The Dancing Girl

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 110, 15 June 1914, Page 11

The Dancing Girl

A SUMMER ROMANCE

By ARTHUR APPLIN, author of "Lovers Three," "The Seaside Lovers," etc

CHAPTER V. IN THE DRESSING ROOM

man who sees you dance sends you flowers?" she continued hastily. She wanted to hurt Claudine, but she was hurting herself. The dancer only just raised her eyebrows and smiled. "I suppose it is very amusing to feel that every other man you meet falls in love with you," Annie eontainued. To her surprise, Claudine laughed outright. "But they don't! Of course, people look upon me as. public property, so the public applauds me if it likes me and hisses me if it doesn't. I often long to run away and hide myself on a desert island. But I love dancing. I don't think anything in the world would make me give it up." '' Not love?'' Annie asked.

La Belle Claudine was lying on a couch iii a c orner of her dressing room. The lights over her dressing table had been turned out, and only one shaded globe burnt just above her head. It was the first time that Annie Berrill had been in the dressing room; as the maid opened the door to admit she stopped on the threshold with a little exelamatioii of surprise. A faint, elusive perfume assailed her nostrils, suggestive of yellow gorse 011 the downs. Annie recognised and remembered it. It was the perfume which had drifted, from the stage up to their box on. the night they had all visited the theatre and seen Claudine for the first time. She gazed round the dressing room at the daintily-appointed dressing table, the photographs on the walls, Claudine's stage dresses hanging in festoons, of delicate ninon against the wall.

She remembered Captain Carvic.k's warning. She knew she was just behaving in just the. right way to lose Dick. But she could not help herself. She had never learnt self-control. "I think love would make me dauee air the more," Claudine smiled.

And , there were, flowers everywhere. Dick's flowers, Annie reminded herself, with a little stab of jealousy. "Come in and sit down, won't you?" Claudine said, quietly. The maid gave Annie a seat, and then left the two women alone together. Annie sat down automatically. She felt suddenly shy, and this caused the flames of resentment to break out afresh. She muttered something under her breath. *' You must forgive me for lying down," Claudine continued politely, "but I get very tired after the second performance and always have to rest before dressing* How nice of you to come and see me."

There was an awkward silence. Presently Claudine rose and stretched herself languidly. '' I think I 'll dress now, if you don't mind. Don't run away; we can go out together. I think Dick is in front. We shall probably find him waiting outside.''

This was more than Annie could bear. It. was like a direct challenge. Yet Claudine spoke quite simply, without the least affectation or suspicion of spite. It seemed as if she had already appropriated Dick. She called him by his Christian name, too!" "Does Mr Hardey wait for you every night, then?" Annie blurted out, rising and standing in front of Claudine. "Not quite every night," the latter replied. And then she fixed her wonderful dark eyes 011 Anuie, and the latter felt as though she were probing her very soul. "You spoke as if—as if he had 110 right to meet me or to send me flowers."

Annie blushed and wondered whether Claudine spoke sarcastically. She was afraid lest the-dancer read her thoughts. Captain Carviclc had told her to conceal them. She' reminded herself that she had to play a game. • She did not know how to begin. She liad come not just hating Claudine, but despising her too. "A common little dancer," she had called her in her heart. But, seeing her here alone, intimately, face to face, she knew there was nothing common about her. Indeed, she looked regal, lying beneath the carefully-shaded light, her slim ;body covered in an exquisite lace wrap, her long black hair falling loosely about her. shoulders. Annie fouud herself staring at her clothes, at the odds and ends on the dressing table. Everything suggested the woman of taste and culture.

Annie clenched her fists and tried hard to control herself. At that moment she knew that Claudine was superior to her mentally and physically, and it served to increase her hatred and her jealousy. She knew she ought to take Captaiu Carvick's advice, hide her real feelings, and at least pretend to be friends with her rival. But she couldn't. She had too much at stake. Like a desperate gambler she lost lier head. "Mr Hardey is going to marry mo,'' she blurted out. Iter face grew scarlet, her eyes dropped before the steady ga/.e of the other woman's. - "Indeed! I wish I had known that before. Dick never told me that, or 1 shouldn't have allowed him to—" "We are not definitely engaged," Annie interrupted, hastily, frightened at what she had said, "but there has been an understanding —for some time. We were friends long before he met \ ou." Claudine sat down, "I don't quite

"You have some lovely flowers," she blurted .out .suddenly,, anxious to break the silence'which threatened to betray her.

Claudine nodded, and her eyes lighted. "Yes, Diek —Mr Hardey —sent me that basket of roses to-night. Eed roses are xiTy favourite flower. Wasn't it sweet of him?"

Annie Berrill sniffed. '.'l shouldn't} have thought he . could have afforded j |h«m, But there, I suppose every.young]

understand. If you are not engaged— Dick's not proposed to you—l can't see what reason you have for thinking that he is going'to marry vou." "I tell you we are friends," Annie cried, oil the A'erge of tears. "If it hadn't been for you he would have proposed loi}g ago. Everyone expects—everyone knows we are as good as engaged. '' : Claudine laughed then under her breath, and, drawing a red rose from the basket which l3ick had sent her, held it to her lips. Annie longed to strike her. She looked maddeningly beautiful in spite of her long, lean body. Her lips were the colour of the roses, her eyes like the night when the stars come out. Her clothes were more beautiful than any Annie had ever possessed. They must have cost a fortune, she inwardly commented —and it was her business to know. She wondered if Dick had been in her dressing room ami seen her as she now saw her. There was a long silence. Annie felt at a terrible disadvantage, standing there like a servant under cross-exam-ination. '' Well f'' she blurted out, '' What are you going to do?" "You mean to imply that I am taking Dick from vou! Is that it?" "Yes." " "Of course, I didn't know that you were in love with him, or that he cared for you," Claudine continued, thoughtfully. "But since you are not engaged, and he hasn't proposed to you any more than he has to me " Annie drew ner breath sharply. "I don't see that we have auything to quarrel about!" "You do care for him, then?" Annie whispered. "Yes, I like him very much. After all, I owe him my life, and that's something, you know!" "That gives you an unfair advantage. '' Claudine shook her head. "Now we understand one another we can start equally. It is rather a peculiar situation, but I am very glad you have told me, and been honest." "I don't know Avhat you mean," Annie stammered. "It is a case of one man and two women, isn't it?" Claudine continued, in the same quiet voice. "You have a better chance, for in about a week's time when I leave here you will go back to London with Dick. You will see him day after day; you will work together. It's simply a case of the best woman winning!" " Vou mean you won't give him up?" "I have nothing to give up any more than you have," the dancer smiled. "We have each a fair chance of winning Dick. Let the woman who wins him marry him, that's all." Annie was too astonished to speak for a few minutes. Se had brought it on herself. After all, the dancer's proposition was fair enough. Let the best womau win!

Claudine rose, and the wrap slipped from her shoulders to the ground. Annie looked at her, and her feelings of jealousy were redoubled. '' It's very easy for you to talk. We don't start fair. As you- said, you are a public character., Livery night you appear on the stage and you paint your face and make yourself look more beautiful than you really are!" Claudine laughed. "And you wear wonderful clothes—or men thing they are wonderful, You show yourself off, you haven't any shame or modesty, Pick can eorne

here and see you alone! T daresay he has been up and seen you—like-this! " Again Claudine laughed. "You, with your paint and your won't ask me to many him—if I have I proper dresses —what chance has a good 'girl against, you?'' j "All the more chance," Claudine rei plied, crossing the room and switching or the lights. "Dick is no fool. He i si cs,iuc as 1 am, on and off the stage. 1 hide nothing -" "You don't!" "I'll swear never to' marry him if 7 'in the sort of girl you think 1 am. He wont' ask me to marry him —if I have neither modesty nor shame." Without waiting for a reply she called to lier maid, who entered the room. Annie sat down and waited while Claudine dressed. When she was ready she turned to Annie. 0 "Well, shall we go out togetherf" Annie Berrill rose and, on a sudden impulse, held out her hand. "I am sorry if I was silly and lost my temper. I thought you were only fooling with Dick—wanted to make him fall in love with you and then throw him over. You see, there is Captain Carvick " " Captain Carvick is nothing to me," Claudine interrupted. "He may have fancied himself in love, but we are just j good friends now.'' "I'd like to be friends, too," Annie said. '' Of course, if Dick does fall in love with you—well, there's an end of it. 1 don't suppose it would break my heart! After all, there are as good fish in the sea as ever came out of it," and she gave a nervous laugh. Claudine shook her hand warmly. "That's very nice of you. I wouldn't dream of taking any man away from the girl he loved, but I felt perfectly sure that if you had been engaged Dick would have told me at once. So we are friends now—all four of us, eh?" Annie acquiesced gladly. "Then let's celebrate a little supper to-night. I wish you could. find Miss Sallie and her friend Bob, and make them join us." Annie slipped her arm through the dancer's. " I-want to give a party next, week — a picnic,." she whispered. "We can all meet again then." They went downstairs arm in arm. As they reached the stage door Annie saw Dick and Captain Carvick waiting in the street outside. "You won't say anything, will you?" she whispered, '' about our conversation to-night, I mean? It was awfully silly of me to come and see you. But it wasn't only Dick." She blushed. "I thought, perhaps, you were engaged to Captain Carvick, and I wanted to make sii re." The next moment the two men joined them. Dick looked surprised at seeing Annie, and for a moment they both seemed embarrassed; but after they had walked a little distance Annie dropped behind and walked with Captain Carvick. She didn't tell.him all that had passed between her and Claudine, but she gave him to understand that henceforth they were merely friends. "She's in love with Dick and she means to marry him,'' she whispered. '' 1 have told her if she can win him she can have him, so she won't suspect anything. And I dropped a hint about the picnic next week. You must arrange it all, though.'' Captain Carvick pressed her arm. "Good girl! I will make the arrangements; you, or Sallie, must give the invitation. Hardey confided to me that he would have to run up to town next week end —Friday to Saturday night. The picnic must take place on Saturday while he is away, so that when he comes back on Saturday he will find that his pretty little bird has flown."

Annie nodded. She felt frightened, for it was a desperate game that Captain Carvick was going to play. But jealousy and hatred blinded her. A jealous woman stops at nothing, and Annie knew now that unless a miracle happened she had lost Dick. There was only one way to keep him —to pull down the idol he had worshipped and scatter it in the dust!

Carvick would do that, and she would have to help him.

She set her teeth and smiled.

CHAPTER VI

THIS LAST CHANCE,

"Let the best woman win!"

Annie continually repeated that, phrase to herself during the next few days. It gave her courage for the desperate enterprise in hand.

She also reminded herself that all was fair in love and war. in order to play her part she had to see a great deal of. Claudiue, aiu.U the more she saw of her the more she realised that the dancer was not, the type of person she had imagined. She was honest and. frank. Annie had to admit as much against her will. And her conscience smote her. For Captain Carvick began to show himself in his true colours. One day a boating excursion was arranged across the bay to a tiny fishing village which nestled beneath the cliffs. The party consisted of Dick, Claudiue, and Bob; Sallie, Captain Carvick, and Annie, Outwardly they were all in the highest of spirits. " The sea was calm, the weather perfect. They lunched on the beach, and then lay la/.ily in the sunshine, laughing and chatting. Dick divided his attention equally between the three girls; but Annie's heart ached. She knew instinctively he was only being kind and polite. And nothing hurts a woman more than kindness or pity from the man she loves — and has lost. She would rather a thousand times that he were cruel. Eventually someone suggested a dip in the sea. They had all brought their bathing suits, and the girls retired to a cave on the west, while the men undressed beneath the shelter of the cliffs. With the exception of Carvick. "I'm too lazy," he laughed, "and I hate feeling sandy and sticky afterwards. I'll watch you and see that no one runs off with yotir clothes.": It was the first opportunity Annie had fpund for showing off her French bathing dress. It did not take Claudiue five minutes to get into her swimming suit, and she ran down to the water's edge with her black hair falling' over her slim shoulders, looking more like a child than a grown-up woman. Annie bit her lip. as she followed sedately, fearful of disarranging her smart little cap.

"How lovely she looks!" Sallie said, shyly, and she sighed. Annie shrugged her shoulders. "She might have had the decency to bring a proper bathing dress! She calls that bit of silk a regulation costume. I call it an outrage!"

Sallie turned a pair of brown eyes full of surprise on her friend. " J never thought you were narrowminded," she said. "If she didn't swim so well.it would be-different." Further conversation was stopped by the arrival of the men. Dick waded out a little distance and invited Annie to join him. She was half inclined to refuse, but seeing that Bob had joined

Claudine she splashed her way to Dick's side.

Dick complimented her on her dress. ''You look ripping!" "Fancy you noticing!" she replied, secretly pleased, though. He offered to teach her to swim, and, hoping Claudine would see them, she consented.- l't thrilled her to feel his arm supporting her. For the first time for many days she was happy, in spite of swallowing large quantities of salt water.

When Dick suggested that she should rest they waded- back to the beach together, and she hoped he would sit beside her in the sunshine for a while. But before a couple of minutes had passed Claudine and Bob appeared. The former looked radiant after her swim. Her body gleamed, and even her wet hair, clinging to her shoulders, did not detract from her beauty. "I want someone to row me into deep water where I can dive," she said.

In an instant Dick had pushed out the boat, and a minute later they were several hundred yards out at sea. Captain Carvick threw himself on the sands beside Annie and, looking up at her, laughed. '' .Jealous—er ?''

"Aren't you?" she retorted, sharply,

He sucked his pipe thoughtfully. "Not when I think of next Saturday evening! Claudine will pay with interest, for all the pain she lias given me and for all the fun she's having now. You can make Dick pay, too. I hope you will. Only don't show your real feelings until you're safely married. You might frighten him off at the last moment."

(To be continued to-morrow.)