_Ashley_: "My shameless perf-- I don"t understand! I came here to tell you that I love you--"
_Miss Ramsey_: "How dare you! To speak to me of that, when-- Or perhaps you _have_ broken with her, and think you are free to hoodwink some other poor creature. But you will find that you have chosen the wrong person. And it"s no excuse for you her being a little--a little--not so bright as some girls, and not so good-looking. Oh, it"s enough to make any girl loathe her own looks! You mustn"t suppose you can come here red-handed--yes, it"s the same as a murder, and any true girl would say so--and tell me you care for me. No, Walter Ashley, I haven"t fallen so low as that, though I _have_ the disgrace of your acquaintance. And I hope--I hope--if you don"t like my smoking, and offering you c.o.c.ktails, and talking the way I have, it will be a lesson to you. And yes!--I _will_ say it! If it will add to your misery to know that I did respect you very much, and thought everything--very highly--of you, and might have answered you very differently before, when you were free to tell me _that_--now I have nothing but the utmost abhorrence--and--disapproval of you.
And--and-- Oh, I don"t see how you can be so hateful!" She hides her face in her hands and rushes from the room, overturning several chairs in her course toward the door. Ashley remains staring after her, while a succession of impetuous rings make themselves heard from the street door. There is a sound of opening it, and then a flutter of skirts and anxieties, and Miss Garnett comes running into the room.
VI
MISS GARNETT, MR. ASHLEY
_Miss Garnett_, to the maid hovering in the doorway: "Yes, I must have left it here, for I never missed it till I went to pay my fare in the motor-bus, and tried to think whether I had the exact dime, and if I hadn"t whether the conductor would change a five-dollar bill or not, and then it rushed into my mind that I had left my purse somewhere, and I knew I hadn"t been anywhere else." She runs from the mantel to the writing-desk in the corner, and then to the sofa, where, peering under the tea-table, she finds her purse on the shelf. "Oh, here it is, Nora, just where I put it when we began to talk, and I must have gone out and left it. I--" She starts with a little shriek, in encountering Ashley. "Oh, Mr. Ashley! What a fright you gave me! I was just looking for my purse that I missed when I went to pay my fare in the motor-bus, and was wondering whether I had the exact dime, or the conductor could change a five-dollar bill, and--" She discovers, or affects to discover, something strange in his manner. "What--what is the matter, Mr. Ashley?"
_Ashley_: "I shall be glad to have you tell me--or any one."
_Miss Garnett_: "I don"t understand. Has Isobel--"
_Ashley_: "Miss Garnett, did you know I was engaged?"
_Miss Garnett_: "Why, yes; I was just going to congrat--"
_Ashley_: "Well, don"t, unless you can tell me whom I am engaged to."
_Miss Garnett_: "Why, aren"t you engaged to Emily Fray?"
_Ashley_: "Not the least in the world."
_Miss Garnett_, in despair: "Then _what_ have I done? Oh, what a fatal, fatal sc.r.a.pe!" With a ray of returning hope: "But she told me _herself_ that she was engaged! And you were together so much, last summer!" Desperately: "Then if she isn"t engaged to you, whom is she engaged to?"
_Ashley_: "On general principles, I shouldn"t know, but in this particular instance I happen to know that she is engaged to Owen Brooks. They were a great deal more together last summer."
_Miss Garnett_, with conviction: "So they were!" With returning doubt: "But why didn"t she say so?"
_Ashley_: "I can"t tell you; she may have had her reasons, or she may not. Can you possibly tell me, in return for my ignorance, why the fact of her engagement should involve me in the strange way it seems to have done with Miss Ramsey?"
_Miss Garnett_, with a burst of involuntary candor: "Why, _I_ did that. Or, no! What"s she been doing?"
_Ashley_: "Really, Miss Garnett--"
_Miss Garnett_: "How can I tell you anything, if you don"t tell me everything? You wouldn"t wish me to betray confidence?"
_Ashley_: "No, certainly not. What was the confidence?"
_Miss Garnett_: "Well-- But I shall have to know first what she"s been doing. You must see that yourself, Mr. Ashley." He is silent. "Has she--has Isobel--been behaving--well, out of character?"
_Ashley_: "Very much indeed."
_Miss Garnett_: "I expected she would." She fetches a thoughtful sigh, and for her greater emotional convenience she sinks into an easy-chair and leans forward. "Oh dear! It is a sc.r.a.pe." Suddenly and imperatively: "Tell me exactly what she did, if you hope for any help whatever."
_Ashley_: "Why, she offered me a c.o.c.ktail--"
_Miss Garnett_: "Oh, how good! I didn"t suppose she would dare! Well?"
_Ashley_: "And she smoked cigarettes--"
_Miss Garnett_: "How perfectly divine! And what else?"
_Ashley_, coldly: "May I ask why you admire Miss Ramsey"s behaving out of character so much? I think the smoking made her rather faint, and--"
_Miss Garnett_: "She would have let it _kill_ her! Never tell me that girls have no moral courage!"
_Ashley_: "But what--what was the meaning of it all?"
_Miss Garnett_, thoughtfully: "I suppose if I got her in for it, I ought to get her out, even if I betray confidence."
_Ashley_: "It depends upon the confidence. What is it?"
_Miss Garnett_: "Why-- But you"re sure it"s my duty?"
_Ashley_: "If you care what I think of her--"
_Miss Garnett_: "Oh, Mr. Ashley, you mustn"t think it strange of Isobel, on my bended knees you mustn"t! Why, don"t you see? She was just doing it to disgust you!"
_Ashley_: "Disgust me?"
_Miss Garnett_: "Yes, and drive you back to Emily Fray."
_Ashley_: "Drive me ba--"
_Miss Garnett_: "If she thought you were engaged to Emily, when you were coming here all the time, and she wasn"t quite sure that she hated to have you, don"t you see it would be her duty to sacrifice herself, and-- Oh, I suppose she"s heard everything up there, and--"
She catches herself up and runs out of the room, leaving Ashley to await the r.e.t.a.r.ded descent of skirts which he hears on the stairs after the crash of the street door has announced Miss Garnett"s escape. He stands with his back to the mantel, and faces Miss Ramsey as she enters the room.
VII
MISS RAMSEY, ASHLEY
_Miss Ramsey_, with the effect of cold surprise: "Mr. Ashley? I thought I heard-- Wasn"t Miss Garnett--"
_Ashley_: "She was. Did you think it was the street door closing on _me_?"
_Miss Ramsey_: "How should I know?" Then, courageously: "No, I didn"t think it was. Why do you ask?" She moves uneasily about the room, with an air of studied inattention.
_Ashley_: "Because if you did, I can put you in the right, though I can"t restore Miss Garnett"s presence by my absence."
_Miss Ramsey_: "You"re rather--enigmatical." A ring is heard; the maid pauses at the doorway. "I"m not at home, Nora." To Mr. Ashley: "It seems to be very close--"
_Ashley_: "It"s my having been smoking."
_Miss Ramsey_: "_Your_ having?" She goes to the window and tries to lift it.