The Younger Set. Chambers Robert William

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СКАЧАТЬ at Gerald. He sits on the stairs with a pink and white ninny; and at the next party he does it with another. That's wholesome and natural; and that's the way things really are. Look at Eileen. Do you suppose she has the slightest suspicion of what love is?"

      "Naturally not," said Selwyn.

      "Correct. Only a fool novelist would attribute the deeper emotions to a child like that. What does she know about anything? Love isn't a mere emotion, either—that is all fol-de-rol and fizzle!—it's the false basis of modern romance. Love is reason—not a nervous phenomenon. Love is a sane passion, founded on a basic knowledge of good and evil. That's what love is; the rest!"—he lifted the book, waved it contemptuously, and pushed it farther away—"the rest is neuritis; the remedy a pill. I'm going to bed; are you?"

      But Selwyn had lighted a cigar, and was again unfolding his evening paper; so his brother-in-law moved ponderously away, yawning frightfully at every heavy stride, and the younger man settled back in his chair, a fragrant cigar balanced between his strong, slim fingers, one leg dropped loosely over the other. After a while the newspaper fell to the floor.

      He sat there without moving for a long time; his cigar, burning close, had gone out. The reading-lamp spread a circle of soft light over the floor; on the edge of it lay Kit-Ki, placid, staring at him. After a while he noticed her. "You?" he said absently; "you hid so they couldn't put you out."

      At the sound of his voice she began to purr.

      "Oh, it's all very well," he nodded; "but it's against the law. However," he added, "I'm rather tired of rules and regulations myself. Besides, the world outside is very cold to-night. Purr away, old lady; I'm going to bed."

      But he did not stir.

      A little later, the fire having burned low, he rose, laid a pair of heavy logs across the coals, dragged his chair to the hearth, and settled down in it deeply. Then he lifted the cat to his knees. Kit-Ki sang blissfully, spreading and relaxing her claws at intervals as she gazed at the mounting blaze.

      "I'm going to bed, Kit-Ki," he repeated absently, "because that's a pretty good place for me . . . far better than sitting up here with you—and conscience."

      But he only lay back deeper in the velvet chair and lighted another cigar.

      "Kit-Ki," he said, "the words men utter count in the reckoning; but not as heavily as the words men leave unuttered; and what a man does scores deeply; but—alas for the scars of the deeds he has left undone."

      The logs were now wrapped in flame, and their low mellow roaring mingled to a monotone with the droning of the cat on his knees.

      Long after his cigar burnt bitter, he sat with eyes fixed on the blaze. When the flames at last began to flicker and subside, his lids fluttered, then drooped; but he had lost all reckoning of time when he opened them again to find Miss Erroll in furs and ball-gown kneeling on the hearth and heaping kindling on the coals, and her pretty little Alsatian maid beside her, laying a log across the andirons.

      "Upon my word!" he murmured, confused; then rising quickly, "Is that you, Miss Erroll? What time is it?"

      "Four o'clock in the morning, Captain Selwyn," she said, straightening up to her full height. "This room is icy; are you frozen?"

      Chilled through, he stood looking about in a dazed way, incredulous of the hour and of his own slumber.

      "I was conversing with Kit-Ki a moment ago," he protested, in such a tone of deep reproach that Eileen laughed while her maid relieved her of furs and scarf.

      "Susanne, just unhook those two that I can't manage; light the fire in my bedroom; et merci bien, ma petite!"

      The little maid vanished; Kit-Ki, who had been unceremoniously spilled from Selwyn's knees, sat yawning, then rose and walked noiselessly to the hearth.

      "I don't know how I happened to do it," he muttered, still abashed by his plight.

      "We rekindled the fire for your benefit," she said; "you had better use it before you retire." And she seated herself in the arm-chair, stretching out her ungloved hands to the blaze—smooth, innocent hands, so soft, so amazingly fresh and white.

      He moved a step forward into the warmth, stood a moment, then reached forward for a chair and drew it up beside hers.

      "Do you mean to say you are not sleepy?" he asked.

      "I? No, not in the least. I will be to-morrow, though."

      "Did you have a good time?"

      "Yes—rather."

      "Wasn't it gay?"

      "Gay? Oh, very."

      Her replies were unusually short—almost preoccupied. She was generally more communicative.

      "You danced a lot, I dare say," he ventured.

      "Yes—a lot," studying the floor.

      "Decent partners?"

      "Oh, yes."

      "Who was there?"

      She looked up at him. "You were not there," she said, smiling.

      "No; I cut it. But I did not know you were going; you said nothing about it."

      "Of course, you would have stayed if you had known, Captain Selwyn?" She was still smiling.

      "Of course," he replied.

      "Would you really?"

      "Why, yes."

      There was something not perfectly familiar to him in the girl's bright brevity, in her direct personal inquiry; for between them, hitherto, the gaily impersonal had ruled except in moments of lightest badinage.

      "Was it an amusing dinner?" she asked, in her turn.

      "Rather." Then he looked up at her, but she had stretched her slim silk-shod feet to the fender, and her head was bent aside, so that he could see only the curve of the cheek and the little close-set ear under its ruddy mass of gold.

      "Who was there?" she asked, too, carelessly.

      For a moment he did not speak; under his bronzed cheek the flat muscles stirred. Had some meddling, malicious fool ventured to whisper an unfit jest to this young girl? Had a word—or a smile and a phrase cut in two—awakened her to a sorry wisdom at his expense? Something had happened; and the idea stirred him to wrath—as when a child is wantonly frightened or a dumb creature misused.

      "What did you ask me?" he inquired gently.

      "I asked you who was there, Captain Selwyn."

      He recalled some names, and laughingly mentioned his dinner partner's preference for Harmon. She listened absently, her chin nestling in her palm, only the close-set, perfect ear turned toward him.

      "Who led the cotillion?" he asked.

      "Jack Ruthven—dancing with Rosamund Fane."

      She drew her feet from the fender and crossed them, still turned away from him; and so they remained in silence until again she shifted her position, almost impatiently.

      "You are very tired," he said.

      "No; СКАЧАТЬ