The d.u.c.h.ess"s house was packed with a complacent crowd of people, congratulating themselves upon being able, for once, to combine duty and pleasure, since the purchase-money of their tickets for the evening"s entertainment contributed to a well-known charity, and at the same time procured them the privilege of bearing once more their favourite singer. Some there were who had grounds for additional satisfaction in the fact that, under the wide cloak of charity, they had managed to squeeze through the exclusive portals of Linfield House for the first--and probably the last--time in their lives.
As the singer made her way through the thronged hall, those who knew her personally bowed and smiled effusively, whilst those who didn"t looked on from afar and wished they did. It was not unlike a royal progress, and Diana heaved a quick sigh of relief when at last she found herself in the quiet of the little apartment set aside as an artistes" room.
Olga Lermontof was already there, and Diana greeted her rather nervously. She felt horribly uncertain what att.i.tude Miss Lermontof might be expected to adopt in the circ.u.mstances.
But she need have had no anxiety on that score. Olga seemed to be just her usual self--grave and self-contained, her thin, dark-browed face wearing its habitual half-mocking expression. Apparently she had wiped out the day"s happenings from her mind, and had become once more merely the quiet, competent accompanist to a well-known singer.
There was no one else in the artistes" room. The other performers were mingling with the guests, only withdrawing from the chattering crowd when claimed by their part in the evening"s entertainment.
"How far on are they?" asked Diana, picking up the programme and running her eye down it.
"Your songs are the next item but one," replied Miss Lermontof.
A violin solo preceded the two songs which, bracketed together in the middle of the programme as its culminating point, made the sum total of Diana"s part in it, and she waited quietly in the little anteroom while the violinist played, was encored and played again, and throughout the brief interval that followed. She felt that to-night she could not face the cheap, everyday flow of talk and compliment. She would sing because she had promised, that she would, but as soon as her part was done she would slip away and go home--home, where she could sit alone by the dead embers of her happiness.
A little flutter of excitement rippled through the big rooms when at last she mounted the platform. People who had hitherto been content to remain, in the hall, regarding the music as a pleasant accompaniment to the interchange of the day"s news and gossip, now came flocking in through the doorways, hoping to find seats, and mostly having to content themselves with standing-room.
Almost as in a dream, Diana waited for the applause to subside, her eyes roaming halt-unconsciously over the big a.s.sembly.
It was all so stalely familiar--the little rustle of excitement, the preliminary clapping, the settling down to listen, and then the sea of upturned faces spread out beneath her.
The memory of the first time that she had sung in public, at Adrienne"s house in Somervell Street, came back to her. It had been just such an occasion as this. . . .
(Olga was playing the introductory bars of accompaniment to her song, and, still as in a dream, she began to sing, the exquisite voice thrilling out into the vast room, golden and perfect.)
. . . Adrienne had smiled at her encouragingly from across the room, and Jerry Leigh had been standing at the far end near some big double doors. There were double doors to this room, too, flung wide open.
(It was odd how clearly she could recall it all; her mind seemed to be working quite independently of what was going on around her.) And Max had been there. She remembered how she had believed him to be still abroad, and then, how she had looked up and suddenly met his gaze across those rows and rows of unfamiliar faces. He had come back.
Instinctively she glanced towards the far end of the room, where, on that other night and in that other room, he had been standing, and then . . . then . . . was it still only the dream, the memory of long ago? . . . Or had G.o.d worked a miracle? . . . Over the heads of the people, Max"s eyes, grave and tender, but unspeakably sad, looked into hers!
A hand seemed to grip her heart, squeezing it so that she could not draw her breath. Everything grew blurred and dim about her, but through the blur she could still see Max, standing with his head thrown back against the panelling of the door, his arms folded across his chest, and his eyes--those grave, questioning eyes--fixed on her face.
Presently the darkness cleared away and she found that she was still singing--mechanically her voice had answered to the long training of years. But the audience had heard the great _prima donna_ catch her breath and falter in her song. For an instant it had seemed almost as though she might break down. Then the tension pa.s.sed, and the lovely voice, upborne by a limitless technique, had floated out again, golden and perfect as before.
It was only the habit of surpa.s.sing art which had enabled Diana to finish her song. Since last night, when she had seen Max for that brief moment at the Emba.s.sy, she had pa.s.sed through the whole gamut of emotion, glimpsed the vision of coming happiness, only to believe that with her own hands she had pushed it aside. And now she was conscious of nothing but that Max--Max, the man she loved--was here, close to her once again, and that her heart was crying out for him. He was hers, her mate out of the whole world, and in a sudden blinding flash of self-revelation, she recognised in her refusal to return to him a sheer denial of the divine altruism of love.
The blank, bewildering chaos of the last twelve hours, with its turmoil of conflicting pa.s.sions, took on a new aspect, and all at once that which had been dark was become light.
From the moment she had learned the truth about her husband, her thoughts had centred solely round herself, dwelling--in, all humility, it is true--but still dwelling none the less egotistically upon her personal failure, her own irreparable mistake, her self-wrought bankruptcy of all the faith and absolute belief a woman loves to give her lover. She had thrust these things before his happiness, whereas the stern and simple creed of love places the loved one first and everything else immeasurably second.
But now, in this quickened moment of revelation, Diana knew that she loved Max utterly and entirely, that his happiness was her supreme need, and that if she let him go from her again, life would be henceforth a poor, maimed thing, shorn of all meaning.
It no longer mattered that she had sinned against him, that she had nothing to bring, that she must go to him a beggar. The scales had fallen from her eyes, and she realised that in love there is no reckoning--no pitiful making-up of accounts. The pride that cannot take has no place there; where love is, giving and taking are one and indivisible.
Nothing mattered any longer--nothing except that Max was here--here, within reach of the great love in her heart that was stretching out its arms to him . . . calling him back.
The audience, ardently applauding her first song, saw her turn and give some brief instruction to her accompanist, who nodded, laying aside the song which she had just placed upon the music-desk. A little whisper ran through the a.s.sembly as people asked each other what song was about to be subst.i.tuted for the one on the programme, and when the sad, appealing music of "The Haven of Memory," stole out into the room, they smiled and nodded to one another, pleased that the great singer was giving them the song in which they loved best to hear her.
Do you remember Our great love"s pure unfolding, The troth you gave, And prayed, for G.o.d"s upholding, Long and long ago?
Out of the past A dream--and then the waking-- Comes back to me Of love, and love"s forsaking, Ere the summer waned.
Ah! Let me dream That still a little kindness Dwelt in the smile That chid my foolish blindness, When you said good-bye.
Let me remember When I am very lonely, How once your love But crowned and blessed me only, Long and long ago.
There was no faltering now. The beautiful voice had never been more touching in its exquisite appeal. All the unutterable sweetness and humility and faith, the wistful memories, the pa.s.sion and surrender that love holds, dwelt in the throbbing notes.
To Max, standing a little apart, the width of the room betwixt him and the woman singing, it seemed as though she were entreating him . . .
calling to him. . . .
The sad, tender words, poignant with regret and infinite beseeching, clamoured against his heart, and as the last note trembled into silence, he turned and made his way blindly out of the room.
CHAPTER XXIX
SACRIFICE
"_Did you mean it?_"
Errington"s voice broke harshly through the silence of the little anteroom where Diana waited alone. It had a curious, cracked sound, and his breath laboured like that of a man who has run himself out.
For a moment she kept her face hidden, trying to steady herself, but at last she turned towards him, and in her eyes was a soft shining--a strange, sweet fire.
"Max!" The whispered name was hardly audible; tremulous and wistful it seemed to creep across the room.
But he heard it. In a moment his arms were round her, and he had gathered her close against his heart. And so they remained for a s.p.a.ce, neither speaking.
Presently Diana lifted her head.
"Max, it was because I loved you so that I was so hard and bitter--only because I loved you so."
"I know," was all he said. And he kissed her hair.
"Do you?"--wistfully. "I wonder if--if a man can understand how a woman can be so cruel to what she loves?"
And as he had no answer to this (since, after all, a man cannot be expected to understand all--or even very much--that a woman does), he kissed her lips.
She crept a little nearer to him.
"Max! Do you still care for me--like that?" There was wonder and thanksgiving in her voice. "Oh, my dear, I"m down in the dust at your feet--I"ve failed you utterly, wronged you every way. Even if you forgive me, I shall never forgive myself. But I"m--all yours, Max."
With a sudden jealous movement he folded her more closely in his arms.
"Let me have a few moments of this," he muttered, a little breathlessly.