"Oh dear, no," said Horace; "I engaged _her_ at--at Harrod"s--the Entertainment Bureau. They told me there she was rather good--struck out a line of her own, don"t you know. But perfectly correct; she--she only does this to support an invalid aunt."
These statements were, as he felt even in making them, not only gratuitous, but utterly unconvincing, but he had arrived at that condition in which a man discovers with terror the unsuspected amount of mendacity latent in his system.
"I should have thought there were other ways of supporting invalid aunts," remarked Mrs. Futvoye. "What is this young lady"s name?"
"Tinkler," said Horace, on the spur of the moment. "Miss Clementine Tinkler."
"But surely she is a foreigner?"
"Mademoiselle, I ought to have said. And Tinkla--with an "a," you know.
I believe her mother was of Arabian extraction--but I really don"t know," explained Horace, conscious that Sylvia had withdrawn her hand from his, and was regarding him with covert anxiety.
"I really _must_ put a stop to this," he thought.
"You"re getting bored by all this, darling," he said aloud; "so am I.
I"ll tell them to go." And he rose and held out his hand as a sign that the dance should cease.
It ceased at once; but, to his unspeakable horror, the dancer crossed the floor with a swift jingling rush, and sank in a gauzy heap at his feet, seizing his hand in both hers and covering it with kisses, while she murmured speeches in some tongue unknown to him.
"Is this a usual feature in Miss Tinkla"s entertainments, may I ask?"
said Mrs. Futvoye, bristling with not unnatural indignation.
"I really don"t know," said the unhappy Horace; "I can"t make out what she"s saying."
"If I understand her rightly," said the Professor, "she is addressing you as the "light of her eyes and the vital spirit of her heart.""
"Oh!" said Horace, "she"s quite mistaken, you know. It--it"s the emotional artist temperament--they don"t _mean_ anything by it. My--my dear young lady," he added, "you"ve danced most delightfully, and I"m sure we"re all most deeply indebted to you; but we won"t detain you any longer. Professor," he added, as she made no offer to rise, "_will_ you kindly explain to them in Arabic that I should be obliged by their going at once?"
The Professor said a few words, which had the desired effect. The girl gave a little scream and scudded through the archway, and the musicians seized their instruments and scuttled after her.
"I am so sorry," said Horace, whose evening seemed to him to have been chiefly spent in apologies; "it"s not at all the kind of entertainment one would expect from a place like Whiteley"s."
"By no means," agreed the Professor; "but I understood you to say Miss Tinkla was recommended to you by Harrod"s?"
"Very likely, sir," said Horace; "but that doesn"t affect the case. I shouldn"t expect it from _them_."
"Probably they don"t know how shamelessly that young person conducts herself," said Mrs. Futvoye. "And I think it only right that they should be told."
"I shall complain, of course," said Horace. "I shall put it very strongly."
"A protest would have more weight coming from a woman," said Mrs.
Futvoye; "and, as a shareholder in the company, I shall feel bound----"
"No, I wouldn"t," said Horace; "in fact, you mustn"t. For, now I come to think of it, she didn"t come from Harrod"s, after all, or Whiteley"s either."
"Then perhaps you will be good enough to inform us where she _did_ come from?"
"I would if I knew," said Horace; "but I don"t."
"What!" cried the Professor, sharply, "do you mean to say you can"t account for the existence of a dancing-girl who--in my daughter"s presence--kisses your hand and addresses you by endearing epithets?"
"Oriental metaphor!" said Horace. "She was a little overstrung. Of course, if I had had any idea she would make such a scene as that---- Sylvia," he broke off, "_you_ don"t doubt me?"
"No, Horace," said Sylvia, simply, "I"m sure you must have _some_ explanation--only I do think it would be better if you gave it."
"If I _told_ you the truth," said Horace, slowly, "you would none of you believe me!"
"Then you admit," put in the Professor, "that hitherto you have _not_ been telling the truth?"
"Not as invariably as I could have wished," Horace confessed.
"So I suspected. Then, unless you can bring yourself to be perfectly candid, you can hardly wonder at our asking you to consider your engagement as broken off?"
"Broken off!" echoed Horace. "Sylvia, you won"t give me up! You _know_ I wouldn"t do anything unworthy of you!"
"I"m certain that you can"t have done anything which would make me love you one bit the less if I knew it. So why not be quite open with us?"
"Because, darling," said Horace, "I"m in such a fix that it would only make matters worse."
"In that case," said the Professor, "and as it is already rather late, perhaps you will allow one of your numerous retinue to call a four-wheeler?"
Horace clapped his hands, but no one answered the summons, and he could not find any of the slaves in the antechamber.
"I"m afraid all the servants have left," he explained; and it is to be feared he would have added that they were all obliged to return to the contractor by eleven, only he caught the Professor"s eye and decided that he had better refrain. "If you will wait here, I"ll go out and fetch a cab," he added.
"There is no occasion to trouble you," said the Professor; "my wife and daughter have already got their things on, and we will walk until we find a cab. Now, Mr. Ventimore, we will bid you good-night and good-bye.
For, after what has happened, you will, I trust, have the good taste to discontinue your visits and make no attempt to see Sylvia again."
"Upon my honour," protested Horace, "I have done nothing to warrant you in shutting your doors against me."
"I am unable to agree with you. I have never thoroughly approved of your engagement, because, as I told you at the time, I suspected you of recklessness in money matters. Even in accepting your invitation to-night I warned you, as you may remember, not to make the occasion an excuse for foolish extravagance. I come here, and find you in apartments furnished and decorated (as you informed us) by yourself, and on a scale which would be prodigal in a millionaire. You have a suite of retainers which (except for their nationality and imperfect discipline) a prince might envy. You provide a banquet of--hem!--delicacies which must have cost you infinite trouble and unlimited expense--this, after I had expressly stipulated for a quiet family dinner! Not content with that, you procure for our diversion Arab music and dancing of a--of a highly recondite character. I should be unworthy of the name of father, sir, if I were to entrust my only daughter"s happiness to a young man with so little common sense, so little self-restraint. And she will understand my motives and obey my wishes."
"You"re right, Professor, according to your lights," admitted Horace.
"And yet--confound it all!--you"re utterly wrong, too!"
"Oh, Horace," cried Sylvia; "if you had only listened to dad, and not gone to all this foolish, foolish expense, we might have been so happy!"
"But I have gone to no expense. All this hasn"t cost me a penny!"
"Ah, there _is_ some mystery! Horace, if you love me, you will explain--here, now, before it"s too late!"
"My darling," groaned Horace, "I would, like a shot, if I thought it would be of the least use!"
"Hitherto," said the Professor, "you cannot be said to have been happy in your explanations--and I should advise you not to venture on any more. Good-night, once more. I only wish it were possible, without needless irony, to make the customary acknowledgments for a pleasant evening."
Mrs. Futvoye had already hurried her daughter away, and, though she had left her husband to express his sentiments unaided, she made it sufficiently clear that she entirely agreed with them.
Horace stood in the outer hall by the fountain, in which his drowned chrysanthemums were still floating, and gazed in stupefied despair after his guests as they went down the path to the gate. He knew only too well that they would never cross his threshold, nor he theirs, again.