good-bye and abandon his errand?
There was no alternative: she had made that unmistakable. His oath to
her father came suddenly into his mind. After all, was it not a little
absurd to boggle over one small deception when the whole enterprise, as
now suddenly revealed, was to be nothing but one continuous and colossal
one?
"Miss--Miss Carstairs," said Varney, "with _you_ I shall not argue this.
I am going to let you think I am whoever you want. We needn't say
anything more about it, need we? Only--I'll ask you to call me by the
name I gave you, please, and, so far as you can, to regard me that way.
Is that--a bargain?"
Mary Carstairs stood at the threshold of the lighted room, looking at
him from under her wide white hat, eyes shining, lips smiling, cheeks
faintly flushed with a sense of the triumph she had won.
"Of course," she said. "And I don't think you'll need ever be sorry for
having trusted me--_Mr. Varney!"_
He bowed stiffly. "If you will kindly open the door, I will blow out the
lamp and give myself the pleasure of taking you home."
They left the hospitable cottage of Ferris Stanhope, and went out into
the night, side by side, Varney and Mary Carstairs. The young man's
manner was deceptively calm, but his head was in a whirl. However, the
one vital fact about the situation stood out in his mind like a tower
set on a hill. This was that Uncle Elbert's daughter was walking at his
elbow, on terms of acquaintanceship and understanding. The thing had
happened with stunning unexpectedness, but it had happened, and the game
was on. The next move was his own, and what better moment for making it
would he ever have?
The road was dark and wet. Rain-drops from the trees fell upon them as
they walked, gathered pools splashed shallowly under their feet.
Suddenly Varney said:
"Do you happen to be interested in yachts, Miss Carstairs? Mine is
anchored just opposite your house, I believe, and it would be a pleasure
to show her to you sometime."
CHAPTER VIII
CONCERNING MR. FERRIS STANHOPE, THE POPULAR NOVELIST; ALSO PETER, THE
|