Mr. Townsend laughed--then checked himself. He struck the ferrule of his stick against the pavement.
"Now, what am I to say to Dora? Its awkward--very!"
It was awkward. Especially as he had not made up his mind what to say to Dora, even when he found himself at Sir Haselton Jardine"s.
He was shown at once into Miss Jardine"s own sitting-room, and there he found the lady.
Miss Jardine was short and slight. Although she was not handsome, she certainly was not bad-looking. Her appearance, her bearing, her movements suggested buoyancy, activity, health. Her eyes were her most characteristic possession. They affected different people in different ways. They were blue eyes. Their chief peculiarity was that they were light--some people said unnaturally light. But, as also they were beautiful eyes, that saying may be set down to malice. Somehow one felt as one looked at Miss Jardine that she would never cry.
She held out her hand to Mr. Townsend.
"Reggie!"
Mr. Townsend made no attempt to touch the outstretched hand. He merely bowed.
"Miss Jardine!"
Miss Jardine was not at all disconcerted. She laughed.
"So it"s that way!" She a.s.sumed an air of mock dignity, which became her very well. "Mr. Townsend, may I offer you a chair?"
"With your permission I will stand."
Mr. Townsend spoke with an air of decorous propriety which approached the severe. The lady did not fall into his mood at all. She looked up at him with her sunny eyes.
"Stand! Why stand?"
Mr. Townsend returned the young lady"s smiling glance, without evincing any inclination to smile in return.
"You have sent for me. I have come."
Going to the fireplace, Miss Jardine stood with one foot upon the kerb.
Her hands were behind her back. Her face was inclined a little upwards.
She reminded one somehow of a bird--a resemblance which owed something, perhaps, to the brightness of her eyes.
"I have one or two questions which I wish to ask you. You must answer them. First, Do you love me?"
"You must forgive my suggesting that that is scarcely the first question which you should ask me. The man in the street may love you.
It does not follow that he is worthy."
"But if I love him?"
Mr. Townsend made a slight movement with his hands. He was standing in what, to the average Englishman, is a rather trying position--in the centre of the room, away from any article of furniture, with his arms hanging loosely at his sides; and yet he looked well.
"He may love you. You may love him. And yet any connection with him may bring you, at the best, unhappiness."
"You have not answered my question. Do you love me?"
"You know that I do."
"As you say, I know that you do. You know also that I love you. My second question, Are you married?"
"I am not."
"Then why should you not marry me? Stay! Let me explain my position."
His eyes became, if anything, brighter. Something came over her which made one forget how physically small she was. One realised that the girl, like the man she was addressing, had a magnetic personality of her own.
"I am, in a measure, Reggie--I am going to call you Reggie--what it is the fashion to call a pessimist. It is my father"s dower. I am afraid that, in a sense, from the men of my acquaintance, I always expect the worst. I believe most of them do, in their youth, many things which they ought not to do--and for which, in their age, they are sorry. I take this for granted. And I believe that, in spite of this being so, some of them make good husbands and good fathers. I think it possible that your temptations have been greater than is the case with the average man, and that, therefore, your misdoings have been more. But I am convinced that, as regards real strength, you are stronger than the average man, and that you can, if you like, put these things behind you for ever--and, on the stepping-stones of your dead self, rise to higher things. And I believe that you will like, because you love me--and because, also, I love you."
"Unfortunately, Miss Jardine----"
She made an imperious gesture with her hand.
"Call me Dora. With you, now, it shall not be Miss Jardine."
"Unfortunately"--there was an almost imperceptible pause, and then there came very softly the Christian name--"Dora, there are things which, when they are once done, we cannot put away. They meet us at Philippi."
"If in your life there are such ghosts, why did you ask me to marry you?"
"I ought not to have done. When I did I hoped that I should be able to lay the ghosts, and that for me there would be no Philippi."
"But is there no hope now?" He seemed to hesitate. She went on with, in her voice, a sudden tremor. "Consider! Think well before you speak!
Reggie, I wonder if you know how much the spoiling of your life will mean the spoiling of mine?"
Her voice, or her manner, or her words--or all three combined--affected Mr. Townsend strangely. There seemed to be something in her glance which he found himself unable to encounter. He turned away. Going to him, she touched him softly on the arm. A shudder went all over him.
The muscles of his face seemed to stiffen; his expression became a little set. His voice also became, as it were, a little rigid.
"There may be hope."
"There may be? Reggie!" She paused--as if breathless. "Of laying the ghosts--for ever?"
"For ever."
She was still again. Her articulation seemed to be actually impeded.
"When will you know--for sure?"
"This afternoon, at five."
"Reggie!" His words appeared to take her by surprise. "Do you mean it--really?"
"I do."
He turned and looked at her. Their glances met. She shrank away from him. The hot blood flowed into her cheeks. Her emotion was so great, it made her beautiful. His name came from her lips, with a catching of her breath, and in a whisper. She was visibly trembling.
"Reggie!"