登陆注册
5247400000078

第78章 BOOK II(8)

"Not your fault that Bertha didn't turn up? My poor child, if only you don't have to pay for it!" Mrs. Fisher rose--she had seen Mrs. Bry surging back in her direction. "There's Louisa, and I must be off--oh, we're on the best of terms externally; we're lunching together; but at heart it's ME she's lunching on," she explained; and with a last hand-clasp and a last look, she added:

"Remember, I leave her to you; she's hovering now, ready to take you in.

"Lily carried the impression of Mrs. Fisher's leave-taking away with her from the Casino doors. She had accomplished, before leaving, the first step toward her reinstatement in Mrs. Bry's good graces. An affable advance--a vague murmur that they must see more of each other--an allusive glance to a near future that was felt to include the Duchess as well as the Sabrina--how easily it was all done, if one possessed the knack of doing it!

She wondered at herself, as she had so often wondered, that, possessing the knack, she did not more consistently exercise it.

But sometimes she was forgetful--and sometimes, could it be that she was proud? Today, at any rate, she had been vaguely conscious of a reason for sinking her pride, had in fact even sunk it to the point of suggesting to Lord Hubert Dacey, whom she ran across on the Casino steps, that he might really get the Duchess to dine with the Brys, if SHE undertook to have them asked on the Sabrina. Lord Hubert had promised his help, with the readiness on which she could always count: it was his only way of ever reminding her that he had once been ready to do so much more for her. Her path, in short, seemed to smooth itself before her as she advanced; yet the faint stir of uneasiness persisted. Had it been produced, she wondered, by her chance meeting with Selden?

She thought not--time and change seemed so completely to have relegated him to his proper distance. The sudden and exquisite reaction from her anxieties had had the effect of throwing the recent past so far back that even Selden, as part of it, retained a certain air of unreality. And he had made it so clear that they were not to meet again; that he had merely dropped down to Nice for a day or two, and had almost his foot on the next steamer. No--that part of the past had merely surged up for a moment on the fleeing surface of events; and now that it was submerged again, the uncertainty, the apprehension persisted.

They grew to sudden acuteness as she caught sight of George Dorset descending the steps of the Hotel de Paris and making for her across the square. She had meant to drive down to the quay and regain the yacht; but she now had the immediate impression that something more was to happen first.

"Which way are you going? Shall we walk a bit?" he began, putting the second question before the first was answered, and not waiting for a reply to either before he directed her silently toward the comparative seclusion of the lower gardens.

She detected in him at once all the signs of extreme nervous tension. The skin was puffed out under his sunken eyes, and its sallowness had paled to a leaden white against which his irregular eyebrows and long reddish moustache were relieved with a saturnine effect. His appearance, in short, presented an odd mixture of the bedraggled and the ferocious.

He walked beside her in silence, with quick precipitate steps, till they reached the embowered slopes to the east of the Casino;then, pulling up abruptly, he said: "Have you seen Bertha?""No--when I left the yacht she was not yet up."He received this with a laugh like the whirring sound in a disabled clock. "Not yet up? Had she gone to bed? Do you know at what time she came on board? This morning at seven!" he exclaimed.

"At seven?" Lily started. "What happened--an accident to the train?"He laughed again. "They missed the train--all the trains--they had to drive back.""Well---?" She hesitated, feeling at once how little even this necessity accounted for the fatal lapse of hours.

"Well, they couldn't get a carriage at once--at that time of night, you know--" the explanatory note made it almost seem as though he were putting the case for his wife--"and when they finally did, it was only a one-horse cab, and the horse was lame!""How tiresome! I see," she affirmed, with the more earnestness because she was so nervously conscious that she did not; and after a pause she added: "I'm so sorry--but ought we to have waited?""Waited for the one-horse cab? It would scarcely have carried the four of us, do you think?"She took this in what seemed the only possible way, with a laugh intended to sink the question itself in his humorous treatment of it. "Well, it would have been difficult; we should have had to walk by turns. But it would have been jolly to see the sunrise.""Yes: the sunrise WAS jolly," he agreed.

"Was it? You saw it, then?"

"I saw it, yes; from the deck. I waited up for them.""Naturally--I suppose you were worried. Why didn't you call on me to share your vigil?"He stood still, dragging at his moustache with a lean weak hand.

"I don't think you would have cared for its DENOUEMENT," he said with sudden grimness.

Again she was disconcerted by the abrupt change in his tone, and as in one flash she saw the peril of the moment, and the need of keeping her sense of it out of her eyes.

"DENOUEMENT--isn't that too big a word for such a small incident?

The worst of it, after all, is the fatigue which Bertha has probably slept off by this time."She clung to the note bravely, though its futility was now plain to her in the glare of his miserable eyes.

"Don't--don't---!" he broke out, with the hurt cry of a child;and while she tried to merge her sympathy, and her resolve to ignore any cause for it, in one ambiguous murmur of deprecation, he dropped down on the bench near which they had paused, and poured out the wretchedness of his soul.

同类推荐
  • 佛母宝德藏般若波罗蜜经

    佛母宝德藏般若波罗蜜经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • The French Revolution

    The French Revolution

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 全北齐文

    全北齐文

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • ABC's of Science

    ABC's of Science

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 太上济度章赦

    太上济度章赦

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 心理患者

    心理患者

    嫉妒让人拼命想出头,虚伪让人在困难面前也微笑。负能量有时候带来的动力是无穷的,其实我们都踩着阴暗的自己在往上爬。生活如此这样,我好像和“抑郁”做了很久的朋友。
  • 西元世界之崛起

    西元世界之崛起

    讲述未来世界共存和另一个世界的崛起。各种阴谋、阳谋,被一只无形的大手操控着这一切。
  • 误惹霸道狼君

    误惹霸道狼君

    一块烧饼,引狼入室,从此他便缠上了她,苏清煜说:“常晚,一块烧饼怎么能饱,一生一世我怎么能够!”她的乖乖,她怎么忘了,狼再乖巧,终究是狼。苏清煜说:“我不仅要你今生今世,还要你永生永世!”是偏执的疯子守着正直的傻子,还是正直的傻子救了偏执的疯子?
  • 谱写生命的乐章:影响你一生的感悟故事

    谱写生命的乐章:影响你一生的感悟故事

    本书编入了中外几百个感悟小故事,从人生感悟、情感感悟、智慧感悟等方面作为切入点,用通俗易懂的小故事来抛砖引玉,以精简准确的人生感悟作为提示和点拨,帮助广大读者从故事中得到启发,更加开朗,智慧,明智地面对人生。
  • 佛说济诸方等学经

    佛说济诸方等学经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 佳人恨倾城

    佳人恨倾城

    “逃得不够远,”霸道如他,总是在她逃走的时候又在第一刻找到她,他总是不顾她的意愿爱把她圈养在自己的眼下。伤她者,他加倍还之;害她者,必自受之。却不知道伤害她最深的就是他。她,自小就被侯府遗弃的十几年的嫡出千金,奈何嫡出不如庶出,回归之后百般陷害纠缠更让她心伤,躲不开的事,躲不开的人让她一次又一次缩进自己的龟壳,然后一次又一次的强大;绝色如她,为了不成为被利用的棋子,只能够掩藏;绝傲如她,为了亲人,被人禁锢;柔弱如她,为了不受伤害,只能够故作坚强。
  • 萧红作品集(2)(中国现代文学名家作品集)

    萧红作品集(2)(中国现代文学名家作品集)

    “中国现代文学名家作品集”丛书实质是中国现代文学肇基和发展阶段的创作总集,收录了几乎当时所有知名作家,知名作品的全部。
  • 杭城旧事

    杭城旧事

    乱世中他遇到了他,惊鸿一面。从此以后一腔情一腔恨就都给了他。洛文河是脉脉一江春水,温柔了岁月,惊艳了时光。许故城是高高一座大山,保护了他的半世安稳。他们之间没有情敌。因为这乱世就是他们最大的情敌。诗文已泛黄,故城旧梦深--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 公子,借个火

    公子,借个火

    穿越过来砸中皇帝的不一定都是女人,比如我这倒霉的男主;皇帝的狗与后花园不是人人都爱,比如我这痴汉的女主。不是皇亲不是国戚,他只是一介小小低调的侍卫长;不爱皇帝不爱国师,她只舔屏皇帝身边的毒舌美男。外表痴憨智障实则腹黑狠毒的女主,遇到一个低调帅气又毒舌,撩妹技能满满的21世纪来客,会碰出什么样的火花?一个是心野天下的操棋女子,一个是不挂天下的闲散路人。当伪装撕破,狩猎易主,他和他还能否一如初见?--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 明伦汇编交谊典品题部

    明伦汇编交谊典品题部

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。