Fair Margaret - Page 168/206

'You don't care a straw for Logotheti,' he said, so suddenly that she

started a little. 'I don't know why you should,' he added, as she said

nothing, 'but I had got the impression that you did.' 'There are days--I mean,' she corrected herself, 'there have been days,

when I have liked him very much--more, it seems to me, than I ever

liked you, though in quite a different way.' 'There will be more such days,' Lushington answered.

'I hope not.' Margaret spoke almost as if to herself and very low, turning her head

away. Lushington heard the words, however, and was surprised.

'Has anything happened?' he asked quickly, and quite without

reflection.

Again she answered in a low tone, unfamiliar to him.

'Yes. Something has happened.' Then neither spoke for some time. When Margaret broke the silence at

last, there was a little defiance in her voice, a touch of recklessness

in her manner, as new to Lushington as her low, absent-minded tone had

been when she had last spoken.

'It was only natural, I suppose,' she laughed, a little sharply. 'I'm

too good for one and not good enough for the other! It would be really

interesting to know just how good one ought to be--when one is an

artist!' 'What do you mean?' asked Lushington, not understanding at all.

'My dear child!' She laughed again, and both the words and the laugh

jarred on Lushington, as being a little unlike her--she had never

addressed him in that way before. 'You don't really suppose that I am

going to explain, do you? You made up your mind that I was much too

fine a lady to marry the son of a singer--much too good for you, in

fact--though I would have married you just then!' 'Just then!' Lushington repeated the words sadly.

'Certainly not now,' answered Margaret viciously. 'You would come to

your senses in a week with a start, to find your idol in a very shaky

and moth-eaten state. I'm horribly human, after all! I admit it!' 'What is the matter with you?' asked Lushington, rather sharply. 'What

has become of you?' he asked, as she gave him no answer. 'Where are

you, the real you? I saw you when I came, and you brought me out on the

lawn, and it was going to be so nice, just as it used to be; and now,

on a sudden, you are gone, and there is some one I don't know in your

place.' Margaret laughed, leaned back in her chair and looked at the pond.