CHAPTER XXVI--WHITE AND CORAL
Spring in Paris, which comes in a fashion so divine that even the mostcalloused and indifferent are impressed by its beauty, awakened noanswering response in the heart of the young man who, from his hotelwindow, looked out on the desecrated gardens of the Tuileries--on thedistant spires of the churches whose names he did not know--on the squareblock of old palaces. He had missed the boat across the Channel taken byLetty Lane, and the delay had made him lose what little trace of her hehad. In the early hours of the morning he had flung himself in at theSt. James, taken the indifferent room they could give him in the crowdedseason, and excited as he was he slept and did not waken until noon.Blair thought it would be a matter of a few hours only to find thewhereabouts of the celebrated actress, but it was not such an easy job.He had not guessed that she might be traveling incognito, and at none ofthe hotels could he hear news of her, nor did he pass her in thecrowded, noisy, rustling, crying streets, though he searched motors forher with eager eyes, and haunted restaurants and cafes, and wenteverywhere that he thought she might be likely to be.
At the end of the third day, unsuccessful and in despair, having hardlyslept and scarcely eaten, the unhappy young lover found himself taking aslight luncheon in the little restaurant known as the Perouse down onthe Quais. His head on his hand, for the present moment the joy of lifegone from him, he looked out through the windows at the Seine, at thebridge and the lines of flowering trees. He was the only occupant of theupper room where, of late, he had ordered his luncheon.
The tide of life rolled slowly in this quieter part of the city, and asBlair sat there under the window there passed a piper playing a shrill,sweet tune. It was so different from any of the loud metropolitanclamors, with which his ears were full, that he got up, walked to thewindow and leaned out. It was a pastoral that met his eyes. A manpiping, followed by little pattering goats; the primitive, unlooked-forpicture caught his tired attention, and, just then, opposite the Quais,two women passed--flower sellers, their baskets bright with crocuses andgirofles. The bright picture touched him and something of the springlikebeauty that the day wore and that dwelt in the May light, soothed him asnothing had for many hours.
He paid his bill, took courage, picked up his hat and gloves and stickand walked out briskly, crossing the bridge to the Rue de Rivoli,determined that night should not fall until he found the woman hesought. Nor did it, though the afternoon wore on and Dan, pursuing hisold trails, wandered from worldly meeting place to worldly meetingplace. Finally, toward six o'clock, he saw the lengthening shadows stealinto the woods of the Bois de Boulogne, and in one of the smalleralleys, where the green-trunked trees of the forests were full of purpleshadows and yellow sun discs, flickering down, he picked up a small ironchair and sat himself down, with a long sigh, to rest.
While he sat there watching the end of the _allee_ as it gave out intothe broader road, a beautiful red motor rolled up to the conjunction ofthe two ways and Letty Lane, in a summer frock, got out alone. She had aflowing white veil around her head and a flowing white scarf around hershoulders. As the day on the Thames, she was all in white--like a dove.But this time her costume was made vivid and picturesque by the coralparasol she carried, a pair of coral-colored kid shoes, around her neckand falling on their long chain, she wore his coral beads. He saw thathe observed her before she did him. All this Dan saw before he dashedinto the road, came up to her with something like a cry on his lips,bareheaded, for his hat and his stick and his gloves were by his chairin the woods.
Letty Lane's hands went to her heart and her face took on a deadlypallor. She did not seem glad to see him. Out of his passionatedescription of the hours that he had been through, of how he had lookedfor her, of what he thought and wanted and felt, the actress made whatshe could, listening to him as they both stood there under the shadowsof the green trees. Scanning her face for some sign that she loved him,for it was all he cared for, Dan saw no such indication there. Hefinished with:
"You know what Ruggles told you was a lie. Of course, I've got moneyenough to give you everything you want. He's a lunatic and ought to beshut up."
"It may have been a lie, all right," she said with forced indifference;"I've had time to think it over. You are too young. You don't know whatyou want." She stopped his protestations: "Well, then, _I_ am too oldand I don't want to be tied down."
When he pressed her to tell him whether or not she had ceased to carefor him, she shook her head slowly, marking on the ground fine tracerywith the end of her coral parasol. He had been obliged to take her backto the red motor, but before they were in earshot of her servants, hesaid:
"Now, you know just what you have done to me, you and Ruggles betweenyou. For my father's sake and the things I believed in I've kept prettystraight as things go." He nodded at her with boyish egotism, throwingall the blame on her. "I want you to understand that from now, rightnow, I'm going to the dogs just as fast as I can get there, and it won'tbe a very gratifying result to anybody that ever cared."
She saw the determination on his fine young face, worn by his sleeplessnights, already matured and changed, and she believed him.
"Paris," he nodded toward the gate of the woods which opened upon Paris,"is the place to begin in--right here. A man," he went on, and his lipstrembled, "can only feel like this once in his life. You know all thetalk there is about young love and first love. Well, that's what I'vegot for you, and I'm going to turn it now--right now--into just what olderpeople warn men from, and do their best to prevent. I have seen enoughof Paris," he went on, "these days I have been looking for you, to knowwhere to go and what to do, and I am setting off for it now."
She touched his arm.
"No," she murmured. "No, boy, you are not going to do any such thing!"
This much from her was enough for him. He caught her hand and cried:"Then you marry me. What do we care for anybody else in the world?"
"Go back and get your hat and stick and gloves," she commanded, keepingdown the tears.
"No, no, you come with me, Letty; I'm not going to let you run to yourmotor and escape me again."
"Go; I'll wait here," she promised. "I give you my word."
As he snatched up the inanimate objects from the leaf-strewn groundwhere he had thrown them in despair, he thought how things can change ina quarter of an hour. For he had hope now, as he hurried back, as hewalked with her to her car, as he saw the little coral shoes stir in theleaves when she passed under the trees. The little coral shoes trod onhis heart, but now it was light under her feet!
Jubilant to have overcome the fate which had tried to keep her hiddenfrom him in Paris, he could hardly believe his eyes that she was beforethem again, and, as the motor rolled into the Avenue des Acacias, heasked her the question uppermost in his mind:
"Are you alone in Paris, Letty?"
"Don't you count?"
"No--no--honestly, _you know what I mean_."
"You haven't any right to ask me that."
"I have--I have. You gave me a right. You're engaged to me, aren't you?Gosh, you haven't _forgotten_, have you?"
"Don't make me conspicuous in the Bois, Dan," she said; "I only let youcome with me because you were so terribly desperate, so ridiculous."
"Are you alone?" he persisted. "I have got to know."
"Higgins is with me."
"Oh, God," he cried wildly, "how can you joke with me? Don't youunderstand you're breaking my heart?"
But she did not dare to be kind to him, knowing it would unnerve her forthe part she had promised to play.
He sat gripping his hands tightly together, his lips white. "When Ileave you now," he said brokenly, "I am going to find that devil of aHungarian and do him up. Then I am going to tackle Ruggles."
"Why, what's poor Mr. Ruggles got to do with it?"
Dan cried scornfully: "For God's sake, don't keep this up! You know therot he told you? I made him confess. He has had this mania all alongabout money being a handicap; he was bent on trying
this game with somegirl to see how it worked." He continued more passionately. "I don'tcare a rap what you marry me for, Letty, or what you have done or been.I think you're perfect and I'll make you the happiest woman in theworld."
She said: "Hush, hush! Listen, dear; listen, little boy. I am awfullysorry, but it won't do. I never thought it would. You'll get over it allright, though you don't, you can't believe me now. I can't be poor, youknow; I really couldn't be poor."
He interrupted roughly: "Who says you'll be? What are you talking about?Why, I'll cover you with jewels, sweetheart, if I have to rip the earthopen to get them out."
She understood that Dan believed Ruggles' story to have been acock-and-bull one.
"You talk as though you could buy me, Dan. Wait, listen." She put himback from her. "Now, if you won't be quiet, I'm going to stop my car."
He repeated: "Tell me, are you alone in Paris? Tell me. For three days Ihave wandered and searched for you everywhere; I have hardly eaten athing, I don't believe I have slept a wink." And he told her of hisweary search.
She listened to him, part of the time her white-gloved hand givingitself up to the boy; part of the time both hands folded together andaway from him, her arms crossed on her breast, her small shoes of coralkid tapping the floor of the car. Thus they rolled leisurely along theroad by the Bois. Through the green-trunked trees the sunlight felldivinely. On the lake the swans swam, pluming their feathers; there werechildren there in their ribbons and furbelows. The whole world went bygay and careless, while for Dan the problem of his existence, hispossibility for happiness or pain was comprised within the little roomof the motor car.
"Are you alone in Paris, Letty?"
And she said: "Oh, what a bore you are! You're the most obstinatecreature. Well, I am alone, but that has nothing to do with you."
A glorious light broke over his face; his relief was tremendous.
"Oh, thank God!" he breathed.
"Poniotowsky"--and she said his name with difficulty--"is coming to-nightfrom Carlsbad."
The boy threw back his bright head and laughed wildly.
"Curse him! The very name makes me want to commit a crime. He will goover my body to you. You hear me, Letty. I mean what I say."
People had already remarked them as they passed. The actress was toowell-known to pass unobserved, but she was indifferent to theircuriosity or to the existence of any one but this excited boy.
Blair, who had not opened a paper since he came to Paris, did not knowthat Letty Lane's flight from London had created a scandal in thetheatrical world, that her manager was suing her, and that to be seenwith her driving in the Bois was a conspicuous thing indeed. She thoughtof it, however.
"I am going to tell the man to drive you to the gate on the other sideof the park where it's quieter, we won't be stared at, and then I wantyou to leave me and let me go to the Meurice alone. You must, Dan, youmust let me go to the hotel alone."
He laughed again in the same strained fashion and forced her hand toremain in his.
"Look here. You don't suppose I am going to let you go like this, nowthat I have seen you again. You don't suppose I am going to give you upto that infamous scoundrel? You have got to marry me."
Bringing all her strength of character to bear, she exclaimed: "I expectyou think you are the only person who has asked me to marry him, Dan. Iam going to _marry_ Prince Poniotowsky. He is perfectly crazy about me."
Until that moment she had not made him think that she was indifferent tohim, and the idea that such a thing was possible, was too much for hisoverstrained heart to bear. Dan cried her name in a voice whose appealwas like a hurt creature's, and as the hurt creature in its sufferingsometimes springs upon its torturer, he flung his arms around her as shesat in the motor, held her and kissed her, then set her free, and as themotor flew along, tore open the door to spring out or to throw himselfout, but clinging to him she prevented his mad act. She stopped the caralong the edge of the quiet, wooded _allee_. Blair saw that he hadterrified her. She covered her beating heart with her hands and gaspedat him that he was "crazy, crazy," and perhaps a little late his dignityand self-possession returned.
"I am mad," he acknowledged more calmly, "and I am sorry that Ifrightened you. But you drive me mad."
Without further word he got out and left her agitated, leaning towardhim, and Blair, less pale and thoroughly the man, lifted his hat to herand, with unusual grace, bowed good night and good-by. Then, rushing ashe had come, he walked off down through the _allee_, his gray figure inhis gray clothes disappearing through the vista of meeting trees.
For a moment she stared after him, her eyes fastened on the tall slenderbeautiful young man. Blair's fire and ardor, his fresh youthfulness, hisprotection and his chivalry, his ardent devotion, touched herprofoundly. Tears fell, and one splashed on her white glove. Was hereally going to ruin his life? The old ballad, _The Earl of Moray_, ranthrough her head:
"And long may his lady look from the castle wall."
Dan had neither title nor, according to Ruggles, had he any money, andshe could marry the prince; but Dan, as he walked so fast away, miserysnapping at his heels as he went, stamping through the woods, seemedglorious to Letty Lane and the only one she wanted in the world. What ifanything should happen to him really? What if he should really start outto do the town according to the fashion of his Anglo-Saxon brothers, butmore desperately still? She took a card from the case in the corner ofthe car, scribbled a few words, told the man to drive around the curveand meet the outlet of the path by which Dan had gone. When she saw himwithin reaching distance she sent the chauffeur across the woods to giveMr. Blair her scribbled word and consoled herself with the belief thatDan wouldn't "go to the dogs or throw himself in the river until he hadseen her again."
The Girl From His Town Page 26
