The Green Mouse Chapter 20: Part 20

to live out the shattered remains of her life in solitude and peace. "If--if we've got to marry," she began unsteadily, "why not g-get it over quickly--and then I don't mind if you go away." She was quite mad: that was certain. He hastily flung some brushes into his tool kit, then straightened up and gazed at her with deep compassion. "Would you mind," she asked timidly, "getting somebody to come in and marry us, and then the worst will be over, you see, and we need never, never see each other again." He muttered something soothing and began tying up some rolls of wall paper. "Won't you do what I ask?" she said pitifully. "I-I am almost afraid that--if you go away without marrying me I could not live and endure the--the certainty of your return." He raised his head and surveyed her with deepest pity. Mad--quite mad! And so young--so exquisite... so perfectly charming in body! And the mind darkened forever.... How terrible! How strange, too; for in the pure- lidded eyes he seemed to see the soft light of reason not entirely quenched. Their eyes encountered, lingered; and the beauty of her gaze seemed to stir him to the very wellspring of compassion. "Would it make you any happier to believe--to know," he added hastily, "that you and I were married?" "Y-yes, I think so." "Would you be quite happy to believe it?" "Yes--if you call that happiness." "And you would not be unhappy if I never returned?" "Oh, no, no! I--that would make me--comparatively--happy!" "To be married to me, and to know you would never again see me?" "Yes. Will you?" "Yes," he said soothingly. And yet a curious little throb of pain flickered in his heart for a moment, that, mad as she undoubtedly was, she should be so happy to be rid of him forever. He came slowly across the room to the table on which she was sitting. She drew back instinctively, but an ominous ripping held her. "Are you going for a license and a--a clergyman?" she asked. "Oh, no," he said gently, "that is not necessary. All we have to do is to take each other's hands--so----" She shrank back. "You will have to let me take your hand," he explained. She hesitated, looked at him fearfully, then, crimson, laid her slim fingers in his. The contact sent a quiver straight through him; he squared his shoulders and looked at her.... Very, very far away it seemed as though he heard his heart awaking heavily. What an uncanny situation! Strange--strange--his standing here to humor the mad whim of this stricken maid--this wonderfully sweet young stranger, looking out of eyes so lovely that he almost believed the dead intelligence behind them was quickening into life again. "What must we do to be married?" she whispered. "Say so; that is all," he answered gently. "Do you take me for your husband?" "Yes.... Do you t-take me for your--wife?" "Yes, dear----" "Don't say _that_!... Is it--over?" "All over," he said, forcing a gayety that rang hollow in the pathos of the mockery and farce.... But he smiled to be kind to her; and, to make the poor, clouded mind a little happier still, he took her hand again and said very gently: "Will it surprise you to know that you are now a princess?" "A--_what?_" she asked sharply. "A princess." He smiled benignly on her, and, still beaming, struck a not ungraceful attitude. "I," he said, "am the Crown Prince of Rumtifoo." She stared at him without a word; gradually he lost countenance; a vague misgiving stirred within him that he had rather overdone the thing. "Of course," he began cheerfully, "I am an exile in disguise--er-- disinherited and all that, you know." She continued to stare at him. "Matters of state--er--revolution--and that sort of thing," he mumbled, eying her; "but I thought it might gratify you to know that I am Prince George of Rumtifoo----" "_What!_" The silence was deadly. "Do you know," she said deliberately, "that I believe you think I am mentally unsound. _Do_ you?" "I--you--" he began to stutter fearfully. "_Do_ you?" "W-well, either you or I----" "Nonsense! I _thought_ that marriage ceremony was a miserably inadequate affair!... And I am hurt--grieved--amazed that you should do such a--a cowardly----" "What!" he exclaimed, stung to the quick. "Yes, it is cowardly to deceive a woman." "I meant it kindly--supposing----" "That I am mentally unsound? Why do you suppose that?" "Because--Good Heavens--because in this century, and in this city, people who never before saw one another don't begin to talk of marrying----" "I explained to you"--she was half crying now, and her voice broke deliciously--"I told you what I'd done, didn't I?" "You said you had got a spark," he admitted, utterly bewildered by her tears. "Don't cry--please don't. Something is all wrong here--there is some terrible misunderstanding. If you will only explain it to me----" She dried her eyes mechanically: "Come here," she said. "I don't believe I did explain it clearly." And, very carefully, very minutely, she began to tell him about the psychic waves, and the instrument, and the new company formed to exploit it on a commercial basis. She told him what had happened that morning to her; how her disobedience had cost her so much misery. She informed him about her father, and that florid and rotund gentleman's choleric character. "If you are here when I tell him I'm married," she said, "he will probably frighten you to death; and that's one of the reasons why I wish to get it over and get you safely away before he returns. As for me, now that I know the worst, I want to get the worst over and--and live out my life quietly somewhere.... So now you see why I am in such a hurry, don't you?" He nodded as though stunned, leaning there on the table, hands folded, head bent. "I am so very sorry--for you," she said. "I know how you must feel about it. But if we are obliged to marry some time had we not better get it over and then--never--see--one another----" He lifted his head, then stood upright. Her soft lips were mute, but the question still remained in her eyes. So, for a long while, they looked at each other; and the color under his cheekbones deepened, and the pink in her cheeks slowly became pinker. "Suppose," he said, under his breath, "that I--wish--to return--to you?" "_I_ do not wish it----" "Try." "Try to--to wish for----" "For my return. Try to wish that you also desire it. Will you?" "If you are going to--to talk that way--" she stammered. "Yes, I am." "Then--then----" "Is there any reason why I should not, if we are engaged?" he asked. "We _are_--engaged, are we not?" "Engaged?" "Yes. Are we?" "I--yes--if you call it----" "I do.... And we are to be--married?" He could scarcely now speak the word which but a few moments since he pronounced so easily; for a totally new significance attached itself to every word he uttered. "Are we?" he repeated. "Yes." "Then--if I--if I find that I----" "Don't say it," she whispered. She had turned quite white. "Will you listen----" "No. It--it isn't true--it cannot be." "It is coming truer every moment.... It is very, very true--even now.... It is almost true.... And now it has come true. Sybilla!" White, dismayed, she gazed at him, her hands instinctively closing her ears. But she dropped them as he stepped forward. "I love you, Sybilla. I wish to marry you.... Will you try to care for me--a little----" "I couldn't--I can't even try----" "Dear----" He had her hands now; she twisted them free; he caught them again. Over their interlocked hands she bowed her head, breathless, cheeks aflame, seeking to cover her eyes. "Will you love me, Sybilla?" She struggled silently, desperately. "_Will_ you?" "No.... Let me go----" "Don't cry--please, dear--" His head, bowed beside hers over their clasped hands, was more than she could endure; but her upflung face, seeking escape, encountered his. There was a deep, indrawn breath, a sob, and she lay, crying her heart out, in his arms. * * * * * "Darling!" "W-what?" It is curious how quickly one recognizes unfamiliar forms of address. "You won't cry any more, will you?" he whispered. "N-n-o," sighed Sybilla. "Because we _do_ love each other, don't we?" "Y-yes, George." Then, radiant, yet sweetly shamed, confident, yet fearful, she lifted her adorable head from his shoulder. "George," she said, "I am beginning to think that I'd like to get off this table." "You poor darling!" "And," she continued, "if you will go home and change your overalls for something more conventional, you shall come and dine with us this evening, and I will be waiting for you in the drawing-room.... And, George, although some of your troubles are now over----" "All of them, dearest!" he cried with enthusiasm. "No," she said tenderly, "you are yet to meet Pa-_pah_." [Illustration] XIV GENTLEMEN OF THE PRESS _A Chapter Concerning Drusilla, Pa-pah and a Minion_ Capital had now been furnished for The Green Mouse, Limited; a great central station of white marble was being built, facing Madison Avenue and occupying the entire block front between Eighty-second and Eighty- third streets. The building promised to be magnificent; the plans provided for a thousand private operating rooms, each beautifully furnished in Louis XVI style, a restaurant, a tea room, a marriage licence bureau, and an emergency chapel where first aid clergymen were to be always in attendance. In each of the thousand Louis XVI operating rooms a Destyn-Carr wireless instrument was to stand upon a rococo table. A maid to every two rooms, a physician to every ten, and smelling salts to each room, were provided for in this gigantic enterprise. Millions of circulars were being prepared to send broadcast over the United States. They read as follows: ARE YOU IN LOVE? IF NOT, WHY NOT? Wedlock by Wireless. Marriage by Machinery. A Wondrous Wooer Without Words! No more doubt; no more hesitation; no more uncertainty. The Destyn-Carr Wireless Apparatus does it all for you. Happy Marriage Guaranteed or money eagerly refunded! Psychical Science says that for every man and woman on earth there is a predestined mate! That mate can be discovered for you by The Green Mouse, Limited. Why waste time with costly courtship? Why frivol? Why fuss? There is only ONE mate created for YOU. You pay us; We find that ONE, thereby preventing mistakes, lawsuits, elopements, regrets, grouches, alimony. Divorce Absolutely Eliminated By Our Infallible Wireless Method Success Certain It is now known the world over that Professor William Augustus Destyn has discovered that the earth we live on is enveloped in Psychical