I"m going to send Lambert on to kill him for me."
Kate looked at Morton with inquiring eye--he shook his head.
Britt resumed: "I am trusting in you, Serviss. If I could be sure of living two weeks longer I would stay and help, but money and breath are now vital to me, and I must go. However, I"m perfectly willing to put Clarke out of the way if you advise it. He really ought to die, Mrs. Rice," he gravely explained as he rose to go. "He is a male vampire. To think of him despoiling that glorious young soul maddens me. I am the son of a coa.r.s.e, powerful, sensual, drunken father; but he neglected to endow me with his brutal health. My mother was an invalid; therefore, here am I, old and worn out at forty--that"s why I worship youth and beauty. Health is the only heaven I know, and that is denied me." Here his smile died, his eyes softened, and his face set in impenetrable gravity. "Had I the power I would keep Viola Lambert forever young and forever virgin." Then, with a quick return to his familiar drawl: "But I am going away without even killing Clarke, to plod my little round in Colorow and wait news from you. If I do not see you again, Mrs. Rice, keep me in mind. I make the same promise your husband made--I will "manifest" to you if I can."
"I would rather you came in the flesh," she replied.
He bowed deeply. "I thank you both for a very satisfying glimpse of a civilised home."
"Sometimes I think we"re over-civilized," she replied, quickly. "But come and see us again."
"I fear it will be as a spook--they laugh at microbes as well as locks. However, I promise to rap when I call."
"Thank you, that will make you a most considerate ghost."
When they were alone together Kate said, with a sigh: "What an amount of sin and sickness and trouble and death there is in the world!"
"That"s a sign we"re getting on," he replied. "When we"re young we laugh at the falling leaves--they are only a sign of some new sport.
When I"m as old as you are I suppose I"ll begin to observe all the bald-heads at the theatre."
"Well, now, for our dinner-party. I must write to Mrs. Lambert to-night."
"You"d better take second thought about this matter--"Reckless Kate.""
"I have."
"Take a third. Consider this--the girl may go into a trance at the table."
"Oh, if she only would! My fear is she"ll be like other amateur performers--"subject to a cold" or something. These gifted people are so often disappointing."
"Now, see here, Kit, seriously, if you invite Miss Lambert to our house it must be as any other charming guest--"
"You didn"t suppose I was _really_ going to ask her to spookle?" she indignantly answered; then added, with a smile: "Of course, if she _insists_ on reading my palm--or--any little thing like that, it wouldn"t be nice to refuse, would it?"
"I knew it! You have designs upon her. Don"t do it. It would be too gross after your protest against others for using her. She herself complained bitterly of just this treatment. You must not even speak of her powers."
She lifted her hand solemnly. "_I swear!_"
"I mistrust you even when you swear," he ended, doubtfully. "There"s a tell-tale gleam in your eyes."
And at this moment of banter they both lost their sense of the girl"s imminent peril and thought of her only as a most entertaining possibility as a guest.
XII
VIOLA IN DINNER-DRESS
Viola glowed with joy over Kate"s invitation to dinner, and, flying to the telephone (as she was requested to do), accepted without consulting either her mother or Clarke, and fell immediately into wonder whether she possessed a gown becoming enough to fit the golden opportunity.
Mrs. Lambert was also pleased, but at once said, "I hope Tony will feel like going."
Viola resented the implied doubt of their own acceptance. "I am going, anyhow. I will not be shut up here any longer like a convict. I like Mrs. Rice very much, and I want to see her house. I know it will be just as nice as she is."
"But we can"t go without Anthony, my dear."
Clarke came to the door a little later to say that he had received Mrs. Rice"s invitation, but that he did not care to feed the curiosity of such people. "You would better plead a previous engagement," he added to Viola.
"I"ll do nothing of the sort," she indignantly answered. "Indeed, I"ve already accepted. You needn"t look black--I"m going," she added, in pouting defiance.
Something in her look as well as in her tone convinced him that wisdom lay in not attempting to restrain her, therefore he gave a.s.sent, gloomily and with a sense of loss. "I don"t know how Pratt will feel about it. He don"t like those people, and, besides, he has invited some friends in to see you this evening."
"He said nothing to me about it," Viola responded, curtly, "and, besides, how can he expect me to be always at his command? He is not my jailer. I"m tired of his demands, they are so unreasonable."
Mrs. Lambert, as usual, entered to soothe and heal. "Viola"s been very good about meeting Mr. Pratt"s friends, Tony. We"ve hardly been out to dinner since we came here, and it really seems to me as if we had the right to go out to-night."
"We ought to have Thursdays, anyway," the girl scornfully added. "We have less liberty than our maids. The whole situation is becoming intolerable."
Clarke acknowledged that Pratt demanded a good deal, and was gracious enough to say: "It won"t be necessary much longer. I"ll go down and try to arrange the matter, and report what he says."
"I don"t care what he says, I"m going," Viola repeated. "I"m going if he locks us out. I wish he would."
Pratt was resentful at once. "I don"t want her to go to-night. I have some people coming in to see her. I don"t want them disappointed; she must remain."
"She feels aggrieved because she has been kept so close here, and I must say--"
"I don"t see why she feels that way, she has every luxury. She goes for a drive every afternoon, and there is hardly a night that I don"t bring home somebody to dinner. It seems to me she"s seeing all the people she ought to see. I don"t believe in having her mix with those sceptics too freely."
He went up-stairs sulkily, quite in the mood to bully, but Mrs.
Lambert turned away his wrath with a smile and several soft words, and Viola did not see him till she was on her way to the carriage. He was lurking in the hall below, waiting for her surly and sour and insulting.
Viola, perceiving his humor, said to herself: "I will not let you spoil my evening by making me angry. I will not listen to you," and she didn"t, though she could not help hearing his warning growl.
"I"ll expect you home early."
Once safely out of the house she said to Clarke: "This really is too much, Anthony. He is insufferable. If you don"t tell him so, and teach him better manners, I will leave the house. But there! I said I wouldn"t let him spoil our evening, and I won"t--I won"t even think of him again."
Serviss expected her to show some signs of the deep emotional stress of his former interview, but in this he was most pleasurably surprised. He marvelled at the height of her rebound from the wan helplessness of her mood upon the stairs. She was, indeed, a totally different being--a radiant, blooming creature belonging wholly to the world of youth--and he was scarcely able to relate the two scenes to the same girl, and again he exclaimed, "What an actress--if she is an actress!" She was very simply attired in pale blue with but few ornaments, but she bore herself like a queen demanding homage--and he gave it. He was all the lover and nothing of the scientist as he stood to greet her.
She, on her part, behind her proud mask, was breathing quick with pleasure. To meet Professor Serviss in dinner-dress, in his own home, exalted her above the pupil and transformed him into something more intimate than the master--something more dangerously compelling than friend.
Kate, quite carried away by her enthusiasm, caught the girl again in her arms. "You dear, sweet thing! I wish I had made a big party for you; you"re too fine to be wasted on three cranky old scientists."
Serviss met Clarke with less of repulsion than he had antic.i.p.ated, for, notwithstanding the preacher"s haggard cheeks and a certain set glare which came into his eyes occasionally, he was a handsome figure.
He was plainly on guard, however, and extremely ill at ease, and his eyes kept furtive watch on Viola"s every movement.
Kate at once engaged him in conversation in order that he and Morton might not fall into argument, and with the further purpose of permitting her young people a little time for mutual explanation. She was glad when Weissmann came in, brisk as a boy, his keen eyes peering alertly through his horn-bowed gla.s.ses; he not merely proved a diversion, he completed her party. The great man was as animated as a cricket (this was his society manner), and upon being presented to Viola began paying her the most marked and absorbed attention, hopping briskly from one heavy German compliment to another, quite unaware, apparently, that she was anything more than a very pretty girl.