The Price of Things Part 29

Ferdinand Ardayre rose, rage showing in his mean face, but as he had no choice he said good-bye. Harietta accompanied him to the door, pressing his hand stealthily, then she returned to the Russian with flaming eyes.

He had not uttered a word.

"How dare you make me so nervous, sitting there like a log! I won't stand for such treatment--you Bear!"

"Then sit down. Why do you have that Turk with you at all?"

"He is not a Turk; he's an Englishman and a friend of mine. Why, he is the brother of your precious John Ardayre--and they have behaved shamefully to him, poor dear boy."

She was still enraged.

"He is not even a pure Turk--some of them are gentlemen. He is just the sc.u.m of the earth, and no blood relation to John Ardayre."

"He will let them know whether he is or not some day! I hear that your bit of bread and b.u.t.ter is going to have a child, and as Ferdie says it can't be John's, I suppose it is yours!"

Verisschenzko's face looked dangerous.

"You would do well to guard your words, Harietta. I do not permit you to make such remarks to me--and it would be more prudent if you warned your friend that he had better not make such a.s.sertions either--do you understand?"

Harietta felt some twinge of fear at the strange tone in the Russian's voice, but she was too out of temper to be cowed now.

"Puh!" and she tossed her head. "If the child is a boy Ferdie will have something to say--and as for Amaryllis--I hate her! I'd like to kill her with my own hands."

Verisschenzko rose and stood before her--and there was a look in his eyes which made her suddenly grow cold.

"Listen," he said icily. "I have warned you once and you know me well enough to decide whether I ever speak lightly. I warn you again to be careful of your words and your deeds. I shall warn you no more--if you transgress a third time--then I will strike."

Harietta grew pale to her painted lips.

How would he strike? Not with a stick as Hans would have done, but in some much more deadly way. She changed her manner instantly and began to laugh.

"Darling Brute!"

Verisschenzko knew that he had alarmed her sufficiently, so he sat down in his chair again and lit a cigarette calmly--then he sniffed the air.

"Your mongrel friend uses the same perfume as Stanisla.s.s' mistress!"

"Stanisla.s.s' mistress?" she had forgotten for the moment.

"Yes--don't you remember we burnt his scented handkerchief the last time we met, because we did not like her taste in perfumes?"

Harietta's ill humour rose again; she was annoyed that she had forgotten this incident. Her instinct of self-preservation usually preserved her from committing any such mistakes. She felt that it was now advisable to become cajoling; also there was something in the face of Verisschenzko and his fierceness which aroused renewed pa.s.sion in her--it was absurd to waste time in quarrelling with him when in an hour Stanisla.s.s might be coming in, so she went over behind his chair and smoothed back his thick dark hair.

"You know that I adore you, darling Brute!"

"Of course--" he did not even turn his head towards her. "Have you had your heart's desire here in England?"

"Before this stupid war came--yes--now I'm through with it. I'm for Paris again."

"I suppose I must have been mistaken, but I thought I caught sight of your handsome German friend in the hall just now?"

"German friend--who?"

"Your _danseur_ at the Ardayre ball. I have forgotten his name."

"And so have I."

At that instant Marie appeared at the door and Fou-Chow came from under the chair where he was sheltering and pattered towards her with a glad tiny whine. The maid's eyes rounded with dislike as she looked at her mistress; she realised that the little creature had been roughly treated again. She picked him up and could hardly control her voice into a tone of respectfulness as she spoke:

"Monsieur Insborg demands if he can see Madame in half an hour. He telephoned to Madame but received no reply."

For a second Harietta's eyes betrayed her; they narrowed with alarm, and then she said suavely: "I suppose the receiver was off. No, say I am dining early for the theatre--but to-morrow at five."

The maid inclined her head and left the room silently, carrying Fou-Chow, but as she did so her eyes met Verisschenzko's and their expression suggested to him several things:

"Marie loves the dog--so she hates Harietta. Good--we shall see."

Thus his thoughts ran, but aloud he asked what Harietta meant to do with her life in Paris, and who had been her lovers here?

"You do say such frightful things to me, Stepan," and she tossed her head. "You think that because I took you, I take others! Pah!--and if I do--these Englishmen are peaches, just like little school boys--they'd not harm a fly. But I only love you, Darling Brute--even though we have had a row."

"I know that, of course. I am not jealous, only you have not given me any proofs lately, so I am going to retire from the field. I came to say good-bye."

He looked adorably attractive, Harietta thought--he made her blood run.

Ferdinand Ardayre was but an instructed weakling, when one had come through his intricacies there was nothing in him. As a lover he was not worth the Russian's little finger, and the more Verisschenzko eluded her, the higher her pa.s.sion for him grew; and here he was after months of absence and suggesting that he would leave her for ever! This was not to be borne!

The enraging part was that she would not dare to try to keep him with Hans again upon the scene. She hated Hans once more as she had hated him at the Ardayre ball!

Verisschenzko did not attempt to caress her; he sat perfectly still, nor did he speak.

Harietta could not think how to cope with this new mood; her weariness with the gloom of England and the absence of amus.e.m.e.nt seemed to render Stepan more than ever desirable. He represented the wild, the strong, the primitive, the only thing she felt that she desired at that moment--and if she let him go to-day he was capable of never coming back to her again. It was worth using any means to keep him on. She knew that she could obtain some show of love from him if she bribed him with bits of news. It would serve Hans right too for daring to turn up so inconveniently!

So she came from behind his chair and sat down on Verisschenzko's knee and commenced to whisper in his ear.

"Now I am beginning to think that you love me again," he announced presently,--"and of course I must always pay for love!"

They were seated by the fire in two armchairs when Stanisla.s.s came in from the Club before dinner at eight. Harietta had not even remembered that she must dress, so intoxicated with re-awakened pa.s.sion for Verisschenzko had she become. A man for her must be in the room; her affection could not keep alight in absence. She had revelled in the joy of finding again a complete physical master. She loved him as a tigress may love her tamer, the man with the whip; and the knowledge that she was deceiving Hans and her husband and Ferdinand added a fillip to her satisfaction. But how was she going to be sure to see Stepan again--that was the question which still agitated her. Verisschenzko wished to further examine Ferdinand Ardayre, and so decided to make every one uncomfortable once more by staying on. Stanisla.s.s, very nervous with him now, talked fast and foolishly. Harietta fidgeted, and in a moment or two Ferdinand Ardayre was announced.

He reddened with annoyance to see the Russian had not gone; the flowers which he had brought were in a parcel in his hand.

Harietta took them disdainfully without a word of thanks. What a nuisance the creature was after all!--and Stanisla.s.s was--and everything and anything was which kept her from being alone with Verisschenzko!

"When are you coming to see me again, Stepan?" she asked, determined not to let him part without some definite future meeting settled.

"I will come back and take coffee with you to-night," he answered unexpectedly.

Harietta was enchanted, she had not hoped for this.