alone, a moment later, tay was contemplating a short excursion into the garden with the solace of a cigarette, when he heard light rapid footsteps on the terrace flags. he turned eagerly. but it was fanny who came running in. her face was flushed with triumph, and her eyes sparkled under their heavy lids.
“i gave granny the slip,” she exclaimed. “let’s stay here and make julia jealous.”
“but your grandmother will be unmerciful—”
“oh, she never knows whether i’m round or not.”
“you make me feel that you lead a most unnatural life.”
“you may just better believe i do—dodging granny, and watching cane grow. oh, do make me feel like a girl in a book. you had just begun to tell me about that wonderful san francisco when granny had to come in. tell me more. it will be something to dream of even if i never can see it.”
tay resigned himself and sat down.
“oh, you’ll see it, all right. you will visit us.”
“but suppose julia won’t become an american and divorce that lunatic of hers.”
“but she shall, and you must help me. will you?”
“if you will swear to take me away and find me a husband as perfectly fascinating as yourself.”
“good lord!” tay almost blushed. then he looked at her suspiciously. was the little devil as innocent as she pretended, or was this merely the instinct of the born coquette, crudely expressing itself? “oh, you’ll meet a hundred far better worth your while than i am.”
“i don’t believe it,” announced fanny, who had never removed her eyes from his face. (“what’s an aunt?” she was thinking, “especially when she’s old enough to be your mother?”) “and have they all got as much money?” she added aloud.
this certainly was ingenuousness! “oh, i’m a pauper compared with several i could name. any one of them will succumb at once.”
“julia says she will take me back to london and ask a friend of hers, lady dark, to give me a gay season, but san francisco sounds even more fascinating. haven’t you any titles in america?”
“oh, titles without number. especially honorables. every ex-official, if he’s bagged a big enough office, expects ‘honorable’ on his letters for the rest of his life. and once a judge always a judge. state senators are addressed as if they were old romans, and the militia turns out even more life titles than the bench.”
but the american humor was beyond fanny. she pouted. “tell me something really interesting. tell me about a whole day of life in san francisco. tell me everything you think and feel and do.”
“great scott!”
“oh,” cried fanny, throwing herself halfway across the little table. “if you only knew how i want to know—everything! everything!”
“oh, you’ll learn fast enough. nevis will never hold you. but i’ll help you out, by george! it would be some fun to turn you loose and watch you make things hum.”
“how perfectly heavenly to hear some one talking about poor little me! tell me more about myself.”
tay laughed indulgently. “you are a baby!”
“don’t laugh at me. oh—i’m not a bit like julia. i’d have killed that husband of hers long before she shut him up. queer how different people in the same family can be. they all seem to think that julia’s not much changed—although she’s really quite old now. but it would have made a devil out of me.”
“i believe you!” and he added unwillingly, “how interesting you will be when you are a few years older.”
“not if i stay on nevis.”
“oh, don’t let that worry you.”
she brought her face so close to his that he fancied he felt a light shock of electricity. “swear it!” she whispered eagerly. “you look as if you could do anything you wanted to do. i haven’t felt a bit encouraged by julia’s promises, but if you promise me?—”
tay stood up and put his hands in his pockets. “it’s a go,” he said. “trust me to turn you loose among our squabs the first chance i get?—”
“fanny, dear, will you show mr. and mrs. morison the orchards? they are waiting for you.”
julia’s tones had never been so sweet, her large gray eyes so cool; but as fanny, with a sharp, “oh, very well, aunt julia,” went forth on a leaden foot, both voice and expression changed.
“you were flirting with fanny!”
“so i was,” said tay, coolly. “that girl’s spoiling for a flirtation. well, i’ll gratify her if you leave me to my own devices on this beastly island.”
“you’d never do such a thing! destroy that child’s peace of mind?—”
“peace of mind nothing. that’s not the sort that gets hurt. if she belonged to a lower walk of life, she’d be on the— well, our fillmore precinct can show you dozens, walking the streets of an evening looking for trouble. ‘juicy peaches,’ as pirie calls them, just waiting to be plucked. accident is about all that protects the fannys. few men are in the seducing business when it comes to their own class.”
“dan!” cried julia, aghast. “you must be in a frightful temper to say such things to me about my own niece.”
“she’s practically my niece. and i am in a frightful temper. never expect to be in a worse. little good even this ruse has done me. your mother’s eyes could see through a stone wall.”
women find few of man’s moods so attractive, before matrimony, as his anger. it rouses their inherited instinct to placate, to submit. julia went to the terrace door and looked up and down. her mother was sitting in an arbor with mrs. macmanus and pirie. she was also leaning back in her chair, resigned, if not interested.
julia went up to tay and put her hand on his arm. “don’t—please!—be angry with me,” she whispered. “if you knew what a tumult i’ve been in—finding you here—wanting to see you more than anything on earth—but not knowing what to do!”
tay melted instantly, and took her in his arms and kissed her. “it’s all simple enough. i’ll take the next american steamer if you insist upon it, but that doesn’t come for eight days yet. meanwhile i must see you. i don’t like the tropics. they get on my nerves. nothing doing, and the air shot with a curious lazy electricity. and i’m by no means satisfied with myself. i should be in california this minute. love plays the devil with a man!”
“but you would stay a month if i wanted you to!” said julia, triumphantly.
“six months, let everything go hang!” he said savagely. “you’ve got me, all right. but to waste my time—even for eight—nine days longer! that’s a horse of another color. am i to see you every day or not?”
“oh, yes! yes!” murmured julia. “i have given up the struggle. the way you got in—it was too funny! i saw at once that i might as well give up first as last. you will always have your way. besides, i want to. i’ll meet you every day, three times a day. i couldn’t help myself if i would.”
“thank heaven. and don’t try being too strong again. it’s not the strong women that men die for, julia.”
he lifted his head with the uneasy sense of being watched. “damn it!” he thought. “is that old witch—” but he could see nothing.
“julia,” he said, lowering his voice, “i shall not come to this house again. meet me to-night—no, to-morrow morning—early—at nine o’clock—over in that jungle.”
“i will! i will! only promise never to be angry with me again.”
“that will depend entirely upon yourself. if you go back on your word?—”
“as if i would! we’ll have long wonderful days together— oh, dear, they are coming.”
she broke away from him and smoothed her hair.
“it’s not so late,” said tay, hurriedly, “only six. couldn’t you come for a spin in my motor boat? i’ll walk back, and wait for you at the bend of the road.”
“i’ll try. if i don’t, it will be because i can’t get away from mother. but i’ll be in the jungle to-morrow at nine.”
the guests entered with mrs. winstone.
“southern california isn’t in it, dan,” said his sister, mischievously. “such orange and lime groves. you must come again. still, i could hardly tear myself away from this room?—”
a door opened and fanny burst in. she looked on the verge of hysterics. “oh, what do you think?” she cried. “what do you think? granny says i can go to the party on thursday night, and that i may go to bath house every day and see you, mrs. morison! she likes you so much. the skies must be going to fall. you have bewitched her.”
“you are talking nonsense,” said mrs. winstone.
“ask granny. she was almost sweet. but who cares what’s come over her? you will teach me to dance, won’t you, mr. tay? i could learn in five minutes.”
“charmed. congratulate you—and ourselves. is the carriage ready?”
“oh, it is! i’ll go out with our guests. don’t you bother, julia. aunt maria, you must be tired out. oh, what a funny, funny day! i’ll never sleep again.”
“really, i do feel as if we had all gone mad,” said mrs. winstone, when the good-bys had been said, and she and julia were alone. “jane must be quite off her head. there’s a cruiser comin’ in to-morrow. fanny’ll be engaged to-morrow night. perhaps, after all, jane jumped at the chance of gettin’ rid of her.”
“oh, i was sure she would relent. and she could see to-day what company means to a young girl.”
she ran away to her room to change her frock, for she had no intention of incurring tay’s wrath again. but as she was about to open her door she saw denny coming down the corridor waving two cablegrams.
“oh, dear!” she thought. “is this a summons? well, thank heaven i can’t get away for a fortnight yet.”
she took the cablegrams, half resolved, as she closed her door, not to open them until her return. but of course she did nothing of the sort, and read them promptly.
the first was from ishbel:—
“all serene. stay as long as you like.”
the second was from the duke:—
“harold died this morning.”
“and he knows,” thought julia, with instant conviction. “that is what brought him here.”
