To say that she was touched is to say little. She was more elated than touched, and more interested than either. How utterly romantic, how perfectly sweet, how thoughtful, how ardent of James! James, of all people in the world! Her husband, of course: but who knew better than she what that office had implied--and who less than she what it must have hidden? Really, was it true? Could it be true?
For some time she sat luxurious where she had been left, gloating (the word is fairly used) over this new treasure. But then she jumped up and looked at herself in the gla.s.s, curiously, quizzingly, and even perhaps shamefaced. Next she laughed, richly and from a full heart.
"My dear girl, it"s not hard to see what has happened to you. You"ve been--" Not even in her thoughts did she care to end the sentence. But those shining dark eyes, that air of floating, of winged feet--"Ha, my dear, upon my word! At thirty-one, my child. Really, it becomes you uncommonly."
She found herself now walking swiftly up and down the room, clasping and unclasping her hands. To think that James--the last man in the world--had kept this up his coat-sleeve for years--and at last--! And how like the dear thing to turn the light out! To save his own face, of course, for he must have known, even _he_ must have known, that _she_ wouldn"t have cared. She would have liked the light--to see his eyes! There had been no eyegla.s.s this time, anyhow. But that was it.
That was a man"s romance. In _Cupid and Psyche_, it had been Psyche who had wanted to know, to see. Women were like that. Such realists.
And, as Psyche was, they were always sorry for it afterwards. Well, bless him, he should love her in the dark, or how he pleased.
She stopped again--again in front of the gla.s.s. What had he seen--what new thing had he seen to make him--want to kiss her like that?
Was she pretty? She supposed that she really was. She fingered the crinkled whiteness at her neck; touched herself here and there; turned her head sideways, and patted her hair, lifting her chin. Now, was there anything she could put on--something she could put in--for dinner? Her thoughts were now turned to serious matters--this and that possibility flashed across her mind. They were serious matters, because James had made them so by his most extraordinary, most romantic, most beautiful action. Then she stretched out her hands, the palms upward, and sighed out her heart. "Oh, what a load is lightened.
Oh, days to come!"
Voices in the conservatory suddenly made her heart beat violently. He was coming! She heard James say--oh, the rogue!--"Yes, it"s rather nice. We put it up directly we came. Lucy"s idea. Mind the little step at the door, though." Urquhart, Francis Lingen were in the room--Francis" topknot stood up like a bottle-brush. Then came the hero of the evening, James, the unknown Eros. She beamed into the shining disk. Sweet old spygla.s.s, she would never abuse it again. All the same, he had pocketed it for the occasion the last time he had been in the room!
Urquhart refused tea. "Tea at seven o"clock at night!" All her eyes were for James, who had sought her in love and given her heart again.
The eyegla.s.s expressed its horror of tea at seven o"clock. "G.o.d forbid," said James, dear, ridiculous creature.
Mr. Urquhart talked at once of Lancelot. "Well, he"s off with all the rest of them. They love it, you know. It"s movement--it"s towards the unknown, the not impossible--the "anything might turn up at any minute." Now, we don"t feel so sure about the minutes, do we?"
Oh, don"t we though? She laughed and tilted her chin. "We feel, anyhow, for _their_ minutes, bless them," she said, and Urquhart looked at her with narrowed eyes.
""He for G.o.d only, she for G.o.d in him,"" he said. He added, "I like that boy of yours. I think he understands me"--and pleased her.
There were a few minutes" desultory talk, in the course of which Lucy gravitated towards James, and finally put her hand in his arm. You should have seen the effect of this simple caress upon the eyegla.s.s.
Like a wounded snake it lifted its head to ask, "Who has struck me?"
It wavered and wagged. But Lucy was gla.s.s-proof now.
Urquhart said that he was going away shortly, at least he supposed he should. A man he knew wanted to try a new motor. They were to rush down to Biarritz, and possibly over the frontier to Pampluna. But nothing was arranged. Here he looked scrutinising and half quizzical at her. "Are you adventurously inclined? Will you try my monster? It"s a dragon."
She was very adventurously inclined--as James might know! but not with a Mr. Urquhart necessarily: therefore she hesitated. "Oh, I don"t really know--" Urquhart laughed. "Be bold--be bold--be not too bold.
Well, there it is. I start for the Newmarket road at eleven to-morrow--but I"ll fetch you for twopence. Ask _him_." He jerked his head forward towards James, on whose arm her hand rested. Lucy looked up at her romantic lord--a look which might have made a man proud. But James may have been proud enough already. At any rate, he didn"t see her look, but was genial to Urquhart--over whom he considered that he had triumphed in the library.
"Sooner her than me," he said. "I know that she likes it and so advise her to go. But I should die a thousand deaths."
"She won"t," said Urquhart; and then to Lucy, "Well, ma"am?"
Her eyes a.s.sented before she did. "Very well, I"ll come. I dare say it will be delightful."
"Oh, it will," he said.
Still he rambled on--plain, grumbling, easy, familiar talk, while Lucy fumed and fidgeted to be alone with her joy and pride. "Your handsome sister has asked me to hunt in Ess.e.x. Don"t like hunting, but I do like her--and there"s a great deal waiting to be done at Martley. I don"t know. We"ll talk about it to-morrow." Then he asked her, "Would she come and look at Martley?" It seemed she had half promised.
She said, "Oh, yes, of course." Nothing of that kind seemed very important. But James here looked down at her, which made it different.
"We might go at Whitsuntide," he said.
She looked deeply up--deeply into him, so to speak. "Very well, we will. If you"ll come."
"Oh, he"ll come," Urquhart said; and James, "I should like it." So that was settled. Heavens, how she wished these people would go. She could see that Francis Lingen wanted to be asked to stay to dine, but she didn"t mean to have that. So when Urquhart held out his hand with a blunt "Good night to you," she let hers hover about Francis as if his was waiting for it--which it wasn"t, but had to be. "Oh, good night," said the embarra.s.sed exquisite, and forgot to be tender.
James picked up the evening paper and was flickering his eye over the leading articles, like a searchlight. Lucy, for her part, hovered quick-footed in his neighbourhood. This was her hour of triumph, and she played with it. She peeped at the paper over his shoulder till he said, "Please," and moved it. Her fingers itched to touch his hair, but very prudently refrained. She was too restless to settle to anything, and too happy to wish it. If she had been a singing-bird she would have trilled to the piano; but she had not a note of music. The dressing-gong gave her direction. There was plenty to be done. "The gong! I"m going to make myself smart, James. Quite smart. Are you coming up?"
James had the paper open in the middle. "Eh? Oh, there"s lots of time--run away. I"m rather busy."
"You"re not a bit busy. But I"ll go." And she went with hardly a perceptible hang-back at the door. Upstairs she rejected her usual choice with a curled lip. "No, no, too stuffy." "Oh, Smithers, I couldn"t. It makes me look a hundred." No doubt she was absurd; but she had been starved. Such a thing as this had not happened to her since her days of betrothal, and then but seldom. When she had satisfied herself she had a panic. Suppose he said, "Comic Opera!"
He said nothing at all. He was in a thoughtful mood, and talked mostly of Urquhart"s proposal for Whitsuntide. "I believe it"s rather remarkable. Quite a place to be seen. Jimmy does things well, you know. He"s really a rich man."
"As rich as you?" Lucy asked, not at all interested in Urquhart just now.
The eyegla.s.s was pained. "My dear soul! You don"t know what you"re saying!" She quizzed him with a saucy look. "I didn"t say anything, dear. I asked something."
If eyegla.s.ses shiver, so did James"s. "Well, well--you quibble. I dare say Urquhart has fifteen thousand a year, and even you will know that I haven"t half as much."
She quenched her eyes, and looked meek. "No, dear, I know. All right, he"s quite rich. Now what does he do with it?"
"Do with it?" James tilted his head and scratched his neck vigorously, but not elegantly. "Very often nothing at all. There will be years when he won"t spend a hundred above his running expenses. Then he"ll get a kind of maggot in the brain, and squander every sixpence he can lay hands on. Or he may see reason good, and drop ten thousand in a lap like Lingen"s. Why does he do it? G.o.d knows, Who made him. He"s made like that."
Lucy said it was very interesting, but only because she thought James would be pleased.
Then she remembered, with a pang of doubt, that she was to be driven by this wild man to-morrow. But James--would he--? He had never been really jealous, and just now she didn"t suppose he could possibly be so; but you can"t tell with men. So she said, "James dear," very softly, and he looked over the table at her. "If you don"t think it--sensible, I could easily telephone."
"Eh? What about?--to whom?--how? I don"t follow you."
"I mean to Mr. Urquhart, about his motor to-morrow. I don"t care about it in the least. In fact--"
"Oh," said James, "the motor? Ah, I had forgotten. Oh, I think you might go. Urquhart"s been very reasonable about this business of Lingen"s. I had a little trouble, of course--it"s a lot of money, even for him. Oh, yes, I should go if I were you. Why, he might want _me_ to go, you know--which would bore me to extinction. But I know you like that sort of thing." He nodded at her. "Yes, I should go."
She pouted, and showed storm in her eyes--all for his benefit. But he declined benefit. A strange, dear, bleak soul.
"Very well. If it saves you anything, I"ll do it," she said. James was gratified; as he was also by the peeling of walnuts and service of them in a sherry gla.s.s, which she briskly performed, as if she liked it. Further than that she was too shy to go; but in the drawing-room, before it might be too late, she was unable to forbear her new tenderness.
She stood behind him; her hand fell upon his shoulder, and rested there, like a leaf. He could not but be conscious of it--he was very conscious of it, and accepted it, as a tribute. Such a tribute was gratifying. Lucy was a charming woman. She did pretty things in a pretty way, as a man"s wife should, but too seldom did. How many men"s wives--after fourteen years of it--would stand as she was standing now? No--the luck held. He had a tradition of Success--success without visible effort. The luck held! Like a steady wind, filling a sail.
Discipline, however; gentle but firm! He went on reading, but said, most kindly, "Well, Luce, well--" adding, on an afterthought, "How can I serve you?"
Her eyes were luminous, dilating her gentle mood, downcast towards his smooth black hair. She sighed, "Serve me? Oh, you serve me well. I"m happy just now--that"s all."
"Not fretting after the boy?"
"No, no. Not now. Bless him, all the same."
"To be sure." Whereon, at a closer touch of her hand, he looked comically up. Her head moved, ever so slightly, towards him. He dropped his eyegla.s.s with a smart click and kissed her cheek. She shivered, and started back. A blank dismay fell upon her; her heart seemed to stop. Good Heavens! Not so, not at all so, had James kissed her in the dark.
There wasn"t a doubt about that--not the shade of a doubt. Here had been a brush on the cheek; here the cold point of his nose had pecked a little above. She had felt that distinctly, more distinctly than the touch of his lips. Whereas that other, that full-charged message of hope and promise--oh, that had been put upon her mouth, soft and close, and long. She recalled how her head had fallen back and back, how her laden heart had sighed, how she had been touched, comforted, contented. Good G.o.d, how strange men were! How entirely outside her philosophy!
She strayed about her drawing-room, touching things here and there, while he complacently fingered his _Punch_, flacking over the leaves with brisk slaps of the hand. At this moment he was as comfortably-minded a householder as any in London, engaged solely in digestion, at peace at home and abroad, so unconscious of the fretting, straining, pa.s.sionate lost soul in the room with him, hovering, flicking about it like a white moth, as to be supremely ridiculous--to any one but Lucy. It is difficult to hit off her state of mind in a word, or in two. She was fretted; yes, but she was provoked too. She was provoked, but she was incredulous. It could not continue; it was too much. Men were not made so. And yet--and yet--James was a possible Eros, an Eros (bless him!) with an eyegla.s.s: and Eros loved in the dark.
She comforted herself with this thought, which seemed to her a bright solution of the puzzle, and saw James rise and stretch his length without mutiny. She received the taps on the cheek of his rolled _Punch_, allowed, nay, procured, another chilly peck, with no pouting lips, no reproachful eyes. Then came a jar, and her puzzlement renewed. "Shall you be late?" "Oh, my dear soul, how can I possibly say? I brought papers home with me--and you know what that means! It"s an interesting case. We have Merridew for us. I am settling the brief." Alas, for her. The infatuate even stayed to detail points of the cause. Much, it appeared, depended upon the Chancellor of the diocese: a very shaky witness. He had a pa.s.sion for qualification, and might tie himself into as many knots as an eel on a night-line. Oh, might he indeed? And this, this was in the scales against her pride and joy! She was left--alone on Naxos now--while James went sharply to his papers.