"You possess a low and evil mind," I observed, "since I am fond, in all sincerity, of Hardress, whereas his wife is not even civil to me. Why, she goes out of her way to be rude to me."
"Yes," said Mr. Charteris; "but that is because she is getting worried about her interest in you. And what is the meaning of this, by the way? I found it on your table this morning." He read the doggerel aloud with an unkindly and uncalled-for exaggeration of the rhyming words.
"We did not share the same inheritance,-- I and this woman, five years older than I, Yet daughter of a later century,-- Who is therefore only wearied by that dance Which has set my blood a-leaping.
"It is queer To note how kind her face grows, listening To my wild talk, and plainly pitying My callow youth, and seeing in me a dear Amusing boy,--yet somewhat old to be Still reading _Alice Through the Looking-Glass_ And _Water-Babies_.... With light talk we pass,
"And I that have lived long in Arcady-- I that have kept so many a foolish tryst, And written drivelling rhymes--feel stirring in me Droll pity for this woman who pities me, And whose weak mouth so many men have kissed."
"That," I airily said, "is, in the first place, something you had no business to read; and, in the second, simply the blocking out of an entrancingly beautiful poem. It represents a mood."
"It is the sort of mood that is not good for people, particularly for children. It very often gets them shot too full of large and untidy holes."
"Nonsense!" said I, but not in displeasure, because it made me feel like such a devil of a fellow. So I finished my letter to Bettie Hamlyn,--for this was on the seventh,--and I went to Negley precisely as I had planned.
"We were just speaking of you," Mrs. Hardress told me, the afternoon of my arrival,--"Blanche and I were talking of you, Mr. Townsend, the very moment we heard your wheels."
I shook hands. "I trust you had not entirely stripped me of my reputation?"
"Surely, that is the very last of your possessions any reasonable person would covet?"
"A palpable hit," said I. "Nevertheless, you know that all I possess in the world is yours for the asking."
"Yes, you mentioned as much, I think, at Nice. Or was it Colonel Tatkin who offered me a heart's devotion and an elopement? No, I believe it was you. But, dear me, Jasper is so disgustingly healthy that I shall probably never have any chance of recreation."