“Agreed. And now, Marian — —”
“Dont let me disturb you,” said Miss McQuinch, at his elbow, to Marian; “but Mrs. Leith Fairfax will be here with Sholto Douglas presently; and I thought you might like to have an opportunity of avoiding him. How do you do, Mr. Conolly?”
“I must see him sooner or later,” said Marian, rising. “Better face him at once and get it over. I will go back by myself and meet them.” Then, with a smile at Conolly, she went out through the door leading to the watercolor gallery.
“Marian does not stand on much ceremony with you, Mr. Conolly,” said
Miss McQuinch, glancing at him.
“No,” said Conolly. “Do you think you could face the Academy again on
Monday at half-past four?”
“Why?”
“Miss Lind is coming to meet me here at that hour.”
“Marian!”
“Precisely. Marian. She has promised to marry me. At present it is a secret. But it was to be mentioned to you.”
“It will not be a secret very long if you allow people to overhear you calling her by her Christian name in the middle of the Academy, as you did me just now,” said Elinor, privately much taken aback, but resolute not to appear so.
“Did you overhear us? I should have been more careful. You do not seem surprised.”
“Just a little, at your audacity. Not in the least at Marian’s consenting.”
“Thank you.”
“I did not mean it in that way at all,” said Elinor resentfully. “I think you have been very fortunate, as I suppose you would have married somebody in any case. I believe you are able to appreciate her. That’s a compliment.”
“Yes. I hope I deserve it. Do you think you will ever forgive me for supplanting the hero Marian deserves?”
“If you had let your chance of her slip, I should have despised you, I think: at least, I should if you had missed it with your eyes open. I am so far prejudiced in your favor that I think Marian would not like you unless you were good. I have known her to pity people who deserved to be strangled; but I never knew her to be attracted by any unworthy person except myself; and even I have my good points. You need not trouble yourself to agree with me: you could not do less, in common politeness. As I am rather tired, I shall go and sit in the vestibule until the others are ready to go home. In the meantime you can tell me all the particulars you care to trust me with. Marian will tell me the rest when we go home.”
“That is an undeserved stab,” said Conolly.
“Never mind: I am always stabbing people. I suppose I like it,” she added, as they went together to the vestibule.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Leith Fairfax had not been wasting her time. She had come upon Douglas in the large room, and had recognized him by his stature and proud bearing, in spite of the handsome Assyrian beard he had allowed to grow during his stay abroad.
“I have been very anxious to see you,” said she, forcing a conversation upon him, though he had saluted her formally, and had evidently intended to pass on without speaking. “If your time were not too valuable to be devoted to a poor hardworking woman, I should have asked you to call on me. Dont deprecate my forbearance. You are Somebody in the literary world now.”
“Indeed? I was not aware that I had done anything to raise me from obscurity.”
“I assure you you are very much mistaken, or else very modest. Has no one told you about the effect your book produced here?”
“I know nothing of it, Mrs. Leith Fairfax. I never enquire after the effect of my work. I have lived in comparative seclusion; and I scarcely know what collection of fugitive notes of mine you honor by describing as a book.”
“I mean your ‘Note on three pictures in last year’s Salon,’ with the sonnets, and the fragment from your unfinished drama. Is it finished, may I ask?”
“It is not finished. I shall never finish it now.”
“I will tell you — between ourselves — that I heard one of the foremost critics of the age say, in the presence of a great poet (whom we both know), that it was such another fragment as the Venus of Milo, ‘whose lost arms,’ said he, ‘we should fear to see, lest they should be unworthy of her.’ ‘You are right,’ said the poet: ‘I, for one, should shudder to see the fragment completed.’ That is a positive fact. But look at some of the sonnets! Burgraves says that his collection of English sonnets is incomplete because it does not contain your ‘Clytemnestra,’ which he had not seen when his book went to press. You stand in the very forefront of literature — far higher than I, who am — dont tell anybody — five years older than you.”
“You are very good. I do not value any distinction of the sort. I write sometimes because, I suppose, the things that are in me must come out, whether I will or not. Let us talk of something else. You are quite well I hope?”
“Very far from it. I am never well; but since I never have a moment’s rest from work, I must bear with it. People expect me to think, when I have hardly time to eat.”
“If you have no time to think, I envy you. But I am truly sorry that your health remains so bad.”
“Thank you. But what is the cause of all this gloomy cynicism, Mr. Douglas? Why should you, who are young, distinguished, gifted, and already famous, envy me for having no leisure to think?”
“You exaggerate the sadness of my unfortunate insensibility to the admiration of the crowd,” said Douglas, coldly. “I am, nevertheless, flattered by the interest you take in my affairs.”
“You need not be, Mr. Douglas,” said Mrs. Fairfax, earnestly, fearing that he would presently succeed in rebuffing her. “I think you are much better off than you deserve. You may despise your reputation as much as you like: that only affects yourself. But when a beautiful girl pays you the compliment of almost dying of love for you, I think you ought to buy a wedding-ring and jump for joy, instead of sulking in remote corners of the continent.”
“And pray, Mrs. Leith Fairfax, what lady has so honored me?”
“You must know, unless you are blind.”
“Pardon me. I do not habitually imply what is not the case. I beg you to believe that I do not know.”
“Not know! What moles men are! Poor Marian!”
“Oblige me by taking this seat,” said Douglas, sternly, pointing to one just vacated. “I shall not detain you many minutes,” he added, sitting down beside her. “May I understand that Miss Lind is the lady of whom you spoke just now?”
“Yes. Remember that I am speaking to you as a friend, and that I trust to you not to mention the effort I am making to clear up the misunderstanding which causes her so much unhappiness.”
“Are you then in Miss Lind’s confidence? Did she ask you to tell me this?”
“What do you mean, Mr. Douglas?”
“I am quite innocent of any desire to shock or offend you, Mrs. Leith
Fairfax. Does your question imply a negative?”
“Most certainly. Marian ask me to tell! you must be dreaming. Do you think, even if Marian were capable of making an advance, that I would consent to act as a go-between? Really, Mr. Douglas!”
“I confess I do not understand these matters; and you must bear with my ineptitude. If Miss Lind entertains any sentiment for me but one of mistrust and aversion, her behavior is singularly misleading.”
“Mistrust! Aversion! I tell you she is in love with you.”
“But