Max
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CHAPTER XXXVIII
The fifth floor was dim and silent, the door of M. Cartel's_appartement_ was closed; but Max, mounting the stairs two steps at atime, was not daunted by silence or lack of light. Max was once again aprey to impulse, and under the familiar tyranny, his blood burned--racedin his veins, sang in his cars.
Without an instant's pause, he knocked on M. Cartel's door, and when hisknock was answered by Jacqueline--fair and cool-looking, oven in thegreat heat--words rushed from him as they had been wont to rush whenlife was a gay affair.
"You are alone, Jacqueline?"
Jacqueline nodded quickly, comprehending a crisis.
"Ah, I thank God!" He caught both her hands; he gave a little laugh thatended in a sob; he passed into the _appartement_, drawing her with him.
"Oh, _la, la_!" she cried, hiding her emotion in flippancy, "you take mybreath away."
Max laughed again. "You see I've lost my own!"
She gave a scornful, familiar toss of the head. "Do not be foolish! Whathas happened?"
"I have made a discovery, Jacqueline. Youth comes but once!"
"Indeed! You need not have left the rue Mueller to learn that."
"It comes but once, and while it is with me I am going to look it in theface." His words tumbled forth, pell-mell, and as he spoke he pulledher forcibly into the living-room.
"Jacqueline, I am serious. I have been down in hell; I must see heaven,or my faith is lost."
Jacqueline stood very still, making no effort to loose the hot clasp ofhis hands, but all at once her gaze concentrated piercingly.
"You have sent for him!" she exclaimed.
"I have! Oh, I may be weak, but listen! listen! In the old days when theworld was religious and people observed Lent, there was always_Mi-Careme_, was there not? Well, I have fasted, and now I must feast."
They gazed at each other; the one aglow with anticipation, the otherwith curiosity.
"You have sent for him--at last?"
"I have sent a telegram with these words: 'Meet me at midday on Tuesdayin the Place de la Concorde.--MAXINE.'"
"And this is Friday," said Jacqueline. "In four days' time you will seehim again!"
"Again!" Max spoke the word inaudibly.
"And--when you meet?" Jacqueline's blue eyes were sharp asneedle-points.
Max colored to the temples. "_Ma cherie,_ I have not even thought! All Iknow is that youth comes but once, and that youth is courage. I havebeen a coward--I am going to be brave."
"You are going--to confess?"
Max said nothing, but with her woman's instinct for such things,Jacqueline read assent in the silence.
"Then the end is assured! He will take you--with your will, or without!Monsieur Max, or the princess!"
Max shook his head. "I do not think so. But that is outside themoment--that is the afterward. First there must be midday and the Placede la Concorde! First there must be my _Mi-Careme_--my hour!"
"Ah!" whispered the little Jacqueline, "your hour!" And who shall saywhat memories glinted through her quick brain--what conjurings of thefirst waltz with M. Cartel at the Moulin de la Galette, and the lastwaltz at the Bal Tabarin, when she stepped through the tawdry doorwayinto her paradise? "Your hour! And where will it be spent--madame?"
"Ah!" Max's eyes sought heaven or, in lieu of heaven, M. Cartel'sceiling; Max's hands freed Jacqueline's and flew out in ecstaticgesture. "Ah, that is for the gods to say, _cherie_! And the gods knowbest."