"A quadrille, two waltzes, and the cotillon. That will do very well. As n.o.body knows you in that domino, we can dance as often as we please, and you will only be seen with me in the cotillon. What is your costume? I am sure it is something wonderful."
"How you run on!" exclaimed the young girl. "You do not give one the time to refuse one thing before you take another!"
"That is the best way, and you know it," answered Alexander, laughing.
"A man should never give a woman time to refuse. It is the greatest mistake that can be imagined."
"Did aunt Chrysophrasia refuse to dance with you?" inquired Hermione.
Alexander bit his lip, and a faint color rose in his transparent skin.
"Aunt Chrysophrasia is a hard-hearted old person," he replied, evasively; but he almost shuddered at the thought that under the white domino there had lurked the green eyes and the faded, sour face of his aesthetic relative.
"To think that even she should have resisted you!" exclaimed Hermione, wickedly.
"Better she than you," said Alexander, lowering his tone as they pa.s.sed near a group of persons who chattered loudly in feigned voices. "Better she than you, dear cousin," he repeated, gently. "To be refused anything by you"----
"They do things very well here," interrupted Hermione, pretending not to hear. "They have such magnificent rooms, and the floor is so good."
"Hermione, why do you"----
"Because," said Hermione quickly, before he could finish his sentence, "because you say too much, cousin Alexander. I interrupt you because you go too far, and because the only possible way of checking you is to cut you short."
"And why must you check me? Am I rude or rough with you? Do I say anything that you should not hear? You know that I love you; why may I not tell you so? I know. You will say that Paul has spoken before me.
But do you love Paul? Hermione, can you own to yourself that you love him,--not as a brother, but as the man you would choose to marry? He does not love you as I love you."
"Hush!" exclaimed the young girl. "You must not. I will go away and leave you."
"I will follow you."
"Why will you torment me so?" Perhaps her tone of voice did not express all the annoyance she meant to show, for Alexander did not desist. He only changed his manner, growing suddenly as soft and yielding as a girl.
"I did not mean to annoy you," he said. "You know that I never mean to.
You must forgive me, you must be kind to me, Hermione. You have the stronger position, and you should be merciful. How can I help saying something of what I feel?"
"You should not feel it, to begin with," answered his cousin.
"Will you teach me how I may not love you?" His voice dropped almost to a whisper, as he bent down to her and asked the question. But Hermione was silent for a moment, not having any very satisfactory plan to propose. Half reluctant, she sat down by him upon a sofa in the corner of an almost empty room. There were tall plants in the windows, and the light was softened by rose-colored shades.
"It must be a hard lesson to learn," said Alexander, speaking again.
"But if you will teach me, I will try and learn it; for I will do anything you ask me. You say I must not love you, but I love you already. When I am with you I am carried away, like a boat spinning down the Neva in the springtime. Can the river stop itself in order that what lives in it may not move any more? Can it say to the skiff, "Go no further," when the skiff is already far from the sh.o.r.e, at the mercy of the water?"
"The boatman must pull hard at his oars," laughed Hermione. "Have you never seen a caque pull through the Devil"s Stream on the Bosphorus, at Bala Hissar? It is hard work, but it generally succeeds."
"A man may fight against the devil, but he cannot struggle against what he worships. Or, if he can, you must teach me how to do it, and give me some weapon to fight with."
"You must rely on yourself for that. You must say, "I will not," and it will be very easy. Besides," she added, with another laugh, in which there was a rather nervous ring,--"besides, you know all this is only a comedy, or a pastime. You are not in earnest."
"I wish I were not," answered Alexander, softly. "You tell me to rely upon myself. I rely on you. I love you, and that makes you stronger than me."
Hermione believed him, and perhaps she was right. She felt, and he made her feel, that she dominated him, and could turn him whither she would.
Her pride was flattered, and though she promised herself that she would make him give up his love for her by the mere exertion of a superior common sense, she was conscious that the task was not wholly distasteful. She enjoyed the sensation of being the stronger, of realizing that Alexander was wholly at her feet and subject to her commands. That he should have gradually grown so intimate as to speak so freely to her is not altogether surprising. They were own cousins, and called each other by their Christian names. They met daily, and were often together for many consecutive hours, and Madame Patoff did her best to promote this state of things. Hermione had become accustomed to his devotion, for he had advanced by imperceptible stages. When he first said that he loved her, she took it as she might have taken such an expression from her brother,--as the exuberant expression of an affection purely platonic, not to say brotherly. When he had repeated it more earnestly, she had laughed at him, and he had laughed with her in a way which disarmed all her suspicions. But each time that he said it he laughed less, until she realized that he was not jesting. Then she reproached herself a little for having let the intimacy grow, and determined to persuade him by gentle means that he had made a mistake.
She felt that she was responsible for his conduct, because she had not been wise enough to stop him at the outset, and she therefore felt also that it would be unjust to make a violent scene, and that it was altogether out of the question to speak to Paul about the matter. To tell the truth, she was not sorry that it was out of the question, and this was the most dangerous element in her intimacy with Alexander. When a young woman who has not a profound experience of the world undertakes to convince a man by sheer argument that he ought not to love her, the result is likely to be unsatisfactory, and she stands less chance of persuading than of being persuaded. A man who persuades a woman that she is able to influence him, and that he is wholly at her mercy, has already succeeded in making himself interesting to her; and she will not readily abandon the exercise of her power, since she is provided with the too plausible excuse that she is doing him good, and consequently is herself doing right.
"I wish you would really listen to me, and take my advice," said Hermione, after a pause. "There is so much that is good in you,--so much that is far better than this foolish love-making."
Alexander Patoff smiled softly, and his brown eyes gazed dreamily at hers, that just showed through the openings in the black domino.
"If there is anything good in me, you have put it there," he answered.
"Do not take it away; do not give me the physic of good advice."
"I think you need it more than usual to-night," said his cousin. "You are more than usually foolish, you know."
"You are more than usually wise. But if you tell me to do anything to-night, I will do it."
"Then go away and dance with some one else," laughed Hermione. To her surprise, Alexander rose quietly, and with one gentle glance turned away. Then she repented.
"Alexander!" she exclaimed, almost involuntarily.
"Yes," he answered, coming back, and seating himself again by her side.
"I did not tell you to come back," she said, amused at his docility.
"No--but I came," he replied. "You called me. I thought you had forgotten something. Shall I go away again?"
"No. You may stay, if you will be good," said she, leaning back and looking away from him.
"I promise. Besides, you admitted a moment ago that I was very good.
Perhaps I am too good, and that is the reason why you sent me away."
"I did not say you were good. I said there was some good in you. You always take everything for granted."
"I will take all you grant," said he.
"I grant nothing. It is you who fancy that I do. You have altogether too much imagination."
"I never need it with you, even if I have it," answered Alexander. "You are infinitely beyond anything I ever imagined in my wildest dreams."
"So are you," laughed Hermione. "Only--it is in a different way."
"Why do you think I like you so much?" asked her cousin, suddenly changing his tone.
"Because you ought not to," she answered without hesitation.
"Then you think that as soon as any one tells me that I should not like a thing, I make up my mind to like it and to have it? No, that is not the reason I love you."
"It was "liking," not "loving," a moment ago," observed Hermione.
"Please always say "liking." It is a much better word."