He had met an old acquaintance of his, a certain young Herbert Featherstone, who had on any previous chance encounter seemed affected by a kind of trance, during which his eyes lost all power of vision, but was now completely recovered, so much so indeed as to greet Mark with a quite unexpected warmth.
Was it true that he had written this new book? What was its name--"Delusion" or something? Fellows were saying he had; hadn"t read it himself; his mother and sister had; said it was a devilish good book, too. Where was he hanging out now, and what was he doing on the 10th? Could he come to a little dance his people had that night? Very well, then, he should have a card.
Mark was slightly inclined to let the other understand that he knew the worth of this resuscitated friendliness, but he refrained. He knew of the Featherstones as wealthy people, with the reputation of giving the pleasantest entertainments in London. He had his way to make in the world, and could not afford, he thought, to neglect these opportunities. So he went to the dance and, as he happened to dance well, enjoyed himself, in spite of the fact that two of his partners had read "Illusion," and knew him as the author of it. They were both pretty and charming girls, but Mark did not enjoy either of those particular valses. In the course of the evening he had a brief conversation with his hostess, and was fortunate enough to produce a favourable impression. Mrs. Featherstone was literary herself, as a reputedly strong-minded lady who had once written two particularly weak-minded novels would necessarily be. She liked to have a few rising young literary men in her train, with whom she might discuss subjects loftier than ordinary society cares to grasp; but she was careful at the same time that her daughter should not share too frequently in these intellectual privileges, for Gilda Featherstone was very handsome, and literary men are as impressionable as other people.
Mark called one Sat.u.r.day afternoon at the Featherstones" house in Grosvenor Place, as he had been expressly invited to do on the occasion of the dance, and found Mrs. Featherstone at home. It was not her regular day, and she received him alone, though Mark heard voices and laughter now and then from behind the hangings which concealed the end room of the long suite.
"And now let us talk about your delightful "Illusion," Mr. Ernstone,"
she said graciously. "Do you know, I felt when I read your book that some of my innermost thoughts, my highest aspirations, had been put into words--and _such_ words--for me! It was soul speaking to soul, and you get that in so few novels, you know! What a rapture literary creation is! Don"t you feel that? I am sure, even in my own poor little way--you must know that _I_ have scribbled once upon a time--even in my own experience, I know what a state of excitement I got into over my own stories. One"s characters get to be actual living companions to one; they act by themselves, and all one has to do is just to sit by and look on, and describe."
This seemed to Mark to prove a vividness of imagination on Mrs.
Featherstone"s part to which her literary productions had not, so far as he knew, done full credit. But he was equal to the occasion.
"Your characters, Mrs. Featherstone, are companions to many more than their creator. I must confess that I, for one, fell hopelessly in love with your Gwendoline Vane, in "Mammon and Moonshine."" Mark had once read a slashing review of a flabby little novel with a wooden heroine of that name, and turned it to good account now, after his fashion.
"Now, how nice of you to say that," she said, highly pleased. "I am very fond of Gwendoline myself--my ideal, you know. I won"t quote that about "praise from Sir Hubert," because it"s so very trite, but I feel it. But do you _really_ like Gwendoline better than my Magdalen Harwood, in "Strawberries and Cream.""
Here Mark got into deep water once more; but he was no mean conversational swimmer, and reached dry land without any unseemly floundering.
"It has been suggested to me, do you know," she said when her own works had been at last disposed of, "that your "Illusion" would make such an admirable play; the central motive really so dramatic. Of course one would have to leave the philosophy out, and all the beautiful reflections, but the story would be left. Have you ever thought of dramatising it yourself, Mr. Ashburn?"
Mark had not. "Ah, well," she said, "if ever I have time again to give to literature, I shall ask your permission to let me see what _I_ can do with it. I have written some little charades for drawing-room theatricals, you know, so I am not _quite_ without experience."
Mark, wondering inwardly how Holroyd would relish this proposal if he were alive, said that he was sure the story would gain by her treatment; and presently she proposed that they should go to the further room and see "how the young people were getting on," which Mark received with an immense relief, and followed her through the _portiere_ to the inner room, in which, as will be seen, an unexpected stroke of good fortune was to befall him.
They found the young people, with a married sister of Mrs.
Featherstone, sitting round a small table on which was a heap of _cartes-de-visite_, as they used to be called for no very obvious reason.
Gilda Featherstone, a lively brunette, with the manner of a young lady accustomed to her own way, looked up from the table to welcome Mark.
"You"ve caught us all at a very frivolous game, Mr. Ashburn. I hope you won"t be shocked. We"ve all had our feelings outraged at least once, so we"re going to stop now, while we"re still on speaking terms."
"But what is it?" said Mrs. Featherstone. "It isn"t cards, Gilda dearest, is it?"
"No, mother, not quite; very nearly though. Mr. Caffyn showed it us; _he_ calls it "photo-nap.""
"Let me explain, Mrs. Featherstone," said Caffyn, who liked to drop in at Grosvenor Place occasionally, where he was on terms of some intimacy. "I don"t know if you"re acquainted with the game of "nap"?"
Mrs. Featherstone shook her head, not too amiably, for she had been growing alarmed of late by a habit her daughter had acquired of mentioning or quoting this versatile young man whom her husband persisted so blindly in encouraging. "Ah!" said Caffyn, unabashed.
"Well, anyway, this is modelled on it. We take out a selection of photographs, the oldest preferred, shuffle them, and deal round five photographs to each player, and the ugliest card in each round takes the trick."
"I call it a most ill-natured game," said the aunt, who had seen an old and unrecognised portrait of herself and the likenesses of several of her husband"s family (a plain one) voted the master-cards.
"Oh, so much _must_ be said for it," said Caffyn; "it isn"t a game to be played everywhere, of course; but it gives great scope for the emotions. Think of the pleasure of gaining a trick with the portrait of your dearest friend, and then it"s such a capital way of ascertaining your own and others" precise positions in the beauty scale, and all the plain people acquire quite a new value as picture-cards."
He had played his own very cautiously, having found his amus.e.m.e.nt in watching the various revelations of pique and vanity amongst the others, and so could speak with security.
"My brothers _all_ took tricks," said one young lady, who had inherited her mother"s delicate beauty, while the rest of the family resembled a singularly unhandsome father--which enabled her to speak without very deep resentment.
"So did poor dear papa," said Gilda, "but that was the one taken in fancy dress, and he _would_ go as _Dante_."
"Nothing could stand against Gurgoyle," observed Caffyn. "He was a sure ace every time. He"ll be glad to know he was such a success. You must tell him, Miss Featherstone."
"Now I won"t have poor Mr. Gurgoyle made fun of," said Mrs.
Featherstone, but with a considerable return of amiability. "People always tell me that with all his plainness he"s the most amusing young man in town, though I confess I never could see any signs of it myself."
The fact was that an unlucky epigram by the Mr. Gurgoyle in question at Mrs. Featherstone"s expense, which of course had found its way to her, had produced a coolness on her part, as Caffyn was perfectly well aware.
""_Ars est celare artem_," as Mr. Bancroft remarks at the Haymarket,"
he said lightly. "Gurgoyle is one of those people who is always put down as witty till he has the indiscretion to try. _Then_ they put him down some other way."
"But why is he considered witty then, if he isn"t?" asked Gilda Featherstone.
"I don"t know. I suppose because we like to think Nature makes these compensations sometimes, but Gurgoyle must have put her out of temper at the very beginning. She"s done nothing in that way for _him_."
Mrs. Featherstone, although aware that the verdict on the absent Gurgoyle was far from being a just one, was not altogether above being pleased by it, and showed it by a manner many degrees more thawed than that she had originally prescribed to herself in dealing with this very ineligible young actor.
"Mr. Ashburn," said Miss Featherstone, after one or two glances in the direction of Caffyn, who was absorbed in following up the advantage he had gained with her mother, "will you come and help me to put these photos back? There are lots of Bertie"s Cambridge friends here, and you can tell me who those I don"t know are."
So Mark followed her to a side table, and then came the stroke of good fortune which has been spoken of; for, as he was replacing the likenesses in the alb.u.ms in the order they were given to him, he was given one at the sight of which he could not avoid a slight start. It was a _vignette_, very delicately and artistically executed, of a girl"s head, and as he looked, hardly daring to believe in such a coincidence, he was almost certain that the pure brow, with the tendrils of soft hair curling above it, the deep clear eyes, and the mouth which for all its sweetness had the possibility of disdain in its curves, were those of no other than the girl he had met months ago, and had almost resigned himself never to meet again.
His voice trembled a little with excitement as he said "May I ask the name of this lady?"
"That is Mabel Langton. _I_ think she"s perfectly lovely; don"t you?
She was to have been at our dance the other night, and then you would have seen her. But she couldn"t come at the last moment."
"I think I have met Miss Langton," said Mark, beginning to see now all that he had gained by learning this simple surname. "Hasn"t she a little sister called Dorothy?"
"Dolly? Oh yes. Sweetly pretty child--terribly spoilt. I think she will put dear Mabel quite in the shade by the time she comes out; her features are so much more regular. Yes; I see you know _our_ Mabel Langton. And now, _do_ tell me, Mr. Ashburn, because of course you can read people"s characters so clearly, you know, what do _you_ think of Mabel, really and truly?"
Miss Featherstone was fond of getting her views on the characters of her friends revised and corrected for her by competent male opinion, but it was sometimes embarra.s.sing to be appealed to in this way, while only a very unsophisticated person would permit himself to be entirely candid, either in praise or detraction.
"Well, really," said Mark, "you see, I have only met her once in my life."
"Oh, but that must be quite enough for _you_, Mr. Ashburn! And Mabel Langton is always such a puzzle to me. I never can quite make up my mind if she is really as sweet as she seems. Sometimes I fancy I have noticed--and yet I can"t be sure--I"ve heard people say that she"s just the least bit, not exactly conceited, perhaps, but too inclined to trust her own opinion about things and snub people who won"t agree with her. But she isn"t, is she? I always say that is _quite_ a wrong idea about her. Still perhaps---- Oh, wouldn"t you like to know Mr.
Caffyn? He is very clever and amusing, you know, and has just gone on the stage, but he"s not as good there as we all thought he would be.
He"s coming this way now." Here Caffyn strolled leisurely towards them, and the introduction was made. "Of course you have heard of Mr.
Ashburn"s great book, "Illusion"?" Gilda Featherstone said, as she mentioned Mark"s name.
"Heard of nothing else lately," said Caffyn. "After which I am ashamed to have to own I haven"t read it, but it"s the disgraceful truth."
Mark felt the danger of being betrayed by a speech like this into saying something too hideously fatuous, over the memory of which he would grow hot with shame in the night-watches, so he contented himself with an indulgent smile, perhaps, in default of some impossible combination of wit and modesty, his best available resource.
Besides, the new acquaintance made him strangely uneasy; he felt warned to avoid him by one of those odd instincts which (although we scarcely ever obey them) are surely given us for our protection; he could not meet the cold light eyes which seemed to search him through and through.
"Mr. Ashburn and I were just discussing somebody"s character," said Miss Featherstone, by way of ending an awkward pause.
"Poor somebody!" drawled Caffyn, with an easy impertinence which he had induced many girls, and Gilda amongst them, to tolerate, if not admire.
"You need not pity her," said Gilda, indignantly; "we were _defending_ her."