The garden paths were all broad and straight, and Philip walked on, unheeding his steps and unmindful of his course. He was very deep in thought, so deep that presently he forgot to notice the flowers on either side, passing on without halting at any favoured one. Dick Darling's bald news—that Mdlle. Lamien had left the Folly—and her apparent ignorance as to her return, had opened Philip's eyes with a start, and revealed to him the distance he had already travelled in the primrose path of dalliance and uncertainty.
He acknowledged to himself, with a twinge of mortification, that her leaving the house in such a manner, and without any word to him as to her intention, was a wound to his self-love and self-esteem. Though, indeed, why Mdlle. Lamien should have confided her plans to him was an open question. He had met her but once face to face since the accident, and that opportunity had resolved itself into the unsatisfactory interview in the corridor, when she had scorned his hand, and swept by him down the stairs without a word.
Poor Philip! it was rather rough treatment, as he said to himself, to have his hand refused twice in the same evening by two different women! A smile of self-scorn and amusement came to his lips as he recalled the incident; fate was not usually so unkind, he was not accustomed to such churlish treatment at her hands, and the very novelty set him speculating as to the motives that incited two such opposite natures to a similarity of action.
Self analysis is a very deceitful occupation, and Mr. Tremain, who had set about an interior examination as to his own feelings and intentions regarding Mdlle. Lamien, was soon wandering far afield in the realms of speculation regarding the ulterior motives of these two women, comparing their various attributes, contrasting their characteristics, finding subtle likenesses between them, and antagonistic points of approachment. Then he recalled the little pink note, and the bouquet of jacque roses, and Dick Darling's sarcastic criticism upon them. Why should Mdlle. Lamien use coroneted note-paper if it was not her own? And why should Mimi's governess waste her scanty substance upon hot-house flowers for Esther Newbold, who certainly could better afford the luxury than her paid dependent? And did not Mdlle. Lamien know the meaning hidden in the blossoms? Had she some reason for selecting red roses and white hyacinths, or was it only a coincidence, an accident?
"Were I a little more of a fatalist," thought Philip, "I should answer my own question by reminding myself that nothing is accident in life. In their cult, kismet overrules and becomes destiny."
Meantime, taking no heed to his steps, Mr. Tremain was surprised into consciousness by a sharp blow in the face, which recalled him to a survey of his surroundings. He found he had wandered far beyond the garden precincts, down a gentle declivity ending in a lightly-wooded copse, to which a low-hanging hazel-tree branch barred his entrance. Putting this aside, he entered the small enclosure; it was not more than an acre in extent, the trees with which it was planted being still young, and standing rather wide apart. The ground beneath was of yielding though uneven turf, and quite at the far end of the tiny wood a rustic bench was placed near a small fountain with a marble basin, into which the water, trickling from a vase held in the marble boy Narcissus's uplifted hands, made a pleasant murmur in the stillness of the night.
A gleam of white drapery falling across the bench warned Philip that he was trespassing upon a rendezvous, that had all the recognised characteristics of an assignation. He had gone too far, however, to retreat, since his presence must have been already announced by the harsh crackling of the offending hazel-bough, some of the twigs having broken in his hand as he pushed it back.
The white figure neither moved nor showed any knowledge of his approach, but remained absolutely motionless, the head and shoulders in deep shadow, only the gloved hands and the sweeping draperies catching reflections from the fitful moonlight. If it was an assignation, the lady apparently was the only one faithful to the tryst, for there was no manly form beside her, nor manly accents raised in pleading or caress; indeed, voices of any timbre there were not. A silence, deep and profound, held the little wood as in a spell, and the white-robed figure with the folded hands might have been the enchanted Princess, and Philip the Prince who was to wake her with a kiss, whose very sweetness would open the door once again to the outside world of romance, and passion, and disappointment.
Poor Princess! let her dream on a little longer, wrapped in her unconscious, visionless slumber; the malignant fairy's curse of a hundred years ago is fast wearing itself away, and with love's awakening who can banish the twin sisters of jealousy and suspicion? Does not the fairest rose of all the garden fair bear within its flushing bosom the canker worm of deceit and decay?
Treading noiselessly upon the short turf, Mr. Tremain came close upon the fair intriguer before she heard his footsteps, or was aware of his presence. The moon, which had been slightly obscured by the passing of some hazy clouds, now broke forth and shone down full upon the slight upright figure that had arisen hastily, and taken a forward step or two, as Philip's approach became known. The silver rays touched with seeming tenderness the dark hair rolled high upon the little head, and fell across the white neck, half concealed by a fleecy drapery, gathered together carelessly, and held by one slender hand in a long loose glove; they struck cool and sharp on the sweeping lines of the dress, accentuating each fold of the silken texture, and threw into bold relief the soft pallor of the delicately-rounded face, lingering longest where the dark brows made a mystery of the eyes, and kissing the curved lips that now were set and defiant; illuminating and defining each gracious curve and outline of the graceful form, with the same ethereal brilliancy that transformed the trickling fountain into an elixir of life, and awakened the boy-god Narcissus into perennial youthfulness.