Jean le Roi shrugged his shoulders. The game was up then! What an evening of disasters!
"Let me go," he said. "I ask no more."
Wilhelmina and Macheson exchanged glances. She vanished into her room for a moment, and reappeared in a long wrapper.
"Come with me softly," she said, "and I will let you out."
So they three went on tiptoe down the broad stairs. Macheson and Wilhelmina exchanged no words. Yet they both felt that the future was different for them.
"You can give Mr. Macheson your address," Wilhelmina said, as they stood at the front door. "I will send you something to help you make a fresh start."
But Jean le Roi laughed.
"I play only for the great stakes," he murmured, with a swagger, "and when I lose--I lose."
So he vanished into the darkness, and Macheson and Wilhelmina remained with clasped hands.
"To-morrow," he whispered, stooping and kissing her fingers.
"To-morrow," she repeated. "Thank G.o.d you came to-night!"
She was too weary, too happy to ask for explanations, and he offered none. All the time, as he crossed the Square and turned towards his house, those words rang in his ears--To-morrow!
CHAPTER XVII
LORD AND LADY BOUNTIFUL
Deyes caught a vision of blue in the window, and crossed the lawn. Lady Peggy leaned over the low sill. Between them was only a fragrant border of hyacinths.
"You know that our host and hostess have deserted us?" she asked.
He nodded.
"They have gone over to this wonderful Convalescent Home that Macheson is building in the hills," he remarked. "I am not sure that I consider it good manners to leave us to entertain one another."
"I am not sure," she said, "that it is proper. Wilhelmina should have considered that we are her only guests."
She sat down in the window-sill and leaned back against the corner. She had slept well, and she was not afraid of the sunshine--blue, too, was her most becoming colour. He looked at her admiringly.
"You are really looking very well this morning," he said.
"Thank you," she answered. "I was expecting that."
"I wonder," he said, "how you others discover the secret of eternal youth. You and Macheson and Wilhelmina all look younger than you did last year. I seem to be getting older all by myself."
She looked at him critically. There were certainly more lines about his face and the suspicion of crow"s-feet about his tired eyes.
"Age," she said, "is simply a matter of volition. You wear yourself out fretting for the impossible!"
"One has one"s desires," he murmured.
"But you should learn," she said, "to let your desires be governed by your reason. It is a foolish thing to want what you may not have."
"You think that it is like that with me?" he asked.
"All the world knows," she answered, "that you are in love with Wilhelmina!"
"One must be in love with someone," he remarked.
"Naturally! But why choose a woman who is head and ears in love with some one else?"
"It cannot last," he answered, "she has married him."
Lady Peggy reached out for a cushion and placed it behind her head.
"That certainly would seem hopeful in the case of an ordinary woman--myself, for instance," she said. "But Wilhelmina is not an ordinary woman. She always would do things differently from other people. I don"t want to make you more unhappy than you are, but I honestly believe that Wilhelmina is going to set a new fashion. She is going to try and re-establish the life domestic amongst the upper cla.s.ses."
"She always was such a reformer," he sighed.
Lady Peggy nodded sympathetically.
"Of course, one can"t tell how it may turn out," she continued, "but at present they seem to have turned life into a sort of Garden of Eden, and do you know I can"t help fancying that there isn"t the slightest chance for the serpent. Wilhelmina is so fearfully obstinate."
"The thing will cloy!" he declared.
"I fancy not," she answered. "You see, they don"t live on sugar-plums.
Victor Macheson is by way of being a masterful person, and Wilhelmina is only just beginning to realize the fascination of being ruled. Frankly, Gilbert, I don"t think there"s the slightest chance for you!"
He sighed.
"I am afraid you are right," he said regretfully. "I began to realize it last night, when we went into the library unexpectedly, and Wilhelmina blushed. No self-respecting woman ought to blush when she is discovered being kissed by her own husband."
"Wilhelmina," Lady Peggy said, stretching out her hand for one of Deyes"
cigarettes, "may live to astonish us yet, but of one thing I am convinced. She will never even realize the other s.e.x except through her own husband. I am afraid she will grow narrow--I should hate to write as her epitaph that she was an affectionate wife and devoted mother--but I am perfectly certain that that is what it will come to."
"In that case," Deyes remarked gloomily, "I may as well go away."
"No! I shouldn"t do that," Lady Peggy said. "I should try to alter my point of view."
"Direct me, please," he begged.
"I should try," she continued, "to put a bridle upon my desires and take up the reins. You could lead them in a more suitable direction."
"For instance?"