CHAPTER XXXIV.
“ONE KISS PAYS FOR ALL.”
Patty Groves had her ardent desire to know Reginald Hamilton granted at last. In her occasional outings with the patronizing Mrs. Putnam, pending the arrival of the lady who was to introduce her to fashionable society, the new chaperone beckoned up Reggie and presented him.
Patty quickly played her best card to win his favor—she was Eva’s cousin. When he politely expressed his pleasure in the meeting and hinted at his surprise in not seeing her in Fifth Avenue, she tossed her head and said airily:
“Oh, our families were at outs in West Virginia, you know. Maybe I will tell you why when we know each other better.”
This was a cordial invitation to continue the acquaintance, but Reggie did not take the hint to call; he was too much engrossed in his sweetheart and his coming happiness.
But Patty so persistently crossed his path, each time manifesting such delight in the rencontre, that she at least impressed herself sufficiently on his memory to make him mention her in Fifth Avenue.
“Oh, Eva, I have been seeing a girl with Charley Putnam’s widow at flower shows and places, and sheclaims to be a cousin of yours—a Miss Groves, of West Virginia.”
Eva reddened with vexation,
“That odious Patty!” she pouted.
“Then she really is your relation?” he said carelessly.
“Yes, but I am ashamed to own it; I despise the girl!” Eva cried, with flashing eyes.
“She told me you were at outs—it isn’t anything serious, is it?” Reggie inquired, with languid curiosity.
He saw that Eva was seriously annoyed. Her cheeks flushed red and pale alternately and she exclaimed:
“What did she tell you?”
“Nothing, except that you were ‘at outs,’ and intimated that if I would call some time she would tell me all the particulars.”
“Oh, Reggie, you won’t ever go near her, will you, that’s my own dear boy? She is hateful, my cousin Patty. She will tell you shameless lies of me! Promise me!” half sobbed Eva, clutching his arm with convulsive fingers and lifting to his loving glance a little face like a snowdrop in March—all the color stricken suddenly out of it, even to the lips.
Her heart throbbed madly in her breast as she waited for his answer, in her terror that Patty should breathe in his ears the story her father so dreaded to have him hear.
But Reggie did not at all understand how deeplyagitated she was, and slipping his arm about her waist, he fondly kissed the quivering lips, saying lightly:
“Whew! how women can hate each other when they go at it—even relations! Of course I am not going near the girl, darling; I never intended to; and even if I did, and she told me lies of you, I should call out her big brother and shoot him!”
He wondered that she looked so wild and strange when she faltered:
“Patty has no big brother. He is dead. He—he was killed by a—a dreadful accident!”
“Ah! How was that, Eva?”
“I—I cannot talk about it now, Reggie; it makes me very nervous! I saw it, you see, and I was ill a long time afterward, so that I can scarcely bear to speak of it now. She has brought it all back coming up to New York, where no one wanted her, I am sure. But if you will not listen to her lies, Reggie, if you will not go near her, or even speak to the hateful thing, I will tell you myself the whole story of our quarrel sometime,” pleaded Eva, clinging to him with caressing hands, a desperate pathos in the sombre dark eyes searching his face.
Reggie was so charmed with her shy tenderness, she who was always so cold and reserved, that he was ready to promise anything. He laughed and answered:
“When you clasp my arms like that, Eva, and bring your tempting lips so close to mine, I wouldpromise you anything on earth for one kiss given of your own accord. Tell me to snub your cousin if you choose, to ignore her entirely, and one kiss will pay for it all.”
How handsome and eager he looked, how his dark eyes sparkled with expectancy. Her heart reproached her that she could not love him more, even while she consoled herself with her aunt’s advice:
“Love will come in time.”
She would not hesitate a moment at paying the price he asked for Patty’s discomfiture—no, no!—and quickly drawing his face down to a level with her own, Eva pressed her full red lips warmly, tenderly upon his, thrilling him to keenest bliss—the first and last kiss his shy little sweetheart ever gave him, the memory of which went with him through life and down to death.
She had triumphed over Patty; the victory was hers. Reggie never appeared to see Miss Groves afterward, and presently she realized that the snub was intentional.
“He has cut you dead; there can be no doubt of it. What can be the reason?” Mrs. Putnam wondered.
“That odious Eva has made him do it. She was afraid I would blab secrets and break up her marriage,” Patty muttered viciously.
“My dear girl, if you know of any reason why he should not marry your proud cousin, you ought to tell him before it is too late.”
“I know dreadful things—but how can I tell him when he won’t even speak to me?”
“You could write him a letter, or you could confide it to me, and I would find a means to let him know.”