The Obstacle Race Part 41

She made a little gesture as of one who accepts the inevitable. "_Je le crois bien_," she said softly.

Lord Saltash made a grimace. "And I am to give you up without a thought to this bounder?"

"You would," she replied gently, "if I were yours to give."

"If you were Lady Jo for instance?" he suggested.

"Exactly. If I were Lady Jo." She looked at him with the faint smile still at her lips. "It won't cost you much to be generous, Charles," she said.

"How do you know what it costs?" He frowned at her suddenly. "You'll accuse me of being benevolent next. But I'm not benevolent, and I'm not going to be. I might be to Lady Jo, but not to you, _ma cherie_,--never to you!" His grin burst through his frown. "Come! Sit down! I'll get you a drink."

She turned to the deep settee, and sank down among tigerskins with a sigh. He opened a cupboard in the panelling of the wall, and there followed the c.h.i.n.k of gla.s.ses and the cheery buzz of a syphon. In a few moments he came to her with a tall gla.s.s in his hand containing a frothy drink. "Look here, _Juliette_!" he said. "Come to France with me in the _Night Moth_, and we'll find Lady Jo!"

She accepted the drink and lay back without looking at him. "You always were an eccentric," she said. "I don't want to find Lady Jo."

He sat on the head of the settee at her elbow. "It's quite a fair offer,"

he said, as if she had not spoken. "You will--eventually--return from Paris, and no one will ever know. In these days a woman of the world pleases herself and is answerable to none. _Mais, Juliette_!" He reached down and coaxingly held her hand. "_Pourquoi pas_?"

She lifted her eyes slowly to his face. "I have told you," she said.

"You're not in earnest!" he protested.

She kept her look steadily upon him. "Charles Rex, I am in earnest."

His fingers clasped hers more closely. "But I can't allow it. We can't spare you. And you--yourself, _Juliette_--you will never endure life in a backwater. You will pine for the old days, the old friends, the old lovers,--as they will pine for you."

"No, never!" said Juliet firmly.

He leaned down to her. "I say you will. This is--a midsummer madness.

This will pa.s.s."

She started slightly at his words. The sparkling liquid splashed over.

She lifted the gla.s.s to her lips, and drank. When she ceased, he took it softly from her, and put it to his own. Then he set down the empty gla.s.s and slipped his arm behind her.

"_Juliette_, I am going to save you," he said, "from yourself."

She drew away from him. "Charles, I forbid that!"

She was breathing quickly but her voice was quiet. There was indomitable resolution in her eyes.

He paused, looking at her closely. "You deny--to me--what you were permitting with so much freedom barely half-an-hour ago to the village schoolmaster?" he said.

Her face flamed. "I have always denied you--that!" she said.

He smiled. "Times alter, Juliette. You are no longer in a position to deny me."

She kept her eyes upon him. "You mean I have trusted you too far?" she said, a deep throb in her voice. "I might have known!"

He shrugged his shoulders. "Life is a game of hazard, is it not? And you were always a daring player. But, Juliette, you cannot always win. This time the luck is against you."

She was silent. Very slowly her eyes left his. She drooped forward as she sat.

He leaned down to her again, his face oddly sympathetic. "After all,--you claimed my protection," he said.

She made a sudden movement. She turned sharply, almost blindly. She caught him by the shoulders. "Oh, Charles!" she said. "Charles Rex! Is there no mercy no honour--in you?"

There was a pa.s.sion of supplication in her voice and action. As she held him he could have clasped her in his arms. But he did not. He sat motionless, looking at her, his expression still monkey-like, half-wicked, half-wistful.

"Well, you shouldn't tempt me, Juliette," he said. "It isn't fair to a miserable sinner. You were always the cherry just out of reach.

Naturally, I'm inclined to s.n.a.t.c.h when I find I can."

Juliet was trembling, but she controlled her agitation.

"No, that isn't allowed," she said. "It isn't the game. And you never--seriously--wanted me either."

"But I'm never serious!" protested Saltash. "Neither are you. It's your one solid virtue."

"I am serious now," she said.

He looked at her quizzically. "Somehow it suits you. Well, listen, _Juliette_! I'll strike a bargain with you. When you are through with this, you will come with me for that cruise in the _Night Moth_.

Come! Promise!"

"But I am not--quite mad, Rex!" she said.

He lifted his hands to hers and lightly held them. "It is no madder a project than the one you are at present engaged upon. What? You won't?

You defy me to do my worst?"

"No, I don't defy you," she said.

He flashed a smile at her. "How wise! But listen! It's a bargain all the same. You put me on my honour. I put you on yours. Go your own way!

Pursue this bubble you call love! And when it bursts and your heart is broken--you will come back to me to have it mended. That is the price I put upon my mercy. I ask no pledge. It shall be--a debt of honour. We count that higher than a pledge."

"Ah!" Juliet said, and suppressed a sudden tremor.

He stood up, gallantly raising her as he did so. "And now we will go and look for your friends," he said. "Is all well, _ma cherie_? You look pale."

She forced herself to smile. "You are a preposterous person, Charles Rex," she said. "Yes, let us go!"

She turned with him towards the panelling, but she did not see by what trick he opened again the door by which they had entered. She only saw, with a wild leap of the heart, d.i.c.k Green, upright, virile, standing against the dark hangings of the pa.s.sage beyond.

CHAPTER IV

KISMET