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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/10379-0.txt b/10379-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..20b817c --- /dev/null +++ b/10379-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,16975 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10379 *** + +AT LOVE'S COST + +By CHARLES GARVICE + + + +AT LOVE'S COST + + + +CHAPTER 1 + +"Until this moment I have never fully realised how great an ass a man +can be. When I think that this morning I scurried through what might +have been a decent breakfast, left my comfortable diggings, and was +cooped up in a train for seven hours, that I am now driving in a +pelting rain through, so far as I can see for the mist, what appears to +be a howling wilderness, I ask myself if I am still in possession of my +senses. I ask myself why I should commit such lurid folly. Last night I +was sitting over the fire with a book--for it was cold, though not so +cold as this," the speaker shivered and dragged the collar of his +overcoat still higher--"at peace with all the world, with Omar purring +placidly by my side, and my soul wrapped in that serenity which belongs +to a man who has long since rid himself of that inconvenient +appendage--a conscience, and has hit upon the right brand of +cigarettes, and now--" + +He paused to sigh, to groan indeed, and shifted himself uneasily in the +well-padded seat of the luxurious mail-phaeton. + +"When Williams brought me your note, vilely written--were you sober, +Stafford?--blandly asking me to join you in this mad business, I smiled +to myself as I pitched the note on the fire. Omar smiled too, the very +cigarette smiled. I said to myself I would see you blowed first; that +nothing would induce me to join you, that I'd read about the lakes too +much and too often to venture upon them in the early part of June; in +fact, had no desire to see the lakes at any time or under any +conditions. I told Omar that I would see you in the lowest pit of +Tophet before I would go with you to--whatever the name of this place +is. And yet, here I am." + +The speaker paused in his complaint to empty a pool water from his +mackintosh, and succeeded--in turning it over his own leg. + +He groaned again, and continued. + +"And yet, here I am. My dear Stafford, I do not wish to upbraid you; I +am simply making to myself a confession of weakness which would be +pitiable in a stray dog, but which in a man of my years, with my +experience of the world and reputation for common sense, is simply +criminal. I do not wish to reproach you; I am quite aware that no +reproach, not even the spectacle of my present misery would touch your +callous and, permit me to frankly add, your abominably selfish nature; +but I do want to ask quite calmly and without any display of temper: +what the blazes you wanted to come this way round, and why you wanted +me with you?" + +The speaker, a slightly built man, just beyond the vague line of +"young," glanced up with his dark, somewhat sombre and yet softly +cynical eyes at the face of his companion who was driving. This +companion was unmistakably young, and there was not a trace of cynicism +in his grey-blue eyes which looked out upon the rain and mist with +pleasant cheerfulness. He was neither particularly fair nor dark; but +there was a touch of brighter colour than usual in his short, crisp +hair; and no woman had yet found fault with the moustache or the lips +beneath. And yet, though Stafford Orme's face was rather too handsome +than otherwise, the signs of weakness which one sees in so many +good-looking faces did not mar it; indeed, there was a hint of +strength, not to say sternness, in the well-cut lips, a glint of power +and masterfulness in the grey eyes and the brows above them which +impressed one at first sight; though when one came to know him the +impression was soon lost, effaced by the charm for which Stafford was +famous, and which was perpetually recruiting his army of friends. + +No doubt it is easy to be charming when the gods have made you good to +look upon, and have filled your pockets with gold into the bargain. +Life was a pageant of pleasure to Stafford Orme: no wonder he sang and +smiled upon the way and had no lack of companions. + +Even this man beside him, Edmund Howard, whose name was a by-word for +cynicism, who had never, until he had met Stafford Orme, gone an inch +out of his self-contained way to please or benefit a fellow-man, was +the slave of the young fellow's imperious will, and though he made +burlesque complaint of his bondage, did not in his heart rebel against +it. + +Stafford laughed shortly as he looked at the rain-swept hills round +which the two good horses were taking the well-appointed phaeton. + +"Oh, I knew you would come," he said. "It was just this way. You know +the governor wrote and asked me to come down to this new place of his +at Bryndermere--" + +"Pardon me, Stafford; you forget that I have been down South--where I +wish to Heaven I had remained!--and that I only returned yesterday +afternoon, and that I know nothing of these sudden alarums and +excursions of your esteemed parent." + +"Ah, no; so you don't!" assented Stafford; "thought I'd told you: shall +have to tell you now; I'll cut it as short as possible." He paused for +a moment and gently drew the lash of the whip over the wet backs of the +two horses who were listening intently to the voice of their beloved +master. "Well, three days ago I got a letter from my father; it was a +long one; I think it's the first long letter I ever received from him. +He informed me that for some time past he has been building a little +place on the east side of Bryndermere Lake, that he thought it would be +ready by the ninth of this month; and would I go down--or is it +up?--there and meet him, as he was coming to England and would go +straight there from Liverpool. Of course there was not time for me to +reply, and equally, of course, I prepared to obey. I meant going +straight down to Bryndermere; and I should have done so, but two days +ago I received a telegram telling me that the place would not be ready, +and that he would not be there until the eleventh, and asking me to +fill up the interval by sending down some horses and carriages. It +occurred to me, with one of those brilliant flashes of genius which you +have so often remarked in me, my dear Howard, that I would drive down, +at any rate, part of the way; so I sent some of the traps direct and +got this turn-out as far as Preston with me. With another of those +remarkable flashes of genius, it also occurred to me that I should be +devilish lonely with only Pottinger here," he jerked his head towards +the groom, who sat in damp and stolid silence behind. "And so I wrote +and asked you to come. Kind of me, wasn't it?" + +"Most infernally kind," said Howard, with a sigh of a ton weight. "Had +you any idea that your father was building this little place? By the +way, I can't imagine Sir Stephen building anything that could be +described as 'little'. + +"You are right," assented Stafford, with a nod. "I heard coming down +that it was a perfect palace of a place, a kind of palace of art +and--and that sort of thing. You know the governor's style?" His brows +were slightly knit for just a second, then he threw, as it were, the +frown off, with a smile. "No, I knew nothing about it; I knew as little +about it as I do of the governor himself and his affairs." + +Howard nodded. + +"When you come to think of it, Howard, isn't it strange that father and +son should know so little of each other? I have not seen the governor +for I forget how many years. He has been out of England for the last +fourteen or fifteen, with the exception of a few flying visits; and on +the occasion of those visits I was either at school on the Continent or +tramping about with a gun or a rod, and so we never met. I've a kind of +uneasy suspicion that my revered parent had no particular desire to +renew his acquaintance with his dutiful offspring; anyway, if he had, +he would have arranged a meeting. Seems rather peculiar; for in every +other respect his conduct as a parent has been above reproach." + +"Those are scarcely the terms by which I should designate a liberality +which can only be described as criminally lavish, and an indifference +to your moral progress which might more properly belong to an +unregenerate Turk than to an English baronet. Considering the +opportunities of evil afforded you by the possession of a practically +unlimited allowance, and a brazen cheek which can only be described as +colossal, the fact that you have not long since gone headlong to the +devil fills me with perpetual and ever-freshening wonder." + +Stafford yawned and shrugged his shoulders with cheerful acquiescence. + +"Should have gone a mucker ever so many times, old man, if it hadn't +been for you," he said; "but you've always been at hand just at the +critical moment to point out to me that I was playing the giddy goat +and going to smash. That's why I like to have you with me as a kind of +guide, monitor, and friend, you know." + +Howard groaned and attempted to get rid of another miniature pool of +water, and succeeded--as before. + +"I know," he assented. "My virtue has been its own reward--and +punishment. If I had allowed you to go your way to the proverbial dogs, +after whose society gilded youths like yourself appear to be always +hankering, I should not be sitting here with cold water running down my +back and surrounded by Nature in her gloomiest and dampest aspects. +Only once have I deviated from the life of consistent selfishness at +which every sensible man should aim, and see how I am punished! I do +not wish to be unduly inquisitive, but I should like to know where the +blazes we are going, and why we do not make for a decent hotel--if +there is such a thing in these desolate wilds." + +Stafford handed him the reins so that he himself might get out his +cigar-case, and with some little difficulty, and assisted by +Pottinger's soaked hat, the two gentlemen got their cigars alight. + +"There isn't a decent hotel for miles," explained Stafford. "There is +only a small inn at a little place called Carysford. I looked it out on +the map. I thought we'd drive there today, put up for the night to give +the horses a rest, and go on to this place of my governor's the next +day. It's on the opposite side of the lake." + +He jerked his whip to the right. + +"Which side, what lake?" asked Howard, hopelessly. "I see nothing of +the lake, nothing but mist and sodden hills. No wonder the word 'poet' +instinctively arouses one's animosity. When I think of the number of +well-meaning and inspired idiots who have written reams of poetry about +this place, I feel at this present moment as if I could cheerfully rend +even a Wordsworth, a Southey, or a Coleridge; and I look back with +remorse upon the hours, the throbs of admiration, I have expended upon +what I once deemed their inspired pages. If I remember rightly, most of +the lake poets went off their heads; when I gaze around me I must admit +that I am not surprised." + +Stafford laughed absently; he was quite accustomed to Howard's cynical +vein. + +"They're all right enough," he said. "That is, I suppose they are, for +I never read any of 'em since I left school. Oh, yes, they're right +enough about the beauty of the place; you should see it on a fine day." + +"Has anyone seen it on a fine day?" inquired Howard, with the innocent +air of one simply seeking information. "I asked a countryman in the +train if it always rained here, and he replied, 'No; it sometimes +snows.'" + +"That's a chestnut," remarked Stafford, with a laugh. "But it's all +nonsense about its always being wet here; they tell me it's fine for +weeks together; that you can never tell any instant whether it's going +to clear up or not; that the weather will change like a woman--Good +heavens, look at that!" + +He nodded to the east as he spoke. + +Unnoticed by them, the sky had been clearing gradually, the mists +sweeping, dissolving, away; a breath of wind now wafted them, like a +veil thrown aside, from hill and valley and lake, and a scene of +unparalleled beauty lay revealed beneath them. The great lake shone +like a sapphire; meadows of emerald, woods of darker green, hills of +purple and grey, silver and gold, rose from the bosom and the edge of +the great liquid jewel; the hills towering tier on tier into the +heavens of azure blue swept by clouds like drifting snow. + +The two men gazed in silence; even Pottinger, to whom his 'osses +generally represented all that was beautiful in nature, gaped with +wide-open mouth. + +"How's that for lofty, you unbeliever?" demanded Stafford. "Ever seen +anything like that before?" + +Howard had been considerably startled, but, of course, he concealed his +amazed admiration behind a mask of cynicism. + +"Rather a crib from Val Prinsep, isn't it, with a suggestion of a Drury +Lane pantomime about it? Good heavens! And there's the Fairy Palace all +complete," he added, as, the mists still rising, was discovered on the +slope of the other side a long and extremely ornate building, the pure +whiteness of which was reflected in the marvellous blue and opal of the +lake. "Can that be Sir Stephen's 'little place'?" + +"I'm afraid it is," said Stafford. "It looks like the governor," he +added, with a touch of gravity. + +"Well, it's very big, or, rather, long; and it's very white, but one's +bound to admit that it doesn't spoil the landscape," said Howard; "in +fact, standing there amidst the dark-green trees, with its pinnacles +and terraces, it's rather an ornament than otherwise. I suppose there +are flowers on those velvety lawns; and the interior, I'll wager my +life, matches the exterior. Fortunate youth to possess a Croesus for a +father:" + +"Yes; I suppose the governor must be tremendously oafish," said +Stafford. + +"The man who can build such a palace as that, and have the cool cheek +to call it 'a little place,' must in common decency be a +multi-millionaire." + +Stafford nodded and smoked thoughtfully for a minute as Pottinger left +the horses' heads and climbed into his seat behind, and the +mail-phaeton moved along the road, which began to dip down at this +point. + +"I know so little about my father," he said again. + +"And yet the world knows so much," remarked Howard, throwing open his +waterproof and basking in the sun which shone as warmly and +unreservedly as if it had never heard of such a thing as rain. "One +can't take up the paper without seeing some mention of Sir Stephen +Orme's great name. One day he is in Paris negotiating a state loan; +another you read he is annexing, appropriating, or whatever you call +it, a vast tract in Africa or Asia; on the third you are informed with +all solemnity that he has become director of a new bank, insurance +company, or one of those vast concerns in which only Rothschilds and +Barings can disport themselves. Now and again you are informed that Sir +Stephen Orme has been requested to stand for an important constituency, +but that he was compelled to decline because of the pressure of his +numerous affairs. There may be a more famous and important individual +in the world than your father, my dear Stafford, but I can't call him +to mind at this moment." + +"Chaff away," said Stafford, good-humouredly. "At any rate, he has been +a jolly liberal father to me. Did I tell you that just before he came +home be placed a largish sum at his bank for me; I mean over and above +my allowance?" + +"You didn't tell me, but I'm not at all surprised," responded Howard. +"A truly wonderful father, and a model to all other parents. Would that +I possessed such a one. You don't remember your mother, Stafford?" + +The young fellow's handsome face softened for an instant; and his voice +was low and grave as he replied: + +"No--and yet sometimes I fancy that I do; though, seeing that she died +when I was quite a kid, it must be only fancy. I wish she'd lived," his +voice became still lower; "I wish I had a brother, or a sister, +especially a sister--By George! that's a fine stream! Did you see that +fish jump, Howard?" + +"No, I was too much occupied in jumping myself. I thought by your +exclamation that something had happened to the carriage or the horses, +and that we were on the verge of a smash-up. Let it jump if it amuses +it." + +"So it may--if I don't catch it," said Stafford, pulling up the horses +near the bank of the stream. + +"Do you mean to tell me that you are going to fish?" demanded Howard, +with a groan. "My dear Stafford, I know that being that abominable +thing--a sportsman--you are consequently mad; but you might have the +decency to curb your insanity out of consideration for the wretched man +who has the misfortune to be your companion, and who plainly sees that +this period of sunshine is a gilded fraud, and that presently it will +rain again like cats and dogs." + +Stafford laughed. He had got down and dragged out a rod and a +fishing-basket. + +"Sorry, old chap," he said, "but no fisherman could lose such a chance +as this, even to save his best friend from rheumatic fever. I thought +we should come across a stream or two, and I put on these togs +accordingly." He wore a Norfolk suit of that wonderful Harris tweed +which, strange to say, keeps out the rain, the heat, and the cold; and +flies were stuck in his cap of the same material. "But, look here, +there's no need for me to keep you; Pottinger will drive you to this +place, Carysford, where we stay the night--I've engaged rooms--and you +can have a warm bath and get into the dress-clothes after which you are +hankering. When I've caught a fish or two I'll come on after you. Don't +argue, now!" + +"My dear Stafford, I haven't the least intention of doing so; I'm +simply dying for a bath, a change, and a huge fire; and when you arrive +you'll find me sitting over the latter humbly thanking God that I'm not +a sportsman." + +Stafford nodded, with his eyes on the stream. + +"I should give the nags some gruel, Pottinger, and put an extra coat on +them: it'll be cold to-night. Ta, ta, Howard! Tell 'em to get a nice +dinner; I'll be there in time for 'em to cook the fish; but don't wait +if I should be late--say half past seven." + +"I promise you I won't," retorted Howard, fervently. "And I am one of +those men who never break a promise--unless it's inconvenient." + +The phaeton drove on, Stafford went down to the stream, put up his rod, +chose a fly as carefully as if the fate of a kingdom depended on it, +and began to fish. + +There is this great advantage in the art of fly-fishing: that while you +are engaged in it you can think of nothing else: it is as absorbing as +love or scarlet fever. Stafford worked his fly steadily and +systematically, with a light and long "cast" which had made him famous +with the brethren of the craft, and presently he landed a glittering +trout, which, though only a pound in weight, was valued by Stafford at +many a pound in gold. The fish began to rise freely, and he was so +engrossed in the sport that he did not notice that Howard's prophecy +had come true, that the mist had swept over the landscape again, and +that it was raining, if not exactly cats and dogs, yet hard enough to +make even the opposite bank a blur in his vision. + +But Stafford was utterly indifferent to rain and mist while the trout +were rising, and his basket was half full before he looked around him. +It is wonderful, when you are fishing, how great a distance you can +walk without noticing it. He had followed the winding course of the +stream until it had left the road far behind and struck into a valley, +the wildness, the remoteness of which was almost awe-inspiring; and he +stood still for a moment and looked up at the sky into which the tall, +sharp peaks of the hills lost themselves. The stream, broken by huge +boulders, rumbled with a soft roar which was the only sound that broke +the stillness. It was the silence, a profound stillness, which makes +one feel as if one has wandered into an unknown world newly made and as +yet untouched by the foot of man, unsullied by his presence. + +Stafford could not have quoted a verse of poetry to save his life; it +wasn't in his line; he could ride straight, was a first-rate shot, +waltzed like an angel, and so far his dictionary did not contain the +word "fear;" but he knew nothing of poetry or art, and only liked some +kinds of music, amongst which, it is to be feared, "Soldiers of the +Queen," and the now much-abused chorus from "Faust," ranked high in his +estimation. He was just simply a healthy young Englishman, clean-limbed +and clean-minded, with a tremendous appetite for pleasure, a +magnificent frame, and a heart as light and buoyant as a cork; +therefore, though an artist or a poet would have been thrilled to the +marrow by the wild grandeur of the secluded valley and the grimly +towering hills, and would have longed to put them on canvas or into +verse, Stafford only felt suddenly grave, and as if it were playing it +low down to throw an artificial fly, even of the best make, in such a +spot. + +But in a moment or two the sportsman's instinct woke in him; a fish +stirred in a pool under a boulder, and pulling himself together he +threw a fly over the rise. As he did so, the brooding silence was +broken by the deep musical bark of a collie, followed by the sharp yap, +yap of a fox-terrier. The sudden sound almost startled Stafford; at any +rate, caused him to miss his fish; he looked up with a little frown of +annoyance, and saw on the break of the opposite hill some of the +mountain sheep which had stared at him with haughty curiosity running +down towards the green bottom of the valley followed by the two dogs. + +A moment afterwards a horse and rider were silhouetted on the extreme +top of the high hill. The horse was large whereby the rider looked +small; and for a moment the pair were motionless, reminding Stafford of +a bronze statue. The hill was fearfully steep, even the dogs ran with a +certain amount of caution, and Stafford wondered whether the rider--he +couldn't see if it was man or boy--would venture down the almost +precipitous slope. While he was wondering, the small figure on the +horse sent up a cry that rang like the note of a bell and echoed in +sweet shrillness down the hill and along the valley. The collie stopped +as if shot, and the fox-terrier looked round, prepared to go back to +the rider. It looked for a moment as if the rider were going down the +other side of the hill again; then suddenly, as if he detected +something wrong in the valley below, he turned the horse and came down +the hill-side at a pace which made Stafford, hard and fearless rider as +he was, open his eyes. + +It seemed to him impossible that the horse could avoid a false step or +a slip, and such a false step he knew would send steed and rider +hurtling down to something that could be very little short of instant +death. He forgot all about the big trout in the pool, and stood with +his fly drifting aimlessly in the water, watching with something like +breathless interest this, the most daring piece of horsemanship he had +ever witnessed; and he had ridden side by side with the best +steeplechaser of the day, and had watched a crack Hungarian cavalry +corps at its manoeuvres; which last is about the top notch of the +horse-riding business. + +But the big horse did not falter for a moment; down it came at a hard +gallop, and Stafford's admiration was swallowed up in amazement when he +saw that the rider was a young girl, that she was riding with about +half an ounce on the reins, and that, apparently, she was as much at +ease and unconscious of danger as if she were trotting on a tame hack +in Rotten Row. + +As she came nearer, admiration romped in ahead of amazement, for the +girl was a young one--she looked like the average school-girl--and had +one of the most beautiful faces Stafford had ever seen. She was dark, +but the cheek that was swept by the long lashes was colourless with +that exquisite and healthy pallor which one sees in the women of +Northern Spain. Her hair was black but soft and silky, and the wind +blew it in soft tendrils, now across her brow and now in dazzling +strands about the soft felt hat which sat in graceful negligence upon +the small and stately head. She wore a habit stained by use and +weather, and so short that it was little better than a skirt, and left +her almost as absolute a freedom as that enjoyed by the opposite sex. +Her hands were covered by well-worn gauntlets, and she held a stout and +workman-like crop with a long huntsman's thong. + +A poet would instantly have thought that it was a vision of the Spirit +of the Mountains; Stafford only thought it was the most lovely piece of +girlhood he had ever looked at. She did not see him for a moment, all +her attention being engrossed by the sheep which were now wandering up +the valley; then suddenly, as if she felt his presence rather than saw +it, her dark eyes flashed round upon him and she pulled up the big +horse on its haunches with a suddenness which ought to have sent her +from the saddle like a stone from a catapult; but she sat back as firm +as a rock and gazed at him steadily, with a calmness which fascinated +Stafford and kept him staring back at her as if he were the veriest +plough-boy. + +And to put it frankly, it was something like fascination. She had come +upon him so suddenly, her feat of horsemanship had been so audacious, +her beauty was so marvellous that Stafford, perhaps for the first time +in his life, found himself unable to utter a word in the presence of +one of the opposite sex. It was only for a moment or two, of course, +that he lost his presence of mind; then he pulled himself together and +raised his cap. She gave him the very slightest of bows. It was the +faintest indication only of response to his salute; her eyes rested on +his face with a strange, ungirlish calm, then wandered to the last +trout which lay on the bank. + +Stafford felt that something had to be said, but for the life of him, +for the first time in his experience, he couldn't hit upon the thing to +say. "Good-afternoon" seemed to him too banal, commonplace; and he +could think of nothing else for a moment. However, it came at last. + +"Will you be so good as to tell me if I am far from Carysford?" he +asked. + +"Four miles and three-quarters by the road, three miles over the hill," +she replied, slowly, as calmly as she had looked at him, and in a voice +low and sweet, and with a ring, a tone, in it which in some indefinable +way harmonised with her appearance. It was quite unlike the +conventional girl's voice; there rang in it the freedom of the lonely +valley, the towering hills, the freedom and unconventionality of the +girl's own figure and face and wind-tossed hair; and in it was a note +of dignity, of independence, and of a pride which was too proud for +defiance. In its way the voice was as remarkable as the beauty of the +face, the soft fire of the dark eyes. + +"I had no idea it was so far," said Stafford; "I must have wandered +away from the place. I started fishing on the road down below, and +haven't noticed the distance. Will you tell me the name of this place?" + +"Herondale," she replied. + +"Thank you," said Stafford. "It's a grand valley and a splendid +stream." She leant forward with her elbow on the saddle and her chin in +the small gauntletted hand, looked up the valley absently and then back +at him, with a frank speculation in her eyes which was too frank and +calm to be flattering, and was, indeed, somewhat embarrassing. + +"I suppose she takes me for a tourist, or a cheap tripper," thought +Stafford, with an uncomfortable kind of amusement; uncomfortable, +because he knew that this girl who was acting as shepherd in an old +weather-stained habit and a battered hat, was a lady. + +She broke the silence again. + +"Have you caught many fish?" she asked. + +Up to now they had been separated by the stream; Stafford seized the +opportunity, waded across in a fairly shallow place, and, opening the +lid of his basket, showed her the contents. + +"Yes, you have done fairly well," she said; "but the trout run larger +higher up the valley. By the way," her brows came together slightly, +though the very faintest of smiles for an instant curved the delicately +cut lips, "do you know that you are poaching?" + +This would have been a staggerer coming from a mere keeper, but from +this exquisitely beautiful, this calm statue of a girl, it was simply +devastating. Stafford stared at her. + +"Doesn't this river belong to Sir Joseph Avory?" he asked. + +"No," she replied, uncompromisingly. "Sir Joseph Avory's river is +called the Lesset water, and runs on the other side of that hill." + +She raised her hunting-crop and pointed with an exquisite movement, as +graceful as that of a Diana, to the hill behind her. + +"I am very sorry," said Stafford. "I thought this was his river. I met +him in London and got permission from him. Do you know to whom this +water belongs?" + +"To Mr. Heron, of Herondale," she replied. + +"I beg Mr. Heron's pardon," said Stafford. "Of course I'll put up my +rod at once; and I will take the first opportunity of apologising for +my crime; for poaching is a crime, isn't it?" + +"Yes," she assented, laconically. + +"Can you tell me where he lives--where his house is?" + +She raised her whip again and pointed to an opening on the left of the +valley, an opening lined on either side by a wild growth of magnificent +firs. + +"It is up there. You cannot see it from here," she said. As she spoke, +she took her chin from her hand and sat upright, gathered up her reins, +and, with another of the faint inclinations of her head, by way of +adieu, rode on up the valley. + +Stafford stood with his cap in his hand looking after her for a moment, +in a brown study; and, still watching the back of the slight figure +that sat the big horse with the grace of an Indian maiden, he began to +take down his rod, and, having packed it in his case and fastened his +basket, he followed her along the broken bank of the stream. Presently, +when she had gone some little distance, he heard the dogs start barking +again, the crack of her whip rang like a pistol-shot, and her bell-like +voice echoed amongst the hills, joined with the troubled baaing of the +sheep. Stafford stopped and watched her: there was evidently something +wrong; for the dogs had become excited, the sheep were running wildly; +but the girl's exquisite voice was as clear and calm as ever, and the +big horse cantered over the broken ground, taking a big boulder now and +again with lilting jump, as if he were going by his own volition and +was well up in all the points of the game. After a time the dogs got +the sheep into a heap, and the young girl rode round them; but +something still seemed to be wrong, for she got down, and, leaving the +horse quite free, made her way into the flock. + +At that moment Stafford saw a sheep and a lamb break from the mob and +make for the stream; the sheep jumped to a boulder with the agility of +a goat, the lamb attempted to follow, but missed the boulder and fell +into the stream. The water was wild here and the pools deep; and as the +lamb was swept down toward Stafford he saw that it was struggling in an +ineffectual way, and that it looked like a case of drowning. + +Of course he went for it at once, and wading in made a grab at it; he +got hold of it easily enough, but the lamb--a good sized +one--struggled, and in the effort to retain his hold Stafford's feet +slipped and he went headfirst into a deep pool. He was submerged for a +second only, and when he came up he had the satisfaction of feeling +that he had still got the lamb; and gripping the struggling thing +tightly in his arms, he made for the opposite bank. And looking up, saw +the girl standing waiting for him, her face alive, alight, dancing with +delight and amusement! The laughter shone in her eyes like dazzling +sunlight and quivered on the firm but delicate lips. But it was only +for a moment; before Stafford had fully taken it in and had responded +to it with one of his own short laughs, her face was grave and calm +again. "Thank you." she said, with a gravity matching her face, and +very much as one is thanked for passing the salt. "It would have +drowned if you had not been there. It is lame and couldn't swim. I saw, +from the top of the hill, that it was lame, and I was afraid something +would happen to it." + +As she spoke, she took the lamb, which was bleating like mad, laid it +on the ground and holding it still, firmly but gently, with her knee, +examined it with all the confidence and coolness of a vet. + +"You'll make yourself most frightfully wet," said Stafford. + +She glanced up at him with only faint surprise. + +"You are a Londoner," she said, "or you would know that here, in these +parts, we are so often more wet than dry that it makes no matter. Yes, +I thought so; there was a thorn in its foot. May I trouble you to hold +him a minute?" + +Stafford held the lamb, which was tolerably quiet now; and she slowly +took off her gauntlets, produced a little leather wallet from the +saddle--the horse coming at her call as if he were a dog--took out a +serviceable pair of tweezers, and, with professional neatness, +extracted an extremely ugly thorn. Stafford stood and watched her; the +collie and the fox-terrier upright on their haunches watching her also; +the collie gave an approving bark as, with a pat she liberated the +lamb, which went bleating on its way to join its distracted mother, the +fox-terrier leapt round her with yaps of excited admiration; and there +was admiration in Stafford's eyes also. The whole thing had been done +with a calm, almost savage grace and self-possession, and she seemed to +be absolutely unconscious of his presence, and only remembered it when +the lamb and its mother had joined the flock. + +"Thank you again," she said. "It was very kind of you. I am afraid you +are wet." + +As Stafford had gone completely under the water, this was a fact he +could not deny, but he said with a laugh: + +"Though I am a Londoner, in a sense, I don't mind a wetting--in a good +cause; and I shall be dry, or as good as dry, before I get to the inn. +You must have eyes like a hawk to have seen, from the top of the hill, +that that lamb was lame," he added, rather with the desire to keep her +than to express his admiration for her sight. + +"I have good eyes," she said, indifferently. "One has to have. But I +saw that the lamb was lame from the way it kept beside its mother and +the fuss she made over it: and I knew, too, by Donald's bark, that +something was wrong. I am sorry you are wet. Will you--" She glanced +towards the opening in the hills, paused, and for the first time seemed +slightly embarrassed; Stafford fancied that a faint touch of colour +came to the clear pallor of the lovely young face. She did not finish +the sentence, but with another "Thank you," and "I should not have +liked to have lost the lamb," went towards her horse. + +Stafford advanced to put her in the saddle; but, with a little shake of +the head and a "Don't trouble," she sprang into her place and rode off. + +Stafford looked after her, as he had done before; then he said, "Well, +I'm d-----d!" + +He felt for his pouch, filled his pipe and lit it, and in doing so his +eyes fell upon the little wallet from which she had taken her tweezers. +He picked it up and quickly shouted to her; but the dogs were barking +with furious delight, she was cracking her whip, and she had ridden too +far for her to hear him through the noise. It would have been sheer +folly to have run after her; so, with a shrug of his shoulders, +Stafford put the little wallet in his pocket, waded the stream and, +after a moment or two of consideration, made for the inn by the nearest +way, to wit, across the hill. + +The girl rode along the strip of level moorland beside the river until +she came to a narrow and not particularly well--kept road which led +through the opening of the hills towards which she had motioned her +whip. Once or twice a smile crossed her face, and once she laughed as +she thought of the comical picture which the young man had made as he +struggled to dry land with the wet lamb in his arms; and the smile and +her laugh made her face seem strangely girlish, because it was usually +so calm, so gravely self-reliant. Some girls would have been quick to +detect the romantic side of the incident, and would have dwelt with a +certain sense of satisfaction upon the fact that the young man was tall +and handsome and distinguished looking. But this girl had scarcely +noticed it; at any rate, it had not affected her in any way. She had +too much to do; there was too much upon her well-formed and graceful +shoulders to permit her to indulge in romance: Diana herself was not +more free from sentiment than this young girl who rode her horse just +like a Mexican, who was vet enough to perform a surgical operation on a +lamb, and who knew how many bushels of wheat should run to an acre, and +the best dressing for permanent pastures. It did occur to her that she +might, at any rate after he had rescued the lamb, have given him +permission to go on fishing; but she was not very sorry for having +failed to do so, for after all, he had been poaching, and, as she had +said, poaching was in her eyes a crime. + +She went down the road at a swift trot, and presently it was blocked by +a pair of wrought-iron gates, so exquisite in their antique +conscientiousness that many a mushroom peer would have given almost +their weight in gold to place them at the beginning of his newly made +park; but no one came to open them, they were closed by a heavily +padlocked chain, and the lodge beside them was empty and dilapidated; +and the girl rode beside the lichen-covered wall in which they stood +until she came to an opening leading to an old arch which faced a broad +and spacious court-yard. As she rode beneath the arch a number of dogs +yelped a welcome from kennels or behind stable half-doors, and a bent +old man, dressed like something between a stableman and a butler, came +forward, touching his forehead, to take her horse. She slipped from the +saddle, patted the horse, and murmured a word or two of endearment; but +her bright eyes flashed round the court-yard with a glance of +responsibility. + +"Have you brought the colt in, Jason?" she asked. + +Jason touched his forehead again. + +"Yes, Miss Ida. It took me three-quarters of an hour; it won't come to +me like it does to you. It's in a loose stall." + +"Saddle it to-morrow morning," she said, "and I will come and try it. +The brindle cow has got into the corn, and the fence wants mending down +by the pool; you must get William to help you, and do it at once. He +has taken the steers to market, I suppose? I didn't see them in the +three acre. Oh, and, Jason, I found someone fishing in the dale; you +must get a notice board and put it up where the road runs near the +river; the tourists' time is coming on, and though they don't often +come this side of the lake, some of them may, and we can't afford to +have the river poached. And, Jason, look to Ruppert's off-hind shoe; I +think it's loose; and--" She stopped with a short laugh. "But that's +enough for one time, isn't it? Oh, Jason, if I were only a man, how +much better it would be!" + +"Yes, miss," assented Jason, simply, with another touch of his +forehead. + +She sighed and laughed again, and gathering up her habit--she hadn't to +raise it much--she went through an open door-way into a wild, but +pretty garden, and so to the back of one of the most picturesque houses +in this land of the picturesque. It was built of grey stone which age +had coloured with a tender and an appreciative hand; a rich growth of +ivy and clematis clung lovingly over a greater portion of it so that +the mullioned windows were framed by the dark leaves and the purple +flower. The house was long and rambling and had once been flourishing +and important, but it was now eloquent of decay and pathetic with the +signs of "better times" that had vanished long ago. A flight of worn +steps led to a broad glass door, and opening the latter, the girl +passed under a curved wooden gallery into a broad hall. It was dimly +lit by an oriel window of stained glass, over which the ivy and +clematis had been allowed to fall; there was that faint odour which +emanates from old wood and leather and damask; the furniture was +antique and of the neutral tint which comes from age; the weapons and +the ornaments of brass, the gilding of the great pictures, were all dim +and lack-lustre for want of the cleaning and polishing which require +many servants. In the huge fire-place some big logs were burning, and +Donald and Bess threw themselves down before it with a sigh of +satisfaction. The girl looked round her, just as she had looked round +the stable-yard; then, tossing her soft hat and whip on the old oak +table, she went to one of the large heavy doors, and knocking, said in +her clear voice: + +"Father, are you there?" + +Inside the room an old man sat at a table. It was littered with books, +some of them open as if he had been consulting them; but before him lay +an open deed, and at his elbow were several others lying on an open +deed-box. He was thin and as faded-looking and as worn with age as the +house and the room, lined with dusty volumes and yellow, +surface-cracked maps and pictures. He wore a long dressing-gown which +was huddled round him as if he were cold, though a fire of logs almost +as large as the one in the hall was burning in the open fire-place. + +At the sound of the knock he raised his head, an expression, which was +a mixture of fear and senile cunning came into his lined and pallid +face, his dull eyes peered from under their lids with a flash of sudden +alertness, and with one motion of his long hands he hurriedly folded +the deed before him, crammed it, with the others, into the box, locked +it with a hurried and trembling hand, and placed it in a cupboard, +which he also locked; then he drew one of the large books into the +place were the deed had been, and with a cautious glance round the +room, shuffled to the door, and opened it. + +As the girl entered, one would have noticed the resemblance between her +and the old man, and have seen that they were father and daughter; for +Godfrey Heron had been one of the handsomest men of his time, and +though she had got her dark eyes and the firm, delicate lips from her +mother, the clear oval of her face and its expression of aristocratic +pride had come from the Herons. + +"Are you here still, father?" she said. "It is nearly dinner-time, and +you are not dressed. You promised me that you would go out: how wicked +of you not to have done so!" + +He shuffled back to the table and made a great business of closing the +book. + +"I've been busy--reading, Ida," he said. "I did not know it was so +late. You have been out, I see; I hope you have enjoyed your ride. Have +you met anyone?" + +"No," she replied; then she smiled, as she added: "Only a poacher." + +The old man raised his head, a faint flush came on his face and his +eyes flashed with haughty resentment. + +"A poacher! What are the keepers about! Ah, I forgot; there are no +keepers now; any vagrant is free to trespass and poach on Herondale!" + +"I'm sorry, father!" she said, laying her hand on his arm soothingly. +"It was not an ordinary poacher, only a gentleman who had mistaken the +Heron water for the Avory's. Come now, father, you have barely time to +dress." + +"Yes, yes, I will come in a moment--a moment," he said. + +But after she had left the room, he still lingered, and when at last he +got to the door, he closed it and went back to the cupboard and tried +it, to see if it were locked, muttering, suspiciously: + +"Did she hear me? She might have heard the rustle of the parchment, the +turn of the lock. Sometimes I think she suspects--But, no, no, she's a +child still, and she'd say something, speak out. No, no; it's all +right. Yes, yes, I'm coming, Ida!" he said aloud, as the girl called to +him on her way up the stairs. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +As Stafford climbed the hill steadily, he wondered who the girl was. It +did not occur to him that she might be the daughter of the Mr. Heron to +whom the stream belonged and from whose family name the whole dale had +taken its own; for, though she had looked and spoken like a lady, the +habit, the gauntlets, the soft felt hat were old and weather-stained: +and her familiarity with the proper treatment of a sheep in difficulty +indicated rather the farmer's daughter than that of the squire. + +She was not by any means the first pretty girl Stafford had seen--he +had a very large acquaintance in London, and one or two women whose +beauty had been blazoned by the world were more than friendly +with the popular Stafford Orme--but he thought as he went up +the hill, which seemed to have no end, that he had never seen a more +beautiful face than this girl's; certainly he had never seen one which +had impressed him more deeply. Perhaps it was the character of the +loveliness which haunted him so persistently: it was so unlike the +conventional drawing-room type with which he was so familiar. + +As he thought of her it seemed to him that she was like a wild and +graceful deer--one of the deer which he had seen coming down to a +mountain stream to drink on his father's Scotch moor; hers was a wild, +almost savage loveliness--and yet not savage, for there had been the +refinement, the dignity of high race in the exquisite grey eyes, the +curve of the finely cut lips. Her manner, also, prevented him from +forgetting her. + +He had never met with anything like it, she had been as calm and +self-possessed as a woman of forty; and yet her attitude as she leant +forward in the saddle, her directness of speech, all her movements, had +the _abandon_ of an unconscious child; indeed, the absence of +self-consciousness, her absolute freedom from anything like shyness, +combined with a dignity, a touch of hauteur and pride, struck him as +extraordinary, almost weird. + +Stafford was not one of your susceptible young men; in fact, there was +a touch of coldness, of indifference to the other sex which often +troubled his women-friends; and he was rather surprised at himself for +the interest which the girl had aroused in him. He wondered if he +should meet her again, and was conscious of a strong, almost a very +strong, desire to do so which, he admitted to himself, was strange: for +he did not at that moment remember any girl whom, at his first meeting +with her, he had hankered to see again. + +He got to the top of the hill at last and began to drop down; there was +nothing but a wandering sheep-path here and there, and the mountain was +by no means as easy to descend as the classic Avernus; so that when he +got to the bottom and came in sight of the little inn nestling in a +crook of the valley he was both tired and hungry. Howard, beautiful in +evening-dress, came sauntering to the door with his long white hands in +his pocket and a plaintive reproach on his Vandyke face. + +"I was just about to send off the search party, my dear Stafford," he +said. "Is it possible that you have just come down that hill? Good +heavens! What follies are committed in thy name, O Sport! And of course +there are no fish--there never are! The water is always too thin or too +thick, the sky too bright or too dull, the wind too high or too low. +Excuses are the badge of all the angling tribe." + +Stafford took his basket from his shoulder and made a pretence of +slinging it at Howard's head; then tossed it to the landlord, who stood +by, smiling obsequiously. + +"Cook some of 'em as soon as you can," he said; then he followed the +neat and also smiling chamber-maid up to his room, where, for all his +pretended indolence and cynicism, Howard had caused his friend's things +to be laid out in readiness for him. Stafford dressed slowly, smoking a +cigarette during the operation, and still thinking of the strange +"farmer's daughter." And then he went down and joined Howard in the +room he had ordered. + +Lake hotels may lack the splendour to which we are all growing +accustomed, and of which, alas! we are also growing rather wearied, but +they are most of them extremely comfortable and cosy; and The Woodman +at Carysford was no exception to the rule. Stafford looked round the +low-pitched room, with its old-fashioned furniture, its white +dinner-cloth gleaming softly in the sunset and the fire-light, and +sighed with a nod of satisfaction. + +"This is something like, eh, old man?" he said; and even Howard deigned +to nod approvingly. + +"Yes," he said. "If anything could compensate one for the miseries of +travel, especially that awful drive, this should do so. I confess I had +looked forward to a crowning discomfort in the shape of a cold and +draughty and smelly room, fried chops or a gory leg of mutton and a +heel of the cheese made by Noah in the Ark. I fancy that we are going +to have a decent dinner; and I trust I may not be disappointed, for it +is about the only thing that will save my life. Are you dry yet? You +looked as if you had been walking through a river instead of beside +it." + +"That's just what I have been doing," said Stafford, with a laugh. +"I've had an adventure--" + +"I know," interrupted Howard, with a sigh. "You are going to tell me +how you hooked a trout six foot in length, how it dragged you a mile +and a half up the river, how you got it up to the bank, and how, just +as you were landing it, it broke away and was lost. Every man who has +been fishing has that adventure." + +Stafford laughed with his usual appreciation of his friend's amusing +cynicism; but he did not correct him; for at that moment, the neat +maid-servant brought in the trout, which proved to be piping hot and of +a golden-brown; and the two men commenced a dinner which, as compared +with the famous, or infamous one, of the London restaurant, was +Olympian. The landlord himself brought in a bottle of claret, which +actually was sound, and another of port, in a wicker cradle, which even +Howard deigned to approve of; and the two men, after they had lingered +over their dinner, got into easy-chairs beside the fire and smoked +their cigars with that sweet contentment which only tobacco can +produce, and only then when it follows a really good meal. + +"Do you know how long you are going to stay in your father's little +place?" Howard asked, after a long and dreary silence. + +Stafford shrugged his shoulders slightly. + +"'Pon my word, I don't know," he answered. "I'm like the school-boy: 'I +don't know nothink.' I suppose I shall stay as long as the governor +does; and, come to that, I suppose he doesn't know how long that will +be. I've got to regard him as a kind of stormy petrel; here to-day and +gone to-morrow, always on the wing, and never resting anywhere for any +time. I'm never surprised when I hear that, though his last letter was +dated Africa, he has flown back to Europe or has run over to +Australia." + +"Y-es," said Howard, musingly, "there is an atmosphere of mystery and +romance about your esteemed parent, Sir Stephen Orme, which smacks of +the Arabian Nights, my dear Stafford. Man of the world as I am, I must +confess that I regard him with a kind of wondering awe; and that I +follow his erratic movements very much as one would follow the +celestial progress of a particularly splendacious comet. He never +ceases to be an object of wonderment to me; and I love to read of his +gigantic projects, his vast wealth, his brilliant successes; and I tell +you frankly that I am looking forward to seeing him with a mixture of +fear and curiosity. Do not be surprised, if, at my introduction, I fall +on my hands and knees in Oriental abasement. I have admired him so much +and so long at a distance that he has assumed in my eyes an almost +regal, not to say imperial, importance." "I hope you will like him," +said Stafford, with a touch of that simplicity which all his friends +liked. + +"If he resembles his son, I am sure to do so," said Howard. "Indeed, in +any case I am pretty sure to do so. For how often have I read of his +wonderful charm of manner, his winning smile and brilliant +conversational powers? When do we get to this fairy palace?" + +"I suppose if we get there before dinner, it will be time enough," +replied Stafford. "By the way, I'd better ask how far it is. Don't +ring. I want to go up for some more cigars." + +He went up to his room, and in getting them from his bag, saw the +little instrument case which he had thrown into his bag when he was +changing. Back came the vision of the strange girl with the beautiful +face. + +He slipped the wallet in his pocket, and when he reached the hall he +turned to the open door of the little room which served as the +landlord's office, or bar-room. + +The landlord was enjoying a cigar and a glass of whiskey and water, and +he opened the door still wider and gave a respectful smile of welcome. + +"You have a very comfortable hotel here, Mr. Groves," said Stafford, by +way of opening the conversation. "We have had a capital dinner, and +have enjoyed it tremendously; was that '72 port you gave us?" + +"Yes, sir," replied Mr. Groves, much gratified. For you go straight to +a landlord's heart when you guess a good vintage and appreciate it. "I +am glad you like it, sir; there's more of it at your service. Will you +take a seat, sir, and may I offer you a glass of whiskey? It is as good +as the port, if I may say so." + +Stafford accepted, and presented his cigar case. He asked the distance +to the new house on the other side of the lake, and having been +informed, spoke of the fishing. + +"You did very well to-day, sir." said Mr. Groves. "You were fishing in +the Heron water, I suppose?" + +This was what Stafford wanted. + +"Yes," he said. "I was poaching. I mistook it for the Lesset water. I +must go over and apologise to Mr. Heron. By the way, I was told I was +poaching by a young lady who rode down to the stream while I was +fishing. I had some little conversation with her, but I did not learn +her name. She was a young lady with dark hair, rode a big horse, and +had a couple of dogs with her--a collie and a fox-terrier." The +landlord had nodded assentingly at each item of the description. + +"That must have been Miss Ida--Miss Heron, the squire's daughter, sir," +he said. + +Stafford's brows went up. + +"No wonder she stared at me," he said, almost to himself. "But are you +sure? The young lady I saw was not dressed, well--like a squire's +daughter, and she was looking after some sheep like--like a farmer's +girl." + +The landlord nodded again. + +"That was Miss Ida, right enough, sir," he said, with a touch of +respect, and something like pride in his tone. "Indeed, it couldn't be +anyone else. No doubt Miss Ida had come down to look after the sheep in +the valley; and there's no farmer's daughter in the vale that could do +it better, or half so well, as she. There isn't a girl in the county, +or, for that matter, a man, either, who can ride like Miss Ida, or +knows more about the points of a horse or a dog--yes, and you may say a +cow--than the squire's daughter. And as to her being poorly +dressed--well, there's a reason for that, sir. The family's poor--very +poor." + +"Yet the dale seems to be called after them?" Stafford remarked. + +"It is, sir!" assented the landlord. "At one time they owned more land +than any other of the big families here; miles and miles of it, with +some of the best farms. But that was before my time, though I've heard +my father tell of it; there's not very much left now beyond the dale +and the home meadows." He sighed as he spoke and looked sadly at the +costly cigar which he was smoking. The feudal spirit still exists in +the hearts of the men who were born in these remote dales and towering +hills, and the landlord of the little inn was as proud of the antiquity +of the Heron family, and as sorry for its broken fortune as any +_villein_ of the middle ages could have been for the misfortunes of his +feudal baron. + +"Heron Hall used to be a fine place at one time, sir. I can remember my +father describing what it was in his and his father's days; how there +used to be scores of servants, and as many as fifty horses in the +stables; with the great place filled with guests summer and winter, +spring and autumn. The Squire Heron of that time never rode behind less +than four horses, and once, when he was high sheriff, he rode to meet +the judges with six. It was open house to every poor man in the place, +and no wanderer was ever turned from the door. The squire of my +father's time was the county member, and the day he was elected there +were two hogsheads of port and two of brandy broached on the lawn in +front of the terrace; and for a week afterwards there was scarcely a +sober man in the town for miles round. He was master of the hounds, and +the hunt breakfasts and the hunt balls were more splendid than anything +else of that kind in the kingdom; in fact, people used to come from all +parts of the kingdom to attend them. Yes, the Herons made Herondale +famous, as you may say, sir." + +He paused and shook his head, and Stafford remained silent: he was too +wise to break in upon the narrative. The landlord sighed and looked +lovingly at his cigar, then went on: + +"They offered that squire--Miss Ida's grandfather--a peerage; the +Herons had often been offered a baronetcy; but they'd always refused, +and the squire declined the peerage. He said that no man could wish to +be higher than Heron, of Herondale; that better men than he had been +contented with it, and he was quite satisfied with the rank which had +satisfied his forefathers. When he died, the followers at the funeral +made a procession a mile and a quarter long." + +"How did the family lose its money, drop its greatness?" Stafford +asked. + +The landlord screwed up his eyes thoughtfully. + +"Well, it's hard to tell, sir," he replied. "Of course there was always +a tremendous drain going on; for it was not only down here that the +squire spent the money freely; but it was just the same or worse when +he was in London; he had a big house there, and entertained as +splendidly, perhaps more so, than he did at the Hall. In those days, +too, sir, there was as much gaming and betting as there is now, perhaps +more--though I'm told that great folks are more given nowadays to +gambling on the Stock Exchange than at cards or race-horses; begging +your pardon, sir!" + +"I'm afraid you're right," assented Stafford, with his short laugh. "I +prefer the old way myself." + +"Just so, sir," said the landlord, with an approving nod. "Well, what +with the money going here and there and everywhere, they found when the +present squire's father died that there was very little left; and worse +than all, that some of the land was sold, and what remained was heavily +mortgaged. It's what often happens to old families, sir, more's the +pity!" + +"Yes," said Stafford. "And is the present squire like his father?" + +"No, sir, not a bit," replied the landlord, with a thoughtful and +somewhat puzzled frown. "Quite the reverse. His father was free and +easy with everybody, and had a pleasant word and shake of the hand for +everyone he met; but the present squire was always shy and quiet as a +boy; kind of reserved and stand-offish, if you know what I mean, sir. +When he came into the property, he became more reserved than ever, +avoided all his father's old friends and shut himself up at the Hall +and kept himself to himself. He was a college gentleman and fond of +books, and he spent all his time alone in his library like a--a hermit. +He went abroad for a time, to Italy, they thought, and he came back +with a wife; but she didn't make things more lively, for she died soon +after Miss Ida was born. Miss Ida was the only child. She was sent away +for some time to be taken care of by one of the relatives, and she's +only been back for a couple of years." + +"Poor girl," said Stafford, involuntarily. + +"Well, yes, you may say that, sir," said the landlord, but doubtfully, +"though it don't seem as if Miss Ida was in need of much pity; she is +so bright and--and high-spirited, as you may say; though it's a wonder +she can be so, seeing the life she leads, alone in that great place +with her father, who never goes beyond the garden, and who shuts +himself up with his books all day. Yes, it's a wonder, when you come to +think of it, that she can smile and laugh and be as cheerful as she is. +I often hear her singing when she's riding through the dale or along +the road here. Miss Ida's wonderfully liked by all the people, sir; in +fact, you might say that they worship her." + +"I can understand it," said Stafford, almost to himself. + +"It must have been great change to her," continued the landlord, +"coming down here from London to such a wild, out-of-the-way place; +many young ladies would have lost heart and pined and fretted; but +she's a true Heron, is Miss Ida, and she faced the thing fairly and +buckled to, as you may say. She took the whole thing on her shoulders, +and though she couldn't coax the squire out of his shell, she takes +care of him and runs the whole place as if she were a man. Yes, sir, +though she's only a girl, as you saw yourself, she manages the house +and the farm as if she were a woman of forty. It's wonderful how she's +picked it up. I honestly believe there isn't a man in the place as +knows more about horses, as I said, than she does; but that's in the +blood, sir, and she can ride--well, you saw for yourself." + +"And has she no society, no amusements; doesn't she go out, have +friends, I mean?" + +The landlord shook his head. + +"No, sir; she just lives there with the squire, and they see no one, +receive no visits and pay none. You see, sir, the Herons are proud; +they're got cause to be, and I've heard it told that the squire is too +proud to let the old family friends see the poverty of the house, and +that he hates the new people who bought land and built houses in the +place--I'm sure I beg your pardon, sir--I was forgetting for the moment +that your father, Sir Stephen, had just built that beautiful place the +other side of the lake." + +Stafford smiled. + +"That's all right, Mr. Groves," he said. "I can quite understand Mr. +Heron thinking it confounded cheek of a stranger to come here and stick +up a great white place which no one can fail to see five miles off. I +suppose you think if I were to present myself at the Hall, I should get +a very cold reception, eh?" + +"I'm afraid you wouldn't get any reception at all, sir," replied +Groves, with respectful candour. "I am afraid neither Mr. Heron nor +Miss Ida would see you. The old butler would just say: 'Not at home,' +as he says to the county people when they try and call there, +especially if they knew who you were, sir. If I remember rightly, the +part of the land Sir Stephen bought belonged to the Herons." + +"I see," said Stafford. "It strikes me it is rather a sad story, Mr. +Groves; it's a case of the children paying for the sins of their +fathers." + +"That's it, sir," assented the landlord. "It takes ages to build up a +house and a family like the Herons; but one man can knock it down, so +to speak. It's hard lines for Miss Ida, who is as well-born as any of +the titled people in the county, and far better than most. They say +that she's been wonderful well educated, too; though, of course, she +hasn't seen anything of the world, having come straight from some small +place in foreign parts to be shut up in the dale. And it's quite out of +the world here, sir, especially in the winter when the snow lies so +thick that we're almost imprisoned. But wet or fine, hot or cold, Miss +Ida can always be seen riding or driving or walking; she's a regular +Westmoreland lass for that; no weather frights her." + +At this juncture Howard sauntered out of the sitting-room, and he and +Stafford went to the open door and looked out on the exquisite view +which was now bathed in the soft light of a newly risen moon. + +"It still has a smack of Drury Lane, hasn't it?" said Howard. "Strange +that whenever we see anything beautiful in the way of a landscape we at +once compare it with a stage 'set.' The fact of it is, my dear +Stafford, we have become absolutely artificial; we pretend to admire +Nature, but we are thinking of a theatre all the time; we throw up our +eyes ecstatically when we hear a nightingale, but we much prefer a +comic singer at the Tivoli. We talk sentiment, at feast, some of us, +but we have ceased to feel it; we don't really know what it means. I +believe some of the minor poets still write about what they call Love, +but in my private opinion the thing itself has become instinct. Who +knows anything about it? Take yourself, for instance; you've never been +in love, you've everything that you can desire, you're clad in purple +and fine linen, you fare sumptuously every day, you flirt six days in +the week, and rest not on the seventh--but love! You don't know what it +means; and if you do, you're far too wise in your generation to go in +for such an uncomfortable emotion." + +Stafford smiled rather absently; he was scarcely listening; he was so +accustomed to Howard's cynical diatribes that more often than not they +made no more impression on him than water on a duck's back. Besides, he +was thinking of Ida Heron, the girl whose strange history he had just +been listening to. + +There was silence for a minute or two, and while they stood leaning +against the door-way two men came out of another door in the inn and +stood talking. They were commercial travellers, and they were enjoying +their pipes--of extremely strong tobacco--after a hard day's work. +Presently one of them said: + +"Seen that place of Sir Stephen Orme's on the hill? Splendacious, isn't +it? Must have cost a small fortune. I wonder what the old man's game +is." + +The other man shook his head, and laughed. + +"Of course he's up to some game. He wouldn't lay out all that money for +nothing, millionaire as he is. He's always got something up his sleeve. +Perhaps he's going to entertain some big swell he wants to get into his +net, or some of the foreign princes he's hand-in-glove with. You never +know what Sir Stephen Orme's up to. Perhaps he's going to stand for the +county; if so, he's bound to get in. He always succeeds, or, if he +don't, you don't hear of his failures. He's the sort of man Disraeli +used to write about in his novels. One of the chaps who'd go through +fire and water to get their ends; yes, and blood too, if it's +necessary. There's been some queer stories told about him; they say he +sticks at nothing. Look at that last Turkish concession." + +The speaker and his companion sauntered down the road. Stafford and +Howard had heard every word; but Stafford looked straight before him, +and made no sign, and Howard yawned as if he had not heard a syllable. + + +"Do you raise any objection to my going to my little bed, Stafford?" he +asked. "I suppose, having done nothing more than clamber about a river, +get wet through, and tramp a dozen miles over hills, you do not feel +tired." + +"No," said Stafford, "I don't feel like turning in just yet. +Good-night, old man." + +When Howard had gone Stafford exchanged his dress-coat for a +shooting-jacket, and with the little wallet in his pocket and his pipe +in his mouth, he strode up the road. As he said, he did not feel +tired--it was difficult for Stafford, with his athletic frame and +perfect muscular system, to get tired under any circumstances--the +night was one of the loveliest he had ever seen, and it seemed wicked +to waste it by going to bed, so he walked on, all unconsciously going +in the direction of Heron Hall. The remarks about his father which had +fallen from the bagman, stuck to him for a time like a burr: it isn't +pleasant to hear your father described as a kind of charlatan and +trickster, and Stafford would have liked to have collared the man and +knocked an apology out of him; but there are certain disadvantages +attached to the position of gentlemen, and one of them is that you have +to pretend to be deaf to speeches that were not intended for your ears; +so Stafford could not bash the bagman for having spoken disrespectfully +of the great Sir Stephen Orme. + +But presently, almost suddenly, Stafford came in sight of the +magnificent iron gates, and he forgot his father and the talkative +commercial traveller, and his interest in the girl of the dale flashed +back upon him with full force. He saw that the gates were chained and +locked, and, with a natural curiosity, he followed the road beside the +wall. It stopped almost abruptly and gave place to a low railing which +divided the lawn in front of the house from the park beyond; and the +long irregular facade of the old building was suddenly revealed. + + +CHAPTER III. + +Stafford looked at it with admiration mingled with pity. In the light +of the story the landlord had told him he realised the full pathos of +its antique grandeur. It was not a ruin by any means: but it was grim +with the air of neglect, of desolation, of solitude. In two only, of +the many windows, was there any light; there was no sound of life about +the vast place; and the moonlight showed up with cruel distinctness the +ravages made in stone-work and wood-work by the clawlike hand of Time. +A capital of one of the pillars of the still handsome portico had +crumbled, several of the pillars were broken and askew; the great door +was blistered and cracked by the sun; evidently no paint had touched +the place for years. The stone balustrade of the broad terrace had +several gaps in it, and the coping and the pillars were lying where +they had fallen; the steps of the terrace had grass growing in the +interstices of the stones; one of the lions which had flanked the steps +had disappeared, and the remaining one was short of a front leg. The +grass on the lawn was long and unkempt, the flower beds weedy and +straggly, and the flowers themselves growing wild and untrained. + +But for the smoke which ascended from two or three of the many chimneys +the place might well have seemed deserted and uninhabited, and Stafford +with this feeling upon him stood and gazed at the place unrestrainedly. +It was difficult for him to realise that only a few hours ago he had +left London, that only last night he had dined at his club and gone to +the big Merrivale dance; it was as if he were standing in some scene of +the middle ages; he would not have been greatly surprised if the +grass-grown terrace had suddenly become crowded by old-world forms in +patches and powder, hoops and ruffles. + +"Good Lord, what would some of the people I know give to belong to--to +own this place!" he said to himself. "To think of that girl living +alone here with her father!" + +He was turning away when he heard a slight sound, the great door opened +slowly, and "that girl" came out on to the terrace. She stood for a +moment on the great marble door sill, then she crossed the terrace, and +leaning on the balustrade, looked dreamily at the moonlit view which +lay before her. She could not see Stafford's tall figure, which was +concealed by the shadow of one of the trees; and she thought herself +alone, as usual. Her solitude did not sadden her, she was accustomed to +it; and presently, as if moved by the exquisite beauty of the night, +her lips parted and she half sang, half hummed the jewel song from +"Faust." She had looked beautiful enough in her old riding-habit and +hat, but she seemed a vision of loveliness as she stood in the +moonlight with the old house for a background. There was something +bewitchingly virginal in the rapt and dreamy face with its dark eyes +and long lashes, in the soft, delicately cut lips, the pure ivory +pallor; at the same time something equally bewitching in the modernness +of her dress, which was of soft cream cashmere, made rather long and in +accord with the present fashion; she had placed a rose in the bosom of +her dress and it stood out redly, richly from the soft cream. Her hair +was no longer rough and touzled by the wind, but brushed in rippling +smoothness and coiled in dainty neatness in the nape of her graceful +neck. No wonder Stafford caught his breath, held it, as it were, as he +gazed at the exquisite picture, which formed so striking a contrast to +her surroundings. + +She leant her chin on her hand and looked before her as she sung +softly; and at that moment her thoughts strayed from the question of +what she should do to keep the cows from the lawn, to the young man who +had rescued her lamb for her. She did not think of him with anything +like interest or curiosity, but she was recalling the ludicrous picture +he made as he struggled to the bank with the lamb in his arms, and a +faint smile crossed her face. At this moment Donald and Bess strolled +out to join her. They would much have preferred to have remained +roasting themselves in front of the Hall fire, but, ridiculous as it +was for their mistress to leave the warm house for the comparatively +cold terrace, they felt themselves in duty bound to join her. +Perhaps they might catch sight of a rabbit to repay them for +their exertions. Donald walked with stately steps toward his +mistress, and Bess was following, with a shiver of reluctance +and a backward glance towards the fire-light which shone through +the open door, when suddenly she sniffed the presence of a +stranger, and, with a sharp yap, hurled herself down the broad steps +and towards the spot where Stafford still stood. Donald, with a loud +bay, followed with his long stride, and Ida, startled from her reverie, +followed as far as the top of the steps, and waited. + +"I might have expected the faithful watch-dog," said Stafford to +himself. "Now, what on earth am I to do? I suppose they'll spring on +me--the collie, at any rate. It's no use running; I've got to stop and +face it. What a confounded nuisance! But it serves me right. +I've no business to be loafing about the place." + +As the dogs came up, he put on that air of conciliation which we all +know, and murmuring "Good dog! All right, old chap!" tried to pacify +Donald and Bess. But they were not accustomed to intruders, especially +at that time of night, and they were legitimately furious. Dancing +round him, and displaying dazzling teeth threateningly, they drew +nearer and nearer, and they would certainly have sprung upon him; but +the girl came, not running, but quickly, down the steps and straight +across the dewy grass towards them, calling to the dogs as she came in +her clear, low voice, which had not a trace of fear in it. Their loud +barking changed to sullen growls as she approached; and, motioning them +to be still, she stopped and gazed at Stafford, who stepped out into +the moonlight. + +She said not a word, but, as she recognised him, a faint colour came +into the ivory pallor of her cheek and an expression of surprise in the +dark, fearless eyes. + +Stafford raised his cap. + +"I am very sorry!" he said. "I am afraid you must think me a great +nuisance; this is the second time I have been guilty of trespass." + +She was silent for a moment, not with shyness, but as if she were +noticing the change in his dress, and wondering how he came to be in +evening-clothes, and where he had come from. The expression was one of +simple girlish curiosity, which softened in a delicious way the general +pride and hauteur of her face. + +"You are not trespassing," she said, and the voice sounded very sweet +and musical after the din of the dogs. "There is public right of way +along this road." + +"I am immensely relieved," said Stafford. "It looks so unfrequented, +that I was afraid it was private, and that I had made another blunder; +all the same, I am very sorry that I should have disturbed you and made +the dogs kick up such a row. I would have gone on or gone back if I had +known you were coming out; but the place looked so quiet--" + +"It does not matter," she said; "they bark at the slightest noise, and +we are used to it. The place is so quiet because only my father and I +live here, and there are only a few servants, and the place is so big." + +All this was said not repiningly, but softly and a little dreamily. By +this time Donald and Bess had recovered their tempers, and after a +close inspection of the intruder had come to the conclusion that he was +of the right sort, and Donald was sitting close on his launches beside +Stafford, and thrusting his nose against Stafford's hand invitingly. +The girl's beauty seemed to Stafford almost bewildering, and yet softly +and sweetly a part of the beauty of the night; he was conscious of a +fear, that was actually a dread, that she would bow, call the dogs and +leave him; so, before she could do so, he made haste to say: + +"Now I am here, will you allow me to apologise for my trespass of this +afternoon?" + +She inclined her head slightly. + +"It does not matter," she said; "you were very kind in helping me with +the lamb; and I ought to have told you that my father would be very +glad if you would fish in the Heron; you will find some better trout +higher up the valley." + +"Thank you very much," said Stafford. + +Calling the dogs, she turned away; then, fortunately, Stafford +remembered the case of instruments. + +"Oh, I beg your pardon!" he said; "I forgot this wallet. I found it by +the stream after you had gone." + +"Oh, my wallet!" she cried. "I am so glad you have found it. I don't +know what I should have done if you had not; I should have had to send +to Preston or to London; and, besides, it was a present from the old +veterinary surgeon; he left it to me. There were some beautiful +instruments in it." + +Still smiling, she opened it, as if to show him. Stafford drew near, so +near as to become conscious of the perfume of the rose in her bosom, of +the still fainter but more exquisite perfume of her hair. He bent over +the case in silence, and while they were looking a cloud sailed across +the moon. + +The sudden disappearance of the light roused her, as it were, to a +sense of his presence. + +"Thank you for bringing it to me," she said; "it was very good of you." + +"Oh, I hadn't to bring it far," said Stafford. "I am staying at The +Woodman Inn, at Carysford." + +"Oh," she said; "you are a tourist--you are fishing?" + +Stafford could not bring himself to say that he was the son of the man +who had built the great white house, which, no doubt, her father and +she resented. + +"You have a very beautiful place here," he said, after a pause. + +She turned and looked at the house in the dim light, with a touch of +pride in her dreamy eyes. + +"Yes," she said, as if it were useless to deny the fact. + +"It is very old, and I am very fond--" + +She stopped suddenly, her lips apart, her eyes fixed on the farther end +of the terrace; for while she had been speaking a figure, only just +perceptible in the semi-darkness, had moved slowly across the end of +the terrace, paused for a moment at the head of the flight of steps, +and then slowly descended. + +Stafford also saw it, and glancing at her he saw that she was startled, +if not frightened. She scarcely seemed to breathe, and she turned her +large, dark eyes upon him questioningly, somewhat appealingly. + +"What is that?" she said, in a whisper, more to herself than to him. + +"Someone--a man has gone down the steps from the house," he said. +"Don't you know who it is?" + +"No," she replied in as low a voice. "It is not Jason--there is no one +else--who can it be? I will go and see." + +She moved towards the terrace, and Stafford said: + +"I will come with you; you will let me?" + +She did not refuse; indeed, she appeared to have forgotten his +presence: together they crossed the lawn and reached the corner of the +house near which the figure had disappeared. It struck Stafford as +strange that the dogs did not bark. In profound silence they went in +the direction the figure had taken, and Stafford presently saw a ruined +building, which had evidently been a chapel. As they approached it the +figure came out of it and towards them. As it passed them, so close +that they instinctively drew back, Stafford saw that it was an old man +in a dressing-gown; his head was bare, his hair touched the collar of +the gown. His eyes were wide open, and gazing straight in front of him. + +Stafford was about to step forward and arrest his progress, when +suddenly the girl's hand seized his and gripped it. + +"Hush!" she whispered, with subdued terror. "It is my father. He--yes, +he is asleep! Oh, see, he is asleep! He will fall--hurt himself--" + +She, in her turn, was about to spring forward, but Stafford caught her +arm. + +"No, no, you must not!" he said, in a hurried whisper. "I think it +would be dangerous. I think he is all right if you let him alone. He is +walking in his sleep. Don't speak--don't cry out." + +"No, no," she breathed. "But it is dreadful." + +Instinctively, unconsciously, she drew closer to Stafford, almost clung +to him, watching her father over her shoulder until the figure, with +its ghastly, mechanical movement and vacant stare, had passed into the +house; then, with a long breath, and with her hands clasping her +throat, as if she were stifling, she broke from Stafford and sprang +quickly and noiselessly up the steps and disappeared also. Wondering +whether he was awake or dreaming, Stafford waited for over an hour to +see if she would appear again; and he was turning away at last, when +her figure appeared in the open door-way, like that of a wraith. She +waved her hand to him, then disappeared, and the door closed. + +Still asking himself if he were not in a land of dreams, but tingling +with the touch of her small hand, with the haunting perfume of the soft +black hair, Stafford gained the road and walked towards the inn. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +Ida had followed her father across the terrace, across the hall, lit +weirdly by the glow of the sinking fire and the pale moonlight, up the +broad stairs, along the corridor to the open door of his room. He had +walked slowly but steadily with his usual gait, and his head bent +slightly; though his eyes were wide open, he seemed to see nothing, yet +he did not stumble or even hesitate. Ida followed behind him with +absolute noiselessness. They were both ghostlike in their movements, +and the dogs stood and watched them intently, ears erect, and with that +gravity in their eyes which dogs wear when they are puzzled. + +The old man closed his door softly, still without any hesitation, and +Ida, grasping the broad rail of the staircase, waited breathlessly. She +heard him moving about, as leisurely and precisely as before; then all +was still. She stole to the door and opened it; the light was streaming +into the room and fell athwart the bed in which he was lying, his eyes +closed, his face calm and peaceful; she went on tiptoe to the bed and +bent over him, and found that he was in a deep, profound sleep. With a +long breath of relief, she left him, and sat on the stairs and waited; +for it was just possible that he might rise again and resume the +dreadful walk--that motion of death in life. + +She waited for an hour, so absorbed in her anxiety that she did not +remember the man she had left outside. After another quarter of an hour +she went to her father's room, and found that he was still sleeping. +Then she remembered Stafford, remembered him with a start of discomfort +and embarrassment. Was he waiting there still? She went down-stairs, +and from the open door-way she saw dimly his figure under the trees. +There was something in the attitude of the erect figure that reminded +her of a soldier on guard, a sentinel standing faithful at his post; +and when she had waved her hand in dismissal she did not quite close +the door, but watched him through the narrow opening as he paced slowly +down the road, looking back at the house now and again as if to see if +she wanted him. + +Then she closed the door, signed to the dogs to be down before the +fire, and went up to her room, after pausing beside her father's door +and listening to his regular breathing. Her room was a large +one--nearly all the rooms in the place were large; and as she undressed +herself slowly she looked round it with a novel sense of loneliness. +The tall shadows of her graceful yet girlish figure were cast +grotesquely on the wall by the candles beside her glass. She had never +felt lonely before, though her life ever since she had arrived at the +Hall might be called one almost of solitude. + +She had been so absorbed in the duties which had so suddenly fallen +upon her young shoulders that there had been no time in which to feel +the want of companionship. There had always been something to think of, +something to do; her father demanded so much attention; the house, the +land, the farm--she had to look after them all; there had not been time +to think even of herself; and it had never occurred to her that she was +leading a life so different to that led by most girls. But to-night the +silence of the great house, large enough to hold fifty people, but +sheltering only five persons--her father and herself and the three +servants--weighed upon her. + +That sense of loneliness had come upon her suddenly as she had watched +the young man's retreating figure. She could not help thinking of him +even when her mind was oppressed with anxiety on her father's account. +In a vague way she remembered how kind this stranger had been; how +quietly, and with what an air of protection, he had stood by her and +restrained her from crying out and alarming her father. As vaguely, she +remembered that in the moment of her terror she had clung to him, had +forgotten under the great strain that he was a stranger--and a man. +Even now she did not know his name, knew nothing of him except that he +was staying at The Woodman Inn. + +Kind and considerate as he had been she thought of him with something +like resentment; it was as if he had stepped into her life, had +intruded upon its quiet uneventfulness. He had no right to be there, no +right, to have seen her father in that terrible condition, that death +in life. And she had behaved like a frightened servant-maid; had not +only clung to him--had she clung to him, or was it only fancy?--but had +left him without a word of thanks, had allowed him to wait there, and +then had waved her hand to him just as she had seen Jessie, the maid, +wave her hand to her "young man" after they had parted, and she was +going into the house. + +She bit her lip softly and a faint flush rose to the clear pallor of +the lovely, girlish face reflected in the glass. Yes, she had behaved +just like a servant-maid, she who in her heart of hearts knew that she +prided herself upon her dignity and the good manners which should +belong to a Heron of Herondale. It was characteristic of her that while +she thought of his conduct and what she considered her bad behaviour, +she gave no thought to the fact that the stranger who had so "intruded" +was singularly handsome and possessed of that strange quality which at +once impresses women. Most girls would have remembered the fact, but +Ida was different to the general run of her sex. She had been brought +up in an out-of-the-way place in which the modern novel, the +fashionable pastime of flirtation, were not known; and her secluded +life in the lonely dale had deepened that sense of aloofness from the +world, that indifference to the sentiment which lurks in most girls' +bosoms. This tall, handsome man who had stepped into her life and +shared the secret of her father's strange affliction, weakness, was +nothing more to her than one of the other tourists whom she sometimes +chanced to see on her lonely rides and walks. + +When she had undressed she went again to her father's door and listened +to his deep and regular breathing; then, at last, she went to bed; but +the sense of loneliness was so intense that she lay awake for hours +thinking of that bent figure walking in its sleep from the shadows of +the ruined chapel. For the future she would have to watch her father +closely, would perhaps have to lock the door of his room. Why had he +gone to the chapel? So far as she knew he was not in the habit of going +there; indeed, she did not remember having seen him go there in his +waking moments. She knew nothing of somnambulism; but she imagined that +he had gone in that direction by mere chance, that if he had happened +to find any impediment in his way he might as easily have gone in +another direction. + +She fell asleep at last and slept an hour beyond her usual time, and so +deeply that Jessie had filled the cold bath without waking her beloved +young mistress. Ida dressed quickly, all the incidents of the preceding +night rushing through her mind, and hurried to her father's room; the +door was open, the room empty, and, with a sudden fear, she ran down +the stairs and found him in his usual seat in the library. She drew a +long breath and went and kissed him, wishing him good-morning as +casually as she could. + +"You are up early this morning, father," she said, trying to keep her +tone free from any anxiety. + +He glanced at the clock calmly. + +"No, you are later," he said. + +His eyes met hers with their usual expression of absentminded serenity. + +"I--I was a little tired and overslept myself," she said. "Are--are you +quite well this morning, father?" + +"Yes, quite well. Why not?" he replied, with slight surprise. + +She drew a breath of relief: it was quite evident that he knew nothing +of that weird walk, and that it had not affected him injuriously. + +"Nothing," she said, forcing a smile. + +As she spoke, Jason, in his in-door livery, which, in some strange way, +looked as if it had shrunken with the figure which had worn it so +long, came to the door, and in his husky voice said that breakfast was +ready; and Ida, taking her father's arm, led him into the dining-room +in which all their meals were served. + +As she went to her place she glanced through the window, from which she +could see the steps at the corner of the terrace and a small part of +the ruined chapel, and she shuddered. + +When she had poured out her father's coffee, she took it round to him +and let her hand rest on his shoulder lovingly; but Jason had brought +in the post-bag and Mr. Heron was unlocking it and taking out the few +letters and papers, and seemed unconscious of the little anxious +caress. + +"Are there any for me, father?" she asked, lingering beside him, and +she stretched out her hand to turn the envelopes on their right side; +but he stopped her quickly and swept them together, covering them with +his long hand--the shapely Heron hand. + +"No, no," he said, almost sharply; "they are all for me; they are +business letters, booksellers' catalogues, sale catalogues--nothing of +importance." + +She went back to her place and he waited until she had done so before +he began to open the letters. He merely glanced at some of them, but +presently he came to one which, after a sharp, quick look at her, he +read attentively; then he returned it to its envelope and, with a +secretive movement, slipped it into the pocket of his dressing-gown. +"Yes, nothing but catalogues and bills; you'd better take them, Ida; +the bills, at any rate." + +And he threw them across to her. + +When she had first come home to be mistress of the Hall the bills had +overwhelmed her; they had been so many and the money to meet them had +been so inadequate; but she had soon learnt how to "finance" them, and +come to know which account must be paid at once, and which might be +allowed to stand over. + +She took them now and glanced at them, and the old man watched her +covertly, with a curious expression on his face. + +"I'm sure I don't know how you will pay them," he said, as if she alone +were responsible. + +"I can't pay all of them at once," she replied, cheerfully. "But I can +some, and the rest must wait. I can send four--perhaps five--of the +steers to the monthly market, and then there are the sheep--Oh, father, +I did not tell; you about the gentleman I saw fishing in the dale--" + +She stopped, for she saw that he was not listening. He had opened a +local paper and was reading it intently, and presently he looked up +with an eager flush on his face and a sudden lightening of the dull +eyes. + +"Have you seen this--this house--they call it a palace--which that man +has built on the lake side?" he asked, his thin voice quavering with +resentment. + +"Do you mean the big white house by Brae Wood?" + +"Yes. Judging by the description of it here, it must be a kind of +gim-crack villa like those one sees in Italy, built by men resembling +this--this _parvenu_." + +"It is a large place," said Ida; "but I don't think it is gim-crack, +father. It looks very solid though it is white and, yes, Continental. +It is something between a tremendous villa and a palace. Why are you so +angry? I know you don't like to have new houses built in Bryndermere; +but this is some distance from us--we cannot see it from here, or from +any part of the grounds, excepting the piece by the lake." + +"It is built on our land," he said, more quietly, but with the flush +still on his face, the angry light in his eyes. "It was bought by +fraud, obtained under false pretences. I sold it to one of the farmers, +thinking he wanted it and would only use it for grazing. I did not know +until the deeds were signed that he was only the jackal for this other +man." + +"What other man, father?" + +"This Stephen Orme. He's _Sir_ Stephen Orme now. They knighted him. +They knight every successful tradesman and schemer; and this man is a +prince of his tribe; a low-born adventurer, a _parvenu_ of the worst +type." + +"I think I have read something about him in the newspapers," said Ida, +thoughtfully. + +Mr. Heron emitted a low snarl. + +"No doubt; he is one whom the world delights to honour; it bows before +the successful charlatan, and cringes to his ill-gotten wealth. I'm +told that such a man is received, yes, and welcomed by society. +Society! The word is a misnomer. In my time a man of that class was +kept at arm's-length, was relegated to his proper place--the back hall; +but now"--he gazed angrily at the paper--"here is a whole column +describing Sir Stephen Orme's new 'palatial villa,' and giving an +account of his achievements, the success of his great undertakings. And +this man has chosen to build his eyesore on Heron lands, within sight +of the house which--which he would not have been permitted to enter. If +I had known, I would not have sold the land." + +"But you wanted the money, father," she said, gently. + +He looked at her swiftly, and a change came over his face, a look of +caution, almost of cunning. + +"Eh? Yes, yes, of course I wanted it. But he knew I should not have +sold it for building on; that is why he got Bowden, the farmer, to buy +it. It was like him: only such a man can be capable of such an +underhand act. And now I suppose he will be welcomed by his neighbours, +and the Vaynes and the Bannerdales, and made much of. They'll eat his +dinners, and their women will go to his balls and concerts--they whose +fathers would have refused to sit at the same table with him. But there +is one house at which he will not be welcome; one man who will not +acknowledge him, who will not cross the threshold of Sir Stephen Orme's +brand-new palace, or invite him to enter his own. He shall not darken +the doors of Heron Hall." + +He rose as he spoke and left the room with a quicker step than usual. +But half an hour later when Ida went into the library she found him +absorbed in his books as usual, and he only glanced up at her with +absent, unseeing eyes, as she stood beside him putting on her gloves, +her habit skirt caught up under her elbow, the old felt hat just a +little askew on the soft, silky hair. + +"Do you want anything before I go out, father?" she asked. + +"No, no!" he replied abstractedly, and bending over his book again as +he answered. Ida crossed the hall in the sunlight, which lit up her +beauty and made it seem a more striking contrast than usual to the dull +and grim surroundings of the dark oak, the faded hangings and the +lack-lustre armour, and Donald and Bess bounded, barking, before her +down the terrace at which Jason was holding the big chestnut. The horse +pricked up its ears and turned its head for her morning caress, the +touch of the small, soft, but firm hand which it had come to regard as +its due, and Ida sprang lightly from the last step into the saddle. It +was an informal way of mounting which few girls could have accomplished +gracefully; but Ida did it as naturally and as easily as a circus +rider, for the trick was a necessity to her who had so often to +dismount and mount alone. + +The lovely face was rather grave and thoughtful for some time after she +had started, for the remembrance of last night weighed upon her, and +her father's unusual display of anger at breakfast troubled her +vaguely; but, presently, after she had cleared a hedge and one of the +broken rails, her spirits rose: the sky was so blue, the sun so bright; +it was hard to be depressed on such a morning. + +She rode to a distant part of the dale where, in a rough meadow the +steers were grazing; she surveyed them critically, chose those that +should go to market, then turned, and leaping a bank, gained an +ill-kept road. A little farther on she came to an opening on the verge +of the lake, and she pulled up, arrested by the great white house on +the other side, which was literally glittering in the brilliant +sunlight. It certainly did not detract from the beauty of the view; in +fact, it made the English lake look, for the moment, like an Italian +one. + +She regarded it thoughtfully for a moment, then returned to the road, +and as she did so she saw a tall figure coming towards her. + +For an instant the colour rose to her face, but for an instant only, +and before Stafford had reached her, she was as pale, as calm as usual. +She noticed that he was dressed in a serge suit, noticed vaguely how +well it sat upon him, that his gait had a peculiar ease and grace which +the men of the dale lacked, that his handsome face flushed lightly as +he saw her; but she gave no sign of these quick apprehensions, and sat +cold and sphinx-like waiting for him. + +Strafford's heart leapt at sight of her with a sudden pleasure which +puzzled him; for he would not have admitted to himself that he had +walked in this direction in the hope, on the chance, of meeting her. + +"Good-morning," he said, in his direct fashion, raising his cap. "I am +very fortunate to meet you. I hope Mr. Heron is no worse for--is not +ill?" + +"No," she said in her low, clear voice. "My father is quite well; he is +just as he usually is this morning." + +"I am very glad," said Stafford. He stood close beside the horse and +looked up at her; and for the first time in his life he was trying to +keep the expression of admiration out of his eyes; the expression which +he knew most women welcomed, but which, somehow or other, he felt this +strange girl would resent. "I was afraid he would be upset. I am afraid +you were frightened last night--it was enough to alarm, to startle +anyone. What a splendid morning!" he went on, quickly, as if he did not +want to remind her of the affair. "What a libel it is to say that it is +always raining here! I've never seen so brilliant a sunshine or such +colours: don't wonder that the artists rave about the place and are +never tired of painting it." + +She waited until he had finished, her eyes downcast, as if she knew why +he had turned from the subject, then she raised them and looked at him +with her direct gaze. + +"I am glad I have met you," she said. "I wanted to thank you for your +kindness last night--" + +"Oh, but--" Stafford tried to break in, but she went on slowly, as if +he had not spoken. + +--"I was--frightened: it was sudden, so unexpected. My father had never +done it before--that I know of--and he looked"--her voice broke for a +moment--"so strange, so ghost-like. I thought at first that it was the +Heron ghost which, they say, haunts the dale, though I have never seen +it." + +A faint smile curved her lips and shone in her eyes, and Stafford was +so fascinated by the sudden gleam of girlishness that he had to bend +and pat Bess, who was planting dusty impression on his trousers in her +frantic efforts to gain his attention. + +"I did nothing; in fact, as I walked away I was fuming because I +couldn't help you--couldn't do more." + +"You did help me," she said, gravely; then she looked across the lake +to Sir Stephen's "little place." "I was admiring that new house. Don't +you think it is very beautiful, rising so white and gracefully above +the lake?" + +"Ye-es," said Stafford, "Rather--conspicuous, though, isn't it?" + +She laughed suddenly, and Stafford asked, with surprise: "Why did you +laugh?" + +"Oh, I was thinking of my father," she said, with a delicious +frankness; "he was quite angry about it this morning. It seems that it +is built on our land--or what was ours--and he dislikes the idea of +anyone building at Bryndermere." + +"So should I," said Stafford, laconically. + +"And besides," she went on, her eyes fixed on the great white building, +so that she did not see his embarrassment, "my father does not like the +man who built it. He thinks that he got the land unfairly; and he--my +father--calls him all sorts of hard names." + +Stafford bit his lips, and his face wore the expression which came into +it when he was facing an ugly jump. He would have shirked this one if +he could, but it had to be faced, so he rushed it. + +"I'm sorry," he said. "My father built it." + +She did not start, but she turned her head and looked at him, with a +sudden coldness in the glorious eyes. + +"Your father--Sir Stephen Orme? Then you are--" + +"I am his son, yes; my name is Stafford Orme." + +She gathered her reins up, as if no comment, no remark were necessary, +but Stafford could not let her go, could not part from her like that. + +"I'm sorry to hear that Mr. Heron has some cause of complaint, some +grievance against my father. I can understand his not liking the house; +to tell you the truth, I don't care for it much myself. Yes; I can +understand Mr. Heron's annoyance; I suppose he can see it from your +house?" + +"No," she said, simply. "This is the only part of our land from which +it can be seen, and my father never comes here: never leaves the +grounds, the garden." She paused a moment. "I don't know why you should +mind--except that I said that the land was got unfairly--I wish I had +not said that." + +Stafford coloured. + +"So do I," he said; "but I hope it isn't true. There may be some +mistake. I don't know anything about my father's affairs--I haven't +seen him for years; I am almost a stranger to him." + +She listened with a grave face, then she touched the big chestnut; but +Stafford, almost unconsciously, laid his hand on the rein nearest him. +His mouth and chin expressed the determination which now and again +surprised even his most intimate friends. + +"Miss Heron, I'm afraid--" He paused, and she waited, her eyes downcast +and fixed on the horse's ears. + +"I scarcely know how to put what I want to say," he said. "I'm rather +bad at explaining myself; but I--well, I hope you won't feel angry with +me because of the house, because of anything that has passed between +your father and mine--Of course I stand by him; but--well, _I_ didn't +build the confounded place--I beg your pardon! but I think it's rather +hard that you should cut me--oh, I can see by your face that you mean +to do it!--that you should regard me as a kind of enemy because--" + +The usually fluent Stafford stopped helplessly as the beautiful eyes +turned slowly upon him with a slight look of wonder in them. + +"Why should you mind?" she said, with almost childish innocence. "You +do not know me; we only met yesterday--we are not friends--Oh I am not +forgetting your kindness last night; oh, no!--but what can it matter to +you?" + +In another woman Stafford would have suspected the question of +coquetry, of a desire to fish for the inevitable response; but looking +in those clear, guileless eyes, he could not entertain any such +suspicion. + +"I beg your pardon; but it does matter very much," he retorted. "In the +first place, a man does not like being cut by a lady; and in the next, +we shall be neighbours--I'm going to stay there--" he nodded grimly at +the beautiful "little place." + +"Neighbours?" she said, half absently. "It is farther off than you +think; and, besides, we know no one. We have no neighbours in that +sense--or friends. My father does not like to see anyone; we live quite +alone--" + +"So I've heard--" He stopped and bit his lip; but she did not seem to +have noticed his interruption. + +--"So that even if my father did not object to the house or--or--" + +"My father," said Stafford with a smile. + +A smile answered his candour. + +"It would be all the same. And why should it matter to you? You have a +great many friends, no doubt--and we should not be likely to meet." + +"Oh, yes, we should!" he said, with the dogged kind of insistence which +also sometimes surprised his friends. "I was going to avail myself of +your permission, and fish the stream--but, of course, I can't do that +now." + +"No--I suppose not," she assented. "But we should be sure to meet on +the road--I should be riding--walking." + +"But not on this side often," she argued. + +A faint, very faint colour had stolen into the clear pallor of her +cheek, her eyes were downcast. She was honestly surprised, and, yes, a +little pleased that he should protest against the close of their +acquaintance; pleased, though why, she could not have told; for it did +not seem to matter. + +"Oh, yes, I should," he retorted. "It's very pretty this side, and--See +here, Miss Heron." He drew a little nearer and looked up at her with +something like a frown in his eagerness. "Of course I shall speak to my +father about--well, about the way the land was bought, and I'm hoping, +I'm sure, that he will be able to explain it satisfactorily; and I want +to tell you that it is a mistake. I don't know much of my father, but I +can't believe that he would do anything underhand." He stopped suddenly +as the bagman's remarks flashed across his memory. "If your father's +grievance against him is just, why--ah, well, you'll have to cut me +when we meet; but I don't think it is; and I don't think it would be +fair to treat me as if _I_'d done something wrong." + +Her brows came together, and she looked at him as if she were puzzled. + +"I don't know why it matters," she said. + +"Well, I can't tell you," he said, helplessly. "I only know that I +don't want to part from you this morning, knowing that the next time we +meet we should meet as strangers. I wanted to come to the Hall, to +enquire after Mr. Heron." + +Her face flushed. + +"Do not," she said in a low voice. + +"I won't, of course," he responded, quickly. "It would only make +matters worse; your father would naturally dislike me, refuse to see +me; but--well, it's very hard on me." + +She looked at him again, gravely, thoughtfully, as if she were still +puzzled by his persistence. Her eyes wandered to the dogs. Bess was +still standing up against him, and Donald had thrown himself down +beside him, and was regarding Ida with an air that said, quite plainly, +"This new friend of yours is all right." + +"You have made friends with the dogs," she said, with a slight smile. + +Stafford laughed. + +"Oh, yes. There must be some good in dumb animals, for most of 'em take +to me at first sight." + +She laughed at this not very brilliant display of wit. "I assure you +they wouldn't cut me next time we met. You can't be less charitable +than the dogs, Miss Heron!" + +She gave a slight shrug to her straight, square shoulders. The gesture +seemed charming to Stafford, in its girlish Frenchiness. + +"Ah, well," she said, with a pretty air of resignation, as if she were +tired of arguing. + +Stafford's face lit up, and he laughed--the laugh of the man who wins; +but it died away rather suddenly, as she said gravely: + +"But I do not think we shall meet often. I do not often go to the other +side of the lake: very seldom indeed; and you will not, you say, fish +the Heron; so that--Oh, there is the colt loose," she broke off. "How +can it have got out? I meant to ride it to-day, and Jason, thinking I +had changed my mind, must have turned it out." + +The colt came waltzing joyously along the road, and catching sight of +the chestnut, whinnied delightedly, and the chestnut responded with one +short whinny of reproof. Ida rode forward and headed the colt, and +Stafford quietly slid along by the hedge and got behind it. + +"Take care!" said Ida; "it is very strong. What are you going to do?" + +Stafford did not reply, but stole up to the truant step by step +cautiously, and gradually approached near enough to lay his hand on its +shoulder; from its shoulder he worked to its neck and wound his arms +round it. + +Ida laughed. + +"Oh, you can't hold it!" she said as the colt plunged. + +But Stafford hung on tightly and yet, so to speak, gently, soothing the +animal with the "horse language" with which every man who loves them is +acquainted. + +Ida sat for an instant, looking round with a puzzled frown; then she +slipped down, took the bridle off the chestnut and slipped it on the +colt, the chestnut, who evidently understood the business, standing +stock still. + +"Now I'll hold it--it will be quieter with me--if you will please +change the saddle." + +Unthinkingly, Stafford obeyed, and got the saddle on the jigging and +dancing youngster. As unthinkingly, he put Ida up; and it was not until +the colt rose on its hind legs that he remembered to ask her if the +horse were broken. + +"Scarcely," she said with a laugh; "but it will be all right. +Good-morning--and thank you!" And calling to the chestnut she turned +the colt and tore off, the chestnut and the dogs scampering after her. + +Stafford's face grew hot for a moment with fear for her, then it grew +hotter with admiration as he watched her skimming across the moor in +the direction of the Hall. Once, just before she vanished from his +sight, she turned and waved her hand to him as if to assure him that +she was safe. The gesture reminded him of the white figure standing in +the doorway last night, and something stirred in his heart and sent a +warm thrill through him. In all his life he had never seen anyone like +her! + + +CHAPTER V. + +"You look rather serious, oh, my prince!" said Howard, as, some few +hours later, he leisurely climbed into the phaeton beside Stafford. "I +have noticed with inward satisfaction that as we approach the moment of +meeting with your puissant parent, the Sultan, an air of gravity and +soberness has clouded that confoundedly careless, devil-may-care +countenance of yours. I say with inward satisfaction, because, with my +usual candour, I don't mind admitting that I am shivering in my shoes. +The shadow of the august presence is already falling on me, and as the +hour draws near I feel my littleness, my utter insignificance, with an +acuteness which almost compels me to ask you to let me get down and +make my way back to London as best I can." + +"Don't be an ass," retorted Stafford, rather absently. + +"You ask an impossibility of me, my dear fellow; but I will try and +conceal my asininity as best I can. May I ask, to change the subject, +where you were wandering all the morning?" + +Stafford coloured slightly and bestowed minute attention to the off +horse. + +"Oh, just prowling round," he replied, leisurely. + +"You tempt me to finish the quotation. Did you find anyone to devour? +Apropos, has his majesty, the Sultan, ever mentioned matrimony to you, +Staff?" + +Stafford looked round at him for an instant. + +"No," he said, curtly. "What the devil made you ask?" + +"Merely my incessant speculation as to your future, my dear fellow," +replied Howard, blandly. "Most fathers are ambitious for their sons, +and I should imagine that Sir Stephen would be extremely so. When a man +is simply a plain 'Mr.,' he longs for the 'Sir;' when he gets the +'Sir,' he wants the 'my Lord' for himself, or for his son and heir. +That is the worst of ambition: you can't satisfy it. I have no doubt in +my mind that at this very moment Sir Stephen is making for a peerage +for himself--or you. He can possibly gain his; but you, having no +brains to speak of--the fact that good-looking men are always deficient +in that respect is a continual and blessed consolation to us plain +ones, Staff--will have to make what the world calls a 'good marriage.' +Doubtless your father already has the future bride in his eye; the +daughter of a peer--high in the government, perhaps in the +cabinet--probably. Probably that is why he has asked you to meet him +here. I hope, for your sake, that she is good-looking. I +fancy"--musingly--"that you would be rather particular. If rumour does +you no injustice, you always have been." + +Stafford laughed shortly. + +"I've never thought about marrying," he said, rather absently. + +"No one does, my dear fellow. It comes, like measles and other +unpleasant things, without thought; and when it comes, it is generally +as unpleasant. Aren't we going at a tremendous rate, Stafford? Don't +think I am nervous; I have ridden beside you too often for that. You +destroyed what nerve I possessed long ago." + +"We are late, and it's farther round than I thought," said Stafford. +"The horses are fresh." + +"I daresay; very probably Pottinger has given them a double feed; he +would naturally like them to dash up in fine style. But if it's all the +same to you"--as the horses broke into a gallop--"I should prefer to +arrive at your father's 'little place' in a more dignified fashion than +on a stretcher." + +Stafford smiled and checked the high-spirited pair. + +"You talk of women as if they were a--a kind of plague; you were never +in love, Howard?" he asked. + +"Never, thank Heaven!" responded Howard, devoutly. "When I think of it, +I acknowledge that I have much to be thankful for. I was once: she was +a girl with dark eyes--but I will spare you a minute description. I met +her in a country rectory--_is_ that horse, I think you call it the near +one--going to jump over the bank? And one remarkably fine evening--it +was moonlight, I remember--I was on the point of declaring my love; and +then the gods saved me. The thought flashed upon me that, if she said +'yes,' I should have to sit opposite her at dinner for the rest of one +of our lives. It saved me. I said that I thought it was chilly, and +went in and up to bed, grateful for my escape. Why don't you laugh?" + +Stafford only smiled in a perfunctory fashion. He was thinking of the +girl he had watched riding off on the unbroken colt; of what it would +seem like if she were seated opposite him, with the candle-light +falling on her soft white dress, with diamonds gleaming in it, diamonds +outshone by the splendour of those dark, violet-grey eyes; of what it +would seem like if he could rise from his seat and go to her and take +her in his arms and look into those dark grey eyes, and say, "You are +mine, mine!" with no one to say him nay. + +"It was a lucky escape for her," he said, dreamily. + +"It was," assented Howard, solemnly. "Not one man in a thousand can +love one woman all his life; and I've the strongest conviction that I +am not that one. In less than six months I should have grown tired of +her--in less than a year I should have flown from the joys of +matrimony--or killed the partner of those joys. Has Pottinger a wife +and family, my dear Stafford? If so, is it wise to risk his life in +this fashion? I don't care for myself--though still young, I am not +afraid to die, and I would as soon meet it hurled from a phaeton as +not--but may I beg of you to think of Pottinger?" + +Stafford laughed. + +"The horses are all right," he said. "They are only fresh, and want to +go." + +He could not have driven slowly, for his mind, dwelling on the girl in +the well-worn habit, was electric. + +"I have spared you, hitherto, any laudation of the scenery, my dear +Staff," said Howard, pleasantly, "but permit me to remark that it +really is very beautiful. Trust the great and powerful Sir Stephen to +choose the best nature and art can produce! What is this?" + +"This" proved to be a newly built lodge which appeared on the left of +the road. Stafford slowed up, and a lodgekeeper came and flung open the +new and elaborately wrought iron gates. + +"This the way to--to Sir Stephen's house?" asked Stafford. + +The man touched his hat reverentially. + +"Yes, sir," he replied. "Sir Stephen's arrived. Came an hour ago." + +Stafford nodded, and drove on. + +The road was certainly a new one, but it was lined with rhododendrons +and costly shrubs, and it wound and wound serpentine fashion through +shrubberies and miniature plantations which indicated not only +remarkably good taste, but vast expenditure. At intervals the trees had +been felled to permit a view of the lake, lying below, like a sapphire +glowing in the sunlight. + +Presently they came in sight of the house. It was larger than it had +looked in the distance; a veritable palace. An architect had received +_carte-blanche_, and disporting himself right royally, had designed a +façade which it would be hard to beat: at any rate, in England. + +Stafford eyed it rather grumpily. Most Englishmen dislike ostentation +and display; and to Stafford the place seemed garish and "loud." Howard +surveyed it with cynical admiration. + +"A dream of Kubla Kahn--don't know whether I've got the name right: +poem of Coleridge's, you know--but of course you don't know; you don't +go in for poetry. Well I'm bound to admit that it's striking, not to +say beautiful," he went on, as the horses sprang up the last ascent and +rattled on in an impatient, high-spirited trot along the level road to +the terrace fronting the entrance. + +As Stafford pulled up, a couple of grooms came forward; the hall +door--enamelled in peacock blue--opened and a butler and two footmen in +rich maroon livery appeared. They came down the white marble steps in +stately fashion and ranged themselves as if the ceremony were of vast +importance, and as Howard and Stafford got down they bowed with the air +of attendants receiving royalty. + +As Stafford, flinging the reins to one of the grooms, got down, he +caught sight of a line of liveried servants in the hall, and he frowned +slightly. + +Like most young Englishmen, he hated ostentation, which he designated +as "fuss." + +"Rub 'em down well, Pottinger," he said, and he leisurely patted the +horses while the gorgeous footmen watched with solemn impressiveness. + +"We've brought 'em along pretty well," he said, turning to Howard, who +stood beside him with a fine and cynical smile; then he went up the +white marble steps slowly, carefully ignoring the footmen who had drawn +themselves into a line as if they were a guard of honour, specially +drilled to receive him. + +Followed by Howard, his cynical smile still lingering about his thin +lips, Stafford entered the hall. + +It was Oriental in shape and design, with a marble fountain in the +centre, and carved arches before the various passages. The principal +staircase was also of white marble with an Indian carpet of vivid +crimson. Palms reared their tall and graceful heads at intervals, +shading statuary in the prevailing white marble. Hangings of rose +colour broke the sameness and accentuated the purity of the predominate +whiteness. + +Howard looked round with an admiration which obliterated his usual +cynicism. + +"Beautiful!" he murmured. + +But Stafford frowned. The luxury, the richness of the place, though +chaste, jarred on him; why, he could not have told. + +Suddenly, as they were making their way through the lines of richly +liveried servants, a curtain at one of the openings was thrown aside, +and a gentleman came out to meet them. + +He was rather a tall man, with white hair, but with eyebrows and +moustache of jet-black. His eyes were brilliant but sharp, and he moved +with the ease and alertness of youth. + +There was something in his face, in its expression, which indicated +strength and power; something in his manner, in his smile, peculiarly +electric and sympathetic. + +Howard stopped and drew back, but Stafford advanced, and Sir Stephen +caught him by the hand and held it. + +"My dear Stafford, my dear boy!" he said, in a deep but musical voice. +"I expected you hours ago; I have been waiting! But better late than +never. Who is this? Your friend, Mr. Howard? Certainly! How do you do, +Mr. Howard! Welcome to our little villa on the lake!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +Stafford's heart warmed at his father's greeting; indeed it would have +been a very callous heart if it had not; for the emotion of genuine +affection shone in Sir Stephen's brilliant eyes, and rang in his +musical voice. Stafford was all the more impressed and touched, because +the emotion was unusual, or rather, the expression of it. + +This is a "casual" age, in which a man parts from or meets his +relations and friends with the real or assumed indifference which is +ordained by fashion. It is bad form to display one's affection, even +for the woman one loves, excepting in extreme seclusion and privacy. If +you meet your dearest chum who has just come out of the Transvaal War +by the skin of his teeth, it is not permitted you to say more than: +"Ah--er--how d'ye do. Got back, then, old man?" and at parting from +one's nearest relative, perhaps for the remainder of his life, one must +hide the grief that racks the heart, with an enquiry as to whether he +has got a comfortable berth and has remembered his umbrella. + +But Sir Stephen was evidently not ashamed of his pleasure and delight +at the sight of his son, and he wrung his hand and looked him up and +down with an affectionate and proud scrutiny. + +"You're looking fit, Stafford, very fit! By George, I--I believe you've +grown! And you've got--uglier than ever!" + +Then, still holding Stafford's hand, he turned with a smile to Howard. + +"You must forgive me, Mr. Howard! I've not seen this boy of mine for a +devil of a time, and I've been looking forward to this meeting very +keenly. The fond parent, you know, eh? But now let me say again how +pleased I am to see you. Stafford has often mentioned you, his closest +chum, and I was almost as anxious to see you as I was to see him." + +"You are very kind, Sir Stephen," said Howard--his slow drawl unusually +quickened--for he, too, was touched, though he would have died rather +than have admitted it, by the warmth of Sir Stephen's reception of his +son. "I was afraid that I should be rather _de trop_, if not absolutely +intrusive--" + +"Not at all--not at all!" Sir Stephen broke in. "My boy's friends are +mine, especially his own particular pal. You are David and Jonathan, +you two, I know; and Heaven forbid that I should part you! If you'll +consider yourself one of the family, free to come and go just as you +choose, I shall feel grateful to you; yes, that's the word--grateful!" + +All this was said in the heartiest way, with the crowd of servants +looking on and listening--though, like well-trained servants, they +appeared both deaf and blind for all the expression that could be seen +in their faces--then Sir Stephen led the way into the drawing-room. + +"You've just time to dress," he said, consulting his watch; "your man +Measom has turned up, Stafford. Mr. Howard will permit me to offer him +the services of my valet--I don't trouble him much. And now I'll show +you your rooms. Like this?" he added, as he paused at the door and +looked round. "It's one of the smaller rooms; the ladies can keep it +for themselves if they like." + +"Charming!" said Howard; and the word was appropriate enough to the +dainty apartment with its chaste decorations of crushed strawberry and +gold, with hangings and furniture to match; with its grand piano in +carved white wood and its series of water colours by some of the best +of the Institute men. + +"I'm glad!" responded Sir Stephen. "But I mustn't keep you. We'll go +over the place after dinner--or some other time. To-night we are alone; +the party doesn't come up till to-morrow. I wanted to have you, +Stafford--and your friend--to myself before the crowd arrived." + +They followed him up the broad stairs, which by low and easy steps led +up to the exquisite corridor, harmonising perfectly with the eastern +hall, on to which it looked through arches shaped and fitted in +Oriental fashion. + +"Here is your room. Ah, Measom! here is Mr. Stafford, Got everything +ready for him, I hope?--and here, next door almost, is Mr. Howard's. +This is a snuggery in between--keep your books and guns and +fishing-rods in it, don't you know. Mr. Howard, you play, I think? +There's a piano, Hope you'll like the view. Full south, with nothing +between you and the lake. I'm not far off. See? Just opposite, You may +find the rooms too hot, Stafford--Mr. Howard--and we'll change 'em, of +course. Don't hurry: hope you'll find everything you want!" + +He laid his hand on Stafford's shoulder and nodded at him with frank +affection, before he went, and as he closed the door they heard him say +to some one below: + +"Don't serve the dinner till Mr. Stafford comes down!" + +Stafford went to the window, and Howard stood in silence beside him for +a moment, then he said--Measom had left the room: + +"I congratulate you, Staff! In sackcloth and ashes, I confess I thought +that kind of father only existed in women's books and emotional plays." + +Stafford nodded. + +"He's--he's kindness itself," he said, in a very low voice and not +turning his head. "I didn't know that he was like--this. I didn't know +he cared--" + +"It's evident he cares very much!" said Howard, gravely. "If you were +the Prodigal Son he couldn't have felt it more." + +"And yet they say--that bagman said--" muttered Stafford with +smouldering rage and indignation. + +"There are few things in my life that I regret, my dear Staff; but till +my dying day I shall regret that I did not turn and rend that bagman! +He's a splendid fellow--splendid! Now I've seen him I don't wonder at +his success. Envy is not one of my numerous vices, Staff; but frankly I +envy you your father! Wake up, old man! We mustn't keep him waiting! +What quarters!" He looked round the room as he moved to go. "Fit for a +prince! But you _are_ a prince! Why, dash it, I feel like a prince +myself! How are you, Measom? Got down all right, then?--I'll give you a +knock when I'm ready, Stafford!" + +Stafford dressed quickly, thinking all the while of his father; of his +good looks, his deep, pleasant voice, his affectionate welcome; and +thrusting from him the unfavourable impression which the ornate +splendour of the place had made. + +Howard knocked presently and the two men went down. Sir Stephen was +waiting in the hall; and Stafford, with a little thrill of pride, +noticed that he looked still more distinguished in his evening-dress, +which was strikingly plain; a single pearl--but it was priceless +one--was its only ornament. + +"By George, you have been quick!" said Sir Stephen, with his genial +smile. + +"That's one for yourself, sir," said Stafford. + +"Oh, I? I can dress in five minutes," responded Sir Stephen, linking +his arm in Stafford's. "I'm almost as good as a 'quick-change artist.'" + +He drew aside to let Howard follow the butler between the two footmen +drawn up beside the door, and they entered the dining-room. + +It was of choice American walnut, and lit by rose-shaded electric +lights, in which the plate and the glass, the flowers and the napery +glowed softly: an ideal room which must have filled the famous +decorator who had designed it with just pride and elation. The table +had been reduced to a small oval; and the servants proceeded to serve a +dinner which told Howard that Sir Stephen had become possessed of a +_chef_ who was a _cordon bleu_. The wines were as choice as the _menu_; +but Sir Stephen watered his Chateau claret, and ate but little, +excusing himself in the middle of a sentence with: + +"I'm setting you a bad example. But there's always a skeleton at my +feast--a rather common one nowadays; they call him Gout. And so you +drove down? That must have been pleasant! It's a pretty country--so I'm +told. I didn't see much of it from the train. But the lake--ah, well, +it's indescribable, isn't it! After all one sees, one is bound to admit +that there is nothing to beat English scenery; of course I include +Irish. We've a strain of Irish blood in us, Mr. Howard, and I always +stand up for the ould counthry. Things are looking up there lately; +we're beginning to be appreciated. Give us a year or two, and we'll have +all the world and his wife scampering over it. I've a little Irish +scheme of my own--but I mustn't bore you the first night. Mr. Howard, +if that wine is too thin--" + +Howard clutched his glass with dramatic intensity. + +"Chateau Legrange, if I'm not mistaken, sir," he said; "but let it be +what it may, it's simply perfect." + +"I'm glad. See here, now, it's understood between us that if there's +anything you want, anything you'd like altered, you'll say so, eh, +Stafford?" he said, with an affectionate anxiety. "I'm a +rough-and-ready kind of man, and anything pleases me; but you--ah, +well, you two have the right to be particular; and I'll ask you to ask +for just what you want--and be sure you get it." + +Stafford glanced round the room with its costly appointments, and Sir +Stephen caught the glance, and smiled. + +"You're thinking--ah, well, no matter. Mr. Howard, try those +strawberries. I don't think they're forced. They tell me that they get +them on the slope even earlier than this. This port--now see how nice +the people in these parts are! this port came from the landlord of +the--the--yes, The Woodman Inn. He sent it with his respectful +compliments, saying you did him the honour to praise it last night. You +stayed there, I suppose? Surprisingly kind: quite a Spanish bit of +courtesy. I wrote Mr.--yes, Mr. Groves a note thanking him on your +behalf, and I sent him some dry sherry which Stenson here"--he smiled +at the butler--"tells me is rather good, eh, Stenson?" + +The solemn gravity of Stenson's face did not relax in the slightest, as +he murmured: + +"Count de Meza's '84, sir." + +"Right! So long as it was the best we had. You approve, Stafford, eh?" + +Stafford nodded with something more than approval. + +"Thank you, sir," he said, simply. "We admired Mr. Groves's port." + +"He's a good fellow. I hope he'll enjoy the sherry. I shall take the +first opportunity of calling and expressing my sense of his +kindness--No more? Shall we have the coffee with the cigars in the +billiard room?" + +The footmen escorted them through the billiard-room to the +smoking-room, only divided from it by a screen of Eastern fret-work +draped by costly hangings. There were inlaid tables and couches of +exquisite workmanship, and a Moresque cabinet, which the butler +unlocked and from which he took cigars and cigarettes. + +Sir Stephen waved them to seats, and sank into a low chair with a sigh +of satisfaction and enjoyment. The footmen placed the exquisite +coffee-service of Limoges enamel on one of the tables, and, as they +left the room, Howard, as if he could not help himself, said: + +"This is a veritable Aladdin's Palace, Sir Stephen! Though I can +imagine that fabulous erection cannot have been as comfortable as +this." + +"I'm glad you like it," he said. "But do you like it?" he put in, with +a shrewd gleam in his eyes, which could be keen as well as brilliant +and genial. "I fancy you think it _too_ fine--eh, Stafford?" He laid +his hand on Stafford's knee with a somewhat appealing gesture and +glance. "I've seen a doubt on your face once or twice--and, by George! +you haven't seen half the place yet. Yes, Mr. Howard, I'll admit that +it is rather luxurious; that's the result of giving these new men +_carte-blanche_. They take you at your word, sir. I'll own up I was a +little surprised to-day; for I told them to build me a villa--but then +I wanted thirty or forty bedrooms, so I suppose they had to make it +rather large. It seemed to me that as it overlooks the lake it ought to +be after the style of those places one sees in Italy, and I hinted that +for the interior an Oriental style might be suitable; but I left them a +free hand, and if they've overdone it they ought to have known better. +I employed the men who were recommended to me." + +There was a pause for a moment. Stafford tried to find some phrase +which would conceal his lack of appreciation; and his father, as if he +saw what was passing through Stafford's mind, went on quickly but +smoothly: + +"Yes, I see. It _is_ too fine and ornamental. But I don't think you'll +find that the people who are coming here tomorrow will agree with you. +I may not know much about art and taste, but I know my world. +Stafford--Mr. Howard--I'll make a clean breast of it. I built this +place with an object. My dear sir, you won't think me guilty of +sticking it up to please Stafford here. I know his taste too well; +something like mine, I expect--a cosy room with a clean cloth and a +well-cooked chop and potato. I've cooked 'em myself before now--the +former on a shovel, the latter in an empty meat-tin. Of course I know +that Stafford and you, Mr. Howard, have lived very different lives to +mine. Of course. You have been accustomed to every refinement and a +great deal of luxury over since you left the cradle. Quite right! I'm +delighted that it should be so. Nothing is too good for Stafford +here--and his chum--nothing!" + +Stafford's handsome face flushed. + +"You've been very generous to me, sir," he said, in his brief way, but +with a glance at his father which expressed more than the words. + +Sir Stephen threw his head back and laughed. + +"That's all right, Staff," he said. "It's been a pleasure to me. I just +wanted to see you happy--'see you' is rather inappropriate, though, +isn't it, considering how very little I have seen you? But there were +reasons--We won't go into that. Where was I?" + +"You were telling us your reasons for building this place, sir," Howard +reminded him quietly. + +Sir Stephen shot a glance at him, a cautious glance. + +"Was I? By George! then I am more communicative than usual. My friends +in the city and elsewhere would tell you that I never give any reasons. +But what I was saying was this: that I've learnt that the world likes +tinsel and glitter--just as the Sioux Indians are caught by glass beads +and lengths of Turkey red calico. And I give the world what it wants. +See?" + +He laughed, a laugh which was as cynical as Howard's. + +"The world is not so much an oyster which you've got to open with a +sword, as the old proverb has it, but a wild beast. Yes, a wild beast: +and you've got to fight him at first, fight him tooth and claw. When +you've beaten him, ah! then you've got to feed him." + +"You have beaten your wild beast, Sir Stephen," remarked Howard. + +"Well--yes, more or less; anyhow, he seemed ready to come to my hand +for the tit-bits I can give him. The world likes to be _fêted_, likes +good dinners and high-class balls; but above all it likes to be amused. +I'm going to give it what it wants." + +Stafford looked up. This declaration coming from his father jarred upon +Stafford, whose heart he had won. + +"Why should you trouble, sir?" he said, quietly. "I should have thought +you would have been satisfied." + +"Because I want something more from it; something in return," said Sir +Stephen, with a smile. "Satisfied? No man is satisfied. I've an +ambition yet ungratified, and I mean to gratify it. You think I'm +vaunting, Mr. Howard?" "No, I think you are simply stating a fact," +responded Howard, gravely. + +"I thank you, sir," said Sir Stephen, as gravely. "I speak so +confidently because I see my way clearly before me. I generally do. +When I don't, I back out and lie low." + +Stafford found this too painful. He rose to get a light and sauntered +into the billiard-room and tried the table. + +Sir Stephen looked after him musingly, and seemed to forget Howard's +presence; then suddenly his face flushed and his eyes shone with a +curious mixture of pride and tenderness and the indomitable resolution +which had helped him to fight his "wild beast." He leant forward and +touched Howard's knee. + +"Don't you understand!" he said, earnestly, and in a low voice which +the click of the billiard balls prevented Stafford from hearing. "It is +for him! For my boy, Mr. Howard! It's for him that I have been working, +am still working. For myself--I am satisfied--as he said; but not for +him. I want to see him still higher up the ladder than I have climbed. +I have done fairly well--heaven and earth! if anyone had told me twenty +years ago that I should be where and what I am to-day--well, I'd have +sold my chances for a bottle of ale. You smile. Mr. Howard, it was +anything but beer and skittles for me then. I want to leave my boy +a--title. Smile again, Mr. Howard; I don't mind." + +"I haven't a smile about me, sir," said Howard. + +"Ah, you understand. You see my mind. I don't know why I've told you, +excepting that it is because you are Staff's friend. But I've told you +now. And am I not right? Isn't it a laudable ambition? Can you say that +he will not wear it well, however high the title may be? Where is there +such another young fellow? Proud--pride is too poor a word for what I +feel for him!" + +He paused and sank back, but leant forward again. + +"Though I've kept apart from him, Mr. Howard, I have watched him--but +in no unworthy sense. No, I haven't spied upon him." + +"There was no need, sir," said Howard, very quietly. + +"I know it. Stafford is as straight as a dart, as true as steel. Oh, +I've heard of him. I know there isn't a more popular man in +England--forgive me if I say I don't think there's a handsomer." + +Howard nodded prompt assent. + +"I read of him, in society, at Hurlingham. Everywhere he goes he holds +his own. And I know why. Do you believe in birth, Mr. Howard?" he +asked, abruptly. + +"Of course," replied Howard. + +"So do I, though I can't lay claim to any. But there's a good strain in +Stafford and it shows itself. There's something in his face, a certain +look in his eyes, in his voice, and the way he moves; that quiet yet +frank manner--oh, I can't explain!" he broke off, impatiently. + +"I think you have done it very well," said Howard. "I don't like the +word--it is so often misapplied--but I can't think of any better: +distinguished is the word that describes Stafford." + +Sir Stephen nodded eagerly. + +"You are right. Some men are made, born to wear the purple. My boy is +one of them--and he shall! He shall take his place amongst the noblest +and the best in the land. He shall marry with the highest. Nature has +cast him in a noble mould, and he shall step into his proper place." + +He drew a long breath, and his brilliant eyes flashed as if he were +looking into the future, looking into the hour of triumph. + +"Yes; I agree with you," said Howard; "but I am afraid Stafford will +scarcely share your ambition." + +He was sorry he had spoken as he saw the change which his words had +caused in Sir Stephen. + +"What?" he said, almost fiercely. "Why do you say that? Why should he +not be ambitious?" He stopped and laid his hand on Howard's shoulder, +gripping it tightly, and his voice sank to a stern whisper. "You don't +know of anything--there is no woman--no entanglement?" + +"No, no!" said Howard. "Make your mind easy on that point. There is no +one. Stafford is singularly free in that respect. In fact--well, he is +rather cold. There is no one, I am sure. I should have known it, if +there had been." + +Sir Stephen's grip relaxed, and the stern, almost savage expression was +smoothed out by a smile. + +"Right," he said, still in a whisper. "Then there is no obstacle in my +way. I shall win what I am fighting for. Though it will not be an easy +fight. No, sir. But easy or difficult, I mean winning." + +He rose and stood erect--a striking figure looking over Howard's head +with an abstracted gaze; then suddenly his eyelids quivered, his face +grew deathly pale, and his hand went to his heart. + +Howard sprang to his feet with an exclamation of alarm; but Sir Stephen +held up his hand warningly, moved slowly to one of the tables, poured +out a glass of _liqueur_ and drank it. Then he turned to Howard, who +stood watching him, uncertain what to do or say, and said, with an air +of command: + +"Not a word. It is nothing." + +Then he linked his arm in Howard's and led him into the billiard-room. + +"Table all right, Stafford?" + +"First-rate, sir," replied Stafford. "You and Mr. Howard play a +hundred." + +"No, no," said Sir Stephen. "You and Howard. I should enjoy looking +on." + +"We'll have a pool," said Stafford, taking the balls from the cabinet. +Howard watched Sir Stephen as he played his first shot: his hand was +perfectly steady, and he soon showed that he was a first-rate player. + +"That was a good shot," said Stafford, with a touch of pride in his +voice. "I don't know that I've seen a better. You play a good game, +sir." + +Sir Stephen's face flushed at his son's praise, as a girl's might have +done; but he laughed it off. + +"Only so, so, Staff. I don't play half as good a game as you and Mr. +Howard. How should I?--Mr. Howard, there is the spirit-stand. You'll +help yourself? Servants are a nuisance in a billiard-room." + +Not once for the rest of the evening did he show any sign of the +weakness which had so startled Howard, and as they went up the stairs +he told them a story with admirable verve and with evident enjoyment. + +"Sorry our evening has come to an end," he said as they stood outside +his door. "It is the last we shall have to ourselves. Pity. But it +can't be helped." + +Unconsciously he opened the door as he spoke, and Stafford said: + +"Is this your room, sir?" + +"Yes; walk in, my boy," replied Sir Stephen. + +Stafford walked in and stood stock-still with amazement. The room was +as plainly furnished as a servant's--more plainly, probably, than the +servants who were housed under his roof. Saving for a square of carpet +by the bed and dressing-table the floor was bare; the bed was a common +one of iron, narrow and without drapery, the furniture was of painted +deal. The only picture was a portrait of Stafford enlarged from a +photograph, and it hung over the mantel-piece so that Sir Stephen could +see it from the bed. Of course neither Stafford nor Howard made any +remark. + +"Remember that portrait, Stafford?" asked Sir Stephen, with a smile. "I +carry it about with me wherever I go. Foolish and fond old father, eh, +Mr. Howard? It's a good portrait, don't you think?" + +Stafford held out his hand. + +"Good-night, sir," he said in a very low voice. + +"Good-night, my boy! Sure you've got everything you want? And you, Mr. +Howard? Don't let me disturb you in the morning. I've got a stupid +habit of getting up early--got it years ago, and it clings, like other +habits. Hope you'll sleep well. If you don't, change your rooms before +the crowd comes. Good-night." + +"Did you see the room?" asked Stafford, huskily, when he and Howard had +got into Stafford's. + +Howard nodded. + +"I feel as if I could pitch all this"--Stafford looked at the +surrounding luxuries--"out of the window! I don't understand him. Great +Heaven! he makes me feel the most selfish, pampered wretch on the face +of the earth. He's--he's--" + +"He is a man!" said Howard, with an earnestness which was strange in +him. + +"You are right," said Stafford. "There never was such a father. And +yet--yet--I don't understand him. He is such a mixture. How such a man +could talk as he did--no I don't understand it." + +"I do," said Howard. + +But then Sir Stephen had given him the key to the enigma. + + +CHAPTER VII + +Stafford slept well, and was awake before Measom came to call him. It +was a warm and lovely morning, and Stafford's first thoughts flew to a +bath. He got into flannels, and found his way to the lake, and as he +expected, there was an elaborate and picturesque bathing-shed beside +the Swiss-looking boat-house, in which were an electric launch and +boats of all descriptions. There also was a boatman in attendance, with +huge towels on his arm. + +"Did you expect me?" asked Stafford, as the man touched his hat and +opened the bathing-shed. + +"Yes, sir; Sir Stephen sent down last night to say that you might come +down." + +Stafford nodded. His father forgot nothing! The boatman rowed him out +into the lake and Stafford had a delightful swim. It reminded him of +Geneva, for the lake this morning was almost as clear and as vivid in +colouring: and that is saying a great deal. + +The boatman, who watched his young master admiringly--for Stafford was +like a fish in the water--informed him that the launch would be ready +in a moment's notice, or the sailing boat either, for the matter of +that, if he should require them. + +"I've another launch, a steamer, and larger than this, coming +to-morrow; and Sir Stephen told me to get some Canadian canoes, in case +you or any of the company that's coming should fancy them, sir." + +As Stafford went up to the house in the exquisite "after-bath" frame of +mind, he met his father. The expression of Sir Stephen's face, which a +moment earlier, before he had turned the corner of the winding path, +had been grave and keen, and somewhat hard, softened, and his eyes lit +up with a smile which had no little of the boatman's admiration in it. + +"Had a swim, my boy? Found everything right, I hope? I was just going +down to see." + +"Yes, everything," replied Stafford. "I can't think how you have +managed to get it done in so short a time," he added, looking round at +the well-grown shrubs, the smooth paths and the plush-like lawns, which +all looked as if they had been in cultivation for years. + +Sir Stephen shrugged his shoulders. + +"It is all a question of money--and the right men," he said. "I always +work on the plan, and ask the questions: 'How soon, how much?' Then I +add ten per cent. to the contract price on condition that the time is +kept. I find 'time' penalties are no use: it breaks the contractor's +back; but the extra ten per cent. makes them hustle, as they say on the +'other side.' Have you seen the stables yet? But of course you haven't, +or I should have seen you there. I go down there every morning; not +because I understand much about horses, but because I'm fond of them. +That will be your department, my dear Stafford." + +At each turn of their way Stafford found something to admire, and his +wonderment at the settled and established "Oh, I stipulated that there +shouldn't be any newness--any 'smell of paint,' so to speak. Here are +the stables; I had them put as far from the house as possible, and yet +get-at-able. Most men like to stroll about them. I hope you'll like +them. Mr. Pawson, the trainer, designed them." + +Stafford nodded with warm approval. + +"They seem perfect," he said as, after surveying the exterior, he +entered and looked down the long reach of stalls and loose boxes, many +of which were occupied, as he saw at a glance, by valuable animals. +"They are a fine lot, sir," he said, gravely, as he went down the long +line. "A remarkably fine lot! I have never seen a better show. This +fellow--why, isn't he Lord Winstay's bay, Adonis?" + +"Yes," said Sir Stephen. "I thought you'd like him." + +"Good heavens!" exclaimed Stafford. "You don't mean that you have +bought him for me, sir! I know that Winstay refused eight hundred +guineas for him." + +"I daresay," replied Sir Stephen. "Why shouldn't I buy him for you, my +boy? There's another one in the box next that one; a little stiffer. +I'm told he's up to your weight and--" + +Stafford went into the box and looked at the horse. It was a +magnificent, light-weight hunter--the kind of horse that makes a +riding-man's heart jump. + +"I should say that there are not two better horses of their sort in the +county," Stafford said, solemnly, and with a flush of his handsome +face. + +Sir Stephen's eyes gleamed. + +"That's all right: they can't be too good, Stafford." + +The head groom, Davis by name, stood, with Pottinger and some +underlings, at a little distance in attendance, and the men exchanged +glances and nods. + +"Have you seen these, Pottinger?" asked Stafford, turning to him, and +speaking in the tone which servants love. + +Pottinger touched his forehead. + +"Yes, sir; they're first rate, and no mistake. I've just been telling +Mr. Davis he's got a splendid lot, sir--splendid!" + +"Not but what your own pair 'ud be hard to beat, sir," said Davis, +respectfully. "There's a mare here, Sir Stephen, I should like to show +Mr. Stafford." + +The mare was taken out into the yard, and Stafford examined her and +praised her with a judgment and enthusiasm which filled Davis's heart +with pride. + +"Your young guv'nor's the right sort, Pottinger," he remarked as +Stafford at last reluctantly tore himself away from the stables. "Give +me a master as understands a horse and I don't mind working for him." + +Pottinger nodded and turned the straw in his mouth. + +"If you're alludin' to Mr. Stafford, then you'll enjoy your work, Mr. +Davis; for you've got what you want. What my guv'nor don't know about a +'oss isn't worth knowing." + +"So I should say," assented Davis, emphatically. "I do hate to have a +juggins about the place. Barker, _is_ that a spot o' rust on that +pillar-chain, or is my eyesight deceiving me? No, my men, if there's +the slightest thing askew when Mr. Stafford walks round, I shall break +my heart--and sack the man who's responsible for it. Pottinger, if +you'd like that pair o' yours moved, if you think they ain't +comfortable, you say so, and moved they shall be." + +As Sir Stephen and Stafford strolled back to the house the former +paused now and again to point out something he wished Stafford to see, +always appealing for his approval. + +"Everything is perfect, sir," Stafford said at last. "And, above all, +the situation," he added as he looked at the magnificent view, the opal +lake mirroring the distant mountains, flecked by the sunlight and the +drifting clouds. + +"Yes, I was fortunate in getting it," remarked Sir Stephen. + +Instantly there flashed across Stafford's mind--and not for the first +time that morning--the words Ida Heron had spoken respecting the way in +which Sir Stephen had obtained the land. Looking straight before him, +he asked: + +"How did you get it, sir? I have heard that it was difficult to buy +land here for building purposes." + +"Yes, I fancy it is," replied Sir Stephen, quite easily. "Now you speak +of it, I remember my agent said there was some hitch at first; but he +must have got over it in some way or other. He bought it of a farmer." +Stafford drew a breath of relief. "This is the Italian garden; the +tennis and croquet lawns are below this terrace--there's not time to go +down. But you haven't seen half of it yet. There's the breakfast-bell. +Don't trouble to change: I like you in those flannels." He laid his +hand on Stafford's broad, straight shoulder. "You have the knack of +wearing your clothes as if they grew on you, Staff." + +Stafford laughed. + +"I ought to hand that compliment on to Measom, sir," he said; "he's the +responsible person and deserves the credit, if there is any." He looked +at his father's upright, well-dressed and graceful figure. "But he +would hand it back to you, I think, sir." + +There was a pause, then Stafford said: + +"Do you know any of your neighbours--any of the people round about?" + +"No; I was never here until yesterday, excepting for an hour or two. +But we shall know them, I suppose; they'll call in a little while, and +we will ask them to dinner, and so on. There should be some nice +people--Ah, Mr. Howard, we've stolen a march on you!" + +"I'm not surprised, sir," said Howard, as he came up in his slow and +languid way. "I am sorry to say that Stafford has an extremely bad +habit of getting up at unreasonable hours. I wait until I am dragged +out of bed by a fellow-creature or the pangs of hunger. Of course you +have been bathing, Staff? Early rising and an inordinate love of cold +water--externally--at all seasons are two of his ineradicable vices, +Sir Stephen. I have done my best to cure them, but--alas!" + +They went in to breakfast, which was served in a room with bay windows +opening on to the terrace overlooking the lake. Exactly opposite +Stafford's chair was the little opening on the other side from which he +and the girl from Heron Hall had gazed at the villa. He looked at it +and grew silent. + +A large dispatch-box stood beside Sir Stephen's plate. He did not open +it, but sent it to his room. + +"I never read my letters before breakfast," he remarked. "They spoil +one's digestion. I'm afraid the mail's heavy this morning, judging by +the weight of the box; so that I shall be busy. You two gentlemen will, +I trust, amuse yourselves in your own way. Mr. Howard, the groom will +await your orders." + +"Thanks," said Howard; "but I propose to sit quite still on a chair +which I have carried out on to the terrace. I have had enough of +driving to last me for a week;" and he shuddered. + +Stafford laughed. + +"Howard's easily disposed of, sir," he said. "Give him a hammock or an +easy-chair in the shade, and he can always amuse himself by going to +sleep." + +"True; and if half the men I know spent their time in a similar fashion +this would be a brighter and a better world. What you will do, my dear +Stafford, I know by bitter experience. He will go and wade through a +river or ride at a break-neck pace down some of those hills. Stafford +is never happy unless he is trying to lay up rheumatism for his old age +or endeavouring to break his limbs." + +Sir Stephen looked across the table at the stalwart, graceful frame; +but he said nothing: there was no need, for his eyes were eloquent of +love and admiration. + +Stafford changed into riding things soon after breakfast, went down to +the stables and had Adonis saddled. Davis superintended the operation +and the stablemen edged round to watch. Davis expressed his approval as +Stafford mounted and went off on a splendid creature, remarking as he +started: + +"Beautiful mouth, Davis!" + +"Yes, Pottinger," said Davis, succinctly, "he's worthy of him. That's +what I call 'hands' now. Dash my aunt if you'd find it easy to match +the pair of 'em! There's a class about both that you don't often see. +If you'll step inside my little place, Mr. Pottinger, we'll drink your +guv'nor's health. I like his shape, I like his style; and I'm counted a +bit of a judge. He's a gentleman, and a high-bred 'n at that." + +Stafford rode down the winding drive at which the gardeners were at +work on borders and shrubberies, and on to the road. The air was like +champagne. The slight breeze just ruffled the lake on which the sun was +glittering; Stafford was conscious of a strange feeling of eagerness, +of quickly thrilling vitality which was new to him. He put it down to +the glorious morning, to the discovery of the affection of his father, +to the good horse that stepped as lightly as an Arab, and carried him +as if he were a feather; and yet all the while he knew that these did +not altogether account for the electric eagerness, the "joy of living" +which possessed him. + +He pulled up for a moment at The Woodman Inn to thank Mr. Groves for +the port, and that gentleman came out, as glad to see him as if he were +an old friend. + +"Don't mention it, sir," he said. "I thought a long time before I sent +it, because I wasn't sure that Sir Stephen and you might think it a +liberty; but I needn't have done so, I know now. And it was kind of Sir +Stephen to send me a note with the sherry. It was like a gentleman, if +you'll excuse me saying so, sir." + +Stafford rode over the hill and along the road by the stream, and as he +rode he looked round him eagerly and keenly. In fact, as if he were +scouting. But that for which he was looking so intently did not appear; +his spirits fell--though the sun was still shining--and he sighed +impatiently, and putting Adonis through the stream, cantered over the +moor at the foot of the hills. Suddenly he heard the bark of a dog, and +looking eagerly in the direction of the sound, he saw Ida Heron walking +quickly round the hill, with Donald and Bess scampering in front of +her. + +The gloom vanished from Stafford's face, and he checked Adonis into a +walk. The dogs were the first to see him, and they tore towards him +barking a welcome. Ida looked up--she had been walking with her eyes +bent on the ground--the colour rose to her face, and she stopped for an +instant. Then she came on slowly, and by the time they had met there +was no trace of the transitory blush. + +Stafford raised his hat and dismounted, and tried to speak in a casual +tone; but it was difficult to conceal the subtle delight which sprang +up within him at the sight of her; and he looked at the beautiful face +and the slim, graceful figure in its tailor-made gown--which, well worn +as it was, seemed to him to sit upon her as no other dress had ever sat +upon any other woman--he had hard work to keep the admiration from his +eyes. + +"I begin to count myself a very lucky man, Miss Heron," he said. + +"Why?" she asked, her grave eyes resting on him calmly. + +"Because I have chanced to meet you again." + +"It is not strange," she said. "I am nearly always out-of-doors. What a +beautiful horse!" + +"Isn't it!" he said, grateful for her praise. "It is a new one--a +present from my father this morning." + +"A very valuable present! It ought to be able to jump." + +"It is. I put it at a bank just now, and it cleared it like a bird. I +am very glad I have met you. I wanted to tell you something." + +She raised her eyes from the horse and waited, with the quietude, the +self-possession and dignity which seemed so strange in one so young, +and which, by its strangeness, fascinated him. "I--spoke to my father +about the land: he is innocent in the matter. It was bought through his +agent, and my father knows nothing of anything--underhand. I can't tell +you how glad I am that this is so. So glad that--I'll make a clean +breast of it--I rode over this morning in the hope of meeting you and +telling you." + +She made a little gesture of acceptance. + +"I am glad, too. Though it does not matter...." + +"Ah, but it does!" he broke in. "I should have been wretched if you had +been right, and my father had been guilty of anything of the kind. But, +as a matter of fact, he isn't capable of it--as you'd say if you knew +him. Now, there's no reason why we shouldn't be friends, is there?" he +added, with a suppressed eagerness. + +"Oh, no," she responded. She glanced up at the sky. Unnoticed by him a +cloud had drifted over the Langdale pikes, as the range of high +mountain is called. "It is going to rain, and heavily." + +"And you have no umbrella, waterproof!" exclaimed Stafford. + +She laughed with girlish amusement. + +"Umbrella? I don't think I have such a thing; and this cloth is nearly +waterproof; besides, I never notice the rain--here it comes!" + +It came with a vengeance; it was as if the heavens had opened and let +down the bottom of a reservoir. + +Stafford mechanically took off his coat. + +"Put this on," he said. "That jacket is quite light; you'll get wet +through." + +Her face crimsoned, and she laughed a little constrainedly. + +"Please put your coat on!" she said, gravely and earnestly. "_You_ will +be wet through, and you are not used to it. There is a shed round the +corner; ride there as quickly as you can." + +Stafford stared at her, then burst into a laugh which echoed hers. + +"And leave you here! Is it likely?" + +"Well, let us both go," she said, as if amused by his obstinacy. + +"Is it far?" he asked. "See if you can manage to balance on the +saddle--I would run beside you. It's all very well to talk of not +minding the rain, but this is a deluge." + +She glanced at the horse. + +"I couldn't get up--I could if he were barebacked, or if it were a +lady's saddle--it doesn't matter. Look, Donald and Bess are laughing at +you for making a fuss about a shower." + +"Will you try--let me help you?" he pleaded. "I could lift you quite +easily--Oh, forgive me, but I'm not used to standing by and seeing a +girl get soaked." + +"You are walking--not standing," she reminded him, solemnly. + +Perhaps her smile gave him courage: he took her just below the +shoulders and lifted her on to the saddle, saying as he did so, and in +as matter-of-fact a voice as he could: + +"If you'll just put your hand on my shoulder, you'll find that you can +ride quite safely--though I expect you could do it without that--I've +seen you ride, you know." + +He kept his eyes from her, so that he did not see the hot blush which +mantled in the clear ivory of her face, or the sudden tightening of the +lips, as if she were struggling against some feeling, and fighting for +her usual self-possession. + +She succeeded in a moment or two, and when he looked up the blush had +gone and something like amusement was sharing the sweet girlish +confusion in her grey eyes. + +"This is absurd!" she said. "It is to be hoped Jason or none of the men +will see me; they would think I had gone mad; and I should never hear +the last of it. The shed is by that tree." + +"I see it--just across the road. Please keep a tight hold of my +shoulder; I should never forgive myself if you slipped." + +"I am not in the least likely to slip," she said. + +Then suddenly, just as they were on the edge of the road, she uttered +an exclamation of surprise rather than embarrassment, for a carriage +and pair came round the corner and almost upon them. + +Stafford stopped Adonis to let the carriage pass, but the coachman +pulled up in response to a signal from someone inside, and a man thrust +his head out of the window and regarded them at first with surprise and +then with keen scrutiny. + +He was an elderly man, with a face which would have been coarse but for +its expression of acuteness and a certain strength which revealed +itself in the heavy features. + +"Can you tell me the way to Sir Stephen Orme's place?" he asked in a +rough, harsh voice. + +Ida was about to slip down, but she reflected that the mischief, if +there were any, was done now; and to Stafford's admiration, she sat +quite still under the gaze of the man's keen, sarcastic eyes. + +"Yes; keep straight on and round by The Woodman: you will see the house +by that time," said Stafford. + +"Thanks! Drive on, coachman," said the man; and he drew in his head +with a grim smile, and something like a sneer on his thick lips that +made Stafford's eyes flash. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +Stafford and Ida remained, unconscious of the rain, looking after the +carriage for a moment or two. + +The sneer on the man's heavy yet acutely sharp face, still incensed +Stafford. He had the usual desire of the strong man--to dash after the +rapidly disappearing vehicle, lug the fellow out and ask him what he +was sneering at. + +Ida was the first to speak. + +"What a strange-looking man," she said. + +Stafford started slightly, awaking to the fact that it was still +pouring. + +"I--I beg your pardon. I'm keeping you out in the rain." + +He put Adonis, not at all unwillingly, to a trot, and they gained the +rough cattle-shed, and he would have lifted the girl down, but she was +too quick for him, and slipped gracefully and easily from the saddle. + +Stafford, leading the horse, followed her into the shed. Bess sat on +the extreme end of her haunches shivering and blinking, and all too +plainly cursing the British climate; but Donald threw himself down +outside as if he regarded the deluge as a cheap shower-bath. + +Stafford looked at Ida anxiously. + +"You are fearfully wet," he said. "I think I could wipe off the worst +of it, if you'll let me." + +He took out his pocket handkerchief as he spoke and wiped the rain from +her straight, beautifully moulded shoulders. She drew back a little and +opened her lips to protest at first, but with a slight shrug she +resigned herself, her eyes downcast, a faint colour in her face. + +"I must be quite dry now," she said at last. + +"I'm afraid not," said Stafford. "I wish I had something bigger--a +towel." + +She laughed, the sweet girlish laugh which seemed to him the most +musical sound he had ever heard. + +"A towel? Fancying carrying a towel to wipe oneself with when it +rained! It is evident you don't know our country. There are weeks +sometimes in which it never ceases to rain. And you must be wet through +yourself," she added, glancing at him. + +He was on his knees at the moment carefully wiping the old habit skirt +with his saturated handkerchief as if the former were something +precious; and her woman's eye noted his short crisp hair, the shapely +head and the straight broad back. + +"I'm afraid that's all I can do!" he said, regretfully, as he rose and +looked at her gravely. "Do you mean to say that you habitually ride out +in such weather as this?" + +"Why, yes!" she replied, lightly. "Why not? I am too substantial to +melt, and I never catch cold. Besides, I have to go out in all weathers +to see to the cattle and the sheep." + +He leant against one of the posts which supported the shed, and gazed +at her with more intense interest than any other woman had ever aroused +in him. + +"Isn't there a foreman, a bailiff, whatever you call him, in these +parts?" + +She shook her head. + +"No; we cannot afford one; so I do his work. And very pleasant work it +is, especially in fine weather." + +"And you are happy?" he asked, almost unconsciously. + +Her frank eyes met his with a smile of amusement. + +"Yes, quite happy," she answered. "Why? Does it seem so unlikely, so +unreasonable?" + +"Well, it does," he replied, as if her frankness were contagious. "Of +course, I could understand it if you did it occasionally, if you did it +because you liked riding; but to be obliged, to have to go out in all +weathers, it isn't right!" + +She looked at him thoughtfully. + +"Yes, I suppose it seems strange to you. I suppose most of the ladies +you know are rich, and only ride to amuse themselves, and never go out +when they do not want to do so. Sir Stephen Orme--you--are very rich, +are you not? We, my father and I, are poor, very poor. And if I did not +look after things, if I were not my own bailiff--Oh, well, I don't know +what would happen." + +Stafford gnawed at his moustache as he gazed at her. The exquisitely +colourless face, in which the violet eyes glowed like two twin flowers, +the delicately cut lips, soft and red, the dark hair clustering at the +ivory temples in wet rings, set his heart beating with a heavy +pulsation that was an agony of admiration and longing--a longing that +was vague and indistinct. + +"Yes, I suppose it must seem strange to you," she said, as if she were +following out the lines of her own thoughts. "You must be accustomed to +girls who are so different." + +"Yes, they're different," he admitted. "Most of the women I know would +be frightened to death if they were caught in such a rain as this; +would be more than frightened to death if they had to ride down that +hill most of 'em think they've done wonder if they get in at the end of +a run over a fairly easy country; and none of 'em could doctor a sick +sheep to save their lives." + +"Yes," she said, dreamily. "I've seen them, but only at a distance. But +I didn't know anything about farming until I came home." + +"And do you never go away from here, go to London for a change and get +a dance, and--and all that?" he asked. + +She shook her head indifferently. + +"No, I never leave the dale. I cannot. My father could not spare me. +Has it left off raining yet?" + +She went to the front of the shed and looked out. + +"No, it is still pelting; please come back; it is pouring off the roof; +your hair is quite wet again." + +She laughed, but she obeyed. + +"I suppose that gentleman, the man in the carriage, was a friend of Sir +Stephen's, as he asked the way to your house?" + +"I don't know," replied Stafford. "I don't know any of my father's +friends. I knew very little of him until last night." + +She looked at him with frank, girlish interest. + +"Did you find the new house very beautiful?" she asked. + +Stafford nodded. + +"Yes," he said, absently. "It is a kind of--of palace. It's beautiful +enough--perhaps a little too--too rich," he admitted. + +She smiled. + +"But then, you are rich. And is it true that a number of visitors are +coming down? I heard it from Jessie." + +"Who is Jessie?" he asked, for he was more interested in the smallest +detail of this strange, bewilderingly lovely girl's life than his +father's affairs. + +"Jessie is my maid. I call her mine, because she is very much attached +to me; but she is really our house-maid, parlour-maid. We have very few +servants: I suppose you have a great many up at the new house?" + +He nodded. + +"Oh, yes," he said, half apologetically. "Too many by far. I wish you +could, see it," he added. + +She laughed softly. + +"Thank you; but that is not likely. I think it is not raining so hard +now, and that I can go." + +"It is simply pouring still," he said, earnestly and emphatically. "You +would get drenched if you ventured out." + +"But I can't stay here all day," she remarked, with a laugh. "I have a +great deal to do: I have to see that the sheep have not strayed, and +that the cows are in the meadows; the fences are bad in places, and the +stupid creatures are always straying. It is wonderful how quickly a cow +finds a weak place in a fence." + +Stafford's face grew red, a brick-dust red. + +"It's not fit work for you," he said. "You--you are only a girl; you +can't be strong enough to face such weather, to do such work." + +The beautiful eyes grew wide and gazed at him with girlish amusement, +and something of indignation. + +"I'm older than you think. I'm not a girl!" she retorted. "And I am as +strong as a horse." She drew herself up and threw her head back. "I am +never tired--or scarcely ever. One day I rode to Keswick and back, and +when I got home Jason met me at the gate and told me that the steers +had 'broken' and had got on the Bryndermere road. I started after them, +but missed them for a time, and only came up with them at Landal +Water--ah, you don't know where that is; well, it is a great many +miles. Of course I had a rest coming back, as I could only drive them +slowly." + +Something in his eyes--the pity, the indignation, the wonder that this +exquisitely refined specimen of maidenhood should be bent to such base +uses--shone in them and stopped her. The colour rose to her face and +her eyes grew faintly troubled, then a proud light flashed in them. + +"Ah, I see; you are thinking that it is--is not ladylike, that none of +your lady-friends would do it if even if they were strong enough?" + +Stafford would have scorned himself if he had been tempted to evade +those beautiful eyes, that sweet, and now rather haughty voice; +besides, he was not given to evasion with man or woman. + +"I wasn't thinking quite that," he said. "But I'll tell you what I was +thinking, if you'll promise not to be offended." + +She considered for a moment, then she said: + +"I do not think you will offend me. What was it?" + +"Well, I was thinking that--see here, now, Miss Heron, I've got your +promise!--it is not worthy of you--such work, I mean." + +"Because I'm a girl?" she said, her lip curving with a smile. + +"No," he said, gravely; "because you are a lady; because you are so--so +refined, so graceful, so"--he dared not say "beautiful," and +consequently he floundered and broke down. "If you were a farmer's +daughter, clumsy and rough and awkward, it would not seem to +inappropriate for you to be herding cattle and counting sheep; but--now +your promise!--when I come to think that ever since I met you, +whenever I think of you I think of--of--a beautiful flower--that now I +have seen you in evening-dress, I realise how wrong it is that you +should do such work. Oh, dash it! I know it's like my cheek to talk to +you like this," he wound up, abruptly and desperately. + +While he had been speaking, the effect of his words had expressed +itself in her eyes and in the alternating colour and pallor of her +face. It was the first time in her life any man had told her that she +was refined and graceful and flower-like; that she was, so to speak, +wasting her sweetness on the desert air, and the speech was both +pleasant and painful to her. The long dark lashes swept her cheek; her +lips set tightly to repress the quiver which threatened them; but when +he had completely broken down, she raised her eyes to his with a look +so grave, so sweet, so girlish, that Stafford's heart leapt, not for +the first time that morning, and there flashed through him the +unexpected thought: + +"What would not a man give to have those eyes turned upon him with love +shining in their depths!" + +"I'm not offended," she said. "I know what you mean. None of your +lady-friends would do it because they are ladies. I'm sorry. But they +are not placed as I am. Do you think I could sit with my hands before +me, or do fancy-work, while things went to ruin? My father is old and +feeble--you saw him the other night--I have no brother--no one to help +me, and--so you see how it is!" + +The eyes rested on his with a proud smile, as if she were challenging +him, then she went on: + +"And it does not matter. I live quite alone; I see no one, no other +lady; there is no one to be ashamed of me." + +Stafford reddened. + +"That's rather a hard hit for me!" he said. "Ashamed! By Heaven! if you +knew how I admired--how amazed I am at your pluck and goodness--" + +Her eyes dropped before his glowing ones. + +"And there is no need to pity me: I am quite happy, quite; happier than +I should be if I were playing the piano or paying visits all day. It +has quite left off now." + +Half unconsciously he put his hand on her arm pleadingly, and with the +firm, masterful touch of the man. + +"Will you wait one more moment?" he said, in his deep, musical voice. +She paused and looked at him enquiringly. "You said just now that you +had no brother, no one to help you. Will you let me help you? will you +let me stand in the place of a friend, of a brother?" + +She looked at him with frank surprise; and most men would have been +embarrassed and confused by the steady, astonished regard of the violet +eyes; but Stafford was too eager to get her consent to care for the +amusement that was mixed with the expression of surprise. + +"Why--how could you help me?" she said at last; "even if--" + +--"You'd let me," he finished for her. "Well, I'm not particularly +clever, but I've got sense enough to count sheep and drive cows; and I +can break in colts, train dogs, and, if I'm obliged, I daresay I could +drive a plough." + +Her eyes wandered thoughtfully, abstractedly down the dale; but she was +listening and thinking. + +"Of course I should have a lot to learn, but I'm rather quick at +picking up things, and--" + +"Are you joking, Mr. Orme?" she broke in. + +"Joking? I was never more serious in my life," he said, eagerly, and +yet with an attempt to conceal his earnestness. "I am asking it as a +favour, I am indeed! I shall be here for weeks, months, perhaps, and I +should be bored to death--" + +"With your father's house full of visitors?" she put in, softly, and +with a smile breaking through her gravity. + +"Oh, they'll amuse themselves," he said. "At any rate, I sha'n't be +with them all day; and I'd ever so much rather help you than dance +attendance on them." + +She pushed the short silky curls from her temples, and shook her head. + +"Of course it's ridiculous," she said, with a girlish laugh; "and it's +impossible, too." + +"Oh, is it?" he retorted. "I've never yet found anything I wanted to do +impossible." + +"You always have your own way?" she asked. + +"By hook or by crook," he replied. + +"But why do you want to--help me?" she asked. "Do you think you would +find it amusing? You wouldn't." The laughter shone in her eyes again. +"You would soon grow tired of it. It is not like hunting or fishing or +golfing; it's work that tries the temper--I never knew what a fiendish +temper I had got about me until the first time I had to drive a cow and +calf." + +"My temper couldn't be worse," he remarked, calmly. "Howard says that +sometimes I could give points to the man possessed with seven devils." + +"Who is Mr. Howard?" she asked. + +"My own particular chum," he said. "He came down with me and is up at +the house now. But never mind Howard; are you going to let me help you +as if I were an old friend or a--brother? Or are you going to be unkind +enough to refuse?" + +She began to feel driven, and her brows knit as she said: + +"I think you are very--obstinate, Mr. Orme." + +"That describes me exactly," he said, cheerfully. "I'm a perfect mule +when I like, and I'm liking it all I know at this moment." + +"It's absurd--it's ridiculous, as I said," she murmured, half angrily, +half laughingly, "and I can't think why you offered, why you want +to--to help me!" + +"Never mind!" said Stafford, his heart beating with anticipatory +triumph; for he knew that the woman who hesitates is gained. "Perhaps I +want to get some lessons in farming on the cheap, or--" + +--"Perhaps you really want to help the poor girl who, though she is a +lady, has to do the work of a farmer's daughter," she said, in a low +voice. "Oh, it is very kind of you, but--" + +"Then I'll come over to-morrow an hour earlier than this, and you shall +show me how to count the sheep, or whatever you do with them," he put +in, quickly. + +"But I was going to refuse--very gratefully, of course--but to +refuse!" + +"You couldn't; you couldn't be so unkind! I'll ride a hunter I've got; +he's rather stiffer than Adonis, and better up to rough work. I will +come to the stream where we first met and wait for you--shall I?" + +He said all this as if the matter were settled; and with the sensation +of being driven still more strongly upon her, she raised her eyes to +his with a yielding expression in them, with that touch of imploration +which lurks in a woman's eyes and about the corners of her lips when +for the first time she surrenders her will to a man. + +"I do not know what to say. It is absurd--it is--wrong. I don't +understand why--. Ah, well," she sighed with an air of relief, "you +will tire of it very quickly--after a few hours--" + +"All right. We'll leave it at that," he said, with an exasperating air +of cheerful confidence. "It is a bargain, Miss Heron. Shall we shake +hands on it?" + +He held out his hand with the smile which few men, and still fewer +women, could resist; and she tried to smile in response; but as his +strong hand closed over her small one, a faint look of doubt, almost of +trouble, was palpable in her violet eyes and on her lips. She drew her +hand away--and it had to be drawn, for he released it only slowly and +reluctantly--and without a word she left the shed. + +Stafford watched her as she went lightly and quickly up the road +towards the Hall, Bess and Donald leaping round her; then, with a sharp +feeling of elation, a feeling that was as novel as it was confusing, he +sprang on his horse, and putting him to a gallop, rode for home, with +one thought standing clearly out: that before many hours--the next +morning--he should see her again. + +Once he shifted his whip to his left hand, and stretching out his right +hand, looked at it curiously: it seemed to be still thrilling with the +contact of her small, warm palm. + +As he came up to The Woodman Inn he remembered, what he had forgotten +in the morning, that he had left his cigar-case on the dining-room +mantel-shelf. He pulled up, and giving Adonis to the hostler, who +rushed forward promptly, he went into the inn. There was no one in the +hall, and knowing that he should be late for luncheon, he opened the +dining-room door and walked in, and straight up to the fireplace. + +The cigar-case was where he had left it, and he turned to go out. Then +he saw that he was not the only occupant of the room, for a lady was +sitting in the broad bay-window. He snatched off his cap and murmured +an apology. + +"I beg your pardon! I did not know anyone was in the room," he said. + +The lady was young and handsome, with a beauty which owed a great deal +to colour. Her hair was a rich auburn, her complexion of the delicate +purity which sometimes goes with that coloured hair--"milk and roses," +it used to be called. Her eyes were of china blue, and her lips rather +full, but of the richest carmine. She was exquisitely dressed, her +travelling costume evidently of Redfern's build, and one hand, from +which she had removed the glove, was loaded with costly rings; diamonds +and emeralds as large as nuts, and of the first water. + +But it was not her undeniable beauty, or her dress and costly +jewellery, which impressed Stafford so much as the proud, scornfully +listless air with which she regarded him as she leant back +indolently--and a little insolently--tapping the edge of the table with +her glove. + +"Pray don't apologise," she said, languidly. "This is a public room, I +suppose!" + +"Yes, I think so," said Stafford, in his pleasant, frank way; "but one +doesn't rush into a public room with one's hat on if he has reason to +suppose that a lady is present. I thought there was no one here--the +curtain concealed you: I am sorry." + +She shrugged her shoulders and gave him the faintest and most +condescending of bows; then, as he reached the door, she said: + +"Do you think it will be moonlight to-night?" + +Stafford naturally looked rather surprised at this point-blank +meteorological question. + +"I shouldn't be surprised if it were," he said. "You see, this is a +very changeable climate, and as it is raining now it will probably +clear up before the evening." + +"Thanks!" she said. "I am much obliged--" + +"Oh, my opinion isn't worth much," he put in parenthetically, but she +went on as if he had not spoken. + +--"I should be still further obliged if you would be so kind as to tell +my father--he is outside with the carriage somewhere--that I am tired +and that I would rather not go on until the cool of the evening." + +"Certainly," said Stafford. + +He waited a moment to see if she had any other requests, or rather +orders, and then went out and found the gentleman with the strongly +marked countenance, in the stable-yard beside the carriage to which the +hostler and the help were putting fresh horses. + +Stafford raised his hat slightly. + +"I am the bearer of a message from the young lady in the dining-room, +sir," he said. "She wishes me to tell you that she would prefer to +remain here until the evening." + +The man swung round upon him with an alert and curious manner, half +startled, half resentful. + +"What the devil--I beg your pardon! Prefers to remain here! Well!" He +muttered something that sounded extremely like an oath, then, with a +shrug of his shoulders, told the hostler to take the horses out. "Thank +you!" he said to Stafford, grudgingly. "I suppose my daughter is tired: +very kind of you." + +"Not at all," responded Stafford, politely; and he got on +to Adonis, which Mr. Groves himself had led out, and rode away. + +The gentleman looked after him with knitted brows. + +"What is the name of that young fellow?" he asked of Groves. + +"That is Mr. Stafford Orme, Sir Stephen's son, sir," replied Groves. + +The gentleman was walking towards the house, but he pulled up short, +his eyes narrowed themselves to slits and his thick lips closed +tightly. + +"A fine young fellow, sir!" said Groves, with respectful enthusiasm. "A +splendid specimen of an English gentleman!" + +The gentleman grunted and went on to the dining-room. + +"What whim is this, Maude?" he asked, irritably. + +She yawned behind her beringed hand. + +"I am tired. I can't face that stuffy carriage again just yet. Let us +dine here and go on afterwards in the cool." + +"Oh, just as you like," he said. "It makes no difference to me!" + +"I know," she assented. Then, in an indolently casual way, she asked: + +"Who was that gentleman who rode by just now?" + +Her father glanced at her suspiciously as he took off his overcoat. + +"Now, how on earth should I know, my dear Maude!" he replied, with a +short, harsh laugh. "Some young farmer or cattle dealer, I imagine." + +"I said _gentleman_," she retorted, with something approaching +insolence. "You will permit _me_ to know the difference." + +Her father coloured angrily, as if she had stung him. + +"You'd better go upstairs and take off your things while I order +dinner," he said. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +As Stafford rode homewards he wondered whom the strange pair could be. +It was evident they were not going to stay at the Villa, or they would +have driven straight there; but it was also evident that the gentleman +had heard of Sir Stephen's "little place," or he would not have asked +where it was; but, as Stafford reflected, rather ruefully, it would be +difficult for any traveller passing through the neighbourhood not to +see the new, great white house, or to hear something, perhaps a very +great deal, of the man who had built it. + +Howard sauntered down the hall to meet him. + +"Good heavens, how wet you look, and, needless to add, how happy. If +there is anything in the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, my +dear Stafford, your future embodiment will be that of a Newfoundland +dog. Such an extremely strong passion for cold water is +almost--er--indecent. I've had a lovely morning in the library; and +your father is still at work with his correspondence. I asked him what +he thought of Lord Palmerston's aphorism: that if you left your letters +unanswered long enough they answered themselves; and he admitted it was +true, and that he had sometimes adopted the plan successfully. There is +a secretary with him--a dark and silent man named Murray, who appears +to have an automatic, double-action brain; anyway he can write a letter +and answer questions at the same time. And he watches your father's +lips as if he--the secretary, not Sir Stephen--were a dog waiting for a +stone to be thrown. It is interesting to watch--for a time; then it +gets on one's nerves. May I ask where you have been?" + +"Oh, just for a ride; been trying the new horse: he's a clinker! The +governor couldn't have got hold of a better if he'd searched all +Arabia, and Hungary to boot. I'll just change and get some lunch. I +hope you haven't waited?" + +"Your hope is not in vain, young man," replied Howard, suavely; "but I +will come and sit beside you while you stoke." + +With Measom's aid Stafford was soon into dry clothes and seated at +lunch, and, as he had promised, Howard drew a chair to the table, and +contemplated him with vicarious enjoyment. + +"What an appetite you have!" he drawled, admiringly. "I imagine it +would stand by you, even if you were in love. As a specimen of the +perfectly healthy animal you stand preeminent, my dear Stafford. By the +way, shall I spoil your lunch if I read you out a list of the guests +whom we are expecting this afternoon? Sir Stephen was good enough to +furnish me with it, with the amiable wish that I might find some friend +on it. What do you say to Lord and Lady Fitzharford; the Countess of +Clansford; the Baron Wirsch; the Right Honourable Henry Efford; Sir +William and Lady Plaistow--" + +Stafford looked up and smiled. + +"Any more?" + +"Oh, yes. There are the two Beltons and George Levinson, to say nothing +of Mr. Griffinberg, the railroad king." + +Stafford stared at his claret glass. + +"I wonder why the governor has asked such a crowd?" he said, musingly. + +"A perfectly arranged symphony in colours, I call it," said Howard. +"Fashion is represented by the Fitzharfords and old Lady Clansford; +politics by Efford and the Beltons, and finance by Plaistow and Wirsch. +That Griffinberg is coming is a proof that Sir Stephen has got 'a +little railway' in his mind; there are several others who seem to have +been thrown in, not to increase weight, but to lighten it. It will be +rather amusing--a kind of menagerie which, under less skilful guidance +than Sir Stephen's, might be sure to disagree and fight." + +Stafford sighed. + +"Oh, you'll be all right," he said; "but I don't quite see where I +shall come in." + +Howard laughed. + +"My dear Stafford, there are some extremely pretty girls with whom you +can flirt, and I've no doubt some of the men will join you in your +eccentric attempts to drown yourself or break your neck. _Is_ that the +sun coming out, and is it going to clear?" + +"I hope so," said Stafford, laughing. "For I prophesied a fine evening, +and a lady was weak enough to take my word for it. Let us go and rake +my father out of the library, and get him into the garden with a +cigar." + +"You may venture upon such an audacity, but not I," said Howard, with +simulated fear. "I'll wait for you on the terrace." + +Sir Stephen looked up with a frown as Stafford entered, and the +dark-faced secretary stared aghast at the intrusion; but Sir Stephen's +face cleared as he saw who it was. + +"Back, Stafford?" he said. "What? Come into the garden--cigar? +Certainly! You can finish up, can't you, Murray? Thanks!" He looked at +his watch as they went through the hall. "I suppose some of the people +will be here before long. Did Mr. Howard show you the list? Do you know +any of them. Stafford?" + +"Yes, I've met Lady Clansford and the Fitzharfords, of course; but most +of them are too great and lofty. I mean that they are celebrated +personages, out of my small track. One doesn't often meet Sir William +Plaistow and Mr. Griffinberg at at homes and afternoon teas." Sir +Stephen laughed. + +"Oh, well, you mustn't let them bore you, you know, my boy. You must +consider yourself quite free to cut off and amuse yourself some other +way whenever you get tired of them." + +"And leave it all to you, sir!" said Stafford, with a smile; but as he +spoke he drew a breath of relief; he should be free to help the +beautiful, lovely girl of Herondale. + +A few hours later the visitors arrived, and before dinner the superb +drawing-room was, if not crowded, sufficiently well filled with the +brilliant company. + +Nearly all the guests were extremely wealthy, most of them were +powerful, either in the region of politics or finance; and the +fashionable world was represented by some beautiful women with dresses +and diamonds above reproach, and some young men whose names stood high +at Hurlingham and Prinses. + +Stafford stood beside his father as Sir Stephen went from group to +group, greeting one and another in his frank and genial yet polished +manner, which grew warm and marked by scarcely repressed pride, as he +introduced Stafford. + +"My son, Lady Fitzharford. I think he has had the pleasure of meeting +you? I scarcely know who are his friends: we have been separated so +long! But we are restored to each other at last, I am happy to say! +Lady Clansford, you know my boy? Ah, he has had the advantage of me all +these years; he has not had to rush all over Europe, but has been able +to bask in the sunshine of grace and beauty. Griffinberg, I want my son +to know you. You and I are such old friends that you won't mind me +showing that I am proud of him, eh?" and he laid his hand on Stafford's +shoulder with an air of pride and affection. + +"What a lovely place Sir Stephen has made of this, Mr. Orme," said Lady +Clansford; "we were quite startled as we drove up, and simply +bewildered when we got inside. This room is really--oh well, I'm +beggared for adjectives!" + +Stafford went about, listening to the encomiums on his father or the +house, and making appropriate responses; but he was rather relieved +when the butler announced dinner. + +The dining-room received its meed of praise from the guests, and the +elaborate _menu_ caused some of the men to beam with inward +satisfaction. It was a superb dinner, served with a stateliness which +could not have been exceeded if royalty had been amongst the guests. +The plate was magnificent, the flowers arranged by an artist's hand, in +rich and yet chaste abundance. Stafford, as he looked from the bottom +of the table to Sir Stephen at the head, felt with a thrill of pride +that his father was the most distinguished-looking man of them all; and +he noticed that in the tone of both the men and the women who addressed +him there was that subtle note which indicates respect and the +consideration which men and women of the world pay to one who has +achieved greatness. + +And yet, he noticed also, that not one of them was more perfectly at +his ease than Sir Stephen, who laughed and talked as if his only aim +was that of enjoyment, and as if he had never "planned a plan or +schemed a scheme." Every now and then Stafford caught his father's eye, +and each time he did so, Sir Stephen smiled at him with that air of +pride and affection which he made no attempt to conceal or check. Once +or twice Howard, too, caught his eye and smiled significantly as if he +were saying, "How is this for a successful party?" + +The dinner went swimmingly, and when the ladies had retired Sir Stephen +begged the men to close up, and passed the wine freely. The talk was of +everything but politics or business--Stafford remarked that not a word +was said of either topic; and Sir Stephen told one or two stories +admirably and set the laughter going. + +"What sort of a night is it, Stafford?" he asked, presently. + +Stafford drew the curtain from the open French window, and the +moonlight streamed in to fight with the electric lamps. + +"Shall we go out on to the terrace?" said Sir Stephen. "Quite warm +enough, isn't it?" + +They went out; servants brought coffee and cigars, and some of the +gentlemen sauntered up and down the terrace, and others went down into +the garden. Sir Stephen linked his arm in Stafford's, and they walked a +little apart along one of the smooth paths. + +"Not bored, I hope, my boy?" he asked. + +"Good gracious, no, sir!" replied Stafford. "I don't think I remember a +more successful dinner. Why should I be bored?" + +"That's all right!" said Sir Stephen, pressing his arm. "I was afraid +you might be. They are not a bad set--the men, I mean--if you keep them +off their hobbies; and we managed to do that, I think." + +"Yes, I noticed you managed them very well, sir," said Stafford. "What +a lovely night." They had reached a gate opening on to the road, and +they stood and looked at the view in silence for a moment, listening to +a nightingale, whose clear notes joined with the voices and laughter of +the guests. + +Suddenly another sound came upon the night air; a clatter of horses' +hoofs and the rattle of wheels. + +"Someone driving down the road," said Sir Stephen. + +"And coming at a deuce of a pace!" said Stafford. He opened the gate +and looked up the road; then he uttered an ejaculation. + +"By George! they've bolted!" he said, in his quiet way. + +"What?" asked Sir Stephen, as he, too, came out. The carriage was +tearing down the hill towards them in the moonlight, and Stafford saw +that the horses were rushing along with lowered heads and that the +driver had lost all control of them. + +As they came towards the two men, Stafford set off running towards +them. Sir Stephen called him; Stafford took no heed, and as the horses +came up to him he sprang at the head of the nearer one. There was a +scramble, a scuffing of hoofs, and a loud, shrill shriek from the +interior of the carriage; then the horses were forced on to their +haunches, and Stafford scrambled to his feet from the road into which +he had been hustled. + +The driver jumped down and ran to the horses' heads, the carriage door +was flung open and the gentleman of the inn leapt out. Leapt out almost +on to Sir Stephen, who ran up breathless with apprehension on +Stafford's account. The two men stood and looked at each other in the +moonlight, at first with a confused and bewildered gaze, then Sir +Stephen started back with a cry, a strange cry, which brought Stafford +to his side. + +At the same moment, the girl he had seen in the sitting-room at the +inn, slipped out of the carriage. + +"Are we safe?" she asked faintly. "How did we stop? Who--" + +She stopped abruptly, and both she and Stafford stared at the two men +who were standing confronting each other. Sir Stephen was as white as a +ghost, and there was a look of absolute terror in his dark eyes. On the +face of the other man was an enigmatical smile, which was more bitter +than a sneer. + +"You are all right?" said Stafford; "but I am afraid you were very much +frightened!" + +The girl turned to him. "You!" she said, recognising him. "Did you stop +them?" + +"Yes; it was easy: they had had almost enough," he said. + +While they were speaking, the two elder men drew apart as if +instinctively. + +"_You_, Falconer?" murmured Sir Stephen, with ashy lips. + +"Yes," assented the other, drily; "yes, I am here right enough. Which +is it to be--friend or foe?" + +Sir Stephen stood gnawing his lip for a moment, then he turned to +Stafford. + +"Stafford, this--most extraordinary--this is an old friend of mine. +Falconer, this is my boy, my son Stafford!" + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +"A very old friend of your father!" said Mr. Falconer, and his keen +eyes looked into Stafford's as he held out his hand. Then he turned to +Sir Stephen, whose face had resumed its usual serenity, and was fixed +in the smile appropriate to the occasion. "Mr. Stafford Orme and I have +met before to-day--" + +Sir Stephen shot an enquiring glance from one to the other. + +--"At the inn at the other side of the lake. My daughter, Maude, and I +have been resting there for a few hours. Maude," he said to that young +lady, who was standing looking on at the group generally, but more +particularly, under her lids, at Stafford's tall figure; "this is a +very strange meeting between old friends. Sir Stephen Orme and I +haven't met for--how long ago is it, Orme?" + +Sir Stephen shook his head, and raised his thick, dark brows. + +"Too long for us to go back--especially in the presence of these young +people, whom we are always trying to persuade that we are not old. I am +delighted to see you, my dear young lady, and I am devoured by +curiosity to know how it is that you are here." + +"Well, we owe it to your son, Mr. Orme here, I should imagine, Sir +Stephen," she replied. She had fully recovered her self-possession, and +her manner and voice had all the tone of pride and indolence which +Stafford had noticed when he met her at the inn. "If he had not stopped +the horses, I suppose we should have either been killed or on the way +to the nearest hospital. By the way, have you thanked Mr. Orme yet, +father?" + +"Not yet; and I shall find it difficult to do so," said Mr. Falconer. +"Thanks are poor return for one's life, Mr. Orme. I hope you were not +hurt." He glanced at Stafford's usually immaculate dress-clothes, which +were covered with dust on one side, and displayed a rent in the sleeve +of the coat. + +"Oh, that's all right, sir," returned Stafford, with all an +Englishman's dread of a fuss. "They stopped short the moment I got hold +of them, and I only slipped, and got up directly. + +"You are not hurt, then, Stafford?" said Sir Stephen. "As I came up I +thought, was afraid that you were smashed up--and I daresay I showed my +fear: it's my only boy, Falconer." + +He looked at his old friend meaningly, and Falconer promptly backed him +up. + +"Well, yes, you looked fairly startled and scared," he said. "But now, +if the horses are all right, we may as well get on. We have given you +quite trouble enough." + +"The horses are all right, sir," said the driver. "I've managed to take +up the broken trace; it was that that startled them, sir, and they'll +be quiet enough now." + +"Oh, but where are you going?" said Sir Stephen, with hospitable +eagerness. "Were you not coming to us, to the Villa?" + +"No; we were going to Keswick," said Mr. Falconer. "My daughter had a +fancy for seeing the lake district, and we are making a kind of tour." + +"You have no other engagement? I am delighted to hear it," said Sir +Stephen. "Oh, I'll take no denial! What! Do you think I shall part with +an old friend so quickly--and after such a--er--sudden and unexpected +meeting! Miss Falconer, let me beg you to plead with your father for +me!" + +Mr. Falconer regarded Sir Stephen for a moment curiously, then looked +towards his daughter. Her fine eyes rested on Stafford's face, and he +could do not less than repeat his father's invitation. + +"I hope you'll consent, Miss Falconer," he said. "You have no doubt +been a little upset by the accident, and it is rather late to go on. +Pray stay with us!" + +"Thanks. I shall be delighted." she said, with her indolent, regal air. + +By this time, as they went towards the gate, some of the men who had +been walking in the garden came up, and Howard's voice called out: + +"Hallo, Stafford! Anything the matter?" "No; nothing whatever," said +Stafford, promptly; and Sir Stephen seized the opportunity to steer the +Falconers through the group. "Some old friends of mine, Mr. Howard; +their carriage broke down--fortunately at our very door--this way, +Falconer. Stafford, will you give Miss Maude your arm?" + +"Strange, our meeting again so soon, and under such circumstances," she +said. "You must have stopped those horses very pluckily. I thought that +kind of thing was out of date now, and that gentlemen only called the +police on such occasions. You are sure you are not hurt? I thought from +your father's face you must be. He must be very fond of you to look so +scared. He was as white as a ghost." + +"He is fond of me, I hope and think," said Stafford. "Candidly, I did +not think he would be so alarmed--but I don't know him very well +yet--we have been living apart until just recently." + +"Why, that is my case," she said. "My father and I were strangers until +the other day, when he came from abroad--What a beautiful house! It is +like a miniature palace." + +She looked at the Villa and then at Stafford with renewed interest. + +"I suppose your father is _the_ Sir Stephen Orme of whom one has heard +so much? I did not think of it until this moment." + +Stafford was giving instructions that the Falconers' carriage should be +seen to, and so was spared a reply. She stood in the hall looking round +with a kind of indolent admiration and surprise, and perfectly +self-possessed, though the hall was rapidly filling with the men from +the garden. + +"You would like to go to your rooms at once," said Sir Stephen, in his +serene and courtly voice. "If you should be too tired to come down +again to-night I will have some dinner sent up to you--but I hope you +won't be. It would be a great disappointment." + +"Oh, I am not at all tired," said Miss Falconer, as she followed the +housekeeper and the two demure maids up the exquisite staircase. + +Sir Stephen looked after them with a bland smile, then he turned to +Stafford and caught his arm. + +"Not hurt, my boy?" he said, in a tone of strained anxiety. + +Stafford was beginning to get tired of the question, and answered +rather impatiently: "Not in the least sir--why should I be! I'll change +my things and be down in five minutes!" + +"Yes, yes!" Sir Stephen still eyed him with barely concealed anxiety. +"Strange coincidence, Stafford! I--I haven't seen Ralph Falconer +for--for--ever so many years! And he is thrown at my very gate! And +they say there is no such thing as Fate--" + +"Hadn't you better go into the drawing-room, sir," Stafford reminded +him. "They'll think something has happened." + +"Eh? Yes, yes, of course!" said Sir Stephen, with a little start as if +he had been lost in thought; but he waited until he saw Stafford walk +up the stairs, without any sign of a limp, before he followed his son's +advice. + +The butler, who was too sharp to need any instructions, quickly served +a choice little dinner for the unexpected guests, and Stafford, who had +waited in the hall, accompanied them into the dining-room. Miss +Falconer had changed her travelling-dress for a rich evening-frock, and +the jewels Stafford had noticed were supplemented by some remarkably +fine diamonds. + +"I wish you had come in time for dinner!" he said, as he conducted her +to her seat. + +"So do I!" she returned, serenely. "We are giving a great deal of +trouble; and we are keeping you from your guests. The maid who waited +on me told me that you had a large house party." + +"Yes," said Stafford. "It is a kind of house-warming. My father intends +settling in England for some time, I think," he added. "And he has +built this place." + +Mr. Falconer looked up from his plate in his alert, watchful way. + +"Sir Stephen's plans rather uncertain?" he said. "I remember he always +used to be rather erratic. Well, if he means settling, he's made +himself a very cosy nest." He looked round the magnificent room with a +curious smile. "A wonderful man, your father, Mr. Orme!" + +"Yes?" said Stafford, with a non-committal smile. + +"Yes; of course, I've heard of his great doings--who hasn't! Did you +ever hear him speak of me--we were great friends one time?" + +"No, I don't think I have," replied Stafford. "But as I was telling +Miss Falconer, I have not seen very much of him." "Ah, yes, just so," +assented Mr. Falconer, and he went on with his dinner. + +Stafford had taken a seat at the table and poured out a glass of wine +so that they might not hurry; but he felt that he need not have been +anxious on that account, for the girl ate her dinner in a most +leisurely manner, talking to him in her soft, slow voice and looking at +him from under her half-closed lids. She talked of the scenery, of the +quaint inns and hotels they had put up at, of the various +inconveniences which she had suffered on the way; then suddenly she +raised her lids and looked at him fully and steadily. + +"I suppose the young lady we saw with you this morning is your sister?" + +With all his natural simplicity, Stafford was a man of the world, and +he did not redden or look embarrassed by the suddenness of the question +and the direct gaze of the luminous eyes. + +"No," he said. "I have neither sister nor brother--only my father. She +was a friend." + +"Oh," she said; then after a pause: "She was very pretty." + +Stafford nodded. Like a flash floated before him the exquisite +loveliness of Ida Heron. + +"Do you think so?" he said, with affected indifference. + +"Why, yes; don't you?" she retorted. + +"Oh, yes," he assented; "but I didn't know whether you would; men and +women so very seldom agree upon the question of looks. I find that most +of the women I think pretty are considered next door to plain by my +lady-friends." + +"Well, there can't be any doubt as to your friend's good looks," she +said. "She made rather a striking, not to say startling figure perched +sideways on that horse, in the pelting rain. I suppose she is one of +your neighbours?" + +"Yes," replied Stafford, as easily and casually as he could, for the +face still floated before him--"yes; but not a very near one. Let me +give you some more wine." + +"No, thanks. Father, haven't you nearly finished? Mr. Orme has kept us +company so nicely that we've been tempted to forget that we are keeping +him from his guests." + +She rose, and with a peculiarly sinuous movement threw out the train of +her dress, and swept languidly to the door Stafford offered her his arm +and they entered the drawing-room. + +Her appearance naturally caused a little sensation, for some of the men +had learnt and told of the story of Stafford's plucky arrest of the +bolting horses, and the people were curious to see the father and +daughter who had been rescued, and who had proved to be friends of Sir +Stephen. + +By a sort of tacit understanding, Lady Clausford, who was a +good-natured individual, was playing the part of hostess and general +chaperon, and Stafford led Miss Falconer up to her. + +Before a quarter of an hour had passed Miss Falconer seemed to be quite +at home in her novel surroundings; and leaning back in her chair, and +slowly fanning herself, received with perfect self-possession the +attentions which her beauty, her costly dress, and her still more +costly jewels merited. Presently Stafford heard Lady Clansford ask her +to sing; and he went to conduct her to the piano. + +"My music is upstairs in my box--but it does not matter: I will try and +remember something," she said. "I wonder what you like?" She raised her +eyes to his, as her fingers touched the keys. "The simple ballad would +be rather out of place, wouldn't it? Do you know this thing of +Wagner's?" + +As she began to sing the talking died down and gradually ceased; and +every eye was fixed upon her; for it was evident that she not only had +an exquisite voice, but knew how to use it. She sang like an artist, +and apparently without the least effort, the liquid notes flowing from +her red lips like the water of a mountain rill. + +Stafford was surprised, almost startled, but as he stood beside her, he +was thinking, strangely enough, not so much of the singer as of the +girl he was going to meet on the morrow. When she had finished, there +was a general murmur of applause, and Lady Clansford glided to the +piano and asked her to sing again. + +"You have a really wonderful voice, Miss Falconer. I don't think Melba +ever sang that better." + +"Melba's register is ever so much greater than mine," remarked Miss +Falconer, calmly. "No, thanks; I won't sing again. I think I am a +little tired." + +She went back to her seat slowly, her fan moving languidly, as if she +were too conscious of the worth of her voice to be affected by the +murmurs of applause and admiration; and Stafford, as his eyes followed +her, thought she resembled a superb tropical flower of rich and subtle +colouring and soft and languorous grace. + +None of the women would venture to sing after this exhibition, and one +of the young men went to the piano and dashed off a semi-comic song +which relieved the tension produced by Miss Falconer's magnificent +voice and style. Then the woman began to glance at the clock and rise +and stand about preparatory to going to bed, and presently they went +off, lingering, talking, and laughing, in the hall and in the +corridors. + +The men drifted into the billiard and smoking-room, and Sir Stephen +started a pool. He had been at his very best in the drawing-room, +moving about amongst the brilliant crowd, with a word for each and all, +and pleased smile on his handsome face, and a happy, genial brightness +in his voice. Once or twice Sir Stephen approached Mr. Falconer, who +leant against the wall looking on with the alert, watchful eyes half +screened behind his lids, which, like his daughter's had a trick of +drooping, though with a very different expression. + +"Your daughter has a magnificent voice, Falconer," Sir Stephen had said +in a congratulatory voice; and Falconer had nodded. + +"Yes. She's been well taught, I believe," he had responded, +laconically; and Sir Stephen had nodded emphatically, and moved away. + +"Will you play, Falconer?" he asked, as Stafford gave out the balls. +"You used to play a good game." + +Falconer shrugged his shoulders. + +"Haven't played for years: rather look on," he said. + +"Let me give you a cigar. Try these; they are all right, Stafford +says." + +Falconer seated himself in one of the lounges and looked at the players +and round the handsome room in contemplative silence. Sir Stephen's eye +wandered covertly towards him now and again, and once he said to +Stafford: + +"See if Mr. Falconer has some whiskey, my boy?" + +As Stafford went up to Mr. Falconer's corner he saw that Mr. +Griffinberg and Baron Wirsch had joined him. The three men were talking +in the low confidential tone characteristic of city men when they are +discussing the sacred subject of money, and Stafford caught the +words--"Sir Stephen"--"South African Railway." + +Mr. Falconer looked round sharply as Stafford stood at his elbow. + +"Eh? Whiskey? Oh, yes, thanks, I have some," he said. + +As Stafford returned to the billiard-room, Falconer nodded after him. + +"Is the son in this?" he asked, sharply. + +"Oh, no," replied the baron, with a smile. "He knows nothing; he ees +too young, too--vat do you say?--too vashionable, frivolous. No, Sir +Stephen doesn't bring him in at all. You understand? He is ze +ornamental, shleeping' pardner, eh?" And he chuckled. + +Falconer nodded, and leaning forward, continued the conversation in a +low voice. The men went off to bed one by one, and presently only Sir +Stephen, Stafford and Falconer remained; and as the latter rose as if +to retire, Sir Stephen laid a hand on his shoulder. + +"Don't go yet! I should like to have a little chat with you--about old +times." + +Falconer sank into his seat again and took a fresh cigar, and Stafford +left them. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +Sir Stephen closed the door after him, then went back to the +smoking-room and stood looking down at Falconer, who leant back in his +chair with his cigar in his mouth and eyed Sir Stephen under +half-closed lids with an expression which had something of mastery and +power in it. + +Sir Stephen bit at the end of his moustache, his thick black brows +lowered, as if he scarcely knew how to begin the "chat," and Falconer +waited without any offer of assistance. At last Sir Stephen said: + +"You asked me outside just now, Falconer, if it was to be 'friend or +foe?' I'm thinking the question ought to have come from me." + +"Yes," assented Falconer, his eyes growing still narrower. "Yes, I +suppose it ought." + +"Would your answer have been the same as mine--'friends'?" asked Sir +Stephen in a low voice. + +Falconer was silent for a moment, then he said: + +"It oughtn't to have been. If ever a man had cause to regard another as +an enemy, I've had cause to regard you as one, Orme!" + +Sir Stephen flushed, then went pale again. + +"There is no use in raking up the past," he muttered. + +"Oh, I've no need to rake it up; it's here right enough, without +raking," retorted Falconer, and he touched his breast with his thick +forefinger. "I'm not likely to forget the trick you played me; not +likely to forget the man who turned on me and robbed me--" + +"Robbed!" echoed Sir Stephen, with a dark frown. + +Falconer turned his cigar in his mouth and bit at it. + +"Yes, robbed. You seem to have forgotten: my memory is a better one +than yours, and I'm not likely to forget the day I tramped back to the +claim in that God-forsaken Australian hole to find that you'd +discovered the gold while I'd been on the trail to raise food and +money--discovered it and sold out--and cleared out!" + +His eyes flashed redly and his mouth twitched as his teeth almost met +in the choice Havana. + +Sir Stephen threw out his hand. + +"I heard you were dead," he said, hoarsely. "I heard that you had died +in a street row--in Melbourne." + +Falconer's heavy face was distorted by a sneer. + +"Yes? Of course, I don't believe you: who would?" + +"As Heaven is my witness--!" exclaimed Sir Stephen; but Falconer went +on: + +"You didn't wait to see if it were true or not; you cleared out before +I'd time to get back, and you took precious good care not to make +enquiries. No; directly your partner's back was turned you--sold him; +got the price and levanted." + +Sir Stephen paced up and done, his hands clenched behind him; his fine +leonine head bent; then he stopped in front of the chair, and frowned +down into the scowling face. + +"Falconer, you wrong me--it was not so bad, so black as it looked. It's +true I sold the claim; but I swear that I intended saving half for you. +But news was brought in that you were dead--a man said that he had seen +you fall, that you were dead and buried. I had to leave the camp the +night the money was paid: it would not have been safe to remain: you +know what the place was, and that the man who was known to have money +carried his life in his hand. I left the camp and tramped south. Before +a month had passed, the money had gone; if I had had any doubts of your +death, it was too late to enquire; it would have been useless; as I +tell you, the money was gone. But I hadn't any doubts; in simple truth, +I thought you were dead." + +Falconer looked round the luxurious room. + +"You lost the money? But you appear to have picked it up again; you +seem to be pretty flourishing, my friend; when you got on your feet +again and made your pile, why didn't you find out whether your old pal +was alive or dead?" + +Sir Stephen was silent for a space, then he raised his head and met the +other's accusing gaze unflinchingly. + +"I'll tell you--I'll tell you the whole truth, Falconer; and if you can +make excuse for me, if you can put yourself in my place--" + +He drew his hand across his brow as if the sweat had broken out upon +it. "The luck was dead against me for a time, the old luck that had +haunted you and me; then it swung round completely--as it generally +does when it changes at all. I was out in Africa, on the tramp, picking +up a day's work now and again at the farms--you know the life! One day +I saw a Kaffir boy playing with some rough stones--" + +Falconer nodded. + +"Diamonds. I fancy I've read an account of the great Sir Stephen Orme's +first beginnings," he put in with a touch of sarcasm. + +Sir Stephen reddened. + +"I daresay. It was the start, the commencement of the luck. From the +evening I took those stones in my hands--great Heaven! I can see the +place now, the sunset on the hill; the dirty brat playing in the +dust!--the luck has stood by me. Everything I touched turned out right. +I left the diamond business and went in for land: wherever I bought +land towns sprang up and the land increased in value a thousandfold. +Then I stood in with the natives: you've heard of the treaty--" + +Falconer nodded. + +"The treaty that enabled you to hand over so many thousand square miles +to the government in exchange for a knighthood." + +"No," said Sir Stephen, simply. "I got that for another business; but I +daresay the other thing helped. It doesn't matter. Then I--I married. I +married the daughter of a man of position, a girl who--who loved and +trusted me; who knew nothing of the past you and I know; and as I would +rather have died than that she should have known anything of it, I--" + +"Conveniently and decently buried it," put in Falconer. "Oh, yes, I can +see the whole thing! You had blossomed out from Black Steve--" + +Sir Stephen rose and took a step towards the door, then remembered that +he had shut it and sank down again, his face white as ashes, his lips +quivering. + +--"To Sir Stephen Orme, the African millionaire, the high and lofty +English gentleman with his head full of state secrets, and his safe +full of foreign loans; Sir Stephen Orme, the pioneer, the empire +maker--Oh, yes, I can understand how naturally you would bury the +past--as you had buried your old pal and partner. The dainty and +delicate Lady Orme was to hear nothing--" Sir Stephen rose and +stretched out his hand half warningly half imploringly. + +"She's dead, Falconer!" he said, hoarsely. "Don't--don't speak of her! +Leave her out, for God's sake!" + +Falconer shrugged his shoulders. + +"And this boy of yours--he's as ignorant as her ladyship was, of +course?" + +Sir Stephen inclined his head. + +"Yes," he said, huskily. "He--he knows nothing. He thinks me--what the +world sees me, what all the world, saving you, Falconer, thinks me: one +who has risen from humble but honest poverty to--what I am. You have +seen him, you can understand what I feel; that I'd rather die than that +he should know--that he should think badly of me. Falconer, I have made +a clean breast of it--I'm in your hands. I'm--I'm at your mercy. I +appeal to you"--he stretched out his white, shapely hands--"you have a +child of your own: she's as dear to you as mine is to me--I've watched +you to-night, and I've seen you look at her as she moved about and +talked and sang, with the look that my eyes wear when they rest on my +boy. I am at your mercy--not only mine, but my son's future--" + +He wiped the sweat from his forehead and drew a long breath. + +Falconer leant back and smoked contemplatively, with a coolness, an +indifference to the other's emotion which Sir Stephen found well-nigh +maddening. + +"Yes," said Falconer, after a pause, "I suppose your house of cards +would come down with a crash if I opened my mouth say, at breakfast +to-morrow morning, and told--well, all I know of the great Sir Stephen +Orme when he bore the name of Black Steve. Even you, with all you +colossal assurance, could not face it or outlive it. And as for the +boy--it would settle his hash now and forever. A word from me would do +it, eh, Orme? And upon my soul I don't know why I shouldn't say it! +I've had it in my mind, I've kept it as a sweet morsel for a good many +years. Yes, I've been looking forward to it. I've been waiting for the +'physiological moment,' as I think they call it; and it strikes me that +it has arrived." + +Sir Stephen's face grew strained, and a curious expression crept into +it. + +"If you ask me why you should not, I can give you no reason," he said. +"If you were poor I should offer you money--more, a great deal more +than I received for the old claim; but I can see that that would not +tempt you to forego your revenge. Falconer, you are not poor; your +daughter wears diamonds--" + +Falconer shrugged his shoulders. + +"No, I'm not in want of money. You're not the only man who has had a +change of luck. No, you can't bribe me; even if I were hard up instead +of rather flush, as I am, I wouldn't take a hundred thousand pounds for +my revenge." + +Sir Stephen rose. There was an ominous change in his manner. His +nervousness and apprehension seemed to have suddenly left him, and in +its place was a terrible, stony calmness, an air of inflexible +determination. + +"Good!" he said; and his voice had changed also, changed from its +faltering tone of appeal to one of steadfast resolution, the steadiness +of desperation. "I have made my appeal to you, Falconer, and I gather +that I have failed to move you; that you intend to exact your revenge +by--denouncing me!" + +Falconer nodded coolly. + +"And you think that I could endure to live under such a threat, to walk +about with the sword of Damocles over my head? You ought to know me +better, Falconer. I will not live to endure the shame you can inflict +on me, I will not live to tempt you by the sight of me to take your +revenge. I shall die to-night." + +Falconer eyed him intently, and carefully selected a fresh cigar. When +he had as carefully lit it, he said callously: + +"That's your business, of course. I shouldn't venture to interfere with +any plan of that kind. So you'd sneak out of it, eh, Orme? Sneak out of +it, and leave that young fellow to bear the brunt? Well, I'm sorry for +him! He seems the right sort--deuced good-looking and high-class--yes, +I'm d----d sorry for him!" + +Once again Sir Stephen's lips twitched and the big drops of sweat stood +on his brow. He stood for a minute looking from right to left like a +hunted animal at bay--then with something between a groan and a cry of +savagery, he spring towards Falconer with his hands outstretched and +making for his tormentor's throat. + +Before he could sweep the table aside and get at him, Falconer whipped +a revolver from his pocket and aimed it at Sir Stephen. + +"You fool!" he said in his harsh, grating voice, "did you think I was +such an idiot as to trust myself alone with you unarmed? Did you think +I'd forgotten what sort of man you were, or imagined that you'd so +changed that I could trust you? Bah! Sit down! Stand back, or, by +Heaven, I'll shoot you as I would a dog!" + +Sir Stephen shrank back, his hand to his heart, his eyes distended, his +face livid as if he were choking and sank into a chair. Falconer +returned the revolver into his pocket, and with his foot pushed the +inlaid Oriental table towards his host and victim. + +"There! Take some brandy! You're too old to play these tricks! That +heart of yours was never worth much in the old days, and I daresay it's +still more groggy. Besides, we're not in a mining camp or the backwoods +now." He sneered. "We're in Sir Stephen Orme's palatial villa on Lake +Bryndermere." + +Sir Stephen stretched out his hand and felt for the decanter, as if he +were suddenly blind and could not see it, and poured himself out some +brandy. Falconer watched him narrowly, critically. + +"Better? Look here, Orme, take my advice and keep a guard on your +emotions: you can't afford to have any with a heart like that." + +He paused and waited until Sir Stephen's ashy face had resumed a less +deathly pallor. + +"And now I'll answer your appeal--I don't intend to denounce you!" + +Sir Stephen turned to him with a gesture of incredulity. + +"Sounds strange, doesn't it? Humph! Doesn't it strike you that I've had +my revenge already? If there is a sweeter one than to see the man who +has sold you grovelling at your feet, and praying for mercy, than I +don't know it! The great Sir Stephen Orme, too!" He laughed sneeringly. +"No, if I'd meant to give you away, Orme, I should have done it +to-night in your swell drawing-room, with all your swell guests round +you, with your son--ay, and my daughter--to hear the story--the story +of Black Steve! But I didn't mean it, and I don't--" + +Sir Stephen drew a long breath of relief, and drank some more brandy. + +"Thank God!" he murmured. "What can I say--what can I do to--to express +my gratitude--my sense of your forbearance, Falconer?" + +Falconer, with his eyes narrowed to slits, looked at him keenly. + +"Oh, I'll dispense with your gratitude, Orme. We'll agree to forgive +and--forget. This is the last word we'll say about it." + +Sir Stephen, as if he could scarcely believe his ears, gazed at his +magnanimous foe in silence. + +"No half measures with me--you remember me of old," said Falconer. "The +subject's done with," he moved his thick hand as he were sweeping it +away. "Pass the whiskey. Thanks. Now, let's have the chat you kept me +up for." + +Sir Stephen wiped his lips and forced a smile. + +"Tell me about yourself; what you have been doing since we--er--all +this long time." + +Falconer shrugged his shoulders. "Oh, it isn't as interesting a story +as yours," he said. "I've just rubbed along with bad and good luck in +streaks; fortunately for me, the good ones were thicker and more +frequent than the bad ones. Lake yourself I married; like yourself, I'm +a widower. I've one child--Maude. She's been at school and under the +care of some people on the Continent, while I've been at work; and I've +come to England now to settle down. That tells enough of my story. I +know yours, as the rest of the world does. You're famous, you see." + +There was a pause; then he looked over his glass, and said: + +"What's you little game at the present moment, Orme?" + +Sir Stephen looked at him interrogatively, as if he were still rather +confused by the terrible scene which they had gone through. + +"Why have you built this place and got all these people here?" said +Falconer. "I know enough of Wirsch and Griffinberg and the Beltons to +be aware that they wouldn't come down to the lakes at this time of the +year unless there was something worth coming for, something--and a +pretty good sum--to be made." + +Sir Stephen looked down at the floor for a moment, as if he were +considering; then he leant forward. + +"I'll tell you," he said, with an air of decision, and with a return of +his usual coolness and aplomb. A dash of colour rose to his face, his +fine eyes grew bright; he was the "man of affairs," the great financier +again. "It's Africa this time," he said, in a low voice, and with a +glance at the door. "I've another treaty--" + +Falconer nodded. + +"I am making for a concession--a charter from the government." +Falconer nodded again. + +"And I want a railway from Danville to Bualbec." His voice almost sank +to a whisper. "Griffinberg, Wirsch, and the rest are with me--or nearly +so--I have got them down to clench the matter. There are millions in +it--if I can bring it off; there is what is worth more than millions to +me--" + +Falconer nodded. + +--"A peerage for Sir Stephen Orme," said Falconer, with a grim smile. + +"For Sir Stephen Orme's boy!" said Sir Stephen, with a flush, and a +flash of the dark eyes. "It is for his sake that I am making this last +throw; for my boy's, Falconer. For myself I am content--why shouldn't I +be? But for him--ah, well, you've seen him! You'll understand!" + +Falconer leant back and smoked in silence. + +"Plaistow is working the Colonial Office, the Beltons are feeling their +way in the city; Wirsch--but you know how the thing is done! I've got +them down here that they may work it quietly, that I may have them +under my eye--" + +"And the lords and ladies--they're to have a finger in the pie because, +though they can't help you in the African business, they can in the +matter of the peerage?" + +Sir Stephen smiled. "You'll stand in with us, Falconer? Don't refuse +me! Let me make some reparation--some atonement for the past!" He rose +and stood smiling, an imposing figure with his white hair and brilliant +eyes. Falconer got up slowly and stiffly. + +"Thanks. I'll think it over. It's a big thing, as you say, and it will +either make you--" + +--"Or break me!" said Sir Stephen, but he laughed confidently. + +Falconer nodded. + +"I'll go up now," he said. + +Sir Stephen went to the door with him, and held out his hand. + +"Good-night, Falconer!" he said. "Thank you--for my boy's sake!" + +Falconer took the warm hand in his cold one and held it for a moment, +then dropped it. + +"Good-night!" he said, with a nod and a sidelong glance. + +Sir Stephen went back and poured himself out another _liqueur_ glass of +brandy and heaved a sigh of relief. But it would have been one of +apprehension if he could have seen the cruel smile which distorted +Falconer's face as he went through the exquisitely beautiful hall and +corridors to the luxurious room which had been allotted to him. + +There was in the smile and the cold glitter of the eyes the kind of +look which the cat wears when it plays with a mouse. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +Ida walked home through the rain very thoughtfully: but not sadly; for +though it was still pelting in the uncompromising lake fashion, she was +half conscious of a strange lightness of the heart, a strange +brightness in herself, and even in the rain-swept view, which vaguely +surprised and puzzled her. The feeling was not vivid enough to be +happiness, but it was the nearest thing to it. + +And without realising it, she thought, all the way home, of Stafford +Orme. Her life had been so secluded, so solitary and friendless, that +he had come into it as a sudden and unexpected flash of sunlight in a +drear November day. It seemed to her extraordinary that she should have +met him so often, still more extraordinary the offer he had made that +morning. She asked herself, as she went with quick, light step along +the hills, why he had done it; why he, who was rich and had so many +friends--no doubt the Villa would be full of them--should find any +pleasure in learning to herd cattle and count sheep, to ride about the +dale with only a young girl for company. + +If anyone had whispered, "It is because he prefers that young girl's +society to any other's; it is because he wants to be with you, not from +any desire to learn farming," she would have been more than surprised, +would have received this offer of a solution of the mystery with a +smile of incredulity; for there had been no candid friend to tell her +that she possessed the fatal gift of beauty; that she was one of those +upon whom the eyes of man cannot look without a stirring of the heart, +and a quickening of the pulse. Vanity is a strong plant, and it +flourishes in every soil; but it had found no root in Ida's nature. She +was too absorbed in the round of her daily tasks, in the care of her +father and her efforts to keep the great place from going to rack and +ruin, to think of herself; and if her glass had ever whispered that she +was one of the loveliest of the daughters of Eve, she had turned a deaf +ear to it. + +No; she assured herself that it was just a whim of Mr. Orme's, a +passing fancy and caprice which would soon be satisfied, and that he +would tire of it after a few days, perhaps hours. Of course, she was +wrong to humour the whim; but it had been hard to refuse him, hard to +seem churlish and obstinate after he had been so kind on the night her +father had frightened her by his sleep-walking; and it had been still +harder because she had been conscious of a certain pleasure in the +thought that she should see him again. + +For the first time, as she went into the great silent house, she +realised how lonely her life was, how drear and uneventful. Now and +again, while cantering along the roads on the big chestnut, she had met +other girls riding and driving: the Vaynes, the Avorys, and the +Bannerdales; had heard them talking and laughing merrily and happily, +but it had never occurred to her to envy them, to reflect that she was +different to other girls who had friends and companions and girlish +amusements. She had been quite content--until now. And even now she was +not discontented; but this acquaintanceship which had sprung up so +strangely between her and Mr. Orme was like the touch of a warm hand +stretched out from the great world, and its sudden warmth awoke her to +the coldness, the dreariness of her life. + +As she entered the hall, Jessie came in by the back door with her apron +full of eggs. + +"I saw you come in, Miss Ida, so I thought I'd just bring you these to +show you; they're laying finely now, ain't they?" + +Ida looked round, from where she stood going through the form of drying +her thick but small boots against the huge log that glowed on the wide +dog-iron. + +"Yes: that is a splendid lot, Jessie!" she said, with a smile. "You +will have some to send to market for the first time this season." + +"Yes, miss," said Jessie, deftly rolling the eggs into a basket. "But +I'm thinking there won't be any need to send them to Bryndermere +market. Jason's just been telling me that the new folks up at Brae Wood +have been sending all round the place for eggs and butter and cream and +fowls, and Jason says that he can get so much better prices from them +than from Bryndermere. He was thinking that he'd put aside all the +cream he could spare and kill half a dozen of the pullets--if you don't +object, Miss Ida?" + +Ida's face flushed, and she looked fixedly at the fire. Something +within her protested against the idea of selling the dairy produce to +the new people at Brae Wood; but she struggled against the feeling. + +"Oh yes; why not, Jessie?" she said; though she knew well enough. + +"Well, miss," replied Jessie, hesitatingly, and with a questioning +glance at her young mistress's averted face, "Jason didn't know at +first; he said that selling the things at the new house was different +to sending 'em to market, and that you mightn't like it; that you might +think it was not becoming." + +Ida laughed. + +"That's pride on Jason's part; wicked pride, Jessie," she said. "If you +sell your butter and eggs, it can't very much matter whether you sell +them at the market or direct. Oh, yes: tell Jason he can let them have +anything we can spare." + +Jessie's face cleared and broke into a smile: she came of a race that +looks after the pennies and loves a good "deal." + +"Thank you, miss!" she said, as if Ida had conferred a personal favour. +"And they'll take all we can let 'em have, for they've a mortal sight +of folk up there at Brae Wood. William says that there's nigh upon +fifty bedrooms, and that they'll all be full. His sister is one of the +kitchen-maids--there's a cook from London, quite the gentleman, miss, +with, rings on his fingers and a piano in his own room--and Susie says +that the place is all one mass of ivory and gold, and that some of the +rooms is like heaven--or the queen's own rooms in Windsor Castle." + +Ida laughed. + +"Susie appears to have an enviable acquaintance with the celestial +regions and the abode of royalty, Jessie." + +"Yes, miss; of course, it's only what she've read about 'em. And she +says that Sir Stephen--that's the gentleman as owns it all--is a kind +of king, with his own body servant and a--a--I forget what they call +him; it's a word like a book-case." + +"A secretary," suggested Ida. + +"Yes, that's it, miss! But that he's quite simple and pleasant-like, +and that he's as easily pleased as if he were a mere nobody. And Susie +says that she runs out after dinner and peeps into the stables, and +that it's full of horses and that there's a dozen carriages, some of +'em grand enough for the Lord Mayor of London; and that there's a head +coachman and eight or nine men and boys under him. I'm thinking, Miss +Ida, that the Court"--the Court was the Vaynes' place--"or Bannerdale +Grange ain't half so grand." + +"I daresay," said Ida. "Is the lunch nearly ready, Jessie?" + +"Yes, miss; I was only waiting for you to come in. And Suzie's seen the +young Mr. Orme, Sir Stephen's son, and she says that he's the +handsomest gentleman she ever saw; and she heard Mr. Davis tell one of +the new hands that Mr. Stafford was a very great gentleman amongst the +fashionable people in London; and that very likely he'd marry one of +the great ladies that is coming down. Mr. Davis says that a duchess +wouldn't be too fine for him, he stands so high; and yet, Susie says, +he's just as pleasant and easy as Sir Stephen, and that he says 'thank +you' quite like a common person. But there, how foolish of me! I'm +standing here chattering while you're wet through. Do ye run up and +change while I put the lunch on, Miss Ida, dear!" + +When Ida came down her father was already at the table with his book +open at his elbow, and he scarcely looked up as she went to her place. + +Now, as a rule, she gave him an account of her rides and walks, and +told him about the cattle and the progress of the farm generally, of +how she had seen a kingfisher or noticed that the trout were rising, or +that she had startled a covey of partridges in the young wheat; to all +of which he seemed scarcely ever to listen, nodding his head now and +again and returning often to his book before she had finished speaking; +but to-day she could not tell him of her morning walk and her meeting +with Stafford Orme. + +She would have liked to have assured him that he had done Sir Stephen +an injustice in thinking him guilty of buying the Brae Wood land in an +underhand way, but she knew it would be of no use to do so; for once an +idea had got into Mr. Heron's head it was difficult to destroy it. For +the first time in her life, too, she was concealing something from him. +Once or twice she tried to say: + +"Father, the gentleman who was fishing on the river was Sir Stephen +Orme's son; I have met him two or three times since, and he has asked +me to meet him to-morrow;" but she could not. + +She knew he would fly into one of the half-childish passions in which +he could not be persuaded to listen to reason, and that he would insist +upon the breaking off of her acquaintance with Mr. Orme; and there was +so much pain in the mere thought of it that her courage failed her. If +she were not to meet him, or if she met him, and told him that she +could not remain with him, must not speak to him again, it would be +tantamount to telling him that she did not believe his father was +innocent; and she did believe it. Though she knew so little of Mr. +Orme, she felt that she could trust him. + +So she sat almost silent, thinking of what Jessie had told her, and +wondering why Stafford Orme should leave the gay party at the Villa to +ride with her. Once only in the course of the meal did her father +speak. He looked up suddenly, with a quick, almost cunning, glance, and +said: + +"Can you let me have some money, Ida? I want to order some books. +There's a copy of the Percy 'Reliques' in the catalogue I should like +to buy." + +"How much is it, father?" she asked. + +"Oh, five pounds will do," he said, vaguely. "There are one or two +other books." + +She made a hasty calculation: five pounds was a large sum to her; but +she smiled as she said: + +"You are very extravagant, dear. There is already a copy of the +'Reliques' in the library." + +He looked confused for a moment, then he said: + +"But not with these notes--not with these notes! They're valuable, and +the book is cheap." + +"Very well, dear," she responded; and she went to the antique bureau +and, unlocking it, took a five-pound note from a cedar box. + +He watched her covertly, with a painful eagerness. + +"I suppose you have a large nest egg there, eh, Ida?" he remarked, with +a quavering laugh. + +"No: a very little one," she responded. "'Not nearly enough to pay the +quarterly bills. But never mind, dear; there it is. You must show me +the books when they come; I never saw the last you ordered, you know!" + +He took the note with an assumption of indifference but with a gleam of +satisfaction in his sunken eyes. + +"Didn't you?" he said. "I must have forgotten. You're always so busy; +but I'll show you these, if you'll remind me. You must be careful of +the money, Ida; you must keep down the expenses. We're poor, very poor, +you know; and the cost of living and servants is very great--very +great." + +He wandered off to the library, muttering to himself, with his book +under his arm, and the five-pound note gripped tightly in the hand +which he had thrust into the pocket of his dressing-gown; and Ida, as +she put on her habit and went into the stable-yard to have the colt +saddled, sighed as she thought that it would be nice to have just, for +once, enough money to meet all the bills and buy all the books her +father coveted. + +But her melancholy was not of long duration. The colt was in high +spirits, and the task of impressing him with the fact that he had now +reached a responsible age and must behave like a horse, with something +else before him in life than kicking up his heels in the paddock, soon +drove the thought of their poverty from her mind and sent the blood +leaping warmly and wildly in her veins. + +She spent the afternoon in breaking in the colt, and succeeded in +keeping Stafford Orme out of her thoughts; but he slid into them again +as she sat by the drawing-room fire after dinner--the nights are often +cool in the dales all through early summer--and recalled the +earnestness in his handsome face when he pleaded to be allowed to "help +her." + +She sat up for some little time after her father had gone to bed, and +as usual, she paused outside his door and listened. All was quiet then; +but as she was brushing her hair she thought she heard his door open. + +She laid down the brush and stood battling with the sudden fear which +possessed her; then she stole out on to the corridor. The old man was +standing at the head of the stairs as if about to descend; and though +she could not see his face she knew that he was asleep. + +She glided to him noiselessly and put her hand upon his arm softly. He +turned his sightless eyes upon her, evidently without seeing her, and, +fighting against the desire to cry out, she led him gently back to his +room. + +He woke as they crossed the threshold, woke and looked at her in a +stupefied fashion. + +"Are you ill, father? Is there anything you want?" she asked, as calmly +as she could. + +"No," he replied. "I am quite well; I do not want anything. I was going +to bed--why have you called me?" + +She remained with him for a few minutes, then left the room, turning +the key in the door. When she had gone he stood listening with his head +on one side; then he opened his hand and looked with a cunning smile at +the five-pound note which had been tightly grasped in it. + +"She didn't see it; no, she didn't see it!" he muttered; and he went +stealthily to the bed and thrust it under the pillow. + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +The morning broke with that exquisite clearness which distinguishes the +lakes when a fine day follows a wet one; and, despite her anxiety on +her father's account, Ida, as she went down-stairs, was conscious of +that sense of happiness which comes from anticipation. She made her +morning tour of inspection of the stables and the dairy, and ordered +the big chestnut to be saddled directly after breakfast. + +When her father came down she was relieved to find that he seemed to be +in his usual health; and in answer to her question whether he had slept +well, he replied in the affirmative, and was mildly surprised that she +should enquire. Directly he had gone off to the library she ran +upstairs to put on her habit. + +For the first time she was struck by its shabbiness; she had never +given a thought to it before. Her evening-dresses, though plain and +inexpensive, were always dainty and fresh, but she wore her habit as +long as it would hold together, and cared nothing for the fact that her +hat was stained by the rain: they were her "working clothes," and +strictly considered as such. But this morning she surveyed the skirt +ruefully, and thought of the trim and apparently always new habits +which the Bannerdale girls wore; and she brushed it with a care which +it had never yet received. As a rule she wore a black scarf, or none at +all; but as she looked at herself in the glass she was not satisfied, +and she found a scarlet tie which she had bought in a fit of +extravagance, and put it on. The touch of colour heightened the beauty +of her clear ivory face and brightened up the old habit; but she looked +at herself in the glass with something like shamefacedness: why was she +so anxious about her appearance this morning of all the mornings? For +an instant she was tempted to snatch off the tie; but in the end she +let it remain; and she brushed the soft tendrils of her hair at her +forehead with unusual care before she fastened on her hat. + +Her father was walking up and down the terrace slowly as she came out, +and he raised his head and looked at her absently. + +"I shall probably ride into Bryndermere, father," she said. "Shall I +post your letters? I know you will be anxious for that one to the +book-sellers to go," she added, with a smile. + +His eyes dropped and he seemed disconcerted for a minute, then he said: + +"No, no; I'll send it by Jason; I've not written it yet;" and he turned +away from her and resumed his pacing to and fro. + +Ida went to the stable-yard and got on to Rupert by the aid of the +stone "mounting block" from which Charles the Second had climbed, +laughingly, to the white horse which figures in so many pictures of the +Merry Monarch, and rode out of the court-yard, watched with pride by +Jason. Before she had gone far he ran after her. + +"If you're riding by West Hill, Miss Ida, perhaps you'd look at the +cattle-shed there. Williams says that the roof's falling in." + +"Very well," she called back in her clear voice. + +"Oh, and, Miss Ida, there's a big stone washed out of the weir; I'm +thinking it ought to be put back or we'll have the meadows above +flooded this winter." + +She laughed and nodded and put Rupert to a trot, for she knew that +while she was within hearing Jason would bombard her with similar tales +of woe. Not a slate slid from the old roof of the Hall, or a sheep fell +lame, but the matter was referred to her. + +She rode down the road in the sunlight, the big chestnut moving under +her as if he were on springs and she were a feather, and, half +unconsciously, she began to hum an air--not one of those modern ones +one hears in many drawing-rooms, but an old-fashioned melody which she +had found in an ancient music-book in the antique cabinet beside the +grand piano. She left the road where it touched the wild moorland of +the valley, and Rupert broke into a canter, Donald and Bess, settling +into the stride with which they managed to keep up with the big horse. + +She had resolved that she would not ride straight to the stream, and +she kept up the hill-side, but her eyes wandered to the road +expectantly now and again; but there was no sign of a horseman, and +after half an hour had passed a sense of disappointment rose within +her. It was quite possible that he had forgotten the engagement; +perhaps on reflection he had seen that she was quite right in her +objections to his strange proposal, and he would not come. A faint +flush rose to her face, and she turned Rupert and rode up and over the +hill where she could not see the road. But she had no sooner got on top +than she remembered that no time had been mentioned, or, if it had, +that she had forgotten it. She turned and rode up the hill again, and +looking down, saw Stafford riding along the valley in desperate haste, +and yet looking about him uncertainly. Her heart beat with a quickened +pulse, sending the delicate colour into her face, and she pulled up, +and, leaning forward with her chin in her hand, watched him dreamily. + +He rode a heavier horse than Adonis; and he had made a change in his +dress; in place of the riding-suit, which had smacked of London and +Hyde Park, he wore a rough but light coat, thick cord breeches, and +brown leather gaiters. She smiled as she knew that he had tried to make +himself look as much like a farmer as possible; but no farmer in the +dales had that peculiar air of birth and breeding which distinguished +Stafford Orme; the air which his father had been so quick to detect and +to be proud of. + +She noticed how well he sat the great horse, with what ease and "hands" +he rode over the rough and treacherous ground. Suddenly he turned his +head and saw her, and with a wave of his hand came galloping up to her, +with a smile of relief and gladness on his handsome face, as he spoke +to the dogs, who clamoured round him. + +"I was so afraid I had missed you," he said. "I am late, am I not? Some +people kept me after breakfast." + +"You are not late; I don't think any time was mentioned," she +responded, quickly, though her heart was beating with a strange and +novel sensation of pleasure in his presence. "I scarcely expected you." + +He looked at her reproachfully. + +"Not expect me! But why?" + +"I thought you might change your mind," she said. + +He checked a quick response, and said instead: + +"And now, where do we go first? You see I have got a bit heavier horse. +He's a present, also, from my father. What do you think of him?" + +She eyed him gravely and critically. + +"He's nice-looking," she said, "but I don't like him so well as the one +you rode yesterday. Didn't I see him slip just now, coming up the +hill?" + +"Did he?" said Stafford. "I didn't notice. To tell you the truth, I was +so delighted at seeing you that I don't think I should have noticed if +he had tumbled on his nose." + +"Oh, it wasn't much of a slip," she said, quickly, to cover her slight +confusion at his candid confession. "Shall we go down to the sheep +first?" + +"Anywhere you like," he assented, brightly. "Remember, I'm your pupil." + +She glanced at him and smiled. + +"A very big pupil." + +"But a very humble one," he said. "I'm afraid you'll add, 'a very +stupid one,' before long." + +As they rode down hill, Stafford stole a look at her unobserved. Ever +since he had left her yesterday her face had haunted him, even while +Maude Falconer, in all her war paint and sparkling with jewels, had +been singing, even in the silent watches of the night, when--strange +thing for him!--he had awakened from a dream of her; he had recalled +the exquisitely lovely face with its grave yet girlish eyes, and he +felt now, with a thrill, that she was even more lovely than she had +been in his thoughts and his dreams; that the nameless charm which had +haunted him was stronger, more subtle, than even his fancy had painted +it. He noticed the touch of colour just below her white slender column +of a neck, and wondered why no other woman had ever thought of wearing +a crimson tie with her habit. + +"What a grand morning," he said. "I don't think I ever saw a morning +like this, so clear and bright; those hills there look as though they +were quite near." + +"It's the rain," she explained. "It seems to wash the atmosphere. My +father says there is only one other place which has this particular +clearness and brightness after rain: and that's Ireland. There are the +sheep. Now," she smiled, "do you know how to count them?" + +He stared at her. + +"You begin at number one, I suppose," he said. + +She smiled. + +"But where is number one?" + +She spoke to Donald in a low voice, then the collie began to work the +sheep up into a heap; Bess assisting with her sharp yap. + +"Now they're ready," said Ida. "You must be quick." + +Stafford began to count, but the sheep moved and the ones he had +counted got mixed up with the others, and he began again and yet again, +until he turned with a puzzled and furrowed brow. + +"I can't count them," he said. "They won't keep still for a single +moment." + +She turned to him with a smile. + +"There are fifty-two," she said. + +"Do you mean to say that you've counted them already?" he exclaimed. + +"Yes; I could have counted them twice over by this time. Now, begin +again, and begin from the farthest row; and remember when you come to a +black one. Keep your eye on that one and start again front him. It's +quite easy when you know how." He began again. + +"I make it forty-eight." + +She shook her head and laughed. + +"That would be four missing, and we should have to hunt for them. But +they are all there. Try again." He tried--and made it fifty-six. + +"Didn't I tell you that I was an idiot!" he said, in despair. + +"Oh, you can't expect to learn the first time," she said, consolingly. +"It was weeks before I could do it; and I almost cried the first few +times I tried: they would move just as I was finishing." + +"Oh, well, then I can hope to get it in time," he said. "Did it ever +strike you that though we think ourselves jolly clever, that there are +heaps of things which a workingman--the men we look down upon--can do +which we couldn't accomplish if it were to save our lives. For +instance, I couldn't make a horseshoe if my existence depended upon it, +and yet it looks as easy as--" + +--"Counting sheep," she finished, with a twinkle in her grey-blue +eyes. + +"Just so," he said, with a laugh. "Shall I have another try?" + +"Oh, no; you'd be here all day; and we've got to see if the others are +all right; but first I think we'd better go and look at the weir; Jason +says that a stone has got washed down, and that means that when the +autumn rains come the meadows would be flooded." + + +"All right: I'm ready," he said, with bright alacrity. "I'm enjoying +this. I know now why you look so happy and contented. You're of some +use in the world, and I--the rest of us--That's the weir?" he broke off +to enquire, as they came in sight of a rude barrier of stones which +partially checked the stream. + +"That is it," she said. "And Jason is right. Some of the big stones +have been washed down. What a nuisance! We shall have to get some men +from Bryndermere to put them up again." + +Stafford rode up to the weir and looked at it critically. + +"Thank Heaven I haven't got to count the stones!" he said. "If you'll +kindly hold my horse--he's not so well trained as yours, and would +bolt, I'm afraid." He slipped from the saddle as he spoke, and she +caught the reins. + +"What are you going to do? she asked. + +"I don't know yet," Stafford called back, as he waded into the river. + +She held the horse and sat reposeful in the saddle and watched him with +a smile upon her face. But it grew suddenly grave as she saw Stafford +stoop and put his arms round one of the fallen stones; and she cried to +him: + +"Oh, you can't lift them; it's no use trying!" + +Stafford apparently did not hear her, for, exerting all his strength, +he lifted the big stone and gradually slid and hoisted it into its +place. Then he attacked the other two, and with a still greater effort +raised them into a line with their fellows. + +Ida watched him as--well, as one watches some "strong man" going +through his performance. + +It was a well-nigh incredible feat, and she held her breath as one +stone followed the other. It seemed to her incredible and impossible, +because Stafford's figure was slight and graceful, and he performed the +feat with the apparent ease which he had learnt in the 'varsity +athletic sports. + +The colour rose to her face and her heart beat quickly. There is one +thing left for women to worship; and they worship it readily--and that +is strength. Stafford could not count sheep--any woman could do +that--but he could do what no woman could do: lift those great stones +into their places. + +So that, as he waded out of the river, she smiled _on_ him instead of +_at_ him--which is a very different thing--as she said: + +"How strong you must be! I should have thought it would have required +two or three men to lift those stones." + +"Oh, it's easy enough, as easy as--counting sheep when you know how." + +She laughed. + +"But you must be very wet," she said, glancing at the water as it +dripped from his clothes. + +"Oh, it's all in the day's work," he said, cheerfully, more than +cheerfully, happily. "Now for the steers." + +"They're in the dale," she said; and she looked at him as she spoke +with a new interest, with the interest a woman feels in the presence of +her master, of the man who can move mountains. + +He shook the water from him and rode at her side more cheerfully than +he had done hitherto, for he had, so to speak, proved his helpfulness. +He might be an idiot, but he could lift weir stones into their place. + +"There they are," she said. "And, oh, dear! One of them has got loose. +There ought to be fourteen and there are only thirteen!" + +"Good heavens! You must have eyes like a hawk's" + +She laughed. "Oh, no; I'm used to it, that is all. Now, where can it +be? I thought all the fences were mended. I must find it!" + +"Stop!" he said. "At any rate, I can find a cow--bullock--steer. Let me +go. You wait here." + +He rode off as he spoke, and she pulled up the big chestnut and looked +after him. Once more the question rose to perplex her: why had he come, +why was he riding about the dale with her, counting sheep, wading in +the stream, lifting weir stones, and herding cattle? It seemed to be so +strange, so inexplicable. And as she followed him with her eyes, his +grace and strength were impressed upon her, and she dwelt upon them +dreamily. Were there many such men in the world of which she knew so +little, or was he one alone, and unique? And how good, how pleasant it +was to have him with her, to talk to her, to help her! She had often +longed for a brother, and had pictured one like this, strong and +handsome, with frank eyes and smiling lips--someone upon whom she could +lean, to whom she could go when she was in trouble. + +A shout awoke her from her reverie; and looking up she saw the missing +steer forcing its way through a hedge on top of a bank. Stafford was +riding after it at an easy canter and coming straight for the bank. The +steer plunged through the hedge and floundered through the wide ditch, +and Ida headed it and drove it towards the rest of the herd. Then she +turned in her saddle to warn Stafford of the ditch; but as she turned +he was close upon the bank, and she saw the big hunter rise for the +leap. + +A doubt as to how he would land rose in her mind, and she swung Rupert +round; and as she did so, she saw the hunter crash through the hedge, +stumble at the ditch, and fall, lurching forward, on its edge. + +No man alive could have kept his seat, and Stafford came off like a +stone thrown from a catapult, and lay, face downwards, in the long, wet +grass. + +Something like a hot iron shot through Ida's heart, and sent her face +white, and she rode up to him and flung herself from Rupert and knelt +beside the prostrate form. + +He lay quite still; and she knew quite well what had happened: that he +had fallen on his head and stunned himself. + +She remembered, at that moment, that she herself had once so fallen; +but the remembrance did nothing to soften her present anxiety. She +knelt beside him and lifted his head on her knee, and his white face +smote her accusingly. He was still, motionless so long that she began +to fear--was he dead? She asked herself the question with a heavy +pulsation of the heart, with a sense of irrevocable loss. If he was +dead, then--then--what had she lost! + +Trembling in every limb, she laid her hand upon his heart. It beat, but +slowly, reluctantly. She looked round her with a sense of helplessness. +She had never been placed in such a position before. Not far from her +was a mountain rill, and she ran to it with unsteady steps and soaked +her handkerchief in it, and bathed the white, smooth forehead. + +Even at that moment she noticed, half unconsciously, the clear-cut, +patrician features, the delicate lines of the handsome face. + +He had come to this mishap in his attempt to help her. He was dying, +perhaps, in her service. A thrill ran through her, a thrill that moved +her as by an uncontrollable impulse to bend still lower over him so +that her lips almost touched his unconscious ones. Their nearness, the +intent gaze of her eyes, now dark as violets, seemed to make themselves +felt by him, seemed by some mysterious power to call him back from the +shadow-land of unconsciousness. He moved and opened his eyes. + +She started, and the colour flooded her face as if her lips had quite +touched his, and her eyes grew heavy as, breathing painfully, she +waited for him to entirely recover his intelligence and to speak. + +"The steer!" he said at last, feebly. + +She moistened her lips, and looked away from him as if she were afraid +lest he should see what was in her eyes. "The steer is all right; +but--but you!" + +He forced a laugh. "Oh, I'm all right, too," he said. He looked around +hazily. "I must have come a smasher over that bank!" + +Then he saw that he was lying with his head upon her knee, and with a +hot flush, the man's shame for his weakness in the presence of a woman, +he struggled into a sitting posture and looked at her, looked at her +with the forced cheerfulness of a man who has come an unforeseen, +unexpected cropper of the first magnitude. + +"It was my fault. You--you were right about the horse: he ought not to +have slipped--Where's my hat? Oh here it is. The horse isn't lame, I +hope?" + +"No," she said, setting her teeth in her great effort to appear calm +and unmoved. "He is standing beside Rupert--" She had got thus far when +her voice broke, and she turned her face away quickly; but not so +quickly that he did not see her exceeding pallor, the heavy droop of +the lids, the sweep of the dark lashes on her white cheek. + +"Why--what's the matter, Miss Heron?" he asked, anxiously, and with all +a man's obtuseness. "_You_ didn't happen to come to grief in any way? I +didn't fall on you?--or anything? I--" + +She tried to laugh, tried to laugh scornfully; for indeed she was +filled with scorn for this sudden inexplicable weakness, a weakness +which had never assailed her before in all her life, a weakness which +filled her breast with rage; but from under the closed lids two tears +crept and rolled down her cheek; and against her will she made +confession of this same foolish weakness. + +"It is nothing: I am very foolish--but I--I thought you were badly +hurt--for the moment that you might even be--killed!" + +He staggered to his feet and caught her hand and held it, looking at +her with that look in a man's eyes which is stronger and fiercer than +fire, and yet softer than water; the look which goes straight to a +woman's heart. + +"And you cared--cared so much?" he said, in a voice so low that she +could scarcely hear it, hushed by the awe and wonder of passion. + +She tried to withdraw her hand, biting her lips, setting them tightly, +in her battle for calmness and her old _hauteur_ and indifference; but +he held the small hand firmly, felt it quiver and tremble, saw the +violet eyes raised to his with a troubled wonder in them; and her name +sprang to his lips: + +"Ida!" he breathed. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +"Ida!" The name had sprung from his lips, from his heart, almost +unconsciously; it did not seem strange to him, for he knew, as he spoke +it, that he had called her so in his thoughts, that it had hovered on +his lips ever since he had heard it. But to her--Who shall describe the +subtle emotion which thrills through a girl's heart when she hears, for +the first time from a strange man's lips, the name whose use hitherto +has been reserved for her kith and kin? + +She stood erect, but with her head bent, her eyes fixed on the ground, +the name, his voice, ringing in her ears; her heart was beating almost +painfully, as if with weight of a novel kind of fear, that yet was not +altogether fear. Stafford looked at her with the man's, the lover's +eagerness, but her face told him nothing. She was so ignorant of the +very A B C of love that there was no start of surprise, no word or +movement which might guide him; but his instant thought was that she +was offended, angry. + +"Forgive me!" he said. "You are angry because I called you--Ida! It was +wrong and presumptuous; but I have learned to think of you by your +name--and it slipped out. Are you very angry? Ah, you knew why I called +you so? Don't you know that--I love you!" + +She raised her eyes for a moment but did not look at him; they were +fixed dreamily on the great hills in the distance, then drooped again, +and her brows came together, her lips straightened with a still more +marked expression of trouble, doubt, and wonder. + +"I love you," he said, with the deep note of a man's passion in his +voice. "I didn't mean to tell you, to speak--I didn't know until just +now how it was with me: you see I am telling you everything, the whole +truth! You will listen to me?" + +For she had made a movement of turning away, a slow, heavy gesture as +if she were encumbered by chains, as if she were under some spell from +which she could not wake. + +"I will tell you everything, at the risk of making you angry, at the +risk of your--sending me away." + +He paused for a moment, as if he were choosing his words with a care +that sprang from his fear lest he should indeed rouse her anger +and--lose her. + +"The first day I saw you--you remember?" + +As if she could forget! She knew as he asked the question that no +trifling detail of that first meeting was forgotten, that every word +was engraven on her memory. + +"When I saw you riding down the hill, I thought I had never seen any +girl so beautiful, so lovely--" + +The colour rose slowly to her face, but died away again: the least vain +of women is moved when a man tells her she is beautiful--in his eyes, +at any rate. + +"And when you spoke to me I thought I had never heard so sweet a voice; +and if I had, that there had never been one that I so longed to hear +again. You were not with me long, only a few minutes, but when I left +you and trumped over the hill to the inn I could not get you out of my +mind. I wondered who you were, and whether I should see you again." The +horses moved, and instinctively she looked over her shoulder towards +them. + +"They will not go: they are quite quiet," he said. "Wait--ah, wait for +a few minutes! I have a feeling that if I let you go I shall not see +you again; and that would--that would be more than I could bear. That +night at the inn the landlord told me about you. Of course he had +nothing but praise and admiration for you--who would have any other? +But he told me of the lonely life you led, of the care you took of your +father, of your devotion and goodness; and the picture of you living at +the great, silent house, without friends or companions--well, it +haunted me! I could see it all so plainly--I, who am not usually quick +at seeing things. As a rule, I'm not impressed by women--Howard says I +am cold and bored--perhaps he's right; but I could not get you out of +my mind. I felt that I wanted to see you again." + +He paused again, as if the state of mind he was describing was a puzzle +to himself--paused and frowned. + +"I left the inn and started up the road--I suppose I wanted to get a +glimpse of the house in which you lived. Yes; that must have been it. +And then, all at once, I saw you. I remember the frock you wore that +night--you looked like an angel, a spirit standing there in the +moonlight, the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. Are you angry +with me for saying so? Don't be; for I've got to tell you everything, +and--and--it's difficult!" + +He was silent a moment. Her head was still down-bent, her small white +hand hung at her side; she was quite motionless but for the slow, +rhythmic rise and fall of her bosom. + +"When you came to me, when you spoke to me, my heart leapt as if--well, +as if something good had happened to me--something that had never +happened before. When I went away the picture of you standing at the +door, waving your hand, went with me, and--stayed with me. I could not +get you out of my mind--could think of nothing else. Even in the +meeting with my father, whom I hadn't seen for so long, the thought of +you kept with me. I tried to get rid of it--to forget you, but it was +of no use: sleeping and waking, you--_you were with me!_" + +His voice grew almost harsh in its intensity, and the hand that had +hung so stilly beside her closed on the skirt of her dress in her +effort to keep the hot blush from her face. + +"When I rode out the next day it was only with the hope of seeing you. +It seemed to me there was only one thing I wanted: to see you again; to +look into your eyes, to hear you speak. All that I had heard about +you--well, I dwelt upon it, and I felt that I must help you. It seemed +as if Fate--Chance--oh, I don't know what to call it!--had _sent_ me to +help you. And when I saw you--ah, well, I can't expect you to +understand what I felt!" + +He stopped again, as if he himself were trying to understand it. + +"The feeling that fate had something to do with it--you see, it was +quite by chance I started fishing that afternoon, that I saw you at the +house--gave me courage to ask you to let me help you. It sounded +ridiculous to you--of course it did!--but if you only knew how much it +meant to me! It meant that I should see you again; perhaps every day +for--for a long time: ah, well, it meant just life and death to me. And +now--!" + +His breath came fast, his eyes dwelt upon her with passionate +eagerness; but he forced himself to speak calmly than he might not +frighten her from his side, might not lose her. + +--"Now the truth has come upon me, quite suddenly. It was just now when +I saw that you cared what had happened to me, cared if I were +hurt!--Oh, I know, it was just because you were frightened, it was just +a woman's pity for a fellow that had come to harm, the fear lest I had +broken any bones; but--ah, it showed me my heart, it told me how much I +loved you! Yes; I love you! You are all the world to me: nothing else +matters, _nothing!_" + +Her lips quivered, but she did not speak, and the look of trouble, of +doubt, did not leave her face. He waited, his eyes seeking hers, +seeking them for some sign which might still the passion of fear and +suspense with which he was battling, then he said in a low voice that +thrilled with the tempest of emotion which raged under his forced calm: + +"Will you not speak to me? Are you angry?" + +She raised her head and looked at him--a strange look from so young a +girl. It was as if she were fighting against the subtle spell of his +words, the demand for her love which shone in his eyes. + +"No, I am not angry," she said at last; and her voice, though very low, +was calm and unshaken. + +He made a movement towards her, but she shrank back, only a little, but +perceptibly, and he checked the movement, the desire to take her in his +arms. + +"You are not angry? Then--Ida--I may call you so?--you don't mind my +loving you? Dearest, will you love me just a little in return? Wait!" +for she had shrunk again, this time more plainly. "Don't--don't answer +without thinking! I know I have startled you, that I ought not to have +spoken so soon, while you only know so little of me--you'd naturally +say 'no,' and send me away. But if you think you can like me--learn to +love me--" + +He took her hand, hanging so temptingly near his own; but she drew it +away. + +"No; don't touch me!" she said, with a little catch in her voice. "I +want to think--to understand." She paused for a moment, her eyes still +seeking the distant hills, as if in their mysterious heights she might +find something that should explain this great mystery, this wonderful +thing that had happened to her. At last, with a singular gesture, so +girlish, so graceful that it made him long still more intensely to take +her in his arms, she said in a low voice: + +"I do not know--No! I do not want you to touch me, please!" His hand +fell to his side. "I can't answer you. It is so--so sudden! No one has +ever spoken to me as you have done--" + +He laughed from mere excess of joy, for her pure innocence, her +unlikeness, in her ignorance of love and all pertaining to it, to the +women he knew, made the charm of her well-nigh maddening. To think that +he should be the first man to speak of love to her! + +"I am not angry--ought I to be? Yes, I suppose so. We are almost +strangers--have seen so little of each other." + +"They say that love, all true love, comes at first sight," he said in +his deep voice. "I used to laugh at the idea; but now I know it is +true. I loved you the first time I met you, Ida!" + +Her lip quivered and her brows knit. + +"It seems so wonderful," she said, musingly, "I do not understand it. +The first time! We scarcely spoke--and I was almost angry with you for +fishing in the Heron. And I did--did not think of you--" + +He made a gesture, repudiating the mere idea. + +"Is it likely! Why should you?" he said. "I was just an ordinary man, +crossing your path for the first and perhaps the only time. Good +heavens! there was no reason why you should give a thought to me, why I +should linger in your mind for half a moment after I was out of your +sight. But for me--Haven't I told you how beautiful you are, Ida! You +are the loveliest, the sweetest.--But, even if you had not been--I mean +it is not because you are so beautiful that I love you--" She looked at +him with a puzzled, troubled look. + +"No! I can't explain. See, now, there's not a look of yours, not a +feature that I don't know by heart as if I'd learnt it. When I am away +from you I can see you--see the way your hair clusters in soft little +curls at your forehead, the long lashes sweeping your cheek, the--the +trick your eyes have of turning from grey to violet--oh, I know your +face by heart, and I _love_ it for its beauty; but if you were to lose +it all, if you were not the loveliest creature God had ever made, it +would make no difference. You would still be _you_: and it is you I +want. Ida--give yourself to me--trust me! Oh, dearest, you don't know +what love is! Let me teach you!" + +Once again he got hold of her hand; and she let it remain in his grasp; +but her quiescence did not mean yielding, and he knew it. + +"No," she said, with a deep breath. "It is true that I do not know. And +I am--afraid." A wan little smile that was more piteous than tears +curved her lips: for "afraid" seemed strange coming from her, the +fearless child of the hills and dales. "If--if I said 'yes'--Ah, but I +do not!" she broke off as he made to draw her to him, and she shrank +back. "I do not! I said 'if,' it would not be true; it would not be +fair. For I do not know. I might be--sorry, after--after you had gone. +And it would be too late then." + +"You're right," he assented, grimly. "Once I got you, no power on earth +should make me let you go again." + +Her lips quivered and her eyes drooped before his. How strange a thing +this love was, that it should change a man so! + +"I don't want to force you to answer," he said, after a pause. "Yes, I +do! I'd give half the remainder of my life to hear you say the one +word, 'yes.' But I won't. It's too--too precious. Ah, don't you +understand! I want your love, your love, Ida!" + +"Yes, I understand," she murmured. "And--and I would say it if--if I +were sure. But I--yes, I am all confused. It is like a dream. I want to +think, to ask myself if--if I can do what you want." + +She put up her hand to her lips with a slight gesture, as if to keep +them from trembling. + +"I want to be alone to think of all--all you have told me." + +Her gauntlet slipped from her hand, and he knelt on one knee and picked +it up, and still kneeling, took both her hands in his. It did not occur +to him to remember that the woman who hesitates is won; something in +her girlish innocence, in her exquisitely sweet candour, filled him +with awe. + +"Dearest!" he said, in so low a voice that, the note of the curlew +flying above them sounded loud and shrill by contrast. "Dearest!--for +you are that to me!--I will not press you. I will be content to wait. +God knows you are right to hesitate! Your love is too great, too +precious a thing to be given to me without thought. I'm not worthy to +touch you--but I love you! I will wait. You shall think of all I have +said; and, let your answer be what it may, I won't complain! +But--Ida--you mustn't forget that I love you with all my heart and +soul!" + +She looked down at his handsome face, the face over which her lips had +hovered only a short time since, and her lips moved. + +"You--you are good to me," she said, in a faintly troubled voice. "Yes, +I know, I feel that. Perhaps I ought to say 'no!'" + +"Don't!" he said, almost fiercely. "Wait! Let me see you again--you +scarcely know me. Ah, Ida, what can I do, how can I win your love?" + +She drew her hands from his with a deep breath. + +"I--I will go now," she said. "Will you let me go--alone?" + +He rose and went towards the horses. His own raised its head and seemed +inclined to start, but stood uncertain and eventually remained quiet +beside the chestnut. Stafford brought them to where Ida still stood, +her eyes downcast, her face pale. + +With his own bridle over his arm he put her into the saddle, resisting +even in that supreme moment the almost irresistible desire to take her +in his arms. + +She murmured a "Thank you," as she slowly put on her left gauntlet. He +drew the other from her, and as she looked at him questioningly, he put +it to his lips and thrust it under his waistcoat, over his heart. + +The colour flooded her face, but the blush was followed by the old look +of trouble and doubt. She held out her ungloved right hand and he took +it and held it for a moment, then raised it to his lips; but he did not +kiss it. + +"No!" he said, with stern repression. "I will take nothing--until you +give it me." + +She inclined her head the very slightest, as if she understood, as if +she were grateful; then letting her eyes rest on his with an +inscrutable look, she spoke softly to the horse and rode away, with +Donald and Bess clamouring joyously after her, as if they had found the +proceedings extremely trying. + +Stafford flung his arm across his horse, and leaning against it, looked +after her, his eyes fixed wistfully on the slight, graceful figure, +until it was out of sight; then he gazed round him as if he were +suddenly returning from a new, mysterious region to the old familiar +world. Passion's marvellous spell still held him, he was still +throbbing with a half-painful ecstasy of her nearness, of the touch of +her hand, the magic of her voice. + +For the first time he was in love. In love with the most exquisite, the +most wonderful of God's divine creatures. He knew, as he had said, that +her answer meant life or death to him, the life of infinite, nameless +joy, the death of life in death. + +Was he going to lose her? + +The very question set him trembling. He held out his quivering hand and +looked at it, and set his teeth. Heaven and earth, how strange it was! +This girl had taken possession of him body and soul; every fibre of his +being clamoured for her. To be near her, just to be able to see her, +hear her, meant happiness; to be torn from her-- + +The sweat broke out on his forehead and he laughed grimly. + +"And this is love!" he said, between his teeth. "Yes--and it's the +only love of my life. God help me if you say 'no,' dearest! But you +must not--you must not!" + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +Quite an hour after Stafford had started to meet Ida, Miss Falconer +made her appearance, coming slowly down the stairs in the daintiest of +morning frocks, with her auburn hair shining like old gold in the +sunlight, and an expression of languor in her beautiful face which +would have done credit to a hot-house lily. + +She had slept the sleep of the just--the maid who had gone to wake her +with her early cup of tea had been almost startled by the +statuesqueness of her beauty, as she lay with her head pillowed on her +snow-white arm and her wonderful hair streaming over the pillow--had +suffered herself to be dressed with imperial patience, and looked--as +Howard, who stood at the bottom of the stairs--said to himself, "like a +queen of the Incas descending to her throne-room." + +"Good-morning, Miss Falconer," he greeted her. "It's a lovely morning; +you'll find it nicely aired." She smiled languidly. + +"That means that I am late." she said, her eyes resting languidly on +his cynically smiling face. + +"Good heavens, no!" he responded. "You can't be late or early in this +magic palace. Whenever you 'arrive' you will find things--'things' in +the most comprehensive sense--ready for you. Breakfast at Brae Wood is +the most moveable of feasts. I've proved that, for I'm a late bird +myself; and to my joy I have learned that this is the only house with +which I am acquainted that you can get red-hot bacon and kidneys at any +hour from eight to twelve; that lunch runs plenteously from one to +three, and that you can get tea and toast--my great and only weakness, +Miss Falconer--whenever you like to ring for it. You will find Lady +Clansford presiding at the breakfast-table: I believe she has been +sitting there--amiable martyr as she is--since the early dawn." + +She smiled at him with languid approval, as if he were some paid +jester, and went into the breakfast-room. There were others there +beside Lady Clansford--most of them the young people--it is, alas! only +the young who can sleep through the bright hours of a summer's +morn--and a discussion on the programme of the day was being carried on +with a babel of voices and much laughter. + +"You shall decide for us, Miss Falconer!" exclaimed one of the young +men, whose only name appeared to be Bertie, for he was always addressed +as and spoken of by it. "It's a toss-up between a drive and a turn on +the lake in the electric launch. _I_ proposed a sail, but there seemed +to be a confirmed and general scepticism as to my yachting capacities, +and Lady Plaistow says she doesn't want to be drowned before the end of +the season. What would you like to do?" + +"Sit somewhere in the shade with a book," she replied, promptly but +slowly. + +There was a shout of laughter. + +"That is just what Mr. Howard replied," said Bertie, complainingly. + +"Oh, Mr. Howard! Everyone knows that he is the laziest man in the whole +world," remarked Lady Clansford, plaintively. "What is Mr. Orme going +to do? Where is he? Does anyone know?" + +There was a general shaking of heads and a chorus of "Noes." + +"I had a swim with him this morning, but I've not seen him since," said +Bertie. "It's no use waiting for Orme; he mightn't turn up till +dinner-time. Miss Falconer, if I promise not to drown you, will make +one for the yacht? The man told me it would be all ready." + +She shook her head as she helped herself to a couple of strawberries. + +"No, thanks," she said, with her musical drawl. "I know what that +means. You drift into the middle of the lake or the river, the wind +drops, and you sit in a scorching sun and get a headache. Please leave +me out. I shall stick to my original proposal. Perhaps, if you don't +drown anyone this time, I may venture with you another day." + +She leant back and smiled at them under her lids, as the discussion +flowed and ebbed round her, with an air of placid contempt and wonder +at their excitement; and presently, murmuring something to Lady +Clansford, who, as chaperone and deputy hostess was trying to coax them +into some decision, she rose and went out to the terrace. + +There, lying back in a deck-chair, in a corner screened from any +possible draught by the glass verandah, was Mr. Howard with one of Sir +Stephen's priceless Havanas between his lips, a French novel in his +hand, and a morning paper across his knees. He rose as she approached, +and checking a sigh of resignation, offered her his chair. + +"Oh, no," she said, with a smile which showed that she knew what the +effort of politeness cost him. "You'd hate me if I took your chair, I +know; and though, of course, I don't in the least care whether you hate +me or not, I shouldn't like putting you to the trouble of so exhaustive +an emotion." + +Howard smiled at her with frank admiration. + +"Let's compromise it," he said. "I'll drag that chair up here--it's out +of the sun, you know--so, and arrange these cushions so, and put up the +end for your feet so, and--how is that, Miss Falconer?" + +"Thanks," she murmured, sinking into the soft nest he had made. + +"Do you object to my cigar? Say so, if you do, and--" + +"You'll go off to some other nook," she put in. "No, I like it." + +His eye shone with keen appreciation: this girl was not only a +beauty--which is almost common nowadays--but witty, which is rare. + +"Thanks! Would you like the paper? Don't hesitate if you would; I'm not +reading it; I never do. I keep it there so that I can put it over my +face if I feel like sleeping--which I generally do." + +She declined the paper with a gesture of her white hand. "No, I'd +rather talk; which means that you are to talk and I'm to listen: will +it exhaust you too much to tell me where the rest of the people are? I +left a party in the breakfast-room squabbling over the problem how to +kill time; but where are the others? My father, for instance?" + +"He is in the library with Baron Wirsch, Mr. Griffenberg, and the other +financiers. They are doubtless engaged in some mystic rites connected +with the worship of the Golden Calf, rites in which the words 'shares,' +'stocks,' 'diamonds,' 'concessions,' appear at frequent intervals. I +suppose your father, having joined them, is a member of the +all-powerful sect of money-worshippers." + +She shrugged her shoulders. + +"I suppose so. And Mr. Orme--is he one of them?" she asked, with +elaborate indifference. + +Howard smiled cynically. + +"Stafford! No; all that he knows about money is the art of spending it; +and what he doesn't know about that isn't worth knowing. It slips +through his fingers like water through a sieve; and one of those +mysteries which burden my existence is, how he always manages to have +some for a friend up a tree." + +"Is he so generous, then?" she asked, with a delicate yawn behind her +hand. + +Howard nodded, and was silent for a moment, then he said musingly: + +"You've got on my favorite subject--Stafford--Miss Falconer. And I warn +you that if I go on I shall bore you." + +"Well, I can get up and go away," she said, languidly. "He is a friend +of yours, I suppose? By the way, did you know that he stopped those +ridiculous horses last night and probably saved my life?" + +"For goodness sake don't let him hear you say that, or even guess that +you think it," he said, with an affectation of alarm. "Stafford would +be inexpressibly annoyed. He hates a fuss even more than most +Englishmen, and would take it very unkindly if you didn't let a little +thing like that pass unnoticed. Oh, yes, I am his greatest friend. I +don't think"--slowly and contemplatively--"that there is anything he +wouldn't do for me or anything I wouldn't do for him--excepting get up +early--go out in the rain--Oh, it isn't true! I'm only bragging," he +broke off, with a groan. "I've done both and shall do them whenever he +wants me to. I'm a poor creature, Miss Falconer." "A martyr on the +altar of friendship," she said. "Mr. Orme must be very irresistible." + +"He is," he assented, with an air of profound melancholy. "Stafford has +the extremely unpleasant knack of getting everybody to do what he +wants. It's very disgusting, but it's true. That is why he is so +general a favourite. Why, if you walk into any drawing-room and asked +who was the most popular man in London, the immediate and unanimous +reply would be 'Stafford Orme.'" + +She settled the cushions a little more comfortably. + +"You mean amongst men?" she said. + +Howard smiled and eyed her questioningly. + +"Well--I didn't," he replied, drily. + +She laughed a little scornfully. + +"Oh, I know the sort of man he is," she said. "I've read and heard +about them. The sort of man who falls in love with every woman he meet. +'A servant of dames'!" + +Howard leant back and laughed with cynical enjoyment. + +"You never were further out," he said. "He flirts--oh, my aunt, how he +flirts!--but as to falling in love--Did you ever see an iceberg, Miss +Falconer?" + +She shook her head. + +"Well, it's one of the biggest, the most beautiful frauds in the world. +When you meet one sailing along in the Atlantic, you think it one of +the nicest, sweetest things you ever saw: it's so dazzlingly bright, +with its thousand and one colours glittering in the sunlight. You quite +fall in love with it, and it looks so harmless, so enticing, that +you're tempted to get quite close to it; which no doubt is amusing to +the iceberg, but is slightly embarrassing for you; for the iceberg is +on you before you know it, and--and there isn't enough left of you for +a decent funeral. That's Stafford all the way. He's so pleasant, so +frank, so lovable, that you think him quite harmless; but while you're +admiring his confounded ingratiating ways, while you're growing +enthusiastic about his engaging tricks--he's the best rider, the best +dancer, the best shot--oh, but you must have heard of him!--he is +bearing down upon you; your heart goes under, and he--ah, well, he just +sails over you smiling, quite unconscious of having brought you to +everlasting smash." + +"You are indeed a friend," she said with languid irony. + +"Oh, you think I'm giving him away?" he said. "My dear Miss Falconer, +everybody knows him. Every ball-room every tennis-court, is strewed +with his wrecks. And all the time he doesn't know it; but goes his way +crowned with a modesty which is the marvel and the wonder of this most +marvellous of ages." + +"It sounds like a hero out of one of 'Ouida's' novels," she remarked, +as listlessly as before. + +But behind her lowered lids her eyes were shining with a singular +brightness. + +Howard turned to her delightedly. + +"My dear Miss Falconer, if you were a man I should ask to shake hands +with you. It so exactly describes him. That's just what he is. As +handsome as the dew--I beg your pardon!--as frank as a boy, as gentle +as a woman, as staunch as a bull-dog, as brave--he would have stopped +a drayman's team just as readily as yours last night--and as +invulnerable as that marble statue." + +He pointed to a statue of Adonis which stood whitely on the edge of the +lawn, and she raised her eyes and looked at it dreamily. + +"I could break that thing if I had a big hammer," she said. + +"I daresay," he said. "But can't break Stafford. Honestly "--he looked +at her--"I wish you could!" + +"Why?" she asked, turning her eyes on him for the first time. + +Howard was silent for a moment, then he looked at her with a curious +gravity. + +"Because it would be good for him: because I am afraid for him." + +"Afraid?" she echoed. + +"Yes," he said, with a nod. "Some day he will run against something +that will bring him to smash. Some woman--But I beg your pardon. Do you +know, Miss Falconer, that you have a dangerous way of leading one to +speak the truth--which one should never--or very rarely--do. Why, on +earth am I telling you all this about Stafford Orme?" + +She shrugged her shoulders. + +"You were saying 'some woman,'" she said. + +He gave a sigh of resignation. + +"You are irresistible! Some woman who will be quite unworthy of him. +It's always the case. The block of ice you can not smash with your +biggest hammer is broken into smithereens by a needle. That's the peril +before Stafford--but let us hope he will prove the exception to the +rule and escape. He's safe at present, at any rate." + +She thought of the scene she had witnessed, the girl sitting sideways on +Stafford Orme's horse, and her face flushed for an instant. + +"Are you sure?" she said. + +"Quite!" he responded, confidently. "I know all Stafford's flirtations, +great and small: if there was anything serious he would tell me; and as +he hasn't--there isn't." + +She laughed; the slow, soft laugh which made Howard think suddenly, +strangely, of a sleepy tigress he had once watched in a rajah's zoo, as +she lay basking in the sun: a thing of softness and beauty and--death. + +"We've had a most amusing conversation, Mr. Howard," she said. "I don't +know when I've been so interested--or so tempted." + +"Tempted?" He looked at her with a slow, expectant smile. + +"Oh, yes," she murmured, turning her eyes upon him with a half-mocking +light in them. "You have forgotten that you have been talking to a +woman." + +"I don't deny it," he said. "It's the finest compliment I could pay +you. But--after?" + +"And that to a woman your account of your hero-friend is--a +challenge." + +He nodded and paused, with his cigar half-way to his lips. + +"I'm greatly tempted to accept it, do you know!" she said. + +He laughed. + +"Don't: you'll be vanquished. Is that too candid, too--brutal?" he +said. + +"So brutal that I _will_ accept it," she said. "Is that ring of yours a +favorite?" + +"I've had it ever since I can remember. It was my mother's," he said, +rather gravely. + +She held out her hand, upon which the costly gems glittered in the +sunlight. + + +"Choose one to set against it," she said quite quietly. + +Howard, roused for once from his sleepy cynicism, met her gaze with +something like astonishment. + +"You mean--?" he said, in a low voice. + +"I mean that I am going to try to meet your iceberg. You will play +fair, Mr. Howard? You will stand and look on and--be silent?" + +He smiled and leant back as if he had considered her strange, audacious +proposal, and felt confident. + +"On my honour," he said, with a laugh. "You shall have fair play!" She +laughed softly. "You have not chosen my stake," she said meaningly. + +"Ah, no. Pardon! Let me see." He took her hand and examined the rings. +"This--I think it's the most valuable." + +"It does not matter," she said. "You will not win it. May I look at +yours?" + +He extended his hand with an amused laugh; but without a smile, she +said: + +"Yes, it is a quaint ring; I like quaint things. I shall wear it on my +little finger." + +She dropped his hand quickly, for at that moment Stafford rode round +the bend of the drive. His face was grave and almost stern in its +preoccupation, but he caught sight of them, and raised his hat, then +turned his horse and rode up to the terrace. + +"Good-morning, Stafford," exclaimed Howard. "Where have you been? +Hallo! Anything happened? You're coated all over with mud: had a fall?" + +He nodded carelessly as he turned to the beautiful girl, lying back now +and looking up at his handsome face with an air of languid +indifference. + +"What a lovely day, Miss Falconer! Where are all the others? Are you +not going for a drive, on the lake, somewhere?" + +"I have just been asking Mr. Howard to take me for a row," she said, +"but he has refused." + +Stafford laughed and glanced at his watch. + +"I can quite believe it: he's the laziest wretch in existence. If +you'll transfer the offer to me, we'll go after lunch. By George, +there's the bell!" + +"Thanks!" she murmured, and she rose with her slow grace. "I'd better +get into an appropriate costume. Mr. Howard, what will you bet me that +it does not rain before we start. But you never bet, you tell me!" + +"Not unless I am sure of winning, Miss Falconer," he said, +significantly. + +She looked after Stafford as he rode away to the stable. + +"Nor I," she retorted, with a smile. "As you will see." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +When Stafford and Maude Falconer went down to the lake after luncheon, +they found a party from the Villa just embarking on board one of the +launches; the air was filled with laughter and chatter, and the little +quay was bright with the white flannels of the men and the gay frocks +of the women. The party greeted the two with an exuberant welcome, and +Bertie called out to ask them if they were coming on board. + +"Perhaps you would rather go on the launch, Miss Falconer?" said +Stafford; but she shook her head. + +"No, thanks," she said, languidly. "I hate crowds of that kind. I'd +rather stick to our original proposition; it will bore me less. But +perhaps you'd rather join them?" + +"Is it likely?" said Stafford, with a smile, as he signed to the man to +bring up a skiff. "Now, let me make you as comfortable as I can. We +ought to have had a gondola," he added, as he handed her to the seat in +the stern. + +She leant back with her sunshade over her shoulder, and Stafford, as he +slipped off his blazer and rowed out towards the centre of the lake, +looked at her with unconscious admiration. She was simply, perfectly +dressed in a yachting costume of white and pale-blue, which set off to +the fullest advantage her exquisite complexion and her red-gold hair. +But it was admiration of the coldest kind, for even at that moment he +was thinking of the girl in the well-worn habit, the girl he loved with +a passion that made his slightest thought of her a psalm of worship. + +And Maude, though she appeared half asleep, like a beautiful wild +animal basking in the warmth of the sun, glanced at him now and again +and noted the strength and grace of his figure, the almost Grecian +contour of the handsome face. She had made her wager with Howard on the +spur of the moment, prompted by the vanity of a woman piqued by the +story of Stafford's indifference to her sex; but as she looked at him +she wondered how a woman would feel if she fell in love with him. But +she had no fears for herself; there was a coldness in her nature which +had hitherto guarded her from the fever which men call love, and she +thought herself quite secure. There would be amusement, triumph, in +making him love her, in winning her wager with that cynical Mr. Howard, +who boasted of his friend's invulnerability; and when she had +conquered, and gratified her vanity--Ah, well, it would be easy to step +aside and bring the curtain down upon her triumph and Stafford's +discomfiture. She would wear that Mr. Howard's ring, and every time she +looked at it, it should remind her of her conquest. + +Stafford rowed on in silence for some minutes. His beautiful companion +did not seem to want him to talk and certainly showed no desire to talk +herself; so he gave himself up to thinking of Ida--and wishing that it +was she who was sitting opposite him there, instead of this girl with +the face of a Grecian goddess, with the lustrous hair of an houri. At +last, feeling that he ought to say something, he remarked, as he gazed +at the marvellous view: + +"Very beautiful, isn't it?" + +She raised her eyes and let them wander from the glittering water to +the glorious hills. + +"Yes, I suppose it is. I'm afraid I don't appreciate scenery as much as +other people do. Perhaps it is because one is always expected to fall +into raptures over it. Does that shock you? I'm afraid I shock most +people. The fact is, I have been brought up in a circle which has +taught me to loathe sentiment. They were always gushing about their +feelings, but the only thing they cared for was money!" + +"That ought to have made you loathe money," said Stafford, with a +smile, and a certain kind of interest; indeed, it was difficult not to +feel interested in this beautiful girl, with the face and the form of a +goddess, and, apparently, as small a capacity of emotion. + +"Oh, no," she said, languidly; "on the contrary, it showed me the value +of money. I saw that if I had not been rich, the daughter of a rich +man, I should have been of no account in their eyes. They were always +professing to love me, but I was quite aware that it was because I was +rich enough to be able to buy pleasure for them." + +"Unpleasant kind of people," remarked Stafford. + +"No; just the average," she said, coolly. "Nearly all men and women are +alike--worldly, selfish, self-seeking. Look at my father," she went on, +as coolly as before. "He thinks of nothing but money; he has spent his +life fighting, scrambling, struggling for it; and look at yours--" + +"Oh, hold on!" said Stafford, laughing, but reddening a little. "You're +very much mistaken if you think my father is that kind of man." + +She smiled. + +"Why, everybody has some story of his--what shall I call +it?--acuteness, sharpness; and of the wonderful way in which he has +always got what he wanted. I don't want to be offensive, Mr. Orme, but +I'm afraid both our fathers are in the same category. And that both +would sacrifice anything or anyone to gain their ends." + +Stafford laughed again. + +"You're altogether wrong, Miss Falconer," he said. "I happen to know +that my governor is one of the most generous and tender-hearted of men +and that whatever he has gained it is by fair means, and by no +sacrifice of others." + +She shrugged her shoulders. + +"I envy your faith in him. But then you are a very enviable man, I'm +told." + +"As how?" asked Stafford. "Pretty here, isn't it? Here's one of those +beastly steamers coming: they spoil the lake, but they're very +convenient, I suppose." + +She glanced at the big steamer puffing towards them obtrusively and +sending a trail of smoke across the green and violet of the hills. + +"Oh, I'm told you are the most popular man in London; that you have the +world at your feet, that you are only waiting to see which duchess you +prefer to throw your handkerchief to--" + +Stafford coloured. + +"What rot!--I beg your pardon, Miss Falconer. Of course, I know you are +only chaffing me." + +"Isn't it true--about the duchess, I mean?" she asked, so coolly, so +indifferently, that Stafford was compelled to take her seriously. + +"Nary a word," he said, brightly; then, with a sudden gravity: "If you +happen to hear such nonsense again, Miss Falconer, you can, if you care +to, contradict it flatly. I am not in the least likely to marry a +duchess; indeed, I wouldn't marry the highest and greatest of them, if +she'd have me, which is highly improbable." + +"Do you mean to say that you have no ambition, that you would marry +for--love?" she asked. + +Stafford stopped rowing for a moment and looked at her grimly. + +"What on earth else should I marry for?" he asked. "Wouldn't you?" + +Before she could answer, the steamer came abreast of them, and so close +that the swell from its screw set the slight, narrow skiff dancing and +plunging on the waves. + +Maude uttered a faint cry and leant forward, and Stafford, fearing she +was going to rise, stretched out his hand, and touching her knee, +forced her into her seat again, and kept her there until the swell had +subsided. + +The colour flooded her face at the pressure of his strong hand, which +was like a steel weight, and she caught her breath. Then, as he took +his hand away and resumed rowing, he said: "I beg your pardon! I was +afraid you were going to get up--a girl I once had in a boat did so and +we upset." + +"The boat is very small," she said, in a low voice, almost one of +apology. + +"Oh, it's all right, so long as you sit still, and keep your head," he +said. "It could ride over twice as big a swell as this." + +She looked at him from under her lowered lids with a new expression in +her face, a faint tremor on her lips; and, as if she could not meet his +eyes, she glanced back with an affectation of interest at the steamer. +As she did so, something dropped from it into the lake. + +"What was that?" she said. "Something fell overboard." + +"Eh? A man, do you mean?" he asked, stopping. + +"Oh, no; something small." + +"A parcel, somebody's lunch, perhaps," he said; and he rowed on. + +She leant back, her eyes downcast; she still seemed to feel that +strong, irresistible pressure of his hand under which she had been +unable to move. + +"There ought to be an echo somewhere here," he said, as they came +opposite one of the hills, and he gave the Australian "coo-ee!" in a +clear, ringing voice, which the echo sent back in a musical imitation. + +"How true it was!" she said, and she opened her lips and sang a bar or +two of the "Elsie" song. + +Stafford listened to the echo, which was almost as soft and sweet as +the girl's notes. + +"What a wonderful voice you have!" he said, almost unconsciously. "I +never heard a sweeter. What was that you sang?" + +"That thing of Wagner's," she replied; and quite naturally she began +the air and sang it through. + +Stafford let the boat drift and leant upon the oars, his eyes fixed on +her face, a rapt and very eloquent admiration in his own. + +"Ah--beautiful!" he said in a low voice. "What a delight it must be to +you to be able to sing like that! I can understand a whole theatre +crying over that song sung as you sing it!" + +She glanced at him with an affectation of languid amusement; but she +was watching him intently. + +"That's not the best in the opera," she said. "I like this better;" and +she sang the "Swan" song; sang it so low that he leant forward to catch +the notes which flowed like silver from her soft, red lips; and when +she finished it he drew a long breath and still leant forward looking +at her. + +"Thank you, thank you!" he said, with so much of admiration and +gratitude in his voice, that, as if to apologise for it, he said: "I'm +fond of music. But I'm forgetting your tea! Shall we pull back to the +Ferry Hotel and get some?" + +"I'm in your hands," she replied, languidly. + +He turned-the boat and pulled back along the centre of the lake in +silence. Suddenly she bent forward. + +"There is something in the water," she said; "something alive." + +"It's a--yes, it's a dog," he said. "That is what you saw drop over the +steamer. By George! the poor little chap looks in distress: seems as if +he were nearly done. Can you steer?" he asked, sharply. + +"Oh, yes," she replied, languidly. "Why?" + +"Because I'm going for him, and it will help me if you can steer +straight for him. He looks nearly played out." + +"Why should you trouble--it's a long way off; it will be drowned before +you can get to it," she said. + +"I'll have to go for it anyway," he said, cheerfully; and he began to +row hard. + +Distance is deceptive on a lake, and the dog was farther off than they +thought; but Stafford put his back into it as hard as he had done in +his racing days, and Maude Falconer leant back and watched him with +interest, and something even stronger than interest, in her masked +eyes. He had turned up the sleeves of his flannel shirt, and the +muscles on his arms were standing out under the strain, his lips were +set tightly, and there was the man's frown of determination on his +brow. + +"It has gone down: it's no use," she said. "You may as well stop and +rest." + +He looked over his shoulder. + +"No! He has come up again!" he exclaimed: it was noticeable that he +called the dog "he," while she spoke of it as "it." "We shall get him +in time. Keep the boat straight!" + +The words were uttered in a tone of command, and they moved her as the +touch of his hand had done; and she set her mind upon the task as she +had never before set it upon anything. + +Reaching well forward, pulling with the long, steady stroke of the +practised oarsman, Stafford sent the boat along like an arrow, and +presently he drove it up to the spot where the dog strove in its death +straggle. + +It was a tiny black-and-tan terrier, and Stafford, as he looked over +his shoulder, saw the great eyes turned to him with a piteous entreaty +that made his heart ache. + +"Turn the boat--quick!" he cried; and as the skiff slid alongside the +dog, he swooped it up. + +The mite gave a little gasping cry like a child, and closing its eyes +sank into Stafford's arms with a shudder. + +"Is it dead?" asked Maude Falconer, looking not at the dog but at +Stafford, for his face, which had been red with exertion a moment ago, +had become suddenly pale. + +"I don't know--no!" he said, absently, all his thoughts centered on the +dog. + +He wiped it as dry as he could with his blazer, then turning aside, he +opened his shirt and put the cold morsel in his bosom. + +"Poor little beggar, he's like ice!" he said, in a low voice. "He would +never have got to the shore; he's so small. If I'd some brandy! We'll +get some at the ferry. Can you row?" + +"No," she said. "Yes; I mean, I'll try." + +He held out his hand. + +"Mind how you cross. Take off your gloves first, or you'll blister your +hands." + +She obeyed, her eyes downcast. They exchanged places and he showed her +how to hold the sculls. + +"You'll do very well. You can row as slowly as you like. He's alive; I +can feel him move! Poor little chap! Sorry to trouble you, Miss +Falconer, but the only chance of saving him is to keep him warm." + +She was silent far a moment, then she glanced at him. + +"You're fond of dogs?" + +"Why, of course," he answered. "Aren't you?" + +"Y-es; but I don't think I'd risk pneumonia for one. You were +feverishly hot just now, and that little beast must be stone cold; +you'll get bronchitis or something, Mr. Orme." + +"Not I!" he laughed, almost scornfully. "He's pulling round, poor +little beast! Here we are." + +He reached for his coat and wrapped the terrier in it, and quite +unconscious of the girl's watchful eyes, held the little black-and-tan +head to his face for a moment. + +"All right now?" he murmured. "You've had a narrow squeak for it, old +chappie!" With the dog under his arm, he helped Maude Falconer ashore +and led the way to the hotel. + +"Tea," he said to the waiter; "but bring me some brandy and milk +first--and look sharp." + +Maude sank on to one of the benches in the beautiful garden in the +centre of the lake and looked straight before her; and Stafford cuddled +the dog up to him and looked impatiently for the waiter, greeting him +when he came with: + +"What an infernal time you're been!" + +Then he poured a little of the brandy down the dog's throat, and +bending over him repeated the dose three or four times; and presently +the mite stirred and moved its head, and opening its eyes looked up +into Stafford's, and weakly putting out its tongue, licked his hand. + +Stafford laughed--for the well-known reason. + +"Plucky little chap, isn't he?" he said, with a moved man's affectation +of levity. "He's made a splendid fight for it and won through. He's a +pretty little morsel--a well-bred 'un: wonder whom he belongs to?" + +"To you--at least his life does," said Maude Falconer. "You couldn't +have fought harder for it if it had been a human being." + +"Oh, a dog's the next thing, you know," he said, apologetically. "I'm +afraid it's been an awful nuisance and trouble for you. You haven't +blistered your hands, I hope? Let me see!" + +She stretched out her hands, palm upwards, and he took them and +examined them. + +"No. That's all right! 'All's well that ends well.' You want a few +lessons with the sculls, Miss Falconer, and you'd make a splendid +boat-woman. Perhaps you'd let me give you one or two?" + +"Thank you; yes," she said; and to his surprise with less of her usual +half-scornful languor. + +"Here's the tea. Any particular kind of cake you fancy?" + +She said that the cakes would do, and poured out the tea; but he put +some milk into his saucer and gave some to the terrier, slowly, +methodically, and with a tenderness and gentleness which was not lost +upon the girl who watched him covertly before paying any attention to +his own tea. + +"I wonder whether you could stand, my little man," he said, and he put +the terrier on the ground. + +It stood upright and shivering for a moment, then it put its tiny paws +on Stafford's knee and looked up into his face appealingly. "Not up to +your usual form just yet, eh?" said Stafford, and he picked it up +gently and put it on his knee. + +Maude Falconer looked at him. + +"Give it to me," she said. "Men have no lap. He'll be more comfortable +with me." + +"But he's wet still," he said. "He'll spoil that pretty dress of +yours." + +"My pretty dress was made to be spoiled," she said, "Give it to me, +please, and get your tea." + +"Do you mean it?" he asked, with a surprise which made her flush with +resentment, and something like shame. + +For reply, she bent forward, took the dog from him, and tried to settle +it on her lap; but the mite looked piteously at Stafford and whined, +its big eyes imploring him to let it come back. + +But Stafford stroked it and bade it sit still, and presently it curled +itself up. + +"It has gone to sleep," said Maude. "It has soon forgotten its +trouble." + +"It's a way dogs have," said Stafford. "May I smoke? George! what a +lovely afternoon!" + +She glanced at him as he leant back in his chair, his long legs +stretched out and crossed before him. + +"You look happy," she said, with a faint smile. + +"Oh, I am," he said, with a sudden flush and a start; for now the dog +was off his mind, it had instantly swung back to Ida. + +"It's the reward of a generous action," she said, and again, the +mocking note was absent from her voice. + +Stafford laughed. + +"That's putting it rather high," he said. + +They sat on in silence: Stafford thinking of Ida, Maude looking down at +the sleeping dog, and thinking that only a few minutes ago it had been +lying in the bosom of the man who sat beside her: the man whom she had +backed herself to fool; but for whom a strange sensation of +admiration--and was it a subtle fear?--was stirring within her. + +"By George! we must be going!" he said, suddenly. + +When they got to the boat he proposed to roll the terrier in his coat, +but Maude shook her head. + +"I'll nurse it going home," she said. + +"You will? That's very good of you!" he said, quite gratefully. + +"He's a lucky little beggar!" he remarked, after awhile, as he looked +at the black little morsel curled up on the pretty dress. "Supposing he +isn't claimed, would you care to have him, Miss Falconer?" + +She looked down at the dog. + +"Thank you," she said. "But what shall I give you in return. It's +unlucky to give an animal without some consideration." + +"Oh, give me another song," he replied. "There is nobody about." + +She opened her lips, then checked herself. + +"No, I can't sing again," she said, in a low voice. + +"Oh, all right. It isn't good for you to sing too much in the open air. +I'll wait till this evening, if you'll be good enough to sing for us +then." + +They landed and walked up to the house. As they reached the bend +leading to the entrance path, she stopped and held out the dog, which +had been staring at Stafford and whining at intervals. + +"Take it, please. It is fretting for you, and I'd rather not keep it." + +"Really?" he said, and she saw his face brighten suddenly. "All right, +if you'd rather. Come here, little man! What's your name, I wonder? +What shall we call him while we've got him?" + +"Call him 'Tiny;' he's small enough," she said, with a shrug of her +shoulders. + +"Tiny it is!" he assented, brightly. "He'll answer to it in a day or +two, you'll see. I hope you haven't quite spoilt your dress, Miss +Falconer, and won't regret your row!" + +She looked at her dress, but there was a sudden significance in her +slow, lingering response. + +"I--don't--know!" + +As she went up the stairs she looked over the rail and saw Stafford's +tall figure striding down the hall. He was softly pulling the terrier's +ears and talking to it in the language dogs understand and love; and +when she sank into a chair in her room, his face with its manly +tenderness was still before her, his deep musical voice, with its note +of protection and succour, still rang in her ears. + +She sat quite motionless for a minute or two, then she rose and went to +the glass and looked at herself; a long, intent look. + +"Yes, I am beautiful," she murmured, not with the self-satisfaction of +vanity, but with a calculating note in her voice. "Am I--am I beautiful +enough?" + +Then she swung away from the glass with the motion which reminded +Howard of a tigress, and, setting her teeth hard, laughed with +self-scorn; but with something, also, of fear in the laugh. + +"I am a fool!" she muttered. "It can't be true. So soon! So suddenly! +Oh, I can't be such a fool!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + +If everybody was not enjoying himself at the Villa it certainly was not +the fault of the host, Sir Stephen Orme. Howard, as he drew his chair +up beside Stafford, when the ladies had left the room after dinner, and +the gentlemen had begun to glance longingly at the rare Chateau claret +and the Windermere port, made a remark to this effect: + +"Upon my word, Staff, it is the most brilliant house-party which I have +ever joined; and as to your father in his character of host--Well, +words fail to express my admiration." + +Stafford glanced at his father at the head of the table and nodded. Sir +Stephen had been the life and soul and spring of the dinner; talking +fashionable gossip to Lady Fitzharford on one side of him, and a "giddy +girl of twenty" on the other; exchanging badinage with "Bertie," and +telling deeply interesting stories to the men; and he was now dragging +reluctant laughter from the grim Baron Wirsch and the almost grimmer +Griffenberg, as he saw with one eye that the wine was circulating, and +with the other that no one was being overlooked or allowed to drop into +dullness. + +"A most marvellous man! Nearly all the morning he was closeted with the +financiers; in the afternoon he went for a ride with Lady Clansford; he +was in attendance at the solemn function of afternoon tea; he played +croquet--and played it well--at half-past five; at six I saw him +walking round the grounds with the Effords and the Fitzharfords, and +now he is laughing and talking with the _abandon_ of a boy of +five-and-twenty, while the boy of five-and-twenty sits here as grave +and silent as if he had been working like a horse--or a Sir Stephen +Orme--instead of fooling about the lake with the most beautiful woman +in the party." + + +"And his friend has spent the day in a deck-chair on the terrace," +retorted Stafford. + +"At any rate, I have been out of mischief," said Howard. Then he +remembered his wager with Maude Falconer, and added, rather +remorsefully: "At least I hope so. By the way, don't you echo my +expression of opinion that Miss Falconer is the most beautiful woman +here--or elsewhere?" + +Stafford woke from the reverie into which he nearly always dropped when +Howard was talking, and nodded indifferently. + +"Oh, yes; she is lovely, of course." + +"How good of you, how kind and gracious!" retorted Howard, ironically. +"So my prince deigns to approve of her? And you also condescended to +admit that she is--er--rather clever?" + +"I daresay," said Stafford. "I've seen so little of her. She seems to +me rather _blasé_ and cold." + +Howard nodded. + +"Yes; but the worst of it is, you can't count upon that kind of girl: +they are apt to warm up sometimes, and quite unexpectedly: and when +they do they--well, they boil like a geyser or a volcano. And +then--well, then it is wise to get out of reach. I once knew a woman +who was considered to be as cold as charity--or a rich relation--but +who caught fire one day and burnt up the man who ignited her. Of course +this is my delicate way of saying: 'Beware, oh, my prince!'" + +Stafford smiled. Miss Falconer's nature was a matter of profound +indifference to him. There was only one woman on whom he could bestow a +thought, and he was thinking of her now, wondering when he should see +her, whether he might dare to tell her of his love again, to ask her +for her answer. + +Once or twice his father looked across at him, and nodded and smiled as +if he loved to see him, and wanted to speak to him; and Stafford smiled +and nodded back, as if he understood. + +When the men rose to go to the drawing-room, Sir Stephen caught him up +at the door, and laid a hand upon his arm. + +"Happy, dear boy?" he asked in a low voice, full of affection. "I've +seen scarcely anything of you. No, no, I'm not complaining! It was +understood that you were to have a free hand--but--but I've missed you! +Never mind; this crowd will have gone presently, and then--ah, then +we'll have a jolly time to ourselves! Things are going well," he added, +with a significant smile, as he glanced at Wirsch and Griffenberg, who, +well-fed and comfortable, were in front of them. + +"I'm glad, sir," said Stafford. + +Sir Stephen smiled, but checked a sigh and a shrug of the shoulders. + +"Yes, my little schemes are flourishing; but"--he looked at the +financiers again--"they are rather a hard team to drive!" + +As Stafford entered the drawing-room, he heard Lady Clansford enquiring +for Miss Falconer. + +"We want her to sing, Mr. Orme, and I cannot find her." + +"I think she is on the terrace," said Bertie, who always seemed to know +where everybody was. + +Stafford went out by one of the windows, and saw Maude Falconer pacing +up and down at the end of the terrace. She was superbly dressed, and as +he looked at her, he involuntarily admired the grace of her movements. +Mr. Falconer was walking with bent head and hands behind his back; but +now and again he looked at her sideways with his sharp eyes. Stafford +did not like to interrupt them, and withdrew to the other end of the +terrace, with a cigarette, to wait till they joined him. + +"Young Orme has come out to look for you," said Mr. Falconer, without +turning his head. + +"I know," she said, though she also had not turned. "They want me to +sing. I will go in directly. You have not answered my question, father. +Is Sir Stephen very rich, or is all this only sham? I have heard you +say so often that display very often only covers poverty." + +Falconer eyed her curiously. + +"Why do you want to know? What does it matter to you?" + +She shrugged her shoulders impatiently, resentfully, and he went on: + +"Yes, he's rich; confoundedly so. But he is playing a big game, in +which he is running some risks; and he'll want all his money to help +him win it." + +"And are you joining him in the game?" she asked. + +He looked at her with surprise. There was a note in her voice which he +had never heard before, a note which conveyed to him the fact that she +was no longer a girl, but a woman. + +"Upon my soul, I don't know why you ask! Well, well!"--she had +repeated the impatient gesture. "I haven't made up my mind yet. He +wants me to join him. I could be of service to him; on the other hand, +I could--yes, get in his way; for I know some of the points of the game +he is playing. Yes, I could help him--or spoil him." + +"And which are you going to do?" she asked, in a low voice, her eyes +veiled, her lips drawn straight. + +Falconer laughed grimly. "I don't know. It all depends. Which would you +do?" he asked, half sarcastically. + +She was silent for a moment, then she said: "You knew Sir Stephen some +time ago--years ago, father?" + +Falconer nodded. "I did," he said, shortly. + +"And you were friends, and you quarrelled?" + +He looked at her with an air of surprise. + +"I saw you both when you stood opposite each other after the carriage +accident," she said, coolly. "I am not blind, and I am not particularly +stupid. It didn't strike me at the time that there had been anything +wrong between you, but I have since seen you look at Sir Stephen, +and--you have an expressive face sometimes, oh, my father!" + +He grinned grimly. + +"You appear to keep your eyes open, Maude. Yes; there was a row between +us, and there was a grudge--" + +--"Which you mean to pay off?" she said, as impassively as if they +were speaking of the merest trivialities. + +"Which I could pay off--gratify, if I liked," he admitted. + +"How?" she asked. + +He did not reply, but glanced at her sideways and bit at the cigar +which he had stopped to light. + +"Shall I tell you, if I were a man and I wanted revenge upon such a man +as Sir Stephen Orme, what I should do, father?" she asked, in a low +voice, and looking straight before her as if she were meditating. + +"You can if you like. What would you do?" he replied, with a touch of +sarcastic amusement. + +She looked round her and over her shoulder. The windows near them were +closed, Stafford with his cigarette was too far off to overhear them. + +"If I were a man, rich and powerful as you are, and I owed another a +grudge, I would not rest night or day until I had got him into my +power. Whether I meant to exact my revenge or not, I would wait and +work, and scheme and plot until I had him at my mercy so that I could +say, 'See now you got the better of me once, you played me false once, +but it is my turn now.' He should sue for mercy, and I would grant +it--or refuse it--as it pleased me; but he should feel that he was in +my power; that my hand was finer than his, my strength greater!" He +shot a glance at her, and his great rugged face grew lined and stern. + +"Where did you get those ideas? Why do you talk to me like this?" he +muttered, with surprise and some suspicion. + +"I am not a child," she said, languidly. "And I have been living with +you for some time now. Sir Stephen Orme is a great man, is surrounded +by great and famous people, while you, with all your money, are"--she +shrugged her shoulders--"well, just nobody." + +His face grew dark. She was playing on him as a musician plays on an +instrument with which he is completely familiar. + +"What the devil do you mean?" he muttered. + +"If I were a man, in your place, I would have the great Sir Stephen at +my feet, to make or to break as I pleased. I would never rest until I +could be able to say: 'You're a great man in the world's eyes, but I am +your master; you are my puppet, and you have to dance to my music, +whether the tune be a dead march or a jig.' That is what I should do if +I were a man; but I am only a girl, and it seems to me nowadays that +men have more of the woman in them than we have." + +He stopped and stared at her in the moonlight, a dark frown on his +face, his eyes heavy with doubt and suspicion. + +"Look here, my girl," he said, "you are showing up in a new light +to-night. You are talking as your mother used to talk. And you aren't +doing it without a purpose. What is it? What grudge can you, a mere +girl who has only known him for a couple of days, have against Sir +Stephen?" + +She smiled. + +"Let us say that I am only concerned for my father's wounded pride and +honour," she said. "Or let us say that I _have_ a game of my own to +play, and that I am asking you to help me while you gratify your own +desire for revenge. Will you help me?" + +"Tell me--tell me what your game is. Good Lord!"--with a scowl. "Fancy +you having a game: it's--it's ridiculous!" + +"Almost as ridiculous as calling me a girl and expecting to see me +playing with a doll or a hoop," she returned, calmly. "But you needn't +reply. I can see you mean to do it, like a good and indulgent father; +and some day, perhaps soon, I will, like a good and dutiful daughter, +tell you why I wanted you to do it. Is that you, Mr. Orme? Will I come +and sing? Oh, yes, if you wish it. Where is the little dog?" she asked, +looking up at him with a new expression in her languorous eyes, as she +glided beside him. + +"Asleep on my bed," replied Stafford, with a laugh. "My man has turned +him off and made him a luxurious couch with cushions three or four +times, but he would persist on getting on again, so he'll have to stay, +I suppose?" + +"Are you always so good-natured?" she asked, in a low voice. "Or do you +reserve all your tenderness of heart for dogs and horses--as Mr. Howard +declares?" + +"Mr. Howard is too often an ass," remarked Stafford, with a smile. + +"You shall choose your song, as a reward for your exertions this +afternoon," she said, as he led her to the piano. + +Most of the men in the crowd waiting eagerly for the exquisite voice +would have been moved to the heart's core by her tone and the +expression in her usually cold eyes, but Stafford was clothed in the +armour of his great love, and only inclined his head. + +"Thanks: anything you like," he said, with the proper amount of +gratitude. + +She shot a glance at him and sank into the music-seat languidly. But a +moment afterwards, as if she could not help herself, she was singing a +Tuscan love-song with a subdued passion which thrilled even the _blasé_ +audience clustered round her. It thrilled Stafford; but only with the +desire to be near Ida. A desire that became irresistible; and when she +had finished he left the room, caught up his hat and overcoat and went +out of the house. + +As he did so, Mr. Falconer walked past him into the smoking-room. Mr. +Griffenberg was alone there, seated in a big arm-chair with a cigar as +black as a hat and as long as a penholder. + +Falconer wheeled a chair up to him, and, in his blunt fashion, said: + +"You are in this railway scheme of Orme's, Griffenberg?" Mr. +Griffenberg nodded. + +"And you?" + +"Yes," said Falconer, succinctly. "I am joining. I suppose it's all +right; Orme will be able to carry it through?" + +Griffenberg emitted a thick cloud of smoke. + +"It will try him a bit. It's a question of capital--ready capital. I'm +helping him: got his Oriental shares as cover. A bit awkward for me, +for I'm rather pushed just now--that estate loan, you know." + +Falconer nodded. "I know. See here: I'll take those shares from you, if +you like, and if you'll say nothing about it." + +Mr. Griffenberg eyed his companion's rugged face keenly. + +"What for?" he asked. + +Mr. Falconer smiled. + +"That's my business," he said. "The only thing that matters to you is, +that by taking the shares off your hands I shall be doing you a +service." + +"That's true: you shall have 'em," said Mr. Griffenberg; "but I warn +you it's a heavy lot." + +"You shall have a cheque to-morrow," said Mr. Falconer. "Where did you +get that cigar: it takes my fancy?" + +Mr. Griffenberg produced his cigar case with alacrity: he liked Mr. +Falconer's way of doing business. + +At the moment Stafford left the Villa, Ida was standing by the window +in the drawing-room of Heron Hall. On the table beside her lay a book +which she had thrown down with a gesture of impatience. She was too +restless to read, or to work; and the intense quietude of the great +house weighed upon her with the weight of a tomb. + +All day, since she had left Stafford, his words of passionate love had +haunted her. They sang in her ears even as she spoke to her father or +Jessie, or the dogs who followed her about with wistful eyes as if they +were asking her what ailed her, and as if they would help her. + +He loved her! She had said it to herself a thousand times all through +the long afternoon, the dragging evening. He loved her. It was so +strange, so incredible. They had only met three or four times; they had +said so little to each other. Why, she could remember almost every +word. He loved her, had knelt to her, he had told her so in passionate +words, with looks which made her heart tremble, her breath come fast as +she recalled them. That is, he wanted her to be his wife, to _give +herself_ to him, to be with him always, never to leave him. + +The strangeness, the suddenness of the thing overwhelmed her so that +she could not think of it calmly. He had asked her to think of it, to +decide, to give him an answer. Why could she not? She had always, +hitherto, known her own mind. If anyone had asked her a question about +the estate, about the farm, she had known what to answer, important as +the question might have been. But now she seemed as if her mind were +paralyzed, as if she could not decide. Was it because she had never +thought of love; because she had never dreamt that anyone would love +her so much as to want to have her by his side for all his life? + +As she looked through the window at the moonlight on the lawn, she +thought of him; called up the vision of his tall, graceful figure and +handsome face--yes; he was handsome, she knew. But she had scarcely +given a thought to his face; and only felt that it was good to have him +near her, to hear him talk in his deep voice, broken sometimes by the +short laugh which sounded almost boyish. It had been good to have him +near her--But then, she had been so lonely, had seen so few +men--scarcely any at all--Suppose when she met him next she said "No," +told him that she could not love him, and he went away, leaving her +forever; would she be sorry? + +She turned away from the window suddenly, nearly stumbling over Donald, +who was lying at her feet, his nose on his paws, his great eyes fixed +sadly and speculatively on her face, and caught up the book. But _his_ +face came between her and the page, and she put the book down and went +into the hall. + +Her father was in the library, there was no sound in the house to drown +the voice, the passionately pleading voice which rang in her ears. + +"I must go out," she said, "I shall be able to think in the air, shall +be able to decide." + +She caught up a shawl and flung it carelessly over her head, quite +unconscious that the fleecy, rose-coloured wool made an exquisite frame +for the girlish loveliness of her face, and opening the door, went +slowly down the broken, lichen-covered steps, the two dogs following at +her heels. + +She drew in the keen but balmy air with a long breath, and looked up at +the moon, now a yellow crescent in the starry sky; and something in the +beauty of the night, something subtly novel thrilled her with a strange +sense of throbbing, pulsing joy and happiness, underneath which lurked +as subtle a fear and dread, the fear and dread of those who stand upon +the threshold of the unknown; who, in passing that threshold, enter a +world of strange things which they never more may leave. + + +Love: what was it? Did she feel it? Oh, if she could only tell! What +should she say to him when she met him; and when should she meet him? +Perhaps he had come to regret his avowal to her, had been wearied and +disappointed by her coldness, and would not come again! At the thought +her heart contracted as if at the touch of an icy hand. But the next +moment it leapt with a suffocating sense of mystery, of half-fearful +joy, for she saw him coming across the lawn to her, and heard her name, +spoken as it had never yet been spoken excepting by him; and she stood, +still as a statue, as he held out his hand and, looking into her eyes, +murmured her name again. + +"Ida!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +"Ida!" + +It was the lover's cry of appeal, the prayer for love uttered by the +heart that loves; and it went straight to her own heart. + +She put out her hand, and he took it and held it in both his. + +"I have come for your answer," he said in the low voice that thrills; +the voice which says so much more than the mere words. "I could not +wait--I tried to keep away from you until to-morrow; but it was of no +use. I am here, you see, and I want your answer. Don't tell me it is +'No!' Trust me, Ida--trust to my love for you. I will devote my life to +trying to make you happy. Ah, but you know! What is your answer? Have +you thought--you promised me you would think?" + +"I have thought," she said, at last. "I have thought of nothing else--I +wanted to tell you the truth--to tell you truly as I would to +myself--but it is so hard to know--Sometimes when I think that you may +go away, and that I may not see you again, my heart sinks, and I feel, +oh! so wretched." + +He waited for no more, but caught her to him, and as she lay in his +arms only slightly struggling, her face upturned, he bent his own, +almost white with passion, and kissed her on the lips, and not once +only. + +The blood rushed to her face, her bosom rose and fell, and, her face +grown pale again, her eyes gazed up into his half fiercely, half +appealingly; then suddenly they grew moist, as if with tears, her lips +quivered, and from them came, as if involuntarily, the words of +surrender, the maiden confession: + +"I love you!" + +He uttered a low, sharp cry, the expression of his heart's delight, his +soul's triumph. + +"You love me! Ida! How--how do you know--when?" She shook her head and +sighed, as she pressed her cheek against his breast. + +"I don't know. It was just now--the moment when you kissed me. Then it +came to me suddenly--the knowledge--the truth. It was as if a flash of +light had revealed it to me. Oh, yes, I love you. I wish--almost I wish +that I did not, for--it hurts me!" + +She pressed her hand to her heart, and gazed up at him with the wonder +of a child who is meeting its first experience of the strange +commingling of pain and joy. + +He raised her in his arms until her face was against his. + +"I know--dearest," he said, almost in a whisper. "It is love--it is +always so, I think. My heart is aching with longing for you, and yet I +am happy--my God, how happy! And you? Tell me, Ida?" + +"Yes, I am happy," she breathed, with a deep sigh, as she nestled still +closer to him. "It is all so strange--so unreal!" + +"Not unreal, dearest," he said, as they walked under the trees, her +head against his shoulder, his arm round her waist and supporting her. +"It is real enough, this love of mine--which will last me till my +death, I know; and yours?" + +She gazed straight before her dreamily. + +"There can be no heaven without you, without your love," she answered, +with a solemn note in her sweet voice. + +He pressed her to him. + +"And you have thought it all out. You have realised that you will be my +wife--my very own?" + +"Yes," she said. "I know now. I know that I am giving you myself, that +I am placing all my life in your hands." + +"God help me to guard it and make it happy!" he said; then he laughed. +"I have no fear! I will make you happy, Ida! I--I feel that I shall. Do +you understand what I mean? I feel as if I had been set apart, chosen +from all the millions of men, to love you and cherish you and make you +happy! And you, Ida?" + +She looked up at him with the same far-away, dreamy expression in her +wonderful eyes. + +"Now at this moment I felt that I, too, have been set apart for you: is +it because you have just said the same? No, because I felt it when you +kissed me just now. Ah, I am glad you did it! If you had not I might +not have known that I loved you, I might have let you go forever, +thinking that I did not care. It was your kiss that opened my heart to +me and showed me--." + +He bent over her until his lips nearly touched hers. "Kiss me in +return--of your own accord, Ida! But once, if you will; but kiss me!" + +Without a blush, solemnly as if it were a sacrament, she raised her +head and kissed him on the lips. + +There fell a silence. The world around them, in the soft shimmer of the +crescent moon, became an enchanted region, the land that never was on +earth or sea, the land of love, in which all that dwell therein move in +the glamour of the sacred Fire of Love. + +Stafford broke it at last. It is the man who cannot be contented with +silence; he thirsts for his mistress's voice. + +"Dearest, what shall I do? You must tell me," he said, as if he had +been thinking. "I will do whatever you wish, whatever you think best. +I've a strong suspicion that you're the cleverest of us; that you've +got more brains in this sweet little finger of yours than I've got in +my clumsy head--" + +She laughed softly and looked at the head which he had libelled, the +shapely head with its close-cut hair, which, sliding her hand up, she +touched caressingly. + +"Shall I come to your father to-morrow, Ida? I will ride over after +breakfast--before, if you like: if I had my way I'd patrol up and down +here all night until it was a decent time to call upon him." + +She nestled a little closer to him, and her brows came level with +sudden gravity and doubt. + +"My father! I had not thought of him--of what he would say--do. But I +know! He--he will be very angry," she said, in a low voice. + +"Will he? Why?" Stafford asked. "Of course I know I'm not worthy of +you, Ida; no living man is!" + +"Not worthy!" + +She smiled at him with the woman's worship already dawning in her deep +grey eyes. + +"It is I who am not worthy. Why, think! I am only an inexperienced +girl--living the life of a farmer's daughter. We are very poor--oh, you +do not know how poor! We are almost as poor as the smallest tenant, +though we live in this big house, and are still regarded as great +people--the Herons of Herondale." + +"That's one of the things I have been thinking of," said Stafford. +"What lovely hair you have, Ida! It is not often that dark hair is so +soft, is it?" + +He bent down and drew a look, which his caresses had released, across +her lips, and kissed her through it. + +"You are lords of the soil, people of importance and rank here, while +we are--well, just ordinary folk. I can quite understand your father +objecting. Dearest, you are worthy of a duke, a prince--" + +She put her hand up to his lips to silence the lover's extravagant +flattery. + +"It is not that--the difference--which is all to your advantage," she +said. "My father may think of it," she went on with innocent candour. +"But it would be the same if you were of the highest rank. He does not +want me to leave him." + +"And if he were less anxious to keep you he would not give you to me, +who am, in his opinion, and rightly, so much your inferior," said +Stafford. "But I ought to go to him, dearest. I ought to go to-morrow." + +She trembled a little as she nestled against him. "And--and--your +father, Sir Stephen Orme?" she said. "What will he say?" + +Stafford laughed slowly and confidently. + +"Oh, my father? He will be delighted. He's the best of fathers, a +perfect model for parents. Ever since I can remember he has been good +to me, a precious sight better, more liberal and generous, than I +deserved; but lately, since I've known him--Ah, well, I can only say, +dearest, that he will be delighted to hear that I have chosen a wife; +and when he sees you--" + +He stopped and held her at arm's length for a moment and looked down +into the lovely face upturned to his with its sweet, girlish gravity. + +--"Why, he will fall in love with you right out of hand! I think you +will like my father, Ida. He--well, he's a taking sort of fellow; +everybody likes him who knows him--really knows him--and speaks well of +him. Yes, I'm proud of him, and I feel as safe as if he were here to +say, in his hearty, earnest way: 'I wish you good luck, Stafford! And +may God bless you, my dear!'" + +He flushed and laughed as if a little ashamed of his emotional way of +putting it. + +"He's full of--of the milk of human kindness, is my father," he said, +with a touch of simplicity which was one of the thousand and fifteen +reasons why Ida loved him. + +She gazed up at him thoughtfully and sighed. + +"I hope he will like me," she said, all the pride which usually +characterized her melted by her love. "I am sure that I shall like +him--for loving you." + +"You will see," said Stafford, confidently. "He will be as proud as a +duke about you. You won't mind if he shows it a little plainly and +makes a little fuss, Ida? He's--well, he's used to making the most of a +good thing when he has it--it's the life he has led which has rather +got him into the way of blowing a trumpet, you know--and he'll want a +whole orchestra to announce you. But about your father, dearest? Shall +I come to-morrow and ask for his consent?" + +She looked up at him with doubt and a faint trouble in her beautiful +eyes, and he heard her sigh regretfully. + +"I am afraid," she said, in a low voice. + +"Afraid?" He looked at her with a smile of surprise. "If anyone were to +tell me that it was possible for you to be afraid, I shouldn't believe +them," he said. "Fear and you haven't made acquaintance yet, Ida!" + +She shook her head. + +"I am so happy, so intensely happy, that I am afraid lest the gods +should be jealous and snatch my happiness from me. I am afraid that if +you come to-morrow, my father will say 'No,' will--" + +--"Will have me shown out," said Stafford, gravely. "I see. I shouldn't +be surprised." + +"And--and then I should not be able to see you again." + +He laughed at the idea. + +"My dearest, if all the fathers in the world said 'No,' it wouldn't +make any difference to me," he said, with that air of masterfulness, +that flash of the eye which a woman loves in a man. "Do you think I +should give you up, that I should be content to say, 'I'm very sorry, +sir,' and go off--leave you--keep away from you!" He laughed again, +and she nestled a little closer, and her small hand closed a little more +tightly on his arm. "And you wouldn't give me up, refuse to see me, +even if your father withheld his consent, would you, Ida?" he asked. + +She looked straight before her dreamily. Then raised her eyes to his +gravely. + +"No; I could not. It is just that. I could not. Somehow I feel as if I +had given you the right to myself and that nothing could alter it, +nothing could take me away from you!" + +How was it possible for him to refrain from lifting her in his arms and +kissing the sweet, soft lips which made such a confession. + +They walked on for a minute or two in silence, when she went on, as if +she had been still considering the matter: + +"No, you must not come, Stafford. My father is not strong, +and--and--ah! well, you know, you saw him that other night--the first +night we met--do you remember? And he was walking in his sleep again +the other evening. If you were to come--if I were to tell him +that--that you had asked me to be your wife, he might fly into a +passion; it might do him harm. Some time ago, when he was ill, the +doctor told me that he must be kept quite quiet, and that nothing must +be allowed to excite or irritate him. He is very old and leads so +secluded a life--he sees no one now but myself. Oh, how I would like +you to come; how good it would be if--if he would give me to you as +other fathers give their daughters! But I dare not risk it! I cannot! +Stafford"--she put her hands on his breast and looked up at him--"am I +wrong to tell you all this--to let you see how much I love you? Is +it--unmaidenly of me? Tell me if it is, and I will not do so for the +future. I will hide my heart a little better than I am doing at +present. Ah, see, it is on my sleeve!" + +He took her arm and kissed the sleeve where her heart was supposed to +be. + +"I've read that men only love while they are not sure of a woman's +love; that with every two persons it is one who loves and the other who +permits himself or herself to be loved. Is that true, Stafford? If so, +then it is I who love--alas! poor me!" + +He drew her to him and looked into her eyes with a passionate +intensity. + +"It's not true," he said, almost fiercely. "For God's sake don't say +such things. They--they hurt, and hurt badly; they leave a bitter taste +in the mouth, a nasty pang behind. And if it were true--but it isn't, +Ida!--it is I who love. Good Lord! don't you know how beautiful you +are? Haven't you a looking-glass in your room? don't you know that no +girl that ever was born had such wonderful eyes, such beautiful hair? +Oh, my heart's love, don't you know how perfect you are?" + +They had stopped under some trees near the ruined chapel, and she leant +against one of them and looked up at him with a strange, dreamy, +far-away look in her eyes which were dark as the purple amethyst. + +"I never thought about it. Am I--do you think I am pretty? I am glad; +yes I am glad!" + +"Pretty!" he laughed. "Dearest, when I take you away from here, into +the world, as my wife--my wife--the thought sends my blood coursing +through my veins--you will create so great a sensation that I shall be +half wild with pride; I shall want to go about calling aloud: 'She is +my wife; my very own! You may admire--worship her, but she is +mine--belongs to me--to unworthy Stafford Orme!'" + +"Yes?" she murmured, her voice thrilling. "You will be proud of me? Of +me, the poor little country girl who rode about the dales in a shabby +habit and an old hat? Stafford, Jessie was telling me that there is a +very beautiful girl staying at the Villa at Brae Wood--one of the +visitors. Jessie said she was lovely, and that all the men-servants, +and the maids, too, were talking about her. She must be more beautiful +than I am." + +"Which of the women do you mean?" he said, indifferently, with the +supreme indifference which the man who is madly in love feels for every +other woman than the one of his heart. + +"She is a fair girl, with blue eyes and the most wonderful hair; +'chestnut-red with gold in it,' as Jessie described it to me. And she +says that this girl wears the most beautiful diamonds--I am still +quoting Jessie--and other precious stones, and that she is very 'high +and mighty,' and more haughty than any of the other ladies. Who is it?" + +"I think she must mean Miss Falconer--Miss Maude Falconer," said +Stafford, as indifferently as before, as he smoothed one of the silken +tresses on her brow, and kissed it as it lay on his finger. "It is just +the way a slave would describe her." + +"And is she very beautiful?" asked Ida. + +"Yes, I suppose she is," he said. + +"You suppose!" she echoed, arching her brows, but with a frank smile +about her lips, the smile of contentment at his indifference. "Don't +you know?" + +"Well, yes, she is," he admitted. "I've scarcely noticed her. Oh, but +yes, she is; and she sings very well. Yes, I can understand her making +a sensation in the servants' hall--she makes one in the drawing-room. +But she's not my style of beauty. See here, dearest: it doesn't sound +nice, but though I've spent some hours with Miss Falconer and listened +to her singing, I have only just noticed that she is good-looking, and +that she has a wonderful voice: they say up at the Villa that there's +nothing like it on the stage--excepting Patti's and Melba's; but all +the time she has been there I have had another face, another voice, in +my mind. Ever since I saw you, down there by the river, I have had no +eyes for any other woman's face, however beautiful, no ears for any +other woman's voice, however sweet." She was silent a moment, as she +clasped her hands and laid them against his cheek. + +"How strange it sounds! But if you had chanced to see her +first--perhaps you would not have fallen in love with me? How could you +have done so? She is so very lovely--I can see she is, by Jessie's +description." + +He laughed. + +"Even if I had not seen you, there was no chance of my falling in love +with Miss Falconer, dearest," he said, smiling at her gravity and +earnestness. "She is very beautiful, lovely in her way, if you like; +but it is not my way. She is like a statue at most times; at others, +just now and again, like a--well, a sleek tigress in her movements and +the way she turns her head. Oh, there wasn't the least danger of my +falling in love with her, even if I hadn't seen the sweetest and +loveliest girl in all the wide world." + +"And you will feel like that, feel so sure, so certain that you love +me, even though you have seen and will see so many women who are far +more beautiful than I am?" she said, dreamily. + +"Sure and certain," he responded, with a long sigh. "If I were as sure +of your love as I am of mine for you--Forgive me, dearest!" for she had +raised her eyes to his with an earnestness that was almost solemn. + +"You may be sure," she said, slowly. "I shall love you as long as I +live. I know it! I do not know why. I only--feel it. Perhaps we may be +parted--" + +He laughed--but his hand closed on hers, and gripped them tightly. + +--"But I shall always love you. Something has gone out of me--is it my +heart?--and I can never take it back from you. Perhaps you may grow +tired of me--it may be. I have read and heard of such things happening +to women--you may see someone more beautiful than Miss Falconer, +someone who will lead you to forget the little girl who rode through +the rain in Herondale. If so, there will be no need to tell me; no need +to make excuses, or ask for forgiveness. There would be no need to tell +me, for something here"--she drew her hand from his and touched her +bosom--"would tell me. You would only have to keep away from me--that +is all. And I--ah well I should be silent, quite silent." + +"Dearest!" he murmured, reproachfully, and with something like awe, for +her brows were knit, her face was pale as ivory, and her eyes glowed. +"Why do you say this now, just as--as we have confessed our love for +each other? Do you think I shall be faithless? I could almost laugh! As +if any man you deigned to love could ever forget you, ever care a straw +for any other woman!" + +She turned to him with a shudder, a little cry that was tragic in its +intensity, turned to him and clenched her small hands on his breast. + +"Swear to me!" she panted; then, as if ashamed of the passion that +racked her, her eyes dropped and the swift red flooded her face. "No! +you shall not swear to me, Stafford. I--I will believe you love me as I +shall love you forever and forever! But if--if the time should come +when some other girl shall win you from me, promise me that you will +not tell me, that you will just keep away from me! I could bear it +if--if I did not see you; but if I saw you--Oh!"--something like a moan +escaped her quivering lips, and she flung herself upon his breast with +the _abandon_, the unself-consciousness of a child. + +Stafford was moved to his inmost heart, and for a moment, as he held +her within the embrace of his strong arms, he could not command his +voice sufficiently for speech. At last he murmured, his lips seeking +hers: + +"Ida! I swear that I will love you forever and forever!" + +"But--but--if you break your vow, you promise that you will not come to +me--tell me? I shall know. Promise, ah, promise!" + +"Will nothing less content you? Must I?" he said, almost desperate at +her persistence. "Then I promise, Ida!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + +There is something solemn and awe-inspiring in perfect happiness. + +How many times in the day did Ida pull up Rupert and gaze into the +distance with vacant, unseeing eyes, pause in the middle of some common +task, look up from the book she was trying to read, to ask herself +whether she was indeed the same girl who had lived her lonely life at +Herondale, or whether she had changed places with some other +personality, with some girl singularly blessed amongst women. + +Jessie and Jason, even the bovine William, who was reputed the +stupidest man in the dale, noticed the change in her, noticed the touch +of colour that was so quick to mount to the ivory cheek, the novel +brightness and tenderness in the deep grey eyes, the new note, the low, +sweet tone of happiness in the clear voice. Her father only remained +unobservant of the subtle change, but he was like a mole burrowing +amongst his book and gloating secretly over the box which he concealed +at the approach of footsteps, the opening of a door, and the sound of a +voice in a distant part of the house. + +But though the servants remarked the change in their beloved mistress, +they did not guess at its cause; for, by chance rather than design, +none of them had seen Ida and Stafford together. And yet they met +daily. Sometimes Stafford would ride over from Brae Wood and meet her +by the river. There was a hollow there, so deep that it hid not only +themselves but the horses, and here they would sit, hand in hand, or +more often with his arm round her and her small, shapely head with its +soft, but roughened hair, upon his breast. Sometimes he would row +across the lake and they would walk side by side along the bank, and +screened by the trees in which the linnet and the thrush sang the songs +which make a lover's litany; at others--and these were the sweetest +meeting of all, for they came in the soft and stilly night when all +nature was hushed as if under the spell of the one great passion--he +would ride or walk over after dinner, and they would sit in the ruined +archway of the old chapel and talk of their blank past, the magic +present, and the future which was to hold nothing but happiness. + +Love grows fast under such conditions, and the love of these two +mortals grew to gigantic proportions, absorbing the lives of both of +them. To Stafford, all the hours that were not spent with this girl of +his heart were so much dreary waste. + +To Ida--ah, well, who shall measure the intensity of a girl's first +passion? She only lived in the expectation of seeing him, in his +presence and the whispered words and caresses of his love; and, in his +absence, in the memory of them. For her life meant just this man who +had come and taken the heart from her bosom and enthroned his own in +its place. + +They told each other everything. Stafford knew the whole of her life +before they met, all the little details of the daily routine of the +Hall, and her management of the farm; and she learnt from him all that +was going on at the great, splendid palace which in his modesty Sir +Stephen Orme had called the Villa. She liked to nestle against him and +hear the small details of his life, as he liked to hear hers; and she +seemed to know all the visitors at the Villa, and their peculiarities, +as well as if she were personally acquainted with them. + +"You ought not to leave them so much, Stafford." she said, with mock +reproof, as they sat one afternoon in the ballow by the river. "Don't +you think they notice your absence and wonder where you are?" + +"Shouldn't think so," he replied. "Besides, I don't care if they do. +All my worry is that I can't come to you oftener. Every time I leave +you I count up the hours that must pass before I see you again. But I +expect most, if not all, of the visitors will be off presently. Most of +'em have been there the regulation fortnight; a good many come +backwards and forwards; they're the city men, the money men. My father +is closeted with them for hours every day--that big scheme of his seems +to be coming off satisfactorily. It's a railway to some place in +Africa, and all these fellows--the Griffenbergs, and Beltons, that fat +German baron, Wirsch, and the rest of them, are in it. Heaven knows why +my father wants to worry about it for. I heard one of them say that he +calculated to make a million and a half out of it. As if he weren't +rich enough!" + +"A million and a half," she said. "What a large sum it seems. What one +could do with a half, a quarter, a tenth of it!" + +"What would you do, dearest?" he asked. + +She laughed softly. + +"I think that I would first buy you a present. And then I'd have the +Hall repainted. No, I'd get the terrace rails and the portico mended; +and yet, perhaps, it would be better to have the inside of the house +painted and papered. You see, there are so many things I could do with +it, that it's difficult to choose." + +"You shall do 'em all," he said, putting his arm round her. "See here, +Ida, I've been thinking about ourselves--" + +"Do you ever think of anything else? I don't," she said, half +unconsciously. + +--"And I've made up my mind to take the bull by the horns--" + +"Is that meant for my father or yours?" + +"Both," he replied. "We've been so happy this last fortnight--is it a +fortnight ago since I got you to tell me that you cared for me? Lord! +it seems a year sometimes, and at others it only seems a minute!--that +we haven't cared to think of how we stand; but it can't like this +forever, Ida. You see, I want you--I want you all to myself, for every +hour of the day and night instead of for just the few minutes I've the +good luck to snatch. Directly this affair of my governor's is finished +I shall go to him and tell him I'm the happiest, the luckiest man in +the world; I shall tell him everything exactly how we stand--and ask +him to help us with your father." + +Ida sighed and looked grave. + +"I know, dearest," he said, answering the look. "But your father has to +be faced some time, and I--Ida, I am impatient. I want you. Now, as I +daresay you have discovered, I am rather an idiot than otherwise, and +the worst man in the world to carry out anything diplomatically; but my +father--" He laughed rather ruefully. "Well, they say he can coax a +concession out of even the Sultan of Turkey; that there is no one who +can resist him; and I know I shall be doing the right thing by telling +him how we stand." + +She leant her elbows on her knees and her chin in the palms of her +hands. + +"It shall be as you say, my lord and master," she said; "and when you +tell him that you have been so foolish as to fall in love with a little +Miss Nobody, who lives in a ruined tumble-down house, and is as poor +and friendless as a church mouse, do you think he will be +delighted--that the great and all-powerful Sir Stephen Orme will throw +up his hat for joy and consider that you have been very wise?" + +"I think when he sees you--What is that?" he broke off. + +"That" was a lady riding across the moor behind them. She was mounted +on one of the Orme horses, was habited by Redfern, who had done justice +to her superb and supple figure, and the sunlight which poured from +between the clouds fully revealed the statuesque beauty of her face. + +"I know," said Ida, quietly, as she looked at the graceful horsewoman, +at the lithe, full figure, the cold perfection of the Grecian face. +"That is Miss Falconer: it is, is it not?" + +He nodded indifferently. + +"And she has seen us," said Ida. + +"It doesn't matter in the least," said Stafford. "Why shouldn't she? +But I don't think she has; she did not turn her head as she rode by." + +"That is why," said Ida, with her woman's acuteness. "She saw us from +the top of the hill--see, the groom is just riding down." + +She was silent a moment or two, watching Maude Falconer as she cantered +away, then she shivered as if with cold. + +"What is the matter, dearest?" he asked, drawing her to him. "Why did +you shudder?" + +She tried to laugh, but her eyes were grave and almost solemn. "I don't +know. It was as if someone had walked over my grave; as if I felt the +presentiment of some coming evil. I never felt like it before--Yes: she +is very beautiful, Stafford. She is like a picture, a statue--no, that +is not fair; for no picture had ever such magnificent hair, no statue +was ever so full of life and--Oh, I want a word--power. Yes; she is +like a tigress--a tigress asleep and in a good temper just for the +present; but--" + +Stafford laughed, the strong and healthy man's laugh of good-natured +tolerance for the fancies of the woman he loves. + +"My dear Ida, I assure you Miss Falconer is quite an ordinary young +woman with nothing mysterious or uncanny about her. And if she has seen +us, I am rather glad. I--well, I want to take you by the hand and +exclaim aloud to the whole world: 'Behold the treasure I have found! +Look upon her--but shade your eyes lest her beauty dazzle you--and +worship at her feet.' Only a day or two more and I'll tell my father +and have him on our side." + +She made a gesture of consent. + +"It shall be as you will," she murmured again. "But go now, dearest; I +shall have to ride fast to reach home in time to give my father his +tea." + +Maude Falconer cantered easily until she had turned the corner of the +hill and was out of sight of Stafford and Ida, then she pulled up the +high-bred horse who fretted under her steel-like hands and tossed the +foam from his champing lips, pulled up and looked straight before her, +while the colour came and went on her smooth cheek; a sombre fire +gleamed in the usually coldly calm eyes, and her bosom heaved under the +perfect moulding of the riding-habit. She sat and looked before her for +a moment or two as if she were battling with an emotion which +threatened to master her and to find expression in some violent +outburst; but she conquered, and presently rode on to the Villa; and +half an hour later Stafford, coming up the steps, found her lying back +in her favourite chair with a cup of tea in her hand. + +"You are just in time," she said, looking up at him, and he looked back +at her rather vacantly; for Ida had been in his arms too recently, for +his mind, his whole being, to be sufficiently clear of her to permit +him to take any interest in anything else "for tea," she said. "Here it +comes. Shall I pour it out for you? Have you been riding far?" + +"Not very far," he said. "You have been riding, too. Is it a wonder we +did not meet." + +"Yes," she assented, languidly. "I met no one, saw no one, while I was +out. Here comes your shadow," she added, as Tiny, having heard his +beloved master's voice, came helter-skelter, head over heels, and leapt +on Stafford's lap. "How fond he is of you." + +Stafford nodded. + +"Yes; I'm jolly glad no one answered the advertisement for its owner." + +She bent over and stroked the terrier, who always seemed uneasy under +her caress, and her hand touched Stafford's. She glanced at him as it +did so, but the white hand so soft and warm might have been a piece of +senseless wood for all its effect upon him whose soul was still +thrilling with Ida Heron's touch; and with a tightening of the lips, +she took her hand away and leant back, but her eyes still clung to him, +as, all unconscious, he bent over the dog. + +At that moment a carriage drove up, and Mr. Falconer alighted. He came +up the steps, his heavy face grave and yet alert; and his keen eyes +glanced at the pair as they sat side by side. Stafford looked up and +nodded. + +"Glad to see you back, Mr. Falconer," he said, pleasantly. "Stands +London where it did?" + +"Pretty much so, yes," responded Mr. Falconer, grimly. "Yes, plenty of +other thing change, have their day and cease to be, but the little +village keeps its end up and sees things--and men--come and go, flare +up, flicker and fizzle out. No, thanks; I'll have some tea in my room." + +"And like a dutiful daughter, I will go and pour it out for him," said +Maude. + +She rose--Tiny rose also, and barked at her--followed her father to his +room and stood watching him as he took off his frock-coat--he had no +valet--and slowly put on a loose jacket. + + +"Well?" she said, at last. + +He sank into a chair and looked up at her with a sardonic smile on his +face. + +"Yes, I'm back," he said. "I hurried back because Sir Stephen is going +to sign the articles to-night, going to bring the thing to a +conclusion." + +She nodded, her eyes fixed on his hawk-like ones with a calm but keen +watchfulness. + +"And you? Have you--" + +He leant forward, and held out one claw-like hand, open. + +"Yes, I've got him fast and tight." His hand closed, and his eyes shot +a swift, lurid gleam from under their half-lowered lids. "I've got him +as in a vice; I've only to turn the screw and--I squeeze him as flat +and dry as a lemon." She drew a long breath of satisfaction, of relief. + +"You are clever!" she said. "And in one fortnight." + +He smiled grimly. + +"Yes; it is sharp work; and it has taken some doing--and some money. +But I've worked it. Black Steve--I mean Sir Stephen Orme, the great Sir +Stephen--is under my thumb. To-night, the night of his triumph, I am +going to crack him like an egg." + +"You will ruin him?" she said. + +"That is it," he said, with a nod. "I shall ruin him!" + +"Is there no escape?" she asked in a low voice. + +"None," he replied, grimly. "I tell you that nothing can save him." + +"Excepting one thing," she said in so low a voice that it sounded as if +she were speaking to herself. + +"Eh?" he said, as if he had not caught the words. "What is it you mean: +what can save him, what is this one thing?" + +His heavy brows came done, and he frowned at her. + +She raised her eyes, cold and glittering like steel, and met his frown +unflinchingly. + +"The marriage of his son Stafford with your daughter," she said, +slowly, calmly. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + +Mr. Falconer started and stared at her, his heavy face growing a +dust-red, his eyes distended with amazement and anger. + +"Are you out of your mind?" he said at last, and frowning at her in a +kind of perplexity. "'Pon my soul, Maude, I'm never quite certain +whether you are in jest or earnest! If this is intended for a joke, +permit me to tell you I consider it in vilely bad taste." + +"I am not jesting," she said, very quietly, her chin in her hand, her +blue eyes fixed on his unblushingly. "I am in the most sober, the most +serious earnest, I assure you." + +He rose, then sank into the chair again, and sighed impatiently. + +"Do you mean to say that you--that he--Confound it. If ever there was a +man to be pitied, it is the one who has the honour to be your father, +Maude." + +"Why?" she asked, calmly. "Have I not been a dutiful daughter? Have I +ever given you any trouble, deceived you? Am I not perfectly frank with +you at this moment?" He rose and paced to the mantel-shelf, and leaning +against it, looked down upon her, the frown still on his heavy face, +his hands thrust deeply in his pockets. + +"You've always been a puzzle to me," he said, more to himself than to +her. "Ever since you were born I've felt uncertain about you--you're +like your mother. But never mind that. What game is this you're +carrying on?" + +"One in which I mean to win," she replied, slowly, meditatively. "Have +you not seen--How slow to perceive, even you, a reputedly clever man, +can be! I don't suppose there is a woman in the house who has not +detected the fact that I am in love with Stafford Orme, though I have +tried to hide it from them--and you will admit that I am not a bad +actress." + +"In love with Stafford Orme!" His face darkened. "No, I did not know +it. Why---what the devil does he mean by not coming to me!" he broke +out angrily, harshly. + +She smiled. + +"He hasn't come to ask you for me, because--well, he doesn't want me," +she said in a low voice. + +"What!" he exclaimed below his breath. "Do you mean to tell me +that--that--Why, you can't have the shamelessness to care for the man +without--until--" + +She broke in upon his burst of indignation with a low, clear laugh, and +there was no shame in her voice or eyes, as she said: + +"Would it be so shameful if I have? My dear father, you and I should +differ on that point. We are told that we are made for love and to be +loved, that it is our proper and natural destiny. Why, then, should we +be ashamed of it. None of us are in reality; we only pretend to be. It +is part of the world's system of hypocrisy to assume an incapacity for +loving a man until he has asked you; to pretend an utter indifference +until he has said the magic words, 'I love you.' As if love could wait, +ever did wait, ever will! Anyway, mine did not! And I am no different +to other women--only more candid." + +"By Heaven, you make me feel--mad!" he said, with suppressed anger. +"You tell me unblushingly, to my face, that you have fallen in love +with the son of my old enemy, that you want to marry him--you ask me to +help you, to--to forego my just revenge, to use my hold over him as a +lever, to induce him, force him--Good God! have you no sense of right +or wrong, are you utterly devoid of--of modesty, of womanly pride!" + +He glowered down upon her with flushed face and angry eyes; but she was +quite unmoved by his outburst, and still met his gaze steadily, almost +reflectingly. + +"A fortnight ago I should have asked myself that question--and as +angrily as you; but I can't now. It has gone too far." + +"Gone too far! You mean--" + +"That I have grown to love him so much, so dearly, that life without +him--" + +"By God! you will have to live without him, for I'll not help you to +get him," he said, fiercely. "Stafford Orme, Stephen Orme's boy! No! +Put the thing out of your mind, Maude! See here--I don't want to be +angry; I'll take back all I said: you--well, you surprised me, and +shocked me, too, I'll admit--you're a strange girl, and say things that +you don't mean, and in a cold-blooded way that gives me fits. Say no +more about it; put the idea out of your head." + +She laughed, and rose, and gliding to him, put her hand on his arm. + +"My dear father," she said in a low voice, but with a strange and +subtle vibration in it, as if the passion with which she was struggling +threatened to burst forth, "you don't know what you ask; you don't know +what love is--and you don't know what I am! I didn't know myself until +the last few days; until a gradual light shone on the truth and showed +me my heart, the heart I once thought would never grow warm with love! +Oh, I was a fool! I played with fire, and I have been burned. I am +burning still!" She pressed her hand against her bosom, and for an +instant the passion within her darted from her eyes and twisted the +red, perfectly formed lips. Her hand tightened on his arm, her breath +came pantingly, now quickly, now slowly. "Father I have come to you. +Most girls go to their mother. I have none. I come to you because +I--must! You ask me to put the--the idea out of my head." She laughed a +low laugh of self-scorn and bitterness. "Do you think I have not tried +to steel, to harden, my heart against this feeling which has been +creeping insidiously over me, creeping, stealing gliding like a cloud +until it has enveloped me? I have fought against it as never woman +fought against the approach of love. The first day--it was the day he +took me on the lake--ah, you don't remember, but I--Shall I ever forget +it!--the first day my heart went out to him I tried to call it back, to +laugh at my weakness, to call myself a fool! And I thought I had +succeeded in driving the insidious feeling away. But I was wrong. It +was there in my heart already, and day by day, as I saw him, as I heard +him speak, the thing grew until I could not see him cross the lawn, +hear him speak to the dog, without thrilling, without shivering, +shuddering! Father, have pity on me! No, I won't ask for pity! I won't +have it! But I ask, I demand, sympathy, your help! Father," she drew +nearer to him and looked into his eyes with an awful look of +desperation, of broken pride, of the aching craving of love, "you must +help me. I love him, I must be his wife--I cannot live without him, I +will not!" + +He paled and gnawed at his thick lip. + +"You talk like a madwoman," he said, hoarsely. + +She nodded. + +"Yes, I am mad; I know it; I know it! But I shall never be sane again. +All my days and all my nights are consumed in this madness. I think of +him--I call up his face--ah!" She flung her hands before her face and +swayed to and fro as if she were half dazed, half giddy with passion. +"And all day I have to fight against the risk, the peril of discovery. +To feel the women's eyes on me when he comes near, to feel that their +ears are strained to catch the note in my voice which will give me +away, place me under their scorn--and to know that, try as I will, my +voice, my eyes will grow tender as they rest on him, as I speak to him! +To have to hide, to conceal, to crush down my heart while it is aching, +throbbing with the torture of my love for him!" + +He strode from her, then came back. The sight of the storm within her +had moved him: for, after all, this strange girl was his daughter, +flesh of his flesh, bone of his bone. He swore under his breath and +struggled for speech. + +"And--and the man Stafford?" he said. "He--he has not said--D--n it! +you don't mean to tell me that he is absolutely indifferent, that +he--he doesn't care?" + +"I'll tell you the truth," she said. "I swore to myself that I would. +There is too much at stake for me to conceal anything. He +does--not--care for me." + +Ralph Falconer uttered a sharp snarl of shame and resentment. + +"He doesn't? and yet you--you want to marry him!" + +She made a gesture with her hands which was more eloquent than words. + +"Perhaps--perhaps there is someone else? Someone of the other women +here?" he suggested, moodily. + +"Yes, there is someone else," she said, with the same calm decision. +"No, it is not one of the women here; it is a girl in the place; a +farmer's daughter, I think. It is only a _liaison_, a vulgar +intrigue--" + +He uttered an exclamation. + +"And yet _that_ doesn't cure you!" + +She shook her head and smiled. + +"No; my case is incurable. Father, if he were engaged to anyone of the +women here, to someone his equal, I should still love him and want him; +yes, and move heaven and earth to get him. But this is only a +flirtation with some country girl--she meets him on the hill-side by +the river--anywhere. I have seen them, at a distance, once or twice. +She is of no importance. She has caught his fancy, and will soon fail +to hold it." + +She waved her hand as if she were moving the obstacle aside. Her father +stared at her in a kind of stupefaction. + +"My girl, don't you know what you are asking for? A life of +wretchedness and misery; the hell of being married to a man who doesn't +love you." + +She laughed and drew herself up, her eyes flashing, a warm glow on her +cheeks. + +"Who doesn't love me! Not now, perhaps; but do you think I should not +teach him to love me, make him love me? Look at me, father!" + +He looked at her reluctantly, in a kind of dazed admiration and +resentment. + +"Do you think any man could resist me if I set my mind upon winning +him? No! Oh, it's not the language of hysterical vanity! I know my +power; every woman knows how far her power will go. Let me have him to +myself for one week, and--" She caught her breath. "Love! Yes, he shall +return mine tenfold! I will teach him!" She caught her breath again and +pressed her hands to her bosom. "Don't be afraid, father, I will take +care of the future. Help me in the present; help me as I have asked +you!" + +"By God, you ask too much!" he said, sternly, fiercely. + +She stood and looked at him. The colour slowly left her face until it +was white as death, the light faded from her eyes until they were dull +and lifeless, the red of her lips paled and the lips themselves relaxed +and drooped, and as he looked at her a ghastly fear smote his heart and +a question shot into and a question shot into his eyes. She inclined +her head as if he had put the question in words. + +"Yes," she said. "I shall die. You remember my mother? I shall follow +her--" + +He uttered a low, hoarse cry, and caught her hands and held them; then +he flung them from him, and standing with his back to her, said, +thickly, as if every word were forced from him: + +"You shall have your way! You always have had, like your mother before +you--you always will. But mark my words: you'll live to curse the hour +you forced me to do this!" + +She drew a long breath--it was almost a sigh--of relief, and she laid +her hands on his arms and kissed him on the forehead. + +"I'll risk that," she said, with a tremulous laugh. + +There was a silence for a moment, then she said, calmly: + +"You will play your part carefully, father? You will let Sir Stephen +think that Stafford desires it: you will be careful?" + +He turned upon her with an oath. + +"You'd best leave it to me," he said, savagely. "I'll try and save you +from shame all I can. For God's sake go and leave me alone!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +While Stafford was dressing for dinner that night, and wondering +whether even if he should get an opportunity of speaking to his father, +it would be wise to tell him of Ida, Howard knocked at the door. +Stafford told him to come in, and sent Measom away, and Howard, who was +already dressed, sank into an easy-chair and surveyed his friend with +bland approval. + +"A white tie to-night, Staff? Anything on?" + +"Yes; there is a dance," replied Stafford, rather absently. What would +his father say and do? Would he go over to Heron Hall the next morning? +Yes, that is what he would do! + +"A dance? Is that all? From the undercurrent of suppressed excitement +animating most of the guests I should think it was something more +important. Have you noticed the air of suspense, of fluctuating hope +and doubt, triumph and despair which has characterized our noble band +of financiers during the last few days?" + +Stafford shook his head. + +"No; I haven't noticed 'em particularly. In fact, I scarcely see them, +or do more than exchange the usual greetings. They seem to me to move +and look and speak just about as usual." Howard smiled. + +"To be young and happy and free from care is to be blind: puppies, for +instance, are blind!" + +Stafford grinned. + +"That's complimentary, anyhow. What do you think is up?" + +"I think Sir Stephen is going to pull off his great event, to make his +grand _coup_," said Howard. "So you find a black-and-tan terrier +improves a dress-coat by lying on it?" + +Tiny had coiled himself up on that garment, which Measom had laid ready +on the chair, and was lying apparently asleep, but with his large eyes +fixed on his beloved master. + +"Oh, he's a peculiar little beast, and is always getting where he +shouldn't be. Hi! young man, get off my coat!" + +He picked the terrier up and threw him softly on the bed, but Tiny got +down at once and curled himself up on the fur mat by Stafford's feet. + +"Seems to be fond of you: strange dog!" said Howard. "Yes, I think Sir +Stephen's 'little scheme'--as if any scheme of his could be +'little'!--has worked out successfully, and I shouldn't be surprised if +the financiers had a meeting to-night and the floating of the company +was announced." + +"Oh," said Stafford, as he got into his coat. "Yes, I daresay it's all +right. The governor seems always to pull it off." + +Howard smiled. + +"You talk as if an affair of thousands of thousands, perhaps millions, +were quite a bagatelle," he said. "My dear boy, don't you understand, +realise, the importance of this business? It's nothing less than a +railway from--" + +Stafford nodded. "Oh, yes, you told me about it. It's a very big +thing, I daresay, but what puzzles me is why the governor should care +to worry about it. He has money enough--" + +"No man has money enough," said Howard, solemnly. "But no matter. It is +a waste of time to discuss philosophy with a man who has no mind above +fox-hunting, fishing, pheasant-shooting, and dancing. By the way, how +many times do you intend to dance with the Grecian goddess?" + +"Meaning--" said Stafford. + +"Miss Falconer, of course. Grecian goddesses are not so common, my dear +Stafford, as to permit of more than one in a house-party." + +"I'm sure I don't know," replied Stafford, eyeing him with faint +surprise. "What the devil made you ask me that?" + +Howard eyed the handsome face with cynical amusement. + +"Pardon, if I was impertinent; but I assure you the question is being +asked amongst themselves by all the women in the house--" + +Stafford stared at him and began to frown with perplexity rather than +anger. + +"My dear Stafford, I know that you are not possessed of a particularly +brilliant intellect, but you surely possess sufficient intelligence to +see that your attentions to Miss Falconer are somewhat obvious." + +"What?" said Stafford. "My attentions to Miss Falconer--Are you +chaffing, Howard?" + +"Not in the least: it's usually too great a waste of time with you, my +dear boy: you don't listen, and when you do, half the time you don't +understand. No, I'm quite serious; but perhaps I ought to have said her +attentions to you; it would have been more correct." + +Stafford coloured. + +"Look here, old man," he said. "If you think--Oh, dash it all, what +nonsense it is! Miss Falconer and I are very good friends; and of +course I like to talk to her--she's so sharp, almost as smart and +clever as you are, when she likes to take the trouble; and of course I +like to hear her sing--Why, my dear Howard, it's like listening to one +of the big operatic swells; but--but to suggest that there is +anything--that--there is any reason to warn me--Oh, dash it! come off +it, old man, you're chaffing?" + +"Not in the least. But I didn't intend any warning: in fact, I am in +honour bound to refrain from anything of the kind--" + +"In honour bound?" said Stafford. + +Howard almost blushed. + +"Oh, it's nothing; only a silly wager," he said. "I can't tell you, so +don't enquire. But all the same--well, there, I won't say more if you +are sure there is nothing between you." + +"I have the best of reasons for saying so," said Stafford, carelessly, +and with a touch of colour in his face. "But it's all dashed nonsense! +The women always think there's something serious going on if you dance +twice with a girl, or sit and talk to her for half an hour." + +"Right!" said Howard, rising. "There's the bell!" + +As Howard had said, there was an air of suppressed excitement about the +people; and it was not confined to the financiers who clustered +together in the hall and discussed and talked in undertones, every now +and then glancing up the stairs down which Sir Stephen would presently +descend. Most of the other guests, though they had no direct and +personal interest in the great scheme, more or less had heard rumours +and come within reflective radius of the excitement; as for the rest, +who knew nothing or cared less for Sir Stephen's railway, they were in +a pleasant condition of excitement over the coming dance. + +Stafford, as he stood in the hall talking about the night's programme +to Bertie--who had been elected, by common and tacit consent, master of +the ceremonies--saw Maude Falconer descending the stairs. She was even +more exquisitely dressed than usual; and Stafford heard some of the +women and men murmur admiringly and enviously as she swept across the +hall in her magnificent ball-dress; her diamonds, for which she was +famous, glittering in her hair, on her white throat, and on her slender +wrists. The dress was a mixture of grey and black, which would have +looked _bizarre_ on anyone else less beautiful; but its strange tints +harmonised with her superb and classic class of beauty, and she looked +like a vision of loveliness which might well dazzle the eyes of the +beholders. + +She paused in her progress--it might almost be called a triumphant one, +for the other women's looks were eloquent of dismay--and looked at +Stafford with the slow, half-dreamy smile which had come into her face +of late when she spoke to him. + +"Have you seen my father? Has he come down, Mr. Orme?" she asked. + +"No," said Stafford. He looked at her, as a man does when he admires a +woman's dress, and forgetting Howard's words of warning, said: "What a +splendacious frock, Miss Falconer!" + +"Do you like it? I am glad," she said. "I had my doubts, but now--" + +Her eyes rested on his for a moment, then she passed on. + +"I shouldn't like to have to pay Miss Falconer's dress bill," remarked +a young married woman, looking after her. "That 'frock' as you call it, +in your masculine ignorance, must have cost a small fortune." + +Stafford laughed. + +"We men always put our foot in it when we talk about a woman's dress," +he said. + +A moment after, the dinner was announced, and Sir Stephen, who had come +down at the last moment, as he went up to take in Lady Clansford, +nodded to Stafford, and smiled significantly. He was as carefully +dressed as usual, but on his face, and in his eyes particularly, was an +expression of satisfaction and anticipatory triumph which was too +obvious to escape the notice of but very few. He was not "loud" at +dinner, but talked even more fluently than usual, and once or twice his +fine eyes swept the long table with a victorious, masterful glance. + +Directly the ladies had gone, the little knot of financiers drew up +nearer to their host, and Griffenberg raised his eyebrows +interrogatively. + +Sir Stephen nodded. + +"Yes," he said, in an undertone. "It's all right! I heard this morning. +My man will be down, with the final decision, by a special train which +ought to land him about midnight. We'll meet in the library, say at +half past twelve, and get the thing finished, eh, baron?" + +Wirsch grunted approval. + +"Vare goot, Sare Stephen; dee sooner a ting ees congluded, de bedder. +'Arf bast dwelve!" + +There was but a short stay made in the drawing-room, and before ten +o'clock the guests streamed into the magnificent ball-room. + +There were a number of the neighbouring gentry who were making their +acquaintance with the Villa for the first time, and they regarded the +splendour around them with an amazement which was not without reason; +for to-night the artistically designed and shaded electric lamps, the +beautiful rooms with their chaste yet effective decorations, on which +money had been lavished like water, were seen to their greatest +advantage; and the Vaynes, the Bannerdales, and the local gentry +generally exchanged glances and murmured exclamations of surprise and +admiration, and wondered whether there could be any end to the wealth +of a man who could raise such a palace in so short a time. + +From the gallery of white-and-gold the famous band, every man of which +was a musician, presently began to send forth the sweet strains of a +Waldteufel waltz, and Stafford found Lady Clansford for the first +dance. Though he had paid little attention to Howard's remarks about +Maude Falconer, he remembered them, and he did not ask her for a dance +until the ball had been running about an hour; then he went up to where +she was standing talking to Lord Bunnerdale, her last partner. His +lordship and Stafford had already met, and Lord Bannerdale, who admired +and liked Stafford, nodded pleasantly. + +"I was just saying to Miss Falconer that I wish Fate had made me a +great financier instead of a country squire, Orme! By Jove! this place +is a perfect--er--dream; and, when I think of my damp old house--" + +"What frightful language!" said Stafford. + +Lord Bannerdale laughed. + +"If Miss Falconer had not been present, I might just as well have used +the other word. I say I can't help envying your father that magician's +wand with which he manages to raise such marvels. I'm going to find him +and tell him so!" + +"A dance?" said Maude, as Stafford proffered his request. "Yes, I have +one, only one; it is this." + +He put his arm round her, and as he did so her eyes half closed and her +lip quivered at his touch. Stafford waltzed well, and Maude was far and +away the best dancer in the room; they moved as one body in the slow +and graceful modern waltz, and Stafford, in the enjoyment of this +perfect poetry of motion, forgot everything, even his partner; but he +came back from his reverie as she suddenly paused. + +"Are you tired?" he asked. "By George! how perfectly you waltz! I've +never enjoyed a dance more." + +A faint colour rose to her face--it had been very pale a moment +before--and she looked at him with an earnestness which rather puzzled +him. + +"They say that to agree in waltzing is an unfortunate thing for those +who wish to be friends." + +"Do they?" he said, with a smile. "I wonder who it is says all those +silly things? Now, what nonsense this one is, for instance! To enjoy a +dance as I've just enjoyed this, puts a man in a good temper with +himself and his partner; and, of course, makes him feel more friendly. +I'm not a good logician, but that sounds all right, doesn't it?" + +"Yes," she said in a low voice. "No, I won't dance any more. I--I am a +little tired to-night and disinclined for dancing." + +"All right," he said. "I'm sorry--both that you won't dance and the +cause. You have been doing too much to-day--too long a ride, I expect. +These hills are rather trying to those who are not used to them. Shall +we go and sit in that recess? I'll bring you some wine--" + +"No, thanks," she said, quickly; she could not bear him to leave her. + +He led her to one of the recesses leading on to the fernery, and found +her a seat near a softly plashing fountain. The lights were shaded with +rose-coloured silk and threw a soft, warm glow upon her face and snowy +neck. + +For the hundredth time, as he looked at her, he thought how beautiful +she was, and for the hundredth time compared her to Ida, of course to +his sweetheart's advantage. She leant back in the luxurious lounge with +her eyes bent on her jewelled fan, and seemed lost in thought. Then +suddenly she said: + +"Do you know how long we have been here, Mr. Orme? It is a tremendous +time. I told my father to-night that we must take our departure." + +"Oh, no!" he said. "Pray don't think of it--if you care to stay, if you +are happy. You would be a very serious loss to us." + +"If I care--if I am happy!" She laughed a low, strange laugh and raised +her eyes to his for an instant. "Do you think I have not been happy?" + +"Oh, I hope so," he said. "My father would be awfully cut up if he +thought you had not: if he thought there had been anything to prevent +your being happy he would remove it even if it--it were one of those +mountains outside," he added, with a laugh. + +"You admire your father?" she said. "You--are fond of him?" + +Stafford nodded. It seemed an unnecessary question. + +"Rather!" he said. "There never was such a father as mine!" + +"And Sir Stephen thinks there never was such a son as his," she said in +a low voice. "I suppose you are both quite willing to make sacrifices +for each other. Would you do--would you give up much for your father, +Mr. Orme?" + +She raised her eyes again, and let them rest on his. + +Stafford tried to smile, but his face grew grave. + +"Just my life, if it were any use to him," he said. + +Her lips moved. + +"That is so little!" she said. "We can all die for those we love, but +few of us can live for them--go on living a life which has to be +moulded to a plan, bent on another's will--Could you do that?" + +"Yes," he said, after a pause. "There is no sacrifice I would not make +for my father's sake; but"--he laughed and cleared the gravity from his +brow--"all the sacrifice seems to be on his side. He has worked for me +all his life, is working still, I'm afraid--Here is _your_ father, Miss +Falconer; and looking for you, I'm afraid." + +Ralph Falconer stood in the doorway looking round, his heavy face +seeming heavier than usual, his thick lips drooping. As he saw the two +young people, his lips straightened and he went over to them slowly. + +"I hope you are not going to take Miss Falconer away, sir?" said +Stafford. + +Ralph Falconer shook his head, and, avoiding his daughter's eye, said: + +"Sir Stephen wants to see you in the library, Mr. Orme, and wishes me +to accompany you." + +"Certainly, if Miss Falconer will excuse me." + +He rose, and he fancied her hand trembled slightly as it rested almost +as lightly as a feather on his arm. + +"I'll take you to Lady Clansford--" + +"There is no need: here is my next partner," she said, as the +"beautiful, bountiful Bertie" came up smiling and buoyant. + +"Anything the matter, sir?" asked Stafford, as he and Falconer made +their way round the room through which was floating the last thing in +waltzes, a soft and sensuous melody which sang the soul to rest. + +"I think not. A matter of business, I think," said Ralph Falconer. "His +secretary, Mr. Murray, has just come from London: it may be something +to do with the papers he had brought." + +Stafford nodded, though the explanation seemed unsatisfactory: for what +concern had Stafford with the "papers"? As they went through the hall +they saw the financiers clustered together with an expectant air, as if +they were waiting for the result of the arrival of the man by the +special train; and they stared at Falconer and exchanged glances as he +and Stafford passed them and went to the library door. + +Sir Stephen's voice came cheerily in response to Stafford's knock, and +Stafford entered; Falconer following him with bent head and the same +heavy look. + +Sir Stephen was sitting at the table before a despatch box, and he held +out his hand and uttered a little cry of pleasure as he saw who it was. + +"Stafford, my boy! You could not have come at a better moment--Don't +go, Falconer! I'd like you to hear me tell him the good news. I've got +it here!" + +He patted the despatch case. "This is Pandora's box, Staff! With +something better than Hope at the bottom: Certainty!" + +He laughed quietly, confidently, and his bright eyes flashed under +their dark brows from one to the other. + +"Murray has just arrived, Falconer, with the good news!" he took out +the gold chain to which the key of the despatch box was fastened, and +inserted it in the lock. "The good news, Staff! I haven't bothered and +bored you with details; but you know, my dear boy, that I have had a +big scheme on hand for some time past--a very big scheme. It has been +rather a touch-and-go business, but I think I have managed to pull it +off--eh, Falconer? The last day or two has been one of suspense--great +suspense--but success has come. You don't care for money, Staff, I +know. Nor do I. Honestly, no! Not for the mere money, but for what it +can buy and bring. But even you will have some respect for a million +and a half, Staff." + +He laughed. + +"A large sum, and this means more than money. There ought to be +something in the way of an honour--" + +Falconer nodded. + +"_If_ the scheme is successful, your father will be a peer of the +realm, Mr. Stafford," he said drily, with an emphasis on the "if." + +"_If!_" echoed Sir Stephen, laughing and nodding. Stafford could see by +the brilliance of his eyes, the flush on his face, that he was excited +and was struggling with excitement. "If!" + +Falconer nodded at the despatch-case, and, with another bantering +laugh, Sir Stephen opened it and took out a large envelope. He held +this for a moment poised between finger and thumb, then he tore it open +and took out a sheet of paper, and turned his flashing eyes from the +two men to the document. + +He rose for a moment with the smile still on his face; then they saw it +fade, saw the flush slowly disappear, and in its place a dull grey +steal over the face. + +Stafford, startled, went round to him and laid a hand on his shoulder. + +"What is the matter, sir?" he asked. "Bad news?" + +Sir Stephen looked at him as if he did not see him, then turned his +eyes upon Falconer, who stood regarding him with a fixed, sardonic +gaze. + +"Hast thou found me, oh, mine enemy?" came at last from Sir Stephen's +white lips. + +Stafford looked from one to the other. + +"What--what on earth is the matter? What do you mean?" he said. + +Sir Stephen raised his hand and pointed to Ralph Falconer. + +"This--this man!" he gasped; then he shook his head impatiently, as if +he were fighting against his weakness. "This man Falconer has betrayed +me!" + +Stafford drew himself up, as he stood by his father's side, and eyed +Falconer sternly. + +"Will you explain, Mr. Falconer?" he said. + +"Certainly," said Falconer, with a grim calmness. "Your father uses +unwarrantably strong language, Mr. Orme, for an action of mine which is +quite a common one amongst business men." + +"No!" gasped Sir Stephen, as he sank back into the chair. "Treachery is +not common--" + +"Treachery is the wrong word," said Falconer, as coldly as before. +"Better let me explain to Mr. Stafford. I can do so in a few words, Mr. +Orme. The fact is, your father and I have been, quite unknown, to each +other, engaged in the same scheme. It is nothing more nor less than the +acquisition of certain land and rights which carry with them the +privilege of constructing a railway in the most promising part of South +Africa--" + +Sir Stephen leant forward, his head on his hands, his eyes fixed on the +heavy, stolid face of the speaker, the face which the keen, hawk-like +eyes flashed under the lowered lids with a gleam of power and triumph. + +--"Your father had reason to hope that he would acquire those lands and +rights; he did not know that I had been waiting for some years past to +obtain them. If knowledge is power and money, ignorance is impotence +and ruin. My knowledge against your father's ignorance has given me the +victory. Last night I gained my point: the news to that effect is no +doubt contained in that document. It was a question of price--it always +is. I knew your father's bid, and--I went a few thousands higher and +got the prize. That's the story in a nutshell. Of course there are a +number of complications and details, but I spare you them; in fact, I +don't suppose you understand them. It is a mere matter of business" + +"No, of revenge!" said Sir Stephen's hollow voice. "Stafford, years ago +I did this man a wrong. I--I have repented; I would have made +atonement, reparation; but he put the offer aside. Here, in this house, +he professed to have forgiven and forgotten--professed friendship. It +was a piece of treachery and deceit; under that specious mask, behind +that screen, he has worked my ruin!" + +"Ruin!" said Stafford, in a low voice. "Surely you exaggerate, father! +You mean that you will lose a lot of money--Oh, I can understand that, +of course. But not ruin!" + +"Yes, _ruin!_" said Sir Stephen, hoarsely. "If you doubt it, look at +him!" + +Falconer was standing with a sardonic smile in his eyes. + +Stafford started. + +"Is this true, Mr. Falconer?" + +Falconer was silent for a moment, then he said, slowly, grimly: + +"In a sense--yes. Your father's fate lies in my hands." + +"In your hands!" echoed Stafford, with amazement. + +Sir Stephen groaned and rose, supporting himself by the arm of the +chair. + +"It is true, Stafford. He--he has planned it with the skill of a +general, a Napoleon! I see it all now, it is all plain to me. You held +my shares and securities, of course, Falconer?" + +Falconer nodded. + +"Of course!" he said, drily. + +"And you have run them down to meet this scheme of yours." + +"Yes, of course!" said Falconer, again. "My dear Steve--Sir +Stephen--pardon!--your fate, as I have said, is in my hands. It is +simply a matter of tit-for-tat. You had your turn some years ago out +there"--he waved his hand. "It is my turn now. You can't complain. Do +you admit the justice of the thing?" + +Sir Stephen sank into a chair and covered his face with his hands for a +moment, then he looked up at Stafford. + +"He's right. It was his turn. He has taken it--and with it every penny +I possess. It means ruin--complete ruin! Worse even than the loss of +every penny; for--for--I--God help me!--can't afford to go into court +and have the past raked up--And he knows it--he knows it, Stafford!" + +The sight of the old man's anguish almost drove Stafford mad. + +"Have you no mercy, sir?" he said to Falconer. "Grant that my father +had injured you--isn't this rather too awful a revenge to exact? +I--I--I--don't understand all that I have heard; but--but"--an oath +broke from his hot lips--"will nothing less than the ruin of my father +satisfy you?" + +Falconer looked from one to the other and moistened his lips, while his +hands gripped each other behind his back. + +"I think you have misunderstood me," he said, in a dry, harsh voice; "I +have no intention of ruining your father or of depriving him of his +good name. Mind! if I did I should only be taking my pound of flesh: +and I may tell you that before I entered this house this afternoon I +had resolved to have it. But I heard something that induced me to +change my mind." + +Sir Stephen leant forward, his eyes fixed eagerly on the speaker, and +Stafford in his anxiety held his breath and pressed his father's +shoulder encouragingly. + +"You heard something, sir?" Stafford asked, as calmly as he could. + +Mr. Falconer was silent for a moment, then he said: + +"Yes. I heard that you were desirous of marrying my daughter, Maude, +Mr. Orme; and I need not say that a man does not ruin his son-in-law!" + +There was an intense silence. Stafford stood as if he were turned to +stone, as if he were trying to persuade himself that he had +misunderstood the meaning of Falconer's words. Marry Maude +Falconer--he! Was he dreaming, or was this man, who stood regarding him +with cold, glittering eyes, mad! + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + +We do not, nowadays, strike attitudes, or ejaculate and swear when we +are startled or shocked; Stafford stood perfectly still, still as a +piece of Stonehenge, and gazed with an expressionless countenance at +Mr. Falconer. That the man was indeed and in truth mad, occurred to him +for a moment; then he thought there must be some mistake, that Mr. +Falconer had made a blunder in the name, and that it was a case of +mistaking his man. + +But as the moments fled, and the two elder men gazed at him, as if +expecting him to speak, he remembered Howard's warning. The colour +rushed to his face and his eyes dropped. Merciful Heaven! was the man +speaking the truth when he said that he, Stafford, was in love with +Maude Falconer? His face was hot and scarlet for a moment, then it grew +pale under the shame of the thought that he should have to correct the +impression; decline, so to speak, the implied honour. + +Sir Stephen was the first to speak. He had sunk back in his chair, but +was now leaning forward again, his hands gripping the table. +"Stafford!" he said, still thickly, but with the beginning of a note of +relief in his voice. "I did not know this--you did not tell me!" + +Stafford turned to him helplessly. What could he say--before Falconer, +the girl's father? + +"You did not tell me. But I don't complain, my boy," said Sir Stephen." +You were right to choose your own time--young people like to keep their +secret to themselves as long as possible." + +Falconer looked from one to the other with an impassive countenance. + +"I feel that I am rather _de trop_," he said; "that I have spoken +rather prematurely; but my hand was forced, Orme. I wanted to set your +mind at rest, to show you that even if I hankered after revenge, it was +impossible under the circumstances." He glanced at Stafford. "It's not +the first time in history that the young people have played the part of +peace-makers. This is a kind of Romeo and Juliet business, isn't it? +I'll leave you and Mr. Stafford to talk it over!" + +He moved to the door, but, with his hand upon it, paused and looked +round at them again. + +"I ought to aid that, like most modern fathers, I am entirely in the +hands of my daughter. I can't go so far as to say, Orme, that if I had +been permitted to choose, I should have chosen a son of yours for my +son-in-law, but, you see, Maude doesn't give me the option. The young +people have taken the bit between their teeth and bolted, and it seems +to me that the only thing we have to do is to sit tight and look as +cheerful as possible. Oh, one word more," he added, in a business-like +tone. "Of course I make over this concession to you, Orme; just taking +the share I should have received if you had won the game and I had only +stood in as proposed. That is to say, you will be in exactly the same +position as if you had won all along the line--as you thought you had." +And with a nod, which included father and son, he went out. + +Stafford unconsciously drew back a little, so that he was almost behind +Sir Stephen, who had covered his eyes with his hands and sat perfectly +motionless, like a half-stunned man looking back at some terrible +danger from which he had only escaped by the skin of his teeth. Then he +dropped his hands from his face and drew a long breath, the kind of +breath a man draws who has been battling with the waves and finds +himself on the shore, exhausted but still alive. + +Stafford laid a hand on his shoulder, and Sir Stephen started and +looked up at him as if he had forgotten his presence. A flush, as if of +shame, came upon the great financier's face, and he frowned at the +papers lying before him, where they had dropped from his hand. + +"What an escape, Stafford!" he said, his voice still rather thick and +with a tremour of excitement and even exhaustion in its usually clear +and steady tone. "I am ashamed, my boy, that you should have been a +witness to my defeat: it humiliates, mortifies me!" + +"Don't let that worry you, father," said Stafford, scarcely knowing +what he said, for the tumult in his brain, the dread at his heart. + +"It is not the first defeat I have suffered in my life; like other +successful men, I have known what it is to fall; and I have laughed and +got up and shaken the dust off myself, so to speak, and gone at the +fight again, all the harder and more determined because of the reverse. +But this--this would have crushed me utterly and forever." + +"Do you mean that it would have ruined you completely, father?" said +Stafford. + +"Completely!" replied Sir Stephen in a low voice, his head drooping. "I +had staked everything on this venture, had staked even more than I +possessed. I cannot explain all the details, the ramifications, of the +scheme which I have been working. You could not understand them if I +were to talk to you for a week. Suffice it, that if I had failed to get +this concession, I should have been an utterly ruined man, should have +had to go through the bankruptcy court, should have been left without a +penny. And not only that: I should have dragged a great many of the +men, of the friends who had trusted to my ability, who have believed in +me, into the same pit; not only such men as Griffenberg and Wirsch and +the Beltons, but the Plaistows, the Clansdales, and the Fitzharfords. +They would have suffered with me, would have, considered themselves +betrayed." + +Stafford drew a long breath. There seemed to him still a chance of +saving himself, the girl he loved, above all--his honour. + +"But even if it were so, father," he said; "other men have failed, +other men have been defeated, ruined, and left penniless, and yet have +risen and shaken the dust from them and fought their way again to the +heights. You're not an old man, you are strong and clever, and you are +not alone." he said, in a lower voice. "I'm not much use, I know. But +I'll try and help you all I can. I've often felt ashamed of myself for +living such an idle, useless life; often felt that I ought to do +something to justify my existence. There's a chance now; at any rate, +there's an occasion, a necessity for my waking up and stepping into the +ring to do a little fighting on my own account. We may be beaten by Mr. +Falconer; but don't say we're utterly crushed. That doesn't sound like +you, sir; and I don't understand why you should chuck up the sponge so +quickly." + +Sir Stephen raised his head and looked at Stafford with a curious +expression of mingled surprise and apprehension. + +"What is it you are saying, Stafford?" he asked. "What is it you mean? +I don't understand. We're not beaten; Ralph Falconer has offered to +make the concession over to me; and no one need know that I have +failed, that he had stolen the march on me. You heard what he said: +that you were in love with his daughter Maude, and that of course he +could not injure his future son-in-law. Stafford!" He sprang to his +feet and began to pace up and down the room. "I know that this has +touched your pride--I can give a pretty good guess as to how proud you +are--but, for God's sake! don't let your pride stand in the way of this +arrangement." + +"But--" Stafford began; for he felt that he could not longer keep back +the truth, that his father must be told not only that there was nothing +between Maude and himself, but that he loved Ida Heron. + +But before he could utter another word Sir Stephen stopped before him, +and with hands thrown out appealingly, and with a look of terror and +agony in his face, cried in broken accents: + +"If you going to raise any obstacle, Stafford, prompted by your pride, +for God's sake, don't say the word! You don't know, you don't +understand! You speak of ruin as if it meant only the loss of money, +the loss of every penny." He laughed almost hysterically, and his lips +twitched. "Do you think I should care for that, except for your sake? +No, a thousand times, no! I'm young still, I could begin the world +again! Yes, and conquer it as I have done before; but"--his voice sank, +and he look round the room with a stealthy glance which shocked and +startled Stafford--"the ruin Ralph Falconer threatens me with means +more than the loss of money. It means the loss of everything! Of +friends, of good name--of hope!" + +Stafford started, and his face grew a trifle hard; and Sir Stephen saw +it and made a despairing, appealing gesture with his hand. + +"For God's sake don't turn away from me, my boy; don't judge me +harshly. You can't judge me fairly from your standpoint; your life has +been a totally different one from mine, has been lived under different +circumstances. You have never known the temptations to which I have +been subjected. Your life has been an easy one surrounded by honour, +while mine has been spent half the time grubbing in the dust and the +mire for gold, and the rest fighting--sometimes with one hand tied +behind me!--against the men who would have robbed me of it. I have had +to fight them with their own weapons--sometimes they haven't been +clean--sometimes it has been necessary to do--to do things!--God! +Stafford, don't turn away from me! I would have kept this from you if I +could, but I am obliged to tell you now. Ralph Falconer knows all the +details of my past, he knows of things which--which, if they were known +to the world, would stain the name I have raised to honour, would make +it necessary for me to hide my head in a suicide's grave." + +A low cry burst from Stafford's lips, and he sank into a chair, and +bowed his head upon his hands. + +Sir Stephen stood a little way off and looked at him for a minute, then +he advanced slowly, half timidly and ashamedly, and laid a trembling +hand on Stafford's shoulder. + +"Forgive me, Stafford!" he said, in a low, broken voice. "I was obliged +to tell you. I'd have kept it from you--you would never have known--but +Falconer has forced my hand; I was bound to show you how necessary it +was that we should have him as friend instead of foe. You are +not--ashamed of me, my boy; you won't go back on me?" + +In the stress and strain of his emotion the old digger's slang came +readily to his lips. + +Stafford took one hand from his face and held it out, and his father +grasped it, clinging to it as a drowning man clings to a rock. + +"God bless you, my boy!" he said. "I might have known you wouldn't turn +your back upon me; I might have known that you'd remember that I wasn't +fighting for myself only, but for the son I'm so proud of." + +"I know, I know, sir," said Stafford, almost inaudibly. + +Sir Stephen hung his hand, released it, and paced up and down the room +again, fighting for composure, and facing the situation after the +manner of his kind. Like all successful adventurers, he was always +ready to look on the bright side. He came back to Stafford and patted +him gently on the shoulder. + +"Try and forget what I said, about--about the past, Stafford," he said. +"Let us look at the future--your future. After all, we're not beaten! +It's a compromise, it's an alliance!" His voice grew more cheerful, his +eyes began to brighten with something of their wonted fire. "And it's a +bright future, Staff! You've chosen a beautiful girl, a singularly +beautiful and distinguished-looking girl--it's true she's only Ralph +Falconer's daughter, and that I'd loftier ideas for you, but let that +pass! Maude is a young lady who can hold her own against the best and +the highest. Falconer must be rich, or he would not have been able to +have managed this thing, would not have been able to beat me. With your +money and hers, you can go as far as you please!" + +He took a turn up and down the room again, a flush on the face that had +been pallid only a minute or two ago, his finely shaped head thrown +back. + +"Yes, Stafford, I should like you to have married into the nobility. In +my eyes, there is no one too high in rank for you. But no matter! The +title will come. They cannot do less than offer me a peerage. This +railway will be of too much service to the government for them to pass +me over. The peerage must come; there is no chance of my losing it. +Why, yes! The future is as bright as the sunlight on a June morning! +You will have the girl you love, I shall have the peerage to leave to +you. I shall have not lived and struggled and fought in vain. I shall +have left a name unstained, unsullied, to the son I love!" + +There was a catch in his voice, and it broke as he turned suddenly with +outstretched hand. + +"Why, God forgive me, Stafford, my boy! I'm talking of what I've done +for you and what I'm meaning to do as if I were forgetting what you are +doing for me! Stafford, a father often finds that he has worked for his +children only to meet with ingratitude and to be repaid by +indifference; but you have returned my affection--Oh, I've seen it, +felt it, my boy! And now, as fate would have it, you are actually +saving my honour, shielding my good name, coming between me and utter +ruin! God bless you, Stafford! God bless you and send you all the +happiness you deserve and I wish you!" + +A silence fell. Into the room there floated the soft, languorous +strains of a waltz, the murmur of voices, the laughter of some of the +people in the conservatory. Stafford sat, his head still upon his +hands, as if her were half stupefied. And indeed he was. He felt like a +man who has been seized by the tentacles of an octopus, unable to +struggle, unable to move, dumb-stricken, and incapable even of protest. +Sir Stephen had spoken of fate: Fate held Stafford under its iron heel, +and the mockery of Fate's laughter mingled with the strains of the +waltz, the murmur of voices. Unconsciously he rose and looked round as +if half dazed, and Sir Stephen came to him and laid both hands on his +shoulders. + +"I must not keep you any longer, my dear boy!" he said, with a fond, +proud look. "I must not forget I am keeping you from--her! She will be +missing you--wanting you. You have kept your secret well, +Stafford--though once or twice I have fancied, when I have seen you +together--but it was only a fancy!--Are you going to announce the +engagement tonight? It is rather a good opportunity, isn't it? It will +make the night memorable." + +The music danced madly through Stafford's brain as his father waited, +looking at him smilingly. What should he say? + +"Not to-night, sir!" he answered. "I should like to speak to Miss +Falconer first." + +Sir Stephen nodded and smiled. + +"I understand, my boy," he said. "This kind of thing is not done now as +it was in my time. We used to take the girl of our choice by the hand +and throw back our heads, and announce the fact that we have secured +the prize, with all the pride imaginable. But that's all altered now. I +suppose the new way is more delicate--more refined. At any rate, you +belong to the new age and have a right to follow its manners and +customs; so you shall say nothing to-night, unless you like. And, if I +am asked why I look so happy, so free from care, I must say that it is +because the great Railway Scheme is settled and that I have won all +along the line." + +As he said the last words there came a knock at the door, and Murray +entered with an injured look. + +"Mr. Griffenberg and Baron Wirsch, would like to see you, Sir Stephen," +he said, significantly. + +Sir Stephen sprang to the table almost with the alertness of a boy, and +caught up the papers lying on his desk. + +"All right, Murray!" he cried. "Sorry I'm late! Been having a talk with +Mr. Stafford. Come on!" + +With a nod, a smile, a tender look of love and gratitude to Stafford, +the brilliant adventurer, once more thrown by the buoyant wave upon the +shore of safety and success, went out to communicate that success to +his coadjutors. + +Stafford sank into his father's chair, and with his hands thrust deep +in his pockets, and his chin upon his chest, tried to clear his brain, +to free his mind from all side issues, and to face the fact that he had +tacitly agreed, that by his silence he had consented to marry Maude +Falconer. + +But, oh, how hard it was to think clearly, with the vision of that +girlish face floating before him! the exquisitely beautiful face with +its violet eyes now arched and merry, now soft and pleading, now tender +with the tenderness of a girl's first, true, divinely trusting love. He +was looking at the book-case before him, but a mist rose between it and +his eyes, and he saw the mountain-side and the darling of his heart +riding down it, the sunlight on her face, the soft tendrils of hair +blown rough by the wind, the red lips apart with a smile--the little +grave smile which he had kissed away into deeper, still sweeter +seriousness. + +And he had lost her! Oh, God, how he loved her! And he had lost her +forever! There was no hope for him. He must save his father--not his +father's money. That counted for nothing--but his father's honour--his +father's good name. + +And even if he were not bound to make this sacrifice, to marry Maude +Falconer, how could he go to Heron Hall and ask Godfrey Heron, the man +of ancient lineage, of unsullied name, to give his daughter to the son +of a man whose past was so black that his character was at the mercy of +Ralph Falconer? Stafford rose and stretched out his arms as if to +thrust from him a weight too grievous to be borne, a cup too bitter to +be drained; then his arms fell to his sides and, with a hardening of +the face, a tightening of the lips which made him look strangely like +his father, he left the library, and crossing the hall, made his way to +the ball-room. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + +The ball was at its height. Even the coldest and most _blasé_ of the +guests had warmed up and caught fire at the blaze of excitement and +enjoyment. The ball-room was dazzling in the beauty of its decorations +and the soft effulgence of the shaded electric light, in which the +magnificent jewels of the titled and wealthy women seemed to glow with +a subdued and chastened fire. A dance was in progress, and Stafford, as +he stood by the doorway and looked mechanically and dully at the +whirling crowd, the kaleidoscope of colour formed by the rich dresses, +the fluttering fans, and the dashes of black represented by the men's +clothes, thought vaguely that he had never seen anything more +magnificent, more elegant of wealth and success. But through it all, +weird and ghost-like shone Ida's girlish face, with its love-lit eyes +and sweetly curving lips. + +He looked round, and presently he saw Maude Falconer in her strange and +striking dress. She was dancing with Lord Fitzharford. There was not a +touch of colour in her face, her lips were pensive, her lids lowered; +she looked like an exquisite statue, exquisitely clothed, moving with +the exquisite poetry of motion, but quite devoid of feeling. Suddenly, +as if she felt his presence, she raised her eyes and looked at him. A +light shot into them, glowed for a moment, her lips curved with the +faintest of smiles, and a warm tint stole to her face. + +It was an eloquent look, one that could not be mistaken by the least +vain of men, and it went straight through Stafford's heart; for it +forced him to realise that which he had not even yet quite +realised--that he had tacitly pledged himself to her. Under other +circumstances, the thought might have set his heart beating and sent +the blood coursing hotly through his veins; but with his heart aching +with love for Ida, and despair at the loss of her, Maude Falconer's +love-glance only chilled him and made him shudder with apprehension of +the future, with the thought of the cost of the sacrifice which he had +taken upon himself. The music sounded like a funeral march in his ears, +the glitter, the heat, the movement, seemed unendurable; and he +threaded his way round the room to an ante-room which had been fitted +up as a buffet. + +"Give me some wine, please," he said to the butler, trying to speak in +his ordinary tone; but he knew that his voice was harsh and strained, +knew that the butler noticed it, though the well-trained servant did +not move an eyelid, but opened a bottle of champagne with solemn +alacrity and poured out a glass. Stafford signed to him to place the +bottle near and drank a couple of glasses. + +It pulled him together a bit, and he was going back to the ball-room +when several men entered. They were Griffenberg, Baron Wirsch, the +Beltons and the other financiers; they were all talking together and +laughing, and their faces were flushed with triumph. Close behind them, +but grave and taciturn as usual, came Mr. Falconer. + +At sight of Stafford, Mr. Griffenberg turned from the man to whom he +was talking and exclaimed, gleefully: + +"Here is Mr. Orme! You have herd the good news, I suppose, Mr. Orme? +Splendid isn't it? Wonderful man, you father, truly wonderful! He can +give us all points, can't he, baron?" The baron nodded and smiled. + +"Shir Stephen ish a goot man of pishness. You have a very glever fader, +Mr. Orme!" he said, emphatically. + +Efford caught Stafford's arm as he was passing on with a mechanical +smile and an inclination of the head. + +"We've come in for a drink, Orme," he said. "We're going to drink luck +to the biggest thing Sir Stephen has ever done; you'll join us? Oh, +come, we can't take a refusal! Dash it all! You're in the swim, Orme, +if you haven't taken any active part in it." + +Stafford glanced at Mr. Falconer, and noticed a grim smile pass over +his face. If these exultant and flushed money-spinners only guessed how +active a part he had taken, how amazed they would be! A wave of +bitterness swept over him. At such a moment men, especially young men, +become reckless; the strain is too great, and they fly to the nearest +thing for relief. + +He turned back to the buffet, and the butler and the couple of footmen +opened several bottles of champagne--none of the men knew or cared how +many; several others of the financial group joined the party; the wine +went round rapidly; they were all talking and laughing except Stafford, +who remained silent and grave and moody for some little time; then he +too began to talk and laugh with the others, and his face grew flushed +and his manner excited. + +Falconer, who stood a little apart, apparently drinking with the +others, but really with care and moderation, watched him under +half-lowered lids; and presently he moved round to where Stafford leant +against the table with his champagne-glass in his hand, and touching +him on the arm, said: + +"I hear them enquiring for you in the ball-room, Stafford." + +It was the first time he had called Stafford by his Christian name, and +it struck home, as Falconer had intended it should. Stafford set his +glass down and looked round as a man does when the wine is creeping up +to his head, and he is startled by an unexpected voice. + +"All right--thanks!" he said. + +He made his way through the group, who were too engrossed and excited +to notice his desertion and went into the ball-room. As he did so, his +father entered by an opposite door, and seeing him, came round to him, +and taking Stafford's hand that hung at his side, pressed it +significantly. + +"I have told them!" he said. "They are almost off their heads with +delight--you see, it's such a big thing, even for them, Staff! You have +saved us all, my boy; but it is only I and Falconer who know it, only I +who can show my gratitude!" + +His voice was low and tremulous, his face flushed, like those of the +men whom Stafford had just left, and his dark eyes flashing and +restless. + +"Where are they all?" he asked; and Stafford nodded over his shoulder +towards the buffet. + +Sir Stephen looked round the room with a smile of triumph, and his +glance rested on Maude Falconer, standing by a marble column, her eyes +downcast, her fan moving to and fro in front of her white bosom. + +"She is beautiful, Staff!" he whispered. "The loveliest woman in the +room! I am not surprised that you should have fallen in love with her." + +Stafford laughed under his breath, a strangely wild and bitter laugh, +which Sir Stephen could not have failed to notice if the music had not +commenced a new waltz at that moment. + +Stafford went straight across the room to Maude Falconer. She did not +raise her eyes at his approach, but the colour flickered in her cheeks. + +"This is our dance, I think," he said. + +She looked up with a little air of surprise, and consulted her +programme. + +"No; I think this is mine, Miss Falconer," said the man at her side. + +"No," she said, calmly; "the next is yours, Lord Bannerdale; this is +Mr. Orme's." + +Though he knew she was wrong, of course Lord Bannerdale acquiesced with +a bow and a smile, and Stafford led Maude away. + +Wine has a trick of getting into some men's feet and promptly giving +them away; but Stafford, though he was usually one of the most moderate +of men, could drink a fairly large quantity and remain as steady as a +rock. No one, watching him dance, would have known that he had drunk +far too many glasses of champagne and that his head was burning, his +heart thumping furiously; but though his step was as faultless as usual +and he steered her dexterously through this crowd. Maude knew by his +silence, by his flushed face and restless eyes, that something had +happened, and that he was under the influence of some deep emotion. He +was dancing quite perfectly, but mechanically, like a man in a dream, +and though he must have heard the music, he did not hear her when she +spoke to him, but looked straight before him as if he were entirely +absorbed in some thought. + +When they came, in the course of the dance, to one of the doors, she +stopped suddenly. + +"Do you mind? It is so hot," she murmured. + +"N--o," he said, as if awaking suddenly. "Let us go outside." + +He caught up a fur cloak that was lying on a bench, and disregarding +her laughing remonstrance that the thing did not belong to her, he put +it round her and led her on to the terrace. She looked up at him just +as they were passing out of the stream of light, saw how set and hard +his face was, how straight the lips and sombre the eyes, and her hand, +as it rested lightly on his arm, quivered like a leaf in autumn. When +they had got into the open air, he threw back his head and drew a long +breath. + +"Yes; it was hot in there," he said. + +They walked slowly up and down for a minute, passing and repassing +similar couples; then suddenly, as if the presence of others, the sound +of their voices and laughter, jarred upon him, Stafford said: + +"Shall we go into the garden? It is quiet there--and I want to speak to +you." + +"If you like," she said, in a low voice, which she tried to make as +languid as usual; but her heart began to beat fiercely and her lips +trembled, and he might have heard her breath coming quickly had he not +been absorbed in his own reflections. + +They went down the steps and into the semi-darkness of the beautiful +garden. The silence was broken by the hum of the distant voices and the +splashing of a fountain which reflected the electric light as the spray +rose and fell with rhythmic regularity. Stafford stopped at this and +looked at the reflection of the stars in the shallow water. Something +in its simplicitude and the quiet, coming after the glitter and the +noise of the ball-room, called up the remembrance of Herondale, and the +quiet, love-laden hours he had spent there with Ida. The thought went +through him with a sharp pain, and he thrust it away from him as one +thrusts away a threatening weakness. + +"What is it you wanted to say to me?" asked Maude, not coldly or +indifferently as she would have asked the question of another man, but +softly, dreamily. + +He walked on with her a few paces, looking straight before him as if he +were trying to find words suitable for the answer; then he turned his +face to her and looked at her steadily, though his head was burning and +the plash of the fountain sounded like the roar of the sea in his ears. + +"I wonder whether you could guess?" he said, as he thought of her +father's words, his assertion that Stafford was to be his son-in-law. +"I suppose you must." + +Her gaze was as steady as his, but her lips quivered slightly. + +"I would rather you should tell me than that I should I guess," she +said in a low voice. "I might be wrong." + +He was not in a condition to notice the significance of her last words, +and he went on with a kind of desperation. + +"I brought you here into the garden, Miss Falconer, to ask you if you'd +be my wife." + +They had stopped just within the radius of an electric light, held +aloft by a grinning satyr, and Stafford saw her face grow paler and +paler in the seconds that followed the momentous question. He could see +her bosom heaving under the half-open fur cloak, felt her hand close +for an instant on his arm. + +"Do you wish me to say 'Yes'?" she asked in a low voice. + +The red flooded Stafford's face for a moment, and his eyes fell under +her fixed regard. + +"What answer does one generally hope for when one puts such a +question?" he said, trying to smile. "I want you to be my wife, and I +hope, with all my heart, that you will say 'Yes.'" + +"'With all your heart,'" she echoed, slowly, almost inaudibly. "'With +all your heart.' With all mine, I answer 'Yes.'" + +As she murmured the words--and, like that of most cold women when they +are intensely moved, her voice could be exquisitely sweet with its +thrill of passion, all the sweeter for its rarity--she insensibly drew +nearer to him and her hand stole to his shoulder. Her eyes were lifted +to his, and they shone with the love that was coursing through her +veins, almost stopping the beating of her heart. Love radiated from her +as the light radiated from the lamp the mocking satyr held above them. +Stafford was at his best and worst, a man and not a block of stone and +wood, and touched, almost fired, by the passion so close to him, he put +his arm round her waist and bent his head until his lips nearly touched +hers. + +Her eyes closed and she was surrendering herself to the kiss, when +suddenly she drew her head back, and, keeping him from her, looked up +at him. "Is it with all your heart?" she whispered. "You have never +spoken to me of--love before. Is it with all your heart?" + +His brow contracted in a frown, he set his teeth hard. If he were to +lie, 'twere better that he lied thoroughly and well; better that his +sacrifice should be complete and effectual. Scarcely knowing what he +said, what he did, with the fumes of the champagne confusing his brain, +the misery of his lost love racking his heart, he said, hoarsely: + +"I did not know--till to-night. You can trust me. I ask you to be my +wife--I will be true to you--it is with all my heart!" + +If Jove laughs at lovers' perjuries, the angels must weep at such false +oaths as this. Even as he spoke the words, Stafford remembered the "I +love you?" he had cried to Ida as he knelt at her feet, and he +shuddered as Maude drew his head down and his lips met hers. + + * * * * * + +Half an hour later they went slowly up the steps again. Stafford's head +was still burning, he still felt confused, like a man moving in a +dream. Since he had kissed her he had said very little; and the +silences had been broken more often by Maude than by him. She had told +him in a low voice, tremulous with love, and hesitating now and again, +how she had fallen in love with him the day he had rowed her on the +lake; how she had struggled and striven against the feeling, and how it +had conquered her. How miserable she had been, though she had tried to +hide her misery, lest he should never come to care for her, and she +should have to suffer that most merciless of all miseries--unrequited +love. She seemed as if she scarcely wanted him to speak, as if she took +it for granted that he had spoken the truth, and that he loved her; and +as if it were a joy to her to bare her heart, that he might see how +devotedly it throbbed for him and for him alone. Every now and then +Stafford spoke a few words in response. He scarcely knew what he said, +he could not have told what they were ten minutes after they were said; +he sat with his arm round her like a man playing a part mechanically. + +In the same condition he moved beside her now as arm and arm they +entered the house, he looking straight before him with a set face, a +forced smile, she with now raised, now drooping eyes glowing with +triumph, a flush on her usually pale face, her lips apart and +tremulous. The ball was breaking up, some of the women had already gone +to the drawing-room or their own apartments; a stream of men were +making their way to the billiard-room from which came the popping of +champagne-corks and the hissing of syphons. + +As they entered the hall, Howard came lounging out, in his leisurely +way, from the drawing-room, and at sight of him Stafford seemed to +awake, to realise what he had done and how he stood. He looked from +Howard to Maude, then, he said: + +"Howard, I want you to congratulate me. Miss Falconer--Maude--has +promised to be my wife." + +Howard did not start, but he stared in silence for an instant, then his +eyelids flickered, and forcing the astonishment from his face, he took +Stafford's left hand and shook it, and bowed to Maude. + +"I do congratulate you with all my heart, my dear Stafford, and I hope +you'll both be as happy as the happiest pair in a fairy story." + +She drew her arm from Stafford's. + +"I will go up now," she said. "Good-night!" + +Stafford stood until she had got as far as the bend of the stairs; then +Howard, who had discreetly gone on, turned to go back to him. But as he +came up with a word of wonder and repeated congratulations, he saw +Stafford put his hand to his forehead, and, as it seemed to Howard, +almost stagger. + +There are moments when the part of even one's best friend is silence, +blindness. Howard turned aside, and Stafford went on slowly, with a +kind of enforced steadiness, to the billiard-room. While Howard, with +dismay and apprehension, was looking after him, he heard "Mr. Howard!" +called softly, mockingly, from the stairs, and looking up, saw Maude +Falconer leaning over, with her arm extended, her hand open. + +He understood in a moment, and, removing his ring as he ran up the +stairs, put it in the soft, pink palm. She gave a little triumphant, +mocking laugh, her hand closed over the ring, and then she glided away +from him. + +The smoking-room was crowded as Stafford made his way in. Through the +clouds of smoke he saw his father standing at one end, surrounded by +the money-spinning crew, Falconer seated in a chair near him with a +black cigar between his lips. The group were laughing and talking +loudly, and all had glasses in their hands. Some of the younger men, +who had just come from the hall-room, were adding their laughter and +chatter to the noise. Dazed and confused, half mad with rage and +despair, with a sense that Fate was joining her mocking laughter with +that of the men round him. Stafford took a glass of wine from the +butler who advanced with it, and drinking it off, held it out to be +refilled. The man refilled it twice, and Stafford, his eyes aflame, +almost pushed his way through the various groups to where his father +stood. + +"I have come for your congratulation, sir," he said, in a voice which, +though not loud, was so clear as to break through the row. "Miss +Falconer has promised to be my wife!" + +A silence, so sudden as to be startling, fell upon the hot and crowded +room; then, as Sir Stephen grasped his son's hand, a din of voices +arose, an excited buzz of congratulations and good wishes. Stafford +faced them all, his face pale and set, his lips curved with a forced +smile, his eyes flashing, but lit with a sombre fire. There was a smile +on his lips, a false amiability in his eyes, but there was so much of +madness in his heart that he was afraid lest at any moment he should +dash the glass to the ground and break out into cursing. + +An hour later he found himself in his room, and waving Measom away from +him, he went to the window and flung it wide open, and stood there with +his hands against his throbbing brow; and though no word came from his +parched lips, his heart cried: + +"Ida! Ida!" with all the agony of despair. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +The hours dragged along as Stafford faced the tragedy of his life. As +he paced the room or flung himself into a chair, with his head bowed in +his hands, the effects of the wine he had taken, the suppressed +excitement under which he had laboured, passed away, and in the +reaction his brain cleared and he began to realise the terrible import +of the step he had taken, the extent of the sacrifice he had made. His +own life was wrecked and ruined irreparably; not only his own, but that +of the girl he loved. + +The step he had taken was not only irreparable but irrevocable; he +could not go back. He had asked Maude Falconer to be his wife, he had +spoken words which must have sounded to her as words of love, he had +kissed her lips. In a word, he was pledged to her, and the pledge could +not be broken. + +And Ida! What should he do in regard to her? He had promised that if +his feelings underwent any change towards her he would not go and tell +her. And at that moment, he felt that the promise had not been a vain +one; for he knew that he could not go to her, that at sight of her his +resolution would melt like snow in the sun, that his love for her would +sweep him away on a torrent of passion, and that he would be as false +to Maude Falconer as he had been to Ida. + +And yet he could not leave her, desert her--yes, that was the +word!--without making some sign, without speaking one word, not of +excuse, but of farewell. What could he say to her? He could not tell +her the truth; for his father's sake that must never be divulged; he +could give her no explanation, must permit her to think him base and +faithless and dishonorable. There was only one thing he could do, and +that was to write to her. But what could he say? + +He went to his writing-table and took up a pen. His hand was cold as +ice and shaking, and he held it before him until it grew steadier. At +the best of times, Stafford was not much of a letter-writer; one does +not learn the epistolatory art either at public schools or the +'varsities, and hitherto Stafford's letter-writing had been confined to +the sending or accepting of invitations, a short note about some meet, +or horse dealing. How was he to address her? She was his dearest still, +the only woman in the world he had loved or ever would love, but he +dared not call her so, dared not tell her so. He wrote her name, but +the sweet word seemed to look up at him reproachfully, accusingly; and +though he had written only that name, he tore up several sheets of +paper, and at last, in desperation, scarcely knowing what he was +writing, he wrote, quickly, hurriedly and without pausing, the +following lines: + +"I am writing this because you made me promise that if anything +happened, let it be what it might, to separate us, I would not come and +tell you. Something has happened. I have discovered that I am not only +unworthy of calling you mine as any man in the world, even the best, +would be, but that I am unworthy in the sense that would justify you in +the eyes of your father, of everybody belonging to you, in sending me +adrift. If I could tell you what it is you would understand and see how +great a gulf yawns between us. You would not marry me, I can never be +anything to you but a painful memory. Though you know how much I loved +you, you will never guess what it costs me to relinquish all claim to +you, to tear myself away from you. But I must do so--and forever. There +is no hope, none whatever, for me. I do not ask you to forgive me--if I +had known what I know now I would rather have died than have told you +that I loved you, but I do ask you to forget me; or, if you remember +me, to think of me as the most wretched and ill-fated of men; as one +who is bound hand and foot, and compelled, driven, along a path against +his will. I dare not say any more, dare not tell you what this +sacrifice costs me. Whether you forget or remember me, I shall never +forget you for a single instant, shall never cease to look back upon my +lost happiness, as a man looks back upon a lost heaven. + +"STAFFORD." + +He read it over a dozen--twenty times, and every time it seemed weaker, +meaner, less inexplicable; but he knew that if he destroyed it he could +write nothing better, nothing that could satisfy him, though it seemed +to him that his heart would have expressed itself more fully it he had +written only, "Good-bye! Forget me!" + +At last, and reluctantly he put it in an envelope and addressed it, and +turned it face downwards on his table, so that he might not see the +name which had such power to torture his heart. + +By the time he had succeeded in writing the letter the dawn was +creeping over the hills and casting a pearly light upon the lake; he +drew the curtains, and in the weird light caught sight of his face in +the mirror: a white and haggard face, which might well have belonged to +a man ten years his senior; such a face as would not fail to attract +attention and provoke comment by its appearance at the breakfast-table. +He flung himself on the bed, not to sleep, for he knew that that would +be impossible, but to get some rest; but rest was as impossible as +sleep. When he closed his eyes Ida's face was near him, her voice was +in his ears, inextricably mixed with the slow and languorous tones of +Maude Falconer. He undressed and got into his flannels before Measom +came, and went down to the lake for a bath. + +He was, as a rule, so moderate in drinking that the wine he had taken, +supplemented by his misery, made him feel physically ill. He shuddered +with cold as he dived into the water, and as he swam out he felt, for +the first time in his life, a slight twinge of cramp. At another time +he would have been somewhat alarmed, for the strongest swimmer is +absolutely helpless under an attack of cramp, but this morning he was +indifferent, and the thought struck him that it would be well for him +if he flung up his arms and went down to the bottom of the lake on the +shores of which he had experienced such exquisite joy, such unutterable +misery. He met no one on his way back to the house, and went straight +to his room. The swim had removed some of the traces of last night's +work, but he still looked haggard and worn, and there was that +expression in his eyes which a man's wear when he has been battling +with a great grief or struggling against an overwhelming fate. + +As Measom was dressing him he asked himself how he should get the +letter to Ida--the only letter he had ever written her, the only letter +he would probably ever write to her. He decided that he would send it +over by Pottinger, whom he knew he could trust not only to deliver the +letter, but to refrain from telling anyone that he had been sent with +it. He put it in the pocket of his shooting-coat and went downstairs, +intending to go straight to the stables to find Pottinger; but as he +went through the hall, Murray, the secretary, came out of the library, +and Sir Stephen caught sight of Stafford through the open door, and +called to him. Stafford went in, and his father rose from the table on +which was already piled a heap of letters and papers, and taking +Stafford's hand, laid a hand on his shoulder. + +"You are early, my boy," he said. "I did not expect to see you for +hours yet; couldn't you sleep? You look rather tired, Stafford; you +were late last night, and--ah, well! there was some excuse for a little +excitement and exaltation." + +He smiled whimsically, as a father does at a son who has for once gone +beyond the strict bounds of moderation and looked upon the wine cup too +often. + +"Yes, I've rather a head on this morning, sir," said Stafford, quietly, +accepting the suggestion as an excuse for his ill-looks. "I drank and +smoked, last night, more than I usually do. You look as fresh as usual, +sir," he added, with unconscious irony. + +Sir Stephen threw up his head with a short laugh. + +"Oh, my work wasn't finished last night, my dear boy!" he said. "And +Murray and I have been at it since seven o'clock. I want to put some of +these papers straight before Griffenberg and the rest leave to-day." + +"They are going to-day?" said Stafford. + +"Oh, yes; there will be a general exodus. A great many of the people +were only staying on until we could be sure we had pulled this railway +scheme through. Falconer and his daughter--I beg your pardon, my dear +Stafford, I mean Maude!--talk of going to-day. But I persuaded them to +stay until to-morrow. I thought you would like to go to London with +them." + +He smiled as a father smiles when he is planning a pleasure for his +son. + +"Yes, I should like it," said Stafford, quietly. "But could I leave you +here?" + +"Oh, yes," said Sir Stephen. "They'll entertain themselves. Besides, it +was an understood thing you should be free to go and come as you +pleased. Of course, you would like to go with Maude." + +"Of course," echoed Stafford, his eyes on the ground. As he was leaving +the room his father took a letter from the table, held it up and +dropped it. + +"You'll be wanting to buy a little present for your lady-love, +Stafford," he said. "I am placing a thousand pounds to your credit at +your bank, I don't know whether you'll think that is enough--" + +"Quite enough," said Stafford, in a low voice. "Thank you! You are very +generous--" + +Sir Stephen winced and held up his hand. + +"What is mine is yours from this moment, my dear Stafford," he said. + +Stafford went out by the door at the other end of the hall, and made +his way to the stables. Just as he was crossing the lawn the temptation +to ride over to Heron Hall and leave the note himself assailed him +strongly. He took the letter from his pocket and looked at it +wistfully. But he knew that he dared not ran the risk of meeting Ida, +and with a sigh he went on towards the stables, carrying the note in +his hand. And as he turned away Maude Falconer let fall the curtain +which she had raised at her window so that she might watch him. + +She stood for a moment with her costly dressing-gown held together with +one white hand, her lids half closed. + +"He has written to her," she said to herself. "Has he broken with her +for good, or will he try and keep her? I would give something to see +that letter, to know exactly how he stands. And how I stand! I wonder +how he will send it? He is taking it to the stables." She thought a +moment, then she smiled. "Pottinger!" she murmured. + +Stafford found Pottinger giving the last loving touches with a silk +handkerchief to Adonis. His coat and waistcoat were off, his shirt open +at the neck and his sleeves turned up. He touched his forehead with a +respectful and welcoming greeting, and without any surprise; for +Stafford very often paid an early visit to the stable, and had more +than once lent a hand in grooming a favourite horse. + +"Looks well, sir, don't he?" said Pottinger, passing a hand over the +glossy black and finishing up with a loving smack. "I'm rather late +this morning, sir." He smiled and looked a little sheepish. "We had a +little bit of jollification in the servants' hall, on our own account, +sir, and were enjoying ourselves like our betters." + +"That's right," said Stafford. Something in his voice caused Pottinger +to glance at him with surprise and apprehension; but, of course, he +could not say anything, and he dropped his eyes respectfully after the +one glance at Stafford's haggard face. + +"I want you take a letter for me this morning, Pottinger," said +Stafford. "You can take Adonis; it will exercise him, as I shall not +ride him to-day. Here is the letter. Heron Hall lies on the other side +of the river. I want the letter taken there early this morning." + +Pottinger touched his forehead. "I know the Hall, sir; I've ridden +over there with messages from the housekeeper and from Mr. Davis." + +"There will be no answer," said Stafford. "Simply leave it." + +"Yes, sir," said Pottinger. "Would you mind putting it in my +saddle-wallet, sir? I won't touch it till my hands are clean." + +Stafford put the letter in the wallet, said a few words to Adonis and +some of the other horses, and then left the stable. He heard voices on +the terrace, and, to avoid meeting anyone until he was compelled, he +went down the slope of the lawn, and, seating himself on a bank, lit a +cigarette. + +From her window, Maude Falconer, now attired in a simple but +exquisitely effective morning frock, could see him. After watching him +for a minute or two, she went to her writing-table and wrote two or +three notes quickly, and, with these in her pocket, went down-stairs +and through the hall to the stable court-yard. Pottinger was still +finishing off Adonis, and he drew himself up and saluted as she entered +the stables. As a rule her manner to the servants and her inferiors was +cold and haughty, but, as Stafford had discovered last night, she could +be soft and gentle when she chose, and she smiled now at Pottinger and +the horse in a fashion that almost dazzled that ingenuous youth. At the +same time her eye had noted Pottinger's coat and waistcoat which hung +on a hook at the stall-post with the saddle-wallet slung over them. The +coat was an old one with gaping pockets, and there was no sign of a +letter in them, or in the waistcoat. Instinctively, she knew that it +was in the wallet. + +"What splendid condition that horse is in, Pottinger," she said. "His +coat is like satin. I suppose you were in the army?" + +Of course Pottinger was flattered, and answered in the negative very +reluctantly. + +"Not but what Mr. Stafford, miss, isn't as particular as any army gent +could be. I should be sorry to turn out a badly groomed 'oss for Mr. +Stafford's eyes to rest on, miss. He's as kind-hearted a master as a +man could desire to have, but that's about the one thing Mr. Stafford +wouldn't stand, miss." + +"I suppose not," she said. "Are you going to ride into Bryndermere this +morning, Pottinger? If so, I should be glad if you would take these +notes to the linen draper's and the chemist's, and bring me back the +things I have written for." + +"Certainly, miss," said Pottinger; then he remembered Stafford's order, +and looked anything but certain. "Would it do late in the morning, +miss? I have to go somewhere first." + +"Oh, yes," she replied, "where shall I put the letters--in this wallet?" + +Pottinger answered in the affirmative and thanked her, and she +unfastened the wallet, talking to him as she did so. "Is that a +swelling on that near fore leg, Pottinger?" she said, suddenly, +pointing to Adonis. + +Pottinger started and regarded her with a look of horror, and, of +course, instantly knelt down to examine the suspected member. Long +before he had come up again with a breath of relief and a smiling "No, +miss, there is nothing the matter with it," she had looked into the +wallet and seen Stafford's letter. + +"Oh, I thought there was," she said. "Have you finished your horses?" + +"No, miss," he replied. "I have the master's hunter and the mare you +ride to do yet." + +She nodded and went out of the stable, humming one of her songs; but +she did not go very far. In five minutes she back again. + +"Oh, Pottinger, don't trouble about those letters. I will ride into +Bryndermere myself." + +Pottinger was in the mare's stall, and Maude stopped him as he was +coming forward, by saying: + +"Don't trouble; I'll take the letters from the wallet." + +With Stafford's letter amongst her own in her pocket, she went quickly, +and yet without apparent hurry, to her own room, sent away her maid on +an errand, and slipped the bolt in the door. Rapidly she lit her silver +spirit-lamp and heated the water almost to boiling-point, and held the +envelope of Stafford's letter over it until the gum was melted and the +flap came open. Then she took out the letter, and, throwing herself +back in an easy-chair, read it slowly. + +At first, as she read, her face burned, then it grew pale, and still +paler; every word of the bitter farewell, of the renunciation, written +as if with a man's heart's blood, stabbed her and tortured her with the +pangs of jealousy. Once she started to her feet, her hands clenched, +her head thrown back her eyes flashing; a superb figure--the tigress +aroused. At that instant she was minded to take the letter and fling it +in Stafford's face, and with it fling back the pledge which he had +given her the night before; then she collapsed, as it were, and sank +into a chair, dropping the letter and covering her face with her hands. +She could not. The strength of her love made her weak as water where +that love was concerned. Though her pride called upon her to surrender +Stafford, she could not respond to it. + +Swaying to and fro, with her eyes covered as if to hide her shame, she +tried to tell herself that Stafford's was only a transient fancy for +this girl, that it was mere flirtation, a vulgar _liaison_ that she +would teach him to forget. + +"He shall, he shall!" she cried behind her hands, as if the words were +wrung from her in her anguish of wounded pride and rejected love. "I +will teach him! There is no art that woman ever used that I will not +use--they say I am beautiful: if I am, my beauty shall minister to him +as no woman's beauty has ever ministered before. Cold to all the rest +of the world, I will be to him a fire which shall warm his life and +make it a heaven--It is only because he saw her first: if he had seen +me--Oh, curse her, curse her! Last night, while he was talking to me, +even while he was kissing me, he was thinking of her. But she shall not +have him! She has lost and I have won and I will keep him!" + +She dashed her hand across her eyes, though there were no tears in +them, and stood upright, holding herself tensely as if she were +battling for calm; then she replaced the poignant note in its envelope, +and went back to the stables. Again she met no one, for those who were +down were in at breakfast. + +"I have changed my mind, Pottinger," she said; "and will be glad if you +will take the notes, please. See, I have put them back in the wallet." + +"Certainly, miss!" said Pottinger, and he touched his forehead two or +three times, and coloured and smiled awkwardly and looked at her with a +new and vivid interest. One of the maids had run into the stable, +during Maud's absence, and had told him the news that his master was +engaged to Miss Maude Falconer; for the servants, who are so quick to +discover all our little secrets, had already learnt this one, and the +servants' hall was buzzing with it. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +That morning Ida came down-stairs singing, not loudly, but in the soft +undertone which a girl uses when she is supremely happy and she has +hopes of seeing the cause of her happiness very soon. All through +breakfast, while Mr. Heron read his letters, opening them and reading +them stealthily as usual, her heart was singing its love-song to her, +and she was wondering whether she would meet Stafford by the stream or +among the hills. That she should meet him she felt quite sure, for he +had never failed to leave the gay party at the Villa to come over to +her every day. + +Perhaps he had spoken to his father, and, in the wonderful way men +have, had swept aside all the obstacles which stood against their +union. He was so strong, so self-reliant, so masterful--though so +gentle with her--that surely no obstacles could stand against him. She +was so absorbed in her thoughts that she almost started when Jason +appeared and, looking from her to Mr. Heron, announced that Mr. +Wordley, the family lawyer, was in the library. + +Mr. Heron flushed and scrambled his letters and papers together as he +rose. + +"Won't Mr. Wordley come in and have some breakfast?" suggested Ida. But +her father, shaking his head impatiently, said that Mr. Wordley was +sure to have had his breakfast, and shuffled out of the room. + +A few minutes after he had gone, Jessie came in for the day's orders, +and Ida dragged her thoughts away from the all-absorbing subject and +plunged into housekeeping. It was not a lengthy or a very elaborate +business, alas! but when it was over Jessie lingered and began +collecting the breakfast things, glancing shyly at Ida, as she always +did when she wanted to gossip. + +"There was fine doings up at the Villa last night, Miss Ida!" she +began, rather timidly, for Ida seldom encouraged her chatter. "There +was a ball there. Such a tremendous grand affair! There hasn't been +anything like it ever known in this country. Williams was up there this +morning, and Susie told him that it was like fairyland, what with the +beautiful rooms and the music and the ladies' rich dresses and jewels. +She got a peep through one of the open doors, and she says it quite +took her breath away." + +Ida smiled. She was not envious; for would not Stafford come over +presently and tell her all about it: who was there, with whom he had +danced, and how all the time he had been longing to be by her side? + +"Susie says that the ladies was beautiful, Miss Ida, and that the most +beautiful of them all was Miss Falconer. Susie says she had the most +lovely dress, like a cloud of smoke, with diamonds sparkling all over +it like stars." + +"That sounds very pretty and poetical, Jessie," said Ida. + +What would he care for a dress like a cloud, or the diamonds that shone +like stars on it? Did she not know that he loved the little rain-washed +habit which a certain rustic country girl wore, better than the +choicest production of Worth? + +"Yes, miss," Jessie went on, "and Susie says that Mr. Stafford, the +lord's son"--the simple dale folk as often called Sir Stephen "my lord" +as "sir"--"danced ever so many times with her, and the servants was +saying that he was making love to her, and that they shouldn't be +surprised to hear that Mr. Stafford was going to marry Miss Falconer." + +Ida could not prevent the colour rising to her face, but she laughed +unforcedly, and with no misgiving; for she had looked into Stafford's +eyes and read his soul through them. He was hers, let all the women in +the world be beautiful and decked in silks and satins. + +She ran upstairs to put on her habit, leaving Jessie rather +disappointed at the effect of her news, and she sang while she tied the +little scarlet sailor's knot, and presently came down the stairs with a +step as light as her heart. As she was mounting and talking to Jason +about the last lot of steers, Mr. Wordley came out of the house to get +his horse, and hurried to her, bare-headed, in the good old way. + +"No, I can't stay," he said in answer to her invitation. "I have to be +back at the office; but I'll ride a little way with you, if I may. It +isn't often I get the chance of riding with the prettiest girl in the +county. There now, I've made you blush, as I used to when you sat upon +my knee, and I told you that little girls had no right to stars for +eyes." + +Ida laughed. + +"But I'm a big girl now," she said, "and too old for compliments; +besides, lawyers should always speak the truth." + +"For goodness sake! don't spread that theory, my dear, or we shall all +have to put our shutters up," he retorted, with mock alarm. + +He got on his old red-roan rather stiffly, and they rode out of the +court-yard and on to the road, where, be sure, Ida's "star-like" eyes +swept the hills and the valleys lest perchance a young man should be +riding there. They rode in silence for a few minutes, during which the +old lawyer seemed very thoughtful, and glanced at her sideways, as if +he were trying to make up his mind about something. At last he said, +with an affectation of casualness: + +"Father been pretty well of late, my dear?" + +Ida hesitated for a moment. She could not bring herself to tell even +Mr. Wordley of her father's painful habit of walking in his sleep. + +"Yes," she said, "fairly well. Sometimes he is rather restless and +irritable as if he were worried. Has he anything to worry him, Mr. +Wordley--I mean anything more than usual?" + +He did not answer, and she looked at him as if waiting for his reply. + +"I was thinking of what you just said: that you were a big girl. So you +are, though you always seem to me like the little child I used to +nurse. But the world rolls on and you have grown into a woman and I +ought to tell you the truth," he said, at last. + +"The truth!" she echoed, with a quick glance. + +"Yes," he said, nodding gravely. "Does your father ever talk to you of +business, my dear? I know that you manage the house and the farm; ay, +and manage them well, but I don't know whether he ever tells you +anything about the business of the estate. I ask because I am in rather +an awkward position. When your father dismissed his steward I thought +he would consult me on the matters which the steward used to manage; +but he has not done so, and I am really more ignorant about his affairs +than anyone would credit, seeing that I have been the Herons' family +lawyer--I and mine--since, well, say, since the Flood." "No; my father +tells me nothing," said Ida. "Is there anything the matter, is there +anything I should know?" + +He looked at her gravely, compassionately. + +"My dear, I think there is," he said. "If you had a brother or any +relative near you I would not worry you, would not tell you. But you +have none, you are quite alone, you see." + +"Quite alone," she echoed. And then she blushed, as she remembered +Stafford, and that she was no longer alone in the world. + +"And so I think you ought to be told that your father's affairs +are--are not as satisfactory as they should be." + +"I know that we are very poor," said Ida in a low voice. + +"Ah, yes," he said. "And so are a great many of the landed gentry +nowadays; but they still struggle on, and I had hope that by some +stroke of good luck I might have helped your father to struggle on and +perhaps save something, make some provision, for you. But, my dear--See +now! I am going to treat you as if you were indeed a woman; and you +will be brave, I know, for you are a Heron, and a Heron--it sounds like +a paradox!--has never shown the white feather--your father's affairs +have been growing worse lately, I am afraid. You know that the estate +is encumbered, that the entail was cut off so that you might inherit; +but advantage has been taken of the cutting off the entail to raise +fresh loans since the steward was dismissed and I have been ignorant of +your father's business matters. I came to-day to tell him that the +interest of the heaviest mortgage was long overdue, and that the +mortgagee, who says that he has applied several times, is threatening +foreclosure. I felt quite sure that I should get the money from your +father this morning, but he has put me off and makes some difficulty. +He made a rambling statement, almost incoherent, which I did not +understand, though, to be sure, I listened very intently, and from a +word or two he incautiously let drop, I am afraid that--" + +He stopped and frowned and puckered his lips as if reluctant to +continue. Ida looked at him steadily with her deep grey eyes. + +"Go on." she said. "Do not be afraid to tell me the truth. I can bear +it. I would rather know the worst, know what I have to face. For some +time past I have feared my father was in trouble. Do you think I am +afraid? Please tell me all." + +"In a word, then, my dear," said the old lawyer, with a sigh, "I am +afraid your father has been speculating, and, like ninety-nine out of a +hundred that do so, has been losing. It is like playing against the +bank at Monte Carlo; one man may break it, but the advantage is on the +bank's side, and for the one who wins thousands lose. Can you tell me +if there are any grounds for my apprehension?" + +Ida was silent for a moment as she recalled her father's manner of +late, his habit of shutting himself up in the library, of keeping his +letters from her, of secreting papers, and, above all, the furtive +glances which she had now and again seen him cast at her. + +"I am afraid that it is only too true," she said. "My poor father! What +is to be done, Mr. Wordley? Can I do anything?" + +The old man shook his head. He knew too well that once a man has really +taken to gambling, whether it be on the Stock Exchange, or at a green +table, or on the turf, there is very little hope of saving him. + +"I fear you can do nothing," he replied, sadly. "A Heron never yet +brooked interference even by his nearest and dearest. No, you must say +nothing about it. Even I must be careful how I approach him; for this +morning he was testy and irritable and resented the few questions I +ventured to put to him. Don't make yourself unhappy about it. I will +try and arrange about the mortgage, and I will come over again as soon +as possible and try and persuade your father to confide in me as he +used to do. Now, come, remember! You are not to worry yourself, my +dear, but to leave it entirely to me. Things are rarely as bad as they +seem, and there is always a gleam of light in the darkest sky. Perhaps, +some day, we shall see Heron Hall and the good old family in all its +old glory; and when that day comes, my little girl with the star eyes +will queen it in the dale like one of the Heron ladies of the past." + +He patted her hand as he held it, patted and stroked it and looked at +her with a tender and encouraging smile, which made Ida's eyes grow +moist. + +She rode down the dale gravely and sadly for some minutes: then the +thought flashed through her mind, warming her heart, that she was not +alone, but there was one who loved her and to whom she could by for +consolation and encouragement. Yes, it was only right that she should +tell Stafford all; there should be no concealment from him. + +She rode down the dale looking for him, but he was nowhere to be seen. +When she came to the opening by the lake she saw the large, white Villa +gleaming in the sunlight; a launch was patting off from the +landing-place with men and women on board, and the could almost fancy +that she heard the sound of laughter. The contrast of the prosperity +typified by the great white place and the poverty of Heron Hall smote +her sharply. She was poorer even than she had thought: what would the +great, the rich Sir Stephen say to such a daughter-in-law? She watched +the launch dreamily as it shot across the lake, and wondered whether +Stafford was on board, laughing and talking perhaps with the beautiful +Miss Falconer. In this moment of her trouble the thought was not +pleasant, but there was no jealousy in it, for in her assurance of his +love he was free to talk and jest with whom he pleased. She turned, and +after making her usual circuit, rode home-wards. As she reached the +cross-road she heard the sound of a horse coming from the Hall, and she +pulled up, her heart beating fast; then it sank with disappointment, +for the horseman came round the bend and she saw that it was a groom. +He touched his hat as he passed, and rode on at a sharp trot in the +direction of Bryndremere. Ida wondered why he had been to the Hall, but +concluded that he had gone there with some message about the farm +produce. + +When she rode into the stable-yard, she saw Jessie and Jason standing +by the small hall door and talking eagerly, and Jessie came forward, +and taking a letter from under her apron, held it out with a smile. + +"It's just come from the Villa, Miss Ida," she said. "And oh, miss, +what I told you this morning--it's quite true. It was Mr. Stafford's +own groom as brought the note, and he says that his master is engaged +to Miss Falconer, and that the whole place is in excitement over it. He +was as proud as Punch, Miss Ida; for he says that his new mistress is +terrible rich as well as beautiful, and that there'll be the grandest +of grand doings up there." + +The blood rushed to Ida's face for a moment, then faded, and she +slipped the note into the pocket of her habit and laughed. For it +sounded too ridiculous, too incredible to cause her even a shadow of +annoyance. She gave one or two orders to Jason, then went into the +hall, took the note from her pocket and looked at the address lovingly, +lingeringly: for instinctively she knew whose hand had written it. It +was the first letter she had received from him; what would it say to +her? No doubt it was to tell her why he had not been able to meet her +that morning, to ask her to meet him later in the day. With a blush of +maidenly shame she lifted the envelope to her lips and kissed each +written word. + +Then she opened it, slowly, as lingeringly as she had looked at it, +spinning out the pleasure, the delight which lay before her in the +perusal of her first love-letter. With her foot upon the old-fashioned +fender, her head drooping as if there was someone present to see her +blushes, she read the letter; and it is not too much to say that at +first she failed utterly to grasp its meaning. With knit brows and +quaking heart, she read it again and again, until its significance was, +so to speak, forced upon her; then the letter dropped from her hand, +her arms fell limply to her sides, and she looked straight before her +in a dazed, benumbed fashion, every word burning itself upon her brain +and searing her heart. + +The blow had fallen so suddenly, so unexpectedly, like a bolt from the +blue, smiting the happiness of her young life as a sapling is smitten +by summer lightning, that for the moment she felt no pain, nothing but +the benumbing of all her faculties; so that she did not see the +portrait of the dead and gone Heron upon which her eyes rested, did not +hear her father's voice calling to her from the library, was conscious +of nothing but those terrible words which were dinning through her +brain like the booming of a great bell. Presently she uttered a low cry +and clasped her head with her hand, as if to shut out the sound of the +words that tortured her. + +It could not be true--it could not be true! Stafford had not written +it. It was some cruel jest, a very cruel jest, perpetrated by someone +who hated them both, and who wantonly inflicted pain. Yes; that was it! +That could be the only explanation. Someone had written in his name; it +was a forgery; she would meet Stafford presently, and they would laugh +at it together. He would be very angry, would want to punish the person +who had done it; but he and she would laugh together, and he would take +her in his arms and kiss her in one of the many ways in which he had +made a kiss an ecstasy of delight, and they would laugh together as he +whispered that nothing should ever separate them. + +She laughed now as she pictured the scene that would be enacted. But +suddenly the laugh died on her lips, as there flashed across her mind +the words Jessie had said. Stafford was engaged to Maude Falconer, the +girl up at the Villa, whose beauty and grace and wealth all the dale +was talking of. + +Oh, God! Was there any truth in it, was there any truth in it? Had +Stafford, indeed, written that cruel letter? Had he left her forever, +forever, forever? Should she never see him again, never again hear him +tell her that he loved her, would always love her? + +The room spun round with her, she suddenly felt sick and faint, and, +reeling, caught at the carved mantel-shelf to prevent herself from +falling. Then gradually the death-like faintness passed, and she became +conscious that her father's voice was calling to her, and she clasped +her head again and swept the hair from her forehead, and clenched her +hands in the effort to gain her presence of mind and self-command. + +She picked up the letter, and, with a shudder, thrust it in her bosom, +as Cleopatra might have thrust the asp which was to destroy her; then +with leaden feet, she crossed the hall and opened the library door, and +saw her father standing by the table clutching some papers in one hand, +and gesticulating wildly with the other. Dizzily, for there seemed to +be a mist before her eyes, she went to him and laid a hand upon his +arm. + +"What is it, father?" she said, "Are you ill? What is the matter?" + +He gazed at her vacantly and struck his hand on the table, after the +manner of a child in a senseless passion. + +"Lost! Lost! All lost!" he mumbled, jumbling the words together almost +incoherently. + +"What is lost, father?" she asked. + +"Everything, everything!" he cried, in the same manner. "I can't +remember, can't remember! It's ruin, utter ruin! My head--I can't +think, can't remember! Lost, lost!" + +In her terror, she put her young arm round him as a mother encircles +her child in the delirium of fever. + +"Try and tell me, father!" she implored him. "Try and be calm, dearest! +Tell me, and I will help you. What is lost?" + +He tried to struggle from her arms, tried to push her from him. + +"You know!" he mumbled. "You've watched me--you know the truth! +Everything is lost! I am ruined! The mortgage! Herondale will pass +away! I am a poor man, a very poor man! Have pity on me, have pity on +me!" + +He slipped, by their weight, from her arms and fell into the chair. She +sank on to her knees, her arms still round him, and stroked and +caressed his withered hand that twitched and shook; and to her horror +his stony eyes grew more vacant, his jaw dropped, and he sank still +lower in the chair. "Jessie! Jason!" she called, and they rushed in. +For a space they stood aghast and unhelpful from fright, then Jason +tried to lift his master from the heap into which he had collapsed. The +old man's eyes closed, he straggled for breath, and when he had gained +it, he looked from one to the other with a smile, a senile smile, which +added to Ida's grief and terror. + +"It's all right!" he whispered, huskily, pantingly. "It's all right; +they don't know. They don't guess!" Then his manner changed to one of +intense alarm and dismay. "Lost! Lost!" he gasped. "I'm ruined, rained! +Herondale has gone, gone--all is gone! My poor child--Ida!" + +"Father!" broke from Ida's white lips. "Father, I am here. Look at me, +speak to me. I am here--everything is not lost. I am here, and all is +well." + +His lips twisted into a smile, a smile of cunning, almost of glee; then +he groaned, and the cry rose again: + +"I can't remember--all is lost! Ruined! My poor child! Have pity on my +child!" + +As she clung to him, supporting him as she clung, she felt a shudder +run through him, and he fell a lifeless heap upon her shoulder. + +The minutes--were they minutes or years?--passed, and were broken into +fragments by a cry from Jessie. + +"Miss Ida! Miss Ida! He's--the master's dead!'" + + +Ida raised her father's head from her shoulder and looked into his +face, and knew that the girl had spoken the truth. + +He was dead. She had lost both father and lover in one day! + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + +Ida sat in the library on the morning of the funeral. A pelting rain +beat upon the windows, over which the blinds had been drawn; the great +silence which reigned in the chamber above, in which the dead master of +Heron lay, brooded over the whole house, and seemed in no part of it +more intense than in this great, book-lined room, in which Godfrey +Heron had spent so much of his life. + +Ida lay back in the great arm-chair in which he had sat, her small +brown hands lying limply in her lap, her eyes fixed absently upon the +open book which lay on the table as he had left it. The pallor of her +face, increased by her sorrow, was accentuated by the black dress, +almost as plainly made as that which the red-eyed Jessie wore in her +kitchen. Though nearly a week had elapsed since her father had died in +her young arms, and notwithstanding her capacity for self-reliance, Ida +had not yet recovered from the stupor of the shock. + +She was scarcely thinking as she lay back in his chair and looked at +the table over which he had bent for so many monotonous years; she +scarcely realised that he had passed out of her life, and that she was +alone in the world; and she was only vaguely conscious that her sorrow +had, so to speak, a double edge; that she had lost not only her father, +but the man to whom she had given her heart, the man who should have +been standing beside her now, shielding her with his strong arms, +comforting her with words of pity and love. The double blow had fallen +so suddenly, so unexpectedly, that the pain of it had been dulled and +blunted. The capacity of human nature for suffering is, after all not +unlimited. God says to physical pain and mental anguish, "Thus far and +no farther;" and this limitation saved Ida from utter collapse. + +Then, again, she was not free to indulge in idle grief, in the luxury +of woe; the great house had still to be run, she had to bury her +beloved dead, the mourning which seems such a hopeless mockery when the +heart is racked with misery, had to be seen to; and she did it, and +went through it all, with outward calm, sustained by that Heron spirit +which may be described as the religion of her class--_noblesse oblige_. +Jessie had wept loudly through the house ever since the death, and +could weep as loudly now; but if Ida shed any tears she wept in the +silence and darkness of her own room, and no one heard her utter a +moan. "To suffer in silence and be strong" was the badge of all her +tribe, and she wore it with quiet stoicism. + +Godfrey Heron's death had happened so suddenly that the news of it +scarcely got beyond the radius of the estate before the following +morning, and Stafford had gone to London in ignorance of this second +blow with which Fate had followed up the one he had dealt Ida: and when +the neighbours--the Vaynes, the Bannerdales, and the Avorys--came +quickly and readily enough to offer their sympathy and help, they could +do nothing. The girl solitary and lonely in her grief as she had been +solitary and lonely through her life, would see no one but the doctor +and Mr. Wordley, and the people who had once been warm and intimate +friends of the family left reluctantly and sully, to talk over the +melancholy circumstance, and to wonder what would become of the +daughter of the eccentric man who had lived the life of a recluse. Mr. +Wordley would have liked to have persuaded her to see some of the women +who had hastened to comfort her; but he knew that any attempt at +persuasion would have been in vain, that he would not have been able to +break down the barrier of reserve which the girl had instinctively and +reservedly erected between her suffering soul and the world. His heart +ached for her, and he did all that a man could do to lighten the burden +of her trouble; but there was very little that he could do beyond +superintending the necessary arrangements for the funeral. + +His first thought was of the relatives; but, somewhat to his own +dismay, he found that the only one whom he could trace was a certain +cousin, a more than middle-aged man who, though he bore the name of +Heron, was quite unknown to Ida, and, so far as Mr. Wordley was aware, +had not crossed the threshold of the Hall for many years. He was a +certain John Heron, a retired barrister, who had gone in for religion, +not in the form of either of the Established Churches, but of that of +one of the least known sects, the members of which called themselves +some kind of brothers, were supposed to be very strict observers of the +Scriptural law, and were considered by those who did not belong to them +both narrow-minded and uncharitable. + +Mr. John Heron was a prominent member of this little sect, and was +famous in its small circles for his extreme sanctity and his eloquence +as a lay preacher. Mr. Wordley, with much misgiving, had invited this, +the only relative he could find, to the funeral, and Ida was now +awaiting this gentleman's arrival. + +The stealthy footsteps which belong to those who minister to the dead +passed up and down the great house, Jason was setting out the simple +"funeral baked meats" which are considered appropriate to the occasion, +and Mr. Wordley paced up and down the hall with his hands behind his +back, listening to the undertaker's men upstairs, and glancing through +the window in expectation of the carriage which had been sent for Mr. +John Heron. Presently he saw it rounding a bend of the drive, and went +into the library to prepare Ida. + +She raised her head but not her eyes as he entered, and looked at him +with that dull apathy which denotes the benumbed heart, the mind +crushed under its heavy weight of sorrow. + +"I came in to tell you, my dear, that Mr. John Heron is coming," he +said. "The carriage is just turning the bend of the drive." "I will +come," she said, rising and supporting herself by the heavy, carved arm +of the great chair. + +"No, no" he said. "Sit down and wait here." He did not want her to hear +the stealthy tread of the undertaker's men, to meet the coffin which +they were going to bring downstairs and place in the hall. "I will +bring him in here. Is there anything you would like me to say to him, +my dear?" he asked, and spoke with a certain hesitancy; for as yet he +had not spoken of her future, feeling that her grief was too recent, +too sacred, to permit of the obtrusion of material and worldly matters. + +"To say to him?" she repeated, in a low, dull voice, as if she did not +understand. + +"Yes," he said. "I did not know whether you had formed any plan, +whether"--he hesitated again, "you had thought of going--of paying a +visit--to these relations of yours. He lives in the north of London, +and has a wife and son and daughter, as you know." + +Ida passed her hand across her brow, trying to remember. + +"Ah, yes," she said at last, "I remember you told me about them. I +never heard of them before--until now. Why should I go to them? Do they +want me? Have they asked me?" + +Mr. Wordley coughed discreetly. They certainly had not asked her, but +he felt quite assured that an individual whose reputation for sanctity +stood so high could not be so deficient in charity as to refuse a home +to his orphan cousin. + +"They have not sent you any definite invitation yet, but they will be +sure to want you to go and stay with them, for a time, at any rate; and +I think you ought to go." + +"I do not think I should like it," said Ida, but indifferently, as if +the question were of no moment. "I would rather stay here" + +Mr. Wordley polished his glasses very intently. + +"I am afraid you'd find it very lonely at the Hall, my dear," he said. +"In fact, I don't think you could remain here by yourself," he added, +evading the direct gaze of the great, sad eyes. + +"I should feel lonely anywhere," she said. "More lonely with people I +don't know, probably, than I should feel here, with Jessie and +Jason--and--and the dogs." + +"Well, well, we can't discuss the question now, and will endeavour to +act for the best, my dear," said the old man, still intent upon his +glasses. "I hear the carriage. I will bring Mr. John in." He returned +in a minute or two, accompanied by a tall and gaunt individual, who, in +his black clothes and white necktie, looked a cross between a superior +undertaker and a Methodist preacher. His features were strongly marked, +and the expression of his countenance was both severe and melancholy, +and, judging by his expression and his voice, which was harsh and +lachrymose, his particular form of religion did not appear to afford +him either amusement or consolation. + +"This is your cousin, Mr. John Heron," said poor Mr. Wordley, who was +evidently suffering from the effects of his few minutes' conversation +with that gentleman. + +Mr. John Heron surveyed the slight figure and white face with its sad, +star-like eyes--surveyed it with a grim kind of severity, which was +probably intended for sympathy, and extending a cold, damp hand, which +resembled an extremely bony shoulder of mutton, said, in a rasping, +melancholy voice: + +"How do you do, Ida? I trust you are bearing your burden as becomes a +Christian. We are born to sorrow. The train was three-quarters of an +hour late." + +"I am sorry," said Ida in her low voice, leaving him to judge whether +she expressed regret for our birthright of misery or the lateness of +the train. "Will you have some lunch--some wine?" she asked, a dull, +vague wonder rising in her mind that this grim, middle-class man should +be of kith and kin with her dead father. + +"Thank you; no. I had an abernethy biscuit at the station." He drew +back from, and waved away, the tray of wine which Jason at this moment +brought in. "I never touch wine. I, and all mine, are total abstainers. +Those who fly to the wine-cup in moments of tribulation and grief rely +on a broken reed which shall pierce their hand. I trust you do not +drink, Cousin Ida?" + +"No--yes; sometimes; not much," she replied, vaguely, and regarding him +with a dull wonder; for she had never seen this kind of man before. + +Mr. Wordley poured out a glass of wine, and, in silent indignation, +handed it to her; and, unconscious of the heavy scowl with which Mr. +John Heron regarded her, she put her lips to it. + +"A glass of wine is not a bad thing at any time," said the old lawyer; +"especially when one is weakened and prostrated by trouble. Try and +drink a little more, my dear." + +"It is a matter of opinion, of conviction, of principle," said Mr. John +Heron, grimly, as if he were in the pulpit. "We must be guided by the +light of our consciences; we must not yield to the seductive in +fineness of creature comfort. We are told that strong drink is +raging--" This was rather more than Mr. Wordley could stand, and, very +red in the face, he invited Mr. John Heron to go up to the room which +had been prepared for him. + +When that gentleman had stalked out, the old lawyer looked at Ida with +a mixture of dismay and commiseration. + +"Not a--er--particularly cheerful and genial person, my dear; but no +doubt Mr. John Heron is extremely conscientious and--er--good-hearted." + +"I daresay," assented Ida, apathetically. "It does not matter. It was +very kind of him to come so far to--to the funeral," she added. "He +might have stayed away, for I don't think my father knew him, and I +never heard of him. Is it not time yet?" she asked, in a low voice. + +As she spoke, Jessie came in and took her upstairs to her room to put +on the thick black cloak, the bonnet with its long crape veil, in which +Ida was to follow her father to the grave; for in spite of Mr. +Wordley's remonstrances, she had remained firm in her resolve to go to +the church-yard. + +Presently the procession started. Only a few carriages followed the +hearse which bore Godfrey Heron to his last resting-place; but when the +vehicles cradled beyond the boundary of the grounds, across which the +dead man had not set foot for thirty years, the cavalcade was swelled +by a number of tenants, labourers, and dalesmen who had come to pay +their last respects to Heron of Herondale; and marching in threes, +which appears to be the regulation number for a funeral, they made a +long and winding tail to the crawling coaches, quite filled the little +church, and stood, a black-garbed crowd, in the pelting rain round the +oblong hole which would suffice for the last bed of this one of the +last of the lords of the dale. + +But though all were present to show respect to the deceased squire, the +attention of every man and woman was fixed upon the slight, girlish +figure standing by the side of the grave, her head bent, her great +mournful eye fixed upon the coffin, her hands clenched tightly as they +held together the thick mourning cloak. She looked so young, so almost +child-like in the desolation of her solitude, that many of the women +cried silently, and the rough men set their lips hard and looked +sternly and grimly at the ground. + +The old clergyman who had christened her and every Sunday had cast +glances of interest and affection at her as she sat in the great "loose +box" of a pew, found it very difficult to read the solemn service +without breaking down, and his old thin voice quavered as he spoke the +words of hope and consolation which the storm of wind and rain caught +up and swept across the narrow church-yard and down the dale of which +the Herons had been so long masters. + +Mr. John Heron stood grim and gaunt opposite Ida, as if he were a +figure carved out of wood, and showed no sign of animation until the +end of the service, when he looked round with a sudden eagerness, and +opened his large square lips as if he were going to "improve the +occasion" by an address; but Mr. Wordley, who suspected him of such +intention, nipped it in the bud by saying: + +"Will you give your arm to Miss Ida, Mr. Heron? I want to get her back +to the Hall as soon as possible." + +Ida was led to the carriage, passing through a lane of sympathisers +amongst whom were representatives of all the great dale families; and +all bent their heads with a respectful pity and sympathy as the young +girl made her way down the narrow path. About half a dozen persons had +been asked to go to the Hall for the funeral lunch, at which Mr. John +Heron, as representative of the family, presided. It was a melancholy +meal; for most of those present were thinking of the orphan girl in her +room above. They spoke in lowered voices of the dead man and of the +great family from which he had sprung, and recalled stories of the +wealth and lavishness of past Herons; and when the meal was over, there +suddenly fell a silence, and all eyes were turned upon Mr. Wordley; for +the moment had arrived for the reading and expounding of the will. + +Mr. Wordley rose, coughed, and wiped his eye-glasses, and looked round +gravely. + +"As the legal adviser of my late client, Mr. Godfrey Heron, I have to +inform you, gentlemen, that there is no will. My client died +intestate." + +The listeners exchanged glances, and looked grave and concerned. + +"No will?" said Lord Bannerdale, anxiously; then his kindly face +cleared. "But of course everything goes to his daughter; the estate is +not entailed?" + +Mr. Wordley inclined his head. + +"The estate is not entailed, as you observed, Lord Bannerdale; and my +client, Miss Ida Heron, inherits everything." + +They drew a breath of relief, and nodded assentingly; and presently +they made a general movement of departure. Lord Bannerdale lingered +behind the others. "I won't ask the poor child to see me, Mr. Wordley," +he said. "Will you therefore be good enough to give her Lady +Bannerdale's love, and to tell her that, as Lady Bannerdale has written +to her, we shall be more than pleased if she will come to us at the +Court. She is to consider it her home for just as long as she should +please; and we shall feel it a pleasure and an honour to have her +amongst us as one of our own. Of course she cannot remain alone here, +in this great place." + +The old lawyer bowed. + +"I will give her your kind message, for which I thank you on her +behalf, Lord Bannerdale. I do not know what she will do, or where she +will go; at present she is not in a condition to discuss any plans for +her future, though to-day she expressed a desire to remain at the +Hall." He paused for a moment before he added: "I do not know whether +she can do so." + +"My cousin is young, and a mere child, and she must follow the advice +of her elders and her guardian. The future of even the sparrow is in +higher hands than ours, and we know not what a day may bring forth," +said Mr. John Heron, grimly, and with an uplifting of his heavy brows. + +"Quite so," said Lord Bannerdale, who had taken a great dislike for the +sanctimonious speaker, and who could scarcely repress a shudder as he +shook Mr. John Heron's cold and clammy hand. + +When they had all gone, Mr. Wordley said: + +"We had better go into the library and talk matters over. I will send +for Miss Ida. It seems cruel to disturb her at such a moment, but there +is no help for it." + +"You speak as if you had bad tidings, Mr. Wordley, to give us," said +John Heron. + +"I am afraid I have," responded the old lawyer, shaking his grey head +sadly. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + +When Ida came down, he led her to a chair beside the fire which he had +ordered to be lit, and laid his hand gently and tenderly on her +shoulder by way of preparation and encouragement. + +"Your cousin and I want to talk to you about the future, Ida," he said. +"You will have to be told some time or other exactly how your father's +affairs stood, and I have come to the conclusion that it is better you +should know at once than that you should be permitted to remain in +ignorance of the gravity of the situation. I have gone over your +father's papers and looked into his affairs very carefully and closely, +and I am sorry to say that they are in a very unsatisfactory condition. +As I told you the other day, the estate has been encumbered and very +seriously embarrassed for some time past, and the encumbrance has been +increased of late, notwithstanding the admirable way in which you have +managed the estate and the household affairs." + +Ida raised her eyes to his and tried to regard him calmly and bravely, +but her lips quivered and she checked a sigh. + +Mr. Wordley coughed and frowned, as a man does when he is engaged in a +disagreeable and painful task. + +"The principal mortgagee has given me notice of foreclosure, and the +amount of the debt is so large that I am afraid--it would be cruel and +useless to conceal the truth from you--I _know_ that the property sold +would not be sufficient to meet it. Of ready money there appears to be +none--" + +Mr. John Heron groaned and raised his melancholy eyes to the ceiling +with an expression of reprobation. Ida appeared unconscious of his +presence and kept her sad eyes steadily fixed on the lawyer's kind and +mournful face. + +--"In a word, my dear child, your poor father appears to have left +absolutely no effects behind him." + +Ida drew a long breath and was silent for a moment, as she tried to +realise the significance of his words. + +"Do you mean that I am quite penniless?" she said, in a low voice. + +Mr. Wordley blew his nose and coughed two or three times, as if he +found it difficult to reply; at last he said, in a voice almost as low +as hers: + +"Put shortly, I am afraid, my dear, that is what I must tell you. I had +no idea that the position was so grave. I thought that there would be +something left; sufficient, at any rate, to render you independent; +but, as I told you, I have been kept in ignorance of your father's +affairs for some years past, and I did not know how things were going. +I am surprised as well as grieved, deeply grieved; and I must confess +that I can only account for the deplorable confusion and loss by the +theory that I suggested to you the other day. I cannot but think that +your poor father must have engaged in some disastrous speculation." + +Mr. Heron groaned again, and shook his head. + +"The prevailing vice of this most wicked of ages," he said. "The love +of money, the gambling on the race-course and the Stock Exchange, are +the root of all evil." + +Ida seemed not to hear him, and Mr. Wordley ignored the comment. + +"It now remains for you, my dear child, to decide what to do. I do not +think you could possibly live on here; you have not the means to do so, +though you should be as economical as you have been in the past; the +house must pass away from you in six months' time or little more, and +there would be nothing gained by your lingering hopelessly here for +that period." + +"I must go, then," said Ida, as if there were a stab in every word. + +Mr. Wordley bent his head, and laid his hand on her shoulder. + +"Yes, I fear you must go," he assented. "But, thank God, you are not +without friends, many friends. Lord Bannerdale charges me to tell you +what his good wife has already written you--that a home awaits you at +the Court, where you will be received gladly and lovingly; and I am +quite sure that the door of every house in the dale is wide open for +you." + +Ida shrank in her chair. Clothe the offer as kindly as he might, it +spelt Charity, not cold charity, but charity still: and what Heron had +ever tamely accepted charity from mere friends and strangers? Mr. +Wordley saw the shrinking, the little shudder, and understood. + +"I understand, my dear!" he said, in a low voice. "But there is another +offer, another home which you can accept without humiliation or +compunction. Your cousin, Mr. John Heron here, will, I am sure, be only +too glad, too delighted to--to--" + +He waited and glanced at Mr. Heron impatiently, and at last that +gentleman rose, but not too eagerly, to the occasion. + +"I need scarcely say," he said, slowly and solemnly, "that I should not +approve of my cousin's accepting these offers of charity, which, though +no doubt kindly meant, appear to me somewhat--er--obtrusive. I am not a +wealthy man; my simple home cannot compare in size and grandeur with +Heron Hall and the estate which my late unfortunate cousin appears to +have squandered, but such as it is, Ida will be welcome in it. I am not +one to turn a deaf ear to the cry of the orphan and fatherless." + +Mr. Wordley frowned and reddened, and cut in before Mr. John Heron +could finish his sentence even more offensively, and so rouse Ida's +spirit, and render his offer impossible of acceptance. + +"Quite so, quite so, my dear sir," he said. "I am quite sure you will +feel only too delighted and honoured at the prospect of taking this +dear child into your family." + +"Yes," said Mr. Heron, unctuously, "we will take her in as a lamb +gathered into the fold, as a brand is plucked from the burning." + +Ida looked at him half stupefied, and it is to be feared some doubts of +his sanity arose in her mind. + +"Quite so, quite so," interrupted Mr. Wordley again. "Then I think the +sooner Miss Ida joins you the better; and I would suggest that she goes +with you to-morrow. I will close the house and leave Jessie, the +maid-servant, and Jason in charge. You and Miss Ida can depend on my +guarding her interests as jealously as if they were my own. I will have +a sale of the stock and other things which we are free to sell, and, +meanwhile, Miss Ida must permit me to advance her some money on account +of the proceeds." + +He handed her an envelope in which he had already placed some +bank-notes; but Ida looked at him and slowly shook her head. + +"No, no, my dear!" he said. "I should not be guilty of such +presumption. Though you are leaving Heron Hall, though it may be +passing away from you forever, you are still, in my eyes, Miss Heron of +Herondale, and I should not presume to offer you--" His voice broke, +and his eyes filled with tears. "The money is yours, and you can take +it without any loss of the pride which is your rightful heritage. If I +have not offered you a home where you would indeed be an honoured +guest, it is because I know that it would not be fitting for me to +offer it, or you to accept it. Mr. John Heron is your natural guardian; +but though that is so, I will ask you to remember that I claim the +privilege of being your father's friend and yours, and that in any +trouble you will be but honouring that privilege when you come to me +for advice and assistance." + +His voice was almost inaudible before he had finished, and Ida, down +whose cheek tears were running for the first time, extended both hands +in mute but eloquent gratitude. They had both forgotten Mr. John +Heron's presence but were reminded of it by something between a cough +and a sniff from him; and at a glance from Mr. Wordley, Ida turned to +the gaunt figure and held out her hand. + +"Thank you," she said in a low voice, "I will come with you and stay +with you until--until--I can find something to do, something at which I +can earn my own living. Surely there must be something I can do?" She +turned to Mr. Wordley with a little anxious, eager gesture. "I am +strong--very strong; I have managed Herondale--I can ride, and--and +understand a farm. I am never tired. Surely there is something I can +do!" + +Her voice broke, she began to tremble, and the tears started to her +eyes again. + +"Yes, yes; no doubt, no doubt, my child!" said Mr. Wordley, whose own +eyes were moist. "We will think about all that later on. You must go +now and rest; you are tired." + +He drew her arm within his, and patting her hand tenderly and +encouragingly, led her out of the room; and stood in the hall watching +her as she slowly went up the great stairs; such a girlish, mournful +figure in her plain black dress. + +Ida lay awake that night listening to the wind and the rain. She was +familiar enough with the dale storms, but never had their wild music +wailed so mournful an accompaniment to her own thoughts. Compared with +her other losses, that of her home, dearly as she loved it, weighed but +little; it was but, an added pang to the anguish of her bereavement; +and behind that, the principal cause of her grief, loomed the desertion +of her lover. She tried not to think of Stafford; for every thought +bestowed on him seemed to rob her dead father and to be disloyal to his +memory; but, alas! the human heart is despotic; and as she lay awake +and listened to the wailing of the wind and the rain as it drove +against the window, Stafford's voice penetrated that of the storm; and, +scarcely consciously, her lips were forming some of the passionate +words of endearment which he had whispered to her by the stream and on +the hill-side. Though she knew every word by heart of the letter he had +written her, she did not yet understand or comprehend why he had broken +his solemn engagement to her. She understood that something had risen +between them, something had happened which had separated them, but she +could form no idea as to what it was. He had spoken of "unworthiness," +of something which he had discovered that had rendered him unfit to be +her husband; but she could not guess what it was; but confused and +bewildered as she was, there was at present, at any rate, no resentment +in her heart. + +The lover had been taken from her just as her father and her home had +been. There was no help for it, there was no appeal from the decrees of +Fate. Fate had decreed that she should love Stafford and lose him; and +she could only go on living her grey and dreary life, made all the +greyer and drearier by her short spell of joy and happiness. Sorrow's +crown of sorrow is still the remembrance of happier things; and she +would have to wear that crown in place of the crown of his love, wear +it through all her days; for, young as she was, she knew that she had +given her heart once and for all, that though she might never see +Stafford again, she would love him to the end. + +A mist hung over the dale on this, the day of her departure from the +Hall, and all the hills over which she had so loved to ride and walk +were shrouded as if in tears. + +She stood and looked at them from the hall window with vacant eyes, as +if she did not yet realise that she was leaving them, perhaps forever; +but she had not long for gazing, for Mr. Heron and she were going by an +early train, and the moment for farewell came swiftly upon her. + +With Donald and Bess close at her heels, as if they were aware of their +coming loss, she went round to say good-bye. She crossed the lawn and +went to the spot under the tree where she had met Stafford that +never-to-be-forgotten night, and from thence walked to the corner of +the terrace where they had stood and watched her father coming, in his +sleep, from the ruined chapel. Then she went to the stable to say +good-bye to Rupert, who whinnied as he heard her approaching footstep, +and thrust his soft, velvety nose into her neck. She had to fight hard +against the tears at this point, and she hid her face against that of +the big horse, with her arms thrown round his neck, as she murmured her +last good-bye. + +But the tears would not be kept back when it came to saying farewell to +the two faithful souls, Jessie and Jason, with whom she had grown up +from a girl all legs and wings, and whom she had learnt to regard +rather as devoted friends than servants. Jason broke down completely +and hurried away, his old and feeble frame shaking like an autumn leaf; +and Jessie, her arms thrown round her young mistress, and with sobs and +ejaculations, implored her to take her faithful Jessie with her. + +Perhaps the parting with the two dogs was as bitter as any, for, as if +they knew quite well that she was going, they clung closely to her, and +when she hugged them and kissed them on the forehead, they had to be +dragged off by Jason, and locked up in the stables lest they should +follow the carriage which was to bear their beloved mistress away. + +That carriage came all too soon, though Mr. John Heron had awaited its +arrival impatiently and with watch in hand. He seemed grimmer and +gaunter than ever that morning, and as he looked around the great Hall, +he shook his head at its faded grandeur reprehensively, as if he could, +if time permitted, deliver a sermon on the prodigality, the wicked +wastefulness, which had brought ruin on the house, and rendered it +necessary for him to extend his charity to the penniless orphan. + +Mr. Wordley was there to say good-bye to Ida and put her into the +carriage; but it proved a difficult good-bye to say, and for once the +usually fluent old lawyer was bereft of the power of speech as he held +Ida's small hand, and looked through tear-dimmed eyes at the white and +sorrowful face. He had intended to say all sorts of kind and +encouraging things, but he could only manage the two words, "Good-bye;" +and they were almost inaudible. + +She sank back into the carriage as it drove away from the Hall, and +closed her eyes that she might not see the familiar trees in the +avenue, the cattle, everyone of which she knew by name, grazing in the +meadow, the pale and woe-begone faces of the servants who stood by the +steps to catch the last glimpse of their beloved; and for some time her +eyes remained closed; but they opened as she came to the clearing by +the lake, from which one could see the long stretching façade of Sir +Stephen Orme's white villa. She opened them then and looked at the +house, wondering whether Stafford was there, wondering why he had not +come to her, despite the promise she had exacted from him; wondering +whether he knew that her father was dead, and that she was left +penniless. + +She was not capable of any more tears, and a dull apathy crushed down +upon her, so that she did not notice that at the station Mr. John Heron +improved the occasion, as he would have put it, by distributing tracts +to the station-master and porters. The journey to London passed as if +it were made in a dream; and wearied in mind and body and soul, she +found herself, late in the evening, standing in the centre of the +Heron's dreary drawing-room, awaiting her reception by the Heron +family. + +She had been told by her cousin, as they drove in a four-wheeled cab +through the depressing streets of a London suburb, that the family +consisted of his wife and a son and a daughter; that the son's name was +Joseph and the daughter's Isabel; that Joseph was a clerk in the city, +and that Isabel was about the same age as Ida. + +"We are a very quiet family," Mr. Heron had said, "and you will no +doubt miss the space and grandeur of Heron Hall, but I trust we are +contented and happy, and that though our means are limited, our sphere +of usefulness is wider than that of some wealthier people. My wife is, +unfortunately, an invalid, and requires constant care and attention; +but I have no doubt she will find strength to bear any fresh burden +which Providence may see fit to put upon her. Though our circumstances +are comfortable, we are not surrounded by the luxuries which so often +prove a stumbling-block to weaker brethren. I trust you may be happy in +our humble home, and that you may find some opportunity of usefulness +in this new state of life to which you are called." + +Ida tried to remember all this as she stood in the centre of the +drawing-room and looked round upon the modern but heavy and ugly +objects with which it was furnished. + +The room was seedy and shabby, but with a different seediness and +shabbiness from that of Heron Hall; for there was an attempt to conceal +its loss of freshness with antimacassars, large in size and hideous of +pattern. A grim and ugly portrait of Mr. John Heron occupied a great +portion of one of the walls, and was confronted by a portrait, of a +similar size, of his wife, a middle-class woman of faded aspect and +languishing expression. The other pictures were of the type that one +usually sees in such houses; engravings printed from wornout plates, +and third-class lithographs. There was a large sofa covered with dirty +cretonne, and with a hollow in the middle showing that the spring had +"gone;" the centre-table was adorned by several well-known religious +books arranged at regular intervals. A cage containing a canary hung +between the curtains in the window, and the bird, a wretched-looking +animal--it was moulting--woke up at their entrance and shrilled in the +hateful manner peculiar to canaries. This depressing room was lit by +one gas-burner, which only permitted Ida to take in all that had been +described but vaguely and dimly. + +She looked round aghast and with a sinking of the heart. She had never +been in any room like this before, and its lack of comfort, its +vulgarity, struck upon her strained nerves like a loud discordant note +in music; but its owner looked round complacently and turned the gas a +little higher, as he said: + +"I will go and fetch your cousin. Won't you sit down?" + +As he spoke, the door opened and the original of the portrait on the +wall entered, followed by her daughter Isabel. Ida rose from the bumpy +sofa and saw a thin, harassed-looking woman, more faded even than the +portrait, and a tall and rather a good-looking girl whose face and +figure resembled, in a vague, indefinite way, those of both her father +and mother; but though she was not bad-looking, there was a touch of +vulgarity in her widely opened eyes, with a curious stare for the +newcomer, and in her rather coarse mouth, which appalled and repelled +poor Ida; and she stood looking from one to the other, trying to keep +her surprise and wonder and disapproval from revealing themselves +through her eyes. She did not know that these two ladies, being the +wife and daughter of a professional man, considered themselves very +much the superior of their friends and neighbours, who were mostly +retired trades-people or "something in the city;" and that Mrs. Heron +was extremely proud of her husband's connection with the Herons of +Herondale, and was firmly convinced that she and her family possessed +all the taste and refinement which belong to "the aristocracy." + +A simpler and a homelier woman would have put her arm round the girl's +neck and drawn her towards her with a few loving words of greeting and +welcome; but Mrs. Heron only extended a hand, held at the latest +fashionable angle, and murmured in a languid and lackadaisical voice: + +"So you have come at last, my dear Miss Heron! Your train must have +been very late, John; we have been expecting you for the last hour, and +I am afraid the dinner is quite spoilt. But anyway, I am glad to see +you." + +"Thank you," said poor Ida. + +It was Isabel's turn, and she now came forward with a smile that +extended her mouth from ear to ear, and in a gushing manner said, in +staccato sentences: + +"Yes, we are so glad to see you! How tired you must be! One always +feels so dirty and tumbled after a long journey. You'll be glad of a +wash, Miss Heron. But there! I mustn't call you that; it sounds so cold +and formal! I must call you Ida, mustn't I? 'Ida!' It sounds such an +_odd_ name; but I suppose I shall get used to it in time." + +"I hope so," said poor Ida, trying to smile and speak cheerfully and +amiably, as Miss Isabel's rather large hand enclosed round hers; but +she looked from one to the other with an appalling sensation of +strangeness and aloofness, and a lump rose in her throat which rendered +the smile and any further speech on her part impossible; and as she +looked from the simpering, lackadaisical mother to the vulgar daughter +with meaningless smile, she asked herself whether she was really awake, +whether this room was indeed to be her future home, and these strange +people her daily companions, or whether she was only asleep and +dreaming, and would wake to find the honest face of Jessie bending over +her, and to see the familiar objects of her own room at Heron Hall. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +When Ida went upstairs for the wash, the need for which Miss Isabel had +so kindly informed her of, she found that her room was clean and fairly +comfortable, though its appearance seemed strange after the huge and +old-fashioned one at the Hall. The furniture was cheap and +unsubstantial, the towels were small and thin; in place of pictures, +aggressively illuminated texts scarred the walls like freshly made +wounds, and the place had a bare, homeless look which made Ida shudder. + +The dining-room, when she went down to it, did not impress her any more +favourably; for here, too, the furniture was new and shiny with a +sticky kind of shininess, as if the treacly varnish had not yet dried; +there was not a comfortable chair in the room; the pictures were the +most gruesome ones of Doré's, and there was a text over the +mantel-piece as aggressive and as hideous in colouring as those in her +room. A lukewarm leg of mutton, very underdone, was on the table, the +cloth of which was by no means clean; the dishes, which contained quite +cold vegetables, were cracked and did not match; the bread was of the +commonest kind, that which is called "household;" the knives were badly +cleaned, and the plate was worn off the forks and spoons. It was +considered inelegant to have gas in the dining-room, therefore a cheap +paraffin-lamp was in the centre of the table, and was more liberal of +scent than light. The curtains to the window were of that annoying red +which shrieks down any other colour near it; they made Ida's tired eyes +ache. + +While she was trying to eat the slice of gory mutton, Mrs. Heron and +Isabel watched her, as if she were some aboriginal from a wild and +distant country, and they shot glances at each other, uneasy, +half-jealous, half-envious glances, as they noted the beauty of the +face, and the grace of the figure in its black dress, which, plain as +it was, seemed to make theirs still more dowdy and vulgar. In the midst +of this lugubrious account of the annoyances and worries of the +journey, Mr. Heron broke off to ask: + +"Where is Joseph? He is late to-night." + +"He is kept at the office," replied his mother. "Poor boy! I hope he is +not working too hard; he has been kept nearly every night this week." + +Isabel smiled at Ida, for what reason Ida could not guess; and while +she was wondering, there came a knock at the outer door, and presently +Joseph entered. + +He was an unprepossessing young man with small eyes and thick lips, +over which it would have been wise of him to wear a big moustache; but +it was the fashion in the city to be clean-shaven, and Mr. Joseph +considered himself the pink of fashion. His clothes fitted him too +tightly, he wore cheap neckties, and ready-made boots, of course, of +patent leather. His dark hair was plastered on the low, retreating +forehead; his face was flushed instead of being, as one would expect, +pale from overwork. + +Ida disliked him at the first glance, and disliked him still more at +the second, as she caught his shifty eyes fixed on her with a curious +and half-insolently admiring expression. + +He came round and shook hands--his were damp and cold like his +father's--as Mr. Heron introduced them, and in a voice which +unpleasantly matched his face, said that he was glad to see her. + +"Tired, Joseph, dear?" murmured his mother, regarding him with a +mixture of pride and commiseration. + +"Oh, I'm worn out, that's what I am," he said, as he sank into a chair +and regarded the certainly untempting food with an eye of disfavour. +"Been hard at it all the evening"--he spoke with a Cockney, city +accent, and was rather uncertain about his aspirates--"I work like a +nigger." + +"Labour is prayer," remarked his father, as if he were enunciating +something strikingly original. "Nothing is accomplished without toil, +my dear Joseph." + +My dear Joseph regarded his father with very much the same expression +he had bestowed upon the mutton. + +"And how do you like London, Cousin Ida?" he asked. + +He hesitated before the "Cousin Ida," and got it out rather defiantly, +for there was something in the dignity of this pale, refined face which +awed him. It was perhaps the first time in his life Mr. Joseph had sat +at the same table with a lady; for Mr. John Heron had married beneath +him, and for money; and in retiring from the bar, at which he had been +an obvious failure, had sunk down to the society of his wife's class. + +"I have seen so little of it," replied Ida. "I have only passed through +London twice, on my way from France to Herondale, and from Herondale +here." Mr. Joseph was duly impressed by the sound of Herondale. + +"Oh, you must tell me all about your old home," he said, with an air of +overconfidence to conceal his nervousness; "and we must show you about +London a bit; it's a tidy little place." + +He grinned with an air of knowingness, and seemed rather disconcerted +that Ida did not return his smile. + +"Shall I give you some water, Ida?" said Mr. Heron. "I regret that I +cannot offer you any wine. We have no intoxicants in the house. We are +all total abstainers, on principle." + +The other members of the family looked down uncomfortably, and, to +Ida's surprise, as if they were ashamed. + +"Thank you," she said; "I do not care for wine." + +"I am afraid there are a great many things you will miss here," said +Mr. Heron. "We are a plain, but I trust, Godfearing family, and we are +content with the interest which springs from the daily round, the +common task. You will find no excitements at Laburnum Villa." + +Ida, as she glanced at the family, could not help feeling that they +were indeed plain, but she made haste to say that she did not need any +excitements and that her life had hitherto been devoid of them. They +seemed to think that it was the proper thing to sit round the table +while she was making her pretence of a meal; but when it was finished, +Mr. Joseph stretched himself out in what was erroneously called an +easy-chair, and proceeded to monopolise the conversation. + +"Regular busy time in the city," he remarked to his father. "Never saw +such a hum. It's all over this boom in South Africa. They're floating +that new company I was telling you about, and the Stock Exchange is +half wild about it. They say the shares will run to a hundred per cent. +premium before the week's out; and if you've got any money to spare, +guv'nor, I should recommend you to have a little flutter; for it's a +certainty." + +Mr. Heron seemed to prick up his ears with an amount of worldly +interest which scarcely harmonised with his saintly character. + +"What company is that?" he asked Joseph. + +"The company started to work Sir Stephen Orme's," replied Joseph, +thrusting his hands deep into his pockets, and stretching out his legs +still farther so that he could admire his large, patent-leather clad +feet. "It's about the biggest thing on record, and is going to sweep +the market. All the big 'uns are in it, Griffenberg and Wirsch and the +Beltons. They say Sir Stephen has made half a million of money out of +it already, and that he will make a couple of millions before he has +done with it. There was a rumour in the city to-day that he was to get +a peerage; for it's a kind of national affair, you see." + +Ida was sitting beyond the radius of the light from the evil-smelling +lamp, so that the others did not perceive the sudden pallor of her +face. It seemed to her a cruel fate that she could not escape, even +here, so many miles away from Herondale, from the reminder of the man +she had loved and lost. The name struck on her heart like a stroke +causing actual physical pain. She sat perfectly still, her hands +clasped tightly in her lap, as the wave of misery swept over her. + +"Here is an instance of toil rewarded," said Mr. Heron, promptly +improving the occasion. "The labourer is worthy of his hire; and no +doubt Sir Stephen Orme, by bringing vast tracts under the beneficent +influence of civilisation, merits the approval of his sovereign and a +substantial reward at the hands of his fellow-subjects. Let us trust +that he will use his wealth and high position for the welfare of the +heathen who rage in the land which he has--er--" + +"Collared," put in Mr. Joseph, in an undertone and with a grin. + +--"Added to the queen's dominions," said Mr. Heron. "I will consider +about the shares. I do not approve of speculation--the pursuit of +Mammon--but as I should use the money for charitable purposes, I may on +this occasion--" + +"Better make up your mind pretty soon," remarked Joseph, with a yawn. +"There's a rush for them already." + +"Now that the gentlemen have got on to business, my dear, I think we +had better retire to the drawing-room," said Mrs. Heron, with an +attempt at the "grand lady." + +They returned to that apartment--Mr. Joseph did not open the door for +them--and Mrs. Heron and Isabel at once started on a series of +questions calculated to elicit all the details of Ida's past life, her +father's death and her present deplorable condition. Women can be much +more merciless than men in this kind of inquisition; and Ida, weary in +mind and body and spirit, suffered acutely under the ordeal. The two +women did not intend to be unkind--they were really sorry for the +homeless orphan; they were prepared to like her; they reluctantly and +grudgingly admired her beauty and her grace, and had a sneaking kind of +awe of her higher social position, of which they were reminded by every +word she spoke, the high-bred accent, and that indescribable air of +delicacy and refinement which indicate good birth; but they were +devoured by curiosity as to her mode of life and her friends, a +curiosity which they were too vulgar, too inconsiderate to restrain. So +poor Ida had to describe the Hall, and the servants, and the way she +managed the farm, and the way in which she rode about Herondale. + +They were very much impressed, specially so when she mentioned Lord and +Lady Bannerdale's kind offer, and they exchanged glances as the titles +left Ida's lips "quite as naturally as if they were common names," as +Mrs. Heron afterwards remarked to Isabel. + +"I'm afraid you'll find it very dull here, Ida," said Mrs. Heron, with +a sniff. "You won't find any society in Woodgreen; they're nearly all +city people, and there aren't many large houses--this is as large as +most--and John is very strict." She sighed; and it was evident to Ida +that though her cousin John's "religion" might be some amusement to +him, it was rather a bugbear and nuisance to his family. "But we must +get Joseph to take you about; and perhaps you and Isabel might go to a +_matinée_ or two; but John mustn't know anything about it." + +Ida made haste to assure them that she did not need any amusement, that +she preferred to be quiet, and that she hoped her cousin Joseph would +not take any trouble on her account. At this point Mr. Heron and his +elegant son came in, a bell was rung, and the two servants came up for +family prayers. Ida noticed that both the maids looked bored and +discontented, and that the "parlour maid," a mere bit of a girl, +appeared to be tired out. Mr. Heron read a portion of Scripture and +offered up a long prayer in a harsh and rasping voice, with the manner +of a judge pronouncing a sentence of seven years; and as the servants +were leaving the room, called them back, and remarked sternly: + +"I notice in the housekeeping book that a larger quantity of candles +than usual has been used during the past week, and I fear that there +has been grievous waste of this useful article. Do not let it occur +again." + +The servants went out suddenly, and Mrs. Heron suggested, much to Ida's +relief, that Ida would no doubt like to go to bed. + +While Ida was brushing her hair and fighting against the natural fit of +depression caused by her introduction to this cheerful household, there +came a knock at the door, and she admitted Mrs. Heron. That lady was in +a soiled dressing-gown, bought at a sale and quite two sizes too large +for her, and with a nervous flush, she took from under this capacious +garment a small decanter of wine. + +"I thought you might like a little, my dear," she said, as Ida eyed it +with astonishment. "Of course we are all total abstainers here, but we +keep a little in the house for medicinal purposes, unknown to John; and +it's a great comfort sometimes when you're tired and in low spirits. +Let me give you a glass." + +Ida would have liked to have accepted it, and was sorry that her +refusal seemed to disappoint Mrs. Heron, who retired as nervously as +she had entered. A few minutes afterwards, before Ida had got over her +astonishment at the incident, there came another knock at the door, and +Isabel entered in a dressing-gown which was own sister to Mrs. Heron's. + +"I thought there might be something you wanted," she said, her bold +eyes wandering over Ida curiously, and then roaming to the contents of +Ida's dressing-bag which glittered and shone on the dressing-table. + +"What long hair you have! Do you brush it every night? I don't mine, +not every night; it's too much trouble. Are the tops of all those +things real silver? What a lot of money they must have cost! What a +pretty _peignoir_ you have on: is it real lace? Yes, I see it is. You +have nice things!" with an envious sigh. "Don't you ever have more +colour than you've got now? Or perhaps it's because you're tired. You +must be quite knocked up, when I come to think of it." She dropped her +voice and glanced round cautiously. "Would you like to have a little +brandy-and-water? I've got same in my room--of course the rest don't +know anything about it, father's teetotal mad--but I keep a little for +when I'm tired and down in the mouth; and when I run out I get some +from Joseph's room. Of course, he isn't a total abstainer. I daresay +you guessed that directly you saw him to-night, and weren't taken in by +his 'late at the office' business?" + +Ida looked at her in amazement, and Isabel laughed knowingly. + +"Joseph goes to the theatre and plays billiards," she said, with +sisterly candour. "He works it very cleverly; he's artful, Joseph is, +and he takes father and mother in nicely; but sometimes I find a +theatre programme in his pocket, and marks of chalk on his coat. Oh, I +don't blame him! The life we lead in this house would make a cat sick. +It's like being on a tread-mill; nothing happens; it's just one dreary +round, with mother always whining and father always preaching. You +heard what he said to the servants to-night? I wonder they stand it. I +should go out of my mind myself if I didn't get a little amusement +going up to the shops and sneaking into a _matinée_ on the sly. I'm +sure I don't know how you'll stand it, after the life you've led. What +do you use for your hair? It's so soft and silky. I wish I had black +hair like yours. Do you put anything on your hands? They're rather +brown; but that's because you've lived in the open air so much, I +suppose. I'll lend you some stuff I use, if you like." + +Ida declined the brandy and the infallible preparation for whitening +the hands; and not at all discouraged, Isabel went on: + +"Were there any young men at Herondale? You didn't say anything about +them down-stairs, but I thought perhaps you would like to tell me when +we were alone. I suppose there was someone you were sorry to part +from?" she added, with an inviting smile. + +Ida repressed a shudder and plied her brush vigorously, so that her +hair hid the scarlet which suffused her face. + +"I knew so few of the people," she said. "As I told you down-stairs, my +father and I led the most secluded of lives, and saw scarcely anyone." + +Isabel eyed Ida sharply and suspiciously. + +"Oh, well, of course, if you don't like to tell me," she said, with a +little toss of her head; "but perhaps it's too soon; when we know each +other better you'll be more open. I'm sure I shall be glad of someone +to tell things to." + +She sighed, and looked down with a sentimental air; but Ida did not +rise to the occasion; and with a sigh of disappointment, and a last +look round, so that nothing should escape her, Isabel took her +departure, and Ida was left in peace. + +Tired as she was, it was some time before she could get to sleep. The +change in her life had come so suddenly that she felt confused and +bewildered. It had not needed Joseph Heron's mention of Sir Stephen +Orme's name to bring Stafford to her mind; for he was always present +there; and she lay, with wide-open eyes and aching heart, repeating to +herself the letter he had sent her, and wondering why he who, she had +thought, loved her so passionately, had left her. Compared with this +sorrow, and that of her father's death, the smaller miseries of her +present condition counted as naught. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + + +As Isabel had intimated, life at Laburnum Villa was not altogether +hilarious. The environs of London are undeniably pretty, prettier than +those of any other capital in Europe, but there is no shirking the fact +that the Northern suburbs of our great metropolis are somewhat grim and +soul-depressing. Laburnum Villa was in a long street, which resembled +the other streets as one tree resembles another; and you had to +traverse a great many of these streets before you got into the open +country, that is, away from the red-bricked and stucco villas, and +still smaller and uglier houses, which had been run up by the +enterprising jerry-builder. + +But Ida would have been glad enough to have gone through this purgatory +to the paradise of country lanes which lay beyond, if she could only +have gone alone; but Mrs. Heron and Isabel never left her alone; they +seemed to consider it their duty to "keep her company," and they could +not understand her desire for the open air, much less her craving for +solitude. Until Ida's arrival, Isabel had never taken a walk for a +walk's sake, and for the life of her she could not comprehend Ida's +love of "trapesing" about the dusty lanes, and over the commons where +there was always a wind, Isabel declared, to blow her hair about. If +she went out, she liked to go up to London, and saunter about the hot +streets, gazing in at the shop windows, or staring enviously at the +"carriage people" as they drove by. + +Ida didn't care for London, took very little interest in the shops, and +none whatever in the carriage folks. She was always pining for the +fresh air, the breezy common, the green trees; and on the occasions +when she could persuade Isabel to a country ramble, she walked with +dreamy eyes that saw not the cut-and-dry rusticity of Woodgreen and +Whetstone, but the wild dales and the broad extant of the Cumberland +hills. + +She was, indeed, living in the past, and it was the present that seemed +a dream to her. Of course she missed the great house, where she had +ruled as mistress, her horses and her cows and dogs; but what she +missed more than all else was her freedom of motion. + +It was the routine, the dull, common routine, of Laburnum Villa which +irked so badly. Neither Mrs. Heron nor Isabel had any resources in +themselves; they had few friends, and they were of the most +commonplace, not to say vulgar type; and a "Tea" at Laburnum Villa +tried Ida almost beyond endurance; for the visitors talked little else +but scandal, and talked it clumsily. Most of Isabel's time was spent in +constructing garments by the aid of paper-patterns which were given +away by some periodical; admirable patterns, which, in skilful hands, +no doubt, produced the most useful results; but Isabel was too stupid +to avail herself of their valuable aid, and must always add something +which rendered the garment _outré_ and vulgar. + +Mrs. Heron subscribed to a library, and she and Isabel read the latest +six-shilling novels with avidity, stuffing them under the sofa cushion +at the sound of Mr. Heron's approaching footsteps. They always chose +the worst books, and forgot one as soon as they took up another. Ida +examined one and dropped it with disgust; for it happened to be a +problem novel of the most virulent type, a novel which was selling by +scores of thousands, and one which Isabel had recommended to Ida as +"delicious." + +Of all the days, Ida found Sunday the worst; for on that day they went +twice to a little chapel at which Mr. Heron "ministered." It was a tin +chapel, which by its construction and position struck a chill to one's +very bones. Here Mr. Heron ranted and growled to his heart's content; +and Ida learnt from his sanctimonious lips that only a small portion of +mankind, his own sect, to wit, was bound for heaven, and that the rest +of the world was doomed to another place, the horrors of which he +appeared to revel in. As she sat in the uncomfortable pew, Ida often +wondered whether her cousin really believed what he preached, or +whether he was a hypocrite of the first water. + +All this was very hard to bear; but a burden still heavier was provided +for her in the conduct of her cousin Joseph. On the evening of her +arrival he had been gracious enough to bestow upon her an admiration of +which she was then unconscious; but his admiration grew, and he began +to pay her what persons of his class call "attentions." He came in much +earlier of an evening than he did before, and he sat beside her, and, +with his small eyes fixed on her pale and downcast face, told her +anecdotes of the office and his fellow-clerks. He was under the +impression that he possessed a voice, and with a certain amount of +artfulness he got her to play his accompaniments, bestowing killing +looks at her as he sang the "Maid of Athens," or "My Pretty June"--with +a false note in every third bar. Sometimes he came home to lunch, +explaining to them that there was nothing doing in the city, and went +with Ida and Isabel on one of their walks. On these occasions he was +got up in a Norfolk jacket and knickerbockers, and enjoyed the +flattering conviction that he looked like a country gentleman. He +addressed his conversation exclusively to Ida, and endeavoured, as he +would have said, to make himself agreeable. + +It was all lost upon Ida, whose head was in the clouds, whose mind was +dwelling on the past; but his mother and sister noticed it, and Mrs. +Heron began to sniff by way of disapproval of his conduct. With a +mother's sharp eyes, Mrs. Heron understood why Joseph had launched out +into new suits and brilliant neckties, why he came home earlier than +was his wont, and why he hung about the pale-faced girl who seemed +unconscious of his presence. Mrs. Heron began to feel, as she would +have expressed it, that she had taken a viper into her bosom. She was +ambitious for her only son, and wanted to see him married to one of the +daughters of a retired city man who had settled in Woodgreen. Ida was +all very well, but she was absolutely penniless and not a good enough +match for so brilliant and promising a young man as Joseph. Mrs. Heron +began to regard her with a certain amount of coldness and suspicion; +but Ida was as unconscious of the change in Mrs. Heron's manner as she +was of the cause of Mr. Joseph's attention; to her he was just an +objectionable young man of quite a new and astonishing type, to whom +she was obliged to listen because he was the son of the man whose bread +she ate. + +He had often invited Ida to accompany him and Isabel to a _matinée_, +but Ida always declined. Not only was her father's death too recent to +permit of her going to the theatre, but she shrank from all public +places of amusement. When she had left Herondale it had been with the +one desire to conceal herself, and, if possible, to earn her own +living. Mr. Joseph was very sulky over her refusal, and Isabel informed +her that he had been so ill-tempered at the theatre that she did not +know what to make of him. + +One day he came in soon after luncheon, and, when Mrs. Heron had left +the room, informed Ida and Isabel that he had got tickets for a concert +at the Queen's Hall that evening. + +"It's a sacred concert," he said, "so that you need have no scruples, +Ida. It's a regular swell affair, and I tell you I had great difficulty +in getting hold of the tickets. It's a charity concert got up by the +big nobs of the Stock Exchange, and there'll be no end of swells there. +I got the tickets because the guv'nor's going into the country to +preach to-night, and while the cat's away we can slip out and enjoy +ourselves; not that he'd object to a sacred concert, I suppose, +especially if he were allowed to hold forth during the intervals," he +added, with a sneer. + +"It is very kind of you to ask me," said Ida; "but I think I would +rather stay at home." + +"I thought you were fond of music," Joseph remarked, beginning to look +sullen. "We shall go quite quietly, and no one need know anything about +it, for I got tickets for the upper circle and not the stalls on +purpose; and they're in a back row. I thought you'd enjoy this concert, +and if you don't go I shall tear up the tickets." + +"Oh, do let us go, Ida!" pleaded Isabel. "A sacred concert isn't as +good as a theatre, but it will be a break in the monotony; besides, +Joseph must have had a lot of trouble to get the tickets, for I read in +the paper that there was a regular rush for them. Don't be selfish, +Ida, and spoil our enjoyment." + +"I wish you would go without me," said Ida, with a sigh; but ultimately +she yielded. + +Mrs. Heron, of course, knew that they were going, but she was not told +in so many words, that she might deny all knowledge of it if the outing +came to Mr. Heron's ears; and she watched them with a peevish and +suspicious expression on her face as they started for the train. They +went up second-class, and Mr. Joseph, who was in the best of humours, +and wore a new pair of patent-leather boots and a glossy hat, to say +nothing of a dazzling tie, enlivened the journey by whispering +facetious remarks on their fellow-passengers to Ida, who in vain leant +away from him, as far as possible, in her corner of the carriage, and +endeavoured to concentrate her attention on the programme. But though +her eyes were fixed on it and she could not entirely shut out Joseph's +ill-bred jokes, her thoughts were wandering back to a certain afternoon +when she had sat beside the Heron stream and listened to Stafford +planning out their future. He had been telling her something of the +great world of which she knew nothing, but into which he was going to +take her, hand in hand, as it were; he was going to take her to the +theatres and the concerts and the dances of which she had read and +heard, but of which she knew nothing by experience. Now, she was going +to her first concert with Mr. Joseph Heron. + +There was a larger crowd than usual outside Queen's Hall that evening, +for the concert was really an important one for which some of the +greatest singers had been engaged. In addition to Patti, Santley, +Edward Lloyd, and other famous professionals, some distinguished +amateurs were to perform, and royalty, as represented by the +ever-popular and amiable prince, had promised to patronise the affair. + +"Quite a swell show, ain't it?" said Joseph, as he pushed his way into +the crowd and looked over his shoulder at the long line of carriages +setting down their occupants. "I'm glad you consented to come; it would +have been a pity if you'd missed it." + +"I hope we shall be able to see the prince from our seats!" said +Isabel, whose eyes were more widely open than usual, and her mouth half +agape with excitement. "I'm always stuck in some corner where I can't +see them, when the royal family's present." + +They succeeded in making their way into the hall, and after Joseph had +held a dispute with the man who had shown them into their place, and +who had muddled the tickets and their numbers, they settled down, and +Ida looked round. + +Though their seats were in the third row, she could see nearly the +whole of the large hall, and she found the sight a novel and impressive +one. Her interest increased as the admirable band played the first +number with the precision and feeling for which the orchestra at the +Queen's Hall is famous. In the interval between the selection and the +song which was to follow, Joseph pointed out some of the celebrities +who were present, and whom he recognised by their portraits in the +illustrated papers. + +"Regular swell mob, isn't it?" he said, exultingly; "there isn't a seat +in the house, excepting those three in the stalls, and I suppose +they'll be filled up presently by some swells or other; they always +come late. Aren't you glad you've come?" he added, with a languishing +glance. + +Amidst a storm of welcome, Patti came forward to sing, and Ida, +listening with rapture, almost forgot her sorrow as she passed under +the spell of the magic voice which has swayed so many thousands of +hearts. During the cries of encore, and unnoticed by Ida, three +persons, a lady and two gentlemen, entered the stalls, and with a good +deal of obsequiousness, were shown by the officials into the three +vacant seats. + +One great singer followed rapidly after another, and Ida, with slightly +flushed face and eyes that were dim with unshed tears--for the +exquisite music thrilled her to the core--leant back, with her hands +tightly clasped in her lap, her thoughts flying back to Herondale and +those summer evenings which, in some strange way, every song recalled. + +She was unconscious of her surroundings, even of the objectionable +Joseph, who sat beside her as closely as he could; and she started +slightly as he whispered: + +"Those seats are filled up now. I wonder who they are? They look +classy--particularly so." + +Ida nodded mechanically, and paid no heed. Presently Joseph, who was +one of those individuals who can never sit still or be silent for long +at a theatre or concert, nudged Ida and said: "Look! there is one of +them standing up! Why, I believe it is--" He borrowed an opera-glass +from the man sitting in front of him and levelled it at the stalls. One +of the new-comers, one of the gentlemen, had risen from his seat, and +with his back to the platform, was scanning the house with a pleasant +smile on his handsome face. "Yes, it is!" exclaimed Joseph, excitedly. +"It's Sir Stephen Orme! Here, take the glasses and look at him! That +gentleman looking round the house, the one standing up with the white +waistcoat, the one that came in with the other two! That's the great +Sir Stephen himself! I saw him once in the city; besides, I've seen his +portraits everywhere. That's the man who has created more excitement on +the Stock Exchange than any man in our time." + +Ida took the glasses which he had thrust into her hand and held it to +her eyes; but her hand shook, and for a moment or two she could +distinguish nothing; then, as the mist passed away and her hand grew +steadier, so that she could see Sir Stephen, he bent down and said +something to the lady sitting beside him. She looked round, and Ida saw +distinctly, and for the first time, though fashionable London was +tolerably familiar with it now, the beautiful face of Maude Falconer. + +With her heart beating painfully Ida looked at her, noting with a +woman's quickness every detail of the handsome face with its wealth of +bronze-gold hair. A presentiment flashed into her mind and weighed upon +her heart as she looked, a presentiment which was quickly verified, for +the man on the other side of the beautiful woman rose and looked round +the house, and Ida saw that it was Stafford. + +Her hand gripped the opera-glass tightly, for it was in danger of +falling. She felt as if she were stifling, the great place, with its +sea of faces and its rings of electric light, swam before her eyes, and +she felt sick and giddy. It seemed to her that Stafford was looking +straight at her, that he could not fail to see her, and she shrank back +as far as the seat would allow, and a sigh that was a gasp for breath +escaped her lips, which had grown almost as white as her face. In +taking the glasses from her, Joseph noticed her pallor. + +"What's the matter?" he asked. "Do you feel ill? It's beastly hot. +Would you like to come outside?" + +"No, no," she panted, with difficulty. "It is the heat--I am all right +now--I beg of you not to move--not to speak to me." + +She fought against the horrible faintness, against the shock which had +overwhelmed her; she bit her lips to force the colour back to them, and +tried to keep her eyes from the tall figure, the handsome face against +which she had so often pressed her own; but she could not; it was as if +they were drawn to it by a kind of fascination. She saw that he looked +pale and haggard, and that the glance with which he swept the house was +a wearied one, in strange contrast to the smiling, complacent, and even +triumphant one of his father. + +"Are you all right now?" asked Joseph. "I wish I'd brought a bottle of +smelling-salts. Will you come out and get something to drink--water +--brandy? No? Sure you're all right? Did you see Sir Stephen? +I wonder who the lady is beside him? Some swell or other, I'll +be bound. The other man must be Sir Stephen's son, for he's like him. +He's almost as great a personage as Sir Stephen himself; you see his +name amongst those of people of the highest rank in the fashionable +columns in the newspapers. The lady's got beautiful 'air, hasn't she?" +he went on, after a pause. "Not that I admire that colour myself; I'm +gone on black 'air." He glanced insinuatingly at Ida's. + +When the interval expired, Sir Stephen and Stafford resumed their seat, +and, with a sigh of relief, Ida tried to listen to the music; but she +could hear Stafford's voice through it, and was obliged to shut her +eyes that she might not see him. Instinctively, and from Jessie's +description, she knew that the beautiful girl, with the complexion of a +lily and the wealth of bronze-gold hair, was Maude Falconer. Why was +she with Sir Stephen and Stafford? Was it, indeed, true that they were +engaged? Up to the present moment she had cherished a doubt; but now it +seemed impossible to doubt any longer. For how many minutes, hours, +years would she have to sit with those two before her, her heart racked +with the pangs of jealousy, with the memory of happier days, with the +ghastly fact that he had gone from her life forever, and that she was +sitting there a spectator of his faithlessness. Every song seemed to +mock her wretchedness, and she had to battle with the mad desire to +spring to her feet and cry aloud. + +In a kind of dream she heard the strains of the national anthem, and +saw Stafford rise with the rest of the audience, and watched him as he +drew the costly cloak round Maude Falconer's white shoulders; in a +dream allowed Joseph to draw her arm through his and lead her down the +crowded staircase into the open air. + +"Splendid concert!" he said, triumphantly. "But you look tired, Ida. +We'll have a cab to the station. But let's wait a minute and see the +prince come out." + +They stood in the crowd which had formed to stare at his royal +highness; and as luck would have it, Stafford, with Maude Falconer on +his arm, and followed by Sir Stephen, passed in front of them, and so +close that Ida shrank back in terror lest Stafford should see her. Some +of the crowd, some Stock Exchange people probably, recognised Sir +Stephen, and spoke his name aloud, and a cheer arose. He bowed and +smiled and shook his head in a deprecatory way, and Ida saw Stafford's +face darken with a frown, as if he were ashamed of the publicity, as he +hurried Maude Falconer to the carriage. A moment or two after, the +prince appeared, there was an excited and enthusiastic burst of +cheering; and at last Joseph forced his way out of the crowd and found +a cab. + +They had some little time to wait for the train, and Joseph, after +vainly pressing some refreshment on Ida, went into the refreshment-room +and got a drink for himself and a cup of coffee for Isabel, while Ida +sank back into a corner of the carriage and waited for them. Joseph +talked during the whole of the journey in an excited fashion, darting +glances every now and then from his small eyes at the white face in the +corner. When they got out at the station, he offered Ida his arm and +she took it half-unconsciously. The path was too narrow to permit of +three to walk abreast, and Joseph sent Isabel on in front; and on some +trivial excuse or another contrived to lag some little distance behind +her. Every now and then he pressed Ida's arm more closely to his side, +looking at her with sidelong and lingering glances, and at last he +said, in a kind of whisper, so that Isabel should not hear: + +"I hope you've enjoyed yourself, Ida, and that you're glad you came? I +don't know when I've had such a jolly night, and I hope we may have +many more of them. Of course you know why I'm so happy? It's because +I've got you with me. Life's been a different thing for me since you +came to live with us; but I dessay you've seen that, haven't you?" He +laughed knowingly. + +"I have seen--what?" asked Ida, trying to rouse herself and to pay +attention to what he was saying. + +"I say I suppose you've seen how it is with me, Ida, and why I am an +haltered being? It is you who have done it; it's because I'm right down +in love with you. There, I've said it now! I've been going to say it +for days past; but, somehow, though I dessay you don't mean it, you +seem so cold and standoffish, and quite different to other girls when a +man pays them attention. But I dessay you understand now, and you'll +treat me differently. I'm awfully in love with you, Ida, and I don't +see why we shouldn't be engaged. I'm getting on at the office, and if I +can squeeze some money out of the guv'nor, I shall set up for myself. +Of course, there'll be a pretty how-d'y-do over this at home, for +they're always wanting me to marry money, and unfortunately you've lost +yours. Not that I mind that, mind you. I believe in following the +dictates of your 'eart, and I know what my 'eart says. And now what do +_you_ say, Ida?" + +And he pressed her arm and looked into her face with a confident smile. + +Ida drew her disengaged hand across her brow and frowned, as if she +were trying to grasp his meaning. + +"I--I beg your pardon, Joseph," she said. "I didn't quite understand--I +was thinking of something else. You were asking me--" + +He reddened and pushed his thick lips out with an expression of +resentment. + +"Well, I like that!" he said, uneasily, but with an attempt at a laugh. +"I've just been proposing to you--asking you to be my wife; and you're +going to, aren't you?" + +Ida drew her arm from his, and regarded him with stony amazement. For +the moment she really thought that either he had been drinking too much +spirits at the refreshment-room at the station and that it was an +elaborate joke on his part, or that she had lost her senses and was +imagining a hideously ridiculous speech, too absurd and grotesque for +even Joseph to have uttered. Then she saw by his face that he was sober +and that he had actually proposed to her, and, in a kind of +desperation, she laughed. + +He had been going to take her arm again, but his hand fell to his side, +and he looked at her with a mixture of astonishment and indignation, +with such an expression of wounded vanity and resentment, that Ida felt +almost forced to laugh again; but she checked the desire, and said, as +gently and humbly as she could: + +"I--I beg your pardon, Joseph. I thought it was a--a joke. I am very +sorry. But though you didn't mean it as a jest, it is, of course, +absurd. I don't think you quite know what you were saying; I am quite +sure you don't mean it--" + +"Oh, yes, but I do!" he broke in eagerly, and with a little air of +relief. "I'm in earnest, 'pon my word, I am. I'm awfully in love with +you; and if you'll say yes, I'll stand up to the guv'nor and make it +all square for you." + +"But I say 'No,'" said Ida, rather sternly, her lips setting tightly, +her eyes flashing in the darkness, which, fortunately for Joseph, hid +them from his sight. "Please do not speak to me in this way again." + +"But look here!" he stammered, his face red, his thick lips twisted in +an ugly fashion, "do you know what you're doing--saying?" + +"Yes," she said, more sternly than before. "I think it is you who do +not know what you are saying. You cannot mean to insult me. I beg your +pardon, Joseph. I do not mean to be angry, to hurt your feelings. I +think you mean to pay me a great honour; and I--I thank you; but I +cannot accept it. And please take this as my final answer, and never, +never, speak to me again in this manner." + +"Do you mean to say--" he began angrily. + +"Not another word, please," said Ida, and she hurried forward so that +they came within hearing of Isabel. + +Nothing more was said until they reached Laburnum Villa. Mrs. Heron was +waiting up for them, and was expressing a hope that they had enjoyed +themselves--she had a woollen shawl round her shoulders and spoke in an +injured voice and with the expression of a long-suffering martyr--when +she caught sight of Joseph's angry and sullen face as he flung himself +into a chair and thrust his hands in his pockets, and she stopped short +and looked from him to Ida, and sniffed suspiciously and aggressively. + +"Oh, yes," said Joseph, with an ugly sneer and a scowl at Ida as she +was leaving the room, "we have had a very happy time--some of us--a +particularly happy time, I don't think!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + + +It was hot at Woodgreen; but it was hotter still in Mayfair, where the +season was drawing to a close with all the signs of a long-spun-out and +exhausting dissolution. Women were waxing pale under the prolonged +strain of entertainments which for the last week or two had been +matters of duty rather than pleasure, and many a girl who had entered +the lists of society a blushing and hopeful _débutante_ with perhaps a +ducal coronet in her mind's eye, was beginning to think that she would +have to be content with, say, the simpler one of a viscountess; or even +to wed with no coronet at all. Many of the men were down at Cowes or +golfing at St. Andrews; and those unfortunates who were detained in +attendance at the house which continued to sit, like a "broody hen," as +Howard said, longed and sighed for the coming of the magic 12th of +August, before which date they assured themselves the House _must_ rise +and so bring about their long-delayed holiday. + +But one man showed no sign of weariness or a desire for rest; Sir +Stephen's step was light and buoyant as ever on the hot pavement of +Pall Mall, and on the still hotter one of the city; his face was as +cheery, his manner as gay, and his voice as bright and free from care +as those of a young man. + +There is no elixir like success; and Sir Stephen was drinking deeply of +the delicious draught. He had been well known for years: he was famous +now. You could not open a newspaper without coming upon his name in the +city article, and in the fashionable intelligence. Now it was a report +of the meeting of some great company, at which Sir Stephen had +presided, at another time it occurred in a graphic account of a big +party at the house he had rented at Grosvenor Square. It was a huge +mansion, and the rent ran into many figures; but, as Howard remarked, +it did not matter; Sir Stephen was rich enough to rent every house in +the square. Sir Stephen had taken over the army of servants and lived +in a state which was little short of princely: and lived alone; for +Stafford, who was not fond of a big house and still less fond of a +large retinue, begged permission to remain at his own by no means +over-luxurious but rather modest rooms. + +It is not improbable that he would have liked to have absented himself +from the grand and lavish entertainments with which his father +celebrated the success of his latest enterprise; but it was not +possible, and Stafford was present at the dinners and luncheons, +receptions and concerts which went on, apparently without a break, at +Clarendon House. + +Indeed, it was necessary that he should be present and in attendance on +his _fiancêe_ who appeared at every function. Maude was now almost as +celebrated as Sir Stephen; for her beauty, her reputed wealth, and the +fact that she was engaged to the son of Sir Stephen, had raised her to +an exalted position in the fashionable world; and her name figured in +the newspapers very nearly as often as that of the great financier. + +She had stepped from obscurity into that notoriety, for which we all of +us have such a morbid craving, almost in a single day; and she queened +it with a languid grace and self-possession which established her +position on a firm basis. Wherever she went she was the centre and +object of a small crowd of courtiers; the men admired her, and the +women envied her; for nowadays most women would rather marry wealth +than rank, unless the latter were accompanied by a long rent roll--and +in these hard times for landlords, too many English noblemen, have no +rent roll at all, short or long. + +Excepting his father's, Stafford went to very few houses, and spent +most of his time, when not in attendance on Maude, in the solitude of +his own chambers, or in the smoking-room of one of the quietest of his +clubs. Short as the time had been, the matter of a few weeks only since +had parted from Ida, he had greatly changed; so changed that not seldom +the bright and buoyant and overbright Sir Stephen seemed to be younger +than his son. He was too busy, too absorbed in the pursuit of his +ambition, the skilful steering of the enterprise he had so successfully +launched to notice the change; but it was noticed by others, and +especially by Howard. Often he watched Stafford moving moodily about +his father's crowded rooms, with the impassive face which men wear when +they have some secret trouble or anxiety which they conceal as the +Spartan boy concealed the fox which was gnawing at his vitals; or +Howard came upon him in the corner of a half-darkened smoking-room, +with an expired cigar in his lips, and his eyes fixed on a newspaper +which was never turned. + +By that unwritten code by which we are all governed nowadays, Howard +could not obtrude by questioning his friend, and Stafford showed no +signs of making any voluntary statement or explanation. He suffered in +a silence with which he kept at arm's-length even his close friend; +and Howard pondered and worried in a futile attempt to guess at the +trouble which had changed Stafford from a light-hearted man, with an +immense capacity for pleasure, to a moody individual to whom the +pleasures of life seemed absolutely distasteful. + +One afternoon Howard sauntered into Stafford's room and found him +sitting in his easy-chair with a book turned face downwards on his +knee, and his pipe in his mouth. Tiny, the black-and-tan terrier, who +was lying coiled up on a cushion at his master's feet, heard Howard +step on the stairs and barked sharply for a moment, then glancing at +Stafford, with a reassuring air, coiled himself up again and subsided +into spasmodic growls and whines of welcome; for the mite was fond of +Howard. + +"Asleep, Staff?" he asked, as, with a kind of groan at the heat, he +dropped his hat on the table and sank on to the couch. "By Jove, you +have the best of it in here--it is out of the sun, at any rate. How +that dog can lie on a stuffy cushion! I thought you were going down to +Lady Brook's, at Richmond, this afternoon?" + +"Was it this afternoon?" said Stafford. "I'd forgotten. I'm sorry: but +my father will be there and will look after Maude." + +Howard glanced at the weary-looking face as he helped himself to a +cigarette. + +"You're well out of it! A lady who would give a garden-party on such an +afternoon as this, is, indeed, _la belle dame sans mercie!_ Good +heavens! when I think of the suffering the votaries of fashion undergo +in one season, I've no pity left for the benighted Hindoo women who +sacrifice themselves to Juggernaut. Which reminds me that there is a +tremendously swagger function on at Clarendon House tonight, isn't +there?" + +Stafford nodded, and refilled and relit his pipe. + +"Yes," he said, "I had forgotten it; but Maude sent me round a note to +remind me of it, and, of course, I must go. I envy you, Howard: you can +stay away." + +"That's what I can't do," said Howard, with a whimsical smile. "I am +drawn, into the vortex; I am dragged at the chariot wheels of that +wonderful father of yours. I am the victim of a peculiar kind of +fascination which is as irresistible as the mesmeric influence or +hypnotism. I feel towards Sir Stephen as I should feel towards Napoleon +the Great, if he were alive. I follow and gaze at him, so to speak, +with my mouth agape and a fatuous smile over a countenance which I once +flattered myself was intelligent. I am dazed, bewildered by his genius, +his audacity, his marvellous courage and resource. Do you know, +Stafford, I think it would be an excellent idea to abolish the House of +Lords, the House of Commons, the monarchical government, and place the +whole business in the hands of a Board to be presided over by Sir +Stephen." + +Stafford drew at his pipe grimly and said nothing, and Howard went on +in the gentle monotone characteristic of him: + +"By the way, the mysterious and proverbial little bird has whispered to +me that Sir Stephen will not be Sir Stephen much longer. In fact, that +they are going to make a peer of him very shortly. And upon my word, +they couldn't find a better man for the place; for, unlike some noble +lords you and I could mention, Staff, he will wear his robes and +coronet--do they ever wear them now--right nobly; and for once the +House of Lords will get a man who knows his own mind, knows what he +wants and the way to get it. And if you won't take offence, Staff, and +throw things at me, I should like to remark that his son will prove a +worthy successor. Can you fancy yourself in a peer's robe with a +velvet-lined coronet, Staff?" + +Stafford grunted for reply, and there was silence for a minute, during +which Howard turned over the pages of one of the illustrated weeklies +which lay on the table, and suddenly he looked up and exclaimed: + +"Have you seen this?" + +Stafford shook his head. + +"I mean this portrait of Miss Falconer," said Howard, in a low voice. +"It is wonderfully good," he went on, as he contemplated the +full-length picture; "wonderfully like her." + +He handed the paper across and Stafford looked at it. It was an +admirable reproduction of a photograph of Maude in evening-dress, and +made a truly splendid picture; and looking at it, one felt instantly +how well a coronet, even a ducal one, would fit those level brows, +beneath which the eyes looked out upon the world with a scarcely masked +_hauteur_ and disdain. A man might well be proud of such a woman for +his future wife; but there was no pride in Stafford's face as his eyes +dwelt moodily on the almost perfect face, the tall, _svelt_ figure in +its long-trained robe. The splendour of her beauty oppressed him with a +sense of shame; and with an involuntary exclamation, which sounded +something like a groan, he let the paper slip from his hand, and +drooped still lower in his chair. The sight of him was more than Howard +could bear in silence, and he rose and laid a hand upon Stafford's +shoulder. + +"What's wrong, old man?" he enquired in a very low voice. "You are out +of sorts; you've been off colour for some time past. Of course, I've +noticed it. I've seen the look you wear on your face now come over it +at moments when you ought to have been at your best and brightest. I've +seen a look in your eyes when your lips have been smiling that has made +me--uncomfortable. In short, Staff, you are getting on my nerves, and +although I know it's like my cheek to mention the matter, and that +you'll probably curse my impudence, I really should be grateful if +you'd tell me what ails you, still more grateful of you'd let me help +you to get rid of it. I know I'm an interfering idiot, but I'm fool +enough to be fond of you--it's about the only weakness I've got, and I +am ashamed of it--but there it is." + +He laughed with a touch of self-contempt, with an attempt at his old +cynicism; but Stafford understood the fictitious character of the +laugh, and as he leant his chin in his hand, he gave a short nod of +acknowledgment. + +"Howard, do you remember that time when you and I were at Palmero?" he +said, in a low voice, and as if he were communing with himself rather +than answering his friend. "Do you remember that Italian we met there; +the man who seemed so gay and careless, the man who seemed to have +everything a fellow could desire, and to be the embodiment of +prosperity and success? Do you remember how once or twice you and I saw +a strange look on his face, perhaps while he was at dinner or fooling +with the women in the _salon_--a look as if he had suddenly remembered +something, as if something had flashed upon his mind in the midst of +the laughter and music and brought him face to face with hell? You +pointed him out to me one night; and we wondered what was the matter +with him--until he fell off his horse that day you and I were riding +with him? Do you remember how, when we had unbuttoned his riding-shirt, +we found the 'D' that had been branded on his chest? We knew then what +was the matter with him. He had been a deserter. The pain of hot iron +had died out long ago, but the scar remained. He was no longer a common +soldier, but rich and prosperous, a social success with, perhaps, his +ambition gratified; but the 'D' was there all the time, and every now +and then, even while he was enjoying himself, he could feel the hot +iron burning into his flesh, and he knew within the miserable little +soul of him that he was a cur and a coward; that, driven by fate, +perhaps by some devilish accident of circumstance, he had lost his +honour and sold himself to the devil." + +Howard's face went pale and grave. + +"I don't see where the application comes in, Staff," he said. "I don't +see that anything in your case--position, resembles that poor +wretch's." + +Stafford rose, his face grim and stern. + +"No; and I can't show you, Howard," he said. "Do you think that poor +devil would have bared his breast and shown that 'D' to even his +dearest friend? Good God, man, why do you badger me! Am I to wear the +cap and bells always, do you expect me to be dancing like a clown every +moment of the day? Do I not play my part as well as I can? Who gave you +the right to peer and pry--" + +He recovered suddenly from the fit of fury and gripped Howard's arm as +he almost shrank back from the burst of despairing rage. + +"Forgive me, old man! I didn't mean to turn and rend you like this. I +know you see there is something wrong. There is. But I can't tell you +or any other man. There are some things that have to be borne in +silence, some marks of the branding-iron, which one dare not show to +even one's dearest friend." + +Howard turned aside and began to put on his gloves with great care. His +hand shook and his voice also, slightly, as without raising his head, +he said: + +"Sure there's no help for it, Staff?" + +"Sure and certain," responded Stafford. "Not even your wit and wisdom +can be of any avail. I won't ask you not to speak of this again; it +isn't necessary; but I will ask you never, by look or sign, to remind +me of what I have just said to you. It escaped me unawares; but I'll +keep a better watch on myself for the future, and not even the +knowledge of your sympathy shall lure another moan out of me." He made +a gesture with his hand and threw his head back as if he were sweeping +something away; and in something like his usual voice he said, with +perfect calmness: "By the way, Maude asked me to tell you not to be +late to-night; to come before the crush arrives. I think she is relying +on you to help her in some way or other." + +Howard nodded, and speaking with his usual drawl, said: + +"'Awake and call me early, mother.' I will be there in good time. Miss +Falconer does me the great honour of permitting me to flatter myself +that I am sometimes of some slight service to her. I imagine it is +something about the cotillon, concerning which I am absolutely +ignorant, and am therefore capable of offering any amount of advice. I +am a whale at giving advice, and my only consolation is that no one is +ever foolish enough to follow it; so that I can humour my little foible +without suffering the terrors of responsibility. _Au revoir_, my dear +Stafford, until this evening. Good-bye, Tiny! What a selfish little +beast it is; he won't even raise his head!" + +Stafford laughed and picked up the dog by the scruff of its neck, and +it nestled against him lovingly, and licked his cheek. + +Howard went down-stairs, still putting on his gloves, and as he opened +the door, he swore under his breath fervently. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + + +In obedience to Miss Falconer's command, Howard presented himself at +Clarendon House at a comparatively early hour that evening. There were +some guests staying in the house, amongst them Lady Clansford, who was +still obliging enough to play the part of presiding genius; but they +were all resting, or dressing for the ball, and the drawing-room, into +which a couple of superbly liveried footmen showed Howard, was empty. +But presently he heard the _frou-frou_ of satin, and Maude Falconer +swept in; her beauty, the splendour of her dress, the flashing of the +diamonds in her hair and on her neck and arms, her queenly presence, +almost made Howard catch his breath. + +She came in with a languid grace, the air of _hauteur_ which suited her +so well, but as she saw that Howard was alone, the languor and the +_hauteur_ almost disappeared, and she came forward and gave him her +hand, and he saw a look on her face which reminded him of that upon the +ill-fated Italian, though it did not resemble it. For the first time he +noticed a shade of anxiety on the level brow, something like a pathetic +curve in the perfectly moulded lips; and he fancied that the gloved +hand, which he held for a moment, quivered. + +"Is Stafford not with you?" she asked. "I thought he was coming early. +His father expected him." + +"No, I came alone," replied Howard. "But, no doubt, Stafford will be +here presently." + +She stood, calm and statuesque, but with her eyes downcast for a +moment, then she raised them and looked at him. "About this cotillon," +she said; then she broke off: "Do you know what is going to happen +to-night? It is a secret, but--but I feel as if I must tell you, though +I am betraying Sir Stephen's confidence. He tells me everything--more +than he tells even Stafford. Strange as it may seem, he--he is fond of +me." + +"That does not seem strange to me," said Howard, with a little bow. + +She made a slight gesture of impatience. + +"It seems strange to me," she said, with a touch of bitterness. "So few +persons are fond of me." + +Howard smiled. + +"For once I must be guilty of contradicting a lady," he said. "When I +reflect that to-night I shall form one of a band of devoted courtiers +who will throng round you in the hopeless pangs of despair--" + +She repeated the gesture of impatience. + +"Have you seen Stafford to-day?" she asked, looking down. + +"I saw him a few hours ago," he replied, "at his rooms." + +"At his rooms," she repeated, with a slight frown and a quick glance at +him. "He promised to come to Richmond. Why did he not do so? Is +he--ill?" + +"Ill?" said Howard, raising his brows and smiling, for he knew the +meaning of loyalty to a friend. "I never saw him in better spirits in +my life, he was quite hilarious." + +Her eyes flashed upon him keenly, but he met them with his slow, +cynical smile. + +"He must have been very different to what he usually is," she said. "I +have not seen him laugh since--since we left Bryndermere." Her lips +came tightly together, and she looked at him and then away from him. +"Mr. Howard, you are his friend, his closest friend. I want you to tell +me--But, no; you would not speak if you were on the rack, would you? No +one sees, no one speaks; it is only I who, always watching him, see +that there is something wrong. And I--I am so helpless!" + +The outburst was so unlike her, the dropping of the mask of pride and +self-possession was so sudden that Howard was startled; but no sign of +his emotion revealed itself upon his placid face, upon which his serene +smile did not waver for an instant. + +"I think you are availing yourself of a lady's privilege and indulging +in a fancy, Miss Falconer," he said. "Stafford is perfectly well, and, +of course, is perfectly happy--how could he be otherwise?" He bent his +head slightly. "Perhaps he may be a little tired. Alas! we are not all +endowed with the splendid energy which the gods have bestowed on you +and Sir Stephen; and the heat is enough to take the backbone out of +anyone less gifted." + +She checked a sigh, as if she understood that it was useless to appeal +to him, and after a pause Howard said: + +"You haven't told me the great secret yet." + +She seemed to wake from a reverie, and said, listlessly: + +"It will not be a secret for many hours. Sir Stephen is expecting the +peerage to-night. The official intimation should have reached him by +midday; but the prime minister did not return to London till this +afternoon and the formalities were not completed. I think it will be +announced to-night." + +Her eyes shone and a spot of colour started to her cheeks. + +"You are glad?" Howard said, with a smile of sympathy that had +something of mockery in it, for your worldly cynic is always amused by +worldliness in others. + +"Yes, I am glad; but not for my own sake. You think I am pining for a +coronet? I do not care--it is for Stafford's sake that I am glad. +Nothing is too good for him, no title too high!" + +"Do you think Stafford cares?" asked Howard. + +She flushed and her eyes fell before his. + +"No," she said, with a deep sigh. "I do not think he cares. He seems +quite indifferent. All the time Sir Stephen and I have been working--" + +"Have you been working?" said Howard, raising his eyebrows. + +She laughed a little wearily. + +"Indeed, yes. I have been--what do you men call it?--log-rolling for +weeks. It is I who have found out what is wanted by the people who can +help us. And it is generally, always, in fact, money. Always money! I +get 'tips' from Sir Stephen and my father, and whisper them to the +lords and ladies who have influence in the political drawing-rooms and +clubs." + +"And Sir Stephen?" + +She laughed. + +"His task is much simpler and easier than mine. He just goes down to +his political club and subscribes so many thousand pounds towards the +party expenses. The other night he gave them--but I must not tell the +secrets of the Tories even to you, Mr. Howard. But it was a very large +sum. It is always done that way, isn't it?" + +"I suppose so," he assented. "It must be; for, come to think of it, a +man isn't made a peer simply because he brews good beer; and a great +many of our peers were and are good brewers, you see. Oh, it's all +right, it pans out very satisfactorily, as the miners say. And so +Stafford will be the future Earl of--" + +"Earl of Highcliffe," she said. "He has declined anything less than an +earldom. He has given so much. Sir Stephen owns some land there, +and--and some of his people come from there." + +Howard laughed. + +"I see. Been there since they came over with the Conqueror. The +Herald's College will have no difficulty in finding a coat-of-arms. +Something with a Kaffir and a railway in it." + +She smiled tolerantly. + +"You always make fun of everything, Mr. Howard. If only Stafford would +care--" + +She sighed, and a moment afterwards her hand went to her lip with the +gesture of a nervous school-girl. She had heard Stafford's voice in the +hall. + +He came in and greeted her gravely, and, Howard being present, merely +took her hand. + +"You two conspiring as usual?" he said, with a smile, with the smile +which indicates a mind from which mirth has been absent for some time. + +"Yes," said Howard; "we have been plotting the cotillon and very +properly arranging that the prize shall go to the wisest, the nicest, +and best-looking man in the room. I need not tell you his name?" He +spread his hand on his heart, and bowed with mock complacency. "And now +I will go and find Sir Stephen and get a cigarette before the battle +begins. _Au revoir_." + +When he had gone, almost before the door had closed on him, Maude moved +closer to Stafford, and with a mixture of shyness and eagerness, put +her arm round his neck. + +"How good of you to come so early!" she murmured, in the voice which +only a woman in love can use, and only when she is addressing the man +she loves. "You did not come to Richmond? Never mind! Stafford, you +know that I do not wish to hamper or bind you, do you not?--Are you +well?" she broke off, scanning his face earnestly, anxiously. "Quite +well," he responded. "Why do you ask, Maude?" + +"I thought you looked tired, pale, that you have looked so for some +weeks," she said, her eyes seeking his. + +He shrugged his shoulders. + +"I am quite well. The hot weather makes one feel rather limp, I +suppose. At any rate, there is nothing else the matter with me but a +fit of laziness." + +"As if you were ever lazy!" she said, with a smile. + +"There is a large party to-night?" he said, presently. + +She nodded. + +"Yes: immense. The biggest thing we--I mean Sir Stephen--has done." Her +eyes fell for a moment. "You will dance with me to-night--twice, +Stafford?" + +"As many times as you like, of course," he said. "But I shall not get +so many opportunities. You will be too much sought after, as usual." + +She sighed. + +"That is the one disadvantage of being engaged to you," she said. +"Twice, then. The second and the eleventh waltz." + +He nodded, and stood with the same absent preoccupation in his eyes; +and she drew a little closer to him still; and as her eyes dwelt on his +face with love's hunger in them, she whispered: + +"You have not kissed me yet, Stafford." + +He bent and kissed her, and her lips clung to his in that most awful of +appeals, the craving, the prayer from the soul that loves to the soul +that refuses love in return. + +"Ah, Stafford, if--if it were all over, and we were away in the country +somewhere?" + +"Why don't we go?" he asked, with absolute indifference to the social +plots and schemes which were being woven round him. + +She laughed. + +"In a little while! Sir Stephen wants a change; he is looking rather +fagged--" + +"I'm not surprised!" said Stafford. "It seems to me that my father +rests neither night nor day--" + +"Ah, well, it will soon be over--perhaps before you expect," she said, +smiling mysteriously. "Hush! Here he comes! You bad boy, you have +spoilt my hair,"--she herself had disarranged it as she pressed against +his breast. "I must run away and have it put straight." + +Sir Stephen entered a moment after she had left the room. He looked +fagged to-night, as she had said; but his face lit up at sight of +Stafford. + +"Ah, my boy!" he exclaimed, holding Stafford's hand for a moment or two +and scanning him with his usual expression of pride and affection. "We +are going to have a big night: the greatest crush we have had. Didn't I +hear Maude's voice?" + +Stafford said that she had just gone out. Sir Stephen nodded musingly, +and glanced at Stafford's grave face. + +"I suppose the hurly-burly will be over presently," he said, "and we +can go down to the country. Where would you like to go?" + +Stafford shrugged his shoulders, and Sir Stephen eyed him rather sadly +and anxiously. This indifference of Stafford's was quite a new thing. + +"Don't mind? What do you say to Brae Wood, then?" + +Stafford's face flushed. + +"Not there--Wouldn't it be rather hot at Bryndermere, sir? Why not +Scotland?" + +Sir Stephen nodded. + +"All right. Wherever you like, my boy. We've still got some years of +the Glenfare place. We'll go there. And, Stafford--do you ever remember +that I am getting old?" + +Stafford laughed and looked at the handsome face affectionately and +with the admiration and pride with which a son regards a good-looking +father. + +"Yes; I suppose you must be nearly thirty, sir!" + +Sir Stephen laughed, not ill-pleased at the retort. + +"Seriously, Staff, I'm older than you think, and--er--Ah, well, we're +all mortal! Do you think you could oblige me in a little matter--" + +He paused. + +Stafford looked at him with a half smile. + +"Sounds as if you wanted to borrow money, sir. Anything I can do--" + +Sir Stephen laughed. + +"No, I'm not in want of money: but I'm in want of a daughter-in-law, of +grandchildren to sit upon my knee--" He laughed again, as if he were a +little ashamed of the touch of sentiment. "Seriously, Staff, is there +any reason for waiting? I know that the engagement is a short one; but, +well why should you and Maude not be happy? I can make arrangements," +he went on, eagerly. "There is Brae Wood. I'll make that over to you--" + +Brae Wood again! Stafford's face grew set and impassive. + +--"Or there is that place I bought in Warwickshire. But, there, perhaps +you and Maude would like to find a place for yourselves. Very natural! +Well, there's no difficulty! Come, Staff! Why delay! 'Gather ye +rose-buds while ye may,' you know! Why shouldn't the marriage take +place directly the House rises and we leave London?" + +Stafford turned away so that his father might not see the sudden pallor +of his face. + +"I'll--I'll speak to Maude, sir," he said, trying to make his tone +cheerful, if not enthusiastic. + +Sir Stephen laid his hand upon Stafford's broad shoulder. + +"Thank you, my boy!" he said. "You are always good to me! Always! God +bless you, Staff!" + +His voice was husky, there was a moisture in his eyes which almost made +Stafford's grow dim; then, with a swift return to his usual alert and +sanguine manner, Sir Stephen withdrew his hands and swung round. + +"I must be off: Maude likes me to be in the room when the people come: +and, by George! Staff, I find myself doing what she likes all the +time!" + +His laugh rang out as he hurried with his brisk step from the room. + +He was there at his post, when the guests began to arrive; and not far +from him stood Maude in the splendour of her beauty; not tremulous now, +as Howard had seen her, but statuesque and calm, and gracious with a +stately graciousness which was well suited to the coronet which all +knew would some day glitter on the bronze-gold hair. + +Every now and then as the crowd increased her eyes would wander in +search of Stafford, and she noticed that though he took his part, did +his duty, the listless, half-wearied expression was still on his face, +and a pang shot through her. Was it possible that he was still thinking +of that girl at Bryndermere--She thrust the thought, the sickening +dread, from her and forced the conventional smile to her face. + +She danced the first dance with a popular duke who stood high in the +government, and a word or two he let drop: "Sir Stephen: a man worthy +of the highest honors," made her heart beat with anticipatory triumph. + +The second waltz came, and--Ah, well, with Stafford's arm round her, +with her head almost pillowed on his shoulder she was happy, and her +fears, her vague doubts and presentiments fell from her. + +"Ah, that was good," she said, with a sigh. "Do not forget--the +eleventh, dearest! Take me to the prince--he is over there." + +She dropped her curtsey to his royal highness, and Stafford left her +with him. As he made his way to the end of the room he saw Griffenberg +and several of the other financiers in a group, as usual; and they were +talking with even more than their ordinary enthusiasm and +secretiveness. Griffenberg caught his arm as he was passing. + +"Heard the news, Mr. Orme?" he asked. + +"No; what is it?" said Stafford. + +Griffenberg smiled, but rather gravely. + +"They say that the peerage will be announced to-night." + +Stafford nodded. And Griffenberg after a stare at Stafford's impassive +face which evinced no flush of exultation, glanced at the others +curiously, seemed about to add something, then checked himself and +turned away, and as Stafford went on, said in a low voice to Wirsch: + +"Do you think he has heard? Looked rather glum, didn't he?" + +The baron shrugged his shoulders. + +"Don't know. He's a shtrange sheentleman. He keeps himself to himself +doesh Mishter Shtafford." + +Stafford went on, and at one of the anterooms came upon Mr. Falconer. +He was standing looking on at the dancing with a grim countenance, and +seemed lost in thought; so much so that he was almost guilty of a start +when Stafford spoke to him. + +"Yes! Great crowd. Just come in? Father all right?" + +"Quite well, thanks," said Stafford, rather surprised by the question. + +At that moment a servant brought a foreign cablegram to Falconer. +Falconer tore it open, glanced at it, and went pale. + +"Anything the matter?" asked Stafford. + +Falconer looked at him fixedly and curiously, then with a shake of his +head moved away. + +Stafford smoked a cigarette and sauntered back to the ballroom. He +passed the group of city men again, and caught a word or two in the +baron's gruff voice: + +"I want to know how we shtand! The plow will shmash him; but the rest +of us--us who are in de shwim. If de natives have risen--" + +But Stafford paid little heed--forgot the words as soon as he had heard +them; and went in search of his partner. While he was dancing, he was +aware of that peculiar stir, that flutter and wave of excitement which +agitates a crowd when something momentous is happening. He looked round +and saw his father standing in the centre of a group of persons, men +and women, who all seemed excited. There was loud talking, and sudden +and spasmodic movements as fresh auditors to the restless group came up +hurriedly and curiously. + +"What is the matter, Mr. Orme?" asked the girl with whom he was +dancing. + +As she spoke he saw Maude detach herself from the group and approach +them. + +"Stafford--forgive me, Lady Blanche! but will you let him come to Sir +Stephen? He has just heard news--" + +They followed her, and Sir Stephen seeing Stafford, held out his hand. +The old man was flushed and his dark eyes sparkled. + +"Stafford!" he said, and his rich voice shook. "I have just heard--they +have just brought me--" + +He held up an official-looking paper with the great red seal on the +envelope. + +"It is from the prime minister--it is the peerage," said Maude, in a +voice thrilling with restrained triumph. + +Stafford shook his father's hand. + +"I congratulate you, sir," he said, trying all he knew to force +congratulation, rejoicing, into his voice. + +Sir Stephen nodded, and smiled; his lips were quivering. + +"Congratulations, Sir Stephen!" said a man, coming up. "I can see the +good news in your face." + +"Not Sir Stephen--Lord Highcliffe!" said another, correctingly. + +Maude slid her arm in Stafford's, and stood, her lovely face flushed, +her eyes sparkling, as she looked round. + +"And no title has been more honourably gained," a voice said. + +"Or will be more nobly borne!" echoed another. + +Stafford, with all a man's hatred of fuss, and embarrassment in its +presence, drew nearer to his father. + +"Won't you come and sit down--out of the crowd?" he added, in a low +voice. + +Sir Stephen nodded, and was moving away--they made a kind of lane for +him--when a servant came up to him with a cablegram on a salver. As he +did so, Howard stepped forward quickly. + +"Take it into the study!" he said, almost sharply, to the man; then to +Stafford he whispered: "Don't let him open it. It is bad news. +Griffenberg has just told me--quick! Take it!" + +But before Stafford, in his surprise, could take the cablegram, Sir +Stephen had got it. He stood with his head erect, the electric light +falling on his handsome face: the embodiment of success. He opened the +telegram with the smile still on his lips, and read the thing; then the +crowd of staring--shall it be written, gaping?--persons saw the smile +fade slowly, the flushed face grow paler, still paler, then livid. He +looked up and round him as if he were searching for a face, and his +eyes, full of anguish and terror, met Stafford's. + +"Stafford--my boy!" he cried, in accents of despair. + +Stafford sprang to him. + +"Father--I am here!" he said, for Sir Stephen's gaze grew vacant as if +he had been stricken blind. + +The next moment he threw up his arms and, with a gasp, fell forward. +Stafford caught him as a cry of terror rose from the crowd which fell +back as if suddenly awed by some dreadful presence; and forcing his way +through it a famous doctor reached the father and son. + +There was a moment of awful suspense, then--the music sounded like a +mockery in the silence--all knew, though no word had been spoken, that +the great Sir Stephen--pardon! the Right Honourable the Earl of +Highcliffe--was dead. + + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + + +By a stroke, as of Heaven's lightning, the house of joy was turned into +the house of mourning. + +They bore the dead man to his room, plain and simple, even in that +mansion of luxury; the guests departed, some of them flying as from a +pestilence, some of them lingering with white and dazed faces and +hushed whispers, and Stafford was left alone with his dead; for he had +shut the door even upon Howard, who paced up and down outside, not +daring to force his sympathy upon his beloved friend. + +The morning papers gave a full account of the grand ball, the +announcement of Sir Stephen's peerage, and the sudden and tragic ending +to a life which had been lived full in the public gaze, a life of +struggle and success, which had been cut down at the very moment of +extreme victory. They recited the man's marvellous career, and held it +up to the admiration and emulation of his fellow Englishmen. They +called him a pioneer, one who had added to the Empire, they hinted at a +public funeral--and they all discreetly ascribed telling upon a weak +heart. Sir Stephen's precarious condition had been known, they said, to +his medical adviser, who had for some time past tried to persuade him +to relinquish his arduous and nerve-racking occupations, and to take +repose. + +Not a word was said about the cablegram which had been delivered to him +a few moments before his terribly sudden death; for it was felt by all +that nothing should be allowed to blur the glory of such a successful +career--not for the present, at any rate. + +There was no need for an inquest; the great physician who had been in +attendance, quite vainly, was prepared to certify to the cause of +death, and Stafford's feelings were spared thus far. Someone high in +authority suggested the idea of a public funeral, through Howard, whom +alone Stafford saw, but Stafford declined the honour, and the first +Earl of Highcliffe was carried to his last rest as quietly as +circumstances would permit. + +The press and the men of the city, with whom the dead man had worked, +kept silence about the catastrophe that had happened until after the +funeral; then rumours arose, at first in whispers and then more loudly, +and paragraphs and leaderettes appeared in the papers hinting at +something wrong in connection with Lord Highcliffe's last great scheme, +and calling for an enquiry. + +The morning after the funeral, Howard found Stafford sitting in a +darkened room of the great house, his head in his hand, a morning paper +lying open on the table before him. He raised his white and haggard +face as Howard entered and took his friend's hand in silence. Howard +glanced at the paper and bit his lip. + +"Yes," said Stafford, "I have been reading this. You have seen it?" + +Howard nodded. + +"You know what it means? I want you to tell me. I have been putting off +the question day by day, selfishly; I could not face it until--until he +was buried. But I can put it off no longer; I must know now. What was +that cablegram which they brought him just before--which you tried to +keep from him?" + +"You have not read any of the newspapers?" asked Howard, gravely, +bracing himself for the task from which his soul shrank. + +Stafford shook his head. + +"No; I have not been able to. I have not been able to do anything, +scarcely to think. The blow came so suddenly that I have felt like a +man in a dream--dazed, bewildered. If I have been able to think at all +it is of his love for me, his goodness to me. There never was such a +father--" His voice broke, and he made a gesture with his hand. "Even +now I do not realise that he is gone, that I shall never see him again. +I was so fond of him, so proud of him! Why do you hesitate? If it is +bad news, and I suppose it is, do you think I can't bear it? Howard, +there is nothing that you could tell me that could move me, or hurt me. +Fate has dealt me its very worst blow in taking him from me, and +nothing else can matter. The cablegram, this that the paper says, what +does it mean?" + +Howard sat on the table so that he could lay his hand, with a friend's +loving and consoling touch, on Stafford's arm. + +"I've come to tell you, Staff," he said. "I know that you ought to +know--but it's hard work--that cablegram contained news that the Zulus +had risen _en masse_, and that for a time, perhaps for years, the +railway scheme was blocked, if not utterly ruined. It was the one weak +link in the chain, and your father was aware of it and had taken what +measures he could to guard against the danger; but Fate, circumstances, +were too much for him. A silly squabble, so silly as to be almost +childish, between some squatters on the border and the discontented +natives, upset all his carefully laid plans, and turned a gigantic +success, at its very zenith, into a tragic failure." + +Stafford leant his head upon his hand and looked steadily at Howard. + +"It was that that killed him?" he said. "It meant ruin, I suppose, ruin +for him and others?" + +Howard nodded. + +"Yes; he had staked all upon this last throw, and the sudden reverse +came at a moment when his nerves were strained to the utmost, when he +was excited with the honour and glory he had achieved. The blow was too +sudden, the revulsion of feeling from exultation to despair too swift, +too great. It is one of the most awful things of which I have ever +heard or read. Men are speaking about it with bated breath. There is +nothing but pity for him, nothing but regret at the stroke of +misfortune which cut him down in the moment of his triumph." + +"And others?" repeated Stafford. "It has brought ruin upon others. +What, can I do? Is there anything I can do? I am so ignorant, I do not +even know whether I sit here absolutely penniless, or whether there is +anything left that I can give them." + +"Mr. Falconer and Murray and the lawyer are in the library," said +Howard. "They have been going into affairs. They would have liked to +have had you with them; but I begged you off. I knew you would be of no +use to them." + +Stafford looked his thanks. + +"No, I could not have helped them," he said. "No one knew less of my +poor father's affairs than I, no one is less capable of dealing with +them than I. Mr. Falconer will know what to do. It is very good of him +to come to my assistance. I have scarcely seen him; I have not seen +anyone but you." + +"And Maude?" said Howard, interrogatively. + +"No," said Stafford, his brows drawn together. "I have not seen her. +She has been ill--" + +"Yes," said Howard, in a low voice. "She is prostrated by the shock, +poor girl! You will go to her as soon as she is able to leave her +room?" + +"Yes, of course," said Stafford, very gravely and wearily. + +There was a knock at the door, and the footman, in his mourning livery, +came in and said, solemnly: + +"Mr. Falconer would like to know if you will see him, my lord?" + +A frown crossed Stafford's pale face at the "my lord." It sounded +strange and mockingly in his ears. + +"I will come at once," he said. "Come with me, Howard." + +They went to the library, and the three men who were sitting there +before a mass of papers rose to receive him; Falconer with a face as if +it were carved out of wood; Murray with anxious brow; the lawyer with a +grave and solemn countenance, and sharp, alert eyes. Stafford waved +them to their seats and took a chair at the table, and Falconer, with a +straight underlip, and eyes half concealed by their thick lids, spoke +for the others. + +"Very sorry we cannot leave you in peace for a little longer, Lord +Highcliffe," he said. "But I am quite sure you would have blamed us had +we done so. We have been going into your father's affairs, and I very +much regret that we cannot give you a favourable report of them. As you +know the will, which Mr. Chaffinch," he nodded at the lawyer, "read +this morning, leaves you everything, and names Mr. Chaffinch and Mr. +Murray here executors. That's all very proper and satisfactory as it +goes, but, unfortunately, we find that there is no estate." Murray, the +secretary, passed his hand over his wrinkled forehead and sighed, as if +he himself had made away with the vast sum of money, and the lawyer +frowned and shuffled the papers before him. Stafford sat with his hands +clasped on the table, his eyes fixed on Falconer's impassive face. + +"Your father's immense fortune was wholly embarked in this last +business," continued Mr. Falconer; "he believed in it and staked +everything on it. A very large number of the shares were held by him. +They are down to nothing to-day; it is very unlikely that they will +recover; it is possible that they never may; and if they should it +would be too late, for the shares your father held will, of course, go +to meet the claims--and they are heavy--on the estate. I don't know +whether I make myself understood: I am aware that you are not a +business man." + +Stafford inclined his head. + +"My father's debts--will they not be paid, will there not be +sufficient?" he asked, in a dry voice. + +Mr. Falconer pursed his lips and shook his head. + +"I'm afraid not; in fact, I can say definitely that they will not," he +replied, in a hard, uncompromising way. + +Stafford looked round the large, superbly furnished room, with its +book-cases of ebony and wedgewood, its costly pictures and bronzes, and +recalled the Villa with its luxury and splendour, and the vast sums +which Sir Stephen had spent during the last few months. It seemed +difficult to realise that the wealth was all gone. + +"What is to be done?" he asked, in a low voice. + +Mr. Falconer was silent for a moment, as he regarded the handsome face, +which seemed to have lost its aspect of youth and taken on the lines +and hollows of age. + +"I do not know. It is not for me to say. There will be a meeting of the +directors of the South African Company and others to-morrow, and some +decision will be come to, I have no doubt." + +"And I--I can do nothing?" said Stafford, huskily. "I am penniless, I +suppose?" + +Both Murray and Mr. Chaffinch raised their heads with an air of +surprise. + +"Penniless" echoed Mr. Chaffinch. "Certainly not, my lord! Surely you +know?" + +Stafford regarded him gravely; it seemed as if he himself were too +crushed by his grief for surprise. + +"Know?" he said. "What is in I should know? I do not understand." Mr. +Falconer coughed. + +"We thought you were aware of the existence of the deed; that your +father had informed you, Lord Highcliffe." + +"What deed?" asked Stafford, dully. "I am sorry to appear so dense; but +I have not the least idea of your meaning. As you say, Mr. Falconer, I +know nothing of business." + +"It is evident that your father did not tell you that he executed a +deed of gift in your favour, a gift of one hundred thousand pounds," +said Mr. Falconer. + +"Which deed, being made when he was quite solvent, cannot be upset. The +money was placed in trust, and is quite beyond the reach of the +creditors," said Mr. Chaffinch. "We thought you were aware of this, my +lord." + +Stafford shook his head. He evinced no sign of relief, the colour did +not rise to his face, and his eyes were still fixed on Falconer. + +"It was a very wise provision," said Mr. Chaffinch, approvingly. "And +distinctly one I should have recommended; but Sir Stephen--Lord +Highcliffe--did it of his own accord. He was a far-seeing man, and he +was aware that fortune might fail him, that it was necessary he should +place you, my lord, out of danger. I can well believe that, even at +that time, he saw the peerage coming, and felt that you should be made +secure, that you should have a sufficient income to support the title. +It is not a tenth, a twentieth of the sum you would have inherited, but +for this unfortunate accident of the native rising, and the collapse of +the South African Company." + +Stafford scarcely heard him. He was thinking of his father's loving +foresight and care for his son's future. A pang of bereavement shot +through him. + +"Very wise," said Mr. Falconer, grimly. "Whatever happens, Lord +Highcliffe is safe, high and dry above water mark. Carefully invested, +the capital sum may be made to produce an income of four thousand, or +thereabouts. Not too much for an earldom, but--Ah, well, it might be so +much worse." + +"The servants--the small debts--this house--is there enough for them?" +asked Stafford, after a pause. + +Mr. Chaffinch waved his hand. + +"No need to trouble about that, my lord. There will be sufficient at +the bank to pay such small claims. Your lordship will keep the house +on?" + +Stafford looked up with a sudden energy. "No," he said; "not a moment +longer than is necessary. I shall return to my old rooms." + +"There is no occasion," began Mr. Chaffinch. "I need scarcely say that +the bank will honour your lordship's cheques for any amount." + +"Please get rid of this house as soon as possible," said Stafford. He +rose as he spoke. "You will remain to lunch?" + +They murmured a negative, and Stafford begging to be excused, left the +room, signing to Howard to follow him. He did not mean it, but his +manner, in the abstraction of his grief was as lordly as if he had +inherited an earldom of five centuries. When they had got back to the +little darkened room in which he had sat since his father's death, +Stafford turned to Howard: + +"At what time and place is this meeting to-morrow, Howard?" he asked. + +"At Gloucester House, Broad Street. Four." + +Stafford nodded, and was lost in thought for a moment or two, then he +said: + +"Howard, will you send my horses to Tattersall's? And the yacht to the +agents, for sale? There is nothing else, I think. I used to have some +diamond studs and rings, but I've lost them. I was always careless. +Great Heaven! When I think of the money I have spent, money that I +would give my life for now!" + +"But, my dear old chap, a hundred thousand pounds! Four thousand a +year--it's not too much for a man in your position, but there's no need +to sell your horses." + +Stafford laid his hand on Howard's shoulder and looked into his eyes +and laughed strangely; then his hands dropped and he turned away with a +sigh. + +"Leave me now, Howard," he said, "I want to think--to think." + +He sank into a chair, when Howard had gone, and tried to think of his +future; but it was only the past that rose to his mind; and it was not +altogether of his father that he thought, but of--Ida. In his sacrifice +of himself, he had sacrificed her. And Fate had punished him for his +forced treachery. He sat with his head in his hands, for hours, +recalling those eyes, and yes, kissed her sweet lips. God, what a +bankrupt he was! His father, his sweetheart, his wealth--all had been +taken from him. + +He did not think of Maude. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + + +At noon the following day there was a large meeting at Gloucester +House. There gathered the Beltons, Baron Wirsch, Griffenberg, and the +titled and untitled folk who had been concerned in Sir Stephen Orme's +big scheme. And they were all gloomy and in a bad temper; for all of +them had lost money and some of them were well-nigh ruined by the +collapse of the company which was to have made their fortunes. They +came before noon, the appointed hour, and talked, sometimes in +undertones, but not seldom in loud and complaining voices. By one and +all the dead man was blamed for the ruin in which he had involved them. +They had left the whole thing in his hands: he ought to have foreseen, +ought to have taken proper precautions. They had been--well, if not +duped and deceived, the victims of his criminal sanguineness and +carelessness. + +Griffenberg, being one of the heaviest losers, was elected to the +chair, but beyond making a statement which told them nothing, he could +do little. When he informed them that Lord Highcliffe had died +practically insolvent, a murmur arose, a deep guttural murmur which was +something between a hiss and a groan, and it was while this unpleasant +sound was filling the room that Stafford entered. + +The groan, if groan it can be called, died away, and they all turned +and looked at his pale and careworn face. The tall figure in its deep +mourning dress silenced them for the moment. + +Griffenberg signed Stafford to a seat beside him. + +"I am sure we can tell Lord Highcliffe that we are glad to see him, +that we are much obliged for his attendance." + +Some few said "Hear! hear!" but the rest were silent and watchful. As +Griffenberg spoke the door opened again and Ralph Falconer entered. He +glanced at Stafford and knit his brows, but dropped heavily into a +chair, and sat with stony face and half-lowered lids. He had scarcely +taken his seat when Howard entered in his quiet fashion, and he went +and stood just behind Stafford. + +"I was just telling the meeting, Lord Highcliffe, that I was afraid we +were in a bad way." said Griffenberg. "We all relied so completely on +Sir Stephen--I beg pardon, Lord Highcliffe, your father--that we feel +ourselves helpless now--er--left in the lurch. The company is in great +peril; there has already been heavy loss, and we fear that our property +will be swallowed up--" + +"Ask him what Sir Stephen did with all his money!" cried an excited +shareholder. + +"Order!" said Mr. Griffenberg. "Lord Highcliffe is not here to answer +questions." + +"Then what's he here for?" retorted another man whose loss amounted to +a few hundreds, but who was more excited and venomous than those who +had many thousands at stake. "He's all right. He's a lord--a pretty +lord!--and I'm told the gentleman he's next to is his future +father-in-law, and is rolling in money--" + +"Order! order!" called Griffenberg. + +But the man declined to be silenced. + +"Oh, it's all very well to call 'Order!' But I've a question to ask. I +want to know whether it's true that Sir Stephen--blow 'Lord +Highcliffe,' Sir Stephen's good enough for me!--made over a hundred +thousand pounds to his son, the young gentleman sitting there. Some of +us is ruined by this company, and we don't see why we should be sheared +while Lord Highcliffe gets off with a cool hundred thousand. I ask the +question and I wait for an answer." + +Stafford rose, his pale, handsome face looking almost white above his +black frock-coat and black tie. + +"Sit down! Don't answer him," said Griffenberg. + +"It is quite true," he said. "The money--a hundred thousand pounds--was +given to me. It was given to me when my father"--his voice broke for a +moment--"was in a position to give it, was solvent--" + +"I said so, didn't I?" yelled the man who had put the question. + +"Order! order!" said Griffenberg. + +"And I am informed that the gift was legal, that it cannot be +touched--" + +"Of course it can't! Trust Sir Stephen to look after his own!" wailed +the man. + +"But I yield it, give it up," said Stafford in the same level voice. + +Falconer started from his seat and laid a hand on Stafford's arm. + +"Don't be a fool!", he whispered in his thick voice. + +But Stafford did not heed him. + +"I give it up, relinquish it," he said in the same low, clear tones. +"When my father"--his voice again shook for a moment, but he mastered +his emotion--"made the deed, he thought himself a rich man. If he were +alive to-day"--there was a pause, and the meeting hung on his +words--"he would entirely agree with what I am doing. I give up the +deed of gift, I relinquish it. My lawyers have made me the proper +document, and I now give it to your chairman. It is all I possess; if I +had more, I would give it to you. My father was an honourable man, if +he were here now--" + +He placed the deed before Griffenberg, and sank into his seat. + +There was a moment of intense silence, then a cheer arose, led by the +very man who had put the question. + +Griffenberg sprang to his feet. + +"I hope you are satisfied, gentlemen," he said, with as much emotion as +a city man can permit himself. "Lord Highcliffe has behaved like a +gentleman, like a nobleman. I can assure you that his sacrifice is a +real one. The deed of gift which he has surrendered is a perfectly +sound one, and could not have been touched. All honour to him for his +surrender, for his generosity." + +Another cheer arose--again it was started by the very man who had +attacked poor Stafford, and before it had ceased to ring through the +crowded room, Stafford had made his way out. + +Mr. Falconer caught him by the arm as he was going down the stairs. + +"Do you know what you have done?" he demanded in his dry, harsh voice. +"You have made yourself a pauper." + +Stafford stopped and looked at him with a dull, vacant gaze. + +"A pauper!" repeated Falconer, huskily. + +"I daresay," said Stafford, wearily. + +"And you an earl!" said Falconer, his face a brick-dust red. "Do you +think they will have any pity? Not they. They'll take you at your word. +They'll have every penny! How do you mean to live? You, the Earl of +Highcliffe!" + +Stafford passed his hand across his brow; and a smile, a grim smile, +curved his lips. + +"I don't know," he said. "The money was theirs, not mine." + +"Stuff and rubbish!" said Falconer. "You thought only of yourself, of +your father's good name. I need scarcely tell you that Maude..." + +Stafford waited, his pale face set like a statue's. + +--"That Maude--well, you don't expect her to consider the engagement +binding after--after this?" The blood rushed to Stafford's face. + +"I understand," he said. "Miss Falconer is free. I resign all claim to +her." + +At this moment Howard came out. He had almost fought his way from the +crowded room. + +"Stafford!" he cried. "It is not too late! You can take it back! They +are friendly!" + +Stafford smiled. + +"I've nothing to take back!" he said. + +Howard linked his arm in his friend's. + +"Good Lord! But it was splendid! But all the same--Stafford, have you +considered? It will leave you practically penniless!" + +"I know," said Stafford. "I have considered. Let us go home." + +They went home to Stafford's room. Howard was hot with the enthusiasm +of admiration, and with the effort to suppress it; for nowadays men do +not tolerate praise even from their dearest friend. It seemed to Howard +as if Stafford's act of renunciation had brought him a certain sense of +relief, as if some portion of the heavy weight had been lifted from his +heart. + +"Of course now we have to go into a committee of ways and means, my +dear Staff; you won't mind my asking you what you're going to do? I +need not say that there is no need for any precipitate action. +I--er--the fact is, Staff, I have a sum of money lying at the bank +which absolutely annoys me by its uselessness. The bank manager has +been bothering me about it for some time past, and it was such a +nuisance that I thought of tossing him whether he should take or I. It +isn't much--a man doesn't amass a large fortune by writing leaders for +the newspapers and articles for reviews--but of course you wouldn't be +so mean as to refuse to borrow what there is. I'm very much afraid that +you'll suffer by this absurdly quixotic action of yours, which, mind +you! though I admire it, as I admire the siege of Troy, or the battle +of Waterloo, is a piece of darned foolishness. However, let that go! +What do you mean to do?" + +"I don't know yet," said Stafford. He didn't thank Howard for the +offer; no thanks were necessary. "The thing is so sudden that I have +not made any plans. I suppose there's something I can do to earn my +living. I've no brains, but I'm pretty strong. I might drive a hansom +cab or an omnibus, better men than I have done worse. Leave me alone, +old man, to have a pipe and think of it." Howard lingered for an hour +or two, for he felt that though Stafford had dismissed him, he had need +of him; and when he had gone Stafford took his hat and went out. He did +not call a hansom, but walked on regardless of his route, and lost in +thought. Something of the weight that had crushed him had been lifted +from his heart: he was penniless, the future stretched darkly before +him with a darkness through which there appeared no road or sign of +light; but he was free. He would not be compelled to go to the altar, +there to perjure himself with an oath to love and cherish one woman +while he loved another. I am afraid he did not feel much pity for +Maude, simply because he did not realise how much she cared for him. + +He walked on for some time and at last found himself somewhere down by +the Minories, in that mysterious East End, of which we hear so much and +of which we know so little. A little farther on he came upon the river +and he stood for a moment or two watching some sheep and cattle being +driven on board an ocean tramp. The sight of them recalled Herondale +and Ida; and he was turning away, with a sigh, when a burly man with a +large slouch hat stuck on the back of his head came lurching out of one +of the little wooden offices on the quay. He was apparently the owner +of the sheep, or in some way concerned with them, for he harangued the +drovers in a flow of language which though rich in profanity, was +poured forth in a pleasant and jovial voice. He had been drinking +unwisely and too well, and as he wobbled richly about the small quay he +happened to lurch against Stafford, who was attempting to avoid him. He +begged Stafford's pardon profusely and with such good-natured penitence +that Stafford in addition to granting him the forgiveness he requested, +asked him where the sheep and cattle were going. + +"To my little place, Salisbury Plain." Seeing the astonishment which +Stafford could not keep out of his face, the man laughed and explained. +"Not your Salisbury Plain, not the place here in England, but in the +Burra-Burra country, Australia," he pointed with his fat hand +downwards. "Right underneath. They're prize rams and bulls. I like to +have the best, and I paid a devil of a long price for them; but I've +got enough left for a drink if you'll come and have one." + +Stafford declined, but the man clung on to his arm, and thinking it the +easiest way of getting rid of him, and to avoid a scene, Stafford +accompanied him to the clean and inviting little public at the corner +of the quay, and permitted the man to order a glass of ale for him; the +bar-maid, without receiving any intimation, placed a large joram of rum +before the man, who remarked, after raising his glass to Stafford's +health: + +"Yes, sir, and I'm going with those beasts. I've nothing to say against +Old England so long as you don't ask me to live here. I've been here +six weeks, and there's only one thing that I feel I want and can't +get--no, miss, it ain't rum, there's plenty of that, thank God!--it's +air, air. I suppose the city gents are used to living without it, +though some of you look pale enough. _You_ don't look quite the thing +yourself, sir; rather white about the gills, and not enough meat on +you. Ah! I'd soon alter that if I had you at Salisbury Plain. Lord! I +should like to take out a whole shipload of you; and mind, I could do +with a few, and pay you better wages than you get in the City of +London. And the life! Why, you'd think yourselves kings, with a horse +to ride and plenty to eat, and plenty of fun. But there! you can't tell +what it's like unless you've seen it, and if ever you should have a +fancy to see it, you come out to Salisbury Plain, to my little place on +the Burra-Burra; for I like the look of you, young man; you're a +gentleman, though I've an idea you're down on your luck--I ain't so +drunk that I can't see through a man's eyes, and there's trouble in +yours; been outrunning the constable, eh? And you're not too proud to +take a drink with an honest man--honest, though rough, maybe." + +"Not at all," said Stafford, "and now you will take a drink with me, or +shall we make it a cigar?" for he did not want to lead the man any +further on the road of inebriety. + +"A cigar? Right you are," the settler replied, promptly. He took out an +envelope, intending to screw it up for a light, but suddenly caught +sight of the address, and with genial gravity handed the envelope to +Stafford. "There's my name--Henery Joffler, and there's my address, and +anybody at Melbourne will tell you the best way of getting there. Come +when you like, winter or summer, and you'll find Henery Joffler ready +to receive you with a welcome. _Now_ I will have a drink," he remarked, +as if he had not partaken of one for a calendar month. + +When Stafford left the little public house, he held the envelope in his +hand and was about to tear it up, when he checked himself and +mechanically put it into his pocket. The incident, if it had not +actually amused him, had diverted his mind in a wholesome manner for a +short space; but he had almost forgotten it when has reached his rooms. +The time had slipped by him and it was now twilight and as he was +crossing the room in the dusk to ring the bell for a light, a woman +rose from his chair and came towards him with out-stretched hands and +his name on her lips. + +"Maude!" he exclaimed, startled out of his self-possession. Then it +flashed upon him that she should not be there, in his rooms, alone; and +he looked at her gravely. + +"Why have you come, Maude?" he said. "Wait but one moment and I will +call a cab--go home with you." + +"No," she said, presently. "Did you think I should not come, Stafford? +I have been here for hours." She drew nearer to him, her eyes, so cold +to others, burning like sapphires as they were raised to his. "Did you +think when I had heard what you had done that I should keep away? No! +I--I am proud of you--can you not guess how proud?--my heart is aching +with it. Ah, but it was like you, Stafford!" + +As she put her hand on his shoulder and looked at him with a smile of +pride, and of adoration, Stafford's eyes fell before hers. + +"I could do nothing else," he said. "But I am sorry you came, Maude. +Didn't Mr. Falconer tell you?" + +She laughed and threw back her head with a defiant gesture. + +"Yes--as if it mattered! As if anyone--even he--could separate us! +Besides, what he said was in a fit of temper, he was annoyed by your +surrendering the money. And he could not speak for me--could not +control me." + +"Let me get a light," said Stafford. + +"No matter," she said, as if she could not bear him to leave her side, +even for a moment. "Stafford, dearest, you will not think of, you will +forget, what he said? It was spoken in a moment of irritation. Oh, my +dearest, let me look at you--it is so long since I saw you, so long, so +long! How pale you are, and how weary looking!" + +Her other arm went round his neck, and she would have drawn his face +down to her lips, but Stafford checked her. + +"You should not be here," he stammered. + +She laughed. + +"How proud you are! Yes, and I love you for it! You think that I should +desert you, as most women would do!" She laughed again. "If you were a +pauper--" + +"It is what your father called me," he said, gravely + +She smiled up into his gloomy eyes defiantly, temptingly. + +"What does it matter? I am rich--my father is rich--" + +Stafford winced and his face flamed, but she had turned aside for a +moment and did not see the effect of her words. + +--"And you have more than wealth," she laughed. "I reminded him of +that, and it sobered him. Oh, believe me! for all his pretended +stoicism, my father values a title as keenly as most men, and at heart +is anxious to see his daughter a countess." + +Stafford bit his lip. + +"I will take you home now," he said. Something in his voice told her +that she had made a wrong step, that she had failed. With a cry she +clung to him more tightly, and drawing back her head, scanned his face. + +"Stafford! You--you don't mean to leave me--to throw me off! Say +it--promise me!" She laughed hysterically and would have slipped to her +knees at his feet; but he held her firmly. "See, dearest, I would plead +to you, pray to you! I am--so afraid. But you won't do that--you won't +let anything separate us? Hush! there is my father. Stafford, you will +listen, you will agree!" + +As Falconer knocked at the door, she released Stafford, but stood near +him, with her hand resting on his arm. + +Falconer came in and regarded them from under his lowered lids. + +"I might have expected to find you here," he said harshly to Maude. + +"Yes; I came to him," she said, with a little gesture. "Why should I +not? Why should I care--" + +Falconer shrugged his shoulders, and turned from her to Stafford. + +"I've come to take back what I said this morning," he said, in his dry +voice. "I was hasty, and your--insensate folly in giving up the money +upset me. I have been talking the matter over with Maude, and we have +agreed to--to--continue the engagement." + +Stafford lit a couple of candles and the scant light fell upon the +faces of the three, the white one of the woman, the stern and set one +of Stafford, and the hard and impassive one of Mr. Falconer. + +"Of course a large sum of money will have to be found; and I must find +it. It will be settled upon Maude--with, of course, a suitable +allowance for a nobleman of your rank--" + +"One moment," said Stafford, very quietly. "Before you go any further, +I have to correct a misapprehension, Mr. Falconer. I do not intend to +use my title." + +"What!" exclaimed Falconer, his face growing darker. + +"I intend dropping the earldom," said Stafford. + +"But I don't intend you should," retorted Falconer, brutally. "If I +consent to my daughter's marrying a pauper--" + +"A pauper is one who begs," said poor Stafford, his face white as +marble. "I have not yet begged--" + +"Stafford!" cried Maude. Then she swung on her father. "Why do you +speak to him--to _him_--like this?--Stafford, you will yield--" + +"In everything, in every way, but this," he said, with the same ominous +quietude. "If you are content to drop the title, to share the life of a +poor and an ordinary working-man--as I hope to be--" + +He held out his hand, and she would have taken it, clung to it, but her +father strode between them, and with a harsh laugh, exclaimed: + +"You fool! Don't you see that he is wanting to get rid of you, that he +is only too glad of the excuse? Great God! have you no touch of +womanliness in you, no sense of shame--" + +She swept him aside with a gesture, and advancing to Stafford, looked +straight into his eyes. + +"Is--is it true?" she asked hoarsely. "Tell me! Is what he says true? +That--that rather than marry me you would go out into the world +penniless, to earn your living--you? Answer! Do--do you love me?" + +His eyes dropped, his teeth clenched, and the moment of silence hung +heavy in the room. She turned from him, her hand going to her brow with +a gesture of weariness and despair. + +"Let us go," she said to her father. "He does not love me--he never +did. I thought that perhaps in time--in time--" + +The sight of her humiliation was more than Stafford could bear. He +strode to her and laid his hand on hers. + +"Wait--Maude," he said, hoarsely. "I must lay the title aside; I cannot +accept your father's money. I must work, as other and better men have +done, are doing. If you will wait until I have a home to offer you--" + +She turned to him, her face glowing, her eyes flashing. + +"I will go with you now, now--this moment, to poverty--to peril, +anywhere. Oh, Stafford, can't you see, can't you value the love I offer +you?" + +When her father had led her away, Stafford sank into a chair and hid +his face in his hands. He was no longer free, the shackles were upon +him. And he was practically penniless. What should he do? + +He got his pipe and felt in his pocket for his matches. As he did so he +came upon Mr. "Henery" Joffler's envelope. He looked at it vacantly for +a moment or two; then he laughed, a laugh that was not altogether one +of derision or amusement. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + + +Ida had found her life at Laburnum Villa hard enough in all conscience +before the night of the concert, but it became still harder after Mr. +Joseph's condescending avowal of love to her and her inevitably +scornful refusal. She avoided him as much as possible, but she was +forced to meet him at the family breakfast, a meal of a cold and dismal +character, generally partaken of by the amiable family in a morose and +gloomy silence or to an accompaniment of irritable and nagging personal +criticism. Mr. Heron, who suffered from indigestion, was always at his +worst at breakfast time; Mrs. Heron invariably appeared meaner and more +lachrymose; Isabel more irritable and dissatisfied; and Joseph, whose +bloodshot eyes and swollen lips testified to the arduous character of +his "late work at the office," went through the pretence of a meal with +a sullen doggedness which evinced itself by something like a snarl if +any one addressed him. + +Hitherto he had, of course, been particularly, not to say unpleasantly, +civil to Ida, but after his repulse his manner became marked by a +covert insolence which was intended to remind her of her dependent +position, and the fact that her most direct means of escape from it was +by accepting him as her lover. This manner of his, offensive as it was +intended to be, Ida could have borne with more or less equanimity; for +to her, alas! Joseph Heron seemed of very little more account then one +of the tradesmen's boys she saw occasionally coming up to the house; +but after treating her to it for a day or two in the hope of breaking +her spirit, as he would have expressed it, his manner changed to one of +insinuating familiarity. He addressed her in a low voice, almost a +whisper, so that his sister and mother could not hear, and he smiled +and nodded at her in a would-be mysterious manner, as if they were +sharing some secret. + +Though Ida did not know it, it was meant to rouse Mrs. Heron's +suspicions; and it succeeded admirably. Her thin, narrow face would +flush angrily and she would look across at Isabel significantly, and +Isabel would snigger and toss her head, as if she quite understood. + +Ida often went to her own room before Mr. Joseph returned at night, +but sometimes he came in before she had gone; and he made a practice of +sitting near her, even venturing on occasions to lean over the back of +her chair, his mother watching him out of the corners of her eyes, and +with her thin lips drawn down; and although Ida invariably got up and +went to another part of the room, her avoidance of Joseph did not lull +his mother's suspicions. Ida's contempt for the young man was too +profound to permit of such a sentiment as hatred--one can scarcely hate +that which one scorns--but whenever he came near her with his tobacco +and spirit-laden breath, she was conscious of an inward shudder which +closely resembled that with which she passed through the reptile house +at the Zoological Gardens. + +Mr. Joseph, the house, the whole life, began to get on her nerves; and +in the solitude of her own room she spent many an anguished hour trying +to discover some way of escape. She read all the advertisements of +situations vacant in the newspaper; but all the employers seemed to +require technical knowledge and accomplishments which she did not +possess. She knew she could not teach even the youngest of children, +she was unacquainted with the mysterious science of short-hand, and had +never seen a typewriter. No one appeared to want a young lady who could +break horses, tend cattle, or run a farm; and this was the only kind of +work she could do. + +So she was forced to the bitter conclusion that she would have to go on +living the life, and eat the bread of the Herons, with as much patience +as she could command, in the hope that some day "something would +happen" to release her from her bondage, which was gradually robbing +her eyes of their brightness and making her thin and listless. It +seemed that nothing ever would happen, that the weeks would drag into +months and the months into years; and one day as she toiled slowly home +from a country walk, she almost felt inclined to turn to that last +refuge of the destitute and answer one of the advertisements for a +lady's help: anything would be better than to go on living the life in +death which was her lot at Laburnum Villa. + +As she approached the house, she saw that the gas was lit in the +drawing-room, and the sound of voices, in which a strange one mingled, +penetrated through the thin door as she passed through the hall to her +room. While she was taking off her hat, there came a hurried knock, and +Isabel entered in her best dress. She was flushed and in a flatter of +suppressed excitement. + +"Oh, Ida, can you lend me a clean collar?" she asked, in a stage +whisper, and with a giggle which was intended to invite question; but, +as Ida had asked none, Isabel said, with another giggle: "You've heard +me speak of George Powler?" + +Ida looked doubtful: Isabel had mentioned so many men, generally by +their Christian names, who were supposed to be smitten by her, that +Ida, often listening absently enough to the foolish girl's confidences, +not seldom "got mixed." + +"The one who went to South Australia," Isabel went on, with an +affectation of coy shyness. "We used to see a great deal of him--at +least he used to call--before he went away; and though there really was +nothing serious between us, of course--But one doesn't like to speak of +these things, even to one's bosom friend. But he's down-stairs just +now. I just had time to run up, and he actually almost saw me on the +stairs! Yes, this one will do: you always have such good-shaped +collars, and yet you have always lived in the country! I must be quick +and hurry down: men do so hate to be kept waiting, don't they? You'll +come down presently, won't you, Ida? I'm sure you'll like him: he's so +steady: and it's a very good business. Of course, as I said, nothing +definite has passed between us, but--" + +She giggled and simpered significantly; and Ida, trying to force +herself to take some interest, fastened the collar for Isabel, and +gently and with much tact persuaded that inartistic young lady to +discard a huge crimson bow which she had stuck on her dress with +disastrous results. When, some little time after, Ida went down to the +drawing-room, she found that the visitor was like most of those who +came to Laburnum Villa, very worthy people, no doubt, but uninteresting +and commonplace. This Mr. George Powler was a heavy thick-set man, +approaching middle age, with the air of a prosperous merchant, and with +a somewhat shy and awkward manner; it seemed to Ida that he looked +rather bored as he sat on one of the stiff, uncomfortable chairs, with +the mother and daughter "engaging him in conversation," as they would +have called it. His shyness and awkwardness were intensified by the +entrance of the tall, graceful girl in her black dress, and he rose to +receive the introduction with a startled kind of nervousness, which was +reasonable enough; for the young women with whom he associated were not +dowered with Ida's very palpable grace and refinement. + +Ida bowed to him, made some remark about the weather, and went over +with a book to the sofa with the broken spring--and promptly forgot his +existence. But her indifference was not reciprocated; the man was +painfully aware of her presence, and after endeavouring to carry on the +conversation with Isabel, grew absent-minded and incoherent, and +presently, as if he could not help himself, got up and, edging to the +sofa nervously, sat down and tried to talk. + +Ida closed her book, and, as in duty bound, was civil to him, though +not perhaps so civil as she would have been to a man of her own age and +class; but Mr. George Powler, no doubt encouraged by her gentleness, +serenity, and perfect self-possession--qualities none too common in the +class to which he belonged--grew less nervous, and, to his own +amazement, found himself talking presently quite fluently to this +distinguished-looking young lady whose entrance of the drawing-room had +struck him with awe. With instinctive courteousness and kindness, Ida +had asked him some question about South Australia, and he was led to +talk of his life there, and to describe the country. + +Ida found her thoughts wandering after a few minutes, and grew +absent-minded; but Mr. George Powler was launched, on his favourite +subject, was delighted with the condescension of the beautiful and +stately listener, and did not notice that she was scarcely listening; +did not notice also that Mrs. Heron was looking discontented and +sniffing peevishly, and that Isabel's face wore an expression of +jealousy and resentment. The fact was, that the poor man had quite +forgotten the other young woman--and the other young woman knew it. + +Suddenly their silence bore down upon Ida's absent-mindedness, she felt +rather than saw that something was the matter, and she got up, in the +middle of one of Mr. George Powler's fluent but badly constructed +sentences, and going over to Isabel asked her to play something. + +Isabel flushed. + +"Oh, you had better sing," she said; "Mr. Powler would like that +better, _I'm_ sure." + +"Oh, yes; please do!" pleaded the man; and Ida, trying to conceal her +weariness and distaste, went to the piano and sang the shortest song +she knew. + +Her acquiescence was unfortunate in its result, for it completed in Mr. +George Powler's bosom the havoc which her face and voice had wrought. +He pressed her to sing again, beat time with his large hand and badly +groomed head, and was enthusiastic in his praises and seemed so +disappointed when she refused, that he seconded her appeal to Isabel +with an obviously forced politeness. + +Isabel went to the piano, but she was at no time a very brilliant +performer, and the poor girl was so upset by Ida's unconscious and +unwilling superiority, that she broke down in the middle of one of +those hideous drawing-room pieces which seem specially "arranged" for +the torture of those who are blessed or cursed with musical taste. + +The conversation naturally lagged and languished under these +circumstances, and Mr. George Powler presently rose to take his leave. +He was not asked to remain to dinner though Mrs. Heron had intended +inviting him, and had made secret and flurried preparations. He shook +hands with Ida with marked _empressement_ and nervousness, and seemed +as if he could scarcely tear himself away. + +When he had gone the mother and daughter sat bolt upright in their +chairs and stared before them in a pregnant silence; and Ida, wondering +what was the matter, was about to leave the room, when Mrs. Heron said +in a hard, thin voice: + +"One moment, Ida, if you please." + +Ida paused at the door with her book in her hand, startled from her +dreaminess by the woman's tone and manner. + +"You had better close the door, Ida. I should not like the servants to +overhear what it is my duty to say to you." + +Ida closed the door and stood expectantly, and Mrs. Heron continued: + +"I trust I am not one to find fault unnecessarily. I know it is the +duty of a Christian to be patient and long-suffering; but there is a +limit to one's endurance, and I regret to say that you have passed that +limit. I should not be fulfilling my duty to a young person who is +under my charge if I refrained from pointing out to you that your +conduct, since you have been under our roof, has been reprehensible and +disgraceful." + +Ida was too amazed for a moment to realise the full significance of the +spiteful speech; and then, as it gradually dawned upon her, the blood +rose to her face and an indignant protest rose to her lips; but she +checked it, and merely repeated the objectionable phrase. + +"Yes, disgraceful," said Mrs. Heron. "I am sorry to be compelled to use +such a word to a young girl and to one in your position; and I do not +think you make matters better by pretending not to know what I mean." + +"It is no pretence, Mrs. Heron," said Ida, quite calmly. "I do not in +the least know what you mean." + +"Then I'll tell you," retorted Mrs. Heron, with suppressed fury. "You +are one of the most shameless flirts I ever knew." + +Ida fell an almost irresistible desire to laugh; she had been tired +when she came in, Mr. George Powler's attentions had made her still +more weary, and the sight of the two women seated bolt upright and +evidently boiling over with anger, was full of a grotesque humour which +affected her hysterically. She managed to stifle the laugh, and looked +at them patiently and calmly as she stood by the mantel-piece with one +arm resting on the shelf. The unconscious ease and grace of her +attitude increased Mrs. Heron's irritation; her thin lips trembled and +her eyes grew red. + +"Oh, I am not blind," she said. "I've been quite aware of your conduct +for some time past; but I have refrained from speaking to you because, +as I say, you are under my roof and I did not wish to hurt your +feelings--though I am sure you have had very little regard for ours. I +have been greatly deceived in you, Ida. I thought when you came that +you were a quiet, well-conducted young woman, and I could scarcely +believe my eyes when I first saw that I was mistaken, and that your +quietness was only slyness. I suppose you didn't think I saw that you +were trying to entrap my poor boy; but a mother's eyes are sharp, and a +mother will protect her own at any cost. Oh, you needn't try to stare +me out of countenance, or to put on that surprised and innocent look. +You may have been able to deceive me once, but you can't now. I've been +watching you, and I've seen with my own eyes your carryings on." + +"Mrs. Heron--" began Ida, very quietly; but Mrs. Heron tore on with +breathless vehemence. + +"I suppose you only did it for your amusement; I don't suppose you +thought there would be any good in it, that his father or I would allow +Joseph to make such a _fool_ of himself as to throw himself away upon a +girl without any means; but it's all the more shameful. You succeeded +very well; you've turned the poor boy's head and made him miserable. +It's to be hoped that it will stop there, and that he won't be driven +to drink or desperate courses, as some young men are. Of course you'll +say that you never meant anything of the kind. I'm quite prepared for +that--you can be plausible enough when you like; with that quiet, +cat-like manner of yours." + +Ida had passed beyond the laughing stage by this time; her face was +pale, her eyes flashing; but she was able to say, with an appearance of +calm: + +"You are quite right, Mrs. Heron; I have no hesitation in saying that I +did not wish your son to pay me any attention, much less--Oh, do you +not see how ridiculous it is?" she broke out, indignantly, and with a +little desperate laugh. Mrs. Heron's face flamed. "I don't know what +you mean by ridiculous," she snapped. "I should say Joseph was quite +good enough a match for you; and I've no doubt you think so, though you +pretend to sneer at him." + +"Let me assure you, Mrs. Heron, that I have never thought of your son +as a possible husband," said Ida. "His attentions to me are more than +unwelcome--and he knows it." + +"Oh! then you admit that the poor boy is in love with you, that he has +told you? You see, you can't deceive me; I knew it. I wonder you aren't +ashamed of yourself; at any rate, having caused trouble in the house +that shelters you, that you haven't shame enough to refrain from +flirting, before our very eyes, with the first man that appears." + +Ida stared at her in amazement, too great for the moment to permit of +resentment. + +"What is this you accuse me of?" she asked. "Oh, pray, pray, do not be +so unreasonable, so unjust!" + +Mrs. Heron wagged her head, as one who is not to be deceived by any +affectation of innocence. + +"No, thank you, Ida!" she exclaimed. "That won't do for us. We've seen +it with our own eyes, haven't we, Isabel?" + +Isabel took out her handkerchief and began to whimper. + +"I should never have thought it of you, Ida," she sobbed. "And with +George, too! And I'd only just told you that--that there had been +things between us. I do think you might have left him alone." + +Ida was half distracted. + +"But you really cannot mean it!" she pleaded. "I have done nothing, +said nothing. You surely do not complain of his speaking to me, of his +being simply civil and polite! Heaven knows I had no desire to exchange +a word with him. I would not have come down if Isabel had not asked me, +and I had thought you would have considered it rude of me to remain +upstairs. Oh, what can I say to convince you that you are mistaken, +that I never gave a thought to this gentleman--I forget his name--that +I do not care if I never see him again, and that--Isabel, surely you do +not think me capable of the--vulgarity, the stupidity, with which your +mother charges me!" + +Isabel's sniffs and sobs only grew louder, and her demonstrative misery +worked Mrs. Heron to a higher pitch of resentment and virtuous +indignation. + +"That is right, Isabel, do not answer her. It is all pretence and +deceit on her part. She knows very well that she was doing her best to +attract his attention, smiling and making eyes at him, and attempting +to catch him just as she has caught poor Joseph." + +Ida's slight figure sprang erect, her face grew crimson and her eyes +flashed with a just wrath which could no longer be suppressed. + +"I think you must be mad," she said in a low voice. "Indeed, you must +be mad, or you would not insult me in this way. If I were guilty of the +conduct of which you accuse me, I should not be fit to live, should not +be fit to remain in any respectable house." + +"You are guilty," retorted Mrs. Heron. "And as to your being fit to +remain under this roof--and it was a respectable and happy one until +you came--you are the best judge. I shall inform your cousin John of +what has passed--it is my duty to do so--and he shall decide whether +you are to remain, a firebrand, and a disturber of the peace of a +Christian household. It is my duty to protect my poor boy." + +At that moment the hall door was opened and closed, and the "poor boy," +after shuffling about in the hall for a moment or two, opened the +drawing-room door. His hat was on the back of his head, one end of his +collar was unfastened, his face was flushed, and there was mud on his +coat, as if he had fallen--which he had. He lurched into the room with +a tipsy leer, and nodded to them with an affectation of extreme +sobriety, which is unfortunately always assumed by the individual who +is hopelessly intoxicated. Mrs. Heron rose with outstretched hands. + +"Oh, Joseph, are you ill? My poor boy!" + +"Ill?" he repeated, with a hiccough. "No, I'm not ill. Yes, I am, +though; it's mental worry, it's a 'arassed 'eart;" he looked at Ida and +shook his head reproachfully. "_She_ knows, but she don't care--But +whatsh the matter," he broke off, staring at Isabel, who was still +struggling with her sniffs and sobs. "Whatsh up? Whatsh Isabel cryin' +for? Ida been cryin' too? Look 'ere, I won't shtand that. If they've +bin ill-treating you, Ida, my dear, you shay so, and I'll know the +reashon why. You come to me, my dear." + +He lurched towards Ida, and as she drew back with a shudder of horror +and loathing, Isabel and his mother caught the wretched young man by +the arm, and with cries of alarm and commiseration, endeavoured to +soothe him. + +"Don't speak to her, don't think of her; she's not worth it!" said Mrs. +Heron. "She's not worth any sensible man's thoughts, least of all a man +like you, Joseph. You are ill, you must come to bed!" + +"Stuff an' 'umbug," he hiccoughed, as he struggled feebly with them, +and cast enamoured and would-be reassuring glances at Ida's white and +stern face. "She's a shplendid girl; she's a good girl; finest gal I +know; and she an' me undershtand one another; twin shouls. We've kep' +our secret from you, mother, but the time has come--the time has come +to reveal the truth. I love Ida. It'sh no good your frowning at me like +that; I shay I love Ida." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + + +At this point John Heron's ring and knock were heard at the door; with +a cry of terror, the unfortunate mother succeeded in dragging the +feebly struggling Joseph out of the room, and with Isabel's assistance, +hustled and pushed him up the stairs before his father was let in. +After a time Mrs. Heron came down again, and Ida heard her and her +husband talking together--you couldn't whisper in one room of Laburnum +Villa without being heard in another one--and presently the +drawing-room door opened and John Heron entered; Ida had waited, for +she had expected him. He was red and swollen with pomposity and +resentment, though he assumed a "more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger" air, and +threw a deeply grieved tone into his harsh, raucous voice. + +"I am deeply grieved and shocked, Ida," he began, "to hear from your +cousin so deplorable an account of your conduct. I am not so unwise as +to look for gratitude in this world, but I did not think you would +repay our kindness and consideration by attempting to wreck the +happiness of a quiet and godly home. Of course, I make all allowances +for your bringing-up; I am aware that in the state of life from which +we rescued you, the spiritual and the religious were entirely absent; +but I had hopes that our precept and, I may say, example, the influence +of a deeply religious family--" by this time his voice had slid into +the nasal whine and growl which it assumed in the pulpit; and Ida, +notwithstanding her wretchedness, again felt an almost irresistible +desire to laugh. + +"Please tell me, Cousin John, what it is I have done, what it is you +complain of?" she broke in. + +Angered by the interruption, for there is nothing a man like John Heron +hates worse, he snapped out: + +"You have been trying to snare the affections of my son; you have even +cast lascivious eyes at the stranger within our gates." + +The blood rushed to Ida's face; then she laughed outright, the laugh of +desperation; for indeed, she despaired of convincing these stupid +people of her innocence. The laugh naturally exasperated John Heron, +and his gaunt face grew pallid for an instant. + +"I understand!" he said. "You treat our remonstrances with scorn, you +scoff at our rebuke." + +"Yes; I am afraid I can't help it, Cousin John," said Ida. "I am sorry +that you should think me so wicked and so--dangerous, and I quite agree +with Isabel and her mother that if I am as bad as you say, I am not fit +to live in a respectable house and with--decent people. It would be +useless for me to assure you that you are all ridiculously mistaken." + +"My wife and daughter saw with their own eyes. I am informed that my +son is at this very moment in bed, prostrated by your heartless +conduct; you have trifled with that most delicate and sacred of things, +a human heart. Go to your chamber, Ida, and there I trust you will seek +repentance on your knees." + +There was silence for a moment, then Ida said, very quietly: + +"Have you anything more to say to me?" + +"Not to-night," said John, sternly. "I am wearied with well-doing. I +have been preaching, calling sinners, like yourself, to a better life. +To-morrow I will speak with you again, I will endeavour to snatch a +brand from the burning." + +"Good-night," said Ida. She paused with her hand on the door. "Cousin +John, you came to me when I was in great trouble; you offered me a home +when I was homeless; I think you have been as kind as you knew how to +be, and I want to thank you. I daresay it is my fault that I have not +got on better with you all. I am not so bad as you think--but we will +say no more about that. I do not want you to consider me ungrateful; +for indeed, I am grateful for the shelter you have given me, and I +shall always remember that you came to my aid when I was in sore need. +Will you please ask my cousin and Isabel to forgive me--for having +unwittingly caused them so much trouble? Good-night." + +"Good-night," said John Heron, grimly. "I should be comforted if I +could think that you were speaking from your heart; but I fear that you +are not--I fear that you are not! Oh, may that heart be melted! may you +be brought to see the peril of your evil ways!" Followed by this devout +prayer, Ida went up to her room. As she paced up and down she tried to +tell herself that the whole thing was too ridiculous, was too much like +a farce to make her wretched; but she felt unutterably miserable, and +she knew that she could no longer endure Laburnum Villa and the petty +tyranny and vindictiveness of these relations. + +Poverty, hardship, she could have borne patiently and without +complaining; but there are some things more intolerable to a +high-spirited girl, such as Ida, than poverty or physical +hardship--there are some things which hurt more than actual blows. She +felt stifling, choking; she knew that, happen what might, she could not +remain under her cousin's roof, eat the bread of his charity, for +another day. She shuddered as she pictured herself meeting them at the +breakfast-table, facing Mrs. Heron's spiteful face, Isabel's +tear-swollen eyes, and her cousin John's sanctimonious sermon. + +She would have to go. + +She thrust a few things into a bag and took out her purse and counted +the contents. They amounted to six pounds and a few shillings; but +small though the sum was, she thought that it would maintain her until +she could find some way of earning a livelihood, though at the moment +she had not the least idea what she could find to do. Without +undressing, she threw herself on the bed and tried to sleep; but her +heart ached too acutely and her brain was too active to permit of +sleep; and, try as she would, her mind would travel back to those brief +days of happiness at Herondale, and she was haunted by the remembrance +of Stafford and the love which she had lost; and at times that past was +almost effaced by the vision of Stafford seated beside Maude Falconer +at the concert. + +As soon as she heard the servants moving about the house she rose, pale +and weary, and putting on her outdoor things, stole down-stairs with +her bag in her hand. The servants were busy in the kitchen, and she +unfastened the hall door and left the house without attracting any +attention. The fresh, morning air, while it roused her to a sense of +her position, revived and encouraged her. After all, she was young and +strong and--she looked up at the house of bondage which she was +leaving--she was free! Oh, blessed freedom! How often she had read of +it and heard it extolled; but she had never known until this moment how +great, how sweet a thing it was. + +She waited at the mean little station until a workmen's train came up, +and, hustled by the crowd of sleepy and weary toilers, got into it. +When she left the terminus, she walked with a portion of the throng +which turned up Bishopsgate Street, though any other direction would +have suited her as well--or as little; for she had no idea where to go, +or what to do, beyond seeking some inexpensive lodging. She knew well +enough that she could not afford to go to a hotel; that she would have +to be content with a small room, perhaps an attic, and the plainest of +food, while she sought for work. It was soon evident to her that she +was not likely to find what she was looking for in the broad +thoroughfare of shops and offices, and, beginning to feel bewildered by +the crowd, which, early as it was, streamed along the pavements, she +turned off into one of the narrower streets. + +The long arm of Coincidence which thrusts itself into all our affairs, +led her to the Minories, and to the very quay which Stafford had +reached in his aimless wanderings; and, mechanically she paused and +looked on dreamily at the bustle and confusion which reigned there. +Perhaps the presence of the sheep and cattle attracted her: she felt +drawn to them by sympathy with their hustled and hurried condition, +which so nearly resembled her own. + +With one hand resting on a rail, and a bag in the other, she watched +the men as they drove the cattle up the gangways or lowered huge casks +and bales into the hold. A big, fat man, with a slouch hat on the back +of his head and a pipe in the corner of his mouth--which did not +prevent him shouting and bawling at the men and the animals--lurched +here and there like one of the casks, and in the midst of his shouting +and bawling, he every now and then glanced at a watch of the frying-pan +order. + +It was evident even to the inexperienced Ida, that the vessel was about +to start; the sailors were rushing about on deck in the haste and +excitement of ordered disorder, chains were clanking, and ropes and +pulleys were shrieking; and a steam whistle shrieked at intervals and +added to the multitudinous noises. + +"Poor sheep, poor bulls!" murmured Ida, as the last of the beasts were +driven up the gangway and disappeared. "Perhaps you have come from +another Herondale! Do you remember, do you look back, as I do?" + +She drew back, for the big man suddenly lurched in her direction, and, +indeed, almost, against her. + +"Beg pardon, miss," he said, touching his slouch hat. "Anything I can +do for you, anybody you're looking for?" + +"No, oh, no!" said Ida, blushing and turning away. Mr. Joffler, for it +was that genial Australian, nodded and stretched his moon-like face in +a smile. + +"Thought you'd come to say 'good-bye' to someone, p'raps. Wish it was +me! Though, if it was, I've an idea that I should stay on--air or no +air--and I'm blest if there ain't precious little about this morning! +Hi, there! All ready? Bless it all, we'll be too late for the tide if +he don't come," he said to the captain, who stood with one foot on the +taffrail, an expression of impatience on his weather-beaten face. + +"Like enough he ain't comin', Mr. Joffler," he said. "Them kind o' +gents is always slippery." + +"I dessay. Though I didn't think as this one was one of that kind. Too +much grit about him--ah, and I was not mistaken! Here he is! Get ready +there!" + +He turned, and Ida, instinctively turning with him, saw a tall figure +clad in a serge suit making its way quickly through the crowd of busy +dock-men and idly lounging spectators. He came straight to the big, fat +man, who greeted him jovially and loudly, and they passed side by side +on to the vessel. + +Ida drew a long breath and passed her hand over her brow. It was +absurd, of course, it was a trick of the imagination, of a wearied and +overstrained brain--but the tall figure in the blue serge--ah, how like +it was to that of Stafford! + +It disappeared with that of the big man into the vessel, and, with a +sigh, she was coming away when she saw the two men coming along the +deck and mount to the quarter. The fat man was talking and laughing, +but the man in the blue serge was grave and silent, as if he was lost +in thought and not listening. + +Suddenly, as she paused, the younger, slimmer figure turned in her +direction and uttered a cry, a cry almost of terror. Was she demented? +Had her longing, her aching longing for a sight of him called up this +vision of Stafford? Unless she were out of her mind, the victim of a +strange hallucination, it was he himself who stood there, his face, +pale and haggard, turned towards her. + +"Stafford!" she cried, unconsciously, and her hand gripped the iron +rail in front of her. + +As if he had heard her--though it was impossible that her voice could +reach him through the shouts of the sailors, the lowing and bleating of +the cattle--he raised his head and looked in her direction. Their eyes +met and were enchained for a moment, which seemed an eternity; then the +blood flew to his face, leaving it the next moment paler than before. +He swung round to the fat man by his side and clutched his arm. + +"Wait! Stop the vessel! I want to go ashore!" he said, hoarsely. + +Mr. Joffler stared at him, then laughed. + +"Hold on, sir!" he said, not unsympathetically. "Hold on! Took queer +like! Lor' bless you, I know how the feelin' is! It catches at you +right in the middle of the waistcoat. It's the thought of the land +going back from you--we're moving, we're well away. Here, take a sip of +this! You'll get over it in a brace o' shakes." + +He thrust a flask into Stafford's hand, but Stafford put it away from +him. + +"Let me go ashore! I'll join you later," he said, breathlessly. + +Mr. Joffler caught his arm as he was about to jump for the quay. + +"Steady, steady, sir!" he admonished, soothingly. "We can't stop--and +you'd break your neck trying to jump it! And all for a fancy, too, I'd +stake my life! Hearten up, man, hearten up! You're not the first to +feel sick and sorry at leavin' home and friends." + +Stafford bit his lip and tried to pull himself together; but his eyes +were still fixed on the pale face, the girlish, black-clad figure, and +his voice was shaky, as he said: + +"You're right, Mr. Joffler. It is too late now. I--I thought I saw +someone on the quay there. But it must have been fancy; it is impossible, +quite impossible!" + +"That's it," said Mr. Joffler, with a sympathetic wink. "Lor' love you, +I've had them kind o' fancies myself, especially after a hot night on +shore. If you'd only take a pull at this, you'd be all right directly. +It don't do to come aboard too sober, 'specially when you're leavin' +old England for the first time. Do you see 'em now?" + +Ida had moved away, and Stafford drew a long breath and forced a smile. + +"No," he said, huskily, and almost to himself. "Yes; it must have been +fancy. She could not have been there. It is impossible!" + +Mr. Joffler whistled and winked to himself comprehendingly. + +"She!'" he murmured. "Ah, that's it, is it? Ah, well I've been there +myself! Don't you let the fancy upset you, sir! It 'ull pass afore we +gets into the open. Nothing like the sea for teachin' you to forget +gals you've left behind you! Come down below and try and peck a bit. +There's cold beef--_and_ pickles. That'll send them kind o' fancies to +the right about." + +Ida turned and walked quickly away. Her head swam, she looked like one +in a dream. It was, of course, impossible that the man she had seen +could be Stafford: Stafford on board a cattle-ship! But the +hallucination had made her feel faint and ill. She remembered that she +had eaten nothing since yesterday at noon, and she ascribed this freak +of her imagination to the weakness caused by want of food. + +She left the quay slowly--as if her heart and her strength and all her +life's hope had gone with the dingy vessel--and emerging on the narrow, +crowded street, looked for some shop at which she could buy a roll of +bread. Presently she saw a baker's at the opposite side of the road to +that on which she was walking, and she was crossing, when a huge empty +van came lumbering round the corner. She drew back to let it pass; and, +as she did so, a lighter cart came swiftly upon her. She was so dazed, +so bewildered by the vision she had seen, and the noise of the street, +that she stood, hesitating, uncertain whether to go on or retreat to +the pavement she had left. + +The woman--or man--who hesitates in the middle of a busy London street +is lost: the cart was upon her before she had moved, the shaft struck +her on the shoulder and down she went into the muddy road! + +The driver jerked the horse aside, and leapt from his seat, the usual +crowd, which seems to spring instantaneously from the very stones, +collected and surged round, the usual policeman forced his way through, +and Ida was picked up and carried to the pavement. + +There was a patch of blood on the side of her head--the dear, small +head which had rested on Stafford's breast so often!--and she was +unconscious. + +"'Orse struck 'er with 'is 'oof," said the policeman, sententiously. +"'Ere, boy, call a keb. I'll have your name and address, young man." + +A cab was brought, and Ida, still unconscious, was carried to the +London Hospital. + +And lay there, in the white, painfully clean, carbolic-smelling ward, +attended by the most skillful doctors in England and by the grave and +silent nurses, who, notwithstanding their lives of stress and toil, had +not lost the capacity for pity and sympathy. Indeed, no one with a +heart in her bosom could stand up unmoved and hear the girl moaning and +crying in a whisper for "Stafford." + +Day and night the white lips framed the same name--Stafford, +Stafford!--as if her soul were in the cry. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + + +When Ida came to she found the sister of the ward and a young nurse +bending over her with placid and smiling faces. Why a hospital nurse +should under any and every circumstance be invariably cheerful is one +of those mysteries worthy to rank with the problem contained in the +fact that an undertaker is nearly always of a merry disposition. + +Of course Ida asked the usual questions: + +"Where am I?" and "How long have I been here?" and the sister told her +that she was in the Alexandria ward of the London Hospital, and that +she had been there, unconscious, for ten days. + +The nurse smiled as if it were the best joke, in a mild way, in the +world, and answered Ida's further questions while she administered beef +tea with an air of pride and satisfaction which made her plain and +homely face seem angelic to Ida. + +"You were knocked down by a cart, you know," said Nurse Brown. "You +weren't badly injured, that is, no bones were broken, as is very often +the case--that girl there in the next bed but two had one arm, one leg, +and two ribs broken: mail cart; and that poor woman opposite, got both +arms and a collar-bone broken--But I mustn't harrow you with our bad +cases," she said, quickly, as Ida seemed to wince. "Of course you feel +very strange--I suppose this is the first time you have been in a +hospital ward?" + +"Yes," replied Ida, glancing round timidly. + +"Ah, yes, of course," said Nurse Brown, nodding and smiling +encouragingly. "And you feel shy and nervous; but, if you only knew it, +you are better off here than you would be anywhere else; you have the +very best surgeons in the world--we are awfully proud of them; and, +though I ought not to say it, the best of nursing. You are watched +night and day, and you get the least wee little thing you want if it's +good for you. I daresay you won't care to stay here, but will like to +be taken away as soon as you are well enough to be moved; for, of +course, we all know that you are a lady. Oh, it isn't the first time we +have had a lady in the ward. A great many of them come down here +'slumming,' and sometimes they get run over, as you have been, or they +fall down some of the dark and rickety stairs, or hurt themselves in +some other way--it's wonderful what a choice of accidents you can have +in this busy and crowded part of London." + +After a pause she went on: + +"Of course you will go away as soon as you can; but it's a pity, it +really is; you're ever so much better off here, and you'd soon get used +to the other people in the ward, though they are of a different class +to yourself. But though most of them are very poor and some of them are +usually rough when they are at home, it is wonderfully how patient they +are--you will scarcely ever hear a murmur; only a sigh now and +again--and they are so grateful that sometimes they bring the tears to +your eyes, and it's quite hard to part from them when they get well and +are discharged. But I really mustn't talk to you any more," she +murmured, penitently, and the soft, placid voice ceased. + +Ida looked round the ward, her heart beating as fast as her condition +would allow. As Nurse Brown had said, she felt terribly strange and +nervous in the long, whitewashed ward which, however, was rendered +cheerful enough by the dozens of pictures from illustrated papers, +which had been fastened to the walls, and by the vases and great bowls +of flowers which seemed to occupy every suitable spot. + +She closed her eyes and tried to think; but she fell asleep instead and +dreamt that she had fallen off Rupert and was lying on the moss beside +the river, quite comfortable and most absurdly content. When she woke +the sister was standing beside her, and nodded with cheerful approval. + +"That's better, Miss Heron," she said. "It is quite pleasant to watch +you asleep and not to hear you rambling." + +Ida's face flushed. + +"Have I been rambling?" she asked. "What have I said? You know my +name!" + +The nurse smiled. + +"Your things are marked," she explained. "But there was no address, +nothing which could help us to communicate with your friends, or we +would have done so. You will tell us where to send now, will you not?" + +Ida blushed again and felt troubled. Why should she annoy and worry the +Herons? She shuddered slightly as she pictured her cousin John standing +beside the bed where the sweet and pleasant-faced sister now stood, and +preaching at her. They would want to take her back to Loburnum Villa; +and Ida regarded the prospect of return to that cheerful abode of the +Christian virtues as a prisoner might regard the prospect of returning +to his gaol. The sister regarded her keenly without appearing to do so. + +"Perhaps you would rather remain quietly for a few days, Miss Heron?" +she suggested, sweetly. + +Ida's eyes--they looked preternaturally large, violet orbs in her white +face--beamed gratefully. + +"Oh, yes, yes! if I may. Shall I be ill long?--how soon will it be +before I can go?" + +It is about as difficult to get a definite answer from a nurse as from +a doctor. + +"Oh, some days yet," replied the sister, cheerfully. "You must not go +until you are quite strong; in fact, we should not let you. Now you lie +quite still and try and sleep again if you can; and you can think over +whether you would like to communicate with your friends or not. If you +ask my advice, I shall say, like Mr. Punch, 'Don't!'" + +"I won't," said Ida, with her rare smile. + +The sister nodded and left her, and Ida closed her eyes again: but not +to sleep. She recalled her flight from Laburnum Villa, her wandering +through the streets, the crowded and noisy quay, and the strange +hallucination, the vision of Stafford standing on the stern of the +vessel. Of course, it was only a vision, an hallucination; but how real +it had seemed! So real that it was almost difficult to believe that it +was not he himself. She smiled sadly at the thought of Stafford, the +son of the great Sir Stephen Orme, sailing in a cattle-ship! + +The hours passed in a kind of peaceful monotony, broken by the frequent +visits of Nurse Brown and the house surgeon, with his grave face and +preoccupied air; and for some time Ida lay in a kind of semi-torpor, +feeling that everything that was going on around her were the unreal +actions in a dream; but as she grew stronger she began to take an +interest in the life of the great ward and her fellow-patients; and on +the second day after her return to consciousness, began a conversation +with her next-door neighbour, a pleasant-looking woman who had eyed her +wistfully several times, but who had been too shy to address "the young +lady." She was a country woman from Dorsetshire--up to London on a +visit "to my daughter, miss, which is married to a man as keeps a +dairy." It was her first visit to London; she had wandered from her +daughter's lost her, and, in her confusion, tumbled down the cellar of +a beer-shop. She told Ida the history of some of the other cases, and +Ida found herself listening with an interest which astonished her. + +Nurse Brown, seeing the two talking, nodded approvingly. + +"That's right," she said, with a smile. "You keep each other company. +It passes the time away." + +Very soon, Ida found herself taking an interest in everything that went +on, in the noiseless movements of the nurses, in the arrival of a new +case, in the visit of the doctors and the chaplain, and the friends of +the other patients. Let the pessimists say what they may, there is a +lot of good in human nature; and it comes out quite startlingly in the +ward of a hospital. Ida was amazed at the care and attention, the +patience and the devotion which were lavished on herself and her +fellow-sufferers; a devotion which no money can buy, and which could +not have been exceeded if they had one and all been princesses of the +blood royal. + +One instance of this whole-souled devotion and unstinting charity +occurred on the third day and brought the tears to her eyes, not only +then but whenever she thought of it in the after years. A tiny mite of +a baby, only a few weeks old was brought into the ward and laid in a +cot not very far from Ida's bed. The nurses and the doctors crowded +round it with eager attention. It was watched day and night; if it +cried, at the first note of the feeble wail, a couple of nurses flew to +the cot, and, if necessary, a famous physician was telephoned for: and +came promptly and cheerfully. The whole ward was wrapped up in the tiny +mite, and Ida leant on her elbow and craned forward to get a glimpse of +it; and felt towards it as she would have felt if it had been a little +sick or wounded lamb in Herondale. + +"What is the matter with it, poor little thing?" she asked the sister. + +"The spine," replied the sister, bending tenderly over the cot and +taking the emaciated little paw in her comforting, ministering hand. + +"Will it get well?" asked Ida, quite anxiously. + +The sister shook her head. + +"Lor' bless me!" said Ida's neighbour, pityingly. "It 'ud be almost +better if the pore little thing died!" + +The sister looked up with mild surprise. + +"Oh, yes; it can't live longer than three weeks," she said, as sadly as +if she had not seen a score of similar cases. + +Ida lay down, her eyes filled with tears, her heart filled with awe and +wonder. Perhaps for the first time in her life she understood what +charity meant. Here was a waif of the slums, doomed to die in so many +weeks, and yet it was the object of the loving devotion of every nurse +in the ward, with every comfort and luxury which an age of civilisation +could supply, and the recipient of the enthusiastic attention of a +great surgeon whose name was famous throughout the world. + +The woman in the next bed was crying too. + +"It makes you think of 'eaven, don't it, miss," she said, with a sniff. +"If I was rich I'd leave all my money to a 'orspital; that I would!" + +The speech suddenly reminded Ida of her own poverty, of which she had +not thought very much, for the need of money is not very keenly felt in +a hospital ward, where everything is "free, gratis, for nothing." The +time came when she was permitted to get up, and nothing could exceed +her amazement on finding herself so weak that her legs trembled under +her, and the walls and the floor seemed to rock and heave; but in a day +or two she was able to walk a little, and she at once begged permission +to help nurse the baby. It was against the rules, but it was very +difficult for anyone to resist Ida when she turned those great violet +eyes upon them imploringly: and much to her delight she was permitted +to hover about the cot and assist in an unofficial way. When the baby +was asleep, which was not particularly often, Ida was permitted to read +to some of the other patients; and, in fact, make herself generally +useful in an unobtrusive fashion. + +This was all very well, but the day arrived when she was strong enough +to leave the hospital and once more face that world which has been +described as the best of all possible worlds, and no doubt is for those +who have plenty of money and friends, but which is not far from being +the worst of all possible worlds for those who have not. She took five +pounds from her little store and went to the sister. + +"I am rather poor," she said, with a smile, "and I cannot afford more +than this. I wish it were a hundred times as much; indeed, no money +could repay your goodness and kindness to me, the wonder of which I +shall never cease to feel." + +The sister looked at her keenly, but said very gently: + +"You can put it in the box in the hall when you go out; but you will +not go to-day. I will arrange for you to stop until to-morrow; in fact, +the baby--none of us--could spare you. I want you to have some ten with +me in my room to-night and a little talk, Miss Heron." + +So Ida turned away quickly, that the sister might not see her tears, +and accepted the reprieve. + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + + +The Herons were not very much surprised at Ida's flight, but though +John and his wife and daughter were anything but sorry to get rid of +her, they were rather uncomfortable, and Joseph, who was in the +doldrums after his drinking-fit, did not make them more comfortable by +assuring them that he was perfectly certain she had committed suicide. + +He and his father set out to look for her, but, as Ida had left no clue +behind, they could find no trace of her, though they procured the +assistance of Scotland Yard, and inserted guarded advertisements in the +newspapers. John Heron comforted himself with the reflection that she +could have come to no harm or they would have heard of it; and at last +it occurred to him, when nearly a fortnight had elapsed, that she might +have returned to Herondale, probably to the care of Mr. Wordley, and +that he had been too indignant to acquaint the Herons with the fact. + +"I think I had better run down to Herondale, Maria, and ascertain if +the erring and desperate girl has returned there," he said, one morning +after prayers. "Seeing that she left my roof in so unseemly a fashion, +with no word of regret or repentance, I do not consider that she has +any further claim upon me; but I have a tender heart, and on this +occasion I will be generous before I am just." + +"I am sure she has no further claim upon us," said Mrs. Heron, with a +sniff, "and I hope you will make it plain, John, that on no account can +we take her back. We have been put to considerable trouble and expense, +and I really think that her going without any fuss is quite +providential." + +At this moment there came a double knock at the door, and the servant +announced that Mr. Wordley was in the drawing-room. Mr. and Mrs. Heron +exchanged glances, and both of them turned rather pale; for John Heron +had a very vivid recollection of Mr. Wordley's frank and candid manner +of expressing himself. But he had to be faced, and the pair went down +into the drawing-room with a long-suffering expression on their faces. + +Mr. Wordley, however, appeared to be quite cheerful. He shook hands +with both of them, and enquired after their health and that of their +family quite amiably and pleasantly. + +"Most delightful weather, isn't it?" he remarked. "Quite pleasant +travelling. You have a remarkably--or--convenient house, Mrs. Heron: +charming suburb: will no doubt be quite gay and fashionable when it +is--er--more fully developed. You are looking well, Mr. Heron." + +Mr. Heron, whatever he may have looked, was feeling anything but well +at that moment; for he suspected than the lawyer was only masking his +attack, and that he meant to spring upon him presently. + +"I enjoy fairly good health, Mr. Wordley, thank you," he said, in his +sanctimonious way; "but I have my share of trials and anxieties in this +miserable world." + +"Oh, don't call it miserable, on a morning like this!" said Mr. +Wordley, cheerfully. "My dear sir, there is nothing the matter with the +world; it's--er--some of the people in it that try to make it +miserable." + +While he had been speaking, he had been glancing at the door and +listening, as if he had been listening and expecting to hear and see +someone else. + +"The fact is," he said, "I have come up rather suddenly on rather +important business: came up without a moment's delay. _Where is_ Miss +Ida? I should like to see her at once, please, if I may!" + +The faces of the pair grew sallow, and the corners of John Heron's +mouth dropped lower even than usual. + +"Ida?" he said, in a hollow voice, as if he were confused. "Where is +she? Surely you know, Mr. Wordley?" + +"I know? How should I know? I came up to see her: not a moment to +spare. Isn't she here? Why do you both stare at me like this?" + +"She is not here," said John Heron. "Ida left our house more than a +fortnight ago." + +Mr. Wordley looked disappointed, and grunted: + +"Oh, gone to stay with some friends, I suppose. I'll trouble you to +give me their address, Mr. Heron, please." + +He rose, as he spoke, as if he meant starting on the moment, but he +sank into the chair again as John Heron said in a sepulchral voice: + +"I should most willingly do so, Mr. Wordley, but I regret to say I do +not know where she is." + +"You--don't--know--where--she is!" said Mr. Wordley, anger and +amazement struggling for the upper hand. "What the devil I beg your +pardon, Mrs. Heron! You must excuse an old man with a short temper and +a touch of the gout--but I don't understand you! Why don't you know?" + +Mrs. Heron began to sniff, and her worthy husband drew himself up and +tried to look dignified, and failed utterly in the attempt. + +"Such language--" he began. + +"Confound my language, sir!" snapped the old lawyer, his face growing +red. "Be good enough to answer my question!" + +"Ida left our hospitable roof about a fortnight ago," said Mr. Heron. +"She left like a thief in the night--that is to say, morning. I regret +to say that she left no message, no word of farewell, behind her. I had +occasion to rebuke her on the preceding night, and, following the +dictates of an ungodly nature and a perverse pride, she chose to leave +the shelter of this roof--" + +Mr. Wordley sprang to his feet, his passion rendering him speechless +for a moment. + +"_You_ rebuke Miss Ida! Are you out of your mind? And pray, what had +she done?" + +"She had been guilty of attempting to ensnare the affection of my +son--" began John Heron. + +At this moment the door opened and Joseph appeared. Mr. Wordley looked +at him. + +"Ensnaring the affections of _this!_" he snorted, with a contempt which +caused Mr. Joseph's immediate retreat. "Oh, you _must_ be out of your +mind!" + +"Her conduct was reprehensible in other ways," stammered John Heron. + +"Nonsense!" almost shouted Mr. Wordley. "I don't want to hear any more +of such nonsense. Miss Ida's conduct reprehensible! Why, she couldn't +conduct herself in any way than that of a high-bred, pure-minded, +gentle-hearted girl, if she tried! You have been entertaining an angel +unawares, Mr. Heron--there's a bit of Scripture for _you!_--you've had +a pearl in your house, and it's been cast before--Bless my soul! I'm +losing my temper! But, 'pon my word, there's some excuse for it. You've +let that dear child leave your house, you've lost sight of her for over +a fortnight, and--and you stand there and snuffle to me about her +'conduct!' Where is she? Oh, of course, you don't know; and you'd stand +there like a stuck pig, if I were fool enough to remain here for a week +and ask questions. But I want her--I want her at once! I've got +important news for her news of the greatest importance--I beg your +pardon, my dear madame, for the violence of my language--though I could +say a great deal more to this husband of yours if I were alone with +him. But it's no use wasting further time. I must find her--I must find +her at once." + +John Heron was as red as a turkey-cock and gasping like a cod out of +water. + +"This gross and unseemly attack is only excused by your age--" + +"Confound my age!" exclaimed Mr. Wordley. "Let me tell you, sir, your +age does not excuse your conduct, which has been that of a heartless +and sanctimonious fool. When I gave that dear child into your care, I +had misgivings, and they are fully justified. Would to God I had never +lost sight of her! The dearest, the sweetest and best--Oh, let me get +out, or I shall say something offensive." + +As he made for the door, John Heron cleared his throat and stammered: + +"I forgive you, sir. You will regret this exhibition of brutal +violence, and I shall put up a prayer--" + +"Don't you dare to put up any prayer for me!" cried Mr. Wordley. "I +should be afraid something would happen to me. I need not ask why she +left your house. It's quite evident enough. I've nothing more to say to +you." + +"One moment," said John Heron, with an attempt at dignity; "perhaps you +will be good enough to inform me of the nature of the communication +that you have for my cousin Ida." + +Mr. Wordley looked as if he were going to choke. + +"No, I will not, sir!" he at last responded. "I will tell you +nothing--excepting that I hope and trust I may never see your +sanctimonious face again. Good-morning! Good-morning, madame!" + +He was outside Laburnum Villa with the velocity and force of a +whirlwind, and was half-way on his road to the station before he could +get his breath or regain his self-possession. Being a lawyer, he, of +course, went straight to the police; but he was shrewd enough not to go +to Scotland Yard, but to the police station near the terminus; for it +seemed to him that it would be easier to trace Ida from that spot. + +Fortunately for him, he found an inspector in charge who was both +intelligent and zealous. He listened attentively to the detailed +statement and description which the lawyer--calm enough now--furnished +him, and after considering for a minute or two, during which Mr. +Wordley waited in a legal silence, asked: + +"Young lady any friends in London, sir?" + +Mr. Wordley replied in the negative. "Think she has gone to a +situation?" + +"No," replied Mr. Wordley; "she left suddenly; and I do not know what +situation she could find. She is a lady, and unaccustomed to earning +her bread in any way." + +"Then she has met with an accident," said the inspector, with an air of +conviction. + +"God bless my soul, my good man!" exclaimed Mr. Wordley. "What makes +you think that?" + +"Experience, sir," replied the inspector, calmly. "Have you any idea +how many accidents there are in a day in London? I suppose not. You'd +be surprised if I told you. What was the date she was missing?" + +Mr. Wordley told him, and he turned to a large red book like a ledger. + +"As I thought, sir," he said. "'Young lady knocked down by a light van +in Goode Street, Minories. Dark hair, light eyes. Height, five feet +nine. Age, about twenty-one or two. Name on clothing, "Ida Heron."'" + +Mr. Wordley sprang to his feet. + +"It is she!" he exclaimed. "Was she much hurt, is--is she alive--where +is she? I must go to her at once." + +"London Hospital," replied the inspector, succinctly, as he turned to a +subordinate. "Call a cab!" + +It was not a particularly slow hansom, and it did not take very long to +get from the police station to the hospital; but to Mr. Wordley the +horse seemed to crawl and the minutes to grow into days. He leapt out +of the hansom, and actually ran into the hall. + +"You've a patient--Ida Heron"--he panted to the hall porter. + +The man turned to his book. + +"Yes, sir," he said. "Discharged yesterday." + +Mr. Wordley staggered against the glass partition of the porter's box +and groaned. + +"Can you tell me--?" he began. "Has she left any address? I--I am her +solicitor. Excuse my being hurried: I want her particularly." + +The porter looked at him sympathetically--everybody is sympathetic at a +hospital, from the head physician and that puissant lady, the matron, +down to the boy who cleans the brass plate. + +"Won't, you sit down, sir," he said, "The young lady was discharged +yesterday, and I can't tell you where she's gone, in fact, though I +remember her being brought in--run-over case--I like to step upstairs +and see the sister of the ward she was in, the Alexandra?" + +While he was speaking, and Mr. Wordley was trying to recover command of +himself, a slim black-clad figure came down the hall, and pausing +before the large tin box provided for contributions, dropped something +into it. Mr. Wordley watched her absently; she raised her head, and he +sprang forward with "Miss Ida!" on his lips. + +Ida uttered a cry and staggered a little; for she was not yet as strong +as the girl who used to ride through Herondale, and Mr. Wordley caught +her by both hands and supported her. + +"Thank God! thank God!" was all he could exclaim for a minute. "My dear +child! my dear Miss Ida! Sit down!" + +He drew her to one of the long benches and sat down beside her. To his +credit, be it stated, that the tears were in his eyes, and for a moment +or two he was incapable of speech; indeed, it was Ida who, woman-like, +first recovered her self-possession. + +"Mr. Wordley! Is it really you? How did you know? how did you find me? +I am so glad; oh, so glad!" She choked back the tears that sprang to +her eyes and forced a laugh; for again, woman-like, she saw that he was +more upset than even she was. He found his voice after awhile, but it +was a very husky one. + +"My dear girl, my dear Miss Ida," he said, "you are not more glad than +I. I have been almost out of my mind for the last few hours. I came to +London all in a hurry. Most important news--went to your cousin's--Oh, +Lord! what a fool that man is! Heard you had run away--not at all +surprised. Should have run away myself long before you did. Came up to +London in search of you--just heard you'd gone from here." + +"I ought to have gone yesterday," said Ida, "but they let me stay." + +"God bless them!" he panted. "But how pale you look--and thin. You've +been ill, very ill; and you've been unhappy, and I didn't know it. What +a fool I was to let you go! It was all my fault! I ought to have known +better than to have trusted you to that sanctimonious idiot. My dear, +I've great news for you!" + +"Have you?" said Ida, patting his hand soothingly--she had caught +something of the gentle, soothing way of the sister and nurses. "Must +you tell me now? You are tired and upset." "I must tell you this very +minute or I shall burst," said Mr. Wordley. "My dear child, prepare +yourself for the most astounding, the most wonderful news. I don't want +to startle you, but I don't feel as though I could keep it for another +half hour. Do you think I could have a glass of water?" + +The porter, still sympathetic, at a sign from Ida, produced the glass +of water and discreetly retired. + +"Now," said Mr. Wordley, with intense gravity, "prepare to be startled. +Be calm, my dear child, as I am; you see I am quite calm!" He was +perspiring at every pore, and was mopping his forehead with a huge silk +handkerchief. "I have just made a great discovery. You are aware that +Herondale, the whole estate, is heavily mortgaged, and that there was a +foreclosure; that means that the whole of it would have passed away +from you." + +Ida sighed. + +"Yes, I know," she said, in a low voice. + +"Very well, then. I went over to the house the other day to--well, to +look out any little thing which I thought you might like to buy at the +sale--" + +Ida pressed his hand and turned her head away. + +"It was a sad business, sad, very sad! and I wandered about the place +like a--like a lost spirit. I was almost as fond of it as you are, my +dear. After I had been over the house I went into the grounds and found +myself in the ruined chapel. Donald and Bess followed me, and +Bess--what a sharp little thing she is, bless her!--she began to rout +about, and presently she began to dig with her claws in a corner under +the ruined window. I was so lost in thought that I stood and watched +her in an absent kind of way: but presently I heard her bark and saw +her tearing away like mad, as if she had found a rat or a rabbit. I +went up to where she was clawing and saw--what do you think--" + +Ida shook her head and smiled. + +"I don't know; was it a rabbit?" + +"No!" responded Mr. Wordley, with suppressed excitement. "It was the +top of a tin box--" + +"A tin box?" echoed Ida. + +"Yes," he said, with an emphatic nod. "I called Jason to bring a spade; +but I could scarcely wait, and I found myself clawing like--like one of +the dogs, my dear. Jason came and we had that box up and I opened it. +And what do you think I found?" + +Ida shook her head gently; then she started slightly, as she remembered +the night Stafford and she had watched her father coming, in his sleep, +from the ruined chapel. + +"Something of my father's?" + +Mr. Wordley nodded impressively. + +"Yes, it was something of your father's. It was a large box, my dear, +and it contained--what do you think?" + +"Papers?" ventured Ida. + +"Securities, my dear Miss Ida, securities for a very large amount! The +box was full of them; and a little farther off we found another tin +case quite as full. They were securities in some of the best and +soundest companies, and they are worth an enormous sum of money!" + +Ida stared at him, as if she did not realise the significance of his +words. + +"An enormous sum of money," he repeated. "All the while--God forgive +me!--I was under the impression that your father was letting things +slide, and was doing nothing to save the estate and to provide for you, +he was speculating and investing; and doing it with a skill and a +shrewdness which could not have been surpassed by the most astute and +business-like of men. His judgment was almost infallible; he seems +scarcely ever to have made a mistake. It was one of those extraordinary +cases in which everything a man touches turns to gold. There are mining +shares there which I would not have bought at a farthing a piece; but +your father bought them, and they've everyone of them, or nearly +everyone of them, turned up trumps. Some of them which he bought for a +few shillings--gold and diamond shares--are worth hundreds of pounds; +hundreds? thousands! My dear," he took her hand and patted it as if he +were trying to break the shock to her; "your poor father whom we all +regarded as an insolvent book-worm, actually died by far and away the +richest man in the county!" + +Ida looked at him as if she did not even yet quite understand. She +passed her thin hand over her brow and drew a long breath. + +"Do you mean--do you mean that I am no longer poor, Mr. Wordley?" she +asked. + +Mr. Wordley laughed so suddenly and loudly that he quite startled the +hall porter in his little glass box. + +"My dear child," he said, slowly and impressively, "you are rich, not +poor; im-mense-ly rich! I do not myself yet quite know how much you are +worth; but you may take it from me that it's a very large sum indeed. +Now, you are not going to faint, my dear!" For Ida's eyes had closed +and her hands had clasped each other spasmodically. + +"No, no," she said in a low voice, "But it is so sudden, so unexpected, +that I cannot realise it. It seems to me as if I were lying in the cot +upstairs and dreaming. No, I cannot realise that I can go back to +Herondale: I suppose I can go back?" she asked, with a sudden +piteousness that very nearly brought the tears to Mr. Wordley's eyes. + +"Go back, my dear!" he exclaimed. "Of course you can go back! The place +belongs to you. Why, I've already given notice that I am going to pay +off the mortgages. You will get every inch of the land back; you will +be the richest lady in the county--yes, in the whole county! The old +glories of the dear old house can be revived; you can queen it there as +the Herons of old used to queen it. And everybody will be proud and +delighted to see you doing it! As for me, I am ashamed to say that I +have almost lost my head over the business, and have behaved like +a--well, anything but like a staid and sober old solicitor." + +He laughed, and blew his nose, and nodded with a shamefaced joy which +affected Ida even more than his wonderful news had done. + +"How can I thank you for all your goodness to me," she murmured, a +little brokenly. + +"Thank me! Don't you attempt to thank me, or I shall break down +altogether; for I've been the stupidest and most wooden-headed idiot +that ever disgraced a noble profession. I ought to have seen through +your father's affectation of miserliness and indifference. Anybody but +a silly old numskull would have done so. But, my dear, why are we +staying here, why don't we go away at once? You'd like to go back to +Herondale by the first train? You must hate the sight of this place, I +should think." + +"No, no," said Ida, gently. "Yes, I would like to go back to +Herondale--ah, yes, as soon as possible. But I should like to see +someone before I go--the sister, the nurse, who have been so good to +me. You are sure"--she paused and went on shyly, "you are sure there is +no mistake, that I have some money, am rich?" + +"Rich as Croesus, my dear child," he responded, with a laugh. + +She blushed still more deeply. + +"Then, have you--have you any money with you, Mr. Wordley? I mean quite +a large sum of money?" "Not a very large sum, my dear," he replied, +rather puzzled. "About twenty or thirty pounds, perhaps." + +Ida's face fell. + +"Oh, that is not nearly enough," she murmured. + +"Eh?" he asked. "But I've got my cheque-book with me. How much do you +want? And, forgive me, my dear Miss Ida, but may I ask what you want it +for?" + +"Can I have a cheque for five hundred pounds?" Ida asked, timidly. + +"Five thousand, fifty thousand, my dear!" he responded, promptly, and +with no little pride and satisfaction. + +"Five hundred will do--for the present," she said a little nervously. +"Perhaps the porter will let you draw it out." + +Still puzzled, Mr. Wordley went into the porter's box and took out his +cheque-book. + +"Make it payable to the hospital--and give it to me, please," said Ida, +in a low voice. + +The old man's face cleared, and he nodded. + +"Of course, of course! God bless you, my dear! I might have known what +was in that good, grateful heart of yours. See here, I've made it out +for a thousand pounds. That's five hundred for you and five hundred for +me--and don't you say a word to stop me; for I'm only too grateful for +the idea. It will cool me down; and upon my word, I feel so excited, so +above and beyond myself that I want some safety-valve like this, or I +should fall to dancing in the hall and so disgrace myself and the noble +profession to which I belong." + +With the folded cheque in her hand Ida took him up the many stone steps +to the Alexandra ward. The gentle-eyed sister, who had parted from her +so reluctantly, was naturally surprised to see her return so soon, and +accompanied by a fatherly and prosperous old gentleman, who kept close +to her as if he were afraid she might be spirited from him. + +"I have come back to--to say good-bye again, sister," said Ida, her +voice faltering a little, but her eyes beaming as they had not beamed +for many a day; "and I want to give you something, something for the +hospital--it is from my dear friend here, Mr. Wordley, who has just +found me. And I want you not to open it until we have gone--say, for +half an hour. And I am going to write to you as I promised; and you can +write to me if you will be so kind; for I can give you the address now. +It is on the back of the cheque." + +She had written it in the porter's box. + +"I am going--home. Something has happened. But I will write and tell +you; now I can only say"--her voice broke and trembled--"good-bye, +again, and thank you with all my heart." She drew the sister to her +and kissed her; and Mr. Wordley shook the sister's hand, and blew his +nose so loudly that the patients, who had been watching them eagerly, +nodded to each other and exchanged significant glances, and there was a +suppressed excitement in the ward which found adequate expression when, +half an hour afterwards, the sister with flashed cheek and quavering +voice made them acquainted with Ida's gift. + +"And now," said Mr. Wordley, after he had shaken hands with several of +the officials, including the porter, "and now, my dear Miss Ida, for +Herondale and--Home! Hi, cab!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + + +The journey down to Herondale cannot be described: whenever Ida thought +of it in the after years, she felt herself trembling and quivering with +the memory of it. Until she had sat in the carriage, and the train had +started and she realised that she was indeed going home--home!--she did +not know what it had cost her to leave Herondale, how much she had +suffered at Laburnum Villa, how deep the iron of dependence had entered +her soul. She was all of a quiver with delight, with profound gratitude +to the Providence which was restoring her to the old house, the wide +moors, the brawling streams which she knew now were dearer to her than +life itself. + +Mr. Wordley understood, and was full of sympathy with her mood. He +bought newspapers and magazines, and he let her alone and pretended to +read; but every now and then she met his smiling glance, and knew by +his nod of the head that he was rejoicing with her. + +He had wired for a carriage and pair to meet them at Bryndermere, and +Ida leant back and tried to be patient, then to look unconcerned and +calm and composed; but she uttered a little cry and nearly broke down +when the carriage stopped at the familiar gate, and Jessie, who was +standing there, with her hair blown wild by the wind, forgot the +inequalities of their positions, and catching her beloved young +mistress to her bosom crooned and sobbed over her. + +Jason stood just behind, balancing himself first on one foot, and then +on the other, in his efforts to get a glimpse of Ida, and she stretched +out her arm over Jessee's shoulder and shook the honest hand which had +grown hard and horny in her service. Jessie almost carried her mistress +into the hall, where a huge fire was burning and threw a red and +cheerful glow over the fading gilding and grey-toned hangings. + +"Oh, miss, how thin you be!" she said at last, as, with clasped hands, +she surveyed Ida from top to toe anxiously and greedily. "Wherever have +you been to look like that? But never mind, Miss Ida; you're back, and +that's everything! And we'll very soon get some flesh on your bones and +drive the sad look out of thee eyes." In moments of emotion and +excitement Jessie forgot the schooling Ida had given her, and lapsed +into semi-Westmoreland. "You've missed the moorland air, dearie, and +the cream and the milk--I've 'eard it's all chalk and water in +London--and I suppose there wasn't room to ride in them crowded +streets; and the food, too, I'm told it ain't fit for ordinary humans, +leave alone a dainty maid like my sweet mistress." + +"Yes, you shall fatten me to your heart's desire, Jessie," said Ida. "I +suppose I don't look of much account; I've been ill. But I shall soon +get well. I felt, as we drove along the moor, with the wind blowing on +my cheek, as if I had not breathed since the hour I left. And now tell +me everything--all--at once! Rupert? There's no need to ask about the +dogs." Donald and Bess had not yet ceased to tear at her in frantic +efforts to express their delight. "Are you glad I've come back, +Donald?" she asked in a low voice as she knelt and put her arms round +his neck and nestled her face against his, and let him lick her with +his great, soft tongue. "Ah, if you are only half as glad as I am, +doggie, your heart must be half breaking with the joy of it. And if I'm +lean, you are disgracefully fat, Bess. Don't tell me you've missed me, +for I don't believe it." + +It was some time before Jessie could drag her upstairs; and the sight +of her old room, as cheerful as the hall, with the huge fire, almost +unnerved her, and when she was alone she sank upon her knees beside the +bed in a thanksgiving which was none the less deep and fervent for its +muteness. + +When she came down the dinner was ready and Mr. Wordley was standing in +front of the fire awaiting her. She was glad that Jason had not had +time to procure a new livery, was glad of the old shabbiness of the +room, that its aspect was not yet changed, and that it greeted her with +all its old familiarity, Mr. Wordley would not let her talk until she +had made, at any rate, a pretense of eating; but when they had gone +into the drawing-room, he drew a chair to the fire for her, and said; + +"Now, my dear, I am afraid I shall have to talk business. I shall be +too busy to come over to-morrow." He laughed. "You see I have left all +my other clients' affairs, to come after my stray lamb: I expect I +shall find them in a pretty muddle. Now, my dear, before I go I should +like you to tell me exactly what you would like to do. As I have +explained to you, you are now the mistress of a very large fortune with +which you can do absolutely what you like. Would you like to live here, +or would you like to take a house in London, or go abroad?" + +Ida looked up a little piteously. + +"Oh, not go to London or abroad!" she said. "Can I not live here? If +you knew how I feel--how the sight of the place, the thought that I am +under the old roof again--" + +She looked round the faded, stately room lovingly, wistfully, and Mr. +Wordley nodded sympathetically. + +"Of course you can, my dear," he said. "But equally o' course, you will +now want to restore the old place. There is a great deal to be done, +and I thought that perhaps you would like to go away while the work was +being carried on." + +Ida shook her head. + +"No, I would like to stay, even if I have to live in the kitchen or one +of the garrets. It will be a delight to me to watch the men at work; I +should never grow tired of it." + +"I quite understand, my dear," he said. "I honour you for that feeling. +Well, then, I shall engage an architect of repute, the first in his +profession"--he rubbed his hands with an air of enjoyment--"and he +shall restore the old place, with a respect and reverence. I think I +know the man to employ; and we will start at once, so that no time may +be lost, I want to see you settled in your proper position here. The +thought of it gives me a new lease of life! Of course, you will want a +proper establishment; more servants both in the house and out of it; +you will want carriages and horses; both the lodges must be rebuilt, +and the old avenue opened out and put in order. Heron Hall was one of +the finest places in the county and it shall be so again." + +"And Jessie shall be the housekeeper and Jason the butler," said Ida, +with a laugh of almost child-like enjoyment. "Oh, it all seems like a +dream; and I feel that at any moment I may wake and find myself at +Laburnum Villa. And, oh, Mr. Wordley, I shall want some more money at +once. I want to send the Herons a present, a really nice present that +will help them, I hope, to forget the trouble I caused them. Poor +people! it was not their fault; they did not understand." Mr. Wordley +snorted. + +"There is one topic of conversation, my dear Miss Ida, I shall be +compelled to bar," he said. "I never want to hear Mr. John Heron's name +again. As to sending them a present, you can, of course, send them +anything you like, to the half of your kingdom; though, if you ask me +whether they deserve it--" + +"I didn't ask you," said Ida, with a laugh, putting her hand on his +arm. "If we all got our deserts, how sad it would be for everyone of +us." + +Mr. Wordley grunted. + +"To-morrow I shall pay a sum of money into the bank for you, and you +will have to drive over and get a cheque-book; and you can amuse +yourself by drawing cheques until I come again." + +He lingered as long as he could, and kept the carriage waiting some +time; but at last he went and Ida was left alone to face the strange +change in her fortune. She sat before the fire dreaming for a few +minutes, then she wandered over the old house from room to room; and +every room had its memories and associations for her. In the library +she could almost fancy that her father was sitting in the high-backed +chair which was still drawn up in its place to the table; and she went +and sat in it and touched with reverent, loving hand the books and +papers over which he had been wont to bend. She stood before his +portrait and gazed at it with tear-dimmed eyes, and only the +consciousness of the love she had borne him enabled her to bear his +absence. As she passed through the hall the newly risen moon was +pouring in through the tall window, and, followed by Donald and Bess, +who had not left her for a moment, she opened the great hall door and +went on to the terrace, and walking to the end, stood and looked +towards the ruined chapel in which her father had buried his treasure. + +Up to this moment she had been buoyed up by excitement and the joy and +pleasure of her return to the old house; but suddenly there fell a +cloud-like depression upon her; she was conscious of an aching void, a +lack of something which robbed her heart of all its joy. She had no +need to ask herself what it was: she knew too well. Her old home had +come back to her, she was the mistress of a large fortune, she stood, +as it were, bathed in the sunshine of prosperity; but her heart fell +cold and dead, and the sunshine, bright as it was, well-nigh dazzling, +indeed, had no warmth in it. She was a great heiress now, would no +doubt soon be surrounded by friends. She had been poor and well-nigh +friendless that day Stafford had taken her in his arms and kissed her +for the first time; but, ah, how happy she had been! + +Was it possible, could Fate be so cruel as to decree, that she should +never be happy again, never lose the aching pain which racked her heart +at every thought of him! She put the fear from her with a feeling of +shame and helplessness. She _would_ forget the man who left her for +another woman, would not let thought of him cast a shadow over her life +and dominate it. No doubt by this time he had quite forgotten her, or, +if he remembered her, recalled the past with a feeling of annoyance +with which a man regards a passing flirtation, pleasant enough while it +lasted, but of which he did well to be a little ashamed. + +She would not look in the direction of the trees under which he had +stood on the night of the day she had first seen him; and she went in +with a forced cheerfulness to tell Jessie, listening with wide-open +eyes, of some of the strange things which had happened to her. All the +time she was talking, she was beset by a longing to ask Jessie about +Brae Wood and the Ormes; but she crushed down the idea; and Jessie was +too intent upon hearing the story of her mistress's sojourn in London +to have any breath or inclination to tell any of the dale news. Of +course Ida did not speak of the disagreement at Laburnum Villa, but she +gave Jessie an account of the accident and her experiences of a +hospital ward; at all which Jessie uttered "Ohs" and "Ahs" with bated +breath and gaping month. It was late before Ida got to bed, and later +still before she fell asleep; for, somehow, now that she was back at +Herondale the memory of that happy past grew more vivid; in fact, the +whole place was haunted by the spectre of her lost love: and of all +spectres this is the most sad and heart-possessing. + +She was out on Rupert as early as possible the next morning, and it was +difficult to say which was the more pleased at the reunion, he or his +mistress. And oh, what a delight it was to ride across the moor and +along the valley and by the stream; to see the cattle grazing and to +hear the sheep calling to one another in the old plaintive way! It was +almost difficult to believe that she had ever left Herondale that +Laburnum Villa was anything but a nightmare and the Herons a dismal +unreality. + +Now, for some time, she avoided that part of the road where the opening +of the plantation gave a view of the Villa; but she was drawn towards +it at last, and she leant forward on her horse and looked across the +lake at the great, white place shining in the autumn sunlight. It +seemed very still and quiet, and there was no sign of life about the +place; the lake itself was deserted save by one of the steamers on +which were only a few passengers well wrapped-up against the now keen +air. The appearance of the white, long-stretching place struck her with +a sense of desertion, and desolation, and with a sigh she turned and +rode away. + +That afternoon, as she was coming in from the stable Jessie came +running towards her. + +"Oh, Miss Ida, there's Lord and Lady Bannerdale and Lady Vayne and two +of the young ladies in the drawing-room." + +"Very well," said Ida, quietly; and removing her right-hand gauntlet, +she went straight into the drawing-room. + +In accordance with her father's wish and her own, perhaps mistaken, +pride she had avoided all these people hitherto; but there was no need +to avoid them any longer; she was their equal in birth, and her newly +discovered wealth effectually removed any cause for pride. Lady +Bannerdale, a motherly and good-natured woman, came forward to meet +her, and took her by both hands. + +"My dear, we have come over at once to tell you how glad we are!" she +said. "We heard the good news from Mr. Wordley, and neither I nor my +husband could wait another day before we came to congratulate you." + +Lady Vayne, too, held Ida's hand and looked at her with affectionate +sympathy. + +"And we felt the same, my dear," she said; "so you must not think us +intrusive." + +Ida shook hands with them all and rang for the tea. She was very quiet +and subdued, but the little cold look of surprise with which she had at +one time met their advances was now absent, and they could perceive +that she was glad to see them. + +"Our joy in the good news is not altogether unselfish and +disinterested, my dear Miss Ida," said Lord Bannerdale. "That Heron +Hall should be shut up and deserted, while there is so charming a +mistress to represent the old family, was little short of a general +misfortune. You cannot tell how anxious and concerned we have been +about you--but we will say no more about that. I trust a brighter star +has risen above the old house, and that it is entering upon brighter +fortunes. At any rate, let that be as it may, we want you to believe +how delighted we are to have you back again, and under such happy +auspices." "And we want to say, too, dear," said Lady Bannerdale, while +Lady Vayne nodded assentingly, "that we hope you have really come back +to us, that you will be one of us and let us see a great deal of you. +Of course, under the circumstances," she glanced at Ida's black dress, +"we are debarred from expressing our pleasure in festivity; but we hope +you will come to us quite quietly, and very often, and that you will +let us treat you as one of our own dear girls." + +Ida murmured a suitable response; but though she was by no means +demonstrative they were satisfied; and as they left they expressed that +satisfaction to each other. + +"Oh, yes, she was glad to see us," Lady Bannerdale said; "and I like +her all the better for not meeting us half-way and for refraining from +any gushing. Poor girl! I am afraid she has been very ill, and has felt +her trouble very keenly. She is much thinner, and when she came into +the room there was an expression in her face which touched me and made +my eyes dim." + +"We must look after her," remarked Lady Vayne. "There is something +weird in the idea of her living there all alone; though, of course, her +maid, Jessie, will take care of her." + +Lady Bannerdale smiled. + +"Ida Heron is one of those girls who are quite capable of taking care +of themselves," she said. "How wonderfully calm and self-possessed she +was. Most girls would have been rather upset, or, at any rate, a little +flurried, meeting us all so unexpectedly; but she came into the room +with the perfect unself-consciousness which marks--" + +"The high-bred lady," finished Lord Bannerdale. "I wonder whether we +realise how old a family the Herons is; we are all mushrooms compared +with that slim, little girl, who is now the mistress of Herondale and +an enormous fortune." + +"We shall have to find a husband for her," remarked Lady Vayne, who was +the match-maker of the locality. + +Lord Bannerdale smiled. + +"The trouble would be to get Miss Ida to accept him when you have found +him," he said, shrewdly. "I have an idea she would be difficult to +please; there is a little curl to those pretty lips of hers which is +tolerably significant." + +"Poor girl! There is time enough yet to think of such a thing," said +Lady Bannerdale, reprovingly; but while she sat it, mother-like, she +thought that her son, Edwin, would be home from a long tour in the East +in a week or two; that he was particularly good-looking, and in the +opinion of more persons than his mother, a particularly amiable and +good fellow. + +The next day there were more visitors; they all seemed as genuinely +glad at her return, and they all made as genuine overtures of +friendship. It was evident that Ida need not be alone in the world any +longer, unless she wished to be. On the morning of the third day, as +she was riding to Bryndermere, with some shopping as an excuse, she met +Mr. Wordley; a gentleman was sitting beside him who, Ida guessed, was +the architect. He proved to be no less a personage than the famous Mr. +Hartley. They had pulled up for the introduction close by the opening +on the lake; and while the architect was exchanging greetings with Ida, +his keen eyes wandered now and again to the Villa; and as Ida turned to +ride back with them, he said: + +"That is rather a fine place over there, Miss Heron; rather bizarre and +conspicuous, but striking and rather artistic. New, too: whose is it?" + +"Stephen Orme's place," replied Mr. Wordley, in rather a low voice. + +"Oh," said Mr. Hartley, with a nod which struck Ida as being peculiarly +expressive and significant, though she did not know what it implied. + +The three went all over the old Hall and after lunch the great +architect explained, with the aid of a sheet of paper and a pencil, his +idea of what should be done. + +"There need not be, there should not be, the least addition," he said. +"What you want to do, Miss Heron, is, as Mr. Wordley says, restore: +restore with all reverence. It is a superb piece of architecture of its +kind and it must be touched with a gentle hand. If you are prepared to +leave it all to me, I trust I may be able to make the present building +worthy of its past. It will be a delightful task for me; but I must +tell you frankly that it will cost a very large sum of money; how much +I shall be able to inform you when I have got out my plans and gone +into the estimate; but, at any rate, I can say emphatically that the +place is worth the expenditure. Am I to have _carte blanche_?" + +"Yes," said Ida; "I will leave it entirely in your hands." + +This at least she could do with the money which her father had so +mysteriously made: restore it, the house he had loved so well well, to +its old dignity and grandeur. + +The great architect, very much impressed not only by the Hall but its +beautiful young mistress, left before Mr. Wordley, who wanted to talk +over business with Ida. But he found her rather absent-minded and +preoccupied and presently, in a pause, she said, with forced calmness: + +"Is Sir Stephen Orme still at the Villa at Brae Wood, Mr. Wordley?" + +He had been making some memoranda in his pocket-book and he looked up +with a start and stared at her. + +"Is Sir Stephen--My dear child, don't you know--haven't you heard?" + +"Heard what?" she asked, her face beginning to grow paler, her lips set +tightly. + +"God bless my soul, I'm surprised!" he exclaimed. "I thought everybody +had heard the news. Sir Stephen is not living at the Villa, for a very +grave and all-sufficient reason: he is dead, my dear." + +Ida leant back in her chair and raised a screen which she held in her +hand so that it shielded her face from his gaze. + +"I did not know," she said, in a very low voice. "I had not heard, I +have not seen any papers, or, if I have, only the advertisement part. +Dead!" + +"Yes," said Mr. Wordley; "poor man, he died suddenly, quite suddenly, +in the middle of a grand ball; died of the shock." + +"Shock?" she echoed. + +He looked at her as if he found it hard to realise her ignorance. + +"Yes; the shock of the bad news. Dear me! it seems so strange that you, +a neighbour, so to speak, should not have heard the story of which all +London--one might almost say all England--was talking. Sir Stephen was +a great financier, and had just brought out a great company to work an +important concession in Africa. He was supposed to have made an +enormous sum of money by it; indeed, must have done so; but at the very +moment of his success there came a stroke of bad luck; and the news of +it was brought to him on the night of the ball he was giving in his +splendid town house. The sudden reverse meant absolute ruin, and he +fell dead with the cablegram in his hand. Shocking, was it not?" + +Ida's lips moved, but she could not speak. The whole scene seemed to +rise before her; but, naturally enough, her thoughts were concentrated +upon one figure in it, that of Stafford. + +"Then--then Mr. Stafford Orme is now the baronet, Sir Stafford?" she +said in a scarcely audible voice. "No; he is now Lord Highcliffe. His +father was raised to the peerage on the day he died--one night almost +say the hour he died. That makes it the more unfortunate." + +"Unfortunate? I do not understand. You say he is a peer?" + +"Yes; but a penniless peer; and I can't imagine a more unpleasant and +miserable position than his. His father died absolutely ruined; indeed, +insolvent; though I suppose by his son's act of noble self-sacrifice a +great many of the debts were paid." + +"Tell me--I do not know," said Ida, as steadily as she could. + +"Sir Stephen settled a very large sum of money upon the young man; but +he refused to take advantage of it, and made over the whole sum, every +penny of it, to the creditors; and left himself, I am told, absolutely +penniless. Not that it mattered very much; because he is engaged to a +Miss Falconer, who father is, I believe, a millionaire." + +The colour rose to Ida's face, the hand which held the screen shook. + +"And they--they are going to be married soon?" asked she. + +"I don't know, I suppose not," replied Mr. Wordley, as he bent over his +memoranda again; "Lord Highcliffe has disappeared, left England. No one +seems to quite know where he has gone. It was a terrible collapse, and +a tragic end, the great Sir Stephen's; but men of his trade always have +to run such risks. By the way, I suppose the Villa will have to be +sold." + +"Sold?" echoed Ida. "I would like to buy it." + +She spoke on the impulse of the moment; but Mr. Wordley did not seem at +all surprised, and only smiled as he responded: + + +"I know no reason why you should not, my dear Miss Ida. I am not sure +that it would be a good investment; but if you've a fancy for it, I +will enquire into the matter. Yes; certainly you can buy if you want to +do so." + +Long after he had gone Ida sat, leaning forward in her chair and gazing +at the fire. Stafford was now Lord Highcliffe, a peer, but poor and a +wanderer. She started: was it really he whom she had seen on the cattle +steamer? Then they had been near each other, had looked into each +other's eyes! Perhaps she would never seem him again--but, ah, yes! it +was quite probable she would, for was he not engaged to the wealthy +Miss Falconer, and would he not come back to marry her? The following +evening she received a short note from Mr. Wordley: it informed her +that the Villa was not for sale. It had been purchased by Mr. Falconer +for his daughter. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + + +Within a few days she received invitations from the Bannerdales and +Vaynes and the other county families, who were evidently possessed by +the kind determination that she should become one of them. The dinner +at Bannerdale Grange was quite _en famille_; she was made a great deal +of; and if she had given them the least encouragement they would +actually have petted her; but though Ida had lost something of her old +pride and _hauteur_, caused by her isolation, she was still somewhat +reserved, and, grateful as she was for their overtures of affection, +she could not respond as fully as she would have liked. It was the same +with the Vaynes and Avorys; they were all more than kind to her, and +she longed to receive their attention with open arms; but she could +not: the fact was, her wounded heart was so tender that it shrank even +from the gentlest touch. + +"The girl is all right," remarked Lord Bannerdale. "She has been in +great trouble and it has hurt her very badly; and though she seems +rather cold and reserved, she is more sensitive than most women: you +must give her time." + +Ida had resolved that though she could not altogether forget the great +sorrow of her life, she would not brood over it. She knew that for her +complaint there was nothing worse than idleness; and she sought +employment for her mind and body with an eagerness that sometimes +became almost feverish. When she was not visiting or receiving visits +from, what might be called her new, friends, she was busy about the +farm and the estate, and took long rides on Rupert accompanied as of +old by the dogs. Very soon, too, Mr. Hartley began at the restoration; +and Ida was deeply interested in the progress of the work. Then, again, +the hunting season commenced, and to the delight of Sir Robert Vayne, +the master, she appeared at the first meet: and, is it necessary to +say? was in at the death. She enjoyed that first run more than she had +enjoyed anything since the fatal morning she had lost both sweetheart +and father; and she was very nearly happy as she rode home with a +crushed hat and a habit splashed with mud. + +A week or two afterwards, Lord Bannerdale gave a hunt breakfast, and +made a point of her being present; and she yielded though she would +have preferred to have joined the meet at the coverts. As she rode up, +Lord Bannerdale came down the steps to meet her; and by his side was a +tall, good-looking young fellow whom Ida rightly guessed, by his +likeness to his father, to be Lord Bannerdale's son. He had returned +from his travels on the preceding night, was in perfect health and +spirits, much tanned by the sun and rain, and seemed to possess his +full share of the amiability of his amiable family. He stood, +bare-headed, at Rupert's head and took Ida's hand to help her to +dismount, and not only walked with her to the house, but contrived to +sit beside her at the breakfast-table. His people had been talking to +him of Ida, he was quite prepared to be impressed, and that he was so +was evident before the meal had concluded. His mother paid particular +attention to Ida, and Lord Bannerdale regarded the young pair +approvingly. + +Lord Edwin rode as straight as Ida herself; it was a magnificent +run--of course, "the best run of the season"--and Lord Edwin, securing +the brush, fastened it to her saddle. Those who saw the act--they were +not many, for the pace had been fast and hard--exchanged significant +glances. Lord Edwin was over at the Hall next day and displayed a keen +interest in the restoration, and bent for some time over the plans +which he had humbly begged Ida to show him. He was a modest young +fellow, with more intelligence and good sense than generally goes with +his age, and Ida liked him. It was inevitable that they should meet +almost every day; it was almost as inevitable that he should fall in +love with her; for she was not only the most beautiful girl in the +county, but there was an element of romance in her loneliness and her +fortunes which naturally appealed to him. + +He went to his father one day and confided in him; but, though Lord and +Lady Bannerdale were more than pleased, they begged him not to be too +sanguine. + +"Sanguine!" he exclaimed, colouring. "I live in a state of mortal fear +and dread; for though I love her more every time I see her, I never +leave her without feeling that my case is hopeless. There is something +about Ida--oh, of course I can't explain!--but I feel as if I could no +more speak to her of love than I could--could jump over this house." + +"And yet she is so gentle and friendly," said Lady Bannerdale to +encourage him. + +The young fellow, wise in his generation, shook his head. + +"That's just it, mother," he said, gravely. "She treats me as if I were +a brother, quite a young brother; and I know that if I were to speak to +her, to let her know how much I love her, it would mean the end of +everything. I should never be able to see her again--and I could not +stand that; for I am only happy when I am with her--and then I am +miserable with the thought of having to leave her." + +"You must be patient, my dear fellow," said Lord Bannerdale. "Ida Heron +is a girl in a million, and she is worth waiting for." + +"Oh, I'll wait," said Lord Edwin; "but sometimes I feel that all the +waiting in the world won't win her," he added, with a sigh. + +One day--it was in the Christmas week which Ida had been prevailed upon +to spend with the Bannerdales--Lord Bannerdale came in at luncheon-time +with some news. + +"I hear the Villa is to be occupied at Christmas," he said. "Mr. +Falconer and his daughter are coming down to-day." + +"Is there to be a house-party?" said Lady Bannerdale. "But I suppose +not. No, there could not be, under the circumstances. Poor girl! Sir +Stephen's death--I never can remember that he was Lord Highcliffe! +--must have been a great grief and shock to her. She and her +father will naturally wish to be quiet; but I suppose we ought to call. +You have never seen her, I think, Ida?" + +"No," said Ida, in the impassive, reticent way in which she always +spoke and looked when on guard. + +"An extremely beautiful woman," said Lady Bannerdale; "but she always +struck me as being a remarkably cold one; though, of course, it may +have only been manner. The present Lord Highcliffe, Sir Stephen's son, +has been away some time now. I suppose he will come back soon, and they +will be married. They will make a very handsome couple. You would like +him, Edwin. I took a great fancy to him on the few occasions I met him; +and I felt deeply sorry for his misfortunes. But there will be no lack +of money when he and Miss Falconer are married, for her father is +immensely rich, I believe. It would be very nice for all of us if Lord +Highcliffe settled at the Villa; and I have an idea that Mr. Falconer +has bought it for them." + +Ida's heart sank, and she seized the first opportunity of getting to +her own room. What hope of forgetfulness could there be for her, what +chance of happiness if Stafford came back to the Villa to live, if she +should be in hourly dread of meeting him? The thought haunted her +though all the quiet Christmas festivities at the Grange; and she was +glad to get back to the Hall, and away from the eyes which watched her, +though they watched her with a friendly and affectionate regard. + +In her daily rides she avoided the opening on the lake side from which +the Villa was visible; and she would sometimes make a long _detour_ +rather than go near the spot. On one occasion, when returning from +Bryndermere, instead of crossing by the ferry she rode round by the +other side of the lake, keeping well away from the Villa, lest she +should meet anyone belonging to it. She had reached the top of the hill +below which wound the road leading to the Hall, and after pausing to +look at the magnificent view, was riding across a field, one of the +outlying fields of her estate, when she saw a lady riding through a +gate at the lower end. The blood rushed to her face and her heart +seemed to stand still for a moment, for she saw that it was Maude +Falconer; then her face grew pale and a wave of bitterness, grew over +her, for she recognised the horse on which Maude was riding: it was +Stafford's Adonis. Her first impulse was to turn aside and leave the +field; but her pride revolted, and she kept her course, looking +straight before her and trying not to see the graceful figure below +her. + +At sight of her, the blood had flown to Maude's face also, and she +tried to check her horse; but Adonis, at any time rather more than she +could well manage, was fresh and too eager to join the other horse, and +he carried her up the field against her will. The two met almost face +to face, the horses exchanging friendly neighs. For a moment, while one +could count twenty, the two rivals sat and looked at each other. Half +unconsciously, Ida noticed the pallor and the worn look of the +beautiful face, the wistful peevishness of the delicately cut lip; then +suddenly Maude's face flushed, her eyes grew hard and scornful, and +with something like a sneer she said, in a metallic tone: + +"I beg your pardon, but are you aware that you are trespassing?" + +A saint would have turned on such provocation; and Ida, being no saint, +felt that her face was as crimson as the other girl's, and grew as hot +of heart as of face. She set her lips tightly and tried to remain +silent: surely it would be better, in every way better, to ride on +without a word. But it was more than she could do: and she drew herself +up and her eyes flashed back the challenge, as she said in a low but +distinct voice: + +"Pardon me, but you are mistaken. The land on which I am riding belongs +to me." Maude grew pale again, and her lips set closely until the line +of red almost disappeared. + +"Is this not, then, part of the Villa estate?" she asked. + +"No; it is part of the Herondale estate," replied Ida, rather more +gently: for was it not horrible that she should be engaged in +altercation with Stafford's future wife? + +"Then I presume I have the honour of speaking to Miss Heron," said +Maude, with an indefinable air, combining contempt and defiance, which +brought the colour to Ida's face again. + +"My name is Ida Heron; yes," she said. + +"Then, if you are making no mistake, it is I who am trespassing," said +Maude, "and it is I who must apologise. Pray consider that I do so most +fully, Miss Heron." + +"No apology is necessary," said Ida, still more gently. "You are quite +welcome to ride over this or any part of Herondale." + +Maude gave a little scornful laugh. + +"Thanks, it's very good of you!" she said, haughtily, and with that +covert offensiveness of which, alas! a woman alone is capable. "I do +not think I shall have any desire to avail myself of your kind +permission; the public roads and the land belonging to my father's +house will, I think, prove quite sufficient for me. I am the daughter +of Mr. Falconer, of the Villa at Brae Wood." + +Ida inclined her head slightly by way of acknowledgment and adieu, and +without another word rode on towards the gate at the bottom of the +field which opened on to the road. Adonis who had been delighted to +meet his old friend, promptly followed; and, though Maude Falconer +tried her hardest to check him and turn him, he, inwardly laughing at +her efforts, trotted cheerfully beside Rupert, and continued their +conversation. Maude was half mad with mortification, and, quite unable +to leave Ida's hated side, she raised her whip and struck Adonis across +the face. The horse, who had never received such a blow before in his +life, stopped dead short, falling back almost on to his haunches, then +reared straight up and in a moment of temper tried to throw her off; +indeed, she must have fallen but Ida, always cool at such moments, +swept sideways, caught Adonis's bridle and brought him on all fours. +Maude was instantly jerked forward on to the horse's neck in a +humiliating fashion, but recovering her seat, sat trembling with +passion. + +It was impossible not to pity her, and Ida in her gentlest and quietest +of voices, said: "I will wait here, will not go through the gate until +your groom comes up. Your horse will be quite quiet then. If I might +venture to say so, I think it would be wise not to strike him across +the head; very few horses can stand it; and this one is high-bred and +exceptionally spirited--" + +She was stopped by Maude's scornful laugh. + +"Really, I ought to feel very much obliged to you, Miss Heron!" she +said; "and my sense of obligation is almost as great as my amazement at +your frankness--and assurance! May I ask you to be good enough to +release my horse's reins?" + +Ida's hand fell from the reins, and her face grew crimson; but before +she could have retorted, even if she had intended doing so, Maude +struck the horse again; it turned and dashed across the field, kicking +and plunging violently, with Maude swaying perilously in the saddle. + +Ida waited until the groom--it was Pottinger--had gained his mistress's +side and got hold of the horse; then, with no thought of bravado but +simply with the desire to get away from the spot, she put Rupert at the +gate and leapt into the road. + + + + +CHAPTER XL. + + +Ida rode home all quivering with the pain of her meeting with Maude +Falconer. At first it seemed to her that she must leave Herondale--for +a time, at any rate; that it would be impossible for her to run the +risk of meeting the beautiful woman who had stolen Stafford from her; +but, as she grew calmer, her pride came to her aid, and she saw that to +run away would be cowardly. Herondale was her home, had been her home +long before the Villa had sprung up, and to desert it because of the +proximity of Maude Falconer would be almost as bad as if a soldier +should desert his colors. + +But for the next few days she did not leave her own grounds. She grew +pale and listless, and Lady Bannerdale, when she came to look her up, +noticed the change in her, but was too tactful to make any remark upon +it. + +"We have missed you so much, my dear," she said, affectionately. +"Indeed, my husband has been quite fidgety and irritable--so unlike +him!--and Edwin has been worse, if it were possible. Men are a great +trouble, my dear Ida. Though perhaps I ought not to say that of mine, +for I count myself lucky in both husband and son. Edwin has scarcely +given me a day's trouble since he was a child. I really think, if I +were asked what are the best gifts bestowed by the fairy godmother, I +should say 'a good digestion and a temper to match,' and I am quite +proud of Edwin's strength and amiability. But even he has been somewhat +of a trial for the last few days; so, my dear girl, do come over and +help me manage them." + +Ida smiled rather absently, and her ladyship glided smoothly from the +subject. + +"Since we last saw you we have called at the Villa," she said, "and we +were fortunate enough to find Miss Falconer at home. She is alone there +in that huge palace of a place, for her father has gone back to London; +and, though I was never very much taken with her, I could not help +pitying her." + +"Why?" asked Ida, not absently now, but in her quiet, reserved manner. + +"She looks so--well, actually so unhappy," replied Lady Bannerdale. +"She was in mourning, and her face--she is really an extremely +beautiful girl!--was like marble. And her reception of me was almost as +cold. I am afraid that she has had more trouble than we are aware of, +there was such a preoccupied and indifferent air about her. It occurred +to me that she was fretting for her absent _fiancé_, Mr. Stafford--oh, +dear me! I shall never remember to call him Lord Highcliffe!--and I +resolved to carefully refrain from mentioning him; but you know how +stupid one is in such a case, how one always talks about lameness in +the presence of a man with one leg; and in the midst of a pause in the +conversation, which, by the way, was nearly all on my side, I blurted +out with: 'Have you heard from Mr. Stafford Orme lately, Miss +Falconer?' 'I suppose you mean Lord Highcliffe, Lady Bannerdale?' she +said, turning her cold, blue eyes on my scarlet face. 'He is in +Australia, and is well. I do not hear very often from him. He is +leading a very busy life, and has little time for letter-writing, I +imagine.' Of course I got myself away as soon as I could after that, +and I'm afraid I left a very bad impression upon Miss Falconer." + +Ida said nothing, but leant forward and stirred the fire, which may +have caused the colour which glowed for a moment or two on her face. + +"I am sure I don't know why the young man should have rushed off to the +other end of the world: or why he doesn't rush back again and marry the +lady of his heart, who has enough money for both of them, and would +make an extremely handsome and stately countess. By the way, have you +ever seen the present Lord Highcliffe, my dear?" "Yes, I have seen +him," Ida replied in the tone which closes a subject of conversation. +"Shall I give you some more tea? No? Would you like to see how the +workmen are getting on? I think they are working very quickly. They +will want this part of the house presently, and I have an idea of going +away for a time; perhaps abroad," she added, though she had put the +idea away from her until this moment, and it was only Lady Bannerdale's +talk of Maude Falconer which started it again in her mind. + +Lady Bannerdale, looked alarmed. + +"Oh, don't do that, my dear!" she said. "If you are obliged to turn out +of the house, why not come to us? It would be so kind and sweet of +you." + +Ida sighed a little wearily. + +"Oh, I don't suppose they will insist upon ejecting me," she said. "I +think I can persuade them to leave me two or three rooms." + +Lady Bannerdale went home and dropped her bomb-shell in the presence of +Lord Bannerdale and Edwin. + +"Ida rather thinks of going abroad," she said in a casual way at the +dinner table. + +Lord Edwin was raising his wine glass to his lips, but arrested it +half-way and set it down again; and his handsome face grew long and +grave. + +"Oh! We shall miss her," remarked Lord Bannerdale, lamely, and avoiding +looking in his son's direction. + +Not another word was said; but the next day Lord Edwin came into Lady +Bannerdale's room with that affectation of ease and indifference which +never yet deceived a mother. + +"I'm going to call on Miss Heron, mother," he said. "Any message?" + +Lady Bannerdale looked at him, her brow wrinkled with motherly anxiety. +There was nothing in the world she desired more than his happiness; and +she knew that the marriage with Ida would be in every way desirable: +the girl was one in a thousand, the Bannerdale estates almost joined +Herondale; both she and her husband were fond of Ida, who, they knew, +would prove a worthy successor to the present mistress of the Grange; +but just because it seemed so desirable and Lord Edwin's heart was so +passionately set upon it, the mother was anxious. She saw that he was +dressed with extreme care, and that his face was unusually grave. + +"You will give Ida my love, Edwin, please, and tell her--" She turned +away that he might not see her anxiety. "That is all; but it means a +great deal, as you know, Edwin. I--I wish you every happiness, my dear +boy!" + +"Thank you, mother," he said, by no means in an unmanly way. "My +happiness or unhappiness rests with her." + +When he arrived at the Hall, Ida was just going out for a ride. She +turned back with him to the drawing-room, thinking that he had brought +a message from his mother, probably a definite invitation to stay at +the Grange, and in her mind she had already decided to decline it. As +he happened to stand with his back to the window the gravity of his +face did not enlighten her; and with something like a start she +received his first words. + +"Miss Heron, my mother says that you have some thought of leaving +Herondale, of going abroad. If that is so, I cannot let you go +without--without my speaking to you; so I have come over this afternoon +to tell you, as well as I can, what I have on my mind and my heart. I'm +not very good at expressing myself, and I'm handicapped in the present +instance by--by the depth of my feeling. Of course I'm trying to tell +you that I love you. I thought you might have seen it," he said, with a +touch of wonder at her start and flush of surprise. "But I see you have +not noticed it. I love you very much indeed; and I feel that my only +chance of happiness lies in my winning you for my wife. I don't know +there's any more to be said than that, if I were to talk for a month. I +love you, and have loved you for a long time past." A few weeks, a few +months are "a long time" to youth when it is in love! "The very first +day I saw you--but I needn't tell you that, only I like you to know +that it isn't a sudden fancy, and one that I shall get over in a hurry. +I don't feel as though I shall ever get over it at all; I don't know +that I want to. Please don't speak for a moment. There was something +else I wanted to say. I'd got it all arranged as I came along, but the +sight of you has scattered it." + +Ida had been going to speak, to stop him; but at this appeal she +remained silent, standing with her hands closing and unclosing on her +whip, her eyes fixed on the ground, her brows drawn straight. The +coldest woman cannot listen unmoved to a declaration of love, and Ida +was anything but cold. + +"I only wanted to tell you," he went on, "that my people are very +anxious that you should say 'yes.' Both my father and mother are very +fond of you--I think you know that and--" he stammered a little here +for the first time--"and--well, there are the estates. You won't mind +my saying that both you and I have to think of them; they belong to us +and we belong to them, and--if we were married--But I don't lay much +stress upon the estates being so close. I'd come and ask you to marry +me if I were as poor as a church mouse or you hadn't a penny. It just +comes to this: that I love you with all my heart and soul, that if +you'll marry me I shall be the happiest man, and my people the proudest +people, in England." + +There was a warm flush on his handsome face, an eager look in his +bright eyes, and he had pleaded his cause very well, in an outspoken, +manly way, which never fails to appeal to a woman. Ida was moved; the +crop nearly snapped in her hands, and her eyes grew moist. He saw it, +and tried to take her hand, but she, though she did not move, shook her +head very gently but very resolutely. + +"No," she said, in a low voice, "I--I want to tell you, Lord Edwin, how +proud I am at the honour you have paid me. Like yourself, I am not good +at expressing my feelings--though, indeed, I think you have done +yourself an injustice: you have spoken, told me very well--and I am +very grateful. I wish I could say 'yes.'" + +"Ah, say it!" he implored her, eagerly. + +She shook her head again, and lifting her eyes and looking at him +straightly but sadly, she said in a still lower voice: + +"Lord Edwin, I do not love you." + +"I never said, thought, you did," he responded, promptly. "Why, you've +only known me such a short time, and I'm not such a conceited bounder +to think that you've fallen in love with me already. I only want you to +let me try and win your love; and--I think I shall do so," he said in a +modest but manly way, which would at once have won Ida's heart--if it +had not been won already. "If you will only give me some hope, just +tell me that I've a chance, that you'll let me, try--" + +Ida smiled a sad little smile. + +"If I said as much as that--But I cannot. Lord Edwin, you--you have +told me that you love me, and it would not be fair--ah, please don't +try to persuade me! Don't you see how terrible it would be if I were to +let you think that I might come to care for you, and I did not do so." + +"For God's sake, don't say 'no,'" broke from him, and his face paled +under the tan. + +She turned away from him, her eyes full of tears which she dared not +let him see. + +"I--I must have time," she said, almost desperately. "Will you give me +a day, two days?" she asked, quite humbly. "I want to do what you want, +but--I want to think: there is something I should have to tell you." + +He flushed to the roots of his hair. + +"If it's anything that's happened in the past, anyone else--of course, +loving you as I do, I have seen that there has been something on your +mind, some trouble besides your father's death--but if it is past, I +don't mind. I know I can teach you to forget it, whatever it is. Ida, +trust yourself to me." + +She drew away from him. + +"Give me two days," she said, with a catch in her breath. + +He caught at the hope, small though it was. + +"I will give you two days, twenty if you like," he said. "Only, while +you are thinking it over, remember I love you with all my heart and +soul, that my people will love you as a daughter, that--Oh, I won't say +any more: I can't trust myself! I'll go now." + +When he had gone Ida got on Rupert and rode to the top of the hill. +There she pulled up and thought with all her heart and mind. She could +not doubt his love; she could not but feel that if she surrendered +herself to him he would, indeed, in time teach her to forget. She knew +that it was her duty to marry; his word about the estates had not been +spoken in vain. Yes; if she became Lord Edwin's wife, she would in time +forget. But, alas! she did not want to forget. + +Her love for Stafford was still as strong as ever, and with its +bitterness was mingled a sweetness which was sweeter than life itself. +And yet how great a sin it was, how shameful a one, that she should +love a man who was pledged to another woman, who was going to marry +her! + +She came in late for dinner, and could scarcely eat. Her reason said +"yes," her heart said "no:" and she knew that she ought to listen to +her reason and turn a deaf ear to the still voice in her heart. She +paced up and down the drawing-room, pale and wan with the fight that +was going on within her. Then suddenly she resolved that she would +accept him. She would not keep him in suspense: it would not be +fair--it would be a cruel requital of his love and generosity. She went +to the writing-table, and hurriedly, as if she were afraid of +hesitating, she drew a sheet of paper towards her and wrote: + +"Dear Lord Edwin--" She had got thus far when Donald and Bess, who had +been lying beside the fire, sprang up and ran to the door barking +loudly. She laid down the pen and opened the door mechanically; the +moonlight was streaming through the window in the hall; the dogs +bounded to the front door still barking vociferously. Still, +mechanically, she let them out, and they rushed across the terrace and +over the lawn to the group of trees beside the footpath. Thinking that +they heard Jessie, whom she had sent to Bryndermere, Ida, +half-unconsciously glad of the interruption, followed them slowly +across the lawn. + +Their barking ceased suddenly, and convinced that it was Jessie, she +went on to add something to her message. Then, suddenly, she saw a tall +figure standing in the shadow of the trees. It was a man, and Donald +and Bess were jumping up at him with little whines of pleasure. Smitten +by a sudden fear she stopped; but the man raised his head and saw her, +and, with an exclamation, strode towards her. For an instant she +thought that she was dreaming, that her imagination was playing her +false, for it was Stafford's form and face. They stood and gazed at +each other; her brain felt dizzy, her pale face grew paler; she knew +that she was trembling, that she could scarcely stand; she began to +sway to and fro slightly, and he caught her in his arms. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI. + + +She did not resist, but resigned herself to his embrace, as if he still +had the right to take her in his arms, as if she still belonged to him. +She had been under a great, an indescribable strain for several hours, +and his sudden presence, the look in his eyes, the touch of his hands, +deprived her of the power of thought, of resistance. To her and to him, +at that moment, it was as if they had not been parted, as if the events +of the last few months were only visionary. + +With surrender in every fibre of her being she lay in his arms, her +head upon his breast, her eyes closed, her heart throbbing wildly under +the kisses which he pressed passionately upon her lips, her hair; the +while he called upon her name, as if his lips hungered to pronounce it. + +"Stafford!" she said, at last. "It is really you! When--" Her voice +died away, as if she were speaking in a dream, and her eyes closed with +a little shudder of perfect joy and rest. + +"Yes, it's I!" he responded, in a voice almost as low as hers, a voice +that trembled with the intensity of his passion, his joy in having her +in his arms again. "Last night I came down by the first train--I waited +at the station for it--I came straight from the docks." She drew a +happy sigh. + +"So soon? And you came straight here? When I saw you just now, I +thought it was a vision: if the dogs had not been here--I remembered +that dogs do not see ghosts. Oh, Stafford, it is so long, so very long +since I have seen you, so sad and dreary a time! Tell me--ah, tell me +everything! Where you have been. But I know! Stafford, did you know +that I saw you the day you sailed?" she shuddered faintly. "I thought +that was a vision, too, that it was my fancy: it would not have been +the first time I had fancied I had seen you." He drew her to the bank, +and sinking on it held her in his arms, almost like a child. + +"You saw me! You--there in London! And yet I can understand. Dearest, I +did not hear of your trouble until a few weeks ago. But I must tell +you--" + +"Yes, tell me. I long to hear! Think, Stafford! I have not heard of +you--I saw you at the concert in London one night--" + +He started and held her more tightly. + +--"I looked round and saw you; and when you turned and looked up +towards me, it seemed as if you must have seen me. But tell me! Oh, I +want to hear everything!" + +The spell wrought by the joy of his presence still held her reason, her +memory, in thrall; one thought, one fact, dominated all others: the +fact that he was here, that she was in his arms, with her head on his +breast as of old. + +And the spell was on him as strongly; how could he remember the past +and the barrier he had erected between them? + +"I went to Australia, Ida," he said in a low voice, every note of which +was pitched to love's harmony: it soothed while it rejoiced her. "I met +a man in London, a farmer, who offered to take me out with him. You saw +me start, you say? How strange, how wonderful! And I, yes, I saw you, +but I could not believe my senses! How could it be my beautiful, dainty +Ida, the mistress of Herondale, standing on the dirty, squalid quay! I +went with him and worked with him on his cattle-run. Do you remember +how you taught me to count the sheep, Ida? God, how often when I was +riding through solitary wastes I have recalled those hours, every look +of your dear eyes, every curve of those sweet lips--hold them up to me, +dearest!--every tone of your voice, the low, musical voice the memory +of which had power to set every nerve tingling with longing and +despair. The work was hard, it seemed unceasing, but I was glad of it; +for sometimes I was too weary to think; too weary even to dream of you. +And it was sad business dreaming of you, Ida; for, you see, there was +the waking!" + +"Do I not know!" she murmured, with something like a sob, and her hand +closed on his shoulder. + +"My employer was a pleasant, genial man, my fellow-labourers were good +fellows; I could have been happy, or, at least, contented with the +life, hard as it was, if I could but have forgotten; if I could even +for a day have lost the awful hunger and thirst for you; if I could +have got you out of my mind, the memory of you out of my heart--but I +could not!" + +He paused, looking straight before him; and gazing up at him, she saw +his face drawn and haggard, as if he still thought himself separated +from her. Then, as if he remembered, he looked down at her and caught +her to him with a sudden violence that almost hurt her. + +"But I could not; you haunted me, dearest, all day and all night! +Sometimes, when the men were singing round the camp fire, singing and +laughing, the sense of my loss would come crushing down upon me, and +I'd spring to my feet and wander out into the starlit silence of the +vast plains and spend the night thinking of all that had passed between +us. At other times, a kind of madness would catch hold of me, and I'd +join the wildest of the gangs, and laugh and sing and drink with the +maddest of the lot." + +She drew a long breath of comprehension and pity, and hid her eyes on +his breast. He bent and kissed her, murmuring penitently: + +"I'm not fit to kiss you, Ida. I did not mean to tell you, but--but, I +can't keep anything from you, even though it will go against me. One +night the drinking led to fighting and I stood up to a son of Anak, a +giant of a fellow; and we fought until both of us were knocked out; but +I remember him going down first, just before I fell, I went from bad to +worse. The owner of the run--it was called Salisbury Plain--spoke a +word of warning, and I tried to pull up, tried to take to the work +again, and forget myself in it; but--ah, well, dearest, thank God you +would not understand that you cannot know what a man is like when he is +at odds with fate, and is bed-fellow with despair!" + +"Do I not!" she murmured again, with the fullest understanding and +compassion. "Do you think he is worse than a woman. On, Stafford, there +have been times, black times, when I learned to know why some women fly +to drink to drown their misery: and our misery is as keen, yes, keener +than yours. For we are so helpless, so shackled; we have nothing else +to do but think, think, think! Go on, dearest! I seem to see you +there!" + +"Thank God! you could not!" he said, huskily. "The black fit passed for +a time, and I settled down to work again. One day there was an attack +upon the farm by the blacks, as they are called. I was fortunately at +home, and we managed to beat them off and save the stock. It was a +valuable one and my employer, thinking too highly of my services, made +me a present of half the value. It was a generous gift, a lavish one, +and altogether uncalled for--" + +"Oh, Stafford, do you think I don't know that you risked your life, as +plainly as if I had been told, as if I had been there!" she said, her +eyes glowing, her breath coming faster. + +Stafford coloured and turned away from the subject. + +"It was a large sum, and Mr. Joffler--that is the name of the owner of +Salisbury Plain--advised me to invest it in a run of my own: there was +enough to buy a large and important one. I went down to Melbourne to +see the agents, and--is there no such thing as fate, or chance, Ida! +Indeed there is!--as I was walking down one of the streets, I heard my +name spoken. I turned and saw the stableman from the Woodman Inn, Mr. +Groves's man--" + +"Henry," murmured Ida, enviously: for had he not met her lover! + +"Yes. He was surprised, but I think glad, to see me; and we went to a +hotel and talked. For some time I couldn't bring myself to speak your +name: you see, dearest, it had lived in my heart so long, and I had +only whispered it to the stars, and in the solitary places, that I--I +shrank from uttering it aloud," he explained with masculine simplicity. + +Ida's eyes filled with tears and she nestled closer to him. + +"At last I asked after the people, and nervously mentioned the Hall +and--and 'Miss Ida.' Then the man told me." + +His voice grew lower and he laid his hand on her head and stroked her +hair soothingly, pityingly. + +"He told me that your father was dead, had died suddenly, and worse--for +it was worse to me dearest--that you had been left poor, and well-nigh +penniless." + +She sighed, but as one who sighs, looking back at a sorrow which has +passed long ago and is swallowed up in present joy. + +"I asked him where you were, and when he told me that you had left the +Hall, and that it was said you--you were working for a livelihood, that +you were in poverty, I--dearest, I felt as if I should go mad. Think of +it! There was I, all those thousands of miles away, with all that money +in my possession, and you, the queen of my heart, the girl I loved +better than life itself, in poverty and perhaps wanting a friend!" He +was silent a moment, and Ida felt him shudder as if he were again +tasting the bitterness of that moment. + +"When I had taken my passage," he went on, succinctly, "I sent Henry up +to the run to fill my place, and with him a letter to explain my sudden +departure; and the next day, Heaven being kind to me--I should have +gone out of my mind if I had had to wait--we sailed. I stood at the +bow, with my face turned towards England, and counted the days before I +could get there and begin my search for you." + +"And you came here, Stafford, first?" she said, to lead him on: for +what an unspeakable bliss it was to listen to him! + +"Yes; I knew that I should hear some tidings of you here. There would +be a lawyer, a steward, who would know. I little thought, hoped, to see +you yourself, Ida. I came from the station to-night to look at the old +place, to walk where we had walked, to stand where we had stood. I +stopped under the trees here and looked at the house, at the terrace +where I had seen you, watched for you. I could see that men had been at +work, and I thought that you had sold the place, that the new people +were altering it, and I cursed them in my heart; for every stone of it +is sacred to me. And then, as I stood looking, and asking myself where +you were, the dogs came. Even then it did not occur to me that you were +still here--at the Hall--and when I saw you--" + +He stopped, and laughed shortly, as a man does when his emotion is +almost too much for him. + +"I'd made up my mind what to write to you; but, you see, I'd had no +thought, no hope, of seeing you; and now--ah, well, it's hard to think +of anything, with you in my arms! But see here, Ida, there isn't any +need to say anything, is there? You'll come back with me to that new +world--" + +What was it, what word in the tender, loving speech that, like a breath +of wind sweeping away a mountain mist, cleared the mist from her mind, +woke her from her strange, dream-like condition, recalled the past, +and, alas! and alas! the present! + +With a low cry, a cry of anguish--one has heard it from the lips of a +sufferer waking from the anodyne of sleep to fresh pain--she tore +herself from his arms, and with both hands to her head, stood regarding +him, her face white, something like terror in her eyes. + +"Ida!" he cried, rising and stretching out his hands to her. + +She shrank back, putting out her hand as if to keep him off. + +"Don't--don't come near me! Oh, how could I have forgotten!--how could +I! I must have been mad!" + +She wrung her hands and bit her lips as if she were tortured by the +shame of it. His arms fell to his sides, and he stood and looked at her +with his teeth set. + +"Ida, listen to me! I--I, too--had forgotten. It--it was the delight of +seeing you. But, dearest, what does the past matter? It _is_ past, I +have come back to you." + +She turned to him with suppressed passion. + +"Why did you leave me?" came painfully from her white lips. + +His face grew red and his eyes fell before hers for a moment. At times +his sacrifice of her to his father's need had seemed not only +inexcusable, but shameful; the shame of it now weighed upon him. + +"Ida, for God's sake listen to me!" for, as he had hesitated, she had +turned from him with a gesture of repudiation. "Listen to me! There was +nothing else for me to do; fate left me no alternative. My father--Ida, +how can I tell you!--my father's good name, his reputation, were in my +hands. He had done so much for me--everything! There has never been a +father like him: my happiness stood between him and ruin--ah, not mine +alone, but yours--and I sacrificed them! If you knew all you would +forgive me the wrong I did, great as it was. I think now, if the time +were to come over again, that--yes, I should have to do it!" he broke +out. "I could not have stood by and seen-him ruined and disgraced +without stretching out my hand to save him." + +"It was for your father's sake?" she said, almost inaudibly. + +"Yes," he responded, grimly. "And it saved him--saved his good name, at +any rate. The rest went--you have heard?" + +She made a gesture of assent. He drew a long breath, and held out his +hand to her. + +"Can you not forgive me, Ida? If you knew what the sacrifice cost me, +how much I have suffered. See here, dearest"--he drew still closer to +her--"let the past go. It shall, I swear! There is a limit to a man's +endurance, and I have passed it. I love you, Ida, I want you! Come back +with me and let us live for each other, live for love. Dearest, I will +teach you to forget the wrong I did you. It's very little I have to +offer you, a share in the hard life of a farmer out there in the wilds; +but if you were still the mistress of Herondale, instead of poor--" + +Half unconsciously she broke in upon his prayer. + +"I am still--what I was. I am not poor. My father was a rich man when +he died." + +Stafford regarded her with surprise, then he moved his hand, as if he +were waving away the suggestion of an obstacle. + +"I am glad--for your sake, dearest; though for my own I would almost +rather that you were as poor as I thought you; that I might work for +you. Why do you stand and look at me so hopelessly. What else is there +to divide us, dearest?" + +Her lips opened, and almost inaudibly she breathed: + +"Your honour." + +He winced and set his teeth hard. + +"My honour!" + +"Yes. You have pledged your word, you have made your bargain--the price +was paid, I suppose; you say so. Then in honour you belong to--_her_." + +The colour flamed in his face and his eyes grew hot. + +"You cast me off--you drive me back to her!" he said, scarcely knowing +what he said. + +"Yes!" she responded, faintly. "You belong to her--to her only. Not to +me, ah, not to me! No, no, do not come near me, do not touch me! I had +forgotten--I was mad!--but I have remembered, I am sane now." + +Driven almost beyond himself by the sudden revulsion from joy and hope +to doubt and despair, racked by the swift stemming of his passion, +Stafford's unreasoning anger rose against her: it is always so with the +man. + +"My God! You send me away--to her! You--you do it coolly, easily +enough! Perhaps you have some other reason--someone has stepped into my +place--" + +It was a cruel thing to say, even in his madness. For a moment she +cowered under it, then she raised her white face and looked straight +into his eyes. + +"And if there has, can you blame me? You cast me aside--you sacrificed +me to your father's honour. You had done with me," her voice vibrated +with the bitterness which had been her portion for so many dreary +months. "Was the world, my life, to cease from that time forth? For you +there was--someone else, wealth, rank--for me was there to be nothing, +no consolation, no part or lot in life! Yes, there _is_ one--one who is +both good and noble, and--" + +She broke down and covering her face with her hands turned away. +Stafford stood as if turned to stone; as if he had lost the sense of +sight and hearing. Silence reigned between them; the dogs who had been +sitting watching them, rose and shivering, whined complainingly, as if +they were asking what was amiss. + +It was the woman--as always--who first relented and was moved to pity. +She moved to the motionless figure and touched him on the arm. + +"Forgive me! I--I did not mean to wound you; but--but you drove me too +hard! But--but it is true. We cannot undo the past. It is _there_, as +solid, as unmovable, as that mountain: _and it is between us_, a wall, +a barrier of stone. Nothing can remove it. You--you will remember your +honour, Stafford?" Her voice quavered for a moment but she steadied it. +"You--you will not lose that, though all else be lost? You will go to +her?" + +He looked at her, his breath coming thick and painfully. + +"My God! you--you are hard--" he broke out at last. + +"I--am just! Oh, my dearest, my dearest!" She took his hand and laid it +against her cheek, her lips. "Don't you see how much it costs me to +send you away? But I must! I must! Go--oh, go now! I--I cannot bear +much more!" + +His hand--it shook--fell softly, tenderly on her head. + +"God forgive me for the wrong I have wrought you, the tears I have +caused you!" he said, hoarsely. "Yes, I daresay you're right, and--and +I'll go! Let me see you go back to the house--One kiss, the last, the +last! Oh, Ida, Ida, life of my life, soul of my soul!" + +He caught her to him, and she lay in his arms for a moment, her lips +clung to his in one long kiss, then she tore herself away from him and +fled to the house. + +Stafford went on to The Woodman, where Mr. Groves was surprised, and, +it need scarcely be said, overjoyed to see him. To him, the young man +was still "Mr. Stafford," and he eyed him with an amazed and respectful +admiration; for though Stafford had never been a weakling, he had grown +so hard and muscular and altogether "fit" that Mr. Groves could not +refrain from expressing his approval. + +"Ah, there is nothing like roughing it, Mr. Stafford, sir," he said. "I +can tell in a minute when a man's 'hard' right through, and been doing +square and honest work. It seems strange to us commoner people that you +gentle folks should be so fond of going through all sorts of hardships +and perils just for the fun of it; but, after all, it's not to be +wondered at, for that's the kind of spirit that has helped Englishmen +to make England what it is. But you're looking a little pale and worn +to-night, sir. I've no doubt it's the want of dinner. If I'd known +you'd been coming--but you know I'll do my best, sir." + +He did his best, and Stafford tried to do justice to it; but it was +almost impossible to eat. And he checked the almost overmastering +desire to drink. + +Ida had been right. He knew it, though the thought did not help to +allay his bitterness. She had spoken the truth: he was still pledged to +Maude. Mr. Falconer had paid the price demanded, and it was not his +fault if it had failed to save Sir Stephen from ruin; the sacrifice +Stafford had made had, at any rate, saved his father's good name from +shame and reproach. Maude's father had performed his part of the +bargain; Stafford had still to perform his. Ida was right; she had +pointed out to him his duty, and if there was a spark of manliness left +in him, he must do it. + +He sat over the fire, close over it, as he had done in the backwoods +many a night, smoking the old brier pipe that had cheered him in his +hours of solitary watching, and thinking with a grim bitterness that it +would have been better for him if he had been knocked on the head the +night of the raid at Salisbury Plain. To be married to one woman, while +he loved another with all his heart and soul: it was a cruel fate. But, +cruel as it was, he had to bend to it. He would go straight to London +and find Maude, redeem his promise, and save his honour. + +Mr. Groves came into the room with a bottle of the port, and Stafford +forced himself to show an interest in it and drink a glass or two. + +"I suppose you'll be going up to the Villa to-morrow, sir?--I beg your +pardon, I mean my lord; and I must apologise for not calling you so." + +"Not 'my lord,'" said Stafford. "I have never used the title, Groves. +Go up to the Villa? Why should I?" he asked, wearily. "It is closed, +isn't it?" + +Mr. Groves looked at him with surprise. + +"No, sir. Didn't you know? Mr. Falconer bought it; and he and Miss +Falconer have been staying there. She is there now." + +Stafford turned away. Chance was making his hard road straight. After a +sleepless night, worse even than some of the worst he had spent in +Australia, and after a pretence at breakfast, he went slowly up to the +Villa. Last night, as he had held Ida in his arms, something of the old +brightness had come back to his face, the old light to his eyes; but he +looked haggard and wan now, like a man who had barely recovered from a +long and trying illness. He turned on the slope of the terrace and +looked down at the lake, lying dark and sullen under a cloudy sky; and +it seemed to him typical of his own life, of his own future, in which +there seemed not a streak of light. A servant came to meet him. "Yes," +he said, "Miss Falconer is in." She was in the morning-room, he +thought. Stafford followed him; the man opened the door, and Stafford +entered. + +Maude was seated at a table writing. She did not turn her head, and he +stood looking at her and seeing the record the weary months had left +upon her face; and, even in his own misery, he felt some pity for her. + +"Maude!" he said in a low voice. + +She did not move for a moment, but looked straight before her +wistfully, as if she could not trust her ears; then she turned and came +towards him, with something like fear on her face. The fear broke up, +as it were, and, stretching out her arms, she spoke his name--the +accents of love fighting with those of doubt and a joy that dreaded its +own greatness. + +"Stafford! It is you!" + +She pressed her hands to her heart for a moment, then she fell into his +arm, half fainting. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII. + + +"Yes, my father bought the place," said Maude. "I asked him to do so, +and he consented at once. I could not have let it pass to strangers. +You see, I had been so happy here; it was here that you asked me to be +your wife. And father has offered to settle it upon us," she blushed +slightly, and her eyes became downcast. "He is no longer--opposed to +our marriage; he knows that I would marry you if all the world cried +'No!'" + +They had been sitting talking for nearly an hour. She had recovered +from the shock of his sudden presence, and was seated beside him--so +close that she could touch him with her hand--calm now, but with a glow +in her usually pale cheek, a light in her eyes which had been absent +for many a weary month past. He had given her, mostly in answer to her +eager questions, a very abbreviated account of his life in Australia; +telling her less even than he had told Ida; and it is needless to +remark, saying nothing of the cause of his hasty return. + +"Ah, well," she said, drawing a long breath, "it is all over now, +Stafford. Ah, it is good to have you back safe and sound. You are well, +are you not? You look pale and thin and--and tired. But I suppose it's +the journey. Yes, it is all over; you need not wander any longer; you +have come back to me, have you not, Stafford? If you knew how I have +missed you, how I have longed for you! And now you will settle down and +take your place in the world and be happy! Do you think I shall not +make you happy, Stafford? Ah, do not be afraid;" her eyes sought his +and her hand stole towards his arm. + +He rose and leant against the mantel-shelf. + +"I only know that I am quite unworthy of you, Maude," he said, gravely. + +She looked up at him and laughed. + +"Are you? Who cares! Not I! _I_ only know that I love you so dearly +that if you were the blackest villain to be found in fiction, it would +make no difference to me." + +He was filled with shame and self-reproach, and turned away his head +that she might not see the shame in his eyes. + +"How did you come?" she asked, presently. "If my father were only at +home! You could stay with us, then." + +"I am staying at The Woodman," he said. + +She regarded him with some surprise. + +"Last night! Late, do you mean? Did you meet, see anyone?" + +There was a dawning suspicion in her eyes, and she regarded his averted +face keenly; she noticed that he hesitated and seemed embarrassed. + +"No one you know," he replied, feeling that it was impossible for him +to speak Ida's name. + +"How do you know?" she asked, with a curious smile. "Who was it?" + +"I met Miss Heron of Herondale," he said, trying to speak casually, and +wondering what she would say, hoping fervently that she would ask no +more questions. + +The blood rushed to her face, her eyes flashed and her lips tightened; +but she did not speak, and moved away to the window, standing there +looking out, but seeing nothing. He had gone to _her_ the moment he had +returned: what did it mean? But she dared not ask; for she knew +instinctively how slight was the chain by which she held him. With an +effort she restrained the rage, the fierce jealousy, which threatened +to burst forth in violent reproaches and accusation; and after a minute +or two she turned to him, outwardly calm and smiling. + +"Have you made any plans, Stafford?" she asked. "My father was speaking +of your return; he thought of writing to you. Dearest, there must be no +reserve between us now--now that you have come back. See, I speak quite +frankly. My father thinks--thinks that our marriage should take place +at once. He has withdrawn his objection, and--and you will not thwart +him, Stafford? It is hard for me to have to say this; but--but you will +understand." + +"I understand," he said in a low voice. "I am grateful to your father. +Our marriage shall take place as soon as you please. It is for you to +fix the date, Maude." + +She nestled against him and touched his coat with her lips. + +"I am ashamed of myself," she murmured; "but, ah, well! love casteth +out shame." + +A servant knocked at the door. + +"The horse is round, miss," he announced. + +"I was going for a ride," she said; "but I will send the horse +away--unless you will ride with me. You will, Stafford?" + +"Certainly," he said, glad of the interruption to this _tête-à -tête_ +which had been to him a positive torture. + +"I will not be five minutes," she said, brightly. "You'd like to go +over the house? They shall bring you something to drink in the +smoking-room, or here, if you like: you are lord and master." + +She went up to her room, and, when she had rung for her maid, paced up +and down feverishly. He had gone to that girl before he had come to +her! She was racked with hate and jealousy, which was all the harder to +bear because she knew she must hide them within her bosom, that no word +or look of hers must let him see that she knew of her rival. Some time, +after they were marred, she would tell him: but not till she was safe. +She got into her habit quickly and went down to him. He was standing +where she had left him, and as she entered the room she saw before he +had time to turn to her with a smile, how haggard and harassed he +looked. + +"You have been quick," he said. + +"Yes; I am learning one of my wifely duties: not to keep my husband +waiting." They went out, and Pottinger, standing by the horses, touched +his hat and grew red with joy at sight of his master. + +"Well, Pottinger! Glad to see you!" said Stafford; and he was genuinely +glad. "You're looking well, and the horse is too. Halloo! you're put +the side-saddle on Adonis," he added, as he went up and patted the +horse. + +Pottinger touched his hat again. + +"Yes, sir; Miss Falconer's been riding him, and I did not know that I +ought to change the saddle. I can do so in a minute--" + +"No, no," said Stafford; "never mind. I will ride the hunter, as you +have the saddle on him. You like Adonis, Maude?" + +"Oh, yes," she replied. "Though I'm not quite sure he likes me," she +added, with a laugh. + +Stafford put her up, and noticed, with some surprise, that Adonis +seemed restless and ill at ease, and that he shivered and shrank as he +felt Maude on his back. + +"What is the matter with him?" he said. "He seems fidgety. Does the +saddle fit?" + +"Yes, sir," said Pottinger, with a half-nervous glance at Maude, +followed by the impassive expression of the trained servant who cannot +speak out. + +"He is troublesome sometimes," said Maude; "but I can manage him quite +easily." + +"Oh, yes," assented Stafford; "he is as quiet as a lamb; but he is +highly bred and as highly strung." + +As they were starting, Pottinger murmured: + +"Don't curb him too tightly, miss." + +Maude ignored the warning; and she and Stafford rode out. The rain had +ceased, the clouds had passed away, and in the joy of his nearness, her +spirits rose, a feeling of triumph swelled in her bosom. + +"How little I thought yesterday, even this morning, that we should be +riding side by side, Stafford," she said. "How little I thought I +should have you back again, my own, my very own! Don't all these months +you've been away seem like a dream to you? They do to me." She drew a +long breath. "Let us ride across the dale." + +"You will find it wet there, had you not better keep to the road?" + +"No, no," she said; "Adonis is dying for a gallop; see how he is +fretting." + +Stafford looked at the horse curiously. He was champing his bit and +throwing up his head in a nervous, agitated manner which Stafford had +never seen him display before. + +"I can't make the horse out," he said, more to himself than Maude. +"Perhaps he'll be all right after a gallop." + +They crossed the road at a trot, which was an uneven one on Adonis's +part, and got on the moor. Maude, still in high spirit, still buoyed up +by her feeling of triumph, talked continuously; telling him some of the +London news, planning out their future. They would have a house in +London, Stafford should take his proper place in the world; they would +step back to the high position which was his by right, as a peer of the +realm. Stafford was scarcely listening. A question was haunting him, a +question which he could not thrust from him: he was going to marry +Maude Falconer, going to take the hard and stony road of duty which +Ida, in her noble way, had pointed out to him. Ought he not to tell +Maude about Ida and his broken engagement to her; would it not be +better for both of them, for all of them, if he were to do so? He would +have to tell her that he could not live at the Villa; she would want to +know the reason; would it not be better to tell her? + +He raised his head to begin; when suddenly he saw, going up the hill in +front of them, a horse and horsewoman. She was walking up slowly, and, +long before her figure stood out against the clear sky, he saw that it +was Ida. It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that his heart stood +still. That she should have appeared before him in his sight, at such a +moment, while he was riding beside his future wife--his future +wife!--filled him with bitterness. His face must have paled, or Maude +must have seen him start, for she looked at him and then turned her +head and looked in the direction in which his eyes were fixed. She +recognised Ida instantly; the colour rushed to her face; her hand +tightened on her rein spasmodically; for a moment she felt inclined to +turn aside, to ride away, escape from the girl she hated and loathed. +And then she was moved by another impulse; the demon of jealousy +whispered: "This is the moment of your triumph; why not enjoy it to the +full; why not let her feel the bitterness of defeat? There is your +rival! Let her see with her own eyes your triumph and your happiness." +The temptation was too great for her, and she yielded to it. + +"Who is that riding up the hill?" she said, controlling her voice +admirably. "It is Miss Heron, is it not?" + +"Yes, it is," he said, as impassively as he could. + +Her lips curled scornfully at his assumption of indifference. "I have +seen her and met her," she said, "but I have not been introduced to +her. Let us overtake her, and you can introduce me. I should like to +know her." + +He looked straight before him, his face grave and set. + +"Is it worth while?" he said in a low voice. "Some other time--" + +"Why not now?" she asked. "We can catch her quite easily." + +The moment had come for him to tell her. + +"Not now," he said, huskily. "I have something to tell you, Maude; +something you ought to know before--before you make Miss Heron's +acquaintance." + +She turned to him with a low laugh. + +"Do you think I don't know?" she said, between her teeth. "I have know +all along! I read the letter you wrote to her--I got it--stole it, if +you like--from Pottinger. I have known all along--do you not think I +have been very patient, very discreet? Even now I bear no malice. I can +forget the past, forget and forgive. Why should I not, seeing that I am +assured of your love and good faith? You will see how completely I +forget, how little importance I attach to your fancy for the girl; a +fancy which I am sure you have quite outgrown. Oh, I can trust you! We +will join Miss Heron by all means." + +His face was dark and heavy. + +"Do not, Maude, until you've heard all," he began, but with a scornful +laugh that yet had something doubting and desperate in it, she sent +Adonis on. He sprang forward nervously and shivering under a stroke +from her whip, and swiftly lessened the distance between him and +Rupert, who heard his approach before Ida did, and who neighed a +welcome. Ida turned and saw who was following her, saw Stafford just +behind, and gathering her reins together she rode Rupert quickly to the +top of the hill. + +"Miss Heron!" cried Maude, in a voice of covert insolence, but almost +open triumph. "Miss Heron, stop, please!" + +Ida did stop for a moment, then, feeling that it was impossible for her +to meet them, that day, at any rate, she let Rupert go again. By this +time, Stafford had almost gained Maude's side. His face was dark with +anger, his teeth clenched tightly. He knew that Maude intended to +flaunt her possession of him before Ida. In a low but perfectly +distinct voice, he said: + +"Stop, Maude! Do not follow her." She looked over her shoulder at him, +her face flushed, her eyes flashing. + +"Why not?" she demanded, scornfully. "Is she afraid, or is it you who +are afraid? Both, perhaps? We shall see!" + +Before he could catch her rein she had struck Adonis twice with the +sharp, cutting whip, and with a shake of his head and a snort of rage +and resentment, he stood on his haunches for a moment, then leapt +forward and began to race down the hill. Stafford saw that the horse +had bolted, either from fear or anger; he knew that it would only +increase Maude's peril if he galloped in pursuit behind her; he, +therefore, checked his horse and made, in a slanting line, for a point +towards which he judged Adonis would go. Maude was swaying in her +saddle, in which she could only keep herself by clutching at the +pommel; it seemed every moment as if she must fall, as if the horse +itself must fall and throw her like a stone down the steep hill. + +Ida, the moment she had got over the top of the hill, had ridden +quickly, and, of course, quite fearlessly and safely, and had got +Rupert so well in hand, as usual, that when she heard the clatter +behind her, and, turning, saw the peril in which Maude had put herself, +she was able to pull Rupert up. It was almost a repetition of what had +occurred the other day; but this time Maude Falconer's peril was +infinitely greater; for her horse was half mad and tearing down the +steep hill-side, rendered doubly dangerous by the loose stones, and was +all too evidently indifferent whether he stood or fell. And yet another +risk lay just below; for William had been digging in that spot for +stones to mend the bank, and even if the maddened horse saw the hole, +it was more than probable that he would not be able to pull up in time. + +Such moments as these form the criterion of true courage. There was +only one way in which Ida could save, or attempt to save, the +white-faced woman who was drawing towards her at breakneck speed. What +she would have to attempt to do would be to ride straight for the +oncoming horse, swerve almost as she reached it, and keep side by side +with it until she could succeed either in turning it away from that +horrible hole, or stop it by throwing it. She did not hesitate for a +moment. + +It may be said in all truth that at that moment she forgot that the +woman whose life she was going to save was Maude Falconer; she did not +realise the fact--or, if she did, she was indifferent to it--that she +was risking her own life to save the woman who had robbed her of +Stafford. There was the life to be saved, and that was enough for Ida. +She slipped her foot almost out of the stirrup, felt Rupert's mouth +firmly but gently, leant forward and whispered a word to him, which it +is very likely he understood--perhaps he saw all the game even before +she did--and, with an encouraging touch of her hand, she let him go. + +He sprang forward like an arrow from the bow. As they drew near the +flying horse, Ida shifted her whip to her left hand, so that her right +should be free, and, leaning as far in the saddle as she could with +safety, she made a snatch at Adonis's rein at the moment she came +alongside him. She would have caught the rein, she might have stopped +the horse or turned it aside--God alone knows!--but as her fingers +almost grasped it, Maude, steadied in her seat by the nearness of her +would-be rescuer, raised her whip and struck Ida across the bosom and +across the outstretched hand. The blow, in its finish, fell on Adonis's +reeking neck. With a snort he tore away from the other horse and swept +onwards, with Maude once again swaying in her saddle. Ida gazed at her +in speechless terror for an instant, then, as if she could look no +longer, she flung up her arm across her eyes. + +A moment afterwards a cry, a shrill scream, that rang in her ears for +many a day afterwards, rose above the clatter of Adonis's hoofs, and +before the cry had died away horse and rider had fallen with awful +force into and across the hole. Then came a dead silence, broken only +by the sound of the horse's iron shoes as he kicked wildly and pawed in +a vain attempt to rise. Ida rode up, and flinging herself to the +ground, tried to approach the struggling animal. But, indeed, it was +horror and not fear that struck her motionless for a moment; for horse +and rider were mixed in awful confusion, and already Maude Falconer's +graceful form was stained with blood, and battered by the madly kicking +animal, now in its death-throes. + +An instant after, before she could recover from her paralysis of +terror--the whole affair was one of a moment and had passed as quickly +as a flitting cloud--Stafford was by her side, and at work extricating +woman from horse. It was not an easy task, for though Adonis was now +dead, a part of Maude's body lay under his shoulder; but with utmost +herculean strength Stafford succeeded in getting her clear, and lifted +her out of the hole on to the grass. Kneeling beside him, Ida, calm +now, but trembling, raised Maude's head on her knee and wiped the blood +from the beautiful face. Its loveliness was not marred, there was no +bruise or cut upon it, the blood having flown from a wound just behind +the temple. + +Stafford ran to the brook for some water and tried to force a few drops +through the clenched teeth, while Ida bathed the white brow. Suddenly a +tremor ran through him, and he put his hand over Maude's heart. It was +quite still; he bent his cheek to her lips; no breath met them. For a +moment or two he could not speak, then he stayed Ida's ministering +hand, and looking up at her, said: + +"It is of no use. She is dead!" + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII. + +The ball which Lady Clansford always gave about the middle of the +season is generally a very brilliant affair; but this year it was more +brilliant and, alas! more crowded than usual; for Lord Clansford was +connected, as everybody knows, with the great Trans-African Company, +and, as also everybody knows, that company had recovered from the blow +dealt it by the rising of the natives, and was now flourishing beyond +the most sanguine expectations of its owners; the Clansford coffers, +not to mention those of many other persons, were overflowing, and Lord +Clansford could afford a somewhat magnificent hospitality. + +Howard, as he made his way up the crowded stairs, smiled cynically to +himself as he caught sight of a little knot of financiers who stood +just outside the great doors of the _salon_. They were all +there--Griffenberg, Wirsch, the Beltons, Efford, and Fitzharford; and +they were all smiling and in the best of humours, presenting by their +appearance a striking contrast to that which they had worn when he had +seen them on the night when the ruin of the company had been conveyed +in that fatal cablegram. Having succeeded at last in forcing an +entrance, and bowing over the hand of his noble hostess, which must +have sadly ached, and returned her mechanical words of welcome with a +smile as galvanic as her own, Howard sidled his way along the wall--a +waltz was in progress--and collided against the "beautiful and +bounteous" Bertie, who was mopping his brow and looking round +despairingly for his partner. + +"Halloo, Howard!" he exclaimed. "Pretty old scrimmage, isn't it? Should +have thought your languid grace would have kept out of this sight. I've +given a dance to a girl, but dash my best necktie if I can find her: +might as well look for a needle in a bottle of hay--as if any fellow +would be such a fool as to put a needle in such a place. I'm jolly mad +at losing her, I can tell you, for she's the prettiest girl in the +room, and I had to fight like a coal-heaver to get a dance from her. +And now I can't find her: just my luck!" + +"What is the name of the prettiest girl in the room?" asked Howard, +languidly. + +"Oh, it's the new beauty, of course," replied Bertie, with a superior +little shrug at Howard's ignorance. "It's Miss. Heron of Herondale, the +great heiress." + +Howard pricked up his ears, but maintained his languid and +half-indifferent manner. + +"Miss Heron of Herondale," he said in his slow voice. "Don't think I've +met her." + +"No? Dessay not. She doesn't go out much, and Lady Clansford thinks +it's rather a feather in her cap getting her here to-night. When you +see her you won't say I've over-praised her. She's more than pretty, +and she'd be the bright and particular star of the season if she didn't +keep in her shell so much." + +"Herondale," said Howard, musingly. "That's the place near the Villa, +isn't it? I don't remember anyone of her name as having been amongst +the company there." + +"No," said the omniscient Bertie. "She was living in retirement with +her father then; but Stafford must have known her--made her +acquaintance. Don't you remember that she was present when poor Miss +Falconer met with her fatal accident?" + +Howard remembered very well, but he said "Ah, yes!" as if the fact had +just been recalled to him. + +"Her father died and left her a hatful of money--that's ever so many +months ago--and now she's come up to London; and I tell you, Howard, +that it is with her as it was with the friend of our school-boy days: +'I came, "I was seen," I conquered!' Everybody is mad about her. She is +staying with some country people called the Vaynes, people who would +have passed, like a third _entrée_, unnoticed; but they are deluged +with invitations, and 'All on account of Eliza.'" + +"Do not be vulgar, Bertie," said Howard, rebukingly. + +"Well it was vulgar" admitted Bertie, "especially applied to such an +exquisite creature as Miss Heron--Oh there she is with young Glarn! +They say that he is more than ready to lay his ducal coronet at her +feet--confound the young beggar!--but she doesn't give him the least +encouragement to do so. Look! she doesn't appear to be listening to +him, though he's talking for all he's worth. And it's the same with all +of us: we're all dying with love for her, and for all she cares, we may +die!" + +Howard looked across the room and caught a glimpse of a tall, slim +figure, a pale, ivory-tinted face with soft and silky black hair, +dressed in the simplest fashion, and dark, violet eyes half hidden by +their long lashes. It was a lovely face and something more--an +impressive one: it was a face, once seen, not easily forgotten. Perhaps +it was not its beauty, but a certain preoccupied expression, a sadness +in the eyes and in the curve of the expressive lips, which made it so +haunting a one. She was exquisitely dressed, with a suggestion of +mourning in the absence of diamonds and a touch of pale violet in the +black lace frock. + +"She is very beautiful," said Howard; "and I can condole with you +sincerely on the loss of your dance." + +"Yes, it's nearly over now," said Bertie, with a sigh. "Talking of +Stafford," he said, after a minute, "when did you hear from him last?" + +"To-day," replied Howard. "I have his letter in my pocket." + +"Still out in the backwoods?" asked Bertie. "Poor old chap! awful piece +of luck for him! If his father had only gone on living and waited until +that blessed company had come right side uppermost, he'd have been a +millionaire. Look at Griffenberg and the rest of 'em!" he nodded +towards the group of financiers; "they're simply rolling in money, +rolling in it." + +"Yes, he's still in the backwoods, as you call it," responded Howard; +"and from what he says I should think he's having a pretty hard time of +it; though, of course, he doesn't complain: there are some men still +left who don't complain." There was a pause, during which he had been +thinking deeply, then he said: "So Stafford knew Miss Heron, did he?" + +Bertie looked mysterious and lowered his voice. + +"Yes. Look here, old chap, I shouldn't say this to anyone but you; but +you are Stafford's great and only chum, and I know I can speak safely; +to tell you the truth--" + +"Now you are going to tell me anything but the truth," murmured Howard, +with a sigh of resignation. + +"Oh, no, I'm not," retorted Bertie. "What there is of it is the truth +and nothing but the truth. It isn't much. But I've a kind of idea that +Stafford knew our new beauty better than we think. Do you remember how +he used to leave our party and go off by himself? Not like Stafford, +that, was it? And one of our fellows remarked to me that one day coming +home from a ride he saw Stafford riding with a lady. He couldn't swear +to him, but--well, Stafford's hard to mistake. Then, again, how was it +he and Miss Heron were in at Maude Falconer's death; and why did he +bolt off to Australia again directly after the funeral? And why is it +that she keeps us all at arm's length, even that confounded Glarn?" + +Howard's eyes grew sharp; but he smiled languidly, as he said: + +"You ought to edit a riddle book, Bertie, my son. I think we should get +across the room now. I should be greatly obliged if you would introduce +me to Miss Heron." + +"All right," said Bertie, "come along! But I warn you, you'll only meet +with a cold reception; just a smile and a word and then she'll look +away as if she'd forgotten your existence, and had not the least desire +to remember it." + +"Oh, I'm used to that," said Howard. "Lead on." + +As they crossed the room, Howard's acute brain was hard at work. There +was something in Stafford's conduct, a tone in his letters which Howard +could never understand; but now, in the light of Bertie's mysterious +communication, he thought he discerned a solution of the problem over +which he had pondered for many an hour. Stafford had been unhappy +during the whole of his engagement to poor Maude; he had exiled himself +again immediately after her death, though, as Howard knew, he was well +enough off now to return to England and to live, at any rate, in a +quiet way. If there was anything in Bertie's suggestion--Howard pursed +his lips with an air of determination. If there was anything, then he +would find it out and act accordingly. Stafford's happiness was very +precious to Howard, and in the quiet, resolute, cynical way +characteristic to him, he resolved that if that happiness lay in the +hands of this beautiful girl with the sad eyes and lips, he, Howard, +would do his best to persuade her to yield it up. + +His reception was certainly not encouraging. Ida glanced at him, and +returned his bow with a slight inclination of her head, and then looked +away as if she had done all that could be demanded of her; and it was +with a faint surprise, perceptible in her face, that she heard Howard +say, in his slow, and rather drawling voice: + +"There is a conservatory behind that glass door, Miss Heron; it is not +very far from the madding crowd, but it must be cooler than here. Will +you let me take you to it?" + +She hesitated for a moment, but something in the steady regard of +Howard's calm and sleepy eyes impressed her. + +"Very well," she said; "but I think I'm engaged for this next dance, +and I must not go far away. I have already broken two or three +engagements." + +"In that case you can come without hesitation," he said. "It is the +first crime that costs a pang, having passed that the downward course +is easy and painless." + +He led her to a seat, and with the cool determination which Stafford +always admired in him, began at once; for he did not wish to give her +time to slip on her woman's armour; he intended to strike quickly, +unexpectedly, so that she should not be able to conceal the effect of +the blow. + +"Almost as hot as in Australia," he said, languidly, but watching her +out of the tail of his eye. "I suppose you were never there, Miss +Heron? Nor have I been; but I've got a letter in my pocket from a very +great friend of mine who is roughing it on a cattle-run, and he has so +often described the country to me, that I almost feel as if I knew it. +By the way, I think you know him. He is my dearest and closest friend-- +Stafford Orme, as I always call him and think of him; of course I am +speaking of Lord Highcliffe." + +The problem was solved: he saw her face suddenly flush, and then as +suddenly grow pale. So sharp had been the blow, its effect so +overwhelming, that her fan fell from her hand. Howard, as he restored +it to her, seized the opportunity of looking her full in the face, and +assurance was made doubly sure. + +This girl _did_ hold his friend Stafford's happiness in her hand. + +Ida was silent for a moment, because she knew she could not control her +voice, could not keep it steady; then, with a quickened breath, she +said: + +"Yes, I knew Mr. Orme--Lord Highcliffe." + +"Then I hope you liked him," he said, mercilessly; for there was no +time for mercy; some idiot of a dancing-man would come and take her +from him the next minute. "I express the hope, because I myself like +and admire him very much indeed. He is a splendid fellow, and one of +those instances of a good man struggling with adversity. Are you fond +of poetry, Miss Heron?" + +Ida's bosom was heaving, she was fighting for calm. She knew now who it +was with whom she was speaking; it was the friend, the cynical Mr. +Howard, of whom Stafford had told her; she had not caught his name at +the introduction. She regarded him with intense interest, and inclined +her head by way of assent. + +"I never think of my friend, Lord Highcliffe, without recalling those +significant lines of William Watson's." He looked at her; and be it +said that his eyes were fine and impressive ones when he showed them +plainly. "These are the lines: + + "'I do not ask to have my fill + Of wine, of love, or fame. + I do not for a little ill + Against the gods exclaim. + + "'One boon of fortune I implore, + With one petition kneel: + _At least caress me not before + Thou break me on thy wheel_!'" + +Her lip quivered and her long lashes concealed her eyes. + +"They are fine lines," she said. + +"They fit my friend Lord Highcliffe's case to a T. He was for a time +the spoiled darling of fortune; she caressed him as she caresses few +men--and now she is breaking him on her wheel; and the caresses, of +course, make the breaking all the harder to bear. He writes most +interesting letters--I don't know whether you care about farming and +cattle-raising and that kind of thing; for my own part I am sublimely +ignorant of such matters. I can lay my hand upon my heart and say I +know a cow from a horse, but nothing shall induce me to go further. If +you are interested, I would venture to offer to show you one of his +letters; there is nothing in them of a private character." + +Her heart beat still more quickly; he saw the eager light flash in her +eyes; and his hand went to his breast coat-pocket; then he said, +blandly: + +"I will bring one next time we meet. Are you going--where are you going +to-morrow, Miss Heron? I, too, shall be going there probably?" + +She put her hand to her lips with a little nervous gesture: she was +disappointed, she thought he was going to show her a letter, then and +there. + +"I am going to Lady Fitzharford's to-morrow afternoon to try over some +music with her," she said, hesitatingly. + +"Ah, yes; Lady Fitzharford is a good friend of mine," he said. "Shall +you be there at, say, four?" + +"Yes," said Ida in a low voice. "Did you say that Mr. Orme--Lord +Highcliffe is well?" + +"Oh, yes; he is all right now," replied Howard; "he has been ill--a +fever of some kind or other, I believe--but he has recovered; he is a +monster of strength, as you may have heard. But I am afraid he is very +unhappy: something on what he calls his mind--he is not very +intellectual, you know--" + +Ida shot an indignant glance at him which made Howard chuckle inwardly. + +--"But the best, the noblest of good fellows, I assure you, Miss Heron. +I'd give anything to see him happy. Ah, here comes a gentleman with +hurried gait and distracted countenance; he is looking for his partner; +alas! it is you! We meet, then, at Lady Fitzharford's to-morrow. I will +bring my friend's letter; but I do sincerely hope it won't bore you!" + +He bowed his adieux and left her, and left the house; for the ball had +no further interest for him. All the way home he pondered over the +case. That she loved Stafford, he had not the very least doubt; her +eyes, her sudden blushes and colour, her voice had betrayed her. + +"He has loved her all the time; and I am a purblind ass not to have +seen it!" he said to himself, with cynical self-contempt, as he climbed +up to his rooms. + +They were modest but comfortable rooms in Picadilly--and he struck a +match before he opened the door; but it was not necessary for him to +have got a light, for there was one in the room already, and by it he +saw a long-limbed figure which had been sitting in his easy-chair, but +which rose and exclaimed: + +"Howard!" + +Howard held his breath for a moment, then said, with exaggerated calm. + +"I'm glad you found the cigars and the whiskey, Stafford. Have you been +waiting long: sorry to keep you." + +Howard laughed as he wrung his friend's hand. + +"I thought I should surprise you, old man; but I flattered myself," +said Stafford. + +"Nothing surprises me; but I'll admit to being rather pleased at seeing +you," drawled Howard, pushing him gently buck in the chair. "Have +you--er--walked from Australia, or flown?" + +Stafford stared. + +"Oh, I see! You mean I came so quickly on my letter? I started directly +after I posted it, but lost the mail at Southampton. I--I got a +restless fit, and was obliged to come." + +"Got it now?" drawled Howard. "Or perhaps the journey has cooled you +down. Have you eaten? I can get something--" + +"Yes, yes," said Stafford, rather impatiently. "Got dinner at the +hotel. I came on here at once: heard you'd gone to a dance, and thought +I'd wait. I want you to do something for me, Howard--I'll tell you all +my news some other time--not that there's much to tell: I'm well and +nourishing, as you see. I want you to go down to Bryndermere. I dare +not go myself--not yet. I want you to get all the information you can +about--about a lady: Miss Heron of Herondale--" + +"How very strange!" said Howard innocently. "Do you know, I have just +had the pleasure of meeting a Miss Heron of Herondale--" + +Stafford sprang to his feet. + +"Where?" he demanded hotly. + +"At Lady Clansford's ball, which I have just left. May I ask why you +are so interested in Miss Heron as to send me on such a mission?" + +"I love her," said Stafford briefly. "I can not live without her--I've +tried, and I've failed. I've loved her since--oh, I can't tell you! I +want to know what she is doing. I want to know if she has forgotten me; +if there is any hope for me!" + +Howard looked at him compassionately, and whistled softly. + +"My dear old man," he said, with an air of reluctance, "you fly rather +high! The lady you speak of is the belle of the present season; she is +the admired of all admirers; belted earls, to say nothing of noble +dukes, are at her feet. She was the star of the ball which I have just +left. If I may say so, I think you were very unwise to leave such a +peerless pearl to be snapped up--" + +Stafford turned away from him and stifled a groan. + +"I might have know it," he said. "The belle of the season! Well, why +not? There is no one more beautiful, no one more sweet. Who am I that +she should remember me? What am I--" + +"Rather a foolish young man, if you ask me," said Howard. "If I'd been +in love with such a peerless creature, I shouldn't have left her to go +tramping after cattle in Australia." + +"What else could I do?" exclaimed Stafford, sternly. "Have you +forgotten that I was not set free, that when--when death"--his voice +dropped--"set me free, that it was no time to speak of love to another +woman? I was obliged to go; but I've came back--too late, I suppose! +Don't say any more; let us talk of something else: you are looking +well. Howard." + +"Yes, it's no use crying over spilt milk," said Howard, with a sigh. +"Oh, I'm all right. Look here, I'll put you up to-night; we're got a +spare room. Now, mix yourself another drink and light up another +cigar--not bad, are they--and tell me all you've been doing." + + * * * * * + +At a quarter to four the following day Howard put in his appearance at +Lady Fitzharford's house in Eaton Square. + +"Oh, I'm so glad you've come," she said: everybody was pleased to see +Howard; "you are just the man I want. That sweet creature, Miss Heron, +is coming here directly to try over some songs with me--I'm going to +sing at that Bazaar, you know--and as you know something of music--is +there anything you don't know, Mr. Howard?--you can give us your +opinion." + +"With the greatest pleasure, my dear lady," responded Howard; "but on +two conditions: one, that you don't take my opinion; the other, that +you leave me alone with Miss Heron, directly she comes, for a quarter +of an hour." + +Lady Fitzharford stared at him. + +"Are you going to propose to her?" she asked, with a smile. + +"No," he replied; "I am tired of proposing." + +"Well, I don't think she would accept you," said Lady Fitzharford, "she +has had the most wonderful offers; she has refused Lord Edwin, the +Bannerdales' son and heir, and, I believe, the Duke of Glarn--" + +"I know, I know!" said Howard, more quickly than usual. "I can hear her +on the stairs. Oh, vanish, my dear lady, an' you love me!" + +Lady Fitzharford had scarcely left the room, laughing, and not a little +puzzled, before the servant admitted Ida. She was pale, and the look of +sadness in her eyes was even more palpable than on the preceding night. +She blushed for an instant as she gave her hand to Howard. + +"Lady Fitzharford has gone to get her music, Miss Heron," he said; "she +bade me make her excuses; she will be here presently. It is so good of +you to remember our appointment! When I came to think it over, I was +quite ashamed, do you know, at the obtrusive way in which I pressed the +subject of my friend, Lord Highcliffe's condition, upon you. But mind, +though, I do think you would feel interested in his letter. He has a +knack, unintellectual as he is"--Ida rose readily to the fly again and +flashed a momentary glance of indignation at him from her violet +eyes--"a child-like way of describing scenes and incidents in a kind of +graphic style which--What an idiot I am!" he broke off to exclaim, he +had been feeling in his pocket; "I have actually left the letter at +home! Please forgive me. But perhaps you will regard my lapse of memory +as affording you a happy escape." + +Ida's lips trembled and her eyes became downcast. Disappointment was +eloquently depicted on her face. + +"No, I am sorry," she said. "I--I should have liked to have seen the +letter." + +"Would you really?" he purred, penitently, as she turned away to the +window. "Then I will go and get it; my rooms are only a short +distance." + +"Oh, pray, don't trouble," she said, so faintly that Howard found it +difficult not to smile. + +"Not at all," he said, politely, and left the room. + +As he went down the stairs he glanced at his watch, and muttered: + +"Now, if the young idiot isn't up to time--" + +At that moment there was a knock at the hall-door, the servant opened +it, and Stafford entered with a gloomy countenance and a reluctant +gait. + +"I've come," he said, rather morosely; "though I don't know why you +should have insisted upon my doing so--or what good it will do me to +hear about her," he added, in a low voice, as they followed the servant +up the stairs. + +As the man touched the handle of the door, Howard said: + +"Go in, my dear fellow; I've left my pocket-handkerchief in my overcoat +in the hall: back in a moment." + +With a frown of annoyance, Stafford hesitated and looked after him; +then, with a shrug of his shoulders, he obeyed and entered the room. + +They uttered no cry of surprise, of joy. They stood for a moment +looking at each other with their hearts in their eyes. It was the +moment that bridged over all the weary months of waiting, of longing, +of doubts and fears, of hope that seemed too faint for hope and but a +mockery of despair. + +He had no need to ask her if she loved him, her face was eloquent of +the truth; and her eyes reflected the love that glowed in his. He had +got hold of her hand before she knew it, had drawn her to him, and, +utterly regardless of the fact that he was in a strange house, that +they might be interrupted any moment, he kissed her passionately with +all the passion that had been stored up for so long. + +"Ida," he said, as he bent over her and pressed her to him, "I have +come back, I cannot live without you--ah, but you know that, you know +that. Is it too late? It is not too late?" + +"No; it is not too late," she whispered. "I--I did not know whether you +would come. But I have been waiting; I should have waited all my life. +But the time has been very long, Stafford!" + + * * * * * + +At the end of the quarter of an hour for which Howard had bargained, +Lady Fitzharford opened the door of the inner room softly, so softly, +that seeing Miss Heron in the arms of a stalwart young man, and +apparently quite content to be there, her ladyship discreetly closed +the door again, and going round by the inner room found Mr. Howard +seated on the stairs. She looked at him with amazement, well-nigh +bewilderment. + +"Are you mad?" she exclaimed, in a whisper. + +Howard smiled at her blandly. + +"No," he said, with a backward jerk of his head, "but they are. I'm +told it's a delicious kind of madness worth all your sanity. Do not let +us disturb them. Come and sit down beside me until the time is up," he +glanced at his watch; "they have still three minutes." + +With a suppressed laugh she sat down beside him. + +"You ought to be ashamed of yourself," she said, "to play me such a +trick. But, oh, how happy they look!" + +"I am ashamed of myself, my dear, lady," he said; "but I should have +been more ashamed of myself if I hadn't. Do they look happy? We will go +in and see presently. It will be my great reward. But I should like to +give them another five minutes, dear lady, for I assure you, on my word +of honour, that I was once young myself." + +THE END. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of At Love's Cost, by Charles Garvice + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10379 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b568229 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #10379 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10379) diff --git a/old/10379-8.txt b/old/10379-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..15a9af9 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10379-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,17393 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of At Love's Cost, by Charles Garvice + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: At Love's Cost + +Author: Charles Garvice + +Release Date: December 4, 2003 [EBook #10379] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT LOVE'S COST *** + + + + +Produced by Ted Garvin and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +AT LOVE'S COST + +By CHARLES GARVICE + + + +AT LOVE'S COST + + + +CHAPTER 1 + +"Until this moment I have never fully realised how great an ass a man +can be. When I think that this morning I scurried through what might +have been a decent breakfast, left my comfortable diggings, and was +cooped up in a train for seven hours, that I am now driving in a +pelting rain through, so far as I can see for the mist, what appears to +be a howling wilderness, I ask myself if I am still in possession of my +senses. I ask myself why I should commit such lurid folly. Last night I +was sitting over the fire with a book--for it was cold, though not so +cold as this," the speaker shivered and dragged the collar of his +overcoat still higher--"at peace with all the world, with Omar purring +placidly by my side, and my soul wrapped in that serenity which belongs +to a man who has long since rid himself of that inconvenient +appendage--a conscience, and has hit upon the right brand of +cigarettes, and now--" + +He paused to sigh, to groan indeed, and shifted himself uneasily in the +well-padded seat of the luxurious mail-phaeton. + +"When Williams brought me your note, vilely written--were you sober, +Stafford?--blandly asking me to join you in this mad business, I smiled +to myself as I pitched the note on the fire. Omar smiled too, the very +cigarette smiled. I said to myself I would see you blowed first; that +nothing would induce me to join you, that I'd read about the lakes too +much and too often to venture upon them in the early part of June; in +fact, had no desire to see the lakes at any time or under any +conditions. I told Omar that I would see you in the lowest pit of +Tophet before I would go with you to--whatever the name of this place +is. And yet, here I am." + +The speaker paused in his complaint to empty a pool water from his +mackintosh, and succeeded--in turning it over his own leg. + +He groaned again, and continued. + +"And yet, here I am. My dear Stafford, I do not wish to upbraid you; I +am simply making to myself a confession of weakness which would be +pitiable in a stray dog, but which in a man of my years, with my +experience of the world and reputation for common sense, is simply +criminal. I do not wish to reproach you; I am quite aware that no +reproach, not even the spectacle of my present misery would touch your +callous and, permit me to frankly add, your abominably selfish nature; +but I do want to ask quite calmly and without any display of temper: +what the blazes you wanted to come this way round, and why you wanted +me with you?" + +The speaker, a slightly built man, just beyond the vague line of +"young," glanced up with his dark, somewhat sombre and yet softly +cynical eyes at the face of his companion who was driving. This +companion was unmistakably young, and there was not a trace of cynicism +in his grey-blue eyes which looked out upon the rain and mist with +pleasant cheerfulness. He was neither particularly fair nor dark; but +there was a touch of brighter colour than usual in his short, crisp +hair; and no woman had yet found fault with the moustache or the lips +beneath. And yet, though Stafford Orme's face was rather too handsome +than otherwise, the signs of weakness which one sees in so many +good-looking faces did not mar it; indeed, there was a hint of +strength, not to say sternness, in the well-cut lips, a glint of power +and masterfulness in the grey eyes and the brows above them which +impressed one at first sight; though when one came to know him the +impression was soon lost, effaced by the charm for which Stafford was +famous, and which was perpetually recruiting his army of friends. + +No doubt it is easy to be charming when the gods have made you good to +look upon, and have filled your pockets with gold into the bargain. +Life was a pageant of pleasure to Stafford Orme: no wonder he sang and +smiled upon the way and had no lack of companions. + +Even this man beside him, Edmund Howard, whose name was a by-word for +cynicism, who had never, until he had met Stafford Orme, gone an inch +out of his self-contained way to please or benefit a fellow-man, was +the slave of the young fellow's imperious will, and though he made +burlesque complaint of his bondage, did not in his heart rebel against +it. + +Stafford laughed shortly as he looked at the rain-swept hills round +which the two good horses were taking the well-appointed phaeton. + +"Oh, I knew you would come," he said. "It was just this way. You know +the governor wrote and asked me to come down to this new place of his +at Bryndermere--" + +"Pardon me, Stafford; you forget that I have been down South--where I +wish to Heaven I had remained!--and that I only returned yesterday +afternoon, and that I know nothing of these sudden alarums and +excursions of your esteemed parent." + +"Ah, no; so you don't!" assented Stafford; "thought I'd told you: shall +have to tell you now; I'll cut it as short as possible." He paused for +a moment and gently drew the lash of the whip over the wet backs of the +two horses who were listening intently to the voice of their beloved +master. "Well, three days ago I got a letter from my father; it was a +long one; I think it's the first long letter I ever received from him. +He informed me that for some time past he has been building a little +place on the east side of Bryndermere Lake, that he thought it would be +ready by the ninth of this month; and would I go down--or is it +up?--there and meet him, as he was coming to England and would go +straight there from Liverpool. Of course there was not time for me to +reply, and equally, of course, I prepared to obey. I meant going +straight down to Bryndermere; and I should have done so, but two days +ago I received a telegram telling me that the place would not be ready, +and that he would not be there until the eleventh, and asking me to +fill up the interval by sending down some horses and carriages. It +occurred to me, with one of those brilliant flashes of genius which you +have so often remarked in me, my dear Howard, that I would drive down, +at any rate, part of the way; so I sent some of the traps direct and +got this turn-out as far as Preston with me. With another of those +remarkable flashes of genius, it also occurred to me that I should be +devilish lonely with only Pottinger here," he jerked his head towards +the groom, who sat in damp and stolid silence behind. "And so I wrote +and asked you to come. Kind of me, wasn't it?" + +"Most infernally kind," said Howard, with a sigh of a ton weight. "Had +you any idea that your father was building this little place? By the +way, I can't imagine Sir Stephen building anything that could be +described as 'little'. + +"You are right," assented Stafford, with a nod. "I heard coming down +that it was a perfect palace of a place, a kind of palace of art +and--and that sort of thing. You know the governor's style?" His brows +were slightly knit for just a second, then he threw, as it were, the +frown off, with a smile. "No, I knew nothing about it; I knew as little +about it as I do of the governor himself and his affairs." + +Howard nodded. + +"When you come to think of it, Howard, isn't it strange that father and +son should know so little of each other? I have not seen the governor +for I forget how many years. He has been out of England for the last +fourteen or fifteen, with the exception of a few flying visits; and on +the occasion of those visits I was either at school on the Continent or +tramping about with a gun or a rod, and so we never met. I've a kind of +uneasy suspicion that my revered parent had no particular desire to +renew his acquaintance with his dutiful offspring; anyway, if he had, +he would have arranged a meeting. Seems rather peculiar; for in every +other respect his conduct as a parent has been above reproach." + +"Those are scarcely the terms by which I should designate a liberality +which can only be described as criminally lavish, and an indifference +to your moral progress which might more properly belong to an +unregenerate Turk than to an English baronet. Considering the +opportunities of evil afforded you by the possession of a practically +unlimited allowance, and a brazen cheek which can only be described as +colossal, the fact that you have not long since gone headlong to the +devil fills me with perpetual and ever-freshening wonder." + +Stafford yawned and shrugged his shoulders with cheerful acquiescence. + +"Should have gone a mucker ever so many times, old man, if it hadn't +been for you," he said; "but you've always been at hand just at the +critical moment to point out to me that I was playing the giddy goat +and going to smash. That's why I like to have you with me as a kind of +guide, monitor, and friend, you know." + +Howard groaned and attempted to get rid of another miniature pool of +water, and succeeded--as before. + +"I know," he assented. "My virtue has been its own reward--and +punishment. If I had allowed you to go your way to the proverbial dogs, +after whose society gilded youths like yourself appear to be always +hankering, I should not be sitting here with cold water running down my +back and surrounded by Nature in her gloomiest and dampest aspects. +Only once have I deviated from the life of consistent selfishness at +which every sensible man should aim, and see how I am punished! I do +not wish to be unduly inquisitive, but I should like to know where the +blazes we are going, and why we do not make for a decent hotel--if +there is such a thing in these desolate wilds." + +Stafford handed him the reins so that he himself might get out his +cigar-case, and with some little difficulty, and assisted by +Pottinger's soaked hat, the two gentlemen got their cigars alight. + +"There isn't a decent hotel for miles," explained Stafford. "There is +only a small inn at a little place called Carysford. I looked it out on +the map. I thought we'd drive there today, put up for the night to give +the horses a rest, and go on to this place of my governor's the next +day. It's on the opposite side of the lake." + +He jerked his whip to the right. + +"Which side, what lake?" asked Howard, hopelessly. "I see nothing of +the lake, nothing but mist and sodden hills. No wonder the word 'poet' +instinctively arouses one's animosity. When I think of the number of +well-meaning and inspired idiots who have written reams of poetry about +this place, I feel at this present moment as if I could cheerfully rend +even a Wordsworth, a Southey, or a Coleridge; and I look back with +remorse upon the hours, the throbs of admiration, I have expended upon +what I once deemed their inspired pages. If I remember rightly, most of +the lake poets went off their heads; when I gaze around me I must admit +that I am not surprised." + +Stafford laughed absently; he was quite accustomed to Howard's cynical +vein. + +"They're all right enough," he said. "That is, I suppose they are, for +I never read any of 'em since I left school. Oh, yes, they're right +enough about the beauty of the place; you should see it on a fine day." + +"Has anyone seen it on a fine day?" inquired Howard, with the innocent +air of one simply seeking information. "I asked a countryman in the +train if it always rained here, and he replied, 'No; it sometimes +snows.'" + +"That's a chestnut," remarked Stafford, with a laugh. "But it's all +nonsense about its always being wet here; they tell me it's fine for +weeks together; that you can never tell any instant whether it's going +to clear up or not; that the weather will change like a woman--Good +heavens, look at that!" + +He nodded to the east as he spoke. + +Unnoticed by them, the sky had been clearing gradually, the mists +sweeping, dissolving, away; a breath of wind now wafted them, like a +veil thrown aside, from hill and valley and lake, and a scene of +unparalleled beauty lay revealed beneath them. The great lake shone +like a sapphire; meadows of emerald, woods of darker green, hills of +purple and grey, silver and gold, rose from the bosom and the edge of +the great liquid jewel; the hills towering tier on tier into the +heavens of azure blue swept by clouds like drifting snow. + +The two men gazed in silence; even Pottinger, to whom his 'osses +generally represented all that was beautiful in nature, gaped with +wide-open mouth. + +"How's that for lofty, you unbeliever?" demanded Stafford. "Ever seen +anything like that before?" + +Howard had been considerably startled, but, of course, he concealed his +amazed admiration behind a mask of cynicism. + +"Rather a crib from Val Prinsep, isn't it, with a suggestion of a Drury +Lane pantomime about it? Good heavens! And there's the Fairy Palace all +complete," he added, as, the mists still rising, was discovered on the +slope of the other side a long and extremely ornate building, the pure +whiteness of which was reflected in the marvellous blue and opal of the +lake. "Can that be Sir Stephen's 'little place'?" + +"I'm afraid it is," said Stafford. "It looks like the governor," he +added, with a touch of gravity. + +"Well, it's very big, or, rather, long; and it's very white, but one's +bound to admit that it doesn't spoil the landscape," said Howard; "in +fact, standing there amidst the dark-green trees, with its pinnacles +and terraces, it's rather an ornament than otherwise. I suppose there +are flowers on those velvety lawns; and the interior, I'll wager my +life, matches the exterior. Fortunate youth to possess a Croesus for a +father:" + +"Yes; I suppose the governor must be tremendously oafish," said +Stafford. + +"The man who can build such a palace as that, and have the cool cheek +to call it 'a little place,' must in common decency be a +multi-millionaire." + +Stafford nodded and smoked thoughtfully for a minute as Pottinger left +the horses' heads and climbed into his seat behind, and the +mail-phaeton moved along the road, which began to dip down at this +point. + +"I know so little about my father," he said again. + +"And yet the world knows so much," remarked Howard, throwing open his +waterproof and basking in the sun which shone as warmly and +unreservedly as if it had never heard of such a thing as rain. "One +can't take up the paper without seeing some mention of Sir Stephen +Orme's great name. One day he is in Paris negotiating a state loan; +another you read he is annexing, appropriating, or whatever you call +it, a vast tract in Africa or Asia; on the third you are informed with +all solemnity that he has become director of a new bank, insurance +company, or one of those vast concerns in which only Rothschilds and +Barings can disport themselves. Now and again you are informed that Sir +Stephen Orme has been requested to stand for an important constituency, +but that he was compelled to decline because of the pressure of his +numerous affairs. There may be a more famous and important individual +in the world than your father, my dear Stafford, but I can't call him +to mind at this moment." + +"Chaff away," said Stafford, good-humouredly. "At any rate, he has been +a jolly liberal father to me. Did I tell you that just before he came +home be placed a largish sum at his bank for me; I mean over and above +my allowance?" + +"You didn't tell me, but I'm not at all surprised," responded Howard. +"A truly wonderful father, and a model to all other parents. Would that +I possessed such a one. You don't remember your mother, Stafford?" + +The young fellow's handsome face softened for an instant; and his voice +was low and grave as he replied: + +"No--and yet sometimes I fancy that I do; though, seeing that she died +when I was quite a kid, it must be only fancy. I wish she'd lived," his +voice became still lower; "I wish I had a brother, or a sister, +especially a sister--By George! that's a fine stream! Did you see that +fish jump, Howard?" + +"No, I was too much occupied in jumping myself. I thought by your +exclamation that something had happened to the carriage or the horses, +and that we were on the verge of a smash-up. Let it jump if it amuses +it." + +"So it may--if I don't catch it," said Stafford, pulling up the horses +near the bank of the stream. + +"Do you mean to tell me that you are going to fish?" demanded Howard, +with a groan. "My dear Stafford, I know that being that abominable +thing--a sportsman--you are consequently mad; but you might have the +decency to curb your insanity out of consideration for the wretched man +who has the misfortune to be your companion, and who plainly sees that +this period of sunshine is a gilded fraud, and that presently it will +rain again like cats and dogs." + +Stafford laughed. He had got down and dragged out a rod and a +fishing-basket. + +"Sorry, old chap," he said, "but no fisherman could lose such a chance +as this, even to save his best friend from rheumatic fever. I thought +we should come across a stream or two, and I put on these togs +accordingly." He wore a Norfolk suit of that wonderful Harris tweed +which, strange to say, keeps out the rain, the heat, and the cold; and +flies were stuck in his cap of the same material. "But, look here, +there's no need for me to keep you; Pottinger will drive you to this +place, Carysford, where we stay the night--I've engaged rooms--and you +can have a warm bath and get into the dress-clothes after which you are +hankering. When I've caught a fish or two I'll come on after you. Don't +argue, now!" + +"My dear Stafford, I haven't the least intention of doing so; I'm +simply dying for a bath, a change, and a huge fire; and when you arrive +you'll find me sitting over the latter humbly thanking God that I'm not +a sportsman." + +Stafford nodded, with his eyes on the stream. + +"I should give the nags some gruel, Pottinger, and put an extra coat on +them: it'll be cold to-night. Ta, ta, Howard! Tell 'em to get a nice +dinner; I'll be there in time for 'em to cook the fish; but don't wait +if I should be late--say half past seven." + +"I promise you I won't," retorted Howard, fervently. "And I am one of +those men who never break a promise--unless it's inconvenient." + +The phaeton drove on, Stafford went down to the stream, put up his rod, +chose a fly as carefully as if the fate of a kingdom depended on it, +and began to fish. + +There is this great advantage in the art of fly-fishing: that while you +are engaged in it you can think of nothing else: it is as absorbing as +love or scarlet fever. Stafford worked his fly steadily and +systematically, with a light and long "cast" which had made him famous +with the brethren of the craft, and presently he landed a glittering +trout, which, though only a pound in weight, was valued by Stafford at +many a pound in gold. The fish began to rise freely, and he was so +engrossed in the sport that he did not notice that Howard's prophecy +had come true, that the mist had swept over the landscape again, and +that it was raining, if not exactly cats and dogs, yet hard enough to +make even the opposite bank a blur in his vision. + +But Stafford was utterly indifferent to rain and mist while the trout +were rising, and his basket was half full before he looked around him. +It is wonderful, when you are fishing, how great a distance you can +walk without noticing it. He had followed the winding course of the +stream until it had left the road far behind and struck into a valley, +the wildness, the remoteness of which was almost awe-inspiring; and he +stood still for a moment and looked up at the sky into which the tall, +sharp peaks of the hills lost themselves. The stream, broken by huge +boulders, rumbled with a soft roar which was the only sound that broke +the stillness. It was the silence, a profound stillness, which makes +one feel as if one has wandered into an unknown world newly made and as +yet untouched by the foot of man, unsullied by his presence. + +Stafford could not have quoted a verse of poetry to save his life; it +wasn't in his line; he could ride straight, was a first-rate shot, +waltzed like an angel, and so far his dictionary did not contain the +word "fear;" but he knew nothing of poetry or art, and only liked some +kinds of music, amongst which, it is to be feared, "Soldiers of the +Queen," and the now much-abused chorus from "Faust," ranked high in his +estimation. He was just simply a healthy young Englishman, clean-limbed +and clean-minded, with a tremendous appetite for pleasure, a +magnificent frame, and a heart as light and buoyant as a cork; +therefore, though an artist or a poet would have been thrilled to the +marrow by the wild grandeur of the secluded valley and the grimly +towering hills, and would have longed to put them on canvas or into +verse, Stafford only felt suddenly grave, and as if it were playing it +low down to throw an artificial fly, even of the best make, in such a +spot. + +But in a moment or two the sportsman's instinct woke in him; a fish +stirred in a pool under a boulder, and pulling himself together he +threw a fly over the rise. As he did so, the brooding silence was +broken by the deep musical bark of a collie, followed by the sharp yap, +yap of a fox-terrier. The sudden sound almost startled Stafford; at any +rate, caused him to miss his fish; he looked up with a little frown of +annoyance, and saw on the break of the opposite hill some of the +mountain sheep which had stared at him with haughty curiosity running +down towards the green bottom of the valley followed by the two dogs. + +A moment afterwards a horse and rider were silhouetted on the extreme +top of the high hill. The horse was large whereby the rider looked +small; and for a moment the pair were motionless, reminding Stafford of +a bronze statue. The hill was fearfully steep, even the dogs ran with a +certain amount of caution, and Stafford wondered whether the rider--he +couldn't see if it was man or boy--would venture down the almost +precipitous slope. While he was wondering, the small figure on the +horse sent up a cry that rang like the note of a bell and echoed in +sweet shrillness down the hill and along the valley. The collie stopped +as if shot, and the fox-terrier looked round, prepared to go back to +the rider. It looked for a moment as if the rider were going down the +other side of the hill again; then suddenly, as if he detected +something wrong in the valley below, he turned the horse and came down +the hill-side at a pace which made Stafford, hard and fearless rider as +he was, open his eyes. + +It seemed to him impossible that the horse could avoid a false step or +a slip, and such a false step he knew would send steed and rider +hurtling down to something that could be very little short of instant +death. He forgot all about the big trout in the pool, and stood with +his fly drifting aimlessly in the water, watching with something like +breathless interest this, the most daring piece of horsemanship he had +ever witnessed; and he had ridden side by side with the best +steeplechaser of the day, and had watched a crack Hungarian cavalry +corps at its manoeuvres; which last is about the top notch of the +horse-riding business. + +But the big horse did not falter for a moment; down it came at a hard +gallop, and Stafford's admiration was swallowed up in amazement when he +saw that the rider was a young girl, that she was riding with about +half an ounce on the reins, and that, apparently, she was as much at +ease and unconscious of danger as if she were trotting on a tame hack +in Rotten Row. + +As she came nearer, admiration romped in ahead of amazement, for the +girl was a young one--she looked like the average school-girl--and had +one of the most beautiful faces Stafford had ever seen. She was dark, +but the cheek that was swept by the long lashes was colourless with +that exquisite and healthy pallor which one sees in the women of +Northern Spain. Her hair was black but soft and silky, and the wind +blew it in soft tendrils, now across her brow and now in dazzling +strands about the soft felt hat which sat in graceful negligence upon +the small and stately head. She wore a habit stained by use and +weather, and so short that it was little better than a skirt, and left +her almost as absolute a freedom as that enjoyed by the opposite sex. +Her hands were covered by well-worn gauntlets, and she held a stout and +workman-like crop with a long huntsman's thong. + +A poet would instantly have thought that it was a vision of the Spirit +of the Mountains; Stafford only thought it was the most lovely piece of +girlhood he had ever looked at. She did not see him for a moment, all +her attention being engrossed by the sheep which were now wandering up +the valley; then suddenly, as if she felt his presence rather than saw +it, her dark eyes flashed round upon him and she pulled up the big +horse on its haunches with a suddenness which ought to have sent her +from the saddle like a stone from a catapult; but she sat back as firm +as a rock and gazed at him steadily, with a calmness which fascinated +Stafford and kept him staring back at her as if he were the veriest +plough-boy. + +And to put it frankly, it was something like fascination. She had come +upon him so suddenly, her feat of horsemanship had been so audacious, +her beauty was so marvellous that Stafford, perhaps for the first time +in his life, found himself unable to utter a word in the presence of +one of the opposite sex. It was only for a moment or two, of course, +that he lost his presence of mind; then he pulled himself together and +raised his cap. She gave him the very slightest of bows. It was the +faintest indication only of response to his salute; her eyes rested on +his face with a strange, ungirlish calm, then wandered to the last +trout which lay on the bank. + +Stafford felt that something had to be said, but for the life of him, +for the first time in his experience, he couldn't hit upon the thing to +say. "Good-afternoon" seemed to him too banal, commonplace; and he +could think of nothing else for a moment. However, it came at last. + +"Will you be so good as to tell me if I am far from Carysford?" he +asked. + +"Four miles and three-quarters by the road, three miles over the hill," +she replied, slowly, as calmly as she had looked at him, and in a voice +low and sweet, and with a ring, a tone, in it which in some indefinable +way harmonised with her appearance. It was quite unlike the +conventional girl's voice; there rang in it the freedom of the lonely +valley, the towering hills, the freedom and unconventionality of the +girl's own figure and face and wind-tossed hair; and in it was a note +of dignity, of independence, and of a pride which was too proud for +defiance. In its way the voice was as remarkable as the beauty of the +face, the soft fire of the dark eyes. + +"I had no idea it was so far," said Stafford; "I must have wandered +away from the place. I started fishing on the road down below, and +haven't noticed the distance. Will you tell me the name of this place?" + +"Herondale," she replied. + +"Thank you," said Stafford. "It's a grand valley and a splendid +stream." She leant forward with her elbow on the saddle and her chin in +the small gauntletted hand, looked up the valley absently and then back +at him, with a frank speculation in her eyes which was too frank and +calm to be flattering, and was, indeed, somewhat embarrassing. + +"I suppose she takes me for a tourist, or a cheap tripper," thought +Stafford, with an uncomfortable kind of amusement; uncomfortable, +because he knew that this girl who was acting as shepherd in an old +weather-stained habit and a battered hat, was a lady. + +She broke the silence again. + +"Have you caught many fish?" she asked. + +Up to now they had been separated by the stream; Stafford seized the +opportunity, waded across in a fairly shallow place, and, opening the +lid of his basket, showed her the contents. + +"Yes, you have done fairly well," she said; "but the trout run larger +higher up the valley. By the way," her brows came together slightly, +though the very faintest of smiles for an instant curved the delicately +cut lips, "do you know that you are poaching?" + +This would have been a staggerer coming from a mere keeper, but from +this exquisitely beautiful, this calm statue of a girl, it was simply +devastating. Stafford stared at her. + +"Doesn't this river belong to Sir Joseph Avory?" he asked. + +"No," she replied, uncompromisingly. "Sir Joseph Avory's river is +called the Lesset water, and runs on the other side of that hill." + +She raised her hunting-crop and pointed with an exquisite movement, as +graceful as that of a Diana, to the hill behind her. + +"I am very sorry," said Stafford. "I thought this was his river. I met +him in London and got permission from him. Do you know to whom this +water belongs?" + +"To Mr. Heron, of Herondale," she replied. + +"I beg Mr. Heron's pardon," said Stafford. "Of course I'll put up my +rod at once; and I will take the first opportunity of apologising for +my crime; for poaching is a crime, isn't it?" + +"Yes," she assented, laconically. + +"Can you tell me where he lives--where his house is?" + +She raised her whip again and pointed to an opening on the left of the +valley, an opening lined on either side by a wild growth of magnificent +firs. + +"It is up there. You cannot see it from here," she said. As she spoke, +she took her chin from her hand and sat upright, gathered up her reins, +and, with another of the faint inclinations of her head, by way of +adieu, rode on up the valley. + +Stafford stood with his cap in his hand looking after her for a moment, +in a brown study; and, still watching the back of the slight figure +that sat the big horse with the grace of an Indian maiden, he began to +take down his rod, and, having packed it in his case and fastened his +basket, he followed her along the broken bank of the stream. Presently, +when she had gone some little distance, he heard the dogs start barking +again, the crack of her whip rang like a pistol-shot, and her bell-like +voice echoed amongst the hills, joined with the troubled baaing of the +sheep. Stafford stopped and watched her: there was evidently something +wrong; for the dogs had become excited, the sheep were running wildly; +but the girl's exquisite voice was as clear and calm as ever, and the +big horse cantered over the broken ground, taking a big boulder now and +again with lilting jump, as if he were going by his own volition and +was well up in all the points of the game. After a time the dogs got +the sheep into a heap, and the young girl rode round them; but +something still seemed to be wrong, for she got down, and, leaving the +horse quite free, made her way into the flock. + +At that moment Stafford saw a sheep and a lamb break from the mob and +make for the stream; the sheep jumped to a boulder with the agility of +a goat, the lamb attempted to follow, but missed the boulder and fell +into the stream. The water was wild here and the pools deep; and as the +lamb was swept down toward Stafford he saw that it was struggling in an +ineffectual way, and that it looked like a case of drowning. + +Of course he went for it at once, and wading in made a grab at it; he +got hold of it easily enough, but the lamb--a good sized +one--struggled, and in the effort to retain his hold Stafford's feet +slipped and he went headfirst into a deep pool. He was submerged for a +second only, and when he came up he had the satisfaction of feeling +that he had still got the lamb; and gripping the struggling thing +tightly in his arms, he made for the opposite bank. And looking up, saw +the girl standing waiting for him, her face alive, alight, dancing with +delight and amusement! The laughter shone in her eyes like dazzling +sunlight and quivered on the firm but delicate lips. But it was only +for a moment; before Stafford had fully taken it in and had responded +to it with one of his own short laughs, her face was grave and calm +again. "Thank you." she said, with a gravity matching her face, and +very much as one is thanked for passing the salt. "It would have +drowned if you had not been there. It is lame and couldn't swim. I saw, +from the top of the hill, that it was lame, and I was afraid something +would happen to it." + +As she spoke, she took the lamb, which was bleating like mad, laid it +on the ground and holding it still, firmly but gently, with her knee, +examined it with all the confidence and coolness of a vet. + +"You'll make yourself most frightfully wet," said Stafford. + +She glanced up at him with only faint surprise. + +"You are a Londoner," she said, "or you would know that here, in these +parts, we are so often more wet than dry that it makes no matter. Yes, +I thought so; there was a thorn in its foot. May I trouble you to hold +him a minute?" + +Stafford held the lamb, which was tolerably quiet now; and she slowly +took off her gauntlets, produced a little leather wallet from the +saddle--the horse coming at her call as if he were a dog--took out a +serviceable pair of tweezers, and, with professional neatness, +extracted an extremely ugly thorn. Stafford stood and watched her; the +collie and the fox-terrier upright on their haunches watching her also; +the collie gave an approving bark as, with a pat she liberated the +lamb, which went bleating on its way to join its distracted mother, the +fox-terrier leapt round her with yaps of excited admiration; and there +was admiration in Stafford's eyes also. The whole thing had been done +with a calm, almost savage grace and self-possession, and she seemed to +be absolutely unconscious of his presence, and only remembered it when +the lamb and its mother had joined the flock. + +"Thank you again," she said. "It was very kind of you. I am afraid you +are wet." + +As Stafford had gone completely under the water, this was a fact he +could not deny, but he said with a laugh: + +"Though I am a Londoner, in a sense, I don't mind a wetting--in a good +cause; and I shall be dry, or as good as dry, before I get to the inn. +You must have eyes like a hawk to have seen, from the top of the hill, +that that lamb was lame," he added, rather with the desire to keep her +than to express his admiration for her sight. + +"I have good eyes," she said, indifferently. "One has to have. But I +saw that the lamb was lame from the way it kept beside its mother and +the fuss she made over it: and I knew, too, by Donald's bark, that +something was wrong. I am sorry you are wet. Will you--" She glanced +towards the opening in the hills, paused, and for the first time seemed +slightly embarrassed; Stafford fancied that a faint touch of colour +came to the clear pallor of the lovely young face. She did not finish +the sentence, but with another "Thank you," and "I should not have +liked to have lost the lamb," went towards her horse. + +Stafford advanced to put her in the saddle; but, with a little shake of +the head and a "Don't trouble," she sprang into her place and rode off. + +Stafford looked after her, as he had done before; then he said, "Well, +I'm d-----d!" + +He felt for his pouch, filled his pipe and lit it, and in doing so his +eyes fell upon the little wallet from which she had taken her tweezers. +He picked it up and quickly shouted to her; but the dogs were barking +with furious delight, she was cracking her whip, and she had ridden too +far for her to hear him through the noise. It would have been sheer +folly to have run after her; so, with a shrug of his shoulders, +Stafford put the little wallet in his pocket, waded the stream and, +after a moment or two of consideration, made for the inn by the nearest +way, to wit, across the hill. + +The girl rode along the strip of level moorland beside the river until +she came to a narrow and not particularly well--kept road which led +through the opening of the hills towards which she had motioned her +whip. Once or twice a smile crossed her face, and once she laughed as +she thought of the comical picture which the young man had made as he +struggled to dry land with the wet lamb in his arms; and the smile and +her laugh made her face seem strangely girlish, because it was usually +so calm, so gravely self-reliant. Some girls would have been quick to +detect the romantic side of the incident, and would have dwelt with a +certain sense of satisfaction upon the fact that the young man was tall +and handsome and distinguished looking. But this girl had scarcely +noticed it; at any rate, it had not affected her in any way. She had +too much to do; there was too much upon her well-formed and graceful +shoulders to permit her to indulge in romance: Diana herself was not +more free from sentiment than this young girl who rode her horse just +like a Mexican, who was vet enough to perform a surgical operation on a +lamb, and who knew how many bushels of wheat should run to an acre, and +the best dressing for permanent pastures. It did occur to her that she +might, at any rate after he had rescued the lamb, have given him +permission to go on fishing; but she was not very sorry for having +failed to do so, for after all, he had been poaching, and, as she had +said, poaching was in her eyes a crime. + +She went down the road at a swift trot, and presently it was blocked by +a pair of wrought-iron gates, so exquisite in their antique +conscientiousness that many a mushroom peer would have given almost +their weight in gold to place them at the beginning of his newly made +park; but no one came to open them, they were closed by a heavily +padlocked chain, and the lodge beside them was empty and dilapidated; +and the girl rode beside the lichen-covered wall in which they stood +until she came to an opening leading to an old arch which faced a broad +and spacious court-yard. As she rode beneath the arch a number of dogs +yelped a welcome from kennels or behind stable half-doors, and a bent +old man, dressed like something between a stableman and a butler, came +forward, touching his forehead, to take her horse. She slipped from the +saddle, patted the horse, and murmured a word or two of endearment; but +her bright eyes flashed round the court-yard with a glance of +responsibility. + +"Have you brought the colt in, Jason?" she asked. + +Jason touched his forehead again. + +"Yes, Miss Ida. It took me three-quarters of an hour; it won't come to +me like it does to you. It's in a loose stall." + +"Saddle it to-morrow morning," she said, "and I will come and try it. +The brindle cow has got into the corn, and the fence wants mending down +by the pool; you must get William to help you, and do it at once. He +has taken the steers to market, I suppose? I didn't see them in the +three acre. Oh, and, Jason, I found someone fishing in the dale; you +must get a notice board and put it up where the road runs near the +river; the tourists' time is coming on, and though they don't often +come this side of the lake, some of them may, and we can't afford to +have the river poached. And, Jason, look to Ruppert's off-hind shoe; I +think it's loose; and--" She stopped with a short laugh. "But that's +enough for one time, isn't it? Oh, Jason, if I were only a man, how +much better it would be!" + +"Yes, miss," assented Jason, simply, with another touch of his +forehead. + +She sighed and laughed again, and gathering up her habit--she hadn't to +raise it much--she went through an open door-way into a wild, but +pretty garden, and so to the back of one of the most picturesque houses +in this land of the picturesque. It was built of grey stone which age +had coloured with a tender and an appreciative hand; a rich growth of +ivy and clematis clung lovingly over a greater portion of it so that +the mullioned windows were framed by the dark leaves and the purple +flower. The house was long and rambling and had once been flourishing +and important, but it was now eloquent of decay and pathetic with the +signs of "better times" that had vanished long ago. A flight of worn +steps led to a broad glass door, and opening the latter, the girl +passed under a curved wooden gallery into a broad hall. It was dimly +lit by an oriel window of stained glass, over which the ivy and +clematis had been allowed to fall; there was that faint odour which +emanates from old wood and leather and damask; the furniture was +antique and of the neutral tint which comes from age; the weapons and +the ornaments of brass, the gilding of the great pictures, were all dim +and lack-lustre for want of the cleaning and polishing which require +many servants. In the huge fire-place some big logs were burning, and +Donald and Bess threw themselves down before it with a sigh of +satisfaction. The girl looked round her, just as she had looked round +the stable-yard; then, tossing her soft hat and whip on the old oak +table, she went to one of the large heavy doors, and knocking, said in +her clear voice: + +"Father, are you there?" + +Inside the room an old man sat at a table. It was littered with books, +some of them open as if he had been consulting them; but before him lay +an open deed, and at his elbow were several others lying on an open +deed-box. He was thin and as faded-looking and as worn with age as the +house and the room, lined with dusty volumes and yellow, +surface-cracked maps and pictures. He wore a long dressing-gown which +was huddled round him as if he were cold, though a fire of logs almost +as large as the one in the hall was burning in the open fire-place. + +At the sound of the knock he raised his head, an expression, which was +a mixture of fear and senile cunning came into his lined and pallid +face, his dull eyes peered from under their lids with a flash of sudden +alertness, and with one motion of his long hands he hurriedly folded +the deed before him, crammed it, with the others, into the box, locked +it with a hurried and trembling hand, and placed it in a cupboard, +which he also locked; then he drew one of the large books into the +place were the deed had been, and with a cautious glance round the +room, shuffled to the door, and opened it. + +As the girl entered, one would have noticed the resemblance between her +and the old man, and have seen that they were father and daughter; for +Godfrey Heron had been one of the handsomest men of his time, and +though she had got her dark eyes and the firm, delicate lips from her +mother, the clear oval of her face and its expression of aristocratic +pride had come from the Herons. + +"Are you here still, father?" she said. "It is nearly dinner-time, and +you are not dressed. You promised me that you would go out: how wicked +of you not to have done so!" + +He shuffled back to the table and made a great business of closing the +book. + +"I've been busy--reading, Ida," he said. "I did not know it was so +late. You have been out, I see; I hope you have enjoyed your ride. Have +you met anyone?" + +"No," she replied; then she smiled, as she added: "Only a poacher." + +The old man raised his head, a faint flush came on his face and his +eyes flashed with haughty resentment. + +"A poacher! What are the keepers about! Ah, I forgot; there are no +keepers now; any vagrant is free to trespass and poach on Herondale!" + +"I'm sorry, father!" she said, laying her hand on his arm soothingly. +"It was not an ordinary poacher, only a gentleman who had mistaken the +Heron water for the Avory's. Come now, father, you have barely time to +dress." + +"Yes, yes, I will come in a moment--a moment," he said. + +But after she had left the room, he still lingered, and when at last he +got to the door, he closed it and went back to the cupboard and tried +it, to see if it were locked, muttering, suspiciously: + +"Did she hear me? She might have heard the rustle of the parchment, the +turn of the lock. Sometimes I think she suspects--But, no, no, she's a +child still, and she'd say something, speak out. No, no; it's all +right. Yes, yes, I'm coming, Ida!" he said aloud, as the girl called to +him on her way up the stairs. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +As Stafford climbed the hill steadily, he wondered who the girl was. It +did not occur to him that she might be the daughter of the Mr. Heron to +whom the stream belonged and from whose family name the whole dale had +taken its own; for, though she had looked and spoken like a lady, the +habit, the gauntlets, the soft felt hat were old and weather-stained: +and her familiarity with the proper treatment of a sheep in difficulty +indicated rather the farmer's daughter than that of the squire. + +She was not by any means the first pretty girl Stafford had seen--he +had a very large acquaintance in London, and one or two women whose +beauty had been blazoned by the world were more than friendly +with the popular Stafford Orme--but he thought as he went up +the hill, which seemed to have no end, that he had never seen a more +beautiful face than this girl's; certainly he had never seen one which +had impressed him more deeply. Perhaps it was the character of the +loveliness which haunted him so persistently: it was so unlike the +conventional drawing-room type with which he was so familiar. + +As he thought of her it seemed to him that she was like a wild and +graceful deer--one of the deer which he had seen coming down to a +mountain stream to drink on his father's Scotch moor; hers was a wild, +almost savage loveliness--and yet not savage, for there had been the +refinement, the dignity of high race in the exquisite grey eyes, the +curve of the finely cut lips. Her manner, also, prevented him from +forgetting her. + +He had never met with anything like it, she had been as calm and +self-possessed as a woman of forty; and yet her attitude as she leant +forward in the saddle, her directness of speech, all her movements, had +the _abandon_ of an unconscious child; indeed, the absence of +self-consciousness, her absolute freedom from anything like shyness, +combined with a dignity, a touch of hauteur and pride, struck him as +extraordinary, almost weird. + +Stafford was not one of your susceptible young men; in fact, there was +a touch of coldness, of indifference to the other sex which often +troubled his women-friends; and he was rather surprised at himself for +the interest which the girl had aroused in him. He wondered if he +should meet her again, and was conscious of a strong, almost a very +strong, desire to do so which, he admitted to himself, was strange: for +he did not at that moment remember any girl whom, at his first meeting +with her, he had hankered to see again. + +He got to the top of the hill at last and began to drop down; there was +nothing but a wandering sheep-path here and there, and the mountain was +by no means as easy to descend as the classic Avernus; so that when he +got to the bottom and came in sight of the little inn nestling in a +crook of the valley he was both tired and hungry. Howard, beautiful in +evening-dress, came sauntering to the door with his long white hands in +his pocket and a plaintive reproach on his Vandyke face. + +"I was just about to send off the search party, my dear Stafford," he +said. "Is it possible that you have just come down that hill? Good +heavens! What follies are committed in thy name, O Sport! And of course +there are no fish--there never are! The water is always too thin or too +thick, the sky too bright or too dull, the wind too high or too low. +Excuses are the badge of all the angling tribe." + +Stafford took his basket from his shoulder and made a pretence of +slinging it at Howard's head; then tossed it to the landlord, who stood +by, smiling obsequiously. + +"Cook some of 'em as soon as you can," he said; then he followed the +neat and also smiling chamber-maid up to his room, where, for all his +pretended indolence and cynicism, Howard had caused his friend's things +to be laid out in readiness for him. Stafford dressed slowly, smoking a +cigarette during the operation, and still thinking of the strange +"farmer's daughter." And then he went down and joined Howard in the +room he had ordered. + +Lake hotels may lack the splendour to which we are all growing +accustomed, and of which, alas! we are also growing rather wearied, but +they are most of them extremely comfortable and cosy; and The Woodman +at Carysford was no exception to the rule. Stafford looked round the +low-pitched room, with its old-fashioned furniture, its white +dinner-cloth gleaming softly in the sunset and the fire-light, and +sighed with a nod of satisfaction. + +"This is something like, eh, old man?" he said; and even Howard deigned +to nod approvingly. + +"Yes," he said. "If anything could compensate one for the miseries of +travel, especially that awful drive, this should do so. I confess I had +looked forward to a crowning discomfort in the shape of a cold and +draughty and smelly room, fried chops or a gory leg of mutton and a +heel of the cheese made by Noah in the Ark. I fancy that we are going +to have a decent dinner; and I trust I may not be disappointed, for it +is about the only thing that will save my life. Are you dry yet? You +looked as if you had been walking through a river instead of beside +it." + +"That's just what I have been doing," said Stafford, with a laugh. +"I've had an adventure--" + +"I know," interrupted Howard, with a sigh. "You are going to tell me +how you hooked a trout six foot in length, how it dragged you a mile +and a half up the river, how you got it up to the bank, and how, just +as you were landing it, it broke away and was lost. Every man who has +been fishing has that adventure." + +Stafford laughed with his usual appreciation of his friend's amusing +cynicism; but he did not correct him; for at that moment, the neat +maid-servant brought in the trout, which proved to be piping hot and of +a golden-brown; and the two men commenced a dinner which, as compared +with the famous, or infamous one, of the London restaurant, was +Olympian. The landlord himself brought in a bottle of claret, which +actually was sound, and another of port, in a wicker cradle, which even +Howard deigned to approve of; and the two men, after they had lingered +over their dinner, got into easy-chairs beside the fire and smoked +their cigars with that sweet contentment which only tobacco can +produce, and only then when it follows a really good meal. + +"Do you know how long you are going to stay in your father's little +place?" Howard asked, after a long and dreary silence. + +Stafford shrugged his shoulders slightly. + +"'Pon my word, I don't know," he answered. "I'm like the school-boy: 'I +don't know nothink.' I suppose I shall stay as long as the governor +does; and, come to that, I suppose he doesn't know how long that will +be. I've got to regard him as a kind of stormy petrel; here to-day and +gone to-morrow, always on the wing, and never resting anywhere for any +time. I'm never surprised when I hear that, though his last letter was +dated Africa, he has flown back to Europe or has run over to +Australia." + +"Y-es," said Howard, musingly, "there is an atmosphere of mystery and +romance about your esteemed parent, Sir Stephen Orme, which smacks of +the Arabian Nights, my dear Stafford. Man of the world as I am, I must +confess that I regard him with a kind of wondering awe; and that I +follow his erratic movements very much as one would follow the +celestial progress of a particularly splendacious comet. He never +ceases to be an object of wonderment to me; and I love to read of his +gigantic projects, his vast wealth, his brilliant successes; and I tell +you frankly that I am looking forward to seeing him with a mixture of +fear and curiosity. Do not be surprised, if, at my introduction, I fall +on my hands and knees in Oriental abasement. I have admired him so much +and so long at a distance that he has assumed in my eyes an almost +regal, not to say imperial, importance." "I hope you will like him," +said Stafford, with a touch of that simplicity which all his friends +liked. + +"If he resembles his son, I am sure to do so," said Howard. "Indeed, in +any case I am pretty sure to do so. For how often have I read of his +wonderful charm of manner, his winning smile and brilliant +conversational powers? When do we get to this fairy palace?" + +"I suppose if we get there before dinner, it will be time enough," +replied Stafford. "By the way, I'd better ask how far it is. Don't +ring. I want to go up for some more cigars." + +He went up to his room, and in getting them from his bag, saw the +little instrument case which he had thrown into his bag when he was +changing. Back came the vision of the strange girl with the beautiful +face. + +He slipped the wallet in his pocket, and when he reached the hall he +turned to the open door of the little room which served as the +landlord's office, or bar-room. + +The landlord was enjoying a cigar and a glass of whiskey and water, and +he opened the door still wider and gave a respectful smile of welcome. + +"You have a very comfortable hotel here, Mr. Groves," said Stafford, by +way of opening the conversation. "We have had a capital dinner, and +have enjoyed it tremendously; was that '72 port you gave us?" + +"Yes, sir," replied Mr. Groves, much gratified. For you go straight to +a landlord's heart when you guess a good vintage and appreciate it. "I +am glad you like it, sir; there's more of it at your service. Will you +take a seat, sir, and may I offer you a glass of whiskey? It is as good +as the port, if I may say so." + +Stafford accepted, and presented his cigar case. He asked the distance +to the new house on the other side of the lake, and having been +informed, spoke of the fishing. + +"You did very well to-day, sir." said Mr. Groves. "You were fishing in +the Heron water, I suppose?" + +This was what Stafford wanted. + +"Yes," he said. "I was poaching. I mistook it for the Lesset water. I +must go over and apologise to Mr. Heron. By the way, I was told I was +poaching by a young lady who rode down to the stream while I was +fishing. I had some little conversation with her, but I did not learn +her name. She was a young lady with dark hair, rode a big horse, and +had a couple of dogs with her--a collie and a fox-terrier." The +landlord had nodded assentingly at each item of the description. + +"That must have been Miss Ida--Miss Heron, the squire's daughter, sir," +he said. + +Stafford's brows went up. + +"No wonder she stared at me," he said, almost to himself. "But are you +sure? The young lady I saw was not dressed, well--like a squire's +daughter, and she was looking after some sheep like--like a farmer's +girl." + +The landlord nodded again. + +"That was Miss Ida, right enough, sir," he said, with a touch of +respect, and something like pride in his tone. "Indeed, it couldn't be +anyone else. No doubt Miss Ida had come down to look after the sheep in +the valley; and there's no farmer's daughter in the vale that could do +it better, or half so well, as she. There isn't a girl in the county, +or, for that matter, a man, either, who can ride like Miss Ida, or +knows more about the points of a horse or a dog--yes, and you may say a +cow--than the squire's daughter. And as to her being poorly +dressed--well, there's a reason for that, sir. The family's poor--very +poor." + +"Yet the dale seems to be called after them?" Stafford remarked. + +"It is, sir!" assented the landlord. "At one time they owned more land +than any other of the big families here; miles and miles of it, with +some of the best farms. But that was before my time, though I've heard +my father tell of it; there's not very much left now beyond the dale +and the home meadows." He sighed as he spoke and looked sadly at the +costly cigar which he was smoking. The feudal spirit still exists in +the hearts of the men who were born in these remote dales and towering +hills, and the landlord of the little inn was as proud of the antiquity +of the Heron family, and as sorry for its broken fortune as any +_villein_ of the middle ages could have been for the misfortunes of his +feudal baron. + +"Heron Hall used to be a fine place at one time, sir. I can remember my +father describing what it was in his and his father's days; how there +used to be scores of servants, and as many as fifty horses in the +stables; with the great place filled with guests summer and winter, +spring and autumn. The Squire Heron of that time never rode behind less +than four horses, and once, when he was high sheriff, he rode to meet +the judges with six. It was open house to every poor man in the place, +and no wanderer was ever turned from the door. The squire of my +father's time was the county member, and the day he was elected there +were two hogsheads of port and two of brandy broached on the lawn in +front of the terrace; and for a week afterwards there was scarcely a +sober man in the town for miles round. He was master of the hounds, and +the hunt breakfasts and the hunt balls were more splendid than anything +else of that kind in the kingdom; in fact, people used to come from all +parts of the kingdom to attend them. Yes, the Herons made Herondale +famous, as you may say, sir." + +He paused and shook his head, and Stafford remained silent: he was too +wise to break in upon the narrative. The landlord sighed and looked +lovingly at his cigar, then went on: + +"They offered that squire--Miss Ida's grandfather--a peerage; the +Herons had often been offered a baronetcy; but they'd always refused, +and the squire declined the peerage. He said that no man could wish to +be higher than Heron, of Herondale; that better men than he had been +contented with it, and he was quite satisfied with the rank which had +satisfied his forefathers. When he died, the followers at the funeral +made a procession a mile and a quarter long." + +"How did the family lose its money, drop its greatness?" Stafford +asked. + +The landlord screwed up his eyes thoughtfully. + +"Well, it's hard to tell, sir," he replied. "Of course there was always +a tremendous drain going on; for it was not only down here that the +squire spent the money freely; but it was just the same or worse when +he was in London; he had a big house there, and entertained as +splendidly, perhaps more so, than he did at the Hall. In those days, +too, sir, there was as much gaming and betting as there is now, perhaps +more--though I'm told that great folks are more given nowadays to +gambling on the Stock Exchange than at cards or race-horses; begging +your pardon, sir!" + +"I'm afraid you're right," assented Stafford, with his short laugh. "I +prefer the old way myself." + +"Just so, sir," said the landlord, with an approving nod. "Well, what +with the money going here and there and everywhere, they found when the +present squire's father died that there was very little left; and worse +than all, that some of the land was sold, and what remained was heavily +mortgaged. It's what often happens to old families, sir, more's the +pity!" + +"Yes," said Stafford. "And is the present squire like his father?" + +"No, sir, not a bit," replied the landlord, with a thoughtful and +somewhat puzzled frown. "Quite the reverse. His father was free and +easy with everybody, and had a pleasant word and shake of the hand for +everyone he met; but the present squire was always shy and quiet as a +boy; kind of reserved and stand-offish, if you know what I mean, sir. +When he came into the property, he became more reserved than ever, +avoided all his father's old friends and shut himself up at the Hall +and kept himself to himself. He was a college gentleman and fond of +books, and he spent all his time alone in his library like a--a hermit. +He went abroad for a time, to Italy, they thought, and he came back +with a wife; but she didn't make things more lively, for she died soon +after Miss Ida was born. Miss Ida was the only child. She was sent away +for some time to be taken care of by one of the relatives, and she's +only been back for a couple of years." + +"Poor girl," said Stafford, involuntarily. + +"Well, yes, you may say that, sir," said the landlord, but doubtfully, +"though it don't seem as if Miss Ida was in need of much pity; she is +so bright and--and high-spirited, as you may say; though it's a wonder +she can be so, seeing the life she leads, alone in that great place +with her father, who never goes beyond the garden, and who shuts +himself up with his books all day. Yes, it's a wonder, when you come to +think of it, that she can smile and laugh and be as cheerful as she is. +I often hear her singing when she's riding through the dale or along +the road here. Miss Ida's wonderfully liked by all the people, sir; in +fact, you might say that they worship her." + +"I can understand it," said Stafford, almost to himself. + +"It must have been great change to her," continued the landlord, +"coming down here from London to such a wild, out-of-the-way place; +many young ladies would have lost heart and pined and fretted; but +she's a true Heron, is Miss Ida, and she faced the thing fairly and +buckled to, as you may say. She took the whole thing on her shoulders, +and though she couldn't coax the squire out of his shell, she takes +care of him and runs the whole place as if she were a man. Yes, sir, +though she's only a girl, as you saw yourself, she manages the house +and the farm as if she were a woman of forty. It's wonderful how she's +picked it up. I honestly believe there isn't a man in the place as +knows more about horses, as I said, than she does; but that's in the +blood, sir, and she can ride--well, you saw for yourself." + +"And has she no society, no amusements; doesn't she go out, have +friends, I mean?" + +The landlord shook his head. + +"No, sir; she just lives there with the squire, and they see no one, +receive no visits and pay none. You see, sir, the Herons are proud; +they're got cause to be, and I've heard it told that the squire is too +proud to let the old family friends see the poverty of the house, and +that he hates the new people who bought land and built houses in the +place--I'm sure I beg your pardon, sir--I was forgetting for the moment +that your father, Sir Stephen, had just built that beautiful place the +other side of the lake." + +Stafford smiled. + +"That's all right, Mr. Groves," he said. "I can quite understand Mr. +Heron thinking it confounded cheek of a stranger to come here and stick +up a great white place which no one can fail to see five miles off. I +suppose you think if I were to present myself at the Hall, I should get +a very cold reception, eh?" + +"I'm afraid you wouldn't get any reception at all, sir," replied +Groves, with respectful candour. "I am afraid neither Mr. Heron nor +Miss Ida would see you. The old butler would just say: 'Not at home,' +as he says to the county people when they try and call there, +especially if they knew who you were, sir. If I remember rightly, the +part of the land Sir Stephen bought belonged to the Herons." + +"I see," said Stafford. "It strikes me it is rather a sad story, Mr. +Groves; it's a case of the children paying for the sins of their +fathers." + +"That's it, sir," assented the landlord. "It takes ages to build up a +house and a family like the Herons; but one man can knock it down, so +to speak. It's hard lines for Miss Ida, who is as well-born as any of +the titled people in the county, and far better than most. They say +that she's been wonderful well educated, too; though, of course, she +hasn't seen anything of the world, having come straight from some small +place in foreign parts to be shut up in the dale. And it's quite out of +the world here, sir, especially in the winter when the snow lies so +thick that we're almost imprisoned. But wet or fine, hot or cold, Miss +Ida can always be seen riding or driving or walking; she's a regular +Westmoreland lass for that; no weather frights her." + +At this juncture Howard sauntered out of the sitting-room, and he and +Stafford went to the open door and looked out on the exquisite view +which was now bathed in the soft light of a newly risen moon. + +"It still has a smack of Drury Lane, hasn't it?" said Howard. "Strange +that whenever we see anything beautiful in the way of a landscape we at +once compare it with a stage 'set.' The fact of it is, my dear +Stafford, we have become absolutely artificial; we pretend to admire +Nature, but we are thinking of a theatre all the time; we throw up our +eyes ecstatically when we hear a nightingale, but we much prefer a +comic singer at the Tivoli. We talk sentiment, at feast, some of us, +but we have ceased to feel it; we don't really know what it means. I +believe some of the minor poets still write about what they call Love, +but in my private opinion the thing itself has become instinct. Who +knows anything about it? Take yourself, for instance; you've never been +in love, you've everything that you can desire, you're clad in purple +and fine linen, you fare sumptuously every day, you flirt six days in +the week, and rest not on the seventh--but love! You don't know what it +means; and if you do, you're far too wise in your generation to go in +for such an uncomfortable emotion." + +Stafford smiled rather absently; he was scarcely listening; he was so +accustomed to Howard's cynical diatribes that more often than not they +made no more impression on him than water on a duck's back. Besides, he +was thinking of Ida Heron, the girl whose strange history he had just +been listening to. + +There was silence for a minute or two, and while they stood leaning +against the door-way two men came out of another door in the inn and +stood talking. They were commercial travellers, and they were enjoying +their pipes--of extremely strong tobacco--after a hard day's work. +Presently one of them said: + +"Seen that place of Sir Stephen Orme's on the hill? Splendacious, isn't +it? Must have cost a small fortune. I wonder what the old man's game +is." + +The other man shook his head, and laughed. + +"Of course he's up to some game. He wouldn't lay out all that money for +nothing, millionaire as he is. He's always got something up his sleeve. +Perhaps he's going to entertain some big swell he wants to get into his +net, or some of the foreign princes he's hand-in-glove with. You never +know what Sir Stephen Orme's up to. Perhaps he's going to stand for the +county; if so, he's bound to get in. He always succeeds, or, if he +don't, you don't hear of his failures. He's the sort of man Disraeli +used to write about in his novels. One of the chaps who'd go through +fire and water to get their ends; yes, and blood too, if it's +necessary. There's been some queer stories told about him; they say he +sticks at nothing. Look at that last Turkish concession." + +The speaker and his companion sauntered down the road. Stafford and +Howard had heard every word; but Stafford looked straight before him, +and made no sign, and Howard yawned as if he had not heard a syllable. + + +"Do you raise any objection to my going to my little bed, Stafford?" he +asked. "I suppose, having done nothing more than clamber about a river, +get wet through, and tramp a dozen miles over hills, you do not feel +tired." + +"No," said Stafford, "I don't feel like turning in just yet. +Good-night, old man." + +When Howard had gone Stafford exchanged his dress-coat for a +shooting-jacket, and with the little wallet in his pocket and his pipe +in his mouth, he strode up the road. As he said, he did not feel +tired--it was difficult for Stafford, with his athletic frame and +perfect muscular system, to get tired under any circumstances--the +night was one of the loveliest he had ever seen, and it seemed wicked +to waste it by going to bed, so he walked on, all unconsciously going +in the direction of Heron Hall. The remarks about his father which had +fallen from the bagman, stuck to him for a time like a burr: it isn't +pleasant to hear your father described as a kind of charlatan and +trickster, and Stafford would have liked to have collared the man and +knocked an apology out of him; but there are certain disadvantages +attached to the position of gentlemen, and one of them is that you have +to pretend to be deaf to speeches that were not intended for your ears; +so Stafford could not bash the bagman for having spoken disrespectfully +of the great Sir Stephen Orme. + +But presently, almost suddenly, Stafford came in sight of the +magnificent iron gates, and he forgot his father and the talkative +commercial traveller, and his interest in the girl of the dale flashed +back upon him with full force. He saw that the gates were chained and +locked, and, with a natural curiosity, he followed the road beside the +wall. It stopped almost abruptly and gave place to a low railing which +divided the lawn in front of the house from the park beyond; and the +long irregular facade of the old building was suddenly revealed. + + +CHAPTER III. + +Stafford looked at it with admiration mingled with pity. In the light +of the story the landlord had told him he realised the full pathos of +its antique grandeur. It was not a ruin by any means: but it was grim +with the air of neglect, of desolation, of solitude. In two only, of +the many windows, was there any light; there was no sound of life about +the vast place; and the moonlight showed up with cruel distinctness the +ravages made in stone-work and wood-work by the clawlike hand of Time. +A capital of one of the pillars of the still handsome portico had +crumbled, several of the pillars were broken and askew; the great door +was blistered and cracked by the sun; evidently no paint had touched +the place for years. The stone balustrade of the broad terrace had +several gaps in it, and the coping and the pillars were lying where +they had fallen; the steps of the terrace had grass growing in the +interstices of the stones; one of the lions which had flanked the steps +had disappeared, and the remaining one was short of a front leg. The +grass on the lawn was long and unkempt, the flower beds weedy and +straggly, and the flowers themselves growing wild and untrained. + +But for the smoke which ascended from two or three of the many chimneys +the place might well have seemed deserted and uninhabited, and Stafford +with this feeling upon him stood and gazed at the place unrestrainedly. +It was difficult for him to realise that only a few hours ago he had +left London, that only last night he had dined at his club and gone to +the big Merrivale dance; it was as if he were standing in some scene of +the middle ages; he would not have been greatly surprised if the +grass-grown terrace had suddenly become crowded by old-world forms in +patches and powder, hoops and ruffles. + +"Good Lord, what would some of the people I know give to belong to--to +own this place!" he said to himself. "To think of that girl living +alone here with her father!" + +He was turning away when he heard a slight sound, the great door opened +slowly, and "that girl" came out on to the terrace. She stood for a +moment on the great marble door sill, then she crossed the terrace, and +leaning on the balustrade, looked dreamily at the moonlit view which +lay before her. She could not see Stafford's tall figure, which was +concealed by the shadow of one of the trees; and she thought herself +alone, as usual. Her solitude did not sadden her, she was accustomed to +it; and presently, as if moved by the exquisite beauty of the night, +her lips parted and she half sang, half hummed the jewel song from +"Faust." She had looked beautiful enough in her old riding-habit and +hat, but she seemed a vision of loveliness as she stood in the +moonlight with the old house for a background. There was something +bewitchingly virginal in the rapt and dreamy face with its dark eyes +and long lashes, in the soft, delicately cut lips, the pure ivory +pallor; at the same time something equally bewitching in the modernness +of her dress, which was of soft cream cashmere, made rather long and in +accord with the present fashion; she had placed a rose in the bosom of +her dress and it stood out redly, richly from the soft cream. Her hair +was no longer rough and touzled by the wind, but brushed in rippling +smoothness and coiled in dainty neatness in the nape of her graceful +neck. No wonder Stafford caught his breath, held it, as it were, as he +gazed at the exquisite picture, which formed so striking a contrast to +her surroundings. + +She leant her chin on her hand and looked before her as she sung +softly; and at that moment her thoughts strayed from the question of +what she should do to keep the cows from the lawn, to the young man who +had rescued her lamb for her. She did not think of him with anything +like interest or curiosity, but she was recalling the ludicrous picture +he made as he struggled to the bank with the lamb in his arms, and a +faint smile crossed her face. At this moment Donald and Bess strolled +out to join her. They would much have preferred to have remained +roasting themselves in front of the Hall fire, but, ridiculous as it +was for their mistress to leave the warm house for the comparatively +cold terrace, they felt themselves in duty bound to join her. +Perhaps they might catch sight of a rabbit to repay them for +their exertions. Donald walked with stately steps toward his +mistress, and Bess was following, with a shiver of reluctance +and a backward glance towards the fire-light which shone through +the open door, when suddenly she sniffed the presence of a +stranger, and, with a sharp yap, hurled herself down the broad steps +and towards the spot where Stafford still stood. Donald, with a loud +bay, followed with his long stride, and Ida, startled from her reverie, +followed as far as the top of the steps, and waited. + +"I might have expected the faithful watch-dog," said Stafford to +himself. "Now, what on earth am I to do? I suppose they'll spring on +me--the collie, at any rate. It's no use running; I've got to stop and +face it. What a confounded nuisance! But it serves me right. +I've no business to be loafing about the place." + +As the dogs came up, he put on that air of conciliation which we all +know, and murmuring "Good dog! All right, old chap!" tried to pacify +Donald and Bess. But they were not accustomed to intruders, especially +at that time of night, and they were legitimately furious. Dancing +round him, and displaying dazzling teeth threateningly, they drew +nearer and nearer, and they would certainly have sprung upon him; but +the girl came, not running, but quickly, down the steps and straight +across the dewy grass towards them, calling to the dogs as she came in +her clear, low voice, which had not a trace of fear in it. Their loud +barking changed to sullen growls as she approached; and, motioning them +to be still, she stopped and gazed at Stafford, who stepped out into +the moonlight. + +She said not a word, but, as she recognised him, a faint colour came +into the ivory pallor of her cheek and an expression of surprise in the +dark, fearless eyes. + +Stafford raised his cap. + +"I am very sorry!" he said. "I am afraid you must think me a great +nuisance; this is the second time I have been guilty of trespass." + +She was silent for a moment, not with shyness, but as if she were +noticing the change in his dress, and wondering how he came to be in +evening-clothes, and where he had come from. The expression was one of +simple girlish curiosity, which softened in a delicious way the general +pride and hauteur of her face. + +"You are not trespassing," she said, and the voice sounded very sweet +and musical after the din of the dogs. "There is public right of way +along this road." + +"I am immensely relieved," said Stafford. "It looks so unfrequented, +that I was afraid it was private, and that I had made another blunder; +all the same, I am very sorry that I should have disturbed you and made +the dogs kick up such a row. I would have gone on or gone back if I had +known you were coming out; but the place looked so quiet--" + +"It does not matter," she said; "they bark at the slightest noise, and +we are used to it. The place is so quiet because only my father and I +live here, and there are only a few servants, and the place is so big." + +All this was said not repiningly, but softly and a little dreamily. By +this time Donald and Bess had recovered their tempers, and after a +close inspection of the intruder had come to the conclusion that he was +of the right sort, and Donald was sitting close on his launches beside +Stafford, and thrusting his nose against Stafford's hand invitingly. +The girl's beauty seemed to Stafford almost bewildering, and yet softly +and sweetly a part of the beauty of the night; he was conscious of a +fear, that was actually a dread, that she would bow, call the dogs and +leave him; so, before she could do so, he made haste to say: + +"Now I am here, will you allow me to apologise for my trespass of this +afternoon?" + +She inclined her head slightly. + +"It does not matter," she said; "you were very kind in helping me with +the lamb; and I ought to have told you that my father would be very +glad if you would fish in the Heron; you will find some better trout +higher up the valley." + +"Thank you very much," said Stafford. + +Calling the dogs, she turned away; then, fortunately, Stafford +remembered the case of instruments. + +"Oh, I beg your pardon!" he said; "I forgot this wallet. I found it by +the stream after you had gone." + +"Oh, my wallet!" she cried. "I am so glad you have found it. I don't +know what I should have done if you had not; I should have had to send +to Preston or to London; and, besides, it was a present from the old +veterinary surgeon; he left it to me. There were some beautiful +instruments in it." + +Still smiling, she opened it, as if to show him. Stafford drew near, so +near as to become conscious of the perfume of the rose in her bosom, of +the still fainter but more exquisite perfume of her hair. He bent over +the case in silence, and while they were looking a cloud sailed across +the moon. + +The sudden disappearance of the light roused her, as it were, to a +sense of his presence. + +"Thank you for bringing it to me," she said; "it was very good of you." + +"Oh, I hadn't to bring it far," said Stafford. "I am staying at The +Woodman Inn, at Carysford." + +"Oh," she said; "you are a tourist--you are fishing?" + +Stafford could not bring himself to say that he was the son of the man +who had built the great white house, which, no doubt, her father and +she resented. + +"You have a very beautiful place here," he said, after a pause. + +She turned and looked at the house in the dim light, with a touch of +pride in her dreamy eyes. + +"Yes," she said, as if it were useless to deny the fact. + +"It is very old, and I am very fond--" + +She stopped suddenly, her lips apart, her eyes fixed on the farther end +of the terrace; for while she had been speaking a figure, only just +perceptible in the semi-darkness, had moved slowly across the end of +the terrace, paused for a moment at the head of the flight of steps, +and then slowly descended. + +Stafford also saw it, and glancing at her he saw that she was startled, +if not frightened. She scarcely seemed to breathe, and she turned her +large, dark eyes upon him questioningly, somewhat appealingly. + +"What is that?" she said, in a whisper, more to herself than to him. + +"Someone--a man has gone down the steps from the house," he said. +"Don't you know who it is?" + +"No," she replied in as low a voice. "It is not Jason--there is no one +else--who can it be? I will go and see." + +She moved towards the terrace, and Stafford said: + +"I will come with you; you will let me?" + +She did not refuse; indeed, she appeared to have forgotten his +presence: together they crossed the lawn and reached the corner of the +house near which the figure had disappeared. It struck Stafford as +strange that the dogs did not bark. In profound silence they went in +the direction the figure had taken, and Stafford presently saw a ruined +building, which had evidently been a chapel. As they approached it the +figure came out of it and towards them. As it passed them, so close +that they instinctively drew back, Stafford saw that it was an old man +in a dressing-gown; his head was bare, his hair touched the collar of +the gown. His eyes were wide open, and gazing straight in front of him. + +Stafford was about to step forward and arrest his progress, when +suddenly the girl's hand seized his and gripped it. + +"Hush!" she whispered, with subdued terror. "It is my father. He--yes, +he is asleep! Oh, see, he is asleep! He will fall--hurt himself--" + +She, in her turn, was about to spring forward, but Stafford caught her +arm. + +"No, no, you must not!" he said, in a hurried whisper. "I think it +would be dangerous. I think he is all right if you let him alone. He is +walking in his sleep. Don't speak--don't cry out." + +"No, no," she breathed. "But it is dreadful." + +Instinctively, unconsciously, she drew closer to Stafford, almost clung +to him, watching her father over her shoulder until the figure, with +its ghastly, mechanical movement and vacant stare, had passed into the +house; then, with a long breath, and with her hands clasping her +throat, as if she were stifling, she broke from Stafford and sprang +quickly and noiselessly up the steps and disappeared also. Wondering +whether he was awake or dreaming, Stafford waited for over an hour to +see if she would appear again; and he was turning away at last, when +her figure appeared in the open door-way, like that of a wraith. She +waved her hand to him, then disappeared, and the door closed. + +Still asking himself if he were not in a land of dreams, but tingling +with the touch of her small hand, with the haunting perfume of the soft +black hair, Stafford gained the road and walked towards the inn. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +Ida had followed her father across the terrace, across the hall, lit +weirdly by the glow of the sinking fire and the pale moonlight, up the +broad stairs, along the corridor to the open door of his room. He had +walked slowly but steadily with his usual gait, and his head bent +slightly; though his eyes were wide open, he seemed to see nothing, yet +he did not stumble or even hesitate. Ida followed behind him with +absolute noiselessness. They were both ghostlike in their movements, +and the dogs stood and watched them intently, ears erect, and with that +gravity in their eyes which dogs wear when they are puzzled. + +The old man closed his door softly, still without any hesitation, and +Ida, grasping the broad rail of the staircase, waited breathlessly. She +heard him moving about, as leisurely and precisely as before; then all +was still. She stole to the door and opened it; the light was streaming +into the room and fell athwart the bed in which he was lying, his eyes +closed, his face calm and peaceful; she went on tiptoe to the bed and +bent over him, and found that he was in a deep, profound sleep. With a +long breath of relief, she left him, and sat on the stairs and waited; +for it was just possible that he might rise again and resume the +dreadful walk--that motion of death in life. + +She waited for an hour, so absorbed in her anxiety that she did not +remember the man she had left outside. After another quarter of an hour +she went to her father's room, and found that he was still sleeping. +Then she remembered Stafford, remembered him with a start of discomfort +and embarrassment. Was he waiting there still? She went down-stairs, +and from the open door-way she saw dimly his figure under the trees. +There was something in the attitude of the erect figure that reminded +her of a soldier on guard, a sentinel standing faithful at his post; +and when she had waved her hand in dismissal she did not quite close +the door, but watched him through the narrow opening as he paced slowly +down the road, looking back at the house now and again as if to see if +she wanted him. + +Then she closed the door, signed to the dogs to be down before the +fire, and went up to her room, after pausing beside her father's door +and listening to his regular breathing. Her room was a large +one--nearly all the rooms in the place were large; and as she undressed +herself slowly she looked round it with a novel sense of loneliness. +The tall shadows of her graceful yet girlish figure were cast +grotesquely on the wall by the candles beside her glass. She had never +felt lonely before, though her life ever since she had arrived at the +Hall might be called one almost of solitude. + +She had been so absorbed in the duties which had so suddenly fallen +upon her young shoulders that there had been no time in which to feel +the want of companionship. There had always been something to think of, +something to do; her father demanded so much attention; the house, the +land, the farm--she had to look after them all; there had not been time +to think even of herself; and it had never occurred to her that she was +leading a life so different to that led by most girls. But to-night the +silence of the great house, large enough to hold fifty people, but +sheltering only five persons--her father and herself and the three +servants--weighed upon her. + +That sense of loneliness had come upon her suddenly as she had watched +the young man's retreating figure. She could not help thinking of him +even when her mind was oppressed with anxiety on her father's account. +In a vague way she remembered how kind this stranger had been; how +quietly, and with what an air of protection, he had stood by her and +restrained her from crying out and alarming her father. As vaguely, she +remembered that in the moment of her terror she had clung to him, had +forgotten under the great strain that he was a stranger--and a man. +Even now she did not know his name, knew nothing of him except that he +was staying at The Woodman Inn. + +Kind and considerate as he had been she thought of him with something +like resentment; it was as if he had stepped into her life, had +intruded upon its quiet uneventfulness. He had no right to be there, no +right, to have seen her father in that terrible condition, that death +in life. And she had behaved like a frightened servant-maid; had not +only clung to him--had she clung to him, or was it only fancy?--but had +left him without a word of thanks, had allowed him to wait there, and +then had waved her hand to him just as she had seen Jessie, the maid, +wave her hand to her "young man" after they had parted, and she was +going into the house. + +She bit her lip softly and a faint flush rose to the clear pallor of +the lovely, girlish face reflected in the glass. Yes, she had behaved +just like a servant-maid, she who in her heart of hearts knew that she +prided herself upon her dignity and the good manners which should +belong to a Heron of Herondale. It was characteristic of her that while +she thought of his conduct and what she considered her bad behaviour, +she gave no thought to the fact that the stranger who had so "intruded" +was singularly handsome and possessed of that strange quality which at +once impresses women. Most girls would have remembered the fact, but +Ida was different to the general run of her sex. She had been brought +up in an out-of-the-way place in which the modern novel, the +fashionable pastime of flirtation, were not known; and her secluded +life in the lonely dale had deepened that sense of aloofness from the +world, that indifference to the sentiment which lurks in most girls' +bosoms. This tall, handsome man who had stepped into her life and +shared the secret of her father's strange affliction, weakness, was +nothing more to her than one of the other tourists whom she sometimes +chanced to see on her lonely rides and walks. + +When she had undressed she went again to her father's door and listened +to his deep and regular breathing; then, at last, she went to bed; but +the sense of loneliness was so intense that she lay awake for hours +thinking of that bent figure walking in its sleep from the shadows of +the ruined chapel. For the future she would have to watch her father +closely, would perhaps have to lock the door of his room. Why had he +gone to the chapel? So far as she knew he was not in the habit of going +there; indeed, she did not remember having seen him go there in his +waking moments. She knew nothing of somnambulism; but she imagined that +he had gone in that direction by mere chance, that if he had happened +to find any impediment in his way he might as easily have gone in +another direction. + +She fell asleep at last and slept an hour beyond her usual time, and so +deeply that Jessie had filled the cold bath without waking her beloved +young mistress. Ida dressed quickly, all the incidents of the preceding +night rushing through her mind, and hurried to her father's room; the +door was open, the room empty, and, with a sudden fear, she ran down +the stairs and found him in his usual seat in the library. She drew a +long breath and went and kissed him, wishing him good-morning as +casually as she could. + +"You are up early this morning, father," she said, trying to keep her +tone free from any anxiety. + +He glanced at the clock calmly. + +"No, you are later," he said. + +His eyes met hers with their usual expression of absentminded serenity. + +"I--I was a little tired and overslept myself," she said. "Are--are you +quite well this morning, father?" + +"Yes, quite well. Why not?" he replied, with slight surprise. + +She drew a breath of relief: it was quite evident that he knew nothing +of that weird walk, and that it had not affected him injuriously. + +"Nothing," she said, forcing a smile. + +As she spoke, Jason, in his in-door livery, which, in some strange way, +looked as if it had shrunken with the figure which had worn it so +long, came to the door, and in his husky voice said that breakfast was +ready; and Ida, taking her father's arm, led him into the dining-room +in which all their meals were served. + +As she went to her place she glanced through the window, from which she +could see the steps at the corner of the terrace and a small part of +the ruined chapel, and she shuddered. + +When she had poured out her father's coffee, she took it round to him +and let her hand rest on his shoulder lovingly; but Jason had brought +in the post-bag and Mr. Heron was unlocking it and taking out the few +letters and papers, and seemed unconscious of the little anxious +caress. + +"Are there any for me, father?" she asked, lingering beside him, and +she stretched out her hand to turn the envelopes on their right side; +but he stopped her quickly and swept them together, covering them with +his long hand--the shapely Heron hand. + +"No, no," he said, almost sharply; "they are all for me; they are +business letters, booksellers' catalogues, sale catalogues--nothing of +importance." + +She went back to her place and he waited until she had done so before +he began to open the letters. He merely glanced at some of them, but +presently he came to one which, after a sharp, quick look at her, he +read attentively; then he returned it to its envelope and, with a +secretive movement, slipped it into the pocket of his dressing-gown. +"Yes, nothing but catalogues and bills; you'd better take them, Ida; +the bills, at any rate." + +And he threw them across to her. + +When she had first come home to be mistress of the Hall the bills had +overwhelmed her; they had been so many and the money to meet them had +been so inadequate; but she had soon learnt how to "finance" them, and +come to know which account must be paid at once, and which might be +allowed to stand over. + +She took them now and glanced at them, and the old man watched her +covertly, with a curious expression on his face. + +"I'm sure I don't know how you will pay them," he said, as if she alone +were responsible. + +"I can't pay all of them at once," she replied, cheerfully. "But I can +some, and the rest must wait. I can send four--perhaps five--of the +steers to the monthly market, and then there are the sheep--Oh, father, +I did not tell; you about the gentleman I saw fishing in the dale--" + +She stopped, for she saw that he was not listening. He had opened a +local paper and was reading it intently, and presently he looked up +with an eager flush on his face and a sudden lightening of the dull +eyes. + +"Have you seen this--this house--they call it a palace--which that man +has built on the lake side?" he asked, his thin voice quavering with +resentment. + +"Do you mean the big white house by Brae Wood?" + +"Yes. Judging by the description of it here, it must be a kind of +gim-crack villa like those one sees in Italy, built by men resembling +this--this _parvenu_." + +"It is a large place," said Ida; "but I don't think it is gim-crack, +father. It looks very solid though it is white and, yes, Continental. +It is something between a tremendous villa and a palace. Why are you so +angry? I know you don't like to have new houses built in Bryndermere; +but this is some distance from us--we cannot see it from here, or from +any part of the grounds, excepting the piece by the lake." + +"It is built on our land," he said, more quietly, but with the flush +still on his face, the angry light in his eyes. "It was bought by +fraud, obtained under false pretences. I sold it to one of the farmers, +thinking he wanted it and would only use it for grazing. I did not know +until the deeds were signed that he was only the jackal for this other +man." + +"What other man, father?" + +"This Stephen Orme. He's _Sir_ Stephen Orme now. They knighted him. +They knight every successful tradesman and schemer; and this man is a +prince of his tribe; a low-born adventurer, a _parvenu_ of the worst +type." + +"I think I have read something about him in the newspapers," said Ida, +thoughtfully. + +Mr. Heron emitted a low snarl. + +"No doubt; he is one whom the world delights to honour; it bows before +the successful charlatan, and cringes to his ill-gotten wealth. I'm +told that such a man is received, yes, and welcomed by society. +Society! The word is a misnomer. In my time a man of that class was +kept at arm's-length, was relegated to his proper place--the back hall; +but now"--he gazed angrily at the paper--"here is a whole column +describing Sir Stephen Orme's new 'palatial villa,' and giving an +account of his achievements, the success of his great undertakings. And +this man has chosen to build his eyesore on Heron lands, within sight +of the house which--which he would not have been permitted to enter. If +I had known, I would not have sold the land." + +"But you wanted the money, father," she said, gently. + +He looked at her swiftly, and a change came over his face, a look of +caution, almost of cunning. + +"Eh? Yes, yes, of course I wanted it. But he knew I should not have +sold it for building on; that is why he got Bowden, the farmer, to buy +it. It was like him: only such a man can be capable of such an +underhand act. And now I suppose he will be welcomed by his neighbours, +and the Vaynes and the Bannerdales, and made much of. They'll eat his +dinners, and their women will go to his balls and concerts--they whose +fathers would have refused to sit at the same table with him. But there +is one house at which he will not be welcome; one man who will not +acknowledge him, who will not cross the threshold of Sir Stephen Orme's +brand-new palace, or invite him to enter his own. He shall not darken +the doors of Heron Hall." + +He rose as he spoke and left the room with a quicker step than usual. +But half an hour later when Ida went into the library she found him +absorbed in his books as usual, and he only glanced up at her with +absent, unseeing eyes, as she stood beside him putting on her gloves, +her habit skirt caught up under her elbow, the old felt hat just a +little askew on the soft, silky hair. + +"Do you want anything before I go out, father?" she asked. + +"No, no!" he replied abstractedly, and bending over his book again as +he answered. Ida crossed the hall in the sunlight, which lit up her +beauty and made it seem a more striking contrast than usual to the dull +and grim surroundings of the dark oak, the faded hangings and the +lack-lustre armour, and Donald and Bess bounded, barking, before her +down the terrace at which Jason was holding the big chestnut. The horse +pricked up its ears and turned its head for her morning caress, the +touch of the small, soft, but firm hand which it had come to regard as +its due, and Ida sprang lightly from the last step into the saddle. It +was an informal way of mounting which few girls could have accomplished +gracefully; but Ida did it as naturally and as easily as a circus +rider, for the trick was a necessity to her who had so often to +dismount and mount alone. + +The lovely face was rather grave and thoughtful for some time after she +had started, for the remembrance of last night weighed upon her, and +her father's unusual display of anger at breakfast troubled her +vaguely; but, presently, after she had cleared a hedge and one of the +broken rails, her spirits rose: the sky was so blue, the sun so bright; +it was hard to be depressed on such a morning. + +She rode to a distant part of the dale where, in a rough meadow the +steers were grazing; she surveyed them critically, chose those that +should go to market, then turned, and leaping a bank, gained an +ill-kept road. A little farther on she came to an opening on the verge +of the lake, and she pulled up, arrested by the great white house on +the other side, which was literally glittering in the brilliant +sunlight. It certainly did not detract from the beauty of the view; in +fact, it made the English lake look, for the moment, like an Italian +one. + +She regarded it thoughtfully for a moment, then returned to the road, +and as she did so she saw a tall figure coming towards her. + +For an instant the colour rose to her face, but for an instant only, +and before Stafford had reached her, she was as pale, as calm as usual. +She noticed that he was dressed in a serge suit, noticed vaguely how +well it sat upon him, that his gait had a peculiar ease and grace which +the men of the dale lacked, that his handsome face flushed lightly as +he saw her; but she gave no sign of these quick apprehensions, and sat +cold and sphinx-like waiting for him. + +Strafford's heart leapt at sight of her with a sudden pleasure which +puzzled him; for he would not have admitted to himself that he had +walked in this direction in the hope, on the chance, of meeting her. + +"Good-morning," he said, in his direct fashion, raising his cap. "I am +very fortunate to meet you. I hope Mr. Heron is no worse for--is not +ill?" + +"No," she said in her low, clear voice. "My father is quite well; he is +just as he usually is this morning." + +"I am very glad," said Stafford. He stood close beside the horse and +looked up at her; and for the first time in his life he was trying to +keep the expression of admiration out of his eyes; the expression which +he knew most women welcomed, but which, somehow or other, he felt this +strange girl would resent. "I was afraid he would be upset. I am afraid +you were frightened last night--it was enough to alarm, to startle +anyone. What a splendid morning!" he went on, quickly, as if he did not +want to remind her of the affair. "What a libel it is to say that it is +always raining here! I've never seen so brilliant a sunshine or such +colours: don't wonder that the artists rave about the place and are +never tired of painting it." + +She waited until he had finished, her eyes downcast, as if she knew why +he had turned from the subject, then she raised them and looked at him +with her direct gaze. + +"I am glad I have met you," she said. "I wanted to thank you for your +kindness last night--" + +"Oh, but--" Stafford tried to break in, but she went on slowly, as if +he had not spoken. + +--"I was--frightened: it was sudden, so unexpected. My father had never +done it before--that I know of--and he looked"--her voice broke for a +moment--"so strange, so ghost-like. I thought at first that it was the +Heron ghost which, they say, haunts the dale, though I have never seen +it." + +A faint smile curved her lips and shone in her eyes, and Stafford was +so fascinated by the sudden gleam of girlishness that he had to bend +and pat Bess, who was planting dusty impression on his trousers in her +frantic efforts to gain his attention. + +"I did nothing; in fact, as I walked away I was fuming because I +couldn't help you--couldn't do more." + +"You did help me," she said, gravely; then she looked across the lake +to Sir Stephen's "little place." "I was admiring that new house. Don't +you think it is very beautiful, rising so white and gracefully above +the lake?" + +"Ye-es," said Stafford, "Rather--conspicuous, though, isn't it?" + +She laughed suddenly, and Stafford asked, with surprise: "Why did you +laugh?" + +"Oh, I was thinking of my father," she said, with a delicious +frankness; "he was quite angry about it this morning. It seems that it +is built on our land--or what was ours--and he dislikes the idea of +anyone building at Bryndermere." + +"So should I," said Stafford, laconically. + +"And besides," she went on, her eyes fixed on the great white building, +so that she did not see his embarrassment, "my father does not like the +man who built it. He thinks that he got the land unfairly; and he--my +father--calls him all sorts of hard names." + +Stafford bit his lips, and his face wore the expression which came into +it when he was facing an ugly jump. He would have shirked this one if +he could, but it had to be faced, so he rushed it. + +"I'm sorry," he said. "My father built it." + +She did not start, but she turned her head and looked at him, with a +sudden coldness in the glorious eyes. + +"Your father--Sir Stephen Orme? Then you are--" + +"I am his son, yes; my name is Stafford Orme." + +She gathered her reins up, as if no comment, no remark were necessary, +but Stafford could not let her go, could not part from her like that. + +"I'm sorry to hear that Mr. Heron has some cause of complaint, some +grievance against my father. I can understand his not liking the house; +to tell you the truth, I don't care for it much myself. Yes; I can +understand Mr. Heron's annoyance; I suppose he can see it from your +house?" + +"No," she said, simply. "This is the only part of our land from which +it can be seen, and my father never comes here: never leaves the +grounds, the garden." She paused a moment. "I don't know why you should +mind--except that I said that the land was got unfairly--I wish I had +not said that." + +Stafford coloured. + +"So do I," he said; "but I hope it isn't true. There may be some +mistake. I don't know anything about my father's affairs--I haven't +seen him for years; I am almost a stranger to him." + +She listened with a grave face, then she touched the big chestnut; but +Stafford, almost unconsciously, laid his hand on the rein nearest him. +His mouth and chin expressed the determination which now and again +surprised even his most intimate friends. + +"Miss Heron, I'm afraid--" He paused, and she waited, her eyes downcast +and fixed on the horse's ears. + +"I scarcely know how to put what I want to say," he said. "I'm rather +bad at explaining myself; but I--well, I hope you won't feel angry with +me because of the house, because of anything that has passed between +your father and mine--Of course I stand by him; but--well, _I_ didn't +build the confounded place--I beg your pardon! but I think it's rather +hard that you should cut me--oh, I can see by your face that you mean +to do it!--that you should regard me as a kind of enemy because--" + +The usually fluent Stafford stopped helplessly as the beautiful eyes +turned slowly upon him with a slight look of wonder in them. + +"Why should you mind?" she said, with almost childish innocence. "You +do not know me; we only met yesterday--we are not friends--Oh I am not +forgetting your kindness last night; oh, no!--but what can it matter to +you?" + +In another woman Stafford would have suspected the question of +coquetry, of a desire to fish for the inevitable response; but looking +in those clear, guileless eyes, he could not entertain any such +suspicion. + +"I beg your pardon; but it does matter very much," he retorted. "In the +first place, a man does not like being cut by a lady; and in the next, +we shall be neighbours--I'm going to stay there--" he nodded grimly at +the beautiful "little place." + +"Neighbours?" she said, half absently. "It is farther off than you +think; and, besides, we know no one. We have no neighbours in that +sense--or friends. My father does not like to see anyone; we live quite +alone--" + +"So I've heard--" He stopped and bit his lip; but she did not seem to +have noticed his interruption. + +--"So that even if my father did not object to the house or--or--" + +"My father," said Stafford with a smile. + +A smile answered his candour. + +"It would be all the same. And why should it matter to you? You have a +great many friends, no doubt--and we should not be likely to meet." + +"Oh, yes, we should!" he said, with the dogged kind of insistence which +also sometimes surprised his friends. "I was going to avail myself of +your permission, and fish the stream--but, of course, I can't do that +now." + +"No--I suppose not," she assented. "But we should be sure to meet on +the road--I should be riding--walking." + +"But not on this side often," she argued. + +A faint, very faint colour had stolen into the clear pallor of her +cheek, her eyes were downcast. She was honestly surprised, and, yes, a +little pleased that he should protest against the close of their +acquaintance; pleased, though why, she could not have told; for it did +not seem to matter. + +"Oh, yes, I should," he retorted. "It's very pretty this side, and--See +here, Miss Heron." He drew a little nearer and looked up at her with +something like a frown in his eagerness. "Of course I shall speak to my +father about--well, about the way the land was bought, and I'm hoping, +I'm sure, that he will be able to explain it satisfactorily; and I want +to tell you that it is a mistake. I don't know much of my father, but I +can't believe that he would do anything underhand." He stopped suddenly +as the bagman's remarks flashed across his memory. "If your father's +grievance against him is just, why--ah, well, you'll have to cut me +when we meet; but I don't think it is; and I don't think it would be +fair to treat me as if _I_'d done something wrong." + +Her brows came together, and she looked at him as if she were puzzled. + +"I don't know why it matters," she said. + +"Well, I can't tell you," he said, helplessly. "I only know that I +don't want to part from you this morning, knowing that the next time we +meet we should meet as strangers. I wanted to come to the Hall, to +enquire after Mr. Heron." + +Her face flushed. + +"Do not," she said in a low voice. + +"I won't, of course," he responded, quickly. "It would only make +matters worse; your father would naturally dislike me, refuse to see +me; but--well, it's very hard on me." + +She looked at him again, gravely, thoughtfully, as if she were still +puzzled by his persistence. Her eyes wandered to the dogs. Bess was +still standing up against him, and Donald had thrown himself down +beside him, and was regarding Ida with an air that said, quite plainly, +"This new friend of yours is all right." + +"You have made friends with the dogs," she said, with a slight smile. + +Stafford laughed. + +"Oh, yes. There must be some good in dumb animals, for most of 'em take +to me at first sight." + +She laughed at this not very brilliant display of wit. "I assure you +they wouldn't cut me next time we met. You can't be less charitable +than the dogs, Miss Heron!" + +She gave a slight shrug to her straight, square shoulders. The gesture +seemed charming to Stafford, in its girlish Frenchiness. + +"Ah, well," she said, with a pretty air of resignation, as if she were +tired of arguing. + +Stafford's face lit up, and he laughed--the laugh of the man who wins; +but it died away rather suddenly, as she said gravely: + +"But I do not think we shall meet often. I do not often go to the other +side of the lake: very seldom indeed; and you will not, you say, fish +the Heron; so that--Oh, there is the colt loose," she broke off. "How +can it have got out? I meant to ride it to-day, and Jason, thinking I +had changed my mind, must have turned it out." + +The colt came waltzing joyously along the road, and catching sight of +the chestnut, whinnied delightedly, and the chestnut responded with one +short whinny of reproof. Ida rode forward and headed the colt, and +Stafford quietly slid along by the hedge and got behind it. + +"Take care!" said Ida; "it is very strong. What are you going to do?" + +Stafford did not reply, but stole up to the truant step by step +cautiously, and gradually approached near enough to lay his hand on its +shoulder; from its shoulder he worked to its neck and wound his arms +round it. + +Ida laughed. + +"Oh, you can't hold it!" she said as the colt plunged. + +But Stafford hung on tightly and yet, so to speak, gently, soothing the +animal with the "horse language" with which every man who loves them is +acquainted. + +Ida sat for an instant, looking round with a puzzled frown; then she +slipped down, took the bridle off the chestnut and slipped it on the +colt, the chestnut, who evidently understood the business, standing +stock still. + +"Now I'll hold it--it will be quieter with me--if you will please +change the saddle." + +Unthinkingly, Stafford obeyed, and got the saddle on the jigging and +dancing youngster. As unthinkingly, he put Ida up; and it was not until +the colt rose on its hind legs that he remembered to ask her if the +horse were broken. + +"Scarcely," she said with a laugh; "but it will be all right. +Good-morning--and thank you!" And calling to the chestnut she turned +the colt and tore off, the chestnut and the dogs scampering after her. + +Stafford's face grew hot for a moment with fear for her, then it grew +hotter with admiration as he watched her skimming across the moor in +the direction of the Hall. Once, just before she vanished from his +sight, she turned and waved her hand to him as if to assure him that +she was safe. The gesture reminded him of the white figure standing in +the doorway last night, and something stirred in his heart and sent a +warm thrill through him. In all his life he had never seen anyone like +her! + + +CHAPTER V. + +"You look rather serious, oh, my prince!" said Howard, as, some few +hours later, he leisurely climbed into the phaeton beside Stafford. "I +have noticed with inward satisfaction that as we approach the moment of +meeting with your puissant parent, the Sultan, an air of gravity and +soberness has clouded that confoundedly careless, devil-may-care +countenance of yours. I say with inward satisfaction, because, with my +usual candour, I don't mind admitting that I am shivering in my shoes. +The shadow of the august presence is already falling on me, and as the +hour draws near I feel my littleness, my utter insignificance, with an +acuteness which almost compels me to ask you to let me get down and +make my way back to London as best I can." + +"Don't be an ass," retorted Stafford, rather absently. + +"You ask an impossibility of me, my dear fellow; but I will try and +conceal my asininity as best I can. May I ask, to change the subject, +where you were wandering all the morning?" + +Stafford coloured slightly and bestowed minute attention to the off +horse. + +"Oh, just prowling round," he replied, leisurely. + +"You tempt me to finish the quotation. Did you find anyone to devour? +Apropos, has his majesty, the Sultan, ever mentioned matrimony to you, +Staff?" + +Stafford looked round at him for an instant. + +"No," he said, curtly. "What the devil made you ask?" + +"Merely my incessant speculation as to your future, my dear fellow," +replied Howard, blandly. "Most fathers are ambitious for their sons, +and I should imagine that Sir Stephen would be extremely so. When a man +is simply a plain 'Mr.,' he longs for the 'Sir;' when he gets the +'Sir,' he wants the 'my Lord' for himself, or for his son and heir. +That is the worst of ambition: you can't satisfy it. I have no doubt in +my mind that at this very moment Sir Stephen is making for a peerage +for himself--or you. He can possibly gain his; but you, having no +brains to speak of--the fact that good-looking men are always deficient +in that respect is a continual and blessed consolation to us plain +ones, Staff--will have to make what the world calls a 'good marriage.' +Doubtless your father already has the future bride in his eye; the +daughter of a peer--high in the government, perhaps in the +cabinet--probably. Probably that is why he has asked you to meet him +here. I hope, for your sake, that she is good-looking. I +fancy"--musingly--"that you would be rather particular. If rumour does +you no injustice, you always have been." + +Stafford laughed shortly. + +"I've never thought about marrying," he said, rather absently. + +"No one does, my dear fellow. It comes, like measles and other +unpleasant things, without thought; and when it comes, it is generally +as unpleasant. Aren't we going at a tremendous rate, Stafford? Don't +think I am nervous; I have ridden beside you too often for that. You +destroyed what nerve I possessed long ago." + +"We are late, and it's farther round than I thought," said Stafford. +"The horses are fresh." + +"I daresay; very probably Pottinger has given them a double feed; he +would naturally like them to dash up in fine style. But if it's all the +same to you"--as the horses broke into a gallop--"I should prefer to +arrive at your father's 'little place' in a more dignified fashion than +on a stretcher." + +Stafford smiled and checked the high-spirited pair. + +"You talk of women as if they were a--a kind of plague; you were never +in love, Howard?" he asked. + +"Never, thank Heaven!" responded Howard, devoutly. "When I think of it, +I acknowledge that I have much to be thankful for. I was once: she was +a girl with dark eyes--but I will spare you a minute description. I met +her in a country rectory--_is_ that horse, I think you call it the near +one--going to jump over the bank? And one remarkably fine evening--it +was moonlight, I remember--I was on the point of declaring my love; and +then the gods saved me. The thought flashed upon me that, if she said +'yes,' I should have to sit opposite her at dinner for the rest of one +of our lives. It saved me. I said that I thought it was chilly, and +went in and up to bed, grateful for my escape. Why don't you laugh?" + +Stafford only smiled in a perfunctory fashion. He was thinking of the +girl he had watched riding off on the unbroken colt; of what it would +seem like if she were seated opposite him, with the candle-light +falling on her soft white dress, with diamonds gleaming in it, diamonds +outshone by the splendour of those dark, violet-grey eyes; of what it +would seem like if he could rise from his seat and go to her and take +her in his arms and look into those dark grey eyes, and say, "You are +mine, mine!" with no one to say him nay. + +"It was a lucky escape for her," he said, dreamily. + +"It was," assented Howard, solemnly. "Not one man in a thousand can +love one woman all his life; and I've the strongest conviction that I +am not that one. In less than six months I should have grown tired of +her--in less than a year I should have flown from the joys of +matrimony--or killed the partner of those joys. Has Pottinger a wife +and family, my dear Stafford? If so, is it wise to risk his life in +this fashion? I don't care for myself--though still young, I am not +afraid to die, and I would as soon meet it hurled from a phaeton as +not--but may I beg of you to think of Pottinger?" + +Stafford laughed. + +"The horses are all right," he said. "They are only fresh, and want to +go." + +He could not have driven slowly, for his mind, dwelling on the girl in +the well-worn habit, was electric. + +"I have spared you, hitherto, any laudation of the scenery, my dear +Staff," said Howard, pleasantly, "but permit me to remark that it +really is very beautiful. Trust the great and powerful Sir Stephen to +choose the best nature and art can produce! What is this?" + +"This" proved to be a newly built lodge which appeared on the left of +the road. Stafford slowed up, and a lodgekeeper came and flung open the +new and elaborately wrought iron gates. + +"This the way to--to Sir Stephen's house?" asked Stafford. + +The man touched his hat reverentially. + +"Yes, sir," he replied. "Sir Stephen's arrived. Came an hour ago." + +Stafford nodded, and drove on. + +The road was certainly a new one, but it was lined with rhododendrons +and costly shrubs, and it wound and wound serpentine fashion through +shrubberies and miniature plantations which indicated not only +remarkably good taste, but vast expenditure. At intervals the trees had +been felled to permit a view of the lake, lying below, like a sapphire +glowing in the sunlight. + +Presently they came in sight of the house. It was larger than it had +looked in the distance; a veritable palace. An architect had received +_carte-blanche_, and disporting himself right royally, had designed a +façade which it would be hard to beat: at any rate, in England. + +Stafford eyed it rather grumpily. Most Englishmen dislike ostentation +and display; and to Stafford the place seemed garish and "loud." Howard +surveyed it with cynical admiration. + +"A dream of Kubla Kahn--don't know whether I've got the name right: +poem of Coleridge's, you know--but of course you don't know; you don't +go in for poetry. Well I'm bound to admit that it's striking, not to +say beautiful," he went on, as the horses sprang up the last ascent and +rattled on in an impatient, high-spirited trot along the level road to +the terrace fronting the entrance. + +As Stafford pulled up, a couple of grooms came forward; the hall +door--enamelled in peacock blue--opened and a butler and two footmen in +rich maroon livery appeared. They came down the white marble steps in +stately fashion and ranged themselves as if the ceremony were of vast +importance, and as Howard and Stafford got down they bowed with the air +of attendants receiving royalty. + +As Stafford, flinging the reins to one of the grooms, got down, he +caught sight of a line of liveried servants in the hall, and he frowned +slightly. + +Like most young Englishmen, he hated ostentation, which he designated +as "fuss." + +"Rub 'em down well, Pottinger," he said, and he leisurely patted the +horses while the gorgeous footmen watched with solemn impressiveness. + +"We've brought 'em along pretty well," he said, turning to Howard, who +stood beside him with a fine and cynical smile; then he went up the +white marble steps slowly, carefully ignoring the footmen who had drawn +themselves into a line as if they were a guard of honour, specially +drilled to receive him. + +Followed by Howard, his cynical smile still lingering about his thin +lips, Stafford entered the hall. + +It was Oriental in shape and design, with a marble fountain in the +centre, and carved arches before the various passages. The principal +staircase was also of white marble with an Indian carpet of vivid +crimson. Palms reared their tall and graceful heads at intervals, +shading statuary in the prevailing white marble. Hangings of rose +colour broke the sameness and accentuated the purity of the predominate +whiteness. + +Howard looked round with an admiration which obliterated his usual +cynicism. + +"Beautiful!" he murmured. + +But Stafford frowned. The luxury, the richness of the place, though +chaste, jarred on him; why, he could not have told. + +Suddenly, as they were making their way through the lines of richly +liveried servants, a curtain at one of the openings was thrown aside, +and a gentleman came out to meet them. + +He was rather a tall man, with white hair, but with eyebrows and +moustache of jet-black. His eyes were brilliant but sharp, and he moved +with the ease and alertness of youth. + +There was something in his face, in its expression, which indicated +strength and power; something in his manner, in his smile, peculiarly +electric and sympathetic. + +Howard stopped and drew back, but Stafford advanced, and Sir Stephen +caught him by the hand and held it. + +"My dear Stafford, my dear boy!" he said, in a deep but musical voice. +"I expected you hours ago; I have been waiting! But better late than +never. Who is this? Your friend, Mr. Howard? Certainly! How do you do, +Mr. Howard! Welcome to our little villa on the lake!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +Stafford's heart warmed at his father's greeting; indeed it would have +been a very callous heart if it had not; for the emotion of genuine +affection shone in Sir Stephen's brilliant eyes, and rang in his +musical voice. Stafford was all the more impressed and touched, because +the emotion was unusual, or rather, the expression of it. + +This is a "casual" age, in which a man parts from or meets his +relations and friends with the real or assumed indifference which is +ordained by fashion. It is bad form to display one's affection, even +for the woman one loves, excepting in extreme seclusion and privacy. If +you meet your dearest chum who has just come out of the Transvaal War +by the skin of his teeth, it is not permitted you to say more than: +"Ah--er--how d'ye do. Got back, then, old man?" and at parting from +one's nearest relative, perhaps for the remainder of his life, one must +hide the grief that racks the heart, with an enquiry as to whether he +has got a comfortable berth and has remembered his umbrella. + +But Sir Stephen was evidently not ashamed of his pleasure and delight +at the sight of his son, and he wrung his hand and looked him up and +down with an affectionate and proud scrutiny. + +"You're looking fit, Stafford, very fit! By George, I--I believe you've +grown! And you've got--uglier than ever!" + +Then, still holding Stafford's hand, he turned with a smile to Howard. + +"You must forgive me, Mr. Howard! I've not seen this boy of mine for a +devil of a time, and I've been looking forward to this meeting very +keenly. The fond parent, you know, eh? But now let me say again how +pleased I am to see you. Stafford has often mentioned you, his closest +chum, and I was almost as anxious to see you as I was to see him." + +"You are very kind, Sir Stephen," said Howard--his slow drawl unusually +quickened--for he, too, was touched, though he would have died rather +than have admitted it, by the warmth of Sir Stephen's reception of his +son. "I was afraid that I should be rather _de trop_, if not absolutely +intrusive--" + +"Not at all--not at all!" Sir Stephen broke in. "My boy's friends are +mine, especially his own particular pal. You are David and Jonathan, +you two, I know; and Heaven forbid that I should part you! If you'll +consider yourself one of the family, free to come and go just as you +choose, I shall feel grateful to you; yes, that's the word--grateful!" + +All this was said in the heartiest way, with the crowd of servants +looking on and listening--though, like well-trained servants, they +appeared both deaf and blind for all the expression that could be seen +in their faces--then Sir Stephen led the way into the drawing-room. + +"You've just time to dress," he said, consulting his watch; "your man +Measom has turned up, Stafford. Mr. Howard will permit me to offer him +the services of my valet--I don't trouble him much. And now I'll show +you your rooms. Like this?" he added, as he paused at the door and +looked round. "It's one of the smaller rooms; the ladies can keep it +for themselves if they like." + +"Charming!" said Howard; and the word was appropriate enough to the +dainty apartment with its chaste decorations of crushed strawberry and +gold, with hangings and furniture to match; with its grand piano in +carved white wood and its series of water colours by some of the best +of the Institute men. + +"I'm glad!" responded Sir Stephen. "But I mustn't keep you. We'll go +over the place after dinner--or some other time. To-night we are alone; +the party doesn't come up till to-morrow. I wanted to have you, +Stafford--and your friend--to myself before the crowd arrived." + +They followed him up the broad stairs, which by low and easy steps led +up to the exquisite corridor, harmonising perfectly with the eastern +hall, on to which it looked through arches shaped and fitted in +Oriental fashion. + +"Here is your room. Ah, Measom! here is Mr. Stafford, Got everything +ready for him, I hope?--and here, next door almost, is Mr. Howard's. +This is a snuggery in between--keep your books and guns and +fishing-rods in it, don't you know. Mr. Howard, you play, I think? +There's a piano, Hope you'll like the view. Full south, with nothing +between you and the lake. I'm not far off. See? Just opposite, You may +find the rooms too hot, Stafford--Mr. Howard--and we'll change 'em, of +course. Don't hurry: hope you'll find everything you want!" + +He laid his hand on Stafford's shoulder and nodded at him with frank +affection, before he went, and as he closed the door they heard him say +to some one below: + +"Don't serve the dinner till Mr. Stafford comes down!" + +Stafford went to the window, and Howard stood in silence beside him for +a moment, then he said--Measom had left the room: + +"I congratulate you, Staff! In sackcloth and ashes, I confess I thought +that kind of father only existed in women's books and emotional plays." + +Stafford nodded. + +"He's--he's kindness itself," he said, in a very low voice and not +turning his head. "I didn't know that he was like--this. I didn't know +he cared--" + +"It's evident he cares very much!" said Howard, gravely. "If you were +the Prodigal Son he couldn't have felt it more." + +"And yet they say--that bagman said--" muttered Stafford with +smouldering rage and indignation. + +"There are few things in my life that I regret, my dear Staff; but till +my dying day I shall regret that I did not turn and rend that bagman! +He's a splendid fellow--splendid! Now I've seen him I don't wonder at +his success. Envy is not one of my numerous vices, Staff; but frankly I +envy you your father! Wake up, old man! We mustn't keep him waiting! +What quarters!" He looked round the room as he moved to go. "Fit for a +prince! But you _are_ a prince! Why, dash it, I feel like a prince +myself! How are you, Measom? Got down all right, then?--I'll give you a +knock when I'm ready, Stafford!" + +Stafford dressed quickly, thinking all the while of his father; of his +good looks, his deep, pleasant voice, his affectionate welcome; and +thrusting from him the unfavourable impression which the ornate +splendour of the place had made. + +Howard knocked presently and the two men went down. Sir Stephen was +waiting in the hall; and Stafford, with a little thrill of pride, +noticed that he looked still more distinguished in his evening-dress, +which was strikingly plain; a single pearl--but it was priceless +one--was its only ornament. + +"By George, you have been quick!" said Sir Stephen, with his genial +smile. + +"That's one for yourself, sir," said Stafford. + +"Oh, I? I can dress in five minutes," responded Sir Stephen, linking +his arm in Stafford's. "I'm almost as good as a 'quick-change artist.'" + +He drew aside to let Howard follow the butler between the two footmen +drawn up beside the door, and they entered the dining-room. + +It was of choice American walnut, and lit by rose-shaded electric +lights, in which the plate and the glass, the flowers and the napery +glowed softly: an ideal room which must have filled the famous +decorator who had designed it with just pride and elation. The table +had been reduced to a small oval; and the servants proceeded to serve a +dinner which told Howard that Sir Stephen had become possessed of a +_chef_ who was a _cordon bleu_. The wines were as choice as the _menu_; +but Sir Stephen watered his Chateau claret, and ate but little, +excusing himself in the middle of a sentence with: + +"I'm setting you a bad example. But there's always a skeleton at my +feast--a rather common one nowadays; they call him Gout. And so you +drove down? That must have been pleasant! It's a pretty country--so I'm +told. I didn't see much of it from the train. But the lake--ah, well, +it's indescribable, isn't it! After all one sees, one is bound to admit +that there is nothing to beat English scenery; of course I include +Irish. We've a strain of Irish blood in us, Mr. Howard, and I always +stand up for the ould counthry. Things are looking up there lately; +we're beginning to be appreciated. Give us a year or two, and we'll have +all the world and his wife scampering over it. I've a little Irish +scheme of my own--but I mustn't bore you the first night. Mr. Howard, +if that wine is too thin--" + +Howard clutched his glass with dramatic intensity. + +"Chateau Legrange, if I'm not mistaken, sir," he said; "but let it be +what it may, it's simply perfect." + +"I'm glad. See here, now, it's understood between us that if there's +anything you want, anything you'd like altered, you'll say so, eh, +Stafford?" he said, with an affectionate anxiety. "I'm a +rough-and-ready kind of man, and anything pleases me; but you--ah, +well, you two have the right to be particular; and I'll ask you to ask +for just what you want--and be sure you get it." + +Stafford glanced round the room with its costly appointments, and Sir +Stephen caught the glance, and smiled. + +"You're thinking--ah, well, no matter. Mr. Howard, try those +strawberries. I don't think they're forced. They tell me that they get +them on the slope even earlier than this. This port--now see how nice +the people in these parts are! this port came from the landlord of +the--the--yes, The Woodman Inn. He sent it with his respectful +compliments, saying you did him the honour to praise it last night. You +stayed there, I suppose? Surprisingly kind: quite a Spanish bit of +courtesy. I wrote Mr.--yes, Mr. Groves a note thanking him on your +behalf, and I sent him some dry sherry which Stenson here"--he smiled +at the butler--"tells me is rather good, eh, Stenson?" + +The solemn gravity of Stenson's face did not relax in the slightest, as +he murmured: + +"Count de Meza's '84, sir." + +"Right! So long as it was the best we had. You approve, Stafford, eh?" + +Stafford nodded with something more than approval. + +"Thank you, sir," he said, simply. "We admired Mr. Groves's port." + +"He's a good fellow. I hope he'll enjoy the sherry. I shall take the +first opportunity of calling and expressing my sense of his +kindness--No more? Shall we have the coffee with the cigars in the +billiard room?" + +The footmen escorted them through the billiard-room to the +smoking-room, only divided from it by a screen of Eastern fret-work +draped by costly hangings. There were inlaid tables and couches of +exquisite workmanship, and a Moresque cabinet, which the butler +unlocked and from which he took cigars and cigarettes. + +Sir Stephen waved them to seats, and sank into a low chair with a sigh +of satisfaction and enjoyment. The footmen placed the exquisite +coffee-service of Limoges enamel on one of the tables, and, as they +left the room, Howard, as if he could not help himself, said: + +"This is a veritable Aladdin's Palace, Sir Stephen! Though I can +imagine that fabulous erection cannot have been as comfortable as +this." + +"I'm glad you like it," he said. "But do you like it?" he put in, with +a shrewd gleam in his eyes, which could be keen as well as brilliant +and genial. "I fancy you think it _too_ fine--eh, Stafford?" He laid +his hand on Stafford's knee with a somewhat appealing gesture and +glance. "I've seen a doubt on your face once or twice--and, by George! +you haven't seen half the place yet. Yes, Mr. Howard, I'll admit that +it is rather luxurious; that's the result of giving these new men +_carte-blanche_. They take you at your word, sir. I'll own up I was a +little surprised to-day; for I told them to build me a villa--but then +I wanted thirty or forty bedrooms, so I suppose they had to make it +rather large. It seemed to me that as it overlooks the lake it ought to +be after the style of those places one sees in Italy, and I hinted that +for the interior an Oriental style might be suitable; but I left them a +free hand, and if they've overdone it they ought to have known better. +I employed the men who were recommended to me." + +There was a pause for a moment. Stafford tried to find some phrase +which would conceal his lack of appreciation; and his father, as if he +saw what was passing through Stafford's mind, went on quickly but +smoothly: + +"Yes, I see. It _is_ too fine and ornamental. But I don't think you'll +find that the people who are coming here tomorrow will agree with you. +I may not know much about art and taste, but I know my world. +Stafford--Mr. Howard--I'll make a clean breast of it. I built this +place with an object. My dear sir, you won't think me guilty of +sticking it up to please Stafford here. I know his taste too well; +something like mine, I expect--a cosy room with a clean cloth and a +well-cooked chop and potato. I've cooked 'em myself before now--the +former on a shovel, the latter in an empty meat-tin. Of course I know +that Stafford and you, Mr. Howard, have lived very different lives to +mine. Of course. You have been accustomed to every refinement and a +great deal of luxury over since you left the cradle. Quite right! I'm +delighted that it should be so. Nothing is too good for Stafford +here--and his chum--nothing!" + +Stafford's handsome face flushed. + +"You've been very generous to me, sir," he said, in his brief way, but +with a glance at his father which expressed more than the words. + +Sir Stephen threw his head back and laughed. + +"That's all right, Staff," he said. "It's been a pleasure to me. I just +wanted to see you happy--'see you' is rather inappropriate, though, +isn't it, considering how very little I have seen you? But there were +reasons--We won't go into that. Where was I?" + +"You were telling us your reasons for building this place, sir," Howard +reminded him quietly. + +Sir Stephen shot a glance at him, a cautious glance. + +"Was I? By George! then I am more communicative than usual. My friends +in the city and elsewhere would tell you that I never give any reasons. +But what I was saying was this: that I've learnt that the world likes +tinsel and glitter--just as the Sioux Indians are caught by glass beads +and lengths of Turkey red calico. And I give the world what it wants. +See?" + +He laughed, a laugh which was as cynical as Howard's. + +"The world is not so much an oyster which you've got to open with a +sword, as the old proverb has it, but a wild beast. Yes, a wild beast: +and you've got to fight him at first, fight him tooth and claw. When +you've beaten him, ah! then you've got to feed him." + +"You have beaten your wild beast, Sir Stephen," remarked Howard. + +"Well--yes, more or less; anyhow, he seemed ready to come to my hand +for the tit-bits I can give him. The world likes to be _fêted_, likes +good dinners and high-class balls; but above all it likes to be amused. +I'm going to give it what it wants." + +Stafford looked up. This declaration coming from his father jarred upon +Stafford, whose heart he had won. + +"Why should you trouble, sir?" he said, quietly. "I should have thought +you would have been satisfied." + +"Because I want something more from it; something in return," said Sir +Stephen, with a smile. "Satisfied? No man is satisfied. I've an +ambition yet ungratified, and I mean to gratify it. You think I'm +vaunting, Mr. Howard?" "No, I think you are simply stating a fact," +responded Howard, gravely. + +"I thank you, sir," said Sir Stephen, as gravely. "I speak so +confidently because I see my way clearly before me. I generally do. +When I don't, I back out and lie low." + +Stafford found this too painful. He rose to get a light and sauntered +into the billiard-room and tried the table. + +Sir Stephen looked after him musingly, and seemed to forget Howard's +presence; then suddenly his face flushed and his eyes shone with a +curious mixture of pride and tenderness and the indomitable resolution +which had helped him to fight his "wild beast." He leant forward and +touched Howard's knee. + +"Don't you understand!" he said, earnestly, and in a low voice which +the click of the billiard balls prevented Stafford from hearing. "It is +for him! For my boy, Mr. Howard! It's for him that I have been working, +am still working. For myself--I am satisfied--as he said; but not for +him. I want to see him still higher up the ladder than I have climbed. +I have done fairly well--heaven and earth! if anyone had told me twenty +years ago that I should be where and what I am to-day--well, I'd have +sold my chances for a bottle of ale. You smile. Mr. Howard, it was +anything but beer and skittles for me then. I want to leave my boy +a--title. Smile again, Mr. Howard; I don't mind." + +"I haven't a smile about me, sir," said Howard. + +"Ah, you understand. You see my mind. I don't know why I've told you, +excepting that it is because you are Staff's friend. But I've told you +now. And am I not right? Isn't it a laudable ambition? Can you say that +he will not wear it well, however high the title may be? Where is there +such another young fellow? Proud--pride is too poor a word for what I +feel for him!" + +He paused and sank back, but leant forward again. + +"Though I've kept apart from him, Mr. Howard, I have watched him--but +in no unworthy sense. No, I haven't spied upon him." + +"There was no need, sir," said Howard, very quietly. + +"I know it. Stafford is as straight as a dart, as true as steel. Oh, +I've heard of him. I know there isn't a more popular man in +England--forgive me if I say I don't think there's a handsomer." + +Howard nodded prompt assent. + +"I read of him, in society, at Hurlingham. Everywhere he goes he holds +his own. And I know why. Do you believe in birth, Mr. Howard?" he +asked, abruptly. + +"Of course," replied Howard. + +"So do I, though I can't lay claim to any. But there's a good strain in +Stafford and it shows itself. There's something in his face, a certain +look in his eyes, in his voice, and the way he moves; that quiet yet +frank manner--oh, I can't explain!" he broke off, impatiently. + +"I think you have done it very well," said Howard. "I don't like the +word--it is so often misapplied--but I can't think of any better: +distinguished is the word that describes Stafford." + +Sir Stephen nodded eagerly. + +"You are right. Some men are made, born to wear the purple. My boy is +one of them--and he shall! He shall take his place amongst the noblest +and the best in the land. He shall marry with the highest. Nature has +cast him in a noble mould, and he shall step into his proper place." + +He drew a long breath, and his brilliant eyes flashed as if he were +looking into the future, looking into the hour of triumph. + +"Yes; I agree with you," said Howard; "but I am afraid Stafford will +scarcely share your ambition." + +He was sorry he had spoken as he saw the change which his words had +caused in Sir Stephen. + +"What?" he said, almost fiercely. "Why do you say that? Why should he +not be ambitious?" He stopped and laid his hand on Howard's shoulder, +gripping it tightly, and his voice sank to a stern whisper. "You don't +know of anything--there is no woman--no entanglement?" + +"No, no!" said Howard. "Make your mind easy on that point. There is no +one. Stafford is singularly free in that respect. In fact--well, he is +rather cold. There is no one, I am sure. I should have known it, if +there had been." + +Sir Stephen's grip relaxed, and the stern, almost savage expression was +smoothed out by a smile. + +"Right," he said, still in a whisper. "Then there is no obstacle in my +way. I shall win what I am fighting for. Though it will not be an easy +fight. No, sir. But easy or difficult, I mean winning." + +He rose and stood erect--a striking figure looking over Howard's head +with an abstracted gaze; then suddenly his eyelids quivered, his face +grew deathly pale, and his hand went to his heart. + +Howard sprang to his feet with an exclamation of alarm; but Sir Stephen +held up his hand warningly, moved slowly to one of the tables, poured +out a glass of _liqueur_ and drank it. Then he turned to Howard, who +stood watching him, uncertain what to do or say, and said, with an air +of command: + +"Not a word. It is nothing." + +Then he linked his arm in Howard's and led him into the billiard-room. + +"Table all right, Stafford?" + +"First-rate, sir," replied Stafford. "You and Mr. Howard play a +hundred." + +"No, no," said Sir Stephen. "You and Howard. I should enjoy looking +on." + +"We'll have a pool," said Stafford, taking the balls from the cabinet. +Howard watched Sir Stephen as he played his first shot: his hand was +perfectly steady, and he soon showed that he was a first-rate player. + +"That was a good shot," said Stafford, with a touch of pride in his +voice. "I don't know that I've seen a better. You play a good game, +sir." + +Sir Stephen's face flushed at his son's praise, as a girl's might have +done; but he laughed it off. + +"Only so, so, Staff. I don't play half as good a game as you and Mr. +Howard. How should I?--Mr. Howard, there is the spirit-stand. You'll +help yourself? Servants are a nuisance in a billiard-room." + +Not once for the rest of the evening did he show any sign of the +weakness which had so startled Howard, and as they went up the stairs +he told them a story with admirable verve and with evident enjoyment. + +"Sorry our evening has come to an end," he said as they stood outside +his door. "It is the last we shall have to ourselves. Pity. But it +can't be helped." + +Unconsciously he opened the door as he spoke, and Stafford said: + +"Is this your room, sir?" + +"Yes; walk in, my boy," replied Sir Stephen. + +Stafford walked in and stood stock-still with amazement. The room was +as plainly furnished as a servant's--more plainly, probably, than the +servants who were housed under his roof. Saving for a square of carpet +by the bed and dressing-table the floor was bare; the bed was a common +one of iron, narrow and without drapery, the furniture was of painted +deal. The only picture was a portrait of Stafford enlarged from a +photograph, and it hung over the mantel-piece so that Sir Stephen could +see it from the bed. Of course neither Stafford nor Howard made any +remark. + +"Remember that portrait, Stafford?" asked Sir Stephen, with a smile. "I +carry it about with me wherever I go. Foolish and fond old father, eh, +Mr. Howard? It's a good portrait, don't you think?" + +Stafford held out his hand. + +"Good-night, sir," he said in a very low voice. + +"Good-night, my boy! Sure you've got everything you want? And you, Mr. +Howard? Don't let me disturb you in the morning. I've got a stupid +habit of getting up early--got it years ago, and it clings, like other +habits. Hope you'll sleep well. If you don't, change your rooms before +the crowd comes. Good-night." + +"Did you see the room?" asked Stafford, huskily, when he and Howard had +got into Stafford's. + +Howard nodded. + +"I feel as if I could pitch all this"--Stafford looked at the +surrounding luxuries--"out of the window! I don't understand him. Great +Heaven! he makes me feel the most selfish, pampered wretch on the face +of the earth. He's--he's--" + +"He is a man!" said Howard, with an earnestness which was strange in +him. + +"You are right," said Stafford. "There never was such a father. And +yet--yet--I don't understand him. He is such a mixture. How such a man +could talk as he did--no I don't understand it." + +"I do," said Howard. + +But then Sir Stephen had given him the key to the enigma. + + +CHAPTER VII + +Stafford slept well, and was awake before Measom came to call him. It +was a warm and lovely morning, and Stafford's first thoughts flew to a +bath. He got into flannels, and found his way to the lake, and as he +expected, there was an elaborate and picturesque bathing-shed beside +the Swiss-looking boat-house, in which were an electric launch and +boats of all descriptions. There also was a boatman in attendance, with +huge towels on his arm. + +"Did you expect me?" asked Stafford, as the man touched his hat and +opened the bathing-shed. + +"Yes, sir; Sir Stephen sent down last night to say that you might come +down." + +Stafford nodded. His father forgot nothing! The boatman rowed him out +into the lake and Stafford had a delightful swim. It reminded him of +Geneva, for the lake this morning was almost as clear and as vivid in +colouring: and that is saying a great deal. + +The boatman, who watched his young master admiringly--for Stafford was +like a fish in the water--informed him that the launch would be ready +in a moment's notice, or the sailing boat either, for the matter of +that, if he should require them. + +"I've another launch, a steamer, and larger than this, coming +to-morrow; and Sir Stephen told me to get some Canadian canoes, in case +you or any of the company that's coming should fancy them, sir." + +As Stafford went up to the house in the exquisite "after-bath" frame of +mind, he met his father. The expression of Sir Stephen's face, which a +moment earlier, before he had turned the corner of the winding path, +had been grave and keen, and somewhat hard, softened, and his eyes lit +up with a smile which had no little of the boatman's admiration in it. + +"Had a swim, my boy? Found everything right, I hope? I was just going +down to see." + +"Yes, everything," replied Stafford. "I can't think how you have +managed to get it done in so short a time," he added, looking round at +the well-grown shrubs, the smooth paths and the plush-like lawns, which +all looked as if they had been in cultivation for years. + +Sir Stephen shrugged his shoulders. + +"It is all a question of money--and the right men," he said. "I always +work on the plan, and ask the questions: 'How soon, how much?' Then I +add ten per cent. to the contract price on condition that the time is +kept. I find 'time' penalties are no use: it breaks the contractor's +back; but the extra ten per cent. makes them hustle, as they say on the +'other side.' Have you seen the stables yet? But of course you haven't, +or I should have seen you there. I go down there every morning; not +because I understand much about horses, but because I'm fond of them. +That will be your department, my dear Stafford." + +At each turn of their way Stafford found something to admire, and his +wonderment at the settled and established "Oh, I stipulated that there +shouldn't be any newness--any 'smell of paint,' so to speak. Here are +the stables; I had them put as far from the house as possible, and yet +get-at-able. Most men like to stroll about them. I hope you'll like +them. Mr. Pawson, the trainer, designed them." + +Stafford nodded with warm approval. + +"They seem perfect," he said as, after surveying the exterior, he +entered and looked down the long reach of stalls and loose boxes, many +of which were occupied, as he saw at a glance, by valuable animals. +"They are a fine lot, sir," he said, gravely, as he went down the long +line. "A remarkably fine lot! I have never seen a better show. This +fellow--why, isn't he Lord Winstay's bay, Adonis?" + +"Yes," said Sir Stephen. "I thought you'd like him." + +"Good heavens!" exclaimed Stafford. "You don't mean that you have +bought him for me, sir! I know that Winstay refused eight hundred +guineas for him." + +"I daresay," replied Sir Stephen. "Why shouldn't I buy him for you, my +boy? There's another one in the box next that one; a little stiffer. +I'm told he's up to your weight and--" + +Stafford went into the box and looked at the horse. It was a +magnificent, light-weight hunter--the kind of horse that makes a +riding-man's heart jump. + +"I should say that there are not two better horses of their sort in the +county," Stafford said, solemnly, and with a flush of his handsome +face. + +Sir Stephen's eyes gleamed. + +"That's all right: they can't be too good, Stafford." + +The head groom, Davis by name, stood, with Pottinger and some +underlings, at a little distance in attendance, and the men exchanged +glances and nods. + +"Have you seen these, Pottinger?" asked Stafford, turning to him, and +speaking in the tone which servants love. + +Pottinger touched his forehead. + +"Yes, sir; they're first rate, and no mistake. I've just been telling +Mr. Davis he's got a splendid lot, sir--splendid!" + +"Not but what your own pair 'ud be hard to beat, sir," said Davis, +respectfully. "There's a mare here, Sir Stephen, I should like to show +Mr. Stafford." + +The mare was taken out into the yard, and Stafford examined her and +praised her with a judgment and enthusiasm which filled Davis's heart +with pride. + +"Your young guv'nor's the right sort, Pottinger," he remarked as +Stafford at last reluctantly tore himself away from the stables. "Give +me a master as understands a horse and I don't mind working for him." + +Pottinger nodded and turned the straw in his mouth. + +"If you're alludin' to Mr. Stafford, then you'll enjoy your work, Mr. +Davis; for you've got what you want. What my guv'nor don't know about a +'oss isn't worth knowing." + +"So I should say," assented Davis, emphatically. "I do hate to have a +juggins about the place. Barker, _is_ that a spot o' rust on that +pillar-chain, or is my eyesight deceiving me? No, my men, if there's +the slightest thing askew when Mr. Stafford walks round, I shall break +my heart--and sack the man who's responsible for it. Pottinger, if +you'd like that pair o' yours moved, if you think they ain't +comfortable, you say so, and moved they shall be." + +As Sir Stephen and Stafford strolled back to the house the former +paused now and again to point out something he wished Stafford to see, +always appealing for his approval. + +"Everything is perfect, sir," Stafford said at last. "And, above all, +the situation," he added as he looked at the magnificent view, the opal +lake mirroring the distant mountains, flecked by the sunlight and the +drifting clouds. + +"Yes, I was fortunate in getting it," remarked Sir Stephen. + +Instantly there flashed across Stafford's mind--and not for the first +time that morning--the words Ida Heron had spoken respecting the way in +which Sir Stephen had obtained the land. Looking straight before him, +he asked: + +"How did you get it, sir? I have heard that it was difficult to buy +land here for building purposes." + +"Yes, I fancy it is," replied Sir Stephen, quite easily. "Now you speak +of it, I remember my agent said there was some hitch at first; but he +must have got over it in some way or other. He bought it of a farmer." +Stafford drew a breath of relief. "This is the Italian garden; the +tennis and croquet lawns are below this terrace--there's not time to go +down. But you haven't seen half of it yet. There's the breakfast-bell. +Don't trouble to change: I like you in those flannels." He laid his +hand on Stafford's broad, straight shoulder. "You have the knack of +wearing your clothes as if they grew on you, Staff." + +Stafford laughed. + +"I ought to hand that compliment on to Measom, sir," he said; "he's the +responsible person and deserves the credit, if there is any." He looked +at his father's upright, well-dressed and graceful figure. "But he +would hand it back to you, I think, sir." + +There was a pause, then Stafford said: + +"Do you know any of your neighbours--any of the people round about?" + +"No; I was never here until yesterday, excepting for an hour or two. +But we shall know them, I suppose; they'll call in a little while, and +we will ask them to dinner, and so on. There should be some nice +people--Ah, Mr. Howard, we've stolen a march on you!" + +"I'm not surprised, sir," said Howard, as he came up in his slow and +languid way. "I am sorry to say that Stafford has an extremely bad +habit of getting up at unreasonable hours. I wait until I am dragged +out of bed by a fellow-creature or the pangs of hunger. Of course you +have been bathing, Staff? Early rising and an inordinate love of cold +water--externally--at all seasons are two of his ineradicable vices, +Sir Stephen. I have done my best to cure them, but--alas!" + +They went in to breakfast, which was served in a room with bay windows +opening on to the terrace overlooking the lake. Exactly opposite +Stafford's chair was the little opening on the other side from which he +and the girl from Heron Hall had gazed at the villa. He looked at it +and grew silent. + +A large dispatch-box stood beside Sir Stephen's plate. He did not open +it, but sent it to his room. + +"I never read my letters before breakfast," he remarked. "They spoil +one's digestion. I'm afraid the mail's heavy this morning, judging by +the weight of the box; so that I shall be busy. You two gentlemen will, +I trust, amuse yourselves in your own way. Mr. Howard, the groom will +await your orders." + +"Thanks," said Howard; "but I propose to sit quite still on a chair +which I have carried out on to the terrace. I have had enough of +driving to last me for a week;" and he shuddered. + +Stafford laughed. + +"Howard's easily disposed of, sir," he said. "Give him a hammock or an +easy-chair in the shade, and he can always amuse himself by going to +sleep." + +"True; and if half the men I know spent their time in a similar fashion +this would be a brighter and a better world. What you will do, my dear +Stafford, I know by bitter experience. He will go and wade through a +river or ride at a break-neck pace down some of those hills. Stafford +is never happy unless he is trying to lay up rheumatism for his old age +or endeavouring to break his limbs." + +Sir Stephen looked across the table at the stalwart, graceful frame; +but he said nothing: there was no need, for his eyes were eloquent of +love and admiration. + +Stafford changed into riding things soon after breakfast, went down to +the stables and had Adonis saddled. Davis superintended the operation +and the stablemen edged round to watch. Davis expressed his approval as +Stafford mounted and went off on a splendid creature, remarking as he +started: + +"Beautiful mouth, Davis!" + +"Yes, Pottinger," said Davis, succinctly, "he's worthy of him. That's +what I call 'hands' now. Dash my aunt if you'd find it easy to match +the pair of 'em! There's a class about both that you don't often see. +If you'll step inside my little place, Mr. Pottinger, we'll drink your +guv'nor's health. I like his shape, I like his style; and I'm counted a +bit of a judge. He's a gentleman, and a high-bred 'n at that." + +Stafford rode down the winding drive at which the gardeners were at +work on borders and shrubberies, and on to the road. The air was like +champagne. The slight breeze just ruffled the lake on which the sun was +glittering; Stafford was conscious of a strange feeling of eagerness, +of quickly thrilling vitality which was new to him. He put it down to +the glorious morning, to the discovery of the affection of his father, +to the good horse that stepped as lightly as an Arab, and carried him +as if he were a feather; and yet all the while he knew that these did +not altogether account for the electric eagerness, the "joy of living" +which possessed him. + +He pulled up for a moment at The Woodman Inn to thank Mr. Groves for +the port, and that gentleman came out, as glad to see him as if he were +an old friend. + +"Don't mention it, sir," he said. "I thought a long time before I sent +it, because I wasn't sure that Sir Stephen and you might think it a +liberty; but I needn't have done so, I know now. And it was kind of Sir +Stephen to send me a note with the sherry. It was like a gentleman, if +you'll excuse me saying so, sir." + +Stafford rode over the hill and along the road by the stream, and as he +rode he looked round him eagerly and keenly. In fact, as if he were +scouting. But that for which he was looking so intently did not appear; +his spirits fell--though the sun was still shining--and he sighed +impatiently, and putting Adonis through the stream, cantered over the +moor at the foot of the hills. Suddenly he heard the bark of a dog, and +looking eagerly in the direction of the sound, he saw Ida Heron walking +quickly round the hill, with Donald and Bess scampering in front of +her. + +The gloom vanished from Stafford's face, and he checked Adonis into a +walk. The dogs were the first to see him, and they tore towards him +barking a welcome. Ida looked up--she had been walking with her eyes +bent on the ground--the colour rose to her face, and she stopped for an +instant. Then she came on slowly, and by the time they had met there +was no trace of the transitory blush. + +Stafford raised his hat and dismounted, and tried to speak in a casual +tone; but it was difficult to conceal the subtle delight which sprang +up within him at the sight of her; and he looked at the beautiful face +and the slim, graceful figure in its tailor-made gown--which, well worn +as it was, seemed to him to sit upon her as no other dress had ever sat +upon any other woman--he had hard work to keep the admiration from his +eyes. + +"I begin to count myself a very lucky man, Miss Heron," he said. + +"Why?" she asked, her grave eyes resting on him calmly. + +"Because I have chanced to meet you again." + +"It is not strange," she said. "I am nearly always out-of-doors. What a +beautiful horse!" + +"Isn't it!" he said, grateful for her praise. "It is a new one--a +present from my father this morning." + +"A very valuable present! It ought to be able to jump." + +"It is. I put it at a bank just now, and it cleared it like a bird. I +am very glad I have met you. I wanted to tell you something." + +She raised her eyes from the horse and waited, with the quietude, the +self-possession and dignity which seemed so strange in one so young, +and which, by its strangeness, fascinated him. "I--spoke to my father +about the land: he is innocent in the matter. It was bought through his +agent, and my father knows nothing of anything--underhand. I can't tell +you how glad I am that this is so. So glad that--I'll make a clean +breast of it--I rode over this morning in the hope of meeting you and +telling you." + +She made a little gesture of acceptance. + +"I am glad, too. Though it does not matter...." + +"Ah, but it does!" he broke in. "I should have been wretched if you had +been right, and my father had been guilty of anything of the kind. But, +as a matter of fact, he isn't capable of it--as you'd say if you knew +him. Now, there's no reason why we shouldn't be friends, is there?" he +added, with a suppressed eagerness. + +"Oh, no," she responded. She glanced up at the sky. Unnoticed by him a +cloud had drifted over the Langdale pikes, as the range of high +mountain is called. "It is going to rain, and heavily." + +"And you have no umbrella, waterproof!" exclaimed Stafford. + +She laughed with girlish amusement. + +"Umbrella? I don't think I have such a thing; and this cloth is nearly +waterproof; besides, I never notice the rain--here it comes!" + +It came with a vengeance; it was as if the heavens had opened and let +down the bottom of a reservoir. + +Stafford mechanically took off his coat. + +"Put this on," he said. "That jacket is quite light; you'll get wet +through." + +Her face crimsoned, and she laughed a little constrainedly. + +"Please put your coat on!" she said, gravely and earnestly. "_You_ will +be wet through, and you are not used to it. There is a shed round the +corner; ride there as quickly as you can." + +Stafford stared at her, then burst into a laugh which echoed hers. + +"And leave you here! Is it likely?" + +"Well, let us both go," she said, as if amused by his obstinacy. + +"Is it far?" he asked. "See if you can manage to balance on the +saddle--I would run beside you. It's all very well to talk of not +minding the rain, but this is a deluge." + +She glanced at the horse. + +"I couldn't get up--I could if he were barebacked, or if it were a +lady's saddle--it doesn't matter. Look, Donald and Bess are laughing at +you for making a fuss about a shower." + +"Will you try--let me help you?" he pleaded. "I could lift you quite +easily--Oh, forgive me, but I'm not used to standing by and seeing a +girl get soaked." + +"You are walking--not standing," she reminded him, solemnly. + +Perhaps her smile gave him courage: he took her just below the +shoulders and lifted her on to the saddle, saying as he did so, and in +as matter-of-fact a voice as he could: + +"If you'll just put your hand on my shoulder, you'll find that you can +ride quite safely--though I expect you could do it without that--I've +seen you ride, you know." + +He kept his eyes from her, so that he did not see the hot blush which +mantled in the clear ivory of her face, or the sudden tightening of the +lips, as if she were struggling against some feeling, and fighting for +her usual self-possession. + +She succeeded in a moment or two, and when he looked up the blush had +gone and something like amusement was sharing the sweet girlish +confusion in her grey eyes. + +"This is absurd!" she said. "It is to be hoped Jason or none of the men +will see me; they would think I had gone mad; and I should never hear +the last of it. The shed is by that tree." + +"I see it--just across the road. Please keep a tight hold of my +shoulder; I should never forgive myself if you slipped." + +"I am not in the least likely to slip," she said. + +Then suddenly, just as they were on the edge of the road, she uttered +an exclamation of surprise rather than embarrassment, for a carriage +and pair came round the corner and almost upon them. + +Stafford stopped Adonis to let the carriage pass, but the coachman +pulled up in response to a signal from someone inside, and a man thrust +his head out of the window and regarded them at first with surprise and +then with keen scrutiny. + +He was an elderly man, with a face which would have been coarse but for +its expression of acuteness and a certain strength which revealed +itself in the heavy features. + +"Can you tell me the way to Sir Stephen Orme's place?" he asked in a +rough, harsh voice. + +Ida was about to slip down, but she reflected that the mischief, if +there were any, was done now; and to Stafford's admiration, she sat +quite still under the gaze of the man's keen, sarcastic eyes. + +"Yes; keep straight on and round by The Woodman: you will see the house +by that time," said Stafford. + +"Thanks! Drive on, coachman," said the man; and he drew in his head +with a grim smile, and something like a sneer on his thick lips that +made Stafford's eyes flash. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +Stafford and Ida remained, unconscious of the rain, looking after the +carriage for a moment or two. + +The sneer on the man's heavy yet acutely sharp face, still incensed +Stafford. He had the usual desire of the strong man--to dash after the +rapidly disappearing vehicle, lug the fellow out and ask him what he +was sneering at. + +Ida was the first to speak. + +"What a strange-looking man," she said. + +Stafford started slightly, awaking to the fact that it was still +pouring. + +"I--I beg your pardon. I'm keeping you out in the rain." + +He put Adonis, not at all unwillingly, to a trot, and they gained the +rough cattle-shed, and he would have lifted the girl down, but she was +too quick for him, and slipped gracefully and easily from the saddle. + +Stafford, leading the horse, followed her into the shed. Bess sat on +the extreme end of her haunches shivering and blinking, and all too +plainly cursing the British climate; but Donald threw himself down +outside as if he regarded the deluge as a cheap shower-bath. + +Stafford looked at Ida anxiously. + +"You are fearfully wet," he said. "I think I could wipe off the worst +of it, if you'll let me." + +He took out his pocket handkerchief as he spoke and wiped the rain from +her straight, beautifully moulded shoulders. She drew back a little and +opened her lips to protest at first, but with a slight shrug she +resigned herself, her eyes downcast, a faint colour in her face. + +"I must be quite dry now," she said at last. + +"I'm afraid not," said Stafford. "I wish I had something bigger--a +towel." + +She laughed, the sweet girlish laugh which seemed to him the most +musical sound he had ever heard. + +"A towel? Fancying carrying a towel to wipe oneself with when it +rained! It is evident you don't know our country. There are weeks +sometimes in which it never ceases to rain. And you must be wet through +yourself," she added, glancing at him. + +He was on his knees at the moment carefully wiping the old habit skirt +with his saturated handkerchief as if the former were something +precious; and her woman's eye noted his short crisp hair, the shapely +head and the straight broad back. + +"I'm afraid that's all I can do!" he said, regretfully, as he rose and +looked at her gravely. "Do you mean to say that you habitually ride out +in such weather as this?" + +"Why, yes!" she replied, lightly. "Why not? I am too substantial to +melt, and I never catch cold. Besides, I have to go out in all weathers +to see to the cattle and the sheep." + +He leant against one of the posts which supported the shed, and gazed +at her with more intense interest than any other woman had ever aroused +in him. + +"Isn't there a foreman, a bailiff, whatever you call him, in these +parts?" + +She shook her head. + +"No; we cannot afford one; so I do his work. And very pleasant work it +is, especially in fine weather." + +"And you are happy?" he asked, almost unconsciously. + +Her frank eyes met his with a smile of amusement. + +"Yes, quite happy," she answered. "Why? Does it seem so unlikely, so +unreasonable?" + +"Well, it does," he replied, as if her frankness were contagious. "Of +course, I could understand it if you did it occasionally, if you did it +because you liked riding; but to be obliged, to have to go out in all +weathers, it isn't right!" + +She looked at him thoughtfully. + +"Yes, I suppose it seems strange to you. I suppose most of the ladies +you know are rich, and only ride to amuse themselves, and never go out +when they do not want to do so. Sir Stephen Orme--you--are very rich, +are you not? We, my father and I, are poor, very poor. And if I did not +look after things, if I were not my own bailiff--Oh, well, I don't know +what would happen." + +Stafford gnawed at his moustache as he gazed at her. The exquisitely +colourless face, in which the violet eyes glowed like two twin flowers, +the delicately cut lips, soft and red, the dark hair clustering at the +ivory temples in wet rings, set his heart beating with a heavy +pulsation that was an agony of admiration and longing--a longing that +was vague and indistinct. + +"Yes, I suppose it must seem strange to you," she said, as if she were +following out the lines of her own thoughts. "You must be accustomed to +girls who are so different." + +"Yes, they're different," he admitted. "Most of the women I know would +be frightened to death if they were caught in such a rain as this; +would be more than frightened to death if they had to ride down that +hill most of 'em think they've done wonder if they get in at the end of +a run over a fairly easy country; and none of 'em could doctor a sick +sheep to save their lives." + +"Yes," she said, dreamily. "I've seen them, but only at a distance. But +I didn't know anything about farming until I came home." + +"And do you never go away from here, go to London for a change and get +a dance, and--and all that?" he asked. + +She shook her head indifferently. + +"No, I never leave the dale. I cannot. My father could not spare me. +Has it left off raining yet?" + +She went to the front of the shed and looked out. + +"No, it is still pelting; please come back; it is pouring off the roof; +your hair is quite wet again." + +She laughed, but she obeyed. + +"I suppose that gentleman, the man in the carriage, was a friend of Sir +Stephen's, as he asked the way to your house?" + +"I don't know," replied Stafford. "I don't know any of my father's +friends. I knew very little of him until last night." + +She looked at him with frank, girlish interest. + +"Did you find the new house very beautiful?" she asked. + +Stafford nodded. + +"Yes," he said, absently. "It is a kind of--of palace. It's beautiful +enough--perhaps a little too--too rich," he admitted. + +She smiled. + +"But then, you are rich. And is it true that a number of visitors are +coming down? I heard it from Jessie." + +"Who is Jessie?" he asked, for he was more interested in the smallest +detail of this strange, bewilderingly lovely girl's life than his +father's affairs. + +"Jessie is my maid. I call her mine, because she is very much attached +to me; but she is really our house-maid, parlour-maid. We have very few +servants: I suppose you have a great many up at the new house?" + +He nodded. + +"Oh, yes," he said, half apologetically. "Too many by far. I wish you +could, see it," he added. + +She laughed softly. + +"Thank you; but that is not likely. I think it is not raining so hard +now, and that I can go." + +"It is simply pouring still," he said, earnestly and emphatically. "You +would get drenched if you ventured out." + +"But I can't stay here all day," she remarked, with a laugh. "I have a +great deal to do: I have to see that the sheep have not strayed, and +that the cows are in the meadows; the fences are bad in places, and the +stupid creatures are always straying. It is wonderful how quickly a cow +finds a weak place in a fence." + +Stafford's face grew red, a brick-dust red. + +"It's not fit work for you," he said. "You--you are only a girl; you +can't be strong enough to face such weather, to do such work." + +The beautiful eyes grew wide and gazed at him with girlish amusement, +and something of indignation. + +"I'm older than you think. I'm not a girl!" she retorted. "And I am as +strong as a horse." She drew herself up and threw her head back. "I am +never tired--or scarcely ever. One day I rode to Keswick and back, and +when I got home Jason met me at the gate and told me that the steers +had 'broken' and had got on the Bryndermere road. I started after them, +but missed them for a time, and only came up with them at Landal +Water--ah, you don't know where that is; well, it is a great many +miles. Of course I had a rest coming back, as I could only drive them +slowly." + +Something in his eyes--the pity, the indignation, the wonder that this +exquisitely refined specimen of maidenhood should be bent to such base +uses--shone in them and stopped her. The colour rose to her face and +her eyes grew faintly troubled, then a proud light flashed in them. + +"Ah, I see; you are thinking that it is--is not ladylike, that none of +your lady-friends would do it if even if they were strong enough?" + +Stafford would have scorned himself if he had been tempted to evade +those beautiful eyes, that sweet, and now rather haughty voice; +besides, he was not given to evasion with man or woman. + +"I wasn't thinking quite that," he said. "But I'll tell you what I was +thinking, if you'll promise not to be offended." + +She considered for a moment, then she said: + +"I do not think you will offend me. What was it?" + +"Well, I was thinking that--see here, now, Miss Heron, I've got your +promise!--it is not worthy of you--such work, I mean." + +"Because I'm a girl?" she said, her lip curving with a smile. + +"No," he said, gravely; "because you are a lady; because you are so--so +refined, so graceful, so"--he dared not say "beautiful," and +consequently he floundered and broke down. "If you were a farmer's +daughter, clumsy and rough and awkward, it would not seem to +inappropriate for you to be herding cattle and counting sheep; but--now +your promise!--when I come to think that ever since I met you, +whenever I think of you I think of--of--a beautiful flower--that now I +have seen you in evening-dress, I realise how wrong it is that you +should do such work. Oh, dash it! I know it's like my cheek to talk to +you like this," he wound up, abruptly and desperately. + +While he had been speaking, the effect of his words had expressed +itself in her eyes and in the alternating colour and pallor of her +face. It was the first time in her life any man had told her that she +was refined and graceful and flower-like; that she was, so to speak, +wasting her sweetness on the desert air, and the speech was both +pleasant and painful to her. The long dark lashes swept her cheek; her +lips set tightly to repress the quiver which threatened them; but when +he had completely broken down, she raised her eyes to his with a look +so grave, so sweet, so girlish, that Stafford's heart leapt, not for +the first time that morning, and there flashed through him the +unexpected thought: + +"What would not a man give to have those eyes turned upon him with love +shining in their depths!" + +"I'm not offended," she said. "I know what you mean. None of your +lady-friends would do it because they are ladies. I'm sorry. But they +are not placed as I am. Do you think I could sit with my hands before +me, or do fancy-work, while things went to ruin? My father is old and +feeble--you saw him the other night--I have no brother--no one to help +me, and--so you see how it is!" + +The eyes rested on his with a proud smile, as if she were challenging +him, then she went on: + +"And it does not matter. I live quite alone; I see no one, no other +lady; there is no one to be ashamed of me." + +Stafford reddened. + +"That's rather a hard hit for me!" he said. "Ashamed! By Heaven! if you +knew how I admired--how amazed I am at your pluck and goodness--" + +Her eyes dropped before his glowing ones. + +"And there is no need to pity me: I am quite happy, quite; happier than +I should be if I were playing the piano or paying visits all day. It +has quite left off now." + +Half unconsciously he put his hand on her arm pleadingly, and with the +firm, masterful touch of the man. + +"Will you wait one more moment?" he said, in his deep, musical voice. +She paused and looked at him enquiringly. "You said just now that you +had no brother, no one to help you. Will you let me help you? will you +let me stand in the place of a friend, of a brother?" + +She looked at him with frank surprise; and most men would have been +embarrassed and confused by the steady, astonished regard of the violet +eyes; but Stafford was too eager to get her consent to care for the +amusement that was mixed with the expression of surprise. + +"Why--how could you help me?" she said at last; "even if--" + +--"You'd let me," he finished for her. "Well, I'm not particularly +clever, but I've got sense enough to count sheep and drive cows; and I +can break in colts, train dogs, and, if I'm obliged, I daresay I could +drive a plough." + +Her eyes wandered thoughtfully, abstractedly down the dale; but she was +listening and thinking. + +"Of course I should have a lot to learn, but I'm rather quick at +picking up things, and--" + +"Are you joking, Mr. Orme?" she broke in. + +"Joking? I was never more serious in my life," he said, eagerly, and +yet with an attempt to conceal his earnestness. "I am asking it as a +favour, I am indeed! I shall be here for weeks, months, perhaps, and I +should be bored to death--" + +"With your father's house full of visitors?" she put in, softly, and +with a smile breaking through her gravity. + +"Oh, they'll amuse themselves," he said. "At any rate, I sha'n't be +with them all day; and I'd ever so much rather help you than dance +attendance on them." + +She pushed the short silky curls from her temples, and shook her head. + +"Of course it's ridiculous," she said, with a girlish laugh; "and it's +impossible, too." + +"Oh, is it?" he retorted. "I've never yet found anything I wanted to do +impossible." + +"You always have your own way?" she asked. + +"By hook or by crook," he replied. + +"But why do you want to--help me?" she asked. "Do you think you would +find it amusing? You wouldn't." The laughter shone in her eyes again. +"You would soon grow tired of it. It is not like hunting or fishing or +golfing; it's work that tries the temper--I never knew what a fiendish +temper I had got about me until the first time I had to drive a cow and +calf." + +"My temper couldn't be worse," he remarked, calmly. "Howard says that +sometimes I could give points to the man possessed with seven devils." + +"Who is Mr. Howard?" she asked. + +"My own particular chum," he said. "He came down with me and is up at +the house now. But never mind Howard; are you going to let me help you +as if I were an old friend or a--brother? Or are you going to be unkind +enough to refuse?" + +She began to feel driven, and her brows knit as she said: + +"I think you are very--obstinate, Mr. Orme." + +"That describes me exactly," he said, cheerfully. "I'm a perfect mule +when I like, and I'm liking it all I know at this moment." + +"It's absurd--it's ridiculous, as I said," she murmured, half angrily, +half laughingly, "and I can't think why you offered, why you want +to--to help me!" + +"Never mind!" said Stafford, his heart beating with anticipatory +triumph; for he knew that the woman who hesitates is gained. "Perhaps I +want to get some lessons in farming on the cheap, or--" + +--"Perhaps you really want to help the poor girl who, though she is a +lady, has to do the work of a farmer's daughter," she said, in a low +voice. "Oh, it is very kind of you, but--" + +"Then I'll come over to-morrow an hour earlier than this, and you shall +show me how to count the sheep, or whatever you do with them," he put +in, quickly. + +"But I was going to refuse--very gratefully, of course--but to +refuse!" + +"You couldn't; you couldn't be so unkind! I'll ride a hunter I've got; +he's rather stiffer than Adonis, and better up to rough work. I will +come to the stream where we first met and wait for you--shall I?" + +He said all this as if the matter were settled; and with the sensation +of being driven still more strongly upon her, she raised her eyes to +his with a yielding expression in them, with that touch of imploration +which lurks in a woman's eyes and about the corners of her lips when +for the first time she surrenders her will to a man. + +"I do not know what to say. It is absurd--it is--wrong. I don't +understand why--. Ah, well," she sighed with an air of relief, "you +will tire of it very quickly--after a few hours--" + +"All right. We'll leave it at that," he said, with an exasperating air +of cheerful confidence. "It is a bargain, Miss Heron. Shall we shake +hands on it?" + +He held out his hand with the smile which few men, and still fewer +women, could resist; and she tried to smile in response; but as his +strong hand closed over her small one, a faint look of doubt, almost of +trouble, was palpable in her violet eyes and on her lips. She drew her +hand away--and it had to be drawn, for he released it only slowly and +reluctantly--and without a word she left the shed. + +Stafford watched her as she went lightly and quickly up the road +towards the Hall, Bess and Donald leaping round her; then, with a sharp +feeling of elation, a feeling that was as novel as it was confusing, he +sprang on his horse, and putting him to a gallop, rode for home, with +one thought standing clearly out: that before many hours--the next +morning--he should see her again. + +Once he shifted his whip to his left hand, and stretching out his right +hand, looked at it curiously: it seemed to be still thrilling with the +contact of her small, warm palm. + +As he came up to The Woodman Inn he remembered, what he had forgotten +in the morning, that he had left his cigar-case on the dining-room +mantel-shelf. He pulled up, and giving Adonis to the hostler, who +rushed forward promptly, he went into the inn. There was no one in the +hall, and knowing that he should be late for luncheon, he opened the +dining-room door and walked in, and straight up to the fireplace. + +The cigar-case was where he had left it, and he turned to go out. Then +he saw that he was not the only occupant of the room, for a lady was +sitting in the broad bay-window. He snatched off his cap and murmured +an apology. + +"I beg your pardon! I did not know anyone was in the room," he said. + +The lady was young and handsome, with a beauty which owed a great deal +to colour. Her hair was a rich auburn, her complexion of the delicate +purity which sometimes goes with that coloured hair--"milk and roses," +it used to be called. Her eyes were of china blue, and her lips rather +full, but of the richest carmine. She was exquisitely dressed, her +travelling costume evidently of Redfern's build, and one hand, from +which she had removed the glove, was loaded with costly rings; diamonds +and emeralds as large as nuts, and of the first water. + +But it was not her undeniable beauty, or her dress and costly +jewellery, which impressed Stafford so much as the proud, scornfully +listless air with which she regarded him as she leant back +indolently--and a little insolently--tapping the edge of the table with +her glove. + +"Pray don't apologise," she said, languidly. "This is a public room, I +suppose!" + +"Yes, I think so," said Stafford, in his pleasant, frank way; "but one +doesn't rush into a public room with one's hat on if he has reason to +suppose that a lady is present. I thought there was no one here--the +curtain concealed you: I am sorry." + +She shrugged her shoulders and gave him the faintest and most +condescending of bows; then, as he reached the door, she said: + +"Do you think it will be moonlight to-night?" + +Stafford naturally looked rather surprised at this point-blank +meteorological question. + +"I shouldn't be surprised if it were," he said. "You see, this is a +very changeable climate, and as it is raining now it will probably +clear up before the evening." + +"Thanks!" she said. "I am much obliged--" + +"Oh, my opinion isn't worth much," he put in parenthetically, but she +went on as if he had not spoken. + +--"I should be still further obliged if you would be so kind as to tell +my father--he is outside with the carriage somewhere--that I am tired +and that I would rather not go on until the cool of the evening." + +"Certainly," said Stafford. + +He waited a moment to see if she had any other requests, or rather +orders, and then went out and found the gentleman with the strongly +marked countenance, in the stable-yard beside the carriage to which the +hostler and the help were putting fresh horses. + +Stafford raised his hat slightly. + +"I am the bearer of a message from the young lady in the dining-room, +sir," he said. "She wishes me to tell you that she would prefer to +remain here until the evening." + +The man swung round upon him with an alert and curious manner, half +startled, half resentful. + +"What the devil--I beg your pardon! Prefers to remain here! Well!" He +muttered something that sounded extremely like an oath, then, with a +shrug of his shoulders, told the hostler to take the horses out. "Thank +you!" he said to Stafford, grudgingly. "I suppose my daughter is tired: +very kind of you." + +"Not at all," responded Stafford, politely; and he got on +to Adonis, which Mr. Groves himself had led out, and rode away. + +The gentleman looked after him with knitted brows. + +"What is the name of that young fellow?" he asked of Groves. + +"That is Mr. Stafford Orme, Sir Stephen's son, sir," replied Groves. + +The gentleman was walking towards the house, but he pulled up short, +his eyes narrowed themselves to slits and his thick lips closed +tightly. + +"A fine young fellow, sir!" said Groves, with respectful enthusiasm. "A +splendid specimen of an English gentleman!" + +The gentleman grunted and went on to the dining-room. + +"What whim is this, Maude?" he asked, irritably. + +She yawned behind her beringed hand. + +"I am tired. I can't face that stuffy carriage again just yet. Let us +dine here and go on afterwards in the cool." + +"Oh, just as you like," he said. "It makes no difference to me!" + +"I know," she assented. Then, in an indolently casual way, she asked: + +"Who was that gentleman who rode by just now?" + +Her father glanced at her suspiciously as he took off his overcoat. + +"Now, how on earth should I know, my dear Maude!" he replied, with a +short, harsh laugh. "Some young farmer or cattle dealer, I imagine." + +"I said _gentleman_," she retorted, with something approaching +insolence. "You will permit _me_ to know the difference." + +Her father coloured angrily, as if she had stung him. + +"You'd better go upstairs and take off your things while I order +dinner," he said. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +As Stafford rode homewards he wondered whom the strange pair could be. +It was evident they were not going to stay at the Villa, or they would +have driven straight there; but it was also evident that the gentleman +had heard of Sir Stephen's "little place," or he would not have asked +where it was; but, as Stafford reflected, rather ruefully, it would be +difficult for any traveller passing through the neighbourhood not to +see the new, great white house, or to hear something, perhaps a very +great deal, of the man who had built it. + +Howard sauntered down the hall to meet him. + +"Good heavens, how wet you look, and, needless to add, how happy. If +there is anything in the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, my +dear Stafford, your future embodiment will be that of a Newfoundland +dog. Such an extremely strong passion for cold water is +almost--er--indecent. I've had a lovely morning in the library; and +your father is still at work with his correspondence. I asked him what +he thought of Lord Palmerston's aphorism: that if you left your letters +unanswered long enough they answered themselves; and he admitted it was +true, and that he had sometimes adopted the plan successfully. There is +a secretary with him--a dark and silent man named Murray, who appears +to have an automatic, double-action brain; anyway he can write a letter +and answer questions at the same time. And he watches your father's +lips as if he--the secretary, not Sir Stephen--were a dog waiting for a +stone to be thrown. It is interesting to watch--for a time; then it +gets on one's nerves. May I ask where you have been?" + +"Oh, just for a ride; been trying the new horse: he's a clinker! The +governor couldn't have got hold of a better if he'd searched all +Arabia, and Hungary to boot. I'll just change and get some lunch. I +hope you haven't waited?" + +"Your hope is not in vain, young man," replied Howard, suavely; "but I +will come and sit beside you while you stoke." + +With Measom's aid Stafford was soon into dry clothes and seated at +lunch, and, as he had promised, Howard drew a chair to the table, and +contemplated him with vicarious enjoyment. + +"What an appetite you have!" he drawled, admiringly. "I imagine it +would stand by you, even if you were in love. As a specimen of the +perfectly healthy animal you stand preeminent, my dear Stafford. By the +way, shall I spoil your lunch if I read you out a list of the guests +whom we are expecting this afternoon? Sir Stephen was good enough to +furnish me with it, with the amiable wish that I might find some friend +on it. What do you say to Lord and Lady Fitzharford; the Countess of +Clansford; the Baron Wirsch; the Right Honourable Henry Efford; Sir +William and Lady Plaistow--" + +Stafford looked up and smiled. + +"Any more?" + +"Oh, yes. There are the two Beltons and George Levinson, to say nothing +of Mr. Griffinberg, the railroad king." + +Stafford stared at his claret glass. + +"I wonder why the governor has asked such a crowd?" he said, musingly. + +"A perfectly arranged symphony in colours, I call it," said Howard. +"Fashion is represented by the Fitzharfords and old Lady Clansford; +politics by Efford and the Beltons, and finance by Plaistow and Wirsch. +That Griffinberg is coming is a proof that Sir Stephen has got 'a +little railway' in his mind; there are several others who seem to have +been thrown in, not to increase weight, but to lighten it. It will be +rather amusing--a kind of menagerie which, under less skilful guidance +than Sir Stephen's, might be sure to disagree and fight." + +Stafford sighed. + +"Oh, you'll be all right," he said; "but I don't quite see where I +shall come in." + +Howard laughed. + +"My dear Stafford, there are some extremely pretty girls with whom you +can flirt, and I've no doubt some of the men will join you in your +eccentric attempts to drown yourself or break your neck. _Is_ that the +sun coming out, and is it going to clear?" + +"I hope so," said Stafford, laughing. "For I prophesied a fine evening, +and a lady was weak enough to take my word for it. Let us go and rake +my father out of the library, and get him into the garden with a +cigar." + +"You may venture upon such an audacity, but not I," said Howard, with +simulated fear. "I'll wait for you on the terrace." + +Sir Stephen looked up with a frown as Stafford entered, and the +dark-faced secretary stared aghast at the intrusion; but Sir Stephen's +face cleared as he saw who it was. + +"Back, Stafford?" he said. "What? Come into the garden--cigar? +Certainly! You can finish up, can't you, Murray? Thanks!" He looked at +his watch as they went through the hall. "I suppose some of the people +will be here before long. Did Mr. Howard show you the list? Do you know +any of them. Stafford?" + +"Yes, I've met Lady Clansford and the Fitzharfords, of course; but most +of them are too great and lofty. I mean that they are celebrated +personages, out of my small track. One doesn't often meet Sir William +Plaistow and Mr. Griffinberg at at homes and afternoon teas." Sir +Stephen laughed. + +"Oh, well, you mustn't let them bore you, you know, my boy. You must +consider yourself quite free to cut off and amuse yourself some other +way whenever you get tired of them." + +"And leave it all to you, sir!" said Stafford, with a smile; but as he +spoke he drew a breath of relief; he should be free to help the +beautiful, lovely girl of Herondale. + +A few hours later the visitors arrived, and before dinner the superb +drawing-room was, if not crowded, sufficiently well filled with the +brilliant company. + +Nearly all the guests were extremely wealthy, most of them were +powerful, either in the region of politics or finance; and the +fashionable world was represented by some beautiful women with dresses +and diamonds above reproach, and some young men whose names stood high +at Hurlingham and Prinses. + +Stafford stood beside his father as Sir Stephen went from group to +group, greeting one and another in his frank and genial yet polished +manner, which grew warm and marked by scarcely repressed pride, as he +introduced Stafford. + +"My son, Lady Fitzharford. I think he has had the pleasure of meeting +you? I scarcely know who are his friends: we have been separated so +long! But we are restored to each other at last, I am happy to say! +Lady Clansford, you know my boy? Ah, he has had the advantage of me all +these years; he has not had to rush all over Europe, but has been able +to bask in the sunshine of grace and beauty. Griffinberg, I want my son +to know you. You and I are such old friends that you won't mind me +showing that I am proud of him, eh?" and he laid his hand on Stafford's +shoulder with an air of pride and affection. + +"What a lovely place Sir Stephen has made of this, Mr. Orme," said Lady +Clansford; "we were quite startled as we drove up, and simply +bewildered when we got inside. This room is really--oh well, I'm +beggared for adjectives!" + +Stafford went about, listening to the encomiums on his father or the +house, and making appropriate responses; but he was rather relieved +when the butler announced dinner. + +The dining-room received its meed of praise from the guests, and the +elaborate _menu_ caused some of the men to beam with inward +satisfaction. It was a superb dinner, served with a stateliness which +could not have been exceeded if royalty had been amongst the guests. +The plate was magnificent, the flowers arranged by an artist's hand, in +rich and yet chaste abundance. Stafford, as he looked from the bottom +of the table to Sir Stephen at the head, felt with a thrill of pride +that his father was the most distinguished-looking man of them all; and +he noticed that in the tone of both the men and the women who addressed +him there was that subtle note which indicates respect and the +consideration which men and women of the world pay to one who has +achieved greatness. + +And yet, he noticed also, that not one of them was more perfectly at +his ease than Sir Stephen, who laughed and talked as if his only aim +was that of enjoyment, and as if he had never "planned a plan or +schemed a scheme." Every now and then Stafford caught his father's eye, +and each time he did so, Sir Stephen smiled at him with that air of +pride and affection which he made no attempt to conceal or check. Once +or twice Howard, too, caught his eye and smiled significantly as if he +were saying, "How is this for a successful party?" + +The dinner went swimmingly, and when the ladies had retired Sir Stephen +begged the men to close up, and passed the wine freely. The talk was of +everything but politics or business--Stafford remarked that not a word +was said of either topic; and Sir Stephen told one or two stories +admirably and set the laughter going. + +"What sort of a night is it, Stafford?" he asked, presently. + +Stafford drew the curtain from the open French window, and the +moonlight streamed in to fight with the electric lamps. + +"Shall we go out on to the terrace?" said Sir Stephen. "Quite warm +enough, isn't it?" + +They went out; servants brought coffee and cigars, and some of the +gentlemen sauntered up and down the terrace, and others went down into +the garden. Sir Stephen linked his arm in Stafford's, and they walked a +little apart along one of the smooth paths. + +"Not bored, I hope, my boy?" he asked. + +"Good gracious, no, sir!" replied Stafford. "I don't think I remember a +more successful dinner. Why should I be bored?" + +"That's all right!" said Sir Stephen, pressing his arm. "I was afraid +you might be. They are not a bad set--the men, I mean--if you keep them +off their hobbies; and we managed to do that, I think." + +"Yes, I noticed you managed them very well, sir," said Stafford. "What +a lovely night." They had reached a gate opening on to the road, and +they stood and looked at the view in silence for a moment, listening to +a nightingale, whose clear notes joined with the voices and laughter of +the guests. + +Suddenly another sound came upon the night air; a clatter of horses' +hoofs and the rattle of wheels. + +"Someone driving down the road," said Sir Stephen. + +"And coming at a deuce of a pace!" said Stafford. He opened the gate +and looked up the road; then he uttered an ejaculation. + +"By George! they've bolted!" he said, in his quiet way. + +"What?" asked Sir Stephen, as he, too, came out. The carriage was +tearing down the hill towards them in the moonlight, and Stafford saw +that the horses were rushing along with lowered heads and that the +driver had lost all control of them. + +As they came towards the two men, Stafford set off running towards +them. Sir Stephen called him; Stafford took no heed, and as the horses +came up to him he sprang at the head of the nearer one. There was a +scramble, a scuffing of hoofs, and a loud, shrill shriek from the +interior of the carriage; then the horses were forced on to their +haunches, and Stafford scrambled to his feet from the road into which +he had been hustled. + +The driver jumped down and ran to the horses' heads, the carriage door +was flung open and the gentleman of the inn leapt out. Leapt out almost +on to Sir Stephen, who ran up breathless with apprehension on +Stafford's account. The two men stood and looked at each other in the +moonlight, at first with a confused and bewildered gaze, then Sir +Stephen started back with a cry, a strange cry, which brought Stafford +to his side. + +At the same moment, the girl he had seen in the sitting-room at the +inn, slipped out of the carriage. + +"Are we safe?" she asked faintly. "How did we stop? Who--" + +She stopped abruptly, and both she and Stafford stared at the two men +who were standing confronting each other. Sir Stephen was as white as a +ghost, and there was a look of absolute terror in his dark eyes. On the +face of the other man was an enigmatical smile, which was more bitter +than a sneer. + +"You are all right?" said Stafford; "but I am afraid you were very much +frightened!" + +The girl turned to him. "You!" she said, recognising him. "Did you stop +them?" + +"Yes; it was easy: they had had almost enough," he said. + +While they were speaking, the two elder men drew apart as if +instinctively. + +"_You_, Falconer?" murmured Sir Stephen, with ashy lips. + +"Yes," assented the other, drily; "yes, I am here right enough. Which +is it to be--friend or foe?" + +Sir Stephen stood gnawing his lip for a moment, then he turned to +Stafford. + +"Stafford, this--most extraordinary--this is an old friend of mine. +Falconer, this is my boy, my son Stafford!" + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +"A very old friend of your father!" said Mr. Falconer, and his keen +eyes looked into Stafford's as he held out his hand. Then he turned to +Sir Stephen, whose face had resumed its usual serenity, and was fixed +in the smile appropriate to the occasion. "Mr. Stafford Orme and I have +met before to-day--" + +Sir Stephen shot an enquiring glance from one to the other. + +--"At the inn at the other side of the lake. My daughter, Maude, and I +have been resting there for a few hours. Maude," he said to that young +lady, who was standing looking on at the group generally, but more +particularly, under her lids, at Stafford's tall figure; "this is a +very strange meeting between old friends. Sir Stephen Orme and I +haven't met for--how long ago is it, Orme?" + +Sir Stephen shook his head, and raised his thick, dark brows. + +"Too long for us to go back--especially in the presence of these young +people, whom we are always trying to persuade that we are not old. I am +delighted to see you, my dear young lady, and I am devoured by +curiosity to know how it is that you are here." + +"Well, we owe it to your son, Mr. Orme here, I should imagine, Sir +Stephen," she replied. She had fully recovered her self-possession, and +her manner and voice had all the tone of pride and indolence which +Stafford had noticed when he met her at the inn. "If he had not stopped +the horses, I suppose we should have either been killed or on the way +to the nearest hospital. By the way, have you thanked Mr. Orme yet, +father?" + +"Not yet; and I shall find it difficult to do so," said Mr. Falconer. +"Thanks are poor return for one's life, Mr. Orme. I hope you were not +hurt." He glanced at Stafford's usually immaculate dress-clothes, which +were covered with dust on one side, and displayed a rent in the sleeve +of the coat. + +"Oh, that's all right, sir," returned Stafford, with all an +Englishman's dread of a fuss. "They stopped short the moment I got hold +of them, and I only slipped, and got up directly. + +"You are not hurt, then, Stafford?" said Sir Stephen. "As I came up I +thought, was afraid that you were smashed up--and I daresay I showed my +fear: it's my only boy, Falconer." + +He looked at his old friend meaningly, and Falconer promptly backed him +up. + +"Well, yes, you looked fairly startled and scared," he said. "But now, +if the horses are all right, we may as well get on. We have given you +quite trouble enough." + +"The horses are all right, sir," said the driver. "I've managed to take +up the broken trace; it was that that startled them, sir, and they'll +be quiet enough now." + +"Oh, but where are you going?" said Sir Stephen, with hospitable +eagerness. "Were you not coming to us, to the Villa?" + +"No; we were going to Keswick," said Mr. Falconer. "My daughter had a +fancy for seeing the lake district, and we are making a kind of tour." + +"You have no other engagement? I am delighted to hear it," said Sir +Stephen. "Oh, I'll take no denial! What! Do you think I shall part with +an old friend so quickly--and after such a--er--sudden and unexpected +meeting! Miss Falconer, let me beg you to plead with your father for +me!" + +Mr. Falconer regarded Sir Stephen for a moment curiously, then looked +towards his daughter. Her fine eyes rested on Stafford's face, and he +could do not less than repeat his father's invitation. + +"I hope you'll consent, Miss Falconer," he said. "You have no doubt +been a little upset by the accident, and it is rather late to go on. +Pray stay with us!" + +"Thanks. I shall be delighted." she said, with her indolent, regal air. + +By this time, as they went towards the gate, some of the men who had +been walking in the garden came up, and Howard's voice called out: + +"Hallo, Stafford! Anything the matter?" "No; nothing whatever," said +Stafford, promptly; and Sir Stephen seized the opportunity to steer the +Falconers through the group. "Some old friends of mine, Mr. Howard; +their carriage broke down--fortunately at our very door--this way, +Falconer. Stafford, will you give Miss Maude your arm?" + +"Strange, our meeting again so soon, and under such circumstances," she +said. "You must have stopped those horses very pluckily. I thought that +kind of thing was out of date now, and that gentlemen only called the +police on such occasions. You are sure you are not hurt? I thought from +your father's face you must be. He must be very fond of you to look so +scared. He was as white as a ghost." + +"He is fond of me, I hope and think," said Stafford. "Candidly, I did +not think he would be so alarmed--but I don't know him very well +yet--we have been living apart until just recently." + +"Why, that is my case," she said. "My father and I were strangers until +the other day, when he came from abroad--What a beautiful house! It is +like a miniature palace." + +She looked at the Villa and then at Stafford with renewed interest. + +"I suppose your father is _the_ Sir Stephen Orme of whom one has heard +so much? I did not think of it until this moment." + +Stafford was giving instructions that the Falconers' carriage should be +seen to, and so was spared a reply. She stood in the hall looking round +with a kind of indolent admiration and surprise, and perfectly +self-possessed, though the hall was rapidly filling with the men from +the garden. + +"You would like to go to your rooms at once," said Sir Stephen, in his +serene and courtly voice. "If you should be too tired to come down +again to-night I will have some dinner sent up to you--but I hope you +won't be. It would be a great disappointment." + +"Oh, I am not at all tired," said Miss Falconer, as she followed the +housekeeper and the two demure maids up the exquisite staircase. + +Sir Stephen looked after them with a bland smile, then he turned to +Stafford and caught his arm. + +"Not hurt, my boy?" he said, in a tone of strained anxiety. + +Stafford was beginning to get tired of the question, and answered +rather impatiently: "Not in the least sir--why should I be! I'll change +my things and be down in five minutes!" + +"Yes, yes!" Sir Stephen still eyed him with barely concealed anxiety. +"Strange coincidence, Stafford! I--I haven't seen Ralph Falconer +for--for--ever so many years! And he is thrown at my very gate! And +they say there is no such thing as Fate--" + +"Hadn't you better go into the drawing-room, sir," Stafford reminded +him. "They'll think something has happened." + +"Eh? Yes, yes, of course!" said Sir Stephen, with a little start as if +he had been lost in thought; but he waited until he saw Stafford walk +up the stairs, without any sign of a limp, before he followed his son's +advice. + +The butler, who was too sharp to need any instructions, quickly served +a choice little dinner for the unexpected guests, and Stafford, who had +waited in the hall, accompanied them into the dining-room. Miss +Falconer had changed her travelling-dress for a rich evening-frock, and +the jewels Stafford had noticed were supplemented by some remarkably +fine diamonds. + +"I wish you had come in time for dinner!" he said, as he conducted her +to her seat. + +"So do I!" she returned, serenely. "We are giving a great deal of +trouble; and we are keeping you from your guests. The maid who waited +on me told me that you had a large house party." + +"Yes," said Stafford. "It is a kind of house-warming. My father intends +settling in England for some time, I think," he added. "And he has +built this place." + +Mr. Falconer looked up from his plate in his alert, watchful way. + +"Sir Stephen's plans rather uncertain?" he said. "I remember he always +used to be rather erratic. Well, if he means settling, he's made +himself a very cosy nest." He looked round the magnificent room with a +curious smile. "A wonderful man, your father, Mr. Orme!" + +"Yes?" said Stafford, with a non-committal smile. + +"Yes; of course, I've heard of his great doings--who hasn't! Did you +ever hear him speak of me--we were great friends one time?" + +"No, I don't think I have," replied Stafford. "But as I was telling +Miss Falconer, I have not seen very much of him." "Ah, yes, just so," +assented Mr. Falconer, and he went on with his dinner. + +Stafford had taken a seat at the table and poured out a glass of wine +so that they might not hurry; but he felt that he need not have been +anxious on that account, for the girl ate her dinner in a most +leisurely manner, talking to him in her soft, slow voice and looking at +him from under her half-closed lids. She talked of the scenery, of the +quaint inns and hotels they had put up at, of the various +inconveniences which she had suffered on the way; then suddenly she +raised her lids and looked at him fully and steadily. + +"I suppose the young lady we saw with you this morning is your sister?" + +With all his natural simplicity, Stafford was a man of the world, and +he did not redden or look embarrassed by the suddenness of the question +and the direct gaze of the luminous eyes. + +"No," he said. "I have neither sister nor brother--only my father. She +was a friend." + +"Oh," she said; then after a pause: "She was very pretty." + +Stafford nodded. Like a flash floated before him the exquisite +loveliness of Ida Heron. + +"Do you think so?" he said, with affected indifference. + +"Why, yes; don't you?" she retorted. + +"Oh, yes," he assented; "but I didn't know whether you would; men and +women so very seldom agree upon the question of looks. I find that most +of the women I think pretty are considered next door to plain by my +lady-friends." + +"Well, there can't be any doubt as to your friend's good looks," she +said. "She made rather a striking, not to say startling figure perched +sideways on that horse, in the pelting rain. I suppose she is one of +your neighbours?" + +"Yes," replied Stafford, as easily and casually as he could, for the +face still floated before him--"yes; but not a very near one. Let me +give you some more wine." + +"No, thanks. Father, haven't you nearly finished? Mr. Orme has kept us +company so nicely that we've been tempted to forget that we are keeping +him from his guests." + +She rose, and with a peculiarly sinuous movement threw out the train of +her dress, and swept languidly to the door Stafford offered her his arm +and they entered the drawing-room. + +Her appearance naturally caused a little sensation, for some of the men +had learnt and told of the story of Stafford's plucky arrest of the +bolting horses, and the people were curious to see the father and +daughter who had been rescued, and who had proved to be friends of Sir +Stephen. + +By a sort of tacit understanding, Lady Clausford, who was a +good-natured individual, was playing the part of hostess and general +chaperon, and Stafford led Miss Falconer up to her. + +Before a quarter of an hour had passed Miss Falconer seemed to be quite +at home in her novel surroundings; and leaning back in her chair, and +slowly fanning herself, received with perfect self-possession the +attentions which her beauty, her costly dress, and her still more +costly jewels merited. Presently Stafford heard Lady Clansford ask her +to sing; and he went to conduct her to the piano. + +"My music is upstairs in my box--but it does not matter: I will try and +remember something," she said. "I wonder what you like?" She raised her +eyes to his, as her fingers touched the keys. "The simple ballad would +be rather out of place, wouldn't it? Do you know this thing of +Wagner's?" + +As she began to sing the talking died down and gradually ceased; and +every eye was fixed upon her; for it was evident that she not only had +an exquisite voice, but knew how to use it. She sang like an artist, +and apparently without the least effort, the liquid notes flowing from +her red lips like the water of a mountain rill. + +Stafford was surprised, almost startled, but as he stood beside her, he +was thinking, strangely enough, not so much of the singer as of the +girl he was going to meet on the morrow. When she had finished, there +was a general murmur of applause, and Lady Clansford glided to the +piano and asked her to sing again. + +"You have a really wonderful voice, Miss Falconer. I don't think Melba +ever sang that better." + +"Melba's register is ever so much greater than mine," remarked Miss +Falconer, calmly. "No, thanks; I won't sing again. I think I am a +little tired." + +She went back to her seat slowly, her fan moving languidly, as if she +were too conscious of the worth of her voice to be affected by the +murmurs of applause and admiration; and Stafford, as his eyes followed +her, thought she resembled a superb tropical flower of rich and subtle +colouring and soft and languorous grace. + +None of the women would venture to sing after this exhibition, and one +of the young men went to the piano and dashed off a semi-comic song +which relieved the tension produced by Miss Falconer's magnificent +voice and style. Then the woman began to glance at the clock and rise +and stand about preparatory to going to bed, and presently they went +off, lingering, talking, and laughing, in the hall and in the +corridors. + +The men drifted into the billiard and smoking-room, and Sir Stephen +started a pool. He had been at his very best in the drawing-room, +moving about amongst the brilliant crowd, with a word for each and all, +and pleased smile on his handsome face, and a happy, genial brightness +in his voice. Once or twice Sir Stephen approached Mr. Falconer, who +leant against the wall looking on with the alert, watchful eyes half +screened behind his lids, which, like his daughter's had a trick of +drooping, though with a very different expression. + +"Your daughter has a magnificent voice, Falconer," Sir Stephen had said +in a congratulatory voice; and Falconer had nodded. + +"Yes. She's been well taught, I believe," he had responded, +laconically; and Sir Stephen had nodded emphatically, and moved away. + +"Will you play, Falconer?" he asked, as Stafford gave out the balls. +"You used to play a good game." + +Falconer shrugged his shoulders. + +"Haven't played for years: rather look on," he said. + +"Let me give you a cigar. Try these; they are all right, Stafford +says." + +Falconer seated himself in one of the lounges and looked at the players +and round the handsome room in contemplative silence. Sir Stephen's eye +wandered covertly towards him now and again, and once he said to +Stafford: + +"See if Mr. Falconer has some whiskey, my boy?" + +As Stafford went up to Mr. Falconer's corner he saw that Mr. +Griffinberg and Baron Wirsch had joined him. The three men were talking +in the low confidential tone characteristic of city men when they are +discussing the sacred subject of money, and Stafford caught the +words--"Sir Stephen"--"South African Railway." + +Mr. Falconer looked round sharply as Stafford stood at his elbow. + +"Eh? Whiskey? Oh, yes, thanks, I have some," he said. + +As Stafford returned to the billiard-room, Falconer nodded after him. + +"Is the son in this?" he asked, sharply. + +"Oh, no," replied the baron, with a smile. "He knows nothing; he ees +too young, too--vat do you say?--too vashionable, frivolous. No, Sir +Stephen doesn't bring him in at all. You understand? He is ze +ornamental, shleeping' pardner, eh?" And he chuckled. + +Falconer nodded, and leaning forward, continued the conversation in a +low voice. The men went off to bed one by one, and presently only Sir +Stephen, Stafford and Falconer remained; and as the latter rose as if +to retire, Sir Stephen laid a hand on his shoulder. + +"Don't go yet! I should like to have a little chat with you--about old +times." + +Falconer sank into his seat again and took a fresh cigar, and Stafford +left them. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +Sir Stephen closed the door after him, then went back to the +smoking-room and stood looking down at Falconer, who leant back in his +chair with his cigar in his mouth and eyed Sir Stephen under +half-closed lids with an expression which had something of mastery and +power in it. + +Sir Stephen bit at the end of his moustache, his thick black brows +lowered, as if he scarcely knew how to begin the "chat," and Falconer +waited without any offer of assistance. At last Sir Stephen said: + +"You asked me outside just now, Falconer, if it was to be 'friend or +foe?' I'm thinking the question ought to have come from me." + +"Yes," assented Falconer, his eyes growing still narrower. "Yes, I +suppose it ought." + +"Would your answer have been the same as mine--'friends'?" asked Sir +Stephen in a low voice. + +Falconer was silent for a moment, then he said: + +"It oughtn't to have been. If ever a man had cause to regard another as +an enemy, I've had cause to regard you as one, Orme!" + +Sir Stephen flushed, then went pale again. + +"There is no use in raking up the past," he muttered. + +"Oh, I've no need to rake it up; it's here right enough, without +raking," retorted Falconer, and he touched his breast with his thick +forefinger. "I'm not likely to forget the trick you played me; not +likely to forget the man who turned on me and robbed me--" + +"Robbed!" echoed Sir Stephen, with a dark frown. + +Falconer turned his cigar in his mouth and bit at it. + +"Yes, robbed. You seem to have forgotten: my memory is a better one +than yours, and I'm not likely to forget the day I tramped back to the +claim in that God-forsaken Australian hole to find that you'd +discovered the gold while I'd been on the trail to raise food and +money--discovered it and sold out--and cleared out!" + +His eyes flashed redly and his mouth twitched as his teeth almost met +in the choice Havana. + +Sir Stephen threw out his hand. + +"I heard you were dead," he said, hoarsely. "I heard that you had died +in a street row--in Melbourne." + +Falconer's heavy face was distorted by a sneer. + +"Yes? Of course, I don't believe you: who would?" + +"As Heaven is my witness--!" exclaimed Sir Stephen; but Falconer went +on: + +"You didn't wait to see if it were true or not; you cleared out before +I'd time to get back, and you took precious good care not to make +enquiries. No; directly your partner's back was turned you--sold him; +got the price and levanted." + +Sir Stephen paced up and done, his hands clenched behind him; his fine +leonine head bent; then he stopped in front of the chair, and frowned +down into the scowling face. + +"Falconer, you wrong me--it was not so bad, so black as it looked. It's +true I sold the claim; but I swear that I intended saving half for you. +But news was brought in that you were dead--a man said that he had seen +you fall, that you were dead and buried. I had to leave the camp the +night the money was paid: it would not have been safe to remain: you +know what the place was, and that the man who was known to have money +carried his life in his hand. I left the camp and tramped south. Before +a month had passed, the money had gone; if I had had any doubts of your +death, it was too late to enquire; it would have been useless; as I +tell you, the money was gone. But I hadn't any doubts; in simple truth, +I thought you were dead." + +Falconer looked round the luxurious room. + +"You lost the money? But you appear to have picked it up again; you +seem to be pretty flourishing, my friend; when you got on your feet +again and made your pile, why didn't you find out whether your old pal +was alive or dead?" + +Sir Stephen was silent for a space, then he raised his head and met the +other's accusing gaze unflinchingly. + +"I'll tell you--I'll tell you the whole truth, Falconer; and if you can +make excuse for me, if you can put yourself in my place--" + +He drew his hand across his brow as if the sweat had broken out upon +it. "The luck was dead against me for a time, the old luck that had +haunted you and me; then it swung round completely--as it generally +does when it changes at all. I was out in Africa, on the tramp, picking +up a day's work now and again at the farms--you know the life! One day +I saw a Kaffir boy playing with some rough stones--" + +Falconer nodded. + +"Diamonds. I fancy I've read an account of the great Sir Stephen Orme's +first beginnings," he put in with a touch of sarcasm. + +Sir Stephen reddened. + +"I daresay. It was the start, the commencement of the luck. From the +evening I took those stones in my hands--great Heaven! I can see the +place now, the sunset on the hill; the dirty brat playing in the +dust!--the luck has stood by me. Everything I touched turned out right. +I left the diamond business and went in for land: wherever I bought +land towns sprang up and the land increased in value a thousandfold. +Then I stood in with the natives: you've heard of the treaty--" + +Falconer nodded. + +"The treaty that enabled you to hand over so many thousand square miles +to the government in exchange for a knighthood." + +"No," said Sir Stephen, simply. "I got that for another business; but I +daresay the other thing helped. It doesn't matter. Then I--I married. I +married the daughter of a man of position, a girl who--who loved and +trusted me; who knew nothing of the past you and I know; and as I would +rather have died than that she should have known anything of it, I--" + +"Conveniently and decently buried it," put in Falconer. "Oh, yes, I can +see the whole thing! You had blossomed out from Black Steve--" + +Sir Stephen rose and took a step towards the door, then remembered that +he had shut it and sank down again, his face white as ashes, his lips +quivering. + +--"To Sir Stephen Orme, the African millionaire, the high and lofty +English gentleman with his head full of state secrets, and his safe +full of foreign loans; Sir Stephen Orme, the pioneer, the empire +maker--Oh, yes, I can understand how naturally you would bury the +past--as you had buried your old pal and partner. The dainty and +delicate Lady Orme was to hear nothing--" Sir Stephen rose and +stretched out his hand half warningly half imploringly. + +"She's dead, Falconer!" he said, hoarsely. "Don't--don't speak of her! +Leave her out, for God's sake!" + +Falconer shrugged his shoulders. + +"And this boy of yours--he's as ignorant as her ladyship was, of +course?" + +Sir Stephen inclined his head. + +"Yes," he said, huskily. "He--he knows nothing. He thinks me--what the +world sees me, what all the world, saving you, Falconer, thinks me: one +who has risen from humble but honest poverty to--what I am. You have +seen him, you can understand what I feel; that I'd rather die than that +he should know--that he should think badly of me. Falconer, I have made +a clean breast of it--I'm in your hands. I'm--I'm at your mercy. I +appeal to you"--he stretched out his white, shapely hands--"you have a +child of your own: she's as dear to you as mine is to me--I've watched +you to-night, and I've seen you look at her as she moved about and +talked and sang, with the look that my eyes wear when they rest on my +boy. I am at your mercy--not only mine, but my son's future--" + +He wiped the sweat from his forehead and drew a long breath. + +Falconer leant back and smoked contemplatively, with a coolness, an +indifference to the other's emotion which Sir Stephen found well-nigh +maddening. + +"Yes," said Falconer, after a pause, "I suppose your house of cards +would come down with a crash if I opened my mouth say, at breakfast +to-morrow morning, and told--well, all I know of the great Sir Stephen +Orme when he bore the name of Black Steve. Even you, with all you +colossal assurance, could not face it or outlive it. And as for the +boy--it would settle his hash now and forever. A word from me would do +it, eh, Orme? And upon my soul I don't know why I shouldn't say it! +I've had it in my mind, I've kept it as a sweet morsel for a good many +years. Yes, I've been looking forward to it. I've been waiting for the +'physiological moment,' as I think they call it; and it strikes me that +it has arrived." + +Sir Stephen's face grew strained, and a curious expression crept into +it. + +"If you ask me why you should not, I can give you no reason," he said. +"If you were poor I should offer you money--more, a great deal more +than I received for the old claim; but I can see that that would not +tempt you to forego your revenge. Falconer, you are not poor; your +daughter wears diamonds--" + +Falconer shrugged his shoulders. + +"No, I'm not in want of money. You're not the only man who has had a +change of luck. No, you can't bribe me; even if I were hard up instead +of rather flush, as I am, I wouldn't take a hundred thousand pounds for +my revenge." + +Sir Stephen rose. There was an ominous change in his manner. His +nervousness and apprehension seemed to have suddenly left him, and in +its place was a terrible, stony calmness, an air of inflexible +determination. + +"Good!" he said; and his voice had changed also, changed from its +faltering tone of appeal to one of steadfast resolution, the steadiness +of desperation. "I have made my appeal to you, Falconer, and I gather +that I have failed to move you; that you intend to exact your revenge +by--denouncing me!" + +Falconer nodded coolly. + +"And you think that I could endure to live under such a threat, to walk +about with the sword of Damocles over my head? You ought to know me +better, Falconer. I will not live to endure the shame you can inflict +on me, I will not live to tempt you by the sight of me to take your +revenge. I shall die to-night." + +Falconer eyed him intently, and carefully selected a fresh cigar. When +he had as carefully lit it, he said callously: + +"That's your business, of course. I shouldn't venture to interfere with +any plan of that kind. So you'd sneak out of it, eh, Orme? Sneak out of +it, and leave that young fellow to bear the brunt? Well, I'm sorry for +him! He seems the right sort--deuced good-looking and high-class--yes, +I'm d----d sorry for him!" + +Once again Sir Stephen's lips twitched and the big drops of sweat stood +on his brow. He stood for a minute looking from right to left like a +hunted animal at bay--then with something between a groan and a cry of +savagery, he spring towards Falconer with his hands outstretched and +making for his tormentor's throat. + +Before he could sweep the table aside and get at him, Falconer whipped +a revolver from his pocket and aimed it at Sir Stephen. + +"You fool!" he said in his harsh, grating voice, "did you think I was +such an idiot as to trust myself alone with you unarmed? Did you think +I'd forgotten what sort of man you were, or imagined that you'd so +changed that I could trust you? Bah! Sit down! Stand back, or, by +Heaven, I'll shoot you as I would a dog!" + +Sir Stephen shrank back, his hand to his heart, his eyes distended, his +face livid as if he were choking and sank into a chair. Falconer +returned the revolver into his pocket, and with his foot pushed the +inlaid Oriental table towards his host and victim. + +"There! Take some brandy! You're too old to play these tricks! That +heart of yours was never worth much in the old days, and I daresay it's +still more groggy. Besides, we're not in a mining camp or the backwoods +now." He sneered. "We're in Sir Stephen Orme's palatial villa on Lake +Bryndermere." + +Sir Stephen stretched out his hand and felt for the decanter, as if he +were suddenly blind and could not see it, and poured himself out some +brandy. Falconer watched him narrowly, critically. + +"Better? Look here, Orme, take my advice and keep a guard on your +emotions: you can't afford to have any with a heart like that." + +He paused and waited until Sir Stephen's ashy face had resumed a less +deathly pallor. + +"And now I'll answer your appeal--I don't intend to denounce you!" + +Sir Stephen turned to him with a gesture of incredulity. + +"Sounds strange, doesn't it? Humph! Doesn't it strike you that I've had +my revenge already? If there is a sweeter one than to see the man who +has sold you grovelling at your feet, and praying for mercy, than I +don't know it! The great Sir Stephen Orme, too!" He laughed sneeringly. +"No, if I'd meant to give you away, Orme, I should have done it +to-night in your swell drawing-room, with all your swell guests round +you, with your son--ay, and my daughter--to hear the story--the story +of Black Steve! But I didn't mean it, and I don't--" + +Sir Stephen drew a long breath of relief, and drank some more brandy. + +"Thank God!" he murmured. "What can I say--what can I do to--to express +my gratitude--my sense of your forbearance, Falconer?" + +Falconer, with his eyes narrowed to slits, looked at him keenly. + +"Oh, I'll dispense with your gratitude, Orme. We'll agree to forgive +and--forget. This is the last word we'll say about it." + +Sir Stephen, as if he could scarcely believe his ears, gazed at his +magnanimous foe in silence. + +"No half measures with me--you remember me of old," said Falconer. "The +subject's done with," he moved his thick hand as he were sweeping it +away. "Pass the whiskey. Thanks. Now, let's have the chat you kept me +up for." + +Sir Stephen wiped his lips and forced a smile. + +"Tell me about yourself; what you have been doing since we--er--all +this long time." + +Falconer shrugged his shoulders. "Oh, it isn't as interesting a story +as yours," he said. "I've just rubbed along with bad and good luck in +streaks; fortunately for me, the good ones were thicker and more +frequent than the bad ones. Lake yourself I married; like yourself, I'm +a widower. I've one child--Maude. She's been at school and under the +care of some people on the Continent, while I've been at work; and I've +come to England now to settle down. That tells enough of my story. I +know yours, as the rest of the world does. You're famous, you see." + +There was a pause; then he looked over his glass, and said: + +"What's you little game at the present moment, Orme?" + +Sir Stephen looked at him interrogatively, as if he were still rather +confused by the terrible scene which they had gone through. + +"Why have you built this place and got all these people here?" said +Falconer. "I know enough of Wirsch and Griffinberg and the Beltons to +be aware that they wouldn't come down to the lakes at this time of the +year unless there was something worth coming for, something--and a +pretty good sum--to be made." + +Sir Stephen looked down at the floor for a moment, as if he were +considering; then he leant forward. + +"I'll tell you," he said, with an air of decision, and with a return of +his usual coolness and aplomb. A dash of colour rose to his face, his +fine eyes grew bright; he was the "man of affairs," the great financier +again. "It's Africa this time," he said, in a low voice, and with a +glance at the door. "I've another treaty--" + +Falconer nodded. + +"I am making for a concession--a charter from the government." +Falconer nodded again. + +"And I want a railway from Danville to Bualbec." His voice almost sank +to a whisper. "Griffinberg, Wirsch, and the rest are with me--or nearly +so--I have got them down to clench the matter. There are millions in +it--if I can bring it off; there is what is worth more than millions to +me--" + +Falconer nodded. + +--"A peerage for Sir Stephen Orme," said Falconer, with a grim smile. + +"For Sir Stephen Orme's boy!" said Sir Stephen, with a flush, and a +flash of the dark eyes. "It is for his sake that I am making this last +throw; for my boy's, Falconer. For myself I am content--why shouldn't I +be? But for him--ah, well, you've seen him! You'll understand!" + +Falconer leant back and smoked in silence. + +"Plaistow is working the Colonial Office, the Beltons are feeling their +way in the city; Wirsch--but you know how the thing is done! I've got +them down here that they may work it quietly, that I may have them +under my eye--" + +"And the lords and ladies--they're to have a finger in the pie because, +though they can't help you in the African business, they can in the +matter of the peerage?" + +Sir Stephen smiled. "You'll stand in with us, Falconer? Don't refuse +me! Let me make some reparation--some atonement for the past!" He rose +and stood smiling, an imposing figure with his white hair and brilliant +eyes. Falconer got up slowly and stiffly. + +"Thanks. I'll think it over. It's a big thing, as you say, and it will +either make you--" + +--"Or break me!" said Sir Stephen, but he laughed confidently. + +Falconer nodded. + +"I'll go up now," he said. + +Sir Stephen went to the door with him, and held out his hand. + +"Good-night, Falconer!" he said. "Thank you--for my boy's sake!" + +Falconer took the warm hand in his cold one and held it for a moment, +then dropped it. + +"Good-night!" he said, with a nod and a sidelong glance. + +Sir Stephen went back and poured himself out another _liqueur_ glass of +brandy and heaved a sigh of relief. But it would have been one of +apprehension if he could have seen the cruel smile which distorted +Falconer's face as he went through the exquisitely beautiful hall and +corridors to the luxurious room which had been allotted to him. + +There was in the smile and the cold glitter of the eyes the kind of +look which the cat wears when it plays with a mouse. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +Ida walked home through the rain very thoughtfully: but not sadly; for +though it was still pelting in the uncompromising lake fashion, she was +half conscious of a strange lightness of the heart, a strange +brightness in herself, and even in the rain-swept view, which vaguely +surprised and puzzled her. The feeling was not vivid enough to be +happiness, but it was the nearest thing to it. + +And without realising it, she thought, all the way home, of Stafford +Orme. Her life had been so secluded, so solitary and friendless, that +he had come into it as a sudden and unexpected flash of sunlight in a +drear November day. It seemed to her extraordinary that she should have +met him so often, still more extraordinary the offer he had made that +morning. She asked herself, as she went with quick, light step along +the hills, why he had done it; why he, who was rich and had so many +friends--no doubt the Villa would be full of them--should find any +pleasure in learning to herd cattle and count sheep, to ride about the +dale with only a young girl for company. + +If anyone had whispered, "It is because he prefers that young girl's +society to any other's; it is because he wants to be with you, not from +any desire to learn farming," she would have been more than surprised, +would have received this offer of a solution of the mystery with a +smile of incredulity; for there had been no candid friend to tell her +that she possessed the fatal gift of beauty; that she was one of those +upon whom the eyes of man cannot look without a stirring of the heart, +and a quickening of the pulse. Vanity is a strong plant, and it +flourishes in every soil; but it had found no root in Ida's nature. She +was too absorbed in the round of her daily tasks, in the care of her +father and her efforts to keep the great place from going to rack and +ruin, to think of herself; and if her glass had ever whispered that she +was one of the loveliest of the daughters of Eve, she had turned a deaf +ear to it. + +No; she assured herself that it was just a whim of Mr. Orme's, a +passing fancy and caprice which would soon be satisfied, and that he +would tire of it after a few days, perhaps hours. Of course, she was +wrong to humour the whim; but it had been hard to refuse him, hard to +seem churlish and obstinate after he had been so kind on the night her +father had frightened her by his sleep-walking; and it had been still +harder because she had been conscious of a certain pleasure in the +thought that she should see him again. + +For the first time, as she went into the great silent house, she +realised how lonely her life was, how drear and uneventful. Now and +again, while cantering along the roads on the big chestnut, she had met +other girls riding and driving: the Vaynes, the Avorys, and the +Bannerdales; had heard them talking and laughing merrily and happily, +but it had never occurred to her to envy them, to reflect that she was +different to other girls who had friends and companions and girlish +amusements. She had been quite content--until now. And even now she was +not discontented; but this acquaintanceship which had sprung up so +strangely between her and Mr. Orme was like the touch of a warm hand +stretched out from the great world, and its sudden warmth awoke her to +the coldness, the dreariness of her life. + +As she entered the hall, Jessie came in by the back door with her apron +full of eggs. + +"I saw you come in, Miss Ida, so I thought I'd just bring you these to +show you; they're laying finely now, ain't they?" + +Ida looked round, from where she stood going through the form of drying +her thick but small boots against the huge log that glowed on the wide +dog-iron. + +"Yes: that is a splendid lot, Jessie!" she said, with a smile. "You +will have some to send to market for the first time this season." + +"Yes, miss," said Jessie, deftly rolling the eggs into a basket. "But +I'm thinking there won't be any need to send them to Bryndermere +market. Jason's just been telling me that the new folks up at Brae Wood +have been sending all round the place for eggs and butter and cream and +fowls, and Jason says that he can get so much better prices from them +than from Bryndermere. He was thinking that he'd put aside all the +cream he could spare and kill half a dozen of the pullets--if you don't +object, Miss Ida?" + +Ida's face flushed, and she looked fixedly at the fire. Something +within her protested against the idea of selling the dairy produce to +the new people at Brae Wood; but she struggled against the feeling. + +"Oh yes; why not, Jessie?" she said; though she knew well enough. + +"Well, miss," replied Jessie, hesitatingly, and with a questioning +glance at her young mistress's averted face, "Jason didn't know at +first; he said that selling the things at the new house was different +to sending 'em to market, and that you mightn't like it; that you might +think it was not becoming." + +Ida laughed. + +"That's pride on Jason's part; wicked pride, Jessie," she said. "If you +sell your butter and eggs, it can't very much matter whether you sell +them at the market or direct. Oh, yes: tell Jason he can let them have +anything we can spare." + +Jessie's face cleared and broke into a smile: she came of a race that +looks after the pennies and loves a good "deal." + +"Thank you, miss!" she said, as if Ida had conferred a personal favour. +"And they'll take all we can let 'em have, for they've a mortal sight +of folk up there at Brae Wood. William says that there's nigh upon +fifty bedrooms, and that they'll all be full. His sister is one of the +kitchen-maids--there's a cook from London, quite the gentleman, miss, +with, rings on his fingers and a piano in his own room--and Susie says +that the place is all one mass of ivory and gold, and that some of the +rooms is like heaven--or the queen's own rooms in Windsor Castle." + +Ida laughed. + +"Susie appears to have an enviable acquaintance with the celestial +regions and the abode of royalty, Jessie." + +"Yes, miss; of course, it's only what she've read about 'em. And she +says that Sir Stephen--that's the gentleman as owns it all--is a kind +of king, with his own body servant and a--a--I forget what they call +him; it's a word like a book-case." + +"A secretary," suggested Ida. + +"Yes, that's it, miss! But that he's quite simple and pleasant-like, +and that he's as easily pleased as if he were a mere nobody. And Susie +says that she runs out after dinner and peeps into the stables, and +that it's full of horses and that there's a dozen carriages, some of +'em grand enough for the Lord Mayor of London; and that there's a head +coachman and eight or nine men and boys under him. I'm thinking, Miss +Ida, that the Court"--the Court was the Vaynes' place--"or Bannerdale +Grange ain't half so grand." + +"I daresay," said Ida. "Is the lunch nearly ready, Jessie?" + +"Yes, miss; I was only waiting for you to come in. And Suzie's seen the +young Mr. Orme, Sir Stephen's son, and she says that he's the +handsomest gentleman she ever saw; and she heard Mr. Davis tell one of +the new hands that Mr. Stafford was a very great gentleman amongst the +fashionable people in London; and that very likely he'd marry one of +the great ladies that is coming down. Mr. Davis says that a duchess +wouldn't be too fine for him, he stands so high; and yet, Susie says, +he's just as pleasant and easy as Sir Stephen, and that he says 'thank +you' quite like a common person. But there, how foolish of me! I'm +standing here chattering while you're wet through. Do ye run up and +change while I put the lunch on, Miss Ida, dear!" + +When Ida came down her father was already at the table with his book +open at his elbow, and he scarcely looked up as she went to her place. + +Now, as a rule, she gave him an account of her rides and walks, and +told him about the cattle and the progress of the farm generally, of +how she had seen a kingfisher or noticed that the trout were rising, or +that she had startled a covey of partridges in the young wheat; to all +of which he seemed scarcely ever to listen, nodding his head now and +again and returning often to his book before she had finished speaking; +but to-day she could not tell him of her morning walk and her meeting +with Stafford Orme. + +She would have liked to have assured him that he had done Sir Stephen +an injustice in thinking him guilty of buying the Brae Wood land in an +underhand way, but she knew it would be of no use to do so; for once an +idea had got into Mr. Heron's head it was difficult to destroy it. For +the first time in her life, too, she was concealing something from him. +Once or twice she tried to say: + +"Father, the gentleman who was fishing on the river was Sir Stephen +Orme's son; I have met him two or three times since, and he has asked +me to meet him to-morrow;" but she could not. + +She knew he would fly into one of the half-childish passions in which +he could not be persuaded to listen to reason, and that he would insist +upon the breaking off of her acquaintance with Mr. Orme; and there was +so much pain in the mere thought of it that her courage failed her. If +she were not to meet him, or if she met him, and told him that she +could not remain with him, must not speak to him again, it would be +tantamount to telling him that she did not believe his father was +innocent; and she did believe it. Though she knew so little of Mr. +Orme, she felt that she could trust him. + +So she sat almost silent, thinking of what Jessie had told her, and +wondering why Stafford Orme should leave the gay party at the Villa to +ride with her. Once only in the course of the meal did her father +speak. He looked up suddenly, with a quick, almost cunning, glance, and +said: + +"Can you let me have some money, Ida? I want to order some books. +There's a copy of the Percy 'Reliques' in the catalogue I should like +to buy." + +"How much is it, father?" she asked. + +"Oh, five pounds will do," he said, vaguely. "There are one or two +other books." + +She made a hasty calculation: five pounds was a large sum to her; but +she smiled as she said: + +"You are very extravagant, dear. There is already a copy of the +'Reliques' in the library." + +He looked confused for a moment, then he said: + +"But not with these notes--not with these notes! They're valuable, and +the book is cheap." + +"Very well, dear," she responded; and she went to the antique bureau +and, unlocking it, took a five-pound note from a cedar box. + +He watched her covertly, with a painful eagerness. + +"I suppose you have a large nest egg there, eh, Ida?" he remarked, with +a quavering laugh. + +"No: a very little one," she responded. "'Not nearly enough to pay the +quarterly bills. But never mind, dear; there it is. You must show me +the books when they come; I never saw the last you ordered, you know!" + +He took the note with an assumption of indifference but with a gleam of +satisfaction in his sunken eyes. + +"Didn't you?" he said. "I must have forgotten. You're always so busy; +but I'll show you these, if you'll remind me. You must be careful of +the money, Ida; you must keep down the expenses. We're poor, very poor, +you know; and the cost of living and servants is very great--very +great." + +He wandered off to the library, muttering to himself, with his book +under his arm, and the five-pound note gripped tightly in the hand +which he had thrust into the pocket of his dressing-gown; and Ida, as +she put on her habit and went into the stable-yard to have the colt +saddled, sighed as she thought that it would be nice to have just, for +once, enough money to meet all the bills and buy all the books her +father coveted. + +But her melancholy was not of long duration. The colt was in high +spirits, and the task of impressing him with the fact that he had now +reached a responsible age and must behave like a horse, with something +else before him in life than kicking up his heels in the paddock, soon +drove the thought of their poverty from her mind and sent the blood +leaping warmly and wildly in her veins. + +She spent the afternoon in breaking in the colt, and succeeded in +keeping Stafford Orme out of her thoughts; but he slid into them again +as she sat by the drawing-room fire after dinner--the nights are often +cool in the dales all through early summer--and recalled the +earnestness in his handsome face when he pleaded to be allowed to "help +her." + +She sat up for some little time after her father had gone to bed, and +as usual, she paused outside his door and listened. All was quiet then; +but as she was brushing her hair she thought she heard his door open. + +She laid down the brush and stood battling with the sudden fear which +possessed her; then she stole out on to the corridor. The old man was +standing at the head of the stairs as if about to descend; and though +she could not see his face she knew that he was asleep. + +She glided to him noiselessly and put her hand upon his arm softly. He +turned his sightless eyes upon her, evidently without seeing her, and, +fighting against the desire to cry out, she led him gently back to his +room. + +He woke as they crossed the threshold, woke and looked at her in a +stupefied fashion. + +"Are you ill, father? Is there anything you want?" she asked, as calmly +as she could. + +"No," he replied. "I am quite well; I do not want anything. I was going +to bed--why have you called me?" + +She remained with him for a few minutes, then left the room, turning +the key in the door. When she had gone he stood listening with his head +on one side; then he opened his hand and looked with a cunning smile at +the five-pound note which had been tightly grasped in it. + +"She didn't see it; no, she didn't see it!" he muttered; and he went +stealthily to the bed and thrust it under the pillow. + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +The morning broke with that exquisite clearness which distinguishes the +lakes when a fine day follows a wet one; and, despite her anxiety on +her father's account, Ida, as she went down-stairs, was conscious of +that sense of happiness which comes from anticipation. She made her +morning tour of inspection of the stables and the dairy, and ordered +the big chestnut to be saddled directly after breakfast. + +When her father came down she was relieved to find that he seemed to be +in his usual health; and in answer to her question whether he had slept +well, he replied in the affirmative, and was mildly surprised that she +should enquire. Directly he had gone off to the library she ran +upstairs to put on her habit. + +For the first time she was struck by its shabbiness; she had never +given a thought to it before. Her evening-dresses, though plain and +inexpensive, were always dainty and fresh, but she wore her habit as +long as it would hold together, and cared nothing for the fact that her +hat was stained by the rain: they were her "working clothes," and +strictly considered as such. But this morning she surveyed the skirt +ruefully, and thought of the trim and apparently always new habits +which the Bannerdale girls wore; and she brushed it with a care which +it had never yet received. As a rule she wore a black scarf, or none at +all; but as she looked at herself in the glass she was not satisfied, +and she found a scarlet tie which she had bought in a fit of +extravagance, and put it on. The touch of colour heightened the beauty +of her clear ivory face and brightened up the old habit; but she looked +at herself in the glass with something like shamefacedness: why was she +so anxious about her appearance this morning of all the mornings? For +an instant she was tempted to snatch off the tie; but in the end she +let it remain; and she brushed the soft tendrils of her hair at her +forehead with unusual care before she fastened on her hat. + +Her father was walking up and down the terrace slowly as she came out, +and he raised his head and looked at her absently. + +"I shall probably ride into Bryndermere, father," she said. "Shall I +post your letters? I know you will be anxious for that one to the +book-sellers to go," she added, with a smile. + +His eyes dropped and he seemed disconcerted for a minute, then he said: + +"No, no; I'll send it by Jason; I've not written it yet;" and he turned +away from her and resumed his pacing to and fro. + +Ida went to the stable-yard and got on to Rupert by the aid of the +stone "mounting block" from which Charles the Second had climbed, +laughingly, to the white horse which figures in so many pictures of the +Merry Monarch, and rode out of the court-yard, watched with pride by +Jason. Before she had gone far he ran after her. + +"If you're riding by West Hill, Miss Ida, perhaps you'd look at the +cattle-shed there. Williams says that the roof's falling in." + +"Very well," she called back in her clear voice. + +"Oh, and, Miss Ida, there's a big stone washed out of the weir; I'm +thinking it ought to be put back or we'll have the meadows above +flooded this winter." + +She laughed and nodded and put Rupert to a trot, for she knew that +while she was within hearing Jason would bombard her with similar tales +of woe. Not a slate slid from the old roof of the Hall, or a sheep fell +lame, but the matter was referred to her. + +She rode down the road in the sunlight, the big chestnut moving under +her as if he were on springs and she were a feather, and, half +unconsciously, she began to hum an air--not one of those modern ones +one hears in many drawing-rooms, but an old-fashioned melody which she +had found in an ancient music-book in the antique cabinet beside the +grand piano. She left the road where it touched the wild moorland of +the valley, and Rupert broke into a canter, Donald and Bess, settling +into the stride with which they managed to keep up with the big horse. + +She had resolved that she would not ride straight to the stream, and +she kept up the hill-side, but her eyes wandered to the road +expectantly now and again; but there was no sign of a horseman, and +after half an hour had passed a sense of disappointment rose within +her. It was quite possible that he had forgotten the engagement; +perhaps on reflection he had seen that she was quite right in her +objections to his strange proposal, and he would not come. A faint +flush rose to her face, and she turned Rupert and rode up and over the +hill where she could not see the road. But she had no sooner got on top +than she remembered that no time had been mentioned, or, if it had, +that she had forgotten it. She turned and rode up the hill again, and +looking down, saw Stafford riding along the valley in desperate haste, +and yet looking about him uncertainly. Her heart beat with a quickened +pulse, sending the delicate colour into her face, and she pulled up, +and, leaning forward with her chin in her hand, watched him dreamily. + +He rode a heavier horse than Adonis; and he had made a change in his +dress; in place of the riding-suit, which had smacked of London and +Hyde Park, he wore a rough but light coat, thick cord breeches, and +brown leather gaiters. She smiled as she knew that he had tried to make +himself look as much like a farmer as possible; but no farmer in the +dales had that peculiar air of birth and breeding which distinguished +Stafford Orme; the air which his father had been so quick to detect and +to be proud of. + +She noticed how well he sat the great horse, with what ease and "hands" +he rode over the rough and treacherous ground. Suddenly he turned his +head and saw her, and with a wave of his hand came galloping up to her, +with a smile of relief and gladness on his handsome face, as he spoke +to the dogs, who clamoured round him. + +"I was so afraid I had missed you," he said. "I am late, am I not? Some +people kept me after breakfast." + +"You are not late; I don't think any time was mentioned," she +responded, quickly, though her heart was beating with a strange and +novel sensation of pleasure in his presence. "I scarcely expected you." + +He looked at her reproachfully. + +"Not expect me! But why?" + +"I thought you might change your mind," she said. + +He checked a quick response, and said instead: + +"And now, where do we go first? You see I have got a bit heavier horse. +He's a present, also, from my father. What do you think of him?" + +She eyed him gravely and critically. + +"He's nice-looking," she said, "but I don't like him so well as the one +you rode yesterday. Didn't I see him slip just now, coming up the +hill?" + +"Did he?" said Stafford. "I didn't notice. To tell you the truth, I was +so delighted at seeing you that I don't think I should have noticed if +he had tumbled on his nose." + +"Oh, it wasn't much of a slip," she said, quickly, to cover her slight +confusion at his candid confession. "Shall we go down to the sheep +first?" + +"Anywhere you like," he assented, brightly. "Remember, I'm your pupil." + +She glanced at him and smiled. + +"A very big pupil." + +"But a very humble one," he said. "I'm afraid you'll add, 'a very +stupid one,' before long." + +As they rode down hill, Stafford stole a look at her unobserved. Ever +since he had left her yesterday her face had haunted him, even while +Maude Falconer, in all her war paint and sparkling with jewels, had +been singing, even in the silent watches of the night, when--strange +thing for him!--he had awakened from a dream of her; he had recalled +the exquisitely lovely face with its grave yet girlish eyes, and he +felt now, with a thrill, that she was even more lovely than she had +been in his thoughts and his dreams; that the nameless charm which had +haunted him was stronger, more subtle, than even his fancy had painted +it. He noticed the touch of colour just below her white slender column +of a neck, and wondered why no other woman had ever thought of wearing +a crimson tie with her habit. + +"What a grand morning," he said. "I don't think I ever saw a morning +like this, so clear and bright; those hills there look as though they +were quite near." + +"It's the rain," she explained. "It seems to wash the atmosphere. My +father says there is only one other place which has this particular +clearness and brightness after rain: and that's Ireland. There are the +sheep. Now," she smiled, "do you know how to count them?" + +He stared at her. + +"You begin at number one, I suppose," he said. + +She smiled. + +"But where is number one?" + +She spoke to Donald in a low voice, then the collie began to work the +sheep up into a heap; Bess assisting with her sharp yap. + +"Now they're ready," said Ida. "You must be quick." + +Stafford began to count, but the sheep moved and the ones he had +counted got mixed up with the others, and he began again and yet again, +until he turned with a puzzled and furrowed brow. + +"I can't count them," he said. "They won't keep still for a single +moment." + +She turned to him with a smile. + +"There are fifty-two," she said. + +"Do you mean to say that you've counted them already?" he exclaimed. + +"Yes; I could have counted them twice over by this time. Now, begin +again, and begin from the farthest row; and remember when you come to a +black one. Keep your eye on that one and start again front him. It's +quite easy when you know how." He began again. + +"I make it forty-eight." + +She shook her head and laughed. + +"That would be four missing, and we should have to hunt for them. But +they are all there. Try again." He tried--and made it fifty-six. + +"Didn't I tell you that I was an idiot!" he said, in despair. + +"Oh, you can't expect to learn the first time," she said, consolingly. +"It was weeks before I could do it; and I almost cried the first few +times I tried: they would move just as I was finishing." + +"Oh, well, then I can hope to get it in time," he said. "Did it ever +strike you that though we think ourselves jolly clever, that there are +heaps of things which a workingman--the men we look down upon--can do +which we couldn't accomplish if it were to save our lives. For +instance, I couldn't make a horseshoe if my existence depended upon it, +and yet it looks as easy as--" + +--"Counting sheep," she finished, with a twinkle in her grey-blue +eyes. + +"Just so," he said, with a laugh. "Shall I have another try?" + +"Oh, no; you'd be here all day; and we've got to see if the others are +all right; but first I think we'd better go and look at the weir; Jason +says that a stone has got washed down, and that means that when the +autumn rains come the meadows would be flooded." + + +"All right: I'm ready," he said, with bright alacrity. "I'm enjoying +this. I know now why you look so happy and contented. You're of some +use in the world, and I--the rest of us--That's the weir?" he broke off +to enquire, as they came in sight of a rude barrier of stones which +partially checked the stream. + +"That is it," she said. "And Jason is right. Some of the big stones +have been washed down. What a nuisance! We shall have to get some men +from Bryndermere to put them up again." + +Stafford rode up to the weir and looked at it critically. + +"Thank Heaven I haven't got to count the stones!" he said. "If you'll +kindly hold my horse--he's not so well trained as yours, and would +bolt, I'm afraid." He slipped from the saddle as he spoke, and she +caught the reins. + +"What are you going to do? she asked. + +"I don't know yet," Stafford called back, as he waded into the river. + +She held the horse and sat reposeful in the saddle and watched him with +a smile upon her face. But it grew suddenly grave as she saw Stafford +stoop and put his arms round one of the fallen stones; and she cried to +him: + +"Oh, you can't lift them; it's no use trying!" + +Stafford apparently did not hear her, for, exerting all his strength, +he lifted the big stone and gradually slid and hoisted it into its +place. Then he attacked the other two, and with a still greater effort +raised them into a line with their fellows. + +Ida watched him as--well, as one watches some "strong man" going +through his performance. + +It was a well-nigh incredible feat, and she held her breath as one +stone followed the other. It seemed to her incredible and impossible, +because Stafford's figure was slight and graceful, and he performed the +feat with the apparent ease which he had learnt in the 'varsity +athletic sports. + +The colour rose to her face and her heart beat quickly. There is one +thing left for women to worship; and they worship it readily--and that +is strength. Stafford could not count sheep--any woman could do +that--but he could do what no woman could do: lift those great stones +into their places. + +So that, as he waded out of the river, she smiled _on_ him instead of +_at_ him--which is a very different thing--as she said: + +"How strong you must be! I should have thought it would have required +two or three men to lift those stones." + +"Oh, it's easy enough, as easy as--counting sheep when you know how." + +She laughed. + +"But you must be very wet," she said, glancing at the water as it +dripped from his clothes. + +"Oh, it's all in the day's work," he said, cheerfully, more than +cheerfully, happily. "Now for the steers." + +"They're in the dale," she said; and she looked at him as she spoke +with a new interest, with the interest a woman feels in the presence of +her master, of the man who can move mountains. + +He shook the water from him and rode at her side more cheerfully than +he had done hitherto, for he had, so to speak, proved his helpfulness. +He might be an idiot, but he could lift weir stones into their place. + +"There they are," she said. "And, oh, dear! One of them has got loose. +There ought to be fourteen and there are only thirteen!" + +"Good heavens! You must have eyes like a hawk's" + +She laughed. "Oh, no; I'm used to it, that is all. Now, where can it +be? I thought all the fences were mended. I must find it!" + +"Stop!" he said. "At any rate, I can find a cow--bullock--steer. Let me +go. You wait here." + +He rode off as he spoke, and she pulled up the big chestnut and looked +after him. Once more the question rose to perplex her: why had he come, +why was he riding about the dale with her, counting sheep, wading in +the stream, lifting weir stones, and herding cattle? It seemed to be so +strange, so inexplicable. And as she followed him with her eyes, his +grace and strength were impressed upon her, and she dwelt upon them +dreamily. Were there many such men in the world of which she knew so +little, or was he one alone, and unique? And how good, how pleasant it +was to have him with her, to talk to her, to help her! She had often +longed for a brother, and had pictured one like this, strong and +handsome, with frank eyes and smiling lips--someone upon whom she could +lean, to whom she could go when she was in trouble. + +A shout awoke her from her reverie; and looking up she saw the missing +steer forcing its way through a hedge on top of a bank. Stafford was +riding after it at an easy canter and coming straight for the bank. The +steer plunged through the hedge and floundered through the wide ditch, +and Ida headed it and drove it towards the rest of the herd. Then she +turned in her saddle to warn Stafford of the ditch; but as she turned +he was close upon the bank, and she saw the big hunter rise for the +leap. + +A doubt as to how he would land rose in her mind, and she swung Rupert +round; and as she did so, she saw the hunter crash through the hedge, +stumble at the ditch, and fall, lurching forward, on its edge. + +No man alive could have kept his seat, and Stafford came off like a +stone thrown from a catapult, and lay, face downwards, in the long, wet +grass. + +Something like a hot iron shot through Ida's heart, and sent her face +white, and she rode up to him and flung herself from Rupert and knelt +beside the prostrate form. + +He lay quite still; and she knew quite well what had happened: that he +had fallen on his head and stunned himself. + +She remembered, at that moment, that she herself had once so fallen; +but the remembrance did nothing to soften her present anxiety. She +knelt beside him and lifted his head on her knee, and his white face +smote her accusingly. He was still, motionless so long that she began +to fear--was he dead? She asked herself the question with a heavy +pulsation of the heart, with a sense of irrevocable loss. If he was +dead, then--then--what had she lost! + +Trembling in every limb, she laid her hand upon his heart. It beat, but +slowly, reluctantly. She looked round her with a sense of helplessness. +She had never been placed in such a position before. Not far from her +was a mountain rill, and she ran to it with unsteady steps and soaked +her handkerchief in it, and bathed the white, smooth forehead. + +Even at that moment she noticed, half unconsciously, the clear-cut, +patrician features, the delicate lines of the handsome face. + +He had come to this mishap in his attempt to help her. He was dying, +perhaps, in her service. A thrill ran through her, a thrill that moved +her as by an uncontrollable impulse to bend still lower over him so +that her lips almost touched his unconscious ones. Their nearness, the +intent gaze of her eyes, now dark as violets, seemed to make themselves +felt by him, seemed by some mysterious power to call him back from the +shadow-land of unconsciousness. He moved and opened his eyes. + +She started, and the colour flooded her face as if her lips had quite +touched his, and her eyes grew heavy as, breathing painfully, she +waited for him to entirely recover his intelligence and to speak. + +"The steer!" he said at last, feebly. + +She moistened her lips, and looked away from him as if she were afraid +lest he should see what was in her eyes. "The steer is all right; +but--but you!" + +He forced a laugh. "Oh, I'm all right, too," he said. He looked around +hazily. "I must have come a smasher over that bank!" + +Then he saw that he was lying with his head upon her knee, and with a +hot flush, the man's shame for his weakness in the presence of a woman, +he struggled into a sitting posture and looked at her, looked at her +with the forced cheerfulness of a man who has come an unforeseen, +unexpected cropper of the first magnitude. + +"It was my fault. You--you were right about the horse: he ought not to +have slipped--Where's my hat? Oh here it is. The horse isn't lame, I +hope?" + +"No," she said, setting her teeth in her great effort to appear calm +and unmoved. "He is standing beside Rupert--" She had got thus far when +her voice broke, and she turned her face away quickly; but not so +quickly that he did not see her exceeding pallor, the heavy droop of +the lids, the sweep of the dark lashes on her white cheek. + +"Why--what's the matter, Miss Heron?" he asked, anxiously, and with all +a man's obtuseness. "_You_ didn't happen to come to grief in any way? I +didn't fall on you?--or anything? I--" + +She tried to laugh, tried to laugh scornfully; for indeed she was +filled with scorn for this sudden inexplicable weakness, a weakness +which had never assailed her before in all her life, a weakness which +filled her breast with rage; but from under the closed lids two tears +crept and rolled down her cheek; and against her will she made +confession of this same foolish weakness. + +"It is nothing: I am very foolish--but I--I thought you were badly +hurt--for the moment that you might even be--killed!" + +He staggered to his feet and caught her hand and held it, looking at +her with that look in a man's eyes which is stronger and fiercer than +fire, and yet softer than water; the look which goes straight to a +woman's heart. + +"And you cared--cared so much?" he said, in a voice so low that she +could scarcely hear it, hushed by the awe and wonder of passion. + +She tried to withdraw her hand, biting her lips, setting them tightly, +in her battle for calmness and her old _hauteur_ and indifference; but +he held the small hand firmly, felt it quiver and tremble, saw the +violet eyes raised to his with a troubled wonder in them; and her name +sprang to his lips: + +"Ida!" he breathed. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +"Ida!" The name had sprung from his lips, from his heart, almost +unconsciously; it did not seem strange to him, for he knew, as he spoke +it, that he had called her so in his thoughts, that it had hovered on +his lips ever since he had heard it. But to her--Who shall describe the +subtle emotion which thrills through a girl's heart when she hears, for +the first time from a strange man's lips, the name whose use hitherto +has been reserved for her kith and kin? + +She stood erect, but with her head bent, her eyes fixed on the ground, +the name, his voice, ringing in her ears; her heart was beating almost +painfully, as if with weight of a novel kind of fear, that yet was not +altogether fear. Stafford looked at her with the man's, the lover's +eagerness, but her face told him nothing. She was so ignorant of the +very A B C of love that there was no start of surprise, no word or +movement which might guide him; but his instant thought was that she +was offended, angry. + +"Forgive me!" he said. "You are angry because I called you--Ida! It was +wrong and presumptuous; but I have learned to think of you by your +name--and it slipped out. Are you very angry? Ah, you knew why I called +you so? Don't you know that--I love you!" + +She raised her eyes for a moment but did not look at him; they were +fixed dreamily on the great hills in the distance, then drooped again, +and her brows came together, her lips straightened with a still more +marked expression of trouble, doubt, and wonder. + +"I love you," he said, with the deep note of a man's passion in his +voice. "I didn't mean to tell you, to speak--I didn't know until just +now how it was with me: you see I am telling you everything, the whole +truth! You will listen to me?" + +For she had made a movement of turning away, a slow, heavy gesture as +if she were encumbered by chains, as if she were under some spell from +which she could not wake. + +"I will tell you everything, at the risk of making you angry, at the +risk of your--sending me away." + +He paused for a moment, as if he were choosing his words with a care +that sprang from his fear lest he should indeed rouse her anger +and--lose her. + +"The first day I saw you--you remember?" + +As if she could forget! She knew as he asked the question that no +trifling detail of that first meeting was forgotten, that every word +was engraven on her memory. + +"When I saw you riding down the hill, I thought I had never seen any +girl so beautiful, so lovely--" + +The colour rose slowly to her face, but died away again: the least vain +of women is moved when a man tells her she is beautiful--in his eyes, +at any rate. + +"And when you spoke to me I thought I had never heard so sweet a voice; +and if I had, that there had never been one that I so longed to hear +again. You were not with me long, only a few minutes, but when I left +you and trumped over the hill to the inn I could not get you out of my +mind. I wondered who you were, and whether I should see you again." The +horses moved, and instinctively she looked over her shoulder towards +them. + +"They will not go: they are quite quiet," he said. "Wait--ah, wait for +a few minutes! I have a feeling that if I let you go I shall not see +you again; and that would--that would be more than I could bear. That +night at the inn the landlord told me about you. Of course he had +nothing but praise and admiration for you--who would have any other? +But he told me of the lonely life you led, of the care you took of your +father, of your devotion and goodness; and the picture of you living at +the great, silent house, without friends or companions--well, it +haunted me! I could see it all so plainly--I, who am not usually quick +at seeing things. As a rule, I'm not impressed by women--Howard says I +am cold and bored--perhaps he's right; but I could not get you out of +my mind. I felt that I wanted to see you again." + +He paused again, as if the state of mind he was describing was a puzzle +to himself--paused and frowned. + +"I left the inn and started up the road--I suppose I wanted to get a +glimpse of the house in which you lived. Yes; that must have been it. +And then, all at once, I saw you. I remember the frock you wore that +night--you looked like an angel, a spirit standing there in the +moonlight, the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. Are you angry +with me for saying so? Don't be; for I've got to tell you everything, +and--and--it's difficult!" + +He was silent a moment. Her head was still down-bent, her small white +hand hung at her side; she was quite motionless but for the slow, +rhythmic rise and fall of her bosom. + +"When you came to me, when you spoke to me, my heart leapt as if--well, +as if something good had happened to me--something that had never +happened before. When I went away the picture of you standing at the +door, waving your hand, went with me, and--stayed with me. I could not +get you out of my mind--could think of nothing else. Even in the +meeting with my father, whom I hadn't seen for so long, the thought of +you kept with me. I tried to get rid of it--to forget you, but it was +of no use: sleeping and waking, you--_you were with me!_" + +His voice grew almost harsh in its intensity, and the hand that had +hung so stilly beside her closed on the skirt of her dress in her +effort to keep the hot blush from her face. + +"When I rode out the next day it was only with the hope of seeing you. +It seemed to me there was only one thing I wanted: to see you again; to +look into your eyes, to hear you speak. All that I had heard about +you--well, I dwelt upon it, and I felt that I must help you. It seemed +as if Fate--Chance--oh, I don't know what to call it!--had _sent_ me to +help you. And when I saw you--ah, well, I can't expect you to +understand what I felt!" + +He stopped again, as if he himself were trying to understand it. + +"The feeling that fate had something to do with it--you see, it was +quite by chance I started fishing that afternoon, that I saw you at the +house--gave me courage to ask you to let me help you. It sounded +ridiculous to you--of course it did!--but if you only knew how much it +meant to me! It meant that I should see you again; perhaps every day +for--for a long time: ah, well, it meant just life and death to me. And +now--!" + +His breath came fast, his eyes dwelt upon her with passionate +eagerness; but he forced himself to speak calmly than he might not +frighten her from his side, might not lose her. + +--"Now the truth has come upon me, quite suddenly. It was just now when +I saw that you cared what had happened to me, cared if I were +hurt!--Oh, I know, it was just because you were frightened, it was just +a woman's pity for a fellow that had come to harm, the fear lest I had +broken any bones; but--ah, it showed me my heart, it told me how much I +loved you! Yes; I love you! You are all the world to me: nothing else +matters, _nothing!_" + +Her lips quivered, but she did not speak, and the look of trouble, of +doubt, did not leave her face. He waited, his eyes seeking hers, +seeking them for some sign which might still the passion of fear and +suspense with which he was battling, then he said in a low voice that +thrilled with the tempest of emotion which raged under his forced calm: + +"Will you not speak to me? Are you angry?" + +She raised her head and looked at him--a strange look from so young a +girl. It was as if she were fighting against the subtle spell of his +words, the demand for her love which shone in his eyes. + +"No, I am not angry," she said at last; and her voice, though very low, +was calm and unshaken. + +He made a movement towards her, but she shrank back, only a little, but +perceptibly, and he checked the movement, the desire to take her in his +arms. + +"You are not angry? Then--Ida--I may call you so?--you don't mind my +loving you? Dearest, will you love me just a little in return? Wait!" +for she had shrunk again, this time more plainly. "Don't--don't answer +without thinking! I know I have startled you, that I ought not to have +spoken so soon, while you only know so little of me--you'd naturally +say 'no,' and send me away. But if you think you can like me--learn to +love me--" + +He took her hand, hanging so temptingly near his own; but she drew it +away. + +"No; don't touch me!" she said, with a little catch in her voice. "I +want to think--to understand." She paused for a moment, her eyes still +seeking the distant hills, as if in their mysterious heights she might +find something that should explain this great mystery, this wonderful +thing that had happened to her. At last, with a singular gesture, so +girlish, so graceful that it made him long still more intensely to take +her in his arms, she said in a low voice: + +"I do not know--No! I do not want you to touch me, please!" His hand +fell to his side. "I can't answer you. It is so--so sudden! No one has +ever spoken to me as you have done--" + +He laughed from mere excess of joy, for her pure innocence, her +unlikeness, in her ignorance of love and all pertaining to it, to the +women he knew, made the charm of her well-nigh maddening. To think that +he should be the first man to speak of love to her! + +"I am not angry--ought I to be? Yes, I suppose so. We are almost +strangers--have seen so little of each other." + +"They say that love, all true love, comes at first sight," he said in +his deep voice. "I used to laugh at the idea; but now I know it is +true. I loved you the first time I met you, Ida!" + +Her lip quivered and her brows knit. + +"It seems so wonderful," she said, musingly, "I do not understand it. +The first time! We scarcely spoke--and I was almost angry with you for +fishing in the Heron. And I did--did not think of you--" + +He made a gesture, repudiating the mere idea. + +"Is it likely! Why should you?" he said. "I was just an ordinary man, +crossing your path for the first and perhaps the only time. Good +heavens! there was no reason why you should give a thought to me, why I +should linger in your mind for half a moment after I was out of your +sight. But for me--Haven't I told you how beautiful you are, Ida! You +are the loveliest, the sweetest.--But, even if you had not been--I mean +it is not because you are so beautiful that I love you--" She looked at +him with a puzzled, troubled look. + +"No! I can't explain. See, now, there's not a look of yours, not a +feature that I don't know by heart as if I'd learnt it. When I am away +from you I can see you--see the way your hair clusters in soft little +curls at your forehead, the long lashes sweeping your cheek, the--the +trick your eyes have of turning from grey to violet--oh, I know your +face by heart, and I _love_ it for its beauty; but if you were to lose +it all, if you were not the loveliest creature God had ever made, it +would make no difference. You would still be _you_: and it is you I +want. Ida--give yourself to me--trust me! Oh, dearest, you don't know +what love is! Let me teach you!" + +Once again he got hold of her hand; and she let it remain in his grasp; +but her quiescence did not mean yielding, and he knew it. + +"No," she said, with a deep breath. "It is true that I do not know. And +I am--afraid." A wan little smile that was more piteous than tears +curved her lips: for "afraid" seemed strange coming from her, the +fearless child of the hills and dales. "If--if I said 'yes'--Ah, but I +do not!" she broke off as he made to draw her to him, and she shrank +back. "I do not! I said 'if,' it would not be true; it would not be +fair. For I do not know. I might be--sorry, after--after you had gone. +And it would be too late then." + +"You're right," he assented, grimly. "Once I got you, no power on earth +should make me let you go again." + +Her lips quivered and her eyes drooped before his. How strange a thing +this love was, that it should change a man so! + +"I don't want to force you to answer," he said, after a pause. "Yes, I +do! I'd give half the remainder of my life to hear you say the one +word, 'yes.' But I won't. It's too--too precious. Ah, don't you +understand! I want your love, your love, Ida!" + +"Yes, I understand," she murmured. "And--and I would say it if--if I +were sure. But I--yes, I am all confused. It is like a dream. I want to +think, to ask myself if--if I can do what you want." + +She put up her hand to her lips with a slight gesture, as if to keep +them from trembling. + +"I want to be alone to think of all--all you have told me." + +Her gauntlet slipped from her hand, and he knelt on one knee and picked +it up, and still kneeling, took both her hands in his. It did not occur +to him to remember that the woman who hesitates is won; something in +her girlish innocence, in her exquisitely sweet candour, filled him +with awe. + +"Dearest!" he said, in so low a voice that, the note of the curlew +flying above them sounded loud and shrill by contrast. "Dearest!--for +you are that to me!--I will not press you. I will be content to wait. +God knows you are right to hesitate! Your love is too great, too +precious a thing to be given to me without thought. I'm not worthy to +touch you--but I love you! I will wait. You shall think of all I have +said; and, let your answer be what it may, I won't complain! +But--Ida--you mustn't forget that I love you with all my heart and +soul!" + +She looked down at his handsome face, the face over which her lips had +hovered only a short time since, and her lips moved. + +"You--you are good to me," she said, in a faintly troubled voice. "Yes, +I know, I feel that. Perhaps I ought to say 'no!'" + +"Don't!" he said, almost fiercely. "Wait! Let me see you again--you +scarcely know me. Ah, Ida, what can I do, how can I win your love?" + +She drew her hands from his with a deep breath. + +"I--I will go now," she said. "Will you let me go--alone?" + +He rose and went towards the horses. His own raised its head and seemed +inclined to start, but stood uncertain and eventually remained quiet +beside the chestnut. Stafford brought them to where Ida still stood, +her eyes downcast, her face pale. + +With his own bridle over his arm he put her into the saddle, resisting +even in that supreme moment the almost irresistible desire to take her +in his arms. + +She murmured a "Thank you," as she slowly put on her left gauntlet. He +drew the other from her, and as she looked at him questioningly, he put +it to his lips and thrust it under his waistcoat, over his heart. + +The colour flooded her face, but the blush was followed by the old look +of trouble and doubt. She held out her ungloved right hand and he took +it and held it for a moment, then raised it to his lips; but he did not +kiss it. + +"No!" he said, with stern repression. "I will take nothing--until you +give it me." + +She inclined her head the very slightest, as if she understood, as if +she were grateful; then letting her eyes rest on his with an +inscrutable look, she spoke softly to the horse and rode away, with +Donald and Bess clamouring joyously after her, as if they had found the +proceedings extremely trying. + +Stafford flung his arm across his horse, and leaning against it, looked +after her, his eyes fixed wistfully on the slight, graceful figure, +until it was out of sight; then he gazed round him as if he were +suddenly returning from a new, mysterious region to the old familiar +world. Passion's marvellous spell still held him, he was still +throbbing with a half-painful ecstasy of her nearness, of the touch of +her hand, the magic of her voice. + +For the first time he was in love. In love with the most exquisite, the +most wonderful of God's divine creatures. He knew, as he had said, that +her answer meant life or death to him, the life of infinite, nameless +joy, the death of life in death. + +Was he going to lose her? + +The very question set him trembling. He held out his quivering hand and +looked at it, and set his teeth. Heaven and earth, how strange it was! +This girl had taken possession of him body and soul; every fibre of his +being clamoured for her. To be near her, just to be able to see her, +hear her, meant happiness; to be torn from her-- + +The sweat broke out on his forehead and he laughed grimly. + +"And this is love!" he said, between his teeth. "Yes--and it's the +only love of my life. God help me if you say 'no,' dearest! But you +must not--you must not!" + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +Quite an hour after Stafford had started to meet Ida, Miss Falconer +made her appearance, coming slowly down the stairs in the daintiest of +morning frocks, with her auburn hair shining like old gold in the +sunlight, and an expression of languor in her beautiful face which +would have done credit to a hot-house lily. + +She had slept the sleep of the just--the maid who had gone to wake her +with her early cup of tea had been almost startled by the +statuesqueness of her beauty, as she lay with her head pillowed on her +snow-white arm and her wonderful hair streaming over the pillow--had +suffered herself to be dressed with imperial patience, and looked--as +Howard, who stood at the bottom of the stairs--said to himself, "like a +queen of the Incas descending to her throne-room." + +"Good-morning, Miss Falconer," he greeted her. "It's a lovely morning; +you'll find it nicely aired." She smiled languidly. + +"That means that I am late." she said, her eyes resting languidly on +his cynically smiling face. + +"Good heavens, no!" he responded. "You can't be late or early in this +magic palace. Whenever you 'arrive' you will find things--'things' in +the most comprehensive sense--ready for you. Breakfast at Brae Wood is +the most moveable of feasts. I've proved that, for I'm a late bird +myself; and to my joy I have learned that this is the only house with +which I am acquainted that you can get red-hot bacon and kidneys at any +hour from eight to twelve; that lunch runs plenteously from one to +three, and that you can get tea and toast--my great and only weakness, +Miss Falconer--whenever you like to ring for it. You will find Lady +Clansford presiding at the breakfast-table: I believe she has been +sitting there--amiable martyr as she is--since the early dawn." + +She smiled at him with languid approval, as if he were some paid +jester, and went into the breakfast-room. There were others there +beside Lady Clansford--most of them the young people--it is, alas! only +the young who can sleep through the bright hours of a summer's +morn--and a discussion on the programme of the day was being carried on +with a babel of voices and much laughter. + +"You shall decide for us, Miss Falconer!" exclaimed one of the young +men, whose only name appeared to be Bertie, for he was always addressed +as and spoken of by it. "It's a toss-up between a drive and a turn on +the lake in the electric launch. _I_ proposed a sail, but there seemed +to be a confirmed and general scepticism as to my yachting capacities, +and Lady Plaistow says she doesn't want to be drowned before the end of +the season. What would you like to do?" + +"Sit somewhere in the shade with a book," she replied, promptly but +slowly. + +There was a shout of laughter. + +"That is just what Mr. Howard replied," said Bertie, complainingly. + +"Oh, Mr. Howard! Everyone knows that he is the laziest man in the whole +world," remarked Lady Clansford, plaintively. "What is Mr. Orme going +to do? Where is he? Does anyone know?" + +There was a general shaking of heads and a chorus of "Noes." + +"I had a swim with him this morning, but I've not seen him since," said +Bertie. "It's no use waiting for Orme; he mightn't turn up till +dinner-time. Miss Falconer, if I promise not to drown you, will make +one for the yacht? The man told me it would be all ready." + +She shook her head as she helped herself to a couple of strawberries. + +"No, thanks," she said, with her musical drawl. "I know what that +means. You drift into the middle of the lake or the river, the wind +drops, and you sit in a scorching sun and get a headache. Please leave +me out. I shall stick to my original proposal. Perhaps, if you don't +drown anyone this time, I may venture with you another day." + +She leant back and smiled at them under her lids, as the discussion +flowed and ebbed round her, with an air of placid contempt and wonder +at their excitement; and presently, murmuring something to Lady +Clansford, who, as chaperone and deputy hostess was trying to coax them +into some decision, she rose and went out to the terrace. + +There, lying back in a deck-chair, in a corner screened from any +possible draught by the glass verandah, was Mr. Howard with one of Sir +Stephen's priceless Havanas between his lips, a French novel in his +hand, and a morning paper across his knees. He rose as she approached, +and checking a sigh of resignation, offered her his chair. + +"Oh, no," she said, with a smile which showed that she knew what the +effort of politeness cost him. "You'd hate me if I took your chair, I +know; and though, of course, I don't in the least care whether you hate +me or not, I shouldn't like putting you to the trouble of so exhaustive +an emotion." + +Howard smiled at her with frank admiration. + +"Let's compromise it," he said. "I'll drag that chair up here--it's out +of the sun, you know--so, and arrange these cushions so, and put up the +end for your feet so, and--how is that, Miss Falconer?" + +"Thanks," she murmured, sinking into the soft nest he had made. + +"Do you object to my cigar? Say so, if you do, and--" + +"You'll go off to some other nook," she put in. "No, I like it." + +His eye shone with keen appreciation: this girl was not only a +beauty--which is almost common nowadays--but witty, which is rare. + +"Thanks! Would you like the paper? Don't hesitate if you would; I'm not +reading it; I never do. I keep it there so that I can put it over my +face if I feel like sleeping--which I generally do." + +She declined the paper with a gesture of her white hand. "No, I'd +rather talk; which means that you are to talk and I'm to listen: will +it exhaust you too much to tell me where the rest of the people are? I +left a party in the breakfast-room squabbling over the problem how to +kill time; but where are the others? My father, for instance?" + +"He is in the library with Baron Wirsch, Mr. Griffenberg, and the other +financiers. They are doubtless engaged in some mystic rites connected +with the worship of the Golden Calf, rites in which the words 'shares,' +'stocks,' 'diamonds,' 'concessions,' appear at frequent intervals. I +suppose your father, having joined them, is a member of the +all-powerful sect of money-worshippers." + +She shrugged her shoulders. + +"I suppose so. And Mr. Orme--is he one of them?" she asked, with +elaborate indifference. + +Howard smiled cynically. + +"Stafford! No; all that he knows about money is the art of spending it; +and what he doesn't know about that isn't worth knowing. It slips +through his fingers like water through a sieve; and one of those +mysteries which burden my existence is, how he always manages to have +some for a friend up a tree." + +"Is he so generous, then?" she asked, with a delicate yawn behind her +hand. + +Howard nodded, and was silent for a moment, then he said musingly: + +"You've got on my favorite subject--Stafford--Miss Falconer. And I warn +you that if I go on I shall bore you." + +"Well, I can get up and go away," she said, languidly. "He is a friend +of yours, I suppose? By the way, did you know that he stopped those +ridiculous horses last night and probably saved my life?" + +"For goodness sake don't let him hear you say that, or even guess that +you think it," he said, with an affectation of alarm. "Stafford would +be inexpressibly annoyed. He hates a fuss even more than most +Englishmen, and would take it very unkindly if you didn't let a little +thing like that pass unnoticed. Oh, yes, I am his greatest friend. I +don't think"--slowly and contemplatively--"that there is anything he +wouldn't do for me or anything I wouldn't do for him--excepting get up +early--go out in the rain--Oh, it isn't true! I'm only bragging," he +broke off, with a groan. "I've done both and shall do them whenever he +wants me to. I'm a poor creature, Miss Falconer." "A martyr on the +altar of friendship," she said. "Mr. Orme must be very irresistible." + +"He is," he assented, with an air of profound melancholy. "Stafford has +the extremely unpleasant knack of getting everybody to do what he +wants. It's very disgusting, but it's true. That is why he is so +general a favourite. Why, if you walk into any drawing-room and asked +who was the most popular man in London, the immediate and unanimous +reply would be 'Stafford Orme.'" + +She settled the cushions a little more comfortably. + +"You mean amongst men?" she said. + +Howard smiled and eyed her questioningly. + +"Well--I didn't," he replied, drily. + +She laughed a little scornfully. + +"Oh, I know the sort of man he is," she said. "I've read and heard +about them. The sort of man who falls in love with every woman he meet. +'A servant of dames'!" + +Howard leant back and laughed with cynical enjoyment. + +"You never were further out," he said. "He flirts--oh, my aunt, how he +flirts!--but as to falling in love--Did you ever see an iceberg, Miss +Falconer?" + +She shook her head. + +"Well, it's one of the biggest, the most beautiful frauds in the world. +When you meet one sailing along in the Atlantic, you think it one of +the nicest, sweetest things you ever saw: it's so dazzlingly bright, +with its thousand and one colours glittering in the sunlight. You quite +fall in love with it, and it looks so harmless, so enticing, that +you're tempted to get quite close to it; which no doubt is amusing to +the iceberg, but is slightly embarrassing for you; for the iceberg is +on you before you know it, and--and there isn't enough left of you for +a decent funeral. That's Stafford all the way. He's so pleasant, so +frank, so lovable, that you think him quite harmless; but while you're +admiring his confounded ingratiating ways, while you're growing +enthusiastic about his engaging tricks--he's the best rider, the best +dancer, the best shot--oh, but you must have heard of him!--he is +bearing down upon you; your heart goes under, and he--ah, well, he just +sails over you smiling, quite unconscious of having brought you to +everlasting smash." + +"You are indeed a friend," she said with languid irony. + +"Oh, you think I'm giving him away?" he said. "My dear Miss Falconer, +everybody knows him. Every ball-room every tennis-court, is strewed +with his wrecks. And all the time he doesn't know it; but goes his way +crowned with a modesty which is the marvel and the wonder of this most +marvellous of ages." + +"It sounds like a hero out of one of 'Ouida's' novels," she remarked, +as listlessly as before. + +But behind her lowered lids her eyes were shining with a singular +brightness. + +Howard turned to her delightedly. + +"My dear Miss Falconer, if you were a man I should ask to shake hands +with you. It so exactly describes him. That's just what he is. As +handsome as the dew--I beg your pardon!--as frank as a boy, as gentle +as a woman, as staunch as a bull-dog, as brave--he would have stopped +a drayman's team just as readily as yours last night--and as +invulnerable as that marble statue." + +He pointed to a statue of Adonis which stood whitely on the edge of the +lawn, and she raised her eyes and looked at it dreamily. + +"I could break that thing if I had a big hammer," she said. + +"I daresay," he said. "But can't break Stafford. Honestly "--he looked +at her--"I wish you could!" + +"Why?" she asked, turning her eyes on him for the first time. + +Howard was silent for a moment, then he looked at her with a curious +gravity. + +"Because it would be good for him: because I am afraid for him." + +"Afraid?" she echoed. + +"Yes," he said, with a nod. "Some day he will run against something +that will bring him to smash. Some woman--But I beg your pardon. Do you +know, Miss Falconer, that you have a dangerous way of leading one to +speak the truth--which one should never--or very rarely--do. Why, on +earth am I telling you all this about Stafford Orme?" + +She shrugged her shoulders. + +"You were saying 'some woman,'" she said. + +He gave a sigh of resignation. + +"You are irresistible! Some woman who will be quite unworthy of him. +It's always the case. The block of ice you can not smash with your +biggest hammer is broken into smithereens by a needle. That's the peril +before Stafford--but let us hope he will prove the exception to the +rule and escape. He's safe at present, at any rate." + +She thought of the scene she had witnessed, the girl sitting sideways on +Stafford Orme's horse, and her face flushed for an instant. + +"Are you sure?" she said. + +"Quite!" he responded, confidently. "I know all Stafford's flirtations, +great and small: if there was anything serious he would tell me; and as +he hasn't--there isn't." + +She laughed; the slow, soft laugh which made Howard think suddenly, +strangely, of a sleepy tigress he had once watched in a rajah's zoo, as +she lay basking in the sun: a thing of softness and beauty and--death. + +"We've had a most amusing conversation, Mr. Howard," she said. "I don't +know when I've been so interested--or so tempted." + +"Tempted?" He looked at her with a slow, expectant smile. + +"Oh, yes," she murmured, turning her eyes upon him with a half-mocking +light in them. "You have forgotten that you have been talking to a +woman." + +"I don't deny it," he said. "It's the finest compliment I could pay +you. But--after?" + +"And that to a woman your account of your hero-friend is--a +challenge." + +He nodded and paused, with his cigar half-way to his lips. + +"I'm greatly tempted to accept it, do you know!" she said. + +He laughed. + +"Don't: you'll be vanquished. Is that too candid, too--brutal?" he +said. + +"So brutal that I _will_ accept it," she said. "Is that ring of yours a +favorite?" + +"I've had it ever since I can remember. It was my mother's," he said, +rather gravely. + +She held out her hand, upon which the costly gems glittered in the +sunlight. + + +"Choose one to set against it," she said quite quietly. + +Howard, roused for once from his sleepy cynicism, met her gaze with +something like astonishment. + +"You mean--?" he said, in a low voice. + +"I mean that I am going to try to meet your iceberg. You will play +fair, Mr. Howard? You will stand and look on and--be silent?" + +He smiled and leant back as if he had considered her strange, audacious +proposal, and felt confident. + +"On my honour," he said, with a laugh. "You shall have fair play!" She +laughed softly. "You have not chosen my stake," she said meaningly. + +"Ah, no. Pardon! Let me see." He took her hand and examined the rings. +"This--I think it's the most valuable." + +"It does not matter," she said. "You will not win it. May I look at +yours?" + +He extended his hand with an amused laugh; but without a smile, she +said: + +"Yes, it is a quaint ring; I like quaint things. I shall wear it on my +little finger." + +She dropped his hand quickly, for at that moment Stafford rode round +the bend of the drive. His face was grave and almost stern in its +preoccupation, but he caught sight of them, and raised his hat, then +turned his horse and rode up to the terrace. + +"Good-morning, Stafford," exclaimed Howard. "Where have you been? +Hallo! Anything happened? You're coated all over with mud: had a fall?" + +He nodded carelessly as he turned to the beautiful girl, lying back now +and looking up at his handsome face with an air of languid +indifference. + +"What a lovely day, Miss Falconer! Where are all the others? Are you +not going for a drive, on the lake, somewhere?" + +"I have just been asking Mr. Howard to take me for a row," she said, +"but he has refused." + +Stafford laughed and glanced at his watch. + +"I can quite believe it: he's the laziest wretch in existence. If +you'll transfer the offer to me, we'll go after lunch. By George, +there's the bell!" + +"Thanks!" she murmured, and she rose with her slow grace. "I'd better +get into an appropriate costume. Mr. Howard, what will you bet me that +it does not rain before we start. But you never bet, you tell me!" + +"Not unless I am sure of winning, Miss Falconer," he said, +significantly. + +She looked after Stafford as he rode away to the stable. + +"Nor I," she retorted, with a smile. "As you will see." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +When Stafford and Maude Falconer went down to the lake after luncheon, +they found a party from the Villa just embarking on board one of the +launches; the air was filled with laughter and chatter, and the little +quay was bright with the white flannels of the men and the gay frocks +of the women. The party greeted the two with an exuberant welcome, and +Bertie called out to ask them if they were coming on board. + +"Perhaps you would rather go on the launch, Miss Falconer?" said +Stafford; but she shook her head. + +"No, thanks," she said, languidly. "I hate crowds of that kind. I'd +rather stick to our original proposition; it will bore me less. But +perhaps you'd rather join them?" + +"Is it likely?" said Stafford, with a smile, as he signed to the man to +bring up a skiff. "Now, let me make you as comfortable as I can. We +ought to have had a gondola," he added, as he handed her to the seat in +the stern. + +She leant back with her sunshade over her shoulder, and Stafford, as he +slipped off his blazer and rowed out towards the centre of the lake, +looked at her with unconscious admiration. She was simply, perfectly +dressed in a yachting costume of white and pale-blue, which set off to +the fullest advantage her exquisite complexion and her red-gold hair. +But it was admiration of the coldest kind, for even at that moment he +was thinking of the girl in the well-worn habit, the girl he loved with +a passion that made his slightest thought of her a psalm of worship. + +And Maude, though she appeared half asleep, like a beautiful wild +animal basking in the warmth of the sun, glanced at him now and again +and noted the strength and grace of his figure, the almost Grecian +contour of the handsome face. She had made her wager with Howard on the +spur of the moment, prompted by the vanity of a woman piqued by the +story of Stafford's indifference to her sex; but as she looked at him +she wondered how a woman would feel if she fell in love with him. But +she had no fears for herself; there was a coldness in her nature which +had hitherto guarded her from the fever which men call love, and she +thought herself quite secure. There would be amusement, triumph, in +making him love her, in winning her wager with that cynical Mr. Howard, +who boasted of his friend's invulnerability; and when she had +conquered, and gratified her vanity--Ah, well, it would be easy to step +aside and bring the curtain down upon her triumph and Stafford's +discomfiture. She would wear that Mr. Howard's ring, and every time she +looked at it, it should remind her of her conquest. + +Stafford rowed on in silence for some minutes. His beautiful companion +did not seem to want him to talk and certainly showed no desire to talk +herself; so he gave himself up to thinking of Ida--and wishing that it +was she who was sitting opposite him there, instead of this girl with +the face of a Grecian goddess, with the lustrous hair of an houri. At +last, feeling that he ought to say something, he remarked, as he gazed +at the marvellous view: + +"Very beautiful, isn't it?" + +She raised her eyes and let them wander from the glittering water to +the glorious hills. + +"Yes, I suppose it is. I'm afraid I don't appreciate scenery as much as +other people do. Perhaps it is because one is always expected to fall +into raptures over it. Does that shock you? I'm afraid I shock most +people. The fact is, I have been brought up in a circle which has +taught me to loathe sentiment. They were always gushing about their +feelings, but the only thing they cared for was money!" + +"That ought to have made you loathe money," said Stafford, with a +smile, and a certain kind of interest; indeed, it was difficult not to +feel interested in this beautiful girl, with the face and the form of a +goddess, and, apparently, as small a capacity of emotion. + +"Oh, no," she said, languidly; "on the contrary, it showed me the value +of money. I saw that if I had not been rich, the daughter of a rich +man, I should have been of no account in their eyes. They were always +professing to love me, but I was quite aware that it was because I was +rich enough to be able to buy pleasure for them." + +"Unpleasant kind of people," remarked Stafford. + +"No; just the average," she said, coolly. "Nearly all men and women are +alike--worldly, selfish, self-seeking. Look at my father," she went on, +as coolly as before. "He thinks of nothing but money; he has spent his +life fighting, scrambling, struggling for it; and look at yours--" + +"Oh, hold on!" said Stafford, laughing, but reddening a little. "You're +very much mistaken if you think my father is that kind of man." + +She smiled. + +"Why, everybody has some story of his--what shall I call +it?--acuteness, sharpness; and of the wonderful way in which he has +always got what he wanted. I don't want to be offensive, Mr. Orme, but +I'm afraid both our fathers are in the same category. And that both +would sacrifice anything or anyone to gain their ends." + +Stafford laughed again. + +"You're altogether wrong, Miss Falconer," he said. "I happen to know +that my governor is one of the most generous and tender-hearted of men +and that whatever he has gained it is by fair means, and by no +sacrifice of others." + +She shrugged her shoulders. + +"I envy your faith in him. But then you are a very enviable man, I'm +told." + +"As how?" asked Stafford. "Pretty here, isn't it? Here's one of those +beastly steamers coming: they spoil the lake, but they're very +convenient, I suppose." + +She glanced at the big steamer puffing towards them obtrusively and +sending a trail of smoke across the green and violet of the hills. + +"Oh, I'm told you are the most popular man in London; that you have the +world at your feet, that you are only waiting to see which duchess you +prefer to throw your handkerchief to--" + +Stafford coloured. + +"What rot!--I beg your pardon, Miss Falconer. Of course, I know you are +only chaffing me." + +"Isn't it true--about the duchess, I mean?" she asked, so coolly, so +indifferently, that Stafford was compelled to take her seriously. + +"Nary a word," he said, brightly; then, with a sudden gravity: "If you +happen to hear such nonsense again, Miss Falconer, you can, if you care +to, contradict it flatly. I am not in the least likely to marry a +duchess; indeed, I wouldn't marry the highest and greatest of them, if +she'd have me, which is highly improbable." + +"Do you mean to say that you have no ambition, that you would marry +for--love?" she asked. + +Stafford stopped rowing for a moment and looked at her grimly. + +"What on earth else should I marry for?" he asked. "Wouldn't you?" + +Before she could answer, the steamer came abreast of them, and so close +that the swell from its screw set the slight, narrow skiff dancing and +plunging on the waves. + +Maude uttered a faint cry and leant forward, and Stafford, fearing she +was going to rise, stretched out his hand, and touching her knee, +forced her into her seat again, and kept her there until the swell had +subsided. + +The colour flooded her face at the pressure of his strong hand, which +was like a steel weight, and she caught her breath. Then, as he took +his hand away and resumed rowing, he said: "I beg your pardon! I was +afraid you were going to get up--a girl I once had in a boat did so and +we upset." + +"The boat is very small," she said, in a low voice, almost one of +apology. + +"Oh, it's all right, so long as you sit still, and keep your head," he +said. "It could ride over twice as big a swell as this." + +She looked at him from under her lowered lids with a new expression in +her face, a faint tremor on her lips; and, as if she could not meet his +eyes, she glanced back with an affectation of interest at the steamer. +As she did so, something dropped from it into the lake. + +"What was that?" she said. "Something fell overboard." + +"Eh? A man, do you mean?" he asked, stopping. + +"Oh, no; something small." + +"A parcel, somebody's lunch, perhaps," he said; and he rowed on. + +She leant back, her eyes downcast; she still seemed to feel that +strong, irresistible pressure of his hand under which she had been +unable to move. + +"There ought to be an echo somewhere here," he said, as they came +opposite one of the hills, and he gave the Australian "coo-ee!" in a +clear, ringing voice, which the echo sent back in a musical imitation. + +"How true it was!" she said, and she opened her lips and sang a bar or +two of the "Elsie" song. + +Stafford listened to the echo, which was almost as soft and sweet as +the girl's notes. + +"What a wonderful voice you have!" he said, almost unconsciously. "I +never heard a sweeter. What was that you sang?" + +"That thing of Wagner's," she replied; and quite naturally she began +the air and sang it through. + +Stafford let the boat drift and leant upon the oars, his eyes fixed on +her face, a rapt and very eloquent admiration in his own. + +"Ah--beautiful!" he said in a low voice. "What a delight it must be to +you to be able to sing like that! I can understand a whole theatre +crying over that song sung as you sing it!" + +She glanced at him with an affectation of languid amusement; but she +was watching him intently. + +"That's not the best in the opera," she said. "I like this better;" and +she sang the "Swan" song; sang it so low that he leant forward to catch +the notes which flowed like silver from her soft, red lips; and when +she finished it he drew a long breath and still leant forward looking +at her. + +"Thank you, thank you!" he said, with so much of admiration and +gratitude in his voice, that, as if to apologise for it, he said: "I'm +fond of music. But I'm forgetting your tea! Shall we pull back to the +Ferry Hotel and get some?" + +"I'm in your hands," she replied, languidly. + +He turned-the boat and pulled back along the centre of the lake in +silence. Suddenly she bent forward. + +"There is something in the water," she said; "something alive." + +"It's a--yes, it's a dog," he said. "That is what you saw drop over the +steamer. By George! the poor little chap looks in distress: seems as if +he were nearly done. Can you steer?" he asked, sharply. + +"Oh, yes," she replied, languidly. "Why?" + +"Because I'm going for him, and it will help me if you can steer +straight for him. He looks nearly played out." + +"Why should you trouble--it's a long way off; it will be drowned before +you can get to it," she said. + +"I'll have to go for it anyway," he said, cheerfully; and he began to +row hard. + +Distance is deceptive on a lake, and the dog was farther off than they +thought; but Stafford put his back into it as hard as he had done in +his racing days, and Maude Falconer leant back and watched him with +interest, and something even stronger than interest, in her masked +eyes. He had turned up the sleeves of his flannel shirt, and the +muscles on his arms were standing out under the strain, his lips were +set tightly, and there was the man's frown of determination on his +brow. + +"It has gone down: it's no use," she said. "You may as well stop and +rest." + +He looked over his shoulder. + +"No! He has come up again!" he exclaimed: it was noticeable that he +called the dog "he," while she spoke of it as "it." "We shall get him +in time. Keep the boat straight!" + +The words were uttered in a tone of command, and they moved her as the +touch of his hand had done; and she set her mind upon the task as she +had never before set it upon anything. + +Reaching well forward, pulling with the long, steady stroke of the +practised oarsman, Stafford sent the boat along like an arrow, and +presently he drove it up to the spot where the dog strove in its death +straggle. + +It was a tiny black-and-tan terrier, and Stafford, as he looked over +his shoulder, saw the great eyes turned to him with a piteous entreaty +that made his heart ache. + +"Turn the boat--quick!" he cried; and as the skiff slid alongside the +dog, he swooped it up. + +The mite gave a little gasping cry like a child, and closing its eyes +sank into Stafford's arms with a shudder. + +"Is it dead?" asked Maude Falconer, looking not at the dog but at +Stafford, for his face, which had been red with exertion a moment ago, +had become suddenly pale. + +"I don't know--no!" he said, absently, all his thoughts centered on the +dog. + +He wiped it as dry as he could with his blazer, then turning aside, he +opened his shirt and put the cold morsel in his bosom. + +"Poor little beggar, he's like ice!" he said, in a low voice. "He would +never have got to the shore; he's so small. If I'd some brandy! We'll +get some at the ferry. Can you row?" + +"No," she said. "Yes; I mean, I'll try." + +He held out his hand. + +"Mind how you cross. Take off your gloves first, or you'll blister your +hands." + +She obeyed, her eyes downcast. They exchanged places and he showed her +how to hold the sculls. + +"You'll do very well. You can row as slowly as you like. He's alive; I +can feel him move! Poor little chap! Sorry to trouble you, Miss +Falconer, but the only chance of saving him is to keep him warm." + +She was silent far a moment, then she glanced at him. + +"You're fond of dogs?" + +"Why, of course," he answered. "Aren't you?" + +"Y-es; but I don't think I'd risk pneumonia for one. You were +feverishly hot just now, and that little beast must be stone cold; +you'll get bronchitis or something, Mr. Orme." + +"Not I!" he laughed, almost scornfully. "He's pulling round, poor +little beast! Here we are." + +He reached for his coat and wrapped the terrier in it, and quite +unconscious of the girl's watchful eyes, held the little black-and-tan +head to his face for a moment. + +"All right now?" he murmured. "You've had a narrow squeak for it, old +chappie!" With the dog under his arm, he helped Maude Falconer ashore +and led the way to the hotel. + +"Tea," he said to the waiter; "but bring me some brandy and milk +first--and look sharp." + +Maude sank on to one of the benches in the beautiful garden in the +centre of the lake and looked straight before her; and Stafford cuddled +the dog up to him and looked impatiently for the waiter, greeting him +when he came with: + +"What an infernal time you're been!" + +Then he poured a little of the brandy down the dog's throat, and +bending over him repeated the dose three or four times; and presently +the mite stirred and moved its head, and opening its eyes looked up +into Stafford's, and weakly putting out its tongue, licked his hand. + +Stafford laughed--for the well-known reason. + +"Plucky little chap, isn't he?" he said, with a moved man's affectation +of levity. "He's made a splendid fight for it and won through. He's a +pretty little morsel--a well-bred 'un: wonder whom he belongs to?" + +"To you--at least his life does," said Maude Falconer. "You couldn't +have fought harder for it if it had been a human being." + +"Oh, a dog's the next thing, you know," he said, apologetically. "I'm +afraid it's been an awful nuisance and trouble for you. You haven't +blistered your hands, I hope? Let me see!" + +She stretched out her hands, palm upwards, and he took them and +examined them. + +"No. That's all right! 'All's well that ends well.' You want a few +lessons with the sculls, Miss Falconer, and you'd make a splendid +boat-woman. Perhaps you'd let me give you one or two?" + +"Thank you; yes," she said; and to his surprise with less of her usual +half-scornful languor. + +"Here's the tea. Any particular kind of cake you fancy?" + +She said that the cakes would do, and poured out the tea; but he put +some milk into his saucer and gave some to the terrier, slowly, +methodically, and with a tenderness and gentleness which was not lost +upon the girl who watched him covertly before paying any attention to +his own tea. + +"I wonder whether you could stand, my little man," he said, and he put +the terrier on the ground. + +It stood upright and shivering for a moment, then it put its tiny paws +on Stafford's knee and looked up into his face appealingly. "Not up to +your usual form just yet, eh?" said Stafford, and he picked it up +gently and put it on his knee. + +Maude Falconer looked at him. + +"Give it to me," she said. "Men have no lap. He'll be more comfortable +with me." + +"But he's wet still," he said. "He'll spoil that pretty dress of +yours." + +"My pretty dress was made to be spoiled," she said, "Give it to me, +please, and get your tea." + +"Do you mean it?" he asked, with a surprise which made her flush with +resentment, and something like shame. + +For reply, she bent forward, took the dog from him, and tried to settle +it on her lap; but the mite looked piteously at Stafford and whined, +its big eyes imploring him to let it come back. + +But Stafford stroked it and bade it sit still, and presently it curled +itself up. + +"It has gone to sleep," said Maude. "It has soon forgotten its +trouble." + +"It's a way dogs have," said Stafford. "May I smoke? George! what a +lovely afternoon!" + +She glanced at him as he leant back in his chair, his long legs +stretched out and crossed before him. + +"You look happy," she said, with a faint smile. + +"Oh, I am," he said, with a sudden flush and a start; for now the dog +was off his mind, it had instantly swung back to Ida. + +"It's the reward of a generous action," she said, and again, the +mocking note was absent from her voice. + +Stafford laughed. + +"That's putting it rather high," he said. + +They sat on in silence: Stafford thinking of Ida, Maude looking down at +the sleeping dog, and thinking that only a few minutes ago it had been +lying in the bosom of the man who sat beside her: the man whom she had +backed herself to fool; but for whom a strange sensation of +admiration--and was it a subtle fear?--was stirring within her. + +"By George! we must be going!" he said, suddenly. + +When they got to the boat he proposed to roll the terrier in his coat, +but Maude shook her head. + +"I'll nurse it going home," she said. + +"You will? That's very good of you!" he said, quite gratefully. + +"He's a lucky little beggar!" he remarked, after awhile, as he looked +at the black little morsel curled up on the pretty dress. "Supposing he +isn't claimed, would you care to have him, Miss Falconer?" + +She looked down at the dog. + +"Thank you," she said. "But what shall I give you in return. It's +unlucky to give an animal without some consideration." + +"Oh, give me another song," he replied. "There is nobody about." + +She opened her lips, then checked herself. + +"No, I can't sing again," she said, in a low voice. + +"Oh, all right. It isn't good for you to sing too much in the open air. +I'll wait till this evening, if you'll be good enough to sing for us +then." + +They landed and walked up to the house. As they reached the bend +leading to the entrance path, she stopped and held out the dog, which +had been staring at Stafford and whining at intervals. + +"Take it, please. It is fretting for you, and I'd rather not keep it." + +"Really?" he said, and she saw his face brighten suddenly. "All right, +if you'd rather. Come here, little man! What's your name, I wonder? +What shall we call him while we've got him?" + +"Call him 'Tiny;' he's small enough," she said, with a shrug of her +shoulders. + +"Tiny it is!" he assented, brightly. "He'll answer to it in a day or +two, you'll see. I hope you haven't quite spoilt your dress, Miss +Falconer, and won't regret your row!" + +She looked at her dress, but there was a sudden significance in her +slow, lingering response. + +"I--don't--know!" + +As she went up the stairs she looked over the rail and saw Stafford's +tall figure striding down the hall. He was softly pulling the terrier's +ears and talking to it in the language dogs understand and love; and +when she sank into a chair in her room, his face with its manly +tenderness was still before her, his deep musical voice, with its note +of protection and succour, still rang in her ears. + +She sat quite motionless for a minute or two, then she rose and went to +the glass and looked at herself; a long, intent look. + +"Yes, I am beautiful," she murmured, not with the self-satisfaction of +vanity, but with a calculating note in her voice. "Am I--am I beautiful +enough?" + +Then she swung away from the glass with the motion which reminded +Howard of a tigress, and, setting her teeth hard, laughed with +self-scorn; but with something, also, of fear in the laugh. + +"I am a fool!" she muttered. "It can't be true. So soon! So suddenly! +Oh, I can't be such a fool!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + +If everybody was not enjoying himself at the Villa it certainly was not +the fault of the host, Sir Stephen Orme. Howard, as he drew his chair +up beside Stafford, when the ladies had left the room after dinner, and +the gentlemen had begun to glance longingly at the rare Chateau claret +and the Windermere port, made a remark to this effect: + +"Upon my word, Staff, it is the most brilliant house-party which I have +ever joined; and as to your father in his character of host--Well, +words fail to express my admiration." + +Stafford glanced at his father at the head of the table and nodded. Sir +Stephen had been the life and soul and spring of the dinner; talking +fashionable gossip to Lady Fitzharford on one side of him, and a "giddy +girl of twenty" on the other; exchanging badinage with "Bertie," and +telling deeply interesting stories to the men; and he was now dragging +reluctant laughter from the grim Baron Wirsch and the almost grimmer +Griffenberg, as he saw with one eye that the wine was circulating, and +with the other that no one was being overlooked or allowed to drop into +dullness. + +"A most marvellous man! Nearly all the morning he was closeted with the +financiers; in the afternoon he went for a ride with Lady Clansford; he +was in attendance at the solemn function of afternoon tea; he played +croquet--and played it well--at half-past five; at six I saw him +walking round the grounds with the Effords and the Fitzharfords, and +now he is laughing and talking with the _abandon_ of a boy of +five-and-twenty, while the boy of five-and-twenty sits here as grave +and silent as if he had been working like a horse--or a Sir Stephen +Orme--instead of fooling about the lake with the most beautiful woman +in the party." + + +"And his friend has spent the day in a deck-chair on the terrace," +retorted Stafford. + +"At any rate, I have been out of mischief," said Howard. Then he +remembered his wager with Maude Falconer, and added, rather +remorsefully: "At least I hope so. By the way, don't you echo my +expression of opinion that Miss Falconer is the most beautiful woman +here--or elsewhere?" + +Stafford woke from the reverie into which he nearly always dropped when +Howard was talking, and nodded indifferently. + +"Oh, yes; she is lovely, of course." + +"How good of you, how kind and gracious!" retorted Howard, ironically. +"So my prince deigns to approve of her? And you also condescended to +admit that she is--er--rather clever?" + +"I daresay," said Stafford. "I've seen so little of her. She seems to +me rather _blasé_ and cold." + +Howard nodded. + +"Yes; but the worst of it is, you can't count upon that kind of girl: +they are apt to warm up sometimes, and quite unexpectedly: and when +they do they--well, they boil like a geyser or a volcano. And +then--well, then it is wise to get out of reach. I once knew a woman +who was considered to be as cold as charity--or a rich relation--but +who caught fire one day and burnt up the man who ignited her. Of course +this is my delicate way of saying: 'Beware, oh, my prince!'" + +Stafford smiled. Miss Falconer's nature was a matter of profound +indifference to him. There was only one woman on whom he could bestow a +thought, and he was thinking of her now, wondering when he should see +her, whether he might dare to tell her of his love again, to ask her +for her answer. + +Once or twice his father looked across at him, and nodded and smiled as +if he loved to see him, and wanted to speak to him; and Stafford smiled +and nodded back, as if he understood. + +When the men rose to go to the drawing-room, Sir Stephen caught him up +at the door, and laid a hand upon his arm. + +"Happy, dear boy?" he asked in a low voice, full of affection. "I've +seen scarcely anything of you. No, no, I'm not complaining! It was +understood that you were to have a free hand--but--but I've missed you! +Never mind; this crowd will have gone presently, and then--ah, then +we'll have a jolly time to ourselves! Things are going well," he added, +with a significant smile, as he glanced at Wirsch and Griffenberg, who, +well-fed and comfortable, were in front of them. + +"I'm glad, sir," said Stafford. + +Sir Stephen smiled, but checked a sigh and a shrug of the shoulders. + +"Yes, my little schemes are flourishing; but"--he looked at the +financiers again--"they are rather a hard team to drive!" + +As Stafford entered the drawing-room, he heard Lady Clansford enquiring +for Miss Falconer. + +"We want her to sing, Mr. Orme, and I cannot find her." + +"I think she is on the terrace," said Bertie, who always seemed to know +where everybody was. + +Stafford went out by one of the windows, and saw Maude Falconer pacing +up and down at the end of the terrace. She was superbly dressed, and as +he looked at her, he involuntarily admired the grace of her movements. +Mr. Falconer was walking with bent head and hands behind his back; but +now and again he looked at her sideways with his sharp eyes. Stafford +did not like to interrupt them, and withdrew to the other end of the +terrace, with a cigarette, to wait till they joined him. + +"Young Orme has come out to look for you," said Mr. Falconer, without +turning his head. + +"I know," she said, though she also had not turned. "They want me to +sing. I will go in directly. You have not answered my question, father. +Is Sir Stephen very rich, or is all this only sham? I have heard you +say so often that display very often only covers poverty." + +Falconer eyed her curiously. + +"Why do you want to know? What does it matter to you?" + +She shrugged her shoulders impatiently, resentfully, and he went on: + +"Yes, he's rich; confoundedly so. But he is playing a big game, in +which he is running some risks; and he'll want all his money to help +him win it." + +"And are you joining him in the game?" she asked. + +He looked at her with surprise. There was a note in her voice which he +had never heard before, a note which conveyed to him the fact that she +was no longer a girl, but a woman. + +"Upon my soul, I don't know why you ask! Well, well!"--she had +repeated the impatient gesture. "I haven't made up my mind yet. He +wants me to join him. I could be of service to him; on the other hand, +I could--yes, get in his way; for I know some of the points of the game +he is playing. Yes, I could help him--or spoil him." + +"And which are you going to do?" she asked, in a low voice, her eyes +veiled, her lips drawn straight. + +Falconer laughed grimly. "I don't know. It all depends. Which would you +do?" he asked, half sarcastically. + +She was silent for a moment, then she said: "You knew Sir Stephen some +time ago--years ago, father?" + +Falconer nodded. "I did," he said, shortly. + +"And you were friends, and you quarrelled?" + +He looked at her with an air of surprise. + +"I saw you both when you stood opposite each other after the carriage +accident," she said, coolly. "I am not blind, and I am not particularly +stupid. It didn't strike me at the time that there had been anything +wrong between you, but I have since seen you look at Sir Stephen, +and--you have an expressive face sometimes, oh, my father!" + +He grinned grimly. + +"You appear to keep your eyes open, Maude. Yes; there was a row between +us, and there was a grudge--" + +--"Which you mean to pay off?" she said, as impassively as if they +were speaking of the merest trivialities. + +"Which I could pay off--gratify, if I liked," he admitted. + +"How?" she asked. + +He did not reply, but glanced at her sideways and bit at the cigar +which he had stopped to light. + +"Shall I tell you, if I were a man and I wanted revenge upon such a man +as Sir Stephen Orme, what I should do, father?" she asked, in a low +voice, and looking straight before her as if she were meditating. + +"You can if you like. What would you do?" he replied, with a touch of +sarcastic amusement. + +She looked round her and over her shoulder. The windows near them were +closed, Stafford with his cigarette was too far off to overhear them. + +"If I were a man, rich and powerful as you are, and I owed another a +grudge, I would not rest night or day until I had got him into my +power. Whether I meant to exact my revenge or not, I would wait and +work, and scheme and plot until I had him at my mercy so that I could +say, 'See now you got the better of me once, you played me false once, +but it is my turn now.' He should sue for mercy, and I would grant +it--or refuse it--as it pleased me; but he should feel that he was in +my power; that my hand was finer than his, my strength greater!" He +shot a glance at her, and his great rugged face grew lined and stern. + +"Where did you get those ideas? Why do you talk to me like this?" he +muttered, with surprise and some suspicion. + +"I am not a child," she said, languidly. "And I have been living with +you for some time now. Sir Stephen Orme is a great man, is surrounded +by great and famous people, while you, with all your money, are"--she +shrugged her shoulders--"well, just nobody." + +His face grew dark. She was playing on him as a musician plays on an +instrument with which he is completely familiar. + +"What the devil do you mean?" he muttered. + +"If I were a man, in your place, I would have the great Sir Stephen at +my feet, to make or to break as I pleased. I would never rest until I +could be able to say: 'You're a great man in the world's eyes, but I am +your master; you are my puppet, and you have to dance to my music, +whether the tune be a dead march or a jig.' That is what I should do if +I were a man; but I am only a girl, and it seems to me nowadays that +men have more of the woman in them than we have." + +He stopped and stared at her in the moonlight, a dark frown on his +face, his eyes heavy with doubt and suspicion. + +"Look here, my girl," he said, "you are showing up in a new light +to-night. You are talking as your mother used to talk. And you aren't +doing it without a purpose. What is it? What grudge can you, a mere +girl who has only known him for a couple of days, have against Sir +Stephen?" + +She smiled. + +"Let us say that I am only concerned for my father's wounded pride and +honour," she said. "Or let us say that I _have_ a game of my own to +play, and that I am asking you to help me while you gratify your own +desire for revenge. Will you help me?" + +"Tell me--tell me what your game is. Good Lord!"--with a scowl. "Fancy +you having a game: it's--it's ridiculous!" + +"Almost as ridiculous as calling me a girl and expecting to see me +playing with a doll or a hoop," she returned, calmly. "But you needn't +reply. I can see you mean to do it, like a good and indulgent father; +and some day, perhaps soon, I will, like a good and dutiful daughter, +tell you why I wanted you to do it. Is that you, Mr. Orme? Will I come +and sing? Oh, yes, if you wish it. Where is the little dog?" she asked, +looking up at him with a new expression in her languorous eyes, as she +glided beside him. + +"Asleep on my bed," replied Stafford, with a laugh. "My man has turned +him off and made him a luxurious couch with cushions three or four +times, but he would persist on getting on again, so he'll have to stay, +I suppose?" + +"Are you always so good-natured?" she asked, in a low voice. "Or do you +reserve all your tenderness of heart for dogs and horses--as Mr. Howard +declares?" + +"Mr. Howard is too often an ass," remarked Stafford, with a smile. + +"You shall choose your song, as a reward for your exertions this +afternoon," she said, as he led her to the piano. + +Most of the men in the crowd waiting eagerly for the exquisite voice +would have been moved to the heart's core by her tone and the +expression in her usually cold eyes, but Stafford was clothed in the +armour of his great love, and only inclined his head. + +"Thanks: anything you like," he said, with the proper amount of +gratitude. + +She shot a glance at him and sank into the music-seat languidly. But a +moment afterwards, as if she could not help herself, she was singing a +Tuscan love-song with a subdued passion which thrilled even the _blasé_ +audience clustered round her. It thrilled Stafford; but only with the +desire to be near Ida. A desire that became irresistible; and when she +had finished he left the room, caught up his hat and overcoat and went +out of the house. + +As he did so, Mr. Falconer walked past him into the smoking-room. Mr. +Griffenberg was alone there, seated in a big arm-chair with a cigar as +black as a hat and as long as a penholder. + +Falconer wheeled a chair up to him, and, in his blunt fashion, said: + +"You are in this railway scheme of Orme's, Griffenberg?" Mr. +Griffenberg nodded. + +"And you?" + +"Yes," said Falconer, succinctly. "I am joining. I suppose it's all +right; Orme will be able to carry it through?" + +Griffenberg emitted a thick cloud of smoke. + +"It will try him a bit. It's a question of capital--ready capital. I'm +helping him: got his Oriental shares as cover. A bit awkward for me, +for I'm rather pushed just now--that estate loan, you know." + +Falconer nodded. "I know. See here: I'll take those shares from you, if +you like, and if you'll say nothing about it." + +Mr. Griffenberg eyed his companion's rugged face keenly. + +"What for?" he asked. + +Mr. Falconer smiled. + +"That's my business," he said. "The only thing that matters to you is, +that by taking the shares off your hands I shall be doing you a +service." + +"That's true: you shall have 'em," said Mr. Griffenberg; "but I warn +you it's a heavy lot." + +"You shall have a cheque to-morrow," said Mr. Falconer. "Where did you +get that cigar: it takes my fancy?" + +Mr. Griffenberg produced his cigar case with alacrity: he liked Mr. +Falconer's way of doing business. + +At the moment Stafford left the Villa, Ida was standing by the window +in the drawing-room of Heron Hall. On the table beside her lay a book +which she had thrown down with a gesture of impatience. She was too +restless to read, or to work; and the intense quietude of the great +house weighed upon her with the weight of a tomb. + +All day, since she had left Stafford, his words of passionate love had +haunted her. They sang in her ears even as she spoke to her father or +Jessie, or the dogs who followed her about with wistful eyes as if they +were asking her what ailed her, and as if they would help her. + +He loved her! She had said it to herself a thousand times all through +the long afternoon, the dragging evening. He loved her. It was so +strange, so incredible. They had only met three or four times; they had +said so little to each other. Why, she could remember almost every +word. He loved her, had knelt to her, he had told her so in passionate +words, with looks which made her heart tremble, her breath come fast as +she recalled them. That is, he wanted her to be his wife, to _give +herself_ to him, to be with him always, never to leave him. + +The strangeness, the suddenness of the thing overwhelmed her so that +she could not think of it calmly. He had asked her to think of it, to +decide, to give him an answer. Why could she not? She had always, +hitherto, known her own mind. If anyone had asked her a question about +the estate, about the farm, she had known what to answer, important as +the question might have been. But now she seemed as if her mind were +paralyzed, as if she could not decide. Was it because she had never +thought of love; because she had never dreamt that anyone would love +her so much as to want to have her by his side for all his life? + +As she looked through the window at the moonlight on the lawn, she +thought of him; called up the vision of his tall, graceful figure and +handsome face--yes; he was handsome, she knew. But she had scarcely +given a thought to his face; and only felt that it was good to have him +near her, to hear him talk in his deep voice, broken sometimes by the +short laugh which sounded almost boyish. It had been good to have him +near her--But then, she had been so lonely, had seen so few +men--scarcely any at all--Suppose when she met him next she said "No," +told him that she could not love him, and he went away, leaving her +forever; would she be sorry? + +She turned away from the window suddenly, nearly stumbling over Donald, +who was lying at her feet, his nose on his paws, his great eyes fixed +sadly and speculatively on her face, and caught up the book. But _his_ +face came between her and the page, and she put the book down and went +into the hall. + +Her father was in the library, there was no sound in the house to drown +the voice, the passionately pleading voice which rang in her ears. + +"I must go out," she said, "I shall be able to think in the air, shall +be able to decide." + +She caught up a shawl and flung it carelessly over her head, quite +unconscious that the fleecy, rose-coloured wool made an exquisite frame +for the girlish loveliness of her face, and opening the door, went +slowly down the broken, lichen-covered steps, the two dogs following at +her heels. + +She drew in the keen but balmy air with a long breath, and looked up at +the moon, now a yellow crescent in the starry sky; and something in the +beauty of the night, something subtly novel thrilled her with a strange +sense of throbbing, pulsing joy and happiness, underneath which lurked +as subtle a fear and dread, the fear and dread of those who stand upon +the threshold of the unknown; who, in passing that threshold, enter a +world of strange things which they never more may leave. + + +Love: what was it? Did she feel it? Oh, if she could only tell! What +should she say to him when she met him; and when should she meet him? +Perhaps he had come to regret his avowal to her, had been wearied and +disappointed by her coldness, and would not come again! At the thought +her heart contracted as if at the touch of an icy hand. But the next +moment it leapt with a suffocating sense of mystery, of half-fearful +joy, for she saw him coming across the lawn to her, and heard her name, +spoken as it had never yet been spoken excepting by him; and she stood, +still as a statue, as he held out his hand and, looking into her eyes, +murmured her name again. + +"Ida!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +"Ida!" + +It was the lover's cry of appeal, the prayer for love uttered by the +heart that loves; and it went straight to her own heart. + +She put out her hand, and he took it and held it in both his. + +"I have come for your answer," he said in the low voice that thrills; +the voice which says so much more than the mere words. "I could not +wait--I tried to keep away from you until to-morrow; but it was of no +use. I am here, you see, and I want your answer. Don't tell me it is +'No!' Trust me, Ida--trust to my love for you. I will devote my life to +trying to make you happy. Ah, but you know! What is your answer? Have +you thought--you promised me you would think?" + +"I have thought," she said, at last. "I have thought of nothing else--I +wanted to tell you the truth--to tell you truly as I would to +myself--but it is so hard to know--Sometimes when I think that you may +go away, and that I may not see you again, my heart sinks, and I feel, +oh! so wretched." + +He waited for no more, but caught her to him, and as she lay in his +arms only slightly struggling, her face upturned, he bent his own, +almost white with passion, and kissed her on the lips, and not once +only. + +The blood rushed to her face, her bosom rose and fell, and, her face +grown pale again, her eyes gazed up into his half fiercely, half +appealingly; then suddenly they grew moist, as if with tears, her lips +quivered, and from them came, as if involuntarily, the words of +surrender, the maiden confession: + +"I love you!" + +He uttered a low, sharp cry, the expression of his heart's delight, his +soul's triumph. + +"You love me! Ida! How--how do you know--when?" She shook her head and +sighed, as she pressed her cheek against his breast. + +"I don't know. It was just now--the moment when you kissed me. Then it +came to me suddenly--the knowledge--the truth. It was as if a flash of +light had revealed it to me. Oh, yes, I love you. I wish--almost I wish +that I did not, for--it hurts me!" + +She pressed her hand to her heart, and gazed up at him with the wonder +of a child who is meeting its first experience of the strange +commingling of pain and joy. + +He raised her in his arms until her face was against his. + +"I know--dearest," he said, almost in a whisper. "It is love--it is +always so, I think. My heart is aching with longing for you, and yet I +am happy--my God, how happy! And you? Tell me, Ida?" + +"Yes, I am happy," she breathed, with a deep sigh, as she nestled still +closer to him. "It is all so strange--so unreal!" + +"Not unreal, dearest," he said, as they walked under the trees, her +head against his shoulder, his arm round her waist and supporting her. +"It is real enough, this love of mine--which will last me till my +death, I know; and yours?" + +She gazed straight before her dreamily. + +"There can be no heaven without you, without your love," she answered, +with a solemn note in her sweet voice. + +He pressed her to him. + +"And you have thought it all out. You have realised that you will be my +wife--my very own?" + +"Yes," she said. "I know now. I know that I am giving you myself, that +I am placing all my life in your hands." + +"God help me to guard it and make it happy!" he said; then he laughed. +"I have no fear! I will make you happy, Ida! I--I feel that I shall. Do +you understand what I mean? I feel as if I had been set apart, chosen +from all the millions of men, to love you and cherish you and make you +happy! And you, Ida?" + +She looked up at him with the same far-away, dreamy expression in her +wonderful eyes. + +"Now at this moment I felt that I, too, have been set apart for you: is +it because you have just said the same? No, because I felt it when you +kissed me just now. Ah, I am glad you did it! If you had not I might +not have known that I loved you, I might have let you go forever, +thinking that I did not care. It was your kiss that opened my heart to +me and showed me--." + +He bent over her until his lips nearly touched hers. "Kiss me in +return--of your own accord, Ida! But once, if you will; but kiss me!" + +Without a blush, solemnly as if it were a sacrament, she raised her +head and kissed him on the lips. + +There fell a silence. The world around them, in the soft shimmer of the +crescent moon, became an enchanted region, the land that never was on +earth or sea, the land of love, in which all that dwell therein move in +the glamour of the sacred Fire of Love. + +Stafford broke it at last. It is the man who cannot be contented with +silence; he thirsts for his mistress's voice. + +"Dearest, what shall I do? You must tell me," he said, as if he had +been thinking. "I will do whatever you wish, whatever you think best. +I've a strong suspicion that you're the cleverest of us; that you've +got more brains in this sweet little finger of yours than I've got in +my clumsy head--" + +She laughed softly and looked at the head which he had libelled, the +shapely head with its close-cut hair, which, sliding her hand up, she +touched caressingly. + +"Shall I come to your father to-morrow, Ida? I will ride over after +breakfast--before, if you like: if I had my way I'd patrol up and down +here all night until it was a decent time to call upon him." + +She nestled a little closer to him, and her brows came level with +sudden gravity and doubt. + +"My father! I had not thought of him--of what he would say--do. But I +know! He--he will be very angry," she said, in a low voice. + +"Will he? Why?" Stafford asked. "Of course I know I'm not worthy of +you, Ida; no living man is!" + +"Not worthy!" + +She smiled at him with the woman's worship already dawning in her deep +grey eyes. + +"It is I who am not worthy. Why, think! I am only an inexperienced +girl--living the life of a farmer's daughter. We are very poor--oh, you +do not know how poor! We are almost as poor as the smallest tenant, +though we live in this big house, and are still regarded as great +people--the Herons of Herondale." + +"That's one of the things I have been thinking of," said Stafford. +"What lovely hair you have, Ida! It is not often that dark hair is so +soft, is it?" + +He bent down and drew a look, which his caresses had released, across +her lips, and kissed her through it. + +"You are lords of the soil, people of importance and rank here, while +we are--well, just ordinary folk. I can quite understand your father +objecting. Dearest, you are worthy of a duke, a prince--" + +She put her hand up to his lips to silence the lover's extravagant +flattery. + +"It is not that--the difference--which is all to your advantage," she +said. "My father may think of it," she went on with innocent candour. +"But it would be the same if you were of the highest rank. He does not +want me to leave him." + +"And if he were less anxious to keep you he would not give you to me, +who am, in his opinion, and rightly, so much your inferior," said +Stafford. "But I ought to go to him, dearest. I ought to go to-morrow." + +She trembled a little as she nestled against him. "And--and--your +father, Sir Stephen Orme?" she said. "What will he say?" + +Stafford laughed slowly and confidently. + +"Oh, my father? He will be delighted. He's the best of fathers, a +perfect model for parents. Ever since I can remember he has been good +to me, a precious sight better, more liberal and generous, than I +deserved; but lately, since I've known him--Ah, well, I can only say, +dearest, that he will be delighted to hear that I have chosen a wife; +and when he sees you--" + +He stopped and held her at arm's length for a moment and looked down +into the lovely face upturned to his with its sweet, girlish gravity. + +--"Why, he will fall in love with you right out of hand! I think you +will like my father, Ida. He--well, he's a taking sort of fellow; +everybody likes him who knows him--really knows him--and speaks well of +him. Yes, I'm proud of him, and I feel as safe as if he were here to +say, in his hearty, earnest way: 'I wish you good luck, Stafford! And +may God bless you, my dear!'" + +He flushed and laughed as if a little ashamed of his emotional way of +putting it. + +"He's full of--of the milk of human kindness, is my father," he said, +with a touch of simplicity which was one of the thousand and fifteen +reasons why Ida loved him. + +She gazed up at him thoughtfully and sighed. + +"I hope he will like me," she said, all the pride which usually +characterized her melted by her love. "I am sure that I shall like +him--for loving you." + +"You will see," said Stafford, confidently. "He will be as proud as a +duke about you. You won't mind if he shows it a little plainly and +makes a little fuss, Ida? He's--well, he's used to making the most of a +good thing when he has it--it's the life he has led which has rather +got him into the way of blowing a trumpet, you know--and he'll want a +whole orchestra to announce you. But about your father, dearest? Shall +I come to-morrow and ask for his consent?" + +She looked up at him with doubt and a faint trouble in her beautiful +eyes, and he heard her sigh regretfully. + +"I am afraid," she said, in a low voice. + +"Afraid?" He looked at her with a smile of surprise. "If anyone were to +tell me that it was possible for you to be afraid, I shouldn't believe +them," he said. "Fear and you haven't made acquaintance yet, Ida!" + +She shook her head. + +"I am so happy, so intensely happy, that I am afraid lest the gods +should be jealous and snatch my happiness from me. I am afraid that if +you come to-morrow, my father will say 'No,' will--" + +--"Will have me shown out," said Stafford, gravely. "I see. I shouldn't +be surprised." + +"And--and then I should not be able to see you again." + +He laughed at the idea. + +"My dearest, if all the fathers in the world said 'No,' it wouldn't +make any difference to me," he said, with that air of masterfulness, +that flash of the eye which a woman loves in a man. "Do you think I +should give you up, that I should be content to say, 'I'm very sorry, +sir,' and go off--leave you--keep away from you!" He laughed again, +and she nestled a little closer, and her small hand closed a little more +tightly on his arm. "And you wouldn't give me up, refuse to see me, +even if your father withheld his consent, would you, Ida?" he asked. + +She looked straight before her dreamily. Then raised her eyes to his +gravely. + +"No; I could not. It is just that. I could not. Somehow I feel as if I +had given you the right to myself and that nothing could alter it, +nothing could take me away from you!" + +How was it possible for him to refrain from lifting her in his arms and +kissing the sweet, soft lips which made such a confession. + +They walked on for a minute or two in silence, when she went on, as if +she had been still considering the matter: + +"No, you must not come, Stafford. My father is not strong, +and--and--ah! well, you know, you saw him that other night--the first +night we met--do you remember? And he was walking in his sleep again +the other evening. If you were to come--if I were to tell him +that--that you had asked me to be your wife, he might fly into a +passion; it might do him harm. Some time ago, when he was ill, the +doctor told me that he must be kept quite quiet, and that nothing must +be allowed to excite or irritate him. He is very old and leads so +secluded a life--he sees no one now but myself. Oh, how I would like +you to come; how good it would be if--if he would give me to you as +other fathers give their daughters! But I dare not risk it! I cannot! +Stafford"--she put her hands on his breast and looked up at him--"am I +wrong to tell you all this--to let you see how much I love you? Is +it--unmaidenly of me? Tell me if it is, and I will not do so for the +future. I will hide my heart a little better than I am doing at +present. Ah, see, it is on my sleeve!" + +He took her arm and kissed the sleeve where her heart was supposed to +be. + +"I've read that men only love while they are not sure of a woman's +love; that with every two persons it is one who loves and the other who +permits himself or herself to be loved. Is that true, Stafford? If so, +then it is I who love--alas! poor me!" + +He drew her to him and looked into her eyes with a passionate +intensity. + +"It's not true," he said, almost fiercely. "For God's sake don't say +such things. They--they hurt, and hurt badly; they leave a bitter taste +in the mouth, a nasty pang behind. And if it were true--but it isn't, +Ida!--it is I who love. Good Lord! don't you know how beautiful you +are? Haven't you a looking-glass in your room? don't you know that no +girl that ever was born had such wonderful eyes, such beautiful hair? +Oh, my heart's love, don't you know how perfect you are?" + +They had stopped under some trees near the ruined chapel, and she leant +against one of them and looked up at him with a strange, dreamy, +far-away look in her eyes which were dark as the purple amethyst. + +"I never thought about it. Am I--do you think I am pretty? I am glad; +yes I am glad!" + +"Pretty!" he laughed. "Dearest, when I take you away from here, into +the world, as my wife--my wife--the thought sends my blood coursing +through my veins--you will create so great a sensation that I shall be +half wild with pride; I shall want to go about calling aloud: 'She is +my wife; my very own! You may admire--worship her, but she is +mine--belongs to me--to unworthy Stafford Orme!'" + +"Yes?" she murmured, her voice thrilling. "You will be proud of me? Of +me, the poor little country girl who rode about the dales in a shabby +habit and an old hat? Stafford, Jessie was telling me that there is a +very beautiful girl staying at the Villa at Brae Wood--one of the +visitors. Jessie said she was lovely, and that all the men-servants, +and the maids, too, were talking about her. She must be more beautiful +than I am." + +"Which of the women do you mean?" he said, indifferently, with the +supreme indifference which the man who is madly in love feels for every +other woman than the one of his heart. + +"She is a fair girl, with blue eyes and the most wonderful hair; +'chestnut-red with gold in it,' as Jessie described it to me. And she +says that this girl wears the most beautiful diamonds--I am still +quoting Jessie--and other precious stones, and that she is very 'high +and mighty,' and more haughty than any of the other ladies. Who is it?" + +"I think she must mean Miss Falconer--Miss Maude Falconer," said +Stafford, as indifferently as before, as he smoothed one of the silken +tresses on her brow, and kissed it as it lay on his finger. "It is just +the way a slave would describe her." + +"And is she very beautiful?" asked Ida. + +"Yes, I suppose she is," he said. + +"You suppose!" she echoed, arching her brows, but with a frank smile +about her lips, the smile of contentment at his indifference. "Don't +you know?" + +"Well, yes, she is," he admitted. "I've scarcely noticed her. Oh, but +yes, she is; and she sings very well. Yes, I can understand her making +a sensation in the servants' hall--she makes one in the drawing-room. +But she's not my style of beauty. See here, dearest: it doesn't sound +nice, but though I've spent some hours with Miss Falconer and listened +to her singing, I have only just noticed that she is good-looking, and +that she has a wonderful voice: they say up at the Villa that there's +nothing like it on the stage--excepting Patti's and Melba's; but all +the time she has been there I have had another face, another voice, in +my mind. Ever since I saw you, down there by the river, I have had no +eyes for any other woman's face, however beautiful, no ears for any +other woman's voice, however sweet." She was silent a moment, as she +clasped her hands and laid them against his cheek. + +"How strange it sounds! But if you had chanced to see her +first--perhaps you would not have fallen in love with me? How could you +have done so? She is so very lovely--I can see she is, by Jessie's +description." + +He laughed. + +"Even if I had not seen you, there was no chance of my falling in love +with Miss Falconer, dearest," he said, smiling at her gravity and +earnestness. "She is very beautiful, lovely in her way, if you like; +but it is not my way. She is like a statue at most times; at others, +just now and again, like a--well, a sleek tigress in her movements and +the way she turns her head. Oh, there wasn't the least danger of my +falling in love with her, even if I hadn't seen the sweetest and +loveliest girl in all the wide world." + +"And you will feel like that, feel so sure, so certain that you love +me, even though you have seen and will see so many women who are far +more beautiful than I am?" she said, dreamily. + +"Sure and certain," he responded, with a long sigh. "If I were as sure +of your love as I am of mine for you--Forgive me, dearest!" for she had +raised her eyes to his with an earnestness that was almost solemn. + +"You may be sure," she said, slowly. "I shall love you as long as I +live. I know it! I do not know why. I only--feel it. Perhaps we may be +parted--" + +He laughed--but his hand closed on hers, and gripped them tightly. + +--"But I shall always love you. Something has gone out of me--is it my +heart?--and I can never take it back from you. Perhaps you may grow +tired of me--it may be. I have read and heard of such things happening +to women--you may see someone more beautiful than Miss Falconer, +someone who will lead you to forget the little girl who rode through +the rain in Herondale. If so, there will be no need to tell me; no need +to make excuses, or ask for forgiveness. There would be no need to tell +me, for something here"--she drew her hand from his and touched her +bosom--"would tell me. You would only have to keep away from me--that +is all. And I--ah well I should be silent, quite silent." + +"Dearest!" he murmured, reproachfully, and with something like awe, for +her brows were knit, her face was pale as ivory, and her eyes glowed. +"Why do you say this now, just as--as we have confessed our love for +each other? Do you think I shall be faithless? I could almost laugh! As +if any man you deigned to love could ever forget you, ever care a straw +for any other woman!" + +She turned to him with a shudder, a little cry that was tragic in its +intensity, turned to him and clenched her small hands on his breast. + +"Swear to me!" she panted; then, as if ashamed of the passion that +racked her, her eyes dropped and the swift red flooded her face. "No! +you shall not swear to me, Stafford. I--I will believe you love me as I +shall love you forever and forever! But if--if the time should come +when some other girl shall win you from me, promise me that you will +not tell me, that you will just keep away from me! I could bear it +if--if I did not see you; but if I saw you--Oh!"--something like a moan +escaped her quivering lips, and she flung herself upon his breast with +the _abandon_, the unself-consciousness of a child. + +Stafford was moved to his inmost heart, and for a moment, as he held +her within the embrace of his strong arms, he could not command his +voice sufficiently for speech. At last he murmured, his lips seeking +hers: + +"Ida! I swear that I will love you forever and forever!" + +"But--but--if you break your vow, you promise that you will not come to +me--tell me? I shall know. Promise, ah, promise!" + +"Will nothing less content you? Must I?" he said, almost desperate at +her persistence. "Then I promise, Ida!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + +There is something solemn and awe-inspiring in perfect happiness. + +How many times in the day did Ida pull up Rupert and gaze into the +distance with vacant, unseeing eyes, pause in the middle of some common +task, look up from the book she was trying to read, to ask herself +whether she was indeed the same girl who had lived her lonely life at +Herondale, or whether she had changed places with some other +personality, with some girl singularly blessed amongst women. + +Jessie and Jason, even the bovine William, who was reputed the +stupidest man in the dale, noticed the change in her, noticed the touch +of colour that was so quick to mount to the ivory cheek, the novel +brightness and tenderness in the deep grey eyes, the new note, the low, +sweet tone of happiness in the clear voice. Her father only remained +unobservant of the subtle change, but he was like a mole burrowing +amongst his book and gloating secretly over the box which he concealed +at the approach of footsteps, the opening of a door, and the sound of a +voice in a distant part of the house. + +But though the servants remarked the change in their beloved mistress, +they did not guess at its cause; for, by chance rather than design, +none of them had seen Ida and Stafford together. And yet they met +daily. Sometimes Stafford would ride over from Brae Wood and meet her +by the river. There was a hollow there, so deep that it hid not only +themselves but the horses, and here they would sit, hand in hand, or +more often with his arm round her and her small, shapely head with its +soft, but roughened hair, upon his breast. Sometimes he would row +across the lake and they would walk side by side along the bank, and +screened by the trees in which the linnet and the thrush sang the songs +which make a lover's litany; at others--and these were the sweetest +meeting of all, for they came in the soft and stilly night when all +nature was hushed as if under the spell of the one great passion--he +would ride or walk over after dinner, and they would sit in the ruined +archway of the old chapel and talk of their blank past, the magic +present, and the future which was to hold nothing but happiness. + +Love grows fast under such conditions, and the love of these two +mortals grew to gigantic proportions, absorbing the lives of both of +them. To Stafford, all the hours that were not spent with this girl of +his heart were so much dreary waste. + +To Ida--ah, well, who shall measure the intensity of a girl's first +passion? She only lived in the expectation of seeing him, in his +presence and the whispered words and caresses of his love; and, in his +absence, in the memory of them. For her life meant just this man who +had come and taken the heart from her bosom and enthroned his own in +its place. + +They told each other everything. Stafford knew the whole of her life +before they met, all the little details of the daily routine of the +Hall, and her management of the farm; and she learnt from him all that +was going on at the great, splendid palace which in his modesty Sir +Stephen Orme had called the Villa. She liked to nestle against him and +hear the small details of his life, as he liked to hear hers; and she +seemed to know all the visitors at the Villa, and their peculiarities, +as well as if she were personally acquainted with them. + +"You ought not to leave them so much, Stafford." she said, with mock +reproof, as they sat one afternoon in the ballow by the river. "Don't +you think they notice your absence and wonder where you are?" + +"Shouldn't think so," he replied. "Besides, I don't care if they do. +All my worry is that I can't come to you oftener. Every time I leave +you I count up the hours that must pass before I see you again. But I +expect most, if not all, of the visitors will be off presently. Most of +'em have been there the regulation fortnight; a good many come +backwards and forwards; they're the city men, the money men. My father +is closeted with them for hours every day--that big scheme of his seems +to be coming off satisfactorily. It's a railway to some place in +Africa, and all these fellows--the Griffenbergs, and Beltons, that fat +German baron, Wirsch, and the rest of them, are in it. Heaven knows why +my father wants to worry about it for. I heard one of them say that he +calculated to make a million and a half out of it. As if he weren't +rich enough!" + +"A million and a half," she said. "What a large sum it seems. What one +could do with a half, a quarter, a tenth of it!" + +"What would you do, dearest?" he asked. + +She laughed softly. + +"I think that I would first buy you a present. And then I'd have the +Hall repainted. No, I'd get the terrace rails and the portico mended; +and yet, perhaps, it would be better to have the inside of the house +painted and papered. You see, there are so many things I could do with +it, that it's difficult to choose." + +"You shall do 'em all," he said, putting his arm round her. "See here, +Ida, I've been thinking about ourselves--" + +"Do you ever think of anything else? I don't," she said, half +unconsciously. + +--"And I've made up my mind to take the bull by the horns--" + +"Is that meant for my father or yours?" + +"Both," he replied. "We've been so happy this last fortnight--is it a +fortnight ago since I got you to tell me that you cared for me? Lord! +it seems a year sometimes, and at others it only seems a minute!--that +we haven't cared to think of how we stand; but it can't like this +forever, Ida. You see, I want you--I want you all to myself, for every +hour of the day and night instead of for just the few minutes I've the +good luck to snatch. Directly this affair of my governor's is finished +I shall go to him and tell him I'm the happiest, the luckiest man in +the world; I shall tell him everything exactly how we stand--and ask +him to help us with your father." + +Ida sighed and looked grave. + +"I know, dearest," he said, answering the look. "But your father has to +be faced some time, and I--Ida, I am impatient. I want you. Now, as I +daresay you have discovered, I am rather an idiot than otherwise, and +the worst man in the world to carry out anything diplomatically; but my +father--" He laughed rather ruefully. "Well, they say he can coax a +concession out of even the Sultan of Turkey; that there is no one who +can resist him; and I know I shall be doing the right thing by telling +him how we stand." + +She leant her elbows on her knees and her chin in the palms of her +hands. + +"It shall be as you say, my lord and master," she said; "and when you +tell him that you have been so foolish as to fall in love with a little +Miss Nobody, who lives in a ruined tumble-down house, and is as poor +and friendless as a church mouse, do you think he will be +delighted--that the great and all-powerful Sir Stephen Orme will throw +up his hat for joy and consider that you have been very wise?" + +"I think when he sees you--What is that?" he broke off. + +"That" was a lady riding across the moor behind them. She was mounted +on one of the Orme horses, was habited by Redfern, who had done justice +to her superb and supple figure, and the sunlight which poured from +between the clouds fully revealed the statuesque beauty of her face. + +"I know," said Ida, quietly, as she looked at the graceful horsewoman, +at the lithe, full figure, the cold perfection of the Grecian face. +"That is Miss Falconer: it is, is it not?" + +He nodded indifferently. + +"And she has seen us," said Ida. + +"It doesn't matter in the least," said Stafford. "Why shouldn't she? +But I don't think she has; she did not turn her head as she rode by." + +"That is why," said Ida, with her woman's acuteness. "She saw us from +the top of the hill--see, the groom is just riding down." + +She was silent a moment or two, watching Maude Falconer as she cantered +away, then she shivered as if with cold. + +"What is the matter, dearest?" he asked, drawing her to him. "Why did +you shudder?" + +She tried to laugh, but her eyes were grave and almost solemn. "I don't +know. It was as if someone had walked over my grave; as if I felt the +presentiment of some coming evil. I never felt like it before--Yes: she +is very beautiful, Stafford. She is like a picture, a statue--no, that +is not fair; for no picture had ever such magnificent hair, no statue +was ever so full of life and--Oh, I want a word--power. Yes; she is +like a tigress--a tigress asleep and in a good temper just for the +present; but--" + +Stafford laughed, the strong and healthy man's laugh of good-natured +tolerance for the fancies of the woman he loves. + +"My dear Ida, I assure you Miss Falconer is quite an ordinary young +woman with nothing mysterious or uncanny about her. And if she has seen +us, I am rather glad. I--well, I want to take you by the hand and +exclaim aloud to the whole world: 'Behold the treasure I have found! +Look upon her--but shade your eyes lest her beauty dazzle you--and +worship at her feet.' Only a day or two more and I'll tell my father +and have him on our side." + +She made a gesture of consent. + +"It shall be as you will," she murmured again. "But go now, dearest; I +shall have to ride fast to reach home in time to give my father his +tea." + +Maude Falconer cantered easily until she had turned the corner of the +hill and was out of sight of Stafford and Ida, then she pulled up the +high-bred horse who fretted under her steel-like hands and tossed the +foam from his champing lips, pulled up and looked straight before her, +while the colour came and went on her smooth cheek; a sombre fire +gleamed in the usually coldly calm eyes, and her bosom heaved under the +perfect moulding of the riding-habit. She sat and looked before her for +a moment or two as if she were battling with an emotion which +threatened to master her and to find expression in some violent +outburst; but she conquered, and presently rode on to the Villa; and +half an hour later Stafford, coming up the steps, found her lying back +in her favourite chair with a cup of tea in her hand. + +"You are just in time," she said, looking up at him, and he looked back +at her rather vacantly; for Ida had been in his arms too recently, for +his mind, his whole being, to be sufficiently clear of her to permit +him to take any interest in anything else "for tea," she said. "Here it +comes. Shall I pour it out for you? Have you been riding far?" + +"Not very far," he said. "You have been riding, too. Is it a wonder we +did not meet." + +"Yes," she assented, languidly. "I met no one, saw no one, while I was +out. Here comes your shadow," she added, as Tiny, having heard his +beloved master's voice, came helter-skelter, head over heels, and leapt +on Stafford's lap. "How fond he is of you." + +Stafford nodded. + +"Yes; I'm jolly glad no one answered the advertisement for its owner." + +She bent over and stroked the terrier, who always seemed uneasy under +her caress, and her hand touched Stafford's. She glanced at him as it +did so, but the white hand so soft and warm might have been a piece of +senseless wood for all its effect upon him whose soul was still +thrilling with Ida Heron's touch; and with a tightening of the lips, +she took her hand away and leant back, but her eyes still clung to him, +as, all unconscious, he bent over the dog. + +At that moment a carriage drove up, and Mr. Falconer alighted. He came +up the steps, his heavy face grave and yet alert; and his keen eyes +glanced at the pair as they sat side by side. Stafford looked up and +nodded. + +"Glad to see you back, Mr. Falconer," he said, pleasantly. "Stands +London where it did?" + +"Pretty much so, yes," responded Mr. Falconer, grimly. "Yes, plenty of +other thing change, have their day and cease to be, but the little +village keeps its end up and sees things--and men--come and go, flare +up, flicker and fizzle out. No, thanks; I'll have some tea in my room." + +"And like a dutiful daughter, I will go and pour it out for him," said +Maude. + +She rose--Tiny rose also, and barked at her--followed her father to his +room and stood watching him as he took off his frock-coat--he had no +valet--and slowly put on a loose jacket. + + +"Well?" she said, at last. + +He sank into a chair and looked up at her with a sardonic smile on his +face. + +"Yes, I'm back," he said. "I hurried back because Sir Stephen is going +to sign the articles to-night, going to bring the thing to a +conclusion." + +She nodded, her eyes fixed on his hawk-like ones with a calm but keen +watchfulness. + +"And you? Have you--" + +He leant forward, and held out one claw-like hand, open. + +"Yes, I've got him fast and tight." His hand closed, and his eyes shot +a swift, lurid gleam from under their half-lowered lids. "I've got him +as in a vice; I've only to turn the screw and--I squeeze him as flat +and dry as a lemon." She drew a long breath of satisfaction, of relief. + +"You are clever!" she said. "And in one fortnight." + +He smiled grimly. + +"Yes; it is sharp work; and it has taken some doing--and some money. +But I've worked it. Black Steve--I mean Sir Stephen Orme, the great Sir +Stephen--is under my thumb. To-night, the night of his triumph, I am +going to crack him like an egg." + +"You will ruin him?" she said. + +"That is it," he said, with a nod. "I shall ruin him!" + +"Is there no escape?" she asked in a low voice. + +"None," he replied, grimly. "I tell you that nothing can save him." + +"Excepting one thing," she said in so low a voice that it sounded as if +she were speaking to herself. + +"Eh?" he said, as if he had not caught the words. "What is it you mean: +what can save him, what is this one thing?" + +His heavy brows came done, and he frowned at her. + +She raised her eyes, cold and glittering like steel, and met his frown +unflinchingly. + +"The marriage of his son Stafford with your daughter," she said, +slowly, calmly. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + +Mr. Falconer started and stared at her, his heavy face growing a +dust-red, his eyes distended with amazement and anger. + +"Are you out of your mind?" he said at last, and frowning at her in a +kind of perplexity. "'Pon my soul, Maude, I'm never quite certain +whether you are in jest or earnest! If this is intended for a joke, +permit me to tell you I consider it in vilely bad taste." + +"I am not jesting," she said, very quietly, her chin in her hand, her +blue eyes fixed on his unblushingly. "I am in the most sober, the most +serious earnest, I assure you." + +He rose, then sank into the chair again, and sighed impatiently. + +"Do you mean to say that you--that he--Confound it. If ever there was a +man to be pitied, it is the one who has the honour to be your father, +Maude." + +"Why?" she asked, calmly. "Have I not been a dutiful daughter? Have I +ever given you any trouble, deceived you? Am I not perfectly frank with +you at this moment?" He rose and paced to the mantel-shelf, and leaning +against it, looked down upon her, the frown still on his heavy face, +his hands thrust deeply in his pockets. + +"You've always been a puzzle to me," he said, more to himself than to +her. "Ever since you were born I've felt uncertain about you--you're +like your mother. But never mind that. What game is this you're +carrying on?" + +"One in which I mean to win," she replied, slowly, meditatively. "Have +you not seen--How slow to perceive, even you, a reputedly clever man, +can be! I don't suppose there is a woman in the house who has not +detected the fact that I am in love with Stafford Orme, though I have +tried to hide it from them--and you will admit that I am not a bad +actress." + +"In love with Stafford Orme!" His face darkened. "No, I did not know +it. Why---what the devil does he mean by not coming to me!" he broke +out angrily, harshly. + +She smiled. + +"He hasn't come to ask you for me, because--well, he doesn't want me," +she said in a low voice. + +"What!" he exclaimed below his breath. "Do you mean to tell me +that--that--Why, you can't have the shamelessness to care for the man +without--until--" + +She broke in upon his burst of indignation with a low, clear laugh, and +there was no shame in her voice or eyes, as she said: + +"Would it be so shameful if I have? My dear father, you and I should +differ on that point. We are told that we are made for love and to be +loved, that it is our proper and natural destiny. Why, then, should we +be ashamed of it. None of us are in reality; we only pretend to be. It +is part of the world's system of hypocrisy to assume an incapacity for +loving a man until he has asked you; to pretend an utter indifference +until he has said the magic words, 'I love you.' As if love could wait, +ever did wait, ever will! Anyway, mine did not! And I am no different +to other women--only more candid." + +"By Heaven, you make me feel--mad!" he said, with suppressed anger. +"You tell me unblushingly, to my face, that you have fallen in love +with the son of my old enemy, that you want to marry him--you ask me to +help you, to--to forego my just revenge, to use my hold over him as a +lever, to induce him, force him--Good God! have you no sense of right +or wrong, are you utterly devoid of--of modesty, of womanly pride!" + +He glowered down upon her with flushed face and angry eyes; but she was +quite unmoved by his outburst, and still met his gaze steadily, almost +reflectingly. + +"A fortnight ago I should have asked myself that question--and as +angrily as you; but I can't now. It has gone too far." + +"Gone too far! You mean--" + +"That I have grown to love him so much, so dearly, that life without +him--" + +"By God! you will have to live without him, for I'll not help you to +get him," he said, fiercely. "Stafford Orme, Stephen Orme's boy! No! +Put the thing out of your mind, Maude! See here--I don't want to be +angry; I'll take back all I said: you--well, you surprised me, and +shocked me, too, I'll admit--you're a strange girl, and say things that +you don't mean, and in a cold-blooded way that gives me fits. Say no +more about it; put the idea out of your head." + +She laughed, and rose, and gliding to him, put her hand on his arm. + +"My dear father," she said in a low voice, but with a strange and +subtle vibration in it, as if the passion with which she was struggling +threatened to burst forth, "you don't know what you ask; you don't know +what love is--and you don't know what I am! I didn't know myself until +the last few days; until a gradual light shone on the truth and showed +me my heart, the heart I once thought would never grow warm with love! +Oh, I was a fool! I played with fire, and I have been burned. I am +burning still!" She pressed her hand against her bosom, and for an +instant the passion within her darted from her eyes and twisted the +red, perfectly formed lips. Her hand tightened on his arm, her breath +came pantingly, now quickly, now slowly. "Father I have come to you. +Most girls go to their mother. I have none. I come to you because +I--must! You ask me to put the--the idea out of my head." She laughed a +low laugh of self-scorn and bitterness. "Do you think I have not tried +to steel, to harden, my heart against this feeling which has been +creeping insidiously over me, creeping, stealing gliding like a cloud +until it has enveloped me? I have fought against it as never woman +fought against the approach of love. The first day--it was the day he +took me on the lake--ah, you don't remember, but I--Shall I ever forget +it!--the first day my heart went out to him I tried to call it back, to +laugh at my weakness, to call myself a fool! And I thought I had +succeeded in driving the insidious feeling away. But I was wrong. It +was there in my heart already, and day by day, as I saw him, as I heard +him speak, the thing grew until I could not see him cross the lawn, +hear him speak to the dog, without thrilling, without shivering, +shuddering! Father, have pity on me! No, I won't ask for pity! I won't +have it! But I ask, I demand, sympathy, your help! Father," she drew +nearer to him and looked into his eyes with an awful look of +desperation, of broken pride, of the aching craving of love, "you must +help me. I love him, I must be his wife--I cannot live without him, I +will not!" + +He paled and gnawed at his thick lip. + +"You talk like a madwoman," he said, hoarsely. + +She nodded. + +"Yes, I am mad; I know it; I know it! But I shall never be sane again. +All my days and all my nights are consumed in this madness. I think of +him--I call up his face--ah!" She flung her hands before her face and +swayed to and fro as if she were half dazed, half giddy with passion. +"And all day I have to fight against the risk, the peril of discovery. +To feel the women's eyes on me when he comes near, to feel that their +ears are strained to catch the note in my voice which will give me +away, place me under their scorn--and to know that, try as I will, my +voice, my eyes will grow tender as they rest on him, as I speak to him! +To have to hide, to conceal, to crush down my heart while it is aching, +throbbing with the torture of my love for him!" + +He strode from her, then came back. The sight of the storm within her +had moved him: for, after all, this strange girl was his daughter, +flesh of his flesh, bone of his bone. He swore under his breath and +struggled for speech. + +"And--and the man Stafford?" he said. "He--he has not said--D--n it! +you don't mean to tell me that he is absolutely indifferent, that +he--he doesn't care?" + +"I'll tell you the truth," she said. "I swore to myself that I would. +There is too much at stake for me to conceal anything. He +does--not--care for me." + +Ralph Falconer uttered a sharp snarl of shame and resentment. + +"He doesn't? and yet you--you want to marry him!" + +She made a gesture with her hands which was more eloquent than words. + +"Perhaps--perhaps there is someone else? Someone of the other women +here?" he suggested, moodily. + +"Yes, there is someone else," she said, with the same calm decision. +"No, it is not one of the women here; it is a girl in the place; a +farmer's daughter, I think. It is only a _liaison_, a vulgar +intrigue--" + +He uttered an exclamation. + +"And yet _that_ doesn't cure you!" + +She shook her head and smiled. + +"No; my case is incurable. Father, if he were engaged to anyone of the +women here, to someone his equal, I should still love him and want him; +yes, and move heaven and earth to get him. But this is only a +flirtation with some country girl--she meets him on the hill-side by +the river--anywhere. I have seen them, at a distance, once or twice. +She is of no importance. She has caught his fancy, and will soon fail +to hold it." + +She waved her hand as if she were moving the obstacle aside. Her father +stared at her in a kind of stupefaction. + +"My girl, don't you know what you are asking for? A life of +wretchedness and misery; the hell of being married to a man who doesn't +love you." + +She laughed and drew herself up, her eyes flashing, a warm glow on her +cheeks. + +"Who doesn't love me! Not now, perhaps; but do you think I should not +teach him to love me, make him love me? Look at me, father!" + +He looked at her reluctantly, in a kind of dazed admiration and +resentment. + +"Do you think any man could resist me if I set my mind upon winning +him? No! Oh, it's not the language of hysterical vanity! I know my +power; every woman knows how far her power will go. Let me have him to +myself for one week, and--" She caught her breath. "Love! Yes, he shall +return mine tenfold! I will teach him!" She caught her breath again and +pressed her hands to her bosom. "Don't be afraid, father, I will take +care of the future. Help me in the present; help me as I have asked +you!" + +"By God, you ask too much!" he said, sternly, fiercely. + +She stood and looked at him. The colour slowly left her face until it +was white as death, the light faded from her eyes until they were dull +and lifeless, the red of her lips paled and the lips themselves relaxed +and drooped, and as he looked at her a ghastly fear smote his heart and +a question shot into and a question shot into his eyes. She inclined +her head as if he had put the question in words. + +"Yes," she said. "I shall die. You remember my mother? I shall follow +her--" + +He uttered a low, hoarse cry, and caught her hands and held them; then +he flung them from him, and standing with his back to her, said, +thickly, as if every word were forced from him: + +"You shall have your way! You always have had, like your mother before +you--you always will. But mark my words: you'll live to curse the hour +you forced me to do this!" + +She drew a long breath--it was almost a sigh--of relief, and she laid +her hands on his arms and kissed him on the forehead. + +"I'll risk that," she said, with a tremulous laugh. + +There was a silence for a moment, then she said, calmly: + +"You will play your part carefully, father? You will let Sir Stephen +think that Stafford desires it: you will be careful?" + +He turned upon her with an oath. + +"You'd best leave it to me," he said, savagely. "I'll try and save you +from shame all I can. For God's sake go and leave me alone!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +While Stafford was dressing for dinner that night, and wondering +whether even if he should get an opportunity of speaking to his father, +it would be wise to tell him of Ida, Howard knocked at the door. +Stafford told him to come in, and sent Measom away, and Howard, who was +already dressed, sank into an easy-chair and surveyed his friend with +bland approval. + +"A white tie to-night, Staff? Anything on?" + +"Yes; there is a dance," replied Stafford, rather absently. What would +his father say and do? Would he go over to Heron Hall the next morning? +Yes, that is what he would do! + +"A dance? Is that all? From the undercurrent of suppressed excitement +animating most of the guests I should think it was something more +important. Have you noticed the air of suspense, of fluctuating hope +and doubt, triumph and despair which has characterized our noble band +of financiers during the last few days?" + +Stafford shook his head. + +"No; I haven't noticed 'em particularly. In fact, I scarcely see them, +or do more than exchange the usual greetings. They seem to me to move +and look and speak just about as usual." Howard smiled. + +"To be young and happy and free from care is to be blind: puppies, for +instance, are blind!" + +Stafford grinned. + +"That's complimentary, anyhow. What do you think is up?" + +"I think Sir Stephen is going to pull off his great event, to make his +grand _coup_," said Howard. "So you find a black-and-tan terrier +improves a dress-coat by lying on it?" + +Tiny had coiled himself up on that garment, which Measom had laid ready +on the chair, and was lying apparently asleep, but with his large eyes +fixed on his beloved master. + +"Oh, he's a peculiar little beast, and is always getting where he +shouldn't be. Hi! young man, get off my coat!" + +He picked the terrier up and threw him softly on the bed, but Tiny got +down at once and curled himself up on the fur mat by Stafford's feet. + +"Seems to be fond of you: strange dog!" said Howard. "Yes, I think Sir +Stephen's 'little scheme'--as if any scheme of his could be +'little'!--has worked out successfully, and I shouldn't be surprised if +the financiers had a meeting to-night and the floating of the company +was announced." + +"Oh," said Stafford, as he got into his coat. "Yes, I daresay it's all +right. The governor seems always to pull it off." + +Howard smiled. + +"You talk as if an affair of thousands of thousands, perhaps millions, +were quite a bagatelle," he said. "My dear boy, don't you understand, +realise, the importance of this business? It's nothing less than a +railway from--" + +Stafford nodded. "Oh, yes, you told me about it. It's a very big +thing, I daresay, but what puzzles me is why the governor should care +to worry about it. He has money enough--" + +"No man has money enough," said Howard, solemnly. "But no matter. It is +a waste of time to discuss philosophy with a man who has no mind above +fox-hunting, fishing, pheasant-shooting, and dancing. By the way, how +many times do you intend to dance with the Grecian goddess?" + +"Meaning--" said Stafford. + +"Miss Falconer, of course. Grecian goddesses are not so common, my dear +Stafford, as to permit of more than one in a house-party." + +"I'm sure I don't know," replied Stafford, eyeing him with faint +surprise. "What the devil made you ask me that?" + +Howard eyed the handsome face with cynical amusement. + +"Pardon, if I was impertinent; but I assure you the question is being +asked amongst themselves by all the women in the house--" + +Stafford stared at him and began to frown with perplexity rather than +anger. + +"My dear Stafford, I know that you are not possessed of a particularly +brilliant intellect, but you surely possess sufficient intelligence to +see that your attentions to Miss Falconer are somewhat obvious." + +"What?" said Stafford. "My attentions to Miss Falconer--Are you +chaffing, Howard?" + +"Not in the least: it's usually too great a waste of time with you, my +dear boy: you don't listen, and when you do, half the time you don't +understand. No, I'm quite serious; but perhaps I ought to have said her +attentions to you; it would have been more correct." + +Stafford coloured. + +"Look here, old man," he said. "If you think--Oh, dash it all, what +nonsense it is! Miss Falconer and I are very good friends; and of +course I like to talk to her--she's so sharp, almost as smart and +clever as you are, when she likes to take the trouble; and of course I +like to hear her sing--Why, my dear Howard, it's like listening to one +of the big operatic swells; but--but to suggest that there is +anything--that--there is any reason to warn me--Oh, dash it! come off +it, old man, you're chaffing?" + +"Not in the least. But I didn't intend any warning: in fact, I am in +honour bound to refrain from anything of the kind--" + +"In honour bound?" said Stafford. + +Howard almost blushed. + +"Oh, it's nothing; only a silly wager," he said. "I can't tell you, so +don't enquire. But all the same--well, there, I won't say more if you +are sure there is nothing between you." + +"I have the best of reasons for saying so," said Stafford, carelessly, +and with a touch of colour in his face. "But it's all dashed nonsense! +The women always think there's something serious going on if you dance +twice with a girl, or sit and talk to her for half an hour." + +"Right!" said Howard, rising. "There's the bell!" + +As Howard had said, there was an air of suppressed excitement about the +people; and it was not confined to the financiers who clustered +together in the hall and discussed and talked in undertones, every now +and then glancing up the stairs down which Sir Stephen would presently +descend. Most of the other guests, though they had no direct and +personal interest in the great scheme, more or less had heard rumours +and come within reflective radius of the excitement; as for the rest, +who knew nothing or cared less for Sir Stephen's railway, they were in +a pleasant condition of excitement over the coming dance. + +Stafford, as he stood in the hall talking about the night's programme +to Bertie--who had been elected, by common and tacit consent, master of +the ceremonies--saw Maude Falconer descending the stairs. She was even +more exquisitely dressed than usual; and Stafford heard some of the +women and men murmur admiringly and enviously as she swept across the +hall in her magnificent ball-dress; her diamonds, for which she was +famous, glittering in her hair, on her white throat, and on her slender +wrists. The dress was a mixture of grey and black, which would have +looked _bizarre_ on anyone else less beautiful; but its strange tints +harmonised with her superb and classic class of beauty, and she looked +like a vision of loveliness which might well dazzle the eyes of the +beholders. + +She paused in her progress--it might almost be called a triumphant one, +for the other women's looks were eloquent of dismay--and looked at +Stafford with the slow, half-dreamy smile which had come into her face +of late when she spoke to him. + +"Have you seen my father? Has he come down, Mr. Orme?" she asked. + +"No," said Stafford. He looked at her, as a man does when he admires a +woman's dress, and forgetting Howard's words of warning, said: "What a +splendacious frock, Miss Falconer!" + +"Do you like it? I am glad," she said. "I had my doubts, but now--" + +Her eyes rested on his for a moment, then she passed on. + +"I shouldn't like to have to pay Miss Falconer's dress bill," remarked +a young married woman, looking after her. "That 'frock' as you call it, +in your masculine ignorance, must have cost a small fortune." + +Stafford laughed. + +"We men always put our foot in it when we talk about a woman's dress," +he said. + +A moment after, the dinner was announced, and Sir Stephen, who had come +down at the last moment, as he went up to take in Lady Clansford, +nodded to Stafford, and smiled significantly. He was as carefully +dressed as usual, but on his face, and in his eyes particularly, was an +expression of satisfaction and anticipatory triumph which was too +obvious to escape the notice of but very few. He was not "loud" at +dinner, but talked even more fluently than usual, and once or twice his +fine eyes swept the long table with a victorious, masterful glance. + +Directly the ladies had gone, the little knot of financiers drew up +nearer to their host, and Griffenberg raised his eyebrows +interrogatively. + +Sir Stephen nodded. + +"Yes," he said, in an undertone. "It's all right! I heard this morning. +My man will be down, with the final decision, by a special train which +ought to land him about midnight. We'll meet in the library, say at +half past twelve, and get the thing finished, eh, baron?" + +Wirsch grunted approval. + +"Vare goot, Sare Stephen; dee sooner a ting ees congluded, de bedder. +'Arf bast dwelve!" + +There was but a short stay made in the drawing-room, and before ten +o'clock the guests streamed into the magnificent ball-room. + +There were a number of the neighbouring gentry who were making their +acquaintance with the Villa for the first time, and they regarded the +splendour around them with an amazement which was not without reason; +for to-night the artistically designed and shaded electric lamps, the +beautiful rooms with their chaste yet effective decorations, on which +money had been lavished like water, were seen to their greatest +advantage; and the Vaynes, the Bannerdales, and the local gentry +generally exchanged glances and murmured exclamations of surprise and +admiration, and wondered whether there could be any end to the wealth +of a man who could raise such a palace in so short a time. + +From the gallery of white-and-gold the famous band, every man of which +was a musician, presently began to send forth the sweet strains of a +Waldteufel waltz, and Stafford found Lady Clansford for the first +dance. Though he had paid little attention to Howard's remarks about +Maude Falconer, he remembered them, and he did not ask her for a dance +until the ball had been running about an hour; then he went up to where +she was standing talking to Lord Bunnerdale, her last partner. His +lordship and Stafford had already met, and Lord Bannerdale, who admired +and liked Stafford, nodded pleasantly. + +"I was just saying to Miss Falconer that I wish Fate had made me a +great financier instead of a country squire, Orme! By Jove! this place +is a perfect--er--dream; and, when I think of my damp old house--" + +"What frightful language!" said Stafford. + +Lord Bannerdale laughed. + +"If Miss Falconer had not been present, I might just as well have used +the other word. I say I can't help envying your father that magician's +wand with which he manages to raise such marvels. I'm going to find him +and tell him so!" + +"A dance?" said Maude, as Stafford proffered his request. "Yes, I have +one, only one; it is this." + +He put his arm round her, and as he did so her eyes half closed and her +lip quivered at his touch. Stafford waltzed well, and Maude was far and +away the best dancer in the room; they moved as one body in the slow +and graceful modern waltz, and Stafford, in the enjoyment of this +perfect poetry of motion, forgot everything, even his partner; but he +came back from his reverie as she suddenly paused. + +"Are you tired?" he asked. "By George! how perfectly you waltz! I've +never enjoyed a dance more." + +A faint colour rose to her face--it had been very pale a moment +before--and she looked at him with an earnestness which rather puzzled +him. + +"They say that to agree in waltzing is an unfortunate thing for those +who wish to be friends." + +"Do they?" he said, with a smile. "I wonder who it is says all those +silly things? Now, what nonsense this one is, for instance! To enjoy a +dance as I've just enjoyed this, puts a man in a good temper with +himself and his partner; and, of course, makes him feel more friendly. +I'm not a good logician, but that sounds all right, doesn't it?" + +"Yes," she said in a low voice. "No, I won't dance any more. I--I am a +little tired to-night and disinclined for dancing." + +"All right," he said. "I'm sorry--both that you won't dance and the +cause. You have been doing too much to-day--too long a ride, I expect. +These hills are rather trying to those who are not used to them. Shall +we go and sit in that recess? I'll bring you some wine--" + +"No, thanks," she said, quickly; she could not bear him to leave her. + +He led her to one of the recesses leading on to the fernery, and found +her a seat near a softly plashing fountain. The lights were shaded with +rose-coloured silk and threw a soft, warm glow upon her face and snowy +neck. + +For the hundredth time, as he looked at her, he thought how beautiful +she was, and for the hundredth time compared her to Ida, of course to +his sweetheart's advantage. She leant back in the luxurious lounge with +her eyes bent on her jewelled fan, and seemed lost in thought. Then +suddenly she said: + +"Do you know how long we have been here, Mr. Orme? It is a tremendous +time. I told my father to-night that we must take our departure." + +"Oh, no!" he said. "Pray don't think of it--if you care to stay, if you +are happy. You would be a very serious loss to us." + +"If I care--if I am happy!" She laughed a low, strange laugh and raised +her eyes to his for an instant. "Do you think I have not been happy?" + +"Oh, I hope so," he said. "My father would be awfully cut up if he +thought you had not: if he thought there had been anything to prevent +your being happy he would remove it even if it--it were one of those +mountains outside," he added, with a laugh. + +"You admire your father?" she said. "You--are fond of him?" + +Stafford nodded. It seemed an unnecessary question. + +"Rather!" he said. "There never was such a father as mine!" + +"And Sir Stephen thinks there never was such a son as his," she said in +a low voice. "I suppose you are both quite willing to make sacrifices +for each other. Would you do--would you give up much for your father, +Mr. Orme?" + +She raised her eyes again, and let them rest on his. + +Stafford tried to smile, but his face grew grave. + +"Just my life, if it were any use to him," he said. + +Her lips moved. + +"That is so little!" she said. "We can all die for those we love, but +few of us can live for them--go on living a life which has to be +moulded to a plan, bent on another's will--Could you do that?" + +"Yes," he said, after a pause. "There is no sacrifice I would not make +for my father's sake; but"--he laughed and cleared the gravity from his +brow--"all the sacrifice seems to be on his side. He has worked for me +all his life, is working still, I'm afraid--Here is _your_ father, Miss +Falconer; and looking for you, I'm afraid." + +Ralph Falconer stood in the doorway looking round, his heavy face +seeming heavier than usual, his thick lips drooping. As he saw the two +young people, his lips straightened and he went over to them slowly. + +"I hope you are not going to take Miss Falconer away, sir?" said +Stafford. + +Ralph Falconer shook his head, and, avoiding his daughter's eye, said: + +"Sir Stephen wants to see you in the library, Mr. Orme, and wishes me +to accompany you." + +"Certainly, if Miss Falconer will excuse me." + +He rose, and he fancied her hand trembled slightly as it rested almost +as lightly as a feather on his arm. + +"I'll take you to Lady Clansford--" + +"There is no need: here is my next partner," she said, as the +"beautiful, bountiful Bertie" came up smiling and buoyant. + +"Anything the matter, sir?" asked Stafford, as he and Falconer made +their way round the room through which was floating the last thing in +waltzes, a soft and sensuous melody which sang the soul to rest. + +"I think not. A matter of business, I think," said Ralph Falconer. "His +secretary, Mr. Murray, has just come from London: it may be something +to do with the papers he had brought." + +Stafford nodded, though the explanation seemed unsatisfactory: for what +concern had Stafford with the "papers"? As they went through the hall +they saw the financiers clustered together with an expectant air, as if +they were waiting for the result of the arrival of the man by the +special train; and they stared at Falconer and exchanged glances as he +and Stafford passed them and went to the library door. + +Sir Stephen's voice came cheerily in response to Stafford's knock, and +Stafford entered; Falconer following him with bent head and the same +heavy look. + +Sir Stephen was sitting at the table before a despatch box, and he held +out his hand and uttered a little cry of pleasure as he saw who it was. + +"Stafford, my boy! You could not have come at a better moment--Don't +go, Falconer! I'd like you to hear me tell him the good news. I've got +it here!" + +He patted the despatch case. "This is Pandora's box, Staff! With +something better than Hope at the bottom: Certainty!" + +He laughed quietly, confidently, and his bright eyes flashed under +their dark brows from one to the other. + +"Murray has just arrived, Falconer, with the good news!" he took out +the gold chain to which the key of the despatch box was fastened, and +inserted it in the lock. "The good news, Staff! I haven't bothered and +bored you with details; but you know, my dear boy, that I have had a +big scheme on hand for some time past--a very big scheme. It has been +rather a touch-and-go business, but I think I have managed to pull it +off--eh, Falconer? The last day or two has been one of suspense--great +suspense--but success has come. You don't care for money, Staff, I +know. Nor do I. Honestly, no! Not for the mere money, but for what it +can buy and bring. But even you will have some respect for a million +and a half, Staff." + +He laughed. + +"A large sum, and this means more than money. There ought to be +something in the way of an honour--" + +Falconer nodded. + +"_If_ the scheme is successful, your father will be a peer of the +realm, Mr. Stafford," he said drily, with an emphasis on the "if." + +"_If!_" echoed Sir Stephen, laughing and nodding. Stafford could see by +the brilliance of his eyes, the flush on his face, that he was excited +and was struggling with excitement. "If!" + +Falconer nodded at the despatch-case, and, with another bantering +laugh, Sir Stephen opened it and took out a large envelope. He held +this for a moment poised between finger and thumb, then he tore it open +and took out a sheet of paper, and turned his flashing eyes from the +two men to the document. + +He rose for a moment with the smile still on his face; then they saw it +fade, saw the flush slowly disappear, and in its place a dull grey +steal over the face. + +Stafford, startled, went round to him and laid a hand on his shoulder. + +"What is the matter, sir?" he asked. "Bad news?" + +Sir Stephen looked at him as if he did not see him, then turned his +eyes upon Falconer, who stood regarding him with a fixed, sardonic +gaze. + +"Hast thou found me, oh, mine enemy?" came at last from Sir Stephen's +white lips. + +Stafford looked from one to the other. + +"What--what on earth is the matter? What do you mean?" he said. + +Sir Stephen raised his hand and pointed to Ralph Falconer. + +"This--this man!" he gasped; then he shook his head impatiently, as if +he were fighting against his weakness. "This man Falconer has betrayed +me!" + +Stafford drew himself up, as he stood by his father's side, and eyed +Falconer sternly. + +"Will you explain, Mr. Falconer?" he said. + +"Certainly," said Falconer, with a grim calmness. "Your father uses +unwarrantably strong language, Mr. Orme, for an action of mine which is +quite a common one amongst business men." + +"No!" gasped Sir Stephen, as he sank back into the chair. "Treachery is +not common--" + +"Treachery is the wrong word," said Falconer, as coldly as before. +"Better let me explain to Mr. Stafford. I can do so in a few words, Mr. +Orme. The fact is, your father and I have been, quite unknown, to each +other, engaged in the same scheme. It is nothing more nor less than the +acquisition of certain land and rights which carry with them the +privilege of constructing a railway in the most promising part of South +Africa--" + +Sir Stephen leant forward, his head on his hands, his eyes fixed on the +heavy, stolid face of the speaker, the face which the keen, hawk-like +eyes flashed under the lowered lids with a gleam of power and triumph. + +--"Your father had reason to hope that he would acquire those lands and +rights; he did not know that I had been waiting for some years past to +obtain them. If knowledge is power and money, ignorance is impotence +and ruin. My knowledge against your father's ignorance has given me the +victory. Last night I gained my point: the news to that effect is no +doubt contained in that document. It was a question of price--it always +is. I knew your father's bid, and--I went a few thousands higher and +got the prize. That's the story in a nutshell. Of course there are a +number of complications and details, but I spare you them; in fact, I +don't suppose you understand them. It is a mere matter of business" + +"No, of revenge!" said Sir Stephen's hollow voice. "Stafford, years ago +I did this man a wrong. I--I have repented; I would have made +atonement, reparation; but he put the offer aside. Here, in this house, +he professed to have forgiven and forgotten--professed friendship. It +was a piece of treachery and deceit; under that specious mask, behind +that screen, he has worked my ruin!" + +"Ruin!" said Stafford, in a low voice. "Surely you exaggerate, father! +You mean that you will lose a lot of money--Oh, I can understand that, +of course. But not ruin!" + +"Yes, _ruin!_" said Sir Stephen, hoarsely. "If you doubt it, look at +him!" + +Falconer was standing with a sardonic smile in his eyes. + +Stafford started. + +"Is this true, Mr. Falconer?" + +Falconer was silent for a moment, then he said, slowly, grimly: + +"In a sense--yes. Your father's fate lies in my hands." + +"In your hands!" echoed Stafford, with amazement. + +Sir Stephen groaned and rose, supporting himself by the arm of the +chair. + +"It is true, Stafford. He--he has planned it with the skill of a +general, a Napoleon! I see it all now, it is all plain to me. You held +my shares and securities, of course, Falconer?" + +Falconer nodded. + +"Of course!" he said, drily. + +"And you have run them down to meet this scheme of yours." + +"Yes, of course!" said Falconer, again. "My dear Steve--Sir +Stephen--pardon!--your fate, as I have said, is in my hands. It is +simply a matter of tit-for-tat. You had your turn some years ago out +there"--he waved his hand. "It is my turn now. You can't complain. Do +you admit the justice of the thing?" + +Sir Stephen sank into a chair and covered his face with his hands for a +moment, then he looked up at Stafford. + +"He's right. It was his turn. He has taken it--and with it every penny +I possess. It means ruin--complete ruin! Worse even than the loss of +every penny; for--for--I--God help me!--can't afford to go into court +and have the past raked up--And he knows it--he knows it, Stafford!" + +The sight of the old man's anguish almost drove Stafford mad. + +"Have you no mercy, sir?" he said to Falconer. "Grant that my father +had injured you--isn't this rather too awful a revenge to exact? +I--I--I--don't understand all that I have heard; but--but"--an oath +broke from his hot lips--"will nothing less than the ruin of my father +satisfy you?" + +Falconer looked from one to the other and moistened his lips, while his +hands gripped each other behind his back. + +"I think you have misunderstood me," he said, in a dry, harsh voice; "I +have no intention of ruining your father or of depriving him of his +good name. Mind! if I did I should only be taking my pound of flesh: +and I may tell you that before I entered this house this afternoon I +had resolved to have it. But I heard something that induced me to +change my mind." + +Sir Stephen leant forward, his eyes fixed eagerly on the speaker, and +Stafford in his anxiety held his breath and pressed his father's +shoulder encouragingly. + +"You heard something, sir?" Stafford asked, as calmly as he could. + +Mr. Falconer was silent for a moment, then he said: + +"Yes. I heard that you were desirous of marrying my daughter, Maude, +Mr. Orme; and I need not say that a man does not ruin his son-in-law!" + +There was an intense silence. Stafford stood as if he were turned to +stone, as if he were trying to persuade himself that he had +misunderstood the meaning of Falconer's words. Marry Maude +Falconer--he! Was he dreaming, or was this man, who stood regarding him +with cold, glittering eyes, mad! + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + +We do not, nowadays, strike attitudes, or ejaculate and swear when we +are startled or shocked; Stafford stood perfectly still, still as a +piece of Stonehenge, and gazed with an expressionless countenance at +Mr. Falconer. That the man was indeed and in truth mad, occurred to him +for a moment; then he thought there must be some mistake, that Mr. +Falconer had made a blunder in the name, and that it was a case of +mistaking his man. + +But as the moments fled, and the two elder men gazed at him, as if +expecting him to speak, he remembered Howard's warning. The colour +rushed to his face and his eyes dropped. Merciful Heaven! was the man +speaking the truth when he said that he, Stafford, was in love with +Maude Falconer? His face was hot and scarlet for a moment, then it grew +pale under the shame of the thought that he should have to correct the +impression; decline, so to speak, the implied honour. + +Sir Stephen was the first to speak. He had sunk back in his chair, but +was now leaning forward again, his hands gripping the table. +"Stafford!" he said, still thickly, but with the beginning of a note of +relief in his voice. "I did not know this--you did not tell me!" + +Stafford turned to him helplessly. What could he say--before Falconer, +the girl's father? + +"You did not tell me. But I don't complain, my boy," said Sir Stephen." +You were right to choose your own time--young people like to keep their +secret to themselves as long as possible." + +Falconer looked from one to the other with an impassive countenance. + +"I feel that I am rather _de trop_," he said; "that I have spoken +rather prematurely; but my hand was forced, Orme. I wanted to set your +mind at rest, to show you that even if I hankered after revenge, it was +impossible under the circumstances." He glanced at Stafford. "It's not +the first time in history that the young people have played the part of +peace-makers. This is a kind of Romeo and Juliet business, isn't it? +I'll leave you and Mr. Stafford to talk it over!" + +He moved to the door, but, with his hand upon it, paused and looked +round at them again. + +"I ought to aid that, like most modern fathers, I am entirely in the +hands of my daughter. I can't go so far as to say, Orme, that if I had +been permitted to choose, I should have chosen a son of yours for my +son-in-law, but, you see, Maude doesn't give me the option. The young +people have taken the bit between their teeth and bolted, and it seems +to me that the only thing we have to do is to sit tight and look as +cheerful as possible. Oh, one word more," he added, in a business-like +tone. "Of course I make over this concession to you, Orme; just taking +the share I should have received if you had won the game and I had only +stood in as proposed. That is to say, you will be in exactly the same +position as if you had won all along the line--as you thought you had." +And with a nod, which included father and son, he went out. + +Stafford unconsciously drew back a little, so that he was almost behind +Sir Stephen, who had covered his eyes with his hands and sat perfectly +motionless, like a half-stunned man looking back at some terrible +danger from which he had only escaped by the skin of his teeth. Then he +dropped his hands from his face and drew a long breath, the kind of +breath a man draws who has been battling with the waves and finds +himself on the shore, exhausted but still alive. + +Stafford laid a hand on his shoulder, and Sir Stephen started and +looked up at him as if he had forgotten his presence. A flush, as if of +shame, came upon the great financier's face, and he frowned at the +papers lying before him, where they had dropped from his hand. + +"What an escape, Stafford!" he said, his voice still rather thick and +with a tremour of excitement and even exhaustion in its usually clear +and steady tone. "I am ashamed, my boy, that you should have been a +witness to my defeat: it humiliates, mortifies me!" + +"Don't let that worry you, father," said Stafford, scarcely knowing +what he said, for the tumult in his brain, the dread at his heart. + +"It is not the first defeat I have suffered in my life; like other +successful men, I have known what it is to fall; and I have laughed and +got up and shaken the dust off myself, so to speak, and gone at the +fight again, all the harder and more determined because of the reverse. +But this--this would have crushed me utterly and forever." + +"Do you mean that it would have ruined you completely, father?" said +Stafford. + +"Completely!" replied Sir Stephen in a low voice, his head drooping. "I +had staked everything on this venture, had staked even more than I +possessed. I cannot explain all the details, the ramifications, of the +scheme which I have been working. You could not understand them if I +were to talk to you for a week. Suffice it, that if I had failed to get +this concession, I should have been an utterly ruined man, should have +had to go through the bankruptcy court, should have been left without a +penny. And not only that: I should have dragged a great many of the +men, of the friends who had trusted to my ability, who have believed in +me, into the same pit; not only such men as Griffenberg and Wirsch and +the Beltons, but the Plaistows, the Clansdales, and the Fitzharfords. +They would have suffered with me, would have, considered themselves +betrayed." + +Stafford drew a long breath. There seemed to him still a chance of +saving himself, the girl he loved, above all--his honour. + +"But even if it were so, father," he said; "other men have failed, +other men have been defeated, ruined, and left penniless, and yet have +risen and shaken the dust from them and fought their way again to the +heights. You're not an old man, you are strong and clever, and you are +not alone." he said, in a lower voice. "I'm not much use, I know. But +I'll try and help you all I can. I've often felt ashamed of myself for +living such an idle, useless life; often felt that I ought to do +something to justify my existence. There's a chance now; at any rate, +there's an occasion, a necessity for my waking up and stepping into the +ring to do a little fighting on my own account. We may be beaten by Mr. +Falconer; but don't say we're utterly crushed. That doesn't sound like +you, sir; and I don't understand why you should chuck up the sponge so +quickly." + +Sir Stephen raised his head and looked at Stafford with a curious +expression of mingled surprise and apprehension. + +"What is it you are saying, Stafford?" he asked. "What is it you mean? +I don't understand. We're not beaten; Ralph Falconer has offered to +make the concession over to me; and no one need know that I have +failed, that he had stolen the march on me. You heard what he said: +that you were in love with his daughter Maude, and that of course he +could not injure his future son-in-law. Stafford!" He sprang to his +feet and began to pace up and down the room. "I know that this has +touched your pride--I can give a pretty good guess as to how proud you +are--but, for God's sake! don't let your pride stand in the way of this +arrangement." + +"But--" Stafford began; for he felt that he could not longer keep back +the truth, that his father must be told not only that there was nothing +between Maude and himself, but that he loved Ida Heron. + +But before he could utter another word Sir Stephen stopped before him, +and with hands thrown out appealingly, and with a look of terror and +agony in his face, cried in broken accents: + +"If you going to raise any obstacle, Stafford, prompted by your pride, +for God's sake, don't say the word! You don't know, you don't +understand! You speak of ruin as if it meant only the loss of money, +the loss of every penny." He laughed almost hysterically, and his lips +twitched. "Do you think I should care for that, except for your sake? +No, a thousand times, no! I'm young still, I could begin the world +again! Yes, and conquer it as I have done before; but"--his voice sank, +and he look round the room with a stealthy glance which shocked and +startled Stafford--"the ruin Ralph Falconer threatens me with means +more than the loss of money. It means the loss of everything! Of +friends, of good name--of hope!" + +Stafford started, and his face grew a trifle hard; and Sir Stephen saw +it and made a despairing, appealing gesture with his hand. + +"For God's sake don't turn away from me, my boy; don't judge me +harshly. You can't judge me fairly from your standpoint; your life has +been a totally different one from mine, has been lived under different +circumstances. You have never known the temptations to which I have +been subjected. Your life has been an easy one surrounded by honour, +while mine has been spent half the time grubbing in the dust and the +mire for gold, and the rest fighting--sometimes with one hand tied +behind me!--against the men who would have robbed me of it. I have had +to fight them with their own weapons--sometimes they haven't been +clean--sometimes it has been necessary to do--to do things!--God! +Stafford, don't turn away from me! I would have kept this from you if I +could, but I am obliged to tell you now. Ralph Falconer knows all the +details of my past, he knows of things which--which, if they were known +to the world, would stain the name I have raised to honour, would make +it necessary for me to hide my head in a suicide's grave." + +A low cry burst from Stafford's lips, and he sank into a chair, and +bowed his head upon his hands. + +Sir Stephen stood a little way off and looked at him for a minute, then +he advanced slowly, half timidly and ashamedly, and laid a trembling +hand on Stafford's shoulder. + +"Forgive me, Stafford!" he said, in a low, broken voice. "I was obliged +to tell you. I'd have kept it from you--you would never have known--but +Falconer has forced my hand; I was bound to show you how necessary it +was that we should have him as friend instead of foe. You are +not--ashamed of me, my boy; you won't go back on me?" + +In the stress and strain of his emotion the old digger's slang came +readily to his lips. + +Stafford took one hand from his face and held it out, and his father +grasped it, clinging to it as a drowning man clings to a rock. + +"God bless you, my boy!" he said. "I might have known you wouldn't turn +your back upon me; I might have known that you'd remember that I wasn't +fighting for myself only, but for the son I'm so proud of." + +"I know, I know, sir," said Stafford, almost inaudibly. + +Sir Stephen hung his hand, released it, and paced up and down the room +again, fighting for composure, and facing the situation after the +manner of his kind. Like all successful adventurers, he was always +ready to look on the bright side. He came back to Stafford and patted +him gently on the shoulder. + +"Try and forget what I said, about--about the past, Stafford," he said. +"Let us look at the future--your future. After all, we're not beaten! +It's a compromise, it's an alliance!" His voice grew more cheerful, his +eyes began to brighten with something of their wonted fire. "And it's a +bright future, Staff! You've chosen a beautiful girl, a singularly +beautiful and distinguished-looking girl--it's true she's only Ralph +Falconer's daughter, and that I'd loftier ideas for you, but let that +pass! Maude is a young lady who can hold her own against the best and +the highest. Falconer must be rich, or he would not have been able to +have managed this thing, would not have been able to beat me. With your +money and hers, you can go as far as you please!" + +He took a turn up and down the room again, a flush on the face that had +been pallid only a minute or two ago, his finely shaped head thrown +back. + +"Yes, Stafford, I should like you to have married into the nobility. In +my eyes, there is no one too high in rank for you. But no matter! The +title will come. They cannot do less than offer me a peerage. This +railway will be of too much service to the government for them to pass +me over. The peerage must come; there is no chance of my losing it. +Why, yes! The future is as bright as the sunlight on a June morning! +You will have the girl you love, I shall have the peerage to leave to +you. I shall have not lived and struggled and fought in vain. I shall +have left a name unstained, unsullied, to the son I love!" + +There was a catch in his voice, and it broke as he turned suddenly with +outstretched hand. + +"Why, God forgive me, Stafford, my boy! I'm talking of what I've done +for you and what I'm meaning to do as if I were forgetting what you are +doing for me! Stafford, a father often finds that he has worked for his +children only to meet with ingratitude and to be repaid by +indifference; but you have returned my affection--Oh, I've seen it, +felt it, my boy! And now, as fate would have it, you are actually +saving my honour, shielding my good name, coming between me and utter +ruin! God bless you, Stafford! God bless you and send you all the +happiness you deserve and I wish you!" + +A silence fell. Into the room there floated the soft, languorous +strains of a waltz, the murmur of voices, the laughter of some of the +people in the conservatory. Stafford sat, his head still upon his +hands, as if her were half stupefied. And indeed he was. He felt like a +man who has been seized by the tentacles of an octopus, unable to +struggle, unable to move, dumb-stricken, and incapable even of protest. +Sir Stephen had spoken of fate: Fate held Stafford under its iron heel, +and the mockery of Fate's laughter mingled with the strains of the +waltz, the murmur of voices. Unconsciously he rose and looked round as +if half dazed, and Sir Stephen came to him and laid both hands on his +shoulders. + +"I must not keep you any longer, my dear boy!" he said, with a fond, +proud look. "I must not forget I am keeping you from--her! She will be +missing you--wanting you. You have kept your secret well, +Stafford--though once or twice I have fancied, when I have seen you +together--but it was only a fancy!--Are you going to announce the +engagement tonight? It is rather a good opportunity, isn't it? It will +make the night memorable." + +The music danced madly through Stafford's brain as his father waited, +looking at him smilingly. What should he say? + +"Not to-night, sir!" he answered. "I should like to speak to Miss +Falconer first." + +Sir Stephen nodded and smiled. + +"I understand, my boy," he said. "This kind of thing is not done now as +it was in my time. We used to take the girl of our choice by the hand +and throw back our heads, and announce the fact that we have secured +the prize, with all the pride imaginable. But that's all altered now. I +suppose the new way is more delicate--more refined. At any rate, you +belong to the new age and have a right to follow its manners and +customs; so you shall say nothing to-night, unless you like. And, if I +am asked why I look so happy, so free from care, I must say that it is +because the great Railway Scheme is settled and that I have won all +along the line." + +As he said the last words there came a knock at the door, and Murray +entered with an injured look. + +"Mr. Griffenberg and Baron Wirsch, would like to see you, Sir Stephen," +he said, significantly. + +Sir Stephen sprang to the table almost with the alertness of a boy, and +caught up the papers lying on his desk. + +"All right, Murray!" he cried. "Sorry I'm late! Been having a talk with +Mr. Stafford. Come on!" + +With a nod, a smile, a tender look of love and gratitude to Stafford, +the brilliant adventurer, once more thrown by the buoyant wave upon the +shore of safety and success, went out to communicate that success to +his coadjutors. + +Stafford sank into his father's chair, and with his hands thrust deep +in his pockets, and his chin upon his chest, tried to clear his brain, +to free his mind from all side issues, and to face the fact that he had +tacitly agreed, that by his silence he had consented to marry Maude +Falconer. + +But, oh, how hard it was to think clearly, with the vision of that +girlish face floating before him! the exquisitely beautiful face with +its violet eyes now arched and merry, now soft and pleading, now tender +with the tenderness of a girl's first, true, divinely trusting love. He +was looking at the book-case before him, but a mist rose between it and +his eyes, and he saw the mountain-side and the darling of his heart +riding down it, the sunlight on her face, the soft tendrils of hair +blown rough by the wind, the red lips apart with a smile--the little +grave smile which he had kissed away into deeper, still sweeter +seriousness. + +And he had lost her! Oh, God, how he loved her! And he had lost her +forever! There was no hope for him. He must save his father--not his +father's money. That counted for nothing--but his father's honour--his +father's good name. + +And even if he were not bound to make this sacrifice, to marry Maude +Falconer, how could he go to Heron Hall and ask Godfrey Heron, the man +of ancient lineage, of unsullied name, to give his daughter to the son +of a man whose past was so black that his character was at the mercy of +Ralph Falconer? Stafford rose and stretched out his arms as if to +thrust from him a weight too grievous to be borne, a cup too bitter to +be drained; then his arms fell to his sides and, with a hardening of +the face, a tightening of the lips which made him look strangely like +his father, he left the library, and crossing the hall, made his way to +the ball-room. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + +The ball was at its height. Even the coldest and most _blasé_ of the +guests had warmed up and caught fire at the blaze of excitement and +enjoyment. The ball-room was dazzling in the beauty of its decorations +and the soft effulgence of the shaded electric light, in which the +magnificent jewels of the titled and wealthy women seemed to glow with +a subdued and chastened fire. A dance was in progress, and Stafford, as +he stood by the doorway and looked mechanically and dully at the +whirling crowd, the kaleidoscope of colour formed by the rich dresses, +the fluttering fans, and the dashes of black represented by the men's +clothes, thought vaguely that he had never seen anything more +magnificent, more elegant of wealth and success. But through it all, +weird and ghost-like shone Ida's girlish face, with its love-lit eyes +and sweetly curving lips. + +He looked round, and presently he saw Maude Falconer in her strange and +striking dress. She was dancing with Lord Fitzharford. There was not a +touch of colour in her face, her lips were pensive, her lids lowered; +she looked like an exquisite statue, exquisitely clothed, moving with +the exquisite poetry of motion, but quite devoid of feeling. Suddenly, +as if she felt his presence, she raised her eyes and looked at him. A +light shot into them, glowed for a moment, her lips curved with the +faintest of smiles, and a warm tint stole to her face. + +It was an eloquent look, one that could not be mistaken by the least +vain of men, and it went straight through Stafford's heart; for it +forced him to realise that which he had not even yet quite +realised--that he had tacitly pledged himself to her. Under other +circumstances, the thought might have set his heart beating and sent +the blood coursing hotly through his veins; but with his heart aching +with love for Ida, and despair at the loss of her, Maude Falconer's +love-glance only chilled him and made him shudder with apprehension of +the future, with the thought of the cost of the sacrifice which he had +taken upon himself. The music sounded like a funeral march in his ears, +the glitter, the heat, the movement, seemed unendurable; and he +threaded his way round the room to an ante-room which had been fitted +up as a buffet. + +"Give me some wine, please," he said to the butler, trying to speak in +his ordinary tone; but he knew that his voice was harsh and strained, +knew that the butler noticed it, though the well-trained servant did +not move an eyelid, but opened a bottle of champagne with solemn +alacrity and poured out a glass. Stafford signed to him to place the +bottle near and drank a couple of glasses. + +It pulled him together a bit, and he was going back to the ball-room +when several men entered. They were Griffenberg, Baron Wirsch, the +Beltons and the other financiers; they were all talking together and +laughing, and their faces were flushed with triumph. Close behind them, +but grave and taciturn as usual, came Mr. Falconer. + +At sight of Stafford, Mr. Griffenberg turned from the man to whom he +was talking and exclaimed, gleefully: + +"Here is Mr. Orme! You have herd the good news, I suppose, Mr. Orme? +Splendid isn't it? Wonderful man, you father, truly wonderful! He can +give us all points, can't he, baron?" The baron nodded and smiled. + +"Shir Stephen ish a goot man of pishness. You have a very glever fader, +Mr. Orme!" he said, emphatically. + +Efford caught Stafford's arm as he was passing on with a mechanical +smile and an inclination of the head. + +"We've come in for a drink, Orme," he said. "We're going to drink luck +to the biggest thing Sir Stephen has ever done; you'll join us? Oh, +come, we can't take a refusal! Dash it all! You're in the swim, Orme, +if you haven't taken any active part in it." + +Stafford glanced at Mr. Falconer, and noticed a grim smile pass over +his face. If these exultant and flushed money-spinners only guessed how +active a part he had taken, how amazed they would be! A wave of +bitterness swept over him. At such a moment men, especially young men, +become reckless; the strain is too great, and they fly to the nearest +thing for relief. + +He turned back to the buffet, and the butler and the couple of footmen +opened several bottles of champagne--none of the men knew or cared how +many; several others of the financial group joined the party; the wine +went round rapidly; they were all talking and laughing except Stafford, +who remained silent and grave and moody for some little time; then he +too began to talk and laugh with the others, and his face grew flushed +and his manner excited. + +Falconer, who stood a little apart, apparently drinking with the +others, but really with care and moderation, watched him under +half-lowered lids; and presently he moved round to where Stafford leant +against the table with his champagne-glass in his hand, and touching +him on the arm, said: + +"I hear them enquiring for you in the ball-room, Stafford." + +It was the first time he had called Stafford by his Christian name, and +it struck home, as Falconer had intended it should. Stafford set his +glass down and looked round as a man does when the wine is creeping up +to his head, and he is startled by an unexpected voice. + +"All right--thanks!" he said. + +He made his way through the group, who were too engrossed and excited +to notice his desertion and went into the ball-room. As he did so, his +father entered by an opposite door, and seeing him, came round to him, +and taking Stafford's hand that hung at his side, pressed it +significantly. + +"I have told them!" he said. "They are almost off their heads with +delight--you see, it's such a big thing, even for them, Staff! You have +saved us all, my boy; but it is only I and Falconer who know it, only I +who can show my gratitude!" + +His voice was low and tremulous, his face flushed, like those of the +men whom Stafford had just left, and his dark eyes flashing and +restless. + +"Where are they all?" he asked; and Stafford nodded over his shoulder +towards the buffet. + +Sir Stephen looked round the room with a smile of triumph, and his +glance rested on Maude Falconer, standing by a marble column, her eyes +downcast, her fan moving to and fro in front of her white bosom. + +"She is beautiful, Staff!" he whispered. "The loveliest woman in the +room! I am not surprised that you should have fallen in love with her." + +Stafford laughed under his breath, a strangely wild and bitter laugh, +which Sir Stephen could not have failed to notice if the music had not +commenced a new waltz at that moment. + +Stafford went straight across the room to Maude Falconer. She did not +raise her eyes at his approach, but the colour flickered in her cheeks. + +"This is our dance, I think," he said. + +She looked up with a little air of surprise, and consulted her +programme. + +"No; I think this is mine, Miss Falconer," said the man at her side. + +"No," she said, calmly; "the next is yours, Lord Bannerdale; this is +Mr. Orme's." + +Though he knew she was wrong, of course Lord Bannerdale acquiesced with +a bow and a smile, and Stafford led Maude away. + +Wine has a trick of getting into some men's feet and promptly giving +them away; but Stafford, though he was usually one of the most moderate +of men, could drink a fairly large quantity and remain as steady as a +rock. No one, watching him dance, would have known that he had drunk +far too many glasses of champagne and that his head was burning, his +heart thumping furiously; but though his step was as faultless as usual +and he steered her dexterously through this crowd. Maude knew by his +silence, by his flushed face and restless eyes, that something had +happened, and that he was under the influence of some deep emotion. He +was dancing quite perfectly, but mechanically, like a man in a dream, +and though he must have heard the music, he did not hear her when she +spoke to him, but looked straight before him as if he were entirely +absorbed in some thought. + +When they came, in the course of the dance, to one of the doors, she +stopped suddenly. + +"Do you mind? It is so hot," she murmured. + +"N--o," he said, as if awaking suddenly. "Let us go outside." + +He caught up a fur cloak that was lying on a bench, and disregarding +her laughing remonstrance that the thing did not belong to her, he put +it round her and led her on to the terrace. She looked up at him just +as they were passing out of the stream of light, saw how set and hard +his face was, how straight the lips and sombre the eyes, and her hand, +as it rested lightly on his arm, quivered like a leaf in autumn. When +they had got into the open air, he threw back his head and drew a long +breath. + +"Yes; it was hot in there," he said. + +They walked slowly up and down for a minute, passing and repassing +similar couples; then suddenly, as if the presence of others, the sound +of their voices and laughter, jarred upon him, Stafford said: + +"Shall we go into the garden? It is quiet there--and I want to speak to +you." + +"If you like," she said, in a low voice, which she tried to make as +languid as usual; but her heart began to beat fiercely and her lips +trembled, and he might have heard her breath coming quickly had he not +been absorbed in his own reflections. + +They went down the steps and into the semi-darkness of the beautiful +garden. The silence was broken by the hum of the distant voices and the +splashing of a fountain which reflected the electric light as the spray +rose and fell with rhythmic regularity. Stafford stopped at this and +looked at the reflection of the stars in the shallow water. Something +in its simplicitude and the quiet, coming after the glitter and the +noise of the ball-room, called up the remembrance of Herondale, and the +quiet, love-laden hours he had spent there with Ida. The thought went +through him with a sharp pain, and he thrust it away from him as one +thrusts away a threatening weakness. + +"What is it you wanted to say to me?" asked Maude, not coldly or +indifferently as she would have asked the question of another man, but +softly, dreamily. + +He walked on with her a few paces, looking straight before him as if he +were trying to find words suitable for the answer; then he turned his +face to her and looked at her steadily, though his head was burning and +the plash of the fountain sounded like the roar of the sea in his ears. + +"I wonder whether you could guess?" he said, as he thought of her +father's words, his assertion that Stafford was to be his son-in-law. +"I suppose you must." + +Her gaze was as steady as his, but her lips quivered slightly. + +"I would rather you should tell me than that I should I guess," she +said in a low voice. "I might be wrong." + +He was not in a condition to notice the significance of her last words, +and he went on with a kind of desperation. + +"I brought you here into the garden, Miss Falconer, to ask you if you'd +be my wife." + +They had stopped just within the radius of an electric light, held +aloft by a grinning satyr, and Stafford saw her face grow paler and +paler in the seconds that followed the momentous question. He could see +her bosom heaving under the half-open fur cloak, felt her hand close +for an instant on his arm. + +"Do you wish me to say 'Yes'?" she asked in a low voice. + +The red flooded Stafford's face for a moment, and his eyes fell under +her fixed regard. + +"What answer does one generally hope for when one puts such a +question?" he said, trying to smile. "I want you to be my wife, and I +hope, with all my heart, that you will say 'Yes.'" + +"'With all your heart,'" she echoed, slowly, almost inaudibly. "'With +all your heart.' With all mine, I answer 'Yes.'" + +As she murmured the words--and, like that of most cold women when they +are intensely moved, her voice could be exquisitely sweet with its +thrill of passion, all the sweeter for its rarity--she insensibly drew +nearer to him and her hand stole to his shoulder. Her eyes were lifted +to his, and they shone with the love that was coursing through her +veins, almost stopping the beating of her heart. Love radiated from her +as the light radiated from the lamp the mocking satyr held above them. +Stafford was at his best and worst, a man and not a block of stone and +wood, and touched, almost fired, by the passion so close to him, he put +his arm round her waist and bent his head until his lips nearly touched +hers. + +Her eyes closed and she was surrendering herself to the kiss, when +suddenly she drew her head back, and, keeping him from her, looked up +at him. "Is it with all your heart?" she whispered. "You have never +spoken to me of--love before. Is it with all your heart?" + +His brow contracted in a frown, he set his teeth hard. If he were to +lie, 'twere better that he lied thoroughly and well; better that his +sacrifice should be complete and effectual. Scarcely knowing what he +said, what he did, with the fumes of the champagne confusing his brain, +the misery of his lost love racking his heart, he said, hoarsely: + +"I did not know--till to-night. You can trust me. I ask you to be my +wife--I will be true to you--it is with all my heart!" + +If Jove laughs at lovers' perjuries, the angels must weep at such false +oaths as this. Even as he spoke the words, Stafford remembered the "I +love you?" he had cried to Ida as he knelt at her feet, and he +shuddered as Maude drew his head down and his lips met hers. + + * * * * * + +Half an hour later they went slowly up the steps again. Stafford's head +was still burning, he still felt confused, like a man moving in a +dream. Since he had kissed her he had said very little; and the +silences had been broken more often by Maude than by him. She had told +him in a low voice, tremulous with love, and hesitating now and again, +how she had fallen in love with him the day he had rowed her on the +lake; how she had struggled and striven against the feeling, and how it +had conquered her. How miserable she had been, though she had tried to +hide her misery, lest he should never come to care for her, and she +should have to suffer that most merciless of all miseries--unrequited +love. She seemed as if she scarcely wanted him to speak, as if she took +it for granted that he had spoken the truth, and that he loved her; and +as if it were a joy to her to bare her heart, that he might see how +devotedly it throbbed for him and for him alone. Every now and then +Stafford spoke a few words in response. He scarcely knew what he said, +he could not have told what they were ten minutes after they were said; +he sat with his arm round her like a man playing a part mechanically. + +In the same condition he moved beside her now as arm and arm they +entered the house, he looking straight before him with a set face, a +forced smile, she with now raised, now drooping eyes glowing with +triumph, a flush on her usually pale face, her lips apart and +tremulous. The ball was breaking up, some of the women had already gone +to the drawing-room or their own apartments; a stream of men were +making their way to the billiard-room from which came the popping of +champagne-corks and the hissing of syphons. + +As they entered the hall, Howard came lounging out, in his leisurely +way, from the drawing-room, and at sight of him Stafford seemed to +awake, to realise what he had done and how he stood. He looked from +Howard to Maude, then, he said: + +"Howard, I want you to congratulate me. Miss Falconer--Maude--has +promised to be my wife." + +Howard did not start, but he stared in silence for an instant, then his +eyelids flickered, and forcing the astonishment from his face, he took +Stafford's left hand and shook it, and bowed to Maude. + +"I do congratulate you with all my heart, my dear Stafford, and I hope +you'll both be as happy as the happiest pair in a fairy story." + +She drew her arm from Stafford's. + +"I will go up now," she said. "Good-night!" + +Stafford stood until she had got as far as the bend of the stairs; then +Howard, who had discreetly gone on, turned to go back to him. But as he +came up with a word of wonder and repeated congratulations, he saw +Stafford put his hand to his forehead, and, as it seemed to Howard, +almost stagger. + +There are moments when the part of even one's best friend is silence, +blindness. Howard turned aside, and Stafford went on slowly, with a +kind of enforced steadiness, to the billiard-room. While Howard, with +dismay and apprehension, was looking after him, he heard "Mr. Howard!" +called softly, mockingly, from the stairs, and looking up, saw Maude +Falconer leaning over, with her arm extended, her hand open. + +He understood in a moment, and, removing his ring as he ran up the +stairs, put it in the soft, pink palm. She gave a little triumphant, +mocking laugh, her hand closed over the ring, and then she glided away +from him. + +The smoking-room was crowded as Stafford made his way in. Through the +clouds of smoke he saw his father standing at one end, surrounded by +the money-spinning crew, Falconer seated in a chair near him with a +black cigar between his lips. The group were laughing and talking +loudly, and all had glasses in their hands. Some of the younger men, +who had just come from the hall-room, were adding their laughter and +chatter to the noise. Dazed and confused, half mad with rage and +despair, with a sense that Fate was joining her mocking laughter with +that of the men round him. Stafford took a glass of wine from the +butler who advanced with it, and drinking it off, held it out to be +refilled. The man refilled it twice, and Stafford, his eyes aflame, +almost pushed his way through the various groups to where his father +stood. + +"I have come for your congratulation, sir," he said, in a voice which, +though not loud, was so clear as to break through the row. "Miss +Falconer has promised to be my wife!" + +A silence, so sudden as to be startling, fell upon the hot and crowded +room; then, as Sir Stephen grasped his son's hand, a din of voices +arose, an excited buzz of congratulations and good wishes. Stafford +faced them all, his face pale and set, his lips curved with a forced +smile, his eyes flashing, but lit with a sombre fire. There was a smile +on his lips, a false amiability in his eyes, but there was so much of +madness in his heart that he was afraid lest at any moment he should +dash the glass to the ground and break out into cursing. + +An hour later he found himself in his room, and waving Measom away from +him, he went to the window and flung it wide open, and stood there with +his hands against his throbbing brow; and though no word came from his +parched lips, his heart cried: + +"Ida! Ida!" with all the agony of despair. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +The hours dragged along as Stafford faced the tragedy of his life. As +he paced the room or flung himself into a chair, with his head bowed in +his hands, the effects of the wine he had taken, the suppressed +excitement under which he had laboured, passed away, and in the +reaction his brain cleared and he began to realise the terrible import +of the step he had taken, the extent of the sacrifice he had made. His +own life was wrecked and ruined irreparably; not only his own, but that +of the girl he loved. + +The step he had taken was not only irreparable but irrevocable; he +could not go back. He had asked Maude Falconer to be his wife, he had +spoken words which must have sounded to her as words of love, he had +kissed her lips. In a word, he was pledged to her, and the pledge could +not be broken. + +And Ida! What should he do in regard to her? He had promised that if +his feelings underwent any change towards her he would not go and tell +her. And at that moment, he felt that the promise had not been a vain +one; for he knew that he could not go to her, that at sight of her his +resolution would melt like snow in the sun, that his love for her would +sweep him away on a torrent of passion, and that he would be as false +to Maude Falconer as he had been to Ida. + +And yet he could not leave her, desert her--yes, that was the +word!--without making some sign, without speaking one word, not of +excuse, but of farewell. What could he say to her? He could not tell +her the truth; for his father's sake that must never be divulged; he +could give her no explanation, must permit her to think him base and +faithless and dishonorable. There was only one thing he could do, and +that was to write to her. But what could he say? + +He went to his writing-table and took up a pen. His hand was cold as +ice and shaking, and he held it before him until it grew steadier. At +the best of times, Stafford was not much of a letter-writer; one does +not learn the epistolatory art either at public schools or the +'varsities, and hitherto Stafford's letter-writing had been confined to +the sending or accepting of invitations, a short note about some meet, +or horse dealing. How was he to address her? She was his dearest still, +the only woman in the world he had loved or ever would love, but he +dared not call her so, dared not tell her so. He wrote her name, but +the sweet word seemed to look up at him reproachfully, accusingly; and +though he had written only that name, he tore up several sheets of +paper, and at last, in desperation, scarcely knowing what he was +writing, he wrote, quickly, hurriedly and without pausing, the +following lines: + +"I am writing this because you made me promise that if anything +happened, let it be what it might, to separate us, I would not come and +tell you. Something has happened. I have discovered that I am not only +unworthy of calling you mine as any man in the world, even the best, +would be, but that I am unworthy in the sense that would justify you in +the eyes of your father, of everybody belonging to you, in sending me +adrift. If I could tell you what it is you would understand and see how +great a gulf yawns between us. You would not marry me, I can never be +anything to you but a painful memory. Though you know how much I loved +you, you will never guess what it costs me to relinquish all claim to +you, to tear myself away from you. But I must do so--and forever. There +is no hope, none whatever, for me. I do not ask you to forgive me--if I +had known what I know now I would rather have died than have told you +that I loved you, but I do ask you to forget me; or, if you remember +me, to think of me as the most wretched and ill-fated of men; as one +who is bound hand and foot, and compelled, driven, along a path against +his will. I dare not say any more, dare not tell you what this +sacrifice costs me. Whether you forget or remember me, I shall never +forget you for a single instant, shall never cease to look back upon my +lost happiness, as a man looks back upon a lost heaven. + +"STAFFORD." + +He read it over a dozen--twenty times, and every time it seemed weaker, +meaner, less inexplicable; but he knew that if he destroyed it he could +write nothing better, nothing that could satisfy him, though it seemed +to him that his heart would have expressed itself more fully it he had +written only, "Good-bye! Forget me!" + +At last, and reluctantly he put it in an envelope and addressed it, and +turned it face downwards on his table, so that he might not see the +name which had such power to torture his heart. + +By the time he had succeeded in writing the letter the dawn was +creeping over the hills and casting a pearly light upon the lake; he +drew the curtains, and in the weird light caught sight of his face in +the mirror: a white and haggard face, which might well have belonged to +a man ten years his senior; such a face as would not fail to attract +attention and provoke comment by its appearance at the breakfast-table. +He flung himself on the bed, not to sleep, for he knew that that would +be impossible, but to get some rest; but rest was as impossible as +sleep. When he closed his eyes Ida's face was near him, her voice was +in his ears, inextricably mixed with the slow and languorous tones of +Maude Falconer. He undressed and got into his flannels before Measom +came, and went down to the lake for a bath. + +He was, as a rule, so moderate in drinking that the wine he had taken, +supplemented by his misery, made him feel physically ill. He shuddered +with cold as he dived into the water, and as he swam out he felt, for +the first time in his life, a slight twinge of cramp. At another time +he would have been somewhat alarmed, for the strongest swimmer is +absolutely helpless under an attack of cramp, but this morning he was +indifferent, and the thought struck him that it would be well for him +if he flung up his arms and went down to the bottom of the lake on the +shores of which he had experienced such exquisite joy, such unutterable +misery. He met no one on his way back to the house, and went straight +to his room. The swim had removed some of the traces of last night's +work, but he still looked haggard and worn, and there was that +expression in his eyes which a man's wear when he has been battling +with a great grief or struggling against an overwhelming fate. + +As Measom was dressing him he asked himself how he should get the +letter to Ida--the only letter he had ever written her, the only letter +he would probably ever write to her. He decided that he would send it +over by Pottinger, whom he knew he could trust not only to deliver the +letter, but to refrain from telling anyone that he had been sent with +it. He put it in the pocket of his shooting-coat and went downstairs, +intending to go straight to the stables to find Pottinger; but as he +went through the hall, Murray, the secretary, came out of the library, +and Sir Stephen caught sight of Stafford through the open door, and +called to him. Stafford went in, and his father rose from the table on +which was already piled a heap of letters and papers, and taking +Stafford's hand, laid a hand on his shoulder. + +"You are early, my boy," he said. "I did not expect to see you for +hours yet; couldn't you sleep? You look rather tired, Stafford; you +were late last night, and--ah, well! there was some excuse for a little +excitement and exaltation." + +He smiled whimsically, as a father does at a son who has for once gone +beyond the strict bounds of moderation and looked upon the wine cup too +often. + +"Yes, I've rather a head on this morning, sir," said Stafford, quietly, +accepting the suggestion as an excuse for his ill-looks. "I drank and +smoked, last night, more than I usually do. You look as fresh as usual, +sir," he added, with unconscious irony. + +Sir Stephen threw up his head with a short laugh. + +"Oh, my work wasn't finished last night, my dear boy!" he said. "And +Murray and I have been at it since seven o'clock. I want to put some of +these papers straight before Griffenberg and the rest leave to-day." + +"They are going to-day?" said Stafford. + +"Oh, yes; there will be a general exodus. A great many of the people +were only staying on until we could be sure we had pulled this railway +scheme through. Falconer and his daughter--I beg your pardon, my dear +Stafford, I mean Maude!--talk of going to-day. But I persuaded them to +stay until to-morrow. I thought you would like to go to London with +them." + +He smiled as a father smiles when he is planning a pleasure for his +son. + +"Yes, I should like it," said Stafford, quietly. "But could I leave you +here?" + +"Oh, yes," said Sir Stephen. "They'll entertain themselves. Besides, it +was an understood thing you should be free to go and come as you +pleased. Of course, you would like to go with Maude." + +"Of course," echoed Stafford, his eyes on the ground. As he was leaving +the room his father took a letter from the table, held it up and +dropped it. + +"You'll be wanting to buy a little present for your lady-love, +Stafford," he said. "I am placing a thousand pounds to your credit at +your bank, I don't know whether you'll think that is enough--" + +"Quite enough," said Stafford, in a low voice. "Thank you! You are very +generous--" + +Sir Stephen winced and held up his hand. + +"What is mine is yours from this moment, my dear Stafford," he said. + +Stafford went out by the door at the other end of the hall, and made +his way to the stables. Just as he was crossing the lawn the temptation +to ride over to Heron Hall and leave the note himself assailed him +strongly. He took the letter from his pocket and looked at it +wistfully. But he knew that he dared not ran the risk of meeting Ida, +and with a sigh he went on towards the stables, carrying the note in +his hand. And as he turned away Maude Falconer let fall the curtain +which she had raised at her window so that she might watch him. + +She stood for a moment with her costly dressing-gown held together with +one white hand, her lids half closed. + +"He has written to her," she said to herself. "Has he broken with her +for good, or will he try and keep her? I would give something to see +that letter, to know exactly how he stands. And how I stand! I wonder +how he will send it? He is taking it to the stables." She thought a +moment, then she smiled. "Pottinger!" she murmured. + +Stafford found Pottinger giving the last loving touches with a silk +handkerchief to Adonis. His coat and waistcoat were off, his shirt open +at the neck and his sleeves turned up. He touched his forehead with a +respectful and welcoming greeting, and without any surprise; for +Stafford very often paid an early visit to the stable, and had more +than once lent a hand in grooming a favourite horse. + +"Looks well, sir, don't he?" said Pottinger, passing a hand over the +glossy black and finishing up with a loving smack. "I'm rather late +this morning, sir." He smiled and looked a little sheepish. "We had a +little bit of jollification in the servants' hall, on our own account, +sir, and were enjoying ourselves like our betters." + +"That's right," said Stafford. Something in his voice caused Pottinger +to glance at him with surprise and apprehension; but, of course, he +could not say anything, and he dropped his eyes respectfully after the +one glance at Stafford's haggard face. + +"I want you take a letter for me this morning, Pottinger," said +Stafford. "You can take Adonis; it will exercise him, as I shall not +ride him to-day. Here is the letter. Heron Hall lies on the other side +of the river. I want the letter taken there early this morning." + +Pottinger touched his forehead. "I know the Hall, sir; I've ridden +over there with messages from the housekeeper and from Mr. Davis." + +"There will be no answer," said Stafford. "Simply leave it." + +"Yes, sir," said Pottinger. "Would you mind putting it in my +saddle-wallet, sir? I won't touch it till my hands are clean." + +Stafford put the letter in the wallet, said a few words to Adonis and +some of the other horses, and then left the stable. He heard voices on +the terrace, and, to avoid meeting anyone until he was compelled, he +went down the slope of the lawn, and, seating himself on a bank, lit a +cigarette. + +From her window, Maude Falconer, now attired in a simple but +exquisitely effective morning frock, could see him. After watching him +for a minute or two, she went to her writing-table and wrote two or +three notes quickly, and, with these in her pocket, went down-stairs +and through the hall to the stable court-yard. Pottinger was still +finishing off Adonis, and he drew himself up and saluted as she entered +the stables. As a rule her manner to the servants and her inferiors was +cold and haughty, but, as Stafford had discovered last night, she could +be soft and gentle when she chose, and she smiled now at Pottinger and +the horse in a fashion that almost dazzled that ingenuous youth. At the +same time her eye had noted Pottinger's coat and waistcoat which hung +on a hook at the stall-post with the saddle-wallet slung over them. The +coat was an old one with gaping pockets, and there was no sign of a +letter in them, or in the waistcoat. Instinctively, she knew that it +was in the wallet. + +"What splendid condition that horse is in, Pottinger," she said. "His +coat is like satin. I suppose you were in the army?" + +Of course Pottinger was flattered, and answered in the negative very +reluctantly. + +"Not but what Mr. Stafford, miss, isn't as particular as any army gent +could be. I should be sorry to turn out a badly groomed 'oss for Mr. +Stafford's eyes to rest on, miss. He's as kind-hearted a master as a +man could desire to have, but that's about the one thing Mr. Stafford +wouldn't stand, miss." + +"I suppose not," she said. "Are you going to ride into Bryndermere this +morning, Pottinger? If so, I should be glad if you would take these +notes to the linen draper's and the chemist's, and bring me back the +things I have written for." + +"Certainly, miss," said Pottinger; then he remembered Stafford's order, +and looked anything but certain. "Would it do late in the morning, +miss? I have to go somewhere first." + +"Oh, yes," she replied, "where shall I put the letters--in this wallet?" + +Pottinger answered in the affirmative and thanked her, and she +unfastened the wallet, talking to him as she did so. "Is that a +swelling on that near fore leg, Pottinger?" she said, suddenly, +pointing to Adonis. + +Pottinger started and regarded her with a look of horror, and, of +course, instantly knelt down to examine the suspected member. Long +before he had come up again with a breath of relief and a smiling "No, +miss, there is nothing the matter with it," she had looked into the +wallet and seen Stafford's letter. + +"Oh, I thought there was," she said. "Have you finished your horses?" + +"No, miss," he replied. "I have the master's hunter and the mare you +ride to do yet." + +She nodded and went out of the stable, humming one of her songs; but +she did not go very far. In five minutes she back again. + +"Oh, Pottinger, don't trouble about those letters. I will ride into +Bryndermere myself." + +Pottinger was in the mare's stall, and Maude stopped him as he was +coming forward, by saying: + +"Don't trouble; I'll take the letters from the wallet." + +With Stafford's letter amongst her own in her pocket, she went quickly, +and yet without apparent hurry, to her own room, sent away her maid on +an errand, and slipped the bolt in the door. Rapidly she lit her silver +spirit-lamp and heated the water almost to boiling-point, and held the +envelope of Stafford's letter over it until the gum was melted and the +flap came open. Then she took out the letter, and, throwing herself +back in an easy-chair, read it slowly. + +At first, as she read, her face burned, then it grew pale, and still +paler; every word of the bitter farewell, of the renunciation, written +as if with a man's heart's blood, stabbed her and tortured her with the +pangs of jealousy. Once she started to her feet, her hands clenched, +her head thrown back her eyes flashing; a superb figure--the tigress +aroused. At that instant she was minded to take the letter and fling it +in Stafford's face, and with it fling back the pledge which he had +given her the night before; then she collapsed, as it were, and sank +into a chair, dropping the letter and covering her face with her hands. +She could not. The strength of her love made her weak as water where +that love was concerned. Though her pride called upon her to surrender +Stafford, she could not respond to it. + +Swaying to and fro, with her eyes covered as if to hide her shame, she +tried to tell herself that Stafford's was only a transient fancy for +this girl, that it was mere flirtation, a vulgar _liaison_ that she +would teach him to forget. + +"He shall, he shall!" she cried behind her hands, as if the words were +wrung from her in her anguish of wounded pride and rejected love. "I +will teach him! There is no art that woman ever used that I will not +use--they say I am beautiful: if I am, my beauty shall minister to him +as no woman's beauty has ever ministered before. Cold to all the rest +of the world, I will be to him a fire which shall warm his life and +make it a heaven--It is only because he saw her first: if he had seen +me--Oh, curse her, curse her! Last night, while he was talking to me, +even while he was kissing me, he was thinking of her. But she shall not +have him! She has lost and I have won and I will keep him!" + +She dashed her hand across her eyes, though there were no tears in +them, and stood upright, holding herself tensely as if she were +battling for calm; then she replaced the poignant note in its envelope, +and went back to the stables. Again she met no one, for those who were +down were in at breakfast. + +"I have changed my mind, Pottinger," she said; "and will be glad if you +will take the notes, please. See, I have put them back in the wallet." + +"Certainly, miss!" said Pottinger, and he touched his forehead two or +three times, and coloured and smiled awkwardly and looked at her with a +new and vivid interest. One of the maids had run into the stable, +during Maud's absence, and had told him the news that his master was +engaged to Miss Maude Falconer; for the servants, who are so quick to +discover all our little secrets, had already learnt this one, and the +servants' hall was buzzing with it. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +That morning Ida came down-stairs singing, not loudly, but in the soft +undertone which a girl uses when she is supremely happy and she has +hopes of seeing the cause of her happiness very soon. All through +breakfast, while Mr. Heron read his letters, opening them and reading +them stealthily as usual, her heart was singing its love-song to her, +and she was wondering whether she would meet Stafford by the stream or +among the hills. That she should meet him she felt quite sure, for he +had never failed to leave the gay party at the Villa to come over to +her every day. + +Perhaps he had spoken to his father, and, in the wonderful way men +have, had swept aside all the obstacles which stood against their +union. He was so strong, so self-reliant, so masterful--though so +gentle with her--that surely no obstacles could stand against him. She +was so absorbed in her thoughts that she almost started when Jason +appeared and, looking from her to Mr. Heron, announced that Mr. +Wordley, the family lawyer, was in the library. + +Mr. Heron flushed and scrambled his letters and papers together as he +rose. + +"Won't Mr. Wordley come in and have some breakfast?" suggested Ida. But +her father, shaking his head impatiently, said that Mr. Wordley was +sure to have had his breakfast, and shuffled out of the room. + +A few minutes after he had gone, Jessie came in for the day's orders, +and Ida dragged her thoughts away from the all-absorbing subject and +plunged into housekeeping. It was not a lengthy or a very elaborate +business, alas! but when it was over Jessie lingered and began +collecting the breakfast things, glancing shyly at Ida, as she always +did when she wanted to gossip. + +"There was fine doings up at the Villa last night, Miss Ida!" she +began, rather timidly, for Ida seldom encouraged her chatter. "There +was a ball there. Such a tremendous grand affair! There hasn't been +anything like it ever known in this country. Williams was up there this +morning, and Susie told him that it was like fairyland, what with the +beautiful rooms and the music and the ladies' rich dresses and jewels. +She got a peep through one of the open doors, and she says it quite +took her breath away." + +Ida smiled. She was not envious; for would not Stafford come over +presently and tell her all about it: who was there, with whom he had +danced, and how all the time he had been longing to be by her side? + +"Susie says that the ladies was beautiful, Miss Ida, and that the most +beautiful of them all was Miss Falconer. Susie says she had the most +lovely dress, like a cloud of smoke, with diamonds sparkling all over +it like stars." + +"That sounds very pretty and poetical, Jessie," said Ida. + +What would he care for a dress like a cloud, or the diamonds that shone +like stars on it? Did she not know that he loved the little rain-washed +habit which a certain rustic country girl wore, better than the +choicest production of Worth? + +"Yes, miss," Jessie went on, "and Susie says that Mr. Stafford, the +lord's son"--the simple dale folk as often called Sir Stephen "my lord" +as "sir"--"danced ever so many times with her, and the servants was +saying that he was making love to her, and that they shouldn't be +surprised to hear that Mr. Stafford was going to marry Miss Falconer." + +Ida could not prevent the colour rising to her face, but she laughed +unforcedly, and with no misgiving; for she had looked into Stafford's +eyes and read his soul through them. He was hers, let all the women in +the world be beautiful and decked in silks and satins. + +She ran upstairs to put on her habit, leaving Jessie rather +disappointed at the effect of her news, and she sang while she tied the +little scarlet sailor's knot, and presently came down the stairs with a +step as light as her heart. As she was mounting and talking to Jason +about the last lot of steers, Mr. Wordley came out of the house to get +his horse, and hurried to her, bare-headed, in the good old way. + +"No, I can't stay," he said in answer to her invitation. "I have to be +back at the office; but I'll ride a little way with you, if I may. It +isn't often I get the chance of riding with the prettiest girl in the +county. There now, I've made you blush, as I used to when you sat upon +my knee, and I told you that little girls had no right to stars for +eyes." + +Ida laughed. + +"But I'm a big girl now," she said, "and too old for compliments; +besides, lawyers should always speak the truth." + +"For goodness sake! don't spread that theory, my dear, or we shall all +have to put our shutters up," he retorted, with mock alarm. + +He got on his old red-roan rather stiffly, and they rode out of the +court-yard and on to the road, where, be sure, Ida's "star-like" eyes +swept the hills and the valleys lest perchance a young man should be +riding there. They rode in silence for a few minutes, during which the +old lawyer seemed very thoughtful, and glanced at her sideways, as if +he were trying to make up his mind about something. At last he said, +with an affectation of casualness: + +"Father been pretty well of late, my dear?" + +Ida hesitated for a moment. She could not bring herself to tell even +Mr. Wordley of her father's painful habit of walking in his sleep. + +"Yes," she said, "fairly well. Sometimes he is rather restless and +irritable as if he were worried. Has he anything to worry him, Mr. +Wordley--I mean anything more than usual?" + +He did not answer, and she looked at him as if waiting for his reply. + +"I was thinking of what you just said: that you were a big girl. So you +are, though you always seem to me like the little child I used to +nurse. But the world rolls on and you have grown into a woman and I +ought to tell you the truth," he said, at last. + +"The truth!" she echoed, with a quick glance. + +"Yes," he said, nodding gravely. "Does your father ever talk to you of +business, my dear? I know that you manage the house and the farm; ay, +and manage them well, but I don't know whether he ever tells you +anything about the business of the estate. I ask because I am in rather +an awkward position. When your father dismissed his steward I thought +he would consult me on the matters which the steward used to manage; +but he has not done so, and I am really more ignorant about his affairs +than anyone would credit, seeing that I have been the Herons' family +lawyer--I and mine--since, well, say, since the Flood." "No; my father +tells me nothing," said Ida. "Is there anything the matter, is there +anything I should know?" + +He looked at her gravely, compassionately. + +"My dear, I think there is," he said. "If you had a brother or any +relative near you I would not worry you, would not tell you. But you +have none, you are quite alone, you see." + +"Quite alone," she echoed. And then she blushed, as she remembered +Stafford, and that she was no longer alone in the world. + +"And so I think you ought to be told that your father's affairs +are--are not as satisfactory as they should be." + +"I know that we are very poor," said Ida in a low voice. + +"Ah, yes," he said. "And so are a great many of the landed gentry +nowadays; but they still struggle on, and I had hope that by some +stroke of good luck I might have helped your father to struggle on and +perhaps save something, make some provision, for you. But, my dear--See +now! I am going to treat you as if you were indeed a woman; and you +will be brave, I know, for you are a Heron, and a Heron--it sounds like +a paradox!--has never shown the white feather--your father's affairs +have been growing worse lately, I am afraid. You know that the estate +is encumbered, that the entail was cut off so that you might inherit; +but advantage has been taken of the cutting off the entail to raise +fresh loans since the steward was dismissed and I have been ignorant of +your father's business matters. I came to-day to tell him that the +interest of the heaviest mortgage was long overdue, and that the +mortgagee, who says that he has applied several times, is threatening +foreclosure. I felt quite sure that I should get the money from your +father this morning, but he has put me off and makes some difficulty. +He made a rambling statement, almost incoherent, which I did not +understand, though, to be sure, I listened very intently, and from a +word or two he incautiously let drop, I am afraid that--" + +He stopped and frowned and puckered his lips as if reluctant to +continue. Ida looked at him steadily with her deep grey eyes. + +"Go on." she said. "Do not be afraid to tell me the truth. I can bear +it. I would rather know the worst, know what I have to face. For some +time past I have feared my father was in trouble. Do you think I am +afraid? Please tell me all." + +"In a word, then, my dear," said the old lawyer, with a sigh, "I am +afraid your father has been speculating, and, like ninety-nine out of a +hundred that do so, has been losing. It is like playing against the +bank at Monte Carlo; one man may break it, but the advantage is on the +bank's side, and for the one who wins thousands lose. Can you tell me +if there are any grounds for my apprehension?" + +Ida was silent for a moment as she recalled her father's manner of +late, his habit of shutting himself up in the library, of keeping his +letters from her, of secreting papers, and, above all, the furtive +glances which she had now and again seen him cast at her. + +"I am afraid that it is only too true," she said. "My poor father! What +is to be done, Mr. Wordley? Can I do anything?" + +The old man shook his head. He knew too well that once a man has really +taken to gambling, whether it be on the Stock Exchange, or at a green +table, or on the turf, there is very little hope of saving him. + +"I fear you can do nothing," he replied, sadly. "A Heron never yet +brooked interference even by his nearest and dearest. No, you must say +nothing about it. Even I must be careful how I approach him; for this +morning he was testy and irritable and resented the few questions I +ventured to put to him. Don't make yourself unhappy about it. I will +try and arrange about the mortgage, and I will come over again as soon +as possible and try and persuade your father to confide in me as he +used to do. Now, come, remember! You are not to worry yourself, my +dear, but to leave it entirely to me. Things are rarely as bad as they +seem, and there is always a gleam of light in the darkest sky. Perhaps, +some day, we shall see Heron Hall and the good old family in all its +old glory; and when that day comes, my little girl with the star eyes +will queen it in the dale like one of the Heron ladies of the past." + +He patted her hand as he held it, patted and stroked it and looked at +her with a tender and encouraging smile, which made Ida's eyes grow +moist. + +She rode down the dale gravely and sadly for some minutes: then the +thought flashed through her mind, warming her heart, that she was not +alone, but there was one who loved her and to whom she could by for +consolation and encouragement. Yes, it was only right that she should +tell Stafford all; there should be no concealment from him. + +She rode down the dale looking for him, but he was nowhere to be seen. +When she came to the opening by the lake she saw the large, white Villa +gleaming in the sunlight; a launch was patting off from the +landing-place with men and women on board, and the could almost fancy +that she heard the sound of laughter. The contrast of the prosperity +typified by the great white place and the poverty of Heron Hall smote +her sharply. She was poorer even than she had thought: what would the +great, the rich Sir Stephen say to such a daughter-in-law? She watched +the launch dreamily as it shot across the lake, and wondered whether +Stafford was on board, laughing and talking perhaps with the beautiful +Miss Falconer. In this moment of her trouble the thought was not +pleasant, but there was no jealousy in it, for in her assurance of his +love he was free to talk and jest with whom he pleased. She turned, and +after making her usual circuit, rode home-wards. As she reached the +cross-road she heard the sound of a horse coming from the Hall, and she +pulled up, her heart beating fast; then it sank with disappointment, +for the horseman came round the bend and she saw that it was a groom. +He touched his hat as he passed, and rode on at a sharp trot in the +direction of Bryndremere. Ida wondered why he had been to the Hall, but +concluded that he had gone there with some message about the farm +produce. + +When she rode into the stable-yard, she saw Jessie and Jason standing +by the small hall door and talking eagerly, and Jessie came forward, +and taking a letter from under her apron, held it out with a smile. + +"It's just come from the Villa, Miss Ida," she said. "And oh, miss, +what I told you this morning--it's quite true. It was Mr. Stafford's +own groom as brought the note, and he says that his master is engaged +to Miss Falconer, and that the whole place is in excitement over it. He +was as proud as Punch, Miss Ida; for he says that his new mistress is +terrible rich as well as beautiful, and that there'll be the grandest +of grand doings up there." + +The blood rushed to Ida's face for a moment, then faded, and she +slipped the note into the pocket of her habit and laughed. For it +sounded too ridiculous, too incredible to cause her even a shadow of +annoyance. She gave one or two orders to Jason, then went into the +hall, took the note from her pocket and looked at the address lovingly, +lingeringly: for instinctively she knew whose hand had written it. It +was the first letter she had received from him; what would it say to +her? No doubt it was to tell her why he had not been able to meet her +that morning, to ask her to meet him later in the day. With a blush of +maidenly shame she lifted the envelope to her lips and kissed each +written word. + +Then she opened it, slowly, as lingeringly as she had looked at it, +spinning out the pleasure, the delight which lay before her in the +perusal of her first love-letter. With her foot upon the old-fashioned +fender, her head drooping as if there was someone present to see her +blushes, she read the letter; and it is not too much to say that at +first she failed utterly to grasp its meaning. With knit brows and +quaking heart, she read it again and again, until its significance was, +so to speak, forced upon her; then the letter dropped from her hand, +her arms fell limply to her sides, and she looked straight before her +in a dazed, benumbed fashion, every word burning itself upon her brain +and searing her heart. + +The blow had fallen so suddenly, so unexpectedly, like a bolt from the +blue, smiting the happiness of her young life as a sapling is smitten +by summer lightning, that for the moment she felt no pain, nothing but +the benumbing of all her faculties; so that she did not see the +portrait of the dead and gone Heron upon which her eyes rested, did not +hear her father's voice calling to her from the library, was conscious +of nothing but those terrible words which were dinning through her +brain like the booming of a great bell. Presently she uttered a low cry +and clasped her head with her hand, as if to shut out the sound of the +words that tortured her. + +It could not be true--it could not be true! Stafford had not written +it. It was some cruel jest, a very cruel jest, perpetrated by someone +who hated them both, and who wantonly inflicted pain. Yes; that was it! +That could be the only explanation. Someone had written in his name; it +was a forgery; she would meet Stafford presently, and they would laugh +at it together. He would be very angry, would want to punish the person +who had done it; but he and she would laugh together, and he would take +her in his arms and kiss her in one of the many ways in which he had +made a kiss an ecstasy of delight, and they would laugh together as he +whispered that nothing should ever separate them. + +She laughed now as she pictured the scene that would be enacted. But +suddenly the laugh died on her lips, as there flashed across her mind +the words Jessie had said. Stafford was engaged to Maude Falconer, the +girl up at the Villa, whose beauty and grace and wealth all the dale +was talking of. + +Oh, God! Was there any truth in it, was there any truth in it? Had +Stafford, indeed, written that cruel letter? Had he left her forever, +forever, forever? Should she never see him again, never again hear him +tell her that he loved her, would always love her? + +The room spun round with her, she suddenly felt sick and faint, and, +reeling, caught at the carved mantel-shelf to prevent herself from +falling. Then gradually the death-like faintness passed, and she became +conscious that her father's voice was calling to her, and she clasped +her head again and swept the hair from her forehead, and clenched her +hands in the effort to gain her presence of mind and self-command. + +She picked up the letter, and, with a shudder, thrust it in her bosom, +as Cleopatra might have thrust the asp which was to destroy her; then +with leaden feet, she crossed the hall and opened the library door, and +saw her father standing by the table clutching some papers in one hand, +and gesticulating wildly with the other. Dizzily, for there seemed to +be a mist before her eyes, she went to him and laid a hand upon his +arm. + +"What is it, father?" she said, "Are you ill? What is the matter?" + +He gazed at her vacantly and struck his hand on the table, after the +manner of a child in a senseless passion. + +"Lost! Lost! All lost!" he mumbled, jumbling the words together almost +incoherently. + +"What is lost, father?" she asked. + +"Everything, everything!" he cried, in the same manner. "I can't +remember, can't remember! It's ruin, utter ruin! My head--I can't +think, can't remember! Lost, lost!" + +In her terror, she put her young arm round him as a mother encircles +her child in the delirium of fever. + +"Try and tell me, father!" she implored him. "Try and be calm, dearest! +Tell me, and I will help you. What is lost?" + +He tried to struggle from her arms, tried to push her from him. + +"You know!" he mumbled. "You've watched me--you know the truth! +Everything is lost! I am ruined! The mortgage! Herondale will pass +away! I am a poor man, a very poor man! Have pity on me, have pity on +me!" + +He slipped, by their weight, from her arms and fell into the chair. She +sank on to her knees, her arms still round him, and stroked and +caressed his withered hand that twitched and shook; and to her horror +his stony eyes grew more vacant, his jaw dropped, and he sank still +lower in the chair. "Jessie! Jason!" she called, and they rushed in. +For a space they stood aghast and unhelpful from fright, then Jason +tried to lift his master from the heap into which he had collapsed. The +old man's eyes closed, he straggled for breath, and when he had gained +it, he looked from one to the other with a smile, a senile smile, which +added to Ida's grief and terror. + +"It's all right!" he whispered, huskily, pantingly. "It's all right; +they don't know. They don't guess!" Then his manner changed to one of +intense alarm and dismay. "Lost! Lost!" he gasped. "I'm ruined, rained! +Herondale has gone, gone--all is gone! My poor child--Ida!" + +"Father!" broke from Ida's white lips. "Father, I am here. Look at me, +speak to me. I am here--everything is not lost. I am here, and all is +well." + +His lips twisted into a smile, a smile of cunning, almost of glee; then +he groaned, and the cry rose again: + +"I can't remember--all is lost! Ruined! My poor child! Have pity on my +child!" + +As she clung to him, supporting him as she clung, she felt a shudder +run through him, and he fell a lifeless heap upon her shoulder. + +The minutes--were they minutes or years?--passed, and were broken into +fragments by a cry from Jessie. + +"Miss Ida! Miss Ida! He's--the master's dead!'" + + +Ida raised her father's head from her shoulder and looked into his +face, and knew that the girl had spoken the truth. + +He was dead. She had lost both father and lover in one day! + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + +Ida sat in the library on the morning of the funeral. A pelting rain +beat upon the windows, over which the blinds had been drawn; the great +silence which reigned in the chamber above, in which the dead master of +Heron lay, brooded over the whole house, and seemed in no part of it +more intense than in this great, book-lined room, in which Godfrey +Heron had spent so much of his life. + +Ida lay back in the great arm-chair in which he had sat, her small +brown hands lying limply in her lap, her eyes fixed absently upon the +open book which lay on the table as he had left it. The pallor of her +face, increased by her sorrow, was accentuated by the black dress, +almost as plainly made as that which the red-eyed Jessie wore in her +kitchen. Though nearly a week had elapsed since her father had died in +her young arms, and notwithstanding her capacity for self-reliance, Ida +had not yet recovered from the stupor of the shock. + +She was scarcely thinking as she lay back in his chair and looked at +the table over which he had bent for so many monotonous years; she +scarcely realised that he had passed out of her life, and that she was +alone in the world; and she was only vaguely conscious that her sorrow +had, so to speak, a double edge; that she had lost not only her father, +but the man to whom she had given her heart, the man who should have +been standing beside her now, shielding her with his strong arms, +comforting her with words of pity and love. The double blow had fallen +so suddenly, so unexpectedly, that the pain of it had been dulled and +blunted. The capacity of human nature for suffering is, after all not +unlimited. God says to physical pain and mental anguish, "Thus far and +no farther;" and this limitation saved Ida from utter collapse. + +Then, again, she was not free to indulge in idle grief, in the luxury +of woe; the great house had still to be run, she had to bury her +beloved dead, the mourning which seems such a hopeless mockery when the +heart is racked with misery, had to be seen to; and she did it, and +went through it all, with outward calm, sustained by that Heron spirit +which may be described as the religion of her class--_noblesse oblige_. +Jessie had wept loudly through the house ever since the death, and +could weep as loudly now; but if Ida shed any tears she wept in the +silence and darkness of her own room, and no one heard her utter a +moan. "To suffer in silence and be strong" was the badge of all her +tribe, and she wore it with quiet stoicism. + +Godfrey Heron's death had happened so suddenly that the news of it +scarcely got beyond the radius of the estate before the following +morning, and Stafford had gone to London in ignorance of this second +blow with which Fate had followed up the one he had dealt Ida: and when +the neighbours--the Vaynes, the Bannerdales, and the Avorys--came +quickly and readily enough to offer their sympathy and help, they could +do nothing. The girl solitary and lonely in her grief as she had been +solitary and lonely through her life, would see no one but the doctor +and Mr. Wordley, and the people who had once been warm and intimate +friends of the family left reluctantly and sully, to talk over the +melancholy circumstance, and to wonder what would become of the +daughter of the eccentric man who had lived the life of a recluse. Mr. +Wordley would have liked to have persuaded her to see some of the women +who had hastened to comfort her; but he knew that any attempt at +persuasion would have been in vain, that he would not have been able to +break down the barrier of reserve which the girl had instinctively and +reservedly erected between her suffering soul and the world. His heart +ached for her, and he did all that a man could do to lighten the burden +of her trouble; but there was very little that he could do beyond +superintending the necessary arrangements for the funeral. + +His first thought was of the relatives; but, somewhat to his own +dismay, he found that the only one whom he could trace was a certain +cousin, a more than middle-aged man who, though he bore the name of +Heron, was quite unknown to Ida, and, so far as Mr. Wordley was aware, +had not crossed the threshold of the Hall for many years. He was a +certain John Heron, a retired barrister, who had gone in for religion, +not in the form of either of the Established Churches, but of that of +one of the least known sects, the members of which called themselves +some kind of brothers, were supposed to be very strict observers of the +Scriptural law, and were considered by those who did not belong to them +both narrow-minded and uncharitable. + +Mr. John Heron was a prominent member of this little sect, and was +famous in its small circles for his extreme sanctity and his eloquence +as a lay preacher. Mr. Wordley, with much misgiving, had invited this, +the only relative he could find, to the funeral, and Ida was now +awaiting this gentleman's arrival. + +The stealthy footsteps which belong to those who minister to the dead +passed up and down the great house, Jason was setting out the simple +"funeral baked meats" which are considered appropriate to the occasion, +and Mr. Wordley paced up and down the hall with his hands behind his +back, listening to the undertaker's men upstairs, and glancing through +the window in expectation of the carriage which had been sent for Mr. +John Heron. Presently he saw it rounding a bend of the drive, and went +into the library to prepare Ida. + +She raised her head but not her eyes as he entered, and looked at him +with that dull apathy which denotes the benumbed heart, the mind +crushed under its heavy weight of sorrow. + +"I came in to tell you, my dear, that Mr. John Heron is coming," he +said. "The carriage is just turning the bend of the drive." "I will +come," she said, rising and supporting herself by the heavy, carved arm +of the great chair. + +"No, no" he said. "Sit down and wait here." He did not want her to hear +the stealthy tread of the undertaker's men, to meet the coffin which +they were going to bring downstairs and place in the hall. "I will +bring him in here. Is there anything you would like me to say to him, +my dear?" he asked, and spoke with a certain hesitancy; for as yet he +had not spoken of her future, feeling that her grief was too recent, +too sacred, to permit of the obtrusion of material and worldly matters. + +"To say to him?" she repeated, in a low, dull voice, as if she did not +understand. + +"Yes," he said. "I did not know whether you had formed any plan, +whether"--he hesitated again, "you had thought of going--of paying a +visit--to these relations of yours. He lives in the north of London, +and has a wife and son and daughter, as you know." + +Ida passed her hand across her brow, trying to remember. + +"Ah, yes," she said at last, "I remember you told me about them. I +never heard of them before--until now. Why should I go to them? Do they +want me? Have they asked me?" + +Mr. Wordley coughed discreetly. They certainly had not asked her, but +he felt quite assured that an individual whose reputation for sanctity +stood so high could not be so deficient in charity as to refuse a home +to his orphan cousin. + +"They have not sent you any definite invitation yet, but they will be +sure to want you to go and stay with them, for a time, at any rate; and +I think you ought to go." + +"I do not think I should like it," said Ida, but indifferently, as if +the question were of no moment. "I would rather stay here" + +Mr. Wordley polished his glasses very intently. + +"I am afraid you'd find it very lonely at the Hall, my dear," he said. +"In fact, I don't think you could remain here by yourself," he added, +evading the direct gaze of the great, sad eyes. + +"I should feel lonely anywhere," she said. "More lonely with people I +don't know, probably, than I should feel here, with Jessie and +Jason--and--and the dogs." + +"Well, well, we can't discuss the question now, and will endeavour to +act for the best, my dear," said the old man, still intent upon his +glasses. "I hear the carriage. I will bring Mr. John in." He returned +in a minute or two, accompanied by a tall and gaunt individual, who, in +his black clothes and white necktie, looked a cross between a superior +undertaker and a Methodist preacher. His features were strongly marked, +and the expression of his countenance was both severe and melancholy, +and, judging by his expression and his voice, which was harsh and +lachrymose, his particular form of religion did not appear to afford +him either amusement or consolation. + +"This is your cousin, Mr. John Heron," said poor Mr. Wordley, who was +evidently suffering from the effects of his few minutes' conversation +with that gentleman. + +Mr. John Heron surveyed the slight figure and white face with its sad, +star-like eyes--surveyed it with a grim kind of severity, which was +probably intended for sympathy, and extending a cold, damp hand, which +resembled an extremely bony shoulder of mutton, said, in a rasping, +melancholy voice: + +"How do you do, Ida? I trust you are bearing your burden as becomes a +Christian. We are born to sorrow. The train was three-quarters of an +hour late." + +"I am sorry," said Ida in her low voice, leaving him to judge whether +she expressed regret for our birthright of misery or the lateness of +the train. "Will you have some lunch--some wine?" she asked, a dull, +vague wonder rising in her mind that this grim, middle-class man should +be of kith and kin with her dead father. + +"Thank you; no. I had an abernethy biscuit at the station." He drew +back from, and waved away, the tray of wine which Jason at this moment +brought in. "I never touch wine. I, and all mine, are total abstainers. +Those who fly to the wine-cup in moments of tribulation and grief rely +on a broken reed which shall pierce their hand. I trust you do not +drink, Cousin Ida?" + +"No--yes; sometimes; not much," she replied, vaguely, and regarding him +with a dull wonder; for she had never seen this kind of man before. + +Mr. Wordley poured out a glass of wine, and, in silent indignation, +handed it to her; and, unconscious of the heavy scowl with which Mr. +John Heron regarded her, she put her lips to it. + +"A glass of wine is not a bad thing at any time," said the old lawyer; +"especially when one is weakened and prostrated by trouble. Try and +drink a little more, my dear." + +"It is a matter of opinion, of conviction, of principle," said Mr. John +Heron, grimly, as if he were in the pulpit. "We must be guided by the +light of our consciences; we must not yield to the seductive in +fineness of creature comfort. We are told that strong drink is +raging--" This was rather more than Mr. Wordley could stand, and, very +red in the face, he invited Mr. John Heron to go up to the room which +had been prepared for him. + +When that gentleman had stalked out, the old lawyer looked at Ida with +a mixture of dismay and commiseration. + +"Not a--er--particularly cheerful and genial person, my dear; but no +doubt Mr. John Heron is extremely conscientious and--er--good-hearted." + +"I daresay," assented Ida, apathetically. "It does not matter. It was +very kind of him to come so far to--to the funeral," she added. "He +might have stayed away, for I don't think my father knew him, and I +never heard of him. Is it not time yet?" she asked, in a low voice. + +As she spoke, Jessie came in and took her upstairs to her room to put +on the thick black cloak, the bonnet with its long crape veil, in which +Ida was to follow her father to the grave; for in spite of Mr. +Wordley's remonstrances, she had remained firm in her resolve to go to +the church-yard. + +Presently the procession started. Only a few carriages followed the +hearse which bore Godfrey Heron to his last resting-place; but when the +vehicles cradled beyond the boundary of the grounds, across which the +dead man had not set foot for thirty years, the cavalcade was swelled +by a number of tenants, labourers, and dalesmen who had come to pay +their last respects to Heron of Herondale; and marching in threes, +which appears to be the regulation number for a funeral, they made a +long and winding tail to the crawling coaches, quite filled the little +church, and stood, a black-garbed crowd, in the pelting rain round the +oblong hole which would suffice for the last bed of this one of the +last of the lords of the dale. + +But though all were present to show respect to the deceased squire, the +attention of every man and woman was fixed upon the slight, girlish +figure standing by the side of the grave, her head bent, her great +mournful eye fixed upon the coffin, her hands clenched tightly as they +held together the thick mourning cloak. She looked so young, so almost +child-like in the desolation of her solitude, that many of the women +cried silently, and the rough men set their lips hard and looked +sternly and grimly at the ground. + +The old clergyman who had christened her and every Sunday had cast +glances of interest and affection at her as she sat in the great "loose +box" of a pew, found it very difficult to read the solemn service +without breaking down, and his old thin voice quavered as he spoke the +words of hope and consolation which the storm of wind and rain caught +up and swept across the narrow church-yard and down the dale of which +the Herons had been so long masters. + +Mr. John Heron stood grim and gaunt opposite Ida, as if he were a +figure carved out of wood, and showed no sign of animation until the +end of the service, when he looked round with a sudden eagerness, and +opened his large square lips as if he were going to "improve the +occasion" by an address; but Mr. Wordley, who suspected him of such +intention, nipped it in the bud by saying: + +"Will you give your arm to Miss Ida, Mr. Heron? I want to get her back +to the Hall as soon as possible." + +Ida was led to the carriage, passing through a lane of sympathisers +amongst whom were representatives of all the great dale families; and +all bent their heads with a respectful pity and sympathy as the young +girl made her way down the narrow path. About half a dozen persons had +been asked to go to the Hall for the funeral lunch, at which Mr. John +Heron, as representative of the family, presided. It was a melancholy +meal; for most of those present were thinking of the orphan girl in her +room above. They spoke in lowered voices of the dead man and of the +great family from which he had sprung, and recalled stories of the +wealth and lavishness of past Herons; and when the meal was over, there +suddenly fell a silence, and all eyes were turned upon Mr. Wordley; for +the moment had arrived for the reading and expounding of the will. + +Mr. Wordley rose, coughed, and wiped his eye-glasses, and looked round +gravely. + +"As the legal adviser of my late client, Mr. Godfrey Heron, I have to +inform you, gentlemen, that there is no will. My client died +intestate." + +The listeners exchanged glances, and looked grave and concerned. + +"No will?" said Lord Bannerdale, anxiously; then his kindly face +cleared. "But of course everything goes to his daughter; the estate is +not entailed?" + +Mr. Wordley inclined his head. + +"The estate is not entailed, as you observed, Lord Bannerdale; and my +client, Miss Ida Heron, inherits everything." + +They drew a breath of relief, and nodded assentingly; and presently +they made a general movement of departure. Lord Bannerdale lingered +behind the others. "I won't ask the poor child to see me, Mr. Wordley," +he said. "Will you therefore be good enough to give her Lady +Bannerdale's love, and to tell her that, as Lady Bannerdale has written +to her, we shall be more than pleased if she will come to us at the +Court. She is to consider it her home for just as long as she should +please; and we shall feel it a pleasure and an honour to have her +amongst us as one of our own. Of course she cannot remain alone here, +in this great place." + +The old lawyer bowed. + +"I will give her your kind message, for which I thank you on her +behalf, Lord Bannerdale. I do not know what she will do, or where she +will go; at present she is not in a condition to discuss any plans for +her future, though to-day she expressed a desire to remain at the +Hall." He paused for a moment before he added: "I do not know whether +she can do so." + +"My cousin is young, and a mere child, and she must follow the advice +of her elders and her guardian. The future of even the sparrow is in +higher hands than ours, and we know not what a day may bring forth," +said Mr. John Heron, grimly, and with an uplifting of his heavy brows. + +"Quite so," said Lord Bannerdale, who had taken a great dislike for the +sanctimonious speaker, and who could scarcely repress a shudder as he +shook Mr. John Heron's cold and clammy hand. + +When they had all gone, Mr. Wordley said: + +"We had better go into the library and talk matters over. I will send +for Miss Ida. It seems cruel to disturb her at such a moment, but there +is no help for it." + +"You speak as if you had bad tidings, Mr. Wordley, to give us," said +John Heron. + +"I am afraid I have," responded the old lawyer, shaking his grey head +sadly. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + +When Ida came down, he led her to a chair beside the fire which he had +ordered to be lit, and laid his hand gently and tenderly on her +shoulder by way of preparation and encouragement. + +"Your cousin and I want to talk to you about the future, Ida," he said. +"You will have to be told some time or other exactly how your father's +affairs stood, and I have come to the conclusion that it is better you +should know at once than that you should be permitted to remain in +ignorance of the gravity of the situation. I have gone over your +father's papers and looked into his affairs very carefully and closely, +and I am sorry to say that they are in a very unsatisfactory condition. +As I told you the other day, the estate has been encumbered and very +seriously embarrassed for some time past, and the encumbrance has been +increased of late, notwithstanding the admirable way in which you have +managed the estate and the household affairs." + +Ida raised her eyes to his and tried to regard him calmly and bravely, +but her lips quivered and she checked a sigh. + +Mr. Wordley coughed and frowned, as a man does when he is engaged in a +disagreeable and painful task. + +"The principal mortgagee has given me notice of foreclosure, and the +amount of the debt is so large that I am afraid--it would be cruel and +useless to conceal the truth from you--I _know_ that the property sold +would not be sufficient to meet it. Of ready money there appears to be +none--" + +Mr. John Heron groaned and raised his melancholy eyes to the ceiling +with an expression of reprobation. Ida appeared unconscious of his +presence and kept her sad eyes steadily fixed on the lawyer's kind and +mournful face. + +--"In a word, my dear child, your poor father appears to have left +absolutely no effects behind him." + +Ida drew a long breath and was silent for a moment, as she tried to +realise the significance of his words. + +"Do you mean that I am quite penniless?" she said, in a low voice. + +Mr. Wordley blew his nose and coughed two or three times, as if he +found it difficult to reply; at last he said, in a voice almost as low +as hers: + +"Put shortly, I am afraid, my dear, that is what I must tell you. I had +no idea that the position was so grave. I thought that there would be +something left; sufficient, at any rate, to render you independent; +but, as I told you, I have been kept in ignorance of your father's +affairs for some years past, and I did not know how things were going. +I am surprised as well as grieved, deeply grieved; and I must confess +that I can only account for the deplorable confusion and loss by the +theory that I suggested to you the other day. I cannot but think that +your poor father must have engaged in some disastrous speculation." + +Mr. Heron groaned again, and shook his head. + +"The prevailing vice of this most wicked of ages," he said. "The love +of money, the gambling on the race-course and the Stock Exchange, are +the root of all evil." + +Ida seemed not to hear him, and Mr. Wordley ignored the comment. + +"It now remains for you, my dear child, to decide what to do. I do not +think you could possibly live on here; you have not the means to do so, +though you should be as economical as you have been in the past; the +house must pass away from you in six months' time or little more, and +there would be nothing gained by your lingering hopelessly here for +that period." + +"I must go, then," said Ida, as if there were a stab in every word. + +Mr. Wordley bent his head, and laid his hand on her shoulder. + +"Yes, I fear you must go," he assented. "But, thank God, you are not +without friends, many friends. Lord Bannerdale charges me to tell you +what his good wife has already written you--that a home awaits you at +the Court, where you will be received gladly and lovingly; and I am +quite sure that the door of every house in the dale is wide open for +you." + +Ida shrank in her chair. Clothe the offer as kindly as he might, it +spelt Charity, not cold charity, but charity still: and what Heron had +ever tamely accepted charity from mere friends and strangers? Mr. +Wordley saw the shrinking, the little shudder, and understood. + +"I understand, my dear!" he said, in a low voice. "But there is another +offer, another home which you can accept without humiliation or +compunction. Your cousin, Mr. John Heron here, will, I am sure, be only +too glad, too delighted to--to--" + +He waited and glanced at Mr. Heron impatiently, and at last that +gentleman rose, but not too eagerly, to the occasion. + +"I need scarcely say," he said, slowly and solemnly, "that I should not +approve of my cousin's accepting these offers of charity, which, though +no doubt kindly meant, appear to me somewhat--er--obtrusive. I am not a +wealthy man; my simple home cannot compare in size and grandeur with +Heron Hall and the estate which my late unfortunate cousin appears to +have squandered, but such as it is, Ida will be welcome in it. I am not +one to turn a deaf ear to the cry of the orphan and fatherless." + +Mr. Wordley frowned and reddened, and cut in before Mr. John Heron +could finish his sentence even more offensively, and so rouse Ida's +spirit, and render his offer impossible of acceptance. + +"Quite so, quite so, my dear sir," he said. "I am quite sure you will +feel only too delighted and honoured at the prospect of taking this +dear child into your family." + +"Yes," said Mr. Heron, unctuously, "we will take her in as a lamb +gathered into the fold, as a brand is plucked from the burning." + +Ida looked at him half stupefied, and it is to be feared some doubts of +his sanity arose in her mind. + +"Quite so, quite so," interrupted Mr. Wordley again. "Then I think the +sooner Miss Ida joins you the better; and I would suggest that she goes +with you to-morrow. I will close the house and leave Jessie, the +maid-servant, and Jason in charge. You and Miss Ida can depend on my +guarding her interests as jealously as if they were my own. I will have +a sale of the stock and other things which we are free to sell, and, +meanwhile, Miss Ida must permit me to advance her some money on account +of the proceeds." + +He handed her an envelope in which he had already placed some +bank-notes; but Ida looked at him and slowly shook her head. + +"No, no, my dear!" he said. "I should not be guilty of such +presumption. Though you are leaving Heron Hall, though it may be +passing away from you forever, you are still, in my eyes, Miss Heron of +Herondale, and I should not presume to offer you--" His voice broke, +and his eyes filled with tears. "The money is yours, and you can take +it without any loss of the pride which is your rightful heritage. If I +have not offered you a home where you would indeed be an honoured +guest, it is because I know that it would not be fitting for me to +offer it, or you to accept it. Mr. John Heron is your natural guardian; +but though that is so, I will ask you to remember that I claim the +privilege of being your father's friend and yours, and that in any +trouble you will be but honouring that privilege when you come to me +for advice and assistance." + +His voice was almost inaudible before he had finished, and Ida, down +whose cheek tears were running for the first time, extended both hands +in mute but eloquent gratitude. They had both forgotten Mr. John +Heron's presence but were reminded of it by something between a cough +and a sniff from him; and at a glance from Mr. Wordley, Ida turned to +the gaunt figure and held out her hand. + +"Thank you," she said in a low voice, "I will come with you and stay +with you until--until--I can find something to do, something at which I +can earn my own living. Surely there must be something I can do?" She +turned to Mr. Wordley with a little anxious, eager gesture. "I am +strong--very strong; I have managed Herondale--I can ride, and--and +understand a farm. I am never tired. Surely there is something I can +do!" + +Her voice broke, she began to tremble, and the tears started to her +eyes again. + +"Yes, yes; no doubt, no doubt, my child!" said Mr. Wordley, whose own +eyes were moist. "We will think about all that later on. You must go +now and rest; you are tired." + +He drew her arm within his, and patting her hand tenderly and +encouragingly, led her out of the room; and stood in the hall watching +her as she slowly went up the great stairs; such a girlish, mournful +figure in her plain black dress. + +Ida lay awake that night listening to the wind and the rain. She was +familiar enough with the dale storms, but never had their wild music +wailed so mournful an accompaniment to her own thoughts. Compared with +her other losses, that of her home, dearly as she loved it, weighed but +little; it was but, an added pang to the anguish of her bereavement; +and behind that, the principal cause of her grief, loomed the desertion +of her lover. She tried not to think of Stafford; for every thought +bestowed on him seemed to rob her dead father and to be disloyal to his +memory; but, alas! the human heart is despotic; and as she lay awake +and listened to the wailing of the wind and the rain as it drove +against the window, Stafford's voice penetrated that of the storm; and, +scarcely consciously, her lips were forming some of the passionate +words of endearment which he had whispered to her by the stream and on +the hill-side. Though she knew every word by heart of the letter he had +written her, she did not yet understand or comprehend why he had broken +his solemn engagement to her. She understood that something had risen +between them, something had happened which had separated them, but she +could form no idea as to what it was. He had spoken of "unworthiness," +of something which he had discovered that had rendered him unfit to be +her husband; but she could not guess what it was; but confused and +bewildered as she was, there was at present, at any rate, no resentment +in her heart. + +The lover had been taken from her just as her father and her home had +been. There was no help for it, there was no appeal from the decrees of +Fate. Fate had decreed that she should love Stafford and lose him; and +she could only go on living her grey and dreary life, made all the +greyer and drearier by her short spell of joy and happiness. Sorrow's +crown of sorrow is still the remembrance of happier things; and she +would have to wear that crown in place of the crown of his love, wear +it through all her days; for, young as she was, she knew that she had +given her heart once and for all, that though she might never see +Stafford again, she would love him to the end. + +A mist hung over the dale on this, the day of her departure from the +Hall, and all the hills over which she had so loved to ride and walk +were shrouded as if in tears. + +She stood and looked at them from the hall window with vacant eyes, as +if she did not yet realise that she was leaving them, perhaps forever; +but she had not long for gazing, for Mr. Heron and she were going by an +early train, and the moment for farewell came swiftly upon her. + +With Donald and Bess close at her heels, as if they were aware of their +coming loss, she went round to say good-bye. She crossed the lawn and +went to the spot under the tree where she had met Stafford that +never-to-be-forgotten night, and from thence walked to the corner of +the terrace where they had stood and watched her father coming, in his +sleep, from the ruined chapel. Then she went to the stable to say +good-bye to Rupert, who whinnied as he heard her approaching footstep, +and thrust his soft, velvety nose into her neck. She had to fight hard +against the tears at this point, and she hid her face against that of +the big horse, with her arms thrown round his neck, as she murmured her +last good-bye. + +But the tears would not be kept back when it came to saying farewell to +the two faithful souls, Jessie and Jason, with whom she had grown up +from a girl all legs and wings, and whom she had learnt to regard +rather as devoted friends than servants. Jason broke down completely +and hurried away, his old and feeble frame shaking like an autumn leaf; +and Jessie, her arms thrown round her young mistress, and with sobs and +ejaculations, implored her to take her faithful Jessie with her. + +Perhaps the parting with the two dogs was as bitter as any, for, as if +they knew quite well that she was going, they clung closely to her, and +when she hugged them and kissed them on the forehead, they had to be +dragged off by Jason, and locked up in the stables lest they should +follow the carriage which was to bear their beloved mistress away. + +That carriage came all too soon, though Mr. John Heron had awaited its +arrival impatiently and with watch in hand. He seemed grimmer and +gaunter than ever that morning, and as he looked around the great Hall, +he shook his head at its faded grandeur reprehensively, as if he could, +if time permitted, deliver a sermon on the prodigality, the wicked +wastefulness, which had brought ruin on the house, and rendered it +necessary for him to extend his charity to the penniless orphan. + +Mr. Wordley was there to say good-bye to Ida and put her into the +carriage; but it proved a difficult good-bye to say, and for once the +usually fluent old lawyer was bereft of the power of speech as he held +Ida's small hand, and looked through tear-dimmed eyes at the white and +sorrowful face. He had intended to say all sorts of kind and +encouraging things, but he could only manage the two words, "Good-bye;" +and they were almost inaudible. + +She sank back into the carriage as it drove away from the Hall, and +closed her eyes that she might not see the familiar trees in the +avenue, the cattle, everyone of which she knew by name, grazing in the +meadow, the pale and woe-begone faces of the servants who stood by the +steps to catch the last glimpse of their beloved; and for some time her +eyes remained closed; but they opened as she came to the clearing by +the lake, from which one could see the long stretching façade of Sir +Stephen Orme's white villa. She opened them then and looked at the +house, wondering whether Stafford was there, wondering why he had not +come to her, despite the promise she had exacted from him; wondering +whether he knew that her father was dead, and that she was left +penniless. + +She was not capable of any more tears, and a dull apathy crushed down +upon her, so that she did not notice that at the station Mr. John Heron +improved the occasion, as he would have put it, by distributing tracts +to the station-master and porters. The journey to London passed as if +it were made in a dream; and wearied in mind and body and soul, she +found herself, late in the evening, standing in the centre of the +Heron's dreary drawing-room, awaiting her reception by the Heron +family. + +She had been told by her cousin, as they drove in a four-wheeled cab +through the depressing streets of a London suburb, that the family +consisted of his wife and a son and a daughter; that the son's name was +Joseph and the daughter's Isabel; that Joseph was a clerk in the city, +and that Isabel was about the same age as Ida. + +"We are a very quiet family," Mr. Heron had said, "and you will no +doubt miss the space and grandeur of Heron Hall, but I trust we are +contented and happy, and that though our means are limited, our sphere +of usefulness is wider than that of some wealthier people. My wife is, +unfortunately, an invalid, and requires constant care and attention; +but I have no doubt she will find strength to bear any fresh burden +which Providence may see fit to put upon her. Though our circumstances +are comfortable, we are not surrounded by the luxuries which so often +prove a stumbling-block to weaker brethren. I trust you may be happy in +our humble home, and that you may find some opportunity of usefulness +in this new state of life to which you are called." + +Ida tried to remember all this as she stood in the centre of the +drawing-room and looked round upon the modern but heavy and ugly +objects with which it was furnished. + +The room was seedy and shabby, but with a different seediness and +shabbiness from that of Heron Hall; for there was an attempt to conceal +its loss of freshness with antimacassars, large in size and hideous of +pattern. A grim and ugly portrait of Mr. John Heron occupied a great +portion of one of the walls, and was confronted by a portrait, of a +similar size, of his wife, a middle-class woman of faded aspect and +languishing expression. The other pictures were of the type that one +usually sees in such houses; engravings printed from wornout plates, +and third-class lithographs. There was a large sofa covered with dirty +cretonne, and with a hollow in the middle showing that the spring had +"gone;" the centre-table was adorned by several well-known religious +books arranged at regular intervals. A cage containing a canary hung +between the curtains in the window, and the bird, a wretched-looking +animal--it was moulting--woke up at their entrance and shrilled in the +hateful manner peculiar to canaries. This depressing room was lit by +one gas-burner, which only permitted Ida to take in all that had been +described but vaguely and dimly. + +She looked round aghast and with a sinking of the heart. She had never +been in any room like this before, and its lack of comfort, its +vulgarity, struck upon her strained nerves like a loud discordant note +in music; but its owner looked round complacently and turned the gas a +little higher, as he said: + +"I will go and fetch your cousin. Won't you sit down?" + +As he spoke, the door opened and the original of the portrait on the +wall entered, followed by her daughter Isabel. Ida rose from the bumpy +sofa and saw a thin, harassed-looking woman, more faded even than the +portrait, and a tall and rather a good-looking girl whose face and +figure resembled, in a vague, indefinite way, those of both her father +and mother; but though she was not bad-looking, there was a touch of +vulgarity in her widely opened eyes, with a curious stare for the +newcomer, and in her rather coarse mouth, which appalled and repelled +poor Ida; and she stood looking from one to the other, trying to keep +her surprise and wonder and disapproval from revealing themselves +through her eyes. She did not know that these two ladies, being the +wife and daughter of a professional man, considered themselves very +much the superior of their friends and neighbours, who were mostly +retired trades-people or "something in the city;" and that Mrs. Heron +was extremely proud of her husband's connection with the Herons of +Herondale, and was firmly convinced that she and her family possessed +all the taste and refinement which belong to "the aristocracy." + +A simpler and a homelier woman would have put her arm round the girl's +neck and drawn her towards her with a few loving words of greeting and +welcome; but Mrs. Heron only extended a hand, held at the latest +fashionable angle, and murmured in a languid and lackadaisical voice: + +"So you have come at last, my dear Miss Heron! Your train must have +been very late, John; we have been expecting you for the last hour, and +I am afraid the dinner is quite spoilt. But anyway, I am glad to see +you." + +"Thank you," said poor Ida. + +It was Isabel's turn, and she now came forward with a smile that +extended her mouth from ear to ear, and in a gushing manner said, in +staccato sentences: + +"Yes, we are so glad to see you! How tired you must be! One always +feels so dirty and tumbled after a long journey. You'll be glad of a +wash, Miss Heron. But there! I mustn't call you that; it sounds so cold +and formal! I must call you Ida, mustn't I? 'Ida!' It sounds such an +_odd_ name; but I suppose I shall get used to it in time." + +"I hope so," said poor Ida, trying to smile and speak cheerfully and +amiably, as Miss Isabel's rather large hand enclosed round hers; but +she looked from one to the other with an appalling sensation of +strangeness and aloofness, and a lump rose in her throat which rendered +the smile and any further speech on her part impossible; and as she +looked from the simpering, lackadaisical mother to the vulgar daughter +with meaningless smile, she asked herself whether she was really awake, +whether this room was indeed to be her future home, and these strange +people her daily companions, or whether she was only asleep and +dreaming, and would wake to find the honest face of Jessie bending over +her, and to see the familiar objects of her own room at Heron Hall. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +When Ida went upstairs for the wash, the need for which Miss Isabel had +so kindly informed her of, she found that her room was clean and fairly +comfortable, though its appearance seemed strange after the huge and +old-fashioned one at the Hall. The furniture was cheap and +unsubstantial, the towels were small and thin; in place of pictures, +aggressively illuminated texts scarred the walls like freshly made +wounds, and the place had a bare, homeless look which made Ida shudder. + +The dining-room, when she went down to it, did not impress her any more +favourably; for here, too, the furniture was new and shiny with a +sticky kind of shininess, as if the treacly varnish had not yet dried; +there was not a comfortable chair in the room; the pictures were the +most gruesome ones of Doré's, and there was a text over the +mantel-piece as aggressive and as hideous in colouring as those in her +room. A lukewarm leg of mutton, very underdone, was on the table, the +cloth of which was by no means clean; the dishes, which contained quite +cold vegetables, were cracked and did not match; the bread was of the +commonest kind, that which is called "household;" the knives were badly +cleaned, and the plate was worn off the forks and spoons. It was +considered inelegant to have gas in the dining-room, therefore a cheap +paraffin-lamp was in the centre of the table, and was more liberal of +scent than light. The curtains to the window were of that annoying red +which shrieks down any other colour near it; they made Ida's tired eyes +ache. + +While she was trying to eat the slice of gory mutton, Mrs. Heron and +Isabel watched her, as if she were some aboriginal from a wild and +distant country, and they shot glances at each other, uneasy, +half-jealous, half-envious glances, as they noted the beauty of the +face, and the grace of the figure in its black dress, which, plain as +it was, seemed to make theirs still more dowdy and vulgar. In the midst +of this lugubrious account of the annoyances and worries of the +journey, Mr. Heron broke off to ask: + +"Where is Joseph? He is late to-night." + +"He is kept at the office," replied his mother. "Poor boy! I hope he is +not working too hard; he has been kept nearly every night this week." + +Isabel smiled at Ida, for what reason Ida could not guess; and while +she was wondering, there came a knock at the outer door, and presently +Joseph entered. + +He was an unprepossessing young man with small eyes and thick lips, +over which it would have been wise of him to wear a big moustache; but +it was the fashion in the city to be clean-shaven, and Mr. Joseph +considered himself the pink of fashion. His clothes fitted him too +tightly, he wore cheap neckties, and ready-made boots, of course, of +patent leather. His dark hair was plastered on the low, retreating +forehead; his face was flushed instead of being, as one would expect, +pale from overwork. + +Ida disliked him at the first glance, and disliked him still more at +the second, as she caught his shifty eyes fixed on her with a curious +and half-insolently admiring expression. + +He came round and shook hands--his were damp and cold like his +father's--as Mr. Heron introduced them, and in a voice which +unpleasantly matched his face, said that he was glad to see her. + +"Tired, Joseph, dear?" murmured his mother, regarding him with a +mixture of pride and commiseration. + +"Oh, I'm worn out, that's what I am," he said, as he sank into a chair +and regarded the certainly untempting food with an eye of disfavour. +"Been hard at it all the evening"--he spoke with a Cockney, city +accent, and was rather uncertain about his aspirates--"I work like a +nigger." + +"Labour is prayer," remarked his father, as if he were enunciating +something strikingly original. "Nothing is accomplished without toil, +my dear Joseph." + +My dear Joseph regarded his father with very much the same expression +he had bestowed upon the mutton. + +"And how do you like London, Cousin Ida?" he asked. + +He hesitated before the "Cousin Ida," and got it out rather defiantly, +for there was something in the dignity of this pale, refined face which +awed him. It was perhaps the first time in his life Mr. Joseph had sat +at the same table with a lady; for Mr. John Heron had married beneath +him, and for money; and in retiring from the bar, at which he had been +an obvious failure, had sunk down to the society of his wife's class. + +"I have seen so little of it," replied Ida. "I have only passed through +London twice, on my way from France to Herondale, and from Herondale +here." Mr. Joseph was duly impressed by the sound of Herondale. + +"Oh, you must tell me all about your old home," he said, with an air of +overconfidence to conceal his nervousness; "and we must show you about +London a bit; it's a tidy little place." + +He grinned with an air of knowingness, and seemed rather disconcerted +that Ida did not return his smile. + +"Shall I give you some water, Ida?" said Mr. Heron. "I regret that I +cannot offer you any wine. We have no intoxicants in the house. We are +all total abstainers, on principle." + +The other members of the family looked down uncomfortably, and, to +Ida's surprise, as if they were ashamed. + +"Thank you," she said; "I do not care for wine." + +"I am afraid there are a great many things you will miss here," said +Mr. Heron. "We are a plain, but I trust, Godfearing family, and we are +content with the interest which springs from the daily round, the +common task. You will find no excitements at Laburnum Villa." + +Ida, as she glanced at the family, could not help feeling that they +were indeed plain, but she made haste to say that she did not need any +excitements and that her life had hitherto been devoid of them. They +seemed to think that it was the proper thing to sit round the table +while she was making her pretence of a meal; but when it was finished, +Mr. Joseph stretched himself out in what was erroneously called an +easy-chair, and proceeded to monopolise the conversation. + +"Regular busy time in the city," he remarked to his father. "Never saw +such a hum. It's all over this boom in South Africa. They're floating +that new company I was telling you about, and the Stock Exchange is +half wild about it. They say the shares will run to a hundred per cent. +premium before the week's out; and if you've got any money to spare, +guv'nor, I should recommend you to have a little flutter; for it's a +certainty." + +Mr. Heron seemed to prick up his ears with an amount of worldly +interest which scarcely harmonised with his saintly character. + +"What company is that?" he asked Joseph. + +"The company started to work Sir Stephen Orme's," replied Joseph, +thrusting his hands deep into his pockets, and stretching out his legs +still farther so that he could admire his large, patent-leather clad +feet. "It's about the biggest thing on record, and is going to sweep +the market. All the big 'uns are in it, Griffenberg and Wirsch and the +Beltons. They say Sir Stephen has made half a million of money out of +it already, and that he will make a couple of millions before he has +done with it. There was a rumour in the city to-day that he was to get +a peerage; for it's a kind of national affair, you see." + +Ida was sitting beyond the radius of the light from the evil-smelling +lamp, so that the others did not perceive the sudden pallor of her +face. It seemed to her a cruel fate that she could not escape, even +here, so many miles away from Herondale, from the reminder of the man +she had loved and lost. The name struck on her heart like a stroke +causing actual physical pain. She sat perfectly still, her hands +clasped tightly in her lap, as the wave of misery swept over her. + +"Here is an instance of toil rewarded," said Mr. Heron, promptly +improving the occasion. "The labourer is worthy of his hire; and no +doubt Sir Stephen Orme, by bringing vast tracts under the beneficent +influence of civilisation, merits the approval of his sovereign and a +substantial reward at the hands of his fellow-subjects. Let us trust +that he will use his wealth and high position for the welfare of the +heathen who rage in the land which he has--er--" + +"Collared," put in Mr. Joseph, in an undertone and with a grin. + +--"Added to the queen's dominions," said Mr. Heron. "I will consider +about the shares. I do not approve of speculation--the pursuit of +Mammon--but as I should use the money for charitable purposes, I may on +this occasion--" + +"Better make up your mind pretty soon," remarked Joseph, with a yawn. +"There's a rush for them already." + +"Now that the gentlemen have got on to business, my dear, I think we +had better retire to the drawing-room," said Mrs. Heron, with an +attempt at the "grand lady." + +They returned to that apartment--Mr. Joseph did not open the door for +them--and Mrs. Heron and Isabel at once started on a series of +questions calculated to elicit all the details of Ida's past life, her +father's death and her present deplorable condition. Women can be much +more merciless than men in this kind of inquisition; and Ida, weary in +mind and body and spirit, suffered acutely under the ordeal. The two +women did not intend to be unkind--they were really sorry for the +homeless orphan; they were prepared to like her; they reluctantly and +grudgingly admired her beauty and her grace, and had a sneaking kind of +awe of her higher social position, of which they were reminded by every +word she spoke, the high-bred accent, and that indescribable air of +delicacy and refinement which indicate good birth; but they were +devoured by curiosity as to her mode of life and her friends, a +curiosity which they were too vulgar, too inconsiderate to restrain. So +poor Ida had to describe the Hall, and the servants, and the way she +managed the farm, and the way in which she rode about Herondale. + +They were very much impressed, specially so when she mentioned Lord and +Lady Bannerdale's kind offer, and they exchanged glances as the titles +left Ida's lips "quite as naturally as if they were common names," as +Mrs. Heron afterwards remarked to Isabel. + +"I'm afraid you'll find it very dull here, Ida," said Mrs. Heron, with +a sniff. "You won't find any society in Woodgreen; they're nearly all +city people, and there aren't many large houses--this is as large as +most--and John is very strict." She sighed; and it was evident to Ida +that though her cousin John's "religion" might be some amusement to +him, it was rather a bugbear and nuisance to his family. "But we must +get Joseph to take you about; and perhaps you and Isabel might go to a +_matinée_ or two; but John mustn't know anything about it." + +Ida made haste to assure them that she did not need any amusement, that +she preferred to be quiet, and that she hoped her cousin Joseph would +not take any trouble on her account. At this point Mr. Heron and his +elegant son came in, a bell was rung, and the two servants came up for +family prayers. Ida noticed that both the maids looked bored and +discontented, and that the "parlour maid," a mere bit of a girl, +appeared to be tired out. Mr. Heron read a portion of Scripture and +offered up a long prayer in a harsh and rasping voice, with the manner +of a judge pronouncing a sentence of seven years; and as the servants +were leaving the room, called them back, and remarked sternly: + +"I notice in the housekeeping book that a larger quantity of candles +than usual has been used during the past week, and I fear that there +has been grievous waste of this useful article. Do not let it occur +again." + +The servants went out suddenly, and Mrs. Heron suggested, much to Ida's +relief, that Ida would no doubt like to go to bed. + +While Ida was brushing her hair and fighting against the natural fit of +depression caused by her introduction to this cheerful household, there +came a knock at the door, and she admitted Mrs. Heron. That lady was in +a soiled dressing-gown, bought at a sale and quite two sizes too large +for her, and with a nervous flush, she took from under this capacious +garment a small decanter of wine. + +"I thought you might like a little, my dear," she said, as Ida eyed it +with astonishment. "Of course we are all total abstainers here, but we +keep a little in the house for medicinal purposes, unknown to John; and +it's a great comfort sometimes when you're tired and in low spirits. +Let me give you a glass." + +Ida would have liked to have accepted it, and was sorry that her +refusal seemed to disappoint Mrs. Heron, who retired as nervously as +she had entered. A few minutes afterwards, before Ida had got over her +astonishment at the incident, there came another knock at the door, and +Isabel entered in a dressing-gown which was own sister to Mrs. Heron's. + +"I thought there might be something you wanted," she said, her bold +eyes wandering over Ida curiously, and then roaming to the contents of +Ida's dressing-bag which glittered and shone on the dressing-table. + +"What long hair you have! Do you brush it every night? I don't mine, +not every night; it's too much trouble. Are the tops of all those +things real silver? What a lot of money they must have cost! What a +pretty _peignoir_ you have on: is it real lace? Yes, I see it is. You +have nice things!" with an envious sigh. "Don't you ever have more +colour than you've got now? Or perhaps it's because you're tired. You +must be quite knocked up, when I come to think of it." She dropped her +voice and glanced round cautiously. "Would you like to have a little +brandy-and-water? I've got same in my room--of course the rest don't +know anything about it, father's teetotal mad--but I keep a little for +when I'm tired and down in the mouth; and when I run out I get some +from Joseph's room. Of course, he isn't a total abstainer. I daresay +you guessed that directly you saw him to-night, and weren't taken in by +his 'late at the office' business?" + +Ida looked at her in amazement, and Isabel laughed knowingly. + +"Joseph goes to the theatre and plays billiards," she said, with +sisterly candour. "He works it very cleverly; he's artful, Joseph is, +and he takes father and mother in nicely; but sometimes I find a +theatre programme in his pocket, and marks of chalk on his coat. Oh, I +don't blame him! The life we lead in this house would make a cat sick. +It's like being on a tread-mill; nothing happens; it's just one dreary +round, with mother always whining and father always preaching. You +heard what he said to the servants to-night? I wonder they stand it. I +should go out of my mind myself if I didn't get a little amusement +going up to the shops and sneaking into a _matinée_ on the sly. I'm +sure I don't know how you'll stand it, after the life you've led. What +do you use for your hair? It's so soft and silky. I wish I had black +hair like yours. Do you put anything on your hands? They're rather +brown; but that's because you've lived in the open air so much, I +suppose. I'll lend you some stuff I use, if you like." + +Ida declined the brandy and the infallible preparation for whitening +the hands; and not at all discouraged, Isabel went on: + +"Were there any young men at Herondale? You didn't say anything about +them down-stairs, but I thought perhaps you would like to tell me when +we were alone. I suppose there was someone you were sorry to part +from?" she added, with an inviting smile. + +Ida repressed a shudder and plied her brush vigorously, so that her +hair hid the scarlet which suffused her face. + +"I knew so few of the people," she said. "As I told you down-stairs, my +father and I led the most secluded of lives, and saw scarcely anyone." + +Isabel eyed Ida sharply and suspiciously. + +"Oh, well, of course, if you don't like to tell me," she said, with a +little toss of her head; "but perhaps it's too soon; when we know each +other better you'll be more open. I'm sure I shall be glad of someone +to tell things to." + +She sighed, and looked down with a sentimental air; but Ida did not +rise to the occasion; and with a sigh of disappointment, and a last +look round, so that nothing should escape her, Isabel took her +departure, and Ida was left in peace. + +Tired as she was, it was some time before she could get to sleep. The +change in her life had come so suddenly that she felt confused and +bewildered. It had not needed Joseph Heron's mention of Sir Stephen +Orme's name to bring Stafford to her mind; for he was always present +there; and she lay, with wide-open eyes and aching heart, repeating to +herself the letter he had sent her, and wondering why he who, she had +thought, loved her so passionately, had left her. Compared with this +sorrow, and that of her father's death, the smaller miseries of her +present condition counted as naught. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + + +As Isabel had intimated, life at Laburnum Villa was not altogether +hilarious. The environs of London are undeniably pretty, prettier than +those of any other capital in Europe, but there is no shirking the fact +that the Northern suburbs of our great metropolis are somewhat grim and +soul-depressing. Laburnum Villa was in a long street, which resembled +the other streets as one tree resembles another; and you had to +traverse a great many of these streets before you got into the open +country, that is, away from the red-bricked and stucco villas, and +still smaller and uglier houses, which had been run up by the +enterprising jerry-builder. + +But Ida would have been glad enough to have gone through this purgatory +to the paradise of country lanes which lay beyond, if she could only +have gone alone; but Mrs. Heron and Isabel never left her alone; they +seemed to consider it their duty to "keep her company," and they could +not understand her desire for the open air, much less her craving for +solitude. Until Ida's arrival, Isabel had never taken a walk for a +walk's sake, and for the life of her she could not comprehend Ida's +love of "trapesing" about the dusty lanes, and over the commons where +there was always a wind, Isabel declared, to blow her hair about. If +she went out, she liked to go up to London, and saunter about the hot +streets, gazing in at the shop windows, or staring enviously at the +"carriage people" as they drove by. + +Ida didn't care for London, took very little interest in the shops, and +none whatever in the carriage folks. She was always pining for the +fresh air, the breezy common, the green trees; and on the occasions +when she could persuade Isabel to a country ramble, she walked with +dreamy eyes that saw not the cut-and-dry rusticity of Woodgreen and +Whetstone, but the wild dales and the broad extant of the Cumberland +hills. + +She was, indeed, living in the past, and it was the present that seemed +a dream to her. Of course she missed the great house, where she had +ruled as mistress, her horses and her cows and dogs; but what she +missed more than all else was her freedom of motion. + +It was the routine, the dull, common routine, of Laburnum Villa which +irked so badly. Neither Mrs. Heron nor Isabel had any resources in +themselves; they had few friends, and they were of the most +commonplace, not to say vulgar type; and a "Tea" at Laburnum Villa +tried Ida almost beyond endurance; for the visitors talked little else +but scandal, and talked it clumsily. Most of Isabel's time was spent in +constructing garments by the aid of paper-patterns which were given +away by some periodical; admirable patterns, which, in skilful hands, +no doubt, produced the most useful results; but Isabel was too stupid +to avail herself of their valuable aid, and must always add something +which rendered the garment _outré_ and vulgar. + +Mrs. Heron subscribed to a library, and she and Isabel read the latest +six-shilling novels with avidity, stuffing them under the sofa cushion +at the sound of Mr. Heron's approaching footsteps. They always chose +the worst books, and forgot one as soon as they took up another. Ida +examined one and dropped it with disgust; for it happened to be a +problem novel of the most virulent type, a novel which was selling by +scores of thousands, and one which Isabel had recommended to Ida as +"delicious." + +Of all the days, Ida found Sunday the worst; for on that day they went +twice to a little chapel at which Mr. Heron "ministered." It was a tin +chapel, which by its construction and position struck a chill to one's +very bones. Here Mr. Heron ranted and growled to his heart's content; +and Ida learnt from his sanctimonious lips that only a small portion of +mankind, his own sect, to wit, was bound for heaven, and that the rest +of the world was doomed to another place, the horrors of which he +appeared to revel in. As she sat in the uncomfortable pew, Ida often +wondered whether her cousin really believed what he preached, or +whether he was a hypocrite of the first water. + +All this was very hard to bear; but a burden still heavier was provided +for her in the conduct of her cousin Joseph. On the evening of her +arrival he had been gracious enough to bestow upon her an admiration of +which she was then unconscious; but his admiration grew, and he began +to pay her what persons of his class call "attentions." He came in much +earlier of an evening than he did before, and he sat beside her, and, +with his small eyes fixed on her pale and downcast face, told her +anecdotes of the office and his fellow-clerks. He was under the +impression that he possessed a voice, and with a certain amount of +artfulness he got her to play his accompaniments, bestowing killing +looks at her as he sang the "Maid of Athens," or "My Pretty June"--with +a false note in every third bar. Sometimes he came home to lunch, +explaining to them that there was nothing doing in the city, and went +with Ida and Isabel on one of their walks. On these occasions he was +got up in a Norfolk jacket and knickerbockers, and enjoyed the +flattering conviction that he looked like a country gentleman. He +addressed his conversation exclusively to Ida, and endeavoured, as he +would have said, to make himself agreeable. + +It was all lost upon Ida, whose head was in the clouds, whose mind was +dwelling on the past; but his mother and sister noticed it, and Mrs. +Heron began to sniff by way of disapproval of his conduct. With a +mother's sharp eyes, Mrs. Heron understood why Joseph had launched out +into new suits and brilliant neckties, why he came home earlier than +was his wont, and why he hung about the pale-faced girl who seemed +unconscious of his presence. Mrs. Heron began to feel, as she would +have expressed it, that she had taken a viper into her bosom. She was +ambitious for her only son, and wanted to see him married to one of the +daughters of a retired city man who had settled in Woodgreen. Ida was +all very well, but she was absolutely penniless and not a good enough +match for so brilliant and promising a young man as Joseph. Mrs. Heron +began to regard her with a certain amount of coldness and suspicion; +but Ida was as unconscious of the change in Mrs. Heron's manner as she +was of the cause of Mr. Joseph's attention; to her he was just an +objectionable young man of quite a new and astonishing type, to whom +she was obliged to listen because he was the son of the man whose bread +she ate. + +He had often invited Ida to accompany him and Isabel to a _matinée_, +but Ida always declined. Not only was her father's death too recent to +permit of her going to the theatre, but she shrank from all public +places of amusement. When she had left Herondale it had been with the +one desire to conceal herself, and, if possible, to earn her own +living. Mr. Joseph was very sulky over her refusal, and Isabel informed +her that he had been so ill-tempered at the theatre that she did not +know what to make of him. + +One day he came in soon after luncheon, and, when Mrs. Heron had left +the room, informed Ida and Isabel that he had got tickets for a concert +at the Queen's Hall that evening. + +"It's a sacred concert," he said, "so that you need have no scruples, +Ida. It's a regular swell affair, and I tell you I had great difficulty +in getting hold of the tickets. It's a charity concert got up by the +big nobs of the Stock Exchange, and there'll be no end of swells there. +I got the tickets because the guv'nor's going into the country to +preach to-night, and while the cat's away we can slip out and enjoy +ourselves; not that he'd object to a sacred concert, I suppose, +especially if he were allowed to hold forth during the intervals," he +added, with a sneer. + +"It is very kind of you to ask me," said Ida; "but I think I would +rather stay at home." + +"I thought you were fond of music," Joseph remarked, beginning to look +sullen. "We shall go quite quietly, and no one need know anything about +it, for I got tickets for the upper circle and not the stalls on +purpose; and they're in a back row. I thought you'd enjoy this concert, +and if you don't go I shall tear up the tickets." + +"Oh, do let us go, Ida!" pleaded Isabel. "A sacred concert isn't as +good as a theatre, but it will be a break in the monotony; besides, +Joseph must have had a lot of trouble to get the tickets, for I read in +the paper that there was a regular rush for them. Don't be selfish, +Ida, and spoil our enjoyment." + +"I wish you would go without me," said Ida, with a sigh; but ultimately +she yielded. + +Mrs. Heron, of course, knew that they were going, but she was not told +in so many words, that she might deny all knowledge of it if the outing +came to Mr. Heron's ears; and she watched them with a peevish and +suspicious expression on her face as they started for the train. They +went up second-class, and Mr. Joseph, who was in the best of humours, +and wore a new pair of patent-leather boots and a glossy hat, to say +nothing of a dazzling tie, enlivened the journey by whispering +facetious remarks on their fellow-passengers to Ida, who in vain leant +away from him, as far as possible, in her corner of the carriage, and +endeavoured to concentrate her attention on the programme. But though +her eyes were fixed on it and she could not entirely shut out Joseph's +ill-bred jokes, her thoughts were wandering back to a certain afternoon +when she had sat beside the Heron stream and listened to Stafford +planning out their future. He had been telling her something of the +great world of which she knew nothing, but into which he was going to +take her, hand in hand, as it were; he was going to take her to the +theatres and the concerts and the dances of which she had read and +heard, but of which she knew nothing by experience. Now, she was going +to her first concert with Mr. Joseph Heron. + +There was a larger crowd than usual outside Queen's Hall that evening, +for the concert was really an important one for which some of the +greatest singers had been engaged. In addition to Patti, Santley, +Edward Lloyd, and other famous professionals, some distinguished +amateurs were to perform, and royalty, as represented by the +ever-popular and amiable prince, had promised to patronise the affair. + +"Quite a swell show, ain't it?" said Joseph, as he pushed his way into +the crowd and looked over his shoulder at the long line of carriages +setting down their occupants. "I'm glad you consented to come; it would +have been a pity if you'd missed it." + +"I hope we shall be able to see the prince from our seats!" said +Isabel, whose eyes were more widely open than usual, and her mouth half +agape with excitement. "I'm always stuck in some corner where I can't +see them, when the royal family's present." + +They succeeded in making their way into the hall, and after Joseph had +held a dispute with the man who had shown them into their place, and +who had muddled the tickets and their numbers, they settled down, and +Ida looked round. + +Though their seats were in the third row, she could see nearly the +whole of the large hall, and she found the sight a novel and impressive +one. Her interest increased as the admirable band played the first +number with the precision and feeling for which the orchestra at the +Queen's Hall is famous. In the interval between the selection and the +song which was to follow, Joseph pointed out some of the celebrities +who were present, and whom he recognised by their portraits in the +illustrated papers. + +"Regular swell mob, isn't it?" he said, exultingly; "there isn't a seat +in the house, excepting those three in the stalls, and I suppose +they'll be filled up presently by some swells or other; they always +come late. Aren't you glad you've come?" he added, with a languishing +glance. + +Amidst a storm of welcome, Patti came forward to sing, and Ida, +listening with rapture, almost forgot her sorrow as she passed under +the spell of the magic voice which has swayed so many thousands of +hearts. During the cries of encore, and unnoticed by Ida, three +persons, a lady and two gentlemen, entered the stalls, and with a good +deal of obsequiousness, were shown by the officials into the three +vacant seats. + +One great singer followed rapidly after another, and Ida, with slightly +flushed face and eyes that were dim with unshed tears--for the +exquisite music thrilled her to the core--leant back, with her hands +tightly clasped in her lap, her thoughts flying back to Herondale and +those summer evenings which, in some strange way, every song recalled. + +She was unconscious of her surroundings, even of the objectionable +Joseph, who sat beside her as closely as he could; and she started +slightly as he whispered: + +"Those seats are filled up now. I wonder who they are? They look +classy--particularly so." + +Ida nodded mechanically, and paid no heed. Presently Joseph, who was +one of those individuals who can never sit still or be silent for long +at a theatre or concert, nudged Ida and said: "Look! there is one of +them standing up! Why, I believe it is--" He borrowed an opera-glass +from the man sitting in front of him and levelled it at the stalls. One +of the new-comers, one of the gentlemen, had risen from his seat, and +with his back to the platform, was scanning the house with a pleasant +smile on his handsome face. "Yes, it is!" exclaimed Joseph, excitedly. +"It's Sir Stephen Orme! Here, take the glasses and look at him! That +gentleman looking round the house, the one standing up with the white +waistcoat, the one that came in with the other two! That's the great +Sir Stephen himself! I saw him once in the city; besides, I've seen his +portraits everywhere. That's the man who has created more excitement on +the Stock Exchange than any man in our time." + +Ida took the glasses which he had thrust into her hand and held it to +her eyes; but her hand shook, and for a moment or two she could +distinguish nothing; then, as the mist passed away and her hand grew +steadier, so that she could see Sir Stephen, he bent down and said +something to the lady sitting beside him. She looked round, and Ida saw +distinctly, and for the first time, though fashionable London was +tolerably familiar with it now, the beautiful face of Maude Falconer. + +With her heart beating painfully Ida looked at her, noting with a +woman's quickness every detail of the handsome face with its wealth of +bronze-gold hair. A presentiment flashed into her mind and weighed upon +her heart as she looked, a presentiment which was quickly verified, for +the man on the other side of the beautiful woman rose and looked round +the house, and Ida saw that it was Stafford. + +Her hand gripped the opera-glass tightly, for it was in danger of +falling. She felt as if she were stifling, the great place, with its +sea of faces and its rings of electric light, swam before her eyes, and +she felt sick and giddy. It seemed to her that Stafford was looking +straight at her, that he could not fail to see her, and she shrank back +as far as the seat would allow, and a sigh that was a gasp for breath +escaped her lips, which had grown almost as white as her face. In +taking the glasses from her, Joseph noticed her pallor. + +"What's the matter?" he asked. "Do you feel ill? It's beastly hot. +Would you like to come outside?" + +"No, no," she panted, with difficulty. "It is the heat--I am all right +now--I beg of you not to move--not to speak to me." + +She fought against the horrible faintness, against the shock which had +overwhelmed her; she bit her lips to force the colour back to them, and +tried to keep her eyes from the tall figure, the handsome face against +which she had so often pressed her own; but she could not; it was as if +they were drawn to it by a kind of fascination. She saw that he looked +pale and haggard, and that the glance with which he swept the house was +a wearied one, in strange contrast to the smiling, complacent, and even +triumphant one of his father. + +"Are you all right now?" asked Joseph. "I wish I'd brought a bottle of +smelling-salts. Will you come out and get something to drink--water +--brandy? No? Sure you're all right? Did you see Sir Stephen? +I wonder who the lady is beside him? Some swell or other, I'll +be bound. The other man must be Sir Stephen's son, for he's like him. +He's almost as great a personage as Sir Stephen himself; you see his +name amongst those of people of the highest rank in the fashionable +columns in the newspapers. The lady's got beautiful 'air, hasn't she?" +he went on, after a pause. "Not that I admire that colour myself; I'm +gone on black 'air." He glanced insinuatingly at Ida's. + +When the interval expired, Sir Stephen and Stafford resumed their seat, +and, with a sigh of relief, Ida tried to listen to the music; but she +could hear Stafford's voice through it, and was obliged to shut her +eyes that she might not see him. Instinctively, and from Jessie's +description, she knew that the beautiful girl, with the complexion of a +lily and the wealth of bronze-gold hair, was Maude Falconer. Why was +she with Sir Stephen and Stafford? Was it, indeed, true that they were +engaged? Up to the present moment she had cherished a doubt; but now it +seemed impossible to doubt any longer. For how many minutes, hours, +years would she have to sit with those two before her, her heart racked +with the pangs of jealousy, with the memory of happier days, with the +ghastly fact that he had gone from her life forever, and that she was +sitting there a spectator of his faithlessness. Every song seemed to +mock her wretchedness, and she had to battle with the mad desire to +spring to her feet and cry aloud. + +In a kind of dream she heard the strains of the national anthem, and +saw Stafford rise with the rest of the audience, and watched him as he +drew the costly cloak round Maude Falconer's white shoulders; in a +dream allowed Joseph to draw her arm through his and lead her down the +crowded staircase into the open air. + +"Splendid concert!" he said, triumphantly. "But you look tired, Ida. +We'll have a cab to the station. But let's wait a minute and see the +prince come out." + +They stood in the crowd which had formed to stare at his royal +highness; and as luck would have it, Stafford, with Maude Falconer on +his arm, and followed by Sir Stephen, passed in front of them, and so +close that Ida shrank back in terror lest Stafford should see her. Some +of the crowd, some Stock Exchange people probably, recognised Sir +Stephen, and spoke his name aloud, and a cheer arose. He bowed and +smiled and shook his head in a deprecatory way, and Ida saw Stafford's +face darken with a frown, as if he were ashamed of the publicity, as he +hurried Maude Falconer to the carriage. A moment or two after, the +prince appeared, there was an excited and enthusiastic burst of +cheering; and at last Joseph forced his way out of the crowd and found +a cab. + +They had some little time to wait for the train, and Joseph, after +vainly pressing some refreshment on Ida, went into the refreshment-room +and got a drink for himself and a cup of coffee for Isabel, while Ida +sank back into a corner of the carriage and waited for them. Joseph +talked during the whole of the journey in an excited fashion, darting +glances every now and then from his small eyes at the white face in the +corner. When they got out at the station, he offered Ida his arm and +she took it half-unconsciously. The path was too narrow to permit of +three to walk abreast, and Joseph sent Isabel on in front; and on some +trivial excuse or another contrived to lag some little distance behind +her. Every now and then he pressed Ida's arm more closely to his side, +looking at her with sidelong and lingering glances, and at last he +said, in a kind of whisper, so that Isabel should not hear: + +"I hope you've enjoyed yourself, Ida, and that you're glad you came? I +don't know when I've had such a jolly night, and I hope we may have +many more of them. Of course you know why I'm so happy? It's because +I've got you with me. Life's been a different thing for me since you +came to live with us; but I dessay you've seen that, haven't you?" He +laughed knowingly. + +"I have seen--what?" asked Ida, trying to rouse herself and to pay +attention to what he was saying. + +"I say I suppose you've seen how it is with me, Ida, and why I am an +haltered being? It is you who have done it; it's because I'm right down +in love with you. There, I've said it now! I've been going to say it +for days past; but, somehow, though I dessay you don't mean it, you +seem so cold and standoffish, and quite different to other girls when a +man pays them attention. But I dessay you understand now, and you'll +treat me differently. I'm awfully in love with you, Ida, and I don't +see why we shouldn't be engaged. I'm getting on at the office, and if I +can squeeze some money out of the guv'nor, I shall set up for myself. +Of course, there'll be a pretty how-d'y-do over this at home, for +they're always wanting me to marry money, and unfortunately you've lost +yours. Not that I mind that, mind you. I believe in following the +dictates of your 'eart, and I know what my 'eart says. And now what do +_you_ say, Ida?" + +And he pressed her arm and looked into her face with a confident smile. + +Ida drew her disengaged hand across her brow and frowned, as if she +were trying to grasp his meaning. + +"I--I beg your pardon, Joseph," she said. "I didn't quite understand--I +was thinking of something else. You were asking me--" + +He reddened and pushed his thick lips out with an expression of +resentment. + +"Well, I like that!" he said, uneasily, but with an attempt at a laugh. +"I've just been proposing to you--asking you to be my wife; and you're +going to, aren't you?" + +Ida drew her arm from his, and regarded him with stony amazement. For +the moment she really thought that either he had been drinking too much +spirits at the refreshment-room at the station and that it was an +elaborate joke on his part, or that she had lost her senses and was +imagining a hideously ridiculous speech, too absurd and grotesque for +even Joseph to have uttered. Then she saw by his face that he was sober +and that he had actually proposed to her, and, in a kind of +desperation, she laughed. + +He had been going to take her arm again, but his hand fell to his side, +and he looked at her with a mixture of astonishment and indignation, +with such an expression of wounded vanity and resentment, that Ida felt +almost forced to laugh again; but she checked the desire, and said, as +gently and humbly as she could: + +"I--I beg your pardon, Joseph. I thought it was a--a joke. I am very +sorry. But though you didn't mean it as a jest, it is, of course, +absurd. I don't think you quite know what you were saying; I am quite +sure you don't mean it--" + +"Oh, yes, but I do!" he broke in eagerly, and with a little air of +relief. "I'm in earnest, 'pon my word, I am. I'm awfully in love with +you; and if you'll say yes, I'll stand up to the guv'nor and make it +all square for you." + +"But I say 'No,'" said Ida, rather sternly, her lips setting tightly, +her eyes flashing in the darkness, which, fortunately for Joseph, hid +them from his sight. "Please do not speak to me in this way again." + +"But look here!" he stammered, his face red, his thick lips twisted in +an ugly fashion, "do you know what you're doing--saying?" + +"Yes," she said, more sternly than before. "I think it is you who do +not know what you are saying. You cannot mean to insult me. I beg your +pardon, Joseph. I do not mean to be angry, to hurt your feelings. I +think you mean to pay me a great honour; and I--I thank you; but I +cannot accept it. And please take this as my final answer, and never, +never, speak to me again in this manner." + +"Do you mean to say--" he began angrily. + +"Not another word, please," said Ida, and she hurried forward so that +they came within hearing of Isabel. + +Nothing more was said until they reached Laburnum Villa. Mrs. Heron was +waiting up for them, and was expressing a hope that they had enjoyed +themselves--she had a woollen shawl round her shoulders and spoke in an +injured voice and with the expression of a long-suffering martyr--when +she caught sight of Joseph's angry and sullen face as he flung himself +into a chair and thrust his hands in his pockets, and she stopped short +and looked from him to Ida, and sniffed suspiciously and aggressively. + +"Oh, yes," said Joseph, with an ugly sneer and a scowl at Ida as she +was leaving the room, "we have had a very happy time--some of us--a +particularly happy time, I don't think!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + + +It was hot at Woodgreen; but it was hotter still in Mayfair, where the +season was drawing to a close with all the signs of a long-spun-out and +exhausting dissolution. Women were waxing pale under the prolonged +strain of entertainments which for the last week or two had been +matters of duty rather than pleasure, and many a girl who had entered +the lists of society a blushing and hopeful _débutante_ with perhaps a +ducal coronet in her mind's eye, was beginning to think that she would +have to be content with, say, the simpler one of a viscountess; or even +to wed with no coronet at all. Many of the men were down at Cowes or +golfing at St. Andrews; and those unfortunates who were detained in +attendance at the house which continued to sit, like a "broody hen," as +Howard said, longed and sighed for the coming of the magic 12th of +August, before which date they assured themselves the House _must_ rise +and so bring about their long-delayed holiday. + +But one man showed no sign of weariness or a desire for rest; Sir +Stephen's step was light and buoyant as ever on the hot pavement of +Pall Mall, and on the still hotter one of the city; his face was as +cheery, his manner as gay, and his voice as bright and free from care +as those of a young man. + +There is no elixir like success; and Sir Stephen was drinking deeply of +the delicious draught. He had been well known for years: he was famous +now. You could not open a newspaper without coming upon his name in the +city article, and in the fashionable intelligence. Now it was a report +of the meeting of some great company, at which Sir Stephen had +presided, at another time it occurred in a graphic account of a big +party at the house he had rented at Grosvenor Square. It was a huge +mansion, and the rent ran into many figures; but, as Howard remarked, +it did not matter; Sir Stephen was rich enough to rent every house in +the square. Sir Stephen had taken over the army of servants and lived +in a state which was little short of princely: and lived alone; for +Stafford, who was not fond of a big house and still less fond of a +large retinue, begged permission to remain at his own by no means +over-luxurious but rather modest rooms. + +It is not improbable that he would have liked to have absented himself +from the grand and lavish entertainments with which his father +celebrated the success of his latest enterprise; but it was not +possible, and Stafford was present at the dinners and luncheons, +receptions and concerts which went on, apparently without a break, at +Clarendon House. + +Indeed, it was necessary that he should be present and in attendance on +his _fiancêe_ who appeared at every function. Maude was now almost as +celebrated as Sir Stephen; for her beauty, her reputed wealth, and the +fact that she was engaged to the son of Sir Stephen, had raised her to +an exalted position in the fashionable world; and her name figured in +the newspapers very nearly as often as that of the great financier. + +She had stepped from obscurity into that notoriety, for which we all of +us have such a morbid craving, almost in a single day; and she queened +it with a languid grace and self-possession which established her +position on a firm basis. Wherever she went she was the centre and +object of a small crowd of courtiers; the men admired her, and the +women envied her; for nowadays most women would rather marry wealth +than rank, unless the latter were accompanied by a long rent roll--and +in these hard times for landlords, too many English noblemen, have no +rent roll at all, short or long. + +Excepting his father's, Stafford went to very few houses, and spent +most of his time, when not in attendance on Maude, in the solitude of +his own chambers, or in the smoking-room of one of the quietest of his +clubs. Short as the time had been, the matter of a few weeks only since +had parted from Ida, he had greatly changed; so changed that not seldom +the bright and buoyant and overbright Sir Stephen seemed to be younger +than his son. He was too busy, too absorbed in the pursuit of his +ambition, the skilful steering of the enterprise he had so successfully +launched to notice the change; but it was noticed by others, and +especially by Howard. Often he watched Stafford moving moodily about +his father's crowded rooms, with the impassive face which men wear when +they have some secret trouble or anxiety which they conceal as the +Spartan boy concealed the fox which was gnawing at his vitals; or +Howard came upon him in the corner of a half-darkened smoking-room, +with an expired cigar in his lips, and his eyes fixed on a newspaper +which was never turned. + +By that unwritten code by which we are all governed nowadays, Howard +could not obtrude by questioning his friend, and Stafford showed no +signs of making any voluntary statement or explanation. He suffered in +a silence with which he kept at arm's-length even his close friend; +and Howard pondered and worried in a futile attempt to guess at the +trouble which had changed Stafford from a light-hearted man, with an +immense capacity for pleasure, to a moody individual to whom the +pleasures of life seemed absolutely distasteful. + +One afternoon Howard sauntered into Stafford's room and found him +sitting in his easy-chair with a book turned face downwards on his +knee, and his pipe in his mouth. Tiny, the black-and-tan terrier, who +was lying coiled up on a cushion at his master's feet, heard Howard +step on the stairs and barked sharply for a moment, then glancing at +Stafford, with a reassuring air, coiled himself up again and subsided +into spasmodic growls and whines of welcome; for the mite was fond of +Howard. + +"Asleep, Staff?" he asked, as, with a kind of groan at the heat, he +dropped his hat on the table and sank on to the couch. "By Jove, you +have the best of it in here--it is out of the sun, at any rate. How +that dog can lie on a stuffy cushion! I thought you were going down to +Lady Brook's, at Richmond, this afternoon?" + +"Was it this afternoon?" said Stafford. "I'd forgotten. I'm sorry: but +my father will be there and will look after Maude." + +Howard glanced at the weary-looking face as he helped himself to a +cigarette. + +"You're well out of it! A lady who would give a garden-party on such an +afternoon as this, is, indeed, _la belle dame sans mercie!_ Good +heavens! when I think of the suffering the votaries of fashion undergo +in one season, I've no pity left for the benighted Hindoo women who +sacrifice themselves to Juggernaut. Which reminds me that there is a +tremendously swagger function on at Clarendon House tonight, isn't +there?" + +Stafford nodded, and refilled and relit his pipe. + +"Yes," he said, "I had forgotten it; but Maude sent me round a note to +remind me of it, and, of course, I must go. I envy you, Howard: you can +stay away." + +"That's what I can't do," said Howard, with a whimsical smile. "I am +drawn, into the vortex; I am dragged at the chariot wheels of that +wonderful father of yours. I am the victim of a peculiar kind of +fascination which is as irresistible as the mesmeric influence or +hypnotism. I feel towards Sir Stephen as I should feel towards Napoleon +the Great, if he were alive. I follow and gaze at him, so to speak, +with my mouth agape and a fatuous smile over a countenance which I once +flattered myself was intelligent. I am dazed, bewildered by his genius, +his audacity, his marvellous courage and resource. Do you know, +Stafford, I think it would be an excellent idea to abolish the House of +Lords, the House of Commons, the monarchical government, and place the +whole business in the hands of a Board to be presided over by Sir +Stephen." + +Stafford drew at his pipe grimly and said nothing, and Howard went on +in the gentle monotone characteristic of him: + +"By the way, the mysterious and proverbial little bird has whispered to +me that Sir Stephen will not be Sir Stephen much longer. In fact, that +they are going to make a peer of him very shortly. And upon my word, +they couldn't find a better man for the place; for, unlike some noble +lords you and I could mention, Staff, he will wear his robes and +coronet--do they ever wear them now--right nobly; and for once the +House of Lords will get a man who knows his own mind, knows what he +wants and the way to get it. And if you won't take offence, Staff, and +throw things at me, I should like to remark that his son will prove a +worthy successor. Can you fancy yourself in a peer's robe with a +velvet-lined coronet, Staff?" + +Stafford grunted for reply, and there was silence for a minute, during +which Howard turned over the pages of one of the illustrated weeklies +which lay on the table, and suddenly he looked up and exclaimed: + +"Have you seen this?" + +Stafford shook his head. + +"I mean this portrait of Miss Falconer," said Howard, in a low voice. +"It is wonderfully good," he went on, as he contemplated the +full-length picture; "wonderfully like her." + +He handed the paper across and Stafford looked at it. It was an +admirable reproduction of a photograph of Maude in evening-dress, and +made a truly splendid picture; and looking at it, one felt instantly +how well a coronet, even a ducal one, would fit those level brows, +beneath which the eyes looked out upon the world with a scarcely masked +_hauteur_ and disdain. A man might well be proud of such a woman for +his future wife; but there was no pride in Stafford's face as his eyes +dwelt moodily on the almost perfect face, the tall, _svelt_ figure in +its long-trained robe. The splendour of her beauty oppressed him with a +sense of shame; and with an involuntary exclamation, which sounded +something like a groan, he let the paper slip from his hand, and +drooped still lower in his chair. The sight of him was more than Howard +could bear in silence, and he rose and laid a hand upon Stafford's +shoulder. + +"What's wrong, old man?" he enquired in a very low voice. "You are out +of sorts; you've been off colour for some time past. Of course, I've +noticed it. I've seen the look you wear on your face now come over it +at moments when you ought to have been at your best and brightest. I've +seen a look in your eyes when your lips have been smiling that has made +me--uncomfortable. In short, Staff, you are getting on my nerves, and +although I know it's like my cheek to mention the matter, and that +you'll probably curse my impudence, I really should be grateful if +you'd tell me what ails you, still more grateful of you'd let me help +you to get rid of it. I know I'm an interfering idiot, but I'm fool +enough to be fond of you--it's about the only weakness I've got, and I +am ashamed of it--but there it is." + +He laughed with a touch of self-contempt, with an attempt at his old +cynicism; but Stafford understood the fictitious character of the +laugh, and as he leant his chin in his hand, he gave a short nod of +acknowledgment. + +"Howard, do you remember that time when you and I were at Palmero?" he +said, in a low voice, and as if he were communing with himself rather +than answering his friend. "Do you remember that Italian we met there; +the man who seemed so gay and careless, the man who seemed to have +everything a fellow could desire, and to be the embodiment of +prosperity and success? Do you remember how once or twice you and I saw +a strange look on his face, perhaps while he was at dinner or fooling +with the women in the _salon_--a look as if he had suddenly remembered +something, as if something had flashed upon his mind in the midst of +the laughter and music and brought him face to face with hell? You +pointed him out to me one night; and we wondered what was the matter +with him--until he fell off his horse that day you and I were riding +with him? Do you remember how, when we had unbuttoned his riding-shirt, +we found the 'D' that had been branded on his chest? We knew then what +was the matter with him. He had been a deserter. The pain of hot iron +had died out long ago, but the scar remained. He was no longer a common +soldier, but rich and prosperous, a social success with, perhaps, his +ambition gratified; but the 'D' was there all the time, and every now +and then, even while he was enjoying himself, he could feel the hot +iron burning into his flesh, and he knew within the miserable little +soul of him that he was a cur and a coward; that, driven by fate, +perhaps by some devilish accident of circumstance, he had lost his +honour and sold himself to the devil." + +Howard's face went pale and grave. + +"I don't see where the application comes in, Staff," he said. "I don't +see that anything in your case--position, resembles that poor +wretch's." + +Stafford rose, his face grim and stern. + +"No; and I can't show you, Howard," he said. "Do you think that poor +devil would have bared his breast and shown that 'D' to even his +dearest friend? Good God, man, why do you badger me! Am I to wear the +cap and bells always, do you expect me to be dancing like a clown every +moment of the day? Do I not play my part as well as I can? Who gave you +the right to peer and pry--" + +He recovered suddenly from the fit of fury and gripped Howard's arm as +he almost shrank back from the burst of despairing rage. + +"Forgive me, old man! I didn't mean to turn and rend you like this. I +know you see there is something wrong. There is. But I can't tell you +or any other man. There are some things that have to be borne in +silence, some marks of the branding-iron, which one dare not show to +even one's dearest friend." + +Howard turned aside and began to put on his gloves with great care. His +hand shook and his voice also, slightly, as without raising his head, +he said: + +"Sure there's no help for it, Staff?" + +"Sure and certain," responded Stafford. "Not even your wit and wisdom +can be of any avail. I won't ask you not to speak of this again; it +isn't necessary; but I will ask you never, by look or sign, to remind +me of what I have just said to you. It escaped me unawares; but I'll +keep a better watch on myself for the future, and not even the +knowledge of your sympathy shall lure another moan out of me." He made +a gesture with his hand and threw his head back as if he were sweeping +something away; and in something like his usual voice he said, with +perfect calmness: "By the way, Maude asked me to tell you not to be +late to-night; to come before the crush arrives. I think she is relying +on you to help her in some way or other." + +Howard nodded, and speaking with his usual drawl, said: + +"'Awake and call me early, mother.' I will be there in good time. Miss +Falconer does me the great honour of permitting me to flatter myself +that I am sometimes of some slight service to her. I imagine it is +something about the cotillon, concerning which I am absolutely +ignorant, and am therefore capable of offering any amount of advice. I +am a whale at giving advice, and my only consolation is that no one is +ever foolish enough to follow it; so that I can humour my little foible +without suffering the terrors of responsibility. _Au revoir_, my dear +Stafford, until this evening. Good-bye, Tiny! What a selfish little +beast it is; he won't even raise his head!" + +Stafford laughed and picked up the dog by the scruff of its neck, and +it nestled against him lovingly, and licked his cheek. + +Howard went down-stairs, still putting on his gloves, and as he opened +the door, he swore under his breath fervently. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + + +In obedience to Miss Falconer's command, Howard presented himself at +Clarendon House at a comparatively early hour that evening. There were +some guests staying in the house, amongst them Lady Clansford, who was +still obliging enough to play the part of presiding genius; but they +were all resting, or dressing for the ball, and the drawing-room, into +which a couple of superbly liveried footmen showed Howard, was empty. +But presently he heard the _frou-frou_ of satin, and Maude Falconer +swept in; her beauty, the splendour of her dress, the flashing of the +diamonds in her hair and on her neck and arms, her queenly presence, +almost made Howard catch his breath. + +She came in with a languid grace, the air of _hauteur_ which suited her +so well, but as she saw that Howard was alone, the languor and the +_hauteur_ almost disappeared, and she came forward and gave him her +hand, and he saw a look on her face which reminded him of that upon the +ill-fated Italian, though it did not resemble it. For the first time he +noticed a shade of anxiety on the level brow, something like a pathetic +curve in the perfectly moulded lips; and he fancied that the gloved +hand, which he held for a moment, quivered. + +"Is Stafford not with you?" she asked. "I thought he was coming early. +His father expected him." + +"No, I came alone," replied Howard. "But, no doubt, Stafford will be +here presently." + +She stood, calm and statuesque, but with her eyes downcast for a +moment, then she raised them and looked at him. "About this cotillon," +she said; then she broke off: "Do you know what is going to happen +to-night? It is a secret, but--but I feel as if I must tell you, though +I am betraying Sir Stephen's confidence. He tells me everything--more +than he tells even Stafford. Strange as it may seem, he--he is fond of +me." + +"That does not seem strange to me," said Howard, with a little bow. + +She made a slight gesture of impatience. + +"It seems strange to me," she said, with a touch of bitterness. "So few +persons are fond of me." + +Howard smiled. + +"For once I must be guilty of contradicting a lady," he said. "When I +reflect that to-night I shall form one of a band of devoted courtiers +who will throng round you in the hopeless pangs of despair--" + +She repeated the gesture of impatience. + +"Have you seen Stafford to-day?" she asked, looking down. + +"I saw him a few hours ago," he replied, "at his rooms." + +"At his rooms," she repeated, with a slight frown and a quick glance at +him. "He promised to come to Richmond. Why did he not do so? Is +he--ill?" + +"Ill?" said Howard, raising his brows and smiling, for he knew the +meaning of loyalty to a friend. "I never saw him in better spirits in +my life, he was quite hilarious." + +Her eyes flashed upon him keenly, but he met them with his slow, +cynical smile. + +"He must have been very different to what he usually is," she said. "I +have not seen him laugh since--since we left Bryndermere." Her lips +came tightly together, and she looked at him and then away from him. +"Mr. Howard, you are his friend, his closest friend. I want you to tell +me--But, no; you would not speak if you were on the rack, would you? No +one sees, no one speaks; it is only I who, always watching him, see +that there is something wrong. And I--I am so helpless!" + +The outburst was so unlike her, the dropping of the mask of pride and +self-possession was so sudden that Howard was startled; but no sign of +his emotion revealed itself upon his placid face, upon which his serene +smile did not waver for an instant. + +"I think you are availing yourself of a lady's privilege and indulging +in a fancy, Miss Falconer," he said. "Stafford is perfectly well, and, +of course, is perfectly happy--how could he be otherwise?" He bent his +head slightly. "Perhaps he may be a little tired. Alas! we are not all +endowed with the splendid energy which the gods have bestowed on you +and Sir Stephen; and the heat is enough to take the backbone out of +anyone less gifted." + +She checked a sigh, as if she understood that it was useless to appeal +to him, and after a pause Howard said: + +"You haven't told me the great secret yet." + +She seemed to wake from a reverie, and said, listlessly: + +"It will not be a secret for many hours. Sir Stephen is expecting the +peerage to-night. The official intimation should have reached him by +midday; but the prime minister did not return to London till this +afternoon and the formalities were not completed. I think it will be +announced to-night." + +Her eyes shone and a spot of colour started to her cheeks. + +"You are glad?" Howard said, with a smile of sympathy that had +something of mockery in it, for your worldly cynic is always amused by +worldliness in others. + +"Yes, I am glad; but not for my own sake. You think I am pining for a +coronet? I do not care--it is for Stafford's sake that I am glad. +Nothing is too good for him, no title too high!" + +"Do you think Stafford cares?" asked Howard. + +She flushed and her eyes fell before his. + +"No," she said, with a deep sigh. "I do not think he cares. He seems +quite indifferent. All the time Sir Stephen and I have been working--" + +"Have you been working?" said Howard, raising his eyebrows. + +She laughed a little wearily. + +"Indeed, yes. I have been--what do you men call it?--log-rolling for +weeks. It is I who have found out what is wanted by the people who can +help us. And it is generally, always, in fact, money. Always money! I +get 'tips' from Sir Stephen and my father, and whisper them to the +lords and ladies who have influence in the political drawing-rooms and +clubs." + +"And Sir Stephen?" + +She laughed. + +"His task is much simpler and easier than mine. He just goes down to +his political club and subscribes so many thousand pounds towards the +party expenses. The other night he gave them--but I must not tell the +secrets of the Tories even to you, Mr. Howard. But it was a very large +sum. It is always done that way, isn't it?" + +"I suppose so," he assented. "It must be; for, come to think of it, a +man isn't made a peer simply because he brews good beer; and a great +many of our peers were and are good brewers, you see. Oh, it's all +right, it pans out very satisfactorily, as the miners say. And so +Stafford will be the future Earl of--" + +"Earl of Highcliffe," she said. "He has declined anything less than an +earldom. He has given so much. Sir Stephen owns some land there, +and--and some of his people come from there." + +Howard laughed. + +"I see. Been there since they came over with the Conqueror. The +Herald's College will have no difficulty in finding a coat-of-arms. +Something with a Kaffir and a railway in it." + +She smiled tolerantly. + +"You always make fun of everything, Mr. Howard. If only Stafford would +care--" + +She sighed, and a moment afterwards her hand went to her lip with the +gesture of a nervous school-girl. She had heard Stafford's voice in the +hall. + +He came in and greeted her gravely, and, Howard being present, merely +took her hand. + +"You two conspiring as usual?" he said, with a smile, with the smile +which indicates a mind from which mirth has been absent for some time. + +"Yes," said Howard; "we have been plotting the cotillon and very +properly arranging that the prize shall go to the wisest, the nicest, +and best-looking man in the room. I need not tell you his name?" He +spread his hand on his heart, and bowed with mock complacency. "And now +I will go and find Sir Stephen and get a cigarette before the battle +begins. _Au revoir_." + +When he had gone, almost before the door had closed on him, Maude moved +closer to Stafford, and with a mixture of shyness and eagerness, put +her arm round his neck. + +"How good of you to come so early!" she murmured, in the voice which +only a woman in love can use, and only when she is addressing the man +she loves. "You did not come to Richmond? Never mind! Stafford, you +know that I do not wish to hamper or bind you, do you not?--Are you +well?" she broke off, scanning his face earnestly, anxiously. "Quite +well," he responded. "Why do you ask, Maude?" + +"I thought you looked tired, pale, that you have looked so for some +weeks," she said, her eyes seeking his. + +He shrugged his shoulders. + +"I am quite well. The hot weather makes one feel rather limp, I +suppose. At any rate, there is nothing else the matter with me but a +fit of laziness." + +"As if you were ever lazy!" she said, with a smile. + +"There is a large party to-night?" he said, presently. + +She nodded. + +"Yes: immense. The biggest thing we--I mean Sir Stephen--has done." Her +eyes fell for a moment. "You will dance with me to-night--twice, +Stafford?" + +"As many times as you like, of course," he said. "But I shall not get +so many opportunities. You will be too much sought after, as usual." + +She sighed. + +"That is the one disadvantage of being engaged to you," she said. +"Twice, then. The second and the eleventh waltz." + +He nodded, and stood with the same absent preoccupation in his eyes; +and she drew a little closer to him still; and as her eyes dwelt on his +face with love's hunger in them, she whispered: + +"You have not kissed me yet, Stafford." + +He bent and kissed her, and her lips clung to his in that most awful of +appeals, the craving, the prayer from the soul that loves to the soul +that refuses love in return. + +"Ah, Stafford, if--if it were all over, and we were away in the country +somewhere?" + +"Why don't we go?" he asked, with absolute indifference to the social +plots and schemes which were being woven round him. + +She laughed. + +"In a little while! Sir Stephen wants a change; he is looking rather +fagged--" + +"I'm not surprised!" said Stafford. "It seems to me that my father +rests neither night nor day--" + +"Ah, well, it will soon be over--perhaps before you expect," she said, +smiling mysteriously. "Hush! Here he comes! You bad boy, you have +spoilt my hair,"--she herself had disarranged it as she pressed against +his breast. "I must run away and have it put straight." + +Sir Stephen entered a moment after she had left the room. He looked +fagged to-night, as she had said; but his face lit up at sight of +Stafford. + +"Ah, my boy!" he exclaimed, holding Stafford's hand for a moment or two +and scanning him with his usual expression of pride and affection. "We +are going to have a big night: the greatest crush we have had. Didn't I +hear Maude's voice?" + +Stafford said that she had just gone out. Sir Stephen nodded musingly, +and glanced at Stafford's grave face. + +"I suppose the hurly-burly will be over presently," he said, "and we +can go down to the country. Where would you like to go?" + +Stafford shrugged his shoulders, and Sir Stephen eyed him rather sadly +and anxiously. This indifference of Stafford's was quite a new thing. + +"Don't mind? What do you say to Brae Wood, then?" + +Stafford's face flushed. + +"Not there--Wouldn't it be rather hot at Bryndermere, sir? Why not +Scotland?" + +Sir Stephen nodded. + +"All right. Wherever you like, my boy. We've still got some years of +the Glenfare place. We'll go there. And, Stafford--do you ever remember +that I am getting old?" + +Stafford laughed and looked at the handsome face affectionately and +with the admiration and pride with which a son regards a good-looking +father. + +"Yes; I suppose you must be nearly thirty, sir!" + +Sir Stephen laughed, not ill-pleased at the retort. + +"Seriously, Staff, I'm older than you think, and--er--Ah, well, we're +all mortal! Do you think you could oblige me in a little matter--" + +He paused. + +Stafford looked at him with a half smile. + +"Sounds as if you wanted to borrow money, sir. Anything I can do--" + +Sir Stephen laughed. + +"No, I'm not in want of money: but I'm in want of a daughter-in-law, of +grandchildren to sit upon my knee--" He laughed again, as if he were a +little ashamed of the touch of sentiment. "Seriously, Staff, is there +any reason for waiting? I know that the engagement is a short one; but, +well why should you and Maude not be happy? I can make arrangements," +he went on, eagerly. "There is Brae Wood. I'll make that over to you--" + +Brae Wood again! Stafford's face grew set and impassive. + +--"Or there is that place I bought in Warwickshire. But, there, perhaps +you and Maude would like to find a place for yourselves. Very natural! +Well, there's no difficulty! Come, Staff! Why delay! 'Gather ye +rose-buds while ye may,' you know! Why shouldn't the marriage take +place directly the House rises and we leave London?" + +Stafford turned away so that his father might not see the sudden pallor +of his face. + +"I'll--I'll speak to Maude, sir," he said, trying to make his tone +cheerful, if not enthusiastic. + +Sir Stephen laid his hand upon Stafford's broad shoulder. + +"Thank you, my boy!" he said. "You are always good to me! Always! God +bless you, Staff!" + +His voice was husky, there was a moisture in his eyes which almost made +Stafford's grow dim; then, with a swift return to his usual alert and +sanguine manner, Sir Stephen withdrew his hands and swung round. + +"I must be off: Maude likes me to be in the room when the people come: +and, by George! Staff, I find myself doing what she likes all the +time!" + +His laugh rang out as he hurried with his brisk step from the room. + +He was there at his post, when the guests began to arrive; and not far +from him stood Maude in the splendour of her beauty; not tremulous now, +as Howard had seen her, but statuesque and calm, and gracious with a +stately graciousness which was well suited to the coronet which all +knew would some day glitter on the bronze-gold hair. + +Every now and then as the crowd increased her eyes would wander in +search of Stafford, and she noticed that though he took his part, did +his duty, the listless, half-wearied expression was still on his face, +and a pang shot through her. Was it possible that he was still thinking +of that girl at Bryndermere--She thrust the thought, the sickening +dread, from her and forced the conventional smile to her face. + +She danced the first dance with a popular duke who stood high in the +government, and a word or two he let drop: "Sir Stephen: a man worthy +of the highest honors," made her heart beat with anticipatory triumph. + +The second waltz came, and--Ah, well, with Stafford's arm round her, +with her head almost pillowed on his shoulder she was happy, and her +fears, her vague doubts and presentiments fell from her. + +"Ah, that was good," she said, with a sigh. "Do not forget--the +eleventh, dearest! Take me to the prince--he is over there." + +She dropped her curtsey to his royal highness, and Stafford left her +with him. As he made his way to the end of the room he saw Griffenberg +and several of the other financiers in a group, as usual; and they were +talking with even more than their ordinary enthusiasm and +secretiveness. Griffenberg caught his arm as he was passing. + +"Heard the news, Mr. Orme?" he asked. + +"No; what is it?" said Stafford. + +Griffenberg smiled, but rather gravely. + +"They say that the peerage will be announced to-night." + +Stafford nodded. And Griffenberg after a stare at Stafford's impassive +face which evinced no flush of exultation, glanced at the others +curiously, seemed about to add something, then checked himself and +turned away, and as Stafford went on, said in a low voice to Wirsch: + +"Do you think he has heard? Looked rather glum, didn't he?" + +The baron shrugged his shoulders. + +"Don't know. He's a shtrange sheentleman. He keeps himself to himself +doesh Mishter Shtafford." + +Stafford went on, and at one of the anterooms came upon Mr. Falconer. +He was standing looking on at the dancing with a grim countenance, and +seemed lost in thought; so much so that he was almost guilty of a start +when Stafford spoke to him. + +"Yes! Great crowd. Just come in? Father all right?" + +"Quite well, thanks," said Stafford, rather surprised by the question. + +At that moment a servant brought a foreign cablegram to Falconer. +Falconer tore it open, glanced at it, and went pale. + +"Anything the matter?" asked Stafford. + +Falconer looked at him fixedly and curiously, then with a shake of his +head moved away. + +Stafford smoked a cigarette and sauntered back to the ballroom. He +passed the group of city men again, and caught a word or two in the +baron's gruff voice: + +"I want to know how we shtand! The plow will shmash him; but the rest +of us--us who are in de shwim. If de natives have risen--" + +But Stafford paid little heed--forgot the words as soon as he had heard +them; and went in search of his partner. While he was dancing, he was +aware of that peculiar stir, that flutter and wave of excitement which +agitates a crowd when something momentous is happening. He looked round +and saw his father standing in the centre of a group of persons, men +and women, who all seemed excited. There was loud talking, and sudden +and spasmodic movements as fresh auditors to the restless group came up +hurriedly and curiously. + +"What is the matter, Mr. Orme?" asked the girl with whom he was +dancing. + +As she spoke he saw Maude detach herself from the group and approach +them. + +"Stafford--forgive me, Lady Blanche! but will you let him come to Sir +Stephen? He has just heard news--" + +They followed her, and Sir Stephen seeing Stafford, held out his hand. +The old man was flushed and his dark eyes sparkled. + +"Stafford!" he said, and his rich voice shook. "I have just heard--they +have just brought me--" + +He held up an official-looking paper with the great red seal on the +envelope. + +"It is from the prime minister--it is the peerage," said Maude, in a +voice thrilling with restrained triumph. + +Stafford shook his father's hand. + +"I congratulate you, sir," he said, trying all he knew to force +congratulation, rejoicing, into his voice. + +Sir Stephen nodded, and smiled; his lips were quivering. + +"Congratulations, Sir Stephen!" said a man, coming up. "I can see the +good news in your face." + +"Not Sir Stephen--Lord Highcliffe!" said another, correctingly. + +Maude slid her arm in Stafford's, and stood, her lovely face flushed, +her eyes sparkling, as she looked round. + +"And no title has been more honourably gained," a voice said. + +"Or will be more nobly borne!" echoed another. + +Stafford, with all a man's hatred of fuss, and embarrassment in its +presence, drew nearer to his father. + +"Won't you come and sit down--out of the crowd?" he added, in a low +voice. + +Sir Stephen nodded, and was moving away--they made a kind of lane for +him--when a servant came up to him with a cablegram on a salver. As he +did so, Howard stepped forward quickly. + +"Take it into the study!" he said, almost sharply, to the man; then to +Stafford he whispered: "Don't let him open it. It is bad news. +Griffenberg has just told me--quick! Take it!" + +But before Stafford, in his surprise, could take the cablegram, Sir +Stephen had got it. He stood with his head erect, the electric light +falling on his handsome face: the embodiment of success. He opened the +telegram with the smile still on his lips, and read the thing; then the +crowd of staring--shall it be written, gaping?--persons saw the smile +fade slowly, the flushed face grow paler, still paler, then livid. He +looked up and round him as if he were searching for a face, and his +eyes, full of anguish and terror, met Stafford's. + +"Stafford--my boy!" he cried, in accents of despair. + +Stafford sprang to him. + +"Father--I am here!" he said, for Sir Stephen's gaze grew vacant as if +he had been stricken blind. + +The next moment he threw up his arms and, with a gasp, fell forward. +Stafford caught him as a cry of terror rose from the crowd which fell +back as if suddenly awed by some dreadful presence; and forcing his way +through it a famous doctor reached the father and son. + +There was a moment of awful suspense, then--the music sounded like a +mockery in the silence--all knew, though no word had been spoken, that +the great Sir Stephen--pardon! the Right Honourable the Earl of +Highcliffe--was dead. + + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + + +By a stroke, as of Heaven's lightning, the house of joy was turned into +the house of mourning. + +They bore the dead man to his room, plain and simple, even in that +mansion of luxury; the guests departed, some of them flying as from a +pestilence, some of them lingering with white and dazed faces and +hushed whispers, and Stafford was left alone with his dead; for he had +shut the door even upon Howard, who paced up and down outside, not +daring to force his sympathy upon his beloved friend. + +The morning papers gave a full account of the grand ball, the +announcement of Sir Stephen's peerage, and the sudden and tragic ending +to a life which had been lived full in the public gaze, a life of +struggle and success, which had been cut down at the very moment of +extreme victory. They recited the man's marvellous career, and held it +up to the admiration and emulation of his fellow Englishmen. They +called him a pioneer, one who had added to the Empire, they hinted at a +public funeral--and they all discreetly ascribed telling upon a weak +heart. Sir Stephen's precarious condition had been known, they said, to +his medical adviser, who had for some time past tried to persuade him +to relinquish his arduous and nerve-racking occupations, and to take +repose. + +Not a word was said about the cablegram which had been delivered to him +a few moments before his terribly sudden death; for it was felt by all +that nothing should be allowed to blur the glory of such a successful +career--not for the present, at any rate. + +There was no need for an inquest; the great physician who had been in +attendance, quite vainly, was prepared to certify to the cause of +death, and Stafford's feelings were spared thus far. Someone high in +authority suggested the idea of a public funeral, through Howard, whom +alone Stafford saw, but Stafford declined the honour, and the first +Earl of Highcliffe was carried to his last rest as quietly as +circumstances would permit. + +The press and the men of the city, with whom the dead man had worked, +kept silence about the catastrophe that had happened until after the +funeral; then rumours arose, at first in whispers and then more loudly, +and paragraphs and leaderettes appeared in the papers hinting at +something wrong in connection with Lord Highcliffe's last great scheme, +and calling for an enquiry. + +The morning after the funeral, Howard found Stafford sitting in a +darkened room of the great house, his head in his hand, a morning paper +lying open on the table before him. He raised his white and haggard +face as Howard entered and took his friend's hand in silence. Howard +glanced at the paper and bit his lip. + +"Yes," said Stafford, "I have been reading this. You have seen it?" + +Howard nodded. + +"You know what it means? I want you to tell me. I have been putting off +the question day by day, selfishly; I could not face it until--until he +was buried. But I can put it off no longer; I must know now. What was +that cablegram which they brought him just before--which you tried to +keep from him?" + +"You have not read any of the newspapers?" asked Howard, gravely, +bracing himself for the task from which his soul shrank. + +Stafford shook his head. + +"No; I have not been able to. I have not been able to do anything, +scarcely to think. The blow came so suddenly that I have felt like a +man in a dream--dazed, bewildered. If I have been able to think at all +it is of his love for me, his goodness to me. There never was such a +father--" His voice broke, and he made a gesture with his hand. "Even +now I do not realise that he is gone, that I shall never see him again. +I was so fond of him, so proud of him! Why do you hesitate? If it is +bad news, and I suppose it is, do you think I can't bear it? Howard, +there is nothing that you could tell me that could move me, or hurt me. +Fate has dealt me its very worst blow in taking him from me, and +nothing else can matter. The cablegram, this that the paper says, what +does it mean?" + +Howard sat on the table so that he could lay his hand, with a friend's +loving and consoling touch, on Stafford's arm. + +"I've come to tell you, Staff," he said. "I know that you ought to +know--but it's hard work--that cablegram contained news that the Zulus +had risen _en masse_, and that for a time, perhaps for years, the +railway scheme was blocked, if not utterly ruined. It was the one weak +link in the chain, and your father was aware of it and had taken what +measures he could to guard against the danger; but Fate, circumstances, +were too much for him. A silly squabble, so silly as to be almost +childish, between some squatters on the border and the discontented +natives, upset all his carefully laid plans, and turned a gigantic +success, at its very zenith, into a tragic failure." + +Stafford leant his head upon his hand and looked steadily at Howard. + +"It was that that killed him?" he said. "It meant ruin, I suppose, ruin +for him and others?" + +Howard nodded. + +"Yes; he had staked all upon this last throw, and the sudden reverse +came at a moment when his nerves were strained to the utmost, when he +was excited with the honour and glory he had achieved. The blow was too +sudden, the revulsion of feeling from exultation to despair too swift, +too great. It is one of the most awful things of which I have ever +heard or read. Men are speaking about it with bated breath. There is +nothing but pity for him, nothing but regret at the stroke of +misfortune which cut him down in the moment of his triumph." + +"And others?" repeated Stafford. "It has brought ruin upon others. +What, can I do? Is there anything I can do? I am so ignorant, I do not +even know whether I sit here absolutely penniless, or whether there is +anything left that I can give them." + +"Mr. Falconer and Murray and the lawyer are in the library," said +Howard. "They have been going into affairs. They would have liked to +have had you with them; but I begged you off. I knew you would be of no +use to them." + +Stafford looked his thanks. + +"No, I could not have helped them," he said. "No one knew less of my +poor father's affairs than I, no one is less capable of dealing with +them than I. Mr. Falconer will know what to do. It is very good of him +to come to my assistance. I have scarcely seen him; I have not seen +anyone but you." + +"And Maude?" said Howard, interrogatively. + +"No," said Stafford, his brows drawn together. "I have not seen her. +She has been ill--" + +"Yes," said Howard, in a low voice. "She is prostrated by the shock, +poor girl! You will go to her as soon as she is able to leave her +room?" + +"Yes, of course," said Stafford, very gravely and wearily. + +There was a knock at the door, and the footman, in his mourning livery, +came in and said, solemnly: + +"Mr. Falconer would like to know if you will see him, my lord?" + +A frown crossed Stafford's pale face at the "my lord." It sounded +strange and mockingly in his ears. + +"I will come at once," he said. "Come with me, Howard." + +They went to the library, and the three men who were sitting there +before a mass of papers rose to receive him; Falconer with a face as if +it were carved out of wood; Murray with anxious brow; the lawyer with a +grave and solemn countenance, and sharp, alert eyes. Stafford waved +them to their seats and took a chair at the table, and Falconer, with a +straight underlip, and eyes half concealed by their thick lids, spoke +for the others. + +"Very sorry we cannot leave you in peace for a little longer, Lord +Highcliffe," he said. "But I am quite sure you would have blamed us had +we done so. We have been going into your father's affairs, and I very +much regret that we cannot give you a favourable report of them. As you +know the will, which Mr. Chaffinch," he nodded at the lawyer, "read +this morning, leaves you everything, and names Mr. Chaffinch and Mr. +Murray here executors. That's all very proper and satisfactory as it +goes, but, unfortunately, we find that there is no estate." Murray, the +secretary, passed his hand over his wrinkled forehead and sighed, as if +he himself had made away with the vast sum of money, and the lawyer +frowned and shuffled the papers before him. Stafford sat with his hands +clasped on the table, his eyes fixed on Falconer's impassive face. + +"Your father's immense fortune was wholly embarked in this last +business," continued Mr. Falconer; "he believed in it and staked +everything on it. A very large number of the shares were held by him. +They are down to nothing to-day; it is very unlikely that they will +recover; it is possible that they never may; and if they should it +would be too late, for the shares your father held will, of course, go +to meet the claims--and they are heavy--on the estate. I don't know +whether I make myself understood: I am aware that you are not a +business man." + +Stafford inclined his head. + +"My father's debts--will they not be paid, will there not be +sufficient?" he asked, in a dry voice. + +Mr. Falconer pursed his lips and shook his head. + +"I'm afraid not; in fact, I can say definitely that they will not," he +replied, in a hard, uncompromising way. + +Stafford looked round the large, superbly furnished room, with its +book-cases of ebony and wedgewood, its costly pictures and bronzes, and +recalled the Villa with its luxury and splendour, and the vast sums +which Sir Stephen had spent during the last few months. It seemed +difficult to realise that the wealth was all gone. + +"What is to be done?" he asked, in a low voice. + +Mr. Falconer was silent for a moment, as he regarded the handsome face, +which seemed to have lost its aspect of youth and taken on the lines +and hollows of age. + +"I do not know. It is not for me to say. There will be a meeting of the +directors of the South African Company and others to-morrow, and some +decision will be come to, I have no doubt." + +"And I--I can do nothing?" said Stafford, huskily. "I am penniless, I +suppose?" + +Both Murray and Mr. Chaffinch raised their heads with an air of +surprise. + +"Penniless" echoed Mr. Chaffinch. "Certainly not, my lord! Surely you +know?" + +Stafford regarded him gravely; it seemed as if he himself were too +crushed by his grief for surprise. + +"Know?" he said. "What is in I should know? I do not understand." Mr. +Falconer coughed. + +"We thought you were aware of the existence of the deed; that your +father had informed you, Lord Highcliffe." + +"What deed?" asked Stafford, dully. "I am sorry to appear so dense; but +I have not the least idea of your meaning. As you say, Mr. Falconer, I +know nothing of business." + +"It is evident that your father did not tell you that he executed a +deed of gift in your favour, a gift of one hundred thousand pounds," +said Mr. Falconer. + +"Which deed, being made when he was quite solvent, cannot be upset. The +money was placed in trust, and is quite beyond the reach of the +creditors," said Mr. Chaffinch. "We thought you were aware of this, my +lord." + +Stafford shook his head. He evinced no sign of relief, the colour did +not rise to his face, and his eyes were still fixed on Falconer. + +"It was a very wise provision," said Mr. Chaffinch, approvingly. "And +distinctly one I should have recommended; but Sir Stephen--Lord +Highcliffe--did it of his own accord. He was a far-seeing man, and he +was aware that fortune might fail him, that it was necessary he should +place you, my lord, out of danger. I can well believe that, even at +that time, he saw the peerage coming, and felt that you should be made +secure, that you should have a sufficient income to support the title. +It is not a tenth, a twentieth of the sum you would have inherited, but +for this unfortunate accident of the native rising, and the collapse of +the South African Company." + +Stafford scarcely heard him. He was thinking of his father's loving +foresight and care for his son's future. A pang of bereavement shot +through him. + +"Very wise," said Mr. Falconer, grimly. "Whatever happens, Lord +Highcliffe is safe, high and dry above water mark. Carefully invested, +the capital sum may be made to produce an income of four thousand, or +thereabouts. Not too much for an earldom, but--Ah, well, it might be so +much worse." + +"The servants--the small debts--this house--is there enough for them?" +asked Stafford, after a pause. + +Mr. Chaffinch waved his hand. + +"No need to trouble about that, my lord. There will be sufficient at +the bank to pay such small claims. Your lordship will keep the house +on?" + +Stafford looked up with a sudden energy. "No," he said; "not a moment +longer than is necessary. I shall return to my old rooms." + +"There is no occasion," began Mr. Chaffinch. "I need scarcely say that +the bank will honour your lordship's cheques for any amount." + +"Please get rid of this house as soon as possible," said Stafford. He +rose as he spoke. "You will remain to lunch?" + +They murmured a negative, and Stafford begging to be excused, left the +room, signing to Howard to follow him. He did not mean it, but his +manner, in the abstraction of his grief was as lordly as if he had +inherited an earldom of five centuries. When they had got back to the +little darkened room in which he had sat since his father's death, +Stafford turned to Howard: + +"At what time and place is this meeting to-morrow, Howard?" he asked. + +"At Gloucester House, Broad Street. Four." + +Stafford nodded, and was lost in thought for a moment or two, then he +said: + +"Howard, will you send my horses to Tattersall's? And the yacht to the +agents, for sale? There is nothing else, I think. I used to have some +diamond studs and rings, but I've lost them. I was always careless. +Great Heaven! When I think of the money I have spent, money that I +would give my life for now!" + +"But, my dear old chap, a hundred thousand pounds! Four thousand a +year--it's not too much for a man in your position, but there's no need +to sell your horses." + +Stafford laid his hand on Howard's shoulder and looked into his eyes +and laughed strangely; then his hands dropped and he turned away with a +sigh. + +"Leave me now, Howard," he said, "I want to think--to think." + +He sank into a chair, when Howard had gone, and tried to think of his +future; but it was only the past that rose to his mind; and it was not +altogether of his father that he thought, but of--Ida. In his sacrifice +of himself, he had sacrificed her. And Fate had punished him for his +forced treachery. He sat with his head in his hands, for hours, +recalling those eyes, and yes, kissed her sweet lips. God, what a +bankrupt he was! His father, his sweetheart, his wealth--all had been +taken from him. + +He did not think of Maude. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + + +At noon the following day there was a large meeting at Gloucester +House. There gathered the Beltons, Baron Wirsch, Griffenberg, and the +titled and untitled folk who had been concerned in Sir Stephen Orme's +big scheme. And they were all gloomy and in a bad temper; for all of +them had lost money and some of them were well-nigh ruined by the +collapse of the company which was to have made their fortunes. They +came before noon, the appointed hour, and talked, sometimes in +undertones, but not seldom in loud and complaining voices. By one and +all the dead man was blamed for the ruin in which he had involved them. +They had left the whole thing in his hands: he ought to have foreseen, +ought to have taken proper precautions. They had been--well, if not +duped and deceived, the victims of his criminal sanguineness and +carelessness. + +Griffenberg, being one of the heaviest losers, was elected to the +chair, but beyond making a statement which told them nothing, he could +do little. When he informed them that Lord Highcliffe had died +practically insolvent, a murmur arose, a deep guttural murmur which was +something between a hiss and a groan, and it was while this unpleasant +sound was filling the room that Stafford entered. + +The groan, if groan it can be called, died away, and they all turned +and looked at his pale and careworn face. The tall figure in its deep +mourning dress silenced them for the moment. + +Griffenberg signed Stafford to a seat beside him. + +"I am sure we can tell Lord Highcliffe that we are glad to see him, +that we are much obliged for his attendance." + +Some few said "Hear! hear!" but the rest were silent and watchful. As +Griffenberg spoke the door opened again and Ralph Falconer entered. He +glanced at Stafford and knit his brows, but dropped heavily into a +chair, and sat with stony face and half-lowered lids. He had scarcely +taken his seat when Howard entered in his quiet fashion, and he went +and stood just behind Stafford. + +"I was just telling the meeting, Lord Highcliffe, that I was afraid we +were in a bad way." said Griffenberg. "We all relied so completely on +Sir Stephen--I beg pardon, Lord Highcliffe, your father--that we feel +ourselves helpless now--er--left in the lurch. The company is in great +peril; there has already been heavy loss, and we fear that our property +will be swallowed up--" + +"Ask him what Sir Stephen did with all his money!" cried an excited +shareholder. + +"Order!" said Mr. Griffenberg. "Lord Highcliffe is not here to answer +questions." + +"Then what's he here for?" retorted another man whose loss amounted to +a few hundreds, but who was more excited and venomous than those who +had many thousands at stake. "He's all right. He's a lord--a pretty +lord!--and I'm told the gentleman he's next to is his future +father-in-law, and is rolling in money--" + +"Order! order!" called Griffenberg. + +But the man declined to be silenced. + +"Oh, it's all very well to call 'Order!' But I've a question to ask. I +want to know whether it's true that Sir Stephen--blow 'Lord +Highcliffe,' Sir Stephen's good enough for me!--made over a hundred +thousand pounds to his son, the young gentleman sitting there. Some of +us is ruined by this company, and we don't see why we should be sheared +while Lord Highcliffe gets off with a cool hundred thousand. I ask the +question and I wait for an answer." + +Stafford rose, his pale, handsome face looking almost white above his +black frock-coat and black tie. + +"Sit down! Don't answer him," said Griffenberg. + +"It is quite true," he said. "The money--a hundred thousand pounds--was +given to me. It was given to me when my father"--his voice broke for a +moment--"was in a position to give it, was solvent--" + +"I said so, didn't I?" yelled the man who had put the question. + +"Order! order!" said Griffenberg. + +"And I am informed that the gift was legal, that it cannot be +touched--" + +"Of course it can't! Trust Sir Stephen to look after his own!" wailed +the man. + +"But I yield it, give it up," said Stafford in the same level voice. + +Falconer started from his seat and laid a hand on Stafford's arm. + +"Don't be a fool!", he whispered in his thick voice. + +But Stafford did not heed him. + +"I give it up, relinquish it," he said in the same low, clear tones. +"When my father"--his voice again shook for a moment, but he mastered +his emotion--"made the deed, he thought himself a rich man. If he were +alive to-day"--there was a pause, and the meeting hung on his +words--"he would entirely agree with what I am doing. I give up the +deed of gift, I relinquish it. My lawyers have made me the proper +document, and I now give it to your chairman. It is all I possess; if I +had more, I would give it to you. My father was an honourable man, if +he were here now--" + +He placed the deed before Griffenberg, and sank into his seat. + +There was a moment of intense silence, then a cheer arose, led by the +very man who had put the question. + +Griffenberg sprang to his feet. + +"I hope you are satisfied, gentlemen," he said, with as much emotion as +a city man can permit himself. "Lord Highcliffe has behaved like a +gentleman, like a nobleman. I can assure you that his sacrifice is a +real one. The deed of gift which he has surrendered is a perfectly +sound one, and could not have been touched. All honour to him for his +surrender, for his generosity." + +Another cheer arose--again it was started by the very man who had +attacked poor Stafford, and before it had ceased to ring through the +crowded room, Stafford had made his way out. + +Mr. Falconer caught him by the arm as he was going down the stairs. + +"Do you know what you have done?" he demanded in his dry, harsh voice. +"You have made yourself a pauper." + +Stafford stopped and looked at him with a dull, vacant gaze. + +"A pauper!" repeated Falconer, huskily. + +"I daresay," said Stafford, wearily. + +"And you an earl!" said Falconer, his face a brick-dust red. "Do you +think they will have any pity? Not they. They'll take you at your word. +They'll have every penny! How do you mean to live? You, the Earl of +Highcliffe!" + +Stafford passed his hand across his brow; and a smile, a grim smile, +curved his lips. + +"I don't know," he said. "The money was theirs, not mine." + +"Stuff and rubbish!" said Falconer. "You thought only of yourself, of +your father's good name. I need scarcely tell you that Maude..." + +Stafford waited, his pale face set like a statue's. + +--"That Maude--well, you don't expect her to consider the engagement +binding after--after this?" The blood rushed to Stafford's face. + +"I understand," he said. "Miss Falconer is free. I resign all claim to +her." + +At this moment Howard came out. He had almost fought his way from the +crowded room. + +"Stafford!" he cried. "It is not too late! You can take it back! They +are friendly!" + +Stafford smiled. + +"I've nothing to take back!" he said. + +Howard linked his arm in his friend's. + +"Good Lord! But it was splendid! But all the same--Stafford, have you +considered? It will leave you practically penniless!" + +"I know," said Stafford. "I have considered. Let us go home." + +They went home to Stafford's room. Howard was hot with the enthusiasm +of admiration, and with the effort to suppress it; for nowadays men do +not tolerate praise even from their dearest friend. It seemed to Howard +as if Stafford's act of renunciation had brought him a certain sense of +relief, as if some portion of the heavy weight had been lifted from his +heart. + +"Of course now we have to go into a committee of ways and means, my +dear Staff; you won't mind my asking you what you're going to do? I +need not say that there is no need for any precipitate action. +I--er--the fact is, Staff, I have a sum of money lying at the bank +which absolutely annoys me by its uselessness. The bank manager has +been bothering me about it for some time past, and it was such a +nuisance that I thought of tossing him whether he should take or I. It +isn't much--a man doesn't amass a large fortune by writing leaders for +the newspapers and articles for reviews--but of course you wouldn't be +so mean as to refuse to borrow what there is. I'm very much afraid that +you'll suffer by this absurdly quixotic action of yours, which, mind +you! though I admire it, as I admire the siege of Troy, or the battle +of Waterloo, is a piece of darned foolishness. However, let that go! +What do you mean to do?" + +"I don't know yet," said Stafford. He didn't thank Howard for the +offer; no thanks were necessary. "The thing is so sudden that I have +not made any plans. I suppose there's something I can do to earn my +living. I've no brains, but I'm pretty strong. I might drive a hansom +cab or an omnibus, better men than I have done worse. Leave me alone, +old man, to have a pipe and think of it." Howard lingered for an hour +or two, for he felt that though Stafford had dismissed him, he had need +of him; and when he had gone Stafford took his hat and went out. He did +not call a hansom, but walked on regardless of his route, and lost in +thought. Something of the weight that had crushed him had been lifted +from his heart: he was penniless, the future stretched darkly before +him with a darkness through which there appeared no road or sign of +light; but he was free. He would not be compelled to go to the altar, +there to perjure himself with an oath to love and cherish one woman +while he loved another. I am afraid he did not feel much pity for +Maude, simply because he did not realise how much she cared for him. + +He walked on for some time and at last found himself somewhere down by +the Minories, in that mysterious East End, of which we hear so much and +of which we know so little. A little farther on he came upon the river +and he stood for a moment or two watching some sheep and cattle being +driven on board an ocean tramp. The sight of them recalled Herondale +and Ida; and he was turning away, with a sigh, when a burly man with a +large slouch hat stuck on the back of his head came lurching out of one +of the little wooden offices on the quay. He was apparently the owner +of the sheep, or in some way concerned with them, for he harangued the +drovers in a flow of language which though rich in profanity, was +poured forth in a pleasant and jovial voice. He had been drinking +unwisely and too well, and as he wobbled richly about the small quay he +happened to lurch against Stafford, who was attempting to avoid him. He +begged Stafford's pardon profusely and with such good-natured penitence +that Stafford in addition to granting him the forgiveness he requested, +asked him where the sheep and cattle were going. + +"To my little place, Salisbury Plain." Seeing the astonishment which +Stafford could not keep out of his face, the man laughed and explained. +"Not your Salisbury Plain, not the place here in England, but in the +Burra-Burra country, Australia," he pointed with his fat hand +downwards. "Right underneath. They're prize rams and bulls. I like to +have the best, and I paid a devil of a long price for them; but I've +got enough left for a drink if you'll come and have one." + +Stafford declined, but the man clung on to his arm, and thinking it the +easiest way of getting rid of him, and to avoid a scene, Stafford +accompanied him to the clean and inviting little public at the corner +of the quay, and permitted the man to order a glass of ale for him; the +bar-maid, without receiving any intimation, placed a large joram of rum +before the man, who remarked, after raising his glass to Stafford's +health: + +"Yes, sir, and I'm going with those beasts. I've nothing to say against +Old England so long as you don't ask me to live here. I've been here +six weeks, and there's only one thing that I feel I want and can't +get--no, miss, it ain't rum, there's plenty of that, thank God!--it's +air, air. I suppose the city gents are used to living without it, +though some of you look pale enough. _You_ don't look quite the thing +yourself, sir; rather white about the gills, and not enough meat on +you. Ah! I'd soon alter that if I had you at Salisbury Plain. Lord! I +should like to take out a whole shipload of you; and mind, I could do +with a few, and pay you better wages than you get in the City of +London. And the life! Why, you'd think yourselves kings, with a horse +to ride and plenty to eat, and plenty of fun. But there! you can't tell +what it's like unless you've seen it, and if ever you should have a +fancy to see it, you come out to Salisbury Plain, to my little place on +the Burra-Burra; for I like the look of you, young man; you're a +gentleman, though I've an idea you're down on your luck--I ain't so +drunk that I can't see through a man's eyes, and there's trouble in +yours; been outrunning the constable, eh? And you're not too proud to +take a drink with an honest man--honest, though rough, maybe." + +"Not at all," said Stafford, "and now you will take a drink with me, or +shall we make it a cigar?" for he did not want to lead the man any +further on the road of inebriety. + +"A cigar? Right you are," the settler replied, promptly. He took out an +envelope, intending to screw it up for a light, but suddenly caught +sight of the address, and with genial gravity handed the envelope to +Stafford. "There's my name--Henery Joffler, and there's my address, and +anybody at Melbourne will tell you the best way of getting there. Come +when you like, winter or summer, and you'll find Henery Joffler ready +to receive you with a welcome. _Now_ I will have a drink," he remarked, +as if he had not partaken of one for a calendar month. + +When Stafford left the little public house, he held the envelope in his +hand and was about to tear it up, when he checked himself and +mechanically put it into his pocket. The incident, if it had not +actually amused him, had diverted his mind in a wholesome manner for a +short space; but he had almost forgotten it when has reached his rooms. +The time had slipped by him and it was now twilight and as he was +crossing the room in the dusk to ring the bell for a light, a woman +rose from his chair and came towards him with out-stretched hands and +his name on her lips. + +"Maude!" he exclaimed, startled out of his self-possession. Then it +flashed upon him that she should not be there, in his rooms, alone; and +he looked at her gravely. + +"Why have you come, Maude?" he said. "Wait but one moment and I will +call a cab--go home with you." + +"No," she said, presently. "Did you think I should not come, Stafford? +I have been here for hours." She drew nearer to him, her eyes, so cold +to others, burning like sapphires as they were raised to his. "Did you +think when I had heard what you had done that I should keep away? No! +I--I am proud of you--can you not guess how proud?--my heart is aching +with it. Ah, but it was like you, Stafford!" + +As she put her hand on his shoulder and looked at him with a smile of +pride, and of adoration, Stafford's eyes fell before hers. + +"I could do nothing else," he said. "But I am sorry you came, Maude. +Didn't Mr. Falconer tell you?" + +She laughed and threw back her head with a defiant gesture. + +"Yes--as if it mattered! As if anyone--even he--could separate us! +Besides, what he said was in a fit of temper, he was annoyed by your +surrendering the money. And he could not speak for me--could not +control me." + +"Let me get a light," said Stafford. + +"No matter," she said, as if she could not bear him to leave her side, +even for a moment. "Stafford, dearest, you will not think of, you will +forget, what he said? It was spoken in a moment of irritation. Oh, my +dearest, let me look at you--it is so long since I saw you, so long, so +long! How pale you are, and how weary looking!" + +Her other arm went round his neck, and she would have drawn his face +down to her lips, but Stafford checked her. + +"You should not be here," he stammered. + +She laughed. + +"How proud you are! Yes, and I love you for it! You think that I should +desert you, as most women would do!" She laughed again. "If you were a +pauper--" + +"It is what your father called me," he said, gravely + +She smiled up into his gloomy eyes defiantly, temptingly. + +"What does it matter? I am rich--my father is rich--" + +Stafford winced and his face flamed, but she had turned aside for a +moment and did not see the effect of her words. + +--"And you have more than wealth," she laughed. "I reminded him of +that, and it sobered him. Oh, believe me! for all his pretended +stoicism, my father values a title as keenly as most men, and at heart +is anxious to see his daughter a countess." + +Stafford bit his lip. + +"I will take you home now," he said. Something in his voice told her +that she had made a wrong step, that she had failed. With a cry she +clung to him more tightly, and drawing back her head, scanned his face. + +"Stafford! You--you don't mean to leave me--to throw me off! Say +it--promise me!" She laughed hysterically and would have slipped to her +knees at his feet; but he held her firmly. "See, dearest, I would plead +to you, pray to you! I am--so afraid. But you won't do that--you won't +let anything separate us? Hush! there is my father. Stafford, you will +listen, you will agree!" + +As Falconer knocked at the door, she released Stafford, but stood near +him, with her hand resting on his arm. + +Falconer came in and regarded them from under his lowered lids. + +"I might have expected to find you here," he said harshly to Maude. + +"Yes; I came to him," she said, with a little gesture. "Why should I +not? Why should I care--" + +Falconer shrugged his shoulders, and turned from her to Stafford. + +"I've come to take back what I said this morning," he said, in his dry +voice. "I was hasty, and your--insensate folly in giving up the money +upset me. I have been talking the matter over with Maude, and we have +agreed to--to--continue the engagement." + +Stafford lit a couple of candles and the scant light fell upon the +faces of the three, the white one of the woman, the stern and set one +of Stafford, and the hard and impassive one of Mr. Falconer. + +"Of course a large sum of money will have to be found; and I must find +it. It will be settled upon Maude--with, of course, a suitable +allowance for a nobleman of your rank--" + +"One moment," said Stafford, very quietly. "Before you go any further, +I have to correct a misapprehension, Mr. Falconer. I do not intend to +use my title." + +"What!" exclaimed Falconer, his face growing darker. + +"I intend dropping the earldom," said Stafford. + +"But I don't intend you should," retorted Falconer, brutally. "If I +consent to my daughter's marrying a pauper--" + +"A pauper is one who begs," said poor Stafford, his face white as +marble. "I have not yet begged--" + +"Stafford!" cried Maude. Then she swung on her father. "Why do you +speak to him--to _him_--like this?--Stafford, you will yield--" + +"In everything, in every way, but this," he said, with the same ominous +quietude. "If you are content to drop the title, to share the life of a +poor and an ordinary working-man--as I hope to be--" + +He held out his hand, and she would have taken it, clung to it, but her +father strode between them, and with a harsh laugh, exclaimed: + +"You fool! Don't you see that he is wanting to get rid of you, that he +is only too glad of the excuse? Great God! have you no touch of +womanliness in you, no sense of shame--" + +She swept him aside with a gesture, and advancing to Stafford, looked +straight into his eyes. + +"Is--is it true?" she asked hoarsely. "Tell me! Is what he says true? +That--that rather than marry me you would go out into the world +penniless, to earn your living--you? Answer! Do--do you love me?" + +His eyes dropped, his teeth clenched, and the moment of silence hung +heavy in the room. She turned from him, her hand going to her brow with +a gesture of weariness and despair. + +"Let us go," she said to her father. "He does not love me--he never +did. I thought that perhaps in time--in time--" + +The sight of her humiliation was more than Stafford could bear. He +strode to her and laid his hand on hers. + +"Wait--Maude," he said, hoarsely. "I must lay the title aside; I cannot +accept your father's money. I must work, as other and better men have +done, are doing. If you will wait until I have a home to offer you--" + +She turned to him, her face glowing, her eyes flashing. + +"I will go with you now, now--this moment, to poverty--to peril, +anywhere. Oh, Stafford, can't you see, can't you value the love I offer +you?" + +When her father had led her away, Stafford sank into a chair and hid +his face in his hands. He was no longer free, the shackles were upon +him. And he was practically penniless. What should he do? + +He got his pipe and felt in his pocket for his matches. As he did so he +came upon Mr. "Henery" Joffler's envelope. He looked at it vacantly for +a moment or two; then he laughed, a laugh that was not altogether one +of derision or amusement. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + + +Ida had found her life at Laburnum Villa hard enough in all conscience +before the night of the concert, but it became still harder after Mr. +Joseph's condescending avowal of love to her and her inevitably +scornful refusal. She avoided him as much as possible, but she was +forced to meet him at the family breakfast, a meal of a cold and dismal +character, generally partaken of by the amiable family in a morose and +gloomy silence or to an accompaniment of irritable and nagging personal +criticism. Mr. Heron, who suffered from indigestion, was always at his +worst at breakfast time; Mrs. Heron invariably appeared meaner and more +lachrymose; Isabel more irritable and dissatisfied; and Joseph, whose +bloodshot eyes and swollen lips testified to the arduous character of +his "late work at the office," went through the pretence of a meal with +a sullen doggedness which evinced itself by something like a snarl if +any one addressed him. + +Hitherto he had, of course, been particularly, not to say unpleasantly, +civil to Ida, but after his repulse his manner became marked by a +covert insolence which was intended to remind her of her dependent +position, and the fact that her most direct means of escape from it was +by accepting him as her lover. This manner of his, offensive as it was +intended to be, Ida could have borne with more or less equanimity; for +to her, alas! Joseph Heron seemed of very little more account then one +of the tradesmen's boys she saw occasionally coming up to the house; +but after treating her to it for a day or two in the hope of breaking +her spirit, as he would have expressed it, his manner changed to one of +insinuating familiarity. He addressed her in a low voice, almost a +whisper, so that his sister and mother could not hear, and he smiled +and nodded at her in a would-be mysterious manner, as if they were +sharing some secret. + +Though Ida did not know it, it was meant to rouse Mrs. Heron's +suspicions; and it succeeded admirably. Her thin, narrow face would +flush angrily and she would look across at Isabel significantly, and +Isabel would snigger and toss her head, as if she quite understood. + +Ida often went to her own room before Mr. Joseph returned at night, +but sometimes he came in before she had gone; and he made a practice of +sitting near her, even venturing on occasions to lean over the back of +her chair, his mother watching him out of the corners of her eyes, and +with her thin lips drawn down; and although Ida invariably got up and +went to another part of the room, her avoidance of Joseph did not lull +his mother's suspicions. Ida's contempt for the young man was too +profound to permit of such a sentiment as hatred--one can scarcely hate +that which one scorns--but whenever he came near her with his tobacco +and spirit-laden breath, she was conscious of an inward shudder which +closely resembled that with which she passed through the reptile house +at the Zoological Gardens. + +Mr. Joseph, the house, the whole life, began to get on her nerves; and +in the solitude of her own room she spent many an anguished hour trying +to discover some way of escape. She read all the advertisements of +situations vacant in the newspaper; but all the employers seemed to +require technical knowledge and accomplishments which she did not +possess. She knew she could not teach even the youngest of children, +she was unacquainted with the mysterious science of short-hand, and had +never seen a typewriter. No one appeared to want a young lady who could +break horses, tend cattle, or run a farm; and this was the only kind of +work she could do. + +So she was forced to the bitter conclusion that she would have to go on +living the life, and eat the bread of the Herons, with as much patience +as she could command, in the hope that some day "something would +happen" to release her from her bondage, which was gradually robbing +her eyes of their brightness and making her thin and listless. It +seemed that nothing ever would happen, that the weeks would drag into +months and the months into years; and one day as she toiled slowly home +from a country walk, she almost felt inclined to turn to that last +refuge of the destitute and answer one of the advertisements for a +lady's help: anything would be better than to go on living the life in +death which was her lot at Laburnum Villa. + +As she approached the house, she saw that the gas was lit in the +drawing-room, and the sound of voices, in which a strange one mingled, +penetrated through the thin door as she passed through the hall to her +room. While she was taking off her hat, there came a hurried knock, and +Isabel entered in her best dress. She was flushed and in a flatter of +suppressed excitement. + +"Oh, Ida, can you lend me a clean collar?" she asked, in a stage +whisper, and with a giggle which was intended to invite question; but, +as Ida had asked none, Isabel said, with another giggle: "You've heard +me speak of George Powler?" + +Ida looked doubtful: Isabel had mentioned so many men, generally by +their Christian names, who were supposed to be smitten by her, that +Ida, often listening absently enough to the foolish girl's confidences, +not seldom "got mixed." + +"The one who went to South Australia," Isabel went on, with an +affectation of coy shyness. "We used to see a great deal of him--at +least he used to call--before he went away; and though there really was +nothing serious between us, of course--But one doesn't like to speak of +these things, even to one's bosom friend. But he's down-stairs just +now. I just had time to run up, and he actually almost saw me on the +stairs! Yes, this one will do: you always have such good-shaped +collars, and yet you have always lived in the country! I must be quick +and hurry down: men do so hate to be kept waiting, don't they? You'll +come down presently, won't you, Ida? I'm sure you'll like him: he's so +steady: and it's a very good business. Of course, as I said, nothing +definite has passed between us, but--" + +She giggled and simpered significantly; and Ida, trying to force +herself to take some interest, fastened the collar for Isabel, and +gently and with much tact persuaded that inartistic young lady to +discard a huge crimson bow which she had stuck on her dress with +disastrous results. When, some little time after, Ida went down to the +drawing-room, she found that the visitor was like most of those who +came to Laburnum Villa, very worthy people, no doubt, but uninteresting +and commonplace. This Mr. George Powler was a heavy thick-set man, +approaching middle age, with the air of a prosperous merchant, and with +a somewhat shy and awkward manner; it seemed to Ida that he looked +rather bored as he sat on one of the stiff, uncomfortable chairs, with +the mother and daughter "engaging him in conversation," as they would +have called it. His shyness and awkwardness were intensified by the +entrance of the tall, graceful girl in her black dress, and he rose to +receive the introduction with a startled kind of nervousness, which was +reasonable enough; for the young women with whom he associated were not +dowered with Ida's very palpable grace and refinement. + +Ida bowed to him, made some remark about the weather, and went over +with a book to the sofa with the broken spring--and promptly forgot his +existence. But her indifference was not reciprocated; the man was +painfully aware of her presence, and after endeavouring to carry on the +conversation with Isabel, grew absent-minded and incoherent, and +presently, as if he could not help himself, got up and, edging to the +sofa nervously, sat down and tried to talk. + +Ida closed her book, and, as in duty bound, was civil to him, though +not perhaps so civil as she would have been to a man of her own age and +class; but Mr. George Powler, no doubt encouraged by her gentleness, +serenity, and perfect self-possession--qualities none too common in the +class to which he belonged--grew less nervous, and, to his own +amazement, found himself talking presently quite fluently to this +distinguished-looking young lady whose entrance of the drawing-room had +struck him with awe. With instinctive courteousness and kindness, Ida +had asked him some question about South Australia, and he was led to +talk of his life there, and to describe the country. + +Ida found her thoughts wandering after a few minutes, and grew +absent-minded; but Mr. George Powler was launched, on his favourite +subject, was delighted with the condescension of the beautiful and +stately listener, and did not notice that she was scarcely listening; +did not notice also that Mrs. Heron was looking discontented and +sniffing peevishly, and that Isabel's face wore an expression of +jealousy and resentment. The fact was, that the poor man had quite +forgotten the other young woman--and the other young woman knew it. + +Suddenly their silence bore down upon Ida's absent-mindedness, she felt +rather than saw that something was the matter, and she got up, in the +middle of one of Mr. George Powler's fluent but badly constructed +sentences, and going over to Isabel asked her to play something. + +Isabel flushed. + +"Oh, you had better sing," she said; "Mr. Powler would like that +better, _I'm_ sure." + +"Oh, yes; please do!" pleaded the man; and Ida, trying to conceal her +weariness and distaste, went to the piano and sang the shortest song +she knew. + +Her acquiescence was unfortunate in its result, for it completed in Mr. +George Powler's bosom the havoc which her face and voice had wrought. +He pressed her to sing again, beat time with his large hand and badly +groomed head, and was enthusiastic in his praises and seemed so +disappointed when she refused, that he seconded her appeal to Isabel +with an obviously forced politeness. + +Isabel went to the piano, but she was at no time a very brilliant +performer, and the poor girl was so upset by Ida's unconscious and +unwilling superiority, that she broke down in the middle of one of +those hideous drawing-room pieces which seem specially "arranged" for +the torture of those who are blessed or cursed with musical taste. + +The conversation naturally lagged and languished under these +circumstances, and Mr. George Powler presently rose to take his leave. +He was not asked to remain to dinner though Mrs. Heron had intended +inviting him, and had made secret and flurried preparations. He shook +hands with Ida with marked _empressement_ and nervousness, and seemed +as if he could scarcely tear himself away. + +When he had gone the mother and daughter sat bolt upright in their +chairs and stared before them in a pregnant silence; and Ida, wondering +what was the matter, was about to leave the room, when Mrs. Heron said +in a hard, thin voice: + +"One moment, Ida, if you please." + +Ida paused at the door with her book in her hand, startled from her +dreaminess by the woman's tone and manner. + +"You had better close the door, Ida. I should not like the servants to +overhear what it is my duty to say to you." + +Ida closed the door and stood expectantly, and Mrs. Heron continued: + +"I trust I am not one to find fault unnecessarily. I know it is the +duty of a Christian to be patient and long-suffering; but there is a +limit to one's endurance, and I regret to say that you have passed that +limit. I should not be fulfilling my duty to a young person who is +under my charge if I refrained from pointing out to you that your +conduct, since you have been under our roof, has been reprehensible and +disgraceful." + +Ida was too amazed for a moment to realise the full significance of the +spiteful speech; and then, as it gradually dawned upon her, the blood +rose to her face and an indignant protest rose to her lips; but she +checked it, and merely repeated the objectionable phrase. + +"Yes, disgraceful," said Mrs. Heron. "I am sorry to be compelled to use +such a word to a young girl and to one in your position; and I do not +think you make matters better by pretending not to know what I mean." + +"It is no pretence, Mrs. Heron," said Ida, quite calmly. "I do not in +the least know what you mean." + +"Then I'll tell you," retorted Mrs. Heron, with suppressed fury. "You +are one of the most shameless flirts I ever knew." + +Ida fell an almost irresistible desire to laugh; she had been tired +when she came in, Mr. George Powler's attentions had made her still +more weary, and the sight of the two women seated bolt upright and +evidently boiling over with anger, was full of a grotesque humour which +affected her hysterically. She managed to stifle the laugh, and looked +at them patiently and calmly as she stood by the mantel-piece with one +arm resting on the shelf. The unconscious ease and grace of her +attitude increased Mrs. Heron's irritation; her thin lips trembled and +her eyes grew red. + +"Oh, I am not blind," she said. "I've been quite aware of your conduct +for some time past; but I have refrained from speaking to you because, +as I say, you are under my roof and I did not wish to hurt your +feelings--though I am sure you have had very little regard for ours. I +have been greatly deceived in you, Ida. I thought when you came that +you were a quiet, well-conducted young woman, and I could scarcely +believe my eyes when I first saw that I was mistaken, and that your +quietness was only slyness. I suppose you didn't think I saw that you +were trying to entrap my poor boy; but a mother's eyes are sharp, and a +mother will protect her own at any cost. Oh, you needn't try to stare +me out of countenance, or to put on that surprised and innocent look. +You may have been able to deceive me once, but you can't now. I've been +watching you, and I've seen with my own eyes your carryings on." + +"Mrs. Heron--" began Ida, very quietly; but Mrs. Heron tore on with +breathless vehemence. + +"I suppose you only did it for your amusement; I don't suppose you +thought there would be any good in it, that his father or I would allow +Joseph to make such a _fool_ of himself as to throw himself away upon a +girl without any means; but it's all the more shameful. You succeeded +very well; you've turned the poor boy's head and made him miserable. +It's to be hoped that it will stop there, and that he won't be driven +to drink or desperate courses, as some young men are. Of course you'll +say that you never meant anything of the kind. I'm quite prepared for +that--you can be plausible enough when you like; with that quiet, +cat-like manner of yours." + +Ida had passed beyond the laughing stage by this time; her face was +pale, her eyes flashing; but she was able to say, with an appearance of +calm: + +"You are quite right, Mrs. Heron; I have no hesitation in saying that I +did not wish your son to pay me any attention, much less--Oh, do you +not see how ridiculous it is?" she broke out, indignantly, and with a +little desperate laugh. Mrs. Heron's face flamed. "I don't know what +you mean by ridiculous," she snapped. "I should say Joseph was quite +good enough a match for you; and I've no doubt you think so, though you +pretend to sneer at him." + +"Let me assure you, Mrs. Heron, that I have never thought of your son +as a possible husband," said Ida. "His attentions to me are more than +unwelcome--and he knows it." + +"Oh! then you admit that the poor boy is in love with you, that he has +told you? You see, you can't deceive me; I knew it. I wonder you aren't +ashamed of yourself; at any rate, having caused trouble in the house +that shelters you, that you haven't shame enough to refrain from +flirting, before our very eyes, with the first man that appears." + +Ida stared at her in amazement, too great for the moment to permit of +resentment. + +"What is this you accuse me of?" she asked. "Oh, pray, pray, do not be +so unreasonable, so unjust!" + +Mrs. Heron wagged her head, as one who is not to be deceived by any +affectation of innocence. + +"No, thank you, Ida!" she exclaimed. "That won't do for us. We've seen +it with our own eyes, haven't we, Isabel?" + +Isabel took out her handkerchief and began to whimper. + +"I should never have thought it of you, Ida," she sobbed. "And with +George, too! And I'd only just told you that--that there had been +things between us. I do think you might have left him alone." + +Ida was half distracted. + +"But you really cannot mean it!" she pleaded. "I have done nothing, +said nothing. You surely do not complain of his speaking to me, of his +being simply civil and polite! Heaven knows I had no desire to exchange +a word with him. I would not have come down if Isabel had not asked me, +and I had thought you would have considered it rude of me to remain +upstairs. Oh, what can I say to convince you that you are mistaken, +that I never gave a thought to this gentleman--I forget his name--that +I do not care if I never see him again, and that--Isabel, surely you do +not think me capable of the--vulgarity, the stupidity, with which your +mother charges me!" + +Isabel's sniffs and sobs only grew louder, and her demonstrative misery +worked Mrs. Heron to a higher pitch of resentment and virtuous +indignation. + +"That is right, Isabel, do not answer her. It is all pretence and +deceit on her part. She knows very well that she was doing her best to +attract his attention, smiling and making eyes at him, and attempting +to catch him just as she has caught poor Joseph." + +Ida's slight figure sprang erect, her face grew crimson and her eyes +flashed with a just wrath which could no longer be suppressed. + +"I think you must be mad," she said in a low voice. "Indeed, you must +be mad, or you would not insult me in this way. If I were guilty of the +conduct of which you accuse me, I should not be fit to live, should not +be fit to remain in any respectable house." + +"You are guilty," retorted Mrs. Heron. "And as to your being fit to +remain under this roof--and it was a respectable and happy one until +you came--you are the best judge. I shall inform your cousin John of +what has passed--it is my duty to do so--and he shall decide whether +you are to remain, a firebrand, and a disturber of the peace of a +Christian household. It is my duty to protect my poor boy." + +At that moment the hall door was opened and closed, and the "poor boy," +after shuffling about in the hall for a moment or two, opened the +drawing-room door. His hat was on the back of his head, one end of his +collar was unfastened, his face was flushed, and there was mud on his +coat, as if he had fallen--which he had. He lurched into the room with +a tipsy leer, and nodded to them with an affectation of extreme +sobriety, which is unfortunately always assumed by the individual who +is hopelessly intoxicated. Mrs. Heron rose with outstretched hands. + +"Oh, Joseph, are you ill? My poor boy!" + +"Ill?" he repeated, with a hiccough. "No, I'm not ill. Yes, I am, +though; it's mental worry, it's a 'arassed 'eart;" he looked at Ida and +shook his head reproachfully. "_She_ knows, but she don't care--But +whatsh the matter," he broke off, staring at Isabel, who was still +struggling with her sniffs and sobs. "Whatsh up? Whatsh Isabel cryin' +for? Ida been cryin' too? Look 'ere, I won't shtand that. If they've +bin ill-treating you, Ida, my dear, you shay so, and I'll know the +reashon why. You come to me, my dear." + +He lurched towards Ida, and as she drew back with a shudder of horror +and loathing, Isabel and his mother caught the wretched young man by +the arm, and with cries of alarm and commiseration, endeavoured to +soothe him. + +"Don't speak to her, don't think of her; she's not worth it!" said Mrs. +Heron. "She's not worth any sensible man's thoughts, least of all a man +like you, Joseph. You are ill, you must come to bed!" + +"Stuff an' 'umbug," he hiccoughed, as he struggled feebly with them, +and cast enamoured and would-be reassuring glances at Ida's white and +stern face. "She's a shplendid girl; she's a good girl; finest gal I +know; and she an' me undershtand one another; twin shouls. We've kep' +our secret from you, mother, but the time has come--the time has come +to reveal the truth. I love Ida. It'sh no good your frowning at me like +that; I shay I love Ida." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + + +At this point John Heron's ring and knock were heard at the door; with +a cry of terror, the unfortunate mother succeeded in dragging the +feebly struggling Joseph out of the room, and with Isabel's assistance, +hustled and pushed him up the stairs before his father was let in. +After a time Mrs. Heron came down again, and Ida heard her and her +husband talking together--you couldn't whisper in one room of Laburnum +Villa without being heard in another one--and presently the +drawing-room door opened and John Heron entered; Ida had waited, for +she had expected him. He was red and swollen with pomposity and +resentment, though he assumed a "more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger" air, and +threw a deeply grieved tone into his harsh, raucous voice. + +"I am deeply grieved and shocked, Ida," he began, "to hear from your +cousin so deplorable an account of your conduct. I am not so unwise as +to look for gratitude in this world, but I did not think you would +repay our kindness and consideration by attempting to wreck the +happiness of a quiet and godly home. Of course, I make all allowances +for your bringing-up; I am aware that in the state of life from which +we rescued you, the spiritual and the religious were entirely absent; +but I had hopes that our precept and, I may say, example, the influence +of a deeply religious family--" by this time his voice had slid into +the nasal whine and growl which it assumed in the pulpit; and Ida, +notwithstanding her wretchedness, again felt an almost irresistible +desire to laugh. + +"Please tell me, Cousin John, what it is I have done, what it is you +complain of?" she broke in. + +Angered by the interruption, for there is nothing a man like John Heron +hates worse, he snapped out: + +"You have been trying to snare the affections of my son; you have even +cast lascivious eyes at the stranger within our gates." + +The blood rushed to Ida's face; then she laughed outright, the laugh of +desperation; for indeed, she despaired of convincing these stupid +people of her innocence. The laugh naturally exasperated John Heron, +and his gaunt face grew pallid for an instant. + +"I understand!" he said. "You treat our remonstrances with scorn, you +scoff at our rebuke." + +"Yes; I am afraid I can't help it, Cousin John," said Ida. "I am sorry +that you should think me so wicked and so--dangerous, and I quite agree +with Isabel and her mother that if I am as bad as you say, I am not fit +to live in a respectable house and with--decent people. It would be +useless for me to assure you that you are all ridiculously mistaken." + +"My wife and daughter saw with their own eyes. I am informed that my +son is at this very moment in bed, prostrated by your heartless +conduct; you have trifled with that most delicate and sacred of things, +a human heart. Go to your chamber, Ida, and there I trust you will seek +repentance on your knees." + +There was silence for a moment, then Ida said, very quietly: + +"Have you anything more to say to me?" + +"Not to-night," said John, sternly. "I am wearied with well-doing. I +have been preaching, calling sinners, like yourself, to a better life. +To-morrow I will speak with you again, I will endeavour to snatch a +brand from the burning." + +"Good-night," said Ida. She paused with her hand on the door. "Cousin +John, you came to me when I was in great trouble; you offered me a home +when I was homeless; I think you have been as kind as you knew how to +be, and I want to thank you. I daresay it is my fault that I have not +got on better with you all. I am not so bad as you think--but we will +say no more about that. I do not want you to consider me ungrateful; +for indeed, I am grateful for the shelter you have given me, and I +shall always remember that you came to my aid when I was in sore need. +Will you please ask my cousin and Isabel to forgive me--for having +unwittingly caused them so much trouble? Good-night." + +"Good-night," said John Heron, grimly. "I should be comforted if I +could think that you were speaking from your heart; but I fear that you +are not--I fear that you are not! Oh, may that heart be melted! may you +be brought to see the peril of your evil ways!" Followed by this devout +prayer, Ida went up to her room. As she paced up and down she tried to +tell herself that the whole thing was too ridiculous, was too much like +a farce to make her wretched; but she felt unutterably miserable, and +she knew that she could no longer endure Laburnum Villa and the petty +tyranny and vindictiveness of these relations. + +Poverty, hardship, she could have borne patiently and without +complaining; but there are some things more intolerable to a +high-spirited girl, such as Ida, than poverty or physical +hardship--there are some things which hurt more than actual blows. She +felt stifling, choking; she knew that, happen what might, she could not +remain under her cousin's roof, eat the bread of his charity, for +another day. She shuddered as she pictured herself meeting them at the +breakfast-table, facing Mrs. Heron's spiteful face, Isabel's +tear-swollen eyes, and her cousin John's sanctimonious sermon. + +She would have to go. + +She thrust a few things into a bag and took out her purse and counted +the contents. They amounted to six pounds and a few shillings; but +small though the sum was, she thought that it would maintain her until +she could find some way of earning a livelihood, though at the moment +she had not the least idea what she could find to do. Without +undressing, she threw herself on the bed and tried to sleep; but her +heart ached too acutely and her brain was too active to permit of +sleep; and, try as she would, her mind would travel back to those brief +days of happiness at Herondale, and she was haunted by the remembrance +of Stafford and the love which she had lost; and at times that past was +almost effaced by the vision of Stafford seated beside Maude Falconer +at the concert. + +As soon as she heard the servants moving about the house she rose, pale +and weary, and putting on her outdoor things, stole down-stairs with +her bag in her hand. The servants were busy in the kitchen, and she +unfastened the hall door and left the house without attracting any +attention. The fresh, morning air, while it roused her to a sense of +her position, revived and encouraged her. After all, she was young and +strong and--she looked up at the house of bondage which she was +leaving--she was free! Oh, blessed freedom! How often she had read of +it and heard it extolled; but she had never known until this moment how +great, how sweet a thing it was. + +She waited at the mean little station until a workmen's train came up, +and, hustled by the crowd of sleepy and weary toilers, got into it. +When she left the terminus, she walked with a portion of the throng +which turned up Bishopsgate Street, though any other direction would +have suited her as well--or as little; for she had no idea where to go, +or what to do, beyond seeking some inexpensive lodging. She knew well +enough that she could not afford to go to a hotel; that she would have +to be content with a small room, perhaps an attic, and the plainest of +food, while she sought for work. It was soon evident to her that she +was not likely to find what she was looking for in the broad +thoroughfare of shops and offices, and, beginning to feel bewildered by +the crowd, which, early as it was, streamed along the pavements, she +turned off into one of the narrower streets. + +The long arm of Coincidence which thrusts itself into all our affairs, +led her to the Minories, and to the very quay which Stafford had +reached in his aimless wanderings; and, mechanically she paused and +looked on dreamily at the bustle and confusion which reigned there. +Perhaps the presence of the sheep and cattle attracted her: she felt +drawn to them by sympathy with their hustled and hurried condition, +which so nearly resembled her own. + +With one hand resting on a rail, and a bag in the other, she watched +the men as they drove the cattle up the gangways or lowered huge casks +and bales into the hold. A big, fat man, with a slouch hat on the back +of his head and a pipe in the corner of his mouth--which did not +prevent him shouting and bawling at the men and the animals--lurched +here and there like one of the casks, and in the midst of his shouting +and bawling, he every now and then glanced at a watch of the frying-pan +order. + +It was evident even to the inexperienced Ida, that the vessel was about +to start; the sailors were rushing about on deck in the haste and +excitement of ordered disorder, chains were clanking, and ropes and +pulleys were shrieking; and a steam whistle shrieked at intervals and +added to the multitudinous noises. + +"Poor sheep, poor bulls!" murmured Ida, as the last of the beasts were +driven up the gangway and disappeared. "Perhaps you have come from +another Herondale! Do you remember, do you look back, as I do?" + +She drew back, for the big man suddenly lurched in her direction, and, +indeed, almost, against her. + +"Beg pardon, miss," he said, touching his slouch hat. "Anything I can +do for you, anybody you're looking for?" + +"No, oh, no!" said Ida, blushing and turning away. Mr. Joffler, for it +was that genial Australian, nodded and stretched his moon-like face in +a smile. + +"Thought you'd come to say 'good-bye' to someone, p'raps. Wish it was +me! Though, if it was, I've an idea that I should stay on--air or no +air--and I'm blest if there ain't precious little about this morning! +Hi, there! All ready? Bless it all, we'll be too late for the tide if +he don't come," he said to the captain, who stood with one foot on the +taffrail, an expression of impatience on his weather-beaten face. + +"Like enough he ain't comin', Mr. Joffler," he said. "Them kind o' +gents is always slippery." + +"I dessay. Though I didn't think as this one was one of that kind. Too +much grit about him--ah, and I was not mistaken! Here he is! Get ready +there!" + +He turned, and Ida, instinctively turning with him, saw a tall figure +clad in a serge suit making its way quickly through the crowd of busy +dock-men and idly lounging spectators. He came straight to the big, fat +man, who greeted him jovially and loudly, and they passed side by side +on to the vessel. + +Ida drew a long breath and passed her hand over her brow. It was +absurd, of course, it was a trick of the imagination, of a wearied and +overstrained brain--but the tall figure in the blue serge--ah, how like +it was to that of Stafford! + +It disappeared with that of the big man into the vessel, and, with a +sigh, she was coming away when she saw the two men coming along the +deck and mount to the quarter. The fat man was talking and laughing, +but the man in the blue serge was grave and silent, as if he was lost +in thought and not listening. + +Suddenly, as she paused, the younger, slimmer figure turned in her +direction and uttered a cry, a cry almost of terror. Was she demented? +Had her longing, her aching longing for a sight of him called up this +vision of Stafford? Unless she were out of her mind, the victim of a +strange hallucination, it was he himself who stood there, his face, +pale and haggard, turned towards her. + +"Stafford!" she cried, unconsciously, and her hand gripped the iron +rail in front of her. + +As if he had heard her--though it was impossible that her voice could +reach him through the shouts of the sailors, the lowing and bleating of +the cattle--he raised his head and looked in her direction. Their eyes +met and were enchained for a moment, which seemed an eternity; then the +blood flew to his face, leaving it the next moment paler than before. +He swung round to the fat man by his side and clutched his arm. + +"Wait! Stop the vessel! I want to go ashore!" he said, hoarsely. + +Mr. Joffler stared at him, then laughed. + +"Hold on, sir!" he said, not unsympathetically. "Hold on! Took queer +like! Lor' bless you, I know how the feelin' is! It catches at you +right in the middle of the waistcoat. It's the thought of the land +going back from you--we're moving, we're well away. Here, take a sip of +this! You'll get over it in a brace o' shakes." + +He thrust a flask into Stafford's hand, but Stafford put it away from +him. + +"Let me go ashore! I'll join you later," he said, breathlessly. + +Mr. Joffler caught his arm as he was about to jump for the quay. + +"Steady, steady, sir!" he admonished, soothingly. "We can't stop--and +you'd break your neck trying to jump it! And all for a fancy, too, I'd +stake my life! Hearten up, man, hearten up! You're not the first to +feel sick and sorry at leavin' home and friends." + +Stafford bit his lip and tried to pull himself together; but his eyes +were still fixed on the pale face, the girlish, black-clad figure, and +his voice was shaky, as he said: + +"You're right, Mr. Joffler. It is too late now. I--I thought I saw +someone on the quay there. But it must have been fancy; it is impossible, +quite impossible!" + +"That's it," said Mr. Joffler, with a sympathetic wink. "Lor' love you, +I've had them kind o' fancies myself, especially after a hot night on +shore. If you'd only take a pull at this, you'd be all right directly. +It don't do to come aboard too sober, 'specially when you're leavin' +old England for the first time. Do you see 'em now?" + +Ida had moved away, and Stafford drew a long breath and forced a smile. + +"No," he said, huskily, and almost to himself. "Yes; it must have been +fancy. She could not have been there. It is impossible!" + +Mr. Joffler whistled and winked to himself comprehendingly. + +"She!'" he murmured. "Ah, that's it, is it? Ah, well I've been there +myself! Don't you let the fancy upset you, sir! It 'ull pass afore we +gets into the open. Nothing like the sea for teachin' you to forget +gals you've left behind you! Come down below and try and peck a bit. +There's cold beef--_and_ pickles. That'll send them kind o' fancies to +the right about." + +Ida turned and walked quickly away. Her head swam, she looked like one +in a dream. It was, of course, impossible that the man she had seen +could be Stafford: Stafford on board a cattle-ship! But the +hallucination had made her feel faint and ill. She remembered that she +had eaten nothing since yesterday at noon, and she ascribed this freak +of her imagination to the weakness caused by want of food. + +She left the quay slowly--as if her heart and her strength and all her +life's hope had gone with the dingy vessel--and emerging on the narrow, +crowded street, looked for some shop at which she could buy a roll of +bread. Presently she saw a baker's at the opposite side of the road to +that on which she was walking, and she was crossing, when a huge empty +van came lumbering round the corner. She drew back to let it pass; and, +as she did so, a lighter cart came swiftly upon her. She was so dazed, +so bewildered by the vision she had seen, and the noise of the street, +that she stood, hesitating, uncertain whether to go on or retreat to +the pavement she had left. + +The woman--or man--who hesitates in the middle of a busy London street +is lost: the cart was upon her before she had moved, the shaft struck +her on the shoulder and down she went into the muddy road! + +The driver jerked the horse aside, and leapt from his seat, the usual +crowd, which seems to spring instantaneously from the very stones, +collected and surged round, the usual policeman forced his way through, +and Ida was picked up and carried to the pavement. + +There was a patch of blood on the side of her head--the dear, small +head which had rested on Stafford's breast so often!--and she was +unconscious. + +"'Orse struck 'er with 'is 'oof," said the policeman, sententiously. +"'Ere, boy, call a keb. I'll have your name and address, young man." + +A cab was brought, and Ida, still unconscious, was carried to the +London Hospital. + +And lay there, in the white, painfully clean, carbolic-smelling ward, +attended by the most skillful doctors in England and by the grave and +silent nurses, who, notwithstanding their lives of stress and toil, had +not lost the capacity for pity and sympathy. Indeed, no one with a +heart in her bosom could stand up unmoved and hear the girl moaning and +crying in a whisper for "Stafford." + +Day and night the white lips framed the same name--Stafford, +Stafford!--as if her soul were in the cry. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + + +When Ida came to she found the sister of the ward and a young nurse +bending over her with placid and smiling faces. Why a hospital nurse +should under any and every circumstance be invariably cheerful is one +of those mysteries worthy to rank with the problem contained in the +fact that an undertaker is nearly always of a merry disposition. + +Of course Ida asked the usual questions: + +"Where am I?" and "How long have I been here?" and the sister told her +that she was in the Alexandria ward of the London Hospital, and that +she had been there, unconscious, for ten days. + +The nurse smiled as if it were the best joke, in a mild way, in the +world, and answered Ida's further questions while she administered beef +tea with an air of pride and satisfaction which made her plain and +homely face seem angelic to Ida. + +"You were knocked down by a cart, you know," said Nurse Brown. "You +weren't badly injured, that is, no bones were broken, as is very often +the case--that girl there in the next bed but two had one arm, one leg, +and two ribs broken: mail cart; and that poor woman opposite, got both +arms and a collar-bone broken--But I mustn't harrow you with our bad +cases," she said, quickly, as Ida seemed to wince. "Of course you feel +very strange--I suppose this is the first time you have been in a +hospital ward?" + +"Yes," replied Ida, glancing round timidly. + +"Ah, yes, of course," said Nurse Brown, nodding and smiling +encouragingly. "And you feel shy and nervous; but, if you only knew it, +you are better off here than you would be anywhere else; you have the +very best surgeons in the world--we are awfully proud of them; and, +though I ought not to say it, the best of nursing. You are watched +night and day, and you get the least wee little thing you want if it's +good for you. I daresay you won't care to stay here, but will like to +be taken away as soon as you are well enough to be moved; for, of +course, we all know that you are a lady. Oh, it isn't the first time we +have had a lady in the ward. A great many of them come down here +'slumming,' and sometimes they get run over, as you have been, or they +fall down some of the dark and rickety stairs, or hurt themselves in +some other way--it's wonderful what a choice of accidents you can have +in this busy and crowded part of London." + +After a pause she went on: + +"Of course you will go away as soon as you can; but it's a pity, it +really is; you're ever so much better off here, and you'd soon get used +to the other people in the ward, though they are of a different class +to yourself. But though most of them are very poor and some of them are +usually rough when they are at home, it is wonderfully how patient they +are--you will scarcely ever hear a murmur; only a sigh now and +again--and they are so grateful that sometimes they bring the tears to +your eyes, and it's quite hard to part from them when they get well and +are discharged. But I really mustn't talk to you any more," she +murmured, penitently, and the soft, placid voice ceased. + +Ida looked round the ward, her heart beating as fast as her condition +would allow. As Nurse Brown had said, she felt terribly strange and +nervous in the long, whitewashed ward which, however, was rendered +cheerful enough by the dozens of pictures from illustrated papers, +which had been fastened to the walls, and by the vases and great bowls +of flowers which seemed to occupy every suitable spot. + +She closed her eyes and tried to think; but she fell asleep instead and +dreamt that she had fallen off Rupert and was lying on the moss beside +the river, quite comfortable and most absurdly content. When she woke +the sister was standing beside her, and nodded with cheerful approval. + +"That's better, Miss Heron," she said. "It is quite pleasant to watch +you asleep and not to hear you rambling." + +Ida's face flushed. + +"Have I been rambling?" she asked. "What have I said? You know my +name!" + +The nurse smiled. + +"Your things are marked," she explained. "But there was no address, +nothing which could help us to communicate with your friends, or we +would have done so. You will tell us where to send now, will you not?" + +Ida blushed again and felt troubled. Why should she annoy and worry the +Herons? She shuddered slightly as she pictured her cousin John standing +beside the bed where the sweet and pleasant-faced sister now stood, and +preaching at her. They would want to take her back to Loburnum Villa; +and Ida regarded the prospect of return to that cheerful abode of the +Christian virtues as a prisoner might regard the prospect of returning +to his gaol. The sister regarded her keenly without appearing to do so. + +"Perhaps you would rather remain quietly for a few days, Miss Heron?" +she suggested, sweetly. + +Ida's eyes--they looked preternaturally large, violet orbs in her white +face--beamed gratefully. + +"Oh, yes, yes! if I may. Shall I be ill long?--how soon will it be +before I can go?" + +It is about as difficult to get a definite answer from a nurse as from +a doctor. + +"Oh, some days yet," replied the sister, cheerfully. "You must not go +until you are quite strong; in fact, we should not let you. Now you lie +quite still and try and sleep again if you can; and you can think over +whether you would like to communicate with your friends or not. If you +ask my advice, I shall say, like Mr. Punch, 'Don't!'" + +"I won't," said Ida, with her rare smile. + +The sister nodded and left her, and Ida closed her eyes again: but not +to sleep. She recalled her flight from Laburnum Villa, her wandering +through the streets, the crowded and noisy quay, and the strange +hallucination, the vision of Stafford standing on the stern of the +vessel. Of course, it was only a vision, an hallucination; but how real +it had seemed! So real that it was almost difficult to believe that it +was not he himself. She smiled sadly at the thought of Stafford, the +son of the great Sir Stephen Orme, sailing in a cattle-ship! + +The hours passed in a kind of peaceful monotony, broken by the frequent +visits of Nurse Brown and the house surgeon, with his grave face and +preoccupied air; and for some time Ida lay in a kind of semi-torpor, +feeling that everything that was going on around her were the unreal +actions in a dream; but as she grew stronger she began to take an +interest in the life of the great ward and her fellow-patients; and on +the second day after her return to consciousness, began a conversation +with her next-door neighbour, a pleasant-looking woman who had eyed her +wistfully several times, but who had been too shy to address "the young +lady." She was a country woman from Dorsetshire--up to London on a +visit "to my daughter, miss, which is married to a man as keeps a +dairy." It was her first visit to London; she had wandered from her +daughter's lost her, and, in her confusion, tumbled down the cellar of +a beer-shop. She told Ida the history of some of the other cases, and +Ida found herself listening with an interest which astonished her. + +Nurse Brown, seeing the two talking, nodded approvingly. + +"That's right," she said, with a smile. "You keep each other company. +It passes the time away." + +Very soon, Ida found herself taking an interest in everything that went +on, in the noiseless movements of the nurses, in the arrival of a new +case, in the visit of the doctors and the chaplain, and the friends of +the other patients. Let the pessimists say what they may, there is a +lot of good in human nature; and it comes out quite startlingly in the +ward of a hospital. Ida was amazed at the care and attention, the +patience and the devotion which were lavished on herself and her +fellow-sufferers; a devotion which no money can buy, and which could +not have been exceeded if they had one and all been princesses of the +blood royal. + +One instance of this whole-souled devotion and unstinting charity +occurred on the third day and brought the tears to her eyes, not only +then but whenever she thought of it in the after years. A tiny mite of +a baby, only a few weeks old was brought into the ward and laid in a +cot not very far from Ida's bed. The nurses and the doctors crowded +round it with eager attention. It was watched day and night; if it +cried, at the first note of the feeble wail, a couple of nurses flew to +the cot, and, if necessary, a famous physician was telephoned for: and +came promptly and cheerfully. The whole ward was wrapped up in the tiny +mite, and Ida leant on her elbow and craned forward to get a glimpse of +it; and felt towards it as she would have felt if it had been a little +sick or wounded lamb in Herondale. + +"What is the matter with it, poor little thing?" she asked the sister. + +"The spine," replied the sister, bending tenderly over the cot and +taking the emaciated little paw in her comforting, ministering hand. + +"Will it get well?" asked Ida, quite anxiously. + +The sister shook her head. + +"Lor' bless me!" said Ida's neighbour, pityingly. "It 'ud be almost +better if the pore little thing died!" + +The sister looked up with mild surprise. + +"Oh, yes; it can't live longer than three weeks," she said, as sadly as +if she had not seen a score of similar cases. + +Ida lay down, her eyes filled with tears, her heart filled with awe and +wonder. Perhaps for the first time in her life she understood what +charity meant. Here was a waif of the slums, doomed to die in so many +weeks, and yet it was the object of the loving devotion of every nurse +in the ward, with every comfort and luxury which an age of civilisation +could supply, and the recipient of the enthusiastic attention of a +great surgeon whose name was famous throughout the world. + +The woman in the next bed was crying too. + +"It makes you think of 'eaven, don't it, miss," she said, with a sniff. +"If I was rich I'd leave all my money to a 'orspital; that I would!" + +The speech suddenly reminded Ida of her own poverty, of which she had +not thought very much, for the need of money is not very keenly felt in +a hospital ward, where everything is "free, gratis, for nothing." The +time came when she was permitted to get up, and nothing could exceed +her amazement on finding herself so weak that her legs trembled under +her, and the walls and the floor seemed to rock and heave; but in a day +or two she was able to walk a little, and she at once begged permission +to help nurse the baby. It was against the rules, but it was very +difficult for anyone to resist Ida when she turned those great violet +eyes upon them imploringly: and much to her delight she was permitted +to hover about the cot and assist in an unofficial way. When the baby +was asleep, which was not particularly often, Ida was permitted to read +to some of the other patients; and, in fact, make herself generally +useful in an unobtrusive fashion. + +This was all very well, but the day arrived when she was strong enough +to leave the hospital and once more face that world which has been +described as the best of all possible worlds, and no doubt is for those +who have plenty of money and friends, but which is not far from being +the worst of all possible worlds for those who have not. She took five +pounds from her little store and went to the sister. + +"I am rather poor," she said, with a smile, "and I cannot afford more +than this. I wish it were a hundred times as much; indeed, no money +could repay your goodness and kindness to me, the wonder of which I +shall never cease to feel." + +The sister looked at her keenly, but said very gently: + +"You can put it in the box in the hall when you go out; but you will +not go to-day. I will arrange for you to stop until to-morrow; in fact, +the baby--none of us--could spare you. I want you to have some ten with +me in my room to-night and a little talk, Miss Heron." + +So Ida turned away quickly, that the sister might not see her tears, +and accepted the reprieve. + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + + +The Herons were not very much surprised at Ida's flight, but though +John and his wife and daughter were anything but sorry to get rid of +her, they were rather uncomfortable, and Joseph, who was in the +doldrums after his drinking-fit, did not make them more comfortable by +assuring them that he was perfectly certain she had committed suicide. + +He and his father set out to look for her, but, as Ida had left no clue +behind, they could find no trace of her, though they procured the +assistance of Scotland Yard, and inserted guarded advertisements in the +newspapers. John Heron comforted himself with the reflection that she +could have come to no harm or they would have heard of it; and at last +it occurred to him, when nearly a fortnight had elapsed, that she might +have returned to Herondale, probably to the care of Mr. Wordley, and +that he had been too indignant to acquaint the Herons with the fact. + +"I think I had better run down to Herondale, Maria, and ascertain if +the erring and desperate girl has returned there," he said, one morning +after prayers. "Seeing that she left my roof in so unseemly a fashion, +with no word of regret or repentance, I do not consider that she has +any further claim upon me; but I have a tender heart, and on this +occasion I will be generous before I am just." + +"I am sure she has no further claim upon us," said Mrs. Heron, with a +sniff, "and I hope you will make it plain, John, that on no account can +we take her back. We have been put to considerable trouble and expense, +and I really think that her going without any fuss is quite +providential." + +At this moment there came a double knock at the door, and the servant +announced that Mr. Wordley was in the drawing-room. Mr. and Mrs. Heron +exchanged glances, and both of them turned rather pale; for John Heron +had a very vivid recollection of Mr. Wordley's frank and candid manner +of expressing himself. But he had to be faced, and the pair went down +into the drawing-room with a long-suffering expression on their faces. + +Mr. Wordley, however, appeared to be quite cheerful. He shook hands +with both of them, and enquired after their health and that of their +family quite amiably and pleasantly. + +"Most delightful weather, isn't it?" he remarked. "Quite pleasant +travelling. You have a remarkably--or--convenient house, Mrs. Heron: +charming suburb: will no doubt be quite gay and fashionable when it +is--er--more fully developed. You are looking well, Mr. Heron." + +Mr. Heron, whatever he may have looked, was feeling anything but well +at that moment; for he suspected than the lawyer was only masking his +attack, and that he meant to spring upon him presently. + +"I enjoy fairly good health, Mr. Wordley, thank you," he said, in his +sanctimonious way; "but I have my share of trials and anxieties in this +miserable world." + +"Oh, don't call it miserable, on a morning like this!" said Mr. +Wordley, cheerfully. "My dear sir, there is nothing the matter with the +world; it's--er--some of the people in it that try to make it +miserable." + +While he had been speaking, he had been glancing at the door and +listening, as if he had been listening and expecting to hear and see +someone else. + +"The fact is," he said, "I have come up rather suddenly on rather +important business: came up without a moment's delay. _Where is_ Miss +Ida? I should like to see her at once, please, if I may!" + +The faces of the pair grew sallow, and the corners of John Heron's +mouth dropped lower even than usual. + +"Ida?" he said, in a hollow voice, as if he were confused. "Where is +she? Surely you know, Mr. Wordley?" + +"I know? How should I know? I came up to see her: not a moment to +spare. Isn't she here? Why do you both stare at me like this?" + +"She is not here," said John Heron. "Ida left our house more than a +fortnight ago." + +Mr. Wordley looked disappointed, and grunted: + +"Oh, gone to stay with some friends, I suppose. I'll trouble you to +give me their address, Mr. Heron, please." + +He rose, as he spoke, as if he meant starting on the moment, but he +sank into the chair again as John Heron said in a sepulchral voice: + +"I should most willingly do so, Mr. Wordley, but I regret to say I do +not know where she is." + +"You--don't--know--where--she is!" said Mr. Wordley, anger and +amazement struggling for the upper hand. "What the devil I beg your +pardon, Mrs. Heron! You must excuse an old man with a short temper and +a touch of the gout--but I don't understand you! Why don't you know?" + +Mrs. Heron began to sniff, and her worthy husband drew himself up and +tried to look dignified, and failed utterly in the attempt. + +"Such language--" he began. + +"Confound my language, sir!" snapped the old lawyer, his face growing +red. "Be good enough to answer my question!" + +"Ida left our hospitable roof about a fortnight ago," said Mr. Heron. +"She left like a thief in the night--that is to say, morning. I regret +to say that she left no message, no word of farewell, behind her. I had +occasion to rebuke her on the preceding night, and, following the +dictates of an ungodly nature and a perverse pride, she chose to leave +the shelter of this roof--" + +Mr. Wordley sprang to his feet, his passion rendering him speechless +for a moment. + +"_You_ rebuke Miss Ida! Are you out of your mind? And pray, what had +she done?" + +"She had been guilty of attempting to ensnare the affection of my +son--" began John Heron. + +At this moment the door opened and Joseph appeared. Mr. Wordley looked +at him. + +"Ensnaring the affections of _this!_" he snorted, with a contempt which +caused Mr. Joseph's immediate retreat. "Oh, you _must_ be out of your +mind!" + +"Her conduct was reprehensible in other ways," stammered John Heron. + +"Nonsense!" almost shouted Mr. Wordley. "I don't want to hear any more +of such nonsense. Miss Ida's conduct reprehensible! Why, she couldn't +conduct herself in any way than that of a high-bred, pure-minded, +gentle-hearted girl, if she tried! You have been entertaining an angel +unawares, Mr. Heron--there's a bit of Scripture for _you!_--you've had +a pearl in your house, and it's been cast before--Bless my soul! I'm +losing my temper! But, 'pon my word, there's some excuse for it. You've +let that dear child leave your house, you've lost sight of her for over +a fortnight, and--and you stand there and snuffle to me about her +'conduct!' Where is she? Oh, of course, you don't know; and you'd stand +there like a stuck pig, if I were fool enough to remain here for a week +and ask questions. But I want her--I want her at once! I've got +important news for her news of the greatest importance--I beg your +pardon, my dear madame, for the violence of my language--though I could +say a great deal more to this husband of yours if I were alone with +him. But it's no use wasting further time. I must find her--I must find +her at once." + +John Heron was as red as a turkey-cock and gasping like a cod out of +water. + +"This gross and unseemly attack is only excused by your age--" + +"Confound my age!" exclaimed Mr. Wordley. "Let me tell you, sir, your +age does not excuse your conduct, which has been that of a heartless +and sanctimonious fool. When I gave that dear child into your care, I +had misgivings, and they are fully justified. Would to God I had never +lost sight of her! The dearest, the sweetest and best--Oh, let me get +out, or I shall say something offensive." + +As he made for the door, John Heron cleared his throat and stammered: + +"I forgive you, sir. You will regret this exhibition of brutal +violence, and I shall put up a prayer--" + +"Don't you dare to put up any prayer for me!" cried Mr. Wordley. "I +should be afraid something would happen to me. I need not ask why she +left your house. It's quite evident enough. I've nothing more to say to +you." + +"One moment," said John Heron, with an attempt at dignity; "perhaps you +will be good enough to inform me of the nature of the communication +that you have for my cousin Ida." + +Mr. Wordley looked as if he were going to choke. + +"No, I will not, sir!" he at last responded. "I will tell you +nothing--excepting that I hope and trust I may never see your +sanctimonious face again. Good-morning! Good-morning, madame!" + +He was outside Laburnum Villa with the velocity and force of a +whirlwind, and was half-way on his road to the station before he could +get his breath or regain his self-possession. Being a lawyer, he, of +course, went straight to the police; but he was shrewd enough not to go +to Scotland Yard, but to the police station near the terminus; for it +seemed to him that it would be easier to trace Ida from that spot. + +Fortunately for him, he found an inspector in charge who was both +intelligent and zealous. He listened attentively to the detailed +statement and description which the lawyer--calm enough now--furnished +him, and after considering for a minute or two, during which Mr. +Wordley waited in a legal silence, asked: + +"Young lady any friends in London, sir?" + +Mr. Wordley replied in the negative. "Think she has gone to a +situation?" + +"No," replied Mr. Wordley; "she left suddenly; and I do not know what +situation she could find. She is a lady, and unaccustomed to earning +her bread in any way." + +"Then she has met with an accident," said the inspector, with an air of +conviction. + +"God bless my soul, my good man!" exclaimed Mr. Wordley. "What makes +you think that?" + +"Experience, sir," replied the inspector, calmly. "Have you any idea +how many accidents there are in a day in London? I suppose not. You'd +be surprised if I told you. What was the date she was missing?" + +Mr. Wordley told him, and he turned to a large red book like a ledger. + +"As I thought, sir," he said. "'Young lady knocked down by a light van +in Goode Street, Minories. Dark hair, light eyes. Height, five feet +nine. Age, about twenty-one or two. Name on clothing, "Ida Heron."'" + +Mr. Wordley sprang to his feet. + +"It is she!" he exclaimed. "Was she much hurt, is--is she alive--where +is she? I must go to her at once." + +"London Hospital," replied the inspector, succinctly, as he turned to a +subordinate. "Call a cab!" + +It was not a particularly slow hansom, and it did not take very long to +get from the police station to the hospital; but to Mr. Wordley the +horse seemed to crawl and the minutes to grow into days. He leapt out +of the hansom, and actually ran into the hall. + +"You've a patient--Ida Heron"--he panted to the hall porter. + +The man turned to his book. + +"Yes, sir," he said. "Discharged yesterday." + +Mr. Wordley staggered against the glass partition of the porter's box +and groaned. + +"Can you tell me--?" he began. "Has she left any address? I--I am her +solicitor. Excuse my being hurried: I want her particularly." + +The porter looked at him sympathetically--everybody is sympathetic at a +hospital, from the head physician and that puissant lady, the matron, +down to the boy who cleans the brass plate. + +"Won't, you sit down, sir," he said, "The young lady was discharged +yesterday, and I can't tell you where she's gone, in fact, though I +remember her being brought in--run-over case--I like to step upstairs +and see the sister of the ward she was in, the Alexandra?" + +While he was speaking, and Mr. Wordley was trying to recover command of +himself, a slim black-clad figure came down the hall, and pausing +before the large tin box provided for contributions, dropped something +into it. Mr. Wordley watched her absently; she raised her head, and he +sprang forward with "Miss Ida!" on his lips. + +Ida uttered a cry and staggered a little; for she was not yet as strong +as the girl who used to ride through Herondale, and Mr. Wordley caught +her by both hands and supported her. + +"Thank God! thank God!" was all he could exclaim for a minute. "My dear +child! my dear Miss Ida! Sit down!" + +He drew her to one of the long benches and sat down beside her. To his +credit, be it stated, that the tears were in his eyes, and for a moment +or two he was incapable of speech; indeed, it was Ida who, woman-like, +first recovered her self-possession. + +"Mr. Wordley! Is it really you? How did you know? how did you find me? +I am so glad; oh, so glad!" She choked back the tears that sprang to +her eyes and forced a laugh; for again, woman-like, she saw that he was +more upset than even she was. He found his voice after awhile, but it +was a very husky one. + +"My dear girl, my dear Miss Ida," he said, "you are not more glad than +I. I have been almost out of my mind for the last few hours. I came to +London all in a hurry. Most important news--went to your cousin's--Oh, +Lord! what a fool that man is! Heard you had run away--not at all +surprised. Should have run away myself long before you did. Came up to +London in search of you--just heard you'd gone from here." + +"I ought to have gone yesterday," said Ida, "but they let me stay." + +"God bless them!" he panted. "But how pale you look--and thin. You've +been ill, very ill; and you've been unhappy, and I didn't know it. What +a fool I was to let you go! It was all my fault! I ought to have known +better than to have trusted you to that sanctimonious idiot. My dear, +I've great news for you!" + +"Have you?" said Ida, patting his hand soothingly--she had caught +something of the gentle, soothing way of the sister and nurses. "Must +you tell me now? You are tired and upset." "I must tell you this very +minute or I shall burst," said Mr. Wordley. "My dear child, prepare +yourself for the most astounding, the most wonderful news. I don't want +to startle you, but I don't feel as though I could keep it for another +half hour. Do you think I could have a glass of water?" + +The porter, still sympathetic, at a sign from Ida, produced the glass +of water and discreetly retired. + +"Now," said Mr. Wordley, with intense gravity, "prepare to be startled. +Be calm, my dear child, as I am; you see I am quite calm!" He was +perspiring at every pore, and was mopping his forehead with a huge silk +handkerchief. "I have just made a great discovery. You are aware that +Herondale, the whole estate, is heavily mortgaged, and that there was a +foreclosure; that means that the whole of it would have passed away +from you." + +Ida sighed. + +"Yes, I know," she said, in a low voice. + +"Very well, then. I went over to the house the other day to--well, to +look out any little thing which I thought you might like to buy at the +sale--" + +Ida pressed his hand and turned her head away. + +"It was a sad business, sad, very sad! and I wandered about the place +like a--like a lost spirit. I was almost as fond of it as you are, my +dear. After I had been over the house I went into the grounds and found +myself in the ruined chapel. Donald and Bess followed me, and +Bess--what a sharp little thing she is, bless her!--she began to rout +about, and presently she began to dig with her claws in a corner under +the ruined window. I was so lost in thought that I stood and watched +her in an absent kind of way: but presently I heard her bark and saw +her tearing away like mad, as if she had found a rat or a rabbit. I +went up to where she was clawing and saw--what do you think--" + +Ida shook her head and smiled. + +"I don't know; was it a rabbit?" + +"No!" responded Mr. Wordley, with suppressed excitement. "It was the +top of a tin box--" + +"A tin box?" echoed Ida. + +"Yes," he said, with an emphatic nod. "I called Jason to bring a spade; +but I could scarcely wait, and I found myself clawing like--like one of +the dogs, my dear. Jason came and we had that box up and I opened it. +And what do you think I found?" + +Ida shook her head gently; then she started slightly, as she remembered +the night Stafford and she had watched her father coming, in his sleep, +from the ruined chapel. + +"Something of my father's?" + +Mr. Wordley nodded impressively. + +"Yes, it was something of your father's. It was a large box, my dear, +and it contained--what do you think?" + +"Papers?" ventured Ida. + +"Securities, my dear Miss Ida, securities for a very large amount! The +box was full of them; and a little farther off we found another tin +case quite as full. They were securities in some of the best and +soundest companies, and they are worth an enormous sum of money!" + +Ida stared at him, as if she did not realise the significance of his +words. + +"An enormous sum of money," he repeated. "All the while--God forgive +me!--I was under the impression that your father was letting things +slide, and was doing nothing to save the estate and to provide for you, +he was speculating and investing; and doing it with a skill and a +shrewdness which could not have been surpassed by the most astute and +business-like of men. His judgment was almost infallible; he seems +scarcely ever to have made a mistake. It was one of those extraordinary +cases in which everything a man touches turns to gold. There are mining +shares there which I would not have bought at a farthing a piece; but +your father bought them, and they've everyone of them, or nearly +everyone of them, turned up trumps. Some of them which he bought for a +few shillings--gold and diamond shares--are worth hundreds of pounds; +hundreds? thousands! My dear," he took her hand and patted it as if he +were trying to break the shock to her; "your poor father whom we all +regarded as an insolvent book-worm, actually died by far and away the +richest man in the county!" + +Ida looked at him as if she did not even yet quite understand. She +passed her thin hand over her brow and drew a long breath. + +"Do you mean--do you mean that I am no longer poor, Mr. Wordley?" she +asked. + +Mr. Wordley laughed so suddenly and loudly that he quite startled the +hall porter in his little glass box. + +"My dear child," he said, slowly and impressively, "you are rich, not +poor; im-mense-ly rich! I do not myself yet quite know how much you are +worth; but you may take it from me that it's a very large sum indeed. +Now, you are not going to faint, my dear!" For Ida's eyes had closed +and her hands had clasped each other spasmodically. + +"No, no," she said in a low voice, "But it is so sudden, so unexpected, +that I cannot realise it. It seems to me as if I were lying in the cot +upstairs and dreaming. No, I cannot realise that I can go back to +Herondale: I suppose I can go back?" she asked, with a sudden +piteousness that very nearly brought the tears to Mr. Wordley's eyes. + +"Go back, my dear!" he exclaimed. "Of course you can go back! The place +belongs to you. Why, I've already given notice that I am going to pay +off the mortgages. You will get every inch of the land back; you will +be the richest lady in the county--yes, in the whole county! The old +glories of the dear old house can be revived; you can queen it there as +the Herons of old used to queen it. And everybody will be proud and +delighted to see you doing it! As for me, I am ashamed to say that I +have almost lost my head over the business, and have behaved like +a--well, anything but like a staid and sober old solicitor." + +He laughed, and blew his nose, and nodded with a shamefaced joy which +affected Ida even more than his wonderful news had done. + +"How can I thank you for all your goodness to me," she murmured, a +little brokenly. + +"Thank me! Don't you attempt to thank me, or I shall break down +altogether; for I've been the stupidest and most wooden-headed idiot +that ever disgraced a noble profession. I ought to have seen through +your father's affectation of miserliness and indifference. Anybody but +a silly old numskull would have done so. But, my dear, why are we +staying here, why don't we go away at once? You'd like to go back to +Herondale by the first train? You must hate the sight of this place, I +should think." + +"No, no," said Ida, gently. "Yes, I would like to go back to +Herondale--ah, yes, as soon as possible. But I should like to see +someone before I go--the sister, the nurse, who have been so good to +me. You are sure"--she paused and went on shyly, "you are sure there is +no mistake, that I have some money, am rich?" + +"Rich as Croesus, my dear child," he responded, with a laugh. + +She blushed still more deeply. + +"Then, have you--have you any money with you, Mr. Wordley? I mean quite +a large sum of money?" "Not a very large sum, my dear," he replied, +rather puzzled. "About twenty or thirty pounds, perhaps." + +Ida's face fell. + +"Oh, that is not nearly enough," she murmured. + +"Eh?" he asked. "But I've got my cheque-book with me. How much do you +want? And, forgive me, my dear Miss Ida, but may I ask what you want it +for?" + +"Can I have a cheque for five hundred pounds?" Ida asked, timidly. + +"Five thousand, fifty thousand, my dear!" he responded, promptly, and +with no little pride and satisfaction. + +"Five hundred will do--for the present," she said a little nervously. +"Perhaps the porter will let you draw it out." + +Still puzzled, Mr. Wordley went into the porter's box and took out his +cheque-book. + +"Make it payable to the hospital--and give it to me, please," said Ida, +in a low voice. + +The old man's face cleared, and he nodded. + +"Of course, of course! God bless you, my dear! I might have known what +was in that good, grateful heart of yours. See here, I've made it out +for a thousand pounds. That's five hundred for you and five hundred for +me--and don't you say a word to stop me; for I'm only too grateful for +the idea. It will cool me down; and upon my word, I feel so excited, so +above and beyond myself that I want some safety-valve like this, or I +should fall to dancing in the hall and so disgrace myself and the noble +profession to which I belong." + +With the folded cheque in her hand Ida took him up the many stone steps +to the Alexandra ward. The gentle-eyed sister, who had parted from her +so reluctantly, was naturally surprised to see her return so soon, and +accompanied by a fatherly and prosperous old gentleman, who kept close +to her as if he were afraid she might be spirited from him. + +"I have come back to--to say good-bye again, sister," said Ida, her +voice faltering a little, but her eyes beaming as they had not beamed +for many a day; "and I want to give you something, something for the +hospital--it is from my dear friend here, Mr. Wordley, who has just +found me. And I want you not to open it until we have gone--say, for +half an hour. And I am going to write to you as I promised; and you can +write to me if you will be so kind; for I can give you the address now. +It is on the back of the cheque." + +She had written it in the porter's box. + +"I am going--home. Something has happened. But I will write and tell +you; now I can only say"--her voice broke and trembled--"good-bye, +again, and thank you with all my heart." She drew the sister to her +and kissed her; and Mr. Wordley shook the sister's hand, and blew his +nose so loudly that the patients, who had been watching them eagerly, +nodded to each other and exchanged significant glances, and there was a +suppressed excitement in the ward which found adequate expression when, +half an hour afterwards, the sister with flashed cheek and quavering +voice made them acquainted with Ida's gift. + +"And now," said Mr. Wordley, after he had shaken hands with several of +the officials, including the porter, "and now, my dear Miss Ida, for +Herondale and--Home! Hi, cab!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + + +The journey down to Herondale cannot be described: whenever Ida thought +of it in the after years, she felt herself trembling and quivering with +the memory of it. Until she had sat in the carriage, and the train had +started and she realised that she was indeed going home--home!--she did +not know what it had cost her to leave Herondale, how much she had +suffered at Laburnum Villa, how deep the iron of dependence had entered +her soul. She was all of a quiver with delight, with profound gratitude +to the Providence which was restoring her to the old house, the wide +moors, the brawling streams which she knew now were dearer to her than +life itself. + +Mr. Wordley understood, and was full of sympathy with her mood. He +bought newspapers and magazines, and he let her alone and pretended to +read; but every now and then she met his smiling glance, and knew by +his nod of the head that he was rejoicing with her. + +He had wired for a carriage and pair to meet them at Bryndermere, and +Ida leant back and tried to be patient, then to look unconcerned and +calm and composed; but she uttered a little cry and nearly broke down +when the carriage stopped at the familiar gate, and Jessie, who was +standing there, with her hair blown wild by the wind, forgot the +inequalities of their positions, and catching her beloved young +mistress to her bosom crooned and sobbed over her. + +Jason stood just behind, balancing himself first on one foot, and then +on the other, in his efforts to get a glimpse of Ida, and she stretched +out her arm over Jessee's shoulder and shook the honest hand which had +grown hard and horny in her service. Jessie almost carried her mistress +into the hall, where a huge fire was burning and threw a red and +cheerful glow over the fading gilding and grey-toned hangings. + +"Oh, miss, how thin you be!" she said at last, as, with clasped hands, +she surveyed Ida from top to toe anxiously and greedily. "Wherever have +you been to look like that? But never mind, Miss Ida; you're back, and +that's everything! And we'll very soon get some flesh on your bones and +drive the sad look out of thee eyes." In moments of emotion and +excitement Jessie forgot the schooling Ida had given her, and lapsed +into semi-Westmoreland. "You've missed the moorland air, dearie, and +the cream and the milk--I've 'eard it's all chalk and water in +London--and I suppose there wasn't room to ride in them crowded +streets; and the food, too, I'm told it ain't fit for ordinary humans, +leave alone a dainty maid like my sweet mistress." + +"Yes, you shall fatten me to your heart's desire, Jessie," said Ida. "I +suppose I don't look of much account; I've been ill. But I shall soon +get well. I felt, as we drove along the moor, with the wind blowing on +my cheek, as if I had not breathed since the hour I left. And now tell +me everything--all--at once! Rupert? There's no need to ask about the +dogs." Donald and Bess had not yet ceased to tear at her in frantic +efforts to express their delight. "Are you glad I've come back, +Donald?" she asked in a low voice as she knelt and put her arms round +his neck and nestled her face against his, and let him lick her with +his great, soft tongue. "Ah, if you are only half as glad as I am, +doggie, your heart must be half breaking with the joy of it. And if I'm +lean, you are disgracefully fat, Bess. Don't tell me you've missed me, +for I don't believe it." + +It was some time before Jessie could drag her upstairs; and the sight +of her old room, as cheerful as the hall, with the huge fire, almost +unnerved her, and when she was alone she sank upon her knees beside the +bed in a thanksgiving which was none the less deep and fervent for its +muteness. + +When she came down the dinner was ready and Mr. Wordley was standing in +front of the fire awaiting her. She was glad that Jason had not had +time to procure a new livery, was glad of the old shabbiness of the +room, that its aspect was not yet changed, and that it greeted her with +all its old familiarity, Mr. Wordley would not let her talk until she +had made, at any rate, a pretense of eating; but when they had gone +into the drawing-room, he drew a chair to the fire for her, and said; + +"Now, my dear, I am afraid I shall have to talk business. I shall be +too busy to come over to-morrow." He laughed. "You see I have left all +my other clients' affairs, to come after my stray lamb: I expect I +shall find them in a pretty muddle. Now, my dear, before I go I should +like you to tell me exactly what you would like to do. As I have +explained to you, you are now the mistress of a very large fortune with +which you can do absolutely what you like. Would you like to live here, +or would you like to take a house in London, or go abroad?" + +Ida looked up a little piteously. + +"Oh, not go to London or abroad!" she said. "Can I not live here? If +you knew how I feel--how the sight of the place, the thought that I am +under the old roof again--" + +She looked round the faded, stately room lovingly, wistfully, and Mr. +Wordley nodded sympathetically. + +"Of course you can, my dear," he said. "But equally o' course, you will +now want to restore the old place. There is a great deal to be done, +and I thought that perhaps you would like to go away while the work was +being carried on." + +Ida shook her head. + +"No, I would like to stay, even if I have to live in the kitchen or one +of the garrets. It will be a delight to me to watch the men at work; I +should never grow tired of it." + +"I quite understand, my dear," he said. "I honour you for that feeling. +Well, then, I shall engage an architect of repute, the first in his +profession"--he rubbed his hands with an air of enjoyment--"and he +shall restore the old place, with a respect and reverence. I think I +know the man to employ; and we will start at once, so that no time may +be lost, I want to see you settled in your proper position here. The +thought of it gives me a new lease of life! Of course, you will want a +proper establishment; more servants both in the house and out of it; +you will want carriages and horses; both the lodges must be rebuilt, +and the old avenue opened out and put in order. Heron Hall was one of +the finest places in the county and it shall be so again." + +"And Jessie shall be the housekeeper and Jason the butler," said Ida, +with a laugh of almost child-like enjoyment. "Oh, it all seems like a +dream; and I feel that at any moment I may wake and find myself at +Laburnum Villa. And, oh, Mr. Wordley, I shall want some more money at +once. I want to send the Herons a present, a really nice present that +will help them, I hope, to forget the trouble I caused them. Poor +people! it was not their fault; they did not understand." Mr. Wordley +snorted. + +"There is one topic of conversation, my dear Miss Ida, I shall be +compelled to bar," he said. "I never want to hear Mr. John Heron's name +again. As to sending them a present, you can, of course, send them +anything you like, to the half of your kingdom; though, if you ask me +whether they deserve it--" + +"I didn't ask you," said Ida, with a laugh, putting her hand on his +arm. "If we all got our deserts, how sad it would be for everyone of +us." + +Mr. Wordley grunted. + +"To-morrow I shall pay a sum of money into the bank for you, and you +will have to drive over and get a cheque-book; and you can amuse +yourself by drawing cheques until I come again." + +He lingered as long as he could, and kept the carriage waiting some +time; but at last he went and Ida was left alone to face the strange +change in her fortune. She sat before the fire dreaming for a few +minutes, then she wandered over the old house from room to room; and +every room had its memories and associations for her. In the library +she could almost fancy that her father was sitting in the high-backed +chair which was still drawn up in its place to the table; and she went +and sat in it and touched with reverent, loving hand the books and +papers over which he had been wont to bend. She stood before his +portrait and gazed at it with tear-dimmed eyes, and only the +consciousness of the love she had borne him enabled her to bear his +absence. As she passed through the hall the newly risen moon was +pouring in through the tall window, and, followed by Donald and Bess, +who had not left her for a moment, she opened the great hall door and +went on to the terrace, and walking to the end, stood and looked +towards the ruined chapel in which her father had buried his treasure. + +Up to this moment she had been buoyed up by excitement and the joy and +pleasure of her return to the old house; but suddenly there fell a +cloud-like depression upon her; she was conscious of an aching void, a +lack of something which robbed her heart of all its joy. She had no +need to ask herself what it was: she knew too well. Her old home had +come back to her, she was the mistress of a large fortune, she stood, +as it were, bathed in the sunshine of prosperity; but her heart fell +cold and dead, and the sunshine, bright as it was, well-nigh dazzling, +indeed, had no warmth in it. She was a great heiress now, would no +doubt soon be surrounded by friends. She had been poor and well-nigh +friendless that day Stafford had taken her in his arms and kissed her +for the first time; but, ah, how happy she had been! + +Was it possible, could Fate be so cruel as to decree, that she should +never be happy again, never lose the aching pain which racked her heart +at every thought of him! She put the fear from her with a feeling of +shame and helplessness. She _would_ forget the man who left her for +another woman, would not let thought of him cast a shadow over her life +and dominate it. No doubt by this time he had quite forgotten her, or, +if he remembered her, recalled the past with a feeling of annoyance +with which a man regards a passing flirtation, pleasant enough while it +lasted, but of which he did well to be a little ashamed. + +She would not look in the direction of the trees under which he had +stood on the night of the day she had first seen him; and she went in +with a forced cheerfulness to tell Jessie, listening with wide-open +eyes, of some of the strange things which had happened to her. All the +time she was talking, she was beset by a longing to ask Jessie about +Brae Wood and the Ormes; but she crushed down the idea; and Jessie was +too intent upon hearing the story of her mistress's sojourn in London +to have any breath or inclination to tell any of the dale news. Of +course Ida did not speak of the disagreement at Laburnum Villa, but she +gave Jessie an account of the accident and her experiences of a +hospital ward; at all which Jessie uttered "Ohs" and "Ahs" with bated +breath and gaping month. It was late before Ida got to bed, and later +still before she fell asleep; for, somehow, now that she was back at +Herondale the memory of that happy past grew more vivid; in fact, the +whole place was haunted by the spectre of her lost love: and of all +spectres this is the most sad and heart-possessing. + +She was out on Rupert as early as possible the next morning, and it was +difficult to say which was the more pleased at the reunion, he or his +mistress. And oh, what a delight it was to ride across the moor and +along the valley and by the stream; to see the cattle grazing and to +hear the sheep calling to one another in the old plaintive way! It was +almost difficult to believe that she had ever left Herondale that +Laburnum Villa was anything but a nightmare and the Herons a dismal +unreality. + +Now, for some time, she avoided that part of the road where the opening +of the plantation gave a view of the Villa; but she was drawn towards +it at last, and she leant forward on her horse and looked across the +lake at the great, white place shining in the autumn sunlight. It +seemed very still and quiet, and there was no sign of life about the +place; the lake itself was deserted save by one of the steamers on +which were only a few passengers well wrapped-up against the now keen +air. The appearance of the white, long-stretching place struck her with +a sense of desertion, and desolation, and with a sigh she turned and +rode away. + +That afternoon, as she was coming in from the stable Jessie came +running towards her. + +"Oh, Miss Ida, there's Lord and Lady Bannerdale and Lady Vayne and two +of the young ladies in the drawing-room." + +"Very well," said Ida, quietly; and removing her right-hand gauntlet, +she went straight into the drawing-room. + +In accordance with her father's wish and her own, perhaps mistaken, +pride she had avoided all these people hitherto; but there was no need +to avoid them any longer; she was their equal in birth, and her newly +discovered wealth effectually removed any cause for pride. Lady +Bannerdale, a motherly and good-natured woman, came forward to meet +her, and took her by both hands. + +"My dear, we have come over at once to tell you how glad we are!" she +said. "We heard the good news from Mr. Wordley, and neither I nor my +husband could wait another day before we came to congratulate you." + +Lady Vayne, too, held Ida's hand and looked at her with affectionate +sympathy. + +"And we felt the same, my dear," she said; "so you must not think us +intrusive." + +Ida shook hands with them all and rang for the tea. She was very quiet +and subdued, but the little cold look of surprise with which she had at +one time met their advances was now absent, and they could perceive +that she was glad to see them. + +"Our joy in the good news is not altogether unselfish and +disinterested, my dear Miss Ida," said Lord Bannerdale. "That Heron +Hall should be shut up and deserted, while there is so charming a +mistress to represent the old family, was little short of a general +misfortune. You cannot tell how anxious and concerned we have been +about you--but we will say no more about that. I trust a brighter star +has risen above the old house, and that it is entering upon brighter +fortunes. At any rate, let that be as it may, we want you to believe +how delighted we are to have you back again, and under such happy +auspices." "And we want to say, too, dear," said Lady Bannerdale, while +Lady Vayne nodded assentingly, "that we hope you have really come back +to us, that you will be one of us and let us see a great deal of you. +Of course, under the circumstances," she glanced at Ida's black dress, +"we are debarred from expressing our pleasure in festivity; but we hope +you will come to us quite quietly, and very often, and that you will +let us treat you as one of our own dear girls." + +Ida murmured a suitable response; but though she was by no means +demonstrative they were satisfied; and as they left they expressed that +satisfaction to each other. + +"Oh, yes, she was glad to see us," Lady Bannerdale said; "and I like +her all the better for not meeting us half-way and for refraining from +any gushing. Poor girl! I am afraid she has been very ill, and has felt +her trouble very keenly. She is much thinner, and when she came into +the room there was an expression in her face which touched me and made +my eyes dim." + +"We must look after her," remarked Lady Vayne. "There is something +weird in the idea of her living there all alone; though, of course, her +maid, Jessie, will take care of her." + +Lady Bannerdale smiled. + +"Ida Heron is one of those girls who are quite capable of taking care +of themselves," she said. "How wonderfully calm and self-possessed she +was. Most girls would have been rather upset, or, at any rate, a little +flurried, meeting us all so unexpectedly; but she came into the room +with the perfect unself-consciousness which marks--" + +"The high-bred lady," finished Lord Bannerdale. "I wonder whether we +realise how old a family the Herons is; we are all mushrooms compared +with that slim, little girl, who is now the mistress of Herondale and +an enormous fortune." + +"We shall have to find a husband for her," remarked Lady Vayne, who was +the match-maker of the locality. + +Lord Bannerdale smiled. + +"The trouble would be to get Miss Ida to accept him when you have found +him," he said, shrewdly. "I have an idea she would be difficult to +please; there is a little curl to those pretty lips of hers which is +tolerably significant." + +"Poor girl! There is time enough yet to think of such a thing," said +Lady Bannerdale, reprovingly; but while she sat it, mother-like, she +thought that her son, Edwin, would be home from a long tour in the East +in a week or two; that he was particularly good-looking, and in the +opinion of more persons than his mother, a particularly amiable and +good fellow. + +The next day there were more visitors; they all seemed as genuinely +glad at her return, and they all made as genuine overtures of +friendship. It was evident that Ida need not be alone in the world any +longer, unless she wished to be. On the morning of the third day, as +she was riding to Bryndermere, with some shopping as an excuse, she met +Mr. Wordley; a gentleman was sitting beside him who, Ida guessed, was +the architect. He proved to be no less a personage than the famous Mr. +Hartley. They had pulled up for the introduction close by the opening +on the lake; and while the architect was exchanging greetings with Ida, +his keen eyes wandered now and again to the Villa; and as Ida turned to +ride back with them, he said: + +"That is rather a fine place over there, Miss Heron; rather bizarre and +conspicuous, but striking and rather artistic. New, too: whose is it?" + +"Stephen Orme's place," replied Mr. Wordley, in rather a low voice. + +"Oh," said Mr. Hartley, with a nod which struck Ida as being peculiarly +expressive and significant, though she did not know what it implied. + +The three went all over the old Hall and after lunch the great +architect explained, with the aid of a sheet of paper and a pencil, his +idea of what should be done. + +"There need not be, there should not be, the least addition," he said. +"What you want to do, Miss Heron, is, as Mr. Wordley says, restore: +restore with all reverence. It is a superb piece of architecture of its +kind and it must be touched with a gentle hand. If you are prepared to +leave it all to me, I trust I may be able to make the present building +worthy of its past. It will be a delightful task for me; but I must +tell you frankly that it will cost a very large sum of money; how much +I shall be able to inform you when I have got out my plans and gone +into the estimate; but, at any rate, I can say emphatically that the +place is worth the expenditure. Am I to have _carte blanche_?" + +"Yes," said Ida; "I will leave it entirely in your hands." + +This at least she could do with the money which her father had so +mysteriously made: restore it, the house he had loved so well well, to +its old dignity and grandeur. + +The great architect, very much impressed not only by the Hall but its +beautiful young mistress, left before Mr. Wordley, who wanted to talk +over business with Ida. But he found her rather absent-minded and +preoccupied and presently, in a pause, she said, with forced calmness: + +"Is Sir Stephen Orme still at the Villa at Brae Wood, Mr. Wordley?" + +He had been making some memoranda in his pocket-book and he looked up +with a start and stared at her. + +"Is Sir Stephen--My dear child, don't you know--haven't you heard?" + +"Heard what?" she asked, her face beginning to grow paler, her lips set +tightly. + +"God bless my soul, I'm surprised!" he exclaimed. "I thought everybody +had heard the news. Sir Stephen is not living at the Villa, for a very +grave and all-sufficient reason: he is dead, my dear." + +Ida leant back in her chair and raised a screen which she held in her +hand so that it shielded her face from his gaze. + +"I did not know," she said, in a very low voice. "I had not heard, I +have not seen any papers, or, if I have, only the advertisement part. +Dead!" + +"Yes," said Mr. Wordley; "poor man, he died suddenly, quite suddenly, +in the middle of a grand ball; died of the shock." + +"Shock?" she echoed. + +He looked at her as if he found it hard to realise her ignorance. + +"Yes; the shock of the bad news. Dear me! it seems so strange that you, +a neighbour, so to speak, should not have heard the story of which all +London--one might almost say all England--was talking. Sir Stephen was +a great financier, and had just brought out a great company to work an +important concession in Africa. He was supposed to have made an +enormous sum of money by it; indeed, must have done so; but at the very +moment of his success there came a stroke of bad luck; and the news of +it was brought to him on the night of the ball he was giving in his +splendid town house. The sudden reverse meant absolute ruin, and he +fell dead with the cablegram in his hand. Shocking, was it not?" + +Ida's lips moved, but she could not speak. The whole scene seemed to +rise before her; but, naturally enough, her thoughts were concentrated +upon one figure in it, that of Stafford. + +"Then--then Mr. Stafford Orme is now the baronet, Sir Stafford?" she +said in a scarcely audible voice. "No; he is now Lord Highcliffe. His +father was raised to the peerage on the day he died--one night almost +say the hour he died. That makes it the more unfortunate." + +"Unfortunate? I do not understand. You say he is a peer?" + +"Yes; but a penniless peer; and I can't imagine a more unpleasant and +miserable position than his. His father died absolutely ruined; indeed, +insolvent; though I suppose by his son's act of noble self-sacrifice a +great many of the debts were paid." + +"Tell me--I do not know," said Ida, as steadily as she could. + +"Sir Stephen settled a very large sum of money upon the young man; but +he refused to take advantage of it, and made over the whole sum, every +penny of it, to the creditors; and left himself, I am told, absolutely +penniless. Not that it mattered very much; because he is engaged to a +Miss Falconer, who father is, I believe, a millionaire." + +The colour rose to Ida's face, the hand which held the screen shook. + +"And they--they are going to be married soon?" asked she. + +"I don't know, I suppose not," replied Mr. Wordley, as he bent over his +memoranda again; "Lord Highcliffe has disappeared, left England. No one +seems to quite know where he has gone. It was a terrible collapse, and +a tragic end, the great Sir Stephen's; but men of his trade always have +to run such risks. By the way, I suppose the Villa will have to be +sold." + +"Sold?" echoed Ida. "I would like to buy it." + +She spoke on the impulse of the moment; but Mr. Wordley did not seem at +all surprised, and only smiled as he responded: + + +"I know no reason why you should not, my dear Miss Ida. I am not sure +that it would be a good investment; but if you've a fancy for it, I +will enquire into the matter. Yes; certainly you can buy if you want to +do so." + +Long after he had gone Ida sat, leaning forward in her chair and gazing +at the fire. Stafford was now Lord Highcliffe, a peer, but poor and a +wanderer. She started: was it really he whom she had seen on the cattle +steamer? Then they had been near each other, had looked into each +other's eyes! Perhaps she would never seem him again--but, ah, yes! it +was quite probable she would, for was he not engaged to the wealthy +Miss Falconer, and would he not come back to marry her? The following +evening she received a short note from Mr. Wordley: it informed her +that the Villa was not for sale. It had been purchased by Mr. Falconer +for his daughter. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + + +Within a few days she received invitations from the Bannerdales and +Vaynes and the other county families, who were evidently possessed by +the kind determination that she should become one of them. The dinner +at Bannerdale Grange was quite _en famille_; she was made a great deal +of; and if she had given them the least encouragement they would +actually have petted her; but though Ida had lost something of her old +pride and _hauteur_, caused by her isolation, she was still somewhat +reserved, and, grateful as she was for their overtures of affection, +she could not respond as fully as she would have liked. It was the same +with the Vaynes and Avorys; they were all more than kind to her, and +she longed to receive their attention with open arms; but she could +not: the fact was, her wounded heart was so tender that it shrank even +from the gentlest touch. + +"The girl is all right," remarked Lord Bannerdale. "She has been in +great trouble and it has hurt her very badly; and though she seems +rather cold and reserved, she is more sensitive than most women: you +must give her time." + +Ida had resolved that though she could not altogether forget the great +sorrow of her life, she would not brood over it. She knew that for her +complaint there was nothing worse than idleness; and she sought +employment for her mind and body with an eagerness that sometimes +became almost feverish. When she was not visiting or receiving visits +from, what might be called her new, friends, she was busy about the +farm and the estate, and took long rides on Rupert accompanied as of +old by the dogs. Very soon, too, Mr. Hartley began at the restoration; +and Ida was deeply interested in the progress of the work. Then, again, +the hunting season commenced, and to the delight of Sir Robert Vayne, +the master, she appeared at the first meet: and, is it necessary to +say? was in at the death. She enjoyed that first run more than she had +enjoyed anything since the fatal morning she had lost both sweetheart +and father; and she was very nearly happy as she rode home with a +crushed hat and a habit splashed with mud. + +A week or two afterwards, Lord Bannerdale gave a hunt breakfast, and +made a point of her being present; and she yielded though she would +have preferred to have joined the meet at the coverts. As she rode up, +Lord Bannerdale came down the steps to meet her; and by his side was a +tall, good-looking young fellow whom Ida rightly guessed, by his +likeness to his father, to be Lord Bannerdale's son. He had returned +from his travels on the preceding night, was in perfect health and +spirits, much tanned by the sun and rain, and seemed to possess his +full share of the amiability of his amiable family. He stood, +bare-headed, at Rupert's head and took Ida's hand to help her to +dismount, and not only walked with her to the house, but contrived to +sit beside her at the breakfast-table. His people had been talking to +him of Ida, he was quite prepared to be impressed, and that he was so +was evident before the meal had concluded. His mother paid particular +attention to Ida, and Lord Bannerdale regarded the young pair +approvingly. + +Lord Edwin rode as straight as Ida herself; it was a magnificent +run--of course, "the best run of the season"--and Lord Edwin, securing +the brush, fastened it to her saddle. Those who saw the act--they were +not many, for the pace had been fast and hard--exchanged significant +glances. Lord Edwin was over at the Hall next day and displayed a keen +interest in the restoration, and bent for some time over the plans +which he had humbly begged Ida to show him. He was a modest young +fellow, with more intelligence and good sense than generally goes with +his age, and Ida liked him. It was inevitable that they should meet +almost every day; it was almost as inevitable that he should fall in +love with her; for she was not only the most beautiful girl in the +county, but there was an element of romance in her loneliness and her +fortunes which naturally appealed to him. + +He went to his father one day and confided in him; but, though Lord and +Lady Bannerdale were more than pleased, they begged him not to be too +sanguine. + +"Sanguine!" he exclaimed, colouring. "I live in a state of mortal fear +and dread; for though I love her more every time I see her, I never +leave her without feeling that my case is hopeless. There is something +about Ida--oh, of course I can't explain!--but I feel as if I could no +more speak to her of love than I could--could jump over this house." + +"And yet she is so gentle and friendly," said Lady Bannerdale to +encourage him. + +The young fellow, wise in his generation, shook his head. + +"That's just it, mother," he said, gravely. "She treats me as if I were +a brother, quite a young brother; and I know that if I were to speak to +her, to let her know how much I love her, it would mean the end of +everything. I should never be able to see her again--and I could not +stand that; for I am only happy when I am with her--and then I am +miserable with the thought of having to leave her." + +"You must be patient, my dear fellow," said Lord Bannerdale. "Ida Heron +is a girl in a million, and she is worth waiting for." + +"Oh, I'll wait," said Lord Edwin; "but sometimes I feel that all the +waiting in the world won't win her," he added, with a sigh. + +One day--it was in the Christmas week which Ida had been prevailed upon +to spend with the Bannerdales--Lord Bannerdale came in at luncheon-time +with some news. + +"I hear the Villa is to be occupied at Christmas," he said. "Mr. +Falconer and his daughter are coming down to-day." + +"Is there to be a house-party?" said Lady Bannerdale. "But I suppose +not. No, there could not be, under the circumstances. Poor girl! Sir +Stephen's death--I never can remember that he was Lord Highcliffe! +--must have been a great grief and shock to her. She and her +father will naturally wish to be quiet; but I suppose we ought to call. +You have never seen her, I think, Ida?" + +"No," said Ida, in the impassive, reticent way in which she always +spoke and looked when on guard. + +"An extremely beautiful woman," said Lady Bannerdale; "but she always +struck me as being a remarkably cold one; though, of course, it may +have only been manner. The present Lord Highcliffe, Sir Stephen's son, +has been away some time now. I suppose he will come back soon, and they +will be married. They will make a very handsome couple. You would like +him, Edwin. I took a great fancy to him on the few occasions I met him; +and I felt deeply sorry for his misfortunes. But there will be no lack +of money when he and Miss Falconer are married, for her father is +immensely rich, I believe. It would be very nice for all of us if Lord +Highcliffe settled at the Villa; and I have an idea that Mr. Falconer +has bought it for them." + +Ida's heart sank, and she seized the first opportunity of getting to +her own room. What hope of forgetfulness could there be for her, what +chance of happiness if Stafford came back to the Villa to live, if she +should be in hourly dread of meeting him? The thought haunted her +though all the quiet Christmas festivities at the Grange; and she was +glad to get back to the Hall, and away from the eyes which watched her, +though they watched her with a friendly and affectionate regard. + +In her daily rides she avoided the opening on the lake side from which +the Villa was visible; and she would sometimes make a long _detour_ +rather than go near the spot. On one occasion, when returning from +Bryndermere, instead of crossing by the ferry she rode round by the +other side of the lake, keeping well away from the Villa, lest she +should meet anyone belonging to it. She had reached the top of the hill +below which wound the road leading to the Hall, and after pausing to +look at the magnificent view, was riding across a field, one of the +outlying fields of her estate, when she saw a lady riding through a +gate at the lower end. The blood rushed to her face and her heart +seemed to stand still for a moment, for she saw that it was Maude +Falconer; then her face grew pale and a wave of bitterness, grew over +her, for she recognised the horse on which Maude was riding: it was +Stafford's Adonis. Her first impulse was to turn aside and leave the +field; but her pride revolted, and she kept her course, looking +straight before her and trying not to see the graceful figure below +her. + +At sight of her, the blood had flown to Maude's face also, and she +tried to check her horse; but Adonis, at any time rather more than she +could well manage, was fresh and too eager to join the other horse, and +he carried her up the field against her will. The two met almost face +to face, the horses exchanging friendly neighs. For a moment, while one +could count twenty, the two rivals sat and looked at each other. Half +unconsciously, Ida noticed the pallor and the worn look of the +beautiful face, the wistful peevishness of the delicately cut lip; then +suddenly Maude's face flushed, her eyes grew hard and scornful, and +with something like a sneer she said, in a metallic tone: + +"I beg your pardon, but are you aware that you are trespassing?" + +A saint would have turned on such provocation; and Ida, being no saint, +felt that her face was as crimson as the other girl's, and grew as hot +of heart as of face. She set her lips tightly and tried to remain +silent: surely it would be better, in every way better, to ride on +without a word. But it was more than she could do: and she drew herself +up and her eyes flashed back the challenge, as she said in a low but +distinct voice: + +"Pardon me, but you are mistaken. The land on which I am riding belongs +to me." Maude grew pale again, and her lips set closely until the line +of red almost disappeared. + +"Is this not, then, part of the Villa estate?" she asked. + +"No; it is part of the Herondale estate," replied Ida, rather more +gently: for was it not horrible that she should be engaged in +altercation with Stafford's future wife? + +"Then I presume I have the honour of speaking to Miss Heron," said +Maude, with an indefinable air, combining contempt and defiance, which +brought the colour to Ida's face again. + +"My name is Ida Heron; yes," she said. + +"Then, if you are making no mistake, it is I who am trespassing," said +Maude, "and it is I who must apologise. Pray consider that I do so most +fully, Miss Heron." + +"No apology is necessary," said Ida, still more gently. "You are quite +welcome to ride over this or any part of Herondale." + +Maude gave a little scornful laugh. + +"Thanks, it's very good of you!" she said, haughtily, and with that +covert offensiveness of which, alas! a woman alone is capable. "I do +not think I shall have any desire to avail myself of your kind +permission; the public roads and the land belonging to my father's +house will, I think, prove quite sufficient for me. I am the daughter +of Mr. Falconer, of the Villa at Brae Wood." + +Ida inclined her head slightly by way of acknowledgment and adieu, and +without another word rode on towards the gate at the bottom of the +field which opened on to the road. Adonis who had been delighted to +meet his old friend, promptly followed; and, though Maude Falconer +tried her hardest to check him and turn him, he, inwardly laughing at +her efforts, trotted cheerfully beside Rupert, and continued their +conversation. Maude was half mad with mortification, and, quite unable +to leave Ida's hated side, she raised her whip and struck Adonis across +the face. The horse, who had never received such a blow before in his +life, stopped dead short, falling back almost on to his haunches, then +reared straight up and in a moment of temper tried to throw her off; +indeed, she must have fallen but Ida, always cool at such moments, +swept sideways, caught Adonis's bridle and brought him on all fours. +Maude was instantly jerked forward on to the horse's neck in a +humiliating fashion, but recovering her seat, sat trembling with +passion. + +It was impossible not to pity her, and Ida in her gentlest and quietest +of voices, said: "I will wait here, will not go through the gate until +your groom comes up. Your horse will be quite quiet then. If I might +venture to say so, I think it would be wise not to strike him across +the head; very few horses can stand it; and this one is high-bred and +exceptionally spirited--" + +She was stopped by Maude's scornful laugh. + +"Really, I ought to feel very much obliged to you, Miss Heron!" she +said; "and my sense of obligation is almost as great as my amazement at +your frankness--and assurance! May I ask you to be good enough to +release my horse's reins?" + +Ida's hand fell from the reins, and her face grew crimson; but before +she could have retorted, even if she had intended doing so, Maude +struck the horse again; it turned and dashed across the field, kicking +and plunging violently, with Maude swaying perilously in the saddle. + +Ida waited until the groom--it was Pottinger--had gained his mistress's +side and got hold of the horse; then, with no thought of bravado but +simply with the desire to get away from the spot, she put Rupert at the +gate and leapt into the road. + + + + +CHAPTER XL. + + +Ida rode home all quivering with the pain of her meeting with Maude +Falconer. At first it seemed to her that she must leave Herondale--for +a time, at any rate; that it would be impossible for her to run the +risk of meeting the beautiful woman who had stolen Stafford from her; +but, as she grew calmer, her pride came to her aid, and she saw that to +run away would be cowardly. Herondale was her home, had been her home +long before the Villa had sprung up, and to desert it because of the +proximity of Maude Falconer would be almost as bad as if a soldier +should desert his colors. + +But for the next few days she did not leave her own grounds. She grew +pale and listless, and Lady Bannerdale, when she came to look her up, +noticed the change in her, but was too tactful to make any remark upon +it. + +"We have missed you so much, my dear," she said, affectionately. +"Indeed, my husband has been quite fidgety and irritable--so unlike +him!--and Edwin has been worse, if it were possible. Men are a great +trouble, my dear Ida. Though perhaps I ought not to say that of mine, +for I count myself lucky in both husband and son. Edwin has scarcely +given me a day's trouble since he was a child. I really think, if I +were asked what are the best gifts bestowed by the fairy godmother, I +should say 'a good digestion and a temper to match,' and I am quite +proud of Edwin's strength and amiability. But even he has been somewhat +of a trial for the last few days; so, my dear girl, do come over and +help me manage them." + +Ida smiled rather absently, and her ladyship glided smoothly from the +subject. + +"Since we last saw you we have called at the Villa," she said, "and we +were fortunate enough to find Miss Falconer at home. She is alone there +in that huge palace of a place, for her father has gone back to London; +and, though I was never very much taken with her, I could not help +pitying her." + +"Why?" asked Ida, not absently now, but in her quiet, reserved manner. + +"She looks so--well, actually so unhappy," replied Lady Bannerdale. +"She was in mourning, and her face--she is really an extremely +beautiful girl!--was like marble. And her reception of me was almost as +cold. I am afraid that she has had more trouble than we are aware of, +there was such a preoccupied and indifferent air about her. It occurred +to me that she was fretting for her absent _fiancé_, Mr. Stafford--oh, +dear me! I shall never remember to call him Lord Highcliffe!--and I +resolved to carefully refrain from mentioning him; but you know how +stupid one is in such a case, how one always talks about lameness in +the presence of a man with one leg; and in the midst of a pause in the +conversation, which, by the way, was nearly all on my side, I blurted +out with: 'Have you heard from Mr. Stafford Orme lately, Miss +Falconer?' 'I suppose you mean Lord Highcliffe, Lady Bannerdale?' she +said, turning her cold, blue eyes on my scarlet face. 'He is in +Australia, and is well. I do not hear very often from him. He is +leading a very busy life, and has little time for letter-writing, I +imagine.' Of course I got myself away as soon as I could after that, +and I'm afraid I left a very bad impression upon Miss Falconer." + +Ida said nothing, but leant forward and stirred the fire, which may +have caused the colour which glowed for a moment or two on her face. + +"I am sure I don't know why the young man should have rushed off to the +other end of the world: or why he doesn't rush back again and marry the +lady of his heart, who has enough money for both of them, and would +make an extremely handsome and stately countess. By the way, have you +ever seen the present Lord Highcliffe, my dear?" "Yes, I have seen +him," Ida replied in the tone which closes a subject of conversation. +"Shall I give you some more tea? No? Would you like to see how the +workmen are getting on? I think they are working very quickly. They +will want this part of the house presently, and I have an idea of going +away for a time; perhaps abroad," she added, though she had put the +idea away from her until this moment, and it was only Lady Bannerdale's +talk of Maude Falconer which started it again in her mind. + +Lady Bannerdale, looked alarmed. + +"Oh, don't do that, my dear!" she said. "If you are obliged to turn out +of the house, why not come to us? It would be so kind and sweet of +you." + +Ida sighed a little wearily. + +"Oh, I don't suppose they will insist upon ejecting me," she said. "I +think I can persuade them to leave me two or three rooms." + +Lady Bannerdale went home and dropped her bomb-shell in the presence of +Lord Bannerdale and Edwin. + +"Ida rather thinks of going abroad," she said in a casual way at the +dinner table. + +Lord Edwin was raising his wine glass to his lips, but arrested it +half-way and set it down again; and his handsome face grew long and +grave. + +"Oh! We shall miss her," remarked Lord Bannerdale, lamely, and avoiding +looking in his son's direction. + +Not another word was said; but the next day Lord Edwin came into Lady +Bannerdale's room with that affectation of ease and indifference which +never yet deceived a mother. + +"I'm going to call on Miss Heron, mother," he said. "Any message?" + +Lady Bannerdale looked at him, her brow wrinkled with motherly anxiety. +There was nothing in the world she desired more than his happiness; and +she knew that the marriage with Ida would be in every way desirable: +the girl was one in a thousand, the Bannerdale estates almost joined +Herondale; both she and her husband were fond of Ida, who, they knew, +would prove a worthy successor to the present mistress of the Grange; +but just because it seemed so desirable and Lord Edwin's heart was so +passionately set upon it, the mother was anxious. She saw that he was +dressed with extreme care, and that his face was unusually grave. + +"You will give Ida my love, Edwin, please, and tell her--" She turned +away that he might not see her anxiety. "That is all; but it means a +great deal, as you know, Edwin. I--I wish you every happiness, my dear +boy!" + +"Thank you, mother," he said, by no means in an unmanly way. "My +happiness or unhappiness rests with her." + +When he arrived at the Hall, Ida was just going out for a ride. She +turned back with him to the drawing-room, thinking that he had brought +a message from his mother, probably a definite invitation to stay at +the Grange, and in her mind she had already decided to decline it. As +he happened to stand with his back to the window the gravity of his +face did not enlighten her; and with something like a start she +received his first words. + +"Miss Heron, my mother says that you have some thought of leaving +Herondale, of going abroad. If that is so, I cannot let you go +without--without my speaking to you; so I have come over this afternoon +to tell you, as well as I can, what I have on my mind and my heart. I'm +not very good at expressing myself, and I'm handicapped in the present +instance by--by the depth of my feeling. Of course I'm trying to tell +you that I love you. I thought you might have seen it," he said, with a +touch of wonder at her start and flush of surprise. "But I see you have +not noticed it. I love you very much indeed; and I feel that my only +chance of happiness lies in my winning you for my wife. I don't know +there's any more to be said than that, if I were to talk for a month. I +love you, and have loved you for a long time past." A few weeks, a few +months are "a long time" to youth when it is in love! "The very first +day I saw you--but I needn't tell you that, only I like you to know +that it isn't a sudden fancy, and one that I shall get over in a hurry. +I don't feel as though I shall ever get over it at all; I don't know +that I want to. Please don't speak for a moment. There was something +else I wanted to say. I'd got it all arranged as I came along, but the +sight of you has scattered it." + +Ida had been going to speak, to stop him; but at this appeal she +remained silent, standing with her hands closing and unclosing on her +whip, her eyes fixed on the ground, her brows drawn straight. The +coldest woman cannot listen unmoved to a declaration of love, and Ida +was anything but cold. + +"I only wanted to tell you," he went on, "that my people are very +anxious that you should say 'yes.' Both my father and mother are very +fond of you--I think you know that and--" he stammered a little here +for the first time--"and--well, there are the estates. You won't mind +my saying that both you and I have to think of them; they belong to us +and we belong to them, and--if we were married--But I don't lay much +stress upon the estates being so close. I'd come and ask you to marry +me if I were as poor as a church mouse or you hadn't a penny. It just +comes to this: that I love you with all my heart and soul, that if +you'll marry me I shall be the happiest man, and my people the proudest +people, in England." + +There was a warm flush on his handsome face, an eager look in his +bright eyes, and he had pleaded his cause very well, in an outspoken, +manly way, which never fails to appeal to a woman. Ida was moved; the +crop nearly snapped in her hands, and her eyes grew moist. He saw it, +and tried to take her hand, but she, though she did not move, shook her +head very gently but very resolutely. + +"No," she said, in a low voice, "I--I want to tell you, Lord Edwin, how +proud I am at the honour you have paid me. Like yourself, I am not good +at expressing my feelings--though, indeed, I think you have done +yourself an injustice: you have spoken, told me very well--and I am +very grateful. I wish I could say 'yes.'" + +"Ah, say it!" he implored her, eagerly. + +She shook her head again, and lifting her eyes and looking at him +straightly but sadly, she said in a still lower voice: + +"Lord Edwin, I do not love you." + +"I never said, thought, you did," he responded, promptly. "Why, you've +only known me such a short time, and I'm not such a conceited bounder +to think that you've fallen in love with me already. I only want you to +let me try and win your love; and--I think I shall do so," he said in a +modest but manly way, which would at once have won Ida's heart--if it +had not been won already. "If you will only give me some hope, just +tell me that I've a chance, that you'll let me, try--" + +Ida smiled a sad little smile. + +"If I said as much as that--But I cannot. Lord Edwin, you--you have +told me that you love me, and it would not be fair--ah, please don't +try to persuade me! Don't you see how terrible it would be if I were to +let you think that I might come to care for you, and I did not do so." + +"For God's sake, don't say 'no,'" broke from him, and his face paled +under the tan. + +She turned away from him, her eyes full of tears which she dared not +let him see. + +"I--I must have time," she said, almost desperately. "Will you give me +a day, two days?" she asked, quite humbly. "I want to do what you want, +but--I want to think: there is something I should have to tell you." + +He flushed to the roots of his hair. + +"If it's anything that's happened in the past, anyone else--of course, +loving you as I do, I have seen that there has been something on your +mind, some trouble besides your father's death--but if it is past, I +don't mind. I know I can teach you to forget it, whatever it is. Ida, +trust yourself to me." + +She drew away from him. + +"Give me two days," she said, with a catch in her breath. + +He caught at the hope, small though it was. + +"I will give you two days, twenty if you like," he said. "Only, while +you are thinking it over, remember I love you with all my heart and +soul, that my people will love you as a daughter, that--Oh, I won't say +any more: I can't trust myself! I'll go now." + +When he had gone Ida got on Rupert and rode to the top of the hill. +There she pulled up and thought with all her heart and mind. She could +not doubt his love; she could not but feel that if she surrendered +herself to him he would, indeed, in time teach her to forget. She knew +that it was her duty to marry; his word about the estates had not been +spoken in vain. Yes; if she became Lord Edwin's wife, she would in time +forget. But, alas! she did not want to forget. + +Her love for Stafford was still as strong as ever, and with its +bitterness was mingled a sweetness which was sweeter than life itself. +And yet how great a sin it was, how shameful a one, that she should +love a man who was pledged to another woman, who was going to marry +her! + +She came in late for dinner, and could scarcely eat. Her reason said +"yes," her heart said "no:" and she knew that she ought to listen to +her reason and turn a deaf ear to the still voice in her heart. She +paced up and down the drawing-room, pale and wan with the fight that +was going on within her. Then suddenly she resolved that she would +accept him. She would not keep him in suspense: it would not be +fair--it would be a cruel requital of his love and generosity. She went +to the writing-table, and hurriedly, as if she were afraid of +hesitating, she drew a sheet of paper towards her and wrote: + +"Dear Lord Edwin--" She had got thus far when Donald and Bess, who had +been lying beside the fire, sprang up and ran to the door barking +loudly. She laid down the pen and opened the door mechanically; the +moonlight was streaming through the window in the hall; the dogs +bounded to the front door still barking vociferously. Still, +mechanically, she let them out, and they rushed across the terrace and +over the lawn to the group of trees beside the footpath. Thinking that +they heard Jessie, whom she had sent to Bryndermere, Ida, +half-unconsciously glad of the interruption, followed them slowly +across the lawn. + +Their barking ceased suddenly, and convinced that it was Jessie, she +went on to add something to her message. Then, suddenly, she saw a tall +figure standing in the shadow of the trees. It was a man, and Donald +and Bess were jumping up at him with little whines of pleasure. Smitten +by a sudden fear she stopped; but the man raised his head and saw her, +and, with an exclamation, strode towards her. For an instant she +thought that she was dreaming, that her imagination was playing her +false, for it was Stafford's form and face. They stood and gazed at +each other; her brain felt dizzy, her pale face grew paler; she knew +that she was trembling, that she could scarcely stand; she began to +sway to and fro slightly, and he caught her in his arms. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI. + + +She did not resist, but resigned herself to his embrace, as if he still +had the right to take her in his arms, as if she still belonged to him. +She had been under a great, an indescribable strain for several hours, +and his sudden presence, the look in his eyes, the touch of his hands, +deprived her of the power of thought, of resistance. To her and to him, +at that moment, it was as if they had not been parted, as if the events +of the last few months were only visionary. + +With surrender in every fibre of her being she lay in his arms, her +head upon his breast, her eyes closed, her heart throbbing wildly under +the kisses which he pressed passionately upon her lips, her hair; the +while he called upon her name, as if his lips hungered to pronounce it. + +"Stafford!" she said, at last. "It is really you! When--" Her voice +died away, as if she were speaking in a dream, and her eyes closed with +a little shudder of perfect joy and rest. + +"Yes, it's I!" he responded, in a voice almost as low as hers, a voice +that trembled with the intensity of his passion, his joy in having her +in his arms again. "Last night I came down by the first train--I waited +at the station for it--I came straight from the docks." She drew a +happy sigh. + +"So soon? And you came straight here? When I saw you just now, I +thought it was a vision: if the dogs had not been here--I remembered +that dogs do not see ghosts. Oh, Stafford, it is so long, so very long +since I have seen you, so sad and dreary a time! Tell me--ah, tell me +everything! Where you have been. But I know! Stafford, did you know +that I saw you the day you sailed?" she shuddered faintly. "I thought +that was a vision, too, that it was my fancy: it would not have been +the first time I had fancied I had seen you." He drew her to the bank, +and sinking on it held her in his arms, almost like a child. + +"You saw me! You--there in London! And yet I can understand. Dearest, I +did not hear of your trouble until a few weeks ago. But I must tell +you--" + +"Yes, tell me. I long to hear! Think, Stafford! I have not heard of +you--I saw you at the concert in London one night--" + +He started and held her more tightly. + +--"I looked round and saw you; and when you turned and looked up +towards me, it seemed as if you must have seen me. But tell me! Oh, I +want to hear everything!" + +The spell wrought by the joy of his presence still held her reason, her +memory, in thrall; one thought, one fact, dominated all others: the +fact that he was here, that she was in his arms, with her head on his +breast as of old. + +And the spell was on him as strongly; how could he remember the past +and the barrier he had erected between them? + +"I went to Australia, Ida," he said in a low voice, every note of which +was pitched to love's harmony: it soothed while it rejoiced her. "I met +a man in London, a farmer, who offered to take me out with him. You saw +me start, you say? How strange, how wonderful! And I, yes, I saw you, +but I could not believe my senses! How could it be my beautiful, dainty +Ida, the mistress of Herondale, standing on the dirty, squalid quay! I +went with him and worked with him on his cattle-run. Do you remember +how you taught me to count the sheep, Ida? God, how often when I was +riding through solitary wastes I have recalled those hours, every look +of your dear eyes, every curve of those sweet lips--hold them up to me, +dearest!--every tone of your voice, the low, musical voice the memory +of which had power to set every nerve tingling with longing and +despair. The work was hard, it seemed unceasing, but I was glad of it; +for sometimes I was too weary to think; too weary even to dream of you. +And it was sad business dreaming of you, Ida; for, you see, there was +the waking!" + +"Do I not know!" she murmured, with something like a sob, and her hand +closed on his shoulder. + +"My employer was a pleasant, genial man, my fellow-labourers were good +fellows; I could have been happy, or, at least, contented with the +life, hard as it was, if I could but have forgotten; if I could even +for a day have lost the awful hunger and thirst for you; if I could +have got you out of my mind, the memory of you out of my heart--but I +could not!" + +He paused, looking straight before him; and gazing up at him, she saw +his face drawn and haggard, as if he still thought himself separated +from her. Then, as if he remembered, he looked down at her and caught +her to him with a sudden violence that almost hurt her. + +"But I could not; you haunted me, dearest, all day and all night! +Sometimes, when the men were singing round the camp fire, singing and +laughing, the sense of my loss would come crushing down upon me, and +I'd spring to my feet and wander out into the starlit silence of the +vast plains and spend the night thinking of all that had passed between +us. At other times, a kind of madness would catch hold of me, and I'd +join the wildest of the gangs, and laugh and sing and drink with the +maddest of the lot." + +She drew a long breath of comprehension and pity, and hid her eyes on +his breast. He bent and kissed her, murmuring penitently: + +"I'm not fit to kiss you, Ida. I did not mean to tell you, but--but, I +can't keep anything from you, even though it will go against me. One +night the drinking led to fighting and I stood up to a son of Anak, a +giant of a fellow; and we fought until both of us were knocked out; but +I remember him going down first, just before I fell, I went from bad to +worse. The owner of the run--it was called Salisbury Plain--spoke a +word of warning, and I tried to pull up, tried to take to the work +again, and forget myself in it; but--ah, well, dearest, thank God you +would not understand that you cannot know what a man is like when he is +at odds with fate, and is bed-fellow with despair!" + +"Do I not!" she murmured again, with the fullest understanding and +compassion. "Do you think he is worse than a woman. On, Stafford, there +have been times, black times, when I learned to know why some women fly +to drink to drown their misery: and our misery is as keen, yes, keener +than yours. For we are so helpless, so shackled; we have nothing else +to do but think, think, think! Go on, dearest! I seem to see you +there!" + +"Thank God! you could not!" he said, huskily. "The black fit passed for +a time, and I settled down to work again. One day there was an attack +upon the farm by the blacks, as they are called. I was fortunately at +home, and we managed to beat them off and save the stock. It was a +valuable one and my employer, thinking too highly of my services, made +me a present of half the value. It was a generous gift, a lavish one, +and altogether uncalled for--" + +"Oh, Stafford, do you think I don't know that you risked your life, as +plainly as if I had been told, as if I had been there!" she said, her +eyes glowing, her breath coming faster. + +Stafford coloured and turned away from the subject. + +"It was a large sum, and Mr. Joffler--that is the name of the owner of +Salisbury Plain--advised me to invest it in a run of my own: there was +enough to buy a large and important one. I went down to Melbourne to +see the agents, and--is there no such thing as fate, or chance, Ida! +Indeed there is!--as I was walking down one of the streets, I heard my +name spoken. I turned and saw the stableman from the Woodman Inn, Mr. +Groves's man--" + +"Henry," murmured Ida, enviously: for had he not met her lover! + +"Yes. He was surprised, but I think glad, to see me; and we went to a +hotel and talked. For some time I couldn't bring myself to speak your +name: you see, dearest, it had lived in my heart so long, and I had +only whispered it to the stars, and in the solitary places, that I--I +shrank from uttering it aloud," he explained with masculine simplicity. + +Ida's eyes filled with tears and she nestled closer to him. + +"At last I asked after the people, and nervously mentioned the Hall +and--and 'Miss Ida.' Then the man told me." + +His voice grew lower and he laid his hand on her head and stroked her +hair soothingly, pityingly. + +"He told me that your father was dead, had died suddenly, and worse--for +it was worse to me dearest--that you had been left poor, and well-nigh +penniless." + +She sighed, but as one who sighs, looking back at a sorrow which has +passed long ago and is swallowed up in present joy. + +"I asked him where you were, and when he told me that you had left the +Hall, and that it was said you--you were working for a livelihood, that +you were in poverty, I--dearest, I felt as if I should go mad. Think of +it! There was I, all those thousands of miles away, with all that money +in my possession, and you, the queen of my heart, the girl I loved +better than life itself, in poverty and perhaps wanting a friend!" He +was silent a moment, and Ida felt him shudder as if he were again +tasting the bitterness of that moment. + +"When I had taken my passage," he went on, succinctly, "I sent Henry up +to the run to fill my place, and with him a letter to explain my sudden +departure; and the next day, Heaven being kind to me--I should have +gone out of my mind if I had had to wait--we sailed. I stood at the +bow, with my face turned towards England, and counted the days before I +could get there and begin my search for you." + +"And you came here, Stafford, first?" she said, to lead him on: for +what an unspeakable bliss it was to listen to him! + +"Yes; I knew that I should hear some tidings of you here. There would +be a lawyer, a steward, who would know. I little thought, hoped, to see +you yourself, Ida. I came from the station to-night to look at the old +place, to walk where we had walked, to stand where we had stood. I +stopped under the trees here and looked at the house, at the terrace +where I had seen you, watched for you. I could see that men had been at +work, and I thought that you had sold the place, that the new people +were altering it, and I cursed them in my heart; for every stone of it +is sacred to me. And then, as I stood looking, and asking myself where +you were, the dogs came. Even then it did not occur to me that you were +still here--at the Hall--and when I saw you--" + +He stopped, and laughed shortly, as a man does when his emotion is +almost too much for him. + +"I'd made up my mind what to write to you; but, you see, I'd had no +thought, no hope, of seeing you; and now--ah, well, it's hard to think +of anything, with you in my arms! But see here, Ida, there isn't any +need to say anything, is there? You'll come back with me to that new +world--" + +What was it, what word in the tender, loving speech that, like a breath +of wind sweeping away a mountain mist, cleared the mist from her mind, +woke her from her strange, dream-like condition, recalled the past, +and, alas! and alas! the present! + +With a low cry, a cry of anguish--one has heard it from the lips of a +sufferer waking from the anodyne of sleep to fresh pain--she tore +herself from his arms, and with both hands to her head, stood regarding +him, her face white, something like terror in her eyes. + +"Ida!" he cried, rising and stretching out his hands to her. + +She shrank back, putting out her hand as if to keep him off. + +"Don't--don't come near me! Oh, how could I have forgotten!--how could +I! I must have been mad!" + +She wrung her hands and bit her lips as if she were tortured by the +shame of it. His arms fell to his sides, and he stood and looked at her +with his teeth set. + +"Ida, listen to me! I--I, too--had forgotten. It--it was the delight of +seeing you. But, dearest, what does the past matter? It _is_ past, I +have come back to you." + +She turned to him with suppressed passion. + +"Why did you leave me?" came painfully from her white lips. + +His face grew red and his eyes fell before hers for a moment. At times +his sacrifice of her to his father's need had seemed not only +inexcusable, but shameful; the shame of it now weighed upon him. + +"Ida, for God's sake listen to me!" for, as he had hesitated, she had +turned from him with a gesture of repudiation. "Listen to me! There was +nothing else for me to do; fate left me no alternative. My father--Ida, +how can I tell you!--my father's good name, his reputation, were in my +hands. He had done so much for me--everything! There has never been a +father like him: my happiness stood between him and ruin--ah, not mine +alone, but yours--and I sacrificed them! If you knew all you would +forgive me the wrong I did, great as it was. I think now, if the time +were to come over again, that--yes, I should have to do it!" he broke +out. "I could not have stood by and seen-him ruined and disgraced +without stretching out my hand to save him." + +"It was for your father's sake?" she said, almost inaudibly. + +"Yes," he responded, grimly. "And it saved him--saved his good name, at +any rate. The rest went--you have heard?" + +She made a gesture of assent. He drew a long breath, and held out his +hand to her. + +"Can you not forgive me, Ida? If you knew what the sacrifice cost me, +how much I have suffered. See here, dearest"--he drew still closer to +her--"let the past go. It shall, I swear! There is a limit to a man's +endurance, and I have passed it. I love you, Ida, I want you! Come back +with me and let us live for each other, live for love. Dearest, I will +teach you to forget the wrong I did you. It's very little I have to +offer you, a share in the hard life of a farmer out there in the wilds; +but if you were still the mistress of Herondale, instead of poor--" + +Half unconsciously she broke in upon his prayer. + +"I am still--what I was. I am not poor. My father was a rich man when +he died." + +Stafford regarded her with surprise, then he moved his hand, as if he +were waving away the suggestion of an obstacle. + +"I am glad--for your sake, dearest; though for my own I would almost +rather that you were as poor as I thought you; that I might work for +you. Why do you stand and look at me so hopelessly. What else is there +to divide us, dearest?" + +Her lips opened, and almost inaudibly she breathed: + +"Your honour." + +He winced and set his teeth hard. + +"My honour!" + +"Yes. You have pledged your word, you have made your bargain--the price +was paid, I suppose; you say so. Then in honour you belong to--_her_." + +The colour flamed in his face and his eyes grew hot. + +"You cast me off--you drive me back to her!" he said, scarcely knowing +what he said. + +"Yes!" she responded, faintly. "You belong to her--to her only. Not to +me, ah, not to me! No, no, do not come near me, do not touch me! I had +forgotten--I was mad!--but I have remembered, I am sane now." + +Driven almost beyond himself by the sudden revulsion from joy and hope +to doubt and despair, racked by the swift stemming of his passion, +Stafford's unreasoning anger rose against her: it is always so with the +man. + +"My God! You send me away--to her! You--you do it coolly, easily +enough! Perhaps you have some other reason--someone has stepped into my +place--" + +It was a cruel thing to say, even in his madness. For a moment she +cowered under it, then she raised her white face and looked straight +into his eyes. + +"And if there has, can you blame me? You cast me aside--you sacrificed +me to your father's honour. You had done with me," her voice vibrated +with the bitterness which had been her portion for so many dreary +months. "Was the world, my life, to cease from that time forth? For you +there was--someone else, wealth, rank--for me was there to be nothing, +no consolation, no part or lot in life! Yes, there _is_ one--one who is +both good and noble, and--" + +She broke down and covering her face with her hands turned away. +Stafford stood as if turned to stone; as if he had lost the sense of +sight and hearing. Silence reigned between them; the dogs who had been +sitting watching them, rose and shivering, whined complainingly, as if +they were asking what was amiss. + +It was the woman--as always--who first relented and was moved to pity. +She moved to the motionless figure and touched him on the arm. + +"Forgive me! I--I did not mean to wound you; but--but you drove me too +hard! But--but it is true. We cannot undo the past. It is _there_, as +solid, as unmovable, as that mountain: _and it is between us_, a wall, +a barrier of stone. Nothing can remove it. You--you will remember your +honour, Stafford?" Her voice quavered for a moment but she steadied it. +"You--you will not lose that, though all else be lost? You will go to +her?" + +He looked at her, his breath coming thick and painfully. + +"My God! you--you are hard--" he broke out at last. + +"I--am just! Oh, my dearest, my dearest!" She took his hand and laid it +against her cheek, her lips. "Don't you see how much it costs me to +send you away? But I must! I must! Go--oh, go now! I--I cannot bear +much more!" + +His hand--it shook--fell softly, tenderly on her head. + +"God forgive me for the wrong I have wrought you, the tears I have +caused you!" he said, hoarsely. "Yes, I daresay you're right, and--and +I'll go! Let me see you go back to the house--One kiss, the last, the +last! Oh, Ida, Ida, life of my life, soul of my soul!" + +He caught her to him, and she lay in his arms for a moment, her lips +clung to his in one long kiss, then she tore herself away from him and +fled to the house. + +Stafford went on to The Woodman, where Mr. Groves was surprised, and, +it need scarcely be said, overjoyed to see him. To him, the young man +was still "Mr. Stafford," and he eyed him with an amazed and respectful +admiration; for though Stafford had never been a weakling, he had grown +so hard and muscular and altogether "fit" that Mr. Groves could not +refrain from expressing his approval. + +"Ah, there is nothing like roughing it, Mr. Stafford, sir," he said. "I +can tell in a minute when a man's 'hard' right through, and been doing +square and honest work. It seems strange to us commoner people that you +gentle folks should be so fond of going through all sorts of hardships +and perils just for the fun of it; but, after all, it's not to be +wondered at, for that's the kind of spirit that has helped Englishmen +to make England what it is. But you're looking a little pale and worn +to-night, sir. I've no doubt it's the want of dinner. If I'd known +you'd been coming--but you know I'll do my best, sir." + +He did his best, and Stafford tried to do justice to it; but it was +almost impossible to eat. And he checked the almost overmastering +desire to drink. + +Ida had been right. He knew it, though the thought did not help to +allay his bitterness. She had spoken the truth: he was still pledged to +Maude. Mr. Falconer had paid the price demanded, and it was not his +fault if it had failed to save Sir Stephen from ruin; the sacrifice +Stafford had made had, at any rate, saved his father's good name from +shame and reproach. Maude's father had performed his part of the +bargain; Stafford had still to perform his. Ida was right; she had +pointed out to him his duty, and if there was a spark of manliness left +in him, he must do it. + +He sat over the fire, close over it, as he had done in the backwoods +many a night, smoking the old brier pipe that had cheered him in his +hours of solitary watching, and thinking with a grim bitterness that it +would have been better for him if he had been knocked on the head the +night of the raid at Salisbury Plain. To be married to one woman, while +he loved another with all his heart and soul: it was a cruel fate. But, +cruel as it was, he had to bend to it. He would go straight to London +and find Maude, redeem his promise, and save his honour. + +Mr. Groves came into the room with a bottle of the port, and Stafford +forced himself to show an interest in it and drink a glass or two. + +"I suppose you'll be going up to the Villa to-morrow, sir?--I beg your +pardon, I mean my lord; and I must apologise for not calling you so." + +"Not 'my lord,'" said Stafford. "I have never used the title, Groves. +Go up to the Villa? Why should I?" he asked, wearily. "It is closed, +isn't it?" + +Mr. Groves looked at him with surprise. + +"No, sir. Didn't you know? Mr. Falconer bought it; and he and Miss +Falconer have been staying there. She is there now." + +Stafford turned away. Chance was making his hard road straight. After a +sleepless night, worse even than some of the worst he had spent in +Australia, and after a pretence at breakfast, he went slowly up to the +Villa. Last night, as he had held Ida in his arms, something of the old +brightness had come back to his face, the old light to his eyes; but he +looked haggard and wan now, like a man who had barely recovered from a +long and trying illness. He turned on the slope of the terrace and +looked down at the lake, lying dark and sullen under a cloudy sky; and +it seemed to him typical of his own life, of his own future, in which +there seemed not a streak of light. A servant came to meet him. "Yes," +he said, "Miss Falconer is in." She was in the morning-room, he +thought. Stafford followed him; the man opened the door, and Stafford +entered. + +Maude was seated at a table writing. She did not turn her head, and he +stood looking at her and seeing the record the weary months had left +upon her face; and, even in his own misery, he felt some pity for her. + +"Maude!" he said in a low voice. + +She did not move for a moment, but looked straight before her +wistfully, as if she could not trust her ears; then she turned and came +towards him, with something like fear on her face. The fear broke up, +as it were, and, stretching out her arms, she spoke his name--the +accents of love fighting with those of doubt and a joy that dreaded its +own greatness. + +"Stafford! It is you!" + +She pressed her hands to her heart for a moment, then she fell into his +arm, half fainting. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII. + + +"Yes, my father bought the place," said Maude. "I asked him to do so, +and he consented at once. I could not have let it pass to strangers. +You see, I had been so happy here; it was here that you asked me to be +your wife. And father has offered to settle it upon us," she blushed +slightly, and her eyes became downcast. "He is no longer--opposed to +our marriage; he knows that I would marry you if all the world cried +'No!'" + +They had been sitting talking for nearly an hour. She had recovered +from the shock of his sudden presence, and was seated beside him--so +close that she could touch him with her hand--calm now, but with a glow +in her usually pale cheek, a light in her eyes which had been absent +for many a weary month past. He had given her, mostly in answer to her +eager questions, a very abbreviated account of his life in Australia; +telling her less even than he had told Ida; and it is needless to +remark, saying nothing of the cause of his hasty return. + +"Ah, well," she said, drawing a long breath, "it is all over now, +Stafford. Ah, it is good to have you back safe and sound. You are well, +are you not? You look pale and thin and--and tired. But I suppose it's +the journey. Yes, it is all over; you need not wander any longer; you +have come back to me, have you not, Stafford? If you knew how I have +missed you, how I have longed for you! And now you will settle down and +take your place in the world and be happy! Do you think I shall not +make you happy, Stafford? Ah, do not be afraid;" her eyes sought his +and her hand stole towards his arm. + +He rose and leant against the mantel-shelf. + +"I only know that I am quite unworthy of you, Maude," he said, gravely. + +She looked up at him and laughed. + +"Are you? Who cares! Not I! _I_ only know that I love you so dearly +that if you were the blackest villain to be found in fiction, it would +make no difference to me." + +He was filled with shame and self-reproach, and turned away his head +that she might not see the shame in his eyes. + +"How did you come?" she asked, presently. "If my father were only at +home! You could stay with us, then." + +"I am staying at The Woodman," he said. + +She regarded him with some surprise. + +"Last night! Late, do you mean? Did you meet, see anyone?" + +There was a dawning suspicion in her eyes, and she regarded his averted +face keenly; she noticed that he hesitated and seemed embarrassed. + +"No one you know," he replied, feeling that it was impossible for him +to speak Ida's name. + +"How do you know?" she asked, with a curious smile. "Who was it?" + +"I met Miss Heron of Herondale," he said, trying to speak casually, and +wondering what she would say, hoping fervently that she would ask no +more questions. + +The blood rushed to her face, her eyes flashed and her lips tightened; +but she did not speak, and moved away to the window, standing there +looking out, but seeing nothing. He had gone to _her_ the moment he had +returned: what did it mean? But she dared not ask; for she knew +instinctively how slight was the chain by which she held him. With an +effort she restrained the rage, the fierce jealousy, which threatened +to burst forth in violent reproaches and accusation; and after a minute +or two she turned to him, outwardly calm and smiling. + +"Have you made any plans, Stafford?" she asked. "My father was speaking +of your return; he thought of writing to you. Dearest, there must be no +reserve between us now--now that you have come back. See, I speak quite +frankly. My father thinks--thinks that our marriage should take place +at once. He has withdrawn his objection, and--and you will not thwart +him, Stafford? It is hard for me to have to say this; but--but you will +understand." + +"I understand," he said in a low voice. "I am grateful to your father. +Our marriage shall take place as soon as you please. It is for you to +fix the date, Maude." + +She nestled against him and touched his coat with her lips. + +"I am ashamed of myself," she murmured; "but, ah, well! love casteth +out shame." + +A servant knocked at the door. + +"The horse is round, miss," he announced. + +"I was going for a ride," she said; "but I will send the horse +away--unless you will ride with me. You will, Stafford?" + +"Certainly," he said, glad of the interruption to this _tête-à-tête_ +which had been to him a positive torture. + +"I will not be five minutes," she said, brightly. "You'd like to go +over the house? They shall bring you something to drink in the +smoking-room, or here, if you like: you are lord and master." + +She went up to her room, and, when she had rung for her maid, paced up +and down feverishly. He had gone to that girl before he had come to +her! She was racked with hate and jealousy, which was all the harder to +bear because she knew she must hide them within her bosom, that no word +or look of hers must let him see that she knew of her rival. Some time, +after they were marred, she would tell him: but not till she was safe. +She got into her habit quickly and went down to him. He was standing +where she had left him, and as she entered the room she saw before he +had time to turn to her with a smile, how haggard and harassed he +looked. + +"You have been quick," he said. + +"Yes; I am learning one of my wifely duties: not to keep my husband +waiting." They went out, and Pottinger, standing by the horses, touched +his hat and grew red with joy at sight of his master. + +"Well, Pottinger! Glad to see you!" said Stafford; and he was genuinely +glad. "You're looking well, and the horse is too. Halloo! you're put +the side-saddle on Adonis," he added, as he went up and patted the +horse. + +Pottinger touched his hat again. + +"Yes, sir; Miss Falconer's been riding him, and I did not know that I +ought to change the saddle. I can do so in a minute--" + +"No, no," said Stafford; "never mind. I will ride the hunter, as you +have the saddle on him. You like Adonis, Maude?" + +"Oh, yes," she replied. "Though I'm not quite sure he likes me," she +added, with a laugh. + +Stafford put her up, and noticed, with some surprise, that Adonis +seemed restless and ill at ease, and that he shivered and shrank as he +felt Maude on his back. + +"What is the matter with him?" he said. "He seems fidgety. Does the +saddle fit?" + +"Yes, sir," said Pottinger, with a half-nervous glance at Maude, +followed by the impassive expression of the trained servant who cannot +speak out. + +"He is troublesome sometimes," said Maude; "but I can manage him quite +easily." + +"Oh, yes," assented Stafford; "he is as quiet as a lamb; but he is +highly bred and as highly strung." + +As they were starting, Pottinger murmured: + +"Don't curb him too tightly, miss." + +Maude ignored the warning; and she and Stafford rode out. The rain had +ceased, the clouds had passed away, and in the joy of his nearness, her +spirits rose, a feeling of triumph swelled in her bosom. + +"How little I thought yesterday, even this morning, that we should be +riding side by side, Stafford," she said. "How little I thought I +should have you back again, my own, my very own! Don't all these months +you've been away seem like a dream to you? They do to me." She drew a +long breath. "Let us ride across the dale." + +"You will find it wet there, had you not better keep to the road?" + +"No, no," she said; "Adonis is dying for a gallop; see how he is +fretting." + +Stafford looked at the horse curiously. He was champing his bit and +throwing up his head in a nervous, agitated manner which Stafford had +never seen him display before. + +"I can't make the horse out," he said, more to himself than Maude. +"Perhaps he'll be all right after a gallop." + +They crossed the road at a trot, which was an uneven one on Adonis's +part, and got on the moor. Maude, still in high spirit, still buoyed up +by her feeling of triumph, talked continuously; telling him some of the +London news, planning out their future. They would have a house in +London, Stafford should take his proper place in the world; they would +step back to the high position which was his by right, as a peer of the +realm. Stafford was scarcely listening. A question was haunting him, a +question which he could not thrust from him: he was going to marry +Maude Falconer, going to take the hard and stony road of duty which +Ida, in her noble way, had pointed out to him. Ought he not to tell +Maude about Ida and his broken engagement to her; would it not be +better for both of them, for all of them, if he were to do so? He would +have to tell her that he could not live at the Villa; she would want to +know the reason; would it not be better to tell her? + +He raised his head to begin; when suddenly he saw, going up the hill in +front of them, a horse and horsewoman. She was walking up slowly, and, +long before her figure stood out against the clear sky, he saw that it +was Ida. It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that his heart stood +still. That she should have appeared before him in his sight, at such a +moment, while he was riding beside his future wife--his future +wife!--filled him with bitterness. His face must have paled, or Maude +must have seen him start, for she looked at him and then turned her +head and looked in the direction in which his eyes were fixed. She +recognised Ida instantly; the colour rushed to her face; her hand +tightened on her rein spasmodically; for a moment she felt inclined to +turn aside, to ride away, escape from the girl she hated and loathed. +And then she was moved by another impulse; the demon of jealousy +whispered: "This is the moment of your triumph; why not enjoy it to the +full; why not let her feel the bitterness of defeat? There is your +rival! Let her see with her own eyes your triumph and your happiness." +The temptation was too great for her, and she yielded to it. + +"Who is that riding up the hill?" she said, controlling her voice +admirably. "It is Miss Heron, is it not?" + +"Yes, it is," he said, as impassively as he could. + +Her lips curled scornfully at his assumption of indifference. "I have +seen her and met her," she said, "but I have not been introduced to +her. Let us overtake her, and you can introduce me. I should like to +know her." + +He looked straight before him, his face grave and set. + +"Is it worth while?" he said in a low voice. "Some other time--" + +"Why not now?" she asked. "We can catch her quite easily." + +The moment had come for him to tell her. + +"Not now," he said, huskily. "I have something to tell you, Maude; +something you ought to know before--before you make Miss Heron's +acquaintance." + +She turned to him with a low laugh. + +"Do you think I don't know?" she said, between her teeth. "I have know +all along! I read the letter you wrote to her--I got it--stole it, if +you like--from Pottinger. I have known all along--do you not think I +have been very patient, very discreet? Even now I bear no malice. I can +forget the past, forget and forgive. Why should I not, seeing that I am +assured of your love and good faith? You will see how completely I +forget, how little importance I attach to your fancy for the girl; a +fancy which I am sure you have quite outgrown. Oh, I can trust you! We +will join Miss Heron by all means." + +His face was dark and heavy. + +"Do not, Maude, until you've heard all," he began, but with a scornful +laugh that yet had something doubting and desperate in it, she sent +Adonis on. He sprang forward nervously and shivering under a stroke +from her whip, and swiftly lessened the distance between him and +Rupert, who heard his approach before Ida did, and who neighed a +welcome. Ida turned and saw who was following her, saw Stafford just +behind, and gathering her reins together she rode Rupert quickly to the +top of the hill. + +"Miss Heron!" cried Maude, in a voice of covert insolence, but almost +open triumph. "Miss Heron, stop, please!" + +Ida did stop for a moment, then, feeling that it was impossible for her +to meet them, that day, at any rate, she let Rupert go again. By this +time, Stafford had almost gained Maude's side. His face was dark with +anger, his teeth clenched tightly. He knew that Maude intended to +flaunt her possession of him before Ida. In a low but perfectly +distinct voice, he said: + +"Stop, Maude! Do not follow her." She looked over her shoulder at him, +her face flushed, her eyes flashing. + +"Why not?" she demanded, scornfully. "Is she afraid, or is it you who +are afraid? Both, perhaps? We shall see!" + +Before he could catch her rein she had struck Adonis twice with the +sharp, cutting whip, and with a shake of his head and a snort of rage +and resentment, he stood on his haunches for a moment, then leapt +forward and began to race down the hill. Stafford saw that the horse +had bolted, either from fear or anger; he knew that it would only +increase Maude's peril if he galloped in pursuit behind her; he, +therefore, checked his horse and made, in a slanting line, for a point +towards which he judged Adonis would go. Maude was swaying in her +saddle, in which she could only keep herself by clutching at the +pommel; it seemed every moment as if she must fall, as if the horse +itself must fall and throw her like a stone down the steep hill. + +Ida, the moment she had got over the top of the hill, had ridden +quickly, and, of course, quite fearlessly and safely, and had got +Rupert so well in hand, as usual, that when she heard the clatter +behind her, and, turning, saw the peril in which Maude had put herself, +she was able to pull Rupert up. It was almost a repetition of what had +occurred the other day; but this time Maude Falconer's peril was +infinitely greater; for her horse was half mad and tearing down the +steep hill-side, rendered doubly dangerous by the loose stones, and was +all too evidently indifferent whether he stood or fell. And yet another +risk lay just below; for William had been digging in that spot for +stones to mend the bank, and even if the maddened horse saw the hole, +it was more than probable that he would not be able to pull up in time. + +Such moments as these form the criterion of true courage. There was +only one way in which Ida could save, or attempt to save, the +white-faced woman who was drawing towards her at breakneck speed. What +she would have to attempt to do would be to ride straight for the +oncoming horse, swerve almost as she reached it, and keep side by side +with it until she could succeed either in turning it away from that +horrible hole, or stop it by throwing it. She did not hesitate for a +moment. + +It may be said in all truth that at that moment she forgot that the +woman whose life she was going to save was Maude Falconer; she did not +realise the fact--or, if she did, she was indifferent to it--that she +was risking her own life to save the woman who had robbed her of +Stafford. There was the life to be saved, and that was enough for Ida. +She slipped her foot almost out of the stirrup, felt Rupert's mouth +firmly but gently, leant forward and whispered a word to him, which it +is very likely he understood--perhaps he saw all the game even before +she did--and, with an encouraging touch of her hand, she let him go. + +He sprang forward like an arrow from the bow. As they drew near the +flying horse, Ida shifted her whip to her left hand, so that her right +should be free, and, leaning as far in the saddle as she could with +safety, she made a snatch at Adonis's rein at the moment she came +alongside him. She would have caught the rein, she might have stopped +the horse or turned it aside--God alone knows!--but as her fingers +almost grasped it, Maude, steadied in her seat by the nearness of her +would-be rescuer, raised her whip and struck Ida across the bosom and +across the outstretched hand. The blow, in its finish, fell on Adonis's +reeking neck. With a snort he tore away from the other horse and swept +onwards, with Maude once again swaying in her saddle. Ida gazed at her +in speechless terror for an instant, then, as if she could look no +longer, she flung up her arm across her eyes. + +A moment afterwards a cry, a shrill scream, that rang in her ears for +many a day afterwards, rose above the clatter of Adonis's hoofs, and +before the cry had died away horse and rider had fallen with awful +force into and across the hole. Then came a dead silence, broken only +by the sound of the horse's iron shoes as he kicked wildly and pawed in +a vain attempt to rise. Ida rode up, and flinging herself to the +ground, tried to approach the struggling animal. But, indeed, it was +horror and not fear that struck her motionless for a moment; for horse +and rider were mixed in awful confusion, and already Maude Falconer's +graceful form was stained with blood, and battered by the madly kicking +animal, now in its death-throes. + +An instant after, before she could recover from her paralysis of +terror--the whole affair was one of a moment and had passed as quickly +as a flitting cloud--Stafford was by her side, and at work extricating +woman from horse. It was not an easy task, for though Adonis was now +dead, a part of Maude's body lay under his shoulder; but with utmost +herculean strength Stafford succeeded in getting her clear, and lifted +her out of the hole on to the grass. Kneeling beside him, Ida, calm +now, but trembling, raised Maude's head on her knee and wiped the blood +from the beautiful face. Its loveliness was not marred, there was no +bruise or cut upon it, the blood having flown from a wound just behind +the temple. + +Stafford ran to the brook for some water and tried to force a few drops +through the clenched teeth, while Ida bathed the white brow. Suddenly a +tremor ran through him, and he put his hand over Maude's heart. It was +quite still; he bent his cheek to her lips; no breath met them. For a +moment or two he could not speak, then he stayed Ida's ministering +hand, and looking up at her, said: + +"It is of no use. She is dead!" + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII. + +The ball which Lady Clansford always gave about the middle of the +season is generally a very brilliant affair; but this year it was more +brilliant and, alas! more crowded than usual; for Lord Clansford was +connected, as everybody knows, with the great Trans-African Company, +and, as also everybody knows, that company had recovered from the blow +dealt it by the rising of the natives, and was now flourishing beyond +the most sanguine expectations of its owners; the Clansford coffers, +not to mention those of many other persons, were overflowing, and Lord +Clansford could afford a somewhat magnificent hospitality. + +Howard, as he made his way up the crowded stairs, smiled cynically to +himself as he caught sight of a little knot of financiers who stood +just outside the great doors of the _salon_. They were all +there--Griffenberg, Wirsch, the Beltons, Efford, and Fitzharford; and +they were all smiling and in the best of humours, presenting by their +appearance a striking contrast to that which they had worn when he had +seen them on the night when the ruin of the company had been conveyed +in that fatal cablegram. Having succeeded at last in forcing an +entrance, and bowing over the hand of his noble hostess, which must +have sadly ached, and returned her mechanical words of welcome with a +smile as galvanic as her own, Howard sidled his way along the wall--a +waltz was in progress--and collided against the "beautiful and +bounteous" Bertie, who was mopping his brow and looking round +despairingly for his partner. + +"Halloo, Howard!" he exclaimed. "Pretty old scrimmage, isn't it? Should +have thought your languid grace would have kept out of this sight. I've +given a dance to a girl, but dash my best necktie if I can find her: +might as well look for a needle in a bottle of hay--as if any fellow +would be such a fool as to put a needle in such a place. I'm jolly mad +at losing her, I can tell you, for she's the prettiest girl in the +room, and I had to fight like a coal-heaver to get a dance from her. +And now I can't find her: just my luck!" + +"What is the name of the prettiest girl in the room?" asked Howard, +languidly. + +"Oh, it's the new beauty, of course," replied Bertie, with a superior +little shrug at Howard's ignorance. "It's Miss. Heron of Herondale, the +great heiress." + +Howard pricked up his ears, but maintained his languid and +half-indifferent manner. + +"Miss Heron of Herondale," he said in his slow voice. "Don't think I've +met her." + +"No? Dessay not. She doesn't go out much, and Lady Clansford thinks +it's rather a feather in her cap getting her here to-night. When you +see her you won't say I've over-praised her. She's more than pretty, +and she'd be the bright and particular star of the season if she didn't +keep in her shell so much." + +"Herondale," said Howard, musingly. "That's the place near the Villa, +isn't it? I don't remember anyone of her name as having been amongst +the company there." + +"No," said the omniscient Bertie. "She was living in retirement with +her father then; but Stafford must have known her--made her +acquaintance. Don't you remember that she was present when poor Miss +Falconer met with her fatal accident?" + +Howard remembered very well, but he said "Ah, yes!" as if the fact had +just been recalled to him. + +"Her father died and left her a hatful of money--that's ever so many +months ago--and now she's come up to London; and I tell you, Howard, +that it is with her as it was with the friend of our school-boy days: +'I came, "I was seen," I conquered!' Everybody is mad about her. She is +staying with some country people called the Vaynes, people who would +have passed, like a third _entrée_, unnoticed; but they are deluged +with invitations, and 'All on account of Eliza.'" + +"Do not be vulgar, Bertie," said Howard, rebukingly. + +"Well it was vulgar" admitted Bertie, "especially applied to such an +exquisite creature as Miss Heron--Oh there she is with young Glarn! +They say that he is more than ready to lay his ducal coronet at her +feet--confound the young beggar!--but she doesn't give him the least +encouragement to do so. Look! she doesn't appear to be listening to +him, though he's talking for all he's worth. And it's the same with all +of us: we're all dying with love for her, and for all she cares, we may +die!" + +Howard looked across the room and caught a glimpse of a tall, slim +figure, a pale, ivory-tinted face with soft and silky black hair, +dressed in the simplest fashion, and dark, violet eyes half hidden by +their long lashes. It was a lovely face and something more--an +impressive one: it was a face, once seen, not easily forgotten. Perhaps +it was not its beauty, but a certain preoccupied expression, a sadness +in the eyes and in the curve of the expressive lips, which made it so +haunting a one. She was exquisitely dressed, with a suggestion of +mourning in the absence of diamonds and a touch of pale violet in the +black lace frock. + +"She is very beautiful," said Howard; "and I can condole with you +sincerely on the loss of your dance." + +"Yes, it's nearly over now," said Bertie, with a sigh. "Talking of +Stafford," he said, after a minute, "when did you hear from him last?" + +"To-day," replied Howard. "I have his letter in my pocket." + +"Still out in the backwoods?" asked Bertie. "Poor old chap! awful piece +of luck for him! If his father had only gone on living and waited until +that blessed company had come right side uppermost, he'd have been a +millionaire. Look at Griffenberg and the rest of 'em!" he nodded +towards the group of financiers; "they're simply rolling in money, +rolling in it." + +"Yes, he's still in the backwoods, as you call it," responded Howard; +"and from what he says I should think he's having a pretty hard time of +it; though, of course, he doesn't complain: there are some men still +left who don't complain." There was a pause, during which he had been +thinking deeply, then he said: "So Stafford knew Miss Heron, did he?" + +Bertie looked mysterious and lowered his voice. + +"Yes. Look here, old chap, I shouldn't say this to anyone but you; but +you are Stafford's great and only chum, and I know I can speak safely; +to tell you the truth--" + +"Now you are going to tell me anything but the truth," murmured Howard, +with a sigh of resignation. + +"Oh, no, I'm not," retorted Bertie. "What there is of it is the truth +and nothing but the truth. It isn't much. But I've a kind of idea that +Stafford knew our new beauty better than we think. Do you remember how +he used to leave our party and go off by himself? Not like Stafford, +that, was it? And one of our fellows remarked to me that one day coming +home from a ride he saw Stafford riding with a lady. He couldn't swear +to him, but--well, Stafford's hard to mistake. Then, again, how was it +he and Miss Heron were in at Maude Falconer's death; and why did he +bolt off to Australia again directly after the funeral? And why is it +that she keeps us all at arm's length, even that confounded Glarn?" + +Howard's eyes grew sharp; but he smiled languidly, as he said: + +"You ought to edit a riddle book, Bertie, my son. I think we should get +across the room now. I should be greatly obliged if you would introduce +me to Miss Heron." + +"All right," said Bertie, "come along! But I warn you, you'll only meet +with a cold reception; just a smile and a word and then she'll look +away as if she'd forgotten your existence, and had not the least desire +to remember it." + +"Oh, I'm used to that," said Howard. "Lead on." + +As they crossed the room, Howard's acute brain was hard at work. There +was something in Stafford's conduct, a tone in his letters which Howard +could never understand; but now, in the light of Bertie's mysterious +communication, he thought he discerned a solution of the problem over +which he had pondered for many an hour. Stafford had been unhappy +during the whole of his engagement to poor Maude; he had exiled himself +again immediately after her death, though, as Howard knew, he was well +enough off now to return to England and to live, at any rate, in a +quiet way. If there was anything in Bertie's suggestion--Howard pursed +his lips with an air of determination. If there was anything, then he +would find it out and act accordingly. Stafford's happiness was very +precious to Howard, and in the quiet, resolute, cynical way +characteristic to him, he resolved that if that happiness lay in the +hands of this beautiful girl with the sad eyes and lips, he, Howard, +would do his best to persuade her to yield it up. + +His reception was certainly not encouraging. Ida glanced at him, and +returned his bow with a slight inclination of her head, and then looked +away as if she had done all that could be demanded of her; and it was +with a faint surprise, perceptible in her face, that she heard Howard +say, in his slow, and rather drawling voice: + +"There is a conservatory behind that glass door, Miss Heron; it is not +very far from the madding crowd, but it must be cooler than here. Will +you let me take you to it?" + +She hesitated for a moment, but something in the steady regard of +Howard's calm and sleepy eyes impressed her. + +"Very well," she said; "but I think I'm engaged for this next dance, +and I must not go far away. I have already broken two or three +engagements." + +"In that case you can come without hesitation," he said. "It is the +first crime that costs a pang, having passed that the downward course +is easy and painless." + +He led her to a seat, and with the cool determination which Stafford +always admired in him, began at once; for he did not wish to give her +time to slip on her woman's armour; he intended to strike quickly, +unexpectedly, so that she should not be able to conceal the effect of +the blow. + +"Almost as hot as in Australia," he said, languidly, but watching her +out of the tail of his eye. "I suppose you were never there, Miss +Heron? Nor have I been; but I've got a letter in my pocket from a very +great friend of mine who is roughing it on a cattle-run, and he has so +often described the country to me, that I almost feel as if I knew it. +By the way, I think you know him. He is my dearest and closest friend-- +Stafford Orme, as I always call him and think of him; of course I am +speaking of Lord Highcliffe." + +The problem was solved: he saw her face suddenly flush, and then as +suddenly grow pale. So sharp had been the blow, its effect so +overwhelming, that her fan fell from her hand. Howard, as he restored +it to her, seized the opportunity of looking her full in the face, and +assurance was made doubly sure. + +This girl _did_ hold his friend Stafford's happiness in her hand. + +Ida was silent for a moment, because she knew she could not control her +voice, could not keep it steady; then, with a quickened breath, she +said: + +"Yes, I knew Mr. Orme--Lord Highcliffe." + +"Then I hope you liked him," he said, mercilessly; for there was no +time for mercy; some idiot of a dancing-man would come and take her +from him the next minute. "I express the hope, because I myself like +and admire him very much indeed. He is a splendid fellow, and one of +those instances of a good man struggling with adversity. Are you fond +of poetry, Miss Heron?" + +Ida's bosom was heaving, she was fighting for calm. She knew now who it +was with whom she was speaking; it was the friend, the cynical Mr. +Howard, of whom Stafford had told her; she had not caught his name at +the introduction. She regarded him with intense interest, and inclined +her head by way of assent. + +"I never think of my friend, Lord Highcliffe, without recalling those +significant lines of William Watson's." He looked at her; and be it +said that his eyes were fine and impressive ones when he showed them +plainly. "These are the lines: + + "'I do not ask to have my fill + Of wine, of love, or fame. + I do not for a little ill + Against the gods exclaim. + + "'One boon of fortune I implore, + With one petition kneel: + _At least caress me not before + Thou break me on thy wheel_!'" + +Her lip quivered and her long lashes concealed her eyes. + +"They are fine lines," she said. + +"They fit my friend Lord Highcliffe's case to a T. He was for a time +the spoiled darling of fortune; she caressed him as she caresses few +men--and now she is breaking him on her wheel; and the caresses, of +course, make the breaking all the harder to bear. He writes most +interesting letters--I don't know whether you care about farming and +cattle-raising and that kind of thing; for my own part I am sublimely +ignorant of such matters. I can lay my hand upon my heart and say I +know a cow from a horse, but nothing shall induce me to go further. If +you are interested, I would venture to offer to show you one of his +letters; there is nothing in them of a private character." + +Her heart beat still more quickly; he saw the eager light flash in her +eyes; and his hand went to his breast coat-pocket; then he said, +blandly: + +"I will bring one next time we meet. Are you going--where are you going +to-morrow, Miss Heron? I, too, shall be going there probably?" + +She put her hand to her lips with a little nervous gesture: she was +disappointed, she thought he was going to show her a letter, then and +there. + +"I am going to Lady Fitzharford's to-morrow afternoon to try over some +music with her," she said, hesitatingly. + +"Ah, yes; Lady Fitzharford is a good friend of mine," he said. "Shall +you be there at, say, four?" + +"Yes," said Ida in a low voice. "Did you say that Mr. Orme--Lord +Highcliffe is well?" + +"Oh, yes; he is all right now," replied Howard; "he has been ill--a +fever of some kind or other, I believe--but he has recovered; he is a +monster of strength, as you may have heard. But I am afraid he is very +unhappy: something on what he calls his mind--he is not very +intellectual, you know--" + +Ida shot an indignant glance at him which made Howard chuckle inwardly. + +--"But the best, the noblest of good fellows, I assure you, Miss Heron. +I'd give anything to see him happy. Ah, here comes a gentleman with +hurried gait and distracted countenance; he is looking for his partner; +alas! it is you! We meet, then, at Lady Fitzharford's to-morrow. I will +bring my friend's letter; but I do sincerely hope it won't bore you!" + +He bowed his adieux and left her, and left the house; for the ball had +no further interest for him. All the way home he pondered over the +case. That she loved Stafford, he had not the very least doubt; her +eyes, her sudden blushes and colour, her voice had betrayed her. + +"He has loved her all the time; and I am a purblind ass not to have +seen it!" he said to himself, with cynical self-contempt, as he climbed +up to his rooms. + +They were modest but comfortable rooms in Picadilly--and he struck a +match before he opened the door; but it was not necessary for him to +have got a light, for there was one in the room already, and by it he +saw a long-limbed figure which had been sitting in his easy-chair, but +which rose and exclaimed: + +"Howard!" + +Howard held his breath for a moment, then said, with exaggerated calm. + +"I'm glad you found the cigars and the whiskey, Stafford. Have you been +waiting long: sorry to keep you." + +Howard laughed as he wrung his friend's hand. + +"I thought I should surprise you, old man; but I flattered myself," +said Stafford. + +"Nothing surprises me; but I'll admit to being rather pleased at seeing +you," drawled Howard, pushing him gently buck in the chair. "Have +you--er--walked from Australia, or flown?" + +Stafford stared. + +"Oh, I see! You mean I came so quickly on my letter? I started directly +after I posted it, but lost the mail at Southampton. I--I got a +restless fit, and was obliged to come." + +"Got it now?" drawled Howard. "Or perhaps the journey has cooled you +down. Have you eaten? I can get something--" + +"Yes, yes," said Stafford, rather impatiently. "Got dinner at the +hotel. I came on here at once: heard you'd gone to a dance, and thought +I'd wait. I want you to do something for me, Howard--I'll tell you all +my news some other time--not that there's much to tell: I'm well and +nourishing, as you see. I want you to go down to Bryndermere. I dare +not go myself--not yet. I want you to get all the information you can +about--about a lady: Miss Heron of Herondale--" + +"How very strange!" said Howard innocently. "Do you know, I have just +had the pleasure of meeting a Miss Heron of Herondale--" + +Stafford sprang to his feet. + +"Where?" he demanded hotly. + +"At Lady Clansford's ball, which I have just left. May I ask why you +are so interested in Miss Heron as to send me on such a mission?" + +"I love her," said Stafford briefly. "I can not live without her--I've +tried, and I've failed. I've loved her since--oh, I can't tell you! I +want to know what she is doing. I want to know if she has forgotten me; +if there is any hope for me!" + +Howard looked at him compassionately, and whistled softly. + +"My dear old man," he said, with an air of reluctance, "you fly rather +high! The lady you speak of is the belle of the present season; she is +the admired of all admirers; belted earls, to say nothing of noble +dukes, are at her feet. She was the star of the ball which I have just +left. If I may say so, I think you were very unwise to leave such a +peerless pearl to be snapped up--" + +Stafford turned away from him and stifled a groan. + +"I might have know it," he said. "The belle of the season! Well, why +not? There is no one more beautiful, no one more sweet. Who am I that +she should remember me? What am I--" + +"Rather a foolish young man, if you ask me," said Howard. "If I'd been +in love with such a peerless creature, I shouldn't have left her to go +tramping after cattle in Australia." + +"What else could I do?" exclaimed Stafford, sternly. "Have you +forgotten that I was not set free, that when--when death"--his voice +dropped--"set me free, that it was no time to speak of love to another +woman? I was obliged to go; but I've came back--too late, I suppose! +Don't say any more; let us talk of something else: you are looking +well. Howard." + +"Yes, it's no use crying over spilt milk," said Howard, with a sigh. +"Oh, I'm all right. Look here, I'll put you up to-night; we're got a +spare room. Now, mix yourself another drink and light up another +cigar--not bad, are they--and tell me all you've been doing." + + * * * * * + +At a quarter to four the following day Howard put in his appearance at +Lady Fitzharford's house in Eaton Square. + +"Oh, I'm so glad you've come," she said: everybody was pleased to see +Howard; "you are just the man I want. That sweet creature, Miss Heron, +is coming here directly to try over some songs with me--I'm going to +sing at that Bazaar, you know--and as you know something of music--is +there anything you don't know, Mr. Howard?--you can give us your +opinion." + +"With the greatest pleasure, my dear lady," responded Howard; "but on +two conditions: one, that you don't take my opinion; the other, that +you leave me alone with Miss Heron, directly she comes, for a quarter +of an hour." + +Lady Fitzharford stared at him. + +"Are you going to propose to her?" she asked, with a smile. + +"No," he replied; "I am tired of proposing." + +"Well, I don't think she would accept you," said Lady Fitzharford, "she +has had the most wonderful offers; she has refused Lord Edwin, the +Bannerdales' son and heir, and, I believe, the Duke of Glarn--" + +"I know, I know!" said Howard, more quickly than usual. "I can hear her +on the stairs. Oh, vanish, my dear lady, an' you love me!" + +Lady Fitzharford had scarcely left the room, laughing, and not a little +puzzled, before the servant admitted Ida. She was pale, and the look of +sadness in her eyes was even more palpable than on the preceding night. +She blushed for an instant as she gave her hand to Howard. + +"Lady Fitzharford has gone to get her music, Miss Heron," he said; "she +bade me make her excuses; she will be here presently. It is so good of +you to remember our appointment! When I came to think it over, I was +quite ashamed, do you know, at the obtrusive way in which I pressed the +subject of my friend, Lord Highcliffe's condition, upon you. But mind, +though, I do think you would feel interested in his letter. He has a +knack, unintellectual as he is"--Ida rose readily to the fly again and +flashed a momentary glance of indignation at him from her violet +eyes--"a child-like way of describing scenes and incidents in a kind of +graphic style which--What an idiot I am!" he broke off to exclaim, he +had been feeling in his pocket; "I have actually left the letter at +home! Please forgive me. But perhaps you will regard my lapse of memory +as affording you a happy escape." + +Ida's lips trembled and her eyes became downcast. Disappointment was +eloquently depicted on her face. + +"No, I am sorry," she said. "I--I should have liked to have seen the +letter." + +"Would you really?" he purred, penitently, as she turned away to the +window. "Then I will go and get it; my rooms are only a short +distance." + +"Oh, pray, don't trouble," she said, so faintly that Howard found it +difficult not to smile. + +"Not at all," he said, politely, and left the room. + +As he went down the stairs he glanced at his watch, and muttered: + +"Now, if the young idiot isn't up to time--" + +At that moment there was a knock at the hall-door, the servant opened +it, and Stafford entered with a gloomy countenance and a reluctant +gait. + +"I've come," he said, rather morosely; "though I don't know why you +should have insisted upon my doing so--or what good it will do me to +hear about her," he added, in a low voice, as they followed the servant +up the stairs. + +As the man touched the handle of the door, Howard said: + +"Go in, my dear fellow; I've left my pocket-handkerchief in my overcoat +in the hall: back in a moment." + +With a frown of annoyance, Stafford hesitated and looked after him; +then, with a shrug of his shoulders, he obeyed and entered the room. + +They uttered no cry of surprise, of joy. They stood for a moment +looking at each other with their hearts in their eyes. It was the +moment that bridged over all the weary months of waiting, of longing, +of doubts and fears, of hope that seemed too faint for hope and but a +mockery of despair. + +He had no need to ask her if she loved him, her face was eloquent of +the truth; and her eyes reflected the love that glowed in his. He had +got hold of her hand before she knew it, had drawn her to him, and, +utterly regardless of the fact that he was in a strange house, that +they might be interrupted any moment, he kissed her passionately with +all the passion that had been stored up for so long. + +"Ida," he said, as he bent over her and pressed her to him, "I have +come back, I cannot live without you--ah, but you know that, you know +that. Is it too late? It is not too late?" + +"No; it is not too late," she whispered. "I--I did not know whether you +would come. But I have been waiting; I should have waited all my life. +But the time has been very long, Stafford!" + + * * * * * + +At the end of the quarter of an hour for which Howard had bargained, +Lady Fitzharford opened the door of the inner room softly, so softly, +that seeing Miss Heron in the arms of a stalwart young man, and +apparently quite content to be there, her ladyship discreetly closed +the door again, and going round by the inner room found Mr. Howard +seated on the stairs. She looked at him with amazement, well-nigh +bewilderment. + +"Are you mad?" she exclaimed, in a whisper. + +Howard smiled at her blandly. + +"No," he said, with a backward jerk of his head, "but they are. I'm +told it's a delicious kind of madness worth all your sanity. Do not let +us disturb them. Come and sit down beside me until the time is up," he +glanced at his watch; "they have still three minutes." + +With a suppressed laugh she sat down beside him. + +"You ought to be ashamed of yourself," she said, "to play me such a +trick. But, oh, how happy they look!" + +"I am ashamed of myself, my dear, lady," he said; "but I should have +been more ashamed of myself if I hadn't. Do they look happy? We will go +in and see presently. It will be my great reward. But I should like to +give them another five minutes, dear lady, for I assure you, on my word +of honour, that I was once young myself." + +THE END. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of At Love's Cost, by Charles Garvice + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT LOVE'S COST *** + +***** This file should be named 10379-8.txt or 10379-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/3/7/10379/ + +Produced by Ted Garvin and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: At Love's Cost + +Author: Charles Garvice + +Release Date: December 4, 2003 [EBook #10379] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT LOVE'S COST *** + + + + +Produced by Ted Garvin and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +AT LOVE'S COST + +By CHARLES GARVICE + + + +AT LOVE'S COST + + + +CHAPTER 1 + +"Until this moment I have never fully realised how great an ass a man +can be. When I think that this morning I scurried through what might +have been a decent breakfast, left my comfortable diggings, and was +cooped up in a train for seven hours, that I am now driving in a +pelting rain through, so far as I can see for the mist, what appears to +be a howling wilderness, I ask myself if I am still in possession of my +senses. I ask myself why I should commit such lurid folly. Last night I +was sitting over the fire with a book--for it was cold, though not so +cold as this," the speaker shivered and dragged the collar of his +overcoat still higher--"at peace with all the world, with Omar purring +placidly by my side, and my soul wrapped in that serenity which belongs +to a man who has long since rid himself of that inconvenient +appendage--a conscience, and has hit upon the right brand of +cigarettes, and now--" + +He paused to sigh, to groan indeed, and shifted himself uneasily in the +well-padded seat of the luxurious mail-phaeton. + +"When Williams brought me your note, vilely written--were you sober, +Stafford?--blandly asking me to join you in this mad business, I smiled +to myself as I pitched the note on the fire. Omar smiled too, the very +cigarette smiled. I said to myself I would see you blowed first; that +nothing would induce me to join you, that I'd read about the lakes too +much and too often to venture upon them in the early part of June; in +fact, had no desire to see the lakes at any time or under any +conditions. I told Omar that I would see you in the lowest pit of +Tophet before I would go with you to--whatever the name of this place +is. And yet, here I am." + +The speaker paused in his complaint to empty a pool water from his +mackintosh, and succeeded--in turning it over his own leg. + +He groaned again, and continued. + +"And yet, here I am. My dear Stafford, I do not wish to upbraid you; I +am simply making to myself a confession of weakness which would be +pitiable in a stray dog, but which in a man of my years, with my +experience of the world and reputation for common sense, is simply +criminal. I do not wish to reproach you; I am quite aware that no +reproach, not even the spectacle of my present misery would touch your +callous and, permit me to frankly add, your abominably selfish nature; +but I do want to ask quite calmly and without any display of temper: +what the blazes you wanted to come this way round, and why you wanted +me with you?" + +The speaker, a slightly built man, just beyond the vague line of +"young," glanced up with his dark, somewhat sombre and yet softly +cynical eyes at the face of his companion who was driving. This +companion was unmistakably young, and there was not a trace of cynicism +in his grey-blue eyes which looked out upon the rain and mist with +pleasant cheerfulness. He was neither particularly fair nor dark; but +there was a touch of brighter colour than usual in his short, crisp +hair; and no woman had yet found fault with the moustache or the lips +beneath. And yet, though Stafford Orme's face was rather too handsome +than otherwise, the signs of weakness which one sees in so many +good-looking faces did not mar it; indeed, there was a hint of +strength, not to say sternness, in the well-cut lips, a glint of power +and masterfulness in the grey eyes and the brows above them which +impressed one at first sight; though when one came to know him the +impression was soon lost, effaced by the charm for which Stafford was +famous, and which was perpetually recruiting his army of friends. + +No doubt it is easy to be charming when the gods have made you good to +look upon, and have filled your pockets with gold into the bargain. +Life was a pageant of pleasure to Stafford Orme: no wonder he sang and +smiled upon the way and had no lack of companions. + +Even this man beside him, Edmund Howard, whose name was a by-word for +cynicism, who had never, until he had met Stafford Orme, gone an inch +out of his self-contained way to please or benefit a fellow-man, was +the slave of the young fellow's imperious will, and though he made +burlesque complaint of his bondage, did not in his heart rebel against +it. + +Stafford laughed shortly as he looked at the rain-swept hills round +which the two good horses were taking the well-appointed phaeton. + +"Oh, I knew you would come," he said. "It was just this way. You know +the governor wrote and asked me to come down to this new place of his +at Bryndermere--" + +"Pardon me, Stafford; you forget that I have been down South--where I +wish to Heaven I had remained!--and that I only returned yesterday +afternoon, and that I know nothing of these sudden alarums and +excursions of your esteemed parent." + +"Ah, no; so you don't!" assented Stafford; "thought I'd told you: shall +have to tell you now; I'll cut it as short as possible." He paused for +a moment and gently drew the lash of the whip over the wet backs of the +two horses who were listening intently to the voice of their beloved +master. "Well, three days ago I got a letter from my father; it was a +long one; I think it's the first long letter I ever received from him. +He informed me that for some time past he has been building a little +place on the east side of Bryndermere Lake, that he thought it would be +ready by the ninth of this month; and would I go down--or is it +up?--there and meet him, as he was coming to England and would go +straight there from Liverpool. Of course there was not time for me to +reply, and equally, of course, I prepared to obey. I meant going +straight down to Bryndermere; and I should have done so, but two days +ago I received a telegram telling me that the place would not be ready, +and that he would not be there until the eleventh, and asking me to +fill up the interval by sending down some horses and carriages. It +occurred to me, with one of those brilliant flashes of genius which you +have so often remarked in me, my dear Howard, that I would drive down, +at any rate, part of the way; so I sent some of the traps direct and +got this turn-out as far as Preston with me. With another of those +remarkable flashes of genius, it also occurred to me that I should be +devilish lonely with only Pottinger here," he jerked his head towards +the groom, who sat in damp and stolid silence behind. "And so I wrote +and asked you to come. Kind of me, wasn't it?" + +"Most infernally kind," said Howard, with a sigh of a ton weight. "Had +you any idea that your father was building this little place? By the +way, I can't imagine Sir Stephen building anything that could be +described as 'little'. + +"You are right," assented Stafford, with a nod. "I heard coming down +that it was a perfect palace of a place, a kind of palace of art +and--and that sort of thing. You know the governor's style?" His brows +were slightly knit for just a second, then he threw, as it were, the +frown off, with a smile. "No, I knew nothing about it; I knew as little +about it as I do of the governor himself and his affairs." + +Howard nodded. + +"When you come to think of it, Howard, isn't it strange that father and +son should know so little of each other? I have not seen the governor +for I forget how many years. He has been out of England for the last +fourteen or fifteen, with the exception of a few flying visits; and on +the occasion of those visits I was either at school on the Continent or +tramping about with a gun or a rod, and so we never met. I've a kind of +uneasy suspicion that my revered parent had no particular desire to +renew his acquaintance with his dutiful offspring; anyway, if he had, +he would have arranged a meeting. Seems rather peculiar; for in every +other respect his conduct as a parent has been above reproach." + +"Those are scarcely the terms by which I should designate a liberality +which can only be described as criminally lavish, and an indifference +to your moral progress which might more properly belong to an +unregenerate Turk than to an English baronet. Considering the +opportunities of evil afforded you by the possession of a practically +unlimited allowance, and a brazen cheek which can only be described as +colossal, the fact that you have not long since gone headlong to the +devil fills me with perpetual and ever-freshening wonder." + +Stafford yawned and shrugged his shoulders with cheerful acquiescence. + +"Should have gone a mucker ever so many times, old man, if it hadn't +been for you," he said; "but you've always been at hand just at the +critical moment to point out to me that I was playing the giddy goat +and going to smash. That's why I like to have you with me as a kind of +guide, monitor, and friend, you know." + +Howard groaned and attempted to get rid of another miniature pool of +water, and succeeded--as before. + +"I know," he assented. "My virtue has been its own reward--and +punishment. If I had allowed you to go your way to the proverbial dogs, +after whose society gilded youths like yourself appear to be always +hankering, I should not be sitting here with cold water running down my +back and surrounded by Nature in her gloomiest and dampest aspects. +Only once have I deviated from the life of consistent selfishness at +which every sensible man should aim, and see how I am punished! I do +not wish to be unduly inquisitive, but I should like to know where the +blazes we are going, and why we do not make for a decent hotel--if +there is such a thing in these desolate wilds." + +Stafford handed him the reins so that he himself might get out his +cigar-case, and with some little difficulty, and assisted by +Pottinger's soaked hat, the two gentlemen got their cigars alight. + +"There isn't a decent hotel for miles," explained Stafford. "There is +only a small inn at a little place called Carysford. I looked it out on +the map. I thought we'd drive there today, put up for the night to give +the horses a rest, and go on to this place of my governor's the next +day. It's on the opposite side of the lake." + +He jerked his whip to the right. + +"Which side, what lake?" asked Howard, hopelessly. "I see nothing of +the lake, nothing but mist and sodden hills. No wonder the word 'poet' +instinctively arouses one's animosity. When I think of the number of +well-meaning and inspired idiots who have written reams of poetry about +this place, I feel at this present moment as if I could cheerfully rend +even a Wordsworth, a Southey, or a Coleridge; and I look back with +remorse upon the hours, the throbs of admiration, I have expended upon +what I once deemed their inspired pages. If I remember rightly, most of +the lake poets went off their heads; when I gaze around me I must admit +that I am not surprised." + +Stafford laughed absently; he was quite accustomed to Howard's cynical +vein. + +"They're all right enough," he said. "That is, I suppose they are, for +I never read any of 'em since I left school. Oh, yes, they're right +enough about the beauty of the place; you should see it on a fine day." + +"Has anyone seen it on a fine day?" inquired Howard, with the innocent +air of one simply seeking information. "I asked a countryman in the +train if it always rained here, and he replied, 'No; it sometimes +snows.'" + +"That's a chestnut," remarked Stafford, with a laugh. "But it's all +nonsense about its always being wet here; they tell me it's fine for +weeks together; that you can never tell any instant whether it's going +to clear up or not; that the weather will change like a woman--Good +heavens, look at that!" + +He nodded to the east as he spoke. + +Unnoticed by them, the sky had been clearing gradually, the mists +sweeping, dissolving, away; a breath of wind now wafted them, like a +veil thrown aside, from hill and valley and lake, and a scene of +unparalleled beauty lay revealed beneath them. The great lake shone +like a sapphire; meadows of emerald, woods of darker green, hills of +purple and grey, silver and gold, rose from the bosom and the edge of +the great liquid jewel; the hills towering tier on tier into the +heavens of azure blue swept by clouds like drifting snow. + +The two men gazed in silence; even Pottinger, to whom his 'osses +generally represented all that was beautiful in nature, gaped with +wide-open mouth. + +"How's that for lofty, you unbeliever?" demanded Stafford. "Ever seen +anything like that before?" + +Howard had been considerably startled, but, of course, he concealed his +amazed admiration behind a mask of cynicism. + +"Rather a crib from Val Prinsep, isn't it, with a suggestion of a Drury +Lane pantomime about it? Good heavens! And there's the Fairy Palace all +complete," he added, as, the mists still rising, was discovered on the +slope of the other side a long and extremely ornate building, the pure +whiteness of which was reflected in the marvellous blue and opal of the +lake. "Can that be Sir Stephen's 'little place'?" + +"I'm afraid it is," said Stafford. "It looks like the governor," he +added, with a touch of gravity. + +"Well, it's very big, or, rather, long; and it's very white, but one's +bound to admit that it doesn't spoil the landscape," said Howard; "in +fact, standing there amidst the dark-green trees, with its pinnacles +and terraces, it's rather an ornament than otherwise. I suppose there +are flowers on those velvety lawns; and the interior, I'll wager my +life, matches the exterior. Fortunate youth to possess a Croesus for a +father:" + +"Yes; I suppose the governor must be tremendously oafish," said +Stafford. + +"The man who can build such a palace as that, and have the cool cheek +to call it 'a little place,' must in common decency be a +multi-millionaire." + +Stafford nodded and smoked thoughtfully for a minute as Pottinger left +the horses' heads and climbed into his seat behind, and the +mail-phaeton moved along the road, which began to dip down at this +point. + +"I know so little about my father," he said again. + +"And yet the world knows so much," remarked Howard, throwing open his +waterproof and basking in the sun which shone as warmly and +unreservedly as if it had never heard of such a thing as rain. "One +can't take up the paper without seeing some mention of Sir Stephen +Orme's great name. One day he is in Paris negotiating a state loan; +another you read he is annexing, appropriating, or whatever you call +it, a vast tract in Africa or Asia; on the third you are informed with +all solemnity that he has become director of a new bank, insurance +company, or one of those vast concerns in which only Rothschilds and +Barings can disport themselves. Now and again you are informed that Sir +Stephen Orme has been requested to stand for an important constituency, +but that he was compelled to decline because of the pressure of his +numerous affairs. There may be a more famous and important individual +in the world than your father, my dear Stafford, but I can't call him +to mind at this moment." + +"Chaff away," said Stafford, good-humouredly. "At any rate, he has been +a jolly liberal father to me. Did I tell you that just before he came +home be placed a largish sum at his bank for me; I mean over and above +my allowance?" + +"You didn't tell me, but I'm not at all surprised," responded Howard. +"A truly wonderful father, and a model to all other parents. Would that +I possessed such a one. You don't remember your mother, Stafford?" + +The young fellow's handsome face softened for an instant; and his voice +was low and grave as he replied: + +"No--and yet sometimes I fancy that I do; though, seeing that she died +when I was quite a kid, it must be only fancy. I wish she'd lived," his +voice became still lower; "I wish I had a brother, or a sister, +especially a sister--By George! that's a fine stream! Did you see that +fish jump, Howard?" + +"No, I was too much occupied in jumping myself. I thought by your +exclamation that something had happened to the carriage or the horses, +and that we were on the verge of a smash-up. Let it jump if it amuses +it." + +"So it may--if I don't catch it," said Stafford, pulling up the horses +near the bank of the stream. + +"Do you mean to tell me that you are going to fish?" demanded Howard, +with a groan. "My dear Stafford, I know that being that abominable +thing--a sportsman--you are consequently mad; but you might have the +decency to curb your insanity out of consideration for the wretched man +who has the misfortune to be your companion, and who plainly sees that +this period of sunshine is a gilded fraud, and that presently it will +rain again like cats and dogs." + +Stafford laughed. He had got down and dragged out a rod and a +fishing-basket. + +"Sorry, old chap," he said, "but no fisherman could lose such a chance +as this, even to save his best friend from rheumatic fever. I thought +we should come across a stream or two, and I put on these togs +accordingly." He wore a Norfolk suit of that wonderful Harris tweed +which, strange to say, keeps out the rain, the heat, and the cold; and +flies were stuck in his cap of the same material. "But, look here, +there's no need for me to keep you; Pottinger will drive you to this +place, Carysford, where we stay the night--I've engaged rooms--and you +can have a warm bath and get into the dress-clothes after which you are +hankering. When I've caught a fish or two I'll come on after you. Don't +argue, now!" + +"My dear Stafford, I haven't the least intention of doing so; I'm +simply dying for a bath, a change, and a huge fire; and when you arrive +you'll find me sitting over the latter humbly thanking God that I'm not +a sportsman." + +Stafford nodded, with his eyes on the stream. + +"I should give the nags some gruel, Pottinger, and put an extra coat on +them: it'll be cold to-night. Ta, ta, Howard! Tell 'em to get a nice +dinner; I'll be there in time for 'em to cook the fish; but don't wait +if I should be late--say half past seven." + +"I promise you I won't," retorted Howard, fervently. "And I am one of +those men who never break a promise--unless it's inconvenient." + +The phaeton drove on, Stafford went down to the stream, put up his rod, +chose a fly as carefully as if the fate of a kingdom depended on it, +and began to fish. + +There is this great advantage in the art of fly-fishing: that while you +are engaged in it you can think of nothing else: it is as absorbing as +love or scarlet fever. Stafford worked his fly steadily and +systematically, with a light and long "cast" which had made him famous +with the brethren of the craft, and presently he landed a glittering +trout, which, though only a pound in weight, was valued by Stafford at +many a pound in gold. The fish began to rise freely, and he was so +engrossed in the sport that he did not notice that Howard's prophecy +had come true, that the mist had swept over the landscape again, and +that it was raining, if not exactly cats and dogs, yet hard enough to +make even the opposite bank a blur in his vision. + +But Stafford was utterly indifferent to rain and mist while the trout +were rising, and his basket was half full before he looked around him. +It is wonderful, when you are fishing, how great a distance you can +walk without noticing it. He had followed the winding course of the +stream until it had left the road far behind and struck into a valley, +the wildness, the remoteness of which was almost awe-inspiring; and he +stood still for a moment and looked up at the sky into which the tall, +sharp peaks of the hills lost themselves. The stream, broken by huge +boulders, rumbled with a soft roar which was the only sound that broke +the stillness. It was the silence, a profound stillness, which makes +one feel as if one has wandered into an unknown world newly made and as +yet untouched by the foot of man, unsullied by his presence. + +Stafford could not have quoted a verse of poetry to save his life; it +wasn't in his line; he could ride straight, was a first-rate shot, +waltzed like an angel, and so far his dictionary did not contain the +word "fear;" but he knew nothing of poetry or art, and only liked some +kinds of music, amongst which, it is to be feared, "Soldiers of the +Queen," and the now much-abused chorus from "Faust," ranked high in his +estimation. He was just simply a healthy young Englishman, clean-limbed +and clean-minded, with a tremendous appetite for pleasure, a +magnificent frame, and a heart as light and buoyant as a cork; +therefore, though an artist or a poet would have been thrilled to the +marrow by the wild grandeur of the secluded valley and the grimly +towering hills, and would have longed to put them on canvas or into +verse, Stafford only felt suddenly grave, and as if it were playing it +low down to throw an artificial fly, even of the best make, in such a +spot. + +But in a moment or two the sportsman's instinct woke in him; a fish +stirred in a pool under a boulder, and pulling himself together he +threw a fly over the rise. As he did so, the brooding silence was +broken by the deep musical bark of a collie, followed by the sharp yap, +yap of a fox-terrier. The sudden sound almost startled Stafford; at any +rate, caused him to miss his fish; he looked up with a little frown of +annoyance, and saw on the break of the opposite hill some of the +mountain sheep which had stared at him with haughty curiosity running +down towards the green bottom of the valley followed by the two dogs. + +A moment afterwards a horse and rider were silhouetted on the extreme +top of the high hill. The horse was large whereby the rider looked +small; and for a moment the pair were motionless, reminding Stafford of +a bronze statue. The hill was fearfully steep, even the dogs ran with a +certain amount of caution, and Stafford wondered whether the rider--he +couldn't see if it was man or boy--would venture down the almost +precipitous slope. While he was wondering, the small figure on the +horse sent up a cry that rang like the note of a bell and echoed in +sweet shrillness down the hill and along the valley. The collie stopped +as if shot, and the fox-terrier looked round, prepared to go back to +the rider. It looked for a moment as if the rider were going down the +other side of the hill again; then suddenly, as if he detected +something wrong in the valley below, he turned the horse and came down +the hill-side at a pace which made Stafford, hard and fearless rider as +he was, open his eyes. + +It seemed to him impossible that the horse could avoid a false step or +a slip, and such a false step he knew would send steed and rider +hurtling down to something that could be very little short of instant +death. He forgot all about the big trout in the pool, and stood with +his fly drifting aimlessly in the water, watching with something like +breathless interest this, the most daring piece of horsemanship he had +ever witnessed; and he had ridden side by side with the best +steeplechaser of the day, and had watched a crack Hungarian cavalry +corps at its manoeuvres; which last is about the top notch of the +horse-riding business. + +But the big horse did not falter for a moment; down it came at a hard +gallop, and Stafford's admiration was swallowed up in amazement when he +saw that the rider was a young girl, that she was riding with about +half an ounce on the reins, and that, apparently, she was as much at +ease and unconscious of danger as if she were trotting on a tame hack +in Rotten Row. + +As she came nearer, admiration romped in ahead of amazement, for the +girl was a young one--she looked like the average school-girl--and had +one of the most beautiful faces Stafford had ever seen. She was dark, +but the cheek that was swept by the long lashes was colourless with +that exquisite and healthy pallor which one sees in the women of +Northern Spain. Her hair was black but soft and silky, and the wind +blew it in soft tendrils, now across her brow and now in dazzling +strands about the soft felt hat which sat in graceful negligence upon +the small and stately head. She wore a habit stained by use and +weather, and so short that it was little better than a skirt, and left +her almost as absolute a freedom as that enjoyed by the opposite sex. +Her hands were covered by well-worn gauntlets, and she held a stout and +workman-like crop with a long huntsman's thong. + +A poet would instantly have thought that it was a vision of the Spirit +of the Mountains; Stafford only thought it was the most lovely piece of +girlhood he had ever looked at. She did not see him for a moment, all +her attention being engrossed by the sheep which were now wandering up +the valley; then suddenly, as if she felt his presence rather than saw +it, her dark eyes flashed round upon him and she pulled up the big +horse on its haunches with a suddenness which ought to have sent her +from the saddle like a stone from a catapult; but she sat back as firm +as a rock and gazed at him steadily, with a calmness which fascinated +Stafford and kept him staring back at her as if he were the veriest +plough-boy. + +And to put it frankly, it was something like fascination. She had come +upon him so suddenly, her feat of horsemanship had been so audacious, +her beauty was so marvellous that Stafford, perhaps for the first time +in his life, found himself unable to utter a word in the presence of +one of the opposite sex. It was only for a moment or two, of course, +that he lost his presence of mind; then he pulled himself together and +raised his cap. She gave him the very slightest of bows. It was the +faintest indication only of response to his salute; her eyes rested on +his face with a strange, ungirlish calm, then wandered to the last +trout which lay on the bank. + +Stafford felt that something had to be said, but for the life of him, +for the first time in his experience, he couldn't hit upon the thing to +say. "Good-afternoon" seemed to him too banal, commonplace; and he +could think of nothing else for a moment. However, it came at last. + +"Will you be so good as to tell me if I am far from Carysford?" he +asked. + +"Four miles and three-quarters by the road, three miles over the hill," +she replied, slowly, as calmly as she had looked at him, and in a voice +low and sweet, and with a ring, a tone, in it which in some indefinable +way harmonised with her appearance. It was quite unlike the +conventional girl's voice; there rang in it the freedom of the lonely +valley, the towering hills, the freedom and unconventionality of the +girl's own figure and face and wind-tossed hair; and in it was a note +of dignity, of independence, and of a pride which was too proud for +defiance. In its way the voice was as remarkable as the beauty of the +face, the soft fire of the dark eyes. + +"I had no idea it was so far," said Stafford; "I must have wandered +away from the place. I started fishing on the road down below, and +haven't noticed the distance. Will you tell me the name of this place?" + +"Herondale," she replied. + +"Thank you," said Stafford. "It's a grand valley and a splendid +stream." She leant forward with her elbow on the saddle and her chin in +the small gauntletted hand, looked up the valley absently and then back +at him, with a frank speculation in her eyes which was too frank and +calm to be flattering, and was, indeed, somewhat embarrassing. + +"I suppose she takes me for a tourist, or a cheap tripper," thought +Stafford, with an uncomfortable kind of amusement; uncomfortable, +because he knew that this girl who was acting as shepherd in an old +weather-stained habit and a battered hat, was a lady. + +She broke the silence again. + +"Have you caught many fish?" she asked. + +Up to now they had been separated by the stream; Stafford seized the +opportunity, waded across in a fairly shallow place, and, opening the +lid of his basket, showed her the contents. + +"Yes, you have done fairly well," she said; "but the trout run larger +higher up the valley. By the way," her brows came together slightly, +though the very faintest of smiles for an instant curved the delicately +cut lips, "do you know that you are poaching?" + +This would have been a staggerer coming from a mere keeper, but from +this exquisitely beautiful, this calm statue of a girl, it was simply +devastating. Stafford stared at her. + +"Doesn't this river belong to Sir Joseph Avory?" he asked. + +"No," she replied, uncompromisingly. "Sir Joseph Avory's river is +called the Lesset water, and runs on the other side of that hill." + +She raised her hunting-crop and pointed with an exquisite movement, as +graceful as that of a Diana, to the hill behind her. + +"I am very sorry," said Stafford. "I thought this was his river. I met +him in London and got permission from him. Do you know to whom this +water belongs?" + +"To Mr. Heron, of Herondale," she replied. + +"I beg Mr. Heron's pardon," said Stafford. "Of course I'll put up my +rod at once; and I will take the first opportunity of apologising for +my crime; for poaching is a crime, isn't it?" + +"Yes," she assented, laconically. + +"Can you tell me where he lives--where his house is?" + +She raised her whip again and pointed to an opening on the left of the +valley, an opening lined on either side by a wild growth of magnificent +firs. + +"It is up there. You cannot see it from here," she said. As she spoke, +she took her chin from her hand and sat upright, gathered up her reins, +and, with another of the faint inclinations of her head, by way of +adieu, rode on up the valley. + +Stafford stood with his cap in his hand looking after her for a moment, +in a brown study; and, still watching the back of the slight figure +that sat the big horse with the grace of an Indian maiden, he began to +take down his rod, and, having packed it in his case and fastened his +basket, he followed her along the broken bank of the stream. Presently, +when she had gone some little distance, he heard the dogs start barking +again, the crack of her whip rang like a pistol-shot, and her bell-like +voice echoed amongst the hills, joined with the troubled baaing of the +sheep. Stafford stopped and watched her: there was evidently something +wrong; for the dogs had become excited, the sheep were running wildly; +but the girl's exquisite voice was as clear and calm as ever, and the +big horse cantered over the broken ground, taking a big boulder now and +again with lilting jump, as if he were going by his own volition and +was well up in all the points of the game. After a time the dogs got +the sheep into a heap, and the young girl rode round them; but +something still seemed to be wrong, for she got down, and, leaving the +horse quite free, made her way into the flock. + +At that moment Stafford saw a sheep and a lamb break from the mob and +make for the stream; the sheep jumped to a boulder with the agility of +a goat, the lamb attempted to follow, but missed the boulder and fell +into the stream. The water was wild here and the pools deep; and as the +lamb was swept down toward Stafford he saw that it was struggling in an +ineffectual way, and that it looked like a case of drowning. + +Of course he went for it at once, and wading in made a grab at it; he +got hold of it easily enough, but the lamb--a good sized +one--struggled, and in the effort to retain his hold Stafford's feet +slipped and he went headfirst into a deep pool. He was submerged for a +second only, and when he came up he had the satisfaction of feeling +that he had still got the lamb; and gripping the struggling thing +tightly in his arms, he made for the opposite bank. And looking up, saw +the girl standing waiting for him, her face alive, alight, dancing with +delight and amusement! The laughter shone in her eyes like dazzling +sunlight and quivered on the firm but delicate lips. But it was only +for a moment; before Stafford had fully taken it in and had responded +to it with one of his own short laughs, her face was grave and calm +again. "Thank you." she said, with a gravity matching her face, and +very much as one is thanked for passing the salt. "It would have +drowned if you had not been there. It is lame and couldn't swim. I saw, +from the top of the hill, that it was lame, and I was afraid something +would happen to it." + +As she spoke, she took the lamb, which was bleating like mad, laid it +on the ground and holding it still, firmly but gently, with her knee, +examined it with all the confidence and coolness of a vet. + +"You'll make yourself most frightfully wet," said Stafford. + +She glanced up at him with only faint surprise. + +"You are a Londoner," she said, "or you would know that here, in these +parts, we are so often more wet than dry that it makes no matter. Yes, +I thought so; there was a thorn in its foot. May I trouble you to hold +him a minute?" + +Stafford held the lamb, which was tolerably quiet now; and she slowly +took off her gauntlets, produced a little leather wallet from the +saddle--the horse coming at her call as if he were a dog--took out a +serviceable pair of tweezers, and, with professional neatness, +extracted an extremely ugly thorn. Stafford stood and watched her; the +collie and the fox-terrier upright on their haunches watching her also; +the collie gave an approving bark as, with a pat she liberated the +lamb, which went bleating on its way to join its distracted mother, the +fox-terrier leapt round her with yaps of excited admiration; and there +was admiration in Stafford's eyes also. The whole thing had been done +with a calm, almost savage grace and self-possession, and she seemed to +be absolutely unconscious of his presence, and only remembered it when +the lamb and its mother had joined the flock. + +"Thank you again," she said. "It was very kind of you. I am afraid you +are wet." + +As Stafford had gone completely under the water, this was a fact he +could not deny, but he said with a laugh: + +"Though I am a Londoner, in a sense, I don't mind a wetting--in a good +cause; and I shall be dry, or as good as dry, before I get to the inn. +You must have eyes like a hawk to have seen, from the top of the hill, +that that lamb was lame," he added, rather with the desire to keep her +than to express his admiration for her sight. + +"I have good eyes," she said, indifferently. "One has to have. But I +saw that the lamb was lame from the way it kept beside its mother and +the fuss she made over it: and I knew, too, by Donald's bark, that +something was wrong. I am sorry you are wet. Will you--" She glanced +towards the opening in the hills, paused, and for the first time seemed +slightly embarrassed; Stafford fancied that a faint touch of colour +came to the clear pallor of the lovely young face. She did not finish +the sentence, but with another "Thank you," and "I should not have +liked to have lost the lamb," went towards her horse. + +Stafford advanced to put her in the saddle; but, with a little shake of +the head and a "Don't trouble," she sprang into her place and rode off. + +Stafford looked after her, as he had done before; then he said, "Well, +I'm d-----d!" + +He felt for his pouch, filled his pipe and lit it, and in doing so his +eyes fell upon the little wallet from which she had taken her tweezers. +He picked it up and quickly shouted to her; but the dogs were barking +with furious delight, she was cracking her whip, and she had ridden too +far for her to hear him through the noise. It would have been sheer +folly to have run after her; so, with a shrug of his shoulders, +Stafford put the little wallet in his pocket, waded the stream and, +after a moment or two of consideration, made for the inn by the nearest +way, to wit, across the hill. + +The girl rode along the strip of level moorland beside the river until +she came to a narrow and not particularly well--kept road which led +through the opening of the hills towards which she had motioned her +whip. Once or twice a smile crossed her face, and once she laughed as +she thought of the comical picture which the young man had made as he +struggled to dry land with the wet lamb in his arms; and the smile and +her laugh made her face seem strangely girlish, because it was usually +so calm, so gravely self-reliant. Some girls would have been quick to +detect the romantic side of the incident, and would have dwelt with a +certain sense of satisfaction upon the fact that the young man was tall +and handsome and distinguished looking. But this girl had scarcely +noticed it; at any rate, it had not affected her in any way. She had +too much to do; there was too much upon her well-formed and graceful +shoulders to permit her to indulge in romance: Diana herself was not +more free from sentiment than this young girl who rode her horse just +like a Mexican, who was vet enough to perform a surgical operation on a +lamb, and who knew how many bushels of wheat should run to an acre, and +the best dressing for permanent pastures. It did occur to her that she +might, at any rate after he had rescued the lamb, have given him +permission to go on fishing; but she was not very sorry for having +failed to do so, for after all, he had been poaching, and, as she had +said, poaching was in her eyes a crime. + +She went down the road at a swift trot, and presently it was blocked by +a pair of wrought-iron gates, so exquisite in their antique +conscientiousness that many a mushroom peer would have given almost +their weight in gold to place them at the beginning of his newly made +park; but no one came to open them, they were closed by a heavily +padlocked chain, and the lodge beside them was empty and dilapidated; +and the girl rode beside the lichen-covered wall in which they stood +until she came to an opening leading to an old arch which faced a broad +and spacious court-yard. As she rode beneath the arch a number of dogs +yelped a welcome from kennels or behind stable half-doors, and a bent +old man, dressed like something between a stableman and a butler, came +forward, touching his forehead, to take her horse. She slipped from the +saddle, patted the horse, and murmured a word or two of endearment; but +her bright eyes flashed round the court-yard with a glance of +responsibility. + +"Have you brought the colt in, Jason?" she asked. + +Jason touched his forehead again. + +"Yes, Miss Ida. It took me three-quarters of an hour; it won't come to +me like it does to you. It's in a loose stall." + +"Saddle it to-morrow morning," she said, "and I will come and try it. +The brindle cow has got into the corn, and the fence wants mending down +by the pool; you must get William to help you, and do it at once. He +has taken the steers to market, I suppose? I didn't see them in the +three acre. Oh, and, Jason, I found someone fishing in the dale; you +must get a notice board and put it up where the road runs near the +river; the tourists' time is coming on, and though they don't often +come this side of the lake, some of them may, and we can't afford to +have the river poached. And, Jason, look to Ruppert's off-hind shoe; I +think it's loose; and--" She stopped with a short laugh. "But that's +enough for one time, isn't it? Oh, Jason, if I were only a man, how +much better it would be!" + +"Yes, miss," assented Jason, simply, with another touch of his +forehead. + +She sighed and laughed again, and gathering up her habit--she hadn't to +raise it much--she went through an open door-way into a wild, but +pretty garden, and so to the back of one of the most picturesque houses +in this land of the picturesque. It was built of grey stone which age +had coloured with a tender and an appreciative hand; a rich growth of +ivy and clematis clung lovingly over a greater portion of it so that +the mullioned windows were framed by the dark leaves and the purple +flower. The house was long and rambling and had once been flourishing +and important, but it was now eloquent of decay and pathetic with the +signs of "better times" that had vanished long ago. A flight of worn +steps led to a broad glass door, and opening the latter, the girl +passed under a curved wooden gallery into a broad hall. It was dimly +lit by an oriel window of stained glass, over which the ivy and +clematis had been allowed to fall; there was that faint odour which +emanates from old wood and leather and damask; the furniture was +antique and of the neutral tint which comes from age; the weapons and +the ornaments of brass, the gilding of the great pictures, were all dim +and lack-lustre for want of the cleaning and polishing which require +many servants. In the huge fire-place some big logs were burning, and +Donald and Bess threw themselves down before it with a sigh of +satisfaction. The girl looked round her, just as she had looked round +the stable-yard; then, tossing her soft hat and whip on the old oak +table, she went to one of the large heavy doors, and knocking, said in +her clear voice: + +"Father, are you there?" + +Inside the room an old man sat at a table. It was littered with books, +some of them open as if he had been consulting them; but before him lay +an open deed, and at his elbow were several others lying on an open +deed-box. He was thin and as faded-looking and as worn with age as the +house and the room, lined with dusty volumes and yellow, +surface-cracked maps and pictures. He wore a long dressing-gown which +was huddled round him as if he were cold, though a fire of logs almost +as large as the one in the hall was burning in the open fire-place. + +At the sound of the knock he raised his head, an expression, which was +a mixture of fear and senile cunning came into his lined and pallid +face, his dull eyes peered from under their lids with a flash of sudden +alertness, and with one motion of his long hands he hurriedly folded +the deed before him, crammed it, with the others, into the box, locked +it with a hurried and trembling hand, and placed it in a cupboard, +which he also locked; then he drew one of the large books into the +place were the deed had been, and with a cautious glance round the +room, shuffled to the door, and opened it. + +As the girl entered, one would have noticed the resemblance between her +and the old man, and have seen that they were father and daughter; for +Godfrey Heron had been one of the handsomest men of his time, and +though she had got her dark eyes and the firm, delicate lips from her +mother, the clear oval of her face and its expression of aristocratic +pride had come from the Herons. + +"Are you here still, father?" she said. "It is nearly dinner-time, and +you are not dressed. You promised me that you would go out: how wicked +of you not to have done so!" + +He shuffled back to the table and made a great business of closing the +book. + +"I've been busy--reading, Ida," he said. "I did not know it was so +late. You have been out, I see; I hope you have enjoyed your ride. Have +you met anyone?" + +"No," she replied; then she smiled, as she added: "Only a poacher." + +The old man raised his head, a faint flush came on his face and his +eyes flashed with haughty resentment. + +"A poacher! What are the keepers about! Ah, I forgot; there are no +keepers now; any vagrant is free to trespass and poach on Herondale!" + +"I'm sorry, father!" she said, laying her hand on his arm soothingly. +"It was not an ordinary poacher, only a gentleman who had mistaken the +Heron water for the Avory's. Come now, father, you have barely time to +dress." + +"Yes, yes, I will come in a moment--a moment," he said. + +But after she had left the room, he still lingered, and when at last he +got to the door, he closed it and went back to the cupboard and tried +it, to see if it were locked, muttering, suspiciously: + +"Did she hear me? She might have heard the rustle of the parchment, the +turn of the lock. Sometimes I think she suspects--But, no, no, she's a +child still, and she'd say something, speak out. No, no; it's all +right. Yes, yes, I'm coming, Ida!" he said aloud, as the girl called to +him on her way up the stairs. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +As Stafford climbed the hill steadily, he wondered who the girl was. It +did not occur to him that she might be the daughter of the Mr. Heron to +whom the stream belonged and from whose family name the whole dale had +taken its own; for, though she had looked and spoken like a lady, the +habit, the gauntlets, the soft felt hat were old and weather-stained: +and her familiarity with the proper treatment of a sheep in difficulty +indicated rather the farmer's daughter than that of the squire. + +She was not by any means the first pretty girl Stafford had seen--he +had a very large acquaintance in London, and one or two women whose +beauty had been blazoned by the world were more than friendly +with the popular Stafford Orme--but he thought as he went up +the hill, which seemed to have no end, that he had never seen a more +beautiful face than this girl's; certainly he had never seen one which +had impressed him more deeply. Perhaps it was the character of the +loveliness which haunted him so persistently: it was so unlike the +conventional drawing-room type with which he was so familiar. + +As he thought of her it seemed to him that she was like a wild and +graceful deer--one of the deer which he had seen coming down to a +mountain stream to drink on his father's Scotch moor; hers was a wild, +almost savage loveliness--and yet not savage, for there had been the +refinement, the dignity of high race in the exquisite grey eyes, the +curve of the finely cut lips. Her manner, also, prevented him from +forgetting her. + +He had never met with anything like it, she had been as calm and +self-possessed as a woman of forty; and yet her attitude as she leant +forward in the saddle, her directness of speech, all her movements, had +the _abandon_ of an unconscious child; indeed, the absence of +self-consciousness, her absolute freedom from anything like shyness, +combined with a dignity, a touch of hauteur and pride, struck him as +extraordinary, almost weird. + +Stafford was not one of your susceptible young men; in fact, there was +a touch of coldness, of indifference to the other sex which often +troubled his women-friends; and he was rather surprised at himself for +the interest which the girl had aroused in him. He wondered if he +should meet her again, and was conscious of a strong, almost a very +strong, desire to do so which, he admitted to himself, was strange: for +he did not at that moment remember any girl whom, at his first meeting +with her, he had hankered to see again. + +He got to the top of the hill at last and began to drop down; there was +nothing but a wandering sheep-path here and there, and the mountain was +by no means as easy to descend as the classic Avernus; so that when he +got to the bottom and came in sight of the little inn nestling in a +crook of the valley he was both tired and hungry. Howard, beautiful in +evening-dress, came sauntering to the door with his long white hands in +his pocket and a plaintive reproach on his Vandyke face. + +"I was just about to send off the search party, my dear Stafford," he +said. "Is it possible that you have just come down that hill? Good +heavens! What follies are committed in thy name, O Sport! And of course +there are no fish--there never are! The water is always too thin or too +thick, the sky too bright or too dull, the wind too high or too low. +Excuses are the badge of all the angling tribe." + +Stafford took his basket from his shoulder and made a pretence of +slinging it at Howard's head; then tossed it to the landlord, who stood +by, smiling obsequiously. + +"Cook some of 'em as soon as you can," he said; then he followed the +neat and also smiling chamber-maid up to his room, where, for all his +pretended indolence and cynicism, Howard had caused his friend's things +to be laid out in readiness for him. Stafford dressed slowly, smoking a +cigarette during the operation, and still thinking of the strange +"farmer's daughter." And then he went down and joined Howard in the +room he had ordered. + +Lake hotels may lack the splendour to which we are all growing +accustomed, and of which, alas! we are also growing rather wearied, but +they are most of them extremely comfortable and cosy; and The Woodman +at Carysford was no exception to the rule. Stafford looked round the +low-pitched room, with its old-fashioned furniture, its white +dinner-cloth gleaming softly in the sunset and the fire-light, and +sighed with a nod of satisfaction. + +"This is something like, eh, old man?" he said; and even Howard deigned +to nod approvingly. + +"Yes," he said. "If anything could compensate one for the miseries of +travel, especially that awful drive, this should do so. I confess I had +looked forward to a crowning discomfort in the shape of a cold and +draughty and smelly room, fried chops or a gory leg of mutton and a +heel of the cheese made by Noah in the Ark. I fancy that we are going +to have a decent dinner; and I trust I may not be disappointed, for it +is about the only thing that will save my life. Are you dry yet? You +looked as if you had been walking through a river instead of beside +it." + +"That's just what I have been doing," said Stafford, with a laugh. +"I've had an adventure--" + +"I know," interrupted Howard, with a sigh. "You are going to tell me +how you hooked a trout six foot in length, how it dragged you a mile +and a half up the river, how you got it up to the bank, and how, just +as you were landing it, it broke away and was lost. Every man who has +been fishing has that adventure." + +Stafford laughed with his usual appreciation of his friend's amusing +cynicism; but he did not correct him; for at that moment, the neat +maid-servant brought in the trout, which proved to be piping hot and of +a golden-brown; and the two men commenced a dinner which, as compared +with the famous, or infamous one, of the London restaurant, was +Olympian. The landlord himself brought in a bottle of claret, which +actually was sound, and another of port, in a wicker cradle, which even +Howard deigned to approve of; and the two men, after they had lingered +over their dinner, got into easy-chairs beside the fire and smoked +their cigars with that sweet contentment which only tobacco can +produce, and only then when it follows a really good meal. + +"Do you know how long you are going to stay in your father's little +place?" Howard asked, after a long and dreary silence. + +Stafford shrugged his shoulders slightly. + +"'Pon my word, I don't know," he answered. "I'm like the school-boy: 'I +don't know nothink.' I suppose I shall stay as long as the governor +does; and, come to that, I suppose he doesn't know how long that will +be. I've got to regard him as a kind of stormy petrel; here to-day and +gone to-morrow, always on the wing, and never resting anywhere for any +time. I'm never surprised when I hear that, though his last letter was +dated Africa, he has flown back to Europe or has run over to +Australia." + +"Y-es," said Howard, musingly, "there is an atmosphere of mystery and +romance about your esteemed parent, Sir Stephen Orme, which smacks of +the Arabian Nights, my dear Stafford. Man of the world as I am, I must +confess that I regard him with a kind of wondering awe; and that I +follow his erratic movements very much as one would follow the +celestial progress of a particularly splendacious comet. He never +ceases to be an object of wonderment to me; and I love to read of his +gigantic projects, his vast wealth, his brilliant successes; and I tell +you frankly that I am looking forward to seeing him with a mixture of +fear and curiosity. Do not be surprised, if, at my introduction, I fall +on my hands and knees in Oriental abasement. I have admired him so much +and so long at a distance that he has assumed in my eyes an almost +regal, not to say imperial, importance." "I hope you will like him," +said Stafford, with a touch of that simplicity which all his friends +liked. + +"If he resembles his son, I am sure to do so," said Howard. "Indeed, in +any case I am pretty sure to do so. For how often have I read of his +wonderful charm of manner, his winning smile and brilliant +conversational powers? When do we get to this fairy palace?" + +"I suppose if we get there before dinner, it will be time enough," +replied Stafford. "By the way, I'd better ask how far it is. Don't +ring. I want to go up for some more cigars." + +He went up to his room, and in getting them from his bag, saw the +little instrument case which he had thrown into his bag when he was +changing. Back came the vision of the strange girl with the beautiful +face. + +He slipped the wallet in his pocket, and when he reached the hall he +turned to the open door of the little room which served as the +landlord's office, or bar-room. + +The landlord was enjoying a cigar and a glass of whiskey and water, and +he opened the door still wider and gave a respectful smile of welcome. + +"You have a very comfortable hotel here, Mr. Groves," said Stafford, by +way of opening the conversation. "We have had a capital dinner, and +have enjoyed it tremendously; was that '72 port you gave us?" + +"Yes, sir," replied Mr. Groves, much gratified. For you go straight to +a landlord's heart when you guess a good vintage and appreciate it. "I +am glad you like it, sir; there's more of it at your service. Will you +take a seat, sir, and may I offer you a glass of whiskey? It is as good +as the port, if I may say so." + +Stafford accepted, and presented his cigar case. He asked the distance +to the new house on the other side of the lake, and having been +informed, spoke of the fishing. + +"You did very well to-day, sir." said Mr. Groves. "You were fishing in +the Heron water, I suppose?" + +This was what Stafford wanted. + +"Yes," he said. "I was poaching. I mistook it for the Lesset water. I +must go over and apologise to Mr. Heron. By the way, I was told I was +poaching by a young lady who rode down to the stream while I was +fishing. I had some little conversation with her, but I did not learn +her name. She was a young lady with dark hair, rode a big horse, and +had a couple of dogs with her--a collie and a fox-terrier." The +landlord had nodded assentingly at each item of the description. + +"That must have been Miss Ida--Miss Heron, the squire's daughter, sir," +he said. + +Stafford's brows went up. + +"No wonder she stared at me," he said, almost to himself. "But are you +sure? The young lady I saw was not dressed, well--like a squire's +daughter, and she was looking after some sheep like--like a farmer's +girl." + +The landlord nodded again. + +"That was Miss Ida, right enough, sir," he said, with a touch of +respect, and something like pride in his tone. "Indeed, it couldn't be +anyone else. No doubt Miss Ida had come down to look after the sheep in +the valley; and there's no farmer's daughter in the vale that could do +it better, or half so well, as she. There isn't a girl in the county, +or, for that matter, a man, either, who can ride like Miss Ida, or +knows more about the points of a horse or a dog--yes, and you may say a +cow--than the squire's daughter. And as to her being poorly +dressed--well, there's a reason for that, sir. The family's poor--very +poor." + +"Yet the dale seems to be called after them?" Stafford remarked. + +"It is, sir!" assented the landlord. "At one time they owned more land +than any other of the big families here; miles and miles of it, with +some of the best farms. But that was before my time, though I've heard +my father tell of it; there's not very much left now beyond the dale +and the home meadows." He sighed as he spoke and looked sadly at the +costly cigar which he was smoking. The feudal spirit still exists in +the hearts of the men who were born in these remote dales and towering +hills, and the landlord of the little inn was as proud of the antiquity +of the Heron family, and as sorry for its broken fortune as any +_villein_ of the middle ages could have been for the misfortunes of his +feudal baron. + +"Heron Hall used to be a fine place at one time, sir. I can remember my +father describing what it was in his and his father's days; how there +used to be scores of servants, and as many as fifty horses in the +stables; with the great place filled with guests summer and winter, +spring and autumn. The Squire Heron of that time never rode behind less +than four horses, and once, when he was high sheriff, he rode to meet +the judges with six. It was open house to every poor man in the place, +and no wanderer was ever turned from the door. The squire of my +father's time was the county member, and the day he was elected there +were two hogsheads of port and two of brandy broached on the lawn in +front of the terrace; and for a week afterwards there was scarcely a +sober man in the town for miles round. He was master of the hounds, and +the hunt breakfasts and the hunt balls were more splendid than anything +else of that kind in the kingdom; in fact, people used to come from all +parts of the kingdom to attend them. Yes, the Herons made Herondale +famous, as you may say, sir." + +He paused and shook his head, and Stafford remained silent: he was too +wise to break in upon the narrative. The landlord sighed and looked +lovingly at his cigar, then went on: + +"They offered that squire--Miss Ida's grandfather--a peerage; the +Herons had often been offered a baronetcy; but they'd always refused, +and the squire declined the peerage. He said that no man could wish to +be higher than Heron, of Herondale; that better men than he had been +contented with it, and he was quite satisfied with the rank which had +satisfied his forefathers. When he died, the followers at the funeral +made a procession a mile and a quarter long." + +"How did the family lose its money, drop its greatness?" Stafford +asked. + +The landlord screwed up his eyes thoughtfully. + +"Well, it's hard to tell, sir," he replied. "Of course there was always +a tremendous drain going on; for it was not only down here that the +squire spent the money freely; but it was just the same or worse when +he was in London; he had a big house there, and entertained as +splendidly, perhaps more so, than he did at the Hall. In those days, +too, sir, there was as much gaming and betting as there is now, perhaps +more--though I'm told that great folks are more given nowadays to +gambling on the Stock Exchange than at cards or race-horses; begging +your pardon, sir!" + +"I'm afraid you're right," assented Stafford, with his short laugh. "I +prefer the old way myself." + +"Just so, sir," said the landlord, with an approving nod. "Well, what +with the money going here and there and everywhere, they found when the +present squire's father died that there was very little left; and worse +than all, that some of the land was sold, and what remained was heavily +mortgaged. It's what often happens to old families, sir, more's the +pity!" + +"Yes," said Stafford. "And is the present squire like his father?" + +"No, sir, not a bit," replied the landlord, with a thoughtful and +somewhat puzzled frown. "Quite the reverse. His father was free and +easy with everybody, and had a pleasant word and shake of the hand for +everyone he met; but the present squire was always shy and quiet as a +boy; kind of reserved and stand-offish, if you know what I mean, sir. +When he came into the property, he became more reserved than ever, +avoided all his father's old friends and shut himself up at the Hall +and kept himself to himself. He was a college gentleman and fond of +books, and he spent all his time alone in his library like a--a hermit. +He went abroad for a time, to Italy, they thought, and he came back +with a wife; but she didn't make things more lively, for she died soon +after Miss Ida was born. Miss Ida was the only child. She was sent away +for some time to be taken care of by one of the relatives, and she's +only been back for a couple of years." + +"Poor girl," said Stafford, involuntarily. + +"Well, yes, you may say that, sir," said the landlord, but doubtfully, +"though it don't seem as if Miss Ida was in need of much pity; she is +so bright and--and high-spirited, as you may say; though it's a wonder +she can be so, seeing the life she leads, alone in that great place +with her father, who never goes beyond the garden, and who shuts +himself up with his books all day. Yes, it's a wonder, when you come to +think of it, that she can smile and laugh and be as cheerful as she is. +I often hear her singing when she's riding through the dale or along +the road here. Miss Ida's wonderfully liked by all the people, sir; in +fact, you might say that they worship her." + +"I can understand it," said Stafford, almost to himself. + +"It must have been great change to her," continued the landlord, +"coming down here from London to such a wild, out-of-the-way place; +many young ladies would have lost heart and pined and fretted; but +she's a true Heron, is Miss Ida, and she faced the thing fairly and +buckled to, as you may say. She took the whole thing on her shoulders, +and though she couldn't coax the squire out of his shell, she takes +care of him and runs the whole place as if she were a man. Yes, sir, +though she's only a girl, as you saw yourself, she manages the house +and the farm as if she were a woman of forty. It's wonderful how she's +picked it up. I honestly believe there isn't a man in the place as +knows more about horses, as I said, than she does; but that's in the +blood, sir, and she can ride--well, you saw for yourself." + +"And has she no society, no amusements; doesn't she go out, have +friends, I mean?" + +The landlord shook his head. + +"No, sir; she just lives there with the squire, and they see no one, +receive no visits and pay none. You see, sir, the Herons are proud; +they're got cause to be, and I've heard it told that the squire is too +proud to let the old family friends see the poverty of the house, and +that he hates the new people who bought land and built houses in the +place--I'm sure I beg your pardon, sir--I was forgetting for the moment +that your father, Sir Stephen, had just built that beautiful place the +other side of the lake." + +Stafford smiled. + +"That's all right, Mr. Groves," he said. "I can quite understand Mr. +Heron thinking it confounded cheek of a stranger to come here and stick +up a great white place which no one can fail to see five miles off. I +suppose you think if I were to present myself at the Hall, I should get +a very cold reception, eh?" + +"I'm afraid you wouldn't get any reception at all, sir," replied +Groves, with respectful candour. "I am afraid neither Mr. Heron nor +Miss Ida would see you. The old butler would just say: 'Not at home,' +as he says to the county people when they try and call there, +especially if they knew who you were, sir. If I remember rightly, the +part of the land Sir Stephen bought belonged to the Herons." + +"I see," said Stafford. "It strikes me it is rather a sad story, Mr. +Groves; it's a case of the children paying for the sins of their +fathers." + +"That's it, sir," assented the landlord. "It takes ages to build up a +house and a family like the Herons; but one man can knock it down, so +to speak. It's hard lines for Miss Ida, who is as well-born as any of +the titled people in the county, and far better than most. They say +that she's been wonderful well educated, too; though, of course, she +hasn't seen anything of the world, having come straight from some small +place in foreign parts to be shut up in the dale. And it's quite out of +the world here, sir, especially in the winter when the snow lies so +thick that we're almost imprisoned. But wet or fine, hot or cold, Miss +Ida can always be seen riding or driving or walking; she's a regular +Westmoreland lass for that; no weather frights her." + +At this juncture Howard sauntered out of the sitting-room, and he and +Stafford went to the open door and looked out on the exquisite view +which was now bathed in the soft light of a newly risen moon. + +"It still has a smack of Drury Lane, hasn't it?" said Howard. "Strange +that whenever we see anything beautiful in the way of a landscape we at +once compare it with a stage 'set.' The fact of it is, my dear +Stafford, we have become absolutely artificial; we pretend to admire +Nature, but we are thinking of a theatre all the time; we throw up our +eyes ecstatically when we hear a nightingale, but we much prefer a +comic singer at the Tivoli. We talk sentiment, at feast, some of us, +but we have ceased to feel it; we don't really know what it means. I +believe some of the minor poets still write about what they call Love, +but in my private opinion the thing itself has become instinct. Who +knows anything about it? Take yourself, for instance; you've never been +in love, you've everything that you can desire, you're clad in purple +and fine linen, you fare sumptuously every day, you flirt six days in +the week, and rest not on the seventh--but love! You don't know what it +means; and if you do, you're far too wise in your generation to go in +for such an uncomfortable emotion." + +Stafford smiled rather absently; he was scarcely listening; he was so +accustomed to Howard's cynical diatribes that more often than not they +made no more impression on him than water on a duck's back. Besides, he +was thinking of Ida Heron, the girl whose strange history he had just +been listening to. + +There was silence for a minute or two, and while they stood leaning +against the door-way two men came out of another door in the inn and +stood talking. They were commercial travellers, and they were enjoying +their pipes--of extremely strong tobacco--after a hard day's work. +Presently one of them said: + +"Seen that place of Sir Stephen Orme's on the hill? Splendacious, isn't +it? Must have cost a small fortune. I wonder what the old man's game +is." + +The other man shook his head, and laughed. + +"Of course he's up to some game. He wouldn't lay out all that money for +nothing, millionaire as he is. He's always got something up his sleeve. +Perhaps he's going to entertain some big swell he wants to get into his +net, or some of the foreign princes he's hand-in-glove with. You never +know what Sir Stephen Orme's up to. Perhaps he's going to stand for the +county; if so, he's bound to get in. He always succeeds, or, if he +don't, you don't hear of his failures. He's the sort of man Disraeli +used to write about in his novels. One of the chaps who'd go through +fire and water to get their ends; yes, and blood too, if it's +necessary. There's been some queer stories told about him; they say he +sticks at nothing. Look at that last Turkish concession." + +The speaker and his companion sauntered down the road. Stafford and +Howard had heard every word; but Stafford looked straight before him, +and made no sign, and Howard yawned as if he had not heard a syllable. + + +"Do you raise any objection to my going to my little bed, Stafford?" he +asked. "I suppose, having done nothing more than clamber about a river, +get wet through, and tramp a dozen miles over hills, you do not feel +tired." + +"No," said Stafford, "I don't feel like turning in just yet. +Good-night, old man." + +When Howard had gone Stafford exchanged his dress-coat for a +shooting-jacket, and with the little wallet in his pocket and his pipe +in his mouth, he strode up the road. As he said, he did not feel +tired--it was difficult for Stafford, with his athletic frame and +perfect muscular system, to get tired under any circumstances--the +night was one of the loveliest he had ever seen, and it seemed wicked +to waste it by going to bed, so he walked on, all unconsciously going +in the direction of Heron Hall. The remarks about his father which had +fallen from the bagman, stuck to him for a time like a burr: it isn't +pleasant to hear your father described as a kind of charlatan and +trickster, and Stafford would have liked to have collared the man and +knocked an apology out of him; but there are certain disadvantages +attached to the position of gentlemen, and one of them is that you have +to pretend to be deaf to speeches that were not intended for your ears; +so Stafford could not bash the bagman for having spoken disrespectfully +of the great Sir Stephen Orme. + +But presently, almost suddenly, Stafford came in sight of the +magnificent iron gates, and he forgot his father and the talkative +commercial traveller, and his interest in the girl of the dale flashed +back upon him with full force. He saw that the gates were chained and +locked, and, with a natural curiosity, he followed the road beside the +wall. It stopped almost abruptly and gave place to a low railing which +divided the lawn in front of the house from the park beyond; and the +long irregular facade of the old building was suddenly revealed. + + +CHAPTER III. + +Stafford looked at it with admiration mingled with pity. In the light +of the story the landlord had told him he realised the full pathos of +its antique grandeur. It was not a ruin by any means: but it was grim +with the air of neglect, of desolation, of solitude. In two only, of +the many windows, was there any light; there was no sound of life about +the vast place; and the moonlight showed up with cruel distinctness the +ravages made in stone-work and wood-work by the clawlike hand of Time. +A capital of one of the pillars of the still handsome portico had +crumbled, several of the pillars were broken and askew; the great door +was blistered and cracked by the sun; evidently no paint had touched +the place for years. The stone balustrade of the broad terrace had +several gaps in it, and the coping and the pillars were lying where +they had fallen; the steps of the terrace had grass growing in the +interstices of the stones; one of the lions which had flanked the steps +had disappeared, and the remaining one was short of a front leg. The +grass on the lawn was long and unkempt, the flower beds weedy and +straggly, and the flowers themselves growing wild and untrained. + +But for the smoke which ascended from two or three of the many chimneys +the place might well have seemed deserted and uninhabited, and Stafford +with this feeling upon him stood and gazed at the place unrestrainedly. +It was difficult for him to realise that only a few hours ago he had +left London, that only last night he had dined at his club and gone to +the big Merrivale dance; it was as if he were standing in some scene of +the middle ages; he would not have been greatly surprised if the +grass-grown terrace had suddenly become crowded by old-world forms in +patches and powder, hoops and ruffles. + +"Good Lord, what would some of the people I know give to belong to--to +own this place!" he said to himself. "To think of that girl living +alone here with her father!" + +He was turning away when he heard a slight sound, the great door opened +slowly, and "that girl" came out on to the terrace. She stood for a +moment on the great marble door sill, then she crossed the terrace, and +leaning on the balustrade, looked dreamily at the moonlit view which +lay before her. She could not see Stafford's tall figure, which was +concealed by the shadow of one of the trees; and she thought herself +alone, as usual. Her solitude did not sadden her, she was accustomed to +it; and presently, as if moved by the exquisite beauty of the night, +her lips parted and she half sang, half hummed the jewel song from +"Faust." She had looked beautiful enough in her old riding-habit and +hat, but she seemed a vision of loveliness as she stood in the +moonlight with the old house for a background. There was something +bewitchingly virginal in the rapt and dreamy face with its dark eyes +and long lashes, in the soft, delicately cut lips, the pure ivory +pallor; at the same time something equally bewitching in the modernness +of her dress, which was of soft cream cashmere, made rather long and in +accord with the present fashion; she had placed a rose in the bosom of +her dress and it stood out redly, richly from the soft cream. Her hair +was no longer rough and touzled by the wind, but brushed in rippling +smoothness and coiled in dainty neatness in the nape of her graceful +neck. No wonder Stafford caught his breath, held it, as it were, as he +gazed at the exquisite picture, which formed so striking a contrast to +her surroundings. + +She leant her chin on her hand and looked before her as she sung +softly; and at that moment her thoughts strayed from the question of +what she should do to keep the cows from the lawn, to the young man who +had rescued her lamb for her. She did not think of him with anything +like interest or curiosity, but she was recalling the ludicrous picture +he made as he struggled to the bank with the lamb in his arms, and a +faint smile crossed her face. At this moment Donald and Bess strolled +out to join her. They would much have preferred to have remained +roasting themselves in front of the Hall fire, but, ridiculous as it +was for their mistress to leave the warm house for the comparatively +cold terrace, they felt themselves in duty bound to join her. +Perhaps they might catch sight of a rabbit to repay them for +their exertions. Donald walked with stately steps toward his +mistress, and Bess was following, with a shiver of reluctance +and a backward glance towards the fire-light which shone through +the open door, when suddenly she sniffed the presence of a +stranger, and, with a sharp yap, hurled herself down the broad steps +and towards the spot where Stafford still stood. Donald, with a loud +bay, followed with his long stride, and Ida, startled from her reverie, +followed as far as the top of the steps, and waited. + +"I might have expected the faithful watch-dog," said Stafford to +himself. "Now, what on earth am I to do? I suppose they'll spring on +me--the collie, at any rate. It's no use running; I've got to stop and +face it. What a confounded nuisance! But it serves me right. +I've no business to be loafing about the place." + +As the dogs came up, he put on that air of conciliation which we all +know, and murmuring "Good dog! All right, old chap!" tried to pacify +Donald and Bess. But they were not accustomed to intruders, especially +at that time of night, and they were legitimately furious. Dancing +round him, and displaying dazzling teeth threateningly, they drew +nearer and nearer, and they would certainly have sprung upon him; but +the girl came, not running, but quickly, down the steps and straight +across the dewy grass towards them, calling to the dogs as she came in +her clear, low voice, which had not a trace of fear in it. Their loud +barking changed to sullen growls as she approached; and, motioning them +to be still, she stopped and gazed at Stafford, who stepped out into +the moonlight. + +She said not a word, but, as she recognised him, a faint colour came +into the ivory pallor of her cheek and an expression of surprise in the +dark, fearless eyes. + +Stafford raised his cap. + +"I am very sorry!" he said. "I am afraid you must think me a great +nuisance; this is the second time I have been guilty of trespass." + +She was silent for a moment, not with shyness, but as if she were +noticing the change in his dress, and wondering how he came to be in +evening-clothes, and where he had come from. The expression was one of +simple girlish curiosity, which softened in a delicious way the general +pride and hauteur of her face. + +"You are not trespassing," she said, and the voice sounded very sweet +and musical after the din of the dogs. "There is public right of way +along this road." + +"I am immensely relieved," said Stafford. "It looks so unfrequented, +that I was afraid it was private, and that I had made another blunder; +all the same, I am very sorry that I should have disturbed you and made +the dogs kick up such a row. I would have gone on or gone back if I had +known you were coming out; but the place looked so quiet--" + +"It does not matter," she said; "they bark at the slightest noise, and +we are used to it. The place is so quiet because only my father and I +live here, and there are only a few servants, and the place is so big." + +All this was said not repiningly, but softly and a little dreamily. By +this time Donald and Bess had recovered their tempers, and after a +close inspection of the intruder had come to the conclusion that he was +of the right sort, and Donald was sitting close on his launches beside +Stafford, and thrusting his nose against Stafford's hand invitingly. +The girl's beauty seemed to Stafford almost bewildering, and yet softly +and sweetly a part of the beauty of the night; he was conscious of a +fear, that was actually a dread, that she would bow, call the dogs and +leave him; so, before she could do so, he made haste to say: + +"Now I am here, will you allow me to apologise for my trespass of this +afternoon?" + +She inclined her head slightly. + +"It does not matter," she said; "you were very kind in helping me with +the lamb; and I ought to have told you that my father would be very +glad if you would fish in the Heron; you will find some better trout +higher up the valley." + +"Thank you very much," said Stafford. + +Calling the dogs, she turned away; then, fortunately, Stafford +remembered the case of instruments. + +"Oh, I beg your pardon!" he said; "I forgot this wallet. I found it by +the stream after you had gone." + +"Oh, my wallet!" she cried. "I am so glad you have found it. I don't +know what I should have done if you had not; I should have had to send +to Preston or to London; and, besides, it was a present from the old +veterinary surgeon; he left it to me. There were some beautiful +instruments in it." + +Still smiling, she opened it, as if to show him. Stafford drew near, so +near as to become conscious of the perfume of the rose in her bosom, of +the still fainter but more exquisite perfume of her hair. He bent over +the case in silence, and while they were looking a cloud sailed across +the moon. + +The sudden disappearance of the light roused her, as it were, to a +sense of his presence. + +"Thank you for bringing it to me," she said; "it was very good of you." + +"Oh, I hadn't to bring it far," said Stafford. "I am staying at The +Woodman Inn, at Carysford." + +"Oh," she said; "you are a tourist--you are fishing?" + +Stafford could not bring himself to say that he was the son of the man +who had built the great white house, which, no doubt, her father and +she resented. + +"You have a very beautiful place here," he said, after a pause. + +She turned and looked at the house in the dim light, with a touch of +pride in her dreamy eyes. + +"Yes," she said, as if it were useless to deny the fact. + +"It is very old, and I am very fond--" + +She stopped suddenly, her lips apart, her eyes fixed on the farther end +of the terrace; for while she had been speaking a figure, only just +perceptible in the semi-darkness, had moved slowly across the end of +the terrace, paused for a moment at the head of the flight of steps, +and then slowly descended. + +Stafford also saw it, and glancing at her he saw that she was startled, +if not frightened. She scarcely seemed to breathe, and she turned her +large, dark eyes upon him questioningly, somewhat appealingly. + +"What is that?" she said, in a whisper, more to herself than to him. + +"Someone--a man has gone down the steps from the house," he said. +"Don't you know who it is?" + +"No," she replied in as low a voice. "It is not Jason--there is no one +else--who can it be? I will go and see." + +She moved towards the terrace, and Stafford said: + +"I will come with you; you will let me?" + +She did not refuse; indeed, she appeared to have forgotten his +presence: together they crossed the lawn and reached the corner of the +house near which the figure had disappeared. It struck Stafford as +strange that the dogs did not bark. In profound silence they went in +the direction the figure had taken, and Stafford presently saw a ruined +building, which had evidently been a chapel. As they approached it the +figure came out of it and towards them. As it passed them, so close +that they instinctively drew back, Stafford saw that it was an old man +in a dressing-gown; his head was bare, his hair touched the collar of +the gown. His eyes were wide open, and gazing straight in front of him. + +Stafford was about to step forward and arrest his progress, when +suddenly the girl's hand seized his and gripped it. + +"Hush!" she whispered, with subdued terror. "It is my father. He--yes, +he is asleep! Oh, see, he is asleep! He will fall--hurt himself--" + +She, in her turn, was about to spring forward, but Stafford caught her +arm. + +"No, no, you must not!" he said, in a hurried whisper. "I think it +would be dangerous. I think he is all right if you let him alone. He is +walking in his sleep. Don't speak--don't cry out." + +"No, no," she breathed. "But it is dreadful." + +Instinctively, unconsciously, she drew closer to Stafford, almost clung +to him, watching her father over her shoulder until the figure, with +its ghastly, mechanical movement and vacant stare, had passed into the +house; then, with a long breath, and with her hands clasping her +throat, as if she were stifling, she broke from Stafford and sprang +quickly and noiselessly up the steps and disappeared also. Wondering +whether he was awake or dreaming, Stafford waited for over an hour to +see if she would appear again; and he was turning away at last, when +her figure appeared in the open door-way, like that of a wraith. She +waved her hand to him, then disappeared, and the door closed. + +Still asking himself if he were not in a land of dreams, but tingling +with the touch of her small hand, with the haunting perfume of the soft +black hair, Stafford gained the road and walked towards the inn. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +Ida had followed her father across the terrace, across the hall, lit +weirdly by the glow of the sinking fire and the pale moonlight, up the +broad stairs, along the corridor to the open door of his room. He had +walked slowly but steadily with his usual gait, and his head bent +slightly; though his eyes were wide open, he seemed to see nothing, yet +he did not stumble or even hesitate. Ida followed behind him with +absolute noiselessness. They were both ghostlike in their movements, +and the dogs stood and watched them intently, ears erect, and with that +gravity in their eyes which dogs wear when they are puzzled. + +The old man closed his door softly, still without any hesitation, and +Ida, grasping the broad rail of the staircase, waited breathlessly. She +heard him moving about, as leisurely and precisely as before; then all +was still. She stole to the door and opened it; the light was streaming +into the room and fell athwart the bed in which he was lying, his eyes +closed, his face calm and peaceful; she went on tiptoe to the bed and +bent over him, and found that he was in a deep, profound sleep. With a +long breath of relief, she left him, and sat on the stairs and waited; +for it was just possible that he might rise again and resume the +dreadful walk--that motion of death in life. + +She waited for an hour, so absorbed in her anxiety that she did not +remember the man she had left outside. After another quarter of an hour +she went to her father's room, and found that he was still sleeping. +Then she remembered Stafford, remembered him with a start of discomfort +and embarrassment. Was he waiting there still? She went down-stairs, +and from the open door-way she saw dimly his figure under the trees. +There was something in the attitude of the erect figure that reminded +her of a soldier on guard, a sentinel standing faithful at his post; +and when she had waved her hand in dismissal she did not quite close +the door, but watched him through the narrow opening as he paced slowly +down the road, looking back at the house now and again as if to see if +she wanted him. + +Then she closed the door, signed to the dogs to be down before the +fire, and went up to her room, after pausing beside her father's door +and listening to his regular breathing. Her room was a large +one--nearly all the rooms in the place were large; and as she undressed +herself slowly she looked round it with a novel sense of loneliness. +The tall shadows of her graceful yet girlish figure were cast +grotesquely on the wall by the candles beside her glass. She had never +felt lonely before, though her life ever since she had arrived at the +Hall might be called one almost of solitude. + +She had been so absorbed in the duties which had so suddenly fallen +upon her young shoulders that there had been no time in which to feel +the want of companionship. There had always been something to think of, +something to do; her father demanded so much attention; the house, the +land, the farm--she had to look after them all; there had not been time +to think even of herself; and it had never occurred to her that she was +leading a life so different to that led by most girls. But to-night the +silence of the great house, large enough to hold fifty people, but +sheltering only five persons--her father and herself and the three +servants--weighed upon her. + +That sense of loneliness had come upon her suddenly as she had watched +the young man's retreating figure. She could not help thinking of him +even when her mind was oppressed with anxiety on her father's account. +In a vague way she remembered how kind this stranger had been; how +quietly, and with what an air of protection, he had stood by her and +restrained her from crying out and alarming her father. As vaguely, she +remembered that in the moment of her terror she had clung to him, had +forgotten under the great strain that he was a stranger--and a man. +Even now she did not know his name, knew nothing of him except that he +was staying at The Woodman Inn. + +Kind and considerate as he had been she thought of him with something +like resentment; it was as if he had stepped into her life, had +intruded upon its quiet uneventfulness. He had no right to be there, no +right, to have seen her father in that terrible condition, that death +in life. And she had behaved like a frightened servant-maid; had not +only clung to him--had she clung to him, or was it only fancy?--but had +left him without a word of thanks, had allowed him to wait there, and +then had waved her hand to him just as she had seen Jessie, the maid, +wave her hand to her "young man" after they had parted, and she was +going into the house. + +She bit her lip softly and a faint flush rose to the clear pallor of +the lovely, girlish face reflected in the glass. Yes, she had behaved +just like a servant-maid, she who in her heart of hearts knew that she +prided herself upon her dignity and the good manners which should +belong to a Heron of Herondale. It was characteristic of her that while +she thought of his conduct and what she considered her bad behaviour, +she gave no thought to the fact that the stranger who had so "intruded" +was singularly handsome and possessed of that strange quality which at +once impresses women. Most girls would have remembered the fact, but +Ida was different to the general run of her sex. She had been brought +up in an out-of-the-way place in which the modern novel, the +fashionable pastime of flirtation, were not known; and her secluded +life in the lonely dale had deepened that sense of aloofness from the +world, that indifference to the sentiment which lurks in most girls' +bosoms. This tall, handsome man who had stepped into her life and +shared the secret of her father's strange affliction, weakness, was +nothing more to her than one of the other tourists whom she sometimes +chanced to see on her lonely rides and walks. + +When she had undressed she went again to her father's door and listened +to his deep and regular breathing; then, at last, she went to bed; but +the sense of loneliness was so intense that she lay awake for hours +thinking of that bent figure walking in its sleep from the shadows of +the ruined chapel. For the future she would have to watch her father +closely, would perhaps have to lock the door of his room. Why had he +gone to the chapel? So far as she knew he was not in the habit of going +there; indeed, she did not remember having seen him go there in his +waking moments. She knew nothing of somnambulism; but she imagined that +he had gone in that direction by mere chance, that if he had happened +to find any impediment in his way he might as easily have gone in +another direction. + +She fell asleep at last and slept an hour beyond her usual time, and so +deeply that Jessie had filled the cold bath without waking her beloved +young mistress. Ida dressed quickly, all the incidents of the preceding +night rushing through her mind, and hurried to her father's room; the +door was open, the room empty, and, with a sudden fear, she ran down +the stairs and found him in his usual seat in the library. She drew a +long breath and went and kissed him, wishing him good-morning as +casually as she could. + +"You are up early this morning, father," she said, trying to keep her +tone free from any anxiety. + +He glanced at the clock calmly. + +"No, you are later," he said. + +His eyes met hers with their usual expression of absentminded serenity. + +"I--I was a little tired and overslept myself," she said. "Are--are you +quite well this morning, father?" + +"Yes, quite well. Why not?" he replied, with slight surprise. + +She drew a breath of relief: it was quite evident that he knew nothing +of that weird walk, and that it had not affected him injuriously. + +"Nothing," she said, forcing a smile. + +As she spoke, Jason, in his in-door livery, which, in some strange way, +looked as if it had shrunken with the figure which had worn it so +long, came to the door, and in his husky voice said that breakfast was +ready; and Ida, taking her father's arm, led him into the dining-room +in which all their meals were served. + +As she went to her place she glanced through the window, from which she +could see the steps at the corner of the terrace and a small part of +the ruined chapel, and she shuddered. + +When she had poured out her father's coffee, she took it round to him +and let her hand rest on his shoulder lovingly; but Jason had brought +in the post-bag and Mr. Heron was unlocking it and taking out the few +letters and papers, and seemed unconscious of the little anxious +caress. + +"Are there any for me, father?" she asked, lingering beside him, and +she stretched out her hand to turn the envelopes on their right side; +but he stopped her quickly and swept them together, covering them with +his long hand--the shapely Heron hand. + +"No, no," he said, almost sharply; "they are all for me; they are +business letters, booksellers' catalogues, sale catalogues--nothing of +importance." + +She went back to her place and he waited until she had done so before +he began to open the letters. He merely glanced at some of them, but +presently he came to one which, after a sharp, quick look at her, he +read attentively; then he returned it to its envelope and, with a +secretive movement, slipped it into the pocket of his dressing-gown. +"Yes, nothing but catalogues and bills; you'd better take them, Ida; +the bills, at any rate." + +And he threw them across to her. + +When she had first come home to be mistress of the Hall the bills had +overwhelmed her; they had been so many and the money to meet them had +been so inadequate; but she had soon learnt how to "finance" them, and +come to know which account must be paid at once, and which might be +allowed to stand over. + +She took them now and glanced at them, and the old man watched her +covertly, with a curious expression on his face. + +"I'm sure I don't know how you will pay them," he said, as if she alone +were responsible. + +"I can't pay all of them at once," she replied, cheerfully. "But I can +some, and the rest must wait. I can send four--perhaps five--of the +steers to the monthly market, and then there are the sheep--Oh, father, +I did not tell; you about the gentleman I saw fishing in the dale--" + +She stopped, for she saw that he was not listening. He had opened a +local paper and was reading it intently, and presently he looked up +with an eager flush on his face and a sudden lightening of the dull +eyes. + +"Have you seen this--this house--they call it a palace--which that man +has built on the lake side?" he asked, his thin voice quavering with +resentment. + +"Do you mean the big white house by Brae Wood?" + +"Yes. Judging by the description of it here, it must be a kind of +gim-crack villa like those one sees in Italy, built by men resembling +this--this _parvenu_." + +"It is a large place," said Ida; "but I don't think it is gim-crack, +father. It looks very solid though it is white and, yes, Continental. +It is something between a tremendous villa and a palace. Why are you so +angry? I know you don't like to have new houses built in Bryndermere; +but this is some distance from us--we cannot see it from here, or from +any part of the grounds, excepting the piece by the lake." + +"It is built on our land," he said, more quietly, but with the flush +still on his face, the angry light in his eyes. "It was bought by +fraud, obtained under false pretences. I sold it to one of the farmers, +thinking he wanted it and would only use it for grazing. I did not know +until the deeds were signed that he was only the jackal for this other +man." + +"What other man, father?" + +"This Stephen Orme. He's _Sir_ Stephen Orme now. They knighted him. +They knight every successful tradesman and schemer; and this man is a +prince of his tribe; a low-born adventurer, a _parvenu_ of the worst +type." + +"I think I have read something about him in the newspapers," said Ida, +thoughtfully. + +Mr. Heron emitted a low snarl. + +"No doubt; he is one whom the world delights to honour; it bows before +the successful charlatan, and cringes to his ill-gotten wealth. I'm +told that such a man is received, yes, and welcomed by society. +Society! The word is a misnomer. In my time a man of that class was +kept at arm's-length, was relegated to his proper place--the back hall; +but now"--he gazed angrily at the paper--"here is a whole column +describing Sir Stephen Orme's new 'palatial villa,' and giving an +account of his achievements, the success of his great undertakings. And +this man has chosen to build his eyesore on Heron lands, within sight +of the house which--which he would not have been permitted to enter. If +I had known, I would not have sold the land." + +"But you wanted the money, father," she said, gently. + +He looked at her swiftly, and a change came over his face, a look of +caution, almost of cunning. + +"Eh? Yes, yes, of course I wanted it. But he knew I should not have +sold it for building on; that is why he got Bowden, the farmer, to buy +it. It was like him: only such a man can be capable of such an +underhand act. And now I suppose he will be welcomed by his neighbours, +and the Vaynes and the Bannerdales, and made much of. They'll eat his +dinners, and their women will go to his balls and concerts--they whose +fathers would have refused to sit at the same table with him. But there +is one house at which he will not be welcome; one man who will not +acknowledge him, who will not cross the threshold of Sir Stephen Orme's +brand-new palace, or invite him to enter his own. He shall not darken +the doors of Heron Hall." + +He rose as he spoke and left the room with a quicker step than usual. +But half an hour later when Ida went into the library she found him +absorbed in his books as usual, and he only glanced up at her with +absent, unseeing eyes, as she stood beside him putting on her gloves, +her habit skirt caught up under her elbow, the old felt hat just a +little askew on the soft, silky hair. + +"Do you want anything before I go out, father?" she asked. + +"No, no!" he replied abstractedly, and bending over his book again as +he answered. Ida crossed the hall in the sunlight, which lit up her +beauty and made it seem a more striking contrast than usual to the dull +and grim surroundings of the dark oak, the faded hangings and the +lack-lustre armour, and Donald and Bess bounded, barking, before her +down the terrace at which Jason was holding the big chestnut. The horse +pricked up its ears and turned its head for her morning caress, the +touch of the small, soft, but firm hand which it had come to regard as +its due, and Ida sprang lightly from the last step into the saddle. It +was an informal way of mounting which few girls could have accomplished +gracefully; but Ida did it as naturally and as easily as a circus +rider, for the trick was a necessity to her who had so often to +dismount and mount alone. + +The lovely face was rather grave and thoughtful for some time after she +had started, for the remembrance of last night weighed upon her, and +her father's unusual display of anger at breakfast troubled her +vaguely; but, presently, after she had cleared a hedge and one of the +broken rails, her spirits rose: the sky was so blue, the sun so bright; +it was hard to be depressed on such a morning. + +She rode to a distant part of the dale where, in a rough meadow the +steers were grazing; she surveyed them critically, chose those that +should go to market, then turned, and leaping a bank, gained an +ill-kept road. A little farther on she came to an opening on the verge +of the lake, and she pulled up, arrested by the great white house on +the other side, which was literally glittering in the brilliant +sunlight. It certainly did not detract from the beauty of the view; in +fact, it made the English lake look, for the moment, like an Italian +one. + +She regarded it thoughtfully for a moment, then returned to the road, +and as she did so she saw a tall figure coming towards her. + +For an instant the colour rose to her face, but for an instant only, +and before Stafford had reached her, she was as pale, as calm as usual. +She noticed that he was dressed in a serge suit, noticed vaguely how +well it sat upon him, that his gait had a peculiar ease and grace which +the men of the dale lacked, that his handsome face flushed lightly as +he saw her; but she gave no sign of these quick apprehensions, and sat +cold and sphinx-like waiting for him. + +Strafford's heart leapt at sight of her with a sudden pleasure which +puzzled him; for he would not have admitted to himself that he had +walked in this direction in the hope, on the chance, of meeting her. + +"Good-morning," he said, in his direct fashion, raising his cap. "I am +very fortunate to meet you. I hope Mr. Heron is no worse for--is not +ill?" + +"No," she said in her low, clear voice. "My father is quite well; he is +just as he usually is this morning." + +"I am very glad," said Stafford. He stood close beside the horse and +looked up at her; and for the first time in his life he was trying to +keep the expression of admiration out of his eyes; the expression which +he knew most women welcomed, but which, somehow or other, he felt this +strange girl would resent. "I was afraid he would be upset. I am afraid +you were frightened last night--it was enough to alarm, to startle +anyone. What a splendid morning!" he went on, quickly, as if he did not +want to remind her of the affair. "What a libel it is to say that it is +always raining here! I've never seen so brilliant a sunshine or such +colours: don't wonder that the artists rave about the place and are +never tired of painting it." + +She waited until he had finished, her eyes downcast, as if she knew why +he had turned from the subject, then she raised them and looked at him +with her direct gaze. + +"I am glad I have met you," she said. "I wanted to thank you for your +kindness last night--" + +"Oh, but--" Stafford tried to break in, but she went on slowly, as if +he had not spoken. + +--"I was--frightened: it was sudden, so unexpected. My father had never +done it before--that I know of--and he looked"--her voice broke for a +moment--"so strange, so ghost-like. I thought at first that it was the +Heron ghost which, they say, haunts the dale, though I have never seen +it." + +A faint smile curved her lips and shone in her eyes, and Stafford was +so fascinated by the sudden gleam of girlishness that he had to bend +and pat Bess, who was planting dusty impression on his trousers in her +frantic efforts to gain his attention. + +"I did nothing; in fact, as I walked away I was fuming because I +couldn't help you--couldn't do more." + +"You did help me," she said, gravely; then she looked across the lake +to Sir Stephen's "little place." "I was admiring that new house. Don't +you think it is very beautiful, rising so white and gracefully above +the lake?" + +"Ye-es," said Stafford, "Rather--conspicuous, though, isn't it?" + +She laughed suddenly, and Stafford asked, with surprise: "Why did you +laugh?" + +"Oh, I was thinking of my father," she said, with a delicious +frankness; "he was quite angry about it this morning. It seems that it +is built on our land--or what was ours--and he dislikes the idea of +anyone building at Bryndermere." + +"So should I," said Stafford, laconically. + +"And besides," she went on, her eyes fixed on the great white building, +so that she did not see his embarrassment, "my father does not like the +man who built it. He thinks that he got the land unfairly; and he--my +father--calls him all sorts of hard names." + +Stafford bit his lips, and his face wore the expression which came into +it when he was facing an ugly jump. He would have shirked this one if +he could, but it had to be faced, so he rushed it. + +"I'm sorry," he said. "My father built it." + +She did not start, but she turned her head and looked at him, with a +sudden coldness in the glorious eyes. + +"Your father--Sir Stephen Orme? Then you are--" + +"I am his son, yes; my name is Stafford Orme." + +She gathered her reins up, as if no comment, no remark were necessary, +but Stafford could not let her go, could not part from her like that. + +"I'm sorry to hear that Mr. Heron has some cause of complaint, some +grievance against my father. I can understand his not liking the house; +to tell you the truth, I don't care for it much myself. Yes; I can +understand Mr. Heron's annoyance; I suppose he can see it from your +house?" + +"No," she said, simply. "This is the only part of our land from which +it can be seen, and my father never comes here: never leaves the +grounds, the garden." She paused a moment. "I don't know why you should +mind--except that I said that the land was got unfairly--I wish I had +not said that." + +Stafford coloured. + +"So do I," he said; "but I hope it isn't true. There may be some +mistake. I don't know anything about my father's affairs--I haven't +seen him for years; I am almost a stranger to him." + +She listened with a grave face, then she touched the big chestnut; but +Stafford, almost unconsciously, laid his hand on the rein nearest him. +His mouth and chin expressed the determination which now and again +surprised even his most intimate friends. + +"Miss Heron, I'm afraid--" He paused, and she waited, her eyes downcast +and fixed on the horse's ears. + +"I scarcely know how to put what I want to say," he said. "I'm rather +bad at explaining myself; but I--well, I hope you won't feel angry with +me because of the house, because of anything that has passed between +your father and mine--Of course I stand by him; but--well, _I_ didn't +build the confounded place--I beg your pardon! but I think it's rather +hard that you should cut me--oh, I can see by your face that you mean +to do it!--that you should regard me as a kind of enemy because--" + +The usually fluent Stafford stopped helplessly as the beautiful eyes +turned slowly upon him with a slight look of wonder in them. + +"Why should you mind?" she said, with almost childish innocence. "You +do not know me; we only met yesterday--we are not friends--Oh I am not +forgetting your kindness last night; oh, no!--but what can it matter to +you?" + +In another woman Stafford would have suspected the question of +coquetry, of a desire to fish for the inevitable response; but looking +in those clear, guileless eyes, he could not entertain any such +suspicion. + +"I beg your pardon; but it does matter very much," he retorted. "In the +first place, a man does not like being cut by a lady; and in the next, +we shall be neighbours--I'm going to stay there--" he nodded grimly at +the beautiful "little place." + +"Neighbours?" she said, half absently. "It is farther off than you +think; and, besides, we know no one. We have no neighbours in that +sense--or friends. My father does not like to see anyone; we live quite +alone--" + +"So I've heard--" He stopped and bit his lip; but she did not seem to +have noticed his interruption. + +--"So that even if my father did not object to the house or--or--" + +"My father," said Stafford with a smile. + +A smile answered his candour. + +"It would be all the same. And why should it matter to you? You have a +great many friends, no doubt--and we should not be likely to meet." + +"Oh, yes, we should!" he said, with the dogged kind of insistence which +also sometimes surprised his friends. "I was going to avail myself of +your permission, and fish the stream--but, of course, I can't do that +now." + +"No--I suppose not," she assented. "But we should be sure to meet on +the road--I should be riding--walking." + +"But not on this side often," she argued. + +A faint, very faint colour had stolen into the clear pallor of her +cheek, her eyes were downcast. She was honestly surprised, and, yes, a +little pleased that he should protest against the close of their +acquaintance; pleased, though why, she could not have told; for it did +not seem to matter. + +"Oh, yes, I should," he retorted. "It's very pretty this side, and--See +here, Miss Heron." He drew a little nearer and looked up at her with +something like a frown in his eagerness. "Of course I shall speak to my +father about--well, about the way the land was bought, and I'm hoping, +I'm sure, that he will be able to explain it satisfactorily; and I want +to tell you that it is a mistake. I don't know much of my father, but I +can't believe that he would do anything underhand." He stopped suddenly +as the bagman's remarks flashed across his memory. "If your father's +grievance against him is just, why--ah, well, you'll have to cut me +when we meet; but I don't think it is; and I don't think it would be +fair to treat me as if _I_'d done something wrong." + +Her brows came together, and she looked at him as if she were puzzled. + +"I don't know why it matters," she said. + +"Well, I can't tell you," he said, helplessly. "I only know that I +don't want to part from you this morning, knowing that the next time we +meet we should meet as strangers. I wanted to come to the Hall, to +enquire after Mr. Heron." + +Her face flushed. + +"Do not," she said in a low voice. + +"I won't, of course," he responded, quickly. "It would only make +matters worse; your father would naturally dislike me, refuse to see +me; but--well, it's very hard on me." + +She looked at him again, gravely, thoughtfully, as if she were still +puzzled by his persistence. Her eyes wandered to the dogs. Bess was +still standing up against him, and Donald had thrown himself down +beside him, and was regarding Ida with an air that said, quite plainly, +"This new friend of yours is all right." + +"You have made friends with the dogs," she said, with a slight smile. + +Stafford laughed. + +"Oh, yes. There must be some good in dumb animals, for most of 'em take +to me at first sight." + +She laughed at this not very brilliant display of wit. "I assure you +they wouldn't cut me next time we met. You can't be less charitable +than the dogs, Miss Heron!" + +She gave a slight shrug to her straight, square shoulders. The gesture +seemed charming to Stafford, in its girlish Frenchiness. + +"Ah, well," she said, with a pretty air of resignation, as if she were +tired of arguing. + +Stafford's face lit up, and he laughed--the laugh of the man who wins; +but it died away rather suddenly, as she said gravely: + +"But I do not think we shall meet often. I do not often go to the other +side of the lake: very seldom indeed; and you will not, you say, fish +the Heron; so that--Oh, there is the colt loose," she broke off. "How +can it have got out? I meant to ride it to-day, and Jason, thinking I +had changed my mind, must have turned it out." + +The colt came waltzing joyously along the road, and catching sight of +the chestnut, whinnied delightedly, and the chestnut responded with one +short whinny of reproof. Ida rode forward and headed the colt, and +Stafford quietly slid along by the hedge and got behind it. + +"Take care!" said Ida; "it is very strong. What are you going to do?" + +Stafford did not reply, but stole up to the truant step by step +cautiously, and gradually approached near enough to lay his hand on its +shoulder; from its shoulder he worked to its neck and wound his arms +round it. + +Ida laughed. + +"Oh, you can't hold it!" she said as the colt plunged. + +But Stafford hung on tightly and yet, so to speak, gently, soothing the +animal with the "horse language" with which every man who loves them is +acquainted. + +Ida sat for an instant, looking round with a puzzled frown; then she +slipped down, took the bridle off the chestnut and slipped it on the +colt, the chestnut, who evidently understood the business, standing +stock still. + +"Now I'll hold it--it will be quieter with me--if you will please +change the saddle." + +Unthinkingly, Stafford obeyed, and got the saddle on the jigging and +dancing youngster. As unthinkingly, he put Ida up; and it was not until +the colt rose on its hind legs that he remembered to ask her if the +horse were broken. + +"Scarcely," she said with a laugh; "but it will be all right. +Good-morning--and thank you!" And calling to the chestnut she turned +the colt and tore off, the chestnut and the dogs scampering after her. + +Stafford's face grew hot for a moment with fear for her, then it grew +hotter with admiration as he watched her skimming across the moor in +the direction of the Hall. Once, just before she vanished from his +sight, she turned and waved her hand to him as if to assure him that +she was safe. The gesture reminded him of the white figure standing in +the doorway last night, and something stirred in his heart and sent a +warm thrill through him. In all his life he had never seen anyone like +her! + + +CHAPTER V. + +"You look rather serious, oh, my prince!" said Howard, as, some few +hours later, he leisurely climbed into the phaeton beside Stafford. "I +have noticed with inward satisfaction that as we approach the moment of +meeting with your puissant parent, the Sultan, an air of gravity and +soberness has clouded that confoundedly careless, devil-may-care +countenance of yours. I say with inward satisfaction, because, with my +usual candour, I don't mind admitting that I am shivering in my shoes. +The shadow of the august presence is already falling on me, and as the +hour draws near I feel my littleness, my utter insignificance, with an +acuteness which almost compels me to ask you to let me get down and +make my way back to London as best I can." + +"Don't be an ass," retorted Stafford, rather absently. + +"You ask an impossibility of me, my dear fellow; but I will try and +conceal my asininity as best I can. May I ask, to change the subject, +where you were wandering all the morning?" + +Stafford coloured slightly and bestowed minute attention to the off +horse. + +"Oh, just prowling round," he replied, leisurely. + +"You tempt me to finish the quotation. Did you find anyone to devour? +Apropos, has his majesty, the Sultan, ever mentioned matrimony to you, +Staff?" + +Stafford looked round at him for an instant. + +"No," he said, curtly. "What the devil made you ask?" + +"Merely my incessant speculation as to your future, my dear fellow," +replied Howard, blandly. "Most fathers are ambitious for their sons, +and I should imagine that Sir Stephen would be extremely so. When a man +is simply a plain 'Mr.,' he longs for the 'Sir;' when he gets the +'Sir,' he wants the 'my Lord' for himself, or for his son and heir. +That is the worst of ambition: you can't satisfy it. I have no doubt in +my mind that at this very moment Sir Stephen is making for a peerage +for himself--or you. He can possibly gain his; but you, having no +brains to speak of--the fact that good-looking men are always deficient +in that respect is a continual and blessed consolation to us plain +ones, Staff--will have to make what the world calls a 'good marriage.' +Doubtless your father already has the future bride in his eye; the +daughter of a peer--high in the government, perhaps in the +cabinet--probably. Probably that is why he has asked you to meet him +here. I hope, for your sake, that she is good-looking. I +fancy"--musingly--"that you would be rather particular. If rumour does +you no injustice, you always have been." + +Stafford laughed shortly. + +"I've never thought about marrying," he said, rather absently. + +"No one does, my dear fellow. It comes, like measles and other +unpleasant things, without thought; and when it comes, it is generally +as unpleasant. Aren't we going at a tremendous rate, Stafford? Don't +think I am nervous; I have ridden beside you too often for that. You +destroyed what nerve I possessed long ago." + +"We are late, and it's farther round than I thought," said Stafford. +"The horses are fresh." + +"I daresay; very probably Pottinger has given them a double feed; he +would naturally like them to dash up in fine style. But if it's all the +same to you"--as the horses broke into a gallop--"I should prefer to +arrive at your father's 'little place' in a more dignified fashion than +on a stretcher." + +Stafford smiled and checked the high-spirited pair. + +"You talk of women as if they were a--a kind of plague; you were never +in love, Howard?" he asked. + +"Never, thank Heaven!" responded Howard, devoutly. "When I think of it, +I acknowledge that I have much to be thankful for. I was once: she was +a girl with dark eyes--but I will spare you a minute description. I met +her in a country rectory--_is_ that horse, I think you call it the near +one--going to jump over the bank? And one remarkably fine evening--it +was moonlight, I remember--I was on the point of declaring my love; and +then the gods saved me. The thought flashed upon me that, if she said +'yes,' I should have to sit opposite her at dinner for the rest of one +of our lives. It saved me. I said that I thought it was chilly, and +went in and up to bed, grateful for my escape. Why don't you laugh?" + +Stafford only smiled in a perfunctory fashion. He was thinking of the +girl he had watched riding off on the unbroken colt; of what it would +seem like if she were seated opposite him, with the candle-light +falling on her soft white dress, with diamonds gleaming in it, diamonds +outshone by the splendour of those dark, violet-grey eyes; of what it +would seem like if he could rise from his seat and go to her and take +her in his arms and look into those dark grey eyes, and say, "You are +mine, mine!" with no one to say him nay. + +"It was a lucky escape for her," he said, dreamily. + +"It was," assented Howard, solemnly. "Not one man in a thousand can +love one woman all his life; and I've the strongest conviction that I +am not that one. In less than six months I should have grown tired of +her--in less than a year I should have flown from the joys of +matrimony--or killed the partner of those joys. Has Pottinger a wife +and family, my dear Stafford? If so, is it wise to risk his life in +this fashion? I don't care for myself--though still young, I am not +afraid to die, and I would as soon meet it hurled from a phaeton as +not--but may I beg of you to think of Pottinger?" + +Stafford laughed. + +"The horses are all right," he said. "They are only fresh, and want to +go." + +He could not have driven slowly, for his mind, dwelling on the girl in +the well-worn habit, was electric. + +"I have spared you, hitherto, any laudation of the scenery, my dear +Staff," said Howard, pleasantly, "but permit me to remark that it +really is very beautiful. Trust the great and powerful Sir Stephen to +choose the best nature and art can produce! What is this?" + +"This" proved to be a newly built lodge which appeared on the left of +the road. Stafford slowed up, and a lodgekeeper came and flung open the +new and elaborately wrought iron gates. + +"This the way to--to Sir Stephen's house?" asked Stafford. + +The man touched his hat reverentially. + +"Yes, sir," he replied. "Sir Stephen's arrived. Came an hour ago." + +Stafford nodded, and drove on. + +The road was certainly a new one, but it was lined with rhododendrons +and costly shrubs, and it wound and wound serpentine fashion through +shrubberies and miniature plantations which indicated not only +remarkably good taste, but vast expenditure. At intervals the trees had +been felled to permit a view of the lake, lying below, like a sapphire +glowing in the sunlight. + +Presently they came in sight of the house. It was larger than it had +looked in the distance; a veritable palace. An architect had received +_carte-blanche_, and disporting himself right royally, had designed a +facade which it would be hard to beat: at any rate, in England. + +Stafford eyed it rather grumpily. Most Englishmen dislike ostentation +and display; and to Stafford the place seemed garish and "loud." Howard +surveyed it with cynical admiration. + +"A dream of Kubla Kahn--don't know whether I've got the name right: +poem of Coleridge's, you know--but of course you don't know; you don't +go in for poetry. Well I'm bound to admit that it's striking, not to +say beautiful," he went on, as the horses sprang up the last ascent and +rattled on in an impatient, high-spirited trot along the level road to +the terrace fronting the entrance. + +As Stafford pulled up, a couple of grooms came forward; the hall +door--enamelled in peacock blue--opened and a butler and two footmen in +rich maroon livery appeared. They came down the white marble steps in +stately fashion and ranged themselves as if the ceremony were of vast +importance, and as Howard and Stafford got down they bowed with the air +of attendants receiving royalty. + +As Stafford, flinging the reins to one of the grooms, got down, he +caught sight of a line of liveried servants in the hall, and he frowned +slightly. + +Like most young Englishmen, he hated ostentation, which he designated +as "fuss." + +"Rub 'em down well, Pottinger," he said, and he leisurely patted the +horses while the gorgeous footmen watched with solemn impressiveness. + +"We've brought 'em along pretty well," he said, turning to Howard, who +stood beside him with a fine and cynical smile; then he went up the +white marble steps slowly, carefully ignoring the footmen who had drawn +themselves into a line as if they were a guard of honour, specially +drilled to receive him. + +Followed by Howard, his cynical smile still lingering about his thin +lips, Stafford entered the hall. + +It was Oriental in shape and design, with a marble fountain in the +centre, and carved arches before the various passages. The principal +staircase was also of white marble with an Indian carpet of vivid +crimson. Palms reared their tall and graceful heads at intervals, +shading statuary in the prevailing white marble. Hangings of rose +colour broke the sameness and accentuated the purity of the predominate +whiteness. + +Howard looked round with an admiration which obliterated his usual +cynicism. + +"Beautiful!" he murmured. + +But Stafford frowned. The luxury, the richness of the place, though +chaste, jarred on him; why, he could not have told. + +Suddenly, as they were making their way through the lines of richly +liveried servants, a curtain at one of the openings was thrown aside, +and a gentleman came out to meet them. + +He was rather a tall man, with white hair, but with eyebrows and +moustache of jet-black. His eyes were brilliant but sharp, and he moved +with the ease and alertness of youth. + +There was something in his face, in its expression, which indicated +strength and power; something in his manner, in his smile, peculiarly +electric and sympathetic. + +Howard stopped and drew back, but Stafford advanced, and Sir Stephen +caught him by the hand and held it. + +"My dear Stafford, my dear boy!" he said, in a deep but musical voice. +"I expected you hours ago; I have been waiting! But better late than +never. Who is this? Your friend, Mr. Howard? Certainly! How do you do, +Mr. Howard! Welcome to our little villa on the lake!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +Stafford's heart warmed at his father's greeting; indeed it would have +been a very callous heart if it had not; for the emotion of genuine +affection shone in Sir Stephen's brilliant eyes, and rang in his +musical voice. Stafford was all the more impressed and touched, because +the emotion was unusual, or rather, the expression of it. + +This is a "casual" age, in which a man parts from or meets his +relations and friends with the real or assumed indifference which is +ordained by fashion. It is bad form to display one's affection, even +for the woman one loves, excepting in extreme seclusion and privacy. If +you meet your dearest chum who has just come out of the Transvaal War +by the skin of his teeth, it is not permitted you to say more than: +"Ah--er--how d'ye do. Got back, then, old man?" and at parting from +one's nearest relative, perhaps for the remainder of his life, one must +hide the grief that racks the heart, with an enquiry as to whether he +has got a comfortable berth and has remembered his umbrella. + +But Sir Stephen was evidently not ashamed of his pleasure and delight +at the sight of his son, and he wrung his hand and looked him up and +down with an affectionate and proud scrutiny. + +"You're looking fit, Stafford, very fit! By George, I--I believe you've +grown! And you've got--uglier than ever!" + +Then, still holding Stafford's hand, he turned with a smile to Howard. + +"You must forgive me, Mr. Howard! I've not seen this boy of mine for a +devil of a time, and I've been looking forward to this meeting very +keenly. The fond parent, you know, eh? But now let me say again how +pleased I am to see you. Stafford has often mentioned you, his closest +chum, and I was almost as anxious to see you as I was to see him." + +"You are very kind, Sir Stephen," said Howard--his slow drawl unusually +quickened--for he, too, was touched, though he would have died rather +than have admitted it, by the warmth of Sir Stephen's reception of his +son. "I was afraid that I should be rather _de trop_, if not absolutely +intrusive--" + +"Not at all--not at all!" Sir Stephen broke in. "My boy's friends are +mine, especially his own particular pal. You are David and Jonathan, +you two, I know; and Heaven forbid that I should part you! If you'll +consider yourself one of the family, free to come and go just as you +choose, I shall feel grateful to you; yes, that's the word--grateful!" + +All this was said in the heartiest way, with the crowd of servants +looking on and listening--though, like well-trained servants, they +appeared both deaf and blind for all the expression that could be seen +in their faces--then Sir Stephen led the way into the drawing-room. + +"You've just time to dress," he said, consulting his watch; "your man +Measom has turned up, Stafford. Mr. Howard will permit me to offer him +the services of my valet--I don't trouble him much. And now I'll show +you your rooms. Like this?" he added, as he paused at the door and +looked round. "It's one of the smaller rooms; the ladies can keep it +for themselves if they like." + +"Charming!" said Howard; and the word was appropriate enough to the +dainty apartment with its chaste decorations of crushed strawberry and +gold, with hangings and furniture to match; with its grand piano in +carved white wood and its series of water colours by some of the best +of the Institute men. + +"I'm glad!" responded Sir Stephen. "But I mustn't keep you. We'll go +over the place after dinner--or some other time. To-night we are alone; +the party doesn't come up till to-morrow. I wanted to have you, +Stafford--and your friend--to myself before the crowd arrived." + +They followed him up the broad stairs, which by low and easy steps led +up to the exquisite corridor, harmonising perfectly with the eastern +hall, on to which it looked through arches shaped and fitted in +Oriental fashion. + +"Here is your room. Ah, Measom! here is Mr. Stafford, Got everything +ready for him, I hope?--and here, next door almost, is Mr. Howard's. +This is a snuggery in between--keep your books and guns and +fishing-rods in it, don't you know. Mr. Howard, you play, I think? +There's a piano, Hope you'll like the view. Full south, with nothing +between you and the lake. I'm not far off. See? Just opposite, You may +find the rooms too hot, Stafford--Mr. Howard--and we'll change 'em, of +course. Don't hurry: hope you'll find everything you want!" + +He laid his hand on Stafford's shoulder and nodded at him with frank +affection, before he went, and as he closed the door they heard him say +to some one below: + +"Don't serve the dinner till Mr. Stafford comes down!" + +Stafford went to the window, and Howard stood in silence beside him for +a moment, then he said--Measom had left the room: + +"I congratulate you, Staff! In sackcloth and ashes, I confess I thought +that kind of father only existed in women's books and emotional plays." + +Stafford nodded. + +"He's--he's kindness itself," he said, in a very low voice and not +turning his head. "I didn't know that he was like--this. I didn't know +he cared--" + +"It's evident he cares very much!" said Howard, gravely. "If you were +the Prodigal Son he couldn't have felt it more." + +"And yet they say--that bagman said--" muttered Stafford with +smouldering rage and indignation. + +"There are few things in my life that I regret, my dear Staff; but till +my dying day I shall regret that I did not turn and rend that bagman! +He's a splendid fellow--splendid! Now I've seen him I don't wonder at +his success. Envy is not one of my numerous vices, Staff; but frankly I +envy you your father! Wake up, old man! We mustn't keep him waiting! +What quarters!" He looked round the room as he moved to go. "Fit for a +prince! But you _are_ a prince! Why, dash it, I feel like a prince +myself! How are you, Measom? Got down all right, then?--I'll give you a +knock when I'm ready, Stafford!" + +Stafford dressed quickly, thinking all the while of his father; of his +good looks, his deep, pleasant voice, his affectionate welcome; and +thrusting from him the unfavourable impression which the ornate +splendour of the place had made. + +Howard knocked presently and the two men went down. Sir Stephen was +waiting in the hall; and Stafford, with a little thrill of pride, +noticed that he looked still more distinguished in his evening-dress, +which was strikingly plain; a single pearl--but it was priceless +one--was its only ornament. + +"By George, you have been quick!" said Sir Stephen, with his genial +smile. + +"That's one for yourself, sir," said Stafford. + +"Oh, I? I can dress in five minutes," responded Sir Stephen, linking +his arm in Stafford's. "I'm almost as good as a 'quick-change artist.'" + +He drew aside to let Howard follow the butler between the two footmen +drawn up beside the door, and they entered the dining-room. + +It was of choice American walnut, and lit by rose-shaded electric +lights, in which the plate and the glass, the flowers and the napery +glowed softly: an ideal room which must have filled the famous +decorator who had designed it with just pride and elation. The table +had been reduced to a small oval; and the servants proceeded to serve a +dinner which told Howard that Sir Stephen had become possessed of a +_chef_ who was a _cordon bleu_. The wines were as choice as the _menu_; +but Sir Stephen watered his Chateau claret, and ate but little, +excusing himself in the middle of a sentence with: + +"I'm setting you a bad example. But there's always a skeleton at my +feast--a rather common one nowadays; they call him Gout. And so you +drove down? That must have been pleasant! It's a pretty country--so I'm +told. I didn't see much of it from the train. But the lake--ah, well, +it's indescribable, isn't it! After all one sees, one is bound to admit +that there is nothing to beat English scenery; of course I include +Irish. We've a strain of Irish blood in us, Mr. Howard, and I always +stand up for the ould counthry. Things are looking up there lately; +we're beginning to be appreciated. Give us a year or two, and we'll have +all the world and his wife scampering over it. I've a little Irish +scheme of my own--but I mustn't bore you the first night. Mr. Howard, +if that wine is too thin--" + +Howard clutched his glass with dramatic intensity. + +"Chateau Legrange, if I'm not mistaken, sir," he said; "but let it be +what it may, it's simply perfect." + +"I'm glad. See here, now, it's understood between us that if there's +anything you want, anything you'd like altered, you'll say so, eh, +Stafford?" he said, with an affectionate anxiety. "I'm a +rough-and-ready kind of man, and anything pleases me; but you--ah, +well, you two have the right to be particular; and I'll ask you to ask +for just what you want--and be sure you get it." + +Stafford glanced round the room with its costly appointments, and Sir +Stephen caught the glance, and smiled. + +"You're thinking--ah, well, no matter. Mr. Howard, try those +strawberries. I don't think they're forced. They tell me that they get +them on the slope even earlier than this. This port--now see how nice +the people in these parts are! this port came from the landlord of +the--the--yes, The Woodman Inn. He sent it with his respectful +compliments, saying you did him the honour to praise it last night. You +stayed there, I suppose? Surprisingly kind: quite a Spanish bit of +courtesy. I wrote Mr.--yes, Mr. Groves a note thanking him on your +behalf, and I sent him some dry sherry which Stenson here"--he smiled +at the butler--"tells me is rather good, eh, Stenson?" + +The solemn gravity of Stenson's face did not relax in the slightest, as +he murmured: + +"Count de Meza's '84, sir." + +"Right! So long as it was the best we had. You approve, Stafford, eh?" + +Stafford nodded with something more than approval. + +"Thank you, sir," he said, simply. "We admired Mr. Groves's port." + +"He's a good fellow. I hope he'll enjoy the sherry. I shall take the +first opportunity of calling and expressing my sense of his +kindness--No more? Shall we have the coffee with the cigars in the +billiard room?" + +The footmen escorted them through the billiard-room to the +smoking-room, only divided from it by a screen of Eastern fret-work +draped by costly hangings. There were inlaid tables and couches of +exquisite workmanship, and a Moresque cabinet, which the butler +unlocked and from which he took cigars and cigarettes. + +Sir Stephen waved them to seats, and sank into a low chair with a sigh +of satisfaction and enjoyment. The footmen placed the exquisite +coffee-service of Limoges enamel on one of the tables, and, as they +left the room, Howard, as if he could not help himself, said: + +"This is a veritable Aladdin's Palace, Sir Stephen! Though I can +imagine that fabulous erection cannot have been as comfortable as +this." + +"I'm glad you like it," he said. "But do you like it?" he put in, with +a shrewd gleam in his eyes, which could be keen as well as brilliant +and genial. "I fancy you think it _too_ fine--eh, Stafford?" He laid +his hand on Stafford's knee with a somewhat appealing gesture and +glance. "I've seen a doubt on your face once or twice--and, by George! +you haven't seen half the place yet. Yes, Mr. Howard, I'll admit that +it is rather luxurious; that's the result of giving these new men +_carte-blanche_. They take you at your word, sir. I'll own up I was a +little surprised to-day; for I told them to build me a villa--but then +I wanted thirty or forty bedrooms, so I suppose they had to make it +rather large. It seemed to me that as it overlooks the lake it ought to +be after the style of those places one sees in Italy, and I hinted that +for the interior an Oriental style might be suitable; but I left them a +free hand, and if they've overdone it they ought to have known better. +I employed the men who were recommended to me." + +There was a pause for a moment. Stafford tried to find some phrase +which would conceal his lack of appreciation; and his father, as if he +saw what was passing through Stafford's mind, went on quickly but +smoothly: + +"Yes, I see. It _is_ too fine and ornamental. But I don't think you'll +find that the people who are coming here tomorrow will agree with you. +I may not know much about art and taste, but I know my world. +Stafford--Mr. Howard--I'll make a clean breast of it. I built this +place with an object. My dear sir, you won't think me guilty of +sticking it up to please Stafford here. I know his taste too well; +something like mine, I expect--a cosy room with a clean cloth and a +well-cooked chop and potato. I've cooked 'em myself before now--the +former on a shovel, the latter in an empty meat-tin. Of course I know +that Stafford and you, Mr. Howard, have lived very different lives to +mine. Of course. You have been accustomed to every refinement and a +great deal of luxury over since you left the cradle. Quite right! I'm +delighted that it should be so. Nothing is too good for Stafford +here--and his chum--nothing!" + +Stafford's handsome face flushed. + +"You've been very generous to me, sir," he said, in his brief way, but +with a glance at his father which expressed more than the words. + +Sir Stephen threw his head back and laughed. + +"That's all right, Staff," he said. "It's been a pleasure to me. I just +wanted to see you happy--'see you' is rather inappropriate, though, +isn't it, considering how very little I have seen you? But there were +reasons--We won't go into that. Where was I?" + +"You were telling us your reasons for building this place, sir," Howard +reminded him quietly. + +Sir Stephen shot a glance at him, a cautious glance. + +"Was I? By George! then I am more communicative than usual. My friends +in the city and elsewhere would tell you that I never give any reasons. +But what I was saying was this: that I've learnt that the world likes +tinsel and glitter--just as the Sioux Indians are caught by glass beads +and lengths of Turkey red calico. And I give the world what it wants. +See?" + +He laughed, a laugh which was as cynical as Howard's. + +"The world is not so much an oyster which you've got to open with a +sword, as the old proverb has it, but a wild beast. Yes, a wild beast: +and you've got to fight him at first, fight him tooth and claw. When +you've beaten him, ah! then you've got to feed him." + +"You have beaten your wild beast, Sir Stephen," remarked Howard. + +"Well--yes, more or less; anyhow, he seemed ready to come to my hand +for the tit-bits I can give him. The world likes to be _feted_, likes +good dinners and high-class balls; but above all it likes to be amused. +I'm going to give it what it wants." + +Stafford looked up. This declaration coming from his father jarred upon +Stafford, whose heart he had won. + +"Why should you trouble, sir?" he said, quietly. "I should have thought +you would have been satisfied." + +"Because I want something more from it; something in return," said Sir +Stephen, with a smile. "Satisfied? No man is satisfied. I've an +ambition yet ungratified, and I mean to gratify it. You think I'm +vaunting, Mr. Howard?" "No, I think you are simply stating a fact," +responded Howard, gravely. + +"I thank you, sir," said Sir Stephen, as gravely. "I speak so +confidently because I see my way clearly before me. I generally do. +When I don't, I back out and lie low." + +Stafford found this too painful. He rose to get a light and sauntered +into the billiard-room and tried the table. + +Sir Stephen looked after him musingly, and seemed to forget Howard's +presence; then suddenly his face flushed and his eyes shone with a +curious mixture of pride and tenderness and the indomitable resolution +which had helped him to fight his "wild beast." He leant forward and +touched Howard's knee. + +"Don't you understand!" he said, earnestly, and in a low voice which +the click of the billiard balls prevented Stafford from hearing. "It is +for him! For my boy, Mr. Howard! It's for him that I have been working, +am still working. For myself--I am satisfied--as he said; but not for +him. I want to see him still higher up the ladder than I have climbed. +I have done fairly well--heaven and earth! if anyone had told me twenty +years ago that I should be where and what I am to-day--well, I'd have +sold my chances for a bottle of ale. You smile. Mr. Howard, it was +anything but beer and skittles for me then. I want to leave my boy +a--title. Smile again, Mr. Howard; I don't mind." + +"I haven't a smile about me, sir," said Howard. + +"Ah, you understand. You see my mind. I don't know why I've told you, +excepting that it is because you are Staff's friend. But I've told you +now. And am I not right? Isn't it a laudable ambition? Can you say that +he will not wear it well, however high the title may be? Where is there +such another young fellow? Proud--pride is too poor a word for what I +feel for him!" + +He paused and sank back, but leant forward again. + +"Though I've kept apart from him, Mr. Howard, I have watched him--but +in no unworthy sense. No, I haven't spied upon him." + +"There was no need, sir," said Howard, very quietly. + +"I know it. Stafford is as straight as a dart, as true as steel. Oh, +I've heard of him. I know there isn't a more popular man in +England--forgive me if I say I don't think there's a handsomer." + +Howard nodded prompt assent. + +"I read of him, in society, at Hurlingham. Everywhere he goes he holds +his own. And I know why. Do you believe in birth, Mr. Howard?" he +asked, abruptly. + +"Of course," replied Howard. + +"So do I, though I can't lay claim to any. But there's a good strain in +Stafford and it shows itself. There's something in his face, a certain +look in his eyes, in his voice, and the way he moves; that quiet yet +frank manner--oh, I can't explain!" he broke off, impatiently. + +"I think you have done it very well," said Howard. "I don't like the +word--it is so often misapplied--but I can't think of any better: +distinguished is the word that describes Stafford." + +Sir Stephen nodded eagerly. + +"You are right. Some men are made, born to wear the purple. My boy is +one of them--and he shall! He shall take his place amongst the noblest +and the best in the land. He shall marry with the highest. Nature has +cast him in a noble mould, and he shall step into his proper place." + +He drew a long breath, and his brilliant eyes flashed as if he were +looking into the future, looking into the hour of triumph. + +"Yes; I agree with you," said Howard; "but I am afraid Stafford will +scarcely share your ambition." + +He was sorry he had spoken as he saw the change which his words had +caused in Sir Stephen. + +"What?" he said, almost fiercely. "Why do you say that? Why should he +not be ambitious?" He stopped and laid his hand on Howard's shoulder, +gripping it tightly, and his voice sank to a stern whisper. "You don't +know of anything--there is no woman--no entanglement?" + +"No, no!" said Howard. "Make your mind easy on that point. There is no +one. Stafford is singularly free in that respect. In fact--well, he is +rather cold. There is no one, I am sure. I should have known it, if +there had been." + +Sir Stephen's grip relaxed, and the stern, almost savage expression was +smoothed out by a smile. + +"Right," he said, still in a whisper. "Then there is no obstacle in my +way. I shall win what I am fighting for. Though it will not be an easy +fight. No, sir. But easy or difficult, I mean winning." + +He rose and stood erect--a striking figure looking over Howard's head +with an abstracted gaze; then suddenly his eyelids quivered, his face +grew deathly pale, and his hand went to his heart. + +Howard sprang to his feet with an exclamation of alarm; but Sir Stephen +held up his hand warningly, moved slowly to one of the tables, poured +out a glass of _liqueur_ and drank it. Then he turned to Howard, who +stood watching him, uncertain what to do or say, and said, with an air +of command: + +"Not a word. It is nothing." + +Then he linked his arm in Howard's and led him into the billiard-room. + +"Table all right, Stafford?" + +"First-rate, sir," replied Stafford. "You and Mr. Howard play a +hundred." + +"No, no," said Sir Stephen. "You and Howard. I should enjoy looking +on." + +"We'll have a pool," said Stafford, taking the balls from the cabinet. +Howard watched Sir Stephen as he played his first shot: his hand was +perfectly steady, and he soon showed that he was a first-rate player. + +"That was a good shot," said Stafford, with a touch of pride in his +voice. "I don't know that I've seen a better. You play a good game, +sir." + +Sir Stephen's face flushed at his son's praise, as a girl's might have +done; but he laughed it off. + +"Only so, so, Staff. I don't play half as good a game as you and Mr. +Howard. How should I?--Mr. Howard, there is the spirit-stand. You'll +help yourself? Servants are a nuisance in a billiard-room." + +Not once for the rest of the evening did he show any sign of the +weakness which had so startled Howard, and as they went up the stairs +he told them a story with admirable verve and with evident enjoyment. + +"Sorry our evening has come to an end," he said as they stood outside +his door. "It is the last we shall have to ourselves. Pity. But it +can't be helped." + +Unconsciously he opened the door as he spoke, and Stafford said: + +"Is this your room, sir?" + +"Yes; walk in, my boy," replied Sir Stephen. + +Stafford walked in and stood stock-still with amazement. The room was +as plainly furnished as a servant's--more plainly, probably, than the +servants who were housed under his roof. Saving for a square of carpet +by the bed and dressing-table the floor was bare; the bed was a common +one of iron, narrow and without drapery, the furniture was of painted +deal. The only picture was a portrait of Stafford enlarged from a +photograph, and it hung over the mantel-piece so that Sir Stephen could +see it from the bed. Of course neither Stafford nor Howard made any +remark. + +"Remember that portrait, Stafford?" asked Sir Stephen, with a smile. "I +carry it about with me wherever I go. Foolish and fond old father, eh, +Mr. Howard? It's a good portrait, don't you think?" + +Stafford held out his hand. + +"Good-night, sir," he said in a very low voice. + +"Good-night, my boy! Sure you've got everything you want? And you, Mr. +Howard? Don't let me disturb you in the morning. I've got a stupid +habit of getting up early--got it years ago, and it clings, like other +habits. Hope you'll sleep well. If you don't, change your rooms before +the crowd comes. Good-night." + +"Did you see the room?" asked Stafford, huskily, when he and Howard had +got into Stafford's. + +Howard nodded. + +"I feel as if I could pitch all this"--Stafford looked at the +surrounding luxuries--"out of the window! I don't understand him. Great +Heaven! he makes me feel the most selfish, pampered wretch on the face +of the earth. He's--he's--" + +"He is a man!" said Howard, with an earnestness which was strange in +him. + +"You are right," said Stafford. "There never was such a father. And +yet--yet--I don't understand him. He is such a mixture. How such a man +could talk as he did--no I don't understand it." + +"I do," said Howard. + +But then Sir Stephen had given him the key to the enigma. + + +CHAPTER VII + +Stafford slept well, and was awake before Measom came to call him. It +was a warm and lovely morning, and Stafford's first thoughts flew to a +bath. He got into flannels, and found his way to the lake, and as he +expected, there was an elaborate and picturesque bathing-shed beside +the Swiss-looking boat-house, in which were an electric launch and +boats of all descriptions. There also was a boatman in attendance, with +huge towels on his arm. + +"Did you expect me?" asked Stafford, as the man touched his hat and +opened the bathing-shed. + +"Yes, sir; Sir Stephen sent down last night to say that you might come +down." + +Stafford nodded. His father forgot nothing! The boatman rowed him out +into the lake and Stafford had a delightful swim. It reminded him of +Geneva, for the lake this morning was almost as clear and as vivid in +colouring: and that is saying a great deal. + +The boatman, who watched his young master admiringly--for Stafford was +like a fish in the water--informed him that the launch would be ready +in a moment's notice, or the sailing boat either, for the matter of +that, if he should require them. + +"I've another launch, a steamer, and larger than this, coming +to-morrow; and Sir Stephen told me to get some Canadian canoes, in case +you or any of the company that's coming should fancy them, sir." + +As Stafford went up to the house in the exquisite "after-bath" frame of +mind, he met his father. The expression of Sir Stephen's face, which a +moment earlier, before he had turned the corner of the winding path, +had been grave and keen, and somewhat hard, softened, and his eyes lit +up with a smile which had no little of the boatman's admiration in it. + +"Had a swim, my boy? Found everything right, I hope? I was just going +down to see." + +"Yes, everything," replied Stafford. "I can't think how you have +managed to get it done in so short a time," he added, looking round at +the well-grown shrubs, the smooth paths and the plush-like lawns, which +all looked as if they had been in cultivation for years. + +Sir Stephen shrugged his shoulders. + +"It is all a question of money--and the right men," he said. "I always +work on the plan, and ask the questions: 'How soon, how much?' Then I +add ten per cent. to the contract price on condition that the time is +kept. I find 'time' penalties are no use: it breaks the contractor's +back; but the extra ten per cent. makes them hustle, as they say on the +'other side.' Have you seen the stables yet? But of course you haven't, +or I should have seen you there. I go down there every morning; not +because I understand much about horses, but because I'm fond of them. +That will be your department, my dear Stafford." + +At each turn of their way Stafford found something to admire, and his +wonderment at the settled and established "Oh, I stipulated that there +shouldn't be any newness--any 'smell of paint,' so to speak. Here are +the stables; I had them put as far from the house as possible, and yet +get-at-able. Most men like to stroll about them. I hope you'll like +them. Mr. Pawson, the trainer, designed them." + +Stafford nodded with warm approval. + +"They seem perfect," he said as, after surveying the exterior, he +entered and looked down the long reach of stalls and loose boxes, many +of which were occupied, as he saw at a glance, by valuable animals. +"They are a fine lot, sir," he said, gravely, as he went down the long +line. "A remarkably fine lot! I have never seen a better show. This +fellow--why, isn't he Lord Winstay's bay, Adonis?" + +"Yes," said Sir Stephen. "I thought you'd like him." + +"Good heavens!" exclaimed Stafford. "You don't mean that you have +bought him for me, sir! I know that Winstay refused eight hundred +guineas for him." + +"I daresay," replied Sir Stephen. "Why shouldn't I buy him for you, my +boy? There's another one in the box next that one; a little stiffer. +I'm told he's up to your weight and--" + +Stafford went into the box and looked at the horse. It was a +magnificent, light-weight hunter--the kind of horse that makes a +riding-man's heart jump. + +"I should say that there are not two better horses of their sort in the +county," Stafford said, solemnly, and with a flush of his handsome +face. + +Sir Stephen's eyes gleamed. + +"That's all right: they can't be too good, Stafford." + +The head groom, Davis by name, stood, with Pottinger and some +underlings, at a little distance in attendance, and the men exchanged +glances and nods. + +"Have you seen these, Pottinger?" asked Stafford, turning to him, and +speaking in the tone which servants love. + +Pottinger touched his forehead. + +"Yes, sir; they're first rate, and no mistake. I've just been telling +Mr. Davis he's got a splendid lot, sir--splendid!" + +"Not but what your own pair 'ud be hard to beat, sir," said Davis, +respectfully. "There's a mare here, Sir Stephen, I should like to show +Mr. Stafford." + +The mare was taken out into the yard, and Stafford examined her and +praised her with a judgment and enthusiasm which filled Davis's heart +with pride. + +"Your young guv'nor's the right sort, Pottinger," he remarked as +Stafford at last reluctantly tore himself away from the stables. "Give +me a master as understands a horse and I don't mind working for him." + +Pottinger nodded and turned the straw in his mouth. + +"If you're alludin' to Mr. Stafford, then you'll enjoy your work, Mr. +Davis; for you've got what you want. What my guv'nor don't know about a +'oss isn't worth knowing." + +"So I should say," assented Davis, emphatically. "I do hate to have a +juggins about the place. Barker, _is_ that a spot o' rust on that +pillar-chain, or is my eyesight deceiving me? No, my men, if there's +the slightest thing askew when Mr. Stafford walks round, I shall break +my heart--and sack the man who's responsible for it. Pottinger, if +you'd like that pair o' yours moved, if you think they ain't +comfortable, you say so, and moved they shall be." + +As Sir Stephen and Stafford strolled back to the house the former +paused now and again to point out something he wished Stafford to see, +always appealing for his approval. + +"Everything is perfect, sir," Stafford said at last. "And, above all, +the situation," he added as he looked at the magnificent view, the opal +lake mirroring the distant mountains, flecked by the sunlight and the +drifting clouds. + +"Yes, I was fortunate in getting it," remarked Sir Stephen. + +Instantly there flashed across Stafford's mind--and not for the first +time that morning--the words Ida Heron had spoken respecting the way in +which Sir Stephen had obtained the land. Looking straight before him, +he asked: + +"How did you get it, sir? I have heard that it was difficult to buy +land here for building purposes." + +"Yes, I fancy it is," replied Sir Stephen, quite easily. "Now you speak +of it, I remember my agent said there was some hitch at first; but he +must have got over it in some way or other. He bought it of a farmer." +Stafford drew a breath of relief. "This is the Italian garden; the +tennis and croquet lawns are below this terrace--there's not time to go +down. But you haven't seen half of it yet. There's the breakfast-bell. +Don't trouble to change: I like you in those flannels." He laid his +hand on Stafford's broad, straight shoulder. "You have the knack of +wearing your clothes as if they grew on you, Staff." + +Stafford laughed. + +"I ought to hand that compliment on to Measom, sir," he said; "he's the +responsible person and deserves the credit, if there is any." He looked +at his father's upright, well-dressed and graceful figure. "But he +would hand it back to you, I think, sir." + +There was a pause, then Stafford said: + +"Do you know any of your neighbours--any of the people round about?" + +"No; I was never here until yesterday, excepting for an hour or two. +But we shall know them, I suppose; they'll call in a little while, and +we will ask them to dinner, and so on. There should be some nice +people--Ah, Mr. Howard, we've stolen a march on you!" + +"I'm not surprised, sir," said Howard, as he came up in his slow and +languid way. "I am sorry to say that Stafford has an extremely bad +habit of getting up at unreasonable hours. I wait until I am dragged +out of bed by a fellow-creature or the pangs of hunger. Of course you +have been bathing, Staff? Early rising and an inordinate love of cold +water--externally--at all seasons are two of his ineradicable vices, +Sir Stephen. I have done my best to cure them, but--alas!" + +They went in to breakfast, which was served in a room with bay windows +opening on to the terrace overlooking the lake. Exactly opposite +Stafford's chair was the little opening on the other side from which he +and the girl from Heron Hall had gazed at the villa. He looked at it +and grew silent. + +A large dispatch-box stood beside Sir Stephen's plate. He did not open +it, but sent it to his room. + +"I never read my letters before breakfast," he remarked. "They spoil +one's digestion. I'm afraid the mail's heavy this morning, judging by +the weight of the box; so that I shall be busy. You two gentlemen will, +I trust, amuse yourselves in your own way. Mr. Howard, the groom will +await your orders." + +"Thanks," said Howard; "but I propose to sit quite still on a chair +which I have carried out on to the terrace. I have had enough of +driving to last me for a week;" and he shuddered. + +Stafford laughed. + +"Howard's easily disposed of, sir," he said. "Give him a hammock or an +easy-chair in the shade, and he can always amuse himself by going to +sleep." + +"True; and if half the men I know spent their time in a similar fashion +this would be a brighter and a better world. What you will do, my dear +Stafford, I know by bitter experience. He will go and wade through a +river or ride at a break-neck pace down some of those hills. Stafford +is never happy unless he is trying to lay up rheumatism for his old age +or endeavouring to break his limbs." + +Sir Stephen looked across the table at the stalwart, graceful frame; +but he said nothing: there was no need, for his eyes were eloquent of +love and admiration. + +Stafford changed into riding things soon after breakfast, went down to +the stables and had Adonis saddled. Davis superintended the operation +and the stablemen edged round to watch. Davis expressed his approval as +Stafford mounted and went off on a splendid creature, remarking as he +started: + +"Beautiful mouth, Davis!" + +"Yes, Pottinger," said Davis, succinctly, "he's worthy of him. That's +what I call 'hands' now. Dash my aunt if you'd find it easy to match +the pair of 'em! There's a class about both that you don't often see. +If you'll step inside my little place, Mr. Pottinger, we'll drink your +guv'nor's health. I like his shape, I like his style; and I'm counted a +bit of a judge. He's a gentleman, and a high-bred 'n at that." + +Stafford rode down the winding drive at which the gardeners were at +work on borders and shrubberies, and on to the road. The air was like +champagne. The slight breeze just ruffled the lake on which the sun was +glittering; Stafford was conscious of a strange feeling of eagerness, +of quickly thrilling vitality which was new to him. He put it down to +the glorious morning, to the discovery of the affection of his father, +to the good horse that stepped as lightly as an Arab, and carried him +as if he were a feather; and yet all the while he knew that these did +not altogether account for the electric eagerness, the "joy of living" +which possessed him. + +He pulled up for a moment at The Woodman Inn to thank Mr. Groves for +the port, and that gentleman came out, as glad to see him as if he were +an old friend. + +"Don't mention it, sir," he said. "I thought a long time before I sent +it, because I wasn't sure that Sir Stephen and you might think it a +liberty; but I needn't have done so, I know now. And it was kind of Sir +Stephen to send me a note with the sherry. It was like a gentleman, if +you'll excuse me saying so, sir." + +Stafford rode over the hill and along the road by the stream, and as he +rode he looked round him eagerly and keenly. In fact, as if he were +scouting. But that for which he was looking so intently did not appear; +his spirits fell--though the sun was still shining--and he sighed +impatiently, and putting Adonis through the stream, cantered over the +moor at the foot of the hills. Suddenly he heard the bark of a dog, and +looking eagerly in the direction of the sound, he saw Ida Heron walking +quickly round the hill, with Donald and Bess scampering in front of +her. + +The gloom vanished from Stafford's face, and he checked Adonis into a +walk. The dogs were the first to see him, and they tore towards him +barking a welcome. Ida looked up--she had been walking with her eyes +bent on the ground--the colour rose to her face, and she stopped for an +instant. Then she came on slowly, and by the time they had met there +was no trace of the transitory blush. + +Stafford raised his hat and dismounted, and tried to speak in a casual +tone; but it was difficult to conceal the subtle delight which sprang +up within him at the sight of her; and he looked at the beautiful face +and the slim, graceful figure in its tailor-made gown--which, well worn +as it was, seemed to him to sit upon her as no other dress had ever sat +upon any other woman--he had hard work to keep the admiration from his +eyes. + +"I begin to count myself a very lucky man, Miss Heron," he said. + +"Why?" she asked, her grave eyes resting on him calmly. + +"Because I have chanced to meet you again." + +"It is not strange," she said. "I am nearly always out-of-doors. What a +beautiful horse!" + +"Isn't it!" he said, grateful for her praise. "It is a new one--a +present from my father this morning." + +"A very valuable present! It ought to be able to jump." + +"It is. I put it at a bank just now, and it cleared it like a bird. I +am very glad I have met you. I wanted to tell you something." + +She raised her eyes from the horse and waited, with the quietude, the +self-possession and dignity which seemed so strange in one so young, +and which, by its strangeness, fascinated him. "I--spoke to my father +about the land: he is innocent in the matter. It was bought through his +agent, and my father knows nothing of anything--underhand. I can't tell +you how glad I am that this is so. So glad that--I'll make a clean +breast of it--I rode over this morning in the hope of meeting you and +telling you." + +She made a little gesture of acceptance. + +"I am glad, too. Though it does not matter...." + +"Ah, but it does!" he broke in. "I should have been wretched if you had +been right, and my father had been guilty of anything of the kind. But, +as a matter of fact, he isn't capable of it--as you'd say if you knew +him. Now, there's no reason why we shouldn't be friends, is there?" he +added, with a suppressed eagerness. + +"Oh, no," she responded. She glanced up at the sky. Unnoticed by him a +cloud had drifted over the Langdale pikes, as the range of high +mountain is called. "It is going to rain, and heavily." + +"And you have no umbrella, waterproof!" exclaimed Stafford. + +She laughed with girlish amusement. + +"Umbrella? I don't think I have such a thing; and this cloth is nearly +waterproof; besides, I never notice the rain--here it comes!" + +It came with a vengeance; it was as if the heavens had opened and let +down the bottom of a reservoir. + +Stafford mechanically took off his coat. + +"Put this on," he said. "That jacket is quite light; you'll get wet +through." + +Her face crimsoned, and she laughed a little constrainedly. + +"Please put your coat on!" she said, gravely and earnestly. "_You_ will +be wet through, and you are not used to it. There is a shed round the +corner; ride there as quickly as you can." + +Stafford stared at her, then burst into a laugh which echoed hers. + +"And leave you here! Is it likely?" + +"Well, let us both go," she said, as if amused by his obstinacy. + +"Is it far?" he asked. "See if you can manage to balance on the +saddle--I would run beside you. It's all very well to talk of not +minding the rain, but this is a deluge." + +She glanced at the horse. + +"I couldn't get up--I could if he were barebacked, or if it were a +lady's saddle--it doesn't matter. Look, Donald and Bess are laughing at +you for making a fuss about a shower." + +"Will you try--let me help you?" he pleaded. "I could lift you quite +easily--Oh, forgive me, but I'm not used to standing by and seeing a +girl get soaked." + +"You are walking--not standing," she reminded him, solemnly. + +Perhaps her smile gave him courage: he took her just below the +shoulders and lifted her on to the saddle, saying as he did so, and in +as matter-of-fact a voice as he could: + +"If you'll just put your hand on my shoulder, you'll find that you can +ride quite safely--though I expect you could do it without that--I've +seen you ride, you know." + +He kept his eyes from her, so that he did not see the hot blush which +mantled in the clear ivory of her face, or the sudden tightening of the +lips, as if she were struggling against some feeling, and fighting for +her usual self-possession. + +She succeeded in a moment or two, and when he looked up the blush had +gone and something like amusement was sharing the sweet girlish +confusion in her grey eyes. + +"This is absurd!" she said. "It is to be hoped Jason or none of the men +will see me; they would think I had gone mad; and I should never hear +the last of it. The shed is by that tree." + +"I see it--just across the road. Please keep a tight hold of my +shoulder; I should never forgive myself if you slipped." + +"I am not in the least likely to slip," she said. + +Then suddenly, just as they were on the edge of the road, she uttered +an exclamation of surprise rather than embarrassment, for a carriage +and pair came round the corner and almost upon them. + +Stafford stopped Adonis to let the carriage pass, but the coachman +pulled up in response to a signal from someone inside, and a man thrust +his head out of the window and regarded them at first with surprise and +then with keen scrutiny. + +He was an elderly man, with a face which would have been coarse but for +its expression of acuteness and a certain strength which revealed +itself in the heavy features. + +"Can you tell me the way to Sir Stephen Orme's place?" he asked in a +rough, harsh voice. + +Ida was about to slip down, but she reflected that the mischief, if +there were any, was done now; and to Stafford's admiration, she sat +quite still under the gaze of the man's keen, sarcastic eyes. + +"Yes; keep straight on and round by The Woodman: you will see the house +by that time," said Stafford. + +"Thanks! Drive on, coachman," said the man; and he drew in his head +with a grim smile, and something like a sneer on his thick lips that +made Stafford's eyes flash. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +Stafford and Ida remained, unconscious of the rain, looking after the +carriage for a moment or two. + +The sneer on the man's heavy yet acutely sharp face, still incensed +Stafford. He had the usual desire of the strong man--to dash after the +rapidly disappearing vehicle, lug the fellow out and ask him what he +was sneering at. + +Ida was the first to speak. + +"What a strange-looking man," she said. + +Stafford started slightly, awaking to the fact that it was still +pouring. + +"I--I beg your pardon. I'm keeping you out in the rain." + +He put Adonis, not at all unwillingly, to a trot, and they gained the +rough cattle-shed, and he would have lifted the girl down, but she was +too quick for him, and slipped gracefully and easily from the saddle. + +Stafford, leading the horse, followed her into the shed. Bess sat on +the extreme end of her haunches shivering and blinking, and all too +plainly cursing the British climate; but Donald threw himself down +outside as if he regarded the deluge as a cheap shower-bath. + +Stafford looked at Ida anxiously. + +"You are fearfully wet," he said. "I think I could wipe off the worst +of it, if you'll let me." + +He took out his pocket handkerchief as he spoke and wiped the rain from +her straight, beautifully moulded shoulders. She drew back a little and +opened her lips to protest at first, but with a slight shrug she +resigned herself, her eyes downcast, a faint colour in her face. + +"I must be quite dry now," she said at last. + +"I'm afraid not," said Stafford. "I wish I had something bigger--a +towel." + +She laughed, the sweet girlish laugh which seemed to him the most +musical sound he had ever heard. + +"A towel? Fancying carrying a towel to wipe oneself with when it +rained! It is evident you don't know our country. There are weeks +sometimes in which it never ceases to rain. And you must be wet through +yourself," she added, glancing at him. + +He was on his knees at the moment carefully wiping the old habit skirt +with his saturated handkerchief as if the former were something +precious; and her woman's eye noted his short crisp hair, the shapely +head and the straight broad back. + +"I'm afraid that's all I can do!" he said, regretfully, as he rose and +looked at her gravely. "Do you mean to say that you habitually ride out +in such weather as this?" + +"Why, yes!" she replied, lightly. "Why not? I am too substantial to +melt, and I never catch cold. Besides, I have to go out in all weathers +to see to the cattle and the sheep." + +He leant against one of the posts which supported the shed, and gazed +at her with more intense interest than any other woman had ever aroused +in him. + +"Isn't there a foreman, a bailiff, whatever you call him, in these +parts?" + +She shook her head. + +"No; we cannot afford one; so I do his work. And very pleasant work it +is, especially in fine weather." + +"And you are happy?" he asked, almost unconsciously. + +Her frank eyes met his with a smile of amusement. + +"Yes, quite happy," she answered. "Why? Does it seem so unlikely, so +unreasonable?" + +"Well, it does," he replied, as if her frankness were contagious. "Of +course, I could understand it if you did it occasionally, if you did it +because you liked riding; but to be obliged, to have to go out in all +weathers, it isn't right!" + +She looked at him thoughtfully. + +"Yes, I suppose it seems strange to you. I suppose most of the ladies +you know are rich, and only ride to amuse themselves, and never go out +when they do not want to do so. Sir Stephen Orme--you--are very rich, +are you not? We, my father and I, are poor, very poor. And if I did not +look after things, if I were not my own bailiff--Oh, well, I don't know +what would happen." + +Stafford gnawed at his moustache as he gazed at her. The exquisitely +colourless face, in which the violet eyes glowed like two twin flowers, +the delicately cut lips, soft and red, the dark hair clustering at the +ivory temples in wet rings, set his heart beating with a heavy +pulsation that was an agony of admiration and longing--a longing that +was vague and indistinct. + +"Yes, I suppose it must seem strange to you," she said, as if she were +following out the lines of her own thoughts. "You must be accustomed to +girls who are so different." + +"Yes, they're different," he admitted. "Most of the women I know would +be frightened to death if they were caught in such a rain as this; +would be more than frightened to death if they had to ride down that +hill most of 'em think they've done wonder if they get in at the end of +a run over a fairly easy country; and none of 'em could doctor a sick +sheep to save their lives." + +"Yes," she said, dreamily. "I've seen them, but only at a distance. But +I didn't know anything about farming until I came home." + +"And do you never go away from here, go to London for a change and get +a dance, and--and all that?" he asked. + +She shook her head indifferently. + +"No, I never leave the dale. I cannot. My father could not spare me. +Has it left off raining yet?" + +She went to the front of the shed and looked out. + +"No, it is still pelting; please come back; it is pouring off the roof; +your hair is quite wet again." + +She laughed, but she obeyed. + +"I suppose that gentleman, the man in the carriage, was a friend of Sir +Stephen's, as he asked the way to your house?" + +"I don't know," replied Stafford. "I don't know any of my father's +friends. I knew very little of him until last night." + +She looked at him with frank, girlish interest. + +"Did you find the new house very beautiful?" she asked. + +Stafford nodded. + +"Yes," he said, absently. "It is a kind of--of palace. It's beautiful +enough--perhaps a little too--too rich," he admitted. + +She smiled. + +"But then, you are rich. And is it true that a number of visitors are +coming down? I heard it from Jessie." + +"Who is Jessie?" he asked, for he was more interested in the smallest +detail of this strange, bewilderingly lovely girl's life than his +father's affairs. + +"Jessie is my maid. I call her mine, because she is very much attached +to me; but she is really our house-maid, parlour-maid. We have very few +servants: I suppose you have a great many up at the new house?" + +He nodded. + +"Oh, yes," he said, half apologetically. "Too many by far. I wish you +could, see it," he added. + +She laughed softly. + +"Thank you; but that is not likely. I think it is not raining so hard +now, and that I can go." + +"It is simply pouring still," he said, earnestly and emphatically. "You +would get drenched if you ventured out." + +"But I can't stay here all day," she remarked, with a laugh. "I have a +great deal to do: I have to see that the sheep have not strayed, and +that the cows are in the meadows; the fences are bad in places, and the +stupid creatures are always straying. It is wonderful how quickly a cow +finds a weak place in a fence." + +Stafford's face grew red, a brick-dust red. + +"It's not fit work for you," he said. "You--you are only a girl; you +can't be strong enough to face such weather, to do such work." + +The beautiful eyes grew wide and gazed at him with girlish amusement, +and something of indignation. + +"I'm older than you think. I'm not a girl!" she retorted. "And I am as +strong as a horse." She drew herself up and threw her head back. "I am +never tired--or scarcely ever. One day I rode to Keswick and back, and +when I got home Jason met me at the gate and told me that the steers +had 'broken' and had got on the Bryndermere road. I started after them, +but missed them for a time, and only came up with them at Landal +Water--ah, you don't know where that is; well, it is a great many +miles. Of course I had a rest coming back, as I could only drive them +slowly." + +Something in his eyes--the pity, the indignation, the wonder that this +exquisitely refined specimen of maidenhood should be bent to such base +uses--shone in them and stopped her. The colour rose to her face and +her eyes grew faintly troubled, then a proud light flashed in them. + +"Ah, I see; you are thinking that it is--is not ladylike, that none of +your lady-friends would do it if even if they were strong enough?" + +Stafford would have scorned himself if he had been tempted to evade +those beautiful eyes, that sweet, and now rather haughty voice; +besides, he was not given to evasion with man or woman. + +"I wasn't thinking quite that," he said. "But I'll tell you what I was +thinking, if you'll promise not to be offended." + +She considered for a moment, then she said: + +"I do not think you will offend me. What was it?" + +"Well, I was thinking that--see here, now, Miss Heron, I've got your +promise!--it is not worthy of you--such work, I mean." + +"Because I'm a girl?" she said, her lip curving with a smile. + +"No," he said, gravely; "because you are a lady; because you are so--so +refined, so graceful, so"--he dared not say "beautiful," and +consequently he floundered and broke down. "If you were a farmer's +daughter, clumsy and rough and awkward, it would not seem to +inappropriate for you to be herding cattle and counting sheep; but--now +your promise!--when I come to think that ever since I met you, +whenever I think of you I think of--of--a beautiful flower--that now I +have seen you in evening-dress, I realise how wrong it is that you +should do such work. Oh, dash it! I know it's like my cheek to talk to +you like this," he wound up, abruptly and desperately. + +While he had been speaking, the effect of his words had expressed +itself in her eyes and in the alternating colour and pallor of her +face. It was the first time in her life any man had told her that she +was refined and graceful and flower-like; that she was, so to speak, +wasting her sweetness on the desert air, and the speech was both +pleasant and painful to her. The long dark lashes swept her cheek; her +lips set tightly to repress the quiver which threatened them; but when +he had completely broken down, she raised her eyes to his with a look +so grave, so sweet, so girlish, that Stafford's heart leapt, not for +the first time that morning, and there flashed through him the +unexpected thought: + +"What would not a man give to have those eyes turned upon him with love +shining in their depths!" + +"I'm not offended," she said. "I know what you mean. None of your +lady-friends would do it because they are ladies. I'm sorry. But they +are not placed as I am. Do you think I could sit with my hands before +me, or do fancy-work, while things went to ruin? My father is old and +feeble--you saw him the other night--I have no brother--no one to help +me, and--so you see how it is!" + +The eyes rested on his with a proud smile, as if she were challenging +him, then she went on: + +"And it does not matter. I live quite alone; I see no one, no other +lady; there is no one to be ashamed of me." + +Stafford reddened. + +"That's rather a hard hit for me!" he said. "Ashamed! By Heaven! if you +knew how I admired--how amazed I am at your pluck and goodness--" + +Her eyes dropped before his glowing ones. + +"And there is no need to pity me: I am quite happy, quite; happier than +I should be if I were playing the piano or paying visits all day. It +has quite left off now." + +Half unconsciously he put his hand on her arm pleadingly, and with the +firm, masterful touch of the man. + +"Will you wait one more moment?" he said, in his deep, musical voice. +She paused and looked at him enquiringly. "You said just now that you +had no brother, no one to help you. Will you let me help you? will you +let me stand in the place of a friend, of a brother?" + +She looked at him with frank surprise; and most men would have been +embarrassed and confused by the steady, astonished regard of the violet +eyes; but Stafford was too eager to get her consent to care for the +amusement that was mixed with the expression of surprise. + +"Why--how could you help me?" she said at last; "even if--" + +--"You'd let me," he finished for her. "Well, I'm not particularly +clever, but I've got sense enough to count sheep and drive cows; and I +can break in colts, train dogs, and, if I'm obliged, I daresay I could +drive a plough." + +Her eyes wandered thoughtfully, abstractedly down the dale; but she was +listening and thinking. + +"Of course I should have a lot to learn, but I'm rather quick at +picking up things, and--" + +"Are you joking, Mr. Orme?" she broke in. + +"Joking? I was never more serious in my life," he said, eagerly, and +yet with an attempt to conceal his earnestness. "I am asking it as a +favour, I am indeed! I shall be here for weeks, months, perhaps, and I +should be bored to death--" + +"With your father's house full of visitors?" she put in, softly, and +with a smile breaking through her gravity. + +"Oh, they'll amuse themselves," he said. "At any rate, I sha'n't be +with them all day; and I'd ever so much rather help you than dance +attendance on them." + +She pushed the short silky curls from her temples, and shook her head. + +"Of course it's ridiculous," she said, with a girlish laugh; "and it's +impossible, too." + +"Oh, is it?" he retorted. "I've never yet found anything I wanted to do +impossible." + +"You always have your own way?" she asked. + +"By hook or by crook," he replied. + +"But why do you want to--help me?" she asked. "Do you think you would +find it amusing? You wouldn't." The laughter shone in her eyes again. +"You would soon grow tired of it. It is not like hunting or fishing or +golfing; it's work that tries the temper--I never knew what a fiendish +temper I had got about me until the first time I had to drive a cow and +calf." + +"My temper couldn't be worse," he remarked, calmly. "Howard says that +sometimes I could give points to the man possessed with seven devils." + +"Who is Mr. Howard?" she asked. + +"My own particular chum," he said. "He came down with me and is up at +the house now. But never mind Howard; are you going to let me help you +as if I were an old friend or a--brother? Or are you going to be unkind +enough to refuse?" + +She began to feel driven, and her brows knit as she said: + +"I think you are very--obstinate, Mr. Orme." + +"That describes me exactly," he said, cheerfully. "I'm a perfect mule +when I like, and I'm liking it all I know at this moment." + +"It's absurd--it's ridiculous, as I said," she murmured, half angrily, +half laughingly, "and I can't think why you offered, why you want +to--to help me!" + +"Never mind!" said Stafford, his heart beating with anticipatory +triumph; for he knew that the woman who hesitates is gained. "Perhaps I +want to get some lessons in farming on the cheap, or--" + +--"Perhaps you really want to help the poor girl who, though she is a +lady, has to do the work of a farmer's daughter," she said, in a low +voice. "Oh, it is very kind of you, but--" + +"Then I'll come over to-morrow an hour earlier than this, and you shall +show me how to count the sheep, or whatever you do with them," he put +in, quickly. + +"But I was going to refuse--very gratefully, of course--but to +refuse!" + +"You couldn't; you couldn't be so unkind! I'll ride a hunter I've got; +he's rather stiffer than Adonis, and better up to rough work. I will +come to the stream where we first met and wait for you--shall I?" + +He said all this as if the matter were settled; and with the sensation +of being driven still more strongly upon her, she raised her eyes to +his with a yielding expression in them, with that touch of imploration +which lurks in a woman's eyes and about the corners of her lips when +for the first time she surrenders her will to a man. + +"I do not know what to say. It is absurd--it is--wrong. I don't +understand why--. Ah, well," she sighed with an air of relief, "you +will tire of it very quickly--after a few hours--" + +"All right. We'll leave it at that," he said, with an exasperating air +of cheerful confidence. "It is a bargain, Miss Heron. Shall we shake +hands on it?" + +He held out his hand with the smile which few men, and still fewer +women, could resist; and she tried to smile in response; but as his +strong hand closed over her small one, a faint look of doubt, almost of +trouble, was palpable in her violet eyes and on her lips. She drew her +hand away--and it had to be drawn, for he released it only slowly and +reluctantly--and without a word she left the shed. + +Stafford watched her as she went lightly and quickly up the road +towards the Hall, Bess and Donald leaping round her; then, with a sharp +feeling of elation, a feeling that was as novel as it was confusing, he +sprang on his horse, and putting him to a gallop, rode for home, with +one thought standing clearly out: that before many hours--the next +morning--he should see her again. + +Once he shifted his whip to his left hand, and stretching out his right +hand, looked at it curiously: it seemed to be still thrilling with the +contact of her small, warm palm. + +As he came up to The Woodman Inn he remembered, what he had forgotten +in the morning, that he had left his cigar-case on the dining-room +mantel-shelf. He pulled up, and giving Adonis to the hostler, who +rushed forward promptly, he went into the inn. There was no one in the +hall, and knowing that he should be late for luncheon, he opened the +dining-room door and walked in, and straight up to the fireplace. + +The cigar-case was where he had left it, and he turned to go out. Then +he saw that he was not the only occupant of the room, for a lady was +sitting in the broad bay-window. He snatched off his cap and murmured +an apology. + +"I beg your pardon! I did not know anyone was in the room," he said. + +The lady was young and handsome, with a beauty which owed a great deal +to colour. Her hair was a rich auburn, her complexion of the delicate +purity which sometimes goes with that coloured hair--"milk and roses," +it used to be called. Her eyes were of china blue, and her lips rather +full, but of the richest carmine. She was exquisitely dressed, her +travelling costume evidently of Redfern's build, and one hand, from +which she had removed the glove, was loaded with costly rings; diamonds +and emeralds as large as nuts, and of the first water. + +But it was not her undeniable beauty, or her dress and costly +jewellery, which impressed Stafford so much as the proud, scornfully +listless air with which she regarded him as she leant back +indolently--and a little insolently--tapping the edge of the table with +her glove. + +"Pray don't apologise," she said, languidly. "This is a public room, I +suppose!" + +"Yes, I think so," said Stafford, in his pleasant, frank way; "but one +doesn't rush into a public room with one's hat on if he has reason to +suppose that a lady is present. I thought there was no one here--the +curtain concealed you: I am sorry." + +She shrugged her shoulders and gave him the faintest and most +condescending of bows; then, as he reached the door, she said: + +"Do you think it will be moonlight to-night?" + +Stafford naturally looked rather surprised at this point-blank +meteorological question. + +"I shouldn't be surprised if it were," he said. "You see, this is a +very changeable climate, and as it is raining now it will probably +clear up before the evening." + +"Thanks!" she said. "I am much obliged--" + +"Oh, my opinion isn't worth much," he put in parenthetically, but she +went on as if he had not spoken. + +--"I should be still further obliged if you would be so kind as to tell +my father--he is outside with the carriage somewhere--that I am tired +and that I would rather not go on until the cool of the evening." + +"Certainly," said Stafford. + +He waited a moment to see if she had any other requests, or rather +orders, and then went out and found the gentleman with the strongly +marked countenance, in the stable-yard beside the carriage to which the +hostler and the help were putting fresh horses. + +Stafford raised his hat slightly. + +"I am the bearer of a message from the young lady in the dining-room, +sir," he said. "She wishes me to tell you that she would prefer to +remain here until the evening." + +The man swung round upon him with an alert and curious manner, half +startled, half resentful. + +"What the devil--I beg your pardon! Prefers to remain here! Well!" He +muttered something that sounded extremely like an oath, then, with a +shrug of his shoulders, told the hostler to take the horses out. "Thank +you!" he said to Stafford, grudgingly. "I suppose my daughter is tired: +very kind of you." + +"Not at all," responded Stafford, politely; and he got on +to Adonis, which Mr. Groves himself had led out, and rode away. + +The gentleman looked after him with knitted brows. + +"What is the name of that young fellow?" he asked of Groves. + +"That is Mr. Stafford Orme, Sir Stephen's son, sir," replied Groves. + +The gentleman was walking towards the house, but he pulled up short, +his eyes narrowed themselves to slits and his thick lips closed +tightly. + +"A fine young fellow, sir!" said Groves, with respectful enthusiasm. "A +splendid specimen of an English gentleman!" + +The gentleman grunted and went on to the dining-room. + +"What whim is this, Maude?" he asked, irritably. + +She yawned behind her beringed hand. + +"I am tired. I can't face that stuffy carriage again just yet. Let us +dine here and go on afterwards in the cool." + +"Oh, just as you like," he said. "It makes no difference to me!" + +"I know," she assented. Then, in an indolently casual way, she asked: + +"Who was that gentleman who rode by just now?" + +Her father glanced at her suspiciously as he took off his overcoat. + +"Now, how on earth should I know, my dear Maude!" he replied, with a +short, harsh laugh. "Some young farmer or cattle dealer, I imagine." + +"I said _gentleman_," she retorted, with something approaching +insolence. "You will permit _me_ to know the difference." + +Her father coloured angrily, as if she had stung him. + +"You'd better go upstairs and take off your things while I order +dinner," he said. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +As Stafford rode homewards he wondered whom the strange pair could be. +It was evident they were not going to stay at the Villa, or they would +have driven straight there; but it was also evident that the gentleman +had heard of Sir Stephen's "little place," or he would not have asked +where it was; but, as Stafford reflected, rather ruefully, it would be +difficult for any traveller passing through the neighbourhood not to +see the new, great white house, or to hear something, perhaps a very +great deal, of the man who had built it. + +Howard sauntered down the hall to meet him. + +"Good heavens, how wet you look, and, needless to add, how happy. If +there is anything in the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, my +dear Stafford, your future embodiment will be that of a Newfoundland +dog. Such an extremely strong passion for cold water is +almost--er--indecent. I've had a lovely morning in the library; and +your father is still at work with his correspondence. I asked him what +he thought of Lord Palmerston's aphorism: that if you left your letters +unanswered long enough they answered themselves; and he admitted it was +true, and that he had sometimes adopted the plan successfully. There is +a secretary with him--a dark and silent man named Murray, who appears +to have an automatic, double-action brain; anyway he can write a letter +and answer questions at the same time. And he watches your father's +lips as if he--the secretary, not Sir Stephen--were a dog waiting for a +stone to be thrown. It is interesting to watch--for a time; then it +gets on one's nerves. May I ask where you have been?" + +"Oh, just for a ride; been trying the new horse: he's a clinker! The +governor couldn't have got hold of a better if he'd searched all +Arabia, and Hungary to boot. I'll just change and get some lunch. I +hope you haven't waited?" + +"Your hope is not in vain, young man," replied Howard, suavely; "but I +will come and sit beside you while you stoke." + +With Measom's aid Stafford was soon into dry clothes and seated at +lunch, and, as he had promised, Howard drew a chair to the table, and +contemplated him with vicarious enjoyment. + +"What an appetite you have!" he drawled, admiringly. "I imagine it +would stand by you, even if you were in love. As a specimen of the +perfectly healthy animal you stand preeminent, my dear Stafford. By the +way, shall I spoil your lunch if I read you out a list of the guests +whom we are expecting this afternoon? Sir Stephen was good enough to +furnish me with it, with the amiable wish that I might find some friend +on it. What do you say to Lord and Lady Fitzharford; the Countess of +Clansford; the Baron Wirsch; the Right Honourable Henry Efford; Sir +William and Lady Plaistow--" + +Stafford looked up and smiled. + +"Any more?" + +"Oh, yes. There are the two Beltons and George Levinson, to say nothing +of Mr. Griffinberg, the railroad king." + +Stafford stared at his claret glass. + +"I wonder why the governor has asked such a crowd?" he said, musingly. + +"A perfectly arranged symphony in colours, I call it," said Howard. +"Fashion is represented by the Fitzharfords and old Lady Clansford; +politics by Efford and the Beltons, and finance by Plaistow and Wirsch. +That Griffinberg is coming is a proof that Sir Stephen has got 'a +little railway' in his mind; there are several others who seem to have +been thrown in, not to increase weight, but to lighten it. It will be +rather amusing--a kind of menagerie which, under less skilful guidance +than Sir Stephen's, might be sure to disagree and fight." + +Stafford sighed. + +"Oh, you'll be all right," he said; "but I don't quite see where I +shall come in." + +Howard laughed. + +"My dear Stafford, there are some extremely pretty girls with whom you +can flirt, and I've no doubt some of the men will join you in your +eccentric attempts to drown yourself or break your neck. _Is_ that the +sun coming out, and is it going to clear?" + +"I hope so," said Stafford, laughing. "For I prophesied a fine evening, +and a lady was weak enough to take my word for it. Let us go and rake +my father out of the library, and get him into the garden with a +cigar." + +"You may venture upon such an audacity, but not I," said Howard, with +simulated fear. "I'll wait for you on the terrace." + +Sir Stephen looked up with a frown as Stafford entered, and the +dark-faced secretary stared aghast at the intrusion; but Sir Stephen's +face cleared as he saw who it was. + +"Back, Stafford?" he said. "What? Come into the garden--cigar? +Certainly! You can finish up, can't you, Murray? Thanks!" He looked at +his watch as they went through the hall. "I suppose some of the people +will be here before long. Did Mr. Howard show you the list? Do you know +any of them. Stafford?" + +"Yes, I've met Lady Clansford and the Fitzharfords, of course; but most +of them are too great and lofty. I mean that they are celebrated +personages, out of my small track. One doesn't often meet Sir William +Plaistow and Mr. Griffinberg at at homes and afternoon teas." Sir +Stephen laughed. + +"Oh, well, you mustn't let them bore you, you know, my boy. You must +consider yourself quite free to cut off and amuse yourself some other +way whenever you get tired of them." + +"And leave it all to you, sir!" said Stafford, with a smile; but as he +spoke he drew a breath of relief; he should be free to help the +beautiful, lovely girl of Herondale. + +A few hours later the visitors arrived, and before dinner the superb +drawing-room was, if not crowded, sufficiently well filled with the +brilliant company. + +Nearly all the guests were extremely wealthy, most of them were +powerful, either in the region of politics or finance; and the +fashionable world was represented by some beautiful women with dresses +and diamonds above reproach, and some young men whose names stood high +at Hurlingham and Prinses. + +Stafford stood beside his father as Sir Stephen went from group to +group, greeting one and another in his frank and genial yet polished +manner, which grew warm and marked by scarcely repressed pride, as he +introduced Stafford. + +"My son, Lady Fitzharford. I think he has had the pleasure of meeting +you? I scarcely know who are his friends: we have been separated so +long! But we are restored to each other at last, I am happy to say! +Lady Clansford, you know my boy? Ah, he has had the advantage of me all +these years; he has not had to rush all over Europe, but has been able +to bask in the sunshine of grace and beauty. Griffinberg, I want my son +to know you. You and I are such old friends that you won't mind me +showing that I am proud of him, eh?" and he laid his hand on Stafford's +shoulder with an air of pride and affection. + +"What a lovely place Sir Stephen has made of this, Mr. Orme," said Lady +Clansford; "we were quite startled as we drove up, and simply +bewildered when we got inside. This room is really--oh well, I'm +beggared for adjectives!" + +Stafford went about, listening to the encomiums on his father or the +house, and making appropriate responses; but he was rather relieved +when the butler announced dinner. + +The dining-room received its meed of praise from the guests, and the +elaborate _menu_ caused some of the men to beam with inward +satisfaction. It was a superb dinner, served with a stateliness which +could not have been exceeded if royalty had been amongst the guests. +The plate was magnificent, the flowers arranged by an artist's hand, in +rich and yet chaste abundance. Stafford, as he looked from the bottom +of the table to Sir Stephen at the head, felt with a thrill of pride +that his father was the most distinguished-looking man of them all; and +he noticed that in the tone of both the men and the women who addressed +him there was that subtle note which indicates respect and the +consideration which men and women of the world pay to one who has +achieved greatness. + +And yet, he noticed also, that not one of them was more perfectly at +his ease than Sir Stephen, who laughed and talked as if his only aim +was that of enjoyment, and as if he had never "planned a plan or +schemed a scheme." Every now and then Stafford caught his father's eye, +and each time he did so, Sir Stephen smiled at him with that air of +pride and affection which he made no attempt to conceal or check. Once +or twice Howard, too, caught his eye and smiled significantly as if he +were saying, "How is this for a successful party?" + +The dinner went swimmingly, and when the ladies had retired Sir Stephen +begged the men to close up, and passed the wine freely. The talk was of +everything but politics or business--Stafford remarked that not a word +was said of either topic; and Sir Stephen told one or two stories +admirably and set the laughter going. + +"What sort of a night is it, Stafford?" he asked, presently. + +Stafford drew the curtain from the open French window, and the +moonlight streamed in to fight with the electric lamps. + +"Shall we go out on to the terrace?" said Sir Stephen. "Quite warm +enough, isn't it?" + +They went out; servants brought coffee and cigars, and some of the +gentlemen sauntered up and down the terrace, and others went down into +the garden. Sir Stephen linked his arm in Stafford's, and they walked a +little apart along one of the smooth paths. + +"Not bored, I hope, my boy?" he asked. + +"Good gracious, no, sir!" replied Stafford. "I don't think I remember a +more successful dinner. Why should I be bored?" + +"That's all right!" said Sir Stephen, pressing his arm. "I was afraid +you might be. They are not a bad set--the men, I mean--if you keep them +off their hobbies; and we managed to do that, I think." + +"Yes, I noticed you managed them very well, sir," said Stafford. "What +a lovely night." They had reached a gate opening on to the road, and +they stood and looked at the view in silence for a moment, listening to +a nightingale, whose clear notes joined with the voices and laughter of +the guests. + +Suddenly another sound came upon the night air; a clatter of horses' +hoofs and the rattle of wheels. + +"Someone driving down the road," said Sir Stephen. + +"And coming at a deuce of a pace!" said Stafford. He opened the gate +and looked up the road; then he uttered an ejaculation. + +"By George! they've bolted!" he said, in his quiet way. + +"What?" asked Sir Stephen, as he, too, came out. The carriage was +tearing down the hill towards them in the moonlight, and Stafford saw +that the horses were rushing along with lowered heads and that the +driver had lost all control of them. + +As they came towards the two men, Stafford set off running towards +them. Sir Stephen called him; Stafford took no heed, and as the horses +came up to him he sprang at the head of the nearer one. There was a +scramble, a scuffing of hoofs, and a loud, shrill shriek from the +interior of the carriage; then the horses were forced on to their +haunches, and Stafford scrambled to his feet from the road into which +he had been hustled. + +The driver jumped down and ran to the horses' heads, the carriage door +was flung open and the gentleman of the inn leapt out. Leapt out almost +on to Sir Stephen, who ran up breathless with apprehension on +Stafford's account. The two men stood and looked at each other in the +moonlight, at first with a confused and bewildered gaze, then Sir +Stephen started back with a cry, a strange cry, which brought Stafford +to his side. + +At the same moment, the girl he had seen in the sitting-room at the +inn, slipped out of the carriage. + +"Are we safe?" she asked faintly. "How did we stop? Who--" + +She stopped abruptly, and both she and Stafford stared at the two men +who were standing confronting each other. Sir Stephen was as white as a +ghost, and there was a look of absolute terror in his dark eyes. On the +face of the other man was an enigmatical smile, which was more bitter +than a sneer. + +"You are all right?" said Stafford; "but I am afraid you were very much +frightened!" + +The girl turned to him. "You!" she said, recognising him. "Did you stop +them?" + +"Yes; it was easy: they had had almost enough," he said. + +While they were speaking, the two elder men drew apart as if +instinctively. + +"_You_, Falconer?" murmured Sir Stephen, with ashy lips. + +"Yes," assented the other, drily; "yes, I am here right enough. Which +is it to be--friend or foe?" + +Sir Stephen stood gnawing his lip for a moment, then he turned to +Stafford. + +"Stafford, this--most extraordinary--this is an old friend of mine. +Falconer, this is my boy, my son Stafford!" + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +"A very old friend of your father!" said Mr. Falconer, and his keen +eyes looked into Stafford's as he held out his hand. Then he turned to +Sir Stephen, whose face had resumed its usual serenity, and was fixed +in the smile appropriate to the occasion. "Mr. Stafford Orme and I have +met before to-day--" + +Sir Stephen shot an enquiring glance from one to the other. + +--"At the inn at the other side of the lake. My daughter, Maude, and I +have been resting there for a few hours. Maude," he said to that young +lady, who was standing looking on at the group generally, but more +particularly, under her lids, at Stafford's tall figure; "this is a +very strange meeting between old friends. Sir Stephen Orme and I +haven't met for--how long ago is it, Orme?" + +Sir Stephen shook his head, and raised his thick, dark brows. + +"Too long for us to go back--especially in the presence of these young +people, whom we are always trying to persuade that we are not old. I am +delighted to see you, my dear young lady, and I am devoured by +curiosity to know how it is that you are here." + +"Well, we owe it to your son, Mr. Orme here, I should imagine, Sir +Stephen," she replied. She had fully recovered her self-possession, and +her manner and voice had all the tone of pride and indolence which +Stafford had noticed when he met her at the inn. "If he had not stopped +the horses, I suppose we should have either been killed or on the way +to the nearest hospital. By the way, have you thanked Mr. Orme yet, +father?" + +"Not yet; and I shall find it difficult to do so," said Mr. Falconer. +"Thanks are poor return for one's life, Mr. Orme. I hope you were not +hurt." He glanced at Stafford's usually immaculate dress-clothes, which +were covered with dust on one side, and displayed a rent in the sleeve +of the coat. + +"Oh, that's all right, sir," returned Stafford, with all an +Englishman's dread of a fuss. "They stopped short the moment I got hold +of them, and I only slipped, and got up directly. + +"You are not hurt, then, Stafford?" said Sir Stephen. "As I came up I +thought, was afraid that you were smashed up--and I daresay I showed my +fear: it's my only boy, Falconer." + +He looked at his old friend meaningly, and Falconer promptly backed him +up. + +"Well, yes, you looked fairly startled and scared," he said. "But now, +if the horses are all right, we may as well get on. We have given you +quite trouble enough." + +"The horses are all right, sir," said the driver. "I've managed to take +up the broken trace; it was that that startled them, sir, and they'll +be quiet enough now." + +"Oh, but where are you going?" said Sir Stephen, with hospitable +eagerness. "Were you not coming to us, to the Villa?" + +"No; we were going to Keswick," said Mr. Falconer. "My daughter had a +fancy for seeing the lake district, and we are making a kind of tour." + +"You have no other engagement? I am delighted to hear it," said Sir +Stephen. "Oh, I'll take no denial! What! Do you think I shall part with +an old friend so quickly--and after such a--er--sudden and unexpected +meeting! Miss Falconer, let me beg you to plead with your father for +me!" + +Mr. Falconer regarded Sir Stephen for a moment curiously, then looked +towards his daughter. Her fine eyes rested on Stafford's face, and he +could do not less than repeat his father's invitation. + +"I hope you'll consent, Miss Falconer," he said. "You have no doubt +been a little upset by the accident, and it is rather late to go on. +Pray stay with us!" + +"Thanks. I shall be delighted." she said, with her indolent, regal air. + +By this time, as they went towards the gate, some of the men who had +been walking in the garden came up, and Howard's voice called out: + +"Hallo, Stafford! Anything the matter?" "No; nothing whatever," said +Stafford, promptly; and Sir Stephen seized the opportunity to steer the +Falconers through the group. "Some old friends of mine, Mr. Howard; +their carriage broke down--fortunately at our very door--this way, +Falconer. Stafford, will you give Miss Maude your arm?" + +"Strange, our meeting again so soon, and under such circumstances," she +said. "You must have stopped those horses very pluckily. I thought that +kind of thing was out of date now, and that gentlemen only called the +police on such occasions. You are sure you are not hurt? I thought from +your father's face you must be. He must be very fond of you to look so +scared. He was as white as a ghost." + +"He is fond of me, I hope and think," said Stafford. "Candidly, I did +not think he would be so alarmed--but I don't know him very well +yet--we have been living apart until just recently." + +"Why, that is my case," she said. "My father and I were strangers until +the other day, when he came from abroad--What a beautiful house! It is +like a miniature palace." + +She looked at the Villa and then at Stafford with renewed interest. + +"I suppose your father is _the_ Sir Stephen Orme of whom one has heard +so much? I did not think of it until this moment." + +Stafford was giving instructions that the Falconers' carriage should be +seen to, and so was spared a reply. She stood in the hall looking round +with a kind of indolent admiration and surprise, and perfectly +self-possessed, though the hall was rapidly filling with the men from +the garden. + +"You would like to go to your rooms at once," said Sir Stephen, in his +serene and courtly voice. "If you should be too tired to come down +again to-night I will have some dinner sent up to you--but I hope you +won't be. It would be a great disappointment." + +"Oh, I am not at all tired," said Miss Falconer, as she followed the +housekeeper and the two demure maids up the exquisite staircase. + +Sir Stephen looked after them with a bland smile, then he turned to +Stafford and caught his arm. + +"Not hurt, my boy?" he said, in a tone of strained anxiety. + +Stafford was beginning to get tired of the question, and answered +rather impatiently: "Not in the least sir--why should I be! I'll change +my things and be down in five minutes!" + +"Yes, yes!" Sir Stephen still eyed him with barely concealed anxiety. +"Strange coincidence, Stafford! I--I haven't seen Ralph Falconer +for--for--ever so many years! And he is thrown at my very gate! And +they say there is no such thing as Fate--" + +"Hadn't you better go into the drawing-room, sir," Stafford reminded +him. "They'll think something has happened." + +"Eh? Yes, yes, of course!" said Sir Stephen, with a little start as if +he had been lost in thought; but he waited until he saw Stafford walk +up the stairs, without any sign of a limp, before he followed his son's +advice. + +The butler, who was too sharp to need any instructions, quickly served +a choice little dinner for the unexpected guests, and Stafford, who had +waited in the hall, accompanied them into the dining-room. Miss +Falconer had changed her travelling-dress for a rich evening-frock, and +the jewels Stafford had noticed were supplemented by some remarkably +fine diamonds. + +"I wish you had come in time for dinner!" he said, as he conducted her +to her seat. + +"So do I!" she returned, serenely. "We are giving a great deal of +trouble; and we are keeping you from your guests. The maid who waited +on me told me that you had a large house party." + +"Yes," said Stafford. "It is a kind of house-warming. My father intends +settling in England for some time, I think," he added. "And he has +built this place." + +Mr. Falconer looked up from his plate in his alert, watchful way. + +"Sir Stephen's plans rather uncertain?" he said. "I remember he always +used to be rather erratic. Well, if he means settling, he's made +himself a very cosy nest." He looked round the magnificent room with a +curious smile. "A wonderful man, your father, Mr. Orme!" + +"Yes?" said Stafford, with a non-committal smile. + +"Yes; of course, I've heard of his great doings--who hasn't! Did you +ever hear him speak of me--we were great friends one time?" + +"No, I don't think I have," replied Stafford. "But as I was telling +Miss Falconer, I have not seen very much of him." "Ah, yes, just so," +assented Mr. Falconer, and he went on with his dinner. + +Stafford had taken a seat at the table and poured out a glass of wine +so that they might not hurry; but he felt that he need not have been +anxious on that account, for the girl ate her dinner in a most +leisurely manner, talking to him in her soft, slow voice and looking at +him from under her half-closed lids. She talked of the scenery, of the +quaint inns and hotels they had put up at, of the various +inconveniences which she had suffered on the way; then suddenly she +raised her lids and looked at him fully and steadily. + +"I suppose the young lady we saw with you this morning is your sister?" + +With all his natural simplicity, Stafford was a man of the world, and +he did not redden or look embarrassed by the suddenness of the question +and the direct gaze of the luminous eyes. + +"No," he said. "I have neither sister nor brother--only my father. She +was a friend." + +"Oh," she said; then after a pause: "She was very pretty." + +Stafford nodded. Like a flash floated before him the exquisite +loveliness of Ida Heron. + +"Do you think so?" he said, with affected indifference. + +"Why, yes; don't you?" she retorted. + +"Oh, yes," he assented; "but I didn't know whether you would; men and +women so very seldom agree upon the question of looks. I find that most +of the women I think pretty are considered next door to plain by my +lady-friends." + +"Well, there can't be any doubt as to your friend's good looks," she +said. "She made rather a striking, not to say startling figure perched +sideways on that horse, in the pelting rain. I suppose she is one of +your neighbours?" + +"Yes," replied Stafford, as easily and casually as he could, for the +face still floated before him--"yes; but not a very near one. Let me +give you some more wine." + +"No, thanks. Father, haven't you nearly finished? Mr. Orme has kept us +company so nicely that we've been tempted to forget that we are keeping +him from his guests." + +She rose, and with a peculiarly sinuous movement threw out the train of +her dress, and swept languidly to the door Stafford offered her his arm +and they entered the drawing-room. + +Her appearance naturally caused a little sensation, for some of the men +had learnt and told of the story of Stafford's plucky arrest of the +bolting horses, and the people were curious to see the father and +daughter who had been rescued, and who had proved to be friends of Sir +Stephen. + +By a sort of tacit understanding, Lady Clausford, who was a +good-natured individual, was playing the part of hostess and general +chaperon, and Stafford led Miss Falconer up to her. + +Before a quarter of an hour had passed Miss Falconer seemed to be quite +at home in her novel surroundings; and leaning back in her chair, and +slowly fanning herself, received with perfect self-possession the +attentions which her beauty, her costly dress, and her still more +costly jewels merited. Presently Stafford heard Lady Clansford ask her +to sing; and he went to conduct her to the piano. + +"My music is upstairs in my box--but it does not matter: I will try and +remember something," she said. "I wonder what you like?" She raised her +eyes to his, as her fingers touched the keys. "The simple ballad would +be rather out of place, wouldn't it? Do you know this thing of +Wagner's?" + +As she began to sing the talking died down and gradually ceased; and +every eye was fixed upon her; for it was evident that she not only had +an exquisite voice, but knew how to use it. She sang like an artist, +and apparently without the least effort, the liquid notes flowing from +her red lips like the water of a mountain rill. + +Stafford was surprised, almost startled, but as he stood beside her, he +was thinking, strangely enough, not so much of the singer as of the +girl he was going to meet on the morrow. When she had finished, there +was a general murmur of applause, and Lady Clansford glided to the +piano and asked her to sing again. + +"You have a really wonderful voice, Miss Falconer. I don't think Melba +ever sang that better." + +"Melba's register is ever so much greater than mine," remarked Miss +Falconer, calmly. "No, thanks; I won't sing again. I think I am a +little tired." + +She went back to her seat slowly, her fan moving languidly, as if she +were too conscious of the worth of her voice to be affected by the +murmurs of applause and admiration; and Stafford, as his eyes followed +her, thought she resembled a superb tropical flower of rich and subtle +colouring and soft and languorous grace. + +None of the women would venture to sing after this exhibition, and one +of the young men went to the piano and dashed off a semi-comic song +which relieved the tension produced by Miss Falconer's magnificent +voice and style. Then the woman began to glance at the clock and rise +and stand about preparatory to going to bed, and presently they went +off, lingering, talking, and laughing, in the hall and in the +corridors. + +The men drifted into the billiard and smoking-room, and Sir Stephen +started a pool. He had been at his very best in the drawing-room, +moving about amongst the brilliant crowd, with a word for each and all, +and pleased smile on his handsome face, and a happy, genial brightness +in his voice. Once or twice Sir Stephen approached Mr. Falconer, who +leant against the wall looking on with the alert, watchful eyes half +screened behind his lids, which, like his daughter's had a trick of +drooping, though with a very different expression. + +"Your daughter has a magnificent voice, Falconer," Sir Stephen had said +in a congratulatory voice; and Falconer had nodded. + +"Yes. She's been well taught, I believe," he had responded, +laconically; and Sir Stephen had nodded emphatically, and moved away. + +"Will you play, Falconer?" he asked, as Stafford gave out the balls. +"You used to play a good game." + +Falconer shrugged his shoulders. + +"Haven't played for years: rather look on," he said. + +"Let me give you a cigar. Try these; they are all right, Stafford +says." + +Falconer seated himself in one of the lounges and looked at the players +and round the handsome room in contemplative silence. Sir Stephen's eye +wandered covertly towards him now and again, and once he said to +Stafford: + +"See if Mr. Falconer has some whiskey, my boy?" + +As Stafford went up to Mr. Falconer's corner he saw that Mr. +Griffinberg and Baron Wirsch had joined him. The three men were talking +in the low confidential tone characteristic of city men when they are +discussing the sacred subject of money, and Stafford caught the +words--"Sir Stephen"--"South African Railway." + +Mr. Falconer looked round sharply as Stafford stood at his elbow. + +"Eh? Whiskey? Oh, yes, thanks, I have some," he said. + +As Stafford returned to the billiard-room, Falconer nodded after him. + +"Is the son in this?" he asked, sharply. + +"Oh, no," replied the baron, with a smile. "He knows nothing; he ees +too young, too--vat do you say?--too vashionable, frivolous. No, Sir +Stephen doesn't bring him in at all. You understand? He is ze +ornamental, shleeping' pardner, eh?" And he chuckled. + +Falconer nodded, and leaning forward, continued the conversation in a +low voice. The men went off to bed one by one, and presently only Sir +Stephen, Stafford and Falconer remained; and as the latter rose as if +to retire, Sir Stephen laid a hand on his shoulder. + +"Don't go yet! I should like to have a little chat with you--about old +times." + +Falconer sank into his seat again and took a fresh cigar, and Stafford +left them. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +Sir Stephen closed the door after him, then went back to the +smoking-room and stood looking down at Falconer, who leant back in his +chair with his cigar in his mouth and eyed Sir Stephen under +half-closed lids with an expression which had something of mastery and +power in it. + +Sir Stephen bit at the end of his moustache, his thick black brows +lowered, as if he scarcely knew how to begin the "chat," and Falconer +waited without any offer of assistance. At last Sir Stephen said: + +"You asked me outside just now, Falconer, if it was to be 'friend or +foe?' I'm thinking the question ought to have come from me." + +"Yes," assented Falconer, his eyes growing still narrower. "Yes, I +suppose it ought." + +"Would your answer have been the same as mine--'friends'?" asked Sir +Stephen in a low voice. + +Falconer was silent for a moment, then he said: + +"It oughtn't to have been. If ever a man had cause to regard another as +an enemy, I've had cause to regard you as one, Orme!" + +Sir Stephen flushed, then went pale again. + +"There is no use in raking up the past," he muttered. + +"Oh, I've no need to rake it up; it's here right enough, without +raking," retorted Falconer, and he touched his breast with his thick +forefinger. "I'm not likely to forget the trick you played me; not +likely to forget the man who turned on me and robbed me--" + +"Robbed!" echoed Sir Stephen, with a dark frown. + +Falconer turned his cigar in his mouth and bit at it. + +"Yes, robbed. You seem to have forgotten: my memory is a better one +than yours, and I'm not likely to forget the day I tramped back to the +claim in that God-forsaken Australian hole to find that you'd +discovered the gold while I'd been on the trail to raise food and +money--discovered it and sold out--and cleared out!" + +His eyes flashed redly and his mouth twitched as his teeth almost met +in the choice Havana. + +Sir Stephen threw out his hand. + +"I heard you were dead," he said, hoarsely. "I heard that you had died +in a street row--in Melbourne." + +Falconer's heavy face was distorted by a sneer. + +"Yes? Of course, I don't believe you: who would?" + +"As Heaven is my witness--!" exclaimed Sir Stephen; but Falconer went +on: + +"You didn't wait to see if it were true or not; you cleared out before +I'd time to get back, and you took precious good care not to make +enquiries. No; directly your partner's back was turned you--sold him; +got the price and levanted." + +Sir Stephen paced up and done, his hands clenched behind him; his fine +leonine head bent; then he stopped in front of the chair, and frowned +down into the scowling face. + +"Falconer, you wrong me--it was not so bad, so black as it looked. It's +true I sold the claim; but I swear that I intended saving half for you. +But news was brought in that you were dead--a man said that he had seen +you fall, that you were dead and buried. I had to leave the camp the +night the money was paid: it would not have been safe to remain: you +know what the place was, and that the man who was known to have money +carried his life in his hand. I left the camp and tramped south. Before +a month had passed, the money had gone; if I had had any doubts of your +death, it was too late to enquire; it would have been useless; as I +tell you, the money was gone. But I hadn't any doubts; in simple truth, +I thought you were dead." + +Falconer looked round the luxurious room. + +"You lost the money? But you appear to have picked it up again; you +seem to be pretty flourishing, my friend; when you got on your feet +again and made your pile, why didn't you find out whether your old pal +was alive or dead?" + +Sir Stephen was silent for a space, then he raised his head and met the +other's accusing gaze unflinchingly. + +"I'll tell you--I'll tell you the whole truth, Falconer; and if you can +make excuse for me, if you can put yourself in my place--" + +He drew his hand across his brow as if the sweat had broken out upon +it. "The luck was dead against me for a time, the old luck that had +haunted you and me; then it swung round completely--as it generally +does when it changes at all. I was out in Africa, on the tramp, picking +up a day's work now and again at the farms--you know the life! One day +I saw a Kaffir boy playing with some rough stones--" + +Falconer nodded. + +"Diamonds. I fancy I've read an account of the great Sir Stephen Orme's +first beginnings," he put in with a touch of sarcasm. + +Sir Stephen reddened. + +"I daresay. It was the start, the commencement of the luck. From the +evening I took those stones in my hands--great Heaven! I can see the +place now, the sunset on the hill; the dirty brat playing in the +dust!--the luck has stood by me. Everything I touched turned out right. +I left the diamond business and went in for land: wherever I bought +land towns sprang up and the land increased in value a thousandfold. +Then I stood in with the natives: you've heard of the treaty--" + +Falconer nodded. + +"The treaty that enabled you to hand over so many thousand square miles +to the government in exchange for a knighthood." + +"No," said Sir Stephen, simply. "I got that for another business; but I +daresay the other thing helped. It doesn't matter. Then I--I married. I +married the daughter of a man of position, a girl who--who loved and +trusted me; who knew nothing of the past you and I know; and as I would +rather have died than that she should have known anything of it, I--" + +"Conveniently and decently buried it," put in Falconer. "Oh, yes, I can +see the whole thing! You had blossomed out from Black Steve--" + +Sir Stephen rose and took a step towards the door, then remembered that +he had shut it and sank down again, his face white as ashes, his lips +quivering. + +--"To Sir Stephen Orme, the African millionaire, the high and lofty +English gentleman with his head full of state secrets, and his safe +full of foreign loans; Sir Stephen Orme, the pioneer, the empire +maker--Oh, yes, I can understand how naturally you would bury the +past--as you had buried your old pal and partner. The dainty and +delicate Lady Orme was to hear nothing--" Sir Stephen rose and +stretched out his hand half warningly half imploringly. + +"She's dead, Falconer!" he said, hoarsely. "Don't--don't speak of her! +Leave her out, for God's sake!" + +Falconer shrugged his shoulders. + +"And this boy of yours--he's as ignorant as her ladyship was, of +course?" + +Sir Stephen inclined his head. + +"Yes," he said, huskily. "He--he knows nothing. He thinks me--what the +world sees me, what all the world, saving you, Falconer, thinks me: one +who has risen from humble but honest poverty to--what I am. You have +seen him, you can understand what I feel; that I'd rather die than that +he should know--that he should think badly of me. Falconer, I have made +a clean breast of it--I'm in your hands. I'm--I'm at your mercy. I +appeal to you"--he stretched out his white, shapely hands--"you have a +child of your own: she's as dear to you as mine is to me--I've watched +you to-night, and I've seen you look at her as she moved about and +talked and sang, with the look that my eyes wear when they rest on my +boy. I am at your mercy--not only mine, but my son's future--" + +He wiped the sweat from his forehead and drew a long breath. + +Falconer leant back and smoked contemplatively, with a coolness, an +indifference to the other's emotion which Sir Stephen found well-nigh +maddening. + +"Yes," said Falconer, after a pause, "I suppose your house of cards +would come down with a crash if I opened my mouth say, at breakfast +to-morrow morning, and told--well, all I know of the great Sir Stephen +Orme when he bore the name of Black Steve. Even you, with all you +colossal assurance, could not face it or outlive it. And as for the +boy--it would settle his hash now and forever. A word from me would do +it, eh, Orme? And upon my soul I don't know why I shouldn't say it! +I've had it in my mind, I've kept it as a sweet morsel for a good many +years. Yes, I've been looking forward to it. I've been waiting for the +'physiological moment,' as I think they call it; and it strikes me that +it has arrived." + +Sir Stephen's face grew strained, and a curious expression crept into +it. + +"If you ask me why you should not, I can give you no reason," he said. +"If you were poor I should offer you money--more, a great deal more +than I received for the old claim; but I can see that that would not +tempt you to forego your revenge. Falconer, you are not poor; your +daughter wears diamonds--" + +Falconer shrugged his shoulders. + +"No, I'm not in want of money. You're not the only man who has had a +change of luck. No, you can't bribe me; even if I were hard up instead +of rather flush, as I am, I wouldn't take a hundred thousand pounds for +my revenge." + +Sir Stephen rose. There was an ominous change in his manner. His +nervousness and apprehension seemed to have suddenly left him, and in +its place was a terrible, stony calmness, an air of inflexible +determination. + +"Good!" he said; and his voice had changed also, changed from its +faltering tone of appeal to one of steadfast resolution, the steadiness +of desperation. "I have made my appeal to you, Falconer, and I gather +that I have failed to move you; that you intend to exact your revenge +by--denouncing me!" + +Falconer nodded coolly. + +"And you think that I could endure to live under such a threat, to walk +about with the sword of Damocles over my head? You ought to know me +better, Falconer. I will not live to endure the shame you can inflict +on me, I will not live to tempt you by the sight of me to take your +revenge. I shall die to-night." + +Falconer eyed him intently, and carefully selected a fresh cigar. When +he had as carefully lit it, he said callously: + +"That's your business, of course. I shouldn't venture to interfere with +any plan of that kind. So you'd sneak out of it, eh, Orme? Sneak out of +it, and leave that young fellow to bear the brunt? Well, I'm sorry for +him! He seems the right sort--deuced good-looking and high-class--yes, +I'm d----d sorry for him!" + +Once again Sir Stephen's lips twitched and the big drops of sweat stood +on his brow. He stood for a minute looking from right to left like a +hunted animal at bay--then with something between a groan and a cry of +savagery, he spring towards Falconer with his hands outstretched and +making for his tormentor's throat. + +Before he could sweep the table aside and get at him, Falconer whipped +a revolver from his pocket and aimed it at Sir Stephen. + +"You fool!" he said in his harsh, grating voice, "did you think I was +such an idiot as to trust myself alone with you unarmed? Did you think +I'd forgotten what sort of man you were, or imagined that you'd so +changed that I could trust you? Bah! Sit down! Stand back, or, by +Heaven, I'll shoot you as I would a dog!" + +Sir Stephen shrank back, his hand to his heart, his eyes distended, his +face livid as if he were choking and sank into a chair. Falconer +returned the revolver into his pocket, and with his foot pushed the +inlaid Oriental table towards his host and victim. + +"There! Take some brandy! You're too old to play these tricks! That +heart of yours was never worth much in the old days, and I daresay it's +still more groggy. Besides, we're not in a mining camp or the backwoods +now." He sneered. "We're in Sir Stephen Orme's palatial villa on Lake +Bryndermere." + +Sir Stephen stretched out his hand and felt for the decanter, as if he +were suddenly blind and could not see it, and poured himself out some +brandy. Falconer watched him narrowly, critically. + +"Better? Look here, Orme, take my advice and keep a guard on your +emotions: you can't afford to have any with a heart like that." + +He paused and waited until Sir Stephen's ashy face had resumed a less +deathly pallor. + +"And now I'll answer your appeal--I don't intend to denounce you!" + +Sir Stephen turned to him with a gesture of incredulity. + +"Sounds strange, doesn't it? Humph! Doesn't it strike you that I've had +my revenge already? If there is a sweeter one than to see the man who +has sold you grovelling at your feet, and praying for mercy, than I +don't know it! The great Sir Stephen Orme, too!" He laughed sneeringly. +"No, if I'd meant to give you away, Orme, I should have done it +to-night in your swell drawing-room, with all your swell guests round +you, with your son--ay, and my daughter--to hear the story--the story +of Black Steve! But I didn't mean it, and I don't--" + +Sir Stephen drew a long breath of relief, and drank some more brandy. + +"Thank God!" he murmured. "What can I say--what can I do to--to express +my gratitude--my sense of your forbearance, Falconer?" + +Falconer, with his eyes narrowed to slits, looked at him keenly. + +"Oh, I'll dispense with your gratitude, Orme. We'll agree to forgive +and--forget. This is the last word we'll say about it." + +Sir Stephen, as if he could scarcely believe his ears, gazed at his +magnanimous foe in silence. + +"No half measures with me--you remember me of old," said Falconer. "The +subject's done with," he moved his thick hand as he were sweeping it +away. "Pass the whiskey. Thanks. Now, let's have the chat you kept me +up for." + +Sir Stephen wiped his lips and forced a smile. + +"Tell me about yourself; what you have been doing since we--er--all +this long time." + +Falconer shrugged his shoulders. "Oh, it isn't as interesting a story +as yours," he said. "I've just rubbed along with bad and good luck in +streaks; fortunately for me, the good ones were thicker and more +frequent than the bad ones. Lake yourself I married; like yourself, I'm +a widower. I've one child--Maude. She's been at school and under the +care of some people on the Continent, while I've been at work; and I've +come to England now to settle down. That tells enough of my story. I +know yours, as the rest of the world does. You're famous, you see." + +There was a pause; then he looked over his glass, and said: + +"What's you little game at the present moment, Orme?" + +Sir Stephen looked at him interrogatively, as if he were still rather +confused by the terrible scene which they had gone through. + +"Why have you built this place and got all these people here?" said +Falconer. "I know enough of Wirsch and Griffinberg and the Beltons to +be aware that they wouldn't come down to the lakes at this time of the +year unless there was something worth coming for, something--and a +pretty good sum--to be made." + +Sir Stephen looked down at the floor for a moment, as if he were +considering; then he leant forward. + +"I'll tell you," he said, with an air of decision, and with a return of +his usual coolness and aplomb. A dash of colour rose to his face, his +fine eyes grew bright; he was the "man of affairs," the great financier +again. "It's Africa this time," he said, in a low voice, and with a +glance at the door. "I've another treaty--" + +Falconer nodded. + +"I am making for a concession--a charter from the government." +Falconer nodded again. + +"And I want a railway from Danville to Bualbec." His voice almost sank +to a whisper. "Griffinberg, Wirsch, and the rest are with me--or nearly +so--I have got them down to clench the matter. There are millions in +it--if I can bring it off; there is what is worth more than millions to +me--" + +Falconer nodded. + +--"A peerage for Sir Stephen Orme," said Falconer, with a grim smile. + +"For Sir Stephen Orme's boy!" said Sir Stephen, with a flush, and a +flash of the dark eyes. "It is for his sake that I am making this last +throw; for my boy's, Falconer. For myself I am content--why shouldn't I +be? But for him--ah, well, you've seen him! You'll understand!" + +Falconer leant back and smoked in silence. + +"Plaistow is working the Colonial Office, the Beltons are feeling their +way in the city; Wirsch--but you know how the thing is done! I've got +them down here that they may work it quietly, that I may have them +under my eye--" + +"And the lords and ladies--they're to have a finger in the pie because, +though they can't help you in the African business, they can in the +matter of the peerage?" + +Sir Stephen smiled. "You'll stand in with us, Falconer? Don't refuse +me! Let me make some reparation--some atonement for the past!" He rose +and stood smiling, an imposing figure with his white hair and brilliant +eyes. Falconer got up slowly and stiffly. + +"Thanks. I'll think it over. It's a big thing, as you say, and it will +either make you--" + +--"Or break me!" said Sir Stephen, but he laughed confidently. + +Falconer nodded. + +"I'll go up now," he said. + +Sir Stephen went to the door with him, and held out his hand. + +"Good-night, Falconer!" he said. "Thank you--for my boy's sake!" + +Falconer took the warm hand in his cold one and held it for a moment, +then dropped it. + +"Good-night!" he said, with a nod and a sidelong glance. + +Sir Stephen went back and poured himself out another _liqueur_ glass of +brandy and heaved a sigh of relief. But it would have been one of +apprehension if he could have seen the cruel smile which distorted +Falconer's face as he went through the exquisitely beautiful hall and +corridors to the luxurious room which had been allotted to him. + +There was in the smile and the cold glitter of the eyes the kind of +look which the cat wears when it plays with a mouse. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +Ida walked home through the rain very thoughtfully: but not sadly; for +though it was still pelting in the uncompromising lake fashion, she was +half conscious of a strange lightness of the heart, a strange +brightness in herself, and even in the rain-swept view, which vaguely +surprised and puzzled her. The feeling was not vivid enough to be +happiness, but it was the nearest thing to it. + +And without realising it, she thought, all the way home, of Stafford +Orme. Her life had been so secluded, so solitary and friendless, that +he had come into it as a sudden and unexpected flash of sunlight in a +drear November day. It seemed to her extraordinary that she should have +met him so often, still more extraordinary the offer he had made that +morning. She asked herself, as she went with quick, light step along +the hills, why he had done it; why he, who was rich and had so many +friends--no doubt the Villa would be full of them--should find any +pleasure in learning to herd cattle and count sheep, to ride about the +dale with only a young girl for company. + +If anyone had whispered, "It is because he prefers that young girl's +society to any other's; it is because he wants to be with you, not from +any desire to learn farming," she would have been more than surprised, +would have received this offer of a solution of the mystery with a +smile of incredulity; for there had been no candid friend to tell her +that she possessed the fatal gift of beauty; that she was one of those +upon whom the eyes of man cannot look without a stirring of the heart, +and a quickening of the pulse. Vanity is a strong plant, and it +flourishes in every soil; but it had found no root in Ida's nature. She +was too absorbed in the round of her daily tasks, in the care of her +father and her efforts to keep the great place from going to rack and +ruin, to think of herself; and if her glass had ever whispered that she +was one of the loveliest of the daughters of Eve, she had turned a deaf +ear to it. + +No; she assured herself that it was just a whim of Mr. Orme's, a +passing fancy and caprice which would soon be satisfied, and that he +would tire of it after a few days, perhaps hours. Of course, she was +wrong to humour the whim; but it had been hard to refuse him, hard to +seem churlish and obstinate after he had been so kind on the night her +father had frightened her by his sleep-walking; and it had been still +harder because she had been conscious of a certain pleasure in the +thought that she should see him again. + +For the first time, as she went into the great silent house, she +realised how lonely her life was, how drear and uneventful. Now and +again, while cantering along the roads on the big chestnut, she had met +other girls riding and driving: the Vaynes, the Avorys, and the +Bannerdales; had heard them talking and laughing merrily and happily, +but it had never occurred to her to envy them, to reflect that she was +different to other girls who had friends and companions and girlish +amusements. She had been quite content--until now. And even now she was +not discontented; but this acquaintanceship which had sprung up so +strangely between her and Mr. Orme was like the touch of a warm hand +stretched out from the great world, and its sudden warmth awoke her to +the coldness, the dreariness of her life. + +As she entered the hall, Jessie came in by the back door with her apron +full of eggs. + +"I saw you come in, Miss Ida, so I thought I'd just bring you these to +show you; they're laying finely now, ain't they?" + +Ida looked round, from where she stood going through the form of drying +her thick but small boots against the huge log that glowed on the wide +dog-iron. + +"Yes: that is a splendid lot, Jessie!" she said, with a smile. "You +will have some to send to market for the first time this season." + +"Yes, miss," said Jessie, deftly rolling the eggs into a basket. "But +I'm thinking there won't be any need to send them to Bryndermere +market. Jason's just been telling me that the new folks up at Brae Wood +have been sending all round the place for eggs and butter and cream and +fowls, and Jason says that he can get so much better prices from them +than from Bryndermere. He was thinking that he'd put aside all the +cream he could spare and kill half a dozen of the pullets--if you don't +object, Miss Ida?" + +Ida's face flushed, and she looked fixedly at the fire. Something +within her protested against the idea of selling the dairy produce to +the new people at Brae Wood; but she struggled against the feeling. + +"Oh yes; why not, Jessie?" she said; though she knew well enough. + +"Well, miss," replied Jessie, hesitatingly, and with a questioning +glance at her young mistress's averted face, "Jason didn't know at +first; he said that selling the things at the new house was different +to sending 'em to market, and that you mightn't like it; that you might +think it was not becoming." + +Ida laughed. + +"That's pride on Jason's part; wicked pride, Jessie," she said. "If you +sell your butter and eggs, it can't very much matter whether you sell +them at the market or direct. Oh, yes: tell Jason he can let them have +anything we can spare." + +Jessie's face cleared and broke into a smile: she came of a race that +looks after the pennies and loves a good "deal." + +"Thank you, miss!" she said, as if Ida had conferred a personal favour. +"And they'll take all we can let 'em have, for they've a mortal sight +of folk up there at Brae Wood. William says that there's nigh upon +fifty bedrooms, and that they'll all be full. His sister is one of the +kitchen-maids--there's a cook from London, quite the gentleman, miss, +with, rings on his fingers and a piano in his own room--and Susie says +that the place is all one mass of ivory and gold, and that some of the +rooms is like heaven--or the queen's own rooms in Windsor Castle." + +Ida laughed. + +"Susie appears to have an enviable acquaintance with the celestial +regions and the abode of royalty, Jessie." + +"Yes, miss; of course, it's only what she've read about 'em. And she +says that Sir Stephen--that's the gentleman as owns it all--is a kind +of king, with his own body servant and a--a--I forget what they call +him; it's a word like a book-case." + +"A secretary," suggested Ida. + +"Yes, that's it, miss! But that he's quite simple and pleasant-like, +and that he's as easily pleased as if he were a mere nobody. And Susie +says that she runs out after dinner and peeps into the stables, and +that it's full of horses and that there's a dozen carriages, some of +'em grand enough for the Lord Mayor of London; and that there's a head +coachman and eight or nine men and boys under him. I'm thinking, Miss +Ida, that the Court"--the Court was the Vaynes' place--"or Bannerdale +Grange ain't half so grand." + +"I daresay," said Ida. "Is the lunch nearly ready, Jessie?" + +"Yes, miss; I was only waiting for you to come in. And Suzie's seen the +young Mr. Orme, Sir Stephen's son, and she says that he's the +handsomest gentleman she ever saw; and she heard Mr. Davis tell one of +the new hands that Mr. Stafford was a very great gentleman amongst the +fashionable people in London; and that very likely he'd marry one of +the great ladies that is coming down. Mr. Davis says that a duchess +wouldn't be too fine for him, he stands so high; and yet, Susie says, +he's just as pleasant and easy as Sir Stephen, and that he says 'thank +you' quite like a common person. But there, how foolish of me! I'm +standing here chattering while you're wet through. Do ye run up and +change while I put the lunch on, Miss Ida, dear!" + +When Ida came down her father was already at the table with his book +open at his elbow, and he scarcely looked up as she went to her place. + +Now, as a rule, she gave him an account of her rides and walks, and +told him about the cattle and the progress of the farm generally, of +how she had seen a kingfisher or noticed that the trout were rising, or +that she had startled a covey of partridges in the young wheat; to all +of which he seemed scarcely ever to listen, nodding his head now and +again and returning often to his book before she had finished speaking; +but to-day she could not tell him of her morning walk and her meeting +with Stafford Orme. + +She would have liked to have assured him that he had done Sir Stephen +an injustice in thinking him guilty of buying the Brae Wood land in an +underhand way, but she knew it would be of no use to do so; for once an +idea had got into Mr. Heron's head it was difficult to destroy it. For +the first time in her life, too, she was concealing something from him. +Once or twice she tried to say: + +"Father, the gentleman who was fishing on the river was Sir Stephen +Orme's son; I have met him two or three times since, and he has asked +me to meet him to-morrow;" but she could not. + +She knew he would fly into one of the half-childish passions in which +he could not be persuaded to listen to reason, and that he would insist +upon the breaking off of her acquaintance with Mr. Orme; and there was +so much pain in the mere thought of it that her courage failed her. If +she were not to meet him, or if she met him, and told him that she +could not remain with him, must not speak to him again, it would be +tantamount to telling him that she did not believe his father was +innocent; and she did believe it. Though she knew so little of Mr. +Orme, she felt that she could trust him. + +So she sat almost silent, thinking of what Jessie had told her, and +wondering why Stafford Orme should leave the gay party at the Villa to +ride with her. Once only in the course of the meal did her father +speak. He looked up suddenly, with a quick, almost cunning, glance, and +said: + +"Can you let me have some money, Ida? I want to order some books. +There's a copy of the Percy 'Reliques' in the catalogue I should like +to buy." + +"How much is it, father?" she asked. + +"Oh, five pounds will do," he said, vaguely. "There are one or two +other books." + +She made a hasty calculation: five pounds was a large sum to her; but +she smiled as she said: + +"You are very extravagant, dear. There is already a copy of the +'Reliques' in the library." + +He looked confused for a moment, then he said: + +"But not with these notes--not with these notes! They're valuable, and +the book is cheap." + +"Very well, dear," she responded; and she went to the antique bureau +and, unlocking it, took a five-pound note from a cedar box. + +He watched her covertly, with a painful eagerness. + +"I suppose you have a large nest egg there, eh, Ida?" he remarked, with +a quavering laugh. + +"No: a very little one," she responded. "'Not nearly enough to pay the +quarterly bills. But never mind, dear; there it is. You must show me +the books when they come; I never saw the last you ordered, you know!" + +He took the note with an assumption of indifference but with a gleam of +satisfaction in his sunken eyes. + +"Didn't you?" he said. "I must have forgotten. You're always so busy; +but I'll show you these, if you'll remind me. You must be careful of +the money, Ida; you must keep down the expenses. We're poor, very poor, +you know; and the cost of living and servants is very great--very +great." + +He wandered off to the library, muttering to himself, with his book +under his arm, and the five-pound note gripped tightly in the hand +which he had thrust into the pocket of his dressing-gown; and Ida, as +she put on her habit and went into the stable-yard to have the colt +saddled, sighed as she thought that it would be nice to have just, for +once, enough money to meet all the bills and buy all the books her +father coveted. + +But her melancholy was not of long duration. The colt was in high +spirits, and the task of impressing him with the fact that he had now +reached a responsible age and must behave like a horse, with something +else before him in life than kicking up his heels in the paddock, soon +drove the thought of their poverty from her mind and sent the blood +leaping warmly and wildly in her veins. + +She spent the afternoon in breaking in the colt, and succeeded in +keeping Stafford Orme out of her thoughts; but he slid into them again +as she sat by the drawing-room fire after dinner--the nights are often +cool in the dales all through early summer--and recalled the +earnestness in his handsome face when he pleaded to be allowed to "help +her." + +She sat up for some little time after her father had gone to bed, and +as usual, she paused outside his door and listened. All was quiet then; +but as she was brushing her hair she thought she heard his door open. + +She laid down the brush and stood battling with the sudden fear which +possessed her; then she stole out on to the corridor. The old man was +standing at the head of the stairs as if about to descend; and though +she could not see his face she knew that he was asleep. + +She glided to him noiselessly and put her hand upon his arm softly. He +turned his sightless eyes upon her, evidently without seeing her, and, +fighting against the desire to cry out, she led him gently back to his +room. + +He woke as they crossed the threshold, woke and looked at her in a +stupefied fashion. + +"Are you ill, father? Is there anything you want?" she asked, as calmly +as she could. + +"No," he replied. "I am quite well; I do not want anything. I was going +to bed--why have you called me?" + +She remained with him for a few minutes, then left the room, turning +the key in the door. When she had gone he stood listening with his head +on one side; then he opened his hand and looked with a cunning smile at +the five-pound note which had been tightly grasped in it. + +"She didn't see it; no, she didn't see it!" he muttered; and he went +stealthily to the bed and thrust it under the pillow. + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +The morning broke with that exquisite clearness which distinguishes the +lakes when a fine day follows a wet one; and, despite her anxiety on +her father's account, Ida, as she went down-stairs, was conscious of +that sense of happiness which comes from anticipation. She made her +morning tour of inspection of the stables and the dairy, and ordered +the big chestnut to be saddled directly after breakfast. + +When her father came down she was relieved to find that he seemed to be +in his usual health; and in answer to her question whether he had slept +well, he replied in the affirmative, and was mildly surprised that she +should enquire. Directly he had gone off to the library she ran +upstairs to put on her habit. + +For the first time she was struck by its shabbiness; she had never +given a thought to it before. Her evening-dresses, though plain and +inexpensive, were always dainty and fresh, but she wore her habit as +long as it would hold together, and cared nothing for the fact that her +hat was stained by the rain: they were her "working clothes," and +strictly considered as such. But this morning she surveyed the skirt +ruefully, and thought of the trim and apparently always new habits +which the Bannerdale girls wore; and she brushed it with a care which +it had never yet received. As a rule she wore a black scarf, or none at +all; but as she looked at herself in the glass she was not satisfied, +and she found a scarlet tie which she had bought in a fit of +extravagance, and put it on. The touch of colour heightened the beauty +of her clear ivory face and brightened up the old habit; but she looked +at herself in the glass with something like shamefacedness: why was she +so anxious about her appearance this morning of all the mornings? For +an instant she was tempted to snatch off the tie; but in the end she +let it remain; and she brushed the soft tendrils of her hair at her +forehead with unusual care before she fastened on her hat. + +Her father was walking up and down the terrace slowly as she came out, +and he raised his head and looked at her absently. + +"I shall probably ride into Bryndermere, father," she said. "Shall I +post your letters? I know you will be anxious for that one to the +book-sellers to go," she added, with a smile. + +His eyes dropped and he seemed disconcerted for a minute, then he said: + +"No, no; I'll send it by Jason; I've not written it yet;" and he turned +away from her and resumed his pacing to and fro. + +Ida went to the stable-yard and got on to Rupert by the aid of the +stone "mounting block" from which Charles the Second had climbed, +laughingly, to the white horse which figures in so many pictures of the +Merry Monarch, and rode out of the court-yard, watched with pride by +Jason. Before she had gone far he ran after her. + +"If you're riding by West Hill, Miss Ida, perhaps you'd look at the +cattle-shed there. Williams says that the roof's falling in." + +"Very well," she called back in her clear voice. + +"Oh, and, Miss Ida, there's a big stone washed out of the weir; I'm +thinking it ought to be put back or we'll have the meadows above +flooded this winter." + +She laughed and nodded and put Rupert to a trot, for she knew that +while she was within hearing Jason would bombard her with similar tales +of woe. Not a slate slid from the old roof of the Hall, or a sheep fell +lame, but the matter was referred to her. + +She rode down the road in the sunlight, the big chestnut moving under +her as if he were on springs and she were a feather, and, half +unconsciously, she began to hum an air--not one of those modern ones +one hears in many drawing-rooms, but an old-fashioned melody which she +had found in an ancient music-book in the antique cabinet beside the +grand piano. She left the road where it touched the wild moorland of +the valley, and Rupert broke into a canter, Donald and Bess, settling +into the stride with which they managed to keep up with the big horse. + +She had resolved that she would not ride straight to the stream, and +she kept up the hill-side, but her eyes wandered to the road +expectantly now and again; but there was no sign of a horseman, and +after half an hour had passed a sense of disappointment rose within +her. It was quite possible that he had forgotten the engagement; +perhaps on reflection he had seen that she was quite right in her +objections to his strange proposal, and he would not come. A faint +flush rose to her face, and she turned Rupert and rode up and over the +hill where she could not see the road. But she had no sooner got on top +than she remembered that no time had been mentioned, or, if it had, +that she had forgotten it. She turned and rode up the hill again, and +looking down, saw Stafford riding along the valley in desperate haste, +and yet looking about him uncertainly. Her heart beat with a quickened +pulse, sending the delicate colour into her face, and she pulled up, +and, leaning forward with her chin in her hand, watched him dreamily. + +He rode a heavier horse than Adonis; and he had made a change in his +dress; in place of the riding-suit, which had smacked of London and +Hyde Park, he wore a rough but light coat, thick cord breeches, and +brown leather gaiters. She smiled as she knew that he had tried to make +himself look as much like a farmer as possible; but no farmer in the +dales had that peculiar air of birth and breeding which distinguished +Stafford Orme; the air which his father had been so quick to detect and +to be proud of. + +She noticed how well he sat the great horse, with what ease and "hands" +he rode over the rough and treacherous ground. Suddenly he turned his +head and saw her, and with a wave of his hand came galloping up to her, +with a smile of relief and gladness on his handsome face, as he spoke +to the dogs, who clamoured round him. + +"I was so afraid I had missed you," he said. "I am late, am I not? Some +people kept me after breakfast." + +"You are not late; I don't think any time was mentioned," she +responded, quickly, though her heart was beating with a strange and +novel sensation of pleasure in his presence. "I scarcely expected you." + +He looked at her reproachfully. + +"Not expect me! But why?" + +"I thought you might change your mind," she said. + +He checked a quick response, and said instead: + +"And now, where do we go first? You see I have got a bit heavier horse. +He's a present, also, from my father. What do you think of him?" + +She eyed him gravely and critically. + +"He's nice-looking," she said, "but I don't like him so well as the one +you rode yesterday. Didn't I see him slip just now, coming up the +hill?" + +"Did he?" said Stafford. "I didn't notice. To tell you the truth, I was +so delighted at seeing you that I don't think I should have noticed if +he had tumbled on his nose." + +"Oh, it wasn't much of a slip," she said, quickly, to cover her slight +confusion at his candid confession. "Shall we go down to the sheep +first?" + +"Anywhere you like," he assented, brightly. "Remember, I'm your pupil." + +She glanced at him and smiled. + +"A very big pupil." + +"But a very humble one," he said. "I'm afraid you'll add, 'a very +stupid one,' before long." + +As they rode down hill, Stafford stole a look at her unobserved. Ever +since he had left her yesterday her face had haunted him, even while +Maude Falconer, in all her war paint and sparkling with jewels, had +been singing, even in the silent watches of the night, when--strange +thing for him!--he had awakened from a dream of her; he had recalled +the exquisitely lovely face with its grave yet girlish eyes, and he +felt now, with a thrill, that she was even more lovely than she had +been in his thoughts and his dreams; that the nameless charm which had +haunted him was stronger, more subtle, than even his fancy had painted +it. He noticed the touch of colour just below her white slender column +of a neck, and wondered why no other woman had ever thought of wearing +a crimson tie with her habit. + +"What a grand morning," he said. "I don't think I ever saw a morning +like this, so clear and bright; those hills there look as though they +were quite near." + +"It's the rain," she explained. "It seems to wash the atmosphere. My +father says there is only one other place which has this particular +clearness and brightness after rain: and that's Ireland. There are the +sheep. Now," she smiled, "do you know how to count them?" + +He stared at her. + +"You begin at number one, I suppose," he said. + +She smiled. + +"But where is number one?" + +She spoke to Donald in a low voice, then the collie began to work the +sheep up into a heap; Bess assisting with her sharp yap. + +"Now they're ready," said Ida. "You must be quick." + +Stafford began to count, but the sheep moved and the ones he had +counted got mixed up with the others, and he began again and yet again, +until he turned with a puzzled and furrowed brow. + +"I can't count them," he said. "They won't keep still for a single +moment." + +She turned to him with a smile. + +"There are fifty-two," she said. + +"Do you mean to say that you've counted them already?" he exclaimed. + +"Yes; I could have counted them twice over by this time. Now, begin +again, and begin from the farthest row; and remember when you come to a +black one. Keep your eye on that one and start again front him. It's +quite easy when you know how." He began again. + +"I make it forty-eight." + +She shook her head and laughed. + +"That would be four missing, and we should have to hunt for them. But +they are all there. Try again." He tried--and made it fifty-six. + +"Didn't I tell you that I was an idiot!" he said, in despair. + +"Oh, you can't expect to learn the first time," she said, consolingly. +"It was weeks before I could do it; and I almost cried the first few +times I tried: they would move just as I was finishing." + +"Oh, well, then I can hope to get it in time," he said. "Did it ever +strike you that though we think ourselves jolly clever, that there are +heaps of things which a workingman--the men we look down upon--can do +which we couldn't accomplish if it were to save our lives. For +instance, I couldn't make a horseshoe if my existence depended upon it, +and yet it looks as easy as--" + +--"Counting sheep," she finished, with a twinkle in her grey-blue +eyes. + +"Just so," he said, with a laugh. "Shall I have another try?" + +"Oh, no; you'd be here all day; and we've got to see if the others are +all right; but first I think we'd better go and look at the weir; Jason +says that a stone has got washed down, and that means that when the +autumn rains come the meadows would be flooded." + + +"All right: I'm ready," he said, with bright alacrity. "I'm enjoying +this. I know now why you look so happy and contented. You're of some +use in the world, and I--the rest of us--That's the weir?" he broke off +to enquire, as they came in sight of a rude barrier of stones which +partially checked the stream. + +"That is it," she said. "And Jason is right. Some of the big stones +have been washed down. What a nuisance! We shall have to get some men +from Bryndermere to put them up again." + +Stafford rode up to the weir and looked at it critically. + +"Thank Heaven I haven't got to count the stones!" he said. "If you'll +kindly hold my horse--he's not so well trained as yours, and would +bolt, I'm afraid." He slipped from the saddle as he spoke, and she +caught the reins. + +"What are you going to do? she asked. + +"I don't know yet," Stafford called back, as he waded into the river. + +She held the horse and sat reposeful in the saddle and watched him with +a smile upon her face. But it grew suddenly grave as she saw Stafford +stoop and put his arms round one of the fallen stones; and she cried to +him: + +"Oh, you can't lift them; it's no use trying!" + +Stafford apparently did not hear her, for, exerting all his strength, +he lifted the big stone and gradually slid and hoisted it into its +place. Then he attacked the other two, and with a still greater effort +raised them into a line with their fellows. + +Ida watched him as--well, as one watches some "strong man" going +through his performance. + +It was a well-nigh incredible feat, and she held her breath as one +stone followed the other. It seemed to her incredible and impossible, +because Stafford's figure was slight and graceful, and he performed the +feat with the apparent ease which he had learnt in the 'varsity +athletic sports. + +The colour rose to her face and her heart beat quickly. There is one +thing left for women to worship; and they worship it readily--and that +is strength. Stafford could not count sheep--any woman could do +that--but he could do what no woman could do: lift those great stones +into their places. + +So that, as he waded out of the river, she smiled _on_ him instead of +_at_ him--which is a very different thing--as she said: + +"How strong you must be! I should have thought it would have required +two or three men to lift those stones." + +"Oh, it's easy enough, as easy as--counting sheep when you know how." + +She laughed. + +"But you must be very wet," she said, glancing at the water as it +dripped from his clothes. + +"Oh, it's all in the day's work," he said, cheerfully, more than +cheerfully, happily. "Now for the steers." + +"They're in the dale," she said; and she looked at him as she spoke +with a new interest, with the interest a woman feels in the presence of +her master, of the man who can move mountains. + +He shook the water from him and rode at her side more cheerfully than +he had done hitherto, for he had, so to speak, proved his helpfulness. +He might be an idiot, but he could lift weir stones into their place. + +"There they are," she said. "And, oh, dear! One of them has got loose. +There ought to be fourteen and there are only thirteen!" + +"Good heavens! You must have eyes like a hawk's" + +She laughed. "Oh, no; I'm used to it, that is all. Now, where can it +be? I thought all the fences were mended. I must find it!" + +"Stop!" he said. "At any rate, I can find a cow--bullock--steer. Let me +go. You wait here." + +He rode off as he spoke, and she pulled up the big chestnut and looked +after him. Once more the question rose to perplex her: why had he come, +why was he riding about the dale with her, counting sheep, wading in +the stream, lifting weir stones, and herding cattle? It seemed to be so +strange, so inexplicable. And as she followed him with her eyes, his +grace and strength were impressed upon her, and she dwelt upon them +dreamily. Were there many such men in the world of which she knew so +little, or was he one alone, and unique? And how good, how pleasant it +was to have him with her, to talk to her, to help her! She had often +longed for a brother, and had pictured one like this, strong and +handsome, with frank eyes and smiling lips--someone upon whom she could +lean, to whom she could go when she was in trouble. + +A shout awoke her from her reverie; and looking up she saw the missing +steer forcing its way through a hedge on top of a bank. Stafford was +riding after it at an easy canter and coming straight for the bank. The +steer plunged through the hedge and floundered through the wide ditch, +and Ida headed it and drove it towards the rest of the herd. Then she +turned in her saddle to warn Stafford of the ditch; but as she turned +he was close upon the bank, and she saw the big hunter rise for the +leap. + +A doubt as to how he would land rose in her mind, and she swung Rupert +round; and as she did so, she saw the hunter crash through the hedge, +stumble at the ditch, and fall, lurching forward, on its edge. + +No man alive could have kept his seat, and Stafford came off like a +stone thrown from a catapult, and lay, face downwards, in the long, wet +grass. + +Something like a hot iron shot through Ida's heart, and sent her face +white, and she rode up to him and flung herself from Rupert and knelt +beside the prostrate form. + +He lay quite still; and she knew quite well what had happened: that he +had fallen on his head and stunned himself. + +She remembered, at that moment, that she herself had once so fallen; +but the remembrance did nothing to soften her present anxiety. She +knelt beside him and lifted his head on her knee, and his white face +smote her accusingly. He was still, motionless so long that she began +to fear--was he dead? She asked herself the question with a heavy +pulsation of the heart, with a sense of irrevocable loss. If he was +dead, then--then--what had she lost! + +Trembling in every limb, she laid her hand upon his heart. It beat, but +slowly, reluctantly. She looked round her with a sense of helplessness. +She had never been placed in such a position before. Not far from her +was a mountain rill, and she ran to it with unsteady steps and soaked +her handkerchief in it, and bathed the white, smooth forehead. + +Even at that moment she noticed, half unconsciously, the clear-cut, +patrician features, the delicate lines of the handsome face. + +He had come to this mishap in his attempt to help her. He was dying, +perhaps, in her service. A thrill ran through her, a thrill that moved +her as by an uncontrollable impulse to bend still lower over him so +that her lips almost touched his unconscious ones. Their nearness, the +intent gaze of her eyes, now dark as violets, seemed to make themselves +felt by him, seemed by some mysterious power to call him back from the +shadow-land of unconsciousness. He moved and opened his eyes. + +She started, and the colour flooded her face as if her lips had quite +touched his, and her eyes grew heavy as, breathing painfully, she +waited for him to entirely recover his intelligence and to speak. + +"The steer!" he said at last, feebly. + +She moistened her lips, and looked away from him as if she were afraid +lest he should see what was in her eyes. "The steer is all right; +but--but you!" + +He forced a laugh. "Oh, I'm all right, too," he said. He looked around +hazily. "I must have come a smasher over that bank!" + +Then he saw that he was lying with his head upon her knee, and with a +hot flush, the man's shame for his weakness in the presence of a woman, +he struggled into a sitting posture and looked at her, looked at her +with the forced cheerfulness of a man who has come an unforeseen, +unexpected cropper of the first magnitude. + +"It was my fault. You--you were right about the horse: he ought not to +have slipped--Where's my hat? Oh here it is. The horse isn't lame, I +hope?" + +"No," she said, setting her teeth in her great effort to appear calm +and unmoved. "He is standing beside Rupert--" She had got thus far when +her voice broke, and she turned her face away quickly; but not so +quickly that he did not see her exceeding pallor, the heavy droop of +the lids, the sweep of the dark lashes on her white cheek. + +"Why--what's the matter, Miss Heron?" he asked, anxiously, and with all +a man's obtuseness. "_You_ didn't happen to come to grief in any way? I +didn't fall on you?--or anything? I--" + +She tried to laugh, tried to laugh scornfully; for indeed she was +filled with scorn for this sudden inexplicable weakness, a weakness +which had never assailed her before in all her life, a weakness which +filled her breast with rage; but from under the closed lids two tears +crept and rolled down her cheek; and against her will she made +confession of this same foolish weakness. + +"It is nothing: I am very foolish--but I--I thought you were badly +hurt--for the moment that you might even be--killed!" + +He staggered to his feet and caught her hand and held it, looking at +her with that look in a man's eyes which is stronger and fiercer than +fire, and yet softer than water; the look which goes straight to a +woman's heart. + +"And you cared--cared so much?" he said, in a voice so low that she +could scarcely hear it, hushed by the awe and wonder of passion. + +She tried to withdraw her hand, biting her lips, setting them tightly, +in her battle for calmness and her old _hauteur_ and indifference; but +he held the small hand firmly, felt it quiver and tremble, saw the +violet eyes raised to his with a troubled wonder in them; and her name +sprang to his lips: + +"Ida!" he breathed. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +"Ida!" The name had sprung from his lips, from his heart, almost +unconsciously; it did not seem strange to him, for he knew, as he spoke +it, that he had called her so in his thoughts, that it had hovered on +his lips ever since he had heard it. But to her--Who shall describe the +subtle emotion which thrills through a girl's heart when she hears, for +the first time from a strange man's lips, the name whose use hitherto +has been reserved for her kith and kin? + +She stood erect, but with her head bent, her eyes fixed on the ground, +the name, his voice, ringing in her ears; her heart was beating almost +painfully, as if with weight of a novel kind of fear, that yet was not +altogether fear. Stafford looked at her with the man's, the lover's +eagerness, but her face told him nothing. She was so ignorant of the +very A B C of love that there was no start of surprise, no word or +movement which might guide him; but his instant thought was that she +was offended, angry. + +"Forgive me!" he said. "You are angry because I called you--Ida! It was +wrong and presumptuous; but I have learned to think of you by your +name--and it slipped out. Are you very angry? Ah, you knew why I called +you so? Don't you know that--I love you!" + +She raised her eyes for a moment but did not look at him; they were +fixed dreamily on the great hills in the distance, then drooped again, +and her brows came together, her lips straightened with a still more +marked expression of trouble, doubt, and wonder. + +"I love you," he said, with the deep note of a man's passion in his +voice. "I didn't mean to tell you, to speak--I didn't know until just +now how it was with me: you see I am telling you everything, the whole +truth! You will listen to me?" + +For she had made a movement of turning away, a slow, heavy gesture as +if she were encumbered by chains, as if she were under some spell from +which she could not wake. + +"I will tell you everything, at the risk of making you angry, at the +risk of your--sending me away." + +He paused for a moment, as if he were choosing his words with a care +that sprang from his fear lest he should indeed rouse her anger +and--lose her. + +"The first day I saw you--you remember?" + +As if she could forget! She knew as he asked the question that no +trifling detail of that first meeting was forgotten, that every word +was engraven on her memory. + +"When I saw you riding down the hill, I thought I had never seen any +girl so beautiful, so lovely--" + +The colour rose slowly to her face, but died away again: the least vain +of women is moved when a man tells her she is beautiful--in his eyes, +at any rate. + +"And when you spoke to me I thought I had never heard so sweet a voice; +and if I had, that there had never been one that I so longed to hear +again. You were not with me long, only a few minutes, but when I left +you and trumped over the hill to the inn I could not get you out of my +mind. I wondered who you were, and whether I should see you again." The +horses moved, and instinctively she looked over her shoulder towards +them. + +"They will not go: they are quite quiet," he said. "Wait--ah, wait for +a few minutes! I have a feeling that if I let you go I shall not see +you again; and that would--that would be more than I could bear. That +night at the inn the landlord told me about you. Of course he had +nothing but praise and admiration for you--who would have any other? +But he told me of the lonely life you led, of the care you took of your +father, of your devotion and goodness; and the picture of you living at +the great, silent house, without friends or companions--well, it +haunted me! I could see it all so plainly--I, who am not usually quick +at seeing things. As a rule, I'm not impressed by women--Howard says I +am cold and bored--perhaps he's right; but I could not get you out of +my mind. I felt that I wanted to see you again." + +He paused again, as if the state of mind he was describing was a puzzle +to himself--paused and frowned. + +"I left the inn and started up the road--I suppose I wanted to get a +glimpse of the house in which you lived. Yes; that must have been it. +And then, all at once, I saw you. I remember the frock you wore that +night--you looked like an angel, a spirit standing there in the +moonlight, the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. Are you angry +with me for saying so? Don't be; for I've got to tell you everything, +and--and--it's difficult!" + +He was silent a moment. Her head was still down-bent, her small white +hand hung at her side; she was quite motionless but for the slow, +rhythmic rise and fall of her bosom. + +"When you came to me, when you spoke to me, my heart leapt as if--well, +as if something good had happened to me--something that had never +happened before. When I went away the picture of you standing at the +door, waving your hand, went with me, and--stayed with me. I could not +get you out of my mind--could think of nothing else. Even in the +meeting with my father, whom I hadn't seen for so long, the thought of +you kept with me. I tried to get rid of it--to forget you, but it was +of no use: sleeping and waking, you--_you were with me!_" + +His voice grew almost harsh in its intensity, and the hand that had +hung so stilly beside her closed on the skirt of her dress in her +effort to keep the hot blush from her face. + +"When I rode out the next day it was only with the hope of seeing you. +It seemed to me there was only one thing I wanted: to see you again; to +look into your eyes, to hear you speak. All that I had heard about +you--well, I dwelt upon it, and I felt that I must help you. It seemed +as if Fate--Chance--oh, I don't know what to call it!--had _sent_ me to +help you. And when I saw you--ah, well, I can't expect you to +understand what I felt!" + +He stopped again, as if he himself were trying to understand it. + +"The feeling that fate had something to do with it--you see, it was +quite by chance I started fishing that afternoon, that I saw you at the +house--gave me courage to ask you to let me help you. It sounded +ridiculous to you--of course it did!--but if you only knew how much it +meant to me! It meant that I should see you again; perhaps every day +for--for a long time: ah, well, it meant just life and death to me. And +now--!" + +His breath came fast, his eyes dwelt upon her with passionate +eagerness; but he forced himself to speak calmly than he might not +frighten her from his side, might not lose her. + +--"Now the truth has come upon me, quite suddenly. It was just now when +I saw that you cared what had happened to me, cared if I were +hurt!--Oh, I know, it was just because you were frightened, it was just +a woman's pity for a fellow that had come to harm, the fear lest I had +broken any bones; but--ah, it showed me my heart, it told me how much I +loved you! Yes; I love you! You are all the world to me: nothing else +matters, _nothing!_" + +Her lips quivered, but she did not speak, and the look of trouble, of +doubt, did not leave her face. He waited, his eyes seeking hers, +seeking them for some sign which might still the passion of fear and +suspense with which he was battling, then he said in a low voice that +thrilled with the tempest of emotion which raged under his forced calm: + +"Will you not speak to me? Are you angry?" + +She raised her head and looked at him--a strange look from so young a +girl. It was as if she were fighting against the subtle spell of his +words, the demand for her love which shone in his eyes. + +"No, I am not angry," she said at last; and her voice, though very low, +was calm and unshaken. + +He made a movement towards her, but she shrank back, only a little, but +perceptibly, and he checked the movement, the desire to take her in his +arms. + +"You are not angry? Then--Ida--I may call you so?--you don't mind my +loving you? Dearest, will you love me just a little in return? Wait!" +for she had shrunk again, this time more plainly. "Don't--don't answer +without thinking! I know I have startled you, that I ought not to have +spoken so soon, while you only know so little of me--you'd naturally +say 'no,' and send me away. But if you think you can like me--learn to +love me--" + +He took her hand, hanging so temptingly near his own; but she drew it +away. + +"No; don't touch me!" she said, with a little catch in her voice. "I +want to think--to understand." She paused for a moment, her eyes still +seeking the distant hills, as if in their mysterious heights she might +find something that should explain this great mystery, this wonderful +thing that had happened to her. At last, with a singular gesture, so +girlish, so graceful that it made him long still more intensely to take +her in his arms, she said in a low voice: + +"I do not know--No! I do not want you to touch me, please!" His hand +fell to his side. "I can't answer you. It is so--so sudden! No one has +ever spoken to me as you have done--" + +He laughed from mere excess of joy, for her pure innocence, her +unlikeness, in her ignorance of love and all pertaining to it, to the +women he knew, made the charm of her well-nigh maddening. To think that +he should be the first man to speak of love to her! + +"I am not angry--ought I to be? Yes, I suppose so. We are almost +strangers--have seen so little of each other." + +"They say that love, all true love, comes at first sight," he said in +his deep voice. "I used to laugh at the idea; but now I know it is +true. I loved you the first time I met you, Ida!" + +Her lip quivered and her brows knit. + +"It seems so wonderful," she said, musingly, "I do not understand it. +The first time! We scarcely spoke--and I was almost angry with you for +fishing in the Heron. And I did--did not think of you--" + +He made a gesture, repudiating the mere idea. + +"Is it likely! Why should you?" he said. "I was just an ordinary man, +crossing your path for the first and perhaps the only time. Good +heavens! there was no reason why you should give a thought to me, why I +should linger in your mind for half a moment after I was out of your +sight. But for me--Haven't I told you how beautiful you are, Ida! You +are the loveliest, the sweetest.--But, even if you had not been--I mean +it is not because you are so beautiful that I love you--" She looked at +him with a puzzled, troubled look. + +"No! I can't explain. See, now, there's not a look of yours, not a +feature that I don't know by heart as if I'd learnt it. When I am away +from you I can see you--see the way your hair clusters in soft little +curls at your forehead, the long lashes sweeping your cheek, the--the +trick your eyes have of turning from grey to violet--oh, I know your +face by heart, and I _love_ it for its beauty; but if you were to lose +it all, if you were not the loveliest creature God had ever made, it +would make no difference. You would still be _you_: and it is you I +want. Ida--give yourself to me--trust me! Oh, dearest, you don't know +what love is! Let me teach you!" + +Once again he got hold of her hand; and she let it remain in his grasp; +but her quiescence did not mean yielding, and he knew it. + +"No," she said, with a deep breath. "It is true that I do not know. And +I am--afraid." A wan little smile that was more piteous than tears +curved her lips: for "afraid" seemed strange coming from her, the +fearless child of the hills and dales. "If--if I said 'yes'--Ah, but I +do not!" she broke off as he made to draw her to him, and she shrank +back. "I do not! I said 'if,' it would not be true; it would not be +fair. For I do not know. I might be--sorry, after--after you had gone. +And it would be too late then." + +"You're right," he assented, grimly. "Once I got you, no power on earth +should make me let you go again." + +Her lips quivered and her eyes drooped before his. How strange a thing +this love was, that it should change a man so! + +"I don't want to force you to answer," he said, after a pause. "Yes, I +do! I'd give half the remainder of my life to hear you say the one +word, 'yes.' But I won't. It's too--too precious. Ah, don't you +understand! I want your love, your love, Ida!" + +"Yes, I understand," she murmured. "And--and I would say it if--if I +were sure. But I--yes, I am all confused. It is like a dream. I want to +think, to ask myself if--if I can do what you want." + +She put up her hand to her lips with a slight gesture, as if to keep +them from trembling. + +"I want to be alone to think of all--all you have told me." + +Her gauntlet slipped from her hand, and he knelt on one knee and picked +it up, and still kneeling, took both her hands in his. It did not occur +to him to remember that the woman who hesitates is won; something in +her girlish innocence, in her exquisitely sweet candour, filled him +with awe. + +"Dearest!" he said, in so low a voice that, the note of the curlew +flying above them sounded loud and shrill by contrast. "Dearest!--for +you are that to me!--I will not press you. I will be content to wait. +God knows you are right to hesitate! Your love is too great, too +precious a thing to be given to me without thought. I'm not worthy to +touch you--but I love you! I will wait. You shall think of all I have +said; and, let your answer be what it may, I won't complain! +But--Ida--you mustn't forget that I love you with all my heart and +soul!" + +She looked down at his handsome face, the face over which her lips had +hovered only a short time since, and her lips moved. + +"You--you are good to me," she said, in a faintly troubled voice. "Yes, +I know, I feel that. Perhaps I ought to say 'no!'" + +"Don't!" he said, almost fiercely. "Wait! Let me see you again--you +scarcely know me. Ah, Ida, what can I do, how can I win your love?" + +She drew her hands from his with a deep breath. + +"I--I will go now," she said. "Will you let me go--alone?" + +He rose and went towards the horses. His own raised its head and seemed +inclined to start, but stood uncertain and eventually remained quiet +beside the chestnut. Stafford brought them to where Ida still stood, +her eyes downcast, her face pale. + +With his own bridle over his arm he put her into the saddle, resisting +even in that supreme moment the almost irresistible desire to take her +in his arms. + +She murmured a "Thank you," as she slowly put on her left gauntlet. He +drew the other from her, and as she looked at him questioningly, he put +it to his lips and thrust it under his waistcoat, over his heart. + +The colour flooded her face, but the blush was followed by the old look +of trouble and doubt. She held out her ungloved right hand and he took +it and held it for a moment, then raised it to his lips; but he did not +kiss it. + +"No!" he said, with stern repression. "I will take nothing--until you +give it me." + +She inclined her head the very slightest, as if she understood, as if +she were grateful; then letting her eyes rest on his with an +inscrutable look, she spoke softly to the horse and rode away, with +Donald and Bess clamouring joyously after her, as if they had found the +proceedings extremely trying. + +Stafford flung his arm across his horse, and leaning against it, looked +after her, his eyes fixed wistfully on the slight, graceful figure, +until it was out of sight; then he gazed round him as if he were +suddenly returning from a new, mysterious region to the old familiar +world. Passion's marvellous spell still held him, he was still +throbbing with a half-painful ecstasy of her nearness, of the touch of +her hand, the magic of her voice. + +For the first time he was in love. In love with the most exquisite, the +most wonderful of God's divine creatures. He knew, as he had said, that +her answer meant life or death to him, the life of infinite, nameless +joy, the death of life in death. + +Was he going to lose her? + +The very question set him trembling. He held out his quivering hand and +looked at it, and set his teeth. Heaven and earth, how strange it was! +This girl had taken possession of him body and soul; every fibre of his +being clamoured for her. To be near her, just to be able to see her, +hear her, meant happiness; to be torn from her-- + +The sweat broke out on his forehead and he laughed grimly. + +"And this is love!" he said, between his teeth. "Yes--and it's the +only love of my life. God help me if you say 'no,' dearest! But you +must not--you must not!" + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +Quite an hour after Stafford had started to meet Ida, Miss Falconer +made her appearance, coming slowly down the stairs in the daintiest of +morning frocks, with her auburn hair shining like old gold in the +sunlight, and an expression of languor in her beautiful face which +would have done credit to a hot-house lily. + +She had slept the sleep of the just--the maid who had gone to wake her +with her early cup of tea had been almost startled by the +statuesqueness of her beauty, as she lay with her head pillowed on her +snow-white arm and her wonderful hair streaming over the pillow--had +suffered herself to be dressed with imperial patience, and looked--as +Howard, who stood at the bottom of the stairs--said to himself, "like a +queen of the Incas descending to her throne-room." + +"Good-morning, Miss Falconer," he greeted her. "It's a lovely morning; +you'll find it nicely aired." She smiled languidly. + +"That means that I am late." she said, her eyes resting languidly on +his cynically smiling face. + +"Good heavens, no!" he responded. "You can't be late or early in this +magic palace. Whenever you 'arrive' you will find things--'things' in +the most comprehensive sense--ready for you. Breakfast at Brae Wood is +the most moveable of feasts. I've proved that, for I'm a late bird +myself; and to my joy I have learned that this is the only house with +which I am acquainted that you can get red-hot bacon and kidneys at any +hour from eight to twelve; that lunch runs plenteously from one to +three, and that you can get tea and toast--my great and only weakness, +Miss Falconer--whenever you like to ring for it. You will find Lady +Clansford presiding at the breakfast-table: I believe she has been +sitting there--amiable martyr as she is--since the early dawn." + +She smiled at him with languid approval, as if he were some paid +jester, and went into the breakfast-room. There were others there +beside Lady Clansford--most of them the young people--it is, alas! only +the young who can sleep through the bright hours of a summer's +morn--and a discussion on the programme of the day was being carried on +with a babel of voices and much laughter. + +"You shall decide for us, Miss Falconer!" exclaimed one of the young +men, whose only name appeared to be Bertie, for he was always addressed +as and spoken of by it. "It's a toss-up between a drive and a turn on +the lake in the electric launch. _I_ proposed a sail, but there seemed +to be a confirmed and general scepticism as to my yachting capacities, +and Lady Plaistow says she doesn't want to be drowned before the end of +the season. What would you like to do?" + +"Sit somewhere in the shade with a book," she replied, promptly but +slowly. + +There was a shout of laughter. + +"That is just what Mr. Howard replied," said Bertie, complainingly. + +"Oh, Mr. Howard! Everyone knows that he is the laziest man in the whole +world," remarked Lady Clansford, plaintively. "What is Mr. Orme going +to do? Where is he? Does anyone know?" + +There was a general shaking of heads and a chorus of "Noes." + +"I had a swim with him this morning, but I've not seen him since," said +Bertie. "It's no use waiting for Orme; he mightn't turn up till +dinner-time. Miss Falconer, if I promise not to drown you, will make +one for the yacht? The man told me it would be all ready." + +She shook her head as she helped herself to a couple of strawberries. + +"No, thanks," she said, with her musical drawl. "I know what that +means. You drift into the middle of the lake or the river, the wind +drops, and you sit in a scorching sun and get a headache. Please leave +me out. I shall stick to my original proposal. Perhaps, if you don't +drown anyone this time, I may venture with you another day." + +She leant back and smiled at them under her lids, as the discussion +flowed and ebbed round her, with an air of placid contempt and wonder +at their excitement; and presently, murmuring something to Lady +Clansford, who, as chaperone and deputy hostess was trying to coax them +into some decision, she rose and went out to the terrace. + +There, lying back in a deck-chair, in a corner screened from any +possible draught by the glass verandah, was Mr. Howard with one of Sir +Stephen's priceless Havanas between his lips, a French novel in his +hand, and a morning paper across his knees. He rose as she approached, +and checking a sigh of resignation, offered her his chair. + +"Oh, no," she said, with a smile which showed that she knew what the +effort of politeness cost him. "You'd hate me if I took your chair, I +know; and though, of course, I don't in the least care whether you hate +me or not, I shouldn't like putting you to the trouble of so exhaustive +an emotion." + +Howard smiled at her with frank admiration. + +"Let's compromise it," he said. "I'll drag that chair up here--it's out +of the sun, you know--so, and arrange these cushions so, and put up the +end for your feet so, and--how is that, Miss Falconer?" + +"Thanks," she murmured, sinking into the soft nest he had made. + +"Do you object to my cigar? Say so, if you do, and--" + +"You'll go off to some other nook," she put in. "No, I like it." + +His eye shone with keen appreciation: this girl was not only a +beauty--which is almost common nowadays--but witty, which is rare. + +"Thanks! Would you like the paper? Don't hesitate if you would; I'm not +reading it; I never do. I keep it there so that I can put it over my +face if I feel like sleeping--which I generally do." + +She declined the paper with a gesture of her white hand. "No, I'd +rather talk; which means that you are to talk and I'm to listen: will +it exhaust you too much to tell me where the rest of the people are? I +left a party in the breakfast-room squabbling over the problem how to +kill time; but where are the others? My father, for instance?" + +"He is in the library with Baron Wirsch, Mr. Griffenberg, and the other +financiers. They are doubtless engaged in some mystic rites connected +with the worship of the Golden Calf, rites in which the words 'shares,' +'stocks,' 'diamonds,' 'concessions,' appear at frequent intervals. I +suppose your father, having joined them, is a member of the +all-powerful sect of money-worshippers." + +She shrugged her shoulders. + +"I suppose so. And Mr. Orme--is he one of them?" she asked, with +elaborate indifference. + +Howard smiled cynically. + +"Stafford! No; all that he knows about money is the art of spending it; +and what he doesn't know about that isn't worth knowing. It slips +through his fingers like water through a sieve; and one of those +mysteries which burden my existence is, how he always manages to have +some for a friend up a tree." + +"Is he so generous, then?" she asked, with a delicate yawn behind her +hand. + +Howard nodded, and was silent for a moment, then he said musingly: + +"You've got on my favorite subject--Stafford--Miss Falconer. And I warn +you that if I go on I shall bore you." + +"Well, I can get up and go away," she said, languidly. "He is a friend +of yours, I suppose? By the way, did you know that he stopped those +ridiculous horses last night and probably saved my life?" + +"For goodness sake don't let him hear you say that, or even guess that +you think it," he said, with an affectation of alarm. "Stafford would +be inexpressibly annoyed. He hates a fuss even more than most +Englishmen, and would take it very unkindly if you didn't let a little +thing like that pass unnoticed. Oh, yes, I am his greatest friend. I +don't think"--slowly and contemplatively--"that there is anything he +wouldn't do for me or anything I wouldn't do for him--excepting get up +early--go out in the rain--Oh, it isn't true! I'm only bragging," he +broke off, with a groan. "I've done both and shall do them whenever he +wants me to. I'm a poor creature, Miss Falconer." "A martyr on the +altar of friendship," she said. "Mr. Orme must be very irresistible." + +"He is," he assented, with an air of profound melancholy. "Stafford has +the extremely unpleasant knack of getting everybody to do what he +wants. It's very disgusting, but it's true. That is why he is so +general a favourite. Why, if you walk into any drawing-room and asked +who was the most popular man in London, the immediate and unanimous +reply would be 'Stafford Orme.'" + +She settled the cushions a little more comfortably. + +"You mean amongst men?" she said. + +Howard smiled and eyed her questioningly. + +"Well--I didn't," he replied, drily. + +She laughed a little scornfully. + +"Oh, I know the sort of man he is," she said. "I've read and heard +about them. The sort of man who falls in love with every woman he meet. +'A servant of dames'!" + +Howard leant back and laughed with cynical enjoyment. + +"You never were further out," he said. "He flirts--oh, my aunt, how he +flirts!--but as to falling in love--Did you ever see an iceberg, Miss +Falconer?" + +She shook her head. + +"Well, it's one of the biggest, the most beautiful frauds in the world. +When you meet one sailing along in the Atlantic, you think it one of +the nicest, sweetest things you ever saw: it's so dazzlingly bright, +with its thousand and one colours glittering in the sunlight. You quite +fall in love with it, and it looks so harmless, so enticing, that +you're tempted to get quite close to it; which no doubt is amusing to +the iceberg, but is slightly embarrassing for you; for the iceberg is +on you before you know it, and--and there isn't enough left of you for +a decent funeral. That's Stafford all the way. He's so pleasant, so +frank, so lovable, that you think him quite harmless; but while you're +admiring his confounded ingratiating ways, while you're growing +enthusiastic about his engaging tricks--he's the best rider, the best +dancer, the best shot--oh, but you must have heard of him!--he is +bearing down upon you; your heart goes under, and he--ah, well, he just +sails over you smiling, quite unconscious of having brought you to +everlasting smash." + +"You are indeed a friend," she said with languid irony. + +"Oh, you think I'm giving him away?" he said. "My dear Miss Falconer, +everybody knows him. Every ball-room every tennis-court, is strewed +with his wrecks. And all the time he doesn't know it; but goes his way +crowned with a modesty which is the marvel and the wonder of this most +marvellous of ages." + +"It sounds like a hero out of one of 'Ouida's' novels," she remarked, +as listlessly as before. + +But behind her lowered lids her eyes were shining with a singular +brightness. + +Howard turned to her delightedly. + +"My dear Miss Falconer, if you were a man I should ask to shake hands +with you. It so exactly describes him. That's just what he is. As +handsome as the dew--I beg your pardon!--as frank as a boy, as gentle +as a woman, as staunch as a bull-dog, as brave--he would have stopped +a drayman's team just as readily as yours last night--and as +invulnerable as that marble statue." + +He pointed to a statue of Adonis which stood whitely on the edge of the +lawn, and she raised her eyes and looked at it dreamily. + +"I could break that thing if I had a big hammer," she said. + +"I daresay," he said. "But can't break Stafford. Honestly "--he looked +at her--"I wish you could!" + +"Why?" she asked, turning her eyes on him for the first time. + +Howard was silent for a moment, then he looked at her with a curious +gravity. + +"Because it would be good for him: because I am afraid for him." + +"Afraid?" she echoed. + +"Yes," he said, with a nod. "Some day he will run against something +that will bring him to smash. Some woman--But I beg your pardon. Do you +know, Miss Falconer, that you have a dangerous way of leading one to +speak the truth--which one should never--or very rarely--do. Why, on +earth am I telling you all this about Stafford Orme?" + +She shrugged her shoulders. + +"You were saying 'some woman,'" she said. + +He gave a sigh of resignation. + +"You are irresistible! Some woman who will be quite unworthy of him. +It's always the case. The block of ice you can not smash with your +biggest hammer is broken into smithereens by a needle. That's the peril +before Stafford--but let us hope he will prove the exception to the +rule and escape. He's safe at present, at any rate." + +She thought of the scene she had witnessed, the girl sitting sideways on +Stafford Orme's horse, and her face flushed for an instant. + +"Are you sure?" she said. + +"Quite!" he responded, confidently. "I know all Stafford's flirtations, +great and small: if there was anything serious he would tell me; and as +he hasn't--there isn't." + +She laughed; the slow, soft laugh which made Howard think suddenly, +strangely, of a sleepy tigress he had once watched in a rajah's zoo, as +she lay basking in the sun: a thing of softness and beauty and--death. + +"We've had a most amusing conversation, Mr. Howard," she said. "I don't +know when I've been so interested--or so tempted." + +"Tempted?" He looked at her with a slow, expectant smile. + +"Oh, yes," she murmured, turning her eyes upon him with a half-mocking +light in them. "You have forgotten that you have been talking to a +woman." + +"I don't deny it," he said. "It's the finest compliment I could pay +you. But--after?" + +"And that to a woman your account of your hero-friend is--a +challenge." + +He nodded and paused, with his cigar half-way to his lips. + +"I'm greatly tempted to accept it, do you know!" she said. + +He laughed. + +"Don't: you'll be vanquished. Is that too candid, too--brutal?" he +said. + +"So brutal that I _will_ accept it," she said. "Is that ring of yours a +favorite?" + +"I've had it ever since I can remember. It was my mother's," he said, +rather gravely. + +She held out her hand, upon which the costly gems glittered in the +sunlight. + + +"Choose one to set against it," she said quite quietly. + +Howard, roused for once from his sleepy cynicism, met her gaze with +something like astonishment. + +"You mean--?" he said, in a low voice. + +"I mean that I am going to try to meet your iceberg. You will play +fair, Mr. Howard? You will stand and look on and--be silent?" + +He smiled and leant back as if he had considered her strange, audacious +proposal, and felt confident. + +"On my honour," he said, with a laugh. "You shall have fair play!" She +laughed softly. "You have not chosen my stake," she said meaningly. + +"Ah, no. Pardon! Let me see." He took her hand and examined the rings. +"This--I think it's the most valuable." + +"It does not matter," she said. "You will not win it. May I look at +yours?" + +He extended his hand with an amused laugh; but without a smile, she +said: + +"Yes, it is a quaint ring; I like quaint things. I shall wear it on my +little finger." + +She dropped his hand quickly, for at that moment Stafford rode round +the bend of the drive. His face was grave and almost stern in its +preoccupation, but he caught sight of them, and raised his hat, then +turned his horse and rode up to the terrace. + +"Good-morning, Stafford," exclaimed Howard. "Where have you been? +Hallo! Anything happened? You're coated all over with mud: had a fall?" + +He nodded carelessly as he turned to the beautiful girl, lying back now +and looking up at his handsome face with an air of languid +indifference. + +"What a lovely day, Miss Falconer! Where are all the others? Are you +not going for a drive, on the lake, somewhere?" + +"I have just been asking Mr. Howard to take me for a row," she said, +"but he has refused." + +Stafford laughed and glanced at his watch. + +"I can quite believe it: he's the laziest wretch in existence. If +you'll transfer the offer to me, we'll go after lunch. By George, +there's the bell!" + +"Thanks!" she murmured, and she rose with her slow grace. "I'd better +get into an appropriate costume. Mr. Howard, what will you bet me that +it does not rain before we start. But you never bet, you tell me!" + +"Not unless I am sure of winning, Miss Falconer," he said, +significantly. + +She looked after Stafford as he rode away to the stable. + +"Nor I," she retorted, with a smile. "As you will see." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +When Stafford and Maude Falconer went down to the lake after luncheon, +they found a party from the Villa just embarking on board one of the +launches; the air was filled with laughter and chatter, and the little +quay was bright with the white flannels of the men and the gay frocks +of the women. The party greeted the two with an exuberant welcome, and +Bertie called out to ask them if they were coming on board. + +"Perhaps you would rather go on the launch, Miss Falconer?" said +Stafford; but she shook her head. + +"No, thanks," she said, languidly. "I hate crowds of that kind. I'd +rather stick to our original proposition; it will bore me less. But +perhaps you'd rather join them?" + +"Is it likely?" said Stafford, with a smile, as he signed to the man to +bring up a skiff. "Now, let me make you as comfortable as I can. We +ought to have had a gondola," he added, as he handed her to the seat in +the stern. + +She leant back with her sunshade over her shoulder, and Stafford, as he +slipped off his blazer and rowed out towards the centre of the lake, +looked at her with unconscious admiration. She was simply, perfectly +dressed in a yachting costume of white and pale-blue, which set off to +the fullest advantage her exquisite complexion and her red-gold hair. +But it was admiration of the coldest kind, for even at that moment he +was thinking of the girl in the well-worn habit, the girl he loved with +a passion that made his slightest thought of her a psalm of worship. + +And Maude, though she appeared half asleep, like a beautiful wild +animal basking in the warmth of the sun, glanced at him now and again +and noted the strength and grace of his figure, the almost Grecian +contour of the handsome face. She had made her wager with Howard on the +spur of the moment, prompted by the vanity of a woman piqued by the +story of Stafford's indifference to her sex; but as she looked at him +she wondered how a woman would feel if she fell in love with him. But +she had no fears for herself; there was a coldness in her nature which +had hitherto guarded her from the fever which men call love, and she +thought herself quite secure. There would be amusement, triumph, in +making him love her, in winning her wager with that cynical Mr. Howard, +who boasted of his friend's invulnerability; and when she had +conquered, and gratified her vanity--Ah, well, it would be easy to step +aside and bring the curtain down upon her triumph and Stafford's +discomfiture. She would wear that Mr. Howard's ring, and every time she +looked at it, it should remind her of her conquest. + +Stafford rowed on in silence for some minutes. His beautiful companion +did not seem to want him to talk and certainly showed no desire to talk +herself; so he gave himself up to thinking of Ida--and wishing that it +was she who was sitting opposite him there, instead of this girl with +the face of a Grecian goddess, with the lustrous hair of an houri. At +last, feeling that he ought to say something, he remarked, as he gazed +at the marvellous view: + +"Very beautiful, isn't it?" + +She raised her eyes and let them wander from the glittering water to +the glorious hills. + +"Yes, I suppose it is. I'm afraid I don't appreciate scenery as much as +other people do. Perhaps it is because one is always expected to fall +into raptures over it. Does that shock you? I'm afraid I shock most +people. The fact is, I have been brought up in a circle which has +taught me to loathe sentiment. They were always gushing about their +feelings, but the only thing they cared for was money!" + +"That ought to have made you loathe money," said Stafford, with a +smile, and a certain kind of interest; indeed, it was difficult not to +feel interested in this beautiful girl, with the face and the form of a +goddess, and, apparently, as small a capacity of emotion. + +"Oh, no," she said, languidly; "on the contrary, it showed me the value +of money. I saw that if I had not been rich, the daughter of a rich +man, I should have been of no account in their eyes. They were always +professing to love me, but I was quite aware that it was because I was +rich enough to be able to buy pleasure for them." + +"Unpleasant kind of people," remarked Stafford. + +"No; just the average," she said, coolly. "Nearly all men and women are +alike--worldly, selfish, self-seeking. Look at my father," she went on, +as coolly as before. "He thinks of nothing but money; he has spent his +life fighting, scrambling, struggling for it; and look at yours--" + +"Oh, hold on!" said Stafford, laughing, but reddening a little. "You're +very much mistaken if you think my father is that kind of man." + +She smiled. + +"Why, everybody has some story of his--what shall I call +it?--acuteness, sharpness; and of the wonderful way in which he has +always got what he wanted. I don't want to be offensive, Mr. Orme, but +I'm afraid both our fathers are in the same category. And that both +would sacrifice anything or anyone to gain their ends." + +Stafford laughed again. + +"You're altogether wrong, Miss Falconer," he said. "I happen to know +that my governor is one of the most generous and tender-hearted of men +and that whatever he has gained it is by fair means, and by no +sacrifice of others." + +She shrugged her shoulders. + +"I envy your faith in him. But then you are a very enviable man, I'm +told." + +"As how?" asked Stafford. "Pretty here, isn't it? Here's one of those +beastly steamers coming: they spoil the lake, but they're very +convenient, I suppose." + +She glanced at the big steamer puffing towards them obtrusively and +sending a trail of smoke across the green and violet of the hills. + +"Oh, I'm told you are the most popular man in London; that you have the +world at your feet, that you are only waiting to see which duchess you +prefer to throw your handkerchief to--" + +Stafford coloured. + +"What rot!--I beg your pardon, Miss Falconer. Of course, I know you are +only chaffing me." + +"Isn't it true--about the duchess, I mean?" she asked, so coolly, so +indifferently, that Stafford was compelled to take her seriously. + +"Nary a word," he said, brightly; then, with a sudden gravity: "If you +happen to hear such nonsense again, Miss Falconer, you can, if you care +to, contradict it flatly. I am not in the least likely to marry a +duchess; indeed, I wouldn't marry the highest and greatest of them, if +she'd have me, which is highly improbable." + +"Do you mean to say that you have no ambition, that you would marry +for--love?" she asked. + +Stafford stopped rowing for a moment and looked at her grimly. + +"What on earth else should I marry for?" he asked. "Wouldn't you?" + +Before she could answer, the steamer came abreast of them, and so close +that the swell from its screw set the slight, narrow skiff dancing and +plunging on the waves. + +Maude uttered a faint cry and leant forward, and Stafford, fearing she +was going to rise, stretched out his hand, and touching her knee, +forced her into her seat again, and kept her there until the swell had +subsided. + +The colour flooded her face at the pressure of his strong hand, which +was like a steel weight, and she caught her breath. Then, as he took +his hand away and resumed rowing, he said: "I beg your pardon! I was +afraid you were going to get up--a girl I once had in a boat did so and +we upset." + +"The boat is very small," she said, in a low voice, almost one of +apology. + +"Oh, it's all right, so long as you sit still, and keep your head," he +said. "It could ride over twice as big a swell as this." + +She looked at him from under her lowered lids with a new expression in +her face, a faint tremor on her lips; and, as if she could not meet his +eyes, she glanced back with an affectation of interest at the steamer. +As she did so, something dropped from it into the lake. + +"What was that?" she said. "Something fell overboard." + +"Eh? A man, do you mean?" he asked, stopping. + +"Oh, no; something small." + +"A parcel, somebody's lunch, perhaps," he said; and he rowed on. + +She leant back, her eyes downcast; she still seemed to feel that +strong, irresistible pressure of his hand under which she had been +unable to move. + +"There ought to be an echo somewhere here," he said, as they came +opposite one of the hills, and he gave the Australian "coo-ee!" in a +clear, ringing voice, which the echo sent back in a musical imitation. + +"How true it was!" she said, and she opened her lips and sang a bar or +two of the "Elsie" song. + +Stafford listened to the echo, which was almost as soft and sweet as +the girl's notes. + +"What a wonderful voice you have!" he said, almost unconsciously. "I +never heard a sweeter. What was that you sang?" + +"That thing of Wagner's," she replied; and quite naturally she began +the air and sang it through. + +Stafford let the boat drift and leant upon the oars, his eyes fixed on +her face, a rapt and very eloquent admiration in his own. + +"Ah--beautiful!" he said in a low voice. "What a delight it must be to +you to be able to sing like that! I can understand a whole theatre +crying over that song sung as you sing it!" + +She glanced at him with an affectation of languid amusement; but she +was watching him intently. + +"That's not the best in the opera," she said. "I like this better;" and +she sang the "Swan" song; sang it so low that he leant forward to catch +the notes which flowed like silver from her soft, red lips; and when +she finished it he drew a long breath and still leant forward looking +at her. + +"Thank you, thank you!" he said, with so much of admiration and +gratitude in his voice, that, as if to apologise for it, he said: "I'm +fond of music. But I'm forgetting your tea! Shall we pull back to the +Ferry Hotel and get some?" + +"I'm in your hands," she replied, languidly. + +He turned-the boat and pulled back along the centre of the lake in +silence. Suddenly she bent forward. + +"There is something in the water," she said; "something alive." + +"It's a--yes, it's a dog," he said. "That is what you saw drop over the +steamer. By George! the poor little chap looks in distress: seems as if +he were nearly done. Can you steer?" he asked, sharply. + +"Oh, yes," she replied, languidly. "Why?" + +"Because I'm going for him, and it will help me if you can steer +straight for him. He looks nearly played out." + +"Why should you trouble--it's a long way off; it will be drowned before +you can get to it," she said. + +"I'll have to go for it anyway," he said, cheerfully; and he began to +row hard. + +Distance is deceptive on a lake, and the dog was farther off than they +thought; but Stafford put his back into it as hard as he had done in +his racing days, and Maude Falconer leant back and watched him with +interest, and something even stronger than interest, in her masked +eyes. He had turned up the sleeves of his flannel shirt, and the +muscles on his arms were standing out under the strain, his lips were +set tightly, and there was the man's frown of determination on his +brow. + +"It has gone down: it's no use," she said. "You may as well stop and +rest." + +He looked over his shoulder. + +"No! He has come up again!" he exclaimed: it was noticeable that he +called the dog "he," while she spoke of it as "it." "We shall get him +in time. Keep the boat straight!" + +The words were uttered in a tone of command, and they moved her as the +touch of his hand had done; and she set her mind upon the task as she +had never before set it upon anything. + +Reaching well forward, pulling with the long, steady stroke of the +practised oarsman, Stafford sent the boat along like an arrow, and +presently he drove it up to the spot where the dog strove in its death +straggle. + +It was a tiny black-and-tan terrier, and Stafford, as he looked over +his shoulder, saw the great eyes turned to him with a piteous entreaty +that made his heart ache. + +"Turn the boat--quick!" he cried; and as the skiff slid alongside the +dog, he swooped it up. + +The mite gave a little gasping cry like a child, and closing its eyes +sank into Stafford's arms with a shudder. + +"Is it dead?" asked Maude Falconer, looking not at the dog but at +Stafford, for his face, which had been red with exertion a moment ago, +had become suddenly pale. + +"I don't know--no!" he said, absently, all his thoughts centered on the +dog. + +He wiped it as dry as he could with his blazer, then turning aside, he +opened his shirt and put the cold morsel in his bosom. + +"Poor little beggar, he's like ice!" he said, in a low voice. "He would +never have got to the shore; he's so small. If I'd some brandy! We'll +get some at the ferry. Can you row?" + +"No," she said. "Yes; I mean, I'll try." + +He held out his hand. + +"Mind how you cross. Take off your gloves first, or you'll blister your +hands." + +She obeyed, her eyes downcast. They exchanged places and he showed her +how to hold the sculls. + +"You'll do very well. You can row as slowly as you like. He's alive; I +can feel him move! Poor little chap! Sorry to trouble you, Miss +Falconer, but the only chance of saving him is to keep him warm." + +She was silent far a moment, then she glanced at him. + +"You're fond of dogs?" + +"Why, of course," he answered. "Aren't you?" + +"Y-es; but I don't think I'd risk pneumonia for one. You were +feverishly hot just now, and that little beast must be stone cold; +you'll get bronchitis or something, Mr. Orme." + +"Not I!" he laughed, almost scornfully. "He's pulling round, poor +little beast! Here we are." + +He reached for his coat and wrapped the terrier in it, and quite +unconscious of the girl's watchful eyes, held the little black-and-tan +head to his face for a moment. + +"All right now?" he murmured. "You've had a narrow squeak for it, old +chappie!" With the dog under his arm, he helped Maude Falconer ashore +and led the way to the hotel. + +"Tea," he said to the waiter; "but bring me some brandy and milk +first--and look sharp." + +Maude sank on to one of the benches in the beautiful garden in the +centre of the lake and looked straight before her; and Stafford cuddled +the dog up to him and looked impatiently for the waiter, greeting him +when he came with: + +"What an infernal time you're been!" + +Then he poured a little of the brandy down the dog's throat, and +bending over him repeated the dose three or four times; and presently +the mite stirred and moved its head, and opening its eyes looked up +into Stafford's, and weakly putting out its tongue, licked his hand. + +Stafford laughed--for the well-known reason. + +"Plucky little chap, isn't he?" he said, with a moved man's affectation +of levity. "He's made a splendid fight for it and won through. He's a +pretty little morsel--a well-bred 'un: wonder whom he belongs to?" + +"To you--at least his life does," said Maude Falconer. "You couldn't +have fought harder for it if it had been a human being." + +"Oh, a dog's the next thing, you know," he said, apologetically. "I'm +afraid it's been an awful nuisance and trouble for you. You haven't +blistered your hands, I hope? Let me see!" + +She stretched out her hands, palm upwards, and he took them and +examined them. + +"No. That's all right! 'All's well that ends well.' You want a few +lessons with the sculls, Miss Falconer, and you'd make a splendid +boat-woman. Perhaps you'd let me give you one or two?" + +"Thank you; yes," she said; and to his surprise with less of her usual +half-scornful languor. + +"Here's the tea. Any particular kind of cake you fancy?" + +She said that the cakes would do, and poured out the tea; but he put +some milk into his saucer and gave some to the terrier, slowly, +methodically, and with a tenderness and gentleness which was not lost +upon the girl who watched him covertly before paying any attention to +his own tea. + +"I wonder whether you could stand, my little man," he said, and he put +the terrier on the ground. + +It stood upright and shivering for a moment, then it put its tiny paws +on Stafford's knee and looked up into his face appealingly. "Not up to +your usual form just yet, eh?" said Stafford, and he picked it up +gently and put it on his knee. + +Maude Falconer looked at him. + +"Give it to me," she said. "Men have no lap. He'll be more comfortable +with me." + +"But he's wet still," he said. "He'll spoil that pretty dress of +yours." + +"My pretty dress was made to be spoiled," she said, "Give it to me, +please, and get your tea." + +"Do you mean it?" he asked, with a surprise which made her flush with +resentment, and something like shame. + +For reply, she bent forward, took the dog from him, and tried to settle +it on her lap; but the mite looked piteously at Stafford and whined, +its big eyes imploring him to let it come back. + +But Stafford stroked it and bade it sit still, and presently it curled +itself up. + +"It has gone to sleep," said Maude. "It has soon forgotten its +trouble." + +"It's a way dogs have," said Stafford. "May I smoke? George! what a +lovely afternoon!" + +She glanced at him as he leant back in his chair, his long legs +stretched out and crossed before him. + +"You look happy," she said, with a faint smile. + +"Oh, I am," he said, with a sudden flush and a start; for now the dog +was off his mind, it had instantly swung back to Ida. + +"It's the reward of a generous action," she said, and again, the +mocking note was absent from her voice. + +Stafford laughed. + +"That's putting it rather high," he said. + +They sat on in silence: Stafford thinking of Ida, Maude looking down at +the sleeping dog, and thinking that only a few minutes ago it had been +lying in the bosom of the man who sat beside her: the man whom she had +backed herself to fool; but for whom a strange sensation of +admiration--and was it a subtle fear?--was stirring within her. + +"By George! we must be going!" he said, suddenly. + +When they got to the boat he proposed to roll the terrier in his coat, +but Maude shook her head. + +"I'll nurse it going home," she said. + +"You will? That's very good of you!" he said, quite gratefully. + +"He's a lucky little beggar!" he remarked, after awhile, as he looked +at the black little morsel curled up on the pretty dress. "Supposing he +isn't claimed, would you care to have him, Miss Falconer?" + +She looked down at the dog. + +"Thank you," she said. "But what shall I give you in return. It's +unlucky to give an animal without some consideration." + +"Oh, give me another song," he replied. "There is nobody about." + +She opened her lips, then checked herself. + +"No, I can't sing again," she said, in a low voice. + +"Oh, all right. It isn't good for you to sing too much in the open air. +I'll wait till this evening, if you'll be good enough to sing for us +then." + +They landed and walked up to the house. As they reached the bend +leading to the entrance path, she stopped and held out the dog, which +had been staring at Stafford and whining at intervals. + +"Take it, please. It is fretting for you, and I'd rather not keep it." + +"Really?" he said, and she saw his face brighten suddenly. "All right, +if you'd rather. Come here, little man! What's your name, I wonder? +What shall we call him while we've got him?" + +"Call him 'Tiny;' he's small enough," she said, with a shrug of her +shoulders. + +"Tiny it is!" he assented, brightly. "He'll answer to it in a day or +two, you'll see. I hope you haven't quite spoilt your dress, Miss +Falconer, and won't regret your row!" + +She looked at her dress, but there was a sudden significance in her +slow, lingering response. + +"I--don't--know!" + +As she went up the stairs she looked over the rail and saw Stafford's +tall figure striding down the hall. He was softly pulling the terrier's +ears and talking to it in the language dogs understand and love; and +when she sank into a chair in her room, his face with its manly +tenderness was still before her, his deep musical voice, with its note +of protection and succour, still rang in her ears. + +She sat quite motionless for a minute or two, then she rose and went to +the glass and looked at herself; a long, intent look. + +"Yes, I am beautiful," she murmured, not with the self-satisfaction of +vanity, but with a calculating note in her voice. "Am I--am I beautiful +enough?" + +Then she swung away from the glass with the motion which reminded +Howard of a tigress, and, setting her teeth hard, laughed with +self-scorn; but with something, also, of fear in the laugh. + +"I am a fool!" she muttered. "It can't be true. So soon! So suddenly! +Oh, I can't be such a fool!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + +If everybody was not enjoying himself at the Villa it certainly was not +the fault of the host, Sir Stephen Orme. Howard, as he drew his chair +up beside Stafford, when the ladies had left the room after dinner, and +the gentlemen had begun to glance longingly at the rare Chateau claret +and the Windermere port, made a remark to this effect: + +"Upon my word, Staff, it is the most brilliant house-party which I have +ever joined; and as to your father in his character of host--Well, +words fail to express my admiration." + +Stafford glanced at his father at the head of the table and nodded. Sir +Stephen had been the life and soul and spring of the dinner; talking +fashionable gossip to Lady Fitzharford on one side of him, and a "giddy +girl of twenty" on the other; exchanging badinage with "Bertie," and +telling deeply interesting stories to the men; and he was now dragging +reluctant laughter from the grim Baron Wirsch and the almost grimmer +Griffenberg, as he saw with one eye that the wine was circulating, and +with the other that no one was being overlooked or allowed to drop into +dullness. + +"A most marvellous man! Nearly all the morning he was closeted with the +financiers; in the afternoon he went for a ride with Lady Clansford; he +was in attendance at the solemn function of afternoon tea; he played +croquet--and played it well--at half-past five; at six I saw him +walking round the grounds with the Effords and the Fitzharfords, and +now he is laughing and talking with the _abandon_ of a boy of +five-and-twenty, while the boy of five-and-twenty sits here as grave +and silent as if he had been working like a horse--or a Sir Stephen +Orme--instead of fooling about the lake with the most beautiful woman +in the party." + + +"And his friend has spent the day in a deck-chair on the terrace," +retorted Stafford. + +"At any rate, I have been out of mischief," said Howard. Then he +remembered his wager with Maude Falconer, and added, rather +remorsefully: "At least I hope so. By the way, don't you echo my +expression of opinion that Miss Falconer is the most beautiful woman +here--or elsewhere?" + +Stafford woke from the reverie into which he nearly always dropped when +Howard was talking, and nodded indifferently. + +"Oh, yes; she is lovely, of course." + +"How good of you, how kind and gracious!" retorted Howard, ironically. +"So my prince deigns to approve of her? And you also condescended to +admit that she is--er--rather clever?" + +"I daresay," said Stafford. "I've seen so little of her. She seems to +me rather _blase_ and cold." + +Howard nodded. + +"Yes; but the worst of it is, you can't count upon that kind of girl: +they are apt to warm up sometimes, and quite unexpectedly: and when +they do they--well, they boil like a geyser or a volcano. And +then--well, then it is wise to get out of reach. I once knew a woman +who was considered to be as cold as charity--or a rich relation--but +who caught fire one day and burnt up the man who ignited her. Of course +this is my delicate way of saying: 'Beware, oh, my prince!'" + +Stafford smiled. Miss Falconer's nature was a matter of profound +indifference to him. There was only one woman on whom he could bestow a +thought, and he was thinking of her now, wondering when he should see +her, whether he might dare to tell her of his love again, to ask her +for her answer. + +Once or twice his father looked across at him, and nodded and smiled as +if he loved to see him, and wanted to speak to him; and Stafford smiled +and nodded back, as if he understood. + +When the men rose to go to the drawing-room, Sir Stephen caught him up +at the door, and laid a hand upon his arm. + +"Happy, dear boy?" he asked in a low voice, full of affection. "I've +seen scarcely anything of you. No, no, I'm not complaining! It was +understood that you were to have a free hand--but--but I've missed you! +Never mind; this crowd will have gone presently, and then--ah, then +we'll have a jolly time to ourselves! Things are going well," he added, +with a significant smile, as he glanced at Wirsch and Griffenberg, who, +well-fed and comfortable, were in front of them. + +"I'm glad, sir," said Stafford. + +Sir Stephen smiled, but checked a sigh and a shrug of the shoulders. + +"Yes, my little schemes are flourishing; but"--he looked at the +financiers again--"they are rather a hard team to drive!" + +As Stafford entered the drawing-room, he heard Lady Clansford enquiring +for Miss Falconer. + +"We want her to sing, Mr. Orme, and I cannot find her." + +"I think she is on the terrace," said Bertie, who always seemed to know +where everybody was. + +Stafford went out by one of the windows, and saw Maude Falconer pacing +up and down at the end of the terrace. She was superbly dressed, and as +he looked at her, he involuntarily admired the grace of her movements. +Mr. Falconer was walking with bent head and hands behind his back; but +now and again he looked at her sideways with his sharp eyes. Stafford +did not like to interrupt them, and withdrew to the other end of the +terrace, with a cigarette, to wait till they joined him. + +"Young Orme has come out to look for you," said Mr. Falconer, without +turning his head. + +"I know," she said, though she also had not turned. "They want me to +sing. I will go in directly. You have not answered my question, father. +Is Sir Stephen very rich, or is all this only sham? I have heard you +say so often that display very often only covers poverty." + +Falconer eyed her curiously. + +"Why do you want to know? What does it matter to you?" + +She shrugged her shoulders impatiently, resentfully, and he went on: + +"Yes, he's rich; confoundedly so. But he is playing a big game, in +which he is running some risks; and he'll want all his money to help +him win it." + +"And are you joining him in the game?" she asked. + +He looked at her with surprise. There was a note in her voice which he +had never heard before, a note which conveyed to him the fact that she +was no longer a girl, but a woman. + +"Upon my soul, I don't know why you ask! Well, well!"--she had +repeated the impatient gesture. "I haven't made up my mind yet. He +wants me to join him. I could be of service to him; on the other hand, +I could--yes, get in his way; for I know some of the points of the game +he is playing. Yes, I could help him--or spoil him." + +"And which are you going to do?" she asked, in a low voice, her eyes +veiled, her lips drawn straight. + +Falconer laughed grimly. "I don't know. It all depends. Which would you +do?" he asked, half sarcastically. + +She was silent for a moment, then she said: "You knew Sir Stephen some +time ago--years ago, father?" + +Falconer nodded. "I did," he said, shortly. + +"And you were friends, and you quarrelled?" + +He looked at her with an air of surprise. + +"I saw you both when you stood opposite each other after the carriage +accident," she said, coolly. "I am not blind, and I am not particularly +stupid. It didn't strike me at the time that there had been anything +wrong between you, but I have since seen you look at Sir Stephen, +and--you have an expressive face sometimes, oh, my father!" + +He grinned grimly. + +"You appear to keep your eyes open, Maude. Yes; there was a row between +us, and there was a grudge--" + +--"Which you mean to pay off?" she said, as impassively as if they +were speaking of the merest trivialities. + +"Which I could pay off--gratify, if I liked," he admitted. + +"How?" she asked. + +He did not reply, but glanced at her sideways and bit at the cigar +which he had stopped to light. + +"Shall I tell you, if I were a man and I wanted revenge upon such a man +as Sir Stephen Orme, what I should do, father?" she asked, in a low +voice, and looking straight before her as if she were meditating. + +"You can if you like. What would you do?" he replied, with a touch of +sarcastic amusement. + +She looked round her and over her shoulder. The windows near them were +closed, Stafford with his cigarette was too far off to overhear them. + +"If I were a man, rich and powerful as you are, and I owed another a +grudge, I would not rest night or day until I had got him into my +power. Whether I meant to exact my revenge or not, I would wait and +work, and scheme and plot until I had him at my mercy so that I could +say, 'See now you got the better of me once, you played me false once, +but it is my turn now.' He should sue for mercy, and I would grant +it--or refuse it--as it pleased me; but he should feel that he was in +my power; that my hand was finer than his, my strength greater!" He +shot a glance at her, and his great rugged face grew lined and stern. + +"Where did you get those ideas? Why do you talk to me like this?" he +muttered, with surprise and some suspicion. + +"I am not a child," she said, languidly. "And I have been living with +you for some time now. Sir Stephen Orme is a great man, is surrounded +by great and famous people, while you, with all your money, are"--she +shrugged her shoulders--"well, just nobody." + +His face grew dark. She was playing on him as a musician plays on an +instrument with which he is completely familiar. + +"What the devil do you mean?" he muttered. + +"If I were a man, in your place, I would have the great Sir Stephen at +my feet, to make or to break as I pleased. I would never rest until I +could be able to say: 'You're a great man in the world's eyes, but I am +your master; you are my puppet, and you have to dance to my music, +whether the tune be a dead march or a jig.' That is what I should do if +I were a man; but I am only a girl, and it seems to me nowadays that +men have more of the woman in them than we have." + +He stopped and stared at her in the moonlight, a dark frown on his +face, his eyes heavy with doubt and suspicion. + +"Look here, my girl," he said, "you are showing up in a new light +to-night. You are talking as your mother used to talk. And you aren't +doing it without a purpose. What is it? What grudge can you, a mere +girl who has only known him for a couple of days, have against Sir +Stephen?" + +She smiled. + +"Let us say that I am only concerned for my father's wounded pride and +honour," she said. "Or let us say that I _have_ a game of my own to +play, and that I am asking you to help me while you gratify your own +desire for revenge. Will you help me?" + +"Tell me--tell me what your game is. Good Lord!"--with a scowl. "Fancy +you having a game: it's--it's ridiculous!" + +"Almost as ridiculous as calling me a girl and expecting to see me +playing with a doll or a hoop," she returned, calmly. "But you needn't +reply. I can see you mean to do it, like a good and indulgent father; +and some day, perhaps soon, I will, like a good and dutiful daughter, +tell you why I wanted you to do it. Is that you, Mr. Orme? Will I come +and sing? Oh, yes, if you wish it. Where is the little dog?" she asked, +looking up at him with a new expression in her languorous eyes, as she +glided beside him. + +"Asleep on my bed," replied Stafford, with a laugh. "My man has turned +him off and made him a luxurious couch with cushions three or four +times, but he would persist on getting on again, so he'll have to stay, +I suppose?" + +"Are you always so good-natured?" she asked, in a low voice. "Or do you +reserve all your tenderness of heart for dogs and horses--as Mr. Howard +declares?" + +"Mr. Howard is too often an ass," remarked Stafford, with a smile. + +"You shall choose your song, as a reward for your exertions this +afternoon," she said, as he led her to the piano. + +Most of the men in the crowd waiting eagerly for the exquisite voice +would have been moved to the heart's core by her tone and the +expression in her usually cold eyes, but Stafford was clothed in the +armour of his great love, and only inclined his head. + +"Thanks: anything you like," he said, with the proper amount of +gratitude. + +She shot a glance at him and sank into the music-seat languidly. But a +moment afterwards, as if she could not help herself, she was singing a +Tuscan love-song with a subdued passion which thrilled even the _blase_ +audience clustered round her. It thrilled Stafford; but only with the +desire to be near Ida. A desire that became irresistible; and when she +had finished he left the room, caught up his hat and overcoat and went +out of the house. + +As he did so, Mr. Falconer walked past him into the smoking-room. Mr. +Griffenberg was alone there, seated in a big arm-chair with a cigar as +black as a hat and as long as a penholder. + +Falconer wheeled a chair up to him, and, in his blunt fashion, said: + +"You are in this railway scheme of Orme's, Griffenberg?" Mr. +Griffenberg nodded. + +"And you?" + +"Yes," said Falconer, succinctly. "I am joining. I suppose it's all +right; Orme will be able to carry it through?" + +Griffenberg emitted a thick cloud of smoke. + +"It will try him a bit. It's a question of capital--ready capital. I'm +helping him: got his Oriental shares as cover. A bit awkward for me, +for I'm rather pushed just now--that estate loan, you know." + +Falconer nodded. "I know. See here: I'll take those shares from you, if +you like, and if you'll say nothing about it." + +Mr. Griffenberg eyed his companion's rugged face keenly. + +"What for?" he asked. + +Mr. Falconer smiled. + +"That's my business," he said. "The only thing that matters to you is, +that by taking the shares off your hands I shall be doing you a +service." + +"That's true: you shall have 'em," said Mr. Griffenberg; "but I warn +you it's a heavy lot." + +"You shall have a cheque to-morrow," said Mr. Falconer. "Where did you +get that cigar: it takes my fancy?" + +Mr. Griffenberg produced his cigar case with alacrity: he liked Mr. +Falconer's way of doing business. + +At the moment Stafford left the Villa, Ida was standing by the window +in the drawing-room of Heron Hall. On the table beside her lay a book +which she had thrown down with a gesture of impatience. She was too +restless to read, or to work; and the intense quietude of the great +house weighed upon her with the weight of a tomb. + +All day, since she had left Stafford, his words of passionate love had +haunted her. They sang in her ears even as she spoke to her father or +Jessie, or the dogs who followed her about with wistful eyes as if they +were asking her what ailed her, and as if they would help her. + +He loved her! She had said it to herself a thousand times all through +the long afternoon, the dragging evening. He loved her. It was so +strange, so incredible. They had only met three or four times; they had +said so little to each other. Why, she could remember almost every +word. He loved her, had knelt to her, he had told her so in passionate +words, with looks which made her heart tremble, her breath come fast as +she recalled them. That is, he wanted her to be his wife, to _give +herself_ to him, to be with him always, never to leave him. + +The strangeness, the suddenness of the thing overwhelmed her so that +she could not think of it calmly. He had asked her to think of it, to +decide, to give him an answer. Why could she not? She had always, +hitherto, known her own mind. If anyone had asked her a question about +the estate, about the farm, she had known what to answer, important as +the question might have been. But now she seemed as if her mind were +paralyzed, as if she could not decide. Was it because she had never +thought of love; because she had never dreamt that anyone would love +her so much as to want to have her by his side for all his life? + +As she looked through the window at the moonlight on the lawn, she +thought of him; called up the vision of his tall, graceful figure and +handsome face--yes; he was handsome, she knew. But she had scarcely +given a thought to his face; and only felt that it was good to have him +near her, to hear him talk in his deep voice, broken sometimes by the +short laugh which sounded almost boyish. It had been good to have him +near her--But then, she had been so lonely, had seen so few +men--scarcely any at all--Suppose when she met him next she said "No," +told him that she could not love him, and he went away, leaving her +forever; would she be sorry? + +She turned away from the window suddenly, nearly stumbling over Donald, +who was lying at her feet, his nose on his paws, his great eyes fixed +sadly and speculatively on her face, and caught up the book. But _his_ +face came between her and the page, and she put the book down and went +into the hall. + +Her father was in the library, there was no sound in the house to drown +the voice, the passionately pleading voice which rang in her ears. + +"I must go out," she said, "I shall be able to think in the air, shall +be able to decide." + +She caught up a shawl and flung it carelessly over her head, quite +unconscious that the fleecy, rose-coloured wool made an exquisite frame +for the girlish loveliness of her face, and opening the door, went +slowly down the broken, lichen-covered steps, the two dogs following at +her heels. + +She drew in the keen but balmy air with a long breath, and looked up at +the moon, now a yellow crescent in the starry sky; and something in the +beauty of the night, something subtly novel thrilled her with a strange +sense of throbbing, pulsing joy and happiness, underneath which lurked +as subtle a fear and dread, the fear and dread of those who stand upon +the threshold of the unknown; who, in passing that threshold, enter a +world of strange things which they never more may leave. + + +Love: what was it? Did she feel it? Oh, if she could only tell! What +should she say to him when she met him; and when should she meet him? +Perhaps he had come to regret his avowal to her, had been wearied and +disappointed by her coldness, and would not come again! At the thought +her heart contracted as if at the touch of an icy hand. But the next +moment it leapt with a suffocating sense of mystery, of half-fearful +joy, for she saw him coming across the lawn to her, and heard her name, +spoken as it had never yet been spoken excepting by him; and she stood, +still as a statue, as he held out his hand and, looking into her eyes, +murmured her name again. + +"Ida!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +"Ida!" + +It was the lover's cry of appeal, the prayer for love uttered by the +heart that loves; and it went straight to her own heart. + +She put out her hand, and he took it and held it in both his. + +"I have come for your answer," he said in the low voice that thrills; +the voice which says so much more than the mere words. "I could not +wait--I tried to keep away from you until to-morrow; but it was of no +use. I am here, you see, and I want your answer. Don't tell me it is +'No!' Trust me, Ida--trust to my love for you. I will devote my life to +trying to make you happy. Ah, but you know! What is your answer? Have +you thought--you promised me you would think?" + +"I have thought," she said, at last. "I have thought of nothing else--I +wanted to tell you the truth--to tell you truly as I would to +myself--but it is so hard to know--Sometimes when I think that you may +go away, and that I may not see you again, my heart sinks, and I feel, +oh! so wretched." + +He waited for no more, but caught her to him, and as she lay in his +arms only slightly struggling, her face upturned, he bent his own, +almost white with passion, and kissed her on the lips, and not once +only. + +The blood rushed to her face, her bosom rose and fell, and, her face +grown pale again, her eyes gazed up into his half fiercely, half +appealingly; then suddenly they grew moist, as if with tears, her lips +quivered, and from them came, as if involuntarily, the words of +surrender, the maiden confession: + +"I love you!" + +He uttered a low, sharp cry, the expression of his heart's delight, his +soul's triumph. + +"You love me! Ida! How--how do you know--when?" She shook her head and +sighed, as she pressed her cheek against his breast. + +"I don't know. It was just now--the moment when you kissed me. Then it +came to me suddenly--the knowledge--the truth. It was as if a flash of +light had revealed it to me. Oh, yes, I love you. I wish--almost I wish +that I did not, for--it hurts me!" + +She pressed her hand to her heart, and gazed up at him with the wonder +of a child who is meeting its first experience of the strange +commingling of pain and joy. + +He raised her in his arms until her face was against his. + +"I know--dearest," he said, almost in a whisper. "It is love--it is +always so, I think. My heart is aching with longing for you, and yet I +am happy--my God, how happy! And you? Tell me, Ida?" + +"Yes, I am happy," she breathed, with a deep sigh, as she nestled still +closer to him. "It is all so strange--so unreal!" + +"Not unreal, dearest," he said, as they walked under the trees, her +head against his shoulder, his arm round her waist and supporting her. +"It is real enough, this love of mine--which will last me till my +death, I know; and yours?" + +She gazed straight before her dreamily. + +"There can be no heaven without you, without your love," she answered, +with a solemn note in her sweet voice. + +He pressed her to him. + +"And you have thought it all out. You have realised that you will be my +wife--my very own?" + +"Yes," she said. "I know now. I know that I am giving you myself, that +I am placing all my life in your hands." + +"God help me to guard it and make it happy!" he said; then he laughed. +"I have no fear! I will make you happy, Ida! I--I feel that I shall. Do +you understand what I mean? I feel as if I had been set apart, chosen +from all the millions of men, to love you and cherish you and make you +happy! And you, Ida?" + +She looked up at him with the same far-away, dreamy expression in her +wonderful eyes. + +"Now at this moment I felt that I, too, have been set apart for you: is +it because you have just said the same? No, because I felt it when you +kissed me just now. Ah, I am glad you did it! If you had not I might +not have known that I loved you, I might have let you go forever, +thinking that I did not care. It was your kiss that opened my heart to +me and showed me--." + +He bent over her until his lips nearly touched hers. "Kiss me in +return--of your own accord, Ida! But once, if you will; but kiss me!" + +Without a blush, solemnly as if it were a sacrament, she raised her +head and kissed him on the lips. + +There fell a silence. The world around them, in the soft shimmer of the +crescent moon, became an enchanted region, the land that never was on +earth or sea, the land of love, in which all that dwell therein move in +the glamour of the sacred Fire of Love. + +Stafford broke it at last. It is the man who cannot be contented with +silence; he thirsts for his mistress's voice. + +"Dearest, what shall I do? You must tell me," he said, as if he had +been thinking. "I will do whatever you wish, whatever you think best. +I've a strong suspicion that you're the cleverest of us; that you've +got more brains in this sweet little finger of yours than I've got in +my clumsy head--" + +She laughed softly and looked at the head which he had libelled, the +shapely head with its close-cut hair, which, sliding her hand up, she +touched caressingly. + +"Shall I come to your father to-morrow, Ida? I will ride over after +breakfast--before, if you like: if I had my way I'd patrol up and down +here all night until it was a decent time to call upon him." + +She nestled a little closer to him, and her brows came level with +sudden gravity and doubt. + +"My father! I had not thought of him--of what he would say--do. But I +know! He--he will be very angry," she said, in a low voice. + +"Will he? Why?" Stafford asked. "Of course I know I'm not worthy of +you, Ida; no living man is!" + +"Not worthy!" + +She smiled at him with the woman's worship already dawning in her deep +grey eyes. + +"It is I who am not worthy. Why, think! I am only an inexperienced +girl--living the life of a farmer's daughter. We are very poor--oh, you +do not know how poor! We are almost as poor as the smallest tenant, +though we live in this big house, and are still regarded as great +people--the Herons of Herondale." + +"That's one of the things I have been thinking of," said Stafford. +"What lovely hair you have, Ida! It is not often that dark hair is so +soft, is it?" + +He bent down and drew a look, which his caresses had released, across +her lips, and kissed her through it. + +"You are lords of the soil, people of importance and rank here, while +we are--well, just ordinary folk. I can quite understand your father +objecting. Dearest, you are worthy of a duke, a prince--" + +She put her hand up to his lips to silence the lover's extravagant +flattery. + +"It is not that--the difference--which is all to your advantage," she +said. "My father may think of it," she went on with innocent candour. +"But it would be the same if you were of the highest rank. He does not +want me to leave him." + +"And if he were less anxious to keep you he would not give you to me, +who am, in his opinion, and rightly, so much your inferior," said +Stafford. "But I ought to go to him, dearest. I ought to go to-morrow." + +She trembled a little as she nestled against him. "And--and--your +father, Sir Stephen Orme?" she said. "What will he say?" + +Stafford laughed slowly and confidently. + +"Oh, my father? He will be delighted. He's the best of fathers, a +perfect model for parents. Ever since I can remember he has been good +to me, a precious sight better, more liberal and generous, than I +deserved; but lately, since I've known him--Ah, well, I can only say, +dearest, that he will be delighted to hear that I have chosen a wife; +and when he sees you--" + +He stopped and held her at arm's length for a moment and looked down +into the lovely face upturned to his with its sweet, girlish gravity. + +--"Why, he will fall in love with you right out of hand! I think you +will like my father, Ida. He--well, he's a taking sort of fellow; +everybody likes him who knows him--really knows him--and speaks well of +him. Yes, I'm proud of him, and I feel as safe as if he were here to +say, in his hearty, earnest way: 'I wish you good luck, Stafford! And +may God bless you, my dear!'" + +He flushed and laughed as if a little ashamed of his emotional way of +putting it. + +"He's full of--of the milk of human kindness, is my father," he said, +with a touch of simplicity which was one of the thousand and fifteen +reasons why Ida loved him. + +She gazed up at him thoughtfully and sighed. + +"I hope he will like me," she said, all the pride which usually +characterized her melted by her love. "I am sure that I shall like +him--for loving you." + +"You will see," said Stafford, confidently. "He will be as proud as a +duke about you. You won't mind if he shows it a little plainly and +makes a little fuss, Ida? He's--well, he's used to making the most of a +good thing when he has it--it's the life he has led which has rather +got him into the way of blowing a trumpet, you know--and he'll want a +whole orchestra to announce you. But about your father, dearest? Shall +I come to-morrow and ask for his consent?" + +She looked up at him with doubt and a faint trouble in her beautiful +eyes, and he heard her sigh regretfully. + +"I am afraid," she said, in a low voice. + +"Afraid?" He looked at her with a smile of surprise. "If anyone were to +tell me that it was possible for you to be afraid, I shouldn't believe +them," he said. "Fear and you haven't made acquaintance yet, Ida!" + +She shook her head. + +"I am so happy, so intensely happy, that I am afraid lest the gods +should be jealous and snatch my happiness from me. I am afraid that if +you come to-morrow, my father will say 'No,' will--" + +--"Will have me shown out," said Stafford, gravely. "I see. I shouldn't +be surprised." + +"And--and then I should not be able to see you again." + +He laughed at the idea. + +"My dearest, if all the fathers in the world said 'No,' it wouldn't +make any difference to me," he said, with that air of masterfulness, +that flash of the eye which a woman loves in a man. "Do you think I +should give you up, that I should be content to say, 'I'm very sorry, +sir,' and go off--leave you--keep away from you!" He laughed again, +and she nestled a little closer, and her small hand closed a little more +tightly on his arm. "And you wouldn't give me up, refuse to see me, +even if your father withheld his consent, would you, Ida?" he asked. + +She looked straight before her dreamily. Then raised her eyes to his +gravely. + +"No; I could not. It is just that. I could not. Somehow I feel as if I +had given you the right to myself and that nothing could alter it, +nothing could take me away from you!" + +How was it possible for him to refrain from lifting her in his arms and +kissing the sweet, soft lips which made such a confession. + +They walked on for a minute or two in silence, when she went on, as if +she had been still considering the matter: + +"No, you must not come, Stafford. My father is not strong, +and--and--ah! well, you know, you saw him that other night--the first +night we met--do you remember? And he was walking in his sleep again +the other evening. If you were to come--if I were to tell him +that--that you had asked me to be your wife, he might fly into a +passion; it might do him harm. Some time ago, when he was ill, the +doctor told me that he must be kept quite quiet, and that nothing must +be allowed to excite or irritate him. He is very old and leads so +secluded a life--he sees no one now but myself. Oh, how I would like +you to come; how good it would be if--if he would give me to you as +other fathers give their daughters! But I dare not risk it! I cannot! +Stafford"--she put her hands on his breast and looked up at him--"am I +wrong to tell you all this--to let you see how much I love you? Is +it--unmaidenly of me? Tell me if it is, and I will not do so for the +future. I will hide my heart a little better than I am doing at +present. Ah, see, it is on my sleeve!" + +He took her arm and kissed the sleeve where her heart was supposed to +be. + +"I've read that men only love while they are not sure of a woman's +love; that with every two persons it is one who loves and the other who +permits himself or herself to be loved. Is that true, Stafford? If so, +then it is I who love--alas! poor me!" + +He drew her to him and looked into her eyes with a passionate +intensity. + +"It's not true," he said, almost fiercely. "For God's sake don't say +such things. They--they hurt, and hurt badly; they leave a bitter taste +in the mouth, a nasty pang behind. And if it were true--but it isn't, +Ida!--it is I who love. Good Lord! don't you know how beautiful you +are? Haven't you a looking-glass in your room? don't you know that no +girl that ever was born had such wonderful eyes, such beautiful hair? +Oh, my heart's love, don't you know how perfect you are?" + +They had stopped under some trees near the ruined chapel, and she leant +against one of them and looked up at him with a strange, dreamy, +far-away look in her eyes which were dark as the purple amethyst. + +"I never thought about it. Am I--do you think I am pretty? I am glad; +yes I am glad!" + +"Pretty!" he laughed. "Dearest, when I take you away from here, into +the world, as my wife--my wife--the thought sends my blood coursing +through my veins--you will create so great a sensation that I shall be +half wild with pride; I shall want to go about calling aloud: 'She is +my wife; my very own! You may admire--worship her, but she is +mine--belongs to me--to unworthy Stafford Orme!'" + +"Yes?" she murmured, her voice thrilling. "You will be proud of me? Of +me, the poor little country girl who rode about the dales in a shabby +habit and an old hat? Stafford, Jessie was telling me that there is a +very beautiful girl staying at the Villa at Brae Wood--one of the +visitors. Jessie said she was lovely, and that all the men-servants, +and the maids, too, were talking about her. She must be more beautiful +than I am." + +"Which of the women do you mean?" he said, indifferently, with the +supreme indifference which the man who is madly in love feels for every +other woman than the one of his heart. + +"She is a fair girl, with blue eyes and the most wonderful hair; +'chestnut-red with gold in it,' as Jessie described it to me. And she +says that this girl wears the most beautiful diamonds--I am still +quoting Jessie--and other precious stones, and that she is very 'high +and mighty,' and more haughty than any of the other ladies. Who is it?" + +"I think she must mean Miss Falconer--Miss Maude Falconer," said +Stafford, as indifferently as before, as he smoothed one of the silken +tresses on her brow, and kissed it as it lay on his finger. "It is just +the way a slave would describe her." + +"And is she very beautiful?" asked Ida. + +"Yes, I suppose she is," he said. + +"You suppose!" she echoed, arching her brows, but with a frank smile +about her lips, the smile of contentment at his indifference. "Don't +you know?" + +"Well, yes, she is," he admitted. "I've scarcely noticed her. Oh, but +yes, she is; and she sings very well. Yes, I can understand her making +a sensation in the servants' hall--she makes one in the drawing-room. +But she's not my style of beauty. See here, dearest: it doesn't sound +nice, but though I've spent some hours with Miss Falconer and listened +to her singing, I have only just noticed that she is good-looking, and +that she has a wonderful voice: they say up at the Villa that there's +nothing like it on the stage--excepting Patti's and Melba's; but all +the time she has been there I have had another face, another voice, in +my mind. Ever since I saw you, down there by the river, I have had no +eyes for any other woman's face, however beautiful, no ears for any +other woman's voice, however sweet." She was silent a moment, as she +clasped her hands and laid them against his cheek. + +"How strange it sounds! But if you had chanced to see her +first--perhaps you would not have fallen in love with me? How could you +have done so? She is so very lovely--I can see she is, by Jessie's +description." + +He laughed. + +"Even if I had not seen you, there was no chance of my falling in love +with Miss Falconer, dearest," he said, smiling at her gravity and +earnestness. "She is very beautiful, lovely in her way, if you like; +but it is not my way. She is like a statue at most times; at others, +just now and again, like a--well, a sleek tigress in her movements and +the way she turns her head. Oh, there wasn't the least danger of my +falling in love with her, even if I hadn't seen the sweetest and +loveliest girl in all the wide world." + +"And you will feel like that, feel so sure, so certain that you love +me, even though you have seen and will see so many women who are far +more beautiful than I am?" she said, dreamily. + +"Sure and certain," he responded, with a long sigh. "If I were as sure +of your love as I am of mine for you--Forgive me, dearest!" for she had +raised her eyes to his with an earnestness that was almost solemn. + +"You may be sure," she said, slowly. "I shall love you as long as I +live. I know it! I do not know why. I only--feel it. Perhaps we may be +parted--" + +He laughed--but his hand closed on hers, and gripped them tightly. + +--"But I shall always love you. Something has gone out of me--is it my +heart?--and I can never take it back from you. Perhaps you may grow +tired of me--it may be. I have read and heard of such things happening +to women--you may see someone more beautiful than Miss Falconer, +someone who will lead you to forget the little girl who rode through +the rain in Herondale. If so, there will be no need to tell me; no need +to make excuses, or ask for forgiveness. There would be no need to tell +me, for something here"--she drew her hand from his and touched her +bosom--"would tell me. You would only have to keep away from me--that +is all. And I--ah well I should be silent, quite silent." + +"Dearest!" he murmured, reproachfully, and with something like awe, for +her brows were knit, her face was pale as ivory, and her eyes glowed. +"Why do you say this now, just as--as we have confessed our love for +each other? Do you think I shall be faithless? I could almost laugh! As +if any man you deigned to love could ever forget you, ever care a straw +for any other woman!" + +She turned to him with a shudder, a little cry that was tragic in its +intensity, turned to him and clenched her small hands on his breast. + +"Swear to me!" she panted; then, as if ashamed of the passion that +racked her, her eyes dropped and the swift red flooded her face. "No! +you shall not swear to me, Stafford. I--I will believe you love me as I +shall love you forever and forever! But if--if the time should come +when some other girl shall win you from me, promise me that you will +not tell me, that you will just keep away from me! I could bear it +if--if I did not see you; but if I saw you--Oh!"--something like a moan +escaped her quivering lips, and she flung herself upon his breast with +the _abandon_, the unself-consciousness of a child. + +Stafford was moved to his inmost heart, and for a moment, as he held +her within the embrace of his strong arms, he could not command his +voice sufficiently for speech. At last he murmured, his lips seeking +hers: + +"Ida! I swear that I will love you forever and forever!" + +"But--but--if you break your vow, you promise that you will not come to +me--tell me? I shall know. Promise, ah, promise!" + +"Will nothing less content you? Must I?" he said, almost desperate at +her persistence. "Then I promise, Ida!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + +There is something solemn and awe-inspiring in perfect happiness. + +How many times in the day did Ida pull up Rupert and gaze into the +distance with vacant, unseeing eyes, pause in the middle of some common +task, look up from the book she was trying to read, to ask herself +whether she was indeed the same girl who had lived her lonely life at +Herondale, or whether she had changed places with some other +personality, with some girl singularly blessed amongst women. + +Jessie and Jason, even the bovine William, who was reputed the +stupidest man in the dale, noticed the change in her, noticed the touch +of colour that was so quick to mount to the ivory cheek, the novel +brightness and tenderness in the deep grey eyes, the new note, the low, +sweet tone of happiness in the clear voice. Her father only remained +unobservant of the subtle change, but he was like a mole burrowing +amongst his book and gloating secretly over the box which he concealed +at the approach of footsteps, the opening of a door, and the sound of a +voice in a distant part of the house. + +But though the servants remarked the change in their beloved mistress, +they did not guess at its cause; for, by chance rather than design, +none of them had seen Ida and Stafford together. And yet they met +daily. Sometimes Stafford would ride over from Brae Wood and meet her +by the river. There was a hollow there, so deep that it hid not only +themselves but the horses, and here they would sit, hand in hand, or +more often with his arm round her and her small, shapely head with its +soft, but roughened hair, upon his breast. Sometimes he would row +across the lake and they would walk side by side along the bank, and +screened by the trees in which the linnet and the thrush sang the songs +which make a lover's litany; at others--and these were the sweetest +meeting of all, for they came in the soft and stilly night when all +nature was hushed as if under the spell of the one great passion--he +would ride or walk over after dinner, and they would sit in the ruined +archway of the old chapel and talk of their blank past, the magic +present, and the future which was to hold nothing but happiness. + +Love grows fast under such conditions, and the love of these two +mortals grew to gigantic proportions, absorbing the lives of both of +them. To Stafford, all the hours that were not spent with this girl of +his heart were so much dreary waste. + +To Ida--ah, well, who shall measure the intensity of a girl's first +passion? She only lived in the expectation of seeing him, in his +presence and the whispered words and caresses of his love; and, in his +absence, in the memory of them. For her life meant just this man who +had come and taken the heart from her bosom and enthroned his own in +its place. + +They told each other everything. Stafford knew the whole of her life +before they met, all the little details of the daily routine of the +Hall, and her management of the farm; and she learnt from him all that +was going on at the great, splendid palace which in his modesty Sir +Stephen Orme had called the Villa. She liked to nestle against him and +hear the small details of his life, as he liked to hear hers; and she +seemed to know all the visitors at the Villa, and their peculiarities, +as well as if she were personally acquainted with them. + +"You ought not to leave them so much, Stafford." she said, with mock +reproof, as they sat one afternoon in the ballow by the river. "Don't +you think they notice your absence and wonder where you are?" + +"Shouldn't think so," he replied. "Besides, I don't care if they do. +All my worry is that I can't come to you oftener. Every time I leave +you I count up the hours that must pass before I see you again. But I +expect most, if not all, of the visitors will be off presently. Most of +'em have been there the regulation fortnight; a good many come +backwards and forwards; they're the city men, the money men. My father +is closeted with them for hours every day--that big scheme of his seems +to be coming off satisfactorily. It's a railway to some place in +Africa, and all these fellows--the Griffenbergs, and Beltons, that fat +German baron, Wirsch, and the rest of them, are in it. Heaven knows why +my father wants to worry about it for. I heard one of them say that he +calculated to make a million and a half out of it. As if he weren't +rich enough!" + +"A million and a half," she said. "What a large sum it seems. What one +could do with a half, a quarter, a tenth of it!" + +"What would you do, dearest?" he asked. + +She laughed softly. + +"I think that I would first buy you a present. And then I'd have the +Hall repainted. No, I'd get the terrace rails and the portico mended; +and yet, perhaps, it would be better to have the inside of the house +painted and papered. You see, there are so many things I could do with +it, that it's difficult to choose." + +"You shall do 'em all," he said, putting his arm round her. "See here, +Ida, I've been thinking about ourselves--" + +"Do you ever think of anything else? I don't," she said, half +unconsciously. + +--"And I've made up my mind to take the bull by the horns--" + +"Is that meant for my father or yours?" + +"Both," he replied. "We've been so happy this last fortnight--is it a +fortnight ago since I got you to tell me that you cared for me? Lord! +it seems a year sometimes, and at others it only seems a minute!--that +we haven't cared to think of how we stand; but it can't like this +forever, Ida. You see, I want you--I want you all to myself, for every +hour of the day and night instead of for just the few minutes I've the +good luck to snatch. Directly this affair of my governor's is finished +I shall go to him and tell him I'm the happiest, the luckiest man in +the world; I shall tell him everything exactly how we stand--and ask +him to help us with your father." + +Ida sighed and looked grave. + +"I know, dearest," he said, answering the look. "But your father has to +be faced some time, and I--Ida, I am impatient. I want you. Now, as I +daresay you have discovered, I am rather an idiot than otherwise, and +the worst man in the world to carry out anything diplomatically; but my +father--" He laughed rather ruefully. "Well, they say he can coax a +concession out of even the Sultan of Turkey; that there is no one who +can resist him; and I know I shall be doing the right thing by telling +him how we stand." + +She leant her elbows on her knees and her chin in the palms of her +hands. + +"It shall be as you say, my lord and master," she said; "and when you +tell him that you have been so foolish as to fall in love with a little +Miss Nobody, who lives in a ruined tumble-down house, and is as poor +and friendless as a church mouse, do you think he will be +delighted--that the great and all-powerful Sir Stephen Orme will throw +up his hat for joy and consider that you have been very wise?" + +"I think when he sees you--What is that?" he broke off. + +"That" was a lady riding across the moor behind them. She was mounted +on one of the Orme horses, was habited by Redfern, who had done justice +to her superb and supple figure, and the sunlight which poured from +between the clouds fully revealed the statuesque beauty of her face. + +"I know," said Ida, quietly, as she looked at the graceful horsewoman, +at the lithe, full figure, the cold perfection of the Grecian face. +"That is Miss Falconer: it is, is it not?" + +He nodded indifferently. + +"And she has seen us," said Ida. + +"It doesn't matter in the least," said Stafford. "Why shouldn't she? +But I don't think she has; she did not turn her head as she rode by." + +"That is why," said Ida, with her woman's acuteness. "She saw us from +the top of the hill--see, the groom is just riding down." + +She was silent a moment or two, watching Maude Falconer as she cantered +away, then she shivered as if with cold. + +"What is the matter, dearest?" he asked, drawing her to him. "Why did +you shudder?" + +She tried to laugh, but her eyes were grave and almost solemn. "I don't +know. It was as if someone had walked over my grave; as if I felt the +presentiment of some coming evil. I never felt like it before--Yes: she +is very beautiful, Stafford. She is like a picture, a statue--no, that +is not fair; for no picture had ever such magnificent hair, no statue +was ever so full of life and--Oh, I want a word--power. Yes; she is +like a tigress--a tigress asleep and in a good temper just for the +present; but--" + +Stafford laughed, the strong and healthy man's laugh of good-natured +tolerance for the fancies of the woman he loves. + +"My dear Ida, I assure you Miss Falconer is quite an ordinary young +woman with nothing mysterious or uncanny about her. And if she has seen +us, I am rather glad. I--well, I want to take you by the hand and +exclaim aloud to the whole world: 'Behold the treasure I have found! +Look upon her--but shade your eyes lest her beauty dazzle you--and +worship at her feet.' Only a day or two more and I'll tell my father +and have him on our side." + +She made a gesture of consent. + +"It shall be as you will," she murmured again. "But go now, dearest; I +shall have to ride fast to reach home in time to give my father his +tea." + +Maude Falconer cantered easily until she had turned the corner of the +hill and was out of sight of Stafford and Ida, then she pulled up the +high-bred horse who fretted under her steel-like hands and tossed the +foam from his champing lips, pulled up and looked straight before her, +while the colour came and went on her smooth cheek; a sombre fire +gleamed in the usually coldly calm eyes, and her bosom heaved under the +perfect moulding of the riding-habit. She sat and looked before her for +a moment or two as if she were battling with an emotion which +threatened to master her and to find expression in some violent +outburst; but she conquered, and presently rode on to the Villa; and +half an hour later Stafford, coming up the steps, found her lying back +in her favourite chair with a cup of tea in her hand. + +"You are just in time," she said, looking up at him, and he looked back +at her rather vacantly; for Ida had been in his arms too recently, for +his mind, his whole being, to be sufficiently clear of her to permit +him to take any interest in anything else "for tea," she said. "Here it +comes. Shall I pour it out for you? Have you been riding far?" + +"Not very far," he said. "You have been riding, too. Is it a wonder we +did not meet." + +"Yes," she assented, languidly. "I met no one, saw no one, while I was +out. Here comes your shadow," she added, as Tiny, having heard his +beloved master's voice, came helter-skelter, head over heels, and leapt +on Stafford's lap. "How fond he is of you." + +Stafford nodded. + +"Yes; I'm jolly glad no one answered the advertisement for its owner." + +She bent over and stroked the terrier, who always seemed uneasy under +her caress, and her hand touched Stafford's. She glanced at him as it +did so, but the white hand so soft and warm might have been a piece of +senseless wood for all its effect upon him whose soul was still +thrilling with Ida Heron's touch; and with a tightening of the lips, +she took her hand away and leant back, but her eyes still clung to him, +as, all unconscious, he bent over the dog. + +At that moment a carriage drove up, and Mr. Falconer alighted. He came +up the steps, his heavy face grave and yet alert; and his keen eyes +glanced at the pair as they sat side by side. Stafford looked up and +nodded. + +"Glad to see you back, Mr. Falconer," he said, pleasantly. "Stands +London where it did?" + +"Pretty much so, yes," responded Mr. Falconer, grimly. "Yes, plenty of +other thing change, have their day and cease to be, but the little +village keeps its end up and sees things--and men--come and go, flare +up, flicker and fizzle out. No, thanks; I'll have some tea in my room." + +"And like a dutiful daughter, I will go and pour it out for him," said +Maude. + +She rose--Tiny rose also, and barked at her--followed her father to his +room and stood watching him as he took off his frock-coat--he had no +valet--and slowly put on a loose jacket. + + +"Well?" she said, at last. + +He sank into a chair and looked up at her with a sardonic smile on his +face. + +"Yes, I'm back," he said. "I hurried back because Sir Stephen is going +to sign the articles to-night, going to bring the thing to a +conclusion." + +She nodded, her eyes fixed on his hawk-like ones with a calm but keen +watchfulness. + +"And you? Have you--" + +He leant forward, and held out one claw-like hand, open. + +"Yes, I've got him fast and tight." His hand closed, and his eyes shot +a swift, lurid gleam from under their half-lowered lids. "I've got him +as in a vice; I've only to turn the screw and--I squeeze him as flat +and dry as a lemon." She drew a long breath of satisfaction, of relief. + +"You are clever!" she said. "And in one fortnight." + +He smiled grimly. + +"Yes; it is sharp work; and it has taken some doing--and some money. +But I've worked it. Black Steve--I mean Sir Stephen Orme, the great Sir +Stephen--is under my thumb. To-night, the night of his triumph, I am +going to crack him like an egg." + +"You will ruin him?" she said. + +"That is it," he said, with a nod. "I shall ruin him!" + +"Is there no escape?" she asked in a low voice. + +"None," he replied, grimly. "I tell you that nothing can save him." + +"Excepting one thing," she said in so low a voice that it sounded as if +she were speaking to herself. + +"Eh?" he said, as if he had not caught the words. "What is it you mean: +what can save him, what is this one thing?" + +His heavy brows came done, and he frowned at her. + +She raised her eyes, cold and glittering like steel, and met his frown +unflinchingly. + +"The marriage of his son Stafford with your daughter," she said, +slowly, calmly. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + +Mr. Falconer started and stared at her, his heavy face growing a +dust-red, his eyes distended with amazement and anger. + +"Are you out of your mind?" he said at last, and frowning at her in a +kind of perplexity. "'Pon my soul, Maude, I'm never quite certain +whether you are in jest or earnest! If this is intended for a joke, +permit me to tell you I consider it in vilely bad taste." + +"I am not jesting," she said, very quietly, her chin in her hand, her +blue eyes fixed on his unblushingly. "I am in the most sober, the most +serious earnest, I assure you." + +He rose, then sank into the chair again, and sighed impatiently. + +"Do you mean to say that you--that he--Confound it. If ever there was a +man to be pitied, it is the one who has the honour to be your father, +Maude." + +"Why?" she asked, calmly. "Have I not been a dutiful daughter? Have I +ever given you any trouble, deceived you? Am I not perfectly frank with +you at this moment?" He rose and paced to the mantel-shelf, and leaning +against it, looked down upon her, the frown still on his heavy face, +his hands thrust deeply in his pockets. + +"You've always been a puzzle to me," he said, more to himself than to +her. "Ever since you were born I've felt uncertain about you--you're +like your mother. But never mind that. What game is this you're +carrying on?" + +"One in which I mean to win," she replied, slowly, meditatively. "Have +you not seen--How slow to perceive, even you, a reputedly clever man, +can be! I don't suppose there is a woman in the house who has not +detected the fact that I am in love with Stafford Orme, though I have +tried to hide it from them--and you will admit that I am not a bad +actress." + +"In love with Stafford Orme!" His face darkened. "No, I did not know +it. Why---what the devil does he mean by not coming to me!" he broke +out angrily, harshly. + +She smiled. + +"He hasn't come to ask you for me, because--well, he doesn't want me," +she said in a low voice. + +"What!" he exclaimed below his breath. "Do you mean to tell me +that--that--Why, you can't have the shamelessness to care for the man +without--until--" + +She broke in upon his burst of indignation with a low, clear laugh, and +there was no shame in her voice or eyes, as she said: + +"Would it be so shameful if I have? My dear father, you and I should +differ on that point. We are told that we are made for love and to be +loved, that it is our proper and natural destiny. Why, then, should we +be ashamed of it. None of us are in reality; we only pretend to be. It +is part of the world's system of hypocrisy to assume an incapacity for +loving a man until he has asked you; to pretend an utter indifference +until he has said the magic words, 'I love you.' As if love could wait, +ever did wait, ever will! Anyway, mine did not! And I am no different +to other women--only more candid." + +"By Heaven, you make me feel--mad!" he said, with suppressed anger. +"You tell me unblushingly, to my face, that you have fallen in love +with the son of my old enemy, that you want to marry him--you ask me to +help you, to--to forego my just revenge, to use my hold over him as a +lever, to induce him, force him--Good God! have you no sense of right +or wrong, are you utterly devoid of--of modesty, of womanly pride!" + +He glowered down upon her with flushed face and angry eyes; but she was +quite unmoved by his outburst, and still met his gaze steadily, almost +reflectingly. + +"A fortnight ago I should have asked myself that question--and as +angrily as you; but I can't now. It has gone too far." + +"Gone too far! You mean--" + +"That I have grown to love him so much, so dearly, that life without +him--" + +"By God! you will have to live without him, for I'll not help you to +get him," he said, fiercely. "Stafford Orme, Stephen Orme's boy! No! +Put the thing out of your mind, Maude! See here--I don't want to be +angry; I'll take back all I said: you--well, you surprised me, and +shocked me, too, I'll admit--you're a strange girl, and say things that +you don't mean, and in a cold-blooded way that gives me fits. Say no +more about it; put the idea out of your head." + +She laughed, and rose, and gliding to him, put her hand on his arm. + +"My dear father," she said in a low voice, but with a strange and +subtle vibration in it, as if the passion with which she was struggling +threatened to burst forth, "you don't know what you ask; you don't know +what love is--and you don't know what I am! I didn't know myself until +the last few days; until a gradual light shone on the truth and showed +me my heart, the heart I once thought would never grow warm with love! +Oh, I was a fool! I played with fire, and I have been burned. I am +burning still!" She pressed her hand against her bosom, and for an +instant the passion within her darted from her eyes and twisted the +red, perfectly formed lips. Her hand tightened on his arm, her breath +came pantingly, now quickly, now slowly. "Father I have come to you. +Most girls go to their mother. I have none. I come to you because +I--must! You ask me to put the--the idea out of my head." She laughed a +low laugh of self-scorn and bitterness. "Do you think I have not tried +to steel, to harden, my heart against this feeling which has been +creeping insidiously over me, creeping, stealing gliding like a cloud +until it has enveloped me? I have fought against it as never woman +fought against the approach of love. The first day--it was the day he +took me on the lake--ah, you don't remember, but I--Shall I ever forget +it!--the first day my heart went out to him I tried to call it back, to +laugh at my weakness, to call myself a fool! And I thought I had +succeeded in driving the insidious feeling away. But I was wrong. It +was there in my heart already, and day by day, as I saw him, as I heard +him speak, the thing grew until I could not see him cross the lawn, +hear him speak to the dog, without thrilling, without shivering, +shuddering! Father, have pity on me! No, I won't ask for pity! I won't +have it! But I ask, I demand, sympathy, your help! Father," she drew +nearer to him and looked into his eyes with an awful look of +desperation, of broken pride, of the aching craving of love, "you must +help me. I love him, I must be his wife--I cannot live without him, I +will not!" + +He paled and gnawed at his thick lip. + +"You talk like a madwoman," he said, hoarsely. + +She nodded. + +"Yes, I am mad; I know it; I know it! But I shall never be sane again. +All my days and all my nights are consumed in this madness. I think of +him--I call up his face--ah!" She flung her hands before her face and +swayed to and fro as if she were half dazed, half giddy with passion. +"And all day I have to fight against the risk, the peril of discovery. +To feel the women's eyes on me when he comes near, to feel that their +ears are strained to catch the note in my voice which will give me +away, place me under their scorn--and to know that, try as I will, my +voice, my eyes will grow tender as they rest on him, as I speak to him! +To have to hide, to conceal, to crush down my heart while it is aching, +throbbing with the torture of my love for him!" + +He strode from her, then came back. The sight of the storm within her +had moved him: for, after all, this strange girl was his daughter, +flesh of his flesh, bone of his bone. He swore under his breath and +struggled for speech. + +"And--and the man Stafford?" he said. "He--he has not said--D--n it! +you don't mean to tell me that he is absolutely indifferent, that +he--he doesn't care?" + +"I'll tell you the truth," she said. "I swore to myself that I would. +There is too much at stake for me to conceal anything. He +does--not--care for me." + +Ralph Falconer uttered a sharp snarl of shame and resentment. + +"He doesn't? and yet you--you want to marry him!" + +She made a gesture with her hands which was more eloquent than words. + +"Perhaps--perhaps there is someone else? Someone of the other women +here?" he suggested, moodily. + +"Yes, there is someone else," she said, with the same calm decision. +"No, it is not one of the women here; it is a girl in the place; a +farmer's daughter, I think. It is only a _liaison_, a vulgar +intrigue--" + +He uttered an exclamation. + +"And yet _that_ doesn't cure you!" + +She shook her head and smiled. + +"No; my case is incurable. Father, if he were engaged to anyone of the +women here, to someone his equal, I should still love him and want him; +yes, and move heaven and earth to get him. But this is only a +flirtation with some country girl--she meets him on the hill-side by +the river--anywhere. I have seen them, at a distance, once or twice. +She is of no importance. She has caught his fancy, and will soon fail +to hold it." + +She waved her hand as if she were moving the obstacle aside. Her father +stared at her in a kind of stupefaction. + +"My girl, don't you know what you are asking for? A life of +wretchedness and misery; the hell of being married to a man who doesn't +love you." + +She laughed and drew herself up, her eyes flashing, a warm glow on her +cheeks. + +"Who doesn't love me! Not now, perhaps; but do you think I should not +teach him to love me, make him love me? Look at me, father!" + +He looked at her reluctantly, in a kind of dazed admiration and +resentment. + +"Do you think any man could resist me if I set my mind upon winning +him? No! Oh, it's not the language of hysterical vanity! I know my +power; every woman knows how far her power will go. Let me have him to +myself for one week, and--" She caught her breath. "Love! Yes, he shall +return mine tenfold! I will teach him!" She caught her breath again and +pressed her hands to her bosom. "Don't be afraid, father, I will take +care of the future. Help me in the present; help me as I have asked +you!" + +"By God, you ask too much!" he said, sternly, fiercely. + +She stood and looked at him. The colour slowly left her face until it +was white as death, the light faded from her eyes until they were dull +and lifeless, the red of her lips paled and the lips themselves relaxed +and drooped, and as he looked at her a ghastly fear smote his heart and +a question shot into and a question shot into his eyes. She inclined +her head as if he had put the question in words. + +"Yes," she said. "I shall die. You remember my mother? I shall follow +her--" + +He uttered a low, hoarse cry, and caught her hands and held them; then +he flung them from him, and standing with his back to her, said, +thickly, as if every word were forced from him: + +"You shall have your way! You always have had, like your mother before +you--you always will. But mark my words: you'll live to curse the hour +you forced me to do this!" + +She drew a long breath--it was almost a sigh--of relief, and she laid +her hands on his arms and kissed him on the forehead. + +"I'll risk that," she said, with a tremulous laugh. + +There was a silence for a moment, then she said, calmly: + +"You will play your part carefully, father? You will let Sir Stephen +think that Stafford desires it: you will be careful?" + +He turned upon her with an oath. + +"You'd best leave it to me," he said, savagely. "I'll try and save you +from shame all I can. For God's sake go and leave me alone!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +While Stafford was dressing for dinner that night, and wondering +whether even if he should get an opportunity of speaking to his father, +it would be wise to tell him of Ida, Howard knocked at the door. +Stafford told him to come in, and sent Measom away, and Howard, who was +already dressed, sank into an easy-chair and surveyed his friend with +bland approval. + +"A white tie to-night, Staff? Anything on?" + +"Yes; there is a dance," replied Stafford, rather absently. What would +his father say and do? Would he go over to Heron Hall the next morning? +Yes, that is what he would do! + +"A dance? Is that all? From the undercurrent of suppressed excitement +animating most of the guests I should think it was something more +important. Have you noticed the air of suspense, of fluctuating hope +and doubt, triumph and despair which has characterized our noble band +of financiers during the last few days?" + +Stafford shook his head. + +"No; I haven't noticed 'em particularly. In fact, I scarcely see them, +or do more than exchange the usual greetings. They seem to me to move +and look and speak just about as usual." Howard smiled. + +"To be young and happy and free from care is to be blind: puppies, for +instance, are blind!" + +Stafford grinned. + +"That's complimentary, anyhow. What do you think is up?" + +"I think Sir Stephen is going to pull off his great event, to make his +grand _coup_," said Howard. "So you find a black-and-tan terrier +improves a dress-coat by lying on it?" + +Tiny had coiled himself up on that garment, which Measom had laid ready +on the chair, and was lying apparently asleep, but with his large eyes +fixed on his beloved master. + +"Oh, he's a peculiar little beast, and is always getting where he +shouldn't be. Hi! young man, get off my coat!" + +He picked the terrier up and threw him softly on the bed, but Tiny got +down at once and curled himself up on the fur mat by Stafford's feet. + +"Seems to be fond of you: strange dog!" said Howard. "Yes, I think Sir +Stephen's 'little scheme'--as if any scheme of his could be +'little'!--has worked out successfully, and I shouldn't be surprised if +the financiers had a meeting to-night and the floating of the company +was announced." + +"Oh," said Stafford, as he got into his coat. "Yes, I daresay it's all +right. The governor seems always to pull it off." + +Howard smiled. + +"You talk as if an affair of thousands of thousands, perhaps millions, +were quite a bagatelle," he said. "My dear boy, don't you understand, +realise, the importance of this business? It's nothing less than a +railway from--" + +Stafford nodded. "Oh, yes, you told me about it. It's a very big +thing, I daresay, but what puzzles me is why the governor should care +to worry about it. He has money enough--" + +"No man has money enough," said Howard, solemnly. "But no matter. It is +a waste of time to discuss philosophy with a man who has no mind above +fox-hunting, fishing, pheasant-shooting, and dancing. By the way, how +many times do you intend to dance with the Grecian goddess?" + +"Meaning--" said Stafford. + +"Miss Falconer, of course. Grecian goddesses are not so common, my dear +Stafford, as to permit of more than one in a house-party." + +"I'm sure I don't know," replied Stafford, eyeing him with faint +surprise. "What the devil made you ask me that?" + +Howard eyed the handsome face with cynical amusement. + +"Pardon, if I was impertinent; but I assure you the question is being +asked amongst themselves by all the women in the house--" + +Stafford stared at him and began to frown with perplexity rather than +anger. + +"My dear Stafford, I know that you are not possessed of a particularly +brilliant intellect, but you surely possess sufficient intelligence to +see that your attentions to Miss Falconer are somewhat obvious." + +"What?" said Stafford. "My attentions to Miss Falconer--Are you +chaffing, Howard?" + +"Not in the least: it's usually too great a waste of time with you, my +dear boy: you don't listen, and when you do, half the time you don't +understand. No, I'm quite serious; but perhaps I ought to have said her +attentions to you; it would have been more correct." + +Stafford coloured. + +"Look here, old man," he said. "If you think--Oh, dash it all, what +nonsense it is! Miss Falconer and I are very good friends; and of +course I like to talk to her--she's so sharp, almost as smart and +clever as you are, when she likes to take the trouble; and of course I +like to hear her sing--Why, my dear Howard, it's like listening to one +of the big operatic swells; but--but to suggest that there is +anything--that--there is any reason to warn me--Oh, dash it! come off +it, old man, you're chaffing?" + +"Not in the least. But I didn't intend any warning: in fact, I am in +honour bound to refrain from anything of the kind--" + +"In honour bound?" said Stafford. + +Howard almost blushed. + +"Oh, it's nothing; only a silly wager," he said. "I can't tell you, so +don't enquire. But all the same--well, there, I won't say more if you +are sure there is nothing between you." + +"I have the best of reasons for saying so," said Stafford, carelessly, +and with a touch of colour in his face. "But it's all dashed nonsense! +The women always think there's something serious going on if you dance +twice with a girl, or sit and talk to her for half an hour." + +"Right!" said Howard, rising. "There's the bell!" + +As Howard had said, there was an air of suppressed excitement about the +people; and it was not confined to the financiers who clustered +together in the hall and discussed and talked in undertones, every now +and then glancing up the stairs down which Sir Stephen would presently +descend. Most of the other guests, though they had no direct and +personal interest in the great scheme, more or less had heard rumours +and come within reflective radius of the excitement; as for the rest, +who knew nothing or cared less for Sir Stephen's railway, they were in +a pleasant condition of excitement over the coming dance. + +Stafford, as he stood in the hall talking about the night's programme +to Bertie--who had been elected, by common and tacit consent, master of +the ceremonies--saw Maude Falconer descending the stairs. She was even +more exquisitely dressed than usual; and Stafford heard some of the +women and men murmur admiringly and enviously as she swept across the +hall in her magnificent ball-dress; her diamonds, for which she was +famous, glittering in her hair, on her white throat, and on her slender +wrists. The dress was a mixture of grey and black, which would have +looked _bizarre_ on anyone else less beautiful; but its strange tints +harmonised with her superb and classic class of beauty, and she looked +like a vision of loveliness which might well dazzle the eyes of the +beholders. + +She paused in her progress--it might almost be called a triumphant one, +for the other women's looks were eloquent of dismay--and looked at +Stafford with the slow, half-dreamy smile which had come into her face +of late when she spoke to him. + +"Have you seen my father? Has he come down, Mr. Orme?" she asked. + +"No," said Stafford. He looked at her, as a man does when he admires a +woman's dress, and forgetting Howard's words of warning, said: "What a +splendacious frock, Miss Falconer!" + +"Do you like it? I am glad," she said. "I had my doubts, but now--" + +Her eyes rested on his for a moment, then she passed on. + +"I shouldn't like to have to pay Miss Falconer's dress bill," remarked +a young married woman, looking after her. "That 'frock' as you call it, +in your masculine ignorance, must have cost a small fortune." + +Stafford laughed. + +"We men always put our foot in it when we talk about a woman's dress," +he said. + +A moment after, the dinner was announced, and Sir Stephen, who had come +down at the last moment, as he went up to take in Lady Clansford, +nodded to Stafford, and smiled significantly. He was as carefully +dressed as usual, but on his face, and in his eyes particularly, was an +expression of satisfaction and anticipatory triumph which was too +obvious to escape the notice of but very few. He was not "loud" at +dinner, but talked even more fluently than usual, and once or twice his +fine eyes swept the long table with a victorious, masterful glance. + +Directly the ladies had gone, the little knot of financiers drew up +nearer to their host, and Griffenberg raised his eyebrows +interrogatively. + +Sir Stephen nodded. + +"Yes," he said, in an undertone. "It's all right! I heard this morning. +My man will be down, with the final decision, by a special train which +ought to land him about midnight. We'll meet in the library, say at +half past twelve, and get the thing finished, eh, baron?" + +Wirsch grunted approval. + +"Vare goot, Sare Stephen; dee sooner a ting ees congluded, de bedder. +'Arf bast dwelve!" + +There was but a short stay made in the drawing-room, and before ten +o'clock the guests streamed into the magnificent ball-room. + +There were a number of the neighbouring gentry who were making their +acquaintance with the Villa for the first time, and they regarded the +splendour around them with an amazement which was not without reason; +for to-night the artistically designed and shaded electric lamps, the +beautiful rooms with their chaste yet effective decorations, on which +money had been lavished like water, were seen to their greatest +advantage; and the Vaynes, the Bannerdales, and the local gentry +generally exchanged glances and murmured exclamations of surprise and +admiration, and wondered whether there could be any end to the wealth +of a man who could raise such a palace in so short a time. + +From the gallery of white-and-gold the famous band, every man of which +was a musician, presently began to send forth the sweet strains of a +Waldteufel waltz, and Stafford found Lady Clansford for the first +dance. Though he had paid little attention to Howard's remarks about +Maude Falconer, he remembered them, and he did not ask her for a dance +until the ball had been running about an hour; then he went up to where +she was standing talking to Lord Bunnerdale, her last partner. His +lordship and Stafford had already met, and Lord Bannerdale, who admired +and liked Stafford, nodded pleasantly. + +"I was just saying to Miss Falconer that I wish Fate had made me a +great financier instead of a country squire, Orme! By Jove! this place +is a perfect--er--dream; and, when I think of my damp old house--" + +"What frightful language!" said Stafford. + +Lord Bannerdale laughed. + +"If Miss Falconer had not been present, I might just as well have used +the other word. I say I can't help envying your father that magician's +wand with which he manages to raise such marvels. I'm going to find him +and tell him so!" + +"A dance?" said Maude, as Stafford proffered his request. "Yes, I have +one, only one; it is this." + +He put his arm round her, and as he did so her eyes half closed and her +lip quivered at his touch. Stafford waltzed well, and Maude was far and +away the best dancer in the room; they moved as one body in the slow +and graceful modern waltz, and Stafford, in the enjoyment of this +perfect poetry of motion, forgot everything, even his partner; but he +came back from his reverie as she suddenly paused. + +"Are you tired?" he asked. "By George! how perfectly you waltz! I've +never enjoyed a dance more." + +A faint colour rose to her face--it had been very pale a moment +before--and she looked at him with an earnestness which rather puzzled +him. + +"They say that to agree in waltzing is an unfortunate thing for those +who wish to be friends." + +"Do they?" he said, with a smile. "I wonder who it is says all those +silly things? Now, what nonsense this one is, for instance! To enjoy a +dance as I've just enjoyed this, puts a man in a good temper with +himself and his partner; and, of course, makes him feel more friendly. +I'm not a good logician, but that sounds all right, doesn't it?" + +"Yes," she said in a low voice. "No, I won't dance any more. I--I am a +little tired to-night and disinclined for dancing." + +"All right," he said. "I'm sorry--both that you won't dance and the +cause. You have been doing too much to-day--too long a ride, I expect. +These hills are rather trying to those who are not used to them. Shall +we go and sit in that recess? I'll bring you some wine--" + +"No, thanks," she said, quickly; she could not bear him to leave her. + +He led her to one of the recesses leading on to the fernery, and found +her a seat near a softly plashing fountain. The lights were shaded with +rose-coloured silk and threw a soft, warm glow upon her face and snowy +neck. + +For the hundredth time, as he looked at her, he thought how beautiful +she was, and for the hundredth time compared her to Ida, of course to +his sweetheart's advantage. She leant back in the luxurious lounge with +her eyes bent on her jewelled fan, and seemed lost in thought. Then +suddenly she said: + +"Do you know how long we have been here, Mr. Orme? It is a tremendous +time. I told my father to-night that we must take our departure." + +"Oh, no!" he said. "Pray don't think of it--if you care to stay, if you +are happy. You would be a very serious loss to us." + +"If I care--if I am happy!" She laughed a low, strange laugh and raised +her eyes to his for an instant. "Do you think I have not been happy?" + +"Oh, I hope so," he said. "My father would be awfully cut up if he +thought you had not: if he thought there had been anything to prevent +your being happy he would remove it even if it--it were one of those +mountains outside," he added, with a laugh. + +"You admire your father?" she said. "You--are fond of him?" + +Stafford nodded. It seemed an unnecessary question. + +"Rather!" he said. "There never was such a father as mine!" + +"And Sir Stephen thinks there never was such a son as his," she said in +a low voice. "I suppose you are both quite willing to make sacrifices +for each other. Would you do--would you give up much for your father, +Mr. Orme?" + +She raised her eyes again, and let them rest on his. + +Stafford tried to smile, but his face grew grave. + +"Just my life, if it were any use to him," he said. + +Her lips moved. + +"That is so little!" she said. "We can all die for those we love, but +few of us can live for them--go on living a life which has to be +moulded to a plan, bent on another's will--Could you do that?" + +"Yes," he said, after a pause. "There is no sacrifice I would not make +for my father's sake; but"--he laughed and cleared the gravity from his +brow--"all the sacrifice seems to be on his side. He has worked for me +all his life, is working still, I'm afraid--Here is _your_ father, Miss +Falconer; and looking for you, I'm afraid." + +Ralph Falconer stood in the doorway looking round, his heavy face +seeming heavier than usual, his thick lips drooping. As he saw the two +young people, his lips straightened and he went over to them slowly. + +"I hope you are not going to take Miss Falconer away, sir?" said +Stafford. + +Ralph Falconer shook his head, and, avoiding his daughter's eye, said: + +"Sir Stephen wants to see you in the library, Mr. Orme, and wishes me +to accompany you." + +"Certainly, if Miss Falconer will excuse me." + +He rose, and he fancied her hand trembled slightly as it rested almost +as lightly as a feather on his arm. + +"I'll take you to Lady Clansford--" + +"There is no need: here is my next partner," she said, as the +"beautiful, bountiful Bertie" came up smiling and buoyant. + +"Anything the matter, sir?" asked Stafford, as he and Falconer made +their way round the room through which was floating the last thing in +waltzes, a soft and sensuous melody which sang the soul to rest. + +"I think not. A matter of business, I think," said Ralph Falconer. "His +secretary, Mr. Murray, has just come from London: it may be something +to do with the papers he had brought." + +Stafford nodded, though the explanation seemed unsatisfactory: for what +concern had Stafford with the "papers"? As they went through the hall +they saw the financiers clustered together with an expectant air, as if +they were waiting for the result of the arrival of the man by the +special train; and they stared at Falconer and exchanged glances as he +and Stafford passed them and went to the library door. + +Sir Stephen's voice came cheerily in response to Stafford's knock, and +Stafford entered; Falconer following him with bent head and the same +heavy look. + +Sir Stephen was sitting at the table before a despatch box, and he held +out his hand and uttered a little cry of pleasure as he saw who it was. + +"Stafford, my boy! You could not have come at a better moment--Don't +go, Falconer! I'd like you to hear me tell him the good news. I've got +it here!" + +He patted the despatch case. "This is Pandora's box, Staff! With +something better than Hope at the bottom: Certainty!" + +He laughed quietly, confidently, and his bright eyes flashed under +their dark brows from one to the other. + +"Murray has just arrived, Falconer, with the good news!" he took out +the gold chain to which the key of the despatch box was fastened, and +inserted it in the lock. "The good news, Staff! I haven't bothered and +bored you with details; but you know, my dear boy, that I have had a +big scheme on hand for some time past--a very big scheme. It has been +rather a touch-and-go business, but I think I have managed to pull it +off--eh, Falconer? The last day or two has been one of suspense--great +suspense--but success has come. You don't care for money, Staff, I +know. Nor do I. Honestly, no! Not for the mere money, but for what it +can buy and bring. But even you will have some respect for a million +and a half, Staff." + +He laughed. + +"A large sum, and this means more than money. There ought to be +something in the way of an honour--" + +Falconer nodded. + +"_If_ the scheme is successful, your father will be a peer of the +realm, Mr. Stafford," he said drily, with an emphasis on the "if." + +"_If!_" echoed Sir Stephen, laughing and nodding. Stafford could see by +the brilliance of his eyes, the flush on his face, that he was excited +and was struggling with excitement. "If!" + +Falconer nodded at the despatch-case, and, with another bantering +laugh, Sir Stephen opened it and took out a large envelope. He held +this for a moment poised between finger and thumb, then he tore it open +and took out a sheet of paper, and turned his flashing eyes from the +two men to the document. + +He rose for a moment with the smile still on his face; then they saw it +fade, saw the flush slowly disappear, and in its place a dull grey +steal over the face. + +Stafford, startled, went round to him and laid a hand on his shoulder. + +"What is the matter, sir?" he asked. "Bad news?" + +Sir Stephen looked at him as if he did not see him, then turned his +eyes upon Falconer, who stood regarding him with a fixed, sardonic +gaze. + +"Hast thou found me, oh, mine enemy?" came at last from Sir Stephen's +white lips. + +Stafford looked from one to the other. + +"What--what on earth is the matter? What do you mean?" he said. + +Sir Stephen raised his hand and pointed to Ralph Falconer. + +"This--this man!" he gasped; then he shook his head impatiently, as if +he were fighting against his weakness. "This man Falconer has betrayed +me!" + +Stafford drew himself up, as he stood by his father's side, and eyed +Falconer sternly. + +"Will you explain, Mr. Falconer?" he said. + +"Certainly," said Falconer, with a grim calmness. "Your father uses +unwarrantably strong language, Mr. Orme, for an action of mine which is +quite a common one amongst business men." + +"No!" gasped Sir Stephen, as he sank back into the chair. "Treachery is +not common--" + +"Treachery is the wrong word," said Falconer, as coldly as before. +"Better let me explain to Mr. Stafford. I can do so in a few words, Mr. +Orme. The fact is, your father and I have been, quite unknown, to each +other, engaged in the same scheme. It is nothing more nor less than the +acquisition of certain land and rights which carry with them the +privilege of constructing a railway in the most promising part of South +Africa--" + +Sir Stephen leant forward, his head on his hands, his eyes fixed on the +heavy, stolid face of the speaker, the face which the keen, hawk-like +eyes flashed under the lowered lids with a gleam of power and triumph. + +--"Your father had reason to hope that he would acquire those lands and +rights; he did not know that I had been waiting for some years past to +obtain them. If knowledge is power and money, ignorance is impotence +and ruin. My knowledge against your father's ignorance has given me the +victory. Last night I gained my point: the news to that effect is no +doubt contained in that document. It was a question of price--it always +is. I knew your father's bid, and--I went a few thousands higher and +got the prize. That's the story in a nutshell. Of course there are a +number of complications and details, but I spare you them; in fact, I +don't suppose you understand them. It is a mere matter of business" + +"No, of revenge!" said Sir Stephen's hollow voice. "Stafford, years ago +I did this man a wrong. I--I have repented; I would have made +atonement, reparation; but he put the offer aside. Here, in this house, +he professed to have forgiven and forgotten--professed friendship. It +was a piece of treachery and deceit; under that specious mask, behind +that screen, he has worked my ruin!" + +"Ruin!" said Stafford, in a low voice. "Surely you exaggerate, father! +You mean that you will lose a lot of money--Oh, I can understand that, +of course. But not ruin!" + +"Yes, _ruin!_" said Sir Stephen, hoarsely. "If you doubt it, look at +him!" + +Falconer was standing with a sardonic smile in his eyes. + +Stafford started. + +"Is this true, Mr. Falconer?" + +Falconer was silent for a moment, then he said, slowly, grimly: + +"In a sense--yes. Your father's fate lies in my hands." + +"In your hands!" echoed Stafford, with amazement. + +Sir Stephen groaned and rose, supporting himself by the arm of the +chair. + +"It is true, Stafford. He--he has planned it with the skill of a +general, a Napoleon! I see it all now, it is all plain to me. You held +my shares and securities, of course, Falconer?" + +Falconer nodded. + +"Of course!" he said, drily. + +"And you have run them down to meet this scheme of yours." + +"Yes, of course!" said Falconer, again. "My dear Steve--Sir +Stephen--pardon!--your fate, as I have said, is in my hands. It is +simply a matter of tit-for-tat. You had your turn some years ago out +there"--he waved his hand. "It is my turn now. You can't complain. Do +you admit the justice of the thing?" + +Sir Stephen sank into a chair and covered his face with his hands for a +moment, then he looked up at Stafford. + +"He's right. It was his turn. He has taken it--and with it every penny +I possess. It means ruin--complete ruin! Worse even than the loss of +every penny; for--for--I--God help me!--can't afford to go into court +and have the past raked up--And he knows it--he knows it, Stafford!" + +The sight of the old man's anguish almost drove Stafford mad. + +"Have you no mercy, sir?" he said to Falconer. "Grant that my father +had injured you--isn't this rather too awful a revenge to exact? +I--I--I--don't understand all that I have heard; but--but"--an oath +broke from his hot lips--"will nothing less than the ruin of my father +satisfy you?" + +Falconer looked from one to the other and moistened his lips, while his +hands gripped each other behind his back. + +"I think you have misunderstood me," he said, in a dry, harsh voice; "I +have no intention of ruining your father or of depriving him of his +good name. Mind! if I did I should only be taking my pound of flesh: +and I may tell you that before I entered this house this afternoon I +had resolved to have it. But I heard something that induced me to +change my mind." + +Sir Stephen leant forward, his eyes fixed eagerly on the speaker, and +Stafford in his anxiety held his breath and pressed his father's +shoulder encouragingly. + +"You heard something, sir?" Stafford asked, as calmly as he could. + +Mr. Falconer was silent for a moment, then he said: + +"Yes. I heard that you were desirous of marrying my daughter, Maude, +Mr. Orme; and I need not say that a man does not ruin his son-in-law!" + +There was an intense silence. Stafford stood as if he were turned to +stone, as if he were trying to persuade himself that he had +misunderstood the meaning of Falconer's words. Marry Maude +Falconer--he! Was he dreaming, or was this man, who stood regarding him +with cold, glittering eyes, mad! + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + +We do not, nowadays, strike attitudes, or ejaculate and swear when we +are startled or shocked; Stafford stood perfectly still, still as a +piece of Stonehenge, and gazed with an expressionless countenance at +Mr. Falconer. That the man was indeed and in truth mad, occurred to him +for a moment; then he thought there must be some mistake, that Mr. +Falconer had made a blunder in the name, and that it was a case of +mistaking his man. + +But as the moments fled, and the two elder men gazed at him, as if +expecting him to speak, he remembered Howard's warning. The colour +rushed to his face and his eyes dropped. Merciful Heaven! was the man +speaking the truth when he said that he, Stafford, was in love with +Maude Falconer? His face was hot and scarlet for a moment, then it grew +pale under the shame of the thought that he should have to correct the +impression; decline, so to speak, the implied honour. + +Sir Stephen was the first to speak. He had sunk back in his chair, but +was now leaning forward again, his hands gripping the table. +"Stafford!" he said, still thickly, but with the beginning of a note of +relief in his voice. "I did not know this--you did not tell me!" + +Stafford turned to him helplessly. What could he say--before Falconer, +the girl's father? + +"You did not tell me. But I don't complain, my boy," said Sir Stephen." +You were right to choose your own time--young people like to keep their +secret to themselves as long as possible." + +Falconer looked from one to the other with an impassive countenance. + +"I feel that I am rather _de trop_," he said; "that I have spoken +rather prematurely; but my hand was forced, Orme. I wanted to set your +mind at rest, to show you that even if I hankered after revenge, it was +impossible under the circumstances." He glanced at Stafford. "It's not +the first time in history that the young people have played the part of +peace-makers. This is a kind of Romeo and Juliet business, isn't it? +I'll leave you and Mr. Stafford to talk it over!" + +He moved to the door, but, with his hand upon it, paused and looked +round at them again. + +"I ought to aid that, like most modern fathers, I am entirely in the +hands of my daughter. I can't go so far as to say, Orme, that if I had +been permitted to choose, I should have chosen a son of yours for my +son-in-law, but, you see, Maude doesn't give me the option. The young +people have taken the bit between their teeth and bolted, and it seems +to me that the only thing we have to do is to sit tight and look as +cheerful as possible. Oh, one word more," he added, in a business-like +tone. "Of course I make over this concession to you, Orme; just taking +the share I should have received if you had won the game and I had only +stood in as proposed. That is to say, you will be in exactly the same +position as if you had won all along the line--as you thought you had." +And with a nod, which included father and son, he went out. + +Stafford unconsciously drew back a little, so that he was almost behind +Sir Stephen, who had covered his eyes with his hands and sat perfectly +motionless, like a half-stunned man looking back at some terrible +danger from which he had only escaped by the skin of his teeth. Then he +dropped his hands from his face and drew a long breath, the kind of +breath a man draws who has been battling with the waves and finds +himself on the shore, exhausted but still alive. + +Stafford laid a hand on his shoulder, and Sir Stephen started and +looked up at him as if he had forgotten his presence. A flush, as if of +shame, came upon the great financier's face, and he frowned at the +papers lying before him, where they had dropped from his hand. + +"What an escape, Stafford!" he said, his voice still rather thick and +with a tremour of excitement and even exhaustion in its usually clear +and steady tone. "I am ashamed, my boy, that you should have been a +witness to my defeat: it humiliates, mortifies me!" + +"Don't let that worry you, father," said Stafford, scarcely knowing +what he said, for the tumult in his brain, the dread at his heart. + +"It is not the first defeat I have suffered in my life; like other +successful men, I have known what it is to fall; and I have laughed and +got up and shaken the dust off myself, so to speak, and gone at the +fight again, all the harder and more determined because of the reverse. +But this--this would have crushed me utterly and forever." + +"Do you mean that it would have ruined you completely, father?" said +Stafford. + +"Completely!" replied Sir Stephen in a low voice, his head drooping. "I +had staked everything on this venture, had staked even more than I +possessed. I cannot explain all the details, the ramifications, of the +scheme which I have been working. You could not understand them if I +were to talk to you for a week. Suffice it, that if I had failed to get +this concession, I should have been an utterly ruined man, should have +had to go through the bankruptcy court, should have been left without a +penny. And not only that: I should have dragged a great many of the +men, of the friends who had trusted to my ability, who have believed in +me, into the same pit; not only such men as Griffenberg and Wirsch and +the Beltons, but the Plaistows, the Clansdales, and the Fitzharfords. +They would have suffered with me, would have, considered themselves +betrayed." + +Stafford drew a long breath. There seemed to him still a chance of +saving himself, the girl he loved, above all--his honour. + +"But even if it were so, father," he said; "other men have failed, +other men have been defeated, ruined, and left penniless, and yet have +risen and shaken the dust from them and fought their way again to the +heights. You're not an old man, you are strong and clever, and you are +not alone." he said, in a lower voice. "I'm not much use, I know. But +I'll try and help you all I can. I've often felt ashamed of myself for +living such an idle, useless life; often felt that I ought to do +something to justify my existence. There's a chance now; at any rate, +there's an occasion, a necessity for my waking up and stepping into the +ring to do a little fighting on my own account. We may be beaten by Mr. +Falconer; but don't say we're utterly crushed. That doesn't sound like +you, sir; and I don't understand why you should chuck up the sponge so +quickly." + +Sir Stephen raised his head and looked at Stafford with a curious +expression of mingled surprise and apprehension. + +"What is it you are saying, Stafford?" he asked. "What is it you mean? +I don't understand. We're not beaten; Ralph Falconer has offered to +make the concession over to me; and no one need know that I have +failed, that he had stolen the march on me. You heard what he said: +that you were in love with his daughter Maude, and that of course he +could not injure his future son-in-law. Stafford!" He sprang to his +feet and began to pace up and down the room. "I know that this has +touched your pride--I can give a pretty good guess as to how proud you +are--but, for God's sake! don't let your pride stand in the way of this +arrangement." + +"But--" Stafford began; for he felt that he could not longer keep back +the truth, that his father must be told not only that there was nothing +between Maude and himself, but that he loved Ida Heron. + +But before he could utter another word Sir Stephen stopped before him, +and with hands thrown out appealingly, and with a look of terror and +agony in his face, cried in broken accents: + +"If you going to raise any obstacle, Stafford, prompted by your pride, +for God's sake, don't say the word! You don't know, you don't +understand! You speak of ruin as if it meant only the loss of money, +the loss of every penny." He laughed almost hysterically, and his lips +twitched. "Do you think I should care for that, except for your sake? +No, a thousand times, no! I'm young still, I could begin the world +again! Yes, and conquer it as I have done before; but"--his voice sank, +and he look round the room with a stealthy glance which shocked and +startled Stafford--"the ruin Ralph Falconer threatens me with means +more than the loss of money. It means the loss of everything! Of +friends, of good name--of hope!" + +Stafford started, and his face grew a trifle hard; and Sir Stephen saw +it and made a despairing, appealing gesture with his hand. + +"For God's sake don't turn away from me, my boy; don't judge me +harshly. You can't judge me fairly from your standpoint; your life has +been a totally different one from mine, has been lived under different +circumstances. You have never known the temptations to which I have +been subjected. Your life has been an easy one surrounded by honour, +while mine has been spent half the time grubbing in the dust and the +mire for gold, and the rest fighting--sometimes with one hand tied +behind me!--against the men who would have robbed me of it. I have had +to fight them with their own weapons--sometimes they haven't been +clean--sometimes it has been necessary to do--to do things!--God! +Stafford, don't turn away from me! I would have kept this from you if I +could, but I am obliged to tell you now. Ralph Falconer knows all the +details of my past, he knows of things which--which, if they were known +to the world, would stain the name I have raised to honour, would make +it necessary for me to hide my head in a suicide's grave." + +A low cry burst from Stafford's lips, and he sank into a chair, and +bowed his head upon his hands. + +Sir Stephen stood a little way off and looked at him for a minute, then +he advanced slowly, half timidly and ashamedly, and laid a trembling +hand on Stafford's shoulder. + +"Forgive me, Stafford!" he said, in a low, broken voice. "I was obliged +to tell you. I'd have kept it from you--you would never have known--but +Falconer has forced my hand; I was bound to show you how necessary it +was that we should have him as friend instead of foe. You are +not--ashamed of me, my boy; you won't go back on me?" + +In the stress and strain of his emotion the old digger's slang came +readily to his lips. + +Stafford took one hand from his face and held it out, and his father +grasped it, clinging to it as a drowning man clings to a rock. + +"God bless you, my boy!" he said. "I might have known you wouldn't turn +your back upon me; I might have known that you'd remember that I wasn't +fighting for myself only, but for the son I'm so proud of." + +"I know, I know, sir," said Stafford, almost inaudibly. + +Sir Stephen hung his hand, released it, and paced up and down the room +again, fighting for composure, and facing the situation after the +manner of his kind. Like all successful adventurers, he was always +ready to look on the bright side. He came back to Stafford and patted +him gently on the shoulder. + +"Try and forget what I said, about--about the past, Stafford," he said. +"Let us look at the future--your future. After all, we're not beaten! +It's a compromise, it's an alliance!" His voice grew more cheerful, his +eyes began to brighten with something of their wonted fire. "And it's a +bright future, Staff! You've chosen a beautiful girl, a singularly +beautiful and distinguished-looking girl--it's true she's only Ralph +Falconer's daughter, and that I'd loftier ideas for you, but let that +pass! Maude is a young lady who can hold her own against the best and +the highest. Falconer must be rich, or he would not have been able to +have managed this thing, would not have been able to beat me. With your +money and hers, you can go as far as you please!" + +He took a turn up and down the room again, a flush on the face that had +been pallid only a minute or two ago, his finely shaped head thrown +back. + +"Yes, Stafford, I should like you to have married into the nobility. In +my eyes, there is no one too high in rank for you. But no matter! The +title will come. They cannot do less than offer me a peerage. This +railway will be of too much service to the government for them to pass +me over. The peerage must come; there is no chance of my losing it. +Why, yes! The future is as bright as the sunlight on a June morning! +You will have the girl you love, I shall have the peerage to leave to +you. I shall have not lived and struggled and fought in vain. I shall +have left a name unstained, unsullied, to the son I love!" + +There was a catch in his voice, and it broke as he turned suddenly with +outstretched hand. + +"Why, God forgive me, Stafford, my boy! I'm talking of what I've done +for you and what I'm meaning to do as if I were forgetting what you are +doing for me! Stafford, a father often finds that he has worked for his +children only to meet with ingratitude and to be repaid by +indifference; but you have returned my affection--Oh, I've seen it, +felt it, my boy! And now, as fate would have it, you are actually +saving my honour, shielding my good name, coming between me and utter +ruin! God bless you, Stafford! God bless you and send you all the +happiness you deserve and I wish you!" + +A silence fell. Into the room there floated the soft, languorous +strains of a waltz, the murmur of voices, the laughter of some of the +people in the conservatory. Stafford sat, his head still upon his +hands, as if her were half stupefied. And indeed he was. He felt like a +man who has been seized by the tentacles of an octopus, unable to +struggle, unable to move, dumb-stricken, and incapable even of protest. +Sir Stephen had spoken of fate: Fate held Stafford under its iron heel, +and the mockery of Fate's laughter mingled with the strains of the +waltz, the murmur of voices. Unconsciously he rose and looked round as +if half dazed, and Sir Stephen came to him and laid both hands on his +shoulders. + +"I must not keep you any longer, my dear boy!" he said, with a fond, +proud look. "I must not forget I am keeping you from--her! She will be +missing you--wanting you. You have kept your secret well, +Stafford--though once or twice I have fancied, when I have seen you +together--but it was only a fancy!--Are you going to announce the +engagement tonight? It is rather a good opportunity, isn't it? It will +make the night memorable." + +The music danced madly through Stafford's brain as his father waited, +looking at him smilingly. What should he say? + +"Not to-night, sir!" he answered. "I should like to speak to Miss +Falconer first." + +Sir Stephen nodded and smiled. + +"I understand, my boy," he said. "This kind of thing is not done now as +it was in my time. We used to take the girl of our choice by the hand +and throw back our heads, and announce the fact that we have secured +the prize, with all the pride imaginable. But that's all altered now. I +suppose the new way is more delicate--more refined. At any rate, you +belong to the new age and have a right to follow its manners and +customs; so you shall say nothing to-night, unless you like. And, if I +am asked why I look so happy, so free from care, I must say that it is +because the great Railway Scheme is settled and that I have won all +along the line." + +As he said the last words there came a knock at the door, and Murray +entered with an injured look. + +"Mr. Griffenberg and Baron Wirsch, would like to see you, Sir Stephen," +he said, significantly. + +Sir Stephen sprang to the table almost with the alertness of a boy, and +caught up the papers lying on his desk. + +"All right, Murray!" he cried. "Sorry I'm late! Been having a talk with +Mr. Stafford. Come on!" + +With a nod, a smile, a tender look of love and gratitude to Stafford, +the brilliant adventurer, once more thrown by the buoyant wave upon the +shore of safety and success, went out to communicate that success to +his coadjutors. + +Stafford sank into his father's chair, and with his hands thrust deep +in his pockets, and his chin upon his chest, tried to clear his brain, +to free his mind from all side issues, and to face the fact that he had +tacitly agreed, that by his silence he had consented to marry Maude +Falconer. + +But, oh, how hard it was to think clearly, with the vision of that +girlish face floating before him! the exquisitely beautiful face with +its violet eyes now arched and merry, now soft and pleading, now tender +with the tenderness of a girl's first, true, divinely trusting love. He +was looking at the book-case before him, but a mist rose between it and +his eyes, and he saw the mountain-side and the darling of his heart +riding down it, the sunlight on her face, the soft tendrils of hair +blown rough by the wind, the red lips apart with a smile--the little +grave smile which he had kissed away into deeper, still sweeter +seriousness. + +And he had lost her! Oh, God, how he loved her! And he had lost her +forever! There was no hope for him. He must save his father--not his +father's money. That counted for nothing--but his father's honour--his +father's good name. + +And even if he were not bound to make this sacrifice, to marry Maude +Falconer, how could he go to Heron Hall and ask Godfrey Heron, the man +of ancient lineage, of unsullied name, to give his daughter to the son +of a man whose past was so black that his character was at the mercy of +Ralph Falconer? Stafford rose and stretched out his arms as if to +thrust from him a weight too grievous to be borne, a cup too bitter to +be drained; then his arms fell to his sides and, with a hardening of +the face, a tightening of the lips which made him look strangely like +his father, he left the library, and crossing the hall, made his way to +the ball-room. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + +The ball was at its height. Even the coldest and most _blase_ of the +guests had warmed up and caught fire at the blaze of excitement and +enjoyment. The ball-room was dazzling in the beauty of its decorations +and the soft effulgence of the shaded electric light, in which the +magnificent jewels of the titled and wealthy women seemed to glow with +a subdued and chastened fire. A dance was in progress, and Stafford, as +he stood by the doorway and looked mechanically and dully at the +whirling crowd, the kaleidoscope of colour formed by the rich dresses, +the fluttering fans, and the dashes of black represented by the men's +clothes, thought vaguely that he had never seen anything more +magnificent, more elegant of wealth and success. But through it all, +weird and ghost-like shone Ida's girlish face, with its love-lit eyes +and sweetly curving lips. + +He looked round, and presently he saw Maude Falconer in her strange and +striking dress. She was dancing with Lord Fitzharford. There was not a +touch of colour in her face, her lips were pensive, her lids lowered; +she looked like an exquisite statue, exquisitely clothed, moving with +the exquisite poetry of motion, but quite devoid of feeling. Suddenly, +as if she felt his presence, she raised her eyes and looked at him. A +light shot into them, glowed for a moment, her lips curved with the +faintest of smiles, and a warm tint stole to her face. + +It was an eloquent look, one that could not be mistaken by the least +vain of men, and it went straight through Stafford's heart; for it +forced him to realise that which he had not even yet quite +realised--that he had tacitly pledged himself to her. Under other +circumstances, the thought might have set his heart beating and sent +the blood coursing hotly through his veins; but with his heart aching +with love for Ida, and despair at the loss of her, Maude Falconer's +love-glance only chilled him and made him shudder with apprehension of +the future, with the thought of the cost of the sacrifice which he had +taken upon himself. The music sounded like a funeral march in his ears, +the glitter, the heat, the movement, seemed unendurable; and he +threaded his way round the room to an ante-room which had been fitted +up as a buffet. + +"Give me some wine, please," he said to the butler, trying to speak in +his ordinary tone; but he knew that his voice was harsh and strained, +knew that the butler noticed it, though the well-trained servant did +not move an eyelid, but opened a bottle of champagne with solemn +alacrity and poured out a glass. Stafford signed to him to place the +bottle near and drank a couple of glasses. + +It pulled him together a bit, and he was going back to the ball-room +when several men entered. They were Griffenberg, Baron Wirsch, the +Beltons and the other financiers; they were all talking together and +laughing, and their faces were flushed with triumph. Close behind them, +but grave and taciturn as usual, came Mr. Falconer. + +At sight of Stafford, Mr. Griffenberg turned from the man to whom he +was talking and exclaimed, gleefully: + +"Here is Mr. Orme! You have herd the good news, I suppose, Mr. Orme? +Splendid isn't it? Wonderful man, you father, truly wonderful! He can +give us all points, can't he, baron?" The baron nodded and smiled. + +"Shir Stephen ish a goot man of pishness. You have a very glever fader, +Mr. Orme!" he said, emphatically. + +Efford caught Stafford's arm as he was passing on with a mechanical +smile and an inclination of the head. + +"We've come in for a drink, Orme," he said. "We're going to drink luck +to the biggest thing Sir Stephen has ever done; you'll join us? Oh, +come, we can't take a refusal! Dash it all! You're in the swim, Orme, +if you haven't taken any active part in it." + +Stafford glanced at Mr. Falconer, and noticed a grim smile pass over +his face. If these exultant and flushed money-spinners only guessed how +active a part he had taken, how amazed they would be! A wave of +bitterness swept over him. At such a moment men, especially young men, +become reckless; the strain is too great, and they fly to the nearest +thing for relief. + +He turned back to the buffet, and the butler and the couple of footmen +opened several bottles of champagne--none of the men knew or cared how +many; several others of the financial group joined the party; the wine +went round rapidly; they were all talking and laughing except Stafford, +who remained silent and grave and moody for some little time; then he +too began to talk and laugh with the others, and his face grew flushed +and his manner excited. + +Falconer, who stood a little apart, apparently drinking with the +others, but really with care and moderation, watched him under +half-lowered lids; and presently he moved round to where Stafford leant +against the table with his champagne-glass in his hand, and touching +him on the arm, said: + +"I hear them enquiring for you in the ball-room, Stafford." + +It was the first time he had called Stafford by his Christian name, and +it struck home, as Falconer had intended it should. Stafford set his +glass down and looked round as a man does when the wine is creeping up +to his head, and he is startled by an unexpected voice. + +"All right--thanks!" he said. + +He made his way through the group, who were too engrossed and excited +to notice his desertion and went into the ball-room. As he did so, his +father entered by an opposite door, and seeing him, came round to him, +and taking Stafford's hand that hung at his side, pressed it +significantly. + +"I have told them!" he said. "They are almost off their heads with +delight--you see, it's such a big thing, even for them, Staff! You have +saved us all, my boy; but it is only I and Falconer who know it, only I +who can show my gratitude!" + +His voice was low and tremulous, his face flushed, like those of the +men whom Stafford had just left, and his dark eyes flashing and +restless. + +"Where are they all?" he asked; and Stafford nodded over his shoulder +towards the buffet. + +Sir Stephen looked round the room with a smile of triumph, and his +glance rested on Maude Falconer, standing by a marble column, her eyes +downcast, her fan moving to and fro in front of her white bosom. + +"She is beautiful, Staff!" he whispered. "The loveliest woman in the +room! I am not surprised that you should have fallen in love with her." + +Stafford laughed under his breath, a strangely wild and bitter laugh, +which Sir Stephen could not have failed to notice if the music had not +commenced a new waltz at that moment. + +Stafford went straight across the room to Maude Falconer. She did not +raise her eyes at his approach, but the colour flickered in her cheeks. + +"This is our dance, I think," he said. + +She looked up with a little air of surprise, and consulted her +programme. + +"No; I think this is mine, Miss Falconer," said the man at her side. + +"No," she said, calmly; "the next is yours, Lord Bannerdale; this is +Mr. Orme's." + +Though he knew she was wrong, of course Lord Bannerdale acquiesced with +a bow and a smile, and Stafford led Maude away. + +Wine has a trick of getting into some men's feet and promptly giving +them away; but Stafford, though he was usually one of the most moderate +of men, could drink a fairly large quantity and remain as steady as a +rock. No one, watching him dance, would have known that he had drunk +far too many glasses of champagne and that his head was burning, his +heart thumping furiously; but though his step was as faultless as usual +and he steered her dexterously through this crowd. Maude knew by his +silence, by his flushed face and restless eyes, that something had +happened, and that he was under the influence of some deep emotion. He +was dancing quite perfectly, but mechanically, like a man in a dream, +and though he must have heard the music, he did not hear her when she +spoke to him, but looked straight before him as if he were entirely +absorbed in some thought. + +When they came, in the course of the dance, to one of the doors, she +stopped suddenly. + +"Do you mind? It is so hot," she murmured. + +"N--o," he said, as if awaking suddenly. "Let us go outside." + +He caught up a fur cloak that was lying on a bench, and disregarding +her laughing remonstrance that the thing did not belong to her, he put +it round her and led her on to the terrace. She looked up at him just +as they were passing out of the stream of light, saw how set and hard +his face was, how straight the lips and sombre the eyes, and her hand, +as it rested lightly on his arm, quivered like a leaf in autumn. When +they had got into the open air, he threw back his head and drew a long +breath. + +"Yes; it was hot in there," he said. + +They walked slowly up and down for a minute, passing and repassing +similar couples; then suddenly, as if the presence of others, the sound +of their voices and laughter, jarred upon him, Stafford said: + +"Shall we go into the garden? It is quiet there--and I want to speak to +you." + +"If you like," she said, in a low voice, which she tried to make as +languid as usual; but her heart began to beat fiercely and her lips +trembled, and he might have heard her breath coming quickly had he not +been absorbed in his own reflections. + +They went down the steps and into the semi-darkness of the beautiful +garden. The silence was broken by the hum of the distant voices and the +splashing of a fountain which reflected the electric light as the spray +rose and fell with rhythmic regularity. Stafford stopped at this and +looked at the reflection of the stars in the shallow water. Something +in its simplicitude and the quiet, coming after the glitter and the +noise of the ball-room, called up the remembrance of Herondale, and the +quiet, love-laden hours he had spent there with Ida. The thought went +through him with a sharp pain, and he thrust it away from him as one +thrusts away a threatening weakness. + +"What is it you wanted to say to me?" asked Maude, not coldly or +indifferently as she would have asked the question of another man, but +softly, dreamily. + +He walked on with her a few paces, looking straight before him as if he +were trying to find words suitable for the answer; then he turned his +face to her and looked at her steadily, though his head was burning and +the plash of the fountain sounded like the roar of the sea in his ears. + +"I wonder whether you could guess?" he said, as he thought of her +father's words, his assertion that Stafford was to be his son-in-law. +"I suppose you must." + +Her gaze was as steady as his, but her lips quivered slightly. + +"I would rather you should tell me than that I should I guess," she +said in a low voice. "I might be wrong." + +He was not in a condition to notice the significance of her last words, +and he went on with a kind of desperation. + +"I brought you here into the garden, Miss Falconer, to ask you if you'd +be my wife." + +They had stopped just within the radius of an electric light, held +aloft by a grinning satyr, and Stafford saw her face grow paler and +paler in the seconds that followed the momentous question. He could see +her bosom heaving under the half-open fur cloak, felt her hand close +for an instant on his arm. + +"Do you wish me to say 'Yes'?" she asked in a low voice. + +The red flooded Stafford's face for a moment, and his eyes fell under +her fixed regard. + +"What answer does one generally hope for when one puts such a +question?" he said, trying to smile. "I want you to be my wife, and I +hope, with all my heart, that you will say 'Yes.'" + +"'With all your heart,'" she echoed, slowly, almost inaudibly. "'With +all your heart.' With all mine, I answer 'Yes.'" + +As she murmured the words--and, like that of most cold women when they +are intensely moved, her voice could be exquisitely sweet with its +thrill of passion, all the sweeter for its rarity--she insensibly drew +nearer to him and her hand stole to his shoulder. Her eyes were lifted +to his, and they shone with the love that was coursing through her +veins, almost stopping the beating of her heart. Love radiated from her +as the light radiated from the lamp the mocking satyr held above them. +Stafford was at his best and worst, a man and not a block of stone and +wood, and touched, almost fired, by the passion so close to him, he put +his arm round her waist and bent his head until his lips nearly touched +hers. + +Her eyes closed and she was surrendering herself to the kiss, when +suddenly she drew her head back, and, keeping him from her, looked up +at him. "Is it with all your heart?" she whispered. "You have never +spoken to me of--love before. Is it with all your heart?" + +His brow contracted in a frown, he set his teeth hard. If he were to +lie, 'twere better that he lied thoroughly and well; better that his +sacrifice should be complete and effectual. Scarcely knowing what he +said, what he did, with the fumes of the champagne confusing his brain, +the misery of his lost love racking his heart, he said, hoarsely: + +"I did not know--till to-night. You can trust me. I ask you to be my +wife--I will be true to you--it is with all my heart!" + +If Jove laughs at lovers' perjuries, the angels must weep at such false +oaths as this. Even as he spoke the words, Stafford remembered the "I +love you?" he had cried to Ida as he knelt at her feet, and he +shuddered as Maude drew his head down and his lips met hers. + + * * * * * + +Half an hour later they went slowly up the steps again. Stafford's head +was still burning, he still felt confused, like a man moving in a +dream. Since he had kissed her he had said very little; and the +silences had been broken more often by Maude than by him. She had told +him in a low voice, tremulous with love, and hesitating now and again, +how she had fallen in love with him the day he had rowed her on the +lake; how she had struggled and striven against the feeling, and how it +had conquered her. How miserable she had been, though she had tried to +hide her misery, lest he should never come to care for her, and she +should have to suffer that most merciless of all miseries--unrequited +love. She seemed as if she scarcely wanted him to speak, as if she took +it for granted that he had spoken the truth, and that he loved her; and +as if it were a joy to her to bare her heart, that he might see how +devotedly it throbbed for him and for him alone. Every now and then +Stafford spoke a few words in response. He scarcely knew what he said, +he could not have told what they were ten minutes after they were said; +he sat with his arm round her like a man playing a part mechanically. + +In the same condition he moved beside her now as arm and arm they +entered the house, he looking straight before him with a set face, a +forced smile, she with now raised, now drooping eyes glowing with +triumph, a flush on her usually pale face, her lips apart and +tremulous. The ball was breaking up, some of the women had already gone +to the drawing-room or their own apartments; a stream of men were +making their way to the billiard-room from which came the popping of +champagne-corks and the hissing of syphons. + +As they entered the hall, Howard came lounging out, in his leisurely +way, from the drawing-room, and at sight of him Stafford seemed to +awake, to realise what he had done and how he stood. He looked from +Howard to Maude, then, he said: + +"Howard, I want you to congratulate me. Miss Falconer--Maude--has +promised to be my wife." + +Howard did not start, but he stared in silence for an instant, then his +eyelids flickered, and forcing the astonishment from his face, he took +Stafford's left hand and shook it, and bowed to Maude. + +"I do congratulate you with all my heart, my dear Stafford, and I hope +you'll both be as happy as the happiest pair in a fairy story." + +She drew her arm from Stafford's. + +"I will go up now," she said. "Good-night!" + +Stafford stood until she had got as far as the bend of the stairs; then +Howard, who had discreetly gone on, turned to go back to him. But as he +came up with a word of wonder and repeated congratulations, he saw +Stafford put his hand to his forehead, and, as it seemed to Howard, +almost stagger. + +There are moments when the part of even one's best friend is silence, +blindness. Howard turned aside, and Stafford went on slowly, with a +kind of enforced steadiness, to the billiard-room. While Howard, with +dismay and apprehension, was looking after him, he heard "Mr. Howard!" +called softly, mockingly, from the stairs, and looking up, saw Maude +Falconer leaning over, with her arm extended, her hand open. + +He understood in a moment, and, removing his ring as he ran up the +stairs, put it in the soft, pink palm. She gave a little triumphant, +mocking laugh, her hand closed over the ring, and then she glided away +from him. + +The smoking-room was crowded as Stafford made his way in. Through the +clouds of smoke he saw his father standing at one end, surrounded by +the money-spinning crew, Falconer seated in a chair near him with a +black cigar between his lips. The group were laughing and talking +loudly, and all had glasses in their hands. Some of the younger men, +who had just come from the hall-room, were adding their laughter and +chatter to the noise. Dazed and confused, half mad with rage and +despair, with a sense that Fate was joining her mocking laughter with +that of the men round him. Stafford took a glass of wine from the +butler who advanced with it, and drinking it off, held it out to be +refilled. The man refilled it twice, and Stafford, his eyes aflame, +almost pushed his way through the various groups to where his father +stood. + +"I have come for your congratulation, sir," he said, in a voice which, +though not loud, was so clear as to break through the row. "Miss +Falconer has promised to be my wife!" + +A silence, so sudden as to be startling, fell upon the hot and crowded +room; then, as Sir Stephen grasped his son's hand, a din of voices +arose, an excited buzz of congratulations and good wishes. Stafford +faced them all, his face pale and set, his lips curved with a forced +smile, his eyes flashing, but lit with a sombre fire. There was a smile +on his lips, a false amiability in his eyes, but there was so much of +madness in his heart that he was afraid lest at any moment he should +dash the glass to the ground and break out into cursing. + +An hour later he found himself in his room, and waving Measom away from +him, he went to the window and flung it wide open, and stood there with +his hands against his throbbing brow; and though no word came from his +parched lips, his heart cried: + +"Ida! Ida!" with all the agony of despair. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +The hours dragged along as Stafford faced the tragedy of his life. As +he paced the room or flung himself into a chair, with his head bowed in +his hands, the effects of the wine he had taken, the suppressed +excitement under which he had laboured, passed away, and in the +reaction his brain cleared and he began to realise the terrible import +of the step he had taken, the extent of the sacrifice he had made. His +own life was wrecked and ruined irreparably; not only his own, but that +of the girl he loved. + +The step he had taken was not only irreparable but irrevocable; he +could not go back. He had asked Maude Falconer to be his wife, he had +spoken words which must have sounded to her as words of love, he had +kissed her lips. In a word, he was pledged to her, and the pledge could +not be broken. + +And Ida! What should he do in regard to her? He had promised that if +his feelings underwent any change towards her he would not go and tell +her. And at that moment, he felt that the promise had not been a vain +one; for he knew that he could not go to her, that at sight of her his +resolution would melt like snow in the sun, that his love for her would +sweep him away on a torrent of passion, and that he would be as false +to Maude Falconer as he had been to Ida. + +And yet he could not leave her, desert her--yes, that was the +word!--without making some sign, without speaking one word, not of +excuse, but of farewell. What could he say to her? He could not tell +her the truth; for his father's sake that must never be divulged; he +could give her no explanation, must permit her to think him base and +faithless and dishonorable. There was only one thing he could do, and +that was to write to her. But what could he say? + +He went to his writing-table and took up a pen. His hand was cold as +ice and shaking, and he held it before him until it grew steadier. At +the best of times, Stafford was not much of a letter-writer; one does +not learn the epistolatory art either at public schools or the +'varsities, and hitherto Stafford's letter-writing had been confined to +the sending or accepting of invitations, a short note about some meet, +or horse dealing. How was he to address her? She was his dearest still, +the only woman in the world he had loved or ever would love, but he +dared not call her so, dared not tell her so. He wrote her name, but +the sweet word seemed to look up at him reproachfully, accusingly; and +though he had written only that name, he tore up several sheets of +paper, and at last, in desperation, scarcely knowing what he was +writing, he wrote, quickly, hurriedly and without pausing, the +following lines: + +"I am writing this because you made me promise that if anything +happened, let it be what it might, to separate us, I would not come and +tell you. Something has happened. I have discovered that I am not only +unworthy of calling you mine as any man in the world, even the best, +would be, but that I am unworthy in the sense that would justify you in +the eyes of your father, of everybody belonging to you, in sending me +adrift. If I could tell you what it is you would understand and see how +great a gulf yawns between us. You would not marry me, I can never be +anything to you but a painful memory. Though you know how much I loved +you, you will never guess what it costs me to relinquish all claim to +you, to tear myself away from you. But I must do so--and forever. There +is no hope, none whatever, for me. I do not ask you to forgive me--if I +had known what I know now I would rather have died than have told you +that I loved you, but I do ask you to forget me; or, if you remember +me, to think of me as the most wretched and ill-fated of men; as one +who is bound hand and foot, and compelled, driven, along a path against +his will. I dare not say any more, dare not tell you what this +sacrifice costs me. Whether you forget or remember me, I shall never +forget you for a single instant, shall never cease to look back upon my +lost happiness, as a man looks back upon a lost heaven. + +"STAFFORD." + +He read it over a dozen--twenty times, and every time it seemed weaker, +meaner, less inexplicable; but he knew that if he destroyed it he could +write nothing better, nothing that could satisfy him, though it seemed +to him that his heart would have expressed itself more fully it he had +written only, "Good-bye! Forget me!" + +At last, and reluctantly he put it in an envelope and addressed it, and +turned it face downwards on his table, so that he might not see the +name which had such power to torture his heart. + +By the time he had succeeded in writing the letter the dawn was +creeping over the hills and casting a pearly light upon the lake; he +drew the curtains, and in the weird light caught sight of his face in +the mirror: a white and haggard face, which might well have belonged to +a man ten years his senior; such a face as would not fail to attract +attention and provoke comment by its appearance at the breakfast-table. +He flung himself on the bed, not to sleep, for he knew that that would +be impossible, but to get some rest; but rest was as impossible as +sleep. When he closed his eyes Ida's face was near him, her voice was +in his ears, inextricably mixed with the slow and languorous tones of +Maude Falconer. He undressed and got into his flannels before Measom +came, and went down to the lake for a bath. + +He was, as a rule, so moderate in drinking that the wine he had taken, +supplemented by his misery, made him feel physically ill. He shuddered +with cold as he dived into the water, and as he swam out he felt, for +the first time in his life, a slight twinge of cramp. At another time +he would have been somewhat alarmed, for the strongest swimmer is +absolutely helpless under an attack of cramp, but this morning he was +indifferent, and the thought struck him that it would be well for him +if he flung up his arms and went down to the bottom of the lake on the +shores of which he had experienced such exquisite joy, such unutterable +misery. He met no one on his way back to the house, and went straight +to his room. The swim had removed some of the traces of last night's +work, but he still looked haggard and worn, and there was that +expression in his eyes which a man's wear when he has been battling +with a great grief or struggling against an overwhelming fate. + +As Measom was dressing him he asked himself how he should get the +letter to Ida--the only letter he had ever written her, the only letter +he would probably ever write to her. He decided that he would send it +over by Pottinger, whom he knew he could trust not only to deliver the +letter, but to refrain from telling anyone that he had been sent with +it. He put it in the pocket of his shooting-coat and went downstairs, +intending to go straight to the stables to find Pottinger; but as he +went through the hall, Murray, the secretary, came out of the library, +and Sir Stephen caught sight of Stafford through the open door, and +called to him. Stafford went in, and his father rose from the table on +which was already piled a heap of letters and papers, and taking +Stafford's hand, laid a hand on his shoulder. + +"You are early, my boy," he said. "I did not expect to see you for +hours yet; couldn't you sleep? You look rather tired, Stafford; you +were late last night, and--ah, well! there was some excuse for a little +excitement and exaltation." + +He smiled whimsically, as a father does at a son who has for once gone +beyond the strict bounds of moderation and looked upon the wine cup too +often. + +"Yes, I've rather a head on this morning, sir," said Stafford, quietly, +accepting the suggestion as an excuse for his ill-looks. "I drank and +smoked, last night, more than I usually do. You look as fresh as usual, +sir," he added, with unconscious irony. + +Sir Stephen threw up his head with a short laugh. + +"Oh, my work wasn't finished last night, my dear boy!" he said. "And +Murray and I have been at it since seven o'clock. I want to put some of +these papers straight before Griffenberg and the rest leave to-day." + +"They are going to-day?" said Stafford. + +"Oh, yes; there will be a general exodus. A great many of the people +were only staying on until we could be sure we had pulled this railway +scheme through. Falconer and his daughter--I beg your pardon, my dear +Stafford, I mean Maude!--talk of going to-day. But I persuaded them to +stay until to-morrow. I thought you would like to go to London with +them." + +He smiled as a father smiles when he is planning a pleasure for his +son. + +"Yes, I should like it," said Stafford, quietly. "But could I leave you +here?" + +"Oh, yes," said Sir Stephen. "They'll entertain themselves. Besides, it +was an understood thing you should be free to go and come as you +pleased. Of course, you would like to go with Maude." + +"Of course," echoed Stafford, his eyes on the ground. As he was leaving +the room his father took a letter from the table, held it up and +dropped it. + +"You'll be wanting to buy a little present for your lady-love, +Stafford," he said. "I am placing a thousand pounds to your credit at +your bank, I don't know whether you'll think that is enough--" + +"Quite enough," said Stafford, in a low voice. "Thank you! You are very +generous--" + +Sir Stephen winced and held up his hand. + +"What is mine is yours from this moment, my dear Stafford," he said. + +Stafford went out by the door at the other end of the hall, and made +his way to the stables. Just as he was crossing the lawn the temptation +to ride over to Heron Hall and leave the note himself assailed him +strongly. He took the letter from his pocket and looked at it +wistfully. But he knew that he dared not ran the risk of meeting Ida, +and with a sigh he went on towards the stables, carrying the note in +his hand. And as he turned away Maude Falconer let fall the curtain +which she had raised at her window so that she might watch him. + +She stood for a moment with her costly dressing-gown held together with +one white hand, her lids half closed. + +"He has written to her," she said to herself. "Has he broken with her +for good, or will he try and keep her? I would give something to see +that letter, to know exactly how he stands. And how I stand! I wonder +how he will send it? He is taking it to the stables." She thought a +moment, then she smiled. "Pottinger!" she murmured. + +Stafford found Pottinger giving the last loving touches with a silk +handkerchief to Adonis. His coat and waistcoat were off, his shirt open +at the neck and his sleeves turned up. He touched his forehead with a +respectful and welcoming greeting, and without any surprise; for +Stafford very often paid an early visit to the stable, and had more +than once lent a hand in grooming a favourite horse. + +"Looks well, sir, don't he?" said Pottinger, passing a hand over the +glossy black and finishing up with a loving smack. "I'm rather late +this morning, sir." He smiled and looked a little sheepish. "We had a +little bit of jollification in the servants' hall, on our own account, +sir, and were enjoying ourselves like our betters." + +"That's right," said Stafford. Something in his voice caused Pottinger +to glance at him with surprise and apprehension; but, of course, he +could not say anything, and he dropped his eyes respectfully after the +one glance at Stafford's haggard face. + +"I want you take a letter for me this morning, Pottinger," said +Stafford. "You can take Adonis; it will exercise him, as I shall not +ride him to-day. Here is the letter. Heron Hall lies on the other side +of the river. I want the letter taken there early this morning." + +Pottinger touched his forehead. "I know the Hall, sir; I've ridden +over there with messages from the housekeeper and from Mr. Davis." + +"There will be no answer," said Stafford. "Simply leave it." + +"Yes, sir," said Pottinger. "Would you mind putting it in my +saddle-wallet, sir? I won't touch it till my hands are clean." + +Stafford put the letter in the wallet, said a few words to Adonis and +some of the other horses, and then left the stable. He heard voices on +the terrace, and, to avoid meeting anyone until he was compelled, he +went down the slope of the lawn, and, seating himself on a bank, lit a +cigarette. + +From her window, Maude Falconer, now attired in a simple but +exquisitely effective morning frock, could see him. After watching him +for a minute or two, she went to her writing-table and wrote two or +three notes quickly, and, with these in her pocket, went down-stairs +and through the hall to the stable court-yard. Pottinger was still +finishing off Adonis, and he drew himself up and saluted as she entered +the stables. As a rule her manner to the servants and her inferiors was +cold and haughty, but, as Stafford had discovered last night, she could +be soft and gentle when she chose, and she smiled now at Pottinger and +the horse in a fashion that almost dazzled that ingenuous youth. At the +same time her eye had noted Pottinger's coat and waistcoat which hung +on a hook at the stall-post with the saddle-wallet slung over them. The +coat was an old one with gaping pockets, and there was no sign of a +letter in them, or in the waistcoat. Instinctively, she knew that it +was in the wallet. + +"What splendid condition that horse is in, Pottinger," she said. "His +coat is like satin. I suppose you were in the army?" + +Of course Pottinger was flattered, and answered in the negative very +reluctantly. + +"Not but what Mr. Stafford, miss, isn't as particular as any army gent +could be. I should be sorry to turn out a badly groomed 'oss for Mr. +Stafford's eyes to rest on, miss. He's as kind-hearted a master as a +man could desire to have, but that's about the one thing Mr. Stafford +wouldn't stand, miss." + +"I suppose not," she said. "Are you going to ride into Bryndermere this +morning, Pottinger? If so, I should be glad if you would take these +notes to the linen draper's and the chemist's, and bring me back the +things I have written for." + +"Certainly, miss," said Pottinger; then he remembered Stafford's order, +and looked anything but certain. "Would it do late in the morning, +miss? I have to go somewhere first." + +"Oh, yes," she replied, "where shall I put the letters--in this wallet?" + +Pottinger answered in the affirmative and thanked her, and she +unfastened the wallet, talking to him as she did so. "Is that a +swelling on that near fore leg, Pottinger?" she said, suddenly, +pointing to Adonis. + +Pottinger started and regarded her with a look of horror, and, of +course, instantly knelt down to examine the suspected member. Long +before he had come up again with a breath of relief and a smiling "No, +miss, there is nothing the matter with it," she had looked into the +wallet and seen Stafford's letter. + +"Oh, I thought there was," she said. "Have you finished your horses?" + +"No, miss," he replied. "I have the master's hunter and the mare you +ride to do yet." + +She nodded and went out of the stable, humming one of her songs; but +she did not go very far. In five minutes she back again. + +"Oh, Pottinger, don't trouble about those letters. I will ride into +Bryndermere myself." + +Pottinger was in the mare's stall, and Maude stopped him as he was +coming forward, by saying: + +"Don't trouble; I'll take the letters from the wallet." + +With Stafford's letter amongst her own in her pocket, she went quickly, +and yet without apparent hurry, to her own room, sent away her maid on +an errand, and slipped the bolt in the door. Rapidly she lit her silver +spirit-lamp and heated the water almost to boiling-point, and held the +envelope of Stafford's letter over it until the gum was melted and the +flap came open. Then she took out the letter, and, throwing herself +back in an easy-chair, read it slowly. + +At first, as she read, her face burned, then it grew pale, and still +paler; every word of the bitter farewell, of the renunciation, written +as if with a man's heart's blood, stabbed her and tortured her with the +pangs of jealousy. Once she started to her feet, her hands clenched, +her head thrown back her eyes flashing; a superb figure--the tigress +aroused. At that instant she was minded to take the letter and fling it +in Stafford's face, and with it fling back the pledge which he had +given her the night before; then she collapsed, as it were, and sank +into a chair, dropping the letter and covering her face with her hands. +She could not. The strength of her love made her weak as water where +that love was concerned. Though her pride called upon her to surrender +Stafford, she could not respond to it. + +Swaying to and fro, with her eyes covered as if to hide her shame, she +tried to tell herself that Stafford's was only a transient fancy for +this girl, that it was mere flirtation, a vulgar _liaison_ that she +would teach him to forget. + +"He shall, he shall!" she cried behind her hands, as if the words were +wrung from her in her anguish of wounded pride and rejected love. "I +will teach him! There is no art that woman ever used that I will not +use--they say I am beautiful: if I am, my beauty shall minister to him +as no woman's beauty has ever ministered before. Cold to all the rest +of the world, I will be to him a fire which shall warm his life and +make it a heaven--It is only because he saw her first: if he had seen +me--Oh, curse her, curse her! Last night, while he was talking to me, +even while he was kissing me, he was thinking of her. But she shall not +have him! She has lost and I have won and I will keep him!" + +She dashed her hand across her eyes, though there were no tears in +them, and stood upright, holding herself tensely as if she were +battling for calm; then she replaced the poignant note in its envelope, +and went back to the stables. Again she met no one, for those who were +down were in at breakfast. + +"I have changed my mind, Pottinger," she said; "and will be glad if you +will take the notes, please. See, I have put them back in the wallet." + +"Certainly, miss!" said Pottinger, and he touched his forehead two or +three times, and coloured and smiled awkwardly and looked at her with a +new and vivid interest. One of the maids had run into the stable, +during Maud's absence, and had told him the news that his master was +engaged to Miss Maude Falconer; for the servants, who are so quick to +discover all our little secrets, had already learnt this one, and the +servants' hall was buzzing with it. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +That morning Ida came down-stairs singing, not loudly, but in the soft +undertone which a girl uses when she is supremely happy and she has +hopes of seeing the cause of her happiness very soon. All through +breakfast, while Mr. Heron read his letters, opening them and reading +them stealthily as usual, her heart was singing its love-song to her, +and she was wondering whether she would meet Stafford by the stream or +among the hills. That she should meet him she felt quite sure, for he +had never failed to leave the gay party at the Villa to come over to +her every day. + +Perhaps he had spoken to his father, and, in the wonderful way men +have, had swept aside all the obstacles which stood against their +union. He was so strong, so self-reliant, so masterful--though so +gentle with her--that surely no obstacles could stand against him. She +was so absorbed in her thoughts that she almost started when Jason +appeared and, looking from her to Mr. Heron, announced that Mr. +Wordley, the family lawyer, was in the library. + +Mr. Heron flushed and scrambled his letters and papers together as he +rose. + +"Won't Mr. Wordley come in and have some breakfast?" suggested Ida. But +her father, shaking his head impatiently, said that Mr. Wordley was +sure to have had his breakfast, and shuffled out of the room. + +A few minutes after he had gone, Jessie came in for the day's orders, +and Ida dragged her thoughts away from the all-absorbing subject and +plunged into housekeeping. It was not a lengthy or a very elaborate +business, alas! but when it was over Jessie lingered and began +collecting the breakfast things, glancing shyly at Ida, as she always +did when she wanted to gossip. + +"There was fine doings up at the Villa last night, Miss Ida!" she +began, rather timidly, for Ida seldom encouraged her chatter. "There +was a ball there. Such a tremendous grand affair! There hasn't been +anything like it ever known in this country. Williams was up there this +morning, and Susie told him that it was like fairyland, what with the +beautiful rooms and the music and the ladies' rich dresses and jewels. +She got a peep through one of the open doors, and she says it quite +took her breath away." + +Ida smiled. She was not envious; for would not Stafford come over +presently and tell her all about it: who was there, with whom he had +danced, and how all the time he had been longing to be by her side? + +"Susie says that the ladies was beautiful, Miss Ida, and that the most +beautiful of them all was Miss Falconer. Susie says she had the most +lovely dress, like a cloud of smoke, with diamonds sparkling all over +it like stars." + +"That sounds very pretty and poetical, Jessie," said Ida. + +What would he care for a dress like a cloud, or the diamonds that shone +like stars on it? Did she not know that he loved the little rain-washed +habit which a certain rustic country girl wore, better than the +choicest production of Worth? + +"Yes, miss," Jessie went on, "and Susie says that Mr. Stafford, the +lord's son"--the simple dale folk as often called Sir Stephen "my lord" +as "sir"--"danced ever so many times with her, and the servants was +saying that he was making love to her, and that they shouldn't be +surprised to hear that Mr. Stafford was going to marry Miss Falconer." + +Ida could not prevent the colour rising to her face, but she laughed +unforcedly, and with no misgiving; for she had looked into Stafford's +eyes and read his soul through them. He was hers, let all the women in +the world be beautiful and decked in silks and satins. + +She ran upstairs to put on her habit, leaving Jessie rather +disappointed at the effect of her news, and she sang while she tied the +little scarlet sailor's knot, and presently came down the stairs with a +step as light as her heart. As she was mounting and talking to Jason +about the last lot of steers, Mr. Wordley came out of the house to get +his horse, and hurried to her, bare-headed, in the good old way. + +"No, I can't stay," he said in answer to her invitation. "I have to be +back at the office; but I'll ride a little way with you, if I may. It +isn't often I get the chance of riding with the prettiest girl in the +county. There now, I've made you blush, as I used to when you sat upon +my knee, and I told you that little girls had no right to stars for +eyes." + +Ida laughed. + +"But I'm a big girl now," she said, "and too old for compliments; +besides, lawyers should always speak the truth." + +"For goodness sake! don't spread that theory, my dear, or we shall all +have to put our shutters up," he retorted, with mock alarm. + +He got on his old red-roan rather stiffly, and they rode out of the +court-yard and on to the road, where, be sure, Ida's "star-like" eyes +swept the hills and the valleys lest perchance a young man should be +riding there. They rode in silence for a few minutes, during which the +old lawyer seemed very thoughtful, and glanced at her sideways, as if +he were trying to make up his mind about something. At last he said, +with an affectation of casualness: + +"Father been pretty well of late, my dear?" + +Ida hesitated for a moment. She could not bring herself to tell even +Mr. Wordley of her father's painful habit of walking in his sleep. + +"Yes," she said, "fairly well. Sometimes he is rather restless and +irritable as if he were worried. Has he anything to worry him, Mr. +Wordley--I mean anything more than usual?" + +He did not answer, and she looked at him as if waiting for his reply. + +"I was thinking of what you just said: that you were a big girl. So you +are, though you always seem to me like the little child I used to +nurse. But the world rolls on and you have grown into a woman and I +ought to tell you the truth," he said, at last. + +"The truth!" she echoed, with a quick glance. + +"Yes," he said, nodding gravely. "Does your father ever talk to you of +business, my dear? I know that you manage the house and the farm; ay, +and manage them well, but I don't know whether he ever tells you +anything about the business of the estate. I ask because I am in rather +an awkward position. When your father dismissed his steward I thought +he would consult me on the matters which the steward used to manage; +but he has not done so, and I am really more ignorant about his affairs +than anyone would credit, seeing that I have been the Herons' family +lawyer--I and mine--since, well, say, since the Flood." "No; my father +tells me nothing," said Ida. "Is there anything the matter, is there +anything I should know?" + +He looked at her gravely, compassionately. + +"My dear, I think there is," he said. "If you had a brother or any +relative near you I would not worry you, would not tell you. But you +have none, you are quite alone, you see." + +"Quite alone," she echoed. And then she blushed, as she remembered +Stafford, and that she was no longer alone in the world. + +"And so I think you ought to be told that your father's affairs +are--are not as satisfactory as they should be." + +"I know that we are very poor," said Ida in a low voice. + +"Ah, yes," he said. "And so are a great many of the landed gentry +nowadays; but they still struggle on, and I had hope that by some +stroke of good luck I might have helped your father to struggle on and +perhaps save something, make some provision, for you. But, my dear--See +now! I am going to treat you as if you were indeed a woman; and you +will be brave, I know, for you are a Heron, and a Heron--it sounds like +a paradox!--has never shown the white feather--your father's affairs +have been growing worse lately, I am afraid. You know that the estate +is encumbered, that the entail was cut off so that you might inherit; +but advantage has been taken of the cutting off the entail to raise +fresh loans since the steward was dismissed and I have been ignorant of +your father's business matters. I came to-day to tell him that the +interest of the heaviest mortgage was long overdue, and that the +mortgagee, who says that he has applied several times, is threatening +foreclosure. I felt quite sure that I should get the money from your +father this morning, but he has put me off and makes some difficulty. +He made a rambling statement, almost incoherent, which I did not +understand, though, to be sure, I listened very intently, and from a +word or two he incautiously let drop, I am afraid that--" + +He stopped and frowned and puckered his lips as if reluctant to +continue. Ida looked at him steadily with her deep grey eyes. + +"Go on." she said. "Do not be afraid to tell me the truth. I can bear +it. I would rather know the worst, know what I have to face. For some +time past I have feared my father was in trouble. Do you think I am +afraid? Please tell me all." + +"In a word, then, my dear," said the old lawyer, with a sigh, "I am +afraid your father has been speculating, and, like ninety-nine out of a +hundred that do so, has been losing. It is like playing against the +bank at Monte Carlo; one man may break it, but the advantage is on the +bank's side, and for the one who wins thousands lose. Can you tell me +if there are any grounds for my apprehension?" + +Ida was silent for a moment as she recalled her father's manner of +late, his habit of shutting himself up in the library, of keeping his +letters from her, of secreting papers, and, above all, the furtive +glances which she had now and again seen him cast at her. + +"I am afraid that it is only too true," she said. "My poor father! What +is to be done, Mr. Wordley? Can I do anything?" + +The old man shook his head. He knew too well that once a man has really +taken to gambling, whether it be on the Stock Exchange, or at a green +table, or on the turf, there is very little hope of saving him. + +"I fear you can do nothing," he replied, sadly. "A Heron never yet +brooked interference even by his nearest and dearest. No, you must say +nothing about it. Even I must be careful how I approach him; for this +morning he was testy and irritable and resented the few questions I +ventured to put to him. Don't make yourself unhappy about it. I will +try and arrange about the mortgage, and I will come over again as soon +as possible and try and persuade your father to confide in me as he +used to do. Now, come, remember! You are not to worry yourself, my +dear, but to leave it entirely to me. Things are rarely as bad as they +seem, and there is always a gleam of light in the darkest sky. Perhaps, +some day, we shall see Heron Hall and the good old family in all its +old glory; and when that day comes, my little girl with the star eyes +will queen it in the dale like one of the Heron ladies of the past." + +He patted her hand as he held it, patted and stroked it and looked at +her with a tender and encouraging smile, which made Ida's eyes grow +moist. + +She rode down the dale gravely and sadly for some minutes: then the +thought flashed through her mind, warming her heart, that she was not +alone, but there was one who loved her and to whom she could by for +consolation and encouragement. Yes, it was only right that she should +tell Stafford all; there should be no concealment from him. + +She rode down the dale looking for him, but he was nowhere to be seen. +When she came to the opening by the lake she saw the large, white Villa +gleaming in the sunlight; a launch was patting off from the +landing-place with men and women on board, and the could almost fancy +that she heard the sound of laughter. The contrast of the prosperity +typified by the great white place and the poverty of Heron Hall smote +her sharply. She was poorer even than she had thought: what would the +great, the rich Sir Stephen say to such a daughter-in-law? She watched +the launch dreamily as it shot across the lake, and wondered whether +Stafford was on board, laughing and talking perhaps with the beautiful +Miss Falconer. In this moment of her trouble the thought was not +pleasant, but there was no jealousy in it, for in her assurance of his +love he was free to talk and jest with whom he pleased. She turned, and +after making her usual circuit, rode home-wards. As she reached the +cross-road she heard the sound of a horse coming from the Hall, and she +pulled up, her heart beating fast; then it sank with disappointment, +for the horseman came round the bend and she saw that it was a groom. +He touched his hat as he passed, and rode on at a sharp trot in the +direction of Bryndremere. Ida wondered why he had been to the Hall, but +concluded that he had gone there with some message about the farm +produce. + +When she rode into the stable-yard, she saw Jessie and Jason standing +by the small hall door and talking eagerly, and Jessie came forward, +and taking a letter from under her apron, held it out with a smile. + +"It's just come from the Villa, Miss Ida," she said. "And oh, miss, +what I told you this morning--it's quite true. It was Mr. Stafford's +own groom as brought the note, and he says that his master is engaged +to Miss Falconer, and that the whole place is in excitement over it. He +was as proud as Punch, Miss Ida; for he says that his new mistress is +terrible rich as well as beautiful, and that there'll be the grandest +of grand doings up there." + +The blood rushed to Ida's face for a moment, then faded, and she +slipped the note into the pocket of her habit and laughed. For it +sounded too ridiculous, too incredible to cause her even a shadow of +annoyance. She gave one or two orders to Jason, then went into the +hall, took the note from her pocket and looked at the address lovingly, +lingeringly: for instinctively she knew whose hand had written it. It +was the first letter she had received from him; what would it say to +her? No doubt it was to tell her why he had not been able to meet her +that morning, to ask her to meet him later in the day. With a blush of +maidenly shame she lifted the envelope to her lips and kissed each +written word. + +Then she opened it, slowly, as lingeringly as she had looked at it, +spinning out the pleasure, the delight which lay before her in the +perusal of her first love-letter. With her foot upon the old-fashioned +fender, her head drooping as if there was someone present to see her +blushes, she read the letter; and it is not too much to say that at +first she failed utterly to grasp its meaning. With knit brows and +quaking heart, she read it again and again, until its significance was, +so to speak, forced upon her; then the letter dropped from her hand, +her arms fell limply to her sides, and she looked straight before her +in a dazed, benumbed fashion, every word burning itself upon her brain +and searing her heart. + +The blow had fallen so suddenly, so unexpectedly, like a bolt from the +blue, smiting the happiness of her young life as a sapling is smitten +by summer lightning, that for the moment she felt no pain, nothing but +the benumbing of all her faculties; so that she did not see the +portrait of the dead and gone Heron upon which her eyes rested, did not +hear her father's voice calling to her from the library, was conscious +of nothing but those terrible words which were dinning through her +brain like the booming of a great bell. Presently she uttered a low cry +and clasped her head with her hand, as if to shut out the sound of the +words that tortured her. + +It could not be true--it could not be true! Stafford had not written +it. It was some cruel jest, a very cruel jest, perpetrated by someone +who hated them both, and who wantonly inflicted pain. Yes; that was it! +That could be the only explanation. Someone had written in his name; it +was a forgery; she would meet Stafford presently, and they would laugh +at it together. He would be very angry, would want to punish the person +who had done it; but he and she would laugh together, and he would take +her in his arms and kiss her in one of the many ways in which he had +made a kiss an ecstasy of delight, and they would laugh together as he +whispered that nothing should ever separate them. + +She laughed now as she pictured the scene that would be enacted. But +suddenly the laugh died on her lips, as there flashed across her mind +the words Jessie had said. Stafford was engaged to Maude Falconer, the +girl up at the Villa, whose beauty and grace and wealth all the dale +was talking of. + +Oh, God! Was there any truth in it, was there any truth in it? Had +Stafford, indeed, written that cruel letter? Had he left her forever, +forever, forever? Should she never see him again, never again hear him +tell her that he loved her, would always love her? + +The room spun round with her, she suddenly felt sick and faint, and, +reeling, caught at the carved mantel-shelf to prevent herself from +falling. Then gradually the death-like faintness passed, and she became +conscious that her father's voice was calling to her, and she clasped +her head again and swept the hair from her forehead, and clenched her +hands in the effort to gain her presence of mind and self-command. + +She picked up the letter, and, with a shudder, thrust it in her bosom, +as Cleopatra might have thrust the asp which was to destroy her; then +with leaden feet, she crossed the hall and opened the library door, and +saw her father standing by the table clutching some papers in one hand, +and gesticulating wildly with the other. Dizzily, for there seemed to +be a mist before her eyes, she went to him and laid a hand upon his +arm. + +"What is it, father?" she said, "Are you ill? What is the matter?" + +He gazed at her vacantly and struck his hand on the table, after the +manner of a child in a senseless passion. + +"Lost! Lost! All lost!" he mumbled, jumbling the words together almost +incoherently. + +"What is lost, father?" she asked. + +"Everything, everything!" he cried, in the same manner. "I can't +remember, can't remember! It's ruin, utter ruin! My head--I can't +think, can't remember! Lost, lost!" + +In her terror, she put her young arm round him as a mother encircles +her child in the delirium of fever. + +"Try and tell me, father!" she implored him. "Try and be calm, dearest! +Tell me, and I will help you. What is lost?" + +He tried to struggle from her arms, tried to push her from him. + +"You know!" he mumbled. "You've watched me--you know the truth! +Everything is lost! I am ruined! The mortgage! Herondale will pass +away! I am a poor man, a very poor man! Have pity on me, have pity on +me!" + +He slipped, by their weight, from her arms and fell into the chair. She +sank on to her knees, her arms still round him, and stroked and +caressed his withered hand that twitched and shook; and to her horror +his stony eyes grew more vacant, his jaw dropped, and he sank still +lower in the chair. "Jessie! Jason!" she called, and they rushed in. +For a space they stood aghast and unhelpful from fright, then Jason +tried to lift his master from the heap into which he had collapsed. The +old man's eyes closed, he straggled for breath, and when he had gained +it, he looked from one to the other with a smile, a senile smile, which +added to Ida's grief and terror. + +"It's all right!" he whispered, huskily, pantingly. "It's all right; +they don't know. They don't guess!" Then his manner changed to one of +intense alarm and dismay. "Lost! Lost!" he gasped. "I'm ruined, rained! +Herondale has gone, gone--all is gone! My poor child--Ida!" + +"Father!" broke from Ida's white lips. "Father, I am here. Look at me, +speak to me. I am here--everything is not lost. I am here, and all is +well." + +His lips twisted into a smile, a smile of cunning, almost of glee; then +he groaned, and the cry rose again: + +"I can't remember--all is lost! Ruined! My poor child! Have pity on my +child!" + +As she clung to him, supporting him as she clung, she felt a shudder +run through him, and he fell a lifeless heap upon her shoulder. + +The minutes--were they minutes or years?--passed, and were broken into +fragments by a cry from Jessie. + +"Miss Ida! Miss Ida! He's--the master's dead!'" + + +Ida raised her father's head from her shoulder and looked into his +face, and knew that the girl had spoken the truth. + +He was dead. She had lost both father and lover in one day! + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + +Ida sat in the library on the morning of the funeral. A pelting rain +beat upon the windows, over which the blinds had been drawn; the great +silence which reigned in the chamber above, in which the dead master of +Heron lay, brooded over the whole house, and seemed in no part of it +more intense than in this great, book-lined room, in which Godfrey +Heron had spent so much of his life. + +Ida lay back in the great arm-chair in which he had sat, her small +brown hands lying limply in her lap, her eyes fixed absently upon the +open book which lay on the table as he had left it. The pallor of her +face, increased by her sorrow, was accentuated by the black dress, +almost as plainly made as that which the red-eyed Jessie wore in her +kitchen. Though nearly a week had elapsed since her father had died in +her young arms, and notwithstanding her capacity for self-reliance, Ida +had not yet recovered from the stupor of the shock. + +She was scarcely thinking as she lay back in his chair and looked at +the table over which he had bent for so many monotonous years; she +scarcely realised that he had passed out of her life, and that she was +alone in the world; and she was only vaguely conscious that her sorrow +had, so to speak, a double edge; that she had lost not only her father, +but the man to whom she had given her heart, the man who should have +been standing beside her now, shielding her with his strong arms, +comforting her with words of pity and love. The double blow had fallen +so suddenly, so unexpectedly, that the pain of it had been dulled and +blunted. The capacity of human nature for suffering is, after all not +unlimited. God says to physical pain and mental anguish, "Thus far and +no farther;" and this limitation saved Ida from utter collapse. + +Then, again, she was not free to indulge in idle grief, in the luxury +of woe; the great house had still to be run, she had to bury her +beloved dead, the mourning which seems such a hopeless mockery when the +heart is racked with misery, had to be seen to; and she did it, and +went through it all, with outward calm, sustained by that Heron spirit +which may be described as the religion of her class--_noblesse oblige_. +Jessie had wept loudly through the house ever since the death, and +could weep as loudly now; but if Ida shed any tears she wept in the +silence and darkness of her own room, and no one heard her utter a +moan. "To suffer in silence and be strong" was the badge of all her +tribe, and she wore it with quiet stoicism. + +Godfrey Heron's death had happened so suddenly that the news of it +scarcely got beyond the radius of the estate before the following +morning, and Stafford had gone to London in ignorance of this second +blow with which Fate had followed up the one he had dealt Ida: and when +the neighbours--the Vaynes, the Bannerdales, and the Avorys--came +quickly and readily enough to offer their sympathy and help, they could +do nothing. The girl solitary and lonely in her grief as she had been +solitary and lonely through her life, would see no one but the doctor +and Mr. Wordley, and the people who had once been warm and intimate +friends of the family left reluctantly and sully, to talk over the +melancholy circumstance, and to wonder what would become of the +daughter of the eccentric man who had lived the life of a recluse. Mr. +Wordley would have liked to have persuaded her to see some of the women +who had hastened to comfort her; but he knew that any attempt at +persuasion would have been in vain, that he would not have been able to +break down the barrier of reserve which the girl had instinctively and +reservedly erected between her suffering soul and the world. His heart +ached for her, and he did all that a man could do to lighten the burden +of her trouble; but there was very little that he could do beyond +superintending the necessary arrangements for the funeral. + +His first thought was of the relatives; but, somewhat to his own +dismay, he found that the only one whom he could trace was a certain +cousin, a more than middle-aged man who, though he bore the name of +Heron, was quite unknown to Ida, and, so far as Mr. Wordley was aware, +had not crossed the threshold of the Hall for many years. He was a +certain John Heron, a retired barrister, who had gone in for religion, +not in the form of either of the Established Churches, but of that of +one of the least known sects, the members of which called themselves +some kind of brothers, were supposed to be very strict observers of the +Scriptural law, and were considered by those who did not belong to them +both narrow-minded and uncharitable. + +Mr. John Heron was a prominent member of this little sect, and was +famous in its small circles for his extreme sanctity and his eloquence +as a lay preacher. Mr. Wordley, with much misgiving, had invited this, +the only relative he could find, to the funeral, and Ida was now +awaiting this gentleman's arrival. + +The stealthy footsteps which belong to those who minister to the dead +passed up and down the great house, Jason was setting out the simple +"funeral baked meats" which are considered appropriate to the occasion, +and Mr. Wordley paced up and down the hall with his hands behind his +back, listening to the undertaker's men upstairs, and glancing through +the window in expectation of the carriage which had been sent for Mr. +John Heron. Presently he saw it rounding a bend of the drive, and went +into the library to prepare Ida. + +She raised her head but not her eyes as he entered, and looked at him +with that dull apathy which denotes the benumbed heart, the mind +crushed under its heavy weight of sorrow. + +"I came in to tell you, my dear, that Mr. John Heron is coming," he +said. "The carriage is just turning the bend of the drive." "I will +come," she said, rising and supporting herself by the heavy, carved arm +of the great chair. + +"No, no" he said. "Sit down and wait here." He did not want her to hear +the stealthy tread of the undertaker's men, to meet the coffin which +they were going to bring downstairs and place in the hall. "I will +bring him in here. Is there anything you would like me to say to him, +my dear?" he asked, and spoke with a certain hesitancy; for as yet he +had not spoken of her future, feeling that her grief was too recent, +too sacred, to permit of the obtrusion of material and worldly matters. + +"To say to him?" she repeated, in a low, dull voice, as if she did not +understand. + +"Yes," he said. "I did not know whether you had formed any plan, +whether"--he hesitated again, "you had thought of going--of paying a +visit--to these relations of yours. He lives in the north of London, +and has a wife and son and daughter, as you know." + +Ida passed her hand across her brow, trying to remember. + +"Ah, yes," she said at last, "I remember you told me about them. I +never heard of them before--until now. Why should I go to them? Do they +want me? Have they asked me?" + +Mr. Wordley coughed discreetly. They certainly had not asked her, but +he felt quite assured that an individual whose reputation for sanctity +stood so high could not be so deficient in charity as to refuse a home +to his orphan cousin. + +"They have not sent you any definite invitation yet, but they will be +sure to want you to go and stay with them, for a time, at any rate; and +I think you ought to go." + +"I do not think I should like it," said Ida, but indifferently, as if +the question were of no moment. "I would rather stay here" + +Mr. Wordley polished his glasses very intently. + +"I am afraid you'd find it very lonely at the Hall, my dear," he said. +"In fact, I don't think you could remain here by yourself," he added, +evading the direct gaze of the great, sad eyes. + +"I should feel lonely anywhere," she said. "More lonely with people I +don't know, probably, than I should feel here, with Jessie and +Jason--and--and the dogs." + +"Well, well, we can't discuss the question now, and will endeavour to +act for the best, my dear," said the old man, still intent upon his +glasses. "I hear the carriage. I will bring Mr. John in." He returned +in a minute or two, accompanied by a tall and gaunt individual, who, in +his black clothes and white necktie, looked a cross between a superior +undertaker and a Methodist preacher. His features were strongly marked, +and the expression of his countenance was both severe and melancholy, +and, judging by his expression and his voice, which was harsh and +lachrymose, his particular form of religion did not appear to afford +him either amusement or consolation. + +"This is your cousin, Mr. John Heron," said poor Mr. Wordley, who was +evidently suffering from the effects of his few minutes' conversation +with that gentleman. + +Mr. John Heron surveyed the slight figure and white face with its sad, +star-like eyes--surveyed it with a grim kind of severity, which was +probably intended for sympathy, and extending a cold, damp hand, which +resembled an extremely bony shoulder of mutton, said, in a rasping, +melancholy voice: + +"How do you do, Ida? I trust you are bearing your burden as becomes a +Christian. We are born to sorrow. The train was three-quarters of an +hour late." + +"I am sorry," said Ida in her low voice, leaving him to judge whether +she expressed regret for our birthright of misery or the lateness of +the train. "Will you have some lunch--some wine?" she asked, a dull, +vague wonder rising in her mind that this grim, middle-class man should +be of kith and kin with her dead father. + +"Thank you; no. I had an abernethy biscuit at the station." He drew +back from, and waved away, the tray of wine which Jason at this moment +brought in. "I never touch wine. I, and all mine, are total abstainers. +Those who fly to the wine-cup in moments of tribulation and grief rely +on a broken reed which shall pierce their hand. I trust you do not +drink, Cousin Ida?" + +"No--yes; sometimes; not much," she replied, vaguely, and regarding him +with a dull wonder; for she had never seen this kind of man before. + +Mr. Wordley poured out a glass of wine, and, in silent indignation, +handed it to her; and, unconscious of the heavy scowl with which Mr. +John Heron regarded her, she put her lips to it. + +"A glass of wine is not a bad thing at any time," said the old lawyer; +"especially when one is weakened and prostrated by trouble. Try and +drink a little more, my dear." + +"It is a matter of opinion, of conviction, of principle," said Mr. John +Heron, grimly, as if he were in the pulpit. "We must be guided by the +light of our consciences; we must not yield to the seductive in +fineness of creature comfort. We are told that strong drink is +raging--" This was rather more than Mr. Wordley could stand, and, very +red in the face, he invited Mr. John Heron to go up to the room which +had been prepared for him. + +When that gentleman had stalked out, the old lawyer looked at Ida with +a mixture of dismay and commiseration. + +"Not a--er--particularly cheerful and genial person, my dear; but no +doubt Mr. John Heron is extremely conscientious and--er--good-hearted." + +"I daresay," assented Ida, apathetically. "It does not matter. It was +very kind of him to come so far to--to the funeral," she added. "He +might have stayed away, for I don't think my father knew him, and I +never heard of him. Is it not time yet?" she asked, in a low voice. + +As she spoke, Jessie came in and took her upstairs to her room to put +on the thick black cloak, the bonnet with its long crape veil, in which +Ida was to follow her father to the grave; for in spite of Mr. +Wordley's remonstrances, she had remained firm in her resolve to go to +the church-yard. + +Presently the procession started. Only a few carriages followed the +hearse which bore Godfrey Heron to his last resting-place; but when the +vehicles cradled beyond the boundary of the grounds, across which the +dead man had not set foot for thirty years, the cavalcade was swelled +by a number of tenants, labourers, and dalesmen who had come to pay +their last respects to Heron of Herondale; and marching in threes, +which appears to be the regulation number for a funeral, they made a +long and winding tail to the crawling coaches, quite filled the little +church, and stood, a black-garbed crowd, in the pelting rain round the +oblong hole which would suffice for the last bed of this one of the +last of the lords of the dale. + +But though all were present to show respect to the deceased squire, the +attention of every man and woman was fixed upon the slight, girlish +figure standing by the side of the grave, her head bent, her great +mournful eye fixed upon the coffin, her hands clenched tightly as they +held together the thick mourning cloak. She looked so young, so almost +child-like in the desolation of her solitude, that many of the women +cried silently, and the rough men set their lips hard and looked +sternly and grimly at the ground. + +The old clergyman who had christened her and every Sunday had cast +glances of interest and affection at her as she sat in the great "loose +box" of a pew, found it very difficult to read the solemn service +without breaking down, and his old thin voice quavered as he spoke the +words of hope and consolation which the storm of wind and rain caught +up and swept across the narrow church-yard and down the dale of which +the Herons had been so long masters. + +Mr. John Heron stood grim and gaunt opposite Ida, as if he were a +figure carved out of wood, and showed no sign of animation until the +end of the service, when he looked round with a sudden eagerness, and +opened his large square lips as if he were going to "improve the +occasion" by an address; but Mr. Wordley, who suspected him of such +intention, nipped it in the bud by saying: + +"Will you give your arm to Miss Ida, Mr. Heron? I want to get her back +to the Hall as soon as possible." + +Ida was led to the carriage, passing through a lane of sympathisers +amongst whom were representatives of all the great dale families; and +all bent their heads with a respectful pity and sympathy as the young +girl made her way down the narrow path. About half a dozen persons had +been asked to go to the Hall for the funeral lunch, at which Mr. John +Heron, as representative of the family, presided. It was a melancholy +meal; for most of those present were thinking of the orphan girl in her +room above. They spoke in lowered voices of the dead man and of the +great family from which he had sprung, and recalled stories of the +wealth and lavishness of past Herons; and when the meal was over, there +suddenly fell a silence, and all eyes were turned upon Mr. Wordley; for +the moment had arrived for the reading and expounding of the will. + +Mr. Wordley rose, coughed, and wiped his eye-glasses, and looked round +gravely. + +"As the legal adviser of my late client, Mr. Godfrey Heron, I have to +inform you, gentlemen, that there is no will. My client died +intestate." + +The listeners exchanged glances, and looked grave and concerned. + +"No will?" said Lord Bannerdale, anxiously; then his kindly face +cleared. "But of course everything goes to his daughter; the estate is +not entailed?" + +Mr. Wordley inclined his head. + +"The estate is not entailed, as you observed, Lord Bannerdale; and my +client, Miss Ida Heron, inherits everything." + +They drew a breath of relief, and nodded assentingly; and presently +they made a general movement of departure. Lord Bannerdale lingered +behind the others. "I won't ask the poor child to see me, Mr. Wordley," +he said. "Will you therefore be good enough to give her Lady +Bannerdale's love, and to tell her that, as Lady Bannerdale has written +to her, we shall be more than pleased if she will come to us at the +Court. She is to consider it her home for just as long as she should +please; and we shall feel it a pleasure and an honour to have her +amongst us as one of our own. Of course she cannot remain alone here, +in this great place." + +The old lawyer bowed. + +"I will give her your kind message, for which I thank you on her +behalf, Lord Bannerdale. I do not know what she will do, or where she +will go; at present she is not in a condition to discuss any plans for +her future, though to-day she expressed a desire to remain at the +Hall." He paused for a moment before he added: "I do not know whether +she can do so." + +"My cousin is young, and a mere child, and she must follow the advice +of her elders and her guardian. The future of even the sparrow is in +higher hands than ours, and we know not what a day may bring forth," +said Mr. John Heron, grimly, and with an uplifting of his heavy brows. + +"Quite so," said Lord Bannerdale, who had taken a great dislike for the +sanctimonious speaker, and who could scarcely repress a shudder as he +shook Mr. John Heron's cold and clammy hand. + +When they had all gone, Mr. Wordley said: + +"We had better go into the library and talk matters over. I will send +for Miss Ida. It seems cruel to disturb her at such a moment, but there +is no help for it." + +"You speak as if you had bad tidings, Mr. Wordley, to give us," said +John Heron. + +"I am afraid I have," responded the old lawyer, shaking his grey head +sadly. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + +When Ida came down, he led her to a chair beside the fire which he had +ordered to be lit, and laid his hand gently and tenderly on her +shoulder by way of preparation and encouragement. + +"Your cousin and I want to talk to you about the future, Ida," he said. +"You will have to be told some time or other exactly how your father's +affairs stood, and I have come to the conclusion that it is better you +should know at once than that you should be permitted to remain in +ignorance of the gravity of the situation. I have gone over your +father's papers and looked into his affairs very carefully and closely, +and I am sorry to say that they are in a very unsatisfactory condition. +As I told you the other day, the estate has been encumbered and very +seriously embarrassed for some time past, and the encumbrance has been +increased of late, notwithstanding the admirable way in which you have +managed the estate and the household affairs." + +Ida raised her eyes to his and tried to regard him calmly and bravely, +but her lips quivered and she checked a sigh. + +Mr. Wordley coughed and frowned, as a man does when he is engaged in a +disagreeable and painful task. + +"The principal mortgagee has given me notice of foreclosure, and the +amount of the debt is so large that I am afraid--it would be cruel and +useless to conceal the truth from you--I _know_ that the property sold +would not be sufficient to meet it. Of ready money there appears to be +none--" + +Mr. John Heron groaned and raised his melancholy eyes to the ceiling +with an expression of reprobation. Ida appeared unconscious of his +presence and kept her sad eyes steadily fixed on the lawyer's kind and +mournful face. + +--"In a word, my dear child, your poor father appears to have left +absolutely no effects behind him." + +Ida drew a long breath and was silent for a moment, as she tried to +realise the significance of his words. + +"Do you mean that I am quite penniless?" she said, in a low voice. + +Mr. Wordley blew his nose and coughed two or three times, as if he +found it difficult to reply; at last he said, in a voice almost as low +as hers: + +"Put shortly, I am afraid, my dear, that is what I must tell you. I had +no idea that the position was so grave. I thought that there would be +something left; sufficient, at any rate, to render you independent; +but, as I told you, I have been kept in ignorance of your father's +affairs for some years past, and I did not know how things were going. +I am surprised as well as grieved, deeply grieved; and I must confess +that I can only account for the deplorable confusion and loss by the +theory that I suggested to you the other day. I cannot but think that +your poor father must have engaged in some disastrous speculation." + +Mr. Heron groaned again, and shook his head. + +"The prevailing vice of this most wicked of ages," he said. "The love +of money, the gambling on the race-course and the Stock Exchange, are +the root of all evil." + +Ida seemed not to hear him, and Mr. Wordley ignored the comment. + +"It now remains for you, my dear child, to decide what to do. I do not +think you could possibly live on here; you have not the means to do so, +though you should be as economical as you have been in the past; the +house must pass away from you in six months' time or little more, and +there would be nothing gained by your lingering hopelessly here for +that period." + +"I must go, then," said Ida, as if there were a stab in every word. + +Mr. Wordley bent his head, and laid his hand on her shoulder. + +"Yes, I fear you must go," he assented. "But, thank God, you are not +without friends, many friends. Lord Bannerdale charges me to tell you +what his good wife has already written you--that a home awaits you at +the Court, where you will be received gladly and lovingly; and I am +quite sure that the door of every house in the dale is wide open for +you." + +Ida shrank in her chair. Clothe the offer as kindly as he might, it +spelt Charity, not cold charity, but charity still: and what Heron had +ever tamely accepted charity from mere friends and strangers? Mr. +Wordley saw the shrinking, the little shudder, and understood. + +"I understand, my dear!" he said, in a low voice. "But there is another +offer, another home which you can accept without humiliation or +compunction. Your cousin, Mr. John Heron here, will, I am sure, be only +too glad, too delighted to--to--" + +He waited and glanced at Mr. Heron impatiently, and at last that +gentleman rose, but not too eagerly, to the occasion. + +"I need scarcely say," he said, slowly and solemnly, "that I should not +approve of my cousin's accepting these offers of charity, which, though +no doubt kindly meant, appear to me somewhat--er--obtrusive. I am not a +wealthy man; my simple home cannot compare in size and grandeur with +Heron Hall and the estate which my late unfortunate cousin appears to +have squandered, but such as it is, Ida will be welcome in it. I am not +one to turn a deaf ear to the cry of the orphan and fatherless." + +Mr. Wordley frowned and reddened, and cut in before Mr. John Heron +could finish his sentence even more offensively, and so rouse Ida's +spirit, and render his offer impossible of acceptance. + +"Quite so, quite so, my dear sir," he said. "I am quite sure you will +feel only too delighted and honoured at the prospect of taking this +dear child into your family." + +"Yes," said Mr. Heron, unctuously, "we will take her in as a lamb +gathered into the fold, as a brand is plucked from the burning." + +Ida looked at him half stupefied, and it is to be feared some doubts of +his sanity arose in her mind. + +"Quite so, quite so," interrupted Mr. Wordley again. "Then I think the +sooner Miss Ida joins you the better; and I would suggest that she goes +with you to-morrow. I will close the house and leave Jessie, the +maid-servant, and Jason in charge. You and Miss Ida can depend on my +guarding her interests as jealously as if they were my own. I will have +a sale of the stock and other things which we are free to sell, and, +meanwhile, Miss Ida must permit me to advance her some money on account +of the proceeds." + +He handed her an envelope in which he had already placed some +bank-notes; but Ida looked at him and slowly shook her head. + +"No, no, my dear!" he said. "I should not be guilty of such +presumption. Though you are leaving Heron Hall, though it may be +passing away from you forever, you are still, in my eyes, Miss Heron of +Herondale, and I should not presume to offer you--" His voice broke, +and his eyes filled with tears. "The money is yours, and you can take +it without any loss of the pride which is your rightful heritage. If I +have not offered you a home where you would indeed be an honoured +guest, it is because I know that it would not be fitting for me to +offer it, or you to accept it. Mr. John Heron is your natural guardian; +but though that is so, I will ask you to remember that I claim the +privilege of being your father's friend and yours, and that in any +trouble you will be but honouring that privilege when you come to me +for advice and assistance." + +His voice was almost inaudible before he had finished, and Ida, down +whose cheek tears were running for the first time, extended both hands +in mute but eloquent gratitude. They had both forgotten Mr. John +Heron's presence but were reminded of it by something between a cough +and a sniff from him; and at a glance from Mr. Wordley, Ida turned to +the gaunt figure and held out her hand. + +"Thank you," she said in a low voice, "I will come with you and stay +with you until--until--I can find something to do, something at which I +can earn my own living. Surely there must be something I can do?" She +turned to Mr. Wordley with a little anxious, eager gesture. "I am +strong--very strong; I have managed Herondale--I can ride, and--and +understand a farm. I am never tired. Surely there is something I can +do!" + +Her voice broke, she began to tremble, and the tears started to her +eyes again. + +"Yes, yes; no doubt, no doubt, my child!" said Mr. Wordley, whose own +eyes were moist. "We will think about all that later on. You must go +now and rest; you are tired." + +He drew her arm within his, and patting her hand tenderly and +encouragingly, led her out of the room; and stood in the hall watching +her as she slowly went up the great stairs; such a girlish, mournful +figure in her plain black dress. + +Ida lay awake that night listening to the wind and the rain. She was +familiar enough with the dale storms, but never had their wild music +wailed so mournful an accompaniment to her own thoughts. Compared with +her other losses, that of her home, dearly as she loved it, weighed but +little; it was but, an added pang to the anguish of her bereavement; +and behind that, the principal cause of her grief, loomed the desertion +of her lover. She tried not to think of Stafford; for every thought +bestowed on him seemed to rob her dead father and to be disloyal to his +memory; but, alas! the human heart is despotic; and as she lay awake +and listened to the wailing of the wind and the rain as it drove +against the window, Stafford's voice penetrated that of the storm; and, +scarcely consciously, her lips were forming some of the passionate +words of endearment which he had whispered to her by the stream and on +the hill-side. Though she knew every word by heart of the letter he had +written her, she did not yet understand or comprehend why he had broken +his solemn engagement to her. She understood that something had risen +between them, something had happened which had separated them, but she +could form no idea as to what it was. He had spoken of "unworthiness," +of something which he had discovered that had rendered him unfit to be +her husband; but she could not guess what it was; but confused and +bewildered as she was, there was at present, at any rate, no resentment +in her heart. + +The lover had been taken from her just as her father and her home had +been. There was no help for it, there was no appeal from the decrees of +Fate. Fate had decreed that she should love Stafford and lose him; and +she could only go on living her grey and dreary life, made all the +greyer and drearier by her short spell of joy and happiness. Sorrow's +crown of sorrow is still the remembrance of happier things; and she +would have to wear that crown in place of the crown of his love, wear +it through all her days; for, young as she was, she knew that she had +given her heart once and for all, that though she might never see +Stafford again, she would love him to the end. + +A mist hung over the dale on this, the day of her departure from the +Hall, and all the hills over which she had so loved to ride and walk +were shrouded as if in tears. + +She stood and looked at them from the hall window with vacant eyes, as +if she did not yet realise that she was leaving them, perhaps forever; +but she had not long for gazing, for Mr. Heron and she were going by an +early train, and the moment for farewell came swiftly upon her. + +With Donald and Bess close at her heels, as if they were aware of their +coming loss, she went round to say good-bye. She crossed the lawn and +went to the spot under the tree where she had met Stafford that +never-to-be-forgotten night, and from thence walked to the corner of +the terrace where they had stood and watched her father coming, in his +sleep, from the ruined chapel. Then she went to the stable to say +good-bye to Rupert, who whinnied as he heard her approaching footstep, +and thrust his soft, velvety nose into her neck. She had to fight hard +against the tears at this point, and she hid her face against that of +the big horse, with her arms thrown round his neck, as she murmured her +last good-bye. + +But the tears would not be kept back when it came to saying farewell to +the two faithful souls, Jessie and Jason, with whom she had grown up +from a girl all legs and wings, and whom she had learnt to regard +rather as devoted friends than servants. Jason broke down completely +and hurried away, his old and feeble frame shaking like an autumn leaf; +and Jessie, her arms thrown round her young mistress, and with sobs and +ejaculations, implored her to take her faithful Jessie with her. + +Perhaps the parting with the two dogs was as bitter as any, for, as if +they knew quite well that she was going, they clung closely to her, and +when she hugged them and kissed them on the forehead, they had to be +dragged off by Jason, and locked up in the stables lest they should +follow the carriage which was to bear their beloved mistress away. + +That carriage came all too soon, though Mr. John Heron had awaited its +arrival impatiently and with watch in hand. He seemed grimmer and +gaunter than ever that morning, and as he looked around the great Hall, +he shook his head at its faded grandeur reprehensively, as if he could, +if time permitted, deliver a sermon on the prodigality, the wicked +wastefulness, which had brought ruin on the house, and rendered it +necessary for him to extend his charity to the penniless orphan. + +Mr. Wordley was there to say good-bye to Ida and put her into the +carriage; but it proved a difficult good-bye to say, and for once the +usually fluent old lawyer was bereft of the power of speech as he held +Ida's small hand, and looked through tear-dimmed eyes at the white and +sorrowful face. He had intended to say all sorts of kind and +encouraging things, but he could only manage the two words, "Good-bye;" +and they were almost inaudible. + +She sank back into the carriage as it drove away from the Hall, and +closed her eyes that she might not see the familiar trees in the +avenue, the cattle, everyone of which she knew by name, grazing in the +meadow, the pale and woe-begone faces of the servants who stood by the +steps to catch the last glimpse of their beloved; and for some time her +eyes remained closed; but they opened as she came to the clearing by +the lake, from which one could see the long stretching facade of Sir +Stephen Orme's white villa. She opened them then and looked at the +house, wondering whether Stafford was there, wondering why he had not +come to her, despite the promise she had exacted from him; wondering +whether he knew that her father was dead, and that she was left +penniless. + +She was not capable of any more tears, and a dull apathy crushed down +upon her, so that she did not notice that at the station Mr. John Heron +improved the occasion, as he would have put it, by distributing tracts +to the station-master and porters. The journey to London passed as if +it were made in a dream; and wearied in mind and body and soul, she +found herself, late in the evening, standing in the centre of the +Heron's dreary drawing-room, awaiting her reception by the Heron +family. + +She had been told by her cousin, as they drove in a four-wheeled cab +through the depressing streets of a London suburb, that the family +consisted of his wife and a son and a daughter; that the son's name was +Joseph and the daughter's Isabel; that Joseph was a clerk in the city, +and that Isabel was about the same age as Ida. + +"We are a very quiet family," Mr. Heron had said, "and you will no +doubt miss the space and grandeur of Heron Hall, but I trust we are +contented and happy, and that though our means are limited, our sphere +of usefulness is wider than that of some wealthier people. My wife is, +unfortunately, an invalid, and requires constant care and attention; +but I have no doubt she will find strength to bear any fresh burden +which Providence may see fit to put upon her. Though our circumstances +are comfortable, we are not surrounded by the luxuries which so often +prove a stumbling-block to weaker brethren. I trust you may be happy in +our humble home, and that you may find some opportunity of usefulness +in this new state of life to which you are called." + +Ida tried to remember all this as she stood in the centre of the +drawing-room and looked round upon the modern but heavy and ugly +objects with which it was furnished. + +The room was seedy and shabby, but with a different seediness and +shabbiness from that of Heron Hall; for there was an attempt to conceal +its loss of freshness with antimacassars, large in size and hideous of +pattern. A grim and ugly portrait of Mr. John Heron occupied a great +portion of one of the walls, and was confronted by a portrait, of a +similar size, of his wife, a middle-class woman of faded aspect and +languishing expression. The other pictures were of the type that one +usually sees in such houses; engravings printed from wornout plates, +and third-class lithographs. There was a large sofa covered with dirty +cretonne, and with a hollow in the middle showing that the spring had +"gone;" the centre-table was adorned by several well-known religious +books arranged at regular intervals. A cage containing a canary hung +between the curtains in the window, and the bird, a wretched-looking +animal--it was moulting--woke up at their entrance and shrilled in the +hateful manner peculiar to canaries. This depressing room was lit by +one gas-burner, which only permitted Ida to take in all that had been +described but vaguely and dimly. + +She looked round aghast and with a sinking of the heart. She had never +been in any room like this before, and its lack of comfort, its +vulgarity, struck upon her strained nerves like a loud discordant note +in music; but its owner looked round complacently and turned the gas a +little higher, as he said: + +"I will go and fetch your cousin. Won't you sit down?" + +As he spoke, the door opened and the original of the portrait on the +wall entered, followed by her daughter Isabel. Ida rose from the bumpy +sofa and saw a thin, harassed-looking woman, more faded even than the +portrait, and a tall and rather a good-looking girl whose face and +figure resembled, in a vague, indefinite way, those of both her father +and mother; but though she was not bad-looking, there was a touch of +vulgarity in her widely opened eyes, with a curious stare for the +newcomer, and in her rather coarse mouth, which appalled and repelled +poor Ida; and she stood looking from one to the other, trying to keep +her surprise and wonder and disapproval from revealing themselves +through her eyes. She did not know that these two ladies, being the +wife and daughter of a professional man, considered themselves very +much the superior of their friends and neighbours, who were mostly +retired trades-people or "something in the city;" and that Mrs. Heron +was extremely proud of her husband's connection with the Herons of +Herondale, and was firmly convinced that she and her family possessed +all the taste and refinement which belong to "the aristocracy." + +A simpler and a homelier woman would have put her arm round the girl's +neck and drawn her towards her with a few loving words of greeting and +welcome; but Mrs. Heron only extended a hand, held at the latest +fashionable angle, and murmured in a languid and lackadaisical voice: + +"So you have come at last, my dear Miss Heron! Your train must have +been very late, John; we have been expecting you for the last hour, and +I am afraid the dinner is quite spoilt. But anyway, I am glad to see +you." + +"Thank you," said poor Ida. + +It was Isabel's turn, and she now came forward with a smile that +extended her mouth from ear to ear, and in a gushing manner said, in +staccato sentences: + +"Yes, we are so glad to see you! How tired you must be! One always +feels so dirty and tumbled after a long journey. You'll be glad of a +wash, Miss Heron. But there! I mustn't call you that; it sounds so cold +and formal! I must call you Ida, mustn't I? 'Ida!' It sounds such an +_odd_ name; but I suppose I shall get used to it in time." + +"I hope so," said poor Ida, trying to smile and speak cheerfully and +amiably, as Miss Isabel's rather large hand enclosed round hers; but +she looked from one to the other with an appalling sensation of +strangeness and aloofness, and a lump rose in her throat which rendered +the smile and any further speech on her part impossible; and as she +looked from the simpering, lackadaisical mother to the vulgar daughter +with meaningless smile, she asked herself whether she was really awake, +whether this room was indeed to be her future home, and these strange +people her daily companions, or whether she was only asleep and +dreaming, and would wake to find the honest face of Jessie bending over +her, and to see the familiar objects of her own room at Heron Hall. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +When Ida went upstairs for the wash, the need for which Miss Isabel had +so kindly informed her of, she found that her room was clean and fairly +comfortable, though its appearance seemed strange after the huge and +old-fashioned one at the Hall. The furniture was cheap and +unsubstantial, the towels were small and thin; in place of pictures, +aggressively illuminated texts scarred the walls like freshly made +wounds, and the place had a bare, homeless look which made Ida shudder. + +The dining-room, when she went down to it, did not impress her any more +favourably; for here, too, the furniture was new and shiny with a +sticky kind of shininess, as if the treacly varnish had not yet dried; +there was not a comfortable chair in the room; the pictures were the +most gruesome ones of Dore's, and there was a text over the +mantel-piece as aggressive and as hideous in colouring as those in her +room. A lukewarm leg of mutton, very underdone, was on the table, the +cloth of which was by no means clean; the dishes, which contained quite +cold vegetables, were cracked and did not match; the bread was of the +commonest kind, that which is called "household;" the knives were badly +cleaned, and the plate was worn off the forks and spoons. It was +considered inelegant to have gas in the dining-room, therefore a cheap +paraffin-lamp was in the centre of the table, and was more liberal of +scent than light. The curtains to the window were of that annoying red +which shrieks down any other colour near it; they made Ida's tired eyes +ache. + +While she was trying to eat the slice of gory mutton, Mrs. Heron and +Isabel watched her, as if she were some aboriginal from a wild and +distant country, and they shot glances at each other, uneasy, +half-jealous, half-envious glances, as they noted the beauty of the +face, and the grace of the figure in its black dress, which, plain as +it was, seemed to make theirs still more dowdy and vulgar. In the midst +of this lugubrious account of the annoyances and worries of the +journey, Mr. Heron broke off to ask: + +"Where is Joseph? He is late to-night." + +"He is kept at the office," replied his mother. "Poor boy! I hope he is +not working too hard; he has been kept nearly every night this week." + +Isabel smiled at Ida, for what reason Ida could not guess; and while +she was wondering, there came a knock at the outer door, and presently +Joseph entered. + +He was an unprepossessing young man with small eyes and thick lips, +over which it would have been wise of him to wear a big moustache; but +it was the fashion in the city to be clean-shaven, and Mr. Joseph +considered himself the pink of fashion. His clothes fitted him too +tightly, he wore cheap neckties, and ready-made boots, of course, of +patent leather. His dark hair was plastered on the low, retreating +forehead; his face was flushed instead of being, as one would expect, +pale from overwork. + +Ida disliked him at the first glance, and disliked him still more at +the second, as she caught his shifty eyes fixed on her with a curious +and half-insolently admiring expression. + +He came round and shook hands--his were damp and cold like his +father's--as Mr. Heron introduced them, and in a voice which +unpleasantly matched his face, said that he was glad to see her. + +"Tired, Joseph, dear?" murmured his mother, regarding him with a +mixture of pride and commiseration. + +"Oh, I'm worn out, that's what I am," he said, as he sank into a chair +and regarded the certainly untempting food with an eye of disfavour. +"Been hard at it all the evening"--he spoke with a Cockney, city +accent, and was rather uncertain about his aspirates--"I work like a +nigger." + +"Labour is prayer," remarked his father, as if he were enunciating +something strikingly original. "Nothing is accomplished without toil, +my dear Joseph." + +My dear Joseph regarded his father with very much the same expression +he had bestowed upon the mutton. + +"And how do you like London, Cousin Ida?" he asked. + +He hesitated before the "Cousin Ida," and got it out rather defiantly, +for there was something in the dignity of this pale, refined face which +awed him. It was perhaps the first time in his life Mr. Joseph had sat +at the same table with a lady; for Mr. John Heron had married beneath +him, and for money; and in retiring from the bar, at which he had been +an obvious failure, had sunk down to the society of his wife's class. + +"I have seen so little of it," replied Ida. "I have only passed through +London twice, on my way from France to Herondale, and from Herondale +here." Mr. Joseph was duly impressed by the sound of Herondale. + +"Oh, you must tell me all about your old home," he said, with an air of +overconfidence to conceal his nervousness; "and we must show you about +London a bit; it's a tidy little place." + +He grinned with an air of knowingness, and seemed rather disconcerted +that Ida did not return his smile. + +"Shall I give you some water, Ida?" said Mr. Heron. "I regret that I +cannot offer you any wine. We have no intoxicants in the house. We are +all total abstainers, on principle." + +The other members of the family looked down uncomfortably, and, to +Ida's surprise, as if they were ashamed. + +"Thank you," she said; "I do not care for wine." + +"I am afraid there are a great many things you will miss here," said +Mr. Heron. "We are a plain, but I trust, Godfearing family, and we are +content with the interest which springs from the daily round, the +common task. You will find no excitements at Laburnum Villa." + +Ida, as she glanced at the family, could not help feeling that they +were indeed plain, but she made haste to say that she did not need any +excitements and that her life had hitherto been devoid of them. They +seemed to think that it was the proper thing to sit round the table +while she was making her pretence of a meal; but when it was finished, +Mr. Joseph stretched himself out in what was erroneously called an +easy-chair, and proceeded to monopolise the conversation. + +"Regular busy time in the city," he remarked to his father. "Never saw +such a hum. It's all over this boom in South Africa. They're floating +that new company I was telling you about, and the Stock Exchange is +half wild about it. They say the shares will run to a hundred per cent. +premium before the week's out; and if you've got any money to spare, +guv'nor, I should recommend you to have a little flutter; for it's a +certainty." + +Mr. Heron seemed to prick up his ears with an amount of worldly +interest which scarcely harmonised with his saintly character. + +"What company is that?" he asked Joseph. + +"The company started to work Sir Stephen Orme's," replied Joseph, +thrusting his hands deep into his pockets, and stretching out his legs +still farther so that he could admire his large, patent-leather clad +feet. "It's about the biggest thing on record, and is going to sweep +the market. All the big 'uns are in it, Griffenberg and Wirsch and the +Beltons. They say Sir Stephen has made half a million of money out of +it already, and that he will make a couple of millions before he has +done with it. There was a rumour in the city to-day that he was to get +a peerage; for it's a kind of national affair, you see." + +Ida was sitting beyond the radius of the light from the evil-smelling +lamp, so that the others did not perceive the sudden pallor of her +face. It seemed to her a cruel fate that she could not escape, even +here, so many miles away from Herondale, from the reminder of the man +she had loved and lost. The name struck on her heart like a stroke +causing actual physical pain. She sat perfectly still, her hands +clasped tightly in her lap, as the wave of misery swept over her. + +"Here is an instance of toil rewarded," said Mr. Heron, promptly +improving the occasion. "The labourer is worthy of his hire; and no +doubt Sir Stephen Orme, by bringing vast tracts under the beneficent +influence of civilisation, merits the approval of his sovereign and a +substantial reward at the hands of his fellow-subjects. Let us trust +that he will use his wealth and high position for the welfare of the +heathen who rage in the land which he has--er--" + +"Collared," put in Mr. Joseph, in an undertone and with a grin. + +--"Added to the queen's dominions," said Mr. Heron. "I will consider +about the shares. I do not approve of speculation--the pursuit of +Mammon--but as I should use the money for charitable purposes, I may on +this occasion--" + +"Better make up your mind pretty soon," remarked Joseph, with a yawn. +"There's a rush for them already." + +"Now that the gentlemen have got on to business, my dear, I think we +had better retire to the drawing-room," said Mrs. Heron, with an +attempt at the "grand lady." + +They returned to that apartment--Mr. Joseph did not open the door for +them--and Mrs. Heron and Isabel at once started on a series of +questions calculated to elicit all the details of Ida's past life, her +father's death and her present deplorable condition. Women can be much +more merciless than men in this kind of inquisition; and Ida, weary in +mind and body and spirit, suffered acutely under the ordeal. The two +women did not intend to be unkind--they were really sorry for the +homeless orphan; they were prepared to like her; they reluctantly and +grudgingly admired her beauty and her grace, and had a sneaking kind of +awe of her higher social position, of which they were reminded by every +word she spoke, the high-bred accent, and that indescribable air of +delicacy and refinement which indicate good birth; but they were +devoured by curiosity as to her mode of life and her friends, a +curiosity which they were too vulgar, too inconsiderate to restrain. So +poor Ida had to describe the Hall, and the servants, and the way she +managed the farm, and the way in which she rode about Herondale. + +They were very much impressed, specially so when she mentioned Lord and +Lady Bannerdale's kind offer, and they exchanged glances as the titles +left Ida's lips "quite as naturally as if they were common names," as +Mrs. Heron afterwards remarked to Isabel. + +"I'm afraid you'll find it very dull here, Ida," said Mrs. Heron, with +a sniff. "You won't find any society in Woodgreen; they're nearly all +city people, and there aren't many large houses--this is as large as +most--and John is very strict." She sighed; and it was evident to Ida +that though her cousin John's "religion" might be some amusement to +him, it was rather a bugbear and nuisance to his family. "But we must +get Joseph to take you about; and perhaps you and Isabel might go to a +_matinee_ or two; but John mustn't know anything about it." + +Ida made haste to assure them that she did not need any amusement, that +she preferred to be quiet, and that she hoped her cousin Joseph would +not take any trouble on her account. At this point Mr. Heron and his +elegant son came in, a bell was rung, and the two servants came up for +family prayers. Ida noticed that both the maids looked bored and +discontented, and that the "parlour maid," a mere bit of a girl, +appeared to be tired out. Mr. Heron read a portion of Scripture and +offered up a long prayer in a harsh and rasping voice, with the manner +of a judge pronouncing a sentence of seven years; and as the servants +were leaving the room, called them back, and remarked sternly: + +"I notice in the housekeeping book that a larger quantity of candles +than usual has been used during the past week, and I fear that there +has been grievous waste of this useful article. Do not let it occur +again." + +The servants went out suddenly, and Mrs. Heron suggested, much to Ida's +relief, that Ida would no doubt like to go to bed. + +While Ida was brushing her hair and fighting against the natural fit of +depression caused by her introduction to this cheerful household, there +came a knock at the door, and she admitted Mrs. Heron. That lady was in +a soiled dressing-gown, bought at a sale and quite two sizes too large +for her, and with a nervous flush, she took from under this capacious +garment a small decanter of wine. + +"I thought you might like a little, my dear," she said, as Ida eyed it +with astonishment. "Of course we are all total abstainers here, but we +keep a little in the house for medicinal purposes, unknown to John; and +it's a great comfort sometimes when you're tired and in low spirits. +Let me give you a glass." + +Ida would have liked to have accepted it, and was sorry that her +refusal seemed to disappoint Mrs. Heron, who retired as nervously as +she had entered. A few minutes afterwards, before Ida had got over her +astonishment at the incident, there came another knock at the door, and +Isabel entered in a dressing-gown which was own sister to Mrs. Heron's. + +"I thought there might be something you wanted," she said, her bold +eyes wandering over Ida curiously, and then roaming to the contents of +Ida's dressing-bag which glittered and shone on the dressing-table. + +"What long hair you have! Do you brush it every night? I don't mine, +not every night; it's too much trouble. Are the tops of all those +things real silver? What a lot of money they must have cost! What a +pretty _peignoir_ you have on: is it real lace? Yes, I see it is. You +have nice things!" with an envious sigh. "Don't you ever have more +colour than you've got now? Or perhaps it's because you're tired. You +must be quite knocked up, when I come to think of it." She dropped her +voice and glanced round cautiously. "Would you like to have a little +brandy-and-water? I've got same in my room--of course the rest don't +know anything about it, father's teetotal mad--but I keep a little for +when I'm tired and down in the mouth; and when I run out I get some +from Joseph's room. Of course, he isn't a total abstainer. I daresay +you guessed that directly you saw him to-night, and weren't taken in by +his 'late at the office' business?" + +Ida looked at her in amazement, and Isabel laughed knowingly. + +"Joseph goes to the theatre and plays billiards," she said, with +sisterly candour. "He works it very cleverly; he's artful, Joseph is, +and he takes father and mother in nicely; but sometimes I find a +theatre programme in his pocket, and marks of chalk on his coat. Oh, I +don't blame him! The life we lead in this house would make a cat sick. +It's like being on a tread-mill; nothing happens; it's just one dreary +round, with mother always whining and father always preaching. You +heard what he said to the servants to-night? I wonder they stand it. I +should go out of my mind myself if I didn't get a little amusement +going up to the shops and sneaking into a _matinee_ on the sly. I'm +sure I don't know how you'll stand it, after the life you've led. What +do you use for your hair? It's so soft and silky. I wish I had black +hair like yours. Do you put anything on your hands? They're rather +brown; but that's because you've lived in the open air so much, I +suppose. I'll lend you some stuff I use, if you like." + +Ida declined the brandy and the infallible preparation for whitening +the hands; and not at all discouraged, Isabel went on: + +"Were there any young men at Herondale? You didn't say anything about +them down-stairs, but I thought perhaps you would like to tell me when +we were alone. I suppose there was someone you were sorry to part +from?" she added, with an inviting smile. + +Ida repressed a shudder and plied her brush vigorously, so that her +hair hid the scarlet which suffused her face. + +"I knew so few of the people," she said. "As I told you down-stairs, my +father and I led the most secluded of lives, and saw scarcely anyone." + +Isabel eyed Ida sharply and suspiciously. + +"Oh, well, of course, if you don't like to tell me," she said, with a +little toss of her head; "but perhaps it's too soon; when we know each +other better you'll be more open. I'm sure I shall be glad of someone +to tell things to." + +She sighed, and looked down with a sentimental air; but Ida did not +rise to the occasion; and with a sigh of disappointment, and a last +look round, so that nothing should escape her, Isabel took her +departure, and Ida was left in peace. + +Tired as she was, it was some time before she could get to sleep. The +change in her life had come so suddenly that she felt confused and +bewildered. It had not needed Joseph Heron's mention of Sir Stephen +Orme's name to bring Stafford to her mind; for he was always present +there; and she lay, with wide-open eyes and aching heart, repeating to +herself the letter he had sent her, and wondering why he who, she had +thought, loved her so passionately, had left her. Compared with this +sorrow, and that of her father's death, the smaller miseries of her +present condition counted as naught. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + + +As Isabel had intimated, life at Laburnum Villa was not altogether +hilarious. The environs of London are undeniably pretty, prettier than +those of any other capital in Europe, but there is no shirking the fact +that the Northern suburbs of our great metropolis are somewhat grim and +soul-depressing. Laburnum Villa was in a long street, which resembled +the other streets as one tree resembles another; and you had to +traverse a great many of these streets before you got into the open +country, that is, away from the red-bricked and stucco villas, and +still smaller and uglier houses, which had been run up by the +enterprising jerry-builder. + +But Ida would have been glad enough to have gone through this purgatory +to the paradise of country lanes which lay beyond, if she could only +have gone alone; but Mrs. Heron and Isabel never left her alone; they +seemed to consider it their duty to "keep her company," and they could +not understand her desire for the open air, much less her craving for +solitude. Until Ida's arrival, Isabel had never taken a walk for a +walk's sake, and for the life of her she could not comprehend Ida's +love of "trapesing" about the dusty lanes, and over the commons where +there was always a wind, Isabel declared, to blow her hair about. If +she went out, she liked to go up to London, and saunter about the hot +streets, gazing in at the shop windows, or staring enviously at the +"carriage people" as they drove by. + +Ida didn't care for London, took very little interest in the shops, and +none whatever in the carriage folks. She was always pining for the +fresh air, the breezy common, the green trees; and on the occasions +when she could persuade Isabel to a country ramble, she walked with +dreamy eyes that saw not the cut-and-dry rusticity of Woodgreen and +Whetstone, but the wild dales and the broad extant of the Cumberland +hills. + +She was, indeed, living in the past, and it was the present that seemed +a dream to her. Of course she missed the great house, where she had +ruled as mistress, her horses and her cows and dogs; but what she +missed more than all else was her freedom of motion. + +It was the routine, the dull, common routine, of Laburnum Villa which +irked so badly. Neither Mrs. Heron nor Isabel had any resources in +themselves; they had few friends, and they were of the most +commonplace, not to say vulgar type; and a "Tea" at Laburnum Villa +tried Ida almost beyond endurance; for the visitors talked little else +but scandal, and talked it clumsily. Most of Isabel's time was spent in +constructing garments by the aid of paper-patterns which were given +away by some periodical; admirable patterns, which, in skilful hands, +no doubt, produced the most useful results; but Isabel was too stupid +to avail herself of their valuable aid, and must always add something +which rendered the garment _outre_ and vulgar. + +Mrs. Heron subscribed to a library, and she and Isabel read the latest +six-shilling novels with avidity, stuffing them under the sofa cushion +at the sound of Mr. Heron's approaching footsteps. They always chose +the worst books, and forgot one as soon as they took up another. Ida +examined one and dropped it with disgust; for it happened to be a +problem novel of the most virulent type, a novel which was selling by +scores of thousands, and one which Isabel had recommended to Ida as +"delicious." + +Of all the days, Ida found Sunday the worst; for on that day they went +twice to a little chapel at which Mr. Heron "ministered." It was a tin +chapel, which by its construction and position struck a chill to one's +very bones. Here Mr. Heron ranted and growled to his heart's content; +and Ida learnt from his sanctimonious lips that only a small portion of +mankind, his own sect, to wit, was bound for heaven, and that the rest +of the world was doomed to another place, the horrors of which he +appeared to revel in. As she sat in the uncomfortable pew, Ida often +wondered whether her cousin really believed what he preached, or +whether he was a hypocrite of the first water. + +All this was very hard to bear; but a burden still heavier was provided +for her in the conduct of her cousin Joseph. On the evening of her +arrival he had been gracious enough to bestow upon her an admiration of +which she was then unconscious; but his admiration grew, and he began +to pay her what persons of his class call "attentions." He came in much +earlier of an evening than he did before, and he sat beside her, and, +with his small eyes fixed on her pale and downcast face, told her +anecdotes of the office and his fellow-clerks. He was under the +impression that he possessed a voice, and with a certain amount of +artfulness he got her to play his accompaniments, bestowing killing +looks at her as he sang the "Maid of Athens," or "My Pretty June"--with +a false note in every third bar. Sometimes he came home to lunch, +explaining to them that there was nothing doing in the city, and went +with Ida and Isabel on one of their walks. On these occasions he was +got up in a Norfolk jacket and knickerbockers, and enjoyed the +flattering conviction that he looked like a country gentleman. He +addressed his conversation exclusively to Ida, and endeavoured, as he +would have said, to make himself agreeable. + +It was all lost upon Ida, whose head was in the clouds, whose mind was +dwelling on the past; but his mother and sister noticed it, and Mrs. +Heron began to sniff by way of disapproval of his conduct. With a +mother's sharp eyes, Mrs. Heron understood why Joseph had launched out +into new suits and brilliant neckties, why he came home earlier than +was his wont, and why he hung about the pale-faced girl who seemed +unconscious of his presence. Mrs. Heron began to feel, as she would +have expressed it, that she had taken a viper into her bosom. She was +ambitious for her only son, and wanted to see him married to one of the +daughters of a retired city man who had settled in Woodgreen. Ida was +all very well, but she was absolutely penniless and not a good enough +match for so brilliant and promising a young man as Joseph. Mrs. Heron +began to regard her with a certain amount of coldness and suspicion; +but Ida was as unconscious of the change in Mrs. Heron's manner as she +was of the cause of Mr. Joseph's attention; to her he was just an +objectionable young man of quite a new and astonishing type, to whom +she was obliged to listen because he was the son of the man whose bread +she ate. + +He had often invited Ida to accompany him and Isabel to a _matinee_, +but Ida always declined. Not only was her father's death too recent to +permit of her going to the theatre, but she shrank from all public +places of amusement. When she had left Herondale it had been with the +one desire to conceal herself, and, if possible, to earn her own +living. Mr. Joseph was very sulky over her refusal, and Isabel informed +her that he had been so ill-tempered at the theatre that she did not +know what to make of him. + +One day he came in soon after luncheon, and, when Mrs. Heron had left +the room, informed Ida and Isabel that he had got tickets for a concert +at the Queen's Hall that evening. + +"It's a sacred concert," he said, "so that you need have no scruples, +Ida. It's a regular swell affair, and I tell you I had great difficulty +in getting hold of the tickets. It's a charity concert got up by the +big nobs of the Stock Exchange, and there'll be no end of swells there. +I got the tickets because the guv'nor's going into the country to +preach to-night, and while the cat's away we can slip out and enjoy +ourselves; not that he'd object to a sacred concert, I suppose, +especially if he were allowed to hold forth during the intervals," he +added, with a sneer. + +"It is very kind of you to ask me," said Ida; "but I think I would +rather stay at home." + +"I thought you were fond of music," Joseph remarked, beginning to look +sullen. "We shall go quite quietly, and no one need know anything about +it, for I got tickets for the upper circle and not the stalls on +purpose; and they're in a back row. I thought you'd enjoy this concert, +and if you don't go I shall tear up the tickets." + +"Oh, do let us go, Ida!" pleaded Isabel. "A sacred concert isn't as +good as a theatre, but it will be a break in the monotony; besides, +Joseph must have had a lot of trouble to get the tickets, for I read in +the paper that there was a regular rush for them. Don't be selfish, +Ida, and spoil our enjoyment." + +"I wish you would go without me," said Ida, with a sigh; but ultimately +she yielded. + +Mrs. Heron, of course, knew that they were going, but she was not told +in so many words, that she might deny all knowledge of it if the outing +came to Mr. Heron's ears; and she watched them with a peevish and +suspicious expression on her face as they started for the train. They +went up second-class, and Mr. Joseph, who was in the best of humours, +and wore a new pair of patent-leather boots and a glossy hat, to say +nothing of a dazzling tie, enlivened the journey by whispering +facetious remarks on their fellow-passengers to Ida, who in vain leant +away from him, as far as possible, in her corner of the carriage, and +endeavoured to concentrate her attention on the programme. But though +her eyes were fixed on it and she could not entirely shut out Joseph's +ill-bred jokes, her thoughts were wandering back to a certain afternoon +when she had sat beside the Heron stream and listened to Stafford +planning out their future. He had been telling her something of the +great world of which she knew nothing, but into which he was going to +take her, hand in hand, as it were; he was going to take her to the +theatres and the concerts and the dances of which she had read and +heard, but of which she knew nothing by experience. Now, she was going +to her first concert with Mr. Joseph Heron. + +There was a larger crowd than usual outside Queen's Hall that evening, +for the concert was really an important one for which some of the +greatest singers had been engaged. In addition to Patti, Santley, +Edward Lloyd, and other famous professionals, some distinguished +amateurs were to perform, and royalty, as represented by the +ever-popular and amiable prince, had promised to patronise the affair. + +"Quite a swell show, ain't it?" said Joseph, as he pushed his way into +the crowd and looked over his shoulder at the long line of carriages +setting down their occupants. "I'm glad you consented to come; it would +have been a pity if you'd missed it." + +"I hope we shall be able to see the prince from our seats!" said +Isabel, whose eyes were more widely open than usual, and her mouth half +agape with excitement. "I'm always stuck in some corner where I can't +see them, when the royal family's present." + +They succeeded in making their way into the hall, and after Joseph had +held a dispute with the man who had shown them into their place, and +who had muddled the tickets and their numbers, they settled down, and +Ida looked round. + +Though their seats were in the third row, she could see nearly the +whole of the large hall, and she found the sight a novel and impressive +one. Her interest increased as the admirable band played the first +number with the precision and feeling for which the orchestra at the +Queen's Hall is famous. In the interval between the selection and the +song which was to follow, Joseph pointed out some of the celebrities +who were present, and whom he recognised by their portraits in the +illustrated papers. + +"Regular swell mob, isn't it?" he said, exultingly; "there isn't a seat +in the house, excepting those three in the stalls, and I suppose +they'll be filled up presently by some swells or other; they always +come late. Aren't you glad you've come?" he added, with a languishing +glance. + +Amidst a storm of welcome, Patti came forward to sing, and Ida, +listening with rapture, almost forgot her sorrow as she passed under +the spell of the magic voice which has swayed so many thousands of +hearts. During the cries of encore, and unnoticed by Ida, three +persons, a lady and two gentlemen, entered the stalls, and with a good +deal of obsequiousness, were shown by the officials into the three +vacant seats. + +One great singer followed rapidly after another, and Ida, with slightly +flushed face and eyes that were dim with unshed tears--for the +exquisite music thrilled her to the core--leant back, with her hands +tightly clasped in her lap, her thoughts flying back to Herondale and +those summer evenings which, in some strange way, every song recalled. + +She was unconscious of her surroundings, even of the objectionable +Joseph, who sat beside her as closely as he could; and she started +slightly as he whispered: + +"Those seats are filled up now. I wonder who they are? They look +classy--particularly so." + +Ida nodded mechanically, and paid no heed. Presently Joseph, who was +one of those individuals who can never sit still or be silent for long +at a theatre or concert, nudged Ida and said: "Look! there is one of +them standing up! Why, I believe it is--" He borrowed an opera-glass +from the man sitting in front of him and levelled it at the stalls. One +of the new-comers, one of the gentlemen, had risen from his seat, and +with his back to the platform, was scanning the house with a pleasant +smile on his handsome face. "Yes, it is!" exclaimed Joseph, excitedly. +"It's Sir Stephen Orme! Here, take the glasses and look at him! That +gentleman looking round the house, the one standing up with the white +waistcoat, the one that came in with the other two! That's the great +Sir Stephen himself! I saw him once in the city; besides, I've seen his +portraits everywhere. That's the man who has created more excitement on +the Stock Exchange than any man in our time." + +Ida took the glasses which he had thrust into her hand and held it to +her eyes; but her hand shook, and for a moment or two she could +distinguish nothing; then, as the mist passed away and her hand grew +steadier, so that she could see Sir Stephen, he bent down and said +something to the lady sitting beside him. She looked round, and Ida saw +distinctly, and for the first time, though fashionable London was +tolerably familiar with it now, the beautiful face of Maude Falconer. + +With her heart beating painfully Ida looked at her, noting with a +woman's quickness every detail of the handsome face with its wealth of +bronze-gold hair. A presentiment flashed into her mind and weighed upon +her heart as she looked, a presentiment which was quickly verified, for +the man on the other side of the beautiful woman rose and looked round +the house, and Ida saw that it was Stafford. + +Her hand gripped the opera-glass tightly, for it was in danger of +falling. She felt as if she were stifling, the great place, with its +sea of faces and its rings of electric light, swam before her eyes, and +she felt sick and giddy. It seemed to her that Stafford was looking +straight at her, that he could not fail to see her, and she shrank back +as far as the seat would allow, and a sigh that was a gasp for breath +escaped her lips, which had grown almost as white as her face. In +taking the glasses from her, Joseph noticed her pallor. + +"What's the matter?" he asked. "Do you feel ill? It's beastly hot. +Would you like to come outside?" + +"No, no," she panted, with difficulty. "It is the heat--I am all right +now--I beg of you not to move--not to speak to me." + +She fought against the horrible faintness, against the shock which had +overwhelmed her; she bit her lips to force the colour back to them, and +tried to keep her eyes from the tall figure, the handsome face against +which she had so often pressed her own; but she could not; it was as if +they were drawn to it by a kind of fascination. She saw that he looked +pale and haggard, and that the glance with which he swept the house was +a wearied one, in strange contrast to the smiling, complacent, and even +triumphant one of his father. + +"Are you all right now?" asked Joseph. "I wish I'd brought a bottle of +smelling-salts. Will you come out and get something to drink--water +--brandy? No? Sure you're all right? Did you see Sir Stephen? +I wonder who the lady is beside him? Some swell or other, I'll +be bound. The other man must be Sir Stephen's son, for he's like him. +He's almost as great a personage as Sir Stephen himself; you see his +name amongst those of people of the highest rank in the fashionable +columns in the newspapers. The lady's got beautiful 'air, hasn't she?" +he went on, after a pause. "Not that I admire that colour myself; I'm +gone on black 'air." He glanced insinuatingly at Ida's. + +When the interval expired, Sir Stephen and Stafford resumed their seat, +and, with a sigh of relief, Ida tried to listen to the music; but she +could hear Stafford's voice through it, and was obliged to shut her +eyes that she might not see him. Instinctively, and from Jessie's +description, she knew that the beautiful girl, with the complexion of a +lily and the wealth of bronze-gold hair, was Maude Falconer. Why was +she with Sir Stephen and Stafford? Was it, indeed, true that they were +engaged? Up to the present moment she had cherished a doubt; but now it +seemed impossible to doubt any longer. For how many minutes, hours, +years would she have to sit with those two before her, her heart racked +with the pangs of jealousy, with the memory of happier days, with the +ghastly fact that he had gone from her life forever, and that she was +sitting there a spectator of his faithlessness. Every song seemed to +mock her wretchedness, and she had to battle with the mad desire to +spring to her feet and cry aloud. + +In a kind of dream she heard the strains of the national anthem, and +saw Stafford rise with the rest of the audience, and watched him as he +drew the costly cloak round Maude Falconer's white shoulders; in a +dream allowed Joseph to draw her arm through his and lead her down the +crowded staircase into the open air. + +"Splendid concert!" he said, triumphantly. "But you look tired, Ida. +We'll have a cab to the station. But let's wait a minute and see the +prince come out." + +They stood in the crowd which had formed to stare at his royal +highness; and as luck would have it, Stafford, with Maude Falconer on +his arm, and followed by Sir Stephen, passed in front of them, and so +close that Ida shrank back in terror lest Stafford should see her. Some +of the crowd, some Stock Exchange people probably, recognised Sir +Stephen, and spoke his name aloud, and a cheer arose. He bowed and +smiled and shook his head in a deprecatory way, and Ida saw Stafford's +face darken with a frown, as if he were ashamed of the publicity, as he +hurried Maude Falconer to the carriage. A moment or two after, the +prince appeared, there was an excited and enthusiastic burst of +cheering; and at last Joseph forced his way out of the crowd and found +a cab. + +They had some little time to wait for the train, and Joseph, after +vainly pressing some refreshment on Ida, went into the refreshment-room +and got a drink for himself and a cup of coffee for Isabel, while Ida +sank back into a corner of the carriage and waited for them. Joseph +talked during the whole of the journey in an excited fashion, darting +glances every now and then from his small eyes at the white face in the +corner. When they got out at the station, he offered Ida his arm and +she took it half-unconsciously. The path was too narrow to permit of +three to walk abreast, and Joseph sent Isabel on in front; and on some +trivial excuse or another contrived to lag some little distance behind +her. Every now and then he pressed Ida's arm more closely to his side, +looking at her with sidelong and lingering glances, and at last he +said, in a kind of whisper, so that Isabel should not hear: + +"I hope you've enjoyed yourself, Ida, and that you're glad you came? I +don't know when I've had such a jolly night, and I hope we may have +many more of them. Of course you know why I'm so happy? It's because +I've got you with me. Life's been a different thing for me since you +came to live with us; but I dessay you've seen that, haven't you?" He +laughed knowingly. + +"I have seen--what?" asked Ida, trying to rouse herself and to pay +attention to what he was saying. + +"I say I suppose you've seen how it is with me, Ida, and why I am an +haltered being? It is you who have done it; it's because I'm right down +in love with you. There, I've said it now! I've been going to say it +for days past; but, somehow, though I dessay you don't mean it, you +seem so cold and standoffish, and quite different to other girls when a +man pays them attention. But I dessay you understand now, and you'll +treat me differently. I'm awfully in love with you, Ida, and I don't +see why we shouldn't be engaged. I'm getting on at the office, and if I +can squeeze some money out of the guv'nor, I shall set up for myself. +Of course, there'll be a pretty how-d'y-do over this at home, for +they're always wanting me to marry money, and unfortunately you've lost +yours. Not that I mind that, mind you. I believe in following the +dictates of your 'eart, and I know what my 'eart says. And now what do +_you_ say, Ida?" + +And he pressed her arm and looked into her face with a confident smile. + +Ida drew her disengaged hand across her brow and frowned, as if she +were trying to grasp his meaning. + +"I--I beg your pardon, Joseph," she said. "I didn't quite understand--I +was thinking of something else. You were asking me--" + +He reddened and pushed his thick lips out with an expression of +resentment. + +"Well, I like that!" he said, uneasily, but with an attempt at a laugh. +"I've just been proposing to you--asking you to be my wife; and you're +going to, aren't you?" + +Ida drew her arm from his, and regarded him with stony amazement. For +the moment she really thought that either he had been drinking too much +spirits at the refreshment-room at the station and that it was an +elaborate joke on his part, or that she had lost her senses and was +imagining a hideously ridiculous speech, too absurd and grotesque for +even Joseph to have uttered. Then she saw by his face that he was sober +and that he had actually proposed to her, and, in a kind of +desperation, she laughed. + +He had been going to take her arm again, but his hand fell to his side, +and he looked at her with a mixture of astonishment and indignation, +with such an expression of wounded vanity and resentment, that Ida felt +almost forced to laugh again; but she checked the desire, and said, as +gently and humbly as she could: + +"I--I beg your pardon, Joseph. I thought it was a--a joke. I am very +sorry. But though you didn't mean it as a jest, it is, of course, +absurd. I don't think you quite know what you were saying; I am quite +sure you don't mean it--" + +"Oh, yes, but I do!" he broke in eagerly, and with a little air of +relief. "I'm in earnest, 'pon my word, I am. I'm awfully in love with +you; and if you'll say yes, I'll stand up to the guv'nor and make it +all square for you." + +"But I say 'No,'" said Ida, rather sternly, her lips setting tightly, +her eyes flashing in the darkness, which, fortunately for Joseph, hid +them from his sight. "Please do not speak to me in this way again." + +"But look here!" he stammered, his face red, his thick lips twisted in +an ugly fashion, "do you know what you're doing--saying?" + +"Yes," she said, more sternly than before. "I think it is you who do +not know what you are saying. You cannot mean to insult me. I beg your +pardon, Joseph. I do not mean to be angry, to hurt your feelings. I +think you mean to pay me a great honour; and I--I thank you; but I +cannot accept it. And please take this as my final answer, and never, +never, speak to me again in this manner." + +"Do you mean to say--" he began angrily. + +"Not another word, please," said Ida, and she hurried forward so that +they came within hearing of Isabel. + +Nothing more was said until they reached Laburnum Villa. Mrs. Heron was +waiting up for them, and was expressing a hope that they had enjoyed +themselves--she had a woollen shawl round her shoulders and spoke in an +injured voice and with the expression of a long-suffering martyr--when +she caught sight of Joseph's angry and sullen face as he flung himself +into a chair and thrust his hands in his pockets, and she stopped short +and looked from him to Ida, and sniffed suspiciously and aggressively. + +"Oh, yes," said Joseph, with an ugly sneer and a scowl at Ida as she +was leaving the room, "we have had a very happy time--some of us--a +particularly happy time, I don't think!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + + +It was hot at Woodgreen; but it was hotter still in Mayfair, where the +season was drawing to a close with all the signs of a long-spun-out and +exhausting dissolution. Women were waxing pale under the prolonged +strain of entertainments which for the last week or two had been +matters of duty rather than pleasure, and many a girl who had entered +the lists of society a blushing and hopeful _debutante_ with perhaps a +ducal coronet in her mind's eye, was beginning to think that she would +have to be content with, say, the simpler one of a viscountess; or even +to wed with no coronet at all. Many of the men were down at Cowes or +golfing at St. Andrews; and those unfortunates who were detained in +attendance at the house which continued to sit, like a "broody hen," as +Howard said, longed and sighed for the coming of the magic 12th of +August, before which date they assured themselves the House _must_ rise +and so bring about their long-delayed holiday. + +But one man showed no sign of weariness or a desire for rest; Sir +Stephen's step was light and buoyant as ever on the hot pavement of +Pall Mall, and on the still hotter one of the city; his face was as +cheery, his manner as gay, and his voice as bright and free from care +as those of a young man. + +There is no elixir like success; and Sir Stephen was drinking deeply of +the delicious draught. He had been well known for years: he was famous +now. You could not open a newspaper without coming upon his name in the +city article, and in the fashionable intelligence. Now it was a report +of the meeting of some great company, at which Sir Stephen had +presided, at another time it occurred in a graphic account of a big +party at the house he had rented at Grosvenor Square. It was a huge +mansion, and the rent ran into many figures; but, as Howard remarked, +it did not matter; Sir Stephen was rich enough to rent every house in +the square. Sir Stephen had taken over the army of servants and lived +in a state which was little short of princely: and lived alone; for +Stafford, who was not fond of a big house and still less fond of a +large retinue, begged permission to remain at his own by no means +over-luxurious but rather modest rooms. + +It is not improbable that he would have liked to have absented himself +from the grand and lavish entertainments with which his father +celebrated the success of his latest enterprise; but it was not +possible, and Stafford was present at the dinners and luncheons, +receptions and concerts which went on, apparently without a break, at +Clarendon House. + +Indeed, it was necessary that he should be present and in attendance on +his _fiancee_ who appeared at every function. Maude was now almost as +celebrated as Sir Stephen; for her beauty, her reputed wealth, and the +fact that she was engaged to the son of Sir Stephen, had raised her to +an exalted position in the fashionable world; and her name figured in +the newspapers very nearly as often as that of the great financier. + +She had stepped from obscurity into that notoriety, for which we all of +us have such a morbid craving, almost in a single day; and she queened +it with a languid grace and self-possession which established her +position on a firm basis. Wherever she went she was the centre and +object of a small crowd of courtiers; the men admired her, and the +women envied her; for nowadays most women would rather marry wealth +than rank, unless the latter were accompanied by a long rent roll--and +in these hard times for landlords, too many English noblemen, have no +rent roll at all, short or long. + +Excepting his father's, Stafford went to very few houses, and spent +most of his time, when not in attendance on Maude, in the solitude of +his own chambers, or in the smoking-room of one of the quietest of his +clubs. Short as the time had been, the matter of a few weeks only since +had parted from Ida, he had greatly changed; so changed that not seldom +the bright and buoyant and overbright Sir Stephen seemed to be younger +than his son. He was too busy, too absorbed in the pursuit of his +ambition, the skilful steering of the enterprise he had so successfully +launched to notice the change; but it was noticed by others, and +especially by Howard. Often he watched Stafford moving moodily about +his father's crowded rooms, with the impassive face which men wear when +they have some secret trouble or anxiety which they conceal as the +Spartan boy concealed the fox which was gnawing at his vitals; or +Howard came upon him in the corner of a half-darkened smoking-room, +with an expired cigar in his lips, and his eyes fixed on a newspaper +which was never turned. + +By that unwritten code by which we are all governed nowadays, Howard +could not obtrude by questioning his friend, and Stafford showed no +signs of making any voluntary statement or explanation. He suffered in +a silence with which he kept at arm's-length even his close friend; +and Howard pondered and worried in a futile attempt to guess at the +trouble which had changed Stafford from a light-hearted man, with an +immense capacity for pleasure, to a moody individual to whom the +pleasures of life seemed absolutely distasteful. + +One afternoon Howard sauntered into Stafford's room and found him +sitting in his easy-chair with a book turned face downwards on his +knee, and his pipe in his mouth. Tiny, the black-and-tan terrier, who +was lying coiled up on a cushion at his master's feet, heard Howard +step on the stairs and barked sharply for a moment, then glancing at +Stafford, with a reassuring air, coiled himself up again and subsided +into spasmodic growls and whines of welcome; for the mite was fond of +Howard. + +"Asleep, Staff?" he asked, as, with a kind of groan at the heat, he +dropped his hat on the table and sank on to the couch. "By Jove, you +have the best of it in here--it is out of the sun, at any rate. How +that dog can lie on a stuffy cushion! I thought you were going down to +Lady Brook's, at Richmond, this afternoon?" + +"Was it this afternoon?" said Stafford. "I'd forgotten. I'm sorry: but +my father will be there and will look after Maude." + +Howard glanced at the weary-looking face as he helped himself to a +cigarette. + +"You're well out of it! A lady who would give a garden-party on such an +afternoon as this, is, indeed, _la belle dame sans mercie!_ Good +heavens! when I think of the suffering the votaries of fashion undergo +in one season, I've no pity left for the benighted Hindoo women who +sacrifice themselves to Juggernaut. Which reminds me that there is a +tremendously swagger function on at Clarendon House tonight, isn't +there?" + +Stafford nodded, and refilled and relit his pipe. + +"Yes," he said, "I had forgotten it; but Maude sent me round a note to +remind me of it, and, of course, I must go. I envy you, Howard: you can +stay away." + +"That's what I can't do," said Howard, with a whimsical smile. "I am +drawn, into the vortex; I am dragged at the chariot wheels of that +wonderful father of yours. I am the victim of a peculiar kind of +fascination which is as irresistible as the mesmeric influence or +hypnotism. I feel towards Sir Stephen as I should feel towards Napoleon +the Great, if he were alive. I follow and gaze at him, so to speak, +with my mouth agape and a fatuous smile over a countenance which I once +flattered myself was intelligent. I am dazed, bewildered by his genius, +his audacity, his marvellous courage and resource. Do you know, +Stafford, I think it would be an excellent idea to abolish the House of +Lords, the House of Commons, the monarchical government, and place the +whole business in the hands of a Board to be presided over by Sir +Stephen." + +Stafford drew at his pipe grimly and said nothing, and Howard went on +in the gentle monotone characteristic of him: + +"By the way, the mysterious and proverbial little bird has whispered to +me that Sir Stephen will not be Sir Stephen much longer. In fact, that +they are going to make a peer of him very shortly. And upon my word, +they couldn't find a better man for the place; for, unlike some noble +lords you and I could mention, Staff, he will wear his robes and +coronet--do they ever wear them now--right nobly; and for once the +House of Lords will get a man who knows his own mind, knows what he +wants and the way to get it. And if you won't take offence, Staff, and +throw things at me, I should like to remark that his son will prove a +worthy successor. Can you fancy yourself in a peer's robe with a +velvet-lined coronet, Staff?" + +Stafford grunted for reply, and there was silence for a minute, during +which Howard turned over the pages of one of the illustrated weeklies +which lay on the table, and suddenly he looked up and exclaimed: + +"Have you seen this?" + +Stafford shook his head. + +"I mean this portrait of Miss Falconer," said Howard, in a low voice. +"It is wonderfully good," he went on, as he contemplated the +full-length picture; "wonderfully like her." + +He handed the paper across and Stafford looked at it. It was an +admirable reproduction of a photograph of Maude in evening-dress, and +made a truly splendid picture; and looking at it, one felt instantly +how well a coronet, even a ducal one, would fit those level brows, +beneath which the eyes looked out upon the world with a scarcely masked +_hauteur_ and disdain. A man might well be proud of such a woman for +his future wife; but there was no pride in Stafford's face as his eyes +dwelt moodily on the almost perfect face, the tall, _svelt_ figure in +its long-trained robe. The splendour of her beauty oppressed him with a +sense of shame; and with an involuntary exclamation, which sounded +something like a groan, he let the paper slip from his hand, and +drooped still lower in his chair. The sight of him was more than Howard +could bear in silence, and he rose and laid a hand upon Stafford's +shoulder. + +"What's wrong, old man?" he enquired in a very low voice. "You are out +of sorts; you've been off colour for some time past. Of course, I've +noticed it. I've seen the look you wear on your face now come over it +at moments when you ought to have been at your best and brightest. I've +seen a look in your eyes when your lips have been smiling that has made +me--uncomfortable. In short, Staff, you are getting on my nerves, and +although I know it's like my cheek to mention the matter, and that +you'll probably curse my impudence, I really should be grateful if +you'd tell me what ails you, still more grateful of you'd let me help +you to get rid of it. I know I'm an interfering idiot, but I'm fool +enough to be fond of you--it's about the only weakness I've got, and I +am ashamed of it--but there it is." + +He laughed with a touch of self-contempt, with an attempt at his old +cynicism; but Stafford understood the fictitious character of the +laugh, and as he leant his chin in his hand, he gave a short nod of +acknowledgment. + +"Howard, do you remember that time when you and I were at Palmero?" he +said, in a low voice, and as if he were communing with himself rather +than answering his friend. "Do you remember that Italian we met there; +the man who seemed so gay and careless, the man who seemed to have +everything a fellow could desire, and to be the embodiment of +prosperity and success? Do you remember how once or twice you and I saw +a strange look on his face, perhaps while he was at dinner or fooling +with the women in the _salon_--a look as if he had suddenly remembered +something, as if something had flashed upon his mind in the midst of +the laughter and music and brought him face to face with hell? You +pointed him out to me one night; and we wondered what was the matter +with him--until he fell off his horse that day you and I were riding +with him? Do you remember how, when we had unbuttoned his riding-shirt, +we found the 'D' that had been branded on his chest? We knew then what +was the matter with him. He had been a deserter. The pain of hot iron +had died out long ago, but the scar remained. He was no longer a common +soldier, but rich and prosperous, a social success with, perhaps, his +ambition gratified; but the 'D' was there all the time, and every now +and then, even while he was enjoying himself, he could feel the hot +iron burning into his flesh, and he knew within the miserable little +soul of him that he was a cur and a coward; that, driven by fate, +perhaps by some devilish accident of circumstance, he had lost his +honour and sold himself to the devil." + +Howard's face went pale and grave. + +"I don't see where the application comes in, Staff," he said. "I don't +see that anything in your case--position, resembles that poor +wretch's." + +Stafford rose, his face grim and stern. + +"No; and I can't show you, Howard," he said. "Do you think that poor +devil would have bared his breast and shown that 'D' to even his +dearest friend? Good God, man, why do you badger me! Am I to wear the +cap and bells always, do you expect me to be dancing like a clown every +moment of the day? Do I not play my part as well as I can? Who gave you +the right to peer and pry--" + +He recovered suddenly from the fit of fury and gripped Howard's arm as +he almost shrank back from the burst of despairing rage. + +"Forgive me, old man! I didn't mean to turn and rend you like this. I +know you see there is something wrong. There is. But I can't tell you +or any other man. There are some things that have to be borne in +silence, some marks of the branding-iron, which one dare not show to +even one's dearest friend." + +Howard turned aside and began to put on his gloves with great care. His +hand shook and his voice also, slightly, as without raising his head, +he said: + +"Sure there's no help for it, Staff?" + +"Sure and certain," responded Stafford. "Not even your wit and wisdom +can be of any avail. I won't ask you not to speak of this again; it +isn't necessary; but I will ask you never, by look or sign, to remind +me of what I have just said to you. It escaped me unawares; but I'll +keep a better watch on myself for the future, and not even the +knowledge of your sympathy shall lure another moan out of me." He made +a gesture with his hand and threw his head back as if he were sweeping +something away; and in something like his usual voice he said, with +perfect calmness: "By the way, Maude asked me to tell you not to be +late to-night; to come before the crush arrives. I think she is relying +on you to help her in some way or other." + +Howard nodded, and speaking with his usual drawl, said: + +"'Awake and call me early, mother.' I will be there in good time. Miss +Falconer does me the great honour of permitting me to flatter myself +that I am sometimes of some slight service to her. I imagine it is +something about the cotillon, concerning which I am absolutely +ignorant, and am therefore capable of offering any amount of advice. I +am a whale at giving advice, and my only consolation is that no one is +ever foolish enough to follow it; so that I can humour my little foible +without suffering the terrors of responsibility. _Au revoir_, my dear +Stafford, until this evening. Good-bye, Tiny! What a selfish little +beast it is; he won't even raise his head!" + +Stafford laughed and picked up the dog by the scruff of its neck, and +it nestled against him lovingly, and licked his cheek. + +Howard went down-stairs, still putting on his gloves, and as he opened +the door, he swore under his breath fervently. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + + +In obedience to Miss Falconer's command, Howard presented himself at +Clarendon House at a comparatively early hour that evening. There were +some guests staying in the house, amongst them Lady Clansford, who was +still obliging enough to play the part of presiding genius; but they +were all resting, or dressing for the ball, and the drawing-room, into +which a couple of superbly liveried footmen showed Howard, was empty. +But presently he heard the _frou-frou_ of satin, and Maude Falconer +swept in; her beauty, the splendour of her dress, the flashing of the +diamonds in her hair and on her neck and arms, her queenly presence, +almost made Howard catch his breath. + +She came in with a languid grace, the air of _hauteur_ which suited her +so well, but as she saw that Howard was alone, the languor and the +_hauteur_ almost disappeared, and she came forward and gave him her +hand, and he saw a look on her face which reminded him of that upon the +ill-fated Italian, though it did not resemble it. For the first time he +noticed a shade of anxiety on the level brow, something like a pathetic +curve in the perfectly moulded lips; and he fancied that the gloved +hand, which he held for a moment, quivered. + +"Is Stafford not with you?" she asked. "I thought he was coming early. +His father expected him." + +"No, I came alone," replied Howard. "But, no doubt, Stafford will be +here presently." + +She stood, calm and statuesque, but with her eyes downcast for a +moment, then she raised them and looked at him. "About this cotillon," +she said; then she broke off: "Do you know what is going to happen +to-night? It is a secret, but--but I feel as if I must tell you, though +I am betraying Sir Stephen's confidence. He tells me everything--more +than he tells even Stafford. Strange as it may seem, he--he is fond of +me." + +"That does not seem strange to me," said Howard, with a little bow. + +She made a slight gesture of impatience. + +"It seems strange to me," she said, with a touch of bitterness. "So few +persons are fond of me." + +Howard smiled. + +"For once I must be guilty of contradicting a lady," he said. "When I +reflect that to-night I shall form one of a band of devoted courtiers +who will throng round you in the hopeless pangs of despair--" + +She repeated the gesture of impatience. + +"Have you seen Stafford to-day?" she asked, looking down. + +"I saw him a few hours ago," he replied, "at his rooms." + +"At his rooms," she repeated, with a slight frown and a quick glance at +him. "He promised to come to Richmond. Why did he not do so? Is +he--ill?" + +"Ill?" said Howard, raising his brows and smiling, for he knew the +meaning of loyalty to a friend. "I never saw him in better spirits in +my life, he was quite hilarious." + +Her eyes flashed upon him keenly, but he met them with his slow, +cynical smile. + +"He must have been very different to what he usually is," she said. "I +have not seen him laugh since--since we left Bryndermere." Her lips +came tightly together, and she looked at him and then away from him. +"Mr. Howard, you are his friend, his closest friend. I want you to tell +me--But, no; you would not speak if you were on the rack, would you? No +one sees, no one speaks; it is only I who, always watching him, see +that there is something wrong. And I--I am so helpless!" + +The outburst was so unlike her, the dropping of the mask of pride and +self-possession was so sudden that Howard was startled; but no sign of +his emotion revealed itself upon his placid face, upon which his serene +smile did not waver for an instant. + +"I think you are availing yourself of a lady's privilege and indulging +in a fancy, Miss Falconer," he said. "Stafford is perfectly well, and, +of course, is perfectly happy--how could he be otherwise?" He bent his +head slightly. "Perhaps he may be a little tired. Alas! we are not all +endowed with the splendid energy which the gods have bestowed on you +and Sir Stephen; and the heat is enough to take the backbone out of +anyone less gifted." + +She checked a sigh, as if she understood that it was useless to appeal +to him, and after a pause Howard said: + +"You haven't told me the great secret yet." + +She seemed to wake from a reverie, and said, listlessly: + +"It will not be a secret for many hours. Sir Stephen is expecting the +peerage to-night. The official intimation should have reached him by +midday; but the prime minister did not return to London till this +afternoon and the formalities were not completed. I think it will be +announced to-night." + +Her eyes shone and a spot of colour started to her cheeks. + +"You are glad?" Howard said, with a smile of sympathy that had +something of mockery in it, for your worldly cynic is always amused by +worldliness in others. + +"Yes, I am glad; but not for my own sake. You think I am pining for a +coronet? I do not care--it is for Stafford's sake that I am glad. +Nothing is too good for him, no title too high!" + +"Do you think Stafford cares?" asked Howard. + +She flushed and her eyes fell before his. + +"No," she said, with a deep sigh. "I do not think he cares. He seems +quite indifferent. All the time Sir Stephen and I have been working--" + +"Have you been working?" said Howard, raising his eyebrows. + +She laughed a little wearily. + +"Indeed, yes. I have been--what do you men call it?--log-rolling for +weeks. It is I who have found out what is wanted by the people who can +help us. And it is generally, always, in fact, money. Always money! I +get 'tips' from Sir Stephen and my father, and whisper them to the +lords and ladies who have influence in the political drawing-rooms and +clubs." + +"And Sir Stephen?" + +She laughed. + +"His task is much simpler and easier than mine. He just goes down to +his political club and subscribes so many thousand pounds towards the +party expenses. The other night he gave them--but I must not tell the +secrets of the Tories even to you, Mr. Howard. But it was a very large +sum. It is always done that way, isn't it?" + +"I suppose so," he assented. "It must be; for, come to think of it, a +man isn't made a peer simply because he brews good beer; and a great +many of our peers were and are good brewers, you see. Oh, it's all +right, it pans out very satisfactorily, as the miners say. And so +Stafford will be the future Earl of--" + +"Earl of Highcliffe," she said. "He has declined anything less than an +earldom. He has given so much. Sir Stephen owns some land there, +and--and some of his people come from there." + +Howard laughed. + +"I see. Been there since they came over with the Conqueror. The +Herald's College will have no difficulty in finding a coat-of-arms. +Something with a Kaffir and a railway in it." + +She smiled tolerantly. + +"You always make fun of everything, Mr. Howard. If only Stafford would +care--" + +She sighed, and a moment afterwards her hand went to her lip with the +gesture of a nervous school-girl. She had heard Stafford's voice in the +hall. + +He came in and greeted her gravely, and, Howard being present, merely +took her hand. + +"You two conspiring as usual?" he said, with a smile, with the smile +which indicates a mind from which mirth has been absent for some time. + +"Yes," said Howard; "we have been plotting the cotillon and very +properly arranging that the prize shall go to the wisest, the nicest, +and best-looking man in the room. I need not tell you his name?" He +spread his hand on his heart, and bowed with mock complacency. "And now +I will go and find Sir Stephen and get a cigarette before the battle +begins. _Au revoir_." + +When he had gone, almost before the door had closed on him, Maude moved +closer to Stafford, and with a mixture of shyness and eagerness, put +her arm round his neck. + +"How good of you to come so early!" she murmured, in the voice which +only a woman in love can use, and only when she is addressing the man +she loves. "You did not come to Richmond? Never mind! Stafford, you +know that I do not wish to hamper or bind you, do you not?--Are you +well?" she broke off, scanning his face earnestly, anxiously. "Quite +well," he responded. "Why do you ask, Maude?" + +"I thought you looked tired, pale, that you have looked so for some +weeks," she said, her eyes seeking his. + +He shrugged his shoulders. + +"I am quite well. The hot weather makes one feel rather limp, I +suppose. At any rate, there is nothing else the matter with me but a +fit of laziness." + +"As if you were ever lazy!" she said, with a smile. + +"There is a large party to-night?" he said, presently. + +She nodded. + +"Yes: immense. The biggest thing we--I mean Sir Stephen--has done." Her +eyes fell for a moment. "You will dance with me to-night--twice, +Stafford?" + +"As many times as you like, of course," he said. "But I shall not get +so many opportunities. You will be too much sought after, as usual." + +She sighed. + +"That is the one disadvantage of being engaged to you," she said. +"Twice, then. The second and the eleventh waltz." + +He nodded, and stood with the same absent preoccupation in his eyes; +and she drew a little closer to him still; and as her eyes dwelt on his +face with love's hunger in them, she whispered: + +"You have not kissed me yet, Stafford." + +He bent and kissed her, and her lips clung to his in that most awful of +appeals, the craving, the prayer from the soul that loves to the soul +that refuses love in return. + +"Ah, Stafford, if--if it were all over, and we were away in the country +somewhere?" + +"Why don't we go?" he asked, with absolute indifference to the social +plots and schemes which were being woven round him. + +She laughed. + +"In a little while! Sir Stephen wants a change; he is looking rather +fagged--" + +"I'm not surprised!" said Stafford. "It seems to me that my father +rests neither night nor day--" + +"Ah, well, it will soon be over--perhaps before you expect," she said, +smiling mysteriously. "Hush! Here he comes! You bad boy, you have +spoilt my hair,"--she herself had disarranged it as she pressed against +his breast. "I must run away and have it put straight." + +Sir Stephen entered a moment after she had left the room. He looked +fagged to-night, as she had said; but his face lit up at sight of +Stafford. + +"Ah, my boy!" he exclaimed, holding Stafford's hand for a moment or two +and scanning him with his usual expression of pride and affection. "We +are going to have a big night: the greatest crush we have had. Didn't I +hear Maude's voice?" + +Stafford said that she had just gone out. Sir Stephen nodded musingly, +and glanced at Stafford's grave face. + +"I suppose the hurly-burly will be over presently," he said, "and we +can go down to the country. Where would you like to go?" + +Stafford shrugged his shoulders, and Sir Stephen eyed him rather sadly +and anxiously. This indifference of Stafford's was quite a new thing. + +"Don't mind? What do you say to Brae Wood, then?" + +Stafford's face flushed. + +"Not there--Wouldn't it be rather hot at Bryndermere, sir? Why not +Scotland?" + +Sir Stephen nodded. + +"All right. Wherever you like, my boy. We've still got some years of +the Glenfare place. We'll go there. And, Stafford--do you ever remember +that I am getting old?" + +Stafford laughed and looked at the handsome face affectionately and +with the admiration and pride with which a son regards a good-looking +father. + +"Yes; I suppose you must be nearly thirty, sir!" + +Sir Stephen laughed, not ill-pleased at the retort. + +"Seriously, Staff, I'm older than you think, and--er--Ah, well, we're +all mortal! Do you think you could oblige me in a little matter--" + +He paused. + +Stafford looked at him with a half smile. + +"Sounds as if you wanted to borrow money, sir. Anything I can do--" + +Sir Stephen laughed. + +"No, I'm not in want of money: but I'm in want of a daughter-in-law, of +grandchildren to sit upon my knee--" He laughed again, as if he were a +little ashamed of the touch of sentiment. "Seriously, Staff, is there +any reason for waiting? I know that the engagement is a short one; but, +well why should you and Maude not be happy? I can make arrangements," +he went on, eagerly. "There is Brae Wood. I'll make that over to you--" + +Brae Wood again! Stafford's face grew set and impassive. + +--"Or there is that place I bought in Warwickshire. But, there, perhaps +you and Maude would like to find a place for yourselves. Very natural! +Well, there's no difficulty! Come, Staff! Why delay! 'Gather ye +rose-buds while ye may,' you know! Why shouldn't the marriage take +place directly the House rises and we leave London?" + +Stafford turned away so that his father might not see the sudden pallor +of his face. + +"I'll--I'll speak to Maude, sir," he said, trying to make his tone +cheerful, if not enthusiastic. + +Sir Stephen laid his hand upon Stafford's broad shoulder. + +"Thank you, my boy!" he said. "You are always good to me! Always! God +bless you, Staff!" + +His voice was husky, there was a moisture in his eyes which almost made +Stafford's grow dim; then, with a swift return to his usual alert and +sanguine manner, Sir Stephen withdrew his hands and swung round. + +"I must be off: Maude likes me to be in the room when the people come: +and, by George! Staff, I find myself doing what she likes all the +time!" + +His laugh rang out as he hurried with his brisk step from the room. + +He was there at his post, when the guests began to arrive; and not far +from him stood Maude in the splendour of her beauty; not tremulous now, +as Howard had seen her, but statuesque and calm, and gracious with a +stately graciousness which was well suited to the coronet which all +knew would some day glitter on the bronze-gold hair. + +Every now and then as the crowd increased her eyes would wander in +search of Stafford, and she noticed that though he took his part, did +his duty, the listless, half-wearied expression was still on his face, +and a pang shot through her. Was it possible that he was still thinking +of that girl at Bryndermere--She thrust the thought, the sickening +dread, from her and forced the conventional smile to her face. + +She danced the first dance with a popular duke who stood high in the +government, and a word or two he let drop: "Sir Stephen: a man worthy +of the highest honors," made her heart beat with anticipatory triumph. + +The second waltz came, and--Ah, well, with Stafford's arm round her, +with her head almost pillowed on his shoulder she was happy, and her +fears, her vague doubts and presentiments fell from her. + +"Ah, that was good," she said, with a sigh. "Do not forget--the +eleventh, dearest! Take me to the prince--he is over there." + +She dropped her curtsey to his royal highness, and Stafford left her +with him. As he made his way to the end of the room he saw Griffenberg +and several of the other financiers in a group, as usual; and they were +talking with even more than their ordinary enthusiasm and +secretiveness. Griffenberg caught his arm as he was passing. + +"Heard the news, Mr. Orme?" he asked. + +"No; what is it?" said Stafford. + +Griffenberg smiled, but rather gravely. + +"They say that the peerage will be announced to-night." + +Stafford nodded. And Griffenberg after a stare at Stafford's impassive +face which evinced no flush of exultation, glanced at the others +curiously, seemed about to add something, then checked himself and +turned away, and as Stafford went on, said in a low voice to Wirsch: + +"Do you think he has heard? Looked rather glum, didn't he?" + +The baron shrugged his shoulders. + +"Don't know. He's a shtrange sheentleman. He keeps himself to himself +doesh Mishter Shtafford." + +Stafford went on, and at one of the anterooms came upon Mr. Falconer. +He was standing looking on at the dancing with a grim countenance, and +seemed lost in thought; so much so that he was almost guilty of a start +when Stafford spoke to him. + +"Yes! Great crowd. Just come in? Father all right?" + +"Quite well, thanks," said Stafford, rather surprised by the question. + +At that moment a servant brought a foreign cablegram to Falconer. +Falconer tore it open, glanced at it, and went pale. + +"Anything the matter?" asked Stafford. + +Falconer looked at him fixedly and curiously, then with a shake of his +head moved away. + +Stafford smoked a cigarette and sauntered back to the ballroom. He +passed the group of city men again, and caught a word or two in the +baron's gruff voice: + +"I want to know how we shtand! The plow will shmash him; but the rest +of us--us who are in de shwim. If de natives have risen--" + +But Stafford paid little heed--forgot the words as soon as he had heard +them; and went in search of his partner. While he was dancing, he was +aware of that peculiar stir, that flutter and wave of excitement which +agitates a crowd when something momentous is happening. He looked round +and saw his father standing in the centre of a group of persons, men +and women, who all seemed excited. There was loud talking, and sudden +and spasmodic movements as fresh auditors to the restless group came up +hurriedly and curiously. + +"What is the matter, Mr. Orme?" asked the girl with whom he was +dancing. + +As she spoke he saw Maude detach herself from the group and approach +them. + +"Stafford--forgive me, Lady Blanche! but will you let him come to Sir +Stephen? He has just heard news--" + +They followed her, and Sir Stephen seeing Stafford, held out his hand. +The old man was flushed and his dark eyes sparkled. + +"Stafford!" he said, and his rich voice shook. "I have just heard--they +have just brought me--" + +He held up an official-looking paper with the great red seal on the +envelope. + +"It is from the prime minister--it is the peerage," said Maude, in a +voice thrilling with restrained triumph. + +Stafford shook his father's hand. + +"I congratulate you, sir," he said, trying all he knew to force +congratulation, rejoicing, into his voice. + +Sir Stephen nodded, and smiled; his lips were quivering. + +"Congratulations, Sir Stephen!" said a man, coming up. "I can see the +good news in your face." + +"Not Sir Stephen--Lord Highcliffe!" said another, correctingly. + +Maude slid her arm in Stafford's, and stood, her lovely face flushed, +her eyes sparkling, as she looked round. + +"And no title has been more honourably gained," a voice said. + +"Or will be more nobly borne!" echoed another. + +Stafford, with all a man's hatred of fuss, and embarrassment in its +presence, drew nearer to his father. + +"Won't you come and sit down--out of the crowd?" he added, in a low +voice. + +Sir Stephen nodded, and was moving away--they made a kind of lane for +him--when a servant came up to him with a cablegram on a salver. As he +did so, Howard stepped forward quickly. + +"Take it into the study!" he said, almost sharply, to the man; then to +Stafford he whispered: "Don't let him open it. It is bad news. +Griffenberg has just told me--quick! Take it!" + +But before Stafford, in his surprise, could take the cablegram, Sir +Stephen had got it. He stood with his head erect, the electric light +falling on his handsome face: the embodiment of success. He opened the +telegram with the smile still on his lips, and read the thing; then the +crowd of staring--shall it be written, gaping?--persons saw the smile +fade slowly, the flushed face grow paler, still paler, then livid. He +looked up and round him as if he were searching for a face, and his +eyes, full of anguish and terror, met Stafford's. + +"Stafford--my boy!" he cried, in accents of despair. + +Stafford sprang to him. + +"Father--I am here!" he said, for Sir Stephen's gaze grew vacant as if +he had been stricken blind. + +The next moment he threw up his arms and, with a gasp, fell forward. +Stafford caught him as a cry of terror rose from the crowd which fell +back as if suddenly awed by some dreadful presence; and forcing his way +through it a famous doctor reached the father and son. + +There was a moment of awful suspense, then--the music sounded like a +mockery in the silence--all knew, though no word had been spoken, that +the great Sir Stephen--pardon! the Right Honourable the Earl of +Highcliffe--was dead. + + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + + +By a stroke, as of Heaven's lightning, the house of joy was turned into +the house of mourning. + +They bore the dead man to his room, plain and simple, even in that +mansion of luxury; the guests departed, some of them flying as from a +pestilence, some of them lingering with white and dazed faces and +hushed whispers, and Stafford was left alone with his dead; for he had +shut the door even upon Howard, who paced up and down outside, not +daring to force his sympathy upon his beloved friend. + +The morning papers gave a full account of the grand ball, the +announcement of Sir Stephen's peerage, and the sudden and tragic ending +to a life which had been lived full in the public gaze, a life of +struggle and success, which had been cut down at the very moment of +extreme victory. They recited the man's marvellous career, and held it +up to the admiration and emulation of his fellow Englishmen. They +called him a pioneer, one who had added to the Empire, they hinted at a +public funeral--and they all discreetly ascribed telling upon a weak +heart. Sir Stephen's precarious condition had been known, they said, to +his medical adviser, who had for some time past tried to persuade him +to relinquish his arduous and nerve-racking occupations, and to take +repose. + +Not a word was said about the cablegram which had been delivered to him +a few moments before his terribly sudden death; for it was felt by all +that nothing should be allowed to blur the glory of such a successful +career--not for the present, at any rate. + +There was no need for an inquest; the great physician who had been in +attendance, quite vainly, was prepared to certify to the cause of +death, and Stafford's feelings were spared thus far. Someone high in +authority suggested the idea of a public funeral, through Howard, whom +alone Stafford saw, but Stafford declined the honour, and the first +Earl of Highcliffe was carried to his last rest as quietly as +circumstances would permit. + +The press and the men of the city, with whom the dead man had worked, +kept silence about the catastrophe that had happened until after the +funeral; then rumours arose, at first in whispers and then more loudly, +and paragraphs and leaderettes appeared in the papers hinting at +something wrong in connection with Lord Highcliffe's last great scheme, +and calling for an enquiry. + +The morning after the funeral, Howard found Stafford sitting in a +darkened room of the great house, his head in his hand, a morning paper +lying open on the table before him. He raised his white and haggard +face as Howard entered and took his friend's hand in silence. Howard +glanced at the paper and bit his lip. + +"Yes," said Stafford, "I have been reading this. You have seen it?" + +Howard nodded. + +"You know what it means? I want you to tell me. I have been putting off +the question day by day, selfishly; I could not face it until--until he +was buried. But I can put it off no longer; I must know now. What was +that cablegram which they brought him just before--which you tried to +keep from him?" + +"You have not read any of the newspapers?" asked Howard, gravely, +bracing himself for the task from which his soul shrank. + +Stafford shook his head. + +"No; I have not been able to. I have not been able to do anything, +scarcely to think. The blow came so suddenly that I have felt like a +man in a dream--dazed, bewildered. If I have been able to think at all +it is of his love for me, his goodness to me. There never was such a +father--" His voice broke, and he made a gesture with his hand. "Even +now I do not realise that he is gone, that I shall never see him again. +I was so fond of him, so proud of him! Why do you hesitate? If it is +bad news, and I suppose it is, do you think I can't bear it? Howard, +there is nothing that you could tell me that could move me, or hurt me. +Fate has dealt me its very worst blow in taking him from me, and +nothing else can matter. The cablegram, this that the paper says, what +does it mean?" + +Howard sat on the table so that he could lay his hand, with a friend's +loving and consoling touch, on Stafford's arm. + +"I've come to tell you, Staff," he said. "I know that you ought to +know--but it's hard work--that cablegram contained news that the Zulus +had risen _en masse_, and that for a time, perhaps for years, the +railway scheme was blocked, if not utterly ruined. It was the one weak +link in the chain, and your father was aware of it and had taken what +measures he could to guard against the danger; but Fate, circumstances, +were too much for him. A silly squabble, so silly as to be almost +childish, between some squatters on the border and the discontented +natives, upset all his carefully laid plans, and turned a gigantic +success, at its very zenith, into a tragic failure." + +Stafford leant his head upon his hand and looked steadily at Howard. + +"It was that that killed him?" he said. "It meant ruin, I suppose, ruin +for him and others?" + +Howard nodded. + +"Yes; he had staked all upon this last throw, and the sudden reverse +came at a moment when his nerves were strained to the utmost, when he +was excited with the honour and glory he had achieved. The blow was too +sudden, the revulsion of feeling from exultation to despair too swift, +too great. It is one of the most awful things of which I have ever +heard or read. Men are speaking about it with bated breath. There is +nothing but pity for him, nothing but regret at the stroke of +misfortune which cut him down in the moment of his triumph." + +"And others?" repeated Stafford. "It has brought ruin upon others. +What, can I do? Is there anything I can do? I am so ignorant, I do not +even know whether I sit here absolutely penniless, or whether there is +anything left that I can give them." + +"Mr. Falconer and Murray and the lawyer are in the library," said +Howard. "They have been going into affairs. They would have liked to +have had you with them; but I begged you off. I knew you would be of no +use to them." + +Stafford looked his thanks. + +"No, I could not have helped them," he said. "No one knew less of my +poor father's affairs than I, no one is less capable of dealing with +them than I. Mr. Falconer will know what to do. It is very good of him +to come to my assistance. I have scarcely seen him; I have not seen +anyone but you." + +"And Maude?" said Howard, interrogatively. + +"No," said Stafford, his brows drawn together. "I have not seen her. +She has been ill--" + +"Yes," said Howard, in a low voice. "She is prostrated by the shock, +poor girl! You will go to her as soon as she is able to leave her +room?" + +"Yes, of course," said Stafford, very gravely and wearily. + +There was a knock at the door, and the footman, in his mourning livery, +came in and said, solemnly: + +"Mr. Falconer would like to know if you will see him, my lord?" + +A frown crossed Stafford's pale face at the "my lord." It sounded +strange and mockingly in his ears. + +"I will come at once," he said. "Come with me, Howard." + +They went to the library, and the three men who were sitting there +before a mass of papers rose to receive him; Falconer with a face as if +it were carved out of wood; Murray with anxious brow; the lawyer with a +grave and solemn countenance, and sharp, alert eyes. Stafford waved +them to their seats and took a chair at the table, and Falconer, with a +straight underlip, and eyes half concealed by their thick lids, spoke +for the others. + +"Very sorry we cannot leave you in peace for a little longer, Lord +Highcliffe," he said. "But I am quite sure you would have blamed us had +we done so. We have been going into your father's affairs, and I very +much regret that we cannot give you a favourable report of them. As you +know the will, which Mr. Chaffinch," he nodded at the lawyer, "read +this morning, leaves you everything, and names Mr. Chaffinch and Mr. +Murray here executors. That's all very proper and satisfactory as it +goes, but, unfortunately, we find that there is no estate." Murray, the +secretary, passed his hand over his wrinkled forehead and sighed, as if +he himself had made away with the vast sum of money, and the lawyer +frowned and shuffled the papers before him. Stafford sat with his hands +clasped on the table, his eyes fixed on Falconer's impassive face. + +"Your father's immense fortune was wholly embarked in this last +business," continued Mr. Falconer; "he believed in it and staked +everything on it. A very large number of the shares were held by him. +They are down to nothing to-day; it is very unlikely that they will +recover; it is possible that they never may; and if they should it +would be too late, for the shares your father held will, of course, go +to meet the claims--and they are heavy--on the estate. I don't know +whether I make myself understood: I am aware that you are not a +business man." + +Stafford inclined his head. + +"My father's debts--will they not be paid, will there not be +sufficient?" he asked, in a dry voice. + +Mr. Falconer pursed his lips and shook his head. + +"I'm afraid not; in fact, I can say definitely that they will not," he +replied, in a hard, uncompromising way. + +Stafford looked round the large, superbly furnished room, with its +book-cases of ebony and wedgewood, its costly pictures and bronzes, and +recalled the Villa with its luxury and splendour, and the vast sums +which Sir Stephen had spent during the last few months. It seemed +difficult to realise that the wealth was all gone. + +"What is to be done?" he asked, in a low voice. + +Mr. Falconer was silent for a moment, as he regarded the handsome face, +which seemed to have lost its aspect of youth and taken on the lines +and hollows of age. + +"I do not know. It is not for me to say. There will be a meeting of the +directors of the South African Company and others to-morrow, and some +decision will be come to, I have no doubt." + +"And I--I can do nothing?" said Stafford, huskily. "I am penniless, I +suppose?" + +Both Murray and Mr. Chaffinch raised their heads with an air of +surprise. + +"Penniless" echoed Mr. Chaffinch. "Certainly not, my lord! Surely you +know?" + +Stafford regarded him gravely; it seemed as if he himself were too +crushed by his grief for surprise. + +"Know?" he said. "What is in I should know? I do not understand." Mr. +Falconer coughed. + +"We thought you were aware of the existence of the deed; that your +father had informed you, Lord Highcliffe." + +"What deed?" asked Stafford, dully. "I am sorry to appear so dense; but +I have not the least idea of your meaning. As you say, Mr. Falconer, I +know nothing of business." + +"It is evident that your father did not tell you that he executed a +deed of gift in your favour, a gift of one hundred thousand pounds," +said Mr. Falconer. + +"Which deed, being made when he was quite solvent, cannot be upset. The +money was placed in trust, and is quite beyond the reach of the +creditors," said Mr. Chaffinch. "We thought you were aware of this, my +lord." + +Stafford shook his head. He evinced no sign of relief, the colour did +not rise to his face, and his eyes were still fixed on Falconer. + +"It was a very wise provision," said Mr. Chaffinch, approvingly. "And +distinctly one I should have recommended; but Sir Stephen--Lord +Highcliffe--did it of his own accord. He was a far-seeing man, and he +was aware that fortune might fail him, that it was necessary he should +place you, my lord, out of danger. I can well believe that, even at +that time, he saw the peerage coming, and felt that you should be made +secure, that you should have a sufficient income to support the title. +It is not a tenth, a twentieth of the sum you would have inherited, but +for this unfortunate accident of the native rising, and the collapse of +the South African Company." + +Stafford scarcely heard him. He was thinking of his father's loving +foresight and care for his son's future. A pang of bereavement shot +through him. + +"Very wise," said Mr. Falconer, grimly. "Whatever happens, Lord +Highcliffe is safe, high and dry above water mark. Carefully invested, +the capital sum may be made to produce an income of four thousand, or +thereabouts. Not too much for an earldom, but--Ah, well, it might be so +much worse." + +"The servants--the small debts--this house--is there enough for them?" +asked Stafford, after a pause. + +Mr. Chaffinch waved his hand. + +"No need to trouble about that, my lord. There will be sufficient at +the bank to pay such small claims. Your lordship will keep the house +on?" + +Stafford looked up with a sudden energy. "No," he said; "not a moment +longer than is necessary. I shall return to my old rooms." + +"There is no occasion," began Mr. Chaffinch. "I need scarcely say that +the bank will honour your lordship's cheques for any amount." + +"Please get rid of this house as soon as possible," said Stafford. He +rose as he spoke. "You will remain to lunch?" + +They murmured a negative, and Stafford begging to be excused, left the +room, signing to Howard to follow him. He did not mean it, but his +manner, in the abstraction of his grief was as lordly as if he had +inherited an earldom of five centuries. When they had got back to the +little darkened room in which he had sat since his father's death, +Stafford turned to Howard: + +"At what time and place is this meeting to-morrow, Howard?" he asked. + +"At Gloucester House, Broad Street. Four." + +Stafford nodded, and was lost in thought for a moment or two, then he +said: + +"Howard, will you send my horses to Tattersall's? And the yacht to the +agents, for sale? There is nothing else, I think. I used to have some +diamond studs and rings, but I've lost them. I was always careless. +Great Heaven! When I think of the money I have spent, money that I +would give my life for now!" + +"But, my dear old chap, a hundred thousand pounds! Four thousand a +year--it's not too much for a man in your position, but there's no need +to sell your horses." + +Stafford laid his hand on Howard's shoulder and looked into his eyes +and laughed strangely; then his hands dropped and he turned away with a +sigh. + +"Leave me now, Howard," he said, "I want to think--to think." + +He sank into a chair, when Howard had gone, and tried to think of his +future; but it was only the past that rose to his mind; and it was not +altogether of his father that he thought, but of--Ida. In his sacrifice +of himself, he had sacrificed her. And Fate had punished him for his +forced treachery. He sat with his head in his hands, for hours, +recalling those eyes, and yes, kissed her sweet lips. God, what a +bankrupt he was! His father, his sweetheart, his wealth--all had been +taken from him. + +He did not think of Maude. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + + +At noon the following day there was a large meeting at Gloucester +House. There gathered the Beltons, Baron Wirsch, Griffenberg, and the +titled and untitled folk who had been concerned in Sir Stephen Orme's +big scheme. And they were all gloomy and in a bad temper; for all of +them had lost money and some of them were well-nigh ruined by the +collapse of the company which was to have made their fortunes. They +came before noon, the appointed hour, and talked, sometimes in +undertones, but not seldom in loud and complaining voices. By one and +all the dead man was blamed for the ruin in which he had involved them. +They had left the whole thing in his hands: he ought to have foreseen, +ought to have taken proper precautions. They had been--well, if not +duped and deceived, the victims of his criminal sanguineness and +carelessness. + +Griffenberg, being one of the heaviest losers, was elected to the +chair, but beyond making a statement which told them nothing, he could +do little. When he informed them that Lord Highcliffe had died +practically insolvent, a murmur arose, a deep guttural murmur which was +something between a hiss and a groan, and it was while this unpleasant +sound was filling the room that Stafford entered. + +The groan, if groan it can be called, died away, and they all turned +and looked at his pale and careworn face. The tall figure in its deep +mourning dress silenced them for the moment. + +Griffenberg signed Stafford to a seat beside him. + +"I am sure we can tell Lord Highcliffe that we are glad to see him, +that we are much obliged for his attendance." + +Some few said "Hear! hear!" but the rest were silent and watchful. As +Griffenberg spoke the door opened again and Ralph Falconer entered. He +glanced at Stafford and knit his brows, but dropped heavily into a +chair, and sat with stony face and half-lowered lids. He had scarcely +taken his seat when Howard entered in his quiet fashion, and he went +and stood just behind Stafford. + +"I was just telling the meeting, Lord Highcliffe, that I was afraid we +were in a bad way." said Griffenberg. "We all relied so completely on +Sir Stephen--I beg pardon, Lord Highcliffe, your father--that we feel +ourselves helpless now--er--left in the lurch. The company is in great +peril; there has already been heavy loss, and we fear that our property +will be swallowed up--" + +"Ask him what Sir Stephen did with all his money!" cried an excited +shareholder. + +"Order!" said Mr. Griffenberg. "Lord Highcliffe is not here to answer +questions." + +"Then what's he here for?" retorted another man whose loss amounted to +a few hundreds, but who was more excited and venomous than those who +had many thousands at stake. "He's all right. He's a lord--a pretty +lord!--and I'm told the gentleman he's next to is his future +father-in-law, and is rolling in money--" + +"Order! order!" called Griffenberg. + +But the man declined to be silenced. + +"Oh, it's all very well to call 'Order!' But I've a question to ask. I +want to know whether it's true that Sir Stephen--blow 'Lord +Highcliffe,' Sir Stephen's good enough for me!--made over a hundred +thousand pounds to his son, the young gentleman sitting there. Some of +us is ruined by this company, and we don't see why we should be sheared +while Lord Highcliffe gets off with a cool hundred thousand. I ask the +question and I wait for an answer." + +Stafford rose, his pale, handsome face looking almost white above his +black frock-coat and black tie. + +"Sit down! Don't answer him," said Griffenberg. + +"It is quite true," he said. "The money--a hundred thousand pounds--was +given to me. It was given to me when my father"--his voice broke for a +moment--"was in a position to give it, was solvent--" + +"I said so, didn't I?" yelled the man who had put the question. + +"Order! order!" said Griffenberg. + +"And I am informed that the gift was legal, that it cannot be +touched--" + +"Of course it can't! Trust Sir Stephen to look after his own!" wailed +the man. + +"But I yield it, give it up," said Stafford in the same level voice. + +Falconer started from his seat and laid a hand on Stafford's arm. + +"Don't be a fool!", he whispered in his thick voice. + +But Stafford did not heed him. + +"I give it up, relinquish it," he said in the same low, clear tones. +"When my father"--his voice again shook for a moment, but he mastered +his emotion--"made the deed, he thought himself a rich man. If he were +alive to-day"--there was a pause, and the meeting hung on his +words--"he would entirely agree with what I am doing. I give up the +deed of gift, I relinquish it. My lawyers have made me the proper +document, and I now give it to your chairman. It is all I possess; if I +had more, I would give it to you. My father was an honourable man, if +he were here now--" + +He placed the deed before Griffenberg, and sank into his seat. + +There was a moment of intense silence, then a cheer arose, led by the +very man who had put the question. + +Griffenberg sprang to his feet. + +"I hope you are satisfied, gentlemen," he said, with as much emotion as +a city man can permit himself. "Lord Highcliffe has behaved like a +gentleman, like a nobleman. I can assure you that his sacrifice is a +real one. The deed of gift which he has surrendered is a perfectly +sound one, and could not have been touched. All honour to him for his +surrender, for his generosity." + +Another cheer arose--again it was started by the very man who had +attacked poor Stafford, and before it had ceased to ring through the +crowded room, Stafford had made his way out. + +Mr. Falconer caught him by the arm as he was going down the stairs. + +"Do you know what you have done?" he demanded in his dry, harsh voice. +"You have made yourself a pauper." + +Stafford stopped and looked at him with a dull, vacant gaze. + +"A pauper!" repeated Falconer, huskily. + +"I daresay," said Stafford, wearily. + +"And you an earl!" said Falconer, his face a brick-dust red. "Do you +think they will have any pity? Not they. They'll take you at your word. +They'll have every penny! How do you mean to live? You, the Earl of +Highcliffe!" + +Stafford passed his hand across his brow; and a smile, a grim smile, +curved his lips. + +"I don't know," he said. "The money was theirs, not mine." + +"Stuff and rubbish!" said Falconer. "You thought only of yourself, of +your father's good name. I need scarcely tell you that Maude..." + +Stafford waited, his pale face set like a statue's. + +--"That Maude--well, you don't expect her to consider the engagement +binding after--after this?" The blood rushed to Stafford's face. + +"I understand," he said. "Miss Falconer is free. I resign all claim to +her." + +At this moment Howard came out. He had almost fought his way from the +crowded room. + +"Stafford!" he cried. "It is not too late! You can take it back! They +are friendly!" + +Stafford smiled. + +"I've nothing to take back!" he said. + +Howard linked his arm in his friend's. + +"Good Lord! But it was splendid! But all the same--Stafford, have you +considered? It will leave you practically penniless!" + +"I know," said Stafford. "I have considered. Let us go home." + +They went home to Stafford's room. Howard was hot with the enthusiasm +of admiration, and with the effort to suppress it; for nowadays men do +not tolerate praise even from their dearest friend. It seemed to Howard +as if Stafford's act of renunciation had brought him a certain sense of +relief, as if some portion of the heavy weight had been lifted from his +heart. + +"Of course now we have to go into a committee of ways and means, my +dear Staff; you won't mind my asking you what you're going to do? I +need not say that there is no need for any precipitate action. +I--er--the fact is, Staff, I have a sum of money lying at the bank +which absolutely annoys me by its uselessness. The bank manager has +been bothering me about it for some time past, and it was such a +nuisance that I thought of tossing him whether he should take or I. It +isn't much--a man doesn't amass a large fortune by writing leaders for +the newspapers and articles for reviews--but of course you wouldn't be +so mean as to refuse to borrow what there is. I'm very much afraid that +you'll suffer by this absurdly quixotic action of yours, which, mind +you! though I admire it, as I admire the siege of Troy, or the battle +of Waterloo, is a piece of darned foolishness. However, let that go! +What do you mean to do?" + +"I don't know yet," said Stafford. He didn't thank Howard for the +offer; no thanks were necessary. "The thing is so sudden that I have +not made any plans. I suppose there's something I can do to earn my +living. I've no brains, but I'm pretty strong. I might drive a hansom +cab or an omnibus, better men than I have done worse. Leave me alone, +old man, to have a pipe and think of it." Howard lingered for an hour +or two, for he felt that though Stafford had dismissed him, he had need +of him; and when he had gone Stafford took his hat and went out. He did +not call a hansom, but walked on regardless of his route, and lost in +thought. Something of the weight that had crushed him had been lifted +from his heart: he was penniless, the future stretched darkly before +him with a darkness through which there appeared no road or sign of +light; but he was free. He would not be compelled to go to the altar, +there to perjure himself with an oath to love and cherish one woman +while he loved another. I am afraid he did not feel much pity for +Maude, simply because he did not realise how much she cared for him. + +He walked on for some time and at last found himself somewhere down by +the Minories, in that mysterious East End, of which we hear so much and +of which we know so little. A little farther on he came upon the river +and he stood for a moment or two watching some sheep and cattle being +driven on board an ocean tramp. The sight of them recalled Herondale +and Ida; and he was turning away, with a sigh, when a burly man with a +large slouch hat stuck on the back of his head came lurching out of one +of the little wooden offices on the quay. He was apparently the owner +of the sheep, or in some way concerned with them, for he harangued the +drovers in a flow of language which though rich in profanity, was +poured forth in a pleasant and jovial voice. He had been drinking +unwisely and too well, and as he wobbled richly about the small quay he +happened to lurch against Stafford, who was attempting to avoid him. He +begged Stafford's pardon profusely and with such good-natured penitence +that Stafford in addition to granting him the forgiveness he requested, +asked him where the sheep and cattle were going. + +"To my little place, Salisbury Plain." Seeing the astonishment which +Stafford could not keep out of his face, the man laughed and explained. +"Not your Salisbury Plain, not the place here in England, but in the +Burra-Burra country, Australia," he pointed with his fat hand +downwards. "Right underneath. They're prize rams and bulls. I like to +have the best, and I paid a devil of a long price for them; but I've +got enough left for a drink if you'll come and have one." + +Stafford declined, but the man clung on to his arm, and thinking it the +easiest way of getting rid of him, and to avoid a scene, Stafford +accompanied him to the clean and inviting little public at the corner +of the quay, and permitted the man to order a glass of ale for him; the +bar-maid, without receiving any intimation, placed a large joram of rum +before the man, who remarked, after raising his glass to Stafford's +health: + +"Yes, sir, and I'm going with those beasts. I've nothing to say against +Old England so long as you don't ask me to live here. I've been here +six weeks, and there's only one thing that I feel I want and can't +get--no, miss, it ain't rum, there's plenty of that, thank God!--it's +air, air. I suppose the city gents are used to living without it, +though some of you look pale enough. _You_ don't look quite the thing +yourself, sir; rather white about the gills, and not enough meat on +you. Ah! I'd soon alter that if I had you at Salisbury Plain. Lord! I +should like to take out a whole shipload of you; and mind, I could do +with a few, and pay you better wages than you get in the City of +London. And the life! Why, you'd think yourselves kings, with a horse +to ride and plenty to eat, and plenty of fun. But there! you can't tell +what it's like unless you've seen it, and if ever you should have a +fancy to see it, you come out to Salisbury Plain, to my little place on +the Burra-Burra; for I like the look of you, young man; you're a +gentleman, though I've an idea you're down on your luck--I ain't so +drunk that I can't see through a man's eyes, and there's trouble in +yours; been outrunning the constable, eh? And you're not too proud to +take a drink with an honest man--honest, though rough, maybe." + +"Not at all," said Stafford, "and now you will take a drink with me, or +shall we make it a cigar?" for he did not want to lead the man any +further on the road of inebriety. + +"A cigar? Right you are," the settler replied, promptly. He took out an +envelope, intending to screw it up for a light, but suddenly caught +sight of the address, and with genial gravity handed the envelope to +Stafford. "There's my name--Henery Joffler, and there's my address, and +anybody at Melbourne will tell you the best way of getting there. Come +when you like, winter or summer, and you'll find Henery Joffler ready +to receive you with a welcome. _Now_ I will have a drink," he remarked, +as if he had not partaken of one for a calendar month. + +When Stafford left the little public house, he held the envelope in his +hand and was about to tear it up, when he checked himself and +mechanically put it into his pocket. The incident, if it had not +actually amused him, had diverted his mind in a wholesome manner for a +short space; but he had almost forgotten it when has reached his rooms. +The time had slipped by him and it was now twilight and as he was +crossing the room in the dusk to ring the bell for a light, a woman +rose from his chair and came towards him with out-stretched hands and +his name on her lips. + +"Maude!" he exclaimed, startled out of his self-possession. Then it +flashed upon him that she should not be there, in his rooms, alone; and +he looked at her gravely. + +"Why have you come, Maude?" he said. "Wait but one moment and I will +call a cab--go home with you." + +"No," she said, presently. "Did you think I should not come, Stafford? +I have been here for hours." She drew nearer to him, her eyes, so cold +to others, burning like sapphires as they were raised to his. "Did you +think when I had heard what you had done that I should keep away? No! +I--I am proud of you--can you not guess how proud?--my heart is aching +with it. Ah, but it was like you, Stafford!" + +As she put her hand on his shoulder and looked at him with a smile of +pride, and of adoration, Stafford's eyes fell before hers. + +"I could do nothing else," he said. "But I am sorry you came, Maude. +Didn't Mr. Falconer tell you?" + +She laughed and threw back her head with a defiant gesture. + +"Yes--as if it mattered! As if anyone--even he--could separate us! +Besides, what he said was in a fit of temper, he was annoyed by your +surrendering the money. And he could not speak for me--could not +control me." + +"Let me get a light," said Stafford. + +"No matter," she said, as if she could not bear him to leave her side, +even for a moment. "Stafford, dearest, you will not think of, you will +forget, what he said? It was spoken in a moment of irritation. Oh, my +dearest, let me look at you--it is so long since I saw you, so long, so +long! How pale you are, and how weary looking!" + +Her other arm went round his neck, and she would have drawn his face +down to her lips, but Stafford checked her. + +"You should not be here," he stammered. + +She laughed. + +"How proud you are! Yes, and I love you for it! You think that I should +desert you, as most women would do!" She laughed again. "If you were a +pauper--" + +"It is what your father called me," he said, gravely + +She smiled up into his gloomy eyes defiantly, temptingly. + +"What does it matter? I am rich--my father is rich--" + +Stafford winced and his face flamed, but she had turned aside for a +moment and did not see the effect of her words. + +--"And you have more than wealth," she laughed. "I reminded him of +that, and it sobered him. Oh, believe me! for all his pretended +stoicism, my father values a title as keenly as most men, and at heart +is anxious to see his daughter a countess." + +Stafford bit his lip. + +"I will take you home now," he said. Something in his voice told her +that she had made a wrong step, that she had failed. With a cry she +clung to him more tightly, and drawing back her head, scanned his face. + +"Stafford! You--you don't mean to leave me--to throw me off! Say +it--promise me!" She laughed hysterically and would have slipped to her +knees at his feet; but he held her firmly. "See, dearest, I would plead +to you, pray to you! I am--so afraid. But you won't do that--you won't +let anything separate us? Hush! there is my father. Stafford, you will +listen, you will agree!" + +As Falconer knocked at the door, she released Stafford, but stood near +him, with her hand resting on his arm. + +Falconer came in and regarded them from under his lowered lids. + +"I might have expected to find you here," he said harshly to Maude. + +"Yes; I came to him," she said, with a little gesture. "Why should I +not? Why should I care--" + +Falconer shrugged his shoulders, and turned from her to Stafford. + +"I've come to take back what I said this morning," he said, in his dry +voice. "I was hasty, and your--insensate folly in giving up the money +upset me. I have been talking the matter over with Maude, and we have +agreed to--to--continue the engagement." + +Stafford lit a couple of candles and the scant light fell upon the +faces of the three, the white one of the woman, the stern and set one +of Stafford, and the hard and impassive one of Mr. Falconer. + +"Of course a large sum of money will have to be found; and I must find +it. It will be settled upon Maude--with, of course, a suitable +allowance for a nobleman of your rank--" + +"One moment," said Stafford, very quietly. "Before you go any further, +I have to correct a misapprehension, Mr. Falconer. I do not intend to +use my title." + +"What!" exclaimed Falconer, his face growing darker. + +"I intend dropping the earldom," said Stafford. + +"But I don't intend you should," retorted Falconer, brutally. "If I +consent to my daughter's marrying a pauper--" + +"A pauper is one who begs," said poor Stafford, his face white as +marble. "I have not yet begged--" + +"Stafford!" cried Maude. Then she swung on her father. "Why do you +speak to him--to _him_--like this?--Stafford, you will yield--" + +"In everything, in every way, but this," he said, with the same ominous +quietude. "If you are content to drop the title, to share the life of a +poor and an ordinary working-man--as I hope to be--" + +He held out his hand, and she would have taken it, clung to it, but her +father strode between them, and with a harsh laugh, exclaimed: + +"You fool! Don't you see that he is wanting to get rid of you, that he +is only too glad of the excuse? Great God! have you no touch of +womanliness in you, no sense of shame--" + +She swept him aside with a gesture, and advancing to Stafford, looked +straight into his eyes. + +"Is--is it true?" she asked hoarsely. "Tell me! Is what he says true? +That--that rather than marry me you would go out into the world +penniless, to earn your living--you? Answer! Do--do you love me?" + +His eyes dropped, his teeth clenched, and the moment of silence hung +heavy in the room. She turned from him, her hand going to her brow with +a gesture of weariness and despair. + +"Let us go," she said to her father. "He does not love me--he never +did. I thought that perhaps in time--in time--" + +The sight of her humiliation was more than Stafford could bear. He +strode to her and laid his hand on hers. + +"Wait--Maude," he said, hoarsely. "I must lay the title aside; I cannot +accept your father's money. I must work, as other and better men have +done, are doing. If you will wait until I have a home to offer you--" + +She turned to him, her face glowing, her eyes flashing. + +"I will go with you now, now--this moment, to poverty--to peril, +anywhere. Oh, Stafford, can't you see, can't you value the love I offer +you?" + +When her father had led her away, Stafford sank into a chair and hid +his face in his hands. He was no longer free, the shackles were upon +him. And he was practically penniless. What should he do? + +He got his pipe and felt in his pocket for his matches. As he did so he +came upon Mr. "Henery" Joffler's envelope. He looked at it vacantly for +a moment or two; then he laughed, a laugh that was not altogether one +of derision or amusement. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + + +Ida had found her life at Laburnum Villa hard enough in all conscience +before the night of the concert, but it became still harder after Mr. +Joseph's condescending avowal of love to her and her inevitably +scornful refusal. She avoided him as much as possible, but she was +forced to meet him at the family breakfast, a meal of a cold and dismal +character, generally partaken of by the amiable family in a morose and +gloomy silence or to an accompaniment of irritable and nagging personal +criticism. Mr. Heron, who suffered from indigestion, was always at his +worst at breakfast time; Mrs. Heron invariably appeared meaner and more +lachrymose; Isabel more irritable and dissatisfied; and Joseph, whose +bloodshot eyes and swollen lips testified to the arduous character of +his "late work at the office," went through the pretence of a meal with +a sullen doggedness which evinced itself by something like a snarl if +any one addressed him. + +Hitherto he had, of course, been particularly, not to say unpleasantly, +civil to Ida, but after his repulse his manner became marked by a +covert insolence which was intended to remind her of her dependent +position, and the fact that her most direct means of escape from it was +by accepting him as her lover. This manner of his, offensive as it was +intended to be, Ida could have borne with more or less equanimity; for +to her, alas! Joseph Heron seemed of very little more account then one +of the tradesmen's boys she saw occasionally coming up to the house; +but after treating her to it for a day or two in the hope of breaking +her spirit, as he would have expressed it, his manner changed to one of +insinuating familiarity. He addressed her in a low voice, almost a +whisper, so that his sister and mother could not hear, and he smiled +and nodded at her in a would-be mysterious manner, as if they were +sharing some secret. + +Though Ida did not know it, it was meant to rouse Mrs. Heron's +suspicions; and it succeeded admirably. Her thin, narrow face would +flush angrily and she would look across at Isabel significantly, and +Isabel would snigger and toss her head, as if she quite understood. + +Ida often went to her own room before Mr. Joseph returned at night, +but sometimes he came in before she had gone; and he made a practice of +sitting near her, even venturing on occasions to lean over the back of +her chair, his mother watching him out of the corners of her eyes, and +with her thin lips drawn down; and although Ida invariably got up and +went to another part of the room, her avoidance of Joseph did not lull +his mother's suspicions. Ida's contempt for the young man was too +profound to permit of such a sentiment as hatred--one can scarcely hate +that which one scorns--but whenever he came near her with his tobacco +and spirit-laden breath, she was conscious of an inward shudder which +closely resembled that with which she passed through the reptile house +at the Zoological Gardens. + +Mr. Joseph, the house, the whole life, began to get on her nerves; and +in the solitude of her own room she spent many an anguished hour trying +to discover some way of escape. She read all the advertisements of +situations vacant in the newspaper; but all the employers seemed to +require technical knowledge and accomplishments which she did not +possess. She knew she could not teach even the youngest of children, +she was unacquainted with the mysterious science of short-hand, and had +never seen a typewriter. No one appeared to want a young lady who could +break horses, tend cattle, or run a farm; and this was the only kind of +work she could do. + +So she was forced to the bitter conclusion that she would have to go on +living the life, and eat the bread of the Herons, with as much patience +as she could command, in the hope that some day "something would +happen" to release her from her bondage, which was gradually robbing +her eyes of their brightness and making her thin and listless. It +seemed that nothing ever would happen, that the weeks would drag into +months and the months into years; and one day as she toiled slowly home +from a country walk, she almost felt inclined to turn to that last +refuge of the destitute and answer one of the advertisements for a +lady's help: anything would be better than to go on living the life in +death which was her lot at Laburnum Villa. + +As she approached the house, she saw that the gas was lit in the +drawing-room, and the sound of voices, in which a strange one mingled, +penetrated through the thin door as she passed through the hall to her +room. While she was taking off her hat, there came a hurried knock, and +Isabel entered in her best dress. She was flushed and in a flatter of +suppressed excitement. + +"Oh, Ida, can you lend me a clean collar?" she asked, in a stage +whisper, and with a giggle which was intended to invite question; but, +as Ida had asked none, Isabel said, with another giggle: "You've heard +me speak of George Powler?" + +Ida looked doubtful: Isabel had mentioned so many men, generally by +their Christian names, who were supposed to be smitten by her, that +Ida, often listening absently enough to the foolish girl's confidences, +not seldom "got mixed." + +"The one who went to South Australia," Isabel went on, with an +affectation of coy shyness. "We used to see a great deal of him--at +least he used to call--before he went away; and though there really was +nothing serious between us, of course--But one doesn't like to speak of +these things, even to one's bosom friend. But he's down-stairs just +now. I just had time to run up, and he actually almost saw me on the +stairs! Yes, this one will do: you always have such good-shaped +collars, and yet you have always lived in the country! I must be quick +and hurry down: men do so hate to be kept waiting, don't they? You'll +come down presently, won't you, Ida? I'm sure you'll like him: he's so +steady: and it's a very good business. Of course, as I said, nothing +definite has passed between us, but--" + +She giggled and simpered significantly; and Ida, trying to force +herself to take some interest, fastened the collar for Isabel, and +gently and with much tact persuaded that inartistic young lady to +discard a huge crimson bow which she had stuck on her dress with +disastrous results. When, some little time after, Ida went down to the +drawing-room, she found that the visitor was like most of those who +came to Laburnum Villa, very worthy people, no doubt, but uninteresting +and commonplace. This Mr. George Powler was a heavy thick-set man, +approaching middle age, with the air of a prosperous merchant, and with +a somewhat shy and awkward manner; it seemed to Ida that he looked +rather bored as he sat on one of the stiff, uncomfortable chairs, with +the mother and daughter "engaging him in conversation," as they would +have called it. His shyness and awkwardness were intensified by the +entrance of the tall, graceful girl in her black dress, and he rose to +receive the introduction with a startled kind of nervousness, which was +reasonable enough; for the young women with whom he associated were not +dowered with Ida's very palpable grace and refinement. + +Ida bowed to him, made some remark about the weather, and went over +with a book to the sofa with the broken spring--and promptly forgot his +existence. But her indifference was not reciprocated; the man was +painfully aware of her presence, and after endeavouring to carry on the +conversation with Isabel, grew absent-minded and incoherent, and +presently, as if he could not help himself, got up and, edging to the +sofa nervously, sat down and tried to talk. + +Ida closed her book, and, as in duty bound, was civil to him, though +not perhaps so civil as she would have been to a man of her own age and +class; but Mr. George Powler, no doubt encouraged by her gentleness, +serenity, and perfect self-possession--qualities none too common in the +class to which he belonged--grew less nervous, and, to his own +amazement, found himself talking presently quite fluently to this +distinguished-looking young lady whose entrance of the drawing-room had +struck him with awe. With instinctive courteousness and kindness, Ida +had asked him some question about South Australia, and he was led to +talk of his life there, and to describe the country. + +Ida found her thoughts wandering after a few minutes, and grew +absent-minded; but Mr. George Powler was launched, on his favourite +subject, was delighted with the condescension of the beautiful and +stately listener, and did not notice that she was scarcely listening; +did not notice also that Mrs. Heron was looking discontented and +sniffing peevishly, and that Isabel's face wore an expression of +jealousy and resentment. The fact was, that the poor man had quite +forgotten the other young woman--and the other young woman knew it. + +Suddenly their silence bore down upon Ida's absent-mindedness, she felt +rather than saw that something was the matter, and she got up, in the +middle of one of Mr. George Powler's fluent but badly constructed +sentences, and going over to Isabel asked her to play something. + +Isabel flushed. + +"Oh, you had better sing," she said; "Mr. Powler would like that +better, _I'm_ sure." + +"Oh, yes; please do!" pleaded the man; and Ida, trying to conceal her +weariness and distaste, went to the piano and sang the shortest song +she knew. + +Her acquiescence was unfortunate in its result, for it completed in Mr. +George Powler's bosom the havoc which her face and voice had wrought. +He pressed her to sing again, beat time with his large hand and badly +groomed head, and was enthusiastic in his praises and seemed so +disappointed when she refused, that he seconded her appeal to Isabel +with an obviously forced politeness. + +Isabel went to the piano, but she was at no time a very brilliant +performer, and the poor girl was so upset by Ida's unconscious and +unwilling superiority, that she broke down in the middle of one of +those hideous drawing-room pieces which seem specially "arranged" for +the torture of those who are blessed or cursed with musical taste. + +The conversation naturally lagged and languished under these +circumstances, and Mr. George Powler presently rose to take his leave. +He was not asked to remain to dinner though Mrs. Heron had intended +inviting him, and had made secret and flurried preparations. He shook +hands with Ida with marked _empressement_ and nervousness, and seemed +as if he could scarcely tear himself away. + +When he had gone the mother and daughter sat bolt upright in their +chairs and stared before them in a pregnant silence; and Ida, wondering +what was the matter, was about to leave the room, when Mrs. Heron said +in a hard, thin voice: + +"One moment, Ida, if you please." + +Ida paused at the door with her book in her hand, startled from her +dreaminess by the woman's tone and manner. + +"You had better close the door, Ida. I should not like the servants to +overhear what it is my duty to say to you." + +Ida closed the door and stood expectantly, and Mrs. Heron continued: + +"I trust I am not one to find fault unnecessarily. I know it is the +duty of a Christian to be patient and long-suffering; but there is a +limit to one's endurance, and I regret to say that you have passed that +limit. I should not be fulfilling my duty to a young person who is +under my charge if I refrained from pointing out to you that your +conduct, since you have been under our roof, has been reprehensible and +disgraceful." + +Ida was too amazed for a moment to realise the full significance of the +spiteful speech; and then, as it gradually dawned upon her, the blood +rose to her face and an indignant protest rose to her lips; but she +checked it, and merely repeated the objectionable phrase. + +"Yes, disgraceful," said Mrs. Heron. "I am sorry to be compelled to use +such a word to a young girl and to one in your position; and I do not +think you make matters better by pretending not to know what I mean." + +"It is no pretence, Mrs. Heron," said Ida, quite calmly. "I do not in +the least know what you mean." + +"Then I'll tell you," retorted Mrs. Heron, with suppressed fury. "You +are one of the most shameless flirts I ever knew." + +Ida fell an almost irresistible desire to laugh; she had been tired +when she came in, Mr. George Powler's attentions had made her still +more weary, and the sight of the two women seated bolt upright and +evidently boiling over with anger, was full of a grotesque humour which +affected her hysterically. She managed to stifle the laugh, and looked +at them patiently and calmly as she stood by the mantel-piece with one +arm resting on the shelf. The unconscious ease and grace of her +attitude increased Mrs. Heron's irritation; her thin lips trembled and +her eyes grew red. + +"Oh, I am not blind," she said. "I've been quite aware of your conduct +for some time past; but I have refrained from speaking to you because, +as I say, you are under my roof and I did not wish to hurt your +feelings--though I am sure you have had very little regard for ours. I +have been greatly deceived in you, Ida. I thought when you came that +you were a quiet, well-conducted young woman, and I could scarcely +believe my eyes when I first saw that I was mistaken, and that your +quietness was only slyness. I suppose you didn't think I saw that you +were trying to entrap my poor boy; but a mother's eyes are sharp, and a +mother will protect her own at any cost. Oh, you needn't try to stare +me out of countenance, or to put on that surprised and innocent look. +You may have been able to deceive me once, but you can't now. I've been +watching you, and I've seen with my own eyes your carryings on." + +"Mrs. Heron--" began Ida, very quietly; but Mrs. Heron tore on with +breathless vehemence. + +"I suppose you only did it for your amusement; I don't suppose you +thought there would be any good in it, that his father or I would allow +Joseph to make such a _fool_ of himself as to throw himself away upon a +girl without any means; but it's all the more shameful. You succeeded +very well; you've turned the poor boy's head and made him miserable. +It's to be hoped that it will stop there, and that he won't be driven +to drink or desperate courses, as some young men are. Of course you'll +say that you never meant anything of the kind. I'm quite prepared for +that--you can be plausible enough when you like; with that quiet, +cat-like manner of yours." + +Ida had passed beyond the laughing stage by this time; her face was +pale, her eyes flashing; but she was able to say, with an appearance of +calm: + +"You are quite right, Mrs. Heron; I have no hesitation in saying that I +did not wish your son to pay me any attention, much less--Oh, do you +not see how ridiculous it is?" she broke out, indignantly, and with a +little desperate laugh. Mrs. Heron's face flamed. "I don't know what +you mean by ridiculous," she snapped. "I should say Joseph was quite +good enough a match for you; and I've no doubt you think so, though you +pretend to sneer at him." + +"Let me assure you, Mrs. Heron, that I have never thought of your son +as a possible husband," said Ida. "His attentions to me are more than +unwelcome--and he knows it." + +"Oh! then you admit that the poor boy is in love with you, that he has +told you? You see, you can't deceive me; I knew it. I wonder you aren't +ashamed of yourself; at any rate, having caused trouble in the house +that shelters you, that you haven't shame enough to refrain from +flirting, before our very eyes, with the first man that appears." + +Ida stared at her in amazement, too great for the moment to permit of +resentment. + +"What is this you accuse me of?" she asked. "Oh, pray, pray, do not be +so unreasonable, so unjust!" + +Mrs. Heron wagged her head, as one who is not to be deceived by any +affectation of innocence. + +"No, thank you, Ida!" she exclaimed. "That won't do for us. We've seen +it with our own eyes, haven't we, Isabel?" + +Isabel took out her handkerchief and began to whimper. + +"I should never have thought it of you, Ida," she sobbed. "And with +George, too! And I'd only just told you that--that there had been +things between us. I do think you might have left him alone." + +Ida was half distracted. + +"But you really cannot mean it!" she pleaded. "I have done nothing, +said nothing. You surely do not complain of his speaking to me, of his +being simply civil and polite! Heaven knows I had no desire to exchange +a word with him. I would not have come down if Isabel had not asked me, +and I had thought you would have considered it rude of me to remain +upstairs. Oh, what can I say to convince you that you are mistaken, +that I never gave a thought to this gentleman--I forget his name--that +I do not care if I never see him again, and that--Isabel, surely you do +not think me capable of the--vulgarity, the stupidity, with which your +mother charges me!" + +Isabel's sniffs and sobs only grew louder, and her demonstrative misery +worked Mrs. Heron to a higher pitch of resentment and virtuous +indignation. + +"That is right, Isabel, do not answer her. It is all pretence and +deceit on her part. She knows very well that she was doing her best to +attract his attention, smiling and making eyes at him, and attempting +to catch him just as she has caught poor Joseph." + +Ida's slight figure sprang erect, her face grew crimson and her eyes +flashed with a just wrath which could no longer be suppressed. + +"I think you must be mad," she said in a low voice. "Indeed, you must +be mad, or you would not insult me in this way. If I were guilty of the +conduct of which you accuse me, I should not be fit to live, should not +be fit to remain in any respectable house." + +"You are guilty," retorted Mrs. Heron. "And as to your being fit to +remain under this roof--and it was a respectable and happy one until +you came--you are the best judge. I shall inform your cousin John of +what has passed--it is my duty to do so--and he shall decide whether +you are to remain, a firebrand, and a disturber of the peace of a +Christian household. It is my duty to protect my poor boy." + +At that moment the hall door was opened and closed, and the "poor boy," +after shuffling about in the hall for a moment or two, opened the +drawing-room door. His hat was on the back of his head, one end of his +collar was unfastened, his face was flushed, and there was mud on his +coat, as if he had fallen--which he had. He lurched into the room with +a tipsy leer, and nodded to them with an affectation of extreme +sobriety, which is unfortunately always assumed by the individual who +is hopelessly intoxicated. Mrs. Heron rose with outstretched hands. + +"Oh, Joseph, are you ill? My poor boy!" + +"Ill?" he repeated, with a hiccough. "No, I'm not ill. Yes, I am, +though; it's mental worry, it's a 'arassed 'eart;" he looked at Ida and +shook his head reproachfully. "_She_ knows, but she don't care--But +whatsh the matter," he broke off, staring at Isabel, who was still +struggling with her sniffs and sobs. "Whatsh up? Whatsh Isabel cryin' +for? Ida been cryin' too? Look 'ere, I won't shtand that. If they've +bin ill-treating you, Ida, my dear, you shay so, and I'll know the +reashon why. You come to me, my dear." + +He lurched towards Ida, and as she drew back with a shudder of horror +and loathing, Isabel and his mother caught the wretched young man by +the arm, and with cries of alarm and commiseration, endeavoured to +soothe him. + +"Don't speak to her, don't think of her; she's not worth it!" said Mrs. +Heron. "She's not worth any sensible man's thoughts, least of all a man +like you, Joseph. You are ill, you must come to bed!" + +"Stuff an' 'umbug," he hiccoughed, as he struggled feebly with them, +and cast enamoured and would-be reassuring glances at Ida's white and +stern face. "She's a shplendid girl; she's a good girl; finest gal I +know; and she an' me undershtand one another; twin shouls. We've kep' +our secret from you, mother, but the time has come--the time has come +to reveal the truth. I love Ida. It'sh no good your frowning at me like +that; I shay I love Ida." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + + +At this point John Heron's ring and knock were heard at the door; with +a cry of terror, the unfortunate mother succeeded in dragging the +feebly struggling Joseph out of the room, and with Isabel's assistance, +hustled and pushed him up the stairs before his father was let in. +After a time Mrs. Heron came down again, and Ida heard her and her +husband talking together--you couldn't whisper in one room of Laburnum +Villa without being heard in another one--and presently the +drawing-room door opened and John Heron entered; Ida had waited, for +she had expected him. He was red and swollen with pomposity and +resentment, though he assumed a "more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger" air, and +threw a deeply grieved tone into his harsh, raucous voice. + +"I am deeply grieved and shocked, Ida," he began, "to hear from your +cousin so deplorable an account of your conduct. I am not so unwise as +to look for gratitude in this world, but I did not think you would +repay our kindness and consideration by attempting to wreck the +happiness of a quiet and godly home. Of course, I make all allowances +for your bringing-up; I am aware that in the state of life from which +we rescued you, the spiritual and the religious were entirely absent; +but I had hopes that our precept and, I may say, example, the influence +of a deeply religious family--" by this time his voice had slid into +the nasal whine and growl which it assumed in the pulpit; and Ida, +notwithstanding her wretchedness, again felt an almost irresistible +desire to laugh. + +"Please tell me, Cousin John, what it is I have done, what it is you +complain of?" she broke in. + +Angered by the interruption, for there is nothing a man like John Heron +hates worse, he snapped out: + +"You have been trying to snare the affections of my son; you have even +cast lascivious eyes at the stranger within our gates." + +The blood rushed to Ida's face; then she laughed outright, the laugh of +desperation; for indeed, she despaired of convincing these stupid +people of her innocence. The laugh naturally exasperated John Heron, +and his gaunt face grew pallid for an instant. + +"I understand!" he said. "You treat our remonstrances with scorn, you +scoff at our rebuke." + +"Yes; I am afraid I can't help it, Cousin John," said Ida. "I am sorry +that you should think me so wicked and so--dangerous, and I quite agree +with Isabel and her mother that if I am as bad as you say, I am not fit +to live in a respectable house and with--decent people. It would be +useless for me to assure you that you are all ridiculously mistaken." + +"My wife and daughter saw with their own eyes. I am informed that my +son is at this very moment in bed, prostrated by your heartless +conduct; you have trifled with that most delicate and sacred of things, +a human heart. Go to your chamber, Ida, and there I trust you will seek +repentance on your knees." + +There was silence for a moment, then Ida said, very quietly: + +"Have you anything more to say to me?" + +"Not to-night," said John, sternly. "I am wearied with well-doing. I +have been preaching, calling sinners, like yourself, to a better life. +To-morrow I will speak with you again, I will endeavour to snatch a +brand from the burning." + +"Good-night," said Ida. She paused with her hand on the door. "Cousin +John, you came to me when I was in great trouble; you offered me a home +when I was homeless; I think you have been as kind as you knew how to +be, and I want to thank you. I daresay it is my fault that I have not +got on better with you all. I am not so bad as you think--but we will +say no more about that. I do not want you to consider me ungrateful; +for indeed, I am grateful for the shelter you have given me, and I +shall always remember that you came to my aid when I was in sore need. +Will you please ask my cousin and Isabel to forgive me--for having +unwittingly caused them so much trouble? Good-night." + +"Good-night," said John Heron, grimly. "I should be comforted if I +could think that you were speaking from your heart; but I fear that you +are not--I fear that you are not! Oh, may that heart be melted! may you +be brought to see the peril of your evil ways!" Followed by this devout +prayer, Ida went up to her room. As she paced up and down she tried to +tell herself that the whole thing was too ridiculous, was too much like +a farce to make her wretched; but she felt unutterably miserable, and +she knew that she could no longer endure Laburnum Villa and the petty +tyranny and vindictiveness of these relations. + +Poverty, hardship, she could have borne patiently and without +complaining; but there are some things more intolerable to a +high-spirited girl, such as Ida, than poverty or physical +hardship--there are some things which hurt more than actual blows. She +felt stifling, choking; she knew that, happen what might, she could not +remain under her cousin's roof, eat the bread of his charity, for +another day. She shuddered as she pictured herself meeting them at the +breakfast-table, facing Mrs. Heron's spiteful face, Isabel's +tear-swollen eyes, and her cousin John's sanctimonious sermon. + +She would have to go. + +She thrust a few things into a bag and took out her purse and counted +the contents. They amounted to six pounds and a few shillings; but +small though the sum was, she thought that it would maintain her until +she could find some way of earning a livelihood, though at the moment +she had not the least idea what she could find to do. Without +undressing, she threw herself on the bed and tried to sleep; but her +heart ached too acutely and her brain was too active to permit of +sleep; and, try as she would, her mind would travel back to those brief +days of happiness at Herondale, and she was haunted by the remembrance +of Stafford and the love which she had lost; and at times that past was +almost effaced by the vision of Stafford seated beside Maude Falconer +at the concert. + +As soon as she heard the servants moving about the house she rose, pale +and weary, and putting on her outdoor things, stole down-stairs with +her bag in her hand. The servants were busy in the kitchen, and she +unfastened the hall door and left the house without attracting any +attention. The fresh, morning air, while it roused her to a sense of +her position, revived and encouraged her. After all, she was young and +strong and--she looked up at the house of bondage which she was +leaving--she was free! Oh, blessed freedom! How often she had read of +it and heard it extolled; but she had never known until this moment how +great, how sweet a thing it was. + +She waited at the mean little station until a workmen's train came up, +and, hustled by the crowd of sleepy and weary toilers, got into it. +When she left the terminus, she walked with a portion of the throng +which turned up Bishopsgate Street, though any other direction would +have suited her as well--or as little; for she had no idea where to go, +or what to do, beyond seeking some inexpensive lodging. She knew well +enough that she could not afford to go to a hotel; that she would have +to be content with a small room, perhaps an attic, and the plainest of +food, while she sought for work. It was soon evident to her that she +was not likely to find what she was looking for in the broad +thoroughfare of shops and offices, and, beginning to feel bewildered by +the crowd, which, early as it was, streamed along the pavements, she +turned off into one of the narrower streets. + +The long arm of Coincidence which thrusts itself into all our affairs, +led her to the Minories, and to the very quay which Stafford had +reached in his aimless wanderings; and, mechanically she paused and +looked on dreamily at the bustle and confusion which reigned there. +Perhaps the presence of the sheep and cattle attracted her: she felt +drawn to them by sympathy with their hustled and hurried condition, +which so nearly resembled her own. + +With one hand resting on a rail, and a bag in the other, she watched +the men as they drove the cattle up the gangways or lowered huge casks +and bales into the hold. A big, fat man, with a slouch hat on the back +of his head and a pipe in the corner of his mouth--which did not +prevent him shouting and bawling at the men and the animals--lurched +here and there like one of the casks, and in the midst of his shouting +and bawling, he every now and then glanced at a watch of the frying-pan +order. + +It was evident even to the inexperienced Ida, that the vessel was about +to start; the sailors were rushing about on deck in the haste and +excitement of ordered disorder, chains were clanking, and ropes and +pulleys were shrieking; and a steam whistle shrieked at intervals and +added to the multitudinous noises. + +"Poor sheep, poor bulls!" murmured Ida, as the last of the beasts were +driven up the gangway and disappeared. "Perhaps you have come from +another Herondale! Do you remember, do you look back, as I do?" + +She drew back, for the big man suddenly lurched in her direction, and, +indeed, almost, against her. + +"Beg pardon, miss," he said, touching his slouch hat. "Anything I can +do for you, anybody you're looking for?" + +"No, oh, no!" said Ida, blushing and turning away. Mr. Joffler, for it +was that genial Australian, nodded and stretched his moon-like face in +a smile. + +"Thought you'd come to say 'good-bye' to someone, p'raps. Wish it was +me! Though, if it was, I've an idea that I should stay on--air or no +air--and I'm blest if there ain't precious little about this morning! +Hi, there! All ready? Bless it all, we'll be too late for the tide if +he don't come," he said to the captain, who stood with one foot on the +taffrail, an expression of impatience on his weather-beaten face. + +"Like enough he ain't comin', Mr. Joffler," he said. "Them kind o' +gents is always slippery." + +"I dessay. Though I didn't think as this one was one of that kind. Too +much grit about him--ah, and I was not mistaken! Here he is! Get ready +there!" + +He turned, and Ida, instinctively turning with him, saw a tall figure +clad in a serge suit making its way quickly through the crowd of busy +dock-men and idly lounging spectators. He came straight to the big, fat +man, who greeted him jovially and loudly, and they passed side by side +on to the vessel. + +Ida drew a long breath and passed her hand over her brow. It was +absurd, of course, it was a trick of the imagination, of a wearied and +overstrained brain--but the tall figure in the blue serge--ah, how like +it was to that of Stafford! + +It disappeared with that of the big man into the vessel, and, with a +sigh, she was coming away when she saw the two men coming along the +deck and mount to the quarter. The fat man was talking and laughing, +but the man in the blue serge was grave and silent, as if he was lost +in thought and not listening. + +Suddenly, as she paused, the younger, slimmer figure turned in her +direction and uttered a cry, a cry almost of terror. Was she demented? +Had her longing, her aching longing for a sight of him called up this +vision of Stafford? Unless she were out of her mind, the victim of a +strange hallucination, it was he himself who stood there, his face, +pale and haggard, turned towards her. + +"Stafford!" she cried, unconsciously, and her hand gripped the iron +rail in front of her. + +As if he had heard her--though it was impossible that her voice could +reach him through the shouts of the sailors, the lowing and bleating of +the cattle--he raised his head and looked in her direction. Their eyes +met and were enchained for a moment, which seemed an eternity; then the +blood flew to his face, leaving it the next moment paler than before. +He swung round to the fat man by his side and clutched his arm. + +"Wait! Stop the vessel! I want to go ashore!" he said, hoarsely. + +Mr. Joffler stared at him, then laughed. + +"Hold on, sir!" he said, not unsympathetically. "Hold on! Took queer +like! Lor' bless you, I know how the feelin' is! It catches at you +right in the middle of the waistcoat. It's the thought of the land +going back from you--we're moving, we're well away. Here, take a sip of +this! You'll get over it in a brace o' shakes." + +He thrust a flask into Stafford's hand, but Stafford put it away from +him. + +"Let me go ashore! I'll join you later," he said, breathlessly. + +Mr. Joffler caught his arm as he was about to jump for the quay. + +"Steady, steady, sir!" he admonished, soothingly. "We can't stop--and +you'd break your neck trying to jump it! And all for a fancy, too, I'd +stake my life! Hearten up, man, hearten up! You're not the first to +feel sick and sorry at leavin' home and friends." + +Stafford bit his lip and tried to pull himself together; but his eyes +were still fixed on the pale face, the girlish, black-clad figure, and +his voice was shaky, as he said: + +"You're right, Mr. Joffler. It is too late now. I--I thought I saw +someone on the quay there. But it must have been fancy; it is impossible, +quite impossible!" + +"That's it," said Mr. Joffler, with a sympathetic wink. "Lor' love you, +I've had them kind o' fancies myself, especially after a hot night on +shore. If you'd only take a pull at this, you'd be all right directly. +It don't do to come aboard too sober, 'specially when you're leavin' +old England for the first time. Do you see 'em now?" + +Ida had moved away, and Stafford drew a long breath and forced a smile. + +"No," he said, huskily, and almost to himself. "Yes; it must have been +fancy. She could not have been there. It is impossible!" + +Mr. Joffler whistled and winked to himself comprehendingly. + +"She!'" he murmured. "Ah, that's it, is it? Ah, well I've been there +myself! Don't you let the fancy upset you, sir! It 'ull pass afore we +gets into the open. Nothing like the sea for teachin' you to forget +gals you've left behind you! Come down below and try and peck a bit. +There's cold beef--_and_ pickles. That'll send them kind o' fancies to +the right about." + +Ida turned and walked quickly away. Her head swam, she looked like one +in a dream. It was, of course, impossible that the man she had seen +could be Stafford: Stafford on board a cattle-ship! But the +hallucination had made her feel faint and ill. She remembered that she +had eaten nothing since yesterday at noon, and she ascribed this freak +of her imagination to the weakness caused by want of food. + +She left the quay slowly--as if her heart and her strength and all her +life's hope had gone with the dingy vessel--and emerging on the narrow, +crowded street, looked for some shop at which she could buy a roll of +bread. Presently she saw a baker's at the opposite side of the road to +that on which she was walking, and she was crossing, when a huge empty +van came lumbering round the corner. She drew back to let it pass; and, +as she did so, a lighter cart came swiftly upon her. She was so dazed, +so bewildered by the vision she had seen, and the noise of the street, +that she stood, hesitating, uncertain whether to go on or retreat to +the pavement she had left. + +The woman--or man--who hesitates in the middle of a busy London street +is lost: the cart was upon her before she had moved, the shaft struck +her on the shoulder and down she went into the muddy road! + +The driver jerked the horse aside, and leapt from his seat, the usual +crowd, which seems to spring instantaneously from the very stones, +collected and surged round, the usual policeman forced his way through, +and Ida was picked up and carried to the pavement. + +There was a patch of blood on the side of her head--the dear, small +head which had rested on Stafford's breast so often!--and she was +unconscious. + +"'Orse struck 'er with 'is 'oof," said the policeman, sententiously. +"'Ere, boy, call a keb. I'll have your name and address, young man." + +A cab was brought, and Ida, still unconscious, was carried to the +London Hospital. + +And lay there, in the white, painfully clean, carbolic-smelling ward, +attended by the most skillful doctors in England and by the grave and +silent nurses, who, notwithstanding their lives of stress and toil, had +not lost the capacity for pity and sympathy. Indeed, no one with a +heart in her bosom could stand up unmoved and hear the girl moaning and +crying in a whisper for "Stafford." + +Day and night the white lips framed the same name--Stafford, +Stafford!--as if her soul were in the cry. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + + +When Ida came to she found the sister of the ward and a young nurse +bending over her with placid and smiling faces. Why a hospital nurse +should under any and every circumstance be invariably cheerful is one +of those mysteries worthy to rank with the problem contained in the +fact that an undertaker is nearly always of a merry disposition. + +Of course Ida asked the usual questions: + +"Where am I?" and "How long have I been here?" and the sister told her +that she was in the Alexandria ward of the London Hospital, and that +she had been there, unconscious, for ten days. + +The nurse smiled as if it were the best joke, in a mild way, in the +world, and answered Ida's further questions while she administered beef +tea with an air of pride and satisfaction which made her plain and +homely face seem angelic to Ida. + +"You were knocked down by a cart, you know," said Nurse Brown. "You +weren't badly injured, that is, no bones were broken, as is very often +the case--that girl there in the next bed but two had one arm, one leg, +and two ribs broken: mail cart; and that poor woman opposite, got both +arms and a collar-bone broken--But I mustn't harrow you with our bad +cases," she said, quickly, as Ida seemed to wince. "Of course you feel +very strange--I suppose this is the first time you have been in a +hospital ward?" + +"Yes," replied Ida, glancing round timidly. + +"Ah, yes, of course," said Nurse Brown, nodding and smiling +encouragingly. "And you feel shy and nervous; but, if you only knew it, +you are better off here than you would be anywhere else; you have the +very best surgeons in the world--we are awfully proud of them; and, +though I ought not to say it, the best of nursing. You are watched +night and day, and you get the least wee little thing you want if it's +good for you. I daresay you won't care to stay here, but will like to +be taken away as soon as you are well enough to be moved; for, of +course, we all know that you are a lady. Oh, it isn't the first time we +have had a lady in the ward. A great many of them come down here +'slumming,' and sometimes they get run over, as you have been, or they +fall down some of the dark and rickety stairs, or hurt themselves in +some other way--it's wonderful what a choice of accidents you can have +in this busy and crowded part of London." + +After a pause she went on: + +"Of course you will go away as soon as you can; but it's a pity, it +really is; you're ever so much better off here, and you'd soon get used +to the other people in the ward, though they are of a different class +to yourself. But though most of them are very poor and some of them are +usually rough when they are at home, it is wonderfully how patient they +are--you will scarcely ever hear a murmur; only a sigh now and +again--and they are so grateful that sometimes they bring the tears to +your eyes, and it's quite hard to part from them when they get well and +are discharged. But I really mustn't talk to you any more," she +murmured, penitently, and the soft, placid voice ceased. + +Ida looked round the ward, her heart beating as fast as her condition +would allow. As Nurse Brown had said, she felt terribly strange and +nervous in the long, whitewashed ward which, however, was rendered +cheerful enough by the dozens of pictures from illustrated papers, +which had been fastened to the walls, and by the vases and great bowls +of flowers which seemed to occupy every suitable spot. + +She closed her eyes and tried to think; but she fell asleep instead and +dreamt that she had fallen off Rupert and was lying on the moss beside +the river, quite comfortable and most absurdly content. When she woke +the sister was standing beside her, and nodded with cheerful approval. + +"That's better, Miss Heron," she said. "It is quite pleasant to watch +you asleep and not to hear you rambling." + +Ida's face flushed. + +"Have I been rambling?" she asked. "What have I said? You know my +name!" + +The nurse smiled. + +"Your things are marked," she explained. "But there was no address, +nothing which could help us to communicate with your friends, or we +would have done so. You will tell us where to send now, will you not?" + +Ida blushed again and felt troubled. Why should she annoy and worry the +Herons? She shuddered slightly as she pictured her cousin John standing +beside the bed where the sweet and pleasant-faced sister now stood, and +preaching at her. They would want to take her back to Loburnum Villa; +and Ida regarded the prospect of return to that cheerful abode of the +Christian virtues as a prisoner might regard the prospect of returning +to his gaol. The sister regarded her keenly without appearing to do so. + +"Perhaps you would rather remain quietly for a few days, Miss Heron?" +she suggested, sweetly. + +Ida's eyes--they looked preternaturally large, violet orbs in her white +face--beamed gratefully. + +"Oh, yes, yes! if I may. Shall I be ill long?--how soon will it be +before I can go?" + +It is about as difficult to get a definite answer from a nurse as from +a doctor. + +"Oh, some days yet," replied the sister, cheerfully. "You must not go +until you are quite strong; in fact, we should not let you. Now you lie +quite still and try and sleep again if you can; and you can think over +whether you would like to communicate with your friends or not. If you +ask my advice, I shall say, like Mr. Punch, 'Don't!'" + +"I won't," said Ida, with her rare smile. + +The sister nodded and left her, and Ida closed her eyes again: but not +to sleep. She recalled her flight from Laburnum Villa, her wandering +through the streets, the crowded and noisy quay, and the strange +hallucination, the vision of Stafford standing on the stern of the +vessel. Of course, it was only a vision, an hallucination; but how real +it had seemed! So real that it was almost difficult to believe that it +was not he himself. She smiled sadly at the thought of Stafford, the +son of the great Sir Stephen Orme, sailing in a cattle-ship! + +The hours passed in a kind of peaceful monotony, broken by the frequent +visits of Nurse Brown and the house surgeon, with his grave face and +preoccupied air; and for some time Ida lay in a kind of semi-torpor, +feeling that everything that was going on around her were the unreal +actions in a dream; but as she grew stronger she began to take an +interest in the life of the great ward and her fellow-patients; and on +the second day after her return to consciousness, began a conversation +with her next-door neighbour, a pleasant-looking woman who had eyed her +wistfully several times, but who had been too shy to address "the young +lady." She was a country woman from Dorsetshire--up to London on a +visit "to my daughter, miss, which is married to a man as keeps a +dairy." It was her first visit to London; she had wandered from her +daughter's lost her, and, in her confusion, tumbled down the cellar of +a beer-shop. She told Ida the history of some of the other cases, and +Ida found herself listening with an interest which astonished her. + +Nurse Brown, seeing the two talking, nodded approvingly. + +"That's right," she said, with a smile. "You keep each other company. +It passes the time away." + +Very soon, Ida found herself taking an interest in everything that went +on, in the noiseless movements of the nurses, in the arrival of a new +case, in the visit of the doctors and the chaplain, and the friends of +the other patients. Let the pessimists say what they may, there is a +lot of good in human nature; and it comes out quite startlingly in the +ward of a hospital. Ida was amazed at the care and attention, the +patience and the devotion which were lavished on herself and her +fellow-sufferers; a devotion which no money can buy, and which could +not have been exceeded if they had one and all been princesses of the +blood royal. + +One instance of this whole-souled devotion and unstinting charity +occurred on the third day and brought the tears to her eyes, not only +then but whenever she thought of it in the after years. A tiny mite of +a baby, only a few weeks old was brought into the ward and laid in a +cot not very far from Ida's bed. The nurses and the doctors crowded +round it with eager attention. It was watched day and night; if it +cried, at the first note of the feeble wail, a couple of nurses flew to +the cot, and, if necessary, a famous physician was telephoned for: and +came promptly and cheerfully. The whole ward was wrapped up in the tiny +mite, and Ida leant on her elbow and craned forward to get a glimpse of +it; and felt towards it as she would have felt if it had been a little +sick or wounded lamb in Herondale. + +"What is the matter with it, poor little thing?" she asked the sister. + +"The spine," replied the sister, bending tenderly over the cot and +taking the emaciated little paw in her comforting, ministering hand. + +"Will it get well?" asked Ida, quite anxiously. + +The sister shook her head. + +"Lor' bless me!" said Ida's neighbour, pityingly. "It 'ud be almost +better if the pore little thing died!" + +The sister looked up with mild surprise. + +"Oh, yes; it can't live longer than three weeks," she said, as sadly as +if she had not seen a score of similar cases. + +Ida lay down, her eyes filled with tears, her heart filled with awe and +wonder. Perhaps for the first time in her life she understood what +charity meant. Here was a waif of the slums, doomed to die in so many +weeks, and yet it was the object of the loving devotion of every nurse +in the ward, with every comfort and luxury which an age of civilisation +could supply, and the recipient of the enthusiastic attention of a +great surgeon whose name was famous throughout the world. + +The woman in the next bed was crying too. + +"It makes you think of 'eaven, don't it, miss," she said, with a sniff. +"If I was rich I'd leave all my money to a 'orspital; that I would!" + +The speech suddenly reminded Ida of her own poverty, of which she had +not thought very much, for the need of money is not very keenly felt in +a hospital ward, where everything is "free, gratis, for nothing." The +time came when she was permitted to get up, and nothing could exceed +her amazement on finding herself so weak that her legs trembled under +her, and the walls and the floor seemed to rock and heave; but in a day +or two she was able to walk a little, and she at once begged permission +to help nurse the baby. It was against the rules, but it was very +difficult for anyone to resist Ida when she turned those great violet +eyes upon them imploringly: and much to her delight she was permitted +to hover about the cot and assist in an unofficial way. When the baby +was asleep, which was not particularly often, Ida was permitted to read +to some of the other patients; and, in fact, make herself generally +useful in an unobtrusive fashion. + +This was all very well, but the day arrived when she was strong enough +to leave the hospital and once more face that world which has been +described as the best of all possible worlds, and no doubt is for those +who have plenty of money and friends, but which is not far from being +the worst of all possible worlds for those who have not. She took five +pounds from her little store and went to the sister. + +"I am rather poor," she said, with a smile, "and I cannot afford more +than this. I wish it were a hundred times as much; indeed, no money +could repay your goodness and kindness to me, the wonder of which I +shall never cease to feel." + +The sister looked at her keenly, but said very gently: + +"You can put it in the box in the hall when you go out; but you will +not go to-day. I will arrange for you to stop until to-morrow; in fact, +the baby--none of us--could spare you. I want you to have some tea with +me in my room to-night and a little talk, Miss Heron." + +So Ida turned away quickly, that the sister might not see her tears, +and accepted the reprieve. + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + + +The Herons were not very much surprised at Ida's flight, but though +John and his wife and daughter were anything but sorry to get rid of +her, they were rather uncomfortable, and Joseph, who was in the +doldrums after his drinking-fit, did not make them more comfortable by +assuring them that he was perfectly certain she had committed suicide. + +He and his father set out to look for her, but, as Ida had left no clue +behind, they could find no trace of her, though they procured the +assistance of Scotland Yard, and inserted guarded advertisements in the +newspapers. John Heron comforted himself with the reflection that she +could have come to no harm or they would have heard of it; and at last +it occurred to him, when nearly a fortnight had elapsed, that she might +have returned to Herondale, probably to the care of Mr. Wordley, and +that he had been too indignant to acquaint the Herons with the fact. + +"I think I had better run down to Herondale, Maria, and ascertain if +the erring and desperate girl has returned there," he said, one morning +after prayers. "Seeing that she left my roof in so unseemly a fashion, +with no word of regret or repentance, I do not consider that she has +any further claim upon me; but I have a tender heart, and on this +occasion I will be generous before I am just." + +"I am sure she has no further claim upon us," said Mrs. Heron, with a +sniff, "and I hope you will make it plain, John, that on no account can +we take her back. We have been put to considerable trouble and expense, +and I really think that her going without any fuss is quite +providential." + +At this moment there came a double knock at the door, and the servant +announced that Mr. Wordley was in the drawing-room. Mr. and Mrs. Heron +exchanged glances, and both of them turned rather pale; for John Heron +had a very vivid recollection of Mr. Wordley's frank and candid manner +of expressing himself. But he had to be faced, and the pair went down +into the drawing-room with a long-suffering expression on their faces. + +Mr. Wordley, however, appeared to be quite cheerful. He shook hands +with both of them, and enquired after their health and that of their +family quite amiably and pleasantly. + +"Most delightful weather, isn't it?" he remarked. "Quite pleasant +travelling. You have a remarkably--or--convenient house, Mrs. Heron: +charming suburb: will no doubt be quite gay and fashionable when it +is--er--more fully developed. You are looking well, Mr. Heron." + +Mr. Heron, whatever he may have looked, was feeling anything but well +at that moment; for he suspected than the lawyer was only masking his +attack, and that he meant to spring upon him presently. + +"I enjoy fairly good health, Mr. Wordley, thank you," he said, in his +sanctimonious way; "but I have my share of trials and anxieties in this +miserable world." + +"Oh, don't call it miserable, on a morning like this!" said Mr. +Wordley, cheerfully. "My dear sir, there is nothing the matter with the +world; it's--er--some of the people in it that try to make it +miserable." + +While he had been speaking, he had been glancing at the door and +listening, as if he had been listening and expecting to hear and see +someone else. + +"The fact is," he said, "I have come up rather suddenly on rather +important business: came up without a moment's delay. _Where is_ Miss +Ida? I should like to see her at once, please, if I may!" + +The faces of the pair grew sallow, and the corners of John Heron's +mouth dropped lower even than usual. + +"Ida?" he said, in a hollow voice, as if he were confused. "Where is +she? Surely you know, Mr. Wordley?" + +"I know? How should I know? I came up to see her: not a moment to +spare. Isn't she here? Why do you both stare at me like this?" + +"She is not here," said John Heron. "Ida left our house more than a +fortnight ago." + +Mr. Wordley looked disappointed, and grunted: + +"Oh, gone to stay with some friends, I suppose. I'll trouble you to +give me their address, Mr. Heron, please." + +He rose, as he spoke, as if he meant starting on the moment, but he +sank into the chair again as John Heron said in a sepulchral voice: + +"I should most willingly do so, Mr. Wordley, but I regret to say I do +not know where she is." + +"You--don't--know--where--she is!" said Mr. Wordley, anger and +amazement struggling for the upper hand. "What the devil I beg your +pardon, Mrs. Heron! You must excuse an old man with a short temper and +a touch of the gout--but I don't understand you! Why don't you know?" + +Mrs. Heron began to sniff, and her worthy husband drew himself up and +tried to look dignified, and failed utterly in the attempt. + +"Such language--" he began. + +"Confound my language, sir!" snapped the old lawyer, his face growing +red. "Be good enough to answer my question!" + +"Ida left our hospitable roof about a fortnight ago," said Mr. Heron. +"She left like a thief in the night--that is to say, morning. I regret +to say that she left no message, no word of farewell, behind her. I had +occasion to rebuke her on the preceding night, and, following the +dictates of an ungodly nature and a perverse pride, she chose to leave +the shelter of this roof--" + +Mr. Wordley sprang to his feet, his passion rendering him speechless +for a moment. + +"_You_ rebuke Miss Ida! Are you out of your mind? And pray, what had +she done?" + +"She had been guilty of attempting to ensnare the affection of my +son--" began John Heron. + +At this moment the door opened and Joseph appeared. Mr. Wordley looked +at him. + +"Ensnaring the affections of _this!_" he snorted, with a contempt which +caused Mr. Joseph's immediate retreat. "Oh, you _must_ be out of your +mind!" + +"Her conduct was reprehensible in other ways," stammered John Heron. + +"Nonsense!" almost shouted Mr. Wordley. "I don't want to hear any more +of such nonsense. Miss Ida's conduct reprehensible! Why, she couldn't +conduct herself in any way than that of a high-bred, pure-minded, +gentle-hearted girl, if she tried! You have been entertaining an angel +unawares, Mr. Heron--there's a bit of Scripture for _you!_--you've had +a pearl in your house, and it's been cast before--Bless my soul! I'm +losing my temper! But, 'pon my word, there's some excuse for it. You've +let that dear child leave your house, you've lost sight of her for over +a fortnight, and--and you stand there and snuffle to me about her +'conduct!' Where is she? Oh, of course, you don't know; and you'd stand +there like a stuck pig, if I were fool enough to remain here for a week +and ask questions. But I want her--I want her at once! I've got +important news for her news of the greatest importance--I beg your +pardon, my dear madame, for the violence of my language--though I could +say a great deal more to this husband of yours if I were alone with +him. But it's no use wasting further time. I must find her--I must find +her at once." + +John Heron was as red as a turkey-cock and gasping like a cod out of +water. + +"This gross and unseemly attack is only excused by your age--" + +"Confound my age!" exclaimed Mr. Wordley. "Let me tell you, sir, your +age does not excuse your conduct, which has been that of a heartless +and sanctimonious fool. When I gave that dear child into your care, I +had misgivings, and they are fully justified. Would to God I had never +lost sight of her! The dearest, the sweetest and best--Oh, let me get +out, or I shall say something offensive." + +As he made for the door, John Heron cleared his throat and stammered: + +"I forgive you, sir. You will regret this exhibition of brutal +violence, and I shall put up a prayer--" + +"Don't you dare to put up any prayer for me!" cried Mr. Wordley. "I +should be afraid something would happen to me. I need not ask why she +left your house. It's quite evident enough. I've nothing more to say to +you." + +"One moment," said John Heron, with an attempt at dignity; "perhaps you +will be good enough to inform me of the nature of the communication +that you have for my cousin Ida." + +Mr. Wordley looked as if he were going to choke. + +"No, I will not, sir!" he at last responded. "I will tell you +nothing--excepting that I hope and trust I may never see your +sanctimonious face again. Good-morning! Good-morning, madame!" + +He was outside Laburnum Villa with the velocity and force of a +whirlwind, and was half-way on his road to the station before he could +get his breath or regain his self-possession. Being a lawyer, he, of +course, went straight to the police; but he was shrewd enough not to go +to Scotland Yard, but to the police station near the terminus; for it +seemed to him that it would be easier to trace Ida from that spot. + +Fortunately for him, he found an inspector in charge who was both +intelligent and zealous. He listened attentively to the detailed +statement and description which the lawyer--calm enough now--furnished +him, and after considering for a minute or two, during which Mr. +Wordley waited in a legal silence, asked: + +"Young lady any friends in London, sir?" + +Mr. Wordley replied in the negative. "Think she has gone to a +situation?" + +"No," replied Mr. Wordley; "she left suddenly; and I do not know what +situation she could find. She is a lady, and unaccustomed to earning +her bread in any way." + +"Then she has met with an accident," said the inspector, with an air of +conviction. + +"God bless my soul, my good man!" exclaimed Mr. Wordley. "What makes +you think that?" + +"Experience, sir," replied the inspector, calmly. "Have you any idea +how many accidents there are in a day in London? I suppose not. You'd +be surprised if I told you. What was the date she was missing?" + +Mr. Wordley told him, and he turned to a large red book like a ledger. + +"As I thought, sir," he said. "'Young lady knocked down by a light van +in Goode Street, Minories. Dark hair, light eyes. Height, five feet +nine. Age, about twenty-one or two. Name on clothing, "Ida Heron."'" + +Mr. Wordley sprang to his feet. + +"It is she!" he exclaimed. "Was she much hurt, is--is she alive--where +is she? I must go to her at once." + +"London Hospital," replied the inspector, succinctly, as he turned to a +subordinate. "Call a cab!" + +It was not a particularly slow hansom, and it did not take very long to +get from the police station to the hospital; but to Mr. Wordley the +horse seemed to crawl and the minutes to grow into days. He leapt out +of the hansom, and actually ran into the hall. + +"You've a patient--Ida Heron"--he panted to the hall porter. + +The man turned to his book. + +"Yes, sir," he said. "Discharged yesterday." + +Mr. Wordley staggered against the glass partition of the porter's box +and groaned. + +"Can you tell me--?" he began. "Has she left any address? I--I am her +solicitor. Excuse my being hurried: I want her particularly." + +The porter looked at him sympathetically--everybody is sympathetic at a +hospital, from the head physician and that puissant lady, the matron, +down to the boy who cleans the brass plate. + +"Won't, you sit down, sir," he said, "The young lady was discharged +yesterday, and I can't tell you where she's gone, in fact, though I +remember her being brought in--run-over case--I like to step upstairs +and see the sister of the ward she was in, the Alexandra?" + +While he was speaking, and Mr. Wordley was trying to recover command of +himself, a slim black-clad figure came down the hall, and pausing +before the large tin box provided for contributions, dropped something +into it. Mr. Wordley watched her absently; she raised her head, and he +sprang forward with "Miss Ida!" on his lips. + +Ida uttered a cry and staggered a little; for she was not yet as strong +as the girl who used to ride through Herondale, and Mr. Wordley caught +her by both hands and supported her. + +"Thank God! thank God!" was all he could exclaim for a minute. "My dear +child! my dear Miss Ida! Sit down!" + +He drew her to one of the long benches and sat down beside her. To his +credit, be it stated, that the tears were in his eyes, and for a moment +or two he was incapable of speech; indeed, it was Ida who, woman-like, +first recovered her self-possession. + +"Mr. Wordley! Is it really you? How did you know? how did you find me? +I am so glad; oh, so glad!" She choked back the tears that sprang to +her eyes and forced a laugh; for again, woman-like, she saw that he was +more upset than even she was. He found his voice after awhile, but it +was a very husky one. + +"My dear girl, my dear Miss Ida," he said, "you are not more glad than +I. I have been almost out of my mind for the last few hours. I came to +London all in a hurry. Most important news--went to your cousin's--Oh, +Lord! what a fool that man is! Heard you had run away--not at all +surprised. Should have run away myself long before you did. Came up to +London in search of you--just heard you'd gone from here." + +"I ought to have gone yesterday," said Ida, "but they let me stay." + +"God bless them!" he panted. "But how pale you look--and thin. You've +been ill, very ill; and you've been unhappy, and I didn't know it. What +a fool I was to let you go! It was all my fault! I ought to have known +better than to have trusted you to that sanctimonious idiot. My dear, +I've great news for you!" + +"Have you?" said Ida, patting his hand soothingly--she had caught +something of the gentle, soothing way of the sister and nurses. "Must +you tell me now? You are tired and upset." "I must tell you this very +minute or I shall burst," said Mr. Wordley. "My dear child, prepare +yourself for the most astounding, the most wonderful news. I don't want +to startle you, but I don't feel as though I could keep it for another +half hour. Do you think I could have a glass of water?" + +The porter, still sympathetic, at a sign from Ida, produced the glass +of water and discreetly retired. + +"Now," said Mr. Wordley, with intense gravity, "prepare to be startled. +Be calm, my dear child, as I am; you see I am quite calm!" He was +perspiring at every pore, and was mopping his forehead with a huge silk +handkerchief. "I have just made a great discovery. You are aware that +Herondale, the whole estate, is heavily mortgaged, and that there was a +foreclosure; that means that the whole of it would have passed away +from you." + +Ida sighed. + +"Yes, I know," she said, in a low voice. + +"Very well, then. I went over to the house the other day to--well, to +look out any little thing which I thought you might like to buy at the +sale--" + +Ida pressed his hand and turned her head away. + +"It was a sad business, sad, very sad! and I wandered about the place +like a--like a lost spirit. I was almost as fond of it as you are, my +dear. After I had been over the house I went into the grounds and found +myself in the ruined chapel. Donald and Bess followed me, and +Bess--what a sharp little thing she is, bless her!--she began to rout +about, and presently she began to dig with her claws in a corner under +the ruined window. I was so lost in thought that I stood and watched +her in an absent kind of way: but presently I heard her bark and saw +her tearing away like mad, as if she had found a rat or a rabbit. I +went up to where she was clawing and saw--what do you think--" + +Ida shook her head and smiled. + +"I don't know; was it a rabbit?" + +"No!" responded Mr. Wordley, with suppressed excitement. "It was the +top of a tin box--" + +"A tin box?" echoed Ida. + +"Yes," he said, with an emphatic nod. "I called Jason to bring a spade; +but I could scarcely wait, and I found myself clawing like--like one of +the dogs, my dear. Jason came and we had that box up and I opened it. +And what do you think I found?" + +Ida shook her head gently; then she started slightly, as she remembered +the night Stafford and she had watched her father coming, in his sleep, +from the ruined chapel. + +"Something of my father's?" + +Mr. Wordley nodded impressively. + +"Yes, it was something of your father's. It was a large box, my dear, +and it contained--what do you think?" + +"Papers?" ventured Ida. + +"Securities, my dear Miss Ida, securities for a very large amount! The +box was full of them; and a little farther off we found another tin +case quite as full. They were securities in some of the best and +soundest companies, and they are worth an enormous sum of money!" + +Ida stared at him, as if she did not realise the significance of his +words. + +"An enormous sum of money," he repeated. "All the while--God forgive +me!--I was under the impression that your father was letting things +slide, and was doing nothing to save the estate and to provide for you, +he was speculating and investing; and doing it with a skill and a +shrewdness which could not have been surpassed by the most astute and +business-like of men. His judgment was almost infallible; he seems +scarcely ever to have made a mistake. It was one of those extraordinary +cases in which everything a man touches turns to gold. There are mining +shares there which I would not have bought at a farthing a piece; but +your father bought them, and they've everyone of them, or nearly +everyone of them, turned up trumps. Some of them which he bought for a +few shillings--gold and diamond shares--are worth hundreds of pounds; +hundreds? thousands! My dear," he took her hand and patted it as if he +were trying to break the shock to her; "your poor father whom we all +regarded as an insolvent book-worm, actually died by far and away the +richest man in the county!" + +Ida looked at him as if she did not even yet quite understand. She +passed her thin hand over her brow and drew a long breath. + +"Do you mean--do you mean that I am no longer poor, Mr. Wordley?" she +asked. + +Mr. Wordley laughed so suddenly and loudly that he quite startled the +hall porter in his little glass box. + +"My dear child," he said, slowly and impressively, "you are rich, not +poor; im-mense-ly rich! I do not myself yet quite know how much you are +worth; but you may take it from me that it's a very large sum indeed. +Now, you are not going to faint, my dear!" For Ida's eyes had closed +and her hands had clasped each other spasmodically. + +"No, no," she said in a low voice, "But it is so sudden, so unexpected, +that I cannot realise it. It seems to me as if I were lying in the cot +upstairs and dreaming. No, I cannot realise that I can go back to +Herondale: I suppose I can go back?" she asked, with a sudden +piteousness that very nearly brought the tears to Mr. Wordley's eyes. + +"Go back, my dear!" he exclaimed. "Of course you can go back! The place +belongs to you. Why, I've already given notice that I am going to pay +off the mortgages. You will get every inch of the land back; you will +be the richest lady in the county--yes, in the whole county! The old +glories of the dear old house can be revived; you can queen it there as +the Herons of old used to queen it. And everybody will be proud and +delighted to see you doing it! As for me, I am ashamed to say that I +have almost lost my head over the business, and have behaved like +a--well, anything but like a staid and sober old solicitor." + +He laughed, and blew his nose, and nodded with a shamefaced joy which +affected Ida even more than his wonderful news had done. + +"How can I thank you for all your goodness to me," she murmured, a +little brokenly. + +"Thank me! Don't you attempt to thank me, or I shall break down +altogether; for I've been the stupidest and most wooden-headed idiot +that ever disgraced a noble profession. I ought to have seen through +your father's affectation of miserliness and indifference. Anybody but +a silly old numskull would have done so. But, my dear, why are we +staying here, why don't we go away at once? You'd like to go back to +Herondale by the first train? You must hate the sight of this place, I +should think." + +"No, no," said Ida, gently. "Yes, I would like to go back to +Herondale--ah, yes, as soon as possible. But I should like to see +someone before I go--the sister, the nurse, who have been so good to +me. You are sure"--she paused and went on shyly, "you are sure there is +no mistake, that I have some money, am rich?" + +"Rich as Croesus, my dear child," he responded, with a laugh. + +She blushed still more deeply. + +"Then, have you--have you any money with you, Mr. Wordley? I mean quite +a large sum of money?" "Not a very large sum, my dear," he replied, +rather puzzled. "About twenty or thirty pounds, perhaps." + +Ida's face fell. + +"Oh, that is not nearly enough," she murmured. + +"Eh?" he asked. "But I've got my cheque-book with me. How much do you +want? And, forgive me, my dear Miss Ida, but may I ask what you want it +for?" + +"Can I have a cheque for five hundred pounds?" Ida asked, timidly. + +"Five thousand, fifty thousand, my dear!" he responded, promptly, and +with no little pride and satisfaction. + +"Five hundred will do--for the present," she said a little nervously. +"Perhaps the porter will let you draw it out." + +Still puzzled, Mr. Wordley went into the porter's box and took out his +cheque-book. + +"Make it payable to the hospital--and give it to me, please," said Ida, +in a low voice. + +The old man's face cleared, and he nodded. + +"Of course, of course! God bless you, my dear! I might have known what +was in that good, grateful heart of yours. See here, I've made it out +for a thousand pounds. That's five hundred for you and five hundred for +me--and don't you say a word to stop me; for I'm only too grateful for +the idea. It will cool me down; and upon my word, I feel so excited, so +above and beyond myself that I want some safety-valve like this, or I +should fall to dancing in the hall and so disgrace myself and the noble +profession to which I belong." + +With the folded cheque in her hand Ida took him up the many stone steps +to the Alexandra ward. The gentle-eyed sister, who had parted from her +so reluctantly, was naturally surprised to see her return so soon, and +accompanied by a fatherly and prosperous old gentleman, who kept close +to her as if he were afraid she might be spirited from him. + +"I have come back to--to say good-bye again, sister," said Ida, her +voice faltering a little, but her eyes beaming as they had not beamed +for many a day; "and I want to give you something, something for the +hospital--it is from my dear friend here, Mr. Wordley, who has just +found me. And I want you not to open it until we have gone--say, for +half an hour. And I am going to write to you as I promised; and you can +write to me if you will be so kind; for I can give you the address now. +It is on the back of the cheque." + +She had written it in the porter's box. + +"I am going--home. Something has happened. But I will write and tell +you; now I can only say"--her voice broke and trembled--"good-bye, +again, and thank you with all my heart." She drew the sister to her +and kissed her; and Mr. Wordley shook the sister's hand, and blew his +nose so loudly that the patients, who had been watching them eagerly, +nodded to each other and exchanged significant glances, and there was a +suppressed excitement in the ward which found adequate expression when, +half an hour afterwards, the sister with flashed cheek and quavering +voice made them acquainted with Ida's gift. + +"And now," said Mr. Wordley, after he had shaken hands with several of +the officials, including the porter, "and now, my dear Miss Ida, for +Herondale and--Home! Hi, cab!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + + +The journey down to Herondale cannot be described: whenever Ida thought +of it in the after years, she felt herself trembling and quivering with +the memory of it. Until she had sat in the carriage, and the train had +started and she realised that she was indeed going home--home!--she did +not know what it had cost her to leave Herondale, how much she had +suffered at Laburnum Villa, how deep the iron of dependence had entered +her soul. She was all of a quiver with delight, with profound gratitude +to the Providence which was restoring her to the old house, the wide +moors, the brawling streams which she knew now were dearer to her than +life itself. + +Mr. Wordley understood, and was full of sympathy with her mood. He +bought newspapers and magazines, and he let her alone and pretended to +read; but every now and then she met his smiling glance, and knew by +his nod of the head that he was rejoicing with her. + +He had wired for a carriage and pair to meet them at Bryndermere, and +Ida leant back and tried to be patient, then to look unconcerned and +calm and composed; but she uttered a little cry and nearly broke down +when the carriage stopped at the familiar gate, and Jessie, who was +standing there, with her hair blown wild by the wind, forgot the +inequalities of their positions, and catching her beloved young +mistress to her bosom crooned and sobbed over her. + +Jason stood just behind, balancing himself first on one foot, and then +on the other, in his efforts to get a glimpse of Ida, and she stretched +out her arm over Jessee's shoulder and shook the honest hand which had +grown hard and horny in her service. Jessie almost carried her mistress +into the hall, where a huge fire was burning and threw a red and +cheerful glow over the fading gilding and grey-toned hangings. + +"Oh, miss, how thin you be!" she said at last, as, with clasped hands, +she surveyed Ida from top to toe anxiously and greedily. "Wherever have +you been to look like that? But never mind, Miss Ida; you're back, and +that's everything! And we'll very soon get some flesh on your bones and +drive the sad look out of thee eyes." In moments of emotion and +excitement Jessie forgot the schooling Ida had given her, and lapsed +into semi-Westmoreland. "You've missed the moorland air, dearie, and +the cream and the milk--I've 'eard it's all chalk and water in +London--and I suppose there wasn't room to ride in them crowded +streets; and the food, too, I'm told it ain't fit for ordinary humans, +leave alone a dainty maid like my sweet mistress." + +"Yes, you shall fatten me to your heart's desire, Jessie," said Ida. "I +suppose I don't look of much account; I've been ill. But I shall soon +get well. I felt, as we drove along the moor, with the wind blowing on +my cheek, as if I had not breathed since the hour I left. And now tell +me everything--all--at once! Rupert? There's no need to ask about the +dogs." Donald and Bess had not yet ceased to tear at her in frantic +efforts to express their delight. "Are you glad I've come back, +Donald?" she asked in a low voice as she knelt and put her arms round +his neck and nestled her face against his, and let him lick her with +his great, soft tongue. "Ah, if you are only half as glad as I am, +doggie, your heart must be half breaking with the joy of it. And if I'm +lean, you are disgracefully fat, Bess. Don't tell me you've missed me, +for I don't believe it." + +It was some time before Jessie could drag her upstairs; and the sight +of her old room, as cheerful as the hall, with the huge fire, almost +unnerved her, and when she was alone she sank upon her knees beside the +bed in a thanksgiving which was none the less deep and fervent for its +muteness. + +When she came down the dinner was ready and Mr. Wordley was standing in +front of the fire awaiting her. She was glad that Jason had not had +time to procure a new livery, was glad of the old shabbiness of the +room, that its aspect was not yet changed, and that it greeted her with +all its old familiarity, Mr. Wordley would not let her talk until she +had made, at any rate, a pretense of eating; but when they had gone +into the drawing-room, he drew a chair to the fire for her, and said; + +"Now, my dear, I am afraid I shall have to talk business. I shall be +too busy to come over to-morrow." He laughed. "You see I have left all +my other clients' affairs, to come after my stray lamb: I expect I +shall find them in a pretty muddle. Now, my dear, before I go I should +like you to tell me exactly what you would like to do. As I have +explained to you, you are now the mistress of a very large fortune with +which you can do absolutely what you like. Would you like to live here, +or would you like to take a house in London, or go abroad?" + +Ida looked up a little piteously. + +"Oh, not go to London or abroad!" she said. "Can I not live here? If +you knew how I feel--how the sight of the place, the thought that I am +under the old roof again--" + +She looked round the faded, stately room lovingly, wistfully, and Mr. +Wordley nodded sympathetically. + +"Of course you can, my dear," he said. "But equally o' course, you will +now want to restore the old place. There is a great deal to be done, +and I thought that perhaps you would like to go away while the work was +being carried on." + +Ida shook her head. + +"No, I would like to stay, even if I have to live in the kitchen or one +of the garrets. It will be a delight to me to watch the men at work; I +should never grow tired of it." + +"I quite understand, my dear," he said. "I honour you for that feeling. +Well, then, I shall engage an architect of repute, the first in his +profession"--he rubbed his hands with an air of enjoyment--"and he +shall restore the old place, with a respect and reverence. I think I +know the man to employ; and we will start at once, so that no time may +be lost, I want to see you settled in your proper position here. The +thought of it gives me a new lease of life! Of course, you will want a +proper establishment; more servants both in the house and out of it; +you will want carriages and horses; both the lodges must be rebuilt, +and the old avenue opened out and put in order. Heron Hall was one of +the finest places in the county and it shall be so again." + +"And Jessie shall be the housekeeper and Jason the butler," said Ida, +with a laugh of almost child-like enjoyment. "Oh, it all seems like a +dream; and I feel that at any moment I may wake and find myself at +Laburnum Villa. And, oh, Mr. Wordley, I shall want some more money at +once. I want to send the Herons a present, a really nice present that +will help them, I hope, to forget the trouble I caused them. Poor +people! it was not their fault; they did not understand." Mr. Wordley +snorted. + +"There is one topic of conversation, my dear Miss Ida, I shall be +compelled to bar," he said. "I never want to hear Mr. John Heron's name +again. As to sending them a present, you can, of course, send them +anything you like, to the half of your kingdom; though, if you ask me +whether they deserve it--" + +"I didn't ask you," said Ida, with a laugh, putting her hand on his +arm. "If we all got our deserts, how sad it would be for everyone of +us." + +Mr. Wordley grunted. + +"To-morrow I shall pay a sum of money into the bank for you, and you +will have to drive over and get a cheque-book; and you can amuse +yourself by drawing cheques until I come again." + +He lingered as long as he could, and kept the carriage waiting some +time; but at last he went and Ida was left alone to face the strange +change in her fortune. She sat before the fire dreaming for a few +minutes, then she wandered over the old house from room to room; and +every room had its memories and associations for her. In the library +she could almost fancy that her father was sitting in the high-backed +chair which was still drawn up in its place to the table; and she went +and sat in it and touched with reverent, loving hand the books and +papers over which he had been wont to bend. She stood before his +portrait and gazed at it with tear-dimmed eyes, and only the +consciousness of the love she had borne him enabled her to bear his +absence. As she passed through the hall the newly risen moon was +pouring in through the tall window, and, followed by Donald and Bess, +who had not left her for a moment, she opened the great hall door and +went on to the terrace, and walking to the end, stood and looked +towards the ruined chapel in which her father had buried his treasure. + +Up to this moment she had been buoyed up by excitement and the joy and +pleasure of her return to the old house; but suddenly there fell a +cloud-like depression upon her; she was conscious of an aching void, a +lack of something which robbed her heart of all its joy. She had no +need to ask herself what it was: she knew too well. Her old home had +come back to her, she was the mistress of a large fortune, she stood, +as it were, bathed in the sunshine of prosperity; but her heart fell +cold and dead, and the sunshine, bright as it was, well-nigh dazzling, +indeed, had no warmth in it. She was a great heiress now, would no +doubt soon be surrounded by friends. She had been poor and well-nigh +friendless that day Stafford had taken her in his arms and kissed her +for the first time; but, ah, how happy she had been! + +Was it possible, could Fate be so cruel as to decree, that she should +never be happy again, never lose the aching pain which racked her heart +at every thought of him! She put the fear from her with a feeling of +shame and helplessness. She _would_ forget the man who left her for +another woman, would not let thought of him cast a shadow over her life +and dominate it. No doubt by this time he had quite forgotten her, or, +if he remembered her, recalled the past with a feeling of annoyance +with which a man regards a passing flirtation, pleasant enough while it +lasted, but of which he did well to be a little ashamed. + +She would not look in the direction of the trees under which he had +stood on the night of the day she had first seen him; and she went in +with a forced cheerfulness to tell Jessie, listening with wide-open +eyes, of some of the strange things which had happened to her. All the +time she was talking, she was beset by a longing to ask Jessie about +Brae Wood and the Ormes; but she crushed down the idea; and Jessie was +too intent upon hearing the story of her mistress's sojourn in London +to have any breath or inclination to tell any of the dale news. Of +course Ida did not speak of the disagreement at Laburnum Villa, but she +gave Jessie an account of the accident and her experiences of a +hospital ward; at all which Jessie uttered "Ohs" and "Ahs" with bated +breath and gaping month. It was late before Ida got to bed, and later +still before she fell asleep; for, somehow, now that she was back at +Herondale the memory of that happy past grew more vivid; in fact, the +whole place was haunted by the spectre of her lost love: and of all +spectres this is the most sad and heart-possessing. + +She was out on Rupert as early as possible the next morning, and it was +difficult to say which was the more pleased at the reunion, he or his +mistress. And oh, what a delight it was to ride across the moor and +along the valley and by the stream; to see the cattle grazing and to +hear the sheep calling to one another in the old plaintive way! It was +almost difficult to believe that she had ever left Herondale that +Laburnum Villa was anything but a nightmare and the Herons a dismal +unreality. + +Now, for some time, she avoided that part of the road where the opening +of the plantation gave a view of the Villa; but she was drawn towards +it at last, and she leant forward on her horse and looked across the +lake at the great, white place shining in the autumn sunlight. It +seemed very still and quiet, and there was no sign of life about the +place; the lake itself was deserted save by one of the steamers on +which were only a few passengers well wrapped-up against the now keen +air. The appearance of the white, long-stretching place struck her with +a sense of desertion, and desolation, and with a sigh she turned and +rode away. + +That afternoon, as she was coming in from the stable Jessie came +running towards her. + +"Oh, Miss Ida, there's Lord and Lady Bannerdale and Lady Vayne and two +of the young ladies in the drawing-room." + +"Very well," said Ida, quietly; and removing her right-hand gauntlet, +she went straight into the drawing-room. + +In accordance with her father's wish and her own, perhaps mistaken, +pride she had avoided all these people hitherto; but there was no need +to avoid them any longer; she was their equal in birth, and her newly +discovered wealth effectually removed any cause for pride. Lady +Bannerdale, a motherly and good-natured woman, came forward to meet +her, and took her by both hands. + +"My dear, we have come over at once to tell you how glad we are!" she +said. "We heard the good news from Mr. Wordley, and neither I nor my +husband could wait another day before we came to congratulate you." + +Lady Vayne, too, held Ida's hand and looked at her with affectionate +sympathy. + +"And we felt the same, my dear," she said; "so you must not think us +intrusive." + +Ida shook hands with them all and rang for the tea. She was very quiet +and subdued, but the little cold look of surprise with which she had at +one time met their advances was now absent, and they could perceive +that she was glad to see them. + +"Our joy in the good news is not altogether unselfish and +disinterested, my dear Miss Ida," said Lord Bannerdale. "That Heron +Hall should be shut up and deserted, while there is so charming a +mistress to represent the old family, was little short of a general +misfortune. You cannot tell how anxious and concerned we have been +about you--but we will say no more about that. I trust a brighter star +has risen above the old house, and that it is entering upon brighter +fortunes. At any rate, let that be as it may, we want you to believe +how delighted we are to have you back again, and under such happy +auspices." "And we want to say, too, dear," said Lady Bannerdale, while +Lady Vayne nodded assentingly, "that we hope you have really come back +to us, that you will be one of us and let us see a great deal of you. +Of course, under the circumstances," she glanced at Ida's black dress, +"we are debarred from expressing our pleasure in festivity; but we hope +you will come to us quite quietly, and very often, and that you will +let us treat you as one of our own dear girls." + +Ida murmured a suitable response; but though she was by no means +demonstrative they were satisfied; and as they left they expressed that +satisfaction to each other. + +"Oh, yes, she was glad to see us," Lady Bannerdale said; "and I like +her all the better for not meeting us half-way and for refraining from +any gushing. Poor girl! I am afraid she has been very ill, and has felt +her trouble very keenly. She is much thinner, and when she came into +the room there was an expression in her face which touched me and made +my eyes dim." + +"We must look after her," remarked Lady Vayne. "There is something +weird in the idea of her living there all alone; though, of course, her +maid, Jessie, will take care of her." + +Lady Bannerdale smiled. + +"Ida Heron is one of those girls who are quite capable of taking care +of themselves," she said. "How wonderfully calm and self-possessed she +was. Most girls would have been rather upset, or, at any rate, a little +flurried, meeting us all so unexpectedly; but she came into the room +with the perfect unself-consciousness which marks--" + +"The high-bred lady," finished Lord Bannerdale. "I wonder whether we +realise how old a family the Herons is; we are all mushrooms compared +with that slim, little girl, who is now the mistress of Herondale and +an enormous fortune." + +"We shall have to find a husband for her," remarked Lady Vayne, who was +the match-maker of the locality. + +Lord Bannerdale smiled. + +"The trouble would be to get Miss Ida to accept him when you have found +him," he said, shrewdly. "I have an idea she would be difficult to +please; there is a little curl to those pretty lips of hers which is +tolerably significant." + +"Poor girl! There is time enough yet to think of such a thing," said +Lady Bannerdale, reprovingly; but while she sat it, mother-like, she +thought that her son, Edwin, would be home from a long tour in the East +in a week or two; that he was particularly good-looking, and in the +opinion of more persons than his mother, a particularly amiable and +good fellow. + +The next day there were more visitors; they all seemed as genuinely +glad at her return, and they all made as genuine overtures of +friendship. It was evident that Ida need not be alone in the world any +longer, unless she wished to be. On the morning of the third day, as +she was riding to Bryndermere, with some shopping as an excuse, she met +Mr. Wordley; a gentleman was sitting beside him who, Ida guessed, was +the architect. He proved to be no less a personage than the famous Mr. +Hartley. They had pulled up for the introduction close by the opening +on the lake; and while the architect was exchanging greetings with Ida, +his keen eyes wandered now and again to the Villa; and as Ida turned to +ride back with them, he said: + +"That is rather a fine place over there, Miss Heron; rather bizarre and +conspicuous, but striking and rather artistic. New, too: whose is it?" + +"Stephen Orme's place," replied Mr. Wordley, in rather a low voice. + +"Oh," said Mr. Hartley, with a nod which struck Ida as being peculiarly +expressive and significant, though she did not know what it implied. + +The three went all over the old Hall and after lunch the great +architect explained, with the aid of a sheet of paper and a pencil, his +idea of what should be done. + +"There need not be, there should not be, the least addition," he said. +"What you want to do, Miss Heron, is, as Mr. Wordley says, restore: +restore with all reverence. It is a superb piece of architecture of its +kind and it must be touched with a gentle hand. If you are prepared to +leave it all to me, I trust I may be able to make the present building +worthy of its past. It will be a delightful task for me; but I must +tell you frankly that it will cost a very large sum of money; how much +I shall be able to inform you when I have got out my plans and gone +into the estimate; but, at any rate, I can say emphatically that the +place is worth the expenditure. Am I to have _carte blanche_?" + +"Yes," said Ida; "I will leave it entirely in your hands." + +This at least she could do with the money which her father had so +mysteriously made: restore it, the house he had loved so well well, to +its old dignity and grandeur. + +The great architect, very much impressed not only by the Hall but its +beautiful young mistress, left before Mr. Wordley, who wanted to talk +over business with Ida. But he found her rather absent-minded and +preoccupied and presently, in a pause, she said, with forced calmness: + +"Is Sir Stephen Orme still at the Villa at Brae Wood, Mr. Wordley?" + +He had been making some memoranda in his pocket-book and he looked up +with a start and stared at her. + +"Is Sir Stephen--My dear child, don't you know--haven't you heard?" + +"Heard what?" she asked, her face beginning to grow paler, her lips set +tightly. + +"God bless my soul, I'm surprised!" he exclaimed. "I thought everybody +had heard the news. Sir Stephen is not living at the Villa, for a very +grave and all-sufficient reason: he is dead, my dear." + +Ida leant back in her chair and raised a screen which she held in her +hand so that it shielded her face from his gaze. + +"I did not know," she said, in a very low voice. "I had not heard, I +have not seen any papers, or, if I have, only the advertisement part. +Dead!" + +"Yes," said Mr. Wordley; "poor man, he died suddenly, quite suddenly, +in the middle of a grand ball; died of the shock." + +"Shock?" she echoed. + +He looked at her as if he found it hard to realise her ignorance. + +"Yes; the shock of the bad news. Dear me! it seems so strange that you, +a neighbour, so to speak, should not have heard the story of which all +London--one might almost say all England--was talking. Sir Stephen was +a great financier, and had just brought out a great company to work an +important concession in Africa. He was supposed to have made an +enormous sum of money by it; indeed, must have done so; but at the very +moment of his success there came a stroke of bad luck; and the news of +it was brought to him on the night of the ball he was giving in his +splendid town house. The sudden reverse meant absolute ruin, and he +fell dead with the cablegram in his hand. Shocking, was it not?" + +Ida's lips moved, but she could not speak. The whole scene seemed to +rise before her; but, naturally enough, her thoughts were concentrated +upon one figure in it, that of Stafford. + +"Then--then Mr. Stafford Orme is now the baronet, Sir Stafford?" she +said in a scarcely audible voice. "No; he is now Lord Highcliffe. His +father was raised to the peerage on the day he died--one night almost +say the hour he died. That makes it the more unfortunate." + +"Unfortunate? I do not understand. You say he is a peer?" + +"Yes; but a penniless peer; and I can't imagine a more unpleasant and +miserable position than his. His father died absolutely ruined; indeed, +insolvent; though I suppose by his son's act of noble self-sacrifice a +great many of the debts were paid." + +"Tell me--I do not know," said Ida, as steadily as she could. + +"Sir Stephen settled a very large sum of money upon the young man; but +he refused to take advantage of it, and made over the whole sum, every +penny of it, to the creditors; and left himself, I am told, absolutely +penniless. Not that it mattered very much; because he is engaged to a +Miss Falconer, who father is, I believe, a millionaire." + +The colour rose to Ida's face, the hand which held the screen shook. + +"And they--they are going to be married soon?" asked she. + +"I don't know, I suppose not," replied Mr. Wordley, as he bent over his +memoranda again; "Lord Highcliffe has disappeared, left England. No one +seems to quite know where he has gone. It was a terrible collapse, and +a tragic end, the great Sir Stephen's; but men of his trade always have +to run such risks. By the way, I suppose the Villa will have to be +sold." + +"Sold?" echoed Ida. "I would like to buy it." + +She spoke on the impulse of the moment; but Mr. Wordley did not seem at +all surprised, and only smiled as he responded: + + +"I know no reason why you should not, my dear Miss Ida. I am not sure +that it would be a good investment; but if you've a fancy for it, I +will enquire into the matter. Yes; certainly you can buy if you want to +do so." + +Long after he had gone Ida sat, leaning forward in her chair and gazing +at the fire. Stafford was now Lord Highcliffe, a peer, but poor and a +wanderer. She started: was it really he whom she had seen on the cattle +steamer? Then they had been near each other, had looked into each +other's eyes! Perhaps she would never seem him again--but, ah, yes! it +was quite probable she would, for was he not engaged to the wealthy +Miss Falconer, and would he not come back to marry her? The following +evening she received a short note from Mr. Wordley: it informed her +that the Villa was not for sale. It had been purchased by Mr. Falconer +for his daughter. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + + +Within a few days she received invitations from the Bannerdales and +Vaynes and the other county families, who were evidently possessed by +the kind determination that she should become one of them. The dinner +at Bannerdale Grange was quite _en famille_; she was made a great deal +of; and if she had given them the least encouragement they would +actually have petted her; but though Ida had lost something of her old +pride and _hauteur_, caused by her isolation, she was still somewhat +reserved, and, grateful as she was for their overtures of affection, +she could not respond as fully as she would have liked. It was the same +with the Vaynes and Avorys; they were all more than kind to her, and +she longed to receive their attention with open arms; but she could +not: the fact was, her wounded heart was so tender that it shrank even +from the gentlest touch. + +"The girl is all right," remarked Lord Bannerdale. "She has been in +great trouble and it has hurt her very badly; and though she seems +rather cold and reserved, she is more sensitive than most women: you +must give her time." + +Ida had resolved that though she could not altogether forget the great +sorrow of her life, she would not brood over it. She knew that for her +complaint there was nothing worse than idleness; and she sought +employment for her mind and body with an eagerness that sometimes +became almost feverish. When she was not visiting or receiving visits +from, what might be called her new, friends, she was busy about the +farm and the estate, and took long rides on Rupert accompanied as of +old by the dogs. Very soon, too, Mr. Hartley began at the restoration; +and Ida was deeply interested in the progress of the work. Then, again, +the hunting season commenced, and to the delight of Sir Robert Vayne, +the master, she appeared at the first meet: and, is it necessary to +say? was in at the death. She enjoyed that first run more than she had +enjoyed anything since the fatal morning she had lost both sweetheart +and father; and she was very nearly happy as she rode home with a +crushed hat and a habit splashed with mud. + +A week or two afterwards, Lord Bannerdale gave a hunt breakfast, and +made a point of her being present; and she yielded though she would +have preferred to have joined the meet at the coverts. As she rode up, +Lord Bannerdale came down the steps to meet her; and by his side was a +tall, good-looking young fellow whom Ida rightly guessed, by his +likeness to his father, to be Lord Bannerdale's son. He had returned +from his travels on the preceding night, was in perfect health and +spirits, much tanned by the sun and rain, and seemed to possess his +full share of the amiability of his amiable family. He stood, +bare-headed, at Rupert's head and took Ida's hand to help her to +dismount, and not only walked with her to the house, but contrived to +sit beside her at the breakfast-table. His people had been talking to +him of Ida, he was quite prepared to be impressed, and that he was so +was evident before the meal had concluded. His mother paid particular +attention to Ida, and Lord Bannerdale regarded the young pair +approvingly. + +Lord Edwin rode as straight as Ida herself; it was a magnificent +run--of course, "the best run of the season"--and Lord Edwin, securing +the brush, fastened it to her saddle. Those who saw the act--they were +not many, for the pace had been fast and hard--exchanged significant +glances. Lord Edwin was over at the Hall next day and displayed a keen +interest in the restoration, and bent for some time over the plans +which he had humbly begged Ida to show him. He was a modest young +fellow, with more intelligence and good sense than generally goes with +his age, and Ida liked him. It was inevitable that they should meet +almost every day; it was almost as inevitable that he should fall in +love with her; for she was not only the most beautiful girl in the +county, but there was an element of romance in her loneliness and her +fortunes which naturally appealed to him. + +He went to his father one day and confided in him; but, though Lord and +Lady Bannerdale were more than pleased, they begged him not to be too +sanguine. + +"Sanguine!" he exclaimed, colouring. "I live in a state of mortal fear +and dread; for though I love her more every time I see her, I never +leave her without feeling that my case is hopeless. There is something +about Ida--oh, of course I can't explain!--but I feel as if I could no +more speak to her of love than I could--could jump over this house." + +"And yet she is so gentle and friendly," said Lady Bannerdale to +encourage him. + +The young fellow, wise in his generation, shook his head. + +"That's just it, mother," he said, gravely. "She treats me as if I were +a brother, quite a young brother; and I know that if I were to speak to +her, to let her know how much I love her, it would mean the end of +everything. I should never be able to see her again--and I could not +stand that; for I am only happy when I am with her--and then I am +miserable with the thought of having to leave her." + +"You must be patient, my dear fellow," said Lord Bannerdale. "Ida Heron +is a girl in a million, and she is worth waiting for." + +"Oh, I'll wait," said Lord Edwin; "but sometimes I feel that all the +waiting in the world won't win her," he added, with a sigh. + +One day--it was in the Christmas week which Ida had been prevailed upon +to spend with the Bannerdales--Lord Bannerdale came in at luncheon-time +with some news. + +"I hear the Villa is to be occupied at Christmas," he said. "Mr. +Falconer and his daughter are coming down to-day." + +"Is there to be a house-party?" said Lady Bannerdale. "But I suppose +not. No, there could not be, under the circumstances. Poor girl! Sir +Stephen's death--I never can remember that he was Lord Highcliffe! +--must have been a great grief and shock to her. She and her +father will naturally wish to be quiet; but I suppose we ought to call. +You have never seen her, I think, Ida?" + +"No," said Ida, in the impassive, reticent way in which she always +spoke and looked when on guard. + +"An extremely beautiful woman," said Lady Bannerdale; "but she always +struck me as being a remarkably cold one; though, of course, it may +have only been manner. The present Lord Highcliffe, Sir Stephen's son, +has been away some time now. I suppose he will come back soon, and they +will be married. They will make a very handsome couple. You would like +him, Edwin. I took a great fancy to him on the few occasions I met him; +and I felt deeply sorry for his misfortunes. But there will be no lack +of money when he and Miss Falconer are married, for her father is +immensely rich, I believe. It would be very nice for all of us if Lord +Highcliffe settled at the Villa; and I have an idea that Mr. Falconer +has bought it for them." + +Ida's heart sank, and she seized the first opportunity of getting to +her own room. What hope of forgetfulness could there be for her, what +chance of happiness if Stafford came back to the Villa to live, if she +should be in hourly dread of meeting him? The thought haunted her +though all the quiet Christmas festivities at the Grange; and she was +glad to get back to the Hall, and away from the eyes which watched her, +though they watched her with a friendly and affectionate regard. + +In her daily rides she avoided the opening on the lake side from which +the Villa was visible; and she would sometimes make a long _detour_ +rather than go near the spot. On one occasion, when returning from +Bryndermere, instead of crossing by the ferry she rode round by the +other side of the lake, keeping well away from the Villa, lest she +should meet anyone belonging to it. She had reached the top of the hill +below which wound the road leading to the Hall, and after pausing to +look at the magnificent view, was riding across a field, one of the +outlying fields of her estate, when she saw a lady riding through a +gate at the lower end. The blood rushed to her face and her heart +seemed to stand still for a moment, for she saw that it was Maude +Falconer; then her face grew pale and a wave of bitterness, grew over +her, for she recognised the horse on which Maude was riding: it was +Stafford's Adonis. Her first impulse was to turn aside and leave the +field; but her pride revolted, and she kept her course, looking +straight before her and trying not to see the graceful figure below +her. + +At sight of her, the blood had flown to Maude's face also, and she +tried to check her horse; but Adonis, at any time rather more than she +could well manage, was fresh and too eager to join the other horse, and +he carried her up the field against her will. The two met almost face +to face, the horses exchanging friendly neighs. For a moment, while one +could count twenty, the two rivals sat and looked at each other. Half +unconsciously, Ida noticed the pallor and the worn look of the +beautiful face, the wistful peevishness of the delicately cut lip; then +suddenly Maude's face flushed, her eyes grew hard and scornful, and +with something like a sneer she said, in a metallic tone: + +"I beg your pardon, but are you aware that you are trespassing?" + +A saint would have turned on such provocation; and Ida, being no saint, +felt that her face was as crimson as the other girl's, and grew as hot +of heart as of face. She set her lips tightly and tried to remain +silent: surely it would be better, in every way better, to ride on +without a word. But it was more than she could do: and she drew herself +up and her eyes flashed back the challenge, as she said in a low but +distinct voice: + +"Pardon me, but you are mistaken. The land on which I am riding belongs +to me." Maude grew pale again, and her lips set closely until the line +of red almost disappeared. + +"Is this not, then, part of the Villa estate?" she asked. + +"No; it is part of the Herondale estate," replied Ida, rather more +gently: for was it not horrible that she should be engaged in +altercation with Stafford's future wife? + +"Then I presume I have the honour of speaking to Miss Heron," said +Maude, with an indefinable air, combining contempt and defiance, which +brought the colour to Ida's face again. + +"My name is Ida Heron; yes," she said. + +"Then, if you are making no mistake, it is I who am trespassing," said +Maude, "and it is I who must apologise. Pray consider that I do so most +fully, Miss Heron." + +"No apology is necessary," said Ida, still more gently. "You are quite +welcome to ride over this or any part of Herondale." + +Maude gave a little scornful laugh. + +"Thanks, it's very good of you!" she said, haughtily, and with that +covert offensiveness of which, alas! a woman alone is capable. "I do +not think I shall have any desire to avail myself of your kind +permission; the public roads and the land belonging to my father's +house will, I think, prove quite sufficient for me. I am the daughter +of Mr. Falconer, of the Villa at Brae Wood." + +Ida inclined her head slightly by way of acknowledgment and adieu, and +without another word rode on towards the gate at the bottom of the +field which opened on to the road. Adonis who had been delighted to +meet his old friend, promptly followed; and, though Maude Falconer +tried her hardest to check him and turn him, he, inwardly laughing at +her efforts, trotted cheerfully beside Rupert, and continued their +conversation. Maude was half mad with mortification, and, quite unable +to leave Ida's hated side, she raised her whip and struck Adonis across +the face. The horse, who had never received such a blow before in his +life, stopped dead short, falling back almost on to his haunches, then +reared straight up and in a moment of temper tried to throw her off; +indeed, she must have fallen but Ida, always cool at such moments, +swept sideways, caught Adonis's bridle and brought him on all fours. +Maude was instantly jerked forward on to the horse's neck in a +humiliating fashion, but recovering her seat, sat trembling with +passion. + +It was impossible not to pity her, and Ida in her gentlest and quietest +of voices, said: "I will wait here, will not go through the gate until +your groom comes up. Your horse will be quite quiet then. If I might +venture to say so, I think it would be wise not to strike him across +the head; very few horses can stand it; and this one is high-bred and +exceptionally spirited--" + +She was stopped by Maude's scornful laugh. + +"Really, I ought to feel very much obliged to you, Miss Heron!" she +said; "and my sense of obligation is almost as great as my amazement at +your frankness--and assurance! May I ask you to be good enough to +release my horse's reins?" + +Ida's hand fell from the reins, and her face grew crimson; but before +she could have retorted, even if she had intended doing so, Maude +struck the horse again; it turned and dashed across the field, kicking +and plunging violently, with Maude swaying perilously in the saddle. + +Ida waited until the groom--it was Pottinger--had gained his mistress's +side and got hold of the horse; then, with no thought of bravado but +simply with the desire to get away from the spot, she put Rupert at the +gate and leapt into the road. + + + + +CHAPTER XL. + + +Ida rode home all quivering with the pain of her meeting with Maude +Falconer. At first it seemed to her that she must leave Herondale--for +a time, at any rate; that it would be impossible for her to run the +risk of meeting the beautiful woman who had stolen Stafford from her; +but, as she grew calmer, her pride came to her aid, and she saw that to +run away would be cowardly. Herondale was her home, had been her home +long before the Villa had sprung up, and to desert it because of the +proximity of Maude Falconer would be almost as bad as if a soldier +should desert his colors. + +But for the next few days she did not leave her own grounds. She grew +pale and listless, and Lady Bannerdale, when she came to look her up, +noticed the change in her, but was too tactful to make any remark upon +it. + +"We have missed you so much, my dear," she said, affectionately. +"Indeed, my husband has been quite fidgety and irritable--so unlike +him!--and Edwin has been worse, if it were possible. Men are a great +trouble, my dear Ida. Though perhaps I ought not to say that of mine, +for I count myself lucky in both husband and son. Edwin has scarcely +given me a day's trouble since he was a child. I really think, if I +were asked what are the best gifts bestowed by the fairy godmother, I +should say 'a good digestion and a temper to match,' and I am quite +proud of Edwin's strength and amiability. But even he has been somewhat +of a trial for the last few days; so, my dear girl, do come over and +help me manage them." + +Ida smiled rather absently, and her ladyship glided smoothly from the +subject. + +"Since we last saw you we have called at the Villa," she said, "and we +were fortunate enough to find Miss Falconer at home. She is alone there +in that huge palace of a place, for her father has gone back to London; +and, though I was never very much taken with her, I could not help +pitying her." + +"Why?" asked Ida, not absently now, but in her quiet, reserved manner. + +"She looks so--well, actually so unhappy," replied Lady Bannerdale. +"She was in mourning, and her face--she is really an extremely +beautiful girl!--was like marble. And her reception of me was almost as +cold. I am afraid that she has had more trouble than we are aware of, +there was such a preoccupied and indifferent air about her. It occurred +to me that she was fretting for her absent _fiance_, Mr. Stafford--oh, +dear me! I shall never remember to call him Lord Highcliffe!--and I +resolved to carefully refrain from mentioning him; but you know how +stupid one is in such a case, how one always talks about lameness in +the presence of a man with one leg; and in the midst of a pause in the +conversation, which, by the way, was nearly all on my side, I blurted +out with: 'Have you heard from Mr. Stafford Orme lately, Miss +Falconer?' 'I suppose you mean Lord Highcliffe, Lady Bannerdale?' she +said, turning her cold, blue eyes on my scarlet face. 'He is in +Australia, and is well. I do not hear very often from him. He is +leading a very busy life, and has little time for letter-writing, I +imagine.' Of course I got myself away as soon as I could after that, +and I'm afraid I left a very bad impression upon Miss Falconer." + +Ida said nothing, but leant forward and stirred the fire, which may +have caused the colour which glowed for a moment or two on her face. + +"I am sure I don't know why the young man should have rushed off to the +other end of the world: or why he doesn't rush back again and marry the +lady of his heart, who has enough money for both of them, and would +make an extremely handsome and stately countess. By the way, have you +ever seen the present Lord Highcliffe, my dear?" "Yes, I have seen +him," Ida replied in the tone which closes a subject of conversation. +"Shall I give you some more tea? No? Would you like to see how the +workmen are getting on? I think they are working very quickly. They +will want this part of the house presently, and I have an idea of going +away for a time; perhaps abroad," she added, though she had put the +idea away from her until this moment, and it was only Lady Bannerdale's +talk of Maude Falconer which started it again in her mind. + +Lady Bannerdale, looked alarmed. + +"Oh, don't do that, my dear!" she said. "If you are obliged to turn out +of the house, why not come to us? It would be so kind and sweet of +you." + +Ida sighed a little wearily. + +"Oh, I don't suppose they will insist upon ejecting me," she said. "I +think I can persuade them to leave me two or three rooms." + +Lady Bannerdale went home and dropped her bomb-shell in the presence of +Lord Bannerdale and Edwin. + +"Ida rather thinks of going abroad," she said in a casual way at the +dinner table. + +Lord Edwin was raising his wine glass to his lips, but arrested it +half-way and set it down again; and his handsome face grew long and +grave. + +"Oh! We shall miss her," remarked Lord Bannerdale, lamely, and avoiding +looking in his son's direction. + +Not another word was said; but the next day Lord Edwin came into Lady +Bannerdale's room with that affectation of ease and indifference which +never yet deceived a mother. + +"I'm going to call on Miss Heron, mother," he said. "Any message?" + +Lady Bannerdale looked at him, her brow wrinkled with motherly anxiety. +There was nothing in the world she desired more than his happiness; and +she knew that the marriage with Ida would be in every way desirable: +the girl was one in a thousand, the Bannerdale estates almost joined +Herondale; both she and her husband were fond of Ida, who, they knew, +would prove a worthy successor to the present mistress of the Grange; +but just because it seemed so desirable and Lord Edwin's heart was so +passionately set upon it, the mother was anxious. She saw that he was +dressed with extreme care, and that his face was unusually grave. + +"You will give Ida my love, Edwin, please, and tell her--" She turned +away that he might not see her anxiety. "That is all; but it means a +great deal, as you know, Edwin. I--I wish you every happiness, my dear +boy!" + +"Thank you, mother," he said, by no means in an unmanly way. "My +happiness or unhappiness rests with her." + +When he arrived at the Hall, Ida was just going out for a ride. She +turned back with him to the drawing-room, thinking that he had brought +a message from his mother, probably a definite invitation to stay at +the Grange, and in her mind she had already decided to decline it. As +he happened to stand with his back to the window the gravity of his +face did not enlighten her; and with something like a start she +received his first words. + +"Miss Heron, my mother says that you have some thought of leaving +Herondale, of going abroad. If that is so, I cannot let you go +without--without my speaking to you; so I have come over this afternoon +to tell you, as well as I can, what I have on my mind and my heart. I'm +not very good at expressing myself, and I'm handicapped in the present +instance by--by the depth of my feeling. Of course I'm trying to tell +you that I love you. I thought you might have seen it," he said, with a +touch of wonder at her start and flush of surprise. "But I see you have +not noticed it. I love you very much indeed; and I feel that my only +chance of happiness lies in my winning you for my wife. I don't know +there's any more to be said than that, if I were to talk for a month. I +love you, and have loved you for a long time past." A few weeks, a few +months are "a long time" to youth when it is in love! "The very first +day I saw you--but I needn't tell you that, only I like you to know +that it isn't a sudden fancy, and one that I shall get over in a hurry. +I don't feel as though I shall ever get over it at all; I don't know +that I want to. Please don't speak for a moment. There was something +else I wanted to say. I'd got it all arranged as I came along, but the +sight of you has scattered it." + +Ida had been going to speak, to stop him; but at this appeal she +remained silent, standing with her hands closing and unclosing on her +whip, her eyes fixed on the ground, her brows drawn straight. The +coldest woman cannot listen unmoved to a declaration of love, and Ida +was anything but cold. + +"I only wanted to tell you," he went on, "that my people are very +anxious that you should say 'yes.' Both my father and mother are very +fond of you--I think you know that and--" he stammered a little here +for the first time--"and--well, there are the estates. You won't mind +my saying that both you and I have to think of them; they belong to us +and we belong to them, and--if we were married--But I don't lay much +stress upon the estates being so close. I'd come and ask you to marry +me if I were as poor as a church mouse or you hadn't a penny. It just +comes to this: that I love you with all my heart and soul, that if +you'll marry me I shall be the happiest man, and my people the proudest +people, in England." + +There was a warm flush on his handsome face, an eager look in his +bright eyes, and he had pleaded his cause very well, in an outspoken, +manly way, which never fails to appeal to a woman. Ida was moved; the +crop nearly snapped in her hands, and her eyes grew moist. He saw it, +and tried to take her hand, but she, though she did not move, shook her +head very gently but very resolutely. + +"No," she said, in a low voice, "I--I want to tell you, Lord Edwin, how +proud I am at the honour you have paid me. Like yourself, I am not good +at expressing my feelings--though, indeed, I think you have done +yourself an injustice: you have spoken, told me very well--and I am +very grateful. I wish I could say 'yes.'" + +"Ah, say it!" he implored her, eagerly. + +She shook her head again, and lifting her eyes and looking at him +straightly but sadly, she said in a still lower voice: + +"Lord Edwin, I do not love you." + +"I never said, thought, you did," he responded, promptly. "Why, you've +only known me such a short time, and I'm not such a conceited bounder +to think that you've fallen in love with me already. I only want you to +let me try and win your love; and--I think I shall do so," he said in a +modest but manly way, which would at once have won Ida's heart--if it +had not been won already. "If you will only give me some hope, just +tell me that I've a chance, that you'll let me, try--" + +Ida smiled a sad little smile. + +"If I said as much as that--But I cannot. Lord Edwin, you--you have +told me that you love me, and it would not be fair--ah, please don't +try to persuade me! Don't you see how terrible it would be if I were to +let you think that I might come to care for you, and I did not do so." + +"For God's sake, don't say 'no,'" broke from him, and his face paled +under the tan. + +She turned away from him, her eyes full of tears which she dared not +let him see. + +"I--I must have time," she said, almost desperately. "Will you give me +a day, two days?" she asked, quite humbly. "I want to do what you want, +but--I want to think: there is something I should have to tell you." + +He flushed to the roots of his hair. + +"If it's anything that's happened in the past, anyone else--of course, +loving you as I do, I have seen that there has been something on your +mind, some trouble besides your father's death--but if it is past, I +don't mind. I know I can teach you to forget it, whatever it is. Ida, +trust yourself to me." + +She drew away from him. + +"Give me two days," she said, with a catch in her breath. + +He caught at the hope, small though it was. + +"I will give you two days, twenty if you like," he said. "Only, while +you are thinking it over, remember I love you with all my heart and +soul, that my people will love you as a daughter, that--Oh, I won't say +any more: I can't trust myself! I'll go now." + +When he had gone Ida got on Rupert and rode to the top of the hill. +There she pulled up and thought with all her heart and mind. She could +not doubt his love; she could not but feel that if she surrendered +herself to him he would, indeed, in time teach her to forget. She knew +that it was her duty to marry; his word about the estates had not been +spoken in vain. Yes; if she became Lord Edwin's wife, she would in time +forget. But, alas! she did not want to forget. + +Her love for Stafford was still as strong as ever, and with its +bitterness was mingled a sweetness which was sweeter than life itself. +And yet how great a sin it was, how shameful a one, that she should +love a man who was pledged to another woman, who was going to marry +her! + +She came in late for dinner, and could scarcely eat. Her reason said +"yes," her heart said "no:" and she knew that she ought to listen to +her reason and turn a deaf ear to the still voice in her heart. She +paced up and down the drawing-room, pale and wan with the fight that +was going on within her. Then suddenly she resolved that she would +accept him. She would not keep him in suspense: it would not be +fair--it would be a cruel requital of his love and generosity. She went +to the writing-table, and hurriedly, as if she were afraid of +hesitating, she drew a sheet of paper towards her and wrote: + +"Dear Lord Edwin--" She had got thus far when Donald and Bess, who had +been lying beside the fire, sprang up and ran to the door barking +loudly. She laid down the pen and opened the door mechanically; the +moonlight was streaming through the window in the hall; the dogs +bounded to the front door still barking vociferously. Still, +mechanically, she let them out, and they rushed across the terrace and +over the lawn to the group of trees beside the footpath. Thinking that +they heard Jessie, whom she had sent to Bryndermere, Ida, +half-unconsciously glad of the interruption, followed them slowly +across the lawn. + +Their barking ceased suddenly, and convinced that it was Jessie, she +went on to add something to her message. Then, suddenly, she saw a tall +figure standing in the shadow of the trees. It was a man, and Donald +and Bess were jumping up at him with little whines of pleasure. Smitten +by a sudden fear she stopped; but the man raised his head and saw her, +and, with an exclamation, strode towards her. For an instant she +thought that she was dreaming, that her imagination was playing her +false, for it was Stafford's form and face. They stood and gazed at +each other; her brain felt dizzy, her pale face grew paler; she knew +that she was trembling, that she could scarcely stand; she began to +sway to and fro slightly, and he caught her in his arms. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI. + + +She did not resist, but resigned herself to his embrace, as if he still +had the right to take her in his arms, as if she still belonged to him. +She had been under a great, an indescribable strain for several hours, +and his sudden presence, the look in his eyes, the touch of his hands, +deprived her of the power of thought, of resistance. To her and to him, +at that moment, it was as if they had not been parted, as if the events +of the last few months were only visionary. + +With surrender in every fibre of her being she lay in his arms, her +head upon his breast, her eyes closed, her heart throbbing wildly under +the kisses which he pressed passionately upon her lips, her hair; the +while he called upon her name, as if his lips hungered to pronounce it. + +"Stafford!" she said, at last. "It is really you! When--" Her voice +died away, as if she were speaking in a dream, and her eyes closed with +a little shudder of perfect joy and rest. + +"Yes, it's I!" he responded, in a voice almost as low as hers, a voice +that trembled with the intensity of his passion, his joy in having her +in his arms again. "Last night I came down by the first train--I waited +at the station for it--I came straight from the docks." She drew a +happy sigh. + +"So soon? And you came straight here? When I saw you just now, I +thought it was a vision: if the dogs had not been here--I remembered +that dogs do not see ghosts. Oh, Stafford, it is so long, so very long +since I have seen you, so sad and dreary a time! Tell me--ah, tell me +everything! Where you have been. But I know! Stafford, did you know +that I saw you the day you sailed?" she shuddered faintly. "I thought +that was a vision, too, that it was my fancy: it would not have been +the first time I had fancied I had seen you." He drew her to the bank, +and sinking on it held her in his arms, almost like a child. + +"You saw me! You--there in London! And yet I can understand. Dearest, I +did not hear of your trouble until a few weeks ago. But I must tell +you--" + +"Yes, tell me. I long to hear! Think, Stafford! I have not heard of +you--I saw you at the concert in London one night--" + +He started and held her more tightly. + +--"I looked round and saw you; and when you turned and looked up +towards me, it seemed as if you must have seen me. But tell me! Oh, I +want to hear everything!" + +The spell wrought by the joy of his presence still held her reason, her +memory, in thrall; one thought, one fact, dominated all others: the +fact that he was here, that she was in his arms, with her head on his +breast as of old. + +And the spell was on him as strongly; how could he remember the past +and the barrier he had erected between them? + +"I went to Australia, Ida," he said in a low voice, every note of which +was pitched to love's harmony: it soothed while it rejoiced her. "I met +a man in London, a farmer, who offered to take me out with him. You saw +me start, you say? How strange, how wonderful! And I, yes, I saw you, +but I could not believe my senses! How could it be my beautiful, dainty +Ida, the mistress of Herondale, standing on the dirty, squalid quay! I +went with him and worked with him on his cattle-run. Do you remember +how you taught me to count the sheep, Ida? God, how often when I was +riding through solitary wastes I have recalled those hours, every look +of your dear eyes, every curve of those sweet lips--hold them up to me, +dearest!--every tone of your voice, the low, musical voice the memory +of which had power to set every nerve tingling with longing and +despair. The work was hard, it seemed unceasing, but I was glad of it; +for sometimes I was too weary to think; too weary even to dream of you. +And it was sad business dreaming of you, Ida; for, you see, there was +the waking!" + +"Do I not know!" she murmured, with something like a sob, and her hand +closed on his shoulder. + +"My employer was a pleasant, genial man, my fellow-labourers were good +fellows; I could have been happy, or, at least, contented with the +life, hard as it was, if I could but have forgotten; if I could even +for a day have lost the awful hunger and thirst for you; if I could +have got you out of my mind, the memory of you out of my heart--but I +could not!" + +He paused, looking straight before him; and gazing up at him, she saw +his face drawn and haggard, as if he still thought himself separated +from her. Then, as if he remembered, he looked down at her and caught +her to him with a sudden violence that almost hurt her. + +"But I could not; you haunted me, dearest, all day and all night! +Sometimes, when the men were singing round the camp fire, singing and +laughing, the sense of my loss would come crushing down upon me, and +I'd spring to my feet and wander out into the starlit silence of the +vast plains and spend the night thinking of all that had passed between +us. At other times, a kind of madness would catch hold of me, and I'd +join the wildest of the gangs, and laugh and sing and drink with the +maddest of the lot." + +She drew a long breath of comprehension and pity, and hid her eyes on +his breast. He bent and kissed her, murmuring penitently: + +"I'm not fit to kiss you, Ida. I did not mean to tell you, but--but, I +can't keep anything from you, even though it will go against me. One +night the drinking led to fighting and I stood up to a son of Anak, a +giant of a fellow; and we fought until both of us were knocked out; but +I remember him going down first, just before I fell, I went from bad to +worse. The owner of the run--it was called Salisbury Plain--spoke a +word of warning, and I tried to pull up, tried to take to the work +again, and forget myself in it; but--ah, well, dearest, thank God you +would not understand that you cannot know what a man is like when he is +at odds with fate, and is bed-fellow with despair!" + +"Do I not!" she murmured again, with the fullest understanding and +compassion. "Do you think he is worse than a woman. On, Stafford, there +have been times, black times, when I learned to know why some women fly +to drink to drown their misery: and our misery is as keen, yes, keener +than yours. For we are so helpless, so shackled; we have nothing else +to do but think, think, think! Go on, dearest! I seem to see you +there!" + +"Thank God! you could not!" he said, huskily. "The black fit passed for +a time, and I settled down to work again. One day there was an attack +upon the farm by the blacks, as they are called. I was fortunately at +home, and we managed to beat them off and save the stock. It was a +valuable one and my employer, thinking too highly of my services, made +me a present of half the value. It was a generous gift, a lavish one, +and altogether uncalled for--" + +"Oh, Stafford, do you think I don't know that you risked your life, as +plainly as if I had been told, as if I had been there!" she said, her +eyes glowing, her breath coming faster. + +Stafford coloured and turned away from the subject. + +"It was a large sum, and Mr. Joffler--that is the name of the owner of +Salisbury Plain--advised me to invest it in a run of my own: there was +enough to buy a large and important one. I went down to Melbourne to +see the agents, and--is there no such thing as fate, or chance, Ida! +Indeed there is!--as I was walking down one of the streets, I heard my +name spoken. I turned and saw the stableman from the Woodman Inn, Mr. +Groves's man--" + +"Henry," murmured Ida, enviously: for had he not met her lover! + +"Yes. He was surprised, but I think glad, to see me; and we went to a +hotel and talked. For some time I couldn't bring myself to speak your +name: you see, dearest, it had lived in my heart so long, and I had +only whispered it to the stars, and in the solitary places, that I--I +shrank from uttering it aloud," he explained with masculine simplicity. + +Ida's eyes filled with tears and she nestled closer to him. + +"At last I asked after the people, and nervously mentioned the Hall +and--and 'Miss Ida.' Then the man told me." + +His voice grew lower and he laid his hand on her head and stroked her +hair soothingly, pityingly. + +"He told me that your father was dead, had died suddenly, and worse--for +it was worse to me dearest--that you had been left poor, and well-nigh +penniless." + +She sighed, but as one who sighs, looking back at a sorrow which has +passed long ago and is swallowed up in present joy. + +"I asked him where you were, and when he told me that you had left the +Hall, and that it was said you--you were working for a livelihood, that +you were in poverty, I--dearest, I felt as if I should go mad. Think of +it! There was I, all those thousands of miles away, with all that money +in my possession, and you, the queen of my heart, the girl I loved +better than life itself, in poverty and perhaps wanting a friend!" He +was silent a moment, and Ida felt him shudder as if he were again +tasting the bitterness of that moment. + +"When I had taken my passage," he went on, succinctly, "I sent Henry up +to the run to fill my place, and with him a letter to explain my sudden +departure; and the next day, Heaven being kind to me--I should have +gone out of my mind if I had had to wait--we sailed. I stood at the +bow, with my face turned towards England, and counted the days before I +could get there and begin my search for you." + +"And you came here, Stafford, first?" she said, to lead him on: for +what an unspeakable bliss it was to listen to him! + +"Yes; I knew that I should hear some tidings of you here. There would +be a lawyer, a steward, who would know. I little thought, hoped, to see +you yourself, Ida. I came from the station to-night to look at the old +place, to walk where we had walked, to stand where we had stood. I +stopped under the trees here and looked at the house, at the terrace +where I had seen you, watched for you. I could see that men had been at +work, and I thought that you had sold the place, that the new people +were altering it, and I cursed them in my heart; for every stone of it +is sacred to me. And then, as I stood looking, and asking myself where +you were, the dogs came. Even then it did not occur to me that you were +still here--at the Hall--and when I saw you--" + +He stopped, and laughed shortly, as a man does when his emotion is +almost too much for him. + +"I'd made up my mind what to write to you; but, you see, I'd had no +thought, no hope, of seeing you; and now--ah, well, it's hard to think +of anything, with you in my arms! But see here, Ida, there isn't any +need to say anything, is there? You'll come back with me to that new +world--" + +What was it, what word in the tender, loving speech that, like a breath +of wind sweeping away a mountain mist, cleared the mist from her mind, +woke her from her strange, dream-like condition, recalled the past, +and, alas! and alas! the present! + +With a low cry, a cry of anguish--one has heard it from the lips of a +sufferer waking from the anodyne of sleep to fresh pain--she tore +herself from his arms, and with both hands to her head, stood regarding +him, her face white, something like terror in her eyes. + +"Ida!" he cried, rising and stretching out his hands to her. + +She shrank back, putting out her hand as if to keep him off. + +"Don't--don't come near me! Oh, how could I have forgotten!--how could +I! I must have been mad!" + +She wrung her hands and bit her lips as if she were tortured by the +shame of it. His arms fell to his sides, and he stood and looked at her +with his teeth set. + +"Ida, listen to me! I--I, too--had forgotten. It--it was the delight of +seeing you. But, dearest, what does the past matter? It _is_ past, I +have come back to you." + +She turned to him with suppressed passion. + +"Why did you leave me?" came painfully from her white lips. + +His face grew red and his eyes fell before hers for a moment. At times +his sacrifice of her to his father's need had seemed not only +inexcusable, but shameful; the shame of it now weighed upon him. + +"Ida, for God's sake listen to me!" for, as he had hesitated, she had +turned from him with a gesture of repudiation. "Listen to me! There was +nothing else for me to do; fate left me no alternative. My father--Ida, +how can I tell you!--my father's good name, his reputation, were in my +hands. He had done so much for me--everything! There has never been a +father like him: my happiness stood between him and ruin--ah, not mine +alone, but yours--and I sacrificed them! If you knew all you would +forgive me the wrong I did, great as it was. I think now, if the time +were to come over again, that--yes, I should have to do it!" he broke +out. "I could not have stood by and seen-him ruined and disgraced +without stretching out my hand to save him." + +"It was for your father's sake?" she said, almost inaudibly. + +"Yes," he responded, grimly. "And it saved him--saved his good name, at +any rate. The rest went--you have heard?" + +She made a gesture of assent. He drew a long breath, and held out his +hand to her. + +"Can you not forgive me, Ida? If you knew what the sacrifice cost me, +how much I have suffered. See here, dearest"--he drew still closer to +her--"let the past go. It shall, I swear! There is a limit to a man's +endurance, and I have passed it. I love you, Ida, I want you! Come back +with me and let us live for each other, live for love. Dearest, I will +teach you to forget the wrong I did you. It's very little I have to +offer you, a share in the hard life of a farmer out there in the wilds; +but if you were still the mistress of Herondale, instead of poor--" + +Half unconsciously she broke in upon his prayer. + +"I am still--what I was. I am not poor. My father was a rich man when +he died." + +Stafford regarded her with surprise, then he moved his hand, as if he +were waving away the suggestion of an obstacle. + +"I am glad--for your sake, dearest; though for my own I would almost +rather that you were as poor as I thought you; that I might work for +you. Why do you stand and look at me so hopelessly. What else is there +to divide us, dearest?" + +Her lips opened, and almost inaudibly she breathed: + +"Your honour." + +He winced and set his teeth hard. + +"My honour!" + +"Yes. You have pledged your word, you have made your bargain--the price +was paid, I suppose; you say so. Then in honour you belong to--_her_." + +The colour flamed in his face and his eyes grew hot. + +"You cast me off--you drive me back to her!" he said, scarcely knowing +what he said. + +"Yes!" she responded, faintly. "You belong to her--to her only. Not to +me, ah, not to me! No, no, do not come near me, do not touch me! I had +forgotten--I was mad!--but I have remembered, I am sane now." + +Driven almost beyond himself by the sudden revulsion from joy and hope +to doubt and despair, racked by the swift stemming of his passion, +Stafford's unreasoning anger rose against her: it is always so with the +man. + +"My God! You send me away--to her! You--you do it coolly, easily +enough! Perhaps you have some other reason--someone has stepped into my +place--" + +It was a cruel thing to say, even in his madness. For a moment she +cowered under it, then she raised her white face and looked straight +into his eyes. + +"And if there has, can you blame me? You cast me aside--you sacrificed +me to your father's honour. You had done with me," her voice vibrated +with the bitterness which had been her portion for so many dreary +months. "Was the world, my life, to cease from that time forth? For you +there was--someone else, wealth, rank--for me was there to be nothing, +no consolation, no part or lot in life! Yes, there _is_ one--one who is +both good and noble, and--" + +She broke down and covering her face with her hands turned away. +Stafford stood as if turned to stone; as if he had lost the sense of +sight and hearing. Silence reigned between them; the dogs who had been +sitting watching them, rose and shivering, whined complainingly, as if +they were asking what was amiss. + +It was the woman--as always--who first relented and was moved to pity. +She moved to the motionless figure and touched him on the arm. + +"Forgive me! I--I did not mean to wound you; but--but you drove me too +hard! But--but it is true. We cannot undo the past. It is _there_, as +solid, as unmovable, as that mountain: _and it is between us_, a wall, +a barrier of stone. Nothing can remove it. You--you will remember your +honour, Stafford?" Her voice quavered for a moment but she steadied it. +"You--you will not lose that, though all else be lost? You will go to +her?" + +He looked at her, his breath coming thick and painfully. + +"My God! you--you are hard--" he broke out at last. + +"I--am just! Oh, my dearest, my dearest!" She took his hand and laid it +against her cheek, her lips. "Don't you see how much it costs me to +send you away? But I must! I must! Go--oh, go now! I--I cannot bear +much more!" + +His hand--it shook--fell softly, tenderly on her head. + +"God forgive me for the wrong I have wrought you, the tears I have +caused you!" he said, hoarsely. "Yes, I daresay you're right, and--and +I'll go! Let me see you go back to the house--One kiss, the last, the +last! Oh, Ida, Ida, life of my life, soul of my soul!" + +He caught her to him, and she lay in his arms for a moment, her lips +clung to his in one long kiss, then she tore herself away from him and +fled to the house. + +Stafford went on to The Woodman, where Mr. Groves was surprised, and, +it need scarcely be said, overjoyed to see him. To him, the young man +was still "Mr. Stafford," and he eyed him with an amazed and respectful +admiration; for though Stafford had never been a weakling, he had grown +so hard and muscular and altogether "fit" that Mr. Groves could not +refrain from expressing his approval. + +"Ah, there is nothing like roughing it, Mr. Stafford, sir," he said. "I +can tell in a minute when a man's 'hard' right through, and been doing +square and honest work. It seems strange to us commoner people that you +gentle folks should be so fond of going through all sorts of hardships +and perils just for the fun of it; but, after all, it's not to be +wondered at, for that's the kind of spirit that has helped Englishmen +to make England what it is. But you're looking a little pale and worn +to-night, sir. I've no doubt it's the want of dinner. If I'd known +you'd been coming--but you know I'll do my best, sir." + +He did his best, and Stafford tried to do justice to it; but it was +almost impossible to eat. And he checked the almost overmastering +desire to drink. + +Ida had been right. He knew it, though the thought did not help to +allay his bitterness. She had spoken the truth: he was still pledged to +Maude. Mr. Falconer had paid the price demanded, and it was not his +fault if it had failed to save Sir Stephen from ruin; the sacrifice +Stafford had made had, at any rate, saved his father's good name from +shame and reproach. Maude's father had performed his part of the +bargain; Stafford had still to perform his. Ida was right; she had +pointed out to him his duty, and if there was a spark of manliness left +in him, he must do it. + +He sat over the fire, close over it, as he had done in the backwoods +many a night, smoking the old brier pipe that had cheered him in his +hours of solitary watching, and thinking with a grim bitterness that it +would have been better for him if he had been knocked on the head the +night of the raid at Salisbury Plain. To be married to one woman, while +he loved another with all his heart and soul: it was a cruel fate. But, +cruel as it was, he had to bend to it. He would go straight to London +and find Maude, redeem his promise, and save his honour. + +Mr. Groves came into the room with a bottle of the port, and Stafford +forced himself to show an interest in it and drink a glass or two. + +"I suppose you'll be going up to the Villa to-morrow, sir?--I beg your +pardon, I mean my lord; and I must apologise for not calling you so." + +"Not 'my lord,'" said Stafford. "I have never used the title, Groves. +Go up to the Villa? Why should I?" he asked, wearily. "It is closed, +isn't it?" + +Mr. Groves looked at him with surprise. + +"No, sir. Didn't you know? Mr. Falconer bought it; and he and Miss +Falconer have been staying there. She is there now." + +Stafford turned away. Chance was making his hard road straight. After a +sleepless night, worse even than some of the worst he had spent in +Australia, and after a pretence at breakfast, he went slowly up to the +Villa. Last night, as he had held Ida in his arms, something of the old +brightness had come back to his face, the old light to his eyes; but he +looked haggard and wan now, like a man who had barely recovered from a +long and trying illness. He turned on the slope of the terrace and +looked down at the lake, lying dark and sullen under a cloudy sky; and +it seemed to him typical of his own life, of his own future, in which +there seemed not a streak of light. A servant came to meet him. "Yes," +he said, "Miss Falconer is in." She was in the morning-room, he +thought. Stafford followed him; the man opened the door, and Stafford +entered. + +Maude was seated at a table writing. She did not turn her head, and he +stood looking at her and seeing the record the weary months had left +upon her face; and, even in his own misery, he felt some pity for her. + +"Maude!" he said in a low voice. + +She did not move for a moment, but looked straight before her +wistfully, as if she could not trust her ears; then she turned and came +towards him, with something like fear on her face. The fear broke up, +as it were, and, stretching out her arms, she spoke his name--the +accents of love fighting with those of doubt and a joy that dreaded its +own greatness. + +"Stafford! It is you!" + +She pressed her hands to her heart for a moment, then she fell into his +arm, half fainting. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII. + + +"Yes, my father bought the place," said Maude. "I asked him to do so, +and he consented at once. I could not have let it pass to strangers. +You see, I had been so happy here; it was here that you asked me to be +your wife. And father has offered to settle it upon us," she blushed +slightly, and her eyes became downcast. "He is no longer--opposed to +our marriage; he knows that I would marry you if all the world cried +'No!'" + +They had been sitting talking for nearly an hour. She had recovered +from the shock of his sudden presence, and was seated beside him--so +close that she could touch him with her hand--calm now, but with a glow +in her usually pale cheek, a light in her eyes which had been absent +for many a weary month past. He had given her, mostly in answer to her +eager questions, a very abbreviated account of his life in Australia; +telling her less even than he had told Ida; and it is needless to +remark, saying nothing of the cause of his hasty return. + +"Ah, well," she said, drawing a long breath, "it is all over now, +Stafford. Ah, it is good to have you back safe and sound. You are well, +are you not? You look pale and thin and--and tired. But I suppose it's +the journey. Yes, it is all over; you need not wander any longer; you +have come back to me, have you not, Stafford? If you knew how I have +missed you, how I have longed for you! And now you will settle down and +take your place in the world and be happy! Do you think I shall not +make you happy, Stafford? Ah, do not be afraid;" her eyes sought his +and her hand stole towards his arm. + +He rose and leant against the mantel-shelf. + +"I only know that I am quite unworthy of you, Maude," he said, gravely. + +She looked up at him and laughed. + +"Are you? Who cares! Not I! _I_ only know that I love you so dearly +that if you were the blackest villain to be found in fiction, it would +make no difference to me." + +He was filled with shame and self-reproach, and turned away his head +that she might not see the shame in his eyes. + +"How did you come?" she asked, presently. "If my father were only at +home! You could stay with us, then." + +"I am staying at The Woodman," he said. + +She regarded him with some surprise. + +"Last night! Late, do you mean? Did you meet, see anyone?" + +There was a dawning suspicion in her eyes, and she regarded his averted +face keenly; she noticed that he hesitated and seemed embarrassed. + +"No one you know," he replied, feeling that it was impossible for him +to speak Ida's name. + +"How do you know?" she asked, with a curious smile. "Who was it?" + +"I met Miss Heron of Herondale," he said, trying to speak casually, and +wondering what she would say, hoping fervently that she would ask no +more questions. + +The blood rushed to her face, her eyes flashed and her lips tightened; +but she did not speak, and moved away to the window, standing there +looking out, but seeing nothing. He had gone to _her_ the moment he had +returned: what did it mean? But she dared not ask; for she knew +instinctively how slight was the chain by which she held him. With an +effort she restrained the rage, the fierce jealousy, which threatened +to burst forth in violent reproaches and accusation; and after a minute +or two she turned to him, outwardly calm and smiling. + +"Have you made any plans, Stafford?" she asked. "My father was speaking +of your return; he thought of writing to you. Dearest, there must be no +reserve between us now--now that you have come back. See, I speak quite +frankly. My father thinks--thinks that our marriage should take place +at once. He has withdrawn his objection, and--and you will not thwart +him, Stafford? It is hard for me to have to say this; but--but you will +understand." + +"I understand," he said in a low voice. "I am grateful to your father. +Our marriage shall take place as soon as you please. It is for you to +fix the date, Maude." + +She nestled against him and touched his coat with her lips. + +"I am ashamed of myself," she murmured; "but, ah, well! love casteth +out shame." + +A servant knocked at the door. + +"The horse is round, miss," he announced. + +"I was going for a ride," she said; "but I will send the horse +away--unless you will ride with me. You will, Stafford?" + +"Certainly," he said, glad of the interruption to this _tete-a-tete_ +which had been to him a positive torture. + +"I will not be five minutes," she said, brightly. "You'd like to go +over the house? They shall bring you something to drink in the +smoking-room, or here, if you like: you are lord and master." + +She went up to her room, and, when she had rung for her maid, paced up +and down feverishly. He had gone to that girl before he had come to +her! She was racked with hate and jealousy, which was all the harder to +bear because she knew she must hide them within her bosom, that no word +or look of hers must let him see that she knew of her rival. Some time, +after they were marred, she would tell him: but not till she was safe. +She got into her habit quickly and went down to him. He was standing +where she had left him, and as she entered the room she saw before he +had time to turn to her with a smile, how haggard and harassed he +looked. + +"You have been quick," he said. + +"Yes; I am learning one of my wifely duties: not to keep my husband +waiting." They went out, and Pottinger, standing by the horses, touched +his hat and grew red with joy at sight of his master. + +"Well, Pottinger! Glad to see you!" said Stafford; and he was genuinely +glad. "You're looking well, and the horse is too. Halloo! you're put +the side-saddle on Adonis," he added, as he went up and patted the +horse. + +Pottinger touched his hat again. + +"Yes, sir; Miss Falconer's been riding him, and I did not know that I +ought to change the saddle. I can do so in a minute--" + +"No, no," said Stafford; "never mind. I will ride the hunter, as you +have the saddle on him. You like Adonis, Maude?" + +"Oh, yes," she replied. "Though I'm not quite sure he likes me," she +added, with a laugh. + +Stafford put her up, and noticed, with some surprise, that Adonis +seemed restless and ill at ease, and that he shivered and shrank as he +felt Maude on his back. + +"What is the matter with him?" he said. "He seems fidgety. Does the +saddle fit?" + +"Yes, sir," said Pottinger, with a half-nervous glance at Maude, +followed by the impassive expression of the trained servant who cannot +speak out. + +"He is troublesome sometimes," said Maude; "but I can manage him quite +easily." + +"Oh, yes," assented Stafford; "he is as quiet as a lamb; but he is +highly bred and as highly strung." + +As they were starting, Pottinger murmured: + +"Don't curb him too tightly, miss." + +Maude ignored the warning; and she and Stafford rode out. The rain had +ceased, the clouds had passed away, and in the joy of his nearness, her +spirits rose, a feeling of triumph swelled in her bosom. + +"How little I thought yesterday, even this morning, that we should be +riding side by side, Stafford," she said. "How little I thought I +should have you back again, my own, my very own! Don't all these months +you've been away seem like a dream to you? They do to me." She drew a +long breath. "Let us ride across the dale." + +"You will find it wet there, had you not better keep to the road?" + +"No, no," she said; "Adonis is dying for a gallop; see how he is +fretting." + +Stafford looked at the horse curiously. He was champing his bit and +throwing up his head in a nervous, agitated manner which Stafford had +never seen him display before. + +"I can't make the horse out," he said, more to himself than Maude. +"Perhaps he'll be all right after a gallop." + +They crossed the road at a trot, which was an uneven one on Adonis's +part, and got on the moor. Maude, still in high spirit, still buoyed up +by her feeling of triumph, talked continuously; telling him some of the +London news, planning out their future. They would have a house in +London, Stafford should take his proper place in the world; they would +step back to the high position which was his by right, as a peer of the +realm. Stafford was scarcely listening. A question was haunting him, a +question which he could not thrust from him: he was going to marry +Maude Falconer, going to take the hard and stony road of duty which +Ida, in her noble way, had pointed out to him. Ought he not to tell +Maude about Ida and his broken engagement to her; would it not be +better for both of them, for all of them, if he were to do so? He would +have to tell her that he could not live at the Villa; she would want to +know the reason; would it not be better to tell her? + +He raised his head to begin; when suddenly he saw, going up the hill in +front of them, a horse and horsewoman. She was walking up slowly, and, +long before her figure stood out against the clear sky, he saw that it +was Ida. It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that his heart stood +still. That she should have appeared before him in his sight, at such a +moment, while he was riding beside his future wife--his future +wife!--filled him with bitterness. His face must have paled, or Maude +must have seen him start, for she looked at him and then turned her +head and looked in the direction in which his eyes were fixed. She +recognised Ida instantly; the colour rushed to her face; her hand +tightened on her rein spasmodically; for a moment she felt inclined to +turn aside, to ride away, escape from the girl she hated and loathed. +And then she was moved by another impulse; the demon of jealousy +whispered: "This is the moment of your triumph; why not enjoy it to the +full; why not let her feel the bitterness of defeat? There is your +rival! Let her see with her own eyes your triumph and your happiness." +The temptation was too great for her, and she yielded to it. + +"Who is that riding up the hill?" she said, controlling her voice +admirably. "It is Miss Heron, is it not?" + +"Yes, it is," he said, as impassively as he could. + +Her lips curled scornfully at his assumption of indifference. "I have +seen her and met her," she said, "but I have not been introduced to +her. Let us overtake her, and you can introduce me. I should like to +know her." + +He looked straight before him, his face grave and set. + +"Is it worth while?" he said in a low voice. "Some other time--" + +"Why not now?" she asked. "We can catch her quite easily." + +The moment had come for him to tell her. + +"Not now," he said, huskily. "I have something to tell you, Maude; +something you ought to know before--before you make Miss Heron's +acquaintance." + +She turned to him with a low laugh. + +"Do you think I don't know?" she said, between her teeth. "I have know +all along! I read the letter you wrote to her--I got it--stole it, if +you like--from Pottinger. I have known all along--do you not think I +have been very patient, very discreet? Even now I bear no malice. I can +forget the past, forget and forgive. Why should I not, seeing that I am +assured of your love and good faith? You will see how completely I +forget, how little importance I attach to your fancy for the girl; a +fancy which I am sure you have quite outgrown. Oh, I can trust you! We +will join Miss Heron by all means." + +His face was dark and heavy. + +"Do not, Maude, until you've heard all," he began, but with a scornful +laugh that yet had something doubting and desperate in it, she sent +Adonis on. He sprang forward nervously and shivering under a stroke +from her whip, and swiftly lessened the distance between him and +Rupert, who heard his approach before Ida did, and who neighed a +welcome. Ida turned and saw who was following her, saw Stafford just +behind, and gathering her reins together she rode Rupert quickly to the +top of the hill. + +"Miss Heron!" cried Maude, in a voice of covert insolence, but almost +open triumph. "Miss Heron, stop, please!" + +Ida did stop for a moment, then, feeling that it was impossible for her +to meet them, that day, at any rate, she let Rupert go again. By this +time, Stafford had almost gained Maude's side. His face was dark with +anger, his teeth clenched tightly. He knew that Maude intended to +flaunt her possession of him before Ida. In a low but perfectly +distinct voice, he said: + +"Stop, Maude! Do not follow her." She looked over her shoulder at him, +her face flushed, her eyes flashing. + +"Why not?" she demanded, scornfully. "Is she afraid, or is it you who +are afraid? Both, perhaps? We shall see!" + +Before he could catch her rein she had struck Adonis twice with the +sharp, cutting whip, and with a shake of his head and a snort of rage +and resentment, he stood on his haunches for a moment, then leapt +forward and began to race down the hill. Stafford saw that the horse +had bolted, either from fear or anger; he knew that it would only +increase Maude's peril if he galloped in pursuit behind her; he, +therefore, checked his horse and made, in a slanting line, for a point +towards which he judged Adonis would go. Maude was swaying in her +saddle, in which she could only keep herself by clutching at the +pommel; it seemed every moment as if she must fall, as if the horse +itself must fall and throw her like a stone down the steep hill. + +Ida, the moment she had got over the top of the hill, had ridden +quickly, and, of course, quite fearlessly and safely, and had got +Rupert so well in hand, as usual, that when she heard the clatter +behind her, and, turning, saw the peril in which Maude had put herself, +she was able to pull Rupert up. It was almost a repetition of what had +occurred the other day; but this time Maude Falconer's peril was +infinitely greater; for her horse was half mad and tearing down the +steep hill-side, rendered doubly dangerous by the loose stones, and was +all too evidently indifferent whether he stood or fell. And yet another +risk lay just below; for William had been digging in that spot for +stones to mend the bank, and even if the maddened horse saw the hole, +it was more than probable that he would not be able to pull up in time. + +Such moments as these form the criterion of true courage. There was +only one way in which Ida could save, or attempt to save, the +white-faced woman who was drawing towards her at breakneck speed. What +she would have to attempt to do would be to ride straight for the +oncoming horse, swerve almost as she reached it, and keep side by side +with it until she could succeed either in turning it away from that +horrible hole, or stop it by throwing it. She did not hesitate for a +moment. + +It may be said in all truth that at that moment she forgot that the +woman whose life she was going to save was Maude Falconer; she did not +realise the fact--or, if she did, she was indifferent to it--that she +was risking her own life to save the woman who had robbed her of +Stafford. There was the life to be saved, and that was enough for Ida. +She slipped her foot almost out of the stirrup, felt Rupert's mouth +firmly but gently, leant forward and whispered a word to him, which it +is very likely he understood--perhaps he saw all the game even before +she did--and, with an encouraging touch of her hand, she let him go. + +He sprang forward like an arrow from the bow. As they drew near the +flying horse, Ida shifted her whip to her left hand, so that her right +should be free, and, leaning as far in the saddle as she could with +safety, she made a snatch at Adonis's rein at the moment she came +alongside him. She would have caught the rein, she might have stopped +the horse or turned it aside--God alone knows!--but as her fingers +almost grasped it, Maude, steadied in her seat by the nearness of her +would-be rescuer, raised her whip and struck Ida across the bosom and +across the outstretched hand. The blow, in its finish, fell on Adonis's +reeking neck. With a snort he tore away from the other horse and swept +onwards, with Maude once again swaying in her saddle. Ida gazed at her +in speechless terror for an instant, then, as if she could look no +longer, she flung up her arm across her eyes. + +A moment afterwards a cry, a shrill scream, that rang in her ears for +many a day afterwards, rose above the clatter of Adonis's hoofs, and +before the cry had died away horse and rider had fallen with awful +force into and across the hole. Then came a dead silence, broken only +by the sound of the horse's iron shoes as he kicked wildly and pawed in +a vain attempt to rise. Ida rode up, and flinging herself to the +ground, tried to approach the struggling animal. But, indeed, it was +horror and not fear that struck her motionless for a moment; for horse +and rider were mixed in awful confusion, and already Maude Falconer's +graceful form was stained with blood, and battered by the madly kicking +animal, now in its death-throes. + +An instant after, before she could recover from her paralysis of +terror--the whole affair was one of a moment and had passed as quickly +as a flitting cloud--Stafford was by her side, and at work extricating +woman from horse. It was not an easy task, for though Adonis was now +dead, a part of Maude's body lay under his shoulder; but with utmost +herculean strength Stafford succeeded in getting her clear, and lifted +her out of the hole on to the grass. Kneeling beside him, Ida, calm +now, but trembling, raised Maude's head on her knee and wiped the blood +from the beautiful face. Its loveliness was not marred, there was no +bruise or cut upon it, the blood having flown from a wound just behind +the temple. + +Stafford ran to the brook for some water and tried to force a few drops +through the clenched teeth, while Ida bathed the white brow. Suddenly a +tremor ran through him, and he put his hand over Maude's heart. It was +quite still; he bent his cheek to her lips; no breath met them. For a +moment or two he could not speak, then he stayed Ida's ministering +hand, and looking up at her, said: + +"It is of no use. She is dead!" + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII. + +The ball which Lady Clansford always gave about the middle of the +season is generally a very brilliant affair; but this year it was more +brilliant and, alas! more crowded than usual; for Lord Clansford was +connected, as everybody knows, with the great Trans-African Company, +and, as also everybody knows, that company had recovered from the blow +dealt it by the rising of the natives, and was now flourishing beyond +the most sanguine expectations of its owners; the Clansford coffers, +not to mention those of many other persons, were overflowing, and Lord +Clansford could afford a somewhat magnificent hospitality. + +Howard, as he made his way up the crowded stairs, smiled cynically to +himself as he caught sight of a little knot of financiers who stood +just outside the great doors of the _salon_. They were all +there--Griffenberg, Wirsch, the Beltons, Efford, and Fitzharford; and +they were all smiling and in the best of humours, presenting by their +appearance a striking contrast to that which they had worn when he had +seen them on the night when the ruin of the company had been conveyed +in that fatal cablegram. Having succeeded at last in forcing an +entrance, and bowing over the hand of his noble hostess, which must +have sadly ached, and returned her mechanical words of welcome with a +smile as galvanic as her own, Howard sidled his way along the wall--a +waltz was in progress--and collided against the "beautiful and +bounteous" Bertie, who was mopping his brow and looking round +despairingly for his partner. + +"Halloo, Howard!" he exclaimed. "Pretty old scrimmage, isn't it? Should +have thought your languid grace would have kept out of this sight. I've +given a dance to a girl, but dash my best necktie if I can find her: +might as well look for a needle in a bottle of hay--as if any fellow +would be such a fool as to put a needle in such a place. I'm jolly mad +at losing her, I can tell you, for she's the prettiest girl in the +room, and I had to fight like a coal-heaver to get a dance from her. +And now I can't find her: just my luck!" + +"What is the name of the prettiest girl in the room?" asked Howard, +languidly. + +"Oh, it's the new beauty, of course," replied Bertie, with a superior +little shrug at Howard's ignorance. "It's Miss. Heron of Herondale, the +great heiress." + +Howard pricked up his ears, but maintained his languid and +half-indifferent manner. + +"Miss Heron of Herondale," he said in his slow voice. "Don't think I've +met her." + +"No? Dessay not. She doesn't go out much, and Lady Clansford thinks +it's rather a feather in her cap getting her here to-night. When you +see her you won't say I've over-praised her. She's more than pretty, +and she'd be the bright and particular star of the season if she didn't +keep in her shell so much." + +"Herondale," said Howard, musingly. "That's the place near the Villa, +isn't it? I don't remember anyone of her name as having been amongst +the company there." + +"No," said the omniscient Bertie. "She was living in retirement with +her father then; but Stafford must have known her--made her +acquaintance. Don't you remember that she was present when poor Miss +Falconer met with her fatal accident?" + +Howard remembered very well, but he said "Ah, yes!" as if the fact had +just been recalled to him. + +"Her father died and left her a hatful of money--that's ever so many +months ago--and now she's come up to London; and I tell you, Howard, +that it is with her as it was with the friend of our school-boy days: +'I came, "I was seen," I conquered!' Everybody is mad about her. She is +staying with some country people called the Vaynes, people who would +have passed, like a third _entree_, unnoticed; but they are deluged +with invitations, and 'All on account of Eliza.'" + +"Do not be vulgar, Bertie," said Howard, rebukingly. + +"Well it was vulgar" admitted Bertie, "especially applied to such an +exquisite creature as Miss Heron--Oh there she is with young Glarn! +They say that he is more than ready to lay his ducal coronet at her +feet--confound the young beggar!--but she doesn't give him the least +encouragement to do so. Look! she doesn't appear to be listening to +him, though he's talking for all he's worth. And it's the same with all +of us: we're all dying with love for her, and for all she cares, we may +die!" + +Howard looked across the room and caught a glimpse of a tall, slim +figure, a pale, ivory-tinted face with soft and silky black hair, +dressed in the simplest fashion, and dark, violet eyes half hidden by +their long lashes. It was a lovely face and something more--an +impressive one: it was a face, once seen, not easily forgotten. Perhaps +it was not its beauty, but a certain preoccupied expression, a sadness +in the eyes and in the curve of the expressive lips, which made it so +haunting a one. She was exquisitely dressed, with a suggestion of +mourning in the absence of diamonds and a touch of pale violet in the +black lace frock. + +"She is very beautiful," said Howard; "and I can condole with you +sincerely on the loss of your dance." + +"Yes, it's nearly over now," said Bertie, with a sigh. "Talking of +Stafford," he said, after a minute, "when did you hear from him last?" + +"To-day," replied Howard. "I have his letter in my pocket." + +"Still out in the backwoods?" asked Bertie. "Poor old chap! awful piece +of luck for him! If his father had only gone on living and waited until +that blessed company had come right side uppermost, he'd have been a +millionaire. Look at Griffenberg and the rest of 'em!" he nodded +towards the group of financiers; "they're simply rolling in money, +rolling in it." + +"Yes, he's still in the backwoods, as you call it," responded Howard; +"and from what he says I should think he's having a pretty hard time of +it; though, of course, he doesn't complain: there are some men still +left who don't complain." There was a pause, during which he had been +thinking deeply, then he said: "So Stafford knew Miss Heron, did he?" + +Bertie looked mysterious and lowered his voice. + +"Yes. Look here, old chap, I shouldn't say this to anyone but you; but +you are Stafford's great and only chum, and I know I can speak safely; +to tell you the truth--" + +"Now you are going to tell me anything but the truth," murmured Howard, +with a sigh of resignation. + +"Oh, no, I'm not," retorted Bertie. "What there is of it is the truth +and nothing but the truth. It isn't much. But I've a kind of idea that +Stafford knew our new beauty better than we think. Do you remember how +he used to leave our party and go off by himself? Not like Stafford, +that, was it? And one of our fellows remarked to me that one day coming +home from a ride he saw Stafford riding with a lady. He couldn't swear +to him, but--well, Stafford's hard to mistake. Then, again, how was it +he and Miss Heron were in at Maude Falconer's death; and why did he +bolt off to Australia again directly after the funeral? And why is it +that she keeps us all at arm's length, even that confounded Glarn?" + +Howard's eyes grew sharp; but he smiled languidly, as he said: + +"You ought to edit a riddle book, Bertie, my son. I think we should get +across the room now. I should be greatly obliged if you would introduce +me to Miss Heron." + +"All right," said Bertie, "come along! But I warn you, you'll only meet +with a cold reception; just a smile and a word and then she'll look +away as if she'd forgotten your existence, and had not the least desire +to remember it." + +"Oh, I'm used to that," said Howard. "Lead on." + +As they crossed the room, Howard's acute brain was hard at work. There +was something in Stafford's conduct, a tone in his letters which Howard +could never understand; but now, in the light of Bertie's mysterious +communication, he thought he discerned a solution of the problem over +which he had pondered for many an hour. Stafford had been unhappy +during the whole of his engagement to poor Maude; he had exiled himself +again immediately after her death, though, as Howard knew, he was well +enough off now to return to England and to live, at any rate, in a +quiet way. If there was anything in Bertie's suggestion--Howard pursed +his lips with an air of determination. If there was anything, then he +would find it out and act accordingly. Stafford's happiness was very +precious to Howard, and in the quiet, resolute, cynical way +characteristic to him, he resolved that if that happiness lay in the +hands of this beautiful girl with the sad eyes and lips, he, Howard, +would do his best to persuade her to yield it up. + +His reception was certainly not encouraging. Ida glanced at him, and +returned his bow with a slight inclination of her head, and then looked +away as if she had done all that could be demanded of her; and it was +with a faint surprise, perceptible in her face, that she heard Howard +say, in his slow, and rather drawling voice: + +"There is a conservatory behind that glass door, Miss Heron; it is not +very far from the madding crowd, but it must be cooler than here. Will +you let me take you to it?" + +She hesitated for a moment, but something in the steady regard of +Howard's calm and sleepy eyes impressed her. + +"Very well," she said; "but I think I'm engaged for this next dance, +and I must not go far away. I have already broken two or three +engagements." + +"In that case you can come without hesitation," he said. "It is the +first crime that costs a pang, having passed that the downward course +is easy and painless." + +He led her to a seat, and with the cool determination which Stafford +always admired in him, began at once; for he did not wish to give her +time to slip on her woman's armour; he intended to strike quickly, +unexpectedly, so that she should not be able to conceal the effect of +the blow. + +"Almost as hot as in Australia," he said, languidly, but watching her +out of the tail of his eye. "I suppose you were never there, Miss +Heron? Nor have I been; but I've got a letter in my pocket from a very +great friend of mine who is roughing it on a cattle-run, and he has so +often described the country to me, that I almost feel as if I knew it. +By the way, I think you know him. He is my dearest and closest friend-- +Stafford Orme, as I always call him and think of him; of course I am +speaking of Lord Highcliffe." + +The problem was solved: he saw her face suddenly flush, and then as +suddenly grow pale. So sharp had been the blow, its effect so +overwhelming, that her fan fell from her hand. Howard, as he restored +it to her, seized the opportunity of looking her full in the face, and +assurance was made doubly sure. + +This girl _did_ hold his friend Stafford's happiness in her hand. + +Ida was silent for a moment, because she knew she could not control her +voice, could not keep it steady; then, with a quickened breath, she +said: + +"Yes, I knew Mr. Orme--Lord Highcliffe." + +"Then I hope you liked him," he said, mercilessly; for there was no +time for mercy; some idiot of a dancing-man would come and take her +from him the next minute. "I express the hope, because I myself like +and admire him very much indeed. He is a splendid fellow, and one of +those instances of a good man struggling with adversity. Are you fond +of poetry, Miss Heron?" + +Ida's bosom was heaving, she was fighting for calm. She knew now who it +was with whom she was speaking; it was the friend, the cynical Mr. +Howard, of whom Stafford had told her; she had not caught his name at +the introduction. She regarded him with intense interest, and inclined +her head by way of assent. + +"I never think of my friend, Lord Highcliffe, without recalling those +significant lines of William Watson's." He looked at her; and be it +said that his eyes were fine and impressive ones when he showed them +plainly. "These are the lines: + + "'I do not ask to have my fill + Of wine, of love, or fame. + I do not for a little ill + Against the gods exclaim. + + "'One boon of fortune I implore, + With one petition kneel: + _At least caress me not before + Thou break me on thy wheel_!'" + +Her lip quivered and her long lashes concealed her eyes. + +"They are fine lines," she said. + +"They fit my friend Lord Highcliffe's case to a T. He was for a time +the spoiled darling of fortune; she caressed him as she caresses few +men--and now she is breaking him on her wheel; and the caresses, of +course, make the breaking all the harder to bear. He writes most +interesting letters--I don't know whether you care about farming and +cattle-raising and that kind of thing; for my own part I am sublimely +ignorant of such matters. I can lay my hand upon my heart and say I +know a cow from a horse, but nothing shall induce me to go further. If +you are interested, I would venture to offer to show you one of his +letters; there is nothing in them of a private character." + +Her heart beat still more quickly; he saw the eager light flash in her +eyes; and his hand went to his breast coat-pocket; then he said, +blandly: + +"I will bring one next time we meet. Are you going--where are you going +to-morrow, Miss Heron? I, too, shall be going there probably?" + +She put her hand to her lips with a little nervous gesture: she was +disappointed, she thought he was going to show her a letter, then and +there. + +"I am going to Lady Fitzharford's to-morrow afternoon to try over some +music with her," she said, hesitatingly. + +"Ah, yes; Lady Fitzharford is a good friend of mine," he said. "Shall +you be there at, say, four?" + +"Yes," said Ida in a low voice. "Did you say that Mr. Orme--Lord +Highcliffe is well?" + +"Oh, yes; he is all right now," replied Howard; "he has been ill--a +fever of some kind or other, I believe--but he has recovered; he is a +monster of strength, as you may have heard. But I am afraid he is very +unhappy: something on what he calls his mind--he is not very +intellectual, you know--" + +Ida shot an indignant glance at him which made Howard chuckle inwardly. + +--"But the best, the noblest of good fellows, I assure you, Miss Heron. +I'd give anything to see him happy. Ah, here comes a gentleman with +hurried gait and distracted countenance; he is looking for his partner; +alas! it is you! We meet, then, at Lady Fitzharford's to-morrow. I will +bring my friend's letter; but I do sincerely hope it won't bore you!" + +He bowed his adieux and left her, and left the house; for the ball had +no further interest for him. All the way home he pondered over the +case. That she loved Stafford, he had not the very least doubt; her +eyes, her sudden blushes and colour, her voice had betrayed her. + +"He has loved her all the time; and I am a purblind ass not to have +seen it!" he said to himself, with cynical self-contempt, as he climbed +up to his rooms. + +They were modest but comfortable rooms in Picadilly--and he struck a +match before he opened the door; but it was not necessary for him to +have got a light, for there was one in the room already, and by it he +saw a long-limbed figure which had been sitting in his easy-chair, but +which rose and exclaimed: + +"Howard!" + +Howard held his breath for a moment, then said, with exaggerated calm. + +"I'm glad you found the cigars and the whiskey, Stafford. Have you been +waiting long: sorry to keep you." + +Howard laughed as he wrung his friend's hand. + +"I thought I should surprise you, old man; but I flattered myself," +said Stafford. + +"Nothing surprises me; but I'll admit to being rather pleased at seeing +you," drawled Howard, pushing him gently buck in the chair. "Have +you--er--walked from Australia, or flown?" + +Stafford stared. + +"Oh, I see! You mean I came so quickly on my letter? I started directly +after I posted it, but lost the mail at Southampton. I--I got a +restless fit, and was obliged to come." + +"Got it now?" drawled Howard. "Or perhaps the journey has cooled you +down. Have you eaten? I can get something--" + +"Yes, yes," said Stafford, rather impatiently. "Got dinner at the +hotel. I came on here at once: heard you'd gone to a dance, and thought +I'd wait. I want you to do something for me, Howard--I'll tell you all +my news some other time--not that there's much to tell: I'm well and +nourishing, as you see. I want you to go down to Bryndermere. I dare +not go myself--not yet. I want you to get all the information you can +about--about a lady: Miss Heron of Herondale--" + +"How very strange!" said Howard innocently. "Do you know, I have just +had the pleasure of meeting a Miss Heron of Herondale--" + +Stafford sprang to his feet. + +"Where?" he demanded hotly. + +"At Lady Clansford's ball, which I have just left. May I ask why you +are so interested in Miss Heron as to send me on such a mission?" + +"I love her," said Stafford briefly. "I can not live without her--I've +tried, and I've failed. I've loved her since--oh, I can't tell you! I +want to know what she is doing. I want to know if she has forgotten me; +if there is any hope for me!" + +Howard looked at him compassionately, and whistled softly. + +"My dear old man," he said, with an air of reluctance, "you fly rather +high! The lady you speak of is the belle of the present season; she is +the admired of all admirers; belted earls, to say nothing of noble +dukes, are at her feet. She was the star of the ball which I have just +left. If I may say so, I think you were very unwise to leave such a +peerless pearl to be snapped up--" + +Stafford turned away from him and stifled a groan. + +"I might have know it," he said. "The belle of the season! Well, why +not? There is no one more beautiful, no one more sweet. Who am I that +she should remember me? What am I--" + +"Rather a foolish young man, if you ask me," said Howard. "If I'd been +in love with such a peerless creature, I shouldn't have left her to go +tramping after cattle in Australia." + +"What else could I do?" exclaimed Stafford, sternly. "Have you +forgotten that I was not set free, that when--when death"--his voice +dropped--"set me free, that it was no time to speak of love to another +woman? I was obliged to go; but I've came back--too late, I suppose! +Don't say any more; let us talk of something else: you are looking +well. Howard." + +"Yes, it's no use crying over spilt milk," said Howard, with a sigh. +"Oh, I'm all right. Look here, I'll put you up to-night; we're got a +spare room. Now, mix yourself another drink and light up another +cigar--not bad, are they--and tell me all you've been doing." + + * * * * * + +At a quarter to four the following day Howard put in his appearance at +Lady Fitzharford's house in Eaton Square. + +"Oh, I'm so glad you've come," she said: everybody was pleased to see +Howard; "you are just the man I want. That sweet creature, Miss Heron, +is coming here directly to try over some songs with me--I'm going to +sing at that Bazaar, you know--and as you know something of music--is +there anything you don't know, Mr. Howard?--you can give us your +opinion." + +"With the greatest pleasure, my dear lady," responded Howard; "but on +two conditions: one, that you don't take my opinion; the other, that +you leave me alone with Miss Heron, directly she comes, for a quarter +of an hour." + +Lady Fitzharford stared at him. + +"Are you going to propose to her?" she asked, with a smile. + +"No," he replied; "I am tired of proposing." + +"Well, I don't think she would accept you," said Lady Fitzharford, "she +has had the most wonderful offers; she has refused Lord Edwin, the +Bannerdales' son and heir, and, I believe, the Duke of Glarn--" + +"I know, I know!" said Howard, more quickly than usual. "I can hear her +on the stairs. Oh, vanish, my dear lady, an' you love me!" + +Lady Fitzharford had scarcely left the room, laughing, and not a little +puzzled, before the servant admitted Ida. She was pale, and the look of +sadness in her eyes was even more palpable than on the preceding night. +She blushed for an instant as she gave her hand to Howard. + +"Lady Fitzharford has gone to get her music, Miss Heron," he said; "she +bade me make her excuses; she will be here presently. It is so good of +you to remember our appointment! When I came to think it over, I was +quite ashamed, do you know, at the obtrusive way in which I pressed the +subject of my friend, Lord Highcliffe's condition, upon you. But mind, +though, I do think you would feel interested in his letter. He has a +knack, unintellectual as he is"--Ida rose readily to the fly again and +flashed a momentary glance of indignation at him from her violet +eyes--"a child-like way of describing scenes and incidents in a kind of +graphic style which--What an idiot I am!" he broke off to exclaim, he +had been feeling in his pocket; "I have actually left the letter at +home! Please forgive me. But perhaps you will regard my lapse of memory +as affording you a happy escape." + +Ida's lips trembled and her eyes became downcast. Disappointment was +eloquently depicted on her face. + +"No, I am sorry," she said. "I--I should have liked to have seen the +letter." + +"Would you really?" he purred, penitently, as she turned away to the +window. "Then I will go and get it; my rooms are only a short +distance." + +"Oh, pray, don't trouble," she said, so faintly that Howard found it +difficult not to smile. + +"Not at all," he said, politely, and left the room. + +As he went down the stairs he glanced at his watch, and muttered: + +"Now, if the young idiot isn't up to time--" + +At that moment there was a knock at the hall-door, the servant opened +it, and Stafford entered with a gloomy countenance and a reluctant +gait. + +"I've come," he said, rather morosely; "though I don't know why you +should have insisted upon my doing so--or what good it will do me to +hear about her," he added, in a low voice, as they followed the servant +up the stairs. + +As the man touched the handle of the door, Howard said: + +"Go in, my dear fellow; I've left my pocket-handkerchief in my overcoat +in the hall: back in a moment." + +With a frown of annoyance, Stafford hesitated and looked after him; +then, with a shrug of his shoulders, he obeyed and entered the room. + +They uttered no cry of surprise, of joy. They stood for a moment +looking at each other with their hearts in their eyes. It was the +moment that bridged over all the weary months of waiting, of longing, +of doubts and fears, of hope that seemed too faint for hope and but a +mockery of despair. + +He had no need to ask her if she loved him, her face was eloquent of +the truth; and her eyes reflected the love that glowed in his. He had +got hold of her hand before she knew it, had drawn her to him, and, +utterly regardless of the fact that he was in a strange house, that +they might be interrupted any moment, he kissed her passionately with +all the passion that had been stored up for so long. + +"Ida," he said, as he bent over her and pressed her to him, "I have +come back, I cannot live without you--ah, but you know that, you know +that. Is it too late? It is not too late?" + +"No; it is not too late," she whispered. "I--I did not know whether you +would come. But I have been waiting; I should have waited all my life. +But the time has been very long, Stafford!" + + * * * * * + +At the end of the quarter of an hour for which Howard had bargained, +Lady Fitzharford opened the door of the inner room softly, so softly, +that seeing Miss Heron in the arms of a stalwart young man, and +apparently quite content to be there, her ladyship discreetly closed +the door again, and going round by the inner room found Mr. Howard +seated on the stairs. She looked at him with amazement, well-nigh +bewilderment. + +"Are you mad?" she exclaimed, in a whisper. + +Howard smiled at her blandly. + +"No," he said, with a backward jerk of his head, "but they are. I'm +told it's a delicious kind of madness worth all your sanity. Do not let +us disturb them. Come and sit down beside me until the time is up," he +glanced at his watch; "they have still three minutes." + +With a suppressed laugh she sat down beside him. + +"You ought to be ashamed of yourself," she said, "to play me such a +trick. But, oh, how happy they look!" + +"I am ashamed of myself, my dear, lady," he said; "but I should have +been more ashamed of myself if I hadn't. Do they look happy? We will go +in and see presently. It will be my great reward. But I should like to +give them another five minutes, dear lady, for I assure you, on my word +of honour, that I was once young myself." + +THE END. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of At Love's Cost, by Charles Garvice + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT LOVE'S COST *** + +***** This file should be named 10379.txt or 10379.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/3/7/10379/ + +Produced by Ted Garvin and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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