The Dust of Conflict Part 30

It was one of Tony's disadvantages that he was now and then unduly sensitive, for the deception he had been guilty of on the night in question was by comparison trifling. Still, he remembered with unpleasant distinctness another incident of a somewhat similar description, in which it was a little brooch that figured and not an engagement ring, and the red lips he had stooped to were not those of Violet Wayne. Tony could recall their tempting curve, and the gleam in the dark eyes that met his own, as well as the little lodge garden that was very still and shady that drowsy afternoon. It was perhaps the memory of it which made him flick the horse viciously with the whip.

Then he felt that his companion's eyes were fixed upon him.

"The brute is afraid of shadows," he said.

Violet turned her eyes on him, and there was a curious little smile in them. "I wonder if the complaint is infectious. He goes steadily with me," she said. "Tony, you haven't the hands you had."

Tony flushed visibly, for the moonlight was on his face now they had left the copse behind, and he remembered what had pa.s.sed between him and the girl in a room at Northrop the night G.o.dfrey Palliser died.

"Well," he said a trifle dryly, "if you are right it's due to worry, which, as everybody knows, never did agree with me. While agricultural property brings in what it does just now, keeping everything straight at Northrop isn't quite so easy as some folks seem to fancy."

"Still, the sale of that land to the electrical company and the ground rent you are getting from the other concern should simplify it," said the girl.

"You can't quite understand these affairs"; and Tony, who raised the whip, let it drop again.

Violet once more looked at him steadily, and her voice was low as she said, "If they were explained to me I think I could, but we will let that pa.s.s. What you said a little while ago reminds me of the weeks that followed the night you put that ring on. You had more cause for anxiety- and yet we had no cares then."

"No," said Tony. "I will remember those weeks while I live. Nothing could take them away from me."

"And now there is a difference! A little shadow that dims the brightness. Tony, you feel it, too?"

The man, who did not answer, laid both hands on the reins, for, and he recognized the significance of it, they swung round a bend of the road into sight of Appleby's inheritance just then. A pile of harsh brickwork rose in front of them, jarring upon the harmonies of the night; there was a ringing of hammers, and their eyes were dazzled by the glare of a great light under which a swarm of bent black figures were toiling. The horse broke into a gallop, the dog-cart jolted furiously, and for five anxious minutes Tony, who set his lips, dragged at the reins. Then, as the startled beast was forced into a trot again, he laughed petulantly.

"You are a little fanciful, Violet," he said. "I have not been quite up to my usual form lately, and singing at these confounded concerts worries me. Hester will keep me busy, too, and I shall scarcely get a moment near you."

Now Violet Wayne was seldom troubled by trifling jealousies, but she was a little anxious about Tony, and watched him as she said, "Your duties seemed to consist in entertaining Miss Clavier on the last occasion!"

The color showed in Tony's forehead, but it was the vague apprehension in his face that astonished his companion, who noticed the sudden tightening of his fingers on the reins. Still, the only answer she caught was an indistinct "Confound the woman!"

Violet made no comment, for she had noticed already that the anxieties Tony had evidently decided on concealing from her were affecting his temper, and when five minutes later they rattled up the Low Wood avenue there was no longer any opportunity for questions. Tony had contrived to arrive just as the entertainment was commencing, and Hester Earle promptly despatched him to the performers' room.

The long windows were wide open, and the soft night air flowed in with the faint scent of flowers, and a murmur of voices from the specially invited audience Miss Earle had bestowed in the tennis green, which was sunk a few feet on one side below the level of the sweep of lawn. Tennis was not a game she was fond of, and she had pacified the gardener by placing the chair legs on boards. Tony could see the shadowy ma.s.s of humanity showing black against a dazzling glare, for the big oxyhydrogen lights he had provided were then blazing in front of the proscenium, which had been extemporized on the verge of the higher level. The path that led to it wound along the edge of a tall shrubbery where colored lights blinked here and there amidst the dusky leaves.

He was never certain afterwards as to whom he talked with or what he said, though he surmised that his observations had not been especially apposite, for some of those about him appeared a trifle astonished, and two of them laughed. Tony was somewhat apt to lose his head when brought face to face with a difficulty, and the fact that Lucy Davidson was sitting a few yards away disconcerted him. A glance at his programme showed him that she was to figure in two pieces of mimicry instead of dancing, and she was dressed simply and tastefully, but while the room was crowded there were only two very young men in her vicinity, and that fact with something in their laughter seemed to differentiate their companion from the rest of the company. Tony, however, fancied that they were favored with scanty encouragement from the girl. She looked at him once, but Tony turned his head away, and it was not until he was about to go out that he felt himself compelled to speak to her.

"The others will take a lead from you, and those young a.s.ses are only making the thing more unpleasant for the girl," said a man he was talking to.

Tony said nothing. He could think of no excuse, but remembering what Violet had mentioned he shrank from the encounter. The good-natured committee-man's meaning had been perfectly plain to him, and he knew that he could save the girl the unpleasantness of being met with chilly aloofness or undue familiarity. His disposition was also a kindly one, and the decision that she must be left to fight her own battles caused him a little flush of confusion. As it happened, she saw it, and a portentous sparkle showed in her dark eyes. Tony noticed this, and remembered that weak complaisance had once placed him under the thumb of keeper Davidson. He did not mean to repeat the blunder, and his fears made him slightly venomous.

"I think you have met Mr. Anthony Palliser already, Miss Clavier," said his companion.

Tony knew that every eye in the room was upon him, and that his words would not be lost, but he felt he could not afford to be gracious, and while he hesitated the girl rose up and made him a little curtsey with quiet ironical insolence.

"I have had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Palliser-once or twice," she said in a voice that was intended to reach the rest.

Tony stood still a moment fingering his watch chain, and looking down at her with something his masculine companion had never seen there before in his face. It almost suggested vindictive cruelty, but he murmured a conventional word or two that was scarcely audible, and pa.s.sed on with the slightest of inclinations. There was also a little silence when he went out, and the color faded a trifle in Miss Clavier's face, leaving her cheeks alone red, while a gleam that implied a good deal crept into her eyes.

Tony, however, sang brilliantly when his turn came a few minutes later.

He had at last made a decided stand, and felt a trifle exhilarated by the novelty of it. Still, he was without stability, and it was much against his wishes that, wandering about between the songs after spending some time with Nettie Harding, he met Miss Clavier again. He had just seated himself upon the sloping bank of turf not far from the stage when he became aware that a seat above him was occupied, and glancing round at a sound saw the girl looking down on him. Then he would have turned away, but she stopped him with a little derisive laugh.

"Get up, Tony, and come and sit beside me," she said.

Tony rose, but noticing that one or two colored lights which hung from the branches of a copper beech above them rendered the seat visible stood still.

"To be frank, I would sooner be excused," he said. "After the little exhibition in the green-room it's a trifle difficult to understand why you want me."

"You deserved it! A word or two wouldn't have cost you anything, and I wanted you to keep those boys away."

"One would have fancied that you were quite capable of fighting your own battles."

The girl made a curious little gesture. "I think you are taking the wrong way," she said. "Now I don't want very much from you to-night, but I don't like being left out in the cold. You see, I am not accustomed to it, and you could have made this evening a good deal pleasanter to me."

She, however, blundered when she said to-night. Tony's fears had made him brutal, and it is the terror of the unknown that grows most oppressive. He did not know what she wanted, and it had unfortunately never dawned on him that she might, after all, want very little, and have had no hand in Davidson's scheme of extortion.

"Your meaning is tolerably plain, but I have been under the screw once,"

he said. "Now, I don't wish to rake up anything that would be painful, but you know just as well as I do that if I posed as an old friend of yours it would strengthen your hand. You will excuse me putting it plainly, but that is just what I don't intend to do."

A curious faint smile flickered into his companion's eyes. "It's unfortunate you haven't a little more sense," she said. "When you should be obstinate you are soft, and when a pleasant word or two would pay you well you bully. Has it ever struck you that I mayn't be-what you evidently think I am-or have any designs on you?"

Tony still went the wrong way, for it seemed to him that a resolute att.i.tude would at least tend to moderate any claim the girl might contemplate making. "I don't think I ever worried about the question,"

he said. "You see, it's necessary to be quite frank, and it really wasn't of any importance to me."

"Well, I don't want to argue," and Miss Clavier laughed. "You told me you were going to be married, but you didn't tell me who to. Of course, I could find out, but you should feel a little easier when you hear that I haven't tried to."

Tony did not believe her, and she recognized it. "I was once driven too hard, but this time I'll fight," he said. "Anything you might feel tempted to do to annoy me would most certainly recoil upon yourself."

"That really isn't necessary, Tony. Well, one could make a guess. It is the very pretty girl with the blue eyes I saw you talking to. An American, too. They're generally rich, and, of course, you must have money!"

Tony seized the opportunity of at least starting her on the wrong track.

"Money," he said chillingly, "would be a very small recommendation in Miss Harding's case."

"Yes," said his companion, "I daresay it would. She saw I was lonely, and I think meant to be kind, because she came up and spoke to me. Don't you think it's my duty to give her a hint after that?"

"I am not going to stay to be baited," and Tony slowly straightened himself. "I shall have pleasure in leaving you to your youthful admirers. I see them coming."

He swung round upon his heel, and Miss Clavier braced herself for an effort, as the result of which the two condescending youths retreated somewhat precipitately with flushed faces. Then she did a thing that would have astonished Tony, for she leaned back in the garden seat and with an abrupt movement pa.s.sed her handkerchief across her eyes. It was a moment or two later when, looking up at the sound of a footstep, she saw Nettie Harding gravely regarding her, and to her vexation as well as astonishment felt the blood tingle in her cheeks.

"Yes," said Nettie quietly. "I heard what you told them. They deserved it, and you did it very well. Now, I've been talking about nothing for most of two hours, and this place seems nice and quiet. You don't mind my sitting here with you a little?"

Nettie Harding's directness was usually a.s.sumed, because she found it convenient in England when she had anything delicate to do, and Miss Clavier, who read sympathy in her face, was grateful to her. She also hoped her companion would not notice the moisture on her long dark lashes.

"I am paid for coming here, you understand?" she said. "I dance and mimic people on the stage."

"Of course!" said Nettie. "Well, my father once peddled oranges on the trains; and they make quite a fuss over people who are on the stage in London, while I don't think many of them could have done that last piece of yours half as cunningly. Anyway, I haven't laughed as much since I've been in England. If you did it in New York you'd coin money."

She sat down smiling, and Miss Clavier regarded her out of half-closed eyes. There was n.o.body very near them, and only two dim colored lights above their heads. Somebody was singing, and a sweet tenor voice floated away into the stillness of the moonlit night. Miss Clavier glanced swiftly round into the shadows of the copper beech that fell blackly athwart the seat.

"You like frankness in your country," she said. "Now I am, perhaps, going to offend you, but I don't mind if I do. I saw you talking a good deal to Mr. Tony Palliser at Darsley and here to-night."