The Safety Curten, Ethel May Dell [e ink epub reader .TXT] 📗

Doris declared passionately.
He turned slowly round.
"What has she been saying to you?"
"Nothing."
Again he made no comment on the obvious lie.
"Look here," he said. "Can't we go out somewhere to-night? There is a new play at the Regency. They say it's good. Shall we go?"
The suggestion was quite unexpected; she looked at him in surprise.
"I have promised Vera to dine there," she said.
"Ring her up and say you can't," said Caryl.
She hesitated.
"I must make some excuse if I do. What shall I say?"
"Say I want you," he said, and suddenly that rare smile of his for which she had wholly ceased to look flashed across his face, "and tell the truth for once."
She did not see him again till she entered the dining-room an hour later. He was waiting for her there, and as she came in he presented her with a spray of lilies.
Again in astonishment she looked up at him.
"Don't you like them?" he said.
"Of course I do. But--but--"
Her answer tailed off in confusion. Her lip quivered uncontrollably, and she turned quickly away.
Caryl was plainly unaware of anything unusual in her demeanour. He talked throughout dinner in his calm, effortless drawl, and gradually under its soothing influence she recovered herself.
She enjoyed the play that followed. It was a simple romance, well staged, and superbly acted. She breathed a sigh of regret when it was over.
Driving home again with Caryl, she thanked him impulsively for taking her.
"You weren't bored?" he asked.
"Of course not," she said.
She would have said more, but something restrained her. A sudden shyness descended upon her that lasted till they reached the flat.
She left Caryl at the outer door and turned into the room overlooking the river. The window was open as she had left it, and the air blew in sweetly upon her over the water. She had dropped her wrap from her shoulders, and she shivered a little as she stood, but a feeling of suspense kept her motionless.
Caryl had entered the room behind her. She wondered if he would pause at the table where a tray of refreshments was standing. He did not, and her nerves tingled and quivered as he passed it by.
He joined her at the window, and they stood together for several seconds looking out upon the great river with its myriad lights.
She had not the faintest idea as to what was passing in his mind, but her heart-beats quickened in his silence to such a tumult that at last she could bear it no longer. She turned back into the room.
He followed her instantly, and she fancied that he sighed.
"Won't you have anything before you go?" he said.
She shook her head.
"Good-night!" she said almost inaudibly.
For a moment--no longer--her hand lay in his. She did not look at him. There was something in his touch that thrilled through her like an electric current.
But his grave "Good-night!" had in it nothing startling, and by the time she reached her own room she had begun to ask herself what cause there had been for her agitation. She was sure he must have thought her very strange, very abrupt, even ungracious.
And at that her heart smote her, for he had been kinder that evening than ever before. The fragrance of the lilies at her breast reminded her how kind.
She bent her head to them, and suddenly, as though the flowers exhaled some potent charm, impulse--blind, domineering impulse--took possession of her.
She turned swiftly to the door, and in a moment her feet were bearing her, almost without her voluntary effort, back to the room she had left.
The door was unlatched. She pushed it open, entering impetuously. And she came upon Caryl suddenly--as he had come upon her that afternoon--sunk in a chair by the window, with his head in his hands.
He rose instantly at her entrance, rose and closed the window; then lowered the blind very quietly, very slowly, and finally turned round to her.
"What is it? You have forgotten something?"
Except that he was paler than usual, his face bore no trace of emotion. He looked at her with his heavy eyes gravely, with unfailing patience.
For an instant she stood irresolute, afraid; then again that urging impulse drove her forward. She moved close to him.
"I only came back to say--I only wanted to tell you--Vivian, I--I was horrid to you this afternoon. Forgive me!"
She stretched out her trembling hands to him, and he took them, held them fast, then sharply let them go.
"My dear," he said, "you were in trouble, and I intruded upon you. It was no case for forgiveness."
But she would not accept his indulgence.
"I was horrid," she protested, with a catch in her voice. "Why are you so patient with me? You never used to be."
He did not answer her. He seemed to regard the question as superfluous.
She drew a little nearer. Her fingers fastened quivering upon his coat.
"Don't be too kind to me, Vivian," she said, her voice trembling. "It--it isn't good for me."
He took her by the wrists and drew her hands away.
"You want to tell me something," he said. "What is it?"
She glanced upwards, meeting his look with sudden resolution.
"You asked me this afternoon why I was crying," she said. "And I--I lied to you. You asked me, too, what Mrs. Lockyard said to me. And I lied again. I will tell you now, if--if you will listen to me."
Caryl was still holding her wrists. There was a hint of sternness in his attitude.
"Well?" he said quietly. "What did she say?"
"She said"--Doris spoke with an effort--"she said, or rather she hinted, that there was an old grudge between you and Major Brandon, a matter with which I was in no way concerned, an affair of many years' standing. She said that was why you followed him up and--thrashed him that night. She implied that I didn't count at all. She made me wonder if--if--"--she was speaking almost inarticulately, with bent head--"if perhaps it was only to satisfy this ancient grudge that you married me."
Her words went into silence. She could not look him in the face. If he had not held her wrists so firmly she would have been tempted to turn and flee. As it was, she could only stand before him in quivering suspense.
He moved at length, moved suddenly and disconcertingly, freeing one hand to turn her face quietly upwards. She did not resist him, but she shrank as she met his eyes. She fancied she had never seen him look so grim.
"And that was why you were crying?" he asked, deliberately searching her reluctant eyes.
"That was--one reason," she acknowledged faintly.
"Then there was something more than that?"
"Yes." She laid her hand pleadingly on his arm, and he released her. "I will tell you," she said tremulously, keeping her face upturned to his. "At least, I will try. But it's very difficult because--"
She began to falter under his look.
"Because," he said slowly, "you have no confidence in me. That I can well understand. You married me more or less under compulsion, and when a wife is no more than a guest in her husband's house, confidence between them, of any description, is almost an impossibility."
He spoke without anger, but with a sadness that pierced her to the heart; and having so spoken he leant his arm upon the mantelpiece, turning slightly from her.
"I will tell you," he said, his voice very quiet and even, "exactly what Mrs. Lockyard was hinting at. Ten years ago I was engaged to a girl--like you in many ways--gay, impulsive, bewitching. I was young in those days, romantic, too. I worshipped her as a goddess. I was utterly blind to her failings. They simply didn't exist for me. She rewarded me by running away with Maurice Brandon. I knew he was a blackguard, but how much of a blackguard I did not realize till later. However, I didn't trust him even then, and I followed them and insisted that they should be married in my presence. Six months later I heard from her. He had treated her abominably, had finally deserted her, and she was trying to get a divorce. I did my best to help her, and eventually she obtained it." He paused a moment, then went on with bent head, "I never saw her after she gained her freedom. She went to her people, and very soon after--she died."
Again he paused, then slowly straightened himself.
"I never cared for any woman after that," he said, "until I met you. As for Brandon, he kept out of my way, and I had no object in seeking him. In fact, I took no interest in his doings till I found that you were in Mrs. Lockyard's set. That, I admit, was something of a shock. And then when I found that you liked the man--"
"Oh, don't!" she broke in. "Don't! I was mad ever to tolerate him. Let me forget it! Please let me forget it!"
She spoke passionately, and as if her emotion drew him he turned fully round to her.
"If you could have forgotten him sooner," he said, with a touch of sternness, "you would not find yourself tied now to a man you never loved."
The effect of his words was utterly unexpected. She started as one stricken, wounded in a vital place, and clasped her hands tightly against her breast, crushing the flowers that drooped there.
"It is a lie!" she cried wildly. "It is a lie!"
"What is a lie?"
He took a step towards her, for she was swaying as she stood; but she flung out her hands, keeping him from her.
Her face was working convulsively. She turned and moved unsteadily away from him, groping out before her as she went. So groping, she reached the door, and blindly sought the handle. But before she found it he spoke in a tone that had subtly altered:
"Doris!"
Her hands fell. She stood suddenly still, listening.
"Come here!" he said.
He crossed the room and reached her.
"Look at me!" he said.
She refused for a little, trembling all over. Then suddenly as he waited she threw back her head and met his eyes. She was sobbing like a child that has been hurt.
He bent towards her, looking closely, closely into her quivering face.
"So," he said, "it was a lie, was it? But, my own girl, how was I to know? Why on earth didn't you say so before?"
She broke into a laugh that had in it the sound of tears.
"How could I? You never asked. How could I?"
"Shall I ask you now?" he said.
She stretched up her arms and clasped his neck.
"No," she whispered back. "Take me--take everything--for granted. It's the only way, if you want to turn a heartless little flirt like me into--into a virtuous and amiable wife!"
And so, clinging to him, her lips met his in the first kiss that had ever passed between them.


Those Who Wait[1]

A faint draught from the hills found its way through the wide-flung door as the sun went down. It fluttered the papers on the table, and stirred a cartoon upon the wall with a dry rustling as of wind in corn.
The man who sat at the table turned his face as it were mechanically towards that blessed breath from the snows. His chin was propped on his hand. He seemed to be waiting.
The light failed very quickly, and he presently reached out and drew a reading-lamp towards him. The flame he kindled flickered upward, throwing weird shadows upon his lean, brown face, making the