The Moonlit Way Part 27

"Be careful what you say over the telephone. For my sake, Garry. Don't use my former name or say anything to identify me with any place or profession. I've been in trouble. I'm in trouble still. Had you no letter from me this morning?"

"No."

"That is disquieting news. I posted a letter to you last night. You should have had it in your morning mail."

"No letter has come from you. I had no letters at all in the morning mail, and only one or two important business letters since."

"Then I'm deeply worried. I shall have to see you unless that letter is delivered to you by evening."

"Splendid! But you'll have to come to me, Thessa. I've invited a few people to dine here and dance afterwards. If you'll dine with us, I'll get another man to balance the table. Will you?"

After a moment she said:

"Yes. What time?"

"Eight! This is wonderful of you, Thessa!" he said excitedly. "If you're in trouble we'll clear it up between us. I'm so happy that you will give me this proof of friends.h.i.+p."

"You dear boy," she said in a troubled voice. "I should be more of a friend if I kept away from you."

"Nonsense! You promise, don't you?"

"Yes ... Do you realise that to-night another summer moon is to witness our reunion?... I shall come to you once more under a full June moon.... And then, perhaps, no more.... Never.... Unless after the world ends I come to you through shadowy outer s.p.a.ce--a ghost drifting--a shred of mist across the moon, seeking you once more!----"

"My poor child," he said laughing, "you must be in no end of low spirits to talk that way."

"It does sound morbid. But I have plenty of courage, Garry. I shall not snivel on the starched bosom of your evening s.h.i.+rt when we meet.

Donc, a bientot, monsieur. Soyez tranquille! You shall not be ashamed of me among your guests."

"Fancy!" he laughed happily. "Don't worry, Thessa. We'll fix up whatever bothers you. Eight o'clock! Don't forget!"

"I am not likely to," she said.

Until Selinda returned from her foray along Fifth Avenue, Barres remained in the studio, lying in his armchair, still possessed by the delightful spell, still excited by the prospect of seeing Thessalie Dunois again, here, under his own roof.

But when the slant-eyed and spotlessly blond Finn arrived, he came back out of his retrospective trance.

"Did you get some pretty things for Miss Soane?" he enquired.

"Yess, sir, be-ootiful." Selinda deposited on the table a sheaf of paid bills and the balance of the bank-notes. "Would Mr. Barres be kind enough to inspect the clothes for Miss Soane?"

"No, thanks. You say they're all right?"

"Yess, sir. They are heavenly be-ootiful."

"Very well. Tell Aristocrates to lay out my clothes after you have dressed Miss Dulcie. There will be two extra people to dinner. Tell Aristocrates. Is Miss Dulcie still asleep?"

"Yess, sir."

"All right. Wake her in time to dress her so she can come out here and give me a chance----" He glanced at the clock "Better wake her now, Selinda. It's time for her to dress and evacuate my quarters. I'll take forty winks here until she's ready."

Barres lay dozing on the sofa when Dulcie came in.

Selinda, enraptured by her own efficiency in grooming and attiring the girl, marched behind her, unable to detach herself from her own handiwork.

From crown to heel the transfiguration was absolute--from the point of her silk slipper to the topmost curl on the head which Selinda had dressed to perfection.

For Selinda had been a lady's maid in great houses, and also had a mania for grooming herself with the minute and thorough devotion of a pedigreed cat. And Dulcie emerged from her hands like some youthful sea-nymph out of a bath of foam, snowy-sweet as some fresh and slender flower.

With a shy courage born with her own transfiguration, she went to Barres, where he lay on the sofa, and bent over him.

She had made no sound; perhaps her nearness awoke him, for he opened his eyes.

"Dulcie!" he exclaimed.

"Do I please you?" she whispered.

He sat up abruptly.

"You wonderful child!" he said, frankly astonished. Whereupon he got off the sofa, walked all around her inspecting her.

"What a get-up! What a girl!" he murmured. "You lovely little thing, you astound me! Selinda, you certainly know a thing or two. Take it from me, you do Miss Soane and yourself more credit in your way than I do with paint and canvas."

Dulcie blushed vividly; the white skin of Selinda also reddened with pleasure at her master's enthusiasm.

"Tell Aristocrates to fix my bath and lay out my clothes," he said.

"I've guests coming and I've got to hustle!" And to Dulcie: "We're going to have a little party in honour of your graduation. That's what I have to tell you, dear. Does it please you? Do your pretty clothes please you?"

The girl, overwhelmed, could only look at him. Her lips, vivid and slightly parted, quivered as her breath came irregularly. But she found no words--nothing to say except in the pa.s.sionate grat.i.tude of her grey eyes.

"You dear child," he said gently. Then, after a moment's silence, he eased the tension with his quick smile: "Wonder-child, go and seat yourself very carefully, and be jolly careful you don't rumple your frock, because I want you to astonish one or two people this evening."

Dulcie found her voice:

"I--I'm so astonished at myself that I don't seem real. I seem to be somebody else--long ago!" She stepped close to him, opened her locket for his inspection, holding it out to him as far as the chain permitted. It framed a miniature of a red-haired, grey-eyed girl of sixteen.

"Your mother, Dulcie?"

"Yes. How perfectly it fits into my locket! I carry it always in my purse."

"It might easily be yourself, Dulcie," he said in a low voice. "You are her living image."

"Yes. That is what astonishes me. To-night, for the first time in my life, it occurred to me that I look like this girl picture of my mother."

"You never thought so before?"