"Yes. It"s me," said Maurice stiffly, and rose. "But I"m going. I shan"t disturb you."
"Disturb?" she said, and laughed a little. "Nonsense! Of course not."
From her position on Herries"s arm, she looked down at him, uncertain how to proceed. Then she laughed again. "But how fortunate that I found you! The next is our dance, isn"t it?"---she pretended to examine her programme. "It will begin in a minute. I think I"ll wait here."
"The next may be, but not the next again, remember," said Herries, before he allowed her to withdraw her arm. Louise nodded and laughed.
"AUF WIEDERSEHEN!"
But after the door had dosed behind Herries, she remained standing, a step higher than Maurice, tipping her face with her handkerchief.
When she descended the step, and was on a level with him, he could see how her eyes glittered.
"Was that lie necessary?--for me?"
"What"s the matter, Maurice? Why are you like this? Why have you not asked me to dance?"
He was unpleasantly worked on by her free use of his name.
"I, you? Have I had a chance?"
"Wasn"t it for you to make the chance? Or did you expect me to come to you: Mr. Guest, will you do me the honour of dancing with me?--Oh, please, don"t be cross. Don"t spoil my pleasure--for this one night at least."
But she laughed again as she spoke, as though she did not fear his power to do so, and laid her hand on his arm: and, at her touch, he seemed to feel through sleeve and glove, the superabundance of vitality that was throbbing in her this evening. She was unable to be still for a moment; in the delicate pallor of her face, her eyes burned, black as jet.
"Are you really enjoying yourself so much? What CAN you find in it all?"
"Come--come down and dance. Listen!--can you resist that music? Quick, let us go down."
"I dance badly. I"m not Herries."
"But I can suit my step to anyone"s. Won"t you dance with me?--when I ask you?"
She had been leaning forward, looking over the bal.u.s.trade at the couples arranging themselves below. Now she turned, and put her arm through his.
They went down the stairs, into the hall. Close beside the door at which they entered, they began to dance.
In all these months, Maurice had scarcely touched her hand. Now convention required that he should take her in his arms: he had complete control over her, could draw her closer, or put her further away, as he chose. For the first round or two, this was enough to occupy him entirely: the proximity of the lithe body, the nearness of the dark head, the firm, warm resistance that her back offered to his hand.
They were dancing to the music of the WIENER BLUT, most melancholy gay of waltzes, in which the long, legato, upward sweep of the violins says as plainly as in words that all is vanity. But with the pa.s.sing of the players to the second theme, the melody made a more direct appeal: there was a pa.s.sionate unrest in it, which disquieted all who heard it.
The dancers, with flushed cheeks and fixed eyes, responded instinctively to its challenge: the lapidary swing with which they followed the rhythm became less circ.u.mspect; and a desire to dance till they could dance no more, took possession of those who were fanatic. No one yielded to the impulse more readily than Louise; she was quite carried away. Maurice felt the change in her; an uneasiness seized him, and increased with every turn. She had all but closed her eyes; her hair brushed his shoulder; she answered to the lightest pressure of his arm. Even her face looked strange to him: its expression, its individuality, all that made it hers, was as if wiped out.
Involuntarily he straightened himself, and his own movements grew stiffer, in his effort to impart to her some of his own restraint. But it was useless. And, as they turned and turned, to the maddening music, cold spots broke out on his forehead: in this manner she had danced with all her previous partners, and would dance with those to come.
Such a pang of jealousy shot through him at the thought that, without knowing what he was doing, he pulled her sharply to him. And she yielded to the tightened embrace as a matter of course.
With a jerk he stopped dancing and loosened his hold of her.
She stood and blinked at lights and people: she had been far away, in a world of melody and motion, and could not come back to herself all at once. Wonderingly she looked at Maurice; for the music was going on, and no one else had left off dancing; and, with the same of comprehension, but still too dazed to resist, she followed him up the stairs.
"It"s easy to see you don"t care for dancing," she said, when they were back in the corner of the gallery. Her breath came unsteadily, and again she touched her face with the small, scented handkerchief.
"No. Not dancing like that," he answered rudely. But now again, as so often before, directly it was put into words, his feeling seemed strained and puritanic.
Louise leaned forward in her seat to look into his face.
"Like what?--what do you mean? Oh, you foolish boy, what is the matter with you to-night? You will tell me next I can"t dance."
"You dance only too well."
"But you would rather I was a wooden doll--is that it How is one to please you? First you are vexed with me because YOU did not ask ME to dance; and when I send my partner away, on your account, you won"t finish one dance with me but exact that I shall sit here, in a dark corner, and let that glorious music go by. I don"t know what to make of you." But her attention had already wandered to the dancers below.
"Look at them!--Oh, it makes me envious! No one else has dreamt of stopping yet. For no matter how tired you are beforehand, when you dance you don"t feel it, and as long as the music goes on, you must go on, too, though it lasted all night.--Oh, how often I have longed for a night like this! And then I"ve never met a better dancer than Mr.
Herries."
"And for the sake of his dancing, you can forget what a puppy he is?"
"Puppy?" At the warmth of his interruption, she laughed, the low, indolent laugh, by means of which she seemed determined, on this night, to keep anything from touching her too nearly. "How crude you men are!
Because he is handsome and dances well, you reason that he must necessarily be a simpleton."
"Handsome? Yes--if a tailor"s dummy is handsome."
But Louise only laughed again, like one over whom words had no power.
"If he were the veriest scarecrow, I would forgive him--for the sake of his dancing."
She leant forward, letting her gloved arms lie along her knees; and above the jet-trimmed line of her bodice, he saw her white chest rise and fall. At a slight sound behind, she turned and looked expectantly at the door.
"No, not yet," said the young man at her side. "Besides, even if it were, this is my dance, remember. You said so yourself."
"You are rude to-night, Maurice--and LANGWEILIG." She averted her face, and tapped her foot. But the content that lapped her made it impossible for her to take anything earnestly amiss, and even that others should show displeasure jarred on her like a false note.
"Don"t be angry. To-morrow it will all be different again. Let me have just this one night of pleasure--let me enjoy myself in my own way."
"To hear you talk, one would think I had no wish but to spoil your pleasure."
"Oh, I didn"t mean that. You misunderstand everything."
"What I say or think has surely no weight with you?"
She gave up the attempt to pacify him, and leaning back in her chair, stifled a yawn. Then with an exclamation of: "How hot it is up here!"
she peeled off her gloves. With her freed hands, she tidied her hair, drawing out and thrusting in again the silver dagger that held the coil together. Then she let her bare arms fall on her lap, where they lay in strong outline against the black of her dress. One was almost directly under Maurice"s eyes; even by the poor light, he could see the mark left on the inside of the wrist, by the b.u.t.tons of the glove. It was a generously formed arm, but so long that it looked slender, and its firm white roundness was flawless from wrist to shoulder. He shut his eyes, but he could see it through his eyelids. Sitting beside her like this, in the semidarkness, morbidly aware of the perfume of her hair and dress, he suddenly forgot that he had been rude, and she indifferent.
He was conscious only of the wish to drive it home to her, how unhappy she was making him.
"Louise," he said so abruptly that she started. "I"m going to ask you to do something for me. I haven"t made many demands, have I?--since you first called me your friend." He paused and fumbled for words.
"Don"t--don"t dance any more to-night. Don"t dance again."
She stooped forward to look at him. "Not dance again?--I? What do you mean?"
"What I say. Let us go home."
"Home? Now? When it"s only half over?--You don"t know what you are saying." But her surprise was already on the wane.
"Oh, yes, I do. I"m not going to let you dance again."