“he is a constant visitor,” observed lady millebrook.
“and a constant friend,” said mrs. tollebranch. a delicate flush mantled on her otherwise ivory cheek, her great gray eyes, famed for their far-away, saintly expression, shone through a gleaming veil of tears. with the lithe, undulating movement so characteristic of her, she crossed the velvety carpets to the window, and, lifting a corner of her silken blind, peeped out over her window-boxes of jonquils as the hall-door closed, and a well-dressed man with a slight stoop and a worn, dyspeptic countenance went slowly down the doorsteps and got into his cab. as though some subtle magnetic thrill had conveyed to him the knowledge that fair eyes looked on his departure, he glanced up and bowed, for one moment becoming a younger man, as a temporary glow suffused his pallid features. then the cab drove off, and mrs. tollebranch, slipping her hand within the arm of lady millebrook, drew her back to her cosy seat within the radius of the fire-glow, and rang for tea.
“i did not have it up while poor cadminster was here,” she explained. “the sight of sally lunn is horrible to him, and he is positively forbidden tea.”
“they say,” said lady millebrook, nibbling the sally lunn, “that he lives upon gluten biscuits, lean boiled mutton, and white fish, washed down by weak medoc, mixed with hot water.”
“it is true,” returned her friend.
“and yet he dines out. i meet him comparatively often at other people’s tables,” said lady millebrook. 108“and here—invariably.” her eyebrows wore the crumple of interrogation.
“the servants have orders to pass him over,” explained mrs. tollebranch, sipping her tea. “if jerks or wilbraham were to offer him a made dish, one, if not both of them, would be instantly dismissed.”
“my dear clarice! friendship is friendship.... but jerks and wilbraham.... such invaluable servants! you cannot mean what you say!”
“i do mean it,” nodded mrs. tollebranch. “oh, bettine!” she murmured, clasping lady millebrook’s hand, “don’t look so surprised. if you only knew how much that man has sacrificed for me!”
“if there is anything upon which i pride myself,” observed lady millebrook, “it is my absolute lack of curiosity. and yet people are always telling me their secrets—the most intimate, the most important! ‘bettine,’ they say, ‘you are a grave!’ ... so i am; it is quite true. a thing once repeated in my hearing is buried for ever! we have not known each other very long, it is true, but you must have discovered that i am absolutely reliable! talking of sacrifices, there are so many sorts. now perhaps in your gratitude for this service rendered you by lord cadminster, you overrate. perhaps it is really not so great as you imagine! perhaps...! but i am not curious in the least!”
“would it surprise you to hear,” queried mrs. tollebranch, “that cadminster, two years ago, was perfectly healthy! not the cadaverous dyspeptic he is now; not the semi-invalid, but a robust, healthy, fresh-colored man of the out-of-doors, hardy english type?”
lady millebrook elevated her eyebrows. “dear me,” she observed. “how very odd! and now—you know his horrid soubriquet—‘the boiled owl.’ he has earned it since, of course.”
“he had a splendid appetite once,” continued mrs. 109tollebranch, “an iron constitution—a perfect digestion. he gave them all three to save a woman’s honor. oh! bettine, can you guess who the woman was?”
“i never hazard guesses about my friends,” said the inexorable lady millebrook. “but i feel, somehow, that she may have been you?”
“i was weak,” admitted mrs. tollebranch, clasping her friend’s hand with agitated jeweled fingers. “but not wicked, bettine. promise me to believe that!”
“i never promise,” said bettine, “but no one could look at you and doubt that ... whatever you might do, would be the outcome of irresistible impulse, not the result of deliberate—ahem! my dearest, you interest me indescribably,” she cried, “and if i were the least bit inclined to curiosity, i am sure i should implore you to go on.”
“you shall hear the story of cadminster’s great sacrifice, bettine,” said mrs. tollebranch, “and when you have heard, you will regard him——”
“as bayard and all the other heroes of chivalry rolled into one, and dressed by a bond street tailor,” interrupted lady millebrook, with a glow of impatience in her fine dark eyes. “i think you mentioned two years ago?” she added, settling a little stray lock of her friend’s silken blonde hair, and sinking back among her cushions.
“two years ago,” murmured mrs. tollebranch, “willibrand became bitten with the golf spider. he is as wild about the game to-day,” she added, “as ever.”
“there is a proverb, ‘once a golfer, always a golfer,’” put in lady millebrook. “i believe that to play the game successfully requires a vast amount of thought and judgment, which insensibly diverts a man’s mind from less harmless topics, and that it entails an invigorating and healthy action of the arms and legs, soothing to the nervous system, and improving in its effect upon the 110temper. were i asked by any married woman of my acquaintance whether she should encourage her husband in his devotion to golf, or dissuade him from it, i should advise her to encourage the fad. the game, unlike others, can be played all the year round, in sunshine, rain, or snow.”
“willibrand used to play it in the snow,” put in mrs. tollebranch, “with red balls. it was when we were spending march at tobermuirie two years ago, that——”
“that lord cadminster performed the chivalrous action which resulted for him in the permanent loss of his digestion? well?”
“tobermuirie is the bleakest spot in north britain,” began mrs. tollebranch, returning the teacups to the tray, and touching the electric bell in a manner which conveyed the intimation that she would not be at home to any caller for the next quarter of an hour. “the castle is one of the oldest inhabited residences in europe, and, i verily believe, the coldest. if you would like to find out for yourself how easily a northern gale can penetrate walls ten feet thick in the thinnest places, come to us in july.”
“i shall make a point of it!” said lady millebrook, cuddling down into her warm, scented lair of cushions.
“of course, the male division of the house-party was made up of golfing enthusiasts,” went on mrs. tollebranch. “major wharfling, sir roger balcombe, cadminster, who was as keen as willibrand in those days, three guardsmen, and d’arsy pontoise.”
“by the way, what has become of pontoise?” queried lady millebrook. “one never meets him now as one used.”
“he scarcely ever leaves paris, i believe,” returned mrs. tollebranch, rather constrainedly. “since his reconciliation with the duc, his great-uncle, and his marriage 111with mademoiselle de carapoix, who i have heard is a very strict catholic and humpbacked——”
“besides being a great heiress.... of course, he is kept well within bounds. but what a fascinating creature pontoise used to be. bubbling with life, effervescing with spirits. sadly naughty, too, i fear, for the names of at least half a dozen pretty married women used to be mixed up with his in all sorts of scan.... my dearest, i beg your pardon!”
“i, at least, was not wicked—only weak!” said clarice, with icy dignity. “and as to there being five others——”
“my sweet, it was the vaguest hearsay. nothing certain, except that pontoise spoke perfect english and was a veritable apollo! i can imagine the rigors of imprisonment in a border castle in march to have been ameliorated by the fact of his being a guest under its aged roof. did he play golf?”
mrs. tollebranch rose and took a dainty screen of crimson feathers from the high mantelshelf.
“he tried to learn,” she explained, holding the screen so as to shield her delicate complexion from the glowing heat of the log fire. “but the game baffled him. to play it properly, i believe, the mind must be dead to all other interests——”
“and pontoise’s mind was unusually alive at that particular moment to things outside the sphere of golf,” mused lady millebrook. “golf is a game for husbands, not for——” her red lips closed on the unuttered word.
“don’t say, ‘lovers’!” implored clarice. “from beginning to end, bettine, it was nothing but a flirtation. i will own that i was—attracted, almost fascinated. i had never met a human being whose nature was of so many colors ... whose soul....” she broke off.
“i have been informed on good authority,” observed lady millebrook, “that whenever pontoise meant mischief 112he invariably talked about his soul. but do go on!
“of course, you played golf also; and as one of the great advantages connected with the game is that you can choose your own partner, i may presume that pontoise made acquaintance with it under your auspices, and that when he landed himself in the jaws of some terrific sand-bunker, you were at hand to help him out.”
“as his hostess, it was rather incumbent upon me,” explained mrs. tollebranch, “to make myself of use. willibrand and sir roger balcombe termed him a duffer; major wharfling is nothing but a professional, cadminster and the guardsmen were hard drivers all. and as bluefern had made me a golfing costume which was a perfect dream——”
“you completed the conquest of pontoise. i quite understand!” said bettine. “in that frock, armed with a long spoon. i quite grasp it.”
“the golf course is very open at tobermuirie,” went on clarice, playing with the feather fan.
“but there are hillocks, and bumps and boulders, and things behind which pontoise managed to get in a good many references to his soul. i grasp that also,” observed lady millebrook.
“he did mention his soul,” admitted mrs. tollebranch. “he said that it had always been lonely, thirsting for the sympathy of a sister-spirit until——”
“until he met you!”
“he did say as much. and he explained how, in sheer desperation of ever meeting the affinity, the flame for whom the spark of his being had been originally kindled, a man may drift into all kinds of follies, even gain the name of a libertine and a roué.”
“quite true.”
“he has such wonderful eyes, like moss agates, and his profile is like the hermes of praxiteles, or would be 113but for the waxed mustache and crisp, golden beard. and there is a vibrating timbre in his voice that goes to the very heart. one could not but be sorry for him.”
“i am sure you were very sorry indeed. but pontoise, as one knows of him, would not long be content with that. your heartfelt pity, and the tip of your little finger to kiss....” lady millebrook’s sleepily dark eyes smiled cynical amusement. “those things are the hors d’?uvres of flirtation. soup, fish, made-dishes, roast, and sweets invariably succeed, with black coffee and a subsequent indigestion.”
clarice avoided the glance of this feminine philosopher.
“pontoise was always respectful,” she said, with a little note of defiance in her voice. “he never forgot what was due to me save once, when——”
“when it was borne in upon him too strongly what he owed to himself. and then he kissed you, and you were furiously angry.”
“furious!” nodded clarice, brushing her round chin with the edge of the crimson screen. “i vowed i would never speak to him again.”
“and how long did you keep that oath?” asked bettine.
“we met at dinner in the evening, and of course one has to be civil. and when i went to bed, and he handed me my candlestick,” said mrs. tollebranch—“for gas is only laid as high as the first floor of the castle, and the electric light has never been heard of—he slipped a note into my hand. it implored my pardon, and declared that unless i would meet him in the golf-house on the links next day before lunch, and receive his profound apologies, he would terminate an existence which my well-deserved scorn had rendered insupportable. he spoke of the—the——” clarice hesitated.
“the kiss,” put in lady millebrook, “and——”
114“said he had dared, in a moment of insanity, to desecrate the cheek of the purest woman breathing with lips that ought to be branded for their criminal presumption. he could never atone, he ended, but he could never forget.”
“and asked you in the postscript to meet him in the golf-house. i quite understand,” observed lady millebrook. “of course, you didn’t go?”
clarice’s lovely gray-blue eyes opened. her sensitive lips quivered.
“oh! but i am afraid....” she heaved a little regretful sigh over her past folly. “that is where i was weak, bettine. i went. oh, don’t laugh!”
“my child, this is hysteria,” explained lady millebrook, removing the filmy handkerchief from her lovely eyes. “well—you went. you popped your head into the lion’s mouth—and somehow or other cadminster played the deus ex machina, and got it out for you again.”
“the golf-house was a queer shanty, with a tarred roof,” said mrs. tollebranch retrospectively. “it held a bunker of coals, and stands for clubs, and a fireplace, and a folding luncheon-table, and camp-stools, and hampers. we used to lunch outside when it didn’t rain or snow, and inside when it did. well, when willibrand and sir roger balcombe, major wharfling, the guardsmen, and cadminster were quite out of sight, pontoise and i somehow found ourselves back at the golf-house. i was cold, and there was a fire there, and he looked so handsome and so miserable as he stood bare-headed by the door, waiting for me to enter, that——”
“the fly walked in. and then the spider——”
“he disappointed me, i will own,” said clarice, with a little gulp. “after all his penitent protestations! i have never trusted men with agate-colored eyes since, and i never will. they have only one idea of women, 115and that is—the worst. but when i ordered him to let go my hands and get up from his knees, something in my face or voice seemed to tell him that i was really, really, in earnest, and he obeyed me, and moved suddenly away as i went to the door. the latch rattled as i lifted my hand, the door opened; cadminster stood there, white from head to foot, for a sudden blizzard had swept down from the hills, and the links were four inches deep in snow. oh! i shall never forget how tactful he was! ‘you have got here before the rest of us!’ he said, quite in a cheery, ordinary way. ‘lucky for you! tollebranch and the others are coming after me as hard as they can pelt, and we shall have to put out the “house full” boards in a minute.’ and he began to rattle out the flaps of the luncheon-table, and get out things from the hamper, and then he looked at me, and said, as he lifted the lid from a great kettle of irish stew that had been simmering over the fire, ‘suppose you were to take the ladle and give this mess a bit of a stir, mrs. tollebranch! the fire will burn your face, i’m afraid, but what woman wouldn’t sacrifice her complexion in the cause of duty?’ oh, bettine, i could have blessed cadminster as i seized that iron ladle, for seeming so natural and at ease. and then—almost before i had begun to stir the stew—while i was bending over the pot, willibrand and the other men came in. what followed i can never forget!”
“now we come to cadminster’s great act of heroism?” interrogated lady millebrook.
“willibrand came in stamping the snow off,” went on mrs. tollebranch. “so did all the other men. willibrand sniffed the odor of the oniony stew with rapture. all the other men sniffed too.”
“the tastes of the male animal are extraordinarily simple,” observed lady millebrook, “in spite of the elaborate pretense carried on and kept up by him, of being 116a gourmand and a connoisseur. the coarsest dishes are those which appeal most irresistibly to his palate, and when i find it necessary for any length of time to chain millebrook to his home, i order a succession of barbaric plats. by the time we have reached tripe and onions, served as an entrée, there is not a more domesticated husband breathing. but pray continue.”
“they all assembled round the stewpot,” went on clarice, “and watched with absorbed interest the operation of turning its steaming contents into the dish that awaited them. cadminster and willibrand undertook this duty. well——”
“well?”
“just as they heaved up the steaming cauldron, willibrand called out, ‘hulloa, what the deuce is that?’ his hands were occupied—he could not get at his eyeglass,” said mrs. tollebranch, “and so he peered and exclaimed, while i leaned over his shoulder and glanced into the stewpot. there, floating upon the surface of the muttony, oniony, carroty, potatoey mass, was”—she shuddered—“the letter pontoise had given me with my candlestick on the preceding night!”
“my dear, how awful!” gasped lady millebrook.
“i had had it in my pocket,” explained mrs. tollebranch, “when i arrived at the golf-house. when i began to stir the stew i found the handle of the ladle too hot to be pleasant, and i pulled out my handkerchief to wrap round it.”
“whisking pontoise’s effusion out with it! how reckless not to have burned it!” cried lady millebrook.
“imagine my feelings!” said clarice. “there was the letter in the stewpot. as the contents were turned by cadminster into the dish, i lost sight of the envelope beneath a greasy avalanche of fat mutton and vegetables. i remembered that pontoise had referred to that unlucky kiss; i recalled willibrand’s unfortunate tendency 117to outbursts of jealous rage without reason; i shuddered at the thought of the amount of reason that envelope contained. self-control abandoned me—my brain spun round, i thought all lost ... and then—i caught cadminster’s eye. there was encouragement in it—and hope. ‘trust to me,’ it said, ‘i will save you!’”
“and——?”
“we sat down to table, and that stew was distributed, in large portions, to all those men. cadminster assumed control of the ladle. he gravely asked me whether i cared about stew, and i gasped out something—what i don’t know, but i believe i said i didn’t. when the words were out, i knew that i had lost my only chance—that cadminster had intended to help me to that fatal envelope. my fate hung in the balance as he filled plate after plate.... who would get my letter in his gravy, amongst his vegetables? what would happen then? would it be rendered illegible by grease, or would it not? i scarcely breathed, the suspense was so awful!” said mrs. tollebranch, clutching lady millebrook’s sleeve. “and then—relief came. i grasped that man’s heroic motive—i understood the full nobility of his nature when——”
“when cadminster helped himself to the letter! but, good heavens! you don’t mean to tell me,” cried lady millebrook, “that he ate it?”
“he did, he did!” cried mrs. tollebranch, throwing herself into her friend’s sympathetic embrace. “now you know why i call him a bayard, and look upon him as my truest, noblest friend. now you know....”
“why he is a cadaverous dyspeptic! of course. that document must have completely wrecked his constitution.”
“it has,” interrupted clarice, with a little shower of tears.
“i shall never say again,” remarked lady millebrook, 118as she took an affectionate leave of her dearest friend but four, “that romance and chivalry have no existence in these modern times. to jump into a den full of lions and things to get a lady’s bracelet or save a lady’s glove may sound finer, though i am not sure. but to eat another man’s love-letter, envelope and all, to save a woman’s reputation ... there is the true ring of heroism about it, the glow that ennobles an ordinary, commonplace action into something superb. and, unless i mistake, pontoise invariably penned his amatory effusions upon the very stiffest of parchment wove.... darling, lord cadminster must dine with us.... next thursday; i will not take no!” ended lady millebrook; “and he may rely upon it that if either jedbrook or mills presume to offer him anything rich or oleaginous, either or both of them will be dismissed next day!”
