"I promise."
"Why," explained Stephen, "when a young and successful actress makes up her mind to leave the stage, what is the usual reason?"
"I"m not an actress, so I can"t imagine what you mean--unless you suppose I"ve made a great fortune in a few months?"
"That too, perhaps--but I don"t think a fortune would induce you to leave the stage yet a while. You"d want to go on, not for the money perhaps, but for the fun."
"I haven"t been dancing for fun."
"Haven"t you?"
"No. I began with a purpose. I"m leaving the stage for a purpose. And you say you can guess what that is. If you know, you must have been told."
"Since you insist, it occurred to me that you might be going to marry.
I thought maybe you were travelling to Africa to----"
She laughed. "Oh, you _are_ wrong! I don"t believe there ever was a girl who thinks less about marrying. I"ve never had time to think of such things. I"ve always--ever since I was nine years old--looked to the one goal, and aimed for it, studied for it, lived for it--at last, danced towards it."
"You excite my curiosity immensely," said Stephen. And it was true. The girl had begun to take him out of himself.
"There is lunch," she announced, as a bugle sounded.
Stephen longed to say, "Don"t go yet. Stop and tell me all about the "goal" you"re working for." But he dared not. She was very frank, and evidently willing, for some reason, to talk of her aims, even to a comparative stranger; yet he knew that it would be impertinent to suggest her sitting out on deck to chat with him, while the other pa.s.sengers lunched.
He asked if she were hungry, and she said she was. So was he, now that he came to think of it; nevertheless he let her go in alone, and waited deliberately for several minutes before following. He would have liked to sit by Miss Ray at the table, but wished her to see that he did not mean to presume upon any small right of acquaintanceship. As she was on the stage, and extremely attractive, no doubt men often tried to take such advantage, and he didn"t intend to be one of them; therefore he supposed that he had lost the chance of placing himself near her in the dining-room. To his surprise, however, as he was about to slip into a far-away chair, she beckoned from her table. "I kept this seat for you,"
she said. "I hoped you wouldn"t mind."
"Mind!" He was on the point of repaying her kindness with a conventional little compliment, but thought better of it, and expressed his meaning in a smile.
The oak-panelled saloon was provided with a number of small tables, and at the one where Victoria Ray sat, were places for four. Three were already occupied when Stephen came; one by Victoria, the others by a German bride and groom.
At the next table were two French officers of the Cha.s.seurs d"Afrique, the English clergyman Stephen had noticed on deck, and a remarkably handsome Arab, elaborately dressed. He sat facing Victoria Ray and Stephen Knight, and Stephen found it difficult not to stare at the superb, pale brown person whose very high white turban, bound with light grey cord, gave him a dignity beyond his years, and whose pale grey burnous, over a gold-embroidered vest of dark rose-colour, added picturesqueness which appeared theatrical in eyes unaccustomed to the East.
Stephen had never seen an Arab of the aristocratic cla.s.s until to-day; and before, only a few such specimens as parade the Galerie Charles Trois at Monte Carlo, selling prayer-rugs and draperies from Algeria.
This man"s high birth and breeding were clear at first glance. He was certainly a personage aware of his own attractions, though not offensively self-conscious, and was unmistakably interested in the beauty of the girl at the next table. He was too well-bred to make a show of his admiration, but talked in almost perfect, slightly guttural French, with the English clergyman, speaking occasionally also to the officers in answer to some question. He glanced seldom at Miss Ray, but when he did look across, in a guarded way, at her, there was a light of ardent pleasure in his eyes, such as no eyes save those of East or South ever betray. The look was respectful, despite its underlying pa.s.sion.
Nevertheless, because the handsome face was some shades darker than his own, it offended Stephen, who felt a sharp bite of dislike for the Arab.
He was glad the man was not at the same table with Miss Ray, and knew that it would have vexed him intensely to see the girl drawn into conversation. He wondered that the French officers should talk with the Arab as with an equal, yet knew in his heart that such prejudice was narrow-minded, especially at the moment when he was travelling to the Arab"s own country. He tried, though not very strenuously, to override his conviction of superiority to the Eastern man, but triumphed only far enough to admit that the fellow was handsome in a way. His skin was hardly darker than old ivory: the aquiline nose delicate as a woman"s, with sensitive nostrils; and the black velvet eyes under arched brows, that met in a thin, pencilled line, were long, and either dreamy or calmly calculating. A prominent chin and a full mouth, so determined as to suggest cruelty, certainly selfishness, preserved the face from effeminacy at the sacrifice of artistic perfection. Stephen noticed with mingled curiosity and disapproval that the Arab appeared to be vain of his hands, on which he wore two or three rings that might have been bought in Paris, or even given him by European women--for they looked like a woman"s rings. The brown fingers were slender, tapering to the ends, and their reddened nails glittered. They played, as the man talked, with a piece of bread, and often he glanced down at them, with the long eyes which had a blue shadow underneath, like a faint smear of kohl.
Stephen wondered what Victoria Ray thought of her _vis-a-vis_; but in the presence of the staring bride and groom he could ask no questions, and the expression of her face, as once she quietly regarded the Arab, told nothing. It was even puzzling, as an expression for a young girl"s face to wear in looking at a handsome man so supremely conscious of s.e.x and of his own attraction. She was evidently thinking about him with considerable interest, and it annoyed Stephen that she should look at him at all. An Arab might misunderstand, not realizing that he was a legitimate object of curiosity for eyes unused to Eastern men.
After luncheon Victoria went to her cabin. This was disappointing.
Stephen, hoping that she might come on deck again soon, and resume their talk where it had broken off in the morning, paced up and down until he felt drowsy, not having slept in the train the night before. To his surprise and disgust, it was after five when he waked from a long nap, in his stateroom; and going on deck he found Miss Ray in her chair once more, this time apparently deep in "Monte Cristo."
V
He walked past, and she looked up with a smile, but did not ask him to draw his chair near hers, though there was a vacant s.p.a.ce. It was an absurd and far-fetched idea, but he could not help asking himself if it were possible that she had picked up any acquaintance on board, who had told her he was a marked man, a foolish fellow who had spoiled his life for a low-born, unscrupulous woman"s sake. It was a morbid fancy, he knew, but he was morbid now, and supposed that he should be for some time to come, if not for the rest of his life. He imagined a difference in the girl"s manner. Maybe she had read that hateful interview in some paper, when she was in London, and now remembered having seen his photograph with Margot Lorenzi"s. He hated the thought, not because he deliberately wished to keep his engagement secret, but because the newspaper interview had made him seem a fool, and somehow he did not want to be despised by this dancing girl whom he should never see again after to-morrow. Just why her opinion of his character need matter to him, it was difficult to say, but there was something extraordinary about the girl. She did not seem in the least like other dancers he had met. He had not that feeling of comfortable comradeship with her that a man may feel with most unchaperoned, travelling actresses, no matter how respectable. There was a sense of aloofness, as if she had been a young princess, in spite of her simple and friendly ways.
Since it appeared that she had no intention of picking up the dropped threads of their conversation, Stephen thought of the smoking-room; but his wish to know whether she really had changed towards him became so pressing that he was impelled to speak again. It was an impulse unlike himself, at any rate the old self with which he was familiar, as with a friend or an intimate enemy.
"I hoped you would tell me the rest," he blurted out.
"The rest?"
"That you were beginning to tell."
The girl blushed. "I was afraid afterwards, you might have been bored, or anyway surprised. You probably thought it "very American" of me to talk about my own affairs to a stranger, and it _isn"t_, you know. I shouldn"t like you to think Americans are less well brought up than other girls, just because _I_ may do things that seem queer. I have to do them. And I am quite different from others. You mustn"t suppose I"m not."
Stephen was curiously relieved. Suddenly he felt young and happy, as he used to feel before knowing Margot Lorenzi. "I never met a brilliantly successful person who was as modest as you," he said, laughing with pleasure. "I was never less bored in my life. Will you talk to me again--and let me talk to you?"
"I should like to ask your advice," she replied.
That gave permission for Stephen to draw his chair near to hers. "Have you had tea?" he inquired, by way of a beginning.
"I"m too American to drink tea in the afternoon," she explained. "It"s only fashionable Americans who take it, and I"m not that kind, as you can see. I come from the country--or almost the country."
"Weren"t you drawn into any of our little ways in London?" He was working up to a certain point.
"I was too busy."
"I"m sure you weren"t too busy for one thing: reading the papers for your notices."
Victoria shook her head, smiling. "There you"re mistaken. The first morning after I danced at the Palace Theatre, I asked to see the papers they had in my boarding-house, because I hoped so much that English people would like me, and I wanted to be a success. But afterwards I didn"t bother. I don"t understand British politics, you see--how could I?--and I hardly know any English people, so I wasn"t very interested in their papers."
Again Stephen was relieved. But he felt driven by one of his strange new impulses to tell her his name, and watch her face while he told it.
""Curiouser and curiouser," as our friend Alice would say," he laughed.
"No newspaper paragraphs, and a boarding-house instead of a fashionable hotel. What was your manager thinking about?"
"I had no manager of my very own," said Victoria. "I "exploited" myself.
It costs less to do that. When people in America liked my dancing I got an offer from London, and I accepted it and made all the arrangements about going over. It was quite easy, you see, because there were only costumes to carry. My scenery is so simple, they either had it in the theatres or got something painted: and the statues in the studio scene, and the sculptor, needed very few rehearsals. In Paris they had only one. It was all I had time for, after I arrived. The lighting wasn"t difficult either, and though people told me at first there would be trouble unless I had my own man, there never was any, really. In my letters to the managers I gave the dates when I could come to their theatres, how long I could stay, and all they must do to get things ready. The Paris engagement was made only a little while beforehand. I wanted to pa.s.s through there, so I was glad to accept the offer and earn extra money which I thought I might need by and by."
"What a mercenary star!" Stephen spoke teasingly; but in truth he could not make the girl out.
She took the accusation with a smile. "Yes, I am mercenary, I suppose,"
she confessed with unashamed frankness, "but not entirely for myself. I shouldn"t like to be that! I told you how I"ve been looking forward always to one end. And now, just when that end may be near, how foolish I should be to spend a cent on unnecessary things! Why, I"d have felt _wicked_ living in an expensive hotel, and keeping a maid, when I could be comfortable in a Bloomsbury boarding-house on ten dollars a week. And the dresser in the theater, who did everything very nicely, was delighted with a present of twenty dollars when my London engagement was over."
"No doubt she was," said Stephen. "But----"
"I suppose you"re thinking that I must have made lots of money, and that I"m a sort of little miseress: and so I have--and so I am. I earned seven hundred and fifty dollars a week--isn"t that a hundred and fifty pounds?--for the six weeks, and I spent as little as possible; for I didn"t get as large a salary as that in America. I engaged to dance for three hundred dollars a week there, which seemed perfectly wonderful to me at first; so I had to keep my contract, though other managers would have given me more. I wanted dreadfully to take their offers, because I was in such a hurry to have enough money to begin my real work. But I knew I shouldn"t be blessed in my undertaking if I acted dishonourably.
Try as I might, I"ve only been able to save up ten thousand dollars, counting the salary in Paris and all. Would you say that was enough to _bribe_ a person, if necessary? Two thousand of your pounds."
"It depends upon how rich the person is."
"I don"t know how rich he is. Could an Arab be _very_ rich?"