Inheritance and succession -- Fiction; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction
She had often dreamed of being married, and what kind of a wedding she
would have, at St. George's, Hanover Square, or the Guards' Chapel. She
had chosen her music, and knew what sort of dress and veil she wanted.
Orchids were Tony's flowers. There was a white variety, streaked with
silver. Her train should be silver, too. She'd be leaving the stage; and
as the Countess of Severance, she could be presented. The silver train
would do for Court.
Now, here she was, thousands of miles from Hanover Square and the
Guards' Chapel. She had on a street dress. There was no music, unless
you could count the far-off strains of a hand-organ playing an old tune,
"You made me love you, I didn't want to do it!" The one orchid was in
Tony's buttonhole; and he was in a pew looking on while she promised to
love, honour and obey another man.
Marise saw the two pictures--the dream and the reality; and the
difference made her sick. All the sense of wild adventure was gone.
There was _no_ adventure! There was just blank ruin.
What a fool she had been! Was there no way out, even now? Surely there
was one. She could still say "No," instead of "Yes," and there'd be an
end, where Garth was concerned.
Perhaps on the spur of the moment Marise would have followed her
impulse, if--Lord Pobblebrook hadn't been present. Somehow, before him
she couldn't make a scene!
The girl felt as if two unseen influences had her by the arm, one on the
right, one on the left, like the white and black angels of the
Mohammedan. They pulled both ways at once, and trembling as she never
had trembled on a first night at the theatre, she looked up at Garth.
There was an odd expression in his yellow-grey eyes, which she had
likened to the eyes of a lion in a Zoo who sees nothing save his far-off
desert. This lion was not now thinking of the desert. He was thinking of
her. But how? As a piece of meat which he would soon be free to devour?
Or--as a new keeper who, though young and a woman, would have to be
reckoned with?
As this question flashed through her mind, Marise remembered that she
knew nothing of Garth's past, nor of his character, except that he had
fought and won the V.C., therefore he must be brave. But why worry,
since in a few months they'd part, and she would forget him, as she'd
forgotten several leading men who played "opposite" her when she first
went on the stage?
But that look in the yellow-grey eyes; what was its language? What was
in the soul or brain behind the eyes? Was Garth deciding how to treat
her during the short time that would be his?
Marise recalled the sound of his voice when he had asked her what would
come after the marriage. She'd answered that she "hadn't thought yet."
And he had said, "_You had better think. Think now._"
"Well, I'm not alone in the world, and I'm not afraid of him," she
encouraged herself. "Cave Man business is old stuff. And anyhow--what
price a Cave _Girl_?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account