Phroso Part 30

'It's a monstrous idea.'

Mouraki laughed in quiet enjoyment of my excitement.

'Then Kortes?' he suggested.

'He's infinitely her inferior. Besides--forgive me--why is it your concern to marry her to any one?'

'In a single state she is evidently a danger to the peace of the island,' he answered with a.s.sumed gravity. 'Now your young friend--'

'Oh, Denny's a boy.'

'You reject everyone,' he said pathetically, and his eyes dwelt on me in amused scrutiny.

'Your suggestions, my dear Pasha, seem hardly serious,' said I in a huff. He was too many for me, and I struggled in vain against betraying my ruffled temper.

'Well then, I will make two serious suggestions; that is a handsome _amende_. And for the first--yourself!'

I waved my hand and gave an embarra.s.sed laugh.

'You say nothing to that?'

'Oughtn't I to hear the alternative first?'

'Indeed it is only reasonable. Well, then, the alternative--' He paused, laughed, lit another cigarette. 'The alternative is--myself,'

said he.

'Still not serious!' I exclaimed, forcing a smile.

'Absolutely serious,' he a.s.serted. 'I have the misfortune to be a widower, and for the second time; so unkind is heaven. She is most charming. I have, perhaps, a position which would atone for some want of youth and romantic attractions.'

'Of course, if she likes--'

'I don't think she would persist in refusing,' said Mouraki with a thoughtful smile; and he went on, 'Three years ago, when I came here, she struck me as a beautiful child, one likely to become a beautiful woman. You see for yourself that I am not disappointed. My wife was alive at that time, but in bad health. Still I hardly thought seriously of it then, and the idea did not recur to me till I saw Phroso again. You look surprised.'

'Well, I am surprised.'

'You don't think her attractive, then?'

'Frankly, that is not the reason for my surprise.'

'Shall I go on? You think me old? It is a young man's delusion, my dear Wheatley.'

Bear-baiting may have been excellent sport--its defenders so declare--but I do not remember that it was ever considered pleasant for the bear. I felt now much as the bear must have felt. I rose abruptly from the table.

'All these things require thought,' said Mouraki gently. 'We will talk of them again this afternoon. I have a little business to do now.'

Saying this, he rose and leisurely took his way upstairs. I was left alone in the hall so familiar to me; and my first thought was a regret that I was not again a prisoner there, with Constantine seeking my life, Phroso depending on my protection, and Mouraki administering some other portion of his district. That condition of things had been, no doubt, rather too exciting to be pleasant; but it had not made me hara.s.sed, wretched, humiliated, exasperated almost beyond endurance: and such was the mood in which the two conversations of the morning left me.

A light step sounded on the stair: the figure that of all figures I least wished to see then, that I rejoiced to see more than any in the world besides, appeared before me. Phroso came down. She reached the floor of the hall and saw me. For a long moment we each rested as we were. Then she stepped towards me, and I rose with a bow. She was very pale, but a smile came on her lips as she murmured a greeting to me and pa.s.sed on. I should have done better to let her go. I rose and followed. On the marble pavement by the threshold I overtook her; there we stood again looking on the twinkling sea in the distance, as we had looked before. I was seeking what to say.

'I must thank you,' I said; 'yet I can't. It was magnificent.'

The colour suddenly flooded her face.

'You understood?' she murmured. 'You understood why? It seemed the only way; and I think it did help a little.'

I bent down and kissed her hand.

'I don't care whether it helped,' I said. 'It was the thing itself.'

'I didn't care for them--the people--but when I thought what you would think--' She could not go on, but drew her hand, which she had left an instant in mine as though forgetful of it, suddenly away.

'I--I knew, of course, that it was only a--a stratagem,' said I. 'Oh, yes, I knew that directly.'

'Yes,' whispered she, looking over the sea.

'Yes,' said I, also looking over the sea.

'You forgive it?'

'Forgive!' My voice came low and husky. I did not see why such things should be laid on a man; I did not know if I could endure them. Yet I would not have left her then for an angel's crown.

'And you will forget it? I mean, you--' The whisper died into silence.

'So long as I live I will not forget it,' said I.

Then, by a seemingly irresistible impulse that came upon both of us, we looked in one another's eyes, a long look that lingered and was loth to end. As I looked, I saw, in joy that struggled with shame, a new light in the glowing depths of Phroso's eyes, a greeting of an undreamt happiness, a terrified delight. Then her lids dropped and she began to speak quietly and low.

'It came on me that I might help if I said it, because the islanders love me, and so, perhaps, they wouldn't hurt you. But I couldn't look at you. I only prayed you would understand, that you wouldn't think--oh, that you wouldn't think--that--of me, my lord. And I didn't know how to meet you to-day, but I had to.'

I stood silent beside her, curiously conscious of every detail of Nature's picture before me; for I had turned from her again, and my eyes roamed over sea and island. But at that moment there came from one of the narrow windows of the old house, directly above our heads, the sound of a low, amused, luxurious chuckle. A look of dread and shrinking spread over Phroso's face.

'Ah, that man!' she exclaimed in an agitated whisper.

'What of him?'

'He has been here before. I have seen him smile and heard him laugh like that when he sent men to death and looked on while they died.

Yes, men of our own island, men who had served us and were our friends. Ah, he frightens me, that man!' She shuddered, stretching out her hand in an unconscious gesture, as though she would ward off some horrible thing. 'I have heard him laugh like that when a woman asked her son's life of him and a girl her lover's. It kills me to be near him. He has no pity. My lord, intercede with him for the islanders.

They are ignorant men: they did not know.'

'Not one shall be hurt if I can help it,' said I earnestly. 'But--' I stopped; yet I would go on, and I added, 'Have you no fear of him yourself?'

'What can he do to me?' she asked. 'He talked to me this morning about--about you. I hate to talk with him. But what can he do to me?'

I was silent. Mouraki had not hinted to her the idea which he had suggested, in puzzling ambiguity between jest and earnest, to me. Her eyes questioned me; then suddenly she laid her hand on my arm and said:

'And you would protect me, my lord. While you were here, I should be safe.'

'While!' The little word struck cold on my heart: my eyes showed her the blow; in a minute she understood. She raised her hand from where it lay and pointed out towards the sea. I saw the pretty trim little yacht running home for the harbour after her morning cruise.