Part 12
However, I wasn't destined to share the earliest of the London triumphs. [_Bitterly._] Mine awaited me in Paris, and at Vaudemont-Baudricourt, as the Comtesse de Chaumie! [_Shivering._]
Ugh-h-h-h----!
[_She is about to sit in the chair on the left when he comes to her impulsively and restrains her._
PHILIP.
My poor girl----!
OTTOLINE.
[_With abandon._] Ah----!
PHILIP.
My poor dear girl!
OTTOLINE.
It's a relief to me to open my heart to you, Philip. [_He leads her to the fauteuil-stool._] Robbie won't interrupt us yet awhile, will he?
PHILIP.
We'll kick him out if he does. [_They sit, close together, upon the fauteuil-stool._] Oh, but he won't! This is a deep-laid plot of the old chap's----
OTTOLINE.
Plot?
PHILIP.
To invite us here to-day, you and me, to--to----
OTTOLINE.
_Amener un rapprochement?_
PHILIP.
Exactly.
OTTOLINE.
[_Softly._] Ha, ha! Dear old Robbie! [_He laughs with her._] Dear, dear old Robbie! [_Her laughter dies out, leaving her with a serious, appealing face._] Phil----
PHILIP.
Eh?
OTTOLINE.
Your sneer--your sneer about me and the papers----
PHILIP.
Sneer?
OTTOLINE.
I detected it. Almost the first thing you said to me when I arrived was that you'd been gathering news of me lately from the papers!
PHILIP.
[_Gently._] Forgive me.
OTTOLINE.
It's been none of my doing; I've finished with _le sn.o.bbisme_ entirely.
[_Pleadingly._] You don't doubt me?
PHILIP.
[_Patting her hand._] No--no.
OTTOLINE.
Nowadays I detest coming across my name in print. But my people--[_with a little_ moue] they will persist in----!
PHILIP.
Beating the big drum?
OTTOLINE.
Ha! [_Brushing her hair from her brow fretfully._] Oh! Oh, Phil, it was blindness on my part to return to them--sheer blindness!
PHILIP.
Blindness?
OTTOLINE.
They've been urging me to do it ever since my husband's death; so I had ample time to consider the step. But I didn't realize, till I'd settled down in Ennismore Gardens, how thoroughly I----
PHILIP.
[_Finding she doesn't continue._] How thoroughly----?
OTTOLINE.
