第54章

SYLVIA JOY

Sylvia Joy! And I hadn't so much as looked at her petticoat for weeks! But I would now.The violet eyes and the heavy chestnut hair rose up in moralising vision.Yes! God knows, they were safe in my heart, but petticoats were another matter.Sylvia Joy!

Well, did you ever? Well, I'm d----d! Sylvia Joy!

I should have been merely superhuman had I been able to control the expression of surprise which convulsed my countenance at the sound of that most significant name.

"The name seems familiar to you," said Rosalind, a little surprised and a little eagerly; "do you know the lady?""Slightly," I prevaricated.

"How fortunate!" exclaimed Rosalind; "you'll be all the better able to help me!""Yes," I said; "but since things have turned out so oddly, Imay say that our relations are of so extremely delicate a nature that I shall have very carefully to think out what is best to be done.Meanwhile, do you mind lending me that ring for a few hours?"It was a large oblong opal set round with small diamonds,--a ring of distinguished design you could hardly help noticing, especially on a man's hand, for which it was too conspicuously dainty.I slipped it on the little finger of my left hand, and, begging Rosalind to remain where she was meanwhile, and to take no steps without consulting me, I mysteriously, not to say officiously, departed.

I left the twelfth Golden-Haired Bar-maid not too late to stalk her husband and her under-study to their hotel, where they evidently proposed to dine.There was, therefore, nothing left for me but to dine also.So I dined; and when the courses of my dining were ended, I found myself in a mellow twilight at the Cafe du Ciel.And it was about the hour of the sirens' singing.

Presently the little golden butterflies flitted once more through the twilight, and again the woman's voice rose like a silver bird on the air.

As I have a partiality for her songs, I transcribe this Hymn of the Daughters of Aphrodite, which you must try to imagine transfigured by her voice and the sunset.

Queen Aphrodite's Daughters are we, She that was born Of the morn And the sea;White are our limbs As the foam on the wave, Wild are our hymns And our lovers are brave!

Queen Aphrodite, Born of the sea, Beautiful dutiful daughters Are we!

You who would follow, Fear not to come, For love is for love As dove is for dove;The harp of Apollo Shall lull you to rest, And your head find its home On this beautiful breast.

Queen Aphrodite, Born of the sea, Beautiful dutiful daughters Are we!

Born of the Ocean, Wave-like are we!

Rising and falling Like waves of the sea;Changing for ever, Yet ever the same, Music in motion And marble in flame.

Queen Aphrodite, Born of the sea, Beautiful dutiful daughters Are we!

When I alighted once more upon the earth from the heaven of this song, who should I find seated within a table of me but the very couple I was at the moment so unexpectedly interested in? But they were far too absorbed in each other to notice me, and consequently I was able to hear all of importance that was said.

I regret that I cannot gratify the reader with a report of their conversation, for the excuse I had for listening was one that is not transferable.A woman's happiness was at stake.No other consideration could have persuaded me to means so mean save an end so noble.I didn't even tell Rosalind all I heard.

Mercifully for her, the candour of fools is not among my superstitions.Suffice it for all third persons to know--what Rosalind indeed has never known, and what I hope no reader will be fool enough to tell her--that Orlando was for the moment hopelessly and besottedly faithless to his wife, and that my services had been bespoken in the very narrowest nick of time.

Having, as the reader has long known, a warm personal interest in his attractive companion, and desiring, therefore, to think as well of her as possible, I was pleased to deduce, negatively, from their conversation, that Sylvia Joy knew nothing of Rosalind, and believed Orlando to be a free, that is, an unmarried man.From the point of view, therefore, of her code, there was no earthly reason why she should not fall in with Orlando's proposal that they should leave for Paris by the "Mayflower" on the following morning.Orlando, I could hear, wished to make more extended arrangements, and references to that well-known rendezvous, "Eternity," fell on my ears from time to time.Evidently Sylvia had no very saving belief in Eternity, for I heard her say that they might see how they got on in Paris for a start.Then it would be time enough to talk of Eternity.

This and other remarks of Sylvia's considerably predisposed me towards her.Having concluded their arrangements for the heaven of the morrow, they rose to take a stroll along the boulevards.

As they did so, I touched Orlando's shoulder and begged his attention for a moment.Though an entire stranger to him, I had, I said, a matter of extreme importance to communicate to him, and I hoped, therefore, that it would suit his convenience to meet me at the same place in an hour and a half.As I said this, Iflashed his wife's ring in the light so obviously that he was compelled to notice it.

"Wherever did you get that?" he gasped, no little surprised and agitated.

"From your wife," I answered, rapidly moving away."Be sure to be here at eleven."I slipped away into the crowd, and spent my hour and a half in persuading Rosalind that her husband was no doubt a little infatuated, but nevertheless the most faithful husband in the world.If she would only leave all to me, by this time to-morrow night, if not a good many hours before, he should be in her arms as safe as in the Bank.It did my heart good to see how happy this artistic adaptation of the truth made her; and I must say that she never had a wiser friend.

When eleven came, I was back in my seat at the Cafe du Ciel.

Orlando too was excitedly punctual.

"Well, what is it?" he hurried out, almost before he had sat down.

"What will you do me the honour of drinking?" I asked calmly.