The Hoyden Part 89

"I didn't flatter myself so far, as to this,"--bitterly--"and yet----"

"I only wanted to get away from you, and I wasn't listening, really.

I kept my fingers _tight_ in my ears until you had been there for _hours;_ then my arms felt as if they were dead, and I--well, I dropped them then."

"Hours! I like that! Why, I haven't been here for half an hour yet."

"Oh, _you_ could say anything!" says t.i.ta contemptuously.

She walks away from him, and flings herself into a lounging chair.

She is dressed in a very pale pink gown, with knots of black velvet here and there. And as she has seated herself a tiny, exquisitely shaped foot, clad in a pale pink stocking and black shoe, betrays itself to the admiring air.

Rylton, who is too angry to see anything, and has only a half-conscious knowledge that she is looking more beautiful than ever, goes up to the lounging chair in which she is reclining, and looking down upon her, says sternly, and with a distinctly dramatic air:

"At last we meet."

"At last," returns she, regarding with fixed interest the tip of her shoe as she sways it with an air of steady indifference to and fro.

"Against my will!"

"I know that. I have had plenty of time to know that."

"Then why do you come?"

"To see you," says he plainly.

"Knowing that I didn't wish to see _you?"_

"Yes. Because I wish to see you."

"What a man's reason!" says she, with a scoffing smile. "I wonder you aren't ashamed of yourself."

"Well, I _am_ sometimes," says Rylton, making an effort to suppress the anger that is rising within him. "I sometimes tell myself, for example, that I must be the meanest hound alive. I know you avoid me--hate me--and yet I come."

"But why--why?" impatiently.

"Because," slowly, "I--do not hate _you."_

"Don't be a hypocrite," says t.i.ta sharply. She gets up suddenly, pus.h.i.+ng back her chair behind her. _"Why_ do you pretend?" says she.

"What is to be gained by it? I know we are bound to each other in a sense--bound----" She breaks off. "Ah, that horrid word!" cries she.

"Why can we not get rid of it? Why can't we separate? How ridiculous the laws are! You would be as glad to say good-bye to me for ever as I should be to say it to you, and yet----"

"I beg your pardon," says Rylton, interrupting her quickly. "Speak for yourself only. For my part, I have no desire to be separated from you now, or," steadily, "at any other time."

t.i.ta lifts her eyes and looks at him. Their glances meet, and there is something in his that brings the blood to her face.

"I cannot understand you," cries she, with some agitation. "You don't want my money _now;_ you have plenty of your own, and,"

throwing up her head with a disdainful little gesture, "certainly you don't want _me."_

"You seem wonderfully certain on many points," says Rylton, "but is your judgment always infallible?"

"In this case, yes."

"Ah! you have decided," says he. His gaze wanders from her face and falls upon her hands. On the right hand is a beautiful pearl ring.

He regards it without thought for a second or two, and then he wakens to the fact that he had never seen it there before. "Who gave you that ring?" demands he suddenly, with something of the old masterful air. It is so like the old air that t.i.ta for a little while is silent, then she wakes. No! It is all over now--that owners.h.i.+p. She has emanc.i.p.ated herself; she is free. There is something strange and terrible, however, to her in the knowledge that this thought gives her no joy. She stands pale, actually frightened, for there _is_ fear in the knowledge--that she had felt a sharp throb of delight when that commanding tone had fallen on her ears.

She recovers almost instantly.

"You think it was Tom, perhaps," says she, speaking with a little difficulty, but smiling contemptuously. "Well, it was not. It was only Margaret, after all. This is a last insult, I suppose. Was it to deliver it that you came here to-day?"

"No," he is beginning, "but----"

_ "You_ ask me questions," continues she, brus.h.i.+ng his words aside with a wave of her small hand. "And I--I--have _I_ no questions to ask?" She stops, as if suffocating.

"You have, G.o.d knows," says he. "And"--he hesitates--"I don't expect you to believe me, but--that old folly--it is dead."

"Dead?" She shakes her head. "What killed it?"

_"You!"_ says Rylton.

One burning glance she casts at him.

"Do not let us waste time," says she. "Tell me plainly why you came here, why you want to see me."

"You give me little encouragement to speak"--bitterly. "But it is this: I want you to come back to me, to be mistress of my house again. I"--he pauses as if seeking words--"I have bought a new house; I want you to come and be the head of it."

t.i.ta has been listening to him with wide eyes. She had grown pale as death itself during his speech, and now she recoils from him. She makes a little movement as though to repel him for ever, and then, suddenly she covers her eyes with her hands, and bursts into violent weeping.

"Oh no! No!" gasps she. "Never! Never again! How _could_ you ask me!"

He takes a step towards her, and lays his hand upon her arm.

"No, don't touch me. Don't speak to me," cries she. "I have _had_ to see you to-day, and it has been terrible to me--so terrible that I hope I shall _never_ see you again. I could not bear it. Go--go away!"

"Do not send me from you like this," entreats Rylton, in a voice that trembles. Her tears cut him to the heart. He is so close to her that he has only to put out his hand to catch her--to take her to him, and yet----"Think, t.i.ta! We have got to live out our lives, whether we like it or not. _Can_ we not live them out together?"

"We cannot," says t.i.ta, in a low but distinct voice. She turns to him proudly. "Have you forgotten?" says she. Her poor little face is stained with tears, but he sees no disfigurement in it; he has but one desire, and that is to take her into his arms and kiss those tears away from it for ever.

"Forget! Do you think I shall ever forget? It is my curse that I shall always remember. But that is at an end, t.i.ta. I _swear_ it! I hope I shall never see her again. If you wish it--I----"

"I wish nothing with regard to either her or you," interrupts t.i.ta, her breath coming a little quickly. "It is nothing to me. I do not care."

"Don't say that," says Rylton hoa.r.s.ely. He is fighting his battle inch by inch. "Give me some hope! Is one sin to condemn a man for ever? I tell you all that is done. And you--if you love no one--give _me_ a chance!"

"Why should I trouble myself so far?" says she, with infinite disdain.

At this Rylton turns away from her. He goes to the window, and stands there gazing out, but seeing nothing.

"You are implacable--cold, heartless," says he, in a low tone, fraught with hidden meaning.