The Sacred Fount

which I had left her. “It is she — quite unmistakably, you know. I don’t see how I can have been so stupid as not to make it out. I haven’t your clevern

whe

the park or the gardens. When one knows it, it’s all there. But what’s that vulgar song? — ‘You’ve got to know it first!’ It strikes me, if

irst marked her for me. She isn’t marked for me, fi

fine bosom heaved, her blue eyes expanded with her successful, her simplified egotism. I couldn’t, in short, I found, bear her being so keen about Mrs. Server while she was so stupid about poor Briss. She

after your telling me that you se

er women here than Mrs

and dismiss them? If Lady John’s out of the question, how

I interrupt

which you’ve so much interested me!

yself turning gloomy enough. “D

d, intelligence. There did remain the truth of our friend’s striking development, to which I had called her attention. Regretting my rashness didn’t make the prodigy less. “You’ll lead me to believe, if you back out, that there’s sudden

lushed for he

ppen that you find you’re

ves for a moment making so free with, absolutely sure about her. I am absolutely sure. There! She won’t do. And for your postulate that she’s at the present moment in some sequestered spot in Long’

y rate, with Mr. Long, and she told me on my meet

ogether; and they retired together under my eyes.

over. “Then what does that prove b

fraid, since both

ish themselves as not avoiding each other.

n that,” I asked, “consistent with your be

er in public; they fo

stake if you can be. Besides,” I wound up, “it’s not only that she’s not the ‘right fool’ — it’s simply that she’s not a fool at all. We want the

possessio

of her

Lady

discriminate here. “N

whom

u; like Brissenden. Don’t I sa

sfy me so easily you shouldn’t have made such a point of working me up. I

r inst

ious at the time that I did, but when one has had the

re that I met this with a sharpness possibly excessive. “Sh

have noticed of myself after dinner that there was something the matter

t this didn’t shut my mouth. “Ah, then, in spite of the peopl

e always sitting for her portrait. Wasn’t she in fact always being painted in a pink frock and one row of pearls, al

rush?

uccession, making up to them in the most extraordinary way and leaving them still more cr

,” I returned; “and I should have been sure you would have th

ed, “before you’re hurt. Since your confidence has distinguished me — though I don’t quite see why — you may be sure I haven’t breathed. So I all the more resent your maki

ences you draw from it. Of course, however, I admit I always want to protect the innocent. What does she gain, on your theory, by her rushing and pouncing? Had she pounced on Brissenden when we met him with her? Are you so very

quired in answer to this, “that she has suddenly

o me with a whirr of wings, and I half

pace. “You mean she may be s

ou neglect him so! But what is she, at any rate,” I wen

e seen even as a mere acquaintance. Think of the circumstances — her personal ones, I mean, and admit that it wouldn’t do. It would be t

you’re surprised th

mpanion could meet. “From people in ge

appreciate; all the more that a little inquiry, tactfully pursued, would enable you to judge whether any independent suspicion does attach. A

yself what I scorn to handle. Quite apart from that there’s another matt

s — one can think of cases. Popularity shelters and hallows —

the other way. They say there’s no smoke without fire, but it appears there may be fire without smoke. I’m satisfied, at all events, that one wouldn’t in connection with these two find the least little puff.

duced.’ We are reduced. But what I meant to say just now was that if you’ll continue to join in the genial conspiracy while I do the same — each of us making an exce

“if you don’t change your mind? You won’

t is,” I pursued, “that I appeal to you for another impression of

has a terror of appearing to e

hat? The appearance of someone in particular would be exactly the opposite of th

do anything so like the real thing. And, as for what he

es he go in

ous as May. He hasn’t the same reasons for panic. A man nev

precisely by the change in him that my notion was inspi

ed me, and all the more for her sustained unconsciousness. “Oh, the man’s not a

is advantage. How s

ge of his mind and his ta

I pressed as

to realise. It’s only, after all,” she sagely went on, feeding me again, as I winced to feel, with profundity of my own sort, “it’s only an excessive case, a case that in him happens to show as what the docto

ths. Yet the cheek profits t

t, “is Mr. Long’s. The lips are what we began by looking for. We’ve found them. They’re drained — they’re dry, the

staring at her. “So —

at’s only because it’s catching. You’ve made me sublime. You found me dense. You’ve affected me quite a

at opened to the ground, and I watched her while, in the brighter light, she put up her pink parasol. She walked a few paces, as if to look about her for a change of company, and by this time had reached a flight of steps that descended to a lower level. On observing that here, in the act to go down, she suddenly paused, I knew she had been checked by something seen below and that this was what made her turn the next moment to give me a look. I took it as an invitation to rejoin her, and I perceived when I

act showed her as so correctly described by the words to which I had twice had to listen. She seemed really all over t

consideration, “that is

d continued — “I only see she’s not alone. I understood

t. They’ve had plenty of time while we’ve talked; they must have passed do

e she was satis

just said,” I observed, “th

figure continued to be screened. “It must be he,” Mrs. Brissenden res

oments have fled, you see, in our fascinating discussion, and various things, on your theory of her pounce, have come and gone.

in confidence that he would follow. During this process, with a face more visible, she had looked as charming as a pretty woman almost always does in rising eloquent before the apathetic male. She hadn’t yet noticed us, but something in her attitude and manner particularly spoke to me. There were implications in it to which I couldn’t be blind, and I felt how my neighbour also would have caught them and been confirmed in her certitude. In fact I felt the breath of her confirmation in another elated “There!” — in a “Look at her now!” Incontestably, while not yet aware of

g seen them figure together, and of this we needed breathing-time to give them the natural benefit. It was not indeed as an absolute benefit for either that Grace Brissenden’s tone marked our recognition. “Dear Guy again?” — but she had recovered herself enough to laugh. “I should have thought he had had more than his turn!” She had recovered herself in fact much more than I; for somehow, from this instant, convinced as she had been and turning everythin

to arrive within sound of speech. There was accordingly nothing marked in our turning away and strolling back to the house. We had been so intent that we confessed by this movement to a quick impulse to disown it. Yet it was remarkable that, be

exact reverse of the truth. Where it came in was what I happened to be in the very act of seeing — seeing to the exclusion of almost everything else. It was sufficient that I m

. “Why, this invention of using my husband

using

r. Excuse my comparing you to so many red herrings. You each have your tu

rvice with Lady John. To have to work in such a way for two of them at once” — it couldn’t help, I admitted, being a tax on a fellow. Besides, when one came to think of it, the same man

at my levity. “Oh, the cases are not the same, for

ws w

clear — “that she really doesn’t want him for anything; for anything

— I tried to remain at her l

doesn’t know what it’s h

d, “the truth about anything. And of course, by

reserved a certain measure of freedom. Then she handsomely gave

usness,” I declared

en from

; but there was something that, before this, I felt it due to my claim of cons

was short-lived. “Of course it wasn’t. We shouldn’t have been treated to the scene if it had been.