Lion and the Unicorn | Page 8

mirror
above the fireplace.
"I come here very often to tea," she said.
"It's very kind of you," said Carroll. He was at the open window,
looking down into the street for a cab.
"Well, no one knows I am engaged to Reggie," continued Miss
Cavendish, "except you and Reggie, and he isn't so sure. SHE doesn't
know it."
"Well?" said Carroll.
Miss Cavendish smiled a mischievous kindly smile at him from the
mirror.
"Well?" she repeated, mockingly. Carroll stared at her and laughed.
After a pause he said: "It's like a plot in a comedy. But I'm afraid I'm
too serious for play-acting."
"Yes, it is serious," said Miss Cavendish. She seated herself again and

regarded the American thoughtfully. "You are too good a man to be
treated the way that girl is treating you, and no one knows it better than
she does. She'll change in time, but just now she thinks she wants to be
independent. She's in love with this picture-painting idea, and with the
people she meets. It's all new to her--the fuss they make over her and
the titles, and the way she is asked about. We know she can't paint. We
know they only give her commissions because she's so young and
pretty, and American. She amuses them, that's all. Well, that cannot last;
she'll find it out. She's too clever a girl, and she is too fine a girl to be
content with that long. Then--then she'll come back to you. She feels
now that she has both you and the others, and she's making you wait: so
wait and be cheerful. She's worth waiting for; she's young, that's all.
She'll see the difference in time. But, in the meanwhile, it would hurry
matters a bit if she thought she had to choose between the new friends
and you."
"She could still keep her friends, and marry me," said Carroll; "I have
told her that a hundred times. She could still paint miniatures and marry
me. But she won't marry me."
"She won't marry you because she knows she can whenever she wants
to;" cried Marion. "Can't you see that? But if she thought you were
going to marry some one else now?"
"She would be the first to congratulate me," said Carroll. He rose and
walked to the fireplace, where he leaned with his arm on the mantel.
There was a photograph of Helen Cabot near his hand, and he turned
this toward him and stood for some time staring at it. "My dear
Marion," he said at last, "I've known Helen ever since she was as young
as that. Every year I've loved her more, and found new things in her to
care for; now I love her more than any other man ever loved any other
woman."
Miss Cavendish shook her head sympathetically.
"Yes, I know," she said; "that's the way Reggie loves me, too."
Carroll went on as though he had not heard her.

"There's a bench in St. James's Park," he said, "where we used to sit
when she first came here, when she didn't know so many people. We
used to go there in the morning and throw penny buns to the ducks.
That's been my amusement this summer since you've all been
away--sitting on that bench, feeding penny buns to the silly
ducks--especially the black one, the one she used to like best. And I
make pilgrimages to all the other places we ever visited together, and
try to pretend she is with me. And I support the crossing sweeper at
Lansdowne Passage because she once said she felt sorry for him. I do
all the other absurd things that a man in love tortures himself by doing.
But to what end? She knows how I care, and yet she won't see why we
can't go on being friends as we once were. What's the use of it all? "
"She is young, I tell you," repeated Miss Cavendish, "and she's too sure
of you. You've told her you care; now try making her think you don't
care."
Carroll shook his head impatiently.
"I will not stoop to such tricks and pretence, Marion," he cried
impatiently. "All I have is my love for her; if I have to cheat and to trap
her into caring, the whole thing would be degraded."
Miss Cavendish shrugged her shoulders and walked to the door. "Such
amateurs!" she exclaimed, and banged the door after her.
Carroll never quite knew how he had come to make a confidante of
Miss Cavendish. Helen and he had met her when they first arrived in
London, and as she had acted for a season in the United States, she
adopted the two Americans--and told Helen where to go for boots and
hats, and advised Carroll