The Spider and the Fly. Garvice Charles

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СКАЧАТЬ then, as he had almost decided, Leicester Dodson came out, hot and flushed, but with his usual grave reserve about his mouth and eyes.

      "Ah! Bert!" he said. "Taking a cooler; you're wise in your generation. They ought to keep a weighing machine outside in the lobbies, so that a man could see how much he'd fined down after each dance. I've lost pounds since the Lancers. It's hotter than a siesta hour in Madrid. You look cool."

      "I don't feel particularly hot. I haven't been dancing. I feel like the skeleton at the feast; I think I shall carry my bones to the club. Will you come?"

      "I'm engaged for another turn with Lady Ethel Boisdale," said Leicester Dodson, leaning over the balustrade and skillfully concealing a yawn.

      "Lucky dog," said Bertie, enviously.

      "Eh?" said Leicester. "By the way, you said she'd half promised you a dance; you don't mean to say you haven't called for payment, Bert; she's the best-looking woman in the room, and the most sensible – "

      "Too sensible to dance with Mr. Fairfax, or her mamma has had all her training trouble for nothing," said Bertie.

      "Nonsense! She's looking this way; go and ask her, man. I'll wait until the waltz is over, then we'll go on to the club, for, between you and me and that hideous statue, which is all out of drawing, by the way, I have had pretty well enough; and you seem, to judge by your face, to have had a great deal too much."

      Bertie, without a word left his friend, fought his way through the crowd, and, after some maneuvering, gained Lady Ethel's side.

      "Have you saved me that dance which you half promised me this morning?" he said.

      Lady Ethel turned – she did not know that he was so near – and a smile, bright, but transient, passed across her face.

      "There is one dance – it is only a quadrille," she said; "all the waltzes are gone."

      "I am grateful for the quadrille only, and do not deserve that," he said.

      "I thought you had gone," said Ethel. "My brother was looking for you just now, and I told him that I had seen you go out."

      "I was in the corridor cooling," said Bertie Fairfax.

      "Is it cool there?" she asked; "I thought it could not be cool anywhere to-night."

      Then Lord Fitz came up, his simple face all flushed with the heat and the last dance.

      "Hello, Bert, I've been looking for you. I say – "

      "You must tell me when the dance is over," said Bertie, "there is no time."

      And he led his partner to her place in a set.

      A quadrille has the advantage over its more popular sister, the waltz; it allows of conversation.

      Bertie could talk well; he had always something light and pleasant to say, and he had a musical voice in which to say it.

      He was generally too indolent to talk much, but neither his natural laziness nor the heat seemed to weigh upon him to-night, and he talked about this matter and on that until Ethel, who was not only beautiful but cultivated, was delighted.

      Too delighted, perhaps, for my Lady Lackland, from her place of espionage in a corner, put up her eyeglass and scanned her daughter's rapt and sometimes smiling face with something that was not altogether a pleased expression.

      "Who is that good-looking young fellow with whom Ethel's dancing?" she asked of the dowager Lady Barnwell, a noted scandalmonger, and an authority on every one's position and eligibilities.

      "That is young Fairfax. Handsome, is he not? Pity he's so poor."

      "Poor, is he?" said the countess, grimly.

      "Oh, yes, dreadfully. Works for his living – a writer, artist, or something of that sort. Really, I don't know exactly. He is in the Temple. Very amusing companion, evidently. Lady Ethel looks charmed with her partner."

      "Yes," said Lady Lackland, coldly, in her heart of hearts she determined that her daughter should receive a lecture upon the imprudence of wasting a dance upon such doubtful and dangerous men as Bertie Fairfax.

      Meanwhile, Ethel was enjoying herself, and when Bertie, whose handsome face was beaming with quiet satisfaction and pleasure, softly suggested that they should try the corridor, Lady Ethel, after a moment's hesitation, on the score of prudence, replied with an affirmative, and they sought the lobby.

      Here there were a seat for the lady and a leaning-post for Mr. Fairfax, and the conversation which had been interrupted was taken up again.

      Bertie was in the midst of an eloquent defense of a favorite artist, of whom Lady Ethel did not quite approve, when Lord Fitz again appeared.

      "What an eel you are, Bert! I've been everywhere for you. I say, we're going down to Coombe Lodge; it's so beastly hot up here in town, and we're going to make a little summer picnic party; you know, just a nice number. Cecil Carlton, Leonard Waltham and his sister, and two or three more. My sister is going, ain't you, Ethel? Will you come?"

      "Thanks," said Bertie, with something like a flush, and certainly a sparkle in his light eyes. "But I am booked to Leicester Dodson."

      "Oh, yes, the Cedars; what a bore for us. Never mind, the Lodge isn't far off, and, if you go down, we shall all be together."

      "Yes," said Bertie, glancing at the fair face beneath him, which was turned, with a quiet look of interest, to her brother; "yes. When do you go?"

      "Next week, if Ethel can get herself away from this sort of thing."

      "I shall be very glad to go," said Ethel; "I am longing for the green trees and a little country air."

      "It's done, then; all the odds taken," said simple Lord Fitz.

      At that moment came up Ethel's next partner.

      Bertie relinquished her, with a smothered sigh. He knew that he should not see her again that night, for her programme was full.

      "We may meet in a country lane next week," he said, softly.

      "We may," she said, with a smile that parted her lips bewitchingly, and then she was called away.

      Bertie looked after her, then slowly descended the broad stairs, got his crush hat and strolled into the open street.

      "That's the most sensible thing you've done for the last two hours," said Leicester Dodson's voice, behind him. "I'll follow your example," and he took out his cigar case. "Here, my man," he added, as his neat brougham drove up.

      "Let us walk," said Bertie.

      And they started slowly for the club.

      It was very hot there, however, and the pair were soon in Leicester's chambers, which were in the same inn and only one floor below Bertie's.

      Leicester Dodson was a wealthy man, and quite able to afford luxurious apartments in the Albany, or at Meurice's, but he preferred a quiet set of chambers near those of his fast friend, Bertie.

      He did not work in them, but he read a great deal, and he enjoyed half an hour now and then spent in watching his hard-working friend.

      He СКАЧАТЬ