Mistress Anne Part 23

"Which reminds me," he said, quickly, and brought from his pocket a little box. "Your costume won't be complete without these. I bought them for you with the advance check which my publishers sent after they had read the first chapters of my book."

She opened the box. Within lay a little string of pearls. Not such pearls as Nancy had shown her, but milk-white none the less, with shining lovely lights.

"Oh," she gave a distressed cry, "you shouldn't have done it."

"Why not?"

"I can't accept them. Indeed I can't."

"I shall feel as if you had flung them in my face if you give them back to me," heatedly.

"You shouldn't take it that way. It isn't fair to take it that way."

"It isn't a question of fairness. It is a question of kindness on your part."

"I want to be kind."

"Then take them."

She thought for a moment with her eyes on the fire. When she raised them it was to say, "Would you--want your little sister, Mimi, to take jewels from any man?"

"Yes. If he loved her as I love you."

It was out, and they stood aghast. Then Geoffrey stammered, "Can't you see that my soul kneels at your feet? That to me these pearls aren't as white as your--whiteness?"

The rosy silk had slipped to the floor. She was like a very small G.o.ddess in a morning cloud. "I can't take them. Oh, I can't."

He made a quick gesture. But for her restraining hand he would have cast the pearls into the flames.

"Oh, don't," she said, the little hand tense on his arm. "Don't--hurt me--like that."

He dropped the pearls into his pocket. "If you won't wear them n.o.body shall. I suppose I seem to you like all sorts of a fool. I seem like all sorts of a fool to myself."

He turned and left her.

An hour later he came back and found her still sewing on the rosy silk.

Her eyes were red, as if she had wept a little.

"I was a brute," he said, repentantly; "forgive me and smile. I am a tempestuous fellow, and I forgot myself."

"I was afraid we weren't ever going to be friends again."

"I shall always be your friend. Yet--who wants a Blind Beggar for a friend--tell me that, Mistress Anne?"

CHAPTER X

_In Which a Blind Beggar and a b.u.t.terfly Go to a Ball._

_In my Own Little Room._

UNCLE ROD, I went to the party!

I came home an hour ago, and since then I have been sitting all shivery and shaky in my pink silk. It will be daylight in a few minutes, but I shan't go to bed. I couldn't sleep if I did. I feel as if I shouldn't ever sleep again.

Uncle Rod, Jimmie Ford was at the Crossroads ball!

I went early, because Mrs. Nancy had asked me to be there to help with her guests. Geoffrey Fox went with me. He was very picturesque in a ragged jerkin with a black bandage over his eyes and with old Mamie leading him at the end of a cord. She enjoyed it immensely, and they attracted a lot of attention, as he went tap-tapping along with his cane over the polished floor, or whined for alms, while she sat up on her haunches with a tin cup in her mouth.

Well, Dr. Richard met us at the door, looking the young squire to perfection in his grandfather's old dress coat of blue with bra.s.s b.u.t.tons. The people from New York hadn't come, so Mrs. Nancy put the pearls in my hair, and they made me stand under the portrait in the library, to see if I were really like my grandmother. I can't believe that I looked as lovely as she, but they said I did, and I began to feel as happy and excited as Cinderella at her ball.

Then the New York crowd arrived in motors, and they were all masked. I knew Eve Chesley at once and Winifred Ames, but it was hard to be sure of any one else. Eve Chesley was a Rose, with a thousand fluttering flounces of pink chiffon. She was pursued by two men dressed as b.u.t.terflies, slim and shining in close caps with great silken wings--a Blue b.u.t.terfly and a Brown one. I was pretty sure that the Brown one was Philip Meade. It was quite wonderful to watch them with their wings waving. Eve carried a pocketful of rose petals and threw them into the air as she went. I had never imagined anything so lovely.

Well, I danced with Dr. Richard and I danced with Geoffrey Fox, and I danced with Dutton Ames, and with some men that I had never met before.

It seemed so _good_ to be doing things like the rest. Then all at once I began to feel that the Blue b.u.t.terfly was watching me. He drifted away from his pursuit of Evelyn Chesley, and whenever I raised my eyes, I could see him in corners staring at me.

It gave me a queer feeling. I couldn't be sure, and yet--there he was.

And, Uncle Rod, suddenly I knew him! Something in the way he carried himself. You know Jimmie's little swagger!

I think I lost my head after that. I flirted with Dr. Richard and with Geoffrey Fox. I think I even flirted a little with Dutton Ames. I wanted them to be nice to me. I wanted Jimmie to see that what he had scorned other men could value. I wanted him to know that I had forgotten him. I laughed and danced as if my heart was as light as my heels, and all the while I was just sick and faint with the thought of it--"Jimmie Ford is here, and he hasn't said a word to me. Jimmie Ford is here--and--he hasn't said a word----"

At last I couldn't stand it any longer, and when I was dancing with Geoffrey Fox I said, "Do you think we could go down to the Garden Room? I must get away."

He didn't ask any question. And presently we were down there in the quiet, and he had his bandage off, and was looking at me, anxiously.

"What has happened, Mistress Anne?"

And then, oh, Uncle Rod, I told him. I don't know how I came to do it, but it seemed to me that he would understand, and he did.

When I had finished his face was white and set. "Do you mean to tell me that any man has tried to break your heart?"

I think I was crying a little. "Yes. But the worst of all is my--pride."

"My little Princess," he said softly, "that this should have come--to you."

Uncle Rod, I think that if I had ever had a brother, I should have wanted him to be like Geoffrey Fox. All his lightness and frivolity seemed to slip from him. "He has thrown away what I would give my life for," he said. "Oh, the young fool, not to know that Paradise was being handed to him on a platter."

I didn't tell him Jimmie's name. That is not to be spoken to any one but you. And of course he could not know, though perhaps he guessed it, after what happened later.

While we sat there, Dr. Richard came to hunt for us. "Everybody is going in to supper," he said. He seemed surprised to find us there together, and there was a sort of stiffness in his manner. "Mother has been asking for you."

We went at once to the dining-room. There were long tables set in the old-fashioned way for everybody. Mrs. Nancy wanted things to be as they had been in her own girlhood. On the table in the wide window were two birthday cakes, and at that table Dr. Richard sat with his mother on one side of him, and Eve Chesley on the other. Eve's cake had pink candles and his had white, and there were twenty-five candles on each cake.

Geoffrey Fox and I sat directly opposite; Dutton Ames was on my right, Mrs. Ames was on Geoffrey's left, and straight across the table, with his mask off, was Jimmie Ford, staring at me with all his eyes!

For a minute I didn't know what to do. I just sat and stared, and then suddenly I picked up the gla.s.s that stood by my plate, raised it in salute and drank smiling. His face cleared, he hesitated just a fraction of a second, then his gla.s.s went up, and he returned my greeting. I wonder if he thought that I would cut him dead, Uncle Rod?