"Sometimes. Do you?"
"I go to the Coliseum."
Claude"s next question slipped out with the daring simplicity he knew how to employ. "Do you go on particular days?"
"I generally go on Tuesdays." If she was moved by an afterthought it was without flurry or apparent sense of having committed an indiscretion.
"Not every Tuesday," she said, quietly, and dropped the subject there.
When, a few minutes later, she was resting on a rug thrown down on the steps, with Claude posed gracefully by her side, Archie Masterman found the opportunity to stroll near enough to his wife to say in an undertone, "Do you see Claude?"
Ena"s answer was no more than a flutter of the eyelids, but a flutter of the eyelids quite sufficient to take in the summing up of significant, unutterable things in her husband"s face.
CHAPTER XIX
By the time Thor and Lois had returned from their honeymoon in early May the line of battle in Claude"s soul had been extended. The Claude who might be was fighting hard to get the better of the Claude who was. It was, nevertheless, the Claude who was that spoke in response to the elder brother"s timid inquiry concerning the situation as it affected Rosie Fay. Hardly knowing how to frame his question, Thor had put it awkwardly.
"Done anything yet?"
"No."
In the little smoking-room that had been Len"s and was now Thor"s--Mr.
and Mrs. Willoughby having retired already to their _pet.i.t trou pas cher_--they puffed at their cigars in silence. It had been the wish of both bride and bridegroom that Claude should dine with them on their second evening at home. Thor had man[oe]uvered for these few minutes alone with his brother in order to get the information he was now seeking. For his own a.s.surance there were things he needed to know. He wanted to feel convinced that he hadn"t acted hastily, that in marrying he had made no mistake. There would be proof of that when he saw that Claude and Rosie had found their happiness in each other, and that in what he himself had done--there had been no other way! He wished that Uncle Sim"s pietistic refrain wouldn"t hum so persistently in his memory: "Oh, tarry thou the Lord"s leisure!" He didn"t believe in a Lord"s leisure; but neither did he want to be afraid of his own haste.
He had grown so self-conscious on the subject that it took courage for him to say:
"Isn"t it getting to be about time?"
Claude drew the cigar from his lips and stared obliquely. "Look here, old chap; I thought I was to put this thing through in my own way?"
"Oh, quite so; quite so."
Claude"s thrust went home when he said, "I don"t see why _you_ should be in such a hurry about it." He followed this by a question that Thor found equally pertinent: "Why the devil are you?"
"Because I thought you were."
"Well, even if I am, I don"t see any reason for rushing things."
"Oh, would you call it--rushing?" He threw off, carelessly, "I hear you go a good deal to the Darlings"!"
"Not any oftener than they ask me."
"Well, then, they ask you pretty often, don"t they?"
"I suppose they do it when they feel inclined. I haven"t counted the number of occasions."
"No; but I dare say Rosie has."
"I"m not a fool, Thor. I don"t talk to Rosie about the Darlings."
"Nor to the Darlings about her. That"s the point. At least, it"s one of the two points; and both are important. It"s no more unjust for Rosie Fay to know nothing of Elsie Darling than it is for Elsie Darling to know nothing of Rosie Fay."
"Oh, rot, Thor!" Claude sprang to his feet, knocking off the ash of his cigar into the fireplace. "What do you think I"m up to?"
"I don"t know. And what I"m afraid of is that _you_ don"t know."
"If you think I mean to leave Rosie in the lurch--"
"I don"t think you _mean_ it--no!"
"Then, if you think I"d do it--"
"The surest way not to do it is to--do the other thing."
"I"ll do the other thing when I"m ready--not before."
"Humph! That"s just what I thought would happen."
"And this is just what _I_ thought would happen--that because you"d put up that confounded money you"d try to make me feel I was bought. Well, I"m not bought. See? Rather than be bribed into doing what I mean to do anyhow I"ll not do it at all."
"Oh, if you mean to do it _anyhow_--"
Claude rounded on his brother indignantly. "Say, Thor, do you think I"m going to be a d.a.m.n scoundrel?"
"Do you think you"d be a d.a.m.n scoundrel if you didn"t put it through?"
"I should be worse. Even a d.a.m.n scoundrel can be called a man, and I should have forfeited the name. There! Does that satisfy you?"
"Up to a point--yes."
Claude sniffed. "You"re such a queer chap, Thor, that if I"ve satisfied you up to a point I ought to be content."
"Oh, I"m all right, Claude. I only hoped that you"d be able to go on with it for some better reason than just--just not to be a scoundrel."
"Good Lord, old chap! I"m crazy about it. If Rosie wouldn"t hum and haw I"d be the happiest man alive."
"Oh? So Rosie hums and haws, does she? What about?"
"About that confounded family of hers. Must do this for the father, and that for the mother, and something else for the beastly cub that"s in jail. You can see the position that puts me in."
"But if you"re really in love with her--"
"I"m really in love with _her_, I"m not with them. I never pretended to be. But if I have to marry the bunch, the cub and all--"
Thor couldn"t help thinking of the opening he would have had here for his own favorite kinds of activity. "Then that"ll give you a chance to help them."
"Not so stuck on helping people as you, old chap. Want help myself."