He carried in his hand the handbag she had brought with her and laid it carefully upon the table.
Some small talk ensued and after a wait of thirty or forty minutes, their uncle rang for Marie and told her that she might depart for her quarters until morning.
Marie listened in silence, made a curtsey and went out.
His lordship finished smoking his cigar.
Meanwhile Mrs. Bates had arisen and strode about the room, nervously twitching her hands and glancing at the walls, and on one round even tried the doors.
Caroline had taken the precaution of holding his lordship's door firmly on the inside, so that they were safe from discovery by her.
She walked to the center of the room and faced Lord Roxboro, who was seated in his chair, and said in a voice clearly audible to her listeners.
“I presume the maid has gone, Emory. She looks like an inquisitive thing. Who are those two nieces of yours, as you introduced them to me-two more of your flames?”
“No, Ethel,” laughed Lord Roxboro. “They are not two of my flames, as you term them, but really are two of my nieces who have come to stay with me.”
“Do you really mean that, you old rascal, or are you at your old tricks again?” she asked him roguishly.
“Yes, Ethel dear, I really mean it. They are as I represent them to be,” he answered.
“I am not so sure,” she added. “You see, I know you too well of old.”
“You really do me an injustice, Ethel dear,” expostulated his lordship. “Really, you should not be so suspicious!”
“Well, Emory,” she continued, “I suppose I shall have to believe you whether I would like to or not. In any case, It makes no difference at all to me, for I love you just the same, and shall always love you!”
“That's the way I like to hear my lady friends speak,” spoke up his lordship, “especially you. It is true,” he added, “that I have been interested in numerous women and have been more than intimate with quite a number of them, but never have I had the acquaintance and companionship of one who has affected me so strongly and deeply as you! It is true that I have ravished both of these two nieces and every domestic-young and middle-aged-that has been in this house during the last thirty years, to say nothing of a young and good-looking maiden aunt of mine and many others besides. Yet I would gladly sacrifice the pleasures of all these abandonments in return for just one brief smile from your roselike lips!” Here he embraced her strongly and kissed her long and warmly upon her delicately molded lips.
“Oh, Emory! You can be truly wonderful at times,” she cooed contentedly.
At this point Caroline and Freda could restrain themselves no longer and, guided by a common thought and impulse, each introduced her hand up beneath the other's clothes and, getting through the drawers, inserted a finger into the cleft of the other and fingered one another earnestly and protractedly until they felt somewhat relieved.
“But those two nieces of yours, are they in this part of the building?” asked Mrs. Bates nervously.
“No, Ethel,” replied Lord Roxboro. “Surely you do not think that I would have those two children stay here in the house to spy upon my love affairs, even though they have figured in some of them? They stay in the servant's quarters about a quarter of a mile away.”
“Oh, Emory, how I hate to revert to those dreadful practices!” she burst out nervously, picking at his coat collar and smoothing his hair.
“The last time I was here I swore I would never come back again! It seems that I can only go so long without revisiting you to rid myself of my accumulated passions! Why is it, Emory, that I should be cursed with these feelings of lust? Other women in my set are not that way! I know-I have watched and observed them! Why is it, Emory, that I should be cursed with these perversions? It makes me feel wretched at times. Why, just the other night I was going to throw myself at a rude sailor that passed by our estate. An uncontrollable whim possessed me to follow him and have him take me away on his ship! Really, I cannot understand it. I would cheerfully give all I possess to be able to resume my childhood innocence.”
“Tut, tut!” interpolated his lordship. “You are concerning yourself too much about this thing which I can assure you is really trifling. Every normal healthy woman has the same feelings as you. Of course you were unable to detect the signs in them because they, like you, cover them up too carefully! As for your returning to your childhood innocence, that innocence is pure fiction, as you well know! Do you not remember when we were children together? Don't you remember when you were only five and I was six, the things we used to do in the bushes of the garden in summertime even then. Don't you recall how I, yet too young to ejaculate, did my best to satisfy you by making a little wee-wee in your little crack?”
“Ah! Those were happy days,” she answered smilingly.
“Ah! If they could only return!” replied his lordship, and here they both sighed deeply.
“Oh, Emory!” she murmured. “You are the man whom I really should have married by all the laws of God and nature!”
“Yes, my dear,” replied Lord Roxboro tenderly. “I have long since come to the same conclusion; I have often thought that the Almighty ordained that you and I should have been man and wife, but we both have been well and truly punished for our disobedience!”
“Yes, Emory,” she added, “you are right. I have also often had the same thoughts in mind.”
“But,” added his lordship, coming back to solid earth and shaking the ashes from his cigar, “it is peculiar, Ethel. I have often wondered what it was that caused Harold to be the way he was. The lessons that he gave you formed you firmly indeed!”
“Truly!” shuddered Ethel, glancing around, her eyes round and bright.
“I am worse if anything, Emory! I could hardly wait until I arrived here, and now I am trembling from head to foot! I am afraid! Yet I desire! I know that there is nothing that will assuage my feelings except this dreadful ritual! Emory, how you must hate me. I do not see why you allow me to come again and again! I appreciate what you have done for me in this matter and hope to repay you in time.”
“Tut, tut, Ethel!” said his lordship, drawing cards from the table drawer. “Come, we will play cards.”
He dealt off cards to each of them and she gathered up her cards and twitched uneasily.
“I suppose it is unnecessary to speak of the forfeit?” said Lord Roxboro in a meaningful tone.
Continuing this conversation he said, “I want you to be especially careful about yielding up the forfeit because in this instance, the forfeit that is to be won is the one thing that interests me most of all.”
“Oh, Emory,” she cried, throwing her cards to the table, “let us not waste time with this sickening formula; I wish to avoid it, I really do. I am on edge and beg you to dispense with formalities arid proceed directly to action.”
Lord Roxboro replied, “We should concentrate our attention and energies on producing something that will be really satisfying. Nothing should stop us from doing that. We ought to get a good job done tonight. You know that which I told you a long time ago: haste destroys pleasure. The more an agreeable sensation is stretched or drawn, the greater and longer will be the pleasure. All the things that I require you to do will interest you as well as please you to the utmost degree. Now, you wouldn't simply like to dash in here, relieve yourself as hastily as possible and then rush madly away. No, you are going to be really satisfied tonight. I feel sure you are,” he continued, “for although I derive great pleasure from all these indulgences, the king of the pleasure is the pleasure that is drawn out.
“Now, my dear,” he went on, “as far as I can see, there should be nothing that should come between our enjoyment or in any way curtail it. Still, sometimes the most insignificant thing, the most obscure occurrence, may destroy or frustrate the most carefully laid plans or wreck the most important undertaking. You should not pay any attention to your foolish inhibitions or your childish delusions. They will do nothing except thwart you in attaining your dearest desires. I realize to some extent your attitude in this matter, but don't let it cause you any annoyance, much less regrets. After all is said and done, life is very short and once we are dead, dear, we shall be dead for a very long time. We now enjoy ourselves as of yore-just you and I-with no one else to bother us or even spy on us.” Here he winked slyly with the eye farthest away from Mrs. Bates as he looked toward the peepholes through which were peeping Caroline and Freda, two earnest spectators if ever there were.