The Car of Destiny | Page 8

had remembered well
enough to guess who I was, brightened. She would not have answered a
person she regarded as a stranger, as she answered me,
"There's a card-room at the end of the corridor to the left, off the big
hall, where we might rest for a moment or two," she said. "But I mustn't
stop long."
"No," I promised. "I won't try to keep you. I ask only a few moments. I
can't tell how I thank you for giving me those."
I threw a glance round for Carmona, and saw him dancing with a
stately Mary Stuart. I guessed his partner to be Lady Vale-Avon; and if
I were right, it was a bad omen. She was not a woman to care for
extraneous dancing, therefore she favoured Carmona in particular.
Still, for the moment he was occupied; and when his back was turned I
whisked Lady Monica out of the ball-room, past the decorated staircase
in the square hall, and to the room at the end of the corridor. There I
pushed aside a portière and followed her in.
She had been right; the room was unoccupied, though two or three
bridge tables were ready for players. In one corner was a small sofa.
The girl sat down, carefully leaving no place for me, even had I
presumed; and, leaning forward, clasped her little hands nervously
round her knees.

Then she looked up at me through her mask; and I did not keep her
waiting.
"I've no invitation to-night," I said. "But I had to come. I came to see
you. Do you forgive me for saying this?"
"I--think so," she answered.
"You would be sure, if you knew all."
"I do know. At least--I mean--but of course, I oughtn't to be here with
you."
"According to convention you oughtn't. Yet--"
"I'm not thinking of conventions. But--oh, I should hate you to
misunderstand!"
"I could never misunderstand."
I snatched off my mask and stood looking down at her, knowing that
my face would say what was in my heart, and not now wishing to hide
the secret.
"You know," I said, "that I've worshipped you since the first moment I
saw you. It was impossible to meet you in any ordinary way, for you
have no friend who would introduce to you the Marqués de Casa Triana.
Have you ever heard that name before, Lady Monica?"
"Yes," she answered frankly. "I heard it yesterday. From Angèle de la
Mole."
"Her brother's a friend of my best friend."
"I know."
"If it hadn't been for him, I should have had great trouble in getting
here to-night. Yet I would have come. Did Mademoiselle de la Mole
tell you that I loved you?"

Lady Monica dropped her head and did not answer, but the little hands
were pressed tightly together.
"I've always been proud of my name," I said, "though it's counted a
misfortune to bear it; but when I saw you, then I knew for the first time
how great a misfortune it may be."
"Why?"
"Because my only happiness can come now in having you for my wife;
and even if I could win your love, you wouldn't be allowed to marry
my father's son."
"Your father may have been mistaken," the girl faltered. "I do think he
was. But he was a gloriously brave man. Even the enemies against
whom he fought must respect his memory. I--I've read of him.
I--bought a book yesterday. You see--I've thought about you. I couldn't
help it. We saw each other only those few minutes, and we didn't even
speak; yet somehow it was different from anything else that ever
happened to me."
"It was fate," I said. "We were destined to meet, and I was destined to
love you. If I thought I could make you care, that would give me a right
I couldn't have otherwise; the right to try and win your love, and beat
down every obstacle."
"I could--I do care," she whispered. "Even if I were never to see you
again, I shouldn't forget. This--would be the romance of my life."
"Angel!" I said. And then she took off her mask, with such a divine
smile that I could have knelt at her feet as at the shrine of a saint.
"Isn't it wonderful?" she asked. "I didn't find out your name till
yesterday, though I tried before; and we don't know each other at all--"
"Why, we've known each other since the world began. My soul had
been waiting to find yours again, and found it the other afternoon, on
the road to my own land. That's what people who don't understand call

'love at first sight.' "
"I think it must be so; because there was never anything like that first
minute when you looked