The Summons

hem In

rty a wrinkle was smoothed away fr

e!" he cried. "I

my table?" Sir

endwise to the balustrade, commanding the crowded visitors, yet taking the coolness of the night. Hardiman was contented with his choice of its

dea crept into his mind that perhaps it was, after all, a waste to spend

upon his left hand; upon his right, the stars burning bright in a cool gloom of deepest purple, and far below the riding-lamps of the yachts tossing on the water like yellow f

and drank his cocktail. "But how the deuce could I without making every

nt! In either setting Stella Croyle was a formidable antagonist. But combine

red to him to be Luttrell's endeavour to avoid joining battle on this unfavourable field. He could only

le, who had directed many a furtive, anxious glance t

him in the midst of a rattle of futilities. "Why should you re

nteresting, and quaint,"

r and run out there to luncheo

. She had won the first round, but victory brought her no ease. She knew now from the

ppened," she cried. "You must

feet rose a clamour of cheers-to Lut

n," he

immering riband of path, a group of students bore one of their number shoulder-high. Luttrell

rower. He won the championshi

oice at his side. "Does he throw javelins

ntest to be fought out had even entered his head. But he did fear to see those eyes glisten with tears-for she so seldom shed them! And even more than th

lling you," h

she returned. "But, my dear, my evening was already spoilt

ould make!" was the first thought until you noticed the slim delicacy of her hands and feet, the burnish of gold on the dark wealth of her hair, the fine chiselling of brow and nose and chin. Then it was seen that she was all woman. She was tall and yet never looked tall. It seemed that you c

as Hardiman had foreseen the perf

s to babble. There were the Olympic Games. She herself must have seen how they were fatal to their own purpose. Troubles were coming-ba

right, but by the one or the other of those two P

e was not listening. All this was totally unimportant. Men always went about and about when they had difficult things to say to women. Her eyes never left his face and sh

rself again and again, but with a dreadful c

e would be prepared, she had always set the day on so distant an horizon that it had no terrors for her. Now it suddenly dismayed her, a terror close at hand. Her

once during dinner she had seen him touch that pocket in an abstraction. He drew from it two papers, one the

hed me thi

with her heart in her mouth. But

oes it mean

me servic

turned white. She bent h

asp of relief. After all Cairo was no

in the Sudan-Hea

?" she sugges

Too far," Lut

e towards him; and though

not going!

ed to her the

e this," she sa

hat I would

rest of the party waited on the deck and the launch throbbed at the gangway. If a woman's glance had power, he would have been stricken th

wer, this cable

es

able of

hree da

completely Luttrell bent every nerve to the service of shortening the hour of misery. The appalling moment was then actually

-the Olympic Games, Discipline and the rest of it-what she had caught of

e tired

e-not even a half-truth. If I were tired of yo

rell turned to her a face startled by her outcry and uttered a remonstrant "Hush!", she continued bitterly, "What do I care if they all hear? I a

ll could only wait in silence for the storm to pass. It passed with a qu

ul and most appealing. "Oh, Wub, what h

the duel, guessed from the movemen

't belong to him. She worries her wits trying this one and that one, as a tailor tries on you a suit of clothes, and when she has got your fit, she uses it-publicly. So others use it too and so it no longer c

ince she was a woman, it would be a name at once so absurd and so intimate that it would never have gone with the dignified rhythm of the hexameter. "Wobbles" had been the first name which Stella Croyle had invented for Harry Luttrell, though by what devious process she had lighted upon it, psychology could not have discove

pleaded in a breaking whisper. "

al in a furnace. He tried to realise the truth which Hardiman had uttered three or four hours before. There would be sooner or later a quarrel, a humiliating, hateful quarrel over

ell

mpulsively

arles Hardiman at the end of the

many, the Star-Spangled Banner; and long before the band struck into the solemn rhythm of "God save the King," Stella Croyle at all events knew that Calypso had lost. For she saw a flame illumine Luttrell's face and transfigure him. He had slipped out of her reach. The doubts and perplexities which had so troubled him during the last months were now resolved. As he listened to the Hymns, he saw as in a vision the nations advancing abreast over a vast plain like battalions in line with their intervals for man?uvring spaced out between them. In front of eac

" he beg

and her hands clenched upon her lap so tightly that the skin was white about the po

ew moments later their host gave the signal to mov

ook place whilst Hardiman settled for the cars, and during that wait Luttrell disappeared. He rejoined his friends at the harbour steps and when the launch put off towards the Drag

ed, dropping his hand on hers, a

he next moment the gangway light shone down upon their fac

st behind you, so that no one shall see w

at something was amiss between the pair. They were left alone upon the deck. Stella by chance looking southwards to the starlit g

o, Stella?" Lutt

and live in the cou

be lonely

be a good deal alone, anyway. I shall be, of course, lonelier, now that I have no one to play with," and the smile

k over the year-the year of their alliance-and she saw all of its events flickering vividly before her, as they say drowning people do. "Oh, Wub

ted remorsefully. "I never d

d have lef

of England, a train drawn up at the departure platform, herself with a veil drawn close over her face, hal

to turn out well. I thought the long journey to London alone would be

his silence. That had been the real beginning. Stella had known him as the merest of friends before. She had met him here and there at a supper party, a

y. "She would have thrown herself out of the carriage, or when she reached ho

what crazy thing she might do. There was daintiness but no order in h

I do for you. So it was bound to end some time." She caught his hand