Arms and the Woman

Phyllis and I were sitting in one of the numerous cozy corners. I had

danced badly and out of time. The music and the babel of tongues had

become murmurous and indistinct.

"And so that is the Princess Hildegarde?" she said, after a spell.

"Yes; she is your double. Is she not beautiful?"

"Is that a left-handed compliment to me?" Phyllis was smiling, but she

was colorless.

"No," said I. "I could never give you a left-handed compliment."

"How strange and incomprehensible!" said she, opening her fan.

"What?--that I have never, and could never, give you a--"

"No, no! I was thinking of the likeness. It rather unnerved me. It

seemed as though I was looking into a mirror."

"What do you think of her?" suppressing the eagerness in my voice.

"She is to be envied," softly.

And I grew puzzled.

"Jack, for a man who has associated with the first diplomatists of the

world, who has learned to read the world as another might read a book,

you are surprisingly unadept in the art of dissimulation."

"That is a very long sentence," said I, in order to gain time enough to

fathom what she meant. I could not. So I said: "What do you mean?"

"Your whole face was saying to the Princess, 'I love you!' A glance

told me all. I was glad for your sake that no other woman saw you at

that moment. But I suppose it would not have mattered to you."

"Not if all the world had seen the look," moodily.

"Poor Jack, you are very unlucky!" Her voice was full of pity. "I

feel so sorry for you, it is all so impossible. And she loves you,

too!"

"How do you know?"

"I looked at her while she was looking at you."

"You have wonderful eyes."

"So I have been told. I wonder why she gave you that withered and

worm-eaten rose?"

"A whim," I said, staring at the rug. I wondered how she came to

surmise that it was Gretchen's rose? Intuition, perhaps.

"Do you love her well enough," asked Phyllis, plucking the lace on her

fan, "to sacrifice all the world for her, to give up all your own

happiness that she might become happy?"

"She never can be happy without me--if she loves me as I believe." I

admit that this was a selfish thought to express.