The Vicomte de Valmé was her partner for the two first dances, and when they came to an end he took her off to a convenient alcove, and made intoxicating love to her. He was interrupted in this agreeable task by the sudden appearance of Vidal, who said unamiably: “Give me leave, Bertrand: I want a word with Juliana.”

The Vicomte flung up his hands. “But I find you quite abominable, Dominique! Always you want words with Juliana! J’y suis, j’y reste. Have you yet slain me this Frederick?”

“Vidal, did you give Frederick a card for the ball?” Miss Marling asked anxiously.

“I gave it him, but I don’t think he’ll use it.”

“A la bonne heure!” said the irrepressible Vicomte. He laughed impudently up at the Marquis. “For what do you wait, mon cher? You are infinitely de trop.”

“I await your departure-but not for long,” said his lordship.

The Vicomte gave an exaggerated start. “A threat, Juliana! I scent it unerringly. He will presently shoot me: I am as good as dead, but if you give me the roses you wear at your breast I shall die happy.”

Vidal’s eye gleamed. “Will you go as happily through that window?” he inquired.

“By no means!” said the Vicomte promptly. He rose, and kissed Miss Marling’s hand. “I surrender to force majeure, dearest Juliana. He has no finesse, our cousin. He will undoubtedly throw me out of the window if I linger.”

“Well, I don’t think it very brave of you to give way to him,” said Miss Marling candidly.

“But, my adored one, observe his size!” implored the Vicomte. “He would be very rough with me, and spoil my so elegant coat. I go, Vidal, I go!”

Miss Marling waved an airy farewell, and turned to her cousin. “I find him excessively amusing, you know,” she confided.

“I see you do,” said Vidal. “Where is Mary Challoner?”

Miss Marling opened her eyes very wide. “Don’t you like him, Vidal? I thought he was a friend of yours.”

“He is,” replied the Marquis.

“Well, it is very odd of you to threaten to throw your friends out of the window, I must say,” remarked Juliana.

He smiled. “Not at all. It is only my friends that I would throw out of the window.”

“Dear me!” said Juliana, finding the male sex incomprehensible.

His lordship picked up her fan, a delicate Cabriolet with ivory sticks and guards, pierced and gilt, and rapped her knuckles with it, “Attend to me, Ju. Do you mean to have Comyn, or not?”

“Good gracious, what in the world do you mean?” exclaimed Juliana.

“Answer, chit.”

“You know I do. But I don’t at all understand why-”

“Then you’d best stop flirting with Bertrand.”

Miss Marling flushed. “Oh, I don’t-flirt!”

“Don’t you?” jibed his lordship. “I beg your pardon. But whatever it is that you do, stop. That’s a kind cousinly warning.”

She tilted her chin. “I shall do as I please, thank you, Vidal, and I’ll not be lectured and scolded by either of you.”

“Just as you like, Ju. Don’t blame me when you lose your Frederick.”

She looked startled. “I shan’t lose him!”

“You’re a fool, Ju. What’s the game you’re playing? Trying to make him jealous, eh? It won’t work.”

“How do you know it won’t?” demanded Miss Marling, stung.

He looked down at her with lazy affection. “You’ve chosen the wrong man for these tricks of yours. What is it you want?”

She began to pleat the stiff silk of her gown. “I do love him,” she said. “I do, Vidal!”

“Well?”

“If only he would-be a little more like you!” she said in a rush.

“Good God!” said the Marquis, amused. “Why the devil should he be?”

“I don’t mean that I want him to be really like you,” explained Miss Marling. “It’s merely that-oh, I can’t tell! But supposing you loved me, Dominic, and I-well, flirted, if you must use that horrid word-with another man: what would you do?”

“Kill him,” said the Marquis flippantly.

She shook his arm. “You don’t mean it, but I think perhaps you would. Vidal, you’d not let another man steal the lady you loved, would you? Do answer soberly!”

The smile still lingered on his lips, but she saw his teeth shut hard. “Soberly, Ju, I would not.”

“What would you do?” inquired Miss Marling, momentarily diverted by curiosity.

His lordship was silent for a minute, and the smile faded, leaving his face strangely harsh. A tiny snap sounded under his fingers. He glanced down at them, and the grim look left his face. “I’ve spoiled your fan, Ju,” he said, and gave it her back. Two of the sticks were broken at the shoulder. “I’ll give you another.”

Juliana was looking at him in considerable awe. “You haven’t answered me,” she said, with an uncertain laugh.

“What I might do is-happily for you-not in the least like what Comyn will do,” he replied.

“No,” she said sadly. “But can you understand that I wish it were?”

“My deluded child, one taste of my lamentable temper would send you flying into your Frederick’s arms,” said the Marquis, and rose. “Where’s Mary Challoner?”

“She wouldn’t come.”

“Why not?”

“To say truth, Vidal, I believe she did not desire to meet you.”

“Fiend seize her!” said his lordship unemotionally, and went off.

Miss Marling emerged from her alcove to find him gone. When he did not reappear she realised that he had left the ball, and had no difficulty in guessing his present whereabouts.


--«»____________________«»____________________«»--

Nearly an hour later Mr. Comyn came up the wide stairway. His arrival was most inopportune, for he came in excellent time to see Miss Marling bestow one of her pink roses on the ecstatic Vicomte de Valmé.

She was standing just outside the ballroom, and she did not immediately perceive Mr. Comyn. The Vicomte took the rose reverently, and pressed it to his lips. He then bestowed it carefully inside his coat, and informed Miss Marling that it caused his heart to beat more strongly.

Miss Marling laughed at him, and at the same moment caught sight of Mr. Comyn. She had never seen so stern an expression on his face, and she was secretly rather frightened. She made the grave mistake of trying to brazen it out, and greeted him with a careless nod. “I vow I had quite given you up, sir!” she said.

“Yes?” said Mr. Comyn, icily civil. “Pray will you spare me five minutes alone, ma’am?”

Juliana gave a little shrug, but she dismissed the Vicomte. She showed Mr. Comyn a mutinous face, and said with a coldness that matched his: “Well, sir?”

“It does not seem to me to be well at all, Juliana. You could not bring yourself to forgo one ball to please me.”

“Pray do not be absurd, Frederick!” she said sharply. “Why should I forgo it?”

“Merely because I begged you to, ma’am. Had you loved me-”

She was jerking her handkerchief between her fingers. “You expect a deal too much of me.”

“Is it too much, then, to expect that you would prefer an evening spent in my company to one here?”

“Yes, it is!” Juliana answered. “Why should I prefer to be scolded by you? For that is all you do, Frederick; you know it is!”

“If my remonstrances seem to you to be in the nature of scolding-”

“Why must you remonstrate with me? I vow if that is how you mean to treat me when we are married I would rather remain single.”

Mr. Comyn grew paler. “Tell me in plain words, if you please, do you mean that?”

Juliana turned her face away. “Oh, well! I’m sure I don’t want to quarrel with you, only every time you see me you behave in this disagreeable fashion as though I had no right to be at parties but must be for ever thinking of you. You think because you are used to live buried in the country I must be as dull as you are, but I have been bred very different, sir, I’ll have you know.”

“It is unnecessary to tell me that, ma’am, believe me. You have been bred to think of nothing but your pleasure.”

“Indeed!” said Miss Marling, with rising colour. “Pray do not mince matters, sir! Inform me that I am selfish. I expect no less.”

“If I think so, ma’am, you have no one but yourself to blame,” said Mr. Comyn, deliberately.

Juliana’s lip trembled. “Let me tell you that there are others who do not think so at all!”

“I am aware,” bowed Mr. Comyn.

“I suppose you are jealous, and that is the whole truth!” cried Juliana.

“And if I am, have I no cause?”

“If you think I care for someone else I wonder that you don’t try to win me back,” said Miss Marling, stealing a look at him under her lashes.

“Then you have very little understanding of my character, ma’am. I do not desire a wife who could give me cause for jealousy.”

“You need not have one, sir,” said Miss Marling, her eyes very bright.

There was a short silence. Then Mr. Comyn said, holding himself very erect: “I take your meaning, ma’am. I hope you will not live to regret this night’s work.”

Juliana gave a defiant laugh. “Regret it? Lord, why should I? You need not think you are the only gentleman who has done me the honour to solicit my hand in marriage.”

“You have played fast and loose with my affections, ma’am. I could laugh at myself for having been so taken in. To be sure, I should have known what to expect from a member of your family.”

By this time each was in a royal rage. Juliana flashed back at him: “How dare you sneer at my family? ‘Pon rep, it is the greatest piece of impudence ever I heard! Perhaps you are not aware that my family consider you a Nobody?”