Canning had dropped into a chair near the fireplace, one yard from the tea-table. He wore without concealment the air of waiting to be entertained. Carlisle poured, and thought that in ten minutes, or at most fifteen, this would be all over: if the present _tete-a-tete_ was to lead to another, and so on through a gorgeous climacteric sequence, it was now, or it was never. Here was an exciting thought, with stage-fright possibilities to some; but Carlisle, confident through her many testimonials, merely smiled prettily and asked Mr. Canning if he would not take one or more of the cunning little pink cakes. It appeared that Mr. Canning would; pink, he said, was his color.
"I believe we parted rather suddenly," said Carlisle, continuing to smile a little to herself, "the last time I had this pleasure. Do you remember?"
He desired to know if she could possibly conceive his memory to be so short.
"I was immensely mortified," said she, "to learn that I had given you a cold--it was a cold, wasn"t it?--or whooping-cough?--by keeping you so long in the night air that evening. I"ve worried so about it all these weeks. _Am_ I too late to inquire?"
"I kick myself to have gone away leaving you anxious," said Canning, with entire gravity. "The attack, as it chanced, was transitory. There was no coughing--whooping or otherwise. The trouble was purely localized, in the head, and--"
"In the imagination, might one almost say?"
"In the head. You must have heard somewhere of cold in the head? A well-known though unfashionable complaint, throughout the north. I, on the other hand, was much troubled about you, whom I was compelled, by your command, to leave to the mercies of the nocturnal caller. However, Kerr a.s.sured me, before I was obliged to go away, that you had come through alive and uninjured."
"Ah, but did I?"... She added, after a brief pause: "Should you call a biting lecture on one"s shortcomings from a strange man no injury?"
"But surely, speaking to that topic alone, my supplanter could not have spun it out for two hours, while I, luckless one, tramped alone on the piazza."
"Two hours?... As I say," Carlisle laughed at him, nibbling a little pink cake, "I like your pretty speeches."
The fire crackled merrily. The masculine paraphernalia stood, convenient. Canning stretched out an indolent but man"s sized hand and refilled his gla.s.s. From across the room Kerr"s voice sounded, conveying enthusiasm founded on the solid rock of patience:
"And this little poem about roses and how cold your nose is--I must really show you that, ma"am. Spicy, you know! And the witty picture!"
"I"ll compromise on an hour," said Canning. "And what hideous foibles did the visitor charge you with to banish me that long?"
"With being quite heartless."
"Oh."
"With having nothing inside to be kind with. For these reasons he felt quite sorry for me."
"Ah! Is it possible that you could remember _my_ suggesting, just a thought before him--"
"I do remember. But, you see, this man is quite crazy. I suspected it then, but I know it now, for you said so not five minutes ago."
Canning looked at her.
"Your words," said Carlisle, "were that he was off his chump at all points. I hope mamma isn"t listening, for she doesn"t like me to use slang, and will not believe me when I say the men teach it to me."
"Oh!... Was _that_ Vivian!"
Carlisle nodded. "It makes it all quite interesting, doesn"t it? To be felt sorry for by a man who writes really wicked attacks on one"s father"s perfectly lovely business. Only I knew all along he wasn"t really quite right.... I hope you"ve had a very happy trip?"
"Thank you. I don"t believe I have, particularly."
"Oh, I"m sorry!... Have you suffered at all from the blues, since you got well of the cold and escaped at midnight from your little fort?"
Canning continued to look at her.
"I"ve felt lonely," said he, "when the moon shines bright."
"You?"
A knock fell upon the door, making all look up; and Kerr bustling forward, first opened the door, and then stepped out into the hall. He returned in a moment, his round face puckered dubiously.
"It"s Johnson," he explained--"chap across the hall, with the better apartment. Wanted to show it to me now. He"s living down the river, and"s going off in half an hour. H"m. Well, guess I better let it go till the next time he"s in."
"Don"t mind us, old chap," said Canning, without hesitation.
"If you wanted mamma to look at it with you, Willie? Perhaps--"
Mrs. Heth was already on her feet.
"Nonsense, Willie! Of course get the man while he"s here--and _I"m_ here too! Across the hall?--it won"t take us five minutes--"
"All right"m--thank you," agreed Willie, with evident pleasure. He added, smiling roguishly: "You two be trusted five minutes without a chaperon?"
Carlisle laughed dazzlingly.
"Five years, Willie. Mr. Canning is absolutely safe."
Mrs. Heth, saying archly that they would not absent themselves quite so long as that, glided out. Willie followed, engrossed in Johnson. The door was left half open. Johnson was presented. Their voices died away across and down the hall....
A momentary silence fell upon Mr. Canning and Carlisle, thus deserted in the Kerr sitting-room. It appeared to embarra.s.s neither. Having risen, Canning stood at the mantel, sipping his Scotch and looking down at her.
Carlisle went on cutting bread and b.u.t.ter, or something of that sort.
She felt agreeably excited. In the manner of the shining pa.s.ser-by she had observed just that progressiveness noted on the occasion of their two other meetings: faintly ironic boredom yielding slowly to pa.s.sive interest, pa.s.sive interest warming steadily....
She had taken off her coat, at Kerr"s solicitation; she sat with lowered lashes, the glow of the fire upon her cheek. To what measure she engaged and intrigued the eye, Mr. Canning had had seven weeks to forget. No dull wit, we may suppose, in appreciation of feminine masterpieces, he seemed to see it suddenly with some force now, standing and sipping the pleasurable Scotch. And he began to speak in a voice not previously heard in Kerr"s apartment.
"Lonely, Miss Heth, when the moon shines bright--blue, too, now that I think of it.--You are good enough to ask if I"ve had a happy trip.
Happy!... Weeks of moping from dull place to duller, months ditto staring one in the face, and for this present--the rural villa of one"s estimable cousins, with the sun and the stars for company. Really does it seem such a trifle to you to be plucked up by the ears from one"s environment, transplanted bodily league on league, and set down on an empty road four miles from nowhere?"
"Nowhere? You are cruel, Mr. Canning. Four miles travelled in the right direction might bring you to a good deal. Only mountains never really come to Mahomets, not in life."
"Ah, but I"m no Mahomet in these months, alas! to scale mountains or not as the whim strikes me. If I were!... But no, no!--my sentence, you see, is expressly to avoid all mountain-climbing with whatever else is pleasant--to play the invalid, to rest, breathe deep, sleep and coddle.
And for excitement--it is my revered mother"s own suggestion--why, write a book if I like--my impressions of the New South, or any other reason why! Write a book! What have I to do with writing, think I, of a long morning or a longer night! I"m no scrivening professor, but blood and flesh.... You couldn"t imagine the number of times I"ve been tempted to chuck all the mild climate tomfoolery, and cut away for lights and home!"
Carlisle gazed up at him, her chin upon her ungloved hand. Was there pose in these depictions of Mr. Hugo Canning as a morose recluse? She thought not: his light bitterness rang true enough, the note of a man really half-desperate with ennui. And she read his remarks as a subtle sign of his confidence, an acknowledgment of acquaintance between them, a bond....
"But you can"t do it, I suppose?--if your health demands that you put up with us a little while longer?"
"I seem rude?--of course. But my meaning is quite the contrary.... May you, Miss Heth, never know the sorrows of the transplanted and the idle--"
He broke off, staring with apparent absentness.
Much interested, Carlisle said, toying with her teaspoon:
"I didn"t think you rude at all. It seems to me perfectly natural that you should be both bored and blue--especially if you don"t feel quite well.... But surely a little mild pleasuring during rest hours isn"t forbidden as injurious to throats?"