The Powers and Maxine | Page 3

be a
long silence between us just then. I had enough pride not to want him
to see me cry--though, if it could have made any difference, I would
have grovelled at his feet and wet them with my tears. "But she never
does tell me anything about herself."
"She's so unselfish and so fond of you, that probably she likes better to
talk about you instead," he defended her. And then I felt that I could
hate him, as much as I've always hated Di, deep down in my heart. At
that minute I should have liked to kill her, and watch his face when he
found her lying dead--out of his reach for ever.
"Besides," he hurried on, "I've never asked her yet if she would marry
me, because--my prospects weren't very brilliant. She knows of course
that I love her--"
"And if you get the consulship, you'll put the important question?" I cut
him short, trying to be flippant.
"Yes. But I told you tonight, because I--because you were so kind, I felt
I should like to have you know."
Kind! Yes, I had been too kind. But if by putting out my foot I could
have crushed every hope of his for the future--every hope, that is, in
which my stepsister Diana Forrest had any part--I would have done it,
just as I trample on ants in the country sometimes, for the pleasure of
feeling that I--even I--have power of life and death.
I swallowed hard, to keep the sobs back. I'm never very strong or well,
but now I felt broken, ready to die. I was glad when I heard the music

stop in the ballroom.
"There!" I said. "The two dances you asked me to sit out with you are
over. I'm sure you're engaged for the next."
"Yes, Imp, I am."
"To Di?"
"No, I have Number 13 with her."
"Thirteen! Unlucky number."
"Any number is lucky that gives me a chance with her. The next one,
coming now, is with Mrs. George Allendale."
"Oh, yes, the actor manager's wife. She goes everywhere; and Lord
Mountstuart likes theatrical celebrities. This house ought to be very
serious and political, but we have every sort of creature--provided it's
an amusing, or successful, or good-looking one. By the way, used
Maxine de Renzie to come here, when she was acting in London at
George Allendale's theatre? That was before Di and I arrived on the
scene, you remember."
"I remember. Oh, yes, she came here. It was in this house I met her first,
off the stage, I believe."
"What a sweet memory! Wasn't Mrs. George awfully jealous of her
husband when he had such a fascinating beauty for his leading lady?"
"I never heard that she was."
"You needn't look cross with me. I'm not saying anything against your
gorgeous Maxine."
"Of course not. Nobody could. But you mustn't call Miss de Renzie 'my
Maxine,' please, Imp."
"I beg your pardon," I said. "You see, I've heard other people call her

that--in joke. And you dedicated your book about Lhassa, that made
you such a famous person, to her, didn't you?"
"No. What made you think that?" He was really annoyed now, and I
was pleased--if anything could please me, in my despair.
"Why, everybody thinks it. It was dedicated to 'M.R.' as if the name
were a secret, so--"
"'Everybody' is very stupid then. 'M.R.' is an old lady, my god-mother,
who helped me with money for my expedition to Lhassa, otherwise I
couldn't have gone. And she isn't of the kind that likes to see her name
in print. Now, where shall I take you, Imp? Because I must go and look
for Mrs. Allendale."
"I'll stay where I am, thank you," I said, "and watch you dance--from
far off. That's my part in life, you know: watching other people dance
from far off."
When he was gone, I leaned back among the cushions, and I wasn't
sure that one of my heart attacks would not come on. I felt horribly
alone, and deserted; and though I hate Di, and always have hated her,
ever since the tiny child and her mother (a beautiful, rich, young
Californian widow) came into my father's house in New York, she does
know how to manage me better than anyone else, when I am in such
moods. I could have screamed for her, as I sat there helplessly looking
through the open doors: and then, at last, I saw her, as if my wish had
been a call which had reached her ears over the music in the ballroom.
She had stopped dancing, and with her partner (Lord Robert, again)
entered the room which lay between our "den" and the ballroom,
Probably they would have gone on to the