"Good-morning, Norman," she said, in a pleasant voice. "Now confess that I am a clever actress, and that I have given you a real fright."
He looked at her in wonder.
"I do not understand you," he returned.
"It is so easy to mislead a man," she said, laughingly.
"I do not understand, Philippa," he repeated.
"Did you really take all my pretty balcony scene in earnest last night?"
she asked.
"I did indeed," he replied; and again the clear musical laugh, seemed to astonish him.
"I could not have believed it, Norman," she said. "Did you really think I was in earnest?"
"Certainly I did. Were you not?"
"No," she answered.
"Then I thank Heaven for it," he said, "for I have been very unhappy about you. Why did you say so much if you did not mean it, Philippa?"
"Because you annoyed me by pleading the cause of the duke. He had no right to ask you to do such a thing, and you were unwise to essay such a task. I have punished you by mystifying you--I shall next punish him."
"Then you did not mean all that you said?" he interrogated, still wondering at this unexpected turn of events.
"I should have given you credit for more penetration, Norman," she replied. "I to mean such nonsense--I to avow a preference for any man!
Can you have been so foolish as to think so? It was only a charade, acted for your amus.e.m.e.nt."
"Oh, Philippa," he cried, "I am so pleased, dear! And yet--yet, do you know, I wish that you had not done it. It has given me a shock. I shall never be quite sure whether you are jesting or serious. I shall never feel that I really understand you."
"You will, Norman. It did seem so ridiculous for you, my old playfellow, to sit lecturing me so gravely about matrimony. You took it so entirely for granted that I did not care for the duke."
"And do you care for him, Philippa?" he asked.
"Can you doubt it, after the description you gave of him, Norman?"
"You are mocking me again, Philippa," he said.
"But you were very eloquent, Norman," she persisted. "I have never heard any one more so. You painted his Grace of Hazlewood in such glowing colors that no one could help falling in love with him."
"Did I? Well, I do think highly of him, Philippa. And so, after all, you really care for him?"
"I do not think I shall tell you, Norman. You deserve to be kept in the dark. Would you tell me if you found your ideal woman?"
"I would. I would tell you at once," he replied, eagerly.
"If you could but have seen your face!" she cried. "I feel tempted to act the charade over again. Why, Norman, what likeness can you see between Philippa L"Estrange, the proud, cold woman of the world, and that sweet little Puritan maiden at her spinning wheel?"
"I should never have detected any likeness unless you yourself had first pointed it out," he said. "Tell me, Philippa, are you really going to make the duke happy at last?"
"It may be that I am going to make him profoundly miserable As punishment for your lecture, I shall refuse to tell you anything about it," she replied; and then she added: "You will ride with me this morning, Norman?"
"Yes. I will ride with you, Philippa. I cannot tell you how thankful and relieved I am."
"To find that you have not made quite so many conquests as you thought,"
she said. "It was a sorry jest to play after all; but you provoked me to it, Norman. I want you to make me a promise."
"That I will gladly do," he replied. Indeed he was so relieved so pleased, so thankful to be freed from the load of self-reproach that he would have promised anything.
Her face grew earnest. She held out her hand to him.
"Promise me this, Norman," she said--"that, whether I remain Philippa L"Estrange or become d.u.c.h.ess of Hazlewood--no matter what I am, or may be--you will always be the same to me as you are now--my brother, my truest, dearest, best friend. Promise me."
"I do promise, Philippa, with all my heart," he responded. "And I will never break my promise."
"If I marry, you will come to see me--you-will trust in me--you will be just what you are now--you will make my house your home, as you do this?"
"Yes--that is, if your husband consents," replied Lord Arleigh.
"Rely upon it, my husband--if I ever have one--will not dispute my wishes," she said. "I am not the model woman you dream of. She, of course, will be submissive in everything; I intend to have my own way."
"We are friends for life, Philippa," he declared; "and I do not think that any one who really understands me will ever cavil at our friendship."
"Then, that being settled, we will go at once for our ride. How those who know me best would laugh, Norman, if they heard of the incident of the Puritan maiden! If I go to another fancy ball this season, I shall go as _Priscilla_ of Plymouth and you had better go as _John Alden_."
He held up his hands imploringly.
"Do not tease me about it any more, Philippa," he remarked, "I cannot quite tell why, but you make me feel both insignificant and vain; yet nothing would have been further from my mind than the ideas you have filled it with."
"Own you were mistaken, and then I will be generous and forgive you,"
she said, laughingly.
"I was mistaken--cruelly so--weakly so--happily so," he replied. "Now you will be generous and spare me."
He did not see the bitter smile with which she turned away, nor the pallor that crept even to her lips. Once again in his life Lord Arleigh was completely deceived.
A week afterward he received "a note in Philippa"s handwriting it said, simply:
"Dear Norman: You were good enough to plead the duke"s cause. When you meet him next, ask him if he has anything to tell you.
Philippa L"Estrange."
What the Duke of Hazlewood had to tell was that Miss L"Estrange had promised to be his wife, and that the marriage was to take place in August. He prayed Lord Arleigh to be present as his "best man" on the occasion.
On the same evening Lady Peters and Miss L"Estrange sat in the drawing-room at Verdun House, alone. Philippa had been very restless.
She had been walking to and fro; she had opened her piano and closed it; she had taken up volume after volume and laid it down again, when suddenly her eyes fell on a book prettily bound in crimson and gold, which Lady Peters had been reading.