He gave a little groan and covered his face with his hands.
"I forged all the barriers to joy by weakness long ago, Katherine. I drifted idly down life"s stream, and now am caught in the rushes and cannot get free. The thought is bitter sweet, dear love--this picture of what might have been. And I would have taught you to love me at last.
Ah! G.o.d! the pain! But now I do not want to finish this day with sorrowful repinings. I will keep this memory of your words and go my way, and when you come into your kingdom remember me, and let us renew our friendship on calmer sh.o.r.es."
He took her hand, and pulling her glove off backwards kissed each white finger, and then his eyes grew misty and he said farewell. And in Katherine"s heart there was a strange sadness, and they hardly spoke at all as they sped homewards.
CHAPTER XXIV
When Friday night came and Katherine was ready to get into the taxi with Miss Gwendoline d"Estaire, she felt exalted as she had never done in her life.
This evening would be the test of her powers--If she failed, then she would know that such high goals were not for her, and so she must curtail her aspirations. _But she would not fail._ It might be that the Duke would not be drawn to her--it was impossible to tell from that one afternoon what his temperament could be--but at all costs she must not fail in being a cultivated lady, a guest among equals, and so to take at least that place in his regard.
There was something almost diabolically whimsical in the fact that one pa.s.sionate would-be lover was deliberately arranging that his lady should meet a possible rival! Gerard Strobridge appreciated this point as he stood before the cheerful wood fire in the morning-room in Brook Street, awaiting his guests.
The bores, of course, came first, and then Katherine and old Miss Gwendoline d"Estaire, and last of all, not more than five minutes late--His Grace.
He was quite abnormally distinguished looking in evening dress, which when dissected did not prove to be remarkably different from that of the others, but which yet possessed some subtle quality entirely apart from theirs, in its bygone suggestion. His manners were most courtly; he recognised Katherine at once and shook hands with her. And then dinner was announced.
Gerard sent the lady bore in with the Duke--himself taking old Gwendoline, and leaving Katherine to the husband, so that Katherine sat next His Grace at a little round table.
She was looking quite beautiful in a new black frock, as simple as the old one, and with some of her favourite lilies of the valley tucked into the belt. Mordryn felt constrained to talk to his partner until after the fish--the host, by a tactful interruption, drew away her attention and left him free, and then without hesitation he turned to Katherine.
Her heart was beating fast, and the excitement made her eyes dark and her cheeks pale, but she did not lose her head, and indeed felt an extra stimulant to her brain power.
He began about the debate on Wednesday. The whole thing was rather a mockery since they were robbed of all power now in the House of Lords, and could only make mild protests, but not enforce their opinions. Was Miss Bush interested in politics?
Katherine said that she was, but thought it rather a degrading profession now, with paid members making their living out of their seats. And so they spoke for a little upon this theme, and the Duke found himself agreeably entertained. He liked her deep voice, and above all her extraordinarily good hands.
"Bush?" he said to himself. "I do not remember to have heard the name before--the mother perhaps had the breeding. Those hands do not come from the shrubbery or the common!"
Now Katherine began to talk of travels. She knew that all people enjoyed discussing theirs on their return.
She would much like to visit the East. She had always been thrilled with Kinglake"s description of Damascus in "Eothen." Was it really a city "of hidden palaces, of copses and gardens, and fountains and bubbling streams"? His Grace"s eyes expressed real interest now, not so much that they should discuss Damascus, but that a modern girl should have read Kinglake and deeply enough to quote him correctly! He also knew his Kinglake, and had that potent gift of memory which never stumbles in its manifestations.
He continued the subject with enthusiasm and found that this charming young woman was familiar with all the subtlest shades. They had touched upon pa.s.sages of peculiar beauty concerning the Dead Sea, and the girls of Bethlehem and the wonderful desert sun, and were in the middle of those dedicated to the Sphinx, when the Duke became aware that a sweet was being handed and that dinner was more than half over! With infinite discretion the host had never allowed the flow of conversation to flag, so that no pause among so small a company should bring this promising _tete-a-tete_ to a close. Katherine should have a fair field if he could procure it for her.
But His Grace"s good manners reproached him for his negligence to the lady he had taken in, and he turned from the contemplation of Katherine"s regular profile with reluctant dutifulness, inwardly determining to continue Kinglake and other things when they should all be safely in the drawing-room. These people would surely play bridge.
What a capital thing cards were if one had strength of mind enough to enforce one"s own selfishness in not playing them!
Katherine now used her best endeavours to be agreeable to the bore husband, and spoke of subjects which were in his ken. And Gerard, watching her, admired the progress of his pupil. No one of his world, or any world, could have been a more polished or enchanting guest. And his pride in her numbed the pain he had felt all the day.
Then the conversation became general, and gave fresh opportunity for Katherine to show her powers of repartee.
Yes, the quartette played bridge, and began it almost immediately the men joined the ladies upstairs. Mr. Strobridge had carefully not allowed the talk to stray to any personal subject while they were alone in the dining-room, in case the Duke should question him about Katherine. If so, he would have been forced to say who she was, and that would spoil her plans perhaps. How she meant to get out of the dilemma afterwards he did not speculate. All pretence was so foreign to her nature. But that was her affair; his only concern was that this evening should be without flaw.
The Duke found a place on the sofa beside Katherine as soon as the rest began their rubber, and here he could look at her undisturbed and without craning his neck.
He admired her extremely. She was the exact type which pleased him, distinguished and well-bred looking. He liked the way she spoke, with no distressingly modern slang in her phrases. She must evidently have been most carefully brought up in a really refined home! Could she be a relation of the d"Estaires? But to ask questions of this sort was not his method, and he turned the conversation back to "Eothen" again and kindred things.
Katherine was in the seventh heaven; she was blooming like a glowing hot-house plant and seemed to radiate sweetness and serenity. Every now and then she let her eyes meet his dark-blue ones, with that strange magnetic look in hers which she knew would compel his interest.
They spoke of music and poetry, and then of pictures--pictures in general--and lastly those of Blissington.
"Did she know Blissington well?"
Yes, she knew it very well, and that enigmatic smile hovered for a moment round her lips. Mordryn was surprised at it.
"It contains some recollections for you which are humorous, then?"
"Yes--very humorous."
"Won"t you tell me what they are?" His most attractive clear-cut face came a little nearer to her in his interest.
"Some day you will know."
"How fraught with meaning! "Some day I shall know!" Not to-night, then?"
"No, for to-night we are guests at a dinner-party and are talking about literature and music and art."
"But I want to talk about you--May I not?"
"I do not see why you should. I am just a person whom you will never really see again--I mean, never really talk to again--so why waste time in unprofitable investigations?"
"How do you know that they would be unprofitable?"
Katherine looked down at her own white hands folded quietly in her lap, then up again and straight into his eyes.
"This night week if you chance to think of this evening, you will realise how right I am as to their complete unprofitableness!"
[Ill.u.s.tration: ""You are ready for the great adventure?""]
"You speak in riddles."
She shrugged her shoulders slightly and smiled.
His Grace found himself distinctly curious.
"Why should you be so sure that I shall never really see--or was it speak to--you again? Do you then live on some desert island off the north of Scotland, by chance?"
"In a much more inaccessible place than that." Her eyes sparkled with some unfathomable expression.
"Iceland?"
"There is an ice barrier surrounding it."