On the game breaking up Georgina pulled the bell by the fire place. A few minutes later a servant wheeled in a two-tiered wagon with a tea-set on top and dishes of pastries and stuffed briochesbelow. He was an elderly man who walked with a limp, and in strange contrast to the scarlet and gold liveries and powdered hair of the footmen who had waited at dinner, he wore a simple blue blouse and baize apron.
Those of the guests who had been there before showed no surprise, but Vorontzoff looked so taken aback that Georgina laughed, and said: "I have a strange whim concerning my maids and men, and will not allow them to be kept up till all hours. From nine o'clock they are free to do as they will, and old Barney, here, looks after our requirements. His days are his own, but at night he occupies a chair in the hall, tends the fires and amuses himself polishing my riding-boots. He taught me to ride as a child and has a marvellous touch with leather."
With a smile she added in English to the old groom. "How go that new pair of boots of mine from Lobb, Barney?"
"Fine, m'Lady," he beamed back. "I need but another week on they an' ye'll be able to see your pretty face in 'em better 'n in any mirror."
As the old man limped away, Vorontzoff said: " 'Tis a most strange innovation to dismiss one's servants after dinner. I fear mine would think me gone mad did I attempt to do so; but it speaks a volume for your graciousness as a mistress."
"I thank you, Sir. And now, while the tea-kettle boils, I would have you give me your opinion of a painting by Canaletto that I bought last year whilst in Italy. 'Tis in the small drawing-room yonder, if you would give me your arm so far."
Roger had been brought up in the tradition that whatever personal emotion or distress a gentleman may be feeling he never shows it in company; so he was making a great effort to appear quite normal as he chatted with the others, and not show by the least sign how seriously his heavy loss had affected him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Georgina and Vorontzoff move off together, and it was clear to him that the twelve hours they had now spent in one another's company had been quite sufficient for them to have got on most excellent terms; but he endeavoured to force both that and his debt into the back of his mind.
The pair were absent for only a few minutes and on her return Georgina infused the fine Bohea. Meanwhile old Barney had wheeled in another trolley carrying an array of wines and spirits, and everyone partook of either a dish of tea or some stronger night-cap.
After ten minutes or so Georgina walked over to one of the windows, and, drawing back the heavy brocaded curtain a little, looked out. It was a clear, starry night, and returning to the group by the fire she said to Roger: "I've a mind to take a breath of air on the terrace before I retire. You know the closet in the hall where I keep my cloak. I pray you get it for me and we will take a turn together."
Wondering what this forboded he accompanied her to the door, fetched her cloak and rejoined her on the top of the terrace-steps. As they walked down them she said at once: "What in the world came over you to-night, Roger, to behave with such consummate folly?"
He shrugged. "Need we go into that, m'dear. I'll admit that I behaved like a fool; but the damage is done, and no good can come of holding an inquest on it."
"But, damn it man, you cannot afford such losses! Your pocket is no match for those of men like Fox, Selwyn and the Ambassador; and common sense should have warned you to eschew playing with them in the first instance."
"I know it; but I little thought then that I would go down so heavily."
" 'Twas your own fault," she countered angrily. "And 'twas not like you, Roger. In all our lives I have never known you to lose your head before. You are no gambler either, normally, and rarely touch a card. What possessed you I cannot think. Again, and again I sought to check your rashness, yet you ignored my signals and deliberately plunged deeper as the game progressed."
" 'Tis true. But I beg you spare me your reproaches. 'Tis punishment enough that through an ill-conceived impulse I should have sunk myself for more than I receive from my father in a year."
"And how do you intend to raise this money?"
"I have the best part of two hundred in the funds. For the rest, I shall sell my mare and some of the more extravagant items of my wardrobe that I have bought since my return from France. Then I shall go abroad again, and once more seek to support myself as best I can."
Georgina paused in her walk and laid a hand on his. She felt that she had punished him enough for his strange lapse into reckless folly,
and her voice was warm again as she said: "Poor Roger! Be not downcast. Such desperate remedies will not be necessary. Thy debt is paid, or very soon will be."
"What mean you?" he exclaimed, swinging round towards her.
She drew a crumpled half sheet of notepaper from her bosom and pressed it into his hand. "Here is your I.O.U. Destroy it, m'dear; and think no more of your three-hour fit of madness."
"How—how did you get this?" Roger stammered, with a sudden feeling of apprehension.
Georgina laughed. "Why, I asked Vorontzoff for it, of course; while I was showing him the Canaletto. He gave it to me in exchange for the privilege of carrying my candle when we go up, and lighting me to bed."
CHAPTER IV
A NIGHT IN A LIFE-TIME
ROGER was three-quarters of a head taller than Georgina and for a moment he stood staring down into her upturned face, a prey to the most wildly conflicting emotions. After his almost suicidal feelings of the past half-hour, the thought that he would not, after all, have to part with his small nest-egg and most of his treasured possessions in order to raise three hundred and twenty pounds, came as an immense relief. Also he knew that he should be deeply grateful to Georgina, and that she was standing there expecting him to burble out his heartfelt thanks for having saved him from the results of his folly.
Yet he was not grateful to her. Or, at least, while he was far from lacking in appreciation of the swiftness with which she had come to his rescue, he was also bitterly resentful of the means she had adopted to that end. He guessed that, as so often was the case with her, she must have acted on a generous impulse; but, in so doing, had precipitated the very situation which, even to the point of reckless folly, he had been seeking to postpone until after their parting.
Striving to control the emotion in his voice, he said:
" 'Twas mightily good of you, Georgina; but, by taking my debt over in this fashion you have unwittingly put a humiliation upon me that I find it monstrous hard to bear."
"Stuff and nonsense," she replied sharply. "I simply told his Excellency that since 'tis our custom to let the servants seek their beds at a reasonable hour we have a row of candles left for us in the hall, and that when you are staying here 'tis your privilege, as my oldest friend, to light me to my room. He rose to the bait like a trout at a mayfly, and hazarded that if you would sell him that privilege for to-night he would gladly accept it in cancellation of your debt; whereupon I closed the deal. What, pray, do you find humiliating in that?"
"I find it humiliating that you should have to barter your favours to pay my debts."
"I promised him no favours." "By inference you certainly did."
She shrugged. "That I'll admit; but they will be only what I choose to give."
"Think you so? Once you present that Russian with a fair field to set about you, I'd give little for your chances of receiving quarter."
"Oh, Roger, why must you dramatise the matter so? You are acting like a romantic schoolboy and talking to me as if I were a girl in her first season. I'll pay your debt in my own fashion, but there will be no sordidness about the transaction, as you suggest."
"Yet you would not have offered him an opening so soon; had it not been for my predicament."
"Perhaps not; but since you press the point, your own conduct has brought matters to a head more speedily than I expected."
"If you admit that, 'tis as good as admitting that you are selling yourself to pay my debt, and therein lies my hu
miliation."
Georgina drew herself up. "How dare you suggest that I would sell myself for a paltry three hundred pounds!"
" 'Tis not the money but the principle of the thing. You know as well as I that you have made an unspoken bargain with the man and are by nature too honest to go back upon it."
"I tell you that I have made no bargain! The Russian has taken a gamble on my good-will, no more. He may count himself lucky if I allow him to kiss me good-night."
Roger's laugh rang with angry scorn. "Is it likely that he will be content with that?"
"I do not know, and I do not care," Georgina flared. "I told you this morning that what I had seen of him in London had predisposed me in his favour. On closer acquaintance I find him both intelligent and amusing. Therefore I pray you disabuse yourself of this notion that anything I may choose to do will be done on account of your own folly. Both political interest and my own inclination conspire in urging me to favour his suit. In the circumstances, it seemed to me that if by accelerating matters a little I could also cancel out this wretched debt of yours, I should be doing you a service. Now, Sir, I pray you take me within doors again."
Roger bowed stiffly. "Since those are your sentiments, Madam, no more remains to be said." Then he offered her his arm, and in stony silence escorted her back to the drawing-room.
It was now close on midnight, and within a few moments of their reappearance the company declared for bed. Going out into the hall they lit their respective candles, and having mounted the broad staircase in a body, separated on the landing with a chorus of "good nights."
Georgina and Vorontzoff turned to the right. Roger, following a few paces behind, saw them pass the door of her bedroom and enter the next one to it, which led* into her boudoir. As he passed it the door closed behind them. Biting his lip, he ^walked on down the corridor to the third door in the row, that of Sir Humphrey Etheredge's room, which he was occupying; and, going in slammed it behind him with a loud bang.
In the boudoir Vorontzoff had just completed the lighting of a three-branched candelabra that stood on an occasional table at the head of the golden day-bed. As the slam reverberated through the room he shot a quick look at the communicating door, then smiled at Georgina. " 'Twas young Mr. Brook behind us just now, was it not? He seems to have sought his bed in something of a temper."
She made a little face. "Poor fellow! He sets considerable store on his privilege of lighting me to bed and was most loath to surrender it, even for the cancellation of his debt."
"That I can well understand, Madame. And lest it trouble him so much as to cause him to walk in his sleep we will take due precaution that he should not disturb you."
As he spoke the Russian took three swift steps towards the communicating door and shot its bolt; then he turned to face her again and gave her a long steady look.
He was not as tall as Roger but broader in the shoulders, and all his movements denoted a quick, determined mind. His flatfish face was saved from ugliness by its strength, and the upward slope of his dark eyebrows at their outer ends gave him a faint resemblance to a satyr.
Georgina, faintly smiling, returned his look. She was intensely curious to know what line he would take with her. In such a situation the usual technique of the day was. for the gallant to pour out a stream of wildly exaggerated compliments, beseech the f auto take pity on him, and falling on his knees before her, vow that he would commit suicide unless she salved the sweet but deadly wound that Cupid's arrow had made in his heart. If the lady actively disliked him, or wished to prolong his torment, she firmly rejected all his pleas. Otherwise she pretended an exaggerated virtue and alarm, gradually appeared to become affected by her lover's emotion and finally, apparently quite distraught, half-fainting and with languorous sighs, succumbed to his attack.
Having been the object of a score of such attempts during the past five years Georgina had come to find them a little boring, and the Russian's only real attraction for her lay in the fact that she believed his love-making would prove quite different from anything that she had so far experienced.
As their long look broke, he picked up the candle again and moved with resolute steps towards her bedroom.
"Monsieur!" she exclaimed. "Wither are you going?"
"Why, to light the candles you will need for your night-toilette, Madame," he replied airily. "Surely you do not think that I am a man who would leave anything half done. I pray you come with me and show me which lights you will require."
She wondered if he meant to pounce upon her immediately he had got her inside, and she was by no means prepared to let him do so as yet. But the casualness of his tone suggested that he intended no more than to complete his service with the candle; so, a little uncertainly she followed him through the door. Then, keeping well away from him, she said: "If you will light the candles on my dressing-table and the night-light beside my bed, those will serve."
He complied without giving her a glance, set down the candle he was carrying next to the night-light on the far side of the big four-poster, and, stepping into the centre of the room looked round it with the eye of a connoisseur.
" 'Tis a lovely apartment," he declared, "and well-suited to be Hymen's playground for the loveliest lady in all England."
"Fie, Monsieur!" she rebuked him. "I am not used to hear such outspoken thoughts from a new acquaintance."
"Indeed!" His eyebrows lifted in faint mockery. "Then Englishmen must be even poorer champions in the lists of love than they are reputed. In my country even acquaintanceship is accounted redundant when two pairs of eyes have met and kindled the Divine spark."
"Then it must be a plaguey dangerous place for the poor females," Georgina smiled. "But come, Monsieur, let us return to my boudoir and you shall tell me something of your country before I send you to your rest."
She had already turned to go through the doorway. Suddenly he took two swift strides forward and seized her from behind. One of his arms shot round her waist and caught her to him, the other encircled her breast with the hand raised to grasp her chin. Catching it firmly between his fingers and thumb, he jerked round her head and, thrusting his own face over her shoulder he kissed her full upon the mouth.
For a moment she let him have his way, then she made a violent effort to free herself; but his grip held her like a vice, and he kept his mouth pressed against hers until they were both breathless.
At last he jerked back his head, smiled down into her eyes, and panted: "A demonstration of how a Russian can love is better than any tales I could tell." Then, shifting his grip, he picked her up, carried her across the room and threw her down upon the bed.
As she made no attempt to cry out, or even to protest, he felt that his triumph was assured; but he had reckoned without Georgina's agility and resource. Within a second of his having thrown her face upward on the bed she had jerked herself over, squirmed off it and stood facing him on its far side.
"Enough of this!" she panted. "Your Excellency is much mistaken if you think that I am to be taken so."
He laughed, his dark eyes boring into hers, his white teeth flashing. "If you prefer the French style to the Russian, Madame, you have but to say so. I am accounted a tolerably good lady's maid and would be charmed to assist at your unrobing. I ask only that you should spare me the pretended vapourings, faints and tears, which most English ladies seem to regard as an essential accompaniment to their surrender."
"I will spare you both that and all other exertions," Georgina said regally. "The favours you have received elsewhere have led you to count your chickens before they are hatched on this occasion. 'Tis my pleasure that you should now leave my room."
"Nay. That is too much to ask," he shot back. "You are a woman in a million, and I have set my heart upon you. I mean you no disrespect when I say that you have long lived apart from your husband and taken other lovers in his place. And you openly encouraged me to hope. Choose for yourself, then, if we are to play Cupid's game with the leisurely r
efinement of the French, or if you would have me leap this bed and catch you as I can."
Georgina's heart was hammering in her breast. The novelty of the Russian's forthright love-making had already surpassed her expectations. She found it wildly exciting; and now the time had clearly come when she must either give in to him or take some drastic action to cut matters short.
The thought of Roger crossed her mind. She still felt that he had behaved boorishly in seeking to put a restraint upon her contrary to their original pact; yet she knew that she had hurt his pride by breaking away from him so abruptly; and had wanted to be able to salve it the following morning by telling him that she had dismissed Vorontzoff after letting him take only a couple of kisses.
Suddenly she decided that she had had enough excitement for one night, and that the present game would lose nothing from keeping; so she took refuge in a clever lie.
"Monsieur," she said. "I have ordered you to leave my room. I now beg you to do so in order to avoid a most unseemly incident. My father and I are much attached and 'tis his invariable custom to come in and wish me goodnight after I have retired. He will be here at any moment now and I should be mightily shamed if he found you with me."
Vorontzoff had no means of telling if she was speaking the truth, yet he could not decently refuse such a request. It seemed that she had completely foiled him, but after thinking furiously for a moment, he said: "So be it, Madame. At what hour shall I return?"
"I—I fail to understand ..." she faltered.
" 'Tis quite simple," he said with sudden gravity. "While we were admiring your Canaletto we made an unspoken bargain. Under pretext of my lighting you to your room you invited me here. Men and women such as you and I do not make assignations for such an hour and place to tell one another nursery-rhymes. Besides: you cannot have so soon forgotten the clothes that you are wearing."
The Shadow of Tyburn Tree rb-2 Page 7
