"Mrs. Wilson is here, sir," was the answer. "She said to carry you here. James is inside to tell you what to do."
A footman was indeed within, waiting for him.
"Mrs. Wilson says will you please come to her, sir," the man said, and led the way upstairs.
The sound of gay music, growing louder as he advanced, filled Wynne"s ears. He began to feel disquieted, and once half halted.
"Are you sure there is no mistake?" he asked.
"Oh, no mistake at all, sir," his guide answered. "Mrs. Wilson has arranged everything. Leave your hat and cloak here, sir, if you please."
Maurice mechanically did as requested, but as he threw off his outer garment the opening of a door let in a burst of music which seemed so close at hand that he was startled. He was in what was evidently a coat-room, the attendant of which regarded him with open curiosity; and he realized suddenly that he must be near a ball-room.
"Where am I?" he demanded.
"It"s the ball, sir, that they has to end the season before Lent. It"s Lent to-morrow, sir, as I thought you"d know."
Maurice stared at him in amazement and anger.
"There is a mistake," he said. "Give me my cloak."
"Indeed, sir," the man said, holding back the garment he had taken, "Mrs. Wilson said, sir, that I was to say that she particular wanted you to come fetch her in the ball-room, sir; and I was to bring you without fail."
"You may send her word that I am here."
"Please, sir," the man returned, in a voice which struck Maurice as absurdly pleading, "she was very particular, and it"s no hurt to go in, sir. She"ll blame me, sir."
Maurice looked at him, and laughed at the solemnity of the man"s homely face. A spirit of recklessness leaped up within him. He said to himself that at least Mrs. Wilson should not think that he dared not come.
"Very well," he said. "Show me the way."
"Thank you, sir," the servant said, as if he had received a great favor. "It"s not easy to bear blame that don"t belong to you."
He opened a door into an anteroom thronged with people laughing and chatting. The sound of the music was clear and loud, with the voices striking through its cadences. Across this he led Wynne, to the wide door of a ball-room flooded with light and full of moving figures.
XXVI
O WICKED WIT AND GIFT Hamlet, i. 5.
The brilliant glare of lights, the strident sound of dance-music, the enlivening sense of a living, vivaciously stirring company of gayly dressed merrymakers, a.s.sailed Maurice as he followed his guide across the anteroom. At the door of the ball-room he was for a moment hindered by a group of men who were lounging and chatting there. All his senses were keenly alert, and he perhaps unconsciously listened to hear if there were any comment on his appearance in such a place. He had not realized what he was coming into, and now that it was too late for him to withdraw without sacrificing his pride, he saw how incongruous his presence really was. Almost instantly he caught a name.
"By Jove!" one of the men said. "Isn"t the Wilson in great form to-night! That diamond on her toe must be worth a fortune."
"She saves the price in the materials of her gowns," another responded lightly. "I never saw her with quite so little on."
"No material is allowed to go to waist there," put in a third.
"She has two straps and a rosebud," yet another voice laughed; "and nothing else above the belt but diamonds."
"Her very smile is decollete" some one commented. "This is one of her nights. When I see Mrs. Wilson with that expression, I am prepared for anything."
Maurice felt his cheeks burn at this light talk. It seemed to him ribald, and he was outraged that the name of a woman should be bandied about so carelessly. He raised his head and set his square jaw defiantly; then began to push his way through the group, keenly conscious of the stare which greeted him.
"Hallo! What the devil"s that?" he heard behind him.
"The skeleton at the feast," responded one voice.
"Oh, it"s some devilish trick of Mrs. Wilson"s, of course," put in another.
All this Maurice heard with an outraged sense that there was no attempt to prevent him from hearing. He might have been a servant or a piece of furniture for any restraint these men put upon their speech. He was troubled with the fear of what absurdity Mrs. Wilson might intend. Now that he was here, however, he would go on. The natural obstinacy of his temper a.s.serted itself, and if there was little pious meekness in his spirit at that moment, there was plenty of grit.
The ball-room was garlanded with wreaths of laurel stuck thickly with red roses; women in white and in bright-hued gowns, with fair shoulders and arms, were floating about in the embraces of men; the music set everything to a rhythmic pulse, and gaily quickened the blood in the veins of the young deacon as he looked. The throbbing of the violins made him quiver with an excitement joyous and bewildering. He was dazzled by the bright, moving figures, the shining colors, the sparkling of gems, the lovely faces, the alluring creamy necks and arms; a sweet intoxication began to creep over him, despite the defiance of his feelings toward the men he had pa.s.sed in the doorway.
Half blinded by the glare, dazed and fascinated by the sights, the sounds, the perfumes, he followed the footman down the hall.
He was obliged to skirt the room, even then hardly evading the dancers.
His progress was necessarily slow. The footman so continually paused to apologize for having brushed against some lady in his anxiety to avoid a whirling pair of dancers, that it began to seem to Maurice that they should never reach Mrs. Wilson. He cast his eyes to the floor, resolved not to look at the worldly sights around him. Country bred and trained in the asceticism of the Clergy House, he could not see these women without blushing; and more than ever he wondered that he had been so blindly obedient as to allow himself to be brought to such a place.
He heard a man clap his hands. He looked up to see a flock of dancers hurrying to the upper end of the room. Among them, with a shock so violent that his heart seemed to stand still, he recognized Berenice Morison. He saw her go to a table and pick up something; then she and her companions turned and came glancing and gleaming down the hall like a flock of pigeons which fly and shine in the sun. Fair, flushed softly, more beautiful than all the rest in his eyes, Berenice came on, her hair curling about her forehead, her eyes shining with laughter and pleasure. She was dressed in white, and at one shoulder, crushed against her bare, creamy neck, was a bunch of crimson roses. Maurice trembled at the sight of her beauty; he reddened at the consciousness of her dress; over him came some inexplicable sense of fear.
Suddenly he perceived that she had caught sight of him. He could see the look of amazement rise in her face, give place to one of amus.e.m.e.nt, then change instantly into sparkling mischievousness. He moved on toward her, abashed, bewildered, feeling as if he were running a gauntlet. He could not withdraw his gaze from her, as she came quickly onward, dimpling, smiling, her face overflowing with saucy fun, her glance holding his.
"Good-evening, Mr. Wynne," she said lightly, coming up to him. "This is an unexpected pleasure."
"Good-evening," Maurice responded, hardly able to drag the words out of his parched throat.
"Of course you came for the german," Miss Morison went on, more mockingly than before. "I am so glad that I happen to have a favor for you."
She leaned forward, swaying toward him her white shoulders, dazzling him with the hint of the swell of her bosom, bewildering him with the perfume of her dark hair, the alluring feminine presence which brought the hot blood to his face. Before he guessed her intention, she had pinned to his ca.s.sock a grotesque little dangling mask which swung from a bright ribbon.
"There," she commented, drawing back as if critically to observe. "The effect is novel, but striking."
A burst of amus.e.m.e.nt, light and blinding as the spray from a whirlpool, went up from the women around. The music, the voices, the laughter, seemed to Maurice so many insults flung at him in idle contempt. He looked around him with a bitter anger which could almost have smitten these laughing women on their red mouths. Then he turned back to Berenice. He saw that she shrank before the wrath of his look; he felt with a thrill that he had at least power to make her fear him. He bent toward her full of rage made the wilder by the impulse to catch her in his arms and cover her beautiful neck with kisses.
"Shameless!" he hissed into her ear.
He saw her turn pale and then flush burning red; but he hastened on after the footman without waiting for more. Presently he reached the head of the hall, where Mrs. Wilson stood laughing and talking with several men. Her dress was of alternate stripes of crimson silk and tissue of gold, and since it had excited comment from the loungers at the door, it is small wonder that to the unsophisticated deacon, almost convent bred, it appeared no less than horribly indecent. He cast down his eyes; but his glance fell upon the foot which just then she thrust laughingly forward, evidently in answer to some remark from Stanford, who stood at her right hand. Upon the toe of her exquisite little shoe sparkled a great diamond like a fountain of flame.
"It gives light to my steps," she laughed.
"The service is worthy of it," Stanford returned with a half-mocking bow.
"Thank you," Mrs. Wilson retorted, sweeping him a satirical courtesy.
"If you say such nice things to me, what must you say to Berenice!"
It seemed to Maurice that the devil was exerting all his infernal ingenuity that night to have him tormented at every turn. He came forward hastily, eager to stop the talk.