She was on her knees by Vida"s chair. The fixed abstraction went out of the older face, but it was very cold as she began--
"You would be impertinent--if--you weren"t a romantic child. You can"t bring him back."
"Yes, yes, he----"
"No. But"--Vida looked deep into the candid eyes--"there is something you _can_ do----"
"What?"
"Bring him to a point where he recognizes that he is in our debt."
"In _our_ debt?"
Vida nodded. "In debt to Women. He can"t repay the one he robbed."
Jean winced at that. The young do not know that nothing but money can ever be paid back.
"Yes," she insisted, out of the faith she still had in him, ready to be his surety. "Yes, he can. He will."
The other shook her head. "No, he can"t repay the dead. But there are the living. There are the thousands with hope still in their hearts and youth in their blood. Let him help _them_. Let him be a Friend to Women."
"I understand!" Jean rose up, wide-eyed. "Yes, _that_ too."
The door had opened, and Lady John was coming in with Stonor towering beside her. When he saw the girl rising from her knees, he turned to Lady John with a little gesture of, "What did I tell you?"
The moment Jean caught sight of him, "Thank you!" she said, while her aunt was briskly advancing, filling all the room with a pleasant silken rustling, and a something nameless, that was like clear noonday after storm-cloud or haunted twilight.
"Well," she said in a cheerful commonplace tone to Jean; "you rather gave us the slip! Vida, I believe Mr. Stonor wants to see you for a few minutes, but"--she glanced at her watch--"I"d like a word with you first, as I must get back. Do you think the car"--she turned to Stonor--"your man said something about recharging----"
"Oh, did he? I"ll see about it." As he went out he brushed past the butler.
"Mr. Trent has called, miss, to take the lady to the meeting," said that functionary.
"Bring Mr. Trent into my sitting-room," said Jean hastily, and then to Miss Levering, "I"ll tell him you can"t go to-night."
Lady John stood watching the girl with critical eyes till she had disappeared into the adjoining room and shut the door behind her. Then--
"I know, my dear"--she spoke almost apologetically--"you"re not aware of what that impulsive child wants to insist on. I feel it an embarra.s.sment even to tell you."
"I know."
"You know?" Lady John waited for condemnation of Jean"s idea. She waited in vain. "It isn"t with your sanction, surely, that she makes this extraordinary demand?"
"I didn"t sanction it at first," said the other slowly; "but I"ve been thinking it over."
Lady John"s suavity stiffened perceptibly. "Then all I can say is, I am greatly disappointed in you. You threw this man over years ago, for reasons, whatever they were, that seemed to you good and sufficient. And now you come in between him and a younger woman, just to play Nemesis, so far as I can make out."
"Is that what he says?"
"He says nothing that isn"t fair and considerate."
"I can see he"s changed."
"And you"re unchanged--is that it?"
"I"m changed even more than he."
Lady John sat down, with pity and annoyance struggling for the mastery.
"You care about him still?"
"No."
"No? And yet you--I see! There are obviously certain things he can give his wife, and you naturally want to marry somebody."
"Oh, Lady John," said Vida, wearily, "there are no men listening."
"No"--she looked round surprised--"I didn"t suppose there were."
"Then why keep up that old pretence?"
"What pret----"
"That to marry _at all costs_ is every woman"s dearest ambition till the grave closes over her. You and I _know_ it isn"t true."
"Well, but----" Her ladyship blinked, suddenly seeing daylight. "Oh! It was just the unexpected sight of him bringing it all back! _That_ was what fired you this afternoon. Of course"--she made an honest attempt at sympathetic understanding--"the memory of a thing like that can never die--can never even be dimmed for the woman."
"I mean her to think so."
"Jean?"
Vida nodded.
"But it isn"t so?"
Lady John was a little bewildered.
"You don"t seriously believe," said Vida, "that a woman, with anything else to think about, comes to the end of ten years still absorbed in a memory of that sort?"
Lady John stared speechless a moment. "You"ve got over it, then?"
"If it weren"t for the papers, I shouldn"t remember twice a year there was ever such a person as Geoffrey Stonor in the world."
"Oh, I"m _so_ glad!" said Lady John, with unconscious rapture.
Vida smiled grimly. "Yes, I"m glad, too."
"And if Geoffrey Stonor offered you--er--"reparation," you"d refuse it?"