The Duke did not speak for a moment; he was filled with wonder and a growing admiration, admiration which extended even beyond the very real appreciation of her beauty. Her mentality was so far above the average, her directness so interesting. There was not the slightest trace of pose in anything she said--And that last speech--what possibilities it opened up! She knew something of one side of love then, evidently!
"Do you realise what your words imply?"
"Yes."
"That you have loved someone--in that way--once?"
"Yes, I have--It is a way that frightens one, and makes one more than ever sure that there must be something else. Do you know that there is--you who have lived your life?"
Her face was pale and cool as moonbeams. She seemed to be talking in the abstract, for all the personal question. The Duke found himself quite unaccountably moved, and was just about to answer eagerly, when at that moment the host joined them from the other drawing-room; the rubber was over, and he felt he must do his duty and not make too obvious a point of leaving the pair alone.
"Come and see the miniatures, Mordryn," he said. "We must not forget that it was their lure which brought you here to-night."
His tone Katherine well understood, it contained for all its surface graciousness some bitterness underneath.
There was general movement after this, and no more private confidences could be exchanged, so that Miss d"Estaire and Katherine left, with His Grace"s answer to the latter"s question still unspoken.
And Gerard Strobridge, as he pressed Katherine"s hand in good-nights, whispered:
"Have I done well--and are you satisfied?"
The firm clasp of her cool fingers was his answer.
CHAPTER XXV
Lady Garribardine was unable to spare her secretary from the Easter party, so it had been arranged that she was to have a few days holiday from the Sat.u.r.day following the dinner-party, but she must catch the three o"clock train from Paddington on the Thursday before Easter, and return then.
Katherine did not go home to Bindon"s Green. She went off alone to a little place by the sea on the east coast, and there she set herself to review events, and think out her plans while she lay upon the sands unheeding the east wind.
Gerard Strobridge had served her loyally--the interest which she had meant to kindle was kindled. The Duke now had made a mental picture of her, unmarred by possible qualifications which, if he had known she was his friend"s humble secretary and typist, he would have been bound to have made. Not that he was in the least a sn.o.b, but that he would have naturally considered it unbefitting his situation to go about looking for interesting companions among his friend"s dependents. He would simply not have observed her at all when he came to Blissington, any more than she herself had observed either of the footmen at Gerard Strobridge"s dinner. Not that she despised footmen as footmen, or the Duke secretaries as secretaries; they were worthy and necessary servants; but guests did not remark them except in their professional capacities, people who were there to serve at table or write letters and attend to business.
Not the slightest irritation or resentment mingled with these reflections of Katherine"s. She was much too wise and just, and never under the influence of hurt vanity or dramatic instinct, so this point of view, that she knew the Duke would naturally take, seemed to her perfectly right, and instead of resenting it, she had used her brain to nullify it, knowing full well that if she played her part at the dinner effectually, interest would be aroused which no barrier of different statuses could entirely obliterate afterwards. Now on this last afternoon at Bayview, she must think out what she would do next, for the Duke would be arriving at Blissington by a train from the west which got in a few minutes after her own from Paddington. She had known before the dinner-party that he was coming for Easter, and that morning had received a command from her mistress that she was to look out for him, and tell him he was to take the small coupe and not get into the other motor, which would await her and be loaded up with fragile hat-boxes which were coming by Katherine"s train. There would be the luggage car for his servant and his trunks as well. All the rest of the guests were arriving by motors or by the express an hour later.
Thus the plunge from equal to humble secretary would have to be made at once, and she must see to it that it was done with tact and skill, so as not to mar the effect already produced, but rather enhance it. There was only one drop in her cup. She did not feel altogether happy in keeping this secret from her beloved mistress. A secret, too, which concerned her, perhaps, most valued guest. But it was absolutely impossible that she could frankly avow her intentions to Lady Garribardine, as she had done to Gerard; so much she would keep to herself, but she would speak of her enjoyment at meeting the Duke, if Her Ladyship did not herself begin the subject, and she had not reason to believe Mr. Strobridge had told his aunt of the encounter. She had not seen Lady Garribardine since the dinner, having left for her holiday very early on the Sat.u.r.day morning. All the way down in the train to Blissington she was conscious of suppressed excitement. She had been most careful about her appearance, and looked as charming and yet un.o.btrusive as it was possible to look.
She waited, when once arrived, at the entrance where the subway from the departure platform emerged--and she felt a quiver when she saw the top of the Duke"s hat and then his face.
How attractive he looked! And how unlike other people! Among a crowd he was a magnificent personality, one to whom porters and officials and strangers naturally showed deference. Peers could look like very humble and sometimes even vulgar people, she knew, but no man, woman or child could mistake His Grace of Mordryn for anything but a great n.o.ble.
When he caught sight of Katherine standing just at the inside of the stream of pa.s.sengers, his whole stern face changed, and an illuminating smile came over it, while he stretched out his hand cordially.
"Miss Bush! Are we to be fellow guests? You are coming to Blissington?
How delightful!"
Katherine made as though she did not see the hand, and with deference and lowered lids, she said:
"Yes, I am going to Blissington, but Your Grace is under a misapprehension which I must correct. I am Her Ladyship"s typist and secretary, and I am here now to give you a message, that you are to take her Ladyship"s own small coupe and not the motor which is waiting for the bandboxes and me."
But with all her demureness, she could not prevent an irresistible and humorous quiver from dimpling round her lips, and then she raised her steady eyes and looked at him suddenly as she bowed and moved off quickly, leaving him for the first time in his life completely nonplussed! What was the meaning of this comedy? He felt rather angry.
What business had Gerard Strobridge to trick him so? But had he tricked him? He recollected now that Miss Bush had not been mentioned by Gerard at all one way or another. She was simply treated as any other guest, and had come apparently with Gwendoline d"Estaire. That she was a high-bred lady his own senses had told him, whether she were a typist or no!--Highly bred and educated and exceptionally cultivated and refined.
She must certainly be the daughter of some friend of Sarah"s who had met with financial misfortune, poor charming girl! And he hurried after her--but only got outside the station to see her disappear in a motor already piled up inside with milliner"s boxes. So, baffled and still deeply interested, he entered the coupe awaiting him and was whirled off. Seraphim would, of course, tell him all about it, and so he dismissed the matter from his mind; but his first thought when he got into the hall was to wonder if Katherine would be at tea. She was not.
Tea was a _tete-a-tete_ affair in his old friend"s boudoir, where a hundred thousand things of interest had to be discussed between them, and no time or chance was given for reference to obscure secretaries.
After tea on her way down to receive the guests, who would continue to arrive in relays until dressing time, Lady Garribardine went into the schoolroom to see Katherine.
They spoke of business, and Katherine received orders, and took down notes, and then she said:
"Your Ladyship will be amused to hear that I met the Duke at dinner at Mr. Strobridge"s. He did not know my position, and I am afraid at the time I did not undeceive him. It was such a very great pleasure to me to be taken for a lady and a guest just for once. Of course, I told him at the station my real position, and he appeared much surprised."
Lady Garribardine walked to the window and pretended to be looking out at something. She wanted to hide all the expression which might come into her eyes. The simple words, "It was such a very great pleasure to be taken for a lady and a guest just for once," had deeply touched her.
She seemed to realise what such a spirit as Katherine"s must feel, always in a subordinate position of no particular status--And with what dignity she carried it off!
"Child," she answered, without looking round, "no one who knows you would ever take you for anything else--the theory of blood being absolutely necessary for this, you have proved to be nonsense. The Duke is one of my oldest friends and a very fine gentleman. I am glad you had a chance of talking freely to him."
After she had left the room, Katherine folded and unfolded a bit of paper, a very unusual agitation moving her.
"Oh! I wish I could tell her outright, my dear lady!" she cried to herself. "I almost believe she would sympathise with me, but if I see that she would not, and that it would hurt and anger her, I will give up even this, my ambition."
Gerard Strobridge was not of this party; he had been obliged to go to his brother"s, so Katherine would have no collaborator and would be forced to act alone.
She did not dine downstairs, but was required in the drawing-room afterwards, and until ten o"clock she stayed alone in her sitting-room, wondering what the Duke had thought, and if it would have been wiser to have stayed for a minute after firing her bomb.
Had she known it, nothing to chain his interest could have been better than her swift disappearance, for he was now thinking of her, and at the first opportunity between the soup and fish, he said to his hostess:
"Seraphim, I met your secretary, it seems, the other night at Gerard"s--a very intelligent girl. I had no idea at the time that she was in any dependent position--and was greatly surprised when she addressed me at the station to-day as "Your Grace"! She is some misfortunate friend"s daughter, I suppose. Anyone I knew?"
Lady Garribardine"s eyes beamed with a momentary twinkle which she suppressed--She thought of the auctioneer father and the butcher grandfather and then she said casually:
"No--she came from an advertis.e.m.e.nt, but she is a splendid creature, with more sense in her little finger than most of us have in our entire bodies--What do you think of my grey locks, Mordryn?"
The Duke a.s.sured her he found them bewitching; he saw that she did not mean to speak of her secretary.
"They cause you to look ten years younger, dear friend. I could find it in my heart to make love to you once more--and be repulsed with unabated violence, I fear!"
"Love was good when we were young, Mordryn; ten or twelve years do not matter when a man is twenty-five and a woman thirty-five to thirty-eight--that is, if they are not married. The discrepancy in age only becomes grotesque later. We loved and laughed and lived then, and should be grateful--I am--As for you, you will love again--fifty-three for a man is nothing. You are abominably attractive, you know, Mordryn, with your weary, aloof air--and your Dukedom--And now that you are altogether free from anxieties, you should take the cup of joy in both hands and quaff it--Look round the table. Have I not provided some sweet creatures for you?"
"You have indeed--Which one in particular have you destined for the cup-bearer?"
"Any one of the three on that side towards the top. You can"t have brains and beauty. Lily Trevelyan has beauty, and enough tact to hide her absence of brain. Blanche Montague has no beauty but a certain chic--and I am told wonderful variety of talent. She does not satiate her admirers with sameness--While Julia Scarrisbrooke is all pa.s.sion so well a.s.sumed as to be better than the real article, and always handy.
These credentials I have collected from a cohort of past admirers and they can be vouched for. You have only to choose. Any one of them will be enchanted. They are only waiting to spring into your arms!"
"I believe that would bore me. I want someone who is not enchanted--someone who leaves the whole initiative to me."