George was so devoured by remorse that he had not the spirit to ask an interesting question. «Goodbye,» said he, pressing her hand.
She gave him the sweetest glance; he felt it no more than his duty to offer her an encouraging kiss. At once the doors began to bang, the fire belched smoke, the imps opened their mouths to yell.
«No, no,» said she, with just so much of inexpressible regret as to soften the cruelty of it. And she pointed to the dummy husband before the fire.
«Don't worry about him!» cried our hero. «He's only a dummy.» With that, be gave the image a kick, capsizing it into the hearth.
«Well, if he's not a real husband,» said Rosie, «I suppose there is nothing wrong in it.» And with that she gave George a kiss, which he found altogether delightful, except that, as it increased the high esteem in which he held her, so also it increased his misery in having placed her in such a predicament.
When he got home, the poor fellow could neither eat nor sleep. He called up a few of his officers to pass away the night at poker, but though he held four straight flushes in succession, he could take no pleasure in it. In the morning, the telephone bell rang. George's was the only instrument on the planet which did not go wrong as soon as one began to speak; on this occasion he would willingly have surrendered the advantage. The Devil was at the other end, and he was in a towering rage. He made no bones about accusing our hero of downright morality.
«You curse and swear very well,» said the victim in an injured tone. «All the same, it was not my fault she came here. I clearly see she may prove a disintegrating influence if I keep her, but, if I may not send her back, I don't see what else I can do.»
«Why, tempt her, you idiot!» replied the Devil. «Have you never tempted woman before?»
«As far as I know, no,» said George frankly.
«Well, do so now,» said the Devil in quite a silky tone, which nevertheless caused blue sparks to crackle from the instrument. «Once we get possession of her soul, there will not be much fuss made about her body. I leave the matter in your hands entirely. If you fail me, there are one or two ancient institutions over here which I shall take pleasure in reviving entirely for your benefit.»
George detested the idea of tempting this singularly good and beautiful young girl; however, the prospect was not so unredeemedly repulsive as that of immersion in boiling brimstone. He took a glass or two, to stifle what regrets he had, and sent for Rosie to attend him in a silken pavilion, which he had had rigged up among the groves and fountains which surrounded his citadel. He considered this fabric to be preferable to blocks of black basalt, in the event of some disruptive phrase of hers bringing the roof about their ears.
It was not very long before she arrived, although it seemed so. Heaven knows how she preserved her radiant health in the nasty grey air of Hell's outer suburbs, but she looked as fresh and bright as ever, and seemed to glow through her cheerless wrappings as a peach glows through tissue paper. Nevertheless, George was naturally a slow starter, especially when his conscience was involved. He certainly greeted her very warmly, but if all the scientists in the world had had these hugs and kisses in a test tube, they could not have separated one atom of sin out of them, for they were as simple and natural as could possibly be desired.
I admit the simple and natural is as good a beginning as any other. George, however, proceeded only to the offer of a cup of tea, which is not sinful except at the University. They began to chat; he was unable to resist telling her of his joys and sorrows in the neighbourhood of the Tottenham Court Road, and the reason for this was that he wished her to know everything about him. She herself was no less frank. It is impossible to describe the emotion with which George heard that she had become an orphan at the age of fourteen, and had since then lived with an old aunt, who was inclined to severity. The moments passed like flowers of that precious, edelweiss joy which blooms on the brink of the abyss.
The light began to fade; the warbling of blackbirds and thrushes now sank into a stillness from which soon arose the diviner strains of the nightingale. In this far, wild corner of the garden, the effect was a little Chinese, with a profusion of willow trees, which now turned blue in the dimming air. Our young people, seated at the entrance of the tent, found their tongues fall idle, and sat in a divine languor which, like another silence, a silence of the soul, permitted the first fault notes of a new music to become audible in their hearts.
Their fingers interlocked. The moon, which in those parts is of gigantic size, being no other than Hell itself, rose behind the shadowy trees. «They say,» said Rosie in a dreamy voice, «that those marks on it are craters.»
One person's dream may well be another's awakening. George was at once galvanized into activity. «Come,» said he. «It is time we began dinner. It's my birthday, so there's lots of champagne.»
He hoped by these words to inveigle the simple girl into making a feast of it. However, he started under a handicap, for he was already as drank as a lord on the very sound of her voice. A man's true nature appears when he is in that condition: George was prepared to jeopardize his whole future for an amorous whim. His brain reeled under the onslaught of a legion of virtuous thoughts. He even conceived the notion of suggesting to the Devil that it should be the dummy husband who should be cast into the boiling brimstone, and that he should take that useless effigy's place, but from this act of madness the thought of the imps restrained him.
The remembrance of his master brought him back to Hell for a moment. «My dear,» said he, patting her hand, «how would you like to be a film star?»
«Not at all,» said she.
«What?» said he.
«Not at all,» said she.
«Oh!» said he. «Well! Well! Well!»
He had a diamond necklace in his pocket, ready to tempt her with, but could not restrain himself from hanging it unconditionally about her neck, he was so delighted by this answer of hers.
She was pleased, even more than by the gift itself, by the spirit in which it was given. She thought George the kindest and the best of men, and (whether it was the wine or not, I'll not say) she would have even stuck to it that he was handsome.
Altogether, the meal went off as merry as a marriage bell. The only drawback was that George could see no signs of a fitting sequel. Some would say the brimstone was a sequel sufficiently appropriate, but that was not George's idea at all. In fact, when he had played all his cards in this half-hearted fashion, he was suddenly overcome by a hideous prevision of his fate, and could not repress a most alarming groan.
«What is it, my dear?» cried Rosie, in the tenderest of voices.
«Oh, nothing,» said he, «nothing at all. Only that I shall burn for ever if I fail to seduce you.»
«That is what the young man said at the stocking counter,» said she in dismay.
«But I mean, in brimstone,» said he dolorously, «and that, I assure you, is altogether a different proposition from love, whatever the poets may say.»
«You are right,» said she, in a happier voice than seemed entirely fitting, «love is altogether different from brimstone,» and with that she squeezed his hand.
«I fear it will give me no peace in which to remember you,» said he, positively photographing her with his eyes.
«You shall not go there,» said she.
«He said I must!» cried George.
«Not,» said she, «if — if it will save you to —»
«To what?» cried George.
«To seduce me,» faltered Rosie.
George protested very little; he was altogether carried away by the charming manner in which she expressed herself. He flung his arms about her, and endeavoured to convey, in one single kiss, all his gratitude for her kindness, his admiration for her beauty, his respect for her character, and his regret that she should have been orphaned at the age of fourteen and left to the care of an aunt who was a little inclined to severity. This is a great deal to be expressed in one single kiss; nevertheless, our hero did his best.