The Palace of Darkened Windows | Page 7

"If you will only have the impulse to dance with me--on the Nile----"
"Why not risk it?" she challenged lightly, arrant mischief in her eyes.
She added, in mocking tone, "There's a moon."
"That's a clincher," said he, with an air of decision. A faint question
dwelt in the look she gave him. It was ridiculous to think he meant
anything he was saying, but--she felt suddenly a little confused and shy
under that light-hearted young gaiety which took every man's friendly
admiration happily for granted.
In silence they finished the dance, and this time the music failed them
when they were near the wide entrance to the room where the
Evershams, beckoning specters, were standing.
"I'm keeping them waiting," said the girl, with a note of concern which
she had not shown over her performance in that line earlier in the day.

But Billy had no time for humorous comparisons.
"When can I see you again?" he demanded bluntly. "Can I see you
to-morrow?"
"To-morrow is a very busy day," she parried.
"But the evening----?"
"I shall be here," she admitted.
"And could I--could I take you--and the Evershams, of
course--somewhere, anywhere, you'd like to go? If there's any other
concert----"
She shook her head. "We leave bright and early the next morning, and I
know Mrs. Eversham will want her rest. I think they would rather stay
here in the hotel after dinner."
"But you will keep a little time for me?" Billy urged. "Of course,
staying in the same hotel, I can't take my hat and go and make a formal
call on you--but that's the result I'm after."
They had paused, to finish this colloquy, a few feet away from the
ladies, who were regarding with dark suspicion this interchange of
lowered tones.
Suddenly Arlee raised her eyes and gave Billy a quick look,
questioning, shyly serious.
"I shall be here--and you can call on me," she promised, and bade him
farewell.
She left him deliriously, inexplicably, foolishly in spirits. He plunged
his hands in his pockets and squared his shoulders; he wanted to
whistle, he wanted to sing, he wanted to do anything to vent the
singular hilarity which possessed him.
Then he saw, across the room, a sandy-haired young man regarding

him with dour intentness, and the spectacle, instead of feeding his joy,
sent conjecturing chills down his spine. His bubble was pricked.
Suppose, ran the horrid thought, suppose she was simply paying off the
Englishman? Girls, even blue-eyed, angel-haired girls of cherubic
aspect, have not been unknown to perform such deeds of darkness! And
this particular girl had mischief in her eyes.... The thought was
unpleasantly likely. What had he, Billy B. Hill, of New York--State--to
offer to casual view worthy of competition with the presumable
advantages of a young Englishman whose sister was staying with a
Lady Claire? Perhaps the fellow himself had a title....
Considerably dashed, he went out to consult the register upon that
point.
CHAPTER II
THE CAPTAIN CALLS
Now, when the card of Captain Kerissen was handed to Miss Arlee
Beecher the next afternoon, when she sauntered in from the sunny
out-of-doors and paused at the desk for the voluminous harvest of
letters the last mail had brought, and furthermore the information was
added that the Captain was waiting, little Miss Beecher's first thought
was the resentful appreciation that the Captain was overdoing it.
She hesitated, then, with her hands full of letters and parasol, she
crossed the hall into the reception room. She intended to let her caller
see his mistake, so with her burdened hands avoiding a handclasp, she
greeted him and stood waiting, with eyes of inquiry upon him.
The young man smiled secretly to himself. He was a young man not
without experience in ladies' moods and he had a very shrewd idea that
somebody had been making remarks, but he did not permit a hint of
any perception of the coolness of her manner to impair the impeccable
suavity of his.
"Will you accord me two moments of your time that I may give you
two messages?" he inquired, and Arlee felt suddenly ill-bred before his

gentle courtesy and she sat down abruptly upon the edge of the nearest
chair.
The Captain placed one near her and seated himself, with a clank of his
dangling scabbard. He was really a very handsome young man, though
his features were too finely finished to please a robust taste, and there
was a hint of insolence and cruelty about the nose and mouth--though
this an inexperienced and light-hearted young tourist of one and twenty
did not more than vaguely perceive.
"They are, the both, of the ball of the Khedive," he continued in his
English, which was, though amazingly fluent and ready, a literal
sounding translation of the French,