Enter Bridget Part 22

"We need not rake up the past," cried Mark, who would have preferred to avoid Bridget's name, which indeed had not been mentioned between them during the last few weeks.

"For that matter," she said, "my anxiety is practically a thing of the past."

"Is Colonel Faversham cooling off?"

"Not in the least. It is difficult not to feel rather sorry for him.

He goes day after day--but then a fresh act has begun. Jimmy has appeared on the scene."

"Jimmy!" cried Mark in unfeigned surprise.

"He met her at our house some time ago," Carrissima explained. "It was really quite entertaining. Those two seemed to draw together on the instant, as if one were the magnet and the other the needle. Besides, I have the advantage of Sybil's confidences. Poor Sybil! I can a.s.sure you she is in the most dreadful state of mind."

"But do you imagine that Jimmy means business?" demanded Mark.

"According to Sybil, he is merely biding his time: waiting until a sufficient number of weeks have pa.s.sed to enable him to come to the point with something like decency."

"If that's really the case," said Mark, "I can only say I am immensely pleased!"

"So am I," answered Carrissima, with quiet fervour.

"I would have done a great deal, if it had been possible," Mark continued, "to prevent Bridget from marrying Colonel Faversham, if only for your sake; but as to Jimmy, I don't care a rap."

"Neither do I," said Carrissima.

"If he can't take care of himself after all his experiences," Mark insisted, "the Lord knows who can. I consider Jimmy fair game."

They parted at her door, Mark refusing to enter the house, because he had a patient to visit--one of the very few he had taken over from Dr.

Harefield. Never had Carrissima spent a more enjoyable or a more thoroughly satisfactory afternoon! It proved an immense consolation to hear that Mark had not seen Bridget, with that one exception, since his return from Paris; whereas his manner of taking the news of Jimmy's entrance on the field could scarcely have been more desirable.

Not only had the afternoon seen the disappearance of her last lingering feeling of jealousy of Bridget Rosser, but it encouraged the growth of sensations which had long been kept back. As a rule, Carrissima enjoyed a serious talk with Mark, but to-day she had been the most delighted by his frivolity. She laughed quietly as she remembered his remarks anent the colour of her eyes, and spent some minutes examining them in her looking-gla.s.s.

"You won't forget, Carrissima," said Colonel Faversham at breakfast the next morning. "You won't forget you're going to see Bridget this afternoon. Take a few flowers--roses, if you ask me! She is fond of roses."

She a.s.sured her father that she had not forgotten, and eventually set out in excellent spirits; the optimism with which she was disposed to regard the world at large including Miss Rosser. Carrissima made her way to a florist's, and after hovering over various kinds of flowers for ten minutes, at last bought so many pink and yellow roses that she did not like to carry them through the streets. A taxi-cab soon brought her to Golfney Place, and Miller did not keep her long at the street door.

"Is Miss Rosser at home?" she inquired, as she took a firmer grip of the rose stalks, which did not seem to be fastened very securely together.

"Will you walk in, please," said Miller, leading the way up-stairs.

When they reached the first landing, Carrissima was about two yards in the rear. She carried the large bunch of flowers in her left hand as Miller turned the handle and opened the sitting-room door. At the same, moment, she came to a sudden halt, starting so violently that the loosely-fastened roses fell scattering on to the floor.

The sunlight fell into the room, making it much lighter than the landing. Full in the glare, Carrissima was appalled to behold two figures: Mark and Bridget. He, who but yesterday had declared that he had not seen her for some weeks, that he had no wish ever to see her again, was to-day holding her in his arms. Her head was thrown back, her chin invitingly raised; her lips were pressed to his.

CHAPTER XVII

HASTY WORDS

Miller had been too well trained to betray the slightest astonishment at what he must have seen as distinctly as Carrissima.

"Miss Faversham," he imperturbably announced, and on the instant Mark's arms dropped to his side, and Bridget, after a glance which was overflowing with reproach, turned towards the door.

"Where is Miss Faversham?" she asked in an unusually high voice, wondering that she could see no sign of a visitor.

Miller, glancing aside at the landing, saw Carrissima on her knees by the bal.u.s.ters, engaged in picking up the scattered roses. Her back was towards the room, and she wished that her heart would not beat quite so tumultuously.

"Oh, do let me help you!" suggested Bridget, going to her side, and from that instant Carrissima seemed to have only one object in life.

Above all things she wished to lead both Bridget and Mark to believe that she had seen nothing out of the common! Unable at present to grasp the complete significance of the revelation which fortunately had been vouchsafed to her, she perceived, at least, that it implied the utter destruction of her own recent hopes. Nothing could be worse than the betrayal of her disillusionment: because obviously she had been the victim of a rather cruel illusion especially since yesterday. Now her _savoir faire_ became her most valuable a.s.set.

"I think I have picked them all up," she said, rising hastily to her feet, with the roses loose in her hands.

"How sweet of you to come!" answered Bridget. "Mark is here, too!

What lovely roses," she continued, leading the way into the sitting-room, as Miller stood on the landing.

"I am sorry they are so untidy," said Carrissima, with every appearance of cheerfulness.

"Are they really for me!" cried Bridget, taking the flowers and placing them on the table.

"What a lovely day," said Carrissima, although it was the worst she had ever known. "Have they sent home the carpet, yet?" she added, as Mark offered his hand with some embarra.s.sment. He was certainly the most awkward of the three; the women far surpa.s.sing him in _finesse_.

"Have you been buying a carpet?" asked Bridget, as she laid the flowers on the table. "How interesting! Do, please, tell me all about it?"

"For one of my rooms in Weymouth Street," answered Mark.

"Have you actually taken rooms?" said Bridget. "Too bad not to tell me!"

Carrissima, now prepared to recognize deception everywhere, found it difficult to look cheerful. She had no doubt that Bridget knew all about the rooms, which Mark began rather eagerly to describe. It was obvious, however, that he was impatient to get away, and Carrissima, raising her eyes abruptly, intercepted a curiously entreating glance from him to Bridget, who at once held out her hand.

"Shall you be at home this evening?" he asked, turning to Carrissima the next moment.

Although she would infinitely have preferred to say "no," to avoid seeing him again, indeed, as long as the world lasted, she felt afraid lest she should awaken a suspicion of her enlightenment. It seemed inevitable that she must continue to meet him in the future as she had done in the past, and, perhaps, the sooner the next encounter took place the better!

"Oh yes, I think so," she answered. "Shall I see you?"

"I--I thought of looking you up after dinner," said Mark, and the moment he had left the room Miller, with his usual inscrutable face, brought in the tea. Not for the world would Carrissima cut short her visit, and for another quarter of an hour or more she sat listening to Bridget's inquiries concerning Mark's new quarters and his plans for the future.

"I had no idea that he had left Duffield's Hotel," she said presently.

"Mark is a dreadful truant. He never comes near me now! I suppose,"

she added, "he is a great friend of Jimmy's?"

"They and Lawrence were at school together at Brighton," replied Carrissima, and now she thought she might safely say "good-bye."

Bridget seemed unwilling to release her hand, as they stood together on almost the same spot where Carrissima had seen Miss Rosser in Mark's arms! She looked down at her guest furtively, as if she were unable to make up her mind about something. Perhaps, thought Carrissima, she was wondering whether or not it were desirable to do anything further to remove any possible suspicion! Still, Bridget said nothing unusual, and having once more thanked Carrissima for the roses she insisted on going to see her out of the house.

What a joy it was to breathe the uncontaminated air again! Carrissima walked in the direction of Grandison Square with her mind in a tumult.

Her G.o.d had fallen! She was far too wildly excited to be capable of anything resembling a sane view of the maddening situation! She longed above all things to reach home, to run up-stairs to her own room, to lock the door, to be away from all mankind.