CHAPTER XXVII
A THUNDERBOLT OF WAR
The great moment had arrived. General Le Cazeau and his staff wereon their way back to Paris. The duke and duchess were at the chateautalking with the _blesses_; for the second time Dunny had tactfullydisappeared. The approach of evening had spurred my faltering courage.As the first rosiness of sunset touched the skies beyond Raincy-la-Tourand lay across the water, I sat at the side of the only girl in theworld and poured out my plea.
"It isn't fair, you know," I mourned. "I've only a few minutes. Ishouldn't wonder if we heard your car honking for you in half anhour. To make a girl like you look at a man like me would take days ofeloquence, and, besides, who would think of marrying any one with hishead bound up Turkish fashion as mine is now?"
She laughed, and at the silvery sound of it I plucked up a hint ofcourage; for surely, I thought, she wasn't cruel enough to make gameof me as she turned me down. Still, I couldn't really hope. She was toowonderful, and my courtship had been too inadequate. Despondent, arms onmy knees, I harped upon the same string.
"I've never had a chance to show you," I lamented, "that I am civilized;that I know how to take care of you and put cushions behind you andslide footstools under your feet, and--er--all that. We've been too busyeluding Germans and racing through forbidden zones and rescuing papersfrom behind secret panels, for me to wait on you. Good heavens! To thinkhow I've done my duty by a hundred girls I shouldn't know from Eve ifthey happened along this moment! And I've never even sent you a box of_marrons glaces_ or flowers."
She shot a fleeting glance at me.
"No," she agreed, "you haven't! If you don't mind my saying so, Ithink they would have been out of place. At Bleau, for instance, and atPrezelay I hadn't much time for eating bonbons; but after all you did meone or two more practical services, Mr. Bayne."
"Nothing," I maintained, my gloom unabated, "that amounted to a row ofpins. Though I might have shone, I'll admit; I can see that, lookingback. The opportunity was there, but the man was lacking. I might havebeen a real movie hero, cool, resourceful, dependable, clear-sighted, atower of strength; and what I did was to muddle things up hopelesslyand waste time in suspecting you and seize every opportunity of trustingpeople who positively spread their guilt before my eyes."
"I don't know." She was looking at the lake, not at me, and she wassmiling. "There were one or two little matters that have slipped yourmind, perhaps. Take the very first night we met, when you tracked yourthief to my room and wouldn't let the hotel people come in to search it.Don't you think, on the whole, that you were rather kind?"
"I couldn't have driven them in," I declared stubbornly, "with apitchfork. I couldn't have persuaded them to make a search if I hadprayed them on my bended knees. Their one idea was to help the fellowin what the best criminal circles call a getaway; and when I think how Imust have been wool-gathering, not to guess--"
"Well, even so,"--Miss Falconer was still smiling--"weren't you verynice on the steamer? About the extra, I mean. And at Gibraltar, too,when they asked you what you had thrown overboard--do you remember howyou kept silent and never even glanced my way?"
"No," I groaned, "I don't; but I remember our trip to Paris. I remembermarching you into the wagon-restaurant like a hand-cuffed criminal, andsitting you down at a table, and bullying you like a Russian czar. Igave you three days to leave France. Have you forgotten? I haven't. Theone thing I omitted--and I don't see how I missed it--was to call thegendarmes there at Modane and denounce you to them. It's more than kindof you to glide over my imbecilities; I appreciate it. But when Ithink of that evening I want a nice, deep, dark dungeon, somewhereunderground, to hide."
"I think," she murmured consolingly, "that you made amends to me later."Her face was averted, but I could see a distracting dimple in hercheek. "You mustn't forget that I haven't been perfect, either. Whenyou followed me to Bleau, and I came down the stairs and saw you, Imisunderstood the situation entirely and was as unpleasant as I couldbe."
"Naturally," I acquiesced with dark meaning. "How could you haveunderstood it? How could any human being have fathomed the mentalprocesses that sent me there? I only wonder that instead of givingme what-for, you didn't murder me. Any United States jury would haveacquitted you with the highest praise."
She turned upon me, flushed and spirited.
"Mr. Bayne, you are incorrigible! Why will you insist on belittlingeverything that you have done? I suppose you will claim next that youdidn't risk imprisonment or death every minute of a whole day, just tohelp me, and that at Prezelay you didn't fight like a--a--yes, like apaladin!--to save me from being tortured by Herr von Blenheim and hismen!"
I started up and then sank back.
"As a special favor," I begged her, "would you mind not mentioning thatlast phase of the affair? When you do, I go berserker; I'm a crazyman, seeing red; I'm honestly not responsible. It was when our friendBlenheim developed those plans of his that I swore in my soul I'd gethim; and I thank the Lord that I did and that he'll never trouble you orany other woman again.
"Still, Miss Falconer, what does all that amount to? Any man would havehelped you, wouldn't he? A nice sort of fellow I should have been todo any less! Whereas for a girl like you I ought to have accomplishedmiracles. I ought to have made the sun stop moving, or got you the starsto play with, or whisked the moon out of the skies."
She was laughing again.
"Dear me!" she exclaimed. "What fervor! Can this be my Mr. Bayne, theMr. Bayne of our adventure, who never turned a hair no matter what madthings happened, and who was always so correct and conventional and soimmaculately dressed, and so--"
"Stodgy! Say it!" I cried with utter recklessness. "I know I was; Dunnytold me so that evening at the St. Ives. Have as many cracks at me asyou like. I was getting fat; I was beginning to think that the mostimportant thing in the universe was dinner. Well, I'm not stodgy anylonger, Esme Falconer; you've reformed me. But of all the men in all theages who were ever desperately, consumedly, imbecilely in love--"
In the distance two figures were strolling toward the blue car, the dukeand the duchess. When they reached it, the Firefly cast a glance in ourdirection and sounded a warning, most unwelcome honk upon the horn. Theywere going, stony-hearted creatures that they were! They were takingEsme back to Paris. At the thought I abandoned my last pretense atself-command.
"Esme, dearest," I implored, "do you think you could put up withme? Could you marry me when I've done my part over here--or evensooner--right away? A dozen better men may love you, but mine is aspecial brand of love--unique, incomparable! Are you going to haveme--or shall I jump into the lake?"
The sunset light was in her hair and in the gray, starry eyes she turnedto me--those eyes that, because their lashes were so long and crinkledso maddeningly, were only half revealed. Her lips curved in a fleetingsmile.
"Oh, you dear, blind, silly man! Do you think any girl could help lovingyou--after all that has happened to you and me?" she whispered.
Then I caught her to me; and despite my crutches and my bandaged headand that atrocious horn in the distance honking the signal for ourparting, I was the happiest being in France--or in the world.
"I knew all along it was a dream, and it is! Such things don't reallyhappen. No such luck!" I cried.
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