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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:43:21 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:43:21 -0700 |
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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/13960-0.txt b/13960-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9068c04 --- /dev/null +++ b/13960-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12817 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13960 *** + + CHARLES REX + + BY ETHEL M. DELL + +AUTHOR OF THE TOP OF THE WORLD, THE LAMP IN THE DESERT, THE HUNDREDTH +CHANCE, Etc. + + 1922 + +I Dedicate This Book To G. T. S. In Remembrance of A Winter Day + + + + +"When half-gods go, the gods arrive." + R. W. Emerson + + +Not with the clash of trumpets + And clangour of gates thrown wide, +As when the eager crowds press round + To see the half-gods ride; +But like a bird at even + Silently winging home, +A message came from the darkness + To say that the gods had come. + +And the half-gods scoffed in the temple + Which custom had bid them hold-- +Sin and Success and Pleasure + And the hideous Image of Gold. +Who and what are these strangers? + Bid them worship before the shrine +Where we, the gods of the new world, + Sit o'er the cards and wine! + +So they derided the strangers-- + Those gods whom the old folk call +Courage and Honour and Faithfulness + And Love which is greater than all. +But when the night was over + And the new day pierced within, +The half-gods were gone from the temple, + And the gods had entered in. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +PART I + + I. Ennui + II. Adieu + III. The Gift + IV. Toby + V. Discipline + VI. The Abyss + VII. Larpent's Daughter + + +PART II + + I. Jake Bolton + II. Maud Bolton + III. Bunny + IV. Saltash + V. The Visitor + VI. How to Manage Men + VII. The Promise + VIII. The Ally + IX. The Idol + X. Resolutions + XI. The Butterfly + XII. The Ogre's Castle + XIII. The End of the Game + + +PART III + + I. The Virtuous Hero + II. The Compact + III. L'oiseau bleu + IV. The Trap + V. The Confidence + VI. The Sacred Fire + VII. Surrender + VIII. The Magician's Wand + IX. The Warning + X. The Mystery + XI. Suspicion + XII. The Ally + XIII. The Truth + XIV. The Last Card + + +PART IV + + I. The Winning Post + II. The Villain Scores + III. A Wife Is Different + IV. The Idol of Paris + V. The Dance of Death + VI. The New Lover + VII. The Refugee + VIII. The Turning-point + IX. Larpent + X. In the Name of Love + XI. The Gift of the Gods + + + + +CHARLES REX + + + + +PART I + + + + +CHAPTER I + +ENNUI + + +"I shall go to sea to-morrow," said Saltash, with sudden decision. "I'm +tired of this place, Larpent,--fed up on repletion." + +"Then by all means let us go, my lord!" said Larpent, with the faint +glimmer of a smile behind his beard, which was the only expression of +humour he ever permitted himself. + +"Believe you're fed up too," said Saltash, flashing a critical look upon +him. + +Captain Larpent said nothing, deeming speech unnecessary. All time spent +ashore was wasted in his opinion. + +Saltash turned and surveyed the sky-line over the yacht's rail with +obvious discontent on his ugly face. His eyes were odd, one black, one +grey, giving a curiously unstable appearance to a countenance which +otherwise might have claimed to possess some strength. His brows were +black and deeply marked. He had a trick of moving them in conjunction +with his thoughts so that his face was seldom in absolute repose. It was +said that there was a strain of royal blood in Saltash, and in the days +before he had succeeded to the title when he had been merely Charles +Burchester, he had borne the nickname of "the merry monarch." Certain +wild deeds in a youth that had not been beyond reproach had seemed to +warrant this, but of later years a friend had bestowed a more gracious +title upon him, and to all who could claim intimacy with him he had +become "Charles Rex." The name fitted him like a garment. A certain +arrogance, a certain royalty of bearing, both utterly unconscious and +wholly unfeigned, characterized him. Whatever he did, and his actions +were often far from praiseworthy, this careless distinction of mien +always marked him. He received an almost involuntary respect where he +went. + +Captain Larpent who commanded his yacht _The Night Moth_--most morose and +unresponsive of men--paid him the homage of absolute acquiescence. +Whatever his private opinions might be, he never expressed them unless +invited to do so by his employer. He never criticized by word or look. +Saltash was wont to say that if he decided to turn pirate he believed +that Larpent would continue at his post without the smallest change of +front. To raise a protest of any sort would have been absolutely foreign +to his nature. He was made to go straight ahead, to do his duty without +question and with perfect self-reliance. + +On the present occasion, having cruised from port to port in the +Mediterranean for nearly six weeks, it was certainly no ill news to him +to hear that Saltash had at last had enough. The weather was perfect, too +perfect for a man of his bull-dog instincts. He was thoroughly tired of +the endless spring sunshine and of the chattering, fashionable crowds +that Saltash was wont to assemble on the yacht. He was waiting with an +iron patience for the word that should send them forth over the great +Atlantic rollers, with the ocean spray bursting over their bows and the +sting of the ocean wind in their faces. That was the sort of life that +appealed to him. He had no use for civilization; the froth of society had +no attraction for him. He preferred a deeper draught. + +Saltash was thoroughly cosmopolitan in his tastes; he liked amusement, +but he abhorred boredom. He declared that for him it was the root of all +evil. He was never really wicked unless he was bored. And then--_que +voulez-vous_? He did not guide the star of destiny. + +"Yes," he said, after a thoughtful silence, "we will certainly put to sea +to-morrow--unless--" he turned his head and threw a merry grin at his +companion--"unless Fortune has any tricks up her sleeve for me, for I am +going ashore for one more fling to-night." + +Larpent smoked on immovably, his blue-grey eyes staring out to the vivid +sky-line, his sunburnt face quite imperturbable. + +"We shall be ready to start as soon as you come aboard, my lord," he +said. + +"Good!" said Saltash lightly. "I may be late, or--more probably--very +early. Leave the gangway for me! I'll let you know when I'm aboard." + +He got up as if he moved on springs and leaned against the rail, looking +down quizzically at the man who sat stolidly smoking in the deck-chair. +No two people could have formed a stronger contrast--the yacht's captain, +fair-bearded, with the features of a Viking--the yacht's owner, dark, +alert, with a certain French finesse about him that gave a strange charm +to a personality that otherwise might have been merely fantastic. + +Suddenly he laughed. "Do you know, Larpent, I often think to myself what +odd tricks Fate plays? You for instance--you, the captain of a private +yacht when you ought to be roving the high seas in a Flying Dutchman! You +probably were a few generations ago." + +"Ah!" Larpent said, through a cloud of smoke. "Life isn't what it was." + +"It's an infernal fraud, most of it," said Saltash. "Always promising and +seldom fulfilling!" + +"No good expecting too much," said Larpent. + +"True!" said Saltash. "On the other hand it isn't always wise to be too +easily satisfied." His look became suddenly speculative. "Have you ever +been in love, Larpent?" + +The big man in the deck-chair made a sharp movement and spilt some +cigar-ash on his coat. He sat up deliberately and brushed it off. Saltash +watched him with mischievous eyes. + +"Well?" he said. + +Larpent leaned back again, puffing forth a thick cloud of smoke. "Once," +he said briefly. + +"Only once?" gibed Saltash. "Man alive! Why, I've had the disease scores +of times, and you are half a generation older than I am!" + +"I know," Larpent's eyes dwelt unblinking upon the sparkling blue of the +water beyond the rail. "You've had it so often that you take it lightly." + +Saltash laughed. "You apparently took it like the plague." + +"I didn't die of it," said Larpent grimly. + +"Perhaps the lady did!" suggested Saltash. + +"No. She didn't die either." Larpent's eyes came slowly upwards to the +mocking eyes above them. "For all I know she may be living now," he said. + +Saltash's grin became a grimace. "Oh, heavens, Larpent! And you've had +indigestion ever since? How long ago is it? Twenty years?" + +"About that," said Larpent. + +"Heavens!" said Saltash again. "I should like to see the woman who could +hold me after twenty years!" + +"So should I," said Larpent dryly. + +Saltash snapped his fingers. "She doesn't exist, my good fellow! But if +she did--by Jove, what a world it would be!" + +Larpent grunted sardonically. "It wouldn't be large enough to hold you, +my lord." + +Saltash stretched his arms wide. "Well, I'm going ashore to-night. Who +knows what the gods may send? Wish me luck!" + +Larpent surveyed the restless figure with a sort of stony humour. "I wish +you a safe return," he said. + +Saltash laughed and went away along the deck with a monkey-like spring +that was curiously characteristic of him. There was nothing of the +sailor's steady poise about him. + +The little Italian town that clung to the slopes that rose so steeply +from the sea shone among its terraced gardens like a many-coloured jewel +in the burning sunset. The dome of its Casino gleamed opalescent in its +centre--a place for wonder--a place for dreams. Yet Saltash's expression +as he landed on the quay was one of whimsical discontent. He had come +nearly a fortnight ago to be amused, but somehow the old pleasures had +lost their relish and he was only bored. + +"I'm getting old," he said to himself with a grimace of disgust. + +But he was not old. He was barely six-and-thirty. He had had the world at +his feet too long, that was all. + +There was to be a water-side _fête_ that night at Valrosa, and the +promenade and bandstand were wreathed with flowers and fairy-lights. It +was getting late in the season, and it would probably be the last. +Saltash surveyed the preparations with very perfunctory interest as he +sauntered up to the hotel next to the Casino where he proposed to dine. + +A few people he knew were staying there, and he looked forward to a more +or less social evening. At least he could count on a welcome and a rubber +of bridge if he felt so inclined. Or there was the Casino itself if the +gambling mood should take him. But he did not feel much like gambling. He +wanted something new. None of the old stale amusements appealed to him +tonight. He was feeling very ancient and rather dilapidated. + +He went up the steps under the cypress-trees that led from terrace to +terrace, pausing at each landing-place to look out over the wonderful +sea that was changing every moment with the changing glow of the sunset. +Yes, it was certainly a place for dreams. Even old Larpent felt the +charm--Larpent who had fallen in love twenty years ago for the first and +last time! + +An irrepressible chuckle escaped him. Funny old Larpent! The wine of the +gods had evidently been too strong a brew for him. It was obvious that he +had no desire to repeat the dose. + +At his last halting-place he stood longer to drink in the beauty of the +evening before entering the hotel. The sea had the pearly tint shot with +rose of the inside of an oyster-shell. The sky-line was receding, fading +into an immense calm. The shadows were beginning to gather. The sun had +dipped out of sight. + +The tinkle of a lute rose from one of the hidden gardens below him. He +stood and listened with sentimental eyes and quizzically twitching mouth. +Everything in this wonder-world was ultra-sweet to-night. And yet--and +yet-- + +Suddenly another sound broke through the stillness, and in a moment he +had sprung to alertness. It was a cry--a sharp, wrung cry from the garden +close to him, the garden of the hotel, and instantly following it a flood +of angry speech in a man's voice and the sound of blows. + +"Damnation!" said Saltash, and sprang for a narrow wooden door in the +stone wall a few yards higher up. + +It opened to his imperious hand, and he found himself in a dark little +shrubbery behind an arbour that looked out to the sea. It was in this +arbour that the scuffle was taking place, and in a second he had forced +his way through the intervening shrubs and was at the entrance. + +"Damnation!" he burst forth again furiously. "What are you doing? Leave +that boy alone!" + +A man in evening-dress was gripping a fair-haired lad, who wore the +hotel-livery, by the back of his neck and raining merciless blows upon +his uncovered head. He turned, sharply straightening himself, at +Saltash's tempestuous entrance, and revealed to the newcomer the +deeply-suffused countenance of the hotel-manager. + +Their recognition was mutual. He flung the boy into a corner and faced +his patron, breathing hard, his black eyes still fiercely gleaming. + +"Ah! It is milord!" he said, in jerky English, and bowed punctiliously +though he was still shaking with rage. "What can I do for you, milord?" + +"What the devil is the matter?" said Saltash, sweeping aside all +ceremony. "What are you hammering that unfortunate boy for? Can't you +find a man your own size to hammer?" + +The Italian flung a fierce glance over his shoulder at his crouching +victim. "He is worthless!" he declared. "I give him a trial--_bueno_, but +he is worthless. Milord will pardon me, he is--English. And the English +are--no good for work--no good at all." + +"Oh, rotten to the core!" agreed Saltash, with a humorous lift of the +brows. "But you needn't murder him for that, Antonio. It's his +misfortune--not his fault." + +"Milord, I have not murdered him," the manager protested with nervous +vehemence. "I have only punished him. I have not hurt him. I have done +him good." + +"Oh!" said Saltash, and looked down at the small, trembling figure in the +corner. "It's medicine, is it? But a bit strong for a child of that size. +I should try a milder dose next time." + +Antonio laughed harshly. "The next time, milord, I shall take +him--so--and wring his neck!" His laugh became a snarl as he turned. "Get +up now, you--you son of a pig, and go back to your work!" + +"Easy! Easy!" said Saltash, with a smile. "We don't talk to the English +like that, Antonio,--not even the smallest and weakest of them. Let's +have a look at this specimen--with your permission!" He bent over the +huddled figure. "Hold up your head, boy! Let me see you!" + +There was no movement to obey, and he laid a hand upon the quivering +shoulder and felt it shrink away convulsively. + +"I believe you've damaged him," he said, bending lower. "Here, Tommy! +Hold up your head! Don't be afraid! It's a friend." + +But the narrow figure only sank down a little lower under his hand. + +"His name is Toby," said Antonio with acidity. "A dog's name, milord, and +it fits him well. He is what you would call a lazy hound." + +Saltash paid not the slightest attention to him. He was bending low, his +dark face in shadow. + +"Don't be afraid!" he said again. "No one is going to hurt you. Come +along! Let's look at you!" + +His hold tightened upon the shrinking form. He began to lift it up. + +And then suddenly there came a sharp struggle between his hands as +lacking in science as the fight of a wild animal for freedom, and as +effectual. With a gasping effort the boy wrenched himself free and was +gone. He went like a streak of lightning, and the two men were left +facing one another. + +"What a slippery little devil!" commented Saltash. + +"Yes," said Antonio vindictively, "a devil indeed, milord! And I will +have no more of him. I will have no more. I hope he will starve!" + +"How awfully nice of you, Antonio!" said Saltash lightly. "Being the end +of the season, he probably will." + +Antonio smacked his red lips with relish. "Ah, probably! Probably!" he +said. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +ADIEU + + +It was growing late and the _fête_ was in full swing when Saltash +sauntered down again under the cypress-trees to the water's edge. The sea +was breaking with a murmurous splashing; it was a night for dreams. + +In the flower-decked bandstand an orchestra of stringed instruments was +playing very softly--fairy-music that seemed to fill the world with magic +to the brim. It was like a drug to the senses, alluring, intoxicating, +maddeningly sweet. + +Saltash wandered along with his face to the water on which a myriad +coloured lights rocked and swam. And still his features wore that +monkeyish look of unrest, of discontent and quizzical irony oddly +mingled. He felt the lure, but it was not strong enough. Its influence +had lost its potency. + +He need not have been alone. He had left the hotel with friends, but he +had drifted away from them in the crowd. One of them--a girl--had sought +somewhat palpably to keep him near her, and he had responded with some +show of ardour for a time, and then something about her had struck a note +of discord within him and the glamour had faded. + +"Little fool!" he murmured to himself. "She'd give me her heart to break +if I'd have it." + +And then he laughed in sheer ridicule of his own jaded senses. He +recognized the indifference of satiety. An easy conquest no longer +attracted him. + +He began to stroll towards the quay, loitering here and there as if to +give to Fates a chance to keep him if they would. Yes, Sheila Melrose was +a little idiot. Why couldn't she realize that she was but one of the +hundreds with whom he flirted day by day? She was nothing to him but a +pastime--a toy to amuse his wayward mood. He had outgrown his earlier +propensity to break his toys when he had done with them. The sight of a +broken toy revolted him now. + +He was impatiently aware that the girl was watching him from the midst of +the shifting crowd. What did she expect, he asked himself irritably? She +knew him. She knew his reputation. Did she imagine herself the sort of +woman to hold a man of his stamp for more than the passing moment? Save +for his title and estates, was he worth the holding? + +A group of laughing Italian girls with kerchiefs on their heads +surrounded him suddenly and he became the centre of a shower--a storm--of +_confetti_. His mood changed in a second. He would show her what to +expect! Without an instant's pause he turned upon his assailants, caught +the one nearest to him, snatching her off her feet; and, gripping her +without mercy, he kissed her fierily and shamelessly till she gasped with +delicious fright; then dropped her and seized another. + +The girls of Valrosa spoke of the ugly Englishman with bated breath and +shining eyes long after Saltash had gone his unheeding way, for the blood +was hot in his veins before the game was over. If the magic had been slow +to work, its spell was all the more compelling when it gripped him. +Characteristically, he tossed aside all considerations beyond the +gratification of the moment's desire. The sinking fire of youth blazed up +afresh. He would get the utmost out of this last night of revelry. +Wherever he went, a spirit of wild daring, of fevered gaiety, surrounded +him. He was no longer alone, whichever way he turned. Once in his mad +progress he met Sheila Melrose face to face, and she drew back from him +in open disgust. He laughed at her maliciously, mockingly, as his royal +forefather might have laughed long ago, and passed on with the throng. + +Hours later, when the _fête_ was over and the shore quite silent under +the stars, he came alone along the quay, moving with his own peculiar +arrogance of bearing, a cigarette between his lips, a deep gleam in his +eyes. It had been an amusing night after all. + +Crossing the gangway to his yacht--_The Night Moth_--that rocked softly +on the glimmering ripples, he paused for a moment and turned his face as +if in farewell towards the little town that lay sleeping among its +cypress-trees. So standing, he heard again the tinkle of a lute from some +hidden garden of delight. It was as if the magic were still calling to +him, luring him, reaching out white arms to hold him. He made a brief bow +towards the sound. + +"_Adieu_, most exquisite and most wicked!" he said. "I return--no more!" + +The cigarette fell from his lips into the dark water and there came a +faint sound like the hiss of a serpent in the stillness. He laughed as he +heard it, and pursued his way aboard the yacht. + +He found a young sailor, evidently posted to await his coming, snoring in +a corner, and shook him awake. + +The man blundered up with a confused apology, and Saltash laughed at him +derisively. + +"Wasting the magic hours in sleep, Parker? Well, I suppose dreams are +better than nothing. Were they--good dreams?" + +"I don't know, my lord," said Parker, grinning foolishly. + +Saltash clapped him on the shoulder and turned away. "Well, I'm ready for +the open sea now," he said. "We'll leave our dreams behind." + +He was always on easy terms with his sailors who worshipped him to a man. + +He whistled a careless air as he went below. The magic of Valrosa had +loosed its hold, and he was thinking of the wide ocean and buffeting +waves that awaited him. He turned on the lights of the saloon and stopped +there for another cigarette and a drink, first walking to and fro, +finally flinging himself on a crimson velvet settee and surrendering +himself luxuriously to a repose for which he had not felt the need until +that moment. + +So lying, he heard the stir and tramp of feet above him, the voices of +men, the lifting of the gangway; and presently the yacht began to throb +as though suddenly endowed with life. He felt the heave of the sea as she +left her moorings, and the rush of water pouring past her keel as she +drew away from the quay. + +He stretched himself with lazy enjoyment. It was good to come and go as +he listed, good to have no ties to bind him. He supposed he would always +be a wanderer on the face of the earth, and after all wandering suited +him best. True, there were occasions on which the thought of home allured +him. The idea of marriage with some woman who loved him would spring like +a beacon out of the night in moments of depression. Other men found a +permanent abiding-place and were content therewith; why not he? But he +only played with the notion. It did not seriously attract him. He was not +a marrying man, and, as he had said to Larpent, the woman did not exist +who could hold him. The bare thought of Sheila Melrose sent a mocking +smile to his lips. Did she think--did she really think--that she +possessed the necessary qualifications to capture a man of his +experience? He dismissed her with a snap of the fingers. Sheila had +practically everything in life to learn, and he did not propose to be her +teacher. + +His cigarette was finished and he got up. The yacht was speeding like a +winged thing on her way. There was never any fuss of departure when +Larpent was in command. He stood for a few seconds in indecision, +contemplating going up on to the bridge for a word with his captain and a +glance round. But some fantastic scruple deterred him. He had made his +farewell. He did not wish to see Valrosa again. He turned instead and +went to his cabin. + +All the appointments of the yacht were of the most luxurious order. She +possessed every imaginable contrivance for the comfort of those who +voyaged in her. Her state-cabins were a miracle of elegance and ease. + +Saltash never took a valet when he went for a voyage. The steward +attended to his clothes, and he waited on himself. He liked as much space +as he could get both on deck and below. + +He pushed open the door of his cabin and felt for the switch of the +electric light. But he did not press it when he found it. Something made +him change his mind. The faint light of stars upon rippling water came +to him through the open porthole, and he shut himself in and stepped +forward to the couch beneath it to look forth. + +But as he moved, another influence caught him, and he stopped short. + +"Is anyone here?" he said. + +Through the wash of the water he thought he heard a light movement, and +he felt a presence as of some small animal in the space before him. + +Swiftly he stepped back and in a moment his hand was on the switch. The +light flashed on, and in a moment he stood staring--at a fair-haired, +white-faced lad in a brown livery with brass buttons who stood staring +back at him with wide, scared eyes. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE GIFT + + +Saltash was the first to recover himself; he was seldom disconcerted, +never for long. + +"Hullo!" he said, with a quizzical twist of the eyebrows. "You, is it? +And what have you come for?" + +The intruder lowered his gaze abruptly, flushing to the roots of his fair +hair. "I came," he said, in a very low voice, "to--to ask you something." + +"Then you've come some distance to do it," said Saltash lightly, "for I +never turn back. Perhaps that was your idea, was it?" + +"No--no!" With a vehement shake of the head he made answer. "I didn't +think you would start so soon. I thought--I would be able to ask you +first." + +"Oh, indeed!" said Saltash. And then unexpectedly he laid a hand upon one +narrow shoulder and turned the downcast face upwards. "Ah! I thought he'd +marked you, the swine! What was he drubbing you for? Tell me that!" + +A great purple bruise just above one eye testified to the severity of the +drubbing; the small, boyish countenance quivered sensitively under his +look. With sudden impulse two trembling hands closed tightly upon his +arm. + +"Well?" said Saltash. + +"Oh, please, sir--please, my lord, I mean--" with great earnestness the +words came--"let me stay with you! I'll earn my keep somehow, and I +shan't take up much room!" + +"Oh, that's the idea, is it?" said Saltash. + +"Yes--yes!" The boy's eyes implored him,--blue eyes with short black +lashes that imparted an oddly childish look to a face that was otherwise +thin and sharp with anxiety. "I can do anything. I don't want to live +on charity. I can work. I'd love to work--for you." + +"You're a rum little devil, aren't you?" said Saltash. + +"I'm honest, sir! Really I'm honest!" Desperately the bony hands clung. +"You won't be sorry if you take me. I swear you'll never be sorry!" + +"What about you?" said Saltash. He was looking down into the upraised +face with a semi-quizzical compassion in his own. "Think you'd never be +sorry either?" + +A sudden smile gleamed across the drawn face. "Of course I shouldn't! +You're English." + +"Ah!" said Saltash, with a faintly wry expression. "Not necessarily white +on that account, my friend, so don't run away with that idea, I beg! I'm +quite capable of giving you a worse drubbing than the good Antonio, for +instance, if you qualified for it. I can be a terrifically wild beast +upon occasion. Look here, you imp! Are you starved or what? Do you want +something to eat?" + +The wiry fingers tightened on his arm. "No, sir--no, my lord--not really. +I often don't eat. I'm used to it." + +"But why the devil not?" demanded Saltash. "Didn't they feed you over +there?" + +"Yes--oh, yes. But I didn't want it. I was--too miserable." The blue eyes +blinked rapidly under his look as if half-afraid of him. + +"You little ass!" said Saltash in a voice that somehow reassured. "Sit +down there! Curl up if you like, and don't move till I come back!" + +He indicated the sofa, and quite gently but with decision freed his arm +from the nervously gripping hands. + +"You won't send me back?" the boy urged with quivering supplication. + +"No, I won't do that," said Saltash as he went away. + +He swore once or twice with considerable energy ere he returned, cursing +the absent Antonio in language that would have outmatched the Italian's +own. Then, having relieved his feelings, he abruptly laughed to himself +and pursued his errand with business-like briskness. + +Returning, he found his _protégé_ in a small heap on the sofa, with his +head deep in the cushion as though he sought escape from the light. Again +the feeling of harbouring some small animal in pain came to him, and he +frowned. The mute misery of that huddled form held a more poignant appeal +than any words. + +"Look here,--Toby!" he said. "I've brought you something to eat, and when +you've had it you'd better get a sleep. You can tell me all about it--if +you want to--in the morning." + +The boy started upright at his coming. He looked at Saltash in his quick, +startled way. It was almost as if he expected a kick at any moment. Then +he looked at the tray he carried and suddenly his face crumpled; he hid +it in his hands. + +"Oh, dash it!" said Saltash. "Let's have a little sense!" + +He set down the tray and flicked the fair head admonishingly, with his +thumb, still frowning. "Come! Be a sport!" he said. + +After a brief pause with a tremendous effort the boy pulled himself +together and sat up, but he did not raise his eyes to Saltash again. He +kept them fixed upon his hands which were tightly clasped in front of +him. + +"I'll do--whatever you tell me," he said, in a low voice. "No one has +ever been so--decent to me before." + +"Have one of those rolls!" said Saltash practically. "You'll talk better +with something inside you." + +He seated himself on the edge of his bunk and lit another cigarette, his +attitude one of royal indifference, but his odd eyes flashing to and fro +with a monkey-like shrewdness that missed nothing of his desolate +companion's forlorn state. + +"You've been doing this starvation business for some time, haven't you?" +he asked presently. "No wonder you didn't feel like work." + +The boy's pinched face smiled, a small wistful smile. "I can work," he +said. "I can do anything--women's work as well as men's. I can cook and +clean boots and knives and sew on buttons and iron trousers and wash +shirts and wait on tables and make beds and sweep and--" + +"For heaven's sake, stop!" said Saltash. "You make me giddy. Tell me the +things you can't do instead! It would take less time." + +Toby considered for a few moments. "I can't drive cars," he said at +length. "But I can clean 'em, and I'd love to learn." + +Saltash laughed. "That's the sole exception, is it? You seem to have +picked up a good deal in a short time. Did they teach you all that over +there?" + +Toby shook his head. "I've knocked about a good lot," he said. + +"And know everything evidently," said Saltash. "What made you think of +coming on board this yacht?" + +The boy's eyes gave him a shining look. "Because she belongs to you," he +said. + +"Oh!" Saltash puffed at his cigarette for a few seconds. "You'd made up +your mind to throw in your fortunes with mine, had you?" + +Toby nodded. "I wanted to--if you'd have me." + +"Seems I haven't much choice," remarked Saltash. "And what are you going +to do when you're tired of me? Fling yourself at someone else's head, I +suppose?" + +Again he saw the hot colour flood the thin face, but the boyish eyes did +not flinch from his. "No, I shan't do that," said Toby, after brief +reflection. "I'll just go right under next time." + +"Oh, will you?" said Saltash. "And so remain--a blot on my escutcheon for +all time. Well now, look here! You say you're honest?" + +"Yes, sir," said Toby with breathless assurance, and sprang up and stood +before him with the words, as though challenging criticism. + +Saltash poked at him with his foot, as he sat. "Make me a promise?" he +asked casually. + +"Anything you wish, my lord," said Toby promptly. + +Saltash grinned at him. "Be careful! I see you are of a rash and +impulsive disposition, and I like my slaves to have a little discretion. +The promise I want is that whatever happens to you,--however much I kick +you or bash you or generally ill-use you--you'll never jump overboard or +do anything silly of that kind. Is it done?" + +Toby was standing before him, facing him with straight, candid eyes. He +did not seem surprised at the suggestion so coolly made. Saltash noted +that it certainly did not shock him. + +"All right, sir," he said, after a moment. + +"It's a promise, is it?" said Saltash. + +Toby nodded. "Yes, sir." + +"Good!" said Saltash. He stretched out a hand and took him by one skinny +arm. "Better now?" he asked. + +"Yes, sir. Yes, my lord. Thank you, my lord." Toby's eyes smiling into +his. + +"Very well. I'll keep you," Saltash said. "Did anyone see you come +aboard?" + +"No, my lord." + +"Then you came with me, see? I brought you--if anyone wants to know." + +"Very good, my lord. Thank you, my lord." + +Saltash made a humorous grimace. "You can call me 'sir' if you like," he +said. "It makes no difference." + +"Thank you, sir," said Toby with a responsive grin. + +"And your name is Toby, is it? Toby what?" + +"Toby Wright, sir." Very promptly the answer came. + +Saltash's eyes scrutinized him with half derisive amusement. "I hope it's +a good fit," he remarked. "Well, look here, Toby, you must go to bed. Did +you bring any luggage on board?" + +"No, sir. 'Fraid not, sir. Very sorry, sir. I came away in a hurry," +explained Toby rather nervously. + +"And stole the hotel livery," said Saltash. + +"No, sir. Borrowed it," said Toby. + +"Ho! You're going to pay for it, are you?" questioned Saltash. + +"Yes, sir, some day. First money I get, sir. Don't want to have anything +belonging to that damn' Italian cur," said Toby, with much emphasis. + +"Naughty! Naughty!" said Saltash, pinching his arm. "Well, come along, +and I'll show you where you can sleep. There's a small cabin out of my +dressing-room you can have for the present. I haven't got my valet on +board." + +"Very good, sir, thank you. What time shall I call you, sir?" said Toby +brightly. + +"You needn't call me," said Saltash. "You can just lie quiet and take +care of that black eye of yours. I'll let you know when I want you." + +"Very good, sir," said Toby, looking crestfallen. + +Saltash stood up. "And you'll do as you're told--see?--always! That's +understood, is it?" + +Toby smiled again, eagerly, gratefully. "Yes, sir. Always, sir!" he said +promptly. "Shall I take off your boots before I go, sir?" + +"No. Look after yourself for the present!" said Saltash. "And don't get +up to mischief! There's a strict captain in command of this boat, so +you'd better mind how you go." + +The boy looked up at him with eyes of twinkling comprehension. He had +plainly forgotten the despair that had so nearly overwhelmed him. + +"Oh, I'll be very good, sir," he promised. "I won't get you into trouble +anyhow, sir." + +"You--imp!" said Saltash, pulling his ear. "Think I'll put up with your +impudence, do you? You'll play that game once too often if you're not +careful." + +Toby hastened to adjust his features to a becoming expression of gravity. +"I won't, sir. No, I won't. I'll be a good servant to you--the best +you've ever had. I'll never forget your goodness to me, and I'll pay back +somehow--that I will, sir." + +His boyish voice suddenly throbbed with emotion, and he stopped. Again +for a moment he had the forlorn look of a small animal astray from its +own. + +Saltash patted his shoulder kindly. "All right. That'll do. Don't be +tragic about it! Come along to your burrow and have a good square sleep!" + +He led him away without further words, and Toby went, gratefully and +submissively. + +A few minutes later Saltash came back with a smile on his ugly face, +half-quizzical, and half-compassionate. + +"Rum little devil!" he commented again as he began to undress. "So the +gods had a gift for me after all! Wonder what I shall do with it!" + +And then abruptly the smile became a mocking grimace that banished all +the kindliness from his face. He snapped his fingers and laughed as he +had laughed a little earlier when his cigarette had fallen into the water +with a sound like the hiss of a serpent. + +"I--wonder!" he said again. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +TOBY + + +It was contrary to Captain Larpent's habit to show surprise at any time, +whatever the caprices of his patron, but he did look at Saltash somewhat +harder than usual when the latter informed him in his breezy fashion of +the unexpected addition to the yacht's company. He also frowned a little +and smoothed his beard as though momentarily puzzled. + +"You won't want to be bothered with him," he said after brief reflection. +"Better let him sleep in the forecastle." + +"Not for the present," said Saltash. "I am going to train him, and I'll +keep him under my own eye. The little beggar has had a pretty rough time +of it to judge by appearances. I've a fancy for looking after him +myself." + +"What are you going to make of him?" asked Larpent. + +Saltash laughed carelessly, flicking the ash from his cigarette. "I'll +tell you that when I can show you the finished article. I'm keeping him +below for the present. He's got a prize-fighter's eye which is not +exactly an ornament. Like to have a look at him? You're ship's doctor." + +Larpent shrugged his shoulders. "P'raps I'd better. I'm not over-keen on +sudden importations. You never know what they may bring aboard with +them." + +Saltash's eyes gleamed mischievously. "Better inoculate the whole crew at +once! He's more like a stray spaniel than anything else." + +"A King Charles!" suggested Larpent, with the flicker of an eyelid. +"Well, my lord, let's have a look at your latest find!" + +They went below, Saltash whistling a careless air. He was usually in high +spirits when not suffering from boredom. + +Someone else was whistling in the vicinity of his cabin, but it was not +from the valet's cabin that the cheery sounds proceeded. They found him +in the bathroom with an oily rag, rubbing up the taps. + +He desisted immediately at their entrance and stood smartly at attention. +His eye was badly swollen and discoloured, he looked wretchedly ill, but +he managed to smile at Saltash, who took him by the shoulder and made +him face the light. + +"What are you doing in here, you--scaramouch? Didn't I tell you to lie +still? Here he is, Larpent! What do you think of him? A poor sort of +specimen, eh?" + +"What's his name?" said Larpent. + +"Toby Barnes, sir," supplied the boy promptly. + +"And there's nothing under the sun he can't do except drive cars," put in +Saltash, "and obey orders." + +Toby winced a little. "I'm sorry, sir. Only wanted to be useful, sir. +I'll go back to bed if you say so." + +"What do you say, Captain?" said Saltash. + +Larpent bent and looked closely at the injured eye. "The sooner the +better," he said after a brief examination. "Stay in bed for a week, and +then I'll look at you again!" + +"Oh, not a week!" exclaimed Toby, aghast, and then clapped a hand to his +mouth and was silent. + +But his look implored Saltash who laughed and pinched the shoulder under +his hand. "All right. We'll see how you get on. If we meet any weather +you'll probably be only too thankful to stay there." + +Toby smiled somewhat woefully, and said nothing. + +Larpent stood up. "I'll fetch some stuff to dress it with. Better have it +bandaged. Pretty painful, isn't it?" + +"No, sir," lied Toby valiantly. "Don't feel it at all." + +But he shrank with a quick gasp of pain when Larpent unexpectedly touched +the injury. + +"Don't hurt the child!" said Saltash sharply. + +Larpent smiled his faint, sardonic smile, and turned away. + +Toby laid his cheek with a winning, boyish gesture against the hand that +held him. "Don't make me go to bed, sir!" he pleaded. "I'll be miserable +in bed." + +Saltash looked down at him with eyebrows comically working. "It is rather +a hole--that cabin of yours," he conceded. "You can lie on the couch in +my stateroom if you like. Don't get up to mischief, that's all! I'm +responsible for you, remember." + +Toby thanked him humbly, swearing obedience and good behaviour. The +couch in Saltash's cabin was immediately under a porthole, and the fresh +sea-air blew straight in. He stretched his meagre person upon it with +a sigh of contentment, and Saltash smiled down upon him. "That's right. +You'll do there. Let's see! What did you say your name was?" + +"Toby, sir." + +"Toby Barnes or Toby Wright?" said Saltash. + +The boy started, turned very red, then very white, opened his mouth to +speak, shut it tightly, and said nothing. + +Saltash took out his cigarette-case and opened it with great +leisureliness. The smile still played about his ugly features as he chose +a cigarette. Finally he snapped the lid and looked down again at his +_protégé_. + +"Or Toby nothing?" he said. + +Toby's eyes came up to his, though the effort to raise them drew his face +painfully. + +"Whatever you like, my lord," he said faintly. "I'll answer to anything." + +Saltash's own face was curiously softened. He looked down at Toby for +some seconds in silence, idly tapping the cigarette he held against the +case. Then: "How old are you?" he asked suddenly. + +"Sixteen, sir." Toby's eyes with their dumb pleading were still anxiously +raised to his. + +Saltash bent abruptly and put his hand very lightly over them. "All +right. Don't hurt yourself!" he said kindly. "You're young enough to +chuck the past and start again." + +Toby's claw-like hands came up and closed upon his wrist. "Wish I could, +sir," he whispered with lips that quivered. "Haven't had much of a +chance--so far, sir." + +"All right," Saltash said again. "It's up to you. I shan't interfere. +Don't expect too much of me; that's all I ask! I'm not considered exactly +a suitable companion for young things like you." + +He drew his hand away and lighted his cigarette. Toby turned his face +into the cushion and lay very still. + +Larpent, returning, wondered what his patron had been saying to make the +boy's eyes wet with tears, but betrayed no curiosity on the subject. + +"Are you going to let him stay in here?" he asked, as he bound a +lotion-soaked pad over the damaged eye. + +"For the present," said Saltash. "Any objection?" + +"Not the smallest." Larpent's tone was absolutely noncommittal. "Make him +lie quiet, that's all!" + +"He'll do that," said Saltash with confidence. + +"Good!" said Larpent. "We're in for a blow before we reach Gib or I'm +much mistaken." + +"Do us all good," said Saltash with satisfaction. + +Larpent looked grim and said no more. + +"Frightened?" asked Saltash of Toby when he was gone. + +Toby chuckled at the thought. "Not a bit, sir." + +"Good sailor by any chance?" questioned Saltash. + +"No, sir; rotten, sir." Quite undaunted came the reply. + +"Well, shut your eyes and go to sleep!" commanded Saltash, and spread a +rug over the small, curled-up figure. + +Toby murmured his thanks and relaxed with a big sigh of content. + +Some hours later, when the blow that Larpent had prophesied had arrived +in earnest and the yacht was pitching on a wild sea in the light of a +lurid sunset, Saltash came below to change. + +He was met by Toby, ghastly of face but still desperately smiling, who +sprang from his couch to wait upon him, and collapsed at his feet. + +"Little ass!" said Saltash, barely preventing himself from tumbling over +him headlong. + +He lifted the light, trembling figure and put it down again upon the +couch. Then he poured out a dose of brandy and water and, holding the +boy's head on his arm while the yacht lifted and tossed, compelled him to +drink it. + +"Now you lie quiet!" he commanded. "Don't stir an eyelid till I give you +leave!" + +The porthole was shut, and the atmosphere close and stuffy. Toby put +forth an appealing hand and clung to his protector's sleeve. + +"Mayn't I come on deck, sir?" he murmured anxiously. "Please, sir!" + +"No," said Saltash. + +Toby said no more, but his fingers fastened like a bird's claw on the +man's arm, and he shivered. + +"You're frightened!" said Saltash. + +"No, sir! No, sir!" he protested. + +"Yes, you are. You needn't bother to lie to me. I always know." Saltash's +voice held an odd note of comradeship. "Beastly sensation, isn't it? Have +some more brandy!" + +Then, as Toby refused, he sat down abruptly on the edge of the couch and +thrust an arm out to him. Toby crept to him then like a nervous dog and +trembled against his side. + +"Little ass!" said Saltash again. "Been lying here sweating with terror, +have you? There's nothing whatever to sweat about. She's as safe as +houses." + +"Yes, sir. I know, sir," whispered Toby apologetically. + +Saltash's arm surrounded him with a comforting closeness. "You miserable +little shrimp!" he said. "How's the head?" + +"Better, sir. Thank you, sir," muttered Toby. + +"Why not tell the truth for once and say it hurts like hell?" suggested +Saltash. + +Toby was silent. + +"Do you know what I'm going to do with you?" said Saltash. + +"No, sir." Toby stirred uneasily. + +The vessel pitched to a sudden slant and Saltash braced himself, +protecting the fair head from a blow against the woodwork behind him. +"I'm going to put you to bed in my bunk here," he said. "You've got to +have a decent night's rest. Did Murray look you out any spare slops? I +told him to." + +"Oh, yes, sir. Thank you, sir. But I couldn't sleep in your bunk, +sir,--please, sir--indeed, sir!" Toby, still held by the sheltering arm, +waxed incoherent, almost tearful. + +Saltash pulled him up short. "You'll do as I tell you--now and always," +he said, with royal finality. "You've put yourself in my hands, and +you'll have to put up with the consequences. Got that?" + +"Yes, sir," said Toby meekly. + +"Then don't forget it!" said Saltash. + +Toby subsided without further protest. Perhaps the brandy helped to make +him quiescent, or perhaps it was only the realization of his utter +weakness and dependence; but from that moment he was as submissive as if +he had been indeed the small captive animal to which his new owner had +likened him. At Saltash's behest and with his help, he presently crept +back to his own cabin to divest himself of his hotel-livery and don the +very roomy suit of pajamas that Murray the steward had served out to him. + +Then, barefooted, stumbling, and shivering, he returned to where Saltash +leaned smoking in the narrow dressing-room, awaiting him. + +Saltash's dark face wore a certain look of grimness. He bent without +words and lifted the shrinking figure in his arms. + +Ten seconds later Toby sank down in a berth as luxurious as any ever +carried by private yacht. + +He was still shivering though a grateful warmth came about him as Saltash +tucked him in. He tried to murmur thanks, but ended with a quivering chin +and silence. + +"Go to sleep, you little ass!" commanded Saltash. + +And so at last Toby slept, the deep, unstirring sleep of exhaustion, +utterly unconscious of his surroundings, unaware of the man who came in +and out watching that unchanging repose, sublimely oblivious of all +observation, sunk in a slumber so remote that it might have been the last +long rest of all. + +Saltash spent the night on the velvet couch under the closed porthole, +dozing occasionally and always awakening with a jerk as the roll of the +vessel threatened to pitch him on to the floor of the cabin. It was not a +comfortable means of resting but he endured it in commendable silence +with now and then a grimace which said more than words. + +And the little waif that the gods had flung to him slept in his bunk all +through the long hours as peacefully as an effigy upon a tomb. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +DISCIPLINE + + +The storm spent itself before they reached Gibraltar, and Toby emerged +smiling from his captivity below. He still wore the brown and gold +hotel-livery as there was nothing else on board to fit him, but from +Gibraltar a small packet of notes was dispatched to Antonio by Saltash in +settlement of the loan. + +"Now I've bought you--body and soul," he said to Toby, whose shining look +showed naught but satisfaction at the announcement. + +The vivid colours of his injured eye had faded to a uniform dull yellow, +and he no longer wore a bandage. When they put to sea again he was no +longer an invalid. He followed Saltash wherever he went, attended +scrupulously to his comfort, and when not needed was content to sit +curled up like a dog close to him, dumb in his devotion but always ready +to serve him. + +Saltash treated him with a careless generosity that veiled a good deal of +consideration. He never questioned him with regard to his past, taking +him for granted in a fashion that set Toby completely at ease. No one +else had much to do with him. Larpent ignored him, and Murray the steward +regarded him with a deep suspicion that did not make for intimacy. + +And Toby was happy. Day after day his cheery whistle arose over his work +while he polished Saltash's boots and brushed his clothes, or swept and +dusted the state-cabin in which he slept. He himself had returned to his +own small den that led out of Saltash's dressing-room, but the +intervening doors were kept open by Saltash's command. They were always +within hail of each other. + +They went into perfect summer weather, and for a blissful week they +voyaged through blue seas with a cloudless sky overhead. Toby's white +skin began to tan. The sharp lines went out of his face. His laugh was +frequent and wholly care-free. He even developed a certain impudence in +his attitude towards his master to which Saltash extended the same +tolerance that he might have shown for the frolics of a favourite dog. He +accepted Toby's services, but he never treated him wholly as a servant. + +It was an odd companionship which only the isolated life they led during +those few days could have developed along those particular lines. When +Saltash was bored he amused himself with his protege, teaching him +picquet and chess, and finding in him an apt and eager pupil. There was a +good deal of the gambler's spirit in Toby, and Saltash idly fostered it +because it gave him sport. He laughed at his opponent's keenness, +supplied stakes for the game, even good-naturedly let himself be beaten. + +And then one day he detected Toby cheating. It was an end that he might +have foreseen. He had encouraged the fever, he had practically sown the +seeds; but, strangely, he was amazed, more disconcerted than he had been +for years by the consequences. For it was not his way to disturb himself +over anything. His principles were easy to laxness. But that Toby--the +urchin he had sheltered and nursed like a sick puppy--should have done +this thing somehow cut clean through his complacence. + +"I'm going to give you a licking for that," he said, black brows drawn to +a stern line. "You can go below and wait for it." + +Toby went like an arrow, and Saltash spent the next half-hour pacing the +deck, cursing himself, the youngster, and the insane and ridiculous Fate +that had linked them together. + +Then he went below to administer judicial corporal punishment to a human +being for the first time in his life. As he himself whimsically expressed +it, he had received ample correction during his own chequered career; but +he had never been in a position to correct anyone else. + +He found Toby waiting for him in his shirt-sleeves, rather white but +quite composed, his riding-switch all ready to his hand. + +"Ever been flogged before?" he asked him curtly as he picked it up. + +"No, sir," said Toby, with downcast eyes. + +"Why not?" There was a gibing note in Saltash's voice. "Never qualified +before?" + +Toby shot him a swift and nervous glance that was like a flash of blue +flame. "No, sir. Never been caught before," he said. + +Saltash's eyes flickered humour, but he steeled himself. "Well, you're +caught this time--fairly caught. I may not be a specially fit person to +punish you for it, but you won't be let off on that account." + +"Go ahead, sir!" said Toby, with his hands twisted into a bony knot in +front of him. + +And Saltash went ahead. His heart was not in the business, and as he +smote the narrow bent back it cried shame on him. Toby made no sound, but +at the third stroke he winced, and Saltash with a terrific oath in French +hurled his switch violently at the opposite wall. + +"There! Don't do it again!" he said, and swung him round to face him. +"Sorry? What?" + +Then he saw that Toby was crying, and abruptly let him go, striding out +through the dining-saloon and up the companion-way, swearing strange +oaths in varied languages as he went. + +He was openly rude to Larpent when the latter sauntered up for a word +with him a little later, but Larpent, knowing him, merely hunched his +shoulders as his custom was and sauntered away again. + +When Saltash went down to dress for dinner, he found his clothes laid out +as usual, but no Toby in attendance. His first impulse was to look for +him, but he checked it and dressed in solitude. This thing must be +conducted in the approved judicial manner at all costs. + +Larpent was stolidly awaiting him in the saloon, and they sat down +together. Usually Toby stood behind his master's chair, and the vacant +place oppressed Saltash. He talked jerkily, with uneasy intervals of +silence. + +Larpent talked not at all beyond the demands of ordinary courtesy. He ate +well, drank sparingly, and when not listening to Saltash's somewhat +spasmodic conversation appeared immersed in thought. When the meal was +over, he refused coffee, and rose to go on deck. + +Then, abruptly, Saltash stayed him. "Larpent, wait a minute--unless +you're in a hurry! Have a cigar with me!" + +Larpent paused, looking across at the dark, restless face with the air of +a man making a minute calculation. "Shall we smoke on deck, my lord?" he +said at length. + +Saltash sprang up as though he moved on wires. "Yes, all right. Get the +cigars, Murray!" he commanded the steward; and to Larpent as the man went +to obey, "That's decent of you. Thought you were going to refuse. I was +damned offensive a while back. Accept my apologies! Fact is--I'm fed up +with this show. Sorry if I disappoint you, but I'm going home." + +"You never disappoint me, my lord," said Larpent, with his enigmatical +smile. + +Saltash gave him a keen look and uttered a laugh that was also not +without its edge. "I like you, Larpent," he said. "You always tell the +truth. Well, let's go! We shan't make Jamaica this trip, but it doesn't +matter. In any case, it's a shame to miss the spring in England." + +"Or the Spring Meetings?" suggested Larpent, as he chose his cigar. + +"Quite so," said Saltash, almost with relief. "My old trainer--the man +who bought my racing-stud--always looks for me about now. You ought to +meet him by the way. He is another speaker of cruel truths." + +He thrust a hand through his captain's arm as they left the saloon, and +they went on deck together. Though Larpent never made any sign of +resentment, yet was Saltash never wholly at his ease when he knew that he +had taxed his forbearance until he had made amends. He took the trouble +to make himself unusually agreeable as they settled down to their smoke. + +It was a night of glorious stars, the sea one vast stretch of silver +ripples, through which the yacht ran smoothly, leaving a wide white trail +behind her. Saltash lay in a deck-chair with his face to the sky, but his +attitude was utterly lacking in the solid repose that characterized his +companion. He smoked his cigar badly, with impatient pulls. When it was +half gone, he suddenly swore and flung it overboard. + +"Larpent," he said, breaking a silence, "if you were a damned +rotter--like me--what should you do with yourself?" + +Larpent turned his head and quietly surveyed him. "I shouldn't run a home +for waifs and strays," he said deliberately. + +Saltash made a sharp movement. "Then I suppose you'd leave 'em in the +gutter to starve," he said, with suppressed vehemence. + +"No, I shouldn't. I'd pay someone else--someone who wasn't what you +called yourself just now--to look after 'em." Larpent's voice was +eminently practical if somewhat devoid of sympathy. "Gutter-snipes are +damned quick to pick up--things they ought not," he observed dryly. + +Saltash stirred uncomfortably in his chair as though something pricked +him. "Think I'm a contaminating influence?" he said. + +Larpent shrugged his shoulders. "It's not for me to say. All diseases are +not catching--any more than they are incurable." + +"Ho!" Saltash laughed suddenly and rather bitterly. "Are you +suggesting--a cure?" + +Larpent turned his head back again and puffed a cloud of smoke upwards. +"There's a cure for most things," he observed. + +"Can the Ethiopian change his skin?" gibed Saltash. + +Larpent was silent for a space. Then: "A painful process no doubt!" he +said. "But more wonderful things have happened." + +"Pshaw!" said Saltash. + +Nevertheless when Larpent rose a little later and bade him good-night, he +reached up a couple of fingers in careless comradeship. + +"Good-night, old fellow! Thanks for putting up with me! Sure you don't +want to kick me?" + +"Not when you're kicking yourself," said Larpent with a grim hint of +humour. + +He took the extended fingers and received a wiry handclasp that caused +him faint surprise. But then, he reflected as he went away, he had always +known Saltash to be a queer devil, oddly balanced, curiously impulsive, +strangely irresponsible, possessing through all a charm which seldom +failed to hold its own. He realized by instinct that Saltash was +wrestling with himself that night, but, though he knew him better than +did many, he would not have staked anything on the result. There were two +selves in Saltash and, in Larpent's opinion, one was as strong as the +other. + +It was nearly an hour later that Saltash, prowling to and fro in the +starlight, became suddenly aware of a figure, small and slight, with +gleaming brass buttons, standing behind his vacant chair. He turned +sharply to look at it, some inexplicable emotion twitching his dark face. +Then abruptly he moved towards it, stood for a second as one in doubt, +then turned and sat down in silence. + +But as he settled himself he stretched forth an arm with a snap of the +fingers, and in a flash Toby was kneeling by his side. The arm closed +around him like a spring, and Toby uttered a low, tense sob and hid his +face. + +Thereafter for a while there was no sound beside the throb of engines and +wash of water. Saltash sat absolutely motionless with eyes half-closed. +Save for the vitality of his hold, he might have been on the verge of +slumber. And Toby, crouched with his head in his hands, was as a carven +image, neither stirring nor seeming to breathe. + +The man moved at length, flicking his eyes open as though some unseen +force had prodded him into action. He spoke with a brevity that might +have denoted some sternness but for the close grip of his arm. + +"Have you been sulking all this time?" + +Toby started at his voice and burrowed a little deeper. "No, sir." + +"Well, why didn't you come before?" said Saltash. + +"I was--afraid," whispered Toby piteously. + +"Afraid! Why on earth?" Saltash's hand suddenly found and fondled +the fair head. His speech was no longer curt, but gentle, with a +half-quizzical tenderness. "Aren't you rather an ass, boy? What was +there to be afraid of?" + +Toby could not tell him. He only, after a moment, slipped down in a +sitting position by Saltash's side and rested with more assurance against +the encircling arm. + +"Come! I didn't hurt you much," said Saltash. + +"No, sir. You didn't hurt me--at all." Toby stammered a little. +"You--you--you meant--not to hurt me, didn't you?" + +"I must hit harder next time evidently," observed Saltash, with a squeeze +of the narrow shoulders. + +"No, sir--no, sir! There shan't be--a next time!" Toby assured him with +nervous vehemence. "I only did it just to see--just to see--I'll never do +it again, sir." + +"Just to see what?" asked Saltash curiously. + +But again Toby could not explain himself, and he did not press him. + +"Well, you didn't do it at all well," he remarked. "I shouldn't certainly +make a profession of it if I were you. It's plainly not your _métier_." + +He paused, but with the air of having something more to say. Toby waited +silently. + +It came with a jerk and a grimace, as if some inner force compelled. "I +can't talk pi-jaw--on this subject or any other. You see--I'm a rotter +myself." + +"You, sir!" Toby lifted his head suddenly and stared at him with eyes +that blazed passionately blue in the starlight. "Don't believe it!" he +said. "It isn't true." + +Saltash grinned a little. His face had the dreary look of something lost +that a monkey's sometimes wears. "You needn't believe it, son, if you +don't want to," he said. "But it's true all the same. That's why I gave +you that licking, see? Just to emphasize the difference between us." + +"It isn't true!" Toby asserted again almost fiercely. "I'd kill anyone +else that said so." + +"Oh, you needn't do that!" said Saltash, with kindly derision. "Thanks +all the same, my turkey-cock! If I ever need your protection I'll be sure +to ask for it." He flicked the young face with his finger. "But you're +not to follow my example, mind. You've got to run straight. You're young +enough to make it worth while, and--I'll see you have a chance." + +"But you'll keep me with you, sir," said Toby swiftly. "You'll keep +me--always--with you!" + +"Ah!" Saltash's brows twisted oddly for a second. He seemed to ponder the +matter. "I can't say off-hand what I'm going to do with you," he said. +"You're--a bit of a problem, you know, Toby." + +"Yes, sir. I know. I know." Toby's voice was quick with agitation. "But +you won't send me away from you! Promise you won't send me away!" + +"Can't promise anything," said Saltash. "Look here! I think there's been +enough of this. You'd better go to bed." + +But Toby was clinging fast to his hand. He spoke between quivering lips. +"Please, sir, you said you'd bought me body and soul. You can't mean to +chuck me away--after that! Please, sir, I'll do anything--anything under +the sun--for you. And you--you can kick me--do anything to me--and I'll +never say a word. I'm just yours--for as long as I live. Please, +sir--please, sir--don't send me away! I--I'd rather die than that." + +He laid his head suddenly down upon the hand he held so tenaciously and +began to sob, fighting desperately to stifle all sound. + +Saltash sat for a few moments in utter silence and immobility. Then, +abruptly, in a tense whisper, he spoke: + +"Toby, you little fool, stop it--stop it, do you hear?--and go below!" + +The words held a queer urgency. He raised himself as he uttered them, +seeking to free his hand though with all gentleness from the clinging +clasp. + +"Get up, boy!" he said. "Get up and go to bed! What? Oh, don't cry! Pull +yourself together! Toby, do you hear?" + +Toby lifted a white, strained face. His eyes looked enormous in the dim +light. "Yes, sir. All right, sir," he jerked out, and stumbled trembling +to his feet. "I know I'm a fool, sir. I'm sorry. I can't help it. No one +was ever decent to me--till you came. I--shall just go under now, sir." + +"Oh, stop it!" Saltash spoke almost violently. "Can't you see--that's +just what I want to prevent? You don't want to go to the devil, I +suppose?" + +Toby made a passionate gesture that was curiously unboylike. "I'd go to +hell and stay there for ever--if you were there!" he said. + +"Good God!" said Saltash. + +He got up in his sudden fashion and moved away, went to the rail and +stood there for a space with his face to the rippling sheen of water. +Finally he turned and looked at the silent figure waiting beside his +chair, and a very strange smile came over his dark features. He came +back, not without a certain arrogance, and tapped Toby on the shoulder. + +"All right," he said. "Stay with me and be damned if you want to! I +daresay it would come to the same thing in the end." + +Toby drew himself together with a swift movement. "That means you'll keep +me, sir?" + +His eyes, alight and eager, looked up to Saltash with something that was +not far removed from adoration in their shining earnestness. + +The strange smile still hovered about Saltash's face; a smile in which +cynicism and some vagrant, half-stifled emotion were oddly mingled. + +"Yes, I'll keep you," he said, and paused, looking at him oddly. + +Toby's eyes, very wide open, intensely bright, looked straight back. "For +good, sir?" he said anxiously. + +And Saltash laughed, a brief, mocking laugh. "For better, for worse, my +Toby!" he said. "Now--go!" + +He smote him a light friendly blow on the shoulder and flung round on his +heel. + +Toby went, very swiftly, without looking back. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE ABYSS + + +They sighted the English shore a few days later on an evening of mist and +rain. The sea was grey and dim, the atmosphere cold and inhospitable. + +"Just like England!" said Saltash. "She never gushes over her prodigals." + +He was dining alone in the saloon with Toby behind his chair, Larpent +being absent on the bridge. + +"Don't you like England, sir?" said Toby. + +"I adore her," said Saltash with his most hideous grimace. "But I don't +go to her for amusement." + +Toby came forward to fill his glass with liqueur. "Too strait-laced, +sir?" he suggested with the suspicion of a smile. + +Saltash nodded with a sidelong glance at the young face bent over the +decanter. "Too limited in many ways, my Toby," he said. "But at the same +time useful in certain emergencies. A stern mother perhaps, but a wise +one on the whole. You, for instance--she will be the making of you." + +A slight tremor went through Toby. He set down the decanter and stepped +back. "Of me, sir?" he said. + +Saltash nodded again. He was fingering the stem of his glass, his +queer eyes dancing a little. "We've got to make a respectable citizen +of you--somehow," he said. + +"Do you think that matters, sir?" said Toby. + +Saltash raised his glass. "You won't always be a boy of sixteen, you +know, Toby," he said lightly. "We've got to think of the future--whether +we want to or not." + +"I don't see why, sir," said Toby. + +"You see, you're young," said Saltash, and drank with the air of one who +drinks a toast. + +Suddenly he turned in his chair, the glass still in his hand. + +"Our last night on board!" he said, with a royal gesture of invitation. +"You shall drink with me." + +Toby's face flushed burningly. He hung back. "Not--not--from your glass, +sir!" he said. "Not--liqueur!" + +"Why not? Afraid?" mocked Saltash. + +Toby was silent. His hand closed involuntarily upon the back of his +master's chair. The flush died out of his face. + +Saltash sat and looked at him for a few seconds, still with that dancing +gleam in his eyes. Then abruptly he moved, rose with one knee upon the +chair, lifted the glass to Toby's lips. + +"Afraid?" he said again, speaking softly as one speaks to a frightened +child. + +Toby raised a hand that sought to take the glass but closed instead +nervously upon Saltash's wrist. He drank in response to Saltash's +unspoken insistence, looking straight at him the while. + +Then oddly he smiled. "No, not afraid, sir," he said. "Only--lest I might +not bring you luck." + +"Oh, don't fret yourself on that account!" said Saltash. "I'm not used to +any luck." + +Toby's eyes widened. "I thought you had--everything, sir," he said. + +Saltash laughed and set down the empty glass. "_Au contraire, mon cher_," +he said. "I am no richer than you are. Like Tantalus, I can never quench +my thirst. Like many a better man than I, I see the stars, but I never +reach them." + +"Does anybody?" said Toby in the tone of one not expecting an answer. + +Saltash laughed briefly, enigmatically. "I believe some people soar. But +they generally come down hard in the end. Whereas those who always crawl +on the earth haven't far to fall. Now look here, Toby, you and I have got +to have a talk." + +"Yes, sir," said Toby, blinking rather rapidly. + +Saltash was watching him with a faint smile in his eyes, half-derisive +and half-tender. "What are you going to be, Toby?" he said. "It all turns +on that." + +Toby's hand still gripped the back of his chair. He stood up very +straight, facing him. "That is for you to decide, sir," he said. + +"Is it?" said Saltash, and again his eyes gleamed a little. "Is it for me +to decide?" + +"Yes, sir. For you alone." There was no flinching in Toby's look now. His +eyes were wide and very steady. + +Saltash's mouth twitched as if he repressed some passing emotion. "You +mean--just that?" he asked, after a moment. + +"Just that, sir," said Toby, with a slight quickening of the breath. "I +mean I am--at your disposal alone." + +Saltash took him suddenly by the shoulder and looked at him closely. +"Toby!" he said. "Aren't you making--rather a fool of yourself?" + +"No, sir!" Swiftly, with unexpected vehemence, Toby made answer. "I'm +doing--the only thing possible. But if you--if you--if you--" + +"Well?" Saltash said. "If I what?" + +"If you want to get rid of me--at any time," Toby said, commanding +himself with fierce effort, "I'll go, sir--I'll go!" + +"And where to?" Saltash's eyes were no longer derisive; they held +something that very few had ever seen there. + +Toby made a quick gesture of the hands, and dropped them flat at his +sides. "I'll get rid of myself--then, sir," he said, with sudden chill +pride. "That won't be very difficult. And I'll do it--so that you won't +even know." + +Saltash stood up abruptly. "Toby, you are quite unique!" he said. "Superb +too in your funny little way. Your only excuse is that you're young. Does +it never occur to you that you've attached yourself to the wrong person?" + +"No, sir," breathed Toby. + +"You're not afraid to stake all you've got on a bad card?" pursued +Saltash, still curiously watching him. + +"No, sir," he said again; and added with his faint, unboyish smile, "I +haven't much to lose anyway." + +Saltash's hand tightened upon him. He was smiling also, but the gleam in +his eyes had turned to leaping, fitful flame. "Well," he said slowly, "I +have never yet refused--a gift from the gods." + +And there he stopped, for suddenly, drowning all speech, there arose a +din that seemed to set the whole world rocking; and in a moment there +came a frightful shock that pitched them both headlong to the floor. + +Saltash fell as a monkey falls, catching at one thing after another to +save himself, landing eventually on his knees in pitch darkness with one +hand still gripped upon Toby's thin young arm. But Toby had struck his +head against a locker and had gone down stunned and helpless. + +The din of a siren above them filled the world with hideous clamour as +Saltash recovered himself. "Damn them!" he ejaculated savagely. "Do they +want to deafen us as well as send us to perdition?" + +Then very suddenly it stopped, leaving a void that was instantly filled +with lesser sounds. There arose a confusion of voices, of running feet, a +hubbub of escaping steam, and a great rush of water. + +Saltash dragged himself up in the darkness, sought to drag Toby also, +found him a dead weight, stooped and lifted him with wiry strength. +He trod among broken glass and plates as he straightened himself. The +noise above them was increasing. He flung the limp form over his shoulder +and began desperately to claw his way up a steep slant towards the +saloon-door and the companion-way. Sound and instinct guided him, for the +darkness was complete. But he was not the man to die like a trapped +animal while the most slender way of escape remained. Hampered as he was, +he made for the open with set teeth and terrible foreign oaths of which +he was utterly unconscious. + +Whether that fierce struggle for freedom could ever have ended in success +single-handed, however, was a point which he was not destined to decide, +for after a space of desperate effort which no time could measure, there +suddenly shone the gleam of an electric torch in front of him, and he saw +the opening but a few feet away. + +"Saltash!" cried a voice, piercing the outer din, "Saltash!" + +"Here!" yelled back Saltash, still fighting for foothold and finding it +against the leg of the table, "That you, Larpent? How long have we got?" + +"Seconds only!" said Larpent briefly. "Give me the child!" + +"No! Just give me a hand, that's all! Hang on tight! It'll be a pull." + +Saltash flung himself forward again, his free hand outstretched, slipped +and nearly fell on his face, then was caught by a vice-like grip that +drew him upward with grim strength. In a moment he was braced against the +frame of the door, almost standing on it, the saloon gaping below him--a +black pit of destruction. Larpent's torch showed the companion stairs +practically perpendicular above them. + +"Go on!" said Larpent. "Better give me the child. It's you that matters." + +"Get out, damn you!" said Saltash, and actually grinned as he began to +climb with his burden still hanging upon his shoulder. + +Larpent came behind him, holding his torch to light the way. They climbed +up into a pandemonium indescribable, a wild torrent of sound. + +There was light here that shone in a great flare through billows of fog, +showing the monster form of a great vessel towering above them with only +a few yards of mist-wreathed water between. The deck on which they stood +sloped upwards at an acute angle, and still from below there came the +clamour of escaping steam accompanied by a spasmodic throbbing that was +like the futile beating of giant wings against Titanic bars. + +A knot of men were struggling to lower a boat by the ghostly glare that +lit the night about them, clambering and slipping against the rails, +while a voice from beyond the fog-curtain yelled through a megaphone +unintelligible commands. + +All these things were registered upon Saltash's brain, his quick +perception leaping from point to point with a mental agility that was +wholly outside all conscious volition on his part. He was driven by +circumstance as a bird is driven by storm, and he went before it +undismayed, missing no chance of refuge. + +A life-buoy hanging beside the hatch caught his eye as he glanced swiftly +around and in a second he pounced upon it. Toby slipped from his shoulder +as he bent, and slipping awoke. But he only lay and stared with dazed +eyes at the man frantically unlashing the rope, as one who looked on from +afar. + +Then Larpent was with them again. He dragged Toby to his feet, and in a +flash Saltash turned, the life-buoy on his arm. + +"What the devil are you doing?" + +Larpent pointed. "They've got the boat free. Go--while you can!" + +But Saltash barely glanced across. He put the life-buoy over Toby's head +and shoulders, and began to wind the rope around him. It did not need a +glance to know that the boat would never get away. + +At his action Toby gasped, and sudden understanding awoke in his eyes. He +dragged one arm free, and made as if he would cling to Saltash. + +"Keep me with you, sir!" he cried out wildly. "Don't make me go alone!" + +Saltash gripped the clutching hand, dropping the end of rope. It trailed +down, and Larpent caught it, flung it round Saltash's body, and knotted +it while he was lifting Toby over the rail. + +Then for a second Saltash hung, one hand still gripping Toby's, the other +holding to the rail of his sinking yacht, the two of them poised side by +side above the abyss. + +"You'll save yourself, Larpent!" he cried. "I shall want you." + +And with that he turned suddenly to his shivering companion and +actually smiled into the terrified eyes. "Come on, Toby!" he said. "We +go--together!" + +He flung his leg over with the words, and leapt straight downwards. + +Toby's shriek sounded through the tumult as they went into the grey +depths. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +LARPENT'S DAUGHTER + + +The sinking of _The Night Moth_ after being in collision with the liner, +_Corfe Castle_, bound for Brazil, was an event of sufficient importance +to be given a leading place in the newspapers of the following day. Lord +Saltash was well-known as a private yachtsman, and the first account +which reported him amongst the drowned was received with widespread +regret throughout that circle in which he was a familiar figure. Then at +a later hour came its contradiction, and his friends smiled and remarked +that he had the facility of an eel for getting out of tight corners, and +that they would never believe him dead till they had been to his funeral. + +Long before the publication of the second report, Saltash was seated in +the captain's cabin on board the _Corfe Castle_, with a strong brandy and +soda before him, giving a brief and vigorous account of himself and his +company. Yes, he was Charles Burchester, Viscount Saltash, owner of the +private yacht, _The Night Moth_. He was returning from Valrosa alone with +his captain and his crew. They had been cruising in the Atlantic with the +idea of going south, but he had recently changed his mind and decided +to go home. He had not expected such damnable luck as to be run down in +home waters, but he supposed that Fate was against him. He only asked now +to be put ashore as soon as possible, being for the moment heartily sick +of sea-travel. This with his most rueful grimace which Captain Beaumont +of the _Corfe Castle_ received with gravely official sympathy. + +"Well, I hope you don't blame us for your bad luck," he said. "We might +have been sunk ourselves." + +"I never blame anyone but the devil for that," said Saltash generously. +"And as you managed to pick us all up I am glad on the whole that you +weren't." + +And then he turned sharply at a knock on the door behind him to see a +lean, lank man enter who peered at him curiously through screwed-up eyes +as though he had never seen anything like him before. + +Captain Beaumont introduced him. "This is Dr. Hurst. He has come to +report. Well, doctor? I hope you bring good news." + +Dr. Hurst came forward to the table, still looking very attentively at +Saltash. + +The latter's odd eyes challenged him with royal self-assurance. "Well? +What is the news?" he questioned. "Fished for a sprat and caught a +whale--or is it t'other way round?" + +The doctor cleared his throat and turned to the captain. "Yes, my report +is good on the whole," he said. "None of the men are seriously injured, +thanks to your prompt rescue measures. Captain Larpent is still +unconscious; he is suffering from concussion. But I believe he will +recover. And--and--" he hesitated, looking again at Saltash--"the--the +person whose life you saved--" + +Saltash leaned back in his chair, grinning mischievously. "To be sure! +The person--whose life I saved! What of that person, Dr. Hurst?" + +"Had you a passenger?" interrupted the captain. "I understood you saved a +cabin-boy." + +"Pray continue!" he said lightly. "What of the cabin-boy? None the worse, +I hope?" + +The doctor's lank figure drew together with a stiff movement of distaste. +"I see," he said, "that you are aware of a certain fact which I must +admit has given me a somewhat unpleasant surprise." + +Saltash turned abruptly to the captain. "You ask me if I had a +passenger," he said, speaking briefly, with a hint of hauteur. "Before +you also begin to be unpleasantly surprised, let me explain that I had a +child on board who did not belong to the ship's company." + +"A child?" Captain Beaumont looked at him in astonishment. "I thought--I +understood--Do you mean the boy?" + +"Not a boy, no,--a girl!" Saltash's voice was suddenly very suave; he was +smiling still, but there was something rather formidable about his smile. +"A young girl, Captain Beaumont, but amply protected, I assure you. It +was our last night on board. She was masquerading in the state-cabin in a +page's livery when you struck us. But for Larpent we should have been +trapped there like rats when the yacht went down. He came and hauled us +out, and we saved the child between us." He turned again to the doctor, +his teeth gleaming fox-like between his smiling lips. "Really, I am sorry +to disappoint you," he said. "But the truth is seldom as highly-coloured +as our unpleasant imaginings. The child is--Larpent's daughter." He rose +with the words, still suavely smiling. "And now, if she is well enough, I +am going to ask you to take me to her. It will be better for her to hear +about her father from me than from a stranger." + +Though courteously uttered, his words contained a distinct command. The +doctor looked at him with the hostility born of discomfiture, but he +raised no protest. Somehow Saltash was invincible at that moment. + +"Certainly you can see her if you wish," he said stiffly. "In fact, she +has been asking for you." + +"Ah!" said Saltash, and turned with ceremony to the captain. "Have I your +permission to go, sir?" + +"Of course--of course!" the captain said. "I shall hope to see you again +later, Lord Saltash." + +"Thank you," said Saltash, and relaxed into his sudden grin. "I should +have thought you would be glad to get rid of me before my bad luck +spreads any further." + +The _Corfe Castle_, herself slightly damaged, was putting back to +Southampton to land the victims of the disaster, and to obtain some +necessary repairs. The weather was thickening, and progress was slow, but +they expected to arrive before mid-day. Saltash, carelessly sauntering in +the doctor's wake, found himself the object of considerable interest on +the part of those passengers who were already up in the murk of the early +morning. He was stopped by several to receive congratulations upon his +escape, but he refused to be detained for long. He had business below, he +said, and the doctor was waiting. And so at last he came to a cabin at +the end of a long passage, at the door of which a kind-faced stewardess +met them and exchanged a few words with his guide. + +"Can I go in?" said Saltash, growing impatient. + +The woman looked at him with wonder and compassion in her eyes. "The poor +little thing is very upset," she said. "She lies and trembles, and has +hardly spoken at all except to ask for you." + +"Well, let me in!" said Saltash, suddenly imperious. "I've got something +to tell her." + +He had his way, for there was something about him that compelled just +then. He entered the cabin as a king might enter the apartment of a +slave, and he shut the door with decision upon those without. + +Then for a second--just for a second--he hesitated. "Toby!" he said. + +A meagre form sprang upright in the bunk at the sound of his voice. Two +bare, skinny arms reached out to him. Then with a single stride Saltash +was beside the bunk and was holding tightly to him a small, whimpering +creature that hid its face very deeply against his breast and clutched at +him piteously whenever he sought to raise it. + +Saltash bent his dark head over the fair one and spoke very gently, yet +with authority. "It's all right, child. I know. I've known all along! +Don't fret yourself! There's no need. I've got you under my protection. +You're safe." + +"You--know!" whispered the muffled voice--Toby's voice, but strangely +devoid of Toby's confidence. "What must you--think?" + +"I!" Saltash laughed a little. "I never think. I give +everyone--always--the benefit of the doubt; which is considerably more +than anyone ever gives me." + +"And--you saved my life!" gasped Toby "Why did you? Why did you?" + +"I wanted it," said Saltash promptly. "Now listen a moment! We've done +with this show. It's played out. We'll ring up on another. You've got to +change your name again. I'm telling everyone you're Larpent's daughter." + +That brought the fair head upwards very swiftly. The blue eyes with their +short black lashes looked straight up to his. "But--but--Captain +Larpent--" + +"Oh, never mind Larpent! I'll square him." Saltash's look flashed over +the pale, tear-stained face. His hold, though close, no longer compelled. +"Leave it all to me! Don't you fret! I'll square Larpent. I'll square +everybody. You lie low till they put us ashore! After that--do you think +you can--trust me?" + +He spoke with comically twisted eyebrows and a smile half-kindly and +half-quizzical. And the forlorn little creature in his arms turned with a +swooping, passionate movement, caught one of his hands and pressed it to +quivering lips. + +"I'll live--or die--for your sake!" the trembling voice told him. "I'm +just--yours." + +Saltash stopped abruptly and laid his face for a moment against the +shorn, golden head. Just for that moment a hint of emotion showed in his +strange eyes, but it was gone instantly. + +He raised himself again with a grimace of self-ridicule. "Well, look +here! Don't forget to play the game! Larpent--your daddy--is knocked out, +remember. He is unconscious for the present, but the doctor chap seems to +think he'll be all right. A nasty suspicious person that doctor, so watch +out! And let me see! What is Toby short for? I'd better know." + +"Antoinette," whispered the lips that still caressed his hand. + +"Antoinette!" Saltash's hand closed softly upon the pointed chin, softly +lifted it. "I think _Mignonette_ would suit you better," he said, in his +quick, caressing way. "It's time I chose a name for you, _ma chère_. I +shall call you that." + +"Or just Nonette of Nowhere," breathed the red lips, piteously smiling. +"That would suit me--best of all." + +"No--no!" said Saltash, and gently relinquished his hold. "Don't forget +that you are a favourite of the gods! That counts for something, my Toby. +They don't take up with everybody." + +"They haven't done much for me so far," said Toby, suddenly rebellious. + +"Hush!" said Saltash, with semi-comic warning. "You are too young to say +that." + +"I am--older than you think, sir," said Toby, colouring painfully and +turning from his look. + +"No, you're not!" Swiftly, with a certain arrogance, Saltash made answer. +"I know--how old you are, child. It is written in your eyes. They have +always told me--all I need to know." Then, very tenderly, as Toby's hands +covered them from his look: "_Mais, Mignonette_, they have never told me +anything that you could wish me not to know." + +He slipped his arm again about the slender shoulders and pressed them +closely for a moment. Then he stood up and turned to go. + +He was smiling as he passed out--the smile of the gambler who knows that +he holds a winning card. + + + + +PART II + + + + +CHAPTER I + +JAKE BOLTON + + +It was a week after the sinking of _The Night Moth_ that Saltash, very +immaculately dressed, with field-glasses slung over his shoulder, made +his first appearance since the disaster at a meeting on the Graydown +Race-course, a few miles from his ancient castle of Burchester. He was +looking very well pleased with himself and certainly none the worse for +the adventure as he sauntered among his friends, of whom a good many were +present. His ugly face and wiry figure were well-known at Graydown, and +he seemed sure of his welcome wherever he went. + +There had been a time years before when he had kept his own stud, and +racing had been his hobby. It had not held him for long. He was not the +man to pursue any one object for any length of time. With characteristic +volatility he had thrown up this amusement to follow others, but he had +never wholly abandoned his interest in the stud which had once been his. + +It was owned by one, Jake Bolton, a man of rugged exterior whose +integrity had become a proverb on the Turf. This man was Saltash's +erstwhile trainer, and a very curious bond existed between them. Utterly +unlike in every respect, the one as subtle as the other was simple, yet +the two men were friends. How it had come about neither of them quite +knew. When Saltash had been his employer, Jake Bolton had distrusted and +despised him, but by some means this attitude of his had become very +materially modified. He greeted Saltash now with the hand of friendship +which Saltash on his part was always ready to accept with a baffling +smile that was not wholly without irony. He was wont to say that any man +could make an enemy of him, but no man could keep him as such. Perhaps it +was that very volatility of his which made anything of the nature of +prolonged enmity an impossibility. He possessed also that maddening sense +of humour that laughs at deadly things. A good many people had tried to +take him seriously and had failed. He was never serious. As he used to +say with his mocking laugh, life was difficult enough without +complications of that sort. All he ever asked of it was a certain mead +of enjoyment. It was utterly unreasonable to expect anything else. +Happiness! What was it. A bursting bubble, no more. No lasting joy had +ever come his way, and he was fain to believe that such a thing did not +exist outside the covers of a book. + +Jake Bolton could have told him otherwise, but he and Saltash never spoke +of abstract things. Saltash might have seen the deep content in the man's +eyes, but if he had, he would probably have scoffed at it. In any case +there was certainly no denying that he and Bolton had been cast in +different moulds, and that which gave life-long satisfaction to the +latter would have held the former for possibly but a very brief period. +As a woman friend who knew him well had once said of him, Charles Rex was +too rapid a traveller to gather much upon the way. For though keen for +pleasure, he was too restless for its enjoyment when attained. But even +that friend had not fathomed all the possibilities of that strange +personality. Perhaps there was only one woman in the world who would ever +do that. + +It was a showery spring day, and the turf of the race-course shone with a +fresh greenness. Saltash strolled through the paddock to find Jake +Bolton, whistling a careless air as he went. Several stable-boys saluted +him as he passed, and finally a man he knew, Sam Vickers, Bolton's +right-hand man, came up and accosted him. + +"Are you looking for Mr. Bolton, my lord? He's round by the boxes with +Sir Bernard Brian. We've got our best two-year-old round there--Prince +Charlie his name is. He's by the old Hundredth Chance and Queen of the +Earth. Your lordship ought to see him. He is a royalty and no mistake; +tame as a dog too, and that knowing--well, there, you'd hardly believe +it, but we have to talk in French sometimes so as he shan't know what we +say!" + +Saltash chuckled. "You must let me hear you, Sam. All right. I'll go +round. Ah! Here is Sir Bernard! Hullo, Bunny, my boy! You, is it? Where's +the boss?" + +A black-haired, black-eyed lad of about three-and-twenty, handsome, +spare, and very upright, had come suddenly round the corner of a +building. He greeted Saltash with enthusiasm. + +"Why, Charlie! I'm awfully pleased to see you! We all thought you were +done for. How are you, I say? It was rotten luck for you to lose the poor +old _Night Moth_ like that. Hope she was decently insured. And you're +none the worse?" + +"Not a mite!" laughed Saltash. "How are you? As skimpy a bag of bones as +ever?" + +"Oh, dash it! I've grown!" protested Bunny. "I'm as tall as you are +anyway." + +"Oh, you're long enough," chaffed Saltash. "But you're too damn slim! I +should think Maud could get you through her wedding-ring if she tried." + +"Shut up!" growled Bunny who was somewhat sensitive on the point of +physical shortcomings. "I'm well enough, so what does it matter? Are you +coming round to see Maud when this show is over?" + +"Depends," grinned Saltash. + +"What's it depend on?" Bunny linked an arm in his and drew him forward; +they were friends of many years' standing. + +Saltash looked at him with his odd eyes that always seemed to be +speculating like a monkey's, as to how far his next jump would carry him. +"Depends upon Jake of course. Your good brother-in-law doesn't always +invite the wolf into the fold, _mon cher_." + +"As if you needed an invitation!" ejaculated Bunny impatiently. "Well, I +invite you anyway. I know Maud will be awfully disappointed if you don't +come and tell her all about your adventure. We were talking about you +only this morning." + +"Really!" said Saltash. "Would it be rude to ask what you were saying?" + +Bunny's thin face flushed. "You're welcome to know so far as I'm +concerned," he said bluntly. "I always stick up for you, Charlie." + +"Do you? _Mais vraiment!_" protested Saltash. "I am touched beyond words. +And what says Brother Jake to that?" + +"Oh, Jake says I'm an ass, but he's quite decent about you, +Charlie,--rather fond of you in fact. Don't run away with that idea!" +begged Bunny, turning still redder. "Only people jaw a lot about you, you +know. No one ever can be content to mind their own business." + +"He'd be a fool who was," said Saltash. "There's no such thing as +independent action in this world. We all hang to each other like swarming +bees. So you've been sticking up for me, have you? And what says Sister +Maud?" + +Bunny broke into a sudden laugh. "Oh, she's decided to reserve judgment. +You'll have to come and see her. You really must. And the kids too--four +of 'em now. The eldest is a darling." + +"Eileen! Oh, I know Eileen," said Saltash. "I was actually allowed to +have her to tea once at the Castle. I am not supposed to have such a +venomous effect upon quite small girls as upon young men of two or three +and twenty." + +"Oh, shut up!" Bunny growled again. "There's Jake, look! Come and speak +to him!" + +There was nothing ornamental about Jake Bolton. Short, thick-set, +powerful as a bull and with something of a bull's unswerving contempt for +all obstacles in his path, with red-brown eyes that were absolutely level +in their regard and mercilessly keen, such was the man who had married +Maud Brian eight years before, practically in the teeth of Saltash who +had wooed her in her girlhood. There was no feud between them. Their +enmity was long since dead and buried. Saltash could be intolerably +malicious and even vindictive when the mood took him, but his moods never +lasted. And as for Bolton, since he had won and still possessed his +heart's desire, he could afford to be generous. + +His greeting was generous now, but it was not wholly without reserve. He +gave Saltash a square hand-grip before he uttered a word. + +Then: "Glad you're safe and sound, my lord," he said, in a voice that was +curiously soft and deliberate. + +"That's uncommon kind of you, Jake," laughed Saltash, with his royal air +of graciousness. "I share the sentiment. I know you would all have been +heart-broken if I hadn't turned up again. How is Maud?" + +"Very well--if she doesn't work too hard. I have to keep her in order in +that respect," said Jake Bolton with a sudden smile that swept all the +somewhat dominant lines from his face. + +Saltash grinned in sympathy. "You always were a bully, but I'll bet she +gets her own way all the same. So you've got a boy at last! Hope it's a +good one!" + +"He'd better be, hadn't he, Jake?" struck in Bunny. "The imp is six +months old now and goes for a canter on The Hundredth Chance every day +when I'm at home. You actually haven't seen him yet, Charlie? What a +rotter you were to be away all the winter!" + +"Well, I'm home now anyway," said Saltash, with a comical glance at Jake. +"Am I to be allowed to call and view the latest acquisition?" + +Jake was looking straight at him. "Are you--alone at the Castle, my +lord?" he asked after a moment. + +Saltash began to laugh. "Of course I'm alone! What did you expect? Ah, I +see!" His glance flashed to Bunny. "Yes, I am quite alone--most +conspicuously and virtuously unaccompanied. Come and see for yourself! +Search the Castle from turret-chamber to dungeon! You will find nothing +but the most monastic emptiness. I've turned into a hermit. Haven't they +made that discovery yet? My recent deliverance from what I must admit was +a decidedly awkward predicament in the Channel has sobered me to such an +extent that on my life I begin to doubt if I shall ever be anything but a +dull dog again. Yes, that's the truth, Jake. You can take it or leave it. +But I'm coming to see Maud in any case. When is my presence least likely +to cause you inconvenience?" + +"Oh, damn it, Jake!" broke in Bunny with sudden heat. "You know Maud said +you were to ask him to dine if he turned up." + +"You shut up, my son!" commanded Jake with absolute serenity. "It's not +any business of yours anyway. We'll send you to bed before dinner if you +aren't mighty careful." + +Bunny laughed at the threat, but his sallow boyish face coloured +sensitively notwithstanding. + +Saltash laughed also. "Oh, you needn't do that, Jake. I'm as harmless as +any sucking dove, I assure you. You'll have to put up with me now. When +shall I come?" + +"Come tonight!" said Jake with quiet decision. "Eight o'clock if that +suits you. Afraid I must go now. Bunny, take his lordship to see Prince +Charlie!" + +He lifted a hand in salute and turned away--a man of no pretensions +either social or intellectual, yet who knew how to hold his own with high +and low alike. + +"Keeps you in order still, does he?" gibed Saltash, as he watched him go. +"You're getting too old to be on a leading-string, _mon cher_." + +Bunny frowned at the careless words. "You don't know him. He's not that +sort of ass. We're pals, Jake and I, and I'm proud of it." + +"Of course you are!" said Saltash comfortably. "Didn't I tell you long +ago that he was a gentleman? It's the way he's made. Hewn out of raw +material, but the real thing and no mistake. You must never quarrel with +him on my account, Bunny, my lad. It would be very poor economy on your +part." + +"I shan't do that," said Bunny. "But he's got to do you justice. Maud +says the same." + +Saltash laughed aloud. "But, my dear chap, nobody ever does that! I don't +myself!" + +Bunny looked at him with affection. "You always have tried to make +yourself out a worse rotter than you really are, haven't you, Charlie? +I always tell Jake so." + +"No, it's not my doing," said Saltash lightly. "That's the rest of the +world, _mon ami_. They like their pictures highly coloured. So--_pourquoi +pas_?" + +He snapped his fingers and laughed, and they passed on together with +careless jesting and friendly chaff. Saltash had always been kind to +young Bernard Brian. The boy had been a helpless cripple in his +childhood, and he had developed a keen appreciation for all kindness +during those days which nothing could now efface. Whatever Saltash's +morals, he was a friend, and as such Bunny never failed to treat him. +They spent the rest of the afternoon together in and out of the +enclosure, and when amidst wild enthusiasm Prince Charlie won his +maiden race, the two were waiting side by side to congratulate Jake +as he led the victor in. Saltash departed soon afterwards and motored +back to Burchester Castle to dress. And then Bunny, half-laughing, +half-apologetic, turned to his brother-in-law. + +"I can't help being decent to Charlie, Jake. I don't care a damn what +they say." + +Jake gave him a straight look from under his rough red brows. "I'm not +blaming you," he said. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +MAUD BOLTON + + +Someone was singing a baby lullaby very softly in the beautiful room with +the bay window that looked straight over the rolling down. It was a very +sweet voice that sang, and sometimes the low notes were a little +tremulous as though some tender emotion thrilled through the song. The +singer was lying back in a rocking-chair close to the bay-window with her +baby in her arms. + +Beyond the long, undulating slope there stretched a silver line of sea +that gleamed with a still radiance in the light of the dying day. And +Maud Bolton, who once had been that proud and desolate girl Maud Brian, +gazed out upon it with happy, dreaming eyes. It had been a hot spring day +and she was tired, but it was a pleasant weariness, and the little body +that nestled on her breast brought sheer rapture to her woman's heart. It +was the baby boy for whom for years she had longed in vain. + +There came a slight sound at an open door behind her that led to another +room. She turned her head with a quick smile. + +"Jake!" + +He came, treading softly, and stood beside her. The failing light on his +rugged face showed it strangely softened, almost transformed. + +He stooped after a moment and kissed her. "Why isn't the little 'un in +bed?" he said, with his eyes on the sleeping baby-face. + +The smile still lingered about her lips. "I thought he and I would both +of us have a little treat tonight. Do you know he is six months old +today?" + +Jake's square fingers caressed the baby's placid forehead. "Yes, I know," +he said. + +Maud uttered a faint sigh. "And so--according to the law of the Medes and +Persians--he is not going to sleep with his mother any longer. He is to +be banished to the nursery. But I thought I would put him to sleep +first." + +Jake's look came to her face. "There's no law that I know of," he said in +his slow way. "Keep him in here if you want to!" + +She lifted her eyes to his--beautiful eyes, deeply violet. "Thank you, +Jake. But it's all settled, and he won't mind." + +"He doesn't matter so much," said Jake. + +She smiled and laid her cheek against his arm. "No, it's all right. Nurse +understands him. I won't have him again unless he's ill. I should have to +then." + +"Of course," said Jake. He bent down. "Let me have him! I'll take him to +the nursery." + +"Ah, don't wake him!" she said. + +Jake's arms encompassed the little bundle and lifted it from her. The +baby made a small noise that sounded like a protest, but he did not open +his eyes. + +"Don't you come!" said Jake. "I'll fix him." + +And with light tread he bore his son away. Maud looked after him with a +touch of wistfulness, but she did not move, and in a few minutes he came +back to her, knelt beside her, and gathered her strongly into his arms. + +"My girl!" he said softly. "My own girl!" + +She clasped him round the neck, laying her head against him without +words. + +"Tired?" he said. + +"No--no--not really! Too happy to complain anyway." She spoke in a +whisper as if unwilling to break her silence. + +"You want more help," he said. + +She lifted her face and kissed his neck. "No, Jake dear. I don't want the +children taken out of my hands entirely. Whatever should I do without +them?" + +"Look after me for a change," suggested Jake. + +She laughed a muffled laugh with her lips raised to his. "Do I neglect +you, Jake?" + +"No," he said. "You're the best wife a man ever had. I believe I'm first +with you--even now." + +"Always--always first," she whispered against the lips that pressed her +own. + +He held her very closely to him for a space in silence. He had loved her +with a fiery worship from the first moment of their meeting, but the +wealth of her answering love still filled his soul with wonder. Over and +over again he would tell himself that he was not her sort, but when he +held her thus throbbing against his heart, he knew beyond all questioning +that they were one. + +"You haven't told me a single thing about today's meeting," she murmured +presently. + +Jake began to smile. "On my soul I had forgotten all about it. Prince +Charlie has gained his first laurels. He won by two and a half lengths." + +"Oh, Jake, how splendid! How proud you must be! I'm tremendously glad. +And what about Charlie? Was he there to see his namesake carry all before +him?" + +"Saltash, do you mean? Yes, he was there." Jake's tone was somewhat dry. + +Maud drew back a little to look at him. "I hope you asked him to dine," +she said. + +"Oh yes," said Jake, with a touch of grimness. "Bunny saw to that on your +behalf. He considers--and with reason--that you have a right to ask +whoever you like to your own house." + +"Jake!" Maud suddenly sat upright, her eyes burning like stars. "If Bunny +said that--" + +"He didn't," said Jake. + +"Or hinted it even--it was perfectly hateful of him! I shall go and tell +him so!" + +Maud made as if she would release herself from his hold, but he +restrained her. + +"No--no, my girl! You keep calm! I can hold my own with Bunny, and he +didn't mean any harm. I asked Saltash all right, and he's coming." + +"Against your will," said Maud. + +"No. Against my judgment, maybe. Not against my will. I've no objection +to entertaining him if you wish it. You and I don't quarrel over trifles +like Saltash." + +Jake's tone was humorously tender. He patted her flushed cheek in a +conciliatory fashion. She turned very swiftly and kissed his hand. + +"Thank you, Jake--darling. But--you are master in this house, remember. +No one enters it without your consent." + +"Not even Saltash?" smiled Jake. + +"Not even--Bunny!" said Maud, still breathing resentment. + +He took her gently by the shoulder. "Look here, my girl! I won't have you +say a word to the boy about this, see? I didn't know you'd flare up like +that or I shouldn't have spoken. He didn't mean it that way. If he had, +I'd have punched his head. And after all," his eyes smiled suddenly into +hers, "I do live on my wife's bounty, don't I? Wouldn't I be driving cows +on the other side of the Atlantic without it?" + +"No," Maud said. "You'd be owning your own ranch by this time, +and--and--and generally licking creation, Jake, as only you know how." + +"Oh, shucks!" said Jake softly, and kissed her again upon the lips. "I'd +sooner be here anyway. Well, Saltash is coming, so we've got to make the +best of it. I shouldn't care a cuss if it weren't for young Bunny. But +he's always been keener on his lordship's company than I've thought +advisable." + +"Oh, Jake," she said, colouring a little, "I don't believe Charlie would +do him any harm." + +"Not intentionally perhaps," said Jake. "I've no ill feeling for him, +heaven knows, but I can't say I think his society likely to have a very +improving effect upon anyone." + +"I don't think you quite understand him," Maud said thoughtfully. + +Whereat Jake laughed so suddenly that she looked at him with raised +brows. He got to his feet, still laughing. + +"Very likely not. We've had a good many misunderstandings, he and I, from +the day I cowhided him for a scoundrel to the day I nearly shot him for a +blackguard." + +"Oh, but that was all so long ago," Maud said quickly. "He wasn't much +more than a boy in those days. He has grown a lot since then." + +Jake grunted. "Which way, think you? Well, I must dress. He may be here +before we're ready for him." + +He turned to go back to his own room, but Maud stayed him for a moment. +"Jake," she said almost wistfully, "you know--with all his faults--he +always had--possibilities." + +"I know," Jake said, looking down at her. "He's made the most of 'em +too." + +Her face quivered. "Don't," she said. "It--isn't it rather ungenerous to +condemn a man unheard?" + +Jake made a faint sound of contempt or scepticism, but no reply in words. + +She drew herself up out of her chair by his arm. "Jake, I want you to do +something for me." + +"Well?" said Jake uncompromisingly. + +She met his look unswervingly. "Let me be a friend to him tonight! Let me +be alone with him and find out--if he will tell me--whether there is any +truth in this rumour that there was a woman on board the yacht." + +"And when you've found out?" said Jake. + +She made a little gesture of appeal. "Will you leave that to me? I have +sometimes felt that I might be--a help to him if ever there came an +opportunity. Jake, you don't mind my trying to help him? I have a feeling +that I understand him better than most people do." + +"I think it's a wasted sentiment," Jake said. "But--do what seems good to +you, my girl! I shan't interfere." + +"And you won't be vexed?" she pleaded. + +He smiled his sudden, illumining smile. "No, I reckon you'll never vex me +any that way again," he said. + +She went close to him. "Indeed--no, Jake! But--don't you understand? I +hate to go against your wishes--your prejudices--in anything." + +He put out a hand to her. "You needn't be afraid of that either," he +said. "If you do it--it's right." + +She clasped the strong hand tightly in both her own. "That's the best +thing you've ever said to me," she said. "Are you quite sure you mean +it?" + +"Sure," said Jake, and pulled her to him to kiss her once again. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +BUNNY + + +When Saltash arrived that evening he found Bunny and Jake sauntering +together in the sunset glow along the gravelled terrace in front of the +house. He shot towards them in his car with that characteristic +suddenness of his, swerving and coming to a stand before the porch with +the confident ease of an alighting bird. And here, seated in the porch +and screened by white clematis, he found Maud. + +She rose to greet him, her eyes alight with pleasure. "Oh, Charlie," she +said, "I have wanted to shake hands with you ever since I heard of your +escape." + +He bent and kissed the hand she gave him. "Gracious as ever!" he +commented lightly. "Had you begun to wear mourning for me, I wonder? It +was a very cold bath, I assure you. We didn't enjoy it, any of us." + +"I am sure you didn't." Her eyes still dwelt upon the dark face with its +half-mocking smile with a species of maternal tenderness. "And you lost +your yacht too! That was desperately unlucky." + +He made a comic grimace. "I am past the age for crying over spilt milk, +Maud of the Roses." He uttered his old name for her with daring +assurance. "I have had worse losses than that in my time." + +"And still you smile," she said. + +He bowed. "A smile can conceal so much." He turned to his host as he came +up behind him. "Well, Jake, I've taken you at your word, you see, and +intruded into your virtuous household. How are Eileen and Molly and Betty +and--last but not least--the son and heir?" + +Maud laughed softly. "Well done, Charlie! How clever of you to remember +them all!" + +"Oh yes, I am quite clever," said Saltash, as again his hand met Jake's. +"Too clever sometimes. I needn't ask if all goes well with you, Jake. +Your prosperity is obvious, but don't wax fat on it. Bunny now--he's as +lean as a giraffe. Can't you do something to him? He looks as if he'd +melt into thin air at a touch." + +"Oh, don't be an ass!" protested Bunny. "I'm as strong as a horse anyway. +Jake, tell him not to be an ass!" + +"No good, I'm afraid," said Jake, with his sudden smile. "Come inside, my +lord! The children are all flourishing, but in bed at the present moment. +The baby--" + +"Oh, I must see the baby!" declared Saltash, turning back to Maud. + +She laid a hand on his arm. "I will take you to see him after dinner." + +"Will you?" He smiled into her eyes. "I shall like that. But I shall +probably want to shoot Jake when I come down again. Think it's safe?" + +She smiled back at him with confidence. "Yes, I think so. Anyhow, I'm not +afraid." + +"Come and feed!" said Jake. + +They sat down in the pretty oak-panelled dining-room with its windows +opening upon the terrace and the long dim line of down. Saltash talked +freely of Valrosa, of his subsequent voyaging, of the wreck of _The Night +Moth_, but no word did he utter of the gift that had been flung to him on +that night of stars in the Mediterranean. He was always completely at his +ease in Jake's household, but it was not his way to touch at any time in +Maud's presence upon any matter that could not be openly discussed before +her. Their intimacy was not without its reservations. + +Maud in her quiet happiness detected no hint of restraint in his manner. +But he had always been elusive, often subtle. She did not look for +candour from Charles Rex--unless she asked for it. + +Watching him on that spring evening in the soft glow of the candles, +marking the restless play of feature, the agile readiness of his wit, she +asked herself, not for the first time, what manner of soul he had behind +the mask. Somehow she did not wholly believe in that entity which so +often looked jibing forth. Though she could ascribe no reason for it, she +had a strong suspicion that the real self that was Saltash was of a +different fibre altogether--a thing that had often suffered violence it +might be, but nevertheless possessed of that gift of the resurrection +which no violence can destroy. + +"Why are you dissecting me tonight?" he asked her once and laughed and +changed the subject before she could reply. + +When dinner was over and she rose, he sprang to open the door for her +with that royal _bonhomie_ of his which somehow gave him the right to +enter where others waited for permission. + +"Take Bunny with you!" he murmured. "I want to talk to Jake." + +She lifted her eyes with a flash of surprise. He bent towards her. + +"And afterwards to you, Queen Rose. I shall not forget to claim my +privileges in that respect." + +She laughed a little, but she obeyed his behest as a matter of course. +"Come for a turn in the garden with me, Bunny!" she said. "I've hardly +seen you today." + +The boy got up, passing Jake with a careless slap on the shoulder that +testified to the excellent good fellowship that existed between them. + +Saltash turned back into the room, and threw himself down by his host. +"That's right," he said as the door closed upon the brother and sister. +"Now we can talk." + +Jake pushed a box of cigars to him. His keen eyes took Saltash in with +the attention of the man accustomed to probe beneath the surface. There +were not many who could hide from Jake Bolton anything he desired to +know. + +Saltash flicked an eyelid under his direct scrutiny as he chose his +cigar. He was never more baffling than in his moments of candour. + +"There are several things I've come to consult you about, Jake," he said +easily, as Jake leaned across with a match. + +"I'm listening," said Jake. + +Saltash sent him a quizzical glance as his cigar kindled. "Prepared to +turn me down at all points?" he suggested. + +Jake's mouth relaxed a little. "Prepared to listen anyway," he said. +"It's to do with young Bunny, I take it." + +Saltash leaned back in his chair with a laugh. "Very smart of you! Bunny +certainly is my first proposition. What are you going to do with him?" + +Jake also leaned back, and smoked for several seconds in silence. Saltash +watched him with semi-comic curiosity. + +"Something of a problem, eh?" he said, after a pause. + +Jake's eyes came to him and remained upon him with steady insistence. +"He's not going to turn into a fancy-dress loafer, my lord," he said at +length in his soft, deliberate voice. "I'll see to that anyway." + +"Don't be nasty, Jake!" protested Saltash with a smile. "I'm not +proposing to adopt him. But I can give him employment, if that's what +he's wanting. What do you want to make of him?" + +Jake's steady look remained upon him. "Just an honest man, I reckon," he +said. + +"Ah! Quite so!" Open mockery gleamed back at him from Saltash's +half-closed eyes. "All contaminating influences to be kept away. Is that +it?" + +Jake was silent. + +Saltash sent a cloud of smoke upwards before he spoke again. Then: "I +agree with you, Jake," he said. "We mustn't spoil the boy. He shan't +learn any naughty ways from me. Come! That's a promise. And I'm not such +a blackguard as I used to be." + +"Sure?" said Jake. + +Again Saltash's smile flashed across at him. "Quite sure, my worthy +philosopher," he made light reply. "I don't set up for a model of virtue +of course, but at least--now-a-days--I never take what I can't pay for." + +"That so?" said Jake. He considered the matter for a few moments, then +slowly took the cigar from between his lips and spoke. "It's certainly +true; Bunny is a problem. He's not strong; and though he's got grit, he +hasn't got what I call punching power. He's been ordered an out-door +life, and he wants to join me in running the stud. I could do with him of +course, but I've a strong feeling against it, anyway till he's older. +It's not the right atmosphere for him, and it doesn't bring him in +contact with the right people. He ought to be in the Army, but he wasn't +strong enough. It's a big grievance with him for there's nothing +radically wrong; just weak tendencies that he may outgrow if he leads a +healthy life and doesn't strain himself. We're just marking time at +present, so if you have anything to suggest--well, I've no doubt he'll be +something more than grateful." + +"And you?" questioned Saltash, with a grimace at the ceiling. + +"I too," said Jake, "if it's for the boy's good." + +"You needn't hold a pistol at my head," protested Saltash. "I shan't put +him in the way of any short cuts to the devil. All I have to offer him is +the post of bailiff at Burchester Castle, as old Bishop has got beyond +his job. I can't turn the old beggar out, but I want a young man to take +the burden off his shoulders. Do you think that sort of thing would be +beneath Bunny's dignity, or likely to upset his morals?" + +"He'd probably jump at the chance," said Jake. + +"Which is more than his worthy brother-in-law does on his behalf," +grinned Saltash. + +"No," Jake's steady eyes met the gibe unfaltering. "I know it's a chance +that doesn't come every day, and I know you mean well by him. I shan't +put any hindrance in the way." + +"Then it's done," said Saltash. "Bunny's fate is sealed." + +"I hope not." Jake still gravely watched him, but not as if he sought for +anything in the baffling, mobile countenance. "What do you want him for +anyway?" + +Saltash flicked the ash from his cigar. "Perhaps I'm turning +philanthropist, Jake. Do you know the symptoms? I've been anxious about +myself several times lately." + +"Come on rather suddenly, hasn't it?" suggested Jake. + +Saltash nodded. "It's old age, I fancy. Anyhow I've a notion for doing +Bunny a good turn. The boy can have play as well as work. He can join the +polo-club at Fairharbour. I'll introduce him." + +"And where will he live?" asked Jake. + +"With the old Bishops of course. He'll be safe enough with them and +within reach of you and Maud at the same time. It's time you eased the +leading string a bit, you know. He'll start kicking if you don't." + +"I don't think so," said Jake. "He goes his own way already quite as much +as is good for him. I don't need to hold him in very tight either. He's +not the bolting sort." + +"You mean you've trained him well," laughed Saltash. "I congratulate you. +You've a genius for that sort of thing, Jake. The boy will probably +answer to your lightest touch and never even know he does it." + +"What was the other thing you wanted to say to me?" said Jake. + +"Oh that!" Saltash's eyes fell suddenly to his empty wine glass. He +fingered the stem of it for a few seconds with a curiously irresolute +air. "Do you know I think I'll put it to Maud first!" he said at length, +with a smile that was faintly shamefaced. + +"It'll come to the same thing," said Jake. + +Saltash's eyes flashed upwards. He met Jake's look almost with defiance. +"Doubtless you are master in your own house, Jake," he said. "Far be it +from me to question it." + +"I didn't mean that," said Jake. "What I meant was," the red-brown eyes +began to smile, "that Maud and I are friends--and we generally want the +same thing." + +Saltash nodded. "Not so bad after eight years," he said. + +"No. It's pretty great," said Jake. "You'd think we were an ill-matched +pair, wouldn't you? But we've learnt to plough as straight a furrow as +anyone." + +"No, I don't think you ill-matched," said Saltash unexpectedly. "You've +always been about the same height and breadth, my friend. I saw that a +long time ago. The luckiest day that ever dawned for Maud was the one on +which you cut me out." + +"Think so?" said Jake. "Well, it wasn't a very lucky one for you, I'm +afraid." + +"I got over it," said Saltash lightly. "I'm too great a rotter, you know, +Jake, to take things much to heart. I've loved heaps of women since--even +some good ones. But they never take me seriously; so I presume I shall +continue to rot." + +"Thought you'd turned sober," suggested Jake. + +Again Saltash's look dwelt upon the ruby drain in his wine-glass. For a +moment the restlessness of his face deepened to something very nearly +approaching melancholy. + +"I'm tired, Jake," he said abruptly. "I've run through the whole gamut of +amusements, and I'm bored to the soul. I want to do a good turn to +somebody--just for a change--to see what it feels like. Perhaps--who +knows--it may take the taste of rottenness out of my mouth. You fellows +who lead a decent, orderly life don't know what it is when the wine turns +to vinegar and all the sweets of life to gall." + +"Sounds pretty damnable," said Jake. + +Saltash grimaced like a weary monkey. "It's dust and ashes, my good Jake. +But we won't discuss it. Let's come to business! You know Larpent--my +captain--quite one of the best?" + +Jake nodded. "I've met him--yes." + +Saltash flung himself back in his chair smoking rapidly. "He was damaged +when the yacht went down. He's in a nursing home in town, getting better. +He's got a daughter--a girl called Antoinette. She's been at school in +France, and Larpent was bringing her home in the yacht when we went down. +She's nineteen--a jolly little thing--half French. Larpent doesn't know +what to do with her. He has no people. She--quite properly--wants to +earn her own living. But she's too young yet to fight the world. +Larpent's a rover, he'll never settle on land. She's never had any home +life, poor kid. And she wants it. You'll say it's like my damned cheek to +come to you, but on my life you and Maud are the only people I can think +of. There's my old friend Lady Jo--Mrs. Green as she prefers to be +called--but she isn't very strong just now. I can't bother her. Besides +she hasn't got a home like yours. She's up in town." + +The jerky utterance came to an end. Saltash turned his head towards Jake, +watching him half furtively through the smoke. + +There followed a silence of some duration. Jake's brows were slightly +drawn. He spoke at last, slowly and softly as his manner was. "Are you +suggesting that--Captain Larpent's daughter--should come to us?" + +"She'd be useful enough," said Saltash in his quick, vehement way. "She'd +help Maud with the children. There's nothing she wouldn't do. It would be +a kindness on your part, and you wouldn't regret it. She's a taking +little thing. I'd like you to have her for a month, and if you don't want +to keep her after that--well--shunt her back on to Larpent. He'll be well +by that time. If he isn't--I'll look after her till he is." + +"Who's looking after her now?" said Jake. "Where is she?" + +Saltash pushed back his chair with a movement of impatience. "Did you +think I'd bring her to Burchester for all the county to blab about? She's +under my protection--and she's safe." He spoke with a certain fierceness, +and in a moment was pacing the room, his face arrogantly lifted. "I know +very well the sort of story that's going round, but if you're a white man +you'll help me to give it the lie. I know I'm a blackguard, Jake,--never +pretended to be anything else. But I hope I'm a gentleman as well--at +least where women are concerned. That child is none the worse in mind or +body for being thrown on my hands. You've got to believe that." + +"All right," said Jake. + +Saltash paced jerkily on, his hands behind him. "I want you to have her +because you're straight, and she'll come to no harm with you. You never +even parley with the devil, do you, Jake? Remember that time--it's ten +years ago, more--when a man tried to tempt you to tamper with one of your +horses and you horsewhipped him for his baseness." + +"I prefer not to remember it, my lord," said Jake. + +Saltash stopped suddenly by his chair and gripped his shoulder with a +wiry hand. "I've liked you ever since," he said. "Look here, Jake! I'm +not tempting you to do anything wrong now. I'm asking you to do something +that doesn't appeal to you; but if you do it, it'll be one of the most +decent actions of your life. That child is quite alone just now--except +for me. Will you take her--like a good chap--till something else safe +turns up?" + +Jake sat slowly forward. "I'll have to talk it over with Maud," he said. + +Saltash's grip shifted impatiently. "You know very well what Maud will +say. Don't be an ass about it! Say No--if you mean to say No--at once!" + +There came the quiet tread of approaching feet on the gravelled terrace +and the sound of low voices talking together. Jake lifted his head. His +face was grim. He looked Saltash straight in the eyes. + +"You've told me the plain truth about her. You swear it?" + +Saltash's swarthy countenance was in shadow, but those strange eyes of +his gleamed oddly, with the sort of fitful shining that comes from a coat +of mail in an uncertain light. They did not flinch from Jake's straight +regard, neither did they wholly meet it. + +"Is my oath really more valuable than my word, Jake?" he said, with a wry +twist of the lips. "Most people don't find it so." + +Jake stood up, a figure square and forceful. For a moment he faced +Saltash with a level scrutiny that--possibly--pierced the coat of mail. +Then abruptly he smiled. "I will take your word, my lord," he said. + +"And the child?" said Saltash. + +Jake nodded. "The child too--if Maud agrees." + +"Thanks," said Saltash, and smiled back at Jake--the smile that gave his +ugly face so great a charm. "I am obliged to you, Jake. I think Maud will +agree." + +"Shall we go to her?" said Jake. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +SALTASH + + +They joined the two on the terrace, and presently they were all laughing +together at Saltash's drolleries. He knew how to bring effervescence to +the very quietest waters. They sat for a space on a seat in the soft +spring starlight, while below them on the down there thrilled the +unspeakable music of nightingales singing far and near. Then after a +while Jake strolled away for his nightly inspection of the stables, +taking Bunny with him, and Saltash and Maud were left alone. + +He moved close to her at once, his arm stretched behind her along the +back of the seat. At their feet lay an old red setter, Chops, who had +belonged to Jake before his marriage and had devoted himself to Maud ever +since. + +"By Jove, this is peaceful!" said Saltash, and stopped to caress the old +dog with a gentle hand. "Do you know, Maud, it's a good thing you never +married me if this sort of thing makes you happy." + +She smiled her quiet, contented smile. "I think it is a good thing too, +Charlie. It certainly would never have satisfied you." + +"Nothing does," he declared restlessly. "I'm a wanderer on the face of +the earth, and I don't pick up much as I go along. I'm getting old, you +know. Life isn't what it was." + +Maud was silent for a few moments, the starlight in her eyes. "I +sometimes wonder," she said at length, "if you have ever really lived +yet." + +He laughed on a mocking note. "My dear girl, I--who have done +everything!" + +She shook her head. "No, not everything, Charlie." + +"Everything that's bad," he suggested recklessly. + +She put out a hand to him that went into his quick hold and lay there +with perfect confidence. "I don't think you're really old," she said. "I +think you're just beginning to grow up. No, don't laugh! I am quite +serious. You are just beginning to discriminate between the things that +are worth while and those that are not." + +"Is anything worth while?" said Saltash. + +"Yes, yes. Heaps of things. But not the things you care for,--not just +the wild pleasures of life. Charlie, I'm not good at expressing things, +and I'm afraid--just a little--of trespassing, even though we are such +old friends." + +Her voice had a wistful note. He carried her hand to his lips. "_Ma belle +reine_, is it possible? You?" + +Her fingers closed upon his. "I hate you to be world-tired and lonely. +But I would rather have you that than feeding on husks." + +"I'm not doing that at the present moment," he said. "I'm living like a +beastly hermit--except that I cut my nails and brush my hair +occasionally. You've heard about the woman on the yacht, of course?" + +Her silence answered him, and he laughed again. + +"A lie, _chère reine_! There was no woman." + +"Oh, Charlie!" she said impulsively. "Forgive me for believing it!" + +He made a royal gesture. "I forgive you. Moreover, the lie was +not without foundation. There was a child on board of the female +species,--very small and badly frightened. We saved her between us, +Larpent and I. She belongs to Larpent--not to me." + +"You mean she is his daughter?" questioned Maud. + +"That is exactly what I mean. Dull explanation, isn't it? Larpent was +badly damaged. He is undergoing repairs in a nursing home, and the +child--well, I've got to look after the child. _Figurez-vous, ma chère!_ +I--a protector of infants! _Un peu comique, n'est-ce pas?_" + +"Ah!" Maud said, with compassion. "The poor little thing must come to us. +I will take care of her. When will you bring her?" + +"You think her present plight is not to be endured for another moment?" +laughed Saltash. "_Bien!_ I will send her to you tomorrow." + +"Ah! I don't mean she is not in safe keeping," protested Maud. "How old +is she? Older than Eileen?" + +"A little older than that," said Saltash. "She's nineteen." + +"Oh!" said Maud. + +"Perhaps you do mean it now!" gibed Saltash, getting up in his sudden +fashion. + +Maud rose also, facing him in the starlight. "No, Charlie I don't! +Because I know that the big things are in you and always have been, I +would trust you--with my most precious possession." + +He laughed again. "But when I gave it back to you, you would look all +round it to make sure it hadn't been broken and stuck together again, +wouldn't you, Maud of the Roses?" + +"No," she said. "I wouldn't. I know--Charles Rex--better than that." + +He made her a sweeping bow. "Most fair and gracious lady, do not forget +that my crest is a fox's head and the motto thereupon, '_Sans vertu_!'" + +She smiled, looking at him with steadfast eyes. "I will give you another +motto, Charlie," she said. "Those we love--we trust." + +He made an abrupt movement. It was almost a protest. "For how long? Do +you really love me, Maud of the Roses?" + +She gave him both her hands without drawing any nearer. Her eyes were +shining as stars that shine through mist. "Yes, I love you, Charlie," she +said, "so much that I can't go on being happy till I know that you are +too." + +He bent very low, so that his dark face was wholly hidden from her. "I've +never been--really happy--since the day I lost you," he said. + +Her hands clasped his very tightly. There was a brief silence +before--with a touch of shyness--she spoke again. "You have never +been--really happy--all your life. You don't know the meaning of the +word--yet." + +"Don't I?" He stood up, still holding her hands. "I thought I'd sampled +everything." + +"No," she said. "No. There is--one thing left." + +"What is that?" he said. + +She stood again in silence, looking at him. Then, slowly, "You have never +yet touched the joy of loving someone better--far better--than you love +yourself," she said. "I think that is the greatest joy that God can +send." + +He bent towards her with a certain eagerness. "Maud, I could have loved +you like that--once." + +She shook her head and her smile was sad. "No, my dear, believe me! I +couldn't have inspired it in you. I was too selfish myself in those days. +Some other woman will teach you that now." + +"I wonder," said Charles Rex, half-mocking and half-touched. + +She slipped her hand through his arm, turning from the subject with a +faint sigh. "Well, come and see the baby! He's very lovely." + +"From your point of view or Jake's?" questioned Saltash. + +She laughed. "From mine of course. He is going to be just like Jake." + +"Heavens above! I pity you!" ejaculated Saltash. "You'll never cope with +two of 'em! They'll crush you flat." + +She drew him from the terrace into the quiet house. "Don't be absurd, +Charlie! This boy of ours is to be the prop of our old age." + +He went with her jesting, but when they entered the silent nursery in +which the two youngest children lay sleeping, his trifling ceased and he +trod with reverence. + +They stood together in the dim light beside the baby's cot, and Saltash +looked down upon the flushed baby face with a faintly rueful smile upon +his own. + +"There is something in being married and done for after all," he said. + +Over the old baby, Betty, now two years old, he stooped and lightly +touched the fair silken hair, but he did not kiss her though the child +was sleeping deeply. + +Later he went alone into the adjoining room where slept the two elder +children, Eileen aged five, and Molly who was not yet four. Maud did not +follow him, and presently he came back, treading softly, the flickering +night-light throwing odd shadows on his ugly face, and they left the room +together. + +In the passage he turned to her abruptly. "Then I may send that child to +you tomorrow?" he said. + +"Why not bring her?" said Maud smiling. + +He shook his head. "No. I'll come over one day--on Sunday perhaps--and +see you all again. I won't--handicap her--by bringing her." + +She understood him, and gave him her hand, but the fervour with which he +received and kissed it surprised her into drawing it away more quickly +than she had intended. + +He laughed at the action. "I am only saluting motherhood," he explained. + +But she shook her head and passed on. There were moments when even she +who knew him so well was not wholly sure of him. + +They descended again and Saltash turned towards the drawing-room. + +"Let's have some music!" he said, and dropped down before Maud's piano. +"You are tired, _ma chère_. You shall listen." + +He began to play an old French _chanson_ that once they had sung +together, and Maud leaned back on a deep settee near him and dreamily +surrendered herself to its charm. + +Charlie's touch had always been a sheer delight to her. It held her now +with the old sweet spell. His spirit spoke to hers with an intimacy which +ordinary converse had never attained. It was by his music that he first +had spoken to her soul. In music they were always in complete accord. + +She was half-asleep in her corner with the old dog lying at her feet when +Jake and Bunny came in, and Saltash very swiftly, with muffled chords, +brought his performance to an end. + +He sprang to his feet. "I've been making love to your wife, Jake," he +said, "and she has been heroically but quite ineffectually trying to keep +me at a distance. I'd better go before I'm kicked out, eh?" + +"Don't go on my account!" said Jake. + +Saltash's brows twitched comically. "Generous as ever! But I'm a rotten +villain, Jake. I never could keep it up, and your virtuous presence is +the last straw. Good-bye--and many thanks!" + +He held Maud's hand in his right and stretched his left to Jake with a +smile half whimsical and half derisive. + +"There's nothing like banking on the hundredth chance," he said. "I shall +try it myself one of these days." + +"Say!" said Jake in his soft drawl. "I wish you luck!" + +Saltash laughed and turned away, to be instantly seized upon by Bunny. + +"I say you are a good chap! The boss has been telling me. You're going to +put me up to a job." + +"If you'll take it," said Saltash. + +Bunny thrust a hand through his arm and squeezed it impulsively. "I'll +take anything from you, Charlie. Hope I shall be man enough for you, +that's all." + +"Oh, you're man enough," said Saltash kindly. "Just the sort I want. Look +here, I can't stop now. But I'll come over on Sunday and talk things +over--if Jake permits." + +"Any day," said Jake. + +Saltash nodded. "Good. I'll ring you up tomorrow, Maud. You're sure you +mean tomorrow?" + +"Quite sure," she said with a smile. + +He swept her a bow and went out with Bunny. + +Maud turned instantly to her husband. "Jake, I've got something to tell +you--to consult you about." + +He stopped her with that smile of his that was so good to see. "Oh, I +guess not. You've fixed it all up without my help. But his lordship for +once had the diplomacy to ask me first." + +"Oh, did he?" She looked confused for a moment. "Jake, you don't mind, do +you? I did the only thing possible." + +He put his arm around her and led her to the door. "I'll tell whether I +mind a week from now. You're looking worn out, my girl. You go to bed!" + +She leaned against him. "Jake, I'm--horribly sorry for Charlie." + +"Wasted sentiment!" said Jake. + +"No, it isn't--it isn't--because he is just beginning--to be sorry for +himself. Jake, it haunts me." + +"Well, you're not to lie awake over it," said Jake unsympathetically. +"I shall know if you do, and I shall keep you in bed tomorrow. Got that?" +He looked at her with determination glittering in his eyes. + +"You're very horrid," she said. + +"Yes, I know. Somebody's got to be. It's a world of contrasts, and we +can't all be kings and queens. Go to bed now! I'll say good night to +Bunny for you." + +But Maud lingered still. "What is Charlie going to do for him?" + +Jake led her with firmness into the hall. "It's the Agency. He's going to +help old Bishop. I think the life will be good for him--if there isn't +too much Saltash about it." + +"Oh, how good of Charlie!" Maud said. + +"Yes, he means well this time." Jake's arm impelled her up the shallow +stairs. "Hope he'll keep it up, but it won't surprise me any if he +doesn't. He's never been a stayer, and he's not the sort to begin now." + +"You really don't understand him," Maud said. + +"Maybe not," Jake's tone was faintly grim. It indicated that he had no +intention of arguing the matter further. + +Maud abandoned it and they mounted the stairs together in silence. At the +door of her room she turned without words and put her arms around his +neck. + +He held her closely still supporting her. "Shall I come and put you to +bed, my girl?" + +She answered him softly. "No, darling, no! Don't be late yourself, that's +all! And--Jake--thank you for all your goodness to me!" + +"Oh, shucks--shucks!" he said. + +She raised her hands, holding the bronze head between them, gazing +straight into the free, dominant eyes with all her soul laid open to +their look. "There is no one like you in all the world," she said. "You +are greater than kings." + +"That's just your way of putting it," said Jake. "You're not exactly an +impartial judge, I reckon. Barring the fact that I'm your mate, I'm a +very ordinary sinner. Moreover, Saltash tells me I'm getting fat." + +"How dare he?" said Maud. + +He laughed in her indignant face. "Now I'm getting my own back! There! +Don't get excited! No doubt he meant well! And I certainly ride heavier +than I did. Shall you love me when I'm fat, Maud?" + +She drew the laughing, sunburnt face to hers. "Don't be--absurd!" she +said. + +Her lips met his and were caught in a long, long kiss. + +"Guess you're just as moon-struck as I am," said Jake softly. + +And, "I guess I am," she whispered back. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE VISITOR + + +Jake carried out his threat the following day, and Maud remained in bed. +A violent headache deprived her of the power to protest, and she lay in +her darkened room too battered to think, while with characteristic +decision he assumed the direction of the household, provoking unwilling +admiration from Mrs. Lovelace, the housekeeper, who was somewhat given to +disparage men as "poor things who never did a hand's turn for 'emselves +if they could get the women to do it for 'em." + +He took up a breakfast tray himself to his wife's room, sternly removing +his two small daughters Molly and Betty, whom he found tussling like +kittens on her bed, and installing Eileen the eldest, who crept down like +a bright-eyed mouse from the big chair by the pillow at his coming, as +her mother's keeper. Eileen was his darling; a shy child, gentle but +curiously determined, protective in her attitude towards Maud, reserved +towards himself. Jake was wont to say with a laugh that he was by no +means sure that his eldest daughter approved of him, but he knew in his +heart that her love for him was the strongest force in her small being. +Bunny was wont to be impatient with her because she was afraid of the +horses, with the result that she would never go near them in his company, +but she would follow her father wherever he went among them without a +question. It was very rarely that she confided in him, but she always +liked to hold his hand. + +She stood beside him now in silence while he waited upon Maud, and +presently, while Maud drank the strong tea he had brought her, her small +hand found its way into his. He looked down at her, squeezing it kindly. +"We must take care of the mother today, little 'un. She's been working +too hard." + +"I'll take care of her, Daddy," said Eileen. + +"And keep out Molly and Betty," pursued Jake. + +"Yes, Daddy, I'll do that." + +Maud smiled from her pillows. "My little policeman!" she said. + +"I believe she'd keep her daddy out too if she thought it advisable," +laughed Jake. + +Eileen's fingers tightened about his, but she did not contradict him. +Only the violet eyes so like her mother's looked up at him very +pleadingly, and he stooped in a moment and kissed her. + +"All right. Daddy understands." + +And Eileen smiled a shy, pleased smile without words. + +The sound of the telephone-bell in the hall made Maud start with a swift +contradiction of the brows. + +"That's probably Charlie, Jake, I ought to answer him." + +"Don't you worry yourself!" said Jake, turning to the door. "I'll answer +him myself." + +He was gone before she could say anything further, moving without haste +but with a decision there was no gainsaying, and Maud heaved a sigh and +relaxed against her pillows. It was certainly a relief to leave it to +him. + +He returned a few minutes later, faintly smiling, sat down by her side +and drew Eileen between his knees. + +"Well," he said. "I guess it's all fixed up. We're going to give you a +nursery governess, Innocence. I hope you'll treat her with respect." + +"Oh, but, Jake--" protested Maud. + +He turned to her. "Yes, she's going to make herself useful. I don't +believe in anyone living in idleness. We'll begin as we mean to go +on, and she's got to help. I told his lordship so. If she doesn't +suit,--well, I guess she'll go back where she came from. I told him that +too." + +"What did he say?" questioned Maud. + +"He agreed of course." Jake's tone was ironical. "Said she was nothing +but a child herself. He was very emphatic on that point." + +"Don't you believe him?" asked Maud with a hint of sharpness. + +"Not as a rule," said Jake. "Mostly never--when he's emphatic. However, +time will prove. She will be here to lunch, and I've told Bunny to meet +her with the dog-cart." + +"Are we going to have lessons?" asked Eileen. + +He looked into the soft eyes and the irony went out of his smile. "I +don't know if I can bear to have you taught anything, Innocence," he +said. "You're just right as you are." + +It was his own especial name for her and he always uttered it with +tenderness. Eileen smiled up at him, and pressed against his knee. + +"I would like to learn some lessons, Daddy," she said. "I'm sure I'm big +enough, and I'm growing too." + +"Maybe you are," said Jake. "But don't grow too fast, little 'un! Don't +get so big that you look down on your poor old daddy!" + +"She'll never do that!" said Maud quickly. "No child of mine will ever do +that, Jake." + +He smiled at her whimsically. "Oh, I guess I'll hold my own among 'em +whatever they do. Now you go to sleep, my girl, and put all worries out +of your head! I must be moving, but I'll look in presently to see how +you are. So long!" + +He bent and laid his cheek for a moment against her hand, then turned and +softly left her. + +Maud watched the door close behind him, then spoke to the child beside +her. "Eileen darling, always remember that your daddy is the best and +dearest man who ever lived!" + +"Yes, Mummy, I know," said Eileen, with earnest shining eyes. + +Jake went out to the stables and immersed himself in the day's work. He +had always been a busy man, and time passed swiftly with him. He and his +right-hand man, Sam Vickers, had brought the stud to a pitch of +perfection that had earned for his animals a high place in the opinion of +the racing community. He had, moreover, a reputation for straightness so +unimpeachable that it had become almost a proverb up and down the +country. Men said of Jake Bolton that his honour was such that it could +stand by itself. Certainly no one ever questioned it. + +One of his horses was running at Graydown that afternoon, and at the end +of the morning he returned to the house for a hasty lunch before leaving +for the race-course. All memory of Saltash's _protégé_ had left him, but +it returned to his mind as he saw the extra place laid at the table. He +looked at his watch and realized that she ought to have arrived half an +hour before. Bunny was also absent, presumably waiting for her. + +He paid Maud a brief visit before departing, and found her better. She +was half dressed and lying on a couch in her room. He extracted a promise +from her that she would not go down before tea, though she demurred +somewhat on the score of the expected visitor. + +"Leave her to Bunny!" said Jake. "He's quite capable of looking after her +for an hour or two." + +"I think Bunny meant to go to the races," she said. + +Jake frowned. "Well, he can't for once. Don't you fret now! She'll be all +right." + +"Well, tell them to bring her straight up to see me when she arrives!" +Maud begged him. "I shan't be asleep, and really I am much better." + +"All right," he conceded. "I'll do that." + +He went out and there fell the deep shining peace of a spring afternoon. +Somewhere in the distance a cuckoo was calling softly, monotonously, +seductively. A thrush was warbling in the terraced garden, and from her +window Maud could see old Chops the setter curled up in a warm corner +asleep. The children were all out on the downs, and the house was very +quiet. + +Her thoughts turned dreamily to Saltash. What a pity he did not find some +nice girl to marry! Her faith in him, often shaken and as often renewed, +had somehow taken deeper root since their talk of the night before. +Charlie was beginning to tire of his riotous living. He was beginning to +want the better things. But in his present mood she saw a danger. He had +come to a critical point in his career, and he would either go up or +down. There would be no middle course with him. Knowing him as she did, +she realized that a very little pressure would incline him either way. +She felt as if his very life hung in the balance. It depended so +vitally--upon whence the pressure came. + +"If only some decent woman would fall in love with him!" she sighed, and +then found herself smiling wistfully at the thought that Saltash's heart +would not be an easy thing to capture. He was far too accustomed to +adulation, wherever he went. "Besides, he's such a flirt," she reflected. +"One never knows whether he is in earnest till the mischief is done." + +The cuckoo's soft persistence began somehow to seem like a penance. "When +he has said it just like that four hundred and fifty times he'll be +absolved and allowed to change his tune," was her thought. "I wonder if +poor Charles Rex has said the same thing as often as that, and if that is +why he is tired." + +A mist began to rise in her brain, making vague the cuckoo's call, +blurring even the clear sweet notes of the thrush. A delicious drowsiness +crept over her. She gave herself to it with conscious delight. It was so +exquisite to feel the grim band that had bound her brow with such cruel +tightness relax at last and fall away. Very blissfully she drifted into +slumber. + +It was nearly two hours later that she became somewhat suddenly aware of +feet sauntering under her window and young voices talking together. + +"Hullo!" said one abruptly, it was Bunny's speaking with careless +friendliness. "Stand still a minute! There's an immense green caterpillar +waving to me from your hat-brim." + +A voice that was like a boy's, dear, bell-like, made instant response. +"Oh hell! Do take it off!" + +Maud started wide awake with involuntary shrinking. + +There came a chuckle from Bunny and, after a pause and the eloquent +crunch of a heel on the gravel, his voice on a note of laughter. "I +didn't say it!" + +"Great Scott!" ejaculated the clear boyish tones. "Do you mean you're +shocked?" + +"Not at all," said Bunny courteously. + +"Well then, what does it matter who said it?" demanded the other. + +"It doesn't matter," said Bunny, still suppressing merriment. "Except +that it isn't said in this house." + +"Oh damn!" said the newcomer disconsolately. "Then I shall soon be sent +back in disgrace." + +"Cheer up!" said Bunny. "We don't convict on a first offence as a rule in +this country." + +"But I shall never remember!" groaned the other, and for the first time +the words held a note that was not wholly boyish, it sounded wistful, +even rather piteous. "People's ways are all so different. It's rather +infernal--trying to please everybody, you know, Bunny." + +"Never mind!" said Bunny, in a brotherly tone. "I'll kick you every time +I see it coming if you like." + +"Will you really? That would be jolly decent of you." The wistfulness +vanished in a laugh that was quick and musical, wholly spontaneous. + +"You bet I will!" said Bunny. + +"Right O! Mind you do! Now get out of the way and see me jump that rose +tree!" + +There followed the light scamper of feet, and Maud raised herself swiftly +and leaned forth in time to see an athletic little figure in navy blue +wearing a jaunty Panama hat, skim like a bird over a sweeping Dorothy +Perkins just coming into bloom and alight on one leg with the perfect +poise of a winged Mercury on the other side. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +HOW TO MANAGE MEN + + +Bunny's lanky form followed and also cleared the rose-tree with +infinitely less grace, and again the girl laughed, her wide blue eyes +alight with mirth. + +"What an antic! I thought you were going to pull up the rose bush with +your heels! What are you doing that for?" + +Bunny's hands were on her shoulders. He was plainly enjoying himself +thoroughly. "I'm feeling for the wings," he explained. "I'll swear you +never jumped it. Where do you keep 'em?" + +She drew herself away from his touch. "No, I haven't got any. They don't +grow on people like me. Don't let's stay here! I feel as if we're being +watched." + +It was then that Maud spoke from her window in her quiet gentle voice +that yet held a certain authority. + +"Bunny, bring our visitor up to see me!" + +Both Bunny and his companion started and looked up, and Maud saw the +girl's face fully for the first time--a nervous little face with haunting +wide blue eyes made more intense by the short thick black lashes that +surrounded them, eyes that seemed to plead for kindness. There was charm +about the pointed chin and a good deal of sweetness about the moulding of +the mouth. But it was the eyes that held Maud's attention. They were the +eyes of a creature who has known the wild agony of fear and is not easily +reassured. Yet the face was the face of a child. + +She leaned out a little further on her sill and addressed the stranger. +"Come up and speak to me!" she said very kindly. "Bunny will show you the +way." + +A shy flickering smile answered her. She cast a questioning look at +Bunny. + +"Yes, that's Maud--my sister," said Bunny. "Come along! This way!" + +They entered the house by a French window, and Maud drew back into her +room. What was there in that childish face that appealed so tremendously +to her womanhood--wholly banishing her first involuntary sense of recoil? +She could not have said, she was only conscious of the woman in her +throbbing with a deep compassion. She stood and waited for the child's +coming with a strangely poignant expectation. + +She heard Bunny's voice talking cheerily on the stairs, but his words +provoked no response. She went to the door and opened it. + +Bunny was leading the way; in fact his companion seemed to be lagging +very considerably in the rear. + +Maud moved out into the passage, and Bunny stood to one side with a +courteous gesture. "Mademoiselle Antoinette Larpent!" he announced. + +The small figure in blue drew itself together with a certain bravado and +came forward. + +Maud held out her hands. "My dear child," she said, "I expected you long +ago." + +The hands she clasped were very small and cold. They did not cling to her +as she had half expected. The blue eyes flashed her a single nervous +glance and fell. + +"I'm sorry I'm late, madam," said the visitor in a low, punctilious +voice. + +Maud felt amused and chilled in the same moment. "Come and sit down!" she +said. "We will have some tea upstairs. Bunny, go and order it, will you?" + +"With pleasure," said Bunny. "And may I return?" + +She smiled at him as she passed an arm about the girl's narrow shoulders. +"Yes, you can come back when it's ready. Come in here, dear! You will +like to take off your things. How long have you been here?" + +"Only five minutes," came the murmured answer; she thought it had a +deprecating sound. + +"You must be tired," she said kindly. "You came from town? How is it you +are so late? Did you miss your train?" + +"No, madam." Very nervously came the reply. The contrast between this and +the boyish freedom of manner on the terrace a few seconds before would +have been ludicrous if it had not been somehow pathetic. + +She passed on, too considerate to press for details. "Take off your hat +and coat, won't you? When we have had some tea I will take you to your +room." + +She was pleased to see that Charlie's _protégé_ was garbed with extreme +simplicity. Her fair hair, which had been closely shorn, was beginning to +curl at the ends. She liked the delicate contrasting line of the black +brows above the deep blue of the eyes. She noticed that the veins on the +white temples showed with great distinctness. + +"Sit down!" she said. "And now you must tell me what to call you. Your +name is Antoinette, isn't it?" + +"I'm generally called Toby," said the visitor in a very shy voice. "But +you will call me--what you like." + +"Would you like me to call you Toby?" Maud asked. + +"Yes, please," said Toby with unexpected briskness. + +Maud smiled. "Very well, my dear. Then that is settled. We are not going +to be strangers, you and I. I expect you know that Lord Saltash and I are +great friends--though I have never met your father." + +Toby's pale young face flushed suddenly. She was silent for a moment. +Then: "Lord Saltash has been very good to me," she said in her shy voice. +"He--saved me from drowning. Wasn't it--wasn't it nice of him to--take +the trouble?" + +"Quite nice of him," Maud agreed. "You must have been very frightened, +weren't you?" + +Toby suppressed a shudder. "I was rather. And the water was dreadfully +cold. I thought we should never come up again. It was like--it was +like--" She stopped herself. "He said I was never to talk about it--or +think about it--so I won't, if you don't mind." + +"Tell me about your father!" said Maud sympathetically. + +For the second time the blue eyes flashed towards her. "Oh, he is still +ill in a nursing home and not allowed to see anyone." There was a hint of +recklessness in her voice. "They say he'll get well again, but--I don't +know." + +"You are anxious about him," Maud said. + +"No, I'm not." Recklessness became something akin to defiance. "I don't +like him much. He's so surly." + +"My dear!" said Maud, momentarily disconcerted. + +"Well, it's no good pretending I do when I don't, is it?" said Toby, and +suddenly smiled at her with winning gracelessness. "It isn't my fault +We're not friends--never have been. Why," she made a little gesture of +the hands, "we hardly know each other. I'd never been on _The Night Moth_ +before." + +"And you'll never go again," commented Bunny, entering at the moment, +"Maud, do you know I took--Miss Larpent--" he turned deliberately to Toby +who snapped her fingers in airy acknowledgment--"to see the races instead +of coming straight back--according to the boss's instructions." + +"Oh! So that's where you've been!" said Maud. + +"Exactly so." Bunny pulled up a chair and disposed his long legs astride +it. "We saw several events, and made a bit. Then Forest Fire let us down +badly and we lost the lot. After that we went into the paddock to cool +ourselves and met the boss, who at once--somewhat rudely--ordered us +home. I have an impression he's feeling waxy with me for some reason," +Bunny ended, stroking his chin reflectively. "Daresay I shall get over +it, however." + +"What a pity you went!" said Maud. + +"Not at all," said Bunny. "We enjoyed it. It's fun doing naughty things +sometimes, isn't it,--er--Miss Larpent?" + +"Don't be an ass!" said Toby tersely. + +Maud raised her brows, but Bunny grinned with delight. "Thank you Toby! I +take the hint. There shall be no more ceremony between us. Ah! There come +the children along the path by the summerhouse!" he sprang to the window +and sent forth a yell, turning back almost instantly to say, "Sorry, +Maud! I'm afraid I forgot your head. How is it?" + +He did not wait for her reply, but leaned out again immediately to +address the advancing children with noisy gayety. + +Toby looked up at Maud, hesitated, and rose. "Let us go and have tea with +the children!" she said. "It will be quieter for you." + +Maud put out a gentle hand to her. "No, dear. You stay with me. Bunny may +if he likes!" + +This time Toby's fingers closed tightly upon her own. "Sure?" said Toby. + +"Quite sure," said Maud, smiling at her. + +Toby turned sharply and pinched Bunny's elbow as he leaned from the +window. He drew himself in and stared at her. + +"You're making too much noise," she told him curtly. "You go and racket +downstairs!" + +Bunny's eyes widened for a second in indignant amazement, then abruptly +he threw up his chin and laughed. "I like you!" he declared. "You're the +cockiest thing in girls I've ever seen!" + +Toby pulled at his elbow like a small, persistent dog. "Go on!" she +commanded. "Go down to them! Mrs. Bolton and I want to have our tea +alone. I'll come and play with you presently--if you're good." + +It was spoken wholly without coquetry, much as an elder brother might +speak to a younger. It was plain that she meant to have her way, though +Maud, who knew that there was a very strong mixture of stubbornness in +Bunny, wondered much if she would get it. Amusement, however, kept the +upper hand with him. Toby's treatment evidently appealed strongly to his +sense of humour. Perhaps her determination also made its impression upon +him, for after a little more chaff on his part and brisk insistence on +hers he departed, laughing, to join the children. + +Toby saw him to the door and returned calm and triumphant. + +"Well done!" said Maud. "You know how to deal with spoilt children +evidently." + +Toby looked at her sharply as she sat down, almost as if she expected a +double meaning to the words. + +"Do you mean men?" she said, and for an instant her childish face wore a +look of contempt. "Oh, anyone can manage men--given a fair chance. +There's not much cleverness needed for that." + +She spoke with the decision of one who knew, and in spite of the +difference of years between them Maud could not question her confidence. +She had a curious feeling that--either by experience or intuition--this +girl knew more than she. + +She made no comment therefore, and after a moment Toby spoke her last +word on the subject with characteristic brevity. + +"There's only one rule to follow with men--that is, if you want any peace +at all. Make up your mind and stick to it! If they don't like it, let 'em +go to--" She checked suddenly, and coloured deeply under Maud's eyes--"I +mean, let 'em do the other thing," she ended, on a note that somehow +seemed to ask for pardon. + +"I see," said Maud gently, in a tone that conveyed it. + +Toby threw her a little smile, half-grateful and half-mischievous; and +curiously in that moment a bond was formed between them which was +destined to endure. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE PROMISE + + +There was undoubtedly a frown on Jake's usually serene countenance when +he walked up the great stable-yard a little later that evening and came +upon Bunny lounging in a doorway with his hands in his pockets talking to +one of the men. + +"Look here, young feller, I want a word with you," he said, with his +customary directness, and laid a somewhat peremptory hand upon the boy's +shoulder. + +Bunny, with a cigarette between his lips, turned and laughed at him +without a hint of discomfiture. "All right, boss. I'll come," he said, +and linked his arm in Jake's with boyish friendliness. + +He was half-a-head taller than Jake, but the look of power that was so +apparent in the older man was wholly absent in him. He moved his long +limbs with a loose swing that lacked energy though it seemed to denote a +certain restlessness. + +"Wonder what you'll do without me here when I go to Charlie," he +remarked, as Jake did not immediately speak. + +"I should say the sooner you go the better," said Jake rather brutally, +"if I were only sure you were going to the right place." + +"Have a smoke!" said Bunny with unruffled amiability, proffering his +case. + +Jake pushed it from him with a curt sound of dissatisfaction. + +"All right. Don't!" said Bunny, with instant haughtiness, and returned it +to his pocket. + +He would have withdrawn his hand from his brother-in-law's arm, but Jake +retained it there forcibly, steering for his own private office at the +end of the stable-yard. + +Bunny submitted, but his face grew ominously dark as they passed in +silence between the long rows of loose-boxes in the soft spring twilight. +As they neared Jake's room he drew himself together with the action of a +man who braces his muscles for a sudden strain, and in a moment he was +older, less defiant, more dignified. + +"That's better," Jake said, making him enter first. "There are times, Sir +Bernard Brian, when I want to lick you, as you never--unfortunately--were +licked in your early youth. Other times--like the present--when the breed +gets the better of me, and I can only stand outside--and admire." + +"Oh, don't be a blithering idiot, Jake!" said Bunny in hot discomfiture. +Jake's hand grasped his shoulder. "Sit down, and bring yourself to my +level for a minute! Maybe I am a blithering idiot, maybe I'm not. But I +could take you by the heels and dip you in the horse-pond round the +corner if I felt that way. So you'd better keep as civil as possible. It +won't make a mite of difference to me, but it may to you." + +Bunny sat down, breathing hard. His cigarette fell to the ground and he +stooped for it, but Jake, still holding his shoulder, stooped also, +picked it up and flung it straight out of the window. + +"You smoke too many of 'em," he said, as he did it. + +"Damn you!" said Bunny in a voice of concentrated fury. + +He would have sprung to his feet, but Jake's hands were upon him like +iron clamps and kept him seated. + +He spoke, his voice soft, unhurried, even humorous. "I'm only a beastly +groom, you know, Bunny. You don't expect good manners from me, do you?" + +Bunny shrank a little, as if something in the words pierced him. Jake's +eyes, very bright but wholly free from anger looked straight into his. +For some reason he ceased to strain against the compelling hands and sat +passive. + +There followed a somewhat tense silence before he said, "Well, go on! I +knew you wanted to row me about something. What's it all about?" + +His voice was sullen but his attitude was no longer hostile. He looked +ashamed. + +Jake sat down suddenly on the edge of the writing-table. "Say, Bunny!" he +said gently. "Do you know you're the only man in the world that can send +me to perdition and not have his teeth knocked down his throat for his +officiousness?" + +Bunny looked up at him, and in a moment, like the flash of sunshine from +behind a cloud, he was smiling. "Oh, get out, Jake. I suppose you're +going to wipe the floor with me now. I didn't mean it and I'm sorry. +Let's get on from there!" + +His hand gripped Jake's hard. There was something very winning about him +at the moment, something that appealed strongly to the older man though +he did not instantly reply. He kept the boy's hand in his for a moment, +and his eyes were very kindly as he looked into the thin young face. + +"Guess you know I'm pretty fond of you, my son," he said at length, "but +I don't figure to let you go to the devil unhindered on that account." + +Bunny whistled. "Who's going? Oh, don't be an ass, Jake, will you?" + +"No, I won't," said Jake, "at least not the soft variety. Reckon I've +been too soft with you, Bunny, as long as I've known you." + +Bunny stirred restlessly in his chair. "Think so?" he said. "Well, it's a +good fault, old chap. I can't stand bullying from anyone--makes me see +red at once." + +"I know," Jake said. "I've never bullied you anyway. But I'm on the +war-path now, and you've got to take your physic whether you like it or +not. Say, Bunny, how much money did you drop at the races this +afternoon?" + +"What's that to you?" said Bunny. + +Jake's face hardened a little. "Well, I expected that," he said. "Afraid +to tell me, eh?" + +"Not in the least afraid," said Bunny. "I dispute your right to know, +that's all." + +"I see." Jake regarded him with a very direct scrutiny. "I'm to be kept +in my place, is that it?" + +Bunny coloured. "That's the fourth time you've called me a bounder since +we came in. What do you mean by it, Jake?" + +"What do I mean?" Jake spoke rather sadly. "Well, maybe that's just what +I do mean, Bunny. You're beginning to bound." + +"Rot!" said Bunny, though he coloured more deeply than before. "You know +there isn't another fellow anywhere that I respect as I respect you. +But--dash it, Jake!--you must let me grow." + +"I want you to," said Jake. "But for the Lord's sake, grow straight!" He +reached out and took Bunny by the shoulder. "I'm going to ask a big thing +of you, sonny, but I guess I shall know by the way you take it how much +your respect for me is worth." + +"What is it?" said Bunny. + +"Just this." Jake leaned forward; there was speculation in his look. "I +want you to chuck racing--altogether--for a year. There!" + +"Chuck racing!" Bunny sat up very straight. "Jake! Why on earth should +I?" + +Jake's hand closed upon him. He was smiling a little but there was +something relentless behind his smile. "Oh, just to please me," he said. +"That's all." + +Bunny stared at him. "Chuck racing!" he said again. "Jake, you're mad!" + +"No, I guess not," said Jake imperturbably. "I'm not arguing any against +racing. Played straight, it's the best game in the world. I'm just asking +a personal favour of you. There's nothing to be hurt about in that." + +There was an ominous gleam in Bunny's eyes. He looked as if he were on +the verge of open rebellion, but with his last words Jake's steady arm +suddenly went round his shoulders and gave him a hard, brotherly squeeze. + +"Don't do it if you're going to hate me for it!" he said. "Reckon I can't +afford that. I knew it was a gamble when I started. If I can't win, I'll +back out right now." + +"Jake!" Quick feeling sounded in Bunny's voice. He turned sharply, and +for an instant his cheek was against the kindly hand with the old boyish +gesture of affection. Then he looked Jake full in the eyes and laughed. +"Jake, I say, don't be a beast! You know I'll do anything under the sun +to please you." + +"You'll do this?" said Jake. + +"Tell me why first!" said Bunny. + +"Because I want to know if you've got the grit for one thing. And for +another--that girl who has just come here is a gambler to the backbone, +and I won't have her encouraged." + +"How on earth do you know that?" said Bunny. "Did Charlie tell you?" + +"No." Jake's voice was grim. "You don't suppose I'd take his word for +anything, do you? I saw it in her face this afternoon. I know that +gambling fever, and she--well, I'm inclined to think she's had it in one +form or another all her life." + +"She's quite a nice kid," said Bunny condescendingly. + +Jake smiled, but the firmness remained. "She's not your sort, Sir Bernard +Brian," he remarked. "And I rather guess she could teach you more than +you could teach her." + +"What do you mean?" said Bunny. + +Jake turned aside to shut the window in preparation for departure. "Well, +sonny," he said in a marked drawl, "I guess I mean just that. If you +aren't sharp enough to draw your own conclusions, that's none of my +business." He turned round and looked at Bunny with absolute directness. +"And that other proposition of mine,--did I understand you to fall in +with it?" + +"Chuck racing for a year, you mean?" Bunny got up. His face was still +red, but it showed no resentment. "It's rather much, isn't it, Jake?" + +"Too much?" questioned Jake. + +Bunny hesitated. "Well, a year! Make it three months!" he said coaxingly. + +Jake came to him, square and resolute. "I'll make it six months, Bunny," +he said, "if you can tell me you didn't drop more than fifty pounds this +afternoon." + +Bunny turned crimson. "This afternoon was an exception," he said hastily. + +"I thought so," said Jake dryly. + +"But--damn it!--it's rather a heavy penalty to pay," protested Bunny. He +thrust out an impulsive hand. "I say, let me off, old feller! I won't do +it again." + +Jake's fingers closed and held. He said nothing, merely waited. + +And very suddenly--after his own headlong fashion--Bunny made +unconditional surrender. "Oh, get out, you beastly groom!" he said, and +wrung Jake's hand with all the force he could muster. "All right! It's +done!" + +Jake made an odd movement as of tension relaxed though none had been +apparent in his bearing. He struck Bunny on the shoulder the blow of a +friend. + +"That's the biggest thing you've ever done for me, pard," he said with a +smile. "Reckon I shan't forget it. Take it out of me next time!" + +"You bet I will!" said Bunny. + +He linked his arm through Jake's and gripped it hard. His eyes were +shining as they passed out together into the gathering dusk. He had made +a considerable sacrifice, but Jake had the gift of making him realize +that it was worth while. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE ALLY + + +A squeal of childish laughter echoed down the long passage that led from +the nurseries, followed by a shuffling sound along the floor. + +"Hold tight!" cried a voice, a gay, boyish voice, "I'm going to gallop!" + +There followed a tremendous scrambling along the corridor and shrieks of +delight from three excited children. Jake, who had just mounted the +stairs, paused in his progress; but in a moment there came a dramatic +sound indicative of collapse, and immediately there arose cries of +dismay. He turned an intervening corner and came upon the newly-arrived +guest quite prone upon the floor with his three little girls scuffling in +delighted agitation over her inert body. + +He hesitated to interrupt the game, but in an instant Betty the youngest +had spied him and uttered a shrill cry of welcome. The heap upon the +floor swiftly resolved itself into four separate beings, and the newcomer +sprang up with the litheness of a squirrel and met him with a free grace +that was not without a suggestion of defiance. + +He held out his hand to her. He understood the defiance and replied to it +with characteristic directness. + +"Guess you thought me a rough sort of animal when we met in the paddock +this afternoon," he said. "I'm sorry. It was Bunny I was up against--not +you." + +"Not me?" said Toby, her wide eyes lifted quite openly to his. "Sure?" + +He pinched the slim young hand without ceremony. Somehow she took him by +storm--this girl with the open brow and curiously pathetic face. "Well, +not so much you," he said. "Bunny knows that gambling on a big scale is +against the law for children of his age." + +"Oh, I see," said Toby. She smiled and slipped her hand free. "Well, I'm +years older than he is, so that doesn't apply to me. Bunny wasn't doing +any gambling either." + +"I gathered that," said Jake. + +She stopped and lifted Molly the second child, partially veiling her own +face with the little girl's soft curls. "Then you are up against me," she +said. + +"No, I'm not," Jake's voice held a queer, compassionate note. "We won't +quarrel till we know each other better anyway. I see you're pretty +intimate with the youngsters already." + +"Oh, that's easy, isn't it?" said Toby. "Babies always take you at your +face value. They are never prejudiced beforehand. There's never any +handicap of that sort with babies." + +Betty was clamouring at her knees. She bent and lifted her also, bracing +her slight form to a double burden of which Jake instantly relieved her, +gathering both children into his own strong arms. + +"You're not to do that ever again," he said, with the authority of the +man accustomed to obedience. "Understand?" + +"Why not?" said Toby. + +He turned to carry the two babies to the nursery. "Because I say it," he +said briefly. + +"Oh, but that's no reason," said Toby, with light assurance. + +Eileen at her side looked up in shocked amazement. "Not if Daddy says +so?" she questioned. + +Toby stooped and swung her up to her shoulder. "You little featherweight! +Daddy's only a man!" she said. + +"Quite true," said Jake deliberately. "The sort of man who means what he +says--always, and sees that he gets it." + +"What a frightful undertaking!" laughed Toby. "Then if you told me to go +to blazes you'd see that I went?" + +There was a pause. Eileen's little hands locked themselves nervously +under Toby's chin. Perhaps she was aware of a certain electricity in the +atmosphere. She was plainly not at her ease. + +Jake's voice sounded, very quiet and distinct, from the nursery door as +he entered. "I reckon that's just one of the things I've learnt not to +say." + +"Oh glory!" said Toby, "There goes the odd trick!" + +It was several minutes later, after a wild final romp that they left +the room together. There was certainly no ceremony left between them. +They came out as comrades, laughing at the same joke, their brief +passage-at-arms apparently forgotten. + +Toby, however, reverted to it very suddenly as they walked along the +passage. "Mr. Bolton, I'm sorry I got Bunny into hot water this +afternoon. It was all my fault. And I'm sorry I said blazes in front of +the babies just now. You'll have to kick me when I do these things, and +then I'll remember." + +Jake paused and looked at her. "Say! Are you a boy or a girl?" he said. + +She smiled, a faintly dubious smile, but her reply was prompt. "Mostly +boy, sir. That's what makes it so difficult." + +He put his hand on her shoulder. "Look here! Call me Jake, see? Are you +keen on horses?" + +Toby's eyes shone. "Like mad," she said. + +"I'll see you ride tomorrow," said Jake. + +Toby whooped with delight. "But I'll have to borrow some breeches from +someone. You don't want me to ride in a skirt do you?" + +"Not specially," said Jake. "What do you generally ride in?" + +"Tights," said Toby, and then suddenly clapped her hand to her mouth in +dismay. "There! Now I've done it! You won't tell--you'll never tell, will +you? Promise!" + +"Sure!" said Jake. He was smiling a little, but there was compassion in +his eyes. + +And Toby's hand came out to him in sudden confidence. "I like you," she +said. "You're a friend." + +Jake's grasp was strong and kindly. "I guess I shan't let you down," he +said. + +Toby nodded. "You've been a cow-boy, haven't you? I knew that directly I +saw you." + +"I've been a good many things," said Jake. + +She nodded again. "And always the right sort. I wish--" She broke off +abruptly. + +"What?" said Jake. + +"Oh, nothing," said Toby, with a rather wistful little laugh. + +"Let's have it!" said Jake. + +Her hand lay in his, and this time she left it there. Her blue eyes met +his courageously. "Only that I'd met you before," she said. + +"Before when?" said Jake. "Before you met Saltash?" + +"Oh no!" Very swiftly, she answered him. "Oh no! Lord Saltash is among +the kings. I'd have been dead by now but for him!" Her eyes kindled as +with a sudden glowing memory, she flushed like an eager child. "You know +him?" she said. "Isn't he--isn't he--fine?" + +She spoke with reverence, even with a certain awe. The man's face changed +a little, hardening almost imperceptibly. + +"Guess he's no great hero of mine," he said. "But maybe he has his +points." + +"He has!" Toby assured him with fervor. "You don't know him like I do. +He's a--he's a masterpiece." + +"That so?" said Jake. + +Perhaps Toby felt a lack of sympathy in his tone; she quitted the subject +abruptly. "No, that wasn't what I meant. I only wish I'd met you long +ago--years and years ago--when you were a cow-boy." + +"You were a babe in arms then," said Jake. + +She shook her head, quaintly smiling. "I wasn't ever that. I think I must +have been born old--began at the wrong end somehow. Some people do, you +know." + +"I know," said Jake. "When that happens, there's only one thing to be +done." + +"What?" queried Toby. + +His eyes were watching her intently, but there was nothing alarming in +their scrutiny. He made reply with absolute gentleness. "Begin again." + +"Ah!" A little sound that was more than a sigh escaped her, and then +quite suddenly her other hand came out to him; she lifted a quivering +face. "You going to help me?" she said. + +The action touched him. He took her by the shoulders as he might have +taken a boy. "I'll help you," he said. + +"You'll be good to me?" Her voice was quivering also, it had a sound of +tears. + +"Sure!" said Jake, laconic and forceful. + +"Keep me straight and pull me up when I go wrong?" pursued Toby +tremulously. + +"Yes, I'll do that," he said. + +"And you won't--you won't--you won't--talk to anybody about me?" she +pleaded. + +"No," said Jake briefly. + +"Not to Lord Saltash? Not to anyone?" + +"No," he said again, a hint of sternness in the curt word. + +Toby gulped down her distress, was silent for a moment or two, then +suddenly smiled upon him--a sunny inconsequent smile. "Guess I've got you +on my side now," she said with satisfaction. "You're nice and solid, Mr. +Jake Bolton. When you've been picked up from the very bottom of the sea, +it's good to have someone big and safe to hold on to." + +"That so?" said Jake. + +"Yes, I know now why Lord Saltash sent me here--just because you're +big--and safe." + +"Oh, quite safe," said Jake with his sudden smile. + +It came to him--as it had come to Saltash--that there was something +piteously like a small animal, storm-driven and seeking refuge, about +her. Even in her merriest moments she seemed to plead for kindness. + +He patted her shoulder reassuringly as he let her go. "I'll look after +you," he said, "if you play the game." + +"What game?" said Toby unexpectedly. + +He looked her squarely in the eyes. "The only game worth playing," he +said. "The straight game." + +"Oh, I see," said Toby with much meekness. "Not cheat, you mean? Lord +Saltash doesn't allow cheating either." + +"Good land!" said Jake in open astonishment. + +"You don't know him," said Toby again with conviction. + +And Jake laughed, good-humoured but sceptical. "Maybe I've something to +learn yet," he said tolerantly. "But it's my impression that for sheer +mischief and double-dealing he could knock spots off any other human +being on this earth." + +"Oh, if that's all you know about him," said Toby, "you've never even met +him--never once." + +"Have you?" questioned Jake abruptly. + +She coloured up to the soft fair hair that clustered about her +blue-veined temples, and turned from him with an odd little indrawn +breath. "Yes!" she said. "Yes!"--paused an instant as if about to say +more; then again in a whisper, "Yes!" she said, and went lightly away as +if the subject were too sacred for further discussion. + +"Good land!" said Jake again, and departed to his own room in grim +amazement. + +Saltash the sinner was well known to him and by no means uncongenial; but +Saltash the saint, not only beloved, but reverenced and enshrined as +such, as something beyond his comprehension! How on earth had he managed +to achieve his sainthood? + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE IDOL + + +"Well?" said Saltash with quizzical interest. "Where is she? And how is +she getting on?" + +It was the Sunday afternoon of his promised visit, a day soft with spring +showers and fleeting sunshine. Maud sat in a basket-chair on the verandah +and regarded him with puzzled eyes. She passed his questions by. + +"Charlie," she said, "where does she come from?" + +He raised his shoulders expressively. "Where do all women come from--and +why, _chère reine_? It would be such a peaceful planet without them." + +He was in a baffling mood, and she knew better than to pursue the subject +under those conditions. She abandoned her effort with a sigh. + +"She is not a woman; she is a child, very charming but utterly +irresponsible. She is in the training field just now with Jake and Bunny. +She is a positive delight to Jake. She can do anything with the horses." + +"But not such a delight to you?" suggested Saltash shrewdly. + +Maud hesitated momentarily. "I love her of course," she said then. +"But--though I have tried to make her feel at ease--I think she is a +little afraid of me--afraid anyhow to be quite natural in my presence." + +"But are we any of us that?" protested Saltash. "Are we not all on our +best behaviour in the audience-chamber?" + +Maud sighed again. "They are all great pals," she said irrelevantly. "She +and Bunny are terribly reckless. I hope they won't break their necks +before they have done." + +"Or their hearts?" suggested Saltash, looking mischievous. + +She smiled. "I don't think there is much danger of that, anyhow at +present. She is a positive child, Charlie,--as young as Eileen in many +ways, or perhaps younger. Shall we walk down to the field and look at +them?" + +"Your servant, madam!" said Saltash readily. + +He was on his feet in an instant, and she realized that he had been +chafing to go since the moment of his arrival. + +"You take a great interest in her," she remarked, as they walked along +the terrace. + +He made his most appalling grimace. "I have never had an infant to look +after before," he said "And--I have to make my report to Larpent." + +"Ah! How is he?" questioned Maud. + +He shot her a swift glance. "Is the child anxious?" + +"Not in the least. I don't believe she ever thinks about him. She told me +on the first day that she hardly knows him." + +Saltash laughed. "How honest of her! Well, he's getting better, but he +won't be well yet. May I leave her in your charge, a while longer?" + +"Of course!" Maud said warmly. "I love to have her, and she is a great +help to me too. The children simply worship her, and she is splendid with +them. I believe Eileen will very soon get over her dread of riding." + +"Toby can ride?" asked Saltash. + +"Oh yes, like a cow-boy. She is amazingly fearless, and never minds a +tumble in the least. She can do the most extraordinary things exactly +like a boy. I am always afraid of her coming to grief, but she never +does." + +"Funny little beggar!" said Saltash. + +"I am quite sure of one thing," pursued Maud. "She never learnt these +things at any school. She tells me she has been to a good many." + +"I believe that's true," said Saltash. "I imagine she is fairly quick to +pick up anything, but I haven't known her myself for long." + +"She must have picked up a good deal on _The Night Moth_," observed Maud +unexpectedly. + +He glanced at her again. "Why do you say that? She was under my +protection--and Larpent's--on _The Night Moth_." + +"I know. She idolizes you," Maud smiled at him somewhat dubiously. "But +she must have mixed fairly freely with the crew to have picked up the +really amazing language she sometimes uses." + +Saltash's brows worked whimsically. "Some of us have a gift that way," he +remarked. "Your worthy Jake, for instance--" + +"Oh, Jake is a reformed character," she interrupted. "He hardly ever lets +himself go now-a-days. And he won't allow it from Bunny. But Toby--Toby +never seems to know the good from the bad." + +"Has Jake taken her in hand?" asked Saltash with a chuckle. + +"Oh yes. He checks her at every turn. I must say she takes it very +sweetly, even offered to take her meals in her room yesterday when he was +rather down on her. It absolutely disarmed Jake of course. What could he +say?" + +"Yes, she's a disarming monkey certainly," agreed Saltash. "But I never +was great on the management and discipline of children. So she knocks +under to the great Jake, does she?" + +"Oh, not entirely." Maud laughed a little. "Only this morning they had a +battle. I don't know how it is going to end yet. But--she can be very +firm." + +"She never tried any battles with me," said Saltash, with some +complacence. + +"No. But then your sense of duty is more elastic than Jake's. You +never--probably--asked her to do anything she didn't want to do." + +"Can't remember," said Saltash. "What did Jake want?" + +Maud's smile lingered. "You'll laugh of course. But Jake is quite right, +whatever you do. He wanted her to go to church with little Eileen and me +this morning. She's only a child, you know, and he naturally took it for +granted that she was going. We both did. But just at the last moment she +absolutely refused, told him quite frankly that she was--an atheist." + +Saltash's laugh had a sound half-mocking, half-exultant. "What said the +worthy Jake to that? Stop! I know what he said. He said. 'You can call +yourself by any fool name you please, but you've got to go to Church +like a respectable citizen if I say so.' Wasn't that it?" + +"Something like it," Maud admitted. "How did you know?" + +"Oh, I know Jake," said Saltash dryly. "And what happened then? She +refused?" + +"Yes, she refused. She was frightened, but she refused. She looked as if +she were going to run away, but in the end Jake went off with her to the +stables saying they would go to-night. They were quite friends when I saw +them again, but she had been crying, poor little thing. I wish I could +help her, but somehow I can't get near enough. Jake seems to understand +her best." + +"Wonder if she will give in?" said Saltash. + +They were passing through a shrubbery that led to the training-field, and +there came the quick thud of hoofs galloping on short turf as they +approached. + +"I don't think there is much doubt about that," Maud said. + +Saltash laughed again mockingly. "Oh, we all know Jake is invincible, +virtuous rectitude incarnate. But you can't hammer a girl into submission +like a boy and I rather fancy that Toby is not wholly ignorant of the art +of getting her own way." + +"Jake never hammered Bunny," Maud said quietly, "But he manages him +notwithstanding." + +They rounded a curve and came upon the gate that led into the field. The +galloping hoofs were close to them. As they reached the corner two riders +flashed past at full speed. One of them--Bunny--lay on his horse's neck, +yelling wild encouragement to his mount. The other,--a slight, childish +figure--was kneeling on the saddle like a small, crouching creature, +perfectly poised and wholly unafraid. As the horse that carried her +dropped to a canter on the hill, she got to her feet with absolute ease, +and stood, arms out and swaying to the animal's motion, till, as they +rounded another curve, she dropped to the saddle again, and passed from +sight, following in Bunny's tracks. + +"Quite a pretty exhibition!" remarked Saltash. "Where is Jake?" + +Jake himself appeared at the moment riding soberly, mounted on his +favourite horse, The Hundredth Chance. He greeted Saltash with a smile +and jumped to the ground to join them at the gate. + +"They'll be round again directly. Just riding off their spirits," he +explained in his easy drawl. "You motored over, my lord?" + +Saltash nodded with a touch of impatience. He was watching with restless +eyes for the reappearance of the girl on horseback. She had not seen him +at the gate, yet somehow his arrogance rebelled at the fact that she +had passed him by. + +Jake stood with The Hundredth Chance nuzzling against him. He did not +trouble himself to make conversation; that was not his way. He also +waited for the reappearance of the riders. + +They came, riding side by side and jesting with careless _camaraderie_. +Toby's face was delicately flushed. The fair head had no covering. She +was dressed and looked exactly like a boy. + +At sight of Saltash standing by the gate her whole attitude changed. She +uttered a queer sound, half-whoop, half-sob, and flung herself out of the +saddle. In a moment she had reached him, was hanging to his arm in mute +greeting, everything else in the world forgotten. It was pathetically +like the re-union of a lost dog to its master. + +Saltash's ugly face softened miraculously at her action. The jest died on +his lips. "Why, Nonette!" he said. "Nonette!" + +She strangled another sob. Her face was burning, quivering, appealing, no +longer the face of a boy. "I thought you'd forgotten to come," she said. + +"What? Was I expected to lunch?" said Saltash. "Ah! Was that why you +wouldn't go to church?" + +Toby looked up, desperately smiling. "It may have been--partly. But I +never do go. Do you?" + +"Not often," said Saltash. "I might if I stayed here. There's no knowing. +You'll be pleased to hear your daddy is better. He's coming down to the +Castle to convalesce. And when he's done that, I'm going to have a +party--a coming-out party--for you." + +"For me!" Toby gasped, staring at him with scared blue eyes. "I hope you +won't, sir," she said. + +He laughed back at her, his brows working mischievously. "_Mais pourquoi +pas, mignonne?_ You are old enough. Maud will come and be hostess, won't +you, Maud? You shall have Jake too for a watch-dog, if you want him. +After that, you shall be presented at Court, when you've learnt to +curtsey prettily instead of turning somersaults. You must let your hair +grow, Nonette, and leave off wearing breeks. You've got to be a credit to +me." + +"Oh, damn!" said Toby in dismay. "I mean--oh, bother!" + +"Yes, it's a good thing you mean only that, isn't it?" laughed Saltash. +"If you go on wearing those masculine things much longer, you'll have +Jake punching your head for little slips of that kind. He's getting +mighty particular, I'm told." + +"Not afraid of Jake!" said Toby, casting a swift look at her host. + +Jake was lighting his pipe. His face wore a faint smile. He was holding +Toby's animal as well as his own. "Aren't you going to ride again?" he +said. + +"No," said Toby. + +"Oh, come on!" Bunny pushed his horse forward without dismounting. "Glad +to see you, Charlie, but we must have one more gallop. Come on, Toby! Be +a sport!" + +But Toby, still holding Saltash's sleeve, would not so much as look at +him. "Not coming," she said tersely. + +Saltash laughed. Bunny coloured suddenly and hotly. "Oh, all right!" he +said, and, wheeling his horse, rode away. + +"Now you've hurt his little feelings," observed Saltash. + +"Who cares?" said Toby, and nestled closer, till with his sudden reckless +grin he thrust an arm about her shoulders. + +"I'll tell you what it is, Nonette. You're getting spoilt all round. +Something will have to be done. Shall I take her away, Jake?" + +"And bring me back when I'm good?" put in Toby eagerly. + +He laughed and pinched her ear. "I shall want to keep you myself--when +you're good. I haven't yet found anyone to sew on buttons like you do. +No, _ma chère_, you'll have to stay and be caned for your sins. Jake is +a better schoolmaster than I am, being so eminently virtuous himself. I +hope you do cane her, Jake. I'm sure she needs it." + +"No," Jake said, preparing to mount again. "I haven't tried that at +present." + +Toby watched him a little wistfully as he moved away, leading her horse. +"I am trying to be good," she said. "He knows that." + +"Yes, she's trying hard," Maud said very kindly. "Jake and I are going to +be proud of her some day." + +Saltash's brows twisted humorously. "I wonder," he said. And then again +lightly he laughed. "Don't get too good, Nonette! I can't rise to it." + +She turned swiftly, looking up into the derisive face above her with open +adoration in her own. "You!" she said. "You!" + +"Well, what about me?" he said. + +She coloured very deeply. "Nothing, sir, nothing! Only--you're so great!" + +He flicked her cheek, grimacing hideously. "Is that your pretty way of +telling me I'm the biggest rotter you ever met?" + +"Oh, no!" said Toby quickly and earnestly. "Oh no! I think you are--a +king. If--if anyone could make me believe in God, you could." + +She spoke with a sincerity that held a hint of passion. The grimace +flicked out of Saltash's face like a picture from a screen. For a moment +he had the blank look of a man who has been hit, he knows not where. Then +with lightning swiftness, his eyes went to Maud. "You hear that?" he +said, almost on a note of challenge. "Why don't you laugh?" + +She met his look with absolute steadfastness. There was a certain pity in +her own. "Because," she said with great gentleness, "I believe that it is +true." + +In the silence that followed she waited for his own laugh of mockery and +did not hear it. The odd eyes comprehended her, and passed her by, fell +abruptly to Toby and dwelt upon her with a whimsical tenderness. + +"I always said you were a little ass, didn't I, Toby?" he said. + +And Toby turned with an apologetic murmur and softly kissed his hand. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +RESOLUTIONS + + +Toby went to church that Sunday evening with great propriety, Saltash +having departed, taking Bunny with him to spend the evening at +Burchester. Her behaviour was a model of decorum throughout, but +returning she begged Jake for a cigarette as a reward of virtue. + +"It'll keep me good for hours," she assured him. + +And Jake, who yearned for a smoke himself, could not find it in his heart +to refuse. + +"Don't overdo it, that's all!" he said. "Young Bunny is always at it, and +it's very bad for him." + +"Oh, I've got heaps more sense than Bunny," said Toby, with lofty +assurance. + +She smoked the cigarette with delicate appreciation though Jake's tobacco +was by no means suited to a feminine palate, and they returned at peace +with all the world. + +Maud, who had been watching for them somewhat anxiously, saw with relief +that her fears were groundless. Toby's serene countenance told her that +all was well. No, she had not hated it so very badly after all. It was +nothing to make a fuss about anyhow. She would go again if Jake liked. + +She seemed in fact mildly amused by the idea that he could be so easily +pleased, and asked him later with her chin in the air if there were any +other odd jobs he would like her to perform. + +But when Maud presently went to the piano, she came and sat on a low +chair near her and listened in absolute stillness while she played. They +were alone, and Maud played on and on, almost forgetful of her silent +companion, suffering her fingers to wander in unison with her thoughts. +All her life music had been her great joy and solace. She was not a +brilliant musician as was Saltash, but she had the gift of so steeping +herself in music that she could at times thereby express that which +otherwise would have been unutterable--the hidden emotions of her soul. + +Nearly an hour had passed thus before she remembered the silent little +figure behind her, and then it was with a swift sense of compunction that +she took her hands from the keys and turned. + +"Toby dear, how boring this must be for you! Are you asleep? Why, child, +what is it?" + +With a start she saw that Toby's fair head was bowed upon her arms in an +attitude of the most hopeless, the most bitter, despair. + +She made a convulsive movement at the sound of Maud's voice, and in a +moment lifted a white, strained face. "I am just a little tired, that's +all," she said in a voice that quivered in spite of her. "Please go on +playing! I like it." + +Maud got up with quiet decision and went to her, but Toby was on her feet +before she reached her. She stood with that look of a small, frightened +animal so characteristic of her, her two hands nervously locked together. + +Maud took her gently by the arm. "Shall we sit down and talk?" she said. + +Toby yielded as it were involuntarily to the quiet touch. In her plain +white blouse with the sailor collar she looked a mere child--a piteous, +shy child. + +Maud drew her down upon the sofa. All the mother in her went out to the +forlorn little creature, yet for the moment she hesitated, as one afraid +to strike a wrong note. + +Toby was trembling a little and that fact decided her. She put a +comforting arm about her. + +"Do you know I am wondering how to make you happy?" she said. + +Toby choked back a sob. "You are very kind, and I am stupid--stupid. I +will try to be happy. I will really." + +Maud began to draw her gently nearer, but Toby surprised her by a sudden +passionate movement and slipped down on to the floor, hiding her face +against her. + +"I'm not fit--to speak to you!" she said in a vehement, strangled +whisper. "I'm so bad--so bad. And I do--so--want to be good." + +"My dear, dear child!" Maud said very tenderly. + +Toby fought with herself for a space, her thin arms tightly clasping +Maud's knees. At last, forcing back her distress she lifted her head. + +"I'm so dreadfully sorry. Don't let it upset you! Don't--tell Jake!" + +"You are quite safe with me, dear," Maud assured her. "But can't I help +you?" + +She knew even as she asked the question that Toby was not prepared to +give her full confidence, and her own reserve shrank from asking for it. + +Toby looked up at her with quivering lips. "Oh, you are good!" she said. +"I want to be good--like you. But--I don't feel as if I ever shall be." + +Maud laid a very gentle hand upon the blue-veined forehead. "I think +goodness is only comparative at the best of times, dear," she said. "I +don't feel that I am specially good. If I seem so to you, it is probably +because my life holds very few temptations to be anything else." + +"Ah!" Toby said, with a quick sigh. "And do you think people ought to be +made to suffer for--for things they can't help?" + +Maud shook her head. "I am afraid it often happens, dear." + +"And yet you believe in God," Toby said. + +"Yes, I believe in God." With quiet reverence Maud made answer. "And I am +quite sure, Toby--quite, quite sure--that He never holds people +responsible for the things they can't help." + +"Then why--" began Toby restlessly. + +Maud interrupted her. "No, no. Don't ask why! The world is as God made +it. 'We are His workmanship.' Let Him do with us as He will!" + +Toby's hands clenched. A frown that was curiously unchildlike drew the +wide forehead. "Are we to be quite passive then? Just--slaves?" + +"No," Maud said. "Servants--not slaves. There is a big difference. And +every one of us--every one of us--has God's work to do in the world." + +"And you think that bad people,--like me--can do anything?" said Toby. + +Maud smiled a little. "Toby dear, I am quite sure that your work is +waiting for you." + +"Don't know where I'm going to begin," said Toby, with another sigh. + +"My dear, you have begun." Maud's hand smoothed the fair hair. "Do you +think I don't know how hard you try?" + +Toby's eyes filled with quick tears. "But is it any good trying? Shall I +ever get away from--from--" She broke off with a nervous, upward glance. +"Shall I ever do more than begin?" she substituted rather piteously. + +"My dear, yes." Very quietly, with absolute decision, Maud made answer. +"You are young--too young to be hampered by anything that is past. You +have your life before you, and--to a very great extent--you can make of +it what you will. There is no need--believe me, there is no need--to look +back. There is only time enough for the present. Just keep on trying! +Make the very best you can of it! And you will find the future will come +out all right." + +"Will it?" said Toby rather dubiously. + +Maud bent and kissed her. "Certainly it will, dear. Never doubt it! It +may not be the future we plan for ourselves, but it will be the very best +possible if we keep on doing our best with the present." + +"Thank you," Toby murmured gratefully. "And you really think--you do +really think--the past doesn't matter?" + +Maud was silent for a few moments. The thought of Saltash was in her +mind, his jesting evasions, his air of careless proprietorship. What was +the thing in this child's past that she desired so earnestly to put away? +She wondered if she ought to ask, but she could not. + +A slight terror ran through the small, supplicating figure at her knee, +and quick pity banished doubt. "I think it is entirely in our own hands, +dear," she said gently. "The past can always be left behind if we work +hard enough." + +"Oh, thank you," Toby said again, and gathering Maud's hands +impulsively into her own she kissed them. "I'm going to work very hard," +she said. "You'll help me, I know. I've got to--to leave off turning +somersaults--and learn to--curtsey." + +She sent a shy smile into Maud's face, and almost in spite of herself +Maud answered it. There was something oddly appealing, irresistibly +attractive, about the child. She was so young and ardent, yet so +pathetically anxious to please. + +"Of course I will help you," she said. "I will always help you, my dear." + +And Toby, emboldened, thrust warm arms about her neck, and held her +close. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE BUTTERFLY + + +The perfect rose of a June sunset was slanting through the fir-woods of +Burchester Park, making the red trunks glow. At the end of a long grass +ride the new moon dipped to the west, a silver boat uptilted in a green +transparent sea. A very great stillness lay upon all things--the eventide +quiet of a summer day. + +The dull thudding of a horse's hoofs along the ride scarcely seemed to +break that magic silence. A frightened rabbit scurrying to cover made no +sound at all. Somewhere a long way off a cuckoo was calling, tenderly, +persistently. Somewhere near at hand a blackbird was warbling to his +mate. But it all went into the enchanted silence, blending with the hush +of the coming night. The man who rode the horse was conscious only of the +peace of his surroundings. He doffed his cap to the moon in mock +reverence, and carried it in his hand. + +He came to the end of the ride and checked his animal on the brow of a +steep descent. The park lay below him wrapped in mystery. On another +slope a full mile away stood the Castle, ancient battlemented, starkly +splendid, one westward-facing window burning as with fire. He sat +motionless for a space, gazing across at it, his face a curious mask of +conjecture and regret. + +Finally, with great suddenness, he lifted his hand and smote his horse +sharply on the flank. In a moment he was being precipitated at a headlong +gallop down the hill. He went like the wind, and the enchanted wood +was left behind. + +Riding up the further slope to the Castle a few minutes later, he was +hailed from behind and reined in to look back. A long-legged figure +detached itself from a clump of trees that shadowed the bailiff's house +and came racing in pursuit. + +"Hi! Charlie! Don't be in such a deuce of a hurry! I'm going your way." + +Saltash waited, not too patiently. "My good chap, you're dressed and I'm +not! I shall be late for my guests." + +"What's it matter?" scoffed Bunny breathlessly, reaching his side. "Maud +and Jake don't count, and Toby is only a kid. I don't suppose she's ever +been out to dine before." + +"She's old enough to begin," remarked Saltash, pushing on at a walk. + +"Well, she is beginning," said Bunny, with a grin as he strode beside +him. "You haven't seen her for some weeks, have you? You'll see a +difference, and so will her father." + +"How?" said Saltash briefly. + +Bunny's grin became more pronounced. "Oh, it's chiefly clothes. Maud is +rather clever in that line, you know. I haven't seen a great deal of her +lately. She's generally scampering round on horseback with Jake. But +once or twice--with Maud--I've seen her look quite demure. She's really +getting almost good-looking," he added dispassionately. + +Saltash flung a swift look downwards. "Don't you approve?" + +Bunny shrugged his shoulders. "I don't see enough of her to care either +way. She's still a kid, you know,--quite a kid." + +Saltash dropped the subject abruptly. "You're liking your job all right?" + +"Rather!" Bunny made instant and enthusiastic reply. "It's just the sort +of thing I was made for. Old Bishop's a brick. We're getting quite fond +of one another." + +"Sort of life you enjoy?" questioned Saltash. + +"Oh, rather! I've always thought I'd like to manage a big estate. Wish +I'd got one of my own." + +"All right. I'll adopt you," laughed Saltash. "You shall be the son of my +old age." + +"Oh, don't be an ass!" protested Bunny. "Why on earth don't you get +married?" + +Saltash's brows twisted wryly. "Afraid I've lived too long, _mon cher_. +If I had married your sister in the long ago, things might have been +vastly different. As it is, I see no prospect of changing my state. Think +it matters?" + +"Well, it's rather a shame to let a good name die out," maintained Bunny. +"And of course it's rot to talk like that about Maud. You can't pretend +to have stayed in love with her all these years. There must have been +heaps of others since then." + +"No, I'm not pretending," said Saltash. "As you say, there have +been--heaps of others." He made an odd gesture towards the western sky +behind him. "There are always--heaps of stars, Bunny; but there's never +more than one moon." + +"Rot!" said Bunny. + +"It is, isn't it?" said Saltash, and laughed with brief derision. "Well, +I must get on. You can do the receiving if I'm late. Tell them I've been +in town and only got back at mid-day! You needn't bother about Larpent. +I'll see to him." + +He flicked his horse's neck and was off with the words. + +Bunny, striding after, watched him ride swiftly up the slope till the +fir-trees of the avenue hid him from view. + +"Queer fish!" he murmured to himself. "Very queer fish!" + +He entered the Castle a little later by the great stone hall and found it +lighted from end to end as if in preparation for a reception. He had +known the place for years, but it always struck him afresh with its +magnificence. It looked like a palace of kings. There were some beautiful +pieces of statuary both in marble and bronze, and upon each of these a +shaded light shone. + +At the end of the hall a wide oak staircase that branched mid-way led to +an oak gallery that ran round three sides of the hall, and where it +divided a high door stood open, showing a lighted room beyond. Bunny left +his coat with the silent-stepping butler and went straight up the +shallow stairs. + +He entered the stately apartment at the top expecting to find it empty. +It was the drawing-room--a vast and lofty chamber with satin-covered +walls, superbly furnished with old French furniture in royal blue velvet +and gilt. There was a further room beyond, but Bunny did not pursue his +way thither, for a man in evening-dress turned suddenly from one of the +great southward-facing windows and moved to meet him. + +He was a gaunt man with a trim beard and the eyes of the sea-farer, and +he walked with a slight roll as if accustomed to pitching decks. + +"Sir Bernard Brian?" he said. + +Bunny held out his hand. "You're Captain Larpent, of course. I wonder +we've never met before. I've heard of you often enough. Sorry you had +such bad luck with _The Night Moth."_ + +"Oh, damnable luck!" said the sailor gloomily. + +"Still you came out of it alive," said Bunny consolingly. "And your +daughter too. Things might have been worse." + +Larpent grunted. "Think so?" + +"She does anyway," said Bunny, with a grin. + +Larpent grunted again. "Shipboard is not the place for a girl," he +remarked. + +"Toby seems more at home on horseback than anywhere else," said Bunny. + +Larpent gave him a keen look. "Oh, she still goes by that name, does +she?" he said. + +"What do you call her?" said Bunny. + +Larpent snapped his fingers curtly. + +"Does she come for that?" asked Bunny. + +"Usually," said Larpent. + +"Then she's more docile than I thought she was," commented Bunny. + +Larpent said nothing. He propped himself against the high mantelpiece and +stared morosely out before him to the pine-clad slopes of the park. + +"How you must hate being ashore!" said Bunny. + +"Why do you say that?" Larpent scarcely removed his moody gaze. + +"You look as if you did." There was a hint of chaff in Bunny's voice. He +surveyed the gaunt man with humorous interest, seated on one of the gilt +chairs with his hands clasped round his knee. "I suppose Saltash will buy +another yacht, won't he?" + +Larpent's eyes came definitely down to him, grimly contemptuous. "Do you +also suppose that would be the same thing?" he said. + +Bunny flushed a little, but he accepted the rebuff with a good grace. "I +don't know, sir. You see, I've never been the captain of a yacht." + +Larpent's hard visage relaxed a little. He resumed his contemplation of +the distant pine-woods in silence. + +Bunny got up whistling and began to stroll about the room. He was never +still for long. He was not very familiar with the state reception-rooms +of Burchester Castle and he found plenty to interest him. + +Several minutes passed, and he had almost forgotten the silent man who +leaned against the fire-place, when suddenly Larpent came out of his +melancholy reverie and spoke. + +"How long has the child been with these Boltons?" + +Bunny paused at the further end of the room. "Let's see! It must be some +time now--practically ever since the wreck. It must be about six weeks. +Yes; she came just before I left to take on this job--the week of the +Graydown Meetings." Bunny's eyes kindled at the memory. "We had some +sport the day she came, I remember; quite a little flutter. In fact we +soared so high that I thought we were going to create a sensation, and +then"--Bunny whistled dramatically--"down we came with a rush, and I was +broke!" He began to laugh. "It's rather a shame to tell you, isn't it? +But you won't give me away? We've never done it since." + +"I shan't give anyone away," said Larpent grimly. + +"Good! You're a sport, I can see." + +The genuine appreciation in Bunny's voice brought an icy glimmer of +amusement to the elder man's eyes, but he made no verbal comment. + +Again a silence fell, and Bunny came strolling back, a smile on his +handsome boyish face. + +"Fine place this," he remarked presently. "It's a pity Saltash is here so +little. He only comes about three times a year, and then only for a +couple of nights at a time. There's heaps of game in the woods and no one +to shoot it." + +"He probably knows his own business best," remarked Larpent. + +"Oh, probably. But the place is wasted on him for all that." Bunny spoke +with a frown. "Why on earth he doesn't marry and settle down I can't +think. Can't you persuade him to?" + +"No," said Larpent quite definitely. + +Bunny glanced at him. "I don't know why not. I know he's considered to +have gone the pace a bit, but after all he's no worse than a hundred +others. Why the devil shouldn't he marry?" + +Larpent shrugged his shoulders. "Don't ask me!" he said. + +"Well, he ought to," maintained Bunny. "If you have any influence with +him, you ought to persuade him to." + +"I haven't," said Larpent. + +Bunny flung away impatiently. "It's a confounded shame--a gorgeous family +place like this and no one but servants to live in it!" + +"It is, isn't it?" gibed Saltash, unexpectedly entering from the further +door. "Large enough for fifty wives, eh, Bunny? Well, as I said before, +you get married and I'll adopt you. It'll save me a lot of trouble. +You're so keen on recommending the marriage medicine to other people. Try +it yourself, and see how you like it!" + +He walked straight down the long room with the words, passing both +Larpent and Bunny on his way, pausing by neither. "I like to hear you two +discussing my case," he jested. "You, Bunny, who have never had the great +disease, and Larpent who has never got over it!" + +He approached the open door that led out upon the great staircase, the +jest still on his lips and the laughter in his eyes. He reached it and +stretched out both hands with a fine gesture of greeting. + +"Welcome to my poor hovel!" he said. "Madam, I kneel at your feet." + +A clear high laugh answered him from below, and both of his companions +turned sharply at the sound. + +A figure in white, girlish, fresh as the morning, sprang suddenly into +view. Her eager face had the delicate flush of a wild rose. The hair +clustered about her temples in tender ringlets of gold. Her eyes, blue +and shining, gave her the look of a child just awakened from happy +sleep--a child that expects to be lifted up and kissed. + +"By--Jove!" murmured Bunny under his breath, staring openly. "By--Jove!" + +And these words failed him. He had never been so astounded in his life. +This girl--this funny little Toby with the sharp features and pointed +chin, the girl-urchin with whom he had chaffed and played--was actually a +beauty, and till that amazing moment he had not realized the fact. + +As he went forward to greet her, he saw that Larpent was staring also, +and he chuckled inwardly at the sight. Decidedly it must be a worse shock +for Larpent than it was for himself, he reflected. For at least he had +seen her in the chrysalis stage, though most certainly he had never +expected this wonderful butterfly to emerge. + +Maud, of course, was the witch who had worked the marvellous +transformation, Maud with her tender mother-wisdom that divined so much. +He looked at her now, and wondered as he met her smile if she fully +realized what she had done. + +Across the wonder came Saltash's quizzing voice--"_Mais, Nonette, +Nonette_, you are a vision for the gods!" + +And a curious hot pang that was like a physical stab went through Bunny. +How dared Charlie use that caressing tone to her--as though she were a +mere ordinary woman to be trifled with and cajoled? He had never +disapproved of Saltash before, but for that moment he almost hated him. +She was too young, too sweet, too--different--to be treated thus. + +And then he was standing close to her, and Saltash, laughing, pushed him +forward. "Do you know this fellow, _ma chère_?" + +The wide blue eyes came up to his with a pleased smile of comradeship. +"Why, it's Bunny!" the clear voice said. "I'm so glad you're here too--in +this ogre's castle." + +Her hand gave his a little confiding squeeze, and Bunny's fingers gripped +in answer. He realized suddenly that she was nervous, and all the ready +chivalry of his nature rose up to protect her. For a moment or two he +kept her hand close in his own. + +Then Saltash airily took it from him. "Come!" he said lightly. "Here is +someone else you ought to know!" + +He wheeled her round with the words. She came face to face with Larpent. +There was an instant of dead silence, then Toby uttered a little +quivering laugh. + +"Hullo--Captain!" she said + +"Hullo!" said Larpent, paused a moment, then abruptly took her by the +chin, and, stooping, touched the wide brow with his lips. "All right?" he +asked gruffly. + +Toby gave a little gasp; she seemed to be trembling. But in a second she +laughed again, with more assurance. "Yes, all right, captain," she said. +"I--I--I'm glad to see you again. You all right too?" + +Bunny, looking on, made the abrupt discovery that Larpent also was +embarrassed. It was Saltash who answered for him, covering the moment's +awkwardness with the innate ease of manner which never seemed to desert +him. + +"Of course he's all right. Don't you worry about him! We're going to buy +him another boat as soon as the insurance Company have done talking. +Maud, this is my captain, the finest yachtsman you've ever met and my +very good friend." + +He threw his merry, dare-devil glance at Larpent as he made the +introduction, and turned immediately to Jake. + +"You two ought to get on all right. He disapproves of me almost as +strongly as you do, and--like you--he endures me, he knows not +wherefore!" + +Jake's red-brown eyes held a smile that made his rugged face look kindly +as he made reply. "Maybe we both have the sense to spot a winner when we +see one, my lord." + +Saltash's brows went up derisively. "And maybe you'll both lose good +money on the gamble before you've done." + +"I think not," said Jake, in his steady drawl. "I've known many a worse +starter than you get home on the straight." + +Saltash laughed aloud, and Toby turned with flushed cheeks and lifted +eyes, alight and ardent, to her hero's face. + +Saltash's glance flashed round to her, the monkeyish grin still about his +mouth, and from her to Bunny who stood behind. He did not speak for a +moment. Then: "No; you've never known a worse starter, Jake," he said; +"and if I do get home on the straight it will be thanks to you." + +Very curiously from that moment Bunny found his brief resentment dead. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE OGRE'S CASTLE + + +"Let's go out into the garden!" said Bunny urgently. + +Dinner was over, and Maud and Saltash were at the piano at the far end of +the great room. Jake and Larpent were smoking in silent companionship at +a comfortable distance. Toby, who had been very quiet the whole evening, +sat silently apart in a low chair with her hands clasped about her knees. +Bunny alone was restless. + +She lifted her eyes to him as he prowled near her, and they held a hint +of mischief. At his murmured words she rose. + +"You'd like to?" he questioned. + +She nodded. "Of course; love it. You know the way. You lead!" + +Bunny needed no second bidding. He went straight to the tall door and +held it open for her. Toby, very slim and girlish in her white raiment, +cocked her chin and walked out in state. But the moment they were alone +she turned upon him a face brimful of laughter. + +"Oh, now we can enjoy ourselves! I've been feeling so proper all the +evening. Quick! Where shall we go?" + +"Into the garden," said Bunny. "Or wait! Come up on to the battlements! +It's ripping up there." + +She thrust her hand eagerly into his. "I shall love that. Which way do we +go?" + +"Through the music-room," said Bunny. + +He caught and held her hand. They ran up one of the wide stairways that +branched north and south to the Gallery. Saltash's music followed them +from the drawing-room as they went. He was playing a haunting Spanish +love-song, and Toby shivered and quickened her pace. + +They reached another oak door which Bunny opened, drawing her impetuously +forward. "This is Charlie's own particular sanctum. Rather a ripping +place, isn't it? He's got a secret den that leads somewhere out of it, +but no one knows how to get in." + +He led her over a polished oak floor into a long, almost empty apartment +with turreted windows at each end, and a grand piano near one of them +that shone darkly in the shaded lamplight. Underfoot were Persian rugs, +exquisite of tint and rich of texture. Two or three deep divans completed +the furniture of the room giving it a look of Eastern magnificence that +strangely lured the senses. + +"Rather like a harem I always think," said Bunny, pausing to look round. +"There's an Arabian Nights sort of flavour about it that rather gets hold +of one. Why? You're shivering! Surely you're not cold!" + +"No, I'm not cold," said Toby. "But I don't like this place. It's creepy. +Let's go!" + +But Bunny lingered. "What's the matter with it? It's luxurious enough. +I've always rather liked coming in here." + +Toby made a small but vehement gesture of protest. "Then you like horrid +things," she said. "There's no air in here;--only--only--scent." + +Bunny sniffed. "Well, it's quite subtle anyhow; not enough to upset +anybody. Rather a seductive perfume, what?" + +She surprised him by stamping in sudden fury upon the bare floor. +"It's beastly! It's hateful! How can you like it? It--it--it's bad! +It's--damnable!" + +Bunny stared at her. "Well, Charlie designed it anyway. It's the one +corner in the whole Castle that is individually his. What on earth is +there that you don't like about it?" + +"Everything--everything!" declared Toby passionately. "I don't want to +stay here another minute. Show me the way out!" + +She spoke with such imperiousness that Bunny judged it best to comply. He +showed her a door in the eastern wall that was draped by a heavy red +curtain. + +"You can get up on to the ramparts that way. But wait a minute while I +find the switch! What are you running away from? There isn't a bogey-man +anywhere." + +Toby drew in her breath sharply with a nervous glance over her shoulder. +"I think it's a dreadful place," she said. "I want to get out into the +air." + +Bunny opened the door, and a dark passage gaped before them. "This looks +much more eerie," he observed, feeling about for a switch. "Do you really +like this better?" + +"Much better," said Toby, going boldly into the darkness. + +"Don't believe there is a switch," said Bunny, striking a match. "No, +there isn't! How beastly medieval! Look here! Wait while I go and get an +electric torch!" + +"No, no! Let's feel our way! I'm sure we can," urged Toby. "Come on! +It'll be fun. Shut the door!" + +The spirit of adventure seized upon Bunny. He let the door swing closed +and caught her hand again. + +Toby's delighted chuckle told him that she had fully recovered her +equilibrium. Her fingers twined closely about his own. + +"Now we shall have some fun!" she said. + +They went forward together for a few yards in total darkness. Then, from +somewhere high above them a faint light filtered through. + +"That's on the stairs," said Bunny. "One of those window-slits through +which in the old hospitable days all comers were potted at. Look out how +you go!" + +The words were scarcely uttered when they both kicked against the lowest +stair and blundered forward. A squeal of laughter came from Toby. Bunny +said "Damn!" with much heartiness and then laughed also. + +"I knew it would be fun," said Toby. "Are you hurt?" + +He raised her with a strong young arm. "No, I'm all right. Are you?" + +"Yes. I'm loving it. What happens next? Do the stairs wind round and +round till we get to the top?" + +"Yes. There are about six hundred of 'em. Feel equal to it?" + +"Equal to anything," said Toby promptly. "Let me go first!" + +"Why don't I go and get a light?" said Bunny. + +"Because you're not to. Because it's heaps more fun without. Besides, +there's lots of light up there. Now then? Are you ready? Come on! Let's +go!" + +Indomitable resolution sounded in Toby's voice. She drew herself free +from Bunny's hold, and began to mount. + +"You know it's haunted, don't you?" said Bunny cheerily. "A beautiful +lady was once captured and imprisoned in this turret in the dear old days +when everyone did those things. She had to choose between throwing +herself from the battlements and marrying her wicked captor--an ancestor +of Charlie's, by the way. She did the latter and then died of a broken +heart. They always did, you know. Her poor little ghost has wandered up +and down this stair ever since." + +"Idiot!" said Toby tersely. + +"Who?" said Bunny. "And why?" + +"The woman. Why didn't she throw herself over? It would have been much +easier." + +"Perhaps she didn't find it so," said Bunny. "And she'd doubtless have +done the haunting stunt even if she had." + +"Well, then, why didn't she marry the brute and--and--give him hell?" +said Toby tensely. + +Bunny uttered a shout of laughter that echoed and re-echoed up and down +the winding stair. + +"Is that what you would have done?" + +"I'd have done one or the other," said Toby. + +"By Jove, how bloodthirsty you sound!" ejaculated Bunny. "Are you in +earnest by any chance?" + +"Yes, I am in earnest." There was a note of bitter challenge in Toby's +reply. "If a woman hasn't the spunk to defend herself, she's better +dead." + +"I agree with you there," said Bunny with decision. "But I don't know how +you come to know it." + +"Oh, I know a lot of things," said Toby's voice in the darkness, and this +time it sounded oddly cold and desolate as if the stone walls around them +had somehow deadened it. + +He put out a hand and touched her, for she seemed in some fashion to have +withdrawn from him, to have become remote as the echoes about them. +"There are heaps of things you don't know anyway," he said. "You're only +a kid after all." + +"Think so?" said Toby. + +She evaded his hand, flitting up before him towards that grim slit in the +wall through which the dim half-light of the summer night vaguely +entered. Her light figure became visible to him as she reached it. There +came to him a swift memory of the butterfly-beauty that had so astounded +him earlier in the evening. + +"No, I don't," he said. "You're past that stage. What on earth has Maud +been doing to you? Do you know when you first came into the drawing-room +tonight I hardly knew you?" + +Toby's light laugh came back to him. She was like a white butterfly +flitting before him in the twilight. "I wondered what you'd say. I've +given up jumping rosebushes, and I'm learning to be respectable. It's +rather fun sometimes. Maud is very good to me--and I love Jake, don't +you?" + +"Yes, he's a brick; always was," said Bunny enthusiastically. "I'd back +him every time. But, I say. Don't get too respectable, will you? Somehow +it doesn't suit you." + +Again he heard her laugh in the darkness--a quick, rather breathless +laugh. "I don't think I'll ever be that," she said. "Do you?" + +"I don't know," said Bunny. "But you looked scared to death when you came +in--as if you were mounted on a horse that was much too high for you. I +believe you were afraid of that old daddy of yours." + +"I am rather," said Toby. "You see, I don't know him very well. And I'm +not sure he likes me." + +"Of course he likes you," said Bunny. + +"Why? I don't know why he should." + +"Everyone does," said Bunny, with assurance. + +"Don't be silly!" said Toby. + +They were past the slit in the wall, and were winding upwards now towards +another. Bunny postponed argument, finding he needed all his breath for +the climb. The steps had become narrower and more steeply spiral than +before. His companion mounted so swiftly that he found it difficult to +keep close to her. The ascent seemed endless. + +Again they passed a window-slit, and Bunny suddenly awoke to the fact +that the flying figure in front was trying to out-distance him. It came +to him in a flash of intuition. She was daring him, she was fooling him. +Some imp of mischief had entered into her. She was luring him to pursuit; +and like the whirling of a torch in a dark place, the knowledge first +dazzled, and then drew him. All his pulses beat in a swift crescendo. +There was a considerable mixture of Irish deviltry in Bunny Brian's +veins, and anything in the nature of a challenge fired him. He uttered a +wild whoop that filled the eerie place with fearful echoes, and gave +chase. + +It was the maddest race he had ever run. Toby fled before him like the +wind, up and up, round and round the winding stair, fleet-footed, almost +as though on wings, leaving him behind. He followed, fiercely determined, +putting forth his utmost strength, sometimes stumbling on the uneven +stairs, yet always leaping onward, urged to wilder effort by the +butterfly elusiveness of his quarry. Once he actually had her within his +reach, and then he stumbled and she was gone. He heard her maddening +laughter as she fled. + +The ascent seemed endless. His heart was pumping, but he would not +slacken. She should never triumph over him, this mocking imp, this +butterfly-girl, who from the first had held him with a fascination he +could not fathom. He would make her pay for her audacity. He would teach +her that he was more than a mere butt for her drollery. He would show +her-- + +A door suddenly banged high above him. He realized that she had reached +the top of the turret and burst out upon the ramparts. A very curious +sensation went through him. It was almost a feeling of fear. She was such +a wild little creature, and her mood was at its maddest. The chill of the +place seemed to wrap him round. He felt as if icy fingers had clutched +his heart. + +It was all a joke of course--only a joke! But jokes sometimes ended +disastrously, and Toby--Toby was not an ordinary person. She was either a +featherbrain or a genius. He did not know which. Perhaps there was no +very clear dividing line between the two. She was certainly +extraordinary. He wished he had not accepted her challenge. If he had +refused to follow, she would soon have abandoned her absurd flight +through the darkness. + +It was absurd. They had both been absurd to come to this eerie place +without a light. Somehow her disappearance, the clanging of that door, +had sobered him very effectually. He cursed himself for a fool as he +groped his way upwards. The game had gone too far. He ought to have +foreseen. + +And then suddenly he blundered into an iron-clamped door and swore again. +Yes, this thing was beyond a joke. + +The door resisted him, and he wrestled with it furiously as though it had +been a living thing obstructing his passage. + +He had begun to think that she must have bolted it on the outside when +abruptly it yielded to his very forcible persuasion, and he stumbled +headlong forth into the open starlight. He was out upon the ramparts, and +dim wooded park-lands stretched away to the sea before his dazzled eyes. + +The first thing that struck him was the emptiness of the place. It seemed +to catch him by the throat. There was something terrible about it. + +Behind him the door clanged, and the sound seemed the only sound in all +that wonderful June night. It had a fateful effect in the silence--like +the tolling of a bell. Something echoed to it in his own heart, and he +knew that he was afraid. + +Desperately he flung his fear aside and moved forward to the parapet. The +wall was thick, but between the battlements it was only the height of his +knee. Below was depth--sheer depth--stark emptiness. + +He looked over and saw the stone terrace dimly lit by the stars far below +him. The gardens were a blur of darkness out of which he vaguely +discerned the glimmer of the lake among its trees. + +His heart was beating suffocatingly; he struggled to subdue his panting +breath. She was somewhere close to him of course--of course. But the +zest of the chase had left him. He felt dizzy, frightened, sick. He +tried to raise his voice to call her, and then realized with a start of +self-ridicule that it had failed him. He leaned against the parapet and +resolutely pulled himself together. + +Then he went forward and found himself in a stone passage, actually on +the castle wall, between two parapets; the one on his left towering above +the inner portion of the castle with its odd, uneven roofs of stone, the +one on his right still sheer above the terrace--a drop of a hundred feet +or more. + +The emptiness and the silence seemed to strike at him with a nebulous +hostility as he went. He had a vague sense of intrusion, of being in a +forbidden place. The blood was no longer hot in his veins. He even +shivered in the warmth of the summer night as he followed the winding +walk between the battlements. + +But he was his own master now, and as he moved forward through the +glimmering starlight he called to her: + +"Toby! Toby, I say! Come out! I'm not playing." + +He felt as if the silence mocked him, and again that icy construction +about the heart made him catch his breath. He put up a hand to his brow +and found it wet. + +"Toby!" he cried again, and this time he did not attempt to keep the +urgency out of his voice. "The game's up. Come back!" + +She did not answer him, neither did she come; but he had a strong +conviction that she heard. A throb of anger went through him. He strode +forward with decision. He knew that the battlement walk ended on the +north side of the Castle in a blank wall, built centuries before as a +final defence from an invading enemy. Only by scaling this wall could the +eastern portion be approached. He would find her here. She could not +possibly escape. Something of confidence came back to him as he +remembered this. She could not elude him much longer. + +He quickened his stride. His face was grim. She had carried the thing too +far, and he would let her know it. He rounded the curve of the castle +wall. He must be close to her now. And then suddenly he stopped dead. +For he heard her mocking laughter, and it came from behind him, from the +turret through which he had gained the ramparts. + +He wheeled round with something like violence and began to retrace his +steps. He had never been so baffled before, and he was angry,--hotly +angry. + +He rounded the curve once more, and approached the turret. His eyes were +accustomed to the dim half-light, but still he could not see her. Fuming, +he went back the whole distance along the ramparts till he came to the +iron-clamped door that had banged behind him. He put forth an impatient +hand to open it, for it was obvious that she must have eluded him by +hiding behind it, and now she was probably on the stair. And then, very +suddenly, from far behind him, in the direction of the northern wall, he +heard her laugh again. + +He swung about in a fury, almost too incensed to be amazed. She had the +wings of a Mercury, it was evident; but he would catch her--he would +catch her now, or perish in the attempt. Once more he traversed the stony +promenade between the double line of battlements, searching each +embrasure as he went. + +All the way back to the wall on the north side he pursued his way with +fierce intention, inwardly raging, outwardly calm. He reached the +obstructing wall, and found nothing. The emptiness came all about him +again. The ghostly quiet of the place clung like a tangible veil. She had +evaded him again. He was powerless. + +But at that point his wrath suddenly burst into flame, the hotter and the +fiercer for its long restraint. He wheeled in his tracks with furious +finality and abandoned his quest. + +His intention was to go straight down by the way he had come and leave +her to play her will-o'-the-wisp game in solitude. It would soon pall +upon her, he was assured; but in any case he would no longer dance to her +piping. She had fooled him to the verge of frenzy. + +Again he rounded the curve of the wall and came to the door of the +turret. A great bastion of stone rose beside this, and as he reached it a +small white figure darted forward from its shadow with dainty, butterfly +movements, pulled at the heavy oak door and held it open with an +elaborate gesture for him to pass. + +It was a piece of exquisite daring, and with an older man it would have +taken effect. Saltash would have laughed his quizzing, cynical laugh and +accepted his defeat with royal grace. But Bunny was young and vehement +of impulse, and the flame of his anger still scorched his soul with a +heat intolerable. She had baffled him, astounded him, humiliated him, and +his was not a nature to endure such treatment tamely. + +He hung on his stride for a single moment, then hotly he turned and +snatched her into his arms. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE END OF THE GAME + + +She cried out sharply as he caught her, and then she struggled and fought +like a mad creature for freedom. But Bunny held her fast. He had been +hard pressed, and now that the strain was over, all the pent passion of +that long stress had escaped beyond control. He held her,--at first as a +boy might hold a comrade who had provoked him to exasperation; then, as +desperately she resisted him, a new element suddenly rushed like fire +through his veins, and he realized burningly, overwhelmingly, that for +the first time in his life he held a woman in his arms. + +It came to him like a blinding revelation, and forth-with it seemed to +him that he stepped into a new world. She had tried him too far, had +thrown him off his balance. He was unfit for this further and infinitely +greater provocation. His senses swam. The touch of her intoxicated him as +though he had drunk a potent draught from some goblet of the gods. He +heard himself laugh passionately at her puny effort to resist him and the +next moment she was at his mercy. He was pressing fevered kisses upon her +gasping, quivering lips. + +But she fought against him still. Though he kissed her, she would have +none of it. She struck at him, battering him frantically with her hands, +stamping wildly with her feet, till he literally swung her off the +ground, holding her slender body against his breast. + +"You little madcap!" he said, with his hot lips against her throat. "How +dare you? Do you think I'd let you go--now?" + +The quick passion of his voice or the fiery possession of his hold +arrested her. She suddenly ceased to battle with him, and stiffened in +his grasp as if turned to stone. + +"Let me go!" she said tensely. + +"I will not," said Bunny. + +He was mad with the fever of youth; he held her with a fierce exultation. +There could be no returning now, nor did he wish to return. + +"You little wild butterfly!" he said, and kissed the throbbing white +throat again. "I've caught you now and you can't escape." + +"You've--had your revenge," Toby flung back gaspingly. "You--you--you're +a skunk if you take any more." + +Oddly that sobered him as any protest more feminine would have failed to +do. He set her on her feet, but he held her still. + +"I haven't done with you," he said, with a certain doggedness. + +"Oh, I know that," she returned very bitterly. "You're like all the men. +You can't play fair. Men don't know how." + +That stung him. "Fair or unfair, you've done all the playing so far," he +said. "If you thought I was such a tame fool as to put up with it--well, +that's not my fault." + +"No, it's never your fault," said Toby. She made a little vehement +movement to extricate herself, but finding him obdurate, abandoned +the attempt. "You're not a fool, Bunny Brian. You're a beast and a +coward,--there!" + +"Be careful!" warned Bunny, his dark eyes gleaming ominously. + +But she uttered a laugh of high defiance. "Oh, I'm not afraid of you. +You're not full-grown yet. You're ashamed of yourself already." + +He coloured deeply at the taunt, but he maintained his hold upon her. + +"All right," he said. "Say I did it all! It doesn't matter how you put +it. The fact remains." + +"What fact?" said Toby swiftly. + +He clasped her a little closer. "Well,--do you think I'm going to let you +go--after this?" + +She caught her breath sharply. "What do you mean? I--I--I don't know what +you mean!" + +There was quick agitation in her voice. Again she sought to free herself, +and again he frustrated her. But the violence had gone out of his hold. +There was even a touch of dignity about him as he made reply. + +"I mean, you little wild butterfly, that now I've got you, I'm going to +keep you. You'll have to marry me and make the best of me." + +"Marry you!" said Toby as one incredulous. + +"Yes. What's the matter with the idea? Don't you want to?" Bunny's +good-looking young face came close to hers. He was laughing, but there +was a half-coaxing note in his voice as well. + +Toby was silent for a moment. Then: "You're mad!" she said tersely. + +"I'm not!" said Bunny. "I'm perfectly serious. Don't you understand that +when this kind of thing gets hold of you, there's no getting away from +it? We can't possibly go back to where we were before--behave as if +nothing had happened. You wouldn't want to, would you?" + +There was a hint of pleading in his tone now. Toby made a curious little +gesture that seemed to express a measure of reassurance. But, "I don't +know," she said somewhat dubiously. + +"You aren't angry, are you?" said Bunny softly. + +She hesitated. "I was." + +"Yes, but not now--when you've begun to realize what a jolly thing life +together would be. It isn't as if we'd never met before. We're pals +already." + +"Yes; we're pals," said Toby, but still her voice was dubious. + +"I say, be a sport!" the boy urged suddenly. "You said you weren't afraid +of me. Don't chuck the best thing in life for want of a little ordinary +courage!" + +"What is--the best thing in life?" said Toby. + +His hold grew close again, but it remained gentle. "You marry me," he +said, "and I'll show you!" + +There was something sublime rather than ridiculous in his assurance. Toby +caught her breath again as if about to laugh, and then quite suddenly, +wholly unexpectedly, she began to cry. + +"You poor little darling!" said Bunny. + +She leaned her head upon his shoulder, fighting great sobs that +threatened to overwhelm her. It was not often that Toby cried, and this +was no mere child's distress. Indeed there was about it something that +filled her companion with a curious kind of awe. He held her closely +and comfortingly, but for some reason he could not speak to her, could +not even attempt to seek the cause of her trouble. As his sister had done +before him, though almost unconsciously, he sensed a barrier that he +might not pass. + +Toby regained her self-command at last, stood for a space in silence, her +face still hidden, then abruptly raised it and uttered a little quivering +laugh. + +"You great big silly!" she said. "I'm not going to marry you, so there! +Now let me go!" + +Her tone and action put him instantly at his ease. This was the Toby he +knew. + +"Yes, you are going to marry me. And I shan't let you go," he said. "So +there!" + +She looked him straight in the face. "No, Bunny!" she said, with a little +catch in her breath. "You're a dear to think of it, but it won't do." + +"Why not?" demanded Bunny. + +She hesitated. + +He squeezed her shoulders. "Tell me why not!" + +"I don't want to tell you," said Toby. + +"You've got to," he said with decision. + +In the dimness his eyes looked into hers. A little shiver went through +Toby. "I don't want to," she said again. + +"Go on!" commanded Bunny, autocratically. + +She turned suddenly and set her hands against his breast. "Well then, +because I'm years and years older than you are--" + +"Rot!" interjected Bunny. + +"And--I'm not good enough for you!" finished Toby rather tremulously. + +"Rats!" said Bunny. + +"No, it isn't rats." She contradicted him rather piteously. "You've +turned a silly game into deadly earnest, and you shouldn't--you +shouldn't. I wouldn't have done it if I'd known. It's such a +mistake--it's always such a great mistake--to do that. You say we +can't go back to where we were before, but we can--we can. Let's +try--anyway!" + +"We can't," said Bunny with decision. "And there's no reason why we +should. Look here! You don't want to marry anyone else, do you?" + +"I don't want to marry at all," said Toby. + +He laughed at that. "Darling, of course you'll marry. Come! You might as +well have me first as last. You won't get any other fellow to suit you +half as well. What? Say you'll have me! Come, you've got to. You don't +hate me, do you?" + +Again the pleading note was in his voice. She responded to it almost +involuntarily. Her hands slipped upwards to his shoulders. + +"But--I'm not good enough," she said again, catching back a sob. + +His arms enfolded her, closely and tenderly. "Oh, skip that!" he said. "I +won't listen." + +"You--you--you're very silly," murmured Toby, with her head against his +neck. + +"No. I'm not. I'm very sensible. Look here, we're engaged now, aren't +we?" said Bunny. + +"No--no--we're not!" Her voice came muffled against his coat. "You're not +to think of such a thing for ages and ages and ages." + +"Oh, rot!" he said again with impatience. "I hate a waiting +game--especially when there's nothing to wait for. You're not going +to give me the go-by now." + +His face was close to her again. She put her hand against his chin and +softly pushed it away. "Bunny!" she said. + +"Well, dear?" He stood, not yielding, but suffering her check. + +"Bunny!" she said again, speaking with obvious effort. "I've got to say +something. You must listen--just for a minute. Jake,--Jake won't want you +to be engaged to me." + +"What?" Bunny started a little, as one who suddenly remembers a thing +forgotten. "Jake!" Then hotly. "What the devil has it got to do with +Jake?" + +"Stop!" said Toby. "Jake's quite right. He knows. He--he's older than you +are. You--you--you'd better ask him." + +"Ask Jake!" Bunny's wrath exploded. "I'm my own master. I can marry whom +I like. What on earth should I ask Jake for?" + +Toby uttered a little sigh. "You needn't if you don't want to. But if +you're wise, you will. He understands. You wouldn't. You see, I've been +to a lot of different schools, Bunny--foreign ones--and I've learnt a +heap of--rather funny things. That's why I'm so much older than you are. +That's why I don't want to get married--as most girls do. I never ought +to marry. I know too much." + +"But you'll marry me?" he said swiftly. + +"I don't know," she said. "Not anyway yet. If--if you can stick to me for +six months--I--p'raps I'll think about it. But I think you'll come to +your senses long before then, Bunny." A desolate little note of humour +sounded in her voice. "And if you do, you'll be so glad not to have to +throw me over." + +"You're talking rot," he interposed. + +"No, I'm not. I'm talking sense--ordinary common sense. I wouldn't get +engaged to any man on the strength of what happened to-night. You hadn't +even thought of me in that way when we came up here." + +"I'm not so sure of that," said Bunny. "Anyway, the mischief is done now. +And you needn't be afraid I shall throw you over because--" an unexpected +throb came into his voice--"I know now I've simply got to have you." + +Toby sighed again. "But if--if I'm not worth waiting for, I'm not worth +having," she said. + +"But why wait?" argued Bunny. + +"For a hundred reasons. You're not really in love with me for one thing." +Toby spoke with conviction. + +"Yes, I am." Stubbornly he contradicted her. + +"No, you're not. Listen, Bunny! Love isn't just a passion-flower that +blooms in a single night and then fades. You're too young really to +understand, but I know--I know. Love is more like a vine. It takes a +long while to ripen and come to perfection, and it has a lot to go +through first." + +Again a sense of strangeness came to Bunny. Surely this was a grown woman +speaking! This was not the wild little creature he knew. But--perhaps it +was from perversity--her warning only served to strengthen his +determination. + +"You can go on arguing till midnight," he said, "you won't convince me. +But look here, if you don't want anyone to know, we'll keep it to +ourselves for a little while. Will that satisfy you? We'll meet and have +some jolly times together in private. Will that make you any happier?" + +"We shan't be engaged?" questioned Toby. + +"Not if you'll kiss me without," said Bunny generously. + +"Oh, I don't mind kissing you--" she lifted her lips at once, "if it +doesn't mean anything." + +He stooped swiftly and met them with his own. His kiss was close and +lingering, it held tenderness; and in a moment her arms crept round his +neck and she clung to him as she returned it. He felt a sob run through +her slight frame as he held her though she shed no tears and made no +sound, and he was stirred to a deeper chivalry than he had ever known +before. + +"It does mean one thing, darling," he said softly. "It means that we love +each other, doesn't it?" + +She did not answer him for a moment; then: "It may mean that," +she whispered back. "I don't know--very much about--love. No one +ever--really--loved me before." + +"I love you," he said. "I love you." + +"Thank you," she murmured. + +He held her still. "You'll never run away from me again? Promise!" + +She shook her head promptly with a faint echo of the elfin laughter that +had so maddened him a little earlier. "No, I won't promise. But I'll show +you where I was hiding if you like. Shall I?" + +"All right. Show me!" he said. + +She freed herself from him with a little spring, and turned to the stone +buttress against which he had found her. He followed her closely, half +afraid of losing her again, but she did not attempt to elude him. + +"See!" she said, with a funny little chuckle. "I found this ledge." + +The ledge she indicated was on a level with the parapet and not more than +six inches wide. It ran square with the buttress, which on the outer side +dropped sheer to the terrace. + +Bunny looked and turned sick. "You never went along there!" he said. + +She laughed again. "Yes, I did. It's quite easy if you slide your feet. +I'll show you." + +"You'll do nothing of the sort!" He grabbed her fiercely. "What in +heaven's name were you thinking of? How did you learn to do these +things?" + +She did not answer him. "I wanted to tease you," she said lightly. "And I +did it too, didn't I? I pretended I was Andromeda when I got round the +corner, but no Perseus came to save me. Only an angry dragon ramped +about behind." + +Bunny stared at her as if he thought her bewitched. "But you were over by +that north wall once. I'll swear you were over there." + +"Oh, don't swear!" she said demurely. "It's so wrong. I wasn't there +really. I only sent my voice that way to frighten you." + +"Good heavens!" gasped Bunny. + +She laughed again with gay _insouciance_. "Haven't I given you a splendid +evening's entertainment? Well, it's all over now, and the curtain's down. +Let's go!" + +She turned with her hand in his and led him back to the turret-door. + +Reaching it, he sought to detain her. "You'll never do it again? +Promise--promise!" + +"I won't promise anything," she said lightly. + +"Ah, but you must!" he insisted. "Toby, you might have killed yourself." + +Her laugh suddenly had a mocking sound. "Oh, no! I shall never kill +myself on Lord Saltash's premises," she said. + +"Why do you say that?" questioned Bunny. + +"Because--_que voulez-vous_?--he would want me neither dead nor alive," +she made reckless answer. + +"A good thing too!" declared Bunny stoutly. + +The echoes of Toby's laughter as she went down the chill, dark stairway +had an eerie quality that sent an odd shiver through his heart. Somehow +it made him think of the unquiet spirit that was said to haunt the +place--a spirit that wandered alone--always alone--in the utter +desolation. + + + + +PART III + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE VIRTUOUS HERO + + +"How long is this absurd farce to go on?" said Larpent. + +"Aren't you enjoying yourself?" grinned Saltash. + +Larpent looked sardonic. + +Saltash took up the whisky decanter. "My worthy buccaneer, you don't know +when you're lucky. If I had a reputation like yours--" He broke off, +still grinning. "Well, it's no use crying over spilt milk, is it? Let's +spill some whisky instead! Say when!" + +Larpent watched him, frowning. "Thanks! That's enough. I should like an +answer to my question if you've no objection. How long is this practical +joke going to last?" + +Saltash turned and looked upon him with a calculating eye. "I really +don't know what's troubling you," he remarked. "You've got everything in +your favour. I'd change places with you with all the pleasure in the +world if circumstances permitted." + +"That isn't the point, is it?" said Larpent. + +"No? What is the point?" Saltash turned again to the whisky decanter. + +"Well, you've got me into a damn' hole, and I want to know how you're +going to get me out again." Larpent's voice was gruff and surly; he +stared into his tumbler without drinking. + +Saltash chuckled to himself with mischievous amusement. "My dear chap, I +can't get you out. That's just it. I want you to stay there." + +Larpent muttered deeply and inarticulately, and began to drink. + +Saltash turned round, glass in hand, and sat down on the edge of the +high, cushioned fender. "I really don't think you are greatly to be +pitied," he remarked lightly. "The child will soon be married and off +your hands." + +"Oh, that's the idea, is it?" said Larpent. "Who's going to marry her? +Young Brian?" + +"Don't you approve?" said Saltash. + +"I don't think it'll come off," said Larpent with decision. + +"Why not?" An odd light flickered in the younger man's eyes for an +instant. "Are you going to refuse your consent?" + +"I?" Larpent shrugged his shoulders. "Are you going to give yours?" + +Saltash made an elaborate gesture. "I shall bestow my blessing with both +hands." + +Larpent looked at him fixedly for a few seconds. "You're a very wonderful +man, my lord," he remarked drily at length. + +Saltash laughed. "Have you only just discovered that?" + +Larpent drained his tumbler gravely and put it down. "All the same, I +don't believe it will come off," he said. + +Saltash moved impatiently. "You always were an unbeliever. But anyone can +see they were made for each other. Of course it will come off." + +"You want it to come off?" asked Larpent. + +"It is my intention that it shall," said Saltash royally. + +"You're playing providence in the girl's interest. Is that it?" Again +Larpent's eyes, shrewd and far-seeing, were fixed upon him. They held a +glint of humour. "It's a tricky job, my lord. You'll wish you hadn't +before you've done." + +"Think so?" said Saltash. + +"If you haven't begun to already," said Larpent. + +Saltash looked down at him with a comical twist of the eyebrows. "You're +very analytical to-night. What's the matter?" + +"Nothing," said Larpent bluntly. "Except that you're making a mistake." + +"Indeed?" For a moment Saltash's look was haughty; then he began to smile +again. "I see you're burning to give your advice," he said tolerantly. +"Fire away, if it does you any good!" + +Larpent's eyes, very steady under their fair, bushy brows, were still +unwaveringly upon him. "No, I don't presume to give you advice," he said. +"But I'll tell you something which you may or may not know. That young +woman you have so kindly bestowed upon me as a daughter worships the +ground you tread on, and--that being the case--she isn't very likely to +make a dazzling success of it if she marries young Bernard Brian." + +He ceased to speak, and simultaneously Saltash jerked himself to his feet +with a short French oath that sounded like the snarl of an angry animal. +He went across to the windows that were thrown wide to the summer night +and stood before one of them with his head flung back in the attitude of +one who challenges the universe. + +Larpent lay back in his chair with the air of a man who has said his say. +He did not even glance towards his companion, and there followed a +considerable pause before either of them spoke again. + +Abruptly at length Saltash wheeled. + +"Larpent!" There was something of a whip-lash quality about his voice; +it seemed to cut the silence. "Why the devil do you tell me this? Can't +you see that it's the very thing I'm guarding against? Young Bunny is +the best remedy she could take for a disease of that kind. And after +all,--she's only a child." + +"Do you say that for your own benefit or for mine?" said Larpent, without +turning his head. + +"What do you mean?" Savagely Saltash flung the question, but the man in +the chair remained unmoved. + +"You know quite well what I mean," he said. "You know that it isn't +true." + +"What isn't true?" Saltash came swiftly back across the room, moving as +if goaded. He took his tumbler from the mantel-piece and drank the +contents almost at a gulp. "Go on!" he said, with his back to Larpent. +"May as well finish now you've begun. What isn't true?" + +Larpent lounged in his chair and watched him, absolutely unmoved. + +"When a thing is actually in existence--an accomplished fact--it's rather +futile to talk of guarding against it," he said, in his brief, +unsympathetic voice. "You've been extraordinarily generous to the imp, +and it isn't surprising that she should be extraordinarily grateful. She +wouldn't be human if she weren't. But when it comes to handing her on to +another fellow--well, she may consent, but it won't be because she wants +to, but because it's the only thing left. She knows well enough by this +time that what she really wants is out of her reach." + +Again Saltash made a fierce movement, but he did not turn or speak. + +Larpent took out his pipe and began to fill it. "You've been too good a +friend to her," he went on somewhat grimly, "and you're not made of the +right stuff for that sort of thing. I'm sorry for the kid because she's a +bit of a pagan too, and it's hard to have to embrace respectability +whether you want to or not." + +"Oh, damn!" Saltash exclaimed, suddenly and violently. "What more could +any man have done? What the devil are you driving at?" + +He turned upon Larpent almost menacingly, and found the steady eyes, +still with that icy glint of humour in them, unflinchingly awaiting his +challenge. + +"You want to get married," the sailor said imperturbably. "Why in the +name of all the stars of destiny don't you marry her? She may not have +the blue blood in her veins, but blood isn't everything, and you've got +enough for two. And it's my opinion you'd find her considerably easier to +please than some--less strict in her views too, which is always an +advantage to a man of your varying moods." + +Saltash's laugh had a curious jarring sound as of something broken. "Oh, +you think that would be a suitable arrangement, do you? And how long do +you think I should stick to her? How long would it be before she ran +away?" + +"I never speculate so far as you are concerned," said Larpent, shaking +the tobacco back into his pouch with care. + +"You think it wouldn't matter, perhaps?" gibed Saltash. "My royal house +is so inured to scandal that no one would expect anything else?" + +"I don't think she is the sort to run away," said Larpent quietly. "And +I'm pretty sure of one thing. You could hold her if you tried." + +"An ideal arrangement!" sneered Saltash. "And I should then settle down +to a godly, righteous, and sober life, I suppose? Is that the idea?" + +"You said it," observed Larpent, pushing his pipe into his mouth. + +Saltash lodged one foot on the high fender, and stared at it. The sneer +died out of his face and the old look, half mischievous, half melancholy, +took its pace. "I haven't--seriously--contemplated marriage for eight +years," he said, his mouth twitching a little as with a smile suppressed. +"Not since the day I tried to steal Maud Brian away from Jake--and +failed--rather signally. I don't think I've ever done anything quite so +low down since." + +Larpent lighted his pipe with grave attention. "A good thing for you both +that you did fail!" he observed. + +"Think so?" Saltash glanced at him. "Why?" + +"She isn't the woman for you." Larpent spoke with the absolute conviction +of one who knows. "She has too many ideals. Now this sprat you caught at +Valrosa--has none." + +"Not so sure of that," said Saltash. + +"Well, no illusions anyway." There was a hint of compassion in Larpent's +voice. "It wasn't because she trusted you that she put herself under your +protection. She didn't trust you. She simply chucked herself at you with +her eyes open. Like Jonah's whale, you were the only shelter within +reach. I'd wager a substantial sum that she's never had any illusions +about you. But if you held up your little finger she'd come to you. She's +your property, and it isn't in her to do anything else, let her down as +often as you will." + +Saltash made an excruciating grimace. "My good fellow, spare me! +That's just where the shoe pinches. I've broken faith with her already. +But--damnation!--what else could I do? I didn't choose the part of +virtuous hero. It was thrust upon me. The gods are making sport of me. I +am lost in a labyrinth of virtue, and horribly--most horribly--sick of +it. I nearly broke through once, but the wreck pulled me up, and when I +recovered from that, I was more hopelessly lost than before." + +"So you are not enjoying it either!" remarked Larpent, with the glimmer +of a smile. "But you don't seem to have let her down very far." + +Saltash brought his foot down with a bang. "I swore I'd keep her with me. +I meant--oh, God knows what I meant to do. I didn't do it anyway. I broke +my oath and I made her go, and she never uttered a word of reproach--not +one word! Do you think I'll let her ruin herself by marrying me after +that? Like Jonah's whale I've managed to throw her up on to dry land, and +if she gets swamped again, it won't be my fault." + +He began to laugh again suddenly and cynically--the bitter laugh of a man +who hides his soul; and Larpent leaned back in his chair again, as if he +recognized that the discussion was over. + +"I don't suppose anyone will blame you for it," he said. + +"No one will have the chance," said Saltash. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE COMPACT + + +The polo-ground at Fairharbour was reckoned as one of the greatest +attractions the town possessed. Because of it, and the Graydown +race-course an ever-increasing stream of visitors poured yearly into the +town and its neighbourhood, and very fashionable crowds were wont to +gather during the summer season at the various hotels which had sprung up +during recent years for their accommodation. + +The old Anchor Hotel facing the shore had been bought by a syndicate and +rebuilt and was now a very modern erection indeed. It boasted a large +lounge, palm-decked and glass-covered, in which a string band played for +several hours of the day, and the constant swing of its doors testified +to the great popularity to which it had attained since its renovation. + +To Bunny, who had known the place under very different circumstances in +his boyhood, it was always a source of amusement to drop in and mark +progress. The polo-ground was only a few yards away, and he had become an +ardent member of the Club to which he almost invariably devoted two +afternoons of the week. + +He was a promising player, and his keenness made him a favourite. He rode +Lord Saltash's ponies, Saltash himself very seldom putting in an +appearance. He was wont to declare that he had no time for games, and his +frequent absences made it impossible for him to take a very active part +in the proceedings of the Club which he had himself inaugurated in an +idle hour. He dropped in occasionally to watch a game, and he took +interest in Bunny's progress; but he was very rarely moved to play +himself. He was too restless, too volatile, to maintain any lasting +enthusiasm for any pastime. All that was generally seen of him when +staying at Burchester was a lightning glimpse as he tore by in his car, +or else galloped furiously over the downs and along the hard sands in the +early morning. + +He was a good deal in town as a rule during the season, but with the +general exodus in July he was invariably the first to go, driven by a +fever that gave him no rest. Even his most intimate friends seldom knew +where he was to be found or whither his wild fancy would take him next. +No one was sure of him at any time. He would accept an engagement and +throw it up again without scruple if it did not accord with his mood. Yet +wherever he went he could always command a welcome--at least from the +feminine portion of the community who declared that Charles Rex could not +be judged by ordinary standards; he was a law unto himself. + +Even Bunny did not know where he was on that hot afternoon in mid-July +when all Fairharbour gathered to watch a match between the regular team +and the visitors. It bid fair to be an exciting event, and he was in high +spirits at being one of those chosen to play. Maud had promised to bring +Toby down to see the game at his special request. He had seen very little +of Toby since that night at the Castle, though he was forced to admit to +himself that if she avoided him of set purpose she did it in a fashion +that baffled detection. She seemed to have settled down as a regular +inmate of Jake's household, and with the exception of her early rides +with Jake she gave herself up almost exclusively to helping Maud with the +children. She had eased his sister's burden in a wonderful fashion, and +the children loved her dearly. Her readiness and her sweet temper never +seemed to fail. She was but a child herself, but Bunny had an uneasy +feeling that she was changing. She had stipulated for six months, but he +sometimes wondered if by the end of that time she would not have +contrived to put herself out of his reach. It was that suspicion that +kept him hotly determined to pursue her untiringly till he captured her. +Even at a distance that odd charm of hers lured him strongly, and he knew +instinctively that if once she were launched in society his chances of +victory would be very greatly reduced. He wished he could have seen more +of Captain Larpent and possibly have enlisted his sympathy, but he had +left the Castle with Saltash, and even Toby herself professed ignorance +of his whereabouts. It was evident that they had never seen much of one +another, and Bunny realized that he would look in vain for help in that +quarter. + +He doggedly maintained his resolve to win her none the less, and his +visits to his sister's house were frequent. He spoke no word on the +subject either to Maud or Jake. Toby should not feel that he had in any +sense taken a mean advantage. But he never looked at her without the +quick longing to take her in his arms rising in his heart, and though the +longing was never satisfied he believed that she was aware of it. She was +always friendly with him and never embarrassed in his presence. Yet he +had a strong feeling that by some subtle means she was holding him off. +He bided his time with what patience he could muster, but he was +determined it should not be for long. + +The work on Saltash's estate had done him good. He was keen to prove +himself, and the vigorous, out-door life suited him. Jake saw with +satisfaction that he was developing a self-reliance and resourcefulness +that had not characterized him formerly. He had given up racing according +to his promise, and the life he now led was after Jake's own heart, an +existence of wholesome activity that was making of him exactly the type +of man that he desired him to become. The boy was a gentleman and there +was fine stuff in him. Jake gloried in the fact. There had always been in +Bunny qualities that appealed to him very strongly, and it was in a large +measure due to his influence that those qualities had ripened as they +had. + +He did not accompany Maud and Toby down to Fairharbour, for business kept +him at the Stables. "Bring him back with you!" he said to his wife at +parting, and she smiled and promised. Bunny was never difficult to +persuade. + +But when they reached the polo-ground he was in the midst of a crowd of +visitors from the hotel, and it seemed at first as if he would have no +time to spare for them. He very speedily detached himself, however, at +sight of them and came up with an eager greeting. + +"So awfully glad you've come. There are some people here you used to +know, Maud, in the old days. Friends of Charlie's too. The Melroses--you +remember them, don't you?" + +The name came upon Maud with a curious shock. Yes, she remembered the +Melroses. They belonged to the long, long ago before her marriage--to +that strange epoch in her early girlhood when Charlie Burchester had +filled her world. How far away it seemed! They had all been in the same +set, they and the Cressadys who had been responsible for the scandal that +had so wrung her proud heart. Lady Cressady had been dead for years. She +wondered if Charlie had ever regretted her. It had been but a passing +fancy, and she suspected that he had forgotten her long since. He had +never really taken her seriously; of that she was convinced now. Life had +been merely a game with him in those days. It was only recently that it +had begun to be anything else. + +She felt no keen desire to resume the long-forgotten acquaintance with +the Melroses, but Bunny evidently expected it of her, had already told +them about her, and she had no choice. + +She followed him therefore, Toby very sedate and upright behind her. Toby +was looking wonderfully pretty that day. She varied as a landscape varies +on a windy day, but that afternoon she was at her best. Her blue eyes +looked forth upon the crowd with a hint of audacity, and her _piquante_ +little face was full of charm. + +Bunny's look dwelt upon her as he drew aside for his sister to pass him +at the pavilion. He pinched her elbow with a sudden smile. + +"You don't want to go and talk to those people. Come with me and see the +ponies!" + +She responded with characteristic eagerness to the invitation. "Shall I? +But won't Maud mind? Do you think I ought?" + +"Of course you ought," he rejoined with decision. "Maud won't care. I'll +bring you back to her before the play begins." + +He drew her away through the crowd, and she went with him without further +demur. Bunny was tall and bore himself with distinction. There was, +moreover, something rather compelling about him just then, and Toby felt +the attraction. She suffered the hand that grasped her own. + +"Look here!" he said abruptly, as they drew apart from the throng. "I've +got to see more of you somehow. Have you been dodging me all this time?" + +"I?" said Toby. + +She met his eyes with a funny little chuckle. There was spontaneous +mischief in his own. + +He gave her hand an admonitory squeeze. "I'm not laughing. You're not +playing the game. What's the good of my coming to the house to see you if +we never meet?" + +"Don't understand," said Toby briefly. + +"Yes, you do. Or you can if you try. You never seem to have any liberty +now-a-days. Is it Maud's doing or your own?" + +Toby laughed again lightly and bafflingly. "I can do anything I want to +do," she said. + +"Oh, can you?" Bunny pounced. "Then you've got to meet me sometimes away +from the rest. See? Come! That's only fair." + +Toby made a face at him. "Suppose I don't want to?" she said. + +He laughed into her eyes. "Don't tell me that! When and where?" + +She laughed back. He was hard to resist. "I don't know. I'm too busy." + +"Rot!" said Bunny. + +"You're very rude," she remarked. + +"I'll be ruder when I get the chance," he laughed. "Listen, I want to see +you alone very badly. You're not going to let me down." + +"I don't know what I'm going to do yet," said Toby. + +But she could not look with severity into the handsome young face that +was bent to hers. It was not in her to repulse a friendly influence. She +had to respond. + +"I'll tell you what you're going to do," said Bunny, marking her +weakening with cheery assurance. "You'll take Chops for a walk to-morrow +evening through the Burchester Woods. You know that gate by the larch +copse? It's barely a mile across the down. Be there at seven, and +perhaps--who knows?--perhaps--Chops may meet somebody he's rather fond +of." + +"And again perhaps he mayn't," said Toby, suppressing a dimple. + +"Oh, I say, that's shabby! You'll give him the chance anyhow?" + +The pleading note sounded in Bunny's voice. Toby suddenly dropped her +eyes. She looked as if she were bracing herself to refuse. + +Bunny saw and quickly grappled with the danger. "Give him the chance!" he +urged softly into her ear. "You won't be sorry--afterwards." + +She did not lift her eyes, but somehow the enchantment held. By a bold +stroke he had entered her defences, and she could not for the moment +drive him out. She was silent. + +"You'll come?" whispered Bunny. + +They were nearing a little group of ponies that were being held in +readiness at the end of the field. Toby quickened her pace. + +He kept beside her, but he did not speak again. And perhaps his silence +moved her more than speech, for she gave a little impulsive turn towards +him and threw him her sudden, boyish smile. + +"All right. We'll come," she said. + +"Hooray!" crowed Bunny softly. + +"But I shan't stay long," she warned him. "And if I don't like it, I +shall never come again." + +"You will like it," said Bunny with confidence. + +"I wonder," said Toby with her chin in the air. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +L'OISEAU BLEU + + +Bunny surpassed himself that afternoon. Wherever he went, success seemed +to follow, and shouts of applause reached him from all quarters. + +"That young fellow is a positive genius," commented General Melrose, who +had a keen eye for the game. "He ought to be in the Service. Why isn't +he, Mrs. Bolton?" + +"He wasn't considered strong enough," Maud said. "It was a great +disappointment to him. You see, he spent the whole of his childhood on +his back with spine trouble. And when that was put right he outgrew his +strength." + +"Ah! I remember now. You used to wheel the poor little beggar about in a +long chair. Well, he's rather different now from what he was in those +days. Not much the matter with him, is there?" + +"Nothing now," Maud said. + +"What does he do with himself?" asked the General, surveying the distant +figure at that moment galloping in a far corner of the field. + +"He is agent on Lord Saltash's estate at Burchester," his daughter said, +suddenly entering the conversation. "He was telling me about it at +luncheon. He and Lord Saltash are friends." + +"Ah! To be sure!" General Melrose's look suddenly came to Maud and she +felt herself colour a little. + +"He is an old friend of the family," she said. "We live not far from the +Castle. My husband owns the Graydown Stables." + +"Oh, I know that," the General said courteously. "I know your husband, +Mrs. Bolton, and I am proud to know him. What I did not know until to-day +was that he was your husband. I never heard of your marriage." + +"We have been married for eight years," she said with a smile. + +"It must be at least ten since I saw you last," he said. "This girl of +mine--Sheila--must have been at school in those days. You never met her?" + +Maud turned to the girl. "I don't think we have ever met before," she +said. "Is this your first visit to Fairharbour?" + +"My first visit, yes." Sheila leaned forward. She was a pretty girl of +two-and-twenty with a quantity of soft dark hair and grey eyes that held +a friendly smile. "We don't go to the sea much in the summer as a rule. +We get so much of it in the winter. Dad always winters in the South. It +only seems a few weeks since we came back from Valrosa." + +Maud was conscious of an abrupt jerk from Toby on her other side, and she +laid a hand on her arm with the kindly intention of drawing her into the +conversation. But the next instant feeling tension under her hand, she +turned to look at her, and was surprised to see that Toby was staring out +across the field with wide, strained eyes. She looked so white that Maud +had a moment of sharp anxiety. + +"Is anything the matter, dear?" she whispered. + +An odd little tremor went through Toby. She spoke with an effort. "I +thought he was off his pony that time, didn't you?" + +She kept her eyes upon Bunny who was coming back triumphant. + +Maud smiled. "Oh, I don't think there is much danger of that. Miss +Melrose was talking about Valrosa. You were there too last winter, +weren't you?" + +The colour mounted in Toby's face. She turned almost defiantly. "Just for +a day or two. I was at school at Geneva. I went there to join my father." + +"I was at school at Geneva a few years ago," said Sheila Melrose. "You +didn't go to Mademoiselle Denise, I suppose?" + +"No," said Toby briefly. "Madame Beaumonde." + +"I never heard of her," said Sheila. "It must have been after I left." + +Toby nodded. "I wasn't there long. I've never been anywhere long. But +I've left school now, and I'm going to do as I like." + +"A very wise resolution!" commented a laughing voice behind her. "It's +one of the guiding principles of my life." + +All the party turned, Toby with a quick exclamation muffled at birth. +Saltash, attired in a white yachting suit and looking more than usually +distinguished in his own fantastic fashion, stood with his hand on the +back of Toby's chair. + +"Quite a gathering of old friends!" he declared, smiling impartially upon +all. + +General Melrose stretched a welcoming hand to him. "Hullo, Saltash! Where +on earth have you sprung from? Or are you fallen straight out of the +skies?" + +"Like Lucifer, son of the morning!" laughed Saltash. "Well, I haven't +sprung and I haven't fallen. I have simply arrived." + +Toby was on her feet. "Come and sit down!" she said in a low voice. + +He shook his head. "No, no, _ma chérie_. I will stand behind you. Miss +Melrose, my humble regards to you. Is the black mark still against my +name?" + +Sheila looked at him with a touch of _hauteur_ that somehow melted into a +smile. She had learnt her lesson at Valrosa, and there was nothing to add +thereto. This man was never in earnest, and he had never intended her +to think him so. + +"I banned you as bold and bad long ago," she said. "I don't remember that +you have done anything to change the impression." + +He laughed lightly, enigmatically. "Nothing in your presence, I fear. The +Fates have always been sportive so far as I was concerned. But really I'm +not such a bad sort now-a-days, am I, Mrs. Bolton?" + +Maud smiled upon him. "Not so bad, I think. But please don't ask me to be +your sponsor! I really couldn't play the part." + +"Ask me!" said Toby suddenly, with flushed face up-raised. "He saved my +life when _The Night Moth_ went down, when most men would only have +bothered to save their own." + +"What a libel!" laughed Saltash. "Don't you know I only hung on to you +because you had a life-belt on!" + +"Oh, naturally!" said the General. "That would be your motive. I was +sorry to hear about _The Night Moth_, but you had a lucky escape." + +"I always escape somehow," remarked Saltash complacently. "_The Night +Moth_ wanted new engines too, that's one consolation. I've just bought +another," he added, suddenly touching Toby's shoulder. "Your daddy is +quite pleased with her. We've just come round from London in her." + +"Oh, have you?" Eagerly Toby's eyes came up to his, "What is she like? +What are you going to call her?" + +"She isn't christened yet. I'm going to hold a reception on board, and +Maud shall perform the ceremony. I'm calling her _The Blue Moon_--unless +you can suggest something better." Saltash's restless look went to Maud. +"I wanted to call her after you," he said lightly, "But I was afraid Jake +might object." + +"I think _The Blue Moon_ is much more suitable," she answered. "Is she as +rare as she sounds?" + +"She's rather a fine article," he made answer. "You must come and see +her--come and cruise in her if you will. She's only just off the slips. I +was lucky to get her. She skims along like a bird." + +"Why not call her _The Blue Bird_?" suggested Sheila. + +He shook his head with his odd grimace. "That is a thing I can never hope +to possess, Miss Melrose. The blue moon may occur once in my life if I am +exceptionally virtuous, but the blue bird never. I have ceased to hope +for it." His glance flashed beyond her. "Young Bunny is distinguishing +himself to-day. That was a fine effort." + +Everyone was clapping except Toby who was staring before her with her +hands in her lap. Her blue eyes were very wide open, but they did not +seem to be watching the game. + +"It will fly to you, _chérie_," suddenly whispered a voice in her ear. +"It is already upon the wing." + +A little tremor went through her, but she did not turn her head. Only +after a moment she slipped a hand behind her through the back of her +chair. + +Wiry fingers closed upon it, gripped it, let it go. "When it comes +to you, hold it fast!" came the rapid whisper. _"Il ne vient pas deux +fois--l'oiseau bleu."_ + +Toby's lip trembled. She bit it desperately. Her look was strained. She +did not attempt to speak. + +"It is the gift of the gods, _chérie_." The words came softly at her +shoulder, but they pierced her. "We do not cast their gifts away. They +come--too seldom." + +She made a quick movement; it was almost convulsive, like the start of +one suddenly awakened. A hard breath went through her, and then she was +laughing, laughing and clapping with the rest, her eyes upon the boyish, +triumphant figure in front of her. When the applause died away, Saltash +had departed, abruptly as was his wont. And though they saw him in the +distance several times, he did not return that afternoon. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE TRAP + + +It was an evening of golden silence, and the larch copse in its stillness +was like an enchanted wood. Now and then something moved in the +undergrowth with a swift rustle or a blackbird raised a long ripple of +alarm. But for the most part all was still. No breeze came up the +hillside, and in the west a long black line of cloud lay like a barrier +across the sun, so that great rays slanted out over land and sea, +transforming all things with their radiance. + +A soft low whistle broke the stillness or mingled with it. A snatch of +melody came like the strains of a fairy pipe from the edge of the larch +wood. Again there came a sharp movement in some long grass near the gate +that led from the open down into the Burchester estate. It sounded as if +some small imprisoned creature were fighting for freedom. Then in another +moment there came the rush and snuffle of a questing dog, and old Chops +the setter came bursting through the hedge that bordered the wood. + +He flung himself through the long grass with an agility that belied his +advancing years, and in an instant there arose a cry that seemed to +thrill the whole wood with horror. The enchanted silence broke upon it +like the shivering of a crystal ball, for as Chops pounced another cry +rang clear and commanding from the other side of the hedge. + +"Chops! Back! Back! Do you hear, Chops? Come back." + +Chops did not come back, but he paused above his quarry, and looked round +with open jaws and lolling tongue. If it had been his master who thus +called him, he would have obeyed on the instant. But Toby was a different +matter, and the frantic, struggling thing in front of him was a sore +temptation. + +His brief hesitation, however, lost him the game. Her light feet raced +through the grass with the speed of wings, and she threw herself over the +gate and upon him before he could make good his claim. He found himself +thrust back, and the long habit of obedience had conquered instinct +before it could reassert itself. She dropped upon her knees beside the +thing in the grass and discovered a young hare caught in a snare. + +It was a very ordinary poacher's contrivance fashioned of wire. The +little animal was fairly caught round the body, and the cruel tension of +the gin testified to his anguished and futile struggles for freedom. The +wire had cut into his shoulder, and his bolting eyes were wild with +terror. It was no easy task to loosen the trap, and there was blood on +Toby's hands as she strove to release the straining, frenzied creature. + +She was far too deeply engrossed in the matter to heed any sound of +approaching feet, and when the thud of a horse's hoofs suddenly fell on +the turf close to her she did not raise her head. But she did look up +startled when two hands swooped down from above her and gripped the +hare with a vice-like strength that stilled all struggling. + +"He will claw you to pieces," said Bunny bluntly. "Shall I kill him? He's +damaged. Or do you want to let him go?" + +"Oh, let him go--of course!" cried Toby, dragging reckless at the wire. +"See, it's coming now! Hold him tight while I slip it off!" + +The wire slipped at last. She forced it loose, and the victim was free. +Bunny turned to lay him in the grass, and Toby sprang upon Chops and held +him fast. She was crying, fiercely, angrily. + +"How dare they set that cruel thing? How dare they? He isn't dead, is he? +Why doesn't he run away?" + +"He's hurt," said Bunny. "Let me kill him! Let Chops finish him!" + +"No, no, no, no!" Vehemently Toby flung her protest. "He may be hurt, but +he'll get over it. Anyway, give him his chance! There! He's moving! It +wouldn't be fair not to give him his chance." + +"It would be kinder to kill him," said Bunny. + +"I hate you!" she cried back, weeping over Chops who stood strained +against her. "If--if--if you touch him--I'll never, never speak to you +again!" + +Bunny came to her, took Chops by the collar, and fastened him with his +whip to the gate. Then he stooped over Toby, his young face sternly set. + +"Stop crying!" he said. "Let me have your hands!" + +They were a mass of scratches from the hare's pounding feet. He began to +look at them, but Toby thrust them behind her back. She choked back her +tears like a boy, and looked up at him with eyes of burning indignation, +sitting back on her heels in the long grass. + +"Bunny, it's a damn' shame to trap a thing like that. Did you do it?" + +"I? No. I'm not a poacher." Grimly Bunny made reply. That flare of anger +made her somehow beautiful, but he knew if he yielded to the temptation +to take her in his arms at that moment she would never forgive him. +"Don't be unreasonable!" he said. "You'll have to come and bathe your +hands. They can't be left in that state." + +"Oh, what does it matter?" she said impatiently. "I've had much worse +things than that to bear. Bunny, you believe in God I know. Why does He +let things be trapped? It isn't fair. It isn't right. It--it--it hurts +so." + +"Lots of things hurt," said Bunny. + +"Yes, but there's nothing so mean and so horrible as a trap. I--I could +kill the man who set it. I'm glad it wasn't you." Toby spoke +passionately. + +"So am I," said Bunny. + +He crumpled the wire gin in his hand, and dragged it up from the ground. + +Toby watched him still kneeling in the grass. "What are you going to do +with it?" + +"Destroy it," he said promptly. + +She smiled at him, the tears still on her cheeks. "That's fine of you. +Bunny, I haven't got a handkerchief." + +He gave her his, still looking grim. She dried her eyes and got up. The +hare, recovering somewhat, gave her a frightened stare and slipped away +into the undergrowth. She looked up at Bunny. + +"I'm sorry I was angry," she said. "Are you cross with me?" + +He relaxed a little. "Not particularly." + +"Don't be!" she said tremulously. "I couldn't help it. He suffered so +horribly, and I know--I know so well what it felt like." + +"How do you know?" said Bunny. + +Her look fell before his. She made an odd movement of shrinking. He put +his arm swiftly round her. + +"Never mind the wretched hare! He's got away this time anyway. And I'm +not at all sure you didn't have the worst of it. Feeling better now?" + +She nodded. "Yes, much better. I like you, Bunny, but I can't help +thinking you're rather cruel. You didn't want to kill the poor thing?" + +"I think it was rather prolonging the agony to let him live," said Bunny. +"Let me see your hands!" + +She tried to hide them, but he was insistent, and at length impulsively +she yielded. + +"You must come down to old Bishop's and bathe them," he said. + +She shook her head instantly. "No, Bunny, I'm not going to. I'll run down +to the lake if you like. There's sure not to be anyone there." + +"All right," said Bunny, but he lingered still with his arm about her. +"Will you kiss me, Toby?" he said suddenly. + +"No," she said, and swiftly averted her face. + +His arm tightened for a second, then he felt her brace herself against +him and let her go. "All right," he said again. "We'll go down to the +lake." + +She threw him a swift glance of surprise, but he turned away to release +Chops and unfasten his horse without further discussion. + +Their way lay along a grass ride that ran beside the larch wood. Bunny +walked gravely along, leading his horse. Toby moved lightly beside him. + +Behind them the silence closed like the soft folds of a curtain, but it +was not a silence devoid of life. As they drew away from the place, a man +stepped out from the larches and stood motionless, watching them. A +whimsical smile that was not without bitterness hovered about his mouth. +As they passed from sight, he turned back into the trees and walked +swiftly and silently away. + +It was nearly a mile across the park to the lake in the hollow, and the +boy and girl tramped it steadily with scarcely a word. Chops walked +sedately by Toby's side, occasionally poking his nose under her hand. +Bunny's face was stern. He had the look of a man who moved with a +definite goal in view. + +They came to the beechwood that surrounded the lake. The Castle from its +height looked down over the terraced gardens upon one end of the water. +It was a spot in fairyland. + +They came to a path that led steeply downwards, and Bunny stopped. "I'll +leave my animal here," he said. + +Toby did not wait. She plunged straight down the steep descent. When he +rejoined her, she was at the water's edge. She knelt upon a bed of moss +and thrust her hands into the clear water. He stood above her for a +moment or two, then knelt beside her and took the wet wrists very gently +into a firm hold. She made a faint resistance, but finally yielded. He +looked down at the hands nervously clenched in his grasp. He was older in +that moment, more manly, than she had ever seen him. + +"What's the matter, little girl?" he said softly. "What are you afraid +of?" + +"Nothing," said Toby instantly, and threw up her chin in the old +dauntless way. + +He looked at her closely. "Sure?" + +The blue eyes met his with defiance. "Of course I'm sure. That horrid +trap upset me, that's all." + +He continued to look at her steadily. "That isn't why you won't have +anything to say to me," he said. + +Her colour rose under his gaze, but she would not avoid it. "Does it +matter why?" she said. + +"It does when I want to know," he answered. Again his look went to her +hands. "How the little brute scored you! So much for gratitude!" + +"You don't expect gratitude from a creature wild with fright," said Toby. + +She spoke rather breathlessly, and he saw that she was on the verge of +tears again. He got up and drew her to her feet. + +"Let's walk for a bit!" he said. + +She stood as one in doubt and he felt that she was trembling. + +"I say--don't!" he said suddenly and winningly. "I won't do anything you +don't like, I swear. You shan't be bothered. Can't you trust me?" + +She made a little movement towards him, and he put his arm round her +shoulders. They turned along the greensward side by side. + +"It was awfully nice of you to come," Bunny said in that new gentle +voice of his. "I didn't mean you to get there first, but old Bishop is so +long-winded I couldn't get away." + +"It didn't matter," said Toby with a nervous little smile. + +"It did to me," said Bunny. "It would have saved you that anyway." + +"But you'd have killed the hare," she said. + +"Not if he hadn't been damaged," he said. "I'm not a brute. I don't kill +for the sake of killing." + +She looked incredulous. "Most men do. Don't you hunt? Don't you shoot?" + +"Oh, you're talking of sport!" said Bunny. + +"Yes, it's called sport," said Toby, an odd little vibration in her +voice. "It's just a name for killing things, isn't it?" + +Bunny considered the matter. "No, that's not fair," he decided. "Sport is +sport. But I prefer to walk up my game and I never countenance digging +out a fox. That's sport." + +"There are very few sportsmen in the world," said Toby. + +"Oh, I don't know. Anyway, I hope I'm one of 'em. I try to be," said +Bunny. + +She gave him a quick look. "I think you are. And so is Jake." + +"Oh, Jake! Jake's magnificent. He's taught me all I know in that line. +I used to be a horrid little bounder before I met Jake. He simply made +me--body and soul." Bunny spoke with a simple candour. + +"P'raps he had good stuff to work on," suggested Toby. + +Bunny's arm drew her almost imperceptibly. "I don't think he had. My +father was a wild Irishman, and my mother--well, she's dead too--but she +wasn't anything to be specially proud of." + +"Oh, was your mother a rotter?" said Toby, with sudden interest. + +He nodded. "We don't talk about her much, Maud and I. She married a +second time--a brute of a man who used to run the Anchor Hotel. They went +to Canada, and she died." + +"The Anchor Hotel!" said Toby. "That place at Fairharbour down by the +shore?" + +"Yes, Maud and I were there too at first. I was a cripple in those days, +couldn't even walk. We had a fiendish time there--till Jake came." + +"Ah!" Toby's blue eyes suddenly gleamed. "Did Maud marry Jake to get +away?" she asked. + +Bunny nodded again and began to smile. "Yes. We were in a beastly hole, +she and I. Something had to be done." + +"She didn't love him then?" questioned Toby, almost with eagerness. + +"Oh no, not then. Not till long after. Jake and I were the pals. He was +always keen enough on her, poor chap. But Charlie complicated matters +rather in those days. You see, Charlie came first--before she ever met +Jake." + +"Charlie?" said Toby quickly. + +"Lord Saltash. You knew he was an old friend, didn't you?" + +"I didn't know--that he--and Maud--ever loved each other." Toby halted +over the words as if they were somehow difficult to utter. + +Bunny enlightened her with a boy's careless assurance. "Oh, that's a very +old story. They were very fond of each other in their youth. In fact they +were practically engaged. Then Charlie, who has always been a bit giddy, +went a bit too far with Lady Cressady who was also a somewhat gay young +person, and Sir Philip Cressady, who was a brute, tried to divorce her. +He didn't succeed. The case fell through. But it set everyone by the +ears, and Maud threw Charlie over. He pretends he didn't care, but he +did--pretty badly, and he's never married in consequence." + +"Oh, is that why?" said Toby. + +"That's why. He's gone the pace fairly rapidly ever since. But he's a +good chap at heart. Even Jake acknowledges that now, and he knows him as +well as anyone." + +"And--Maud?" said Toby, in a low voice. She was not looking at Bunny, but +staring out over the still waters of the lake with a rather piteous +intentness. + +"Maud has always kept a soft place in her heart for him. She couldn't +help it. Women can't." + +"I see," said Toby. "And doesn't--Jake--mind?" + +"Jake? No, not a bit. He's sure of her now. She thinks there's no one +like him in the world. And she's quite right. There's not." Bunny spoke +with warm enthusiasm. + +Toby's brows were drawn a little. "Then--she isn't in love with Lord +Saltash?" she said. + +"No, not now. She just takes a motherly interest in him, tries to +persuade him to settle down and be good--that sort of thing. I believe +she feels rather responsible for him. He certainly bolted very thoroughly +after she gave him up. It's all years ago of course. But he's never +settled--never will." + +"I see," said Toby. + +A slight shiver went through her, and she looked up at Bunny with a +small, pinched smile. "Fancy--Maud--giving him up!" she said. + +"Well, she always had her share of pride, and he certainly didn't treat +her with great consideration. He might have known she'd never stand it," +said Bunny. "He only had himself to thank." + +Toby's look was puzzled, oddly pathetic. "But he's such a king," she +said. "I don't suppose he'd ever think of that." + +Again Bunny's arm tightened about the narrow shoulders. There was +something about her that appealed to him very deeply, something he sensed +rather than saw. + +"Haven't we talked about other people's affairs long enough now?" he +suggested. "Don't you think we might turn our attention to our own?" + +She coloured up to her blue-veined forehead. "If you like," she said +rather faintly. + +"Don't you think I deserve that kiss?" urged Bunny softly. "I've been +awfully patient." + +She lifted her lips with a gesture of submission, saying no word. + +"Oh, not like that!" he said gently. "Not if you'd rather not, dear." + +She caught her breath sharply; it was almost a sob. Then she opened her +eyes wide and laughed. + +"Oh, you great big silly!" she said. "You're easier to draw than anyone I +ever met!" + +His arms clasped her. He drew her close. "My own little butterfly girl!" +he said, and kissed her very tenderly. "I've caught you at last--at +last." + +She laid her head against his neck, and stood so, quivering a little and +silent. + +"You're tired," he said. "I'll give you a lift towards home. Folly will +carry you all right." + +She uttered a tremulous laugh, and lifting her face she kissed him of her +own accord. + +"You're--awful good to me, Bunny dear," she said. "P'raps--p'raps I'll be +engaged to you soon." + +"You darling!" said Bunny fervently. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE CONFIDENCE + + +A letter with the crest of a fox's head and the motto, _Sans Vertu_, upon +the back lay beside Maud's plate on the following morning. She took it up +with a smile at Jake who had just entered the room. + +"From Charlie--probably about the new yacht. He told me the other day +that he wanted me to perform the christening ceremony." + +"You have my permission," said Jake. "What does he propose to call her?" + +"_The Blue Moon_, I believe. But he was in a freakish mood. He may have +changed his mind by this time." + +Jake glanced round. "Where's the kid?" + +"Who? Toby? I thought she went out early. Hasn't she been riding with +you?" + +"No, she dodged me," said Jake. "Went off on her own on one of those raw +colts. I shall have to talk to her when she comes in." + +"I hope she's all right," said Maud, with a touch of anxiety. + +"She's all right," said Jake. + +"But why did she dodge you? Have you been quarrelling?" Maud paused in +the act of opening her letter and looked at him with a grave questioning +that brought a gleam of humour into Jake's eyes. + +"We have not," he said. "I've scarcely seen her since yesterday morning. +I can't tell you why she dodged me. I only know she did it." + +"How odd of her!" said Maud. + +He sat down and took up the paper; his face was grim. "I shall know why +presently. Read your letter. I'm in no hurry." + +Maud opened the letter from Saltash and there fell a brief silence. + +It was broken by the sound of light feet outside the door, and Toby, +still wearing riding-dress, her face flushed and laughing, swung into the +room. "I'm so sorry I'm late," she said. "The little fiend ran away with +us, and we had a gigantic tussle. Do you mind if I sit down in these +things?" + +She went round to Maud to kiss her, and stopped as Maud's arm came about +her. + +"Do you mind?" she said again. + +"My dear," Maud said very gently, "Jake is going to scold you for riding +that half-broken colt by yourself. It was very risky. Why did you do it?" + +"Oh, is Jake cross?" said Toby. She looked across at him with an imp of +mischief in her eyes. Then, as he still studied his paper, abruptly she +left Maud and went round to him. + +"Cheer up, Jake!" she said. "Don't throw a cloud on the proceedings!" + +Her voice was half impudent, half wheedling. Jake looked up, his eyes +very direct and somewhat stern. + +"You sit down and have some breakfast!" he said. "I'll talk to you +afterwards." + +She obeyed him with a slight shrug of the shoulders. "P'raps I shan't +stay to be talked to," she remarked, as she did so. "I've promised to +take Eileen and Molly out as soon as I've had my tub, so if it's going to +be a lengthy wigging, you'd better begin now." + +Jake did not begin. He turned deliberately from the bravado of her look, +and began to take the covers off the breakfast dishes. + +Toby leaned back provocatively in her chair, and whistled under her +breath. She was plainly in a dare-devil mood, but it was not her custom +to dare Jake. + +"What have you done to your hands?" he said, as she reached out for the +plate he offered her. + +She coloured deeply. "Nothing--I mean--nothing serious. I often get my +hands scratched." + +"Why don't you tell me the truth?" said Jake. + +Maud looked up from her letter. "It is as I thought. Charlie wants us to +go down to Fairharbour to-morrow. He is getting together a luncheon party +on board the yacht. The Melroses will be there and some of the polo +people staying at The Anchor. Jake, you will come and support me, won't +you?" + +Jake shook his head. "Bunny can do that job, my girl. I've got to get +ready for Goodwood. Forest Fire is going to make his mark there." + +"Oh, bother Forest Fire!" said Maud. "I want you." + +"What for?" said Jake. + +"Well, General Melrose knows you. He was talking of you down at the Club +the other afternoon. And I want him to meet you--with me. Please come, +Jake!" Maud spoke persuasively. + +"All right," said Jake. + +"You will?" + +"I will," he said, smiling a little. "You don't often interfere with my +liberty. I remember old Melrose, met him years ago at Doncaster. He's +always been keen on the Turf, and he stood by me once when--someone--was +trying to queer my pitch." + +"Oh!" said Maud. "You mean the time that Charlie let you down! Poor +Charlie! He was horribly ashamed of himself afterwards." + +Toby looked up sharply, and again the colour came into her face, mounting +swiftly to her forehead. She appeared to be on the verge of hot speech, +but no words came. + +It was Jake who spoke in his soft, easy drawl. "Oh, I guess he's grown a +bit since then. Anyway, whatever his intentions, he never managed to do +me any harm. And I rather think his malice is dead now." + +"It died long ago," said Maud quietly. "He owes you a great deal, Jake. +You've taught him to be a man." + +"I?" said Jake. "My dear, your partiality runs away with your judgment. +Have some ham!" + +He dismissed the matter in his own calm fashion, and began to talk of his +animals. Breakfast proceeded, but Toby scarcely spoke and ate very +little. + +"It's so hot to-day," she said when presently Maud remonstrated with her. +"I can't eat when it's hot--really." She pushed her plate away and rose +from the table. "Do you mind if I go?" + +"Yes, I mind," said Jake. "Go and sit in that arm-chair and smoke a +cigarette! I shall be ready when you've finished." + +He held out his case to her, and, though she made a face at him, she +yielded. She threw herself down in the chair he indicated and smoked in +silence. + +Chops came and laid his head upon her knee, and she fondled his silken +ears with an understanding touch. But her eyes were fixed before her with +something of hardness in their look. + +Maud finished her breakfast and got up. "I am going up to the nursery," +she said. "Don't hurry, Toby dear! The children can run in the garden +till you are ready." + +"I shan't keep her long," Jake said. + +Toby turned in her chair with a sudden flare of defiance. "I'd like to +see any man who would keep me anywhere against my will!" she said. + +Jake nodded. "All right. You can see him now if you want to. Why did you +go and ride that little devil Knuckle-Duster when I told you not?" + +"I don't take orders from you!" said Toby hotly. + +"Oh yes, you do--sometimes." The door closed softly behind Maud and Jake +turned squarely to face the girl on his hearth. "Say now," he said in his +slow direct way, "it was a fool thing to do. You may as well admit it as +not." + +Toby was on her feet. She stood stiffly braced, but the colour had gone +out of her face. It was white and strained. + +"All right," she said, speaking quickly and nervously. "But what of it? I +brought him back quite sound and none the worse." + +"I wasn't thinking of the horse," said Jake. "He's a savage brute and I +doubt if we ever do much with him. He'll certainly never be fit for a +lady to ride. But that's not the point either. The point is, you did it +against my orders. And you dodged me to do it. Isn't that so?" + +"I didn't dodge you for that reason," said Toby. "I'd have done it +whether you'd been there or not." + +"I think not," Jake said. "Anyway, you'll give me your word of honour +that you'll never ride that animal again." + +"My what?" said Toby, and suddenly she broke into a laugh. "Oh, don't be +funny, Jake! Bunny rides him. Why shouldn't I?" + +"That's quite a different thing," Jake said. "Bunny has a man's strength. +You haven't. It's too dangerous a game for you, see? And I won't have +it." + +"All right," said Toby, picking up her riding-whip and turning to go. + +He stretched out a hand to detain her. "You'll give me that promise," he +said. + +She paused for a second, and met the unswerving determination of his +eyes. Then a sudden gleam of blue fire lit her own. She made a swift +movement, and struck the outstretched hand lightly with the switch she +carried. + +It was a gesture of supreme insolence, but there was conscious daring in +her look. Jake's hand leapt like an angry dog upon the switch and gripped +it. + +"That was a mistake," he said, and the words, though slow, had a cutting +quality that was somehow more imposing than open wrath. + +Toby faced him with unabated courage, but she had begun to quiver. She +spoke no word. + +Jake's hand fell. He turned from her, and pulled out his pipe. There was +dignity in the action--the dignity of strength that refuses to assert +itself. + +And Toby suddenly crumpled. She sprang after him like a contrite child, +and caught his arm. "Oh, Jake, forgive me! Do please forgive me! I'm a +beast--a beast!" she cried tremulously. + +Jake looked at her, the hint of a smile about his rugged mouth. "I guess +not," he said. "You're just--young." + +She shook her head vehemently. "I'm not! It wasn't that, Jake! I +didn't--hurt you?" + +"Shucks, no!" he said. + +She clung to his arm still. "I'll never disobey you again. I won't do +anything you don't like. Jake, I mean it! Why are you laughing?" + +"I'm not," said Jake. He put his pipe away again, and patted her +shoulder. "All right. Don't say any more!" he said. + +Toby gulped down some obstruction in the throat. "I must. I've got to ask +you something. You're so awfully decent. I can't--I won't--do things you +don't like." + +"What do you want to know?" said Jake. + +Her other hand came up and fastened tightly upon his arm. "I don't know +how to tell you," she said. "I--I had a rotten night last night. That's +why I went out alone this morning. And I took Knuckle-Duster because the +devil tempted me." + +"I see," said Jake. His red-brown eyes were very kindly in their +directness. "What did you have a bad night about?" + +Her hold upon him tightened. Something of entreaty made itself felt in +her grasp. There was fear in the wide blue eyes so resolutely lifted to +his. + +"I don't know how to tell you," she said again. + +"Maybe I can guess," said Jake. + +"Ah!" she said, and laid her face down quickly on his sleeve. + +He laid his free hand on her head. "It's Bunny, is it?" he said. + +She answered him quiveringly. "Yes, it's--it's Bunny." + +"Well?" said Jake gently. + +She spoke with her face still hidden. "You don't want me to marry him, do +you? I won't do it either--without your permission." + +"Mine!" said Jake. + +"Yes." Her words came rapidly. "You love Bunny. You know what's best for +him. You want him to have the best." + +Jake's hand caressed her bent head. "Well," he said, after a moment. "I +guess that's so. But--I've come to love you in the same way. I'd like you +to have the best too." + +She lifted her head and looked at him. "You'd like me to have Bunny? Do +you mean that?" + +"If it's going to make you both happy," said Jake. + +"Ah!" she caught her breath sharply. "But no one can be sure of that, can +they? I mean, marriage is such a speculation, isn't it? I expect Bunny +will soon get tired of me." + +"Why do you say that?" said Jake. + +A little quiver went through her. "I don't know. Men are like that, +aren't they? Not men like you of course, but you're the big exception to +almost every rule." + +Jake was frowning a little. "I guess I'm as human as the rest of 'em," he +said. "But what makes you think Bunny isn't a stayer?" + +"He's so young," said Toby. + +"That all?" said Jake, beginning to smile. + +She looked at him rather wistfully. "Yes, but it counts, Jake. He'll be a +man some day, but he isn't yet--at least only in streaks." + +"Well, there's no hurry, is there?" said Jake. "People shouldn't marry in +haste." + +Toby's eyes flashed sudden accusation. "You did!" + +"I!" Jake looked momentarily disconcerted. "Well, I had some excuse. What +do you know about it anyway?" + +"I know what Bunny told me. Maud didn't love you when she married +you. It didn't come on till afterwards. She loved Lord Saltash, and he +loved her." Toby spoke with a certain hardness, as if challenging +contradiction. "She'd have married him--but for you." + +Jake met the challenge squarely. "Quite possibly she would. Think she'd +have been any happier?" + +Toby shook her head. "No. I think you were always meant to be her man. +But it--it was rather hard on him." Her voice trembled a little. "Bunny +says that was why he never married." + +"He's not the marrying sort," said Jake. "I don't mind your marrying +Bunny, but nothing on this earth would persuade me to let you marry him." + +An odd little smile twitched the corners of Toby's mouth. "No? Well, I +shouldn't consult you about that," she said. "Sure you don't mind my +marrying Bunny?" + +Jake looked at her. "Not if you're sure you want to," he said. + +Her eyes grew bright and baffling. She drew away from him, but in a +moment with a boyish gesture, she held out her hand to him. "Thank you, +Jake. You're a brick. Whatever I do, I'll do it--straight, and you'll +stand by?" + +"Sure!" said Jake, and gave her a close grip. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE SACRED FIRE + + +The party that gathered on the quay at Fairharbour on the hot July day +when Saltash's new yacht, _The Blue Moon_ lay awaiting her christening +was of a very gay description. The yacht herself was decked with flags, +and the hotel facing the quay, The Anchor, was also decorated with +bunting. All the visitors in the town were congregated about the shore, +or were rowing in pleasure boats near the centre of attraction. + +The yacht lay moored to the quay on which by Saltash's orders a long +strip of red carpet had been laid leading to the gangway which was +decorated with trails of flowers. The day was glorious and cloudless, the +sea of that intense blue that melts to the horizon without any dividing +line--like the blue of a smoked pearl. + +Saltash's idea was to take his guests for a cruise across the bay after +the ceremony, and he planned to complete the celebrations with a _fête_ +on the water at night. Everything was in readiness, and by two o'clock he +was already receiving his guests. + +Maud and Jake stood with him, and little Eileen, very intent and serious, +held Toby's hand and looked on from the background. Captain Larpent was +on the bridge, looking very forbidding, even contemptuous. He had never +had any liking for the gay crowds with which it was Saltash's pleasure to +surround himself. He had the air of a magnificent Viking, above the +frivolities with which he was surrounded. There was nothing of the +ornamental about his rugged exterior, but his very aloofness made him +imposing. He looked straight over the heads of the buzzing throng that +poured on to the deck. + +General Melrose and his daughter were among the last to arrive, and with +them came Bunny, very merry and handsome, his dark eyes singling out Toby +in a flash as she stood with her small charge. She had just lifted the +child to stand on a ledge where she might overlook the proceedings when +he joined them. + +"Hullo!" he said eagerly. "I'm later than I meant to be. I've been +lunching with General Melrose. Ye gods, what a crush! Where do they all +come from? Well, sweetheart!" He bent to the child. "Enjoying your +precious little self?" + +The soft violet eyes met his with a deep contentment as she lifted her +face for his kiss. "I think it's lovely," she said earnestly. + +He stood up and looked again with swift appreciation at Toby. The girl +was dressed very simply in white, her vivid face shadowed by a broad +straw hat. She met his look with a grimace of boyish dissatisfaction. + +"Bunny! What a ghastly gathering! For goodness' sake, don't look at me +like that! I feel like a painted marionette!" + +"Are you painted?" said Bunny. "You don't look it." + +She made a vehement gesture of disgust. "As soon as this show it over, I +shall get into riding things and go like the--like the--" + +"Like the dish when it ran away with the spoon," suggested Bunny with a +grin, as she paused. "Well, if you'll be the spoon, I'll be the dish, and +we'll show 'em all a clean pair of heels. Shall we?" + +"I certainly won't be the spoon," said Toby with decision. "You can find +someone else to play that part. Try Miss Melrose! She doesn't look as if +she'd object." + +"She's a very pretty girl," said Bunny rather aggressively. + +"Of course she's a pretty girl. It's what she's for." Toby's chin went +up. "She couldn't be anything else." + +Bunny laughed. "Well, cheer up! She's not the only one on board. Do you +know any of these people?" + +Toby shook her head promptly. "And don't want! Aren't they awful? Oh, +here's Jake! Wonder how much he's enjoying himself." + +Whether Jake were enjoying himself or not was not apparent in his manner +as he came up and shook hands with Bunny, then turned to lift his little +girl on to his shoulder. + +"Hold tight, Innocence! What do you think of it all?" + +"I think it's lovely, Daddy," she answered, clasping him closely. "Does +Mummy like it too?" + +He smiled at the anxiety in her question. "Guess she'll come through it +all right. She's not exactly keen on this sort of thing. But we're here, +eh, Innocence? That ought to make a difference." + +Old General Melrose turned sharply at the sound of the soft voice. He had +not noticed Jake until that moment. + +"Why, Bolton!" he said. "What are you doing here?" + +Jake moved forward deliberately. "Well," he said, "I guess I'm here in +support of my wife who has undertaken the chief part in the ceremony +about to take place." + +The old soldier looked at him from under beetling brows. "Ah! Your wife! +That's Maud Brian, isn't it? Somehow I always think of her as Maud Brian. +So she still keeps up the old friendship with Saltash! I wonder you allow +that." + +Jake's red-brown eyes held a smile. "She pleases herself, sir," he said, +"and--she pleases me." + +"That a child of yours?" asked the General abruptly. "But I needn't ask. +She's got Maud's eyes. Sheila, come and see this kiddie of Maud's!" + +He spoke imperiously over his shoulder, and Sheila turned in answer. Her +soft eyes kindled. + +"Oh, what a darling! How do you do, Mr. Bolton? I know you well by name. +And this is your little girl? What is her name?" + +"Eileen," whispered the child, clinging rather nervously to Jake's +shoulder. + +"Innocence!" said Jake. + +"Ah! How sweet!" the girl said. "I must get your mummy to bring you to +see me. Would you like to, I wonder?" + +"I think so," said Eileen shyly. + +"Maybe you'll come and see her first," said Jake. "I should like you to +see the stud, sir. We've got some stock that I think would interest you." + +"That would be delightful," Sheila said, in her gracious way. "We are +here for another fortnight. I had no idea it was such a lovely place." + +"Have you seen Burchester?" asked Bunny. + +She turned to him. "Never. I want to see it. Lord Saltash said something +about it the other day, so I am hoping there is a chance of doing so. You +are very fond of it, Sir Bernard?" + +"Yes. It's my job just now. I'm head keeper," laughed Bunny. "Miss +Larpent thinks I'm very inefficient, but I do my best." + +"I never said so," said Toby. + +She flushed at his obvious intention of drawing her into the group; but +Sheila Melrose at once held out a welcoming hand. + +"Miss Larpent, do you know I can't help feeling that I've seen you +somewhere before. Yet I can't quite remember where. Could it have been at +Valrosa?" + +"Oh, no," said Toby. "It couldn't possibly have been there." + +"And yet I can't help thinking it must have been," said Sheila, looking +at her with knitted brows. "Were you at that fancy-dress affair at the +Casino Hotel? I have a feeling I have seen you--somewhere--in fancy +dress." + +"Never!" said Toby with decision. "You must be thinking of someone else." + +Sheila still looked at her with puzzled eyes. "Wait!" she said. "I shall +remember in a moment. It was someone exactly like you. I know--someone +dressed as a boy." + +Toby made a sudden sharp movement and clapped her hands excitedly. "Look! +Look! There goes the bottle! I hope she'll manage to break it!" + +Sheila's attention was instantly diverted. The crowd surged forward. +Maud, with Saltash on her right and Larpent on her left, stood by the +rail. She held up a bottle that gleamed golden in the sun. + +Saltash was laughing. He stood bareheaded, his dark face alight. Toby's +eyes went to him in a single flashing glance and remained fixed. Bunny, +looking at her, was for the moment curiously moved. It was as if he +looked from afar upon some sacred fire that had suddenly sprung into +ardent flame before a distant shrine. Then came Maud's voice, sweet and +clear, speaking the name of the yacht, and like a golden flame the bottle +curved through the pearl-like ether and crashed upon the bows. + +A murmur went up and then a shout. The bottle had broken and the wine +rushed in a sparkling cascade to the water. + +Something impelled Bunny. He gripped Toby by the elbow. He almost shook +her. "Hooray!" he yelled. "It's done! She's off!" + +Toby looked at him with the eyes of a dreamer--eyes in which a latent +fear underlay the reverence. Then, meeting his eyes, she seemed to awake. +Her features contracted for a moment, but she controlled them swiftly, +and laughed. Laughing, she drew him away. + +The yacht had throbbed into movement. The ropes were being flung aboard. +They were steaming away, and a great blast went up from the siren as they +drew from the quay. + +Everywhere was tumult, rejoicing. People were shouting, talking, +laughing, waving hats and handkerchiefs. The whole world seemed a buzz of +merriment, and out of the very thick of it, Toby's voice, small and +tense, spoke into Bunny's ear. + +"Let's get away! Let's go to Lord Saltash, and--and--and congratulate." + +Her hand was on his arm. She pulled at it urgently, insistently. And +Bunny went with her, moved again--he knew not wherefore--by that feeling +that something had frightened her. + +He grasped her hand and made a way for her through the crowd. They went +to the laughing group in the bows. Saltash was standing close to Maud. He +was making some careless jest to her, when suddenly he turned and found +the boy and girl hand in hand behind him. + +His swift look flashed over them, and then in his sudden way he put a +hand on the shoulder of each. It was a lightning touch, and he laughed +oddly as he did it, as a man laughs who covers some hidden hurt. + +"We came to congratulate," said Bunny. "Good luck to her!" + +And Saltash, with his royal air of graciousness, made light reply. + +"I thank you for your congratulations, my children; but may the luck be +yours! I see it coming." + +And with that lightly he moved away among his guests, leaving a trail of +merriment wherever he went, save where the boy and girl stood together in +the bows in a silence that neither seemed able to break. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +SURRENDER + + +That night Fairharbour Bay looked like a velvet bed on which glittered +many jewels. _The Blue Moon_, lighted from bows to stern lay in the +centre, and from her deck there went up showers of coloured rockets that +fell like burning rain upon the sea. There was a string band on board, +and the strains floated across the water as echoes from another world--a +wonder-world of soft melodies and laughing voices and lightly splashing +oars. + +Toby sat in the stern of a boat with a single rower in front of her, and +trailed her fingers through the magic water. She was bare-headed, and the +breeze of the summer night stirred tenderly the golden ringlets that +clustered about her bow. Her face, seen now and then in the flare of the +rockets, had a strange look, almost a look of dread. Her blue eyes were +very wide open, like the eyes of a startled child. + +She spoke scarcely at all, and Bunny did not urge her. Only as he rowed, +he watched her with grave determination on his boyish face. He had +claimed her as his partner early in the evening, and she had made no +attempt to thwart him; but something in that half scared silence of +hers moved him very deeply. His own was protective, resolutely +reassuring. + +Once, when she started nervously at an unexpectedly loud report from one +of the rockets, he spoke to her as he would have spoken to a small, +frightened animal. + +"It's all right. I'll pull out a bit, shall I? These things make such a +beastly row." + +She thanked him in an undertone, and he began to row steadily away from +the yacht and the thronging boats. + +"You tell me when I've gone far enough!" he said. + +But she did not tell him, and he rowed on and on through the dark water +with only the rhythmic splashing of the oars to fill the silence between +them. + +They left the laughter and the noise behind, and began to draw towards +the far corner of the bay. The shore rose steeply from the water here, +and there came to them the soft breaking of the waves against the cliff +as they neared it. + +Toby came out of her silence with a jerk. "Bunny, do you really think it +would answer?" + +"Sure!" said Bunny promptly. + +He drew in his oars with the words, and they drifted on the summer tide. + +Toby was looking at him in the starlight with a dumb and piteous +irresolution in her eyes. + +Bunny leaned to her as he sat, with outstretched hands. "You poor little +frightened mouse!" he said. "What is it that's troubling you? Do you +think I wouldn't make you happy?" + +"I think you'd try," she said dubiously. + +For a few seconds she hung back, hesitating; then swiftly, almost with +the gesture of one who casts aside a burden, she threw out her trembling +hands and thrust them into his. He took them and held them fast, drawing +them gently to him till he had them against his heart. "I would try, +sweetheart," he said softly. + +"Would you?" whispered Toby. "Would you?" + +She went nearer to him; he could feel her trembling from head to foot. + +"You think I wouldn't succeed?" he asked her tenderly. "You think I'd +make you sorry?" + +"I don't know," she answered quiveringly. "I--I'm thinking most of you." + +"Wondering whether it would be good for me to have my heart's desire?" +jested Bunny softly. "Think it would be too much for me; what, darling?" + +"No,--no!" said Toby. "Not that! Only wondering if you are wanting the +right thing--wondering if the thing you call your heart's desire will +bring you happiness. It--it doesn't always, you know, Bunny. Life is like +that." + +Her voice sank a little. + +"What do you know about life?" he said. + +She shook her head, her face downcast. "Oh, too much--too much!" she +said. + +Bunny sat motionless for a moment or two, but his hold was strong and +comforting. At length very gently he began to draw her nearer. + +He almost expected her to resist him, but she did not. As he drew her, +she yielded, till with a sob she suffered herself to be drawn close into +his arms. He had her on the thwart beside him, her face hidden against +his shoulder. He laid his cheek down upon her hair and sat silent. + +Toby was sobbing a little, and he patted her shoulder soothingly, but he +did not speak until with a quivering sigh she relaxed against him and was +still. + +Then, in a whisper, "Toby mavourneen," he said, "I'm going to tell you +something that's come to me lately--something I've guessed. You needn't +answer me. I don't want you to answer me--only to know that I know. +There's another fellow in your heart, and he's got a bigger place than I +have--at present. No, don't tremble, darling! It's all right. I know--I +know. He's the sort that women simply can't keep out. He's a fine chap +too, and I'm fond of him--always have been. But look here, mavourneen, +you're not going to break your precious little heart over him; you know +quite well it's no use, don't you? You know--well, anyhow to a certain +extent--you know what he is, don't you?" + +He paused for an answer, but Toby quivered in his arms and was silent. + +He put up a hand and pressed her head closer to his breast. "He'll never +marry," he said. "He doesn't mean to. He almost told me so the other day. +But--Toby--he takes a friendly interest in you and me. He'd like us +to have each other. Don't you think"--his voice had a hint of +humour--"don't you think we might fix it up just to please him? +P'raps--someday--we may find that we're pleased ourselves as well." + +"Oh, my dear!" Toby whispered. + +Her arm crept round his neck, but she did not lift her head. He clasped +her more closely and went on very softly. "I love you enough to think of +your happiness first, my darling. You're not happy now. I know that all +right. But you will be--I swear you shall be--if you will marry me. You +like me just a bit, don't you? And you wouldn't be afraid to trust +yourself to me?" + +"No," murmured Toby, with an effort. "I wouldn't be--afraid." + +"Then you'll give me my chance?" he urged gently. "You'll put your dear +little hand into mine and trust me? Will you darling? Will you?" + +But Toby was silent. + +"Won't you?" he said in a whisper. + +Her arm tightened about his neck. She was breathing quickly, nervously. +From across the water came the sounds of laughter and cheering, the +softened strains of the band that played on the deck of _The Blue Moon_. +Close at hand was only the low wash of the waves as they lapped against +the cliff. They floated quite alone over the dark depths, rising and +falling with the slow heave of the tide, but making no headway. + +"Won't you?" Bunny said again, after a long silence. + +And suddenly Toby raised her head and spoke. "I will do--whatever you +wish," she said. + +There was a slight break in her voice, but it held no indecision. Her +eyes looked straight into his in the starlight. He saw them shining and +knew that they were big with tears. But she did not flinch from his look +or start as his lips came to hers. She slipped her other arm about his +neck and clasped him close. + +"You'll be good to me, Bunny?" she said in a whisper. + +And he answered her deeply, his lips against her own. "I will be good to +you, my darling, so help me, God!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE MAGICIAN'S WAND + + +"I can't think where I have seen that girl before," said Sheila +thoughtfully, drumming her fingers on the white rail, her soft eyes fixed +upon the jewelled bay. "She has an arresting face." + +"You have never seen her," said Saltash carelessly, flicking +cigarette-ash overboard. "She has the sort of face that the old Italians +worshipped and some of the moderns too. You have seen it in their +pictures." + +Sheila's brows were drawn. "I have seen her--somehow--dressed as a boy," +she said. "Could it have been a picture?" + +"Yes. One of Spentoli's. I've got a print somewhere. It's called, 'The +Victim'--a lad with a face like Larpent's daughter, fighting a leopard." + +Saltash spoke with easy conviction, his restless eyes flashing to and +fro, often glancing but never resting upon the girl beside him. "That's +what you're thinking of. It's an unsatisfactory sort of picture. One +wonders which is 'The Victim.' But that is Spentoli all over. He always +leaves one wondering." + +"I know the thing you mean." Sheila nodded meditatively. "Yes, she +is--rather like that. The boy was 'The Victim' of course." She turned +towards him suddenly with the words. "You can't possibly doubt that. The +brute's teeth are almost in his throat. I think it's a horrible picture +myself." + +Saltash laughed. "A deliverer arrives sometimes," he remarked, "even in +the last, most awful moment of all. Have you never said to yourself how +seldom the thing we really expect comes to pass?" + +Sheila's lips parted with a touch of scorn. "Perhaps it is safer not to +expect," she said. + +"Perhaps," agreed Saltash, with his quick grimace. "I learnt that lesson +a long time ago. There are so many slips--especially when the cup is +full." He added inconsequently, "And even if it gets there, the wine is +sour as often as not when you come to drink." + +"I can quite believe it," said the girl, and looked out once more over +the wreathing flowers to the rippling waters of the bay. + +Her mouth took a firm line, and Saltash, glancing at her, began to laugh. +"Do you know, Miss Melrose, it's rather curious, but you remind me of +Spentoli too in some ways? I don't know if you and Miss Larpent possess +the same characteristics, but I imagine you might develop them, given the +same conditions." + +Sheila stiffened at the words. "I am sure you are quite wrong," she said +coldly. "Captain Larpent's daughter is quite obviously a child of +impulse. I--am not." + +"I think you would be impulsive enough to fight the leopard if he came +your way," contended Saltash with idle insistence. "Or perhaps you would +charm him. I imagine that might be more in your line." + +Again the girl's lip curled. She said nothing for a moment, then +deliberately, for the first time in her life, she snubbed him. "No, I +should never try to charm--a beast, Lord Saltash." + +"You prefer them savage?" countered Saltash. + +She made a careless gesture with one hand, without replying. She did not +even look towards him. "I think Miss Larpent might be quite clever in +that respect," she said. "She is--a born charmer." + +"By Jove!" he said. "What a cruel compliment!" + +Sheila said nothing. She was watching a small boat rowing steadily +towards them through the dark water, with eyes that were grave and fixed. + +Saltash's look followed hers, and he grimaced to himself, oddly, wryly, +as a man who accomplishes a task for which he has no liking. Then in a +moment he turned the conversation. "Did you ever meet Rozelle Daubeni, +the enchantress?" + +Sheila's soft eyes came to him at the sudden question. "No. I have heard +of her. I have never met her. I don't want to meet her. Why?" + +He threw her a daring glance. "It would do you good to meet her. She is a +born charmer if you like. She charms women as well as men--and beasts." + +"An adventuress!" said Sheila. + +"Yes, an adventuress. One of the most wonderful, I should say, who ever +lived. She is in Paris just now. When she comes to England--" again his +look dared her--"I will take you to see her. It will be--an education +for you." + +"Thank you," Sheila said. + +He laughed aloud, and suddenly stretched his hand to her with a movement +of good fellowship. "I'm only teasing. Don't be cross! I wouldn't take +you to see her for all the gold of Ophir. She is rotten--too rotten even +for me, which is saying much." + +Sheila hesitated momentarily before she gave her hand. + +"Why did you speak of her? What brought her to your mind?" + +He glanced again towards the little boat now drawing near to the yacht, +but he did not answer her question till her hand met his. + +"I have--a somewhat elastic mind," he said then, and smiled his most +baffling smile. "It was your talk of charmers that did it. I was trying +to think of all I had met." + +"All the Rozelles and the Tobies!" said Sheila, with a hard little laugh. + +He gripped her hand and released it. "I have never met more than one of +each," he said. "Which may be the secret of their charm. Don't class them +together in your mind for a moment! Larpent's daughter may be a born +charmer. Young Bunny Brian seems to think so at any rate. But she is +not--and never will be--an adventuress." + +"Is Bunny Brian fond of her--really fond of her?" asked Sheila. + +Saltash nodded. "Sure thing--as Jake would say! And he's a sound chap +too. I hope he'll get her." + +"She is not very likely to refuse," said Sheila, turning from the rail. + +The little boat had passed out of sight under the lee of the yacht. A +great rocket whistled skywards, and broke in a violet flare that lighted +sea and shore. The _fête_ was over, and people were crowding on board. +The band was playing a selection from a comic opera, and a few voices +were singing the careless, sentimental words. + +Saltash turned with his companion. "And now we are going to supper at The +Anchor. I must get Mrs. Bolton to lead the way. Poor Jake is bored to the +soul, but he's facing it like a man. Fine fellow--Jake." + +"Oh, is he a friend of yours?" Sheila asked. "A very particular friend, I +mean?" + +Saltash grimaced to the stars. "No, I don't think so. Ask Jake! He knows +me better than some, that's all. And I know him." + +They left the yacht's rail and joined the on-coming throng. It was like +a scene out of a fairy tale--the gaudy Chinese lanterns bobbing to and +fro, the gaily-coloured crowd, the shining white yacht rocking gently on +the noiseless swell. Everyone was laughing. Some were singing. There was +not a serious face to be seen in all the crowd that poured over the +red-carpeted gangway from the quay. + +"Where is Toby?" said Maud. + +She was standing with Jake in the many-hued glow of the lanterns, and she +asked the question with a momentary anxiety, for she had looked in vain +for Toby for some time. + +"She's with Bunny. She's safe enough," said Jake. + +"But they haven't come on board yet, and they've been gone so long," Maud +said. "It's curious how little Captain Larpent seems to interest himself +in her doings." + +"Mighty curious," agreed Jake. + +For Larpent had kept to the bridge morosely, almost throughout the +evening. He was standing there now, looking down upon the shifting, +chattering crowd. He had no idea how long it would be before Saltash +tired of the game and gave orders to set sail. He waited in dumb +endurance--as he would wait from day to day until the longed-for moment +arrived. It had happened often before, Saltash's caprice had sometimes +driven him to the verge of rebellion, but no one--not even Saltash +himself--ever suspected it. Silent, phlegmatic, inexpressive, Larpent +held on his undeviating course. + +Maud's attention did not linger upon him. No one--save perhaps +Saltash--ever paid much attention to Larpent. She turned back to watch +the now empty gangway, and in a moment she gave an exclamation of relief. + +"Ah! Here they come at last!" + +A laughing voice spoke behind her. "Enter Cinderella and the Prince!" + +She started and saw Saltash's swarthy face close to her. His odd eyes +looked into hers with a flash of mischief. + +"See how all my plans bear fruit!" he said. "I wave my wand, and you +behold the result." + +She turned from him to look again upon the advancing couple. They were +crossing the gangway alone. Toby, slim, girlish, her wide blue eyes +shining like the eyes of an awakened child, Bunny close behind her, +touching her, his hand actually on her shoulder, possession and +protection in every line of him. He was murmuring into her ear as they +came, and his face was alight with the glory which no earthly lamp can +kindle. + +"Behold!" Saltash said again, and moved forward in his sudden fashion to +receive them. + +He met them as they stepped on board, and in a moment they were the +centre of observation. The buzz of talk died down as the general +attention focussed upon them. Maud was aware of Jake standing squarely +behind her, and she put out a hand to him which he grasped and held. + +Saltash was laughing, but they could not hear what he said. Only in a +moment he had taken a hand of Bunny's and a hand of Toby's and joined +them together. Toby's eyes were lifted to his face. She was smiling with +lips that trembled, and Maud's heart gave a great throb of pity, she +could not have said wherefore. She had a deep longing to go and gather +the child into her arms and comfort her. + +Then Toby too was laughing, and she heard Saltash's voice. "These things +only happen properly once in a blue moon, _ma chère_. I give you both my +blessing for the second time to-day. I wish you better luck than has ever +come my way." + +He threw a gay malicious glance towards the bridge, where Larpent stood +like a grim Viking looking down upon the scene. + +"Come!" he said. "We had better go and tell your daddy next!" + +He led them lightly forward, and the crowd opened out with jests and +laughter to let them pass. + +Toby walked between the two men, very pale but still smiling--a smile +that was curiously like the smile of a child that is trying not to cry. + +"Oh, poor little thing!" Maud whispered suddenly and drew back beside +Jake as if she could not bear to look. + +"She'll be all right," said Jake stoutly. "Don't you fret any! Bunny's +sound." + +"Oh, yes, I know--I know! But she's so young." All the yearning of +motherhood was in Maud's voice. "Does she love him? Does she?" + +Jake's hand gripped hers more closely. He looked into her face with a +smile in his red-brown eyes. "Maybe not as we know love," he said. "It +doesn't come all at once--that sort." + +She smiled back at him, for she could not help it, even as she shook her +head in misgiving. "Sometimes--it doesn't come at all!" she said. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE WARNING + + +It seemed to Maud that in the days that followed her engagement Toby +developed with the swiftness of an opening flower. There was no talk of +her leaving them. She fitted into the establishment as though she had +always been a part of it, and she took upon herself responsibilities +which Maud would never have laid upon her. + +Watching her anxiously, it seemed to her that Toby was becoming more +settled, more at rest, than she had ever been before. The look of fear +was dormant in her eyes now, and her sudden flares of anger had wholly +ceased. She made no attempt to probe below the surface, realizing the +inadvisability of such a course, realizing that the first days of an +engagement are seldom days of expansion, being full of emotions too +varied for analysis. That Toby should turn to her or to Jake if she +needed a confident she did not for a moment doubt, but unless the need +arose she resolved to leave the girl undisturbed. She had, moreover, +great faith in Bunny's powers. As Jake had said, Bunny was sound, and she +knew him well enough to be convinced that he would find a means of +calming any misgivings that might exist in Toby's mind. + +It appeared as if he had already done so in fact, for Toby was never +nervous in his presence. She greeted him with pleasure and went with him +gladly whenever he came to seek her. They met every day, usually in the +evening when Bunny was free, and the children gone to bed. Maud would +watch them wander out together into the summer solitudes, Chops walking +sedately behind, and would smile to herself very tenderly at the sight. +She believed that Toby was winning to happiness and she prayed with all +her soul that it might last. + +Saltash came no more during these summer days. He had departed in his +abrupt way for his first pleasure cruise in _The Blue Moon_, taking no +friend, save the ever-present Larpent, to relieve the monotony. No one +knew whither they were bound, or if the voyage were to be long or short. +He dropped out of his circle as a monkey drops from a tree, and beyond a +passing wonder at his movements no one questioned either motive or +intention. Probably he had neither in any appreciable degree. It was only +the caprice of the moment that ever moved him. So his friends said. He +evidently found his new toy attractive, and he would not return until he +wearied of it. + +Meantime, the summer crowds came and went at Fairharbour. The Anchor +Hotel was crowded with visitors, and Sheila and her father began to talk +of departure for Scotland. + +Jake had gone to an important race-meeting in the North, and it seemed +that Bunny's suggestion to show them the stud had been forgotten. But on +an afternoon in late August, after a hotly-contested polo match, as he +stood with a fizzling drink in his hand, talking to Sheila, she abruptly +reminded him of it. + +"It's quite a fortnight since you promised to show me the horses," she +said. + +He started. "Is it? I'm awfully sorry. I hadn't forgotten, but somehow +I've had a lot to think about lately. You must come and have tea with +Maud. When will you come?" + +Sheila laughed a little. "Hadn't you better ask Maud first?" + +"Good gracious, no!" said Bunny. "That'll be all right. She and Toby are +always at home just now, and of course she will be pleased to see you any +time. When can you come?" + +"Well, we are leaving the day after to-morrow," Sheila said. + +"To-morrow then!" said Bunny promptly. + +"Your sister may not want us at such short notice," she said, hesitating. + +"Oh, rats!" said Bunny, with a grin. "Of course she will! Have you seen +the Castle yet?" + +"Yes. We lunched there with Lord Saltash before he left. It's a horribly +grim place. I didn't like it much." + +"It's a magnificent place!" said Bunny stoutly. "It's completely thrown +away on Charlie of course, but I love every stone of it." + +"What a pity it doesn't belong to you!" commented Sheila. "I wonder where +you will live when you are married." + +Bunny flushed a little. "We're not marrying at present, but I'm hoping to +stick to my job when we do." + +"Oh, are you? Does Miss Larpent like that idea?" Faint surprise sounded +in Sheila's tone. + +"I don't know why she shouldn't," said Bunny, quick to detect it. "She's +keen on the country, keen on riding and so on. She'd hate to live in +town." + +"Would she?" said Sheila, with a hint of incredulity. + +Bunny turned on her. "Why do you say that? She's very young, hardly more +than a kid. She doesn't care for people and towns. Why should she?" + +He put the question almost indignantly, and Sheila smiled at him +pacifically. "I don't know in the least why she should. I only had a sort +of idea that she might. She is very pretty, isn't she? And pretty girls +don't generally care to be buried before they have had their fling--not +always then." + +"Oh, you think she doesn't get any fun!" said Bunny, still somewhat +resentful. + +"No--no, of course I don't! You know best what she likes. I only wonder +that Maud didn't think of giving her just one season in town. It would be +rather good for her, don't you think?" + +"I don't know," said Bunny rather shortly. "Maud isn't keen on town. I +think she's better where she is." + +Sheila laughed. "You're afraid she'd slip through your fingers if she saw +too much of the world?" + +"No, I'm not!" declared Bunny, frowning. "I hadn't thought about it. +But I'd hate her to get old and sophisticated. Her great charm is in +being--just what she is." + +"Oh, she has plenty of charm," Sheila admitted, and her own brows drew a +little in thought. "I wish I could remember who it is she reminds me of. +That is the worst of having such a large circle." + +"She isn't like anyone I've ever met," declared Bunny, and gulped down +his drink abruptly. "Well, I must be going. You'll come up to-morrow +then, you and the General. I shall be there, and I'll tell Maud you're +coming." + +"You are sure we had better come?" Sheila said, as she gave him her hand. + +He gripped it. "Of course! Maud will be delighted. I'm sorry you weren't +asked before. About three then--if that suits you! Good-bye!" + +He smiled his pleasant, boyish smile, and departed. + +But as he raced back from Fairharbour in his little two-seater car to +meet his young _fiancée_ on the downs, the memory of Sheila's word came +back to him and he frowned again. It was true that they were not thinking +of marriage for the next few months, and their plans were still somewhat +vague, but the idea of waiting while Toby had her fling for a whole +season in town revolted him. He could not have said definitely wherefore, +save that he wanted to keep her just as she was in his eyes--fresh and +young and innocent. He was angry with Sheila for having suggested it, and +he wanted to thrust the matter from his mind. + +Yet when he found himself alone with Toby, walking along the brow of the +furze-strewn down, he attacked the subject with characteristic +directness. + +"Sheila Melrose thinks you ought to have a season in town before we get +married. Would you like to do that?" + +Toby looked up at him with her clear eyes wide with surprise. "What +the--blazes has it to do with Sheila Melrose?" she said. + +He laughed briefly. "Nothing, of course. Less than nothing. It's just a +point of view. She thinks you're too pretty to be buried before you've +had your fling--rot of that sort." + +"My--fling!" said Toby, and with a sudden gesture that was almost of +shrinking drew his arm more closely round her shoulders. "I should loathe +it and you know it," she said with simplicity. + +He held her to him. "Of course you would. I should myself. I hate the +smart set. But, you know, you are--awfully pretty; I don't want to do +anything unfair." + +"Rats!" said Toby. + +He bent his face to hers. "Are you beginning to care for me--just a +little--by any chance?" + +She laughed and flushed, twining her fingers in his without replying. + +Bunny pursued his point. "You'd sooner marry me out of hand than go +hunting London for someone more to your liking? Would you?" + +"Oh, much," said Toby. "But, you see, I hate London." + +"And you don't hate me?" persisted Bunny, his dark eyes very persuasive. + +She dropped her own before them, and was silent. + +"Say it, sweetheart!" he urged. + +She shook her head. "Let's talk about something else!" she said. + +"All right," said Bunny boldly. "Let's talk of getting married! It's high +time we began." + +"Oh, I didn't mean that!" said Toby quickly. + +He laughed at her softly. "Of course you didn't! But you were thinking +about it all the same. Do you know old Bishop is going to clear out and +go and live in Fairharbour? I shall be left alone then. It's rather +beastly living alone, you know, darling." + +"You haven't tried it yet," said Toby. + +"No. But I know what it'll feel like. I shall hate it." Bunny spoke with +gloomy conviction. + +Toby suddenly laughed. "No one to grouse to! It would be rather dull +certainly. Why didn't you fall in love with Sheila Melrose?" + +"Sheila Melrose! Why on earth should I?" Bunny spoke with some sharpness. + +Toby lifted mischievous eyes. "She's pretty and graceful and +accomplished. She'd make a charming Lady Brian, and she has an estate of +her own for you to manage. It--it would be--a highly suitable arrangement +for you both." + +"Don't talk rot!" broke in Bunny with sudden heat. + +His hold tightened upon her, and she made a quick, instinctive movement +as though to free herself. "I'm not! You know I'm not! You know--quite +well--that if--if--if it hadn't been for me--because you chanced to meet +me first--you certainly would have--have fallen in love with her!" + +Toby spoke breathlessly, stammering a little as her habit was when +agitated. Her face was averted, and she was trying very, very hard to +resist the closer drawing of his arms. + +But there were times when Bunny would not endure resistance, and this was +one of them. He simply ignored it, till abruptly she yielded to his +mastery. And then in a moment he was tender again. + +"Why did you say that?" he said, bending low to look into her downcast +face. "Tell me why you said it! Are you--jealous--by any chance?" + +"Oh, no!" declared Toby with vehemence. "No--no--no!" + +"Then why?" he persisted. Then with sudden intuition: "You don't like +her, do you?" + +Toby's face was burning. "It--it's she that doesn't like me," she said. + +"Oh, that's a mistake," said Bunny, decidedly. "Everyone likes you." + +She shook her head. "She doesn't. She thinks I'm bad form, and I daresay +she's right. She also thinks--" she lifted her face suddenly, challenging +him--"she also thinks that I set out to catch you--and succeeded." + +"She doesn't!" declared Bunny. "That's rot--damn' rot! You are not to say +it. She's a very nice girl and ready to be friendly with you if you'll +let her." + +Toby made a rude face. "I knew you were getting fond of her! She's pretty +and stylish and--and much more in your line than I am. Why don't you go +and ask her to marry you? She wouldn't say No." + +She flung the words with a little quivering laugh. She was trembling in +his hold. + +Bunny's eyes had flashed to sudden anger. He had taken her by the +shoulders almost as if he would shake her. + +"Toby, be quiet!" he commanded. "Do you hear? You're going too far! What +do you mean by talking in this strain? What has she done to you?" + +"Nothing!" gasped back Toby, backing away from him in a vain effort to +escape. "She hardly knows me even. It's just instinct with her and she +can't help it. But she likes you well enough not to want you to marry me. +You don't suppose--you don't suppose--" the words came breathlessly, +jerkily--"you--you really don't suppose, do you, that--that she made that +suggestion about a season in town for my sake?" + +"What other reason could she have had?" demanded Bunny sternly. + +Toby was laughing, but her laughter had a desperate sound. "How green you +are! Must I really tell you that?" + +"Yes. Go on! Tell me!" His voice was hard. Hard also was the grip of his +hands. He knew that in the moment he released her she would turn and flee +like a fleeing hare. + +There was fear in the blue eyes that looked up to his, but they held a +glare of defiance as well. Her small white teeth showed clenched between +her laughing lips. + +"Go on! Tell me!" he reiterated. "You shan't go--I swear--until you tell +me." + +"Think I'm--think I'm afraid of you?" challenged Toby, with boyish +bravado. + +"I think you'll answer me," he said, and abruptly his tone fell level, +dead level. He looked her straight in the eyes without anger, without +mercy. "And you'll answer me now, too. What other reason could Miss +Melrose have for making that suggestion if it was not intended for your +benefit? Now answer me!" + +His face was pale, but he was master of himself. Perhaps he had learned +from Jake that fundamental lesson that those who would control others +must first control themselves. He still held her before him, but there +was no violence in his hold. Neither was there any tenderness. It was +rather of a judicial nature. + +And oddly at that moment a sudden gleam of appreciation shot up in Toby's +eyes. She stood up very straight and faced him unflinching. + +"I don't mind answering you," she said. "Why should I? Someone will +tell you sooner or later if I don't. She said that because she knew--and +she wanted you to know--that I am not the sort of girl that men want +to--marry." + +She was quite white as she spoke the words, but she maintained her tense +erectness. Her eyes never stirred from his. + +Bunny stood motionless, staring at her. He looked as if he had been +struck a blinding blow. + +"What--on earth--do you mean?" he asked slowly at last. + +The tension went out of Toby. She broke into her funny little laugh. "Oh, +I won't tell you any more! I won't! She thinks I'm too attractive, that's +all. I can't imagine why; can you? You never found me so, did you, +Bunny?" + +The old provocative sweetness flashed back into her face. She went within +the circle of his arms with a quick nestling movement as of a small +animal that takes refuge after strenuous flight. She was still panting a +little as she leaned against him. + +And Bunny relaxed, conscious of a vast relief that outweighed every other +consideration. "You--monkey!" he said, folding her close. "You're playing +with me! How dare you torment me like this? You shall pay for it to the +last least farthing. I will never have any mercy on you again." + +He kissed her with all the renewed extravagance of love momentarily +denied, and the colour flooded back into Toby's face as the dread receded +from her heart. She gave him more that day than she had ever given him +before, and in the rapture of possession he forgot the ordeal that she +had made him face. + +Only later did he remember it--her strange reticence, her odd stumbling +words of warning, her curious attitude of self-defence. And he felt as +if--in spite of his utmost resolution--she had somehow succeeded in +baffling him after all. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE MYSTERY + + +It was late that evening that Bunny strolled forth alone to smoke a +reminiscent pipe along his favourite glade of larches in Burchester Park. +He went slowly through the summer dusk, his hands behind him, his eyes +fixed ahead. He had had his way with Toby. She had promised to marry him +as soon as old Bishop's retirement left the house in the hollow at his +disposal. But somehow, though he had gained his end, he was not conscious +of elation. Sheila Melrose's words had disturbed him no less than Toby's +own peculiar interpretation of them. There was a very strong instinct of +fair play in Bunny Brian, and, now that he had won his point, he was +assailed by a grave doubt as to whether he were acting fairly towards the +girl. She was young, but then many girls marry young. It was not really +her youth that mattered; neither, when he came to sift the matter, was it +the fact that she had had so little opportunity of seeing the world. But +it was something in Toby's eyes, something in Sheila's manner, that gave +him pause. He asked himself, scarcely knowing why, if it would not be +fairer after all to wait. + +He wished that he could have consulted Jake, but yet it would have been +difficult to put his misgivings into definite words. Jake was a brick and +understood most things, but he was away for another week at least. + +The thought of the girl's father crossed his mind, only to be instantly +dismissed. Even if he had been within reach, Captain Larpent's sternly +unapproachable exterior would have held him back. He was inclined to like +the man, but he could not feel that Toby's welfare was, or ever had been, +of paramount importance to him. He had thoughts only for his yacht. + +Bunny began to reflect moodily that life was a more complicated affair +than he had ever before imagined, and, reaching this point, he also +reached the gate by the copse and became aware of cigar-smoke dominating +the atmosphere above the scent of his own now burnt-out pipe. + +He removed the pipe from his mouth and looked around him. + +"Hullo!" said a voice he knew. "Do I intrude?" + +Saltash stepped suddenly out of the shadow of the larches and met him +with outstretched hand. + +"Hullo!" said Bunny, with a start. + +A quick smile of welcome lighted his face, and Saltash's eyes flashed in +answer. He gripped the boy's hand with fingers that closed like springs. + +"What are you doing here?" he said. + +"Just what I was going to ask you," said Bunny. "I often come here in the +evening. It's my favourite look-out. But you--" + +"I do the same for the same reason," said Saltash. + +"I thought you were far away on the high seas," said Bunny. + +Saltash laughed. "Well, I was. But I don't stay there, my good Bunny. +_The Blue Moon_ developed engine trouble--nothing very serious, but we +brought her back to recuperate. You can never tell what you may be in +for on a first voyage. Also, I was curious to see how affairs here were +progressing. How goes it, _mon ami_? Is all well?" + +"Well enough," said Bunny. + +Saltash linked a friendly hand in his arm. "Have you and Nonette settled +when to get married yet?" + +Bunny stiffened momentarily, as if his instinct were to resent the kindly +enquiry. But the next instant he relaxed again with impulsive confidence. +"Well, it is more or less settled," he said. "But I'm wondering--you +know, Charlie, she's rather young to be married, isn't she? She hasn't +seen much of the world so far. You don't think it's shabby, do you, to +marry her before she's had the same sort of chances as other girls?" + +"Good heavens, no!" said Saltash. He gave Bunny an odd look from under +brows that were slightly twisted. "What made you think of that?" he +asked. + +Bunny's face was red. He leaned his arms on the gate and looked out +across the valley. "Sheila Melrose put it to me this afternoon," he said, +"though I must admit it had crossed my mind before. She hasn't met many +people, you know, Charlie. And--as I said--she's young. I don't want to +take an unfair advantage." + +"Life is too short to think of these things," said Saltash abruptly. +"Marry her while you can get her and don't be an ass about it! If I had +done the same thing in my youth, I should have been better off than I am +at present." + +Bunny smiled a little. "You would probably have been wishing you'd done +the other thing by this time." + +"Much you know about it!" returned Saltash with a whimsical frown. "Now +look here! What I've really come back for is to see you married. All this +preliminary messing about is nothing but a weariness to the flesh. Get it +over, man! There's nothing on earth to wait for. Larpent's willing +enough. In fact, he agrees with me--the sooner the better." + +"He would!" said Bunny with a touch of bitterness. + +"Well, you can't ask for anything better," maintained Saltash. "He's got +his job, and he's not what you could call a family man. He's not a waster +either, so you needn't put on any damned airs, _mon vieux_." + +"I didn't!" said Bunny hotly. + +Saltash laughed, and clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Look here! I'm +talking for the good of your soul. Don't take any more advice--certainly +not Sheila Melrose's! You go straight ahead and marry her! You've got +money, I know, but I hope you won't chuck your job on that account. Stick +to it, and you shall have the Dower House to live in while I yet cumber +the ground, and Burchester Castle as soon as I'm under it!" + +"What?" said Bunny. He turned almost fiercely. "Charlie! Stop it! You're +talking rot. You always do. I don't want your beastly castle. You've got +to marry and get an heir of your own. I'm damned if I'm going to be +adopted by you!" + +Saltash was laughing carelessly, mockingly, yet there was about him at +the moment a certain royal self-assurance that made itself felt. "You'll +do as you're told, _mon ami_. And you'll take what the gods send without +any cavilling. As for me, I go my own way. I shall never marry. I shall +never have an heir of my own blood. Burchester means more to you than it +does to me. Therefore Burchester will pass to you at my death. Think you +and Toby will be happy here?" + +"Damn it!" said Bunny, still fiercely disconcerted. "You talk as if you +were going to die to-morrow." + +"Oh, probably not," said Saltash airily. "But I doubt if I live to a +rakish old age. I'm a man that likes taking chances, and those who dice +with the high gods are bound to throw a blank some day." For a moment the +mockery died down in his eyes, and he looked more nearly serious than +Bunny had ever seen him. He patted the shoulder under his hand. "Life is +rather a rotten old show when you've tried everything and come to the +end," he said. "And you know for a damn' certainty that you'll never +taste any good fruit again. But you will never know what that feels like, +_mon ami_. You've had the sense to play a straight game, and you'll find +it pays in the long run. Jake taught you that, eh? You may thank your +own particular lucky star that you had him for a brother-in-law instead +of me." + +"Don't talk rot!" said Bunny gruffly. + +Saltash stretched up his arms with a laugh. "No, we'll talk sense--good +square sense. I take it you'll continue to manage the estate for the +present? If you get bored, we'll find an agent, but I'm satisfied with +things as they are. We'll go round and have a look at the old Dower +House to-morrow. It has a fairly decent position, you know,--overlooks +Graydown. That ought to please you both." + +Bunny turned upon him. "Oh, confound it, Charlie!" he said. "I can't talk +about this. I couldn't possibly take it. You're too damned generous. I've +never done anything to deserve it." + +"Oh yes, you have!" said Saltash unexpectedly, "you've done a good many +things for me. You have always been the _bon ami_ whatever I did--from +your childhood upwards." His dark face laughed with friendly warmth into +the boy's troubled eyes. "Always stuck up for me, haven't you, Bunny?" he +said. + +"Oh, but that's rot," objected Bunny. "A man is bound to stick up for his +pals." + +"Even though he knows they're not worth it?" laughed Saltash. "Yes, +that's just what I like about you. It's the one point on which we touch. +But I'm not sure that even you would stick up for me if you knew +precisely what sort of rotter you were sticking up for." + +"Oh, shut up!" said Bunny. + +"_Bien, mon cher!_ We return to your affairs. Have you put up the banns +yet? I presume you will allow me to be best man? Get it over soon, I +beseech you! I can't stay here indefinitely. As a matter of fact, I'm +due in Scotland at the present moment. Can't you fix it up immediately? +And you can have the little car and leave of absence till you've got over +it. Old Bishop can run this show till the winter. Maud can fit up the +Dower House for you. And I shall feel at liberty to roam the desert once +more--unencumbered." + +"You're jolly decent to me!" said Bunny. + +"Think so?" Saltash's brows twitched humorously. "I seem to be +developing a taste for worthy deeds. But there's no reason on earth why +you two shouldn't get married and done for as soon as possible. I'll see +Larpent to-night and tell him, and you can go and see the parson about it +to-morrow. You'll find Nonette won't put any obstacles in the way. She's +a good child and does as she's told." + +"No, Toby won't mind," Bunny said, with a sudden memory of her quick +surrender flooding his soul. "By Jove, Charlie! You are a good sort to +help me like this. There's no one else that can get things moving as you +can." + +"Oh, you can count on me for that," laughed Saltash. "I never was a +drifter. Life is too short. We'll meet again to-morrow then. Come and +dine if you like, and tell me what you've arranged! Good night!" He +turned in his sudden fashion. "Good luck to you!" + +He was gone upon the words, vanishing into the larches almost noiselessly +as he had come, and Bunny was left alone. + +He stood motionless at the gate for some time longer gazing out over the +quiet, night-wrapt down. There was no elation in his attitude, only a +deep thoughtfulness. He had never understood Charlie though oddly enough +he had always believed in him. But to-night for the first time a curious +doubt pierced his mind--a doubt that recurred again and again, banishing +all sense of exultation. Why had Charlie returned like this? Why was he +so eager to meddle in this affair? Why so recklessly generous? He had a +strong feeling that there was something behind it all, some motive +unrealized, some spur goading him, of which he, Bunny, might not approve +if he came to know of it. He wished he could fathom the matter. It was +unlike Saltash to take so much trouble over anything. He felt as if in +some inexplicable fashion he were being tricked. + +He put the thought from him, but he could not drive it away. Just as he +had felt himself baffled a little earlier by Toby, so now he felt the +same inability to comprehend Saltash. He seemed to be groping at a locked +door, feeling and feeling for a key, that always eluded him. And again he +wished that Jake was within reach. + +He turned homewards at length, dissatisfied and ill at ease, yet calling +himself a fool for scenting a mystery that did not exist. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +SUSPICION + + +The Graydown Stables were always a model of well-ordered efficiency, and +it had ever been Bunny's pride to show them to his friends. But he +awaited General Melrose and his daughter on the following afternoon in +a mood of some impatience. He had arrived early in the hope of finding +Toby at liberty, but his young _fianceé_ was nowhere to be found. She had +gone out riding, Maud said, immediately after luncheon, and he realized +with some disgust that he had forgotten to tell her on the previous day +of his coming. + +"She will be in to tea, dear," Maud said, and he was obliged to content +himself with the prospect of seeing her and acquainting her with +Saltash's energetic interest on their behalf after the visitors had gone. +He had never felt less in the mood for entertaining casual friends than +he felt on that sunny afternoon in September as he lounged in the wide +stable-yard and waited for them. He had always liked Sheila Melrose, they +had a good deal in common. But curiously enough it was that very fact +that made him strangely reluctant to meet her now. In some inexplicable +fashion, he found her simple directness disconcerting. Toby's words stuck +obstinately in his mind, refusing to be dislodged. "She likes you well +enough not to want you to marry me." He realized beyond question that +those words had not been without some significance. It might be just +instinct with her, as Toby had declared, but that Sheila regarded his +engagement as a mistake he was fairly convinced. That she herself had any +feeling for him beyond that of friendship he did not for a moment +imagine. Bunny had no vanity in that direction. There was too much of the +boy, too much of the frank comrade, in his disposition for that. They +were pals, and the idea of anything deeper than palship on either side +had never seriously crossed his mind. He was honest in all his ways, and +his love for Toby--that wild and wonderful flower of first love--filled +all his conscious thoughts to the exclusion of aught beside. The odd, +sweet beauty of her had him in thrall. She was so totally different from +everyone else he had ever encountered. He felt the lure of her more and +more with every meeting, the wonder and the charm. + +But Sheila did not want him to marry her, and a very natural feeling of +irritation against her possessed him in consequence. Doubtless Sheila had +a perfect right to her opinions, but she might keep them to herself. +Between Saltash's headlong resolve to help and Sheila's veiled desire to +hinder, he felt that his course was becoming too complicated, as if in +spite of his utmost efforts to guide his own craft there were contrary +currents at work that he was powerless to avoid. + +He had an urgent desire for Toby that afternoon, and he was inclined +somewhat unreasonably to resent her absence. But when at length the hoot +of the General's car warned him of his visitors' advent as they turned in +at the gate, he was suddenly conscious of a feeling of relief that he was +alone. Toby was not at her ease with them. She fancied they disapproved +of her, and whether the fancy were justified or not he was glad that she +was not there to meet them. He determined to get the business over as +quickly as possible. + +Sheila in her dainty summer attire was looking even prettier than usual, +and almost against his will Bunny noted the fact. Against his will also, +his barely-acknowledged feeling of resentment vanished before he had been +five minutes in her company. Sheila's charms went beyond mere prettiness. +She had the tact and ready ease of manner which experience of the world +alone can impart. She was sympathetic and quick of understanding. Without +flattering, she possessed the happy knack of setting those about her at +their ease. It was very rarely that she was roused to indignation; +perhaps only Saltash knew how deep her indignation could be. And he was +not the man to impart the knowledge to anyone else. + +So on that warm September afternoon in her gracious way she restored +Bunny's good humour and reinstated their friendship without effort, +without apparent consciousness of any strain upon it. They went through +the stables, and Bunny displayed his favourites with an enthusiasm of +which he had not believed himself capable a little earlier. The stud had +always been his great delight from boyhood, and both the General and his +daughter took a keen interest in all they saw. + +The time passed with astounding rapidity, and the chiming of the great +stable-clock awoke Bunny at length to the fact that the afternoon was +practically over. + +"Maud will think we are never going in to tea," he said, with a laugh, +turning back from the gate into the training field where they had been +inspecting some of the colts. "You'll come round to the house, won't you? +She is expecting you--said I was to be sure to bring you in." + +Sheila smiled and accepted the invitation. "We were hoping to see Mrs. +Bolton to say good-bye," she said. "Is Miss Larpent not here to-day?" + +"Yes, she's out riding," Bunny said. "She may be in any moment. It's a +pity Jake is away. He is expected back some time next week." + +"Yes, I'm sorry to have missed him," said the General. "Tell him that +I've enjoyed seeing the animals, and I think he has a very fine show! I +never could understand how Saltash could bring himself to part with the +stud." + +"He's so seldom at home," said Bunny. "Yachting is much more in his +line--though as a matter of fact he is at the Castle just now, came back +yesterday." + +"Is he indeed? Are you sure of that?" Sheila spoke with surprise. "I +thought he meant to be away much longer." + +"His intentions never last more than a couple of days," remarked the +General with a touch of acidity. "Nothing he does ever surprises me." + +"He's a very good chap," began Bunny. "He's been no end decent to me. +Why,--" he broke off suddenly--"Hullo! There he is! And--Toby!" + +Two figures had come suddenly round the corner of some stables, walking +side by side. Both were in riding-dress, but the day being hot, the girl +had discarded her long coat and was carrying it without ceremony over her +arm. Her silk shirt was open at the neck, her soft hat pushed jauntily +down on the side of her head. She was laughing as she came, and she +looked like a merry little cow-boy straight from the prairies. + +The man who moved beside her was laughing also. There was no grace about +him, only that strange unstudied kingliness that had earned for him the +title of "Rex." He was swift to see the advancing visitors and swept +the hat from his head with a royal gesture of greeting. + +Toby's face flushed deeply; she looked for the moment inclined to run +away. Then with an impulse half-defiant, she restrained herself and +caught back the smile that had so nearly vanished. She slapped the switch +against her gaitered leg with boyish swagger and advanced. + +A quick frown drew Bunny's forehead as he observed her attitude. He spoke +impetuously, almost before they met. + +"You look like a girl out of a comic opera. Why don't you put your coat +on?" + +Toby made a face at him. "Because it's cooler off. You can carry it if +you like." She threw it to him nonchalantly with the words, and turned +forthwith to Sheila. "Have you just been round the Stables? Grilling, +isn't it? I've been exercising one of the youngsters. He nearly pulled my +arms off. We've been practising some jumps." + +"Then you shouldn't," put in Bunny. "The ground's too hard for jumping." + +Toby turned upon him with a flash of temper. "No one asked for your +opinion. I know a safe jump when I see one. Are you coming in to tea, +Miss Melrose? I should think you're wanting it. Yes? What's the matter?" + +She flung the two questions in a different tone, sharply, as though +startled. Sheila was looking at her oddly, very intently, a species of +puzzled recognition in her eyes. + +Toby backed away from her, half-laughing, yet with something that was not +laughter on her face. "What can be the matter?" she said. "Is it--is it +my riding breeches? Here, Bunny! Let me have my coat!" She turned swiftly +with extended arms. "Quick! Before Miss Melrose faints! I've given her +the shock of her life." + +"No! No!" protested Sheila, recovering. "Don't be absurd! You reminded me +so vividly of someone, that's all. I don't quite know who even yet." + +Bunny helped Toby into the coat without a word. There was grim +displeasure on his face. The General and Saltash were talking together +and for the moment they three stood there alone. + +Toby turned round laughing. "How ridiculous you are!" she said to Bunny. +"You've seen me in this get-up heaps of times before--and will again. +Miss Melrose, I forgot you hadn't. I'm horribly sorry to have shocked +you. Shall we go in for tea now?" + +The puzzled look was still in Sheila's eyes though she smiled in answer. +"I am not shocked--of course," she said. "But--but--" + +"Yes?" said Toby. + +She spoke in the same brief, staccato note; the word was like a +challenge. Saltash turned suddenly round. + +"I have just been complimenting Miss Larpent on the excellence of her +get-up," he said lightly. "We met at the gate on the downs, and I have +been witnessing some very pretty horsemanship. Miss Melrose, I hear you +are leaving tomorrow, and am quite desolated in consequence. It is always +my luck to be left behind." + +The hard little smile that only he could ever provoke was on Sheila's +lips as she turned to him. + +"For such a rapid rider, you are indeed unfortunate," she said. + +He laughed with careless effrontery. "Yes, the devil usually takes the +hindmost,--so I've been told. Miss Larpent anyway is quite safe, for she +will always be an easy first." + +"There is such a thing as going too fast," commented Bunny. + +"There is such a thing as getting away altogether," flung back Toby with +spirit. + +Bunny's eyes flashed into sudden, ominous flame. He could not have said +why the contrast between the two girls--the one in her dainty summer +attire and the other in her boyish riding-kit--had such an effect upon +him, but for the moment it almost infuriated him. + +Toby saw it, and her own eyes lit in response. She stood waiting for his +rejoinder--the spirit of mischief incarnate, wary, alert, daring him. + +But Bunny did not speak in answer. He drew in a hard breath through teeth +that gripped his lower lip, and restrained himself. The next instant he +had turned away. + +"Oh, damn!" said Toby, and swung upon her heel. + +Saltash and the General walked beside her, rallying her. But Bunny and +Sheila came behind in silence. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE ALLY + + +They found Maud awaiting them in the long low room that overlooked her +favourite view of the down. Saltash entered as one who had the right, and +she greeted him with momentary surprise but evident pleasure. + +"I couldn't spend twenty-four hours at Burchester without calling upon +you," he said. + +"You know you are always welcome," she made answer, with the smile which +only her intimate friends ever saw. + +They sat down by one of the wide French windows and General Melrose began +to occupy his hostess's attention. Sheila took a chair that Bunny pushed +forward, and Saltash glanced round for Toby. She was sitting on the end +of a couch, playing with the silky ears of the old red setter. Her hat +was flung down beside her; her pretty face downcast. He crossed to her +deliberately and bent also to fondle the dog. + +She started slightly at his coming, and a faint flush rose in her cheeks; +but she neither glanced at him nor spoke. + +For the moment they were alone, unobserved by the laughing group at the +window. Saltash bent suddenly lower. His quick whisper came down to her: + +"Go and put on the most girlish thing you've got!" + +She looked up at him then, her blue eyes seeking his. A rapid flash of +understanding passed between them. Then, without a word she rose. + +When Maud looked round for her a few seconds later, Saltash was lounging +alone against the sofa-head pulling Chops absently by the ear while he +stared before him out of the window in a fit of abstraction that seemed +to her unusual. + +She called to him to join them at the tea-table, and he jerked himself to +his feet and came across to her with the monkeyish grin on his face that +she had learned long since to regard as the shield wherewith he masked +his soul. + +He sat down by her side, devoting himself to her with the gallantry that +always characterized him when with her. No one seemed to notice that Toby +had disappeared. They talked about the horses, about Jake and his recent +victories, about the season at Fairharbour, about the Melroses' plans for +the winter. + +When questioned by the General on this subject, Saltash declared airily +that he never made any. + +"If I do, I never stick to them, so what's the use?" he said. + +"How weak of you!" said Maud. + +And he threw her the old half-tender, half-audacious look, and tossed the +subject banteringly away. + +He was the first to make a move when the careless meal was over, but not +to go. He sauntered forth and lounged against the door-post smoking, +while Bunny and Sheila talked of tennis and golf, and Maud listened with +well-disguised patience to the old General's oft-repeated French +reminiscences. + +And then when the tea was cold and forgotten and Sheila was beginning to +awake to the fact that it was growing late, there came a sudden, ringing +laugh across the lawn and Toby scampered into view with little Molly +on her shoulder and Eileen running by her side. She was dressed in white, +and she looked no more than a child herself as she danced across the +grass, executing a fairy-like step as she came. The tiny girl's tinkling +laughter mingled with hers. Her little hands were fondly clasped about +the girl's neck; she looked down into her face with babyish adoration +while Eileen, the elder child, gazed upward with a more serious devotion. + +General Melrose interrupted his narrative to look at the advancing trio. +"My Jove, Mrs. Bolton," he said, "but that's a pretty sight!" + +Sheila also ceased very suddenly to converse with Bunny, while Saltash +made a scarcely perceptible movement as though he braced and restrained +himself in the same instant. + +"The prettiest picture I've seen for years!" vowed the General. "How that +little Larpent girl changes! She is like a piece of quicksilver. There's +no getting hold of her. How old is she?" + +"She is nearly twenty," said Bunny with the swiftness of ownership. + +"Nearly twenty! You don't say so! She might be fourteen at the present +moment. Look at that! Look at it!" For Toby was suddenly whizzing like a +butterfly across the lawn in a giddy flight that seemed scarcely to +touch the ground, the little girl still upon her shoulder, the elder +child standing apart and clapping her hands in delighted admiration. + +"Yes, she is rather like fourteen," Maud said, with her tender smile. "Do +you know what she did the other day? It was madness of course, and my +husband was very angry with her. I was frightened myself though I have +more faith in her than he has. She climbs like a cat, you know, and she +actually took both those children up to a high bough of the old beech +tree; I don't know in the least how she did it. None of the party seemed +to think there was any cause for alarm till Jake came on the scene. He +fetched them down with a ladder--all but Toby who went higher and pelted +him with beech nuts till he retreated--at my urgent request." + +"And what happened after that?" questioned Saltash, with his eyes still +upon the dancing figure. "From what I have observed of Jake, I should say +that an ignominious retreat is by no means in his line." + +Maud laughed a little. "Oh, Jake can be generous when he likes. He had it +out with her of course, but he wasn't too severe. Ah, look! She is going +to jump the sun dial!" + +Sheila turned to her. "Surely you are nervous! If she fell, the little +one might be terribly hurt." + +"She won't fall," Maud said with confidence. + +And even as she spoke, Toby leapt the sun dial, leaving the ground as a +bird leaves it, without effort or any sort of strain, and alighting again +as a bird alights from a curving flight with absolute freedom and a +natural adroitness of movement indescribably pleasant to watch. + +"A very pretty circus trick!" declared the General, and even Bunny's +clouded brow cleared a little though he said nothing. + +"A circus trick indeed!" said Sheila, as if speaking to herself. "How on +earth did she do it?" + +"She is like a boy in many ways," said Maud. + +Sheila looked at her. "Yes. She is just like a boy, or at least--" Her +look went further, reached Saltash who lounged on Maud's other side, and +fell abruptly away. + +As Toby came up with the two children, all of them flushed and laughing, +Toby herself in her white frock looking like a child just out of school, +she rose and turned to Bunny. + +"We ought to go now," she said. "I am going to fetch the car round for +Dad." + +"I'll do it," he said. + +But she went with him as he had known she would. They left the group at +the window and moved away side by side in silence as they had walked that +afternoon. + +Saltash stood up and addressed Maud. "I'm going too. Bunny is dining with +me tonight. I suppose you won't come?" + +She gave him her hand, smiling. "I can't thank you. Ask me another day! +You and Bunny will really get on much better without me." + +"Impossible!" he declared gallantly, but he did not press her. + +He turned to the General and took his leave. + +Toby and the two children walked the length of the terrace with him, all +chattering at once. She seemed to be in a daring, madcap mood and Saltash +laughed and jested with her as though she had been indeed the child she +looked. Only at parting, when she would have danced away, he suddenly +stopped her with a word. + +"Nonette!" + +She stood still as if at a word of command; there had been something of +compulsion in his tone. + +He did not look at her, and the smile he wore was wholly alien to the +words he spoke. + +"Be careful how you go! And don't see Bunny again--till I have seen him!" + +A hard breath went through Toby. She stood like a statue, the two +children clasping her hands. Her blue eyes gazed at him with a wide +questioning. Her face was white. + +"Why? Why?" she whispered at length. + +His look flashed before her vision like the grim play of a sword. "That +girl remembers you. She will give you away. She's probably at it now. +I'll see him--tell him the truth if necessary. Anyhow--leave him to me!" + +"Tell him--the truth?" The words came from her like a cry. There was a +sudden terror in her eyes. He made a swift gesture of dismissal. "Go, +child! Go! Whatever I do will make it all right for you. I'm standing +by. Don't be afraid! Just--go!" + +It was a definite command. She turned to obey, the little girls still +clinging to her. The next moment she was running lightly back with them, +and Saltash turned in the opposite direction and passed out of sight +round the corner of the house on his way to the stable-yard. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE TRUTH + + +He went with careless tread as his fashion was, whistling the gay air to +which all England was dancing that season. His swarthy countenance wore +the half-mischievous, half-amused expression with which it was his custom +to confront--and baffle--the world at large. No one knew what lay behind +that facile mask. Only the very few suspected that it hid aught beyond a +genial wickedness of a curiously attractive type. + +His spurs rang upon the white stones, and Sheila Melrose, standing beside +her father's car in the shadow of some buildings, turned sharply and saw +him. Her face was pale; it had a strained expression. But it changed at +sight of him. She regarded him with that look of frozen scorn which once +she had flung him when they had met in the garish crowd at Valrosa. + +Bunny was stooping over the car, but he became aware of Saltash almost in +the same moment, and stood up straight to face him. Sheila was pale, but +he was perfectly white, and there were heavy drops of perspiration on his +forehead. He looked full at Saltash with eyes of blazing accusation. + +Saltash's face never changed as he came up to the car. He ceased to +whistle, but the old whimsical look remained. He seemed unaware of any +tension. + +"Car all right?" he asked smoothly. "Can I lend a hand? The general is +beginning to move." + +Sheila turned without a word and got into the car. + +Bunny neither moved nor spoke. He stood like a man paralysed. It was +Saltash who, with that royal air of amusing himself, stooped to the +handle and started the engine. + +The girl at the wheel did not even thank him. She looked beyond. Only as +he stood aside and the car slid forward, she turned stiffly to Bunny. + +"Good-bye!" she said. + +He made a jerky movement. Their eyes met for a single second. "You will +write?" he said. + +His throat was working spasmodically, the words seemed to come with +gigantic effort. She bent her head in answer and passed between them +through the white gate into the drive that led round to the house. + +Saltash turned with a lightning movement to Bunny. "Walk back with me and +we can talk!" he said. + +Bunny drew sharply back. The movement was one of instinctive recoil. But +still no words came. He stood staring at Saltash, and he was trembling +from head to foot. + +"Don't be an ass now!" Saltash said, and his voice was oddly gentle, even +compassionate. "You've stumbled on a mare's nest. It's all right. I can +explain." + +Bunny controlled himself with a jerk. His face was like death, but he +found his voice. "You can keep your damned lies to yourself," he said. +"I've no use for them." + +The prod of a riding-switch against his shoulder made him start as a +spirited animal starts at the touch of a spur. But Saltash only laughed. + +"You'll fight me for that!" he said. + +"I wouldn't touch you!" flung back Bunny. + +"Oh, wouldn't you?" The odd eyes mocked him openly. "Then you withdraw +the insult--with apologies?" + +"Apologise--to you!" said Bunny. + +"Or fight!" said Saltash. "I think that would do you more good than the +other, but you shall decide." + +"I will do neither," said Bunny, and turned his back with the words. +"I've--done with you." + +"You're wrong!" said Saltash. "You've got to face it, and you won't get +the truth from anyone but me. That girl knows nothing, Bunny!" His voice +was suddenly curt, with that in it which very few ever heard. "Turn +around! Do you hear? Turn round--damn you! I'll kick you if you don't!" + +Bunny turned. It was inevitable. They stood face to face. Then Saltash, +the mockery gone from his eyes, reached out abruptly and gripped him +by the arm. His touch was electric. For that moment--only for that +moment--he was dangerous. There was something of the spring of a tiger in +his action. + +"You damn fool!" he said, and he spoke between his teeth. "Do you suppose +even I would play such a blackguard's game as that?" + +"Let me go!" Bunny said through white lips. "Facts are facts." + +Saltash's hold did not slacken. "Where's Jake?" he said. + +"Jake's away." + +"Confound him! Just when he's wanted!" The ferocity died out of Saltash +like the glow from cinders blown from a furnace. "Well, listen! I swear +to you by all that is sacred that you're making a mistake. Sheila has +told you a certain thing that is true, so far as it goes. But you've let +your imagination run away with you. The rest is false." + +He spoke with an emphasis that carried weight, and Bunny was moved in +spite of himself. His own fire died down. + +Saltash saw his advantage and pressed it. "If Jake were here, he'd tell +you I was speaking the truth, and you'd believe him. You're on a wrong +scent. So far as I'm concerned, you're welcome to follow it to blazes. +I'm used to pleasantries of that sort from my friends. But I'm damned if +I'll let that child be tripped for nothing. Do you hear, Bunny?" He shook +the arm he gripped impatiently. "I'll see you in hell first!" + +Bunny's mouth twisted with a painful effort to smile. "I'm in hell now," +he said. + +"Why the devil did you listen?" said Saltash. "Look here! We've got to +have this thing out. Send a man along with my horse and walk across the +park with me!" + +He had gained his point by sheer insistence, and he knew it. Bunny knew +it also and cursed himself for a weak fool as he moved to comply. With +Saltash's blade through his heart, he yet could somehow find it possible +to endure him. + +He went with him in silence, hating the magnetism he found it impossible +to resist. They passed through the shrubberies that skirted the house, +and so to the open down. + +Then in his sudden fashion, crudely and vehemently, Saltash began his +defence. + +"It's not my way," he said, "to give an answer to any man who questions; +but you haven't stooped to question. So I tell you the truth. Sheila saw +Toby working as a page at the Casino Hotel at Valrosa. That right? I +thought so. It's the whole matter in a nutshell. I must have seen her +too, but never noticed her till my last night in the place. Then I found +Antonio hammering the poor little beggar out in the garden, and I stopped +it. You'd have done the same. Afterwards, late that night, I went on +board the yacht and found her down in the saloon--a stowaway. The yacht +had started. I could have put back. I didn't. You wouldn't have done +either. She took refuge with me. I sheltered her. She came to me as a +boy. I treated her as such." + +"You knew?" flung in Bunny. + +Saltash's grin flashed across his dark features like a meteor through a +cloudy sky and was gone. "I--suspected, _mon ami_. But--I did not even +tell myself." That part of him that was French--a species of volatile +sentimentality--sounded in the words like the echo of a laugh in a minor +key. "I made a valet of her. I suffered her to clean my boots and brush +my clothes. I kept her in order--with this--upon occasion." + +He held up the switch he carried. + +"I don't believe it," said Bunny bluntly. + +Saltash's shoulders went up. "You please yourself, _mon cher_. I am +telling you the truth. I treated her like a puppy. I was kind to her, but +never extravagantly kind. But I decided--eventually I decided--that it +was time to turn home. No game can last forever. So we returned, and on +our last night at sea we were rammed and sunk. Naturally that spoilt--or +shall I say somewhat precipitated?--my plans. We were saved, the two +of us together. And then was started that scandalous report of the woman +on the yacht." Again the laughter sounded in his voice. "You see, _mon +ami_, how small a spark can start a conflagration. In self-defence I had +to invent something, and I invented it quickly. I said she was Larpent's +daughter. I wonder if you would have thought of that. You'd have done it +if you had, I'll wager." + +He turned upon the boy who strode in silence by his side with a gleam of +triumph in his eyes, but there was no answering gleam in Bunny's. He +moved heavily, staring straight before him, his face drawn in hard lines +of misery. + +"Well," Saltash said, "that's all I have done. You now know the truth, +simple and unadorned, as Sheila Melrose in her simplicity does not know +it and probably would not comprehend it if she did." + +"Leave her out of it!" said Bunny, in a strangled voice. "It was--the +obvious conclusion." + +"Oh, the obvious!" Cynicism undisguised caught up the word. "Only the +young and innocent can ever really say with any conviction what is the +obvious way of blackguards. You don't know it--neither do I. A single +decent impulse on the part of a blackguard can upset all the calculations +of the virtuous. Oh, Bunny, you fool, what do you want to wreck things +for at this stage? Can't you see you've got a gift from the gods? Take +it, man, and be thankful that you're considered worthy of it!" + +Bunny made a sharp movement of protest. Saltash was looking at him with +half-humorous compassion as one looks at a child with a damaged toy, and +he was keenly conscious of being at a disadvantage. But though checked, +he was not defeated. Saltash had made out a case for himself. He had in a +measure vindicated Toby. But that was not the end of the matter. + +He stopped and faced him. "Why were you so anxious for me to marry her?" +he said. "I've got to know that." + +He was instantly aware that Saltash eluded him, even though he seemed to +meet his look as he made reply. "You are quite welcome to know it, _mon +ami_. I chance to take a fatherly interest in you both." + +Bunny flinched a little. Something in the light reply had pierced him +though he could not have said how. "That's all?" he asked rather thickly. + +"That is quite all," said Saltash, and faintly smiled--the smile of the +practised swordsman behind the blade. + +Bunny stood for some moments regarding him, his boyish face stern and +troubled. Up to that point, against his will, he had believed him; from +it, he believed him no longer. But--he faced the truth however it might +gall him--he was pitted against a skilled fencer, and he was powerless. +Experience could baffle him at every turn. + +"Do you tell me you have never realized that she cared for you?" he +blurted forth abruptly, and there was something akin to agony in his +utterance of the words. He knew that he was baring his breast for the +stroke as he forced them out. + +But Saltash did not strike. Just for an instant he showed surprise. +Then--quite suddenly he lowered his weapon. He faced Bunny with a smile +of comradeship. + +"Quite honestly, Bunny," he said, "if I had realized it, it wouldn't have +made any difference. I have no use for sentimental devotion at my age. +She has never been more to me than--a puppy that plays with your hand." + +"Ah," Bunny said, and swung away from him with the words. "I suppose that +is how you treat them all. Women and dogs--they're very much alike." + +"Not in every respect," said Saltash. "I should say that Toby is an +exception anyway. She knows play from earnest." + +"Does she?" said Bunny. He paused a moment, as if trying to concentrate +his forces; then he turned to Saltash again. "I'm going back now. I can't +dine with you--though I've no desire to quarrel. But you see--you must +understand--that I can never--accept anything from you again. I'm +sorry--but I can't." + +"What are you going to do?" said Saltash. + +Bunny hesitated, his boyish face a white mask of misery. + +Saltash reached out a second time and touched him lightly, almost +caressingly, with the point of his switch. "What's the matter with you, +Bunny?" he said. "Think I've lied to you?" + +Bunny met his look. "I don't want to quarrel with you," he said. "It +isn't--somehow it isn't--worth it." + +"Thanks!" said Saltash, and briefly laughed. "You place my friendship at +a pretty high figure then. Tell me what you're going to do!" + +"What is it to you what I do?" A quick gleam shone for an instant in +Bunny's eyes, dispelling the look of stricken misery. "I'm not asking you +to help me." + +"I've grasped that," said Saltash. "But even so, I may be able to lend a +hand. As you say, there is not much point in our quarrelling. There's +nothing to quarrel about that I can see--except that you've called me a +liar for no particular good reason!" + +"Do you object to that?" said Bunny. + +Saltash made a careless gesture. "Perhaps---as you say--it isn't worth +it. All the same, I've a certain right to know what you propose to do, +since, I gather, I have not managed to satisfy you." + +"A right!" flashed Bunny. + +"Yes, a right." Saltash's voice was suddenly and suavely confident. "You +may forget--or possibly you may remember--that I gave my protection to +Nonette on the day she came to me for it, and I have never withdrawn +it since. What matters to her--matters to me." + +"I see." Bunny stood stiffly facing him. "I am responsible to you, am I?" + +"That is what I am trying to convey," said Saltash. + +The fire in Bunny's eyes leapt high for a moment or two, then died down +again. Had Jake been his opponent, he would have flung an open challenge, +but somehow Saltash, with whom he had never before striven in his life, +was less easy to resist. In some subtle fashion he seemed able to evade +resistance and yet to gain his point. + +He gained his point on this occasion. Almost before he knew it, Bunny had +yielded. + +"I am going to her," he said, "to ask her for the whole truth--about her +past." + +"Is any woman capable of telling the truth to that extent?" questioned +Saltash. + +"I shall know if she doesn't," said Bunny doggedly. + +"And will that help?" The note of mockery that was never long absent from +his voice sounded again. "Isn't it possible--sometime--to try to know too +much? There is such a thing as looking too closely, _mon ami_. And then +we pay the price." + +"Do you imagine I could ever be satisfied not knowing?" said Bunny. + +Saltash shrugged his shoulders. "I merely suggested that you are going +the wrong way to satisfy yourself. But that is your affair, not mine. The +gods have sent you a gift, and because you don't know what it is made +of, you are going to pull it to pieces to find out. And presently you +will fling it away because you cannot fit it together again. You don't +realize--you never will realize--that the best things in life are the +things we never see and only dimly understand." + +A vein of sincerity mingled with the banter in his voice, and Bunny was +aware of a curious quality of reverence, of something sacred in a waste +place. + +It affected him oddly. Convinced though he was that in one point at least +Saltash had sought to deceive him it yet influenced him very strongly in +Saltash's favour. Against his judgment, against his will even, he saw him +as a friend. + +"Do you mean to tell me," he said, speaking slowly, his eyes upon the +swarthy, baffling countenance, "that you have never even tried to know +where she came from--what she is?" + +Saltash made a quick gesture as of remonstrance. "_Mon ami_, the last I +have always known. The first I have never needed to know." + +"Then," Bunny spoke with difficulty, but his look never wavered, "tell +me--as before God--tell me what you believe her to be!" + +"What I know her to be," corrected Saltash, "I will tell you--certainly. +She is a child who has looked into hell, but she is still--a child." + +"What do you mean?" questioned Bunny. + +Saltash's eyes, one black, one grey, suddenly flashed a direct challenge +into his own. "I mean," he said, "that the flame has scorched her, but it +has never actually touched her." + +"You know that?" Bunny's voice was hoarse. There was torture in his eyes. +"Man--for God's sake--the truth!" + +"It is the truth," Saltash said. + +"How do you know it? You've no proof. How can you be sure?" He could not +help the anguish of his voice. The words fell harsh and strained. + +"How do I know it?" Saltash echoed the words sharply. "What proof? Bunny, +you fool, do you know so little of the world--of women--as that? What +proof do you need? Just--look into her eyes!" + +A queer note of passion sounded in his own voice, and it told Bunny very +clearly that he was grappling with the naked truth at last. It arrested +him in a moment. He suddenly found that he could go no further. There +was no need. + +Impulsively, with an inarticulate word of apology, he thrust out his +hand. Saltash's came to meet it in a swift, hard grip. + +"Enough?" he asked, with that odd, smiling grimace of his that revealed +so little. + +And, "Yes, enough!" Bunny said, looking him straight in the face. + +They parted almost without words a few minutes later. There was no more +to be said. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE LAST CARD + + +Saltash dined alone that night. He was in a restless mood and +preoccupied, scarcely noticing what was put before him, pushing away the +wine untasted. In the end he rose from the table almost with a gesture of +disgust. + +"I'm going to smoke on the ramparts," he said to the decorous butler who +waited upon him. "If anyone should call to see me, let them wait in the +music-room!" + +"Very good, my lord! And where would you like to take coffee?" enquired +the man sedately. + +Saltash laughed. "Not on the ramparts--emphatically. I'll have mercy on +you to that extent. Put it on the spirit-lamp in the music-room, and +leave it! You needn't sit up, any of you. I'll put out the lights." + +"Very good, my lord." + +The man withdrew, and Saltash chose a cigar. An odd grimace drew his +features as he lighted it. He had the look of a man who surveys his last +card and knows himself a loser. Though he went out of the room and up +the great staircase to the music-room with his head up and complete +indifference in his carriage, his eyelids were slightly drawn. He did not +look as if he had enjoyed the game. + +A single red lamp lighted the music-room, and the long apartment looked +dim and ghostly. He stood for a moment as he entered it and looked round, +then with a scarcely perceptible lift of the shoulders he passed straight +through to the curtain that hung before the door leading to the turret. +The darkness of the place gaped before him, and he turned back with a +muttered word and recrossed the room. There were Persian rugs upon the +floor, and his feet made no sound. He went to the mantel-piece and, +feeling along it, found a small electric torch. The light of it flared +before him as he returned. The door yielded to his touch and swung shut +behind him. He passed into vault-like silence. + +The stone steps gave back the sound of his tread as he mounted, with +eerie, wandering echoes. The grey walls glimmered with a ghostly +desolation around him. Halfway up, he stopped to flick the ash from his +cigar, and laughed aloud. But the echoes of his laughter sounded like +voices crying in the darkness. He went on more swiftly, like a phantom +imprisoned and seeking escape. The echoes met him and fell away behind +him. The loneliness was like a curse. The very air felt dead. + +He reached the top of the turret at last, and the heavy door that gave +upon the ramparts. With a sound that was almost a gasp, he pushed it +open, and passed out into the open air. + +A full moon was shining, and his acres lay below him--a wonderful picture +in black and silver. He came to the first gap in the battlements, mounted +the parapet, and stood there with a hand resting on each side. + +The wash of the sea came murmurously through the September silence. +His restless eyes flashed hither and thither over the quiet scene, taking +in every detail, lingering nowhere. The pine trees stirred in the +distance below him, seeming to whisper together, and an owl hooted with a +weird persistence down by the lake. It was like the calling of a human +voice--almost like a cry of distress. Then it ceased, and the trees were +still again. + +The spell of the silence fell like the falling of a curtain. The +loneliness crept about his heart. + +He took the cigar from his mouth and spoke, ironically, grimly. + +"There is your kingdom, Charles Rex!" he said. + +He turned with the words and leaped down upon the narrow walk between the +battlements. The owl began to call again, but the desolation remained. He +paced forward with his hands behind him, his head bent. No one could see +him here. The garment of mockery could be flung aside. He was like a +prisoner tramping the stone walls from which he could never escape. + +He paused once to toss away his cigar, but he did not look out again over +the fair prospect of his lands. He was looking at other things, seeing +the vast emptiness of a life that had never been worth while stretching +behind and before him. Like a solitary traveller pausing in the heart of +the desert, he stood to view the barrenness around him. + +He had travelled far, had pursued many a quest with ardour; but the +ardour had all gone out of him now. Only the empty solitude remained. He +had lived a life of fevered variety, he had drunk deep of many waters; +but he had never been satisfied. And now it seemed to him that all he had +ever looked upon, all he had ever achieved, was mirage. Nothing of all +that he had ever striven for was left. The fruit had turned to ashes in +his mouth, and no spring remained whereat to quench his thirst. + +Perhaps few men have ever realized the utter waste of wickedness as +Charles Rex realized it that night. He met it whichever way he turned. To +gratify the moment's whim had ever been his easy habit. If a generous +impulse had moved him, he had gratified that also. But it had never been +his way to sacrifice himself--until a certain night when a child had come +to him, wide-eyed and palpitating like a driven bird, and had sought +shelter and protection at his hands. + +That, very curiously, had been the beginning of a new era in his life. It +had appealed to him as nothing had ever appealed before. He had never +tasted--or even desired--the Dead Sea fruit again. Something had entered +his being on that night which he had never been able to cast out, and all +other things had been dwarfed to insignificance. + +He faced the fact as he paced his castle walls. The relish had gone out +of his life. He was gathering what he had sown, and the harvest was +barren indeed. + +Time passed; he walked unheeding. If he spent the whole night on the +ramparts, there was no one to know or care. It was better than tossing +sleepless under a roof. He felt as if a roof would suffocate him. But +sheer physical weariness began to oppress even his elastic frame at last. +He awoke to the fact that he was dead tired. + +He sat down in an embrasure between the battlements, and drifted into the +numb state between waking and sleeping in which visions are born. For a +space nothing happened, then quite suddenly, rising as it were out of +a void, a presence entered his consciousness, reached and touched his +spirit. Intangibly, but quite unmistakably, he was aware of the summons, +of a voice that spoke within his soul. + +He lifted his head and looked about him. Emptiness, stark emptiness, was +all he saw. Yet, in a moment, as though a hand had beckoned, he arose. +Without a backward glance he traversed the distance that lay between +him and the turret-door. He went through it into utter darkness, and in +utter darkness began the descent. + +A shaft of moonlight smote through a slit in the stone wall as he rounded +the corner of the stair. It lay like a shining sword across his path, and +for a second he paused. Then he passed over it, sure-footed and +confident, and plunged again into darkness. When he reached the end of +the descent, he was breathing heavily, and his eyes were alight with a +strange fire. He pulled upon the door and put aside the thick curtain +with the swift movements of a man who can brook no delay. He passed into +the long, dim room beyond with its single red lamp burning at the far +end. He prepared to pass on to the door that led out upon the gallery and +so to the grand staircase. But before he had gone half-a-dozen paces he +stopped. It was no sound that arrested, no visible circumstance of any +sort. Yet, as if at a word of command, he halted. His quick look swept +around the room like the gleam of a rapier, and suddenly he swung upon +his heel, facing that still, red light. + +Seconds passed before he moved again. Then swiftly and silently he walked +up the room. Close to the lamp was a deep settee on which the spots of a +leopard skin showed in weird relief. At one end of the settee, against +the leopard skin, something gold was shining. Saltash's look was fixed +upon it as he drew near. + +He reached the settee treading noiselessly. He stood beside it, looking +down. And over his dark face with its weary lines and cynical mouth, its +melancholy and its bitterness, there came a light such as neither man nor +woman had ever seen upon it before. For there before him, curled up like +a tired puppy, her tumbled, golden hair lying in ringlets over the +leopard skin, was Toby, asleep in the dim, red lamplight. + +For minutes he stood and gazed upon her before she awoke. For minutes +that strange glory came and went over his watching face. He did not stir, +did not seem even to breathe. But the fact of his presence must have +pierced her consciousness at last, for in the end quite quietly, +supremely naturally, the blue eyes opened and fixed upon him. + +"Hullo!" said Toby sleepily. "Time to get up?" + +And then, in a moment, she had sprung upright on the couch, swift dismay +on her face. + +"I--I thought we were on the yacht! I--I--I never meant to go to sleep +here! I came to speak to you, sir. I wanted to see you." + +He put a restraining hand upon her thin young shoulder, and his touch +vibrated as with some unknown force controlled. + +"All right, Nonette!" he said, and his voice had the same quality; it was +reassuring but oddly unsteady. "Sorry I kept you waiting." + +She looked at him. Her face was quivering. "I've had--a hell of a time," +she said pathetically. "Been here hours--thought you'd never come. Your +man--your man said I wasn't to disturb you." + +"Damn the fool!" said Saltash. + +She broke into a breathless laugh. "That's--that's just what I said. But +I thought--I thought perhaps--you'd rather--rather I waited." She +shivered suddenly. "I don't like this place. Can you take me somewhere +else?" + +He bent lower, put his hand under her elbow and helped her to her +feet. She came up from the couch with a spring, and stood before him, +half-daring and half-shy. + +Saltash kept his hold upon her arm, and turned her towards the wall +beside the tall mantel-piece. She went with him readily enough, watching, +eager-eyed, as he stretched his free hand up to the oak panelling. + +"Now I'm going to find out all your secrets!" she said boyishly. + +"Not quite all," said Saltash. + +There came the click of a spring and the panel slid to one side, leaving +a long, narrow opening before them. Toby glanced up at him and, with a +small, nestling movement, slipped within the circle of his arm. It +tightened upon her in an instant, and she laughed again, a quivering, +exultant laugh. + +"I'm glad you've come," she said. + +They paused on the edge of darkness, but there was no hesitation about +Toby. She was all athrill with expectancy. Then in a flash the room +before them was illuminated, and they entered. + +It was a strange chamber, panelled, built in the shape of a cone. A glass +dome formed its roof, and there was no window besides. The lights were +cunningly concealed behind a weirdly coloured fresco of Oriental figures. +But one lamp alone on a small table burned with a still red glow. This +lamp was supported on the stuffed skin of a hooded cobra. + +Toby's eyes were instantly drawn towards it. They shone with excitement. +Again she glanced up at the man beside her. + +"What a wonderful place!" + +"Better than the music-room?" suggested Saltash. + +"Oh, yes, far better." Her shining eyes sought his. "It might be your +cabin on the yacht." + +He stretched a hand behind him and again the spring clicked. Then he drew +her forward. They trod on tiger skins. Everywhere were tiger skins, on +the floor and on a deep low settee by the table which was the only other +furniture the room possessed. Toby was clinging to the arm that held her, +clinging very closely. There was unspoken entreaty in her hold. For there +was something about Saltash at the moment, something unfamiliar and +unfathomable that frightened her. His careless drollery, his two-edged +ironies, were nought to her; but his silence was a barrier unknown that +she could not pass. She could only cling voicelessly to the support he +had not denied her. + +He brought her to the settee and stood still. His face was strangely +grim. + +"Well--Toby?" he said. + +She twisted in his hold and faced him, but she kept his arm wound close +about her, her hand tight gripped on his. "Are you--angry with me for +coming?" she asked him quiveringly. "I--had to come." + +He looked down into her eyes. "_Bien, petite!_ Then you need--a friend," +he said. + +Her answering look was piteous. "I need--you," she said. + +One of the old gay smiles flashed across his face. He seemed to challenge +her to lightness. The grimness went out of his eyes like a shadow. + +"And so you have come, _ma mignonette_, at the dead of night--at the risk +of your reputation--and mine--" + +Toby made an excruciating grimace, and broke impulsively in upon him. "It +wasn't the dead of night when I started. I've been waiting hours--hours. +But it doesn't matter. I've found you--at last. And you can't send me +away now--like you did before--because--because--well, I've no one to go +to. You might have done it if you'd come down earlier. But you can't do +it--now." Her voice thrilled on a high note of triumph. "You've got to +keep me--now. I've come--to stay." + +"What?" said Saltash. He bent towards her, looking closely into her face. +"Got to keep you, have I? What's that mean? Has Bunny been a brute to +you? I could have sworn I'd made him understand." + +She laughed in answer. "Bunny! I didn't wait to see him!" + +"What?" Saltash said again. + +She reached up a quick, nervous hand and laid it against his breast. Her +eyes, wide and steadfast, never flinched from his. "I've come--to stay," +she repeated. And then, after a moment, "It's all right. I left a note +behind for Bunny. I told him I wasn't going back." + +He caught her hand tightly into his. His hold was drawing her, and she +yielded herself to it still with that quivering laughter that was somehow +more eloquent than words, more piteous than tears. + +Saltash spoke, below his breath. "What am I going to do with you?" he +said. + +Her arms reached up to him suddenly. Perhaps it was that for which she +had waited. "You're going--to keep me--this time," she told him +tremulously. "Oh, why did you ever send me away--when I belonged to +you--and to no one else? You meant to give me my chance? What chance have +I of anything but hell and damnation away from you? No, listen! Let me +speak! Hear me first!" She uttered the words with passionate insistence. +"I'm not asking anything of you--only to be with you. I'll be to you +whatever you choose me to be--always--always. I will be your valet, your +slave, your--plaything. I will be--the dust under your feet. But I must +be with you. You understand me. No one else does. No one else ever can." + +"Are you sure you understand yourself?" Saltash said. + +His arms had closed about her. He was holding her in a vital clasp. But +his restless look did not dwell upon her. It seemed rather to be seeking +something beyond. + +Toby's hands met and gripped each other behind his neck. She clung to him +with an almost frenzied closeness. + +"You can't send me away!" she told him brokenly. "If you do, I shall die. +And I'm asking such a little--such a very little." + +"You don't know what you're asking, child," he said, and though he held +her fast pressed to him his voice had the sombre ring of a man who +battles with misgiving. "You have never known. That's the hell of it." + +"I do know!" she flung back almost fiercely. "I know--all I need to +know--of most things. I know--very well--" her breath came quickly, but +still her eyes remained upraised--"what would have happened--what was +bound to happen--if the yacht had never gone down. I wasn't afraid then. +I'm not now. You're the only man on this earth that I'd say it to. I hate +men--most men! But to you--to you--" a sudden sob caught her voice, she +paused to steady it--"to you I just want to be whatever you're needing +most in life. And when I can't be that to you any longer--I'll just drop +out--as I promised--and you--you shall never know a thing about it. +That I swear." + +His look came swiftly to her. The blue eyes were swimming in tears. He +made a sudden gesture as of capitulation, and the strain went out of his +look. His arms tightened like springs about her. He spoke lightly, +jestingly. + +"_Bien!_ Shall I tell what you shall be to me, _mignonne_?" he said, and +smiled down at her with his royal air of confidence. + +She trembled a little and was silent, realizing that he had suddenly +leapt to a decision, fearing desperately what that decision might be. His +old baffling mask of banter had wholly replaced the sombreness, but she +was aware of a force behind it that gripped her irresistibly. She could +not speak in answer. + +"I will tell you," he said, and his dark, face laughed into hers with a +merriment half-mischievous, half-kindly. "I am treading the path of +virtue, _mignonne_, and uncommon lonely I'm finding it. You shall relieve +the monotony. We will be virtuous together--for a while. You shall be--my +wife!" + +He stooped with the words and ere she knew it his lips were on her own. +But his kiss, though tender, was as baffling as his smile. It was not the +kiss of a lover. + +She gasped and shrank away. "Your--wife! You--you--you're joking! How +could I--I--be your wife?" + +"You and none other!" he declared gaily. "Egad, it's the very thing for +us! Why did I never think of it before? I will order the state-coach at +once. We will go to town--elope and be married before the world begins +to buzz. What are you frightened at, sweetheart? Why this alarm? Wouldn't +you rather be my wife than--the dust beneath my feet?" + +"I--I don't know," faltered Toby, and hid her face from the dancing +raillery in his eyes. + +His hold was close and sheltering, but he laughed at her without mercy. +"Does the prospect make you giddy? You will soon get over that. You will +take the world by storm, _mignonne_. You will be the talk of the town." + +"Oh, no!" breathed Toby. "No, I couldn't!" + +"What?" he jested. "You are going to refuse my suit?" + +She turned and clung to him with a passionate, even fierce intensity, but +she did not lift her face again to his. Her voice came muffled against +his breast. "I could never refuse you--anything." + +"_Eh, bien!_ Then all is well!" he declared. "My bride will hold her own +wherever she goes, save with her husband. And to him she will yield her +wifely submission at all times. Do you know what they will say--all of +them--when they hear that Charles Rex is married at last?" + +"What?" whispered Toby apprehensively. + +He bent his head, still laughing. "Shall I tell you? Can't you guess?" + +"No. Tell me!" she said. + +He touched the soft ringlets of her hair with his lips. "They will say, +'God help his wife!' _mignonne_. And I--I shall answer 'Amen'." + +She lifted her face suddenly and defiantly, her eyes afire. "Do you know +what I shall say if they do?" she said. + +"What?" said Saltash, his own eyes gleaming oddly. + +"I shall tell them," said Toby tensely, "to--to--to go to blazes!" + +He grimaced his appreciation. "Then they will begin to pity the husband, +_chérie_." + +She held up her lips to his, childishly, lovingly. "I will be good," she +said. "I will be good. I will never say such things again." + +He kissed the trembling lips again, lightly, caressingly. "Oh, don't be +too good!" he said. "I couldn't live up to it. You shall say what you +like--do what you like. And--you shall be my queen!" + +She caught back another sob. Her clinging arms tightened. "And you will +be--what you have always been," she said--"my king--my king--my king!" + +In the silence that followed the passionate words, Charles Rex very +gently loosened the clinging arms, and set her free. + + + + +PART IV + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE WINNING POST + + +"I never thought it would be like this," said Toby. + +She spoke aloud, though she was alone. She stood at an immense window on +the first floor of a busy Paris hotel and stared down into the teeming +courtyard below. Her fair face wore a whimsical expression that was half +of amusement and half of discontent. She looked absurdly young, almost +childish; but her blue eyes were unmistakably wistful. + +Below her seethed a crowd of vehicles of every description and the babel +that came up to her was as the roar of a great torrent. It seemed to +sweep away all coherent thought, for she smiled as she gazed downwards +and her look held interest in the busy scene even though the hint of +melancholy lingered. There was certainly plenty to occupy her, and it was +not in her nature to be bored. + +But yet at the opening of a door in the room behind her, she turned very +swiftly, and in a moment her face was alight with ardent welcome. + +"Ah! Here you are!" she said. + +He came forward in his quick, springy fashion, his odd eyes laughing +their gay, unstable greeting into hers. He took the hands she held out to +him, and bending, lightly kissed them. + +"Have you been bored? _Mais non!_ I have not been so long gone. Why are +you not still resting, _chérie_, as I told you?" + +She looked at him, and still--though her eyes laughed their gladness--the +wistfulness remained. "I am--quite rested, _monseigneur_. And the +tiredness--quite gone. And now you are going to take me to see the sights +of Paris?" + +"Those of them you don't know?" suggested Saltash. + +She nodded. "I don't know very many. I never went very far. I was +afraid." + +He twisted his hand through her arm, and his fingers closed upon her +wrist. "You are not afraid--with me?" he questioned. + +Her eyes answered him before her voice. "Never, _monseigneur_." + +"Why do you call me that?" said Saltash. + +She coloured at the abrupt question. "It suits you." + +He made his monkeyish grimace, and suddenly dropped his eyes to the +blue-veined wrist in his grasp. "Are you happy, _mignonne_?" he asked +her, still obviously in jesting mood. + +Toby's eyes dropped also. She mutely nodded. + +"The truth, Nonette?" His look flashed over her; his tone was imperious. + +She nodded again. "I always tell you--the truth." + +He began to laugh. "_Mais vraiment_! I had not thought that likely. Then +you do not want to leave me--yet?" + +"Leave you!" Her eyes came up to his in wide amazement. "I!" + +"We have been married three days," he reminded her, with comically +working brows. "And I--have I not already begun to leave you--to neglect +you?" + +"I--I--I never expected--anything else," stammered Toby, suddenly +averting her face. + +He patted her cheek with careless kindliness. "How wise of you, my dear! +How wise! Then you are not yet--sufficiently _ennuyée_ to desire to leave +me?" + +"Why--why do you ask?" questioned Toby. + +There was a species of malicious humour about him that made her uneasy. +Saltash in a mischievous mood was not always easy to restrain. He did not +immediately reply to her question, and she turned with a hint of panic +and tightly clasped his arm. + +"It is--you who are--_ennuyé_!" she said, with piteous eyes upraised. + +He flicked her cheek with his thumb, his odd eyes gleaming. "Not so, +_Miladi_ Saltash! For me--the game is just begun. But--should you desire +to leave me--the opportunity is yours. A knight has arrived to the +rescue--a very puissant knight!" + +"A knight!" gasped Toby, trembling. "Ah! Tell me what you mean!" + +His look was openly mocking. "A knight in gaiters!" he told her +lightly. "A knight who bears--or should bear--a horsewhip in place of +a sword--that is, if I know him aright!" + +"Jake!" she gasped incredulously. + +He laughed afresh. "Even so! Jake! Most worthy--and most obtrusive! What +shall we do with him, lady mine? Slay him--or give him a feed and send +him home?" + +She stared at him, aghast. "You--you--you are joking!" she stammered. + +"I always joke when I am most serious," Saltash assured her. + +"Oh, don't!" She clung closer to his arm. "What shall we do? He--he can't +do anything, can he? We--we--we really are married, aren't we?" + +Saltash's most appalling grimace fled like a hunted goblin across his +face. "Married? Heavens, child! What more do you want? Haven't you seen +it--actually seen it--in our greatest London daily? And can a London +daily lie? You may have dreamed the wedding, but that paragraph--that +paragraph--it takes a genius of the first literary degree to dream a +paragraph, though it may only need quite an ordinary fool to write it! +Why, what is the matter? What is it? Did you see something? Not a mouse? +Not a beetle? I prithee, not a beetle!" + +For Toby had suddenly hidden her face against his shoulder and there was +actual panic in the clinging of her arms. He laid a hand upon her head, +and patted it lightly, admonishingly. + +She did not speak for a second or two, only gulped with desperate effort +at self-restraint. Then, at length, in a muffled voice, "Don't let him +take me away!" she besought him shakily. "You--you--you've promised to +keep me--now." + +"But, of course I'm keeping you," said Saltash. "It's what I did it for. +It's the very essence of the game. Cheer up, Nonette! I'm not parting +with any of my goods, worldly or otherwise, this journey." + +"You are sure?" whispered Toby. "Sure?" + +"Sure of what?" He bent swiftly, and for a second, only a second, his +lips touched her hair. + +"Sure you--don't--want to?" came in a gasp from Toby, as she burrowed a +little deeper. + +"Oh, that!" Saltash stood up again, and his face was sardonic, for the +moment almost grim. "Yes, quite sure of that, my dear. Moreover,--it will +amuse me to meet the virtuous Jake on his own ground for once. A new +sensation, Nonette! Will you help me to face him? Or do you prefer the +more early-Victorian _rôle_ of the lady who retires till the combat is +over and then emerges to reward the winner?" + +She lifted her head at that, and uttered a scoffing little laugh, +withdrawing herself abruptly from his support. Her pointed chin went up +with a hint of defiance. All signs of agitation were gone. "I'll stay and +help you," she said. + +He made her an elaborate bow. "Then we will ring up the curtain. I +congratulate you, madam, upon your spirit. I trust the interview will not +try your fortitude too far. Remember, should your feminine ears be +shocked by anything that may pass between us, it is up to you to retire +at any moment." + +Toby's blue eyes caught sudden fire. She broke into an unexpected +chuckle. "I do not think I am likely to retire for that reason, +_monseigneur_," she said. "Where is he? How did you know he was coming?" + +"Because he is already here," said Saltash. "I passed him at the office, +making enquiries. He had his back to me, but there is no mistaking that +bull-neck of his. Ah!" He turned his head sharply. "I hear a step +outside! Sit down, _mignonne_! Sit down and be dignified!" + +But Toby's idea of dignity was to sit on the corner of the table and +swing one leg. If any apprehension lingered in her mind, she concealed it +most successfully. She looked like an alert and mischievous boy. + +There came a knock at the door, and for a moment her eyes sought Saltash. +He grinned back derisively, and pulled out his cigarette-case. +"_Entrez!_" he called. + +The door opened with a flourish. A waiter entered with a card. + +Saltash barely looked at him. His eyes flashed beyond to the open +doorway. "You can come in," he remarked affably. "We've been expecting +you for some time." + +Jake entered. His square frame seemed to fill the space between the +door-posts. He was empty-handed, but there was purpose--grim purpose--in +every line of him. + +Saltash dismissed the waiter with a jerk of the eyebrows. He was utterly +unabashed, amazingly self-assured. He met Jake's stern eyes with cheery +effrontery. + +"Quite like old times!" he commented. "The only difference being, my good +Jake, that on this occasion I have reached the winning-post first." + +Jake's look went beyond him to the slight figure by the table. Toby was +on her feet. Her face was flushed, but her eyes were wide and defiant. He +regarded her steadily for several seconds before, very deliberately, he +transferred his attention to Saltash, who nonchalantly awaited his turn, +tapping the cigarette on the lid of his case with supreme indifference. + +Jake spoke, his voice soft as a woman's, yet strangely dominating. "I +should like two minutes alone with you--if you can spare them." + +Saltash was smiling. His glance shot towards Toby, and came back to Jake +with a certain royal arrogance that held its own without effort. "In +other words, you wish--Lady Saltash--to leave us?" he questioned easily. + +"I'm not going," said Toby quickly, with nervous decision. + +Her hands were tightly clasped in front of her. She stood as one strung +to the utmost limit of resistance. + +Jake did not again look at her. His eyes were upon Saltash, and they +never wavered. "Alone with you," he repeated, with grim insistence. + +Saltash regarded him curiously. His mouth twitched mockingly as he put +the cigarette between his lips. He held out the case to Jake in mute +invitation. + +Jake's look remained fixed. He ignored the action, and the case snapped +shut in Saltash's hand with a sharp sound that seemed to denote a +momentary exasperation. But Saltash's face still retained the monkey-like +expression of calculated mischief habitual to it. + +"Bunny with you?" he enquired casually, producing a match-box. + +"No." Very quietly came Jake's answer. "I have come to see you--alone." + +Saltash lighted his cigarette, and blew a careless cloud of smoke. "Are +you proposing to shoot me?" he asked, after a pause. + +"No," said Jake grimly. "Shooting's too good for you--men like you." + +Saltash laughed, and blew another cloud of smoke. "That may be why I have +survived so long," he remarked. "I don't see the horsewhip either. Jake, +my friend, you are not rising to the occasion with becoming enthusiasm. +Any good offering you a drink to stimulate your energies?" + +"None whatever," said Jake, still very quietly. "I don't go--till I have +what I came for--that's all. Neither do you!" + +"I--see!" said Saltash. + +An odd little gleam that was almost furtive shone for a second in his +eyes and was gone. He turned and crossed the room to Toby. + +"My dear," he said, "I think this business will be more quickly settled +if you leave us." + +She looked at him piteously. He took her lightly by the arm, and led her +to a door leading to an adjoining room. "By the time you have smoked one +cigarette," he said, "I shall be with you again." + +She turned with an impulsive attempt to cling to him. "You'll--keep me?" +she said, through trembling lips. + +He made a royal gesture that frustrated her with perfect courtesy. "Are +you not my wife?" he said. + +He opened the door for her, and she had no choice but to go through. She +went swiftly, without another glance, and Saltash closed the door behind +her. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE VILLAIN SCORES + + +"Now, sir!" said Saltash, and turned. His tone was brief; the smile had +gone from his face. He came to Jake with a certain haughtiness, and stood +before him. + +Jake squared his shoulders. "So--you've married her!" he said. + +"I have." There was a note of challenge in the curt rejoinder. Saltash's +brows were drawn. + +"I should like to see--proof of that," Jake said, after a moment. + +"The devil you would!" Again the hot gleam shone in the odd eyes. Saltash +stood for a second in the attitude of a man on the verge of violence. +Then, contemptuously, he relaxed. + +He lounged back against the mantel-piece and smoked his cigarette. "The +devil you would, Jake!" he said again, in a tone so different that the +words might have been uttered in another language. "And why--if one be +permitted to ask?" + +"I think you know why," Jake said. + +"Oh, do I? You virtuous people are always the first to suspect evil." +Saltash spoke with deliberate cynicism. "And suppose the marriage is not +genuine--as you so politely hint--what then, my worthy Jake? What then?" + +Jake faced him unwaveringly. "If not," he said, "she goes back with me." + +Saltash's eyes suddenly flashed to his, but he did not alter his +position. "Sure of that?" he asked casually. + +"Sure!" said Jake. + +"And if I refuse to part with her? If she refuses to go?" + +"Either way," said Jake immovably. + +"And why?" Saltash straightened suddenly. "Tell me why! What in hell has +it got to do with you?" + +"This," said Jake. "Just the fact that she's a girl needing protection +and that I--can give it." + +"Are you so sure of that?" gibed Saltash. "I think you forget, don't you, +that I was her first protector? No one--not even Bunny--could have got +near her without my consent." + +"She was your find right enough," Jake admitted. "I always knew +that--knew from the first you'd faked up a lie about her. But I hoped--I +even believed--that you were doing it for her sake--not your own." + +"Well?" flung Saltash. "And if I was?" + +"And if you were," said Jake, "it was a thing worth doing--worth sticking +to. Bunny is a respectable citizen. He'd have married her--made her +happy." + +Saltash's mouth twisted. "Bunny had his chance--missed it," he said. +"He'll know better next time. I'm not troubling about Bunny. He didn't +deserve to win." + +"And so you decided to play him a damn trick and cut him out?" said Jake. + +Saltash snapped his fingers. "I did my best for him, but I couldn't push +him through against his will. Why didn't he come after her when he found +she had gone? Didn't he know where to look?" + +"Just because he knew," said Jake. + +Saltash moved abruptly. "Damnation! You shall have what you've come for. +If seeing is believing--then you shall believe--that even Charles +Burchester can protect a girl at a pinch from the snares of the +virtuous!" He pulled an envelope from an inner pocket, and flung it with +a passionate gesture upon the table in front of Jake. + +Jake's eyes, red-brown and steady, marked the action and contemplated him +thereafter for several silent seconds. Then, at length, very slowly. +"Maybe--after all--I don't need to see, my lord," he said. "Maybe--I've +made a mistake." + +He spoke with the utmost quietness, but his manner had undergone a +change. It held a hint of deference. He made no move to touch the +envelope upon the table. + +Saltash's brows went up. "Satisfied?" he questioned curtly. + +"On that point, yes." Jake continued to look at him with a close and +searching regard. + +"Not on all points?" Saltash flicked the ash from his cigarette with a +movement of exasperation. + +Jake turned and slowly walked to the window. There fell a silence between +them. He stood staring down upon the scene that Toby had gazed upon a +little earlier, but he saw nothing of it. The hardness had gone out of +his face, and a deep compassion had taken its place. + +Saltash continued to smoke for several restless seconds. Finally, he +dropped the end of his cigarette into a tray and spoke. + +"Anything more I can do for you?" + +Jake wheeled in his massive way, and came back. "Say!" he said slowly. +"I'm kind of sorry for that little girl." + +Saltash made an abrupt movement that passed unexplained. "Well?" he said. + +Jake faced him squarely. "If I'd been at home," he said, "this would +never have happened. Or if it had happened--if it had happened--" He +paused. + +"You'd have made a point of coming to the wedding?" suggested Saltash. + +Jake passed the suggestion by. "I'd have known how to deal with it, +anyway. Now, it seems, it's too late." + +Saltash took up the envelope from the table, and returned it to his +pocket. "I believe you'd have been better pleased if I hadn't married +her," he observed. + +Jake shook his head. "I'd be better pleased--maybe--if I knew for certain +what you did it for." + +"My good Jake. I don't go in for aims and motives," protested Saltash. +"Call it a marriage of convenience if you feel that way! It's all the +same to me." + +Jake's brows contracted. "I'd give a good deal not to call it that," he +said. + +Saltash laughed. "Call it what you like--a whim--a fancy--the craze of +the moment! You needn't waste any sentiment over it. I'm sorry about +Bunny, but, if he hadn't been an ass, it wouldn't have happened. You +can't blame me for that anyhow. You did the same thing yourself." + +"I!" The red-brown eyes suddenly shone. "I don't follow you," said Jake +deliberately. + +"You married your wife to deliver her from--a fate you deemed +unsuitable." Saltash's teeth showed for a moment in answer to the gleam +in Jake's eyes. "You did it in an almighty hurry too." + +"But--damn it--she needed protection!" Jake said. "And--at least--I loved +her!" + +Saltash bowed. "Hence your motive was an entirely selfish one. My +wife--_au contraire_--is quite unhampered by a husband's devotion. I have +never made love to her--yet. I have only--protected her." + +He paused, and suddenly the old monkey-like look of mischief flashed back +into his face. + +"I lay claim to the higher virtue, Jake," he said. "Heaven alone knows +how long it will last. I've never scored over you before, but on this +occasion--" He stopped with a careless wave of the hand. + +"Yes," Jake said. "On this occasion--you've got me beat. But--I didn't +fight for my own sake, nor yet for the off chance of downing you, which I +own would have given me considerable pleasure once. It was for the +child's sake." An unwonted note of entreaty suddenly sounded in his +voice. "I don't know what your game is, my lord; but she's yours now--to +make--or break. For God's sake--be decent to her--if you can!" + +"If I can!" Saltash clapped a sudden hand upon Jake's shoulder, but +though the action was obviously a kindly one, it held restraint as well. +"Do you think I don't know how to make a woman happy, Jake? Think I +haven't studied the subject hard enough? Think I'm a fool at the game?" + +Jake looked him straight in the face. "No. I don't think you a fool, my +lord," he said. "But I reckon there's one or two things that even you may +have to learn. You've never yet made any woman permanently happy. There's +only one way of doing that. Bunny would have done it--and won out too. +But you--I'm not so sure of you." + +"Oh, Bunny would have won out, would he?" Saltash's hand closed like a +trap upon Jake's shoulder. There was a challenging quality in his smile. + +Jake nodded. "Yes. Bunny's got the real stuff in him. Bunny would have +put her happiness before his own always. He would have given her the love +that lasts. It's the only thing worth having, after all." + +"Well?" The challenge became more marked upon the swarthy face. The smile +had vanished. "And you think I am incapable of that?" + +"I haven't said so," Jake said sombrely. + +"But it's up to me to prove it?" There was a certain insistence in +Saltash's tone, albeit a mocking spirit looked out of his eyes. + +Jake faced it unwaveringly for several seconds. Then: "Yes. I reckon it +is up to you," he said, and turned deliberately away. "I'm going now." + +"All right." Saltash's hand fell. "I give you credit for one thing, +Jake," he said. "You haven't offered to take her off my hands. For that +piece of forbearance I congratulate you. Do you want to see her before +you go?" + +"Not specially," said Jake. + +Saltash's eyes followed him with a look half-malicious, half-curious. +"Nor to send her a message?" he questioned. + +"No." Jake's tone was brief. + +"You're not wanting to offer her a safe harbour when her present +anchorage fails her?" jested Saltash. + +Jake turned at the door as one goaded. "When that happens," he said very +deliberately. "I guess she'll be past any help from me, poor kid!" + +Saltash's black brows descended. He scowled hideously for a moment. Then, +"I congratulate you again," he said coolly. "You are just beginning to +see things--as they are." + +Jake made a brief sound that might have indicated contempt and opened the +door. He went out with finality, and Saltash listened to the tread of his +retreating feet with a grin of sheer cynical triumph. + +"So," he said lightly, "the villain scores at last!" + +But as he turned towards the other room, the cynicism passed from his +face. He stood for a moment or two motionless at the door; then broke +into a careless whistle and opened it. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A WIFE IS DIFFERENT + + +"Has he gone?" said Toby eagerly. She came into the room with a swift +glance around. "What did he say? What did he do? Was he angry?" + +"I really don't know," Saltash said, supremely unconcerned. "He went. +That's the main thing." + +Toby looked at him critically. "You were so quiet, both of you. Was there +a row?" + +"Were you listening?" said Saltash. + +She coloured, and smiled disarmingly. "Part of the time--no, all the +time. But I didn't hear anything--at least not much. Nothing that +mattered. Are you angry?" + +He frowned upon her, but his eyes reassured. "I told you to smoke a +cigarette." + +"I'm sorry," said Toby meekly. "Shall I smoke one now?" + +He pinched her ear. "No. We'll go out. You've got to shop. First though, +I've got something for you. I'm not sure you deserve it, but that's a +detail. Few of us ever do get our deserts in this naughty world." + +"What is it?" said Toby. + +Her bright eyes questioned him. She looked more than ever like an eager +boy. He pulled a leather case out of his pocket and held it out to her. + +"Oh, what is it?" she said, and coloured more deeply. "You +haven't--haven't--been buying me things?" + +"Open it!" said Saltash, with regal peremptoriness. + +But still she hesitated, till he suddenly laid his hands on hers and +compelled her. She saw a single string of pearls on a bed of blue velvet. +Her eyes came up to his in quick distress. + +"Oh, I ought not to take them!" she said. + +"And why not?" said Saltash. + +She bit her lip, almost as if she would burst into tears. "Monseigneur--" + +"Call me Charles!" he commanded. + +His hands still held hers. She dropped her eyes to them, and suddenly, +very suddenly, she bent her head and kissed them. + +He started slightly, and in a moment he set her free, leaving the case in +her hold. "_Eh bien!_" he said lightly. "That is understood. You like my +pearls, _chérie_?" + +"I love--anything--that comes from you," she made low reply. "But +these--but these--I ought not to take these." + +"But why not?" he questioned. "May I not make you a present? Are you +not--my wife?" + +"Yes." More faintly came Toby's answer. "But--but--but--a wife is +different. A wife--does not need--presents." + +"_Mais vraiment!_" protested Saltash. "So a wife is different! +How--different, _mignonne_?" + +He tried to look into the downcast eyes, but she would not raise them. +She was trembling a little. "Such things as these," she said, under her +breath, "are what a man would give to--to--to the woman he loves." + +"And so you think they are unsuitable for--my wife?" questioned Saltash, +with a whimsical look on his dark face. + +She did not answer him, only mutely held out the case, still without +looking at him. + +He stood for a second or two, watching her, an odd flame coming and going +in his eyes; then abruptly he moved, picked up the pearls from their +case, straightened them dexterously, and clasped them about her neck. + +She lifted her face then, quivering and irresolute, to his. "And I can +give you--nothing," she said. + +He took her lightly by the shoulders, as one who caresses a child. "_Ma +chérie_, you have given me already much more than you realize. But we +will not go into that now. We will go to the shops. Afterwards, we will +go out to Fontainebleau and picnic in the forest. You will like that?" + +"Oh, so much!" she said, with enthusiasm. + +Yet there was a puzzled look of pain in her eyes as she turned away, and +though she wore his pearls, she made no further reference to them. + +They went forth into the streets of Paris and Toby shopped. At first she +was shy, halting here and hesitating there, till Saltash, looking on, +careless and debonair, made it abundantly evident that whatever she +desired she was to have, and then like a child on a holiday she flung +aside all indecision and became eager and animated. So absorbed was she +that she took no note of the passage of time and was horrified when at +length he called her attention to the fact that it was close upon the +luncheon-hour. + +"And you must be so tired of it all!" she said, with compunction. + +"Not in the least," he assured her airily between puffs of his cigarette. +"It has been--a new experience for me." + +Her eyes challenged him for a moment, and he laughed. + +"_Mais oui, madame!_ I protest--a new experience. I feel I am doing my +duty." + +"And it doesn't bore you?" questioned Toby, with a tilt of the chin. + +His look kindled a little. "If we were on board the old _Night Moth_, +you'd have had a cuff for that," he remarked. + +"I wish we were!" she said daringly. + +He flicked his fingers. "You're very young, Nonette." + +She shook her head with vehemence. "I'm not! I'm not! I'm only +pretending. Can't you see?" + +He laughed jestingly. "You have never deceived me yet, _ma chère_,--not +once, from the moment I found you shivering in my cabin up to the +present. You couldn't if you tried." + +Toby's blue eyes suddenly shone with a hot light. "So sure of that?" she +said quickly. "You read me--so easily?" + +"Like a book," said Saltash, with an arrogance but half-assumed. + +"I cheated you--once," she said, breathing sharply. + +"And I caught you," said Saltash. + +"Only--only because--I meant you to," said Toby, under her breath. + +He raised his brows in momentary surprise, and in a flash she laughed and +clapped her hands. "I had you there, King Charles! You see, you are but a +man after all." + +He gave her a swift and piercing glance. "And what are you?" he said. + +Her eyes fell swiftly before his look; she made no reply. + +They returned to the hotel and lunched together. The incident of the +morning seemed to be forgotten. Jake's name was not once mentioned +between them. Toby was full of gaiety. The prospect of the run to +Fontainebleau evidently filled her with delight. + +She joined Saltash in the vestibule after the meal, clad in a light blue +wrap they had purchased that morning. + +He went to meet her, a quick gleam in his eyes; and a man to whom he had +been talking--a slim, foreign-looking man with black moustache and +imperial--turned sharply and gave her a hard stare. + +Toby's chin went up. She looked exclusively at Saltash. Her bearing at +that moment was that of a princess. + +"The car is ready?" she questioned. "Shall we go?" + +"By all means," said Saltash. + +He nodded a careless farewell to the other man, and followed her, a smile +twitching at his lips, the gleam still in his eyes. + +"That man is Spentoli the sculptor," he said, as he handed her into the +car. "A genius, Nonette! I should have presented him to you if you had +not been so haughty." + +"I hate geniuses," said Toby briefly. + +He laughed at her. "_Mais vraiment!_ How many have you known?" + +She considered for a moment, and finally decided that the question did +not require an answer. + +Saltash took the wheel and spun the little car round with considerable +dexterity. "Yes, a genius!" he said. "One of the most wonderful of the +age. His work is amazing--scarcely human. He paints too. All Paris raves +over his work--with reason. His picture, 'The Victim'--" he looked at her +suddenly--"What is the matter, _chérie_? Is the sun too strong for you?" + +Toby's hand was shielding her eyes. Her lips were trembling. "Don't +wait!" she murmured. "Don't wait! Let's get away! I am all right--just a +little giddy, that's all." + +He took her at her word, and sent the car swiftly forward. They passed +out into the crowded thoroughfare, and in a moment or two Toby leaned +back, gazing before her with a white, set face. + +Saltash asked no question. He did not even look at her, concentrating all +his attention upon the task of extricating himself as swiftly as possible +from the crush of vehicles around them. + +It was a day of perfect autumn, and Paris lay basking in sunshine; but +Saltash was a rapid traveller at all times, and it was not long before +Paris was left behind. But even when free from the traffic, he did not +speak or turn towards his companion, merely gave himself to the task +of covering the ground as quickly as possible. + +In the end it was Toby who spoke, abruptly, boyishly. "By jingo! You can +drive!" + +Saltash's face showed its own elastic grin. "You like this?" + +"Rather!" said Toby with enthusiasm. + +She threw off her silence and plunged forthwith into careless chatter--a +mood to which he responded with the utmost readiness. When at length they +ran into the shade of the forest, they were both in the highest spirits. + +They had their tea in a mossy glade out of sight of the road. The sun was +beginning to slant. Its rays fell in splashes of golden green all about +them. + +"Just the place for a duel!" said Saltash appreciatively. + +"Have you ever fought a duel?" Toby looked at him over the picnic-basket +with eyes of sparkling interest. + +She had thrown aside her hat, and her fair hair gleamed as if it gave +forth light. Saltash leaned his shoulders against a tree and watched her. + +"I have never fought to kill," he said. "Honour is too easily +satisfied in this country--though after all--" his smile was suddenly +provocative--"there are very few things worth fighting for, Nonette." + +Her eyes flashed their ready challenge. "Life being too short already?" +she suggested. + +"Even so," said Charles Rex coolly. + +Toby abruptly bent her head and muttered something into the +picnic-basket. + +"What?" said Saltash. + +She pulled out a parcel of cakes and tossed them on to the ground. +"Nothing!" she said. + +He leaned forward unexpectedly as she foraged for more, and gripped the +small brown hand. + +"Tell me what you said!" he commanded. + +She flung him a look half-frightened, half-daring. "I said there was only +one cup." + +She would have released her hand with the words, but his fingers +tightened like a spring. "_Pardonnez-moi!_ That was not what you said!" + +She became passive in his hold, but she said nothing. + +"Tell me what you said!" Saltash said again. + +A little tremor went through Toby. "Can we do--with only one cup?" she +asked, not looking at him, her eyelids flickering nervously. + +"Going to answer me?" said Saltash. + +She shook her head and was silent. + +He waited for perhaps ten seconds, and in that time a variety of +different expressions showed and vanished on his ugly face. Then, just as +Toby was beginning to tremble in real trepidation, he suddenly set her +free. + +"We have drunk out of the same glass before now," he said. "We can do it +again." + +She looked at him then, relief and doubt struggling together in her eyes. +"Are you angry?" she said. + +His answering look baffled her. "No," he said. + +She laid a conciliatory hand upon his arm. "You are! I'm sure you are!" + +"I am not," said Saltash. + +"Then why aren't you?" demanded Toby, with sudden spirit. + +The monkeyish grin leapt into his face. "Because I know what you said," +he told her coolly. "It is not easy--you will never find it easy--to +deceive me." + +She snatched her hand away. Her face was on fire. "I said you did not +make the most of life," she flung at him. "And it's true! You don't! You +don't!" + +"How do you know that?" said Saltash. + +She did not answer him. Her head was bent over the basket. She threw out +one thing after another with nervous rapidity, and once, as he watched +her, there came a faint sound that was like a hastily suppressed sob. + +Saltash got to his feet with disconcerting suddenness and walked away. + +When he returned some minutes later with a half-smoked cigarette between +his lips, she was sitting demurely awaiting him, the picnic ready spread. + +He scarcely looked at her but he flicked her cheek as he sat down, and in +a moment she turned and smiled at him. + +"I have found another cup," she said. + +"So I see," said Saltash, and before she could realize his mood he picked +it up and flung it at the trunk of a tree some yards away. It shivered in +fragments on the moss, and Toby gasped and stared at him wide-eyed. + +He laughed in his careless fashion at her amazement. "Now we shall drink +out of one cup!" he said. + +"Was that--was that--why you did it?" she stammered breathlessly. + +He blew a cloud of smoke into the air with a gesture of royal +indifference. "Even so,--_madame_!" he said. "One does these things--with +a wife. You see, a wife--is different." + +"I--I see," said Toby. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE IDOL OF PARIS + + +It was dark when they returned to the hotel, but Paris shone with a +million lights. The hotel itself had a festive air. There were flowers in +all directions, and a red carpet had been laid upon the steps. + +"Rozelle Daubeni is expected," said Saltash. + +"Who?" Toby stopped short in the act of descending. Her face shone white +in the glare. A moment before she had been laughing but the laugh went +into her question with a little choked sound. "Who did you say?" she +questioned more coherently. + +"Mademoiselle Daubeni--the idol of Paris. Never heard of her?" Saltash +handed her lightly down. "She is coming to a dance in the great _salon_ +tonight. You shall see her. She is--a thing to remember." + +Toby gave a quick shiver. "Yes, I have heard of her too much--too much--I +don't want to see her. Shall we dine upstairs?" + +"Oh, I think not," said Saltash with decision. "You are too retiring, _ma +chère_. It doesn't become--a lady of your position." + +He followed her towards the lift. The vestibule was full of people, +laughing and talking, awaiting the coming of the favourite. But as the +girl in her blue cloak went through, a sudden hush fell. Women lifted +glasses to look at her, and men turned to watch. + +Saltash sauntered behind her in his regal way, looking neither to right +nor left, yet fully aware of all he passed. No one accosted him. There +were times when even those who knew him well would have hesitated to do +so. He could surround himself with an atmosphere so suavely impersonal as +to be quite impenetrable to all. + +It surrounded him now. He walked like a king through a crowd of +courtiers, and the buzz of talk did not spring up again till he was out +of sight. + +"So you do not want to see _le premiere danseuse du siècle!_" he +commented, as he entered the sitting-room of their suite behind Toby. + +She turned, blue eyes wide with protest in her white face. "Do you wish +me to see her, my lord? That--woman!" + +He frowned upon her suddenly. "Call me Charles! Do you hear? We will play +this game according to rule--or not at all." + +"You are angry," Toby said, and turned still whiter. + +He came to her, thrust a quick arm about her. "I am not angry, +_mignonne_, at least not with you. But you must take your proper place. I +can't keep you in hiding here. Those gaping fools downstairs--they have +got to understand. You are not my latest whim, but a permanent +institution. You are--my wife." + +She shivered in his hold, but she clung to him. "I don't feel like--a +permanent institution," she told him rather piteously. "And when you are +angry--" + +"I am not angry," said Saltash, and tweaked her ear as though she had +been a boy. "But--whether you feel like it or not--you are my wife, and +you have got to play the part. _C'est entendu, n'est-ce-pas?_" + +"Whatever you wish," said Toby faintly. + +He set her free. "You must look your best tonight. Wear blue! It is your +colour. I shall present Spentoli to you. And tomorrow he will want to +paint you." + +Toby stiffened. "That--_canaille_!" she said. + +He looked at her in surprise. "What is the matter with you tonight, +Nonette? You are hating all the world." + +Her blue eyes blazed. "I don't want to meet Spentoli," she said. "He has +an evil eye. You--you--I look to you to--to--to protect me." + +"My good child!" said Saltash. + +He turned aside to light a cigarette, and there was a pause. But Toby +still stood rigid, as it were on guard. He spoke again after a moment, +and his voice was kind though it had a certain dominant quality also. + +"Nonette, you need not be afraid when you are with me. I shall protect +you. Now go and dress! When you are ready, come to me for inspection! And +remember! You are to look your best tonight." + +He turned with the last words and looked at her. His brows went up as he +realized her attitude--the tense resistance of the slight figure +withstanding him. + +But it was only for a moment or two that the girl maintained her stand. +At sight of the look that leaped to his eyes, her own were swiftly +lowered. She drew back from him. + +"I will do--whatever you wish," she said again nervously. "You know +that." + +"Yes, I know that," said Saltash with his quick grimace. "You have my +sympathy, Nonette. Now go, _ma chère_, go!" + +She went from his presence like a small hunted animal. + +Saltash shrugged his shoulders and sauntered down again to the vestibule. +The crowd had grown. They were watching the great entrance-door +expectantly for the coming of the celebrated dancer. Saltash called for a +drink, and mingled with the throng. + +The Italian, Spentoli, came up presently and joined him. "I am hoping," +he said, "that you will presently give me the great honour of presenting +me to your bride." + +Saltash looked at him. Spentoli was one of the very few men for whom he +entertained respect. The Italian's work had always held an immense +attraction for his artistic soul, and he had never troubled to disguise +the fact. + +"My wife is young and shy," he said, after a moment. "I will present +you--some day, Spentoli, but it may not be yet." + +"This is her first visit to Paris?" questioned Spentoli. + +"Not her first. But she does not know Paris well." Saltash spoke +carelessly. "I am not showing her everything at once. I think that is a +mistake." + +"That is true," agreed Spentoli. "The freshness of youth is gone all too +soon. But she will be superbly beautiful in a few years' time. Will you +permit me to congratulate you on the excellence of your choice?" + +Saltash grimaced. "Do we ever choose?" he said. "Do we not rather receive +such gifts as the gods send us in more or less of a grudging spirit?" + +Spentoli smiled. "I did not think you would marry one so young," he said. +"She has the athletic look of a boy. She reminds me--" + +"Of a picture called 'The Victim' by one--Spentoli!" Saltash's voice was +suave. "A cruel picture, _mon ami_, but of an amazing merit. I have seen +the likeness also. Where did you get it?" + +The Italian was still smiling, but his eyes were wary. + +"From a little circus-rider in California," he said. "A child--an imp of +a child--astonishingly clever--a wisp of inspiration. Yes, a girl of +course; but she had all the lines of a boy--the perfect limbs of an +athlete. I took her from her circus. I should have paid her well had she +remained with me. But before the picture was finished, she was tired. She +was a little serpent--wily and wicked. One day we had a small discussion +in my studio--oh, quite a small discussion. And she stuck her poison-fang +into me--and fled." Spentoli's teeth gleamed through his black moustache. +"I do not like these serpent-women," he said. "When I meet her again--it +will be my turn to strike." + +"Our turn so seldom comes," said Saltash lazily, his eyes wandering to +the door. "Mademoiselle Rozelle for instance would hold her own against +any of us." + +"Ah! Rozelle!" Spentoli's face changed magically. "But she is +beautiful--and without venom--a rose without a thorn!" + +Saltash's mouth twitched mockingly. "And without a heart also?" he +suggested. + +"She is all heart!" cried Spentoli, with flashing eyes. + +Saltash laughed aloud. "That also is sometimes a drawback, _mon ami_. I +gather she is the attraction who has drawn you here." + +"She draws all the world," said Spentoli. + +And with that he sprang to his feet, for there was a general stir in the +vestibule, such as might herald the coming of a queen. In a moment the +buzz of voices died down, and a great silence fell. Saltash remained +seated, a certain arrogance in his pose, though his eyes also watched the +door. + +There came the sound of a laugh--a clear, ringing laugh, childishly, +irresistibly gay--and a figure in blue came in through the marble +pillars. As a queen they had prepared for her, and as a queen she +entered--a being so exquisite, so goddess-like, that every breath was +drawn in wonder. + +She looked around her with eyes that shone like sapphires. Her red lips +were parted. She had the expectant look of girlhood, yet her beauty had a +quality unknown to youth. And it was to that quality, almost unknown to +himself, that Saltash did homage as he rose. + +Her look flashed across to him, comprehended his action, and laughed open +triumph. Then with a suddenness almost too swift to follow, she turned to +a man who had entered behind her and softly spoke. + +Saltash's eyes went to the man, and he drew a low whistle between his +teeth. It was well known that Rozelle Daubeni never travelled without an +escort; but this man--this man--He was tall and broad, and he carried +himself with a supreme contempt for his fellow-men. He did not look at +Saltash, did not apparently even see the hushed crowd that hung upon +every movement of that wonderful woman-creature who took the world by +storm wherever she went. + +He was superbly indifferent to his surroundings, gazing straight before +him with the eyes of a Viking who searches the far horizon. He walked +with the free swing of a pirate. And as the woman turned her dazzling +face towards him, it was plain to all that she saw none but him in that +vast and crowded place. + +He was by her side as they moved forward, and they saw her lightly touch +his arm, with an intimate gesture, as though they were alone. Then the +whole throng broke into acclamations, and the spell was broken. She saw +them all again, and laughed her gracious thanks. The great hall rang with +their greeting as she passed through, but no one sought to detain her and +she did not pause. + +Later, she would give them all they desired, but her moment had not +arrived. So she went on to the great curving staircase, side by side with +her fair-bearded Viking, still laughing like a happy child who looks for +the morrow. + +As she rounded the curve of the stair, she snatched a red rose from her +breast and threw it down to her worshippers below. It was aimed at +Saltash, but it fell before Spentoli, and he caught and held it with wild +adoration leaping in his eyes. As he pressed it to his lips, he was +sobbing. + +"_Mon ami_," said Saltash's voice behind him, maliciously humorous, "you +have stolen my property. But--since I have no use for it--you may keep +it." + +Spentoli looked at him with burning eyes. "Ah! You may laugh!" he said, +in a fierce undertone. "You are--without a soul." + +"Isn't it better to laugh?" queried Saltash. "Did you expect a blow in +the face?" + +Spentoli glared for a moment, and recovered himself. "Do you know what +they are saying of her?" he said. "They say that she is dying. But it is +not true--not true! Such beauty as that--such loveliness--could never +die!" + +The cynical lines in Saltash's face deepened very perceptibly. He +shrugged his shoulders and said nothing. + +"Who is the man with her?" demanded Spentoli. "I have never seen him +before--the man with the face of a Dane. Do you know him?" + +"Yes, I know him," said Saltash. + +"Then who is he? Some new lover?" There was suppressed eagerness in the +question. Spentoli's eyes were smouldering again. + +Saltash was looking supremely ironical. "Perhaps new," he said. "More +likely--very old. His name is Larpent, and he is the captain of my +yacht." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE DANCE OF DEATH + + +"We will watch from the gallery," said Saltash. + +Toby looked up at him with quick gratitude. "There won't be so many +people there," she said. + +He frowned at her, but his look was quizzical. "But everyone will know +that Lady Saltash is present--with her husband," he said. + +She slipped a persuasive hand on to his arm. "King Charles," she said, +"let us leave Paris!" + +"Bored?" said Saltash. + +Her face was slightly drawn. "No--no! Only--" she paused; then suddenly +flashed him her swift smile--"let it be as you wish!" she said. + +He flicked her cheek in his careless, caressing way. "Shall I tell you +something, _mignonne_? We are going--very soon." + +Her eyes shone, more blue than the frock she wore She stooped impulsively +and touched his hand with her lips, then, as though she feared to anger +him, drew quickly away. + +"Shall we go on the yacht?" she asked, eagerness half-suppressed +in her voice. + +"Yes," said Saltash, and he spoke with finality, even with a certain +grimness. + +Toby's face lighted up for a second, and then clouded again. She glanced +at him doubtfully. "If Paris amuses you--" she ventured. + +"Paris does not amuse me," said Saltash emphatically. "Have a cigarette, +_ma chère_, while I go and dress." + +"Can I help you dress?" said Toby, with a touch of wistfulness. "I have +put everything ready." + +His odd eyes flashed her a smile. "Not here, _chérie_, not now. +Perhaps--when we get on a yacht again--" + +He was gone, leaving the sentence unfinished, leaving Toby looking after +him with the wide eyes of one who sees at last a vision long desired. She +stretched out both her arms as the door closed upon him and her lips +repeated very softly the words that he had last uttered. + +"Perhaps--when we got on a yacht again--" + +When they went down to the great _salle-à -manger_ a little later, her +face was flushed and her smile ready, though she glanced about her in a +shy, half-furtive fashion as they entered. They found a secluded table +reserved for them in a corner, and her eyes expressed relief. She shrank +into it as if she would make herself as small as possible. Again no one +accosted them though a good many looked in their direction. Saltash was +far too well known a figure to pass unnoticed in any fashionable crowd. +But the general attention did not centre upon them. That was absorbed by +a far greater attraction that night. + +She sat at the end of the room like a queen holding her court, and beside +her sat the Viking, stern-faced and remote of mien, as supremely isolated +as though he sat with her on a desert island. He spoke but seldom, and +then to her exclusively. But when he spoke, she turned to him the radiant +face of the woman who holds within her grasp her heart's desire. + +She was superbly dressed in many-shaded blue, and jewels sparkled with +every breath she drew. Above her forehead, there nestled in the gold of +her hair a single splendid diamond that burned like a multi-coloured +flame. She was at the acme of her triumph that night. Of all who knew +her, there was not one who had seen her thus. They watched her almost +with bated breath. She was like a being from another world. She +transcended every expectation of her. + +The band played only dance-music, by her desire, it was said; but such +music as wrought irresistibly upon the senses and emotions. She was +preparing her audience for what should follow. Throughout the meal, +excitement was steadily rising. There was almost a feeling of delirium in +the air. + +Before the bulk of diners had finished, she rose to go. Her cavalier rose +with her, flinging her gauzy wrap of blue and gold over his arm. It was +the signal for a demonstration. In a moment a youth with eyes ablaze +with adoration sprang on to a table in the centre of the vast room with a +glass of red wine held high. + +"A Rozelle! A Rozelle!" + +The cry went up to the domed roof in a great crescendo of sound, and +instantly the place was a pandemonium of shouting, excited figures. They +crowded towards the table at which the _danseuse_ still stood. And just +for a second--one fleeting second--her eyes showed a curious fear. She +stood almost as one at a loss. Then in a flash her irresolution was gone. +Her beautiful face smiled its own inimitable smile. The music of her +laughter rang silvery through the tumult. She made a dainty gesture of +acceptance, of acknowledgment, of friendly appreciation; then lightly she +turned to go. + +Her companion made a path for her. He looked as if he could have hewn his +way through a wall of rock at that moment, and his uncompromising bearing +gained him respect. No one attempted to gainsay him. + +They were gone almost before they realized that their idol had not spoken +a word to them. The moment was past, and the excitement died down to a +buzz of talk. + +"An amazing woman!" said Saltash. + +Toby glanced at him, and said nothing. She had watched the whole episode +from her corner with eyes that missed nothing; but she had not spoken a +word. + +He bent suddenly towards her. "Drink some wine, _chérie_! You are pale." + +She started a little at the quick peremptoriness of his speech. She +lifted her glass to drink, and splashed some of the wine over. He leaned +farther forward, screening her from observation. + +"Go on! Drink!" he said, with insistence, and in a moment his hand closed +upon hers, guiding the wine to her lips. + +She drank obediently, not meeting his look, and he took the glass from +her, and set it down. + +"Now we will go. Are you ready?" + +She rose, and he stood aside for her. As she passed him, his hand closed +for an instant upon her bare arm in a grasp that was close and vital. She +threw him a quick, upward glance; but still she said no word. + +They passed out through the throng of diners almost unobserved, but in +the corridor Spentoli leaned against a pillar smoking a long, black +cigar. He made no movement to intercept them, but his eyes with their +restless fire dwelt upon the girl in a fashion that drew her own +irresistibly. She saw him and slightly paused. + +It was the pause of the hunted animal that sees its retreat cut off, but +in an instant Saltash's voice, very cool, arrogantly self-assured, +checked the impulse to panic. + +"Straight on to the lift, _ma chère_! See! It is there in front of you. +There will be no one in the gallery. Go straight on!" + +She obeyed him instinctively as her habit was, but in the lift she +trembled so much that he made her sit down. He stood beside her in +silence, but once lightly his hand touched her cheek. She moved then +swiftly, convulsively, and caught it in both her own. But the next moment +he had gently drawn it free. + +The gallery that ran round three sides of the great _salon_ was deserted. +There was only one point at the far end whence a view of the stage that +had been erected for the dancer could be obtained. Towards this Saltash +turned. + +"We shall see her from here," he said. + +The place was but dimly illumined by the flare of the many lights +below--two great crystal candelabra that hung at each end being left +unlighted. Under one of these was a settee which Saltash drew forward to +the balcony. + +"No one will disturb us here," he said. "We can smoke in peace." + +He offered her his cigarette-case, but she refused it nervously, sitting +down in a corner of the settee in the crouched attitude of a frightened +creature seeking cover. The band was playing in the _salon_ now, and +people were beginning to crowd in. + +Saltash leaned back in his corner and smoked. His eyes went to and fro +ceaselessly, yet the girl beside him was aware of a scrutiny as +persistent as if they never left her. She sat in silence, clasping and +unclasping her hands, staring downwards at the shining stage. + +Very soon the _salon_ was full of people, and the lights were lowered +there while on the stage only a single shaft of blinding violet light +remained, shooting downwards from the centre. Toby's eyes became fixed +upon that shaft of light. She seemed to have forgotten to breathe. + +The band had ceased to play. There fell a potent silence. The multitude +below sat motionless, as if beneath a spell. And then she came. + +No one saw her coming. She arrived quite suddenly as though she had slid +down that shaft of light. And she was there before them dancing, dancing, +like a winged thing in the violet radiance. Not a sound broke the +stillness save a single, wandering thread of melody that might have come +from the throat of a bird, soft, fitful, but half-awake in the dawning. + +The violet light was merging imperceptibly into rose--the unutterable +rose of the early morning. It caught the dancing figure, and she lifted +her beautiful face to it and laughed. The gauzy scarf streamed out from +her shoulders like a flame, curving, mounting, sinking, now enveloping +the white arms, now flung wide in a circle of glittering splendour. + +A vast breath went up from the audience. She held them as by magic--all +save one who leaned back in his corner with no quickening of the pulses +and watched the girl beside him sitting motionless with her blue eyes +wide and fixed as though they gazed upon some horror from which there was +no escape. + +The rose light deepened to crimson. She was dancing now in giddy circles +like a many-coloured moth dazzled by the dawn. The melody was growing. +Other bird-voices were swelling into sound--a wild and flute-like music +of cadences that came and went--elusive as the laughter of wood-nymphs in +an enchanted glade. And every one of that silent crowd of watchers saw +the red light of dawn breaking through the trees of a dream-forest that +no human foot had ever trod. + +Slowly the crimson lightened. The day was coming, and the silent-flitting +moth of night was turning into a butterfly of purest gold. The scarf +still floated about her like a gold-edged cloud. The giddy whirl was +over. She came to rest, poised, quivering in the light of the newly-risen +sun, every line of her exquisite body in the accord of a perfect +symmetry. Yes, she was amazing; she was unique. Wherever she went, the +spell still held. But to-night she was as one inspired. She did not see +her spellbound audience. She was dancing for one alone. She was as a +woman who waits for her lover. + +In some fashion this fact communicated itself to her worshippers. They +guessed that somewhere near that dazzling figure the stranger whom no one +knew was watching. Insensibly, through the medium of the dancer, his +presence made itself felt. When that wonderful dance of the dawn was over +and the thunder of applause had died away, they looked around, asking who +and where he was. But no one knew, and though curiosity was rife it +seemed unlikely that it would be satisfied that night. + +Up in the gallery Toby drew a deep breath as of one coming out of a +trance, and turned towards the man beside her. The light had been turned +on in the _salon_ below, and it struck upwards on her face, showing it +white and weary. + +"So she has found another victim!" she said. + +"It seems so," said Saltash. + +She looked at him in the dimness. "Did you know that--that Captain +Larpent was with her?" + +"No," said Saltash. He leaned forward abruptly, meeting her look with a +sudden challenge. "Did you?" + +She drew back sharply. "Of course not! Of course not! What--what should I +know about her?" + +He leaned back again without comment, and lighted another cigarette. + +At the end of several seconds of silence, Toby spoke again, her locked +fingers pulling against each other nervously. + +"I wonder--do you mind--if I go soon? I--I am rather tired." + +The lights went out as she spoke, and Saltash's face became invisible. He +spoke quite kindly, but with decision, out of the darkness. + +"After this dance, _ma chère_--if you desire it." + +The music began--weird and mournful--and a murmur went round among the +eager watchers. It was her most famous dance--the dance of Death, the +most gruesome spectacle, so it was said, that any dancer had ever +conceived. She came on to the stage like the flash of an arrow, dressed +in black that glittered and scintillated with every amazing movement. And +then it began--that most wonderful dance of hers that all the world was +mad to see. + +It was almost too rapid for the eye to follow in its first stages--a +fever of movement--a delirium indescribable--a fantasy painful to watch, +but from which no watcher could turn away. Even Saltash, who had taken +small interest in the previous dance, leaned forward and gave his full +attention to this, as it were in spite of himself. The very horror of it +was magnetic. They seemed to look upon a death-struggle--the wild fight +of a creature endowed with a fiery vitality against an enemy unseen but +wholly ruthless and from the first invincible. + +Those who saw that dance of Rozelle Daubeni never forgot it, and there +was hardly a woman in the audience who was not destined to shudder +whenever the memory of it arose. It was arresting, revolting, terrible; +it must have compelled in any case. A good many began to sob with the +sheer nervous horror of it, yearning for the end upon which they were +forced to look, though with a dread that made the blood run cold. + +But the end was such as no one in that assembly looked for. Just as the +awful ecstasy of the dance was at its height, just as the dreaded crisis +approached, and they saw with a gasping horror the inevitable final +clutch of the unseen enemy upon his vanquished victim; just as she lifted +her face in the last anguish of supplication, yielding the last hope, +sinking in nerveless surrender before the implacable destroyer, there +came a sudden flare of light in the _salon_, and the great crystal +candelabra that hung over the end of the gallery where the man and the +girl were seated watching became a dazzling sparkle of overwhelming +light. + +Everyone turned towards it instinctively, and Toby, hardly knowing what +she did, but with the instinct to escape strong upon her, leapt to her +feet. + +In that moment--as she stood in the full light--the dancer's eyes also +shot upwards and saw the sum young figure. It was only for a moment, but +instantly a wild cry rang through the great _salon_--a cry of agony so +piercing that women shrieked and trembled, hiding their faces from what +they knew not what. + +In the flash of a second the light was gone, the gallery again in +darkness. But on the stage a woman's voice cried thrice: "Toinette! +Toinette! Toinette!" in the anguished accents of a mother who cries for +her dead child, and then fell into a tragic silence more poignant than +any sound--a silence that was as the silence of Death. + +And in that silence a man's figure, moving with the free, athletic swing +of a sailor, crossed the stage to where the dancer lay huddled in the +dimness like a broken thing, lifted her--bore her away. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE NEW LOVER + + +Very late that night when all the crowds who had assembled to watch +Rozelle Daubeni had dispersed with awe-struck whisperings, two men came +down the great staircase into the empty vestibule and paused at the foot. + +"You are leaving Paris again?" said Saltash. + +The other nodded, his face perfectly emotionless, his eyes the eyes of a +sailor who searches the far horizon. "There is nothing to keep me here," +he said, and absently accepted a cigarette from the case that Saltash +proffered. "I have always hated towns. I only came--" He stopped, +considered a moment, and said no more. + +Saltash's eyes were upon him, alert, speculative, but wholly without +malice. "You came--because you were sent for," he said. + +Larpent nodded twice thoughtfully, more as if in answer to some mental +suggestion than as if the words had been actually uttered. He struck a +match and held it for Saltash. Then, as he deliberately lighted his own +cigarette, between slow puffs he spoke: "There was only--one reason on +earth--that would have brought me." + +"Yes?" said Saltash. He dropped into a chair with the air of a man who +has limitless leisure at his disposal, but his tone was casual. He did +not ask for confidence. + +Larpent stood still gazing before him through the smoke with keen, +unwavering eyes. + +"Only one reason," he said again, and still he seemed to speak as one who +communes with his inner soul. "She was dying--and she wanted me." He +paused a moment, and an odd tremor went through him. "After twenty +years," he said, as if in wonder at himself. + +Saltash's look came swiftly upwards. "I've heard that before," he said. +"Those she caught she kept--always. No other woman was ever worth while +after Rozelle." + +Larpent's hand clenched instinctively, but he said nothing. + +Saltash went on in the same casual tone. "She never caught me, _mon ami_. +I met her too late in life--when I was beginning to get fastidious." His +monkey-like grin showed for a moment. "I appreciated her charm, but--it +left me cold." + +"You never saw her in her first youth," said Larpent, and into his fixed +eyes there came a curious glow--the look of a man who sees a vision. + +"What was she like then?" said Saltash. + +Slowly the sailor answered him, word by word as one spelling out a +strange language. "She was like a butterfly that plays among the +flowers in the early morning. She had the look of a boy--the wide-open +eyes, the fearless way, the freedom, the daring. Her innocence--her +loveliness--" Something rose unexpectedly in his throat. He stopped and +swallowed hard. "My God! How lovely she was!" he said, in a strangled +voice. + +Saltash got up in his sudden, elastic fashion. "Look here! You want a +drink. Sit down while I get you one!" + +He was gone with the words, not waiting for the half-uttered remonstrance +that the other man sent after him. + +Larpent stood staring heavily before him for a space, then turned with a +mechanical movement and dropped into a chair. He was sitting so, bent +forward, his hands clasped in front of him when Saltash returned. He had +the worn, grey look of a man tired out with hard travel. + +Saltash poured out a drink and held it down to him. "Here's the stuff! +Drink, man! It'll put new life into you." + +Larpent drank, still in that slow, mechanical fashion. But as he drained +the glass his eyes met Saltash's alert look and a faint, grim smile +crossed his haggard features. + +"Don't let me spoil your holiday, my lord!" he said. + +"Don't be a damn' fool!" said Saltash. + +Larpent sat in silence for several seconds. Then in a more normal tone he +spoke again. "I had to come to her. God knows what made her want me after +all these years. But I couldn't refuse to come. I had her message two +days ago. She said she was alone--dying. So I came." He paused and wiped +his forehead. "I thought she had tricked me. You saw her as she was +to-night. She was like that--full of life, superb. But--I had come to +her, and I found I couldn't leave her. She wanted me--she wanted me--to +take her back." He got up, but not with any agitation, and began to pace +to and fro as though he paced a deck. "You will think me mad of course. +You never came under the spell. But I, I was first with her; and +perhaps it was fitting that I should be the last. Had she lived--after +to-night--I would have taken her away. She would never have danced again. +I would have taken her out of this damnable world that had dragged her +down. I'd have saved her somehow." + +"You wouldn't," said Saltash. "It's like a recurrent fever. You'd never +have held her." + +"I say I would." Larpent spoke deeply, but still without emotion. "I +could have done it--and no one else on earth. I tell you I was first with +her, and a woman doesn't forget the first. I had a power that no other +man ever possessed, or ever could possess. I was--her husband." + +"What?" said Saltash. + +Larpent paced on with bent head. "I was her husband. But I was at sea and +she was on shore. And so I lost her. She was not made to stand against +temptation. It came to her when I was on the other side of the world. +When I got back, she was gone. And I--I never followed her. The thing was +hopeless. She was that sort, you understand. It was first one and then +another with her. I dropped her out of my life, and let her go. I didn't +realize then--what I know now--that the power to rescue and to hold her +was mine. If I had, I might have gone after her. I can't say. But I was +too bitter at the time to feel it was worth while. I went back to the sea +and left her to work out her own damnation." + +"And yet you loved her?" Saltash said, with a queer twist of the features +that was not of mirth. + +"I loved her, yes. If I hadn't loved her I would never have come to her +when she called. That is love--the thing that doesn't die." A sudden +throb sounded in Larpent's voice. He paused for a moment in his walk, +then paced on. "You may laugh at it--call it what you will--but there is +a power on the earth that is stronger than anything else, and when that +power speaks we have got to obey. I didn't want to come. You think me a +damn fool for coming. But I had to. That's all there is to it." + +"I don't think you any sort of a fool," Saltash threw in briefly. "You +did the only thing possible." + +"Yes, the only thing. I came to her. If I hadn't come, she'd have +died--alone. But that alone wasn't why she sent for me--it was the +primary reason, but not the only one. There was another." Larpent ceased +his pacing and deliberately faced the man who stood listening. "You know +what happened to-night," he said. "That child--the scaramouch you picked +out of the gutter at Valrosa--Toby--do you realize--have you grasped--the +meaning of that yet?" + +Saltash flung up his head with an arrogant gesture. "There is one thing +about her you have not grasped," he said. "But go on! I may as well hear +it." + +Larpent went on steadily. "When I came to her yesterday she told me of a +child that had been born to her--a child she had loved but had been +unable to protect. It was a long story. Spentoli the Italian artist knows +it from beginning to end. You know Spentoli?" + +"I know him," said Saltash. + +"Spentoli is a blackguard," Larpent said, "the sort that is born, not +made afterwards. He has painted Rozelle over and over again. He raves +about her. He may be a genius. He is certainly mad. He wanted the child +for a model, and Rozelle could not prevent it. So she told me. I believe +she was dependent upon him at the time. She had been ill. She has been +ill for years with heart trouble. And so he had the child, but only for a +time. The girl had a will of her own and broke away, joined a circus in +California. He tracked her down, captured her again, tried to make a +slave of her. But she was like a wild creature. She stabbed him one night +and fled. That was Rozelle's trouble. She had never been able to hear of +her again. She begged me to find--and save her. I promised to do my best. +But--there was no need to search very far. To-night Spentoli pulled the +wires again. It was he who switched on that light. It was he who killed +Rozelle. The girl in the gallery with you--Toby--was her daughter--and +mine. You heard Rozelle cry out when she saw her. She never spoke again." + +Larpent ceased to speak. He was no longer looking at Saltash. The far +vision seemed to have caught his gaze again. He stared beyond. + +Saltash watched him with working brows. "Are you wanting to lay claim to +the girl?" he asked abruptly. + +Larpent's face was grim. "I make no claim, my lord," he said. "But I have +sworn to do my best for her. I shall keep that oath of mine." + +"Meaning?" said Saltash. + +The sailor's look met his squarely. "You know what I mean," he said. + +Saltash began to grin. "A fight to a finish, what? I'm sorry, _mon ami_. +But I've got you beaten at the start. Shall I tell you how you can best +keep that somewhat rash oath of yours?" + +"Well?" The word fell brief and uncompromising. Larpent's face was as +carved granite. + +Saltash thrust forth a sudden hand and took him by the shoulder. "Just by +effacing yourself, _mon vieux_," he said lightly. "Go back to _The Blue +Moon_, take her to Fairharbour, and await my orders there!" + +It was carelessly, even jestingly, spoken, but a certain authority lurked +behind the words. Charles Rex knew how to assert his kingship upon +occasion, knew also how to temper it with the touch of friendship. + +Larpent's look did not waver, but some of the grimness went from it. +Neither anger nor indignation had any place here. He continued to look +Saltash straight in the face. + +"And that would be keeping my oath?" he said. + +"Even so," said Saltash. + +"You mean," Larpent spoke with slow emphasis, "that to leave her where +she now is, is to leave her in safe and honourable keeping?" + +The old mocking smile gleamed in Saltash's eyes. "Yes, I mean that," he +said. "Do you believe me, Larpent?" + +"Believe you, my lord?" Larpent seemed to hesitate. + +The hand that held him moved with a hint of impatience. "I am asking," +said Saltash royally, "if you consider that my protection is adequate +for--my wife." + +"Your--wife!" Larpent started in sharp surprise. "Your wife, did you +say?" + +Saltash broke into a chuckle and dropped his hand from his captain's +shoulder. "Yes, just that," he said. "You are behind the times, my +friend. Are you going to congratulate me? We were married four days ago." + +Larpent's hand came out to him abruptly. "It's the best thing you've ever +done, my lord," he said. "And you will never regret it." + +"What makes you say that?" said Saltash curiously. + +Their hands gripped and fell apart. Larpent answered him in the brief +fashion of the man whose words are few. "Mainly because you loved her +enough to marry her when you could have had her without." + +Saltash's laugh had the old derisive ring but there was no corresponding +gleam of mockery in his eyes as he turned carelessly aside. "What is this +thing called love?" he said. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE REFUGEE + + +It was by no means characteristic of Jake to linger on a quest which had +already proved fruitless but he was a man who possessed acquaintances in +almost all parts of the world, and Paris was no exception. For the rest +of the day after leaving Saltash he was philosophically occupied in +seeking out old friends. Eventually he dined at a restaurant and betook +himself to the station to catch the night train to Calais. It was all one +to Jake whether he travelled by night or by day, so wholly accustomed was +he to adapt himself to circumstances. Maud was wont to say with a smile +that the luxuries of decent living were utterly thrown away upon him. He +was a man who scarcely noticed physical discomfort. He could sleep under +practically any conditions. + +Walking solidly down the platform, carrying his own baggage, his thoughts +were completely astray from his surroundings. They had reverted to the +memory of the girlish figure he had seen that morning seated on a table, +swinging one leg in studied nonchalance while every line was instinct +with defiance. Yes, she had defied him, but deep in her heart she had +feared--how she had feared!--that Saltash would fail to hold her against +him. Again, a deep compassion came over Jake, stirring the very depths +of him. Poor little girl, flung to and fro as flotsam in the cruel surf +of life's breakers! He had done his best to deliver her, but Fate had +been against him. Fate had ordained that she should be the victim of this +man's caprice, the slave of impulses which might or might not be her +destruction. It was as if he watched her trying to walk on a quicksand. +And he was powerless to help her. Saltash had defeated him, and he had no +insight into his motives. Unstable, baffling, irresponsible as a monkey +that swings from tree to tree, he had snatched his prize, and even Jake, +who knew him better than most, could only speculate as to whether he +would carry it high above disaster or tire and idly fling it away. Some +vagrant sense of honour seemed to have actuated him so far, but never +yet had he known such a motive to last for long. The man's face was +beyond him, too fantastic for comprehension. He recognized that he was +capable of greatness, but very few were the occasions on which he had +achieved it. If the motive power were lacking in this instance, Toby's +chances were indeed small. + +He found an empty carriage and threw his belongings on to a seat. The +train was not a favourite one, and there would be no crowd. He had some +minutes to wait, and he lighted his pipe and began to pace the platform +unencumbered. A few travellers straggling by eyed him with some interest. +He was not a man to be passed unnoticed. The massive, thick-set shoulders +had a bull-dog strength that must have marked him in any crowd. His +height was unremarkable, but there was power in every dominant line of +him. He had the free carriage of one accustomed to the wide places of the +earth. + +He took small note of his fellow-travellers, being engrossed in his own +thoughts. He wondered how Maud would regard the situation, and half +wished she had been with him to deal with it. For Maud possessed +undoubted influence over Saltash. He reflected that she was probably +the only person in the world who did. + +He had strolled almost to the barrier and was in the act of turning +back when something--some impulse for which he could never afterwards +account--induced him to pause and take stock of the passengers passing +through. The train was almost due to start, and there was some slight +confusion and a quickening of feet on the platform. He realized that he +ought to be going back to his own carriage, but something stayed him. He +stood still, his keen eyes searching the hastening figures. + +And so standing, in a moment his attention was focussed upon a girl in a +blue cloak who came towards him at a run evidently intent upon catching +the train. She passed him swiftly without seeing him, almost brushed +against him. And behind her came a dark man with black moustache and +imperial, following her closely with an air of proprietorship. + +Jake wheeled in his tracks, for a second amazed out of all composure. But +an instant later he was in pursuit. He had had but a fleeting glimpse of +her face, and the blue cloak was quite unfamiliar to him; but there was +no mistaking the boyish freedom of her gait, the athletic swing of her as +she turned and leaped into a compartment that her companion opened for +her. + +The black-browed Italian was in the act of following when Jake arrived. +The realization of another hand upon the door was the first intimation +that reached him of the Englishman's presence. He turned and looked +into a pair of red-brown eyes that regarded him with the utmost +steadiness as a quiet voice made slightly drawling explanation. + +"This lady is a friend of mine," said Jake Bolton. "I should like a word +with her." + +The Italian looked murderous for a moment, but he gave ground almost in +spite of himself. Perhaps the calm insistence of the other man's bearing +warned him at the outset of the futility of attempting any other course +of action; Jake was actually in the carriage before he could jerk out a +word of protest. + +"_Sapristi!_ You go too far!" he blustered then. But Jake was already +confronting the girl who had started up at his coming, and stood facing +him white and shaken. He spoke, still quite quietly, even gently, but in +the tone that no delinquent ever heard unmoved. + +"Say," he said, "are you playing the game?" + +She put up a hand to her throat. His sudden coming had unnerved her, and +she had no words. But her quivering face and tragic eyes were more than +sufficient answer for Jake. He had dealt with sudden emergencies before, +and he treated this one with characteristic decision. + +"You've no business here," he said, "and you know it. If you can't stick +to the man you've married, come home with me to Maud!" + +She made a sharp gesture toward him, as if on the verge of falling, and +as sharply recovered herself. "Oh, I wish--how I wish I could!" she +breathed. + +Jake's hand, perfectly steady, full of sustaining strength, closed with +authority upon her arm. "That's settled then," he said. "Come now!" + +But at this point the Italian burst furiously in upon them with a flood +of unintelligible language that made all further speech impossible. + +Jake glanced momentarily over his shoulder as if disturbed by the buzzing +of some insect, then with unruffled composure turned back to the girl. +His eyes looked straight into hers for perhaps ten seconds, then in the +same purposeful fashion he set her free and deliberately turned upon the +man who raged behind him. + +As he did so, there came a shouting and banging of doors along the +platform, and the train began to move. Jake's massive shoulders braced +themselves. Without words he seized the raving Italian in a grip there +was no resisting, swept him, as a sudden gale sweeps a leaf, across +the compartment, sent him with a neat twist buzzing forth upon the +platform, and very calmly shut the door and came back. + +Then there came a wild shriek of laughter from Toby, and she doubled up +in her corner with hysterical mirth, gasping and gasping for breath, till +he sat squarely down beside her and pulled her into the circle of his +arm. + +"Easy, my girl! Easy!" he said. "We're not going to have an exhibition at +this stage. You keep a stiff upper lip till you feel better!" + +But the stiff upper lip was rather painfully lacking on that occasion. +She very soon ceased to laugh, but for a long time thereafter she lay +sobbing and shuddering like a little terrified animal against his breast +while the train rushed on through the night. + +He was very gentle with her. Jake's stock of patience was practically +limitless, and he and Toby had always had a certain comradeship between +them. But when she grew calmer at last he began to talk in the quiet, +direct fashion habitual to him. + +"Say now! You've had a bit of a facer over this. But you needn't be +frightened. You're safe enough from that damned Italian anyway. And +you'll find me a better refuge than he is--if that's what you're +wanting." + +She shivered and pressed closer. "You--don't know--what you're in for," +she whispered piteously. + +"That so?" said Jake, unmoved. "Well, maybe you'd like to enlighten me." + +But Toby shook her head with a sob. "I couldn't! I just couldn't, Jake. +Do you mind?" + +Jake considered the point with slightly drawn brows. "I guess there's no +hurry," he decided at length. "We'll get home first anyway. That's the +main point. You won't be sorry to get back to Maud, I take it?" + +She answered him with a swift and passionate fervour that spoke more +clearly than any words of the anguish of her soul. "Oh, Jake, I wish I'd +died--I wish I'd died--before I left her!" + +Jake's brows contracted more decidedly, but he said nothing further on +the subject. Only after a moment or two he patted her shoulder +reassuringly. "I'll take care of you," he said. "You go to sleep!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE TURNING-POINT + + +"You've brought her back!" said Bunny in amazement. "You've actually +brought her back! Here, Jake? Not here?" + +"It was the only thing to do." said Jake between puffs at his pipe. "I'm +sorry on your account, but--well, you can keep out of her way." + +Bunny's face was flushed. He stood on the hearth and stared down at Jake +with a troubled countenance. "But you won't be able to keep her," he +protested after a moment. "Charlie will come and get her away again--as +soon as he knows. He's such a wily devil." + +"He does know," said Jake. + +"He knows? Who told him?" + +"I told him," said Jake. + +"You told him! What the devil for? I don't understand you, Jake." Bunny's +tone had a touch of fierceness in it, almost of challenge. + +Jake's eyes came up to him with absolute steadiness. "I told him," he +said deliberately, "because he is the one person who has a right to know. +He is her husband." + +"I don't believe it!" said Bunny violently. "He'd never marry her! It was +a damn trick if he pretended to." + +"No," Jake said, "it was not a trick. He has married her, and it's up to +him to make the next move." + +"But what on earth for?" demanded Bunny. "What made him do such a thing?" + +"God knows," said Jake, with a certain sombreness. "He did it. That's all +I know." + +Bunny stamped round in a sudden fury and began to pace the room. "I +suppose he did it to defeat me! Did he actually think I should want her +after--after--" + +"Bunny!" Swift and sharp as a whip-lash Jake's voice cut across the +words. "Stop that! Pull up and sit down!" + +Bunny wheeled and came back in silence. His face was deadly pale, but he +sat down on the edge of the table by Jake's side. + +Jake reached out a leisurely hand and gripped him by the knee. "Between +you and me, my son," he said, "I don't think you came into the reckoning +at all. I can't tell you exactly what happened, because I don't know, but +I'm pretty sure that Saltash married her from a somewhat stronger motive +than just to put you out of the running. As you say, he could have done +that without taking all that trouble. He's treated you damn badly, I +admit, but it's just possible he couldn't help himself, and anyway I +don't think he's hurt you seriously--except in the place where you keep +your pride." + +"You think I didn't love her!" broke in Bunny, moving restlessly under +his hand. + +Jake's eyes had the glimmer of a smile as he met the boy's hot look. "I +think you don't love her now anyway, Bunny," he said. + +"You're quite right," said Bunny shortly. "I don't. I never want to see +her again--now I know what she is." + +"You don't know," said Jake. "She has always been an unknown quantity to +you. That's why I've always felt doubtful about you. Guess you never +loved her quite enough, boy. That was your trouble." + +"Didn't love her!" ejaculated Bunny. + +Jake nodded. "Or you'd have understood her better--stood by her better." + +"I'd have loved her fast enough if she'd loved me," protested Bunny. "But +that scoundrel always came first with her. I never had a chance." + +"Oh yes, you had." Again the faint smile showed for an instant in the +elder man's eyes. "Not much of one, perhaps, but you had a chance. If +she'd been quite sure of you, she wouldn't have run away." + +"Wouldn't she? Then she can't be very sure of Saltash either." Bunny +spoke with a certain gloomy triumph. + +Jake blew forth a cloud of smoke and watched it rise thoughtfully. "I'm +waiting for Saltash," he said. "I've got him on test." + +"You believe in him?" questioned Bunny contemptuously. + +Jake's eyes remained fixed. "I believe," he said slowly, "that there +comes a turning-point in every man's life--whatever he's been--when he +either makes good or throws in his hand altogether. I've been through it +myself, and I know what it means. It's Saltash's turn now." + +"Oh, rot, Jake!" Bunny turned on him with the old boyish admiration +shining in his eyes. "You--why, you've made good every time--just about +as often as Charlie has done the other thing." + +"No." Jake spoke without elation. "I did make good, but I went through +hell first, and I very nearly failed. It may be the same with him. If +so--well, poor devil, he has my sympathy." + +"You can't be sorry for a hound like Saltash!" remonstrated Bunny. + +Jake turned squarely and faced him. "Well, there you're wrong, Bunny," he +said. "I reckon I'm sorrier for him than I am for you. You've got a clean +record, and you'll win out and marry Sheila Melrose. But Saltash--well, +he's got a damn heavy handicap, and if he pulls off this, it'll be one of +the biggest events I've ever seen. Say, what's the matter?" + +Bunny had sprung to his feet. He stood looking at Jake with an expression +half-startled and half-indignant. "Jake--you beast! What made you say +that?" he demanded. + +"What?" said Jake, and began to smile openly. "Well, guess it's pretty +near the mark, isn't it? I saw which way the wind was trying to blow some +time ago. Mean to say you didn't?" + +Bunny swung upon his heel. "Confound you!" he said, and was silent for +several seconds. + +Jake smoked imperturbably on. He knew all the workings of Bunny's mind +with the sure intuition of long intimacy. When finally the boy spoke +again without turning he almost knew what he would say. + +"Think I'm--very despicable, Jake?" + +The question had a shamed and sullen ring. Bunny's head was bent. He was +examining a little china figure on the mantelpiece with nervous +concentration. + +Jake arose without fuss or preliminary, and pushed a brotherly arm round +the bent shoulders. "Guess you've never been that, sonny," he said very +kindly. "But--you take an old man's advice and go a bit slow! She'll +think all the better of you for it." + +"She'll never look at me," muttered Bunny, gripping the hand that pressed +his shoulder without raising his eyes. + +"Ho, won't she?" said Jake. "I've seen her look at you more than +once--and the old General too. Reckon they both thought you were throwing +yourself away on Toby, and maybe they had some reason to think so. +Anyway, she never was your sort. I seem to remember telling you so once." + +"I was a fool," said Bunny, and then in a moment straightened himself +and looked Jake in the eyes. "It wasn't Toby's fault," he said with +abrupt generosity. "She didn't want to get engaged to me. I made her. +I knew--all along--she wasn't very keen. But I thought I loved her enough +to make it all right. I was wrong. I didn't." + +"Beginning to know better?" suggested Jake, with a smile. + +"Beginning to realize what a fool I've been," said Bunny ruefully. "You +don't think I've done for myself then? Think I've still got a chance?" + +"Sure thing!" said Jake. "But go carefully. You've got a fence or two to +clear before you get home." He paused a moment, then gave him a kindly +hand-grip. "Say, Bunny," he said, "there's nothing despicable about +making a mistake. It's only when things go wrong and we don't play the +game that there's anything to be ashamed of. I've always been ready to +stake my last dollar that you'd never do that." + +"Oh, man," Bunny said, in swift embarrassment, "that shows how much you +know about me!" + +Jake stooped to knock out the ashes of his pipe in the fender. "What I +don't know about you, my son," he said, "ain't worth a donkey's bray, I +reckon, so you can shut your mouth on that! I'm going back to Maud now. +Any messages?" + +"Yes." Bunny was standing up very straight; his eyes were shining. "Love +to Maud of course. I shan't come round at present. But tell Toby that +when I do, she needn't be worried over anything. We're all square. Tell +her that!" + +"I will," said Jake. He turned to the door, then paused, looking back. +"And say!" he said. "Don't you butt in with Saltash! Just leave him to +manage his own fate! He's riding a bucking horse, but I've a notion he'll +yet make good--if he can." + +"He's a rum devil," said Bunny. "All right. I shan't interfere." + +After Jake had gone, he sat down and pulled a letter from his pocket. All +the lines of perplexity smoothed out of his boyish face as he read it. It +was the letter of a woman who had written because she wanted to write, +not because she had anything to say, and Bunny's eyes were very tender as +he came to the end. He sat for a space gazing down at the signature, and +at length with a gesture half-shamefaced he put it to his lips. + +"Yes, I've been a fool, Sheila," he said softly. "But, thank heaven, I +was pulled up in time. And I shan't--ever--make that mistake again." + +Which was perhaps exactly what the writer had meant him to say. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +LARPENT + + +"Shall we dig a deep, deep hole for you to lie in?" asked Eileen with +serious violet eyes upraised. + +"And then cover you right up to your head so as you won't catch cold?" +chimed in Molly. + +"Betty dig too! Betty dig too!" cried the youngest of the party with +zest. "Zite up over Auntie Toy's head!" + +"What an excellent idea!" said Toby with resignation. + +She sat down in the golden afternoon sunshine that flooded the beach, the +three children buzzing happily about her, and rested her chin on her +hands. The blue eyes that dwelt upon the misty horizon were very tired. +They had the heavy look of unshed tears, and all the delicate colour +was gone from her face. Her slight figure drooped pathetically. She sat +very still. All the elasticity of youth seemed to have gone out of her. +Once or twice a sharp sigh caught her that was almost like a sob. + +Betty's shrill voice at her side recalled her from her dreams. "Betty +tired now, Auntie Toy. Betty tummin' to sit down." + +She turned and took the child upon her lap with a fondling touch and +tender words. Betty pillowed a downy head against her neck and almost +immediately fell asleep. Eileen and Molly laboured on at their +self-imposed task in the autumn sunshine, and Toby returned to her +dreams. + +Perhaps she also had begun to doze, for the day was warm and sound sleep +had forsaken her of late; when the falling of a shadow aroused her very +swiftly to the consciousness of someone near at hand whose approach she +had not heard. She controlled her quick start before it could awaken the +sleeping child, but her eyes as they flashed upwards had the strained, +panic-stricken look of a hunted animal. She made an almost involuntary +movement of shrinking and the blood went out of her lips, but she spoke +no word. + +A man in a navy-blue yachting-suit stood looking down at her with +blue-grey eyes that tried to be impersonal but failed at that slight +gesture of hers. + +"You needn't be afraid of me, heaven knows," he said. + +"I'm not," said Toby promptly, and flung him her old boyish smile. "I +wasn't expecting just you at that moment, that's all. Sit down and talk, +Captain--if that's what you've come for!" + +Apparently it was. He lowered himself to the sand beside her. But at +once--as by irresistible habit--his eyes sought the horizon, and he sat +and contemplated it in utter silence. + +Toby endured the situation for a few difficult seconds, then took brisk +command. "Why don't you have a smoke?" she said. "You'd find it a help." + +He put his hand mechanically into his pocket and took out his +cigarette-case. His eyes came back out of space as he did so, and rested +upon the fair-haired child in the girl's arms. + +"So you've come back to the old job!" he said. + +Toby nodded. "Yes. Jake's doing. I'm waiting to--to--to be divorced." + +He made a slight movement of surprise, but his face remained inscrutable. +"You'll have to wait some time for that," he said. + +Toby tilted her chin with a reckless gesture that was somehow belied by +the weariness of her eyes. "That wasn't what you came to talk about +then?" she suggested after a pause. + +"No." Larpent's voice had a curious, almost deprecating quality. "I came +to bring you a message." + +"A message!" She started slightly, and in a moment the defiance went out +of her attitude. She turned towards him. "Who--who is it from?" + +Larpent's far-seeing eyes came gravely to meet her own. "From Rozelle +Daubeni," he said. + +"Ah!" A quick shiver went through Toby. She averted her look. "I don't +want to hear it," she said. + +"I've got to deliver it," said Larpent, with a hint of doggedness. "And +you've got to listen. But you needn't be afraid. It isn't going to make +any difference to you. The time has gone for that." + +He paused, but Toby sat in silence, her face bent over Betty's fair head. +When he spoke again, his eyes had gone back to the quiet sea and the far +horizon. There was a hint of pathos about him, albeit his face was grim. + +"It may have surprised you to see me in Paris with her," he said. "I'm +not the sort of man that runs after--that type of woman. But I went to +Rozelle because she was dying, and because once--long ago--she was my +wife." + +A faint sound came from Toby, but still she did not speak or lift her +face. + +Larpent went on steadily, unemotionally. "She went wrong--ran away--while +I was at sea. She was too young to be left alone. Afterwards--too late--a +child was born. She told me the night before she died that the child was +mine." + +"Good God!" said Toby under her breath. + +He went on, grimly monotonous. "I never knew of the child's existence. If +I had known, it might have made a difference. But it's too late now. She +wanted me to find and protect the child. I promised to do my best. And +when I found her, I was to tell her one thing. Rozelle prayed for her +child's forgiveness every day." + +He ceased to speak, and there fell a silence, long and painful. The tide +was turning, and the soft wash of tiny breakers came up the sand. Sea and +sky mingled together, opalescent in the misty sunlight. The man's eyes +gazed without seeing. Toby's were full of tears. + +He turned at last and looked at her, then, moved by what he saw, laid an +awkward hand upon her arm. + +"I'm not asking anything from you," he said. "But I'd like you to know +I'd have done more--if I'd known." + +She threw him a quick look, choking back her tears. "It--it--it's rather +funny, isn't it?" she said, with a little crack of humour in her voice. +"I'm--I'm very sorry. Captain Larpent." + +"Sorry?" he said. + +"For you," said Toby, with another piteous choke. "I've been foisted on +to you so often. And you--you've hated it so." + +"That's the tragic part of it," said Larpent. + +She brushed away her tears and tried to smile. "I wonder you bothered to +tell me," she said. + +His hand closed almost unconsciously upon her arm. "I had to tell you," +he said. "It's a thing you ought to know." He hesitated a moment, then +concluded with obvious effort. "And I wanted to offer you my help." + +"Thank you," whispered Toby. "You--you--that's very--generous of you." +She gulped again, and recovered herself. "What do you want to do about +it?" she said. + +"Do? Well, what can I do?" He seemed momentarily disconcerted by the +question. + +Toby became brisk and business-like. "Well, you don't want to retire and +live in a cottage with me, do you? We shouldn't either of us like that, +should we?" + +"There's no question of that now," said Larpent quietly. "Your home is +with your husband, not with me." + +Toby flinched a little. "My home isn't anywhere then," she said. "When I +left him, it was--for good." + +"Why did you leave him?" said Larpent. + +Toby's lips set in a firm line, and she made no answer. + +Larpent waited a few moments; then: "It's no matter for my interference," +he said. "But it seems to me you've made a mistake in one particular. You +don't realize why he married you." + +Toby made a small passionate movement of protest. "He ought not to have +done it," she said, in a low voice. "I ought not to have let him. I +thought I could play the part. I know now I can't. And--he knows it too." + +"I think you'll have to play the part," Larpent said. + +"No!" She spoke with vehemence. "It's quite impossible. He has been far +too good--far too generous. But it shan't go on. He's got to set me free. +If he doesn't--" she stopped abruptly. + +"Well? If he doesn't?" Larpent's voice was unwontedly gentle, and there +was compassion in his look. + +Toby's eyes avoided his. "I'll find--a way for myself," she said almost +inarticulately. + +Larpent's fingers tightened again upon the thin young arm. "It's no good +fighting Fate," he said. "Why has it become impossible? Just because he +knows all about you? Do you suppose that--or anything else--is going to +make any difference at this stage? Do you imagine he would let you +go--for that?" + +Toby's arm strained against him. "He'll have to," she declared +stubbornly. "He doesn't know all about me either---any more than you do. +And--and--and--he's never going to know." + +Her voice shook stormily. She glanced about her desperately as if in +search of refuge. The child in her arms stirred and woke. + +Larpent got up as if the conversation were ended. He stood for a moment +irresolute, then walked across to the two little girls digging busily a +few yards away. + +Eileen greeted him with her usual shy courtesy. "Won't you wait a little +longer?" she said. "We've very nearly finished." + +"Nearly finished," echoed Molly. "Isn't it a booful big hole?" + +"What's it for?" asked Larpent. + +Toby's voice answered him. She had risen and followed him. It had an odd +break in it--the sound of laughter that is mingled with tears. "They're +digging a hole to bury me in. Isn't it a great idea?" + +He wheeled and looked at her. There was no sign of tears in the wide blue +eyes that met his own. Yet he put his hand on her shoulder with the +gesture of one who comforts a child. + +"Before I go," he said, "I want to tell you something--something no one +has told me, but that I've found out for myself. There is only one thing +on this earth worth having--only one thing that counts. It isn't rank or +wealth or even happiness. It swamps the lot, just because it's the only +thing in God's creation that lasts. And you've got it. In heaven's name, +don't throw it away!" + +He spoke with the simplicity and strength of a man who never wastes his +words, and having spoken, he released her without farewell and turned +away. + +Toby stood quite motionless for several seconds, watching him; then, as +he did not look round, hurriedly she addressed the eldest child. + +"Take care of Betty a moment, Eileen darling! I shall be back directly." +And with the words she was gone, like an arrow, in pursuit. + +He must have heard her feet upon the sand, but he did not turn. Perhaps +his thoughts were elsewhere, for when at the quick pressure of her hand +on his arm he paused to look at her, she saw that his eyes were very sad. + +"Well?" he said, with the glimmer of a smile. "Well,--Toinette?" + +She clasped her two hands upon his arm, holding it very tightly, her face +uplifted. "Please--I want to thank you," she said breathlessly. "You have +been--so very good." + +He shook his head. "I have done--nothing," he said. "Don't thank me!" + +She went on with nervous haste. "And it does make a difference to me. +I--I--I'm glad I know, though it must have been--a great shock to you." + +"It would have been a much worse shock if it had been anyone else," he +said. + +"Would it? How nice of you!" Her lip trembled. "Well then, I'm glad it +wasn't." She began to walk on with him. "Do you mind telling me--did +you--did you--forgive her?" + +"Yes," he said very quietly. + +A quick shiver went through her. "Then I must too," she said. "At +least--I must try. She--she--I loved her once, you know, before I began +to understand." + +"Everyone loved her," he said. + +"But life is very difficult, isn't it?" she urged rather tremulously. + +"Your life has been," he said. + +She nodded. "One can't help--can't help--making mistakes--even bad +ones--sometimes." + +"You've just made one," he said. + +She faced him valiantly. "Ah, but you don't understand. You--you can't +throw away--what you've never had, can you--can you?" + +"What you've got," he corrected gravely. "Yes, you can." + +She flung out her hands with a wide gesture. "But I haven't got it! I +never had it! He took me out of pity. He never--pretended to love me." + +"No," said Larpent, with grim certitude. "He isn't pretending this time." + +She stared at him, wide-eyed, motionless. "Not pretending? What do you +mean? Please--what do you mean?" + +He held out his hand. "Good-bye!" he said abruptly. "I mean--just that." + +Her lips were parted to say more, but something in his face or action +checked her. She put her hand into his. "Good-bye!" she said. + +He held her hand for a moment, then, moved by some hint of forlornness in +the clear eyes, he bent, as he had bent at the Castle on that summer +evening weeks before, and lightly touched her forehead with his lips. + +"Oh, that's nice of you," said Toby quickly. "Thank you for that." + +"Don't thank me for anything!" said Larpent. "Play a straight game, +that's all!" + +And with the words he left her finally, striding away over the sand with +that careless sailor's gait of his, gazing always far ahead of him out to +the dim horizon. Perhaps as long as he lived his look would never again +dwell upon anything nearer. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +IN THE NAME OF LOVE + + +"It's been--a funny game," said Saltash, with a wry grimace. "We've both +of us been so damned subtle that it seems to me we've ended up in much +the same sort of hole that we started in." + +"But you're not going to stay in it," said Maud. + +He turned and looked down at her, one eyebrow cocked at a comic angle. +"_Ma belle reine_, if you can help us to climb out, you will earn my +undying gratitude." + +She met his look with her steadfast eyes. "Charlie, do you know that +night after night she cries as if her poor little heart were broken?" + +Saltash's eyebrow descended again. He scowled hideously. "_Mais +pourquoi?_ I have not broken it. I have never even made love to her." + +Maud's face was very compassionate. "Perhaps that is why. She is so +young--so forlorn--and so miserable. Is it quite impossible for you to +forgive her?" + +"Forgive her!" said Saltash. "Does she want to be forgiven?" + +"She is fretting herself ill over it," Maud said. "I can't bear to see +her. No, she has told me nothing--except that she is waiting for you to +throw her off--to divorce her. Charlie, you wouldn't do that even if you +could!" + +Saltash was silent; the scowl still upon his face. + +"Tell me you wouldn't!" she urged. + +His odd eyes met hers with a shifting gleam of malice. "There is only one +reason for which I would do that, _ma chère_," he said. "So she has not +told you why she ran away with my friend Spentoli?" + +Maud shook her head. "She does not speak of it at all. I only know that +she was unspeakably thankful to Jake for protecting her from him." + +"Ah!" Saltash's teeth showed for an instant. "I also am grateful to Jake +for that. He seems to have taken a masterly grip of the situation. Is he +aware that he broke Spentoli's arm, I wonder? It was in the papers, +alongside the tragic death of Rozelle. 'Fall of a Famous Sculptor from a +Train.' It will keep him quiet for some time, I hear, and has saved me +the trouble of calling him out. I went to see him in hospital." + +"You went to see him!" Maud exclaimed. + +Saltash nodded, the derisive light still in his eyes. "And conveyed my +own condolences. You may tell _la petite_ from me that I do not propose +to set her free on his account. He is not what I should describe as a +good and sufficient cause." + +"Thank heaven for that!" Maud ejaculated with relief. + +"Amen!" said Saltash piously, and took out his cigarette-case. + +She watched him with puzzled eyes till the cigarette was alight and he +smiled at her through the smoke, his swarthy face full of mocking humour. + +"Now tell me!" she said then, "how can I help you?" + +He made a wide gesture. "I leave that entirely to your discretion, madam. +As you may perceive, I have wholly ceased to attempt to help myself." + +"You are not angry with her?" she hazarded. + +"I am furious," said Charles Rex royally. + +She shook her head at him. "You're not in earnest--and it wouldn't help +you if you were. Besides, you couldn't be angry with the poor little +thing. Charlie, you love her, don't you? You--you want her back?" + +He shifted his position slightly so that the smoke of his cigarette did +not float in her direction. His smile had a whimsical twist. "Do I want +her back?" he said. "On my oath, it's hard to tell." + +"Oh, surely!" Maud said. She rose impulsively and stood beside him. +"Charlie," she said, "why do you wear a mask with me? Do you think I +don't know that she is all the world to you?" + +He looked at her, and the twisted smile went from his face. "There is +no woman on this earth that I can't do without," he said. "I learnt +that--when I lost you." + +"Ah!" Maud's voice was very pitiful. Her hand came to his. "But +this--this is different. Why should you do without her? You know she +loves you?" + +His fingers closed spring-like about her own. A certain hardness was in +his look. "If she loves me," he said, "she can come back to me of her own +accord." + +"But if she is afraid?" Maud pleaded. + +"She has no reason to be," he said. "I have claimed nothing from her. I +have never spoken a harsh word to her. Why is she afraid?" + +"Have you understood her?" Maud asked very gently. + +He made an abrupt movement as though the question, notwithstanding the +absolute kindness of its utterance, had somehow an edge for him. The next +moment he began to laugh. + +"Why ask these impossible riddles? Has any man ever understood a +woman? Let us dismiss the subject! And since you are here, _ma belle +reine_,--you of all people--let us celebrate the occasion with a +drink!--even if it be only tea!" + +His eyes laughed into hers. The western light was streaming in across the +music-room. They stood together in the turret beyond Saltash's piano, +where she had found him pouring out wild music that made her warm heart +ache for him. + +She had come to him with the earnest desire to help, but he baffled her +at every turn, this man to whom once in the days of her youth she had +been so near. She could not follow the complex workings of his mind. He +was too quick to cover his feelings. His inner soul had long been hidden +from her. + +Yet the conviction persisted that if any could pass that closed door that +he kept so persistently against all comers, it would be herself. She had +once possessed the key, and she could not believe that it was no longer +in her power to turn it. He would surely yield to her though he barred +out all beside. + +Perhaps he read her thoughts, for the laugh died out of his eyes, melting +into the old tender raillery that she remembered so well. + +"Will you drink with me?" he said. "You have actually stooped to enter +my stronghold without your bodyguard. Will you not honour me still +further--partake of my hospitality?" + +She smiled at him. "Of course I will have tea with you with pleasure, +Charlie. Didn't you realize I was waiting to be asked?" + +"You are very gracious," he said, and crossed the room to ring a bell. + +She remained in the western turret, looking out over the beech woods that +blazed golden in the sun to the darker pine-woods beyond. + +"What a paradise this is!" she said, when he joined her again. + +His restless eyes followed hers without satisfaction. A certain moodiness +had come upon him. He made no answer to her words. + +"Why doesn't Bunny come up to see me?" he asked suddenly. "He knows I am +here." + +She looked at him in surprise. "Are you expecting him?" + +He nodded with a touch of arrogance. "Yes. Tell him to come! I shan't +quarrel with him or he with me. Is he still thirsting for my blood? He's +welcome to it if he wants it." + +"Charlie!" she protested. + +He turned from her and sat down at the piano. His fingers began to caress +the keys, and then in a moment the old sweet melody that he had played to +her in the long ago days came softly through the room. Her lips formed +the words as he played, but she made no sound. + +"There has fallen a splendid tear +From the passion-flower at the gate. +She is coming, my dove, my dear; +She is coming, my life, my fate. +The red rose cries, 'She is near, she is near!' +And the white rose weeps, 'She is late!' +The larkspur listens, 'I hear, I hear!' +And the lily whispers, 'I wait!'" + +"She is certainly very late," commented Charles Rex quizzically from the +piano. "And the lily is more patient than I am. Why don't you sing, Maud +of the roses?" + +She started a little at his voice, but she did not answer. She could not +tell him that her throat was dumb with tears. + +He played softly on for a space, then as the old butler entered with a +tea-tray, he abruptly left the piano to wait upon her. He made her sit in +the window-seat and presently sat down himself and talked of indifferent +things. She did not attempt to bring him back to the matter in hand. She +knew him too well for that. If he chose to be elusive, no power on earth +could capture him. + +But she had a strong feeling that he would not seek to elude her wholly. +He might seem to trifle, as a monkey swinging idly from bough to bough, +but he had an end in view, and ultimately he would reach that end, +however circuitous the route. + +He surprised her eventually by the suddenness with which he pounced upon +it. He had turned the talk upon the subject of his new yacht, and very +abruptly he announced his intention of going round the world in her. + +"Not alone?" she said, and then would have checked the words lest they +should seem to ask too much. + +But he answered her without a pause. "Yes, alone. And if I don't come +back, Bunny can marry Toby and reign here in my stead. That is, if he +isn't an infernal fool. If he is, then Toby can reign here alone--with +you and Jake to take care of her." + +"But, Charlie, why--why?" The words leapt from Maud in spite of her. + +He frowned at her whimsically. "They've always cared for one another. +Don't you know it? It's true she put me in a shrine and worshipped me for +a time, but I couldn't live up to it. _Figurez-vous, ma chère!_ Myself--a +marble saint!" + +"You never understood her," Maud said. + +He shrugged his shoulders and went lightly on. "Oh, she was ready enough +to offer me human sacrifice, but that wasn't enough for me. Besides, I +didn't want sacrifice. I have stood between her and the world. I have +given her protection. But it was a free gift. I don't take anything +in exchange for that." An odd note sounded in his voice, as of some +emotion suppressed. He leaned back against the window-frame, his hands +behind his head. "That wasn't what I married her for. I tried to prove +that to her. I actually thought--" the old derisive grin leapt across his +face--"that I could win her trust like any ordinary man. I failed of +course--failed hideously. She never expected decent treatment from me. +She never even began to trust me. I was far too heavily handicapped +for that. And so--as soon as the wind changed--the boat capsized." + +"What made the wind change?" Maud asked gently. + +He looked across at her, the baffling smile still in his eyes. "The gods +played a jest with us," he said. "It was only a small jest, but it turned +the scale. She fled. That was how I came to realize I couldn't hold her. +I had travelled too fast as usual, and she couldn't keep up. Well," he +unlocked his hands and straightened himself, "it's up to Bunny now. I'll +let her go--to him." + +"My dear!" Maud said. + +He laughed at her with the old half-caressing ridicule. "That shocks you? +But why--if they love each other? Haven't I heard you preach the gospel +of love as the greatest thing on earth? Didn't you once tell me that I +had yet to learn the joy--" his smile twisted again--"the overwhelming +joy--of setting the happiness of another before one's own? This thing can +be done quite simply and easily--as I suggested to you long ago. She has +only to go away with him, and I do the rest. A moral crime--no more. Yes, +it is against your code of course. But consider! I only stand to lose +that which I have never possessed. For the first time in my life, I +commit a crime in the name of--love!" + +He laughed over the word; yet even through the scoffing sound there came +a ring of pain. His face had a drawn look--the wistfulness of the monkey +that has seen its prize irrevocably snatched away. + +Maud rose quickly. There was something in his attitude or expression that +she could not bear. "Oh, you are wrong! You are wrong!" she said. "You +have the power to make her love you. And you love her. Charlie, this +thing has not been given you to throw away. You can't! You can't!" + +He made a sharp gesture that checked her. "My dear Maud," he said, "there +are a good many things I can't do, and one of them is this. I can't hold +any woman against her will--no, not if she were my wife ten times over. I +wouldn't have let her go to Spentoli. But Bunny is a different matter. I +have Jake's word for it that he will make her a better husband than I +shall. If Bunny wants to know all about her past--her parentage--he can +come to me and I can satisfy him. Tell him that! But if he really loves +her--he won't care a damn--any more than I do." + +"Ah!" Maud said. + +She stood a moment, looking at him, and in her eyes was that mother-look +of a love that understands. She held out her hand to him. + +"Thank you for telling me, Charlie," she said. "Good-bye!" + +He held her hand. "What have I told you?" he asked abruptly. + +She shook her head. "Never mind now! You have just made me understand, +that's all. I will give your message to Bunny--to them both. Good-bye!" + +He stooped in his free, gallant way to kiss her hand. "After all," he +said, "I return to my old allegiance. It was you, _chère reine_, who +taught me how to love." + +She gently freed her hand and turned to go. "No," she said. "I think it +was God who taught you that." + +For the second time Charles Rex failed to utter the scoffing laugh she +half-expected. The odd eyes looked after her with a kind of melancholy +irony. + +"To what purpose?" he said. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE GIFT OF THE GODS + + +A chill wind blew across the ramparts bringing with it the scent and the +sound of the sea. There was no moon in the sky tonight, only the clouds +flying over the stars, obscuring and revealing them alternately, making +their light weirdly vague and fitful. Across the park an owl called +persistently, its eerie hoot curiously like the cry of a human voice +through the rustling night. The trees were murmuring together down by the +lake as though some mysterious news were passing to and fro among them. +And once more, alone on his castle walls, Saltash paced restlessly up and +down. + +It was his last night at Burchester, so he told himself, for many a year +to come. The fever for change was upon him. He had played his last card +and lost. It was characteristic of the man to turn his back upon his +losses and be gone. His soul had begun to yearn for the wide spaces, +and it was in answer to the yearning that he had come up to this eagle's +eyrie a second time. He could not be still, and the feeling of walls +around him was somehow unbearable. But he expected no vision tonight. He +walked in darkness. + +Down in the harbour his yacht was waiting, and he wondered cynically what +whim kept him from joining her. Why was he staying to drain the cup to +the dregs--he who had the whole world to choose from? He had sent his +message, he had made his sacrifice--at what a cost not even Maud would +ever know. It was the first voluntary sacrifice he had ever made, he +reflected ironically, and he marvelled at himself to find that he cared +so much. For, after all, what was it he had sacrificed? Nothing worth +having, so he told himself. He had possessed her childish adoration, but +her love--never! And, very curiously, it was her love that he had wanted. +Actually, for the first time in his life, no lesser thing had appealed to +him. Jaded and weary with long experience, he owned now to a longing for +that at which all his life long he had scoffed. The longing was not to be +satisfied. He was to go empty away. But yet the very fact that he had +known it had in some inexplicable fashion purified him from earthly +desires. He had as it were reached up and touched the spiritual, and that +which was not spiritual had crumbled away below him. He looked back upon +the desert through which all his life he had travelled, and saw only +sand. + +The sound of the turret-door banging behind him recalled him to his +surroundings. He awoke to the fact that the wind was chill, and that a +drift of rain was coming in from the sea. With an impatient shrug he +turned. Why was he lingering here like a drunken reveller at a table +of spilt wine? He would go down to his yacht and find Larpent--Larpent +who had also loved and lost. They would go out on the turn of the +tide--the two losers in the game of life--and leave the spilt wine behind +them. + +Impulsively he strode back along the ramparts. The game was over, and he +would never play again; but at least he would face the issue like a man. +No one, not even Larpent, should ever see him flinch. So he reached +the turret-door, and came abruptly to a halt. + +It was no vision that showed her to him, standing there in her slender +fairness, wrapt in a cloak that glimmered vaguely blue in the glimmering +starlight. Her face was very pale, and he saw her frightened eyes as she +stood before him. Her hands were tightly clasped together, and she spoke +no word at all. + +The door was shut behind her, and he saw that she was trembling from head +to foot. + +He stood motionless, within reach of her, but not touching her. "Well?" +he said. + +She made a curious gesture with her clasped hands, standing before him as +she had stood on board his yacht on that night in the Mediterranean when +she had come to him for refuge. + +"I've come," she said, in a voice that quivered uncontrollably, "to tell +you something." + +Saltash did not stir. His face was in shadow, but there was a suggestion +of tension about his attitude that was not reassuring. "Well?" he said +again. + +She wrung her hands together with a desperate effort to subdue her +agitation, and began again, "I've come--to tell you something." + +"Something I don't know?" he questioned cynically. + +She nodded. "Some--some--something you don't want to know. It--it was +Maud made me come." + +That moved him a little. That piteous stammer of hers had always touched +his compassion. "Don't fret yourself, _ma chère_!" he said. "I know all +there is to know--all about Rozelle--all about Larpent--all about +Spentoli." + +"You--you don't know this," said Toby. "You--you--you don't know--why I +ran away from you--in Paris!" + +"Don't I?" he said, and she heard the irony of his voice. "I have an +agile brain, my child. I can generally jump the gaps pretty +successfully." + +She shook her head with vehemence. "And how do you know about Spentoli?" +she demanded suddenly. "Who told you that?" + +"The man himself," said Saltash. + +"Ah! And what did he tell you?" A note of fierceness sounded in her +voice. She seemed to gather herself together like a cornered animal +preparing to make a wild dash for freedom. + +Saltash made her a queer, abrupt bow, and in so doing he blocked the way +before her so that she could only flee by the way she had come. "He told +me nothing that I did not know before," he said, "nothing that your own +eyes had not told me long ago." + +"What do you mean?" breathed Toby, pressing her clasped hands tightly to +her breast. Her eyes were still upraised to his; they glittered in the +dimness. + +Saltash answered her more gently than was his wont. "I mean that I know +the sort of inferno your life had been--a perpetual struggle against odds +that were always overwhelming you. If it hadn't been so, you would never +have come to me for shelter. Do you think I ever flattered myself that +that was anything but a last resource--the final surrender to +circumstance? If I had failed you--" + +"Wait!" Toby broke in tensely. "You're right in some things. You're +wrong there. It's true I was always running away--as soon as I was old +enough to realize the rottenness of life. Spentoli tried to ruin me, +but I dodged him, and then--when he trapped me--the hell-hound--I did my +best--to murder him!" The breath suddenly whistled through her teeth. "I +tried to stab him to the heart. God knows I tried! But--I suppose it +wasn't in the right place, for I didn't get there. I left him for +dead--I thought he was dead--till that day in Paris. And ever since--it's +been just a nightmare fight for life--and safety. I'd have tried some +other dodge if you hadn't found me. I was not quite down and out. But +you--you made all the difference. I had to go to you." + +"And why?" said Charles Rex. + +She rushed on regardless of question. The flood-gates were open; she was +hiding nothing from him now. + +"You came. If you'd been an angel from heaven, you couldn't have been +more wonderful. You helped me--believed in me--gave me always--the +benefit of the doubt--made a way of escape for me--made life +possible--even--even--beautiful!" She choked a little over the word. "I +offered you just everything. I couldn't help it. You were the only man in +the world to me. How could I help worshipping you? You--you--you were +always so splendid--so--so great. You made me--you made me realize--that +life was worth having. You made me--believe in God." She broke into +sudden wild tears. "And you didn't love me enough even to take the little +I had to give! I didn't want you to marry me. I never dreamt of such a +thing. I had kept myself from harm, but I knew very well I wasn't fit to +be your wife. Only--I loved you so. And when I knew that Bunny was +turning against me--would never believe in me--I just couldn't help +turning to you again. And then--and then--you went and married me!" She +wrung her hands tragically. "I ought not to have let you. God will never +forgive me for it. I don't deserve to be forgiven. But I loved you--I +loved you!" + +She covered her face and sobbed. + +Saltash reached out a hand and took her by the shoulder. "Nonette! +Nonette!" he said, in a voice that was strangely uncertain. "Don't cry, +child! Don't cry!" + +She drew herself away from him. "Don't--don't! I don't want you to. I +just came to tell you--that's all--in case you should think I ever--cared +for--Bunny. Maud says--you ought to know that. We only--only--played +together. We never--really--loved each other. I wasn't his sort--or he +mine. He doesn't want me back. I wouldn't go if he did. I ran away--with +that damn cur Spentoli--to give you a chance--to drop me. I couldn't +face you after you knew everything. You'd never loved me, and I'd tricked +you too badly. I knew you'd want to get free. Why didn't you start in and +get a divorce? Why didn't you? Why didn't you?" + +She suddenly lifted her face, storming the words, electrified as it were +by the wild force of her passion. Again he reached a hand towards her, +but she eluded him with a desperate gesture. + +"No! No! Don't touch me! Don't touch me! I can't bear it! I'm going now! +I'm going right away. You'll never see me again--never hear of me. And +you'll be free! Do you understand? You'll be quite free. I'll keep that +promise I made to you. It won't be difficult. No one shall ever know +how--and only you--you who never even pretended to love me--will be able +to guess why." + +She turned about with the words, and wrenched furiously at the door +behind her. In another moment she would have been gone. But in that +moment Saltash moved, perhaps more swiftly than he had ever moved in +his life before, and in a flash he had her in his arms. + +She fought for her freedom then like a terrified animal, twisting this +way and that, straining with frenzied effort to escape. And when, his +hold encompassing her, he broke down her resistance, pressing her +indomitably closer and closer till she lay powerless and palpitating +against his breast, she burst into agonized tears, beseeching him, +imploring him, to set her free. + +"Why should I?" he said, still holding her. "Don't you know yet that it's +the very last thing I mean to do?" + +"You must! Oh, you must!" she cried back. "You can't--you--you +can't--hold me--against my will!" + +"That's true," said Saltash, as if struck by something. "And are you +capable of leaving me--against mine?" His hold relaxed with the words, +and instantly she sprang away from him--sprang like a fleeing bird upon +the low parapet beside them, and in a second was sliding out upon the +narrow ledge that surrounded the great stone buttress of the turret. + +"Hell!" ejaculated Saltash, and gave a great leap as if he would pursue +her, then with abrupt effort checked himself. + +He stood with one foot on the parapet, and watched her, and in the vague +starlight his eyes burned with the old mocking devilry behind which he +had so long sheltered his soul. + +"So you think you'll get away from me that way, do you?" he said, and +laughed his gibing laugh. "Well, you may try. Either stay there till +you've had enough--or throw yourself over! I'll get you in any case." + +She came to a stand, her hands spread out on each side of her, her eyes +turning back to him across the awful space that yawned between. Sheer +depth was below her, but she did not seem aware of it. + +"I will throw myself over," she said with tense purpose, "unless you +promise--unless you swear--to let me go." + +He laughed again, but there was no mirth in the glittering eyes that +looked back at her, neither mirth nor dismay, only the most arrogant and +absolute mastery that she had ever encountered. + +"I promise nothing," he said, "except that one way or the other I'm going +to have you. You can take your choice. You can sink or swim. But you +won't get away. There is a bond between us that you can't break, however +hard you try. Fling yourself over if you think it's worth it? And before +you get to the bottom I shall be with you. I'll chase you through the +gates of Hades. I've travelled alone far enough. For the future--we go +together. That I swear to God!" + +Across the abyss he flung his tremendous challenge, the laugh still on +his lips and in his eyes the blazing derision that mocks at fate. + +And as she heard it, the girl's heart suddenly failed her. She began to +tremble. Yet, even so, she made a last desperate bid for pride and +freedom. + +She clutched at the cold stones on each side of her with nerveless, +quivering fingers. "There is--no bond between us!" she gasped forth +piteously. "There never--never has been!" + +He flung back the words like a missile, unerring, blindingly direct. "No +bond between us! Good God! Would I follow you through death if there were +not?" And then suddenly, with an amazing change to tenderness that leapt +the void and enchained her where she stood:--"Toby--Toby, you little +ass--don't you know I've loved you from the moment _The Night Moth_ +struck?" + +There was no questioning the truth of those words. A great sob broke from +Toby, and the tension went out of her attitude. She stood for a few +seconds with her head raised, and on her face the unutterable rapture of +one who sees a vision. Then, with sharp anguish, "I can't come back!" she +cried like a frightened child. "I'm going to fall!" + +Saltash straightened himself. His forehead was wet, but he did not pause +for a moment. "I'm coming to you," he said. "Keep as you are and I'll +give you a hand to hold!" + +She obeyed him as one dazed into submission. Blindly she waited, till +with a monkey-like agility, he also had traversed that giddy ledge to +where she stood. His fingers met and gripped her own. + +"Now," he said, "come with me and you are safe! You can't fall. My love +is holding you up." + +She heard the laugh in his voice, and her panic died. Mutely she yielded +herself to him. By the strength of his will alone, she left the abyss +behind. But when he lifted her from the parapet back to safety, she cried +out as one whom fear catches by the throat, and fainted in his arms. + + * * * * * + +Out of a great darkness, the light dawned again for Toby. She opened her +eyes gasping to find that the scene had changed. She was lying upon +tiger-skins in Saltash's conical chamber, and he, the king of all her +dreams, was kneeling by her side. + +That was the first thing that occurred to her--that he should kneel. + +"Oh, don't! Oh, don't!" she said quickly. "I am not--not Maud." + +He regarded her humorously, but the old derisive lines were wholly gone +from his dark face. His eyes held something that was unfamiliar, +something that made her quiver with a quick agitation that was not +distress. + +"So I am only allowed to kneel to Maud!" he said. + +She tried to meet his look and, failing, hid her face. "I--I know +you have always loved her," she murmured rather incoherently. "You +couldn't--you couldn't--pretend to--to--to really love anyone +else--after Maud!" + +There fell a brief silence, and she thought the beating of her heart +would choke her. Then there came the touch of his hand upon her head, and +its wild throbbing grew calmer. + +"No," he said, and in his voice was a new deep note unknown to her. "I am +not pretending, Nonette." + +The light touch drew her as it were magnetically. With a swift, impulsive +movement she raised herself, gave herself to him, hiding her face still +more deeply against his breast. + +"But you--you--you couldn't really love me!" she whispered like an +incredulous child. "You sure you do?" + +His arms went round her, holding her fast. He made no other answer. +Saltash, the glib of tongue and ready of gibe, was for once speechless in +the presence of that which has no words. + +She nestled closer to him as a little furry animal that has found its +home. Her incredulity was gone, but she kept her face hidden. "But why +didn't you tell me before?" she said. + +He bent his black head till his lips reached and rested against her hair. +"Nonette," he said, "you told me that I had made you believe in God." + +"Yes?" she whispered back rather breathlessly. "Yes?" + +"That's why," he said. "You got me clean through my armour there. Egad, +it made me a believer too. If I'd failed you after that--well, He'd have +been justified in damning me, body and soul!" + +"But you couldn't!" she protested. "You couldn't fail me!" + +His dark face twisted with the old wry grimace. "I've failed a good many +in my time, Nonette. But--no one ever trusted me to that extent. You +practically forced me--to prove myself." + +A little gasp of relief came from Toby. She spoke with more assurance. +"Oh, was that it? You were just trying--to be good?" + +"Just--trying!" said Saltash. + +"You still trying?" asked Toby, a little curious note of laughter in her +voice. + +"I shan't keep on much longer," he returned, "unless I get what I want." + +"There'd be a blue moon if you did!" remarked Toby impudently. + +Saltash raised his head abruptly. "By Jupiter! There is one!" he said. +"Let's go to her!" + +Toby's face shot upwards in a moment. "Where?" + +Her eyes sought the skylight above them and the dim mysterious blue of +the night. His came down to her in a flash, dwelt upon her, caressed her, +drew her. + +She turned sharply and looked at him. "Charles Rex!" she said +reproachfully. + +He took her pointed chin and laughed down at her. His eyes, one black, +one grey, shone with a great tenderness, holding hers till they widened +and shone back with a quick blue flame in answer. + +Then: "As I was saying," remarked Charles Rex royally "when I was +interrupted some six months ago--I have never yet refused--a gift from +the gods." + +"But you've taken your time over accepting it, haven't you?" said Toby, +with a chuckle. + +He bent to her. "Let's go!" he said again. + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Charles Rex, by Ethel M. Dell + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13960 *** 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..44ac98f --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #13960 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13960) diff --git a/old/13960-8.txt b/old/13960-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fe72852 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13960-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13209 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Charles Rex, by Ethel M. Dell + +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: Charles Rex + +Author: Ethel M. Dell + +Release Date: November 5, 2004 [EBook #13960] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARLES REX *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the PG Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + + CHARLES REX + + BY ETHEL M. DELL + +AUTHOR OF THE TOP OF THE WORLD, THE LAMP IN THE DESERT, THE HUNDREDTH +CHANCE, Etc. + + 1922 + +I Dedicate This Book To G. T. S. In Remembrance of A Winter Day + + + + +"When half-gods go, the gods arrive." + R. W. Emerson + + +Not with the clash of trumpets + And clangour of gates thrown wide, +As when the eager crowds press round + To see the half-gods ride; +But like a bird at even + Silently winging home, +A message came from the darkness + To say that the gods had come. + +And the half-gods scoffed in the temple + Which custom had bid them hold-- +Sin and Success and Pleasure + And the hideous Image of Gold. +Who and what are these strangers? + Bid them worship before the shrine +Where we, the gods of the new world, + Sit o'er the cards and wine! + +So they derided the strangers-- + Those gods whom the old folk call +Courage and Honour and Faithfulness + And Love which is greater than all. +But when the night was over + And the new day pierced within, +The half-gods were gone from the temple, + And the gods had entered in. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +PART I + + I. Ennui + II. Adieu + III. The Gift + IV. Toby + V. Discipline + VI. The Abyss + VII. Larpent's Daughter + + +PART II + + I. Jake Bolton + II. Maud Bolton + III. Bunny + IV. Saltash + V. The Visitor + VI. How to Manage Men + VII. The Promise + VIII. The Ally + IX. The Idol + X. Resolutions + XI. The Butterfly + XII. The Ogre's Castle + XIII. The End of the Game + + +PART III + + I. The Virtuous Hero + II. The Compact + III. L'oiseau bleu + IV. The Trap + V. The Confidence + VI. The Sacred Fire + VII. Surrender + VIII. The Magician's Wand + IX. The Warning + X. The Mystery + XI. Suspicion + XII. The Ally + XIII. The Truth + XIV. The Last Card + + +PART IV + + I. The Winning Post + II. The Villain Scores + III. A Wife Is Different + IV. The Idol of Paris + V. The Dance of Death + VI. The New Lover + VII. The Refugee + VIII. The Turning-point + IX. Larpent + X. In the Name of Love + XI. The Gift of the Gods + + + + +CHARLES REX + + + + +PART I + + + + +CHAPTER I + +ENNUI + + +"I shall go to sea to-morrow," said Saltash, with sudden decision. "I'm +tired of this place, Larpent,--fed up on repletion." + +"Then by all means let us go, my lord!" said Larpent, with the faint +glimmer of a smile behind his beard, which was the only expression of +humour he ever permitted himself. + +"Believe you're fed up too," said Saltash, flashing a critical look upon +him. + +Captain Larpent said nothing, deeming speech unnecessary. All time spent +ashore was wasted in his opinion. + +Saltash turned and surveyed the sky-line over the yacht's rail with +obvious discontent on his ugly face. His eyes were odd, one black, one +grey, giving a curiously unstable appearance to a countenance which +otherwise might have claimed to possess some strength. His brows were +black and deeply marked. He had a trick of moving them in conjunction +with his thoughts so that his face was seldom in absolute repose. It was +said that there was a strain of royal blood in Saltash, and in the days +before he had succeeded to the title when he had been merely Charles +Burchester, he had borne the nickname of "the merry monarch." Certain +wild deeds in a youth that had not been beyond reproach had seemed to +warrant this, but of later years a friend had bestowed a more gracious +title upon him, and to all who could claim intimacy with him he had +become "Charles Rex." The name fitted him like a garment. A certain +arrogance, a certain royalty of bearing, both utterly unconscious and +wholly unfeigned, characterized him. Whatever he did, and his actions +were often far from praiseworthy, this careless distinction of mien +always marked him. He received an almost involuntary respect where he +went. + +Captain Larpent who commanded his yacht _The Night Moth_--most morose and +unresponsive of men--paid him the homage of absolute acquiescence. +Whatever his private opinions might be, he never expressed them unless +invited to do so by his employer. He never criticized by word or look. +Saltash was wont to say that if he decided to turn pirate he believed +that Larpent would continue at his post without the smallest change of +front. To raise a protest of any sort would have been absolutely foreign +to his nature. He was made to go straight ahead, to do his duty without +question and with perfect self-reliance. + +On the present occasion, having cruised from port to port in the +Mediterranean for nearly six weeks, it was certainly no ill news to him +to hear that Saltash had at last had enough. The weather was perfect, too +perfect for a man of his bull-dog instincts. He was thoroughly tired of +the endless spring sunshine and of the chattering, fashionable crowds +that Saltash was wont to assemble on the yacht. He was waiting with an +iron patience for the word that should send them forth over the great +Atlantic rollers, with the ocean spray bursting over their bows and the +sting of the ocean wind in their faces. That was the sort of life that +appealed to him. He had no use for civilization; the froth of society had +no attraction for him. He preferred a deeper draught. + +Saltash was thoroughly cosmopolitan in his tastes; he liked amusement, +but he abhorred boredom. He declared that for him it was the root of all +evil. He was never really wicked unless he was bored. And then--_que +voulez-vous_? He did not guide the star of destiny. + +"Yes," he said, after a thoughtful silence, "we will certainly put to sea +to-morrow--unless--" he turned his head and threw a merry grin at his +companion--"unless Fortune has any tricks up her sleeve for me, for I am +going ashore for one more fling to-night." + +Larpent smoked on immovably, his blue-grey eyes staring out to the vivid +sky-line, his sunburnt face quite imperturbable. + +"We shall be ready to start as soon as you come aboard, my lord," he +said. + +"Good!" said Saltash lightly. "I may be late, or--more probably--very +early. Leave the gangway for me! I'll let you know when I'm aboard." + +He got up as if he moved on springs and leaned against the rail, looking +down quizzically at the man who sat stolidly smoking in the deck-chair. +No two people could have formed a stronger contrast--the yacht's captain, +fair-bearded, with the features of a Viking--the yacht's owner, dark, +alert, with a certain French finesse about him that gave a strange charm +to a personality that otherwise might have been merely fantastic. + +Suddenly he laughed. "Do you know, Larpent, I often think to myself what +odd tricks Fate plays? You for instance--you, the captain of a private +yacht when you ought to be roving the high seas in a Flying Dutchman! You +probably were a few generations ago." + +"Ah!" Larpent said, through a cloud of smoke. "Life isn't what it was." + +"It's an infernal fraud, most of it," said Saltash. "Always promising and +seldom fulfilling!" + +"No good expecting too much," said Larpent. + +"True!" said Saltash. "On the other hand it isn't always wise to be too +easily satisfied." His look became suddenly speculative. "Have you ever +been in love, Larpent?" + +The big man in the deck-chair made a sharp movement and spilt some +cigar-ash on his coat. He sat up deliberately and brushed it off. Saltash +watched him with mischievous eyes. + +"Well?" he said. + +Larpent leaned back again, puffing forth a thick cloud of smoke. "Once," +he said briefly. + +"Only once?" gibed Saltash. "Man alive! Why, I've had the disease scores +of times, and you are half a generation older than I am!" + +"I know," Larpent's eyes dwelt unblinking upon the sparkling blue of the +water beyond the rail. "You've had it so often that you take it lightly." + +Saltash laughed. "You apparently took it like the plague." + +"I didn't die of it," said Larpent grimly. + +"Perhaps the lady did!" suggested Saltash. + +"No. She didn't die either." Larpent's eyes came slowly upwards to the +mocking eyes above them. "For all I know she may be living now," he said. + +Saltash's grin became a grimace. "Oh, heavens, Larpent! And you've had +indigestion ever since? How long ago is it? Twenty years?" + +"About that," said Larpent. + +"Heavens!" said Saltash again. "I should like to see the woman who could +hold me after twenty years!" + +"So should I," said Larpent dryly. + +Saltash snapped his fingers. "She doesn't exist, my good fellow! But if +she did--by Jove, what a world it would be!" + +Larpent grunted sardonically. "It wouldn't be large enough to hold you, +my lord." + +Saltash stretched his arms wide. "Well, I'm going ashore to-night. Who +knows what the gods may send? Wish me luck!" + +Larpent surveyed the restless figure with a sort of stony humour. "I wish +you a safe return," he said. + +Saltash laughed and went away along the deck with a monkey-like spring +that was curiously characteristic of him. There was nothing of the +sailor's steady poise about him. + +The little Italian town that clung to the slopes that rose so steeply +from the sea shone among its terraced gardens like a many-coloured jewel +in the burning sunset. The dome of its Casino gleamed opalescent in its +centre--a place for wonder--a place for dreams. Yet Saltash's expression +as he landed on the quay was one of whimsical discontent. He had come +nearly a fortnight ago to be amused, but somehow the old pleasures had +lost their relish and he was only bored. + +"I'm getting old," he said to himself with a grimace of disgust. + +But he was not old. He was barely six-and-thirty. He had had the world at +his feet too long, that was all. + +There was to be a water-side _fête_ that night at Valrosa, and the +promenade and bandstand were wreathed with flowers and fairy-lights. It +was getting late in the season, and it would probably be the last. +Saltash surveyed the preparations with very perfunctory interest as he +sauntered up to the hotel next to the Casino where he proposed to dine. + +A few people he knew were staying there, and he looked forward to a more +or less social evening. At least he could count on a welcome and a rubber +of bridge if he felt so inclined. Or there was the Casino itself if the +gambling mood should take him. But he did not feel much like gambling. He +wanted something new. None of the old stale amusements appealed to him +tonight. He was feeling very ancient and rather dilapidated. + +He went up the steps under the cypress-trees that led from terrace to +terrace, pausing at each landing-place to look out over the wonderful +sea that was changing every moment with the changing glow of the sunset. +Yes, it was certainly a place for dreams. Even old Larpent felt the +charm--Larpent who had fallen in love twenty years ago for the first and +last time! + +An irrepressible chuckle escaped him. Funny old Larpent! The wine of the +gods had evidently been too strong a brew for him. It was obvious that he +had no desire to repeat the dose. + +At his last halting-place he stood longer to drink in the beauty of the +evening before entering the hotel. The sea had the pearly tint shot with +rose of the inside of an oyster-shell. The sky-line was receding, fading +into an immense calm. The shadows were beginning to gather. The sun had +dipped out of sight. + +The tinkle of a lute rose from one of the hidden gardens below him. He +stood and listened with sentimental eyes and quizzically twitching mouth. +Everything in this wonder-world was ultra-sweet to-night. And yet--and +yet-- + +Suddenly another sound broke through the stillness, and in a moment he +had sprung to alertness. It was a cry--a sharp, wrung cry from the garden +close to him, the garden of the hotel, and instantly following it a flood +of angry speech in a man's voice and the sound of blows. + +"Damnation!" said Saltash, and sprang for a narrow wooden door in the +stone wall a few yards higher up. + +It opened to his imperious hand, and he found himself in a dark little +shrubbery behind an arbour that looked out to the sea. It was in this +arbour that the scuffle was taking place, and in a second he had forced +his way through the intervening shrubs and was at the entrance. + +"Damnation!" he burst forth again furiously. "What are you doing? Leave +that boy alone!" + +A man in evening-dress was gripping a fair-haired lad, who wore the +hotel-livery, by the back of his neck and raining merciless blows upon +his uncovered head. He turned, sharply straightening himself, at +Saltash's tempestuous entrance, and revealed to the newcomer the +deeply-suffused countenance of the hotel-manager. + +Their recognition was mutual. He flung the boy into a corner and faced +his patron, breathing hard, his black eyes still fiercely gleaming. + +"Ah! It is milord!" he said, in jerky English, and bowed punctiliously +though he was still shaking with rage. "What can I do for you, milord?" + +"What the devil is the matter?" said Saltash, sweeping aside all +ceremony. "What are you hammering that unfortunate boy for? Can't you +find a man your own size to hammer?" + +The Italian flung a fierce glance over his shoulder at his crouching +victim. "He is worthless!" he declared. "I give him a trial--_bueno_, but +he is worthless. Milord will pardon me, he is--English. And the English +are--no good for work--no good at all." + +"Oh, rotten to the core!" agreed Saltash, with a humorous lift of the +brows. "But you needn't murder him for that, Antonio. It's his +misfortune--not his fault." + +"Milord, I have not murdered him," the manager protested with nervous +vehemence. "I have only punished him. I have not hurt him. I have done +him good." + +"Oh!" said Saltash, and looked down at the small, trembling figure in the +corner. "It's medicine, is it? But a bit strong for a child of that size. +I should try a milder dose next time." + +Antonio laughed harshly. "The next time, milord, I shall take +him--so--and wring his neck!" His laugh became a snarl as he turned. "Get +up now, you--you son of a pig, and go back to your work!" + +"Easy! Easy!" said Saltash, with a smile. "We don't talk to the English +like that, Antonio,--not even the smallest and weakest of them. Let's +have a look at this specimen--with your permission!" He bent over the +huddled figure. "Hold up your head, boy! Let me see you!" + +There was no movement to obey, and he laid a hand upon the quivering +shoulder and felt it shrink away convulsively. + +"I believe you've damaged him," he said, bending lower. "Here, Tommy! +Hold up your head! Don't be afraid! It's a friend." + +But the narrow figure only sank down a little lower under his hand. + +"His name is Toby," said Antonio with acidity. "A dog's name, milord, and +it fits him well. He is what you would call a lazy hound." + +Saltash paid not the slightest attention to him. He was bending low, his +dark face in shadow. + +"Don't be afraid!" he said again. "No one is going to hurt you. Come +along! Let's look at you!" + +His hold tightened upon the shrinking form. He began to lift it up. + +And then suddenly there came a sharp struggle between his hands as +lacking in science as the fight of a wild animal for freedom, and as +effectual. With a gasping effort the boy wrenched himself free and was +gone. He went like a streak of lightning, and the two men were left +facing one another. + +"What a slippery little devil!" commented Saltash. + +"Yes," said Antonio vindictively, "a devil indeed, milord! And I will +have no more of him. I will have no more. I hope he will starve!" + +"How awfully nice of you, Antonio!" said Saltash lightly. "Being the end +of the season, he probably will." + +Antonio smacked his red lips with relish. "Ah, probably! Probably!" he +said. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +ADIEU + + +It was growing late and the _fête_ was in full swing when Saltash +sauntered down again under the cypress-trees to the water's edge. The sea +was breaking with a murmurous splashing; it was a night for dreams. + +In the flower-decked bandstand an orchestra of stringed instruments was +playing very softly--fairy-music that seemed to fill the world with magic +to the brim. It was like a drug to the senses, alluring, intoxicating, +maddeningly sweet. + +Saltash wandered along with his face to the water on which a myriad +coloured lights rocked and swam. And still his features wore that +monkeyish look of unrest, of discontent and quizzical irony oddly +mingled. He felt the lure, but it was not strong enough. Its influence +had lost its potency. + +He need not have been alone. He had left the hotel with friends, but he +had drifted away from them in the crowd. One of them--a girl--had sought +somewhat palpably to keep him near her, and he had responded with some +show of ardour for a time, and then something about her had struck a note +of discord within him and the glamour had faded. + +"Little fool!" he murmured to himself. "She'd give me her heart to break +if I'd have it." + +And then he laughed in sheer ridicule of his own jaded senses. He +recognized the indifference of satiety. An easy conquest no longer +attracted him. + +He began to stroll towards the quay, loitering here and there as if to +give to Fates a chance to keep him if they would. Yes, Sheila Melrose was +a little idiot. Why couldn't she realize that she was but one of the +hundreds with whom he flirted day by day? She was nothing to him but a +pastime--a toy to amuse his wayward mood. He had outgrown his earlier +propensity to break his toys when he had done with them. The sight of a +broken toy revolted him now. + +He was impatiently aware that the girl was watching him from the midst of +the shifting crowd. What did she expect, he asked himself irritably? She +knew him. She knew his reputation. Did she imagine herself the sort of +woman to hold a man of his stamp for more than the passing moment? Save +for his title and estates, was he worth the holding? + +A group of laughing Italian girls with kerchiefs on their heads +surrounded him suddenly and he became the centre of a shower--a storm--of +_confetti_. His mood changed in a second. He would show her what to +expect! Without an instant's pause he turned upon his assailants, caught +the one nearest to him, snatching her off her feet; and, gripping her +without mercy, he kissed her fierily and shamelessly till she gasped with +delicious fright; then dropped her and seized another. + +The girls of Valrosa spoke of the ugly Englishman with bated breath and +shining eyes long after Saltash had gone his unheeding way, for the blood +was hot in his veins before the game was over. If the magic had been slow +to work, its spell was all the more compelling when it gripped him. +Characteristically, he tossed aside all considerations beyond the +gratification of the moment's desire. The sinking fire of youth blazed up +afresh. He would get the utmost out of this last night of revelry. +Wherever he went, a spirit of wild daring, of fevered gaiety, surrounded +him. He was no longer alone, whichever way he turned. Once in his mad +progress he met Sheila Melrose face to face, and she drew back from him +in open disgust. He laughed at her maliciously, mockingly, as his royal +forefather might have laughed long ago, and passed on with the throng. + +Hours later, when the _fête_ was over and the shore quite silent under +the stars, he came alone along the quay, moving with his own peculiar +arrogance of bearing, a cigarette between his lips, a deep gleam in his +eyes. It had been an amusing night after all. + +Crossing the gangway to his yacht--_The Night Moth_--that rocked softly +on the glimmering ripples, he paused for a moment and turned his face as +if in farewell towards the little town that lay sleeping among its +cypress-trees. So standing, he heard again the tinkle of a lute from some +hidden garden of delight. It was as if the magic were still calling to +him, luring him, reaching out white arms to hold him. He made a brief bow +towards the sound. + +"_Adieu_, most exquisite and most wicked!" he said. "I return--no more!" + +The cigarette fell from his lips into the dark water and there came a +faint sound like the hiss of a serpent in the stillness. He laughed as he +heard it, and pursued his way aboard the yacht. + +He found a young sailor, evidently posted to await his coming, snoring in +a corner, and shook him awake. + +The man blundered up with a confused apology, and Saltash laughed at him +derisively. + +"Wasting the magic hours in sleep, Parker? Well, I suppose dreams are +better than nothing. Were they--good dreams?" + +"I don't know, my lord," said Parker, grinning foolishly. + +Saltash clapped him on the shoulder and turned away. "Well, I'm ready for +the open sea now," he said. "We'll leave our dreams behind." + +He was always on easy terms with his sailors who worshipped him to a man. + +He whistled a careless air as he went below. The magic of Valrosa had +loosed its hold, and he was thinking of the wide ocean and buffeting +waves that awaited him. He turned on the lights of the saloon and stopped +there for another cigarette and a drink, first walking to and fro, +finally flinging himself on a crimson velvet settee and surrendering +himself luxuriously to a repose for which he had not felt the need until +that moment. + +So lying, he heard the stir and tramp of feet above him, the voices of +men, the lifting of the gangway; and presently the yacht began to throb +as though suddenly endowed with life. He felt the heave of the sea as she +left her moorings, and the rush of water pouring past her keel as she +drew away from the quay. + +He stretched himself with lazy enjoyment. It was good to come and go as +he listed, good to have no ties to bind him. He supposed he would always +be a wanderer on the face of the earth, and after all wandering suited +him best. True, there were occasions on which the thought of home allured +him. The idea of marriage with some woman who loved him would spring like +a beacon out of the night in moments of depression. Other men found a +permanent abiding-place and were content therewith; why not he? But he +only played with the notion. It did not seriously attract him. He was not +a marrying man, and, as he had said to Larpent, the woman did not exist +who could hold him. The bare thought of Sheila Melrose sent a mocking +smile to his lips. Did she think--did she really think--that she +possessed the necessary qualifications to capture a man of his +experience? He dismissed her with a snap of the fingers. Sheila had +practically everything in life to learn, and he did not propose to be her +teacher. + +His cigarette was finished and he got up. The yacht was speeding like a +winged thing on her way. There was never any fuss of departure when +Larpent was in command. He stood for a few seconds in indecision, +contemplating going up on to the bridge for a word with his captain and a +glance round. But some fantastic scruple deterred him. He had made his +farewell. He did not wish to see Valrosa again. He turned instead and +went to his cabin. + +All the appointments of the yacht were of the most luxurious order. She +possessed every imaginable contrivance for the comfort of those who +voyaged in her. Her state-cabins were a miracle of elegance and ease. + +Saltash never took a valet when he went for a voyage. The steward +attended to his clothes, and he waited on himself. He liked as much space +as he could get both on deck and below. + +He pushed open the door of his cabin and felt for the switch of the +electric light. But he did not press it when he found it. Something made +him change his mind. The faint light of stars upon rippling water came +to him through the open porthole, and he shut himself in and stepped +forward to the couch beneath it to look forth. + +But as he moved, another influence caught him, and he stopped short. + +"Is anyone here?" he said. + +Through the wash of the water he thought he heard a light movement, and +he felt a presence as of some small animal in the space before him. + +Swiftly he stepped back and in a moment his hand was on the switch. The +light flashed on, and in a moment he stood staring--at a fair-haired, +white-faced lad in a brown livery with brass buttons who stood staring +back at him with wide, scared eyes. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE GIFT + + +Saltash was the first to recover himself; he was seldom disconcerted, +never for long. + +"Hullo!" he said, with a quizzical twist of the eyebrows. "You, is it? +And what have you come for?" + +The intruder lowered his gaze abruptly, flushing to the roots of his fair +hair. "I came," he said, in a very low voice, "to--to ask you something." + +"Then you've come some distance to do it," said Saltash lightly, "for I +never turn back. Perhaps that was your idea, was it?" + +"No--no!" With a vehement shake of the head he made answer. "I didn't +think you would start so soon. I thought--I would be able to ask you +first." + +"Oh, indeed!" said Saltash. And then unexpectedly he laid a hand upon one +narrow shoulder and turned the downcast face upwards. "Ah! I thought he'd +marked you, the swine! What was he drubbing you for? Tell me that!" + +A great purple bruise just above one eye testified to the severity of the +drubbing; the small, boyish countenance quivered sensitively under his +look. With sudden impulse two trembling hands closed tightly upon his +arm. + +"Well?" said Saltash. + +"Oh, please, sir--please, my lord, I mean--" with great earnestness the +words came--"let me stay with you! I'll earn my keep somehow, and I +shan't take up much room!" + +"Oh, that's the idea, is it?" said Saltash. + +"Yes--yes!" The boy's eyes implored him,--blue eyes with short black +lashes that imparted an oddly childish look to a face that was otherwise +thin and sharp with anxiety. "I can do anything. I don't want to live +on charity. I can work. I'd love to work--for you." + +"You're a rum little devil, aren't you?" said Saltash. + +"I'm honest, sir! Really I'm honest!" Desperately the bony hands clung. +"You won't be sorry if you take me. I swear you'll never be sorry!" + +"What about you?" said Saltash. He was looking down into the upraised +face with a semi-quizzical compassion in his own. "Think you'd never be +sorry either?" + +A sudden smile gleamed across the drawn face. "Of course I shouldn't! +You're English." + +"Ah!" said Saltash, with a faintly wry expression. "Not necessarily white +on that account, my friend, so don't run away with that idea, I beg! I'm +quite capable of giving you a worse drubbing than the good Antonio, for +instance, if you qualified for it. I can be a terrifically wild beast +upon occasion. Look here, you imp! Are you starved or what? Do you want +something to eat?" + +The wiry fingers tightened on his arm. "No, sir--no, my lord--not really. +I often don't eat. I'm used to it." + +"But why the devil not?" demanded Saltash. "Didn't they feed you over +there?" + +"Yes--oh, yes. But I didn't want it. I was--too miserable." The blue eyes +blinked rapidly under his look as if half-afraid of him. + +"You little ass!" said Saltash in a voice that somehow reassured. "Sit +down there! Curl up if you like, and don't move till I come back!" + +He indicated the sofa, and quite gently but with decision freed his arm +from the nervously gripping hands. + +"You won't send me back?" the boy urged with quivering supplication. + +"No, I won't do that," said Saltash as he went away. + +He swore once or twice with considerable energy ere he returned, cursing +the absent Antonio in language that would have outmatched the Italian's +own. Then, having relieved his feelings, he abruptly laughed to himself +and pursued his errand with business-like briskness. + +Returning, he found his _protégé_ in a small heap on the sofa, with his +head deep in the cushion as though he sought escape from the light. Again +the feeling of harbouring some small animal in pain came to him, and he +frowned. The mute misery of that huddled form held a more poignant appeal +than any words. + +"Look here,--Toby!" he said. "I've brought you something to eat, and when +you've had it you'd better get a sleep. You can tell me all about it--if +you want to--in the morning." + +The boy started upright at his coming. He looked at Saltash in his quick, +startled way. It was almost as if he expected a kick at any moment. Then +he looked at the tray he carried and suddenly his face crumpled; he hid +it in his hands. + +"Oh, dash it!" said Saltash. "Let's have a little sense!" + +He set down the tray and flicked the fair head admonishingly, with his +thumb, still frowning. "Come! Be a sport!" he said. + +After a brief pause with a tremendous effort the boy pulled himself +together and sat up, but he did not raise his eyes to Saltash again. He +kept them fixed upon his hands which were tightly clasped in front of +him. + +"I'll do--whatever you tell me," he said, in a low voice. "No one has +ever been so--decent to me before." + +"Have one of those rolls!" said Saltash practically. "You'll talk better +with something inside you." + +He seated himself on the edge of his bunk and lit another cigarette, his +attitude one of royal indifference, but his odd eyes flashing to and fro +with a monkey-like shrewdness that missed nothing of his desolate +companion's forlorn state. + +"You've been doing this starvation business for some time, haven't you?" +he asked presently. "No wonder you didn't feel like work." + +The boy's pinched face smiled, a small wistful smile. "I can work," he +said. "I can do anything--women's work as well as men's. I can cook and +clean boots and knives and sew on buttons and iron trousers and wash +shirts and wait on tables and make beds and sweep and--" + +"For heaven's sake, stop!" said Saltash. "You make me giddy. Tell me the +things you can't do instead! It would take less time." + +Toby considered for a few moments. "I can't drive cars," he said at +length. "But I can clean 'em, and I'd love to learn." + +Saltash laughed. "That's the sole exception, is it? You seem to have +picked up a good deal in a short time. Did they teach you all that over +there?" + +Toby shook his head. "I've knocked about a good lot," he said. + +"And know everything evidently," said Saltash. "What made you think of +coming on board this yacht?" + +The boy's eyes gave him a shining look. "Because she belongs to you," he +said. + +"Oh!" Saltash puffed at his cigarette for a few seconds. "You'd made up +your mind to throw in your fortunes with mine, had you?" + +Toby nodded. "I wanted to--if you'd have me." + +"Seems I haven't much choice," remarked Saltash. "And what are you going +to do when you're tired of me? Fling yourself at someone else's head, I +suppose?" + +Again he saw the hot colour flood the thin face, but the boyish eyes did +not flinch from his. "No, I shan't do that," said Toby, after brief +reflection. "I'll just go right under next time." + +"Oh, will you?" said Saltash. "And so remain--a blot on my escutcheon for +all time. Well now, look here! You say you're honest?" + +"Yes, sir," said Toby with breathless assurance, and sprang up and stood +before him with the words, as though challenging criticism. + +Saltash poked at him with his foot, as he sat. "Make me a promise?" he +asked casually. + +"Anything you wish, my lord," said Toby promptly. + +Saltash grinned at him. "Be careful! I see you are of a rash and +impulsive disposition, and I like my slaves to have a little discretion. +The promise I want is that whatever happens to you,--however much I kick +you or bash you or generally ill-use you--you'll never jump overboard or +do anything silly of that kind. Is it done?" + +Toby was standing before him, facing him with straight, candid eyes. He +did not seem surprised at the suggestion so coolly made. Saltash noted +that it certainly did not shock him. + +"All right, sir," he said, after a moment. + +"It's a promise, is it?" said Saltash. + +Toby nodded. "Yes, sir." + +"Good!" said Saltash. He stretched out a hand and took him by one skinny +arm. "Better now?" he asked. + +"Yes, sir. Yes, my lord. Thank you, my lord." Toby's eyes smiling into +his. + +"Very well. I'll keep you," Saltash said. "Did anyone see you come +aboard?" + +"No, my lord." + +"Then you came with me, see? I brought you--if anyone wants to know." + +"Very good, my lord. Thank you, my lord." + +Saltash made a humorous grimace. "You can call me 'sir' if you like," he +said. "It makes no difference." + +"Thank you, sir," said Toby with a responsive grin. + +"And your name is Toby, is it? Toby what?" + +"Toby Wright, sir." Very promptly the answer came. + +Saltash's eyes scrutinized him with half derisive amusement. "I hope it's +a good fit," he remarked. "Well, look here, Toby, you must go to bed. Did +you bring any luggage on board?" + +"No, sir. 'Fraid not, sir. Very sorry, sir. I came away in a hurry," +explained Toby rather nervously. + +"And stole the hotel livery," said Saltash. + +"No, sir. Borrowed it," said Toby. + +"Ho! You're going to pay for it, are you?" questioned Saltash. + +"Yes, sir, some day. First money I get, sir. Don't want to have anything +belonging to that damn' Italian cur," said Toby, with much emphasis. + +"Naughty! Naughty!" said Saltash, pinching his arm. "Well, come along, +and I'll show you where you can sleep. There's a small cabin out of my +dressing-room you can have for the present. I haven't got my valet on +board." + +"Very good, sir, thank you. What time shall I call you, sir?" said Toby +brightly. + +"You needn't call me," said Saltash. "You can just lie quiet and take +care of that black eye of yours. I'll let you know when I want you." + +"Very good, sir," said Toby, looking crestfallen. + +Saltash stood up. "And you'll do as you're told--see?--always! That's +understood, is it?" + +Toby smiled again, eagerly, gratefully. "Yes, sir. Always, sir!" he said +promptly. "Shall I take off your boots before I go, sir?" + +"No. Look after yourself for the present!" said Saltash. "And don't get +up to mischief! There's a strict captain in command of this boat, so +you'd better mind how you go." + +The boy looked up at him with eyes of twinkling comprehension. He had +plainly forgotten the despair that had so nearly overwhelmed him. + +"Oh, I'll be very good, sir," he promised. "I won't get you into trouble +anyhow, sir." + +"You--imp!" said Saltash, pulling his ear. "Think I'll put up with your +impudence, do you? You'll play that game once too often if you're not +careful." + +Toby hastened to adjust his features to a becoming expression of gravity. +"I won't, sir. No, I won't. I'll be a good servant to you--the best +you've ever had. I'll never forget your goodness to me, and I'll pay back +somehow--that I will, sir." + +His boyish voice suddenly throbbed with emotion, and he stopped. Again +for a moment he had the forlorn look of a small animal astray from its +own. + +Saltash patted his shoulder kindly. "All right. That'll do. Don't be +tragic about it! Come along to your burrow and have a good square sleep!" + +He led him away without further words, and Toby went, gratefully and +submissively. + +A few minutes later Saltash came back with a smile on his ugly face, +half-quizzical, and half-compassionate. + +"Rum little devil!" he commented again as he began to undress. "So the +gods had a gift for me after all! Wonder what I shall do with it!" + +And then abruptly the smile became a mocking grimace that banished all +the kindliness from his face. He snapped his fingers and laughed as he +had laughed a little earlier when his cigarette had fallen into the water +with a sound like the hiss of a serpent. + +"I--wonder!" he said again. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +TOBY + + +It was contrary to Captain Larpent's habit to show surprise at any time, +whatever the caprices of his patron, but he did look at Saltash somewhat +harder than usual when the latter informed him in his breezy fashion of +the unexpected addition to the yacht's company. He also frowned a little +and smoothed his beard as though momentarily puzzled. + +"You won't want to be bothered with him," he said after brief reflection. +"Better let him sleep in the forecastle." + +"Not for the present," said Saltash. "I am going to train him, and I'll +keep him under my own eye. The little beggar has had a pretty rough time +of it to judge by appearances. I've a fancy for looking after him +myself." + +"What are you going to make of him?" asked Larpent. + +Saltash laughed carelessly, flicking the ash from his cigarette. "I'll +tell you that when I can show you the finished article. I'm keeping him +below for the present. He's got a prize-fighter's eye which is not +exactly an ornament. Like to have a look at him? You're ship's doctor." + +Larpent shrugged his shoulders. "P'raps I'd better. I'm not over-keen on +sudden importations. You never know what they may bring aboard with +them." + +Saltash's eyes gleamed mischievously. "Better inoculate the whole crew at +once! He's more like a stray spaniel than anything else." + +"A King Charles!" suggested Larpent, with the flicker of an eyelid. +"Well, my lord, let's have a look at your latest find!" + +They went below, Saltash whistling a careless air. He was usually in high +spirits when not suffering from boredom. + +Someone else was whistling in the vicinity of his cabin, but it was not +from the valet's cabin that the cheery sounds proceeded. They found him +in the bathroom with an oily rag, rubbing up the taps. + +He desisted immediately at their entrance and stood smartly at attention. +His eye was badly swollen and discoloured, he looked wretchedly ill, but +he managed to smile at Saltash, who took him by the shoulder and made +him face the light. + +"What are you doing in here, you--scaramouch? Didn't I tell you to lie +still? Here he is, Larpent! What do you think of him? A poor sort of +specimen, eh?" + +"What's his name?" said Larpent. + +"Toby Barnes, sir," supplied the boy promptly. + +"And there's nothing under the sun he can't do except drive cars," put in +Saltash, "and obey orders." + +Toby winced a little. "I'm sorry, sir. Only wanted to be useful, sir. +I'll go back to bed if you say so." + +"What do you say, Captain?" said Saltash. + +Larpent bent and looked closely at the injured eye. "The sooner the +better," he said after a brief examination. "Stay in bed for a week, and +then I'll look at you again!" + +"Oh, not a week!" exclaimed Toby, aghast, and then clapped a hand to his +mouth and was silent. + +But his look implored Saltash who laughed and pinched the shoulder under +his hand. "All right. We'll see how you get on. If we meet any weather +you'll probably be only too thankful to stay there." + +Toby smiled somewhat woefully, and said nothing. + +Larpent stood up. "I'll fetch some stuff to dress it with. Better have it +bandaged. Pretty painful, isn't it?" + +"No, sir," lied Toby valiantly. "Don't feel it at all." + +But he shrank with a quick gasp of pain when Larpent unexpectedly touched +the injury. + +"Don't hurt the child!" said Saltash sharply. + +Larpent smiled his faint, sardonic smile, and turned away. + +Toby laid his cheek with a winning, boyish gesture against the hand that +held him. "Don't make me go to bed, sir!" he pleaded. "I'll be miserable +in bed." + +Saltash looked down at him with eyebrows comically working. "It is rather +a hole--that cabin of yours," he conceded. "You can lie on the couch in +my stateroom if you like. Don't get up to mischief, that's all! I'm +responsible for you, remember." + +Toby thanked him humbly, swearing obedience and good behaviour. The +couch in Saltash's cabin was immediately under a porthole, and the fresh +sea-air blew straight in. He stretched his meagre person upon it with +a sigh of contentment, and Saltash smiled down upon him. "That's right. +You'll do there. Let's see! What did you say your name was?" + +"Toby, sir." + +"Toby Barnes or Toby Wright?" said Saltash. + +The boy started, turned very red, then very white, opened his mouth to +speak, shut it tightly, and said nothing. + +Saltash took out his cigarette-case and opened it with great +leisureliness. The smile still played about his ugly features as he chose +a cigarette. Finally he snapped the lid and looked down again at his +_protégé_. + +"Or Toby nothing?" he said. + +Toby's eyes came up to his, though the effort to raise them drew his face +painfully. + +"Whatever you like, my lord," he said faintly. "I'll answer to anything." + +Saltash's own face was curiously softened. He looked down at Toby for +some seconds in silence, idly tapping the cigarette he held against the +case. Then: "How old are you?" he asked suddenly. + +"Sixteen, sir." Toby's eyes with their dumb pleading were still anxiously +raised to his. + +Saltash bent abruptly and put his hand very lightly over them. "All +right. Don't hurt yourself!" he said kindly. "You're young enough to +chuck the past and start again." + +Toby's claw-like hands came up and closed upon his wrist. "Wish I could, +sir," he whispered with lips that quivered. "Haven't had much of a +chance--so far, sir." + +"All right," Saltash said again. "It's up to you. I shan't interfere. +Don't expect too much of me; that's all I ask! I'm not considered exactly +a suitable companion for young things like you." + +He drew his hand away and lighted his cigarette. Toby turned his face +into the cushion and lay very still. + +Larpent, returning, wondered what his patron had been saying to make the +boy's eyes wet with tears, but betrayed no curiosity on the subject. + +"Are you going to let him stay in here?" he asked, as he bound a +lotion-soaked pad over the damaged eye. + +"For the present," said Saltash. "Any objection?" + +"Not the smallest." Larpent's tone was absolutely noncommittal. "Make him +lie quiet, that's all!" + +"He'll do that," said Saltash with confidence. + +"Good!" said Larpent. "We're in for a blow before we reach Gib or I'm +much mistaken." + +"Do us all good," said Saltash with satisfaction. + +Larpent looked grim and said no more. + +"Frightened?" asked Saltash of Toby when he was gone. + +Toby chuckled at the thought. "Not a bit, sir." + +"Good sailor by any chance?" questioned Saltash. + +"No, sir; rotten, sir." Quite undaunted came the reply. + +"Well, shut your eyes and go to sleep!" commanded Saltash, and spread a +rug over the small, curled-up figure. + +Toby murmured his thanks and relaxed with a big sigh of content. + +Some hours later, when the blow that Larpent had prophesied had arrived +in earnest and the yacht was pitching on a wild sea in the light of a +lurid sunset, Saltash came below to change. + +He was met by Toby, ghastly of face but still desperately smiling, who +sprang from his couch to wait upon him, and collapsed at his feet. + +"Little ass!" said Saltash, barely preventing himself from tumbling over +him headlong. + +He lifted the light, trembling figure and put it down again upon the +couch. Then he poured out a dose of brandy and water and, holding the +boy's head on his arm while the yacht lifted and tossed, compelled him to +drink it. + +"Now you lie quiet!" he commanded. "Don't stir an eyelid till I give you +leave!" + +The porthole was shut, and the atmosphere close and stuffy. Toby put +forth an appealing hand and clung to his protector's sleeve. + +"Mayn't I come on deck, sir?" he murmured anxiously. "Please, sir!" + +"No," said Saltash. + +Toby said no more, but his fingers fastened like a bird's claw on the +man's arm, and he shivered. + +"You're frightened!" said Saltash. + +"No, sir! No, sir!" he protested. + +"Yes, you are. You needn't bother to lie to me. I always know." Saltash's +voice held an odd note of comradeship. "Beastly sensation, isn't it? Have +some more brandy!" + +Then, as Toby refused, he sat down abruptly on the edge of the couch and +thrust an arm out to him. Toby crept to him then like a nervous dog and +trembled against his side. + +"Little ass!" said Saltash again. "Been lying here sweating with terror, +have you? There's nothing whatever to sweat about. She's as safe as +houses." + +"Yes, sir. I know, sir," whispered Toby apologetically. + +Saltash's arm surrounded him with a comforting closeness. "You miserable +little shrimp!" he said. "How's the head?" + +"Better, sir. Thank you, sir," muttered Toby. + +"Why not tell the truth for once and say it hurts like hell?" suggested +Saltash. + +Toby was silent. + +"Do you know what I'm going to do with you?" said Saltash. + +"No, sir." Toby stirred uneasily. + +The vessel pitched to a sudden slant and Saltash braced himself, +protecting the fair head from a blow against the woodwork behind him. +"I'm going to put you to bed in my bunk here," he said. "You've got to +have a decent night's rest. Did Murray look you out any spare slops? I +told him to." + +"Oh, yes, sir. Thank you, sir. But I couldn't sleep in your bunk, +sir,--please, sir--indeed, sir!" Toby, still held by the sheltering arm, +waxed incoherent, almost tearful. + +Saltash pulled him up short. "You'll do as I tell you--now and always," +he said, with royal finality. "You've put yourself in my hands, and +you'll have to put up with the consequences. Got that?" + +"Yes, sir," said Toby meekly. + +"Then don't forget it!" said Saltash. + +Toby subsided without further protest. Perhaps the brandy helped to make +him quiescent, or perhaps it was only the realization of his utter +weakness and dependence; but from that moment he was as submissive as if +he had been indeed the small captive animal to which his new owner had +likened him. At Saltash's behest and with his help, he presently crept +back to his own cabin to divest himself of his hotel-livery and don the +very roomy suit of pajamas that Murray the steward had served out to him. + +Then, barefooted, stumbling, and shivering, he returned to where Saltash +leaned smoking in the narrow dressing-room, awaiting him. + +Saltash's dark face wore a certain look of grimness. He bent without +words and lifted the shrinking figure in his arms. + +Ten seconds later Toby sank down in a berth as luxurious as any ever +carried by private yacht. + +He was still shivering though a grateful warmth came about him as Saltash +tucked him in. He tried to murmur thanks, but ended with a quivering chin +and silence. + +"Go to sleep, you little ass!" commanded Saltash. + +And so at last Toby slept, the deep, unstirring sleep of exhaustion, +utterly unconscious of his surroundings, unaware of the man who came in +and out watching that unchanging repose, sublimely oblivious of all +observation, sunk in a slumber so remote that it might have been the last +long rest of all. + +Saltash spent the night on the velvet couch under the closed porthole, +dozing occasionally and always awakening with a jerk as the roll of the +vessel threatened to pitch him on to the floor of the cabin. It was not a +comfortable means of resting but he endured it in commendable silence +with now and then a grimace which said more than words. + +And the little waif that the gods had flung to him slept in his bunk all +through the long hours as peacefully as an effigy upon a tomb. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +DISCIPLINE + + +The storm spent itself before they reached Gibraltar, and Toby emerged +smiling from his captivity below. He still wore the brown and gold +hotel-livery as there was nothing else on board to fit him, but from +Gibraltar a small packet of notes was dispatched to Antonio by Saltash in +settlement of the loan. + +"Now I've bought you--body and soul," he said to Toby, whose shining look +showed naught but satisfaction at the announcement. + +The vivid colours of his injured eye had faded to a uniform dull yellow, +and he no longer wore a bandage. When they put to sea again he was no +longer an invalid. He followed Saltash wherever he went, attended +scrupulously to his comfort, and when not needed was content to sit +curled up like a dog close to him, dumb in his devotion but always ready +to serve him. + +Saltash treated him with a careless generosity that veiled a good deal of +consideration. He never questioned him with regard to his past, taking +him for granted in a fashion that set Toby completely at ease. No one +else had much to do with him. Larpent ignored him, and Murray the steward +regarded him with a deep suspicion that did not make for intimacy. + +And Toby was happy. Day after day his cheery whistle arose over his work +while he polished Saltash's boots and brushed his clothes, or swept and +dusted the state-cabin in which he slept. He himself had returned to his +own small den that led out of Saltash's dressing-room, but the +intervening doors were kept open by Saltash's command. They were always +within hail of each other. + +They went into perfect summer weather, and for a blissful week they +voyaged through blue seas with a cloudless sky overhead. Toby's white +skin began to tan. The sharp lines went out of his face. His laugh was +frequent and wholly care-free. He even developed a certain impudence in +his attitude towards his master to which Saltash extended the same +tolerance that he might have shown for the frolics of a favourite dog. He +accepted Toby's services, but he never treated him wholly as a servant. + +It was an odd companionship which only the isolated life they led during +those few days could have developed along those particular lines. When +Saltash was bored he amused himself with his protege, teaching him +picquet and chess, and finding in him an apt and eager pupil. There was a +good deal of the gambler's spirit in Toby, and Saltash idly fostered it +because it gave him sport. He laughed at his opponent's keenness, +supplied stakes for the game, even good-naturedly let himself be beaten. + +And then one day he detected Toby cheating. It was an end that he might +have foreseen. He had encouraged the fever, he had practically sown the +seeds; but, strangely, he was amazed, more disconcerted than he had been +for years by the consequences. For it was not his way to disturb himself +over anything. His principles were easy to laxness. But that Toby--the +urchin he had sheltered and nursed like a sick puppy--should have done +this thing somehow cut clean through his complacence. + +"I'm going to give you a licking for that," he said, black brows drawn to +a stern line. "You can go below and wait for it." + +Toby went like an arrow, and Saltash spent the next half-hour pacing the +deck, cursing himself, the youngster, and the insane and ridiculous Fate +that had linked them together. + +Then he went below to administer judicial corporal punishment to a human +being for the first time in his life. As he himself whimsically expressed +it, he had received ample correction during his own chequered career; but +he had never been in a position to correct anyone else. + +He found Toby waiting for him in his shirt-sleeves, rather white but +quite composed, his riding-switch all ready to his hand. + +"Ever been flogged before?" he asked him curtly as he picked it up. + +"No, sir," said Toby, with downcast eyes. + +"Why not?" There was a gibing note in Saltash's voice. "Never qualified +before?" + +Toby shot him a swift and nervous glance that was like a flash of blue +flame. "No, sir. Never been caught before," he said. + +Saltash's eyes flickered humour, but he steeled himself. "Well, you're +caught this time--fairly caught. I may not be a specially fit person to +punish you for it, but you won't be let off on that account." + +"Go ahead, sir!" said Toby, with his hands twisted into a bony knot in +front of him. + +And Saltash went ahead. His heart was not in the business, and as he +smote the narrow bent back it cried shame on him. Toby made no sound, but +at the third stroke he winced, and Saltash with a terrific oath in French +hurled his switch violently at the opposite wall. + +"There! Don't do it again!" he said, and swung him round to face him. +"Sorry? What?" + +Then he saw that Toby was crying, and abruptly let him go, striding out +through the dining-saloon and up the companion-way, swearing strange +oaths in varied languages as he went. + +He was openly rude to Larpent when the latter sauntered up for a word +with him a little later, but Larpent, knowing him, merely hunched his +shoulders as his custom was and sauntered away again. + +When Saltash went down to dress for dinner, he found his clothes laid out +as usual, but no Toby in attendance. His first impulse was to look for +him, but he checked it and dressed in solitude. This thing must be +conducted in the approved judicial manner at all costs. + +Larpent was stolidly awaiting him in the saloon, and they sat down +together. Usually Toby stood behind his master's chair, and the vacant +place oppressed Saltash. He talked jerkily, with uneasy intervals of +silence. + +Larpent talked not at all beyond the demands of ordinary courtesy. He ate +well, drank sparingly, and when not listening to Saltash's somewhat +spasmodic conversation appeared immersed in thought. When the meal was +over, he refused coffee, and rose to go on deck. + +Then, abruptly, Saltash stayed him. "Larpent, wait a minute--unless +you're in a hurry! Have a cigar with me!" + +Larpent paused, looking across at the dark, restless face with the air of +a man making a minute calculation. "Shall we smoke on deck, my lord?" he +said at length. + +Saltash sprang up as though he moved on wires. "Yes, all right. Get the +cigars, Murray!" he commanded the steward; and to Larpent as the man went +to obey, "That's decent of you. Thought you were going to refuse. I was +damned offensive a while back. Accept my apologies! Fact is--I'm fed up +with this show. Sorry if I disappoint you, but I'm going home." + +"You never disappoint me, my lord," said Larpent, with his enigmatical +smile. + +Saltash gave him a keen look and uttered a laugh that was also not +without its edge. "I like you, Larpent," he said. "You always tell the +truth. Well, let's go! We shan't make Jamaica this trip, but it doesn't +matter. In any case, it's a shame to miss the spring in England." + +"Or the Spring Meetings?" suggested Larpent, as he chose his cigar. + +"Quite so," said Saltash, almost with relief. "My old trainer--the man +who bought my racing-stud--always looks for me about now. You ought to +meet him by the way. He is another speaker of cruel truths." + +He thrust a hand through his captain's arm as they left the saloon, and +they went on deck together. Though Larpent never made any sign of +resentment, yet was Saltash never wholly at his ease when he knew that he +had taxed his forbearance until he had made amends. He took the trouble +to make himself unusually agreeable as they settled down to their smoke. + +It was a night of glorious stars, the sea one vast stretch of silver +ripples, through which the yacht ran smoothly, leaving a wide white trail +behind her. Saltash lay in a deck-chair with his face to the sky, but his +attitude was utterly lacking in the solid repose that characterized his +companion. He smoked his cigar badly, with impatient pulls. When it was +half gone, he suddenly swore and flung it overboard. + +"Larpent," he said, breaking a silence, "if you were a damned +rotter--like me--what should you do with yourself?" + +Larpent turned his head and quietly surveyed him. "I shouldn't run a home +for waifs and strays," he said deliberately. + +Saltash made a sharp movement. "Then I suppose you'd leave 'em in the +gutter to starve," he said, with suppressed vehemence. + +"No, I shouldn't. I'd pay someone else--someone who wasn't what you +called yourself just now--to look after 'em." Larpent's voice was +eminently practical if somewhat devoid of sympathy. "Gutter-snipes are +damned quick to pick up--things they ought not," he observed dryly. + +Saltash stirred uncomfortably in his chair as though something pricked +him. "Think I'm a contaminating influence?" he said. + +Larpent shrugged his shoulders. "It's not for me to say. All diseases are +not catching--any more than they are incurable." + +"Ho!" Saltash laughed suddenly and rather bitterly. "Are you +suggesting--a cure?" + +Larpent turned his head back again and puffed a cloud of smoke upwards. +"There's a cure for most things," he observed. + +"Can the Ethiopian change his skin?" gibed Saltash. + +Larpent was silent for a space. Then: "A painful process no doubt!" he +said. "But more wonderful things have happened." + +"Pshaw!" said Saltash. + +Nevertheless when Larpent rose a little later and bade him good-night, he +reached up a couple of fingers in careless comradeship. + +"Good-night, old fellow! Thanks for putting up with me! Sure you don't +want to kick me?" + +"Not when you're kicking yourself," said Larpent with a grim hint of +humour. + +He took the extended fingers and received a wiry handclasp that caused +him faint surprise. But then, he reflected as he went away, he had always +known Saltash to be a queer devil, oddly balanced, curiously impulsive, +strangely irresponsible, possessing through all a charm which seldom +failed to hold its own. He realized by instinct that Saltash was +wrestling with himself that night, but, though he knew him better than +did many, he would not have staked anything on the result. There were two +selves in Saltash and, in Larpent's opinion, one was as strong as the +other. + +It was nearly an hour later that Saltash, prowling to and fro in the +starlight, became suddenly aware of a figure, small and slight, with +gleaming brass buttons, standing behind his vacant chair. He turned +sharply to look at it, some inexplicable emotion twitching his dark face. +Then abruptly he moved towards it, stood for a second as one in doubt, +then turned and sat down in silence. + +But as he settled himself he stretched forth an arm with a snap of the +fingers, and in a flash Toby was kneeling by his side. The arm closed +around him like a spring, and Toby uttered a low, tense sob and hid his +face. + +Thereafter for a while there was no sound beside the throb of engines and +wash of water. Saltash sat absolutely motionless with eyes half-closed. +Save for the vitality of his hold, he might have been on the verge of +slumber. And Toby, crouched with his head in his hands, was as a carven +image, neither stirring nor seeming to breathe. + +The man moved at length, flicking his eyes open as though some unseen +force had prodded him into action. He spoke with a brevity that might +have denoted some sternness but for the close grip of his arm. + +"Have you been sulking all this time?" + +Toby started at his voice and burrowed a little deeper. "No, sir." + +"Well, why didn't you come before?" said Saltash. + +"I was--afraid," whispered Toby piteously. + +"Afraid! Why on earth?" Saltash's hand suddenly found and fondled +the fair head. His speech was no longer curt, but gentle, with a +half-quizzical tenderness. "Aren't you rather an ass, boy? What was +there to be afraid of?" + +Toby could not tell him. He only, after a moment, slipped down in a +sitting position by Saltash's side and rested with more assurance against +the encircling arm. + +"Come! I didn't hurt you much," said Saltash. + +"No, sir. You didn't hurt me--at all." Toby stammered a little. +"You--you--you meant--not to hurt me, didn't you?" + +"I must hit harder next time evidently," observed Saltash, with a squeeze +of the narrow shoulders. + +"No, sir--no, sir! There shan't be--a next time!" Toby assured him with +nervous vehemence. "I only did it just to see--just to see--I'll never do +it again, sir." + +"Just to see what?" asked Saltash curiously. + +But again Toby could not explain himself, and he did not press him. + +"Well, you didn't do it at all well," he remarked. "I shouldn't certainly +make a profession of it if I were you. It's plainly not your _métier_." + +He paused, but with the air of having something more to say. Toby waited +silently. + +It came with a jerk and a grimace, as if some inner force compelled. "I +can't talk pi-jaw--on this subject or any other. You see--I'm a rotter +myself." + +"You, sir!" Toby lifted his head suddenly and stared at him with eyes +that blazed passionately blue in the starlight. "Don't believe it!" he +said. "It isn't true." + +Saltash grinned a little. His face had the dreary look of something lost +that a monkey's sometimes wears. "You needn't believe it, son, if you +don't want to," he said. "But it's true all the same. That's why I gave +you that licking, see? Just to emphasize the difference between us." + +"It isn't true!" Toby asserted again almost fiercely. "I'd kill anyone +else that said so." + +"Oh, you needn't do that!" said Saltash, with kindly derision. "Thanks +all the same, my turkey-cock! If I ever need your protection I'll be sure +to ask for it." He flicked the young face with his finger. "But you're +not to follow my example, mind. You've got to run straight. You're young +enough to make it worth while, and--I'll see you have a chance." + +"But you'll keep me with you, sir," said Toby swiftly. "You'll keep +me--always--with you!" + +"Ah!" Saltash's brows twisted oddly for a second. He seemed to ponder the +matter. "I can't say off-hand what I'm going to do with you," he said. +"You're--a bit of a problem, you know, Toby." + +"Yes, sir. I know. I know." Toby's voice was quick with agitation. "But +you won't send me away from you! Promise you won't send me away!" + +"Can't promise anything," said Saltash. "Look here! I think there's been +enough of this. You'd better go to bed." + +But Toby was clinging fast to his hand. He spoke between quivering lips. +"Please, sir, you said you'd bought me body and soul. You can't mean to +chuck me away--after that! Please, sir, I'll do anything--anything under +the sun--for you. And you--you can kick me--do anything to me--and I'll +never say a word. I'm just yours--for as long as I live. Please, +sir--please, sir--don't send me away! I--I'd rather die than that." + +He laid his head suddenly down upon the hand he held so tenaciously and +began to sob, fighting desperately to stifle all sound. + +Saltash sat for a few moments in utter silence and immobility. Then, +abruptly, in a tense whisper, he spoke: + +"Toby, you little fool, stop it--stop it, do you hear?--and go below!" + +The words held a queer urgency. He raised himself as he uttered them, +seeking to free his hand though with all gentleness from the clinging +clasp. + +"Get up, boy!" he said. "Get up and go to bed! What? Oh, don't cry! Pull +yourself together! Toby, do you hear?" + +Toby lifted a white, strained face. His eyes looked enormous in the dim +light. "Yes, sir. All right, sir," he jerked out, and stumbled trembling +to his feet. "I know I'm a fool, sir. I'm sorry. I can't help it. No one +was ever decent to me--till you came. I--shall just go under now, sir." + +"Oh, stop it!" Saltash spoke almost violently. "Can't you see--that's +just what I want to prevent? You don't want to go to the devil, I +suppose?" + +Toby made a passionate gesture that was curiously unboylike. "I'd go to +hell and stay there for ever--if you were there!" he said. + +"Good God!" said Saltash. + +He got up in his sudden fashion and moved away, went to the rail and +stood there for a space with his face to the rippling sheen of water. +Finally he turned and looked at the silent figure waiting beside his +chair, and a very strange smile came over his dark features. He came +back, not without a certain arrogance, and tapped Toby on the shoulder. + +"All right," he said. "Stay with me and be damned if you want to! I +daresay it would come to the same thing in the end." + +Toby drew himself together with a swift movement. "That means you'll keep +me, sir?" + +His eyes, alight and eager, looked up to Saltash with something that was +not far removed from adoration in their shining earnestness. + +The strange smile still hovered about Saltash's face; a smile in which +cynicism and some vagrant, half-stifled emotion were oddly mingled. + +"Yes, I'll keep you," he said, and paused, looking at him oddly. + +Toby's eyes, very wide open, intensely bright, looked straight back. "For +good, sir?" he said anxiously. + +And Saltash laughed, a brief, mocking laugh. "For better, for worse, my +Toby!" he said. "Now--go!" + +He smote him a light friendly blow on the shoulder and flung round on his +heel. + +Toby went, very swiftly, without looking back. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE ABYSS + + +They sighted the English shore a few days later on an evening of mist and +rain. The sea was grey and dim, the atmosphere cold and inhospitable. + +"Just like England!" said Saltash. "She never gushes over her prodigals." + +He was dining alone in the saloon with Toby behind his chair, Larpent +being absent on the bridge. + +"Don't you like England, sir?" said Toby. + +"I adore her," said Saltash with his most hideous grimace. "But I don't +go to her for amusement." + +Toby came forward to fill his glass with liqueur. "Too strait-laced, +sir?" he suggested with the suspicion of a smile. + +Saltash nodded with a sidelong glance at the young face bent over the +decanter. "Too limited in many ways, my Toby," he said. "But at the same +time useful in certain emergencies. A stern mother perhaps, but a wise +one on the whole. You, for instance--she will be the making of you." + +A slight tremor went through Toby. He set down the decanter and stepped +back. "Of me, sir?" he said. + +Saltash nodded again. He was fingering the stem of his glass, his +queer eyes dancing a little. "We've got to make a respectable citizen +of you--somehow," he said. + +"Do you think that matters, sir?" said Toby. + +Saltash raised his glass. "You won't always be a boy of sixteen, you +know, Toby," he said lightly. "We've got to think of the future--whether +we want to or not." + +"I don't see why, sir," said Toby. + +"You see, you're young," said Saltash, and drank with the air of one who +drinks a toast. + +Suddenly he turned in his chair, the glass still in his hand. + +"Our last night on board!" he said, with a royal gesture of invitation. +"You shall drink with me." + +Toby's face flushed burningly. He hung back. "Not--not--from your glass, +sir!" he said. "Not--liqueur!" + +"Why not? Afraid?" mocked Saltash. + +Toby was silent. His hand closed involuntarily upon the back of his +master's chair. The flush died out of his face. + +Saltash sat and looked at him for a few seconds, still with that dancing +gleam in his eyes. Then abruptly he moved, rose with one knee upon the +chair, lifted the glass to Toby's lips. + +"Afraid?" he said again, speaking softly as one speaks to a frightened +child. + +Toby raised a hand that sought to take the glass but closed instead +nervously upon Saltash's wrist. He drank in response to Saltash's +unspoken insistence, looking straight at him the while. + +Then oddly he smiled. "No, not afraid, sir," he said. "Only--lest I might +not bring you luck." + +"Oh, don't fret yourself on that account!" said Saltash. "I'm not used to +any luck." + +Toby's eyes widened. "I thought you had--everything, sir," he said. + +Saltash laughed and set down the empty glass. "_Au contraire, mon cher_," +he said. "I am no richer than you are. Like Tantalus, I can never quench +my thirst. Like many a better man than I, I see the stars, but I never +reach them." + +"Does anybody?" said Toby in the tone of one not expecting an answer. + +Saltash laughed briefly, enigmatically. "I believe some people soar. But +they generally come down hard in the end. Whereas those who always crawl +on the earth haven't far to fall. Now look here, Toby, you and I have got +to have a talk." + +"Yes, sir," said Toby, blinking rather rapidly. + +Saltash was watching him with a faint smile in his eyes, half-derisive +and half-tender. "What are you going to be, Toby?" he said. "It all turns +on that." + +Toby's hand still gripped the back of his chair. He stood up very +straight, facing him. "That is for you to decide, sir," he said. + +"Is it?" said Saltash, and again his eyes gleamed a little. "Is it for me +to decide?" + +"Yes, sir. For you alone." There was no flinching in Toby's look now. His +eyes were wide and very steady. + +Saltash's mouth twitched as if he repressed some passing emotion. "You +mean--just that?" he asked, after a moment. + +"Just that, sir," said Toby, with a slight quickening of the breath. "I +mean I am--at your disposal alone." + +Saltash took him suddenly by the shoulder and looked at him closely. +"Toby!" he said. "Aren't you making--rather a fool of yourself?" + +"No, sir!" Swiftly, with unexpected vehemence, Toby made answer. "I'm +doing--the only thing possible. But if you--if you--if you--" + +"Well?" Saltash said. "If I what?" + +"If you want to get rid of me--at any time," Toby said, commanding +himself with fierce effort, "I'll go, sir--I'll go!" + +"And where to?" Saltash's eyes were no longer derisive; they held +something that very few had ever seen there. + +Toby made a quick gesture of the hands, and dropped them flat at his +sides. "I'll get rid of myself--then, sir," he said, with sudden chill +pride. "That won't be very difficult. And I'll do it--so that you won't +even know." + +Saltash stood up abruptly. "Toby, you are quite unique!" he said. "Superb +too in your funny little way. Your only excuse is that you're young. Does +it never occur to you that you've attached yourself to the wrong person?" + +"No, sir," breathed Toby. + +"You're not afraid to stake all you've got on a bad card?" pursued +Saltash, still curiously watching him. + +"No, sir," he said again; and added with his faint, unboyish smile, "I +haven't much to lose anyway." + +Saltash's hand tightened upon him. He was smiling also, but the gleam in +his eyes had turned to leaping, fitful flame. "Well," he said slowly, "I +have never yet refused--a gift from the gods." + +And there he stopped, for suddenly, drowning all speech, there arose a +din that seemed to set the whole world rocking; and in a moment there +came a frightful shock that pitched them both headlong to the floor. + +Saltash fell as a monkey falls, catching at one thing after another to +save himself, landing eventually on his knees in pitch darkness with one +hand still gripped upon Toby's thin young arm. But Toby had struck his +head against a locker and had gone down stunned and helpless. + +The din of a siren above them filled the world with hideous clamour as +Saltash recovered himself. "Damn them!" he ejaculated savagely. "Do they +want to deafen us as well as send us to perdition?" + +Then very suddenly it stopped, leaving a void that was instantly filled +with lesser sounds. There arose a confusion of voices, of running feet, a +hubbub of escaping steam, and a great rush of water. + +Saltash dragged himself up in the darkness, sought to drag Toby also, +found him a dead weight, stooped and lifted him with wiry strength. +He trod among broken glass and plates as he straightened himself. The +noise above them was increasing. He flung the limp form over his shoulder +and began desperately to claw his way up a steep slant towards the +saloon-door and the companion-way. Sound and instinct guided him, for the +darkness was complete. But he was not the man to die like a trapped +animal while the most slender way of escape remained. Hampered as he was, +he made for the open with set teeth and terrible foreign oaths of which +he was utterly unconscious. + +Whether that fierce struggle for freedom could ever have ended in success +single-handed, however, was a point which he was not destined to decide, +for after a space of desperate effort which no time could measure, there +suddenly shone the gleam of an electric torch in front of him, and he saw +the opening but a few feet away. + +"Saltash!" cried a voice, piercing the outer din, "Saltash!" + +"Here!" yelled back Saltash, still fighting for foothold and finding it +against the leg of the table, "That you, Larpent? How long have we got?" + +"Seconds only!" said Larpent briefly. "Give me the child!" + +"No! Just give me a hand, that's all! Hang on tight! It'll be a pull." + +Saltash flung himself forward again, his free hand outstretched, slipped +and nearly fell on his face, then was caught by a vice-like grip that +drew him upward with grim strength. In a moment he was braced against the +frame of the door, almost standing on it, the saloon gaping below him--a +black pit of destruction. Larpent's torch showed the companion stairs +practically perpendicular above them. + +"Go on!" said Larpent. "Better give me the child. It's you that matters." + +"Get out, damn you!" said Saltash, and actually grinned as he began to +climb with his burden still hanging upon his shoulder. + +Larpent came behind him, holding his torch to light the way. They climbed +up into a pandemonium indescribable, a wild torrent of sound. + +There was light here that shone in a great flare through billows of fog, +showing the monster form of a great vessel towering above them with only +a few yards of mist-wreathed water between. The deck on which they stood +sloped upwards at an acute angle, and still from below there came the +clamour of escaping steam accompanied by a spasmodic throbbing that was +like the futile beating of giant wings against Titanic bars. + +A knot of men were struggling to lower a boat by the ghostly glare that +lit the night about them, clambering and slipping against the rails, +while a voice from beyond the fog-curtain yelled through a megaphone +unintelligible commands. + +All these things were registered upon Saltash's brain, his quick +perception leaping from point to point with a mental agility that was +wholly outside all conscious volition on his part. He was driven by +circumstance as a bird is driven by storm, and he went before it +undismayed, missing no chance of refuge. + +A life-buoy hanging beside the hatch caught his eye as he glanced swiftly +around and in a second he pounced upon it. Toby slipped from his shoulder +as he bent, and slipping awoke. But he only lay and stared with dazed +eyes at the man frantically unlashing the rope, as one who looked on from +afar. + +Then Larpent was with them again. He dragged Toby to his feet, and in a +flash Saltash turned, the life-buoy on his arm. + +"What the devil are you doing?" + +Larpent pointed. "They've got the boat free. Go--while you can!" + +But Saltash barely glanced across. He put the life-buoy over Toby's head +and shoulders, and began to wind the rope around him. It did not need a +glance to know that the boat would never get away. + +At his action Toby gasped, and sudden understanding awoke in his eyes. He +dragged one arm free, and made as if he would cling to Saltash. + +"Keep me with you, sir!" he cried out wildly. "Don't make me go alone!" + +Saltash gripped the clutching hand, dropping the end of rope. It trailed +down, and Larpent caught it, flung it round Saltash's body, and knotted +it while he was lifting Toby over the rail. + +Then for a second Saltash hung, one hand still gripping Toby's, the other +holding to the rail of his sinking yacht, the two of them poised side by +side above the abyss. + +"You'll save yourself, Larpent!" he cried. "I shall want you." + +And with that he turned suddenly to his shivering companion and +actually smiled into the terrified eyes. "Come on, Toby!" he said. "We +go--together!" + +He flung his leg over with the words, and leapt straight downwards. + +Toby's shriek sounded through the tumult as they went into the grey +depths. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +LARPENT'S DAUGHTER + + +The sinking of _The Night Moth_ after being in collision with the liner, +_Corfe Castle_, bound for Brazil, was an event of sufficient importance +to be given a leading place in the newspapers of the following day. Lord +Saltash was well-known as a private yachtsman, and the first account +which reported him amongst the drowned was received with widespread +regret throughout that circle in which he was a familiar figure. Then at +a later hour came its contradiction, and his friends smiled and remarked +that he had the facility of an eel for getting out of tight corners, and +that they would never believe him dead till they had been to his funeral. + +Long before the publication of the second report, Saltash was seated in +the captain's cabin on board the _Corfe Castle_, with a strong brandy and +soda before him, giving a brief and vigorous account of himself and his +company. Yes, he was Charles Burchester, Viscount Saltash, owner of the +private yacht, _The Night Moth_. He was returning from Valrosa alone with +his captain and his crew. They had been cruising in the Atlantic with the +idea of going south, but he had recently changed his mind and decided +to go home. He had not expected such damnable luck as to be run down in +home waters, but he supposed that Fate was against him. He only asked now +to be put ashore as soon as possible, being for the moment heartily sick +of sea-travel. This with his most rueful grimace which Captain Beaumont +of the _Corfe Castle_ received with gravely official sympathy. + +"Well, I hope you don't blame us for your bad luck," he said. "We might +have been sunk ourselves." + +"I never blame anyone but the devil for that," said Saltash generously. +"And as you managed to pick us all up I am glad on the whole that you +weren't." + +And then he turned sharply at a knock on the door behind him to see a +lean, lank man enter who peered at him curiously through screwed-up eyes +as though he had never seen anything like him before. + +Captain Beaumont introduced him. "This is Dr. Hurst. He has come to +report. Well, doctor? I hope you bring good news." + +Dr. Hurst came forward to the table, still looking very attentively at +Saltash. + +The latter's odd eyes challenged him with royal self-assurance. "Well? +What is the news?" he questioned. "Fished for a sprat and caught a +whale--or is it t'other way round?" + +The doctor cleared his throat and turned to the captain. "Yes, my report +is good on the whole," he said. "None of the men are seriously injured, +thanks to your prompt rescue measures. Captain Larpent is still +unconscious; he is suffering from concussion. But I believe he will +recover. And--and--" he hesitated, looking again at Saltash--"the--the +person whose life you saved--" + +Saltash leaned back in his chair, grinning mischievously. "To be sure! +The person--whose life I saved! What of that person, Dr. Hurst?" + +"Had you a passenger?" interrupted the captain. "I understood you saved a +cabin-boy." + +"Pray continue!" he said lightly. "What of the cabin-boy? None the worse, +I hope?" + +The doctor's lank figure drew together with a stiff movement of distaste. +"I see," he said, "that you are aware of a certain fact which I must +admit has given me a somewhat unpleasant surprise." + +Saltash turned abruptly to the captain. "You ask me if I had a +passenger," he said, speaking briefly, with a hint of hauteur. "Before +you also begin to be unpleasantly surprised, let me explain that I had a +child on board who did not belong to the ship's company." + +"A child?" Captain Beaumont looked at him in astonishment. "I thought--I +understood--Do you mean the boy?" + +"Not a boy, no,--a girl!" Saltash's voice was suddenly very suave; he was +smiling still, but there was something rather formidable about his smile. +"A young girl, Captain Beaumont, but amply protected, I assure you. It +was our last night on board. She was masquerading in the state-cabin in a +page's livery when you struck us. But for Larpent we should have been +trapped there like rats when the yacht went down. He came and hauled us +out, and we saved the child between us." He turned again to the doctor, +his teeth gleaming fox-like between his smiling lips. "Really, I am sorry +to disappoint you," he said. "But the truth is seldom as highly-coloured +as our unpleasant imaginings. The child is--Larpent's daughter." He rose +with the words, still suavely smiling. "And now, if she is well enough, I +am going to ask you to take me to her. It will be better for her to hear +about her father from me than from a stranger." + +Though courteously uttered, his words contained a distinct command. The +doctor looked at him with the hostility born of discomfiture, but he +raised no protest. Somehow Saltash was invincible at that moment. + +"Certainly you can see her if you wish," he said stiffly. "In fact, she +has been asking for you." + +"Ah!" said Saltash, and turned with ceremony to the captain. "Have I your +permission to go, sir?" + +"Of course--of course!" the captain said. "I shall hope to see you again +later, Lord Saltash." + +"Thank you," said Saltash, and relaxed into his sudden grin. "I should +have thought you would be glad to get rid of me before my bad luck +spreads any further." + +The _Corfe Castle_, herself slightly damaged, was putting back to +Southampton to land the victims of the disaster, and to obtain some +necessary repairs. The weather was thickening, and progress was slow, but +they expected to arrive before mid-day. Saltash, carelessly sauntering in +the doctor's wake, found himself the object of considerable interest on +the part of those passengers who were already up in the murk of the early +morning. He was stopped by several to receive congratulations upon his +escape, but he refused to be detained for long. He had business below, he +said, and the doctor was waiting. And so at last he came to a cabin at +the end of a long passage, at the door of which a kind-faced stewardess +met them and exchanged a few words with his guide. + +"Can I go in?" said Saltash, growing impatient. + +The woman looked at him with wonder and compassion in her eyes. "The poor +little thing is very upset," she said. "She lies and trembles, and has +hardly spoken at all except to ask for you." + +"Well, let me in!" said Saltash, suddenly imperious. "I've got something +to tell her." + +He had his way, for there was something about him that compelled just +then. He entered the cabin as a king might enter the apartment of a +slave, and he shut the door with decision upon those without. + +Then for a second--just for a second--he hesitated. "Toby!" he said. + +A meagre form sprang upright in the bunk at the sound of his voice. Two +bare, skinny arms reached out to him. Then with a single stride Saltash +was beside the bunk and was holding tightly to him a small, whimpering +creature that hid its face very deeply against his breast and clutched at +him piteously whenever he sought to raise it. + +Saltash bent his dark head over the fair one and spoke very gently, yet +with authority. "It's all right, child. I know. I've known all along! +Don't fret yourself! There's no need. I've got you under my protection. +You're safe." + +"You--know!" whispered the muffled voice--Toby's voice, but strangely +devoid of Toby's confidence. "What must you--think?" + +"I!" Saltash laughed a little. "I never think. I give +everyone--always--the benefit of the doubt; which is considerably more +than anyone ever gives me." + +"And--you saved my life!" gasped Toby "Why did you? Why did you?" + +"I wanted it," said Saltash promptly. "Now listen a moment! We've done +with this show. It's played out. We'll ring up on another. You've got to +change your name again. I'm telling everyone you're Larpent's daughter." + +That brought the fair head upwards very swiftly. The blue eyes with their +short black lashes looked straight up to his. "But--but--Captain +Larpent--" + +"Oh, never mind Larpent! I'll square him." Saltash's look flashed over +the pale, tear-stained face. His hold, though close, no longer compelled. +"Leave it all to me! Don't you fret! I'll square Larpent. I'll square +everybody. You lie low till they put us ashore! After that--do you think +you can--trust me?" + +He spoke with comically twisted eyebrows and a smile half-kindly and +half-quizzical. And the forlorn little creature in his arms turned with a +swooping, passionate movement, caught one of his hands and pressed it to +quivering lips. + +"I'll live--or die--for your sake!" the trembling voice told him. "I'm +just--yours." + +Saltash stopped abruptly and laid his face for a moment against the +shorn, golden head. Just for that moment a hint of emotion showed in his +strange eyes, but it was gone instantly. + +He raised himself again with a grimace of self-ridicule. "Well, look +here! Don't forget to play the game! Larpent--your daddy--is knocked out, +remember. He is unconscious for the present, but the doctor chap seems to +think he'll be all right. A nasty suspicious person that doctor, so watch +out! And let me see! What is Toby short for? I'd better know." + +"Antoinette," whispered the lips that still caressed his hand. + +"Antoinette!" Saltash's hand closed softly upon the pointed chin, softly +lifted it. "I think _Mignonette_ would suit you better," he said, in his +quick, caressing way. "It's time I chose a name for you, _ma chère_. I +shall call you that." + +"Or just Nonette of Nowhere," breathed the red lips, piteously smiling. +"That would suit me--best of all." + +"No--no!" said Saltash, and gently relinquished his hold. "Don't forget +that you are a favourite of the gods! That counts for something, my Toby. +They don't take up with everybody." + +"They haven't done much for me so far," said Toby, suddenly rebellious. + +"Hush!" said Saltash, with semi-comic warning. "You are too young to say +that." + +"I am--older than you think, sir," said Toby, colouring painfully and +turning from his look. + +"No, you're not!" Swiftly, with a certain arrogance, Saltash made answer. +"I know--how old you are, child. It is written in your eyes. They have +always told me--all I need to know." Then, very tenderly, as Toby's hands +covered them from his look: "_Mais, Mignonette_, they have never told me +anything that you could wish me not to know." + +He slipped his arm again about the slender shoulders and pressed them +closely for a moment. Then he stood up and turned to go. + +He was smiling as he passed out--the smile of the gambler who knows that +he holds a winning card. + + + + +PART II + + + + +CHAPTER I + +JAKE BOLTON + + +It was a week after the sinking of _The Night Moth_ that Saltash, very +immaculately dressed, with field-glasses slung over his shoulder, made +his first appearance since the disaster at a meeting on the Graydown +Race-course, a few miles from his ancient castle of Burchester. He was +looking very well pleased with himself and certainly none the worse for +the adventure as he sauntered among his friends, of whom a good many were +present. His ugly face and wiry figure were well-known at Graydown, and +he seemed sure of his welcome wherever he went. + +There had been a time years before when he had kept his own stud, and +racing had been his hobby. It had not held him for long. He was not the +man to pursue any one object for any length of time. With characteristic +volatility he had thrown up this amusement to follow others, but he had +never wholly abandoned his interest in the stud which had once been his. + +It was owned by one, Jake Bolton, a man of rugged exterior whose +integrity had become a proverb on the Turf. This man was Saltash's +erstwhile trainer, and a very curious bond existed between them. Utterly +unlike in every respect, the one as subtle as the other was simple, yet +the two men were friends. How it had come about neither of them quite +knew. When Saltash had been his employer, Jake Bolton had distrusted and +despised him, but by some means this attitude of his had become very +materially modified. He greeted Saltash now with the hand of friendship +which Saltash on his part was always ready to accept with a baffling +smile that was not wholly without irony. He was wont to say that any man +could make an enemy of him, but no man could keep him as such. Perhaps it +was that very volatility of his which made anything of the nature of +prolonged enmity an impossibility. He possessed also that maddening sense +of humour that laughs at deadly things. A good many people had tried to +take him seriously and had failed. He was never serious. As he used to +say with his mocking laugh, life was difficult enough without +complications of that sort. All he ever asked of it was a certain mead +of enjoyment. It was utterly unreasonable to expect anything else. +Happiness! What was it. A bursting bubble, no more. No lasting joy had +ever come his way, and he was fain to believe that such a thing did not +exist outside the covers of a book. + +Jake Bolton could have told him otherwise, but he and Saltash never spoke +of abstract things. Saltash might have seen the deep content in the man's +eyes, but if he had, he would probably have scoffed at it. In any case +there was certainly no denying that he and Bolton had been cast in +different moulds, and that which gave life-long satisfaction to the +latter would have held the former for possibly but a very brief period. +As a woman friend who knew him well had once said of him, Charles Rex was +too rapid a traveller to gather much upon the way. For though keen for +pleasure, he was too restless for its enjoyment when attained. But even +that friend had not fathomed all the possibilities of that strange +personality. Perhaps there was only one woman in the world who would ever +do that. + +It was a showery spring day, and the turf of the race-course shone with a +fresh greenness. Saltash strolled through the paddock to find Jake +Bolton, whistling a careless air as he went. Several stable-boys saluted +him as he passed, and finally a man he knew, Sam Vickers, Bolton's +right-hand man, came up and accosted him. + +"Are you looking for Mr. Bolton, my lord? He's round by the boxes with +Sir Bernard Brian. We've got our best two-year-old round there--Prince +Charlie his name is. He's by the old Hundredth Chance and Queen of the +Earth. Your lordship ought to see him. He is a royalty and no mistake; +tame as a dog too, and that knowing--well, there, you'd hardly believe +it, but we have to talk in French sometimes so as he shan't know what we +say!" + +Saltash chuckled. "You must let me hear you, Sam. All right. I'll go +round. Ah! Here is Sir Bernard! Hullo, Bunny, my boy! You, is it? Where's +the boss?" + +A black-haired, black-eyed lad of about three-and-twenty, handsome, +spare, and very upright, had come suddenly round the corner of a +building. He greeted Saltash with enthusiasm. + +"Why, Charlie! I'm awfully pleased to see you! We all thought you were +done for. How are you, I say? It was rotten luck for you to lose the poor +old _Night Moth_ like that. Hope she was decently insured. And you're +none the worse?" + +"Not a mite!" laughed Saltash. "How are you? As skimpy a bag of bones as +ever?" + +"Oh, dash it! I've grown!" protested Bunny. "I'm as tall as you are +anyway." + +"Oh, you're long enough," chaffed Saltash. "But you're too damn slim! I +should think Maud could get you through her wedding-ring if she tried." + +"Shut up!" growled Bunny who was somewhat sensitive on the point of +physical shortcomings. "I'm well enough, so what does it matter? Are you +coming round to see Maud when this show is over?" + +"Depends," grinned Saltash. + +"What's it depend on?" Bunny linked an arm in his and drew him forward; +they were friends of many years' standing. + +Saltash looked at him with his odd eyes that always seemed to be +speculating like a monkey's, as to how far his next jump would carry him. +"Depends upon Jake of course. Your good brother-in-law doesn't always +invite the wolf into the fold, _mon cher_." + +"As if you needed an invitation!" ejaculated Bunny impatiently. "Well, I +invite you anyway. I know Maud will be awfully disappointed if you don't +come and tell her all about your adventure. We were talking about you +only this morning." + +"Really!" said Saltash. "Would it be rude to ask what you were saying?" + +Bunny's thin face flushed. "You're welcome to know so far as I'm +concerned," he said bluntly. "I always stick up for you, Charlie." + +"Do you? _Mais vraiment!_" protested Saltash. "I am touched beyond words. +And what says Brother Jake to that?" + +"Oh, Jake says I'm an ass, but he's quite decent about you, +Charlie,--rather fond of you in fact. Don't run away with that idea!" +begged Bunny, turning still redder. "Only people jaw a lot about you, you +know. No one ever can be content to mind their own business." + +"He'd be a fool who was," said Saltash. "There's no such thing as +independent action in this world. We all hang to each other like swarming +bees. So you've been sticking up for me, have you? And what says Sister +Maud?" + +Bunny broke into a sudden laugh. "Oh, she's decided to reserve judgment. +You'll have to come and see her. You really must. And the kids too--four +of 'em now. The eldest is a darling." + +"Eileen! Oh, I know Eileen," said Saltash. "I was actually allowed to +have her to tea once at the Castle. I am not supposed to have such a +venomous effect upon quite small girls as upon young men of two or three +and twenty." + +"Oh, shut up!" Bunny growled again. "There's Jake, look! Come and speak +to him!" + +There was nothing ornamental about Jake Bolton. Short, thick-set, +powerful as a bull and with something of a bull's unswerving contempt for +all obstacles in his path, with red-brown eyes that were absolutely level +in their regard and mercilessly keen, such was the man who had married +Maud Brian eight years before, practically in the teeth of Saltash who +had wooed her in her girlhood. There was no feud between them. Their +enmity was long since dead and buried. Saltash could be intolerably +malicious and even vindictive when the mood took him, but his moods never +lasted. And as for Bolton, since he had won and still possessed his +heart's desire, he could afford to be generous. + +His greeting was generous now, but it was not wholly without reserve. He +gave Saltash a square hand-grip before he uttered a word. + +Then: "Glad you're safe and sound, my lord," he said, in a voice that was +curiously soft and deliberate. + +"That's uncommon kind of you, Jake," laughed Saltash, with his royal air +of graciousness. "I share the sentiment. I know you would all have been +heart-broken if I hadn't turned up again. How is Maud?" + +"Very well--if she doesn't work too hard. I have to keep her in order in +that respect," said Jake Bolton with a sudden smile that swept all the +somewhat dominant lines from his face. + +Saltash grinned in sympathy. "You always were a bully, but I'll bet she +gets her own way all the same. So you've got a boy at last! Hope it's a +good one!" + +"He'd better be, hadn't he, Jake?" struck in Bunny. "The imp is six +months old now and goes for a canter on The Hundredth Chance every day +when I'm at home. You actually haven't seen him yet, Charlie? What a +rotter you were to be away all the winter!" + +"Well, I'm home now anyway," said Saltash, with a comical glance at Jake. +"Am I to be allowed to call and view the latest acquisition?" + +Jake was looking straight at him. "Are you--alone at the Castle, my +lord?" he asked after a moment. + +Saltash began to laugh. "Of course I'm alone! What did you expect? Ah, I +see!" His glance flashed to Bunny. "Yes, I am quite alone--most +conspicuously and virtuously unaccompanied. Come and see for yourself! +Search the Castle from turret-chamber to dungeon! You will find nothing +but the most monastic emptiness. I've turned into a hermit. Haven't they +made that discovery yet? My recent deliverance from what I must admit was +a decidedly awkward predicament in the Channel has sobered me to such an +extent that on my life I begin to doubt if I shall ever be anything but a +dull dog again. Yes, that's the truth, Jake. You can take it or leave it. +But I'm coming to see Maud in any case. When is my presence least likely +to cause you inconvenience?" + +"Oh, damn it, Jake!" broke in Bunny with sudden heat. "You know Maud said +you were to ask him to dine if he turned up." + +"You shut up, my son!" commanded Jake with absolute serenity. "It's not +any business of yours anyway. We'll send you to bed before dinner if you +aren't mighty careful." + +Bunny laughed at the threat, but his sallow boyish face coloured +sensitively notwithstanding. + +Saltash laughed also. "Oh, you needn't do that, Jake. I'm as harmless as +any sucking dove, I assure you. You'll have to put up with me now. When +shall I come?" + +"Come tonight!" said Jake with quiet decision. "Eight o'clock if that +suits you. Afraid I must go now. Bunny, take his lordship to see Prince +Charlie!" + +He lifted a hand in salute and turned away--a man of no pretensions +either social or intellectual, yet who knew how to hold his own with high +and low alike. + +"Keeps you in order still, does he?" gibed Saltash, as he watched him go. +"You're getting too old to be on a leading-string, _mon cher_." + +Bunny frowned at the careless words. "You don't know him. He's not that +sort of ass. We're pals, Jake and I, and I'm proud of it." + +"Of course you are!" said Saltash comfortably. "Didn't I tell you long +ago that he was a gentleman? It's the way he's made. Hewn out of raw +material, but the real thing and no mistake. You must never quarrel with +him on my account, Bunny, my lad. It would be very poor economy on your +part." + +"I shan't do that," said Bunny. "But he's got to do you justice. Maud +says the same." + +Saltash laughed aloud. "But, my dear chap, nobody ever does that! I don't +myself!" + +Bunny looked at him with affection. "You always have tried to make +yourself out a worse rotter than you really are, haven't you, Charlie? +I always tell Jake so." + +"No, it's not my doing," said Saltash lightly. "That's the rest of the +world, _mon ami_. They like their pictures highly coloured. So--_pourquoi +pas_?" + +He snapped his fingers and laughed, and they passed on together with +careless jesting and friendly chaff. Saltash had always been kind to +young Bernard Brian. The boy had been a helpless cripple in his +childhood, and he had developed a keen appreciation for all kindness +during those days which nothing could now efface. Whatever Saltash's +morals, he was a friend, and as such Bunny never failed to treat him. +They spent the rest of the afternoon together in and out of the +enclosure, and when amidst wild enthusiasm Prince Charlie won his +maiden race, the two were waiting side by side to congratulate Jake +as he led the victor in. Saltash departed soon afterwards and motored +back to Burchester Castle to dress. And then Bunny, half-laughing, +half-apologetic, turned to his brother-in-law. + +"I can't help being decent to Charlie, Jake. I don't care a damn what +they say." + +Jake gave him a straight look from under his rough red brows. "I'm not +blaming you," he said. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +MAUD BOLTON + + +Someone was singing a baby lullaby very softly in the beautiful room with +the bay window that looked straight over the rolling down. It was a very +sweet voice that sang, and sometimes the low notes were a little +tremulous as though some tender emotion thrilled through the song. The +singer was lying back in a rocking-chair close to the bay-window with her +baby in her arms. + +Beyond the long, undulating slope there stretched a silver line of sea +that gleamed with a still radiance in the light of the dying day. And +Maud Bolton, who once had been that proud and desolate girl Maud Brian, +gazed out upon it with happy, dreaming eyes. It had been a hot spring day +and she was tired, but it was a pleasant weariness, and the little body +that nestled on her breast brought sheer rapture to her woman's heart. It +was the baby boy for whom for years she had longed in vain. + +There came a slight sound at an open door behind her that led to another +room. She turned her head with a quick smile. + +"Jake!" + +He came, treading softly, and stood beside her. The failing light on his +rugged face showed it strangely softened, almost transformed. + +He stooped after a moment and kissed her. "Why isn't the little 'un in +bed?" he said, with his eyes on the sleeping baby-face. + +The smile still lingered about her lips. "I thought he and I would both +of us have a little treat tonight. Do you know he is six months old +today?" + +Jake's square fingers caressed the baby's placid forehead. "Yes, I know," +he said. + +Maud uttered a faint sigh. "And so--according to the law of the Medes and +Persians--he is not going to sleep with his mother any longer. He is to +be banished to the nursery. But I thought I would put him to sleep +first." + +Jake's look came to her face. "There's no law that I know of," he said in +his slow way. "Keep him in here if you want to!" + +She lifted her eyes to his--beautiful eyes, deeply violet. "Thank you, +Jake. But it's all settled, and he won't mind." + +"He doesn't matter so much," said Jake. + +She smiled and laid her cheek against his arm. "No, it's all right. Nurse +understands him. I won't have him again unless he's ill. I should have to +then." + +"Of course," said Jake. He bent down. "Let me have him! I'll take him to +the nursery." + +"Ah, don't wake him!" she said. + +Jake's arms encompassed the little bundle and lifted it from her. The +baby made a small noise that sounded like a protest, but he did not open +his eyes. + +"Don't you come!" said Jake. "I'll fix him." + +And with light tread he bore his son away. Maud looked after him with a +touch of wistfulness, but she did not move, and in a few minutes he came +back to her, knelt beside her, and gathered her strongly into his arms. + +"My girl!" he said softly. "My own girl!" + +She clasped him round the neck, laying her head against him without +words. + +"Tired?" he said. + +"No--no--not really! Too happy to complain anyway." She spoke in a +whisper as if unwilling to break her silence. + +"You want more help," he said. + +She lifted her face and kissed his neck. "No, Jake dear. I don't want the +children taken out of my hands entirely. Whatever should I do without +them?" + +"Look after me for a change," suggested Jake. + +She laughed a muffled laugh with her lips raised to his. "Do I neglect +you, Jake?" + +"No," he said. "You're the best wife a man ever had. I believe I'm first +with you--even now." + +"Always--always first," she whispered against the lips that pressed her +own. + +He held her very closely to him for a space in silence. He had loved her +with a fiery worship from the first moment of their meeting, but the +wealth of her answering love still filled his soul with wonder. Over and +over again he would tell himself that he was not her sort, but when he +held her thus throbbing against his heart, he knew beyond all questioning +that they were one. + +"You haven't told me a single thing about today's meeting," she murmured +presently. + +Jake began to smile. "On my soul I had forgotten all about it. Prince +Charlie has gained his first laurels. He won by two and a half lengths." + +"Oh, Jake, how splendid! How proud you must be! I'm tremendously glad. +And what about Charlie? Was he there to see his namesake carry all before +him?" + +"Saltash, do you mean? Yes, he was there." Jake's tone was somewhat dry. + +Maud drew back a little to look at him. "I hope you asked him to dine," +she said. + +"Oh yes," said Jake, with a touch of grimness. "Bunny saw to that on your +behalf. He considers--and with reason--that you have a right to ask +whoever you like to your own house." + +"Jake!" Maud suddenly sat upright, her eyes burning like stars. "If Bunny +said that--" + +"He didn't," said Jake. + +"Or hinted it even--it was perfectly hateful of him! I shall go and tell +him so!" + +Maud made as if she would release herself from his hold, but he +restrained her. + +"No--no, my girl! You keep calm! I can hold my own with Bunny, and he +didn't mean any harm. I asked Saltash all right, and he's coming." + +"Against your will," said Maud. + +"No. Against my judgment, maybe. Not against my will. I've no objection +to entertaining him if you wish it. You and I don't quarrel over trifles +like Saltash." + +Jake's tone was humorously tender. He patted her flushed cheek in a +conciliatory fashion. She turned very swiftly and kissed his hand. + +"Thank you, Jake--darling. But--you are master in this house, remember. +No one enters it without your consent." + +"Not even Saltash?" smiled Jake. + +"Not even--Bunny!" said Maud, still breathing resentment. + +He took her gently by the shoulder. "Look here, my girl! I won't have you +say a word to the boy about this, see? I didn't know you'd flare up like +that or I shouldn't have spoken. He didn't mean it that way. If he had, +I'd have punched his head. And after all," his eyes smiled suddenly into +hers, "I do live on my wife's bounty, don't I? Wouldn't I be driving cows +on the other side of the Atlantic without it?" + +"No," Maud said. "You'd be owning your own ranch by this time, +and--and--and generally licking creation, Jake, as only you know how." + +"Oh, shucks!" said Jake softly, and kissed her again upon the lips. "I'd +sooner be here anyway. Well, Saltash is coming, so we've got to make the +best of it. I shouldn't care a cuss if it weren't for young Bunny. But +he's always been keener on his lordship's company than I've thought +advisable." + +"Oh, Jake," she said, colouring a little, "I don't believe Charlie would +do him any harm." + +"Not intentionally perhaps," said Jake. "I've no ill feeling for him, +heaven knows, but I can't say I think his society likely to have a very +improving effect upon anyone." + +"I don't think you quite understand him," Maud said thoughtfully. + +Whereat Jake laughed so suddenly that she looked at him with raised +brows. He got to his feet, still laughing. + +"Very likely not. We've had a good many misunderstandings, he and I, from +the day I cowhided him for a scoundrel to the day I nearly shot him for a +blackguard." + +"Oh, but that was all so long ago," Maud said quickly. "He wasn't much +more than a boy in those days. He has grown a lot since then." + +Jake grunted. "Which way, think you? Well, I must dress. He may be here +before we're ready for him." + +He turned to go back to his own room, but Maud stayed him for a moment. +"Jake," she said almost wistfully, "you know--with all his faults--he +always had--possibilities." + +"I know," Jake said, looking down at her. "He's made the most of 'em +too." + +Her face quivered. "Don't," she said. "It--isn't it rather ungenerous to +condemn a man unheard?" + +Jake made a faint sound of contempt or scepticism, but no reply in words. + +She drew herself up out of her chair by his arm. "Jake, I want you to do +something for me." + +"Well?" said Jake uncompromisingly. + +She met his look unswervingly. "Let me be a friend to him tonight! Let me +be alone with him and find out--if he will tell me--whether there is any +truth in this rumour that there was a woman on board the yacht." + +"And when you've found out?" said Jake. + +She made a little gesture of appeal. "Will you leave that to me? I have +sometimes felt that I might be--a help to him if ever there came an +opportunity. Jake, you don't mind my trying to help him? I have a feeling +that I understand him better than most people do." + +"I think it's a wasted sentiment," Jake said. "But--do what seems good to +you, my girl! I shan't interfere." + +"And you won't be vexed?" she pleaded. + +He smiled his sudden, illumining smile. "No, I reckon you'll never vex me +any that way again," he said. + +She went close to him. "Indeed--no, Jake! But--don't you understand? I +hate to go against your wishes--your prejudices--in anything." + +He put out a hand to her. "You needn't be afraid of that either," he +said. "If you do it--it's right." + +She clasped the strong hand tightly in both her own. "That's the best +thing you've ever said to me," she said. "Are you quite sure you mean +it?" + +"Sure," said Jake, and pulled her to him to kiss her once again. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +BUNNY + + +When Saltash arrived that evening he found Bunny and Jake sauntering +together in the sunset glow along the gravelled terrace in front of the +house. He shot towards them in his car with that characteristic +suddenness of his, swerving and coming to a stand before the porch with +the confident ease of an alighting bird. And here, seated in the porch +and screened by white clematis, he found Maud. + +She rose to greet him, her eyes alight with pleasure. "Oh, Charlie," she +said, "I have wanted to shake hands with you ever since I heard of your +escape." + +He bent and kissed the hand she gave him. "Gracious as ever!" he +commented lightly. "Had you begun to wear mourning for me, I wonder? It +was a very cold bath, I assure you. We didn't enjoy it, any of us." + +"I am sure you didn't." Her eyes still dwelt upon the dark face with its +half-mocking smile with a species of maternal tenderness. "And you lost +your yacht too! That was desperately unlucky." + +He made a comic grimace. "I am past the age for crying over spilt milk, +Maud of the Roses." He uttered his old name for her with daring +assurance. "I have had worse losses than that in my time." + +"And still you smile," she said. + +He bowed. "A smile can conceal so much." He turned to his host as he came +up behind him. "Well, Jake, I've taken you at your word, you see, and +intruded into your virtuous household. How are Eileen and Molly and Betty +and--last but not least--the son and heir?" + +Maud laughed softly. "Well done, Charlie! How clever of you to remember +them all!" + +"Oh yes, I am quite clever," said Saltash, as again his hand met Jake's. +"Too clever sometimes. I needn't ask if all goes well with you, Jake. +Your prosperity is obvious, but don't wax fat on it. Bunny now--he's as +lean as a giraffe. Can't you do something to him? He looks as if he'd +melt into thin air at a touch." + +"Oh, don't be an ass!" protested Bunny. "I'm as strong as a horse anyway. +Jake, tell him not to be an ass!" + +"No good, I'm afraid," said Jake, with his sudden smile. "Come inside, my +lord! The children are all flourishing, but in bed at the present moment. +The baby--" + +"Oh, I must see the baby!" declared Saltash, turning back to Maud. + +She laid a hand on his arm. "I will take you to see him after dinner." + +"Will you?" He smiled into her eyes. "I shall like that. But I shall +probably want to shoot Jake when I come down again. Think it's safe?" + +She smiled back at him with confidence. "Yes, I think so. Anyhow, I'm not +afraid." + +"Come and feed!" said Jake. + +They sat down in the pretty oak-panelled dining-room with its windows +opening upon the terrace and the long dim line of down. Saltash talked +freely of Valrosa, of his subsequent voyaging, of the wreck of _The Night +Moth_, but no word did he utter of the gift that had been flung to him on +that night of stars in the Mediterranean. He was always completely at his +ease in Jake's household, but it was not his way to touch at any time in +Maud's presence upon any matter that could not be openly discussed before +her. Their intimacy was not without its reservations. + +Maud in her quiet happiness detected no hint of restraint in his manner. +But he had always been elusive, often subtle. She did not look for +candour from Charles Rex--unless she asked for it. + +Watching him on that spring evening in the soft glow of the candles, +marking the restless play of feature, the agile readiness of his wit, she +asked herself, not for the first time, what manner of soul he had behind +the mask. Somehow she did not wholly believe in that entity which so +often looked jibing forth. Though she could ascribe no reason for it, she +had a strong suspicion that the real self that was Saltash was of a +different fibre altogether--a thing that had often suffered violence it +might be, but nevertheless possessed of that gift of the resurrection +which no violence can destroy. + +"Why are you dissecting me tonight?" he asked her once and laughed and +changed the subject before she could reply. + +When dinner was over and she rose, he sprang to open the door for her +with that royal _bonhomie_ of his which somehow gave him the right to +enter where others waited for permission. + +"Take Bunny with you!" he murmured. "I want to talk to Jake." + +She lifted her eyes with a flash of surprise. He bent towards her. + +"And afterwards to you, Queen Rose. I shall not forget to claim my +privileges in that respect." + +She laughed a little, but she obeyed his behest as a matter of course. +"Come for a turn in the garden with me, Bunny!" she said. "I've hardly +seen you today." + +The boy got up, passing Jake with a careless slap on the shoulder that +testified to the excellent good fellowship that existed between them. + +Saltash turned back into the room, and threw himself down by his host. +"That's right," he said as the door closed upon the brother and sister. +"Now we can talk." + +Jake pushed a box of cigars to him. His keen eyes took Saltash in with +the attention of the man accustomed to probe beneath the surface. There +were not many who could hide from Jake Bolton anything he desired to +know. + +Saltash flicked an eyelid under his direct scrutiny as he chose his +cigar. He was never more baffling than in his moments of candour. + +"There are several things I've come to consult you about, Jake," he said +easily, as Jake leaned across with a match. + +"I'm listening," said Jake. + +Saltash sent him a quizzical glance as his cigar kindled. "Prepared to +turn me down at all points?" he suggested. + +Jake's mouth relaxed a little. "Prepared to listen anyway," he said. +"It's to do with young Bunny, I take it." + +Saltash leaned back in his chair with a laugh. "Very smart of you! Bunny +certainly is my first proposition. What are you going to do with him?" + +Jake also leaned back, and smoked for several seconds in silence. Saltash +watched him with semi-comic curiosity. + +"Something of a problem, eh?" he said, after a pause. + +Jake's eyes came to him and remained upon him with steady insistence. +"He's not going to turn into a fancy-dress loafer, my lord," he said at +length in his soft, deliberate voice. "I'll see to that anyway." + +"Don't be nasty, Jake!" protested Saltash with a smile. "I'm not +proposing to adopt him. But I can give him employment, if that's what +he's wanting. What do you want to make of him?" + +Jake's steady look remained upon him. "Just an honest man, I reckon," he +said. + +"Ah! Quite so!" Open mockery gleamed back at him from Saltash's +half-closed eyes. "All contaminating influences to be kept away. Is that +it?" + +Jake was silent. + +Saltash sent a cloud of smoke upwards before he spoke again. Then: "I +agree with you, Jake," he said. "We mustn't spoil the boy. He shan't +learn any naughty ways from me. Come! That's a promise. And I'm not such +a blackguard as I used to be." + +"Sure?" said Jake. + +Again Saltash's smile flashed across at him. "Quite sure, my worthy +philosopher," he made light reply. "I don't set up for a model of virtue +of course, but at least--now-a-days--I never take what I can't pay for." + +"That so?" said Jake. He considered the matter for a few moments, then +slowly took the cigar from between his lips and spoke. "It's certainly +true; Bunny is a problem. He's not strong; and though he's got grit, he +hasn't got what I call punching power. He's been ordered an out-door +life, and he wants to join me in running the stud. I could do with him of +course, but I've a strong feeling against it, anyway till he's older. +It's not the right atmosphere for him, and it doesn't bring him in +contact with the right people. He ought to be in the Army, but he wasn't +strong enough. It's a big grievance with him for there's nothing +radically wrong; just weak tendencies that he may outgrow if he leads a +healthy life and doesn't strain himself. We're just marking time at +present, so if you have anything to suggest--well, I've no doubt he'll be +something more than grateful." + +"And you?" questioned Saltash, with a grimace at the ceiling. + +"I too," said Jake, "if it's for the boy's good." + +"You needn't hold a pistol at my head," protested Saltash. "I shan't put +him in the way of any short cuts to the devil. All I have to offer him is +the post of bailiff at Burchester Castle, as old Bishop has got beyond +his job. I can't turn the old beggar out, but I want a young man to take +the burden off his shoulders. Do you think that sort of thing would be +beneath Bunny's dignity, or likely to upset his morals?" + +"He'd probably jump at the chance," said Jake. + +"Which is more than his worthy brother-in-law does on his behalf," +grinned Saltash. + +"No," Jake's steady eyes met the gibe unfaltering. "I know it's a chance +that doesn't come every day, and I know you mean well by him. I shan't +put any hindrance in the way." + +"Then it's done," said Saltash. "Bunny's fate is sealed." + +"I hope not." Jake still gravely watched him, but not as if he sought for +anything in the baffling, mobile countenance. "What do you want him for +anyway?" + +Saltash flicked the ash from his cigar. "Perhaps I'm turning +philanthropist, Jake. Do you know the symptoms? I've been anxious about +myself several times lately." + +"Come on rather suddenly, hasn't it?" suggested Jake. + +Saltash nodded. "It's old age, I fancy. Anyhow I've a notion for doing +Bunny a good turn. The boy can have play as well as work. He can join the +polo-club at Fairharbour. I'll introduce him." + +"And where will he live?" asked Jake. + +"With the old Bishops of course. He'll be safe enough with them and +within reach of you and Maud at the same time. It's time you eased the +leading string a bit, you know. He'll start kicking if you don't." + +"I don't think so," said Jake. "He goes his own way already quite as much +as is good for him. I don't need to hold him in very tight either. He's +not the bolting sort." + +"You mean you've trained him well," laughed Saltash. "I congratulate you. +You've a genius for that sort of thing, Jake. The boy will probably +answer to your lightest touch and never even know he does it." + +"What was the other thing you wanted to say to me?" said Jake. + +"Oh that!" Saltash's eyes fell suddenly to his empty wine glass. He +fingered the stem of it for a few seconds with a curiously irresolute +air. "Do you know I think I'll put it to Maud first!" he said at length, +with a smile that was faintly shamefaced. + +"It'll come to the same thing," said Jake. + +Saltash's eyes flashed upwards. He met Jake's look almost with defiance. +"Doubtless you are master in your own house, Jake," he said. "Far be it +from me to question it." + +"I didn't mean that," said Jake. "What I meant was," the red-brown eyes +began to smile, "that Maud and I are friends--and we generally want the +same thing." + +Saltash nodded. "Not so bad after eight years," he said. + +"No. It's pretty great," said Jake. "You'd think we were an ill-matched +pair, wouldn't you? But we've learnt to plough as straight a furrow as +anyone." + +"No, I don't think you ill-matched," said Saltash unexpectedly. "You've +always been about the same height and breadth, my friend. I saw that a +long time ago. The luckiest day that ever dawned for Maud was the one on +which you cut me out." + +"Think so?" said Jake. "Well, it wasn't a very lucky one for you, I'm +afraid." + +"I got over it," said Saltash lightly. "I'm too great a rotter, you know, +Jake, to take things much to heart. I've loved heaps of women since--even +some good ones. But they never take me seriously; so I presume I shall +continue to rot." + +"Thought you'd turned sober," suggested Jake. + +Again Saltash's look dwelt upon the ruby drain in his wine-glass. For a +moment the restlessness of his face deepened to something very nearly +approaching melancholy. + +"I'm tired, Jake," he said abruptly. "I've run through the whole gamut of +amusements, and I'm bored to the soul. I want to do a good turn to +somebody--just for a change--to see what it feels like. Perhaps--who +knows--it may take the taste of rottenness out of my mouth. You fellows +who lead a decent, orderly life don't know what it is when the wine turns +to vinegar and all the sweets of life to gall." + +"Sounds pretty damnable," said Jake. + +Saltash grimaced like a weary monkey. "It's dust and ashes, my good Jake. +But we won't discuss it. Let's come to business! You know Larpent--my +captain--quite one of the best?" + +Jake nodded. "I've met him--yes." + +Saltash flung himself back in his chair smoking rapidly. "He was damaged +when the yacht went down. He's in a nursing home in town, getting better. +He's got a daughter--a girl called Antoinette. She's been at school in +France, and Larpent was bringing her home in the yacht when we went down. +She's nineteen--a jolly little thing--half French. Larpent doesn't know +what to do with her. He has no people. She--quite properly--wants to +earn her own living. But she's too young yet to fight the world. +Larpent's a rover, he'll never settle on land. She's never had any home +life, poor kid. And she wants it. You'll say it's like my damned cheek to +come to you, but on my life you and Maud are the only people I can think +of. There's my old friend Lady Jo--Mrs. Green as she prefers to be +called--but she isn't very strong just now. I can't bother her. Besides +she hasn't got a home like yours. She's up in town." + +The jerky utterance came to an end. Saltash turned his head towards Jake, +watching him half furtively through the smoke. + +There followed a silence of some duration. Jake's brows were slightly +drawn. He spoke at last, slowly and softly as his manner was. "Are you +suggesting that--Captain Larpent's daughter--should come to us?" + +"She'd be useful enough," said Saltash in his quick, vehement way. "She'd +help Maud with the children. There's nothing she wouldn't do. It would be +a kindness on your part, and you wouldn't regret it. She's a taking +little thing. I'd like you to have her for a month, and if you don't want +to keep her after that--well--shunt her back on to Larpent. He'll be well +by that time. If he isn't--I'll look after her till he is." + +"Who's looking after her now?" said Jake. "Where is she?" + +Saltash pushed back his chair with a movement of impatience. "Did you +think I'd bring her to Burchester for all the county to blab about? She's +under my protection--and she's safe." He spoke with a certain fierceness, +and in a moment was pacing the room, his face arrogantly lifted. "I know +very well the sort of story that's going round, but if you're a white man +you'll help me to give it the lie. I know I'm a blackguard, Jake,--never +pretended to be anything else. But I hope I'm a gentleman as well--at +least where women are concerned. That child is none the worse in mind or +body for being thrown on my hands. You've got to believe that." + +"All right," said Jake. + +Saltash paced jerkily on, his hands behind him. "I want you to have her +because you're straight, and she'll come to no harm with you. You never +even parley with the devil, do you, Jake? Remember that time--it's ten +years ago, more--when a man tried to tempt you to tamper with one of your +horses and you horsewhipped him for his baseness." + +"I prefer not to remember it, my lord," said Jake. + +Saltash stopped suddenly by his chair and gripped his shoulder with a +wiry hand. "I've liked you ever since," he said. "Look here, Jake! I'm +not tempting you to do anything wrong now. I'm asking you to do something +that doesn't appeal to you; but if you do it, it'll be one of the most +decent actions of your life. That child is quite alone just now--except +for me. Will you take her--like a good chap--till something else safe +turns up?" + +Jake sat slowly forward. "I'll have to talk it over with Maud," he said. + +Saltash's grip shifted impatiently. "You know very well what Maud will +say. Don't be an ass about it! Say No--if you mean to say No--at once!" + +There came the quiet tread of approaching feet on the gravelled terrace +and the sound of low voices talking together. Jake lifted his head. His +face was grim. He looked Saltash straight in the eyes. + +"You've told me the plain truth about her. You swear it?" + +Saltash's swarthy countenance was in shadow, but those strange eyes of +his gleamed oddly, with the sort of fitful shining that comes from a coat +of mail in an uncertain light. They did not flinch from Jake's straight +regard, neither did they wholly meet it. + +"Is my oath really more valuable than my word, Jake?" he said, with a wry +twist of the lips. "Most people don't find it so." + +Jake stood up, a figure square and forceful. For a moment he faced +Saltash with a level scrutiny that--possibly--pierced the coat of mail. +Then abruptly he smiled. "I will take your word, my lord," he said. + +"And the child?" said Saltash. + +Jake nodded. "The child too--if Maud agrees." + +"Thanks," said Saltash, and smiled back at Jake--the smile that gave his +ugly face so great a charm. "I am obliged to you, Jake. I think Maud will +agree." + +"Shall we go to her?" said Jake. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +SALTASH + + +They joined the two on the terrace, and presently they were all laughing +together at Saltash's drolleries. He knew how to bring effervescence to +the very quietest waters. They sat for a space on a seat in the soft +spring starlight, while below them on the down there thrilled the +unspeakable music of nightingales singing far and near. Then after a +while Jake strolled away for his nightly inspection of the stables, +taking Bunny with him, and Saltash and Maud were left alone. + +He moved close to her at once, his arm stretched behind her along the +back of the seat. At their feet lay an old red setter, Chops, who had +belonged to Jake before his marriage and had devoted himself to Maud ever +since. + +"By Jove, this is peaceful!" said Saltash, and stopped to caress the old +dog with a gentle hand. "Do you know, Maud, it's a good thing you never +married me if this sort of thing makes you happy." + +She smiled her quiet, contented smile. "I think it is a good thing too, +Charlie. It certainly would never have satisfied you." + +"Nothing does," he declared restlessly. "I'm a wanderer on the face of +the earth, and I don't pick up much as I go along. I'm getting old, you +know. Life isn't what it was." + +Maud was silent for a few moments, the starlight in her eyes. "I +sometimes wonder," she said at length, "if you have ever really lived +yet." + +He laughed on a mocking note. "My dear girl, I--who have done +everything!" + +She shook her head. "No, not everything, Charlie." + +"Everything that's bad," he suggested recklessly. + +She put out a hand to him that went into his quick hold and lay there +with perfect confidence. "I don't think you're really old," she said. "I +think you're just beginning to grow up. No, don't laugh! I am quite +serious. You are just beginning to discriminate between the things that +are worth while and those that are not." + +"Is anything worth while?" said Saltash. + +"Yes, yes. Heaps of things. But not the things you care for,--not just +the wild pleasures of life. Charlie, I'm not good at expressing things, +and I'm afraid--just a little--of trespassing, even though we are such +old friends." + +Her voice had a wistful note. He carried her hand to his lips. "_Ma belle +reine_, is it possible? You?" + +Her fingers closed upon his. "I hate you to be world-tired and lonely. +But I would rather have you that than feeding on husks." + +"I'm not doing that at the present moment," he said. "I'm living like a +beastly hermit--except that I cut my nails and brush my hair +occasionally. You've heard about the woman on the yacht, of course?" + +Her silence answered him, and he laughed again. + +"A lie, _chère reine_! There was no woman." + +"Oh, Charlie!" she said impulsively. "Forgive me for believing it!" + +He made a royal gesture. "I forgive you. Moreover, the lie was +not without foundation. There was a child on board of the female +species,--very small and badly frightened. We saved her between us, +Larpent and I. She belongs to Larpent--not to me." + +"You mean she is his daughter?" questioned Maud. + +"That is exactly what I mean. Dull explanation, isn't it? Larpent was +badly damaged. He is undergoing repairs in a nursing home, and the +child--well, I've got to look after the child. _Figurez-vous, ma chère!_ +I--a protector of infants! _Un peu comique, n'est-ce pas?_" + +"Ah!" Maud said, with compassion. "The poor little thing must come to us. +I will take care of her. When will you bring her?" + +"You think her present plight is not to be endured for another moment?" +laughed Saltash. "_Bien!_ I will send her to you tomorrow." + +"Ah! I don't mean she is not in safe keeping," protested Maud. "How old +is she? Older than Eileen?" + +"A little older than that," said Saltash. "She's nineteen." + +"Oh!" said Maud. + +"Perhaps you do mean it now!" gibed Saltash, getting up in his sudden +fashion. + +Maud rose also, facing him in the starlight. "No, Charlie I don't! +Because I know that the big things are in you and always have been, I +would trust you--with my most precious possession." + +He laughed again. "But when I gave it back to you, you would look all +round it to make sure it hadn't been broken and stuck together again, +wouldn't you, Maud of the Roses?" + +"No," she said. "I wouldn't. I know--Charles Rex--better than that." + +He made her a sweeping bow. "Most fair and gracious lady, do not forget +that my crest is a fox's head and the motto thereupon, '_Sans vertu_!'" + +She smiled, looking at him with steadfast eyes. "I will give you another +motto, Charlie," she said. "Those we love--we trust." + +He made an abrupt movement. It was almost a protest. "For how long? Do +you really love me, Maud of the Roses?" + +She gave him both her hands without drawing any nearer. Her eyes were +shining as stars that shine through mist. "Yes, I love you, Charlie," she +said, "so much that I can't go on being happy till I know that you are +too." + +He bent very low, so that his dark face was wholly hidden from her. "I've +never been--really happy--since the day I lost you," he said. + +Her hands clasped his very tightly. There was a brief silence +before--with a touch of shyness--she spoke again. "You have never +been--really happy--all your life. You don't know the meaning of the +word--yet." + +"Don't I?" He stood up, still holding her hands. "I thought I'd sampled +everything." + +"No," she said. "No. There is--one thing left." + +"What is that?" he said. + +She stood again in silence, looking at him. Then, slowly, "You have never +yet touched the joy of loving someone better--far better--than you love +yourself," she said. "I think that is the greatest joy that God can +send." + +He bent towards her with a certain eagerness. "Maud, I could have loved +you like that--once." + +She shook her head and her smile was sad. "No, my dear, believe me! I +couldn't have inspired it in you. I was too selfish myself in those days. +Some other woman will teach you that now." + +"I wonder," said Charles Rex, half-mocking and half-touched. + +She slipped her hand through his arm, turning from the subject with a +faint sigh. "Well, come and see the baby! He's very lovely." + +"From your point of view or Jake's?" questioned Saltash. + +She laughed. "From mine of course. He is going to be just like Jake." + +"Heavens above! I pity you!" ejaculated Saltash. "You'll never cope with +two of 'em! They'll crush you flat." + +She drew him from the terrace into the quiet house. "Don't be absurd, +Charlie! This boy of ours is to be the prop of our old age." + +He went with her jesting, but when they entered the silent nursery in +which the two youngest children lay sleeping, his trifling ceased and he +trod with reverence. + +They stood together in the dim light beside the baby's cot, and Saltash +looked down upon the flushed baby face with a faintly rueful smile upon +his own. + +"There is something in being married and done for after all," he said. + +Over the old baby, Betty, now two years old, he stooped and lightly +touched the fair silken hair, but he did not kiss her though the child +was sleeping deeply. + +Later he went alone into the adjoining room where slept the two elder +children, Eileen aged five, and Molly who was not yet four. Maud did not +follow him, and presently he came back, treading softly, the flickering +night-light throwing odd shadows on his ugly face, and they left the room +together. + +In the passage he turned to her abruptly. "Then I may send that child to +you tomorrow?" he said. + +"Why not bring her?" said Maud smiling. + +He shook his head. "No. I'll come over one day--on Sunday perhaps--and +see you all again. I won't--handicap her--by bringing her." + +She understood him, and gave him her hand, but the fervour with which he +received and kissed it surprised her into drawing it away more quickly +than she had intended. + +He laughed at the action. "I am only saluting motherhood," he explained. + +But she shook her head and passed on. There were moments when even she +who knew him so well was not wholly sure of him. + +They descended again and Saltash turned towards the drawing-room. + +"Let's have some music!" he said, and dropped down before Maud's piano. +"You are tired, _ma chère_. You shall listen." + +He began to play an old French _chanson_ that once they had sung +together, and Maud leaned back on a deep settee near him and dreamily +surrendered herself to its charm. + +Charlie's touch had always been a sheer delight to her. It held her now +with the old sweet spell. His spirit spoke to hers with an intimacy which +ordinary converse had never attained. It was by his music that he first +had spoken to her soul. In music they were always in complete accord. + +She was half-asleep in her corner with the old dog lying at her feet when +Jake and Bunny came in, and Saltash very swiftly, with muffled chords, +brought his performance to an end. + +He sprang to his feet. "I've been making love to your wife, Jake," he +said, "and she has been heroically but quite ineffectually trying to keep +me at a distance. I'd better go before I'm kicked out, eh?" + +"Don't go on my account!" said Jake. + +Saltash's brows twitched comically. "Generous as ever! But I'm a rotten +villain, Jake. I never could keep it up, and your virtuous presence is +the last straw. Good-bye--and many thanks!" + +He held Maud's hand in his right and stretched his left to Jake with a +smile half whimsical and half derisive. + +"There's nothing like banking on the hundredth chance," he said. "I shall +try it myself one of these days." + +"Say!" said Jake in his soft drawl. "I wish you luck!" + +Saltash laughed and turned away, to be instantly seized upon by Bunny. + +"I say you are a good chap! The boss has been telling me. You're going to +put me up to a job." + +"If you'll take it," said Saltash. + +Bunny thrust a hand through his arm and squeezed it impulsively. "I'll +take anything from you, Charlie. Hope I shall be man enough for you, +that's all." + +"Oh, you're man enough," said Saltash kindly. "Just the sort I want. Look +here, I can't stop now. But I'll come over on Sunday and talk things +over--if Jake permits." + +"Any day," said Jake. + +Saltash nodded. "Good. I'll ring you up tomorrow, Maud. You're sure you +mean tomorrow?" + +"Quite sure," she said with a smile. + +He swept her a bow and went out with Bunny. + +Maud turned instantly to her husband. "Jake, I've got something to tell +you--to consult you about." + +He stopped her with that smile of his that was so good to see. "Oh, I +guess not. You've fixed it all up without my help. But his lordship for +once had the diplomacy to ask me first." + +"Oh, did he?" She looked confused for a moment. "Jake, you don't mind, do +you? I did the only thing possible." + +He put his arm around her and led her to the door. "I'll tell whether I +mind a week from now. You're looking worn out, my girl. You go to bed!" + +She leaned against him. "Jake, I'm--horribly sorry for Charlie." + +"Wasted sentiment!" said Jake. + +"No, it isn't--it isn't--because he is just beginning--to be sorry for +himself. Jake, it haunts me." + +"Well, you're not to lie awake over it," said Jake unsympathetically. +"I shall know if you do, and I shall keep you in bed tomorrow. Got that?" +He looked at her with determination glittering in his eyes. + +"You're very horrid," she said. + +"Yes, I know. Somebody's got to be. It's a world of contrasts, and we +can't all be kings and queens. Go to bed now! I'll say good night to +Bunny for you." + +But Maud lingered still. "What is Charlie going to do for him?" + +Jake led her with firmness into the hall. "It's the Agency. He's going to +help old Bishop. I think the life will be good for him--if there isn't +too much Saltash about it." + +"Oh, how good of Charlie!" Maud said. + +"Yes, he means well this time." Jake's arm impelled her up the shallow +stairs. "Hope he'll keep it up, but it won't surprise me any if he +doesn't. He's never been a stayer, and he's not the sort to begin now." + +"You really don't understand him," Maud said. + +"Maybe not," Jake's tone was faintly grim. It indicated that he had no +intention of arguing the matter further. + +Maud abandoned it and they mounted the stairs together in silence. At the +door of her room she turned without words and put her arms around his +neck. + +He held her closely still supporting her. "Shall I come and put you to +bed, my girl?" + +She answered him softly. "No, darling, no! Don't be late yourself, that's +all! And--Jake--thank you for all your goodness to me!" + +"Oh, shucks--shucks!" he said. + +She raised her hands, holding the bronze head between them, gazing +straight into the free, dominant eyes with all her soul laid open to +their look. "There is no one like you in all the world," she said. "You +are greater than kings." + +"That's just your way of putting it," said Jake. "You're not exactly an +impartial judge, I reckon. Barring the fact that I'm your mate, I'm a +very ordinary sinner. Moreover, Saltash tells me I'm getting fat." + +"How dare he?" said Maud. + +He laughed in her indignant face. "Now I'm getting my own back! There! +Don't get excited! No doubt he meant well! And I certainly ride heavier +than I did. Shall you love me when I'm fat, Maud?" + +She drew the laughing, sunburnt face to hers. "Don't be--absurd!" she +said. + +Her lips met his and were caught in a long, long kiss. + +"Guess you're just as moon-struck as I am," said Jake softly. + +And, "I guess I am," she whispered back. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE VISITOR + + +Jake carried out his threat the following day, and Maud remained in bed. +A violent headache deprived her of the power to protest, and she lay in +her darkened room too battered to think, while with characteristic +decision he assumed the direction of the household, provoking unwilling +admiration from Mrs. Lovelace, the housekeeper, who was somewhat given to +disparage men as "poor things who never did a hand's turn for 'emselves +if they could get the women to do it for 'em." + +He took up a breakfast tray himself to his wife's room, sternly removing +his two small daughters Molly and Betty, whom he found tussling like +kittens on her bed, and installing Eileen the eldest, who crept down like +a bright-eyed mouse from the big chair by the pillow at his coming, as +her mother's keeper. Eileen was his darling; a shy child, gentle but +curiously determined, protective in her attitude towards Maud, reserved +towards himself. Jake was wont to say with a laugh that he was by no +means sure that his eldest daughter approved of him, but he knew in his +heart that her love for him was the strongest force in her small being. +Bunny was wont to be impatient with her because she was afraid of the +horses, with the result that she would never go near them in his company, +but she would follow her father wherever he went among them without a +question. It was very rarely that she confided in him, but she always +liked to hold his hand. + +She stood beside him now in silence while he waited upon Maud, and +presently, while Maud drank the strong tea he had brought her, her small +hand found its way into his. He looked down at her, squeezing it kindly. +"We must take care of the mother today, little 'un. She's been working +too hard." + +"I'll take care of her, Daddy," said Eileen. + +"And keep out Molly and Betty," pursued Jake. + +"Yes, Daddy, I'll do that." + +Maud smiled from her pillows. "My little policeman!" she said. + +"I believe she'd keep her daddy out too if she thought it advisable," +laughed Jake. + +Eileen's fingers tightened about his, but she did not contradict him. +Only the violet eyes so like her mother's looked up at him very +pleadingly, and he stooped in a moment and kissed her. + +"All right. Daddy understands." + +And Eileen smiled a shy, pleased smile without words. + +The sound of the telephone-bell in the hall made Maud start with a swift +contradiction of the brows. + +"That's probably Charlie, Jake, I ought to answer him." + +"Don't you worry yourself!" said Jake, turning to the door. "I'll answer +him myself." + +He was gone before she could say anything further, moving without haste +but with a decision there was no gainsaying, and Maud heaved a sigh and +relaxed against her pillows. It was certainly a relief to leave it to +him. + +He returned a few minutes later, faintly smiling, sat down by her side +and drew Eileen between his knees. + +"Well," he said. "I guess it's all fixed up. We're going to give you a +nursery governess, Innocence. I hope you'll treat her with respect." + +"Oh, but, Jake--" protested Maud. + +He turned to her. "Yes, she's going to make herself useful. I don't +believe in anyone living in idleness. We'll begin as we mean to go +on, and she's got to help. I told his lordship so. If she doesn't +suit,--well, I guess she'll go back where she came from. I told him that +too." + +"What did he say?" questioned Maud. + +"He agreed of course." Jake's tone was ironical. "Said she was nothing +but a child herself. He was very emphatic on that point." + +"Don't you believe him?" asked Maud with a hint of sharpness. + +"Not as a rule," said Jake. "Mostly never--when he's emphatic. However, +time will prove. She will be here to lunch, and I've told Bunny to meet +her with the dog-cart." + +"Are we going to have lessons?" asked Eileen. + +He looked into the soft eyes and the irony went out of his smile. "I +don't know if I can bear to have you taught anything, Innocence," he +said. "You're just right as you are." + +It was his own especial name for her and he always uttered it with +tenderness. Eileen smiled up at him, and pressed against his knee. + +"I would like to learn some lessons, Daddy," she said. "I'm sure I'm big +enough, and I'm growing too." + +"Maybe you are," said Jake. "But don't grow too fast, little 'un! Don't +get so big that you look down on your poor old daddy!" + +"She'll never do that!" said Maud quickly. "No child of mine will ever do +that, Jake." + +He smiled at her whimsically. "Oh, I guess I'll hold my own among 'em +whatever they do. Now you go to sleep, my girl, and put all worries out +of your head! I must be moving, but I'll look in presently to see how +you are. So long!" + +He bent and laid his cheek for a moment against her hand, then turned and +softly left her. + +Maud watched the door close behind him, then spoke to the child beside +her. "Eileen darling, always remember that your daddy is the best and +dearest man who ever lived!" + +"Yes, Mummy, I know," said Eileen, with earnest shining eyes. + +Jake went out to the stables and immersed himself in the day's work. He +had always been a busy man, and time passed swiftly with him. He and his +right-hand man, Sam Vickers, had brought the stud to a pitch of +perfection that had earned for his animals a high place in the opinion of +the racing community. He had, moreover, a reputation for straightness so +unimpeachable that it had become almost a proverb up and down the +country. Men said of Jake Bolton that his honour was such that it could +stand by itself. Certainly no one ever questioned it. + +One of his horses was running at Graydown that afternoon, and at the end +of the morning he returned to the house for a hasty lunch before leaving +for the race-course. All memory of Saltash's _protégé_ had left him, but +it returned to his mind as he saw the extra place laid at the table. He +looked at his watch and realized that she ought to have arrived half an +hour before. Bunny was also absent, presumably waiting for her. + +He paid Maud a brief visit before departing, and found her better. She +was half dressed and lying on a couch in her room. He extracted a promise +from her that she would not go down before tea, though she demurred +somewhat on the score of the expected visitor. + +"Leave her to Bunny!" said Jake. "He's quite capable of looking after her +for an hour or two." + +"I think Bunny meant to go to the races," she said. + +Jake frowned. "Well, he can't for once. Don't you fret now! She'll be all +right." + +"Well, tell them to bring her straight up to see me when she arrives!" +Maud begged him. "I shan't be asleep, and really I am much better." + +"All right," he conceded. "I'll do that." + +He went out and there fell the deep shining peace of a spring afternoon. +Somewhere in the distance a cuckoo was calling softly, monotonously, +seductively. A thrush was warbling in the terraced garden, and from her +window Maud could see old Chops the setter curled up in a warm corner +asleep. The children were all out on the downs, and the house was very +quiet. + +Her thoughts turned dreamily to Saltash. What a pity he did not find some +nice girl to marry! Her faith in him, often shaken and as often renewed, +had somehow taken deeper root since their talk of the night before. +Charlie was beginning to tire of his riotous living. He was beginning to +want the better things. But in his present mood she saw a danger. He had +come to a critical point in his career, and he would either go up or +down. There would be no middle course with him. Knowing him as she did, +she realized that a very little pressure would incline him either way. +She felt as if his very life hung in the balance. It depended so +vitally--upon whence the pressure came. + +"If only some decent woman would fall in love with him!" she sighed, and +then found herself smiling wistfully at the thought that Saltash's heart +would not be an easy thing to capture. He was far too accustomed to +adulation, wherever he went. "Besides, he's such a flirt," she reflected. +"One never knows whether he is in earnest till the mischief is done." + +The cuckoo's soft persistence began somehow to seem like a penance. "When +he has said it just like that four hundred and fifty times he'll be +absolved and allowed to change his tune," was her thought. "I wonder if +poor Charles Rex has said the same thing as often as that, and if that is +why he is tired." + +A mist began to rise in her brain, making vague the cuckoo's call, +blurring even the clear sweet notes of the thrush. A delicious drowsiness +crept over her. She gave herself to it with conscious delight. It was so +exquisite to feel the grim band that had bound her brow with such cruel +tightness relax at last and fall away. Very blissfully she drifted into +slumber. + +It was nearly two hours later that she became somewhat suddenly aware of +feet sauntering under her window and young voices talking together. + +"Hullo!" said one abruptly, it was Bunny's speaking with careless +friendliness. "Stand still a minute! There's an immense green caterpillar +waving to me from your hat-brim." + +A voice that was like a boy's, dear, bell-like, made instant response. +"Oh hell! Do take it off!" + +Maud started wide awake with involuntary shrinking. + +There came a chuckle from Bunny and, after a pause and the eloquent +crunch of a heel on the gravel, his voice on a note of laughter. "I +didn't say it!" + +"Great Scott!" ejaculated the clear boyish tones. "Do you mean you're +shocked?" + +"Not at all," said Bunny courteously. + +"Well then, what does it matter who said it?" demanded the other. + +"It doesn't matter," said Bunny, still suppressing merriment. "Except +that it isn't said in this house." + +"Oh damn!" said the newcomer disconsolately. "Then I shall soon be sent +back in disgrace." + +"Cheer up!" said Bunny. "We don't convict on a first offence as a rule in +this country." + +"But I shall never remember!" groaned the other, and for the first time +the words held a note that was not wholly boyish, it sounded wistful, +even rather piteous. "People's ways are all so different. It's rather +infernal--trying to please everybody, you know, Bunny." + +"Never mind!" said Bunny, in a brotherly tone. "I'll kick you every time +I see it coming if you like." + +"Will you really? That would be jolly decent of you." The wistfulness +vanished in a laugh that was quick and musical, wholly spontaneous. + +"You bet I will!" said Bunny. + +"Right O! Mind you do! Now get out of the way and see me jump that rose +tree!" + +There followed the light scamper of feet, and Maud raised herself swiftly +and leaned forth in time to see an athletic little figure in navy blue +wearing a jaunty Panama hat, skim like a bird over a sweeping Dorothy +Perkins just coming into bloom and alight on one leg with the perfect +poise of a winged Mercury on the other side. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +HOW TO MANAGE MEN + + +Bunny's lanky form followed and also cleared the rose-tree with +infinitely less grace, and again the girl laughed, her wide blue eyes +alight with mirth. + +"What an antic! I thought you were going to pull up the rose bush with +your heels! What are you doing that for?" + +Bunny's hands were on her shoulders. He was plainly enjoying himself +thoroughly. "I'm feeling for the wings," he explained. "I'll swear you +never jumped it. Where do you keep 'em?" + +She drew herself away from his touch. "No, I haven't got any. They don't +grow on people like me. Don't let's stay here! I feel as if we're being +watched." + +It was then that Maud spoke from her window in her quiet gentle voice +that yet held a certain authority. + +"Bunny, bring our visitor up to see me!" + +Both Bunny and his companion started and looked up, and Maud saw the +girl's face fully for the first time--a nervous little face with haunting +wide blue eyes made more intense by the short thick black lashes that +surrounded them, eyes that seemed to plead for kindness. There was charm +about the pointed chin and a good deal of sweetness about the moulding of +the mouth. But it was the eyes that held Maud's attention. They were the +eyes of a creature who has known the wild agony of fear and is not easily +reassured. Yet the face was the face of a child. + +She leaned out a little further on her sill and addressed the stranger. +"Come up and speak to me!" she said very kindly. "Bunny will show you the +way." + +A shy flickering smile answered her. She cast a questioning look at +Bunny. + +"Yes, that's Maud--my sister," said Bunny. "Come along! This way!" + +They entered the house by a French window, and Maud drew back into her +room. What was there in that childish face that appealed so tremendously +to her womanhood--wholly banishing her first involuntary sense of recoil? +She could not have said, she was only conscious of the woman in her +throbbing with a deep compassion. She stood and waited for the child's +coming with a strangely poignant expectation. + +She heard Bunny's voice talking cheerily on the stairs, but his words +provoked no response. She went to the door and opened it. + +Bunny was leading the way; in fact his companion seemed to be lagging +very considerably in the rear. + +Maud moved out into the passage, and Bunny stood to one side with a +courteous gesture. "Mademoiselle Antoinette Larpent!" he announced. + +The small figure in blue drew itself together with a certain bravado and +came forward. + +Maud held out her hands. "My dear child," she said, "I expected you long +ago." + +The hands she clasped were very small and cold. They did not cling to her +as she had half expected. The blue eyes flashed her a single nervous +glance and fell. + +"I'm sorry I'm late, madam," said the visitor in a low, punctilious +voice. + +Maud felt amused and chilled in the same moment. "Come and sit down!" she +said. "We will have some tea upstairs. Bunny, go and order it, will you?" + +"With pleasure," said Bunny. "And may I return?" + +She smiled at him as she passed an arm about the girl's narrow shoulders. +"Yes, you can come back when it's ready. Come in here, dear! You will +like to take off your things. How long have you been here?" + +"Only five minutes," came the murmured answer; she thought it had a +deprecating sound. + +"You must be tired," she said kindly. "You came from town? How is it you +are so late? Did you miss your train?" + +"No, madam." Very nervously came the reply. The contrast between this and +the boyish freedom of manner on the terrace a few seconds before would +have been ludicrous if it had not been somehow pathetic. + +She passed on, too considerate to press for details. "Take off your hat +and coat, won't you? When we have had some tea I will take you to your +room." + +She was pleased to see that Charlie's _protégé_ was garbed with extreme +simplicity. Her fair hair, which had been closely shorn, was beginning to +curl at the ends. She liked the delicate contrasting line of the black +brows above the deep blue of the eyes. She noticed that the veins on the +white temples showed with great distinctness. + +"Sit down!" she said. "And now you must tell me what to call you. Your +name is Antoinette, isn't it?" + +"I'm generally called Toby," said the visitor in a very shy voice. "But +you will call me--what you like." + +"Would you like me to call you Toby?" Maud asked. + +"Yes, please," said Toby with unexpected briskness. + +Maud smiled. "Very well, my dear. Then that is settled. We are not going +to be strangers, you and I. I expect you know that Lord Saltash and I are +great friends--though I have never met your father." + +Toby's pale young face flushed suddenly. She was silent for a moment. +Then: "Lord Saltash has been very good to me," she said in her shy voice. +"He--saved me from drowning. Wasn't it--wasn't it nice of him to--take +the trouble?" + +"Quite nice of him," Maud agreed. "You must have been very frightened, +weren't you?" + +Toby suppressed a shudder. "I was rather. And the water was dreadfully +cold. I thought we should never come up again. It was like--it was +like--" She stopped herself. "He said I was never to talk about it--or +think about it--so I won't, if you don't mind." + +"Tell me about your father!" said Maud sympathetically. + +For the second time the blue eyes flashed towards her. "Oh, he is still +ill in a nursing home and not allowed to see anyone." There was a hint of +recklessness in her voice. "They say he'll get well again, but--I don't +know." + +"You are anxious about him," Maud said. + +"No, I'm not." Recklessness became something akin to defiance. "I don't +like him much. He's so surly." + +"My dear!" said Maud, momentarily disconcerted. + +"Well, it's no good pretending I do when I don't, is it?" said Toby, and +suddenly smiled at her with winning gracelessness. "It isn't my fault +We're not friends--never have been. Why," she made a little gesture of +the hands, "we hardly know each other. I'd never been on _The Night Moth_ +before." + +"And you'll never go again," commented Bunny, entering at the moment, +"Maud, do you know I took--Miss Larpent--" he turned deliberately to Toby +who snapped her fingers in airy acknowledgment--"to see the races instead +of coming straight back--according to the boss's instructions." + +"Oh! So that's where you've been!" said Maud. + +"Exactly so." Bunny pulled up a chair and disposed his long legs astride +it. "We saw several events, and made a bit. Then Forest Fire let us down +badly and we lost the lot. After that we went into the paddock to cool +ourselves and met the boss, who at once--somewhat rudely--ordered us +home. I have an impression he's feeling waxy with me for some reason," +Bunny ended, stroking his chin reflectively. "Daresay I shall get over +it, however." + +"What a pity you went!" said Maud. + +"Not at all," said Bunny. "We enjoyed it. It's fun doing naughty things +sometimes, isn't it,--er--Miss Larpent?" + +"Don't be an ass!" said Toby tersely. + +Maud raised her brows, but Bunny grinned with delight. "Thank you Toby! I +take the hint. There shall be no more ceremony between us. Ah! There come +the children along the path by the summerhouse!" he sprang to the window +and sent forth a yell, turning back almost instantly to say, "Sorry, +Maud! I'm afraid I forgot your head. How is it?" + +He did not wait for her reply, but leaned out again immediately to +address the advancing children with noisy gayety. + +Toby looked up at Maud, hesitated, and rose. "Let us go and have tea with +the children!" she said. "It will be quieter for you." + +Maud put out a gentle hand to her. "No, dear. You stay with me. Bunny may +if he likes!" + +This time Toby's fingers closed tightly upon her own. "Sure?" said Toby. + +"Quite sure," said Maud, smiling at her. + +Toby turned sharply and pinched Bunny's elbow as he leaned from the +window. He drew himself in and stared at her. + +"You're making too much noise," she told him curtly. "You go and racket +downstairs!" + +Bunny's eyes widened for a second in indignant amazement, then abruptly +he threw up his chin and laughed. "I like you!" he declared. "You're the +cockiest thing in girls I've ever seen!" + +Toby pulled at his elbow like a small, persistent dog. "Go on!" she +commanded. "Go down to them! Mrs. Bolton and I want to have our tea +alone. I'll come and play with you presently--if you're good." + +It was spoken wholly without coquetry, much as an elder brother might +speak to a younger. It was plain that she meant to have her way, though +Maud, who knew that there was a very strong mixture of stubbornness in +Bunny, wondered much if she would get it. Amusement, however, kept the +upper hand with him. Toby's treatment evidently appealed strongly to his +sense of humour. Perhaps her determination also made its impression upon +him, for after a little more chaff on his part and brisk insistence on +hers he departed, laughing, to join the children. + +Toby saw him to the door and returned calm and triumphant. + +"Well done!" said Maud. "You know how to deal with spoilt children +evidently." + +Toby looked at her sharply as she sat down, almost as if she expected a +double meaning to the words. + +"Do you mean men?" she said, and for an instant her childish face wore a +look of contempt. "Oh, anyone can manage men--given a fair chance. +There's not much cleverness needed for that." + +She spoke with the decision of one who knew, and in spite of the +difference of years between them Maud could not question her confidence. +She had a curious feeling that--either by experience or intuition--this +girl knew more than she. + +She made no comment therefore, and after a moment Toby spoke her last +word on the subject with characteristic brevity. + +"There's only one rule to follow with men--that is, if you want any peace +at all. Make up your mind and stick to it! If they don't like it, let 'em +go to--" She checked suddenly, and coloured deeply under Maud's eyes--"I +mean, let 'em do the other thing," she ended, on a note that somehow +seemed to ask for pardon. + +"I see," said Maud gently, in a tone that conveyed it. + +Toby threw her a little smile, half-grateful and half-mischievous; and +curiously in that moment a bond was formed between them which was +destined to endure. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE PROMISE + + +There was undoubtedly a frown on Jake's usually serene countenance when +he walked up the great stable-yard a little later that evening and came +upon Bunny lounging in a doorway with his hands in his pockets talking to +one of the men. + +"Look here, young feller, I want a word with you," he said, with his +customary directness, and laid a somewhat peremptory hand upon the boy's +shoulder. + +Bunny, with a cigarette between his lips, turned and laughed at him +without a hint of discomfiture. "All right, boss. I'll come," he said, +and linked his arm in Jake's with boyish friendliness. + +He was half-a-head taller than Jake, but the look of power that was so +apparent in the older man was wholly absent in him. He moved his long +limbs with a loose swing that lacked energy though it seemed to denote a +certain restlessness. + +"Wonder what you'll do without me here when I go to Charlie," he +remarked, as Jake did not immediately speak. + +"I should say the sooner you go the better," said Jake rather brutally, +"if I were only sure you were going to the right place." + +"Have a smoke!" said Bunny with unruffled amiability, proffering his +case. + +Jake pushed it from him with a curt sound of dissatisfaction. + +"All right. Don't!" said Bunny, with instant haughtiness, and returned it +to his pocket. + +He would have withdrawn his hand from his brother-in-law's arm, but Jake +retained it there forcibly, steering for his own private office at the +end of the stable-yard. + +Bunny submitted, but his face grew ominously dark as they passed in +silence between the long rows of loose-boxes in the soft spring twilight. +As they neared Jake's room he drew himself together with the action of a +man who braces his muscles for a sudden strain, and in a moment he was +older, less defiant, more dignified. + +"That's better," Jake said, making him enter first. "There are times, Sir +Bernard Brian, when I want to lick you, as you never--unfortunately--were +licked in your early youth. Other times--like the present--when the breed +gets the better of me, and I can only stand outside--and admire." + +"Oh, don't be a blithering idiot, Jake!" said Bunny in hot discomfiture. +Jake's hand grasped his shoulder. "Sit down, and bring yourself to my +level for a minute! Maybe I am a blithering idiot, maybe I'm not. But I +could take you by the heels and dip you in the horse-pond round the +corner if I felt that way. So you'd better keep as civil as possible. It +won't make a mite of difference to me, but it may to you." + +Bunny sat down, breathing hard. His cigarette fell to the ground and he +stooped for it, but Jake, still holding his shoulder, stooped also, +picked it up and flung it straight out of the window. + +"You smoke too many of 'em," he said, as he did it. + +"Damn you!" said Bunny in a voice of concentrated fury. + +He would have sprung to his feet, but Jake's hands were upon him like +iron clamps and kept him seated. + +He spoke, his voice soft, unhurried, even humorous. "I'm only a beastly +groom, you know, Bunny. You don't expect good manners from me, do you?" + +Bunny shrank a little, as if something in the words pierced him. Jake's +eyes, very bright but wholly free from anger looked straight into his. +For some reason he ceased to strain against the compelling hands and sat +passive. + +There followed a somewhat tense silence before he said, "Well, go on! I +knew you wanted to row me about something. What's it all about?" + +His voice was sullen but his attitude was no longer hostile. He looked +ashamed. + +Jake sat down suddenly on the edge of the writing-table. "Say, Bunny!" he +said gently. "Do you know you're the only man in the world that can send +me to perdition and not have his teeth knocked down his throat for his +officiousness?" + +Bunny looked up at him, and in a moment, like the flash of sunshine from +behind a cloud, he was smiling. "Oh, get out, Jake. I suppose you're +going to wipe the floor with me now. I didn't mean it and I'm sorry. +Let's get on from there!" + +His hand gripped Jake's hard. There was something very winning about him +at the moment, something that appealed strongly to the older man though +he did not instantly reply. He kept the boy's hand in his for a moment, +and his eyes were very kindly as he looked into the thin young face. + +"Guess you know I'm pretty fond of you, my son," he said at length, "but +I don't figure to let you go to the devil unhindered on that account." + +Bunny whistled. "Who's going? Oh, don't be an ass, Jake, will you?" + +"No, I won't," said Jake, "at least not the soft variety. Reckon I've +been too soft with you, Bunny, as long as I've known you." + +Bunny stirred restlessly in his chair. "Think so?" he said. "Well, it's a +good fault, old chap. I can't stand bullying from anyone--makes me see +red at once." + +"I know," Jake said. "I've never bullied you anyway. But I'm on the +war-path now, and you've got to take your physic whether you like it or +not. Say, Bunny, how much money did you drop at the races this +afternoon?" + +"What's that to you?" said Bunny. + +Jake's face hardened a little. "Well, I expected that," he said. "Afraid +to tell me, eh?" + +"Not in the least afraid," said Bunny. "I dispute your right to know, +that's all." + +"I see." Jake regarded him with a very direct scrutiny. "I'm to be kept +in my place, is that it?" + +Bunny coloured. "That's the fourth time you've called me a bounder since +we came in. What do you mean by it, Jake?" + +"What do I mean?" Jake spoke rather sadly. "Well, maybe that's just what +I do mean, Bunny. You're beginning to bound." + +"Rot!" said Bunny, though he coloured more deeply than before. "You know +there isn't another fellow anywhere that I respect as I respect you. +But--dash it, Jake!--you must let me grow." + +"I want you to," said Jake. "But for the Lord's sake, grow straight!" He +reached out and took Bunny by the shoulder. "I'm going to ask a big thing +of you, sonny, but I guess I shall know by the way you take it how much +your respect for me is worth." + +"What is it?" said Bunny. + +"Just this." Jake leaned forward; there was speculation in his look. "I +want you to chuck racing--altogether--for a year. There!" + +"Chuck racing!" Bunny sat up very straight. "Jake! Why on earth should +I?" + +Jake's hand closed upon him. He was smiling a little but there was +something relentless behind his smile. "Oh, just to please me," he said. +"That's all." + +Bunny stared at him. "Chuck racing!" he said again. "Jake, you're mad!" + +"No, I guess not," said Jake imperturbably. "I'm not arguing any against +racing. Played straight, it's the best game in the world. I'm just asking +a personal favour of you. There's nothing to be hurt about in that." + +There was an ominous gleam in Bunny's eyes. He looked as if he were on +the verge of open rebellion, but with his last words Jake's steady arm +suddenly went round his shoulders and gave him a hard, brotherly squeeze. + +"Don't do it if you're going to hate me for it!" he said. "Reckon I can't +afford that. I knew it was a gamble when I started. If I can't win, I'll +back out right now." + +"Jake!" Quick feeling sounded in Bunny's voice. He turned sharply, and +for an instant his cheek was against the kindly hand with the old boyish +gesture of affection. Then he looked Jake full in the eyes and laughed. +"Jake, I say, don't be a beast! You know I'll do anything under the sun +to please you." + +"You'll do this?" said Jake. + +"Tell me why first!" said Bunny. + +"Because I want to know if you've got the grit for one thing. And for +another--that girl who has just come here is a gambler to the backbone, +and I won't have her encouraged." + +"How on earth do you know that?" said Bunny. "Did Charlie tell you?" + +"No." Jake's voice was grim. "You don't suppose I'd take his word for +anything, do you? I saw it in her face this afternoon. I know that +gambling fever, and she--well, I'm inclined to think she's had it in one +form or another all her life." + +"She's quite a nice kid," said Bunny condescendingly. + +Jake smiled, but the firmness remained. "She's not your sort, Sir Bernard +Brian," he remarked. "And I rather guess she could teach you more than +you could teach her." + +"What do you mean?" said Bunny. + +Jake turned aside to shut the window in preparation for departure. "Well, +sonny," he said in a marked drawl, "I guess I mean just that. If you +aren't sharp enough to draw your own conclusions, that's none of my +business." He turned round and looked at Bunny with absolute directness. +"And that other proposition of mine,--did I understand you to fall in +with it?" + +"Chuck racing for a year, you mean?" Bunny got up. His face was still +red, but it showed no resentment. "It's rather much, isn't it, Jake?" + +"Too much?" questioned Jake. + +Bunny hesitated. "Well, a year! Make it three months!" he said coaxingly. + +Jake came to him, square and resolute. "I'll make it six months, Bunny," +he said, "if you can tell me you didn't drop more than fifty pounds this +afternoon." + +Bunny turned crimson. "This afternoon was an exception," he said hastily. + +"I thought so," said Jake dryly. + +"But--damn it!--it's rather a heavy penalty to pay," protested Bunny. He +thrust out an impulsive hand. "I say, let me off, old feller! I won't do +it again." + +Jake's fingers closed and held. He said nothing, merely waited. + +And very suddenly--after his own headlong fashion--Bunny made +unconditional surrender. "Oh, get out, you beastly groom!" he said, and +wrung Jake's hand with all the force he could muster. "All right! It's +done!" + +Jake made an odd movement as of tension relaxed though none had been +apparent in his bearing. He struck Bunny on the shoulder the blow of a +friend. + +"That's the biggest thing you've ever done for me, pard," he said with a +smile. "Reckon I shan't forget it. Take it out of me next time!" + +"You bet I will!" said Bunny. + +He linked his arm through Jake's and gripped it hard. His eyes were +shining as they passed out together into the gathering dusk. He had made +a considerable sacrifice, but Jake had the gift of making him realize +that it was worth while. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE ALLY + + +A squeal of childish laughter echoed down the long passage that led from +the nurseries, followed by a shuffling sound along the floor. + +"Hold tight!" cried a voice, a gay, boyish voice, "I'm going to gallop!" + +There followed a tremendous scrambling along the corridor and shrieks of +delight from three excited children. Jake, who had just mounted the +stairs, paused in his progress; but in a moment there came a dramatic +sound indicative of collapse, and immediately there arose cries of +dismay. He turned an intervening corner and came upon the newly-arrived +guest quite prone upon the floor with his three little girls scuffling in +delighted agitation over her inert body. + +He hesitated to interrupt the game, but in an instant Betty the youngest +had spied him and uttered a shrill cry of welcome. The heap upon the +floor swiftly resolved itself into four separate beings, and the newcomer +sprang up with the litheness of a squirrel and met him with a free grace +that was not without a suggestion of defiance. + +He held out his hand to her. He understood the defiance and replied to it +with characteristic directness. + +"Guess you thought me a rough sort of animal when we met in the paddock +this afternoon," he said. "I'm sorry. It was Bunny I was up against--not +you." + +"Not me?" said Toby, her wide eyes lifted quite openly to his. "Sure?" + +He pinched the slim young hand without ceremony. Somehow she took him by +storm--this girl with the open brow and curiously pathetic face. "Well, +not so much you," he said. "Bunny knows that gambling on a big scale is +against the law for children of his age." + +"Oh, I see," said Toby. She smiled and slipped her hand free. "Well, I'm +years older than he is, so that doesn't apply to me. Bunny wasn't doing +any gambling either." + +"I gathered that," said Jake. + +She stopped and lifted Molly the second child, partially veiling her own +face with the little girl's soft curls. "Then you are up against me," she +said. + +"No, I'm not," Jake's voice held a queer, compassionate note. "We won't +quarrel till we know each other better anyway. I see you're pretty +intimate with the youngsters already." + +"Oh, that's easy, isn't it?" said Toby. "Babies always take you at your +face value. They are never prejudiced beforehand. There's never any +handicap of that sort with babies." + +Betty was clamouring at her knees. She bent and lifted her also, bracing +her slight form to a double burden of which Jake instantly relieved her, +gathering both children into his own strong arms. + +"You're not to do that ever again," he said, with the authority of the +man accustomed to obedience. "Understand?" + +"Why not?" said Toby. + +He turned to carry the two babies to the nursery. "Because I say it," he +said briefly. + +"Oh, but that's no reason," said Toby, with light assurance. + +Eileen at her side looked up in shocked amazement. "Not if Daddy says +so?" she questioned. + +Toby stooped and swung her up to her shoulder. "You little featherweight! +Daddy's only a man!" she said. + +"Quite true," said Jake deliberately. "The sort of man who means what he +says--always, and sees that he gets it." + +"What a frightful undertaking!" laughed Toby. "Then if you told me to go +to blazes you'd see that I went?" + +There was a pause. Eileen's little hands locked themselves nervously +under Toby's chin. Perhaps she was aware of a certain electricity in the +atmosphere. She was plainly not at her ease. + +Jake's voice sounded, very quiet and distinct, from the nursery door as +he entered. "I reckon that's just one of the things I've learnt not to +say." + +"Oh glory!" said Toby, "There goes the odd trick!" + +It was several minutes later, after a wild final romp that they left +the room together. There was certainly no ceremony left between them. +They came out as comrades, laughing at the same joke, their brief +passage-at-arms apparently forgotten. + +Toby, however, reverted to it very suddenly as they walked along the +passage. "Mr. Bolton, I'm sorry I got Bunny into hot water this +afternoon. It was all my fault. And I'm sorry I said blazes in front of +the babies just now. You'll have to kick me when I do these things, and +then I'll remember." + +Jake paused and looked at her. "Say! Are you a boy or a girl?" he said. + +She smiled, a faintly dubious smile, but her reply was prompt. "Mostly +boy, sir. That's what makes it so difficult." + +He put his hand on her shoulder. "Look here! Call me Jake, see? Are you +keen on horses?" + +Toby's eyes shone. "Like mad," she said. + +"I'll see you ride tomorrow," said Jake. + +Toby whooped with delight. "But I'll have to borrow some breeches from +someone. You don't want me to ride in a skirt do you?" + +"Not specially," said Jake. "What do you generally ride in?" + +"Tights," said Toby, and then suddenly clapped her hand to her mouth in +dismay. "There! Now I've done it! You won't tell--you'll never tell, will +you? Promise!" + +"Sure!" said Jake. He was smiling a little, but there was compassion in +his eyes. + +And Toby's hand came out to him in sudden confidence. "I like you," she +said. "You're a friend." + +Jake's grasp was strong and kindly. "I guess I shan't let you down," he +said. + +Toby nodded. "You've been a cow-boy, haven't you? I knew that directly I +saw you." + +"I've been a good many things," said Jake. + +She nodded again. "And always the right sort. I wish--" She broke off +abruptly. + +"What?" said Jake. + +"Oh, nothing," said Toby, with a rather wistful little laugh. + +"Let's have it!" said Jake. + +Her hand lay in his, and this time she left it there. Her blue eyes met +his courageously. "Only that I'd met you before," she said. + +"Before when?" said Jake. "Before you met Saltash?" + +"Oh no!" Very swiftly, she answered him. "Oh no! Lord Saltash is among +the kings. I'd have been dead by now but for him!" Her eyes kindled as +with a sudden glowing memory, she flushed like an eager child. "You know +him?" she said. "Isn't he--isn't he--fine?" + +She spoke with reverence, even with a certain awe. The man's face changed +a little, hardening almost imperceptibly. + +"Guess he's no great hero of mine," he said. "But maybe he has his +points." + +"He has!" Toby assured him with fervor. "You don't know him like I do. +He's a--he's a masterpiece." + +"That so?" said Jake. + +Perhaps Toby felt a lack of sympathy in his tone; she quitted the subject +abruptly. "No, that wasn't what I meant. I only wish I'd met you long +ago--years and years ago--when you were a cow-boy." + +"You were a babe in arms then," said Jake. + +She shook her head, quaintly smiling. "I wasn't ever that. I think I must +have been born old--began at the wrong end somehow. Some people do, you +know." + +"I know," said Jake. "When that happens, there's only one thing to be +done." + +"What?" queried Toby. + +His eyes were watching her intently, but there was nothing alarming in +their scrutiny. He made reply with absolute gentleness. "Begin again." + +"Ah!" A little sound that was more than a sigh escaped her, and then +quite suddenly her other hand came out to him; she lifted a quivering +face. "You going to help me?" she said. + +The action touched him. He took her by the shoulders as he might have +taken a boy. "I'll help you," he said. + +"You'll be good to me?" Her voice was quivering also, it had a sound of +tears. + +"Sure!" said Jake, laconic and forceful. + +"Keep me straight and pull me up when I go wrong?" pursued Toby +tremulously. + +"Yes, I'll do that," he said. + +"And you won't--you won't--you won't--talk to anybody about me?" she +pleaded. + +"No," said Jake briefly. + +"Not to Lord Saltash? Not to anyone?" + +"No," he said again, a hint of sternness in the curt word. + +Toby gulped down her distress, was silent for a moment or two, then +suddenly smiled upon him--a sunny inconsequent smile. "Guess I've got you +on my side now," she said with satisfaction. "You're nice and solid, Mr. +Jake Bolton. When you've been picked up from the very bottom of the sea, +it's good to have someone big and safe to hold on to." + +"That so?" said Jake. + +"Yes, I know now why Lord Saltash sent me here--just because you're +big--and safe." + +"Oh, quite safe," said Jake with his sudden smile. + +It came to him--as it had come to Saltash--that there was something +piteously like a small animal, storm-driven and seeking refuge, about +her. Even in her merriest moments she seemed to plead for kindness. + +He patted her shoulder reassuringly as he let her go. "I'll look after +you," he said, "if you play the game." + +"What game?" said Toby unexpectedly. + +He looked her squarely in the eyes. "The only game worth playing," he +said. "The straight game." + +"Oh, I see," said Toby with much meekness. "Not cheat, you mean? Lord +Saltash doesn't allow cheating either." + +"Good land!" said Jake in open astonishment. + +"You don't know him," said Toby again with conviction. + +And Jake laughed, good-humoured but sceptical. "Maybe I've something to +learn yet," he said tolerantly. "But it's my impression that for sheer +mischief and double-dealing he could knock spots off any other human +being on this earth." + +"Oh, if that's all you know about him," said Toby, "you've never even met +him--never once." + +"Have you?" questioned Jake abruptly. + +She coloured up to the soft fair hair that clustered about her +blue-veined temples, and turned from him with an odd little indrawn +breath. "Yes!" she said. "Yes!"--paused an instant as if about to say +more; then again in a whisper, "Yes!" she said, and went lightly away as +if the subject were too sacred for further discussion. + +"Good land!" said Jake again, and departed to his own room in grim +amazement. + +Saltash the sinner was well known to him and by no means uncongenial; but +Saltash the saint, not only beloved, but reverenced and enshrined as +such, as something beyond his comprehension! How on earth had he managed +to achieve his sainthood? + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE IDOL + + +"Well?" said Saltash with quizzical interest. "Where is she? And how is +she getting on?" + +It was the Sunday afternoon of his promised visit, a day soft with spring +showers and fleeting sunshine. Maud sat in a basket-chair on the verandah +and regarded him with puzzled eyes. She passed his questions by. + +"Charlie," she said, "where does she come from?" + +He raised his shoulders expressively. "Where do all women come from--and +why, _chère reine_? It would be such a peaceful planet without them." + +He was in a baffling mood, and she knew better than to pursue the subject +under those conditions. She abandoned her effort with a sigh. + +"She is not a woman; she is a child, very charming but utterly +irresponsible. She is in the training field just now with Jake and Bunny. +She is a positive delight to Jake. She can do anything with the horses." + +"But not such a delight to you?" suggested Saltash shrewdly. + +Maud hesitated momentarily. "I love her of course," she said then. +"But--though I have tried to make her feel at ease--I think she is a +little afraid of me--afraid anyhow to be quite natural in my presence." + +"But are we any of us that?" protested Saltash. "Are we not all on our +best behaviour in the audience-chamber?" + +Maud sighed again. "They are all great pals," she said irrelevantly. "She +and Bunny are terribly reckless. I hope they won't break their necks +before they have done." + +"Or their hearts?" suggested Saltash, looking mischievous. + +She smiled. "I don't think there is much danger of that, anyhow at +present. She is a positive child, Charlie,--as young as Eileen in many +ways, or perhaps younger. Shall we walk down to the field and look at +them?" + +"Your servant, madam!" said Saltash readily. + +He was on his feet in an instant, and she realized that he had been +chafing to go since the moment of his arrival. + +"You take a great interest in her," she remarked, as they walked along +the terrace. + +He made his most appalling grimace. "I have never had an infant to look +after before," he said "And--I have to make my report to Larpent." + +"Ah! How is he?" questioned Maud. + +He shot her a swift glance. "Is the child anxious?" + +"Not in the least. I don't believe she ever thinks about him. She told me +on the first day that she hardly knows him." + +Saltash laughed. "How honest of her! Well, he's getting better, but he +won't be well yet. May I leave her in your charge, a while longer?" + +"Of course!" Maud said warmly. "I love to have her, and she is a great +help to me too. The children simply worship her, and she is splendid with +them. I believe Eileen will very soon get over her dread of riding." + +"Toby can ride?" asked Saltash. + +"Oh yes, like a cow-boy. She is amazingly fearless, and never minds a +tumble in the least. She can do the most extraordinary things exactly +like a boy. I am always afraid of her coming to grief, but she never +does." + +"Funny little beggar!" said Saltash. + +"I am quite sure of one thing," pursued Maud. "She never learnt these +things at any school. She tells me she has been to a good many." + +"I believe that's true," said Saltash. "I imagine she is fairly quick to +pick up anything, but I haven't known her myself for long." + +"She must have picked up a good deal on _The Night Moth_," observed Maud +unexpectedly. + +He glanced at her again. "Why do you say that? She was under my +protection--and Larpent's--on _The Night Moth_." + +"I know. She idolizes you," Maud smiled at him somewhat dubiously. "But +she must have mixed fairly freely with the crew to have picked up the +really amazing language she sometimes uses." + +Saltash's brows worked whimsically. "Some of us have a gift that way," he +remarked. "Your worthy Jake, for instance--" + +"Oh, Jake is a reformed character," she interrupted. "He hardly ever lets +himself go now-a-days. And he won't allow it from Bunny. But Toby--Toby +never seems to know the good from the bad." + +"Has Jake taken her in hand?" asked Saltash with a chuckle. + +"Oh yes. He checks her at every turn. I must say she takes it very +sweetly, even offered to take her meals in her room yesterday when he was +rather down on her. It absolutely disarmed Jake of course. What could he +say?" + +"Yes, she's a disarming monkey certainly," agreed Saltash. "But I never +was great on the management and discipline of children. So she knocks +under to the great Jake, does she?" + +"Oh, not entirely." Maud laughed a little. "Only this morning they had a +battle. I don't know how it is going to end yet. But--she can be very +firm." + +"She never tried any battles with me," said Saltash, with some +complacence. + +"No. But then your sense of duty is more elastic than Jake's. You +never--probably--asked her to do anything she didn't want to do." + +"Can't remember," said Saltash. "What did Jake want?" + +Maud's smile lingered. "You'll laugh of course. But Jake is quite right, +whatever you do. He wanted her to go to church with little Eileen and me +this morning. She's only a child, you know, and he naturally took it for +granted that she was going. We both did. But just at the last moment she +absolutely refused, told him quite frankly that she was--an atheist." + +Saltash's laugh had a sound half-mocking, half-exultant. "What said the +worthy Jake to that? Stop! I know what he said. He said. 'You can call +yourself by any fool name you please, but you've got to go to Church +like a respectable citizen if I say so.' Wasn't that it?" + +"Something like it," Maud admitted. "How did you know?" + +"Oh, I know Jake," said Saltash dryly. "And what happened then? She +refused?" + +"Yes, she refused. She was frightened, but she refused. She looked as if +she were going to run away, but in the end Jake went off with her to the +stables saying they would go to-night. They were quite friends when I saw +them again, but she had been crying, poor little thing. I wish I could +help her, but somehow I can't get near enough. Jake seems to understand +her best." + +"Wonder if she will give in?" said Saltash. + +They were passing through a shrubbery that led to the training-field, and +there came the quick thud of hoofs galloping on short turf as they +approached. + +"I don't think there is much doubt about that," Maud said. + +Saltash laughed again mockingly. "Oh, we all know Jake is invincible, +virtuous rectitude incarnate. But you can't hammer a girl into submission +like a boy and I rather fancy that Toby is not wholly ignorant of the art +of getting her own way." + +"Jake never hammered Bunny," Maud said quietly, "But he manages him +notwithstanding." + +They rounded a curve and came upon the gate that led into the field. The +galloping hoofs were close to them. As they reached the corner two riders +flashed past at full speed. One of them--Bunny--lay on his horse's neck, +yelling wild encouragement to his mount. The other,--a slight, childish +figure--was kneeling on the saddle like a small, crouching creature, +perfectly poised and wholly unafraid. As the horse that carried her +dropped to a canter on the hill, she got to her feet with absolute ease, +and stood, arms out and swaying to the animal's motion, till, as they +rounded another curve, she dropped to the saddle again, and passed from +sight, following in Bunny's tracks. + +"Quite a pretty exhibition!" remarked Saltash. "Where is Jake?" + +Jake himself appeared at the moment riding soberly, mounted on his +favourite horse, The Hundredth Chance. He greeted Saltash with a smile +and jumped to the ground to join them at the gate. + +"They'll be round again directly. Just riding off their spirits," he +explained in his easy drawl. "You motored over, my lord?" + +Saltash nodded with a touch of impatience. He was watching with restless +eyes for the reappearance of the girl on horseback. She had not seen him +at the gate, yet somehow his arrogance rebelled at the fact that she +had passed him by. + +Jake stood with The Hundredth Chance nuzzling against him. He did not +trouble himself to make conversation; that was not his way. He also +waited for the reappearance of the riders. + +They came, riding side by side and jesting with careless _camaraderie_. +Toby's face was delicately flushed. The fair head had no covering. She +was dressed and looked exactly like a boy. + +At sight of Saltash standing by the gate her whole attitude changed. She +uttered a queer sound, half-whoop, half-sob, and flung herself out of the +saddle. In a moment she had reached him, was hanging to his arm in mute +greeting, everything else in the world forgotten. It was pathetically +like the re-union of a lost dog to its master. + +Saltash's ugly face softened miraculously at her action. The jest died on +his lips. "Why, Nonette!" he said. "Nonette!" + +She strangled another sob. Her face was burning, quivering, appealing, no +longer the face of a boy. "I thought you'd forgotten to come," she said. + +"What? Was I expected to lunch?" said Saltash. "Ah! Was that why you +wouldn't go to church?" + +Toby looked up, desperately smiling. "It may have been--partly. But I +never do go. Do you?" + +"Not often," said Saltash. "I might if I stayed here. There's no knowing. +You'll be pleased to hear your daddy is better. He's coming down to the +Castle to convalesce. And when he's done that, I'm going to have a +party--a coming-out party--for you." + +"For me!" Toby gasped, staring at him with scared blue eyes. "I hope you +won't, sir," she said. + +He laughed back at her, his brows working mischievously. "_Mais pourquoi +pas, mignonne?_ You are old enough. Maud will come and be hostess, won't +you, Maud? You shall have Jake too for a watch-dog, if you want him. +After that, you shall be presented at Court, when you've learnt to +curtsey prettily instead of turning somersaults. You must let your hair +grow, Nonette, and leave off wearing breeks. You've got to be a credit to +me." + +"Oh, damn!" said Toby in dismay. "I mean--oh, bother!" + +"Yes, it's a good thing you mean only that, isn't it?" laughed Saltash. +"If you go on wearing those masculine things much longer, you'll have +Jake punching your head for little slips of that kind. He's getting +mighty particular, I'm told." + +"Not afraid of Jake!" said Toby, casting a swift look at her host. + +Jake was lighting his pipe. His face wore a faint smile. He was holding +Toby's animal as well as his own. "Aren't you going to ride again?" he +said. + +"No," said Toby. + +"Oh, come on!" Bunny pushed his horse forward without dismounting. "Glad +to see you, Charlie, but we must have one more gallop. Come on, Toby! Be +a sport!" + +But Toby, still holding Saltash's sleeve, would not so much as look at +him. "Not coming," she said tersely. + +Saltash laughed. Bunny coloured suddenly and hotly. "Oh, all right!" he +said, and, wheeling his horse, rode away. + +"Now you've hurt his little feelings," observed Saltash. + +"Who cares?" said Toby, and nestled closer, till with his sudden reckless +grin he thrust an arm about her shoulders. + +"I'll tell you what it is, Nonette. You're getting spoilt all round. +Something will have to be done. Shall I take her away, Jake?" + +"And bring me back when I'm good?" put in Toby eagerly. + +He laughed and pinched her ear. "I shall want to keep you myself--when +you're good. I haven't yet found anyone to sew on buttons like you do. +No, _ma chère_, you'll have to stay and be caned for your sins. Jake is +a better schoolmaster than I am, being so eminently virtuous himself. I +hope you do cane her, Jake. I'm sure she needs it." + +"No," Jake said, preparing to mount again. "I haven't tried that at +present." + +Toby watched him a little wistfully as he moved away, leading her horse. +"I am trying to be good," she said. "He knows that." + +"Yes, she's trying hard," Maud said very kindly. "Jake and I are going to +be proud of her some day." + +Saltash's brows twisted humorously. "I wonder," he said. And then again +lightly he laughed. "Don't get too good, Nonette! I can't rise to it." + +She turned swiftly, looking up into the derisive face above her with open +adoration in her own. "You!" she said. "You!" + +"Well, what about me?" he said. + +She coloured very deeply. "Nothing, sir, nothing! Only--you're so great!" + +He flicked her cheek, grimacing hideously. "Is that your pretty way of +telling me I'm the biggest rotter you ever met?" + +"Oh, no!" said Toby quickly and earnestly. "Oh no! I think you are--a +king. If--if anyone could make me believe in God, you could." + +She spoke with a sincerity that held a hint of passion. The grimace +flicked out of Saltash's face like a picture from a screen. For a moment +he had the blank look of a man who has been hit, he knows not where. Then +with lightning swiftness, his eyes went to Maud. "You hear that?" he +said, almost on a note of challenge. "Why don't you laugh?" + +She met his look with absolute steadfastness. There was a certain pity in +her own. "Because," she said with great gentleness, "I believe that it is +true." + +In the silence that followed she waited for his own laugh of mockery and +did not hear it. The odd eyes comprehended her, and passed her by, fell +abruptly to Toby and dwelt upon her with a whimsical tenderness. + +"I always said you were a little ass, didn't I, Toby?" he said. + +And Toby turned with an apologetic murmur and softly kissed his hand. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +RESOLUTIONS + + +Toby went to church that Sunday evening with great propriety, Saltash +having departed, taking Bunny with him to spend the evening at +Burchester. Her behaviour was a model of decorum throughout, but +returning she begged Jake for a cigarette as a reward of virtue. + +"It'll keep me good for hours," she assured him. + +And Jake, who yearned for a smoke himself, could not find it in his heart +to refuse. + +"Don't overdo it, that's all!" he said. "Young Bunny is always at it, and +it's very bad for him." + +"Oh, I've got heaps more sense than Bunny," said Toby, with lofty +assurance. + +She smoked the cigarette with delicate appreciation though Jake's tobacco +was by no means suited to a feminine palate, and they returned at peace +with all the world. + +Maud, who had been watching for them somewhat anxiously, saw with relief +that her fears were groundless. Toby's serene countenance told her that +all was well. No, she had not hated it so very badly after all. It was +nothing to make a fuss about anyhow. She would go again if Jake liked. + +She seemed in fact mildly amused by the idea that he could be so easily +pleased, and asked him later with her chin in the air if there were any +other odd jobs he would like her to perform. + +But when Maud presently went to the piano, she came and sat on a low +chair near her and listened in absolute stillness while she played. They +were alone, and Maud played on and on, almost forgetful of her silent +companion, suffering her fingers to wander in unison with her thoughts. +All her life music had been her great joy and solace. She was not a +brilliant musician as was Saltash, but she had the gift of so steeping +herself in music that she could at times thereby express that which +otherwise would have been unutterable--the hidden emotions of her soul. + +Nearly an hour had passed thus before she remembered the silent little +figure behind her, and then it was with a swift sense of compunction that +she took her hands from the keys and turned. + +"Toby dear, how boring this must be for you! Are you asleep? Why, child, +what is it?" + +With a start she saw that Toby's fair head was bowed upon her arms in an +attitude of the most hopeless, the most bitter, despair. + +She made a convulsive movement at the sound of Maud's voice, and in a +moment lifted a white, strained face. "I am just a little tired, that's +all," she said in a voice that quivered in spite of her. "Please go on +playing! I like it." + +Maud got up with quiet decision and went to her, but Toby was on her feet +before she reached her. She stood with that look of a small, frightened +animal so characteristic of her, her two hands nervously locked together. + +Maud took her gently by the arm. "Shall we sit down and talk?" she said. + +Toby yielded as it were involuntarily to the quiet touch. In her plain +white blouse with the sailor collar she looked a mere child--a piteous, +shy child. + +Maud drew her down upon the sofa. All the mother in her went out to the +forlorn little creature, yet for the moment she hesitated, as one afraid +to strike a wrong note. + +Toby was trembling a little and that fact decided her. She put a +comforting arm about her. + +"Do you know I am wondering how to make you happy?" she said. + +Toby choked back a sob. "You are very kind, and I am stupid--stupid. I +will try to be happy. I will really." + +Maud began to draw her gently nearer, but Toby surprised her by a sudden +passionate movement and slipped down on to the floor, hiding her face +against her. + +"I'm not fit--to speak to you!" she said in a vehement, strangled +whisper. "I'm so bad--so bad. And I do--so--want to be good." + +"My dear, dear child!" Maud said very tenderly. + +Toby fought with herself for a space, her thin arms tightly clasping +Maud's knees. At last, forcing back her distress she lifted her head. + +"I'm so dreadfully sorry. Don't let it upset you! Don't--tell Jake!" + +"You are quite safe with me, dear," Maud assured her. "But can't I help +you?" + +She knew even as she asked the question that Toby was not prepared to +give her full confidence, and her own reserve shrank from asking for it. + +Toby looked up at her with quivering lips. "Oh, you are good!" she said. +"I want to be good--like you. But--I don't feel as if I ever shall be." + +Maud laid a very gentle hand upon the blue-veined forehead. "I think +goodness is only comparative at the best of times, dear," she said. "I +don't feel that I am specially good. If I seem so to you, it is probably +because my life holds very few temptations to be anything else." + +"Ah!" Toby said, with a quick sigh. "And do you think people ought to be +made to suffer for--for things they can't help?" + +Maud shook her head. "I am afraid it often happens, dear." + +"And yet you believe in God," Toby said. + +"Yes, I believe in God." With quiet reverence Maud made answer. "And I am +quite sure, Toby--quite, quite sure--that He never holds people +responsible for the things they can't help." + +"Then why--" began Toby restlessly. + +Maud interrupted her. "No, no. Don't ask why! The world is as God made +it. 'We are His workmanship.' Let Him do with us as He will!" + +Toby's hands clenched. A frown that was curiously unchildlike drew the +wide forehead. "Are we to be quite passive then? Just--slaves?" + +"No," Maud said. "Servants--not slaves. There is a big difference. And +every one of us--every one of us--has God's work to do in the world." + +"And you think that bad people,--like me--can do anything?" said Toby. + +Maud smiled a little. "Toby dear, I am quite sure that your work is +waiting for you." + +"Don't know where I'm going to begin," said Toby, with another sigh. + +"My dear, you have begun." Maud's hand smoothed the fair hair. "Do you +think I don't know how hard you try?" + +Toby's eyes filled with quick tears. "But is it any good trying? Shall I +ever get away from--from--" She broke off with a nervous, upward glance. +"Shall I ever do more than begin?" she substituted rather piteously. + +"My dear, yes." Very quietly, with absolute decision, Maud made answer. +"You are young--too young to be hampered by anything that is past. You +have your life before you, and--to a very great extent--you can make of +it what you will. There is no need--believe me, there is no need--to look +back. There is only time enough for the present. Just keep on trying! +Make the very best you can of it! And you will find the future will come +out all right." + +"Will it?" said Toby rather dubiously. + +Maud bent and kissed her. "Certainly it will, dear. Never doubt it! It +may not be the future we plan for ourselves, but it will be the very best +possible if we keep on doing our best with the present." + +"Thank you," Toby murmured gratefully. "And you really think--you do +really think--the past doesn't matter?" + +Maud was silent for a few moments. The thought of Saltash was in her +mind, his jesting evasions, his air of careless proprietorship. What was +the thing in this child's past that she desired so earnestly to put away? +She wondered if she ought to ask, but she could not. + +A slight terror ran through the small, supplicating figure at her knee, +and quick pity banished doubt. "I think it is entirely in our own hands, +dear," she said gently. "The past can always be left behind if we work +hard enough." + +"Oh, thank you," Toby said again, and gathering Maud's hands +impulsively into her own she kissed them. "I'm going to work very hard," +she said. "You'll help me, I know. I've got to--to leave off turning +somersaults--and learn to--curtsey." + +She sent a shy smile into Maud's face, and almost in spite of herself +Maud answered it. There was something oddly appealing, irresistibly +attractive, about the child. She was so young and ardent, yet so +pathetically anxious to please. + +"Of course I will help you," she said. "I will always help you, my dear." + +And Toby, emboldened, thrust warm arms about her neck, and held her +close. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE BUTTERFLY + + +The perfect rose of a June sunset was slanting through the fir-woods of +Burchester Park, making the red trunks glow. At the end of a long grass +ride the new moon dipped to the west, a silver boat uptilted in a green +transparent sea. A very great stillness lay upon all things--the eventide +quiet of a summer day. + +The dull thudding of a horse's hoofs along the ride scarcely seemed to +break that magic silence. A frightened rabbit scurrying to cover made no +sound at all. Somewhere a long way off a cuckoo was calling, tenderly, +persistently. Somewhere near at hand a blackbird was warbling to his +mate. But it all went into the enchanted silence, blending with the hush +of the coming night. The man who rode the horse was conscious only of the +peace of his surroundings. He doffed his cap to the moon in mock +reverence, and carried it in his hand. + +He came to the end of the ride and checked his animal on the brow of a +steep descent. The park lay below him wrapped in mystery. On another +slope a full mile away stood the Castle, ancient battlemented, starkly +splendid, one westward-facing window burning as with fire. He sat +motionless for a space, gazing across at it, his face a curious mask of +conjecture and regret. + +Finally, with great suddenness, he lifted his hand and smote his horse +sharply on the flank. In a moment he was being precipitated at a headlong +gallop down the hill. He went like the wind, and the enchanted wood +was left behind. + +Riding up the further slope to the Castle a few minutes later, he was +hailed from behind and reined in to look back. A long-legged figure +detached itself from a clump of trees that shadowed the bailiff's house +and came racing in pursuit. + +"Hi! Charlie! Don't be in such a deuce of a hurry! I'm going your way." + +Saltash waited, not too patiently. "My good chap, you're dressed and I'm +not! I shall be late for my guests." + +"What's it matter?" scoffed Bunny breathlessly, reaching his side. "Maud +and Jake don't count, and Toby is only a kid. I don't suppose she's ever +been out to dine before." + +"She's old enough to begin," remarked Saltash, pushing on at a walk. + +"Well, she is beginning," said Bunny, with a grin as he strode beside +him. "You haven't seen her for some weeks, have you? You'll see a +difference, and so will her father." + +"How?" said Saltash briefly. + +Bunny's grin became more pronounced. "Oh, it's chiefly clothes. Maud is +rather clever in that line, you know. I haven't seen a great deal of her +lately. She's generally scampering round on horseback with Jake. But +once or twice--with Maud--I've seen her look quite demure. She's really +getting almost good-looking," he added dispassionately. + +Saltash flung a swift look downwards. "Don't you approve?" + +Bunny shrugged his shoulders. "I don't see enough of her to care either +way. She's still a kid, you know,--quite a kid." + +Saltash dropped the subject abruptly. "You're liking your job all right?" + +"Rather!" Bunny made instant and enthusiastic reply. "It's just the sort +of thing I was made for. Old Bishop's a brick. We're getting quite fond +of one another." + +"Sort of life you enjoy?" questioned Saltash. + +"Oh, rather! I've always thought I'd like to manage a big estate. Wish +I'd got one of my own." + +"All right. I'll adopt you," laughed Saltash. "You shall be the son of my +old age." + +"Oh, don't be an ass!" protested Bunny. "Why on earth don't you get +married?" + +Saltash's brows twisted wryly. "Afraid I've lived too long, _mon cher_. +If I had married your sister in the long ago, things might have been +vastly different. As it is, I see no prospect of changing my state. Think +it matters?" + +"Well, it's rather a shame to let a good name die out," maintained Bunny. +"And of course it's rot to talk like that about Maud. You can't pretend +to have stayed in love with her all these years. There must have been +heaps of others since then." + +"No, I'm not pretending," said Saltash. "As you say, there have +been--heaps of others." He made an odd gesture towards the western sky +behind him. "There are always--heaps of stars, Bunny; but there's never +more than one moon." + +"Rot!" said Bunny. + +"It is, isn't it?" said Saltash, and laughed with brief derision. "Well, +I must get on. You can do the receiving if I'm late. Tell them I've been +in town and only got back at mid-day! You needn't bother about Larpent. +I'll see to him." + +He flicked his horse's neck and was off with the words. + +Bunny, striding after, watched him ride swiftly up the slope till the +fir-trees of the avenue hid him from view. + +"Queer fish!" he murmured to himself. "Very queer fish!" + +He entered the Castle a little later by the great stone hall and found it +lighted from end to end as if in preparation for a reception. He had +known the place for years, but it always struck him afresh with its +magnificence. It looked like a palace of kings. There were some beautiful +pieces of statuary both in marble and bronze, and upon each of these a +shaded light shone. + +At the end of the hall a wide oak staircase that branched mid-way led to +an oak gallery that ran round three sides of the hall, and where it +divided a high door stood open, showing a lighted room beyond. Bunny left +his coat with the silent-stepping butler and went straight up the +shallow stairs. + +He entered the stately apartment at the top expecting to find it empty. +It was the drawing-room--a vast and lofty chamber with satin-covered +walls, superbly furnished with old French furniture in royal blue velvet +and gilt. There was a further room beyond, but Bunny did not pursue his +way thither, for a man in evening-dress turned suddenly from one of the +great southward-facing windows and moved to meet him. + +He was a gaunt man with a trim beard and the eyes of the sea-farer, and +he walked with a slight roll as if accustomed to pitching decks. + +"Sir Bernard Brian?" he said. + +Bunny held out his hand. "You're Captain Larpent, of course. I wonder +we've never met before. I've heard of you often enough. Sorry you had +such bad luck with _The Night Moth."_ + +"Oh, damnable luck!" said the sailor gloomily. + +"Still you came out of it alive," said Bunny consolingly. "And your +daughter too. Things might have been worse." + +Larpent grunted. "Think so?" + +"She does anyway," said Bunny, with a grin. + +Larpent grunted again. "Shipboard is not the place for a girl," he +remarked. + +"Toby seems more at home on horseback than anywhere else," said Bunny. + +Larpent gave him a keen look. "Oh, she still goes by that name, does +she?" he said. + +"What do you call her?" said Bunny. + +Larpent snapped his fingers curtly. + +"Does she come for that?" asked Bunny. + +"Usually," said Larpent. + +"Then she's more docile than I thought she was," commented Bunny. + +Larpent said nothing. He propped himself against the high mantelpiece and +stared morosely out before him to the pine-clad slopes of the park. + +"How you must hate being ashore!" said Bunny. + +"Why do you say that?" Larpent scarcely removed his moody gaze. + +"You look as if you did." There was a hint of chaff in Bunny's voice. He +surveyed the gaunt man with humorous interest, seated on one of the gilt +chairs with his hands clasped round his knee. "I suppose Saltash will buy +another yacht, won't he?" + +Larpent's eyes came definitely down to him, grimly contemptuous. "Do you +also suppose that would be the same thing?" he said. + +Bunny flushed a little, but he accepted the rebuff with a good grace. "I +don't know, sir. You see, I've never been the captain of a yacht." + +Larpent's hard visage relaxed a little. He resumed his contemplation of +the distant pine-woods in silence. + +Bunny got up whistling and began to stroll about the room. He was never +still for long. He was not very familiar with the state reception-rooms +of Burchester Castle and he found plenty to interest him. + +Several minutes passed, and he had almost forgotten the silent man who +leaned against the fire-place, when suddenly Larpent came out of his +melancholy reverie and spoke. + +"How long has the child been with these Boltons?" + +Bunny paused at the further end of the room. "Let's see! It must be some +time now--practically ever since the wreck. It must be about six weeks. +Yes; she came just before I left to take on this job--the week of the +Graydown Meetings." Bunny's eyes kindled at the memory. "We had some +sport the day she came, I remember; quite a little flutter. In fact we +soared so high that I thought we were going to create a sensation, and +then"--Bunny whistled dramatically--"down we came with a rush, and I was +broke!" He began to laugh. "It's rather a shame to tell you, isn't it? +But you won't give me away? We've never done it since." + +"I shan't give anyone away," said Larpent grimly. + +"Good! You're a sport, I can see." + +The genuine appreciation in Bunny's voice brought an icy glimmer of +amusement to the elder man's eyes, but he made no verbal comment. + +Again a silence fell, and Bunny came strolling back, a smile on his +handsome boyish face. + +"Fine place this," he remarked presently. "It's a pity Saltash is here so +little. He only comes about three times a year, and then only for a +couple of nights at a time. There's heaps of game in the woods and no one +to shoot it." + +"He probably knows his own business best," remarked Larpent. + +"Oh, probably. But the place is wasted on him for all that." Bunny spoke +with a frown. "Why on earth he doesn't marry and settle down I can't +think. Can't you persuade him to?" + +"No," said Larpent quite definitely. + +Bunny glanced at him. "I don't know why not. I know he's considered to +have gone the pace a bit, but after all he's no worse than a hundred +others. Why the devil shouldn't he marry?" + +Larpent shrugged his shoulders. "Don't ask me!" he said. + +"Well, he ought to," maintained Bunny. "If you have any influence with +him, you ought to persuade him to." + +"I haven't," said Larpent. + +Bunny flung away impatiently. "It's a confounded shame--a gorgeous family +place like this and no one but servants to live in it!" + +"It is, isn't it?" gibed Saltash, unexpectedly entering from the further +door. "Large enough for fifty wives, eh, Bunny? Well, as I said before, +you get married and I'll adopt you. It'll save me a lot of trouble. +You're so keen on recommending the marriage medicine to other people. Try +it yourself, and see how you like it!" + +He walked straight down the long room with the words, passing both +Larpent and Bunny on his way, pausing by neither. "I like to hear you two +discussing my case," he jested. "You, Bunny, who have never had the great +disease, and Larpent who has never got over it!" + +He approached the open door that led out upon the great staircase, the +jest still on his lips and the laughter in his eyes. He reached it and +stretched out both hands with a fine gesture of greeting. + +"Welcome to my poor hovel!" he said. "Madam, I kneel at your feet." + +A clear high laugh answered him from below, and both of his companions +turned sharply at the sound. + +A figure in white, girlish, fresh as the morning, sprang suddenly into +view. Her eager face had the delicate flush of a wild rose. The hair +clustered about her temples in tender ringlets of gold. Her eyes, blue +and shining, gave her the look of a child just awakened from happy +sleep--a child that expects to be lifted up and kissed. + +"By--Jove!" murmured Bunny under his breath, staring openly. "By--Jove!" + +And these words failed him. He had never been so astounded in his life. +This girl--this funny little Toby with the sharp features and pointed +chin, the girl-urchin with whom he had chaffed and played--was actually a +beauty, and till that amazing moment he had not realized the fact. + +As he went forward to greet her, he saw that Larpent was staring also, +and he chuckled inwardly at the sight. Decidedly it must be a worse shock +for Larpent than it was for himself, he reflected. For at least he had +seen her in the chrysalis stage, though most certainly he had never +expected this wonderful butterfly to emerge. + +Maud, of course, was the witch who had worked the marvellous +transformation, Maud with her tender mother-wisdom that divined so much. +He looked at her now, and wondered as he met her smile if she fully +realized what she had done. + +Across the wonder came Saltash's quizzing voice--"_Mais, Nonette, +Nonette_, you are a vision for the gods!" + +And a curious hot pang that was like a physical stab went through Bunny. +How dared Charlie use that caressing tone to her--as though she were a +mere ordinary woman to be trifled with and cajoled? He had never +disapproved of Saltash before, but for that moment he almost hated him. +She was too young, too sweet, too--different--to be treated thus. + +And then he was standing close to her, and Saltash, laughing, pushed him +forward. "Do you know this fellow, _ma chère_?" + +The wide blue eyes came up to his with a pleased smile of comradeship. +"Why, it's Bunny!" the clear voice said. "I'm so glad you're here too--in +this ogre's castle." + +Her hand gave his a little confiding squeeze, and Bunny's fingers gripped +in answer. He realized suddenly that she was nervous, and all the ready +chivalry of his nature rose up to protect her. For a moment or two he +kept her hand close in his own. + +Then Saltash airily took it from him. "Come!" he said lightly. "Here is +someone else you ought to know!" + +He wheeled her round with the words. She came face to face with Larpent. +There was an instant of dead silence, then Toby uttered a little +quivering laugh. + +"Hullo--Captain!" she said + +"Hullo!" said Larpent, paused a moment, then abruptly took her by the +chin, and, stooping, touched the wide brow with his lips. "All right?" he +asked gruffly. + +Toby gave a little gasp; she seemed to be trembling. But in a second she +laughed again, with more assurance. "Yes, all right, captain," she said. +"I--I--I'm glad to see you again. You all right too?" + +Bunny, looking on, made the abrupt discovery that Larpent also was +embarrassed. It was Saltash who answered for him, covering the moment's +awkwardness with the innate ease of manner which never seemed to desert +him. + +"Of course he's all right. Don't you worry about him! We're going to buy +him another boat as soon as the insurance Company have done talking. +Maud, this is my captain, the finest yachtsman you've ever met and my +very good friend." + +He threw his merry, dare-devil glance at Larpent as he made the +introduction, and turned immediately to Jake. + +"You two ought to get on all right. He disapproves of me almost as +strongly as you do, and--like you--he endures me, he knows not +wherefore!" + +Jake's red-brown eyes held a smile that made his rugged face look kindly +as he made reply. "Maybe we both have the sense to spot a winner when we +see one, my lord." + +Saltash's brows went up derisively. "And maybe you'll both lose good +money on the gamble before you've done." + +"I think not," said Jake, in his steady drawl. "I've known many a worse +starter than you get home on the straight." + +Saltash laughed aloud, and Toby turned with flushed cheeks and lifted +eyes, alight and ardent, to her hero's face. + +Saltash's glance flashed round to her, the monkeyish grin still about his +mouth, and from her to Bunny who stood behind. He did not speak for a +moment. Then: "No; you've never known a worse starter, Jake," he said; +"and if I do get home on the straight it will be thanks to you." + +Very curiously from that moment Bunny found his brief resentment dead. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE OGRE'S CASTLE + + +"Let's go out into the garden!" said Bunny urgently. + +Dinner was over, and Maud and Saltash were at the piano at the far end of +the great room. Jake and Larpent were smoking in silent companionship at +a comfortable distance. Toby, who had been very quiet the whole evening, +sat silently apart in a low chair with her hands clasped about her knees. +Bunny alone was restless. + +She lifted her eyes to him as he prowled near her, and they held a hint +of mischief. At his murmured words she rose. + +"You'd like to?" he questioned. + +She nodded. "Of course; love it. You know the way. You lead!" + +Bunny needed no second bidding. He went straight to the tall door and +held it open for her. Toby, very slim and girlish in her white raiment, +cocked her chin and walked out in state. But the moment they were alone +she turned upon him a face brimful of laughter. + +"Oh, now we can enjoy ourselves! I've been feeling so proper all the +evening. Quick! Where shall we go?" + +"Into the garden," said Bunny. "Or wait! Come up on to the battlements! +It's ripping up there." + +She thrust her hand eagerly into his. "I shall love that. Which way do we +go?" + +"Through the music-room," said Bunny. + +He caught and held her hand. They ran up one of the wide stairways that +branched north and south to the Gallery. Saltash's music followed them +from the drawing-room as they went. He was playing a haunting Spanish +love-song, and Toby shivered and quickened her pace. + +They reached another oak door which Bunny opened, drawing her impetuously +forward. "This is Charlie's own particular sanctum. Rather a ripping +place, isn't it? He's got a secret den that leads somewhere out of it, +but no one knows how to get in." + +He led her over a polished oak floor into a long, almost empty apartment +with turreted windows at each end, and a grand piano near one of them +that shone darkly in the shaded lamplight. Underfoot were Persian rugs, +exquisite of tint and rich of texture. Two or three deep divans completed +the furniture of the room giving it a look of Eastern magnificence that +strangely lured the senses. + +"Rather like a harem I always think," said Bunny, pausing to look round. +"There's an Arabian Nights sort of flavour about it that rather gets hold +of one. Why? You're shivering! Surely you're not cold!" + +"No, I'm not cold," said Toby. "But I don't like this place. It's creepy. +Let's go!" + +But Bunny lingered. "What's the matter with it? It's luxurious enough. +I've always rather liked coming in here." + +Toby made a small but vehement gesture of protest. "Then you like horrid +things," she said. "There's no air in here;--only--only--scent." + +Bunny sniffed. "Well, it's quite subtle anyhow; not enough to upset +anybody. Rather a seductive perfume, what?" + +She surprised him by stamping in sudden fury upon the bare floor. +"It's beastly! It's hateful! How can you like it? It--it--it's bad! +It's--damnable!" + +Bunny stared at her. "Well, Charlie designed it anyway. It's the one +corner in the whole Castle that is individually his. What on earth is +there that you don't like about it?" + +"Everything--everything!" declared Toby passionately. "I don't want to +stay here another minute. Show me the way out!" + +She spoke with such imperiousness that Bunny judged it best to comply. He +showed her a door in the eastern wall that was draped by a heavy red +curtain. + +"You can get up on to the ramparts that way. But wait a minute while I +find the switch! What are you running away from? There isn't a bogey-man +anywhere." + +Toby drew in her breath sharply with a nervous glance over her shoulder. +"I think it's a dreadful place," she said. "I want to get out into the +air." + +Bunny opened the door, and a dark passage gaped before them. "This looks +much more eerie," he observed, feeling about for a switch. "Do you really +like this better?" + +"Much better," said Toby, going boldly into the darkness. + +"Don't believe there is a switch," said Bunny, striking a match. "No, +there isn't! How beastly medieval! Look here! Wait while I go and get an +electric torch!" + +"No, no! Let's feel our way! I'm sure we can," urged Toby. "Come on! +It'll be fun. Shut the door!" + +The spirit of adventure seized upon Bunny. He let the door swing closed +and caught her hand again. + +Toby's delighted chuckle told him that she had fully recovered her +equilibrium. Her fingers twined closely about his own. + +"Now we shall have some fun!" she said. + +They went forward together for a few yards in total darkness. Then, from +somewhere high above them a faint light filtered through. + +"That's on the stairs," said Bunny. "One of those window-slits through +which in the old hospitable days all comers were potted at. Look out how +you go!" + +The words were scarcely uttered when they both kicked against the lowest +stair and blundered forward. A squeal of laughter came from Toby. Bunny +said "Damn!" with much heartiness and then laughed also. + +"I knew it would be fun," said Toby. "Are you hurt?" + +He raised her with a strong young arm. "No, I'm all right. Are you?" + +"Yes. I'm loving it. What happens next? Do the stairs wind round and +round till we get to the top?" + +"Yes. There are about six hundred of 'em. Feel equal to it?" + +"Equal to anything," said Toby promptly. "Let me go first!" + +"Why don't I go and get a light?" said Bunny. + +"Because you're not to. Because it's heaps more fun without. Besides, +there's lots of light up there. Now then? Are you ready? Come on! Let's +go!" + +Indomitable resolution sounded in Toby's voice. She drew herself free +from Bunny's hold, and began to mount. + +"You know it's haunted, don't you?" said Bunny cheerily. "A beautiful +lady was once captured and imprisoned in this turret in the dear old days +when everyone did those things. She had to choose between throwing +herself from the battlements and marrying her wicked captor--an ancestor +of Charlie's, by the way. She did the latter and then died of a broken +heart. They always did, you know. Her poor little ghost has wandered up +and down this stair ever since." + +"Idiot!" said Toby tersely. + +"Who?" said Bunny. "And why?" + +"The woman. Why didn't she throw herself over? It would have been much +easier." + +"Perhaps she didn't find it so," said Bunny. "And she'd doubtless have +done the haunting stunt even if she had." + +"Well, then, why didn't she marry the brute and--and--give him hell?" +said Toby tensely. + +Bunny uttered a shout of laughter that echoed and re-echoed up and down +the winding stair. + +"Is that what you would have done?" + +"I'd have done one or the other," said Toby. + +"By Jove, how bloodthirsty you sound!" ejaculated Bunny. "Are you in +earnest by any chance?" + +"Yes, I am in earnest." There was a note of bitter challenge in Toby's +reply. "If a woman hasn't the spunk to defend herself, she's better +dead." + +"I agree with you there," said Bunny with decision. "But I don't know how +you come to know it." + +"Oh, I know a lot of things," said Toby's voice in the darkness, and this +time it sounded oddly cold and desolate as if the stone walls around them +had somehow deadened it. + +He put out a hand and touched her, for she seemed in some fashion to have +withdrawn from him, to have become remote as the echoes about them. +"There are heaps of things you don't know anyway," he said. "You're only +a kid after all." + +"Think so?" said Toby. + +She evaded his hand, flitting up before him towards that grim slit in the +wall through which the dim half-light of the summer night vaguely +entered. Her light figure became visible to him as she reached it. There +came to him a swift memory of the butterfly-beauty that had so astounded +him earlier in the evening. + +"No, I don't," he said. "You're past that stage. What on earth has Maud +been doing to you? Do you know when you first came into the drawing-room +tonight I hardly knew you?" + +Toby's light laugh came back to him. She was like a white butterfly +flitting before him in the twilight. "I wondered what you'd say. I've +given up jumping rosebushes, and I'm learning to be respectable. It's +rather fun sometimes. Maud is very good to me--and I love Jake, don't +you?" + +"Yes, he's a brick; always was," said Bunny enthusiastically. "I'd back +him every time. But, I say. Don't get too respectable, will you? Somehow +it doesn't suit you." + +Again he heard her laugh in the darkness--a quick, rather breathless +laugh. "I don't think I'll ever be that," she said. "Do you?" + +"I don't know," said Bunny. "But you looked scared to death when you came +in--as if you were mounted on a horse that was much too high for you. I +believe you were afraid of that old daddy of yours." + +"I am rather," said Toby. "You see, I don't know him very well. And I'm +not sure he likes me." + +"Of course he likes you," said Bunny. + +"Why? I don't know why he should." + +"Everyone does," said Bunny, with assurance. + +"Don't be silly!" said Toby. + +They were past the slit in the wall, and were winding upwards now towards +another. Bunny postponed argument, finding he needed all his breath for +the climb. The steps had become narrower and more steeply spiral than +before. His companion mounted so swiftly that he found it difficult to +keep close to her. The ascent seemed endless. + +Again they passed a window-slit, and Bunny suddenly awoke to the fact +that the flying figure in front was trying to out-distance him. It came +to him in a flash of intuition. She was daring him, she was fooling him. +Some imp of mischief had entered into her. She was luring him to pursuit; +and like the whirling of a torch in a dark place, the knowledge first +dazzled, and then drew him. All his pulses beat in a swift crescendo. +There was a considerable mixture of Irish deviltry in Bunny Brian's +veins, and anything in the nature of a challenge fired him. He uttered a +wild whoop that filled the eerie place with fearful echoes, and gave +chase. + +It was the maddest race he had ever run. Toby fled before him like the +wind, up and up, round and round the winding stair, fleet-footed, almost +as though on wings, leaving him behind. He followed, fiercely determined, +putting forth his utmost strength, sometimes stumbling on the uneven +stairs, yet always leaping onward, urged to wilder effort by the +butterfly elusiveness of his quarry. Once he actually had her within his +reach, and then he stumbled and she was gone. He heard her maddening +laughter as she fled. + +The ascent seemed endless. His heart was pumping, but he would not +slacken. She should never triumph over him, this mocking imp, this +butterfly-girl, who from the first had held him with a fascination he +could not fathom. He would make her pay for her audacity. He would teach +her that he was more than a mere butt for her drollery. He would show +her-- + +A door suddenly banged high above him. He realized that she had reached +the top of the turret and burst out upon the ramparts. A very curious +sensation went through him. It was almost a feeling of fear. She was such +a wild little creature, and her mood was at its maddest. The chill of the +place seemed to wrap him round. He felt as if icy fingers had clutched +his heart. + +It was all a joke of course--only a joke! But jokes sometimes ended +disastrously, and Toby--Toby was not an ordinary person. She was either a +featherbrain or a genius. He did not know which. Perhaps there was no +very clear dividing line between the two. She was certainly +extraordinary. He wished he had not accepted her challenge. If he had +refused to follow, she would soon have abandoned her absurd flight +through the darkness. + +It was absurd. They had both been absurd to come to this eerie place +without a light. Somehow her disappearance, the clanging of that door, +had sobered him very effectually. He cursed himself for a fool as he +groped his way upwards. The game had gone too far. He ought to have +foreseen. + +And then suddenly he blundered into an iron-clamped door and swore again. +Yes, this thing was beyond a joke. + +The door resisted him, and he wrestled with it furiously as though it had +been a living thing obstructing his passage. + +He had begun to think that she must have bolted it on the outside when +abruptly it yielded to his very forcible persuasion, and he stumbled +headlong forth into the open starlight. He was out upon the ramparts, and +dim wooded park-lands stretched away to the sea before his dazzled eyes. + +The first thing that struck him was the emptiness of the place. It seemed +to catch him by the throat. There was something terrible about it. + +Behind him the door clanged, and the sound seemed the only sound in all +that wonderful June night. It had a fateful effect in the silence--like +the tolling of a bell. Something echoed to it in his own heart, and he +knew that he was afraid. + +Desperately he flung his fear aside and moved forward to the parapet. The +wall was thick, but between the battlements it was only the height of his +knee. Below was depth--sheer depth--stark emptiness. + +He looked over and saw the stone terrace dimly lit by the stars far below +him. The gardens were a blur of darkness out of which he vaguely +discerned the glimmer of the lake among its trees. + +His heart was beating suffocatingly; he struggled to subdue his panting +breath. She was somewhere close to him of course--of course. But the +zest of the chase had left him. He felt dizzy, frightened, sick. He +tried to raise his voice to call her, and then realized with a start of +self-ridicule that it had failed him. He leaned against the parapet and +resolutely pulled himself together. + +Then he went forward and found himself in a stone passage, actually on +the castle wall, between two parapets; the one on his left towering above +the inner portion of the castle with its odd, uneven roofs of stone, the +one on his right still sheer above the terrace--a drop of a hundred feet +or more. + +The emptiness and the silence seemed to strike at him with a nebulous +hostility as he went. He had a vague sense of intrusion, of being in a +forbidden place. The blood was no longer hot in his veins. He even +shivered in the warmth of the summer night as he followed the winding +walk between the battlements. + +But he was his own master now, and as he moved forward through the +glimmering starlight he called to her: + +"Toby! Toby, I say! Come out! I'm not playing." + +He felt as if the silence mocked him, and again that icy construction +about the heart made him catch his breath. He put up a hand to his brow +and found it wet. + +"Toby!" he cried again, and this time he did not attempt to keep the +urgency out of his voice. "The game's up. Come back!" + +She did not answer him, neither did she come; but he had a strong +conviction that she heard. A throb of anger went through him. He strode +forward with decision. He knew that the battlement walk ended on the +north side of the Castle in a blank wall, built centuries before as a +final defence from an invading enemy. Only by scaling this wall could the +eastern portion be approached. He would find her here. She could not +possibly escape. Something of confidence came back to him as he +remembered this. She could not elude him much longer. + +He quickened his stride. His face was grim. She had carried the thing too +far, and he would let her know it. He rounded the curve of the castle +wall. He must be close to her now. And then suddenly he stopped dead. +For he heard her mocking laughter, and it came from behind him, from the +turret through which he had gained the ramparts. + +He wheeled round with something like violence and began to retrace his +steps. He had never been so baffled before, and he was angry,--hotly +angry. + +He rounded the curve once more, and approached the turret. His eyes were +accustomed to the dim half-light, but still he could not see her. Fuming, +he went back the whole distance along the ramparts till he came to the +iron-clamped door that had banged behind him. He put forth an impatient +hand to open it, for it was obvious that she must have eluded him by +hiding behind it, and now she was probably on the stair. And then, very +suddenly, from far behind him, in the direction of the northern wall, he +heard her laugh again. + +He swung about in a fury, almost too incensed to be amazed. She had the +wings of a Mercury, it was evident; but he would catch her--he would +catch her now, or perish in the attempt. Once more he traversed the stony +promenade between the double line of battlements, searching each +embrasure as he went. + +All the way back to the wall on the north side he pursued his way with +fierce intention, inwardly raging, outwardly calm. He reached the +obstructing wall, and found nothing. The emptiness came all about him +again. The ghostly quiet of the place clung like a tangible veil. She had +evaded him again. He was powerless. + +But at that point his wrath suddenly burst into flame, the hotter and the +fiercer for its long restraint. He wheeled in his tracks with furious +finality and abandoned his quest. + +His intention was to go straight down by the way he had come and leave +her to play her will-o'-the-wisp game in solitude. It would soon pall +upon her, he was assured; but in any case he would no longer dance to her +piping. She had fooled him to the verge of frenzy. + +Again he rounded the curve of the wall and came to the door of the +turret. A great bastion of stone rose beside this, and as he reached it a +small white figure darted forward from its shadow with dainty, butterfly +movements, pulled at the heavy oak door and held it open with an +elaborate gesture for him to pass. + +It was a piece of exquisite daring, and with an older man it would have +taken effect. Saltash would have laughed his quizzing, cynical laugh and +accepted his defeat with royal grace. But Bunny was young and vehement +of impulse, and the flame of his anger still scorched his soul with a +heat intolerable. She had baffled him, astounded him, humiliated him, and +his was not a nature to endure such treatment tamely. + +He hung on his stride for a single moment, then hotly he turned and +snatched her into his arms. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE END OF THE GAME + + +She cried out sharply as he caught her, and then she struggled and fought +like a mad creature for freedom. But Bunny held her fast. He had been +hard pressed, and now that the strain was over, all the pent passion of +that long stress had escaped beyond control. He held her,--at first as a +boy might hold a comrade who had provoked him to exasperation; then, as +desperately she resisted him, a new element suddenly rushed like fire +through his veins, and he realized burningly, overwhelmingly, that for +the first time in his life he held a woman in his arms. + +It came to him like a blinding revelation, and forth-with it seemed to +him that he stepped into a new world. She had tried him too far, had +thrown him off his balance. He was unfit for this further and infinitely +greater provocation. His senses swam. The touch of her intoxicated him as +though he had drunk a potent draught from some goblet of the gods. He +heard himself laugh passionately at her puny effort to resist him and the +next moment she was at his mercy. He was pressing fevered kisses upon her +gasping, quivering lips. + +But she fought against him still. Though he kissed her, she would have +none of it. She struck at him, battering him frantically with her hands, +stamping wildly with her feet, till he literally swung her off the +ground, holding her slender body against his breast. + +"You little madcap!" he said, with his hot lips against her throat. "How +dare you? Do you think I'd let you go--now?" + +The quick passion of his voice or the fiery possession of his hold +arrested her. She suddenly ceased to battle with him, and stiffened in +his grasp as if turned to stone. + +"Let me go!" she said tensely. + +"I will not," said Bunny. + +He was mad with the fever of youth; he held her with a fierce exultation. +There could be no returning now, nor did he wish to return. + +"You little wild butterfly!" he said, and kissed the throbbing white +throat again. "I've caught you now and you can't escape." + +"You've--had your revenge," Toby flung back gaspingly. "You--you--you're +a skunk if you take any more." + +Oddly that sobered him as any protest more feminine would have failed to +do. He set her on her feet, but he held her still. + +"I haven't done with you," he said, with a certain doggedness. + +"Oh, I know that," she returned very bitterly. "You're like all the men. +You can't play fair. Men don't know how." + +That stung him. "Fair or unfair, you've done all the playing so far," he +said. "If you thought I was such a tame fool as to put up with it--well, +that's not my fault." + +"No, it's never your fault," said Toby. She made a little vehement +movement to extricate herself, but finding him obdurate, abandoned +the attempt. "You're not a fool, Bunny Brian. You're a beast and a +coward,--there!" + +"Be careful!" warned Bunny, his dark eyes gleaming ominously. + +But she uttered a laugh of high defiance. "Oh, I'm not afraid of you. +You're not full-grown yet. You're ashamed of yourself already." + +He coloured deeply at the taunt, but he maintained his hold upon her. + +"All right," he said. "Say I did it all! It doesn't matter how you put +it. The fact remains." + +"What fact?" said Toby swiftly. + +He clasped her a little closer. "Well,--do you think I'm going to let you +go--after this?" + +She caught her breath sharply. "What do you mean? I--I--I don't know what +you mean!" + +There was quick agitation in her voice. Again she sought to free herself, +and again he frustrated her. But the violence had gone out of his hold. +There was even a touch of dignity about him as he made reply. + +"I mean, you little wild butterfly, that now I've got you, I'm going to +keep you. You'll have to marry me and make the best of me." + +"Marry you!" said Toby as one incredulous. + +"Yes. What's the matter with the idea? Don't you want to?" Bunny's +good-looking young face came close to hers. He was laughing, but there +was a half-coaxing note in his voice as well. + +Toby was silent for a moment. Then: "You're mad!" she said tersely. + +"I'm not!" said Bunny. "I'm perfectly serious. Don't you understand that +when this kind of thing gets hold of you, there's no getting away from +it? We can't possibly go back to where we were before--behave as if +nothing had happened. You wouldn't want to, would you?" + +There was a hint of pleading in his tone now. Toby made a curious little +gesture that seemed to express a measure of reassurance. But, "I don't +know," she said somewhat dubiously. + +"You aren't angry, are you?" said Bunny softly. + +She hesitated. "I was." + +"Yes, but not now--when you've begun to realize what a jolly thing life +together would be. It isn't as if we'd never met before. We're pals +already." + +"Yes; we're pals," said Toby, but still her voice was dubious. + +"I say, be a sport!" the boy urged suddenly. "You said you weren't afraid +of me. Don't chuck the best thing in life for want of a little ordinary +courage!" + +"What is--the best thing in life?" said Toby. + +His hold grew close again, but it remained gentle. "You marry me," he +said, "and I'll show you!" + +There was something sublime rather than ridiculous in his assurance. Toby +caught her breath again as if about to laugh, and then quite suddenly, +wholly unexpectedly, she began to cry. + +"You poor little darling!" said Bunny. + +She leaned her head upon his shoulder, fighting great sobs that +threatened to overwhelm her. It was not often that Toby cried, and this +was no mere child's distress. Indeed there was about it something that +filled her companion with a curious kind of awe. He held her closely +and comfortingly, but for some reason he could not speak to her, could +not even attempt to seek the cause of her trouble. As his sister had done +before him, though almost unconsciously, he sensed a barrier that he +might not pass. + +Toby regained her self-command at last, stood for a space in silence, her +face still hidden, then abruptly raised it and uttered a little quivering +laugh. + +"You great big silly!" she said. "I'm not going to marry you, so there! +Now let me go!" + +Her tone and action put him instantly at his ease. This was the Toby he +knew. + +"Yes, you are going to marry me. And I shan't let you go," he said. "So +there!" + +She looked him straight in the face. "No, Bunny!" she said, with a little +catch in her breath. "You're a dear to think of it, but it won't do." + +"Why not?" demanded Bunny. + +She hesitated. + +He squeezed her shoulders. "Tell me why not!" + +"I don't want to tell you," said Toby. + +"You've got to," he said with decision. + +In the dimness his eyes looked into hers. A little shiver went through +Toby. "I don't want to," she said again. + +"Go on!" commanded Bunny, autocratically. + +She turned suddenly and set her hands against his breast. "Well then, +because I'm years and years older than you are--" + +"Rot!" interjected Bunny. + +"And--I'm not good enough for you!" finished Toby rather tremulously. + +"Rats!" said Bunny. + +"No, it isn't rats." She contradicted him rather piteously. "You've +turned a silly game into deadly earnest, and you shouldn't--you +shouldn't. I wouldn't have done it if I'd known. It's such a +mistake--it's always such a great mistake--to do that. You say we +can't go back to where we were before, but we can--we can. Let's +try--anyway!" + +"We can't," said Bunny with decision. "And there's no reason why we +should. Look here! You don't want to marry anyone else, do you?" + +"I don't want to marry at all," said Toby. + +He laughed at that. "Darling, of course you'll marry. Come! You might as +well have me first as last. You won't get any other fellow to suit you +half as well. What? Say you'll have me! Come, you've got to. You don't +hate me, do you?" + +Again the pleading note was in his voice. She responded to it almost +involuntarily. Her hands slipped upwards to his shoulders. + +"But--I'm not good enough," she said again, catching back a sob. + +His arms enfolded her, closely and tenderly. "Oh, skip that!" he said. "I +won't listen." + +"You--you--you're very silly," murmured Toby, with her head against his +neck. + +"No. I'm not. I'm very sensible. Look here, we're engaged now, aren't +we?" said Bunny. + +"No--no--we're not!" Her voice came muffled against his coat. "You're not +to think of such a thing for ages and ages and ages." + +"Oh, rot!" he said again with impatience. "I hate a waiting +game--especially when there's nothing to wait for. You're not going +to give me the go-by now." + +His face was close to her again. She put her hand against his chin and +softly pushed it away. "Bunny!" she said. + +"Well, dear?" He stood, not yielding, but suffering her check. + +"Bunny!" she said again, speaking with obvious effort. "I've got to say +something. You must listen--just for a minute. Jake,--Jake won't want you +to be engaged to me." + +"What?" Bunny started a little, as one who suddenly remembers a thing +forgotten. "Jake!" Then hotly. "What the devil has it got to do with +Jake?" + +"Stop!" said Toby. "Jake's quite right. He knows. He--he's older than you +are. You--you--you'd better ask him." + +"Ask Jake!" Bunny's wrath exploded. "I'm my own master. I can marry whom +I like. What on earth should I ask Jake for?" + +Toby uttered a little sigh. "You needn't if you don't want to. But if +you're wise, you will. He understands. You wouldn't. You see, I've been +to a lot of different schools, Bunny--foreign ones--and I've learnt a +heap of--rather funny things. That's why I'm so much older than you are. +That's why I don't want to get married--as most girls do. I never ought +to marry. I know too much." + +"But you'll marry me?" he said swiftly. + +"I don't know," she said. "Not anyway yet. If--if you can stick to me for +six months--I--p'raps I'll think about it. But I think you'll come to +your senses long before then, Bunny." A desolate little note of humour +sounded in her voice. "And if you do, you'll be so glad not to have to +throw me over." + +"You're talking rot," he interposed. + +"No, I'm not. I'm talking sense--ordinary common sense. I wouldn't get +engaged to any man on the strength of what happened to-night. You hadn't +even thought of me in that way when we came up here." + +"I'm not so sure of that," said Bunny. "Anyway, the mischief is done now. +And you needn't be afraid I shall throw you over because--" an unexpected +throb came into his voice--"I know now I've simply got to have you." + +Toby sighed again. "But if--if I'm not worth waiting for, I'm not worth +having," she said. + +"But why wait?" argued Bunny. + +"For a hundred reasons. You're not really in love with me for one thing." +Toby spoke with conviction. + +"Yes, I am." Stubbornly he contradicted her. + +"No, you're not. Listen, Bunny! Love isn't just a passion-flower that +blooms in a single night and then fades. You're too young really to +understand, but I know--I know. Love is more like a vine. It takes a +long while to ripen and come to perfection, and it has a lot to go +through first." + +Again a sense of strangeness came to Bunny. Surely this was a grown woman +speaking! This was not the wild little creature he knew. But--perhaps it +was from perversity--her warning only served to strengthen his +determination. + +"You can go on arguing till midnight," he said, "you won't convince me. +But look here, if you don't want anyone to know, we'll keep it to +ourselves for a little while. Will that satisfy you? We'll meet and have +some jolly times together in private. Will that make you any happier?" + +"We shan't be engaged?" questioned Toby. + +"Not if you'll kiss me without," said Bunny generously. + +"Oh, I don't mind kissing you--" she lifted her lips at once, "if it +doesn't mean anything." + +He stooped swiftly and met them with his own. His kiss was close and +lingering, it held tenderness; and in a moment her arms crept round his +neck and she clung to him as she returned it. He felt a sob run through +her slight frame as he held her though she shed no tears and made no +sound, and he was stirred to a deeper chivalry than he had ever known +before. + +"It does mean one thing, darling," he said softly. "It means that we love +each other, doesn't it?" + +She did not answer him for a moment; then: "It may mean that," +she whispered back. "I don't know--very much about--love. No one +ever--really--loved me before." + +"I love you," he said. "I love you." + +"Thank you," she murmured. + +He held her still. "You'll never run away from me again? Promise!" + +She shook her head promptly with a faint echo of the elfin laughter that +had so maddened him a little earlier. "No, I won't promise. But I'll show +you where I was hiding if you like. Shall I?" + +"All right. Show me!" he said. + +She freed herself from him with a little spring, and turned to the stone +buttress against which he had found her. He followed her closely, half +afraid of losing her again, but she did not attempt to elude him. + +"See!" she said, with a funny little chuckle. "I found this ledge." + +The ledge she indicated was on a level with the parapet and not more than +six inches wide. It ran square with the buttress, which on the outer side +dropped sheer to the terrace. + +Bunny looked and turned sick. "You never went along there!" he said. + +She laughed again. "Yes, I did. It's quite easy if you slide your feet. +I'll show you." + +"You'll do nothing of the sort!" He grabbed her fiercely. "What in +heaven's name were you thinking of? How did you learn to do these +things?" + +She did not answer him. "I wanted to tease you," she said lightly. "And I +did it too, didn't I? I pretended I was Andromeda when I got round the +corner, but no Perseus came to save me. Only an angry dragon ramped +about behind." + +Bunny stared at her as if he thought her bewitched. "But you were over by +that north wall once. I'll swear you were over there." + +"Oh, don't swear!" she said demurely. "It's so wrong. I wasn't there +really. I only sent my voice that way to frighten you." + +"Good heavens!" gasped Bunny. + +She laughed again with gay _insouciance_. "Haven't I given you a splendid +evening's entertainment? Well, it's all over now, and the curtain's down. +Let's go!" + +She turned with her hand in his and led him back to the turret-door. + +Reaching it, he sought to detain her. "You'll never do it again? +Promise--promise!" + +"I won't promise anything," she said lightly. + +"Ah, but you must!" he insisted. "Toby, you might have killed yourself." + +Her laugh suddenly had a mocking sound. "Oh, no! I shall never kill +myself on Lord Saltash's premises," she said. + +"Why do you say that?" questioned Bunny. + +"Because--_que voulez-vous_?--he would want me neither dead nor alive," +she made reckless answer. + +"A good thing too!" declared Bunny stoutly. + +The echoes of Toby's laughter as she went down the chill, dark stairway +had an eerie quality that sent an odd shiver through his heart. Somehow +it made him think of the unquiet spirit that was said to haunt the +place--a spirit that wandered alone--always alone--in the utter +desolation. + + + + +PART III + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE VIRTUOUS HERO + + +"How long is this absurd farce to go on?" said Larpent. + +"Aren't you enjoying yourself?" grinned Saltash. + +Larpent looked sardonic. + +Saltash took up the whisky decanter. "My worthy buccaneer, you don't know +when you're lucky. If I had a reputation like yours--" He broke off, +still grinning. "Well, it's no use crying over spilt milk, is it? Let's +spill some whisky instead! Say when!" + +Larpent watched him, frowning. "Thanks! That's enough. I should like an +answer to my question if you've no objection. How long is this practical +joke going to last?" + +Saltash turned and looked upon him with a calculating eye. "I really +don't know what's troubling you," he remarked. "You've got everything in +your favour. I'd change places with you with all the pleasure in the +world if circumstances permitted." + +"That isn't the point, is it?" said Larpent. + +"No? What is the point?" Saltash turned again to the whisky decanter. + +"Well, you've got me into a damn' hole, and I want to know how you're +going to get me out again." Larpent's voice was gruff and surly; he +stared into his tumbler without drinking. + +Saltash chuckled to himself with mischievous amusement. "My dear chap, I +can't get you out. That's just it. I want you to stay there." + +Larpent muttered deeply and inarticulately, and began to drink. + +Saltash turned round, glass in hand, and sat down on the edge of the +high, cushioned fender. "I really don't think you are greatly to be +pitied," he remarked lightly. "The child will soon be married and off +your hands." + +"Oh, that's the idea, is it?" said Larpent. "Who's going to marry her? +Young Brian?" + +"Don't you approve?" said Saltash. + +"I don't think it'll come off," said Larpent with decision. + +"Why not?" An odd light flickered in the younger man's eyes for an +instant. "Are you going to refuse your consent?" + +"I?" Larpent shrugged his shoulders. "Are you going to give yours?" + +Saltash made an elaborate gesture. "I shall bestow my blessing with both +hands." + +Larpent looked at him fixedly for a few seconds. "You're a very wonderful +man, my lord," he remarked drily at length. + +Saltash laughed. "Have you only just discovered that?" + +Larpent drained his tumbler gravely and put it down. "All the same, I +don't believe it will come off," he said. + +Saltash moved impatiently. "You always were an unbeliever. But anyone can +see they were made for each other. Of course it will come off." + +"You want it to come off?" asked Larpent. + +"It is my intention that it shall," said Saltash royally. + +"You're playing providence in the girl's interest. Is that it?" Again +Larpent's eyes, shrewd and far-seeing, were fixed upon him. They held a +glint of humour. "It's a tricky job, my lord. You'll wish you hadn't +before you've done." + +"Think so?" said Saltash. + +"If you haven't begun to already," said Larpent. + +Saltash looked down at him with a comical twist of the eyebrows. "You're +very analytical to-night. What's the matter?" + +"Nothing," said Larpent bluntly. "Except that you're making a mistake." + +"Indeed?" For a moment Saltash's look was haughty; then he began to smile +again. "I see you're burning to give your advice," he said tolerantly. +"Fire away, if it does you any good!" + +Larpent's eyes, very steady under their fair, bushy brows, were still +unwaveringly upon him. "No, I don't presume to give you advice," he said. +"But I'll tell you something which you may or may not know. That young +woman you have so kindly bestowed upon me as a daughter worships the +ground you tread on, and--that being the case--she isn't very likely to +make a dazzling success of it if she marries young Bernard Brian." + +He ceased to speak, and simultaneously Saltash jerked himself to his feet +with a short French oath that sounded like the snarl of an angry animal. +He went across to the windows that were thrown wide to the summer night +and stood before one of them with his head flung back in the attitude of +one who challenges the universe. + +Larpent lay back in his chair with the air of a man who has said his say. +He did not even glance towards his companion, and there followed a +considerable pause before either of them spoke again. + +Abruptly at length Saltash wheeled. + +"Larpent!" There was something of a whip-lash quality about his voice; +it seemed to cut the silence. "Why the devil do you tell me this? Can't +you see that it's the very thing I'm guarding against? Young Bunny is +the best remedy she could take for a disease of that kind. And after +all,--she's only a child." + +"Do you say that for your own benefit or for mine?" said Larpent, without +turning his head. + +"What do you mean?" Savagely Saltash flung the question, but the man in +the chair remained unmoved. + +"You know quite well what I mean," he said. "You know that it isn't +true." + +"What isn't true?" Saltash came swiftly back across the room, moving as +if goaded. He took his tumbler from the mantel-piece and drank the +contents almost at a gulp. "Go on!" he said, with his back to Larpent. +"May as well finish now you've begun. What isn't true?" + +Larpent lounged in his chair and watched him, absolutely unmoved. + +"When a thing is actually in existence--an accomplished fact--it's rather +futile to talk of guarding against it," he said, in his brief, +unsympathetic voice. "You've been extraordinarily generous to the imp, +and it isn't surprising that she should be extraordinarily grateful. She +wouldn't be human if she weren't. But when it comes to handing her on to +another fellow--well, she may consent, but it won't be because she wants +to, but because it's the only thing left. She knows well enough by this +time that what she really wants is out of her reach." + +Again Saltash made a fierce movement, but he did not turn or speak. + +Larpent took out his pipe and began to fill it. "You've been too good a +friend to her," he went on somewhat grimly, "and you're not made of the +right stuff for that sort of thing. I'm sorry for the kid because she's a +bit of a pagan too, and it's hard to have to embrace respectability +whether you want to or not." + +"Oh, damn!" Saltash exclaimed, suddenly and violently. "What more could +any man have done? What the devil are you driving at?" + +He turned upon Larpent almost menacingly, and found the steady eyes, +still with that icy glint of humour in them, unflinchingly awaiting his +challenge. + +"You want to get married," the sailor said imperturbably. "Why in the +name of all the stars of destiny don't you marry her? She may not have +the blue blood in her veins, but blood isn't everything, and you've got +enough for two. And it's my opinion you'd find her considerably easier to +please than some--less strict in her views too, which is always an +advantage to a man of your varying moods." + +Saltash's laugh had a curious jarring sound as of something broken. "Oh, +you think that would be a suitable arrangement, do you? And how long do +you think I should stick to her? How long would it be before she ran +away?" + +"I never speculate so far as you are concerned," said Larpent, shaking +the tobacco back into his pouch with care. + +"You think it wouldn't matter, perhaps?" gibed Saltash. "My royal house +is so inured to scandal that no one would expect anything else?" + +"I don't think she is the sort to run away," said Larpent quietly. "And +I'm pretty sure of one thing. You could hold her if you tried." + +"An ideal arrangement!" sneered Saltash. "And I should then settle down +to a godly, righteous, and sober life, I suppose? Is that the idea?" + +"You said it," observed Larpent, pushing his pipe into his mouth. + +Saltash lodged one foot on the high fender, and stared at it. The sneer +died out of his face and the old look, half mischievous, half melancholy, +took its pace. "I haven't--seriously--contemplated marriage for eight +years," he said, his mouth twitching a little as with a smile suppressed. +"Not since the day I tried to steal Maud Brian away from Jake--and +failed--rather signally. I don't think I've ever done anything quite so +low down since." + +Larpent lighted his pipe with grave attention. "A good thing for you both +that you did fail!" he observed. + +"Think so?" Saltash glanced at him. "Why?" + +"She isn't the woman for you." Larpent spoke with the absolute conviction +of one who knows. "She has too many ideals. Now this sprat you caught at +Valrosa--has none." + +"Not so sure of that," said Saltash. + +"Well, no illusions anyway." There was a hint of compassion in Larpent's +voice. "It wasn't because she trusted you that she put herself under your +protection. She didn't trust you. She simply chucked herself at you with +her eyes open. Like Jonah's whale, you were the only shelter within +reach. I'd wager a substantial sum that she's never had any illusions +about you. But if you held up your little finger she'd come to you. She's +your property, and it isn't in her to do anything else, let her down as +often as you will." + +Saltash made an excruciating grimace. "My good fellow, spare me! +That's just where the shoe pinches. I've broken faith with her already. +But--damnation!--what else could I do? I didn't choose the part of +virtuous hero. It was thrust upon me. The gods are making sport of me. I +am lost in a labyrinth of virtue, and horribly--most horribly--sick of +it. I nearly broke through once, but the wreck pulled me up, and when I +recovered from that, I was more hopelessly lost than before." + +"So you are not enjoying it either!" remarked Larpent, with the glimmer +of a smile. "But you don't seem to have let her down very far." + +Saltash brought his foot down with a bang. "I swore I'd keep her with me. +I meant--oh, God knows what I meant to do. I didn't do it anyway. I broke +my oath and I made her go, and she never uttered a word of reproach--not +one word! Do you think I'll let her ruin herself by marrying me after +that? Like Jonah's whale I've managed to throw her up on to dry land, and +if she gets swamped again, it won't be my fault." + +He began to laugh again suddenly and cynically--the bitter laugh of a man +who hides his soul; and Larpent leaned back in his chair again, as if he +recognized that the discussion was over. + +"I don't suppose anyone will blame you for it," he said. + +"No one will have the chance," said Saltash. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE COMPACT + + +The polo-ground at Fairharbour was reckoned as one of the greatest +attractions the town possessed. Because of it, and the Graydown +race-course an ever-increasing stream of visitors poured yearly into the +town and its neighbourhood, and very fashionable crowds were wont to +gather during the summer season at the various hotels which had sprung up +during recent years for their accommodation. + +The old Anchor Hotel facing the shore had been bought by a syndicate and +rebuilt and was now a very modern erection indeed. It boasted a large +lounge, palm-decked and glass-covered, in which a string band played for +several hours of the day, and the constant swing of its doors testified +to the great popularity to which it had attained since its renovation. + +To Bunny, who had known the place under very different circumstances in +his boyhood, it was always a source of amusement to drop in and mark +progress. The polo-ground was only a few yards away, and he had become an +ardent member of the Club to which he almost invariably devoted two +afternoons of the week. + +He was a promising player, and his keenness made him a favourite. He rode +Lord Saltash's ponies, Saltash himself very seldom putting in an +appearance. He was wont to declare that he had no time for games, and his +frequent absences made it impossible for him to take a very active part +in the proceedings of the Club which he had himself inaugurated in an +idle hour. He dropped in occasionally to watch a game, and he took +interest in Bunny's progress; but he was very rarely moved to play +himself. He was too restless, too volatile, to maintain any lasting +enthusiasm for any pastime. All that was generally seen of him when +staying at Burchester was a lightning glimpse as he tore by in his car, +or else galloped furiously over the downs and along the hard sands in the +early morning. + +He was a good deal in town as a rule during the season, but with the +general exodus in July he was invariably the first to go, driven by a +fever that gave him no rest. Even his most intimate friends seldom knew +where he was to be found or whither his wild fancy would take him next. +No one was sure of him at any time. He would accept an engagement and +throw it up again without scruple if it did not accord with his mood. Yet +wherever he went he could always command a welcome--at least from the +feminine portion of the community who declared that Charles Rex could not +be judged by ordinary standards; he was a law unto himself. + +Even Bunny did not know where he was on that hot afternoon in mid-July +when all Fairharbour gathered to watch a match between the regular team +and the visitors. It bid fair to be an exciting event, and he was in high +spirits at being one of those chosen to play. Maud had promised to bring +Toby down to see the game at his special request. He had seen very little +of Toby since that night at the Castle, though he was forced to admit to +himself that if she avoided him of set purpose she did it in a fashion +that baffled detection. She seemed to have settled down as a regular +inmate of Jake's household, and with the exception of her early rides +with Jake she gave herself up almost exclusively to helping Maud with the +children. She had eased his sister's burden in a wonderful fashion, and +the children loved her dearly. Her readiness and her sweet temper never +seemed to fail. She was but a child herself, but Bunny had an uneasy +feeling that she was changing. She had stipulated for six months, but he +sometimes wondered if by the end of that time she would not have +contrived to put herself out of his reach. It was that suspicion that +kept him hotly determined to pursue her untiringly till he captured her. +Even at a distance that odd charm of hers lured him strongly, and he knew +instinctively that if once she were launched in society his chances of +victory would be very greatly reduced. He wished he could have seen more +of Captain Larpent and possibly have enlisted his sympathy, but he had +left the Castle with Saltash, and even Toby herself professed ignorance +of his whereabouts. It was evident that they had never seen much of one +another, and Bunny realized that he would look in vain for help in that +quarter. + +He doggedly maintained his resolve to win her none the less, and his +visits to his sister's house were frequent. He spoke no word on the +subject either to Maud or Jake. Toby should not feel that he had in any +sense taken a mean advantage. But he never looked at her without the +quick longing to take her in his arms rising in his heart, and though the +longing was never satisfied he believed that she was aware of it. She was +always friendly with him and never embarrassed in his presence. Yet he +had a strong feeling that by some subtle means she was holding him off. +He bided his time with what patience he could muster, but he was +determined it should not be for long. + +The work on Saltash's estate had done him good. He was keen to prove +himself, and the vigorous, out-door life suited him. Jake saw with +satisfaction that he was developing a self-reliance and resourcefulness +that had not characterized him formerly. He had given up racing according +to his promise, and the life he now led was after Jake's own heart, an +existence of wholesome activity that was making of him exactly the type +of man that he desired him to become. The boy was a gentleman and there +was fine stuff in him. Jake gloried in the fact. There had always been in +Bunny qualities that appealed to him very strongly, and it was in a large +measure due to his influence that those qualities had ripened as they +had. + +He did not accompany Maud and Toby down to Fairharbour, for business kept +him at the Stables. "Bring him back with you!" he said to his wife at +parting, and she smiled and promised. Bunny was never difficult to +persuade. + +But when they reached the polo-ground he was in the midst of a crowd of +visitors from the hotel, and it seemed at first as if he would have no +time to spare for them. He very speedily detached himself, however, at +sight of them and came up with an eager greeting. + +"So awfully glad you've come. There are some people here you used to +know, Maud, in the old days. Friends of Charlie's too. The Melroses--you +remember them, don't you?" + +The name came upon Maud with a curious shock. Yes, she remembered the +Melroses. They belonged to the long, long ago before her marriage--to +that strange epoch in her early girlhood when Charlie Burchester had +filled her world. How far away it seemed! They had all been in the same +set, they and the Cressadys who had been responsible for the scandal that +had so wrung her proud heart. Lady Cressady had been dead for years. She +wondered if Charlie had ever regretted her. It had been but a passing +fancy, and she suspected that he had forgotten her long since. He had +never really taken her seriously; of that she was convinced now. Life had +been merely a game with him in those days. It was only recently that it +had begun to be anything else. + +She felt no keen desire to resume the long-forgotten acquaintance with +the Melroses, but Bunny evidently expected it of her, had already told +them about her, and she had no choice. + +She followed him therefore, Toby very sedate and upright behind her. Toby +was looking wonderfully pretty that day. She varied as a landscape varies +on a windy day, but that afternoon she was at her best. Her blue eyes +looked forth upon the crowd with a hint of audacity, and her _piquante_ +little face was full of charm. + +Bunny's look dwelt upon her as he drew aside for his sister to pass him +at the pavilion. He pinched her elbow with a sudden smile. + +"You don't want to go and talk to those people. Come with me and see the +ponies!" + +She responded with characteristic eagerness to the invitation. "Shall I? +But won't Maud mind? Do you think I ought?" + +"Of course you ought," he rejoined with decision. "Maud won't care. I'll +bring you back to her before the play begins." + +He drew her away through the crowd, and she went with him without further +demur. Bunny was tall and bore himself with distinction. There was, +moreover, something rather compelling about him just then, and Toby felt +the attraction. She suffered the hand that grasped her own. + +"Look here!" he said abruptly, as they drew apart from the throng. "I've +got to see more of you somehow. Have you been dodging me all this time?" + +"I?" said Toby. + +She met his eyes with a funny little chuckle. There was spontaneous +mischief in his own. + +He gave her hand an admonitory squeeze. "I'm not laughing. You're not +playing the game. What's the good of my coming to the house to see you if +we never meet?" + +"Don't understand," said Toby briefly. + +"Yes, you do. Or you can if you try. You never seem to have any liberty +now-a-days. Is it Maud's doing or your own?" + +Toby laughed again lightly and bafflingly. "I can do anything I want to +do," she said. + +"Oh, can you?" Bunny pounced. "Then you've got to meet me sometimes away +from the rest. See? Come! That's only fair." + +Toby made a face at him. "Suppose I don't want to?" she said. + +He laughed into her eyes. "Don't tell me that! When and where?" + +She laughed back. He was hard to resist. "I don't know. I'm too busy." + +"Rot!" said Bunny. + +"You're very rude," she remarked. + +"I'll be ruder when I get the chance," he laughed. "Listen, I want to see +you alone very badly. You're not going to let me down." + +"I don't know what I'm going to do yet," said Toby. + +But she could not look with severity into the handsome young face that +was bent to hers. It was not in her to repulse a friendly influence. She +had to respond. + +"I'll tell you what you're going to do," said Bunny, marking her +weakening with cheery assurance. "You'll take Chops for a walk to-morrow +evening through the Burchester Woods. You know that gate by the larch +copse? It's barely a mile across the down. Be there at seven, and +perhaps--who knows?--perhaps--Chops may meet somebody he's rather fond +of." + +"And again perhaps he mayn't," said Toby, suppressing a dimple. + +"Oh, I say, that's shabby! You'll give him the chance anyhow?" + +The pleading note sounded in Bunny's voice. Toby suddenly dropped her +eyes. She looked as if she were bracing herself to refuse. + +Bunny saw and quickly grappled with the danger. "Give him the chance!" he +urged softly into her ear. "You won't be sorry--afterwards." + +She did not lift her eyes, but somehow the enchantment held. By a bold +stroke he had entered her defences, and she could not for the moment +drive him out. She was silent. + +"You'll come?" whispered Bunny. + +They were nearing a little group of ponies that were being held in +readiness at the end of the field. Toby quickened her pace. + +He kept beside her, but he did not speak again. And perhaps his silence +moved her more than speech, for she gave a little impulsive turn towards +him and threw him her sudden, boyish smile. + +"All right. We'll come," she said. + +"Hooray!" crowed Bunny softly. + +"But I shan't stay long," she warned him. "And if I don't like it, I +shall never come again." + +"You will like it," said Bunny with confidence. + +"I wonder," said Toby with her chin in the air. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +L'OISEAU BLEU + + +Bunny surpassed himself that afternoon. Wherever he went, success seemed +to follow, and shouts of applause reached him from all quarters. + +"That young fellow is a positive genius," commented General Melrose, who +had a keen eye for the game. "He ought to be in the Service. Why isn't +he, Mrs. Bolton?" + +"He wasn't considered strong enough," Maud said. "It was a great +disappointment to him. You see, he spent the whole of his childhood on +his back with spine trouble. And when that was put right he outgrew his +strength." + +"Ah! I remember now. You used to wheel the poor little beggar about in a +long chair. Well, he's rather different now from what he was in those +days. Not much the matter with him, is there?" + +"Nothing now," Maud said. + +"What does he do with himself?" asked the General, surveying the distant +figure at that moment galloping in a far corner of the field. + +"He is agent on Lord Saltash's estate at Burchester," his daughter said, +suddenly entering the conversation. "He was telling me about it at +luncheon. He and Lord Saltash are friends." + +"Ah! To be sure!" General Melrose's look suddenly came to Maud and she +felt herself colour a little. + +"He is an old friend of the family," she said. "We live not far from the +Castle. My husband owns the Graydown Stables." + +"Oh, I know that," the General said courteously. "I know your husband, +Mrs. Bolton, and I am proud to know him. What I did not know until to-day +was that he was your husband. I never heard of your marriage." + +"We have been married for eight years," she said with a smile. + +"It must be at least ten since I saw you last," he said. "This girl of +mine--Sheila--must have been at school in those days. You never met her?" + +Maud turned to the girl. "I don't think we have ever met before," she +said. "Is this your first visit to Fairharbour?" + +"My first visit, yes." Sheila leaned forward. She was a pretty girl of +two-and-twenty with a quantity of soft dark hair and grey eyes that held +a friendly smile. "We don't go to the sea much in the summer as a rule. +We get so much of it in the winter. Dad always winters in the South. It +only seems a few weeks since we came back from Valrosa." + +Maud was conscious of an abrupt jerk from Toby on her other side, and she +laid a hand on her arm with the kindly intention of drawing her into the +conversation. But the next instant feeling tension under her hand, she +turned to look at her, and was surprised to see that Toby was staring out +across the field with wide, strained eyes. She looked so white that Maud +had a moment of sharp anxiety. + +"Is anything the matter, dear?" she whispered. + +An odd little tremor went through Toby. She spoke with an effort. "I +thought he was off his pony that time, didn't you?" + +She kept her eyes upon Bunny who was coming back triumphant. + +Maud smiled. "Oh, I don't think there is much danger of that. Miss +Melrose was talking about Valrosa. You were there too last winter, +weren't you?" + +The colour mounted in Toby's face. She turned almost defiantly. "Just for +a day or two. I was at school at Geneva. I went there to join my father." + +"I was at school at Geneva a few years ago," said Sheila Melrose. "You +didn't go to Mademoiselle Denise, I suppose?" + +"No," said Toby briefly. "Madame Beaumonde." + +"I never heard of her," said Sheila. "It must have been after I left." + +Toby nodded. "I wasn't there long. I've never been anywhere long. But +I've left school now, and I'm going to do as I like." + +"A very wise resolution!" commented a laughing voice behind her. "It's +one of the guiding principles of my life." + +All the party turned, Toby with a quick exclamation muffled at birth. +Saltash, attired in a white yachting suit and looking more than usually +distinguished in his own fantastic fashion, stood with his hand on the +back of Toby's chair. + +"Quite a gathering of old friends!" he declared, smiling impartially upon +all. + +General Melrose stretched a welcoming hand to him. "Hullo, Saltash! Where +on earth have you sprung from? Or are you fallen straight out of the +skies?" + +"Like Lucifer, son of the morning!" laughed Saltash. "Well, I haven't +sprung and I haven't fallen. I have simply arrived." + +Toby was on her feet. "Come and sit down!" she said in a low voice. + +He shook his head. "No, no, _ma chérie_. I will stand behind you. Miss +Melrose, my humble regards to you. Is the black mark still against my +name?" + +Sheila looked at him with a touch of _hauteur_ that somehow melted into a +smile. She had learnt her lesson at Valrosa, and there was nothing to add +thereto. This man was never in earnest, and he had never intended her +to think him so. + +"I banned you as bold and bad long ago," she said. "I don't remember that +you have done anything to change the impression." + +He laughed lightly, enigmatically. "Nothing in your presence, I fear. The +Fates have always been sportive so far as I was concerned. But really I'm +not such a bad sort now-a-days, am I, Mrs. Bolton?" + +Maud smiled upon him. "Not so bad, I think. But please don't ask me to be +your sponsor! I really couldn't play the part." + +"Ask me!" said Toby suddenly, with flushed face up-raised. "He saved my +life when _The Night Moth_ went down, when most men would only have +bothered to save their own." + +"What a libel!" laughed Saltash. "Don't you know I only hung on to you +because you had a life-belt on!" + +"Oh, naturally!" said the General. "That would be your motive. I was +sorry to hear about _The Night Moth_, but you had a lucky escape." + +"I always escape somehow," remarked Saltash complacently. "_The Night +Moth_ wanted new engines too, that's one consolation. I've just bought +another," he added, suddenly touching Toby's shoulder. "Your daddy is +quite pleased with her. We've just come round from London in her." + +"Oh, have you?" Eagerly Toby's eyes came up to his, "What is she like? +What are you going to call her?" + +"She isn't christened yet. I'm going to hold a reception on board, and +Maud shall perform the ceremony. I'm calling her _The Blue Moon_--unless +you can suggest something better." Saltash's restless look went to Maud. +"I wanted to call her after you," he said lightly, "But I was afraid Jake +might object." + +"I think _The Blue Moon_ is much more suitable," she answered. "Is she as +rare as she sounds?" + +"She's rather a fine article," he made answer. "You must come and see +her--come and cruise in her if you will. She's only just off the slips. I +was lucky to get her. She skims along like a bird." + +"Why not call her _The Blue Bird_?" suggested Sheila. + +He shook his head with his odd grimace. "That is a thing I can never hope +to possess, Miss Melrose. The blue moon may occur once in my life if I am +exceptionally virtuous, but the blue bird never. I have ceased to hope +for it." His glance flashed beyond her. "Young Bunny is distinguishing +himself to-day. That was a fine effort." + +Everyone was clapping except Toby who was staring before her with her +hands in her lap. Her blue eyes were very wide open, but they did not +seem to be watching the game. + +"It will fly to you, _chérie_," suddenly whispered a voice in her ear. +"It is already upon the wing." + +A little tremor went through her, but she did not turn her head. Only +after a moment she slipped a hand behind her through the back of her +chair. + +Wiry fingers closed upon it, gripped it, let it go. "When it comes +to you, hold it fast!" came the rapid whisper. _"Il ne vient pas deux +fois--l'oiseau bleu."_ + +Toby's lip trembled. She bit it desperately. Her look was strained. She +did not attempt to speak. + +"It is the gift of the gods, _chérie_." The words came softly at her +shoulder, but they pierced her. "We do not cast their gifts away. They +come--too seldom." + +She made a quick movement; it was almost convulsive, like the start of +one suddenly awakened. A hard breath went through her, and then she was +laughing, laughing and clapping with the rest, her eyes upon the boyish, +triumphant figure in front of her. When the applause died away, Saltash +had departed, abruptly as was his wont. And though they saw him in the +distance several times, he did not return that afternoon. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE TRAP + + +It was an evening of golden silence, and the larch copse in its stillness +was like an enchanted wood. Now and then something moved in the +undergrowth with a swift rustle or a blackbird raised a long ripple of +alarm. But for the most part all was still. No breeze came up the +hillside, and in the west a long black line of cloud lay like a barrier +across the sun, so that great rays slanted out over land and sea, +transforming all things with their radiance. + +A soft low whistle broke the stillness or mingled with it. A snatch of +melody came like the strains of a fairy pipe from the edge of the larch +wood. Again there came a sharp movement in some long grass near the gate +that led from the open down into the Burchester estate. It sounded as if +some small imprisoned creature were fighting for freedom. Then in another +moment there came the rush and snuffle of a questing dog, and old Chops +the setter came bursting through the hedge that bordered the wood. + +He flung himself through the long grass with an agility that belied his +advancing years, and in an instant there arose a cry that seemed to +thrill the whole wood with horror. The enchanted silence broke upon it +like the shivering of a crystal ball, for as Chops pounced another cry +rang clear and commanding from the other side of the hedge. + +"Chops! Back! Back! Do you hear, Chops? Come back." + +Chops did not come back, but he paused above his quarry, and looked round +with open jaws and lolling tongue. If it had been his master who thus +called him, he would have obeyed on the instant. But Toby was a different +matter, and the frantic, struggling thing in front of him was a sore +temptation. + +His brief hesitation, however, lost him the game. Her light feet raced +through the grass with the speed of wings, and she threw herself over the +gate and upon him before he could make good his claim. He found himself +thrust back, and the long habit of obedience had conquered instinct +before it could reassert itself. She dropped upon her knees beside the +thing in the grass and discovered a young hare caught in a snare. + +It was a very ordinary poacher's contrivance fashioned of wire. The +little animal was fairly caught round the body, and the cruel tension of +the gin testified to his anguished and futile struggles for freedom. The +wire had cut into his shoulder, and his bolting eyes were wild with +terror. It was no easy task to loosen the trap, and there was blood on +Toby's hands as she strove to release the straining, frenzied creature. + +She was far too deeply engrossed in the matter to heed any sound of +approaching feet, and when the thud of a horse's hoofs suddenly fell on +the turf close to her she did not raise her head. But she did look up +startled when two hands swooped down from above her and gripped the +hare with a vice-like strength that stilled all struggling. + +"He will claw you to pieces," said Bunny bluntly. "Shall I kill him? He's +damaged. Or do you want to let him go?" + +"Oh, let him go--of course!" cried Toby, dragging reckless at the wire. +"See, it's coming now! Hold him tight while I slip it off!" + +The wire slipped at last. She forced it loose, and the victim was free. +Bunny turned to lay him in the grass, and Toby sprang upon Chops and held +him fast. She was crying, fiercely, angrily. + +"How dare they set that cruel thing? How dare they? He isn't dead, is he? +Why doesn't he run away?" + +"He's hurt," said Bunny. "Let me kill him! Let Chops finish him!" + +"No, no, no, no!" Vehemently Toby flung her protest. "He may be hurt, but +he'll get over it. Anyway, give him his chance! There! He's moving! It +wouldn't be fair not to give him his chance." + +"It would be kinder to kill him," said Bunny. + +"I hate you!" she cried back, weeping over Chops who stood strained +against her. "If--if--if you touch him--I'll never, never speak to you +again!" + +Bunny came to her, took Chops by the collar, and fastened him with his +whip to the gate. Then he stooped over Toby, his young face sternly set. + +"Stop crying!" he said. "Let me have your hands!" + +They were a mass of scratches from the hare's pounding feet. He began to +look at them, but Toby thrust them behind her back. She choked back her +tears like a boy, and looked up at him with eyes of burning indignation, +sitting back on her heels in the long grass. + +"Bunny, it's a damn' shame to trap a thing like that. Did you do it?" + +"I? No. I'm not a poacher." Grimly Bunny made reply. That flare of anger +made her somehow beautiful, but he knew if he yielded to the temptation +to take her in his arms at that moment she would never forgive him. +"Don't be unreasonable!" he said. "You'll have to come and bathe your +hands. They can't be left in that state." + +"Oh, what does it matter?" she said impatiently. "I've had much worse +things than that to bear. Bunny, you believe in God I know. Why does He +let things be trapped? It isn't fair. It isn't right. It--it--it hurts +so." + +"Lots of things hurt," said Bunny. + +"Yes, but there's nothing so mean and so horrible as a trap. I--I could +kill the man who set it. I'm glad it wasn't you." Toby spoke +passionately. + +"So am I," said Bunny. + +He crumpled the wire gin in his hand, and dragged it up from the ground. + +Toby watched him still kneeling in the grass. "What are you going to do +with it?" + +"Destroy it," he said promptly. + +She smiled at him, the tears still on her cheeks. "That's fine of you. +Bunny, I haven't got a handkerchief." + +He gave her his, still looking grim. She dried her eyes and got up. The +hare, recovering somewhat, gave her a frightened stare and slipped away +into the undergrowth. She looked up at Bunny. + +"I'm sorry I was angry," she said. "Are you cross with me?" + +He relaxed a little. "Not particularly." + +"Don't be!" she said tremulously. "I couldn't help it. He suffered so +horribly, and I know--I know so well what it felt like." + +"How do you know?" said Bunny. + +Her look fell before his. She made an odd movement of shrinking. He put +his arm swiftly round her. + +"Never mind the wretched hare! He's got away this time anyway. And I'm +not at all sure you didn't have the worst of it. Feeling better now?" + +She nodded. "Yes, much better. I like you, Bunny, but I can't help +thinking you're rather cruel. You didn't want to kill the poor thing?" + +"I think it was rather prolonging the agony to let him live," said Bunny. +"Let me see your hands!" + +She tried to hide them, but he was insistent, and at length impulsively +she yielded. + +"You must come down to old Bishop's and bathe them," he said. + +She shook her head instantly. "No, Bunny, I'm not going to. I'll run down +to the lake if you like. There's sure not to be anyone there." + +"All right," said Bunny, but he lingered still with his arm about her. +"Will you kiss me, Toby?" he said suddenly. + +"No," she said, and swiftly averted her face. + +His arm tightened for a second, then he felt her brace herself against +him and let her go. "All right," he said again. "We'll go down to the +lake." + +She threw him a swift glance of surprise, but he turned away to release +Chops and unfasten his horse without further discussion. + +Their way lay along a grass ride that ran beside the larch wood. Bunny +walked gravely along, leading his horse. Toby moved lightly beside him. + +Behind them the silence closed like the soft folds of a curtain, but it +was not a silence devoid of life. As they drew away from the place, a man +stepped out from the larches and stood motionless, watching them. A +whimsical smile that was not without bitterness hovered about his mouth. +As they passed from sight, he turned back into the trees and walked +swiftly and silently away. + +It was nearly a mile across the park to the lake in the hollow, and the +boy and girl tramped it steadily with scarcely a word. Chops walked +sedately by Toby's side, occasionally poking his nose under her hand. +Bunny's face was stern. He had the look of a man who moved with a +definite goal in view. + +They came to the beechwood that surrounded the lake. The Castle from its +height looked down over the terraced gardens upon one end of the water. +It was a spot in fairyland. + +They came to a path that led steeply downwards, and Bunny stopped. "I'll +leave my animal here," he said. + +Toby did not wait. She plunged straight down the steep descent. When he +rejoined her, she was at the water's edge. She knelt upon a bed of moss +and thrust her hands into the clear water. He stood above her for a +moment or two, then knelt beside her and took the wet wrists very gently +into a firm hold. She made a faint resistance, but finally yielded. He +looked down at the hands nervously clenched in his grasp. He was older in +that moment, more manly, than she had ever seen him. + +"What's the matter, little girl?" he said softly. "What are you afraid +of?" + +"Nothing," said Toby instantly, and threw up her chin in the old +dauntless way. + +He looked at her closely. "Sure?" + +The blue eyes met his with defiance. "Of course I'm sure. That horrid +trap upset me, that's all." + +He continued to look at her steadily. "That isn't why you won't have +anything to say to me," he said. + +Her colour rose under his gaze, but she would not avoid it. "Does it +matter why?" she said. + +"It does when I want to know," he answered. Again his look went to her +hands. "How the little brute scored you! So much for gratitude!" + +"You don't expect gratitude from a creature wild with fright," said Toby. + +She spoke rather breathlessly, and he saw that she was on the verge of +tears again. He got up and drew her to her feet. + +"Let's walk for a bit!" he said. + +She stood as one in doubt and he felt that she was trembling. + +"I say--don't!" he said suddenly and winningly. "I won't do anything you +don't like, I swear. You shan't be bothered. Can't you trust me?" + +She made a little movement towards him, and he put his arm round her +shoulders. They turned along the greensward side by side. + +"It was awfully nice of you to come," Bunny said in that new gentle +voice of his. "I didn't mean you to get there first, but old Bishop is so +long-winded I couldn't get away." + +"It didn't matter," said Toby with a nervous little smile. + +"It did to me," said Bunny. "It would have saved you that anyway." + +"But you'd have killed the hare," she said. + +"Not if he hadn't been damaged," he said. "I'm not a brute. I don't kill +for the sake of killing." + +She looked incredulous. "Most men do. Don't you hunt? Don't you shoot?" + +"Oh, you're talking of sport!" said Bunny. + +"Yes, it's called sport," said Toby, an odd little vibration in her +voice. "It's just a name for killing things, isn't it?" + +Bunny considered the matter. "No, that's not fair," he decided. "Sport is +sport. But I prefer to walk up my game and I never countenance digging +out a fox. That's sport." + +"There are very few sportsmen in the world," said Toby. + +"Oh, I don't know. Anyway, I hope I'm one of 'em. I try to be," said +Bunny. + +She gave him a quick look. "I think you are. And so is Jake." + +"Oh, Jake! Jake's magnificent. He's taught me all I know in that line. +I used to be a horrid little bounder before I met Jake. He simply made +me--body and soul." Bunny spoke with a simple candour. + +"P'raps he had good stuff to work on," suggested Toby. + +Bunny's arm drew her almost imperceptibly. "I don't think he had. My +father was a wild Irishman, and my mother--well, she's dead too--but she +wasn't anything to be specially proud of." + +"Oh, was your mother a rotter?" said Toby, with sudden interest. + +He nodded. "We don't talk about her much, Maud and I. She married a +second time--a brute of a man who used to run the Anchor Hotel. They went +to Canada, and she died." + +"The Anchor Hotel!" said Toby. "That place at Fairharbour down by the +shore?" + +"Yes, Maud and I were there too at first. I was a cripple in those days, +couldn't even walk. We had a fiendish time there--till Jake came." + +"Ah!" Toby's blue eyes suddenly gleamed. "Did Maud marry Jake to get +away?" she asked. + +Bunny nodded again and began to smile. "Yes. We were in a beastly hole, +she and I. Something had to be done." + +"She didn't love him then?" questioned Toby, almost with eagerness. + +"Oh no, not then. Not till long after. Jake and I were the pals. He was +always keen enough on her, poor chap. But Charlie complicated matters +rather in those days. You see, Charlie came first--before she ever met +Jake." + +"Charlie?" said Toby quickly. + +"Lord Saltash. You knew he was an old friend, didn't you?" + +"I didn't know--that he--and Maud--ever loved each other." Toby halted +over the words as if they were somehow difficult to utter. + +Bunny enlightened her with a boy's careless assurance. "Oh, that's a very +old story. They were very fond of each other in their youth. In fact they +were practically engaged. Then Charlie, who has always been a bit giddy, +went a bit too far with Lady Cressady who was also a somewhat gay young +person, and Sir Philip Cressady, who was a brute, tried to divorce her. +He didn't succeed. The case fell through. But it set everyone by the +ears, and Maud threw Charlie over. He pretends he didn't care, but he +did--pretty badly, and he's never married in consequence." + +"Oh, is that why?" said Toby. + +"That's why. He's gone the pace fairly rapidly ever since. But he's a +good chap at heart. Even Jake acknowledges that now, and he knows him as +well as anyone." + +"And--Maud?" said Toby, in a low voice. She was not looking at Bunny, but +staring out over the still waters of the lake with a rather piteous +intentness. + +"Maud has always kept a soft place in her heart for him. She couldn't +help it. Women can't." + +"I see," said Toby. "And doesn't--Jake--mind?" + +"Jake? No, not a bit. He's sure of her now. She thinks there's no one +like him in the world. And she's quite right. There's not." Bunny spoke +with warm enthusiasm. + +Toby's brows were drawn a little. "Then--she isn't in love with Lord +Saltash?" she said. + +"No, not now. She just takes a motherly interest in him, tries to +persuade him to settle down and be good--that sort of thing. I believe +she feels rather responsible for him. He certainly bolted very thoroughly +after she gave him up. It's all years ago of course. But he's never +settled--never will." + +"I see," said Toby. + +A slight shiver went through her, and she looked up at Bunny with a +small, pinched smile. "Fancy--Maud--giving him up!" she said. + +"Well, she always had her share of pride, and he certainly didn't treat +her with great consideration. He might have known she'd never stand it," +said Bunny. "He only had himself to thank." + +Toby's look was puzzled, oddly pathetic. "But he's such a king," she +said. "I don't suppose he'd ever think of that." + +Again Bunny's arm tightened about the narrow shoulders. There was +something about her that appealed to him very deeply, something he sensed +rather than saw. + +"Haven't we talked about other people's affairs long enough now?" he +suggested. "Don't you think we might turn our attention to our own?" + +She coloured up to her blue-veined forehead. "If you like," she said +rather faintly. + +"Don't you think I deserve that kiss?" urged Bunny softly. "I've been +awfully patient." + +She lifted her lips with a gesture of submission, saying no word. + +"Oh, not like that!" he said gently. "Not if you'd rather not, dear." + +She caught her breath sharply; it was almost a sob. Then she opened her +eyes wide and laughed. + +"Oh, you great big silly!" she said. "You're easier to draw than anyone I +ever met!" + +His arms clasped her. He drew her close. "My own little butterfly girl!" +he said, and kissed her very tenderly. "I've caught you at last--at +last." + +She laid her head against his neck, and stood so, quivering a little and +silent. + +"You're tired," he said. "I'll give you a lift towards home. Folly will +carry you all right." + +She uttered a tremulous laugh, and lifting her face she kissed him of her +own accord. + +"You're--awful good to me, Bunny dear," she said. "P'raps--p'raps I'll be +engaged to you soon." + +"You darling!" said Bunny fervently. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE CONFIDENCE + + +A letter with the crest of a fox's head and the motto, _Sans Vertu_, upon +the back lay beside Maud's plate on the following morning. She took it up +with a smile at Jake who had just entered the room. + +"From Charlie--probably about the new yacht. He told me the other day +that he wanted me to perform the christening ceremony." + +"You have my permission," said Jake. "What does he propose to call her?" + +"_The Blue Moon_, I believe. But he was in a freakish mood. He may have +changed his mind by this time." + +Jake glanced round. "Where's the kid?" + +"Who? Toby? I thought she went out early. Hasn't she been riding with +you?" + +"No, she dodged me," said Jake. "Went off on her own on one of those raw +colts. I shall have to talk to her when she comes in." + +"I hope she's all right," said Maud, with a touch of anxiety. + +"She's all right," said Jake. + +"But why did she dodge you? Have you been quarrelling?" Maud paused in +the act of opening her letter and looked at him with a grave questioning +that brought a gleam of humour into Jake's eyes. + +"We have not," he said. "I've scarcely seen her since yesterday morning. +I can't tell you why she dodged me. I only know she did it." + +"How odd of her!" said Maud. + +He sat down and took up the paper; his face was grim. "I shall know why +presently. Read your letter. I'm in no hurry." + +Maud opened the letter from Saltash and there fell a brief silence. + +It was broken by the sound of light feet outside the door, and Toby, +still wearing riding-dress, her face flushed and laughing, swung into the +room. "I'm so sorry I'm late," she said. "The little fiend ran away with +us, and we had a gigantic tussle. Do you mind if I sit down in these +things?" + +She went round to Maud to kiss her, and stopped as Maud's arm came about +her. + +"Do you mind?" she said again. + +"My dear," Maud said very gently, "Jake is going to scold you for riding +that half-broken colt by yourself. It was very risky. Why did you do it?" + +"Oh, is Jake cross?" said Toby. She looked across at him with an imp of +mischief in her eyes. Then, as he still studied his paper, abruptly she +left Maud and went round to him. + +"Cheer up, Jake!" she said. "Don't throw a cloud on the proceedings!" + +Her voice was half impudent, half wheedling. Jake looked up, his eyes +very direct and somewhat stern. + +"You sit down and have some breakfast!" he said. "I'll talk to you +afterwards." + +She obeyed him with a slight shrug of the shoulders. "P'raps I shan't +stay to be talked to," she remarked, as she did so. "I've promised to +take Eileen and Molly out as soon as I've had my tub, so if it's going to +be a lengthy wigging, you'd better begin now." + +Jake did not begin. He turned deliberately from the bravado of her look, +and began to take the covers off the breakfast dishes. + +Toby leaned back provocatively in her chair, and whistled under her +breath. She was plainly in a dare-devil mood, but it was not her custom +to dare Jake. + +"What have you done to your hands?" he said, as she reached out for the +plate he offered her. + +She coloured deeply. "Nothing--I mean--nothing serious. I often get my +hands scratched." + +"Why don't you tell me the truth?" said Jake. + +Maud looked up from her letter. "It is as I thought. Charlie wants us to +go down to Fairharbour to-morrow. He is getting together a luncheon party +on board the yacht. The Melroses will be there and some of the polo +people staying at The Anchor. Jake, you will come and support me, won't +you?" + +Jake shook his head. "Bunny can do that job, my girl. I've got to get +ready for Goodwood. Forest Fire is going to make his mark there." + +"Oh, bother Forest Fire!" said Maud. "I want you." + +"What for?" said Jake. + +"Well, General Melrose knows you. He was talking of you down at the Club +the other afternoon. And I want him to meet you--with me. Please come, +Jake!" Maud spoke persuasively. + +"All right," said Jake. + +"You will?" + +"I will," he said, smiling a little. "You don't often interfere with my +liberty. I remember old Melrose, met him years ago at Doncaster. He's +always been keen on the Turf, and he stood by me once when--someone--was +trying to queer my pitch." + +"Oh!" said Maud. "You mean the time that Charlie let you down! Poor +Charlie! He was horribly ashamed of himself afterwards." + +Toby looked up sharply, and again the colour came into her face, mounting +swiftly to her forehead. She appeared to be on the verge of hot speech, +but no words came. + +It was Jake who spoke in his soft, easy drawl. "Oh, I guess he's grown a +bit since then. Anyway, whatever his intentions, he never managed to do +me any harm. And I rather think his malice is dead now." + +"It died long ago," said Maud quietly. "He owes you a great deal, Jake. +You've taught him to be a man." + +"I?" said Jake. "My dear, your partiality runs away with your judgment. +Have some ham!" + +He dismissed the matter in his own calm fashion, and began to talk of his +animals. Breakfast proceeded, but Toby scarcely spoke and ate very +little. + +"It's so hot to-day," she said when presently Maud remonstrated with her. +"I can't eat when it's hot--really." She pushed her plate away and rose +from the table. "Do you mind if I go?" + +"Yes, I mind," said Jake. "Go and sit in that arm-chair and smoke a +cigarette! I shall be ready when you've finished." + +He held out his case to her, and, though she made a face at him, she +yielded. She threw herself down in the chair he indicated and smoked in +silence. + +Chops came and laid his head upon her knee, and she fondled his silken +ears with an understanding touch. But her eyes were fixed before her with +something of hardness in their look. + +Maud finished her breakfast and got up. "I am going up to the nursery," +she said. "Don't hurry, Toby dear! The children can run in the garden +till you are ready." + +"I shan't keep her long," Jake said. + +Toby turned in her chair with a sudden flare of defiance. "I'd like to +see any man who would keep me anywhere against my will!" she said. + +Jake nodded. "All right. You can see him now if you want to. Why did you +go and ride that little devil Knuckle-Duster when I told you not?" + +"I don't take orders from you!" said Toby hotly. + +"Oh yes, you do--sometimes." The door closed softly behind Maud and Jake +turned squarely to face the girl on his hearth. "Say now," he said in his +slow direct way, "it was a fool thing to do. You may as well admit it as +not." + +Toby was on her feet. She stood stiffly braced, but the colour had gone +out of her face. It was white and strained. + +"All right," she said, speaking quickly and nervously. "But what of it? I +brought him back quite sound and none the worse." + +"I wasn't thinking of the horse," said Jake. "He's a savage brute and I +doubt if we ever do much with him. He'll certainly never be fit for a +lady to ride. But that's not the point either. The point is, you did it +against my orders. And you dodged me to do it. Isn't that so?" + +"I didn't dodge you for that reason," said Toby. "I'd have done it +whether you'd been there or not." + +"I think not," Jake said. "Anyway, you'll give me your word of honour +that you'll never ride that animal again." + +"My what?" said Toby, and suddenly she broke into a laugh. "Oh, don't be +funny, Jake! Bunny rides him. Why shouldn't I?" + +"That's quite a different thing," Jake said. "Bunny has a man's strength. +You haven't. It's too dangerous a game for you, see? And I won't have +it." + +"All right," said Toby, picking up her riding-whip and turning to go. + +He stretched out a hand to detain her. "You'll give me that promise," he +said. + +She paused for a second, and met the unswerving determination of his +eyes. Then a sudden gleam of blue fire lit her own. She made a swift +movement, and struck the outstretched hand lightly with the switch she +carried. + +It was a gesture of supreme insolence, but there was conscious daring in +her look. Jake's hand leapt like an angry dog upon the switch and gripped +it. + +"That was a mistake," he said, and the words, though slow, had a cutting +quality that was somehow more imposing than open wrath. + +Toby faced him with unabated courage, but she had begun to quiver. She +spoke no word. + +Jake's hand fell. He turned from her, and pulled out his pipe. There was +dignity in the action--the dignity of strength that refuses to assert +itself. + +And Toby suddenly crumpled. She sprang after him like a contrite child, +and caught his arm. "Oh, Jake, forgive me! Do please forgive me! I'm a +beast--a beast!" she cried tremulously. + +Jake looked at her, the hint of a smile about his rugged mouth. "I guess +not," he said. "You're just--young." + +She shook her head vehemently. "I'm not! It wasn't that, Jake! I +didn't--hurt you?" + +"Shucks, no!" he said. + +She clung to his arm still. "I'll never disobey you again. I won't do +anything you don't like. Jake, I mean it! Why are you laughing?" + +"I'm not," said Jake. He put his pipe away again, and patted her +shoulder. "All right. Don't say any more!" he said. + +Toby gulped down some obstruction in the throat. "I must. I've got to ask +you something. You're so awfully decent. I can't--I won't--do things you +don't like." + +"What do you want to know?" said Jake. + +Her other hand came up and fastened tightly upon his arm. "I don't know +how to tell you," she said. "I--I had a rotten night last night. That's +why I went out alone this morning. And I took Knuckle-Duster because the +devil tempted me." + +"I see," said Jake. His red-brown eyes were very kindly in their +directness. "What did you have a bad night about?" + +Her hold upon him tightened. Something of entreaty made itself felt in +her grasp. There was fear in the wide blue eyes so resolutely lifted to +his. + +"I don't know how to tell you," she said again. + +"Maybe I can guess," said Jake. + +"Ah!" she said, and laid her face down quickly on his sleeve. + +He laid his free hand on her head. "It's Bunny, is it?" he said. + +She answered him quiveringly. "Yes, it's--it's Bunny." + +"Well?" said Jake gently. + +She spoke with her face still hidden. "You don't want me to marry him, do +you? I won't do it either--without your permission." + +"Mine!" said Jake. + +"Yes." Her words came rapidly. "You love Bunny. You know what's best for +him. You want him to have the best." + +Jake's hand caressed her bent head. "Well," he said, after a moment. "I +guess that's so. But--I've come to love you in the same way. I'd like you +to have the best too." + +She lifted her head and looked at him. "You'd like me to have Bunny? Do +you mean that?" + +"If it's going to make you both happy," said Jake. + +"Ah!" she caught her breath sharply. "But no one can be sure of that, can +they? I mean, marriage is such a speculation, isn't it? I expect Bunny +will soon get tired of me." + +"Why do you say that?" said Jake. + +A little quiver went through her. "I don't know. Men are like that, +aren't they? Not men like you of course, but you're the big exception to +almost every rule." + +Jake was frowning a little. "I guess I'm as human as the rest of 'em," he +said. "But what makes you think Bunny isn't a stayer?" + +"He's so young," said Toby. + +"That all?" said Jake, beginning to smile. + +She looked at him rather wistfully. "Yes, but it counts, Jake. He'll be a +man some day, but he isn't yet--at least only in streaks." + +"Well, there's no hurry, is there?" said Jake. "People shouldn't marry in +haste." + +Toby's eyes flashed sudden accusation. "You did!" + +"I!" Jake looked momentarily disconcerted. "Well, I had some excuse. What +do you know about it anyway?" + +"I know what Bunny told me. Maud didn't love you when she married +you. It didn't come on till afterwards. She loved Lord Saltash, and he +loved her." Toby spoke with a certain hardness, as if challenging +contradiction. "She'd have married him--but for you." + +Jake met the challenge squarely. "Quite possibly she would. Think she'd +have been any happier?" + +Toby shook her head. "No. I think you were always meant to be her man. +But it--it was rather hard on him." Her voice trembled a little. "Bunny +says that was why he never married." + +"He's not the marrying sort," said Jake. "I don't mind your marrying +Bunny, but nothing on this earth would persuade me to let you marry him." + +An odd little smile twitched the corners of Toby's mouth. "No? Well, I +shouldn't consult you about that," she said. "Sure you don't mind my +marrying Bunny?" + +Jake looked at her. "Not if you're sure you want to," he said. + +Her eyes grew bright and baffling. She drew away from him, but in a +moment with a boyish gesture, she held out her hand to him. "Thank you, +Jake. You're a brick. Whatever I do, I'll do it--straight, and you'll +stand by?" + +"Sure!" said Jake, and gave her a close grip. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE SACRED FIRE + + +The party that gathered on the quay at Fairharbour on the hot July day +when Saltash's new yacht, _The Blue Moon_ lay awaiting her christening +was of a very gay description. The yacht herself was decked with flags, +and the hotel facing the quay, The Anchor, was also decorated with +bunting. All the visitors in the town were congregated about the shore, +or were rowing in pleasure boats near the centre of attraction. + +The yacht lay moored to the quay on which by Saltash's orders a long +strip of red carpet had been laid leading to the gangway which was +decorated with trails of flowers. The day was glorious and cloudless, the +sea of that intense blue that melts to the horizon without any dividing +line--like the blue of a smoked pearl. + +Saltash's idea was to take his guests for a cruise across the bay after +the ceremony, and he planned to complete the celebrations with a _fête_ +on the water at night. Everything was in readiness, and by two o'clock he +was already receiving his guests. + +Maud and Jake stood with him, and little Eileen, very intent and serious, +held Toby's hand and looked on from the background. Captain Larpent was +on the bridge, looking very forbidding, even contemptuous. He had never +had any liking for the gay crowds with which it was Saltash's pleasure to +surround himself. He had the air of a magnificent Viking, above the +frivolities with which he was surrounded. There was nothing of the +ornamental about his rugged exterior, but his very aloofness made him +imposing. He looked straight over the heads of the buzzing throng that +poured on to the deck. + +General Melrose and his daughter were among the last to arrive, and with +them came Bunny, very merry and handsome, his dark eyes singling out Toby +in a flash as she stood with her small charge. She had just lifted the +child to stand on a ledge where she might overlook the proceedings when +he joined them. + +"Hullo!" he said eagerly. "I'm later than I meant to be. I've been +lunching with General Melrose. Ye gods, what a crush! Where do they all +come from? Well, sweetheart!" He bent to the child. "Enjoying your +precious little self?" + +The soft violet eyes met his with a deep contentment as she lifted her +face for his kiss. "I think it's lovely," she said earnestly. + +He stood up and looked again with swift appreciation at Toby. The girl +was dressed very simply in white, her vivid face shadowed by a broad +straw hat. She met his look with a grimace of boyish dissatisfaction. + +"Bunny! What a ghastly gathering! For goodness' sake, don't look at me +like that! I feel like a painted marionette!" + +"Are you painted?" said Bunny. "You don't look it." + +She made a vehement gesture of disgust. "As soon as this show it over, I +shall get into riding things and go like the--like the--" + +"Like the dish when it ran away with the spoon," suggested Bunny with a +grin, as she paused. "Well, if you'll be the spoon, I'll be the dish, and +we'll show 'em all a clean pair of heels. Shall we?" + +"I certainly won't be the spoon," said Toby with decision. "You can find +someone else to play that part. Try Miss Melrose! She doesn't look as if +she'd object." + +"She's a very pretty girl," said Bunny rather aggressively. + +"Of course she's a pretty girl. It's what she's for." Toby's chin went +up. "She couldn't be anything else." + +Bunny laughed. "Well, cheer up! She's not the only one on board. Do you +know any of these people?" + +Toby shook her head promptly. "And don't want! Aren't they awful? Oh, +here's Jake! Wonder how much he's enjoying himself." + +Whether Jake were enjoying himself or not was not apparent in his manner +as he came up and shook hands with Bunny, then turned to lift his little +girl on to his shoulder. + +"Hold tight, Innocence! What do you think of it all?" + +"I think it's lovely, Daddy," she answered, clasping him closely. "Does +Mummy like it too?" + +He smiled at the anxiety in her question. "Guess she'll come through it +all right. She's not exactly keen on this sort of thing. But we're here, +eh, Innocence? That ought to make a difference." + +Old General Melrose turned sharply at the sound of the soft voice. He had +not noticed Jake until that moment. + +"Why, Bolton!" he said. "What are you doing here?" + +Jake moved forward deliberately. "Well," he said, "I guess I'm here in +support of my wife who has undertaken the chief part in the ceremony +about to take place." + +The old soldier looked at him from under beetling brows. "Ah! Your wife! +That's Maud Brian, isn't it? Somehow I always think of her as Maud Brian. +So she still keeps up the old friendship with Saltash! I wonder you allow +that." + +Jake's red-brown eyes held a smile. "She pleases herself, sir," he said, +"and--she pleases me." + +"That a child of yours?" asked the General abruptly. "But I needn't ask. +She's got Maud's eyes. Sheila, come and see this kiddie of Maud's!" + +He spoke imperiously over his shoulder, and Sheila turned in answer. Her +soft eyes kindled. + +"Oh, what a darling! How do you do, Mr. Bolton? I know you well by name. +And this is your little girl? What is her name?" + +"Eileen," whispered the child, clinging rather nervously to Jake's +shoulder. + +"Innocence!" said Jake. + +"Ah! How sweet!" the girl said. "I must get your mummy to bring you to +see me. Would you like to, I wonder?" + +"I think so," said Eileen shyly. + +"Maybe you'll come and see her first," said Jake. "I should like you to +see the stud, sir. We've got some stock that I think would interest you." + +"That would be delightful," Sheila said, in her gracious way. "We are +here for another fortnight. I had no idea it was such a lovely place." + +"Have you seen Burchester?" asked Bunny. + +She turned to him. "Never. I want to see it. Lord Saltash said something +about it the other day, so I am hoping there is a chance of doing so. You +are very fond of it, Sir Bernard?" + +"Yes. It's my job just now. I'm head keeper," laughed Bunny. "Miss +Larpent thinks I'm very inefficient, but I do my best." + +"I never said so," said Toby. + +She flushed at his obvious intention of drawing her into the group; but +Sheila Melrose at once held out a welcoming hand. + +"Miss Larpent, do you know I can't help feeling that I've seen you +somewhere before. Yet I can't quite remember where. Could it have been at +Valrosa?" + +"Oh, no," said Toby. "It couldn't possibly have been there." + +"And yet I can't help thinking it must have been," said Sheila, looking +at her with knitted brows. "Were you at that fancy-dress affair at the +Casino Hotel? I have a feeling I have seen you--somewhere--in fancy +dress." + +"Never!" said Toby with decision. "You must be thinking of someone else." + +Sheila still looked at her with puzzled eyes. "Wait!" she said. "I shall +remember in a moment. It was someone exactly like you. I know--someone +dressed as a boy." + +Toby made a sudden sharp movement and clapped her hands excitedly. "Look! +Look! There goes the bottle! I hope she'll manage to break it!" + +Sheila's attention was instantly diverted. The crowd surged forward. +Maud, with Saltash on her right and Larpent on her left, stood by the +rail. She held up a bottle that gleamed golden in the sun. + +Saltash was laughing. He stood bareheaded, his dark face alight. Toby's +eyes went to him in a single flashing glance and remained fixed. Bunny, +looking at her, was for the moment curiously moved. It was as if he +looked from afar upon some sacred fire that had suddenly sprung into +ardent flame before a distant shrine. Then came Maud's voice, sweet and +clear, speaking the name of the yacht, and like a golden flame the bottle +curved through the pearl-like ether and crashed upon the bows. + +A murmur went up and then a shout. The bottle had broken and the wine +rushed in a sparkling cascade to the water. + +Something impelled Bunny. He gripped Toby by the elbow. He almost shook +her. "Hooray!" he yelled. "It's done! She's off!" + +Toby looked at him with the eyes of a dreamer--eyes in which a latent +fear underlay the reverence. Then, meeting his eyes, she seemed to awake. +Her features contracted for a moment, but she controlled them swiftly, +and laughed. Laughing, she drew him away. + +The yacht had throbbed into movement. The ropes were being flung aboard. +They were steaming away, and a great blast went up from the siren as they +drew from the quay. + +Everywhere was tumult, rejoicing. People were shouting, talking, +laughing, waving hats and handkerchiefs. The whole world seemed a buzz of +merriment, and out of the very thick of it, Toby's voice, small and +tense, spoke into Bunny's ear. + +"Let's get away! Let's go to Lord Saltash, and--and--and congratulate." + +Her hand was on his arm. She pulled at it urgently, insistently. And +Bunny went with her, moved again--he knew not wherefore--by that feeling +that something had frightened her. + +He grasped her hand and made a way for her through the crowd. They went +to the laughing group in the bows. Saltash was standing close to Maud. He +was making some careless jest to her, when suddenly he turned and found +the boy and girl hand in hand behind him. + +His swift look flashed over them, and then in his sudden way he put a +hand on the shoulder of each. It was a lightning touch, and he laughed +oddly as he did it, as a man laughs who covers some hidden hurt. + +"We came to congratulate," said Bunny. "Good luck to her!" + +And Saltash, with his royal air of graciousness, made light reply. + +"I thank you for your congratulations, my children; but may the luck be +yours! I see it coming." + +And with that lightly he moved away among his guests, leaving a trail of +merriment wherever he went, save where the boy and girl stood together in +the bows in a silence that neither seemed able to break. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +SURRENDER + + +That night Fairharbour Bay looked like a velvet bed on which glittered +many jewels. _The Blue Moon_, lighted from bows to stern lay in the +centre, and from her deck there went up showers of coloured rockets that +fell like burning rain upon the sea. There was a string band on board, +and the strains floated across the water as echoes from another world--a +wonder-world of soft melodies and laughing voices and lightly splashing +oars. + +Toby sat in the stern of a boat with a single rower in front of her, and +trailed her fingers through the magic water. She was bare-headed, and the +breeze of the summer night stirred tenderly the golden ringlets that +clustered about her bow. Her face, seen now and then in the flare of the +rockets, had a strange look, almost a look of dread. Her blue eyes were +very wide open, like the eyes of a startled child. + +She spoke scarcely at all, and Bunny did not urge her. Only as he rowed, +he watched her with grave determination on his boyish face. He had +claimed her as his partner early in the evening, and she had made no +attempt to thwart him; but something in that half scared silence of +hers moved him very deeply. His own was protective, resolutely +reassuring. + +Once, when she started nervously at an unexpectedly loud report from one +of the rockets, he spoke to her as he would have spoken to a small, +frightened animal. + +"It's all right. I'll pull out a bit, shall I? These things make such a +beastly row." + +She thanked him in an undertone, and he began to row steadily away from +the yacht and the thronging boats. + +"You tell me when I've gone far enough!" he said. + +But she did not tell him, and he rowed on and on through the dark water +with only the rhythmic splashing of the oars to fill the silence between +them. + +They left the laughter and the noise behind, and began to draw towards +the far corner of the bay. The shore rose steeply from the water here, +and there came to them the soft breaking of the waves against the cliff +as they neared it. + +Toby came out of her silence with a jerk. "Bunny, do you really think it +would answer?" + +"Sure!" said Bunny promptly. + +He drew in his oars with the words, and they drifted on the summer tide. + +Toby was looking at him in the starlight with a dumb and piteous +irresolution in her eyes. + +Bunny leaned to her as he sat, with outstretched hands. "You poor little +frightened mouse!" he said. "What is it that's troubling you? Do you +think I wouldn't make you happy?" + +"I think you'd try," she said dubiously. + +For a few seconds she hung back, hesitating; then swiftly, almost with +the gesture of one who casts aside a burden, she threw out her trembling +hands and thrust them into his. He took them and held them fast, drawing +them gently to him till he had them against his heart. "I would try, +sweetheart," he said softly. + +"Would you?" whispered Toby. "Would you?" + +She went nearer to him; he could feel her trembling from head to foot. + +"You think I wouldn't succeed?" he asked her tenderly. "You think I'd +make you sorry?" + +"I don't know," she answered quiveringly. "I--I'm thinking most of you." + +"Wondering whether it would be good for me to have my heart's desire?" +jested Bunny softly. "Think it would be too much for me; what, darling?" + +"No,--no!" said Toby. "Not that! Only wondering if you are wanting the +right thing--wondering if the thing you call your heart's desire will +bring you happiness. It--it doesn't always, you know, Bunny. Life is like +that." + +Her voice sank a little. + +"What do you know about life?" he said. + +She shook her head, her face downcast. "Oh, too much--too much!" she +said. + +Bunny sat motionless for a moment or two, but his hold was strong and +comforting. At length very gently he began to draw her nearer. + +He almost expected her to resist him, but she did not. As he drew her, +she yielded, till with a sob she suffered herself to be drawn close into +his arms. He had her on the thwart beside him, her face hidden against +his shoulder. He laid his cheek down upon her hair and sat silent. + +Toby was sobbing a little, and he patted her shoulder soothingly, but he +did not speak until with a quivering sigh she relaxed against him and was +still. + +Then, in a whisper, "Toby mavourneen," he said, "I'm going to tell you +something that's come to me lately--something I've guessed. You needn't +answer me. I don't want you to answer me--only to know that I know. +There's another fellow in your heart, and he's got a bigger place than I +have--at present. No, don't tremble, darling! It's all right. I know--I +know. He's the sort that women simply can't keep out. He's a fine chap +too, and I'm fond of him--always have been. But look here, mavourneen, +you're not going to break your precious little heart over him; you know +quite well it's no use, don't you? You know--well, anyhow to a certain +extent--you know what he is, don't you?" + +He paused for an answer, but Toby quivered in his arms and was silent. + +He put up a hand and pressed her head closer to his breast. "He'll never +marry," he said. "He doesn't mean to. He almost told me so the other day. +But--Toby--he takes a friendly interest in you and me. He'd like us +to have each other. Don't you think"--his voice had a hint of +humour--"don't you think we might fix it up just to please him? +P'raps--someday--we may find that we're pleased ourselves as well." + +"Oh, my dear!" Toby whispered. + +Her arm crept round his neck, but she did not lift her head. He clasped +her more closely and went on very softly. "I love you enough to think of +your happiness first, my darling. You're not happy now. I know that all +right. But you will be--I swear you shall be--if you will marry me. You +like me just a bit, don't you? And you wouldn't be afraid to trust +yourself to me?" + +"No," murmured Toby, with an effort. "I wouldn't be--afraid." + +"Then you'll give me my chance?" he urged gently. "You'll put your dear +little hand into mine and trust me? Will you darling? Will you?" + +But Toby was silent. + +"Won't you?" he said in a whisper. + +Her arm tightened about his neck. She was breathing quickly, nervously. +From across the water came the sounds of laughter and cheering, the +softened strains of the band that played on the deck of _The Blue Moon_. +Close at hand was only the low wash of the waves as they lapped against +the cliff. They floated quite alone over the dark depths, rising and +falling with the slow heave of the tide, but making no headway. + +"Won't you?" Bunny said again, after a long silence. + +And suddenly Toby raised her head and spoke. "I will do--whatever you +wish," she said. + +There was a slight break in her voice, but it held no indecision. Her +eyes looked straight into his in the starlight. He saw them shining and +knew that they were big with tears. But she did not flinch from his look +or start as his lips came to hers. She slipped her other arm about his +neck and clasped him close. + +"You'll be good to me, Bunny?" she said in a whisper. + +And he answered her deeply, his lips against her own. "I will be good to +you, my darling, so help me, God!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE MAGICIAN'S WAND + + +"I can't think where I have seen that girl before," said Sheila +thoughtfully, drumming her fingers on the white rail, her soft eyes fixed +upon the jewelled bay. "She has an arresting face." + +"You have never seen her," said Saltash carelessly, flicking +cigarette-ash overboard. "She has the sort of face that the old Italians +worshipped and some of the moderns too. You have seen it in their +pictures." + +Sheila's brows were drawn. "I have seen her--somehow--dressed as a boy," +she said. "Could it have been a picture?" + +"Yes. One of Spentoli's. I've got a print somewhere. It's called, 'The +Victim'--a lad with a face like Larpent's daughter, fighting a leopard." + +Saltash spoke with easy conviction, his restless eyes flashing to and +fro, often glancing but never resting upon the girl beside him. "That's +what you're thinking of. It's an unsatisfactory sort of picture. One +wonders which is 'The Victim.' But that is Spentoli all over. He always +leaves one wondering." + +"I know the thing you mean." Sheila nodded meditatively. "Yes, she +is--rather like that. The boy was 'The Victim' of course." She turned +towards him suddenly with the words. "You can't possibly doubt that. The +brute's teeth are almost in his throat. I think it's a horrible picture +myself." + +Saltash laughed. "A deliverer arrives sometimes," he remarked, "even in +the last, most awful moment of all. Have you never said to yourself how +seldom the thing we really expect comes to pass?" + +Sheila's lips parted with a touch of scorn. "Perhaps it is safer not to +expect," she said. + +"Perhaps," agreed Saltash, with his quick grimace. "I learnt that lesson +a long time ago. There are so many slips--especially when the cup is +full." He added inconsequently, "And even if it gets there, the wine is +sour as often as not when you come to drink." + +"I can quite believe it," said the girl, and looked out once more over +the wreathing flowers to the rippling waters of the bay. + +Her mouth took a firm line, and Saltash, glancing at her, began to laugh. +"Do you know, Miss Melrose, it's rather curious, but you remind me of +Spentoli too in some ways? I don't know if you and Miss Larpent possess +the same characteristics, but I imagine you might develop them, given the +same conditions." + +Sheila stiffened at the words. "I am sure you are quite wrong," she said +coldly. "Captain Larpent's daughter is quite obviously a child of +impulse. I--am not." + +"I think you would be impulsive enough to fight the leopard if he came +your way," contended Saltash with idle insistence. "Or perhaps you would +charm him. I imagine that might be more in your line." + +Again the girl's lip curled. She said nothing for a moment, then +deliberately, for the first time in her life, she snubbed him. "No, I +should never try to charm--a beast, Lord Saltash." + +"You prefer them savage?" countered Saltash. + +She made a careless gesture with one hand, without replying. She did not +even look towards him. "I think Miss Larpent might be quite clever in +that respect," she said. "She is--a born charmer." + +"By Jove!" he said. "What a cruel compliment!" + +Sheila said nothing. She was watching a small boat rowing steadily +towards them through the dark water, with eyes that were grave and fixed. + +Saltash's look followed hers, and he grimaced to himself, oddly, wryly, +as a man who accomplishes a task for which he has no liking. Then in a +moment he turned the conversation. "Did you ever meet Rozelle Daubeni, +the enchantress?" + +Sheila's soft eyes came to him at the sudden question. "No. I have heard +of her. I have never met her. I don't want to meet her. Why?" + +He threw her a daring glance. "It would do you good to meet her. She is a +born charmer if you like. She charms women as well as men--and beasts." + +"An adventuress!" said Sheila. + +"Yes, an adventuress. One of the most wonderful, I should say, who ever +lived. She is in Paris just now. When she comes to England--" again his +look dared her--"I will take you to see her. It will be--an education +for you." + +"Thank you," Sheila said. + +He laughed aloud, and suddenly stretched his hand to her with a movement +of good fellowship. "I'm only teasing. Don't be cross! I wouldn't take +you to see her for all the gold of Ophir. She is rotten--too rotten even +for me, which is saying much." + +Sheila hesitated momentarily before she gave her hand. + +"Why did you speak of her? What brought her to your mind?" + +He glanced again towards the little boat now drawing near to the yacht, +but he did not answer her question till her hand met his. + +"I have--a somewhat elastic mind," he said then, and smiled his most +baffling smile. "It was your talk of charmers that did it. I was trying +to think of all I had met." + +"All the Rozelles and the Tobies!" said Sheila, with a hard little laugh. + +He gripped her hand and released it. "I have never met more than one of +each," he said. "Which may be the secret of their charm. Don't class them +together in your mind for a moment! Larpent's daughter may be a born +charmer. Young Bunny Brian seems to think so at any rate. But she is +not--and never will be--an adventuress." + +"Is Bunny Brian fond of her--really fond of her?" asked Sheila. + +Saltash nodded. "Sure thing--as Jake would say! And he's a sound chap +too. I hope he'll get her." + +"She is not very likely to refuse," said Sheila, turning from the rail. + +The little boat had passed out of sight under the lee of the yacht. A +great rocket whistled skywards, and broke in a violet flare that lighted +sea and shore. The _fête_ was over, and people were crowding on board. +The band was playing a selection from a comic opera, and a few voices +were singing the careless, sentimental words. + +Saltash turned with his companion. "And now we are going to supper at The +Anchor. I must get Mrs. Bolton to lead the way. Poor Jake is bored to the +soul, but he's facing it like a man. Fine fellow--Jake." + +"Oh, is he a friend of yours?" Sheila asked. "A very particular friend, I +mean?" + +Saltash grimaced to the stars. "No, I don't think so. Ask Jake! He knows +me better than some, that's all. And I know him." + +They left the yacht's rail and joined the on-coming throng. It was like +a scene out of a fairy tale--the gaudy Chinese lanterns bobbing to and +fro, the gaily-coloured crowd, the shining white yacht rocking gently on +the noiseless swell. Everyone was laughing. Some were singing. There was +not a serious face to be seen in all the crowd that poured over the +red-carpeted gangway from the quay. + +"Where is Toby?" said Maud. + +She was standing with Jake in the many-hued glow of the lanterns, and she +asked the question with a momentary anxiety, for she had looked in vain +for Toby for some time. + +"She's with Bunny. She's safe enough," said Jake. + +"But they haven't come on board yet, and they've been gone so long," Maud +said. "It's curious how little Captain Larpent seems to interest himself +in her doings." + +"Mighty curious," agreed Jake. + +For Larpent had kept to the bridge morosely, almost throughout the +evening. He was standing there now, looking down upon the shifting, +chattering crowd. He had no idea how long it would be before Saltash +tired of the game and gave orders to set sail. He waited in dumb +endurance--as he would wait from day to day until the longed-for moment +arrived. It had happened often before, Saltash's caprice had sometimes +driven him to the verge of rebellion, but no one--not even Saltash +himself--ever suspected it. Silent, phlegmatic, inexpressive, Larpent +held on his undeviating course. + +Maud's attention did not linger upon him. No one--save perhaps +Saltash--ever paid much attention to Larpent. She turned back to watch +the now empty gangway, and in a moment she gave an exclamation of relief. + +"Ah! Here they come at last!" + +A laughing voice spoke behind her. "Enter Cinderella and the Prince!" + +She started and saw Saltash's swarthy face close to her. His odd eyes +looked into hers with a flash of mischief. + +"See how all my plans bear fruit!" he said. "I wave my wand, and you +behold the result." + +She turned from him to look again upon the advancing couple. They were +crossing the gangway alone. Toby, slim, girlish, her wide blue eyes +shining like the eyes of an awakened child, Bunny close behind her, +touching her, his hand actually on her shoulder, possession and +protection in every line of him. He was murmuring into her ear as they +came, and his face was alight with the glory which no earthly lamp can +kindle. + +"Behold!" Saltash said again, and moved forward in his sudden fashion to +receive them. + +He met them as they stepped on board, and in a moment they were the +centre of observation. The buzz of talk died down as the general +attention focussed upon them. Maud was aware of Jake standing squarely +behind her, and she put out a hand to him which he grasped and held. + +Saltash was laughing, but they could not hear what he said. Only in a +moment he had taken a hand of Bunny's and a hand of Toby's and joined +them together. Toby's eyes were lifted to his face. She was smiling with +lips that trembled, and Maud's heart gave a great throb of pity, she +could not have said wherefore. She had a deep longing to go and gather +the child into her arms and comfort her. + +Then Toby too was laughing, and she heard Saltash's voice. "These things +only happen properly once in a blue moon, _ma chère_. I give you both my +blessing for the second time to-day. I wish you better luck than has ever +come my way." + +He threw a gay malicious glance towards the bridge, where Larpent stood +like a grim Viking looking down upon the scene. + +"Come!" he said. "We had better go and tell your daddy next!" + +He led them lightly forward, and the crowd opened out with jests and +laughter to let them pass. + +Toby walked between the two men, very pale but still smiling--a smile +that was curiously like the smile of a child that is trying not to cry. + +"Oh, poor little thing!" Maud whispered suddenly and drew back beside +Jake as if she could not bear to look. + +"She'll be all right," said Jake stoutly. "Don't you fret any! Bunny's +sound." + +"Oh, yes, I know--I know! But she's so young." All the yearning of +motherhood was in Maud's voice. "Does she love him? Does she?" + +Jake's hand gripped hers more closely. He looked into her face with a +smile in his red-brown eyes. "Maybe not as we know love," he said. "It +doesn't come all at once--that sort." + +She smiled back at him, for she could not help it, even as she shook her +head in misgiving. "Sometimes--it doesn't come at all!" she said. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE WARNING + + +It seemed to Maud that in the days that followed her engagement Toby +developed with the swiftness of an opening flower. There was no talk of +her leaving them. She fitted into the establishment as though she had +always been a part of it, and she took upon herself responsibilities +which Maud would never have laid upon her. + +Watching her anxiously, it seemed to her that Toby was becoming more +settled, more at rest, than she had ever been before. The look of fear +was dormant in her eyes now, and her sudden flares of anger had wholly +ceased. She made no attempt to probe below the surface, realizing the +inadvisability of such a course, realizing that the first days of an +engagement are seldom days of expansion, being full of emotions too +varied for analysis. That Toby should turn to her or to Jake if she +needed a confident she did not for a moment doubt, but unless the need +arose she resolved to leave the girl undisturbed. She had, moreover, +great faith in Bunny's powers. As Jake had said, Bunny was sound, and she +knew him well enough to be convinced that he would find a means of +calming any misgivings that might exist in Toby's mind. + +It appeared as if he had already done so in fact, for Toby was never +nervous in his presence. She greeted him with pleasure and went with him +gladly whenever he came to seek her. They met every day, usually in the +evening when Bunny was free, and the children gone to bed. Maud would +watch them wander out together into the summer solitudes, Chops walking +sedately behind, and would smile to herself very tenderly at the sight. +She believed that Toby was winning to happiness and she prayed with all +her soul that it might last. + +Saltash came no more during these summer days. He had departed in his +abrupt way for his first pleasure cruise in _The Blue Moon_, taking no +friend, save the ever-present Larpent, to relieve the monotony. No one +knew whither they were bound, or if the voyage were to be long or short. +He dropped out of his circle as a monkey drops from a tree, and beyond a +passing wonder at his movements no one questioned either motive or +intention. Probably he had neither in any appreciable degree. It was only +the caprice of the moment that ever moved him. So his friends said. He +evidently found his new toy attractive, and he would not return until he +wearied of it. + +Meantime, the summer crowds came and went at Fairharbour. The Anchor +Hotel was crowded with visitors, and Sheila and her father began to talk +of departure for Scotland. + +Jake had gone to an important race-meeting in the North, and it seemed +that Bunny's suggestion to show them the stud had been forgotten. But on +an afternoon in late August, after a hotly-contested polo match, as he +stood with a fizzling drink in his hand, talking to Sheila, she abruptly +reminded him of it. + +"It's quite a fortnight since you promised to show me the horses," she +said. + +He started. "Is it? I'm awfully sorry. I hadn't forgotten, but somehow +I've had a lot to think about lately. You must come and have tea with +Maud. When will you come?" + +Sheila laughed a little. "Hadn't you better ask Maud first?" + +"Good gracious, no!" said Bunny. "That'll be all right. She and Toby are +always at home just now, and of course she will be pleased to see you any +time. When can you come?" + +"Well, we are leaving the day after to-morrow," Sheila said. + +"To-morrow then!" said Bunny promptly. + +"Your sister may not want us at such short notice," she said, hesitating. + +"Oh, rats!" said Bunny, with a grin. "Of course she will! Have you seen +the Castle yet?" + +"Yes. We lunched there with Lord Saltash before he left. It's a horribly +grim place. I didn't like it much." + +"It's a magnificent place!" said Bunny stoutly. "It's completely thrown +away on Charlie of course, but I love every stone of it." + +"What a pity it doesn't belong to you!" commented Sheila. "I wonder where +you will live when you are married." + +Bunny flushed a little. "We're not marrying at present, but I'm hoping to +stick to my job when we do." + +"Oh, are you? Does Miss Larpent like that idea?" Faint surprise sounded +in Sheila's tone. + +"I don't know why she shouldn't," said Bunny, quick to detect it. "She's +keen on the country, keen on riding and so on. She'd hate to live in +town." + +"Would she?" said Sheila, with a hint of incredulity. + +Bunny turned on her. "Why do you say that? She's very young, hardly more +than a kid. She doesn't care for people and towns. Why should she?" + +He put the question almost indignantly, and Sheila smiled at him +pacifically. "I don't know in the least why she should. I only had a sort +of idea that she might. She is very pretty, isn't she? And pretty girls +don't generally care to be buried before they have had their fling--not +always then." + +"Oh, you think she doesn't get any fun!" said Bunny, still somewhat +resentful. + +"No--no, of course I don't! You know best what she likes. I only wonder +that Maud didn't think of giving her just one season in town. It would be +rather good for her, don't you think?" + +"I don't know," said Bunny rather shortly. "Maud isn't keen on town. I +think she's better where she is." + +Sheila laughed. "You're afraid she'd slip through your fingers if she saw +too much of the world?" + +"No, I'm not!" declared Bunny, frowning. "I hadn't thought about it. +But I'd hate her to get old and sophisticated. Her great charm is in +being--just what she is." + +"Oh, she has plenty of charm," Sheila admitted, and her own brows drew a +little in thought. "I wish I could remember who it is she reminds me of. +That is the worst of having such a large circle." + +"She isn't like anyone I've ever met," declared Bunny, and gulped down +his drink abruptly. "Well, I must be going. You'll come up to-morrow +then, you and the General. I shall be there, and I'll tell Maud you're +coming." + +"You are sure we had better come?" Sheila said, as she gave him her hand. + +He gripped it. "Of course! Maud will be delighted. I'm sorry you weren't +asked before. About three then--if that suits you! Good-bye!" + +He smiled his pleasant, boyish smile, and departed. + +But as he raced back from Fairharbour in his little two-seater car to +meet his young _fiancée_ on the downs, the memory of Sheila's word came +back to him and he frowned again. It was true that they were not thinking +of marriage for the next few months, and their plans were still somewhat +vague, but the idea of waiting while Toby had her fling for a whole +season in town revolted him. He could not have said definitely wherefore, +save that he wanted to keep her just as she was in his eyes--fresh and +young and innocent. He was angry with Sheila for having suggested it, and +he wanted to thrust the matter from his mind. + +Yet when he found himself alone with Toby, walking along the brow of the +furze-strewn down, he attacked the subject with characteristic +directness. + +"Sheila Melrose thinks you ought to have a season in town before we get +married. Would you like to do that?" + +Toby looked up at him with her clear eyes wide with surprise. "What +the--blazes has it to do with Sheila Melrose?" she said. + +He laughed briefly. "Nothing, of course. Less than nothing. It's just a +point of view. She thinks you're too pretty to be buried before you've +had your fling--rot of that sort." + +"My--fling!" said Toby, and with a sudden gesture that was almost of +shrinking drew his arm more closely round her shoulders. "I should loathe +it and you know it," she said with simplicity. + +He held her to him. "Of course you would. I should myself. I hate the +smart set. But, you know, you are--awfully pretty; I don't want to do +anything unfair." + +"Rats!" said Toby. + +He bent his face to hers. "Are you beginning to care for me--just a +little--by any chance?" + +She laughed and flushed, twining her fingers in his without replying. + +Bunny pursued his point. "You'd sooner marry me out of hand than go +hunting London for someone more to your liking? Would you?" + +"Oh, much," said Toby. "But, you see, I hate London." + +"And you don't hate me?" persisted Bunny, his dark eyes very persuasive. + +She dropped her own before them, and was silent. + +"Say it, sweetheart!" he urged. + +She shook her head. "Let's talk about something else!" she said. + +"All right," said Bunny boldly. "Let's talk of getting married! It's high +time we began." + +"Oh, I didn't mean that!" said Toby quickly. + +He laughed at her softly. "Of course you didn't! But you were thinking +about it all the same. Do you know old Bishop is going to clear out and +go and live in Fairharbour? I shall be left alone then. It's rather +beastly living alone, you know, darling." + +"You haven't tried it yet," said Toby. + +"No. But I know what it'll feel like. I shall hate it." Bunny spoke with +gloomy conviction. + +Toby suddenly laughed. "No one to grouse to! It would be rather dull +certainly. Why didn't you fall in love with Sheila Melrose?" + +"Sheila Melrose! Why on earth should I?" Bunny spoke with some sharpness. + +Toby lifted mischievous eyes. "She's pretty and graceful and +accomplished. She'd make a charming Lady Brian, and she has an estate of +her own for you to manage. It--it would be--a highly suitable arrangement +for you both." + +"Don't talk rot!" broke in Bunny with sudden heat. + +His hold tightened upon her, and she made a quick, instinctive movement +as though to free herself. "I'm not! You know I'm not! You know--quite +well--that if--if--if it hadn't been for me--because you chanced to meet +me first--you certainly would have--have fallen in love with her!" + +Toby spoke breathlessly, stammering a little as her habit was when +agitated. Her face was averted, and she was trying very, very hard to +resist the closer drawing of his arms. + +But there were times when Bunny would not endure resistance, and this was +one of them. He simply ignored it, till abruptly she yielded to his +mastery. And then in a moment he was tender again. + +"Why did you say that?" he said, bending low to look into her downcast +face. "Tell me why you said it! Are you--jealous--by any chance?" + +"Oh, no!" declared Toby with vehemence. "No--no--no!" + +"Then why?" he persisted. Then with sudden intuition: "You don't like +her, do you?" + +Toby's face was burning. "It--it's she that doesn't like me," she said. + +"Oh, that's a mistake," said Bunny, decidedly. "Everyone likes you." + +She shook her head. "She doesn't. She thinks I'm bad form, and I daresay +she's right. She also thinks--" she lifted her face suddenly, challenging +him--"she also thinks that I set out to catch you--and succeeded." + +"She doesn't!" declared Bunny. "That's rot--damn' rot! You are not to say +it. She's a very nice girl and ready to be friendly with you if you'll +let her." + +Toby made a rude face. "I knew you were getting fond of her! She's pretty +and stylish and--and much more in your line than I am. Why don't you go +and ask her to marry you? She wouldn't say No." + +She flung the words with a little quivering laugh. She was trembling in +his hold. + +Bunny's eyes had flashed to sudden anger. He had taken her by the +shoulders almost as if he would shake her. + +"Toby, be quiet!" he commanded. "Do you hear? You're going too far! What +do you mean by talking in this strain? What has she done to you?" + +"Nothing!" gasped back Toby, backing away from him in a vain effort to +escape. "She hardly knows me even. It's just instinct with her and she +can't help it. But she likes you well enough not to want you to marry me. +You don't suppose--you don't suppose--" the words came breathlessly, +jerkily--"you--you really don't suppose, do you, that--that she made that +suggestion about a season in town for my sake?" + +"What other reason could she have had?" demanded Bunny sternly. + +Toby was laughing, but her laughter had a desperate sound. "How green you +are! Must I really tell you that?" + +"Yes. Go on! Tell me!" His voice was hard. Hard also was the grip of his +hands. He knew that in the moment he released her she would turn and flee +like a fleeing hare. + +There was fear in the blue eyes that looked up to his, but they held a +glare of defiance as well. Her small white teeth showed clenched between +her laughing lips. + +"Go on! Tell me!" he reiterated. "You shan't go--I swear--until you tell +me." + +"Think I'm--think I'm afraid of you?" challenged Toby, with boyish +bravado. + +"I think you'll answer me," he said, and abruptly his tone fell level, +dead level. He looked her straight in the eyes without anger, without +mercy. "And you'll answer me now, too. What other reason could Miss +Melrose have for making that suggestion if it was not intended for your +benefit? Now answer me!" + +His face was pale, but he was master of himself. Perhaps he had learned +from Jake that fundamental lesson that those who would control others +must first control themselves. He still held her before him, but there +was no violence in his hold. Neither was there any tenderness. It was +rather of a judicial nature. + +And oddly at that moment a sudden gleam of appreciation shot up in Toby's +eyes. She stood up very straight and faced him unflinching. + +"I don't mind answering you," she said. "Why should I? Someone will +tell you sooner or later if I don't. She said that because she knew--and +she wanted you to know--that I am not the sort of girl that men want +to--marry." + +She was quite white as she spoke the words, but she maintained her tense +erectness. Her eyes never stirred from his. + +Bunny stood motionless, staring at her. He looked as if he had been +struck a blinding blow. + +"What--on earth--do you mean?" he asked slowly at last. + +The tension went out of Toby. She broke into her funny little laugh. "Oh, +I won't tell you any more! I won't! She thinks I'm too attractive, that's +all. I can't imagine why; can you? You never found me so, did you, +Bunny?" + +The old provocative sweetness flashed back into her face. She went within +the circle of his arms with a quick nestling movement as of a small +animal that takes refuge after strenuous flight. She was still panting a +little as she leaned against him. + +And Bunny relaxed, conscious of a vast relief that outweighed every other +consideration. "You--monkey!" he said, folding her close. "You're playing +with me! How dare you torment me like this? You shall pay for it to the +last least farthing. I will never have any mercy on you again." + +He kissed her with all the renewed extravagance of love momentarily +denied, and the colour flooded back into Toby's face as the dread receded +from her heart. She gave him more that day than she had ever given him +before, and in the rapture of possession he forgot the ordeal that she +had made him face. + +Only later did he remember it--her strange reticence, her odd stumbling +words of warning, her curious attitude of self-defence. And he felt as +if--in spite of his utmost resolution--she had somehow succeeded in +baffling him after all. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE MYSTERY + + +It was late that evening that Bunny strolled forth alone to smoke a +reminiscent pipe along his favourite glade of larches in Burchester Park. +He went slowly through the summer dusk, his hands behind him, his eyes +fixed ahead. He had had his way with Toby. She had promised to marry him +as soon as old Bishop's retirement left the house in the hollow at his +disposal. But somehow, though he had gained his end, he was not conscious +of elation. Sheila Melrose's words had disturbed him no less than Toby's +own peculiar interpretation of them. There was a very strong instinct of +fair play in Bunny Brian, and, now that he had won his point, he was +assailed by a grave doubt as to whether he were acting fairly towards the +girl. She was young, but then many girls marry young. It was not really +her youth that mattered; neither, when he came to sift the matter, was it +the fact that she had had so little opportunity of seeing the world. But +it was something in Toby's eyes, something in Sheila's manner, that gave +him pause. He asked himself, scarcely knowing why, if it would not be +fairer after all to wait. + +He wished that he could have consulted Jake, but yet it would have been +difficult to put his misgivings into definite words. Jake was a brick and +understood most things, but he was away for another week at least. + +The thought of the girl's father crossed his mind, only to be instantly +dismissed. Even if he had been within reach, Captain Larpent's sternly +unapproachable exterior would have held him back. He was inclined to like +the man, but he could not feel that Toby's welfare was, or ever had been, +of paramount importance to him. He had thoughts only for his yacht. + +Bunny began to reflect moodily that life was a more complicated affair +than he had ever before imagined, and, reaching this point, he also +reached the gate by the copse and became aware of cigar-smoke dominating +the atmosphere above the scent of his own now burnt-out pipe. + +He removed the pipe from his mouth and looked around him. + +"Hullo!" said a voice he knew. "Do I intrude?" + +Saltash stepped suddenly out of the shadow of the larches and met him +with outstretched hand. + +"Hullo!" said Bunny, with a start. + +A quick smile of welcome lighted his face, and Saltash's eyes flashed in +answer. He gripped the boy's hand with fingers that closed like springs. + +"What are you doing here?" he said. + +"Just what I was going to ask you," said Bunny. "I often come here in the +evening. It's my favourite look-out. But you--" + +"I do the same for the same reason," said Saltash. + +"I thought you were far away on the high seas," said Bunny. + +Saltash laughed. "Well, I was. But I don't stay there, my good Bunny. +_The Blue Moon_ developed engine trouble--nothing very serious, but we +brought her back to recuperate. You can never tell what you may be in +for on a first voyage. Also, I was curious to see how affairs here were +progressing. How goes it, _mon ami_? Is all well?" + +"Well enough," said Bunny. + +Saltash linked a friendly hand in his arm. "Have you and Nonette settled +when to get married yet?" + +Bunny stiffened momentarily, as if his instinct were to resent the kindly +enquiry. But the next instant he relaxed again with impulsive confidence. +"Well, it is more or less settled," he said. "But I'm wondering--you +know, Charlie, she's rather young to be married, isn't she? She hasn't +seen much of the world so far. You don't think it's shabby, do you, to +marry her before she's had the same sort of chances as other girls?" + +"Good heavens, no!" said Saltash. He gave Bunny an odd look from under +brows that were slightly twisted. "What made you think of that?" he +asked. + +Bunny's face was red. He leaned his arms on the gate and looked out +across the valley. "Sheila Melrose put it to me this afternoon," he said, +"though I must admit it had crossed my mind before. She hasn't met many +people, you know, Charlie. And--as I said--she's young. I don't want to +take an unfair advantage." + +"Life is too short to think of these things," said Saltash abruptly. +"Marry her while you can get her and don't be an ass about it! If I had +done the same thing in my youth, I should have been better off than I am +at present." + +Bunny smiled a little. "You would probably have been wishing you'd done +the other thing by this time." + +"Much you know about it!" returned Saltash with a whimsical frown. "Now +look here! What I've really come back for is to see you married. All this +preliminary messing about is nothing but a weariness to the flesh. Get it +over, man! There's nothing on earth to wait for. Larpent's willing +enough. In fact, he agrees with me--the sooner the better." + +"He would!" said Bunny with a touch of bitterness. + +"Well, you can't ask for anything better," maintained Saltash. "He's got +his job, and he's not what you could call a family man. He's not a waster +either, so you needn't put on any damned airs, _mon vieux_." + +"I didn't!" said Bunny hotly. + +Saltash laughed, and clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Look here! I'm +talking for the good of your soul. Don't take any more advice--certainly +not Sheila Melrose's! You go straight ahead and marry her! You've got +money, I know, but I hope you won't chuck your job on that account. Stick +to it, and you shall have the Dower House to live in while I yet cumber +the ground, and Burchester Castle as soon as I'm under it!" + +"What?" said Bunny. He turned almost fiercely. "Charlie! Stop it! You're +talking rot. You always do. I don't want your beastly castle. You've got +to marry and get an heir of your own. I'm damned if I'm going to be +adopted by you!" + +Saltash was laughing carelessly, mockingly, yet there was about him at +the moment a certain royal self-assurance that made itself felt. "You'll +do as you're told, _mon ami_. And you'll take what the gods send without +any cavilling. As for me, I go my own way. I shall never marry. I shall +never have an heir of my own blood. Burchester means more to you than it +does to me. Therefore Burchester will pass to you at my death. Think you +and Toby will be happy here?" + +"Damn it!" said Bunny, still fiercely disconcerted. "You talk as if you +were going to die to-morrow." + +"Oh, probably not," said Saltash airily. "But I doubt if I live to a +rakish old age. I'm a man that likes taking chances, and those who dice +with the high gods are bound to throw a blank some day." For a moment the +mockery died down in his eyes, and he looked more nearly serious than +Bunny had ever seen him. He patted the shoulder under his hand. "Life is +rather a rotten old show when you've tried everything and come to the +end," he said. "And you know for a damn' certainty that you'll never +taste any good fruit again. But you will never know what that feels like, +_mon ami_. You've had the sense to play a straight game, and you'll find +it pays in the long run. Jake taught you that, eh? You may thank your +own particular lucky star that you had him for a brother-in-law instead +of me." + +"Don't talk rot!" said Bunny gruffly. + +Saltash stretched up his arms with a laugh. "No, we'll talk sense--good +square sense. I take it you'll continue to manage the estate for the +present? If you get bored, we'll find an agent, but I'm satisfied with +things as they are. We'll go round and have a look at the old Dower +House to-morrow. It has a fairly decent position, you know,--overlooks +Graydown. That ought to please you both." + +Bunny turned upon him. "Oh, confound it, Charlie!" he said. "I can't talk +about this. I couldn't possibly take it. You're too damned generous. I've +never done anything to deserve it." + +"Oh yes, you have!" said Saltash unexpectedly, "you've done a good many +things for me. You have always been the _bon ami_ whatever I did--from +your childhood upwards." His dark face laughed with friendly warmth into +the boy's troubled eyes. "Always stuck up for me, haven't you, Bunny?" he +said. + +"Oh, but that's rot," objected Bunny. "A man is bound to stick up for his +pals." + +"Even though he knows they're not worth it?" laughed Saltash. "Yes, +that's just what I like about you. It's the one point on which we touch. +But I'm not sure that even you would stick up for me if you knew +precisely what sort of rotter you were sticking up for." + +"Oh, shut up!" said Bunny. + +"_Bien, mon cher!_ We return to your affairs. Have you put up the banns +yet? I presume you will allow me to be best man? Get it over soon, I +beseech you! I can't stay here indefinitely. As a matter of fact, I'm +due in Scotland at the present moment. Can't you fix it up immediately? +And you can have the little car and leave of absence till you've got over +it. Old Bishop can run this show till the winter. Maud can fit up the +Dower House for you. And I shall feel at liberty to roam the desert once +more--unencumbered." + +"You're jolly decent to me!" said Bunny. + +"Think so?" Saltash's brows twitched humorously. "I seem to be +developing a taste for worthy deeds. But there's no reason on earth why +you two shouldn't get married and done for as soon as possible. I'll see +Larpent to-night and tell him, and you can go and see the parson about it +to-morrow. You'll find Nonette won't put any obstacles in the way. She's +a good child and does as she's told." + +"No, Toby won't mind," Bunny said, with a sudden memory of her quick +surrender flooding his soul. "By Jove, Charlie! You are a good sort to +help me like this. There's no one else that can get things moving as you +can." + +"Oh, you can count on me for that," laughed Saltash. "I never was a +drifter. Life is too short. We'll meet again to-morrow then. Come and +dine if you like, and tell me what you've arranged! Good night!" He +turned in his sudden fashion. "Good luck to you!" + +He was gone upon the words, vanishing into the larches almost noiselessly +as he had come, and Bunny was left alone. + +He stood motionless at the gate for some time longer gazing out over the +quiet, night-wrapt down. There was no elation in his attitude, only a +deep thoughtfulness. He had never understood Charlie though oddly enough +he had always believed in him. But to-night for the first time a curious +doubt pierced his mind--a doubt that recurred again and again, banishing +all sense of exultation. Why had Charlie returned like this? Why was he +so eager to meddle in this affair? Why so recklessly generous? He had a +strong feeling that there was something behind it all, some motive +unrealized, some spur goading him, of which he, Bunny, might not approve +if he came to know of it. He wished he could fathom the matter. It was +unlike Saltash to take so much trouble over anything. He felt as if in +some inexplicable fashion he were being tricked. + +He put the thought from him, but he could not drive it away. Just as he +had felt himself baffled a little earlier by Toby, so now he felt the +same inability to comprehend Saltash. He seemed to be groping at a locked +door, feeling and feeling for a key, that always eluded him. And again he +wished that Jake was within reach. + +He turned homewards at length, dissatisfied and ill at ease, yet calling +himself a fool for scenting a mystery that did not exist. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +SUSPICION + + +The Graydown Stables were always a model of well-ordered efficiency, and +it had ever been Bunny's pride to show them to his friends. But he +awaited General Melrose and his daughter on the following afternoon in +a mood of some impatience. He had arrived early in the hope of finding +Toby at liberty, but his young _fianceé_ was nowhere to be found. She had +gone out riding, Maud said, immediately after luncheon, and he realized +with some disgust that he had forgotten to tell her on the previous day +of his coming. + +"She will be in to tea, dear," Maud said, and he was obliged to content +himself with the prospect of seeing her and acquainting her with +Saltash's energetic interest on their behalf after the visitors had gone. +He had never felt less in the mood for entertaining casual friends than +he felt on that sunny afternoon in September as he lounged in the wide +stable-yard and waited for them. He had always liked Sheila Melrose, they +had a good deal in common. But curiously enough it was that very fact +that made him strangely reluctant to meet her now. In some inexplicable +fashion, he found her simple directness disconcerting. Toby's words stuck +obstinately in his mind, refusing to be dislodged. "She likes you well +enough not to want you to marry me." He realized beyond question that +those words had not been without some significance. It might be just +instinct with her, as Toby had declared, but that Sheila regarded his +engagement as a mistake he was fairly convinced. That she herself had any +feeling for him beyond that of friendship he did not for a moment +imagine. Bunny had no vanity in that direction. There was too much of the +boy, too much of the frank comrade, in his disposition for that. They +were pals, and the idea of anything deeper than palship on either side +had never seriously crossed his mind. He was honest in all his ways, and +his love for Toby--that wild and wonderful flower of first love--filled +all his conscious thoughts to the exclusion of aught beside. The odd, +sweet beauty of her had him in thrall. She was so totally different from +everyone else he had ever encountered. He felt the lure of her more and +more with every meeting, the wonder and the charm. + +But Sheila did not want him to marry her, and a very natural feeling of +irritation against her possessed him in consequence. Doubtless Sheila had +a perfect right to her opinions, but she might keep them to herself. +Between Saltash's headlong resolve to help and Sheila's veiled desire to +hinder, he felt that his course was becoming too complicated, as if in +spite of his utmost efforts to guide his own craft there were contrary +currents at work that he was powerless to avoid. + +He had an urgent desire for Toby that afternoon, and he was inclined +somewhat unreasonably to resent her absence. But when at length the hoot +of the General's car warned him of his visitors' advent as they turned in +at the gate, he was suddenly conscious of a feeling of relief that he was +alone. Toby was not at her ease with them. She fancied they disapproved +of her, and whether the fancy were justified or not he was glad that she +was not there to meet them. He determined to get the business over as +quickly as possible. + +Sheila in her dainty summer attire was looking even prettier than usual, +and almost against his will Bunny noted the fact. Against his will also, +his barely-acknowledged feeling of resentment vanished before he had been +five minutes in her company. Sheila's charms went beyond mere prettiness. +She had the tact and ready ease of manner which experience of the world +alone can impart. She was sympathetic and quick of understanding. Without +flattering, she possessed the happy knack of setting those about her at +their ease. It was very rarely that she was roused to indignation; +perhaps only Saltash knew how deep her indignation could be. And he was +not the man to impart the knowledge to anyone else. + +So on that warm September afternoon in her gracious way she restored +Bunny's good humour and reinstated their friendship without effort, +without apparent consciousness of any strain upon it. They went through +the stables, and Bunny displayed his favourites with an enthusiasm of +which he had not believed himself capable a little earlier. The stud had +always been his great delight from boyhood, and both the General and his +daughter took a keen interest in all they saw. + +The time passed with astounding rapidity, and the chiming of the great +stable-clock awoke Bunny at length to the fact that the afternoon was +practically over. + +"Maud will think we are never going in to tea," he said, with a laugh, +turning back from the gate into the training field where they had been +inspecting some of the colts. "You'll come round to the house, won't you? +She is expecting you--said I was to be sure to bring you in." + +Sheila smiled and accepted the invitation. "We were hoping to see Mrs. +Bolton to say good-bye," she said. "Is Miss Larpent not here to-day?" + +"Yes, she's out riding," Bunny said. "She may be in any moment. It's a +pity Jake is away. He is expected back some time next week." + +"Yes, I'm sorry to have missed him," said the General. "Tell him that +I've enjoyed seeing the animals, and I think he has a very fine show! I +never could understand how Saltash could bring himself to part with the +stud." + +"He's so seldom at home," said Bunny. "Yachting is much more in his +line--though as a matter of fact he is at the Castle just now, came back +yesterday." + +"Is he indeed? Are you sure of that?" Sheila spoke with surprise. "I +thought he meant to be away much longer." + +"His intentions never last more than a couple of days," remarked the +General with a touch of acidity. "Nothing he does ever surprises me." + +"He's a very good chap," began Bunny. "He's been no end decent to me. +Why,--" he broke off suddenly--"Hullo! There he is! And--Toby!" + +Two figures had come suddenly round the corner of some stables, walking +side by side. Both were in riding-dress, but the day being hot, the girl +had discarded her long coat and was carrying it without ceremony over her +arm. Her silk shirt was open at the neck, her soft hat pushed jauntily +down on the side of her head. She was laughing as she came, and she +looked like a merry little cow-boy straight from the prairies. + +The man who moved beside her was laughing also. There was no grace about +him, only that strange unstudied kingliness that had earned for him the +title of "Rex." He was swift to see the advancing visitors and swept +the hat from his head with a royal gesture of greeting. + +Toby's face flushed deeply; she looked for the moment inclined to run +away. Then with an impulse half-defiant, she restrained herself and +caught back the smile that had so nearly vanished. She slapped the switch +against her gaitered leg with boyish swagger and advanced. + +A quick frown drew Bunny's forehead as he observed her attitude. He spoke +impetuously, almost before they met. + +"You look like a girl out of a comic opera. Why don't you put your coat +on?" + +Toby made a face at him. "Because it's cooler off. You can carry it if +you like." She threw it to him nonchalantly with the words, and turned +forthwith to Sheila. "Have you just been round the Stables? Grilling, +isn't it? I've been exercising one of the youngsters. He nearly pulled my +arms off. We've been practising some jumps." + +"Then you shouldn't," put in Bunny. "The ground's too hard for jumping." + +Toby turned upon him with a flash of temper. "No one asked for your +opinion. I know a safe jump when I see one. Are you coming in to tea, +Miss Melrose? I should think you're wanting it. Yes? What's the matter?" + +She flung the two questions in a different tone, sharply, as though +startled. Sheila was looking at her oddly, very intently, a species of +puzzled recognition in her eyes. + +Toby backed away from her, half-laughing, yet with something that was not +laughter on her face. "What can be the matter?" she said. "Is it--is it +my riding breeches? Here, Bunny! Let me have my coat!" She turned swiftly +with extended arms. "Quick! Before Miss Melrose faints! I've given her +the shock of her life." + +"No! No!" protested Sheila, recovering. "Don't be absurd! You reminded me +so vividly of someone, that's all. I don't quite know who even yet." + +Bunny helped Toby into the coat without a word. There was grim +displeasure on his face. The General and Saltash were talking together +and for the moment they three stood there alone. + +Toby turned round laughing. "How ridiculous you are!" she said to Bunny. +"You've seen me in this get-up heaps of times before--and will again. +Miss Melrose, I forgot you hadn't. I'm horribly sorry to have shocked +you. Shall we go in for tea now?" + +The puzzled look was still in Sheila's eyes though she smiled in answer. +"I am not shocked--of course," she said. "But--but--" + +"Yes?" said Toby. + +She spoke in the same brief, staccato note; the word was like a +challenge. Saltash turned suddenly round. + +"I have just been complimenting Miss Larpent on the excellence of her +get-up," he said lightly. "We met at the gate on the downs, and I have +been witnessing some very pretty horsemanship. Miss Melrose, I hear you +are leaving tomorrow, and am quite desolated in consequence. It is always +my luck to be left behind." + +The hard little smile that only he could ever provoke was on Sheila's +lips as she turned to him. + +"For such a rapid rider, you are indeed unfortunate," she said. + +He laughed with careless effrontery. "Yes, the devil usually takes the +hindmost,--so I've been told. Miss Larpent anyway is quite safe, for she +will always be an easy first." + +"There is such a thing as going too fast," commented Bunny. + +"There is such a thing as getting away altogether," flung back Toby with +spirit. + +Bunny's eyes flashed into sudden, ominous flame. He could not have said +why the contrast between the two girls--the one in her dainty summer +attire and the other in her boyish riding-kit--had such an effect upon +him, but for the moment it almost infuriated him. + +Toby saw it, and her own eyes lit in response. She stood waiting for his +rejoinder--the spirit of mischief incarnate, wary, alert, daring him. + +But Bunny did not speak in answer. He drew in a hard breath through teeth +that gripped his lower lip, and restrained himself. The next instant he +had turned away. + +"Oh, damn!" said Toby, and swung upon her heel. + +Saltash and the General walked beside her, rallying her. But Bunny and +Sheila came behind in silence. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE ALLY + + +They found Maud awaiting them in the long low room that overlooked her +favourite view of the down. Saltash entered as one who had the right, and +she greeted him with momentary surprise but evident pleasure. + +"I couldn't spend twenty-four hours at Burchester without calling upon +you," he said. + +"You know you are always welcome," she made answer, with the smile which +only her intimate friends ever saw. + +They sat down by one of the wide French windows and General Melrose began +to occupy his hostess's attention. Sheila took a chair that Bunny pushed +forward, and Saltash glanced round for Toby. She was sitting on the end +of a couch, playing with the silky ears of the old red setter. Her hat +was flung down beside her; her pretty face downcast. He crossed to her +deliberately and bent also to fondle the dog. + +She started slightly at his coming, and a faint flush rose in her cheeks; +but she neither glanced at him nor spoke. + +For the moment they were alone, unobserved by the laughing group at the +window. Saltash bent suddenly lower. His quick whisper came down to her: + +"Go and put on the most girlish thing you've got!" + +She looked up at him then, her blue eyes seeking his. A rapid flash of +understanding passed between them. Then, without a word she rose. + +When Maud looked round for her a few seconds later, Saltash was lounging +alone against the sofa-head pulling Chops absently by the ear while he +stared before him out of the window in a fit of abstraction that seemed +to her unusual. + +She called to him to join them at the tea-table, and he jerked himself to +his feet and came across to her with the monkeyish grin on his face that +she had learned long since to regard as the shield wherewith he masked +his soul. + +He sat down by her side, devoting himself to her with the gallantry that +always characterized him when with her. No one seemed to notice that Toby +had disappeared. They talked about the horses, about Jake and his recent +victories, about the season at Fairharbour, about the Melroses' plans for +the winter. + +When questioned by the General on this subject, Saltash declared airily +that he never made any. + +"If I do, I never stick to them, so what's the use?" he said. + +"How weak of you!" said Maud. + +And he threw her the old half-tender, half-audacious look, and tossed the +subject banteringly away. + +He was the first to make a move when the careless meal was over, but not +to go. He sauntered forth and lounged against the door-post smoking, +while Bunny and Sheila talked of tennis and golf, and Maud listened with +well-disguised patience to the old General's oft-repeated French +reminiscences. + +And then when the tea was cold and forgotten and Sheila was beginning to +awake to the fact that it was growing late, there came a sudden, ringing +laugh across the lawn and Toby scampered into view with little Molly +on her shoulder and Eileen running by her side. She was dressed in white, +and she looked no more than a child herself as she danced across the +grass, executing a fairy-like step as she came. The tiny girl's tinkling +laughter mingled with hers. Her little hands were fondly clasped about +the girl's neck; she looked down into her face with babyish adoration +while Eileen, the elder child, gazed upward with a more serious devotion. + +General Melrose interrupted his narrative to look at the advancing trio. +"My Jove, Mrs. Bolton," he said, "but that's a pretty sight!" + +Sheila also ceased very suddenly to converse with Bunny, while Saltash +made a scarcely perceptible movement as though he braced and restrained +himself in the same instant. + +"The prettiest picture I've seen for years!" vowed the General. "How that +little Larpent girl changes! She is like a piece of quicksilver. There's +no getting hold of her. How old is she?" + +"She is nearly twenty," said Bunny with the swiftness of ownership. + +"Nearly twenty! You don't say so! She might be fourteen at the present +moment. Look at that! Look at it!" For Toby was suddenly whizzing like a +butterfly across the lawn in a giddy flight that seemed scarcely to +touch the ground, the little girl still upon her shoulder, the elder +child standing apart and clapping her hands in delighted admiration. + +"Yes, she is rather like fourteen," Maud said, with her tender smile. "Do +you know what she did the other day? It was madness of course, and my +husband was very angry with her. I was frightened myself though I have +more faith in her than he has. She climbs like a cat, you know, and she +actually took both those children up to a high bough of the old beech +tree; I don't know in the least how she did it. None of the party seemed +to think there was any cause for alarm till Jake came on the scene. He +fetched them down with a ladder--all but Toby who went higher and pelted +him with beech nuts till he retreated--at my urgent request." + +"And what happened after that?" questioned Saltash, with his eyes still +upon the dancing figure. "From what I have observed of Jake, I should say +that an ignominious retreat is by no means in his line." + +Maud laughed a little. "Oh, Jake can be generous when he likes. He had it +out with her of course, but he wasn't too severe. Ah, look! She is going +to jump the sun dial!" + +Sheila turned to her. "Surely you are nervous! If she fell, the little +one might be terribly hurt." + +"She won't fall," Maud said with confidence. + +And even as she spoke, Toby leapt the sun dial, leaving the ground as a +bird leaves it, without effort or any sort of strain, and alighting again +as a bird alights from a curving flight with absolute freedom and a +natural adroitness of movement indescribably pleasant to watch. + +"A very pretty circus trick!" declared the General, and even Bunny's +clouded brow cleared a little though he said nothing. + +"A circus trick indeed!" said Sheila, as if speaking to herself. "How on +earth did she do it?" + +"She is like a boy in many ways," said Maud. + +Sheila looked at her. "Yes. She is just like a boy, or at least--" Her +look went further, reached Saltash who lounged on Maud's other side, and +fell abruptly away. + +As Toby came up with the two children, all of them flushed and laughing, +Toby herself in her white frock looking like a child just out of school, +she rose and turned to Bunny. + +"We ought to go now," she said. "I am going to fetch the car round for +Dad." + +"I'll do it," he said. + +But she went with him as he had known she would. They left the group at +the window and moved away side by side in silence as they had walked that +afternoon. + +Saltash stood up and addressed Maud. "I'm going too. Bunny is dining with +me tonight. I suppose you won't come?" + +She gave him her hand, smiling. "I can't thank you. Ask me another day! +You and Bunny will really get on much better without me." + +"Impossible!" he declared gallantly, but he did not press her. + +He turned to the General and took his leave. + +Toby and the two children walked the length of the terrace with him, all +chattering at once. She seemed to be in a daring, madcap mood and Saltash +laughed and jested with her as though she had been indeed the child she +looked. Only at parting, when she would have danced away, he suddenly +stopped her with a word. + +"Nonette!" + +She stood still as if at a word of command; there had been something of +compulsion in his tone. + +He did not look at her, and the smile he wore was wholly alien to the +words he spoke. + +"Be careful how you go! And don't see Bunny again--till I have seen him!" + +A hard breath went through Toby. She stood like a statue, the two +children clasping her hands. Her blue eyes gazed at him with a wide +questioning. Her face was white. + +"Why? Why?" she whispered at length. + +His look flashed before her vision like the grim play of a sword. "That +girl remembers you. She will give you away. She's probably at it now. +I'll see him--tell him the truth if necessary. Anyhow--leave him to me!" + +"Tell him--the truth?" The words came from her like a cry. There was a +sudden terror in her eyes. He made a swift gesture of dismissal. "Go, +child! Go! Whatever I do will make it all right for you. I'm standing +by. Don't be afraid! Just--go!" + +It was a definite command. She turned to obey, the little girls still +clinging to her. The next moment she was running lightly back with them, +and Saltash turned in the opposite direction and passed out of sight +round the corner of the house on his way to the stable-yard. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE TRUTH + + +He went with careless tread as his fashion was, whistling the gay air to +which all England was dancing that season. His swarthy countenance wore +the half-mischievous, half-amused expression with which it was his custom +to confront--and baffle--the world at large. No one knew what lay behind +that facile mask. Only the very few suspected that it hid aught beyond a +genial wickedness of a curiously attractive type. + +His spurs rang upon the white stones, and Sheila Melrose, standing beside +her father's car in the shadow of some buildings, turned sharply and saw +him. Her face was pale; it had a strained expression. But it changed at +sight of him. She regarded him with that look of frozen scorn which once +she had flung him when they had met in the garish crowd at Valrosa. + +Bunny was stooping over the car, but he became aware of Saltash almost in +the same moment, and stood up straight to face him. Sheila was pale, but +he was perfectly white, and there were heavy drops of perspiration on his +forehead. He looked full at Saltash with eyes of blazing accusation. + +Saltash's face never changed as he came up to the car. He ceased to +whistle, but the old whimsical look remained. He seemed unaware of any +tension. + +"Car all right?" he asked smoothly. "Can I lend a hand? The general is +beginning to move." + +Sheila turned without a word and got into the car. + +Bunny neither moved nor spoke. He stood like a man paralysed. It was +Saltash who, with that royal air of amusing himself, stooped to the +handle and started the engine. + +The girl at the wheel did not even thank him. She looked beyond. Only as +he stood aside and the car slid forward, she turned stiffly to Bunny. + +"Good-bye!" she said. + +He made a jerky movement. Their eyes met for a single second. "You will +write?" he said. + +His throat was working spasmodically, the words seemed to come with +gigantic effort. She bent her head in answer and passed between them +through the white gate into the drive that led round to the house. + +Saltash turned with a lightning movement to Bunny. "Walk back with me and +we can talk!" he said. + +Bunny drew sharply back. The movement was one of instinctive recoil. But +still no words came. He stood staring at Saltash, and he was trembling +from head to foot. + +"Don't be an ass now!" Saltash said, and his voice was oddly gentle, even +compassionate. "You've stumbled on a mare's nest. It's all right. I can +explain." + +Bunny controlled himself with a jerk. His face was like death, but he +found his voice. "You can keep your damned lies to yourself," he said. +"I've no use for them." + +The prod of a riding-switch against his shoulder made him start as a +spirited animal starts at the touch of a spur. But Saltash only laughed. + +"You'll fight me for that!" he said. + +"I wouldn't touch you!" flung back Bunny. + +"Oh, wouldn't you?" The odd eyes mocked him openly. "Then you withdraw +the insult--with apologies?" + +"Apologise--to you!" said Bunny. + +"Or fight!" said Saltash. "I think that would do you more good than the +other, but you shall decide." + +"I will do neither," said Bunny, and turned his back with the words. +"I've--done with you." + +"You're wrong!" said Saltash. "You've got to face it, and you won't get +the truth from anyone but me. That girl knows nothing, Bunny!" His voice +was suddenly curt, with that in it which very few ever heard. "Turn +around! Do you hear? Turn round--damn you! I'll kick you if you don't!" + +Bunny turned. It was inevitable. They stood face to face. Then Saltash, +the mockery gone from his eyes, reached out abruptly and gripped him +by the arm. His touch was electric. For that moment--only for that +moment--he was dangerous. There was something of the spring of a tiger in +his action. + +"You damn fool!" he said, and he spoke between his teeth. "Do you suppose +even I would play such a blackguard's game as that?" + +"Let me go!" Bunny said through white lips. "Facts are facts." + +Saltash's hold did not slacken. "Where's Jake?" he said. + +"Jake's away." + +"Confound him! Just when he's wanted!" The ferocity died out of Saltash +like the glow from cinders blown from a furnace. "Well, listen! I swear +to you by all that is sacred that you're making a mistake. Sheila has +told you a certain thing that is true, so far as it goes. But you've let +your imagination run away with you. The rest is false." + +He spoke with an emphasis that carried weight, and Bunny was moved in +spite of himself. His own fire died down. + +Saltash saw his advantage and pressed it. "If Jake were here, he'd tell +you I was speaking the truth, and you'd believe him. You're on a wrong +scent. So far as I'm concerned, you're welcome to follow it to blazes. +I'm used to pleasantries of that sort from my friends. But I'm damned if +I'll let that child be tripped for nothing. Do you hear, Bunny?" He shook +the arm he gripped impatiently. "I'll see you in hell first!" + +Bunny's mouth twisted with a painful effort to smile. "I'm in hell now," +he said. + +"Why the devil did you listen?" said Saltash. "Look here! We've got to +have this thing out. Send a man along with my horse and walk across the +park with me!" + +He had gained his point by sheer insistence, and he knew it. Bunny knew +it also and cursed himself for a weak fool as he moved to comply. With +Saltash's blade through his heart, he yet could somehow find it possible +to endure him. + +He went with him in silence, hating the magnetism he found it impossible +to resist. They passed through the shrubberies that skirted the house, +and so to the open down. + +Then in his sudden fashion, crudely and vehemently, Saltash began his +defence. + +"It's not my way," he said, "to give an answer to any man who questions; +but you haven't stooped to question. So I tell you the truth. Sheila saw +Toby working as a page at the Casino Hotel at Valrosa. That right? I +thought so. It's the whole matter in a nutshell. I must have seen her +too, but never noticed her till my last night in the place. Then I found +Antonio hammering the poor little beggar out in the garden, and I stopped +it. You'd have done the same. Afterwards, late that night, I went on +board the yacht and found her down in the saloon--a stowaway. The yacht +had started. I could have put back. I didn't. You wouldn't have done +either. She took refuge with me. I sheltered her. She came to me as a +boy. I treated her as such." + +"You knew?" flung in Bunny. + +Saltash's grin flashed across his dark features like a meteor through a +cloudy sky and was gone. "I--suspected, _mon ami_. But--I did not even +tell myself." That part of him that was French--a species of volatile +sentimentality--sounded in the words like the echo of a laugh in a minor +key. "I made a valet of her. I suffered her to clean my boots and brush +my clothes. I kept her in order--with this--upon occasion." + +He held up the switch he carried. + +"I don't believe it," said Bunny bluntly. + +Saltash's shoulders went up. "You please yourself, _mon cher_. I am +telling you the truth. I treated her like a puppy. I was kind to her, but +never extravagantly kind. But I decided--eventually I decided--that it +was time to turn home. No game can last forever. So we returned, and on +our last night at sea we were rammed and sunk. Naturally that spoilt--or +shall I say somewhat precipitated?--my plans. We were saved, the two +of us together. And then was started that scandalous report of the woman +on the yacht." Again the laughter sounded in his voice. "You see, _mon +ami_, how small a spark can start a conflagration. In self-defence I had +to invent something, and I invented it quickly. I said she was Larpent's +daughter. I wonder if you would have thought of that. You'd have done it +if you had, I'll wager." + +He turned upon the boy who strode in silence by his side with a gleam of +triumph in his eyes, but there was no answering gleam in Bunny's. He +moved heavily, staring straight before him, his face drawn in hard lines +of misery. + +"Well," Saltash said, "that's all I have done. You now know the truth, +simple and unadorned, as Sheila Melrose in her simplicity does not know +it and probably would not comprehend it if she did." + +"Leave her out of it!" said Bunny, in a strangled voice. "It was--the +obvious conclusion." + +"Oh, the obvious!" Cynicism undisguised caught up the word. "Only the +young and innocent can ever really say with any conviction what is the +obvious way of blackguards. You don't know it--neither do I. A single +decent impulse on the part of a blackguard can upset all the calculations +of the virtuous. Oh, Bunny, you fool, what do you want to wreck things +for at this stage? Can't you see you've got a gift from the gods? Take +it, man, and be thankful that you're considered worthy of it!" + +Bunny made a sharp movement of protest. Saltash was looking at him with +half-humorous compassion as one looks at a child with a damaged toy, and +he was keenly conscious of being at a disadvantage. But though checked, +he was not defeated. Saltash had made out a case for himself. He had in a +measure vindicated Toby. But that was not the end of the matter. + +He stopped and faced him. "Why were you so anxious for me to marry her?" +he said. "I've got to know that." + +He was instantly aware that Saltash eluded him, even though he seemed to +meet his look as he made reply. "You are quite welcome to know it, _mon +ami_. I chance to take a fatherly interest in you both." + +Bunny flinched a little. Something in the light reply had pierced him +though he could not have said how. "That's all?" he asked rather thickly. + +"That is quite all," said Saltash, and faintly smiled--the smile of the +practised swordsman behind the blade. + +Bunny stood for some moments regarding him, his boyish face stern and +troubled. Up to that point, against his will, he had believed him; from +it, he believed him no longer. But--he faced the truth however it might +gall him--he was pitted against a skilled fencer, and he was powerless. +Experience could baffle him at every turn. + +"Do you tell me you have never realized that she cared for you?" he +blurted forth abruptly, and there was something akin to agony in his +utterance of the words. He knew that he was baring his breast for the +stroke as he forced them out. + +But Saltash did not strike. Just for an instant he showed surprise. +Then--quite suddenly he lowered his weapon. He faced Bunny with a smile +of comradeship. + +"Quite honestly, Bunny," he said, "if I had realized it, it wouldn't have +made any difference. I have no use for sentimental devotion at my age. +She has never been more to me than--a puppy that plays with your hand." + +"Ah," Bunny said, and swung away from him with the words. "I suppose that +is how you treat them all. Women and dogs--they're very much alike." + +"Not in every respect," said Saltash. "I should say that Toby is an +exception anyway. She knows play from earnest." + +"Does she?" said Bunny. He paused a moment, as if trying to concentrate +his forces; then he turned to Saltash again. "I'm going back now. I can't +dine with you--though I've no desire to quarrel. But you see--you must +understand--that I can never--accept anything from you again. I'm +sorry--but I can't." + +"What are you going to do?" said Saltash. + +Bunny hesitated, his boyish face a white mask of misery. + +Saltash reached out a second time and touched him lightly, almost +caressingly, with the point of his switch. "What's the matter with you, +Bunny?" he said. "Think I've lied to you?" + +Bunny met his look. "I don't want to quarrel with you," he said. "It +isn't--somehow it isn't--worth it." + +"Thanks!" said Saltash, and briefly laughed. "You place my friendship at +a pretty high figure then. Tell me what you're going to do!" + +"What is it to you what I do?" A quick gleam shone for an instant in +Bunny's eyes, dispelling the look of stricken misery. "I'm not asking you +to help me." + +"I've grasped that," said Saltash. "But even so, I may be able to lend a +hand. As you say, there is not much point in our quarrelling. There's +nothing to quarrel about that I can see--except that you've called me a +liar for no particular good reason!" + +"Do you object to that?" said Bunny. + +Saltash made a careless gesture. "Perhaps---as you say--it isn't worth +it. All the same, I've a certain right to know what you propose to do, +since, I gather, I have not managed to satisfy you." + +"A right!" flashed Bunny. + +"Yes, a right." Saltash's voice was suddenly and suavely confident. "You +may forget--or possibly you may remember--that I gave my protection to +Nonette on the day she came to me for it, and I have never withdrawn +it since. What matters to her--matters to me." + +"I see." Bunny stood stiffly facing him. "I am responsible to you, am I?" + +"That is what I am trying to convey," said Saltash. + +The fire in Bunny's eyes leapt high for a moment or two, then died down +again. Had Jake been his opponent, he would have flung an open challenge, +but somehow Saltash, with whom he had never before striven in his life, +was less easy to resist. In some subtle fashion he seemed able to evade +resistance and yet to gain his point. + +He gained his point on this occasion. Almost before he knew it, Bunny had +yielded. + +"I am going to her," he said, "to ask her for the whole truth--about her +past." + +"Is any woman capable of telling the truth to that extent?" questioned +Saltash. + +"I shall know if she doesn't," said Bunny doggedly. + +"And will that help?" The note of mockery that was never long absent from +his voice sounded again. "Isn't it possible--sometime--to try to know too +much? There is such a thing as looking too closely, _mon ami_. And then +we pay the price." + +"Do you imagine I could ever be satisfied not knowing?" said Bunny. + +Saltash shrugged his shoulders. "I merely suggested that you are going +the wrong way to satisfy yourself. But that is your affair, not mine. The +gods have sent you a gift, and because you don't know what it is made +of, you are going to pull it to pieces to find out. And presently you +will fling it away because you cannot fit it together again. You don't +realize--you never will realize--that the best things in life are the +things we never see and only dimly understand." + +A vein of sincerity mingled with the banter in his voice, and Bunny was +aware of a curious quality of reverence, of something sacred in a waste +place. + +It affected him oddly. Convinced though he was that in one point at least +Saltash had sought to deceive him it yet influenced him very strongly in +Saltash's favour. Against his judgment, against his will even, he saw him +as a friend. + +"Do you mean to tell me," he said, speaking slowly, his eyes upon the +swarthy, baffling countenance, "that you have never even tried to know +where she came from--what she is?" + +Saltash made a quick gesture as of remonstrance. "_Mon ami_, the last I +have always known. The first I have never needed to know." + +"Then," Bunny spoke with difficulty, but his look never wavered, "tell +me--as before God--tell me what you believe her to be!" + +"What I know her to be," corrected Saltash, "I will tell you--certainly. +She is a child who has looked into hell, but she is still--a child." + +"What do you mean?" questioned Bunny. + +Saltash's eyes, one black, one grey, suddenly flashed a direct challenge +into his own. "I mean," he said, "that the flame has scorched her, but it +has never actually touched her." + +"You know that?" Bunny's voice was hoarse. There was torture in his eyes. +"Man--for God's sake--the truth!" + +"It is the truth," Saltash said. + +"How do you know it? You've no proof. How can you be sure?" He could not +help the anguish of his voice. The words fell harsh and strained. + +"How do I know it?" Saltash echoed the words sharply. "What proof? Bunny, +you fool, do you know so little of the world--of women--as that? What +proof do you need? Just--look into her eyes!" + +A queer note of passion sounded in his own voice, and it told Bunny very +clearly that he was grappling with the naked truth at last. It arrested +him in a moment. He suddenly found that he could go no further. There +was no need. + +Impulsively, with an inarticulate word of apology, he thrust out his +hand. Saltash's came to meet it in a swift, hard grip. + +"Enough?" he asked, with that odd, smiling grimace of his that revealed +so little. + +And, "Yes, enough!" Bunny said, looking him straight in the face. + +They parted almost without words a few minutes later. There was no more +to be said. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE LAST CARD + + +Saltash dined alone that night. He was in a restless mood and +preoccupied, scarcely noticing what was put before him, pushing away the +wine untasted. In the end he rose from the table almost with a gesture of +disgust. + +"I'm going to smoke on the ramparts," he said to the decorous butler who +waited upon him. "If anyone should call to see me, let them wait in the +music-room!" + +"Very good, my lord! And where would you like to take coffee?" enquired +the man sedately. + +Saltash laughed. "Not on the ramparts--emphatically. I'll have mercy on +you to that extent. Put it on the spirit-lamp in the music-room, and +leave it! You needn't sit up, any of you. I'll put out the lights." + +"Very good, my lord." + +The man withdrew, and Saltash chose a cigar. An odd grimace drew his +features as he lighted it. He had the look of a man who surveys his last +card and knows himself a loser. Though he went out of the room and up +the great staircase to the music-room with his head up and complete +indifference in his carriage, his eyelids were slightly drawn. He did not +look as if he had enjoyed the game. + +A single red lamp lighted the music-room, and the long apartment looked +dim and ghostly. He stood for a moment as he entered it and looked round, +then with a scarcely perceptible lift of the shoulders he passed straight +through to the curtain that hung before the door leading to the turret. +The darkness of the place gaped before him, and he turned back with a +muttered word and recrossed the room. There were Persian rugs upon the +floor, and his feet made no sound. He went to the mantel-piece and, +feeling along it, found a small electric torch. The light of it flared +before him as he returned. The door yielded to his touch and swung shut +behind him. He passed into vault-like silence. + +The stone steps gave back the sound of his tread as he mounted, with +eerie, wandering echoes. The grey walls glimmered with a ghostly +desolation around him. Halfway up, he stopped to flick the ash from his +cigar, and laughed aloud. But the echoes of his laughter sounded like +voices crying in the darkness. He went on more swiftly, like a phantom +imprisoned and seeking escape. The echoes met him and fell away behind +him. The loneliness was like a curse. The very air felt dead. + +He reached the top of the turret at last, and the heavy door that gave +upon the ramparts. With a sound that was almost a gasp, he pushed it +open, and passed out into the open air. + +A full moon was shining, and his acres lay below him--a wonderful picture +in black and silver. He came to the first gap in the battlements, mounted +the parapet, and stood there with a hand resting on each side. + +The wash of the sea came murmurously through the September silence. +His restless eyes flashed hither and thither over the quiet scene, taking +in every detail, lingering nowhere. The pine trees stirred in the +distance below him, seeming to whisper together, and an owl hooted with a +weird persistence down by the lake. It was like the calling of a human +voice--almost like a cry of distress. Then it ceased, and the trees were +still again. + +The spell of the silence fell like the falling of a curtain. The +loneliness crept about his heart. + +He took the cigar from his mouth and spoke, ironically, grimly. + +"There is your kingdom, Charles Rex!" he said. + +He turned with the words and leaped down upon the narrow walk between the +battlements. The owl began to call again, but the desolation remained. He +paced forward with his hands behind him, his head bent. No one could see +him here. The garment of mockery could be flung aside. He was like a +prisoner tramping the stone walls from which he could never escape. + +He paused once to toss away his cigar, but he did not look out again over +the fair prospect of his lands. He was looking at other things, seeing +the vast emptiness of a life that had never been worth while stretching +behind and before him. Like a solitary traveller pausing in the heart of +the desert, he stood to view the barrenness around him. + +He had travelled far, had pursued many a quest with ardour; but the +ardour had all gone out of him now. Only the empty solitude remained. He +had lived a life of fevered variety, he had drunk deep of many waters; +but he had never been satisfied. And now it seemed to him that all he had +ever looked upon, all he had ever achieved, was mirage. Nothing of all +that he had ever striven for was left. The fruit had turned to ashes in +his mouth, and no spring remained whereat to quench his thirst. + +Perhaps few men have ever realized the utter waste of wickedness as +Charles Rex realized it that night. He met it whichever way he turned. To +gratify the moment's whim had ever been his easy habit. If a generous +impulse had moved him, he had gratified that also. But it had never been +his way to sacrifice himself--until a certain night when a child had come +to him, wide-eyed and palpitating like a driven bird, and had sought +shelter and protection at his hands. + +That, very curiously, had been the beginning of a new era in his life. It +had appealed to him as nothing had ever appealed before. He had never +tasted--or even desired--the Dead Sea fruit again. Something had entered +his being on that night which he had never been able to cast out, and all +other things had been dwarfed to insignificance. + +He faced the fact as he paced his castle walls. The relish had gone out +of his life. He was gathering what he had sown, and the harvest was +barren indeed. + +Time passed; he walked unheeding. If he spent the whole night on the +ramparts, there was no one to know or care. It was better than tossing +sleepless under a roof. He felt as if a roof would suffocate him. But +sheer physical weariness began to oppress even his elastic frame at last. +He awoke to the fact that he was dead tired. + +He sat down in an embrasure between the battlements, and drifted into the +numb state between waking and sleeping in which visions are born. For a +space nothing happened, then quite suddenly, rising as it were out of +a void, a presence entered his consciousness, reached and touched his +spirit. Intangibly, but quite unmistakably, he was aware of the summons, +of a voice that spoke within his soul. + +He lifted his head and looked about him. Emptiness, stark emptiness, was +all he saw. Yet, in a moment, as though a hand had beckoned, he arose. +Without a backward glance he traversed the distance that lay between +him and the turret-door. He went through it into utter darkness, and in +utter darkness began the descent. + +A shaft of moonlight smote through a slit in the stone wall as he rounded +the corner of the stair. It lay like a shining sword across his path, and +for a second he paused. Then he passed over it, sure-footed and +confident, and plunged again into darkness. When he reached the end of +the descent, he was breathing heavily, and his eyes were alight with a +strange fire. He pulled upon the door and put aside the thick curtain +with the swift movements of a man who can brook no delay. He passed into +the long, dim room beyond with its single red lamp burning at the far +end. He prepared to pass on to the door that led out upon the gallery and +so to the grand staircase. But before he had gone half-a-dozen paces he +stopped. It was no sound that arrested, no visible circumstance of any +sort. Yet, as if at a word of command, he halted. His quick look swept +around the room like the gleam of a rapier, and suddenly he swung upon +his heel, facing that still, red light. + +Seconds passed before he moved again. Then swiftly and silently he walked +up the room. Close to the lamp was a deep settee on which the spots of a +leopard skin showed in weird relief. At one end of the settee, against +the leopard skin, something gold was shining. Saltash's look was fixed +upon it as he drew near. + +He reached the settee treading noiselessly. He stood beside it, looking +down. And over his dark face with its weary lines and cynical mouth, its +melancholy and its bitterness, there came a light such as neither man nor +woman had ever seen upon it before. For there before him, curled up like +a tired puppy, her tumbled, golden hair lying in ringlets over the +leopard skin, was Toby, asleep in the dim, red lamplight. + +For minutes he stood and gazed upon her before she awoke. For minutes +that strange glory came and went over his watching face. He did not stir, +did not seem even to breathe. But the fact of his presence must have +pierced her consciousness at last, for in the end quite quietly, +supremely naturally, the blue eyes opened and fixed upon him. + +"Hullo!" said Toby sleepily. "Time to get up?" + +And then, in a moment, she had sprung upright on the couch, swift dismay +on her face. + +"I--I thought we were on the yacht! I--I--I never meant to go to sleep +here! I came to speak to you, sir. I wanted to see you." + +He put a restraining hand upon her thin young shoulder, and his touch +vibrated as with some unknown force controlled. + +"All right, Nonette!" he said, and his voice had the same quality; it was +reassuring but oddly unsteady. "Sorry I kept you waiting." + +She looked at him. Her face was quivering. "I've had--a hell of a time," +she said pathetically. "Been here hours--thought you'd never come. Your +man--your man said I wasn't to disturb you." + +"Damn the fool!" said Saltash. + +She broke into a breathless laugh. "That's--that's just what I said. But +I thought--I thought perhaps--you'd rather--rather I waited." She +shivered suddenly. "I don't like this place. Can you take me somewhere +else?" + +He bent lower, put his hand under her elbow and helped her to her +feet. She came up from the couch with a spring, and stood before him, +half-daring and half-shy. + +Saltash kept his hold upon her arm, and turned her towards the wall +beside the tall mantel-piece. She went with him readily enough, watching, +eager-eyed, as he stretched his free hand up to the oak panelling. + +"Now I'm going to find out all your secrets!" she said boyishly. + +"Not quite all," said Saltash. + +There came the click of a spring and the panel slid to one side, leaving +a long, narrow opening before them. Toby glanced up at him and, with a +small, nestling movement, slipped within the circle of his arm. It +tightened upon her in an instant, and she laughed again, a quivering, +exultant laugh. + +"I'm glad you've come," she said. + +They paused on the edge of darkness, but there was no hesitation about +Toby. She was all athrill with expectancy. Then in a flash the room +before them was illuminated, and they entered. + +It was a strange chamber, panelled, built in the shape of a cone. A glass +dome formed its roof, and there was no window besides. The lights were +cunningly concealed behind a weirdly coloured fresco of Oriental figures. +But one lamp alone on a small table burned with a still red glow. This +lamp was supported on the stuffed skin of a hooded cobra. + +Toby's eyes were instantly drawn towards it. They shone with excitement. +Again she glanced up at the man beside her. + +"What a wonderful place!" + +"Better than the music-room?" suggested Saltash. + +"Oh, yes, far better." Her shining eyes sought his. "It might be your +cabin on the yacht." + +He stretched a hand behind him and again the spring clicked. Then he drew +her forward. They trod on tiger skins. Everywhere were tiger skins, on +the floor and on a deep low settee by the table which was the only other +furniture the room possessed. Toby was clinging to the arm that held her, +clinging very closely. There was unspoken entreaty in her hold. For there +was something about Saltash at the moment, something unfamiliar and +unfathomable that frightened her. His careless drollery, his two-edged +ironies, were nought to her; but his silence was a barrier unknown that +she could not pass. She could only cling voicelessly to the support he +had not denied her. + +He brought her to the settee and stood still. His face was strangely +grim. + +"Well--Toby?" he said. + +She twisted in his hold and faced him, but she kept his arm wound close +about her, her hand tight gripped on his. "Are you--angry with me for +coming?" she asked him quiveringly. "I--had to come." + +He looked down into her eyes. "_Bien, petite!_ Then you need--a friend," +he said. + +Her answering look was piteous. "I need--you," she said. + +One of the old gay smiles flashed across his face. He seemed to challenge +her to lightness. The grimness went out of his eyes like a shadow. + +"And so you have come, _ma mignonette_, at the dead of night--at the risk +of your reputation--and mine--" + +Toby made an excruciating grimace, and broke impulsively in upon him. "It +wasn't the dead of night when I started. I've been waiting hours--hours. +But it doesn't matter. I've found you--at last. And you can't send me +away now--like you did before--because--because--well, I've no one to go +to. You might have done it if you'd come down earlier. But you can't do +it--now." Her voice thrilled on a high note of triumph. "You've got to +keep me--now. I've come--to stay." + +"What?" said Saltash. He bent towards her, looking closely into her face. +"Got to keep you, have I? What's that mean? Has Bunny been a brute to +you? I could have sworn I'd made him understand." + +She laughed in answer. "Bunny! I didn't wait to see him!" + +"What?" Saltash said again. + +She reached up a quick, nervous hand and laid it against his breast. Her +eyes, wide and steadfast, never flinched from his. "I've come--to stay," +she repeated. And then, after a moment, "It's all right. I left a note +behind for Bunny. I told him I wasn't going back." + +He caught her hand tightly into his. His hold was drawing her, and she +yielded herself to it still with that quivering laughter that was somehow +more eloquent than words, more piteous than tears. + +Saltash spoke, below his breath. "What am I going to do with you?" he +said. + +Her arms reached up to him suddenly. Perhaps it was that for which she +had waited. "You're going--to keep me--this time," she told him +tremulously. "Oh, why did you ever send me away--when I belonged to +you--and to no one else? You meant to give me my chance? What chance have +I of anything but hell and damnation away from you? No, listen! Let me +speak! Hear me first!" She uttered the words with passionate insistence. +"I'm not asking anything of you--only to be with you. I'll be to you +whatever you choose me to be--always--always. I will be your valet, your +slave, your--plaything. I will be--the dust under your feet. But I must +be with you. You understand me. No one else does. No one else ever can." + +"Are you sure you understand yourself?" Saltash said. + +His arms had closed about her. He was holding her in a vital clasp. But +his restless look did not dwell upon her. It seemed rather to be seeking +something beyond. + +Toby's hands met and gripped each other behind his neck. She clung to him +with an almost frenzied closeness. + +"You can't send me away!" she told him brokenly. "If you do, I shall die. +And I'm asking such a little--such a very little." + +"You don't know what you're asking, child," he said, and though he held +her fast pressed to him his voice had the sombre ring of a man who +battles with misgiving. "You have never known. That's the hell of it." + +"I do know!" she flung back almost fiercely. "I know--all I need to +know--of most things. I know--very well--" her breath came quickly, but +still her eyes remained upraised--"what would have happened--what was +bound to happen--if the yacht had never gone down. I wasn't afraid then. +I'm not now. You're the only man on this earth that I'd say it to. I hate +men--most men! But to you--to you--" a sudden sob caught her voice, she +paused to steady it--"to you I just want to be whatever you're needing +most in life. And when I can't be that to you any longer--I'll just drop +out--as I promised--and you--you shall never know a thing about it. +That I swear." + +His look came swiftly to her. The blue eyes were swimming in tears. He +made a sudden gesture as of capitulation, and the strain went out of his +look. His arms tightened like springs about her. He spoke lightly, +jestingly. + +"_Bien!_ Shall I tell what you shall be to me, _mignonne_?" he said, and +smiled down at her with his royal air of confidence. + +She trembled a little and was silent, realizing that he had suddenly +leapt to a decision, fearing desperately what that decision might be. His +old baffling mask of banter had wholly replaced the sombreness, but she +was aware of a force behind it that gripped her irresistibly. She could +not speak in answer. + +"I will tell you," he said, and his dark, face laughed into hers with a +merriment half-mischievous, half-kindly. "I am treading the path of +virtue, _mignonne_, and uncommon lonely I'm finding it. You shall relieve +the monotony. We will be virtuous together--for a while. You shall be--my +wife!" + +He stooped with the words and ere she knew it his lips were on her own. +But his kiss, though tender, was as baffling as his smile. It was not the +kiss of a lover. + +She gasped and shrank away. "Your--wife! You--you--you're joking! How +could I--I--be your wife?" + +"You and none other!" he declared gaily. "Egad, it's the very thing for +us! Why did I never think of it before? I will order the state-coach at +once. We will go to town--elope and be married before the world begins +to buzz. What are you frightened at, sweetheart? Why this alarm? Wouldn't +you rather be my wife than--the dust beneath my feet?" + +"I--I don't know," faltered Toby, and hid her face from the dancing +raillery in his eyes. + +His hold was close and sheltering, but he laughed at her without mercy. +"Does the prospect make you giddy? You will soon get over that. You will +take the world by storm, _mignonne_. You will be the talk of the town." + +"Oh, no!" breathed Toby. "No, I couldn't!" + +"What?" he jested. "You are going to refuse my suit?" + +She turned and clung to him with a passionate, even fierce intensity, but +she did not lift her face again to his. Her voice came muffled against +his breast. "I could never refuse you--anything." + +"_Eh, bien!_ Then all is well!" he declared. "My bride will hold her own +wherever she goes, save with her husband. And to him she will yield her +wifely submission at all times. Do you know what they will say--all of +them--when they hear that Charles Rex is married at last?" + +"What?" whispered Toby apprehensively. + +He bent his head, still laughing. "Shall I tell you? Can't you guess?" + +"No. Tell me!" she said. + +He touched the soft ringlets of her hair with his lips. "They will say, +'God help his wife!' _mignonne_. And I--I shall answer 'Amen'." + +She lifted her face suddenly and defiantly, her eyes afire. "Do you know +what I shall say if they do?" she said. + +"What?" said Saltash, his own eyes gleaming oddly. + +"I shall tell them," said Toby tensely, "to--to--to go to blazes!" + +He grimaced his appreciation. "Then they will begin to pity the husband, +_chérie_." + +She held up her lips to his, childishly, lovingly. "I will be good," she +said. "I will be good. I will never say such things again." + +He kissed the trembling lips again, lightly, caressingly. "Oh, don't be +too good!" he said. "I couldn't live up to it. You shall say what you +like--do what you like. And--you shall be my queen!" + +She caught back another sob. Her clinging arms tightened. "And you will +be--what you have always been," she said--"my king--my king--my king!" + +In the silence that followed the passionate words, Charles Rex very +gently loosened the clinging arms, and set her free. + + + + +PART IV + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE WINNING POST + + +"I never thought it would be like this," said Toby. + +She spoke aloud, though she was alone. She stood at an immense window on +the first floor of a busy Paris hotel and stared down into the teeming +courtyard below. Her fair face wore a whimsical expression that was half +of amusement and half of discontent. She looked absurdly young, almost +childish; but her blue eyes were unmistakably wistful. + +Below her seethed a crowd of vehicles of every description and the babel +that came up to her was as the roar of a great torrent. It seemed to +sweep away all coherent thought, for she smiled as she gazed downwards +and her look held interest in the busy scene even though the hint of +melancholy lingered. There was certainly plenty to occupy her, and it was +not in her nature to be bored. + +But yet at the opening of a door in the room behind her, she turned very +swiftly, and in a moment her face was alight with ardent welcome. + +"Ah! Here you are!" she said. + +He came forward in his quick, springy fashion, his odd eyes laughing +their gay, unstable greeting into hers. He took the hands she held out to +him, and bending, lightly kissed them. + +"Have you been bored? _Mais non!_ I have not been so long gone. Why are +you not still resting, _chérie_, as I told you?" + +She looked at him, and still--though her eyes laughed their gladness--the +wistfulness remained. "I am--quite rested, _monseigneur_. And the +tiredness--quite gone. And now you are going to take me to see the sights +of Paris?" + +"Those of them you don't know?" suggested Saltash. + +She nodded. "I don't know very many. I never went very far. I was +afraid." + +He twisted his hand through her arm, and his fingers closed upon her +wrist. "You are not afraid--with me?" he questioned. + +Her eyes answered him before her voice. "Never, _monseigneur_." + +"Why do you call me that?" said Saltash. + +She coloured at the abrupt question. "It suits you." + +He made his monkeyish grimace, and suddenly dropped his eyes to the +blue-veined wrist in his grasp. "Are you happy, _mignonne_?" he asked +her, still obviously in jesting mood. + +Toby's eyes dropped also. She mutely nodded. + +"The truth, Nonette?" His look flashed over her; his tone was imperious. + +She nodded again. "I always tell you--the truth." + +He began to laugh. "_Mais vraiment_! I had not thought that likely. Then +you do not want to leave me--yet?" + +"Leave you!" Her eyes came up to his in wide amazement. "I!" + +"We have been married three days," he reminded her, with comically +working brows. "And I--have I not already begun to leave you--to neglect +you?" + +"I--I--I never expected--anything else," stammered Toby, suddenly +averting her face. + +He patted her cheek with careless kindliness. "How wise of you, my dear! +How wise! Then you are not yet--sufficiently _ennuyée_ to desire to leave +me?" + +"Why--why do you ask?" questioned Toby. + +There was a species of malicious humour about him that made her uneasy. +Saltash in a mischievous mood was not always easy to restrain. He did not +immediately reply to her question, and she turned with a hint of panic +and tightly clasped his arm. + +"It is--you who are--_ennuyé_!" she said, with piteous eyes upraised. + +He flicked her cheek with his thumb, his odd eyes gleaming. "Not so, +_Miladi_ Saltash! For me--the game is just begun. But--should you desire +to leave me--the opportunity is yours. A knight has arrived to the +rescue--a very puissant knight!" + +"A knight!" gasped Toby, trembling. "Ah! Tell me what you mean!" + +His look was openly mocking. "A knight in gaiters!" he told her +lightly. "A knight who bears--or should bear--a horsewhip in place of +a sword--that is, if I know him aright!" + +"Jake!" she gasped incredulously. + +He laughed afresh. "Even so! Jake! Most worthy--and most obtrusive! What +shall we do with him, lady mine? Slay him--or give him a feed and send +him home?" + +She stared at him, aghast. "You--you--you are joking!" she stammered. + +"I always joke when I am most serious," Saltash assured her. + +"Oh, don't!" She clung closer to his arm. "What shall we do? He--he can't +do anything, can he? We--we--we really are married, aren't we?" + +Saltash's most appalling grimace fled like a hunted goblin across his +face. "Married? Heavens, child! What more do you want? Haven't you seen +it--actually seen it--in our greatest London daily? And can a London +daily lie? You may have dreamed the wedding, but that paragraph--that +paragraph--it takes a genius of the first literary degree to dream a +paragraph, though it may only need quite an ordinary fool to write it! +Why, what is the matter? What is it? Did you see something? Not a mouse? +Not a beetle? I prithee, not a beetle!" + +For Toby had suddenly hidden her face against his shoulder and there was +actual panic in the clinging of her arms. He laid a hand upon her head, +and patted it lightly, admonishingly. + +She did not speak for a second or two, only gulped with desperate effort +at self-restraint. Then, at length, in a muffled voice, "Don't let him +take me away!" she besought him shakily. "You--you--you've promised to +keep me--now." + +"But, of course I'm keeping you," said Saltash. "It's what I did it for. +It's the very essence of the game. Cheer up, Nonette! I'm not parting +with any of my goods, worldly or otherwise, this journey." + +"You are sure?" whispered Toby. "Sure?" + +"Sure of what?" He bent swiftly, and for a second, only a second, his +lips touched her hair. + +"Sure you--don't--want to?" came in a gasp from Toby, as she burrowed a +little deeper. + +"Oh, that!" Saltash stood up again, and his face was sardonic, for the +moment almost grim. "Yes, quite sure of that, my dear. Moreover,--it will +amuse me to meet the virtuous Jake on his own ground for once. A new +sensation, Nonette! Will you help me to face him? Or do you prefer the +more early-Victorian _rôle_ of the lady who retires till the combat is +over and then emerges to reward the winner?" + +She lifted her head at that, and uttered a scoffing little laugh, +withdrawing herself abruptly from his support. Her pointed chin went up +with a hint of defiance. All signs of agitation were gone. "I'll stay and +help you," she said. + +He made her an elaborate bow. "Then we will ring up the curtain. I +congratulate you, madam, upon your spirit. I trust the interview will not +try your fortitude too far. Remember, should your feminine ears be +shocked by anything that may pass between us, it is up to you to retire +at any moment." + +Toby's blue eyes caught sudden fire. She broke into an unexpected +chuckle. "I do not think I am likely to retire for that reason, +_monseigneur_," she said. "Where is he? How did you know he was coming?" + +"Because he is already here," said Saltash. "I passed him at the office, +making enquiries. He had his back to me, but there is no mistaking that +bull-neck of his. Ah!" He turned his head sharply. "I hear a step +outside! Sit down, _mignonne_! Sit down and be dignified!" + +But Toby's idea of dignity was to sit on the corner of the table and +swing one leg. If any apprehension lingered in her mind, she concealed it +most successfully. She looked like an alert and mischievous boy. + +There came a knock at the door, and for a moment her eyes sought Saltash. +He grinned back derisively, and pulled out his cigarette-case. +"_Entrez!_" he called. + +The door opened with a flourish. A waiter entered with a card. + +Saltash barely looked at him. His eyes flashed beyond to the open +doorway. "You can come in," he remarked affably. "We've been expecting +you for some time." + +Jake entered. His square frame seemed to fill the space between the +door-posts. He was empty-handed, but there was purpose--grim purpose--in +every line of him. + +Saltash dismissed the waiter with a jerk of the eyebrows. He was utterly +unabashed, amazingly self-assured. He met Jake's stern eyes with cheery +effrontery. + +"Quite like old times!" he commented. "The only difference being, my good +Jake, that on this occasion I have reached the winning-post first." + +Jake's look went beyond him to the slight figure by the table. Toby was +on her feet. Her face was flushed, but her eyes were wide and defiant. He +regarded her steadily for several seconds before, very deliberately, he +transferred his attention to Saltash, who nonchalantly awaited his turn, +tapping the cigarette on the lid of his case with supreme indifference. + +Jake spoke, his voice soft as a woman's, yet strangely dominating. "I +should like two minutes alone with you--if you can spare them." + +Saltash was smiling. His glance shot towards Toby, and came back to Jake +with a certain royal arrogance that held its own without effort. "In +other words, you wish--Lady Saltash--to leave us?" he questioned easily. + +"I'm not going," said Toby quickly, with nervous decision. + +Her hands were tightly clasped in front of her. She stood as one strung +to the utmost limit of resistance. + +Jake did not again look at her. His eyes were upon Saltash, and they +never wavered. "Alone with you," he repeated, with grim insistence. + +Saltash regarded him curiously. His mouth twitched mockingly as he put +the cigarette between his lips. He held out the case to Jake in mute +invitation. + +Jake's look remained fixed. He ignored the action, and the case snapped +shut in Saltash's hand with a sharp sound that seemed to denote a +momentary exasperation. But Saltash's face still retained the monkey-like +expression of calculated mischief habitual to it. + +"Bunny with you?" he enquired casually, producing a match-box. + +"No." Very quietly came Jake's answer. "I have come to see you--alone." + +Saltash lighted his cigarette, and blew a careless cloud of smoke. "Are +you proposing to shoot me?" he asked, after a pause. + +"No," said Jake grimly. "Shooting's too good for you--men like you." + +Saltash laughed, and blew another cloud of smoke. "That may be why I have +survived so long," he remarked. "I don't see the horsewhip either. Jake, +my friend, you are not rising to the occasion with becoming enthusiasm. +Any good offering you a drink to stimulate your energies?" + +"None whatever," said Jake, still very quietly. "I don't go--till I have +what I came for--that's all. Neither do you!" + +"I--see!" said Saltash. + +An odd little gleam that was almost furtive shone for a second in his +eyes and was gone. He turned and crossed the room to Toby. + +"My dear," he said, "I think this business will be more quickly settled +if you leave us." + +She looked at him piteously. He took her lightly by the arm, and led her +to a door leading to an adjoining room. "By the time you have smoked one +cigarette," he said, "I shall be with you again." + +She turned with an impulsive attempt to cling to him. "You'll--keep me?" +she said, through trembling lips. + +He made a royal gesture that frustrated her with perfect courtesy. "Are +you not my wife?" he said. + +He opened the door for her, and she had no choice but to go through. She +went swiftly, without another glance, and Saltash closed the door behind +her. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE VILLAIN SCORES + + +"Now, sir!" said Saltash, and turned. His tone was brief; the smile had +gone from his face. He came to Jake with a certain haughtiness, and stood +before him. + +Jake squared his shoulders. "So--you've married her!" he said. + +"I have." There was a note of challenge in the curt rejoinder. Saltash's +brows were drawn. + +"I should like to see--proof of that," Jake said, after a moment. + +"The devil you would!" Again the hot gleam shone in the odd eyes. Saltash +stood for a second in the attitude of a man on the verge of violence. +Then, contemptuously, he relaxed. + +He lounged back against the mantel-piece and smoked his cigarette. "The +devil you would, Jake!" he said again, in a tone so different that the +words might have been uttered in another language. "And why--if one be +permitted to ask?" + +"I think you know why," Jake said. + +"Oh, do I? You virtuous people are always the first to suspect evil." +Saltash spoke with deliberate cynicism. "And suppose the marriage is not +genuine--as you so politely hint--what then, my worthy Jake? What then?" + +Jake faced him unwaveringly. "If not," he said, "she goes back with me." + +Saltash's eyes suddenly flashed to his, but he did not alter his +position. "Sure of that?" he asked casually. + +"Sure!" said Jake. + +"And if I refuse to part with her? If she refuses to go?" + +"Either way," said Jake immovably. + +"And why?" Saltash straightened suddenly. "Tell me why! What in hell has +it got to do with you?" + +"This," said Jake. "Just the fact that she's a girl needing protection +and that I--can give it." + +"Are you so sure of that?" gibed Saltash. "I think you forget, don't you, +that I was her first protector? No one--not even Bunny--could have got +near her without my consent." + +"She was your find right enough," Jake admitted. "I always knew +that--knew from the first you'd faked up a lie about her. But I hoped--I +even believed--that you were doing it for her sake--not your own." + +"Well?" flung Saltash. "And if I was?" + +"And if you were," said Jake, "it was a thing worth doing--worth sticking +to. Bunny is a respectable citizen. He'd have married her--made her +happy." + +Saltash's mouth twisted. "Bunny had his chance--missed it," he said. +"He'll know better next time. I'm not troubling about Bunny. He didn't +deserve to win." + +"And so you decided to play him a damn trick and cut him out?" said Jake. + +Saltash snapped his fingers. "I did my best for him, but I couldn't push +him through against his will. Why didn't he come after her when he found +she had gone? Didn't he know where to look?" + +"Just because he knew," said Jake. + +Saltash moved abruptly. "Damnation! You shall have what you've come for. +If seeing is believing--then you shall believe--that even Charles +Burchester can protect a girl at a pinch from the snares of the +virtuous!" He pulled an envelope from an inner pocket, and flung it with +a passionate gesture upon the table in front of Jake. + +Jake's eyes, red-brown and steady, marked the action and contemplated him +thereafter for several silent seconds. Then, at length, very slowly. +"Maybe--after all--I don't need to see, my lord," he said. "Maybe--I've +made a mistake." + +He spoke with the utmost quietness, but his manner had undergone a +change. It held a hint of deference. He made no move to touch the +envelope upon the table. + +Saltash's brows went up. "Satisfied?" he questioned curtly. + +"On that point, yes." Jake continued to look at him with a close and +searching regard. + +"Not on all points?" Saltash flicked the ash from his cigarette with a +movement of exasperation. + +Jake turned and slowly walked to the window. There fell a silence between +them. He stood staring down upon the scene that Toby had gazed upon a +little earlier, but he saw nothing of it. The hardness had gone out of +his face, and a deep compassion had taken its place. + +Saltash continued to smoke for several restless seconds. Finally, he +dropped the end of his cigarette into a tray and spoke. + +"Anything more I can do for you?" + +Jake wheeled in his massive way, and came back. "Say!" he said slowly. +"I'm kind of sorry for that little girl." + +Saltash made an abrupt movement that passed unexplained. "Well?" he said. + +Jake faced him squarely. "If I'd been at home," he said, "this would +never have happened. Or if it had happened--if it had happened--" He +paused. + +"You'd have made a point of coming to the wedding?" suggested Saltash. + +Jake passed the suggestion by. "I'd have known how to deal with it, +anyway. Now, it seems, it's too late." + +Saltash took up the envelope from the table, and returned it to his +pocket. "I believe you'd have been better pleased if I hadn't married +her," he observed. + +Jake shook his head. "I'd be better pleased--maybe--if I knew for certain +what you did it for." + +"My good Jake. I don't go in for aims and motives," protested Saltash. +"Call it a marriage of convenience if you feel that way! It's all the +same to me." + +Jake's brows contracted. "I'd give a good deal not to call it that," he +said. + +Saltash laughed. "Call it what you like--a whim--a fancy--the craze of +the moment! You needn't waste any sentiment over it. I'm sorry about +Bunny, but, if he hadn't been an ass, it wouldn't have happened. You +can't blame me for that anyhow. You did the same thing yourself." + +"I!" The red-brown eyes suddenly shone. "I don't follow you," said Jake +deliberately. + +"You married your wife to deliver her from--a fate you deemed +unsuitable." Saltash's teeth showed for a moment in answer to the gleam +in Jake's eyes. "You did it in an almighty hurry too." + +"But--damn it--she needed protection!" Jake said. "And--at least--I loved +her!" + +Saltash bowed. "Hence your motive was an entirely selfish one. My +wife--_au contraire_--is quite unhampered by a husband's devotion. I have +never made love to her--yet. I have only--protected her." + +He paused, and suddenly the old monkey-like look of mischief flashed back +into his face. + +"I lay claim to the higher virtue, Jake," he said. "Heaven alone knows +how long it will last. I've never scored over you before, but on this +occasion--" He stopped with a careless wave of the hand. + +"Yes," Jake said. "On this occasion--you've got me beat. But--I didn't +fight for my own sake, nor yet for the off chance of downing you, which I +own would have given me considerable pleasure once. It was for the +child's sake." An unwonted note of entreaty suddenly sounded in his +voice. "I don't know what your game is, my lord; but she's yours now--to +make--or break. For God's sake--be decent to her--if you can!" + +"If I can!" Saltash clapped a sudden hand upon Jake's shoulder, but +though the action was obviously a kindly one, it held restraint as well. +"Do you think I don't know how to make a woman happy, Jake? Think I +haven't studied the subject hard enough? Think I'm a fool at the game?" + +Jake looked him straight in the face. "No. I don't think you a fool, my +lord," he said. "But I reckon there's one or two things that even you may +have to learn. You've never yet made any woman permanently happy. There's +only one way of doing that. Bunny would have done it--and won out too. +But you--I'm not so sure of you." + +"Oh, Bunny would have won out, would he?" Saltash's hand closed like a +trap upon Jake's shoulder. There was a challenging quality in his smile. + +Jake nodded. "Yes. Bunny's got the real stuff in him. Bunny would have +put her happiness before his own always. He would have given her the love +that lasts. It's the only thing worth having, after all." + +"Well?" The challenge became more marked upon the swarthy face. The smile +had vanished. "And you think I am incapable of that?" + +"I haven't said so," Jake said sombrely. + +"But it's up to me to prove it?" There was a certain insistence in +Saltash's tone, albeit a mocking spirit looked out of his eyes. + +Jake faced it unwaveringly for several seconds. Then: "Yes. I reckon it +is up to you," he said, and turned deliberately away. "I'm going now." + +"All right." Saltash's hand fell. "I give you credit for one thing, +Jake," he said. "You haven't offered to take her off my hands. For that +piece of forbearance I congratulate you. Do you want to see her before +you go?" + +"Not specially," said Jake. + +Saltash's eyes followed him with a look half-malicious, half-curious. +"Nor to send her a message?" he questioned. + +"No." Jake's tone was brief. + +"You're not wanting to offer her a safe harbour when her present +anchorage fails her?" jested Saltash. + +Jake turned at the door as one goaded. "When that happens," he said very +deliberately. "I guess she'll be past any help from me, poor kid!" + +Saltash's black brows descended. He scowled hideously for a moment. Then, +"I congratulate you again," he said coolly. "You are just beginning to +see things--as they are." + +Jake made a brief sound that might have indicated contempt and opened the +door. He went out with finality, and Saltash listened to the tread of his +retreating feet with a grin of sheer cynical triumph. + +"So," he said lightly, "the villain scores at last!" + +But as he turned towards the other room, the cynicism passed from his +face. He stood for a moment or two motionless at the door; then broke +into a careless whistle and opened it. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A WIFE IS DIFFERENT + + +"Has he gone?" said Toby eagerly. She came into the room with a swift +glance around. "What did he say? What did he do? Was he angry?" + +"I really don't know," Saltash said, supremely unconcerned. "He went. +That's the main thing." + +Toby looked at him critically. "You were so quiet, both of you. Was there +a row?" + +"Were you listening?" said Saltash. + +She coloured, and smiled disarmingly. "Part of the time--no, all the +time. But I didn't hear anything--at least not much. Nothing that +mattered. Are you angry?" + +He frowned upon her, but his eyes reassured. "I told you to smoke a +cigarette." + +"I'm sorry," said Toby meekly. "Shall I smoke one now?" + +He pinched her ear. "No. We'll go out. You've got to shop. First though, +I've got something for you. I'm not sure you deserve it, but that's a +detail. Few of us ever do get our deserts in this naughty world." + +"What is it?" said Toby. + +Her bright eyes questioned him. She looked more than ever like an eager +boy. He pulled a leather case out of his pocket and held it out to her. + +"Oh, what is it?" she said, and coloured more deeply. "You +haven't--haven't--been buying me things?" + +"Open it!" said Saltash, with regal peremptoriness. + +But still she hesitated, till he suddenly laid his hands on hers and +compelled her. She saw a single string of pearls on a bed of blue velvet. +Her eyes came up to his in quick distress. + +"Oh, I ought not to take them!" she said. + +"And why not?" said Saltash. + +She bit her lip, almost as if she would burst into tears. "Monseigneur--" + +"Call me Charles!" he commanded. + +His hands still held hers. She dropped her eyes to them, and suddenly, +very suddenly, she bent her head and kissed them. + +He started slightly, and in a moment he set her free, leaving the case in +her hold. "_Eh bien!_" he said lightly. "That is understood. You like my +pearls, _chérie_?" + +"I love--anything--that comes from you," she made low reply. "But +these--but these--I ought not to take these." + +"But why not?" he questioned. "May I not make you a present? Are you +not--my wife?" + +"Yes." More faintly came Toby's answer. "But--but--but--a wife is +different. A wife--does not need--presents." + +"_Mais vraiment!_" protested Saltash. "So a wife is different! +How--different, _mignonne_?" + +He tried to look into the downcast eyes, but she would not raise them. +She was trembling a little. "Such things as these," she said, under her +breath, "are what a man would give to--to--to the woman he loves." + +"And so you think they are unsuitable for--my wife?" questioned Saltash, +with a whimsical look on his dark face. + +She did not answer him, only mutely held out the case, still without +looking at him. + +He stood for a second or two, watching her, an odd flame coming and going +in his eyes; then abruptly he moved, picked up the pearls from their +case, straightened them dexterously, and clasped them about her neck. + +She lifted her face then, quivering and irresolute, to his. "And I can +give you--nothing," she said. + +He took her lightly by the shoulders, as one who caresses a child. "_Ma +chérie_, you have given me already much more than you realize. But we +will not go into that now. We will go to the shops. Afterwards, we will +go out to Fontainebleau and picnic in the forest. You will like that?" + +"Oh, so much!" she said, with enthusiasm. + +Yet there was a puzzled look of pain in her eyes as she turned away, and +though she wore his pearls, she made no further reference to them. + +They went forth into the streets of Paris and Toby shopped. At first she +was shy, halting here and hesitating there, till Saltash, looking on, +careless and debonair, made it abundantly evident that whatever she +desired she was to have, and then like a child on a holiday she flung +aside all indecision and became eager and animated. So absorbed was she +that she took no note of the passage of time and was horrified when at +length he called her attention to the fact that it was close upon the +luncheon-hour. + +"And you must be so tired of it all!" she said, with compunction. + +"Not in the least," he assured her airily between puffs of his cigarette. +"It has been--a new experience for me." + +Her eyes challenged him for a moment, and he laughed. + +"_Mais oui, madame!_ I protest--a new experience. I feel I am doing my +duty." + +"And it doesn't bore you?" questioned Toby, with a tilt of the chin. + +His look kindled a little. "If we were on board the old _Night Moth_, +you'd have had a cuff for that," he remarked. + +"I wish we were!" she said daringly. + +He flicked his fingers. "You're very young, Nonette." + +She shook her head with vehemence. "I'm not! I'm not! I'm only +pretending. Can't you see?" + +He laughed jestingly. "You have never deceived me yet, _ma chère_,--not +once, from the moment I found you shivering in my cabin up to the +present. You couldn't if you tried." + +Toby's blue eyes suddenly shone with a hot light. "So sure of that?" she +said quickly. "You read me--so easily?" + +"Like a book," said Saltash, with an arrogance but half-assumed. + +"I cheated you--once," she said, breathing sharply. + +"And I caught you," said Saltash. + +"Only--only because--I meant you to," said Toby, under her breath. + +He raised his brows in momentary surprise, and in a flash she laughed and +clapped her hands. "I had you there, King Charles! You see, you are but a +man after all." + +He gave her a swift and piercing glance. "And what are you?" he said. + +Her eyes fell swiftly before his look; she made no reply. + +They returned to the hotel and lunched together. The incident of the +morning seemed to be forgotten. Jake's name was not once mentioned +between them. Toby was full of gaiety. The prospect of the run to +Fontainebleau evidently filled her with delight. + +She joined Saltash in the vestibule after the meal, clad in a light blue +wrap they had purchased that morning. + +He went to meet her, a quick gleam in his eyes; and a man to whom he had +been talking--a slim, foreign-looking man with black moustache and +imperial--turned sharply and gave her a hard stare. + +Toby's chin went up. She looked exclusively at Saltash. Her bearing at +that moment was that of a princess. + +"The car is ready?" she questioned. "Shall we go?" + +"By all means," said Saltash. + +He nodded a careless farewell to the other man, and followed her, a smile +twitching at his lips, the gleam still in his eyes. + +"That man is Spentoli the sculptor," he said, as he handed her into the +car. "A genius, Nonette! I should have presented him to you if you had +not been so haughty." + +"I hate geniuses," said Toby briefly. + +He laughed at her. "_Mais vraiment!_ How many have you known?" + +She considered for a moment, and finally decided that the question did +not require an answer. + +Saltash took the wheel and spun the little car round with considerable +dexterity. "Yes, a genius!" he said. "One of the most wonderful of the +age. His work is amazing--scarcely human. He paints too. All Paris raves +over his work--with reason. His picture, 'The Victim'--" he looked at her +suddenly--"What is the matter, _chérie_? Is the sun too strong for you?" + +Toby's hand was shielding her eyes. Her lips were trembling. "Don't +wait!" she murmured. "Don't wait! Let's get away! I am all right--just a +little giddy, that's all." + +He took her at her word, and sent the car swiftly forward. They passed +out into the crowded thoroughfare, and in a moment or two Toby leaned +back, gazing before her with a white, set face. + +Saltash asked no question. He did not even look at her, concentrating all +his attention upon the task of extricating himself as swiftly as possible +from the crush of vehicles around them. + +It was a day of perfect autumn, and Paris lay basking in sunshine; but +Saltash was a rapid traveller at all times, and it was not long before +Paris was left behind. But even when free from the traffic, he did not +speak or turn towards his companion, merely gave himself to the task +of covering the ground as quickly as possible. + +In the end it was Toby who spoke, abruptly, boyishly. "By jingo! You can +drive!" + +Saltash's face showed its own elastic grin. "You like this?" + +"Rather!" said Toby with enthusiasm. + +She threw off her silence and plunged forthwith into careless chatter--a +mood to which he responded with the utmost readiness. When at length they +ran into the shade of the forest, they were both in the highest spirits. + +They had their tea in a mossy glade out of sight of the road. The sun was +beginning to slant. Its rays fell in splashes of golden green all about +them. + +"Just the place for a duel!" said Saltash appreciatively. + +"Have you ever fought a duel?" Toby looked at him over the picnic-basket +with eyes of sparkling interest. + +She had thrown aside her hat, and her fair hair gleamed as if it gave +forth light. Saltash leaned his shoulders against a tree and watched her. + +"I have never fought to kill," he said. "Honour is too easily +satisfied in this country--though after all--" his smile was suddenly +provocative--"there are very few things worth fighting for, Nonette." + +Her eyes flashed their ready challenge. "Life being too short already?" +she suggested. + +"Even so," said Charles Rex coolly. + +Toby abruptly bent her head and muttered something into the +picnic-basket. + +"What?" said Saltash. + +She pulled out a parcel of cakes and tossed them on to the ground. +"Nothing!" she said. + +He leaned forward unexpectedly as she foraged for more, and gripped the +small brown hand. + +"Tell me what you said!" he commanded. + +She flung him a look half-frightened, half-daring. "I said there was only +one cup." + +She would have released her hand with the words, but his fingers +tightened like a spring. "_Pardonnez-moi!_ That was not what you said!" + +She became passive in his hold, but she said nothing. + +"Tell me what you said!" Saltash said again. + +A little tremor went through Toby. "Can we do--with only one cup?" she +asked, not looking at him, her eyelids flickering nervously. + +"Going to answer me?" said Saltash. + +She shook her head and was silent. + +He waited for perhaps ten seconds, and in that time a variety of +different expressions showed and vanished on his ugly face. Then, just as +Toby was beginning to tremble in real trepidation, he suddenly set her +free. + +"We have drunk out of the same glass before now," he said. "We can do it +again." + +She looked at him then, relief and doubt struggling together in her eyes. +"Are you angry?" she said. + +His answering look baffled her. "No," he said. + +She laid a conciliatory hand upon his arm. "You are! I'm sure you are!" + +"I am not," said Saltash. + +"Then why aren't you?" demanded Toby, with sudden spirit. + +The monkeyish grin leapt into his face. "Because I know what you said," +he told her coolly. "It is not easy--you will never find it easy--to +deceive me." + +She snatched her hand away. Her face was on fire. "I said you did not +make the most of life," she flung at him. "And it's true! You don't! You +don't!" + +"How do you know that?" said Saltash. + +She did not answer him. Her head was bent over the basket. She threw out +one thing after another with nervous rapidity, and once, as he watched +her, there came a faint sound that was like a hastily suppressed sob. + +Saltash got to his feet with disconcerting suddenness and walked away. + +When he returned some minutes later with a half-smoked cigarette between +his lips, she was sitting demurely awaiting him, the picnic ready spread. + +He scarcely looked at her but he flicked her cheek as he sat down, and in +a moment she turned and smiled at him. + +"I have found another cup," she said. + +"So I see," said Saltash, and before she could realize his mood he picked +it up and flung it at the trunk of a tree some yards away. It shivered in +fragments on the moss, and Toby gasped and stared at him wide-eyed. + +He laughed in his careless fashion at her amazement. "Now we shall drink +out of one cup!" he said. + +"Was that--was that--why you did it?" she stammered breathlessly. + +He blew a cloud of smoke into the air with a gesture of royal +indifference. "Even so,--_madame_!" he said. "One does these things--with +a wife. You see, a wife--is different." + +"I--I see," said Toby. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE IDOL OF PARIS + + +It was dark when they returned to the hotel, but Paris shone with a +million lights. The hotel itself had a festive air. There were flowers in +all directions, and a red carpet had been laid upon the steps. + +"Rozelle Daubeni is expected," said Saltash. + +"Who?" Toby stopped short in the act of descending. Her face shone white +in the glare. A moment before she had been laughing but the laugh went +into her question with a little choked sound. "Who did you say?" she +questioned more coherently. + +"Mademoiselle Daubeni--the idol of Paris. Never heard of her?" Saltash +handed her lightly down. "She is coming to a dance in the great _salon_ +tonight. You shall see her. She is--a thing to remember." + +Toby gave a quick shiver. "Yes, I have heard of her too much--too much--I +don't want to see her. Shall we dine upstairs?" + +"Oh, I think not," said Saltash with decision. "You are too retiring, _ma +chère_. It doesn't become--a lady of your position." + +He followed her towards the lift. The vestibule was full of people, +laughing and talking, awaiting the coming of the favourite. But as the +girl in her blue cloak went through, a sudden hush fell. Women lifted +glasses to look at her, and men turned to watch. + +Saltash sauntered behind her in his regal way, looking neither to right +nor left, yet fully aware of all he passed. No one accosted him. There +were times when even those who knew him well would have hesitated to do +so. He could surround himself with an atmosphere so suavely impersonal as +to be quite impenetrable to all. + +It surrounded him now. He walked like a king through a crowd of +courtiers, and the buzz of talk did not spring up again till he was out +of sight. + +"So you do not want to see _le premiere danseuse du siècle!_" he +commented, as he entered the sitting-room of their suite behind Toby. + +She turned, blue eyes wide with protest in her white face. "Do you wish +me to see her, my lord? That--woman!" + +He frowned upon her suddenly. "Call me Charles! Do you hear? We will play +this game according to rule--or not at all." + +"You are angry," Toby said, and turned still whiter. + +He came to her, thrust a quick arm about her. "I am not angry, +_mignonne_, at least not with you. But you must take your proper place. I +can't keep you in hiding here. Those gaping fools downstairs--they have +got to understand. You are not my latest whim, but a permanent +institution. You are--my wife." + +She shivered in his hold, but she clung to him. "I don't feel like--a +permanent institution," she told him rather piteously. "And when you are +angry--" + +"I am not angry," said Saltash, and tweaked her ear as though she had +been a boy. "But--whether you feel like it or not--you are my wife, and +you have got to play the part. _C'est entendu, n'est-ce-pas?_" + +"Whatever you wish," said Toby faintly. + +He set her free. "You must look your best tonight. Wear blue! It is your +colour. I shall present Spentoli to you. And tomorrow he will want to +paint you." + +Toby stiffened. "That--_canaille_!" she said. + +He looked at her in surprise. "What is the matter with you tonight, +Nonette? You are hating all the world." + +Her blue eyes blazed. "I don't want to meet Spentoli," she said. "He has +an evil eye. You--you--I look to you to--to--to protect me." + +"My good child!" said Saltash. + +He turned aside to light a cigarette, and there was a pause. But Toby +still stood rigid, as it were on guard. He spoke again after a moment, +and his voice was kind though it had a certain dominant quality also. + +"Nonette, you need not be afraid when you are with me. I shall protect +you. Now go and dress! When you are ready, come to me for inspection! And +remember! You are to look your best tonight." + +He turned with the last words and looked at her. His brows went up as he +realized her attitude--the tense resistance of the slight figure +withstanding him. + +But it was only for a moment or two that the girl maintained her stand. +At sight of the look that leaped to his eyes, her own were swiftly +lowered. She drew back from him. + +"I will do--whatever you wish," she said again nervously. "You know +that." + +"Yes, I know that," said Saltash with his quick grimace. "You have my +sympathy, Nonette. Now go, _ma chère_, go!" + +She went from his presence like a small hunted animal. + +Saltash shrugged his shoulders and sauntered down again to the vestibule. +The crowd had grown. They were watching the great entrance-door +expectantly for the coming of the celebrated dancer. Saltash called for a +drink, and mingled with the throng. + +The Italian, Spentoli, came up presently and joined him. "I am hoping," +he said, "that you will presently give me the great honour of presenting +me to your bride." + +Saltash looked at him. Spentoli was one of the very few men for whom he +entertained respect. The Italian's work had always held an immense +attraction for his artistic soul, and he had never troubled to disguise +the fact. + +"My wife is young and shy," he said, after a moment. "I will present +you--some day, Spentoli, but it may not be yet." + +"This is her first visit to Paris?" questioned Spentoli. + +"Not her first. But she does not know Paris well." Saltash spoke +carelessly. "I am not showing her everything at once. I think that is a +mistake." + +"That is true," agreed Spentoli. "The freshness of youth is gone all too +soon. But she will be superbly beautiful in a few years' time. Will you +permit me to congratulate you on the excellence of your choice?" + +Saltash grimaced. "Do we ever choose?" he said. "Do we not rather receive +such gifts as the gods send us in more or less of a grudging spirit?" + +Spentoli smiled. "I did not think you would marry one so young," he said. +"She has the athletic look of a boy. She reminds me--" + +"Of a picture called 'The Victim' by one--Spentoli!" Saltash's voice was +suave. "A cruel picture, _mon ami_, but of an amazing merit. I have seen +the likeness also. Where did you get it?" + +The Italian was still smiling, but his eyes were wary. + +"From a little circus-rider in California," he said. "A child--an imp of +a child--astonishingly clever--a wisp of inspiration. Yes, a girl of +course; but she had all the lines of a boy--the perfect limbs of an +athlete. I took her from her circus. I should have paid her well had she +remained with me. But before the picture was finished, she was tired. She +was a little serpent--wily and wicked. One day we had a small discussion +in my studio--oh, quite a small discussion. And she stuck her poison-fang +into me--and fled." Spentoli's teeth gleamed through his black moustache. +"I do not like these serpent-women," he said. "When I meet her again--it +will be my turn to strike." + +"Our turn so seldom comes," said Saltash lazily, his eyes wandering to +the door. "Mademoiselle Rozelle for instance would hold her own against +any of us." + +"Ah! Rozelle!" Spentoli's face changed magically. "But she is +beautiful--and without venom--a rose without a thorn!" + +Saltash's mouth twitched mockingly. "And without a heart also?" he +suggested. + +"She is all heart!" cried Spentoli, with flashing eyes. + +Saltash laughed aloud. "That also is sometimes a drawback, _mon ami_. I +gather she is the attraction who has drawn you here." + +"She draws all the world," said Spentoli. + +And with that he sprang to his feet, for there was a general stir in the +vestibule, such as might herald the coming of a queen. In a moment the +buzz of voices died down, and a great silence fell. Saltash remained +seated, a certain arrogance in his pose, though his eyes also watched the +door. + +There came the sound of a laugh--a clear, ringing laugh, childishly, +irresistibly gay--and a figure in blue came in through the marble +pillars. As a queen they had prepared for her, and as a queen she +entered--a being so exquisite, so goddess-like, that every breath was +drawn in wonder. + +She looked around her with eyes that shone like sapphires. Her red lips +were parted. She had the expectant look of girlhood, yet her beauty had a +quality unknown to youth. And it was to that quality, almost unknown to +himself, that Saltash did homage as he rose. + +Her look flashed across to him, comprehended his action, and laughed open +triumph. Then with a suddenness almost too swift to follow, she turned to +a man who had entered behind her and softly spoke. + +Saltash's eyes went to the man, and he drew a low whistle between his +teeth. It was well known that Rozelle Daubeni never travelled without an +escort; but this man--this man--He was tall and broad, and he carried +himself with a supreme contempt for his fellow-men. He did not look at +Saltash, did not apparently even see the hushed crowd that hung upon +every movement of that wonderful woman-creature who took the world by +storm wherever she went. + +He was superbly indifferent to his surroundings, gazing straight before +him with the eyes of a Viking who searches the far horizon. He walked +with the free swing of a pirate. And as the woman turned her dazzling +face towards him, it was plain to all that she saw none but him in that +vast and crowded place. + +He was by her side as they moved forward, and they saw her lightly touch +his arm, with an intimate gesture, as though they were alone. Then the +whole throng broke into acclamations, and the spell was broken. She saw +them all again, and laughed her gracious thanks. The great hall rang with +their greeting as she passed through, but no one sought to detain her and +she did not pause. + +Later, she would give them all they desired, but her moment had not +arrived. So she went on to the great curving staircase, side by side with +her fair-bearded Viking, still laughing like a happy child who looks for +the morrow. + +As she rounded the curve of the stair, she snatched a red rose from her +breast and threw it down to her worshippers below. It was aimed at +Saltash, but it fell before Spentoli, and he caught and held it with wild +adoration leaping in his eyes. As he pressed it to his lips, he was +sobbing. + +"_Mon ami_," said Saltash's voice behind him, maliciously humorous, "you +have stolen my property. But--since I have no use for it--you may keep +it." + +Spentoli looked at him with burning eyes. "Ah! You may laugh!" he said, +in a fierce undertone. "You are--without a soul." + +"Isn't it better to laugh?" queried Saltash. "Did you expect a blow in +the face?" + +Spentoli glared for a moment, and recovered himself. "Do you know what +they are saying of her?" he said. "They say that she is dying. But it is +not true--not true! Such beauty as that--such loveliness--could never +die!" + +The cynical lines in Saltash's face deepened very perceptibly. He +shrugged his shoulders and said nothing. + +"Who is the man with her?" demanded Spentoli. "I have never seen him +before--the man with the face of a Dane. Do you know him?" + +"Yes, I know him," said Saltash. + +"Then who is he? Some new lover?" There was suppressed eagerness in the +question. Spentoli's eyes were smouldering again. + +Saltash was looking supremely ironical. "Perhaps new," he said. "More +likely--very old. His name is Larpent, and he is the captain of my +yacht." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE DANCE OF DEATH + + +"We will watch from the gallery," said Saltash. + +Toby looked up at him with quick gratitude. "There won't be so many +people there," she said. + +He frowned at her, but his look was quizzical. "But everyone will know +that Lady Saltash is present--with her husband," he said. + +She slipped a persuasive hand on to his arm. "King Charles," she said, +"let us leave Paris!" + +"Bored?" said Saltash. + +Her face was slightly drawn. "No--no! Only--" she paused; then suddenly +flashed him her swift smile--"let it be as you wish!" she said. + +He flicked her cheek in his careless, caressing way. "Shall I tell you +something, _mignonne_? We are going--very soon." + +Her eyes shone, more blue than the frock she wore She stooped impulsively +and touched his hand with her lips, then, as though she feared to anger +him, drew quickly away. + +"Shall we go on the yacht?" she asked, eagerness half-suppressed +in her voice. + +"Yes," said Saltash, and he spoke with finality, even with a certain +grimness. + +Toby's face lighted up for a second, and then clouded again. She glanced +at him doubtfully. "If Paris amuses you--" she ventured. + +"Paris does not amuse me," said Saltash emphatically. "Have a cigarette, +_ma chère_, while I go and dress." + +"Can I help you dress?" said Toby, with a touch of wistfulness. "I have +put everything ready." + +His odd eyes flashed her a smile. "Not here, _chérie_, not now. +Perhaps--when we get on a yacht again--" + +He was gone, leaving the sentence unfinished, leaving Toby looking after +him with the wide eyes of one who sees at last a vision long desired. She +stretched out both her arms as the door closed upon him and her lips +repeated very softly the words that he had last uttered. + +"Perhaps--when we got on a yacht again--" + +When they went down to the great _salle-à-manger_ a little later, her +face was flushed and her smile ready, though she glanced about her in a +shy, half-furtive fashion as they entered. They found a secluded table +reserved for them in a corner, and her eyes expressed relief. She shrank +into it as if she would make herself as small as possible. Again no one +accosted them though a good many looked in their direction. Saltash was +far too well known a figure to pass unnoticed in any fashionable crowd. +But the general attention did not centre upon them. That was absorbed by +a far greater attraction that night. + +She sat at the end of the room like a queen holding her court, and beside +her sat the Viking, stern-faced and remote of mien, as supremely isolated +as though he sat with her on a desert island. He spoke but seldom, and +then to her exclusively. But when he spoke, she turned to him the radiant +face of the woman who holds within her grasp her heart's desire. + +She was superbly dressed in many-shaded blue, and jewels sparkled with +every breath she drew. Above her forehead, there nestled in the gold of +her hair a single splendid diamond that burned like a multi-coloured +flame. She was at the acme of her triumph that night. Of all who knew +her, there was not one who had seen her thus. They watched her almost +with bated breath. She was like a being from another world. She +transcended every expectation of her. + +The band played only dance-music, by her desire, it was said; but such +music as wrought irresistibly upon the senses and emotions. She was +preparing her audience for what should follow. Throughout the meal, +excitement was steadily rising. There was almost a feeling of delirium in +the air. + +Before the bulk of diners had finished, she rose to go. Her cavalier rose +with her, flinging her gauzy wrap of blue and gold over his arm. It was +the signal for a demonstration. In a moment a youth with eyes ablaze +with adoration sprang on to a table in the centre of the vast room with a +glass of red wine held high. + +"A Rozelle! A Rozelle!" + +The cry went up to the domed roof in a great crescendo of sound, and +instantly the place was a pandemonium of shouting, excited figures. They +crowded towards the table at which the _danseuse_ still stood. And just +for a second--one fleeting second--her eyes showed a curious fear. She +stood almost as one at a loss. Then in a flash her irresolution was gone. +Her beautiful face smiled its own inimitable smile. The music of her +laughter rang silvery through the tumult. She made a dainty gesture of +acceptance, of acknowledgment, of friendly appreciation; then lightly she +turned to go. + +Her companion made a path for her. He looked as if he could have hewn his +way through a wall of rock at that moment, and his uncompromising bearing +gained him respect. No one attempted to gainsay him. + +They were gone almost before they realized that their idol had not spoken +a word to them. The moment was past, and the excitement died down to a +buzz of talk. + +"An amazing woman!" said Saltash. + +Toby glanced at him, and said nothing. She had watched the whole episode +from her corner with eyes that missed nothing; but she had not spoken a +word. + +He bent suddenly towards her. "Drink some wine, _chérie_! You are pale." + +She started a little at the quick peremptoriness of his speech. She +lifted her glass to drink, and splashed some of the wine over. He leaned +farther forward, screening her from observation. + +"Go on! Drink!" he said, with insistence, and in a moment his hand closed +upon hers, guiding the wine to her lips. + +She drank obediently, not meeting his look, and he took the glass from +her, and set it down. + +"Now we will go. Are you ready?" + +She rose, and he stood aside for her. As she passed him, his hand closed +for an instant upon her bare arm in a grasp that was close and vital. She +threw him a quick, upward glance; but still she said no word. + +They passed out through the throng of diners almost unobserved, but in +the corridor Spentoli leaned against a pillar smoking a long, black +cigar. He made no movement to intercept them, but his eyes with their +restless fire dwelt upon the girl in a fashion that drew her own +irresistibly. She saw him and slightly paused. + +It was the pause of the hunted animal that sees its retreat cut off, but +in an instant Saltash's voice, very cool, arrogantly self-assured, +checked the impulse to panic. + +"Straight on to the lift, _ma chère_! See! It is there in front of you. +There will be no one in the gallery. Go straight on!" + +She obeyed him instinctively as her habit was, but in the lift she +trembled so much that he made her sit down. He stood beside her in +silence, but once lightly his hand touched her cheek. She moved then +swiftly, convulsively, and caught it in both her own. But the next moment +he had gently drawn it free. + +The gallery that ran round three sides of the great _salon_ was deserted. +There was only one point at the far end whence a view of the stage that +had been erected for the dancer could be obtained. Towards this Saltash +turned. + +"We shall see her from here," he said. + +The place was but dimly illumined by the flare of the many lights +below--two great crystal candelabra that hung at each end being left +unlighted. Under one of these was a settee which Saltash drew forward to +the balcony. + +"No one will disturb us here," he said. "We can smoke in peace." + +He offered her his cigarette-case, but she refused it nervously, sitting +down in a corner of the settee in the crouched attitude of a frightened +creature seeking cover. The band was playing in the _salon_ now, and +people were beginning to crowd in. + +Saltash leaned back in his corner and smoked. His eyes went to and fro +ceaselessly, yet the girl beside him was aware of a scrutiny as +persistent as if they never left her. She sat in silence, clasping and +unclasping her hands, staring downwards at the shining stage. + +Very soon the _salon_ was full of people, and the lights were lowered +there while on the stage only a single shaft of blinding violet light +remained, shooting downwards from the centre. Toby's eyes became fixed +upon that shaft of light. She seemed to have forgotten to breathe. + +The band had ceased to play. There fell a potent silence. The multitude +below sat motionless, as if beneath a spell. And then she came. + +No one saw her coming. She arrived quite suddenly as though she had slid +down that shaft of light. And she was there before them dancing, dancing, +like a winged thing in the violet radiance. Not a sound broke the +stillness save a single, wandering thread of melody that might have come +from the throat of a bird, soft, fitful, but half-awake in the dawning. + +The violet light was merging imperceptibly into rose--the unutterable +rose of the early morning. It caught the dancing figure, and she lifted +her beautiful face to it and laughed. The gauzy scarf streamed out from +her shoulders like a flame, curving, mounting, sinking, now enveloping +the white arms, now flung wide in a circle of glittering splendour. + +A vast breath went up from the audience. She held them as by magic--all +save one who leaned back in his corner with no quickening of the pulses +and watched the girl beside him sitting motionless with her blue eyes +wide and fixed as though they gazed upon some horror from which there was +no escape. + +The rose light deepened to crimson. She was dancing now in giddy circles +like a many-coloured moth dazzled by the dawn. The melody was growing. +Other bird-voices were swelling into sound--a wild and flute-like music +of cadences that came and went--elusive as the laughter of wood-nymphs in +an enchanted glade. And every one of that silent crowd of watchers saw +the red light of dawn breaking through the trees of a dream-forest that +no human foot had ever trod. + +Slowly the crimson lightened. The day was coming, and the silent-flitting +moth of night was turning into a butterfly of purest gold. The scarf +still floated about her like a gold-edged cloud. The giddy whirl was +over. She came to rest, poised, quivering in the light of the newly-risen +sun, every line of her exquisite body in the accord of a perfect +symmetry. Yes, she was amazing; she was unique. Wherever she went, the +spell still held. But to-night she was as one inspired. She did not see +her spellbound audience. She was dancing for one alone. She was as a +woman who waits for her lover. + +In some fashion this fact communicated itself to her worshippers. They +guessed that somewhere near that dazzling figure the stranger whom no one +knew was watching. Insensibly, through the medium of the dancer, his +presence made itself felt. When that wonderful dance of the dawn was over +and the thunder of applause had died away, they looked around, asking who +and where he was. But no one knew, and though curiosity was rife it +seemed unlikely that it would be satisfied that night. + +Up in the gallery Toby drew a deep breath as of one coming out of a +trance, and turned towards the man beside her. The light had been turned +on in the _salon_ below, and it struck upwards on her face, showing it +white and weary. + +"So she has found another victim!" she said. + +"It seems so," said Saltash. + +She looked at him in the dimness. "Did you know that--that Captain +Larpent was with her?" + +"No," said Saltash. He leaned forward abruptly, meeting her look with a +sudden challenge. "Did you?" + +She drew back sharply. "Of course not! Of course not! What--what should I +know about her?" + +He leaned back again without comment, and lighted another cigarette. + +At the end of several seconds of silence, Toby spoke again, her locked +fingers pulling against each other nervously. + +"I wonder--do you mind--if I go soon? I--I am rather tired." + +The lights went out as she spoke, and Saltash's face became invisible. He +spoke quite kindly, but with decision, out of the darkness. + +"After this dance, _ma chère_--if you desire it." + +The music began--weird and mournful--and a murmur went round among the +eager watchers. It was her most famous dance--the dance of Death, the +most gruesome spectacle, so it was said, that any dancer had ever +conceived. She came on to the stage like the flash of an arrow, dressed +in black that glittered and scintillated with every amazing movement. And +then it began--that most wonderful dance of hers that all the world was +mad to see. + +It was almost too rapid for the eye to follow in its first stages--a +fever of movement--a delirium indescribable--a fantasy painful to watch, +but from which no watcher could turn away. Even Saltash, who had taken +small interest in the previous dance, leaned forward and gave his full +attention to this, as it were in spite of himself. The very horror of it +was magnetic. They seemed to look upon a death-struggle--the wild fight +of a creature endowed with a fiery vitality against an enemy unseen but +wholly ruthless and from the first invincible. + +Those who saw that dance of Rozelle Daubeni never forgot it, and there +was hardly a woman in the audience who was not destined to shudder +whenever the memory of it arose. It was arresting, revolting, terrible; +it must have compelled in any case. A good many began to sob with the +sheer nervous horror of it, yearning for the end upon which they were +forced to look, though with a dread that made the blood run cold. + +But the end was such as no one in that assembly looked for. Just as the +awful ecstasy of the dance was at its height, just as the dreaded crisis +approached, and they saw with a gasping horror the inevitable final +clutch of the unseen enemy upon his vanquished victim; just as she lifted +her face in the last anguish of supplication, yielding the last hope, +sinking in nerveless surrender before the implacable destroyer, there +came a sudden flare of light in the _salon_, and the great crystal +candelabra that hung over the end of the gallery where the man and the +girl were seated watching became a dazzling sparkle of overwhelming +light. + +Everyone turned towards it instinctively, and Toby, hardly knowing what +she did, but with the instinct to escape strong upon her, leapt to her +feet. + +In that moment--as she stood in the full light--the dancer's eyes also +shot upwards and saw the sum young figure. It was only for a moment, but +instantly a wild cry rang through the great _salon_--a cry of agony so +piercing that women shrieked and trembled, hiding their faces from what +they knew not what. + +In the flash of a second the light was gone, the gallery again in +darkness. But on the stage a woman's voice cried thrice: "Toinette! +Toinette! Toinette!" in the anguished accents of a mother who cries for +her dead child, and then fell into a tragic silence more poignant than +any sound--a silence that was as the silence of Death. + +And in that silence a man's figure, moving with the free, athletic swing +of a sailor, crossed the stage to where the dancer lay huddled in the +dimness like a broken thing, lifted her--bore her away. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE NEW LOVER + + +Very late that night when all the crowds who had assembled to watch +Rozelle Daubeni had dispersed with awe-struck whisperings, two men came +down the great staircase into the empty vestibule and paused at the foot. + +"You are leaving Paris again?" said Saltash. + +The other nodded, his face perfectly emotionless, his eyes the eyes of a +sailor who searches the far horizon. "There is nothing to keep me here," +he said, and absently accepted a cigarette from the case that Saltash +proffered. "I have always hated towns. I only came--" He stopped, +considered a moment, and said no more. + +Saltash's eyes were upon him, alert, speculative, but wholly without +malice. "You came--because you were sent for," he said. + +Larpent nodded twice thoughtfully, more as if in answer to some mental +suggestion than as if the words had been actually uttered. He struck a +match and held it for Saltash. Then, as he deliberately lighted his own +cigarette, between slow puffs he spoke: "There was only--one reason on +earth--that would have brought me." + +"Yes?" said Saltash. He dropped into a chair with the air of a man who +has limitless leisure at his disposal, but his tone was casual. He did +not ask for confidence. + +Larpent stood still gazing before him through the smoke with keen, +unwavering eyes. + +"Only one reason," he said again, and still he seemed to speak as one who +communes with his inner soul. "She was dying--and she wanted me." He +paused a moment, and an odd tremor went through him. "After twenty +years," he said, as if in wonder at himself. + +Saltash's look came swiftly upwards. "I've heard that before," he said. +"Those she caught she kept--always. No other woman was ever worth while +after Rozelle." + +Larpent's hand clenched instinctively, but he said nothing. + +Saltash went on in the same casual tone. "She never caught me, _mon ami_. +I met her too late in life--when I was beginning to get fastidious." His +monkey-like grin showed for a moment. "I appreciated her charm, but--it +left me cold." + +"You never saw her in her first youth," said Larpent, and into his fixed +eyes there came a curious glow--the look of a man who sees a vision. + +"What was she like then?" said Saltash. + +Slowly the sailor answered him, word by word as one spelling out a +strange language. "She was like a butterfly that plays among the +flowers in the early morning. She had the look of a boy--the wide-open +eyes, the fearless way, the freedom, the daring. Her innocence--her +loveliness--" Something rose unexpectedly in his throat. He stopped and +swallowed hard. "My God! How lovely she was!" he said, in a strangled +voice. + +Saltash got up in his sudden, elastic fashion. "Look here! You want a +drink. Sit down while I get you one!" + +He was gone with the words, not waiting for the half-uttered remonstrance +that the other man sent after him. + +Larpent stood staring heavily before him for a space, then turned with a +mechanical movement and dropped into a chair. He was sitting so, bent +forward, his hands clasped in front of him when Saltash returned. He had +the worn, grey look of a man tired out with hard travel. + +Saltash poured out a drink and held it down to him. "Here's the stuff! +Drink, man! It'll put new life into you." + +Larpent drank, still in that slow, mechanical fashion. But as he drained +the glass his eyes met Saltash's alert look and a faint, grim smile +crossed his haggard features. + +"Don't let me spoil your holiday, my lord!" he said. + +"Don't be a damn' fool!" said Saltash. + +Larpent sat in silence for several seconds. Then in a more normal tone he +spoke again. "I had to come to her. God knows what made her want me after +all these years. But I couldn't refuse to come. I had her message two +days ago. She said she was alone--dying. So I came." He paused and wiped +his forehead. "I thought she had tricked me. You saw her as she was +to-night. She was like that--full of life, superb. But--I had come to +her, and I found I couldn't leave her. She wanted me--she wanted me--to +take her back." He got up, but not with any agitation, and began to pace +to and fro as though he paced a deck. "You will think me mad of course. +You never came under the spell. But I, I was first with her; and +perhaps it was fitting that I should be the last. Had she lived--after +to-night--I would have taken her away. She would never have danced again. +I would have taken her out of this damnable world that had dragged her +down. I'd have saved her somehow." + +"You wouldn't," said Saltash. "It's like a recurrent fever. You'd never +have held her." + +"I say I would." Larpent spoke deeply, but still without emotion. "I +could have done it--and no one else on earth. I tell you I was first with +her, and a woman doesn't forget the first. I had a power that no other +man ever possessed, or ever could possess. I was--her husband." + +"What?" said Saltash. + +Larpent paced on with bent head. "I was her husband. But I was at sea and +she was on shore. And so I lost her. She was not made to stand against +temptation. It came to her when I was on the other side of the world. +When I got back, she was gone. And I--I never followed her. The thing was +hopeless. She was that sort, you understand. It was first one and then +another with her. I dropped her out of my life, and let her go. I didn't +realize then--what I know now--that the power to rescue and to hold her +was mine. If I had, I might have gone after her. I can't say. But I was +too bitter at the time to feel it was worth while. I went back to the sea +and left her to work out her own damnation." + +"And yet you loved her?" Saltash said, with a queer twist of the features +that was not of mirth. + +"I loved her, yes. If I hadn't loved her I would never have come to her +when she called. That is love--the thing that doesn't die." A sudden +throb sounded in Larpent's voice. He paused for a moment in his walk, +then paced on. "You may laugh at it--call it what you will--but there is +a power on the earth that is stronger than anything else, and when that +power speaks we have got to obey. I didn't want to come. You think me a +damn fool for coming. But I had to. That's all there is to it." + +"I don't think you any sort of a fool," Saltash threw in briefly. "You +did the only thing possible." + +"Yes, the only thing. I came to her. If I hadn't come, she'd have +died--alone. But that alone wasn't why she sent for me--it was the +primary reason, but not the only one. There was another." Larpent ceased +his pacing and deliberately faced the man who stood listening. "You know +what happened to-night," he said. "That child--the scaramouch you picked +out of the gutter at Valrosa--Toby--do you realize--have you grasped--the +meaning of that yet?" + +Saltash flung up his head with an arrogant gesture. "There is one thing +about her you have not grasped," he said. "But go on! I may as well hear +it." + +Larpent went on steadily. "When I came to her yesterday she told me of a +child that had been born to her--a child she had loved but had been +unable to protect. It was a long story. Spentoli the Italian artist knows +it from beginning to end. You know Spentoli?" + +"I know him," said Saltash. + +"Spentoli is a blackguard," Larpent said, "the sort that is born, not +made afterwards. He has painted Rozelle over and over again. He raves +about her. He may be a genius. He is certainly mad. He wanted the child +for a model, and Rozelle could not prevent it. So she told me. I believe +she was dependent upon him at the time. She had been ill. She has been +ill for years with heart trouble. And so he had the child, but only for a +time. The girl had a will of her own and broke away, joined a circus in +California. He tracked her down, captured her again, tried to make a +slave of her. But she was like a wild creature. She stabbed him one night +and fled. That was Rozelle's trouble. She had never been able to hear of +her again. She begged me to find--and save her. I promised to do my best. +But--there was no need to search very far. To-night Spentoli pulled the +wires again. It was he who switched on that light. It was he who killed +Rozelle. The girl in the gallery with you--Toby--was her daughter--and +mine. You heard Rozelle cry out when she saw her. She never spoke again." + +Larpent ceased to speak. He was no longer looking at Saltash. The far +vision seemed to have caught his gaze again. He stared beyond. + +Saltash watched him with working brows. "Are you wanting to lay claim to +the girl?" he asked abruptly. + +Larpent's face was grim. "I make no claim, my lord," he said. "But I have +sworn to do my best for her. I shall keep that oath of mine." + +"Meaning?" said Saltash. + +The sailor's look met his squarely. "You know what I mean," he said. + +Saltash began to grin. "A fight to a finish, what? I'm sorry, _mon ami_. +But I've got you beaten at the start. Shall I tell you how you can best +keep that somewhat rash oath of yours?" + +"Well?" The word fell brief and uncompromising. Larpent's face was as +carved granite. + +Saltash thrust forth a sudden hand and took him by the shoulder. "Just by +effacing yourself, _mon vieux_," he said lightly. "Go back to _The Blue +Moon_, take her to Fairharbour, and await my orders there!" + +It was carelessly, even jestingly, spoken, but a certain authority lurked +behind the words. Charles Rex knew how to assert his kingship upon +occasion, knew also how to temper it with the touch of friendship. + +Larpent's look did not waver, but some of the grimness went from it. +Neither anger nor indignation had any place here. He continued to look +Saltash straight in the face. + +"And that would be keeping my oath?" he said. + +"Even so," said Saltash. + +"You mean," Larpent spoke with slow emphasis, "that to leave her where +she now is, is to leave her in safe and honourable keeping?" + +The old mocking smile gleamed in Saltash's eyes. "Yes, I mean that," he +said. "Do you believe me, Larpent?" + +"Believe you, my lord?" Larpent seemed to hesitate. + +The hand that held him moved with a hint of impatience. "I am asking," +said Saltash royally, "if you consider that my protection is adequate +for--my wife." + +"Your--wife!" Larpent started in sharp surprise. "Your wife, did you +say?" + +Saltash broke into a chuckle and dropped his hand from his captain's +shoulder. "Yes, just that," he said. "You are behind the times, my +friend. Are you going to congratulate me? We were married four days ago." + +Larpent's hand came out to him abruptly. "It's the best thing you've ever +done, my lord," he said. "And you will never regret it." + +"What makes you say that?" said Saltash curiously. + +Their hands gripped and fell apart. Larpent answered him in the brief +fashion of the man whose words are few. "Mainly because you loved her +enough to marry her when you could have had her without." + +Saltash's laugh had the old derisive ring but there was no corresponding +gleam of mockery in his eyes as he turned carelessly aside. "What is this +thing called love?" he said. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE REFUGEE + + +It was by no means characteristic of Jake to linger on a quest which had +already proved fruitless but he was a man who possessed acquaintances in +almost all parts of the world, and Paris was no exception. For the rest +of the day after leaving Saltash he was philosophically occupied in +seeking out old friends. Eventually he dined at a restaurant and betook +himself to the station to catch the night train to Calais. It was all one +to Jake whether he travelled by night or by day, so wholly accustomed was +he to adapt himself to circumstances. Maud was wont to say with a smile +that the luxuries of decent living were utterly thrown away upon him. He +was a man who scarcely noticed physical discomfort. He could sleep under +practically any conditions. + +Walking solidly down the platform, carrying his own baggage, his thoughts +were completely astray from his surroundings. They had reverted to the +memory of the girlish figure he had seen that morning seated on a table, +swinging one leg in studied nonchalance while every line was instinct +with defiance. Yes, she had defied him, but deep in her heart she had +feared--how she had feared!--that Saltash would fail to hold her against +him. Again, a deep compassion came over Jake, stirring the very depths +of him. Poor little girl, flung to and fro as flotsam in the cruel surf +of life's breakers! He had done his best to deliver her, but Fate had +been against him. Fate had ordained that she should be the victim of this +man's caprice, the slave of impulses which might or might not be her +destruction. It was as if he watched her trying to walk on a quicksand. +And he was powerless to help her. Saltash had defeated him, and he had no +insight into his motives. Unstable, baffling, irresponsible as a monkey +that swings from tree to tree, he had snatched his prize, and even Jake, +who knew him better than most, could only speculate as to whether he +would carry it high above disaster or tire and idly fling it away. Some +vagrant sense of honour seemed to have actuated him so far, but never +yet had he known such a motive to last for long. The man's face was +beyond him, too fantastic for comprehension. He recognized that he was +capable of greatness, but very few were the occasions on which he had +achieved it. If the motive power were lacking in this instance, Toby's +chances were indeed small. + +He found an empty carriage and threw his belongings on to a seat. The +train was not a favourite one, and there would be no crowd. He had some +minutes to wait, and he lighted his pipe and began to pace the platform +unencumbered. A few travellers straggling by eyed him with some interest. +He was not a man to be passed unnoticed. The massive, thick-set shoulders +had a bull-dog strength that must have marked him in any crowd. His +height was unremarkable, but there was power in every dominant line of +him. He had the free carriage of one accustomed to the wide places of the +earth. + +He took small note of his fellow-travellers, being engrossed in his own +thoughts. He wondered how Maud would regard the situation, and half +wished she had been with him to deal with it. For Maud possessed +undoubted influence over Saltash. He reflected that she was probably +the only person in the world who did. + +He had strolled almost to the barrier and was in the act of turning +back when something--some impulse for which he could never afterwards +account--induced him to pause and take stock of the passengers passing +through. The train was almost due to start, and there was some slight +confusion and a quickening of feet on the platform. He realized that he +ought to be going back to his own carriage, but something stayed him. He +stood still, his keen eyes searching the hastening figures. + +And so standing, in a moment his attention was focussed upon a girl in a +blue cloak who came towards him at a run evidently intent upon catching +the train. She passed him swiftly without seeing him, almost brushed +against him. And behind her came a dark man with black moustache and +imperial, following her closely with an air of proprietorship. + +Jake wheeled in his tracks, for a second amazed out of all composure. But +an instant later he was in pursuit. He had had but a fleeting glimpse of +her face, and the blue cloak was quite unfamiliar to him; but there was +no mistaking the boyish freedom of her gait, the athletic swing of her as +she turned and leaped into a compartment that her companion opened for +her. + +The black-browed Italian was in the act of following when Jake arrived. +The realization of another hand upon the door was the first intimation +that reached him of the Englishman's presence. He turned and looked +into a pair of red-brown eyes that regarded him with the utmost +steadiness as a quiet voice made slightly drawling explanation. + +"This lady is a friend of mine," said Jake Bolton. "I should like a word +with her." + +The Italian looked murderous for a moment, but he gave ground almost in +spite of himself. Perhaps the calm insistence of the other man's bearing +warned him at the outset of the futility of attempting any other course +of action; Jake was actually in the carriage before he could jerk out a +word of protest. + +"_Sapristi!_ You go too far!" he blustered then. But Jake was already +confronting the girl who had started up at his coming, and stood facing +him white and shaken. He spoke, still quite quietly, even gently, but in +the tone that no delinquent ever heard unmoved. + +"Say," he said, "are you playing the game?" + +She put up a hand to her throat. His sudden coming had unnerved her, and +she had no words. But her quivering face and tragic eyes were more than +sufficient answer for Jake. He had dealt with sudden emergencies before, +and he treated this one with characteristic decision. + +"You've no business here," he said, "and you know it. If you can't stick +to the man you've married, come home with me to Maud!" + +She made a sharp gesture toward him, as if on the verge of falling, and +as sharply recovered herself. "Oh, I wish--how I wish I could!" she +breathed. + +Jake's hand, perfectly steady, full of sustaining strength, closed with +authority upon her arm. "That's settled then," he said. "Come now!" + +But at this point the Italian burst furiously in upon them with a flood +of unintelligible language that made all further speech impossible. + +Jake glanced momentarily over his shoulder as if disturbed by the buzzing +of some insect, then with unruffled composure turned back to the girl. +His eyes looked straight into hers for perhaps ten seconds, then in the +same purposeful fashion he set her free and deliberately turned upon the +man who raged behind him. + +As he did so, there came a shouting and banging of doors along the +platform, and the train began to move. Jake's massive shoulders braced +themselves. Without words he seized the raving Italian in a grip there +was no resisting, swept him, as a sudden gale sweeps a leaf, across +the compartment, sent him with a neat twist buzzing forth upon the +platform, and very calmly shut the door and came back. + +Then there came a wild shriek of laughter from Toby, and she doubled up +in her corner with hysterical mirth, gasping and gasping for breath, till +he sat squarely down beside her and pulled her into the circle of his +arm. + +"Easy, my girl! Easy!" he said. "We're not going to have an exhibition at +this stage. You keep a stiff upper lip till you feel better!" + +But the stiff upper lip was rather painfully lacking on that occasion. +She very soon ceased to laugh, but for a long time thereafter she lay +sobbing and shuddering like a little terrified animal against his breast +while the train rushed on through the night. + +He was very gentle with her. Jake's stock of patience was practically +limitless, and he and Toby had always had a certain comradeship between +them. But when she grew calmer at last he began to talk in the quiet, +direct fashion habitual to him. + +"Say now! You've had a bit of a facer over this. But you needn't be +frightened. You're safe enough from that damned Italian anyway. And +you'll find me a better refuge than he is--if that's what you're +wanting." + +She shivered and pressed closer. "You--don't know--what you're in for," +she whispered piteously. + +"That so?" said Jake, unmoved. "Well, maybe you'd like to enlighten me." + +But Toby shook her head with a sob. "I couldn't! I just couldn't, Jake. +Do you mind?" + +Jake considered the point with slightly drawn brows. "I guess there's no +hurry," he decided at length. "We'll get home first anyway. That's the +main point. You won't be sorry to get back to Maud, I take it?" + +She answered him with a swift and passionate fervour that spoke more +clearly than any words of the anguish of her soul. "Oh, Jake, I wish I'd +died--I wish I'd died--before I left her!" + +Jake's brows contracted more decidedly, but he said nothing further on +the subject. Only after a moment or two he patted her shoulder +reassuringly. "I'll take care of you," he said. "You go to sleep!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE TURNING-POINT + + +"You've brought her back!" said Bunny in amazement. "You've actually +brought her back! Here, Jake? Not here?" + +"It was the only thing to do." said Jake between puffs at his pipe. "I'm +sorry on your account, but--well, you can keep out of her way." + +Bunny's face was flushed. He stood on the hearth and stared down at Jake +with a troubled countenance. "But you won't be able to keep her," he +protested after a moment. "Charlie will come and get her away again--as +soon as he knows. He's such a wily devil." + +"He does know," said Jake. + +"He knows? Who told him?" + +"I told him," said Jake. + +"You told him! What the devil for? I don't understand you, Jake." Bunny's +tone had a touch of fierceness in it, almost of challenge. + +Jake's eyes came up to him with absolute steadiness. "I told him," he +said deliberately, "because he is the one person who has a right to know. +He is her husband." + +"I don't believe it!" said Bunny violently. "He'd never marry her! It was +a damn trick if he pretended to." + +"No," Jake said, "it was not a trick. He has married her, and it's up to +him to make the next move." + +"But what on earth for?" demanded Bunny. "What made him do such a thing?" + +"God knows," said Jake, with a certain sombreness. "He did it. That's all +I know." + +Bunny stamped round in a sudden fury and began to pace the room. "I +suppose he did it to defeat me! Did he actually think I should want her +after--after--" + +"Bunny!" Swift and sharp as a whip-lash Jake's voice cut across the +words. "Stop that! Pull up and sit down!" + +Bunny wheeled and came back in silence. His face was deadly pale, but he +sat down on the edge of the table by Jake's side. + +Jake reached out a leisurely hand and gripped him by the knee. "Between +you and me, my son," he said, "I don't think you came into the reckoning +at all. I can't tell you exactly what happened, because I don't know, but +I'm pretty sure that Saltash married her from a somewhat stronger motive +than just to put you out of the running. As you say, he could have done +that without taking all that trouble. He's treated you damn badly, I +admit, but it's just possible he couldn't help himself, and anyway I +don't think he's hurt you seriously--except in the place where you keep +your pride." + +"You think I didn't love her!" broke in Bunny, moving restlessly under +his hand. + +Jake's eyes had the glimmer of a smile as he met the boy's hot look. "I +think you don't love her now anyway, Bunny," he said. + +"You're quite right," said Bunny shortly. "I don't. I never want to see +her again--now I know what she is." + +"You don't know," said Jake. "She has always been an unknown quantity to +you. That's why I've always felt doubtful about you. Guess you never +loved her quite enough, boy. That was your trouble." + +"Didn't love her!" ejaculated Bunny. + +Jake nodded. "Or you'd have understood her better--stood by her better." + +"I'd have loved her fast enough if she'd loved me," protested Bunny. "But +that scoundrel always came first with her. I never had a chance." + +"Oh yes, you had." Again the faint smile showed for an instant in the +elder man's eyes. "Not much of one, perhaps, but you had a chance. If +she'd been quite sure of you, she wouldn't have run away." + +"Wouldn't she? Then she can't be very sure of Saltash either." Bunny +spoke with a certain gloomy triumph. + +Jake blew forth a cloud of smoke and watched it rise thoughtfully. "I'm +waiting for Saltash," he said. "I've got him on test." + +"You believe in him?" questioned Bunny contemptuously. + +Jake's eyes remained fixed. "I believe," he said slowly, "that there +comes a turning-point in every man's life--whatever he's been--when he +either makes good or throws in his hand altogether. I've been through it +myself, and I know what it means. It's Saltash's turn now." + +"Oh, rot, Jake!" Bunny turned on him with the old boyish admiration +shining in his eyes. "You--why, you've made good every time--just about +as often as Charlie has done the other thing." + +"No." Jake spoke without elation. "I did make good, but I went through +hell first, and I very nearly failed. It may be the same with him. If +so--well, poor devil, he has my sympathy." + +"You can't be sorry for a hound like Saltash!" remonstrated Bunny. + +Jake turned squarely and faced him. "Well, there you're wrong, Bunny," he +said. "I reckon I'm sorrier for him than I am for you. You've got a clean +record, and you'll win out and marry Sheila Melrose. But Saltash--well, +he's got a damn heavy handicap, and if he pulls off this, it'll be one of +the biggest events I've ever seen. Say, what's the matter?" + +Bunny had sprung to his feet. He stood looking at Jake with an expression +half-startled and half-indignant. "Jake--you beast! What made you say +that?" he demanded. + +"What?" said Jake, and began to smile openly. "Well, guess it's pretty +near the mark, isn't it? I saw which way the wind was trying to blow some +time ago. Mean to say you didn't?" + +Bunny swung upon his heel. "Confound you!" he said, and was silent for +several seconds. + +Jake smoked imperturbably on. He knew all the workings of Bunny's mind +with the sure intuition of long intimacy. When finally the boy spoke +again without turning he almost knew what he would say. + +"Think I'm--very despicable, Jake?" + +The question had a shamed and sullen ring. Bunny's head was bent. He was +examining a little china figure on the mantelpiece with nervous +concentration. + +Jake arose without fuss or preliminary, and pushed a brotherly arm round +the bent shoulders. "Guess you've never been that, sonny," he said very +kindly. "But--you take an old man's advice and go a bit slow! She'll +think all the better of you for it." + +"She'll never look at me," muttered Bunny, gripping the hand that pressed +his shoulder without raising his eyes. + +"Ho, won't she?" said Jake. "I've seen her look at you more than +once--and the old General too. Reckon they both thought you were throwing +yourself away on Toby, and maybe they had some reason to think so. +Anyway, she never was your sort. I seem to remember telling you so once." + +"I was a fool," said Bunny, and then in a moment straightened himself +and looked Jake in the eyes. "It wasn't Toby's fault," he said with +abrupt generosity. "She didn't want to get engaged to me. I made her. +I knew--all along--she wasn't very keen. But I thought I loved her enough +to make it all right. I was wrong. I didn't." + +"Beginning to know better?" suggested Jake, with a smile. + +"Beginning to realize what a fool I've been," said Bunny ruefully. "You +don't think I've done for myself then? Think I've still got a chance?" + +"Sure thing!" said Jake. "But go carefully. You've got a fence or two to +clear before you get home." He paused a moment, then gave him a kindly +hand-grip. "Say, Bunny," he said, "there's nothing despicable about +making a mistake. It's only when things go wrong and we don't play the +game that there's anything to be ashamed of. I've always been ready to +stake my last dollar that you'd never do that." + +"Oh, man," Bunny said, in swift embarrassment, "that shows how much you +know about me!" + +Jake stooped to knock out the ashes of his pipe in the fender. "What I +don't know about you, my son," he said, "ain't worth a donkey's bray, I +reckon, so you can shut your mouth on that! I'm going back to Maud now. +Any messages?" + +"Yes." Bunny was standing up very straight; his eyes were shining. "Love +to Maud of course. I shan't come round at present. But tell Toby that +when I do, she needn't be worried over anything. We're all square. Tell +her that!" + +"I will," said Jake. He turned to the door, then paused, looking back. +"And say!" he said. "Don't you butt in with Saltash! Just leave him to +manage his own fate! He's riding a bucking horse, but I've a notion he'll +yet make good--if he can." + +"He's a rum devil," said Bunny. "All right. I shan't interfere." + +After Jake had gone, he sat down and pulled a letter from his pocket. All +the lines of perplexity smoothed out of his boyish face as he read it. It +was the letter of a woman who had written because she wanted to write, +not because she had anything to say, and Bunny's eyes were very tender as +he came to the end. He sat for a space gazing down at the signature, and +at length with a gesture half-shamefaced he put it to his lips. + +"Yes, I've been a fool, Sheila," he said softly. "But, thank heaven, I +was pulled up in time. And I shan't--ever--make that mistake again." + +Which was perhaps exactly what the writer had meant him to say. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +LARPENT + + +"Shall we dig a deep, deep hole for you to lie in?" asked Eileen with +serious violet eyes upraised. + +"And then cover you right up to your head so as you won't catch cold?" +chimed in Molly. + +"Betty dig too! Betty dig too!" cried the youngest of the party with +zest. "Zite up over Auntie Toy's head!" + +"What an excellent idea!" said Toby with resignation. + +She sat down in the golden afternoon sunshine that flooded the beach, the +three children buzzing happily about her, and rested her chin on her +hands. The blue eyes that dwelt upon the misty horizon were very tired. +They had the heavy look of unshed tears, and all the delicate colour +was gone from her face. Her slight figure drooped pathetically. She sat +very still. All the elasticity of youth seemed to have gone out of her. +Once or twice a sharp sigh caught her that was almost like a sob. + +Betty's shrill voice at her side recalled her from her dreams. "Betty +tired now, Auntie Toy. Betty tummin' to sit down." + +She turned and took the child upon her lap with a fondling touch and +tender words. Betty pillowed a downy head against her neck and almost +immediately fell asleep. Eileen and Molly laboured on at their +self-imposed task in the autumn sunshine, and Toby returned to her +dreams. + +Perhaps she also had begun to doze, for the day was warm and sound sleep +had forsaken her of late; when the falling of a shadow aroused her very +swiftly to the consciousness of someone near at hand whose approach she +had not heard. She controlled her quick start before it could awaken the +sleeping child, but her eyes as they flashed upwards had the strained, +panic-stricken look of a hunted animal. She made an almost involuntary +movement of shrinking and the blood went out of her lips, but she spoke +no word. + +A man in a navy-blue yachting-suit stood looking down at her with +blue-grey eyes that tried to be impersonal but failed at that slight +gesture of hers. + +"You needn't be afraid of me, heaven knows," he said. + +"I'm not," said Toby promptly, and flung him her old boyish smile. "I +wasn't expecting just you at that moment, that's all. Sit down and talk, +Captain--if that's what you've come for!" + +Apparently it was. He lowered himself to the sand beside her. But at +once--as by irresistible habit--his eyes sought the horizon, and he sat +and contemplated it in utter silence. + +Toby endured the situation for a few difficult seconds, then took brisk +command. "Why don't you have a smoke?" she said. "You'd find it a help." + +He put his hand mechanically into his pocket and took out his +cigarette-case. His eyes came back out of space as he did so, and rested +upon the fair-haired child in the girl's arms. + +"So you've come back to the old job!" he said. + +Toby nodded. "Yes. Jake's doing. I'm waiting to--to--to be divorced." + +He made a slight movement of surprise, but his face remained inscrutable. +"You'll have to wait some time for that," he said. + +Toby tilted her chin with a reckless gesture that was somehow belied by +the weariness of her eyes. "That wasn't what you came to talk about +then?" she suggested after a pause. + +"No." Larpent's voice had a curious, almost deprecating quality. "I came +to bring you a message." + +"A message!" She started slightly, and in a moment the defiance went out +of her attitude. She turned towards him. "Who--who is it from?" + +Larpent's far-seeing eyes came gravely to meet her own. "From Rozelle +Daubeni," he said. + +"Ah!" A quick shiver went through Toby. She averted her look. "I don't +want to hear it," she said. + +"I've got to deliver it," said Larpent, with a hint of doggedness. "And +you've got to listen. But you needn't be afraid. It isn't going to make +any difference to you. The time has gone for that." + +He paused, but Toby sat in silence, her face bent over Betty's fair head. +When he spoke again, his eyes had gone back to the quiet sea and the far +horizon. There was a hint of pathos about him, albeit his face was grim. + +"It may have surprised you to see me in Paris with her," he said. "I'm +not the sort of man that runs after--that type of woman. But I went to +Rozelle because she was dying, and because once--long ago--she was my +wife." + +A faint sound came from Toby, but still she did not speak or lift her +face. + +Larpent went on steadily, unemotionally. "She went wrong--ran away--while +I was at sea. She was too young to be left alone. Afterwards--too late--a +child was born. She told me the night before she died that the child was +mine." + +"Good God!" said Toby under her breath. + +He went on, grimly monotonous. "I never knew of the child's existence. If +I had known, it might have made a difference. But it's too late now. She +wanted me to find and protect the child. I promised to do my best. And +when I found her, I was to tell her one thing. Rozelle prayed for her +child's forgiveness every day." + +He ceased to speak, and there fell a silence, long and painful. The tide +was turning, and the soft wash of tiny breakers came up the sand. Sea and +sky mingled together, opalescent in the misty sunlight. The man's eyes +gazed without seeing. Toby's were full of tears. + +He turned at last and looked at her, then, moved by what he saw, laid an +awkward hand upon her arm. + +"I'm not asking anything from you," he said. "But I'd like you to know +I'd have done more--if I'd known." + +She threw him a quick look, choking back her tears. "It--it--it's rather +funny, isn't it?" she said, with a little crack of humour in her voice. +"I'm--I'm very sorry. Captain Larpent." + +"Sorry?" he said. + +"For you," said Toby, with another piteous choke. "I've been foisted on +to you so often. And you--you've hated it so." + +"That's the tragic part of it," said Larpent. + +She brushed away her tears and tried to smile. "I wonder you bothered to +tell me," she said. + +His hand closed almost unconsciously upon her arm. "I had to tell you," +he said. "It's a thing you ought to know." He hesitated a moment, then +concluded with obvious effort. "And I wanted to offer you my help." + +"Thank you," whispered Toby. "You--you--that's very--generous of you." +She gulped again, and recovered herself. "What do you want to do about +it?" she said. + +"Do? Well, what can I do?" He seemed momentarily disconcerted by the +question. + +Toby became brisk and business-like. "Well, you don't want to retire and +live in a cottage with me, do you? We shouldn't either of us like that, +should we?" + +"There's no question of that now," said Larpent quietly. "Your home is +with your husband, not with me." + +Toby flinched a little. "My home isn't anywhere then," she said. "When I +left him, it was--for good." + +"Why did you leave him?" said Larpent. + +Toby's lips set in a firm line, and she made no answer. + +Larpent waited a few moments; then: "It's no matter for my interference," +he said. "But it seems to me you've made a mistake in one particular. You +don't realize why he married you." + +Toby made a small passionate movement of protest. "He ought not to have +done it," she said, in a low voice. "I ought not to have let him. I +thought I could play the part. I know now I can't. And--he knows it too." + +"I think you'll have to play the part," Larpent said. + +"No!" She spoke with vehemence. "It's quite impossible. He has been far +too good--far too generous. But it shan't go on. He's got to set me free. +If he doesn't--" she stopped abruptly. + +"Well? If he doesn't?" Larpent's voice was unwontedly gentle, and there +was compassion in his look. + +Toby's eyes avoided his. "I'll find--a way for myself," she said almost +inarticulately. + +Larpent's fingers tightened again upon the thin young arm. "It's no good +fighting Fate," he said. "Why has it become impossible? Just because he +knows all about you? Do you suppose that--or anything else--is going to +make any difference at this stage? Do you imagine he would let you +go--for that?" + +Toby's arm strained against him. "He'll have to," she declared +stubbornly. "He doesn't know all about me either---any more than you do. +And--and--and--he's never going to know." + +Her voice shook stormily. She glanced about her desperately as if in +search of refuge. The child in her arms stirred and woke. + +Larpent got up as if the conversation were ended. He stood for a moment +irresolute, then walked across to the two little girls digging busily a +few yards away. + +Eileen greeted him with her usual shy courtesy. "Won't you wait a little +longer?" she said. "We've very nearly finished." + +"Nearly finished," echoed Molly. "Isn't it a booful big hole?" + +"What's it for?" asked Larpent. + +Toby's voice answered him. She had risen and followed him. It had an odd +break in it--the sound of laughter that is mingled with tears. "They're +digging a hole to bury me in. Isn't it a great idea?" + +He wheeled and looked at her. There was no sign of tears in the wide blue +eyes that met his own. Yet he put his hand on her shoulder with the +gesture of one who comforts a child. + +"Before I go," he said, "I want to tell you something--something no one +has told me, but that I've found out for myself. There is only one thing +on this earth worth having--only one thing that counts. It isn't rank or +wealth or even happiness. It swamps the lot, just because it's the only +thing in God's creation that lasts. And you've got it. In heaven's name, +don't throw it away!" + +He spoke with the simplicity and strength of a man who never wastes his +words, and having spoken, he released her without farewell and turned +away. + +Toby stood quite motionless for several seconds, watching him; then, as +he did not look round, hurriedly she addressed the eldest child. + +"Take care of Betty a moment, Eileen darling! I shall be back directly." +And with the words she was gone, like an arrow, in pursuit. + +He must have heard her feet upon the sand, but he did not turn. Perhaps +his thoughts were elsewhere, for when at the quick pressure of her hand +on his arm he paused to look at her, she saw that his eyes were very sad. + +"Well?" he said, with the glimmer of a smile. "Well,--Toinette?" + +She clasped her two hands upon his arm, holding it very tightly, her face +uplifted. "Please--I want to thank you," she said breathlessly. "You have +been--so very good." + +He shook his head. "I have done--nothing," he said. "Don't thank me!" + +She went on with nervous haste. "And it does make a difference to me. +I--I--I'm glad I know, though it must have been--a great shock to you." + +"It would have been a much worse shock if it had been anyone else," he +said. + +"Would it? How nice of you!" Her lip trembled. "Well then, I'm glad it +wasn't." She began to walk on with him. "Do you mind telling me--did +you--did you--forgive her?" + +"Yes," he said very quietly. + +A quick shiver went through her. "Then I must too," she said. "At +least--I must try. She--she--I loved her once, you know, before I began +to understand." + +"Everyone loved her," he said. + +"But life is very difficult, isn't it?" she urged rather tremulously. + +"Your life has been," he said. + +She nodded. "One can't help--can't help--making mistakes--even bad +ones--sometimes." + +"You've just made one," he said. + +She faced him valiantly. "Ah, but you don't understand. You--you can't +throw away--what you've never had, can you--can you?" + +"What you've got," he corrected gravely. "Yes, you can." + +She flung out her hands with a wide gesture. "But I haven't got it! I +never had it! He took me out of pity. He never--pretended to love me." + +"No," said Larpent, with grim certitude. "He isn't pretending this time." + +She stared at him, wide-eyed, motionless. "Not pretending? What do you +mean? Please--what do you mean?" + +He held out his hand. "Good-bye!" he said abruptly. "I mean--just that." + +Her lips were parted to say more, but something in his face or action +checked her. She put her hand into his. "Good-bye!" she said. + +He held her hand for a moment, then, moved by some hint of forlornness in +the clear eyes, he bent, as he had bent at the Castle on that summer +evening weeks before, and lightly touched her forehead with his lips. + +"Oh, that's nice of you," said Toby quickly. "Thank you for that." + +"Don't thank me for anything!" said Larpent. "Play a straight game, +that's all!" + +And with the words he left her finally, striding away over the sand with +that careless sailor's gait of his, gazing always far ahead of him out to +the dim horizon. Perhaps as long as he lived his look would never again +dwell upon anything nearer. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +IN THE NAME OF LOVE + + +"It's been--a funny game," said Saltash, with a wry grimace. "We've both +of us been so damned subtle that it seems to me we've ended up in much +the same sort of hole that we started in." + +"But you're not going to stay in it," said Maud. + +He turned and looked down at her, one eyebrow cocked at a comic angle. +"_Ma belle reine_, if you can help us to climb out, you will earn my +undying gratitude." + +She met his look with her steadfast eyes. "Charlie, do you know that +night after night she cries as if her poor little heart were broken?" + +Saltash's eyebrow descended again. He scowled hideously. "_Mais +pourquoi?_ I have not broken it. I have never even made love to her." + +Maud's face was very compassionate. "Perhaps that is why. She is so +young--so forlorn--and so miserable. Is it quite impossible for you to +forgive her?" + +"Forgive her!" said Saltash. "Does she want to be forgiven?" + +"She is fretting herself ill over it," Maud said. "I can't bear to see +her. No, she has told me nothing--except that she is waiting for you to +throw her off--to divorce her. Charlie, you wouldn't do that even if you +could!" + +Saltash was silent; the scowl still upon his face. + +"Tell me you wouldn't!" she urged. + +His odd eyes met hers with a shifting gleam of malice. "There is only one +reason for which I would do that, _ma chère_," he said. "So she has not +told you why she ran away with my friend Spentoli?" + +Maud shook her head. "She does not speak of it at all. I only know that +she was unspeakably thankful to Jake for protecting her from him." + +"Ah!" Saltash's teeth showed for an instant. "I also am grateful to Jake +for that. He seems to have taken a masterly grip of the situation. Is he +aware that he broke Spentoli's arm, I wonder? It was in the papers, +alongside the tragic death of Rozelle. 'Fall of a Famous Sculptor from a +Train.' It will keep him quiet for some time, I hear, and has saved me +the trouble of calling him out. I went to see him in hospital." + +"You went to see him!" Maud exclaimed. + +Saltash nodded, the derisive light still in his eyes. "And conveyed my +own condolences. You may tell _la petite_ from me that I do not propose +to set her free on his account. He is not what I should describe as a +good and sufficient cause." + +"Thank heaven for that!" Maud ejaculated with relief. + +"Amen!" said Saltash piously, and took out his cigarette-case. + +She watched him with puzzled eyes till the cigarette was alight and he +smiled at her through the smoke, his swarthy face full of mocking humour. + +"Now tell me!" she said then, "how can I help you?" + +He made a wide gesture. "I leave that entirely to your discretion, madam. +As you may perceive, I have wholly ceased to attempt to help myself." + +"You are not angry with her?" she hazarded. + +"I am furious," said Charles Rex royally. + +She shook her head at him. "You're not in earnest--and it wouldn't help +you if you were. Besides, you couldn't be angry with the poor little +thing. Charlie, you love her, don't you? You--you want her back?" + +He shifted his position slightly so that the smoke of his cigarette did +not float in her direction. His smile had a whimsical twist. "Do I want +her back?" he said. "On my oath, it's hard to tell." + +"Oh, surely!" Maud said. She rose impulsively and stood beside him. +"Charlie," she said, "why do you wear a mask with me? Do you think I +don't know that she is all the world to you?" + +He looked at her, and the twisted smile went from his face. "There is +no woman on this earth that I can't do without," he said. "I learnt +that--when I lost you." + +"Ah!" Maud's voice was very pitiful. Her hand came to his. "But +this--this is different. Why should you do without her? You know she +loves you?" + +His fingers closed spring-like about her own. A certain hardness was in +his look. "If she loves me," he said, "she can come back to me of her own +accord." + +"But if she is afraid?" Maud pleaded. + +"She has no reason to be," he said. "I have claimed nothing from her. I +have never spoken a harsh word to her. Why is she afraid?" + +"Have you understood her?" Maud asked very gently. + +He made an abrupt movement as though the question, notwithstanding the +absolute kindness of its utterance, had somehow an edge for him. The next +moment he began to laugh. + +"Why ask these impossible riddles? Has any man ever understood a +woman? Let us dismiss the subject! And since you are here, _ma belle +reine_,--you of all people--let us celebrate the occasion with a +drink!--even if it be only tea!" + +His eyes laughed into hers. The western light was streaming in across the +music-room. They stood together in the turret beyond Saltash's piano, +where she had found him pouring out wild music that made her warm heart +ache for him. + +She had come to him with the earnest desire to help, but he baffled her +at every turn, this man to whom once in the days of her youth she had +been so near. She could not follow the complex workings of his mind. He +was too quick to cover his feelings. His inner soul had long been hidden +from her. + +Yet the conviction persisted that if any could pass that closed door that +he kept so persistently against all comers, it would be herself. She had +once possessed the key, and she could not believe that it was no longer +in her power to turn it. He would surely yield to her though he barred +out all beside. + +Perhaps he read her thoughts, for the laugh died out of his eyes, melting +into the old tender raillery that she remembered so well. + +"Will you drink with me?" he said. "You have actually stooped to enter +my stronghold without your bodyguard. Will you not honour me still +further--partake of my hospitality?" + +She smiled at him. "Of course I will have tea with you with pleasure, +Charlie. Didn't you realize I was waiting to be asked?" + +"You are very gracious," he said, and crossed the room to ring a bell. + +She remained in the western turret, looking out over the beech woods that +blazed golden in the sun to the darker pine-woods beyond. + +"What a paradise this is!" she said, when he joined her again. + +His restless eyes followed hers without satisfaction. A certain moodiness +had come upon him. He made no answer to her words. + +"Why doesn't Bunny come up to see me?" he asked suddenly. "He knows I am +here." + +She looked at him in surprise. "Are you expecting him?" + +He nodded with a touch of arrogance. "Yes. Tell him to come! I shan't +quarrel with him or he with me. Is he still thirsting for my blood? He's +welcome to it if he wants it." + +"Charlie!" she protested. + +He turned from her and sat down at the piano. His fingers began to caress +the keys, and then in a moment the old sweet melody that he had played to +her in the long ago days came softly through the room. Her lips formed +the words as he played, but she made no sound. + +"There has fallen a splendid tear +From the passion-flower at the gate. +She is coming, my dove, my dear; +She is coming, my life, my fate. +The red rose cries, 'She is near, she is near!' +And the white rose weeps, 'She is late!' +The larkspur listens, 'I hear, I hear!' +And the lily whispers, 'I wait!'" + +"She is certainly very late," commented Charles Rex quizzically from the +piano. "And the lily is more patient than I am. Why don't you sing, Maud +of the roses?" + +She started a little at his voice, but she did not answer. She could not +tell him that her throat was dumb with tears. + +He played softly on for a space, then as the old butler entered with a +tea-tray, he abruptly left the piano to wait upon her. He made her sit in +the window-seat and presently sat down himself and talked of indifferent +things. She did not attempt to bring him back to the matter in hand. She +knew him too well for that. If he chose to be elusive, no power on earth +could capture him. + +But she had a strong feeling that he would not seek to elude her wholly. +He might seem to trifle, as a monkey swinging idly from bough to bough, +but he had an end in view, and ultimately he would reach that end, +however circuitous the route. + +He surprised her eventually by the suddenness with which he pounced upon +it. He had turned the talk upon the subject of his new yacht, and very +abruptly he announced his intention of going round the world in her. + +"Not alone?" she said, and then would have checked the words lest they +should seem to ask too much. + +But he answered her without a pause. "Yes, alone. And if I don't come +back, Bunny can marry Toby and reign here in my stead. That is, if he +isn't an infernal fool. If he is, then Toby can reign here alone--with +you and Jake to take care of her." + +"But, Charlie, why--why?" The words leapt from Maud in spite of her. + +He frowned at her whimsically. "They've always cared for one another. +Don't you know it? It's true she put me in a shrine and worshipped me for +a time, but I couldn't live up to it. _Figurez-vous, ma chère!_ Myself--a +marble saint!" + +"You never understood her," Maud said. + +He shrugged his shoulders and went lightly on. "Oh, she was ready enough +to offer me human sacrifice, but that wasn't enough for me. Besides, I +didn't want sacrifice. I have stood between her and the world. I have +given her protection. But it was a free gift. I don't take anything +in exchange for that." An odd note sounded in his voice, as of some +emotion suppressed. He leaned back against the window-frame, his hands +behind his head. "That wasn't what I married her for. I tried to prove +that to her. I actually thought--" the old derisive grin leapt across his +face--"that I could win her trust like any ordinary man. I failed of +course--failed hideously. She never expected decent treatment from me. +She never even began to trust me. I was far too heavily handicapped +for that. And so--as soon as the wind changed--the boat capsized." + +"What made the wind change?" Maud asked gently. + +He looked across at her, the baffling smile still in his eyes. "The gods +played a jest with us," he said. "It was only a small jest, but it turned +the scale. She fled. That was how I came to realize I couldn't hold her. +I had travelled too fast as usual, and she couldn't keep up. Well," he +unlocked his hands and straightened himself, "it's up to Bunny now. I'll +let her go--to him." + +"My dear!" Maud said. + +He laughed at her with the old half-caressing ridicule. "That shocks you? +But why--if they love each other? Haven't I heard you preach the gospel +of love as the greatest thing on earth? Didn't you once tell me that I +had yet to learn the joy--" his smile twisted again--"the overwhelming +joy--of setting the happiness of another before one's own? This thing can +be done quite simply and easily--as I suggested to you long ago. She has +only to go away with him, and I do the rest. A moral crime--no more. Yes, +it is against your code of course. But consider! I only stand to lose +that which I have never possessed. For the first time in my life, I +commit a crime in the name of--love!" + +He laughed over the word; yet even through the scoffing sound there came +a ring of pain. His face had a drawn look--the wistfulness of the monkey +that has seen its prize irrevocably snatched away. + +Maud rose quickly. There was something in his attitude or expression that +she could not bear. "Oh, you are wrong! You are wrong!" she said. "You +have the power to make her love you. And you love her. Charlie, this +thing has not been given you to throw away. You can't! You can't!" + +He made a sharp gesture that checked her. "My dear Maud," he said, "there +are a good many things I can't do, and one of them is this. I can't hold +any woman against her will--no, not if she were my wife ten times over. I +wouldn't have let her go to Spentoli. But Bunny is a different matter. I +have Jake's word for it that he will make her a better husband than I +shall. If Bunny wants to know all about her past--her parentage--he can +come to me and I can satisfy him. Tell him that! But if he really loves +her--he won't care a damn--any more than I do." + +"Ah!" Maud said. + +She stood a moment, looking at him, and in her eyes was that mother-look +of a love that understands. She held out her hand to him. + +"Thank you for telling me, Charlie," she said. "Good-bye!" + +He held her hand. "What have I told you?" he asked abruptly. + +She shook her head. "Never mind now! You have just made me understand, +that's all. I will give your message to Bunny--to them both. Good-bye!" + +He stooped in his free, gallant way to kiss her hand. "After all," he +said, "I return to my old allegiance. It was you, _chère reine_, who +taught me how to love." + +She gently freed her hand and turned to go. "No," she said. "I think it +was God who taught you that." + +For the second time Charles Rex failed to utter the scoffing laugh she +half-expected. The odd eyes looked after her with a kind of melancholy +irony. + +"To what purpose?" he said. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE GIFT OF THE GODS + + +A chill wind blew across the ramparts bringing with it the scent and the +sound of the sea. There was no moon in the sky tonight, only the clouds +flying over the stars, obscuring and revealing them alternately, making +their light weirdly vague and fitful. Across the park an owl called +persistently, its eerie hoot curiously like the cry of a human voice +through the rustling night. The trees were murmuring together down by the +lake as though some mysterious news were passing to and fro among them. +And once more, alone on his castle walls, Saltash paced restlessly up and +down. + +It was his last night at Burchester, so he told himself, for many a year +to come. The fever for change was upon him. He had played his last card +and lost. It was characteristic of the man to turn his back upon his +losses and be gone. His soul had begun to yearn for the wide spaces, +and it was in answer to the yearning that he had come up to this eagle's +eyrie a second time. He could not be still, and the feeling of walls +around him was somehow unbearable. But he expected no vision tonight. He +walked in darkness. + +Down in the harbour his yacht was waiting, and he wondered cynically what +whim kept him from joining her. Why was he staying to drain the cup to +the dregs--he who had the whole world to choose from? He had sent his +message, he had made his sacrifice--at what a cost not even Maud would +ever know. It was the first voluntary sacrifice he had ever made, he +reflected ironically, and he marvelled at himself to find that he cared +so much. For, after all, what was it he had sacrificed? Nothing worth +having, so he told himself. He had possessed her childish adoration, but +her love--never! And, very curiously, it was her love that he had wanted. +Actually, for the first time in his life, no lesser thing had appealed to +him. Jaded and weary with long experience, he owned now to a longing for +that at which all his life long he had scoffed. The longing was not to be +satisfied. He was to go empty away. But yet the very fact that he had +known it had in some inexplicable fashion purified him from earthly +desires. He had as it were reached up and touched the spiritual, and that +which was not spiritual had crumbled away below him. He looked back upon +the desert through which all his life he had travelled, and saw only +sand. + +The sound of the turret-door banging behind him recalled him to his +surroundings. He awoke to the fact that the wind was chill, and that a +drift of rain was coming in from the sea. With an impatient shrug he +turned. Why was he lingering here like a drunken reveller at a table +of spilt wine? He would go down to his yacht and find Larpent--Larpent +who had also loved and lost. They would go out on the turn of the +tide--the two losers in the game of life--and leave the spilt wine behind +them. + +Impulsively he strode back along the ramparts. The game was over, and he +would never play again; but at least he would face the issue like a man. +No one, not even Larpent, should ever see him flinch. So he reached +the turret-door, and came abruptly to a halt. + +It was no vision that showed her to him, standing there in her slender +fairness, wrapt in a cloak that glimmered vaguely blue in the glimmering +starlight. Her face was very pale, and he saw her frightened eyes as she +stood before him. Her hands were tightly clasped together, and she spoke +no word at all. + +The door was shut behind her, and he saw that she was trembling from head +to foot. + +He stood motionless, within reach of her, but not touching her. "Well?" +he said. + +She made a curious gesture with her clasped hands, standing before him as +she had stood on board his yacht on that night in the Mediterranean when +she had come to him for refuge. + +"I've come," she said, in a voice that quivered uncontrollably, "to tell +you something." + +Saltash did not stir. His face was in shadow, but there was a suggestion +of tension about his attitude that was not reassuring. "Well?" he said +again. + +She wrung her hands together with a desperate effort to subdue her +agitation, and began again, "I've come--to tell you something." + +"Something I don't know?" he questioned cynically. + +She nodded. "Some--some--something you don't want to know. It--it was +Maud made me come." + +That moved him a little. That piteous stammer of hers had always touched +his compassion. "Don't fret yourself, _ma chère_!" he said. "I know all +there is to know--all about Rozelle--all about Larpent--all about +Spentoli." + +"You--you don't know this," said Toby. "You--you--you don't know--why I +ran away from you--in Paris!" + +"Don't I?" he said, and she heard the irony of his voice. "I have an +agile brain, my child. I can generally jump the gaps pretty +successfully." + +She shook her head with vehemence. "And how do you know about Spentoli?" +she demanded suddenly. "Who told you that?" + +"The man himself," said Saltash. + +"Ah! And what did he tell you?" A note of fierceness sounded in her +voice. She seemed to gather herself together like a cornered animal +preparing to make a wild dash for freedom. + +Saltash made her a queer, abrupt bow, and in so doing he blocked the way +before her so that she could only flee by the way she had come. "He told +me nothing that I did not know before," he said, "nothing that your own +eyes had not told me long ago." + +"What do you mean?" breathed Toby, pressing her clasped hands tightly to +her breast. Her eyes were still upraised to his; they glittered in the +dimness. + +Saltash answered her more gently than was his wont. "I mean that I know +the sort of inferno your life had been--a perpetual struggle against odds +that were always overwhelming you. If it hadn't been so, you would never +have come to me for shelter. Do you think I ever flattered myself that +that was anything but a last resource--the final surrender to +circumstance? If I had failed you--" + +"Wait!" Toby broke in tensely. "You're right in some things. You're +wrong there. It's true I was always running away--as soon as I was old +enough to realize the rottenness of life. Spentoli tried to ruin me, +but I dodged him, and then--when he trapped me--the hell-hound--I did my +best--to murder him!" The breath suddenly whistled through her teeth. "I +tried to stab him to the heart. God knows I tried! But--I suppose it +wasn't in the right place, for I didn't get there. I left him for +dead--I thought he was dead--till that day in Paris. And ever since--it's +been just a nightmare fight for life--and safety. I'd have tried some +other dodge if you hadn't found me. I was not quite down and out. But +you--you made all the difference. I had to go to you." + +"And why?" said Charles Rex. + +She rushed on regardless of question. The flood-gates were open; she was +hiding nothing from him now. + +"You came. If you'd been an angel from heaven, you couldn't have been +more wonderful. You helped me--believed in me--gave me always--the +benefit of the doubt--made a way of escape for me--made life +possible--even--even--beautiful!" She choked a little over the word. "I +offered you just everything. I couldn't help it. You were the only man in +the world to me. How could I help worshipping you? You--you--you were +always so splendid--so--so great. You made me--you made me realize--that +life was worth having. You made me--believe in God." She broke into +sudden wild tears. "And you didn't love me enough even to take the little +I had to give! I didn't want you to marry me. I never dreamt of such a +thing. I had kept myself from harm, but I knew very well I wasn't fit to +be your wife. Only--I loved you so. And when I knew that Bunny was +turning against me--would never believe in me--I just couldn't help +turning to you again. And then--and then--you went and married me!" She +wrung her hands tragically. "I ought not to have let you. God will never +forgive me for it. I don't deserve to be forgiven. But I loved you--I +loved you!" + +She covered her face and sobbed. + +Saltash reached out a hand and took her by the shoulder. "Nonette! +Nonette!" he said, in a voice that was strangely uncertain. "Don't cry, +child! Don't cry!" + +She drew herself away from him. "Don't--don't! I don't want you to. I +just came to tell you--that's all--in case you should think I ever--cared +for--Bunny. Maud says--you ought to know that. We only--only--played +together. We never--really--loved each other. I wasn't his sort--or he +mine. He doesn't want me back. I wouldn't go if he did. I ran away--with +that damn cur Spentoli--to give you a chance--to drop me. I couldn't +face you after you knew everything. You'd never loved me, and I'd tricked +you too badly. I knew you'd want to get free. Why didn't you start in and +get a divorce? Why didn't you? Why didn't you?" + +She suddenly lifted her face, storming the words, electrified as it were +by the wild force of her passion. Again he reached a hand towards her, +but she eluded him with a desperate gesture. + +"No! No! Don't touch me! Don't touch me! I can't bear it! I'm going now! +I'm going right away. You'll never see me again--never hear of me. And +you'll be free! Do you understand? You'll be quite free. I'll keep that +promise I made to you. It won't be difficult. No one shall ever know +how--and only you--you who never even pretended to love me--will be able +to guess why." + +She turned about with the words, and wrenched furiously at the door +behind her. In another moment she would have been gone. But in that +moment Saltash moved, perhaps more swiftly than he had ever moved in +his life before, and in a flash he had her in his arms. + +She fought for her freedom then like a terrified animal, twisting this +way and that, straining with frenzied effort to escape. And when, his +hold encompassing her, he broke down her resistance, pressing her +indomitably closer and closer till she lay powerless and palpitating +against his breast, she burst into agonized tears, beseeching him, +imploring him, to set her free. + +"Why should I?" he said, still holding her. "Don't you know yet that it's +the very last thing I mean to do?" + +"You must! Oh, you must!" she cried back. "You can't--you--you +can't--hold me--against my will!" + +"That's true," said Saltash, as if struck by something. "And are you +capable of leaving me--against mine?" His hold relaxed with the words, +and instantly she sprang away from him--sprang like a fleeing bird upon +the low parapet beside them, and in a second was sliding out upon the +narrow ledge that surrounded the great stone buttress of the turret. + +"Hell!" ejaculated Saltash, and gave a great leap as if he would pursue +her, then with abrupt effort checked himself. + +He stood with one foot on the parapet, and watched her, and in the vague +starlight his eyes burned with the old mocking devilry behind which he +had so long sheltered his soul. + +"So you think you'll get away from me that way, do you?" he said, and +laughed his gibing laugh. "Well, you may try. Either stay there till +you've had enough--or throw yourself over! I'll get you in any case." + +She came to a stand, her hands spread out on each side of her, her eyes +turning back to him across the awful space that yawned between. Sheer +depth was below her, but she did not seem aware of it. + +"I will throw myself over," she said with tense purpose, "unless you +promise--unless you swear--to let me go." + +He laughed again, but there was no mirth in the glittering eyes that +looked back at her, neither mirth nor dismay, only the most arrogant and +absolute mastery that she had ever encountered. + +"I promise nothing," he said, "except that one way or the other I'm going +to have you. You can take your choice. You can sink or swim. But you +won't get away. There is a bond between us that you can't break, however +hard you try. Fling yourself over if you think it's worth it? And before +you get to the bottom I shall be with you. I'll chase you through the +gates of Hades. I've travelled alone far enough. For the future--we go +together. That I swear to God!" + +Across the abyss he flung his tremendous challenge, the laugh still on +his lips and in his eyes the blazing derision that mocks at fate. + +And as she heard it, the girl's heart suddenly failed her. She began to +tremble. Yet, even so, she made a last desperate bid for pride and +freedom. + +She clutched at the cold stones on each side of her with nerveless, +quivering fingers. "There is--no bond between us!" she gasped forth +piteously. "There never--never has been!" + +He flung back the words like a missile, unerring, blindingly direct. "No +bond between us! Good God! Would I follow you through death if there were +not?" And then suddenly, with an amazing change to tenderness that leapt +the void and enchained her where she stood:--"Toby--Toby, you little +ass--don't you know I've loved you from the moment _The Night Moth_ +struck?" + +There was no questioning the truth of those words. A great sob broke from +Toby, and the tension went out of her attitude. She stood for a few +seconds with her head raised, and on her face the unutterable rapture of +one who sees a vision. Then, with sharp anguish, "I can't come back!" she +cried like a frightened child. "I'm going to fall!" + +Saltash straightened himself. His forehead was wet, but he did not pause +for a moment. "I'm coming to you," he said. "Keep as you are and I'll +give you a hand to hold!" + +She obeyed him as one dazed into submission. Blindly she waited, till +with a monkey-like agility, he also had traversed that giddy ledge to +where she stood. His fingers met and gripped her own. + +"Now," he said, "come with me and you are safe! You can't fall. My love +is holding you up." + +She heard the laugh in his voice, and her panic died. Mutely she yielded +herself to him. By the strength of his will alone, she left the abyss +behind. But when he lifted her from the parapet back to safety, she cried +out as one whom fear catches by the throat, and fainted in his arms. + + * * * * * + +Out of a great darkness, the light dawned again for Toby. She opened her +eyes gasping to find that the scene had changed. She was lying upon +tiger-skins in Saltash's conical chamber, and he, the king of all her +dreams, was kneeling by her side. + +That was the first thing that occurred to her--that he should kneel. + +"Oh, don't! Oh, don't!" she said quickly. "I am not--not Maud." + +He regarded her humorously, but the old derisive lines were wholly gone +from his dark face. His eyes held something that was unfamiliar, +something that made her quiver with a quick agitation that was not +distress. + +"So I am only allowed to kneel to Maud!" he said. + +She tried to meet his look and, failing, hid her face. "I--I know +you have always loved her," she murmured rather incoherently. "You +couldn't--you couldn't--pretend to--to--to really love anyone +else--after Maud!" + +There fell a brief silence, and she thought the beating of her heart +would choke her. Then there came the touch of his hand upon her head, and +its wild throbbing grew calmer. + +"No," he said, and in his voice was a new deep note unknown to her. "I am +not pretending, Nonette." + +The light touch drew her as it were magnetically. With a swift, impulsive +movement she raised herself, gave herself to him, hiding her face still +more deeply against his breast. + +"But you--you--you couldn't really love me!" she whispered like an +incredulous child. "You sure you do?" + +His arms went round her, holding her fast. He made no other answer. +Saltash, the glib of tongue and ready of gibe, was for once speechless in +the presence of that which has no words. + +She nestled closer to him as a little furry animal that has found its +home. Her incredulity was gone, but she kept her face hidden. "But why +didn't you tell me before?" she said. + +He bent his black head till his lips reached and rested against her hair. +"Nonette," he said, "you told me that I had made you believe in God." + +"Yes?" she whispered back rather breathlessly. "Yes?" + +"That's why," he said. "You got me clean through my armour there. Egad, +it made me a believer too. If I'd failed you after that--well, He'd have +been justified in damning me, body and soul!" + +"But you couldn't!" she protested. "You couldn't fail me!" + +His dark face twisted with the old wry grimace. "I've failed a good many +in my time, Nonette. But--no one ever trusted me to that extent. You +practically forced me--to prove myself." + +A little gasp of relief came from Toby. She spoke with more assurance. +"Oh, was that it? You were just trying--to be good?" + +"Just--trying!" said Saltash. + +"You still trying?" asked Toby, a little curious note of laughter in her +voice. + +"I shan't keep on much longer," he returned, "unless I get what I want." + +"There'd be a blue moon if you did!" remarked Toby impudently. + +Saltash raised his head abruptly. "By Jupiter! There is one!" he said. +"Let's go to her!" + +Toby's face shot upwards in a moment. "Where?" + +Her eyes sought the skylight above them and the dim mysterious blue of +the night. His came down to her in a flash, dwelt upon her, caressed her, +drew her. + +She turned sharply and looked at him. "Charles Rex!" she said +reproachfully. + +He took her pointed chin and laughed down at her. His eyes, one black, +one grey, shone with a great tenderness, holding hers till they widened +and shone back with a quick blue flame in answer. + +Then: "As I was saying," remarked Charles Rex royally "when I was +interrupted some six months ago--I have never yet refused--a gift from +the gods." + +"But you've taken your time over accepting it, haven't you?" said Toby, +with a chuckle. + +He bent to her. "Let's go!" he said again. + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Charles Rex, by Ethel M. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/13960-8.zip b/old/13960-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9c87d41 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13960-8.zip diff --git a/old/13960.txt b/old/13960.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..69ce8f9 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13960.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13209 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Charles Rex, by Ethel M. Dell + +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: Charles Rex + +Author: Ethel M. Dell + +Release Date: November 5, 2004 [EBook #13960] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARLES REX *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the PG Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + + CHARLES REX + + BY ETHEL M. DELL + +AUTHOR OF THE TOP OF THE WORLD, THE LAMP IN THE DESERT, THE HUNDREDTH +CHANCE, Etc. + + 1922 + +I Dedicate This Book To G. T. S. In Remembrance of A Winter Day + + + + +"When half-gods go, the gods arrive." + R. W. Emerson + + +Not with the clash of trumpets + And clangour of gates thrown wide, +As when the eager crowds press round + To see the half-gods ride; +But like a bird at even + Silently winging home, +A message came from the darkness + To say that the gods had come. + +And the half-gods scoffed in the temple + Which custom had bid them hold-- +Sin and Success and Pleasure + And the hideous Image of Gold. +Who and what are these strangers? + Bid them worship before the shrine +Where we, the gods of the new world, + Sit o'er the cards and wine! + +So they derided the strangers-- + Those gods whom the old folk call +Courage and Honour and Faithfulness + And Love which is greater than all. +But when the night was over + And the new day pierced within, +The half-gods were gone from the temple, + And the gods had entered in. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +PART I + + I. Ennui + II. Adieu + III. The Gift + IV. Toby + V. Discipline + VI. The Abyss + VII. Larpent's Daughter + + +PART II + + I. Jake Bolton + II. Maud Bolton + III. Bunny + IV. Saltash + V. The Visitor + VI. How to Manage Men + VII. The Promise + VIII. The Ally + IX. The Idol + X. Resolutions + XI. The Butterfly + XII. The Ogre's Castle + XIII. The End of the Game + + +PART III + + I. The Virtuous Hero + II. The Compact + III. L'oiseau bleu + IV. The Trap + V. The Confidence + VI. The Sacred Fire + VII. Surrender + VIII. The Magician's Wand + IX. The Warning + X. The Mystery + XI. Suspicion + XII. The Ally + XIII. The Truth + XIV. The Last Card + + +PART IV + + I. The Winning Post + II. The Villain Scores + III. A Wife Is Different + IV. The Idol of Paris + V. The Dance of Death + VI. The New Lover + VII. The Refugee + VIII. The Turning-point + IX. Larpent + X. In the Name of Love + XI. The Gift of the Gods + + + + +CHARLES REX + + + + +PART I + + + + +CHAPTER I + +ENNUI + + +"I shall go to sea to-morrow," said Saltash, with sudden decision. "I'm +tired of this place, Larpent,--fed up on repletion." + +"Then by all means let us go, my lord!" said Larpent, with the faint +glimmer of a smile behind his beard, which was the only expression of +humour he ever permitted himself. + +"Believe you're fed up too," said Saltash, flashing a critical look upon +him. + +Captain Larpent said nothing, deeming speech unnecessary. All time spent +ashore was wasted in his opinion. + +Saltash turned and surveyed the sky-line over the yacht's rail with +obvious discontent on his ugly face. His eyes were odd, one black, one +grey, giving a curiously unstable appearance to a countenance which +otherwise might have claimed to possess some strength. His brows were +black and deeply marked. He had a trick of moving them in conjunction +with his thoughts so that his face was seldom in absolute repose. It was +said that there was a strain of royal blood in Saltash, and in the days +before he had succeeded to the title when he had been merely Charles +Burchester, he had borne the nickname of "the merry monarch." Certain +wild deeds in a youth that had not been beyond reproach had seemed to +warrant this, but of later years a friend had bestowed a more gracious +title upon him, and to all who could claim intimacy with him he had +become "Charles Rex." The name fitted him like a garment. A certain +arrogance, a certain royalty of bearing, both utterly unconscious and +wholly unfeigned, characterized him. Whatever he did, and his actions +were often far from praiseworthy, this careless distinction of mien +always marked him. He received an almost involuntary respect where he +went. + +Captain Larpent who commanded his yacht _The Night Moth_--most morose and +unresponsive of men--paid him the homage of absolute acquiescence. +Whatever his private opinions might be, he never expressed them unless +invited to do so by his employer. He never criticized by word or look. +Saltash was wont to say that if he decided to turn pirate he believed +that Larpent would continue at his post without the smallest change of +front. To raise a protest of any sort would have been absolutely foreign +to his nature. He was made to go straight ahead, to do his duty without +question and with perfect self-reliance. + +On the present occasion, having cruised from port to port in the +Mediterranean for nearly six weeks, it was certainly no ill news to him +to hear that Saltash had at last had enough. The weather was perfect, too +perfect for a man of his bull-dog instincts. He was thoroughly tired of +the endless spring sunshine and of the chattering, fashionable crowds +that Saltash was wont to assemble on the yacht. He was waiting with an +iron patience for the word that should send them forth over the great +Atlantic rollers, with the ocean spray bursting over their bows and the +sting of the ocean wind in their faces. That was the sort of life that +appealed to him. He had no use for civilization; the froth of society had +no attraction for him. He preferred a deeper draught. + +Saltash was thoroughly cosmopolitan in his tastes; he liked amusement, +but he abhorred boredom. He declared that for him it was the root of all +evil. He was never really wicked unless he was bored. And then--_que +voulez-vous_? He did not guide the star of destiny. + +"Yes," he said, after a thoughtful silence, "we will certainly put to sea +to-morrow--unless--" he turned his head and threw a merry grin at his +companion--"unless Fortune has any tricks up her sleeve for me, for I am +going ashore for one more fling to-night." + +Larpent smoked on immovably, his blue-grey eyes staring out to the vivid +sky-line, his sunburnt face quite imperturbable. + +"We shall be ready to start as soon as you come aboard, my lord," he +said. + +"Good!" said Saltash lightly. "I may be late, or--more probably--very +early. Leave the gangway for me! I'll let you know when I'm aboard." + +He got up as if he moved on springs and leaned against the rail, looking +down quizzically at the man who sat stolidly smoking in the deck-chair. +No two people could have formed a stronger contrast--the yacht's captain, +fair-bearded, with the features of a Viking--the yacht's owner, dark, +alert, with a certain French finesse about him that gave a strange charm +to a personality that otherwise might have been merely fantastic. + +Suddenly he laughed. "Do you know, Larpent, I often think to myself what +odd tricks Fate plays? You for instance--you, the captain of a private +yacht when you ought to be roving the high seas in a Flying Dutchman! You +probably were a few generations ago." + +"Ah!" Larpent said, through a cloud of smoke. "Life isn't what it was." + +"It's an infernal fraud, most of it," said Saltash. "Always promising and +seldom fulfilling!" + +"No good expecting too much," said Larpent. + +"True!" said Saltash. "On the other hand it isn't always wise to be too +easily satisfied." His look became suddenly speculative. "Have you ever +been in love, Larpent?" + +The big man in the deck-chair made a sharp movement and spilt some +cigar-ash on his coat. He sat up deliberately and brushed it off. Saltash +watched him with mischievous eyes. + +"Well?" he said. + +Larpent leaned back again, puffing forth a thick cloud of smoke. "Once," +he said briefly. + +"Only once?" gibed Saltash. "Man alive! Why, I've had the disease scores +of times, and you are half a generation older than I am!" + +"I know," Larpent's eyes dwelt unblinking upon the sparkling blue of the +water beyond the rail. "You've had it so often that you take it lightly." + +Saltash laughed. "You apparently took it like the plague." + +"I didn't die of it," said Larpent grimly. + +"Perhaps the lady did!" suggested Saltash. + +"No. She didn't die either." Larpent's eyes came slowly upwards to the +mocking eyes above them. "For all I know she may be living now," he said. + +Saltash's grin became a grimace. "Oh, heavens, Larpent! And you've had +indigestion ever since? How long ago is it? Twenty years?" + +"About that," said Larpent. + +"Heavens!" said Saltash again. "I should like to see the woman who could +hold me after twenty years!" + +"So should I," said Larpent dryly. + +Saltash snapped his fingers. "She doesn't exist, my good fellow! But if +she did--by Jove, what a world it would be!" + +Larpent grunted sardonically. "It wouldn't be large enough to hold you, +my lord." + +Saltash stretched his arms wide. "Well, I'm going ashore to-night. Who +knows what the gods may send? Wish me luck!" + +Larpent surveyed the restless figure with a sort of stony humour. "I wish +you a safe return," he said. + +Saltash laughed and went away along the deck with a monkey-like spring +that was curiously characteristic of him. There was nothing of the +sailor's steady poise about him. + +The little Italian town that clung to the slopes that rose so steeply +from the sea shone among its terraced gardens like a many-coloured jewel +in the burning sunset. The dome of its Casino gleamed opalescent in its +centre--a place for wonder--a place for dreams. Yet Saltash's expression +as he landed on the quay was one of whimsical discontent. He had come +nearly a fortnight ago to be amused, but somehow the old pleasures had +lost their relish and he was only bored. + +"I'm getting old," he said to himself with a grimace of disgust. + +But he was not old. He was barely six-and-thirty. He had had the world at +his feet too long, that was all. + +There was to be a water-side _fete_ that night at Valrosa, and the +promenade and bandstand were wreathed with flowers and fairy-lights. It +was getting late in the season, and it would probably be the last. +Saltash surveyed the preparations with very perfunctory interest as he +sauntered up to the hotel next to the Casino where he proposed to dine. + +A few people he knew were staying there, and he looked forward to a more +or less social evening. At least he could count on a welcome and a rubber +of bridge if he felt so inclined. Or there was the Casino itself if the +gambling mood should take him. But he did not feel much like gambling. He +wanted something new. None of the old stale amusements appealed to him +tonight. He was feeling very ancient and rather dilapidated. + +He went up the steps under the cypress-trees that led from terrace to +terrace, pausing at each landing-place to look out over the wonderful +sea that was changing every moment with the changing glow of the sunset. +Yes, it was certainly a place for dreams. Even old Larpent felt the +charm--Larpent who had fallen in love twenty years ago for the first and +last time! + +An irrepressible chuckle escaped him. Funny old Larpent! The wine of the +gods had evidently been too strong a brew for him. It was obvious that he +had no desire to repeat the dose. + +At his last halting-place he stood longer to drink in the beauty of the +evening before entering the hotel. The sea had the pearly tint shot with +rose of the inside of an oyster-shell. The sky-line was receding, fading +into an immense calm. The shadows were beginning to gather. The sun had +dipped out of sight. + +The tinkle of a lute rose from one of the hidden gardens below him. He +stood and listened with sentimental eyes and quizzically twitching mouth. +Everything in this wonder-world was ultra-sweet to-night. And yet--and +yet-- + +Suddenly another sound broke through the stillness, and in a moment he +had sprung to alertness. It was a cry--a sharp, wrung cry from the garden +close to him, the garden of the hotel, and instantly following it a flood +of angry speech in a man's voice and the sound of blows. + +"Damnation!" said Saltash, and sprang for a narrow wooden door in the +stone wall a few yards higher up. + +It opened to his imperious hand, and he found himself in a dark little +shrubbery behind an arbour that looked out to the sea. It was in this +arbour that the scuffle was taking place, and in a second he had forced +his way through the intervening shrubs and was at the entrance. + +"Damnation!" he burst forth again furiously. "What are you doing? Leave +that boy alone!" + +A man in evening-dress was gripping a fair-haired lad, who wore the +hotel-livery, by the back of his neck and raining merciless blows upon +his uncovered head. He turned, sharply straightening himself, at +Saltash's tempestuous entrance, and revealed to the newcomer the +deeply-suffused countenance of the hotel-manager. + +Their recognition was mutual. He flung the boy into a corner and faced +his patron, breathing hard, his black eyes still fiercely gleaming. + +"Ah! It is milord!" he said, in jerky English, and bowed punctiliously +though he was still shaking with rage. "What can I do for you, milord?" + +"What the devil is the matter?" said Saltash, sweeping aside all +ceremony. "What are you hammering that unfortunate boy for? Can't you +find a man your own size to hammer?" + +The Italian flung a fierce glance over his shoulder at his crouching +victim. "He is worthless!" he declared. "I give him a trial--_bueno_, but +he is worthless. Milord will pardon me, he is--English. And the English +are--no good for work--no good at all." + +"Oh, rotten to the core!" agreed Saltash, with a humorous lift of the +brows. "But you needn't murder him for that, Antonio. It's his +misfortune--not his fault." + +"Milord, I have not murdered him," the manager protested with nervous +vehemence. "I have only punished him. I have not hurt him. I have done +him good." + +"Oh!" said Saltash, and looked down at the small, trembling figure in the +corner. "It's medicine, is it? But a bit strong for a child of that size. +I should try a milder dose next time." + +Antonio laughed harshly. "The next time, milord, I shall take +him--so--and wring his neck!" His laugh became a snarl as he turned. "Get +up now, you--you son of a pig, and go back to your work!" + +"Easy! Easy!" said Saltash, with a smile. "We don't talk to the English +like that, Antonio,--not even the smallest and weakest of them. Let's +have a look at this specimen--with your permission!" He bent over the +huddled figure. "Hold up your head, boy! Let me see you!" + +There was no movement to obey, and he laid a hand upon the quivering +shoulder and felt it shrink away convulsively. + +"I believe you've damaged him," he said, bending lower. "Here, Tommy! +Hold up your head! Don't be afraid! It's a friend." + +But the narrow figure only sank down a little lower under his hand. + +"His name is Toby," said Antonio with acidity. "A dog's name, milord, and +it fits him well. He is what you would call a lazy hound." + +Saltash paid not the slightest attention to him. He was bending low, his +dark face in shadow. + +"Don't be afraid!" he said again. "No one is going to hurt you. Come +along! Let's look at you!" + +His hold tightened upon the shrinking form. He began to lift it up. + +And then suddenly there came a sharp struggle between his hands as +lacking in science as the fight of a wild animal for freedom, and as +effectual. With a gasping effort the boy wrenched himself free and was +gone. He went like a streak of lightning, and the two men were left +facing one another. + +"What a slippery little devil!" commented Saltash. + +"Yes," said Antonio vindictively, "a devil indeed, milord! And I will +have no more of him. I will have no more. I hope he will starve!" + +"How awfully nice of you, Antonio!" said Saltash lightly. "Being the end +of the season, he probably will." + +Antonio smacked his red lips with relish. "Ah, probably! Probably!" he +said. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +ADIEU + + +It was growing late and the _fete_ was in full swing when Saltash +sauntered down again under the cypress-trees to the water's edge. The sea +was breaking with a murmurous splashing; it was a night for dreams. + +In the flower-decked bandstand an orchestra of stringed instruments was +playing very softly--fairy-music that seemed to fill the world with magic +to the brim. It was like a drug to the senses, alluring, intoxicating, +maddeningly sweet. + +Saltash wandered along with his face to the water on which a myriad +coloured lights rocked and swam. And still his features wore that +monkeyish look of unrest, of discontent and quizzical irony oddly +mingled. He felt the lure, but it was not strong enough. Its influence +had lost its potency. + +He need not have been alone. He had left the hotel with friends, but he +had drifted away from them in the crowd. One of them--a girl--had sought +somewhat palpably to keep him near her, and he had responded with some +show of ardour for a time, and then something about her had struck a note +of discord within him and the glamour had faded. + +"Little fool!" he murmured to himself. "She'd give me her heart to break +if I'd have it." + +And then he laughed in sheer ridicule of his own jaded senses. He +recognized the indifference of satiety. An easy conquest no longer +attracted him. + +He began to stroll towards the quay, loitering here and there as if to +give to Fates a chance to keep him if they would. Yes, Sheila Melrose was +a little idiot. Why couldn't she realize that she was but one of the +hundreds with whom he flirted day by day? She was nothing to him but a +pastime--a toy to amuse his wayward mood. He had outgrown his earlier +propensity to break his toys when he had done with them. The sight of a +broken toy revolted him now. + +He was impatiently aware that the girl was watching him from the midst of +the shifting crowd. What did she expect, he asked himself irritably? She +knew him. She knew his reputation. Did she imagine herself the sort of +woman to hold a man of his stamp for more than the passing moment? Save +for his title and estates, was he worth the holding? + +A group of laughing Italian girls with kerchiefs on their heads +surrounded him suddenly and he became the centre of a shower--a storm--of +_confetti_. His mood changed in a second. He would show her what to +expect! Without an instant's pause he turned upon his assailants, caught +the one nearest to him, snatching her off her feet; and, gripping her +without mercy, he kissed her fierily and shamelessly till she gasped with +delicious fright; then dropped her and seized another. + +The girls of Valrosa spoke of the ugly Englishman with bated breath and +shining eyes long after Saltash had gone his unheeding way, for the blood +was hot in his veins before the game was over. If the magic had been slow +to work, its spell was all the more compelling when it gripped him. +Characteristically, he tossed aside all considerations beyond the +gratification of the moment's desire. The sinking fire of youth blazed up +afresh. He would get the utmost out of this last night of revelry. +Wherever he went, a spirit of wild daring, of fevered gaiety, surrounded +him. He was no longer alone, whichever way he turned. Once in his mad +progress he met Sheila Melrose face to face, and she drew back from him +in open disgust. He laughed at her maliciously, mockingly, as his royal +forefather might have laughed long ago, and passed on with the throng. + +Hours later, when the _fete_ was over and the shore quite silent under +the stars, he came alone along the quay, moving with his own peculiar +arrogance of bearing, a cigarette between his lips, a deep gleam in his +eyes. It had been an amusing night after all. + +Crossing the gangway to his yacht--_The Night Moth_--that rocked softly +on the glimmering ripples, he paused for a moment and turned his face as +if in farewell towards the little town that lay sleeping among its +cypress-trees. So standing, he heard again the tinkle of a lute from some +hidden garden of delight. It was as if the magic were still calling to +him, luring him, reaching out white arms to hold him. He made a brief bow +towards the sound. + +"_Adieu_, most exquisite and most wicked!" he said. "I return--no more!" + +The cigarette fell from his lips into the dark water and there came a +faint sound like the hiss of a serpent in the stillness. He laughed as he +heard it, and pursued his way aboard the yacht. + +He found a young sailor, evidently posted to await his coming, snoring in +a corner, and shook him awake. + +The man blundered up with a confused apology, and Saltash laughed at him +derisively. + +"Wasting the magic hours in sleep, Parker? Well, I suppose dreams are +better than nothing. Were they--good dreams?" + +"I don't know, my lord," said Parker, grinning foolishly. + +Saltash clapped him on the shoulder and turned away. "Well, I'm ready for +the open sea now," he said. "We'll leave our dreams behind." + +He was always on easy terms with his sailors who worshipped him to a man. + +He whistled a careless air as he went below. The magic of Valrosa had +loosed its hold, and he was thinking of the wide ocean and buffeting +waves that awaited him. He turned on the lights of the saloon and stopped +there for another cigarette and a drink, first walking to and fro, +finally flinging himself on a crimson velvet settee and surrendering +himself luxuriously to a repose for which he had not felt the need until +that moment. + +So lying, he heard the stir and tramp of feet above him, the voices of +men, the lifting of the gangway; and presently the yacht began to throb +as though suddenly endowed with life. He felt the heave of the sea as she +left her moorings, and the rush of water pouring past her keel as she +drew away from the quay. + +He stretched himself with lazy enjoyment. It was good to come and go as +he listed, good to have no ties to bind him. He supposed he would always +be a wanderer on the face of the earth, and after all wandering suited +him best. True, there were occasions on which the thought of home allured +him. The idea of marriage with some woman who loved him would spring like +a beacon out of the night in moments of depression. Other men found a +permanent abiding-place and were content therewith; why not he? But he +only played with the notion. It did not seriously attract him. He was not +a marrying man, and, as he had said to Larpent, the woman did not exist +who could hold him. The bare thought of Sheila Melrose sent a mocking +smile to his lips. Did she think--did she really think--that she +possessed the necessary qualifications to capture a man of his +experience? He dismissed her with a snap of the fingers. Sheila had +practically everything in life to learn, and he did not propose to be her +teacher. + +His cigarette was finished and he got up. The yacht was speeding like a +winged thing on her way. There was never any fuss of departure when +Larpent was in command. He stood for a few seconds in indecision, +contemplating going up on to the bridge for a word with his captain and a +glance round. But some fantastic scruple deterred him. He had made his +farewell. He did not wish to see Valrosa again. He turned instead and +went to his cabin. + +All the appointments of the yacht were of the most luxurious order. She +possessed every imaginable contrivance for the comfort of those who +voyaged in her. Her state-cabins were a miracle of elegance and ease. + +Saltash never took a valet when he went for a voyage. The steward +attended to his clothes, and he waited on himself. He liked as much space +as he could get both on deck and below. + +He pushed open the door of his cabin and felt for the switch of the +electric light. But he did not press it when he found it. Something made +him change his mind. The faint light of stars upon rippling water came +to him through the open porthole, and he shut himself in and stepped +forward to the couch beneath it to look forth. + +But as he moved, another influence caught him, and he stopped short. + +"Is anyone here?" he said. + +Through the wash of the water he thought he heard a light movement, and +he felt a presence as of some small animal in the space before him. + +Swiftly he stepped back and in a moment his hand was on the switch. The +light flashed on, and in a moment he stood staring--at a fair-haired, +white-faced lad in a brown livery with brass buttons who stood staring +back at him with wide, scared eyes. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE GIFT + + +Saltash was the first to recover himself; he was seldom disconcerted, +never for long. + +"Hullo!" he said, with a quizzical twist of the eyebrows. "You, is it? +And what have you come for?" + +The intruder lowered his gaze abruptly, flushing to the roots of his fair +hair. "I came," he said, in a very low voice, "to--to ask you something." + +"Then you've come some distance to do it," said Saltash lightly, "for I +never turn back. Perhaps that was your idea, was it?" + +"No--no!" With a vehement shake of the head he made answer. "I didn't +think you would start so soon. I thought--I would be able to ask you +first." + +"Oh, indeed!" said Saltash. And then unexpectedly he laid a hand upon one +narrow shoulder and turned the downcast face upwards. "Ah! I thought he'd +marked you, the swine! What was he drubbing you for? Tell me that!" + +A great purple bruise just above one eye testified to the severity of the +drubbing; the small, boyish countenance quivered sensitively under his +look. With sudden impulse two trembling hands closed tightly upon his +arm. + +"Well?" said Saltash. + +"Oh, please, sir--please, my lord, I mean--" with great earnestness the +words came--"let me stay with you! I'll earn my keep somehow, and I +shan't take up much room!" + +"Oh, that's the idea, is it?" said Saltash. + +"Yes--yes!" The boy's eyes implored him,--blue eyes with short black +lashes that imparted an oddly childish look to a face that was otherwise +thin and sharp with anxiety. "I can do anything. I don't want to live +on charity. I can work. I'd love to work--for you." + +"You're a rum little devil, aren't you?" said Saltash. + +"I'm honest, sir! Really I'm honest!" Desperately the bony hands clung. +"You won't be sorry if you take me. I swear you'll never be sorry!" + +"What about you?" said Saltash. He was looking down into the upraised +face with a semi-quizzical compassion in his own. "Think you'd never be +sorry either?" + +A sudden smile gleamed across the drawn face. "Of course I shouldn't! +You're English." + +"Ah!" said Saltash, with a faintly wry expression. "Not necessarily white +on that account, my friend, so don't run away with that idea, I beg! I'm +quite capable of giving you a worse drubbing than the good Antonio, for +instance, if you qualified for it. I can be a terrifically wild beast +upon occasion. Look here, you imp! Are you starved or what? Do you want +something to eat?" + +The wiry fingers tightened on his arm. "No, sir--no, my lord--not really. +I often don't eat. I'm used to it." + +"But why the devil not?" demanded Saltash. "Didn't they feed you over +there?" + +"Yes--oh, yes. But I didn't want it. I was--too miserable." The blue eyes +blinked rapidly under his look as if half-afraid of him. + +"You little ass!" said Saltash in a voice that somehow reassured. "Sit +down there! Curl up if you like, and don't move till I come back!" + +He indicated the sofa, and quite gently but with decision freed his arm +from the nervously gripping hands. + +"You won't send me back?" the boy urged with quivering supplication. + +"No, I won't do that," said Saltash as he went away. + +He swore once or twice with considerable energy ere he returned, cursing +the absent Antonio in language that would have outmatched the Italian's +own. Then, having relieved his feelings, he abruptly laughed to himself +and pursued his errand with business-like briskness. + +Returning, he found his _protege_ in a small heap on the sofa, with his +head deep in the cushion as though he sought escape from the light. Again +the feeling of harbouring some small animal in pain came to him, and he +frowned. The mute misery of that huddled form held a more poignant appeal +than any words. + +"Look here,--Toby!" he said. "I've brought you something to eat, and when +you've had it you'd better get a sleep. You can tell me all about it--if +you want to--in the morning." + +The boy started upright at his coming. He looked at Saltash in his quick, +startled way. It was almost as if he expected a kick at any moment. Then +he looked at the tray he carried and suddenly his face crumpled; he hid +it in his hands. + +"Oh, dash it!" said Saltash. "Let's have a little sense!" + +He set down the tray and flicked the fair head admonishingly, with his +thumb, still frowning. "Come! Be a sport!" he said. + +After a brief pause with a tremendous effort the boy pulled himself +together and sat up, but he did not raise his eyes to Saltash again. He +kept them fixed upon his hands which were tightly clasped in front of +him. + +"I'll do--whatever you tell me," he said, in a low voice. "No one has +ever been so--decent to me before." + +"Have one of those rolls!" said Saltash practically. "You'll talk better +with something inside you." + +He seated himself on the edge of his bunk and lit another cigarette, his +attitude one of royal indifference, but his odd eyes flashing to and fro +with a monkey-like shrewdness that missed nothing of his desolate +companion's forlorn state. + +"You've been doing this starvation business for some time, haven't you?" +he asked presently. "No wonder you didn't feel like work." + +The boy's pinched face smiled, a small wistful smile. "I can work," he +said. "I can do anything--women's work as well as men's. I can cook and +clean boots and knives and sew on buttons and iron trousers and wash +shirts and wait on tables and make beds and sweep and--" + +"For heaven's sake, stop!" said Saltash. "You make me giddy. Tell me the +things you can't do instead! It would take less time." + +Toby considered for a few moments. "I can't drive cars," he said at +length. "But I can clean 'em, and I'd love to learn." + +Saltash laughed. "That's the sole exception, is it? You seem to have +picked up a good deal in a short time. Did they teach you all that over +there?" + +Toby shook his head. "I've knocked about a good lot," he said. + +"And know everything evidently," said Saltash. "What made you think of +coming on board this yacht?" + +The boy's eyes gave him a shining look. "Because she belongs to you," he +said. + +"Oh!" Saltash puffed at his cigarette for a few seconds. "You'd made up +your mind to throw in your fortunes with mine, had you?" + +Toby nodded. "I wanted to--if you'd have me." + +"Seems I haven't much choice," remarked Saltash. "And what are you going +to do when you're tired of me? Fling yourself at someone else's head, I +suppose?" + +Again he saw the hot colour flood the thin face, but the boyish eyes did +not flinch from his. "No, I shan't do that," said Toby, after brief +reflection. "I'll just go right under next time." + +"Oh, will you?" said Saltash. "And so remain--a blot on my escutcheon for +all time. Well now, look here! You say you're honest?" + +"Yes, sir," said Toby with breathless assurance, and sprang up and stood +before him with the words, as though challenging criticism. + +Saltash poked at him with his foot, as he sat. "Make me a promise?" he +asked casually. + +"Anything you wish, my lord," said Toby promptly. + +Saltash grinned at him. "Be careful! I see you are of a rash and +impulsive disposition, and I like my slaves to have a little discretion. +The promise I want is that whatever happens to you,--however much I kick +you or bash you or generally ill-use you--you'll never jump overboard or +do anything silly of that kind. Is it done?" + +Toby was standing before him, facing him with straight, candid eyes. He +did not seem surprised at the suggestion so coolly made. Saltash noted +that it certainly did not shock him. + +"All right, sir," he said, after a moment. + +"It's a promise, is it?" said Saltash. + +Toby nodded. "Yes, sir." + +"Good!" said Saltash. He stretched out a hand and took him by one skinny +arm. "Better now?" he asked. + +"Yes, sir. Yes, my lord. Thank you, my lord." Toby's eyes smiling into +his. + +"Very well. I'll keep you," Saltash said. "Did anyone see you come +aboard?" + +"No, my lord." + +"Then you came with me, see? I brought you--if anyone wants to know." + +"Very good, my lord. Thank you, my lord." + +Saltash made a humorous grimace. "You can call me 'sir' if you like," he +said. "It makes no difference." + +"Thank you, sir," said Toby with a responsive grin. + +"And your name is Toby, is it? Toby what?" + +"Toby Wright, sir." Very promptly the answer came. + +Saltash's eyes scrutinized him with half derisive amusement. "I hope it's +a good fit," he remarked. "Well, look here, Toby, you must go to bed. Did +you bring any luggage on board?" + +"No, sir. 'Fraid not, sir. Very sorry, sir. I came away in a hurry," +explained Toby rather nervously. + +"And stole the hotel livery," said Saltash. + +"No, sir. Borrowed it," said Toby. + +"Ho! You're going to pay for it, are you?" questioned Saltash. + +"Yes, sir, some day. First money I get, sir. Don't want to have anything +belonging to that damn' Italian cur," said Toby, with much emphasis. + +"Naughty! Naughty!" said Saltash, pinching his arm. "Well, come along, +and I'll show you where you can sleep. There's a small cabin out of my +dressing-room you can have for the present. I haven't got my valet on +board." + +"Very good, sir, thank you. What time shall I call you, sir?" said Toby +brightly. + +"You needn't call me," said Saltash. "You can just lie quiet and take +care of that black eye of yours. I'll let you know when I want you." + +"Very good, sir," said Toby, looking crestfallen. + +Saltash stood up. "And you'll do as you're told--see?--always! That's +understood, is it?" + +Toby smiled again, eagerly, gratefully. "Yes, sir. Always, sir!" he said +promptly. "Shall I take off your boots before I go, sir?" + +"No. Look after yourself for the present!" said Saltash. "And don't get +up to mischief! There's a strict captain in command of this boat, so +you'd better mind how you go." + +The boy looked up at him with eyes of twinkling comprehension. He had +plainly forgotten the despair that had so nearly overwhelmed him. + +"Oh, I'll be very good, sir," he promised. "I won't get you into trouble +anyhow, sir." + +"You--imp!" said Saltash, pulling his ear. "Think I'll put up with your +impudence, do you? You'll play that game once too often if you're not +careful." + +Toby hastened to adjust his features to a becoming expression of gravity. +"I won't, sir. No, I won't. I'll be a good servant to you--the best +you've ever had. I'll never forget your goodness to me, and I'll pay back +somehow--that I will, sir." + +His boyish voice suddenly throbbed with emotion, and he stopped. Again +for a moment he had the forlorn look of a small animal astray from its +own. + +Saltash patted his shoulder kindly. "All right. That'll do. Don't be +tragic about it! Come along to your burrow and have a good square sleep!" + +He led him away without further words, and Toby went, gratefully and +submissively. + +A few minutes later Saltash came back with a smile on his ugly face, +half-quizzical, and half-compassionate. + +"Rum little devil!" he commented again as he began to undress. "So the +gods had a gift for me after all! Wonder what I shall do with it!" + +And then abruptly the smile became a mocking grimace that banished all +the kindliness from his face. He snapped his fingers and laughed as he +had laughed a little earlier when his cigarette had fallen into the water +with a sound like the hiss of a serpent. + +"I--wonder!" he said again. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +TOBY + + +It was contrary to Captain Larpent's habit to show surprise at any time, +whatever the caprices of his patron, but he did look at Saltash somewhat +harder than usual when the latter informed him in his breezy fashion of +the unexpected addition to the yacht's company. He also frowned a little +and smoothed his beard as though momentarily puzzled. + +"You won't want to be bothered with him," he said after brief reflection. +"Better let him sleep in the forecastle." + +"Not for the present," said Saltash. "I am going to train him, and I'll +keep him under my own eye. The little beggar has had a pretty rough time +of it to judge by appearances. I've a fancy for looking after him +myself." + +"What are you going to make of him?" asked Larpent. + +Saltash laughed carelessly, flicking the ash from his cigarette. "I'll +tell you that when I can show you the finished article. I'm keeping him +below for the present. He's got a prize-fighter's eye which is not +exactly an ornament. Like to have a look at him? You're ship's doctor." + +Larpent shrugged his shoulders. "P'raps I'd better. I'm not over-keen on +sudden importations. You never know what they may bring aboard with +them." + +Saltash's eyes gleamed mischievously. "Better inoculate the whole crew at +once! He's more like a stray spaniel than anything else." + +"A King Charles!" suggested Larpent, with the flicker of an eyelid. +"Well, my lord, let's have a look at your latest find!" + +They went below, Saltash whistling a careless air. He was usually in high +spirits when not suffering from boredom. + +Someone else was whistling in the vicinity of his cabin, but it was not +from the valet's cabin that the cheery sounds proceeded. They found him +in the bathroom with an oily rag, rubbing up the taps. + +He desisted immediately at their entrance and stood smartly at attention. +His eye was badly swollen and discoloured, he looked wretchedly ill, but +he managed to smile at Saltash, who took him by the shoulder and made +him face the light. + +"What are you doing in here, you--scaramouch? Didn't I tell you to lie +still? Here he is, Larpent! What do you think of him? A poor sort of +specimen, eh?" + +"What's his name?" said Larpent. + +"Toby Barnes, sir," supplied the boy promptly. + +"And there's nothing under the sun he can't do except drive cars," put in +Saltash, "and obey orders." + +Toby winced a little. "I'm sorry, sir. Only wanted to be useful, sir. +I'll go back to bed if you say so." + +"What do you say, Captain?" said Saltash. + +Larpent bent and looked closely at the injured eye. "The sooner the +better," he said after a brief examination. "Stay in bed for a week, and +then I'll look at you again!" + +"Oh, not a week!" exclaimed Toby, aghast, and then clapped a hand to his +mouth and was silent. + +But his look implored Saltash who laughed and pinched the shoulder under +his hand. "All right. We'll see how you get on. If we meet any weather +you'll probably be only too thankful to stay there." + +Toby smiled somewhat woefully, and said nothing. + +Larpent stood up. "I'll fetch some stuff to dress it with. Better have it +bandaged. Pretty painful, isn't it?" + +"No, sir," lied Toby valiantly. "Don't feel it at all." + +But he shrank with a quick gasp of pain when Larpent unexpectedly touched +the injury. + +"Don't hurt the child!" said Saltash sharply. + +Larpent smiled his faint, sardonic smile, and turned away. + +Toby laid his cheek with a winning, boyish gesture against the hand that +held him. "Don't make me go to bed, sir!" he pleaded. "I'll be miserable +in bed." + +Saltash looked down at him with eyebrows comically working. "It is rather +a hole--that cabin of yours," he conceded. "You can lie on the couch in +my stateroom if you like. Don't get up to mischief, that's all! I'm +responsible for you, remember." + +Toby thanked him humbly, swearing obedience and good behaviour. The +couch in Saltash's cabin was immediately under a porthole, and the fresh +sea-air blew straight in. He stretched his meagre person upon it with +a sigh of contentment, and Saltash smiled down upon him. "That's right. +You'll do there. Let's see! What did you say your name was?" + +"Toby, sir." + +"Toby Barnes or Toby Wright?" said Saltash. + +The boy started, turned very red, then very white, opened his mouth to +speak, shut it tightly, and said nothing. + +Saltash took out his cigarette-case and opened it with great +leisureliness. The smile still played about his ugly features as he chose +a cigarette. Finally he snapped the lid and looked down again at his +_protege_. + +"Or Toby nothing?" he said. + +Toby's eyes came up to his, though the effort to raise them drew his face +painfully. + +"Whatever you like, my lord," he said faintly. "I'll answer to anything." + +Saltash's own face was curiously softened. He looked down at Toby for +some seconds in silence, idly tapping the cigarette he held against the +case. Then: "How old are you?" he asked suddenly. + +"Sixteen, sir." Toby's eyes with their dumb pleading were still anxiously +raised to his. + +Saltash bent abruptly and put his hand very lightly over them. "All +right. Don't hurt yourself!" he said kindly. "You're young enough to +chuck the past and start again." + +Toby's claw-like hands came up and closed upon his wrist. "Wish I could, +sir," he whispered with lips that quivered. "Haven't had much of a +chance--so far, sir." + +"All right," Saltash said again. "It's up to you. I shan't interfere. +Don't expect too much of me; that's all I ask! I'm not considered exactly +a suitable companion for young things like you." + +He drew his hand away and lighted his cigarette. Toby turned his face +into the cushion and lay very still. + +Larpent, returning, wondered what his patron had been saying to make the +boy's eyes wet with tears, but betrayed no curiosity on the subject. + +"Are you going to let him stay in here?" he asked, as he bound a +lotion-soaked pad over the damaged eye. + +"For the present," said Saltash. "Any objection?" + +"Not the smallest." Larpent's tone was absolutely noncommittal. "Make him +lie quiet, that's all!" + +"He'll do that," said Saltash with confidence. + +"Good!" said Larpent. "We're in for a blow before we reach Gib or I'm +much mistaken." + +"Do us all good," said Saltash with satisfaction. + +Larpent looked grim and said no more. + +"Frightened?" asked Saltash of Toby when he was gone. + +Toby chuckled at the thought. "Not a bit, sir." + +"Good sailor by any chance?" questioned Saltash. + +"No, sir; rotten, sir." Quite undaunted came the reply. + +"Well, shut your eyes and go to sleep!" commanded Saltash, and spread a +rug over the small, curled-up figure. + +Toby murmured his thanks and relaxed with a big sigh of content. + +Some hours later, when the blow that Larpent had prophesied had arrived +in earnest and the yacht was pitching on a wild sea in the light of a +lurid sunset, Saltash came below to change. + +He was met by Toby, ghastly of face but still desperately smiling, who +sprang from his couch to wait upon him, and collapsed at his feet. + +"Little ass!" said Saltash, barely preventing himself from tumbling over +him headlong. + +He lifted the light, trembling figure and put it down again upon the +couch. Then he poured out a dose of brandy and water and, holding the +boy's head on his arm while the yacht lifted and tossed, compelled him to +drink it. + +"Now you lie quiet!" he commanded. "Don't stir an eyelid till I give you +leave!" + +The porthole was shut, and the atmosphere close and stuffy. Toby put +forth an appealing hand and clung to his protector's sleeve. + +"Mayn't I come on deck, sir?" he murmured anxiously. "Please, sir!" + +"No," said Saltash. + +Toby said no more, but his fingers fastened like a bird's claw on the +man's arm, and he shivered. + +"You're frightened!" said Saltash. + +"No, sir! No, sir!" he protested. + +"Yes, you are. You needn't bother to lie to me. I always know." Saltash's +voice held an odd note of comradeship. "Beastly sensation, isn't it? Have +some more brandy!" + +Then, as Toby refused, he sat down abruptly on the edge of the couch and +thrust an arm out to him. Toby crept to him then like a nervous dog and +trembled against his side. + +"Little ass!" said Saltash again. "Been lying here sweating with terror, +have you? There's nothing whatever to sweat about. She's as safe as +houses." + +"Yes, sir. I know, sir," whispered Toby apologetically. + +Saltash's arm surrounded him with a comforting closeness. "You miserable +little shrimp!" he said. "How's the head?" + +"Better, sir. Thank you, sir," muttered Toby. + +"Why not tell the truth for once and say it hurts like hell?" suggested +Saltash. + +Toby was silent. + +"Do you know what I'm going to do with you?" said Saltash. + +"No, sir." Toby stirred uneasily. + +The vessel pitched to a sudden slant and Saltash braced himself, +protecting the fair head from a blow against the woodwork behind him. +"I'm going to put you to bed in my bunk here," he said. "You've got to +have a decent night's rest. Did Murray look you out any spare slops? I +told him to." + +"Oh, yes, sir. Thank you, sir. But I couldn't sleep in your bunk, +sir,--please, sir--indeed, sir!" Toby, still held by the sheltering arm, +waxed incoherent, almost tearful. + +Saltash pulled him up short. "You'll do as I tell you--now and always," +he said, with royal finality. "You've put yourself in my hands, and +you'll have to put up with the consequences. Got that?" + +"Yes, sir," said Toby meekly. + +"Then don't forget it!" said Saltash. + +Toby subsided without further protest. Perhaps the brandy helped to make +him quiescent, or perhaps it was only the realization of his utter +weakness and dependence; but from that moment he was as submissive as if +he had been indeed the small captive animal to which his new owner had +likened him. At Saltash's behest and with his help, he presently crept +back to his own cabin to divest himself of his hotel-livery and don the +very roomy suit of pajamas that Murray the steward had served out to him. + +Then, barefooted, stumbling, and shivering, he returned to where Saltash +leaned smoking in the narrow dressing-room, awaiting him. + +Saltash's dark face wore a certain look of grimness. He bent without +words and lifted the shrinking figure in his arms. + +Ten seconds later Toby sank down in a berth as luxurious as any ever +carried by private yacht. + +He was still shivering though a grateful warmth came about him as Saltash +tucked him in. He tried to murmur thanks, but ended with a quivering chin +and silence. + +"Go to sleep, you little ass!" commanded Saltash. + +And so at last Toby slept, the deep, unstirring sleep of exhaustion, +utterly unconscious of his surroundings, unaware of the man who came in +and out watching that unchanging repose, sublimely oblivious of all +observation, sunk in a slumber so remote that it might have been the last +long rest of all. + +Saltash spent the night on the velvet couch under the closed porthole, +dozing occasionally and always awakening with a jerk as the roll of the +vessel threatened to pitch him on to the floor of the cabin. It was not a +comfortable means of resting but he endured it in commendable silence +with now and then a grimace which said more than words. + +And the little waif that the gods had flung to him slept in his bunk all +through the long hours as peacefully as an effigy upon a tomb. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +DISCIPLINE + + +The storm spent itself before they reached Gibraltar, and Toby emerged +smiling from his captivity below. He still wore the brown and gold +hotel-livery as there was nothing else on board to fit him, but from +Gibraltar a small packet of notes was dispatched to Antonio by Saltash in +settlement of the loan. + +"Now I've bought you--body and soul," he said to Toby, whose shining look +showed naught but satisfaction at the announcement. + +The vivid colours of his injured eye had faded to a uniform dull yellow, +and he no longer wore a bandage. When they put to sea again he was no +longer an invalid. He followed Saltash wherever he went, attended +scrupulously to his comfort, and when not needed was content to sit +curled up like a dog close to him, dumb in his devotion but always ready +to serve him. + +Saltash treated him with a careless generosity that veiled a good deal of +consideration. He never questioned him with regard to his past, taking +him for granted in a fashion that set Toby completely at ease. No one +else had much to do with him. Larpent ignored him, and Murray the steward +regarded him with a deep suspicion that did not make for intimacy. + +And Toby was happy. Day after day his cheery whistle arose over his work +while he polished Saltash's boots and brushed his clothes, or swept and +dusted the state-cabin in which he slept. He himself had returned to his +own small den that led out of Saltash's dressing-room, but the +intervening doors were kept open by Saltash's command. They were always +within hail of each other. + +They went into perfect summer weather, and for a blissful week they +voyaged through blue seas with a cloudless sky overhead. Toby's white +skin began to tan. The sharp lines went out of his face. His laugh was +frequent and wholly care-free. He even developed a certain impudence in +his attitude towards his master to which Saltash extended the same +tolerance that he might have shown for the frolics of a favourite dog. He +accepted Toby's services, but he never treated him wholly as a servant. + +It was an odd companionship which only the isolated life they led during +those few days could have developed along those particular lines. When +Saltash was bored he amused himself with his protege, teaching him +picquet and chess, and finding in him an apt and eager pupil. There was a +good deal of the gambler's spirit in Toby, and Saltash idly fostered it +because it gave him sport. He laughed at his opponent's keenness, +supplied stakes for the game, even good-naturedly let himself be beaten. + +And then one day he detected Toby cheating. It was an end that he might +have foreseen. He had encouraged the fever, he had practically sown the +seeds; but, strangely, he was amazed, more disconcerted than he had been +for years by the consequences. For it was not his way to disturb himself +over anything. His principles were easy to laxness. But that Toby--the +urchin he had sheltered and nursed like a sick puppy--should have done +this thing somehow cut clean through his complacence. + +"I'm going to give you a licking for that," he said, black brows drawn to +a stern line. "You can go below and wait for it." + +Toby went like an arrow, and Saltash spent the next half-hour pacing the +deck, cursing himself, the youngster, and the insane and ridiculous Fate +that had linked them together. + +Then he went below to administer judicial corporal punishment to a human +being for the first time in his life. As he himself whimsically expressed +it, he had received ample correction during his own chequered career; but +he had never been in a position to correct anyone else. + +He found Toby waiting for him in his shirt-sleeves, rather white but +quite composed, his riding-switch all ready to his hand. + +"Ever been flogged before?" he asked him curtly as he picked it up. + +"No, sir," said Toby, with downcast eyes. + +"Why not?" There was a gibing note in Saltash's voice. "Never qualified +before?" + +Toby shot him a swift and nervous glance that was like a flash of blue +flame. "No, sir. Never been caught before," he said. + +Saltash's eyes flickered humour, but he steeled himself. "Well, you're +caught this time--fairly caught. I may not be a specially fit person to +punish you for it, but you won't be let off on that account." + +"Go ahead, sir!" said Toby, with his hands twisted into a bony knot in +front of him. + +And Saltash went ahead. His heart was not in the business, and as he +smote the narrow bent back it cried shame on him. Toby made no sound, but +at the third stroke he winced, and Saltash with a terrific oath in French +hurled his switch violently at the opposite wall. + +"There! Don't do it again!" he said, and swung him round to face him. +"Sorry? What?" + +Then he saw that Toby was crying, and abruptly let him go, striding out +through the dining-saloon and up the companion-way, swearing strange +oaths in varied languages as he went. + +He was openly rude to Larpent when the latter sauntered up for a word +with him a little later, but Larpent, knowing him, merely hunched his +shoulders as his custom was and sauntered away again. + +When Saltash went down to dress for dinner, he found his clothes laid out +as usual, but no Toby in attendance. His first impulse was to look for +him, but he checked it and dressed in solitude. This thing must be +conducted in the approved judicial manner at all costs. + +Larpent was stolidly awaiting him in the saloon, and they sat down +together. Usually Toby stood behind his master's chair, and the vacant +place oppressed Saltash. He talked jerkily, with uneasy intervals of +silence. + +Larpent talked not at all beyond the demands of ordinary courtesy. He ate +well, drank sparingly, and when not listening to Saltash's somewhat +spasmodic conversation appeared immersed in thought. When the meal was +over, he refused coffee, and rose to go on deck. + +Then, abruptly, Saltash stayed him. "Larpent, wait a minute--unless +you're in a hurry! Have a cigar with me!" + +Larpent paused, looking across at the dark, restless face with the air of +a man making a minute calculation. "Shall we smoke on deck, my lord?" he +said at length. + +Saltash sprang up as though he moved on wires. "Yes, all right. Get the +cigars, Murray!" he commanded the steward; and to Larpent as the man went +to obey, "That's decent of you. Thought you were going to refuse. I was +damned offensive a while back. Accept my apologies! Fact is--I'm fed up +with this show. Sorry if I disappoint you, but I'm going home." + +"You never disappoint me, my lord," said Larpent, with his enigmatical +smile. + +Saltash gave him a keen look and uttered a laugh that was also not +without its edge. "I like you, Larpent," he said. "You always tell the +truth. Well, let's go! We shan't make Jamaica this trip, but it doesn't +matter. In any case, it's a shame to miss the spring in England." + +"Or the Spring Meetings?" suggested Larpent, as he chose his cigar. + +"Quite so," said Saltash, almost with relief. "My old trainer--the man +who bought my racing-stud--always looks for me about now. You ought to +meet him by the way. He is another speaker of cruel truths." + +He thrust a hand through his captain's arm as they left the saloon, and +they went on deck together. Though Larpent never made any sign of +resentment, yet was Saltash never wholly at his ease when he knew that he +had taxed his forbearance until he had made amends. He took the trouble +to make himself unusually agreeable as they settled down to their smoke. + +It was a night of glorious stars, the sea one vast stretch of silver +ripples, through which the yacht ran smoothly, leaving a wide white trail +behind her. Saltash lay in a deck-chair with his face to the sky, but his +attitude was utterly lacking in the solid repose that characterized his +companion. He smoked his cigar badly, with impatient pulls. When it was +half gone, he suddenly swore and flung it overboard. + +"Larpent," he said, breaking a silence, "if you were a damned +rotter--like me--what should you do with yourself?" + +Larpent turned his head and quietly surveyed him. "I shouldn't run a home +for waifs and strays," he said deliberately. + +Saltash made a sharp movement. "Then I suppose you'd leave 'em in the +gutter to starve," he said, with suppressed vehemence. + +"No, I shouldn't. I'd pay someone else--someone who wasn't what you +called yourself just now--to look after 'em." Larpent's voice was +eminently practical if somewhat devoid of sympathy. "Gutter-snipes are +damned quick to pick up--things they ought not," he observed dryly. + +Saltash stirred uncomfortably in his chair as though something pricked +him. "Think I'm a contaminating influence?" he said. + +Larpent shrugged his shoulders. "It's not for me to say. All diseases are +not catching--any more than they are incurable." + +"Ho!" Saltash laughed suddenly and rather bitterly. "Are you +suggesting--a cure?" + +Larpent turned his head back again and puffed a cloud of smoke upwards. +"There's a cure for most things," he observed. + +"Can the Ethiopian change his skin?" gibed Saltash. + +Larpent was silent for a space. Then: "A painful process no doubt!" he +said. "But more wonderful things have happened." + +"Pshaw!" said Saltash. + +Nevertheless when Larpent rose a little later and bade him good-night, he +reached up a couple of fingers in careless comradeship. + +"Good-night, old fellow! Thanks for putting up with me! Sure you don't +want to kick me?" + +"Not when you're kicking yourself," said Larpent with a grim hint of +humour. + +He took the extended fingers and received a wiry handclasp that caused +him faint surprise. But then, he reflected as he went away, he had always +known Saltash to be a queer devil, oddly balanced, curiously impulsive, +strangely irresponsible, possessing through all a charm which seldom +failed to hold its own. He realized by instinct that Saltash was +wrestling with himself that night, but, though he knew him better than +did many, he would not have staked anything on the result. There were two +selves in Saltash and, in Larpent's opinion, one was as strong as the +other. + +It was nearly an hour later that Saltash, prowling to and fro in the +starlight, became suddenly aware of a figure, small and slight, with +gleaming brass buttons, standing behind his vacant chair. He turned +sharply to look at it, some inexplicable emotion twitching his dark face. +Then abruptly he moved towards it, stood for a second as one in doubt, +then turned and sat down in silence. + +But as he settled himself he stretched forth an arm with a snap of the +fingers, and in a flash Toby was kneeling by his side. The arm closed +around him like a spring, and Toby uttered a low, tense sob and hid his +face. + +Thereafter for a while there was no sound beside the throb of engines and +wash of water. Saltash sat absolutely motionless with eyes half-closed. +Save for the vitality of his hold, he might have been on the verge of +slumber. And Toby, crouched with his head in his hands, was as a carven +image, neither stirring nor seeming to breathe. + +The man moved at length, flicking his eyes open as though some unseen +force had prodded him into action. He spoke with a brevity that might +have denoted some sternness but for the close grip of his arm. + +"Have you been sulking all this time?" + +Toby started at his voice and burrowed a little deeper. "No, sir." + +"Well, why didn't you come before?" said Saltash. + +"I was--afraid," whispered Toby piteously. + +"Afraid! Why on earth?" Saltash's hand suddenly found and fondled +the fair head. His speech was no longer curt, but gentle, with a +half-quizzical tenderness. "Aren't you rather an ass, boy? What was +there to be afraid of?" + +Toby could not tell him. He only, after a moment, slipped down in a +sitting position by Saltash's side and rested with more assurance against +the encircling arm. + +"Come! I didn't hurt you much," said Saltash. + +"No, sir. You didn't hurt me--at all." Toby stammered a little. +"You--you--you meant--not to hurt me, didn't you?" + +"I must hit harder next time evidently," observed Saltash, with a squeeze +of the narrow shoulders. + +"No, sir--no, sir! There shan't be--a next time!" Toby assured him with +nervous vehemence. "I only did it just to see--just to see--I'll never do +it again, sir." + +"Just to see what?" asked Saltash curiously. + +But again Toby could not explain himself, and he did not press him. + +"Well, you didn't do it at all well," he remarked. "I shouldn't certainly +make a profession of it if I were you. It's plainly not your _metier_." + +He paused, but with the air of having something more to say. Toby waited +silently. + +It came with a jerk and a grimace, as if some inner force compelled. "I +can't talk pi-jaw--on this subject or any other. You see--I'm a rotter +myself." + +"You, sir!" Toby lifted his head suddenly and stared at him with eyes +that blazed passionately blue in the starlight. "Don't believe it!" he +said. "It isn't true." + +Saltash grinned a little. His face had the dreary look of something lost +that a monkey's sometimes wears. "You needn't believe it, son, if you +don't want to," he said. "But it's true all the same. That's why I gave +you that licking, see? Just to emphasize the difference between us." + +"It isn't true!" Toby asserted again almost fiercely. "I'd kill anyone +else that said so." + +"Oh, you needn't do that!" said Saltash, with kindly derision. "Thanks +all the same, my turkey-cock! If I ever need your protection I'll be sure +to ask for it." He flicked the young face with his finger. "But you're +not to follow my example, mind. You've got to run straight. You're young +enough to make it worth while, and--I'll see you have a chance." + +"But you'll keep me with you, sir," said Toby swiftly. "You'll keep +me--always--with you!" + +"Ah!" Saltash's brows twisted oddly for a second. He seemed to ponder the +matter. "I can't say off-hand what I'm going to do with you," he said. +"You're--a bit of a problem, you know, Toby." + +"Yes, sir. I know. I know." Toby's voice was quick with agitation. "But +you won't send me away from you! Promise you won't send me away!" + +"Can't promise anything," said Saltash. "Look here! I think there's been +enough of this. You'd better go to bed." + +But Toby was clinging fast to his hand. He spoke between quivering lips. +"Please, sir, you said you'd bought me body and soul. You can't mean to +chuck me away--after that! Please, sir, I'll do anything--anything under +the sun--for you. And you--you can kick me--do anything to me--and I'll +never say a word. I'm just yours--for as long as I live. Please, +sir--please, sir--don't send me away! I--I'd rather die than that." + +He laid his head suddenly down upon the hand he held so tenaciously and +began to sob, fighting desperately to stifle all sound. + +Saltash sat for a few moments in utter silence and immobility. Then, +abruptly, in a tense whisper, he spoke: + +"Toby, you little fool, stop it--stop it, do you hear?--and go below!" + +The words held a queer urgency. He raised himself as he uttered them, +seeking to free his hand though with all gentleness from the clinging +clasp. + +"Get up, boy!" he said. "Get up and go to bed! What? Oh, don't cry! Pull +yourself together! Toby, do you hear?" + +Toby lifted a white, strained face. His eyes looked enormous in the dim +light. "Yes, sir. All right, sir," he jerked out, and stumbled trembling +to his feet. "I know I'm a fool, sir. I'm sorry. I can't help it. No one +was ever decent to me--till you came. I--shall just go under now, sir." + +"Oh, stop it!" Saltash spoke almost violently. "Can't you see--that's +just what I want to prevent? You don't want to go to the devil, I +suppose?" + +Toby made a passionate gesture that was curiously unboylike. "I'd go to +hell and stay there for ever--if you were there!" he said. + +"Good God!" said Saltash. + +He got up in his sudden fashion and moved away, went to the rail and +stood there for a space with his face to the rippling sheen of water. +Finally he turned and looked at the silent figure waiting beside his +chair, and a very strange smile came over his dark features. He came +back, not without a certain arrogance, and tapped Toby on the shoulder. + +"All right," he said. "Stay with me and be damned if you want to! I +daresay it would come to the same thing in the end." + +Toby drew himself together with a swift movement. "That means you'll keep +me, sir?" + +His eyes, alight and eager, looked up to Saltash with something that was +not far removed from adoration in their shining earnestness. + +The strange smile still hovered about Saltash's face; a smile in which +cynicism and some vagrant, half-stifled emotion were oddly mingled. + +"Yes, I'll keep you," he said, and paused, looking at him oddly. + +Toby's eyes, very wide open, intensely bright, looked straight back. "For +good, sir?" he said anxiously. + +And Saltash laughed, a brief, mocking laugh. "For better, for worse, my +Toby!" he said. "Now--go!" + +He smote him a light friendly blow on the shoulder and flung round on his +heel. + +Toby went, very swiftly, without looking back. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE ABYSS + + +They sighted the English shore a few days later on an evening of mist and +rain. The sea was grey and dim, the atmosphere cold and inhospitable. + +"Just like England!" said Saltash. "She never gushes over her prodigals." + +He was dining alone in the saloon with Toby behind his chair, Larpent +being absent on the bridge. + +"Don't you like England, sir?" said Toby. + +"I adore her," said Saltash with his most hideous grimace. "But I don't +go to her for amusement." + +Toby came forward to fill his glass with liqueur. "Too strait-laced, +sir?" he suggested with the suspicion of a smile. + +Saltash nodded with a sidelong glance at the young face bent over the +decanter. "Too limited in many ways, my Toby," he said. "But at the same +time useful in certain emergencies. A stern mother perhaps, but a wise +one on the whole. You, for instance--she will be the making of you." + +A slight tremor went through Toby. He set down the decanter and stepped +back. "Of me, sir?" he said. + +Saltash nodded again. He was fingering the stem of his glass, his +queer eyes dancing a little. "We've got to make a respectable citizen +of you--somehow," he said. + +"Do you think that matters, sir?" said Toby. + +Saltash raised his glass. "You won't always be a boy of sixteen, you +know, Toby," he said lightly. "We've got to think of the future--whether +we want to or not." + +"I don't see why, sir," said Toby. + +"You see, you're young," said Saltash, and drank with the air of one who +drinks a toast. + +Suddenly he turned in his chair, the glass still in his hand. + +"Our last night on board!" he said, with a royal gesture of invitation. +"You shall drink with me." + +Toby's face flushed burningly. He hung back. "Not--not--from your glass, +sir!" he said. "Not--liqueur!" + +"Why not? Afraid?" mocked Saltash. + +Toby was silent. His hand closed involuntarily upon the back of his +master's chair. The flush died out of his face. + +Saltash sat and looked at him for a few seconds, still with that dancing +gleam in his eyes. Then abruptly he moved, rose with one knee upon the +chair, lifted the glass to Toby's lips. + +"Afraid?" he said again, speaking softly as one speaks to a frightened +child. + +Toby raised a hand that sought to take the glass but closed instead +nervously upon Saltash's wrist. He drank in response to Saltash's +unspoken insistence, looking straight at him the while. + +Then oddly he smiled. "No, not afraid, sir," he said. "Only--lest I might +not bring you luck." + +"Oh, don't fret yourself on that account!" said Saltash. "I'm not used to +any luck." + +Toby's eyes widened. "I thought you had--everything, sir," he said. + +Saltash laughed and set down the empty glass. "_Au contraire, mon cher_," +he said. "I am no richer than you are. Like Tantalus, I can never quench +my thirst. Like many a better man than I, I see the stars, but I never +reach them." + +"Does anybody?" said Toby in the tone of one not expecting an answer. + +Saltash laughed briefly, enigmatically. "I believe some people soar. But +they generally come down hard in the end. Whereas those who always crawl +on the earth haven't far to fall. Now look here, Toby, you and I have got +to have a talk." + +"Yes, sir," said Toby, blinking rather rapidly. + +Saltash was watching him with a faint smile in his eyes, half-derisive +and half-tender. "What are you going to be, Toby?" he said. "It all turns +on that." + +Toby's hand still gripped the back of his chair. He stood up very +straight, facing him. "That is for you to decide, sir," he said. + +"Is it?" said Saltash, and again his eyes gleamed a little. "Is it for me +to decide?" + +"Yes, sir. For you alone." There was no flinching in Toby's look now. His +eyes were wide and very steady. + +Saltash's mouth twitched as if he repressed some passing emotion. "You +mean--just that?" he asked, after a moment. + +"Just that, sir," said Toby, with a slight quickening of the breath. "I +mean I am--at your disposal alone." + +Saltash took him suddenly by the shoulder and looked at him closely. +"Toby!" he said. "Aren't you making--rather a fool of yourself?" + +"No, sir!" Swiftly, with unexpected vehemence, Toby made answer. "I'm +doing--the only thing possible. But if you--if you--if you--" + +"Well?" Saltash said. "If I what?" + +"If you want to get rid of me--at any time," Toby said, commanding +himself with fierce effort, "I'll go, sir--I'll go!" + +"And where to?" Saltash's eyes were no longer derisive; they held +something that very few had ever seen there. + +Toby made a quick gesture of the hands, and dropped them flat at his +sides. "I'll get rid of myself--then, sir," he said, with sudden chill +pride. "That won't be very difficult. And I'll do it--so that you won't +even know." + +Saltash stood up abruptly. "Toby, you are quite unique!" he said. "Superb +too in your funny little way. Your only excuse is that you're young. Does +it never occur to you that you've attached yourself to the wrong person?" + +"No, sir," breathed Toby. + +"You're not afraid to stake all you've got on a bad card?" pursued +Saltash, still curiously watching him. + +"No, sir," he said again; and added with his faint, unboyish smile, "I +haven't much to lose anyway." + +Saltash's hand tightened upon him. He was smiling also, but the gleam in +his eyes had turned to leaping, fitful flame. "Well," he said slowly, "I +have never yet refused--a gift from the gods." + +And there he stopped, for suddenly, drowning all speech, there arose a +din that seemed to set the whole world rocking; and in a moment there +came a frightful shock that pitched them both headlong to the floor. + +Saltash fell as a monkey falls, catching at one thing after another to +save himself, landing eventually on his knees in pitch darkness with one +hand still gripped upon Toby's thin young arm. But Toby had struck his +head against a locker and had gone down stunned and helpless. + +The din of a siren above them filled the world with hideous clamour as +Saltash recovered himself. "Damn them!" he ejaculated savagely. "Do they +want to deafen us as well as send us to perdition?" + +Then very suddenly it stopped, leaving a void that was instantly filled +with lesser sounds. There arose a confusion of voices, of running feet, a +hubbub of escaping steam, and a great rush of water. + +Saltash dragged himself up in the darkness, sought to drag Toby also, +found him a dead weight, stooped and lifted him with wiry strength. +He trod among broken glass and plates as he straightened himself. The +noise above them was increasing. He flung the limp form over his shoulder +and began desperately to claw his way up a steep slant towards the +saloon-door and the companion-way. Sound and instinct guided him, for the +darkness was complete. But he was not the man to die like a trapped +animal while the most slender way of escape remained. Hampered as he was, +he made for the open with set teeth and terrible foreign oaths of which +he was utterly unconscious. + +Whether that fierce struggle for freedom could ever have ended in success +single-handed, however, was a point which he was not destined to decide, +for after a space of desperate effort which no time could measure, there +suddenly shone the gleam of an electric torch in front of him, and he saw +the opening but a few feet away. + +"Saltash!" cried a voice, piercing the outer din, "Saltash!" + +"Here!" yelled back Saltash, still fighting for foothold and finding it +against the leg of the table, "That you, Larpent? How long have we got?" + +"Seconds only!" said Larpent briefly. "Give me the child!" + +"No! Just give me a hand, that's all! Hang on tight! It'll be a pull." + +Saltash flung himself forward again, his free hand outstretched, slipped +and nearly fell on his face, then was caught by a vice-like grip that +drew him upward with grim strength. In a moment he was braced against the +frame of the door, almost standing on it, the saloon gaping below him--a +black pit of destruction. Larpent's torch showed the companion stairs +practically perpendicular above them. + +"Go on!" said Larpent. "Better give me the child. It's you that matters." + +"Get out, damn you!" said Saltash, and actually grinned as he began to +climb with his burden still hanging upon his shoulder. + +Larpent came behind him, holding his torch to light the way. They climbed +up into a pandemonium indescribable, a wild torrent of sound. + +There was light here that shone in a great flare through billows of fog, +showing the monster form of a great vessel towering above them with only +a few yards of mist-wreathed water between. The deck on which they stood +sloped upwards at an acute angle, and still from below there came the +clamour of escaping steam accompanied by a spasmodic throbbing that was +like the futile beating of giant wings against Titanic bars. + +A knot of men were struggling to lower a boat by the ghostly glare that +lit the night about them, clambering and slipping against the rails, +while a voice from beyond the fog-curtain yelled through a megaphone +unintelligible commands. + +All these things were registered upon Saltash's brain, his quick +perception leaping from point to point with a mental agility that was +wholly outside all conscious volition on his part. He was driven by +circumstance as a bird is driven by storm, and he went before it +undismayed, missing no chance of refuge. + +A life-buoy hanging beside the hatch caught his eye as he glanced swiftly +around and in a second he pounced upon it. Toby slipped from his shoulder +as he bent, and slipping awoke. But he only lay and stared with dazed +eyes at the man frantically unlashing the rope, as one who looked on from +afar. + +Then Larpent was with them again. He dragged Toby to his feet, and in a +flash Saltash turned, the life-buoy on his arm. + +"What the devil are you doing?" + +Larpent pointed. "They've got the boat free. Go--while you can!" + +But Saltash barely glanced across. He put the life-buoy over Toby's head +and shoulders, and began to wind the rope around him. It did not need a +glance to know that the boat would never get away. + +At his action Toby gasped, and sudden understanding awoke in his eyes. He +dragged one arm free, and made as if he would cling to Saltash. + +"Keep me with you, sir!" he cried out wildly. "Don't make me go alone!" + +Saltash gripped the clutching hand, dropping the end of rope. It trailed +down, and Larpent caught it, flung it round Saltash's body, and knotted +it while he was lifting Toby over the rail. + +Then for a second Saltash hung, one hand still gripping Toby's, the other +holding to the rail of his sinking yacht, the two of them poised side by +side above the abyss. + +"You'll save yourself, Larpent!" he cried. "I shall want you." + +And with that he turned suddenly to his shivering companion and +actually smiled into the terrified eyes. "Come on, Toby!" he said. "We +go--together!" + +He flung his leg over with the words, and leapt straight downwards. + +Toby's shriek sounded through the tumult as they went into the grey +depths. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +LARPENT'S DAUGHTER + + +The sinking of _The Night Moth_ after being in collision with the liner, +_Corfe Castle_, bound for Brazil, was an event of sufficient importance +to be given a leading place in the newspapers of the following day. Lord +Saltash was well-known as a private yachtsman, and the first account +which reported him amongst the drowned was received with widespread +regret throughout that circle in which he was a familiar figure. Then at +a later hour came its contradiction, and his friends smiled and remarked +that he had the facility of an eel for getting out of tight corners, and +that they would never believe him dead till they had been to his funeral. + +Long before the publication of the second report, Saltash was seated in +the captain's cabin on board the _Corfe Castle_, with a strong brandy and +soda before him, giving a brief and vigorous account of himself and his +company. Yes, he was Charles Burchester, Viscount Saltash, owner of the +private yacht, _The Night Moth_. He was returning from Valrosa alone with +his captain and his crew. They had been cruising in the Atlantic with the +idea of going south, but he had recently changed his mind and decided +to go home. He had not expected such damnable luck as to be run down in +home waters, but he supposed that Fate was against him. He only asked now +to be put ashore as soon as possible, being for the moment heartily sick +of sea-travel. This with his most rueful grimace which Captain Beaumont +of the _Corfe Castle_ received with gravely official sympathy. + +"Well, I hope you don't blame us for your bad luck," he said. "We might +have been sunk ourselves." + +"I never blame anyone but the devil for that," said Saltash generously. +"And as you managed to pick us all up I am glad on the whole that you +weren't." + +And then he turned sharply at a knock on the door behind him to see a +lean, lank man enter who peered at him curiously through screwed-up eyes +as though he had never seen anything like him before. + +Captain Beaumont introduced him. "This is Dr. Hurst. He has come to +report. Well, doctor? I hope you bring good news." + +Dr. Hurst came forward to the table, still looking very attentively at +Saltash. + +The latter's odd eyes challenged him with royal self-assurance. "Well? +What is the news?" he questioned. "Fished for a sprat and caught a +whale--or is it t'other way round?" + +The doctor cleared his throat and turned to the captain. "Yes, my report +is good on the whole," he said. "None of the men are seriously injured, +thanks to your prompt rescue measures. Captain Larpent is still +unconscious; he is suffering from concussion. But I believe he will +recover. And--and--" he hesitated, looking again at Saltash--"the--the +person whose life you saved--" + +Saltash leaned back in his chair, grinning mischievously. "To be sure! +The person--whose life I saved! What of that person, Dr. Hurst?" + +"Had you a passenger?" interrupted the captain. "I understood you saved a +cabin-boy." + +"Pray continue!" he said lightly. "What of the cabin-boy? None the worse, +I hope?" + +The doctor's lank figure drew together with a stiff movement of distaste. +"I see," he said, "that you are aware of a certain fact which I must +admit has given me a somewhat unpleasant surprise." + +Saltash turned abruptly to the captain. "You ask me if I had a +passenger," he said, speaking briefly, with a hint of hauteur. "Before +you also begin to be unpleasantly surprised, let me explain that I had a +child on board who did not belong to the ship's company." + +"A child?" Captain Beaumont looked at him in astonishment. "I thought--I +understood--Do you mean the boy?" + +"Not a boy, no,--a girl!" Saltash's voice was suddenly very suave; he was +smiling still, but there was something rather formidable about his smile. +"A young girl, Captain Beaumont, but amply protected, I assure you. It +was our last night on board. She was masquerading in the state-cabin in a +page's livery when you struck us. But for Larpent we should have been +trapped there like rats when the yacht went down. He came and hauled us +out, and we saved the child between us." He turned again to the doctor, +his teeth gleaming fox-like between his smiling lips. "Really, I am sorry +to disappoint you," he said. "But the truth is seldom as highly-coloured +as our unpleasant imaginings. The child is--Larpent's daughter." He rose +with the words, still suavely smiling. "And now, if she is well enough, I +am going to ask you to take me to her. It will be better for her to hear +about her father from me than from a stranger." + +Though courteously uttered, his words contained a distinct command. The +doctor looked at him with the hostility born of discomfiture, but he +raised no protest. Somehow Saltash was invincible at that moment. + +"Certainly you can see her if you wish," he said stiffly. "In fact, she +has been asking for you." + +"Ah!" said Saltash, and turned with ceremony to the captain. "Have I your +permission to go, sir?" + +"Of course--of course!" the captain said. "I shall hope to see you again +later, Lord Saltash." + +"Thank you," said Saltash, and relaxed into his sudden grin. "I should +have thought you would be glad to get rid of me before my bad luck +spreads any further." + +The _Corfe Castle_, herself slightly damaged, was putting back to +Southampton to land the victims of the disaster, and to obtain some +necessary repairs. The weather was thickening, and progress was slow, but +they expected to arrive before mid-day. Saltash, carelessly sauntering in +the doctor's wake, found himself the object of considerable interest on +the part of those passengers who were already up in the murk of the early +morning. He was stopped by several to receive congratulations upon his +escape, but he refused to be detained for long. He had business below, he +said, and the doctor was waiting. And so at last he came to a cabin at +the end of a long passage, at the door of which a kind-faced stewardess +met them and exchanged a few words with his guide. + +"Can I go in?" said Saltash, growing impatient. + +The woman looked at him with wonder and compassion in her eyes. "The poor +little thing is very upset," she said. "She lies and trembles, and has +hardly spoken at all except to ask for you." + +"Well, let me in!" said Saltash, suddenly imperious. "I've got something +to tell her." + +He had his way, for there was something about him that compelled just +then. He entered the cabin as a king might enter the apartment of a +slave, and he shut the door with decision upon those without. + +Then for a second--just for a second--he hesitated. "Toby!" he said. + +A meagre form sprang upright in the bunk at the sound of his voice. Two +bare, skinny arms reached out to him. Then with a single stride Saltash +was beside the bunk and was holding tightly to him a small, whimpering +creature that hid its face very deeply against his breast and clutched at +him piteously whenever he sought to raise it. + +Saltash bent his dark head over the fair one and spoke very gently, yet +with authority. "It's all right, child. I know. I've known all along! +Don't fret yourself! There's no need. I've got you under my protection. +You're safe." + +"You--know!" whispered the muffled voice--Toby's voice, but strangely +devoid of Toby's confidence. "What must you--think?" + +"I!" Saltash laughed a little. "I never think. I give +everyone--always--the benefit of the doubt; which is considerably more +than anyone ever gives me." + +"And--you saved my life!" gasped Toby "Why did you? Why did you?" + +"I wanted it," said Saltash promptly. "Now listen a moment! We've done +with this show. It's played out. We'll ring up on another. You've got to +change your name again. I'm telling everyone you're Larpent's daughter." + +That brought the fair head upwards very swiftly. The blue eyes with their +short black lashes looked straight up to his. "But--but--Captain +Larpent--" + +"Oh, never mind Larpent! I'll square him." Saltash's look flashed over +the pale, tear-stained face. His hold, though close, no longer compelled. +"Leave it all to me! Don't you fret! I'll square Larpent. I'll square +everybody. You lie low till they put us ashore! After that--do you think +you can--trust me?" + +He spoke with comically twisted eyebrows and a smile half-kindly and +half-quizzical. And the forlorn little creature in his arms turned with a +swooping, passionate movement, caught one of his hands and pressed it to +quivering lips. + +"I'll live--or die--for your sake!" the trembling voice told him. "I'm +just--yours." + +Saltash stopped abruptly and laid his face for a moment against the +shorn, golden head. Just for that moment a hint of emotion showed in his +strange eyes, but it was gone instantly. + +He raised himself again with a grimace of self-ridicule. "Well, look +here! Don't forget to play the game! Larpent--your daddy--is knocked out, +remember. He is unconscious for the present, but the doctor chap seems to +think he'll be all right. A nasty suspicious person that doctor, so watch +out! And let me see! What is Toby short for? I'd better know." + +"Antoinette," whispered the lips that still caressed his hand. + +"Antoinette!" Saltash's hand closed softly upon the pointed chin, softly +lifted it. "I think _Mignonette_ would suit you better," he said, in his +quick, caressing way. "It's time I chose a name for you, _ma chere_. I +shall call you that." + +"Or just Nonette of Nowhere," breathed the red lips, piteously smiling. +"That would suit me--best of all." + +"No--no!" said Saltash, and gently relinquished his hold. "Don't forget +that you are a favourite of the gods! That counts for something, my Toby. +They don't take up with everybody." + +"They haven't done much for me so far," said Toby, suddenly rebellious. + +"Hush!" said Saltash, with semi-comic warning. "You are too young to say +that." + +"I am--older than you think, sir," said Toby, colouring painfully and +turning from his look. + +"No, you're not!" Swiftly, with a certain arrogance, Saltash made answer. +"I know--how old you are, child. It is written in your eyes. They have +always told me--all I need to know." Then, very tenderly, as Toby's hands +covered them from his look: "_Mais, Mignonette_, they have never told me +anything that you could wish me not to know." + +He slipped his arm again about the slender shoulders and pressed them +closely for a moment. Then he stood up and turned to go. + +He was smiling as he passed out--the smile of the gambler who knows that +he holds a winning card. + + + + +PART II + + + + +CHAPTER I + +JAKE BOLTON + + +It was a week after the sinking of _The Night Moth_ that Saltash, very +immaculately dressed, with field-glasses slung over his shoulder, made +his first appearance since the disaster at a meeting on the Graydown +Race-course, a few miles from his ancient castle of Burchester. He was +looking very well pleased with himself and certainly none the worse for +the adventure as he sauntered among his friends, of whom a good many were +present. His ugly face and wiry figure were well-known at Graydown, and +he seemed sure of his welcome wherever he went. + +There had been a time years before when he had kept his own stud, and +racing had been his hobby. It had not held him for long. He was not the +man to pursue any one object for any length of time. With characteristic +volatility he had thrown up this amusement to follow others, but he had +never wholly abandoned his interest in the stud which had once been his. + +It was owned by one, Jake Bolton, a man of rugged exterior whose +integrity had become a proverb on the Turf. This man was Saltash's +erstwhile trainer, and a very curious bond existed between them. Utterly +unlike in every respect, the one as subtle as the other was simple, yet +the two men were friends. How it had come about neither of them quite +knew. When Saltash had been his employer, Jake Bolton had distrusted and +despised him, but by some means this attitude of his had become very +materially modified. He greeted Saltash now with the hand of friendship +which Saltash on his part was always ready to accept with a baffling +smile that was not wholly without irony. He was wont to say that any man +could make an enemy of him, but no man could keep him as such. Perhaps it +was that very volatility of his which made anything of the nature of +prolonged enmity an impossibility. He possessed also that maddening sense +of humour that laughs at deadly things. A good many people had tried to +take him seriously and had failed. He was never serious. As he used to +say with his mocking laugh, life was difficult enough without +complications of that sort. All he ever asked of it was a certain mead +of enjoyment. It was utterly unreasonable to expect anything else. +Happiness! What was it. A bursting bubble, no more. No lasting joy had +ever come his way, and he was fain to believe that such a thing did not +exist outside the covers of a book. + +Jake Bolton could have told him otherwise, but he and Saltash never spoke +of abstract things. Saltash might have seen the deep content in the man's +eyes, but if he had, he would probably have scoffed at it. In any case +there was certainly no denying that he and Bolton had been cast in +different moulds, and that which gave life-long satisfaction to the +latter would have held the former for possibly but a very brief period. +As a woman friend who knew him well had once said of him, Charles Rex was +too rapid a traveller to gather much upon the way. For though keen for +pleasure, he was too restless for its enjoyment when attained. But even +that friend had not fathomed all the possibilities of that strange +personality. Perhaps there was only one woman in the world who would ever +do that. + +It was a showery spring day, and the turf of the race-course shone with a +fresh greenness. Saltash strolled through the paddock to find Jake +Bolton, whistling a careless air as he went. Several stable-boys saluted +him as he passed, and finally a man he knew, Sam Vickers, Bolton's +right-hand man, came up and accosted him. + +"Are you looking for Mr. Bolton, my lord? He's round by the boxes with +Sir Bernard Brian. We've got our best two-year-old round there--Prince +Charlie his name is. He's by the old Hundredth Chance and Queen of the +Earth. Your lordship ought to see him. He is a royalty and no mistake; +tame as a dog too, and that knowing--well, there, you'd hardly believe +it, but we have to talk in French sometimes so as he shan't know what we +say!" + +Saltash chuckled. "You must let me hear you, Sam. All right. I'll go +round. Ah! Here is Sir Bernard! Hullo, Bunny, my boy! You, is it? Where's +the boss?" + +A black-haired, black-eyed lad of about three-and-twenty, handsome, +spare, and very upright, had come suddenly round the corner of a +building. He greeted Saltash with enthusiasm. + +"Why, Charlie! I'm awfully pleased to see you! We all thought you were +done for. How are you, I say? It was rotten luck for you to lose the poor +old _Night Moth_ like that. Hope she was decently insured. And you're +none the worse?" + +"Not a mite!" laughed Saltash. "How are you? As skimpy a bag of bones as +ever?" + +"Oh, dash it! I've grown!" protested Bunny. "I'm as tall as you are +anyway." + +"Oh, you're long enough," chaffed Saltash. "But you're too damn slim! I +should think Maud could get you through her wedding-ring if she tried." + +"Shut up!" growled Bunny who was somewhat sensitive on the point of +physical shortcomings. "I'm well enough, so what does it matter? Are you +coming round to see Maud when this show is over?" + +"Depends," grinned Saltash. + +"What's it depend on?" Bunny linked an arm in his and drew him forward; +they were friends of many years' standing. + +Saltash looked at him with his odd eyes that always seemed to be +speculating like a monkey's, as to how far his next jump would carry him. +"Depends upon Jake of course. Your good brother-in-law doesn't always +invite the wolf into the fold, _mon cher_." + +"As if you needed an invitation!" ejaculated Bunny impatiently. "Well, I +invite you anyway. I know Maud will be awfully disappointed if you don't +come and tell her all about your adventure. We were talking about you +only this morning." + +"Really!" said Saltash. "Would it be rude to ask what you were saying?" + +Bunny's thin face flushed. "You're welcome to know so far as I'm +concerned," he said bluntly. "I always stick up for you, Charlie." + +"Do you? _Mais vraiment!_" protested Saltash. "I am touched beyond words. +And what says Brother Jake to that?" + +"Oh, Jake says I'm an ass, but he's quite decent about you, +Charlie,--rather fond of you in fact. Don't run away with that idea!" +begged Bunny, turning still redder. "Only people jaw a lot about you, you +know. No one ever can be content to mind their own business." + +"He'd be a fool who was," said Saltash. "There's no such thing as +independent action in this world. We all hang to each other like swarming +bees. So you've been sticking up for me, have you? And what says Sister +Maud?" + +Bunny broke into a sudden laugh. "Oh, she's decided to reserve judgment. +You'll have to come and see her. You really must. And the kids too--four +of 'em now. The eldest is a darling." + +"Eileen! Oh, I know Eileen," said Saltash. "I was actually allowed to +have her to tea once at the Castle. I am not supposed to have such a +venomous effect upon quite small girls as upon young men of two or three +and twenty." + +"Oh, shut up!" Bunny growled again. "There's Jake, look! Come and speak +to him!" + +There was nothing ornamental about Jake Bolton. Short, thick-set, +powerful as a bull and with something of a bull's unswerving contempt for +all obstacles in his path, with red-brown eyes that were absolutely level +in their regard and mercilessly keen, such was the man who had married +Maud Brian eight years before, practically in the teeth of Saltash who +had wooed her in her girlhood. There was no feud between them. Their +enmity was long since dead and buried. Saltash could be intolerably +malicious and even vindictive when the mood took him, but his moods never +lasted. And as for Bolton, since he had won and still possessed his +heart's desire, he could afford to be generous. + +His greeting was generous now, but it was not wholly without reserve. He +gave Saltash a square hand-grip before he uttered a word. + +Then: "Glad you're safe and sound, my lord," he said, in a voice that was +curiously soft and deliberate. + +"That's uncommon kind of you, Jake," laughed Saltash, with his royal air +of graciousness. "I share the sentiment. I know you would all have been +heart-broken if I hadn't turned up again. How is Maud?" + +"Very well--if she doesn't work too hard. I have to keep her in order in +that respect," said Jake Bolton with a sudden smile that swept all the +somewhat dominant lines from his face. + +Saltash grinned in sympathy. "You always were a bully, but I'll bet she +gets her own way all the same. So you've got a boy at last! Hope it's a +good one!" + +"He'd better be, hadn't he, Jake?" struck in Bunny. "The imp is six +months old now and goes for a canter on The Hundredth Chance every day +when I'm at home. You actually haven't seen him yet, Charlie? What a +rotter you were to be away all the winter!" + +"Well, I'm home now anyway," said Saltash, with a comical glance at Jake. +"Am I to be allowed to call and view the latest acquisition?" + +Jake was looking straight at him. "Are you--alone at the Castle, my +lord?" he asked after a moment. + +Saltash began to laugh. "Of course I'm alone! What did you expect? Ah, I +see!" His glance flashed to Bunny. "Yes, I am quite alone--most +conspicuously and virtuously unaccompanied. Come and see for yourself! +Search the Castle from turret-chamber to dungeon! You will find nothing +but the most monastic emptiness. I've turned into a hermit. Haven't they +made that discovery yet? My recent deliverance from what I must admit was +a decidedly awkward predicament in the Channel has sobered me to such an +extent that on my life I begin to doubt if I shall ever be anything but a +dull dog again. Yes, that's the truth, Jake. You can take it or leave it. +But I'm coming to see Maud in any case. When is my presence least likely +to cause you inconvenience?" + +"Oh, damn it, Jake!" broke in Bunny with sudden heat. "You know Maud said +you were to ask him to dine if he turned up." + +"You shut up, my son!" commanded Jake with absolute serenity. "It's not +any business of yours anyway. We'll send you to bed before dinner if you +aren't mighty careful." + +Bunny laughed at the threat, but his sallow boyish face coloured +sensitively notwithstanding. + +Saltash laughed also. "Oh, you needn't do that, Jake. I'm as harmless as +any sucking dove, I assure you. You'll have to put up with me now. When +shall I come?" + +"Come tonight!" said Jake with quiet decision. "Eight o'clock if that +suits you. Afraid I must go now. Bunny, take his lordship to see Prince +Charlie!" + +He lifted a hand in salute and turned away--a man of no pretensions +either social or intellectual, yet who knew how to hold his own with high +and low alike. + +"Keeps you in order still, does he?" gibed Saltash, as he watched him go. +"You're getting too old to be on a leading-string, _mon cher_." + +Bunny frowned at the careless words. "You don't know him. He's not that +sort of ass. We're pals, Jake and I, and I'm proud of it." + +"Of course you are!" said Saltash comfortably. "Didn't I tell you long +ago that he was a gentleman? It's the way he's made. Hewn out of raw +material, but the real thing and no mistake. You must never quarrel with +him on my account, Bunny, my lad. It would be very poor economy on your +part." + +"I shan't do that," said Bunny. "But he's got to do you justice. Maud +says the same." + +Saltash laughed aloud. "But, my dear chap, nobody ever does that! I don't +myself!" + +Bunny looked at him with affection. "You always have tried to make +yourself out a worse rotter than you really are, haven't you, Charlie? +I always tell Jake so." + +"No, it's not my doing," said Saltash lightly. "That's the rest of the +world, _mon ami_. They like their pictures highly coloured. So--_pourquoi +pas_?" + +He snapped his fingers and laughed, and they passed on together with +careless jesting and friendly chaff. Saltash had always been kind to +young Bernard Brian. The boy had been a helpless cripple in his +childhood, and he had developed a keen appreciation for all kindness +during those days which nothing could now efface. Whatever Saltash's +morals, he was a friend, and as such Bunny never failed to treat him. +They spent the rest of the afternoon together in and out of the +enclosure, and when amidst wild enthusiasm Prince Charlie won his +maiden race, the two were waiting side by side to congratulate Jake +as he led the victor in. Saltash departed soon afterwards and motored +back to Burchester Castle to dress. And then Bunny, half-laughing, +half-apologetic, turned to his brother-in-law. + +"I can't help being decent to Charlie, Jake. I don't care a damn what +they say." + +Jake gave him a straight look from under his rough red brows. "I'm not +blaming you," he said. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +MAUD BOLTON + + +Someone was singing a baby lullaby very softly in the beautiful room with +the bay window that looked straight over the rolling down. It was a very +sweet voice that sang, and sometimes the low notes were a little +tremulous as though some tender emotion thrilled through the song. The +singer was lying back in a rocking-chair close to the bay-window with her +baby in her arms. + +Beyond the long, undulating slope there stretched a silver line of sea +that gleamed with a still radiance in the light of the dying day. And +Maud Bolton, who once had been that proud and desolate girl Maud Brian, +gazed out upon it with happy, dreaming eyes. It had been a hot spring day +and she was tired, but it was a pleasant weariness, and the little body +that nestled on her breast brought sheer rapture to her woman's heart. It +was the baby boy for whom for years she had longed in vain. + +There came a slight sound at an open door behind her that led to another +room. She turned her head with a quick smile. + +"Jake!" + +He came, treading softly, and stood beside her. The failing light on his +rugged face showed it strangely softened, almost transformed. + +He stooped after a moment and kissed her. "Why isn't the little 'un in +bed?" he said, with his eyes on the sleeping baby-face. + +The smile still lingered about her lips. "I thought he and I would both +of us have a little treat tonight. Do you know he is six months old +today?" + +Jake's square fingers caressed the baby's placid forehead. "Yes, I know," +he said. + +Maud uttered a faint sigh. "And so--according to the law of the Medes and +Persians--he is not going to sleep with his mother any longer. He is to +be banished to the nursery. But I thought I would put him to sleep +first." + +Jake's look came to her face. "There's no law that I know of," he said in +his slow way. "Keep him in here if you want to!" + +She lifted her eyes to his--beautiful eyes, deeply violet. "Thank you, +Jake. But it's all settled, and he won't mind." + +"He doesn't matter so much," said Jake. + +She smiled and laid her cheek against his arm. "No, it's all right. Nurse +understands him. I won't have him again unless he's ill. I should have to +then." + +"Of course," said Jake. He bent down. "Let me have him! I'll take him to +the nursery." + +"Ah, don't wake him!" she said. + +Jake's arms encompassed the little bundle and lifted it from her. The +baby made a small noise that sounded like a protest, but he did not open +his eyes. + +"Don't you come!" said Jake. "I'll fix him." + +And with light tread he bore his son away. Maud looked after him with a +touch of wistfulness, but she did not move, and in a few minutes he came +back to her, knelt beside her, and gathered her strongly into his arms. + +"My girl!" he said softly. "My own girl!" + +She clasped him round the neck, laying her head against him without +words. + +"Tired?" he said. + +"No--no--not really! Too happy to complain anyway." She spoke in a +whisper as if unwilling to break her silence. + +"You want more help," he said. + +She lifted her face and kissed his neck. "No, Jake dear. I don't want the +children taken out of my hands entirely. Whatever should I do without +them?" + +"Look after me for a change," suggested Jake. + +She laughed a muffled laugh with her lips raised to his. "Do I neglect +you, Jake?" + +"No," he said. "You're the best wife a man ever had. I believe I'm first +with you--even now." + +"Always--always first," she whispered against the lips that pressed her +own. + +He held her very closely to him for a space in silence. He had loved her +with a fiery worship from the first moment of their meeting, but the +wealth of her answering love still filled his soul with wonder. Over and +over again he would tell himself that he was not her sort, but when he +held her thus throbbing against his heart, he knew beyond all questioning +that they were one. + +"You haven't told me a single thing about today's meeting," she murmured +presently. + +Jake began to smile. "On my soul I had forgotten all about it. Prince +Charlie has gained his first laurels. He won by two and a half lengths." + +"Oh, Jake, how splendid! How proud you must be! I'm tremendously glad. +And what about Charlie? Was he there to see his namesake carry all before +him?" + +"Saltash, do you mean? Yes, he was there." Jake's tone was somewhat dry. + +Maud drew back a little to look at him. "I hope you asked him to dine," +she said. + +"Oh yes," said Jake, with a touch of grimness. "Bunny saw to that on your +behalf. He considers--and with reason--that you have a right to ask +whoever you like to your own house." + +"Jake!" Maud suddenly sat upright, her eyes burning like stars. "If Bunny +said that--" + +"He didn't," said Jake. + +"Or hinted it even--it was perfectly hateful of him! I shall go and tell +him so!" + +Maud made as if she would release herself from his hold, but he +restrained her. + +"No--no, my girl! You keep calm! I can hold my own with Bunny, and he +didn't mean any harm. I asked Saltash all right, and he's coming." + +"Against your will," said Maud. + +"No. Against my judgment, maybe. Not against my will. I've no objection +to entertaining him if you wish it. You and I don't quarrel over trifles +like Saltash." + +Jake's tone was humorously tender. He patted her flushed cheek in a +conciliatory fashion. She turned very swiftly and kissed his hand. + +"Thank you, Jake--darling. But--you are master in this house, remember. +No one enters it without your consent." + +"Not even Saltash?" smiled Jake. + +"Not even--Bunny!" said Maud, still breathing resentment. + +He took her gently by the shoulder. "Look here, my girl! I won't have you +say a word to the boy about this, see? I didn't know you'd flare up like +that or I shouldn't have spoken. He didn't mean it that way. If he had, +I'd have punched his head. And after all," his eyes smiled suddenly into +hers, "I do live on my wife's bounty, don't I? Wouldn't I be driving cows +on the other side of the Atlantic without it?" + +"No," Maud said. "You'd be owning your own ranch by this time, +and--and--and generally licking creation, Jake, as only you know how." + +"Oh, shucks!" said Jake softly, and kissed her again upon the lips. "I'd +sooner be here anyway. Well, Saltash is coming, so we've got to make the +best of it. I shouldn't care a cuss if it weren't for young Bunny. But +he's always been keener on his lordship's company than I've thought +advisable." + +"Oh, Jake," she said, colouring a little, "I don't believe Charlie would +do him any harm." + +"Not intentionally perhaps," said Jake. "I've no ill feeling for him, +heaven knows, but I can't say I think his society likely to have a very +improving effect upon anyone." + +"I don't think you quite understand him," Maud said thoughtfully. + +Whereat Jake laughed so suddenly that she looked at him with raised +brows. He got to his feet, still laughing. + +"Very likely not. We've had a good many misunderstandings, he and I, from +the day I cowhided him for a scoundrel to the day I nearly shot him for a +blackguard." + +"Oh, but that was all so long ago," Maud said quickly. "He wasn't much +more than a boy in those days. He has grown a lot since then." + +Jake grunted. "Which way, think you? Well, I must dress. He may be here +before we're ready for him." + +He turned to go back to his own room, but Maud stayed him for a moment. +"Jake," she said almost wistfully, "you know--with all his faults--he +always had--possibilities." + +"I know," Jake said, looking down at her. "He's made the most of 'em +too." + +Her face quivered. "Don't," she said. "It--isn't it rather ungenerous to +condemn a man unheard?" + +Jake made a faint sound of contempt or scepticism, but no reply in words. + +She drew herself up out of her chair by his arm. "Jake, I want you to do +something for me." + +"Well?" said Jake uncompromisingly. + +She met his look unswervingly. "Let me be a friend to him tonight! Let me +be alone with him and find out--if he will tell me--whether there is any +truth in this rumour that there was a woman on board the yacht." + +"And when you've found out?" said Jake. + +She made a little gesture of appeal. "Will you leave that to me? I have +sometimes felt that I might be--a help to him if ever there came an +opportunity. Jake, you don't mind my trying to help him? I have a feeling +that I understand him better than most people do." + +"I think it's a wasted sentiment," Jake said. "But--do what seems good to +you, my girl! I shan't interfere." + +"And you won't be vexed?" she pleaded. + +He smiled his sudden, illumining smile. "No, I reckon you'll never vex me +any that way again," he said. + +She went close to him. "Indeed--no, Jake! But--don't you understand? I +hate to go against your wishes--your prejudices--in anything." + +He put out a hand to her. "You needn't be afraid of that either," he +said. "If you do it--it's right." + +She clasped the strong hand tightly in both her own. "That's the best +thing you've ever said to me," she said. "Are you quite sure you mean +it?" + +"Sure," said Jake, and pulled her to him to kiss her once again. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +BUNNY + + +When Saltash arrived that evening he found Bunny and Jake sauntering +together in the sunset glow along the gravelled terrace in front of the +house. He shot towards them in his car with that characteristic +suddenness of his, swerving and coming to a stand before the porch with +the confident ease of an alighting bird. And here, seated in the porch +and screened by white clematis, he found Maud. + +She rose to greet him, her eyes alight with pleasure. "Oh, Charlie," she +said, "I have wanted to shake hands with you ever since I heard of your +escape." + +He bent and kissed the hand she gave him. "Gracious as ever!" he +commented lightly. "Had you begun to wear mourning for me, I wonder? It +was a very cold bath, I assure you. We didn't enjoy it, any of us." + +"I am sure you didn't." Her eyes still dwelt upon the dark face with its +half-mocking smile with a species of maternal tenderness. "And you lost +your yacht too! That was desperately unlucky." + +He made a comic grimace. "I am past the age for crying over spilt milk, +Maud of the Roses." He uttered his old name for her with daring +assurance. "I have had worse losses than that in my time." + +"And still you smile," she said. + +He bowed. "A smile can conceal so much." He turned to his host as he came +up behind him. "Well, Jake, I've taken you at your word, you see, and +intruded into your virtuous household. How are Eileen and Molly and Betty +and--last but not least--the son and heir?" + +Maud laughed softly. "Well done, Charlie! How clever of you to remember +them all!" + +"Oh yes, I am quite clever," said Saltash, as again his hand met Jake's. +"Too clever sometimes. I needn't ask if all goes well with you, Jake. +Your prosperity is obvious, but don't wax fat on it. Bunny now--he's as +lean as a giraffe. Can't you do something to him? He looks as if he'd +melt into thin air at a touch." + +"Oh, don't be an ass!" protested Bunny. "I'm as strong as a horse anyway. +Jake, tell him not to be an ass!" + +"No good, I'm afraid," said Jake, with his sudden smile. "Come inside, my +lord! The children are all flourishing, but in bed at the present moment. +The baby--" + +"Oh, I must see the baby!" declared Saltash, turning back to Maud. + +She laid a hand on his arm. "I will take you to see him after dinner." + +"Will you?" He smiled into her eyes. "I shall like that. But I shall +probably want to shoot Jake when I come down again. Think it's safe?" + +She smiled back at him with confidence. "Yes, I think so. Anyhow, I'm not +afraid." + +"Come and feed!" said Jake. + +They sat down in the pretty oak-panelled dining-room with its windows +opening upon the terrace and the long dim line of down. Saltash talked +freely of Valrosa, of his subsequent voyaging, of the wreck of _The Night +Moth_, but no word did he utter of the gift that had been flung to him on +that night of stars in the Mediterranean. He was always completely at his +ease in Jake's household, but it was not his way to touch at any time in +Maud's presence upon any matter that could not be openly discussed before +her. Their intimacy was not without its reservations. + +Maud in her quiet happiness detected no hint of restraint in his manner. +But he had always been elusive, often subtle. She did not look for +candour from Charles Rex--unless she asked for it. + +Watching him on that spring evening in the soft glow of the candles, +marking the restless play of feature, the agile readiness of his wit, she +asked herself, not for the first time, what manner of soul he had behind +the mask. Somehow she did not wholly believe in that entity which so +often looked jibing forth. Though she could ascribe no reason for it, she +had a strong suspicion that the real self that was Saltash was of a +different fibre altogether--a thing that had often suffered violence it +might be, but nevertheless possessed of that gift of the resurrection +which no violence can destroy. + +"Why are you dissecting me tonight?" he asked her once and laughed and +changed the subject before she could reply. + +When dinner was over and she rose, he sprang to open the door for her +with that royal _bonhomie_ of his which somehow gave him the right to +enter where others waited for permission. + +"Take Bunny with you!" he murmured. "I want to talk to Jake." + +She lifted her eyes with a flash of surprise. He bent towards her. + +"And afterwards to you, Queen Rose. I shall not forget to claim my +privileges in that respect." + +She laughed a little, but she obeyed his behest as a matter of course. +"Come for a turn in the garden with me, Bunny!" she said. "I've hardly +seen you today." + +The boy got up, passing Jake with a careless slap on the shoulder that +testified to the excellent good fellowship that existed between them. + +Saltash turned back into the room, and threw himself down by his host. +"That's right," he said as the door closed upon the brother and sister. +"Now we can talk." + +Jake pushed a box of cigars to him. His keen eyes took Saltash in with +the attention of the man accustomed to probe beneath the surface. There +were not many who could hide from Jake Bolton anything he desired to +know. + +Saltash flicked an eyelid under his direct scrutiny as he chose his +cigar. He was never more baffling than in his moments of candour. + +"There are several things I've come to consult you about, Jake," he said +easily, as Jake leaned across with a match. + +"I'm listening," said Jake. + +Saltash sent him a quizzical glance as his cigar kindled. "Prepared to +turn me down at all points?" he suggested. + +Jake's mouth relaxed a little. "Prepared to listen anyway," he said. +"It's to do with young Bunny, I take it." + +Saltash leaned back in his chair with a laugh. "Very smart of you! Bunny +certainly is my first proposition. What are you going to do with him?" + +Jake also leaned back, and smoked for several seconds in silence. Saltash +watched him with semi-comic curiosity. + +"Something of a problem, eh?" he said, after a pause. + +Jake's eyes came to him and remained upon him with steady insistence. +"He's not going to turn into a fancy-dress loafer, my lord," he said at +length in his soft, deliberate voice. "I'll see to that anyway." + +"Don't be nasty, Jake!" protested Saltash with a smile. "I'm not +proposing to adopt him. But I can give him employment, if that's what +he's wanting. What do you want to make of him?" + +Jake's steady look remained upon him. "Just an honest man, I reckon," he +said. + +"Ah! Quite so!" Open mockery gleamed back at him from Saltash's +half-closed eyes. "All contaminating influences to be kept away. Is that +it?" + +Jake was silent. + +Saltash sent a cloud of smoke upwards before he spoke again. Then: "I +agree with you, Jake," he said. "We mustn't spoil the boy. He shan't +learn any naughty ways from me. Come! That's a promise. And I'm not such +a blackguard as I used to be." + +"Sure?" said Jake. + +Again Saltash's smile flashed across at him. "Quite sure, my worthy +philosopher," he made light reply. "I don't set up for a model of virtue +of course, but at least--now-a-days--I never take what I can't pay for." + +"That so?" said Jake. He considered the matter for a few moments, then +slowly took the cigar from between his lips and spoke. "It's certainly +true; Bunny is a problem. He's not strong; and though he's got grit, he +hasn't got what I call punching power. He's been ordered an out-door +life, and he wants to join me in running the stud. I could do with him of +course, but I've a strong feeling against it, anyway till he's older. +It's not the right atmosphere for him, and it doesn't bring him in +contact with the right people. He ought to be in the Army, but he wasn't +strong enough. It's a big grievance with him for there's nothing +radically wrong; just weak tendencies that he may outgrow if he leads a +healthy life and doesn't strain himself. We're just marking time at +present, so if you have anything to suggest--well, I've no doubt he'll be +something more than grateful." + +"And you?" questioned Saltash, with a grimace at the ceiling. + +"I too," said Jake, "if it's for the boy's good." + +"You needn't hold a pistol at my head," protested Saltash. "I shan't put +him in the way of any short cuts to the devil. All I have to offer him is +the post of bailiff at Burchester Castle, as old Bishop has got beyond +his job. I can't turn the old beggar out, but I want a young man to take +the burden off his shoulders. Do you think that sort of thing would be +beneath Bunny's dignity, or likely to upset his morals?" + +"He'd probably jump at the chance," said Jake. + +"Which is more than his worthy brother-in-law does on his behalf," +grinned Saltash. + +"No," Jake's steady eyes met the gibe unfaltering. "I know it's a chance +that doesn't come every day, and I know you mean well by him. I shan't +put any hindrance in the way." + +"Then it's done," said Saltash. "Bunny's fate is sealed." + +"I hope not." Jake still gravely watched him, but not as if he sought for +anything in the baffling, mobile countenance. "What do you want him for +anyway?" + +Saltash flicked the ash from his cigar. "Perhaps I'm turning +philanthropist, Jake. Do you know the symptoms? I've been anxious about +myself several times lately." + +"Come on rather suddenly, hasn't it?" suggested Jake. + +Saltash nodded. "It's old age, I fancy. Anyhow I've a notion for doing +Bunny a good turn. The boy can have play as well as work. He can join the +polo-club at Fairharbour. I'll introduce him." + +"And where will he live?" asked Jake. + +"With the old Bishops of course. He'll be safe enough with them and +within reach of you and Maud at the same time. It's time you eased the +leading string a bit, you know. He'll start kicking if you don't." + +"I don't think so," said Jake. "He goes his own way already quite as much +as is good for him. I don't need to hold him in very tight either. He's +not the bolting sort." + +"You mean you've trained him well," laughed Saltash. "I congratulate you. +You've a genius for that sort of thing, Jake. The boy will probably +answer to your lightest touch and never even know he does it." + +"What was the other thing you wanted to say to me?" said Jake. + +"Oh that!" Saltash's eyes fell suddenly to his empty wine glass. He +fingered the stem of it for a few seconds with a curiously irresolute +air. "Do you know I think I'll put it to Maud first!" he said at length, +with a smile that was faintly shamefaced. + +"It'll come to the same thing," said Jake. + +Saltash's eyes flashed upwards. He met Jake's look almost with defiance. +"Doubtless you are master in your own house, Jake," he said. "Far be it +from me to question it." + +"I didn't mean that," said Jake. "What I meant was," the red-brown eyes +began to smile, "that Maud and I are friends--and we generally want the +same thing." + +Saltash nodded. "Not so bad after eight years," he said. + +"No. It's pretty great," said Jake. "You'd think we were an ill-matched +pair, wouldn't you? But we've learnt to plough as straight a furrow as +anyone." + +"No, I don't think you ill-matched," said Saltash unexpectedly. "You've +always been about the same height and breadth, my friend. I saw that a +long time ago. The luckiest day that ever dawned for Maud was the one on +which you cut me out." + +"Think so?" said Jake. "Well, it wasn't a very lucky one for you, I'm +afraid." + +"I got over it," said Saltash lightly. "I'm too great a rotter, you know, +Jake, to take things much to heart. I've loved heaps of women since--even +some good ones. But they never take me seriously; so I presume I shall +continue to rot." + +"Thought you'd turned sober," suggested Jake. + +Again Saltash's look dwelt upon the ruby drain in his wine-glass. For a +moment the restlessness of his face deepened to something very nearly +approaching melancholy. + +"I'm tired, Jake," he said abruptly. "I've run through the whole gamut of +amusements, and I'm bored to the soul. I want to do a good turn to +somebody--just for a change--to see what it feels like. Perhaps--who +knows--it may take the taste of rottenness out of my mouth. You fellows +who lead a decent, orderly life don't know what it is when the wine turns +to vinegar and all the sweets of life to gall." + +"Sounds pretty damnable," said Jake. + +Saltash grimaced like a weary monkey. "It's dust and ashes, my good Jake. +But we won't discuss it. Let's come to business! You know Larpent--my +captain--quite one of the best?" + +Jake nodded. "I've met him--yes." + +Saltash flung himself back in his chair smoking rapidly. "He was damaged +when the yacht went down. He's in a nursing home in town, getting better. +He's got a daughter--a girl called Antoinette. She's been at school in +France, and Larpent was bringing her home in the yacht when we went down. +She's nineteen--a jolly little thing--half French. Larpent doesn't know +what to do with her. He has no people. She--quite properly--wants to +earn her own living. But she's too young yet to fight the world. +Larpent's a rover, he'll never settle on land. She's never had any home +life, poor kid. And she wants it. You'll say it's like my damned cheek to +come to you, but on my life you and Maud are the only people I can think +of. There's my old friend Lady Jo--Mrs. Green as she prefers to be +called--but she isn't very strong just now. I can't bother her. Besides +she hasn't got a home like yours. She's up in town." + +The jerky utterance came to an end. Saltash turned his head towards Jake, +watching him half furtively through the smoke. + +There followed a silence of some duration. Jake's brows were slightly +drawn. He spoke at last, slowly and softly as his manner was. "Are you +suggesting that--Captain Larpent's daughter--should come to us?" + +"She'd be useful enough," said Saltash in his quick, vehement way. "She'd +help Maud with the children. There's nothing she wouldn't do. It would be +a kindness on your part, and you wouldn't regret it. She's a taking +little thing. I'd like you to have her for a month, and if you don't want +to keep her after that--well--shunt her back on to Larpent. He'll be well +by that time. If he isn't--I'll look after her till he is." + +"Who's looking after her now?" said Jake. "Where is she?" + +Saltash pushed back his chair with a movement of impatience. "Did you +think I'd bring her to Burchester for all the county to blab about? She's +under my protection--and she's safe." He spoke with a certain fierceness, +and in a moment was pacing the room, his face arrogantly lifted. "I know +very well the sort of story that's going round, but if you're a white man +you'll help me to give it the lie. I know I'm a blackguard, Jake,--never +pretended to be anything else. But I hope I'm a gentleman as well--at +least where women are concerned. That child is none the worse in mind or +body for being thrown on my hands. You've got to believe that." + +"All right," said Jake. + +Saltash paced jerkily on, his hands behind him. "I want you to have her +because you're straight, and she'll come to no harm with you. You never +even parley with the devil, do you, Jake? Remember that time--it's ten +years ago, more--when a man tried to tempt you to tamper with one of your +horses and you horsewhipped him for his baseness." + +"I prefer not to remember it, my lord," said Jake. + +Saltash stopped suddenly by his chair and gripped his shoulder with a +wiry hand. "I've liked you ever since," he said. "Look here, Jake! I'm +not tempting you to do anything wrong now. I'm asking you to do something +that doesn't appeal to you; but if you do it, it'll be one of the most +decent actions of your life. That child is quite alone just now--except +for me. Will you take her--like a good chap--till something else safe +turns up?" + +Jake sat slowly forward. "I'll have to talk it over with Maud," he said. + +Saltash's grip shifted impatiently. "You know very well what Maud will +say. Don't be an ass about it! Say No--if you mean to say No--at once!" + +There came the quiet tread of approaching feet on the gravelled terrace +and the sound of low voices talking together. Jake lifted his head. His +face was grim. He looked Saltash straight in the eyes. + +"You've told me the plain truth about her. You swear it?" + +Saltash's swarthy countenance was in shadow, but those strange eyes of +his gleamed oddly, with the sort of fitful shining that comes from a coat +of mail in an uncertain light. They did not flinch from Jake's straight +regard, neither did they wholly meet it. + +"Is my oath really more valuable than my word, Jake?" he said, with a wry +twist of the lips. "Most people don't find it so." + +Jake stood up, a figure square and forceful. For a moment he faced +Saltash with a level scrutiny that--possibly--pierced the coat of mail. +Then abruptly he smiled. "I will take your word, my lord," he said. + +"And the child?" said Saltash. + +Jake nodded. "The child too--if Maud agrees." + +"Thanks," said Saltash, and smiled back at Jake--the smile that gave his +ugly face so great a charm. "I am obliged to you, Jake. I think Maud will +agree." + +"Shall we go to her?" said Jake. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +SALTASH + + +They joined the two on the terrace, and presently they were all laughing +together at Saltash's drolleries. He knew how to bring effervescence to +the very quietest waters. They sat for a space on a seat in the soft +spring starlight, while below them on the down there thrilled the +unspeakable music of nightingales singing far and near. Then after a +while Jake strolled away for his nightly inspection of the stables, +taking Bunny with him, and Saltash and Maud were left alone. + +He moved close to her at once, his arm stretched behind her along the +back of the seat. At their feet lay an old red setter, Chops, who had +belonged to Jake before his marriage and had devoted himself to Maud ever +since. + +"By Jove, this is peaceful!" said Saltash, and stopped to caress the old +dog with a gentle hand. "Do you know, Maud, it's a good thing you never +married me if this sort of thing makes you happy." + +She smiled her quiet, contented smile. "I think it is a good thing too, +Charlie. It certainly would never have satisfied you." + +"Nothing does," he declared restlessly. "I'm a wanderer on the face of +the earth, and I don't pick up much as I go along. I'm getting old, you +know. Life isn't what it was." + +Maud was silent for a few moments, the starlight in her eyes. "I +sometimes wonder," she said at length, "if you have ever really lived +yet." + +He laughed on a mocking note. "My dear girl, I--who have done +everything!" + +She shook her head. "No, not everything, Charlie." + +"Everything that's bad," he suggested recklessly. + +She put out a hand to him that went into his quick hold and lay there +with perfect confidence. "I don't think you're really old," she said. "I +think you're just beginning to grow up. No, don't laugh! I am quite +serious. You are just beginning to discriminate between the things that +are worth while and those that are not." + +"Is anything worth while?" said Saltash. + +"Yes, yes. Heaps of things. But not the things you care for,--not just +the wild pleasures of life. Charlie, I'm not good at expressing things, +and I'm afraid--just a little--of trespassing, even though we are such +old friends." + +Her voice had a wistful note. He carried her hand to his lips. "_Ma belle +reine_, is it possible? You?" + +Her fingers closed upon his. "I hate you to be world-tired and lonely. +But I would rather have you that than feeding on husks." + +"I'm not doing that at the present moment," he said. "I'm living like a +beastly hermit--except that I cut my nails and brush my hair +occasionally. You've heard about the woman on the yacht, of course?" + +Her silence answered him, and he laughed again. + +"A lie, _chere reine_! There was no woman." + +"Oh, Charlie!" she said impulsively. "Forgive me for believing it!" + +He made a royal gesture. "I forgive you. Moreover, the lie was +not without foundation. There was a child on board of the female +species,--very small and badly frightened. We saved her between us, +Larpent and I. She belongs to Larpent--not to me." + +"You mean she is his daughter?" questioned Maud. + +"That is exactly what I mean. Dull explanation, isn't it? Larpent was +badly damaged. He is undergoing repairs in a nursing home, and the +child--well, I've got to look after the child. _Figurez-vous, ma chere!_ +I--a protector of infants! _Un peu comique, n'est-ce pas?_" + +"Ah!" Maud said, with compassion. "The poor little thing must come to us. +I will take care of her. When will you bring her?" + +"You think her present plight is not to be endured for another moment?" +laughed Saltash. "_Bien!_ I will send her to you tomorrow." + +"Ah! I don't mean she is not in safe keeping," protested Maud. "How old +is she? Older than Eileen?" + +"A little older than that," said Saltash. "She's nineteen." + +"Oh!" said Maud. + +"Perhaps you do mean it now!" gibed Saltash, getting up in his sudden +fashion. + +Maud rose also, facing him in the starlight. "No, Charlie I don't! +Because I know that the big things are in you and always have been, I +would trust you--with my most precious possession." + +He laughed again. "But when I gave it back to you, you would look all +round it to make sure it hadn't been broken and stuck together again, +wouldn't you, Maud of the Roses?" + +"No," she said. "I wouldn't. I know--Charles Rex--better than that." + +He made her a sweeping bow. "Most fair and gracious lady, do not forget +that my crest is a fox's head and the motto thereupon, '_Sans vertu_!'" + +She smiled, looking at him with steadfast eyes. "I will give you another +motto, Charlie," she said. "Those we love--we trust." + +He made an abrupt movement. It was almost a protest. "For how long? Do +you really love me, Maud of the Roses?" + +She gave him both her hands without drawing any nearer. Her eyes were +shining as stars that shine through mist. "Yes, I love you, Charlie," she +said, "so much that I can't go on being happy till I know that you are +too." + +He bent very low, so that his dark face was wholly hidden from her. "I've +never been--really happy--since the day I lost you," he said. + +Her hands clasped his very tightly. There was a brief silence +before--with a touch of shyness--she spoke again. "You have never +been--really happy--all your life. You don't know the meaning of the +word--yet." + +"Don't I?" He stood up, still holding her hands. "I thought I'd sampled +everything." + +"No," she said. "No. There is--one thing left." + +"What is that?" he said. + +She stood again in silence, looking at him. Then, slowly, "You have never +yet touched the joy of loving someone better--far better--than you love +yourself," she said. "I think that is the greatest joy that God can +send." + +He bent towards her with a certain eagerness. "Maud, I could have loved +you like that--once." + +She shook her head and her smile was sad. "No, my dear, believe me! I +couldn't have inspired it in you. I was too selfish myself in those days. +Some other woman will teach you that now." + +"I wonder," said Charles Rex, half-mocking and half-touched. + +She slipped her hand through his arm, turning from the subject with a +faint sigh. "Well, come and see the baby! He's very lovely." + +"From your point of view or Jake's?" questioned Saltash. + +She laughed. "From mine of course. He is going to be just like Jake." + +"Heavens above! I pity you!" ejaculated Saltash. "You'll never cope with +two of 'em! They'll crush you flat." + +She drew him from the terrace into the quiet house. "Don't be absurd, +Charlie! This boy of ours is to be the prop of our old age." + +He went with her jesting, but when they entered the silent nursery in +which the two youngest children lay sleeping, his trifling ceased and he +trod with reverence. + +They stood together in the dim light beside the baby's cot, and Saltash +looked down upon the flushed baby face with a faintly rueful smile upon +his own. + +"There is something in being married and done for after all," he said. + +Over the old baby, Betty, now two years old, he stooped and lightly +touched the fair silken hair, but he did not kiss her though the child +was sleeping deeply. + +Later he went alone into the adjoining room where slept the two elder +children, Eileen aged five, and Molly who was not yet four. Maud did not +follow him, and presently he came back, treading softly, the flickering +night-light throwing odd shadows on his ugly face, and they left the room +together. + +In the passage he turned to her abruptly. "Then I may send that child to +you tomorrow?" he said. + +"Why not bring her?" said Maud smiling. + +He shook his head. "No. I'll come over one day--on Sunday perhaps--and +see you all again. I won't--handicap her--by bringing her." + +She understood him, and gave him her hand, but the fervour with which he +received and kissed it surprised her into drawing it away more quickly +than she had intended. + +He laughed at the action. "I am only saluting motherhood," he explained. + +But she shook her head and passed on. There were moments when even she +who knew him so well was not wholly sure of him. + +They descended again and Saltash turned towards the drawing-room. + +"Let's have some music!" he said, and dropped down before Maud's piano. +"You are tired, _ma chere_. You shall listen." + +He began to play an old French _chanson_ that once they had sung +together, and Maud leaned back on a deep settee near him and dreamily +surrendered herself to its charm. + +Charlie's touch had always been a sheer delight to her. It held her now +with the old sweet spell. His spirit spoke to hers with an intimacy which +ordinary converse had never attained. It was by his music that he first +had spoken to her soul. In music they were always in complete accord. + +She was half-asleep in her corner with the old dog lying at her feet when +Jake and Bunny came in, and Saltash very swiftly, with muffled chords, +brought his performance to an end. + +He sprang to his feet. "I've been making love to your wife, Jake," he +said, "and she has been heroically but quite ineffectually trying to keep +me at a distance. I'd better go before I'm kicked out, eh?" + +"Don't go on my account!" said Jake. + +Saltash's brows twitched comically. "Generous as ever! But I'm a rotten +villain, Jake. I never could keep it up, and your virtuous presence is +the last straw. Good-bye--and many thanks!" + +He held Maud's hand in his right and stretched his left to Jake with a +smile half whimsical and half derisive. + +"There's nothing like banking on the hundredth chance," he said. "I shall +try it myself one of these days." + +"Say!" said Jake in his soft drawl. "I wish you luck!" + +Saltash laughed and turned away, to be instantly seized upon by Bunny. + +"I say you are a good chap! The boss has been telling me. You're going to +put me up to a job." + +"If you'll take it," said Saltash. + +Bunny thrust a hand through his arm and squeezed it impulsively. "I'll +take anything from you, Charlie. Hope I shall be man enough for you, +that's all." + +"Oh, you're man enough," said Saltash kindly. "Just the sort I want. Look +here, I can't stop now. But I'll come over on Sunday and talk things +over--if Jake permits." + +"Any day," said Jake. + +Saltash nodded. "Good. I'll ring you up tomorrow, Maud. You're sure you +mean tomorrow?" + +"Quite sure," she said with a smile. + +He swept her a bow and went out with Bunny. + +Maud turned instantly to her husband. "Jake, I've got something to tell +you--to consult you about." + +He stopped her with that smile of his that was so good to see. "Oh, I +guess not. You've fixed it all up without my help. But his lordship for +once had the diplomacy to ask me first." + +"Oh, did he?" She looked confused for a moment. "Jake, you don't mind, do +you? I did the only thing possible." + +He put his arm around her and led her to the door. "I'll tell whether I +mind a week from now. You're looking worn out, my girl. You go to bed!" + +She leaned against him. "Jake, I'm--horribly sorry for Charlie." + +"Wasted sentiment!" said Jake. + +"No, it isn't--it isn't--because he is just beginning--to be sorry for +himself. Jake, it haunts me." + +"Well, you're not to lie awake over it," said Jake unsympathetically. +"I shall know if you do, and I shall keep you in bed tomorrow. Got that?" +He looked at her with determination glittering in his eyes. + +"You're very horrid," she said. + +"Yes, I know. Somebody's got to be. It's a world of contrasts, and we +can't all be kings and queens. Go to bed now! I'll say good night to +Bunny for you." + +But Maud lingered still. "What is Charlie going to do for him?" + +Jake led her with firmness into the hall. "It's the Agency. He's going to +help old Bishop. I think the life will be good for him--if there isn't +too much Saltash about it." + +"Oh, how good of Charlie!" Maud said. + +"Yes, he means well this time." Jake's arm impelled her up the shallow +stairs. "Hope he'll keep it up, but it won't surprise me any if he +doesn't. He's never been a stayer, and he's not the sort to begin now." + +"You really don't understand him," Maud said. + +"Maybe not," Jake's tone was faintly grim. It indicated that he had no +intention of arguing the matter further. + +Maud abandoned it and they mounted the stairs together in silence. At the +door of her room she turned without words and put her arms around his +neck. + +He held her closely still supporting her. "Shall I come and put you to +bed, my girl?" + +She answered him softly. "No, darling, no! Don't be late yourself, that's +all! And--Jake--thank you for all your goodness to me!" + +"Oh, shucks--shucks!" he said. + +She raised her hands, holding the bronze head between them, gazing +straight into the free, dominant eyes with all her soul laid open to +their look. "There is no one like you in all the world," she said. "You +are greater than kings." + +"That's just your way of putting it," said Jake. "You're not exactly an +impartial judge, I reckon. Barring the fact that I'm your mate, I'm a +very ordinary sinner. Moreover, Saltash tells me I'm getting fat." + +"How dare he?" said Maud. + +He laughed in her indignant face. "Now I'm getting my own back! There! +Don't get excited! No doubt he meant well! And I certainly ride heavier +than I did. Shall you love me when I'm fat, Maud?" + +She drew the laughing, sunburnt face to hers. "Don't be--absurd!" she +said. + +Her lips met his and were caught in a long, long kiss. + +"Guess you're just as moon-struck as I am," said Jake softly. + +And, "I guess I am," she whispered back. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE VISITOR + + +Jake carried out his threat the following day, and Maud remained in bed. +A violent headache deprived her of the power to protest, and she lay in +her darkened room too battered to think, while with characteristic +decision he assumed the direction of the household, provoking unwilling +admiration from Mrs. Lovelace, the housekeeper, who was somewhat given to +disparage men as "poor things who never did a hand's turn for 'emselves +if they could get the women to do it for 'em." + +He took up a breakfast tray himself to his wife's room, sternly removing +his two small daughters Molly and Betty, whom he found tussling like +kittens on her bed, and installing Eileen the eldest, who crept down like +a bright-eyed mouse from the big chair by the pillow at his coming, as +her mother's keeper. Eileen was his darling; a shy child, gentle but +curiously determined, protective in her attitude towards Maud, reserved +towards himself. Jake was wont to say with a laugh that he was by no +means sure that his eldest daughter approved of him, but he knew in his +heart that her love for him was the strongest force in her small being. +Bunny was wont to be impatient with her because she was afraid of the +horses, with the result that she would never go near them in his company, +but she would follow her father wherever he went among them without a +question. It was very rarely that she confided in him, but she always +liked to hold his hand. + +She stood beside him now in silence while he waited upon Maud, and +presently, while Maud drank the strong tea he had brought her, her small +hand found its way into his. He looked down at her, squeezing it kindly. +"We must take care of the mother today, little 'un. She's been working +too hard." + +"I'll take care of her, Daddy," said Eileen. + +"And keep out Molly and Betty," pursued Jake. + +"Yes, Daddy, I'll do that." + +Maud smiled from her pillows. "My little policeman!" she said. + +"I believe she'd keep her daddy out too if she thought it advisable," +laughed Jake. + +Eileen's fingers tightened about his, but she did not contradict him. +Only the violet eyes so like her mother's looked up at him very +pleadingly, and he stooped in a moment and kissed her. + +"All right. Daddy understands." + +And Eileen smiled a shy, pleased smile without words. + +The sound of the telephone-bell in the hall made Maud start with a swift +contradiction of the brows. + +"That's probably Charlie, Jake, I ought to answer him." + +"Don't you worry yourself!" said Jake, turning to the door. "I'll answer +him myself." + +He was gone before she could say anything further, moving without haste +but with a decision there was no gainsaying, and Maud heaved a sigh and +relaxed against her pillows. It was certainly a relief to leave it to +him. + +He returned a few minutes later, faintly smiling, sat down by her side +and drew Eileen between his knees. + +"Well," he said. "I guess it's all fixed up. We're going to give you a +nursery governess, Innocence. I hope you'll treat her with respect." + +"Oh, but, Jake--" protested Maud. + +He turned to her. "Yes, she's going to make herself useful. I don't +believe in anyone living in idleness. We'll begin as we mean to go +on, and she's got to help. I told his lordship so. If she doesn't +suit,--well, I guess she'll go back where she came from. I told him that +too." + +"What did he say?" questioned Maud. + +"He agreed of course." Jake's tone was ironical. "Said she was nothing +but a child herself. He was very emphatic on that point." + +"Don't you believe him?" asked Maud with a hint of sharpness. + +"Not as a rule," said Jake. "Mostly never--when he's emphatic. However, +time will prove. She will be here to lunch, and I've told Bunny to meet +her with the dog-cart." + +"Are we going to have lessons?" asked Eileen. + +He looked into the soft eyes and the irony went out of his smile. "I +don't know if I can bear to have you taught anything, Innocence," he +said. "You're just right as you are." + +It was his own especial name for her and he always uttered it with +tenderness. Eileen smiled up at him, and pressed against his knee. + +"I would like to learn some lessons, Daddy," she said. "I'm sure I'm big +enough, and I'm growing too." + +"Maybe you are," said Jake. "But don't grow too fast, little 'un! Don't +get so big that you look down on your poor old daddy!" + +"She'll never do that!" said Maud quickly. "No child of mine will ever do +that, Jake." + +He smiled at her whimsically. "Oh, I guess I'll hold my own among 'em +whatever they do. Now you go to sleep, my girl, and put all worries out +of your head! I must be moving, but I'll look in presently to see how +you are. So long!" + +He bent and laid his cheek for a moment against her hand, then turned and +softly left her. + +Maud watched the door close behind him, then spoke to the child beside +her. "Eileen darling, always remember that your daddy is the best and +dearest man who ever lived!" + +"Yes, Mummy, I know," said Eileen, with earnest shining eyes. + +Jake went out to the stables and immersed himself in the day's work. He +had always been a busy man, and time passed swiftly with him. He and his +right-hand man, Sam Vickers, had brought the stud to a pitch of +perfection that had earned for his animals a high place in the opinion of +the racing community. He had, moreover, a reputation for straightness so +unimpeachable that it had become almost a proverb up and down the +country. Men said of Jake Bolton that his honour was such that it could +stand by itself. Certainly no one ever questioned it. + +One of his horses was running at Graydown that afternoon, and at the end +of the morning he returned to the house for a hasty lunch before leaving +for the race-course. All memory of Saltash's _protege_ had left him, but +it returned to his mind as he saw the extra place laid at the table. He +looked at his watch and realized that she ought to have arrived half an +hour before. Bunny was also absent, presumably waiting for her. + +He paid Maud a brief visit before departing, and found her better. She +was half dressed and lying on a couch in her room. He extracted a promise +from her that she would not go down before tea, though she demurred +somewhat on the score of the expected visitor. + +"Leave her to Bunny!" said Jake. "He's quite capable of looking after her +for an hour or two." + +"I think Bunny meant to go to the races," she said. + +Jake frowned. "Well, he can't for once. Don't you fret now! She'll be all +right." + +"Well, tell them to bring her straight up to see me when she arrives!" +Maud begged him. "I shan't be asleep, and really I am much better." + +"All right," he conceded. "I'll do that." + +He went out and there fell the deep shining peace of a spring afternoon. +Somewhere in the distance a cuckoo was calling softly, monotonously, +seductively. A thrush was warbling in the terraced garden, and from her +window Maud could see old Chops the setter curled up in a warm corner +asleep. The children were all out on the downs, and the house was very +quiet. + +Her thoughts turned dreamily to Saltash. What a pity he did not find some +nice girl to marry! Her faith in him, often shaken and as often renewed, +had somehow taken deeper root since their talk of the night before. +Charlie was beginning to tire of his riotous living. He was beginning to +want the better things. But in his present mood she saw a danger. He had +come to a critical point in his career, and he would either go up or +down. There would be no middle course with him. Knowing him as she did, +she realized that a very little pressure would incline him either way. +She felt as if his very life hung in the balance. It depended so +vitally--upon whence the pressure came. + +"If only some decent woman would fall in love with him!" she sighed, and +then found herself smiling wistfully at the thought that Saltash's heart +would not be an easy thing to capture. He was far too accustomed to +adulation, wherever he went. "Besides, he's such a flirt," she reflected. +"One never knows whether he is in earnest till the mischief is done." + +The cuckoo's soft persistence began somehow to seem like a penance. "When +he has said it just like that four hundred and fifty times he'll be +absolved and allowed to change his tune," was her thought. "I wonder if +poor Charles Rex has said the same thing as often as that, and if that is +why he is tired." + +A mist began to rise in her brain, making vague the cuckoo's call, +blurring even the clear sweet notes of the thrush. A delicious drowsiness +crept over her. She gave herself to it with conscious delight. It was so +exquisite to feel the grim band that had bound her brow with such cruel +tightness relax at last and fall away. Very blissfully she drifted into +slumber. + +It was nearly two hours later that she became somewhat suddenly aware of +feet sauntering under her window and young voices talking together. + +"Hullo!" said one abruptly, it was Bunny's speaking with careless +friendliness. "Stand still a minute! There's an immense green caterpillar +waving to me from your hat-brim." + +A voice that was like a boy's, dear, bell-like, made instant response. +"Oh hell! Do take it off!" + +Maud started wide awake with involuntary shrinking. + +There came a chuckle from Bunny and, after a pause and the eloquent +crunch of a heel on the gravel, his voice on a note of laughter. "I +didn't say it!" + +"Great Scott!" ejaculated the clear boyish tones. "Do you mean you're +shocked?" + +"Not at all," said Bunny courteously. + +"Well then, what does it matter who said it?" demanded the other. + +"It doesn't matter," said Bunny, still suppressing merriment. "Except +that it isn't said in this house." + +"Oh damn!" said the newcomer disconsolately. "Then I shall soon be sent +back in disgrace." + +"Cheer up!" said Bunny. "We don't convict on a first offence as a rule in +this country." + +"But I shall never remember!" groaned the other, and for the first time +the words held a note that was not wholly boyish, it sounded wistful, +even rather piteous. "People's ways are all so different. It's rather +infernal--trying to please everybody, you know, Bunny." + +"Never mind!" said Bunny, in a brotherly tone. "I'll kick you every time +I see it coming if you like." + +"Will you really? That would be jolly decent of you." The wistfulness +vanished in a laugh that was quick and musical, wholly spontaneous. + +"You bet I will!" said Bunny. + +"Right O! Mind you do! Now get out of the way and see me jump that rose +tree!" + +There followed the light scamper of feet, and Maud raised herself swiftly +and leaned forth in time to see an athletic little figure in navy blue +wearing a jaunty Panama hat, skim like a bird over a sweeping Dorothy +Perkins just coming into bloom and alight on one leg with the perfect +poise of a winged Mercury on the other side. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +HOW TO MANAGE MEN + + +Bunny's lanky form followed and also cleared the rose-tree with +infinitely less grace, and again the girl laughed, her wide blue eyes +alight with mirth. + +"What an antic! I thought you were going to pull up the rose bush with +your heels! What are you doing that for?" + +Bunny's hands were on her shoulders. He was plainly enjoying himself +thoroughly. "I'm feeling for the wings," he explained. "I'll swear you +never jumped it. Where do you keep 'em?" + +She drew herself away from his touch. "No, I haven't got any. They don't +grow on people like me. Don't let's stay here! I feel as if we're being +watched." + +It was then that Maud spoke from her window in her quiet gentle voice +that yet held a certain authority. + +"Bunny, bring our visitor up to see me!" + +Both Bunny and his companion started and looked up, and Maud saw the +girl's face fully for the first time--a nervous little face with haunting +wide blue eyes made more intense by the short thick black lashes that +surrounded them, eyes that seemed to plead for kindness. There was charm +about the pointed chin and a good deal of sweetness about the moulding of +the mouth. But it was the eyes that held Maud's attention. They were the +eyes of a creature who has known the wild agony of fear and is not easily +reassured. Yet the face was the face of a child. + +She leaned out a little further on her sill and addressed the stranger. +"Come up and speak to me!" she said very kindly. "Bunny will show you the +way." + +A shy flickering smile answered her. She cast a questioning look at +Bunny. + +"Yes, that's Maud--my sister," said Bunny. "Come along! This way!" + +They entered the house by a French window, and Maud drew back into her +room. What was there in that childish face that appealed so tremendously +to her womanhood--wholly banishing her first involuntary sense of recoil? +She could not have said, she was only conscious of the woman in her +throbbing with a deep compassion. She stood and waited for the child's +coming with a strangely poignant expectation. + +She heard Bunny's voice talking cheerily on the stairs, but his words +provoked no response. She went to the door and opened it. + +Bunny was leading the way; in fact his companion seemed to be lagging +very considerably in the rear. + +Maud moved out into the passage, and Bunny stood to one side with a +courteous gesture. "Mademoiselle Antoinette Larpent!" he announced. + +The small figure in blue drew itself together with a certain bravado and +came forward. + +Maud held out her hands. "My dear child," she said, "I expected you long +ago." + +The hands she clasped were very small and cold. They did not cling to her +as she had half expected. The blue eyes flashed her a single nervous +glance and fell. + +"I'm sorry I'm late, madam," said the visitor in a low, punctilious +voice. + +Maud felt amused and chilled in the same moment. "Come and sit down!" she +said. "We will have some tea upstairs. Bunny, go and order it, will you?" + +"With pleasure," said Bunny. "And may I return?" + +She smiled at him as she passed an arm about the girl's narrow shoulders. +"Yes, you can come back when it's ready. Come in here, dear! You will +like to take off your things. How long have you been here?" + +"Only five minutes," came the murmured answer; she thought it had a +deprecating sound. + +"You must be tired," she said kindly. "You came from town? How is it you +are so late? Did you miss your train?" + +"No, madam." Very nervously came the reply. The contrast between this and +the boyish freedom of manner on the terrace a few seconds before would +have been ludicrous if it had not been somehow pathetic. + +She passed on, too considerate to press for details. "Take off your hat +and coat, won't you? When we have had some tea I will take you to your +room." + +She was pleased to see that Charlie's _protege_ was garbed with extreme +simplicity. Her fair hair, which had been closely shorn, was beginning to +curl at the ends. She liked the delicate contrasting line of the black +brows above the deep blue of the eyes. She noticed that the veins on the +white temples showed with great distinctness. + +"Sit down!" she said. "And now you must tell me what to call you. Your +name is Antoinette, isn't it?" + +"I'm generally called Toby," said the visitor in a very shy voice. "But +you will call me--what you like." + +"Would you like me to call you Toby?" Maud asked. + +"Yes, please," said Toby with unexpected briskness. + +Maud smiled. "Very well, my dear. Then that is settled. We are not going +to be strangers, you and I. I expect you know that Lord Saltash and I are +great friends--though I have never met your father." + +Toby's pale young face flushed suddenly. She was silent for a moment. +Then: "Lord Saltash has been very good to me," she said in her shy voice. +"He--saved me from drowning. Wasn't it--wasn't it nice of him to--take +the trouble?" + +"Quite nice of him," Maud agreed. "You must have been very frightened, +weren't you?" + +Toby suppressed a shudder. "I was rather. And the water was dreadfully +cold. I thought we should never come up again. It was like--it was +like--" She stopped herself. "He said I was never to talk about it--or +think about it--so I won't, if you don't mind." + +"Tell me about your father!" said Maud sympathetically. + +For the second time the blue eyes flashed towards her. "Oh, he is still +ill in a nursing home and not allowed to see anyone." There was a hint of +recklessness in her voice. "They say he'll get well again, but--I don't +know." + +"You are anxious about him," Maud said. + +"No, I'm not." Recklessness became something akin to defiance. "I don't +like him much. He's so surly." + +"My dear!" said Maud, momentarily disconcerted. + +"Well, it's no good pretending I do when I don't, is it?" said Toby, and +suddenly smiled at her with winning gracelessness. "It isn't my fault +We're not friends--never have been. Why," she made a little gesture of +the hands, "we hardly know each other. I'd never been on _The Night Moth_ +before." + +"And you'll never go again," commented Bunny, entering at the moment, +"Maud, do you know I took--Miss Larpent--" he turned deliberately to Toby +who snapped her fingers in airy acknowledgment--"to see the races instead +of coming straight back--according to the boss's instructions." + +"Oh! So that's where you've been!" said Maud. + +"Exactly so." Bunny pulled up a chair and disposed his long legs astride +it. "We saw several events, and made a bit. Then Forest Fire let us down +badly and we lost the lot. After that we went into the paddock to cool +ourselves and met the boss, who at once--somewhat rudely--ordered us +home. I have an impression he's feeling waxy with me for some reason," +Bunny ended, stroking his chin reflectively. "Daresay I shall get over +it, however." + +"What a pity you went!" said Maud. + +"Not at all," said Bunny. "We enjoyed it. It's fun doing naughty things +sometimes, isn't it,--er--Miss Larpent?" + +"Don't be an ass!" said Toby tersely. + +Maud raised her brows, but Bunny grinned with delight. "Thank you Toby! I +take the hint. There shall be no more ceremony between us. Ah! There come +the children along the path by the summerhouse!" he sprang to the window +and sent forth a yell, turning back almost instantly to say, "Sorry, +Maud! I'm afraid I forgot your head. How is it?" + +He did not wait for her reply, but leaned out again immediately to +address the advancing children with noisy gayety. + +Toby looked up at Maud, hesitated, and rose. "Let us go and have tea with +the children!" she said. "It will be quieter for you." + +Maud put out a gentle hand to her. "No, dear. You stay with me. Bunny may +if he likes!" + +This time Toby's fingers closed tightly upon her own. "Sure?" said Toby. + +"Quite sure," said Maud, smiling at her. + +Toby turned sharply and pinched Bunny's elbow as he leaned from the +window. He drew himself in and stared at her. + +"You're making too much noise," she told him curtly. "You go and racket +downstairs!" + +Bunny's eyes widened for a second in indignant amazement, then abruptly +he threw up his chin and laughed. "I like you!" he declared. "You're the +cockiest thing in girls I've ever seen!" + +Toby pulled at his elbow like a small, persistent dog. "Go on!" she +commanded. "Go down to them! Mrs. Bolton and I want to have our tea +alone. I'll come and play with you presently--if you're good." + +It was spoken wholly without coquetry, much as an elder brother might +speak to a younger. It was plain that she meant to have her way, though +Maud, who knew that there was a very strong mixture of stubbornness in +Bunny, wondered much if she would get it. Amusement, however, kept the +upper hand with him. Toby's treatment evidently appealed strongly to his +sense of humour. Perhaps her determination also made its impression upon +him, for after a little more chaff on his part and brisk insistence on +hers he departed, laughing, to join the children. + +Toby saw him to the door and returned calm and triumphant. + +"Well done!" said Maud. "You know how to deal with spoilt children +evidently." + +Toby looked at her sharply as she sat down, almost as if she expected a +double meaning to the words. + +"Do you mean men?" she said, and for an instant her childish face wore a +look of contempt. "Oh, anyone can manage men--given a fair chance. +There's not much cleverness needed for that." + +She spoke with the decision of one who knew, and in spite of the +difference of years between them Maud could not question her confidence. +She had a curious feeling that--either by experience or intuition--this +girl knew more than she. + +She made no comment therefore, and after a moment Toby spoke her last +word on the subject with characteristic brevity. + +"There's only one rule to follow with men--that is, if you want any peace +at all. Make up your mind and stick to it! If they don't like it, let 'em +go to--" She checked suddenly, and coloured deeply under Maud's eyes--"I +mean, let 'em do the other thing," she ended, on a note that somehow +seemed to ask for pardon. + +"I see," said Maud gently, in a tone that conveyed it. + +Toby threw her a little smile, half-grateful and half-mischievous; and +curiously in that moment a bond was formed between them which was +destined to endure. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE PROMISE + + +There was undoubtedly a frown on Jake's usually serene countenance when +he walked up the great stable-yard a little later that evening and came +upon Bunny lounging in a doorway with his hands in his pockets talking to +one of the men. + +"Look here, young feller, I want a word with you," he said, with his +customary directness, and laid a somewhat peremptory hand upon the boy's +shoulder. + +Bunny, with a cigarette between his lips, turned and laughed at him +without a hint of discomfiture. "All right, boss. I'll come," he said, +and linked his arm in Jake's with boyish friendliness. + +He was half-a-head taller than Jake, but the look of power that was so +apparent in the older man was wholly absent in him. He moved his long +limbs with a loose swing that lacked energy though it seemed to denote a +certain restlessness. + +"Wonder what you'll do without me here when I go to Charlie," he +remarked, as Jake did not immediately speak. + +"I should say the sooner you go the better," said Jake rather brutally, +"if I were only sure you were going to the right place." + +"Have a smoke!" said Bunny with unruffled amiability, proffering his +case. + +Jake pushed it from him with a curt sound of dissatisfaction. + +"All right. Don't!" said Bunny, with instant haughtiness, and returned it +to his pocket. + +He would have withdrawn his hand from his brother-in-law's arm, but Jake +retained it there forcibly, steering for his own private office at the +end of the stable-yard. + +Bunny submitted, but his face grew ominously dark as they passed in +silence between the long rows of loose-boxes in the soft spring twilight. +As they neared Jake's room he drew himself together with the action of a +man who braces his muscles for a sudden strain, and in a moment he was +older, less defiant, more dignified. + +"That's better," Jake said, making him enter first. "There are times, Sir +Bernard Brian, when I want to lick you, as you never--unfortunately--were +licked in your early youth. Other times--like the present--when the breed +gets the better of me, and I can only stand outside--and admire." + +"Oh, don't be a blithering idiot, Jake!" said Bunny in hot discomfiture. +Jake's hand grasped his shoulder. "Sit down, and bring yourself to my +level for a minute! Maybe I am a blithering idiot, maybe I'm not. But I +could take you by the heels and dip you in the horse-pond round the +corner if I felt that way. So you'd better keep as civil as possible. It +won't make a mite of difference to me, but it may to you." + +Bunny sat down, breathing hard. His cigarette fell to the ground and he +stooped for it, but Jake, still holding his shoulder, stooped also, +picked it up and flung it straight out of the window. + +"You smoke too many of 'em," he said, as he did it. + +"Damn you!" said Bunny in a voice of concentrated fury. + +He would have sprung to his feet, but Jake's hands were upon him like +iron clamps and kept him seated. + +He spoke, his voice soft, unhurried, even humorous. "I'm only a beastly +groom, you know, Bunny. You don't expect good manners from me, do you?" + +Bunny shrank a little, as if something in the words pierced him. Jake's +eyes, very bright but wholly free from anger looked straight into his. +For some reason he ceased to strain against the compelling hands and sat +passive. + +There followed a somewhat tense silence before he said, "Well, go on! I +knew you wanted to row me about something. What's it all about?" + +His voice was sullen but his attitude was no longer hostile. He looked +ashamed. + +Jake sat down suddenly on the edge of the writing-table. "Say, Bunny!" he +said gently. "Do you know you're the only man in the world that can send +me to perdition and not have his teeth knocked down his throat for his +officiousness?" + +Bunny looked up at him, and in a moment, like the flash of sunshine from +behind a cloud, he was smiling. "Oh, get out, Jake. I suppose you're +going to wipe the floor with me now. I didn't mean it and I'm sorry. +Let's get on from there!" + +His hand gripped Jake's hard. There was something very winning about him +at the moment, something that appealed strongly to the older man though +he did not instantly reply. He kept the boy's hand in his for a moment, +and his eyes were very kindly as he looked into the thin young face. + +"Guess you know I'm pretty fond of you, my son," he said at length, "but +I don't figure to let you go to the devil unhindered on that account." + +Bunny whistled. "Who's going? Oh, don't be an ass, Jake, will you?" + +"No, I won't," said Jake, "at least not the soft variety. Reckon I've +been too soft with you, Bunny, as long as I've known you." + +Bunny stirred restlessly in his chair. "Think so?" he said. "Well, it's a +good fault, old chap. I can't stand bullying from anyone--makes me see +red at once." + +"I know," Jake said. "I've never bullied you anyway. But I'm on the +war-path now, and you've got to take your physic whether you like it or +not. Say, Bunny, how much money did you drop at the races this +afternoon?" + +"What's that to you?" said Bunny. + +Jake's face hardened a little. "Well, I expected that," he said. "Afraid +to tell me, eh?" + +"Not in the least afraid," said Bunny. "I dispute your right to know, +that's all." + +"I see." Jake regarded him with a very direct scrutiny. "I'm to be kept +in my place, is that it?" + +Bunny coloured. "That's the fourth time you've called me a bounder since +we came in. What do you mean by it, Jake?" + +"What do I mean?" Jake spoke rather sadly. "Well, maybe that's just what +I do mean, Bunny. You're beginning to bound." + +"Rot!" said Bunny, though he coloured more deeply than before. "You know +there isn't another fellow anywhere that I respect as I respect you. +But--dash it, Jake!--you must let me grow." + +"I want you to," said Jake. "But for the Lord's sake, grow straight!" He +reached out and took Bunny by the shoulder. "I'm going to ask a big thing +of you, sonny, but I guess I shall know by the way you take it how much +your respect for me is worth." + +"What is it?" said Bunny. + +"Just this." Jake leaned forward; there was speculation in his look. "I +want you to chuck racing--altogether--for a year. There!" + +"Chuck racing!" Bunny sat up very straight. "Jake! Why on earth should +I?" + +Jake's hand closed upon him. He was smiling a little but there was +something relentless behind his smile. "Oh, just to please me," he said. +"That's all." + +Bunny stared at him. "Chuck racing!" he said again. "Jake, you're mad!" + +"No, I guess not," said Jake imperturbably. "I'm not arguing any against +racing. Played straight, it's the best game in the world. I'm just asking +a personal favour of you. There's nothing to be hurt about in that." + +There was an ominous gleam in Bunny's eyes. He looked as if he were on +the verge of open rebellion, but with his last words Jake's steady arm +suddenly went round his shoulders and gave him a hard, brotherly squeeze. + +"Don't do it if you're going to hate me for it!" he said. "Reckon I can't +afford that. I knew it was a gamble when I started. If I can't win, I'll +back out right now." + +"Jake!" Quick feeling sounded in Bunny's voice. He turned sharply, and +for an instant his cheek was against the kindly hand with the old boyish +gesture of affection. Then he looked Jake full in the eyes and laughed. +"Jake, I say, don't be a beast! You know I'll do anything under the sun +to please you." + +"You'll do this?" said Jake. + +"Tell me why first!" said Bunny. + +"Because I want to know if you've got the grit for one thing. And for +another--that girl who has just come here is a gambler to the backbone, +and I won't have her encouraged." + +"How on earth do you know that?" said Bunny. "Did Charlie tell you?" + +"No." Jake's voice was grim. "You don't suppose I'd take his word for +anything, do you? I saw it in her face this afternoon. I know that +gambling fever, and she--well, I'm inclined to think she's had it in one +form or another all her life." + +"She's quite a nice kid," said Bunny condescendingly. + +Jake smiled, but the firmness remained. "She's not your sort, Sir Bernard +Brian," he remarked. "And I rather guess she could teach you more than +you could teach her." + +"What do you mean?" said Bunny. + +Jake turned aside to shut the window in preparation for departure. "Well, +sonny," he said in a marked drawl, "I guess I mean just that. If you +aren't sharp enough to draw your own conclusions, that's none of my +business." He turned round and looked at Bunny with absolute directness. +"And that other proposition of mine,--did I understand you to fall in +with it?" + +"Chuck racing for a year, you mean?" Bunny got up. His face was still +red, but it showed no resentment. "It's rather much, isn't it, Jake?" + +"Too much?" questioned Jake. + +Bunny hesitated. "Well, a year! Make it three months!" he said coaxingly. + +Jake came to him, square and resolute. "I'll make it six months, Bunny," +he said, "if you can tell me you didn't drop more than fifty pounds this +afternoon." + +Bunny turned crimson. "This afternoon was an exception," he said hastily. + +"I thought so," said Jake dryly. + +"But--damn it!--it's rather a heavy penalty to pay," protested Bunny. He +thrust out an impulsive hand. "I say, let me off, old feller! I won't do +it again." + +Jake's fingers closed and held. He said nothing, merely waited. + +And very suddenly--after his own headlong fashion--Bunny made +unconditional surrender. "Oh, get out, you beastly groom!" he said, and +wrung Jake's hand with all the force he could muster. "All right! It's +done!" + +Jake made an odd movement as of tension relaxed though none had been +apparent in his bearing. He struck Bunny on the shoulder the blow of a +friend. + +"That's the biggest thing you've ever done for me, pard," he said with a +smile. "Reckon I shan't forget it. Take it out of me next time!" + +"You bet I will!" said Bunny. + +He linked his arm through Jake's and gripped it hard. His eyes were +shining as they passed out together into the gathering dusk. He had made +a considerable sacrifice, but Jake had the gift of making him realize +that it was worth while. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE ALLY + + +A squeal of childish laughter echoed down the long passage that led from +the nurseries, followed by a shuffling sound along the floor. + +"Hold tight!" cried a voice, a gay, boyish voice, "I'm going to gallop!" + +There followed a tremendous scrambling along the corridor and shrieks of +delight from three excited children. Jake, who had just mounted the +stairs, paused in his progress; but in a moment there came a dramatic +sound indicative of collapse, and immediately there arose cries of +dismay. He turned an intervening corner and came upon the newly-arrived +guest quite prone upon the floor with his three little girls scuffling in +delighted agitation over her inert body. + +He hesitated to interrupt the game, but in an instant Betty the youngest +had spied him and uttered a shrill cry of welcome. The heap upon the +floor swiftly resolved itself into four separate beings, and the newcomer +sprang up with the litheness of a squirrel and met him with a free grace +that was not without a suggestion of defiance. + +He held out his hand to her. He understood the defiance and replied to it +with characteristic directness. + +"Guess you thought me a rough sort of animal when we met in the paddock +this afternoon," he said. "I'm sorry. It was Bunny I was up against--not +you." + +"Not me?" said Toby, her wide eyes lifted quite openly to his. "Sure?" + +He pinched the slim young hand without ceremony. Somehow she took him by +storm--this girl with the open brow and curiously pathetic face. "Well, +not so much you," he said. "Bunny knows that gambling on a big scale is +against the law for children of his age." + +"Oh, I see," said Toby. She smiled and slipped her hand free. "Well, I'm +years older than he is, so that doesn't apply to me. Bunny wasn't doing +any gambling either." + +"I gathered that," said Jake. + +She stopped and lifted Molly the second child, partially veiling her own +face with the little girl's soft curls. "Then you are up against me," she +said. + +"No, I'm not," Jake's voice held a queer, compassionate note. "We won't +quarrel till we know each other better anyway. I see you're pretty +intimate with the youngsters already." + +"Oh, that's easy, isn't it?" said Toby. "Babies always take you at your +face value. They are never prejudiced beforehand. There's never any +handicap of that sort with babies." + +Betty was clamouring at her knees. She bent and lifted her also, bracing +her slight form to a double burden of which Jake instantly relieved her, +gathering both children into his own strong arms. + +"You're not to do that ever again," he said, with the authority of the +man accustomed to obedience. "Understand?" + +"Why not?" said Toby. + +He turned to carry the two babies to the nursery. "Because I say it," he +said briefly. + +"Oh, but that's no reason," said Toby, with light assurance. + +Eileen at her side looked up in shocked amazement. "Not if Daddy says +so?" she questioned. + +Toby stooped and swung her up to her shoulder. "You little featherweight! +Daddy's only a man!" she said. + +"Quite true," said Jake deliberately. "The sort of man who means what he +says--always, and sees that he gets it." + +"What a frightful undertaking!" laughed Toby. "Then if you told me to go +to blazes you'd see that I went?" + +There was a pause. Eileen's little hands locked themselves nervously +under Toby's chin. Perhaps she was aware of a certain electricity in the +atmosphere. She was plainly not at her ease. + +Jake's voice sounded, very quiet and distinct, from the nursery door as +he entered. "I reckon that's just one of the things I've learnt not to +say." + +"Oh glory!" said Toby, "There goes the odd trick!" + +It was several minutes later, after a wild final romp that they left +the room together. There was certainly no ceremony left between them. +They came out as comrades, laughing at the same joke, their brief +passage-at-arms apparently forgotten. + +Toby, however, reverted to it very suddenly as they walked along the +passage. "Mr. Bolton, I'm sorry I got Bunny into hot water this +afternoon. It was all my fault. And I'm sorry I said blazes in front of +the babies just now. You'll have to kick me when I do these things, and +then I'll remember." + +Jake paused and looked at her. "Say! Are you a boy or a girl?" he said. + +She smiled, a faintly dubious smile, but her reply was prompt. "Mostly +boy, sir. That's what makes it so difficult." + +He put his hand on her shoulder. "Look here! Call me Jake, see? Are you +keen on horses?" + +Toby's eyes shone. "Like mad," she said. + +"I'll see you ride tomorrow," said Jake. + +Toby whooped with delight. "But I'll have to borrow some breeches from +someone. You don't want me to ride in a skirt do you?" + +"Not specially," said Jake. "What do you generally ride in?" + +"Tights," said Toby, and then suddenly clapped her hand to her mouth in +dismay. "There! Now I've done it! You won't tell--you'll never tell, will +you? Promise!" + +"Sure!" said Jake. He was smiling a little, but there was compassion in +his eyes. + +And Toby's hand came out to him in sudden confidence. "I like you," she +said. "You're a friend." + +Jake's grasp was strong and kindly. "I guess I shan't let you down," he +said. + +Toby nodded. "You've been a cow-boy, haven't you? I knew that directly I +saw you." + +"I've been a good many things," said Jake. + +She nodded again. "And always the right sort. I wish--" She broke off +abruptly. + +"What?" said Jake. + +"Oh, nothing," said Toby, with a rather wistful little laugh. + +"Let's have it!" said Jake. + +Her hand lay in his, and this time she left it there. Her blue eyes met +his courageously. "Only that I'd met you before," she said. + +"Before when?" said Jake. "Before you met Saltash?" + +"Oh no!" Very swiftly, she answered him. "Oh no! Lord Saltash is among +the kings. I'd have been dead by now but for him!" Her eyes kindled as +with a sudden glowing memory, she flushed like an eager child. "You know +him?" she said. "Isn't he--isn't he--fine?" + +She spoke with reverence, even with a certain awe. The man's face changed +a little, hardening almost imperceptibly. + +"Guess he's no great hero of mine," he said. "But maybe he has his +points." + +"He has!" Toby assured him with fervor. "You don't know him like I do. +He's a--he's a masterpiece." + +"That so?" said Jake. + +Perhaps Toby felt a lack of sympathy in his tone; she quitted the subject +abruptly. "No, that wasn't what I meant. I only wish I'd met you long +ago--years and years ago--when you were a cow-boy." + +"You were a babe in arms then," said Jake. + +She shook her head, quaintly smiling. "I wasn't ever that. I think I must +have been born old--began at the wrong end somehow. Some people do, you +know." + +"I know," said Jake. "When that happens, there's only one thing to be +done." + +"What?" queried Toby. + +His eyes were watching her intently, but there was nothing alarming in +their scrutiny. He made reply with absolute gentleness. "Begin again." + +"Ah!" A little sound that was more than a sigh escaped her, and then +quite suddenly her other hand came out to him; she lifted a quivering +face. "You going to help me?" she said. + +The action touched him. He took her by the shoulders as he might have +taken a boy. "I'll help you," he said. + +"You'll be good to me?" Her voice was quivering also, it had a sound of +tears. + +"Sure!" said Jake, laconic and forceful. + +"Keep me straight and pull me up when I go wrong?" pursued Toby +tremulously. + +"Yes, I'll do that," he said. + +"And you won't--you won't--you won't--talk to anybody about me?" she +pleaded. + +"No," said Jake briefly. + +"Not to Lord Saltash? Not to anyone?" + +"No," he said again, a hint of sternness in the curt word. + +Toby gulped down her distress, was silent for a moment or two, then +suddenly smiled upon him--a sunny inconsequent smile. "Guess I've got you +on my side now," she said with satisfaction. "You're nice and solid, Mr. +Jake Bolton. When you've been picked up from the very bottom of the sea, +it's good to have someone big and safe to hold on to." + +"That so?" said Jake. + +"Yes, I know now why Lord Saltash sent me here--just because you're +big--and safe." + +"Oh, quite safe," said Jake with his sudden smile. + +It came to him--as it had come to Saltash--that there was something +piteously like a small animal, storm-driven and seeking refuge, about +her. Even in her merriest moments she seemed to plead for kindness. + +He patted her shoulder reassuringly as he let her go. "I'll look after +you," he said, "if you play the game." + +"What game?" said Toby unexpectedly. + +He looked her squarely in the eyes. "The only game worth playing," he +said. "The straight game." + +"Oh, I see," said Toby with much meekness. "Not cheat, you mean? Lord +Saltash doesn't allow cheating either." + +"Good land!" said Jake in open astonishment. + +"You don't know him," said Toby again with conviction. + +And Jake laughed, good-humoured but sceptical. "Maybe I've something to +learn yet," he said tolerantly. "But it's my impression that for sheer +mischief and double-dealing he could knock spots off any other human +being on this earth." + +"Oh, if that's all you know about him," said Toby, "you've never even met +him--never once." + +"Have you?" questioned Jake abruptly. + +She coloured up to the soft fair hair that clustered about her +blue-veined temples, and turned from him with an odd little indrawn +breath. "Yes!" she said. "Yes!"--paused an instant as if about to say +more; then again in a whisper, "Yes!" she said, and went lightly away as +if the subject were too sacred for further discussion. + +"Good land!" said Jake again, and departed to his own room in grim +amazement. + +Saltash the sinner was well known to him and by no means uncongenial; but +Saltash the saint, not only beloved, but reverenced and enshrined as +such, as something beyond his comprehension! How on earth had he managed +to achieve his sainthood? + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE IDOL + + +"Well?" said Saltash with quizzical interest. "Where is she? And how is +she getting on?" + +It was the Sunday afternoon of his promised visit, a day soft with spring +showers and fleeting sunshine. Maud sat in a basket-chair on the verandah +and regarded him with puzzled eyes. She passed his questions by. + +"Charlie," she said, "where does she come from?" + +He raised his shoulders expressively. "Where do all women come from--and +why, _chere reine_? It would be such a peaceful planet without them." + +He was in a baffling mood, and she knew better than to pursue the subject +under those conditions. She abandoned her effort with a sigh. + +"She is not a woman; she is a child, very charming but utterly +irresponsible. She is in the training field just now with Jake and Bunny. +She is a positive delight to Jake. She can do anything with the horses." + +"But not such a delight to you?" suggested Saltash shrewdly. + +Maud hesitated momentarily. "I love her of course," she said then. +"But--though I have tried to make her feel at ease--I think she is a +little afraid of me--afraid anyhow to be quite natural in my presence." + +"But are we any of us that?" protested Saltash. "Are we not all on our +best behaviour in the audience-chamber?" + +Maud sighed again. "They are all great pals," she said irrelevantly. "She +and Bunny are terribly reckless. I hope they won't break their necks +before they have done." + +"Or their hearts?" suggested Saltash, looking mischievous. + +She smiled. "I don't think there is much danger of that, anyhow at +present. She is a positive child, Charlie,--as young as Eileen in many +ways, or perhaps younger. Shall we walk down to the field and look at +them?" + +"Your servant, madam!" said Saltash readily. + +He was on his feet in an instant, and she realized that he had been +chafing to go since the moment of his arrival. + +"You take a great interest in her," she remarked, as they walked along +the terrace. + +He made his most appalling grimace. "I have never had an infant to look +after before," he said "And--I have to make my report to Larpent." + +"Ah! How is he?" questioned Maud. + +He shot her a swift glance. "Is the child anxious?" + +"Not in the least. I don't believe she ever thinks about him. She told me +on the first day that she hardly knows him." + +Saltash laughed. "How honest of her! Well, he's getting better, but he +won't be well yet. May I leave her in your charge, a while longer?" + +"Of course!" Maud said warmly. "I love to have her, and she is a great +help to me too. The children simply worship her, and she is splendid with +them. I believe Eileen will very soon get over her dread of riding." + +"Toby can ride?" asked Saltash. + +"Oh yes, like a cow-boy. She is amazingly fearless, and never minds a +tumble in the least. She can do the most extraordinary things exactly +like a boy. I am always afraid of her coming to grief, but she never +does." + +"Funny little beggar!" said Saltash. + +"I am quite sure of one thing," pursued Maud. "She never learnt these +things at any school. She tells me she has been to a good many." + +"I believe that's true," said Saltash. "I imagine she is fairly quick to +pick up anything, but I haven't known her myself for long." + +"She must have picked up a good deal on _The Night Moth_," observed Maud +unexpectedly. + +He glanced at her again. "Why do you say that? She was under my +protection--and Larpent's--on _The Night Moth_." + +"I know. She idolizes you," Maud smiled at him somewhat dubiously. "But +she must have mixed fairly freely with the crew to have picked up the +really amazing language she sometimes uses." + +Saltash's brows worked whimsically. "Some of us have a gift that way," he +remarked. "Your worthy Jake, for instance--" + +"Oh, Jake is a reformed character," she interrupted. "He hardly ever lets +himself go now-a-days. And he won't allow it from Bunny. But Toby--Toby +never seems to know the good from the bad." + +"Has Jake taken her in hand?" asked Saltash with a chuckle. + +"Oh yes. He checks her at every turn. I must say she takes it very +sweetly, even offered to take her meals in her room yesterday when he was +rather down on her. It absolutely disarmed Jake of course. What could he +say?" + +"Yes, she's a disarming monkey certainly," agreed Saltash. "But I never +was great on the management and discipline of children. So she knocks +under to the great Jake, does she?" + +"Oh, not entirely." Maud laughed a little. "Only this morning they had a +battle. I don't know how it is going to end yet. But--she can be very +firm." + +"She never tried any battles with me," said Saltash, with some +complacence. + +"No. But then your sense of duty is more elastic than Jake's. You +never--probably--asked her to do anything she didn't want to do." + +"Can't remember," said Saltash. "What did Jake want?" + +Maud's smile lingered. "You'll laugh of course. But Jake is quite right, +whatever you do. He wanted her to go to church with little Eileen and me +this morning. She's only a child, you know, and he naturally took it for +granted that she was going. We both did. But just at the last moment she +absolutely refused, told him quite frankly that she was--an atheist." + +Saltash's laugh had a sound half-mocking, half-exultant. "What said the +worthy Jake to that? Stop! I know what he said. He said. 'You can call +yourself by any fool name you please, but you've got to go to Church +like a respectable citizen if I say so.' Wasn't that it?" + +"Something like it," Maud admitted. "How did you know?" + +"Oh, I know Jake," said Saltash dryly. "And what happened then? She +refused?" + +"Yes, she refused. She was frightened, but she refused. She looked as if +she were going to run away, but in the end Jake went off with her to the +stables saying they would go to-night. They were quite friends when I saw +them again, but she had been crying, poor little thing. I wish I could +help her, but somehow I can't get near enough. Jake seems to understand +her best." + +"Wonder if she will give in?" said Saltash. + +They were passing through a shrubbery that led to the training-field, and +there came the quick thud of hoofs galloping on short turf as they +approached. + +"I don't think there is much doubt about that," Maud said. + +Saltash laughed again mockingly. "Oh, we all know Jake is invincible, +virtuous rectitude incarnate. But you can't hammer a girl into submission +like a boy and I rather fancy that Toby is not wholly ignorant of the art +of getting her own way." + +"Jake never hammered Bunny," Maud said quietly, "But he manages him +notwithstanding." + +They rounded a curve and came upon the gate that led into the field. The +galloping hoofs were close to them. As they reached the corner two riders +flashed past at full speed. One of them--Bunny--lay on his horse's neck, +yelling wild encouragement to his mount. The other,--a slight, childish +figure--was kneeling on the saddle like a small, crouching creature, +perfectly poised and wholly unafraid. As the horse that carried her +dropped to a canter on the hill, she got to her feet with absolute ease, +and stood, arms out and swaying to the animal's motion, till, as they +rounded another curve, she dropped to the saddle again, and passed from +sight, following in Bunny's tracks. + +"Quite a pretty exhibition!" remarked Saltash. "Where is Jake?" + +Jake himself appeared at the moment riding soberly, mounted on his +favourite horse, The Hundredth Chance. He greeted Saltash with a smile +and jumped to the ground to join them at the gate. + +"They'll be round again directly. Just riding off their spirits," he +explained in his easy drawl. "You motored over, my lord?" + +Saltash nodded with a touch of impatience. He was watching with restless +eyes for the reappearance of the girl on horseback. She had not seen him +at the gate, yet somehow his arrogance rebelled at the fact that she +had passed him by. + +Jake stood with The Hundredth Chance nuzzling against him. He did not +trouble himself to make conversation; that was not his way. He also +waited for the reappearance of the riders. + +They came, riding side by side and jesting with careless _camaraderie_. +Toby's face was delicately flushed. The fair head had no covering. She +was dressed and looked exactly like a boy. + +At sight of Saltash standing by the gate her whole attitude changed. She +uttered a queer sound, half-whoop, half-sob, and flung herself out of the +saddle. In a moment she had reached him, was hanging to his arm in mute +greeting, everything else in the world forgotten. It was pathetically +like the re-union of a lost dog to its master. + +Saltash's ugly face softened miraculously at her action. The jest died on +his lips. "Why, Nonette!" he said. "Nonette!" + +She strangled another sob. Her face was burning, quivering, appealing, no +longer the face of a boy. "I thought you'd forgotten to come," she said. + +"What? Was I expected to lunch?" said Saltash. "Ah! Was that why you +wouldn't go to church?" + +Toby looked up, desperately smiling. "It may have been--partly. But I +never do go. Do you?" + +"Not often," said Saltash. "I might if I stayed here. There's no knowing. +You'll be pleased to hear your daddy is better. He's coming down to the +Castle to convalesce. And when he's done that, I'm going to have a +party--a coming-out party--for you." + +"For me!" Toby gasped, staring at him with scared blue eyes. "I hope you +won't, sir," she said. + +He laughed back at her, his brows working mischievously. "_Mais pourquoi +pas, mignonne?_ You are old enough. Maud will come and be hostess, won't +you, Maud? You shall have Jake too for a watch-dog, if you want him. +After that, you shall be presented at Court, when you've learnt to +curtsey prettily instead of turning somersaults. You must let your hair +grow, Nonette, and leave off wearing breeks. You've got to be a credit to +me." + +"Oh, damn!" said Toby in dismay. "I mean--oh, bother!" + +"Yes, it's a good thing you mean only that, isn't it?" laughed Saltash. +"If you go on wearing those masculine things much longer, you'll have +Jake punching your head for little slips of that kind. He's getting +mighty particular, I'm told." + +"Not afraid of Jake!" said Toby, casting a swift look at her host. + +Jake was lighting his pipe. His face wore a faint smile. He was holding +Toby's animal as well as his own. "Aren't you going to ride again?" he +said. + +"No," said Toby. + +"Oh, come on!" Bunny pushed his horse forward without dismounting. "Glad +to see you, Charlie, but we must have one more gallop. Come on, Toby! Be +a sport!" + +But Toby, still holding Saltash's sleeve, would not so much as look at +him. "Not coming," she said tersely. + +Saltash laughed. Bunny coloured suddenly and hotly. "Oh, all right!" he +said, and, wheeling his horse, rode away. + +"Now you've hurt his little feelings," observed Saltash. + +"Who cares?" said Toby, and nestled closer, till with his sudden reckless +grin he thrust an arm about her shoulders. + +"I'll tell you what it is, Nonette. You're getting spoilt all round. +Something will have to be done. Shall I take her away, Jake?" + +"And bring me back when I'm good?" put in Toby eagerly. + +He laughed and pinched her ear. "I shall want to keep you myself--when +you're good. I haven't yet found anyone to sew on buttons like you do. +No, _ma chere_, you'll have to stay and be caned for your sins. Jake is +a better schoolmaster than I am, being so eminently virtuous himself. I +hope you do cane her, Jake. I'm sure she needs it." + +"No," Jake said, preparing to mount again. "I haven't tried that at +present." + +Toby watched him a little wistfully as he moved away, leading her horse. +"I am trying to be good," she said. "He knows that." + +"Yes, she's trying hard," Maud said very kindly. "Jake and I are going to +be proud of her some day." + +Saltash's brows twisted humorously. "I wonder," he said. And then again +lightly he laughed. "Don't get too good, Nonette! I can't rise to it." + +She turned swiftly, looking up into the derisive face above her with open +adoration in her own. "You!" she said. "You!" + +"Well, what about me?" he said. + +She coloured very deeply. "Nothing, sir, nothing! Only--you're so great!" + +He flicked her cheek, grimacing hideously. "Is that your pretty way of +telling me I'm the biggest rotter you ever met?" + +"Oh, no!" said Toby quickly and earnestly. "Oh no! I think you are--a +king. If--if anyone could make me believe in God, you could." + +She spoke with a sincerity that held a hint of passion. The grimace +flicked out of Saltash's face like a picture from a screen. For a moment +he had the blank look of a man who has been hit, he knows not where. Then +with lightning swiftness, his eyes went to Maud. "You hear that?" he +said, almost on a note of challenge. "Why don't you laugh?" + +She met his look with absolute steadfastness. There was a certain pity in +her own. "Because," she said with great gentleness, "I believe that it is +true." + +In the silence that followed she waited for his own laugh of mockery and +did not hear it. The odd eyes comprehended her, and passed her by, fell +abruptly to Toby and dwelt upon her with a whimsical tenderness. + +"I always said you were a little ass, didn't I, Toby?" he said. + +And Toby turned with an apologetic murmur and softly kissed his hand. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +RESOLUTIONS + + +Toby went to church that Sunday evening with great propriety, Saltash +having departed, taking Bunny with him to spend the evening at +Burchester. Her behaviour was a model of decorum throughout, but +returning she begged Jake for a cigarette as a reward of virtue. + +"It'll keep me good for hours," she assured him. + +And Jake, who yearned for a smoke himself, could not find it in his heart +to refuse. + +"Don't overdo it, that's all!" he said. "Young Bunny is always at it, and +it's very bad for him." + +"Oh, I've got heaps more sense than Bunny," said Toby, with lofty +assurance. + +She smoked the cigarette with delicate appreciation though Jake's tobacco +was by no means suited to a feminine palate, and they returned at peace +with all the world. + +Maud, who had been watching for them somewhat anxiously, saw with relief +that her fears were groundless. Toby's serene countenance told her that +all was well. No, she had not hated it so very badly after all. It was +nothing to make a fuss about anyhow. She would go again if Jake liked. + +She seemed in fact mildly amused by the idea that he could be so easily +pleased, and asked him later with her chin in the air if there were any +other odd jobs he would like her to perform. + +But when Maud presently went to the piano, she came and sat on a low +chair near her and listened in absolute stillness while she played. They +were alone, and Maud played on and on, almost forgetful of her silent +companion, suffering her fingers to wander in unison with her thoughts. +All her life music had been her great joy and solace. She was not a +brilliant musician as was Saltash, but she had the gift of so steeping +herself in music that she could at times thereby express that which +otherwise would have been unutterable--the hidden emotions of her soul. + +Nearly an hour had passed thus before she remembered the silent little +figure behind her, and then it was with a swift sense of compunction that +she took her hands from the keys and turned. + +"Toby dear, how boring this must be for you! Are you asleep? Why, child, +what is it?" + +With a start she saw that Toby's fair head was bowed upon her arms in an +attitude of the most hopeless, the most bitter, despair. + +She made a convulsive movement at the sound of Maud's voice, and in a +moment lifted a white, strained face. "I am just a little tired, that's +all," she said in a voice that quivered in spite of her. "Please go on +playing! I like it." + +Maud got up with quiet decision and went to her, but Toby was on her feet +before she reached her. She stood with that look of a small, frightened +animal so characteristic of her, her two hands nervously locked together. + +Maud took her gently by the arm. "Shall we sit down and talk?" she said. + +Toby yielded as it were involuntarily to the quiet touch. In her plain +white blouse with the sailor collar she looked a mere child--a piteous, +shy child. + +Maud drew her down upon the sofa. All the mother in her went out to the +forlorn little creature, yet for the moment she hesitated, as one afraid +to strike a wrong note. + +Toby was trembling a little and that fact decided her. She put a +comforting arm about her. + +"Do you know I am wondering how to make you happy?" she said. + +Toby choked back a sob. "You are very kind, and I am stupid--stupid. I +will try to be happy. I will really." + +Maud began to draw her gently nearer, but Toby surprised her by a sudden +passionate movement and slipped down on to the floor, hiding her face +against her. + +"I'm not fit--to speak to you!" she said in a vehement, strangled +whisper. "I'm so bad--so bad. And I do--so--want to be good." + +"My dear, dear child!" Maud said very tenderly. + +Toby fought with herself for a space, her thin arms tightly clasping +Maud's knees. At last, forcing back her distress she lifted her head. + +"I'm so dreadfully sorry. Don't let it upset you! Don't--tell Jake!" + +"You are quite safe with me, dear," Maud assured her. "But can't I help +you?" + +She knew even as she asked the question that Toby was not prepared to +give her full confidence, and her own reserve shrank from asking for it. + +Toby looked up at her with quivering lips. "Oh, you are good!" she said. +"I want to be good--like you. But--I don't feel as if I ever shall be." + +Maud laid a very gentle hand upon the blue-veined forehead. "I think +goodness is only comparative at the best of times, dear," she said. "I +don't feel that I am specially good. If I seem so to you, it is probably +because my life holds very few temptations to be anything else." + +"Ah!" Toby said, with a quick sigh. "And do you think people ought to be +made to suffer for--for things they can't help?" + +Maud shook her head. "I am afraid it often happens, dear." + +"And yet you believe in God," Toby said. + +"Yes, I believe in God." With quiet reverence Maud made answer. "And I am +quite sure, Toby--quite, quite sure--that He never holds people +responsible for the things they can't help." + +"Then why--" began Toby restlessly. + +Maud interrupted her. "No, no. Don't ask why! The world is as God made +it. 'We are His workmanship.' Let Him do with us as He will!" + +Toby's hands clenched. A frown that was curiously unchildlike drew the +wide forehead. "Are we to be quite passive then? Just--slaves?" + +"No," Maud said. "Servants--not slaves. There is a big difference. And +every one of us--every one of us--has God's work to do in the world." + +"And you think that bad people,--like me--can do anything?" said Toby. + +Maud smiled a little. "Toby dear, I am quite sure that your work is +waiting for you." + +"Don't know where I'm going to begin," said Toby, with another sigh. + +"My dear, you have begun." Maud's hand smoothed the fair hair. "Do you +think I don't know how hard you try?" + +Toby's eyes filled with quick tears. "But is it any good trying? Shall I +ever get away from--from--" She broke off with a nervous, upward glance. +"Shall I ever do more than begin?" she substituted rather piteously. + +"My dear, yes." Very quietly, with absolute decision, Maud made answer. +"You are young--too young to be hampered by anything that is past. You +have your life before you, and--to a very great extent--you can make of +it what you will. There is no need--believe me, there is no need--to look +back. There is only time enough for the present. Just keep on trying! +Make the very best you can of it! And you will find the future will come +out all right." + +"Will it?" said Toby rather dubiously. + +Maud bent and kissed her. "Certainly it will, dear. Never doubt it! It +may not be the future we plan for ourselves, but it will be the very best +possible if we keep on doing our best with the present." + +"Thank you," Toby murmured gratefully. "And you really think--you do +really think--the past doesn't matter?" + +Maud was silent for a few moments. The thought of Saltash was in her +mind, his jesting evasions, his air of careless proprietorship. What was +the thing in this child's past that she desired so earnestly to put away? +She wondered if she ought to ask, but she could not. + +A slight terror ran through the small, supplicating figure at her knee, +and quick pity banished doubt. "I think it is entirely in our own hands, +dear," she said gently. "The past can always be left behind if we work +hard enough." + +"Oh, thank you," Toby said again, and gathering Maud's hands +impulsively into her own she kissed them. "I'm going to work very hard," +she said. "You'll help me, I know. I've got to--to leave off turning +somersaults--and learn to--curtsey." + +She sent a shy smile into Maud's face, and almost in spite of herself +Maud answered it. There was something oddly appealing, irresistibly +attractive, about the child. She was so young and ardent, yet so +pathetically anxious to please. + +"Of course I will help you," she said. "I will always help you, my dear." + +And Toby, emboldened, thrust warm arms about her neck, and held her +close. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE BUTTERFLY + + +The perfect rose of a June sunset was slanting through the fir-woods of +Burchester Park, making the red trunks glow. At the end of a long grass +ride the new moon dipped to the west, a silver boat uptilted in a green +transparent sea. A very great stillness lay upon all things--the eventide +quiet of a summer day. + +The dull thudding of a horse's hoofs along the ride scarcely seemed to +break that magic silence. A frightened rabbit scurrying to cover made no +sound at all. Somewhere a long way off a cuckoo was calling, tenderly, +persistently. Somewhere near at hand a blackbird was warbling to his +mate. But it all went into the enchanted silence, blending with the hush +of the coming night. The man who rode the horse was conscious only of the +peace of his surroundings. He doffed his cap to the moon in mock +reverence, and carried it in his hand. + +He came to the end of the ride and checked his animal on the brow of a +steep descent. The park lay below him wrapped in mystery. On another +slope a full mile away stood the Castle, ancient battlemented, starkly +splendid, one westward-facing window burning as with fire. He sat +motionless for a space, gazing across at it, his face a curious mask of +conjecture and regret. + +Finally, with great suddenness, he lifted his hand and smote his horse +sharply on the flank. In a moment he was being precipitated at a headlong +gallop down the hill. He went like the wind, and the enchanted wood +was left behind. + +Riding up the further slope to the Castle a few minutes later, he was +hailed from behind and reined in to look back. A long-legged figure +detached itself from a clump of trees that shadowed the bailiff's house +and came racing in pursuit. + +"Hi! Charlie! Don't be in such a deuce of a hurry! I'm going your way." + +Saltash waited, not too patiently. "My good chap, you're dressed and I'm +not! I shall be late for my guests." + +"What's it matter?" scoffed Bunny breathlessly, reaching his side. "Maud +and Jake don't count, and Toby is only a kid. I don't suppose she's ever +been out to dine before." + +"She's old enough to begin," remarked Saltash, pushing on at a walk. + +"Well, she is beginning," said Bunny, with a grin as he strode beside +him. "You haven't seen her for some weeks, have you? You'll see a +difference, and so will her father." + +"How?" said Saltash briefly. + +Bunny's grin became more pronounced. "Oh, it's chiefly clothes. Maud is +rather clever in that line, you know. I haven't seen a great deal of her +lately. She's generally scampering round on horseback with Jake. But +once or twice--with Maud--I've seen her look quite demure. She's really +getting almost good-looking," he added dispassionately. + +Saltash flung a swift look downwards. "Don't you approve?" + +Bunny shrugged his shoulders. "I don't see enough of her to care either +way. She's still a kid, you know,--quite a kid." + +Saltash dropped the subject abruptly. "You're liking your job all right?" + +"Rather!" Bunny made instant and enthusiastic reply. "It's just the sort +of thing I was made for. Old Bishop's a brick. We're getting quite fond +of one another." + +"Sort of life you enjoy?" questioned Saltash. + +"Oh, rather! I've always thought I'd like to manage a big estate. Wish +I'd got one of my own." + +"All right. I'll adopt you," laughed Saltash. "You shall be the son of my +old age." + +"Oh, don't be an ass!" protested Bunny. "Why on earth don't you get +married?" + +Saltash's brows twisted wryly. "Afraid I've lived too long, _mon cher_. +If I had married your sister in the long ago, things might have been +vastly different. As it is, I see no prospect of changing my state. Think +it matters?" + +"Well, it's rather a shame to let a good name die out," maintained Bunny. +"And of course it's rot to talk like that about Maud. You can't pretend +to have stayed in love with her all these years. There must have been +heaps of others since then." + +"No, I'm not pretending," said Saltash. "As you say, there have +been--heaps of others." He made an odd gesture towards the western sky +behind him. "There are always--heaps of stars, Bunny; but there's never +more than one moon." + +"Rot!" said Bunny. + +"It is, isn't it?" said Saltash, and laughed with brief derision. "Well, +I must get on. You can do the receiving if I'm late. Tell them I've been +in town and only got back at mid-day! You needn't bother about Larpent. +I'll see to him." + +He flicked his horse's neck and was off with the words. + +Bunny, striding after, watched him ride swiftly up the slope till the +fir-trees of the avenue hid him from view. + +"Queer fish!" he murmured to himself. "Very queer fish!" + +He entered the Castle a little later by the great stone hall and found it +lighted from end to end as if in preparation for a reception. He had +known the place for years, but it always struck him afresh with its +magnificence. It looked like a palace of kings. There were some beautiful +pieces of statuary both in marble and bronze, and upon each of these a +shaded light shone. + +At the end of the hall a wide oak staircase that branched mid-way led to +an oak gallery that ran round three sides of the hall, and where it +divided a high door stood open, showing a lighted room beyond. Bunny left +his coat with the silent-stepping butler and went straight up the +shallow stairs. + +He entered the stately apartment at the top expecting to find it empty. +It was the drawing-room--a vast and lofty chamber with satin-covered +walls, superbly furnished with old French furniture in royal blue velvet +and gilt. There was a further room beyond, but Bunny did not pursue his +way thither, for a man in evening-dress turned suddenly from one of the +great southward-facing windows and moved to meet him. + +He was a gaunt man with a trim beard and the eyes of the sea-farer, and +he walked with a slight roll as if accustomed to pitching decks. + +"Sir Bernard Brian?" he said. + +Bunny held out his hand. "You're Captain Larpent, of course. I wonder +we've never met before. I've heard of you often enough. Sorry you had +such bad luck with _The Night Moth."_ + +"Oh, damnable luck!" said the sailor gloomily. + +"Still you came out of it alive," said Bunny consolingly. "And your +daughter too. Things might have been worse." + +Larpent grunted. "Think so?" + +"She does anyway," said Bunny, with a grin. + +Larpent grunted again. "Shipboard is not the place for a girl," he +remarked. + +"Toby seems more at home on horseback than anywhere else," said Bunny. + +Larpent gave him a keen look. "Oh, she still goes by that name, does +she?" he said. + +"What do you call her?" said Bunny. + +Larpent snapped his fingers curtly. + +"Does she come for that?" asked Bunny. + +"Usually," said Larpent. + +"Then she's more docile than I thought she was," commented Bunny. + +Larpent said nothing. He propped himself against the high mantelpiece and +stared morosely out before him to the pine-clad slopes of the park. + +"How you must hate being ashore!" said Bunny. + +"Why do you say that?" Larpent scarcely removed his moody gaze. + +"You look as if you did." There was a hint of chaff in Bunny's voice. He +surveyed the gaunt man with humorous interest, seated on one of the gilt +chairs with his hands clasped round his knee. "I suppose Saltash will buy +another yacht, won't he?" + +Larpent's eyes came definitely down to him, grimly contemptuous. "Do you +also suppose that would be the same thing?" he said. + +Bunny flushed a little, but he accepted the rebuff with a good grace. "I +don't know, sir. You see, I've never been the captain of a yacht." + +Larpent's hard visage relaxed a little. He resumed his contemplation of +the distant pine-woods in silence. + +Bunny got up whistling and began to stroll about the room. He was never +still for long. He was not very familiar with the state reception-rooms +of Burchester Castle and he found plenty to interest him. + +Several minutes passed, and he had almost forgotten the silent man who +leaned against the fire-place, when suddenly Larpent came out of his +melancholy reverie and spoke. + +"How long has the child been with these Boltons?" + +Bunny paused at the further end of the room. "Let's see! It must be some +time now--practically ever since the wreck. It must be about six weeks. +Yes; she came just before I left to take on this job--the week of the +Graydown Meetings." Bunny's eyes kindled at the memory. "We had some +sport the day she came, I remember; quite a little flutter. In fact we +soared so high that I thought we were going to create a sensation, and +then"--Bunny whistled dramatically--"down we came with a rush, and I was +broke!" He began to laugh. "It's rather a shame to tell you, isn't it? +But you won't give me away? We've never done it since." + +"I shan't give anyone away," said Larpent grimly. + +"Good! You're a sport, I can see." + +The genuine appreciation in Bunny's voice brought an icy glimmer of +amusement to the elder man's eyes, but he made no verbal comment. + +Again a silence fell, and Bunny came strolling back, a smile on his +handsome boyish face. + +"Fine place this," he remarked presently. "It's a pity Saltash is here so +little. He only comes about three times a year, and then only for a +couple of nights at a time. There's heaps of game in the woods and no one +to shoot it." + +"He probably knows his own business best," remarked Larpent. + +"Oh, probably. But the place is wasted on him for all that." Bunny spoke +with a frown. "Why on earth he doesn't marry and settle down I can't +think. Can't you persuade him to?" + +"No," said Larpent quite definitely. + +Bunny glanced at him. "I don't know why not. I know he's considered to +have gone the pace a bit, but after all he's no worse than a hundred +others. Why the devil shouldn't he marry?" + +Larpent shrugged his shoulders. "Don't ask me!" he said. + +"Well, he ought to," maintained Bunny. "If you have any influence with +him, you ought to persuade him to." + +"I haven't," said Larpent. + +Bunny flung away impatiently. "It's a confounded shame--a gorgeous family +place like this and no one but servants to live in it!" + +"It is, isn't it?" gibed Saltash, unexpectedly entering from the further +door. "Large enough for fifty wives, eh, Bunny? Well, as I said before, +you get married and I'll adopt you. It'll save me a lot of trouble. +You're so keen on recommending the marriage medicine to other people. Try +it yourself, and see how you like it!" + +He walked straight down the long room with the words, passing both +Larpent and Bunny on his way, pausing by neither. "I like to hear you two +discussing my case," he jested. "You, Bunny, who have never had the great +disease, and Larpent who has never got over it!" + +He approached the open door that led out upon the great staircase, the +jest still on his lips and the laughter in his eyes. He reached it and +stretched out both hands with a fine gesture of greeting. + +"Welcome to my poor hovel!" he said. "Madam, I kneel at your feet." + +A clear high laugh answered him from below, and both of his companions +turned sharply at the sound. + +A figure in white, girlish, fresh as the morning, sprang suddenly into +view. Her eager face had the delicate flush of a wild rose. The hair +clustered about her temples in tender ringlets of gold. Her eyes, blue +and shining, gave her the look of a child just awakened from happy +sleep--a child that expects to be lifted up and kissed. + +"By--Jove!" murmured Bunny under his breath, staring openly. "By--Jove!" + +And these words failed him. He had never been so astounded in his life. +This girl--this funny little Toby with the sharp features and pointed +chin, the girl-urchin with whom he had chaffed and played--was actually a +beauty, and till that amazing moment he had not realized the fact. + +As he went forward to greet her, he saw that Larpent was staring also, +and he chuckled inwardly at the sight. Decidedly it must be a worse shock +for Larpent than it was for himself, he reflected. For at least he had +seen her in the chrysalis stage, though most certainly he had never +expected this wonderful butterfly to emerge. + +Maud, of course, was the witch who had worked the marvellous +transformation, Maud with her tender mother-wisdom that divined so much. +He looked at her now, and wondered as he met her smile if she fully +realized what she had done. + +Across the wonder came Saltash's quizzing voice--"_Mais, Nonette, +Nonette_, you are a vision for the gods!" + +And a curious hot pang that was like a physical stab went through Bunny. +How dared Charlie use that caressing tone to her--as though she were a +mere ordinary woman to be trifled with and cajoled? He had never +disapproved of Saltash before, but for that moment he almost hated him. +She was too young, too sweet, too--different--to be treated thus. + +And then he was standing close to her, and Saltash, laughing, pushed him +forward. "Do you know this fellow, _ma chere_?" + +The wide blue eyes came up to his with a pleased smile of comradeship. +"Why, it's Bunny!" the clear voice said. "I'm so glad you're here too--in +this ogre's castle." + +Her hand gave his a little confiding squeeze, and Bunny's fingers gripped +in answer. He realized suddenly that she was nervous, and all the ready +chivalry of his nature rose up to protect her. For a moment or two he +kept her hand close in his own. + +Then Saltash airily took it from him. "Come!" he said lightly. "Here is +someone else you ought to know!" + +He wheeled her round with the words. She came face to face with Larpent. +There was an instant of dead silence, then Toby uttered a little +quivering laugh. + +"Hullo--Captain!" she said + +"Hullo!" said Larpent, paused a moment, then abruptly took her by the +chin, and, stooping, touched the wide brow with his lips. "All right?" he +asked gruffly. + +Toby gave a little gasp; she seemed to be trembling. But in a second she +laughed again, with more assurance. "Yes, all right, captain," she said. +"I--I--I'm glad to see you again. You all right too?" + +Bunny, looking on, made the abrupt discovery that Larpent also was +embarrassed. It was Saltash who answered for him, covering the moment's +awkwardness with the innate ease of manner which never seemed to desert +him. + +"Of course he's all right. Don't you worry about him! We're going to buy +him another boat as soon as the insurance Company have done talking. +Maud, this is my captain, the finest yachtsman you've ever met and my +very good friend." + +He threw his merry, dare-devil glance at Larpent as he made the +introduction, and turned immediately to Jake. + +"You two ought to get on all right. He disapproves of me almost as +strongly as you do, and--like you--he endures me, he knows not +wherefore!" + +Jake's red-brown eyes held a smile that made his rugged face look kindly +as he made reply. "Maybe we both have the sense to spot a winner when we +see one, my lord." + +Saltash's brows went up derisively. "And maybe you'll both lose good +money on the gamble before you've done." + +"I think not," said Jake, in his steady drawl. "I've known many a worse +starter than you get home on the straight." + +Saltash laughed aloud, and Toby turned with flushed cheeks and lifted +eyes, alight and ardent, to her hero's face. + +Saltash's glance flashed round to her, the monkeyish grin still about his +mouth, and from her to Bunny who stood behind. He did not speak for a +moment. Then: "No; you've never known a worse starter, Jake," he said; +"and if I do get home on the straight it will be thanks to you." + +Very curiously from that moment Bunny found his brief resentment dead. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE OGRE'S CASTLE + + +"Let's go out into the garden!" said Bunny urgently. + +Dinner was over, and Maud and Saltash were at the piano at the far end of +the great room. Jake and Larpent were smoking in silent companionship at +a comfortable distance. Toby, who had been very quiet the whole evening, +sat silently apart in a low chair with her hands clasped about her knees. +Bunny alone was restless. + +She lifted her eyes to him as he prowled near her, and they held a hint +of mischief. At his murmured words she rose. + +"You'd like to?" he questioned. + +She nodded. "Of course; love it. You know the way. You lead!" + +Bunny needed no second bidding. He went straight to the tall door and +held it open for her. Toby, very slim and girlish in her white raiment, +cocked her chin and walked out in state. But the moment they were alone +she turned upon him a face brimful of laughter. + +"Oh, now we can enjoy ourselves! I've been feeling so proper all the +evening. Quick! Where shall we go?" + +"Into the garden," said Bunny. "Or wait! Come up on to the battlements! +It's ripping up there." + +She thrust her hand eagerly into his. "I shall love that. Which way do we +go?" + +"Through the music-room," said Bunny. + +He caught and held her hand. They ran up one of the wide stairways that +branched north and south to the Gallery. Saltash's music followed them +from the drawing-room as they went. He was playing a haunting Spanish +love-song, and Toby shivered and quickened her pace. + +They reached another oak door which Bunny opened, drawing her impetuously +forward. "This is Charlie's own particular sanctum. Rather a ripping +place, isn't it? He's got a secret den that leads somewhere out of it, +but no one knows how to get in." + +He led her over a polished oak floor into a long, almost empty apartment +with turreted windows at each end, and a grand piano near one of them +that shone darkly in the shaded lamplight. Underfoot were Persian rugs, +exquisite of tint and rich of texture. Two or three deep divans completed +the furniture of the room giving it a look of Eastern magnificence that +strangely lured the senses. + +"Rather like a harem I always think," said Bunny, pausing to look round. +"There's an Arabian Nights sort of flavour about it that rather gets hold +of one. Why? You're shivering! Surely you're not cold!" + +"No, I'm not cold," said Toby. "But I don't like this place. It's creepy. +Let's go!" + +But Bunny lingered. "What's the matter with it? It's luxurious enough. +I've always rather liked coming in here." + +Toby made a small but vehement gesture of protest. "Then you like horrid +things," she said. "There's no air in here;--only--only--scent." + +Bunny sniffed. "Well, it's quite subtle anyhow; not enough to upset +anybody. Rather a seductive perfume, what?" + +She surprised him by stamping in sudden fury upon the bare floor. +"It's beastly! It's hateful! How can you like it? It--it--it's bad! +It's--damnable!" + +Bunny stared at her. "Well, Charlie designed it anyway. It's the one +corner in the whole Castle that is individually his. What on earth is +there that you don't like about it?" + +"Everything--everything!" declared Toby passionately. "I don't want to +stay here another minute. Show me the way out!" + +She spoke with such imperiousness that Bunny judged it best to comply. He +showed her a door in the eastern wall that was draped by a heavy red +curtain. + +"You can get up on to the ramparts that way. But wait a minute while I +find the switch! What are you running away from? There isn't a bogey-man +anywhere." + +Toby drew in her breath sharply with a nervous glance over her shoulder. +"I think it's a dreadful place," she said. "I want to get out into the +air." + +Bunny opened the door, and a dark passage gaped before them. "This looks +much more eerie," he observed, feeling about for a switch. "Do you really +like this better?" + +"Much better," said Toby, going boldly into the darkness. + +"Don't believe there is a switch," said Bunny, striking a match. "No, +there isn't! How beastly medieval! Look here! Wait while I go and get an +electric torch!" + +"No, no! Let's feel our way! I'm sure we can," urged Toby. "Come on! +It'll be fun. Shut the door!" + +The spirit of adventure seized upon Bunny. He let the door swing closed +and caught her hand again. + +Toby's delighted chuckle told him that she had fully recovered her +equilibrium. Her fingers twined closely about his own. + +"Now we shall have some fun!" she said. + +They went forward together for a few yards in total darkness. Then, from +somewhere high above them a faint light filtered through. + +"That's on the stairs," said Bunny. "One of those window-slits through +which in the old hospitable days all comers were potted at. Look out how +you go!" + +The words were scarcely uttered when they both kicked against the lowest +stair and blundered forward. A squeal of laughter came from Toby. Bunny +said "Damn!" with much heartiness and then laughed also. + +"I knew it would be fun," said Toby. "Are you hurt?" + +He raised her with a strong young arm. "No, I'm all right. Are you?" + +"Yes. I'm loving it. What happens next? Do the stairs wind round and +round till we get to the top?" + +"Yes. There are about six hundred of 'em. Feel equal to it?" + +"Equal to anything," said Toby promptly. "Let me go first!" + +"Why don't I go and get a light?" said Bunny. + +"Because you're not to. Because it's heaps more fun without. Besides, +there's lots of light up there. Now then? Are you ready? Come on! Let's +go!" + +Indomitable resolution sounded in Toby's voice. She drew herself free +from Bunny's hold, and began to mount. + +"You know it's haunted, don't you?" said Bunny cheerily. "A beautiful +lady was once captured and imprisoned in this turret in the dear old days +when everyone did those things. She had to choose between throwing +herself from the battlements and marrying her wicked captor--an ancestor +of Charlie's, by the way. She did the latter and then died of a broken +heart. They always did, you know. Her poor little ghost has wandered up +and down this stair ever since." + +"Idiot!" said Toby tersely. + +"Who?" said Bunny. "And why?" + +"The woman. Why didn't she throw herself over? It would have been much +easier." + +"Perhaps she didn't find it so," said Bunny. "And she'd doubtless have +done the haunting stunt even if she had." + +"Well, then, why didn't she marry the brute and--and--give him hell?" +said Toby tensely. + +Bunny uttered a shout of laughter that echoed and re-echoed up and down +the winding stair. + +"Is that what you would have done?" + +"I'd have done one or the other," said Toby. + +"By Jove, how bloodthirsty you sound!" ejaculated Bunny. "Are you in +earnest by any chance?" + +"Yes, I am in earnest." There was a note of bitter challenge in Toby's +reply. "If a woman hasn't the spunk to defend herself, she's better +dead." + +"I agree with you there," said Bunny with decision. "But I don't know how +you come to know it." + +"Oh, I know a lot of things," said Toby's voice in the darkness, and this +time it sounded oddly cold and desolate as if the stone walls around them +had somehow deadened it. + +He put out a hand and touched her, for she seemed in some fashion to have +withdrawn from him, to have become remote as the echoes about them. +"There are heaps of things you don't know anyway," he said. "You're only +a kid after all." + +"Think so?" said Toby. + +She evaded his hand, flitting up before him towards that grim slit in the +wall through which the dim half-light of the summer night vaguely +entered. Her light figure became visible to him as she reached it. There +came to him a swift memory of the butterfly-beauty that had so astounded +him earlier in the evening. + +"No, I don't," he said. "You're past that stage. What on earth has Maud +been doing to you? Do you know when you first came into the drawing-room +tonight I hardly knew you?" + +Toby's light laugh came back to him. She was like a white butterfly +flitting before him in the twilight. "I wondered what you'd say. I've +given up jumping rosebushes, and I'm learning to be respectable. It's +rather fun sometimes. Maud is very good to me--and I love Jake, don't +you?" + +"Yes, he's a brick; always was," said Bunny enthusiastically. "I'd back +him every time. But, I say. Don't get too respectable, will you? Somehow +it doesn't suit you." + +Again he heard her laugh in the darkness--a quick, rather breathless +laugh. "I don't think I'll ever be that," she said. "Do you?" + +"I don't know," said Bunny. "But you looked scared to death when you came +in--as if you were mounted on a horse that was much too high for you. I +believe you were afraid of that old daddy of yours." + +"I am rather," said Toby. "You see, I don't know him very well. And I'm +not sure he likes me." + +"Of course he likes you," said Bunny. + +"Why? I don't know why he should." + +"Everyone does," said Bunny, with assurance. + +"Don't be silly!" said Toby. + +They were past the slit in the wall, and were winding upwards now towards +another. Bunny postponed argument, finding he needed all his breath for +the climb. The steps had become narrower and more steeply spiral than +before. His companion mounted so swiftly that he found it difficult to +keep close to her. The ascent seemed endless. + +Again they passed a window-slit, and Bunny suddenly awoke to the fact +that the flying figure in front was trying to out-distance him. It came +to him in a flash of intuition. She was daring him, she was fooling him. +Some imp of mischief had entered into her. She was luring him to pursuit; +and like the whirling of a torch in a dark place, the knowledge first +dazzled, and then drew him. All his pulses beat in a swift crescendo. +There was a considerable mixture of Irish deviltry in Bunny Brian's +veins, and anything in the nature of a challenge fired him. He uttered a +wild whoop that filled the eerie place with fearful echoes, and gave +chase. + +It was the maddest race he had ever run. Toby fled before him like the +wind, up and up, round and round the winding stair, fleet-footed, almost +as though on wings, leaving him behind. He followed, fiercely determined, +putting forth his utmost strength, sometimes stumbling on the uneven +stairs, yet always leaping onward, urged to wilder effort by the +butterfly elusiveness of his quarry. Once he actually had her within his +reach, and then he stumbled and she was gone. He heard her maddening +laughter as she fled. + +The ascent seemed endless. His heart was pumping, but he would not +slacken. She should never triumph over him, this mocking imp, this +butterfly-girl, who from the first had held him with a fascination he +could not fathom. He would make her pay for her audacity. He would teach +her that he was more than a mere butt for her drollery. He would show +her-- + +A door suddenly banged high above him. He realized that she had reached +the top of the turret and burst out upon the ramparts. A very curious +sensation went through him. It was almost a feeling of fear. She was such +a wild little creature, and her mood was at its maddest. The chill of the +place seemed to wrap him round. He felt as if icy fingers had clutched +his heart. + +It was all a joke of course--only a joke! But jokes sometimes ended +disastrously, and Toby--Toby was not an ordinary person. She was either a +featherbrain or a genius. He did not know which. Perhaps there was no +very clear dividing line between the two. She was certainly +extraordinary. He wished he had not accepted her challenge. If he had +refused to follow, she would soon have abandoned her absurd flight +through the darkness. + +It was absurd. They had both been absurd to come to this eerie place +without a light. Somehow her disappearance, the clanging of that door, +had sobered him very effectually. He cursed himself for a fool as he +groped his way upwards. The game had gone too far. He ought to have +foreseen. + +And then suddenly he blundered into an iron-clamped door and swore again. +Yes, this thing was beyond a joke. + +The door resisted him, and he wrestled with it furiously as though it had +been a living thing obstructing his passage. + +He had begun to think that she must have bolted it on the outside when +abruptly it yielded to his very forcible persuasion, and he stumbled +headlong forth into the open starlight. He was out upon the ramparts, and +dim wooded park-lands stretched away to the sea before his dazzled eyes. + +The first thing that struck him was the emptiness of the place. It seemed +to catch him by the throat. There was something terrible about it. + +Behind him the door clanged, and the sound seemed the only sound in all +that wonderful June night. It had a fateful effect in the silence--like +the tolling of a bell. Something echoed to it in his own heart, and he +knew that he was afraid. + +Desperately he flung his fear aside and moved forward to the parapet. The +wall was thick, but between the battlements it was only the height of his +knee. Below was depth--sheer depth--stark emptiness. + +He looked over and saw the stone terrace dimly lit by the stars far below +him. The gardens were a blur of darkness out of which he vaguely +discerned the glimmer of the lake among its trees. + +His heart was beating suffocatingly; he struggled to subdue his panting +breath. She was somewhere close to him of course--of course. But the +zest of the chase had left him. He felt dizzy, frightened, sick. He +tried to raise his voice to call her, and then realized with a start of +self-ridicule that it had failed him. He leaned against the parapet and +resolutely pulled himself together. + +Then he went forward and found himself in a stone passage, actually on +the castle wall, between two parapets; the one on his left towering above +the inner portion of the castle with its odd, uneven roofs of stone, the +one on his right still sheer above the terrace--a drop of a hundred feet +or more. + +The emptiness and the silence seemed to strike at him with a nebulous +hostility as he went. He had a vague sense of intrusion, of being in a +forbidden place. The blood was no longer hot in his veins. He even +shivered in the warmth of the summer night as he followed the winding +walk between the battlements. + +But he was his own master now, and as he moved forward through the +glimmering starlight he called to her: + +"Toby! Toby, I say! Come out! I'm not playing." + +He felt as if the silence mocked him, and again that icy construction +about the heart made him catch his breath. He put up a hand to his brow +and found it wet. + +"Toby!" he cried again, and this time he did not attempt to keep the +urgency out of his voice. "The game's up. Come back!" + +She did not answer him, neither did she come; but he had a strong +conviction that she heard. A throb of anger went through him. He strode +forward with decision. He knew that the battlement walk ended on the +north side of the Castle in a blank wall, built centuries before as a +final defence from an invading enemy. Only by scaling this wall could the +eastern portion be approached. He would find her here. She could not +possibly escape. Something of confidence came back to him as he +remembered this. She could not elude him much longer. + +He quickened his stride. His face was grim. She had carried the thing too +far, and he would let her know it. He rounded the curve of the castle +wall. He must be close to her now. And then suddenly he stopped dead. +For he heard her mocking laughter, and it came from behind him, from the +turret through which he had gained the ramparts. + +He wheeled round with something like violence and began to retrace his +steps. He had never been so baffled before, and he was angry,--hotly +angry. + +He rounded the curve once more, and approached the turret. His eyes were +accustomed to the dim half-light, but still he could not see her. Fuming, +he went back the whole distance along the ramparts till he came to the +iron-clamped door that had banged behind him. He put forth an impatient +hand to open it, for it was obvious that she must have eluded him by +hiding behind it, and now she was probably on the stair. And then, very +suddenly, from far behind him, in the direction of the northern wall, he +heard her laugh again. + +He swung about in a fury, almost too incensed to be amazed. She had the +wings of a Mercury, it was evident; but he would catch her--he would +catch her now, or perish in the attempt. Once more he traversed the stony +promenade between the double line of battlements, searching each +embrasure as he went. + +All the way back to the wall on the north side he pursued his way with +fierce intention, inwardly raging, outwardly calm. He reached the +obstructing wall, and found nothing. The emptiness came all about him +again. The ghostly quiet of the place clung like a tangible veil. She had +evaded him again. He was powerless. + +But at that point his wrath suddenly burst into flame, the hotter and the +fiercer for its long restraint. He wheeled in his tracks with furious +finality and abandoned his quest. + +His intention was to go straight down by the way he had come and leave +her to play her will-o'-the-wisp game in solitude. It would soon pall +upon her, he was assured; but in any case he would no longer dance to her +piping. She had fooled him to the verge of frenzy. + +Again he rounded the curve of the wall and came to the door of the +turret. A great bastion of stone rose beside this, and as he reached it a +small white figure darted forward from its shadow with dainty, butterfly +movements, pulled at the heavy oak door and held it open with an +elaborate gesture for him to pass. + +It was a piece of exquisite daring, and with an older man it would have +taken effect. Saltash would have laughed his quizzing, cynical laugh and +accepted his defeat with royal grace. But Bunny was young and vehement +of impulse, and the flame of his anger still scorched his soul with a +heat intolerable. She had baffled him, astounded him, humiliated him, and +his was not a nature to endure such treatment tamely. + +He hung on his stride for a single moment, then hotly he turned and +snatched her into his arms. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE END OF THE GAME + + +She cried out sharply as he caught her, and then she struggled and fought +like a mad creature for freedom. But Bunny held her fast. He had been +hard pressed, and now that the strain was over, all the pent passion of +that long stress had escaped beyond control. He held her,--at first as a +boy might hold a comrade who had provoked him to exasperation; then, as +desperately she resisted him, a new element suddenly rushed like fire +through his veins, and he realized burningly, overwhelmingly, that for +the first time in his life he held a woman in his arms. + +It came to him like a blinding revelation, and forth-with it seemed to +him that he stepped into a new world. She had tried him too far, had +thrown him off his balance. He was unfit for this further and infinitely +greater provocation. His senses swam. The touch of her intoxicated him as +though he had drunk a potent draught from some goblet of the gods. He +heard himself laugh passionately at her puny effort to resist him and the +next moment she was at his mercy. He was pressing fevered kisses upon her +gasping, quivering lips. + +But she fought against him still. Though he kissed her, she would have +none of it. She struck at him, battering him frantically with her hands, +stamping wildly with her feet, till he literally swung her off the +ground, holding her slender body against his breast. + +"You little madcap!" he said, with his hot lips against her throat. "How +dare you? Do you think I'd let you go--now?" + +The quick passion of his voice or the fiery possession of his hold +arrested her. She suddenly ceased to battle with him, and stiffened in +his grasp as if turned to stone. + +"Let me go!" she said tensely. + +"I will not," said Bunny. + +He was mad with the fever of youth; he held her with a fierce exultation. +There could be no returning now, nor did he wish to return. + +"You little wild butterfly!" he said, and kissed the throbbing white +throat again. "I've caught you now and you can't escape." + +"You've--had your revenge," Toby flung back gaspingly. "You--you--you're +a skunk if you take any more." + +Oddly that sobered him as any protest more feminine would have failed to +do. He set her on her feet, but he held her still. + +"I haven't done with you," he said, with a certain doggedness. + +"Oh, I know that," she returned very bitterly. "You're like all the men. +You can't play fair. Men don't know how." + +That stung him. "Fair or unfair, you've done all the playing so far," he +said. "If you thought I was such a tame fool as to put up with it--well, +that's not my fault." + +"No, it's never your fault," said Toby. She made a little vehement +movement to extricate herself, but finding him obdurate, abandoned +the attempt. "You're not a fool, Bunny Brian. You're a beast and a +coward,--there!" + +"Be careful!" warned Bunny, his dark eyes gleaming ominously. + +But she uttered a laugh of high defiance. "Oh, I'm not afraid of you. +You're not full-grown yet. You're ashamed of yourself already." + +He coloured deeply at the taunt, but he maintained his hold upon her. + +"All right," he said. "Say I did it all! It doesn't matter how you put +it. The fact remains." + +"What fact?" said Toby swiftly. + +He clasped her a little closer. "Well,--do you think I'm going to let you +go--after this?" + +She caught her breath sharply. "What do you mean? I--I--I don't know what +you mean!" + +There was quick agitation in her voice. Again she sought to free herself, +and again he frustrated her. But the violence had gone out of his hold. +There was even a touch of dignity about him as he made reply. + +"I mean, you little wild butterfly, that now I've got you, I'm going to +keep you. You'll have to marry me and make the best of me." + +"Marry you!" said Toby as one incredulous. + +"Yes. What's the matter with the idea? Don't you want to?" Bunny's +good-looking young face came close to hers. He was laughing, but there +was a half-coaxing note in his voice as well. + +Toby was silent for a moment. Then: "You're mad!" she said tersely. + +"I'm not!" said Bunny. "I'm perfectly serious. Don't you understand that +when this kind of thing gets hold of you, there's no getting away from +it? We can't possibly go back to where we were before--behave as if +nothing had happened. You wouldn't want to, would you?" + +There was a hint of pleading in his tone now. Toby made a curious little +gesture that seemed to express a measure of reassurance. But, "I don't +know," she said somewhat dubiously. + +"You aren't angry, are you?" said Bunny softly. + +She hesitated. "I was." + +"Yes, but not now--when you've begun to realize what a jolly thing life +together would be. It isn't as if we'd never met before. We're pals +already." + +"Yes; we're pals," said Toby, but still her voice was dubious. + +"I say, be a sport!" the boy urged suddenly. "You said you weren't afraid +of me. Don't chuck the best thing in life for want of a little ordinary +courage!" + +"What is--the best thing in life?" said Toby. + +His hold grew close again, but it remained gentle. "You marry me," he +said, "and I'll show you!" + +There was something sublime rather than ridiculous in his assurance. Toby +caught her breath again as if about to laugh, and then quite suddenly, +wholly unexpectedly, she began to cry. + +"You poor little darling!" said Bunny. + +She leaned her head upon his shoulder, fighting great sobs that +threatened to overwhelm her. It was not often that Toby cried, and this +was no mere child's distress. Indeed there was about it something that +filled her companion with a curious kind of awe. He held her closely +and comfortingly, but for some reason he could not speak to her, could +not even attempt to seek the cause of her trouble. As his sister had done +before him, though almost unconsciously, he sensed a barrier that he +might not pass. + +Toby regained her self-command at last, stood for a space in silence, her +face still hidden, then abruptly raised it and uttered a little quivering +laugh. + +"You great big silly!" she said. "I'm not going to marry you, so there! +Now let me go!" + +Her tone and action put him instantly at his ease. This was the Toby he +knew. + +"Yes, you are going to marry me. And I shan't let you go," he said. "So +there!" + +She looked him straight in the face. "No, Bunny!" she said, with a little +catch in her breath. "You're a dear to think of it, but it won't do." + +"Why not?" demanded Bunny. + +She hesitated. + +He squeezed her shoulders. "Tell me why not!" + +"I don't want to tell you," said Toby. + +"You've got to," he said with decision. + +In the dimness his eyes looked into hers. A little shiver went through +Toby. "I don't want to," she said again. + +"Go on!" commanded Bunny, autocratically. + +She turned suddenly and set her hands against his breast. "Well then, +because I'm years and years older than you are--" + +"Rot!" interjected Bunny. + +"And--I'm not good enough for you!" finished Toby rather tremulously. + +"Rats!" said Bunny. + +"No, it isn't rats." She contradicted him rather piteously. "You've +turned a silly game into deadly earnest, and you shouldn't--you +shouldn't. I wouldn't have done it if I'd known. It's such a +mistake--it's always such a great mistake--to do that. You say we +can't go back to where we were before, but we can--we can. Let's +try--anyway!" + +"We can't," said Bunny with decision. "And there's no reason why we +should. Look here! You don't want to marry anyone else, do you?" + +"I don't want to marry at all," said Toby. + +He laughed at that. "Darling, of course you'll marry. Come! You might as +well have me first as last. You won't get any other fellow to suit you +half as well. What? Say you'll have me! Come, you've got to. You don't +hate me, do you?" + +Again the pleading note was in his voice. She responded to it almost +involuntarily. Her hands slipped upwards to his shoulders. + +"But--I'm not good enough," she said again, catching back a sob. + +His arms enfolded her, closely and tenderly. "Oh, skip that!" he said. "I +won't listen." + +"You--you--you're very silly," murmured Toby, with her head against his +neck. + +"No. I'm not. I'm very sensible. Look here, we're engaged now, aren't +we?" said Bunny. + +"No--no--we're not!" Her voice came muffled against his coat. "You're not +to think of such a thing for ages and ages and ages." + +"Oh, rot!" he said again with impatience. "I hate a waiting +game--especially when there's nothing to wait for. You're not going +to give me the go-by now." + +His face was close to her again. She put her hand against his chin and +softly pushed it away. "Bunny!" she said. + +"Well, dear?" He stood, not yielding, but suffering her check. + +"Bunny!" she said again, speaking with obvious effort. "I've got to say +something. You must listen--just for a minute. Jake,--Jake won't want you +to be engaged to me." + +"What?" Bunny started a little, as one who suddenly remembers a thing +forgotten. "Jake!" Then hotly. "What the devil has it got to do with +Jake?" + +"Stop!" said Toby. "Jake's quite right. He knows. He--he's older than you +are. You--you--you'd better ask him." + +"Ask Jake!" Bunny's wrath exploded. "I'm my own master. I can marry whom +I like. What on earth should I ask Jake for?" + +Toby uttered a little sigh. "You needn't if you don't want to. But if +you're wise, you will. He understands. You wouldn't. You see, I've been +to a lot of different schools, Bunny--foreign ones--and I've learnt a +heap of--rather funny things. That's why I'm so much older than you are. +That's why I don't want to get married--as most girls do. I never ought +to marry. I know too much." + +"But you'll marry me?" he said swiftly. + +"I don't know," she said. "Not anyway yet. If--if you can stick to me for +six months--I--p'raps I'll think about it. But I think you'll come to +your senses long before then, Bunny." A desolate little note of humour +sounded in her voice. "And if you do, you'll be so glad not to have to +throw me over." + +"You're talking rot," he interposed. + +"No, I'm not. I'm talking sense--ordinary common sense. I wouldn't get +engaged to any man on the strength of what happened to-night. You hadn't +even thought of me in that way when we came up here." + +"I'm not so sure of that," said Bunny. "Anyway, the mischief is done now. +And you needn't be afraid I shall throw you over because--" an unexpected +throb came into his voice--"I know now I've simply got to have you." + +Toby sighed again. "But if--if I'm not worth waiting for, I'm not worth +having," she said. + +"But why wait?" argued Bunny. + +"For a hundred reasons. You're not really in love with me for one thing." +Toby spoke with conviction. + +"Yes, I am." Stubbornly he contradicted her. + +"No, you're not. Listen, Bunny! Love isn't just a passion-flower that +blooms in a single night and then fades. You're too young really to +understand, but I know--I know. Love is more like a vine. It takes a +long while to ripen and come to perfection, and it has a lot to go +through first." + +Again a sense of strangeness came to Bunny. Surely this was a grown woman +speaking! This was not the wild little creature he knew. But--perhaps it +was from perversity--her warning only served to strengthen his +determination. + +"You can go on arguing till midnight," he said, "you won't convince me. +But look here, if you don't want anyone to know, we'll keep it to +ourselves for a little while. Will that satisfy you? We'll meet and have +some jolly times together in private. Will that make you any happier?" + +"We shan't be engaged?" questioned Toby. + +"Not if you'll kiss me without," said Bunny generously. + +"Oh, I don't mind kissing you--" she lifted her lips at once, "if it +doesn't mean anything." + +He stooped swiftly and met them with his own. His kiss was close and +lingering, it held tenderness; and in a moment her arms crept round his +neck and she clung to him as she returned it. He felt a sob run through +her slight frame as he held her though she shed no tears and made no +sound, and he was stirred to a deeper chivalry than he had ever known +before. + +"It does mean one thing, darling," he said softly. "It means that we love +each other, doesn't it?" + +She did not answer him for a moment; then: "It may mean that," +she whispered back. "I don't know--very much about--love. No one +ever--really--loved me before." + +"I love you," he said. "I love you." + +"Thank you," she murmured. + +He held her still. "You'll never run away from me again? Promise!" + +She shook her head promptly with a faint echo of the elfin laughter that +had so maddened him a little earlier. "No, I won't promise. But I'll show +you where I was hiding if you like. Shall I?" + +"All right. Show me!" he said. + +She freed herself from him with a little spring, and turned to the stone +buttress against which he had found her. He followed her closely, half +afraid of losing her again, but she did not attempt to elude him. + +"See!" she said, with a funny little chuckle. "I found this ledge." + +The ledge she indicated was on a level with the parapet and not more than +six inches wide. It ran square with the buttress, which on the outer side +dropped sheer to the terrace. + +Bunny looked and turned sick. "You never went along there!" he said. + +She laughed again. "Yes, I did. It's quite easy if you slide your feet. +I'll show you." + +"You'll do nothing of the sort!" He grabbed her fiercely. "What in +heaven's name were you thinking of? How did you learn to do these +things?" + +She did not answer him. "I wanted to tease you," she said lightly. "And I +did it too, didn't I? I pretended I was Andromeda when I got round the +corner, but no Perseus came to save me. Only an angry dragon ramped +about behind." + +Bunny stared at her as if he thought her bewitched. "But you were over by +that north wall once. I'll swear you were over there." + +"Oh, don't swear!" she said demurely. "It's so wrong. I wasn't there +really. I only sent my voice that way to frighten you." + +"Good heavens!" gasped Bunny. + +She laughed again with gay _insouciance_. "Haven't I given you a splendid +evening's entertainment? Well, it's all over now, and the curtain's down. +Let's go!" + +She turned with her hand in his and led him back to the turret-door. + +Reaching it, he sought to detain her. "You'll never do it again? +Promise--promise!" + +"I won't promise anything," she said lightly. + +"Ah, but you must!" he insisted. "Toby, you might have killed yourself." + +Her laugh suddenly had a mocking sound. "Oh, no! I shall never kill +myself on Lord Saltash's premises," she said. + +"Why do you say that?" questioned Bunny. + +"Because--_que voulez-vous_?--he would want me neither dead nor alive," +she made reckless answer. + +"A good thing too!" declared Bunny stoutly. + +The echoes of Toby's laughter as she went down the chill, dark stairway +had an eerie quality that sent an odd shiver through his heart. Somehow +it made him think of the unquiet spirit that was said to haunt the +place--a spirit that wandered alone--always alone--in the utter +desolation. + + + + +PART III + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE VIRTUOUS HERO + + +"How long is this absurd farce to go on?" said Larpent. + +"Aren't you enjoying yourself?" grinned Saltash. + +Larpent looked sardonic. + +Saltash took up the whisky decanter. "My worthy buccaneer, you don't know +when you're lucky. If I had a reputation like yours--" He broke off, +still grinning. "Well, it's no use crying over spilt milk, is it? Let's +spill some whisky instead! Say when!" + +Larpent watched him, frowning. "Thanks! That's enough. I should like an +answer to my question if you've no objection. How long is this practical +joke going to last?" + +Saltash turned and looked upon him with a calculating eye. "I really +don't know what's troubling you," he remarked. "You've got everything in +your favour. I'd change places with you with all the pleasure in the +world if circumstances permitted." + +"That isn't the point, is it?" said Larpent. + +"No? What is the point?" Saltash turned again to the whisky decanter. + +"Well, you've got me into a damn' hole, and I want to know how you're +going to get me out again." Larpent's voice was gruff and surly; he +stared into his tumbler without drinking. + +Saltash chuckled to himself with mischievous amusement. "My dear chap, I +can't get you out. That's just it. I want you to stay there." + +Larpent muttered deeply and inarticulately, and began to drink. + +Saltash turned round, glass in hand, and sat down on the edge of the +high, cushioned fender. "I really don't think you are greatly to be +pitied," he remarked lightly. "The child will soon be married and off +your hands." + +"Oh, that's the idea, is it?" said Larpent. "Who's going to marry her? +Young Brian?" + +"Don't you approve?" said Saltash. + +"I don't think it'll come off," said Larpent with decision. + +"Why not?" An odd light flickered in the younger man's eyes for an +instant. "Are you going to refuse your consent?" + +"I?" Larpent shrugged his shoulders. "Are you going to give yours?" + +Saltash made an elaborate gesture. "I shall bestow my blessing with both +hands." + +Larpent looked at him fixedly for a few seconds. "You're a very wonderful +man, my lord," he remarked drily at length. + +Saltash laughed. "Have you only just discovered that?" + +Larpent drained his tumbler gravely and put it down. "All the same, I +don't believe it will come off," he said. + +Saltash moved impatiently. "You always were an unbeliever. But anyone can +see they were made for each other. Of course it will come off." + +"You want it to come off?" asked Larpent. + +"It is my intention that it shall," said Saltash royally. + +"You're playing providence in the girl's interest. Is that it?" Again +Larpent's eyes, shrewd and far-seeing, were fixed upon him. They held a +glint of humour. "It's a tricky job, my lord. You'll wish you hadn't +before you've done." + +"Think so?" said Saltash. + +"If you haven't begun to already," said Larpent. + +Saltash looked down at him with a comical twist of the eyebrows. "You're +very analytical to-night. What's the matter?" + +"Nothing," said Larpent bluntly. "Except that you're making a mistake." + +"Indeed?" For a moment Saltash's look was haughty; then he began to smile +again. "I see you're burning to give your advice," he said tolerantly. +"Fire away, if it does you any good!" + +Larpent's eyes, very steady under their fair, bushy brows, were still +unwaveringly upon him. "No, I don't presume to give you advice," he said. +"But I'll tell you something which you may or may not know. That young +woman you have so kindly bestowed upon me as a daughter worships the +ground you tread on, and--that being the case--she isn't very likely to +make a dazzling success of it if she marries young Bernard Brian." + +He ceased to speak, and simultaneously Saltash jerked himself to his feet +with a short French oath that sounded like the snarl of an angry animal. +He went across to the windows that were thrown wide to the summer night +and stood before one of them with his head flung back in the attitude of +one who challenges the universe. + +Larpent lay back in his chair with the air of a man who has said his say. +He did not even glance towards his companion, and there followed a +considerable pause before either of them spoke again. + +Abruptly at length Saltash wheeled. + +"Larpent!" There was something of a whip-lash quality about his voice; +it seemed to cut the silence. "Why the devil do you tell me this? Can't +you see that it's the very thing I'm guarding against? Young Bunny is +the best remedy she could take for a disease of that kind. And after +all,--she's only a child." + +"Do you say that for your own benefit or for mine?" said Larpent, without +turning his head. + +"What do you mean?" Savagely Saltash flung the question, but the man in +the chair remained unmoved. + +"You know quite well what I mean," he said. "You know that it isn't +true." + +"What isn't true?" Saltash came swiftly back across the room, moving as +if goaded. He took his tumbler from the mantel-piece and drank the +contents almost at a gulp. "Go on!" he said, with his back to Larpent. +"May as well finish now you've begun. What isn't true?" + +Larpent lounged in his chair and watched him, absolutely unmoved. + +"When a thing is actually in existence--an accomplished fact--it's rather +futile to talk of guarding against it," he said, in his brief, +unsympathetic voice. "You've been extraordinarily generous to the imp, +and it isn't surprising that she should be extraordinarily grateful. She +wouldn't be human if she weren't. But when it comes to handing her on to +another fellow--well, she may consent, but it won't be because she wants +to, but because it's the only thing left. She knows well enough by this +time that what she really wants is out of her reach." + +Again Saltash made a fierce movement, but he did not turn or speak. + +Larpent took out his pipe and began to fill it. "You've been too good a +friend to her," he went on somewhat grimly, "and you're not made of the +right stuff for that sort of thing. I'm sorry for the kid because she's a +bit of a pagan too, and it's hard to have to embrace respectability +whether you want to or not." + +"Oh, damn!" Saltash exclaimed, suddenly and violently. "What more could +any man have done? What the devil are you driving at?" + +He turned upon Larpent almost menacingly, and found the steady eyes, +still with that icy glint of humour in them, unflinchingly awaiting his +challenge. + +"You want to get married," the sailor said imperturbably. "Why in the +name of all the stars of destiny don't you marry her? She may not have +the blue blood in her veins, but blood isn't everything, and you've got +enough for two. And it's my opinion you'd find her considerably easier to +please than some--less strict in her views too, which is always an +advantage to a man of your varying moods." + +Saltash's laugh had a curious jarring sound as of something broken. "Oh, +you think that would be a suitable arrangement, do you? And how long do +you think I should stick to her? How long would it be before she ran +away?" + +"I never speculate so far as you are concerned," said Larpent, shaking +the tobacco back into his pouch with care. + +"You think it wouldn't matter, perhaps?" gibed Saltash. "My royal house +is so inured to scandal that no one would expect anything else?" + +"I don't think she is the sort to run away," said Larpent quietly. "And +I'm pretty sure of one thing. You could hold her if you tried." + +"An ideal arrangement!" sneered Saltash. "And I should then settle down +to a godly, righteous, and sober life, I suppose? Is that the idea?" + +"You said it," observed Larpent, pushing his pipe into his mouth. + +Saltash lodged one foot on the high fender, and stared at it. The sneer +died out of his face and the old look, half mischievous, half melancholy, +took its pace. "I haven't--seriously--contemplated marriage for eight +years," he said, his mouth twitching a little as with a smile suppressed. +"Not since the day I tried to steal Maud Brian away from Jake--and +failed--rather signally. I don't think I've ever done anything quite so +low down since." + +Larpent lighted his pipe with grave attention. "A good thing for you both +that you did fail!" he observed. + +"Think so?" Saltash glanced at him. "Why?" + +"She isn't the woman for you." Larpent spoke with the absolute conviction +of one who knows. "She has too many ideals. Now this sprat you caught at +Valrosa--has none." + +"Not so sure of that," said Saltash. + +"Well, no illusions anyway." There was a hint of compassion in Larpent's +voice. "It wasn't because she trusted you that she put herself under your +protection. She didn't trust you. She simply chucked herself at you with +her eyes open. Like Jonah's whale, you were the only shelter within +reach. I'd wager a substantial sum that she's never had any illusions +about you. But if you held up your little finger she'd come to you. She's +your property, and it isn't in her to do anything else, let her down as +often as you will." + +Saltash made an excruciating grimace. "My good fellow, spare me! +That's just where the shoe pinches. I've broken faith with her already. +But--damnation!--what else could I do? I didn't choose the part of +virtuous hero. It was thrust upon me. The gods are making sport of me. I +am lost in a labyrinth of virtue, and horribly--most horribly--sick of +it. I nearly broke through once, but the wreck pulled me up, and when I +recovered from that, I was more hopelessly lost than before." + +"So you are not enjoying it either!" remarked Larpent, with the glimmer +of a smile. "But you don't seem to have let her down very far." + +Saltash brought his foot down with a bang. "I swore I'd keep her with me. +I meant--oh, God knows what I meant to do. I didn't do it anyway. I broke +my oath and I made her go, and she never uttered a word of reproach--not +one word! Do you think I'll let her ruin herself by marrying me after +that? Like Jonah's whale I've managed to throw her up on to dry land, and +if she gets swamped again, it won't be my fault." + +He began to laugh again suddenly and cynically--the bitter laugh of a man +who hides his soul; and Larpent leaned back in his chair again, as if he +recognized that the discussion was over. + +"I don't suppose anyone will blame you for it," he said. + +"No one will have the chance," said Saltash. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE COMPACT + + +The polo-ground at Fairharbour was reckoned as one of the greatest +attractions the town possessed. Because of it, and the Graydown +race-course an ever-increasing stream of visitors poured yearly into the +town and its neighbourhood, and very fashionable crowds were wont to +gather during the summer season at the various hotels which had sprung up +during recent years for their accommodation. + +The old Anchor Hotel facing the shore had been bought by a syndicate and +rebuilt and was now a very modern erection indeed. It boasted a large +lounge, palm-decked and glass-covered, in which a string band played for +several hours of the day, and the constant swing of its doors testified +to the great popularity to which it had attained since its renovation. + +To Bunny, who had known the place under very different circumstances in +his boyhood, it was always a source of amusement to drop in and mark +progress. The polo-ground was only a few yards away, and he had become an +ardent member of the Club to which he almost invariably devoted two +afternoons of the week. + +He was a promising player, and his keenness made him a favourite. He rode +Lord Saltash's ponies, Saltash himself very seldom putting in an +appearance. He was wont to declare that he had no time for games, and his +frequent absences made it impossible for him to take a very active part +in the proceedings of the Club which he had himself inaugurated in an +idle hour. He dropped in occasionally to watch a game, and he took +interest in Bunny's progress; but he was very rarely moved to play +himself. He was too restless, too volatile, to maintain any lasting +enthusiasm for any pastime. All that was generally seen of him when +staying at Burchester was a lightning glimpse as he tore by in his car, +or else galloped furiously over the downs and along the hard sands in the +early morning. + +He was a good deal in town as a rule during the season, but with the +general exodus in July he was invariably the first to go, driven by a +fever that gave him no rest. Even his most intimate friends seldom knew +where he was to be found or whither his wild fancy would take him next. +No one was sure of him at any time. He would accept an engagement and +throw it up again without scruple if it did not accord with his mood. Yet +wherever he went he could always command a welcome--at least from the +feminine portion of the community who declared that Charles Rex could not +be judged by ordinary standards; he was a law unto himself. + +Even Bunny did not know where he was on that hot afternoon in mid-July +when all Fairharbour gathered to watch a match between the regular team +and the visitors. It bid fair to be an exciting event, and he was in high +spirits at being one of those chosen to play. Maud had promised to bring +Toby down to see the game at his special request. He had seen very little +of Toby since that night at the Castle, though he was forced to admit to +himself that if she avoided him of set purpose she did it in a fashion +that baffled detection. She seemed to have settled down as a regular +inmate of Jake's household, and with the exception of her early rides +with Jake she gave herself up almost exclusively to helping Maud with the +children. She had eased his sister's burden in a wonderful fashion, and +the children loved her dearly. Her readiness and her sweet temper never +seemed to fail. She was but a child herself, but Bunny had an uneasy +feeling that she was changing. She had stipulated for six months, but he +sometimes wondered if by the end of that time she would not have +contrived to put herself out of his reach. It was that suspicion that +kept him hotly determined to pursue her untiringly till he captured her. +Even at a distance that odd charm of hers lured him strongly, and he knew +instinctively that if once she were launched in society his chances of +victory would be very greatly reduced. He wished he could have seen more +of Captain Larpent and possibly have enlisted his sympathy, but he had +left the Castle with Saltash, and even Toby herself professed ignorance +of his whereabouts. It was evident that they had never seen much of one +another, and Bunny realized that he would look in vain for help in that +quarter. + +He doggedly maintained his resolve to win her none the less, and his +visits to his sister's house were frequent. He spoke no word on the +subject either to Maud or Jake. Toby should not feel that he had in any +sense taken a mean advantage. But he never looked at her without the +quick longing to take her in his arms rising in his heart, and though the +longing was never satisfied he believed that she was aware of it. She was +always friendly with him and never embarrassed in his presence. Yet he +had a strong feeling that by some subtle means she was holding him off. +He bided his time with what patience he could muster, but he was +determined it should not be for long. + +The work on Saltash's estate had done him good. He was keen to prove +himself, and the vigorous, out-door life suited him. Jake saw with +satisfaction that he was developing a self-reliance and resourcefulness +that had not characterized him formerly. He had given up racing according +to his promise, and the life he now led was after Jake's own heart, an +existence of wholesome activity that was making of him exactly the type +of man that he desired him to become. The boy was a gentleman and there +was fine stuff in him. Jake gloried in the fact. There had always been in +Bunny qualities that appealed to him very strongly, and it was in a large +measure due to his influence that those qualities had ripened as they +had. + +He did not accompany Maud and Toby down to Fairharbour, for business kept +him at the Stables. "Bring him back with you!" he said to his wife at +parting, and she smiled and promised. Bunny was never difficult to +persuade. + +But when they reached the polo-ground he was in the midst of a crowd of +visitors from the hotel, and it seemed at first as if he would have no +time to spare for them. He very speedily detached himself, however, at +sight of them and came up with an eager greeting. + +"So awfully glad you've come. There are some people here you used to +know, Maud, in the old days. Friends of Charlie's too. The Melroses--you +remember them, don't you?" + +The name came upon Maud with a curious shock. Yes, she remembered the +Melroses. They belonged to the long, long ago before her marriage--to +that strange epoch in her early girlhood when Charlie Burchester had +filled her world. How far away it seemed! They had all been in the same +set, they and the Cressadys who had been responsible for the scandal that +had so wrung her proud heart. Lady Cressady had been dead for years. She +wondered if Charlie had ever regretted her. It had been but a passing +fancy, and she suspected that he had forgotten her long since. He had +never really taken her seriously; of that she was convinced now. Life had +been merely a game with him in those days. It was only recently that it +had begun to be anything else. + +She felt no keen desire to resume the long-forgotten acquaintance with +the Melroses, but Bunny evidently expected it of her, had already told +them about her, and she had no choice. + +She followed him therefore, Toby very sedate and upright behind her. Toby +was looking wonderfully pretty that day. She varied as a landscape varies +on a windy day, but that afternoon she was at her best. Her blue eyes +looked forth upon the crowd with a hint of audacity, and her _piquante_ +little face was full of charm. + +Bunny's look dwelt upon her as he drew aside for his sister to pass him +at the pavilion. He pinched her elbow with a sudden smile. + +"You don't want to go and talk to those people. Come with me and see the +ponies!" + +She responded with characteristic eagerness to the invitation. "Shall I? +But won't Maud mind? Do you think I ought?" + +"Of course you ought," he rejoined with decision. "Maud won't care. I'll +bring you back to her before the play begins." + +He drew her away through the crowd, and she went with him without further +demur. Bunny was tall and bore himself with distinction. There was, +moreover, something rather compelling about him just then, and Toby felt +the attraction. She suffered the hand that grasped her own. + +"Look here!" he said abruptly, as they drew apart from the throng. "I've +got to see more of you somehow. Have you been dodging me all this time?" + +"I?" said Toby. + +She met his eyes with a funny little chuckle. There was spontaneous +mischief in his own. + +He gave her hand an admonitory squeeze. "I'm not laughing. You're not +playing the game. What's the good of my coming to the house to see you if +we never meet?" + +"Don't understand," said Toby briefly. + +"Yes, you do. Or you can if you try. You never seem to have any liberty +now-a-days. Is it Maud's doing or your own?" + +Toby laughed again lightly and bafflingly. "I can do anything I want to +do," she said. + +"Oh, can you?" Bunny pounced. "Then you've got to meet me sometimes away +from the rest. See? Come! That's only fair." + +Toby made a face at him. "Suppose I don't want to?" she said. + +He laughed into her eyes. "Don't tell me that! When and where?" + +She laughed back. He was hard to resist. "I don't know. I'm too busy." + +"Rot!" said Bunny. + +"You're very rude," she remarked. + +"I'll be ruder when I get the chance," he laughed. "Listen, I want to see +you alone very badly. You're not going to let me down." + +"I don't know what I'm going to do yet," said Toby. + +But she could not look with severity into the handsome young face that +was bent to hers. It was not in her to repulse a friendly influence. She +had to respond. + +"I'll tell you what you're going to do," said Bunny, marking her +weakening with cheery assurance. "You'll take Chops for a walk to-morrow +evening through the Burchester Woods. You know that gate by the larch +copse? It's barely a mile across the down. Be there at seven, and +perhaps--who knows?--perhaps--Chops may meet somebody he's rather fond +of." + +"And again perhaps he mayn't," said Toby, suppressing a dimple. + +"Oh, I say, that's shabby! You'll give him the chance anyhow?" + +The pleading note sounded in Bunny's voice. Toby suddenly dropped her +eyes. She looked as if she were bracing herself to refuse. + +Bunny saw and quickly grappled with the danger. "Give him the chance!" he +urged softly into her ear. "You won't be sorry--afterwards." + +She did not lift her eyes, but somehow the enchantment held. By a bold +stroke he had entered her defences, and she could not for the moment +drive him out. She was silent. + +"You'll come?" whispered Bunny. + +They were nearing a little group of ponies that were being held in +readiness at the end of the field. Toby quickened her pace. + +He kept beside her, but he did not speak again. And perhaps his silence +moved her more than speech, for she gave a little impulsive turn towards +him and threw him her sudden, boyish smile. + +"All right. We'll come," she said. + +"Hooray!" crowed Bunny softly. + +"But I shan't stay long," she warned him. "And if I don't like it, I +shall never come again." + +"You will like it," said Bunny with confidence. + +"I wonder," said Toby with her chin in the air. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +L'OISEAU BLEU + + +Bunny surpassed himself that afternoon. Wherever he went, success seemed +to follow, and shouts of applause reached him from all quarters. + +"That young fellow is a positive genius," commented General Melrose, who +had a keen eye for the game. "He ought to be in the Service. Why isn't +he, Mrs. Bolton?" + +"He wasn't considered strong enough," Maud said. "It was a great +disappointment to him. You see, he spent the whole of his childhood on +his back with spine trouble. And when that was put right he outgrew his +strength." + +"Ah! I remember now. You used to wheel the poor little beggar about in a +long chair. Well, he's rather different now from what he was in those +days. Not much the matter with him, is there?" + +"Nothing now," Maud said. + +"What does he do with himself?" asked the General, surveying the distant +figure at that moment galloping in a far corner of the field. + +"He is agent on Lord Saltash's estate at Burchester," his daughter said, +suddenly entering the conversation. "He was telling me about it at +luncheon. He and Lord Saltash are friends." + +"Ah! To be sure!" General Melrose's look suddenly came to Maud and she +felt herself colour a little. + +"He is an old friend of the family," she said. "We live not far from the +Castle. My husband owns the Graydown Stables." + +"Oh, I know that," the General said courteously. "I know your husband, +Mrs. Bolton, and I am proud to know him. What I did not know until to-day +was that he was your husband. I never heard of your marriage." + +"We have been married for eight years," she said with a smile. + +"It must be at least ten since I saw you last," he said. "This girl of +mine--Sheila--must have been at school in those days. You never met her?" + +Maud turned to the girl. "I don't think we have ever met before," she +said. "Is this your first visit to Fairharbour?" + +"My first visit, yes." Sheila leaned forward. She was a pretty girl of +two-and-twenty with a quantity of soft dark hair and grey eyes that held +a friendly smile. "We don't go to the sea much in the summer as a rule. +We get so much of it in the winter. Dad always winters in the South. It +only seems a few weeks since we came back from Valrosa." + +Maud was conscious of an abrupt jerk from Toby on her other side, and she +laid a hand on her arm with the kindly intention of drawing her into the +conversation. But the next instant feeling tension under her hand, she +turned to look at her, and was surprised to see that Toby was staring out +across the field with wide, strained eyes. She looked so white that Maud +had a moment of sharp anxiety. + +"Is anything the matter, dear?" she whispered. + +An odd little tremor went through Toby. She spoke with an effort. "I +thought he was off his pony that time, didn't you?" + +She kept her eyes upon Bunny who was coming back triumphant. + +Maud smiled. "Oh, I don't think there is much danger of that. Miss +Melrose was talking about Valrosa. You were there too last winter, +weren't you?" + +The colour mounted in Toby's face. She turned almost defiantly. "Just for +a day or two. I was at school at Geneva. I went there to join my father." + +"I was at school at Geneva a few years ago," said Sheila Melrose. "You +didn't go to Mademoiselle Denise, I suppose?" + +"No," said Toby briefly. "Madame Beaumonde." + +"I never heard of her," said Sheila. "It must have been after I left." + +Toby nodded. "I wasn't there long. I've never been anywhere long. But +I've left school now, and I'm going to do as I like." + +"A very wise resolution!" commented a laughing voice behind her. "It's +one of the guiding principles of my life." + +All the party turned, Toby with a quick exclamation muffled at birth. +Saltash, attired in a white yachting suit and looking more than usually +distinguished in his own fantastic fashion, stood with his hand on the +back of Toby's chair. + +"Quite a gathering of old friends!" he declared, smiling impartially upon +all. + +General Melrose stretched a welcoming hand to him. "Hullo, Saltash! Where +on earth have you sprung from? Or are you fallen straight out of the +skies?" + +"Like Lucifer, son of the morning!" laughed Saltash. "Well, I haven't +sprung and I haven't fallen. I have simply arrived." + +Toby was on her feet. "Come and sit down!" she said in a low voice. + +He shook his head. "No, no, _ma cherie_. I will stand behind you. Miss +Melrose, my humble regards to you. Is the black mark still against my +name?" + +Sheila looked at him with a touch of _hauteur_ that somehow melted into a +smile. She had learnt her lesson at Valrosa, and there was nothing to add +thereto. This man was never in earnest, and he had never intended her +to think him so. + +"I banned you as bold and bad long ago," she said. "I don't remember that +you have done anything to change the impression." + +He laughed lightly, enigmatically. "Nothing in your presence, I fear. The +Fates have always been sportive so far as I was concerned. But really I'm +not such a bad sort now-a-days, am I, Mrs. Bolton?" + +Maud smiled upon him. "Not so bad, I think. But please don't ask me to be +your sponsor! I really couldn't play the part." + +"Ask me!" said Toby suddenly, with flushed face up-raised. "He saved my +life when _The Night Moth_ went down, when most men would only have +bothered to save their own." + +"What a libel!" laughed Saltash. "Don't you know I only hung on to you +because you had a life-belt on!" + +"Oh, naturally!" said the General. "That would be your motive. I was +sorry to hear about _The Night Moth_, but you had a lucky escape." + +"I always escape somehow," remarked Saltash complacently. "_The Night +Moth_ wanted new engines too, that's one consolation. I've just bought +another," he added, suddenly touching Toby's shoulder. "Your daddy is +quite pleased with her. We've just come round from London in her." + +"Oh, have you?" Eagerly Toby's eyes came up to his, "What is she like? +What are you going to call her?" + +"She isn't christened yet. I'm going to hold a reception on board, and +Maud shall perform the ceremony. I'm calling her _The Blue Moon_--unless +you can suggest something better." Saltash's restless look went to Maud. +"I wanted to call her after you," he said lightly, "But I was afraid Jake +might object." + +"I think _The Blue Moon_ is much more suitable," she answered. "Is she as +rare as she sounds?" + +"She's rather a fine article," he made answer. "You must come and see +her--come and cruise in her if you will. She's only just off the slips. I +was lucky to get her. She skims along like a bird." + +"Why not call her _The Blue Bird_?" suggested Sheila. + +He shook his head with his odd grimace. "That is a thing I can never hope +to possess, Miss Melrose. The blue moon may occur once in my life if I am +exceptionally virtuous, but the blue bird never. I have ceased to hope +for it." His glance flashed beyond her. "Young Bunny is distinguishing +himself to-day. That was a fine effort." + +Everyone was clapping except Toby who was staring before her with her +hands in her lap. Her blue eyes were very wide open, but they did not +seem to be watching the game. + +"It will fly to you, _cherie_," suddenly whispered a voice in her ear. +"It is already upon the wing." + +A little tremor went through her, but she did not turn her head. Only +after a moment she slipped a hand behind her through the back of her +chair. + +Wiry fingers closed upon it, gripped it, let it go. "When it comes +to you, hold it fast!" came the rapid whisper. _"Il ne vient pas deux +fois--l'oiseau bleu."_ + +Toby's lip trembled. She bit it desperately. Her look was strained. She +did not attempt to speak. + +"It is the gift of the gods, _cherie_." The words came softly at her +shoulder, but they pierced her. "We do not cast their gifts away. They +come--too seldom." + +She made a quick movement; it was almost convulsive, like the start of +one suddenly awakened. A hard breath went through her, and then she was +laughing, laughing and clapping with the rest, her eyes upon the boyish, +triumphant figure in front of her. When the applause died away, Saltash +had departed, abruptly as was his wont. And though they saw him in the +distance several times, he did not return that afternoon. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE TRAP + + +It was an evening of golden silence, and the larch copse in its stillness +was like an enchanted wood. Now and then something moved in the +undergrowth with a swift rustle or a blackbird raised a long ripple of +alarm. But for the most part all was still. No breeze came up the +hillside, and in the west a long black line of cloud lay like a barrier +across the sun, so that great rays slanted out over land and sea, +transforming all things with their radiance. + +A soft low whistle broke the stillness or mingled with it. A snatch of +melody came like the strains of a fairy pipe from the edge of the larch +wood. Again there came a sharp movement in some long grass near the gate +that led from the open down into the Burchester estate. It sounded as if +some small imprisoned creature were fighting for freedom. Then in another +moment there came the rush and snuffle of a questing dog, and old Chops +the setter came bursting through the hedge that bordered the wood. + +He flung himself through the long grass with an agility that belied his +advancing years, and in an instant there arose a cry that seemed to +thrill the whole wood with horror. The enchanted silence broke upon it +like the shivering of a crystal ball, for as Chops pounced another cry +rang clear and commanding from the other side of the hedge. + +"Chops! Back! Back! Do you hear, Chops? Come back." + +Chops did not come back, but he paused above his quarry, and looked round +with open jaws and lolling tongue. If it had been his master who thus +called him, he would have obeyed on the instant. But Toby was a different +matter, and the frantic, struggling thing in front of him was a sore +temptation. + +His brief hesitation, however, lost him the game. Her light feet raced +through the grass with the speed of wings, and she threw herself over the +gate and upon him before he could make good his claim. He found himself +thrust back, and the long habit of obedience had conquered instinct +before it could reassert itself. She dropped upon her knees beside the +thing in the grass and discovered a young hare caught in a snare. + +It was a very ordinary poacher's contrivance fashioned of wire. The +little animal was fairly caught round the body, and the cruel tension of +the gin testified to his anguished and futile struggles for freedom. The +wire had cut into his shoulder, and his bolting eyes were wild with +terror. It was no easy task to loosen the trap, and there was blood on +Toby's hands as she strove to release the straining, frenzied creature. + +She was far too deeply engrossed in the matter to heed any sound of +approaching feet, and when the thud of a horse's hoofs suddenly fell on +the turf close to her she did not raise her head. But she did look up +startled when two hands swooped down from above her and gripped the +hare with a vice-like strength that stilled all struggling. + +"He will claw you to pieces," said Bunny bluntly. "Shall I kill him? He's +damaged. Or do you want to let him go?" + +"Oh, let him go--of course!" cried Toby, dragging reckless at the wire. +"See, it's coming now! Hold him tight while I slip it off!" + +The wire slipped at last. She forced it loose, and the victim was free. +Bunny turned to lay him in the grass, and Toby sprang upon Chops and held +him fast. She was crying, fiercely, angrily. + +"How dare they set that cruel thing? How dare they? He isn't dead, is he? +Why doesn't he run away?" + +"He's hurt," said Bunny. "Let me kill him! Let Chops finish him!" + +"No, no, no, no!" Vehemently Toby flung her protest. "He may be hurt, but +he'll get over it. Anyway, give him his chance! There! He's moving! It +wouldn't be fair not to give him his chance." + +"It would be kinder to kill him," said Bunny. + +"I hate you!" she cried back, weeping over Chops who stood strained +against her. "If--if--if you touch him--I'll never, never speak to you +again!" + +Bunny came to her, took Chops by the collar, and fastened him with his +whip to the gate. Then he stooped over Toby, his young face sternly set. + +"Stop crying!" he said. "Let me have your hands!" + +They were a mass of scratches from the hare's pounding feet. He began to +look at them, but Toby thrust them behind her back. She choked back her +tears like a boy, and looked up at him with eyes of burning indignation, +sitting back on her heels in the long grass. + +"Bunny, it's a damn' shame to trap a thing like that. Did you do it?" + +"I? No. I'm not a poacher." Grimly Bunny made reply. That flare of anger +made her somehow beautiful, but he knew if he yielded to the temptation +to take her in his arms at that moment she would never forgive him. +"Don't be unreasonable!" he said. "You'll have to come and bathe your +hands. They can't be left in that state." + +"Oh, what does it matter?" she said impatiently. "I've had much worse +things than that to bear. Bunny, you believe in God I know. Why does He +let things be trapped? It isn't fair. It isn't right. It--it--it hurts +so." + +"Lots of things hurt," said Bunny. + +"Yes, but there's nothing so mean and so horrible as a trap. I--I could +kill the man who set it. I'm glad it wasn't you." Toby spoke +passionately. + +"So am I," said Bunny. + +He crumpled the wire gin in his hand, and dragged it up from the ground. + +Toby watched him still kneeling in the grass. "What are you going to do +with it?" + +"Destroy it," he said promptly. + +She smiled at him, the tears still on her cheeks. "That's fine of you. +Bunny, I haven't got a handkerchief." + +He gave her his, still looking grim. She dried her eyes and got up. The +hare, recovering somewhat, gave her a frightened stare and slipped away +into the undergrowth. She looked up at Bunny. + +"I'm sorry I was angry," she said. "Are you cross with me?" + +He relaxed a little. "Not particularly." + +"Don't be!" she said tremulously. "I couldn't help it. He suffered so +horribly, and I know--I know so well what it felt like." + +"How do you know?" said Bunny. + +Her look fell before his. She made an odd movement of shrinking. He put +his arm swiftly round her. + +"Never mind the wretched hare! He's got away this time anyway. And I'm +not at all sure you didn't have the worst of it. Feeling better now?" + +She nodded. "Yes, much better. I like you, Bunny, but I can't help +thinking you're rather cruel. You didn't want to kill the poor thing?" + +"I think it was rather prolonging the agony to let him live," said Bunny. +"Let me see your hands!" + +She tried to hide them, but he was insistent, and at length impulsively +she yielded. + +"You must come down to old Bishop's and bathe them," he said. + +She shook her head instantly. "No, Bunny, I'm not going to. I'll run down +to the lake if you like. There's sure not to be anyone there." + +"All right," said Bunny, but he lingered still with his arm about her. +"Will you kiss me, Toby?" he said suddenly. + +"No," she said, and swiftly averted her face. + +His arm tightened for a second, then he felt her brace herself against +him and let her go. "All right," he said again. "We'll go down to the +lake." + +She threw him a swift glance of surprise, but he turned away to release +Chops and unfasten his horse without further discussion. + +Their way lay along a grass ride that ran beside the larch wood. Bunny +walked gravely along, leading his horse. Toby moved lightly beside him. + +Behind them the silence closed like the soft folds of a curtain, but it +was not a silence devoid of life. As they drew away from the place, a man +stepped out from the larches and stood motionless, watching them. A +whimsical smile that was not without bitterness hovered about his mouth. +As they passed from sight, he turned back into the trees and walked +swiftly and silently away. + +It was nearly a mile across the park to the lake in the hollow, and the +boy and girl tramped it steadily with scarcely a word. Chops walked +sedately by Toby's side, occasionally poking his nose under her hand. +Bunny's face was stern. He had the look of a man who moved with a +definite goal in view. + +They came to the beechwood that surrounded the lake. The Castle from its +height looked down over the terraced gardens upon one end of the water. +It was a spot in fairyland. + +They came to a path that led steeply downwards, and Bunny stopped. "I'll +leave my animal here," he said. + +Toby did not wait. She plunged straight down the steep descent. When he +rejoined her, she was at the water's edge. She knelt upon a bed of moss +and thrust her hands into the clear water. He stood above her for a +moment or two, then knelt beside her and took the wet wrists very gently +into a firm hold. She made a faint resistance, but finally yielded. He +looked down at the hands nervously clenched in his grasp. He was older in +that moment, more manly, than she had ever seen him. + +"What's the matter, little girl?" he said softly. "What are you afraid +of?" + +"Nothing," said Toby instantly, and threw up her chin in the old +dauntless way. + +He looked at her closely. "Sure?" + +The blue eyes met his with defiance. "Of course I'm sure. That horrid +trap upset me, that's all." + +He continued to look at her steadily. "That isn't why you won't have +anything to say to me," he said. + +Her colour rose under his gaze, but she would not avoid it. "Does it +matter why?" she said. + +"It does when I want to know," he answered. Again his look went to her +hands. "How the little brute scored you! So much for gratitude!" + +"You don't expect gratitude from a creature wild with fright," said Toby. + +She spoke rather breathlessly, and he saw that she was on the verge of +tears again. He got up and drew her to her feet. + +"Let's walk for a bit!" he said. + +She stood as one in doubt and he felt that she was trembling. + +"I say--don't!" he said suddenly and winningly. "I won't do anything you +don't like, I swear. You shan't be bothered. Can't you trust me?" + +She made a little movement towards him, and he put his arm round her +shoulders. They turned along the greensward side by side. + +"It was awfully nice of you to come," Bunny said in that new gentle +voice of his. "I didn't mean you to get there first, but old Bishop is so +long-winded I couldn't get away." + +"It didn't matter," said Toby with a nervous little smile. + +"It did to me," said Bunny. "It would have saved you that anyway." + +"But you'd have killed the hare," she said. + +"Not if he hadn't been damaged," he said. "I'm not a brute. I don't kill +for the sake of killing." + +She looked incredulous. "Most men do. Don't you hunt? Don't you shoot?" + +"Oh, you're talking of sport!" said Bunny. + +"Yes, it's called sport," said Toby, an odd little vibration in her +voice. "It's just a name for killing things, isn't it?" + +Bunny considered the matter. "No, that's not fair," he decided. "Sport is +sport. But I prefer to walk up my game and I never countenance digging +out a fox. That's sport." + +"There are very few sportsmen in the world," said Toby. + +"Oh, I don't know. Anyway, I hope I'm one of 'em. I try to be," said +Bunny. + +She gave him a quick look. "I think you are. And so is Jake." + +"Oh, Jake! Jake's magnificent. He's taught me all I know in that line. +I used to be a horrid little bounder before I met Jake. He simply made +me--body and soul." Bunny spoke with a simple candour. + +"P'raps he had good stuff to work on," suggested Toby. + +Bunny's arm drew her almost imperceptibly. "I don't think he had. My +father was a wild Irishman, and my mother--well, she's dead too--but she +wasn't anything to be specially proud of." + +"Oh, was your mother a rotter?" said Toby, with sudden interest. + +He nodded. "We don't talk about her much, Maud and I. She married a +second time--a brute of a man who used to run the Anchor Hotel. They went +to Canada, and she died." + +"The Anchor Hotel!" said Toby. "That place at Fairharbour down by the +shore?" + +"Yes, Maud and I were there too at first. I was a cripple in those days, +couldn't even walk. We had a fiendish time there--till Jake came." + +"Ah!" Toby's blue eyes suddenly gleamed. "Did Maud marry Jake to get +away?" she asked. + +Bunny nodded again and began to smile. "Yes. We were in a beastly hole, +she and I. Something had to be done." + +"She didn't love him then?" questioned Toby, almost with eagerness. + +"Oh no, not then. Not till long after. Jake and I were the pals. He was +always keen enough on her, poor chap. But Charlie complicated matters +rather in those days. You see, Charlie came first--before she ever met +Jake." + +"Charlie?" said Toby quickly. + +"Lord Saltash. You knew he was an old friend, didn't you?" + +"I didn't know--that he--and Maud--ever loved each other." Toby halted +over the words as if they were somehow difficult to utter. + +Bunny enlightened her with a boy's careless assurance. "Oh, that's a very +old story. They were very fond of each other in their youth. In fact they +were practically engaged. Then Charlie, who has always been a bit giddy, +went a bit too far with Lady Cressady who was also a somewhat gay young +person, and Sir Philip Cressady, who was a brute, tried to divorce her. +He didn't succeed. The case fell through. But it set everyone by the +ears, and Maud threw Charlie over. He pretends he didn't care, but he +did--pretty badly, and he's never married in consequence." + +"Oh, is that why?" said Toby. + +"That's why. He's gone the pace fairly rapidly ever since. But he's a +good chap at heart. Even Jake acknowledges that now, and he knows him as +well as anyone." + +"And--Maud?" said Toby, in a low voice. She was not looking at Bunny, but +staring out over the still waters of the lake with a rather piteous +intentness. + +"Maud has always kept a soft place in her heart for him. She couldn't +help it. Women can't." + +"I see," said Toby. "And doesn't--Jake--mind?" + +"Jake? No, not a bit. He's sure of her now. She thinks there's no one +like him in the world. And she's quite right. There's not." Bunny spoke +with warm enthusiasm. + +Toby's brows were drawn a little. "Then--she isn't in love with Lord +Saltash?" she said. + +"No, not now. She just takes a motherly interest in him, tries to +persuade him to settle down and be good--that sort of thing. I believe +she feels rather responsible for him. He certainly bolted very thoroughly +after she gave him up. It's all years ago of course. But he's never +settled--never will." + +"I see," said Toby. + +A slight shiver went through her, and she looked up at Bunny with a +small, pinched smile. "Fancy--Maud--giving him up!" she said. + +"Well, she always had her share of pride, and he certainly didn't treat +her with great consideration. He might have known she'd never stand it," +said Bunny. "He only had himself to thank." + +Toby's look was puzzled, oddly pathetic. "But he's such a king," she +said. "I don't suppose he'd ever think of that." + +Again Bunny's arm tightened about the narrow shoulders. There was +something about her that appealed to him very deeply, something he sensed +rather than saw. + +"Haven't we talked about other people's affairs long enough now?" he +suggested. "Don't you think we might turn our attention to our own?" + +She coloured up to her blue-veined forehead. "If you like," she said +rather faintly. + +"Don't you think I deserve that kiss?" urged Bunny softly. "I've been +awfully patient." + +She lifted her lips with a gesture of submission, saying no word. + +"Oh, not like that!" he said gently. "Not if you'd rather not, dear." + +She caught her breath sharply; it was almost a sob. Then she opened her +eyes wide and laughed. + +"Oh, you great big silly!" she said. "You're easier to draw than anyone I +ever met!" + +His arms clasped her. He drew her close. "My own little butterfly girl!" +he said, and kissed her very tenderly. "I've caught you at last--at +last." + +She laid her head against his neck, and stood so, quivering a little and +silent. + +"You're tired," he said. "I'll give you a lift towards home. Folly will +carry you all right." + +She uttered a tremulous laugh, and lifting her face she kissed him of her +own accord. + +"You're--awful good to me, Bunny dear," she said. "P'raps--p'raps I'll be +engaged to you soon." + +"You darling!" said Bunny fervently. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE CONFIDENCE + + +A letter with the crest of a fox's head and the motto, _Sans Vertu_, upon +the back lay beside Maud's plate on the following morning. She took it up +with a smile at Jake who had just entered the room. + +"From Charlie--probably about the new yacht. He told me the other day +that he wanted me to perform the christening ceremony." + +"You have my permission," said Jake. "What does he propose to call her?" + +"_The Blue Moon_, I believe. But he was in a freakish mood. He may have +changed his mind by this time." + +Jake glanced round. "Where's the kid?" + +"Who? Toby? I thought she went out early. Hasn't she been riding with +you?" + +"No, she dodged me," said Jake. "Went off on her own on one of those raw +colts. I shall have to talk to her when she comes in." + +"I hope she's all right," said Maud, with a touch of anxiety. + +"She's all right," said Jake. + +"But why did she dodge you? Have you been quarrelling?" Maud paused in +the act of opening her letter and looked at him with a grave questioning +that brought a gleam of humour into Jake's eyes. + +"We have not," he said. "I've scarcely seen her since yesterday morning. +I can't tell you why she dodged me. I only know she did it." + +"How odd of her!" said Maud. + +He sat down and took up the paper; his face was grim. "I shall know why +presently. Read your letter. I'm in no hurry." + +Maud opened the letter from Saltash and there fell a brief silence. + +It was broken by the sound of light feet outside the door, and Toby, +still wearing riding-dress, her face flushed and laughing, swung into the +room. "I'm so sorry I'm late," she said. "The little fiend ran away with +us, and we had a gigantic tussle. Do you mind if I sit down in these +things?" + +She went round to Maud to kiss her, and stopped as Maud's arm came about +her. + +"Do you mind?" she said again. + +"My dear," Maud said very gently, "Jake is going to scold you for riding +that half-broken colt by yourself. It was very risky. Why did you do it?" + +"Oh, is Jake cross?" said Toby. She looked across at him with an imp of +mischief in her eyes. Then, as he still studied his paper, abruptly she +left Maud and went round to him. + +"Cheer up, Jake!" she said. "Don't throw a cloud on the proceedings!" + +Her voice was half impudent, half wheedling. Jake looked up, his eyes +very direct and somewhat stern. + +"You sit down and have some breakfast!" he said. "I'll talk to you +afterwards." + +She obeyed him with a slight shrug of the shoulders. "P'raps I shan't +stay to be talked to," she remarked, as she did so. "I've promised to +take Eileen and Molly out as soon as I've had my tub, so if it's going to +be a lengthy wigging, you'd better begin now." + +Jake did not begin. He turned deliberately from the bravado of her look, +and began to take the covers off the breakfast dishes. + +Toby leaned back provocatively in her chair, and whistled under her +breath. She was plainly in a dare-devil mood, but it was not her custom +to dare Jake. + +"What have you done to your hands?" he said, as she reached out for the +plate he offered her. + +She coloured deeply. "Nothing--I mean--nothing serious. I often get my +hands scratched." + +"Why don't you tell me the truth?" said Jake. + +Maud looked up from her letter. "It is as I thought. Charlie wants us to +go down to Fairharbour to-morrow. He is getting together a luncheon party +on board the yacht. The Melroses will be there and some of the polo +people staying at The Anchor. Jake, you will come and support me, won't +you?" + +Jake shook his head. "Bunny can do that job, my girl. I've got to get +ready for Goodwood. Forest Fire is going to make his mark there." + +"Oh, bother Forest Fire!" said Maud. "I want you." + +"What for?" said Jake. + +"Well, General Melrose knows you. He was talking of you down at the Club +the other afternoon. And I want him to meet you--with me. Please come, +Jake!" Maud spoke persuasively. + +"All right," said Jake. + +"You will?" + +"I will," he said, smiling a little. "You don't often interfere with my +liberty. I remember old Melrose, met him years ago at Doncaster. He's +always been keen on the Turf, and he stood by me once when--someone--was +trying to queer my pitch." + +"Oh!" said Maud. "You mean the time that Charlie let you down! Poor +Charlie! He was horribly ashamed of himself afterwards." + +Toby looked up sharply, and again the colour came into her face, mounting +swiftly to her forehead. She appeared to be on the verge of hot speech, +but no words came. + +It was Jake who spoke in his soft, easy drawl. "Oh, I guess he's grown a +bit since then. Anyway, whatever his intentions, he never managed to do +me any harm. And I rather think his malice is dead now." + +"It died long ago," said Maud quietly. "He owes you a great deal, Jake. +You've taught him to be a man." + +"I?" said Jake. "My dear, your partiality runs away with your judgment. +Have some ham!" + +He dismissed the matter in his own calm fashion, and began to talk of his +animals. Breakfast proceeded, but Toby scarcely spoke and ate very +little. + +"It's so hot to-day," she said when presently Maud remonstrated with her. +"I can't eat when it's hot--really." She pushed her plate away and rose +from the table. "Do you mind if I go?" + +"Yes, I mind," said Jake. "Go and sit in that arm-chair and smoke a +cigarette! I shall be ready when you've finished." + +He held out his case to her, and, though she made a face at him, she +yielded. She threw herself down in the chair he indicated and smoked in +silence. + +Chops came and laid his head upon her knee, and she fondled his silken +ears with an understanding touch. But her eyes were fixed before her with +something of hardness in their look. + +Maud finished her breakfast and got up. "I am going up to the nursery," +she said. "Don't hurry, Toby dear! The children can run in the garden +till you are ready." + +"I shan't keep her long," Jake said. + +Toby turned in her chair with a sudden flare of defiance. "I'd like to +see any man who would keep me anywhere against my will!" she said. + +Jake nodded. "All right. You can see him now if you want to. Why did you +go and ride that little devil Knuckle-Duster when I told you not?" + +"I don't take orders from you!" said Toby hotly. + +"Oh yes, you do--sometimes." The door closed softly behind Maud and Jake +turned squarely to face the girl on his hearth. "Say now," he said in his +slow direct way, "it was a fool thing to do. You may as well admit it as +not." + +Toby was on her feet. She stood stiffly braced, but the colour had gone +out of her face. It was white and strained. + +"All right," she said, speaking quickly and nervously. "But what of it? I +brought him back quite sound and none the worse." + +"I wasn't thinking of the horse," said Jake. "He's a savage brute and I +doubt if we ever do much with him. He'll certainly never be fit for a +lady to ride. But that's not the point either. The point is, you did it +against my orders. And you dodged me to do it. Isn't that so?" + +"I didn't dodge you for that reason," said Toby. "I'd have done it +whether you'd been there or not." + +"I think not," Jake said. "Anyway, you'll give me your word of honour +that you'll never ride that animal again." + +"My what?" said Toby, and suddenly she broke into a laugh. "Oh, don't be +funny, Jake! Bunny rides him. Why shouldn't I?" + +"That's quite a different thing," Jake said. "Bunny has a man's strength. +You haven't. It's too dangerous a game for you, see? And I won't have +it." + +"All right," said Toby, picking up her riding-whip and turning to go. + +He stretched out a hand to detain her. "You'll give me that promise," he +said. + +She paused for a second, and met the unswerving determination of his +eyes. Then a sudden gleam of blue fire lit her own. She made a swift +movement, and struck the outstretched hand lightly with the switch she +carried. + +It was a gesture of supreme insolence, but there was conscious daring in +her look. Jake's hand leapt like an angry dog upon the switch and gripped +it. + +"That was a mistake," he said, and the words, though slow, had a cutting +quality that was somehow more imposing than open wrath. + +Toby faced him with unabated courage, but she had begun to quiver. She +spoke no word. + +Jake's hand fell. He turned from her, and pulled out his pipe. There was +dignity in the action--the dignity of strength that refuses to assert +itself. + +And Toby suddenly crumpled. She sprang after him like a contrite child, +and caught his arm. "Oh, Jake, forgive me! Do please forgive me! I'm a +beast--a beast!" she cried tremulously. + +Jake looked at her, the hint of a smile about his rugged mouth. "I guess +not," he said. "You're just--young." + +She shook her head vehemently. "I'm not! It wasn't that, Jake! I +didn't--hurt you?" + +"Shucks, no!" he said. + +She clung to his arm still. "I'll never disobey you again. I won't do +anything you don't like. Jake, I mean it! Why are you laughing?" + +"I'm not," said Jake. He put his pipe away again, and patted her +shoulder. "All right. Don't say any more!" he said. + +Toby gulped down some obstruction in the throat. "I must. I've got to ask +you something. You're so awfully decent. I can't--I won't--do things you +don't like." + +"What do you want to know?" said Jake. + +Her other hand came up and fastened tightly upon his arm. "I don't know +how to tell you," she said. "I--I had a rotten night last night. That's +why I went out alone this morning. And I took Knuckle-Duster because the +devil tempted me." + +"I see," said Jake. His red-brown eyes were very kindly in their +directness. "What did you have a bad night about?" + +Her hold upon him tightened. Something of entreaty made itself felt in +her grasp. There was fear in the wide blue eyes so resolutely lifted to +his. + +"I don't know how to tell you," she said again. + +"Maybe I can guess," said Jake. + +"Ah!" she said, and laid her face down quickly on his sleeve. + +He laid his free hand on her head. "It's Bunny, is it?" he said. + +She answered him quiveringly. "Yes, it's--it's Bunny." + +"Well?" said Jake gently. + +She spoke with her face still hidden. "You don't want me to marry him, do +you? I won't do it either--without your permission." + +"Mine!" said Jake. + +"Yes." Her words came rapidly. "You love Bunny. You know what's best for +him. You want him to have the best." + +Jake's hand caressed her bent head. "Well," he said, after a moment. "I +guess that's so. But--I've come to love you in the same way. I'd like you +to have the best too." + +She lifted her head and looked at him. "You'd like me to have Bunny? Do +you mean that?" + +"If it's going to make you both happy," said Jake. + +"Ah!" she caught her breath sharply. "But no one can be sure of that, can +they? I mean, marriage is such a speculation, isn't it? I expect Bunny +will soon get tired of me." + +"Why do you say that?" said Jake. + +A little quiver went through her. "I don't know. Men are like that, +aren't they? Not men like you of course, but you're the big exception to +almost every rule." + +Jake was frowning a little. "I guess I'm as human as the rest of 'em," he +said. "But what makes you think Bunny isn't a stayer?" + +"He's so young," said Toby. + +"That all?" said Jake, beginning to smile. + +She looked at him rather wistfully. "Yes, but it counts, Jake. He'll be a +man some day, but he isn't yet--at least only in streaks." + +"Well, there's no hurry, is there?" said Jake. "People shouldn't marry in +haste." + +Toby's eyes flashed sudden accusation. "You did!" + +"I!" Jake looked momentarily disconcerted. "Well, I had some excuse. What +do you know about it anyway?" + +"I know what Bunny told me. Maud didn't love you when she married +you. It didn't come on till afterwards. She loved Lord Saltash, and he +loved her." Toby spoke with a certain hardness, as if challenging +contradiction. "She'd have married him--but for you." + +Jake met the challenge squarely. "Quite possibly she would. Think she'd +have been any happier?" + +Toby shook her head. "No. I think you were always meant to be her man. +But it--it was rather hard on him." Her voice trembled a little. "Bunny +says that was why he never married." + +"He's not the marrying sort," said Jake. "I don't mind your marrying +Bunny, but nothing on this earth would persuade me to let you marry him." + +An odd little smile twitched the corners of Toby's mouth. "No? Well, I +shouldn't consult you about that," she said. "Sure you don't mind my +marrying Bunny?" + +Jake looked at her. "Not if you're sure you want to," he said. + +Her eyes grew bright and baffling. She drew away from him, but in a +moment with a boyish gesture, she held out her hand to him. "Thank you, +Jake. You're a brick. Whatever I do, I'll do it--straight, and you'll +stand by?" + +"Sure!" said Jake, and gave her a close grip. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE SACRED FIRE + + +The party that gathered on the quay at Fairharbour on the hot July day +when Saltash's new yacht, _The Blue Moon_ lay awaiting her christening +was of a very gay description. The yacht herself was decked with flags, +and the hotel facing the quay, The Anchor, was also decorated with +bunting. All the visitors in the town were congregated about the shore, +or were rowing in pleasure boats near the centre of attraction. + +The yacht lay moored to the quay on which by Saltash's orders a long +strip of red carpet had been laid leading to the gangway which was +decorated with trails of flowers. The day was glorious and cloudless, the +sea of that intense blue that melts to the horizon without any dividing +line--like the blue of a smoked pearl. + +Saltash's idea was to take his guests for a cruise across the bay after +the ceremony, and he planned to complete the celebrations with a _fete_ +on the water at night. Everything was in readiness, and by two o'clock he +was already receiving his guests. + +Maud and Jake stood with him, and little Eileen, very intent and serious, +held Toby's hand and looked on from the background. Captain Larpent was +on the bridge, looking very forbidding, even contemptuous. He had never +had any liking for the gay crowds with which it was Saltash's pleasure to +surround himself. He had the air of a magnificent Viking, above the +frivolities with which he was surrounded. There was nothing of the +ornamental about his rugged exterior, but his very aloofness made him +imposing. He looked straight over the heads of the buzzing throng that +poured on to the deck. + +General Melrose and his daughter were among the last to arrive, and with +them came Bunny, very merry and handsome, his dark eyes singling out Toby +in a flash as she stood with her small charge. She had just lifted the +child to stand on a ledge where she might overlook the proceedings when +he joined them. + +"Hullo!" he said eagerly. "I'm later than I meant to be. I've been +lunching with General Melrose. Ye gods, what a crush! Where do they all +come from? Well, sweetheart!" He bent to the child. "Enjoying your +precious little self?" + +The soft violet eyes met his with a deep contentment as she lifted her +face for his kiss. "I think it's lovely," she said earnestly. + +He stood up and looked again with swift appreciation at Toby. The girl +was dressed very simply in white, her vivid face shadowed by a broad +straw hat. She met his look with a grimace of boyish dissatisfaction. + +"Bunny! What a ghastly gathering! For goodness' sake, don't look at me +like that! I feel like a painted marionette!" + +"Are you painted?" said Bunny. "You don't look it." + +She made a vehement gesture of disgust. "As soon as this show it over, I +shall get into riding things and go like the--like the--" + +"Like the dish when it ran away with the spoon," suggested Bunny with a +grin, as she paused. "Well, if you'll be the spoon, I'll be the dish, and +we'll show 'em all a clean pair of heels. Shall we?" + +"I certainly won't be the spoon," said Toby with decision. "You can find +someone else to play that part. Try Miss Melrose! She doesn't look as if +she'd object." + +"She's a very pretty girl," said Bunny rather aggressively. + +"Of course she's a pretty girl. It's what she's for." Toby's chin went +up. "She couldn't be anything else." + +Bunny laughed. "Well, cheer up! She's not the only one on board. Do you +know any of these people?" + +Toby shook her head promptly. "And don't want! Aren't they awful? Oh, +here's Jake! Wonder how much he's enjoying himself." + +Whether Jake were enjoying himself or not was not apparent in his manner +as he came up and shook hands with Bunny, then turned to lift his little +girl on to his shoulder. + +"Hold tight, Innocence! What do you think of it all?" + +"I think it's lovely, Daddy," she answered, clasping him closely. "Does +Mummy like it too?" + +He smiled at the anxiety in her question. "Guess she'll come through it +all right. She's not exactly keen on this sort of thing. But we're here, +eh, Innocence? That ought to make a difference." + +Old General Melrose turned sharply at the sound of the soft voice. He had +not noticed Jake until that moment. + +"Why, Bolton!" he said. "What are you doing here?" + +Jake moved forward deliberately. "Well," he said, "I guess I'm here in +support of my wife who has undertaken the chief part in the ceremony +about to take place." + +The old soldier looked at him from under beetling brows. "Ah! Your wife! +That's Maud Brian, isn't it? Somehow I always think of her as Maud Brian. +So she still keeps up the old friendship with Saltash! I wonder you allow +that." + +Jake's red-brown eyes held a smile. "She pleases herself, sir," he said, +"and--she pleases me." + +"That a child of yours?" asked the General abruptly. "But I needn't ask. +She's got Maud's eyes. Sheila, come and see this kiddie of Maud's!" + +He spoke imperiously over his shoulder, and Sheila turned in answer. Her +soft eyes kindled. + +"Oh, what a darling! How do you do, Mr. Bolton? I know you well by name. +And this is your little girl? What is her name?" + +"Eileen," whispered the child, clinging rather nervously to Jake's +shoulder. + +"Innocence!" said Jake. + +"Ah! How sweet!" the girl said. "I must get your mummy to bring you to +see me. Would you like to, I wonder?" + +"I think so," said Eileen shyly. + +"Maybe you'll come and see her first," said Jake. "I should like you to +see the stud, sir. We've got some stock that I think would interest you." + +"That would be delightful," Sheila said, in her gracious way. "We are +here for another fortnight. I had no idea it was such a lovely place." + +"Have you seen Burchester?" asked Bunny. + +She turned to him. "Never. I want to see it. Lord Saltash said something +about it the other day, so I am hoping there is a chance of doing so. You +are very fond of it, Sir Bernard?" + +"Yes. It's my job just now. I'm head keeper," laughed Bunny. "Miss +Larpent thinks I'm very inefficient, but I do my best." + +"I never said so," said Toby. + +She flushed at his obvious intention of drawing her into the group; but +Sheila Melrose at once held out a welcoming hand. + +"Miss Larpent, do you know I can't help feeling that I've seen you +somewhere before. Yet I can't quite remember where. Could it have been at +Valrosa?" + +"Oh, no," said Toby. "It couldn't possibly have been there." + +"And yet I can't help thinking it must have been," said Sheila, looking +at her with knitted brows. "Were you at that fancy-dress affair at the +Casino Hotel? I have a feeling I have seen you--somewhere--in fancy +dress." + +"Never!" said Toby with decision. "You must be thinking of someone else." + +Sheila still looked at her with puzzled eyes. "Wait!" she said. "I shall +remember in a moment. It was someone exactly like you. I know--someone +dressed as a boy." + +Toby made a sudden sharp movement and clapped her hands excitedly. "Look! +Look! There goes the bottle! I hope she'll manage to break it!" + +Sheila's attention was instantly diverted. The crowd surged forward. +Maud, with Saltash on her right and Larpent on her left, stood by the +rail. She held up a bottle that gleamed golden in the sun. + +Saltash was laughing. He stood bareheaded, his dark face alight. Toby's +eyes went to him in a single flashing glance and remained fixed. Bunny, +looking at her, was for the moment curiously moved. It was as if he +looked from afar upon some sacred fire that had suddenly sprung into +ardent flame before a distant shrine. Then came Maud's voice, sweet and +clear, speaking the name of the yacht, and like a golden flame the bottle +curved through the pearl-like ether and crashed upon the bows. + +A murmur went up and then a shout. The bottle had broken and the wine +rushed in a sparkling cascade to the water. + +Something impelled Bunny. He gripped Toby by the elbow. He almost shook +her. "Hooray!" he yelled. "It's done! She's off!" + +Toby looked at him with the eyes of a dreamer--eyes in which a latent +fear underlay the reverence. Then, meeting his eyes, she seemed to awake. +Her features contracted for a moment, but she controlled them swiftly, +and laughed. Laughing, she drew him away. + +The yacht had throbbed into movement. The ropes were being flung aboard. +They were steaming away, and a great blast went up from the siren as they +drew from the quay. + +Everywhere was tumult, rejoicing. People were shouting, talking, +laughing, waving hats and handkerchiefs. The whole world seemed a buzz of +merriment, and out of the very thick of it, Toby's voice, small and +tense, spoke into Bunny's ear. + +"Let's get away! Let's go to Lord Saltash, and--and--and congratulate." + +Her hand was on his arm. She pulled at it urgently, insistently. And +Bunny went with her, moved again--he knew not wherefore--by that feeling +that something had frightened her. + +He grasped her hand and made a way for her through the crowd. They went +to the laughing group in the bows. Saltash was standing close to Maud. He +was making some careless jest to her, when suddenly he turned and found +the boy and girl hand in hand behind him. + +His swift look flashed over them, and then in his sudden way he put a +hand on the shoulder of each. It was a lightning touch, and he laughed +oddly as he did it, as a man laughs who covers some hidden hurt. + +"We came to congratulate," said Bunny. "Good luck to her!" + +And Saltash, with his royal air of graciousness, made light reply. + +"I thank you for your congratulations, my children; but may the luck be +yours! I see it coming." + +And with that lightly he moved away among his guests, leaving a trail of +merriment wherever he went, save where the boy and girl stood together in +the bows in a silence that neither seemed able to break. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +SURRENDER + + +That night Fairharbour Bay looked like a velvet bed on which glittered +many jewels. _The Blue Moon_, lighted from bows to stern lay in the +centre, and from her deck there went up showers of coloured rockets that +fell like burning rain upon the sea. There was a string band on board, +and the strains floated across the water as echoes from another world--a +wonder-world of soft melodies and laughing voices and lightly splashing +oars. + +Toby sat in the stern of a boat with a single rower in front of her, and +trailed her fingers through the magic water. She was bare-headed, and the +breeze of the summer night stirred tenderly the golden ringlets that +clustered about her bow. Her face, seen now and then in the flare of the +rockets, had a strange look, almost a look of dread. Her blue eyes were +very wide open, like the eyes of a startled child. + +She spoke scarcely at all, and Bunny did not urge her. Only as he rowed, +he watched her with grave determination on his boyish face. He had +claimed her as his partner early in the evening, and she had made no +attempt to thwart him; but something in that half scared silence of +hers moved him very deeply. His own was protective, resolutely +reassuring. + +Once, when she started nervously at an unexpectedly loud report from one +of the rockets, he spoke to her as he would have spoken to a small, +frightened animal. + +"It's all right. I'll pull out a bit, shall I? These things make such a +beastly row." + +She thanked him in an undertone, and he began to row steadily away from +the yacht and the thronging boats. + +"You tell me when I've gone far enough!" he said. + +But she did not tell him, and he rowed on and on through the dark water +with only the rhythmic splashing of the oars to fill the silence between +them. + +They left the laughter and the noise behind, and began to draw towards +the far corner of the bay. The shore rose steeply from the water here, +and there came to them the soft breaking of the waves against the cliff +as they neared it. + +Toby came out of her silence with a jerk. "Bunny, do you really think it +would answer?" + +"Sure!" said Bunny promptly. + +He drew in his oars with the words, and they drifted on the summer tide. + +Toby was looking at him in the starlight with a dumb and piteous +irresolution in her eyes. + +Bunny leaned to her as he sat, with outstretched hands. "You poor little +frightened mouse!" he said. "What is it that's troubling you? Do you +think I wouldn't make you happy?" + +"I think you'd try," she said dubiously. + +For a few seconds she hung back, hesitating; then swiftly, almost with +the gesture of one who casts aside a burden, she threw out her trembling +hands and thrust them into his. He took them and held them fast, drawing +them gently to him till he had them against his heart. "I would try, +sweetheart," he said softly. + +"Would you?" whispered Toby. "Would you?" + +She went nearer to him; he could feel her trembling from head to foot. + +"You think I wouldn't succeed?" he asked her tenderly. "You think I'd +make you sorry?" + +"I don't know," she answered quiveringly. "I--I'm thinking most of you." + +"Wondering whether it would be good for me to have my heart's desire?" +jested Bunny softly. "Think it would be too much for me; what, darling?" + +"No,--no!" said Toby. "Not that! Only wondering if you are wanting the +right thing--wondering if the thing you call your heart's desire will +bring you happiness. It--it doesn't always, you know, Bunny. Life is like +that." + +Her voice sank a little. + +"What do you know about life?" he said. + +She shook her head, her face downcast. "Oh, too much--too much!" she +said. + +Bunny sat motionless for a moment or two, but his hold was strong and +comforting. At length very gently he began to draw her nearer. + +He almost expected her to resist him, but she did not. As he drew her, +she yielded, till with a sob she suffered herself to be drawn close into +his arms. He had her on the thwart beside him, her face hidden against +his shoulder. He laid his cheek down upon her hair and sat silent. + +Toby was sobbing a little, and he patted her shoulder soothingly, but he +did not speak until with a quivering sigh she relaxed against him and was +still. + +Then, in a whisper, "Toby mavourneen," he said, "I'm going to tell you +something that's come to me lately--something I've guessed. You needn't +answer me. I don't want you to answer me--only to know that I know. +There's another fellow in your heart, and he's got a bigger place than I +have--at present. No, don't tremble, darling! It's all right. I know--I +know. He's the sort that women simply can't keep out. He's a fine chap +too, and I'm fond of him--always have been. But look here, mavourneen, +you're not going to break your precious little heart over him; you know +quite well it's no use, don't you? You know--well, anyhow to a certain +extent--you know what he is, don't you?" + +He paused for an answer, but Toby quivered in his arms and was silent. + +He put up a hand and pressed her head closer to his breast. "He'll never +marry," he said. "He doesn't mean to. He almost told me so the other day. +But--Toby--he takes a friendly interest in you and me. He'd like us +to have each other. Don't you think"--his voice had a hint of +humour--"don't you think we might fix it up just to please him? +P'raps--someday--we may find that we're pleased ourselves as well." + +"Oh, my dear!" Toby whispered. + +Her arm crept round his neck, but she did not lift her head. He clasped +her more closely and went on very softly. "I love you enough to think of +your happiness first, my darling. You're not happy now. I know that all +right. But you will be--I swear you shall be--if you will marry me. You +like me just a bit, don't you? And you wouldn't be afraid to trust +yourself to me?" + +"No," murmured Toby, with an effort. "I wouldn't be--afraid." + +"Then you'll give me my chance?" he urged gently. "You'll put your dear +little hand into mine and trust me? Will you darling? Will you?" + +But Toby was silent. + +"Won't you?" he said in a whisper. + +Her arm tightened about his neck. She was breathing quickly, nervously. +From across the water came the sounds of laughter and cheering, the +softened strains of the band that played on the deck of _The Blue Moon_. +Close at hand was only the low wash of the waves as they lapped against +the cliff. They floated quite alone over the dark depths, rising and +falling with the slow heave of the tide, but making no headway. + +"Won't you?" Bunny said again, after a long silence. + +And suddenly Toby raised her head and spoke. "I will do--whatever you +wish," she said. + +There was a slight break in her voice, but it held no indecision. Her +eyes looked straight into his in the starlight. He saw them shining and +knew that they were big with tears. But she did not flinch from his look +or start as his lips came to hers. She slipped her other arm about his +neck and clasped him close. + +"You'll be good to me, Bunny?" she said in a whisper. + +And he answered her deeply, his lips against her own. "I will be good to +you, my darling, so help me, God!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE MAGICIAN'S WAND + + +"I can't think where I have seen that girl before," said Sheila +thoughtfully, drumming her fingers on the white rail, her soft eyes fixed +upon the jewelled bay. "She has an arresting face." + +"You have never seen her," said Saltash carelessly, flicking +cigarette-ash overboard. "She has the sort of face that the old Italians +worshipped and some of the moderns too. You have seen it in their +pictures." + +Sheila's brows were drawn. "I have seen her--somehow--dressed as a boy," +she said. "Could it have been a picture?" + +"Yes. One of Spentoli's. I've got a print somewhere. It's called, 'The +Victim'--a lad with a face like Larpent's daughter, fighting a leopard." + +Saltash spoke with easy conviction, his restless eyes flashing to and +fro, often glancing but never resting upon the girl beside him. "That's +what you're thinking of. It's an unsatisfactory sort of picture. One +wonders which is 'The Victim.' But that is Spentoli all over. He always +leaves one wondering." + +"I know the thing you mean." Sheila nodded meditatively. "Yes, she +is--rather like that. The boy was 'The Victim' of course." She turned +towards him suddenly with the words. "You can't possibly doubt that. The +brute's teeth are almost in his throat. I think it's a horrible picture +myself." + +Saltash laughed. "A deliverer arrives sometimes," he remarked, "even in +the last, most awful moment of all. Have you never said to yourself how +seldom the thing we really expect comes to pass?" + +Sheila's lips parted with a touch of scorn. "Perhaps it is safer not to +expect," she said. + +"Perhaps," agreed Saltash, with his quick grimace. "I learnt that lesson +a long time ago. There are so many slips--especially when the cup is +full." He added inconsequently, "And even if it gets there, the wine is +sour as often as not when you come to drink." + +"I can quite believe it," said the girl, and looked out once more over +the wreathing flowers to the rippling waters of the bay. + +Her mouth took a firm line, and Saltash, glancing at her, began to laugh. +"Do you know, Miss Melrose, it's rather curious, but you remind me of +Spentoli too in some ways? I don't know if you and Miss Larpent possess +the same characteristics, but I imagine you might develop them, given the +same conditions." + +Sheila stiffened at the words. "I am sure you are quite wrong," she said +coldly. "Captain Larpent's daughter is quite obviously a child of +impulse. I--am not." + +"I think you would be impulsive enough to fight the leopard if he came +your way," contended Saltash with idle insistence. "Or perhaps you would +charm him. I imagine that might be more in your line." + +Again the girl's lip curled. She said nothing for a moment, then +deliberately, for the first time in her life, she snubbed him. "No, I +should never try to charm--a beast, Lord Saltash." + +"You prefer them savage?" countered Saltash. + +She made a careless gesture with one hand, without replying. She did not +even look towards him. "I think Miss Larpent might be quite clever in +that respect," she said. "She is--a born charmer." + +"By Jove!" he said. "What a cruel compliment!" + +Sheila said nothing. She was watching a small boat rowing steadily +towards them through the dark water, with eyes that were grave and fixed. + +Saltash's look followed hers, and he grimaced to himself, oddly, wryly, +as a man who accomplishes a task for which he has no liking. Then in a +moment he turned the conversation. "Did you ever meet Rozelle Daubeni, +the enchantress?" + +Sheila's soft eyes came to him at the sudden question. "No. I have heard +of her. I have never met her. I don't want to meet her. Why?" + +He threw her a daring glance. "It would do you good to meet her. She is a +born charmer if you like. She charms women as well as men--and beasts." + +"An adventuress!" said Sheila. + +"Yes, an adventuress. One of the most wonderful, I should say, who ever +lived. She is in Paris just now. When she comes to England--" again his +look dared her--"I will take you to see her. It will be--an education +for you." + +"Thank you," Sheila said. + +He laughed aloud, and suddenly stretched his hand to her with a movement +of good fellowship. "I'm only teasing. Don't be cross! I wouldn't take +you to see her for all the gold of Ophir. She is rotten--too rotten even +for me, which is saying much." + +Sheila hesitated momentarily before she gave her hand. + +"Why did you speak of her? What brought her to your mind?" + +He glanced again towards the little boat now drawing near to the yacht, +but he did not answer her question till her hand met his. + +"I have--a somewhat elastic mind," he said then, and smiled his most +baffling smile. "It was your talk of charmers that did it. I was trying +to think of all I had met." + +"All the Rozelles and the Tobies!" said Sheila, with a hard little laugh. + +He gripped her hand and released it. "I have never met more than one of +each," he said. "Which may be the secret of their charm. Don't class them +together in your mind for a moment! Larpent's daughter may be a born +charmer. Young Bunny Brian seems to think so at any rate. But she is +not--and never will be--an adventuress." + +"Is Bunny Brian fond of her--really fond of her?" asked Sheila. + +Saltash nodded. "Sure thing--as Jake would say! And he's a sound chap +too. I hope he'll get her." + +"She is not very likely to refuse," said Sheila, turning from the rail. + +The little boat had passed out of sight under the lee of the yacht. A +great rocket whistled skywards, and broke in a violet flare that lighted +sea and shore. The _fete_ was over, and people were crowding on board. +The band was playing a selection from a comic opera, and a few voices +were singing the careless, sentimental words. + +Saltash turned with his companion. "And now we are going to supper at The +Anchor. I must get Mrs. Bolton to lead the way. Poor Jake is bored to the +soul, but he's facing it like a man. Fine fellow--Jake." + +"Oh, is he a friend of yours?" Sheila asked. "A very particular friend, I +mean?" + +Saltash grimaced to the stars. "No, I don't think so. Ask Jake! He knows +me better than some, that's all. And I know him." + +They left the yacht's rail and joined the on-coming throng. It was like +a scene out of a fairy tale--the gaudy Chinese lanterns bobbing to and +fro, the gaily-coloured crowd, the shining white yacht rocking gently on +the noiseless swell. Everyone was laughing. Some were singing. There was +not a serious face to be seen in all the crowd that poured over the +red-carpeted gangway from the quay. + +"Where is Toby?" said Maud. + +She was standing with Jake in the many-hued glow of the lanterns, and she +asked the question with a momentary anxiety, for she had looked in vain +for Toby for some time. + +"She's with Bunny. She's safe enough," said Jake. + +"But they haven't come on board yet, and they've been gone so long," Maud +said. "It's curious how little Captain Larpent seems to interest himself +in her doings." + +"Mighty curious," agreed Jake. + +For Larpent had kept to the bridge morosely, almost throughout the +evening. He was standing there now, looking down upon the shifting, +chattering crowd. He had no idea how long it would be before Saltash +tired of the game and gave orders to set sail. He waited in dumb +endurance--as he would wait from day to day until the longed-for moment +arrived. It had happened often before, Saltash's caprice had sometimes +driven him to the verge of rebellion, but no one--not even Saltash +himself--ever suspected it. Silent, phlegmatic, inexpressive, Larpent +held on his undeviating course. + +Maud's attention did not linger upon him. No one--save perhaps +Saltash--ever paid much attention to Larpent. She turned back to watch +the now empty gangway, and in a moment she gave an exclamation of relief. + +"Ah! Here they come at last!" + +A laughing voice spoke behind her. "Enter Cinderella and the Prince!" + +She started and saw Saltash's swarthy face close to her. His odd eyes +looked into hers with a flash of mischief. + +"See how all my plans bear fruit!" he said. "I wave my wand, and you +behold the result." + +She turned from him to look again upon the advancing couple. They were +crossing the gangway alone. Toby, slim, girlish, her wide blue eyes +shining like the eyes of an awakened child, Bunny close behind her, +touching her, his hand actually on her shoulder, possession and +protection in every line of him. He was murmuring into her ear as they +came, and his face was alight with the glory which no earthly lamp can +kindle. + +"Behold!" Saltash said again, and moved forward in his sudden fashion to +receive them. + +He met them as they stepped on board, and in a moment they were the +centre of observation. The buzz of talk died down as the general +attention focussed upon them. Maud was aware of Jake standing squarely +behind her, and she put out a hand to him which he grasped and held. + +Saltash was laughing, but they could not hear what he said. Only in a +moment he had taken a hand of Bunny's and a hand of Toby's and joined +them together. Toby's eyes were lifted to his face. She was smiling with +lips that trembled, and Maud's heart gave a great throb of pity, she +could not have said wherefore. She had a deep longing to go and gather +the child into her arms and comfort her. + +Then Toby too was laughing, and she heard Saltash's voice. "These things +only happen properly once in a blue moon, _ma chere_. I give you both my +blessing for the second time to-day. I wish you better luck than has ever +come my way." + +He threw a gay malicious glance towards the bridge, where Larpent stood +like a grim Viking looking down upon the scene. + +"Come!" he said. "We had better go and tell your daddy next!" + +He led them lightly forward, and the crowd opened out with jests and +laughter to let them pass. + +Toby walked between the two men, very pale but still smiling--a smile +that was curiously like the smile of a child that is trying not to cry. + +"Oh, poor little thing!" Maud whispered suddenly and drew back beside +Jake as if she could not bear to look. + +"She'll be all right," said Jake stoutly. "Don't you fret any! Bunny's +sound." + +"Oh, yes, I know--I know! But she's so young." All the yearning of +motherhood was in Maud's voice. "Does she love him? Does she?" + +Jake's hand gripped hers more closely. He looked into her face with a +smile in his red-brown eyes. "Maybe not as we know love," he said. "It +doesn't come all at once--that sort." + +She smiled back at him, for she could not help it, even as she shook her +head in misgiving. "Sometimes--it doesn't come at all!" she said. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE WARNING + + +It seemed to Maud that in the days that followed her engagement Toby +developed with the swiftness of an opening flower. There was no talk of +her leaving them. She fitted into the establishment as though she had +always been a part of it, and she took upon herself responsibilities +which Maud would never have laid upon her. + +Watching her anxiously, it seemed to her that Toby was becoming more +settled, more at rest, than she had ever been before. The look of fear +was dormant in her eyes now, and her sudden flares of anger had wholly +ceased. She made no attempt to probe below the surface, realizing the +inadvisability of such a course, realizing that the first days of an +engagement are seldom days of expansion, being full of emotions too +varied for analysis. That Toby should turn to her or to Jake if she +needed a confident she did not for a moment doubt, but unless the need +arose she resolved to leave the girl undisturbed. She had, moreover, +great faith in Bunny's powers. As Jake had said, Bunny was sound, and she +knew him well enough to be convinced that he would find a means of +calming any misgivings that might exist in Toby's mind. + +It appeared as if he had already done so in fact, for Toby was never +nervous in his presence. She greeted him with pleasure and went with him +gladly whenever he came to seek her. They met every day, usually in the +evening when Bunny was free, and the children gone to bed. Maud would +watch them wander out together into the summer solitudes, Chops walking +sedately behind, and would smile to herself very tenderly at the sight. +She believed that Toby was winning to happiness and she prayed with all +her soul that it might last. + +Saltash came no more during these summer days. He had departed in his +abrupt way for his first pleasure cruise in _The Blue Moon_, taking no +friend, save the ever-present Larpent, to relieve the monotony. No one +knew whither they were bound, or if the voyage were to be long or short. +He dropped out of his circle as a monkey drops from a tree, and beyond a +passing wonder at his movements no one questioned either motive or +intention. Probably he had neither in any appreciable degree. It was only +the caprice of the moment that ever moved him. So his friends said. He +evidently found his new toy attractive, and he would not return until he +wearied of it. + +Meantime, the summer crowds came and went at Fairharbour. The Anchor +Hotel was crowded with visitors, and Sheila and her father began to talk +of departure for Scotland. + +Jake had gone to an important race-meeting in the North, and it seemed +that Bunny's suggestion to show them the stud had been forgotten. But on +an afternoon in late August, after a hotly-contested polo match, as he +stood with a fizzling drink in his hand, talking to Sheila, she abruptly +reminded him of it. + +"It's quite a fortnight since you promised to show me the horses," she +said. + +He started. "Is it? I'm awfully sorry. I hadn't forgotten, but somehow +I've had a lot to think about lately. You must come and have tea with +Maud. When will you come?" + +Sheila laughed a little. "Hadn't you better ask Maud first?" + +"Good gracious, no!" said Bunny. "That'll be all right. She and Toby are +always at home just now, and of course she will be pleased to see you any +time. When can you come?" + +"Well, we are leaving the day after to-morrow," Sheila said. + +"To-morrow then!" said Bunny promptly. + +"Your sister may not want us at such short notice," she said, hesitating. + +"Oh, rats!" said Bunny, with a grin. "Of course she will! Have you seen +the Castle yet?" + +"Yes. We lunched there with Lord Saltash before he left. It's a horribly +grim place. I didn't like it much." + +"It's a magnificent place!" said Bunny stoutly. "It's completely thrown +away on Charlie of course, but I love every stone of it." + +"What a pity it doesn't belong to you!" commented Sheila. "I wonder where +you will live when you are married." + +Bunny flushed a little. "We're not marrying at present, but I'm hoping to +stick to my job when we do." + +"Oh, are you? Does Miss Larpent like that idea?" Faint surprise sounded +in Sheila's tone. + +"I don't know why she shouldn't," said Bunny, quick to detect it. "She's +keen on the country, keen on riding and so on. She'd hate to live in +town." + +"Would she?" said Sheila, with a hint of incredulity. + +Bunny turned on her. "Why do you say that? She's very young, hardly more +than a kid. She doesn't care for people and towns. Why should she?" + +He put the question almost indignantly, and Sheila smiled at him +pacifically. "I don't know in the least why she should. I only had a sort +of idea that she might. She is very pretty, isn't she? And pretty girls +don't generally care to be buried before they have had their fling--not +always then." + +"Oh, you think she doesn't get any fun!" said Bunny, still somewhat +resentful. + +"No--no, of course I don't! You know best what she likes. I only wonder +that Maud didn't think of giving her just one season in town. It would be +rather good for her, don't you think?" + +"I don't know," said Bunny rather shortly. "Maud isn't keen on town. I +think she's better where she is." + +Sheila laughed. "You're afraid she'd slip through your fingers if she saw +too much of the world?" + +"No, I'm not!" declared Bunny, frowning. "I hadn't thought about it. +But I'd hate her to get old and sophisticated. Her great charm is in +being--just what she is." + +"Oh, she has plenty of charm," Sheila admitted, and her own brows drew a +little in thought. "I wish I could remember who it is she reminds me of. +That is the worst of having such a large circle." + +"She isn't like anyone I've ever met," declared Bunny, and gulped down +his drink abruptly. "Well, I must be going. You'll come up to-morrow +then, you and the General. I shall be there, and I'll tell Maud you're +coming." + +"You are sure we had better come?" Sheila said, as she gave him her hand. + +He gripped it. "Of course! Maud will be delighted. I'm sorry you weren't +asked before. About three then--if that suits you! Good-bye!" + +He smiled his pleasant, boyish smile, and departed. + +But as he raced back from Fairharbour in his little two-seater car to +meet his young _fiancee_ on the downs, the memory of Sheila's word came +back to him and he frowned again. It was true that they were not thinking +of marriage for the next few months, and their plans were still somewhat +vague, but the idea of waiting while Toby had her fling for a whole +season in town revolted him. He could not have said definitely wherefore, +save that he wanted to keep her just as she was in his eyes--fresh and +young and innocent. He was angry with Sheila for having suggested it, and +he wanted to thrust the matter from his mind. + +Yet when he found himself alone with Toby, walking along the brow of the +furze-strewn down, he attacked the subject with characteristic +directness. + +"Sheila Melrose thinks you ought to have a season in town before we get +married. Would you like to do that?" + +Toby looked up at him with her clear eyes wide with surprise. "What +the--blazes has it to do with Sheila Melrose?" she said. + +He laughed briefly. "Nothing, of course. Less than nothing. It's just a +point of view. She thinks you're too pretty to be buried before you've +had your fling--rot of that sort." + +"My--fling!" said Toby, and with a sudden gesture that was almost of +shrinking drew his arm more closely round her shoulders. "I should loathe +it and you know it," she said with simplicity. + +He held her to him. "Of course you would. I should myself. I hate the +smart set. But, you know, you are--awfully pretty; I don't want to do +anything unfair." + +"Rats!" said Toby. + +He bent his face to hers. "Are you beginning to care for me--just a +little--by any chance?" + +She laughed and flushed, twining her fingers in his without replying. + +Bunny pursued his point. "You'd sooner marry me out of hand than go +hunting London for someone more to your liking? Would you?" + +"Oh, much," said Toby. "But, you see, I hate London." + +"And you don't hate me?" persisted Bunny, his dark eyes very persuasive. + +She dropped her own before them, and was silent. + +"Say it, sweetheart!" he urged. + +She shook her head. "Let's talk about something else!" she said. + +"All right," said Bunny boldly. "Let's talk of getting married! It's high +time we began." + +"Oh, I didn't mean that!" said Toby quickly. + +He laughed at her softly. "Of course you didn't! But you were thinking +about it all the same. Do you know old Bishop is going to clear out and +go and live in Fairharbour? I shall be left alone then. It's rather +beastly living alone, you know, darling." + +"You haven't tried it yet," said Toby. + +"No. But I know what it'll feel like. I shall hate it." Bunny spoke with +gloomy conviction. + +Toby suddenly laughed. "No one to grouse to! It would be rather dull +certainly. Why didn't you fall in love with Sheila Melrose?" + +"Sheila Melrose! Why on earth should I?" Bunny spoke with some sharpness. + +Toby lifted mischievous eyes. "She's pretty and graceful and +accomplished. She'd make a charming Lady Brian, and she has an estate of +her own for you to manage. It--it would be--a highly suitable arrangement +for you both." + +"Don't talk rot!" broke in Bunny with sudden heat. + +His hold tightened upon her, and she made a quick, instinctive movement +as though to free herself. "I'm not! You know I'm not! You know--quite +well--that if--if--if it hadn't been for me--because you chanced to meet +me first--you certainly would have--have fallen in love with her!" + +Toby spoke breathlessly, stammering a little as her habit was when +agitated. Her face was averted, and she was trying very, very hard to +resist the closer drawing of his arms. + +But there were times when Bunny would not endure resistance, and this was +one of them. He simply ignored it, till abruptly she yielded to his +mastery. And then in a moment he was tender again. + +"Why did you say that?" he said, bending low to look into her downcast +face. "Tell me why you said it! Are you--jealous--by any chance?" + +"Oh, no!" declared Toby with vehemence. "No--no--no!" + +"Then why?" he persisted. Then with sudden intuition: "You don't like +her, do you?" + +Toby's face was burning. "It--it's she that doesn't like me," she said. + +"Oh, that's a mistake," said Bunny, decidedly. "Everyone likes you." + +She shook her head. "She doesn't. She thinks I'm bad form, and I daresay +she's right. She also thinks--" she lifted her face suddenly, challenging +him--"she also thinks that I set out to catch you--and succeeded." + +"She doesn't!" declared Bunny. "That's rot--damn' rot! You are not to say +it. She's a very nice girl and ready to be friendly with you if you'll +let her." + +Toby made a rude face. "I knew you were getting fond of her! She's pretty +and stylish and--and much more in your line than I am. Why don't you go +and ask her to marry you? She wouldn't say No." + +She flung the words with a little quivering laugh. She was trembling in +his hold. + +Bunny's eyes had flashed to sudden anger. He had taken her by the +shoulders almost as if he would shake her. + +"Toby, be quiet!" he commanded. "Do you hear? You're going too far! What +do you mean by talking in this strain? What has she done to you?" + +"Nothing!" gasped back Toby, backing away from him in a vain effort to +escape. "She hardly knows me even. It's just instinct with her and she +can't help it. But she likes you well enough not to want you to marry me. +You don't suppose--you don't suppose--" the words came breathlessly, +jerkily--"you--you really don't suppose, do you, that--that she made that +suggestion about a season in town for my sake?" + +"What other reason could she have had?" demanded Bunny sternly. + +Toby was laughing, but her laughter had a desperate sound. "How green you +are! Must I really tell you that?" + +"Yes. Go on! Tell me!" His voice was hard. Hard also was the grip of his +hands. He knew that in the moment he released her she would turn and flee +like a fleeing hare. + +There was fear in the blue eyes that looked up to his, but they held a +glare of defiance as well. Her small white teeth showed clenched between +her laughing lips. + +"Go on! Tell me!" he reiterated. "You shan't go--I swear--until you tell +me." + +"Think I'm--think I'm afraid of you?" challenged Toby, with boyish +bravado. + +"I think you'll answer me," he said, and abruptly his tone fell level, +dead level. He looked her straight in the eyes without anger, without +mercy. "And you'll answer me now, too. What other reason could Miss +Melrose have for making that suggestion if it was not intended for your +benefit? Now answer me!" + +His face was pale, but he was master of himself. Perhaps he had learned +from Jake that fundamental lesson that those who would control others +must first control themselves. He still held her before him, but there +was no violence in his hold. Neither was there any tenderness. It was +rather of a judicial nature. + +And oddly at that moment a sudden gleam of appreciation shot up in Toby's +eyes. She stood up very straight and faced him unflinching. + +"I don't mind answering you," she said. "Why should I? Someone will +tell you sooner or later if I don't. She said that because she knew--and +she wanted you to know--that I am not the sort of girl that men want +to--marry." + +She was quite white as she spoke the words, but she maintained her tense +erectness. Her eyes never stirred from his. + +Bunny stood motionless, staring at her. He looked as if he had been +struck a blinding blow. + +"What--on earth--do you mean?" he asked slowly at last. + +The tension went out of Toby. She broke into her funny little laugh. "Oh, +I won't tell you any more! I won't! She thinks I'm too attractive, that's +all. I can't imagine why; can you? You never found me so, did you, +Bunny?" + +The old provocative sweetness flashed back into her face. She went within +the circle of his arms with a quick nestling movement as of a small +animal that takes refuge after strenuous flight. She was still panting a +little as she leaned against him. + +And Bunny relaxed, conscious of a vast relief that outweighed every other +consideration. "You--monkey!" he said, folding her close. "You're playing +with me! How dare you torment me like this? You shall pay for it to the +last least farthing. I will never have any mercy on you again." + +He kissed her with all the renewed extravagance of love momentarily +denied, and the colour flooded back into Toby's face as the dread receded +from her heart. She gave him more that day than she had ever given him +before, and in the rapture of possession he forgot the ordeal that she +had made him face. + +Only later did he remember it--her strange reticence, her odd stumbling +words of warning, her curious attitude of self-defence. And he felt as +if--in spite of his utmost resolution--she had somehow succeeded in +baffling him after all. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE MYSTERY + + +It was late that evening that Bunny strolled forth alone to smoke a +reminiscent pipe along his favourite glade of larches in Burchester Park. +He went slowly through the summer dusk, his hands behind him, his eyes +fixed ahead. He had had his way with Toby. She had promised to marry him +as soon as old Bishop's retirement left the house in the hollow at his +disposal. But somehow, though he had gained his end, he was not conscious +of elation. Sheila Melrose's words had disturbed him no less than Toby's +own peculiar interpretation of them. There was a very strong instinct of +fair play in Bunny Brian, and, now that he had won his point, he was +assailed by a grave doubt as to whether he were acting fairly towards the +girl. She was young, but then many girls marry young. It was not really +her youth that mattered; neither, when he came to sift the matter, was it +the fact that she had had so little opportunity of seeing the world. But +it was something in Toby's eyes, something in Sheila's manner, that gave +him pause. He asked himself, scarcely knowing why, if it would not be +fairer after all to wait. + +He wished that he could have consulted Jake, but yet it would have been +difficult to put his misgivings into definite words. Jake was a brick and +understood most things, but he was away for another week at least. + +The thought of the girl's father crossed his mind, only to be instantly +dismissed. Even if he had been within reach, Captain Larpent's sternly +unapproachable exterior would have held him back. He was inclined to like +the man, but he could not feel that Toby's welfare was, or ever had been, +of paramount importance to him. He had thoughts only for his yacht. + +Bunny began to reflect moodily that life was a more complicated affair +than he had ever before imagined, and, reaching this point, he also +reached the gate by the copse and became aware of cigar-smoke dominating +the atmosphere above the scent of his own now burnt-out pipe. + +He removed the pipe from his mouth and looked around him. + +"Hullo!" said a voice he knew. "Do I intrude?" + +Saltash stepped suddenly out of the shadow of the larches and met him +with outstretched hand. + +"Hullo!" said Bunny, with a start. + +A quick smile of welcome lighted his face, and Saltash's eyes flashed in +answer. He gripped the boy's hand with fingers that closed like springs. + +"What are you doing here?" he said. + +"Just what I was going to ask you," said Bunny. "I often come here in the +evening. It's my favourite look-out. But you--" + +"I do the same for the same reason," said Saltash. + +"I thought you were far away on the high seas," said Bunny. + +Saltash laughed. "Well, I was. But I don't stay there, my good Bunny. +_The Blue Moon_ developed engine trouble--nothing very serious, but we +brought her back to recuperate. You can never tell what you may be in +for on a first voyage. Also, I was curious to see how affairs here were +progressing. How goes it, _mon ami_? Is all well?" + +"Well enough," said Bunny. + +Saltash linked a friendly hand in his arm. "Have you and Nonette settled +when to get married yet?" + +Bunny stiffened momentarily, as if his instinct were to resent the kindly +enquiry. But the next instant he relaxed again with impulsive confidence. +"Well, it is more or less settled," he said. "But I'm wondering--you +know, Charlie, she's rather young to be married, isn't she? She hasn't +seen much of the world so far. You don't think it's shabby, do you, to +marry her before she's had the same sort of chances as other girls?" + +"Good heavens, no!" said Saltash. He gave Bunny an odd look from under +brows that were slightly twisted. "What made you think of that?" he +asked. + +Bunny's face was red. He leaned his arms on the gate and looked out +across the valley. "Sheila Melrose put it to me this afternoon," he said, +"though I must admit it had crossed my mind before. She hasn't met many +people, you know, Charlie. And--as I said--she's young. I don't want to +take an unfair advantage." + +"Life is too short to think of these things," said Saltash abruptly. +"Marry her while you can get her and don't be an ass about it! If I had +done the same thing in my youth, I should have been better off than I am +at present." + +Bunny smiled a little. "You would probably have been wishing you'd done +the other thing by this time." + +"Much you know about it!" returned Saltash with a whimsical frown. "Now +look here! What I've really come back for is to see you married. All this +preliminary messing about is nothing but a weariness to the flesh. Get it +over, man! There's nothing on earth to wait for. Larpent's willing +enough. In fact, he agrees with me--the sooner the better." + +"He would!" said Bunny with a touch of bitterness. + +"Well, you can't ask for anything better," maintained Saltash. "He's got +his job, and he's not what you could call a family man. He's not a waster +either, so you needn't put on any damned airs, _mon vieux_." + +"I didn't!" said Bunny hotly. + +Saltash laughed, and clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Look here! I'm +talking for the good of your soul. Don't take any more advice--certainly +not Sheila Melrose's! You go straight ahead and marry her! You've got +money, I know, but I hope you won't chuck your job on that account. Stick +to it, and you shall have the Dower House to live in while I yet cumber +the ground, and Burchester Castle as soon as I'm under it!" + +"What?" said Bunny. He turned almost fiercely. "Charlie! Stop it! You're +talking rot. You always do. I don't want your beastly castle. You've got +to marry and get an heir of your own. I'm damned if I'm going to be +adopted by you!" + +Saltash was laughing carelessly, mockingly, yet there was about him at +the moment a certain royal self-assurance that made itself felt. "You'll +do as you're told, _mon ami_. And you'll take what the gods send without +any cavilling. As for me, I go my own way. I shall never marry. I shall +never have an heir of my own blood. Burchester means more to you than it +does to me. Therefore Burchester will pass to you at my death. Think you +and Toby will be happy here?" + +"Damn it!" said Bunny, still fiercely disconcerted. "You talk as if you +were going to die to-morrow." + +"Oh, probably not," said Saltash airily. "But I doubt if I live to a +rakish old age. I'm a man that likes taking chances, and those who dice +with the high gods are bound to throw a blank some day." For a moment the +mockery died down in his eyes, and he looked more nearly serious than +Bunny had ever seen him. He patted the shoulder under his hand. "Life is +rather a rotten old show when you've tried everything and come to the +end," he said. "And you know for a damn' certainty that you'll never +taste any good fruit again. But you will never know what that feels like, +_mon ami_. You've had the sense to play a straight game, and you'll find +it pays in the long run. Jake taught you that, eh? You may thank your +own particular lucky star that you had him for a brother-in-law instead +of me." + +"Don't talk rot!" said Bunny gruffly. + +Saltash stretched up his arms with a laugh. "No, we'll talk sense--good +square sense. I take it you'll continue to manage the estate for the +present? If you get bored, we'll find an agent, but I'm satisfied with +things as they are. We'll go round and have a look at the old Dower +House to-morrow. It has a fairly decent position, you know,--overlooks +Graydown. That ought to please you both." + +Bunny turned upon him. "Oh, confound it, Charlie!" he said. "I can't talk +about this. I couldn't possibly take it. You're too damned generous. I've +never done anything to deserve it." + +"Oh yes, you have!" said Saltash unexpectedly, "you've done a good many +things for me. You have always been the _bon ami_ whatever I did--from +your childhood upwards." His dark face laughed with friendly warmth into +the boy's troubled eyes. "Always stuck up for me, haven't you, Bunny?" he +said. + +"Oh, but that's rot," objected Bunny. "A man is bound to stick up for his +pals." + +"Even though he knows they're not worth it?" laughed Saltash. "Yes, +that's just what I like about you. It's the one point on which we touch. +But I'm not sure that even you would stick up for me if you knew +precisely what sort of rotter you were sticking up for." + +"Oh, shut up!" said Bunny. + +"_Bien, mon cher!_ We return to your affairs. Have you put up the banns +yet? I presume you will allow me to be best man? Get it over soon, I +beseech you! I can't stay here indefinitely. As a matter of fact, I'm +due in Scotland at the present moment. Can't you fix it up immediately? +And you can have the little car and leave of absence till you've got over +it. Old Bishop can run this show till the winter. Maud can fit up the +Dower House for you. And I shall feel at liberty to roam the desert once +more--unencumbered." + +"You're jolly decent to me!" said Bunny. + +"Think so?" Saltash's brows twitched humorously. "I seem to be +developing a taste for worthy deeds. But there's no reason on earth why +you two shouldn't get married and done for as soon as possible. I'll see +Larpent to-night and tell him, and you can go and see the parson about it +to-morrow. You'll find Nonette won't put any obstacles in the way. She's +a good child and does as she's told." + +"No, Toby won't mind," Bunny said, with a sudden memory of her quick +surrender flooding his soul. "By Jove, Charlie! You are a good sort to +help me like this. There's no one else that can get things moving as you +can." + +"Oh, you can count on me for that," laughed Saltash. "I never was a +drifter. Life is too short. We'll meet again to-morrow then. Come and +dine if you like, and tell me what you've arranged! Good night!" He +turned in his sudden fashion. "Good luck to you!" + +He was gone upon the words, vanishing into the larches almost noiselessly +as he had come, and Bunny was left alone. + +He stood motionless at the gate for some time longer gazing out over the +quiet, night-wrapt down. There was no elation in his attitude, only a +deep thoughtfulness. He had never understood Charlie though oddly enough +he had always believed in him. But to-night for the first time a curious +doubt pierced his mind--a doubt that recurred again and again, banishing +all sense of exultation. Why had Charlie returned like this? Why was he +so eager to meddle in this affair? Why so recklessly generous? He had a +strong feeling that there was something behind it all, some motive +unrealized, some spur goading him, of which he, Bunny, might not approve +if he came to know of it. He wished he could fathom the matter. It was +unlike Saltash to take so much trouble over anything. He felt as if in +some inexplicable fashion he were being tricked. + +He put the thought from him, but he could not drive it away. Just as he +had felt himself baffled a little earlier by Toby, so now he felt the +same inability to comprehend Saltash. He seemed to be groping at a locked +door, feeling and feeling for a key, that always eluded him. And again he +wished that Jake was within reach. + +He turned homewards at length, dissatisfied and ill at ease, yet calling +himself a fool for scenting a mystery that did not exist. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +SUSPICION + + +The Graydown Stables were always a model of well-ordered efficiency, and +it had ever been Bunny's pride to show them to his friends. But he +awaited General Melrose and his daughter on the following afternoon in +a mood of some impatience. He had arrived early in the hope of finding +Toby at liberty, but his young _fiancee_ was nowhere to be found. She had +gone out riding, Maud said, immediately after luncheon, and he realized +with some disgust that he had forgotten to tell her on the previous day +of his coming. + +"She will be in to tea, dear," Maud said, and he was obliged to content +himself with the prospect of seeing her and acquainting her with +Saltash's energetic interest on their behalf after the visitors had gone. +He had never felt less in the mood for entertaining casual friends than +he felt on that sunny afternoon in September as he lounged in the wide +stable-yard and waited for them. He had always liked Sheila Melrose, they +had a good deal in common. But curiously enough it was that very fact +that made him strangely reluctant to meet her now. In some inexplicable +fashion, he found her simple directness disconcerting. Toby's words stuck +obstinately in his mind, refusing to be dislodged. "She likes you well +enough not to want you to marry me." He realized beyond question that +those words had not been without some significance. It might be just +instinct with her, as Toby had declared, but that Sheila regarded his +engagement as a mistake he was fairly convinced. That she herself had any +feeling for him beyond that of friendship he did not for a moment +imagine. Bunny had no vanity in that direction. There was too much of the +boy, too much of the frank comrade, in his disposition for that. They +were pals, and the idea of anything deeper than palship on either side +had never seriously crossed his mind. He was honest in all his ways, and +his love for Toby--that wild and wonderful flower of first love--filled +all his conscious thoughts to the exclusion of aught beside. The odd, +sweet beauty of her had him in thrall. She was so totally different from +everyone else he had ever encountered. He felt the lure of her more and +more with every meeting, the wonder and the charm. + +But Sheila did not want him to marry her, and a very natural feeling of +irritation against her possessed him in consequence. Doubtless Sheila had +a perfect right to her opinions, but she might keep them to herself. +Between Saltash's headlong resolve to help and Sheila's veiled desire to +hinder, he felt that his course was becoming too complicated, as if in +spite of his utmost efforts to guide his own craft there were contrary +currents at work that he was powerless to avoid. + +He had an urgent desire for Toby that afternoon, and he was inclined +somewhat unreasonably to resent her absence. But when at length the hoot +of the General's car warned him of his visitors' advent as they turned in +at the gate, he was suddenly conscious of a feeling of relief that he was +alone. Toby was not at her ease with them. She fancied they disapproved +of her, and whether the fancy were justified or not he was glad that she +was not there to meet them. He determined to get the business over as +quickly as possible. + +Sheila in her dainty summer attire was looking even prettier than usual, +and almost against his will Bunny noted the fact. Against his will also, +his barely-acknowledged feeling of resentment vanished before he had been +five minutes in her company. Sheila's charms went beyond mere prettiness. +She had the tact and ready ease of manner which experience of the world +alone can impart. She was sympathetic and quick of understanding. Without +flattering, she possessed the happy knack of setting those about her at +their ease. It was very rarely that she was roused to indignation; +perhaps only Saltash knew how deep her indignation could be. And he was +not the man to impart the knowledge to anyone else. + +So on that warm September afternoon in her gracious way she restored +Bunny's good humour and reinstated their friendship without effort, +without apparent consciousness of any strain upon it. They went through +the stables, and Bunny displayed his favourites with an enthusiasm of +which he had not believed himself capable a little earlier. The stud had +always been his great delight from boyhood, and both the General and his +daughter took a keen interest in all they saw. + +The time passed with astounding rapidity, and the chiming of the great +stable-clock awoke Bunny at length to the fact that the afternoon was +practically over. + +"Maud will think we are never going in to tea," he said, with a laugh, +turning back from the gate into the training field where they had been +inspecting some of the colts. "You'll come round to the house, won't you? +She is expecting you--said I was to be sure to bring you in." + +Sheila smiled and accepted the invitation. "We were hoping to see Mrs. +Bolton to say good-bye," she said. "Is Miss Larpent not here to-day?" + +"Yes, she's out riding," Bunny said. "She may be in any moment. It's a +pity Jake is away. He is expected back some time next week." + +"Yes, I'm sorry to have missed him," said the General. "Tell him that +I've enjoyed seeing the animals, and I think he has a very fine show! I +never could understand how Saltash could bring himself to part with the +stud." + +"He's so seldom at home," said Bunny. "Yachting is much more in his +line--though as a matter of fact he is at the Castle just now, came back +yesterday." + +"Is he indeed? Are you sure of that?" Sheila spoke with surprise. "I +thought he meant to be away much longer." + +"His intentions never last more than a couple of days," remarked the +General with a touch of acidity. "Nothing he does ever surprises me." + +"He's a very good chap," began Bunny. "He's been no end decent to me. +Why,--" he broke off suddenly--"Hullo! There he is! And--Toby!" + +Two figures had come suddenly round the corner of some stables, walking +side by side. Both were in riding-dress, but the day being hot, the girl +had discarded her long coat and was carrying it without ceremony over her +arm. Her silk shirt was open at the neck, her soft hat pushed jauntily +down on the side of her head. She was laughing as she came, and she +looked like a merry little cow-boy straight from the prairies. + +The man who moved beside her was laughing also. There was no grace about +him, only that strange unstudied kingliness that had earned for him the +title of "Rex." He was swift to see the advancing visitors and swept +the hat from his head with a royal gesture of greeting. + +Toby's face flushed deeply; she looked for the moment inclined to run +away. Then with an impulse half-defiant, she restrained herself and +caught back the smile that had so nearly vanished. She slapped the switch +against her gaitered leg with boyish swagger and advanced. + +A quick frown drew Bunny's forehead as he observed her attitude. He spoke +impetuously, almost before they met. + +"You look like a girl out of a comic opera. Why don't you put your coat +on?" + +Toby made a face at him. "Because it's cooler off. You can carry it if +you like." She threw it to him nonchalantly with the words, and turned +forthwith to Sheila. "Have you just been round the Stables? Grilling, +isn't it? I've been exercising one of the youngsters. He nearly pulled my +arms off. We've been practising some jumps." + +"Then you shouldn't," put in Bunny. "The ground's too hard for jumping." + +Toby turned upon him with a flash of temper. "No one asked for your +opinion. I know a safe jump when I see one. Are you coming in to tea, +Miss Melrose? I should think you're wanting it. Yes? What's the matter?" + +She flung the two questions in a different tone, sharply, as though +startled. Sheila was looking at her oddly, very intently, a species of +puzzled recognition in her eyes. + +Toby backed away from her, half-laughing, yet with something that was not +laughter on her face. "What can be the matter?" she said. "Is it--is it +my riding breeches? Here, Bunny! Let me have my coat!" She turned swiftly +with extended arms. "Quick! Before Miss Melrose faints! I've given her +the shock of her life." + +"No! No!" protested Sheila, recovering. "Don't be absurd! You reminded me +so vividly of someone, that's all. I don't quite know who even yet." + +Bunny helped Toby into the coat without a word. There was grim +displeasure on his face. The General and Saltash were talking together +and for the moment they three stood there alone. + +Toby turned round laughing. "How ridiculous you are!" she said to Bunny. +"You've seen me in this get-up heaps of times before--and will again. +Miss Melrose, I forgot you hadn't. I'm horribly sorry to have shocked +you. Shall we go in for tea now?" + +The puzzled look was still in Sheila's eyes though she smiled in answer. +"I am not shocked--of course," she said. "But--but--" + +"Yes?" said Toby. + +She spoke in the same brief, staccato note; the word was like a +challenge. Saltash turned suddenly round. + +"I have just been complimenting Miss Larpent on the excellence of her +get-up," he said lightly. "We met at the gate on the downs, and I have +been witnessing some very pretty horsemanship. Miss Melrose, I hear you +are leaving tomorrow, and am quite desolated in consequence. It is always +my luck to be left behind." + +The hard little smile that only he could ever provoke was on Sheila's +lips as she turned to him. + +"For such a rapid rider, you are indeed unfortunate," she said. + +He laughed with careless effrontery. "Yes, the devil usually takes the +hindmost,--so I've been told. Miss Larpent anyway is quite safe, for she +will always be an easy first." + +"There is such a thing as going too fast," commented Bunny. + +"There is such a thing as getting away altogether," flung back Toby with +spirit. + +Bunny's eyes flashed into sudden, ominous flame. He could not have said +why the contrast between the two girls--the one in her dainty summer +attire and the other in her boyish riding-kit--had such an effect upon +him, but for the moment it almost infuriated him. + +Toby saw it, and her own eyes lit in response. She stood waiting for his +rejoinder--the spirit of mischief incarnate, wary, alert, daring him. + +But Bunny did not speak in answer. He drew in a hard breath through teeth +that gripped his lower lip, and restrained himself. The next instant he +had turned away. + +"Oh, damn!" said Toby, and swung upon her heel. + +Saltash and the General walked beside her, rallying her. But Bunny and +Sheila came behind in silence. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE ALLY + + +They found Maud awaiting them in the long low room that overlooked her +favourite view of the down. Saltash entered as one who had the right, and +she greeted him with momentary surprise but evident pleasure. + +"I couldn't spend twenty-four hours at Burchester without calling upon +you," he said. + +"You know you are always welcome," she made answer, with the smile which +only her intimate friends ever saw. + +They sat down by one of the wide French windows and General Melrose began +to occupy his hostess's attention. Sheila took a chair that Bunny pushed +forward, and Saltash glanced round for Toby. She was sitting on the end +of a couch, playing with the silky ears of the old red setter. Her hat +was flung down beside her; her pretty face downcast. He crossed to her +deliberately and bent also to fondle the dog. + +She started slightly at his coming, and a faint flush rose in her cheeks; +but she neither glanced at him nor spoke. + +For the moment they were alone, unobserved by the laughing group at the +window. Saltash bent suddenly lower. His quick whisper came down to her: + +"Go and put on the most girlish thing you've got!" + +She looked up at him then, her blue eyes seeking his. A rapid flash of +understanding passed between them. Then, without a word she rose. + +When Maud looked round for her a few seconds later, Saltash was lounging +alone against the sofa-head pulling Chops absently by the ear while he +stared before him out of the window in a fit of abstraction that seemed +to her unusual. + +She called to him to join them at the tea-table, and he jerked himself to +his feet and came across to her with the monkeyish grin on his face that +she had learned long since to regard as the shield wherewith he masked +his soul. + +He sat down by her side, devoting himself to her with the gallantry that +always characterized him when with her. No one seemed to notice that Toby +had disappeared. They talked about the horses, about Jake and his recent +victories, about the season at Fairharbour, about the Melroses' plans for +the winter. + +When questioned by the General on this subject, Saltash declared airily +that he never made any. + +"If I do, I never stick to them, so what's the use?" he said. + +"How weak of you!" said Maud. + +And he threw her the old half-tender, half-audacious look, and tossed the +subject banteringly away. + +He was the first to make a move when the careless meal was over, but not +to go. He sauntered forth and lounged against the door-post smoking, +while Bunny and Sheila talked of tennis and golf, and Maud listened with +well-disguised patience to the old General's oft-repeated French +reminiscences. + +And then when the tea was cold and forgotten and Sheila was beginning to +awake to the fact that it was growing late, there came a sudden, ringing +laugh across the lawn and Toby scampered into view with little Molly +on her shoulder and Eileen running by her side. She was dressed in white, +and she looked no more than a child herself as she danced across the +grass, executing a fairy-like step as she came. The tiny girl's tinkling +laughter mingled with hers. Her little hands were fondly clasped about +the girl's neck; she looked down into her face with babyish adoration +while Eileen, the elder child, gazed upward with a more serious devotion. + +General Melrose interrupted his narrative to look at the advancing trio. +"My Jove, Mrs. Bolton," he said, "but that's a pretty sight!" + +Sheila also ceased very suddenly to converse with Bunny, while Saltash +made a scarcely perceptible movement as though he braced and restrained +himself in the same instant. + +"The prettiest picture I've seen for years!" vowed the General. "How that +little Larpent girl changes! She is like a piece of quicksilver. There's +no getting hold of her. How old is she?" + +"She is nearly twenty," said Bunny with the swiftness of ownership. + +"Nearly twenty! You don't say so! She might be fourteen at the present +moment. Look at that! Look at it!" For Toby was suddenly whizzing like a +butterfly across the lawn in a giddy flight that seemed scarcely to +touch the ground, the little girl still upon her shoulder, the elder +child standing apart and clapping her hands in delighted admiration. + +"Yes, she is rather like fourteen," Maud said, with her tender smile. "Do +you know what she did the other day? It was madness of course, and my +husband was very angry with her. I was frightened myself though I have +more faith in her than he has. She climbs like a cat, you know, and she +actually took both those children up to a high bough of the old beech +tree; I don't know in the least how she did it. None of the party seemed +to think there was any cause for alarm till Jake came on the scene. He +fetched them down with a ladder--all but Toby who went higher and pelted +him with beech nuts till he retreated--at my urgent request." + +"And what happened after that?" questioned Saltash, with his eyes still +upon the dancing figure. "From what I have observed of Jake, I should say +that an ignominious retreat is by no means in his line." + +Maud laughed a little. "Oh, Jake can be generous when he likes. He had it +out with her of course, but he wasn't too severe. Ah, look! She is going +to jump the sun dial!" + +Sheila turned to her. "Surely you are nervous! If she fell, the little +one might be terribly hurt." + +"She won't fall," Maud said with confidence. + +And even as she spoke, Toby leapt the sun dial, leaving the ground as a +bird leaves it, without effort or any sort of strain, and alighting again +as a bird alights from a curving flight with absolute freedom and a +natural adroitness of movement indescribably pleasant to watch. + +"A very pretty circus trick!" declared the General, and even Bunny's +clouded brow cleared a little though he said nothing. + +"A circus trick indeed!" said Sheila, as if speaking to herself. "How on +earth did she do it?" + +"She is like a boy in many ways," said Maud. + +Sheila looked at her. "Yes. She is just like a boy, or at least--" Her +look went further, reached Saltash who lounged on Maud's other side, and +fell abruptly away. + +As Toby came up with the two children, all of them flushed and laughing, +Toby herself in her white frock looking like a child just out of school, +she rose and turned to Bunny. + +"We ought to go now," she said. "I am going to fetch the car round for +Dad." + +"I'll do it," he said. + +But she went with him as he had known she would. They left the group at +the window and moved away side by side in silence as they had walked that +afternoon. + +Saltash stood up and addressed Maud. "I'm going too. Bunny is dining with +me tonight. I suppose you won't come?" + +She gave him her hand, smiling. "I can't thank you. Ask me another day! +You and Bunny will really get on much better without me." + +"Impossible!" he declared gallantly, but he did not press her. + +He turned to the General and took his leave. + +Toby and the two children walked the length of the terrace with him, all +chattering at once. She seemed to be in a daring, madcap mood and Saltash +laughed and jested with her as though she had been indeed the child she +looked. Only at parting, when she would have danced away, he suddenly +stopped her with a word. + +"Nonette!" + +She stood still as if at a word of command; there had been something of +compulsion in his tone. + +He did not look at her, and the smile he wore was wholly alien to the +words he spoke. + +"Be careful how you go! And don't see Bunny again--till I have seen him!" + +A hard breath went through Toby. She stood like a statue, the two +children clasping her hands. Her blue eyes gazed at him with a wide +questioning. Her face was white. + +"Why? Why?" she whispered at length. + +His look flashed before her vision like the grim play of a sword. "That +girl remembers you. She will give you away. She's probably at it now. +I'll see him--tell him the truth if necessary. Anyhow--leave him to me!" + +"Tell him--the truth?" The words came from her like a cry. There was a +sudden terror in her eyes. He made a swift gesture of dismissal. "Go, +child! Go! Whatever I do will make it all right for you. I'm standing +by. Don't be afraid! Just--go!" + +It was a definite command. She turned to obey, the little girls still +clinging to her. The next moment she was running lightly back with them, +and Saltash turned in the opposite direction and passed out of sight +round the corner of the house on his way to the stable-yard. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE TRUTH + + +He went with careless tread as his fashion was, whistling the gay air to +which all England was dancing that season. His swarthy countenance wore +the half-mischievous, half-amused expression with which it was his custom +to confront--and baffle--the world at large. No one knew what lay behind +that facile mask. Only the very few suspected that it hid aught beyond a +genial wickedness of a curiously attractive type. + +His spurs rang upon the white stones, and Sheila Melrose, standing beside +her father's car in the shadow of some buildings, turned sharply and saw +him. Her face was pale; it had a strained expression. But it changed at +sight of him. She regarded him with that look of frozen scorn which once +she had flung him when they had met in the garish crowd at Valrosa. + +Bunny was stooping over the car, but he became aware of Saltash almost in +the same moment, and stood up straight to face him. Sheila was pale, but +he was perfectly white, and there were heavy drops of perspiration on his +forehead. He looked full at Saltash with eyes of blazing accusation. + +Saltash's face never changed as he came up to the car. He ceased to +whistle, but the old whimsical look remained. He seemed unaware of any +tension. + +"Car all right?" he asked smoothly. "Can I lend a hand? The general is +beginning to move." + +Sheila turned without a word and got into the car. + +Bunny neither moved nor spoke. He stood like a man paralysed. It was +Saltash who, with that royal air of amusing himself, stooped to the +handle and started the engine. + +The girl at the wheel did not even thank him. She looked beyond. Only as +he stood aside and the car slid forward, she turned stiffly to Bunny. + +"Good-bye!" she said. + +He made a jerky movement. Their eyes met for a single second. "You will +write?" he said. + +His throat was working spasmodically, the words seemed to come with +gigantic effort. She bent her head in answer and passed between them +through the white gate into the drive that led round to the house. + +Saltash turned with a lightning movement to Bunny. "Walk back with me and +we can talk!" he said. + +Bunny drew sharply back. The movement was one of instinctive recoil. But +still no words came. He stood staring at Saltash, and he was trembling +from head to foot. + +"Don't be an ass now!" Saltash said, and his voice was oddly gentle, even +compassionate. "You've stumbled on a mare's nest. It's all right. I can +explain." + +Bunny controlled himself with a jerk. His face was like death, but he +found his voice. "You can keep your damned lies to yourself," he said. +"I've no use for them." + +The prod of a riding-switch against his shoulder made him start as a +spirited animal starts at the touch of a spur. But Saltash only laughed. + +"You'll fight me for that!" he said. + +"I wouldn't touch you!" flung back Bunny. + +"Oh, wouldn't you?" The odd eyes mocked him openly. "Then you withdraw +the insult--with apologies?" + +"Apologise--to you!" said Bunny. + +"Or fight!" said Saltash. "I think that would do you more good than the +other, but you shall decide." + +"I will do neither," said Bunny, and turned his back with the words. +"I've--done with you." + +"You're wrong!" said Saltash. "You've got to face it, and you won't get +the truth from anyone but me. That girl knows nothing, Bunny!" His voice +was suddenly curt, with that in it which very few ever heard. "Turn +around! Do you hear? Turn round--damn you! I'll kick you if you don't!" + +Bunny turned. It was inevitable. They stood face to face. Then Saltash, +the mockery gone from his eyes, reached out abruptly and gripped him +by the arm. His touch was electric. For that moment--only for that +moment--he was dangerous. There was something of the spring of a tiger in +his action. + +"You damn fool!" he said, and he spoke between his teeth. "Do you suppose +even I would play such a blackguard's game as that?" + +"Let me go!" Bunny said through white lips. "Facts are facts." + +Saltash's hold did not slacken. "Where's Jake?" he said. + +"Jake's away." + +"Confound him! Just when he's wanted!" The ferocity died out of Saltash +like the glow from cinders blown from a furnace. "Well, listen! I swear +to you by all that is sacred that you're making a mistake. Sheila has +told you a certain thing that is true, so far as it goes. But you've let +your imagination run away with you. The rest is false." + +He spoke with an emphasis that carried weight, and Bunny was moved in +spite of himself. His own fire died down. + +Saltash saw his advantage and pressed it. "If Jake were here, he'd tell +you I was speaking the truth, and you'd believe him. You're on a wrong +scent. So far as I'm concerned, you're welcome to follow it to blazes. +I'm used to pleasantries of that sort from my friends. But I'm damned if +I'll let that child be tripped for nothing. Do you hear, Bunny?" He shook +the arm he gripped impatiently. "I'll see you in hell first!" + +Bunny's mouth twisted with a painful effort to smile. "I'm in hell now," +he said. + +"Why the devil did you listen?" said Saltash. "Look here! We've got to +have this thing out. Send a man along with my horse and walk across the +park with me!" + +He had gained his point by sheer insistence, and he knew it. Bunny knew +it also and cursed himself for a weak fool as he moved to comply. With +Saltash's blade through his heart, he yet could somehow find it possible +to endure him. + +He went with him in silence, hating the magnetism he found it impossible +to resist. They passed through the shrubberies that skirted the house, +and so to the open down. + +Then in his sudden fashion, crudely and vehemently, Saltash began his +defence. + +"It's not my way," he said, "to give an answer to any man who questions; +but you haven't stooped to question. So I tell you the truth. Sheila saw +Toby working as a page at the Casino Hotel at Valrosa. That right? I +thought so. It's the whole matter in a nutshell. I must have seen her +too, but never noticed her till my last night in the place. Then I found +Antonio hammering the poor little beggar out in the garden, and I stopped +it. You'd have done the same. Afterwards, late that night, I went on +board the yacht and found her down in the saloon--a stowaway. The yacht +had started. I could have put back. I didn't. You wouldn't have done +either. She took refuge with me. I sheltered her. She came to me as a +boy. I treated her as such." + +"You knew?" flung in Bunny. + +Saltash's grin flashed across his dark features like a meteor through a +cloudy sky and was gone. "I--suspected, _mon ami_. But--I did not even +tell myself." That part of him that was French--a species of volatile +sentimentality--sounded in the words like the echo of a laugh in a minor +key. "I made a valet of her. I suffered her to clean my boots and brush +my clothes. I kept her in order--with this--upon occasion." + +He held up the switch he carried. + +"I don't believe it," said Bunny bluntly. + +Saltash's shoulders went up. "You please yourself, _mon cher_. I am +telling you the truth. I treated her like a puppy. I was kind to her, but +never extravagantly kind. But I decided--eventually I decided--that it +was time to turn home. No game can last forever. So we returned, and on +our last night at sea we were rammed and sunk. Naturally that spoilt--or +shall I say somewhat precipitated?--my plans. We were saved, the two +of us together. And then was started that scandalous report of the woman +on the yacht." Again the laughter sounded in his voice. "You see, _mon +ami_, how small a spark can start a conflagration. In self-defence I had +to invent something, and I invented it quickly. I said she was Larpent's +daughter. I wonder if you would have thought of that. You'd have done it +if you had, I'll wager." + +He turned upon the boy who strode in silence by his side with a gleam of +triumph in his eyes, but there was no answering gleam in Bunny's. He +moved heavily, staring straight before him, his face drawn in hard lines +of misery. + +"Well," Saltash said, "that's all I have done. You now know the truth, +simple and unadorned, as Sheila Melrose in her simplicity does not know +it and probably would not comprehend it if she did." + +"Leave her out of it!" said Bunny, in a strangled voice. "It was--the +obvious conclusion." + +"Oh, the obvious!" Cynicism undisguised caught up the word. "Only the +young and innocent can ever really say with any conviction what is the +obvious way of blackguards. You don't know it--neither do I. A single +decent impulse on the part of a blackguard can upset all the calculations +of the virtuous. Oh, Bunny, you fool, what do you want to wreck things +for at this stage? Can't you see you've got a gift from the gods? Take +it, man, and be thankful that you're considered worthy of it!" + +Bunny made a sharp movement of protest. Saltash was looking at him with +half-humorous compassion as one looks at a child with a damaged toy, and +he was keenly conscious of being at a disadvantage. But though checked, +he was not defeated. Saltash had made out a case for himself. He had in a +measure vindicated Toby. But that was not the end of the matter. + +He stopped and faced him. "Why were you so anxious for me to marry her?" +he said. "I've got to know that." + +He was instantly aware that Saltash eluded him, even though he seemed to +meet his look as he made reply. "You are quite welcome to know it, _mon +ami_. I chance to take a fatherly interest in you both." + +Bunny flinched a little. Something in the light reply had pierced him +though he could not have said how. "That's all?" he asked rather thickly. + +"That is quite all," said Saltash, and faintly smiled--the smile of the +practised swordsman behind the blade. + +Bunny stood for some moments regarding him, his boyish face stern and +troubled. Up to that point, against his will, he had believed him; from +it, he believed him no longer. But--he faced the truth however it might +gall him--he was pitted against a skilled fencer, and he was powerless. +Experience could baffle him at every turn. + +"Do you tell me you have never realized that she cared for you?" he +blurted forth abruptly, and there was something akin to agony in his +utterance of the words. He knew that he was baring his breast for the +stroke as he forced them out. + +But Saltash did not strike. Just for an instant he showed surprise. +Then--quite suddenly he lowered his weapon. He faced Bunny with a smile +of comradeship. + +"Quite honestly, Bunny," he said, "if I had realized it, it wouldn't have +made any difference. I have no use for sentimental devotion at my age. +She has never been more to me than--a puppy that plays with your hand." + +"Ah," Bunny said, and swung away from him with the words. "I suppose that +is how you treat them all. Women and dogs--they're very much alike." + +"Not in every respect," said Saltash. "I should say that Toby is an +exception anyway. She knows play from earnest." + +"Does she?" said Bunny. He paused a moment, as if trying to concentrate +his forces; then he turned to Saltash again. "I'm going back now. I can't +dine with you--though I've no desire to quarrel. But you see--you must +understand--that I can never--accept anything from you again. I'm +sorry--but I can't." + +"What are you going to do?" said Saltash. + +Bunny hesitated, his boyish face a white mask of misery. + +Saltash reached out a second time and touched him lightly, almost +caressingly, with the point of his switch. "What's the matter with you, +Bunny?" he said. "Think I've lied to you?" + +Bunny met his look. "I don't want to quarrel with you," he said. "It +isn't--somehow it isn't--worth it." + +"Thanks!" said Saltash, and briefly laughed. "You place my friendship at +a pretty high figure then. Tell me what you're going to do!" + +"What is it to you what I do?" A quick gleam shone for an instant in +Bunny's eyes, dispelling the look of stricken misery. "I'm not asking you +to help me." + +"I've grasped that," said Saltash. "But even so, I may be able to lend a +hand. As you say, there is not much point in our quarrelling. There's +nothing to quarrel about that I can see--except that you've called me a +liar for no particular good reason!" + +"Do you object to that?" said Bunny. + +Saltash made a careless gesture. "Perhaps---as you say--it isn't worth +it. All the same, I've a certain right to know what you propose to do, +since, I gather, I have not managed to satisfy you." + +"A right!" flashed Bunny. + +"Yes, a right." Saltash's voice was suddenly and suavely confident. "You +may forget--or possibly you may remember--that I gave my protection to +Nonette on the day she came to me for it, and I have never withdrawn +it since. What matters to her--matters to me." + +"I see." Bunny stood stiffly facing him. "I am responsible to you, am I?" + +"That is what I am trying to convey," said Saltash. + +The fire in Bunny's eyes leapt high for a moment or two, then died down +again. Had Jake been his opponent, he would have flung an open challenge, +but somehow Saltash, with whom he had never before striven in his life, +was less easy to resist. In some subtle fashion he seemed able to evade +resistance and yet to gain his point. + +He gained his point on this occasion. Almost before he knew it, Bunny had +yielded. + +"I am going to her," he said, "to ask her for the whole truth--about her +past." + +"Is any woman capable of telling the truth to that extent?" questioned +Saltash. + +"I shall know if she doesn't," said Bunny doggedly. + +"And will that help?" The note of mockery that was never long absent from +his voice sounded again. "Isn't it possible--sometime--to try to know too +much? There is such a thing as looking too closely, _mon ami_. And then +we pay the price." + +"Do you imagine I could ever be satisfied not knowing?" said Bunny. + +Saltash shrugged his shoulders. "I merely suggested that you are going +the wrong way to satisfy yourself. But that is your affair, not mine. The +gods have sent you a gift, and because you don't know what it is made +of, you are going to pull it to pieces to find out. And presently you +will fling it away because you cannot fit it together again. You don't +realize--you never will realize--that the best things in life are the +things we never see and only dimly understand." + +A vein of sincerity mingled with the banter in his voice, and Bunny was +aware of a curious quality of reverence, of something sacred in a waste +place. + +It affected him oddly. Convinced though he was that in one point at least +Saltash had sought to deceive him it yet influenced him very strongly in +Saltash's favour. Against his judgment, against his will even, he saw him +as a friend. + +"Do you mean to tell me," he said, speaking slowly, his eyes upon the +swarthy, baffling countenance, "that you have never even tried to know +where she came from--what she is?" + +Saltash made a quick gesture as of remonstrance. "_Mon ami_, the last I +have always known. The first I have never needed to know." + +"Then," Bunny spoke with difficulty, but his look never wavered, "tell +me--as before God--tell me what you believe her to be!" + +"What I know her to be," corrected Saltash, "I will tell you--certainly. +She is a child who has looked into hell, but she is still--a child." + +"What do you mean?" questioned Bunny. + +Saltash's eyes, one black, one grey, suddenly flashed a direct challenge +into his own. "I mean," he said, "that the flame has scorched her, but it +has never actually touched her." + +"You know that?" Bunny's voice was hoarse. There was torture in his eyes. +"Man--for God's sake--the truth!" + +"It is the truth," Saltash said. + +"How do you know it? You've no proof. How can you be sure?" He could not +help the anguish of his voice. The words fell harsh and strained. + +"How do I know it?" Saltash echoed the words sharply. "What proof? Bunny, +you fool, do you know so little of the world--of women--as that? What +proof do you need? Just--look into her eyes!" + +A queer note of passion sounded in his own voice, and it told Bunny very +clearly that he was grappling with the naked truth at last. It arrested +him in a moment. He suddenly found that he could go no further. There +was no need. + +Impulsively, with an inarticulate word of apology, he thrust out his +hand. Saltash's came to meet it in a swift, hard grip. + +"Enough?" he asked, with that odd, smiling grimace of his that revealed +so little. + +And, "Yes, enough!" Bunny said, looking him straight in the face. + +They parted almost without words a few minutes later. There was no more +to be said. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE LAST CARD + + +Saltash dined alone that night. He was in a restless mood and +preoccupied, scarcely noticing what was put before him, pushing away the +wine untasted. In the end he rose from the table almost with a gesture of +disgust. + +"I'm going to smoke on the ramparts," he said to the decorous butler who +waited upon him. "If anyone should call to see me, let them wait in the +music-room!" + +"Very good, my lord! And where would you like to take coffee?" enquired +the man sedately. + +Saltash laughed. "Not on the ramparts--emphatically. I'll have mercy on +you to that extent. Put it on the spirit-lamp in the music-room, and +leave it! You needn't sit up, any of you. I'll put out the lights." + +"Very good, my lord." + +The man withdrew, and Saltash chose a cigar. An odd grimace drew his +features as he lighted it. He had the look of a man who surveys his last +card and knows himself a loser. Though he went out of the room and up +the great staircase to the music-room with his head up and complete +indifference in his carriage, his eyelids were slightly drawn. He did not +look as if he had enjoyed the game. + +A single red lamp lighted the music-room, and the long apartment looked +dim and ghostly. He stood for a moment as he entered it and looked round, +then with a scarcely perceptible lift of the shoulders he passed straight +through to the curtain that hung before the door leading to the turret. +The darkness of the place gaped before him, and he turned back with a +muttered word and recrossed the room. There were Persian rugs upon the +floor, and his feet made no sound. He went to the mantel-piece and, +feeling along it, found a small electric torch. The light of it flared +before him as he returned. The door yielded to his touch and swung shut +behind him. He passed into vault-like silence. + +The stone steps gave back the sound of his tread as he mounted, with +eerie, wandering echoes. The grey walls glimmered with a ghostly +desolation around him. Halfway up, he stopped to flick the ash from his +cigar, and laughed aloud. But the echoes of his laughter sounded like +voices crying in the darkness. He went on more swiftly, like a phantom +imprisoned and seeking escape. The echoes met him and fell away behind +him. The loneliness was like a curse. The very air felt dead. + +He reached the top of the turret at last, and the heavy door that gave +upon the ramparts. With a sound that was almost a gasp, he pushed it +open, and passed out into the open air. + +A full moon was shining, and his acres lay below him--a wonderful picture +in black and silver. He came to the first gap in the battlements, mounted +the parapet, and stood there with a hand resting on each side. + +The wash of the sea came murmurously through the September silence. +His restless eyes flashed hither and thither over the quiet scene, taking +in every detail, lingering nowhere. The pine trees stirred in the +distance below him, seeming to whisper together, and an owl hooted with a +weird persistence down by the lake. It was like the calling of a human +voice--almost like a cry of distress. Then it ceased, and the trees were +still again. + +The spell of the silence fell like the falling of a curtain. The +loneliness crept about his heart. + +He took the cigar from his mouth and spoke, ironically, grimly. + +"There is your kingdom, Charles Rex!" he said. + +He turned with the words and leaped down upon the narrow walk between the +battlements. The owl began to call again, but the desolation remained. He +paced forward with his hands behind him, his head bent. No one could see +him here. The garment of mockery could be flung aside. He was like a +prisoner tramping the stone walls from which he could never escape. + +He paused once to toss away his cigar, but he did not look out again over +the fair prospect of his lands. He was looking at other things, seeing +the vast emptiness of a life that had never been worth while stretching +behind and before him. Like a solitary traveller pausing in the heart of +the desert, he stood to view the barrenness around him. + +He had travelled far, had pursued many a quest with ardour; but the +ardour had all gone out of him now. Only the empty solitude remained. He +had lived a life of fevered variety, he had drunk deep of many waters; +but he had never been satisfied. And now it seemed to him that all he had +ever looked upon, all he had ever achieved, was mirage. Nothing of all +that he had ever striven for was left. The fruit had turned to ashes in +his mouth, and no spring remained whereat to quench his thirst. + +Perhaps few men have ever realized the utter waste of wickedness as +Charles Rex realized it that night. He met it whichever way he turned. To +gratify the moment's whim had ever been his easy habit. If a generous +impulse had moved him, he had gratified that also. But it had never been +his way to sacrifice himself--until a certain night when a child had come +to him, wide-eyed and palpitating like a driven bird, and had sought +shelter and protection at his hands. + +That, very curiously, had been the beginning of a new era in his life. It +had appealed to him as nothing had ever appealed before. He had never +tasted--or even desired--the Dead Sea fruit again. Something had entered +his being on that night which he had never been able to cast out, and all +other things had been dwarfed to insignificance. + +He faced the fact as he paced his castle walls. The relish had gone out +of his life. He was gathering what he had sown, and the harvest was +barren indeed. + +Time passed; he walked unheeding. If he spent the whole night on the +ramparts, there was no one to know or care. It was better than tossing +sleepless under a roof. He felt as if a roof would suffocate him. But +sheer physical weariness began to oppress even his elastic frame at last. +He awoke to the fact that he was dead tired. + +He sat down in an embrasure between the battlements, and drifted into the +numb state between waking and sleeping in which visions are born. For a +space nothing happened, then quite suddenly, rising as it were out of +a void, a presence entered his consciousness, reached and touched his +spirit. Intangibly, but quite unmistakably, he was aware of the summons, +of a voice that spoke within his soul. + +He lifted his head and looked about him. Emptiness, stark emptiness, was +all he saw. Yet, in a moment, as though a hand had beckoned, he arose. +Without a backward glance he traversed the distance that lay between +him and the turret-door. He went through it into utter darkness, and in +utter darkness began the descent. + +A shaft of moonlight smote through a slit in the stone wall as he rounded +the corner of the stair. It lay like a shining sword across his path, and +for a second he paused. Then he passed over it, sure-footed and +confident, and plunged again into darkness. When he reached the end of +the descent, he was breathing heavily, and his eyes were alight with a +strange fire. He pulled upon the door and put aside the thick curtain +with the swift movements of a man who can brook no delay. He passed into +the long, dim room beyond with its single red lamp burning at the far +end. He prepared to pass on to the door that led out upon the gallery and +so to the grand staircase. But before he had gone half-a-dozen paces he +stopped. It was no sound that arrested, no visible circumstance of any +sort. Yet, as if at a word of command, he halted. His quick look swept +around the room like the gleam of a rapier, and suddenly he swung upon +his heel, facing that still, red light. + +Seconds passed before he moved again. Then swiftly and silently he walked +up the room. Close to the lamp was a deep settee on which the spots of a +leopard skin showed in weird relief. At one end of the settee, against +the leopard skin, something gold was shining. Saltash's look was fixed +upon it as he drew near. + +He reached the settee treading noiselessly. He stood beside it, looking +down. And over his dark face with its weary lines and cynical mouth, its +melancholy and its bitterness, there came a light such as neither man nor +woman had ever seen upon it before. For there before him, curled up like +a tired puppy, her tumbled, golden hair lying in ringlets over the +leopard skin, was Toby, asleep in the dim, red lamplight. + +For minutes he stood and gazed upon her before she awoke. For minutes +that strange glory came and went over his watching face. He did not stir, +did not seem even to breathe. But the fact of his presence must have +pierced her consciousness at last, for in the end quite quietly, +supremely naturally, the blue eyes opened and fixed upon him. + +"Hullo!" said Toby sleepily. "Time to get up?" + +And then, in a moment, she had sprung upright on the couch, swift dismay +on her face. + +"I--I thought we were on the yacht! I--I--I never meant to go to sleep +here! I came to speak to you, sir. I wanted to see you." + +He put a restraining hand upon her thin young shoulder, and his touch +vibrated as with some unknown force controlled. + +"All right, Nonette!" he said, and his voice had the same quality; it was +reassuring but oddly unsteady. "Sorry I kept you waiting." + +She looked at him. Her face was quivering. "I've had--a hell of a time," +she said pathetically. "Been here hours--thought you'd never come. Your +man--your man said I wasn't to disturb you." + +"Damn the fool!" said Saltash. + +She broke into a breathless laugh. "That's--that's just what I said. But +I thought--I thought perhaps--you'd rather--rather I waited." She +shivered suddenly. "I don't like this place. Can you take me somewhere +else?" + +He bent lower, put his hand under her elbow and helped her to her +feet. She came up from the couch with a spring, and stood before him, +half-daring and half-shy. + +Saltash kept his hold upon her arm, and turned her towards the wall +beside the tall mantel-piece. She went with him readily enough, watching, +eager-eyed, as he stretched his free hand up to the oak panelling. + +"Now I'm going to find out all your secrets!" she said boyishly. + +"Not quite all," said Saltash. + +There came the click of a spring and the panel slid to one side, leaving +a long, narrow opening before them. Toby glanced up at him and, with a +small, nestling movement, slipped within the circle of his arm. It +tightened upon her in an instant, and she laughed again, a quivering, +exultant laugh. + +"I'm glad you've come," she said. + +They paused on the edge of darkness, but there was no hesitation about +Toby. She was all athrill with expectancy. Then in a flash the room +before them was illuminated, and they entered. + +It was a strange chamber, panelled, built in the shape of a cone. A glass +dome formed its roof, and there was no window besides. The lights were +cunningly concealed behind a weirdly coloured fresco of Oriental figures. +But one lamp alone on a small table burned with a still red glow. This +lamp was supported on the stuffed skin of a hooded cobra. + +Toby's eyes were instantly drawn towards it. They shone with excitement. +Again she glanced up at the man beside her. + +"What a wonderful place!" + +"Better than the music-room?" suggested Saltash. + +"Oh, yes, far better." Her shining eyes sought his. "It might be your +cabin on the yacht." + +He stretched a hand behind him and again the spring clicked. Then he drew +her forward. They trod on tiger skins. Everywhere were tiger skins, on +the floor and on a deep low settee by the table which was the only other +furniture the room possessed. Toby was clinging to the arm that held her, +clinging very closely. There was unspoken entreaty in her hold. For there +was something about Saltash at the moment, something unfamiliar and +unfathomable that frightened her. His careless drollery, his two-edged +ironies, were nought to her; but his silence was a barrier unknown that +she could not pass. She could only cling voicelessly to the support he +had not denied her. + +He brought her to the settee and stood still. His face was strangely +grim. + +"Well--Toby?" he said. + +She twisted in his hold and faced him, but she kept his arm wound close +about her, her hand tight gripped on his. "Are you--angry with me for +coming?" she asked him quiveringly. "I--had to come." + +He looked down into her eyes. "_Bien, petite!_ Then you need--a friend," +he said. + +Her answering look was piteous. "I need--you," she said. + +One of the old gay smiles flashed across his face. He seemed to challenge +her to lightness. The grimness went out of his eyes like a shadow. + +"And so you have come, _ma mignonette_, at the dead of night--at the risk +of your reputation--and mine--" + +Toby made an excruciating grimace, and broke impulsively in upon him. "It +wasn't the dead of night when I started. I've been waiting hours--hours. +But it doesn't matter. I've found you--at last. And you can't send me +away now--like you did before--because--because--well, I've no one to go +to. You might have done it if you'd come down earlier. But you can't do +it--now." Her voice thrilled on a high note of triumph. "You've got to +keep me--now. I've come--to stay." + +"What?" said Saltash. He bent towards her, looking closely into her face. +"Got to keep you, have I? What's that mean? Has Bunny been a brute to +you? I could have sworn I'd made him understand." + +She laughed in answer. "Bunny! I didn't wait to see him!" + +"What?" Saltash said again. + +She reached up a quick, nervous hand and laid it against his breast. Her +eyes, wide and steadfast, never flinched from his. "I've come--to stay," +she repeated. And then, after a moment, "It's all right. I left a note +behind for Bunny. I told him I wasn't going back." + +He caught her hand tightly into his. His hold was drawing her, and she +yielded herself to it still with that quivering laughter that was somehow +more eloquent than words, more piteous than tears. + +Saltash spoke, below his breath. "What am I going to do with you?" he +said. + +Her arms reached up to him suddenly. Perhaps it was that for which she +had waited. "You're going--to keep me--this time," she told him +tremulously. "Oh, why did you ever send me away--when I belonged to +you--and to no one else? You meant to give me my chance? What chance have +I of anything but hell and damnation away from you? No, listen! Let me +speak! Hear me first!" She uttered the words with passionate insistence. +"I'm not asking anything of you--only to be with you. I'll be to you +whatever you choose me to be--always--always. I will be your valet, your +slave, your--plaything. I will be--the dust under your feet. But I must +be with you. You understand me. No one else does. No one else ever can." + +"Are you sure you understand yourself?" Saltash said. + +His arms had closed about her. He was holding her in a vital clasp. But +his restless look did not dwell upon her. It seemed rather to be seeking +something beyond. + +Toby's hands met and gripped each other behind his neck. She clung to him +with an almost frenzied closeness. + +"You can't send me away!" she told him brokenly. "If you do, I shall die. +And I'm asking such a little--such a very little." + +"You don't know what you're asking, child," he said, and though he held +her fast pressed to him his voice had the sombre ring of a man who +battles with misgiving. "You have never known. That's the hell of it." + +"I do know!" she flung back almost fiercely. "I know--all I need to +know--of most things. I know--very well--" her breath came quickly, but +still her eyes remained upraised--"what would have happened--what was +bound to happen--if the yacht had never gone down. I wasn't afraid then. +I'm not now. You're the only man on this earth that I'd say it to. I hate +men--most men! But to you--to you--" a sudden sob caught her voice, she +paused to steady it--"to you I just want to be whatever you're needing +most in life. And when I can't be that to you any longer--I'll just drop +out--as I promised--and you--you shall never know a thing about it. +That I swear." + +His look came swiftly to her. The blue eyes were swimming in tears. He +made a sudden gesture as of capitulation, and the strain went out of his +look. His arms tightened like springs about her. He spoke lightly, +jestingly. + +"_Bien!_ Shall I tell what you shall be to me, _mignonne_?" he said, and +smiled down at her with his royal air of confidence. + +She trembled a little and was silent, realizing that he had suddenly +leapt to a decision, fearing desperately what that decision might be. His +old baffling mask of banter had wholly replaced the sombreness, but she +was aware of a force behind it that gripped her irresistibly. She could +not speak in answer. + +"I will tell you," he said, and his dark, face laughed into hers with a +merriment half-mischievous, half-kindly. "I am treading the path of +virtue, _mignonne_, and uncommon lonely I'm finding it. You shall relieve +the monotony. We will be virtuous together--for a while. You shall be--my +wife!" + +He stooped with the words and ere she knew it his lips were on her own. +But his kiss, though tender, was as baffling as his smile. It was not the +kiss of a lover. + +She gasped and shrank away. "Your--wife! You--you--you're joking! How +could I--I--be your wife?" + +"You and none other!" he declared gaily. "Egad, it's the very thing for +us! Why did I never think of it before? I will order the state-coach at +once. We will go to town--elope and be married before the world begins +to buzz. What are you frightened at, sweetheart? Why this alarm? Wouldn't +you rather be my wife than--the dust beneath my feet?" + +"I--I don't know," faltered Toby, and hid her face from the dancing +raillery in his eyes. + +His hold was close and sheltering, but he laughed at her without mercy. +"Does the prospect make you giddy? You will soon get over that. You will +take the world by storm, _mignonne_. You will be the talk of the town." + +"Oh, no!" breathed Toby. "No, I couldn't!" + +"What?" he jested. "You are going to refuse my suit?" + +She turned and clung to him with a passionate, even fierce intensity, but +she did not lift her face again to his. Her voice came muffled against +his breast. "I could never refuse you--anything." + +"_Eh, bien!_ Then all is well!" he declared. "My bride will hold her own +wherever she goes, save with her husband. And to him she will yield her +wifely submission at all times. Do you know what they will say--all of +them--when they hear that Charles Rex is married at last?" + +"What?" whispered Toby apprehensively. + +He bent his head, still laughing. "Shall I tell you? Can't you guess?" + +"No. Tell me!" she said. + +He touched the soft ringlets of her hair with his lips. "They will say, +'God help his wife!' _mignonne_. And I--I shall answer 'Amen'." + +She lifted her face suddenly and defiantly, her eyes afire. "Do you know +what I shall say if they do?" she said. + +"What?" said Saltash, his own eyes gleaming oddly. + +"I shall tell them," said Toby tensely, "to--to--to go to blazes!" + +He grimaced his appreciation. "Then they will begin to pity the husband, +_cherie_." + +She held up her lips to his, childishly, lovingly. "I will be good," she +said. "I will be good. I will never say such things again." + +He kissed the trembling lips again, lightly, caressingly. "Oh, don't be +too good!" he said. "I couldn't live up to it. You shall say what you +like--do what you like. And--you shall be my queen!" + +She caught back another sob. Her clinging arms tightened. "And you will +be--what you have always been," she said--"my king--my king--my king!" + +In the silence that followed the passionate words, Charles Rex very +gently loosened the clinging arms, and set her free. + + + + +PART IV + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE WINNING POST + + +"I never thought it would be like this," said Toby. + +She spoke aloud, though she was alone. She stood at an immense window on +the first floor of a busy Paris hotel and stared down into the teeming +courtyard below. Her fair face wore a whimsical expression that was half +of amusement and half of discontent. She looked absurdly young, almost +childish; but her blue eyes were unmistakably wistful. + +Below her seethed a crowd of vehicles of every description and the babel +that came up to her was as the roar of a great torrent. It seemed to +sweep away all coherent thought, for she smiled as she gazed downwards +and her look held interest in the busy scene even though the hint of +melancholy lingered. There was certainly plenty to occupy her, and it was +not in her nature to be bored. + +But yet at the opening of a door in the room behind her, she turned very +swiftly, and in a moment her face was alight with ardent welcome. + +"Ah! Here you are!" she said. + +He came forward in his quick, springy fashion, his odd eyes laughing +their gay, unstable greeting into hers. He took the hands she held out to +him, and bending, lightly kissed them. + +"Have you been bored? _Mais non!_ I have not been so long gone. Why are +you not still resting, _cherie_, as I told you?" + +She looked at him, and still--though her eyes laughed their gladness--the +wistfulness remained. "I am--quite rested, _monseigneur_. And the +tiredness--quite gone. And now you are going to take me to see the sights +of Paris?" + +"Those of them you don't know?" suggested Saltash. + +She nodded. "I don't know very many. I never went very far. I was +afraid." + +He twisted his hand through her arm, and his fingers closed upon her +wrist. "You are not afraid--with me?" he questioned. + +Her eyes answered him before her voice. "Never, _monseigneur_." + +"Why do you call me that?" said Saltash. + +She coloured at the abrupt question. "It suits you." + +He made his monkeyish grimace, and suddenly dropped his eyes to the +blue-veined wrist in his grasp. "Are you happy, _mignonne_?" he asked +her, still obviously in jesting mood. + +Toby's eyes dropped also. She mutely nodded. + +"The truth, Nonette?" His look flashed over her; his tone was imperious. + +She nodded again. "I always tell you--the truth." + +He began to laugh. "_Mais vraiment_! I had not thought that likely. Then +you do not want to leave me--yet?" + +"Leave you!" Her eyes came up to his in wide amazement. "I!" + +"We have been married three days," he reminded her, with comically +working brows. "And I--have I not already begun to leave you--to neglect +you?" + +"I--I--I never expected--anything else," stammered Toby, suddenly +averting her face. + +He patted her cheek with careless kindliness. "How wise of you, my dear! +How wise! Then you are not yet--sufficiently _ennuyee_ to desire to leave +me?" + +"Why--why do you ask?" questioned Toby. + +There was a species of malicious humour about him that made her uneasy. +Saltash in a mischievous mood was not always easy to restrain. He did not +immediately reply to her question, and she turned with a hint of panic +and tightly clasped his arm. + +"It is--you who are--_ennuye_!" she said, with piteous eyes upraised. + +He flicked her cheek with his thumb, his odd eyes gleaming. "Not so, +_Miladi_ Saltash! For me--the game is just begun. But--should you desire +to leave me--the opportunity is yours. A knight has arrived to the +rescue--a very puissant knight!" + +"A knight!" gasped Toby, trembling. "Ah! Tell me what you mean!" + +His look was openly mocking. "A knight in gaiters!" he told her +lightly. "A knight who bears--or should bear--a horsewhip in place of +a sword--that is, if I know him aright!" + +"Jake!" she gasped incredulously. + +He laughed afresh. "Even so! Jake! Most worthy--and most obtrusive! What +shall we do with him, lady mine? Slay him--or give him a feed and send +him home?" + +She stared at him, aghast. "You--you--you are joking!" she stammered. + +"I always joke when I am most serious," Saltash assured her. + +"Oh, don't!" She clung closer to his arm. "What shall we do? He--he can't +do anything, can he? We--we--we really are married, aren't we?" + +Saltash's most appalling grimace fled like a hunted goblin across his +face. "Married? Heavens, child! What more do you want? Haven't you seen +it--actually seen it--in our greatest London daily? And can a London +daily lie? You may have dreamed the wedding, but that paragraph--that +paragraph--it takes a genius of the first literary degree to dream a +paragraph, though it may only need quite an ordinary fool to write it! +Why, what is the matter? What is it? Did you see something? Not a mouse? +Not a beetle? I prithee, not a beetle!" + +For Toby had suddenly hidden her face against his shoulder and there was +actual panic in the clinging of her arms. He laid a hand upon her head, +and patted it lightly, admonishingly. + +She did not speak for a second or two, only gulped with desperate effort +at self-restraint. Then, at length, in a muffled voice, "Don't let him +take me away!" she besought him shakily. "You--you--you've promised to +keep me--now." + +"But, of course I'm keeping you," said Saltash. "It's what I did it for. +It's the very essence of the game. Cheer up, Nonette! I'm not parting +with any of my goods, worldly or otherwise, this journey." + +"You are sure?" whispered Toby. "Sure?" + +"Sure of what?" He bent swiftly, and for a second, only a second, his +lips touched her hair. + +"Sure you--don't--want to?" came in a gasp from Toby, as she burrowed a +little deeper. + +"Oh, that!" Saltash stood up again, and his face was sardonic, for the +moment almost grim. "Yes, quite sure of that, my dear. Moreover,--it will +amuse me to meet the virtuous Jake on his own ground for once. A new +sensation, Nonette! Will you help me to face him? Or do you prefer the +more early-Victorian _role_ of the lady who retires till the combat is +over and then emerges to reward the winner?" + +She lifted her head at that, and uttered a scoffing little laugh, +withdrawing herself abruptly from his support. Her pointed chin went up +with a hint of defiance. All signs of agitation were gone. "I'll stay and +help you," she said. + +He made her an elaborate bow. "Then we will ring up the curtain. I +congratulate you, madam, upon your spirit. I trust the interview will not +try your fortitude too far. Remember, should your feminine ears be +shocked by anything that may pass between us, it is up to you to retire +at any moment." + +Toby's blue eyes caught sudden fire. She broke into an unexpected +chuckle. "I do not think I am likely to retire for that reason, +_monseigneur_," she said. "Where is he? How did you know he was coming?" + +"Because he is already here," said Saltash. "I passed him at the office, +making enquiries. He had his back to me, but there is no mistaking that +bull-neck of his. Ah!" He turned his head sharply. "I hear a step +outside! Sit down, _mignonne_! Sit down and be dignified!" + +But Toby's idea of dignity was to sit on the corner of the table and +swing one leg. If any apprehension lingered in her mind, she concealed it +most successfully. She looked like an alert and mischievous boy. + +There came a knock at the door, and for a moment her eyes sought Saltash. +He grinned back derisively, and pulled out his cigarette-case. +"_Entrez!_" he called. + +The door opened with a flourish. A waiter entered with a card. + +Saltash barely looked at him. His eyes flashed beyond to the open +doorway. "You can come in," he remarked affably. "We've been expecting +you for some time." + +Jake entered. His square frame seemed to fill the space between the +door-posts. He was empty-handed, but there was purpose--grim purpose--in +every line of him. + +Saltash dismissed the waiter with a jerk of the eyebrows. He was utterly +unabashed, amazingly self-assured. He met Jake's stern eyes with cheery +effrontery. + +"Quite like old times!" he commented. "The only difference being, my good +Jake, that on this occasion I have reached the winning-post first." + +Jake's look went beyond him to the slight figure by the table. Toby was +on her feet. Her face was flushed, but her eyes were wide and defiant. He +regarded her steadily for several seconds before, very deliberately, he +transferred his attention to Saltash, who nonchalantly awaited his turn, +tapping the cigarette on the lid of his case with supreme indifference. + +Jake spoke, his voice soft as a woman's, yet strangely dominating. "I +should like two minutes alone with you--if you can spare them." + +Saltash was smiling. His glance shot towards Toby, and came back to Jake +with a certain royal arrogance that held its own without effort. "In +other words, you wish--Lady Saltash--to leave us?" he questioned easily. + +"I'm not going," said Toby quickly, with nervous decision. + +Her hands were tightly clasped in front of her. She stood as one strung +to the utmost limit of resistance. + +Jake did not again look at her. His eyes were upon Saltash, and they +never wavered. "Alone with you," he repeated, with grim insistence. + +Saltash regarded him curiously. His mouth twitched mockingly as he put +the cigarette between his lips. He held out the case to Jake in mute +invitation. + +Jake's look remained fixed. He ignored the action, and the case snapped +shut in Saltash's hand with a sharp sound that seemed to denote a +momentary exasperation. But Saltash's face still retained the monkey-like +expression of calculated mischief habitual to it. + +"Bunny with you?" he enquired casually, producing a match-box. + +"No." Very quietly came Jake's answer. "I have come to see you--alone." + +Saltash lighted his cigarette, and blew a careless cloud of smoke. "Are +you proposing to shoot me?" he asked, after a pause. + +"No," said Jake grimly. "Shooting's too good for you--men like you." + +Saltash laughed, and blew another cloud of smoke. "That may be why I have +survived so long," he remarked. "I don't see the horsewhip either. Jake, +my friend, you are not rising to the occasion with becoming enthusiasm. +Any good offering you a drink to stimulate your energies?" + +"None whatever," said Jake, still very quietly. "I don't go--till I have +what I came for--that's all. Neither do you!" + +"I--see!" said Saltash. + +An odd little gleam that was almost furtive shone for a second in his +eyes and was gone. He turned and crossed the room to Toby. + +"My dear," he said, "I think this business will be more quickly settled +if you leave us." + +She looked at him piteously. He took her lightly by the arm, and led her +to a door leading to an adjoining room. "By the time you have smoked one +cigarette," he said, "I shall be with you again." + +She turned with an impulsive attempt to cling to him. "You'll--keep me?" +she said, through trembling lips. + +He made a royal gesture that frustrated her with perfect courtesy. "Are +you not my wife?" he said. + +He opened the door for her, and she had no choice but to go through. She +went swiftly, without another glance, and Saltash closed the door behind +her. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE VILLAIN SCORES + + +"Now, sir!" said Saltash, and turned. His tone was brief; the smile had +gone from his face. He came to Jake with a certain haughtiness, and stood +before him. + +Jake squared his shoulders. "So--you've married her!" he said. + +"I have." There was a note of challenge in the curt rejoinder. Saltash's +brows were drawn. + +"I should like to see--proof of that," Jake said, after a moment. + +"The devil you would!" Again the hot gleam shone in the odd eyes. Saltash +stood for a second in the attitude of a man on the verge of violence. +Then, contemptuously, he relaxed. + +He lounged back against the mantel-piece and smoked his cigarette. "The +devil you would, Jake!" he said again, in a tone so different that the +words might have been uttered in another language. "And why--if one be +permitted to ask?" + +"I think you know why," Jake said. + +"Oh, do I? You virtuous people are always the first to suspect evil." +Saltash spoke with deliberate cynicism. "And suppose the marriage is not +genuine--as you so politely hint--what then, my worthy Jake? What then?" + +Jake faced him unwaveringly. "If not," he said, "she goes back with me." + +Saltash's eyes suddenly flashed to his, but he did not alter his +position. "Sure of that?" he asked casually. + +"Sure!" said Jake. + +"And if I refuse to part with her? If she refuses to go?" + +"Either way," said Jake immovably. + +"And why?" Saltash straightened suddenly. "Tell me why! What in hell has +it got to do with you?" + +"This," said Jake. "Just the fact that she's a girl needing protection +and that I--can give it." + +"Are you so sure of that?" gibed Saltash. "I think you forget, don't you, +that I was her first protector? No one--not even Bunny--could have got +near her without my consent." + +"She was your find right enough," Jake admitted. "I always knew +that--knew from the first you'd faked up a lie about her. But I hoped--I +even believed--that you were doing it for her sake--not your own." + +"Well?" flung Saltash. "And if I was?" + +"And if you were," said Jake, "it was a thing worth doing--worth sticking +to. Bunny is a respectable citizen. He'd have married her--made her +happy." + +Saltash's mouth twisted. "Bunny had his chance--missed it," he said. +"He'll know better next time. I'm not troubling about Bunny. He didn't +deserve to win." + +"And so you decided to play him a damn trick and cut him out?" said Jake. + +Saltash snapped his fingers. "I did my best for him, but I couldn't push +him through against his will. Why didn't he come after her when he found +she had gone? Didn't he know where to look?" + +"Just because he knew," said Jake. + +Saltash moved abruptly. "Damnation! You shall have what you've come for. +If seeing is believing--then you shall believe--that even Charles +Burchester can protect a girl at a pinch from the snares of the +virtuous!" He pulled an envelope from an inner pocket, and flung it with +a passionate gesture upon the table in front of Jake. + +Jake's eyes, red-brown and steady, marked the action and contemplated him +thereafter for several silent seconds. Then, at length, very slowly. +"Maybe--after all--I don't need to see, my lord," he said. "Maybe--I've +made a mistake." + +He spoke with the utmost quietness, but his manner had undergone a +change. It held a hint of deference. He made no move to touch the +envelope upon the table. + +Saltash's brows went up. "Satisfied?" he questioned curtly. + +"On that point, yes." Jake continued to look at him with a close and +searching regard. + +"Not on all points?" Saltash flicked the ash from his cigarette with a +movement of exasperation. + +Jake turned and slowly walked to the window. There fell a silence between +them. He stood staring down upon the scene that Toby had gazed upon a +little earlier, but he saw nothing of it. The hardness had gone out of +his face, and a deep compassion had taken its place. + +Saltash continued to smoke for several restless seconds. Finally, he +dropped the end of his cigarette into a tray and spoke. + +"Anything more I can do for you?" + +Jake wheeled in his massive way, and came back. "Say!" he said slowly. +"I'm kind of sorry for that little girl." + +Saltash made an abrupt movement that passed unexplained. "Well?" he said. + +Jake faced him squarely. "If I'd been at home," he said, "this would +never have happened. Or if it had happened--if it had happened--" He +paused. + +"You'd have made a point of coming to the wedding?" suggested Saltash. + +Jake passed the suggestion by. "I'd have known how to deal with it, +anyway. Now, it seems, it's too late." + +Saltash took up the envelope from the table, and returned it to his +pocket. "I believe you'd have been better pleased if I hadn't married +her," he observed. + +Jake shook his head. "I'd be better pleased--maybe--if I knew for certain +what you did it for." + +"My good Jake. I don't go in for aims and motives," protested Saltash. +"Call it a marriage of convenience if you feel that way! It's all the +same to me." + +Jake's brows contracted. "I'd give a good deal not to call it that," he +said. + +Saltash laughed. "Call it what you like--a whim--a fancy--the craze of +the moment! You needn't waste any sentiment over it. I'm sorry about +Bunny, but, if he hadn't been an ass, it wouldn't have happened. You +can't blame me for that anyhow. You did the same thing yourself." + +"I!" The red-brown eyes suddenly shone. "I don't follow you," said Jake +deliberately. + +"You married your wife to deliver her from--a fate you deemed +unsuitable." Saltash's teeth showed for a moment in answer to the gleam +in Jake's eyes. "You did it in an almighty hurry too." + +"But--damn it--she needed protection!" Jake said. "And--at least--I loved +her!" + +Saltash bowed. "Hence your motive was an entirely selfish one. My +wife--_au contraire_--is quite unhampered by a husband's devotion. I have +never made love to her--yet. I have only--protected her." + +He paused, and suddenly the old monkey-like look of mischief flashed back +into his face. + +"I lay claim to the higher virtue, Jake," he said. "Heaven alone knows +how long it will last. I've never scored over you before, but on this +occasion--" He stopped with a careless wave of the hand. + +"Yes," Jake said. "On this occasion--you've got me beat. But--I didn't +fight for my own sake, nor yet for the off chance of downing you, which I +own would have given me considerable pleasure once. It was for the +child's sake." An unwonted note of entreaty suddenly sounded in his +voice. "I don't know what your game is, my lord; but she's yours now--to +make--or break. For God's sake--be decent to her--if you can!" + +"If I can!" Saltash clapped a sudden hand upon Jake's shoulder, but +though the action was obviously a kindly one, it held restraint as well. +"Do you think I don't know how to make a woman happy, Jake? Think I +haven't studied the subject hard enough? Think I'm a fool at the game?" + +Jake looked him straight in the face. "No. I don't think you a fool, my +lord," he said. "But I reckon there's one or two things that even you may +have to learn. You've never yet made any woman permanently happy. There's +only one way of doing that. Bunny would have done it--and won out too. +But you--I'm not so sure of you." + +"Oh, Bunny would have won out, would he?" Saltash's hand closed like a +trap upon Jake's shoulder. There was a challenging quality in his smile. + +Jake nodded. "Yes. Bunny's got the real stuff in him. Bunny would have +put her happiness before his own always. He would have given her the love +that lasts. It's the only thing worth having, after all." + +"Well?" The challenge became more marked upon the swarthy face. The smile +had vanished. "And you think I am incapable of that?" + +"I haven't said so," Jake said sombrely. + +"But it's up to me to prove it?" There was a certain insistence in +Saltash's tone, albeit a mocking spirit looked out of his eyes. + +Jake faced it unwaveringly for several seconds. Then: "Yes. I reckon it +is up to you," he said, and turned deliberately away. "I'm going now." + +"All right." Saltash's hand fell. "I give you credit for one thing, +Jake," he said. "You haven't offered to take her off my hands. For that +piece of forbearance I congratulate you. Do you want to see her before +you go?" + +"Not specially," said Jake. + +Saltash's eyes followed him with a look half-malicious, half-curious. +"Nor to send her a message?" he questioned. + +"No." Jake's tone was brief. + +"You're not wanting to offer her a safe harbour when her present +anchorage fails her?" jested Saltash. + +Jake turned at the door as one goaded. "When that happens," he said very +deliberately. "I guess she'll be past any help from me, poor kid!" + +Saltash's black brows descended. He scowled hideously for a moment. Then, +"I congratulate you again," he said coolly. "You are just beginning to +see things--as they are." + +Jake made a brief sound that might have indicated contempt and opened the +door. He went out with finality, and Saltash listened to the tread of his +retreating feet with a grin of sheer cynical triumph. + +"So," he said lightly, "the villain scores at last!" + +But as he turned towards the other room, the cynicism passed from his +face. He stood for a moment or two motionless at the door; then broke +into a careless whistle and opened it. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A WIFE IS DIFFERENT + + +"Has he gone?" said Toby eagerly. She came into the room with a swift +glance around. "What did he say? What did he do? Was he angry?" + +"I really don't know," Saltash said, supremely unconcerned. "He went. +That's the main thing." + +Toby looked at him critically. "You were so quiet, both of you. Was there +a row?" + +"Were you listening?" said Saltash. + +She coloured, and smiled disarmingly. "Part of the time--no, all the +time. But I didn't hear anything--at least not much. Nothing that +mattered. Are you angry?" + +He frowned upon her, but his eyes reassured. "I told you to smoke a +cigarette." + +"I'm sorry," said Toby meekly. "Shall I smoke one now?" + +He pinched her ear. "No. We'll go out. You've got to shop. First though, +I've got something for you. I'm not sure you deserve it, but that's a +detail. Few of us ever do get our deserts in this naughty world." + +"What is it?" said Toby. + +Her bright eyes questioned him. She looked more than ever like an eager +boy. He pulled a leather case out of his pocket and held it out to her. + +"Oh, what is it?" she said, and coloured more deeply. "You +haven't--haven't--been buying me things?" + +"Open it!" said Saltash, with regal peremptoriness. + +But still she hesitated, till he suddenly laid his hands on hers and +compelled her. She saw a single string of pearls on a bed of blue velvet. +Her eyes came up to his in quick distress. + +"Oh, I ought not to take them!" she said. + +"And why not?" said Saltash. + +She bit her lip, almost as if she would burst into tears. "Monseigneur--" + +"Call me Charles!" he commanded. + +His hands still held hers. She dropped her eyes to them, and suddenly, +very suddenly, she bent her head and kissed them. + +He started slightly, and in a moment he set her free, leaving the case in +her hold. "_Eh bien!_" he said lightly. "That is understood. You like my +pearls, _cherie_?" + +"I love--anything--that comes from you," she made low reply. "But +these--but these--I ought not to take these." + +"But why not?" he questioned. "May I not make you a present? Are you +not--my wife?" + +"Yes." More faintly came Toby's answer. "But--but--but--a wife is +different. A wife--does not need--presents." + +"_Mais vraiment!_" protested Saltash. "So a wife is different! +How--different, _mignonne_?" + +He tried to look into the downcast eyes, but she would not raise them. +She was trembling a little. "Such things as these," she said, under her +breath, "are what a man would give to--to--to the woman he loves." + +"And so you think they are unsuitable for--my wife?" questioned Saltash, +with a whimsical look on his dark face. + +She did not answer him, only mutely held out the case, still without +looking at him. + +He stood for a second or two, watching her, an odd flame coming and going +in his eyes; then abruptly he moved, picked up the pearls from their +case, straightened them dexterously, and clasped them about her neck. + +She lifted her face then, quivering and irresolute, to his. "And I can +give you--nothing," she said. + +He took her lightly by the shoulders, as one who caresses a child. "_Ma +cherie_, you have given me already much more than you realize. But we +will not go into that now. We will go to the shops. Afterwards, we will +go out to Fontainebleau and picnic in the forest. You will like that?" + +"Oh, so much!" she said, with enthusiasm. + +Yet there was a puzzled look of pain in her eyes as she turned away, and +though she wore his pearls, she made no further reference to them. + +They went forth into the streets of Paris and Toby shopped. At first she +was shy, halting here and hesitating there, till Saltash, looking on, +careless and debonair, made it abundantly evident that whatever she +desired she was to have, and then like a child on a holiday she flung +aside all indecision and became eager and animated. So absorbed was she +that she took no note of the passage of time and was horrified when at +length he called her attention to the fact that it was close upon the +luncheon-hour. + +"And you must be so tired of it all!" she said, with compunction. + +"Not in the least," he assured her airily between puffs of his cigarette. +"It has been--a new experience for me." + +Her eyes challenged him for a moment, and he laughed. + +"_Mais oui, madame!_ I protest--a new experience. I feel I am doing my +duty." + +"And it doesn't bore you?" questioned Toby, with a tilt of the chin. + +His look kindled a little. "If we were on board the old _Night Moth_, +you'd have had a cuff for that," he remarked. + +"I wish we were!" she said daringly. + +He flicked his fingers. "You're very young, Nonette." + +She shook her head with vehemence. "I'm not! I'm not! I'm only +pretending. Can't you see?" + +He laughed jestingly. "You have never deceived me yet, _ma chere_,--not +once, from the moment I found you shivering in my cabin up to the +present. You couldn't if you tried." + +Toby's blue eyes suddenly shone with a hot light. "So sure of that?" she +said quickly. "You read me--so easily?" + +"Like a book," said Saltash, with an arrogance but half-assumed. + +"I cheated you--once," she said, breathing sharply. + +"And I caught you," said Saltash. + +"Only--only because--I meant you to," said Toby, under her breath. + +He raised his brows in momentary surprise, and in a flash she laughed and +clapped her hands. "I had you there, King Charles! You see, you are but a +man after all." + +He gave her a swift and piercing glance. "And what are you?" he said. + +Her eyes fell swiftly before his look; she made no reply. + +They returned to the hotel and lunched together. The incident of the +morning seemed to be forgotten. Jake's name was not once mentioned +between them. Toby was full of gaiety. The prospect of the run to +Fontainebleau evidently filled her with delight. + +She joined Saltash in the vestibule after the meal, clad in a light blue +wrap they had purchased that morning. + +He went to meet her, a quick gleam in his eyes; and a man to whom he had +been talking--a slim, foreign-looking man with black moustache and +imperial--turned sharply and gave her a hard stare. + +Toby's chin went up. She looked exclusively at Saltash. Her bearing at +that moment was that of a princess. + +"The car is ready?" she questioned. "Shall we go?" + +"By all means," said Saltash. + +He nodded a careless farewell to the other man, and followed her, a smile +twitching at his lips, the gleam still in his eyes. + +"That man is Spentoli the sculptor," he said, as he handed her into the +car. "A genius, Nonette! I should have presented him to you if you had +not been so haughty." + +"I hate geniuses," said Toby briefly. + +He laughed at her. "_Mais vraiment!_ How many have you known?" + +She considered for a moment, and finally decided that the question did +not require an answer. + +Saltash took the wheel and spun the little car round with considerable +dexterity. "Yes, a genius!" he said. "One of the most wonderful of the +age. His work is amazing--scarcely human. He paints too. All Paris raves +over his work--with reason. His picture, 'The Victim'--" he looked at her +suddenly--"What is the matter, _cherie_? Is the sun too strong for you?" + +Toby's hand was shielding her eyes. Her lips were trembling. "Don't +wait!" she murmured. "Don't wait! Let's get away! I am all right--just a +little giddy, that's all." + +He took her at her word, and sent the car swiftly forward. They passed +out into the crowded thoroughfare, and in a moment or two Toby leaned +back, gazing before her with a white, set face. + +Saltash asked no question. He did not even look at her, concentrating all +his attention upon the task of extricating himself as swiftly as possible +from the crush of vehicles around them. + +It was a day of perfect autumn, and Paris lay basking in sunshine; but +Saltash was a rapid traveller at all times, and it was not long before +Paris was left behind. But even when free from the traffic, he did not +speak or turn towards his companion, merely gave himself to the task +of covering the ground as quickly as possible. + +In the end it was Toby who spoke, abruptly, boyishly. "By jingo! You can +drive!" + +Saltash's face showed its own elastic grin. "You like this?" + +"Rather!" said Toby with enthusiasm. + +She threw off her silence and plunged forthwith into careless chatter--a +mood to which he responded with the utmost readiness. When at length they +ran into the shade of the forest, they were both in the highest spirits. + +They had their tea in a mossy glade out of sight of the road. The sun was +beginning to slant. Its rays fell in splashes of golden green all about +them. + +"Just the place for a duel!" said Saltash appreciatively. + +"Have you ever fought a duel?" Toby looked at him over the picnic-basket +with eyes of sparkling interest. + +She had thrown aside her hat, and her fair hair gleamed as if it gave +forth light. Saltash leaned his shoulders against a tree and watched her. + +"I have never fought to kill," he said. "Honour is too easily +satisfied in this country--though after all--" his smile was suddenly +provocative--"there are very few things worth fighting for, Nonette." + +Her eyes flashed their ready challenge. "Life being too short already?" +she suggested. + +"Even so," said Charles Rex coolly. + +Toby abruptly bent her head and muttered something into the +picnic-basket. + +"What?" said Saltash. + +She pulled out a parcel of cakes and tossed them on to the ground. +"Nothing!" she said. + +He leaned forward unexpectedly as she foraged for more, and gripped the +small brown hand. + +"Tell me what you said!" he commanded. + +She flung him a look half-frightened, half-daring. "I said there was only +one cup." + +She would have released her hand with the words, but his fingers +tightened like a spring. "_Pardonnez-moi!_ That was not what you said!" + +She became passive in his hold, but she said nothing. + +"Tell me what you said!" Saltash said again. + +A little tremor went through Toby. "Can we do--with only one cup?" she +asked, not looking at him, her eyelids flickering nervously. + +"Going to answer me?" said Saltash. + +She shook her head and was silent. + +He waited for perhaps ten seconds, and in that time a variety of +different expressions showed and vanished on his ugly face. Then, just as +Toby was beginning to tremble in real trepidation, he suddenly set her +free. + +"We have drunk out of the same glass before now," he said. "We can do it +again." + +She looked at him then, relief and doubt struggling together in her eyes. +"Are you angry?" she said. + +His answering look baffled her. "No," he said. + +She laid a conciliatory hand upon his arm. "You are! I'm sure you are!" + +"I am not," said Saltash. + +"Then why aren't you?" demanded Toby, with sudden spirit. + +The monkeyish grin leapt into his face. "Because I know what you said," +he told her coolly. "It is not easy--you will never find it easy--to +deceive me." + +She snatched her hand away. Her face was on fire. "I said you did not +make the most of life," she flung at him. "And it's true! You don't! You +don't!" + +"How do you know that?" said Saltash. + +She did not answer him. Her head was bent over the basket. She threw out +one thing after another with nervous rapidity, and once, as he watched +her, there came a faint sound that was like a hastily suppressed sob. + +Saltash got to his feet with disconcerting suddenness and walked away. + +When he returned some minutes later with a half-smoked cigarette between +his lips, she was sitting demurely awaiting him, the picnic ready spread. + +He scarcely looked at her but he flicked her cheek as he sat down, and in +a moment she turned and smiled at him. + +"I have found another cup," she said. + +"So I see," said Saltash, and before she could realize his mood he picked +it up and flung it at the trunk of a tree some yards away. It shivered in +fragments on the moss, and Toby gasped and stared at him wide-eyed. + +He laughed in his careless fashion at her amazement. "Now we shall drink +out of one cup!" he said. + +"Was that--was that--why you did it?" she stammered breathlessly. + +He blew a cloud of smoke into the air with a gesture of royal +indifference. "Even so,--_madame_!" he said. "One does these things--with +a wife. You see, a wife--is different." + +"I--I see," said Toby. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE IDOL OF PARIS + + +It was dark when they returned to the hotel, but Paris shone with a +million lights. The hotel itself had a festive air. There were flowers in +all directions, and a red carpet had been laid upon the steps. + +"Rozelle Daubeni is expected," said Saltash. + +"Who?" Toby stopped short in the act of descending. Her face shone white +in the glare. A moment before she had been laughing but the laugh went +into her question with a little choked sound. "Who did you say?" she +questioned more coherently. + +"Mademoiselle Daubeni--the idol of Paris. Never heard of her?" Saltash +handed her lightly down. "She is coming to a dance in the great _salon_ +tonight. You shall see her. She is--a thing to remember." + +Toby gave a quick shiver. "Yes, I have heard of her too much--too much--I +don't want to see her. Shall we dine upstairs?" + +"Oh, I think not," said Saltash with decision. "You are too retiring, _ma +chere_. It doesn't become--a lady of your position." + +He followed her towards the lift. The vestibule was full of people, +laughing and talking, awaiting the coming of the favourite. But as the +girl in her blue cloak went through, a sudden hush fell. Women lifted +glasses to look at her, and men turned to watch. + +Saltash sauntered behind her in his regal way, looking neither to right +nor left, yet fully aware of all he passed. No one accosted him. There +were times when even those who knew him well would have hesitated to do +so. He could surround himself with an atmosphere so suavely impersonal as +to be quite impenetrable to all. + +It surrounded him now. He walked like a king through a crowd of +courtiers, and the buzz of talk did not spring up again till he was out +of sight. + +"So you do not want to see _le premiere danseuse du siecle!_" he +commented, as he entered the sitting-room of their suite behind Toby. + +She turned, blue eyes wide with protest in her white face. "Do you wish +me to see her, my lord? That--woman!" + +He frowned upon her suddenly. "Call me Charles! Do you hear? We will play +this game according to rule--or not at all." + +"You are angry," Toby said, and turned still whiter. + +He came to her, thrust a quick arm about her. "I am not angry, +_mignonne_, at least not with you. But you must take your proper place. I +can't keep you in hiding here. Those gaping fools downstairs--they have +got to understand. You are not my latest whim, but a permanent +institution. You are--my wife." + +She shivered in his hold, but she clung to him. "I don't feel like--a +permanent institution," she told him rather piteously. "And when you are +angry--" + +"I am not angry," said Saltash, and tweaked her ear as though she had +been a boy. "But--whether you feel like it or not--you are my wife, and +you have got to play the part. _C'est entendu, n'est-ce-pas?_" + +"Whatever you wish," said Toby faintly. + +He set her free. "You must look your best tonight. Wear blue! It is your +colour. I shall present Spentoli to you. And tomorrow he will want to +paint you." + +Toby stiffened. "That--_canaille_!" she said. + +He looked at her in surprise. "What is the matter with you tonight, +Nonette? You are hating all the world." + +Her blue eyes blazed. "I don't want to meet Spentoli," she said. "He has +an evil eye. You--you--I look to you to--to--to protect me." + +"My good child!" said Saltash. + +He turned aside to light a cigarette, and there was a pause. But Toby +still stood rigid, as it were on guard. He spoke again after a moment, +and his voice was kind though it had a certain dominant quality also. + +"Nonette, you need not be afraid when you are with me. I shall protect +you. Now go and dress! When you are ready, come to me for inspection! And +remember! You are to look your best tonight." + +He turned with the last words and looked at her. His brows went up as he +realized her attitude--the tense resistance of the slight figure +withstanding him. + +But it was only for a moment or two that the girl maintained her stand. +At sight of the look that leaped to his eyes, her own were swiftly +lowered. She drew back from him. + +"I will do--whatever you wish," she said again nervously. "You know +that." + +"Yes, I know that," said Saltash with his quick grimace. "You have my +sympathy, Nonette. Now go, _ma chere_, go!" + +She went from his presence like a small hunted animal. + +Saltash shrugged his shoulders and sauntered down again to the vestibule. +The crowd had grown. They were watching the great entrance-door +expectantly for the coming of the celebrated dancer. Saltash called for a +drink, and mingled with the throng. + +The Italian, Spentoli, came up presently and joined him. "I am hoping," +he said, "that you will presently give me the great honour of presenting +me to your bride." + +Saltash looked at him. Spentoli was one of the very few men for whom he +entertained respect. The Italian's work had always held an immense +attraction for his artistic soul, and he had never troubled to disguise +the fact. + +"My wife is young and shy," he said, after a moment. "I will present +you--some day, Spentoli, but it may not be yet." + +"This is her first visit to Paris?" questioned Spentoli. + +"Not her first. But she does not know Paris well." Saltash spoke +carelessly. "I am not showing her everything at once. I think that is a +mistake." + +"That is true," agreed Spentoli. "The freshness of youth is gone all too +soon. But she will be superbly beautiful in a few years' time. Will you +permit me to congratulate you on the excellence of your choice?" + +Saltash grimaced. "Do we ever choose?" he said. "Do we not rather receive +such gifts as the gods send us in more or less of a grudging spirit?" + +Spentoli smiled. "I did not think you would marry one so young," he said. +"She has the athletic look of a boy. She reminds me--" + +"Of a picture called 'The Victim' by one--Spentoli!" Saltash's voice was +suave. "A cruel picture, _mon ami_, but of an amazing merit. I have seen +the likeness also. Where did you get it?" + +The Italian was still smiling, but his eyes were wary. + +"From a little circus-rider in California," he said. "A child--an imp of +a child--astonishingly clever--a wisp of inspiration. Yes, a girl of +course; but she had all the lines of a boy--the perfect limbs of an +athlete. I took her from her circus. I should have paid her well had she +remained with me. But before the picture was finished, she was tired. She +was a little serpent--wily and wicked. One day we had a small discussion +in my studio--oh, quite a small discussion. And she stuck her poison-fang +into me--and fled." Spentoli's teeth gleamed through his black moustache. +"I do not like these serpent-women," he said. "When I meet her again--it +will be my turn to strike." + +"Our turn so seldom comes," said Saltash lazily, his eyes wandering to +the door. "Mademoiselle Rozelle for instance would hold her own against +any of us." + +"Ah! Rozelle!" Spentoli's face changed magically. "But she is +beautiful--and without venom--a rose without a thorn!" + +Saltash's mouth twitched mockingly. "And without a heart also?" he +suggested. + +"She is all heart!" cried Spentoli, with flashing eyes. + +Saltash laughed aloud. "That also is sometimes a drawback, _mon ami_. I +gather she is the attraction who has drawn you here." + +"She draws all the world," said Spentoli. + +And with that he sprang to his feet, for there was a general stir in the +vestibule, such as might herald the coming of a queen. In a moment the +buzz of voices died down, and a great silence fell. Saltash remained +seated, a certain arrogance in his pose, though his eyes also watched the +door. + +There came the sound of a laugh--a clear, ringing laugh, childishly, +irresistibly gay--and a figure in blue came in through the marble +pillars. As a queen they had prepared for her, and as a queen she +entered--a being so exquisite, so goddess-like, that every breath was +drawn in wonder. + +She looked around her with eyes that shone like sapphires. Her red lips +were parted. She had the expectant look of girlhood, yet her beauty had a +quality unknown to youth. And it was to that quality, almost unknown to +himself, that Saltash did homage as he rose. + +Her look flashed across to him, comprehended his action, and laughed open +triumph. Then with a suddenness almost too swift to follow, she turned to +a man who had entered behind her and softly spoke. + +Saltash's eyes went to the man, and he drew a low whistle between his +teeth. It was well known that Rozelle Daubeni never travelled without an +escort; but this man--this man--He was tall and broad, and he carried +himself with a supreme contempt for his fellow-men. He did not look at +Saltash, did not apparently even see the hushed crowd that hung upon +every movement of that wonderful woman-creature who took the world by +storm wherever she went. + +He was superbly indifferent to his surroundings, gazing straight before +him with the eyes of a Viking who searches the far horizon. He walked +with the free swing of a pirate. And as the woman turned her dazzling +face towards him, it was plain to all that she saw none but him in that +vast and crowded place. + +He was by her side as they moved forward, and they saw her lightly touch +his arm, with an intimate gesture, as though they were alone. Then the +whole throng broke into acclamations, and the spell was broken. She saw +them all again, and laughed her gracious thanks. The great hall rang with +their greeting as she passed through, but no one sought to detain her and +she did not pause. + +Later, she would give them all they desired, but her moment had not +arrived. So she went on to the great curving staircase, side by side with +her fair-bearded Viking, still laughing like a happy child who looks for +the morrow. + +As she rounded the curve of the stair, she snatched a red rose from her +breast and threw it down to her worshippers below. It was aimed at +Saltash, but it fell before Spentoli, and he caught and held it with wild +adoration leaping in his eyes. As he pressed it to his lips, he was +sobbing. + +"_Mon ami_," said Saltash's voice behind him, maliciously humorous, "you +have stolen my property. But--since I have no use for it--you may keep +it." + +Spentoli looked at him with burning eyes. "Ah! You may laugh!" he said, +in a fierce undertone. "You are--without a soul." + +"Isn't it better to laugh?" queried Saltash. "Did you expect a blow in +the face?" + +Spentoli glared for a moment, and recovered himself. "Do you know what +they are saying of her?" he said. "They say that she is dying. But it is +not true--not true! Such beauty as that--such loveliness--could never +die!" + +The cynical lines in Saltash's face deepened very perceptibly. He +shrugged his shoulders and said nothing. + +"Who is the man with her?" demanded Spentoli. "I have never seen him +before--the man with the face of a Dane. Do you know him?" + +"Yes, I know him," said Saltash. + +"Then who is he? Some new lover?" There was suppressed eagerness in the +question. Spentoli's eyes were smouldering again. + +Saltash was looking supremely ironical. "Perhaps new," he said. "More +likely--very old. His name is Larpent, and he is the captain of my +yacht." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE DANCE OF DEATH + + +"We will watch from the gallery," said Saltash. + +Toby looked up at him with quick gratitude. "There won't be so many +people there," she said. + +He frowned at her, but his look was quizzical. "But everyone will know +that Lady Saltash is present--with her husband," he said. + +She slipped a persuasive hand on to his arm. "King Charles," she said, +"let us leave Paris!" + +"Bored?" said Saltash. + +Her face was slightly drawn. "No--no! Only--" she paused; then suddenly +flashed him her swift smile--"let it be as you wish!" she said. + +He flicked her cheek in his careless, caressing way. "Shall I tell you +something, _mignonne_? We are going--very soon." + +Her eyes shone, more blue than the frock she wore She stooped impulsively +and touched his hand with her lips, then, as though she feared to anger +him, drew quickly away. + +"Shall we go on the yacht?" she asked, eagerness half-suppressed +in her voice. + +"Yes," said Saltash, and he spoke with finality, even with a certain +grimness. + +Toby's face lighted up for a second, and then clouded again. She glanced +at him doubtfully. "If Paris amuses you--" she ventured. + +"Paris does not amuse me," said Saltash emphatically. "Have a cigarette, +_ma chere_, while I go and dress." + +"Can I help you dress?" said Toby, with a touch of wistfulness. "I have +put everything ready." + +His odd eyes flashed her a smile. "Not here, _cherie_, not now. +Perhaps--when we get on a yacht again--" + +He was gone, leaving the sentence unfinished, leaving Toby looking after +him with the wide eyes of one who sees at last a vision long desired. She +stretched out both her arms as the door closed upon him and her lips +repeated very softly the words that he had last uttered. + +"Perhaps--when we got on a yacht again--" + +When they went down to the great _salle-a-manger_ a little later, her +face was flushed and her smile ready, though she glanced about her in a +shy, half-furtive fashion as they entered. They found a secluded table +reserved for them in a corner, and her eyes expressed relief. She shrank +into it as if she would make herself as small as possible. Again no one +accosted them though a good many looked in their direction. Saltash was +far too well known a figure to pass unnoticed in any fashionable crowd. +But the general attention did not centre upon them. That was absorbed by +a far greater attraction that night. + +She sat at the end of the room like a queen holding her court, and beside +her sat the Viking, stern-faced and remote of mien, as supremely isolated +as though he sat with her on a desert island. He spoke but seldom, and +then to her exclusively. But when he spoke, she turned to him the radiant +face of the woman who holds within her grasp her heart's desire. + +She was superbly dressed in many-shaded blue, and jewels sparkled with +every breath she drew. Above her forehead, there nestled in the gold of +her hair a single splendid diamond that burned like a multi-coloured +flame. She was at the acme of her triumph that night. Of all who knew +her, there was not one who had seen her thus. They watched her almost +with bated breath. She was like a being from another world. She +transcended every expectation of her. + +The band played only dance-music, by her desire, it was said; but such +music as wrought irresistibly upon the senses and emotions. She was +preparing her audience for what should follow. Throughout the meal, +excitement was steadily rising. There was almost a feeling of delirium in +the air. + +Before the bulk of diners had finished, she rose to go. Her cavalier rose +with her, flinging her gauzy wrap of blue and gold over his arm. It was +the signal for a demonstration. In a moment a youth with eyes ablaze +with adoration sprang on to a table in the centre of the vast room with a +glass of red wine held high. + +"A Rozelle! A Rozelle!" + +The cry went up to the domed roof in a great crescendo of sound, and +instantly the place was a pandemonium of shouting, excited figures. They +crowded towards the table at which the _danseuse_ still stood. And just +for a second--one fleeting second--her eyes showed a curious fear. She +stood almost as one at a loss. Then in a flash her irresolution was gone. +Her beautiful face smiled its own inimitable smile. The music of her +laughter rang silvery through the tumult. She made a dainty gesture of +acceptance, of acknowledgment, of friendly appreciation; then lightly she +turned to go. + +Her companion made a path for her. He looked as if he could have hewn his +way through a wall of rock at that moment, and his uncompromising bearing +gained him respect. No one attempted to gainsay him. + +They were gone almost before they realized that their idol had not spoken +a word to them. The moment was past, and the excitement died down to a +buzz of talk. + +"An amazing woman!" said Saltash. + +Toby glanced at him, and said nothing. She had watched the whole episode +from her corner with eyes that missed nothing; but she had not spoken a +word. + +He bent suddenly towards her. "Drink some wine, _cherie_! You are pale." + +She started a little at the quick peremptoriness of his speech. She +lifted her glass to drink, and splashed some of the wine over. He leaned +farther forward, screening her from observation. + +"Go on! Drink!" he said, with insistence, and in a moment his hand closed +upon hers, guiding the wine to her lips. + +She drank obediently, not meeting his look, and he took the glass from +her, and set it down. + +"Now we will go. Are you ready?" + +She rose, and he stood aside for her. As she passed him, his hand closed +for an instant upon her bare arm in a grasp that was close and vital. She +threw him a quick, upward glance; but still she said no word. + +They passed out through the throng of diners almost unobserved, but in +the corridor Spentoli leaned against a pillar smoking a long, black +cigar. He made no movement to intercept them, but his eyes with their +restless fire dwelt upon the girl in a fashion that drew her own +irresistibly. She saw him and slightly paused. + +It was the pause of the hunted animal that sees its retreat cut off, but +in an instant Saltash's voice, very cool, arrogantly self-assured, +checked the impulse to panic. + +"Straight on to the lift, _ma chere_! See! It is there in front of you. +There will be no one in the gallery. Go straight on!" + +She obeyed him instinctively as her habit was, but in the lift she +trembled so much that he made her sit down. He stood beside her in +silence, but once lightly his hand touched her cheek. She moved then +swiftly, convulsively, and caught it in both her own. But the next moment +he had gently drawn it free. + +The gallery that ran round three sides of the great _salon_ was deserted. +There was only one point at the far end whence a view of the stage that +had been erected for the dancer could be obtained. Towards this Saltash +turned. + +"We shall see her from here," he said. + +The place was but dimly illumined by the flare of the many lights +below--two great crystal candelabra that hung at each end being left +unlighted. Under one of these was a settee which Saltash drew forward to +the balcony. + +"No one will disturb us here," he said. "We can smoke in peace." + +He offered her his cigarette-case, but she refused it nervously, sitting +down in a corner of the settee in the crouched attitude of a frightened +creature seeking cover. The band was playing in the _salon_ now, and +people were beginning to crowd in. + +Saltash leaned back in his corner and smoked. His eyes went to and fro +ceaselessly, yet the girl beside him was aware of a scrutiny as +persistent as if they never left her. She sat in silence, clasping and +unclasping her hands, staring downwards at the shining stage. + +Very soon the _salon_ was full of people, and the lights were lowered +there while on the stage only a single shaft of blinding violet light +remained, shooting downwards from the centre. Toby's eyes became fixed +upon that shaft of light. She seemed to have forgotten to breathe. + +The band had ceased to play. There fell a potent silence. The multitude +below sat motionless, as if beneath a spell. And then she came. + +No one saw her coming. She arrived quite suddenly as though she had slid +down that shaft of light. And she was there before them dancing, dancing, +like a winged thing in the violet radiance. Not a sound broke the +stillness save a single, wandering thread of melody that might have come +from the throat of a bird, soft, fitful, but half-awake in the dawning. + +The violet light was merging imperceptibly into rose--the unutterable +rose of the early morning. It caught the dancing figure, and she lifted +her beautiful face to it and laughed. The gauzy scarf streamed out from +her shoulders like a flame, curving, mounting, sinking, now enveloping +the white arms, now flung wide in a circle of glittering splendour. + +A vast breath went up from the audience. She held them as by magic--all +save one who leaned back in his corner with no quickening of the pulses +and watched the girl beside him sitting motionless with her blue eyes +wide and fixed as though they gazed upon some horror from which there was +no escape. + +The rose light deepened to crimson. She was dancing now in giddy circles +like a many-coloured moth dazzled by the dawn. The melody was growing. +Other bird-voices were swelling into sound--a wild and flute-like music +of cadences that came and went--elusive as the laughter of wood-nymphs in +an enchanted glade. And every one of that silent crowd of watchers saw +the red light of dawn breaking through the trees of a dream-forest that +no human foot had ever trod. + +Slowly the crimson lightened. The day was coming, and the silent-flitting +moth of night was turning into a butterfly of purest gold. The scarf +still floated about her like a gold-edged cloud. The giddy whirl was +over. She came to rest, poised, quivering in the light of the newly-risen +sun, every line of her exquisite body in the accord of a perfect +symmetry. Yes, she was amazing; she was unique. Wherever she went, the +spell still held. But to-night she was as one inspired. She did not see +her spellbound audience. She was dancing for one alone. She was as a +woman who waits for her lover. + +In some fashion this fact communicated itself to her worshippers. They +guessed that somewhere near that dazzling figure the stranger whom no one +knew was watching. Insensibly, through the medium of the dancer, his +presence made itself felt. When that wonderful dance of the dawn was over +and the thunder of applause had died away, they looked around, asking who +and where he was. But no one knew, and though curiosity was rife it +seemed unlikely that it would be satisfied that night. + +Up in the gallery Toby drew a deep breath as of one coming out of a +trance, and turned towards the man beside her. The light had been turned +on in the _salon_ below, and it struck upwards on her face, showing it +white and weary. + +"So she has found another victim!" she said. + +"It seems so," said Saltash. + +She looked at him in the dimness. "Did you know that--that Captain +Larpent was with her?" + +"No," said Saltash. He leaned forward abruptly, meeting her look with a +sudden challenge. "Did you?" + +She drew back sharply. "Of course not! Of course not! What--what should I +know about her?" + +He leaned back again without comment, and lighted another cigarette. + +At the end of several seconds of silence, Toby spoke again, her locked +fingers pulling against each other nervously. + +"I wonder--do you mind--if I go soon? I--I am rather tired." + +The lights went out as she spoke, and Saltash's face became invisible. He +spoke quite kindly, but with decision, out of the darkness. + +"After this dance, _ma chere_--if you desire it." + +The music began--weird and mournful--and a murmur went round among the +eager watchers. It was her most famous dance--the dance of Death, the +most gruesome spectacle, so it was said, that any dancer had ever +conceived. She came on to the stage like the flash of an arrow, dressed +in black that glittered and scintillated with every amazing movement. And +then it began--that most wonderful dance of hers that all the world was +mad to see. + +It was almost too rapid for the eye to follow in its first stages--a +fever of movement--a delirium indescribable--a fantasy painful to watch, +but from which no watcher could turn away. Even Saltash, who had taken +small interest in the previous dance, leaned forward and gave his full +attention to this, as it were in spite of himself. The very horror of it +was magnetic. They seemed to look upon a death-struggle--the wild fight +of a creature endowed with a fiery vitality against an enemy unseen but +wholly ruthless and from the first invincible. + +Those who saw that dance of Rozelle Daubeni never forgot it, and there +was hardly a woman in the audience who was not destined to shudder +whenever the memory of it arose. It was arresting, revolting, terrible; +it must have compelled in any case. A good many began to sob with the +sheer nervous horror of it, yearning for the end upon which they were +forced to look, though with a dread that made the blood run cold. + +But the end was such as no one in that assembly looked for. Just as the +awful ecstasy of the dance was at its height, just as the dreaded crisis +approached, and they saw with a gasping horror the inevitable final +clutch of the unseen enemy upon his vanquished victim; just as she lifted +her face in the last anguish of supplication, yielding the last hope, +sinking in nerveless surrender before the implacable destroyer, there +came a sudden flare of light in the _salon_, and the great crystal +candelabra that hung over the end of the gallery where the man and the +girl were seated watching became a dazzling sparkle of overwhelming +light. + +Everyone turned towards it instinctively, and Toby, hardly knowing what +she did, but with the instinct to escape strong upon her, leapt to her +feet. + +In that moment--as she stood in the full light--the dancer's eyes also +shot upwards and saw the sum young figure. It was only for a moment, but +instantly a wild cry rang through the great _salon_--a cry of agony so +piercing that women shrieked and trembled, hiding their faces from what +they knew not what. + +In the flash of a second the light was gone, the gallery again in +darkness. But on the stage a woman's voice cried thrice: "Toinette! +Toinette! Toinette!" in the anguished accents of a mother who cries for +her dead child, and then fell into a tragic silence more poignant than +any sound--a silence that was as the silence of Death. + +And in that silence a man's figure, moving with the free, athletic swing +of a sailor, crossed the stage to where the dancer lay huddled in the +dimness like a broken thing, lifted her--bore her away. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE NEW LOVER + + +Very late that night when all the crowds who had assembled to watch +Rozelle Daubeni had dispersed with awe-struck whisperings, two men came +down the great staircase into the empty vestibule and paused at the foot. + +"You are leaving Paris again?" said Saltash. + +The other nodded, his face perfectly emotionless, his eyes the eyes of a +sailor who searches the far horizon. "There is nothing to keep me here," +he said, and absently accepted a cigarette from the case that Saltash +proffered. "I have always hated towns. I only came--" He stopped, +considered a moment, and said no more. + +Saltash's eyes were upon him, alert, speculative, but wholly without +malice. "You came--because you were sent for," he said. + +Larpent nodded twice thoughtfully, more as if in answer to some mental +suggestion than as if the words had been actually uttered. He struck a +match and held it for Saltash. Then, as he deliberately lighted his own +cigarette, between slow puffs he spoke: "There was only--one reason on +earth--that would have brought me." + +"Yes?" said Saltash. He dropped into a chair with the air of a man who +has limitless leisure at his disposal, but his tone was casual. He did +not ask for confidence. + +Larpent stood still gazing before him through the smoke with keen, +unwavering eyes. + +"Only one reason," he said again, and still he seemed to speak as one who +communes with his inner soul. "She was dying--and she wanted me." He +paused a moment, and an odd tremor went through him. "After twenty +years," he said, as if in wonder at himself. + +Saltash's look came swiftly upwards. "I've heard that before," he said. +"Those she caught she kept--always. No other woman was ever worth while +after Rozelle." + +Larpent's hand clenched instinctively, but he said nothing. + +Saltash went on in the same casual tone. "She never caught me, _mon ami_. +I met her too late in life--when I was beginning to get fastidious." His +monkey-like grin showed for a moment. "I appreciated her charm, but--it +left me cold." + +"You never saw her in her first youth," said Larpent, and into his fixed +eyes there came a curious glow--the look of a man who sees a vision. + +"What was she like then?" said Saltash. + +Slowly the sailor answered him, word by word as one spelling out a +strange language. "She was like a butterfly that plays among the +flowers in the early morning. She had the look of a boy--the wide-open +eyes, the fearless way, the freedom, the daring. Her innocence--her +loveliness--" Something rose unexpectedly in his throat. He stopped and +swallowed hard. "My God! How lovely she was!" he said, in a strangled +voice. + +Saltash got up in his sudden, elastic fashion. "Look here! You want a +drink. Sit down while I get you one!" + +He was gone with the words, not waiting for the half-uttered remonstrance +that the other man sent after him. + +Larpent stood staring heavily before him for a space, then turned with a +mechanical movement and dropped into a chair. He was sitting so, bent +forward, his hands clasped in front of him when Saltash returned. He had +the worn, grey look of a man tired out with hard travel. + +Saltash poured out a drink and held it down to him. "Here's the stuff! +Drink, man! It'll put new life into you." + +Larpent drank, still in that slow, mechanical fashion. But as he drained +the glass his eyes met Saltash's alert look and a faint, grim smile +crossed his haggard features. + +"Don't let me spoil your holiday, my lord!" he said. + +"Don't be a damn' fool!" said Saltash. + +Larpent sat in silence for several seconds. Then in a more normal tone he +spoke again. "I had to come to her. God knows what made her want me after +all these years. But I couldn't refuse to come. I had her message two +days ago. She said she was alone--dying. So I came." He paused and wiped +his forehead. "I thought she had tricked me. You saw her as she was +to-night. She was like that--full of life, superb. But--I had come to +her, and I found I couldn't leave her. She wanted me--she wanted me--to +take her back." He got up, but not with any agitation, and began to pace +to and fro as though he paced a deck. "You will think me mad of course. +You never came under the spell. But I, I was first with her; and +perhaps it was fitting that I should be the last. Had she lived--after +to-night--I would have taken her away. She would never have danced again. +I would have taken her out of this damnable world that had dragged her +down. I'd have saved her somehow." + +"You wouldn't," said Saltash. "It's like a recurrent fever. You'd never +have held her." + +"I say I would." Larpent spoke deeply, but still without emotion. "I +could have done it--and no one else on earth. I tell you I was first with +her, and a woman doesn't forget the first. I had a power that no other +man ever possessed, or ever could possess. I was--her husband." + +"What?" said Saltash. + +Larpent paced on with bent head. "I was her husband. But I was at sea and +she was on shore. And so I lost her. She was not made to stand against +temptation. It came to her when I was on the other side of the world. +When I got back, she was gone. And I--I never followed her. The thing was +hopeless. She was that sort, you understand. It was first one and then +another with her. I dropped her out of my life, and let her go. I didn't +realize then--what I know now--that the power to rescue and to hold her +was mine. If I had, I might have gone after her. I can't say. But I was +too bitter at the time to feel it was worth while. I went back to the sea +and left her to work out her own damnation." + +"And yet you loved her?" Saltash said, with a queer twist of the features +that was not of mirth. + +"I loved her, yes. If I hadn't loved her I would never have come to her +when she called. That is love--the thing that doesn't die." A sudden +throb sounded in Larpent's voice. He paused for a moment in his walk, +then paced on. "You may laugh at it--call it what you will--but there is +a power on the earth that is stronger than anything else, and when that +power speaks we have got to obey. I didn't want to come. You think me a +damn fool for coming. But I had to. That's all there is to it." + +"I don't think you any sort of a fool," Saltash threw in briefly. "You +did the only thing possible." + +"Yes, the only thing. I came to her. If I hadn't come, she'd have +died--alone. But that alone wasn't why she sent for me--it was the +primary reason, but not the only one. There was another." Larpent ceased +his pacing and deliberately faced the man who stood listening. "You know +what happened to-night," he said. "That child--the scaramouch you picked +out of the gutter at Valrosa--Toby--do you realize--have you grasped--the +meaning of that yet?" + +Saltash flung up his head with an arrogant gesture. "There is one thing +about her you have not grasped," he said. "But go on! I may as well hear +it." + +Larpent went on steadily. "When I came to her yesterday she told me of a +child that had been born to her--a child she had loved but had been +unable to protect. It was a long story. Spentoli the Italian artist knows +it from beginning to end. You know Spentoli?" + +"I know him," said Saltash. + +"Spentoli is a blackguard," Larpent said, "the sort that is born, not +made afterwards. He has painted Rozelle over and over again. He raves +about her. He may be a genius. He is certainly mad. He wanted the child +for a model, and Rozelle could not prevent it. So she told me. I believe +she was dependent upon him at the time. She had been ill. She has been +ill for years with heart trouble. And so he had the child, but only for a +time. The girl had a will of her own and broke away, joined a circus in +California. He tracked her down, captured her again, tried to make a +slave of her. But she was like a wild creature. She stabbed him one night +and fled. That was Rozelle's trouble. She had never been able to hear of +her again. She begged me to find--and save her. I promised to do my best. +But--there was no need to search very far. To-night Spentoli pulled the +wires again. It was he who switched on that light. It was he who killed +Rozelle. The girl in the gallery with you--Toby--was her daughter--and +mine. You heard Rozelle cry out when she saw her. She never spoke again." + +Larpent ceased to speak. He was no longer looking at Saltash. The far +vision seemed to have caught his gaze again. He stared beyond. + +Saltash watched him with working brows. "Are you wanting to lay claim to +the girl?" he asked abruptly. + +Larpent's face was grim. "I make no claim, my lord," he said. "But I have +sworn to do my best for her. I shall keep that oath of mine." + +"Meaning?" said Saltash. + +The sailor's look met his squarely. "You know what I mean," he said. + +Saltash began to grin. "A fight to a finish, what? I'm sorry, _mon ami_. +But I've got you beaten at the start. Shall I tell you how you can best +keep that somewhat rash oath of yours?" + +"Well?" The word fell brief and uncompromising. Larpent's face was as +carved granite. + +Saltash thrust forth a sudden hand and took him by the shoulder. "Just by +effacing yourself, _mon vieux_," he said lightly. "Go back to _The Blue +Moon_, take her to Fairharbour, and await my orders there!" + +It was carelessly, even jestingly, spoken, but a certain authority lurked +behind the words. Charles Rex knew how to assert his kingship upon +occasion, knew also how to temper it with the touch of friendship. + +Larpent's look did not waver, but some of the grimness went from it. +Neither anger nor indignation had any place here. He continued to look +Saltash straight in the face. + +"And that would be keeping my oath?" he said. + +"Even so," said Saltash. + +"You mean," Larpent spoke with slow emphasis, "that to leave her where +she now is, is to leave her in safe and honourable keeping?" + +The old mocking smile gleamed in Saltash's eyes. "Yes, I mean that," he +said. "Do you believe me, Larpent?" + +"Believe you, my lord?" Larpent seemed to hesitate. + +The hand that held him moved with a hint of impatience. "I am asking," +said Saltash royally, "if you consider that my protection is adequate +for--my wife." + +"Your--wife!" Larpent started in sharp surprise. "Your wife, did you +say?" + +Saltash broke into a chuckle and dropped his hand from his captain's +shoulder. "Yes, just that," he said. "You are behind the times, my +friend. Are you going to congratulate me? We were married four days ago." + +Larpent's hand came out to him abruptly. "It's the best thing you've ever +done, my lord," he said. "And you will never regret it." + +"What makes you say that?" said Saltash curiously. + +Their hands gripped and fell apart. Larpent answered him in the brief +fashion of the man whose words are few. "Mainly because you loved her +enough to marry her when you could have had her without." + +Saltash's laugh had the old derisive ring but there was no corresponding +gleam of mockery in his eyes as he turned carelessly aside. "What is this +thing called love?" he said. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE REFUGEE + + +It was by no means characteristic of Jake to linger on a quest which had +already proved fruitless but he was a man who possessed acquaintances in +almost all parts of the world, and Paris was no exception. For the rest +of the day after leaving Saltash he was philosophically occupied in +seeking out old friends. Eventually he dined at a restaurant and betook +himself to the station to catch the night train to Calais. It was all one +to Jake whether he travelled by night or by day, so wholly accustomed was +he to adapt himself to circumstances. Maud was wont to say with a smile +that the luxuries of decent living were utterly thrown away upon him. He +was a man who scarcely noticed physical discomfort. He could sleep under +practically any conditions. + +Walking solidly down the platform, carrying his own baggage, his thoughts +were completely astray from his surroundings. They had reverted to the +memory of the girlish figure he had seen that morning seated on a table, +swinging one leg in studied nonchalance while every line was instinct +with defiance. Yes, she had defied him, but deep in her heart she had +feared--how she had feared!--that Saltash would fail to hold her against +him. Again, a deep compassion came over Jake, stirring the very depths +of him. Poor little girl, flung to and fro as flotsam in the cruel surf +of life's breakers! He had done his best to deliver her, but Fate had +been against him. Fate had ordained that she should be the victim of this +man's caprice, the slave of impulses which might or might not be her +destruction. It was as if he watched her trying to walk on a quicksand. +And he was powerless to help her. Saltash had defeated him, and he had no +insight into his motives. Unstable, baffling, irresponsible as a monkey +that swings from tree to tree, he had snatched his prize, and even Jake, +who knew him better than most, could only speculate as to whether he +would carry it high above disaster or tire and idly fling it away. Some +vagrant sense of honour seemed to have actuated him so far, but never +yet had he known such a motive to last for long. The man's face was +beyond him, too fantastic for comprehension. He recognized that he was +capable of greatness, but very few were the occasions on which he had +achieved it. If the motive power were lacking in this instance, Toby's +chances were indeed small. + +He found an empty carriage and threw his belongings on to a seat. The +train was not a favourite one, and there would be no crowd. He had some +minutes to wait, and he lighted his pipe and began to pace the platform +unencumbered. A few travellers straggling by eyed him with some interest. +He was not a man to be passed unnoticed. The massive, thick-set shoulders +had a bull-dog strength that must have marked him in any crowd. His +height was unremarkable, but there was power in every dominant line of +him. He had the free carriage of one accustomed to the wide places of the +earth. + +He took small note of his fellow-travellers, being engrossed in his own +thoughts. He wondered how Maud would regard the situation, and half +wished she had been with him to deal with it. For Maud possessed +undoubted influence over Saltash. He reflected that she was probably +the only person in the world who did. + +He had strolled almost to the barrier and was in the act of turning +back when something--some impulse for which he could never afterwards +account--induced him to pause and take stock of the passengers passing +through. The train was almost due to start, and there was some slight +confusion and a quickening of feet on the platform. He realized that he +ought to be going back to his own carriage, but something stayed him. He +stood still, his keen eyes searching the hastening figures. + +And so standing, in a moment his attention was focussed upon a girl in a +blue cloak who came towards him at a run evidently intent upon catching +the train. She passed him swiftly without seeing him, almost brushed +against him. And behind her came a dark man with black moustache and +imperial, following her closely with an air of proprietorship. + +Jake wheeled in his tracks, for a second amazed out of all composure. But +an instant later he was in pursuit. He had had but a fleeting glimpse of +her face, and the blue cloak was quite unfamiliar to him; but there was +no mistaking the boyish freedom of her gait, the athletic swing of her as +she turned and leaped into a compartment that her companion opened for +her. + +The black-browed Italian was in the act of following when Jake arrived. +The realization of another hand upon the door was the first intimation +that reached him of the Englishman's presence. He turned and looked +into a pair of red-brown eyes that regarded him with the utmost +steadiness as a quiet voice made slightly drawling explanation. + +"This lady is a friend of mine," said Jake Bolton. "I should like a word +with her." + +The Italian looked murderous for a moment, but he gave ground almost in +spite of himself. Perhaps the calm insistence of the other man's bearing +warned him at the outset of the futility of attempting any other course +of action; Jake was actually in the carriage before he could jerk out a +word of protest. + +"_Sapristi!_ You go too far!" he blustered then. But Jake was already +confronting the girl who had started up at his coming, and stood facing +him white and shaken. He spoke, still quite quietly, even gently, but in +the tone that no delinquent ever heard unmoved. + +"Say," he said, "are you playing the game?" + +She put up a hand to her throat. His sudden coming had unnerved her, and +she had no words. But her quivering face and tragic eyes were more than +sufficient answer for Jake. He had dealt with sudden emergencies before, +and he treated this one with characteristic decision. + +"You've no business here," he said, "and you know it. If you can't stick +to the man you've married, come home with me to Maud!" + +She made a sharp gesture toward him, as if on the verge of falling, and +as sharply recovered herself. "Oh, I wish--how I wish I could!" she +breathed. + +Jake's hand, perfectly steady, full of sustaining strength, closed with +authority upon her arm. "That's settled then," he said. "Come now!" + +But at this point the Italian burst furiously in upon them with a flood +of unintelligible language that made all further speech impossible. + +Jake glanced momentarily over his shoulder as if disturbed by the buzzing +of some insect, then with unruffled composure turned back to the girl. +His eyes looked straight into hers for perhaps ten seconds, then in the +same purposeful fashion he set her free and deliberately turned upon the +man who raged behind him. + +As he did so, there came a shouting and banging of doors along the +platform, and the train began to move. Jake's massive shoulders braced +themselves. Without words he seized the raving Italian in a grip there +was no resisting, swept him, as a sudden gale sweeps a leaf, across +the compartment, sent him with a neat twist buzzing forth upon the +platform, and very calmly shut the door and came back. + +Then there came a wild shriek of laughter from Toby, and she doubled up +in her corner with hysterical mirth, gasping and gasping for breath, till +he sat squarely down beside her and pulled her into the circle of his +arm. + +"Easy, my girl! Easy!" he said. "We're not going to have an exhibition at +this stage. You keep a stiff upper lip till you feel better!" + +But the stiff upper lip was rather painfully lacking on that occasion. +She very soon ceased to laugh, but for a long time thereafter she lay +sobbing and shuddering like a little terrified animal against his breast +while the train rushed on through the night. + +He was very gentle with her. Jake's stock of patience was practically +limitless, and he and Toby had always had a certain comradeship between +them. But when she grew calmer at last he began to talk in the quiet, +direct fashion habitual to him. + +"Say now! You've had a bit of a facer over this. But you needn't be +frightened. You're safe enough from that damned Italian anyway. And +you'll find me a better refuge than he is--if that's what you're +wanting." + +She shivered and pressed closer. "You--don't know--what you're in for," +she whispered piteously. + +"That so?" said Jake, unmoved. "Well, maybe you'd like to enlighten me." + +But Toby shook her head with a sob. "I couldn't! I just couldn't, Jake. +Do you mind?" + +Jake considered the point with slightly drawn brows. "I guess there's no +hurry," he decided at length. "We'll get home first anyway. That's the +main point. You won't be sorry to get back to Maud, I take it?" + +She answered him with a swift and passionate fervour that spoke more +clearly than any words of the anguish of her soul. "Oh, Jake, I wish I'd +died--I wish I'd died--before I left her!" + +Jake's brows contracted more decidedly, but he said nothing further on +the subject. Only after a moment or two he patted her shoulder +reassuringly. "I'll take care of you," he said. "You go to sleep!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE TURNING-POINT + + +"You've brought her back!" said Bunny in amazement. "You've actually +brought her back! Here, Jake? Not here?" + +"It was the only thing to do." said Jake between puffs at his pipe. "I'm +sorry on your account, but--well, you can keep out of her way." + +Bunny's face was flushed. He stood on the hearth and stared down at Jake +with a troubled countenance. "But you won't be able to keep her," he +protested after a moment. "Charlie will come and get her away again--as +soon as he knows. He's such a wily devil." + +"He does know," said Jake. + +"He knows? Who told him?" + +"I told him," said Jake. + +"You told him! What the devil for? I don't understand you, Jake." Bunny's +tone had a touch of fierceness in it, almost of challenge. + +Jake's eyes came up to him with absolute steadiness. "I told him," he +said deliberately, "because he is the one person who has a right to know. +He is her husband." + +"I don't believe it!" said Bunny violently. "He'd never marry her! It was +a damn trick if he pretended to." + +"No," Jake said, "it was not a trick. He has married her, and it's up to +him to make the next move." + +"But what on earth for?" demanded Bunny. "What made him do such a thing?" + +"God knows," said Jake, with a certain sombreness. "He did it. That's all +I know." + +Bunny stamped round in a sudden fury and began to pace the room. "I +suppose he did it to defeat me! Did he actually think I should want her +after--after--" + +"Bunny!" Swift and sharp as a whip-lash Jake's voice cut across the +words. "Stop that! Pull up and sit down!" + +Bunny wheeled and came back in silence. His face was deadly pale, but he +sat down on the edge of the table by Jake's side. + +Jake reached out a leisurely hand and gripped him by the knee. "Between +you and me, my son," he said, "I don't think you came into the reckoning +at all. I can't tell you exactly what happened, because I don't know, but +I'm pretty sure that Saltash married her from a somewhat stronger motive +than just to put you out of the running. As you say, he could have done +that without taking all that trouble. He's treated you damn badly, I +admit, but it's just possible he couldn't help himself, and anyway I +don't think he's hurt you seriously--except in the place where you keep +your pride." + +"You think I didn't love her!" broke in Bunny, moving restlessly under +his hand. + +Jake's eyes had the glimmer of a smile as he met the boy's hot look. "I +think you don't love her now anyway, Bunny," he said. + +"You're quite right," said Bunny shortly. "I don't. I never want to see +her again--now I know what she is." + +"You don't know," said Jake. "She has always been an unknown quantity to +you. That's why I've always felt doubtful about you. Guess you never +loved her quite enough, boy. That was your trouble." + +"Didn't love her!" ejaculated Bunny. + +Jake nodded. "Or you'd have understood her better--stood by her better." + +"I'd have loved her fast enough if she'd loved me," protested Bunny. "But +that scoundrel always came first with her. I never had a chance." + +"Oh yes, you had." Again the faint smile showed for an instant in the +elder man's eyes. "Not much of one, perhaps, but you had a chance. If +she'd been quite sure of you, she wouldn't have run away." + +"Wouldn't she? Then she can't be very sure of Saltash either." Bunny +spoke with a certain gloomy triumph. + +Jake blew forth a cloud of smoke and watched it rise thoughtfully. "I'm +waiting for Saltash," he said. "I've got him on test." + +"You believe in him?" questioned Bunny contemptuously. + +Jake's eyes remained fixed. "I believe," he said slowly, "that there +comes a turning-point in every man's life--whatever he's been--when he +either makes good or throws in his hand altogether. I've been through it +myself, and I know what it means. It's Saltash's turn now." + +"Oh, rot, Jake!" Bunny turned on him with the old boyish admiration +shining in his eyes. "You--why, you've made good every time--just about +as often as Charlie has done the other thing." + +"No." Jake spoke without elation. "I did make good, but I went through +hell first, and I very nearly failed. It may be the same with him. If +so--well, poor devil, he has my sympathy." + +"You can't be sorry for a hound like Saltash!" remonstrated Bunny. + +Jake turned squarely and faced him. "Well, there you're wrong, Bunny," he +said. "I reckon I'm sorrier for him than I am for you. You've got a clean +record, and you'll win out and marry Sheila Melrose. But Saltash--well, +he's got a damn heavy handicap, and if he pulls off this, it'll be one of +the biggest events I've ever seen. Say, what's the matter?" + +Bunny had sprung to his feet. He stood looking at Jake with an expression +half-startled and half-indignant. "Jake--you beast! What made you say +that?" he demanded. + +"What?" said Jake, and began to smile openly. "Well, guess it's pretty +near the mark, isn't it? I saw which way the wind was trying to blow some +time ago. Mean to say you didn't?" + +Bunny swung upon his heel. "Confound you!" he said, and was silent for +several seconds. + +Jake smoked imperturbably on. He knew all the workings of Bunny's mind +with the sure intuition of long intimacy. When finally the boy spoke +again without turning he almost knew what he would say. + +"Think I'm--very despicable, Jake?" + +The question had a shamed and sullen ring. Bunny's head was bent. He was +examining a little china figure on the mantelpiece with nervous +concentration. + +Jake arose without fuss or preliminary, and pushed a brotherly arm round +the bent shoulders. "Guess you've never been that, sonny," he said very +kindly. "But--you take an old man's advice and go a bit slow! She'll +think all the better of you for it." + +"She'll never look at me," muttered Bunny, gripping the hand that pressed +his shoulder without raising his eyes. + +"Ho, won't she?" said Jake. "I've seen her look at you more than +once--and the old General too. Reckon they both thought you were throwing +yourself away on Toby, and maybe they had some reason to think so. +Anyway, she never was your sort. I seem to remember telling you so once." + +"I was a fool," said Bunny, and then in a moment straightened himself +and looked Jake in the eyes. "It wasn't Toby's fault," he said with +abrupt generosity. "She didn't want to get engaged to me. I made her. +I knew--all along--she wasn't very keen. But I thought I loved her enough +to make it all right. I was wrong. I didn't." + +"Beginning to know better?" suggested Jake, with a smile. + +"Beginning to realize what a fool I've been," said Bunny ruefully. "You +don't think I've done for myself then? Think I've still got a chance?" + +"Sure thing!" said Jake. "But go carefully. You've got a fence or two to +clear before you get home." He paused a moment, then gave him a kindly +hand-grip. "Say, Bunny," he said, "there's nothing despicable about +making a mistake. It's only when things go wrong and we don't play the +game that there's anything to be ashamed of. I've always been ready to +stake my last dollar that you'd never do that." + +"Oh, man," Bunny said, in swift embarrassment, "that shows how much you +know about me!" + +Jake stooped to knock out the ashes of his pipe in the fender. "What I +don't know about you, my son," he said, "ain't worth a donkey's bray, I +reckon, so you can shut your mouth on that! I'm going back to Maud now. +Any messages?" + +"Yes." Bunny was standing up very straight; his eyes were shining. "Love +to Maud of course. I shan't come round at present. But tell Toby that +when I do, she needn't be worried over anything. We're all square. Tell +her that!" + +"I will," said Jake. He turned to the door, then paused, looking back. +"And say!" he said. "Don't you butt in with Saltash! Just leave him to +manage his own fate! He's riding a bucking horse, but I've a notion he'll +yet make good--if he can." + +"He's a rum devil," said Bunny. "All right. I shan't interfere." + +After Jake had gone, he sat down and pulled a letter from his pocket. All +the lines of perplexity smoothed out of his boyish face as he read it. It +was the letter of a woman who had written because she wanted to write, +not because she had anything to say, and Bunny's eyes were very tender as +he came to the end. He sat for a space gazing down at the signature, and +at length with a gesture half-shamefaced he put it to his lips. + +"Yes, I've been a fool, Sheila," he said softly. "But, thank heaven, I +was pulled up in time. And I shan't--ever--make that mistake again." + +Which was perhaps exactly what the writer had meant him to say. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +LARPENT + + +"Shall we dig a deep, deep hole for you to lie in?" asked Eileen with +serious violet eyes upraised. + +"And then cover you right up to your head so as you won't catch cold?" +chimed in Molly. + +"Betty dig too! Betty dig too!" cried the youngest of the party with +zest. "Zite up over Auntie Toy's head!" + +"What an excellent idea!" said Toby with resignation. + +She sat down in the golden afternoon sunshine that flooded the beach, the +three children buzzing happily about her, and rested her chin on her +hands. The blue eyes that dwelt upon the misty horizon were very tired. +They had the heavy look of unshed tears, and all the delicate colour +was gone from her face. Her slight figure drooped pathetically. She sat +very still. All the elasticity of youth seemed to have gone out of her. +Once or twice a sharp sigh caught her that was almost like a sob. + +Betty's shrill voice at her side recalled her from her dreams. "Betty +tired now, Auntie Toy. Betty tummin' to sit down." + +She turned and took the child upon her lap with a fondling touch and +tender words. Betty pillowed a downy head against her neck and almost +immediately fell asleep. Eileen and Molly laboured on at their +self-imposed task in the autumn sunshine, and Toby returned to her +dreams. + +Perhaps she also had begun to doze, for the day was warm and sound sleep +had forsaken her of late; when the falling of a shadow aroused her very +swiftly to the consciousness of someone near at hand whose approach she +had not heard. She controlled her quick start before it could awaken the +sleeping child, but her eyes as they flashed upwards had the strained, +panic-stricken look of a hunted animal. She made an almost involuntary +movement of shrinking and the blood went out of her lips, but she spoke +no word. + +A man in a navy-blue yachting-suit stood looking down at her with +blue-grey eyes that tried to be impersonal but failed at that slight +gesture of hers. + +"You needn't be afraid of me, heaven knows," he said. + +"I'm not," said Toby promptly, and flung him her old boyish smile. "I +wasn't expecting just you at that moment, that's all. Sit down and talk, +Captain--if that's what you've come for!" + +Apparently it was. He lowered himself to the sand beside her. But at +once--as by irresistible habit--his eyes sought the horizon, and he sat +and contemplated it in utter silence. + +Toby endured the situation for a few difficult seconds, then took brisk +command. "Why don't you have a smoke?" she said. "You'd find it a help." + +He put his hand mechanically into his pocket and took out his +cigarette-case. His eyes came back out of space as he did so, and rested +upon the fair-haired child in the girl's arms. + +"So you've come back to the old job!" he said. + +Toby nodded. "Yes. Jake's doing. I'm waiting to--to--to be divorced." + +He made a slight movement of surprise, but his face remained inscrutable. +"You'll have to wait some time for that," he said. + +Toby tilted her chin with a reckless gesture that was somehow belied by +the weariness of her eyes. "That wasn't what you came to talk about +then?" she suggested after a pause. + +"No." Larpent's voice had a curious, almost deprecating quality. "I came +to bring you a message." + +"A message!" She started slightly, and in a moment the defiance went out +of her attitude. She turned towards him. "Who--who is it from?" + +Larpent's far-seeing eyes came gravely to meet her own. "From Rozelle +Daubeni," he said. + +"Ah!" A quick shiver went through Toby. She averted her look. "I don't +want to hear it," she said. + +"I've got to deliver it," said Larpent, with a hint of doggedness. "And +you've got to listen. But you needn't be afraid. It isn't going to make +any difference to you. The time has gone for that." + +He paused, but Toby sat in silence, her face bent over Betty's fair head. +When he spoke again, his eyes had gone back to the quiet sea and the far +horizon. There was a hint of pathos about him, albeit his face was grim. + +"It may have surprised you to see me in Paris with her," he said. "I'm +not the sort of man that runs after--that type of woman. But I went to +Rozelle because she was dying, and because once--long ago--she was my +wife." + +A faint sound came from Toby, but still she did not speak or lift her +face. + +Larpent went on steadily, unemotionally. "She went wrong--ran away--while +I was at sea. She was too young to be left alone. Afterwards--too late--a +child was born. She told me the night before she died that the child was +mine." + +"Good God!" said Toby under her breath. + +He went on, grimly monotonous. "I never knew of the child's existence. If +I had known, it might have made a difference. But it's too late now. She +wanted me to find and protect the child. I promised to do my best. And +when I found her, I was to tell her one thing. Rozelle prayed for her +child's forgiveness every day." + +He ceased to speak, and there fell a silence, long and painful. The tide +was turning, and the soft wash of tiny breakers came up the sand. Sea and +sky mingled together, opalescent in the misty sunlight. The man's eyes +gazed without seeing. Toby's were full of tears. + +He turned at last and looked at her, then, moved by what he saw, laid an +awkward hand upon her arm. + +"I'm not asking anything from you," he said. "But I'd like you to know +I'd have done more--if I'd known." + +She threw him a quick look, choking back her tears. "It--it--it's rather +funny, isn't it?" she said, with a little crack of humour in her voice. +"I'm--I'm very sorry. Captain Larpent." + +"Sorry?" he said. + +"For you," said Toby, with another piteous choke. "I've been foisted on +to you so often. And you--you've hated it so." + +"That's the tragic part of it," said Larpent. + +She brushed away her tears and tried to smile. "I wonder you bothered to +tell me," she said. + +His hand closed almost unconsciously upon her arm. "I had to tell you," +he said. "It's a thing you ought to know." He hesitated a moment, then +concluded with obvious effort. "And I wanted to offer you my help." + +"Thank you," whispered Toby. "You--you--that's very--generous of you." +She gulped again, and recovered herself. "What do you want to do about +it?" she said. + +"Do? Well, what can I do?" He seemed momentarily disconcerted by the +question. + +Toby became brisk and business-like. "Well, you don't want to retire and +live in a cottage with me, do you? We shouldn't either of us like that, +should we?" + +"There's no question of that now," said Larpent quietly. "Your home is +with your husband, not with me." + +Toby flinched a little. "My home isn't anywhere then," she said. "When I +left him, it was--for good." + +"Why did you leave him?" said Larpent. + +Toby's lips set in a firm line, and she made no answer. + +Larpent waited a few moments; then: "It's no matter for my interference," +he said. "But it seems to me you've made a mistake in one particular. You +don't realize why he married you." + +Toby made a small passionate movement of protest. "He ought not to have +done it," she said, in a low voice. "I ought not to have let him. I +thought I could play the part. I know now I can't. And--he knows it too." + +"I think you'll have to play the part," Larpent said. + +"No!" She spoke with vehemence. "It's quite impossible. He has been far +too good--far too generous. But it shan't go on. He's got to set me free. +If he doesn't--" she stopped abruptly. + +"Well? If he doesn't?" Larpent's voice was unwontedly gentle, and there +was compassion in his look. + +Toby's eyes avoided his. "I'll find--a way for myself," she said almost +inarticulately. + +Larpent's fingers tightened again upon the thin young arm. "It's no good +fighting Fate," he said. "Why has it become impossible? Just because he +knows all about you? Do you suppose that--or anything else--is going to +make any difference at this stage? Do you imagine he would let you +go--for that?" + +Toby's arm strained against him. "He'll have to," she declared +stubbornly. "He doesn't know all about me either---any more than you do. +And--and--and--he's never going to know." + +Her voice shook stormily. She glanced about her desperately as if in +search of refuge. The child in her arms stirred and woke. + +Larpent got up as if the conversation were ended. He stood for a moment +irresolute, then walked across to the two little girls digging busily a +few yards away. + +Eileen greeted him with her usual shy courtesy. "Won't you wait a little +longer?" she said. "We've very nearly finished." + +"Nearly finished," echoed Molly. "Isn't it a booful big hole?" + +"What's it for?" asked Larpent. + +Toby's voice answered him. She had risen and followed him. It had an odd +break in it--the sound of laughter that is mingled with tears. "They're +digging a hole to bury me in. Isn't it a great idea?" + +He wheeled and looked at her. There was no sign of tears in the wide blue +eyes that met his own. Yet he put his hand on her shoulder with the +gesture of one who comforts a child. + +"Before I go," he said, "I want to tell you something--something no one +has told me, but that I've found out for myself. There is only one thing +on this earth worth having--only one thing that counts. It isn't rank or +wealth or even happiness. It swamps the lot, just because it's the only +thing in God's creation that lasts. And you've got it. In heaven's name, +don't throw it away!" + +He spoke with the simplicity and strength of a man who never wastes his +words, and having spoken, he released her without farewell and turned +away. + +Toby stood quite motionless for several seconds, watching him; then, as +he did not look round, hurriedly she addressed the eldest child. + +"Take care of Betty a moment, Eileen darling! I shall be back directly." +And with the words she was gone, like an arrow, in pursuit. + +He must have heard her feet upon the sand, but he did not turn. Perhaps +his thoughts were elsewhere, for when at the quick pressure of her hand +on his arm he paused to look at her, she saw that his eyes were very sad. + +"Well?" he said, with the glimmer of a smile. "Well,--Toinette?" + +She clasped her two hands upon his arm, holding it very tightly, her face +uplifted. "Please--I want to thank you," she said breathlessly. "You have +been--so very good." + +He shook his head. "I have done--nothing," he said. "Don't thank me!" + +She went on with nervous haste. "And it does make a difference to me. +I--I--I'm glad I know, though it must have been--a great shock to you." + +"It would have been a much worse shock if it had been anyone else," he +said. + +"Would it? How nice of you!" Her lip trembled. "Well then, I'm glad it +wasn't." She began to walk on with him. "Do you mind telling me--did +you--did you--forgive her?" + +"Yes," he said very quietly. + +A quick shiver went through her. "Then I must too," she said. "At +least--I must try. She--she--I loved her once, you know, before I began +to understand." + +"Everyone loved her," he said. + +"But life is very difficult, isn't it?" she urged rather tremulously. + +"Your life has been," he said. + +She nodded. "One can't help--can't help--making mistakes--even bad +ones--sometimes." + +"You've just made one," he said. + +She faced him valiantly. "Ah, but you don't understand. You--you can't +throw away--what you've never had, can you--can you?" + +"What you've got," he corrected gravely. "Yes, you can." + +She flung out her hands with a wide gesture. "But I haven't got it! I +never had it! He took me out of pity. He never--pretended to love me." + +"No," said Larpent, with grim certitude. "He isn't pretending this time." + +She stared at him, wide-eyed, motionless. "Not pretending? What do you +mean? Please--what do you mean?" + +He held out his hand. "Good-bye!" he said abruptly. "I mean--just that." + +Her lips were parted to say more, but something in his face or action +checked her. She put her hand into his. "Good-bye!" she said. + +He held her hand for a moment, then, moved by some hint of forlornness in +the clear eyes, he bent, as he had bent at the Castle on that summer +evening weeks before, and lightly touched her forehead with his lips. + +"Oh, that's nice of you," said Toby quickly. "Thank you for that." + +"Don't thank me for anything!" said Larpent. "Play a straight game, +that's all!" + +And with the words he left her finally, striding away over the sand with +that careless sailor's gait of his, gazing always far ahead of him out to +the dim horizon. Perhaps as long as he lived his look would never again +dwell upon anything nearer. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +IN THE NAME OF LOVE + + +"It's been--a funny game," said Saltash, with a wry grimace. "We've both +of us been so damned subtle that it seems to me we've ended up in much +the same sort of hole that we started in." + +"But you're not going to stay in it," said Maud. + +He turned and looked down at her, one eyebrow cocked at a comic angle. +"_Ma belle reine_, if you can help us to climb out, you will earn my +undying gratitude." + +She met his look with her steadfast eyes. "Charlie, do you know that +night after night she cries as if her poor little heart were broken?" + +Saltash's eyebrow descended again. He scowled hideously. "_Mais +pourquoi?_ I have not broken it. I have never even made love to her." + +Maud's face was very compassionate. "Perhaps that is why. She is so +young--so forlorn--and so miserable. Is it quite impossible for you to +forgive her?" + +"Forgive her!" said Saltash. "Does she want to be forgiven?" + +"She is fretting herself ill over it," Maud said. "I can't bear to see +her. No, she has told me nothing--except that she is waiting for you to +throw her off--to divorce her. Charlie, you wouldn't do that even if you +could!" + +Saltash was silent; the scowl still upon his face. + +"Tell me you wouldn't!" she urged. + +His odd eyes met hers with a shifting gleam of malice. "There is only one +reason for which I would do that, _ma chere_," he said. "So she has not +told you why she ran away with my friend Spentoli?" + +Maud shook her head. "She does not speak of it at all. I only know that +she was unspeakably thankful to Jake for protecting her from him." + +"Ah!" Saltash's teeth showed for an instant. "I also am grateful to Jake +for that. He seems to have taken a masterly grip of the situation. Is he +aware that he broke Spentoli's arm, I wonder? It was in the papers, +alongside the tragic death of Rozelle. 'Fall of a Famous Sculptor from a +Train.' It will keep him quiet for some time, I hear, and has saved me +the trouble of calling him out. I went to see him in hospital." + +"You went to see him!" Maud exclaimed. + +Saltash nodded, the derisive light still in his eyes. "And conveyed my +own condolences. You may tell _la petite_ from me that I do not propose +to set her free on his account. He is not what I should describe as a +good and sufficient cause." + +"Thank heaven for that!" Maud ejaculated with relief. + +"Amen!" said Saltash piously, and took out his cigarette-case. + +She watched him with puzzled eyes till the cigarette was alight and he +smiled at her through the smoke, his swarthy face full of mocking humour. + +"Now tell me!" she said then, "how can I help you?" + +He made a wide gesture. "I leave that entirely to your discretion, madam. +As you may perceive, I have wholly ceased to attempt to help myself." + +"You are not angry with her?" she hazarded. + +"I am furious," said Charles Rex royally. + +She shook her head at him. "You're not in earnest--and it wouldn't help +you if you were. Besides, you couldn't be angry with the poor little +thing. Charlie, you love her, don't you? You--you want her back?" + +He shifted his position slightly so that the smoke of his cigarette did +not float in her direction. His smile had a whimsical twist. "Do I want +her back?" he said. "On my oath, it's hard to tell." + +"Oh, surely!" Maud said. She rose impulsively and stood beside him. +"Charlie," she said, "why do you wear a mask with me? Do you think I +don't know that she is all the world to you?" + +He looked at her, and the twisted smile went from his face. "There is +no woman on this earth that I can't do without," he said. "I learnt +that--when I lost you." + +"Ah!" Maud's voice was very pitiful. Her hand came to his. "But +this--this is different. Why should you do without her? You know she +loves you?" + +His fingers closed spring-like about her own. A certain hardness was in +his look. "If she loves me," he said, "she can come back to me of her own +accord." + +"But if she is afraid?" Maud pleaded. + +"She has no reason to be," he said. "I have claimed nothing from her. I +have never spoken a harsh word to her. Why is she afraid?" + +"Have you understood her?" Maud asked very gently. + +He made an abrupt movement as though the question, notwithstanding the +absolute kindness of its utterance, had somehow an edge for him. The next +moment he began to laugh. + +"Why ask these impossible riddles? Has any man ever understood a +woman? Let us dismiss the subject! And since you are here, _ma belle +reine_,--you of all people--let us celebrate the occasion with a +drink!--even if it be only tea!" + +His eyes laughed into hers. The western light was streaming in across the +music-room. They stood together in the turret beyond Saltash's piano, +where she had found him pouring out wild music that made her warm heart +ache for him. + +She had come to him with the earnest desire to help, but he baffled her +at every turn, this man to whom once in the days of her youth she had +been so near. She could not follow the complex workings of his mind. He +was too quick to cover his feelings. His inner soul had long been hidden +from her. + +Yet the conviction persisted that if any could pass that closed door that +he kept so persistently against all comers, it would be herself. She had +once possessed the key, and she could not believe that it was no longer +in her power to turn it. He would surely yield to her though he barred +out all beside. + +Perhaps he read her thoughts, for the laugh died out of his eyes, melting +into the old tender raillery that she remembered so well. + +"Will you drink with me?" he said. "You have actually stooped to enter +my stronghold without your bodyguard. Will you not honour me still +further--partake of my hospitality?" + +She smiled at him. "Of course I will have tea with you with pleasure, +Charlie. Didn't you realize I was waiting to be asked?" + +"You are very gracious," he said, and crossed the room to ring a bell. + +She remained in the western turret, looking out over the beech woods that +blazed golden in the sun to the darker pine-woods beyond. + +"What a paradise this is!" she said, when he joined her again. + +His restless eyes followed hers without satisfaction. A certain moodiness +had come upon him. He made no answer to her words. + +"Why doesn't Bunny come up to see me?" he asked suddenly. "He knows I am +here." + +She looked at him in surprise. "Are you expecting him?" + +He nodded with a touch of arrogance. "Yes. Tell him to come! I shan't +quarrel with him or he with me. Is he still thirsting for my blood? He's +welcome to it if he wants it." + +"Charlie!" she protested. + +He turned from her and sat down at the piano. His fingers began to caress +the keys, and then in a moment the old sweet melody that he had played to +her in the long ago days came softly through the room. Her lips formed +the words as he played, but she made no sound. + +"There has fallen a splendid tear +From the passion-flower at the gate. +She is coming, my dove, my dear; +She is coming, my life, my fate. +The red rose cries, 'She is near, she is near!' +And the white rose weeps, 'She is late!' +The larkspur listens, 'I hear, I hear!' +And the lily whispers, 'I wait!'" + +"She is certainly very late," commented Charles Rex quizzically from the +piano. "And the lily is more patient than I am. Why don't you sing, Maud +of the roses?" + +She started a little at his voice, but she did not answer. She could not +tell him that her throat was dumb with tears. + +He played softly on for a space, then as the old butler entered with a +tea-tray, he abruptly left the piano to wait upon her. He made her sit in +the window-seat and presently sat down himself and talked of indifferent +things. She did not attempt to bring him back to the matter in hand. She +knew him too well for that. If he chose to be elusive, no power on earth +could capture him. + +But she had a strong feeling that he would not seek to elude her wholly. +He might seem to trifle, as a monkey swinging idly from bough to bough, +but he had an end in view, and ultimately he would reach that end, +however circuitous the route. + +He surprised her eventually by the suddenness with which he pounced upon +it. He had turned the talk upon the subject of his new yacht, and very +abruptly he announced his intention of going round the world in her. + +"Not alone?" she said, and then would have checked the words lest they +should seem to ask too much. + +But he answered her without a pause. "Yes, alone. And if I don't come +back, Bunny can marry Toby and reign here in my stead. That is, if he +isn't an infernal fool. If he is, then Toby can reign here alone--with +you and Jake to take care of her." + +"But, Charlie, why--why?" The words leapt from Maud in spite of her. + +He frowned at her whimsically. "They've always cared for one another. +Don't you know it? It's true she put me in a shrine and worshipped me for +a time, but I couldn't live up to it. _Figurez-vous, ma chere!_ Myself--a +marble saint!" + +"You never understood her," Maud said. + +He shrugged his shoulders and went lightly on. "Oh, she was ready enough +to offer me human sacrifice, but that wasn't enough for me. Besides, I +didn't want sacrifice. I have stood between her and the world. I have +given her protection. But it was a free gift. I don't take anything +in exchange for that." An odd note sounded in his voice, as of some +emotion suppressed. He leaned back against the window-frame, his hands +behind his head. "That wasn't what I married her for. I tried to prove +that to her. I actually thought--" the old derisive grin leapt across his +face--"that I could win her trust like any ordinary man. I failed of +course--failed hideously. She never expected decent treatment from me. +She never even began to trust me. I was far too heavily handicapped +for that. And so--as soon as the wind changed--the boat capsized." + +"What made the wind change?" Maud asked gently. + +He looked across at her, the baffling smile still in his eyes. "The gods +played a jest with us," he said. "It was only a small jest, but it turned +the scale. She fled. That was how I came to realize I couldn't hold her. +I had travelled too fast as usual, and she couldn't keep up. Well," he +unlocked his hands and straightened himself, "it's up to Bunny now. I'll +let her go--to him." + +"My dear!" Maud said. + +He laughed at her with the old half-caressing ridicule. "That shocks you? +But why--if they love each other? Haven't I heard you preach the gospel +of love as the greatest thing on earth? Didn't you once tell me that I +had yet to learn the joy--" his smile twisted again--"the overwhelming +joy--of setting the happiness of another before one's own? This thing can +be done quite simply and easily--as I suggested to you long ago. She has +only to go away with him, and I do the rest. A moral crime--no more. Yes, +it is against your code of course. But consider! I only stand to lose +that which I have never possessed. For the first time in my life, I +commit a crime in the name of--love!" + +He laughed over the word; yet even through the scoffing sound there came +a ring of pain. His face had a drawn look--the wistfulness of the monkey +that has seen its prize irrevocably snatched away. + +Maud rose quickly. There was something in his attitude or expression that +she could not bear. "Oh, you are wrong! You are wrong!" she said. "You +have the power to make her love you. And you love her. Charlie, this +thing has not been given you to throw away. You can't! You can't!" + +He made a sharp gesture that checked her. "My dear Maud," he said, "there +are a good many things I can't do, and one of them is this. I can't hold +any woman against her will--no, not if she were my wife ten times over. I +wouldn't have let her go to Spentoli. But Bunny is a different matter. I +have Jake's word for it that he will make her a better husband than I +shall. If Bunny wants to know all about her past--her parentage--he can +come to me and I can satisfy him. Tell him that! But if he really loves +her--he won't care a damn--any more than I do." + +"Ah!" Maud said. + +She stood a moment, looking at him, and in her eyes was that mother-look +of a love that understands. She held out her hand to him. + +"Thank you for telling me, Charlie," she said. "Good-bye!" + +He held her hand. "What have I told you?" he asked abruptly. + +She shook her head. "Never mind now! You have just made me understand, +that's all. I will give your message to Bunny--to them both. Good-bye!" + +He stooped in his free, gallant way to kiss her hand. "After all," he +said, "I return to my old allegiance. It was you, _chere reine_, who +taught me how to love." + +She gently freed her hand and turned to go. "No," she said. "I think it +was God who taught you that." + +For the second time Charles Rex failed to utter the scoffing laugh she +half-expected. The odd eyes looked after her with a kind of melancholy +irony. + +"To what purpose?" he said. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE GIFT OF THE GODS + + +A chill wind blew across the ramparts bringing with it the scent and the +sound of the sea. There was no moon in the sky tonight, only the clouds +flying over the stars, obscuring and revealing them alternately, making +their light weirdly vague and fitful. Across the park an owl called +persistently, its eerie hoot curiously like the cry of a human voice +through the rustling night. The trees were murmuring together down by the +lake as though some mysterious news were passing to and fro among them. +And once more, alone on his castle walls, Saltash paced restlessly up and +down. + +It was his last night at Burchester, so he told himself, for many a year +to come. The fever for change was upon him. He had played his last card +and lost. It was characteristic of the man to turn his back upon his +losses and be gone. His soul had begun to yearn for the wide spaces, +and it was in answer to the yearning that he had come up to this eagle's +eyrie a second time. He could not be still, and the feeling of walls +around him was somehow unbearable. But he expected no vision tonight. He +walked in darkness. + +Down in the harbour his yacht was waiting, and he wondered cynically what +whim kept him from joining her. Why was he staying to drain the cup to +the dregs--he who had the whole world to choose from? He had sent his +message, he had made his sacrifice--at what a cost not even Maud would +ever know. It was the first voluntary sacrifice he had ever made, he +reflected ironically, and he marvelled at himself to find that he cared +so much. For, after all, what was it he had sacrificed? Nothing worth +having, so he told himself. He had possessed her childish adoration, but +her love--never! And, very curiously, it was her love that he had wanted. +Actually, for the first time in his life, no lesser thing had appealed to +him. Jaded and weary with long experience, he owned now to a longing for +that at which all his life long he had scoffed. The longing was not to be +satisfied. He was to go empty away. But yet the very fact that he had +known it had in some inexplicable fashion purified him from earthly +desires. He had as it were reached up and touched the spiritual, and that +which was not spiritual had crumbled away below him. He looked back upon +the desert through which all his life he had travelled, and saw only +sand. + +The sound of the turret-door banging behind him recalled him to his +surroundings. He awoke to the fact that the wind was chill, and that a +drift of rain was coming in from the sea. With an impatient shrug he +turned. Why was he lingering here like a drunken reveller at a table +of spilt wine? He would go down to his yacht and find Larpent--Larpent +who had also loved and lost. They would go out on the turn of the +tide--the two losers in the game of life--and leave the spilt wine behind +them. + +Impulsively he strode back along the ramparts. The game was over, and he +would never play again; but at least he would face the issue like a man. +No one, not even Larpent, should ever see him flinch. So he reached +the turret-door, and came abruptly to a halt. + +It was no vision that showed her to him, standing there in her slender +fairness, wrapt in a cloak that glimmered vaguely blue in the glimmering +starlight. Her face was very pale, and he saw her frightened eyes as she +stood before him. Her hands were tightly clasped together, and she spoke +no word at all. + +The door was shut behind her, and he saw that she was trembling from head +to foot. + +He stood motionless, within reach of her, but not touching her. "Well?" +he said. + +She made a curious gesture with her clasped hands, standing before him as +she had stood on board his yacht on that night in the Mediterranean when +she had come to him for refuge. + +"I've come," she said, in a voice that quivered uncontrollably, "to tell +you something." + +Saltash did not stir. His face was in shadow, but there was a suggestion +of tension about his attitude that was not reassuring. "Well?" he said +again. + +She wrung her hands together with a desperate effort to subdue her +agitation, and began again, "I've come--to tell you something." + +"Something I don't know?" he questioned cynically. + +She nodded. "Some--some--something you don't want to know. It--it was +Maud made me come." + +That moved him a little. That piteous stammer of hers had always touched +his compassion. "Don't fret yourself, _ma chere_!" he said. "I know all +there is to know--all about Rozelle--all about Larpent--all about +Spentoli." + +"You--you don't know this," said Toby. "You--you--you don't know--why I +ran away from you--in Paris!" + +"Don't I?" he said, and she heard the irony of his voice. "I have an +agile brain, my child. I can generally jump the gaps pretty +successfully." + +She shook her head with vehemence. "And how do you know about Spentoli?" +she demanded suddenly. "Who told you that?" + +"The man himself," said Saltash. + +"Ah! And what did he tell you?" A note of fierceness sounded in her +voice. She seemed to gather herself together like a cornered animal +preparing to make a wild dash for freedom. + +Saltash made her a queer, abrupt bow, and in so doing he blocked the way +before her so that she could only flee by the way she had come. "He told +me nothing that I did not know before," he said, "nothing that your own +eyes had not told me long ago." + +"What do you mean?" breathed Toby, pressing her clasped hands tightly to +her breast. Her eyes were still upraised to his; they glittered in the +dimness. + +Saltash answered her more gently than was his wont. "I mean that I know +the sort of inferno your life had been--a perpetual struggle against odds +that were always overwhelming you. If it hadn't been so, you would never +have come to me for shelter. Do you think I ever flattered myself that +that was anything but a last resource--the final surrender to +circumstance? If I had failed you--" + +"Wait!" Toby broke in tensely. "You're right in some things. You're +wrong there. It's true I was always running away--as soon as I was old +enough to realize the rottenness of life. Spentoli tried to ruin me, +but I dodged him, and then--when he trapped me--the hell-hound--I did my +best--to murder him!" The breath suddenly whistled through her teeth. "I +tried to stab him to the heart. God knows I tried! But--I suppose it +wasn't in the right place, for I didn't get there. I left him for +dead--I thought he was dead--till that day in Paris. And ever since--it's +been just a nightmare fight for life--and safety. I'd have tried some +other dodge if you hadn't found me. I was not quite down and out. But +you--you made all the difference. I had to go to you." + +"And why?" said Charles Rex. + +She rushed on regardless of question. The flood-gates were open; she was +hiding nothing from him now. + +"You came. If you'd been an angel from heaven, you couldn't have been +more wonderful. You helped me--believed in me--gave me always--the +benefit of the doubt--made a way of escape for me--made life +possible--even--even--beautiful!" She choked a little over the word. "I +offered you just everything. I couldn't help it. You were the only man in +the world to me. How could I help worshipping you? You--you--you were +always so splendid--so--so great. You made me--you made me realize--that +life was worth having. You made me--believe in God." She broke into +sudden wild tears. "And you didn't love me enough even to take the little +I had to give! I didn't want you to marry me. I never dreamt of such a +thing. I had kept myself from harm, but I knew very well I wasn't fit to +be your wife. Only--I loved you so. And when I knew that Bunny was +turning against me--would never believe in me--I just couldn't help +turning to you again. And then--and then--you went and married me!" She +wrung her hands tragically. "I ought not to have let you. God will never +forgive me for it. I don't deserve to be forgiven. But I loved you--I +loved you!" + +She covered her face and sobbed. + +Saltash reached out a hand and took her by the shoulder. "Nonette! +Nonette!" he said, in a voice that was strangely uncertain. "Don't cry, +child! Don't cry!" + +She drew herself away from him. "Don't--don't! I don't want you to. I +just came to tell you--that's all--in case you should think I ever--cared +for--Bunny. Maud says--you ought to know that. We only--only--played +together. We never--really--loved each other. I wasn't his sort--or he +mine. He doesn't want me back. I wouldn't go if he did. I ran away--with +that damn cur Spentoli--to give you a chance--to drop me. I couldn't +face you after you knew everything. You'd never loved me, and I'd tricked +you too badly. I knew you'd want to get free. Why didn't you start in and +get a divorce? Why didn't you? Why didn't you?" + +She suddenly lifted her face, storming the words, electrified as it were +by the wild force of her passion. Again he reached a hand towards her, +but she eluded him with a desperate gesture. + +"No! No! Don't touch me! Don't touch me! I can't bear it! I'm going now! +I'm going right away. You'll never see me again--never hear of me. And +you'll be free! Do you understand? You'll be quite free. I'll keep that +promise I made to you. It won't be difficult. No one shall ever know +how--and only you--you who never even pretended to love me--will be able +to guess why." + +She turned about with the words, and wrenched furiously at the door +behind her. In another moment she would have been gone. But in that +moment Saltash moved, perhaps more swiftly than he had ever moved in +his life before, and in a flash he had her in his arms. + +She fought for her freedom then like a terrified animal, twisting this +way and that, straining with frenzied effort to escape. And when, his +hold encompassing her, he broke down her resistance, pressing her +indomitably closer and closer till she lay powerless and palpitating +against his breast, she burst into agonized tears, beseeching him, +imploring him, to set her free. + +"Why should I?" he said, still holding her. "Don't you know yet that it's +the very last thing I mean to do?" + +"You must! Oh, you must!" she cried back. "You can't--you--you +can't--hold me--against my will!" + +"That's true," said Saltash, as if struck by something. "And are you +capable of leaving me--against mine?" His hold relaxed with the words, +and instantly she sprang away from him--sprang like a fleeing bird upon +the low parapet beside them, and in a second was sliding out upon the +narrow ledge that surrounded the great stone buttress of the turret. + +"Hell!" ejaculated Saltash, and gave a great leap as if he would pursue +her, then with abrupt effort checked himself. + +He stood with one foot on the parapet, and watched her, and in the vague +starlight his eyes burned with the old mocking devilry behind which he +had so long sheltered his soul. + +"So you think you'll get away from me that way, do you?" he said, and +laughed his gibing laugh. "Well, you may try. Either stay there till +you've had enough--or throw yourself over! I'll get you in any case." + +She came to a stand, her hands spread out on each side of her, her eyes +turning back to him across the awful space that yawned between. Sheer +depth was below her, but she did not seem aware of it. + +"I will throw myself over," she said with tense purpose, "unless you +promise--unless you swear--to let me go." + +He laughed again, but there was no mirth in the glittering eyes that +looked back at her, neither mirth nor dismay, only the most arrogant and +absolute mastery that she had ever encountered. + +"I promise nothing," he said, "except that one way or the other I'm going +to have you. You can take your choice. You can sink or swim. But you +won't get away. There is a bond between us that you can't break, however +hard you try. Fling yourself over if you think it's worth it? And before +you get to the bottom I shall be with you. I'll chase you through the +gates of Hades. I've travelled alone far enough. For the future--we go +together. That I swear to God!" + +Across the abyss he flung his tremendous challenge, the laugh still on +his lips and in his eyes the blazing derision that mocks at fate. + +And as she heard it, the girl's heart suddenly failed her. She began to +tremble. Yet, even so, she made a last desperate bid for pride and +freedom. + +She clutched at the cold stones on each side of her with nerveless, +quivering fingers. "There is--no bond between us!" she gasped forth +piteously. "There never--never has been!" + +He flung back the words like a missile, unerring, blindingly direct. "No +bond between us! Good God! Would I follow you through death if there were +not?" And then suddenly, with an amazing change to tenderness that leapt +the void and enchained her where she stood:--"Toby--Toby, you little +ass--don't you know I've loved you from the moment _The Night Moth_ +struck?" + +There was no questioning the truth of those words. A great sob broke from +Toby, and the tension went out of her attitude. She stood for a few +seconds with her head raised, and on her face the unutterable rapture of +one who sees a vision. Then, with sharp anguish, "I can't come back!" she +cried like a frightened child. "I'm going to fall!" + +Saltash straightened himself. His forehead was wet, but he did not pause +for a moment. "I'm coming to you," he said. "Keep as you are and I'll +give you a hand to hold!" + +She obeyed him as one dazed into submission. Blindly she waited, till +with a monkey-like agility, he also had traversed that giddy ledge to +where she stood. His fingers met and gripped her own. + +"Now," he said, "come with me and you are safe! You can't fall. My love +is holding you up." + +She heard the laugh in his voice, and her panic died. Mutely she yielded +herself to him. By the strength of his will alone, she left the abyss +behind. But when he lifted her from the parapet back to safety, she cried +out as one whom fear catches by the throat, and fainted in his arms. + + * * * * * + +Out of a great darkness, the light dawned again for Toby. She opened her +eyes gasping to find that the scene had changed. She was lying upon +tiger-skins in Saltash's conical chamber, and he, the king of all her +dreams, was kneeling by her side. + +That was the first thing that occurred to her--that he should kneel. + +"Oh, don't! Oh, don't!" she said quickly. "I am not--not Maud." + +He regarded her humorously, but the old derisive lines were wholly gone +from his dark face. His eyes held something that was unfamiliar, +something that made her quiver with a quick agitation that was not +distress. + +"So I am only allowed to kneel to Maud!" he said. + +She tried to meet his look and, failing, hid her face. "I--I know +you have always loved her," she murmured rather incoherently. "You +couldn't--you couldn't--pretend to--to--to really love anyone +else--after Maud!" + +There fell a brief silence, and she thought the beating of her heart +would choke her. Then there came the touch of his hand upon her head, and +its wild throbbing grew calmer. + +"No," he said, and in his voice was a new deep note unknown to her. "I am +not pretending, Nonette." + +The light touch drew her as it were magnetically. With a swift, impulsive +movement she raised herself, gave herself to him, hiding her face still +more deeply against his breast. + +"But you--you--you couldn't really love me!" she whispered like an +incredulous child. "You sure you do?" + +His arms went round her, holding her fast. He made no other answer. +Saltash, the glib of tongue and ready of gibe, was for once speechless in +the presence of that which has no words. + +She nestled closer to him as a little furry animal that has found its +home. Her incredulity was gone, but she kept her face hidden. "But why +didn't you tell me before?" she said. + +He bent his black head till his lips reached and rested against her hair. +"Nonette," he said, "you told me that I had made you believe in God." + +"Yes?" she whispered back rather breathlessly. "Yes?" + +"That's why," he said. "You got me clean through my armour there. Egad, +it made me a believer too. If I'd failed you after that--well, He'd have +been justified in damning me, body and soul!" + +"But you couldn't!" she protested. "You couldn't fail me!" + +His dark face twisted with the old wry grimace. "I've failed a good many +in my time, Nonette. But--no one ever trusted me to that extent. You +practically forced me--to prove myself." + +A little gasp of relief came from Toby. She spoke with more assurance. +"Oh, was that it? You were just trying--to be good?" + +"Just--trying!" said Saltash. + +"You still trying?" asked Toby, a little curious note of laughter in her +voice. + +"I shan't keep on much longer," he returned, "unless I get what I want." + +"There'd be a blue moon if you did!" remarked Toby impudently. + +Saltash raised his head abruptly. "By Jupiter! There is one!" he said. +"Let's go to her!" + +Toby's face shot upwards in a moment. "Where?" + +Her eyes sought the skylight above them and the dim mysterious blue of +the night. His came down to her in a flash, dwelt upon her, caressed her, +drew her. + +She turned sharply and looked at him. "Charles Rex!" she said +reproachfully. + +He took her pointed chin and laughed down at her. His eyes, one black, +one grey, shone with a great tenderness, holding hers till they widened +and shone back with a quick blue flame in answer. + +Then: "As I was saying," remarked Charles Rex royally "when I was +interrupted some six months ago--I have never yet refused--a gift from +the gods." + +"But you've taken your time over accepting it, haven't you?" said Toby, +with a chuckle. + +He bent to her. "Let's go!" he said again. + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Charles Rex, by Ethel M. 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