Doctor Claudius, A True Story Part 20

"May G.o.d forbid!" said he very earnestly. "But if you will let me be your friend, I will promise to obey you, and I will not say anything that will displease you."

"You cannot," she repeated; and she smiled bitterly.

"But I can, and I will, if you will let me. I am very strong, and I will keep my word;" and indeed he looked the incarnation of strength as he sat with folded hands and earnest face, awaiting her reply. His words were not eloquent, but they were plain and true, and he meant them.

Something in the suppressed power of his tone drove away the smile from Margaret's face, and she looked toward him.

"Could you?" she asked. But the door opened, and Lady Victoria entered with her book.

"Oh!" said Lady Victoria.

"I must go and dress," said Claudius.

"We will go on with the book to-morrow," said the Countess. And he bore away a light heart.

On the following day the Duke began to take care of the Countess, as he had done yesterday, and Barker turned on the fireworks of his conversation for the amus.e.m.e.nt of Claudius. Claudius sat quite still for an hour or more, perhaps enjoying the surprise he was going to give the Duke and Barker. As the latter finished a brilliant tale, for the veracity of which he vouched in every particular, Claudius calmly rose and threw away his cigarette.

"That is a very good story," he said. "Good-bye for the present. I am going to read with the Countess." Barker was nearly "taken off his feet."

"Why--" he began, but stopped short. "Oh, very well. She is on deck. I saw the Duke bring up her rugs and things." His heavy moustache seemed to uncurl itself nervously, and his jaw dropped slowly, as he watched Claudius leave the deck-cabin.

"I wonder when they got a chance," he said to himself.

But Barker was not nearly so much astonished as the Duke. The latter was sitting by Margaret's side, near the wheel, making conversation. He was telling her such a good story about a mutual friend--the son of a great chancellor of the great empire of Kakotopia--who had gambled away his wife at cards with another mutual friend.

"And the point of the story," said the Duke, "is that the lady did not object in the least. Just fancy, you know, we all knew her, and now she is married again to--" At this point Claudius strode up, and Margaret, who did not care to hear any more, interrupted the Duke.

"Dr. Claudius, I have our book here. Shall we read?" The Doctor's face flushed with pleasure. The Duke stared.

"I will get a chair," he said; and his long legs made short work of it.

"Well, if you will believe it," said the Duke, who meant to finish his story, "it was not even the man who won her at cards that she married when she was divorced. It was a man you never met; and they are living in some place in Italy." The Duke could hardly believe his eyes when Claudius boldly marched up with his chair and planted himself on Margaret's other side. She leaned back, looking straight before her, and turning the leaves of the book absently backwards and forwards. The Duke was evidently expected to go, but he sat fully a minute stupidly looking at Margaret. At last she spoke.

"That was not a very nice story. How odd! I knew them both very well. Do you remember where we left off, Dr. Claudius?"

"Page one hundred and nineteen," answered the Doctor, who never forgot anything. This looked like business, and the Duke rose. He got away rather awkwardly. As usual, he departed to wreak vengeance on Mr.

Barker.

"Barker," he began with emphasis, "you are an a.s.s."

"I know it," said Barker, with humility. "I have been saying it over to myself for a quarter of an hour, and it is quite true. Say it again; it does me good."

"Oh, that is all. If you are quite sure you appreciate the fact I am satisfied."

"It dawned upon me quite suddenly a few minutes ago. Claudius has been here," said Barker.

"He has been there too," said the Duke. "He is there now."

"I suppose there is no doubt that we are talking about the same thing?"

"I don't know about you," said the other. "I am talking about Claudius and Countess Margaret. They never had a chance to speak all day yesterday, and now she asks him to come and read with her. Just as I was telling no end of a jolly story too." Mr. Barker's wrinkle wound slowly round his mouth. He had been able to shave to-day, and the deep furrow was clearly defined.

"Oh! she asked him to read, did she?" Then he swore, very slowly and conscientiously, as if he meant it.

"Why the deuce do you swear like that?" asked the Duke. "If it is not true that she has refused him, you ought to be very glad." And he stuffed a disreputable short black pipe full of tobacco.

"Why, of course I am. I was swearing at my own stupidity. Of course I am very glad if she has not refused him." He smiled a very unhealthy-looking smile. "See here--" he began again.

"Well? I am seeing, as you call it."

"This. They must have had a talk yesterday. He was here with me, and suddenly he got up and said he was going to read with her. And you say that she asked him to read with her when he went to where you were."

"Called out to him half across the deck--in the middle of my story, too, and a firstrate one at that."

"She does not care much for stories," said Barker; "but that is not the question. It was evidently a put-up job."

"Meaning a preconcerted arrangement," said the Duke. "Yes. It was arranged between them some time yesterday. But I never left her alone until she said she was going to lie down."

"And I never left him until you told me she had gone to bed."

"She did not lie down, then," said the Duke.

"Then she lied up and down," said Barker, savagely playful.

"Ladies do not lie," said the Duke, who did not like the word, and refused to laugh.

"Of course. And you and I are a couple of idiots, and we have been protecting her when she did not want to be protected. And she will hate us for ever after. I am disgusted. I will drown my cares in drink. Will you please ring the bell?"

"You had better drink apollinaris. Grog will go to your head. I never saw you so angry." The Duke pressed the electric b.u.t.ton.

"I loathe to drink of the water," said Barker, tearing off the end of a cigar with his teeth. The Duke had seen a man in Egypt who bit off the heads of black snakes, and he thought of him at that moment. The steward appeared, and when the arrangements were made, the ocean in which Barker proposed to drown his cares was found to consist of a small gla.s.s of a very diluted concoction of champagne, bitters, limes, and soda water.

The Duke had some, and thought it very good.

"It is not a question of language," said Barker, returning to the conversation. "They eluded us and met. That is all."

"By her wish, apparently," said the other.

"We must arrange a plan of action," said Barker.

"Why? If she has not refused him, it is all right. We have nothing more to do with it. Let them go their own way."

"You are an old friend of the Countess's, are you not?" asked the American. "Yes--very well, would you like to see her married to Claudius?"

"Upon my word," said the Duke, "I cannot see that I have anything to say about it. But since you ask me, I see no possible objection. He is a gentleman--has money, heaps of it--if she likes him, let her marry him if she pleases. It is very proper that she should marry again; she has no children, and the Russian estates are gone to the next heir. I only wanted to save her from any inconvenience. I did not want Claudius to be hanging after her, if she did not want him. She does. There is an end of it." O glorious English Common Sense! What a fine thing you are when anybody gets you by the right end.

"You may be right," said Barker, with a superior air that meant "you are certainly wrong." "But would Claudius be able to give her the position in foreign society--"

"Society be d.a.m.ned," said the Duke. "Do you think the widow of Alexis cannot command society? Besides, Claudius is a gentleman, and that is quite enough."

"I suppose he is," said Mr. Barker, with an air of regret.