"In half an hour, Dulcie!" he called back; "--and you may bring the Prophet if you like.... Shall I ask Mr. Westmore to join us?"
"I"d rather be all alone with you," she said shyly.
He laughed and ran on up the stairs.
In half an hour the electric bell rang very timidly. Aristocrates, having been instructed and rehea.r.s.ed, and, loftily condescending to his role in a kindly comedy to be played seriously, announced: "Miss Soane!" in his most courtly manner.
Barres threw aside the evening paper and came forward, taking both hands of the white and slightly frightened child.
"Aristocrates ought to have announced the Prophet, too," he said gaily, breaking the ice and swinging Dulcie around to face the open door again.
The Prophet entered, perfectly at ease, his eyes of living jade shining, his tail urbanely hoisted.
Dulcie ventured to smile; Barres laughed outright; Aristocrates surveyed the Prophet with toleration mingled with a certain respect.
For a black cat is never without occult significance to a gentleman of colour.
With Dulcie"s hand still in his, Barres led her into the living-room, where, presently, Aristocrates brought a silver tray upon which was a gla.s.s of iced orange juice for Dulcie, and a "Bronnix," as Aristocrates called it, for the master.
"To your health and good fortune in life, Dulcie," he said politely.
The child gazed mutely at him over her gla.s.s, then, blushing, ventured to taste her orange juice.
When she finished, Barres drew her frail arm through his and took her out, seating her. Ceremonies began in silence, and the master of the place was not quite sure whether the flush on Dulcie"s face indicated unhappy embarra.s.sment or pleasure.
He need not have worried: the child adored it all. The Prophet came in and gravely seated himself on a neighbouring chair, whence he could survey the table and seriously inspect each course.
"Dulcie," he said, "how grown-up you look with your bobbed hair put up, and your fluffy gown."
She lifted her enchanted eyes to him:
"It is my first communion dress.... I"ve had to make it longer for a graduation dress."
"Oh, that"s so; you"re graduating this summer!"
"Yes."
"And what then?"
"Nothing." She sighed unconsciously and sat very still with folded hands, while Aristocrates refilled her gla.s.s of water.
She no longer felt embarra.s.sed; her gravity matched Aristocrates"s; she seriously accepted whatever was offered or set before her, but Barres noticed that she ate it all, merely leaving on her plate, with inculcated and mathematical precision, a small portion as concession to good manners.
They had, toward the banquet"s end, water ices, bon-bons, French pastry, and ice cream. And presently a slight and blissful sigh of repletion escaped the child"s red lips. The symptoms were satisfactory but unmistakable; Dulcie was perfectly feminine; her capacity had proven it.
The Prophet"s stately self-control in the fragrant vicinity of nourishment was now to be rewarded: Barres conducted Dulcie to the studio and installed her among cushions upon a huge sofa. Then, lighting a cigarette, he dropped down beside her and crossed one knee over the other.
"Dulcie," he said in his lazy, humorous way, "it"s a funny old world any way you view it."
"Do you think it is always funny?" inquired the child, her deep, grey eyes on his face.
He smiled:
"Yes, I do; but sometimes the joke in on one"s self. And then, although it is still a funny world, from the world"s point of view, you, of course, fail to see the humour of it.... I don"t suppose you understand."
"I do," nodded the child, with the ghost of a smile.
"Really? Well, I was afraid I"d been talking nonsense, but if you understand, it"s all right."
They both laughed.
"Do you want to look at some books?" he suggested.
"I"d rather listen to you."
He smiled:
"All right. I"ll begin at this corner of the room and tell you about the things in it." And for a while he rambled lazily on about old French chairs and Spanish chests, and the panels of Mille Fleur tapestry which hung behind them; the two lovely pre-Raphael panels in their exquisite ancient frames; the old Venetian velvet covering triple choir-stalls in the corner; the ivory-toned marble figure on its wood and compos pedestal, where tendrils and delicate foliations of water gilt had become slightly irridescent, harmonising with the patine on the ancient Chinese garniture flanking a mantel clock of dullest gold.
About these things, their workmanship, the histories of their times, he told her in his easy, unaccented voice, glancing sideways at her from time to time to note how she stood it.
But she listened, fascinated, her gaze moving from the object discussed to the man who discussed it; her slim limbs curled under her, her hands clasped around a silken cushion made from the robe of some Chinese princess.
Lounging there beside her, amused, humorously flattered by her attention, and perhaps a little touched, he held forth a little longer.
"Is it a nice party, so far, Dulcie?" he concluded with a smile.
She flushed, found no words, nodded, and sat with lowered head as though pondering.
"What would you rather do if you could do what you want to in the world, Dulcie?"
"I don"t know."
"Think a minute."
She thought for a while.
"Live with you," she said seriously.
"Oh, Dulcie! That is no sort of ambition for a growing girl!" he laughed; and she laughed, too, watching his every expression out of grey eyes that were her chiefest beauty.
"You"re a little too young to know what you want yet," he concluded, still smiling. "By the time that bobbed mop of red hair grows to a proper length, you"ll know more about yourself."
"Do you like it up?" she enquired navely.
"It makes you look older."
"I want it to."