"I left him but five minutes back; having delivered a message purporting to come from you." "From me?"
"Yes. I had the door of my room open a crack and saw him leave your boudoir after a bare ten minutes. 'Twas a sack of peas to a million pounds that he would not count so short a conversation adequate payment for my I.O.U.; and by the smile upon his conceited face I guessed that you must have given him permission to return. So I went , to him and paid my debt. Then I told him that, since you were no longer under an obligation to him, you had exercised a lady's privilege of changing her mind, and had desired me to inform him that you would dispense with his attendance."
"You paid your debt! But how?"
"I went first to Droopy; who gave me a draft on sight at Coutts for the money. The Russian could not refuse to accept it."
"But—but your debt was not the only thing which caused me to commit myself," she stammered. "I could easily have found three hundred for you next week. I had made a bargain with him to give Charles Fox his political support. I do confess it. Oh, Roger, he may yet come back on that account."
"Nay, he will not. I guessed that you would do that, and 'tis for me now to confess that I took drastic measures to ensure against it. When I handed him the draft I drew his attention to the date."
"What!" Georgina gasped. "And 'tis April the first."
"You have it, sweet!" Roger began to titter. "I told him that you and I bad been leading him on the whole evening, and that we had made of him our this year's first April Fool."
"Roger, you didn't!" Suddenly her sense of humour got the better of her,, and throwing up her hands she began to rock with laughter.
For over a minute they chortled with childish glee. Then, as she wiped the fears from her eyes, she exclaimed:
"Oh, darling, you'll be the death of me. But how did the poor man take it?"
"Badly, I fear," Roger admitted. "He went as white as a sheet, and I hoped that he would call me out. But he refrained, and merely remarked sarcastically that, in time, no doubt, he would learn how to adapt himself to our English sense of humour."
"You were right to term it a drastic measure," Georgina said more soberly. " 'Tis an injury that he will not forget, and I'll swear to it that he has a vengeful nature. Henceforth we must beware of him and take all measures possible to guard against his enmity."
Roger shrugged. "I can take good care of myself, and you have no cause to worry. To-morrow you can be huffy with him and avoid a tete-a-tete. On Monday morning, before he leaves, give him an opening for an explanation. Ask him why he failed to return here to-night, and when he tells you be wide-eyed with pretended ignorance. Throw the whole thing on me, and vow that I alone was the cause of this contretemps. 'Tis no departure from the truth. Then you can give him an assignation for later in London, or not, just as you please!"
"That will not serve," she shook her head. "To-night, as so often is the case, our minds must have been en rapport,or twas by the merest fluke. But the very last remark I made to him before he left this room was to the effect that it being after midnight, we were in All Fools' Day. He'll not have forgotten that, and nothing will ever persuade him now that I was not a party to your plot."
"It seems that I have caused you to lose him for good, then. For that I ask your pardon; and I hope that it will give you no serious regret."
"Nay. I fear that poor Charles Fox will be gravely disappointed; but he knew to begin with that he could count on me only if I found that my inclinations marched with his interests. As for myself, you were right in contending that I might scratch a Russian and find a Tartar. Russian women may like such violent handling by their lovers, but I find that I have a preference for quieter ways. I am not easily scared, but, I'll confess now, that I was more than a little frightened by the thought of his coming back to me to-night."
"God be thanked, then, that it occurred to me to go to Droopy."
Georgina suddenly sat forward from her pillows. "Roger! I had forgotten! By doing so you have made yourself liable for this wretched debt again."
" 'Tis true," he answered, with a rueful smile. "But I shall repay Droopy just as I had intended to pay the Russian. I can still collect my money from the funds, and sell my mare and other things."
A look of great tenderness came over her face, as she said: "Oh, Roger, darling! You make me feel monstrous mean in having treated you so. I have but this moment realised that, though we have been lovers for five long months, you have given a whole year's income to spend another night with me. Never in my life have I been paid so great a compliment, and never shall again."
His blue eyes twinkled. "Am I then restored to favour, and about to spend the night with you?"
"How can you ask?" Her glowing smile was in itself an embrace".
"You have been such a wicked baggage that I'm not sure I want to," he teased her.
"BeastI" she cried. "When I have you here I'll pay you out for that."
"I have not decided yet if I've a mind to play proxy to your earlier visitor."
"Enough, Sir! Thou knowest full well that thou art the only man that I have ever truly loved, or ever shall. Come to my arms this instant."
Slowly he took off the blue silk robe that he was wearing and laid it over a chair. For a moment he bent above her, then her soft arms closed round his neck. He was twenty and she was twenty-one. Both of them could look forward to ten thousand to-morrows without a care, and this night was theirs.
The hours sped all too swiftly. It was as though the healing of this, their first serious difference in all their lives, had knit them together more closely than ever before. They dozed a little now and then, his arm about her shoulders, her dark head pillowed on his chest; . but in the main, between caresses, they talked and whispered a thousand absurdities while the world around them slept.
At last he roused from a timeless interval of semi-conscious bliss, and murmured: " 'Tis time for me to leave you, sweet, to get a few hours sleep. The dawn is on us. Look, the light is now quite strong where it creeps in between the curtains."
"Nay, stay and love me yet a while," she whispered drowsily. "I could never have enough of you."
"That ill consorts with your opinion of yesterday," he rallied her.
She got up on one elbow, and leaned across him, smiling down into his face. "I must have been a little crazy then, and we were both quite so last night. Our kisses have cured our affliction since, and we are sane again. You'll not leave here on Monday, as you threatened; will you, Roger?"
He was silent for a moment, then he said: "I had no thought of doing so until our discussion on ourselves arose. But your contention then, that if we had the strength of mind to part while our passion was still unblunted, we might later cheat the Gods into giving us a second honeymoon, impressed me mightily."
" 'Twas sound reasoning I'll admit. But this past night has given our passion a new lease of life; so there is now no point in our precipitating the parting. Stay with me these next two months at least; for Stillwaters is a veritable lovers' paradise in the spring."
"Hark!" he said suddenly; and in the stillness of the early morning they both caught the faint clatter of a horse's hoofs on stone.
"Who would be going out riding at this early hour?" he asked, with a puzzled frown.
She shrugged. "I know not, neither do I care. One of the grooms most probably, taking a horse to exercise."
"Nay. 'Tis Sunday, and no good groom would gallop a horse across the flagstones of the yard."
"What boots it, anyway?" She gave him an impatient shake. "Attend to me, Sir; and tell me if you will stay and love me through the spring."