"Perhaps so," said Tony, rather ruefully. "Er--the difficulty is that
when I try to talk and make love like the chaps do in novels and plays,
Myra laughs at me and tells me not to be sloppy. I say, Lady
Fermanagh, don't tell Myra I've been talking to you about her. She
might be angry. But if you can size things up and give me a hint later
as to why she was vexed with me this afternoon I'll be tremendously
obliged."
Lady Fermanagh had a very shrewd idea that she could have told him
there and then who was the cause of the trouble, remembering well
Myra's boast that she would make Don Carlos fall in love with her, and
her resentment at his lack of courtesy in going off to Spain without a
word of farewell.
"Yes, Tony, I'll do my best to 'size things up,' as you so gracefully
put it, and may be able to drop you a hint later," she said.
She did some hard thinking as she drove home, where she arrived to find
Myra seated listlessly in an armchair by the fire, an unlighted
cigarette between her fingers, and a brooding expression in her blue
eyes.
"No, there's nothing really the matter, auntie, and I'm quite well,"
Myra said, in answer to her ladyship's questions; "but--oh, I can't
explain, but I feel fed up with everything. I don't think I shall go
to the Cavendish's dance to-night."
"What, or who, has made you suddenly feel 'fed up with everything,' as
you put it?" inquired Lady Fermanagh. "You seemed in quite good
spirits at lunch-time. I noticed Don Carlos de Ruiz's card in the
salver in the hall as I came in. Was it he, by any chance, who upset
you, Myra?"
Myra's fair face blushed hotly, and she hesitated before replying.
Then, impulsively, she decided to tell her aunt everything, and did so.
Lady Fermanagh listened in grave--almost grim--silence, and with a
troubled look in her fine eyes.
"My dear, do you realise that you have brought this on yourself?" she
asked quietly, when she had heard Myra out. "I warned you at
Auchinleven that you would be playing with fire, and that it was
extremely dangerous to trifle with a Spaniard. You deliberately set
yourself out to play the part of siren, to make Don Carlos fall in love
with you, and----"
"He had deliberately laid himself out before that to make me fall in
love with him, and pleaded that he was only amusing himself when he was
challenged," interrupted Myra. "That was an insult, and I wanted my
revenge. If he did not expect me to take him seriously, he had no
right to take me seriously, no right to take advantage and to kiss me
as he did this afternoon. Now you are throwing the blame on me, just
as he did himself! Why should there be one law for the man and another
for the woman? It isn't fair!"