"Do you see?" said the old lady, tendering him her opera gla.s.s.
"What?" he asked sullenly.
"A new planet. Use your telescope, Rix--and also ama.s.s a little common-sense. Yonder sits a future d.u.c.h.ess, or a countess, if I care to start things for her. Which I shan"t--in that direction."
"There are no poor d.u.c.h.esses or countesses, of course," he remarked with an unpleasant laugh.
Mrs. Sprowl looked at him, ironically.
"I understand the Earl of Dankmere, perfectly," she said--"also other people, including young, and sulky boys. So if you clearly understand my wishes, and the girl doesn"t make a fool of herself over you or any other callow ineligible, her future will give me something agreeable to occupy me."
The blood stung his face as he stood up--a tall graceful figure among the others in the box--a clean-cut, wholesome boy to all appearances, with that easy and amiable presence which is not distinction but which sometimes is even more agreeable.
Lips compressed, the flush still hot on his face, he stood silent, tasting all the bitterness that his career had stored up for him--sick with contempt for a self that could accept and swallow such things. For he had been well schooled, but scarcely to that contemptible point.
"Of course," he said, pleasantly, "you understand that I shall do as I please."
Mrs. Sprowl laughed:
"I"ll see to that, too, Ricky."
Chrysos Lacy leaned forward and began to talk to him, and his training reacted mechanically, for he seemed at once to become his gay and engaging self.
He did not return to the Vernons" box nor did he see Strelsa again before she went South.
The next night a note was delivered to him, written from the Wycherlys"
car, "Wind-Flower."
"MY DEAR MR. QUARREN:
"Why did you not come back to say good-bye? You spoke of doing so.
I"m afraid Chrysos Lacy is responsible.
"The dance at the Van Dynes was very jolly. I am exceedingly sorry you were not there. Thank you for the flowers and bon-bons that were delivered to me in my state-room. My violets are not yet entirely faded, so they have not yet joined your gardenia in the limbo of useless things.
"Mr. Westguard came to the train. He _is_ nice.
"Mr. O"Hara and Chrysos and Jack Lacy were there, so in spite of your conspicuous absence the Legation maintained its gay reputation and covered itself with immortal blarney.
"This letter was started as a note to thank you for your gifts, but it is becoming a serial as Molly and Jim and I sit here watching the North Carolina landscape fly past our windows like streaks of brown lightened only by the occasional delicious and sunny green of some long-leafed pine.
"There"s nothing to see from horizon to horizon except the monotonous repet.i.tion of mules and n.i.g.g.e.rs and evil-looking cypress swamps and a few razor-backs and a buzzard flying very high in the blue.
"Thank you again for my flowers.... I wonder if you understand that my instinct is to be friends with you?
"It was from the very beginning.
"And please don"t be absurd enough to think that I am going to forget you--or our jolly escapade at the Wycherly ball. You behaved very handsomely once. I know I can count on your kindness to me.
"Good-bye, and many many thanks--as Jack Lacy says--"f"r the manny booggy-rides, an" th" goom-candy, an" the boonches av malagy grrapes"!
"Sincerely your friend,
"STRELSA LEEDS."
That same day Sir Charles Mallison arrived in New York and went directly to Mrs. Sprowl"s house. Their interview was rather brief but loudly cordial on the old lady"s part:
"How"s my sister and Foxy?" she asked--meaning Sir Renard and Lady Spinney.
Sir Charles regretted he had not seen them.
"And you?"
"Quite fit, thanks." And he gravely trusted that her own health was satisfactory.
"You haven"t changed your mind?" she asked with a smile which the profane might consider more like a grin.
Sir Charles said he had not, and a healthy colour showed under the tan.
"All these years," commented the old lady, ironically.
"Four," said Sir Charles.
"Was it four years ago when you saw her in Egypt?"
"Four years--last month--the tenth."
"And never saw her again?"
"Never."
Mrs. Sprowl shook with asthmatic mirth:
"Such story-book constancy! Why didn"t you ask your friend the late Sirdar to have Leeds pitched into the Nile. It would have saved you those four years" waiting? You know you haven"t many years to waste, Sir Charles."
"I"m forty-five," he said, colouring painfully.
"Four years gone to h.e.l.l," said the old lady with that delicate candour which sometimes characterised her.... "And now what do you propose to do with the rest of "em? Dawdle away your time?"
[Ill.u.s.tration: ""Is--Mrs. Leeds--well?" he ventured at length, reddening again."]
"Face my fate," he admitted touching his moustache and fearfully embarra.s.sed.
"Well, if you"re in a hurry, you"ll have to go down South to face it.
She"s at Palm Beach for the next three weeks."
"Thank you," he said.