The Girl Philippa. Chambers Robert William

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СКАЧАТЬ to sit with him at his table; she had even forgotten her miserable rôle when she asked him to go out to the river with her. The significance of all this, according to her Gallic tradition, was now confronting her, emphasizing the fact that she was still with him.

      As she sat there, her hands clasped in her lap, the sunlit reality of it all seemed brightly confused as in a dream – a vivid dream which casts a deeper enchantment over slumber, holding the sleeper fascinated under the tense concentration of the happy spell. Subconsciously she seemed to be aware that, according to tradition, this conduct of hers must be merely preliminary to something further; that, in sequence, other episodes were preparing – were becoming inevitable. And she thought of what he had said about making love.

      Folding and unfolding her hands, and looking down at them rather fixedly, she said:

      "Apropos of love – I have never been angry because men told me they were in love with me… Men love; it is natural; they cannot help it. So, if you had said so, I should not have been angry. No, not at all, Monsieur."

      "Philippa," he said smilingly, "when a girl and a man happen to be alone together, love isn't the only entertaining subject for conversation, is it?"

      "It's the subject I've always had to listen to from men. Perhaps that is why I thought – when you spoke so amiably of my – my – "

      "Beauty," added Warner frankly, " – because it is beauty, Philippa. But I meant only to express the pleasure that it gave to a painter – yes, and to a man who can admire without offense, and say so quite as honestly."

      The girl slowly raised her eyes.

      "You speak very pleasantly to me," she said. "Are other American men like you?"

      "You ought to know. Aren't you American?"

      "I don't know what I am."

      "Why, I thought – your name was Philippa Wildresse."

      "I am called that."

      "Then Monsieur Wildresse isn't a relation?"

      "No. I wear his name for lack of any other… He found me somewhere, he says… In Paris, I believe… That is all he will tell me."

      "Evidently," said Warner in his pleasant, sympathetic voice, "you have had an education somewhere."

      "He sent me to school in England until I was sixteen… After that I became cashier for him."

      "He gave you his name, and he supports you… Is he kind to you?"

      "He has never struck me."

      "Does he protect you?"

      "He uses me in business… I am too valuable to misuse."

      The girl looked down at her folded hands. And even Warner divined what ultimate chances she stood in the Cabaret de Biribi.

      "When I'm in Ausone again, I'll come to see you," he said pleasantly. " – Not to make love to you, Philippa," he added with a smile, "but just because we have become such good friends out here in the Lys."

      "Yes," she said, "friends. I shall be glad to see you. I shall always try to understand you – whatever you say to me."

      "That's as it should be!" he exclaimed heartily. "Give me your hand on it, Philippa."

      She laid her hand in his gravely. They exchanged a slight pressure. Then he glanced at his watch, rose, and picked up the pole.

      "I've got to drive to Saïs in time for dinner," he remarked. "I'm sorry, because I'd like to stay out here with you."

      "I'm sorry, too," she said.

      The next moment the punt shot out into the sunny stream.

      CHAPTER IV

      Warner and the girl Philippa reëntered the Cabaret de Biribi together the uproar had become almost deafening. Confetti was thrown at them immediately, and they advanced all a-flutter with brilliant tatters.

      The orchestra was playing, almost everybody was dancing, groups at tables along the edge of the floor sang, clinked glasses, and threw confetti without discrimination. The whole place – tables, floor, chandeliers, and people – streamed with multi-colored paper ribbons. Waiters swept it in heaps from the dancing floor.

      Philippa entered the cashier's enclosure and dismissed the woman in charge. Seated once more on her high chair she opened her reticule and produced a small mirror. Then she leaned far over her counter toward Warner.

      "Is it permitted me to powder my nose?" she whispered with childlike seriousness; but she laughed when he did, and, still laughing, made him a gay little gesture of adieu with her powder puff.

      He stood looking at her for a moment, where she sat on her high chair behind the cage, intently occupied with her mirror, oblivious to the tumult around her. Then, the smile still lingering on his features, he turned to look for his new acquaintance, Halkett.

      Old man Wildresse sidled up to the cashier's desk, opened the wicket, and went inside. Philippa, still using her tiny mirror, was examining a freckle very seriously.

      "Eh, bien?" he growled. "Rien?"

      "Nothing!"

      "Drop that glass and talk!" he said harshly.

      She turned and looked at him.

      "I tell you it was silly to suspect such a man!" she said impatiently. "In my heart I feel humiliated that you should have set me to spy on him – "

      "What's that!"

      "No, I've had enough! I don't like the rôle; I never liked it! Are there no police in France – "

      "Little idiot!" he said. "Will you hold your tongue?"

      "It is a disgusting métier– "

      "Damnation! Hold your tongue!" he repeated. "We've got to do what the Government tells us to do, haven't we?"

      "Not I! Never again – "

      "Yes, you will! Do you hear? Yes, you will, or I'll twist your neck! Now, I'm going to keep my eye on that other gentleman. Granted that the man you pumped is all right, I'm not so sure about the other, who seems to be an Englishman. I'm going over to stand near him. By and by I'll address him. And if I wink at you, leave your caisse with Mélanie, come over, and sit at their table again – "

      "No!"

      "Yes, you will!"

      "No!"

      "Yes, you will. And you'll also contrive it so the Englishman asks you to dance. Do you hear what I say? And you'll find out where he comes from, and when he arrived in Ausone, and where he is going, and whatever else you can worm out of him!" He glared at her. "Disobey if you dare," he added.

      She was silent.

      After a moment he continued in a softer voice:

      "Do you want to see me in prison and my son in New Caledonia? Very well, then; do what the Government tells you to do."

      "I – I've done enough – СКАЧАТЬ