Читать книгу The Way of These Women - E. Phillips Oppenheim - Страница 12

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Lucille, Sybil and Lakenham sat in deep wicker chairs in a shady corner of the lawn, watching the tennis. Before the first game was over, however, Lucille, with a little sigh of regret, rose gracefully to her feet.

‘It does not amuse me to watch these violent pastimes,’ she confessed. ‘Lord Lakenham has been dying to talk to you all day, Miss Cluley. He shall have his opportunity. I will write some necessary letters and earn his undying gratitude. Only, accept a word of advice from me. Believe nothing that he says. I consider him to be the most shameless libertine I have met with in the whole course of my experience.’

Sybil’s eyes followed her almost despairingly as she moved slowly towards the house. Lakenham changed at once into her vacant chair. Jermyn, from his place upon the courts, saw what had happened and promptly served two faults.

‘Lucille will chaff one all the time,’ Lakenham remarked. ‘Bit useful with her tongue, too, isn’t she? All the same, I have been rather anxious to have a little chat with you, Miss Cluley.’

‘Really?’

‘You know,’ he went on, ‘I wish you wouldn’t behave as though I wanted to eat you up, or something of that sort. I am of a forgiving nature. I harbour no animosity and I bear no grudges.’

She knew then that he remembered. Everything for a moment seemed to recede from her. The voices of the tennis players seemed to come from some far-off world. The breeze in the trees, the perfume of the burnt cedars, the fragrance of the roses, always insistent, surely belonged to one of those halcyon, half-forgotten days! This was another world in which she was living now, the world of her misery!

‘You see, my memory isn’t quite so rotten as you must have thought it was,’ Lakenham continued. ‘I haven’t forgotten all about the Gaiety Theatre at Blackpool and Miss May Marvis.’

She was trembling. Her eyes, which sought his now, were full of tears.

‘The money,’ she faltered. ‘I ought to have sent you the money back. Oh! I have thought of it a hundred times, but I was afraid—I was afraid that you might trace me through it. It was wicked of me!’

He laughed loudly, almost boisterously.

‘You silly child!’ he exclaimed. ‘What do you suppose that few pounds meant to me? You can’t imagine I ever intended you to repay it? It was a gift, of course. It was your broken promise that I minded.’

She looked at him like a wounded animal. Nothing that he could possibly have said could have hurt so much.

‘I was mad?’ she murmured. ‘We were both half starved, the company had come to grief. We hadn’t even the money for our tickets to London, and they told me that Mary wouldn’t live unless I could take her to a nursing home where she was properly looked after. But I was mad—I know it! I couldn’t—I shouldn’t really ever have kept my word.’

‘You took the money,’ he reminded her, ‘and you took it upon that understanding.’

A note of passion crept into her tone.

‘I had to have it!’ she declared. ‘Call it thieving, if you like. Charge me with theft—I’ll plead guilty. I did steal the money. I stole it for her. Look at her now. Do you see how healthy she is? Wasn’t it worth it?’

‘I tell you that I do not care,’ he persisted, ‘to think of the money. I think rather of your promise—the promise which still remains.’

She sat quite still, with closed eyes.

‘I wish,’ he went on, ‘you wouldn’t take it for granted that I was an enemy.’

‘If you are not an enemy,’ she replied swiftly, ‘why do you mention it at all? Why could you not have pretended that you did not recognize me, and have gone away? What does it matter to you? It is all over and done with.’

He laughed in a self-satisfied sort of way.

‘Miss Sybil,’ he said, ‘I tell you frankly that I’m not unselfish enough for those things. I warn you that I am going to give you a bit of a shock. It’s a regular queer sort of thing that’s happened to me. Oh, you’ll be interested presently, if you’ll listen! Don’t understand it myself a bit,’ he continued, speaking half to himself now and watching the smoke from the cigarette which he had just lit, curl its way upwards. ‘Of course, I’ve had heaps of affairs, and the marriage traps I’ve escaped from—God bless my soul, I ought to write my memoirs or whatever you call it, just to show people what a fellow with a title and a big income has to go through! One gets as wily towards forty as an old cock pheasant at the end of the season. That’s what makes it so surprising.’

‘Makes what so surprising?’ she asked.

He turned and looked at her. She began to shiver. A glimmering of the truth forced its way in upon her consciousness. There were things in his face—the ugly things as they seemed to her.

‘You’re not going to insult me—here!’

He smiled confidently.

‘If you call it an insult,’ he replied, ‘I am going to insult you in a new and unprecedented fashion. I am going to insult you in a way that pretty nearly any girl in London would jump at. I am going to show you that I, too, am capable of big things when I make up my mind. I am going to ask you to chuck Jermyn and marry me. Do you hear—marry me? I’ll make you Marchioness of Lakenham!’

Her fingers were nervously entwined in the basket-work of her chair. She sat up a little. She even ventured to laugh uneasily and to look at him once more. The complacency upon his face was sublime.

‘Of course you are joking!’ she exclaimed.

‘Joking be—hanged! No wonder you’re surprised! I don’t know what it means myself,’ he went on, in a low tone. ‘I’ve been gone on women before, and when I’ve been gone on ’em I’ve generally had my own way or got over it pretty soon. But this time—well, I don’t understand it. I saw you last night and I haven’t rested since. There’s something in my blood—I don’t know what it is, but it will never be still until you belong to me. And I am willing to pay. I’ll pay the price. You’ve got to throw Jermyn over and marry me.’

She began to laugh. To his ears, which were not trained to niceties, it seemed to be a perfectly natural laugh.

‘Throw Jermyn over—for you!’

She looked at the slim figure upon the lawn, with his clean-cut face, his deep-set grey eyes. They heard his voice, clear and pleasant, as he called to his partner. Then she looked back at the man who lounged by her side.

‘Do you think that I am mad,’ she asked him, ‘even if you are? Do you think that I would give up Jermyn for such a creature as you?’

His face darkened but he showed no anger.

‘I think you’ll be mad if you try any games on with me,’ he replied. ‘I can stop your marrying Jermyn, and you know it. You can take my word for it, too, if you don’t agree to my terms, that I shall do it.’

‘You mean that you will tell him?’

‘That or any other dirty trick,’ Lakenham assured her promptly. ‘Mind you, I know I’m a fool. I might have put things very differently to you. I might have insisted, even now, that you carried out your bargain.’

They were quite silent for some time. Then Sybil rose quietly to her feet.

‘Where are you going?’ he asked roughly.

‘I am going to tell Jermyn,’ she answered composedly, ‘when he has finished this game, that you have insulted me. I am going to tell him exactly what happened at Blackpool, explain to him the position I was in, and the despicable means I made use of to get out of it. I am going to tell him that one of us will have to leave here at once. He shall choose for himself which it is to be.’

Lakenham, too, rose to his feet.

‘Now listen,’ he said. ‘That’s all right, but what do you suppose Jermyn will do? He’ll send me away right enough, but what about you? Do you suppose that he’ll marry you? You don’t know Jermyn if you believe that! I tell you he’s a prig of the first water. He’s the most stuck-up, opinionated, narrow-minded person that ever breathed. He will do what he thinks right in spite of anything, but let me tell you this—he won’t marry you after he’s heard about Blackpool. He’s never forgiven a person yet who told him a lie or a half lie. He won’t begin by forgiving you. Do you think he hasn’t felt scruples? Do you think he wanted to bring a mistress here who had adorned the musical comedy stage a few years ago, even though she is acting at the theatres now? Not he! He swallowed it because he’s in love with you and because he believes in you. Go and tell him the truth. I’ve nothing to lose. You’ll probably be glad to listen to me afterwards.’

She sat down again. Her first impulse had passed away. She was conscious of a fierce desire to temporize with this man, to do anything in the world sooner than risk for a moment her new-found and amazing happiness. He saw her hesitation and he pursued, as he thought, his own advantage.

‘Sybil,’ he continued, ‘I haven’t said much about it yet—you haven’t given me a chance—but I want you to remember that although Jermyn may be fond of you in his way, I am just as fond of you in mine. Jermyn will want you to live up in the clouds with him. You’ll find it chilly there sometimes. I’ll keep your feet upon the earth, little woman, and I’ll lead you amongst the pleasant places. The Lakenham jewels are worth looking at, and I can make people receive you wherever you choose to go. I’m fond of you, you witch! What you’ve done I don’t know, but I’m madly fond of you. I’ll chuck all those little affairs you may have heard of. There shall never be another, I promise it. It’s time I settled down, and I will. You think this over, Sybil. There’s no hurry for a few hours. You’re full of the idea of marrying Jermyn just now, and it’s carried you away a bit. If you want my honest opinion about it, I think that the woman who marries Jermyn will have a plaguy dull time of it.’

She turned towards him.

‘If I told you,’ she pleaded, ‘that I love Jermyn, that no other man in the world could take his place—no, not for a single second!—wouldn’t that make any difference? Wouldn’t you let me off then?’

‘No,’ he answered stolidly. ‘I wouldn’t! You may feel like that just now. He writes your plays for you and I suppose you think him a sort of god. That kind of person’s all very well until you try to live with him.’

The set was over. Already Jermyn and Mary, flushed with triumph, were on their way towards them.

‘Six—three!’ the latter called out, waving her racquet. ‘They really hadn’t a look in. If only I could have served decently it would have been a love set.’

‘Think it over for a few hours,’ Lakenham muttered in a hoarse undertone. ‘I’ll say nothing until the evening. Play me a game of billiards after dinner. You hate bridge, anyway. You can give me your answer then.’

She hesitated. Jermyn was already close to them when he was intercepted by the butler, who delivered a message. He hesitated.

‘I am wanted on the telephone,’ he told Sybil. ‘I’ll be out again in half a moment.’

‘Don’t hurry,’ Lakenham cried cheerfully. ‘I don’t consider I’ve had half an innings with Miss Cluley yet. We’ve lots more to say to one another.’

‘Better get it over quickly, then,’ Jermyn replied over his shoulder. ‘You’ll have no more opportunity after I get back. I see a car load full from the barracks coming across the park. I asked some of them over to play tennis. I shan’t be a minute, Sybil.’

He turned towards the house. Sybil at first seemed inclined to follow him, but Lakenham blocked the way.

‘Be sensible, little woman,’ he urged. ‘Don’t quarrel with me. I’m a nasty-tempered fellow to have on the other side. Remember, after all, that I am doing the square thing, aren’t I? I’m ignoring the fact that you treated me shamefully. I’m doing all that a fellow can do who’s in love with you. I am asking you to be my wife. I don’t want to boast, but it isn’t a trifle. It’s a new idea to you and I daresay it hurts just at first to think about chucking Jermyn, but you know in the long run you’ve got to do it. Don’t do anything rash. Take an hour or two to think it over. Promise that you’ll play me that game of billiards after dinner. That’s all I ask for now. What do you say?’

‘It will be of no use,’ she answered quietly. ‘I shall never change my mind. But I will play billiards with you after dinner. Only I tell you this now—I may as well. If you come between me and Jermyn, if I am never to belong to him, then I shall never belong to anyone.’

He smiled a little fatuously, a little confidently. He had at any rate scored a first success.

‘We shall see,’ he said.

Jermyn reappeared, a few minutes later, with his newly-arrived guests. Lakenham and Sybil strolled up to meet them, and some sets at tennis were quickly arranged.

‘It was really you who were wanted on the telephone, Lakenham,’ Jermyn grumbled. ‘Fellow named Norden Smith—an American, I think—wanted to know whether you were here.’

‘The devil he did!’ Lakenham remarked. ‘Sure it wasn’t Mrs. Norden Smith.’

Jermyn shook his head.

‘Man’s voice, right enough,’ he replied. ‘Said he’d known you in America and found himself in the neighbourhood. Would rather like to say how-do-you-do to you. He’s off to Lincoln early to-morrow morning.’

There was a peculiar and unpleasant look for a moment in Lakenham’s face. He was smiling as though at some recollection that appealed a little grimly to his sense of humour.

‘I scarcely remember the fellow,’ he declared. ‘He had a charming wife, though, and they were very civil to me, in their way, in New York.’

‘I gathered from what he said that they had entertained you,’ Jermyn said, ‘so I asked him to dine, of course, but he preferred to come in afterwards. Said he’d look you up about half-past nine for a few minutes.’

‘Hope he won’t expect to be asked down to Somerset,’ Lakenham remarked. ‘I want to be in Scotland at least three weeks. They’re so jolly hospitable over there, though, these Americans, that you don’t—I say, Jermyn, you’re not taking Miss Cluley away?’

‘Absolutely,’ Jermyn replied firmly. ‘Here’s Lucille, looking, as usual, like a picture. You can either play tennis or flirt with her to your heart’s content. I am terrified to think that I have left Sybil so long near such a redoubtable lady-killer.’

She turned and laughed daringly into Lakenham’s face.

‘My dear Jermyn,’ she said, ‘you have discretion! Lord Lakenham has been making flagrant love to me. I very nearly had to call you.’

Lakenham grinned. This was the sort of humour he appreciated!

‘Gad!’ he exclaimed, looking at Sybil’s slim figure with something in his eyes which Jermyn hated, ‘if only I’d had another half-hour I believe I might have had a chance, after all.’

Jermyn smiled and pointed to the grey stone carving on the front of the house.

‘ “What I have, I hold,” ’ he quoted. ‘You are just a few days too late, my gallant cousin.’

Lakenham laughed. He stood with his hands in his pockets—a typical attitude—burly, dogged, confident.

‘We’ll match mottoes, Jermyn,’ he said. ‘You know mine?—“I hope, I win!” ’

Jermyn drew Sybil’s arm through his and turned away.

‘I shall at once,’ he declared, ‘remove Miss Cluley from the sphere of your influence!’