CHAPTER XIV

THE DUCHESS’ BALL

That night was the Duchess of Datchet’s ball—­the first person I saw as I entered the dancing-room was Dora Grayling.

I went straight up to her.

’Miss Grayling, I behaved very badly to you last night, I have come to make to you my apologies,—­to sue for your forgiveness!’

‘My forgiveness?’ Her head went back,—­she has a pretty bird-like trick of cocking it a little on one side.  ’You were not well.  Are you better?’

’Quite.—­You forgive me?  Then grant me plenary absolution by giving me a dance for the one I lost last night.’

She rose.  A man came up,—­a stranger to me; she’s one of the best hunted women in England,—­there’s a million with her.

‘This is my dance, Miss Grayling.’

She looked at him.

’You must excuse me.  I am afraid I have made a mistake.  I had forgotten that I was already engaged.’

I had not thought her capable of it.  She took my arm, and away we went, and left him staring.

‘It’s he who’s the sufferer now,’ I whispered, as we went round,—­ she can waltz!

’You think so?  It was I last night,—­I did not mean, if I could help it, to suffer again.  To me a dance with you means something.’  She went all red,—­adding, as an afterthought, ’Nowadays so few men really dance.  I expect it’s because you dance so well.’

‘Thank you.’

We danced the waltz right through, then we went to an impromptu shelter which had been rigged up on a balcony.  And we talked.  There’s something sympathetic about Miss Grayling which leads one to talk about one’s self,—­before I was half aware of it I was telling her of all my plans and projects,—­actually telling her of my latest notion which, ultimately, was to result in the destruction of whole armies as by a flash of lightning.  She took an amount of interest in it which was surprising.

’What really stands in the way of things of this sort is not theory but practice,—­one can prove one’s facts on paper, or on a small scale in a room; what is wanted is proof on a large scale, by actual experiment.  If, for instance, I could take my plant to one of the forests of South America, where there is plenty of animal life but no human, I could demonstrate the soundness of my position then and there.’

‘Why don’t you?’

‘Think of the money it would cost.’

‘I thought I was a friend of yours.’

‘I had hoped you were.’

‘Then why don’t you let me help you?’

‘Help me?—­How?’

’By letting you have the money for your South American experiment;—­it would be an investment on which I should expect to receive good interest.’

I fidgeted.

‘It is very good of you, Miss Grayling, to talk like that.’

She became quite frigid.

’Please don’t be absurd!—­I perceive quite clearly that you are snubbing me, and that you are trying to do it as delicately as you know how.’