"It"s so lovely all the year," she said. "When the last mignonette"s over, there are the chrysanthemums, and then the Christmas roses, and ever so early in January the winter aconite and the snow-drops, and the violets under the south wall. And then the little green daffodil leaves come up and the buds, though it"s weeks before they turn into flowers. And if it"s a mild winter the primroses--just little baby ones--seem to go on all the time."
"Yes," he said, "I know. And the wallflowers, they"re green all the time.--And the monthly roses, they flower at Christmas. And then when the real roses begin to bud--and when June comes--and you"re drunk with the scent of red roses--the kind you always long for at Christmas."
"Oh, yes," said Betty--"do you feel like that too? And if you get them, they"re soft limp-stalked things, like caterpillars half disguised as roses by some incompetent fairy. Not like the stiff solid heavy velvet roses with thick green leaves and heaps of thorns. Those are the roses one longs for."
"Yes," he said. "Those are the roses one longs for." And an odd pause punctuated the sentence.
But the pause did not last. There was so much to talk of--now that barrier of resentment, wattled with remorse, was broken down. It was an odd revelation to each--the love of the other for certain authors, certain pictures, certain symphonies, certain dramas. The discovery of this sort of community of tastes is like the meeting in far foreign countries of a man who speaks the tongue of one"s mother land. The two lingered long over their coffee, and the "Grand Marnier" which their liking for "The Garden of Lies" led to their ordering. Betty had forgotten Vernon, forgotten Lady St. Craye, in the delightful interchange of:
"Oh, I do like--"
"And don"t you like--?"
"And isn"t that splendid?"
These simple sentences, interchanged, took on the value of intimate confidences.
"I"ve had such a jolly time," Temple said. "I haven"t had such a talk for ages."
And yet all the talk had been mere confessions of faith--in Ibsen, in Browning, in Maeterlinck, in English gardens, in Art for Art"s sake, and in Whistler and Beethoven.
"I"ve liked it too," said Betty.
"And it"s awfully jolly," he went on, "to feel that you"ve forgiven me"--the speech suddenly became difficult,--"at least I mean to say--"
he ended lamely.
"It"s I who ought to be forgiven," said Betty. "I"m very glad I met you. I"ve enjoyed our talk ever so much."
Vernon spent an empty evening, and waylaid Betty as she left her cla.s.s next day.
"I"m sorry," she said. "I couldn"t help it. I suddenly felt I wanted something different. So I dined at a new place."
"Alone?" said Vernon.
"No," said Betty with her chin in the air.
Vernon digested, as best he might, his first mouthful of jealousy--real downright sickening jealousy. The sensation astonished him so much that he lacked the courage to dissect it.
"Will you dine with me to-night?" was all he found to say.
"With pleasure," said Betty. But it was not with pleasure that she dined. There was something between her and Vernon. Both felt it, and both attributed it to the same cause.
The three dinners that followed in the next fortnight brought none of that old lighthearted companionship which had been the gayest of table-decorations. Something was gone--lost--as though a royal rose had suddenly faded, a rainbow-coloured bubble had broken.
"I"m glad," said Betty; "if he"s engaged, I don"t want to feel happy with him."
She did not feel happy without him. The Inward Monitor grew more and more insistent. She caught herself wondering how Temple, with the serious face and the honest eyes, would regard the lies, the trickeries, the whole tissue of deceit that had won her her chance of following her own art, of living her own life.
Vernon understood, presently, that not even that evening at Thirion"s could give the key to this uncomforting change. He had not seen Lady St. Craye since the night of the kiss.
It was after the fourth flat dinner with Betty that he said good-night to her early and abruptly, and drove to Lady St. Craye"s.
She was alone. She rose to greet him, and he saw that her eyes were dark-rimmed, and her lips rough.
"This is very nice of you," she said. "It"s nearly a month since I saw you."
"Yes," he said. "I know it is. Do you remember the last time? Hasn"t that taught you not to play with me?"
The kiss was explained now. Lady St. Craye shivered.
"I don"t know what you mean?" she said, feebly.
"Oh, yes, you do! You"re much too clever not to understand. Come to think of it, you"re much too everything--too clever, too beautiful, too charming, too everything."
"You overwhelm me," she made herself say.
"Not at all. You know your points. What I want to know is just one thing--and that"s the thing you"re going to tell me."
She drew her dry lips inward to moisten them.
"What do you want to know? Why do you speak to me like that? What have I done?"
"That"s what you"re going to tell me."
"I shall tell you nothing--while you ask in that tone."
"Won"t you? How can I persuade you?" his tone caressed and stung.
"What arguments can I use? Must I kiss you again?"
She drew herself up, called wildly on all her powers to resent the insult. Nothing came at her call.
"What do you want me to tell you?" she asked, and her eyes implored the mercy she would not consciously have asked.
He saw, and he came a little nearer to her--looking down at her upturned face with eyes before which her own fell.
"You don"t want another kiss?" he said. "Then tell me what you"ve been saying to Miss Desmond."
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE TRUTH.
There was a silence.
"Come, my pretty Jasmine lady, speak the truth."