IX
Gwynne had never recognized the contingency of a serious rival in theaffections of the woman he had elected to mate, and had he heard of thelate Lord Brathland's attentions it would not have occurred to him thatMrs. Kaye could weigh a prospective dukedom against the reflectedglories of his own career. He intended to be prime-minister before hewas forty, and older and soberer heads shared his confidence. It wastrue that Mrs. Kaye was an emphatic Conservative--scorning even thecompromise of Liberal-Unionism--and that so far he had been unable toconvert her; but he did not take any woman's political convictions veryseriously, knowing that they commonly owed their inspiration to socialambition, a desire for a career, or to marital comradeship. The latterhe made no doubt would operate in his own case as soon as the lady gavehim the opportunity to demand it as his right; and his sharp politicaldiscussions with her were among the spiciest of his experiences. Sherarely expressed herself in every-day language; and although it hadcrossed his mind that epigrammatic matrimony might grow oppressive, hehad reminded himself that her speech was but a part of a too cultivatedindividuality and would be unable to endure the strain of dailyintercourse. Although he had in his composition little of the femininitythat gives a certain type of man a sympathetic comprehension of women,his Celtic blood imparted a subtle understanding of their foibles ofwhich he was but half aware. More than once this subconsciouspenetration had induced a speedy recovery from misplaced affections; butthe toils of Julia Kaye, who piqued, allured, repelled, dazzled, now andagain snubbed every one else for his sake, bound him helpless. He wasgrateful for his mother's abetment, although it somewhat surprised him;but his mother was the woman of whom he had the least comprehension.
So far Mrs. Kaye had ignored his several proposals, but of this hethought nothing. He would have cared little for a woman to be had forthe asking; and he rather welcomed any treatment that stirred thesomewhat sluggish surfaces of his nature.
He had determined, however, to force a definite answer from her duringthis visit, and although he was far too courteous a host to embarrass aguest, he knew that were Mrs. Kaye deliberately to grant him a privateinterview he should be at liberty to press his suit.
Immediately after the hour in the smoking-room that followed breakfast,he started in search of her; but although many of the women werescattered throughout the lower rooms, reading, writing, gossiping, hesaw nothing of his inamorata. Flora Thangue happened to be standingalone, and he went up to her impulsively.
"Do you know if Julia has gone to church?" he asked, withoutcircumlocution.
"She went to her room directly after breakfast. I fancy she is rathercut up over Lord Brathland's death," replied the astute Miss Thangue.
"Of course; we all are--poor Bratty! He was rather a bounder, but it isnatural to recall his virtues. Flora, go and tell her I want her to comefor a walk. I can't go to her room myself, and I don't care to send aservant."
Miss Thangue reflected. Probably this was the most favorable moment fora repulse that he could have chosen. She was sincerely fond of him anddistrusted Mrs. Kaye as much as she disliked her.
"Very well," she said. "I will see what I can do."
Mrs. Kaye admitted her promptly and presented an unstained front,although her color was lower than usual. She was a woman of too muchnatural and acquired poise to remain askew under any shock. But she hadexperienced an hour of mixed emotions in which a confused and wonderingsense of defeat was paramount. It had left her a little aghast, foralthough she had met with the inevitable snubs in her upward course, sherarely permitted them to agitate her memory in these days when she hadgrown to believe herself one of the spoiled favorites of destiny; andher fibres were by no means sensitive. But this sudden blow was areminder that fate had been capricious to spoiled darlings before. Shehad stood almost motionless before the window from the moment she hadentered her room until Miss Thangue knocked at the door, and by thattime she had repoised herself and set her heavy mouth in a hard line asshe reflected upon her own will as a factor in any game with life.
"Jack wants you to go for a walk," announced Miss Thangue, who saw nooccasion for subtlety.
"That means he intends to propose again," said Mrs. Kaye, in hercarefully modulated voice. "I don't know that I care about it. I haveletters to write."
"Why not get it over? You could compel him to believe, if you chose,that you have no intention of marrying him, and it would be rather akindness; he has so much else to think about, and he certainly shouldhave a free mind before the opening of Parliament. If you really didJack any harm," she added, deliberately, "Vicky would never forgiveyou--nor a good many others."
"I wouldn't do him any harm for the world," said Mrs. Kaye, casting downher eyes and looking very young and innocent. "But I should hate to givehim up. After all, there is no one half so interesting. Well, I'll godown and have it over."
A few moments later she joined Gwynne at the foot of the staircase, andthey went out to the woods. She looked her best in a smart walking-frockof white tweed, and a red toque; for the tailor costume modifies wherethe elaborate accentuates.
Her brilliant eyes melted as Brathland's name was mentioned; naturallyat once.
"What a dreadful--shocking thing!" she cried. "I do not realize it atall. Poor dear, we were such friends--and I saw him only a few hoursbefore. Have you heard anything more?"
"Ormond ran off to town directly after breakfast--as if he were afraidof being asked too many questions. I have an idea that he kept the catin the bag. I saw my cousin Zeal yesterday, and thought he looked as ifhe had something besides his health on his mind."
"Why?" asked Mrs. Kaye, startled. "What else could it be?"
"Well, Bratty was rather a flasher," said Gwynne, innocently. "Thedinner may not have been at the Club at all, and there is a littlechorus-girl that engaged the fickle Bratty's affections for a time, andproclaimed her desire for vengeance from the house-tops when hetransferred himself to a rival at the Adelphi. She is a Neapolitan, andthat sort may carry a stiletto even in prosaic old London. Or perhapspoor Bratty was despatched with the carving-knife. No wonder he didn'twant his family. But whatever it was, he has paid the penalty himself,poor chap, and no doubt the matter will be hushed up."
"How disgusting! I don't want to think of human slums on this heavenlySunday morning."
"Nor to be proposed to, I suppose?"
"I don't mind, Jack dear."
She looked girlish and very piquant. Jack took her hand. She did notwithdraw it, and they walked silently in the shadowed quiet of the wood.His heart beat almost audibly. Never before had she given him suchdefinite encouragement. He could think of nothing to say that would notsound banal to this woman of the ready tongue. But agitation unlockswayward fancies and sends them scurrying inopportunely across the veryforeground of the mind. The vagrant hope that she would not accept himin an epigram restored his balance, and he turned to her with hishabitual air of confidence, albeit his eyes and mouth were restless.
"I want an answer to-day," he said, boldly. "And there is only oneanswer I will take. I have let you play with me, as that seemed to beyour caprice, and I love caprice in a woman. But there is an end toeverything and I want to marry before Parliament meets."
"And you never thought I would not marry you?" she asked, in somewonder.
"I have never faced the possibility of failure in my life. And you areas much to me as my career. I cannot imagine life without either."
He suddenly put his hand under her chin and lifted her face; she was oftiny stature and this disadvantage in the presence of man was not theleast subtle of her charms. "Say yes quickly," he cried, and thestrength of his will and passion vibrated to her through the medium hehad established. But she pouted and drew back.
"Perhaps I want a career of my own. You would swallow me whole."
"You could become the most powerful woman in the Liberal party--have asalon and all the rest of it."
"I happen to be a Conservative."
"What has that to d
o with it? Or politics with love, for that matter?Tell me that you love me. That is all I care about."
"It is only during the engagement that love is all. Marriage is thegreat public school of life; the passions fall meekly into their properplace--beside the prosaic appetites, the objective demands; somewhatbelow the faculties that distinguish the higher kingdom."
"Indeed? Well, I am sanguine enough to believe that we would prove theexception. I hardly dare think of it!" he burst out. "For God's sakekeep your epigrams for other people and be a woman pure and simple."
She looked both as she permitted her full red mouth to tremble and hisarms to take sudden possession of her.