第75章

"Here you are," he went on, "taking poor Gouvernail seriously and making a commotion over him, the last thing he would desire or expect.""Commotion!" she hotly resented."Nonsense! How can you say such a thing? Commotion, indeed! But, you know, you said he was clever.""So he is.But the poor fellow is run down by overwork now.That's why I asked him here to take a rest.""You used to say he was a man of ideas," she retorted, unconciliated."I expected him to be interesting, at least.I'm going to the city in the morning to have my spring gowns fitted.Let me know when Mr.Gouvernail is gone; I shall be at my Aunt Octavie's."That night she went and sat alone upon a bench that stood beneath a live oak tree at the edge of the gravel walk.

She had never known her thoughts or her intentions to be so confused.She could gather nothing from them but the feeling of a distinct necessity to quit her home in the morning.

Mrs.Baroda heard footsteps crunching the gravel; but could discern in the darkness only the approaching red point of a lighted cigar.She knew it was Gouvernail, for her husband did not smoke.She hoped to remain unnoticed, but her white gown revealed her to him.He threw away his cigar and seated himself upon the bench beside her; without a suspicion that she might object to his presence.

"Your husband told me to bring this to you, Mrs.Baroda," he said, handing her a filmy, white scarf with which she sometimes enveloped her head and shoulders.She accepted the scarf from him with a murmur of thanks, and let it lie in her lap.

He made some commonplace observation upon the baneful effect of the night air at the season.Then as his gaze reached out into the darkness, he murmured, half to himself:

"`Night of south winds--night of the large few stars! Still nodding night--'"She made no reply to this apostrophe to the night, which, indeed, was not addressed to her.

Gouvernail was in no sense a diffident man, for he was not a self- conscious one.His periods of reserve were not constitutional, but the result of moods.Sitting there beside Mrs.Baroda, his silence melted for the time.

He talked freely and intimately in a low, hesitating drawl that was not unpleasant to hear.He talked of the old college days when he and Gaston had been a good deal to each other; of the days of keen and blind ambitions and large intentions.Now there was left with him, at least, a philosophic acquiescence to the existing order--only a desire to be permitted to exist, with now and then a little whiff of genuine life, such ashe was breathing now.

Her mind only vaguely grasped what he was saying.Her physical being was for the moment predominant.She was not thinking of his words, only drinking in the tones of his voice.She wanted to reach out her hand in the darkness and touch him with the sensitive tips of her fingers upon the face or the lips.She wanted to draw close to him and whisper against his cheek--she did not care what--as she might have done if she had not been a respectable woman.

The stronger the impulse grew to bring herself near him, the further, in fact, did she draw away from him.As soon as she could do so without an appearance of too great rudeness, she rose and left him there alone.

Before she reached the house, Gouvernail had lighted a fresh cigar and ended his apostrophe to the night.

Mrs.Baroda was greatly tempted that night to tell her husband--who was also her friend--of this folly that had seized her.But she did not yield to the temptation.Beside being a respectable woman she was a very sensible one; and she knew there are some battles in life which a human being must fight alone.

When Gaston arose in the morning, his wife had already departed.She had taken an early morning train to the city.She did not return till Gouvernail was gone from under her roof.There was some talk of having him back during the summer that followed.That is, Gaston greatly desired it; but this desire yielded to his wife's strenuous opposition.

However, before the year ended, she proposed, wholly from herself, to have Gouvernail visit them again.Her husband was surprised and delighted with the suggestion coming from her.

"I am glad, chere amie, to know that you have finally overcome your dislike for him; truly he did not deserve it.""Oh," she told him, laughingly, after pressing a long, tender kiss upon his lips, "I have overcome everything! you will see.This time I shall be very nice to him."