She waved him back. "No!" she said. "You do not understand me."
"Understand?" he cried effusively. "I understand enough to--but why, my Chloe, these alarms, this bashfulness? Sure," he spouted,
"How can I see you, and not love, While you as Opening East are fair?
While cold as Northern Blasts you prove, How can I love and not despair?"
And then, in wonder at his own readiness, "S"help me! that"s uncommon clever of me," he said. "But when a man is in love with the most beautiful of her s.e.x--"
"My lord!" she cried, stamping the floor in her impatience. "I have something serious to say to you. Must I ask you to return to me at another time? Or will you be good enough to listen to me now?"
"Sho, if you wish it, child," he said lightly, taking out his snuff-box.
"And to be sure there is time enough. But between us two, sweet--"
"There is nothing between us!" she cried, impetuously s.n.a.t.c.hing at the word. "That is what I wanted to tell you. I made a mistake when I said that there should be. I was mad; I was wicked, if you like. Do you hear me, my lord?" she continued pa.s.sionately. "It was a mistake. I did not know what I was doing. And, now I do understand, I take it back."
Lord Almeric gasped. He heard the words, but the meaning seemed incredible, inconceivable; the misfortune, if he heard aright, was too terrible; the humiliation too overwhelming! He had brought listeners--and for this! "Understand?" he cried, looking at her in a confused, chap-fallen way. "Hang me if I do understand! You don"t mean to say--Oh, it is impossible, stuff me! it is. You don"t mean that--that you"ll not have me? After all that has come and gone, ma"am?"
She shook her head; pitying him, blaming herself, for the plight in which she had placed him. "I sent for you, my lord," she said humbly, "that I might tell you at once. I could not rest until I had told you. I did what I could. And, believe me, I am very, very sorry."
"But do you mean--that you--you jilt me?" he cried, still fighting off the dreadful truth.
"Not jilt!" she said, shivering.
"That you won"t have me?"
She nodded.
"After--after saying you would?" he wailed.
"I cannot," she answered. Then, "Cannot you understand?" she cried, her face scarlet. "I did not know until--until you went to kiss me."
"But--oh, I say--but you love me?" he protested.
"No, my lord," she said firmly. "No. And there, you must do me the justice to acknowledge that I never said I did."
He dashed his hat on the floor: he was almost weeping. "Oh, damme!" he cried, "a woman should not--should not treat a man like this. It"s low.
It"s cruel! It"s--"
A knock on the door stopped him. Recollection of the listeners, whom he had momentarily forgotten, revived, and overwhelmed him. With an oath he sprang to shut the door, but before he could intervene Mr. Pomeroy appeared smiling on the threshold; and behind him the reluctant tutor.
Lord Almeric swore, and Julia, affronted by the presence of strangers at such a time, drew back, frowning. But Bully Pomeroy would see nothing.
"A thousand pardons if I intrude," he said, bowing this way and that, that he might hide a lurking grin. "But his lordship was good enough to say a while ago, that he would present us to the lady who had consented to make him happy. We little thought last night, ma"am, that so much beauty and so much goodness were reserved for one of us."
Lord Almeric looked ready to cry. Julia, darkly red, was certain that they had overheard; she stood glaring at the intruders, her foot tapping the floor. No one answered, and Mr. Pomeroy, after looking from one to the other in a.s.sumed surprise, pretended to hit on the reason. "Oh, I see; I spoil sport!" he cried with coa.r.s.e joviality. "Curse me if I meant to! I fear we have come _mal a propos,_ my lord, and the sooner we are gone the better.
"And though she found his usage rough, Yet in a man "twas well enough!"
he hummed, with his head on one side and an impudent leer. "We are interrupting the turtledoves, Mr. Thoma.s.son, and had better be gone."
"Curse you! Why did you ever come?" my lord cried furiously. "But she won"t have me. So there! Now you know."
Mr. Pomeroy struck an att.i.tude of astonishment.
"Won"t have you?" he cried, "Oh, stap me! you are biting us."
"I"m not! And you know it!" the poor little blood answered, tears of vexation in his eyes. "You know it, and you are roasting me!"
"Know it?" Mr. Pomeroy answered in tones of righteous indignation. "I know it? So far from knowing it, my dear lord, I cannot believe it! I understood that the lady had given you her word."
"So she did."
"Then I cannot believe that a lady would anywhere, much less under my roof, take it back. Madam, there must be some mistake here," Mr. Pomeroy continued warmly. "It is intolerable that a man of his lordship"s rank should be so treated. I"m forsworn if he has not mistaken you."
"He does not mistake me now," she answered, trembling and blushing painfully. "What error there was I have explained to him."
"But, damme--"
"Sir!" she said with awakening spirit, her eyes sparkling. "What has happened is between his lordship and myself. Interference on the part of any one else is an intrusion, and I shall treat it as such. His lordship understood--"
"Curse me! He does not look as if he understood," Mr. Pomeroy cried, allowing his native coa.r.s.eness to peep through. "Sink me, ma"am, there is a limit to prudishness. Fine words b.u.t.ter no parsnips. You plighted your troth to my guest, and I"ll not see him thrown over i" this fashion. These airs and graces are out of place. I suppose a man has some rights under his own roof, and when his guest is jilted before his eyes"--here Mr. Pomeroy frowned like Jove--"it is well you should know, ma"am, that a woman no more than a man can play fast and loose at pleasure."
She looked at him with disdain. "Then the sooner I leave your roof the better, sir," she said.
"Not so fast there, either," he answered with an unpleasant smile. "You came to it when you chose, and you will leave it when we choose; and that is flat, my girl. This morning, when my lord did you the honour to ask you, you gave him your word. Perhaps to-morrow morning you"ll be of the same mind again. Any way, you will wait until to-morrow and see."
"I shall not wait on your pleasure," she cried, stung to rage.
"You will wait on it, ma"am! Or "twill be the worse for you."
Burning with indignation she turned to the other two, her breath coming quick. But Mr. Thoma.s.son gazed gloomily at the floor, and would not meet her eyes; and Lord Almeric, who had thrown himself into a chair, was glowering sulkily at his shoes. "Do you mean," she cried, "that you will dare to detain me, sir?"
"If you put it so," Pomeroy answered, grinning, "I think I dare take it on myself."
His voice full of mockery, his insolent eyes, stung her to the quick. "I will see if that be so," she cried, fearlessly advancing on him. "Lay a finger on me if you dare! I am going out. Make way, sir."
"You are not going out!" he cried between his teeth. And held his ground in front of her.
She advanced until she was within touch of him, then her courage failed her; they stood a second or two gazing at one another, the girl with heaving breast and cheeks burning with indignation, the man with cynical watchfulness. Suddenly, shrinking from actual contact with him, she sprang aside, and was at the door before he could intercept her. But with a rapid movement he turned on his heel, seized her round the waist before she could open the door, dragged her shrieking from it, and with an oath--and not without an effort--flung her panting and breathless into the window-seat. "There!" he cried ferociously, his blood fired by the struggle; "lie there! And behave yourself, my lady, or I"ll find means to quiet you. For you," he continued, turning fiercely on the tutor, whose face the sudden scuffle and the girl"s screams had blanched to the hue of paper, "did you never hear a woman squeak before? And you, my lord? Are you so dainty? But, to be sure, "tis your lordship"s mistress," he continued ironically. "Your pardon. I forgot that. I should not have handled her so roughly. However, she is none the worse, and "twill bring her to reason."
But the struggle and the girl"s cries had shaken my lord"s nerves. "D--n you!" he cried hysterically, and with a stamp of the foot, "you should not have done that."
"Pooh, pooh," Mr. Pomeroy answered lightly. "Do you leave it to me, my lord. She does not know her own mind. "Twill help her to find it. And now, if you"ll take my advice, you"ll leave her to a night"s reflection."
But Lord Almeric only repeated, "You should not have done that."
Mr. Pomeroy"s face showed his scorn for the man whom a cry or two and a struggling woman had frightened. Yet he affected to see art in it. "I understand. And it is the right line to take," he said; and he laughed unpleasantly. "No doubt it will be put to your lordship"s credit. But now, my lord," he continued, "let us go. You will see she will have come to her senses by to-morrow."
The girl had remained pa.s.sive since her defeat. But at this she rose from the window-seat where she had crouched, slaying them with furious glances. "My lord," she cried pa.s.sionately, "if you are a man, if you are a gentleman--you"ll not suffer this."