The stairs and corridors were not lighted yet. One economises with electric light and many other little things at a hotel pension, where the prices are "from five francs a day, _vin compris_."
Rosemary opened a door on the fourth floor, and for a moment the twilight on the other side was shot for Hugh with red and purple spots.
But the colours faded when the childish voice said, "Angel isn"t here.
If you"ll come in, I"ll go and see if she"s in our room."
"Don"t tell her--don"t say--anything about a fairy father," he stammered.
"Oh no, that"s to be the surprise," Rosemary rea.s.sured him, as she pattered away.
It was deep twilight in the room, and rather cold, for the eucalyptus and olive logs in the fireplace still awaited the match. Hugh could see the blurred outlines of a few pieces of cheap furniture; a sofa, three or four chairs, a table, and a clumsy writing desk. But the window was still a square of pale bluish light, cut out of the violet dusk, and as the young man"s eyes accustomed themselves to the dimness, the room did not seem dark.
He was not left alone for long. In two or three minutes Rosemary appeared once more, without her hat and coat, to say that "Angel" had not yet come back. "But she"ll soon be here now," went on the child. "Do you mind waiting in the twilight, fairy father? The electric light doesn"t come on till after five, and I"ve just heard the clock downstairs strike five."
"I shall like it," answered Hugh, glad that his face should be hidden by the dusk, in these moments of waiting.
"Angel tells me stories in the twilight," said Rosemary, as he sat down on the sofa by the cold fireplace, and she let him lift her light little body to his knee. "Would you tell me one, about when you were lost?"
"I"ll try," Hugh said. "Let me think, what story shall I tell?"
"I won"t speak while you"re remembering," Rosemary promised, leaning her head confidingly against his shoulder. "I always keep quiet, while Angel puts on her thinking cap."
Hugh laughed, and was silent. But his head was too hot to wear a thinking cap, and no story would come at his half-hearted call.
Rosemary waited in patience for him to begin. "One, two, three," she counted under her breath; for she had learned to count up to fifty, and it was good practice when one wished to make the time pa.s.s. She had just come to forty-nine, and was wondering if she might remind the fairy father of his duty, when the door opened.
It was Angel, of course; but Angel did not come in. She stopped on the threshold, talking to somebody, or rather somebody was talking to her.
Rosemary could not see the person, but she recognised the voice. It was that of Mademoiselle de Lavalette.
"You are not to write my mother letters, and trouble us about that money, madame," said the voice, as shrill now as it could be sweet.
"Once for all, I will not have it. I have followed you to tell you this.
You will be paid soon; that is enough. I am engaged to be married to a rich man, an American. He will be glad to pay all our debts by and by; but meantime, madame, you are to let us alone."
"I have done nothing, except to write and say that I needed the money,--which you promised to return weeks ago, or I couldn"t possibly have spared it," protested a voice which Hugh had heard in dreams three nights out of every six, in as many years.
"Well, if you write any more letters, we shall burn them unread, so it is no use to trouble us; and we will pay when we choose."
With the last words, the other voice died into distance. Mademoiselle had said what she came to say, and was retreating with dignity down the corridor.
Now the figure of a slender woman was silhouetted in the doorway. Hugh heard a sigh, and saw a hand that glimmered white in the dusk against the dark paper on the wall, as it groped for the b.u.t.ton of the electric light. Then, suddenly the room was filled with a white radiance, and she stood in the midst of it, young and beautiful, the woman he had loved for seven years.
Putting Rosemary away he sprang up, and her eyes, dazzled at first by the sudden flood of light, opened wide in startled recognition.
"Hugh--Hugh Egerton!" she stammered, whispering as one whispers in a dream.
She was pale as a lily, but the whiteness of her face was like light, shining from within; and there was a light in her great eyes, too, such as had never shone for Hugh on sea or land. Once, a long time ago, he had hoped that she cared, or would come to care. But she had chosen another man, and Hugh had gone away; that had been the end. Yet now--what stars her eyes were! One might almost think that she had not forgotten; that sometimes she had wished for him, that she was glad to see him now.
"Lady Clifford," he stammered. "I--will you forgive my being here--my frightening you like this?"
The brightness died out of her face. "Lady Clifford!" she echoed. "Don"t call me that, unless--I"m to call you Mr. Egerton? And besides, I"m only Madame Clifford here. It is better; the other would seem like ostentation in a woman who works."
"Evelyn," he said. "Thank you for letting it be Evelyn." Then, his voice breaking a little, "Oh, say you"re a tiny bit glad to see me, just a tiny bit glad."
She did not answer in words; but her eyes spoke, as she held out both hands.
[Ill.u.s.tration: _He crushed them in his, then bent his head and kissed them_]
He crushed them in his, then bent his head and kissed them; first the girlish right hand, then the left. But she saw his face contract as he caught the gleam of her wedding ring. As he looked up, their eyes met again, and each knew what was in the other"s mind.
"Angel, dearest," said Rosemary, "do tell the fairy father you"re glad to see him."
Evelyn started. "Why do you call him that?"
"Because he said he was a fairy, and would have to vanish soon. But you"ll beg him not to, won"t you?"
"I--I should be sorry to lose him again. We haven"t many friends, in these days." The bright head was bowed over the child"s, as Rosemary clung to her mother"s dress.
"You never lost me," said Hugh Egerton. "It was I who lost you. Evie, you don"t know what black years these have been. I loved you so."
"But that--was--long ago."
"It was always."
"Hugh! I thought you must have learned to hate me."
"Hate you, because I couldn"t make you care for me as--I hoped you would, and because you cared for someone else? No, I--"
"But--I did care for you. It was for my father"s sake that--that--ah, I can"t talk of it, Hugh. You know, we were so poor after father lost his money, I tried with all my heart to forget, and to do my best for--my husband. Perhaps it was my punishment that he--oh, Hugh, I was so miserable. And then--then he went away. He was tired of me. He was on a yacht, and there was a great storm. But you must have read in the papers--"
"Never. I never knew till this day."
"It was more than three years ago."
Hugh was very pale. Three years ago--three long years in which he had worked, and tried not to think of her! And if he had known--"You see, I"ve had a queer life, knocking about in strange places," he said, trying to speak calmly. "Often I didn"t see any newspapers for weeks together. I thought of you always as rich and happy, living in England, the wife of Sir Edward Clifford--"
"Rich and happy," she repeated, bitterly. "How little one knows of another"s life. After his death, there was nothing--there had been some wild speculations; and the estates went with the t.i.tle, of course, to his cousin. But, yes,--in a way you were right. I was rich and happy because I had Rosemary."
"And Rosemary had you, Angel," cried the child, who had been listening, puzzled and bewildered, not knowing that they had forgotten her presence until this moment. "Rosemary had you. And now we"ve all got each other--till the fairy father vanishes."
"But I shan"t have to vanish after all," said Hugh.
After that, it seemed they had been together but for a moment, when a wild wail went moaning through the house; the first gong for the _pensionnaires"_ dinner.
So loud it was that it hushed their voices for a long minute. And when cool silence came again, Hugh begged that the two would have their Christmas Eve dinner with him, at his hotel. "There"s so much to plan for to-morrow, and all the days," he pleaded. "And just for once Rosemary shall have a late dinner like the grown-ups. Do say yes."
So Evelyn said yes. And it was not until they were all three seated in the restaurant of the Hotel de Paris, that he remembered he had been engaged to dine at the Beau Soleil with Mademoiselle and the Comtesse, her mother.
But he did not even blush because he had forgotten.