A Bachelor Husband Part 21

The outer door was not quite closed now, and she could see a thin streak of light through the opening.

She drew the door of her room to behind her and stood there in the subdued light of the pa.s.sage, her heart beating fast, her lips quivering nervously.

She had put out her hand tremblingly to knock at his door when suddenly she heard his voice from within, speaking angrily:

"Look here. I'm not going to be lectured by you and that's final!

The Lord only knows why you've suddenly climbed into the pulpit like this. If you say you saw me with Mrs. Heriot it's no use denying it, but it's nothing to do with you, and I'll thank you to mind your own confounded business. It was an accident that the skiff drifted away, I tell you! And it's a darned lucky thing I could swim, or we should have been left on that infernal boat all night! And then you would have had something to talk about, but as it is ..." he broke off, and there followed the angry slamming of a drawer.

Then Feathers spoke, quite quietly, and without any anger.

"It's no use losing your temper, Chris. It was the merest chance that I happened to see you. As you say, it's no business of mine, but as Mrs. Heriot is the cla.s.s of woman she is, I say that you ought to tell your wife the truth. You can't trust Mrs. Heriot-- she'll make the devil's own mischief one of these days."

Chris said "Rot!" with violence. "What do you mean, 'the cla.s.s of woman Mrs. Heriot is'?--she's a friend of mine."

He did not care in the least what Feathers said of Mrs. Heriot, but the sheer "cussedness" of his nature drove him to defend her; if Feathers had adopted the other att.i.tude Chris would have veered round instantly.

But for once Feathers forgot to be tactful. He was burning with anger against his friend, more for Marie's sake than for any other reason; he could not understand the circ.u.mstances of this marriage at all, though little by little he was beginning to see that there was nothing of real affection about it.

He said again vehemently: "It's your duty to tell Mrs. Lawless the truth! Supposing somebody else saw you besides myself? A nice garbled version of it she might hear! It could be worked up properly, I can tell you--moonlight night, and you two out there on an empty yacht, or smack, or whatever it was."

He laughed cynically. "What the devil you want to knock about with that woman for, beats me! She's made up, she's bad form, she's everything objectionable."

Chris laughed defiantly. He was furious at being hauled over the coals in such a manner, more especially as Feathers had never made the slightest attempt to do such a thing before.

"She amuses me, anyway," he said, violently. "She doesn't bore me to death, as the rest of her s.e.x do, and you can put that in your pipe and smoke it."

The rest of her s.e.x. The words hammered themselves into the numbed brain of poor little Marie Celeste as she stood there in the pa.s.sage, not daring to move.

The rest of her s.e.x. That included her then--that must include her!

Oh, how could he be so cruel! How could he, when she loved him with every beat of her heart?

She crept back into her room, feeling as if her husband's harsh words had been actual whips, beating her and bruising her.

He not only did not love her, but he preferred Mrs. Heriot! He had been out there with her on the moonlit sea, while she ... Marie Celeste fell face downwards on the bed, crus.h.i.+ng her face into the pillow so that her broken-hearted sobbing might not penetrate the locked door and reach her husband's ears. He hated tears so much!

Scenes always made him so angry.

CHAPTER VIII

"The new is older than the old The newest friend is oldest friend in this, That waiting him we longest grieved to miss One thing we sought"

MARIE woke in the morning with a bad headache. She would have liked to stay in bed, but not for the world would she have allowed Mrs.

Heriot the satisfaction of her absence.

Since her accident she had always had breakfast in her room, but she dressed early this morning and went downstairs before the first gong had sounded.

She had carefully bathed the tear stains from her eyes and powdered her face; she had put on her prettiest frock and taken great pains with her hair. Tender-hearted and loyal as she was, Marie was tremendously proud, and she made up her mind that, if the effort killed her, she would not allow Mrs. Heriot to imagine that the incident of last night had made any difference or hurt her in any way.

She went in to breakfast before Chris arrived, and he looked at her in blank astonishment when he sauntered up to the table.

"Down to breakfast! Couldn't you sleep, Marie?"

The words were playful, but they hurt his wife inexpressibly, for they showed that he had not been to her room, as he generally did, to see how she was.

She answered him with a little smile.

"Yes; I'm tired of being an invalid. I've thrown the last bottle of medicine away." She forced herself to eat a good breakfast, though she was not in the least hungry, and smiled her sweetest at Mrs.

Heriot, who came in very late.

Mrs. Heriot's eyes narrowed a little as she returned Marie's greeting, and a soon as the meal was ended she followed the girl into the lounge and sat down beside her.

"Dear Mrs. Lawless, how nice to see you up early again! I do hope it means that you are stronger!"

"I think I'm quite well," Marie answered. "And I think it's time I looked after my husband a little. Poor Chris! I am afraid he has been very dull."

She was not afraid of anything of the sort. She knew only too well that Chris had not missed her in the least, but it gave her a little throb of satisfaction to see the faint look of annoyance that crossed Mrs. Heriot's face, as she leaned back in her chair and twisted the long gold chain with its bunch of dangling charms which she wore round her neck. Was this chit of a girl going to attempt to cross swords with her?

Chris came into the lounge at the moment.

"Well, what's the programme for to-day?" he asked, cheerily. He was quite at his ease; he believed that last night's foolishness had been swept into the rag bag of the past and forgotten; he did not know enough about women to suspect Mrs. Heriot of malice, or Marie of capability to deceive him.

It was Mrs. Heriot who answered.

"Personally, I'm too worn out to do anything but lounge about," she said. "And you ... you look awfully tired yourself, Chris."

Marie raised her eyes.

"Well, he had rather a nasty adventure last night, didn't he?" she said quietly. "What a fortunate thing for you both that he could swim, wasn't it, Mrs. Heriot?"

She spoke quite simply and naturally and with just the right shade of concern in her voice, but her heart was racing at her own daring.

Chris turned scarlet to the roots of his hair, and for a moment there was an embarra.s.sed silence.

Then Mrs. Heriot said with a little uncertain laugh: "So he told you! How brave of him! I advised him not to, you know. I thought after your own dreadful accident it would only unnerve you again."

Marie laughed.

"I thought it was a most exciting adventure." she said. "But it would have been horrid if you had had to stay out there all night, wouldn't it?" She rose with a little yawn, as if the subject no longer interested her, and walked over to the open doorway which led into the garden.

Chris stood irresolute; he knew that Mrs. Heriot's eyes were upon him, and he was furious because his crimson flush would not die down. Mrs. Heriot laughed softly.

"So you told her then," she said.

Chris turned on his heel without answering, and followed his wife into the garden; there were some children playing ball in the suns.h.i.+ne and Marie was standing watching them with unseeing eyes.