Grit Lawless Part 17

Mrs Lawless laughed with her.

"What a valiant champion you make," she said. "Trust a woman to protect a woman in any serious crisis."

And then the press suddenly ceased. Julie's arms fell to her side, and with a further smile of friendship and understanding, Mrs Lawless pa.s.sed on with her companion.

"Who is that girl?" she inquired as they pa.s.sed through into the ball-room.

She was not dancing. She had merely come for an hour to look on; and she chose a seat not too far away from the exit, so that she could make her escape without inconvenience as soon as she desired. Van Bleit sat down beside her, and, following his customary tactics, sought by his impressive manner to draw attention to themselves. He was usually a daring wooer, but Mrs Lawless so baffled him that he was forced to resort to more insidious methods.

"The girl who embraced you? ... That's Miss Julie Weeber... Quite a nice little thing. Not exactly in your set, you know."

She regarded him strangely.

"And the boy she was with?"

Van Bleit laughed.

"Oh! that's Bolitho, her faithful squire. He's clerk in a wool-store.

Miss Weeber has slighted him of late, but he's in favour again apparently. She'd be well advised to stick to him."

"I like the look of him," said Mrs Lawless slowly, "and I like her. I shall cultivate the acquaintance. If I were to remain so long, couldn't you manage that we sat together at supper?"

Van Bleit would have contrived anything to have kept her longer at the dance. When she left it would be for home, he knew; and it was never permitted him to accompany her on the homeward drive. He had several times suggested doing so, but he had always met with the same pleasant but firm refusal.

It was a surprise for Julie to find herself _tete-a-tete_ with the beautiful Mrs Lawless at supper. Van Bleit so managed matters that it appeared wholly accidental when he and his companion took the vacant seats opposite herself and young Bolitho, and he exerted himself to an unusual degree to make the meal a success. Julie was astonished at the fun she was getting out of the evening.

"Why, I'm really enjoying myself," she remarked naively in a pause between the laughter. "And I had feared it was going to be such a slow affair."

"At your age," Mrs Lawless answered, "no dance should prove slow."

"That depends," retorted Julie. "But, of course, you've never experienced the pain of sitting out."

"I usually sit out," Mrs Lawless answered. "I am no dancer. But there is pleasure in watching others enjoy themselves."

"Oh yes!" Julie replied. "Anyone could enjoy that when the sitting out wasn't compulsory."

"I see." Mrs Lawless laughed. "A little discipline of that nature isn't exactly harmful," she said.

Julie laughed too.

"I always hated discipline," she said.

"I can't understand any girl sitting out," Van Bleit interposed. "That men can't find partners is common enough. There are plenty of fellows supporting the door-posts to-night."

"Yes; but they want amusing," Julie returned brightly. "They won't give their services for nothing."

"There is something very decadent in the sound of that," Mrs Lawless remarked.

Before rising, she leaned across the table and addressed herself directly to the girl.

"Do you ever get as far as Rondebosch?" she asked.

"I get farther than that," Julie answered. "I cycle, you know."

"Then, take pity on my loneliness. I am an Englishwoman, unused to the Colony. Will you ride out to see me some day?"

"Of course I will... Any time you wish."

"Come to-morrow... I will be at home to no one else..."

"Lucky little girl!" murmured Van Bleit, as he escorted Mrs Lawless from the supper-room. "She enjoys a privilege that many would envy her... You never ask _me_ to visit you..."

She looked at him steadily.

"Perhaps some day I shall do that," she answered, and smiled at him, a smile so kind and gentle that it set Van Bleit's heart beating high with expectation, and a hope he did not often dare to indulge.

When he had a.s.sisted her into her motor and shut the door upon her, he took the hand she extended to him and raised it to his lips. The car drove off and left him standing in the roadway, looking after it with a complacent smile widening the corners of his sensual mouth. Truly he had a way with women! He had never known any woman who could stand out against him for long.

As he turned and started to walk in the opposite direction from that taken by the car, a figure loomed suddenly out of the darkness and, with a word of greeting, came to a halt in front of him. Van Bleit recognised the sallow, bearded face, the darkness notwithstanding, and instinctively his right hand went to his breast pocket in a manner that brought a smile to the lips of the man who had accosted him. Recovering himself almost immediately, he feigned to be searching for his cigar-case, which eventually he produced, and leisurely proceeded to abstract a cigar therefrom. While thus employed, he replied to the brief salutation of the new-comer with the sarcastic observation:

"Still taking an interest in my movements, Mr Simmonds? I thought your gang had tired of me."

"You pay yourself a poor compliment, Mr Van Bleit," was the dry response. "The Colonel seems keener on your society just now than on any other. He'd like to see you. I've been hanging about outside this social ballet for some time with the express object of telling you so."

"A dull amus.e.m.e.nt," Van Bleit returned, lighting his cigar, "which you might have spared yourself. Colonel Grey and I have given free vent to our opinions of one another sufficiently often to obviate the necessity of a repet.i.tion of our views. Mine have undergone no change--I doubt that his have."

"I doubt it too," Simmonds replied. "But this matter he has in mind has no bearing on his personal feelings. He has had a letter recalling him to England."

"I'm glad of that at least," said Van Bleit.

"There were other matters contained in the letter besides his recall which concern you," Simmonds added. "He wishes to see you on the subject."

"You may tell him from me," Van Bleit answered rudely, "that his postal communications, as his movements, have not the slightest interest for me."

He started to walk again. Simmonds, wholly unmoved, walked beside him.

"You speak without knowledge, Mr Van Bleit," he said. "The instructions contained in this imperative and important letter concern you very particularly. Colonel Grey has a further proposal to lay before you, which you will be well advised to consider. Failing a satisfactory issue to these final negotiations, he is instructed to place the matter in the hands of the police and return to England."

Van Bleit, his a.s.surance notwithstanding, was taken aback. He had not foreseen this move, and was totally unprepared for it. It was merely bluff, he told himself, and really believed it was so; but at the back of the belief lurked the fear that his victim might have grown reckless, and, with the courage that is sometimes born of despair, be prepared to face the worst.

"Faugh!" he exclaimed impatiently. "That's an old dodge." But his voice had lost its confidence and resumed its natural bullying tones.

"Go and tell your chief to do his worst, and be d.a.m.ned to him!"

"Go and tell him yourself," returned Simmonds. "You could at least then hear what he has to say."

"And how do I know you are not up to some treachery?" demanded Van Bleit, his suspicions at once on the alert.

"I suppose it is natural you should judge other men by your own standard," Simmonds answered indifferently. "If you are afraid we may arrange a trap, why not go and see him to-night when he is unprepared for your visit?"