第62章

He marched up to Joan and held out his arm."We may as well get back," he said."The band's going to begin again."But Joan sat down, looking from one man to the other.All the woman in her revelled in this rivalry,--all that made her long-dead sisters crowd to the arenas, wave to armored knights in deadly combat, lean forward in grand stands to watch the Titanic struggles of Army and Navy, Yale and Harvard on the football field.Her eyes danced, her lips were parted a little, her young bosom rose and fell.

"And so you see," said Palgrave, putting his hand on the back of her chair, "I can stay as long as the Hosacks will have me, and one day I'll drive you over to my bachelor cottage on the dune.It will interest you.""The only thing that has any interest at the moment is dancing,"said Oldershaw loudly."By the way, you don't happen to be a member of the club, do you, Mr.Palgrave?"With consummate impudence Palgrave caught his eye and made a sort of policeman gesture."Run away, my lad," he said, "run away and amuse yourself." He almost asked for death.

With a thick mutter that sounded like "My God," Oldershaw balanced himself to hit, his face the color of a beet-root,--and instantly Joan was on her feet between them with a hand on the boy's chest.

"No murder here," she said, "please!"

"Murder!" echoed Palgrave, scoffing.

"Yes, murder.Can't you see that this boy could take you and break you like a dry twig? Let's go back, all three of us.We don't want to become the center of a sight-seeing crowd." And she took an arm of each shaking man and went across the drive to where the car was parked.

And so the danger moment was evaded,--young Oldershaw warm with pride, Palgrave sullen and angry.They made a trio which had its prototypes all the way back to the beginning of the world.

It did Palgrave no good to crouch ignominiously on the step of the car which Oldershaw drove back hell for leather.

The bridge tables were still occupied.The white lane was still across the sea.Frogs and crickets still continued their noisy rivalry, but it was a different climate out there on the dunes from that of the village with its cloying warmth.

Palgrave went into the house at once with a brief "Thank you." Joan waited while Harry put the car into a garage.Bed made no appeal.

Bridge bored,--it required concentration.She would play the game of sex with Gilbert if he were to be found.So the boy had to be disposed of.

"Harry," she said, when he joined her, chuckling at having come top dog out of the recent blaze, "you'd better go straight to bed now.

We're going to be up early in the morning, you know.""Just what I was thinking," he answered."By Jove, you've given me a corking good evening.The best of my young life.You...you certainly are,--well, I don't know how to do you justice.I'd have to be a poet." He fumbled for her hand and kissed it a little sheepishly.

They went in."You're a nice boy, Harry," she said.There was something in his charming simplicity and muscular strength that reminded her of,--but she refused to let the name enter her mind.

"I could have broken that chap like a dry twig, too, easy.Who does he think he is?" He would have pawned his life at that moment for the taste of her lips.

She stood at the bottom of the stairs and held out her hand."Good night, old boy," she said.

And he took it and hurt it."Good night, Joany," he answered.

That pet name hurt her more than his eager grasp.It was Marty's own word--Marty, who--who--She threw up her head and stamped her foot, and slammed the door of her thoughts."Who cares?" she said to herself, challenging life and fate."Come on.Make things move."She saw Palgrave standing alone in the library looking at the sea.

"You might be Canute," she said lightly.

His face was curiously white."I'm off in the morning," he said."We may as well say good-by now.""Good-by, then," she answered.

"I can't stay in this cursed place and let you play the fool with me.""Why should you?"

"There'll be Hosack and the others as well as your new pet.""That's true."

He caught her suddenly by the arms."Damn you," he said."I wish to God I'd never seen you."She laughed."Cave man stuff, eh?"

He let her go.She had the most perfect way of reducing him to ridicule.

"I love you," he said."I love you.Aren't you going to try, even to try, to love me back?""No."

"Not ever?"

"Never." She went up to him and stood straight and slim and bewitching, eye to eye."If you want me to love you, make me.Work for it, move Heaven and earth.You can't leave it to me.I don't want to love you.I'm perfectly happy as I am.If you want me, win me, carry me off my feet and then you shall see what it is to be loved.It's entirely up to you, understand that.I shall fight against it tooth and nail, but I give you leave to do your best.Do you accept the challenge?""Yes," he said, and his face cleared, and his eyes blazed.