Confessions of a Young Lady Part 29

"This is our apartment. I am afraid my father will scold me."

"Scold you! Why?"

"You see, I am all he has, and so--I wait upon his pleasure. I am so seldom away from him that, when I am, even for a little time, he misses me. But will you not come in? Perhaps your presence may save me from my scolding."

Mr Davison was not in the mood, nor was he the man, to say "No" to such an invitation. He went in to save her from her scolding. They found the old gentleman in the _salon_, seated, in solitary state, in front of a table on which were a couple of packs of cards. His manner in greeting his daughter was more than a trifle acid.

"Well? You have come! It is good of you, upon my honour. I have not waited quite two hours--yet."

"I am so sorry."

She put her arms about his neck, her soft cheek against his rough one.

He disengaged himself from her embrace.

"Permit me! I am not in the vein!"

"Father, you see that Mr Davison is here. Mr Davison, my father is justly angry with me. I have kept him waiting two hours for his _ecarte_."

Mr Davison advanced to the old gentleman with outstretched hand.

"Let me pay forfeit in Mdlle. de Fontanes' stead: play with me."

The old gentleman touched the extended palm with the end of his frigid fingers. He looked the speaker up and down.

"Do you play _ecarte?_"

"I ought to; I have played it my whole life long."

"Then," said the old man, with beautiful irony, "you should be a foeman worthy of my steel."

They sat down. But the young lady did not seem easy.

"Is it not too late to play to-night? I am already guilty of detaining Mr Davison."

Mr Davison repudiated the idea with scorn.

"Too late! Why, sometimes I sit up playing cards the whole night long."

"After that," murmured the old man softly, "what has one left to say?"

They played, if not all night, at least until the tints of dawn were brightening the sky. The stakes were trifling, but, even so, if one never wins, one may lose--in time. When Mr Davison rose to go he had lost all his ready money and seventeen pounds besides. This he was to bring to-morrow, when he was to have his revenge.

Mdlle. de Fontanes let him out. In the hall, before she opened the door, she spoke to him.

"I wish you would promise me not to play with my father again."

"Promise you! But why?"

"Do not be offended. You are a younger man. You do not play so well as he, my friend."

The "friend" came softly at the end. But Mr Davison chafed at the under-estimation of his powers.

"You think so because I have not won to-night. Let me tell you, for your satisfaction, that I was not afraid of meeting any man at the 'Varsity, and there are some first-rate players there."

The lady smiled.

"At the 'Varsity? I see." She opened the door. The dawn streamed in.

"Good-night."

As Mr Davison strolled homewards he saw before him in the air, not a pack of cards, but a woman's eyes.

CHAPTER II

Mr Davison saw Mr Lintorn again at the eleven o'clock breakfast that morning.

"Find her father?" was Mr Lintorn's greeting to him as he took his seat.

"Find her father? Whose? Oh, Mdlle. de Fontanes'! No; I had to see her home."

"Hard lines!"

Mr Lintorn waited until the second course was served before he spoke again.

"It took you a long time to see her home?"

"I don't understand you."

"I sat up for you until nearly two, and you weren't in then."

"It was very good of you to sit up for me, I'm sure."

Mr Lintorn, adjusting his eyegla.s.ses, looked his friend fixedly in the face.

"Davison, if you will allow me, on this occasion only, to play the part of mentor, you will have as little to do with the de Fontanes as you conveniently can.

"What the deuce do you mean?"

"Nothing; only a word to the wise--"

"Considering that they are not my friends, but yours--"

"Who said they were my friends?"

"You introduced me."

"I introduced you? The like of that!"

The pair sallied forth together to see the bathers. Who should they chance upon but M. and Mdlle. de Fontanes. Mademoiselle had bathed.