Margaret Pedler

“ I hope life will be kind to you, my dear, kinder than you hope or expect. There were many who would find their world the poorer for lack of the kindly, gallant spirit which had passed into “God's next room,” but to Nan the old man's death meant not only the loss of a beloved friend, but the withdrawal from her life of a strong, restraining influence which, unconsciously to herself, had withheld her from many a rash action into which her temperament would otherwise have hurried her. ”

“ Marriage is 'for better, for worse.' I can't be a coward and shirk if it it turns out 'for worse.' If I did, anything might happen—anything! Celia's a woman of no will power, driven like a bit of fluff by every breeze that blows. So you see, beloved, I must be waiting to help her when she comes back.”
Nan lifted her eyes to his face.
“I see that you're just the best and bravest man I know—preux chevalier, as I once called you. Oh, Peter! She's the luckiest woman in the world to be your wife! ”

“ I'm a man—not a saint!” he answered.
She looked up swiftly, trying to read what lay behind the harsh repression in his tones. She felt that he was holding something in leash, something that strained and fought against restraint.
“'I'm a man—not a saint!'” The memory of his renunciation at King Arthur's Castle swept over her.
“Yet I once thought you—almost that, Peter,” she said slowly.
“Well, I'm not,” he brushed her words aside. “When I saw you to-day at the studio—God! Did you think I'd keep away? Nan, did you want me to?” ”

“ Dear, if I can give you happiness, things like that simply wouldn't count. Ah, believe me, Peter!”
“Even if that were all, it still wouldn't be possible,” he said gently. “You don't know what you would have to face. And I couldn't let you face it. But it isn't all. There's honor, dear, and duty.”
Her gaze met his in dreary interrogation.
“Then—then, you'll go away?” Her voice faltered, broke.
“Yes, I shall go away—out of your life.” After a moment of silence he went on:
“This is good-by. We mustn't see each other again.”
“No, no,” she broke in a little wildly. “Don't go, Peter! ”

“ I left Trenby to stay with Penelope, exactly as I told you in my note. If—if I proposed to break my promise to you, I wouldn't do it on the sly.” Her eyes looked steadily into his. “I'd tell you first.”
He caught her in his arms with a sudden roughness, kissing her passionately.
“You'd drive a man to madness!” he exclaimed thickly. “But I shan't let you escape a second time,” he went on with a quiet intensity of purpose. “You'll come back with me now, to-night, to Trenby.” ”

“ And she proceeded to fill in the gaps, explaining that when she had refused to marry him down at Mallow the previous summer, it was Nan who had brought about his recall from London,
The telephone bell buzzed suddenly as they talked, and Penelope flew to answer it. When she came back her face held a look of mingled apprehension and relief.
“Who rang up?” asked Ralph.
“It was Kitty. She's back in town, and she's coming round at once. She said she had some bad news for Nan, but I think it'll have to be kept from her. She isn't fit to stand anything more just now.” ”

“ Nan's recovery had been slow, and she seemed restless and uneasy if he failed to visit her at least once a day. So Peter had to abandon his determination to see her no more.
At last, with the May warmth and sunshine, she had begun to pick up strength, and now she was actually on the highroad to recovery and demanding for the third or fourth time when they might go to Mallow.
“Strong enough to stand the journey!” she exclaimed, in answer to Kitty's remark. “I should think I am strong enough! I was outdoors for a couple of hours this morning, and I don't feel the least bit tired. ”

“ We've been comrades, Nan, which is a far better thing than most relatives achieve. And if sometimes you feel sad and miss the old friendship—as I know you will—just remember that I'm only in the next room. People are apt to make a great to-do about death. ”

“ And Mrs. van Decken asked him to come and see her portrait.”
“You and he can have very little in common,” observed Nan carelessly.
“Nothing,” he agreed promptly, “except the links of art. I've always been true in my art—if in nothing else. Besides, all's grist that comes to Mallory's mill. He regards me as a type. Ah!” he continued as the door opened once more. “Here they come.”
Her throat contracted with nervousness and she felt that it would be a physical impossibility for her to speak. She turned mechanically as Penelope reëntered the room, followed by her husband and Peter Mallory. ”

“ Only his eyes remained fixed on her, hungrily devouring every line of the beloved face.
“Why did you come?” she asked at last.
“I couldn't keep away. Life without you has become one long, unbearable hell.” ”

“ There might have been a shade less of the bohemian and a shade more of the successful artist about him. But Rooke would never suffer from the inordinate complacency which spoils so many successful men. Always it would be tempered by that odd, cynical humor of his.
He greeted his visitors with outstretched hands.
“My dear Penelope and Ralph,” he began cordially, “this is good of busy people like yourselves——”
He caught sight of the third figure standing a little behind the Fentons, and stopped abruptly. His eyes seemed to flinch for a moment. Then he made a quick step forward.
“Why, Nan!” ”

“ Her hands quivered in his clasp. She dared not trust herself to speak.
“Good-by, dear,” he said with infinite tenderness, and added, with a ghost of his old whimsical smile: “We seem always to be saying good-by, don't we? And then Fate steps in and brings us together again. But this time it is really good-by—good-by for always. When we meet again—if we do—I shall have Celia to care for, and you will be Roger's wife.”
He bent his head and pressed his lips against first one soft palm and then the other. She heard him cross the room ”

“ Thank goodness, he'd the decency not to try—that.”
“Maryon's still in love with Nan,” Penelope observed quietly. “I saw that at the studio.”
“Nan must be 'Maryon-proof' now, anyway,” Kitty asserted.
Penelope remained silent, her eyes brooding and reflective. That odd, magician's charm which Rooke so indubitably possessed might prove difficult for any woman to resist, doubly difficult for a woman whose entire happiness in life had fallen in ruins.
The entrance of the maid with a telegram gave her the chance to evade answering. ”

“ Presently the door entered and the maid ushered in yet another visitor.
Nan, standing rather apart by one of the bay windows at the far end of the room, was examining a rough sketch in black and white. She caught her breath suddenly at the sound of the newcomer's voice.
“I couldn't get here earlier as I promised, Rooke, and I'm afraid the daylight's gone. However, I've no doubt Mrs. van Decken will look equally charming by artificial light. ”

“ I hope you'll get a splendid reception. You will if you smile at the audience as prettily as you're smiling now! Won't she, Ralph?”
“I hope so,” answered Fenton seriously. “It would be a waste of a perfectly good smile if she doesn't.” And amid laughter and good wishes the Fentons departed for the concert, Peter Mallory accompanying them downstairs to speed them on their way,
Meanwhile Nan, left alone for the moment, became suddenly conscious of an overpowering nervousness at the prospect of spending the evening alone with Peter. ”

“ Only”—Nan's face clouded—“it will mean your leaving town just when the season's in full swing. I shan't like dragging you away.”
“Season!” scoffed Kitty. “Season be blowed! The only thing that matters is whether you're strong enough to travel.”
She regarded Nan affectionately. The latter had no idea how dangerously ill she had been. She remembered Roger's visit to the flat clearly, but everything which followed had been more or less a blank, with blurred intervals of doubtful clarity, until one day she found herself lying in a bed with Kitty standing at its foot and Peter sitting beside it. ”

“ But when two days passed without bringing any word from him, Ralph suggested that perhaps he would not forgive her for running away, and Nan prayed fervently: “God, please don't let him ever forgive me!”
CHAPTER XXV. NAN was rather silent as the Fentons' big car purred its way through the crowded streets toward Westminster. For the moment the possible consequences of her flight from Trenby Hall had been thrust aside into a corner of her mind and her thoughts had slipped back to that last meeting with Maryon, when she had shown him so unmistakably that she, at least, had ceased to care. ”

“ Kitty was sitting near her, while Barry, who had returned from Cannes some weeks ago, leaned, big and debonair, against the window.
“When are we going to Mallow?” asked Nan fretfully. “I'm so tired of staring at those houses across the way.”
Barry regarded the houses opposite reflectively.
“They're not inspiring, I admit,” he answered, “even though many of them are the London habitations of belted earls and marquises.”
“We'll go to Mallow as soon as you like,” interposed Kitty. “I think you're quite fit to stand the journey now.”
“Fit? Of course I'm fit. ”

“ He's paid pretty dearly for his foolishness in bartering love for filthy lucre.”
“Don't be such an idiot, Ralph,” Penelope said severely, frowning at her husband.
He grinned delightedly.
“Old fires die hard, Penny. Do you think it is quite right of us to introduce Nan on the scene again? She's forbidden fruit now, remember.”
“And doubtless Maryon will remember it,” retorted Penelope tartly.
“I think,” pursued Fenton, “it's not unlike inserting a match into a powder barrel. Rooke,” he added reflectively, “always reminds me somewhat of a powder barrel. ”