The Big Drum Part 12

However, I wasn't destined to share the earliest of the London triumphs. [_Bitterly._] Mine awaited me in Paris, and at Vaudemont-Baudricourt, as the Comtesse de Chaumie! [_s.h.i.+vering._]

Ugh-h-h-h----!

[_She is about to sit in the chair on the left when he comes to her impulsively and restrains her._

PHILIP.

My poor girl----!

OTTOLINE.

[_With abandon._] Ah----!

PHILIP.

My poor dear girl!

OTTOLINE.

It's a relief to me to open my heart to you, Philip. [_He leads her to the fauteuil-stool._] Robbie won't interrupt us yet awhile, will he?

PHILIP.

We'll kick him out if he does. [_They sit, close together, upon the fauteuil-stool._] Oh, but he won't! This is a deep-laid plot of the old chap's----

OTTOLINE.

Plot?

PHILIP.

To invite us here to-day, you and me, to--to----

OTTOLINE.

_Amener un rapprochement?_

PHILIP.

Exactly.

OTTOLINE.

[_Softly._] Ha, ha! Dear old Robbie! [_He laughs with her._] Dear, dear old Robbie! [_Her laughter dies out, leaving her with a serious, appealing face._] Phil----

PHILIP.

Eh?

OTTOLINE.

Your sneer--your sneer about me and the papers----

PHILIP.

Sneer?

OTTOLINE.

I detected it. Almost the first thing you said to me when I arrived was that you'd been gathering news of me lately from the papers!

PHILIP.

[_Gently._] Forgive me.

OTTOLINE.

It's been none of my doing; I've finished with _le sn.o.bbisme_ entirely.

[_Pleadingly._] You don't doubt me?

PHILIP.

[_Patting her hand._] No--no.

OTTOLINE.

Nowadays I detest coming across my name in print. But my people--[_with a little_ moue] they will persist in----!

PHILIP.

Beating the big drum?

OTTOLINE.

Ha! [_Brus.h.i.+ng her hair from her brow fretfully._] Oh! Oh, Phil, it was blindness on my part to return to them--sheer blindness!

PHILIP.

Blindness?

OTTOLINE.

They've been urging me to do it ever since my husband's death; so I had ample time to consider the step. But I didn't realize, till I'd settled down in Ennismore Gardens, how thoroughly I----

PHILIP.

[_Finding she doesn't continue._] How thoroughly----?

OTTOLINE.