The Phantom Lover Part 69

She did not dare to look up as she spoke, and she went on quickly, "Of course it may only be gossip--but George--Mr. Rochester----" she hurriedly corrected herself, "tells me that Micky took him to their house to dinner last night."

Silence. June filled pots at random, wildly, then Esther spoke.

"I've done eight dozen," she said. "Do you think that is enough to go on with?"

June raised her eyes guiltily, then suddenly she pushed the laden tray from her and ran round to Esther.

"Oh," she said impulsively, "if only--only you could have made yourself care for him."

She put her arms round the younger girl's unresponsive figure.

"I want you to be happy too, so badly," she went on earnestly. "I didn't mean to tell you yet, but I must somehow. George--Mr.

Rochester----" she broke off, laughing and crying together.

"The man's a perfect disgrace," she protested, "I told him so, too!

I've only known him three weeks, and--and----" she raised tear-drowned eyes to Esther's face. "What can you do when a man that size kisses you?" she demanded.

Esther had to laugh.

"Why, do what you did," she said. "Kiss him in return."

June wiped her eyes and laughed, and shed more tears.

"I never meant to marry any one," she said angrily. "But the dreadful creature seems to want me so desperately badly. I'm really utterly miserable, only----"

"O June!" said Esther.

"So I am! At least!"--June looked up and suddenly laughed. "I'm not,"

she said. "I'm a wicked liar! but oh, such a gloriously happy, wicked liar!"

"And it's all entirely due to me," Micky said when June rang him up the following morning to tell him the news.

"I introduced you! What do I get out of it all I should like to know?"

His voice was playful, but June took him seriously.

"O Micky! if you could only be as happy as I am," she said eagerly.

Micky laughed.

"If wishes were horses, my dear----" he said sententiously. "But don't worry about me, I'm all right."

"Then, will you come to dinner to-night? No, _not_ at the boarding house! We'll go to the Savoy--just to celebrate! We four!"

"We _four!_" said Micky sharply.

"Yes--I shall bring Esther, of course."

There was the smallest possible pause, then Micky said:

"I'm sorry, but I've another engagement. I promised the Delands to go with them to the Hoopers' dance."

June said "_Hang_ the Delands," and rang off in a huff.

Micky hung up the receiver and turned away. He was sorry to disappoint June, and yet he had no smallest intention of meeting Esther. If she had wanted him she would have sent a note or a message--but she did not want him! More than once she had said that she hated him--it was time to learn that she meant what she said. Micky's pride had got the upper hand at last, and he would rather have died now than make the smallest overture to the girl at whose feet he had once been willing to grovel.

Driver came to the door:

"A parcel, sir. Shall I bring it in?"

Micky answered absently:

"All right."

Driver went out of the room. After a moment he came back with a square box which he set down on the table.

"Shall I open it, sir?" he asked, as Micky did not speak.

Micky started.

"Yes; oh, yes--open it. What the d.i.c.kens is it? I haven't ordered anything."

Driver said that he did not know--that it had been left by a messenger. He untied the knotted string with neat precision, and rolled it into a ball before he removed the paper.

Micky walked up to the table and lifted the lid with faint curiosity.

"A fur coat," he said blankly. "A fur----" He stopped. For a moment he stood staring down into the box, then he let the lid fall over it again.

"All right--you can go," he said.

Driver walked to the door stoically, and Micky went back to the fire.

So she would not even keep the fur coat! She cared so little for him that she must needs send back his paltry gifts. What a fool he was to care--what a fool!

Driver, coming back for a moment, stopped petrified in the doorway.

Micky was standing by the mantelpiece with his face buried in his arms.

CHAPTER x.x.xV

It was late that night when Micky turned up at the Delands'. He had taken extravagant pains with his toilet, lingering over it as long as possible. Ever since the arrival of that parcel from Esther, he had been trying to make up his mind to take the irrevocable step, and ask Marie Deland to be his wife. He was miserably sure that she would accept him, miserably sure that he was already forgiven for the past.

He kept on persuading himself that it was the one and only thing left to him to do. He tried to believe that once the affair was settled, he would find some sort of happiness. After all, what did it matter whom he married if it could not be Esther?