Lovingly her mother dismissed her. "The smelling-salts! You will find them somewhere." The lady looked about. "Shall we have coffee in the other room? You men can smoke there if you like, or here if you prefer."
It was quite modern. But Verelst was old, therefore old-fashioned. He preferred the dining-room. Already the girls had followed Margaret. Mrs.
Austen pa.s.sed out. Verelst sat down. So also did Cantillon and Ogston.
But Paliser, who had nothing to say to them, accompanied Mrs. Austen.
"It never happened to her before," she told him. "Where shall you sit?
Here, by me?" In speaking she made room on the sofa and with amiable suspicion eyed him. "You hadn"t said anything to her, had you?"
Paliser shook his handsome head. "I wanted to."
Pleasantly she invited it. "Yes?"
"I wanted to ask her to marry me."
There he was dangling, and what a fish! The dear woman licked her chops, not vulgarly, of course, but mentally.
Paliser, who knew perfectly well what she was at, smiled tantalisingly.
"It is beastly to boast, but I am an epicure."
What in the world does he mean? the dear woman wondered. But she said: "Of course you are."
Paliser, who was enjoying himself hugely, resumed: "An epicure, you know, postpones the finest pleasures. He does so sometimes because of the enchantment of distance and again because he can"t help himself.
That has been my case."
It was fully a moment before Mrs. Austen got it. Then she said: "But I told you, didn"t I? Mr. Lennox is dead and buried."
It was quick work. Paliser, admiring her agility, laughed. "So recently though! The immortelles have not had time to fade."
That would have made a saint swear! Not being a saint, Mrs. Austen contented herself with virtuous surprise. "But there were none! I told you that. I told you that any attraction he may have had for my child, he shocked straight out of her. Not deliberately. Dear me, I would not have you fancy such a thing for a moment. Nor would I misjudge him. I hope I am too conscientious. But such interest as the child had in him--an interest I need hardly say that was girlish and immature--he destroyed."
The picture, bold but crude, had its defects. To remedy them, Mrs.
Austen applied the brush. "That singing-girl! You know whom I mean. I saw you with her the night we went to the Bazaar."
Paliser nodded. He knew indeed! He knew too that, for a moment, he had fancied that Ca.s.sy was in love with Lennox. But that idea he had long since abandoned and what she could now be doing in this galley intrigued him.
With a free hand Mrs. Austen laid on the colours. "You will hardly credit it, but we as good as caught him with her. As good or as bad. It is a matter of taste. For me it was very painful. A woman should be spared such an experience. As for Margaret, while the child certainly did not understand--how could she?--yet, even in her innocence, she realised--well--that he is just what you said."
It was a bit thick and Paliser began to laugh.
Mrs. Austen saw that he did not believe her. The fact annoyed and in vexation she piled it on. "Afterward, in this very room, I taxed him with it and he admitted it."
What a lie! thought Paliser, who specialised in that article. But, a second thought prompting, he wondered whether it were a lie. His knowledge of Ca.s.sy refuted it. At the same time, where women are concerned, you never know. One thing, however, he did know. In his quality of expert he knew that there are statements which, whether true or false, may come in handy and, comfortably, he smiled.
"So that was the reason why the engagement was broken."
"What more would you have?" replied the candid creature, who now felt that he had swallowed it.
Quite as comfortably, Paliser returned to his muttons. "I may cease then to be an epicure?"
There was the fish again, but how to land him? The glittering fisherlady could not bind and gag the bait and drop her into his mouth. At any such attempt, the bait would pack and go, might even go without packing. Yet there was the fish, eager, willing, the gills awiggle. Barring a few gold-fish in Bradstreet, in Burke and in Lempriere, this fish was the pick of the basket. To see him glide away, and for no other earthly reason than because the bait refused to be hooked, was simply inhuman.
Flesh and blood could not stand it. No, nor ingenuity either. Instantly the angler saw that in default of bait, a net may do the trick and, with the ease of a prestidigitateur, she produced one.
"You have my blessing!"
Paliser laughed and bowed. He was in it, it was where he wanted to be and he liked it. But in view of existing domestic arrangements, he was in it a bit too soon and, wriggling through a mesh, he stopped laughing and looked solemn.
"You are very good. But beforehand my father will expect to be consulted and, just at present, that is impossible. The physicians would forbid it."
"The poor dear old man! You don"t mean----"
Paliser half raised a hand. The gesture was slight but expressive. One never knew!
But so much the better, thought Mrs. Austen. Pending the delay she could so bombard the bait, bombard her day in, day out, and the whole night through, that, like Liege and Namur, her resistance would crumble, and meanwhile he would come in for everything, or nearly everything, she reflected, and the reflection prompting, she affected concern.
"Has your sister been informed?"
"I cabled her to-day," said Paliser, who had done nothing of the kind.
With the same concern, Mrs. Austen lied as freely. "It is too sad for words." But at once the air of the sympathiser departed, replaced by that of the hostess. Through one door the men were entering. Through another came the girls.
Kate Schermerhorn approached. "Dear Mrs. Austen, Margaret"s all right, but she has a headache." As she spoke, she threw a glance at Cantillon.
Poppet Bleecker also approached. "It is too bad, Margaret is such a dear! I would like to stop on but they tell me my maid is here. Thank you so much, dear Mrs. Austen."
The lady stood up. "But you are not all going!" They all were though.
She knew it and was glad of it. The object of the dinner was achieved and achievement, however satisfactory, is fatiguing. "You too!" she successively exclaimed at Ogston and Cantillon. "And you also!" she exclaimed at Paliser, to whom, dropping her voice, she added: "If possible, remember me to him."
As they went, Verelst surveyed her. He stood against the mantel, his back to the empty grate.
Turning she saw him. "Well, what now?"
Verelst, adjusting his gla.s.ses, said, and distantly enough: "What now?
No, what next?"
Mrs. Austen sat down. "Peter, if you ever loved me, don"t adopt that tone."
"It is not the tone, it is the tune and the tune is yours."
"Tune? What tune? What on earth are you talking about?"
"The tune to which the dinner was set. I heard it. Margaret heard it. It knocked her out."
She raised her eyes to him, made them pathetic. "Peter, I haven"t a penny."
"You have twenty thousand a year."
"Nineteen, not a dollar more, and that is genteel poverty and there"s nothing genteel in poverty now."