"Silence!" His fingers gripper her arm and she stopped, ready to scream with the pain of it. "You"re insulting the woman I love. Do you hear?" he whispered through set lips. "I"ll hear no more of it here--or elsewhere? We traveled together, that is all. My G.o.d--that you should dare!" He stopped suddenly, peering through the dusk at her face which still smiled, though the pain of her arm gave her agony, and then he relaxed with a laugh. "You don"t mean it, I know. It isn"t worthy of you. Why, Olga, you are her friend. You know her intimately--body and soul. You can"t believe it. You don"t--"

"I do," fiercely. "I _do_ believe it--more"s the pity."

They had stopped and were facing each other, bayonets crossed. The city roared about them, but they did not hear it. He dominated her, masterful. She fought back silently, a thing of nerves and pa.s.sion only, but she did not flinch, though he had already wounded her mortally.

"Lie, if you like to me, John Markham. Lie to me. It"s your duty.

Lie like a gentleman. But you can"t make me believe you. I"m no fool.

I"ll say what I like of her--or of you, when I choose, where I choose--"

"I won"t believe you."

"You must. It has come to that," she went on, whispering. "I"ve given you the best of me, the very best, what no man has had of me, affection, strong and tender, friendship, clean and wholesome. I gave gladly. I"m not sorry. They were sweeter even than the love in my breast which stifled--which still stifles me."

"Olga!"

The suppressed pa.s.sion of her confession startled him. Her half-closed eyes burned through the dusk, then paled again.

"It"s true," she went on haltingly. "I love you. My love--I"m proud of it--prouder of it than of anything I"ve ever been or known--because it"s sweet and clean. That"s why I can look you in the eyes and tell you so. Why shouldn"t I? What is my woman"s pride beside that other pride? I have not stopped--as she has--to conquer."

"Sh--!"

"She stooped to conquer. I"m glad--glad--it shows the difference between us. It weighs us one against the other. You shall know. One day you shall know. You"ll tire of her. It"s always the ending of a conquest like that."

"You"re mad," he whispered, aghast.

She threw up her hands and pressed them to her breast a moment. Then, with a quivering intake of the breath, the tension broke, and her hands dropped to her sides, her laughter jarring him strangely.

"Curious, isn"t it?" he heard her saying. "You"re the last man in the world I would have dreamed of. I used to laugh at you, you know. You were so _gauche_ and _so_ ill-mannered. I took you up as a sort of game. It amused me to try and see what could be made of you. If you"d made love to me, I would have laughed at you. But you didn"t. Why didn"t you, John? It would have saved us all such a lot of trouble."

Her mockery set him more at ease. He saw a refuge and took it.

"I think you"re not quite so mad--as mischievous," he said boldly.

"Your loves are too frequent to cause your friends much concern--least of all the one you honor with your present professions. I"m not woman-wise, Olga. And I"m not honey-mouthed. I hope you won"t mind if I say I don"t believe you."

Her smile vanished.

"You will--in time," she said quickly. "So will--Hermia." She paused, and then, her fingers on his arm, her eyes to his.

"Have you--? Has she--? You wouldn"t _marry_ her, John?"

Her tone was soft, but the inference had the ominous sibilance of a whip-lash, which swirled in the air and circled over Hermia, too. He chose his words deliberately.

"She"s the sweetest, cleanest, purest woman I"ve ever known."

She shrugged and drew away. Whatever she felt, no sound escaped her.

He followed toward the lights of the Avenue, aware that a crisis in his affairs of some sort had been reached and pa.s.sed. His companion walked more and more rapidly, setting the pace which outdid the slow movement of his wits.

But he caught up with her presently and took her by the arm.

"Olga, forgive me. You maddened me. I wanted you to know--that Hermia was not what you thought she was. You lower your own standards--can"t you see--when you lower hers? She"s only a girl--thoughtless, a thing of impulses only--mad impulses if you like--but clean, Olga,--like a child. You"ve only to look at her and see--"

"I did look at her--and see," she said through her teeth.

He stopped her by main force.

"You"ve got to listen! Do you hear? It was I who put her in this false position. I who must get her out of it. I owe her that and you owe it to me."

He released her and went on more quietly. "I"m no _Galahad_ and I make no pretences to virtue, but I"m no rake or despoiler of women either.

I dare you to doubt it. You didn"t doubt it--there--in the studio.

You can"t doubt it now. Women of your sort--and hers--are inviolable."

Her lids flickered and fell.

"A girl--Olga, a mere child. Think! What is this love of yours that feeds on hatred--on uncleanness Love is made of gentler stuff-beautifies, uplifts--not destroys."

Her head was bent and her face was hidden under her wide hat, but her whisper came to him quite clearly.

"_You_--tell _me_--what love is? _You!_"

When she raised her head her lips were smiling softly, and she moved forward slowly, he at her side. They had reached the Avenue. A motor he had not observed stood near.

"We part here I think. It"s _adieu_, John."

"No," he muttered.

"Oh, yes, it is." And then with a gay laugh which was her best defence--"Too bad we couldn"t have hit it off, isn"t it? I would have liked it awfully. I give you my word you"ve never seemed nearly so interesting as at this moment of discomposure. There"s a charm in your awkwardness, John,--a native charm. Good night. I go alone."

He followed her a few paces but she reached the machine before him and was whisked away.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE WINGS OF THE b.u.t.tERFLY

John Markham spent an unpleasant evening. He dined alone at a club, wandering afterward aimlessly from library to billiard room and then took to the streets, trusting to physical exercise to clear his head of the tangle that Olga had put into it. Olga, the irrepressible man-hunter, in love with a "fossilized Galahad_." That was ironically amusing, extraordinary, if true, a punishment which fitted her crime, and something of a grim joke on the man-hunter as well as the fossil.

Markham tried to view the matter with unconcern, man-like, recalling the many times that Olga"s name had been coupled with those of various distinguished foreigners and the frequent reports of her engagement, always denied and forgotten. And yet she worried him. For a brief moment she had given him a glimpse of the shadowy recesses where she hid her naked soul; a glimpse only, like some of those she had given him when he was painting her portrait; but what he had seen now was different--an Olga no longer wistful no longer amenable; a wild, unreasoning thing who purred, cat-like, while he stroked her, sheathing and unsheathing her claws. There was mischief brewing--he felt it in her sudden access of self-control, and in the final jest with which she had left him. He knew her better now. It was when she mocked that Olga was most dangerous. It was clear that she had not believed him when he told her the truth. Her standards forbade it, of course. It was too bad.

But she had not told what she knew--that was the main thing. What if she did tell now? Hermia could deny it, of course, and if necessary he must lie, as Olga had said, like a gentleman. And where were Olga"s proofs? Who would confirm her? What evidence, human or doc.u.mentary could she bring forward here in New York to prove Hermia"s culpability, if, as it seemed to be her intention, she insisted on carrying her sweet vengeance to its end? There was no one--he paused, his brow clouding. De Foligny! Had De Folligny learned who Hermia was? Had Olga found out about the companion in his automobile at Verneuil? He waved the thought away. De Folligny was on the other side of the ocean. The psychological moment for Olga"s revelation had pa.s.sed.

Consoling himself with these thoughts he went home and to bed and morning found him early at the studio, awaiting his new sitter, in a more quiescent, if still uncertain, frame of mind.

The portrait of Mrs. Berkeley Hammond on which he had been working sat smugly upon one of his easels, a thing of shreds and patches (though the lady was in pearls and a Dr?coll frock), a thing "painty" without being direct, mannered without being elegant, highly colored without being colorful, a streaky thing with brilliant spots, like the work of a promising pupil; a pretty poor Markham, which had pleased the sitter because its face flattered her, and for which she would gladly pay the considerable sum he charged, while Markham"s inner consciousness loudly proclaimed that the canvas was not worth as much as the crayon sketch of Madam Daudifret in Normandy which had been the price of a _rago?t_.

Really he would have to pain better. He swung the easel around with a kick of the foot and faced a new canvas, primed some days before, and busied himself about his palette and paint tubes.

When Phyllis Van Vorst emerged from the dressing-room a while later into the cool north light, Markham"s eyes sparkled with a genuine delight. Here was the sort of thing he could do--white satin with filmy drapery from which rose the fresh-colored flower of girlhood.

Without being really pretty, his model created the illusion of beauty by her youth, her abundant health and many little tricks of gesture and expression. Her role was that of the ing?nue and she prattled childishly of many things, flitting like a b.u.t.terfly from topic to topic, grave and gay with a careless grace which added something to the picture she made. Markham let her talk, interjecting monosyllables lulled by the inexhaustible flow, aware, after the first pose or two, that he was painting well, with the careless brush of entire confidence. As Olga had said, he always was at his best when a little contemptuous. In three hours the head was finished and the background laid in, _premier coup_-- the best thing he had done in a year.

He twisted the canvas around to get a better look at it and groped for his pipe, suddenly conscious of the fact that he had painted and that his model had sat steadily for an hour and a half without a rest.