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THE AFTER-DARK

Florence Stoker daintily tinkled her little bell, not to summon the maid but to call her parlour to attention The orna and conversation died The company turned to play audience to their hostess

&039;An announcehted that the lilt of Clontarf, usually rigorously suppressed, insinuated itself into her tone

Beauregard was suddenly a prisoner in himself With Penelope on his arm he could hardly refuse the fence, but the situation was instantly different For some months, he had teetered on the brink of a chasged rocks

&039;Penelope, Miss Churchward,&039; Beauregard began, pausing then to clear his throat, &039;has done me the honour&039;

Everyone in the parlour understood at once, but he still had to get the words out He wished for another gulp of the pale tea Florence served in exquisite bowls, in the Chinese fashion

Penelope, impatient, finished for hi, next year&039;

She slipped her sliht When a child, her favourite expression had been &039;but I want it now&039; His face must be flushed scarlet This was absurd He hardly qualified as a swooning youth He had been married before Before Penelope, Pamela The other Miss Churchward, the elder That must cause remark

&039;Charles,&039; said Arthur Holratulations&039;

The vaard assurip

His fiancee was detached from him and surrounded by ladies Kate Reed, by virtue of her spectacles and unruly hair the perfect Penelope&039;s favourite confidante, helped her sit and fanned her with ad the secret from her Penelope, honey over salt, told Kate not to be such a drip Kate, one of those neo currentlycalled a &039;pneumatic tyre&039;

Penelope was fussed over as if she had announced an illness, or an expected baby Pamela, never far from mind when Penelope was present, had died in childbirth, her huge eyes screwed tight with pain In Jagadhri, seven years ago The child, a boy, had not survived his ard did not care to re dead the fool of a station doctor

Florence was conferring with Bessie, her one reirl on a privateA, and playfully thuard&039;s arm

&039;There&039;s no hope for you, Charlie,&039; he said, stabbing the air in front of Beauregard&039;s face with a fat cigar &039;Another good ard successfully sustained a se Since his return to London, he had been less frequently a guest at the get-togethers Florence&039;s position as a hostess to the fashionable and noted reh the question of her vanished husband hovered about always No one had the courage or the cruelty to enquire after Bram, as rumoured to have been removed to Devil&039;s Dyke after an altercation with the Lord Chauished intervention of Henry Irving, Stoker&039;s e that of his friend Van Helsing outside the Palace Lured by Penelope to this ard noted other absences No va Many of Florence&039;s for and his leading lady, the incomparable Ellen Terry - had turned Presumably others did not wish to associate even with the ruh the hostess, who encouraged debate at her after-darks, often made mention of her lack of interest in politics Florence - whose tireless struggle to surround herself with inally less pretty than herself Beauregard had to ad - entertained no question about the right of the Queen to rule, no ht of the earth to revolve around the sun

Bessie returned with a dusty bottle of chane Everyone discreetly set down their tea-bowls and saucers Florence gave thea slasses

&039;There must be a toast,&039; Florence insisted, &039;to Charles and Penelope&039;

Penelope was by his side again, holding fast his hand, showing hiarded it as if uncertain which end could be opened She would nor duties Mo with a quicksilver grace couor, and took the bottle He was not the first vaard had seen, but he was the ed since his turn Most new-borns fumbled with their limitations and capabilities, but His Lordship, with the poise of generations of breeding, had adapted perfectly

&039;Allowa napkin over his arm like a waiter

&039;Thank you, Art,&039; Florence babbled, &039;I&039; a long eye-tooth, and dug a fingernail into the cork, then flipped it out of the bottleneck as if tossing a coin Chalasses Florence held beneath the bottle His Lordship acceptedpractically burst with life Every woman in the roo Penelope, he could not help but notice

His fiancee did nothim unaware, she would produce soesture that exactly duplicated a mannerism of his late wife&039;s Of course, there were also the Churchward mouth and those eyes When he first married, eleven years previously, Penelope had been nine He recollected a somewhat nasty child in a pinafore and sailor hat, deftlyher family so the household revolved around her axis He re little Penny taunt the gardener&039;s boy to tears His bride-to-be still had a sharp tongue sheathed in her velvet ed to accept hers without for a o of his hand She had her prize and would not let it escape

The toast fell, of course, to Godalht, and said, &039;for me this is a sad ain, by ard I shall never recover, but I acknowledge Charles as the better ood husband should&039;

Beauregard, cynosure of all eyes, experienced discomfort He did not like to be looked at In his profession, it was unwise to attract notice of any kind

&039;To the beautiful Penelope,&039; Godal toasted, &039;and the admirable Charles&039;

&039;Penelope and Charles,&039; caled like a cat as the bubbles tickled her nose, and Beauregard took an unexpectedly healthy swig Everyone drank except Godallass down untouched on the tray

&039;I a ain

&039;Lord Godalirl Bessie understood and unbuttoned her blouse at the wrist

&039;Thank you, Bessie,&039; Godal said He took her hand as if to kiss it, then turned it over as if to read her palhtly sickened, but no one else evena pose of indifference, and howArthur Hol said, &039;I drink to you&039;

Opening hisfastened on to Bessie&039;s wrist, lightly puncturing the skin with his pointed incisors Godal licked away a trickle of blood The coard&039;s side She pressed her cheek to his shoulder but did not look away fro cool or the va lapped, Bessie swayed unsteadily on her ankles Her eyes fluttered with so between pain and pleasure Finally, the ht her deftly like a devoted Don Juan, holding her upright

&039;I have this effect on women,&039; he said, teeth blood-rimmed, &039;it is most inconvenient&039;

He found a divan and deposited the unconscious Bessie on it The girl&039;s wound did not bleed Godalard thought she must have been bled before to take it so cal the hospitality of her maid, sat beside Bessie and bound a handkerchief around her wrist She perfor a ribbon to a horse, with kindness but no especial concern

For a ard was dizzy

&039;What is it, dear-heart,&039; Penelope asked, arne,&039; he lied

&039;Will ays have cha as it is what you wish to drink&039;

&039;You&039;re so good to me, Charles&039;