ASMINE was so far a true product of her generation as to be ashamed of fear. One gathers that Victorian young ladies lived altogether more sheltered lives; because they were so unfamiliar with the ways of men they feared them as we all fear the unknown. The cave-man and the sheikh-man of modern literature are interesting to feminine readers in the same way that the Spanish Armada is of interest to boys; as a fascinating danger never likely to be met with. Bats Jasmine was regretfully compelled to fear—and spiders; ghosts, she considered herself entitled to fear, whilst never expecting to meet one. But a man! She would be untrue to herself, to her traditions, if she consented to fear a man. Some such theories or reflections passed with lightning quickness through her brain now as she confronted Trepniak standing out there upon the lawn.
He was strange, mysterious, of unknown origin; the source of his wealth was an insoluble problem. But he was only a man, after all. Her heart, which had seemed to forget its functions for a while, began now to beat again with unusual rapidity, but her brain, momentarily numbed, was restored to its natural coolness.
Trepniak wore evening dress, with the French cape and sombrero which she knew. He removed the sombrero now, and bowed in the extravagant fashion which was his. This characteristic mannerism quite restored her courage.
"My dear Miss Hope," he said—and she noted with peculiar disfavour his guttural voice and faint accent—"I fear I must have startled you."
That it had been physically impossible for him to see her was a fact which did not occur to Jasmine. Many women, even clever women, share with the ostrich the curious belief that if they cannot see a person that person cannot see them; hence those familiar indiscretions which have created a race of "Peeping Toms." The reverse also holds good. Since Trepniak was clearly visible to Jasmine, the fact of his perceiving her in a place where there was no light whatever did not strike her as phenomenal. She replied quite naturally, advancing to meet him:
"Yes, M. de Trepniak, you did, rather."
"I am sorry," he said, and stood aside to allow her to come out upon the lawn. "Allow me to explain."
She drew her coat tightly about her, and, her courage fully restored, stood there looking at him.
"I learned this morning," he continued, "that you were staying here, and as I was returning from Brighton, I ventured to make a call, forgetting that London hours are not country hours. I did not know my way very well, and, blundering in the direction of the
"You saw me coming to meet you?" Jasmine interrupted: "I quite understand. You have left your car in the lane?"
"Yes, and had evidently taken the wrong path to the front door."
"You have certainly strayed," said Jasmine, laughingly. "But if you came to see me, here I am—a very lonely little country mouse."
Trepniak smiled. He had not replaced his hat, and the effect of the brilliant moonlight upon the close, tight curls which covered his head awoke some sort of memory in the girl's mind. She was unable to identify this memory, but actually it was that of a bust of Nero which she had seen in the Vatican.
"A mouse, yes," he agreed; "for the mouse is a misunderstood creature, very dainty and elusive. But lonely? I find it very hard to believe that you could ever be lonely. Upon a desert island, perhaps. In any place where there are men, except in a community of the blind—no, I cannot believe."
She did not entirely approve of his reference to a community of the blind. It was an admission of physical attraction, and Jasmine's theories were wholly anti-sensual. For a man to praise her hair, her eyes, her arms, her ankles, was fatal, an unforgivable indiscretion. Women who valued such flatteries were only fit to be toys, and the days of the harêm were past. It was because Douglas Carey had never allowed the physical man once to appear in his wooing that she had been attracted to him. Yet, it was because she knew, subconsciously, that the physical man was merely hidden but not absent that she loved him.
"You are wrong," she replied slowly, as side by side they began to cross the lawn. "I am really lonely."
"I agree," said Trepniak. "For understanding, but not for companionship."
"Every woman is lonely in that way," Jasmine retorted; "but here I am lonely in every way. You are the first human being who has come to see me."
"Like attracts like," he replied. "If there is a goddess of loneliness she has drawn us together."
"What!" Jasmine exclaimed. "You, lonely? Why, you know everybody."
He nodded several times, swinging his hat as he walked.