"He"s at rest now," said the d.u.c.h.ess. "Poor soul! And yet," she added, "I did always like Nina."
"We all like her," agreed Lady Bellingdown. "And Caryll, who only came last night, is not only consoled, but desperately in love again, which is a great triumph for her particular talent."
"Yes," the marchioness agreed. "They say Caryll did have a hard time.
Fancy! A mother jealous of her own daughter. Strange persons, those, Americans!"
"She almost killed Caryll," declared his aunt warmly. "The poor fellow was nearly crazed."
"He might do worse than marry Nina," the d.u.c.h.ess decided. "There are a few years" difference in their ages, but that doesn"t matter nowadays since Lady Grandison"s leap in the dark. Ten years" difference there, and they"re like a pair of turtle-doves."
"I know," said Lady Grey in her meditative way. "It wouldn"t be bad, of course; but, then, Nina would never have him. She has her own story, you know."
"I know," said the d.u.c.h.ess.
Nina, coming out of her own room to run back downstairs, ran into the arms of a man instead.
"Oh!" she cried in surprise; not in alarm.
"I saw you run away," laughed the right man"s voice in her ear. "So I ran, too. Kiss me again and I"ll make a bargain with you. Let me make all the love I please, and I"ll promise not to speak of marriage again."
He had her locked fast against his breast. "You promise me something,"
she suggested. "Go to Harry--to Kneedrock, you know--and get him to tell you my story. You"ll never want to marry me then; and I"ll have a clear conscience."
"What rot! Fancy my fussing over your story! What do I care about your story?"
"But you must know it," she insisted, "because, you see, it will make it easier for both of us. After a while--when you"ve married that girl--you"ll be glad that I was honest with you."
He was kissing her.
"I shall never marry the girl," he declared. "I shall marry you."
She laid her cheek against his shoulder. "If you marry me I shall get rid of you somehow," she whispered. "I love love, but I simply hate husbands. It won"t do to marry me. You ask Kneedrock. He knows."
She could feel his heart flopping about in his bosom.
"You--you extraordinary creature!" he faltered.
"Yes, isn"t it awful?" she asked. "I think myself it is shocking. But I can"t help it. I am made so."
He tried to laugh and failed.
"Do you want to kiss me any more?... No?... Then step off my gown and I"ll run back downstairs."
Sunday went off well. Some went to church and some didn"t. Carleigh didn"t. Nina didn"t. They went for a walk instead.
"This is heavenly," said the man. "I"m so happy. You are an enchantress.
I feel that before I met you I never knew what anything meant."
"Men all say that," she affirmed. "Men are very stupid. They get a little chain of pearly speeches together, and then they expect women to fancy that no other man ever even so much as saw a pearl before."
"Say what you please," he cried, all but caroling in his joy. "Only let me be by to hear, and let there be woods ahead where I may kiss you again."
"It"s odd you should enjoy kissing me," she returned placidly. "It"s droll. That"s another thing I find charming in men. It"s the energy with which they kiss a new woman."
Carleigh laughed heartily. "How rippingly you put it!" said he. "Come now, how many men have kissed you?"
"This year or in my whole life?"
"Either."
She considered a little and then she yawned. "I don"t see the good in troubling to count. I know now that you are not really in love, so why bother further?"
"Bother further? Not really in love? What do you mean?"
"Why, my dear boy, don"t get huffed. Surely even you know that a man really in love can"t put up with a conversation like that. Of course, I"m asked here to cure you of the blues; not to plunge you into a fresh trap. You know that. And it"s nice to see how well I do it."
"So you think I"m not really in love, eh?"
"I jolly well know you aren"t."
There was a slight pause while Carleigh thought fast and furiously. Nina walked on, _insouciante_. He was the least of her troubles.
After a little they entered the woods. Then he finished reflecting and took up talking again.
"So you are just flirting with me?"
"Only that."
"And yet you know as well as I do that in every flirtation there lies the seed of a pure and pa.s.sionate love."
She shook her head. "Not with me. My flirtations are pure, but my pa.s.sionate love is all seed--gone to seed."
"The seed can be replanted," he suggested.
"More than planting must go toward my future harvest. I tell you frankly that my spade-and-harrow days are over."
"Let me spade and harrow."
"Oh, what rot it all is!" she exclaimed abruptly. "I"m so deadly weary of everything."
"Quite so," he interrupted eagerly. "So am I. We"ll go away. I"ll get a post somewhere. And we"ll shunt all our troubles."
"I"d grow tired too soon," said Nina slowly. "You see, you wouldn"t grow tired, but I should."
Carleigh hardly knew how to take that.
"I"m so interesting," she continued--"so fascinating--what you will. And a man always enjoys my talk while it"s going on. But I"m tired of my own talk and want a change."