第98章 Behind the Times(3)

Feeling that silence at this point would not be golden,I went into it with spirit I told them of our charming party,of General Rieppe's rich store of quotations,of the strict discipline on board the well-appointed Hermana,of the great beauty of Hortense,and her evident happiness when her lover was by her side.This talk of mine turned off any curiosity or suspicion which the rest of the company may have begun to entertain;but upon Juno I think it made scant impression,save causing her to set me down as an imbecile.For there was Doctor Beaugarcon when we came into the sitting-room,who told us before any one could even say "How-do-you-do,"that Miss Hortense Rieppe had broken her engagement with John Mayrant,and that he had it from Mrs.Cornerly,whom he was visiting professionally.I caught the pitying look which Juno threw at me at this news,and I was happy to have acquitted myself so creditably in the manipulation of my secret:nobody asked me any more questions!

There is almost nothing else to tell you of how the splashes broke on Kings Port.Before the day when I was obliged to call in Doctor Beaugarcon's professional services (quite a sharp attack put me to bed for half a week)I found merely the following things:the Hermana gone to New York,the automobiles and the Replacers had also disappeared,and people were divided on the not strikingly important question as to whether Hortense and the General had accompanied Charley on the yacht,or continued northward in an automobile,or taken the train.Gone,in any case,the whole party indubitably was,leaving,I must say,a sense of emptiness:the comedy was over,the players departed.I never heard any one,not even Juno,doubt that it was Hortense who had broken the engagement;this part of the affair was conducted by the principals with great skill.Hortense had evidently written her version to the Cornerlys,and not a word to any other effect ever came from John's mouth,of course.One result I had not looked for,though it was a natural one:if the old ladies had felt indignation at Hortense for her determination to marry John Mayrant,this indignation was doubled by her determination not to!I fear that few of us live by logic,even in Kings Port;and then,they had all called upon her in that garden for nothing!The sudden thought of this made me laugh alone in my bed of sickness;and when I came out of it,had such a thing been possible,I should have liked to congratulate Miss Josephine St.

Michael on her absence from the garden occasion.I said,however,nothing to her,or to any of the other ladies,upon this or any subject,for Iwas so unlucky as to find them not at home when I paid my round of farewell visits.Nor (to my real distress)did I see John Mayrant again.

The boy wrote me (I received it in bed)a short,warm note of regret,with nothing else in it save the fact that he was leaving town,having become free from the Custom House at last.I fancy that he ran away for a judicious interval.Who would not?

Was there one person to whom he told the truth before he went?Did the girl behind the counter hear the manner in which the engagement was broken?Ah,none of us will ever know that!But,although I could not,without the highest impropriety,have spoken to any of the old ladies about this business,unless they had chosen to speak to me--and somehow Ifeel that after the abrupt close of it not even Mrs.Gregory St.Michael would have been likely to touch on the subject with an outsider--there was nothing whatever to forbid my indulging in a skirmish with Eliza La Heu;therefore I lunched at the Exchange on my last day.

"To the mountains?"she said,in reply to my information about my plans of travel.

"Doctor Beaugarcon says nothing else can so quickly restore me.""Stay there for the rhododendrons,then,"she bade me."No sight more beautiful in all the South.""Town seems deserted,"I pursued."Everybody gone.""Oh,not everybody!"

"All the interesting people."

"Thank you."

"I meant,interesting to you."

I saw her decide not to be angry;and her decision changed and saved our conversation from the trashy,bantering tone which it was taking,and brought it to a pass most unexpected to both of us.

She gave me a charming and friendly smile."Well,you,at any rate,are going away.And I am really sorry for that."Her eyes rested upon me with perfect frankness.I was not in love with Eliza La Heu,but nearer to love than I had ever been then,and it would have been easy,very easy,to let one's self go straight onward into love.There are for a man more ways of falling into that state than romancers would have us to believe,and one of them is by an assent of the will at a certain given moment,which the heart promptly follows--just as a man in a moment decides he will espouse a cause,and soon finds himself hotly fighting for it body and soul.I could have gone out of that Exchange completely in love with Eliza La Heu;but my will did not give its assent,and I saw John Mayrant not as a rival,but as one whose happiness I greatly desired.

"Thank you,"I said,"for telling me you are sorry I am going.And now,may I treat you more than ever as a friend,and tell you of a circumstance which Kings Port does not know?"It put her on her guard."Don't be indiscreet,"she laughed.

"Isn't timely indiscretion discretion?"