herself a puny figure, with only her bare wits and naked need for allies, struggling to save her soul alive from a social system like a Molock of the moderns, a beast-G.o.d man has builded out of all that he holds hateful, all his fears and l.u.s.ts and malice, envy, cruelty and injustice, and to which, having made it, he bows down in awe and worship, sacrificing to it all that he loves best, all that makes life sweet and fair....
A losing fight. One were mad to hope to win. Already Bel was lost, caught in the mad dance of the system"s bacchants, already drunkard and debauchee.... Nor might all her love redeem him.... And O the pity!
Aware of pain welling in her bosom, a sense of suffocation, tears starting to her eyes, she jumped up hastily lest her friends should see, mumbled an excuse, and made her way out to the foyer, turning toward the women"s cloak-room.
A few moments alone would restore equanimity, a little rouge and powder mend the wear of her emotions.
The foyer was still fairly thronged; she was almost in Bel"s arms before she saw him, so near to him, when she stopped in shocked recognition of his grimace of affection, that she caught, as she started back, a heavy whiff of breath whiskey-flavoured.
She heard him say, "Why, h.e.l.lo, Linda! what"s the hurry?" and cut in instantly with a gasp of indignation: "What are you doing here?"
"Thought I"d look in on your party. You know, you asked me----"
She could not trust her tongue. If she said more in her anger, she would say too much, considering that time and place, lose what poor vestiges of self-control remained to her, make a scene. She cried all in a breath: "Well, go away, then! I don"t want you, I won"t have you!"--and pushing past Bel, fled into the cloak-room.
He lingered half a minute, with perplexed eyes meeting the amused stares of those who had been near enough to catch an inkling of the altercation; then drew himself up sharply and ironed out all indications of his embarra.s.sment, a.s.suming what he believed to be a look of haughty indifference.
But he was hurt, stricken to the heart by Lucinda"s treatment. He couldn"t think what he"d done to deserve it, he felt sure she couldn"t have noticed the few drinks that had const.i.tuted luncheon for him. But whatever had been the matter, obviously it was up to him to find some way to placate Linda. He was through with Amelie and all such foolishness, from now on he was going to be good to Linda; and it wouldn"t do at all to begin his new life by getting on the outs with her.
His gaze focused intelligently upon the gla.s.s case that displays the wares of the hotel florist. Women liked flowers. But there were four in Linda"s party, her guests would think it funny if he joined them bringing flowers for his wife only.... A tough problem. He decided to step round to the club and mull it over....
He had disappeared by the time Lucinda felt fit to show herself again.
Inwardly still forlorn and disconsolate, but outwardly mistress of herself, she resumed her chair; and had hardly done so when she saw Richard Daubeney pa.s.s by with his luncheon party, pause at the door and take leave, then turn back and make directly for her corner. And instantaneously Lucinda experienced a slight psychic shock and found herself again the individual self-contained, the young woman of the world whom nothing could dismay.
Dobbin knew everybody except the Lontaines; and when the flutter created by his introduction had subsided, he found a chair by Lucinda"s side and quietly occupied himself with a cigarette until the conversation swung back to the pageant; whereupon he took deft advantage of the general interest in that topic to detach Lucinda"s attention.
"I couldn"t resist the temptation to b.u.t.t in, Cinda. Hope you don"t mind."
"I do, though, fearfully. It"s always nice to see you."
"Many thanks. Appreciation makes up for a lot of neglect."
"Poor old soul: somebody been neglecting you again?"
"Somebody"s always neglecting me and my affectionate disposition. That"s why I"ve wiggled to your side, wagging a friendly tail, ready to lick your hand at the first sign of an inclination to adopt me."
Lucinda eyed him in grave distrust. "Dobbin: are you trying to start something? I thought we"d settled all that last night, agreed I wasn"t in a position to adopt stray men, no matter how nice."
"That was last night. You"ve had time to sleep on it. Lots of things can come up overnight to change a woman"s mind. Don"t tell me: I can see something unusual has happened."
"Oh! you can?"
"Don"t be alarmed: you"re not wearing your heart on your sleeve. I can see you"re troubled about something, simply because I know you so much better than anybody else. Oh, yes, I do. You never knew how thoroughly I studied you in the dear, dead days of yore. I"ll lay long odds no one else has noticed anything, but to my seeing eye you"ve been flying signals of distress all during luncheon. That being so, it wouldn"t be decent of me not to give you a hail and stand by in case I"m needed--now would it?"
Momentarily Lucinda contended against temptation. Then, "You are a dear, Dobbin," she said almost regretfully. "But it isn"t fair of you to see too much. If it"s true I have secrets I don"t want to share, it would be kinder to let me keep them--don"t you think?"
"Lord bless you, yes! But it"s my observation the human being in trouble has got to talk to somebody, and will to the wrong body if the right isn"t handy. Not only that, but you"ll find most people will listen to your troubles only to get a chance to tell you their own; whereas I have none except the one you know all about. So you needn"t fear reprisals."
She pondered this, sweetly serious, then in little better than a whisper said: "At least, not now...."
Jean Sedley was claiming her attention. "What do you think of that, Cindy? Isn"t it a ripping idea?"
"Afraid I didn"t hear--I was flirting with Dobbin."
"Yes, I know. But Mr. Lontaine has just made a priceless suggestion about the pageant. He says we can have moving-pictures taken as we enter the ball-room and shown before the evening is over."
"But is that possible?"
"Oh, quite," Lontaine insisted--"a.s.sure you. It"s really extraordinary how they do these things, three or four hours is all they require to develop and prepare a film for projection. Say your pageant starts at ten: by one you can see yourself on the screen."
"Everybody would adore it!" Nelly Guest declared with deep conviction.
"And you could arrange it, Mr. Lontaine?"
"Easily, Mrs. Druce--that is to say, if I"m still in New York."
"What do you think, Cindy?" Jean urged. "Almost everybody is moving-picture mad. We could sell twice as many tickets on the strength of such a novelty. And it is a charity affair, you know."
"Meaning to say," Dobbin put in, "you"re rather keen about it yourself."
"Of course--crazy to see myself as others see me. So is every woman--f.a.n.n.y, Jean, Cindy----"
"I don"t know," Lucinda demurred. "It must be a weird sensation."
"Not one you need be afraid of," Lontaine promised. "If you don"t mind my saying so, you would screen wonderfully, Mrs. Druce."
"You think so, really?"
"Oh, no doubt about it, whatever. You"re just the type the camera treats most kindly. If you wanted to, you could make a fortune in the cinema.
No, seriously: I"m not joking."
"I"m glad of that," Lucinda returned soberly. "It wouldn"t be at all nice of you to trifle with my young affections. Still, I will admit I"m skeptical."
"Tell you what," Lontaine offered eagerly: "Suppose you take test, what?
No trouble at all to fix it up for you--chaps I know--only too glad--anything I say. I"d like to prove I know what I"m talking about.