The pressing question was not whether Mark loved Bridget. That had already been answered. What she wished to make up her mind about was the nature of his "love"--much abused word! If he intended to marry Bridget, why not have said so and have done with it? He had the right to please himself.

His secrecy, his deception, surely signified something base! It was inconceivable that he had not seen her for three weeks--in the face of what Carrissima had witnessed half-an-hour ago! Why had Mark gone out of his way to keep his intercourse with Bridget a secret unless there was something to be ashamed of? Why had he pretended to feel satisfied, even pleased, at the news of her intimacy with Jimmy? Why, above everything, had he recently changed his demeanour towards his oldest friend?

Carrissima must be pictured as approaching Number 13, Grandison Square with such thoughts crowding upon her mind, under the influence of the reaction from her necessary self-control in Bridget's presence. Her head seemed to be on fire, and, always apt to be impulsive, she had never in the course of her vast experience of twenty-two years been so completely carried away as now.

She experienced a deep pang of disappointment on seeing Sybil talking to Knight on the doorstep.

"Oh, I am so very glad not to have missed you!" cried the for once unwelcome visitor. "How extremely fortunate you were not a minute later, because I was just going home."

As a matter of course, without waiting for an invitation, Sybil stepped into the hall and accompanied Carrissima up-stairs.

"My dear," she exclaimed, as the butler shut the drawing-room door, "whatever is the matter? You look as if you had seen something dreadful!"

"What nonsense," said Carrissima. "What can I have seen?"

"I really can't imagine," answered Sybil, with a sigh. "I suppose I feel so terribly worried myself that I fancy everybody else has something to bother about. Still, you certainly do look as I have never seen you before."

"The sun is quite hot," murmured Carrissima, sitting down by one of the windows.

"Although I always feel it I couldn't stay indoors," said Sybil.

"Jimmy is more and more enthusiastic every day. He won't hear a word of advice! I have begged and implored him to give Miss Rosser up, but he insists that he is only going to wait until the end of this week.

To think of Jimmy's throwing himself away!"

"Oh," cried Carrissima, rising impetuously to her feet, "you need not feel in the least alarmed!"

"But, my dear, how can I help it?" said Sybil. "I never close my eyes until past one o'clock, and when I wake it is impossible to get to sleep again."

"Well, you may rest in peace for the future," answered Carrissima, throwing out her arms excitedly. "Sybil, we have both been making the most dreadful idiots of ourselves!"

"You forget," suggested Sybil, with a perplexed expression, "that Jimmy has actually told me he means to marry the woman!"

"It takes two to make a marriage," said Carrissima.

"You can't seriously imagine that Miss Rosser would refuse him!" cried Sybil.

"It isn't a question of imagination," retorted Carrissima, walking restlessly about the room. "There are the stubborn facts. I have just come from Golfney Place!"

"Surely she didn't tell you----"

"There was no need for words," said Carrissima. "I can't disbelieve the evidence of my own eyes, however incredible it may appear."

"Carrissima!" exclaimed Sybil, "you are making me so painfully curious.

Do, please, tell me what you saw."

"I saw Mark holding Bridget in his arms!"

"My dear Carrissima!"

"I saw him kissing her--oh, how disgusting it is!" said Carrissima, with a shudder.

"How shockingly embarra.s.sed you must all have felt," suggested Sybil.

"Oh dear, no," was the answer. "Neither of them had the slightest idea they were seen. We all behaved beautifully--beautifully."

"Well, I must say this is the best news I have heard for a long time,"

said Sybil, looking wonderfully relieved.

"The--the best news!" returned Carrissima, pressing her hands to her bosom.

"Of course, if she is going to marry Mark----"

"I don't believe she is!" said Carrissima.

"But, my dear, if you actually saw them!"

"I don't believe it," was the answer. "If he means to marry her what is the object of all this secrecy? Mark told me only yesterday that he had not seen her for weeks. I shall never know whom to believe again as long as I live. While he pretended Bridget was nothing to him, this--this hateful business has been going on in the background. I have been afraid she would marry my father; you have dreaded that she would marry Jimmy, and yet this afternoon I actually saw--oh, it is abominable. There is only one explanation. There must have been some--some understanding between them from the first."

"I always told Jimmy she might not be respectable," said Sybil.

Hearing that on another's lips, the slightest suggestion of which already Carrissima regretted should have pa.s.sed her own, cooler judgment began to return. In her wrath she had felt prepared to think anything that was vile of both Mark and Bridget; but only for the moment. Already she repented that she had opened her heart to Sybil.

"Oh, I don't want to go too far," she exclaimed. "Of course there must be some explanation! You quite understand, Sybil! You are not to repeat a single word which I have said to any one."

"My dear, I ought to tell Jimmy before it's too late. I am sure only one conclusion is possible.

"Jimmy ought to be able to look after himself," urged Carrissima.

"Ah, there are very few men who can do that where a pretty woman is concerned," said Sybil.

"Anyhow," returned Carrissima, "I shall not let you go until you have given me your solemn promise. You are not to breathe a word--not a syllable."

"Of course if you insist----"

"I do," said Carrissima. "I was idiotic to speak about the odious thing. You promise you will never repeat a word to any living being!"

"Very well, my dear," was the docile answer, and then Carrissima breathed more freely.

CHAPTER XVIII

HOW IT HAPPENED

Mark Driver, on returning from the carpet-purchasing expedition, spent the evening alone in his Weymouth Street rooms. He had not the least intention to go near Golfney Place the following day, and every word he had spoken during the walk home with Carrissima was precisely true.

He believed he could never live happily without her! As he sat smoking his pipe that night, he smiled to remember Carrissima at the numerous warehouses she had visited, and his thoughts wandered back over the many years of their friendship.

Fortunate is the man who may count upon one sympathetic listener, too deeply interested in his most ordinary experiences for boredom; prepared to take his side (with or without justification) against the world. So it had always been with Carrissima. Of any scheme, any opinion, any ambition of his, she invariably tended to think the best.