The Phantom Lover Part 21

But June only laughed.

"Onlookers see most of the game," she declared. "Aren't you coming up to my room? Our room, I mean."

"I've got to go out--I had an appointment at half-past two, but I'll love to come to tea with you," she added, seeing the disappointment in June's face.

"Very well, then, four o'clock. But who is the appointment with? You won't need to find a berth now. You're a lady of leisure."

"But I shall try all the same. I don't mean to be lazy just because he's so good to me. I shall save all I can. I went to an agency yesterday----"

"They'll rob you," June protested. "They always do. I know what agents are," she added darkly.

Esther laughed.

But if she had hoped great things from her call that afternoon she was disappointed. The thin, aristocratic-looking person who owned the "Bureau," as it was called, looked at her with coldly critical eyes, and said that she had no vacancies likely to suit her.

"But you told me to call," Esther protested.

"Certainly; there might have been something," was all the answer she received. "Call again to-morrow, if you please."

Esther went out dispiritedly. There were so many girls of her own cla.s.s and age in the bare waiting-room; she felt quite sure that they would all get berths before she had a chance.

She felt glad that she had June Mason to go back to. June was always sympathetic. She went straight upstairs to the sitting-room with the mauve cushions.

June opened the door before she had time to knock.

"I thought it was you. I heard your step. What's the matter? You sounded dispirited as you came upstairs."

Esther laughed.

"I believe you must have second sight, or whatever they call it. But you're right this time; I am rather down on my luck. They haven't anything at the agency to suit me. I----" She stopped, looking past June into the cosy room to where a man had just risen from a chair by the fire--a tall man--who looked across at her with eyes that were half-abashed, half-defiant. Micky Mellowes.

CHAPTER VIII

June introduced Micky and Esther with a sort of hurried self-consciousness. It was not by her invitation that Micky was here this afternoon, and the fact that she had asked him to help Esther embarra.s.sed her.

"Mr. Mellowes--Miss Shepstone; you've both heard of each other, so I can leave you to entertain one another while I get tea."

And she bolted out of the room.

Esther looked after her with angry eyes; she thought June might have stayed--she took a quick step forward to call her back, but Micky stopped her; he put a hand on the door above her head, shutting it fast.

"I'm going to speak to you, whether you like it or not," he said.

She faced him angrily; she was very flushed.

"I don't know what you mean. You've no right to speak to me like that.

If Miss Mason has asked you here to meet me----"

"June didn't know I was coming. She has no more idea than the dead that we have ever met before. I haven't told her, and I don't suppose you have--or will," he added grimly. "However, as we are alone, will you tell me what I've done to offend you? It's not fair to take me for a friend and then fling me over as if I were an old glove.... If I've annoyed you, the least you can do is to tell me how and give me a chance to explain."

Esther had walked back to the fire and Mellowes followed her. He knew that he had only got a few moments, and he meant to make the most of them.

"You refuse to see me or to allow me to take you out," he went on urgently. "And you haven't even answered my last letter. If I have offended you----"

"You haven't," said Esther, as he paused. "I'm not at all offended."

"Then why, in the name of all that's holy----" he began again, in exasperation. She cut him short.

"You didn't tell me the truth about yourself. You made out you were poor! You pretended to be some one quite different to what you are.

You've a perfect right to, I suppose, if you wish, but I hate being deceived and treated like that. I suppose you think anything is good enough for me! Perhaps it is, but----"

Micky brought his fist down with a bang on the back of the big armchair.

"I give you my word of honour, Miss Shepstone, that what I said was only because it seemed the best way to make you trust me. I had absolutely no other reason for pretending to--to--be anything but what I am. I know you'd have gone off at a tangent if I'd said I was unfortunate enough to be rich, I know----"

She shrugged her shoulders.

"You didn't even write to me from your real address--you just put a number." She broke into an angry little laugh. "I suppose you thought I shouldn't understand that a number can also be an expensive flat."

Micky turned pale with anger.

"You're deliberately trying to make out that I'm a bounder. It's not fair--I don't deserve it; and as to thinking anything good enough for you--I suppose you'd only take it as a fresh insult if I told you that there is nothing in the world I consider good enough for you.... I ... oh, what's the good of arguing," he broke out with sudden rage.

"It's no good at all, and there's nothing to argue about," Esther said stiffly. She had taken off her gloves and was flattening them out nervously. "You offered me your friendship, and now I decline it. I suppose I am free to do so?"

"No," said Micky violently, "you're not ... I--I ..." He turned away sharply, realising with dismay how nearly he had blurted out the truth about Ashton. After a moment he spoke more quietly.

"It is pure chance that brought me here. I have known June Mason for years; we are old friends. She has no idea that I have ever seen you before, but I will tell her this moment if you wish it----"

She raised pa.s.sionate eyes to his face.

"I will never forgive you as long as I live if you dare to," she said stormily.

Micky frowned till his brows nearly met above his kind eyes.

"Whatever I say or offer to do is wrong, of course," he said savagely.

"If I had not offered to tell her, you would probably have said that I was ashamed of knowing you ... oh, good Heavens! whatever have I said now?" he added as he saw the hot blood rush to her face.

He went over to her and tried to take her hand. "Do forgive me; I beg of you to forgive me--I'm a clumsy idiot--but you don't know how hurt I've felt about being turned down in this way."

"It's absurd to feel hurt--I haven't turned you down; I wish you wouldn't keep saying that I have. Why I--I hardly know you," she added with a little angry laugh.

Micky turned away; he stood staring down into the fire; neither of them spoke again till June returned.