Denzil was gazing into the fire, and there was a look of wonderment and even rapture upon his face.
"Oh! No--rather splendid--" He felt quite the strangest emotion he had ever experienced in his life. His usual serene self-confidence and easy flow of words deserted him, and Verisschenzko, watching him, began to link certain things in his mind.
"Tell me, what did you think of your cousin, Lady Ardayre?" he asked casually, as though the subject was irrelevant.
"Amaryllis?" and Denzil almost started from a reverie. "Oh, yes, of course, she is a lovely creature, is not she, Stepan?"
Verisschenzko narrowed his eyes.
"I have told you that I adore her--but with the spirit--if it were not so, she would appeal very strongly to the flesh--Yes?--Did you not feel it?"
"I did."
"Well?"
"Well--"
"She is longing to understand life, she is groping; why do you not set about her education, Denzil?"
"That is the husband"s business."
"Not in this case. I consider it is yours; you are the right mate for her. John Ardayre is a good fellow, but he stands for nothing in the affair. Why did you waste your time upon Harietta, when time is so short?"
"I was given no choice."
"But afterwards, in the hall?"
It was quite evident to Verisschenzko that the mention of Amaryllis was causing his friend some unexplainable emotion.
"You did not even exert yourself, then. Why, Denzil?"
Denzil lit a cigarette.
"I thought her awfully attractive--it is the first time I have ever seen her--as you know."
"And that was a reason for remaining silent and as stiff as a poker in manner! You English are a strange race!"
Denzil smiled--if Stepan only knew everything, what would he say!
"You were made for each other. If I were you, I would not lose a second"s time!"
"My dear old boy, you seem quite to forget that the girl has a husband of her own!"
"Not at all, it is for that reason--just because of that husband. I shall say no more, you are quite intelligent enough to understand."
"You think it is all right then for a woman to have a lover?" Denzil smiled as he curled rings of smoke. "It is curious how the most honourable among us has not much conscience concerning such things."
Verisschenzko knocked off his cigarette ash and spoke contemplatively:
"The world would be an insupportable place for women, if he had! But whatever the moral aspect of the matter is in general, circ.u.mstances arise which alter the point, and that is where the absurd ticketing system hampers suitable action. A thing is ticketed "dishonourable."
Pah! it is sometimes, and it is not at others--there is no hard and fast rule."
Denzil stretched himself--he was always interested in Verisschenzko"s reasonings and prepared to listen with enjoyment:
"The general idea is that a man should not make love to another man"s wife. Man professes this as a creed, and the law enforces it and punishes him if he is found out doing so. And if he acted up to this creed as he does about stealing goods and behaving like a gentleman over business matters, all might be well, but unfortunately that seldom occurs, because there is that strong; instinct which is the base of all things working in him, and which does not work in regard to any other point of honour--i.e., the unconscious desire to re-create his, species, so that this one particular branch of moral responsibility cannot be measured, judged, or criticised from the same standpoint as any other. No laws can.
alter human nature, or really control a man"s actions when a natural force is prompting him unless stern self-a.n.a.lysis discovers the truth to the man, and so permits his spirit to regain dominion. The best chance would be to resist the first feeling of attraction which a woman belonging to another man aroused before it had actually obtained a hold upon his senses--but the percentage of men who do this must be very small. Some resist--or try to resist the actual possession of the woman from moral motives, but many more from motives of expediency and fear of consequences. Then to salve conscience the ma.s.s of men ride a high moral stalking horse, and write and speak condemnation of every back-sliding, while their own behaviour coincides with the behaviour they are criticising. The hypocrisy of the thing sickens me; no one ever looks any question straight in the face, denuded of its man-made sophistries. And few realise that a woman is a creature to be fought for--it is prehistoric instinct, and if she can"t be obtained in fair fight then you secure her by strategy. And if a man cannot keep her once he has secured her, it is up to him. If I had a wife, I should take good care that she _desired_ no other man--but if I bored her, or was a cold and bad lover, I should not expect the other men not to try and take her from me--because I should know this was a natural instinct with them--like taking food. It would probably be no temptation to most of us to steal gold lying about in a room, even if we were poor, but a hideous temptation to refrain from eating a tempting dish if we were starving with hunger and it was before us--and if a woman did succ.u.mb to some new pa.s.sion I should blame myself, not her."
Denzil agreed.
"Jealousy is a natural instinct, though," he said, "and although there would be not much profit in trying to hold a woman who no longer cared, one could not help being mad about it."
"Of course not--that is the sense of personal possession which is affronted. Vanity is deeply wounded, and so the power to a.n.a.lyse cause and result sleeps. But this att.i.tude which men take up of neglecting a woman and then expecting her to be faithful still is quite ridiculous, and without logic; they are as usual fogged by convention and can"t see straight."
Verisschenzko"s rough voice was keen--compelling.
Denzil smiled.
"Another of your windmills to fight!"
"I am always fighting convention and shams. Get down to the meaning of a thing, and if its true significance coincides with the convention which surrounds it, then let that hold, but if convention is a super-imposed growth, then amputate it and study the thing without it."
"I suppose a man marries a woman nine times out of ten because he cannot obtain her in any other way; then when he has become indifferent by possession, he still thinks that she should remain devoted to him. You are right, Stepan, it is very illogical."
"Club the creature, or keep her in a cage if you want fidelity through fear, but don"t expect it if you allow her to remain at large and neglected, and don"t be such an a.s.s as to imagine that your friends won"t act just as you yourself would act were she some one"s else wife. If a woman has that quality in her which arouses s.e.x, married or single, I never have observed that men refrained from making love to her."
"All this means that you consider I am quite at liberty to make love to Amaryllis Ardayre!"
"Quite."
Denzil threw his cigarette end into the fire:
"Well, for once you are wrong, Stepan, in your usually perfect deductions," he got up from his chair. "There is a reason in this case which makes the thing an absolute impossibility; under no possible circ.u.mstance while John is alive could I make the smallest advance towards Amaryllis! There is another point of honour involved in the affair."
Verisschenzko felt that here was some mystery which he had yet to elucidate, the links in the chain were visible up to a point, but he then became baffled by the incontestable fact that Denzil had seen Amaryllis that evening for the first time!
"If this is so, then it is a very great pity," he announced, after a moment or two"s thought. "Were the times normal, we might leave all to Fate and trust to luck, but if you are killed and John is killed, it will be a thousand pities for Ferdinand to be the head of the family.
A creature like that will not enlist, he will be safe while you risk your lives."
Denzil went over to the window, apparently to get out a fresh box of cigars which were in a cabinet near.
"John writes to-night that there is the chance of an heir after all--so perhaps we need not worry," he said, his voice a little hoa.r.s.e with feeling. "I was so awfully glad to hear this--we all loathe the thought of Ferdinand."
Verisschenzko actually was startled, and also he was strangely moved.
"When I saw my lady Amaryllis to-night that idea came to me, only as I believed it was quite an impossibility--I dismissed it--It is a war miracle then?" and he smiled enquiringly.
"Apparently."