CHAPTER 23.
Life is like some crazy machine that is always going either tooslow or too fast. From the cradle to the grave we alternate betweenthe Sargasso Sea and the rapids--forever either becalmed orstorm-tossed. It seemed to Maud, as she looked across thedinner-table in order to make sure for the twentieth time that itreally was George Bevan who sat opposite her, that, after months inwhich nothing whatever had happened, she was now living through aperiod when everything was happening at once. Life, from being abroken-down machine, had suddenly begun to race.
To the orderly routine that stretched back to the time when she hadbeen hurried home in disgrace from Wales there had succeeded a madwhirl of events, to which the miracle of tonight had come as afitting climax. She had not begun to dress for dinner till somewhatlate, and had consequently entered the drawing-room just as Keggswas announcing that the meal was ready. She had received her firstshock when the love-sick Plummer, emerging from a mixed crowd ofrelatives and friends, had informed her that he was to take her in.She had not expected Plummer to be there, though he lived in theneighbourhood. Plummer, at their last meeting, had stated hisintention of going abroad for a bit to mend his bruised heart: andit was a little disconcerting to a sensitive girl to find hervictim popping up again like this. She did not know that, as far asPlummer was concerned, the whole affair was to be considered openedagain. To Plummer, analysing the girl's motives in refusing him,there had come the idea that there was Another, and that this othermust be Reggie Byng. From the first he had always looked uponReggie as his worst rival. And now Reggie had bolted with theFaraday girl, leaving Maud in excellent condition, so it seemed toPlummer, to console herself with a worthier man. Plummer knew allabout the Rebound and the part it plays in the affairs of theheart. His own breach-of-promise case two years earlier had beenentirely due to the fact that the refusal of the youngest Devenishgirl to marry him had caused him to rebound into the dangeroussociety of the second girl from the O.P. end of the first row inthe "Summertime is Kissing-time" number in the Alhambra revue. Hehad come to the castle tonight gloomy, but not without hope.
Maud's second shock eclipsed the first entirely. No notificationhad been given to her either by her father or by Percy of theproposed extension of the hand of hospitality to George, and thesight of him standing there talking to her aunt Caroline made hermomentarily dizzy. Life, which for several days had had all theproperties now of a dream, now of a nightmare, became more unrealthan ever. She could conceive no explanation of George's presence.He could not be there--that was all there was to it; yet thereundoubtedly he was. Her manner, as she accompanied Plummer down thestairs, took on such a dazed sweetness that her escort felt that incoming there that night he had done the wisest act of a lifetimestudded but sparsely with wise acts. It seemed to Plummer that thisgirl had softened towards him. Certainly something had changed her.He could not know that she was merely wondering if she was awake.
George, meanwhile, across the table, was also having a littledifficulty in adjusting his faculties to the progress of events. Hehad given up trying to imagine why he had been invited to thisdinner, and was now endeavouring to find some theory which wouldsquare with the fact of Billie Dore being at the castle. Atprecisely this hour Billie, by rights, should have been putting thefinishing touches on her make-up in a second-floor dressing-room atthe Regal. Yet there she sat, very much at her ease in thisaristocratic company, so quietly and unobtrusively dressed in someblack stuff that at first he had scarcely recognized her. She wastalking to the Bishop. . .
The voice of Keggs at his elbow broke in on his reverie.
"Sherry or 'ock, sir?"
George could not have explained why this reminder of the butler'spresence should have made him feel better, but it did. There wassomething solid and tranquilizing about Keggs. He had noticed itbefore. For the first time the sensation of having been smittenover the head with some blunt instrument began to abate. It was asif Keggs by the mere intonation of his voice had said, "All thisno doubt seems very strange and unusual to you, but feel no alarm!I am here!"
George began to sit up and take notice. A cloud seemed to havecleared from his brain. He found himself looking on hisfellow-diners as individuals rather than as a confused mass. Theprophet Daniel, after the initial embarrassment of finding himselfin the society of the lions had passed away, must have experienceda somewhat similar sensation.
He began to sort these people out and label them. There had beenintroductions in the drawing-room, but they had left him with abewildered sense of having heard somebody recite a page fromBurke's peerage. Not since that day in the free library in London,when he had dived into that fascinating volume in order to discoverMaud's identity, had he undergone such a rain of titles. He nowtook stock, to ascertain how many of these people he couldidentify.
The stock-taking was an absolute failure. Of all those present theonly individuals he could swear to were his own personal littleplaymates with whom he had sported in other surroundings. There wasLord Belpher, for instance, eyeing him with a hostility that couldhardly be called veiled. There was Lord Marshmoreton at the head ofthe table, listening glumly to the conversation of a stout womanwith a pearl necklace, but who was that woman? Was it Lady JaneAllenby or Lady Edith Wade-Beverly or Lady Patricia Fowles? Andwho, above all, was the pie-faced fellow with the moustache talkingto Maud?
He sought assistance from the girl he had taken in to dinner. Sheappeared, as far as he could ascertain from a short acquaintance,to be an amiable little thing. She was small and young and fluffy,and he had caught enough of her name at the moment of introductionto gather that she was plain "Miss" Something--a fact which seemedto him to draw them together.
"I wish you would tell me who some of these people are," he said,as she turned from talking to the man on her other-side. "Who isthe man over there?"
"Which man?"
"The one talking to Lady Maud. The fellow whose face ought to beshuffled and dealt again."
"That's my brother."
That held George during the soup.
"I'm sorry about your brother," he said rallying with the fish.
"That's very sweet of you."
"It was the light that deceived me. Now that I look again, I seethat his face has great charm."
The girl giggled. George began to feel better.
"Who are some of the others? I didn't get your name, for instance.They shot it at me so quick that it had whizzed by before I couldcatch it."
"My name is Plummer."
George was electrified. He looked across the table with more vividinterest. The amorous Plummer had been just a Voice to him tillnow. It was exciting to see him in the flesh.
"And who are the rest of them?"
"They are all members of the family. I thought you knew them."
"I know Lord Marshmoreton. And Lady Maud. And, of course, LordBelpher." He caught Percy's eye as it surveyed him coldly from theother side of the table, and nodded cheerfully. "Great pal ofmine, Lord Belpher."
The fluffy Miss Plummer twisted her pretty face into a grimace ofdisapproval.
"I don't like Percy."
"No!"
"I think he's conceited."
"Surely not? What could he have to be conceited about?"
"He's stiff."
"Yes, of course, that's how he strikes people at first. The firsttime I met him, I thought he was an awful stiff. But you should seehim in his moments of relaxation. He's one of those fellows youhave to get to know. He grows on you."
"Yes, but look at that affair with the policeman in London.Everybody in the county is talking about it."
"Young blood!" sighed George. "Young blood! Of course, Percy iswild."
"He must have been intoxicated."
"Oh, undoubtedly," said George.
Miss Plummer glanced across the table.
"Do look at Edwin!"
"Which is Edwin?"
"My brother, I mean. Look at the way he keeps staring at Maud.Edwin's awfully in love with
Maud," she rattled on with engagingfrankness. "At least, he thinks he is. He's been in love with adifferent girl every season since I came out. And now that ReggieByng has gone and married Alice Faraday, he thinks he has a chance.You heard about that, I suppose?"
"Yes, I did hear something about it."
"Of course, Edwin's wasting his time, really. I happen toknow"--Miss Plummer sank her voice to a whisper--"I happen to knowthat Maud's awfully in love with some man she met in Wales lastyear, but the family won't hear of it."
"Families are like that," agreed George.
"Nobody knows who he is, but everybody in the county knows all aboutit. Those things get about, you know. Of course, it's out of thequestion. Maud will have to marry somebody awfully rich or with atitle. Her family's one of the oldest in England, you know."
"So I understand."
"It isn't as if she were the daughter of Lord Peebles, somebodylike that."
"Why Lord Peebles?"
"Well, what I mean to say is," said Miss Plummer, with a silveryecho of Reggie Byng, "he made his money in whisky."
"That's better than spending it that way," argued George.
Miss Plummer looked puzzled. "I see what you mean," she said alittle vaguely. "Lord Marshmoreton is so different."
"Haughty nobleman stuff, eh?"
"Yes."
"So you think this mysterious man in Wales hasn't a chance?"
"Not unless he and Maud elope like Reggie Byng and Alice. Wasn'tthat exciting? Who would ever have suspected Reggie had the dash todo a thing like that? Lord Marshmoreton's new secretary is verypretty, don't you think?"
"Which is she?"
"The girl in black with the golden hair."
"Is she Lord Marshmoreton's secretary?"
"Yes. She's an American girl. I think she's much nicer than AliceFaraday. I was talking to her before dinner. Her name is Dore. Herfather was a captain in the American army, who died without leavingher a penny. He was the younger son of a very distinguished family,but his family disowned him because he married against theirwishes."
"Something ought to be done to stop these families," said George."They're always up to something."
"So Miss Dore had to go out and earn her own living. It must havebeen awful for her, mustn't it, having to give up society."
"Did she give up society?"
"Oh, yes. She used to go everywhere in New York before her fatherdied. I think American girls are wonderful. They have so muchenterprise."
George at the moment was thinking that it was in imagination thatthey excelled.
"I wish I could go out and earn my living," said Miss Plummer."But the family won't dream of it."
"The family again!" said George sympathetically. "They're a perfectcurse."
"I want to go on the stage. Are you fond of the theatre?"
"Fairly."
"I love it. Have you seen Hubert Broadleigh in ''Twas Once inSpring'?"
"I'm afraid I haven't."
"He's wonderful. Have you seen Cynthia Dane in 'A Woman's No'?"
"I missed that one too."
"Perhaps you prefer musical pieces? I saw an awfully good musicalcomedy before I left town. It's called 'Follow the Girl'. It's atthe Regal Theatre. Have you seen it?"
"I wrote it."
"You--what!"
"That is to say, I wrote the music."
"But the music's lovely," gasped little Miss Plummer, as if thefact made his claim ridiculous. "I've been humming it ever since."
"I can't help that. I still stick to it that I wrote it."
"You aren't George Bevan!"
"I am!"
"But--" Miss Plummer's voice almost failed here--"But I've beendancing to your music for years! I've got about fifty of yourrecords on the Victrola at home."
George blushed. However successful a man may be he can never getused to Fame at close range.
"Why, that tricky thing--you know, in the second act--is thedarlingest thing I ever heard. I'm mad about it."
"Do you mean the one that goes lumty-lumty-tum, tumty-tumty-tum?"
"No the one that goes ta-rumty-tum-tum, ta-rumty-tum.You know! The one about Granny dancing the shimmy."
"I'm not responsible for the words, you know," urged Georgehastily. "Those are wished on me by the lyrist."
"I think the words are splendid. Although poor popper thinks itsimproper, Granny's always doing it and nobody can stop her! I lovedit." Miss Plummer leaned forward excitedly. She was an impulsivegirl. "Lady Caroline."
Conversation stopped. Lady Caroline turned.
"Yes, Millie?"
"Did you know that Mr. Bevan was _the_ Mr. Bevan?"
Everybody was listening now. George huddled pinkly in his chair. Hehad not foreseen this bally-hooing. Shadrach, Meschach and Abednegocombined had never felt a tithe of the warmth that consumed him. Hewas essentially a modest young man.
"_The_ Mr. Bevan?" echoed Lady Caroline coldly. It was painful toher to have to recognize George's existence on the same planet asherself. To admire him, as Miss Plummer apparently expected her todo, was a loathsome task. She cast one glance, fresh from therefrigerator, at the shrinking George, and elevated heraristocratic eyebrows.
Miss Plummer was not damped. She was at the hero-worshipping age,and George shared with the Messrs. Fairbanks, Francis X. Bushman,and one or two tennis champions an imposing pedestal in her Hall ofFame.
"You know! George Bevan, who wrote the music of 'Follow the Girl'."
Lady Caroline showed no signs of thawing. She had not heard of'Follow the Girl'. Her attitude suggested that, while she admittedthe possibility of George having disgraced himself in the mannerindicated, it was nothing to her.
"And all those other things," pursued Miss Plummer indefatigably."You must have heard his music on the Victrola."
"Why, of course!"
It was not Lady Caroline who spoke, but a man further down thetable. He spoke with enthusiasm.
"Of course, by Jove!" he said. "The Schenectady Shimmy, by Jove,and all that! Ripping!"
Everybody seemed pleased and interested. Everybody, that is to say,except Lady Caroline and Lord Belpher. Percy was feeling that hehad been tricked. He cursed the imbecility of Keggs in suggestingthat this man should be invited to dinner. Everything had gonewrong. George was an undoubted success. The majority of thecompany were solid for him. As far as exposing his unworthiness inthe eyes of Maud was concerned, the dinner had been a ghastlyfailure. Much better to have left him to lurk in his infernalcottage. Lord Belpher drained his glass moodily. He was seriouslyupset.
But his discomfort at that moment was as nothing to the agony whichrent his tortured soul a moment later. Lord Marshmoreton, who hadbeen listening with growing excitement to the chorus of approval,rose from his seat. He cleared his throat. It was plain that LordMarshmoreton had something on his mind.
"Er. . . ." he said.
The clatter of conversation ceased once more--stunned, as it alwaysis at dinner parties when one of the gathering is seen to haveassumed an upright position. Lord Marshmoreton cleared his throatagain. His tanned face had taken on a deeper hue, and there was alook in his eyes which seemed to suggest that he was defyingsomething or somebody. It was the look which Ajax had in his eyeswhen he defied the lightning, the look which nervous husbands havewhen they announce their intention of going round the corner to bowla few games with the boys. One could not say definitely that LordMarshmoreton looked pop-eyed. On the other hand, one could notassert truthfully that he did not. At any rate, he was manifestlyembarrassed. He had made up his mind to a certain course of actionon the spur of the moment, taking advantage, as others have done,of the trend of popular enthusiasm: and his state of mind wasnervous but resolute, like that of a soldier going over the top.He cleared his throat for the third time, took one swift glance athis sister Caroline, then gazed glassily into the emptiness aboveher head.
"Take this opportunity," he said rapidly, clutching at thetable-cloth for support, "take this opportunity of anno
uncing theengagement of my daughter Maud to Mr. Bevan. And," he concludedwith a rush, pouring back into his chair, "I should like you all todrink their health!"
There was a silence that hurt. It was broken by two sounds,occurring simultaneously in different parts of the room. One was agasp from Lady Caroline. The other was a crash of glass.
For the first time in a long unblemished career Keggs the butlerhad dropped a tray.