"My father was a doctor in a little country village," said David, quickly, "yet I hope I don"t look down my nose at people."
"Ah," said Diana, "but then you are a man, and no foolish friends have told you that you look like a d.u.c.h.ess, thus turning your poor head.
Chappie is a kind old thing, at heart, and must have attractive qualities of sorts, seeing she has been married no less than three times. She was my governess, years ago, before her first marriage. And when Uncle Falcon died, I had her back as chaperon; partly because she is very poor, and couples with that poverty an inordinate love of creature comforts, which is quite pathetic; partly because she makes an imposing figure-head, yet I can do with her exactly as I like. How would you define a chaperon, Cousin David?"
"We don"t have them in Central Africa, Miss Rivers."
"Well, a chaperon is a person who should be seen and not heard. And she should be seen by the right people; not by those she is chaperoning, but by the tiresome people who think they ought to be chaperoned. My good Chappie satisfactorily fulfils these conditions. She is, to all intents, chaperoning you and me, this evening; yet, in reality, she is dining with friends of hers in Riversmead; thus sparing us the unnecessary restraint of her presence, and the undesirable infliction of her quite mindless conversation."
David found himself wondering whether he ought not to have allowed Sarah to tell him "one or two things about Miss Diana," before he adventured over to Riverscourt.
At that moment the staid butler opened wide the door, with a murmured sentence about dinner.
Diana rose, with a gentle grace and dignity which reminded David of his Lady of Mystery"s first progress up Brambledene church; and, laying her hand within his arm, guided him to the dining-room.
A small round table stood in the centre of the great oak-panelled room.
It gleamed with gla.s.s and silver, wax candles and snowy linen. The decoration was Parma violets and lilies of the valley.
David sat at Diana"s right hand, and when she leaned toward him and they talked in low voices, the old man at the distant sideboard could not overhear their conversation.
The poodle had followed them to the dining-room, and lay down contentedly in front of the log-fire.
Diana was wearing perfectly plain white satin. A Medici collar, embroidered with pearls, rose at the back of her shapely head. She wore violets at her bosom, and a dainty wreath of violets in her hair. Her gown in front was cut square and low, and embroidered with pearls. On the whiteness of her skin, below the beautiful firm neck, sparkled a brilliant diamond star. David hated to see it there; he could hardly have explained why. It rose and fell lightly, with her breathing. When she laughed, it scintillated in the light of the wax candles. It fascinated David--the sparkling star, on the soft flesh. He looked at it, and looked away; but again it drew his unwilling eyes.
He tried to master his aversion. Why should not Miss Rivers wear a diamond star? Why should he, David, presume to dislike to see a star so worn?
Before they reached the second course, Diana said to the butler: "Send Marie to me."
In a few moments her French maid, in simple black attire, with softly braided hair, stood at her elbow. Diana, still talking gaily to David, lifted both arms, unclasped the thin gold chain from about her neck, and handed the pendant to her maid.
"_Serrez-moi ca_," she said, carelessly.
Then she turned her clear eyes on David. "You prefer it in the sky," she said. "I quite agree with you. A woman"s flesh savours too much of the world and the devil, to be a resting-place for stars. It can have no possible connection with ideals."
She spoke so bitterly, that David"s tender heart rose up in arms.
"True, I prefer it in the sky," he said, "and I prefer it not of diamonds. But I do not like to hear you speak so of--of your body. It seems to me too perfectly beautiful to be thus relegated to a lower sphere; not because it is not flesh; but because, though flesh, it clothes a radiant soul. The mortal body is but the garment of the immortal soul. The soul, in mounting, lifts the body with it."
"I do not agree with you," said Diana. "I loathe bodies; my own, no less than other people"s. And how little we know of our souls. I am afraid I shall shock you, Cousin David, but a favourite theory of mine is: that only a certain number of people have any souls at all. I have always maintained that the heathen have no souls."
David"s deep eyes gleamed.
"The young natives of Uganda," he said, "sooner than give up their new-found faith, sooner than deny the Lord Who had bought them, walked calmly to the stake, and were slowly roasted by fire; their limbs, while they yet lived, being hacked off, one by one, and thrown into the flames. Their holy courage never failed; their last articulate words were utterances of faith and praise. Surely _bodies_ would hardly go through so much, unless _souls_--strong immortal souls--dwelt within them."
"True," said Diana, softly. "Cousin David, I apologise. And I wonder how many of us would stand such a soul-test as slow-fire. I can"t quite imagine Chappie, seated on a gridiron, singing hymns! Can you?"
"We must not judge another," said David, rather stiffly. "Conditions of martyrdom, produced the n.o.ble army of martyrs. Why should not Mrs. Vane, if placed in those conditions, rise to the occasion?"
"I am certain she would," said Diana. "She would rise quite rapidly,--if the occasion were a gridiron."
Much against his will, David burst out laughing.
Diana leaned her chin in her hands; her luminous grey eyes observed him, gravely. Little dimples of enjoyment dented either cheek; but her tone was entirely demure.
"I hope you are not a prig, Cousin David," she said, gravely.
"I have never been considered one," replied David, humbly. "But, if you say so----"
"No, no!" cried Diana. "You are not a prig; and I know I am flippant beyond words. Have you found out that I am flippant, Cousin David?"
"Yes," he said, gently. "But I have found out something besides that."
Her eyes challenged him.
"And that is----?"
"That you take refuge in flippancy, Miss Rivers, when you want to hide a deeper anxiety and earnestness of soul than you can quite understand, or altogether cope with."
"Really? Then you must explain it to me, and cope with it for me. I hope our Christmas dinner has come up to the dinner of Sarah"s intentions.
Have another pear; or some more nuts? I did not order crackers, because we are both grown up, and we should look so foolish in paper caps; and yet, if we had had them, we could not have resisted putting them on.
Don"t you know, at children"s parties, the way in which grown-ups seize upon the most _outre_ of the coloured head-gear, don them, in a moment of gay abandonment, and--forget them! I can remember now, the delight, after one of the Christmas parties in my childhood, of seeing Chappie go gravely in to say good-night to grandpapa, completely unconscious of a Glengarry bonnet, tilted waggishly on one side, or, on another occasion, of a tall peaked fool"s cap, perched on her frizzled "transformation".
Oh, to be a little child again, each Christmas-day! Yet here am I--twenty-eight! How old are you, Cousin David?... Twenty-nine? Well, I am glad you are not _quite_ thirty. Being in another decade would have been like being in a ca.s.sock.... Why a ca.s.sock? How dense you are, my reverend cousin! My mildest jokes require explaining. Why because it would have removed you so far away, and I want you quite near this evening, not perched in a distant pulpit! You cannot really help me, unless you fully sympathise and understand. And I am in such sore straits, Cousin David, that I look upon myself as a drowning man--why do we always say "drowning _man_" as if there never were any drowning women?--about to sink for the third time; and you as the rope, which const.i.tutes my only hope of safety. Let us go to the drawing-room."
CHAPTER VII
THE TOUCH OF POWER
As they pa.s.sed into the drawing-room, David"s eye fell on a grand piano, in black ebony case, to the left of the doorway.
"Oh!" said David, and stopped short.
"Does that tempt you?" asked Diana. "Yes; I might have known you were full of music. Your sufferings, over the performances of the Brambledene choir, were more patent than you realised."
David"s fingers were working eagerly.
"I so rarely get the chance of a piano," he said. "Like chaperons, we don"t have them in Central Africa. I went without all manner of things to be able to afford one in my rooms at college; but, since then--Is it a Bechstein, or what?"
"I really do not know," laughed Diana. "It is an article of furniture I do not use. Once a quarter, it lifts up its voice, poor dear, when a sleek person with a key of his own, arrives unexpectedly, asking for a duster, and announcing that he has come to tune it. He usually turns up when I have a luncheon party. Occasionally when Chappie is feeling low, and dwelling on the departed Marmaduke, she feels moved to play "Home, Sweet Home"; but when Chappie plays "Home, Sweet Home" you instantly discover that "there"s no place like"--being out; and, be it ever so cheerless, you catch up a hat, and flee! You may carry off the piano to Africa, if you will, Cousin David. And, meanwhile, see how you like it now, while I try to collect my ideas, and consider how best to lay my difficulties before you."
She moved across the long room, to the fireplace, drew forward a low chair, turning it so as to face the distant piano.
David, tingling with antic.i.p.ation, opened the instrument with reverent care.