Phroso Part 34

'But he knows about--about the lady you love.'

'It won't surprise Mouraki to hear that I am going to break my faith with--the lady I love,' said I.

'No,' said Phroso, refusing resolutely to look at me again. 'It won't surprise Mouraki.'

'Perhaps it wouldn't surprise any one.'

Phroso made no comment on this; and the moment I had said it I heard a voice below, a voice I knew very well.

'What's the ladder here for, my friend?' it asked.

'It enables one to ascend or descend, my lord,' answered Kortes's grave voice, without the least touch of irony.

'It's Mouraki,' whispered Phroso; at the time of danger her frightened eyes came back to mine, and she drew nearer to me. 'It's Mouraki, my lord.'

'I know it is,' said I; 'so much the better.'

'That seems probable,' observed Mouraki. 'But to enable whom to ascend and descend, friend Kortes?'

'Anyone who desires, my lord.'

'Then I will ascend,' said Mouraki.

'A thousand pardons, my lord!'

'Stand aside, sir. What, you dare--'

'Run back to your room,' I whispered. 'Quick. Good-night.' I caught her hand and pressed it. She turned and disappeared swiftly through the door which gave access to the inside of the house and thence to her room; and I--glad that the interview had been interrupted, for I could have borne little more of it--walked to the battlements and looked over. Kortes stood like a wall between the astonished Mouraki and the ladder.

'Kortes, Kortes,'I cried in a tone of grieved surprise, 'is it possible that you don't recognise his Excellency?'

'Why, Wheatley!' cried Mouraki.

'Who else should it be, my dear Pasha? Will you come up, or shall I come down and join you? Out of the way, Kortes.'

Kortes, who would not obey Mouraki, obeyed me. Mouraki seemed to hesitate about mounting. I solved the difficulty by descending rapidly. I was smiling, and I took the Pasha by the arm, saying with a laugh:

[Ill.u.s.tration: "A THOUSAND PARDONS, MY LORD!"]

'Caught that time, I'm afraid, eh? Well, I meant to tell you soon.'

I had certainly succeeded in astonis.h.i.+ng Mouraki this time. Kortes added to his wonder by springing nimbly up the ladder, and pulling it up after him.

'I thought you were in bed,' said I. 'And when the cat's away the mice will play, you know. Well, we're caught!'

'We?' asked the Pasha.

'Well, do you suppose I was alone? Is it the sort of night a man chooses to spend alone on a roof?'

'Who was with you then?' he asked, suspicion alive in his crafty eyes.

I took him by the arm and led him into the house, through the kitchen, till we reached the hall, when I said:

'Am I not a man of taste? Who should it be?'

He sat down in the great armchair, and a heavy frown gathered on his brow. I cannot quite explain why, but I was radiant. The spirit of the game had entered into me; I forgot the reality that was so full of pain; I was as merry as though what I told him had been the happy truth, instead of a tantalising impossible vision.

'Oh, don't misunderstand me,' I laughed, standing opposite to him, swaying on my feet, and burying my hands in my pockets. 'Don't wrong me, my dear Pasha. It's all just as it should be. There's nothing going on that should not go on under your Excellency's roof. It is all on the most honourable footing.'

'I don't understand your riddles or your mirth,' said Mouraki.

'Ah! Now once I didn't quite appreciate yours. The wheel goes round, my dear Pasha. Every dog has his day. Forgive me, I am naturally elated. I meant to tell you at breakfast to-morrow, but since you surprised our tender meeting, why, I'll tell you now. Congratulate me.

That charming girl has owned that her avowal of love for me was nothing but bare truth, and has consented to make me happy.'

'To marry you?'

'My dear Pasha! What else could I mean?' I took my hands out of my pockets, lit a cigarette and puffed the smoke luxuriously. Mouraki sat motionless in his chair, his eyes cold and sharp on me, his brow puckered. At last he spoke.

'And Miss Hipgrave?' he asked sneeringly.

'Is there a breach of promise of marriage law in Neopalia?' said I.

'In truth, my dear Pasha, I am a little to blame there; but you mustn't be hard on me. I had a moment of conscientious qualms. I confess it. But she's too lovely, she really is. And she's so fond of me--oh, I couldn't resist it!' I was simpering like any affected young lady-killer.

Mouraki was a clever fellow, but the blow had been a sudden one. It strains the control even of clever fellows when a formidable obstacle springs up, at a moment's notice, on a path that they have carefully prepared and levelled for their steps. The Pasha's rage mastered him.

'You've changed your mind rapidly, Lord Wheatley,' said he.

'I know nothing,' I rejoined, 'that does change a man's mind so quickly as a pretty girl.'

'Yet some men hold to their promises,' said he with a savage sneer.

'Oh, a few, perhaps; very few in these days.'

'And you don't aspire to be one?'

'Oh, I aspired,' said I with a laugh; 'but my aspirations have not stood out against Phroso's charms.'

Then I took a step nearer to him, and, veiling impertinence under a thin show of sympathy, I said:

'I hope you're not really annoyed? You weren't serious in the hint you gave of your own intentions? I thought you were only joking, you know. If you were serious, believe me I am grieved. But it must be every man for himself in these little matters, mustn't it?'

He had borne as much as he could. He rose suddenly to his feet and an oath escaped from between his teeth.

'You sha'n't have her!' said he. 'You think you can laugh at me: men who think that find out their mistake.'

I laughed again. I did not shrink from exasperating him to the uttermost. He would be no more dangerous; he might be less discreet.

'Pardon me,' said I, 'but I don't perceive how we need your permission, glad as we should, of course, be of your felicitations.'