‘Too long for me!’ she said firmly. ‘It will be five years at least, I imagine, before Aubrey will be ready to set up in a house of his own, and perhaps by then he won’t wish it! Besides –’
‘Greenhead! Oh, greenest of greenheads!’ he said. ‘Go to your aunt, let her launch you into society – as she is well able to do! – and before Aubrey has gone up to Cambridge the notice of your engagement will be in theGazette!’
She did not speak for a moment, but looked straitly at him, a little less colour in her cheeks, no lurking smile in her eyes. She could find no clue to his thoughts in his face, and was puzzled, but not alarmed. ‘No,’ she said at last. ‘It won’t be. Did you think that my purpose in going to London was to find a husband?’
‘Not your purpose. Your destiny – as it should be!’
‘Ah! Myaunt’spurpose will be to find a husband for me?’ He answered only with a shrug, and she got up, saying: ‘I’m glad you’ve warned me: is it allowable for an unmarried female to put up at an hotel? If she has a maid with her?’
‘Venetia –!’
She smiled, putting up her eyebrows. ‘My dear friend, you are toostoopidtoday! Why must you picture me moped to tears, pining for company, bored because I shall be leading the life I’m accustomed to? Why, no! a much more entertaining life! Here, I’ve had books, and my garden, and, since my father died, the estate, to occupy me. In London, there will be museums, and picture-galleries, the theatre, the opera – oh, so much that to you seems commonplace, I daresay! And I shall have Aubrey during his vacations, and since I have an aunt who won’t, I hope, cut my acquaintance, I don’tutterlydespair of forming a few agreeable friendships!’
‘No, my God,no!’ he exclaimed, as though the words had been wrenched out of him, and crossed the room in two hasty strides. ‘Anythingwere better than that!’ He grasped her by the shoulders, so roughly that she was startled into uttering a protest. He paid no heed to it, but said harshly: ‘Look at me!’
She obeyed unhesitatingly, and endured with tranquillity a fierce scrutiny as keenly searching as a surgeon’s lancet, only murmuring, a little mischievously: ‘I bruiseveryeasily!’
His grip slackened, and slid down her arms to gather her hands together, and hold them, clasped strongly between his own. ‘What were you doing when you were nine years old, my dear love?’ he asked.
It was so unexpected that she could only blink.
‘Tell me!’
‘I don’t know! Learning lessons, and sewing samplers, I suppose – and what in the world has that to say to anything?’
‘A great deal. Do you know what I was doing at that date?’
‘No, how should I? I don’t even know how old you were – at least, not without doing sums, which I abominate. Well, if you are eight-and-thirty now, and I am five-and-twenty –’
‘I’ll spare you the trouble: I was two-and-twenty, and seducing a married lady of quality.’
‘So you were!’ she agreed affably.
A laugh shook him, but he said: ‘That was the first of my amorous adventures, and probably the most discreditable. So I hope! There is nothing whatsoever in my life to look back upon with pride, but until I met you, my lovely one, I could at least say that my depravity stopped short of tampering with the young and innocent. I never ruined any reputation but Sophia’s – but don’t account it a virtue in me! It’s a dangerous game, seducing virgins, and, in general, they don’t appeal to me. Then I met you, and, to be frank with you, my dear, I stayed in Yorkshire for no other purpose than to win you – on my own terms!’
‘Yes, you told me as much, when we parted on that first day,’ she said, quite unperturbed. ‘I thought it a great piece of impertinence, too! Only then Aubrey had that fall, and we became such good friends – and everything was changed.’
‘Oh, no, not everything! You call me your friend, but I never called you mine, and never shall! You remained, and always will,a beautiful, desirable creature. Only my intentions were changed. I resolved to do you no hurt, but leave you I could not!’
‘Why should you? It seems to me a foolish thing to do.’
‘Because you don’t understand, my darling. If the gods wouldannihilate but space and time– but they won’t, Venetia, they won’t!’
‘Pope,’ she said calmly. ‘And make two lovers happy. Aubrey’s favourite amongst English poets, but not mine. I see no reason why two lovers should not be happy without any meddling with space and time.’
He released her hands, but only to pull her into his arms. ‘When you smile at me like that, it’s all holiday with me! O God, I love you to the edge of madness, Venetia, but I’m not mad yet – not so mad that I don’t know how disastrous it might be to you – to us both! You don’t realise what an advantage I should be taking of your innocence!’ He broke off suddenly, jerking up his head as the door opening on to the passage from the ante-room slammed. The sound was followed by that of a dragging footstep. Damerel said quickly: ‘Aubrey. As well, perhaps! There’s so much that must be said – but not today! Tomorrow, when we are both cooler!’
There was no time for more; he put her almost brusquely away from him, and turned, as the door was opened, to face Aubrey, who came into the room with his pointer-bitch at his heels.
FOURTEEN
Damerel had placed himself between Venetia and the door, but it was immediately apparent that the precaution was unnecessary. Aubrey was looking stormy, his thin cheeks flushed, and his rather cold gray eyes full of sparks of light. His interest in his fellow-creatures was at the best of times perfunctory; when in the grip of anger he had none whatsoever, and would scarcely have noticed it had he found his sister in Damerel’s arms. He said, in a brittle voice, as he shut the door: ‘You’ll like to know, Venetia, that the Empress has issued a new ukase! The dogs –mydogs! – must in future be kept chained up! All but Bess here, who is too savage to be kept at all! Take care, Jasper: can’t you see what an ugly-tempered bitch she is?’
Damerel, who was gently pulling the pointer’s ears, while she stood with gracefully waving tail and an expression on her face of idiotic bliss, laughed, and said: ‘What’s she been doing?’
‘Endangering the succession!’ Aubrey snapped. ‘She came into the house – looking for me, of course! – and Charlotte finding her lying at the foot of the stairs was so startled and appalled that she let out a screech, which made Bess lift up her head, and stare at her – as well she might!’
‘Oh dear!’ sighed Venetia. ‘I know Charlotte doesn’t care for dogs, but if that’s all that happened –’
