diff options
Diffstat (limited to '42462-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 42462-0.txt | 11695 |
1 files changed, 11695 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/42462-0.txt b/42462-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..620ad8c --- /dev/null +++ b/42462-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11695 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42462 *** + + [Illustration: BARBARA REBELL] + + + + + BARBARA REBELL + + + _By_ + MRS. BELLOC-LOWNDES + Author of "The Heart of Penelope" + + + Frontispiece by + GILBERT WHITE + + + _AUTHORIZED EDITION_ + + + NEW YORK + B. W. DODGE AND COMPANY + 1907 + + + + + PROLOGUE. + + "Have regard to thy name; for that shall continue with thee + above a thousand great treasures of gold." + ECCLESIASTICUS xl. 12. + + +Barbara Rebell's tenth birthday,--that is the ninth of June, 1870,--was +destined to be long remembered by her as a day of days; both as having +seen the first meeting with one who, though unknown till then, had +occupied a great place in her imagination, if only because the name of +this lady, her godmother, had been associated every night and morning +with that of her father and mother in her prayers, and as having +witnessed the greatest of her childish disappointments. + +Certain dates to most of us become in time retrospectively memorable, +and doubtless this sunny, fragrant June day would in any case have been +remembered by Barbara as the last of a long series of high days and +holidays spent by her in her French home during the first few years of +her life. Barbara Rebell left St. Germains two months after her tenth +birthday; but the town which has seen so few changes in its stately, +ordered beauty, since it afforded a magnificent hospitality to the last +Stuart King and Queen of England, always remained to her "home," in the +dear and intimate sense of the word, and that for many years after +everything save the actual roof and walls of the villa where Mr. and +Mrs. Rebell had lived such long, and on the whole such peaceful years, +had been destroyed--overwhelmed with locust-like destruction--by the +passage of an alien soldiery. + +But early in the June of 1870 there was nothing to show what July and +August were to bring to France, and the various incidents which so much +impressed the child's imagination, and made the day memorable, were +almost wholly connected with that solitary inner life which is yet so +curiously affected by material occurrences. + +Barbara's birthday began very differently from what she had thought it +would do. The little girl had pleasant recollections of the fashion in +which her last fête day, "la Sainte Barbe," had been celebrated. She +remembered vividly the white bouquets brought by the tradespeople, the +cakes and gifts offered by her little French friends, they who dwelt in +Legitimist seclusion in the old town--for St. Germains was at that time +a Royalist stronghold--far from the supposed malign influence of the +high forest trees, and broad, wind-swept Terrace, which had first +attracted Barbara's parents, and caused them to choose St. Germains as +their place of retreat. + +And so Barbara had looked forward very eagerly to her tenth birthday, +but by eleven o'clock what, so far, had it brought her? No bouquets, no +cakes, no trifling gifts of the kind she loved! As she sat out in her +little chair on the balcony of which the gilt balustrade was now +concealed by festoons of green leaves and white roses, and from which +opened the windows of her mother's drawing-room, the child's conscience +pricked her somewhat. Had not her parents early called her into their +room and presented her with a beautiful little gold watch--a gift, too, +brought specially from London by Mr. Daman, a Queen's Messenger, who was +one of her father's oldest friends, and one of the very few +English-speaking folk who ever sought out Mr. and Mrs. Rebell in their +seclusion? + +"You may wear it all to-day," her mother had said with some solemnity, +"but after to-night I will put it away until you are old enough to take +care of a watch." In time the little watch became a cherished +possession, a dear familiar friend, but on this first day of ownership +Barbara took small pleasure in her gift. + +The child had not liked to ask if any further birthday treat was in +contemplation. She stood in great awe of her quiet-mannered, preoccupied +father: and, while loving her gentle, kind mother with all her eager +passionate little heart, she did not at that time understand how +tenderly she herself was loved in return by the fragile, pensive looking +woman, who seemed to those about her absorbed rather in her husband than +in her daughter. + +And so, after having been dismissed rather curtly by her father, Barbara +had made her way disconsolately out to the balcony which was in a sense +her play-room, for there she spent many of her solitary hours. Sitting +in her own little wicker chair, with _The Fairchild Family_ lying on the +osier table by her side, and _Les Malheurs de Sophie_ on her lap, she +wondered rather wistfully what the day to which she had so much looked +forward was likely to bring forth. + +Dressed in a white India muslin frock, her long dark hair curled, as was +the fashion in those days, and tied neatly out of the way with a pale +blue ribbon, her unseeing eyes gazing at one of the most beautiful views +in the world, little Barbara Rebell, not for the first time, fell to +wondering why her life was so different from that of the English +children of whom she read in the books her mother had lately sent for +from the home of her own childhood. Even the Fairchilds were a family, +not a solitary little girl; each of the French children she knew had at +least one brother or sister apiece to bear them company, and all through +her thoughts--her disconnected, discontented birthday thoughts--there +ran a thread of uneasy wonder as to why she and her parents were living +here in France instead of in far away England. + +Barbara had of late become dimly aware that her mother made no effort to +enter into the eager, cheerful life about her; even after many years +spent entirely in France Mrs. Rebell still spoke French with a certain +difficulty, and she had tacitly refused to form any tie but one of +courteous acquaintance with the few French families with whom--entirely +for the sake of her child, but Barbara did not know that--she had +entered into social relation, using a Protestant banker as a connecting +link. + + * * * * * + +The summer before her tenth birthday Barbara had overheard some +fragments of a conversation held between two mothers of some of her +little French friends; and the few words, so carelessly uttered, had +roused a passion of emotion in the innocent eavesdropper: the feeling +which most predominated being the unreasoning, pathetic surprise felt by +a childish mind when brought suddenly across anything in the nature of a +masked attack. + +"Enfin qu'est que ce Monsieur Rebell a bien pu faire de si terrible? +Pour moi il a un air sinistre, cet homme-là!" + +"Peut-être a-t-il tué quelqu'un en duel! Il parait qu'en Angleterre on +est devenu féroce sur ce châpitre-là." + +"En tous cas, cette pauvre Madame Rebell est bien jolie, et bien à +plaindre!" + +The effect of these few carelessly uttered words had been to transform +the listener from a happy baby into a thoughtful, over-sensitive little +girl. Barbara had felt a wild revolt and indignation in the knowledge +that her parents were being thus discussed--that her father should be +described as "sinister," her mother pitied. Again and again she repeated +to herself the words that she had heard: their meaning had stamped +itself on her mind. Could her father have indeed killed a man in a duel? +To Barbara the thought was at once horrible and fascinating, and she +brooded over it, turning the idea this way and that: the constant +companionship of her mother--for Mrs. Rebell rarely left her alone with +their French servants--having unconsciously taught her a deep and almost +secretive reserve. + +Were her father guilty of what these French ladies suspected, then--or +so thought Barbara--his subdued, melancholy air was indeed natural, as +also his apparent dislike of meeting fellow countrymen and countrywomen, +for he and his wife always markedly avoided any English visitors to St. +Germains. Now and again Mr. Rebell would spend a long day in Paris, +returning laden with a large parcel of books, the latest English novels +for his wife, more serious volumes for his own perusal; but both Mrs. +Rebell and Barbara had learnt to dread these expeditions, for they +brought with them sad after-days of silent depression and restlessness +which left their effect on the wife long after the traveller himself had +regained his usual sombre quietude of manner. + +Barbara was secretly proud of the fact that her father was so extremely +unlike, both in manner and in appearance, the Frenchmen who now formed +his only acquaintances. This was perhaps owing in a measure to the +periodical visit of his London tailor, for Richard Rebell had retained +amid his misfortunes--and he was fond of telling himself that no living +man had been so unfortunate--the one-time dandy's fastidiousness about +his dress. The foreigners with whom he was unwillingly brought in +contact sometimes speculated as to the mysterious Englishman's probable +age; his hair was already grey, his pale, coldly impassive face had none +of the healthy tints of youth, yet he was still upright and vigorous, +and possessed to a singular degree what the French value above all +things, distinction of appearance. As a matter of fact Mr. Rebell was +only some twelve years older than his still girlish-looking wife; but +certain terrible events seemed to have had a petrifying effect both on +his mind and on his appearance, intensified by the fact that both he and +Mrs. Rebell tacitly chose to live as if in a world of half-lights and +neutral tints, rarely indeed alluding to the past, instinctively +avoiding any topic which could cause them emotion. + + * * * * * + +Every age,--it might be said with truth every decade,--has its ideal of +feminine beauty; and the man who had been the Richard Rebell of the +London 'fifties would instinctively have chosen and been chosen by the +loveliest girl in the brilliant world in which they both then moved and +had their being. Adela Oglander, the youngest child of a Hampshire +squire, had indeed been very lovely, satisfying in every point the ideal +of her day, of her race, and of her generation: slender and yet not over +tall: golden-haired and blue-eyed: with delicate regular features, and +rounded cheeks in which the colour soon came and went uncertainly when +Richard Rebell began to haunt the Mayfair ball-rooms where he knew he +would meet her and her placid, rather foolish mother. The girl's sunny +beauty and artless charm of manner had delighted the social arbiters of +the hour. She became, in the sense which was then possible, the fashion, +and her engagement to Richard Rebell, finally arranged at the royal +garden party which in those days took place each season in the old-world +gardens of Chiswick House, had been to themselves as well as to their +friends a happy, nine days' wonder. + +Richard Rebell had been long regarded as a bachelor of bachelors, a man +whose means did not permit of such a luxury as marriage to ill-dowered +beauty. But his friends reminded themselves that he was in a sense heir +to a fine property, now in the actual ownership of his cousin, a certain +Madame Sampiero, a beautiful childless woman separated from the Corsican +adventurer whom she had married in one of those moments of amazing, +destructive folly which occasionally overwhelm a certain type of clever +and high-spirited Englishwoman. Still, if there were some who shook +their heads over the imprudence of such a marriage as that of Richard +Rebell and Adela Oglander, all the world loves a lover, and every man +who had obtained the privilege of an introduction to Miss Oglander +envied Rebell his good fortune, for his betrothed was as good and as +blithesome as she was pretty. + +Later, when recalling that enchanted time, and the five happy years +which had followed, Mrs. Rebell told herself that there had then been +meted out to her full measure of life's happiness: she might, alas! have +added that since that time Providence had dealt out to her, as +completely, full measure of pain and suffering. For what was hidden from +the little circle of kindly French gossips at St. Germains had been +indeed a very tragic thing. + +After those first cloudless years of happy, nay triumphant, married +life, the popular, much-envied man-about-town, the proud husband of one +of the loveliest and most considered of younger London hostesses, had +gradually become aware that he was being looked at askance and shunned +by those great folk to whose liking he attached perhaps undue +importance. + +Then had followed a period of angry, incredulous amazement, till a +well-meaning friend found courage to tell him the truth. It had come to +be thought that he "sometimes" cheated at cards--more, it was whispered +that he had actually been caught red-handed in the house of a friend who +had spared him exposure in deference to what were then still the English +laws of hospitality. His chief accuser, the man to whom Rebell, once on +his track, again and again traced the fatal rumour, was, as so often +happens in such cases, himself quite unimportant till he became the man +of straw round whom raged one of the most painful and protracted libel +suits fought in nineteenth century England. + +At first public opinion, or rather the opinion of those whom Rebell +regarded as important, ranged itself on his side, and there were many +who considered that he had been ill-advised to take any notice of the +matter. But when it became known, and that in the pitiless, clear +publicity afforded by a court of law, that the plaintiff's private means +were very small, much smaller than had been suspected even by those who +thought themselves his intimates, that he was noted for his high play, +and, most damaging fact of all, that he had been instrumental in forming +a new and very select club of which the stated object was play, and +nothing but play, feeling veered sharply round. Richard Rebell +admitted--and among his backers it was pointed out that such an +admission made for innocence--that a not unimportant portion of his +income had for some time past consisted of his card winnings. That this +should be even said outraged those respectable folk who like to think +that gambling and ruin are synonymous terms. Yet, had they looked but a +little below the surface, where could they have found so striking a +confirmation of their view as in this very case? + +To cut the story short, the lawsuit ended in a virtual triumph for the +man whose malicious dislike and envy of the plaintiff had had to himself +so unexpected a result. Richard Rebell was awarded only nominal damages. +The old adage, "The greater the truth the greater the libel," was freely +quoted, and the one-time man of fashion and his wife disappeared with +dramatic suddenness from the world in which they had both been once so +welcome. Apart from every other reason, Mr. and Mrs. Rebell would have +been compelled, by their financial circumstances, to alter what had been +their way of life. All that remained to them after the heavy costs of +the lawsuit were paid was the income of Mrs. Rebell's marriage +settlement, and then it was that Richard Rebell's cousin, the Madame +Sampiero to whom reference has already been made, arranged to give her +cousin--who was, as she eagerly reminded him, her natural heir--an +allowance which practically trebled his small income. Thanks to her +generosity Mr. and Mrs. Rebell and their only child, born three years +after their marriage, had been able to live in considerable comfort and +state in the French town finally chosen by them as their home of exile, +where they had been fortunate in finding, close to the Forest and the +Terrace, a house which had belonged to one of the great Napoleon's +generals. The hero's descendants were in high favour at the Tuileries +and had no love for quiet St. Germains: they had accordingly been +overjoyed to find an English tenant for the stately villa which +contained many relics of their famous forbear, and of which the +furnishings, while pleasing the fine taste of Richard Rebell, seemed to +them hopelessly rococo and out of date. + +As time went on, Adela Rebell suffered more rather than less. She would +have preferred the humblest lodging in the quietest of English hamlets +to the charming villa which was still full of mementoes of the soldier +who had found a glorious death at Waterloo. Sometimes she would tell +herself that all might yet go well with her, and her beloved, her noble, +her ill-used Richard--for so she ever thought of him--were it not for +their child. The knowledge that Barbara would never enjoy the happy and +lightsome youth which had been her own portion was bitter indeed: the +conviction that her daughter must be cut off from all the pleasant +girlish joys and privileges of her English contemporaries brought deep +pain. + + * * * * * + +Let us now return to Barbara and to the birthday which was to prove +eventful. The little girl was still hesitating between her French and +her English storybook when the door of the drawing-room opened, and she +saw her mother's slight figure advancing languidly across the shining +floor to the deep chair where she always sat. A moment later Barbara's +father came into the room: he held a newspaper in his hand, and +instinctively the child knew that he was both annoyed and angered. + +"Adela," he said, in the formal and rather cold accent which both his +wife and child had come to associate with something painful or +unpleasant, "I should like you to read this,"--then he added: "Well, no, +I think I will ask you to listen, while I translate it," and slowly he +read, choosing his words with some care, anxious to render every shade +of meaning, the following sentences, composing one of the happily-named +"Echoes" printed on the front page of the _Figaro_, the then +newly-established, brilliant journal which had become the most widely +read paper in French society:-- + +"Her Majesty the Empress to-day received in private audience Madame +Sampiero, _née_ Rebell, one of the most sympathetic and distinguished of +English great ladies, and this in spite of the fact that the name of +Sampiero is full of glorious memories to those who know and care--and +what good Frenchman does not do so?--for the noble traditions of +Corsican history. Mylady Sampiero"--here Barbara's father suddenly +lowered the paper and, glancing at his wife, gave a queer sardonic +laugh--"was presented subsequently to his Majesty the Emperor by the +noted English statesman, Mylord Bosworth, who, it will be remembered, +was on terms of intimacy with our Sovereign when he, as Prince Louis +Napoleon, was living a life of exile in London. Indeed, it was Mylord +who first gratified the London world with the news that the prisoner of +Ham had escaped." + +There was a slight pause: Mr. Rebell laid the _Figaro_ down on a +gilt-rimmed table which stood close to his wife's chair. + +"Well?" he said, "what do you think of that? You'll see it dished up, +and who can wonder at it, in next week's _Vanity Fair_!" + +The child, sitting out on the balcony, saw her mother's pale face become +gradually suffused with colour, and she heard the almost whispered +words, "Yes, most unfortunate! But, my dear, how could poor Bar have +foreseen such a thing?" + +"Of course Bar did not foresee this, but equally of course Bosworth must +have supplied the _Figaro_ with the main facts--how else could this +absurdly worded note have been written?" He added slowly, "This is +obviously Bosworth's idea of a rebuff to the Embassy--Ah well! I didn't +mean to tell you, but I had it from Daman yesterday that Barbara, +immediately on her arrival in Paris, had been sent word that she must +not expect, this time, to be received at the Embassy." + +As he spoke Richard Rebell walked up and down the room with quick, +rather mincing steps: again he came and stood before his wife: "Our name +dragged in!" he exclaimed, "apropos of nothing!" a note of sharp chagrin +and disgust piercing in his quiet voice. "And this ridiculous, this +farcical reference to that adventurer, if indeed Sampiero is the man's +real name, of which I always had my doubts!" + +The colour faded from Mrs. Rebell's cheek; she put her hand with an +instinctive movement to her side: "Richard," she said, her voice +faltering, in spite of herself, "the letter I received to-day was from +Barbara Sampiero. She is staying, as you know, at Meurice's, +and--and--pray do not be angry, my love, but she proposes to come out +and see us here, to-day!" + +Her husband made no answer. He stood speechlessly looking down at her, +and when the silence became intolerable Mrs. Rebell again spoke, but in +a firmer, less apologetic tone. "And oh! Richard, I shall be so glad to +see her--I can never never forget how good she was to me years ago--how +nobly generous she has been to us all, since that time." + +Richard Rebell turned abruptly away. He walked to the open window, and +little Barbara, glancing up, noticed with surprise that her father +looked very hot, that even his forehead had reddened. Standing there, +staring out with unseeing eyes at the wonderful view unrolled below, he +closed and opened his right hand with a nervous gesture, as he at last +answered, "Of course, I also shall be glad to see her. Though, mind you, +Adela, I think that during all these long years she might have found +time to come before." Turning round, he added, "Surely you are not +afraid that I shall insult my kinswoman in what is, after all, my own +house?" and then, as his wife made no answer, he said with sudden +suspicion, "Of course, she is coming alone? She would not have dared to +propose anything else?" + +Mrs. Rebell rose from her chair. She came and stood by her husband, and +for the first time became aware of her little daughter's presence on the +balcony. She had, however, said too much to retreat, and perhaps she +felt that the child, sitting out there, would make her difficult task +easier. + +"No, Richard, unfortunately she does not propose to come alone. It seems +that Lord Bosworth has been given the use of one of the Imperial +carriages, and he proposes to drive her here, the whole way from Paris. +He is staying, it appears, at the Bristol." + +And then, turning away, she burst into sudden stormy tears, covering her +face with her hands, swaying from head to foot with suppressed sobs. + +Barbara watched the scene with bewildered surprise and terror. It is +good when a child's ideal of married life is founded on that of her own +father and mother. Richard Rebell was often impatient and irritable, but +the little girl had never seen the shadow of anything resembling a +dissension between her parents. What then did this mean, what did her +mother's tears portend? But already Mrs. Rebell was making a determined +effort to command herself. Her husband put his arm, not untenderly, +round her shoulder, and, with his face set in stern lines, led her back +to her seat. Then Barbara suddenly darted into the room, and flung +herself on her mother, putting her slender arms round that dear mother's +neck, and so making, all unconsciously, a welcome diversion. Mrs. Rebell +even laughed a little. "Dear child--my little Barbara--you didn't know +that grown-up people ever cried!" + +But Barbara was already retreating to the balcony, and she heard her +father say in a low voice, as if for the first time he realised that his +words might be overheard: "I am sure you do not seriously contemplate +our receiving Bar and--and Bosworth, together? The idea is monstrous! +Whatever has come and gone, however degraded I may have become among my +fellows, I still have the right to protect my wife from insult, and to +expect her to obey me in such a matter as this." + +But Mrs. Rebell clasped her hands together and looked up in the troubled +face of the man opposite her with a look at once appealing and +unsubmissive. "Richard!" she cried, "oh Richard! I always _do_ obey you. +When have you ever known me go against your wish, or even desire to do +so?" + +He shook his head impatiently, and she added urgently, "But in this one +matter--oh, my dear love--pray try and look at it from my point of view! +It is Barbara I wish to receive--Barbara who is of consequence to us. I +know well all you would say," the speaker gave a sudden imperceptible +look towards the open window, "but you would not put so cruel an affront +on that noble, generous creature! Ah, yes, Richard, she _is_ noble, she +_is_ generous." + +"Her generosity shall cease to-morrow--nay, to-day," he said grimly. + +"Do not say so!" she cried, starting up; and her little daughter, gazing +fascinated, thought she had never till to-day seen her mother look +really alive, alive as other women are. Mrs. Rebell had pushed her fair +hair off her forehead, and her cheeks were red, her blue eyes bright, +with excitement. + +"Ah no, Richard, I was not thinking of _that_--not of such generosity as +can be made to cease to-morrow or to-day; but of Barbara's long goodness +to us both, nay, if you like to put it so, of her goodness to me, who am +in no way related to her! Could any sister have been kinder than she has +been? Were any of my own sisters as kind? True, we did not choose to +avail ourselves of her hospitality." + +"I think that now, even you, Adela, must see that I was right in that +matter." Richard Rebell spoke rather drily. + +"I never questioned it," she said, sharply; "you know, Richard, I never +questioned your decision!" + +There was a pause. The memories of both husband and wife were busy with +the past, with an offer which had been made to them by Richard Rebell's +kinswoman, the offer of a home in England, and of a chance, or so the +wife had thought at the time, of ultimate rehabilitation for one whom +many even then thought completely innocent of the charge brought against +him. + +Adela Rebell was a woman of high honesty, and so, "That is not quite +true," she said reluctantly, "I _did_ question your decision in my +heart, and I see now that you were right. And yet perhaps, my dear, if +we had been there----?" + +Richard Rebell got up. He went and deliberately closed the window, +making a temporary prisoner of the little girl: then he came back, and +answered, very composedly, the meaning of the half-question which his +wife's shrinking delicacy had prevented her putting into words. "Our +being there, Adela, would not have made the slightest difference," he +gave her a peculiar, not unkindly look, "for as a matter of fact I was +then aware of what you apparently only began to suspect long after; and +I think that you will admit that the state of things would have made our +position at Chancton intolerable. We should very naturally have been +expected to shut our eyes--to pander----" + +"Yes--yes indeed!" his wife shrank back. "But you never told me this +before----Why did you not tell me at the time?" + +"My dear," he answered, very quietly, "that is not the sort of thing a +man cares to tell, even his wife, when the heroine of the tale is his +own cousin. And Barbara, as you have reminded me to-day, had behaved, +and was behaving, very generously to us both." + +"But if--if you felt like that, why----" + +Mrs. Rebell looked up imploringly; she knew what this conversation meant +in pain and retrospective anguish to them both. But again Richard Rebell +answered, very patiently, his wife's unspoken question, "Well, I admit +that I am perhaps illogical. But what happened two years ago, I mean the +birth of Barbara's child--has made a difference to my feeling. I don't +think"--he spoke questioningly as if to himself, "I hope to God I don't +feel as I do owing to any ignoble disappointment?" + +"No, no, indeed not!" There was an accent of eager protest in Adela +Rebell's voice: "Besides, she wrote and said--she has said again and +again--that it will make no difference." + +"In any case," he spoke rather coldly, "Barbara Sampiero is certain to +outlive me, and I do not think anything would make her unjust to our +girl. But to return to what I was saying, and then, if you do not mind, +Adela, we will not refer to the subject again----The birth of the child, +I say, has altered my feeling, much as it seems to have done, from what +I gather from Daman, that of the rest of the world." + +"I always so disliked Mr. Daman," his wife said irrelevantly. + +"No doubt, no doubt--I grant you that he's not a very nice fellow, but +he's always been fond of her, and after all he has always stuck to us. +There's no doubt as to what he says being the truth----" + +"But Richard--is not that very unfair?" Mrs. Rebell spoke with a fire +that surprised herself: "if, as you tell me now, you always knew the +truth concerning Bar and Lord Bosworth, should what happened two years +ago make such a difference?" + +"Till two years ago,"--he spoke as if he had not heard her +words,--"Barbara held her own completely; so much is quite clear, and +that, mind you, with all the world, even including the strait-laced folk +about Chancton. I suppose people were sorry for her--for them both, if +it comes to that----Besides, it was nobody's business but their own. +Now----" he hesitated: "Daman tells me that she's absolutely solitary, I +mean of course as regards the women." He added musingly, as if to +himself, "She's acted with extraordinary, with criminal folly over this +matter." + +"Then she is being treated as we should have been treated,--indeed as we +were, by most people, during the short time we stayed in England eight +years ago?" + +"I do not think," Mr. Rebell spoke very coldly, "that your comparison, +Adela, holds good. But now, to-day, the point is this: am I to be +compelled to receive, and indeed to countenance, Barbara Sampiero and +her lover? and further, am I to allow my wife to do so? Do you +suppose"--he spoke with a sudden fierceness,--"that either Barbara or +Bosworth would have ever thought of doing what you tell me they have +actually written and proposed doing, to-day, had our own circumstances +been different? Barbara may be--nay she is, as you very properly point +out--a noble and generous creature, but in this matter, my dear Adela, +she's behaving ungenerously; she's exacting a price, and a heavy price, +for her past kindness. But it is one which after to-day I shall take +care she shall not be in a position to exact. + +"Yes," he went on slowly, "we shall of course have to give up this +house," his eyes glanced with a certain affection round the room which +had always pleased his taste. "Our requirements," he concluded, "have +become very simple. We might travel, and show our child something of the +world." + +A light leapt into his wife's eyes; oh! what joy it would be to leave +St. Germains, to become for a while nomadic, but with a sigh she +returned to the present. "And to-day, what is to happen to-day, Richard? +There is no time to stop them--they will be here in two or three hours." + +Mr. Rebell remained silent for some moments, and then: "Not even to +please you," he said, "can I bring myself to receive them. But I admit +the force of what you said just now. Therefore, if you care to do so, +stay--stay and make what excuse for my absence seems good to you. +Bosworth will know the reason well enough, unless he's more lost to a +sense of decency than I take him to be. But Bar--poor dear Bar," a note +of unwilling tenderness crept into his cold voice, "will doubtless +believe you if you tell her, what indeed is true enough, that I have an +important engagement to-day with Daman, and that, if she cares to see +me, I will come and see her before she leaves Paris----" + +The speaker went to the window and opened it. He bent down and touched +Barbara's forehead with his dry lips. "I trust," he said in his thin +voice, "that you will have a pleasant birthday. I will bring you back a +box of chocolates from Marquis'," and then, without waiting to hear the +child's murmured thanks, he turned on his heel and was gone. Barbara did +not see her father again till the next morning. + + * * * * * + +It was early afternoon, and the fair-haired Englishwoman and her little +dark, eager-eyed daughter were sitting out on the rose-wreathed balcony +of the Villa d'Arcole. Mrs. Rebell was very silent. She was longing for, +and yet dreading, the coming meeting with one she had not seen since +they had parted, with tears, at Dover, eight long years before. Her +restlessness affected the child, the more so that Barbara knew that her +marraine, that is to say in English, her godmother, the source of many +beautiful gifts, was at last coming to see them, and in her short life +the rare coming of a visitor had always been an event. + +Below the balcony, across the tiny formal garden now bright with +flowers, the broad sanded roadway stretching between the Villa d'Arcole +and the high cool screen formed by the forest trees, was flecked with +gay groups of children and their be-ribboned nurses. St. Germains was +beginning to awake from its noonday torpor, and leisurely walkers, +elegant women whose crinolines produced a curious giant blossom-like +effect, elderly bourgeois dressed in rather fantastic summer garb, +officers in brilliant uniforms--for in those days Imperial France was a +land of brilliancy and of uniforms--were already making their way to the +Terrace, ever the centre of the town's life and gossip. + +Suddenly there came on Barbara's listening ears a sound of wheels, of +sharply ringing hoofs, of musical jingling of harness bells. Several of +the strollers below stayed their footsteps, and a moment later Mrs. +Rebell became aware that before the iron-wrought gilt gates of the villa +there had drawn up the prettiest and most fantastic of equipages, while +to the child's eager eyes it seemed as if Cinderella's fairy chariot +stood below! + +Had Richard Rebell been standing by his wife, he would doubtless have +seen something slightly absurd, and in any case undignified, in the +sight presented by the low, pale blue victoria, drawn by four white +horses ridden by postillions, two of whom now stood, impassive as +statues, each at one of the leaders' heads. But to Richard Rebell's +little daughter the pretty sight brought with it nothing but pure +delight; and for a few moments she was scarcely aware of the two figures +who sat back on the white leather cushions. And yet one of these +figures, that of the woman, was quite as worthy of attention as the +equipage which served to frame her peculiar and striking beauty, and so +evidently thought the small crowd which had quickly gathered to gaze at +what had been at once recognised as a carriage from the Imperial +stables. + +Dowered, perhaps to her own misfortune, with a keen dramatic instinct, +and a rather riotous love of colour, Barbara Sampiero had chosen to +dress, as it were, for the part. Her costume, a deep purple muslin gown, +flounced, as was the fashion that spring, from hem to waist, her +cross-over puffed bodice, and short-frilled sleeves, the broad Leghorn +hat draped with a scarf of old lace fastened down with amethyst bees, +and the pale blue parasol matching exactly in tint the colour of the +carriage in which she was sitting, recalled a splendid tropical flower. + +A certain type of feminine beauty has about it a luminous quality; such +was that of Barbara Sampiero, now in full and glowing perfection: some +of its radiance due to the fact that as yet Time--she was not far from +forty--had spared her any trace of his swift passage. The involuntary +homage of those about her proved that she was still as attractive as she +had been as a younger woman; her beauty had become to her an +all-important asset, and she guarded and tended it most jealously. + +Her companion was also, though in a very different way, well worthy of +attention. Before stepping out of the carriage he stood up for a +moment, and, as he looked about him with amused and leisurely +curiosity, the spectators at once recognised in him a typical +Englishman of the ruling class. Every detail of his dress, the very +cut of his grizzled hair and carefully trimmed whiskers, aroused the +envy of those Frenchmen among the crowd who judged themselves to be of +much his own age. He had not retained, as had done his contemporary +and one-time friend, Richard Rebell, the figure of his youth, but he +was still a fine, vigorous-looking man, with a bearing full of dignity +and ease. + +As his eyes quickly noted the unchanged aspect of the place where he +found himself, he reminded himself, with some quickening of his pulses, +that no Englishman living had a right to feel in closer touch with the +romance of this French town. In the great grim castle--so unlike the +usual smiling château--which rose to the right behind the Villa +d'Arcole, his own Stuart forbears had spent their dignified exile. More, +he himself had deliberately chosen to associate the most romantic and +enchanting episode of a life which had not been lacking in enchanting +and romantic episodes, with this same place, with St. Germains. He and +Madame Sampiero had good reason to gaze as they were both doing at that +famous hostelry, the Pavillon Henri IV., of which they could see, +embowered in trees, the picturesque buildings overhanging the +precipitous slopes. + +Julian Fitzjames Berwick, Lord Bosworth of Leicester, had always made it +his business to extract the utmost out of life. He had early promised +himself that, whoever else were debarred from looking over the hedge, he +would belong to the fortunate few who are privileged to walk through the +gate. So far he had been wonderfully successful in attaining the various +goals he had set himself to attain. This had been true even of his +public life, for he had known how to limit his ambitions to what was +easily possible, never taking undue risks, and ever keeping himself free +from any connection with forlorn hopes. This perhaps was why this +fortunate man was one of the very few statesmen in whom his fellow +countrymen felt a comfortable confidence. All parties were apt to +express regret when he was out of office, and though he was no longer in +any sense a young man, it was believed that he had a future or several +futures before him. + +Many of Lord Bosworth's contemporaries and friends would have shrunk +from taking part in such an expedition as that of to-day, but the +intelligent epicurean had so arranged every detail of this visit to +Richard Rebell and his wife, that it must bring, at any rate to himself, +more pleasure than annoyance. Still, he was not sorry to stand for a +moment enjoying the pretty, bright scene, the wonderful view, and his +own and his beautiful companion's sentimental memories, before going in +to face, as he fully believed he was about to do, the man who was at +once Barbara Sampiero's unfortunate kinsman and his own former intimate. + +Meanwhile Mrs. Rebell had made her way swiftly down the house: hurriedly +she herself opened the front door, waving back the French servant: then, +when she saw the little crowd gathered round the gate, she retreated +nervously, leaving her two guests to make their way alone up the +geranium-bordered path. But once they had passed through into the cool +dim hall, once the light and brightness were shut out, then with a cry +of welcome Adela Rebell put her arms round the other woman's neck, and +with a certain shy cordiality gave her hand to the man whose coming +to-day had caused Richard Rebell to be absent from this meeting, and +this although, Mrs. Rebell eagerly reminded herself, Lord Bosworth also +had been true and kind during that bitter time eight years ago. + +At last all four, for little Barbara was clinging to her mother's +skirts, made their way up the narrow turning staircase, and so into the +long, sparsely furnished drawing-room, full of grateful quiet and +coolness to the two who had just enjoyed a hot if a triumphal drive from +Paris. + +At once Madame Sampiero sat down and drew the child to her knee: "And +so," she said, in a deep melodious voice, "this is little Barbara +Rebell? my god-daughter and namesake! For do you know, my child, that I +also am a Barbara Rebell? One always keeps, it seems, a right to one's +name, and lately--yes really, Adela, I have sometimes thought of going +back to mine!" Then, with a quick change of voice, her eyes sweeping the +room and the broad balcony, "But where is Richard?" she asked. "Surely +you received my letter? You knew that I was coming, to-day?" + +But she accepted with great good humour Mrs. Rebell's faltered +explanation, perhaps secretly relieved that there need be no meeting +with the cousin who owed her so much, and who yet, she had reason to +believe, judged with rather pitiless severity the way she had chosen to +fashion her life. + +Meanwhile, Lord Bosworth and little Barbara had gone out on the balcony, +and there, with the tact for which he had long been famed, and which had +contributed not a little to his successes when Foreign Minister, he soon +made friends with the shy, reserved child. + +But Madame Sampiero took no advantage of the _tête-à-tête_ so +thoughtfully arranged by her friend; instead, but looking intently the +while into Adela Rebell's sensitive face, she dwelt wholly on the +immediate present; telling of her stay in Paris, the first for many +years; of her visit to St. Cloud--in a few satirical sentences she +described to her silent listener the interview with the Empress Eugénie +amid the almost theatrical splendour of the summer palace. But the gay +voice altered in quality as she asked the quick question, "I suppose +Richard reads the _Figaro_? Did he tell you of that reference to--to my +visit to St. Cloud?" As her companion bent her head, she added: "It has +annoyed us so very much! I am sorry that Richard saw it--I cannot +imagine how they became aware of my maiden name, or why they brought in +that reference to Corsica!" + +Mrs. Rebell, the kindest, least critical of women, yet felt a certain +doubt as to whether in this matter her cousin was speaking the truth, +but Madame Sampiero had already dismissed the subject with an impatient +sigh. She rose from her chair, and walked to and fro, examining with +apparent interest the fine pieces of First Empire furniture at that time +so completely out of fashion as to appear curiosities. Then she said +suddenly, "Surely we might go out of doors. May little Barbara take +Julian to the church where James II. is buried? He is anxious to see the +inscription the Queen has had placed there. Meanwhile you and I might +wait for them on the Terrace; I seem to have so much to tell you, and +you know we cannot stay much more than an hour," and, as she noted +remorsefully Mrs. Rebell's flush of keen disappointment, she added, "Did +I not tell you in my letter that Julian was anxious to see the little +place near here belonging to James Berwick, I mean the hunting lodge +bought years ago by Julian's brother? However, there may be no time for +that, as we are going on to St. Cloud, and also---- But I will ask you +about that later." + + * * * * * + +Once out of doors, leaning over the parapet of the Terrace, gazing down +on the wide plain below, and following abstractedly the ribbon-like +windings of the river, Madame Sampiero at last touched on more intimate +matters, on that which had been in both her own and her companion's +minds ever since Mrs. Rebell had drawn her, with such eager hands, into +the hall of the villa. + +"If Richard had been here," she said, "I could not have spoken to you of +my child--of my darling Julia. And though I'm sorry not to see him, I'm +glad to have this opportunity of telling you, Adela, that I regret +nothing, and that I do not feel that I have any reason to be ashamed." +As the other looked at her with deeply troubled eyes, she continued: "Of +course I know you think I have acted very wrongly. But in these matters +every woman must judge for her own self. After all, that man over +there,"--she waved her hand vaguely as if indicating some far distant +spot, and Mrs. Rebell, slight though was her sense of humour, felt a +flash of melancholy amusement as she realised that the place so +indicated meant the Corsican village where Napoleone Sampiero was +leading a most agreeable life on the income which he wrested only too +easily from his English wife,--"That man, I say, has no claim on me! If +there came any change in the French divorce laws he could easily be +brought to do what I wish----Oh Adela, if you only knew what a +difference my child has made to me,--and in every way!" + +For a few moments there was silence between them. Adela Rebell opened +her lips--but no words would come, and so at last, timidly and tenderly +she laid her hand on the other woman's, and Barbara again spoke. "I used +to feel--who would not have done so in my position?--how little real +part I played in Julian's life. The knowledge that Arabella and James +Berwick were to him almost like his own children was, I confess, painful +to me, but now that he knows what it is to have a child of his own--ah, +Adela, I wish you could see them together! Only to-day he said to me: 'I +love you, Barbara, but I adore our Julia!' I used to think he would +never care to spend much of the year in the country; but now, since the +child came, he seems quite content to stay for long weeks together at +Fletchings." + +"And I suppose," said Mrs. Rebell,--she did not know how to bring +herself to speak of little Julia--"I suppose that James and +Arabella--how well I remember them as small children--are a great deal +with him?" + +"Well, no," for the first time during the conversation Madame Sampiero +reddened deeply. "Arabella has been taken possession of by her mother's +people. They have not been quite kind about--about the whole matter--and +I think at first Julian felt it a good deal. But after all it would have +been rather awkward for him to have charge of a niece of eighteen. As to +James Berwick, of course he comes and goes, and I'm told he's +prodigiously clever. He doesn't grow better-looking as he grows older. +Sometimes I find it difficult to believe that the ugly little fellow is +Julian's nephew!" + +"And Jane Turke?" + +"Oh! I've left her and Alick McKirdy at Chancton, in charge of Julia, of +course." + +"Will you remember me to him--I mean to Doctor McKirdy,--you know I +always liked him in old days." + +"Yes, a very good fellow! Of course I'll tell him. He'll feel very +flattered, I'm sure, that you remember him." + +"And the Priory--I wish stones could feel! For then, Bar, I should ask +you to give my love to the Priory--I do so cherish that place! Sometimes +I dream that we, Richard and I, are there, as we used to be long +ago----" Mrs. Rebell's voice broke. + +Madame Sampiero put her hand through her companion's arm, and slowly +they began to pace up and down. "As I told you," she said, rather +suddenly, "we cannot stay long, for we are driving round by St. Cloud, +and--and, Adela, I have a great favour to ask of you"--there came an +eager, coaxing note into the low, full voice. "May I take little Barbara +too? I mean with us to St. Cloud? The Prince Imperial is giving a +children's party. Look, I have brought her a special invitation all to +herself!" and from her pocket--for those were the days of voluminous +pockets--the speaker drew a small card on which was written in gold +letters, "Le Prince Impérial a l'honneur d'inviter Mademoiselle Barbara +Rebell à gouter. St. Cloud, 9 Juin, 1870." "I told the Empress," she +added eagerly, "that I should like to bring my god-daughter and +namesake, and she made the boy--he is such a well-mannered little +fellow--write Barbara's name on the card." + +"Dear Bar, it was more than kind of you. But I fear--I know, that +Richard would not allow it!" + +"But Adela--if I take all the blame! Surely you would not wish the child +to miss such a delightful experience?" Madame Sampiero spoke in a +mortified tone, but Adela Rebell scarcely heard the words; to her the +proposal did not even admit of discussion. "I cannot allow what Richard +would certainly disapprove," she said; and then, with the eager wish of +softening her refusal, "You do not realise, Barbara, my poor Richard's +state of mind. We go nowhere, we know nobody; it was with the greatest +difficulty I persuaded him to allow the Protestant banker to bring me in +touch with a few people who have children of our child's own age. More +than once we have been offered introductions which would have brought us +in contact with the Tuileries and with St. Cloud, but Richard feels that +in the circumstances we cannot live too quietly. And on the whole," she +hastened to add, "I agree with him." + +Before another word could be uttered on either side, the two oddly +contrasted figures of Lord Bosworth and his small companion were seen +hastening towards them. The man and the child had already become good +friends, and, as they drew near to Madame Sampiero and Mrs. Rebell, +little Barbara, a charming figure in her white muslin frock, blue sash +and large frilled hat, ran forward with what was for her most unusual +eagerness and animation. + +"Oh mamma," she cried, "have you heard? The Prince Imperial has invited +me to his _gouter_, and my marraine and this gentleman are going to take +me to St. Cloud! There is a little seat in the carriage which can be let +down." Her voice wavered; perhaps she had already become aware of her +mother's look of utter dismay, "You know that Marthe Pollain went last +year, and the little Prince danced with her--I do wonder if he will +dance with me!" + +She stopped, a little out of breath, and Madame Sampiero turned with a +half-humorous, half-deprecating look at her cousin, "Come, Adela," she +said, "surely you would never have the heart to refuse those pleading +eyes?" + +But the words seemed to nerve Mrs. Rebell to instant decision. "No, +Barbara," she said, in a very low tone. "My poor little girl--I cannot +allow you to accept this invitation. It would make your father very very +angry." And then, as the child, submitting at once, to Bosworth's +admiring surprise, turned away, the tears running down her cheeks, the +mother added, even more really distressed than was the nervous, excited +little girl herself: "I am so very sorry, Barbara, but we will try to +think of something to do to-morrow which you will like almost as well." + +Madame Sampiero bent towards the child. "Never mind, little Barbara," +she said, her voice trembling a little, "only wait till you see me +again, I will bring you the sweetest of playfellows! And some day I will +myself persuade your father to let me take you to a real ball, at the +Tuileries!" Turning to Mrs. Rebell, she added: "Julian and I both agree +that in time, say in six or eight years, I should do very well to take +some small château near Paris, and spend there part of each year. Julia +will then be old enough to have masters, and I am sure, indeed we both +think,"--she turned to the impassive man now walking slowly by her +side,--"that I had better really try and make a half Frenchwoman of her, +and perhaps ultimately, who knows, settle her in France!" + +Mrs. Rebell suddenly laughed. "Oh Barbara," she said, "how fond you have +always been of making plans, of looking forward! Surely this is rather +premature?" + +Madame Sampiero smiled. "English people," she said, quickly, "don't give +half enough thought to the future. But, Adela, I was not only thinking +of my Julia, but also of your little Barbara. Richard cannot mean her +always to lead a cloistered life. In eight years she will be grown-up, +eager to see something of the world. Where could she make her début so +delightfully as at the Tuileries? Well, little Barbara"--and again she +bent over the child--"look forward to the time when I shall be quite +ready to play my _rôle_ of fairy godmother, and so introduce you to the +most beautiful, the most brilliant, the most delightful Court in the +world!" + +The group of walkers turned, and slowly they made their way back to the +Villa d'Arcole. Then, after long clinging leave-taking, Mrs. Rebell and +Barbara, both with bitter tears in their eyes, watched the fairy-like +equipage disappear down the sanded road leading to the Grande Place, and +so towards the broad highway which would bring it ultimately to St. +Cloud. + + * * * * * + +When the carriage was clear of the town, Bosworth, laying his large +powerful hand on that of his companion, as if to deaden the full meaning +of his words, said suddenly, "I suppose, Barbara, that you never had the +slightest doubt as to Richard Rebell's complete innocence?" + +"Never!" she said sharply. "Never the slightest doubt! In fact I would +far rather believe myself guilty of cheating at cards than I would +Richard. I think it was an infamous accusation! Why, surely you, Julian, +felt and feel the same?" She looked at him with real distress and anger +in her blue eyes. + +"Oh yes," he said slowly, "I certainly felt the same at the time. Still, +his present way of going on looks very odd. It doesn't seem to me that +of an innocent man. Why should he compel his wife to lead such a life as +that she evidently does lead at St. Germains?" + +"But how young she still looks," said Madame Sampiero eagerly. "I really +think she's as pretty as ever!" + +"H'm!" he said. "Rather faded--at least so I thought. And then,--another +notion of Richard's no doubt,--there seemed something wrong about her +dress." + +Barbara Sampiero laughed. "You are quite right," she said, "but how odd +that you should have noticed it! Richard won't allow her to wear a +crinoline! Isn't he absurd? But she hasn't changed a bit. She loves him +as much as ever--nay, more than ever, and that, Julian,"--again their +hands clasped,--"is, you must admit, very rare and touching after all +that has come and gone." + +But each of the speakers felt that this visit to St. Germains had been +vaguely disappointing, that it had not yielded all they had hoped it +would do. + +Barbara Sampiero made up her mind that before leaving Paris she would +come again, and come alone. She did not carry out her good resolution, +and many long years were to pass by before she and her god-daughter met +again. And to both, by the time of that second meeting, St. Germains had +become a place peopled with sad ghosts and poignant memories which both +strove rather to forget than to remember. + + + END OF THE PROLOGUE. + + + + + CHAPTER I. + + "Mon pauvre coeur maladroit, mon coeur plein de révolte et + d'espérance...." + + "The past is death's, the future is thine own." + + SHELLEY. + + +Fifteen years had gone by since the eventful birthday and meeting at St. +Germains. + +As Barbara Rebell, still Barbara Rebell, though she had been a wife, a +most unhappy wife, for six years, stepped from the small dark vestibule +into the dimly-lighted hall of Chancton Priory, her foot slipped on the +floor; and she would have fallen had not a man's hand, small but +curiously bony and fleshless, grasped her right arm, while, at the same +moment, a deep voice from out the darkness exclaimed, "A good omen! So +stumbled the Conqueror!" + +The accent in which the odd words were uttered would have told a tale as +to the speaker's hard-bitten nationality to most English-speaking folk: +not so to the woman to whom they were addressed. Yet they smote on her +ear as though laden with welcome, for they recalled the voice of a +certain Andrew Johnstone, the Scotch Governor of the West Indian island +of Santa Maria, whose brotherly kindness and unobtrusive sympathy had +been more comfortable to her, in a moment of great humiliation and +distress, than his English wife's more openly expressed concern and more +eagerly offered friendship. + +And then, as the stranger advanced, hesitatingly, into the hall, she +found herself confronted by an odd, indeed an amazing figure, which yet +also brought a quick sense of being at last in a dear familiar place +offering both welcome and shelter. For she was at once aware that this +must be the notable Jane Turke, Madame Sampiero's housekeeper, one to +whom Barbara's own mother had often referred when telling her little +daughter of the delights of Chancton Priory--of the Sussex country house +to which, when dying, the thoughts of Richard Rebell's wife seemed ever +turning with sick longing and regret. + +Mrs. Turke wore a travesty of the conventional housekeeper's costume. +There, to be sure, were the black apron and lace cap and the bunch of +jingling keys, but the watered silk of which the gown was made was of +bright yellow, and across its wearer's ample bosom was spread an +elaborate parure of topazes set in filigree gold, a barbaric ornament +which, however, did not seem out of place on the remarkable-looking old +lady. Two earrings, evidently belonging to the same set, had been +mounted as pins, and gleamed on the black lace partly covering Mrs. +Turke's grey hair, which was cut in a straight fringe above the shrewd, +twinkling eyes, Roman nose, and firm, well-shaped mouth and chin. + +For a few moments the housekeeper held, as it were, the field to +herself: she curtsied twice, but there was nothing servile or menial +about the salutation, and each time the yellow gown swept the +stone-flagged floor she uttered the words, "Welcome, Ma'am, to +Chancton," running her eyes quickly the while over the slender stranger +whose coming might bring such amazing changes to the Priory. + +Then, as Mrs. Rebell, half smiling, put out her hand, the old +woman--for, in spite of her look of massive strength Mrs. Turke was by +now an old woman--said more naturally, "You don't remember Jane Turke, +Ma'am, but Jane Turke remembers you, when you was little Missy, and your +dear Mamma used to bring you here as a babby." + +Mrs. Turke's voice was quite amazingly unlike that which had uttered, +close to the door, the few words of what Barbara had felt to be a far +sincerer welcome. It was essentially a made-up, artificial voice,--one +to which only the old-fashioned but expressive word "genteel" could +possibly apply: an intelligent listener could not but feel certain that +Mrs. Turke would be bound to speak, if under stress of emotion, in quite +other accents. + +A muttered exclamation, a growl from that other presence who still stood +apart, hidden in the deep shadows cast by the music gallery which +stretched across the hall just above the head of the little group, +seemed to nerve the housekeeper to a fresh effort: "This gentleman, +Ma'am," she cried, waving a fat be-ringed hand towards the darkness, "is +Doctor McKirdy. He also knew your dear Mamma, and is very pleased to see +you once more at Chancton Priory." + +From behind Barbara Rebell lumbered forth into the light another strange +figure, a man this time, clad in evening dress. But he also seemed oddly +familiar, and Mrs. Rebell knew him for a certain Alexander McKirdy, of +whom, again, she had often heard from her mother. "I'll just thank ye," +he said harshly, "to let me utter my own welcome to this lady. My words, +no doubt, will be poor things, Mrs. Turke, compared to yours, but they +will have the advantage of being my own!" + +Alexander McKirdy was singularly ugly,--so much had to be conceded +to his enemies and critics, and at Chancton there were many who +felt themselves at enmity with him, and few who were capable of +realising either the Scotchman's intellectual ability or his entire +disinterestedness. Of fair height, he yet gave the impression of being +short and ungainly, owing to the huge size of his head and the +disproportionate breadth of his shoulders. His features were rough-hewn +and irregular, only redeemed by a delicate, well-shaped mouth, and +penetrating, not unkindly pale blue eyes. His hair, once bright red, now +sandy grey streaked with white, was always kept short, bristling round a +high intelligent forehead, and he was supposed to gratify Scotch economy +by cutting it himself. He was clean-shaven, and his dress was habitually +that of a man quite indifferent to his outward appearance; like most +ugly and eccentric-looking men, Doctor McKirdy appeared at his best on +the rare occasions when he was compelled to wear his ancient dress +clothes. + +Such was the man who now turned and cast a long searching look at +Barbara Rebell. "I shall know if you are welcome--welcome to me, that +is--better an hour hence than now, and better still to-morrow than +to-day"--but a twinkle in his small bright eyes softened the +ungraciousness of his words: "Now," he said, "be off, Mrs. Turke! You've +had your innings, and said your say, and now comes my turn." + +"You're never going to take Mrs. Rebell up to Madam now,--this very +minute?--before she has taken off her bonnet?--or seen her room?--or had +her dinner?" but the man whom she addressed with such fussy zeal made no +reply. Instead, he jerked his right shoulder, that as to which Barbara +wondered if it could be higher than the other, towards the shadows from +which he had himself emerged, and Mrs. Turke meekly turned away, her +yellow silk gown rustling, and her barbaric ornaments jingling, as she +passed through the swing door which shut off the hall, where they had +all three been standing, from the commons of the Priory. + +Doctor McKirdy lifted one of the high lamps, which seemed to make the +darkness of the hall more visible, in his strong, steady hands. Then he +turned abruptly to Mrs. Rebell. "Now," said he, "just a word with you, +in your private ear." + +Without waiting for an answer, he started walking down the hall, Barbara +following obediently, while yet finding time to gaze, half fearfully, as +she went, at the quivering grotesque shadows flung by herself and her +companion across the bare spaces of flagged floor, and over the +high-backed armchairs, the Chinese screen, and the Indian cabinets which +lined the walls on either side of the huge fire-place. + +At last they stopped before a closed door--one curiously ornate, and +heavy with gilding. Doctor McKirdy motioned to his companion to open it, +and as she did so they passed through into what was evidently the +rarely-used drawing-room of the Priory. + +Then, putting the lamp down on the top of a china cabinet, the Scotchman +turned and faced his companion, and with a certain surprise Mrs. Rebell +realised that he was much taller than herself, and that as he spoke she +had to look up into his face. + +"I should tell you," he said, with no preamble, "that it was I who wrote +you the letter bidding you come." + +Barbara shrank back: of course she had been aware,--painfully +aware,--that the letter which had indeed bidden her, not unkindly, to +leave the West Indian island where she had spent her wretched married +life, and make Chancton Priory her home, had not been written by her +godmother's own hand. The knowledge had troubled her, for it implied +that her letter of appeal, that to which this was an answer, had also +been read by alien eyes. + +"Yes," the doctor repeated, as though unwilling to spare her, "I wrote +it--of course at Madam's dictation: but it was my notion that when going +through London you should see Goodchild. He's an honest man,--that is, +honest as lawyers go! I thought may-be he might explain how matters are +here--Well, did you see him?" + +"Yes, I went there this morning. Mr. Goodchild told me that my godmother +was paralysed,--but that, of course, I knew already. Perhaps you have +forgotten that you yourself long ago wrote and told me of her illness? +Mr. Goodchild also explained to me that Madame Sampiero sees very few +people. He seemed to doubt"--Barbara's soft, steady voice suddenly +trembled--"whether she would consent to see me; but I do hope"--she +fixed her dark eyes on his face with a rather piteous expression--"I do +hope, Doctor McKirdy, that she will see me?" + +"Don't fash yourself! She _is_ going to see you,--that is, if I just +wish it!" + +He looked down at the delicate, sensitive face of the young woman +standing before him, with an intent, scrutinising gaze, allowed it to +travel slowly downwards till it seemed wholly to envelop her, and yet +Barbara felt no offence: she realised that this strange being only so +far examined her outward shape, inasmuch as he believed it would help +him to probe her character and nature. + +In very truth the doctor's mind was filled at the present moment with +the thought of one in every way differing from Mrs. Rebell. How would +this still young creature--Barbara's look of fragility and youth gave +him something of a shock--affect Madame Sampiero? That was the question +he had set himself to solve in the next few moments. + +"Are you one of those," he said suddenly, and rather hoarsely, "who +shrink from the sight of suffering?--who abhor distortion?--who only +sympathise with pain when they themselves are in the way to require +sympathy?" + +Barbara hesitated. His questions, flung at her with quick short words, +compelled true answers. + +"No," she said, looking at him with steady eyes, "I have not--I have +never had--the feelings you describe. I believe many people shrink from +seeing suffering, and that it is not to their discredit that they do so +shrink----" There was a defiant note in her voice, and quickly her +companion registered the challenge, but he knew that this was no time to +wage battle. + +Mrs. Rebell continued: "I have never felt any horror of the sick and +maimed, and I am not given to notice, with any repugnance, physical +deformity." Then she stopped, for the strong lined face of her companion +had become, as it were, convulsed with some deep feeling, to which she +had no clue. + +"Perhaps I will just tell you," he said, "why I believe Madame Sampiero +may see you, apart from the fact that she desires to do so. Mrs. Turke +was quite right," he went on with apparent irrelevancy, "I _did_ know +your mother. I had a sincere respect for her, and----" Again his +thoughts seemed to take an abrupt turn. "I suppose you realise that I am +Madame Sampiero's medical attendant,--I have no other standing in this +house,--oh no, none in the world!" + +Barbara divined the feeling which had prompted the last words to be +bitter, bitter. + +"I know," she said gently, "that you have been here a long time, and +that my mother"--a very charming smile lighted up her sad face--"fully +returned the feeling you seem to have had for her." + +But Doctor McKirdy hardly seemed to hear the words, for he hurried on, + +"One day, many years ago--I think before you were born--your mother and +I went for a walk. It was about this time of the year--that is the time +when keepers and vermin are busy. We were walking, I say, and I--young +fool!--was full of pride, for it was the first walk a lady had ever +deigned to take with me. I was uglier, yes, and I think even more +repulsive-looking than I am now!" he gave Barbara a quick glance from +under his shaggy eyebrows, but she made no sign of dissent, and he +smiled, wryly. + +"Well, as I say, I was pleased and proud, for I thought even more ill of +women than I think now; but Mrs. Richard,--that's what we call her here, +you know,--was so beautiful, such a contrast to myself: just a pretty +doll, I took her to be, and as thoughts are free, looking at her there +walking along, I was glad to know that I had all the sweets of her +company and none of the bitter!" + +And still Barbara Rebell, staring at him, astonished at his words, felt +no offence. + +"At last," he went on, "we reached the edge of the first down. I'll take +you there some day. And we heard suddenly a piteous squeal: it was a +puppy, a miserable little beastie, caught in a rabbit trap. You've never +seen such a thing? Ay, that's well, I hope you never will: since that +day you run no risk of doing so in Chancton Woods! 'Twas a sickening +sight, one of the doggie's paws nearly off, and I felt sick--wanted to +get away, to fetch someone along from the village. But Mrs. Richard--she +was the tenderest creature alive, remember--never flinched. Those were +not the days of gun ladies, but there, with me standing by, foolish, +helpless, she put an end to the poor beastie--she put it out of its +misery--with my knife too. Now that deserved the Humane Society's medal, +eh? I never go by there without thinking of it. It's a pity," he said, +in abrupt irrelevant conclusion, "that you're not more like her. I mean, +as regards the outer woman"--he added hastily--"you are dark, like your +father. Well now, I'll be calling Mrs. Turke, and she shall show you +your rooms. We thought you would like those Mrs. Richard used to have +when she came here. She preferred them to those below, to those grander +apartments on Madam's floor." + +"And when shall I see my godmother?" + +Doctor McKirdy looked at her consideringly: + +"Time enough when you've had a rest and a good supper. Never fear, she's +as eager to see you as you are to see her," then, as he watched her +walking back into the hall, he muttered under his breath, "There's +something of Mrs. Richard there after all!" + + * * * * * + +A few moments later Barbara was following the stout housekeeper up the +small winding stair which occupied, opposite the porch and vestibule, +one of the four corners of the great hall, for those who had designed +and built the newer portion of Chancton Priory had had no wish to +sacrifice any portion of the space at their disposal to the exigencies +of a grand staircase. + +Mrs. Turke, on the first landing, called a halt, and Barbara looked +about her with languid curiosity. To the right stretched a dark recess, +evidently the music gallery which overlooked the hall; to the left a +broad well-lighted corridor led, as Mrs. Rebell at once divined, if only +because of the sudden silence which had fallen on her companion, to the +apartments of the paralysed mistress of the Priory, to those of her +godmother, Madame Sampiero. + +Then Mrs. Turke, her loquacity stilled, laboured on up more narrow +winding stairs till they reached the third storey, and, groping her way +down many winding turnings, she finally ushered Mrs. Rebell with some +ceremony--for every incident connected with daily life was to Mrs. Turke +a matter of ritual--into a suite of low-ceilinged, plainly furnished +rooms, of which the windows opened on to the Tudor stone balcony which +was so distinctive and so beautiful a feature of the great house, as +seen from the spreading lawns below. + + * * * * * + +Till Barbara found herself left solitary--she had declared herself well +able, nay, desirous to unpack and dress alone--all that had taken place +during the last hour had seemed hardly real. + +It is said that the first feeling of those who, after being buffeted in +the storm, tossed to and fro by the waves, are finally cast up on dry +land, is not always one of relief. Barbara was no longer struggling in +deep water, but she still felt terribly bruised and sore, and the smart +of the injuries which had befallen her was still with her. Standing +there, in the peaceful rooms which had been those of her own mother, a +keen, almost a physical, longing for that same dear tender mother came +suddenly over her. + +Slowly she put on her one evening dress, a white gown which had been +hurriedly made during the hours which had elapsed between the arrival of +the Johnstones' invitation to Government House, and the leaving by her +of her husband's plantation. Then she looked at herself in the glass, +rather pitifully anxious to make a good impression on her godmother--on +this paralysed woman, who, if the London lawyer said truly, was yet +mentally so intensely and vividly alive. + +To give herself courage, Barbara tried to remember that her hostess was +not only of her own blood, but that she had been the one dear, intimate, +and loyal friend of her mother--the only human being whom Richard +Rebell's wife had refused to give up at his bidding, and even after +Madame Sampiero and her kinsman had broken off all epistolary +relationship. Why had they done so? Out of the past came the memory of +sharp bitter words uttered by Barbara's father concerning Madame +Sampiero and a certain Lord Bosworth. Then, more recently, when she was +perhaps about thirteen, had come news of a child's death--the child had +been called Julia--and Barbara's mother had wept long and bitterly, +though admitting, in answer to her young daughter's frightened +questions, that she had not known the little Julia. + +Mrs. Rebell wrapped a shawl, one of Grace Johnstone's many thoughtful +gifts, round her white gown, and so stepped through her window on to the +stone balcony. Standing there, looking down on the great dark spaces +below, she suddenly felt, for the first time, a deep sense of peace and +of protection from past sorrows and indignities. For the first time also +she felt that she had been justified in coming, and in leaving the man +who,--alas! that it should be so, he being kinsman as well as +husband,--had treated her so ill. + +During the long, solitary journey home--if, indeed, England was +home--there had been time for deep misgiving, for that quick examination +of conscience which, in a sensitive, over-wrought nature, leads to +self-accusation, to a fear of duty neglected. Barbara Rebell was but now +emerging from what had been, and that over years, the imprisonment of +both body and soul. Physically she had become free, but mentally she +still had often during the last five weeks felt herself to be a +bondswoman. During the voyage--aye, even during the two days spent by +her in London--she had seemed to suffer more sentiently than when +actually crushed under the heel of Pedro Rebell, the half-Spanish +planter whose name seemed the only English thing about him. Since she +had escaped from him, Barbara had felt increasingly the degradation of +her hasty marriage to one whose kinship to herself, distant though it +was, had seemed to her girlish inexperience an ample guarantee. That she +had once loved the man,--if, indeed, the romantic, high-strung fancy +which had swept over the newly-orphaned girl could be dignified by the +name of love,--served but to increase her feeling of shame. + +To-night, leaning over the stone balcony of Chancton Priory, Barbara +remembered an incident which had of late receded in her mind: once more +she seemed to feel the thrill of indignation and impotent anger which +had overwhelmed her when she had found out, a few weeks after her +wedding day, that the sum of money paid yearly by Madame Sampiero to +Richard Rebell's account, and untouched by him for some ten years before +his death, had been discovered and appropriated by her bridegroom, with, +if she remembered rightly, the scornful assent of Madame Sampiero. + +Again she turned hot, as though the episode had happened but yesterday +instead of six long years before; and she asked herself, with sudden +misgiving, how she had ever found the courage to petition her godmother +for the shelter of her roof. She could never have brought herself to do +so but for the kindly letter, accompanied by a gift of a hundred pounds, +which had reached her once a year ever since her ill-fated marriage. +These letters seemed to tell her that the old link which had bound her +mother and Barbara Sampiero so closely had not snapped with death, with +absence, or even, on the part of the writer of them, with physical +disablement. + +At last Barbara turned back into the room, and, taking up a candle, made +her way slowly and noiselessly down the old house. + + + + + CHAPTER II. + + + "Et voilà que vieillie et qu'infirme avant l'heure + Ta main tremble à jamais qui n'a jamais tremblé, + Voilà qu'encore plus haute et que toujours meilleure + L'âme seule est debout dans ton être accablé...." + P. D. + + "Who ever rigged fair ships to lie in harbours?" + DONNE. + + +Mrs. Rebell was surprised to note the state and decorum with which the +meal to which she sat down in the dining-room was served. She looked +with some curiosity at the elderly impassive butler and the young +footman--where had they been at the moment of her arrival? + +Barbara had yet to learn that implicit obedience to the wills of Doctor +McKirdy and of Mrs. Turke was the rule of life in Chancton Priory, but +that even they, who when apart were formidable, and when united +irresistible, had to give way when any of their fancies controverted a +desire, however lightly expressed, of their mistress. + +Doctor McKirdy would long ago have abolished the office of butler, and +even more that of footman; it irked him that two human beings,--even +though one, that selected by himself, was a Scotchman,--should be eating +almost incessantly the bread of idleness. But Madame Sampiero had made +it clear that she wished the entertainment of her infrequent guests to +be carried on exactly as if she herself were still coming and going with +fleet, graceful steps about the house of which she had been for so many +years the proud and happy mistress. She liked to feel that she was still +dispensing hospitality in the stately dining-room, from the walls of +which looked down an odd collection of family portraits, belonging to +every period of English history and of English art; some, indeed the +majority, so little worthy from the artistic point of view, that they +had been considered unfit to take their places on the cedarwood panels +of the great reception rooms. + + * * * * * + +Barbara found the doctor waiting for her in the hall, walking +impatiently up and down, his big head thrust forward, his hands clasped +behind his back. He was in high good humour, well pleased with the new +inmate of the Priory, and impressed more than he knew by Barbara's +fragile beauty and air of high breeding. In theory no living man was +less amenable to the influence of feminine charm or of outward +appearance, but in actual day-to-day life Alexander McKirdy, doubtless +owing to the old law of opposites, had a keen feeling for physical +perfection, and all unconsciously he abhorred ugliness. + +As Mrs. Rebell came silently towards him from behind the Chinese screen +which concealed the door leading from the great hall to the dining-room, +he shot but at her a quick approving glance. Her white gown, made more +plainly than was the fashion of that hour, fell in austere folds about +her upright slender figure; the knowledge that she was about to see +Madame Sampiero had brought a flush to her pale cheeks and a light to +her dark eyes. Without a word the doctor turned and led the way up the +winding stair with which Barbara was already feeling a pleasant sense of +familiarity; an old staircase is the last of household strongholds which +surrenders to a stranger. + +When they reached the landing opposite the music gallery, the doctor +turned down the wide corridor, and Barbara, with a sudden feeling of +surprise, realised that this upper floor had become the real +centre,--the heart, as it were,--of Chancton Priory. The great hall, the +drawing-room in which she had received Doctor McKirdy's odd confidences, +even the dining-room where a huge fire blazed in her honour, had about +them a strangely unlived-in and deserted air; but up here were light and +brightness, indeed, even some of the modern prettinesses of life,--huge +pots of fragrant hothouse flowers, soft rugs under-foot. + +When opposite to the high door with which the corridor terminated, +Doctor McKirdy turned and looked for a moment at his companion; and, as +he did so, it seemed to Barbara that he was deliberately smoothing out +the deep lines carved by ever-present watchfulness and anxiety on the +rugged surface of his face. Then he knocked twice, sharp quick knocks, +signal-like in their precision; and, scarcely waiting for an answer, he +walked straight through, saying as he did so, "Just wait here a +moment--I will make you a sign when to come forward." + +And then, standing just within the door, and gazing with almost painful +eagerness before her, Mrs. Rebell saw as in a vision that which +recalled, and to a startling degree, a great Roman lying-in-state to +which she had been taken, as a very young girl, during a winter spent by +her with her parents in Italy. + +Between the door and the four curtainless windows, through one of which +now gleamed the young October moon, Barbara became aware that on a long +narrow couch, placed catafalque fashion, in the centre of the room, an +absolutely immobile figure lay stretched out. The light shed from +candles set in branching candlesticks about the room threw every detail +of the still figure, and especially of the head supported on high +pillows, into prominent relief. + +From the black satin cushion on which rested two upright slippered feet, +the gazer's fascinated eyes travelled up--past the purple velvet gown +arranged straightly and stiffly from waist to hem, past the cross-over +lace shawl which almost wholly concealed the velvet bodice, and so to +the still beautiful oval face, and the elaborately dressed, thickly +powdered hair. On the mittened hands, stiffly folded together, gleamed a +diamond and a ruby. There was present no distortion--the whole figure, +only looking unnaturally long, was simply set in trembling immobility. + +Madame Sampiero--the Barbara Rebell of another day--was still made up +for the part she chose to play to the restricted audience which +represented the great band of former adorers and friends, some of whom +would fain have been about her still had she been willing to admit them +to her presence in this, her time of humiliation. + +As the door had opened, her large, wide open deep blue eyes, still full +of the pride of life, and capable of expressing an extraordinary amount +of feeling, turned with a flash of inquiry to the left, and a touch of +real colour--a sign of how deeply she was moved--came into the +delicately moulded, slightly rouged cheeks. The maid who stood by,--a +gaunt Scotchwoman who, by dint of Doctor McKirdy's fierceness of manner, +and the foreknowledge of constantly increased wages, had been turned +into little more than a trained automaton,--retreated noiselessly +through a door giving access to a room beyond, leaving the doctor, his +patient, and Mrs. Rebell alone. + +Tears started to Barbara's eyes, but they were brought there, not so +much by the sight she saw before her, as by the sudden change which that +same sight seemed to produce in the elderly man who now stood by her. +Doctor McKirdy's whole manner had altered. He had become quite gentle, +and his face was even twisted into a wry smile as he put his small +strong hands over the trembling fingers of Madame Sampiero. + +"Well, here's Mrs. Barbara Rebell at last!" he said, "and I'm minded to +think that Chancton Priory will find her a decided acquisition!" + +Barbara was amazed, indescribably moved and touched, to see the light +which came over the stiff face, as the dark blue eyes met and became +fixed on her own. Words, nay, not words, but strange sounds +signifying--what did they signify?--came from the trembling lips. Mrs. +Rebell herself soon learned to interpret Madame Sampiero's muffled +utterances, but on this first occasion she thought Doctor McKirdy's +quick understanding and translating of her godmother's meaning almost +uncanny. + +"Madam trusts you enjoyed a good journey," he said; and then, after +apparently listening intently for a moment to the hoarse muttered +sounds, "Ay, I've told her that already,--Madam wants you to understand +that the rooms prepared for you were those preferred by Mrs. Richard." +He bent forward, and put his hand to his ear, for even he had difficulty +in understanding the now whispered mutterings, "Ay, ay, I will tell her, +never fear--Madam wishes you to understand that there are some letters +of your mother's,--she thinks you would like to see them and she will +give them to you to-morrow. And now if you please she will say +good-night." + +Following a sudden impulse, Mrs. Rebell bent down and kissed the +trembling mittened hands. "I do thank you," she said, almost inaudibly, +"very very gratefully for having allowed me to come here." + +The words seemed, to the woman who uttered them, poor and inadequate, +for her heart was very full, but Doctor McKirdy, glancing sharply at +their still listener, saw that Madame Sampiero was content, and that his +experiment--for so the old Scotchman regarded the coming of Barbara +Rebell to Chancton--was likely to be successful. + + * * * * * + +Had Mrs. Rebell, as child and girl, lived the ordinary life of a young +Englishwoman, she would have realised, from the first moment of her +arrival at Chancton Priory, how strange, how abnormal were the +conditions of existence there; but the quiet solitude brooding over the +great house suited her mood, and soothed her sore humiliation of spirit. + +As she moved about, that first morning, making acquaintance with each of +the stately deserted rooms lying to the right and left of the great +hall, and seeking to find likenesses to her father--ay, even to +herself--in the portraits of those dead and gone men and women whose +eyes seemed to follow her as she came and went among them, she felt a +deep voiceless regret in the knowledge that, but for so slight a chain +of accidents, here she might have come six years ago. + +In fancy she saw herself, as in that case she would have been by now, a +woman perhaps in years--for Barbara, brought up entirely on the +Continent, thought girlhood ended at twenty--but a joyous single-hearted +creature, her only past a not unhappy girlhood, and six long peaceful +years spent in this beautiful place, well spent too in tending the +stricken woman to whom she already felt so close a tie of inherited love +and duty. + +Ah! how much more vividly that which might have been came before her +when she heard the words with which Mrs. Turke greeted her--Mrs. Turke +resplendent in a black satin gown, much flounced and gathered, trimmed +with bright red bows, and set off by a coral necklace. + +"I do hope and trust, Miss Barbara"----and then she stopped, laughing +shrilly at herself, "What am I saying?--well to be sure!--I _am_ a silly +old woman, but it's Madam's fault,--she's said it to me and the doctor a +dozen times this fortnight, 'When Miss Barbara's come home so-and-so +will have to be done,'--And now that you are come home, Ma'am (don't you +be afraid that I'll be 'Missing' you again), I'll have the holland +covers taken off the furniture!" + +For they were standing in the first of the two great drawing-rooms, and +Mrs. Turke looked round her ruefully: "I did want to have it done +yesterday, but the doctor he said, 'Let them be.' Of course I know +there'll be company kept now, and a good thing too! If it wasn't for the +coming here so constant of my own young gentleman--of Mr. James Berwick, +I mean--we would be perished with dulness. 'The more the +merrier'--you'll hardly believe, Ma'am, that such was used to be the +motto of Chancton Priory. That was long ago, in the days of Madam's good +father, and of her lady mother. I can remember them merry times well +enough, for I was born here, dear only daughter to the butler and to +Lady Barbara's own woman--that's what they called ladies' maids in those +days. Folk were born, married, and died in the same service." + +"Then I suppose you have never left Chancton Priory?" Mrs. Rebell was +looking at the old woman with some curiosity. + +"Oh! Lord bless you _yes_, Ma'am! I've seen a deal of the world. There +was an interlude, a most romantic affair, Miss Barbara--there I go +again--well, Ma'am, I'll tell you all about it some day. It's quite as +interesting as any printed tale. In fact there's one story that reminds +me very much indeed of my own romantic affair,--no doubt you've read +it,--Mr. James Berwick, he knows it quite well,--that of the Primrose +family. Olivia her name was, and she was deceived just as I was,--but +there, I made the best of it, and it all came to pass most +providentially. Why, they would never have reared Mr. Berwick if it +hadn't been for me and my being able to suckle the dear lamb, and +_there_ would have been a misfortune for our dear country!" + +A half shuffling step coming across the hall checked, as if by magic, +Mrs. Turke's flow of reminiscence. She looked deprecatingly into +Barbara's face. "You won't be mentioning what I've been telling you to +the doctor, will you, Ma'am? He hates anything romantic, that he do, and +as for love and poetry,--well, he don't even know the meaning of those +expressions! I've often had to say that right out to his face!" + +"And then what does he say?" + +"It just depends on the mood he's in: sometimes--I'm sorry to say it of +him, that I am--he uses most coarse expressions,--quite rude ones! Only +yesterday, he said to me, 'If you will talk about spades, Mrs. Turke, +then talk about spades, don't call them silver spoons,'--as if I would +do such a silly thing! But there, he do lead such a horrid life, all +alone in that little house of his, it's small wonder he don't quite know +how to converse with a refined person. But he's wonderfully +educated--Madam's always thought a deal of him." + +As Doctor McKirdy opened the door Mrs. Turke slipped quickly past him, +and silently he watched her go, with no jibe ready. He was looking +straight at Mrs. Rebell, hesitating, even reddening dully, an odd +expression in his light eyes. + +Barbara's heart sank,--what was he going to tell her?--what painful +thing had he to say? Then he came close to her, and thrust a large open +envelope into her hand. "Madam bid me give you these," he said; "when +you are wanting anything, just send one or more along by post,--duly +registered, of course,"--and under her hand Barbara felt the crinkle of +bank notes. "She would like you to get your things, your clothes and a' +that, from Paris. Old Léonie, Madam's French maid,--I don't think you've +seen her yet,--will give you the addresses. Madam likes those about her +to look well. I'm the only one that has any licence that way--oh! and +something considerably more valuable she has also sent you," he fumbled +in his pocket and held out a small gilt key. "Madam desires you to take +her writing-table, here, for your own use. Inside you'll find the +letters she spoke of yesterday night--those written by Mrs. +Richard,--the other packets, you will please, she says, not disturb." + +He waited a moment, then walked across to the Louis XV. escritoire which +was so placed at right angles to one of the windows that it commanded +the whole wide view of woods, sea, and sky. "Now," he said, "be pleased +to place that envelope in there, and turn the key yourself." As Barbara +obeyed him, her hand fumbling with the lock, he added with a look of +relief, "After business, let's come to pleasure. Would you be feeling +inclined for a walk? Madam will be expecting you to tell her what you +think of the place. She's interested in every little thing about it." + +Doctor McKirdy hurried her through into the hall, and Barbara was +grateful indeed that he took no notice and seemed oblivious of the +tears--tears of oppressed, moved gratitude--which were trickling slowly +down her cheeks. "Don't go upstairs to your room,--no bonneting is +wanted here!" he said quickly, "just put this on." He brought her the +long white yachting cloak, yet another gift, this time disguised as a +loan, of Grace Johnstone, and after he had folded it round her with +kindly clumsy hands, and when she had drawn the white hood over her dark +hair,--"You look very well in that," he observed, in the tone in which +he might have spoken to a pretty child, "I'm minded to take you up to +Madam and let her see you so--and yet--no, we've not so long a time +before your dinner will be coming," and so they passed through the porch +into the open air. + + * * * * * + +Alexander McKirdy had come to have something of the pride of ownership +in Chancton Priory, and as he walked his companion quickly this way and +that,--making no attempt to suit his pace to hers,--he told her much +that she remembered afterwards, and which amused and interested her at +the time, of the people who had lived in the splendid old house. The +life-stories of some of Barbara's forbears had struck the Scotchman's +whimsical fancy, and he had burrowed much in the muniment room where +were kept many curious manuscripts, for the Rebells had ever been +cultivated beyond the usual degree of Sussex squiredom. + +When they had skirted the wide lawns, the doctor hurried her through a +small plantation of high elms to the stables. In this large quadrangular +building of red brick, wholly encompassed by trees, reigned a great air +of desolation: there were three horses stabled where there had once been +forty, and as they passed out from the courtyard where grass grew +between each stone, Barbara asked rather timidly, for her liking for the +doctor was still tempered by something very like fear, "Why are there no +flowers? I thought in England there were always flowers." + +Now Doctor McKirdy was unaccustomed to hear even the smallest word of +criticism of Chancton Priory. "What do ye want flowers for?" he growled +out, "grass and trees are much less perishable. Is not this prospect +more grand and more permanently pleasing than that which would be +produced by flowers? Besides, you've got the borders close to the +house." + +He had brought her to an opening in the high trees which formed a +rampart to the lawn in front of the Priory, and, with his lean arm +stretched out, he was pointing down a broad grass drive, now flecked +with long shafts of golden October sunlight. On one side of this grassy +way rose a holly hedge, and on the other, under the trees, was a drift +of beech leaves. + +Turning round, Barbara suddenly gave a cry of delight; set in an arch, +cut out of the dense wall of holly, was a small iron gate, and through +the aperture so made could be seen a rose garden, the ancient rosery of +Chancton Priory, now a tangle of exquisite colouring, a spot evidently +jealously guarded and hidden away even from those few to whom the +familiar beauties of the place were free. + +Doctor McKirdy followed her gaze with softened melancholy eyes. He had +not meant to bring Mrs. Rebell to this spot, but silently he opened the +little iron gate, and stood holding it back for her to pass through into +the narrow rose-bordered way. + +Surrounded by beech trees and high hedges, the rosery had evidently been +designed long before the days of scientific gardening, but in the +shadowed enclosure many of the summer roses were still blooming. And yet +a feeling of oppression came over Barbara as she walked slowly down the +mossy path: this lovely garden, whose very formality of arrangement was +an added grace, looked not so much neglected as abandoned, uncared for. + +As the two walked slowly on side by side, they came at last to a +fantastic fountain, set in the centre of the rosery, stone cupids +shaking slender jets of water from rose-laden cornucopias, and so to the +very end of the garden--that furthest from the Priory. It was bounded by +a high red brick wall, probably all that remained of some building older +than the rosery, for it had been cleverly utilised to serve as a +background and shelter to the earliest spring roses, and was now bare of +blossom, almost of leaves. In the centre of this wall, built into the +old brick surface, was an elaborate black and white marble tablet or +monument, on which was engraved the following inscription:-- + + "Hic, ubi ludebas vagula olim et blandula virgo, + Julia, defendunt membra foventque rosæ. + Laetius ah quid te tenuit, quid purius, orbis?-- + Nunc solum mater quod fueris meminit" + +"What is it? What is written there?" Barbara asked with some eagerness. +"How strange a thing to find in a rose garden!" + +She had turned to her companion, but for a while he made no answer. Then +at last, speaking with an even stronger burr than usual, Doctor McKirdy +translated, in a quiet emotionless voice, the inscription which had been +composed by Lord Bosworth, at the bidding of Madame Sampiero, to the +memory of their beloved child. + + "Here, where thou wert wont once to play, a little sweet + wandering maid, Julia, the roses protect and cherish thy limbs. + Ah, what happier or purer thing than thee did the world contain?" + +"Do ye wish to hear the rest?" he said, rather sharply, "'Twas put in +against my will and conscience, for 'tis false--false!" + +She bent her head, and he read on, + + "Now, only thy mother remembers that thou wast." + +Barbara looked up, questions trembling on her lips, but her eyes dropped +as they met his. "Madam would have her put here," he said; "Julia's +garden,--that's what we used to call it, and that is what it still is, +for here she lies,--coffinless." + +Again he pointed to the last line, "Madam ought not to have had that +added when there's not a man or woman about the place who's forgotten +the child! But beyond the walls,--ah! well, who knows what is remembered +beyond the walls?" + +"What do you mean?" asked Barbara in a low tone; out of the past she was +remembering a June day at St. Germains. What had she been promised?--ah, +yes! "the sweetest of playfellows." + +"Well, I was just meaning that Madam, when she made us put in those +words, was thinking may-be of some who do not belong to the Priory, who +live beyond the walls. I make no doubt that those folk have no time to +cast their minds back so far as to remember little Julia." + +He turned sharply round and walked as if in haste through the garden, +his head thrust forward, his hands clasped behind his back, in what +Barbara already knew to be his favourite attitude. + +Once outside the gate, Doctor McKirdy looked long, first towards the +Priory, then down the broad grass drive. "And now," he said briskly, +"let's get away to the downs,--there's more air out there than here!" + + * * * * * + +The road leading from the Priory gates to the open downs lay along a +western curve of country-side, and was over-arched by great elms. To the +west Mrs. Rebell caught glimpses of a wide plain verging towards the +sea, and in the clear autumn air every tree and bush flamed with glory +of gold and russet. + +As they walked along the white chalky ridged cart track, the doctor +looked kindly enough at the woman by his side. She was not beautiful as +had been her mother, and yet he saw that her features were very perfect, +and that health,--perfect recovery from what had evidently been a bad +illness,--might give her the bloom, the radiance, which were now +lacking. The old Scotchman also told himself with satisfaction that she +was intelligent--probably cultivated. With the one supreme exception of +Madame Sampiero, Doctor McKirdy had had very little to do with +intelligent women; but Barbara, from her way of listening to his stories +of Chancton Priory, from her questions and her answers, had proved--or +so thought the doctor--that she was one of the very few members of her +sex who take the trouble to think for themselves. + +"I suppose Mr. Sampiero is dead?" + +Never was man more unpleasantly roused from an agreeable train of +thought. + +"He was dead last time we heard of him, but that happened once before, +and then he came to life again--and most inopportunely." + +There was a pause, and Doctor McKirdy added, in a tone which from him +was new to Barbara, "I wonder if you are one to take offence, even if +the offensive thing be said for your own exclusive benefit?" He did not +wait for her reply, "I think you should just be informed that the +man--that individual to whom you referred--is never to be mentioned. +Here at Chancton he is forgotten, completely obliterated--wiped out." He +made a fierce gesture as though his strong hands were destroying, +crushing the life out of, some vile thing. + +"Since I came here, thirty years ago, no one has dared to speak of him +to me, and the only time that Madam had to communicate with me about him +she wrote what she had to say--I, making answer to her, followed the +same course. I thought, may-be, I'd better let you know how he is felt +about in this place." + +"I am sorry," faltered Barbara. "I did not know--My father and mother +told me so little----" + +"They're a fearsome gossiping lot in Chancton," Doctor McKirdy was still +speaking in an angry ruffled voice; "I don't suppose you'll have much +call to see any of them, but Madam may just mean you to do so, and you +may as well be put on your guard. And then you'll be having your own +friends here, I'm thinking"--he shot a quick look at her--"Madam bid me +tell you that she has no idea of your shutting yourself up, and having +no company but Mrs. Turke and,"--he turned and made her an odd, ungainly +little bow--"your most humble servant here!" + +"I have no friends," said Barbara, in a very low tone. "Nay, I should +not say that, for I have two very good friends, a Mr. Johnstone, the +Governor of Santa Maria, and his wife--also, since yesterday, a +third,--if he will take me on trust for my mother's sake." She smiled on +her companion with a touch of very innocent coquetry. Doctor McKirdy's +good humour came back. + +"Ay," he said, "there's no doubt about that _third_ friend," but his +brow clouded as Barbara added, "There is one person in Chancton I'm very +anxious to see,--a Mrs. Boringdon. She is the mother of my friend Mrs. +Johnstone." + +The mention of this lady's name found Doctor McKirdy quite prepared, and +ready with an answer. "Well, I'm not saying you'll like her, and I'm not +saying you'll dislike her." + +"If she's at all like her daughter I know I shall like her." + +"May-be you will prefer the son, Mr. Oliver Boringdon--I do so myself, +though I've no love to waste on him." + +How the doctor longed to tell Mrs. Rebell what he really thought of this +Mrs. Boringdon, the mother of Madame Sampiero's estate agent, and of how +badly from his point of view this same young gentleman, Oliver +Boringdon, sometimes behaved to him! But native caution, a shrewd +knowledge that such warnings often bring about the exact opposite to +what is intended by those who utter them, kept him silent. + +Barbara's next words annoyed him keenly. + +"Oliver!" she cried, "of course I shall like him!" + +"Oliver? Then you're already acquainted with him?" The doctor felt +beside himself with vexation. He was a man of feuds, and to him the land +agent, all the more so that he was a highly educated man, who had been a +civil servant, and later, for a brief period of glory, a member of +Parliament, was a very real thorn in the flesh. + +But Barbara was laughing, really laughing, and for the first time since +her arrival at Chancton. "If I were acquainted with him," she cried, +"surely I should not be calling him by his Christian name! But of course +his sister, Mrs. Johnstone, has talked to me of him: he is her only +brother, and she thinks him quite perfect." + +"It's well there are two to think him so! I refer, o' course, Ma'am, to +the youth himself, and to this lady who is a friend of yours." + +"Is he conceited? Oh! what a pity!" + +"Conceited?" Doctor McKirdy prided himself on his sense of strict +justice and probity: "Nay, nay, that's no' the word for it. Mr. Oliver +Boringdon just considers that he is always right, and that such a good +thinker as himself can never be wrong. He's encouraged in his ideas by +the silly women about here." + +"Does my godmother like him?--he's her land-agent, isn't he?" + +"Madam!" cried Doctor McKirdy indignantly, "Madam has never wasted a +thought upon him,--why should she?" + +He looked quite angrily at his companion. Barbara was still smiling: a +delicate colour, the effect of walking against the wind, had come into +her face. + +"They're all alike," growled the doctor to himself, "just mention a +young man to a young woman and smiling begins," but the harsh judgment, +like most harsh judgments, was singularly at fault. Poor Barbara was +waking up to life again, ready to take pleasure in the slightest matter +which touched her sense of humour. The doctor, however, had become +seriously uneasy. Why this strange interest in the Boringdons? Mrs. +Rebell now belonged to the Priory, and so was surely bound to adopt +without question all his, Alexander McKirdy's, views and prejudices. Her +next words fortunately gave him the opening he sought. + +"I suppose there are many young ladies at Chancton?" + +"There is just one," he said, brightening, "a fine upstanding lass. The +father of her is General Thomas Kemp. May-be you've heard of him, for +he's quite a hero, Victoria Cross and a' that, though the fools about +here don't recognise him as such." + +"No," said Barbara, "I never heard of the heroic General Kemp." + +Her eyes were brimming over with soft laughter. Living with her parents +first in one and then in another continental town, she had had as a +young girl many long solitary hours at her disposal, and she had then +read, with keen zest, numberless old-fashioned novels of English life. +This talk seemed to bring back to her mind many a favourite story, out +of which she had tried in the long ago to reconstruct the England she +had then so longed to know. Ah! now she must begin novel-reading again! +And so she said, "I suppose that Oliver Boringdon is in love with the +General's daughter." + +Doctor McKirdy turned and looked at her, amazed and rather suspicious; +"you show great prescience--really remarkable prescience, Ma'am. I was +just about explaining to you that there is no doubt something like a +kindness betwixt them. There's another one likes her, a Captain Laxton, +but they say she won't have aught to say to him." + +"Oh no! she must be true to Mr. Boringdon, and then, after a long +engagement,--oh! how wise to have a long engagement,"--Barbara sighed +instinctively--"they will be married in the little church which I look +down upon from my stone balcony? and then--why then they will live happy +ever after!" + +"No, no, I cannot promise you that," said Doctor McKirdy gruffly, "that +would be forecasting a great deal too much!" + +Even as he spoke the deeply rutted path was emerging abruptly on a vast +expanse of rolling uplands. They were now on the open down; Barbara laid +a detaining hand on the old Scotchman's arm, and looked about her with +enraptured eyes. Before her, to the east, lay a dark oasis, a +black-green stretch of fir plantation, redeemed a hundred years ago from +the close cropped turf, and a large white house looked out from thence +up the distant sea. To the north, some three miles away, rose the high +sky-line. A dense wood, said to be part of the primeval forest, crept +upwards on a parallel line. There, so says tradition, Boadicea made her +last stand, and across this down a Roman road still asserts the final +supremacy of the imperial force. + +A sound of voices, of steady tramping feet, broke the exquisite +stillness. Towards them, on the path which at a certain point sharply +converged from that on which Doctor McKirdy and Barbara stood, advanced +Fate, coming in the shape of two men who were in sharp contrast the one +to the other. + +Oliver Boringdon--dark, upright, steady-eyed--had still something of the +Londoner and of the Government official about his appearance. His dark, +close-cropped hair was covered by a neat cap which matched his serge +coat and knickerbockers. His companion, James Berwick, looked--as indeed +he was--far more a citizen of the world. He was bare-headed, his fair +hair ruffled and lifted from his lined forehead by the wind; his +shooting clothes, of rough tweed and ugly yellow check colouring, were +more or less out of shape. He was smoking a huge pipe, and as he walked +along, with rather ungainly steps--the gait of a man more at home in the +saddle than on foot--he swung an oak stick this way and that, now and +again throwing it in the air and catching it again--a trick which sorely +tried the patience of his staider companion. + +When they reached the nearest point to Doctor McKirdy and Mrs. Rebell, +the one took off his cap and the other waved his stick vigorously by way +of greeting. Indeed Berwick, as Doctor McKirdy very well saw, would have +soon lessened the ten yards space between the two groups, but Boringdon, +looking before him rather more straightly than before, was already +walking on. + +"Well," said the doctor, "you have now had your wish, Ma'am: that was +Mr. Oliver Boringdon, and the other is his fidus Achates, Mr. James +Berwick: _he's_ a conceited loon if you like. But then he's more reason +to be so! Now what d'ye think they reminded me of as they walked along +there?" + +"I don't know," faltered Barbara. She was still feeling as if a sudden +blast of wind had beaten across her face--such had been the effect of +the piercing, measuring glance of the man whom she took to be Oliver +Boringdon. No doubt the over-bold look was excused by the fact that he +recognised in her his sister's friend. Barbara flushed deeply; she was +wondering, with acute discomfort, what account of her, and of her +affairs, Grace Johnstone--impetuous, indiscreet Grace--had written to +her mother and brother? Oh! surely she could be trusted to have kept +secret certain things she knew--things which had been discovered by the +Johnstones, and admitted by Barbara in her first moments of agonised +relief from Pedro Rebell's half-crazy ill-usage. + +"Well, I'll tell you what the sight of the two of them suggested to me," +went on Doctor McKirdy, "and in fact what they exactly appeared like, +just now,----" he hesitated a moment, and then with manifest enjoyment +added, "The policeman and the poacher! That's what any stranger might +well ha' taken them for, eh?" But Barbara had given no heed to the bold +gazer's more drab companion. + + + + + CHAPTER III. + + "Mates are chosen marketwise + Coolest bargainer best buys, + Leap not, nor let leap the heart; + Trot your track and drag your cart, + So your end may be in wool + Honoured and with manger full." + + GEORGE MEREDITH. + + +Mrs. Boringdon, sitting in the drawing-room at Chancton Cottage, looked, +in spite of her handsome dress and her manner and appearance of +refinement, strangely unsuited to the place in which she found herself. +Even the Indian tea-table--one of the few pieces of furniture added to +the room by its present occupant, and now laden with substantial silver +tea-pot, cream-jug, and sugar-basin burnished to their highest point of +brilliancy--was out of keeping with its fragile charm. The room, indeed, +had been scarcely altered since it had been furnished, some sixty years +before, as a maiden retreat for one of Madame Sampiero's aunts, the Miss +Lavinia Rebell of whom tradition still lingered in the village, and +whose lover had been killed in the Peninsular War. + +On her arrival at Chancton Mrs. Boringdon would have dearly liked to +consign the shabby old furniture, the faded water-colours and colour +prints, to some unhonoured lumber-room of the Priory, but even had such +desecration been otherwise possible, the new mistress of Chancton +Cottage was only too well aware that she lacked the means to make the +old-fashioned house what she would have considered habitable. Indeed, +she had been thankful to learn that the estate agency offered to her son +through the intermediary of his friend, James Berwick, carried with it +the use of a fully furnished house of any sort. + +Whenever Mrs. Boringdon felt more than usually dissatisfied and critical +of the furnishings of the rooms where she was fated to spend so much of +her time--for she had no love of the open air--she tried to remind +herself that this phase of her life was only temporary; that soon--her +son thought in two or three years, but Berwick laughed at so prudent a +forecast--the present Government would go out, and then "something" must +surely be found for her clever Oliver. + +To-day, her son had brought his friend back to lunch, and the two young +men had stayed on in the dining-room and in the little smoking-room +beyond, talking eagerly the one with the other. As the mother sat in her +drawing-room patiently longing for her cup of tea, but content to wait +Oliver's good pleasure--or rather that of James Berwick--she could hear +the voices rising and falling, and she rejoiced to think of the intimacy +which those sounds betokened. + +Mrs. Boringdon was one of the many in whom the mere possession of wealth +in others excites an almost hypnotic feeling of interest and goodwill. +When in his presence--nay, when simply even in his neighbourhood--she +never forgot that her son's intimate friend and one-time chief, James +Berwick, was an enormously rich man. That fact impressed her far more, +and was ever more present to her mind, than the considerable political +position which his personality and his wealth together had known how to +win for him. When with Berwick Mrs. Boringdon was never wholly at ease, +never entirely her cool, collected self. And now this afternoon, sitting +there waiting for them to come in and join her, she wondered for the +thousandth time why Oliver was not more amenable to his important +friend--why he had not known how to make himself indispensable to James +Berwick. Had there only been about him something of the sycophant--but +Mrs. Boringdon did not use the ugly word--he would never have been +allowed to slip into this backwater. She was one of the few remaining +human beings who believe that everything is done by "influence," and she +had never credited her son's assurance that no "job" was in the least +likely to be found for him. + +His mother's love for Oliver was tempered by fear; she was keenly +desirous of keeping his good opinion, but of late, seeing how almost +intolerable to him was the position he had accepted, she had been sorely +tempted to speak--to point out to him that men in the position of James +Berwick come to expect from those about them something like +subserviency, and that then they often repay in lavish measure those who +yield it them. + +At last the dining-room door opened and the two men came in. + +"Well," cried Berwick, "we've thrashed out the whole plan of campaign! +There's never anything like a good talk with Oliver to confirm me in my +own opinion! It's really absurd he should stick on here looking after +the Chancton cabbages, dead and alive--but he's positively +incorruptible! I'm thinking of starting a newspaper, Mrs. Boringdon, and +to coax him into approval--also, I must say, to secure him a little +freedom--I offered him the editorship, but he won't hear of it." + +Berwick had thrown himself as he spoke into a low chair, which creaked +ominously under his weight. How indignant would Mrs. Boringdon have felt +had any other young man, looking as James Berwick now looked, his fair +hair tossed and rumpled with the constant ruffling of his fingers, come +and thrown himself down in this free and easy attitude on one of the few +comfortable chairs in Chancton Cottage! But his hostess smiled at him +very indulgently, and turned a look of gentle reproach at her son's +stern dark face. + +"An editorship," she said, vaguely, "that sounds very nice. I suppose it +would mean going and living in London?" Her quick mind, darting this way +and that, saw herself settled in a small house in Mayfair, entertaining +important people, acting perhaps as hostess to Berwick's friends and +supporters! She had once been able to render him a slight service--in +fact, on two occasions he had been able to meet a friend, a lady, in her +drawing-room. In doing what she had done Mrs. Boringdon had lowered +herself in her own eyes, and she had had the uncomfortable sensation +that she had lost in his some of the prestige naturally attaching to his +friend's mother, and yet, for all she knew, these interviews might have +been of a political nature. Women now played a great part in politics. +Mrs. Boringdon preferred to think that the fair stranger, concerning +whose coming to her house there had been so much mystery, had been one +of these. + +Her son's next words rudely interrupted her pleasant dream. + +"The ownership of a newspaper," Oliver was saying abruptly, "has never +yet been of any use to a politician or statesman, and has certainly +prevented some from getting into the Cabinet," and he named two +well-known members of Parliament who were believed to be financially +interested in certain important journals. "It isn't as if you wanted +what the Americans call a platform," he went on. "No man is more sure of +a hearing than you are yourself. But just now, the less you say the more +you will be listened to when the moment comes for saying it!" + +The speaker was walking up and down the narrow room, looking restless +and impatient, with Berwick smiling lazily up at him, though evidently +rather nettled at the frank, unasked-for advice. + +Mrs. Boringdon judged the moment had come to intervene. "I hear that +Lord Bosworth and your sister are back at Fletchings, and that they are +expecting a good many people down--" She added, in a tone of apology, +"Chancton, as you know, has half-a-dozen Court newsmen of its own." + +"To me"--Berwick had jumped up and was helping himself to sugar, to +cake, with the eager insouciance of an intimate--"to me Chancton always +has been, what it is now more than ever, the most delightful spot on +earth! I know that Oliver doesn't agree with me, but even he, Mrs. +Boringdon, ought to enjoy the humours of the place. What other village +can offer such a range of odd-come-shorts, of eccentrics? Where else in +these prosaic days can one see gathered together in one spot our +McKirdys, our Vipens----" + +"Our Mrs. Turkes," said Oliver slily. He came forward smiling, good +humour restored, and took his share of the good things his mother had +provided. + +"Oh! yes," said Berwick, rather hastily, "of course we must throw in my +foster-mother--in fact, I'm sure she would be deeply offended at being +left out! And then, there's another thing I think I can claim for +Chancton. Here one may always expect to come across the unexpected! +To-day whom should we meet, Mrs. Boringdon, but McKirdy, wrapped in his +historic plaid and snuff-coloured hat, and accompanied by a nymph, and +an uncommonly attractive nymph too!" + +Mrs. Boringdon looked gently bewildered. "A nymph!" she exclaimed, "do +you mean a lady? What an extraordinary thing!" + +Berwick looked across at his hostess and grinned. Now and again Oliver's +mother actually reminded this whimsical young man of Mistress Quickly, +and it was an added delight to picture to himself her surprise and +horror if only she had known what was in his mind. + +But Boringdon was frowning. "Nonsense!" he said, irritably, "From what I +could see, she was simply a very oddly dressed young woman! McKirdy has +always been fond of making friends with the summer visitors, and he +always prefers strangers to acquaintances. I must say the doctor is one +of the Chancton characters with whom I, for one, could well dispense! He +was really insolent to me yesterday, but there is no redress possible +with an old man like that. His latest notion is that I must only +communicate with Madame Sampiero through him!" + +James Berwick turned round, and Mrs. Boringdon thought he looked +annoyed; he always chose to regard everything and everybody connected +with the Priory as his very particular concern. "I must be off now," he +said, "Arabella has several people arriving this afternoon, and I ought +to be there to look after them. Walk with me as far as the great gates, +old fellow?" + +But Boringdon shook his head. "Sorry I can't," he said, shortly, "but +I'm expecting one of the village boys to come in any minute. Kemp +promised me to talk to him, to try and persuade him to enlist, and he's +coming up to tell me the result." + +"Then you're not returning to the Priory to-night, Mr. Berwick?" a note +of delicate reserve had come into Mrs. Boringdon's voice; she never, if +she could help it, referred to the Priory or to the Priory's mistress. + +"No, I'm still at Chillingworth. But I expect to be over just for the +night to-morrow. Then I'm off for a month's yachting." + + * * * * * + +Oliver came back from the hall door and sat down. His mother saw with a +pang how tired and how discouraged he looked. "I think," she said, "that +you might have done, dear, what Mr. Berwick asked you to do--I mean, as +to seeing him back part of the way to Fletchings. That village lad could +have waited for you--and--I suppose it was all a joke about the new +paper and the editorship?" + +"Oh! no, he's thinking of it," he said. "I suppose, mother, you never +heard of the _Craftsman_, the paper in which the great Duke of Berwick's +friend, Lord Bolingbroke, wrote. Some fellow has been talking to him +about it, and now he thinks he would like to resuscitate it. Incredible +that so shrewd a man should sometimes choose to do such foolish things, +actuated, too, by the silliest of sentimental motives! If I were he, I +should feel anything but proud of my descent from the Stuarts. However, +I hope I've choked him off the whole idea." + +As he caught her look of fresh disappointment, he added, with a certain +effort, "I'm afraid, mother, that you've as little reason to like +Chancton as I have. Sometimes I wonder if we shouldn't do better to +throw it all up and go to London. I certainly don't want to edit any +paper for Berwick, but I dare say I could get work, literary work of +sorts; and, after all, I should be far more in touch there with the +things I really care about." + +His tone of dejection went to her heart, but she answered, not the last, +but the first sentence he had uttered. "You are right," she said, rather +slowly, "I do not like Chancton any better than you do, but I shall +always be glad we came here, if only because it has brought us in +contact with the Kemps--or perhaps I should say with their daughter." + +Oliver looked up at his mother uneasily; he was aware that with her a +confidence was rarely spontaneous. + +"I wonder," she said, and turning she fixed her eyes on the fire, away +from his face, "I have often been tempted to wonder lately, my dear boy, +what you really think of Lucy--how you regard her? Pray do not answer me +if you would rather not do so." + +Boringdon hesitated. His mother's words, her extreme frankness, took him +completely by surprise; for a moment he felt nearer to her than he had +done for years. Still, he was glad that she went on staring into the +fire, and that he was safe from meeting the acute, probing glance he +knew so well. + +"You've asked me a very difficult question," he said at last--"one I +find almost impossible to answer truly." + +Mrs. Boringdon's hands trembled. She also felt unwontedly moved. She had +not expected so honest a confession. + +But Oliver was again speaking, in a low, preoccupied voice. "Perhaps we +have not been wise, you and I, in having so--so"--his lips sought to +frame suitable words--"so charming a girl," he said at last, "constantly +about the house. I have certainly become fond of Lucy--in fact, I think +I may acknowledge to you, mother, that she is my ideal of what a girl +should be." How odd, how inadequate, how priggish his words sounded to +himself! Still he went on, with gathering courage, "But no one knows +better than you do how I am situated. For what I am pleased to call my +political ambitions, you have already made sacrifices. If I am to do +what I wish with my life, such a marriage--indeed, any marriage, for +years to come--would be for me quite out of the question. It would mean +the condemnation of myself to such a life as that I am now leading, and +I do not feel--perhaps I ought to be ashamed of not feeling--that my +attraction to Miss Kemp is so strong as to make me desirous of giving up +all I have striven for." + +Mrs. Boringdon made no reply. She still stared on into the fire; a +curious look, one of perplexity and hesitation, had come over her face. + +"Mother!" he cried, and the tone forced her to look round at him, +"surely you don't think--it is not your impression that Lucy----" + +"I think she has become very fond of you," said Mrs. Boringdon +deliberately. "But I confess that I have sometimes thought that she +seemed fonder of me than of you." She smiled as she spoke, but to +Boringdon this was no smiling matter--indeed, it was one which to his +mind could scarcely be discussed with decency by himself and his mother. +Then a vision of Lucy Kemp, steady, clear-eyed Lucy, almost too +sensible--so the people at Chancton, he knew, regarded her to be--came +to his help. "No, no," he said, with a sudden sense of relief, "I'm +quite sure, mother, that any feeling--I mean the kind of feeling of +which we are speaking--has been entirely on my side! We will be more +careful. I am willing to admit that I have been foolish." + +But Mrs. Boringdon scarcely heard what he was saying. She who so seldom +doubted as to her course of action, was now weighing the pros and cons +of what had become to her a matter for immediate decision. Unfortunately +her son's next words seemed to give her the opening she sought. + +"Sometimes I am tempted to think"--Oliver had got up, he was +leaning against the mantel-piece, looking down into his mother's +face--"Sometimes, I say, I am tempted to think that after all money is +the one important thing in life! When I look back to how I regarded +James Berwick's marriage--he once accused me of condemning what he did, +and I could not deny that I had done so--I see how much more wise he was +than I. Why, to him that marriage which so shocked me was the turning +point--ay, more, that money, together, perhaps, with his wife's death, +steadied him--amazingly--I refer of course to his intellectual +standpoint, and to his outlook on life! And you, mother--you've always +thought more of money than I've ever done. But even you once thought +that it could be too dearly purchased." + +Mrs. Boringdon reddened. Her son's words gratified her. She was aware +that he was alluding to an offer of marriage which she herself had +unhesitatingly rejected at a time when her daughter was still in the +schoolroom, and her son at Charterhouse. Her middle-aged wooer had been +a man of some commercial standing and much wealth, but "not a +gentleman," so the two pitiless young people had decided, and Mrs. +Boringdon, her children believed, had not hesitated for a moment between +a life of poor gentility and one of rather vulgar plenty. + +"Oh! yes," she said slowly, "money can certainly be too dearly +purchased. But still, you on your side, you and your sister Grace, have +always thought far too little of it. Of late I have sometimes wondered, +Oliver, if you knew--whether you are aware"--for the life of her she +could not help the sudden alteration in her measured voice--"that our +dear little friend, Lucy Kemp, is something of an heiress--that in four +years time, when she is five-and-twenty, that is, there will be handed +over to her £25,000?" + +And then, while her son listened to her in complete silence, giving no +clue as to how he regarded the information, she explained her knowledge +as having come to her from an absolutely sure source, from a certain +Miss Vipen, the chartered gossip of Chancton, whose information could be +trusted when actual facts were in question. + +Even after Mrs. Boringdon had done speaking, Oliver still sat on, +resting his head on his hands. "I wonder if Laxton knows of this?" he +said at last. "What a brute I should think him if he does!" and Mrs. +Boringdon felt keenly, perhaps not unreasonably, irritated. Her son's +words also took her by surprise--complete silence would have satisfied +her, but this odd comment on the fact she had chosen to reveal was very +different from what she had expected. + +But when, some three hours later, the mother and son had finished their +simple dinner, and Oliver announced to his mother that he must now go +down to the Grange for half an hour in order to consult General Kemp +over that village lad whose conduct was giving Oliver so much trouble, +Mrs. Boringdon smiled. Her son caught the smile and it angered him. How +utterly his mother misunderstood him, how curiously little they were in +sympathy the one with the other! + +As he left the house she heard the door bang, and sitting in the +drawing-room knitting him a pair of silk socks, she allowed her smile to +broaden till it transformed her face almost to that likeness which +Berwick sometimes saw in her, to that of a prim Mistress Quickly. + + * * * * * + +Boringdon did not go straight down to the Grange. Instead, after having +groped his way through the laurel hedges and so into the moonlit road, +he turned to the left, and struck out, making a long round before +seeking the house for which he was bound. + +Both his long talk with Berwick, and the short, strange conversation +with his mother, had disturbed and excited him, bringing on a sudden +nostalgia for the life he had left, and to which he longed so much to +get back. During his eager discussion with the man whom he regarded as +being at once his political chief and his political pupil, Chancton and +its petty affairs had been forgotten, and yet now, to-night, he told +himself with something like dismay that even when talking to Berwick he +had more than once thought of Lucy Kemp. The girl had become his friend, +his only confidante: into her eager ears he had poured out his views, +his aspirations, his hopes, his ambitions, sure always of sympathy, if +not of complete understanding. A bitter smile came over his face--no +wonder Mrs. Boringdon had so often left them together! Her attitude was +now explained. + +Boringdon had no wish to pose, even to himself, as a Don Quixote, but, +in his views as to the fitting relationship of the sexes, he was most +punctilious and old-fashioned, perhaps lacking the essential nobility +which would have been required in such a man as himself to accept a +fortune, even from a beloved hand. What, take Lucy's £20,000--or was it +£25,000--in order to start his bark once more on the perilous political +sea? How little his mother understood him if she seriously thought he +could bring himself to do such a thing, and in cold blood! + +As he strode along in the darkness, there came back to his mind the +circumstances connected with an experience in his life which he had +striven not unsuccessfully to forget,--the passion of feeling he had +wasted, when little more than a boy, on James Berwick's sister. + +Those men and women who jeer at first love have surely never felt its +potent spell. Twelve years had gone by since Boringdon had dreamed the +dream which had to a certain extent embittered and injured the whole of +his youth. What a fool he had been! But, on the other hand, so he +remembered now, how little he had thought--if indeed he had thought at +all--as to any question connected with Arabella Berwick's fortune or +lack of it! + +Miss Berwick had been mistress of her uncle's house, that Lord Bosworth +who was a noted statesman as well as a man of rank: of course she must +have money, so Boringdon in his young simplicity had thought, and +certainly that belief had been no bar to what he had brought himself +tremblingly to believe might come to pass. The beautiful girl, secure in +her superior altitude of twenty-five years of life, and an already +considerable knowledge of the world, had taken up the clever boy, her +brother's Oxford friend, with pretty enthusiasm. She had liked him quite +well enough to accept smilingly his adoration, to allow that he should +amuse her (so he had realised ever since) in the intervals of a more +serious love affair. Well, as he reminded himself to-night, they had +been quits! Small wonder indeed that even now, after twelve years had +gone by, the recollection of certain bitter moments caused Boringdon to +quicken his footsteps! + +To-night it all came back to him, in a flood of intolerable memories. It +had been late in the season, on the eve--or so he had thought--of his +dream's fruition, during the last days of his first spring and summer in +London after he had gone down from Oxford. Some merciful angel or some +malicious devil--he had never quite known which--had caused him, one +Sunday afternoon, while actually on the way to Bosworth House, to turn +into Kensington Gardens. + +There, in a lonely grassy by-way among the trees, where he had turned +aside to think in solitude of his beautiful lady, he had suddenly come +on her face to face,--on Arabella Berwick, on his goddess, on the woman +whose every glance and careless word had been weighed by him with +anxious thought,--finding her in such a guise that for a moment he had +believed that his mind, his eyes, were playing him some evil trick. + +Miss Berwick, her eyes streaming with tears, was clinging to a man's +arm; and, what made the scene the more unreal, the more incredible, to +the amazed onlooker, Boringdon knew the man quite well, and had often, +in his young importance, looked down on him as being so much less +intimate at Bosworth House than he was himself. The man into whose +plain, powerful face Arabella Berwick was gazing with such agonised +intensity was Daniel O'Flaherty, an Irish barrister, but lately come to +practise at the English Bar, a Paddy whose brogue--so Berwick had +assured his friend Boringdon--you could cut with a knife, but who was, +he had added good-naturedly, said by many people to be a clever fellow! + +And now Oliver was walking straight upon them,--on O'Flaherty and +Arabella Berwick. He stopped short, staring with fascinated, +horror-stricken eyes, making no effort to pass by, to show the decent +hypocrisy he should have shown; and what he heard made it only too easy +to reconstitute the story. Miss Berwick had also dreamed her dream, and +she was now engaged in deliberately putting it from her. + +At last the man had cut the painful scene short, but not before +Boringdon had seen the woman, whom he had himself set on so high a +pedestal, fling her arms round her companion's neck in one last agonised +attempt to say good-bye. It was the Irishman, of whom Boringdon had made +such small account in his own mind, who at last--with the measured +dignity born of measureless grief and loss--led her towards the +spectator whom he vaguely recognised as one of James Berwick's younger +friends. "Perhaps you will kindly take Miss Berwick home?" and then he +had turned and gone, and she who had renounced him, taking no heed of +Boringdon, had stood and gazed after him as long as he remained in +sight. + +During the walk back to Bosworth House it had been Boringdon's lot to +listen while his companion told him, with a sort of bald simplicity, the +truth. + +"I love him, Mr. Boringdon, with all my heart--with all my body--with +all my soul! But certain things are impossible in this world,--apart +from everything else, there is the fact that for the present we are both +penniless. He admits that often years go by before a man situated as he +is makes any real way at the Bar. I ought not to have allowed it to come +to this! I have been a fool,--a fool!" She had tried to smile at him. +"Take example by me, Mr. Boringdon, never allow yourself to really care. +It's not worth it!" + +She had gone on, taking very little notice of him, talking as if to +herself--"Of course I shall never marry, why should I? I have +James,--till now I have never cared for anything but James." Then at +last had come a word he had felt sorely. Arabella Berwick had looked at +him with something like fear in her eyes,--"You will not say anything of +this to my brother, Mr. Boringdon? I trust to your honour,"--much as she +might have spoken to a schoolboy, instead of to a man--a man, as he +angrily reminded himself, of one-and-twenty! + +How well he remembered it all still, and yet what a long time ago all +that happened! He himself had altered, incredibly, in these short years. +O'Flaherty was no longer an unknown, uncouth Irishman: he had won a +place even in the Berwicks' high little world: steady, moderate +adherence to his country's unpopular cause had made him something of a +personage even in the House of Commons, and he was known to be now +earning a large,--nay, a huge,--income at the Bar. Of the two men who at +one and the same moment had loved Arabella Berwick, it was he who had +forged ahead, Oliver Boringdon who had lagged behind. + +And the heroine of the adventure? She was still what all those about +her, with the possible exception of these two men, had always thought +her to be--the accomplished, rather cold, brilliant woman of the world, +content to subordinate exceptional intellectual gifts to the exigencies +of her position as mistress of her uncle's house; bending her fine mind +to the problem of how to stretch Lord Bosworth's always uncertain and +encumbered income to its furthest possible limit, for one of Miss +Berwick's virtues had always been a great horror of debt. More, she had +so fashioned her life during the last ten years that she was regarded by +many shrewd observers as being quite as remarkable a person as her +brother--in fact, where he was concerned, the power behind the throne. +She loved, too, to exercise her power, to obtain good places for her +favourites, to cause some humble climber of the ladder of fame to leap +at one bound several of the hard intervening bars. It was admitted that +the only strong feeling finding place in her heart was love of her +brother, James Berwick, and for him, in a worldly sense, she had indeed +done well. + +Since that afternoon, twelve years before, Miss Berwick and Oliver +Boringdon had never been on really cordial terms. She had at first +tried, foolishly, to make a friend of him, a confidant, but he had not +been possessed of the requisite amount of philosophy, and she had drawn +back mortified at the condemnation, even at the dislike, which she had +read in his eyes. + +Very early Berwick had said to his friend, "I don't know what has +happened to my sister and yourself, old fellow, but it will not make any +difference to us, will it?" But, as Boringdon was well aware, it had +made a difference. The sister's influence was on the whole always thrown +in against that of the friend. It had certainly not been with Miss +Berwick's goodwill that Boringdon had been offered, through her +brother's intermediary, work which would bring him within two miles of +Lord Bosworth's country house; but Oliver Boringdon was very rarely at +Fletchings, and never without a direct invitation from its mistress. + + * * * * * + +As so often happens, the stirring of heart depths brings up to the +surface of the mind more than one emotion. Had it not been for his +mother's smile, Boringdon would not now have turned into the Grange +gate, but it was his great wish that what had been said this day should +make no difference to his relations with the Kemps--save, of course, +that of making him personally more prudent in the one matter of his +indulging in Lucy's society. + +Alas for Boringdon's good resolutions! He had meant that this evening +call at the Grange should be of a purely business character, and at the +door he asked only for General Kemp. + +"The master's upstairs with Mrs. Kemp. She's got a chill, but I'll tell +him you're here, sir," and Oliver had been shown as a matter of course +into the panelled parlour where Lucy sat reading alone. The very sight +of the girl seemed to bring with it peace--restored in subtle measure +the young man's good opinion of himself. And then she seemed so simply, +so unaffectedly glad to see him! Within the next hour, he was gradually +brought to tell her, both of the long talk with Berwick--Lucy had proved +an apt student of political economy within the last year--even of the +proposed newspaper and the editorship, of which the offer, coming from +anyone else, would, he said, "have tempted me." + +"Ah! but you think Mr. Berwick ought not to start such a paper--that it +might do him harm?" Lucy looked up with quick intelligent eyes. + +Boringdon had scarcely said so,--in so many words,--yet, yet--certainly +yes, that was what he had meant, and so, "Exactly!" he exclaimed; "and +if I don't join in, the scheme will probably come to nothing." Lucy +allowed her softened gaze to linger on the face of the man who had +gradually made his way into her steadfast heart. How good, how noble he +was, she thought, and, how unconscious of his own goodness and nobility! + +The girl was in that stage of her mental development when the creature +worshipped must necessarily appear heroic. Two men now fulfilled Lucy's +ideal--the one was her father, the other Oliver Boringdon. Poor Laxton, +with his humble passion for herself, his half-pretended indifference to +the pleasures and duties of the British officer's life in time of +profound peace, his love of hunting and rough out-door games,--all +seemed to make him most unheroic in Lucy's eyes. She was dimly aware +that Captain Laxton's love for her was instinctive, that he was +attracted in spite of himself; and the knowledge perplexed and angered +her. She knew well, or thought she knew well, the sort of woman with +whom the young soldier ought to have fallen in love,--the well-dressed, +amusing, "smart" (odious word, just then coming into fashion!) type of +girl, whom he undoubtedly, even as it was, much admired. But Oliver +Boringdon--oh! how different would be the natural ideal of such a man. + +Lucy was only now beginning to see into her own heart, and she still +believed that her regard for Boringdon was "friendship." Who could +hesitate as to which was the better part--friendship with Boringdon, or +marriage with Laxton? + +"I--I want to ask you something." Lucy's heart was beating fast. + +"Yes, what is it?" He turned sharply round. + +"I've been reading the life of Edmund Burke." + +He bent forward eagerly. "It's interesting, isn't it?" + +"Yes, yes, indeed it is! But I want to ask you why a hundred years have +made such a change? Why it is that now a young man who has every +aptitude for political life----" Lucy hesitated, the words were not +really her own, they had been suggested--almost put into her mouth--by +Oliver's mother. + +"Yes?" he said again, as if to encourage her. + +"Why such a person cannot now accept money from--from--a friend, if it +will help him to be useful to his country?" + +"You mean"--he went straight to the point--"why cannot I take money from +James Berwick?" He was looking at her rather grimly. He had not thought +that Mrs. Boringdon would find the girl so apt a pupil. + +Poor Lucy shrank back. "Forgive me," she said, in a low tone, "I should +not have asked you such a question." + +"You have every right," he said, impulsively. "Are we not friends, you +and I? Perhaps you did not know that this was an old quarrel between my +mother and myself. Berwick did once make me such an offer, but I think +you will see--that you will feel--with me that I could not have accepted +it." + +General Kemp, coming down half an hour later, found them still eagerly +discussing Edmund Burke, and so finding, told himself, and a little +later told his wife, that the world had indeed changed in the last +thirty years, and that he, for his part, thought the old ways of love +were better than the new. + + + + + CHAPTER IV. + + "Il est plus aisé d'être sage pour les autres que de l'être pour + soi-même." + LA ROCHEFOUCAULD. + + +Chancton Priory had been, from his earliest boyhood, even more James +Berwick's home than was his uncle's house over at Fletchings, and it was +incomparably dearer to him in every sense than Chillingworth, which came +to him from his dead wife, together with the huge fortune which gave him +such value in Mrs. Boringdon's eyes. The mistress of the Priory had +always lavished on Lord Bosworth's nephew a measure of warm affection +which she might just as reasonably have bestowed on his only sister, but +Miss Berwick was not loved at Chancton Priory, and, being well aware +that this was so, she rarely came there. Indeed, her brother's real love +for the place, and for Madame Sampiero, was to her somewhat +inexplicable: she knew that at the Priory he felt far more at home than +he was at Fletchings, and the knowledge irked her. + +In truth, to James Berwick one of the greatest charms of Chancton Priory +had come to be the fact that when there he was able almost to forget the +wealth which had come to him with such romantic fulness when he was only +four-and-twenty. Madame Sampiero, Doctor McKirdy, and Mrs. Turke never +seemed to remember that he was one of the richest men in the kingdom, +and this made his commerce with them singularly agreeable. + + * * * * * + +Certain men and women have a curious power of visualising that fifth +dimension which lies so near and yet so far from this corporeal world. +For these favoured few, unseen presences sometimes seem to cast visible +shadows--their intuition may now and then be at fault, but on the other +hand, invisible guides will sometimes lead them into beautiful secret +pastures, of which the boundaries are closely hidden from those of their +fellows who only cultivate the obvious. It was so with James Berwick, +and, as again so often happens, this odd power--not so much of second +sight as of divination--was quite compatible with much that was +positive, prosaic, and even of the earth earthy, in his nature and +character. He attributed his undoubted gift to his Stuart blood, and was +fond of reminding himself that the Old Pretender was said always to +recognise a traitor when approached by one in the guise of a loyal +servant and friend. + +On the afternoon following that spent by him at the Boringdons', Berwick +walked across to Chancton from Fletchings. He came the short way through +the Priory park--that which finally emerged by a broad grass path into +the lawn spreading before the Elizabethan front of the great mass of +buildings. As he moved across, towards the porch, he thought the fine +old house looked more alive and less deserted than usual, and having +passed through the vestibule, and so into the vast hall, he became at +once aware of some influence new to the place. + +He looked about him with an eager, keen glance. A large log fire was +burning in the cavernous chimney, but then he knew himself to be +expected: to that same cause he attributed the rather unusual sight of a +china bowl full of autumn flowers reflected in the polished mahogany +round table, on which, as he drew near, he saw three letters, addressed +in McKirdy's stiff clear handwriting, lying ready for the post. Berwick, +hardly aware of what he was doing, glanced idly down at them: then, as +he moved rather hastily away, he lifted his eyebrows in surprise--one +was addressed to his sister, Miss Arabella Berwick, at Fletchings; yet +another, with every possible formality of address, to the Duchess of +Appleby and Kendal, at Halnakeham Castle; while the third bore the name +of another great lady living some ten miles from Chancton, and to +whom--Berwick would have been ready to lay any wager--no communication +had been sent from the Priory for some twenty odd years, though both she +and the kindly Duchess had in the long ago been intimate with Madame +Sampiero. + +Once more Berwick looked round the hall, and then, abruptly, went out +again into the open air, and so made his way across at right angles to a +glass door giving direct access to a small room hung with sporting +prints and caricatures, unaltered since the time it had been the estate +room of Madame Sampiero's father. Here, at least, Berwick felt with +satisfaction, everything was absolutely as usual. He went through into a +narrow passage, up a short steep staircase to the upper floor, and so to +the old-fashioned bedroom and dressing-room which no one but he ever +occupied, and which were both still filled with his schoolboy and +undergraduate treasures. There was a third room on each of the floors +composing the two-storied building which had been added to the Priory +some fifty years before, and these extra rooms--two downstairs, one +upstairs--were sacred to Mrs. Turke. + +There, as Berwick well knew, she cherished the mahogany cradle in which +she had so often rocked him to sleep: there were photographs of himself +at every age, to which, of late years political caricatures had been +added, and there also were garnered the endless gifts he had made and +was always making to his old nurse. James Berwick had been sadly spoilt +by the good things life had heaped on him in almost oppressive +lavishness, but no thought of personal convenience would have made him +give up, when at the Priory, these two rooms--this proximity to the +elderly woman to whom he was so dear, and who had tended him so +devotedly through a delicate and fretful childhood. + +As he walked about his bedroom, he looked round him well pleased. A good +fire was burning in the grate, still compassed about with a nursery +fender, and his evening clothes, an old suit always kept by him at +Chancton, were already laid out on the four-post bed. Everything was +exactly as he would have wished to find it; and so seeing, he suddenly +frowned, most unreasonably. Why was it, he asked himself, that only +here, only at the Priory, were things done for him as he would have +always wished them to be--that is, noiselessly, invisibly? His own +servants over at Chillingworth never made him so comfortable! But then, +as he was fond of reminding himself, he was one of those men who dislike +to be dependent on others. A nice regard, perhaps, for his own dignity +had always caused him to dispense with the services of the one dependant +to whom, we are told, his master can never hope to be a hero. + +There came a knock, a loud quavering tap-tap on the door. Berwick walked +forward and opened it himself, then put his arms round Mrs. Turke's fat +neck, and kissed her on each red cheek. The mauve and white striped gown +was new to him, but each piece of handsome jewellery set about the +substantial form had been his gift. "Well, Turke! well, old Turkey! it's +an age since I've seen you all! I was in the village for a moment +yesterday----" + +"For a moment? Fie, Mr. James, I know all about it, sir! You was at the +Cottage for hours!" + +"Well, I really hadn't a minute to come over here! But make me welcome +now that I am come, eh Turkey?" + +"Welcome? Why, bless you, sir, you know well enough that you're as +welcome as flowers in May! We _have_ missed you dreadful all this +summer! I can't think why gentlemen should want to go to such outlandish +spots: I looked out the place in 'Peter Parley,' that I did, and I used +to shake in my bed when I thought of all you must be going through, when +you might be at home, here, with everything nice and comfortable about +you." + +"I'll tell you what we'll do, Turkey--you can tell McGregor to lay +dinner in the business room to-night, and you shall have it with me." + +As if struck by a sudden idea, he added, "And we'll have beans and +bacon!" + +Mrs. Turke went off into a fit of laughter. "In October!" she cried. +"Why, my lamb, where's all your fine learning gone to? Not but what, +thanks to glass and the stoves, the fruits of the earth do appear at +queer times nowadays, but it would be a sin to waste glass and stoves on +beans!" + +Berwick was not one whit abashed, "If we can't have broad beans, we can +have toasted cheese. My sister has got a French chef at Fletchings, and +luncheon to-day was--well, you know, Turkey!" + +"I know, sir, just kickshaws! Taking the bread out of honest +Englishwomen's mouths. I'd chef him!" and Berwick realised from the +expression of her face that Mrs. Turke thought to chef was French for to +cook. + +But there was a more important matter now in hand to be discussed, and +she said slily, "You'll have better company than me to-night, Mr. +James,--you'll have to put on your company manners, sir, for there's a +lady staying here now, you know." + +"A lady?" he cried, "the devil there is!" + +"You remember Mr. and Mrs. Richard Rebell, surelye? They were here +constant,--now let me see, a matter of twenty-five years ago and more, +when you, Mr. James, were ten years old, my dear." + +"What?" he said, his tone suddenly altering, "do you mean--surely you +cannot mean that poor Richard Rebell's daughter is staying here--in the +Priory?--now?" + +"Yes, that's just what she is doing--staying." + +"Oh!" he said, in an altered voice, "perhaps after all I had better go +back to Chillingworth to-night." He added abruptly, "She married (her +name is Barbara, isn't it?) one of the West Indian Rebells. Is he here +too?" + +Mrs. Turke folded her hands together, and shook her head sadly, but with +manifest enjoyment. It was well that Mr. James knew nothing, and that it +had been her part to tell the great news. "Oh no, we never mention him; +his name is never heard! From what I can make out from the doctor,--but +you know, Mr. James, what he's like,--the poor young lady, I mean Mrs. +Rebell, has been most unlucky, matrimonially speaking; just like--_you +know who_, sir----" + +"Oh! she's left her husband, has she? It seems to run in the family. Has +she been here long, Turkey?" + +"Only since the day before yesterday. But Madam has already took to her +wonderful: she does the morning reading now." + +"I should think that would be a great improvement on McKirdy's. But, by +the way, isn't McKirdy jealous?" + +Mrs. Turke shook her finger at the speaker. "That's only your fun now, +Mr. James! What call would the doctor have to be such a thing as +jealous? Fie! Besides, he's quite taken to her himself." + +"Why then, the girl we saw with McKirdy yesterday must have been Mrs. +Rebell! A tall, dark, slim creature, eh, Turkey? Very oddly dressed?" He +turned and looked hard at his old nurse; she, in return, gave her +nurseling a quick shrewd glance from out of her bright little eyes. + +"She's not what I call dressed at all," she said, "I never did see a +young lady so shabby, but there, out in those hot climates----" she +paused tolerantly. "Never mind; we'll soon make that all right. Madam +set Léonie to work at once. As for looks," Mrs. Turke bridled, "Mrs. +Rebell favours her poor papa more than she does her poor mamma," she +said, primly, "but she's a very pleasant-spoken young lady. I do think +you'll like her, Mr. James; and if I was you, sir, I would make up my +mind to stay to-night and to be kind to her. I don't think you'll want +much pressing----" + +Again she gave him that quick shrewd look which seemed to say so much +more than her lips uttered. Sometimes Berwick felt an uncomfortable +conviction that very little he thought and did remained hidden from his +old nurse. To-night, as Mrs. Turke had felt quite sure he would do, he +made up his mind to remain at Chancton Priory and to follow, in this +matter of Mrs. Rebell, the advice given him. + + * * * * * + +Meanwhile, the subject of their discussion was sitting on a stool at the +foot of her godmother's couch. It was strange how two days of constant +communion with this stricken woman had impressed Barbara Rebell with a +sense of Madame Sampiero's power of protecting and sheltering those over +whom was thrown the mantle of her affection. The whole of Barbara's past +life, her quiet childhood, her lonely girlhood, even the years she had +spent with Pedro Rebell, had accustomed her to regard solitude as a +normal state, and she now looked forward eagerly to what so many would +have considered the long dull stretch of days spread out before her. + +All she desired, but that most ardently, was to become dear,--she would +whisper to herself, perhaps necessary,--to Madame Sampiero. The physical +state others might have regarded with repugnance and horror produced no +such effect on Barbara's mind and imagination. All the tenderness of a +heart long starved, and thrown back on itself and on the past, was now +beginning to be lavished on this paralysed woman who had made her so +generously welcome, and who, she intuitively felt, was making so great +and so gallant a stand against evil fortune. + +Even to-night Mrs. Rebell, coming into the room, had been struck by +the mingled severity and splendour of Madame Sampiero's appearance. +The white velvet gown, the black lace cross-over, and the delicate +tracery of the black coif heightened the beauty of the delicate +features,--intensified the fire in the blue eyes, as a brighter scheme +of colouring had not known how to do. + +Léonie--the lean, clever-looking, deft-fingered French maid who had +grown old in the service of her mistress--stood by the couch looking +down at her handiwork with an air of pride: "Madame a voulu faire un +petit bout de toilette pour Monsieur Berwick," she explained +importantly. Poor Barbara was by now rather nervously aware that there +was something about her own appearance to-night which did not please her +godmother. Indeed, sitting there, in this lofty room full of beautiful +and extremely ornate pieces of furniture and rich hangings, she felt +acutely conscious that she was, as it were, out of the picture. Words +were not needed to tell her that, for some mysterious reason, her +godmother wished her to look well before this Mr. James Berwick, who, if +Mrs. Turke was to be believed, seemed to come and go so often at the +Priory, but regarding whom, she, Barbara, felt as yet no interest. + +Almost involuntarily she answered the critical expression which rested +on the clear-cut face. "I care so little how I look,--after all what +does it matter?" + +But more quickly than usual she realised the significance of the +murmured words, "Nonsense, child, it does matter, very much!" and she +divined the phrase, "A woman should always try to look her best." +Barbara smiled as Léonie joined in with "Une jolie femme doît sa beauté +à elle-même," adding, in response to another of those muffled +questioning murmurs, "Mais oui, Madame, Monsieur Boringdon a dû venir +avec Monsieur Berwick." + +Mrs. Rebell looked up rather eagerly; if Oliver Boringdon were to be +there this evening, and if outward appearance were of such consequence +as these kind people, Madame Sampiero and the old Frenchwoman, seemed to +think, then it was a pity that one of the only two people whom she had +wished to impress favourably at Chancton should see her at a +disadvantage. + +Again came low murmurs of which the significance entirely escaped +Barbara, but which Léonie had heard and understood: quickly the maid +went across the great room, and in a moment her brown hands had pulled +open a deep drawer in the Buhl wardrobe which had once adorned the bed +chamber of the last Queen of France. Now Léonie was coming back towards +her mistress' couch, towards Barbara, her arms laden with a delicate +foam of old lace. + +A few minutes of hard work with a needle and white thread, much eager +chatter of French, and Barbara's thin white silk gown had been +transformed from a straight and, according to the fashion of that day, +shapeless gown, into a beautiful and poetic garment. + +A gleam of amused pleasure flashed across Madame Sampiero's trembling +lips and wide open blue eyes: she realised that a little thought, a +little trouble, would transform her god-daughter, if not into a beauty, +then into a singularly distinguished and attractive-looking young woman. + +Like most beautiful people, Barbara Sampiero had always been generous in +her appreciation of the beauty of others, and she would have been +pleased indeed had Richard Rebell's daughter turned out as lovely as had +been her mother,--lovely with that English beauty of golden hair and +perfect colouring. But Barbara's charm, so far at least, seemed of the +soul rather than of the body, and, recognising this fact, Madame +Sampiero had at first felt disappointed, for her own experience--and in +these matters a woman can only be guided by her own personal +experience--was that in this world beauty of body counts very much more +in obtaining for those who possess it their heart's desire than does +beauty of soul. + + * * * * * + +The mistress of Chancton Priory had hesitated painfully before allowing +Doctor McKirdy to write the letter which had bidden Barbara Rebell come +to England. The old Scotchman, who to her surprise had urged Madame +Sampiero to send for her god-daughter, regarded the coming of Barbara as +a matter of comparatively small moment. If the experiment was not +successful, well then Mrs. Rebell could be sent away again; but the +mistress of the Priory knew that to herself the coming of Richard +Rebell's daughter must either bring something like happiness, and the +companionship for which she sometimes craved with so desperate a +longing, or the destruction of the dignified peace in which she had +known how to enfold herself as in a mantle. + +For a few days, Barbara's fate had indeed hung in the balance, and could +money have taken the place of the shelter asked for, it would have been +sent in ample measure. At last what had turned the balance and weighed +down the scale had been a mere word said by Mrs. Turke--a word referring +incautiously to James Berwick as the probable future owner of Chancton +Priory. + +Hearing that word, the present owner's trembling lips had closed tightly +together. So that was what they were all planning? That the Priory +should be, in the fulness of time, handed over to James Berwick, to be +added to the many possessions he had acquired by the sale of +himself--Madame Sampiero, discussing the matter in the watches of her +long night, did not choose and pick her words--by that of his young +manhood, and of his already growing political reputation, to a sickly +woman, older than himself, whose death had been the crowning boon she +had bestowed on her husband. + +And so Chancton, which Madame Sampiero loved with so passionate an +affection, was meant to take its place, as if by chance, at the end of +the long list of Berwick's properties--that list which all who ran might +read in those books of reference where the mightiness of Lord Bosworth's +nephew was set forth--after Chillingworth, after the town house, after +Churm Paddox, Newmarket, even after the property he had inherited from +his own father in France. The thought whipped her as if with +scorpions--perhaps the more so that for one moment, in the long ago, at +a time when Barbara Sampiero wished to share everything with the man she +loved, and before little Julia, that _enfant de miracle_, was born, she +had seriously thought of making Lord Bosworth's nephew her heir. But his +marriage had revolted her profoundly, and had, of course, made the +questions of his future and his career, which had at one time been a +matter for anxious thought on the part of his uncle and political +godfather, more than secure. Well, indeed, had he, or rather his sister +Arabella, feathered James Berwick's nest! + +Like most lonely wealthy women, Madame Sampiero had made and destroyed +many wills in the course of her life, but since the death of her child +she had made no new disposition of her property. Let the place go to any +Rebell who could establish his or her claim to it--such had been her +feeling. But while Barbara's short, pitiful, and yet dignified letter +still remained unanswered, and while Mrs. Turke's incautious word still +sounded in her ears, she had sent for her lawyer, and, after making a +will which surprised him, had dictated to Doctor McKirdy the letter +bidding Mrs. Rebell come and take up her permanent home at Chancton. + +And now--ah! even after only very few hours of Barbara's company, Madame +Sampiero lay and trembled to think how nearly she had let this good +thing which had suddenly come into her shadowed life slip by. All her +life through she had acted on impulse, and often she had lived to regret +what she had done, but this time, acting on what was to be, so she had +assured herself, the last memorable impulse of her life, her instinct +had guided her aright. + +What Barbara had felt, on the first morning when she wandered about the +beautiful old house, her god-mother had since also experienced, with +increasing regret and self-reproach. Why had she not sent for the girl +immediately after Richard Rebell's death? Why had she allowed the +terrible grief and physical distress which then oppressed her to prevent +the accomplishment of that act of humanity and mercy? True, poor Barbara +had already met the man whom she had married almost immediately +afterwards, but had she, Madame Sampiero, done her duty by her +god-daughter, the girl might have been saved from the saddest because +the least remediable fate which can befall a woman, that of an unhappy +uncongenial marriage--how unhappy, how uncongenial Madame Sampiero did +not yet fully know. + +But now it was no use to waste time in lamenting the irreparable, and +the paralysed woman set her clear mind to do all that could be done to +make the life of her young kinswoman as much as might be honoured and +happy. Those old friends and neighbours whose disapproval and +reprobation the owner of Chancton Priory had endured during many years +with easy philosophy, and whose later pity and proffered sympathy she +had so fiercely rejected when her awful loss and subsequent physical +disability had made them willing to surround her once more with love, +with sympathy, ay and almost with the respect she had forfeited, should +now be asked to show kindness to Richard Rebell's daughter. Hence the +letters dictated to Doctor McKirdy which Berwick had seen lying ready +for post in the hall. + +Other epistles, of scarcely less moment from the point of view of Madame +Sampiero, had also been despatched from the Priory during the last two +days. Barbara must be made fit in every way for the place which she was +to take now, and in the future, at Chancton Priory. In material matters, +money can do so much! Madame Sampiero knew exactly how much--and alas! +how little--money can do. Her wealth could not restore poor Barbara's +girlhood, could not obliterate the fact that far away, in a West Indian +island, there lived a man who might some day make Barbara as wretched as +she herself had been made by Napoleone Sampiero. But there remained the +power of so acting that Barbara should be armed _cap-à-pie_ for any +worldly warfare that might come--the power of surrounding her with that +outward appearance of importance and prosperity which, as Madame +Sampiero well knew, means much in this world. + +Hence milliners and dressmakers were told to hie them to Chancton, from +Bond Street, and, better still, from the Rue de la Paix. Doctor McKirdy +was amused, bewildered, touched to the heart, as he bent his red-grey +head over the notepaper, and drew heavy cheques "all for the covering of +one poor perishable body." So much fling he allowed himself, and then +suddenly "Madam" had said something,--now what had she said? The doctor +was completely nonplussed, angry with himself--he, whose mind always +leapt to hers! Again and again the long sentence was murmured forth--it +must be something of the utmost importance--luckily Mrs. Turke just then +bustled into the room, and with startling clearness had come the words, +"You tell him, Turkey!" Again the muttered incomprehensible murmur, and +Mrs. Turke's instant comprehension, "Why, of course, Madam reminds you, +doctor, that + + "The very sheep and silkworms wore + The selfsame clothing long before!" + +Well, well, as long as it all added a moment of cheerfulness, of +forgetfulness of the bitter past to his patient, what did anything +matter? Doctor McKirdy told himself rather ruefully that Madam had +always been fond of fine raiment: for his part, he thought Mrs. Rebell +looked very well as she was, especially when wearing that long white +cloak of hers, but if it pleased Madam to dress her up like a doll, why, +of course, they must all give in with a good grace. + +Meanwhile, oh! yes, he quite understood that she was not to be shown +overmuch to the critical eyes of the village--there was to be no going +to church, for instance, till the fine feathers were come which were to +transform the gentle modest dove-like creature into a bird of paradise. + +To-day, for the first time for many years, Madame Sampiero could have +dispensed with the presence of James Berwick at the Priory. Of all men +he was the most fastidious in the matter of women's looks. A first +impression, so Barbara's godmother reminded herself, counts so much with +a man, and what James thought now of Barbara Rebell would be sure to be +reported at once at Fletchings. + +Fletchings, never long out of Madame Sampiero's thoughts, yet rarely +mentioned to those about her--Fletchings the charming, rather small +manor-house originally bought by Lord Bosworth in order that he might be +close--and yet not too close, in the eyes of a censorious world--to +Chancton Priory. This had been some thirty years ago, long before the +memorable later period when both of them became entirely indifferent to +what that same world might think. + +And now James Berwick had come to be the only link between Fletchings +and the Priory. It had been Madame Sampiero's will, ruthlessly carried +out, that all relationship between herself and Lord Bosworth should +cease--that they should no longer meet, even to mourn together their +child Julia. She wished to be remembered as she had been, not as she now +was, a living corpse, an object of repulsion--so she told herself with +grim frankness--to any sanely constituted man. + +The mistress of Chancton Priory never allowed herself to regret her +decision, but still there were times when James Berwick's prolonged +absences saddened her and seemed to make the lamp of her life burn very +low. From him alone she chose to learn what her old friend was thinking +and doing, and how he regarded those struggles in the political arena of +which she was still almost as interested a spectator as he was himself. +Through Berwick, she was thus able to follow each phase of the pleasant +life Lord Bosworth had made for himself, in this, the evening of his +days. + +Madame Sampiero, during the long hour just before the dawn, had debated +keenly within herself as to whether it would be well for Barbara to go +to Fletchings. Certainly, yes, if the so doing would add to her +happiness or consolidate her position, but then Arabella Berwick must be +won over and propitiated, made to understand that Mrs. Rebell was +destined to become a person of importance. What Arabella should be +brought to think rested with James Berwick. For the first time for +years, Madame Sampiero would have given much to be downstairs, to-night, +to see what was going on in the great Blue drawing-room which lay just +below her own room. + + + + + CHAPTER V. + + "So every sweet with sour is tempered still, + That maketh it be coveted the more; + For easy things that may be got at will + Most sorts of men do set but little store." + SPENSER. + + +Berwick walked up and down the hall waiting for Mrs. Rebell. Not only +Mrs. Turke's ambiguous utterances, but his own knowledge of her parents, +made him look forward with a certain curiosity to seeing her. + +The story of Richard Rebell, the one-time brilliant and popular man +about town, who, not long after his marriage to a reigning beauty, had +been overwhelmed by the shameful accusation of cheating at cards; the +subsequent libel case which had developed into a mid-Victorian _cause +célèbre_; the award of nominal damages; and Mr. and Mrs. Richard +Rebell's ultimate retreat, for ever, to the Continent--it was all well +known to James Berwick. + +Still, he would rather have met this Mrs. Rebell anywhere else than at +Chancton Priory. Her presence here could not but destroy, for himself, +the peculiar charm of the place. + +How unpunctual she was! Why was it that women--with the one exception of +his sister Arabella--were always either too early or too late? + +McGregor's voice broke across the ungallant thought, "Mrs. Rebell, sir, +is in the Blue drawing-room. She has been down some time." + +The words gave Berwick a disagreeable shock. The Blue drawing-room? +Years had gone by since the two charming rooms taking up the whole west +side of the Priory had been in familiar use. He remembered very well the +last time he had seen them filled with a feminine presence. It had been +just after his first term at Oxford, when he still felt something of the +schoolboy: Madame Sampiero, beautiful and gracious as she only knew how +to be, had received him with great kindness, striving to put him +completely at his ease. There had been there also his uncle, Lord +Bosworth, and a certain Septimus Daman, an old friend and habitué of the +Priory in those later days of Lord Bosworth and Madame Sampiero's +intimacy, when no woman ever crossed its stately threshold. + +Just before the little party of four, the three men and their hostess, +had gone in to dinner, a radiant apparition had danced into the room, +little fair-haired Julia, the incarnation of happy childhood. Her mother +had placed her, laughing, beside the rather fantastic portrait which was +then being painted of the child by an Italian artist, and which now hung +in Lord Bosworth's study at Fletchings, bearing silent witness to many +past events. + +With the memory of this scene singularly vivid, it shocked Berwick that +now, even after the lapse of so many years, another woman should be +installed as mistress of the room towards which he was bending his +steps. So feeling, he hesitated, and waited for a moment, a frown on his +face, before turning the handle of the door. + + * * * * * + +James Berwick cultivated in himself a sense of the unusual and the +picturesque; especially was he ever consciously seeking to find these +qualities in those women with whom chance brought him into temporary +contact. As he passed through into the Blue drawing-room, he became at +once aware that the former ordered beauty of the apartment had been +restored, and that the tall white figure standing by the fire +harmonised, in some subtle fashion, with the old French furniture +covered in the rather bright blue silk which gave its name to the room. + +Barbara Rebell was gazing down into the wood fire, one slender hand and +arm resting on the rose marble mantel-piece. She looked singularly young +and forlorn, and yet, as she turned towards him, he saw that her whole +bearing was instinct with a rather desperate dignity. She was not at all +what the man advancing towards her had thought to find--above all she +now looked curiously unlike the clear-eyed vigorous creature she had +appeared when walking by McKirdy's side along the open down. + +As James Berwick came into the circle of light thrown by the tall shaded +lamps, she turned and directly faced him,--the expression of her face +that of a shrinking and proud embarrassment. Then she spoke, the words +she uttered bringing to her hearer discomfiture and rather piqued +surprise. + +"I have been wishing so much to see you, Mr. Boringdon, and also your +mother. I think your sister must have written and told you of her +kindness to me--though indeed I do not suppose for a moment she can have +made you understand how very very good she and Mr. Johnstone both were. +I am the bearer of several things from Grace. Also"--her low grave voice +faltered--"I wish to ask if you will be so kind as to arrange for the +sending back to your brother-in-law of some money he lent me." She held +out as she spoke an envelope, "It is fifty pounds, and I do not know how +to convey it to him." + +Berwick felt keenly annoyed,--there is always something lowering to +one's self-esteem in being taken for another person, and especially in +receiving in that character anything savouring of a confidential +communication. + +"You are making a mistake," he said, rather sharply; "my name is +Berwick--James Berwick. Oliver Boringdon, Mrs. Johnstone's brother, +lives at Chancton Cottage. You will certainly meet him in the course of +the next day or two." + +Mrs. Rebell looked for a moment extremely disconcerted: a flood of +bright colour swept over her face, but Berwick, now considering her +closely, saw that, if confused, she was also most certainly relieved. +Her manner altered,--she became, in a gentle and rather abstracted way, +at ease. The man now standing close to her suddenly felt as if in the +presence of a shy and yet confiding creature--one only half tame, ready +to spring away at any rough unmannerly approach. He caught himself +wondering how it was that she had already made friends with McKirdy, and +he told himself that there was about this woman something at once +delicately charming and at the same time disarming--he no longer grudged +her presence at the Priory. + +On their way to the dining-room, during their progress through the hall, +Berwick looked down at the fingers resting on his arm. They were +childishly small and delicate. She must have, he thought, a singularly +pretty foot: yes, there was certainly something of the nymph about +her,--his first instinct had not been at fault, after all. + +Mrs. Rebell walked to the further side of the large round table, +evidently regarding her companion as her guest, and from that moment +onwards, James Berwick never disputed Barbara Rebell's sovereignty of +Chancton Priory. Indeed, soon he was glad that she had chosen so to +place herself that, whenever he looked up, he saw her small head--the +ivory tinted face so curiously framed by short curling dark hair, and +the rather widely set apart, heavy-lidded eyes--sharply outlined against +the curtainless oriel window, of which the outer side was swept by the +branches of a cedar of Lebanon. + +Berwick felt himself in an approving mood. His old nurse had been right; +Mrs. Rebell would add to, not detract from, the charm of the Priory. +Many trifling matters ministered to his fancy. The dining-table was bare +of flowers and of ornament: McGregor, it was clear, had lost touch with +the outside world. Berwick was glad too that Mrs. Rebell wore no +jewels,--not even, to his surprise, a wedding ring. She must be even +more out of touch with her contemporaries than McGregor! And yet her +dress,--yes, there could be no doubt about it--had an air of +magnificence, in spite of its extreme plainness. Now that he came to +think of it, her white lace gown, vaporous and mysterious, resembled, +quite curiously so, that of a bride. + +So, doubtless, sitting there, as they were sitting now, more than one +Rebell bride and bridegroom had sat in this old dining-room, at this +very round table, in those days when men brought their newly-wedded +wives straight home. The last Rebells to have done so must have been +Madame Sampiero's grandfather and grandmother, her own and her +god-daughter's common ancestors. Berwick wondered swiftly if it was from +that bride of a hundred years ago that Barbara had taken her eyes--those +singularly desolate eyes which alone in her face implied experience. + +He looked across the table with a whimsical, considering look. A +stranger passing by outside that window would take them for husband and +wife. So do folk judge by mere appearance! The fact that for himself as +well as for her marriage was out of the region of practical +possibilities made amusing,--gave something of piquancy to this little +scene of pseudo-domesticity. + +Barbara also looked up and across at him. She saw clearly, for the first +time, for the lamps in the Blue drawing-room gave but a quavering light, +the tanned and tense-looking face, of which perhaps the most arresting +features were the penetrating bright blue eyes. The strong jaw--not a +handsome feature, this--was partly concealed by a ragged straw-coloured +moustache, many shades lighter than the hair brushed straight across the +already seamed forehead. She smiled, a delicate heart-whole smile, +softening and brightening, altering incredibly the rather austere lines +of her face. + +"I'm thinking," she said, "of Mrs. Turke. I was in her sitting-room +to-day, and she showed me the many portraits she has there of you; that +being so, I certainly ought not to have mistaken you, even for a moment, +for Mr. Boringdon!" + +But with the mention of the name the smile faded, and a look of +oppression came over her face. + +"Grace Johnstone," Berwick's sudden utterance of the name was an +experiment: he waited: ah! yes, that was it! The painful association was +with Mrs. Johnstone, not with Oliver Boringdon or his mother. + +"Grace Johnstone," he repeated, "is a very old friend of mine, Mrs. +Rebell, and it is always a pleasure to me to have news of her." + +Barbara was opening and shutting her ringless left hand with a nervous +gesture: she began crumbling the bread by her plate. + +"I have not known her very long," she said, "but nothing could have +exceeded her kindness to me. I was very ill, and Mrs. Johnstone took me +into her own house and nursed me well again. It seemed so very strange a +coincidence that her mother and brother should be living at Chancton, so +near to my godmother." But Berwick realised that the coincidence was not +regarded by the speaker as a happy one. + +"Mrs. Boringdon," he said slowly, "is quite unlike her daughter. I +should think there was very little confidence between them. If you will +allow me to be rather impertinent, to take advantage of our +relationship--you know my great-grandfather very wisely married your +great-grandmother's sister--I should like to give you a piece of +advice----" + +Barbara looked at him anxiously--the youthfulness which had so disarmed +him again became manifest in her face. + +"My advice is that you write a note to the Johnstones, and then confide +it to my care to send off with the fifty pounds you are returning to +them. I will see that they receive it safely." Some instinct--the +outcome, perhaps, of many money dealings with pretty women--made him +add, with a touch of reserve, "But perhaps Mrs. Johnstone did not know +of this loan?" + +"Oh! yes, of course she did! Indeed it was she who suggested it. But for +that I could not have come home." Barbara was blushing, and Berwick saw +tears shining in her eyes. He felt oddly moved. He had often heard of, +but he had never seen, the shedding of tears of gratitude. + +"Yes," he said hastily, "I felt sure that was the case. But I do not +think Mrs. Boringdon need be informed of the fact." + +Mrs. Rebell had risen. A sudden fear that she might be going upstairs, +that he would not see her again that night, came over Berwick. + +"Do go into the drawing-room and write that note to the Johnstones, and +I will join you there in a few moments. I am going over to my own +quarters to fetch something which will, I think, interest you." + +Berwick held open the door, waited till the echo of her footsteps had +gone, then quickly lighted a pipe, and walking across the dining-room +pushed open one of the sections of the high oriel window. Then he made +his way round, almost stealthily, to the stretch of lawn on which opened +the French windows of the two drawing-rooms. The curtains were not +drawn: McGregor, and his satellite, the village lad who was being +transformed into a footman, had certainly grown careless,--and yet it +would have been a pity to shut out the moon, and it was not at all cold. + +Pacing up and down, Berwick, every few moments, saw, set as in a frame, +the whole interior of the Blue drawing-room, forming a background to +Barbara Rebell. Indeed, she was quite near the window, sitting--an hour +ago the fact would have shocked him--at Madame Sampiero's own +writing-table, at that exquisite Louis XV. escritoire which had been +discovered by Lord Bosworth in a Provençal château, and given by him, +now many a long year ago, to the mistress of Chancton Priory. + +Barbara had lighted the two green candles which her unseen watcher could +remember as having been there so long that their colour had almost +faded. She was bending over the notepaper, her slight supple figure +thrown forward in a curiously graceful attitude. Again and again +Berwick, walking and smoking outside, stopped and looked critically at +the little scene. It is seldom that a man can so look consideringly at a +woman, save perhaps at a place of public amusement, or in a church. + +At last, slightly ashamed of himself, he turned round for the last time, +and plunged into the moonlit darkness lying the other side of the house. +In his room was a graceful sketch of Mrs. Richard Rebell, Barbara's +lovely mother. He felt certain that the daughter would greatly value it. +How surely his instinct had guided him he himself hardly knew. Barbara +had loved her mother passionately, and after this evening she never +glanced at the early presentment of that same beloved mother without a +kind thought for the giver of it. + + * * * * * + +A curious hour followed: spent by Berwick and Mrs. Rebell one on each +side of Madame Sampiero's couch--Barbara listening, quite silently, +while Berwick, never seen to more advantage than when exerting himself +to please and interest the stricken mistress of Chancton Priory, told +news of that absorbing world of high politics which to Madame Sampiero +had long been the only one which counted, and in which much of her past +life had been spent. + +So listening, Barbara felt herself pitifully ignorant. Pedro Rebell, +proud as he had been of his British name and ancestry, made no attempt +to keep in touch with England. True, certain names, mentioned so +familiarly before her, were remembered as having been spoken by her +father, but this evening, seeing how much this question--this mysterious +question of the Ins and the Outs--meant to Madame Sampiero, Barbara made +up her mind, rather light-heartedly considering the magnitude of the +task, to lose no time in mastering the political problems of her +country. + +It must be admitted that Berwick's eager out-pouring--though it included +what one of his listeners knew was a masterly forecast of the fate he +hoped was about to overwhelm the Government which had already earned the +nickname of "The Long Parliament"--did not add much to Mrs. Rebell's +knowledge of contemporary statecraft. Still, her attention never +flagged, and the speaker, noting her absorption, thought he had never +had so agreeable an audience, or one which showed more whole-heartedly +its sympathy with Her Majesty's Opposition. + +The entrance of Doctor McKirdy into the room proved a harsh +interruption. + +"Be off!" he cried unceremoniously. "Madam won't be having a glint of +sleep this night!" and then as Madame Sampiero spoke, her speech sadly +involved, "Ay, ay, I've no doubt that all this company and talking has +made ye feel more alive, but we don't want you to be feeling dead +to-morrow, Madam--eh, what? That wouldn't matter? It would indeed +matter, to those who had your death on their consciences!" + +But already Berwick and Mrs. Rebell were in the corridor. "I hope I have +not tired her?" he said ruefully. + +"No--no, indeed! You heard what she said? You made her feel alive--no +wonder she looks forward to your coming! Oh! I hope you will be here +often." + +Berwick looked at her oddly, almost doubtfully, for a moment. "I expect +to be here a good deal this winter," he said slowly. + +But if he thought that the evening, so well begun, was to be concluded +in the Blue drawing-room downstairs, he was disappointed. Barbara turned +and made him an old-fashioned curtsey--such an obeisance as French and +Italian girls are taught to make to those of rank, and to the aged,--and +then in a moment she was gone, up the winding staircase, leaving Berwick +strangely subjugated and charmed. + +He was turning slowly when there came the sound of shuffling feet. +"Madam insists on your coming back just for a moment. Now don't go +exciting of her or she'll never live to see you occupying that chair of +little ease." + +"What chair?" asked Berwick lazily: he was fond of McKirdy with an old +fondness dating from his earliest childhood. + +"The high seat, the gallows of fifty cubits set apart for the Prime +Minister of this great country!" + +"I'm afraid Madam will have to wait a long time before she sees me +there!" + +"Well, man, give her at least the chance of living to see that glorious +day!" + +But Madame Sampiero had, as it turned out, very little to say, and +nothing of an exciting nature. + +"Do I think Arabella will like her?" Berwick was rather taken aback and +puzzled. He had not thought of his sister and Mrs. Rebell in +conjunction, and the idea was not a particularly agreeable one. "Well, +yes, why shouldn't she? They are absolutely unlike," a not unkindly +smile came over his face. He added, "I am sure my uncle will be charmed +with her," then bent forward to catch the faltering utterance, "Yes, I +know Richard Rebell was a friend of his--but do I understand that you +want Arabella to ask her to Fletchings?" There was a rather long +pause--"Yes, yes, Arabella shall certainly call on Mrs. Rebell, and at +once." + + * * * * * + +One fact necessarily dominated Berwick's relations with, and attitude +towards, women. That he often forgot this fact, and would remain for +long periods of time quite unaware that it lay in wait for him to catch +him tripping, was certain. But even so, any little matter, such as a +moment of sudden instinctive sympathy with some pretty creature standing +on the threshold of life, was apt to bring back the knowledge, to make +the Fact the one thing to be remembered. + +Again, it was never forgotten--not for a moment--by the human being who +had Berwick's interest most at heart, and who had played from his +earliest boyhood a preponderant part in his life. Arabella Berwick +always remembered that her brother's dead wife, behaving on this unique +occasion as a man might have done, and as men have often done, had so +left her vast fortune that even the life interest must pass away from +him, and that irrevocably, in the event of his making a second marriage. + +At the time of his wife's death, James Berwick had been annoyed--keenly +so--by the comment this clause in her will had provoked--far more so +indeed than by the clause itself. His brief experience of married life +had not been such as to make him at all desirous of repeating the +experiment; and what he saw of marriage about him did not incline him to +envy the lot of the average married man. Accordingly, the condition of +bachelorhood attaching to his present wealth pressed very lightly on +him. It was, however, always present to Miss Berwick, and when her +brother was staying at Fletchings--even more, when she was acting, as +she sometimes did, as hostess to his friends--attractive girls were +never included in the house party, and the agreeable, unattached widow, +who has become a social institution, was rigorously avoided by her. + +Unless the attraction is so strong as to cause him to overleap each of +the many barriers erected by our rather elaborate civilisation, a man of +the world--a man interested supremely in politics, considerably in +sport, and in the hundred and one matters which occupy people of wealth +and leisure--is generally apt to know, in an intimate social sense, only +those women with whom he is brought in contact by his own womenfolk. +Berwick went into many worlds to which his sister had no wish to have +access, but both before his marriage and since he had become a widower, +she had been careful to throw him, as far as lay in her power, with +women who could in no way dispute her own position as his trusted +counsellor and friend. This was made the more easy because James Berwick +in all good faith disliked that feminine type which plays in politics +the part of francs-tireurs--he called them by the less agreeable name of +"stirabouts." Miss Berwick cultivated on her brother's behalf every type +of pretty, amusing, and even clever married woman, but no worldly mother +was ever more careful in keeping her daughter out of the way of +detrimentals than was Arabella Berwick in avoiding for her brother +dangerous proximities of an innocent kind. + +Unfortunately Berwick was not always as grateful as he should have been +to so kind and far-sighted a sister. He would suddenly take a fancy to +the freshest and prettiest _débutante_, and for a while, perhaps from +June to August, Arabella would tremble. On one occasion she had conveyed +some idea of her brother's position to an astute lady who had regarded +him as a prospective son-in-law, and when once the mother had thoroughly +realised the dreadful truth concerning the tenure of his large income, +the young beauty had been spirited away. + +Then, again,--and this, it is to be feared, happened more +frequently--Berwick would deliberately put himself in the way of some +devastating charmer, who, even if technically "safe" from his sister's +standpoint, belonged to the type which breeds mischief, and causes those +involuntary appearances in the law courts of his country which stand so +much in the way of the ambitious young statesman. Such ladies, as Miss +Berwick well knew, have a disconcerting knack of getting rid of their +legal impediment to re-marriage. Berwick had lately had a very narrow +escape from such a one. In the sharp discussion between the brother and +sister which had followed, he had exclaimed sardonically, "Really, +Arabella, what you ought to look out for--I mean for me--is some poor +pretty soul with a mad husband safe out of the way. You know lunatics +live for ever." And Arabella, though she had smiled reprovingly, had +been struck by the carelessly uttered words. + +Miss Berwick's attitude to certain disagreeable and sordid facts of +human life had been early fixed by herself as one of disdainful +aloofness. She did not permit herself to judge those about her, and far +preferred not to know of their transgressions. When such knowledge was +thrust upon her--as had necessarily been the case with her uncle, Lord +Bosworth, and Madame Sampiero--she judged narrowly and hardly the woman, +contemptuously and leniently the man. + + + + + CHAPTER VI. + + "Crois-tu donc que l'on peut commander à son coeur? + On aime malgré soi, car l'Amour est un hôte + Qui vient à son caprice, et toujours en vainqueur." + + E. AUGIER. + + +During the ten days which followed that on which Mrs. Boringdon had held +a certain conversation with her son, Lucy Kemp gradually became aware of +two things. The first, which seemed to blot out and exclude everything +else, was that she loved--in the old-fashioned pathetic sense of the +abused word--Oliver Boringdon. + +Hitherto she had been able to call the deep feeling which knit her to +him "friendship," but that kindly hypocrisy would serve no longer: she +was now aware what name to call it by. She had known it since the +evening she had noticed that his manner had altered, that he had become +more reserved, less really at ease. The second thing of which Lucy +became aware, during those long dragging empty days, was the fact of her +keen unhappiness, and of her determination to conceal it from those +about her--especially from the father and mother who, she knew, were so +strangely sensitive to all that concerned her. + + * * * * * + +Major-General and Mrs. Kemp had been settled at Chancton Grange for some +years, and the Mutiny hero, the man whose gallant deed had once thrilled +England, Mrs. Kemp, and their young daughter, had come to be regarded by +the village folk with that kindly contempt which is bred, we are told, +by familiarity. + +The General's incisive, dry manner was rather resented by those of his +neighbours who had hoped to make of him a local tea-party celebrity, and +his constructive interest in local politics won him but tepid praise +from the villagers, while the fact that Mrs. Kemp's large-minded charity +and goodness of heart was tempered by a good deal of shrewd +common-sense, did not make her the more loved by those, both gentle and +simple, whom she was unwearying in helping in time of trouble. + +The husband and wife were, however, rather grudgingly regarded as a +model couple. It had soon been noticed that they actually appeared +happier together than apart, and, surprising fact, that in the +day-to-day life of walking and driving, ay and even of sitting still +indoors, they apparently preferred each other's company to that of any +of their neighbours! + +Why one man succeeds, and another, apparently superior in every respect, +fails in winning the prizes, the pleasant places, and the easy paths of +life, is a mystery rather to their acquaintances than to their intimate +friends--people who, according to the schoolboy's excellent definition, +"know all about you, but like you all the same." Now the peculiarity +about General Kemp was that he had neither succeeded nor failed, or +rather he had been successful only up to a certain point. He had won his +V.C. as a subaltern in the Mutiny, and promotion had naturally followed. +But after he had attained to field rank, he saw his career broken off +abruptly, and that for no shortcomings of his own, for nothing that he +could have helped or altered in any way. + +It was a prosaic misfortune enough, being simply the relentless knife of +economy, wielded by a new and enthusiastic Secretary at War, which cut +off at one sweep General Kemp and various of his contemporaries and +comrades in arms. The right honourable gentleman, as he explained to an +admiring House of Commons, was able to save the difference between the +full pay and the retired pay of these officers--a substantial sum to be +sure, but still not so much as was afterwards expended by the right +honourable gentleman's successors in bringing the establishment of +officers up to its proper strength again. + +General Kemp was a deeply disappointed man, but he kept his feelings +strictly to himself, and only his wife knew what compulsory retirement +had meant to him, and, for the matter of that, to herself, for Mrs. +Kemp, very early in life, had put all her eggs in Thomas Kemp's basket. + +But in one matter there had been no disappointment. The fact that Lucy's +childhood had been spent, though not unhappily, far from her parents, +seemed to make her doubly dear to them: and then, to their fond eyes and +hearts, their child was everything a girl should be. Unlike the girls of +whom Mrs. Kemp sometimes heard so much, she showed no desire to leave +her father and mother--no wish even to enjoy the gaieties which fell to +the lot of her contemporaries who lived amid livelier scenes than those +afforded by a remote Sussex village, and this though she was as fond of +dancing and of play as other young creatures of her age. + +Until a year ago,--nay, till six months back,--Mrs. Kemp would have +disbelieved an angel, had so august a visitant foretold that there would +soon arise, and that through no fault of hers or of the girl's, a cloud +between her daughter, her darling Lucy, and herself; and yet this thing, +this incredible thing, had come to pass. + +The worst the mother had feared, and she had sometimes feared it +greatly, was that her only daughter, following in this her own example, +would marry to India, or, worse still, to some far-away colony. But, +even so, Mrs. Kemp would have made the sacrifice, especially if Lucy's +lover had in any way recalled the Tom Kemp of thirty years before. + +However, as so generally happens, the danger the mother had dreaded +passed by harmlessly: Lucy received and rejected the offer of a soldier, +the son of one of the General's oldest friends; and her girlish heart +had turned to something so utterly different, so entirely unexpected, +that neither Mrs. Kemp nor Lucy's father had known how to deal with the +situation which had come upon them with a suddenness which had amazed +them both. + + * * * * * + +In spite of her look of unformed youth and gravely young manner, Lucy +Kemp was in no sense a child. There are surely many women who at some +stage of their life, paraphrasing the famous phrase, might well exclaim, +"I think, therefore I am--a woman." But such a test would convict many +women of eternal childhood. + +Lucy, during the last year, had thought much--too much, perhaps, for her +comfort. She had early made up her mind as to what she did not wish to +do with her life. In no circumstances would she become the wife of +Captain Laxton, but she had found it difficult to convince him of her +resolution. + +So it was that now, during those dreary days when the flow of constant +communication between Oliver Boringdon and the Grange had ceased, as if +by a stroke of malignant magic, poor Lucy had had more than time to +examine her mind and heart, and to feel a dreadful terror lest what she +found there should also be discovered by those about her, and especially +by Oliver himself. + +Mrs. Kemp was not well--so rare an occurrence as to alter all the usual +habits of the Grange. The General wandered disconsolately about the +garden, and through the lower rooms, reading, smoking, and gardening, +but it always ended in his going up to his wife's room. Lucy, standing +apart, was not too busy with her thoughts to realise, more than she had +ever done before, the vitality, the compelling bondage, of such an +attachment as that between her quiet, rather silent, father and her +impulsive affectionate mother. Watching those two with a new, and an +almost painful, interest, the girl told herself that, for a year of such +happy bondage between herself and Oliver Boringdon, she would willingly +give the rest of her life in exchange. + +Looking back, especially on the last few months, Lucy was able to recall +many moments, nay hours, when Oliver had undoubtedly regarded her as +being in a very special sense his friend. Bending over her work, sitting +silent by her mother's bedside, Lucy would suddenly remember, with a +fluttering of the heart, certain kindly looks, certain frankly uttered +confidences--and, remembering these things, she would regain some of the +self-respect which sometimes seemed to have slipped away from her in a +night. To Lucy Kemp the thought of seeking before being sought was +profoundly repugnant, and she was deeply ashamed of the feeling which +possessed her, and which alone seemed real in her daily life. + +There had been no love-making on Oliver's part--no, indeed!--but the +very phrase has acquired a vulgar significance. The girl thought she +knew every way of love, and she shrank from being "made love to." +Captain Laxton's eager desire to anticipate her every trifling wish, his +awkward and most unprovoked compliments, the haunting of her when she +would so much rather have been alone--ah! no, Oliver could never behave +like that, in so absurd, so undignified a manner, to any woman. If +Captain Laxton was a typical lover, then Lucy Kemp felt sure that +Boringdon was incapable of being, in that sense, in love, and she +thought all the better of him for it. + +Nay, more,--the belief that Oliver was in this so different from other, +more commonplace, men, brought infinite comfort. Lucy, compelled to +admit that he had at no time shown any wish to make love to her, brought +herself to think it possible that Boringdon was in very truth incapable +of that peculiar jealous passionate feeling of which the girl now knew +herself to be as much possessed as was Captain Laxton himself--that +strange state of feeling so constantly described in those novels which +she and her mother read, and of which her soldier lover, when in her +company, seemed the living embodiment. + +During the past ten days, Lucy had only twice seen Oliver, and this in +village life must mean deliberate avoidance. So feeling, pride, and +instinctive modesty, had kept her away from the Cottage, and Mrs. +Boringdon--this was surely strange--had made no effort to see her. Once, +in a by-way of Chancton, Lucy had met Oliver face to face,--he had +stopped her, inquired eagerly concerning Mrs. Kemp, and seemed inclined, +more than she had done at the moment, to talk in the old way, to +linger--then with an odd, almost rude abruptness, he had turned and left +her, and tears, of which she had been bitterly, agonisingly ashamed, had +rushed into poor Lucy's brown eyes. + +Their other meeting--one which was infinitely pleasanter to look back +upon--had been at the Grange. Boringdon had come with a note from his +mother to Mrs. Kemp; Lucy had taken it from him at the door, and unasked +he had followed the girl through the hall out into the old-fashioned +garden. There, after a word said by her as to the surprising result of +an important by-election,--since she had known him Lucy had become very +much of a politician,--Oliver had suddenly taken from his pocket a +letter which concerned him nearly, and acting as if on an irresistible +impulse, he had begged her to read it. + +The letter was from a man who had been one of his principal constituents +and supporters during his brief period of Parliamentary glory, and +contained private information concerning the probable resignation of the +member who had been Boringdon's successful rival at the last +election--it of course amounted to an invitation to stand again. + +For a moment standing, out there in the garden, Time seemed to have been +put back: Oliver and she were talking in the old way--indeed, he was +just telling her exactly what he meant to write in answer to this +all-important letter, when, to Lucy's discomfiture and deep chagrin, +General Kemp had suddenly appeared in the garden porch of the Grange and +had put a quick sharp end to the discussion. "Your mother wants you, +Lucy--will you please go up to her at once?" and the girl had obeyed +without saying good-bye, for she felt sure--or perhaps, had hoped to +ensure--that Boringdon would wait till she came down again. But alas! +when she ran down, a few minutes later, the young man was gone, and her +father answered her involuntary look of deep disappointment with one +that made her hang her head and blush! The child in Lucy asked itself +pitifully how father could have been so unkind. + +General Kemp had indeed been angry--nay, more than angry. The showing of +a letter by a man to a woman is an action which to an onlooker has about +it something peculiarly significant and intimate. Standing just within +the threshold of his house, seeing the two figures standing on the path +close to one another, and so absorbed in what they were saying that some +moments elapsed before they looked up and became aware of his presence, +the father realised, more than he had done before, Lucy's odd relation +to the young man. "What the devil"--so General Kemp asked himself with +rising anger--"what the devil did Boringdon mean by all that sort of +thing?" + +"Il faut qu'une porte soît ouverte ou fermée!" The wise French saying +which provided de Musset with a title for one of his most poignant +tragi-comedies, was probably unknown to General Kemp, but it exactly +expressed his feeling. The upright soldier had no liking for half-open +doors--for ambiguous sentimental relations. + + * * * * * + +"I can't think what the man was thinking of--taking a letter out of his +pocket, and showing it to her for all the world as if she were his wife! +I wish, Mary, you'd say a word to Lucy." + +"What word would you have me say, Tom?" Mrs. Kemp raised herself +painfully in bed. She still felt in all her bones the violent chill she +had caught, and the being compelled to lie aside had made her, what she +so seldom was, really depressed. On this unfortunate afternoon she had +followed with intuitive knowledge every act of the little drama enacted +downstairs: she had heard the General's sharply uttered command; noted +Lucy's breathless eager longing to be down again; and then she had heard +the front door open and shut; and she had listened, almost as +disappointedly as Lucy might have done, to Boringdon's firm steps +hurrying up the road past her windows. If only she had not caught this +stupid cold, all this might have been prevented! To-morrow she must +really persuade the doctor to let her come down again. + +"Surely, Mary, you don't need to be told what to say to the child! A +mother should always know what to do and what to say in such a case. If +we had a son and I thought him behaving badly to some girl, I should be +at no loss to tell him what I thought of his conduct,--in fact, I should +think it my duty as his father to do so." The General came and stood by +his wife's bed. He glowered down at her with frowning, unhappy eyes. + +"But that would be so different, Tom! I should be quite willing to speak +to Lucy if I thought she were behaving badly--if she were to flirt, for +instance, as I have seen horrid girls do! But this, you see, is so +different--the poor child is doing nothing wrong: it is we who have been +wrong to allow it to come to this." + +The General walked up and down the room. Then he suddenly turned and +spoke, "Well, I think something ought to be done. Get the matter settled +one way or the other. I never heard of such a state of things! Lucy +looks very far from well. Such a case never came my way before." + +"Oh! Tom, is that quite true?" + +"Certainly it is!"--he turned and faced her,--"quite true. Of course +I've known men behave badly to women, very badly indeed, who hasn't? and +women to men too, for the matter of that. But I've never come across +such an odd fellow as Boringdon. Why, he scowled at me just now,--upon +my word you might have thought I was the stranger and he her father! but +I took the opportunity of being very short with him--very short indeed!" +Then, as Mrs. Kemp sighed a long involuntary sigh, "No, Mary, in this +matter, you must allow me to have my own way. I don't approve of that +sort of conduct. It's always so with widows' sons--there are certain +things only a man can knock into 'em! I wish I'd had that young fellow +in the regiment for a bit. It would have done him a great deal more good +than the House of Commons seems to have done. And then again I can't at +all see what Lucy sees in him. He's such a dull dog! Now Laxton--I could +understand any girl losing her heart to Laxton!" He walked to the +window. "There's McKirdy coming in. I'll go down and have a talk with +him. Meanwhile, you think over all I've been saying, Mary." + +Poor Mrs. Kemp! as if she ever thought nowadays, in a serious sense, of +anything else! But she was inclined, in her heart of hearts, to share +Lucy's view of Boringdon's nature. Perhaps he was one of those men--she +had known a few such--who are incapable of violent, determining feeling. +If that were so, might not his evident liking for, and trust in, Lucy, +develop into something quite sufficiently like love amply to satisfy the +girl? + + * * * * * + +And Boringdon? Boringdon also was far from happy and satisfied during +those days which had followed on his talk with his mother. The result of +the conversation had been to make him deliberately avoid Lucy Kemp. But +at once he had become aware that he missed the girl--missed, above all, +the power of turning to her for sympathy, and even to a certain extent +for counsel, more than he would have thought possible. He felt suddenly +awakened to a danger he would rather not have seen,--why, oh! why, had +not his mother left well alone? The state of things which had existed +all that summer had exactly suited him. Looking back, Oliver felt sure +that Lucy had not misunderstood the measure of affection and liking +which he was willing, nay, eager, to bestow on her. + +As the days went by, the young man wondered uneasily why his mother had +suddenly left off asking the girl to lunch and to tea, as she had done, +at one time, almost daily. He knew that Mrs. Boringdon rarely acted +without a definite motive. Often her eyes would rest on his moody face +with a questioning look. He longed to know why Lucy never came to the +Cottage, but he was unwilling to give his mother the satisfaction of +hearing him make such an inquiry. Then he reminded himself that, after +all, Mrs. Kemp was really ill: the whole village watched with interest +the daily visit to the Grange of the Halnakeham doctor. Perhaps Lucy +found it difficult to leave home just now. + +Even concerning his village worries--those connected with his work as +land-agent to the Chancton estate--Boringdon had got into the way of +turning to Lucy Kemp for comfort, and so he felt cut off from the only +person to whom he could talk freely. Then had come that short meeting in +the lane, and something timid, embarrassed in Lucy's manner had suddenly +made him afraid, had put him on his guard--but afterwards he had been +bitterly ashamed of the way in which he had behaved in leaving her so +abruptly. + +His heart grew very tender to her, and, had he not known that his mother +was watching him, he would almost certainly have "made it up"--have +given way--and nature would have done the rest. But Oliver was aware +that any sign of weakness on his part would be a triumph for Mrs. +Boringdon--a proof that she had known how to shepherd him into a +suitable engagement with a well-dowered girl: and so he had held out, +knowing secretly that it only rested with him to restore his old +relation with Lucy to its former footing. + +At last, it had been Mrs. Boringdon who had asked him, in her most +innocent and conventional voice, to take a note from her to Mrs. Kemp, +and the accident that it had been Lucy who had opened the front door had +been enough to shake his resolution, and to break down the barrier which +he had put up between himself and her. At the time he had been carrying +the letter concerning his old constituency about with him for two days, +and the temptation to tell Lucy all about it proved too strong. Hence he +had followed her through into the quiet fragrant garden which held for +him so many pleasant associations of interesting, intimate talk with +both the mother and the daughter. + +Then, almost at once, had come the sharp, he told himself resentfully +the utterly unwarrantable, interruption--more, there had been no +mistaking General Kemp's manner--that of the man who cries "hands off!" +from some cherished possession. Boringdon's guilty conscience--it was +indeed hard that his conscience should feel guilty, for he was not aware +of having done anything of which he should be ashamed--Boringdon's +guilty conscience at once suggested the terrible thought that General +Kemp doubtless regarded him as a fortune-hunter. When the front door of +the Grange had closed on him he felt as if he could never come there +again, and as if one of the pleasantest pages of his life had suddenly +closed. + +He determined to say nothing of the pregnant, even if almost wordless, +little scene to his mother, and it was with a nervous dread of questions +and cross questions that he entered the drawing-room of the Cottage with +words concerning a very different person from Lucy Kemp on his lips. +"Don't you think," he asked, "that the time has come when we ought to do +something about Mrs. Rebell? She has been here, it seems, at least a +week, and several people have already called on her." + +Mrs. Boringdon looked at her son with some surprise, and he saw with +satisfaction that his little ruse had been successful; the news he +brought had made her forget, for the moment, the Grange and Lucy Kemp. + +"Several people?" she repeated, "I think, my dear boy, you must be +mistaken. No one _ever_ calls at Chancton Priory. How could +anyone--unless you mean Miss Vipen and the Rectory," she smiled +slightingly--"have even been made aware of this Mrs. Rebell's arrival?" + +"And yet there's no doubt about it," he said irritably, "I had the list +from McKirdy, who seemed to take these calls as a personal compliment to +himself! Miss Berwick drove over two or three days ago, and so did the +Duchess of Appleby and Kendal." He waited a moment, feeling rather +ashamed. He had known how to rouse his mother to considerable interest +and excitement. + +"The Duchess?" she echoed incredulously.--Most country districts in +England have a duchess, and this district was no exception to the +rule,--"what an extraordinary thing! I should have called on Mrs. +Rebell, Grace's friend, before now, but it seemed so strange that she +was not in church. It made me fear"--Mrs. Boringdon looked slightly +shocked and genuinely grieved--"that she was going to follow the example +of all the other people connected with the Priory." + +"I don't know why you should say that, mother. It is quite impossible +for Madame Sampiero to go to church, even if she wished to do so. As for +McKirdy, I suppose he is a Presbyterian, but the Priory servants all go, +don't they?" + +"Yes," said Mrs. Boringdon, reluctantly, "the servants certainly do +go,--that is, the lower servants. No one has ever seen the housekeeper +at church, and, of course the state of things here must grieve Mr. +Sampson very much." + +Oliver smiled grimly. "If that is really so, Sampson doesn't know when +he's well off. The sight of Mrs. Turke, resplendent in a new gown each +Sunday, would certainly distract the congregation from his dull sermon!" +But Mrs. Boringdon bent her head gravely, as if refusing to discuss so +unsavoury and painful a subject. + +"Have you seen her?" she asked with some natural curiosity. She added +hastily, "I mean, of course, Mrs. Rebell." + +"No," he said, "but I expect to do so in a few minutes. I saw McKirdy in +the village just now, and profiting by his absence, I'm going to try and +establish some kind of communication between Madame Sampiero and myself. +There's a most urgent matter which ought to be settled at once, and +McKirdy was so disagreeable the last time we met that I do not wish to +bring him into it if I can possibly avoid it." + + * * * * * + +The Chancton estate, in addition to two villages, comprised many large +farms stretching out on the fringe of the downs, and no day went by +without the transaction by Boringdon of much complicated and tiresome +business. In this, however, there would naturally have been much to +interest such a man as himself, especially as he and Berwick had +theories about agricultural problems and were eager to try +experiments--in fact, Berwick was already doing so very successfully on +his Sussex estate. + +But for Boringdon, the new work to which he had set his hand had soon +been poisoned, owing to the peculiar conditions under which he was +compelled to do it. His immediate predecessor had been Doctor McKirdy, +whose duties as medical attendant to Madame Sampiero had comprised for a +while that of being her vice-regent as regarded estate matters. That +arrangement had been anything but a success, hence the appointment, +through Lord Bosworth's, or rather through James Berwick's, influence, +of Oliver Boringdon. The change had been made the more easy because +McKirdy, with an obstinacy worthy of a better cause, had always refused +to accept any payment for this extra labour. + +At first, the old Scotchman had been glad to give up the work he knew +himself to have performed inadequately. Then, as time went on, he began +to interfere, and Boringdon discovered, with anger and astonishment, +that many matters were being gradually referred, both by the greater and +the lesser tenants, directly to Madame Sampiero, or rather to the man +who was still regarded, and with reason, as her vice-regent. + +The doctor also insisted on being the sole means of communication +between his patient and Boringdon. This was after he had found them +speaking together,--or rather Boringdon speaking and Madame Sampiero +listening,--concerning some public matter quite unconnected with +Chancton. From that moment, Alexander McKirdy had set his very +considerable wits to work against the younger man. He had informed him +with sharp decision that his weekly audiences with his employer must +cease: pointing out that almost everything that must be referred to her +could be so done through him. Boringdon, for a while, had felt content +that this should be so--he had always had a curious fear and repugnance +of the still stiff figure, which seemed to be at once so physically dead +and so mentally alive. + +Then had come the gradual awakening, the realisation of his folly in +consenting to an arrangement which destroyed his authority with those +with whom he was brought into daily contact. Even the humblest cottager +had soon discovered that the doctor, or "Kirdy," as he was +unceremoniously styled amongst themselves, was once more the real +over-lord of Chancton, and Boringdon found himself reduced to the +disagreeable _rôle_ of rent collector, his decisions concerning any +important matter being constantly appealed from, and revoked by, the +joint authority of Madame Sampiero and Doctor McKirdy. + +The situation soon became almost intolerable to the high-spirited and +sensitive young man: if it had not been for his mother, and for the fact +that the very generous income allotted to him for the little he now did +was of the utmost importance to her, he would ere this have resigned the +land agency. + +His pride prevented any mention of the odious position in which he found +himself to Berwick, the more so that in theory he had all the power--it +was to him, for instance, that Madame Sampiero's lawyers wrote when +anything had to be settled or done. McKirdy also always allowed him to +carry on any negotiations with neighbouring landowners. Boringdon had a +free hand as regarded the keepers and the shooting--indeed, it was only +with regard to the sporting amenities of the estate that he was really +in the position of master rather than servant. + +To his mother he always made light of his troubles, though he +was well aware that he had her ardent sympathy, which took the, +to him, disagreeable form of slight discourtesies to Doctor +McKirdy--discourtesies which were returned with full interest by the old +Scotchman. To Lucy and to Lucy's mother he had been more frank, and all +she knew had not contributed to make Lucy feel kindly to Doctor McKirdy, +though he was quite unconscious of how he was regarded by her. + +To-day, matters had come, so felt Boringdon, to a head. On his way from +the Cottage to the Grange, he had stopped for a moment at the estate +office, and there had engaged in a sharp discussion with one of the more +important Chancton farmers concerning a proposed remittance of rent. The +man had brought his Michaelmas rent in notes and gold, the sum +considerably short, according to Boringdon, of what should have been +paid. The land-agent had refused to accept the money, and the farmer, +naturally enough, had declared it to be his intention to make an appeal +to Madame Sampiero through Doctor McKirdy. + +It had been partly to turn his mind from the odious memory of this +conversation that the young man had not been able to resist the +temptation of following Lucy through into the garden with which he had +so many pleasant memories, and once there, of showing her the letter +which seemed to point to an ultimate escape from Chancton, and all that +Chancton now represented of annoyance and humiliation. + +Leaving the Grange, he had passed Doctor McKirdy, and had made up his +mind to try and see Madame Sampiero within the next few hours. If it +came to the point, he believed he could conquer, only, however, by +calling to his aid the Bosworth faction, but the thought of an appeal to +Berwick was still, nay, more than ever, disagreeable. At the same time +this was a test case. He was sorry that his mother had not called on +Mrs. Rebell, for he was dimly aware that the trifling lack of courtesy +would give McKirdy a slight advantage, but during the last few days he +had had other things to think of than his sister's unfortunate protégée, +in whom, however, he unwillingly recognised another adherent to the +McKirdy faction. + +And yet the first meeting of Boringdon and Barbara Rebell fell out in +such wise that it led to a curiously sudden intimacy, bred of something +between pity and indignation on her side and gratitude on his. + + + + + CHAPTER VII. + + "She whom I have praised so, + Yields delight for reason too: + Who could dote on thing so common + As mere outward-handsome woman? + Such half-beauties only win + Fools to let affection in." + WITHER. + + +Mrs. Rebell was sitting by her god-mother's couch, pouring out tea. She +had just come in from a walk on the downs, and as she sat there, her +eyes shining, the colour coming and going in her cheeks, Madame +Sampiero's gaze rested on her with critical pleasure and approval, +lingering over every detail of the pretty brown cloth gown and neat +plumed hat, both designed by a famous French arbiter of fashion who in +the long ago had counted Madame Sampiero as among his earliest and most +faithful patronesses. + +The last few days had been to Mrs. Rebell days of conquest. She had +conquered the right to come in and out of her god-mother's room without +first asking formal leave of Doctor McKirdy, and he had given in with a +good grace. She had won the heart of Mrs. Turke, and was now free of the +old housekeeper's crowded sitting-room; and she had made friends also +with all the dumb creatures about the place. + +Then again, the pretty gowns, the many charming trifles which had come +from Paris, and which she had been made to try on, one by one, in her +god-mother's presence, contributed, though she felt rather ashamed of +it, to her feeling of light-heartedness. Barbara Rebell, moving as one +at home about the Priory, looked another creature from the shrinking +sad-eyed woman who had arrived at Chancton a fortnight before, believing +that youth, and all the glad things that youth represents, lay far +behind her. + +There came a knock, McGregor's discreet knock, at the door. Barbara +sprang up, and a moment later came back with a letter, one which the +bearer had apparently not dared to put by, as was the rule with such +missives, and indeed with all letters addressed to the mistress of the +Priory, till Doctor McKirdy was ready to read them, and to transmit such +portions of their contents as he thought fit to his friend and patient. + +"A note for you, Marraine!" The French equivalent for god-mother had +always been used by Barbara Rebell both as child and girl in her letters +to Madame Sampiero, and she had now discovered that it was preferred to +its more formal English equivalent, or to the "Madam" which all those +about her used. "Shall I read it to you?" + +Barbara was looking down at the letter which she held in her hand with +some surprise. The ink was not yet dry,--it must therefore have been +written, in great haste, just now in the hall, and must call for an +immediate answer. She waited for a sign of assent, and then opened the +envelope:-- + + "DEAR MADAME SAMPIERO,--I am sorry to trouble you, but I fear I + must ask you to see me at your early convenience about a certain + matter concerning which your personal opinion and decision are + urgently required. Perhaps you will kindly send me word as to + what time will suit you for me to come and see you. + + "Yours faithfully, + "OLIVER BORINGDON." + +Madame Sampiero's eyelids flickered, "Would you like to see him, +child--our Chancton _jeune premier_?" and the ghost of a satirical smile +hovered over the still face and quivering mouth. + +"Yes, indeed, Marraine, if it would not tire you! You know it was his +sister who was so kind to me in Santa Maria. May I send for him now? He +evidently wants to see you about something very important--" + +But McGregor, convinced that there would be no answer to the note he had +most unwillingly conveyed upstairs, had not waited, as Barbara had +expected to find, in the corridor. She hesitated a moment, then, +gathering up her long brown skirts, ran down to the hall. + +Boringdon was walking up and down, waiting with dogged patience for the +message which might, after all, not be sent to him. "Will you kindly +come up--now--to Madame Sampiero? She is quite ready to see you!" To the +young man the low, very clear voice, seemed at that moment the sweetest +in the world: he turned round quickly and looked at the messenger with a +good deal of curiosity. + +No thought that this elegant-looking girl could be Mrs. Rebell came to +his mind. Doubtless she was one of the few people connected with Madame +Sampiero's past life--perhaps one of the cousins who sometimes came to +Chancton, and whom, occasionally, but very rarely as the years had gone +on, the paralysed woman consented to receive. + +Rather bewildered at the ease with which the fortress had been stormed +and taken, he followed the unknown young lady upstairs. But once in the +corridor, when close to Madame Sampiero's door, Barbara stopped, and +with heightened colour she said, "I know that you are Grace Johnstone's +brother, I have been hoping the last few days to go and see your mother. +Will you please tell her how much I look forward to meeting her?" And +before he could make any answer, she whom Boringdon now knew to be Mrs. +Rebell had opened the door, and was motioning him to precede her into +the room into which he had not been allowed to come for two months. + +A moment later he stood at the foot of Madame Sampiero's couch, feeling +the place in which he found himself curiously transformed, the +atmosphere about him more human, less frigid than in those days when his +weekly conferences with the owner of Chancton had been regarded by him +with such discomfort and dread. + +The presence of the low table on which now lay a tea-tray and a bowl of +freshly-gathered roses affected him agreeably, though he still quailed +inwardly when his eyes met those of the paralysed woman stretched out +before him: Boringdon was not imaginative, and yet these wide open blue +eyes had often haunted him--to-day they rested on him kindly, and then +looked beyond him, softening as they met those of her god-daughter. + +Before he was allowed to begin on what he felt to be such disagreeable +business, Mrs. Rebell--the woman whom he now knew to be his sister's +friend, and regarding whom he was being compelled to alter, moment by +moment, all his preconceived notions--had poured him out a cup of tea, +and had installed him by her side. Later, when she made a movement as if +to leave him alone with Madame Sampiero, she was stopped with a look, +and Boringdon, far from feeling the presence of a third person as +disagreeable and as unwarranted as he had always felt that of McKirdy or +of Mrs. Turke, was glad that Mrs. Rebell had been made to stay, and +aware, in some odd way, that in her he would have an ally and not, as +had always been the case with McKirdy, a critic, if not an enemy. + +After a short discussion, he was allowed to go with the point settled to +his satisfaction. Madame Sampiero had retained all her shrewdness, and +all her essential justness of character; moreover, his case, presented +partly through the medium of Barbara's voice, had seemed quite other +than what it would have done explained inimically by Alexander McKirdy. +Indeed, during the discussion Boringdon had the curious feeling that +this soft-voiced stranger, who, after all, was in no position to judge +between himself and the peccant farmer, was being made to give the +ultimate decision. It was Barbara also who had to repeat, to make clear +to him, reddening and smiling as she did so, her god-mother's last +words, "If you're not busy, you might take Mrs. Rebell down to the +Beeches. The trees won't look as well as they are doing now in a week's +time;" and while murmuring the words Madame Sampiero's eyes had turned +with indefinable longing towards the high windows which commanded the +wide view she loved and knew so well, but which from where she lay only +showed the sky. + + * * * * * + +A rude awakening awaited both Barbara and Boringdon in the hall below; +and a feeling of guilt,--an absurd unwarrantable feeling, so he told +himself again and again when he thought over the scene later,--swept +over the young man when he saw Doctor McKirdy pacing, with quick angry +steps, that very stretch of flag-stones where he himself had walked up +and down so impatiently half an hour before. + +"So you've been up to see her? Against my very strict orders--orders, +mind ye, given as Madam's medical man! Well, well! All I can say is, +that I'm not responsible for what the consequences may be. Madam's not +fit to be worried o'er business--not fit at all!" The words came out in +sharp jerky sentences, and as he spoke Doctor McKirdy scowled at the +young man, twisting his hands together, a trick he had when violently +disturbed. + +As the two culprits came towards him he broke out again, almost turning +his back on them as he spoke, "I cannot think what possessed the man +McGregor! He will have to be dismissed, not a doubt about it! He has the +strictest, the very strictest orders--he must have been daft before he +could take up a stranger to Madam's room!" There was a world of scorn in +the way in which McKirdy pronounced the word "stranger." + +Angry as Boringdon had now become, indignant with the old man for so +attacking him in the presence of one who was, as Oliver did not fail to +remind himself, the real stranger to all their concerns, he yet felt +that to a certain extent the doctor's anger and indignation were +justified. Boringdon knew well enough that, but for McKirdy's absence +from the Priory that afternoon, he could never have penetrated into +Madame Sampiero's presence. He had also been aware that McGregor was +acting in direct contravention of the doctor's orders, and that nothing +but his own grim determination to be obeyed had made the man take his +note upstairs. All this being so, he was about to say something of a +conciliatory nature, when suddenly Mrs. Rebell came forward-- + +"It is I," she said--and Boringdon saw that she showed no sign of +quailing before Doctor McKirdy's furious looks--"who asked my god-mother +to see Mr. Boringdon, and so it is I alone, Doctor McKirdy, who should +be blamed for what has happened. Madame Sampiero asked my advice as to +whether she should see him, and as the matter seemed urgent, I decided +that she had better do so at once, instead of waiting, as I should +perhaps have done, to ask you if she was fit to do so." + +She looked inquiringly from one man to the other--at the old Scotchman +whose face still twitched with rage, and whose look of aversion at +herself she felt to be cruelly unjust, almost, she would have said, had +she not become really fond of him, impertinent; and at Boringdon, who +also looked angry, but not as surprised as she would have expected him +to be before so strange an outburst. + +There was a moment of tense silence, and then, suddenly, Barbara herself +caught fire. Like most gentle, self-restrained natures, she was capable +of feeling deep instant gusts of anger, and one of these now swept over +her. + +"If you will go up and see Madame Sampiero," she spoke very coldly, "I +think you will admit, Doctor McKirdy, that my god-mother has not been in +any way injured by seeing Mr. Boringdon." She turned, rather +imperiously, to the young man. "I think," she said, "that now we had +better go out. I suppose it will take at least half an hour to walk +round by the Beeches, and later my god-mother will be expecting me back +to read to her." + +Without again glancing at Doctor McKirdy, Mrs. Rebell walked across to +the vestibule, and so out into the open air, Boringdon following her +rather shamefacedly, and in silence they struck off down the path which +led round the great meadow-like enclosure to the broad belt of beeches +which were the glory of Chancton Priory. + +Then, somewhat to his own surprise, Boringdon found himself making +excuses for the old Scotchman, while explaining to Mrs. Rebell the odd +position in which he often found himself. The conversation which +followed caused strides, which might otherwise have taken weeks or even +months to achieve, in his own and Barbara's intimacy. + +Very little was said of Grace Johnstone and of Santa Maria; it was of +the Priory, and of its stricken mistress, of Chancton and of Doctor +McKirdy, that they talked, and it was pleasant to Boringdon to hear his +own part being taken to himself, to hear McKirdy severely censured in +the grave low voice whose accents had sounded so sweetly in his ears +when it had come to call him to Madame Sampiero's presence. + +So eager was their talk, so absorbed were they in what they were saying, +that neither had eyes for the noble trees arching overhead; and when at +last they came out, from the twilight of the beeches, into the open air, +Barbara felt respect and liking for the young man. + +When they were once more close to the house, she put up her hand with a +quick gesture. "Don't come up with me to the porch," she said, "I am +sure you had better not meet Doctor McKirdy--I mean for the present." He +obeyed her silently, though for the moment he felt not unkindly towards +the old man he had conquered in what, he confessed to himself, had been +unfair fight. With Mrs. Rebell on his side he could afford to smile at +McKirdy's queer susceptibilities and jealousies. He must come and see +her to-morrow; there seemed so much more to say, to ask too, about +Grace--dear Grace, who had written with such warm-hearted feeling of +this charming, interesting woman who ought to be, so Boringdon told +himself, a most agreeable and softening influence at the Priory. + + * * * * * + +That same evening, Mrs. Boringdon, after much hesitation and searching +of heart, ventured to ask her son a question. + +"How did you find them all at the Grange? It seems a long time since I +have seen Lucy." + +Oliver's face clouded over, but he was surprised at his own calmness, +his absence of annoyance; that disagreeable episode at the Grange now +seemed to have happened long ago. + +"Everything was as usual," he answered hesitatingly; "--at least, no, I +should not say that, for General Kemp's manner to me was far from being +usual. I cannot help thinking, mother, that you made a mistake the other +day--I mean as regards Lucy;"--a note of reserve and discomfort crept +into his voice as he pronounced her name,--"The General's manner was +unmistakable, he all but showed me the door! I think it would be as +well, both for you and for me, if we were to put all thought of her from +our minds, and to see, in the future, less of her." + +Boringdon found it less easy to answer his mother's next question, "And +Madame Sampiero,--I suppose you did not see her to-day? I wonder if she +sees anything of Mrs. Rebell?" + +"Yes," he said, rather reluctantly, "McKirdy was out, and I had, on the +whole, a satisfactory interview with Madame Sampiero, owing it, in a +measure, to Mrs. Rebell. Madame Sampiero is evidently very fond of her. +By the way, she--I mean Mrs. Rebell--sent you a nice message about +Grace." + +"Oh! then she's a pleasant woman--I'm so glad! Everything makes a +difference in a little place like Chancton. I suppose," Mrs. Boringdon +spoke absently, but her son knew that she would require an answer, "that +Mrs. Rebell did not mention Miss Berwick, or the Duchess?" + +"Oh! no, mother," Oliver answered rather drily, "Why should she have +done so--to me?" + +"Oh! well--as a kind of hint that I ought to have called. I hope you +explained the matter to her? I mean to go there to-morrow." + +Boringdon made no remark. He had no intention, nay, he had an +instinctive dislike to the idea, of discussing Mrs. Rebell with his +mother, and he vaguely hoped that they would never become intimate. + + * * * * * + +Arabella Berwick was sitting in the little room, originally a powder +closet, which was set aside for her use at Fletchings. It was well out +of the way, on the first floor of the old manor-house, tucked away +between the drawing-room, which was very little used except in the +evening, and the long music gallery, and it was characteristic of Miss +Berwick that very few among the many who came and went each summer and +autumn to Fletchings were aware of the existence of this, her favourite +retreat. + +In the Powdering Room, as it was still called, Lord Bosworth's niece +wrote her letters, scrutinised with severely just eyes the various +household accounts, and sometimes allowed herself an hour of complete +relaxation and rest. The panelled walls, painted a pale blue, were hung +with a few fine engravings of the more famous Stuart portraits, +including two of that Arabella Stuart after whom Miss Berwick had been +herself named. There was also, on the old-fashioned davenport at which +she wrote her letters, a clever etching of her brother, done when James +Berwick was at Oxford. + +The mistress of such a house has a well-filled, and indeed often a +tiring, life, unless she be blessed with a highly paid, and what is not +always the same thing, a highly competent, housekeeper and factotum, to +take the material cares off her shoulders. Lord Bosworth was nothing if +not hospitable. There was a constant coming and going of agreeable men +and women in whatever place he happened to find himself. He disliked +solitude, and in the long years Miss Berwick had kept her uncle's house, +she could scarcely remember a day in which they had been absolutely +alone together. + +As a high-spirited, clever girl, brought suddenly from the companionship +of an austere aunt and chaperon, she had found the life a very agreeable +one, and she had set her whole mind to making it successful. Even now, +she had pleasant, nay delightful, moments, but as she grew older, and +above all, as Lord Bosworth grew older, much in the life weighed upon +her, and any added trouble or anxiety was apt to prove almost +unbearable. + +To-day, she had received a letter from her brother which had caused her +acute annoyance. James Berwick was coming back, a full fortnight before +she had expected him,--his excuse, that of wishing to be present at the +coming-of-age festivities of Lord Pendragon, the Duke of Appleby and +Kendal's only son, which were shortly to take place at Halnakeham +Castle. He had always had,--so his sister reminded herself with curling +lip,--a curious attachment to this neighbourhood, a great desire to play +a part in all local matters; this was the more strange as the Berwicks' +only connection with Sussex had been the purchase of Fletchings by their +uncle, and James Berwick's own inheritance from his wife of +Chillingworth, the huge place, full of a rather banal grandeur, where +its present possessor spent but little of his time. + +There were three reasons why Miss Berwick would have much preferred that +her brother should carry out his original plan. The first, and from her +point of view the most important, concerned, as did most important +matters to Arabella, Berwick himself. She had just learned, from one of +the guests who had arrived at Fletchings the day before, that the woman +whom, on the whole, she regarded as having most imperilled her brother, +would almost certainly be one of the ducal house-party at Halnakeham. +This lady, a certain Mrs. Marshall, was now a widow, and the sister +feared her with a great fear. + +The second reason was one more personal to herself. Miss Berwick was +trying to make up her mind about a certain matter, and she felt that her +brother's presence--nay, even the mere fact of his being in the +neighbourhood--would make it more difficult for her to do so. She knew +herself to be on the eve of receiving a very desirable offer of +marriage. Its acceptance by her would be, in a sense, the crowning act +of her successful life. The man was an ambassador, one of the most +distinguished of her uncle's friends, a childless widower, who, as she +had long known, both liked and respected her. In a few days he would be +at Fletchings, and she knew that the time had come when she must make up +her mind to say yes or to say no. + +The third complication, from the thought of which Miss Berwick shrank +with a pain which surprised herself, was the fact that both Lord +Bosworth, and now her brother in this letter which lay before her, had +requested her to write and ask Daniel O'Flaherty--the man whom she had +once loved--to come and spend a few days at Fletchings. They had met +many times since that decisive interview in Kensington Gardens which had +been so strangely interrupted by Oliver Boringdon--for such meetings are +the unforeseen penalties attendant on such conduct as had been that of +Arabella--but both had hitherto contrived to avoid staying under the +same roof. Now, however, she felt she could no longer put off giving +this invitation, the more so that it was for her brother's sake that +Lord Bosworth wished O'Flaherty to be asked to Fletchings. + +Miss Berwick had early found it advisable, when something painful had to +be done, to "rush her fences." She took up her pen and wrote, in her +fine, characteristic hand-writing, the words, "Dear Mr. O'Flaherty." + +Then she laid the pen down, lay back in her chair, and closed her eyes. +Even after so long a time had gone by, the memory of what had passed +between Daniel O'Flaherty and herself was intolerably bitter. Arabella +even now never thought of him without asking herself how it happened +that she had not realised what manner of man he really was, and why she +had not foreseen how sure he was to make his way. She never saw his name +printed, never heard it uttered, without this feeling of shamed surprise +and acute self-reproach coming over her. + +The strong attraction she had felt for the then untried Irishman had in +a sense blinded her--made her distrustful of his real power. Her uncle, +Lord Bosworth, had been more clear-sighted, in those far-off days when +he had encouraged the unknown barrister to come about Bosworth House, +just before she herself so ruthlessly sent him away. + +And now she found the wording, as well as the writing, of her letter +difficult: she wished to leave the matter of Daniel O'Flaherty's coming +to Fletchings, or his staying away, entirely to his own sense of what +was fitting. He had become, as she had reason to know, a man much sought +after: perhaps the dates which she was able to offer him would all be +filled up. + + * * * * * + +There came a slight sound; Miss Berwick opened her eyes, she sat up, an +alert look on her face, ready to repel the intruder whoever he might be. +Lord Bosworth, introducing his ample person through the narrow door of +the tiny room, was struck by the look of age and fatigue which had come +over--it seemed to him only since yesterday--his niece's delicate +clear-cut features and shadowed fairness. Arabella Berwick had always +been a good-looking replica of her remarkable-looking brother, but +youth, which remains so long with many women, had gone from her. She +often looked older than thirty-eight, and her deep-set compelling bright +blue eyes, of which the moral expression was so different from that +produced by those of James Berwick, gave an impression of singular +disenchantment. + +"Am I disturbing you?"--Lord Bosworth spoke very courteously--"if so, I +will speak to you some other time." Arabella at once hid the great +surprise she felt at seeing him here, for this was, as far as she could +remember, her uncle's first visit to the Powdering Room: "Oh! no," she +said, "I was only writing to Mr. O'Flaherty. You would like him to come +soon, wouldn't you?" + +"Yes, certainly! I am told he will have to be Attorney-General. He is +the sort of man James ought to have got hold of long ago. We seem to +have lost sight of him. I know I went to some trouble for him years +ago--and then somehow he disappeared. Perhaps it was my fault--in that +case I ought to write him a line myself." + +Then he became silent, looking at his niece with a curious persistent +gaze which embarrassed her. There had never been any real intimacy +between the uncle and niece, and the thought that Lord Bosworth had +suspected anything concerning what had occurred between herself and +O'Flaherty would have been intensely disagreeable to Arabella. She felt +herself flushing, but met his look with steady eyes, comforted by the +knowledge that, whatever he knew or suspected, he would most certainly +say nothing. + +"I see," he said, "that you guess what I have come to tell you. I have +had a letter from Umfraville--you know he comes to-morrow? It is a very +good letter, a better letter than I should have thought he could have +written on such a subject, but it amounts to this: before offering +himself, he wishes to be sure of what your answer will be, and he wants +you to make up your mind within the next few days,--in fact before he +leaves us. It would be a great position, my dear, and one which you +would fill admirably." + +As he spoke the colour had faded from Miss Berwick's face. She felt +relieved and rather touched. "But what would _you_ do?" she said +involuntarily. + +Lord Bosworth made none of the answers which might have been expected +from him. He said no word as to his niece's happiness being of more +consequence than his own comfort, and if he had done so, Miss Berwick +would not have believed him. + +"I do not suppose that you are aware,"--he put his strong hands on the +table before him, and looked at her with a sudden pleading look which +sat oddly on his shrewd, powerful face--"I do not suppose, Arabella, +that you are aware that I made Madame Sampiero an offer of marriage some +six or seven years ago, not long after the death of--of Sampiero. I +believe her answer was contained in one of the very last letters she +ever wrote with her own hand. Well, now--in fact for a long time past--I +have been contemplating a renewal of that offer. Nay more, should she +again refuse, which I know well to be more than probable, I cannot see +why, at our time of life, especially in view of her present state, we +should even so not be together." + +His niece looked at him in frank incredulous astonishment. She felt +mortified to think how little she had known this man with whom she had +lived for so long. + +"Surely," she said, "surely you would find such an existence absolutely +intolerable?" + +"I do not know what I have done that you should judge me so +severely."--Lord Bosworth's answer was made in a very low tone. "You are +a clever woman, Arabella, and I have always done full justice to your +powers, but, believe me, there are certain things undreamt of in your +philosophy, and I do not think"--he stopped abruptly, and finished the +sentence to himself, "I do not think Umfraville is likely to bring them +any nearer to you." + +He got up. "I thought I ought to tell you," he said, with a complete +change of tone, "because my intention may influence your decision. +Otherwise, I should not have troubled you with the matter." Then his +heart softened to her: he suddenly remembered her long and loyal, if +loveless, service. "Quite apart from any question of our immediate +future, you must remember, my dear, that I'm an old man. I cannot help +thinking that your life alone would be very dreary, and, much as you +care for James, I cannot see either of you making in a permanent sense +any kind of life with the other. In your place--and I have thought much +about it--I should accept Umfraville. The doing so would enable you to +lead the same life that you have led for the last twenty years, with +certain great added advantages. Then Umfraville, after all, is a very +good fellow,--good yet not too good, clever and yet not too clever!" + +She smiled at him an answering but rather wavering smile, and he went +out, closing the door behind him, leaving her alone with her thoughts, +and with her scarcely begun letter to O'Flaherty lying before her. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII. + + "I beg to hint to all Equestrian Misses + That horses' backs are not their proper place; + A woman's forte is music--love--or kisses, + Not leaping gates, or galloping a race; + I sometimes used to ride with them of yore, + And always found them an infernal bore." + + Ascribed to LORD BYRON. + + +It was the morning of the first meet of the South Sussex Hunt, and in +spite of the humble status of that same hunt among sporting folk, the +whole neighbourhood was in an agreeable state of excitement. + +Even in a country district where hunting plays a subordinate part in the +local life, the first meet of the season is always made the occasion for +a great gathering. There had been a time when it had taken place on the +lawn of Chancton Priory, and the open-handed hospitality of that Squire +Rebell who had been Madame Sampiero's father was still regretfully +remembered by the older members of the S.S.H. + +Nowadays the first meet was held at a place known locally as Whiteways, +which, though close to no hospitable house, had the advantage of +proximity to the town of Halnakeham, being situated just outside the +furthest gate of the park stretching behind Halnakeham Castle. + +Whiteways was a singularly beautiful and desolate spot, forming the apex +of a three-sided hill commanding an amazing view of uplands and +lowlands, and reached by various steep ways, cut through the chalk, +which gave the place its name, and which circled ribbon-wise round the +crest of the down, the highest of the long range which there guards the +coasts of Sussex. + +General Kemp had taken to hunting in his old age, and though in theory +he disapproved of hunting women, in practice he often allowed his +daughter many a happy hour with the hounds, although she had to be +contented with the sturdy pony, "warranted safe to ride and drive," a +gift from Captain Laxton to Mrs. Kemp. + + * * * * * + +At the Grange breakfast was just over. The General looking his best--so +Mrs. Kemp assured herself with wifely pride--in his white riding +breeches and grey coat, stood by the window of the pretty room opening +out on to the lawn. + +"I think it's time you went up and dressed, Lucy. You know it's a good +way to Whiteways, and we don't want the horses blown." + +Lucy looked up obediently from a letter she was reading, "Yes, father, +I'll go up at once. It won't take me long to dress." + +The girl would have given much to have been allowed to stay at home. But +she knew that her doing so would probably mean the giving up on the part +of her mother of one of the few local festivities which Mrs. Kemp +heartily enjoyed. Even more, Lucy feared her father's certain surprise +and disappointment, followed, after the first expression of these +feelings, by one of those ominous silences, those tender questioning +glances she had come to look for and to dread. + +General Kemp was treating his daughter with a consideration and +gentleness which were growing daily more bitter to Lucy. The poor child +wondered uneasily what she could have done to make her father see so +clearly into her heart. She would have given much to hear him utter one +of his old sharp jokes at her expense. + +Nothing was outwardly changed in the daily life of the village, Chancton +had been rather duller than usual. Mrs. Rebell's back had been seen at +church in the Priory pew, but she had gone out, as she had come in, by +the private door leading into the park. Mrs. Boringdon had been away for +nearly a fortnight, staying with an invalid sister, and so there had +been very little coming and going between the Cottage and the Grange, +although the Kemps and Oliver had met more than once on neutral ground. + +To-day, as Lucy well knew, was bound to be almost an exact replica of +that first day out last autumn. Then, as now, it had been arranged that +Mrs. Boringdon should drive Mrs. Kemp to Whiteways; then, as now, Lucy +and her father were to ride there together, perhaps picking up Captain +Laxton on the way. But, a year ago, Oliver Boringdon had ridden to the +meet in their company, while this time nothing had been said as to +whether he was even going to be there. A year ago, the day had been one +full of happy enchantment to Lucy: for her father had allowed her to +follow the hounds for over an hour, with Boringdon as pilot, and he,--or +so it seemed to the happy girl,--had had no eyes, no thought for anyone +else! The knowledge that to-day would be so like, and yet, as a subtle +instinct warned her, so unlike, was curiously painful. + +Still, no thought of trying to escape from the ordeal entered Lucy's +mind. But mothers--such mothers as Mrs. Kemp--often have a sixth sense +placed at their disposal by Providence, and the girl's mother divined +something of what Lucy was thinking and feeling. + +"I wonder," she said, "if you would rather stop at home? You look tired, +child, and you know it is a long way to Whiteways, and a rather tiring +experience altogether! Of course I should go just the same." + +General Kemp turned to his wife inquiringly, as if asking for a lead, +and Lucy intercepted the look which passed between them. "Why, mother," +she cried, "I shouldn't think of doing such a thing! I've been looking +forward to to-day for ever so long! I know what you are thinking"--she +flushed vividly, "but I'm sure Captain Laxton is much too old a friend +to bear me a grudge, or to feel any annoyance as to meeting me. After +all, he need not have come back----" and without giving either of her +parents time to answer, she ran out of the room. + +General Kemp was much taken aback. This was the first time he had heard +Lucy allude to Captain Laxton's affection for herself, or to the offer +which she had rejected. To his mind such an allusion savoured almost of +indelicacy. He did not like to think his daughter guilty of +over-frankness, even to her father and mother. + +"Can it be, Mary," he said, puzzled, "that she's thinking of Laxton +after all?" + +Mrs. Kemp shook her head. She knew very well why Lucy had mentioned her +lover--that his image had been evoked in order to form as it were a +screen between herself and what she had divined to be her mother's +motive in suggesting that she should stay at home, but it would be +hopeless to try and indicate such feminine subtleties to Lucy's father. + + * * * * * + +In the country, as in life, there are always many ways of reaching the +same place. The pleasantest carriage road to Whiteways lay partly +through the Priory park, and it was that which was chosen by Mrs. +Boringdon and Mrs. Kemp. Lucy and her father preferred a less frequented +and lonelier path, one which skirted for part of the way the high wall +of James Berwick's property, Chillingworth. + +They had now left this place far behind, and were riding slowly by the +side of a curving down: Captain Laxton had evidently gone on before, or +deliberately chosen to linger behind, and the father and daughter were +alone. Soon they left the road for the short turf, broken here and there +with hawthorn bushes; and Lucy, cheered by the keen upland air, was +making a gallant effort to bear herself as she had always done on what +had been such happy hunting days last winter. Already she could see, far +away to her left, a broad shining white road, dotted with carriages, +horsemen and horsewomen, and groups of walkers all making their way up +towards the castellated gate-way which frowned on the summit of the hill +above them. + +When the father and daughter reached the large circular space, sheltered +on one side by two wind-blown fir-trees, they found that they were +rather late, and so had missed the pretty sight of the coming of the +huntsman and his hounds over the brow of the down. Lucy made her way at +once through the crowd close to where Mrs. Boringdon's low pony-carriage +was drawn up just beneath the high stone gate-way, next to that of Mrs. +Sampson, the Chancton rector's wife, who had weakly consented to bring +Miss Vipen. Even Doctor McKirdy had vouchsafed to grace the pretty +scene, and he was sitting straightly and lankily on the rough old pony +he always rode, which now turned surprised and patient eyes this way and +that, for the doctor had never before attended a meet of the S.S.H. + +As yet Lucy could see nothing of Captain Laxton or of Boringdon, and she +felt at once relieved and disappointed. Perhaps Oliver was too busy to +give up a whole day to this kind of thing, and yet she knew he always +enjoyed a day with the hounds, and that he had theories concerning the +value of sport in such a neighbourhood as this. She reminded herself +that if he had not been really very busy, more so than usual, he would +certainly have found time to come to the Grange during his mother's +absence from Chancton. + +As these thoughts were coming and going through her mind in between the +many greetings, the exchange of heavy banter such an occasion always +seems to provoke, she suddenly heard Boringdon's voice, and realised +that he was trying to attract her attention. Lucy's pony, feeling the +agitation his young mistress was quite successfully concealing from the +people around her, began to quiver and gave a sudden half-leap in the +air. + +"What has come over sober Robin?"--Boringdon was smiling; he looked in a +good-tempered, happy mood--"I did so hope you would be here! I looked +out for you on the road for I wanted to introduce----" + +There was a sudden babel of voices; an old gentleman and his two +talkative daughters, all three on foot, were actually pulling Lucy's +habit to make her attend to what they were saying. Oliver shook his +head, shrugged his shoulders, and to Lucy's bitter, at the moment almost +intolerable disappointment, turned his horse through the crowd towards +the fir-trees close to which were drawn up several carriages, including +the Fletchings phaeton, driven, so the girl observed, by Miss Berwick, +by whose side an elderly man was looking about him with amused indulgent +eyes. + +Still, the day was turning out pretty well. Oliver would surely come +back soon,--doubtless with whoever it was he wished to introduce to her. +It was always a great pleasure to Lucy to meet any of Boringdon's old +political acquaintances. Such men were often at Fletchings. Of course +Lucy Kemp knew Miss Berwick, but by no means well,--besides, an instinct +had told her long ago that Oliver had no liking for his friend's sister. + +There was a pause. Then Lucy saw that Oliver was riding towards her, and +that he was accompanied by a lady, doubtless one of the Fletchings +party, for she was mounted on a fine hunter, a certain Saucebox, locally +famous, which belonged to James Berwick, and which was often ridden by +his sister. + +The unknown horsewoman was habited, booted, and hatted, in a far more +_cap-à-pie_ manner than was usual with the fair followers of the South +Sussex Hunt, and she and her mount together, made, from the sportsman's +point of view, a very perfect and pretty picture, though she was too +pale, too slight, perhaps a thought too serious, to be considered pretty +in the ordinary sense. + +Still, both horse and rider were being looked at by many with eyes that +were at first critical but soon became undisguisedly admiring, and the +Master, old Squire Laxton, was noticed to cut short a confidential +conversation with the huntsman in order to give the stranger an +elaborate salutation. + +Even Mrs. Kemp felt a slight touch of curiosity. "Who is that with whom +your son is riding?" she inquired of Mrs. Boringdon. + +"I don't know--perhaps one of the Halnakeham party. The Duke always +makes a point of being here to-day." + +Mrs. Boringdon's eyes rested appreciatively on the group formed by her +son and the unknown horsewoman; they took in every detail of the +severely plain black habit, the stiff collar, neat tie, and top hat. +Oliver seemed to be on very good terms with his companion--doubtless she +was one of his old London acquaintances. What a pity, thought Mrs. +Boringdon with genuine regret, that he saw so few of that sort of people +now--prosperous, well-dressed, well-bred women of the world, who can be +so useful to the young men they like! + +Lucy, also becoming conscious of the nearness of Oliver and his +companion, looked at the well-appointed horsewoman with less kindly eyes +than the two older ladies sitting in the pony carriage had done. The +girl told herself that such perfection of attire, worn at such a meet as +this of Whiteways, was almost an affectation on the part of the lady +towards whom Oliver was bending with so pleased and absorbed a glance. A +moment later the two had ridden up close to her, and Boringdon was +saying, "Miss Kemp----Mrs. Rebell, may I introduce to you Miss Lucy +Kemp?" + +Barbara's eyes rested very kindly on the girl. She remembered what +Doctor McKirdy had told her, during that walk that he and she had taken +together on the downs on the morning of her first day at Chancton. It +was nice of Oliver Boringdon to have brought her up at once, like this, +to the young lady whom he admired, but who was not,--so Barbara thought +she remembered McKirdy saying,--as yet his _fiancée_. + +Mrs. Rebell had lately seen a great deal of Grace Johnstone's brother, +in fact he was constantly at the Priory and always very much at her +service; they had become quite good friends, and since she had "made it +up" with the old doctor, she had taken pains to show both him and Madame +Sampiero that Oliver Boringdon had a right to more consideration than +they seemed willing to give him. + +Then Lucy's steady gaze rather disconcerted her; she became aware of the +girl's scanty riding habit--General Kemp's favourite form of safety +skirt--of the loose well-worn covert coat, and the small bowler hat +resting on her bright brown hair. + +"I feel rather absurdly dressed"--Lucy was struck by Barbara's soft full +voice--"but my god-mother, Madame Sampiero, ordained that I should look +like this. My last riding habit was made of khaki!" + +The note of appeal in Mrs. Rebell's accent touched Lucy at once. "Why, +of course you look absolutely right! My father often says what a pity it +is that so many women have given up wearing plain habits and top hats," +Lucy spoke with pretty sincere eagerness---- + +"She is a really nice girl," decided Barbara to herself; and Oliver also +looked at his old friend Lucy very cordially. To his mind both young +women looked exactly right, that is, exactly as he liked each of them to +look--Lucy Kemp perhaps standing for the good serviceable homespuns of +life, Barbara Rebell for those more exquisite, more thrilling moments +with which he had, as yet unconsciously, come to associate her. + +"Of course," he said, a little quickly, "this is Mrs. Rebell's first +experience of hunting, though she has ridden a great deal,--in fact, all +her life. Otherwise Madame Sampiero would hardly have suggested sending +over to Chillingworth for Saucebox. Hullo, Laxton!"--his voice became +perceptibly colder, but Lucy noticed with some surprise that Mrs. Rebell +bowed and smiled at the newcomer, but Boringdon gave her no time to +speak to him--"You had better come over here," he said urgently, "we +shall be getting to work soon," and in a moment, or so it seemed to +Lucy, he and the lady whom she knew now to be Mrs. Rebell had become +merged in the crowd, leaving Captain Laxton by her side looking down on +her with the half bold, half fearful look she knew so well. + + * * * * * + +Boringdon had taken Barbara to the further side of the great stone +gateway, and she was enjoying every moment of the time which seemed to +many of those about her so tedious. She was even amused at listening to +the quaint talk going on round her. "Scent going to be good to-day?" +"Well, they _say_ there's always a scent some time of the day, and if +you can find the fox _then_, why you're all right!"--and the boastful +tone of a keen weather-beaten elderly man, "I never want a +warranty,--why should a man expect to find a perfect horse?--he don't +look for perfection when he's seeking a wife, eh?" "Oh! but there's two +wanted to complete that deal. The old lady 'as not come up to the +scratch yet, 'as she, John?" "Well, when she does, I shan't ask for any +warranty, and I bet you I'll not come out any worse than other folk +do!"--and then the old joke, one of Solomon's wise sayings, uttered by +an old gentleman to a nervous girl, "Their strength shall be in sitting +still!" + +Mrs. Rebell looked straight before her. Of all the cheerful folk +gathered together near her, none seemed to have eyes for the beauty, the +amazing beauty of the surrounding country. To the right of the kind of +platform upon which the field was now gathered together, the hill +dropped abruptly into a dark wood, a corner of the ancient forest of +Anderida, that crossed by Cæsar when he came from Gaul--a forest +stretching from end to end of the South Downs, broken by swift rivers +running down to the sea. It was here--but Barbara, gazing with delighted +eyes down over the treetops, did not know this--it was here, in this +patch of primeval woodland, that the first fox of the season was always +sought for and often found. + +Yet another "white way" wound down towards the red-roofed farmhouses +which lined the banks of the tidal stream glistening in the vale below; +and opposite, in front, a gleaming cart-track led up to a strip of fine +short grass, differing in quality and even in colour from the turf about +it, and marking the place where, according to tradition, Boadicea made +her last stand. From thence, by climbing up the low bank on which a +hedge was now set, the lover of the downs looked upon one of the +grandest views in the South of England--that bounded on one side by the +sea, on the other, beyond the unrolled map-like plain, by the long blue +barrier of the Surrey hills. + +Barbara's eyes dilated with pleasure. The fresh autumn wind brought a +faint colour to her cheeks. She felt a kind of rapture at the beauty of +the sight before her. It was amazing to her that these people could be +talking so eagerly to one another, gazing so critically at the huntsman +and at the hounds gathered on their haunches, while this marvellous +sight lay spread out around and before them. + +Mrs. Kemp, sitting by the side of Mrs. Boringdon in the pony-carriage, +had something of the same feeling. She turned--foolishly, as she +somewhat ruefully admitted to herself a moment later--to her companion +and contemporary for sympathy--"I never saw Whiteways looking so +beautiful as it does to-day!" + +Mrs. Boringdon looked deliberately away from the sight which lay before +her, and gazed thoughtfully at the sham Norman gateway. "Yes," she said, +"very pretty indeed! Such a charming background to the men's red coats +and to the dogs! Still, I wonder the Duke allows so many poor and dirty +people to come streaming through the park. It rather spoils the look of +the meet, doesn't it? If I were he, I should close the gates on this one +day of the year at any rate." + +Mrs. Kemp made no answer, but she bethought herself it was surely +impossible that Lucy should be happy, in any permanent sense, if made to +live in close proximity to Oliver Boringdon's mother. + + * * * * * + +Time was going on. The walkers and those who had driven to Whiteways +were asking one another uneasily what the Master was waiting for. Miss +Vipen, sitting bolt upright by Mrs. Sampson's side, addressing now and +again a sharp word of reproof to the two young Sampsons sitting opposite +to her, alone divined the cause of the delay. The Master of the South +Sussex Hunt, that is, Tom Laxton--she had known him all her life, and +even as a boy he had been afraid of her--was, of course, waiting for the +Duke, for the Duke and the Halnakeham party! It was too bad to keep the +whole field waiting like this, and probably the fault of the Duchess, +who was always late at all local functions. Miss Vipen told Mrs. Sampson +her opinion of the Duke, of the Duchess, and last but not least of the +Master, whose subserviences to the great she thoroughly despised. + +All at once there was a stir round the gate-way: "The Duke at last!" +looking for all the world, so Miss Vipen observed to Mrs. Sampson, like +an old fat farmer, and apparently quite pleased at having kept everybody +waiting. As for Lord Pendragon, he was evidently very much the fine +gentleman--or, stay, the weedy scholar from Oxford who despised the +humble sports of a dull neighbourhood. But the time would come--Miss +Vipen nodded her head triumphantly--when he, Lord Pendragon, would +become very fat, like his mother, who, it was well known, was now too +stout to ride. "They say," whispered Miss Vipen in Mrs. Sampson's +unwilling ear, "that he is in love with a clergyman's daughter, and that +the Duke won't hear of it! If they made her father a Bishop, I suppose +it would be less objectionable-- Ah! there's the Duchess. They say her +carriages are always built just about a foot broader than anybody else's +in order that her size may not show so much." + +A move was now made for Whitecombe wood, and the Master trotted down +towards a point from which on many a former occasion he had viewed a fox +break away in the direction of the open down, and had been able to get a +good start before he could be overtaken by what he used to call "all +these confounded holiday jostlers." + +While all this was going on, Captain Laxton had not stirred from Lucy's +side, and together they rode over up towards Boadicea's camp. "If they +find soon, which I think very doubtful," he said quietly, "and if, what +is even less likely, the fox breaks, he is sure to head this way"--he +pointed to the left--"because of the wind." + +Lucy looked at him with a certain respect: she herself would never have +thought of that! Captain Laxton, in the past, had often surprised her by +his odd little bits of knowledge. She suddenly felt glad that he was +there, and that apparently he bore her no grudge. More, she reminded +herself that during the whole of the past summer she had missed his +good-natured presence--that they had all missed him, her mother even +more than herself. If he had not come to Whiteways to-day, she would now +be by herself, down among those foolish people who were riding quickly +and aimlessly up and down the steep roads near the wood, her father +throwing her a word now and then no doubt, but Oliver giving her neither +look, word, nor thought. + +Lucy had become aware that Boringdon and Mrs. Rebell had chosen, as she +and Laxton had done, a point of vantage away from the rest of the field, +and that Oliver, with eager glowing face, was explaining the whole +theory of hunting to his companion--further, that she was hanging on his +words with great interest. + +Meanwhile, Captain Laxton was looking at Lucy Kemp no less ardently than +Boringdon was gazing at Barbara Rebell. The young man had come out +to-day with the definite intention of saying something to the girl, and +now he wished to get this something said and over as quickly as +possible. + +"I hope that what happened last time I saw you won't make any +difference, Lucy--I mean as to our being friends, and my coming to the +Grange?" + +He had always called her Lucy--always, that is, since her parents had +come home from India when she was twelve years old. Now it is difficult, +or so at least thought Lucy Kemp, to cherish any thought of romance in +connection with a man who has called you by your Christian name ever +since you were a little girl! + +She hesitated. To her mind what had happened when they had last met +ought to make a difference. She remembered how wretched his evident +disappointment and unhappiness had made her at the time, and how kindly, +since that time, had been her thoughts of him, how pained her father and +mother had been. And now? Even after so short a time as three months, +here he was, looking as cheerful and as good-tempered as ever! It was +clear he had not cared as much as she had thought, and yet, according to +her mother, he had wanted to speak to her nearly two years ago, and had +been asked to bide his time. It was the knowledge of this constancy on +his part which had made Lucy very tender to him in her thoughts. + +Laxton misunderstood her silence: "You need not be afraid, Lucy, +that--that I will bother you again in the same way. But honestly, you +don't know how I have missed you all, how awfully lonely I've felt +sometimes." + +Lucy became aware that he was looking at her with a troubled, insistent +face, and she suddenly remembered how much he used to be with them, +making the Grange his home when she was still a very young girl, though +he was more than welcome at another house in the neighbourhood. As for +old Squire Laxton, Lucy knew only too well why he now always looked at +her so disagreeably; the coming and going of this young soldier cousin +to Laxgrove had been the old sporting bachelor's great pleasure, apart +of course from hunting, and he had missed him sorely that summer. + +Why should not everything go on as it had done before, if Captain Laxton +really wished it to do so? And so she said in a low tone, "Of course we +have missed you too, all of us, very much." + +"Oh! well then, that's all right! I will come over to the Grange +to-morrow--I suppose you would all be tired out this evening? I've been +at Laxgrove nearly a week already, and I must be back at Canterbury on +Monday, worse luck! I say, Lucy----" + +"Yes?" Lucy smiled up at him quite brightly, but her mind was absorbed +in the scene below her: the Duke, the great potentate of the +neighbourhood, had come up to Mrs. Rebell--she was now following him +towards the victoria in which sat the ample Duchess, and Boringdon had +ridden off, galloping his mare down the steep rough road where the +Master, with anxious eyes, was watching the hounds slipping in and out +of the wood. Lucy was rather puzzled. How was it that this strange lady, +who had only arrived at the Priory some three weeks ago, and who never +came into the village--she had been out driving when Mrs. Boringdon had +called on her--knew everybody? She said suddenly, "I did not know that +you knew Mrs. Rebell: we have none of us seen her excepting in church." + +"I can't say I know her, but old Cousin Tom has made great friends with +her. You know she's been riding Saucebox every morning, and they, she +and Boringdon, always go past Laxgrove about twelve o'clock. The first +morning there was quite a scene. The mare didn't quite understand Mrs. +Rebell, I suppose, for a steam roller came up, and in a minute she was +all over the place. Mrs. Rebell sat tight, but it gave her rather a +turn, and Tom made her come into the house. Then yesterday--you know +what a down-pour there was--well, she and Boringdon came in again. I was +rather glad to see them, for he and Tom have had rather an +unpleasantness over the Laxgrove shooting. However, now, thanks to this +Mrs. Rebell, they've quite made it up. She's a nice-looking woman, isn't +she?--quite the kind of figure for a showy beast like Saucebox!" + +But Lucy made no answer: could it be, so thought Laxton uneasily, that +she did not like to hear another woman praised? To some girls, the young +man would never have said anything complimentary concerning another +lady, but Lucy Kemp was different; that was the delightful thing about +Lucy,--both about the girl and her mother. + +Old Tom, sitting over the smoking-room fire the evening before, had told +his young kinsman to give up all thought of Lucy Kemp. "Whoever you +marry now, it will be all the same about ten years hence!" so the +cynical bachelor had observed, but then, what did Tom Laxton know about +it? The younger man was well aware, in a general sense, that this was +true of many men and their wives. It would probably be true of him were +he to choose, and to be chosen, from among the group of pleasant girls +with whom he had flirted, danced, and played games during the last few +months. But with Lucy, ah! no,--Lucy Kemp had become a part of his life, +and he could not imagine existence without her somewhere in the +background. Of course, to his old cousin, to Tom Laxton, Miss Kemp was +simply a quiet rather dull girl who could not even ride really +well--ride as women ought to ride if they hunted at all. The old +sportsman had only two feminine ideals,--that of the loud, jolly, +hail-fellow-well-met sort of girl, or else the stand-offish, delicate, +high-bred sort of woman, like this Mrs. Rebell. + +Lucy was looking straight before her, seeing nothing, thinking much. +Oliver's absence from the Grange was now explained: he had been riding +every morning with Mrs. Rebell, putting off the dull hours which he had +to spend in the estate office till the afternoons. The girl thought it +quite reasonable that Boringdon should ride with Madame Sampiero's +guest, in fact, that sort of thing was one of those nondescript duties +of which he had sometimes complained to her as having been more than he +had bargained for. But how strange that he had not asked her, Lucy Kemp, +to come too! When a certain girl cousin of Oliver's was at the Cottage, +the three young people often enjoyed delightful riding expeditions,--in +fact, that was how Lucy had first come to know Oliver so well. + +"They've found at last! This way, Lucy!--" + +Lucy woke up as if from a dream. The sharp unmistakable cry of Bluebell, +one of the oldest hounds in the pack, broke on her ears. She and Laxton +galloped down to the left--then waited--Laxton smiling broadly as the +whole field swept past them just below, the men jostling one another in +their eagerness to get first to a gate giving access to a large meadow +which enclosed a stretch of down. + +Rather on one side Lucy saw Mrs. Rebell and Boringdon, and +Oliver--quiet, prudent Oliver--was actually giving Saucebox a lead over +a low hedge! A group of town-folk from Halnakeham clapped their hands on +seeing the lady clear the obstacle. Laxton laughed. "Miss Vipen would +talk about circus performances, eh! Lucy?" He had never liked Boringdon, +the two men had nothing in common. "But, of course, Mrs. Rebell may have +told him she wanted to jump. They were doing that sort of thing +yesterday down at Laxgrove, and I must say I thought it very sensible of +Boringdon." + + * * * * * + +But in point of fact the hounds had not found. They had struck a strong +drag in the lower end of the cover, but, after running for only thirty +or forty yards, scent had quickly failed, and a few minutes afterwards +the majority of the field had reappeared near the old gate on the crest +of the hill. + +"Well, it's not been much use so far, has it? I see that Mrs. Boringdon +and your mother have gone home"--General Kemp seemed in high good +humour. "And now that the Duchess is off, too, we shall be able to try +the Bramber wood." The speaker's eyes twinkled; the Duchess of Appleby +and Kendal had been a keen sportswoman in her day, and it had been hoped +that the hounds would find in the ducal covers. "Would you like to go +on, child?" He thought Lucy had been quite long enough with Laxton--that +is, if, as his wife assured him, she had not changed her mind about the +young man whom he himself liked so cordially. + +"I think, father, if you don't mind, I'd rather go home." The General's +face fell--it seemed such a pity to turn back now, just when the real +work of the day was to begin. He had heard the Master's dry words:--"The +Duchess is gone, isn't she? Then let's make for Highcombe without losing +a minute." But Laxton was interposing eagerly--"May I take Lucy home, +sir? I will look after her all right, and perhaps Mrs. Kemp will give me +a little lunch." + +The General looked doubtfully at the two young people. They had remained +close to one another during the last hour--what did it all mean? He +wished his wife were there to give him a word, a glance, of advice. + +"All right!" he said, "but in that case, I should advise you to go back +over the downs. It's a pleasanter way, and you'll be at Chancton twice +as quickly." + +Lucy looked gratefully at the young man: it was really nice of him to do +this--to give up his afternoon to her, and to brave, as he was certainly +about to do, old Squire Laxton's anger: the Master of the S.S.H. had +never understood his favourite kinsman's attitude to the noblest sport +ever devised by man. And so she assented eagerly to the proposal that +they should ride back over the downs. + +"But wouldn't you rather stay?" + +"I'm really glad of the excuse to get away!"--he smiled down on +her--"I've been simply longing to see your mother!" + +Slowly they made their way over the brow of the hill, and then down the +wide grassy slopes skirting the high wall which shut off Chillingworth +from the rest of the world. + +Lucy was very subdued, and very gentle. It was a relief to be with +someone who did not suspect, as her parents seemed to do, the truth as +to her feeling for Oliver Boringdon. Soon she and her companion were +talking quite happily together, he asking her about all sorts of +familiar matters. Again she bethought herself that she really had missed +him, and that it was nice to have him back again. + +Then there was a pause--Laxton had felt the kindness, the confidence of +her manner. Suddenly bending down, he saw that the tears were in her +eyes--that her lips were trembling. Could it be--? Oh! God, was it +possible that she relented--that his intense feeling had at last roused +an answering chord? A flood of deep colour swept over his fair sunburnt +face. "Lucy!" he said hoarsely, "Lucy!" She looked up at him with sudden +mute appeal, but alas! he misunderstood the meaning of the look. "If it +is ever any good--any good now, my asking you again, you will let me +know--you will be kind?" Poor, inadequate words, so he felt them to be, +but enough, more than enough, if he had interpreted aright the look he +had surprised. + +But Lucy shook her head, "It is no good, I only wish it were--though I +don't know why you should care so much." + +They rode on into the village, and Laxton showed the good stuff he was +made of by coming, as he had said he would, to the Grange, where Mrs. +Kemp, after glancing at Lucy, entertained him with a pitying and heavy +heart. + + + + + CHAPTER IX. + + "Falling in love is the one illogical adventure, the one thing + of which we are tempted to think as supernatural, in our trite + and reasonable world." + R. L. S. + + +Love has been described, by one who had a singularly intuitive knowledge +of men's hearts, as a vital malady, and in one essential matter the +similitude holds good--namely, in the amazing suddenness with which the +divine fever will sometimes, nay often, seize upon its victim, driving +out for the time being all other and allied ills, leaving room only for +the one all-consuming passion. + +James Berwick was one of those men--more rarely found perhaps in England +than on the Continent, and less often now than in the leisurely days of +the past--who can tell themselves that they are pastmasters in the art +of love. Two things in life were to him of absorbing interest--politics +and women, and he found, as have done so many of his fellows, that the +two were seldom in material conflict. His sister, Miss Berwick, did not +agree in this finding, but she kept her views and her occasional +misgivings to herself. + +Women had always played a great part in James Berwick's life, and that, +as is generally true of the typical lover, in a very wide sense, as +often as not "en tout bien tout honneur." He thought no hour wasted +which was spent in feminine company: he was tender to the pruderies, +submissive to the caprices, and very grateful for the affection often +lavished on him by good and kindly women, to whom the thought of any +closer tie than that of friendship would have been an outrage. + +More than once he had been very near, or so he had thought at the time, +to the finding of his secret ideal,--of that woman who should be at once +lover and friend. But some element, generally that of the selfless +tenderness for which his heart craved, was lacking in the unlawful loves +to which he considered himself compelled to confine his quest. + +He based his ideal on the tie which had bound his uncle, Lord Bosworth, +to Madame Sampiero, and of which he had become aware at a moment when +his youth had made him peculiarly susceptible to what was fine and +moving in their strange, ardent romance. + +To his ideal,--so he could still tell himself when on one of those +lamentable return journeys from some experimental excursion in that most +debatable land, le pays du tendre,--he could and would remain faithful, +however faithless he might become to the actual woman who, at the +moment, had fallen short of that same ideal. + +Berwick constantly made the mistake of consciously seeking love, and so +of allowing nothing for that element of fantasy and surprise which has +always played so great a part in spontaneous affairs of the heart. + +He asked too much, not so much of love, as of life--intellect, passion, +tenderness, fidelity, all these to be merged together in one who could +only hope to be linked with her beloved in unlawful, and therefore, so +whispered experience, in but temporary bonds. + +During the last ten years--Berwick was now thirty-five, and, while his +brief married life lasted, he had been absolutely faithful to the poor +sickly woman whose love for him had fallen short of the noblest of +all--he had found some of the qualities he regarded as essential to a +great and steadfast passion, first in one, and then in another, but +never had he found them all united, as his uncle had done, in one woman. + +Mrs. Marshall, of whom his sister was still so afraid had first +attracted him as a successful example of that type of woman to whom +beauty, and the brilliant exercise of her feminine instincts, stand in +lieu of mind and heart, and whose whole life is absorbed in the effort +to excite feelings which she is determined neither to share nor to +gratify. To vivify this lovely statue, to revenge, may-be, the wrongs of +many of his sex, had been for Berwick an amusing diversion, a game of +skill in which both combatants were to play with buttoned foils. + +But Mrs. Marshall, caught up at last into the flames in which she +had seen so many burn--holocausts to her vanity and intense +egotism--suddenly began to love Berwick with that dry, speechless form +of passion which sears both the lover and the beloved, and which seems +to strip the woman of self-respect, the man of that tenderness which +should drape even spurious passion. + +The death of the lady's husband had occurred most inopportunely, and had +been followed, after what had seemed to Berwick--now wholly +disillusioned--a shockingly short interval, by one of those scenes of +horror which sometimes occur in the lives of men and women and which +each participant would give much to blot out from memory. During the +interview he shuddered to remember, Berwick had been brought to say, "My +freedom is dearer to me, far more so, than life itself! If I had to +choose between marriage and death, I should choose death!" + +Arabella need not have been afraid. Louise Marshall's very name had +become hateful to him, and the fact that she was still always trying to +throw herself across his path had been one reason why he had spent the +whole summer far from England. + + * * * * * + +It was in this mood, being at the moment out of love with love, that +Berwick had come back this autumn to Sussex and to Chancton Priory. It +was in this same mood that he had first met Barbara Rebell, and had +spent with her the evening of which he was afterwards to try and +reconstitute every moment, to recall every word uttered by either. He +had been interested, attracted, perhaps most of all relieved, to find a +woman so different from the type which had caused him so much distress, +shame, and--what was perhaps, to a man of his temperament, +worse--annoyance. + +Then, after that short sojourn at the Priory, he had gone away, and +thought of Barbara not at all. Certain matters had caused him to come +back to Chillingworth before going on to Halnakeham Castle, and during +those days, with a suddenness which had left him defenceless, had come a +passion of deep feeling--none of those about them ventured to give that +feeling its true name--for the desolate-eyed, confiding creature, who, +if now thrown defenceless in his way as no woman had ever yet been, was +yet instinct with some quality which seemed to act as a shield between +himself and the tremulous, tender heart he knew was there, if only +because of the love Barbara lavished on Madame Sampiero. + +During those early days, and for the first time in Berwick's experience, +humility walked hand in hand with love, and the lover for a while found +himself in that most happy state when passion seems intensified by +respect. James Berwick had hitherto been always able to analyse every +stage of his feeling in regard to the woman who at the moment occupied +his imagination, but with regard to Mrs. Rebell he shrank from such +introspection. + +Yet another feeling, and one oddly new, assailed him during those long +hours which were spent in Barbara's company--now in the quiet stately +downstair rooms of the Priory, now out of doors, ay, and even by Madame +Sampiero's couch, for there Barbara, as if vaguely conscious of pursuit, +would often take refuge. Jealousy, actual and retrospective jealousy, +sharpened the edge of Berwick's feeling,--jealousy of Boringdon, of whom +he gathered Barbara had lately seen so much, and with whom, as he could +himself see, she must be on terms of pleasant comradeship--jealousy, far +more poignant and searching, of Pedro Rebell, and of that past which the +woman Berwick was beginning to regard as wholly his, had spent with him. + +Mrs. Rebell never made the slightest allusion to her husband, and yet +for six long years--those formative years between nineteen and +five-and-twenty--Pedro Rebell must have been, and in a sense rarely +allowed to civilised man, the master of this delicate, sensitive woman, +and, when he so pleased, her lover. Who else save the half-Spanish West +Indian planter could have brought that shadow of fear into Barbara's +eyes, and have made her regard the passion of love, as Berwick had very +soon divined she did regard it, as something which shames rather than +exalts human nature? + +From one and another, going even to Chancton Cottage, and questioning +Mrs. Boringdon in his desire to know what Barbara he knew well would +never tell him, Berwick had so far pieced together her past history as +to come somewhere near the truth of what her life had been. He could +picture Barbara's quiet childhood at St. Germains: could follow her +girlhood--spent partly in France, partly in Italy--to which, as she grew +to know him better, she often referred, and which had given her a kind +of mental cultivation which, to such a man as himself, was peculiarly +agreeable. Then, lastly, and most often, he would recall her long +sojourn in the lonely West Indian plantation. There, if Grace Johnstone +was to be believed, she had at times suffered actual physical +ill-treatment from the man whom she had married because he had come +across her path at a moment when she had been left utterly alone; and +also because--so Berwick, as he grew to understand her, truly +divined--Pedro Rebell bore her father's name, and shared the nationality +of which those English men and women who are condemned to exile are so +pathetically proud. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Turke, Doctor McKirdy, and Madame Sampiero all watched with varying +feelings the little drama which was being enacted before their eyes. + +Of the three, Mrs. Turke had the longest refused to believe the evidence +afforded by her very shrewd senses. The old housekeeper took a frankly +material view of life, and Doctor McKirdy had not been far wrong when he +had once offended her by observing, "I should describe you, woman, as a +grand old pagan!" There were few things she would not have done to +pleasure James Berwick; and that he should enjoy a passing flirtation +with Mrs. Rebell would have been quite within his old nurse's view of +what should be--nay more, Mrs. Turke would have visited with +condemnation any lady who had shown herself foolishly coy in accepting +the attentions of such a gentleman. + +But when the old woman realised, as she soon came to do, that Berwick's +feeling for Madame Sampiero's kinswoman was of a very different quality +from that with which she had at first credited him, then Mrs. Turke felt +full of vague alarm, and she liked to remind herself that Mrs. Rebell +was a wife, and, from certain indications, a good and even a religious +woman in the old-fashioned sense of the word. + +These stormy November days, so rough without, so peaceful within, each +big with the presage of coming winter, reminded Mrs. Turke of another +autumn at Chancton, and of other lovers who had found the atmosphere of +the Priory strangely conducive to such a state of feeling as that which +seemed to be brooding over James Berwick and Barbara Rebell. + +True, Madame Sampiero and Lord Bosworth had been far more equally +matched in the duel which had ended in the defeat of both: but the +woman, in that conflict, had been troubled with fewer scruples. They +also had begun by playing at friendship--they also had thought it within +their power to absorb only the sweet, and to reject the bitter, of the +feast spread out before them. In those far away days Mrs. Turke had +been, to a certain limited extent, the confidante of her mistress, and +now she felt angered at the knowledge that her foster-son was becoming +impatiently aware of her watching eyes, and nervously afraid of any +word, even said by his old nurse in joke, concerning his growing +intimacy with Mrs. Rebell. + +To Madame Sampiero, the present also brought back the past, and that, +ah! yes, most poignantly. As she lay in her beautiful room, her solitude +only broken by those two whom she had begun to watch so painfully, or by +Doctor McKirdy who gave her news of them, she felt like the wounded +warrior to whom heralds bring at intervals news of the conflict raging +without. A word had been said by Mrs. Turke soon after Berwick's return, +but the housekeeper had been rebuked by her paralysed mistress with +sharp decision. + +The thought that the creature who was beginning not to take, so much as +to share, in her heart the place of her dead child, could be caught in +the net out of which she herself had not even yet cut herself free, was +intolerable--the more so that she had been amused, rather cynically +amused, at the effect her god-daughter had produced on the austere +Boringdon. To see them together, to see his growing infatuation, and +Barbara's utter unconsciousness of the feeling which, after the first +memorable interview, brought him daily to the Priory, had been to +Barbara's god-mother a delicious comedy. The woman in her delighted in +the easy triumph of this other woman, more particularly because at first +she had not credited Barbara Rebell with the possession of feminine +charm. + +In this matter Boringdon showed Madame Sampiero how wrong she had been, +and not he only, but many others also had at once come under her spell. +And then, as is nearly always the way with those women who inspire +sudden passions, Mrs. Rebell's charm was not, in its essence, one of +sex. The grim, silent Scottish woman, Madame Sampiero's night attendant, +smiled when Barbara came into the room, and Léonie, the French maid, had +very early informed her mistress, "Je sens que je vais adorer cette +Madame Rebell!" while as for James Berwick, his attitude the more moved +and interested Madame Sampiero, because she had never seen him in any +relation save in that of her own kind, cool, and attentive guest. + +Every nature betrays feeling in a manner peculiarly its own. Berwick +would have been surprised indeed had he realised his constant betrayal +of a passion so instinctive as to be as yet only partially revealed to +his innermost self. For the first time in his experience he loved +nobly--that is, with tenderness and abnegation. To be constantly with +Barbara, to talk to her with that entire intimacy made possible by the +solitary circumstances of her life, was all he asked as yet. Barbara +Rebell, during those same short weeks, was also happy, and wholly +content with the life she saw spread out before her--looking back to the +six years spent with Pedro Rebell as to a terrible ordeal lying safely +far behind her, so deep, so racial had been, after the first few weeks +of their married life, the antagonism between them. + +Feeling her physical helplessness more than she had ever done, Madame +Sampiero asked herself, with a foreboding which deepened into pain, +whether certain passages in her own life were now about to be enacted +over again in that of her own cousin? Lying there, her mind alone free, +she told herself that while regretting nothing that had been, she yet +would do all in her power to prevent one she loved from going through +what she had endured--the more so that, to her mind, James Berwick was +not comparable to the man for whom she had herself sacrificed +everything. Lord Bosworth's only desire, and that over long years, had +been to make the woman he loved his wife. She knew well that the nephew +had a more ingenious and a less simple nature--that the two men looked +at life from a very different standpoint. + +Madame Sampiero also realised to the full what Berwick's great wealth +had meant and did mean to him, and how different a man he would have +been without it. Had Barbara Rebell been free, so the paralysed woman +now told herself, James Berwick would have fled from the neighbourhood +of the Priory at the first dawn of his attraction. + +Barbara's god-mother would have given much to know what neither her own +observation nor Doctor McKirdy's could tell her--namely, how Berwick's +undisguised passion was affecting the object of it. Every day the older +woman looked for some sign, for some conscious look, but Barbara +remained in this one matter an enigma to those about her. Madame +Sampiero knew--as every woman who has gone through certain experiences +is bound to know--the deep secrecy, the deeper self-repression, which +human beings, under certain conditions, can exercise when the question +involved is one of feeling, and so sometimes, but never when Mrs. Rebell +was actually with her, she wondered whether the attitude of Barbara to +Berwick hid responsive emotion, which, when the two were alone together, +knew how to show itself articulate. + +One thing soon became clear. Barbara much preferred to see either +Boringdon or Berwick alone; she avoided their joint company; and that, +so the three who so closely observed her were inclined to think, might +be taken as a sign that she knew most surely how it was with them, if +still ignoring how it was with herself. + + * * * * * + +Concerning love--that mysterious passion which Plotinus so well +describes as part god part devil--Doctor McKirdy was an absolute +fatalist. He regarded the attraction of man to woman as inevitable in +its manifestations as are any of the other maleficent forces of nature, +and for this view--not to go further than his own case--he had good +reason. Till he was nearly thirty, he had himself experienced, not only +a distaste but a positive contempt for what those about him described as +love. + +However much the fact was disguised by soft phrases, he, the young +Alexander McKirdy, knew full well that the passion was wholly base and +devilish--playing sometimes impish, more often terrible, tricks on those +it lured within its labyrinth; causing men to deviate almost +unconsciously from the paths lying straight before them; generally +injuring their careers, and invariably--and this, to such a nature as +his own, seemed the most tragic thing of all--making, while the spell +was upon the victims, utter fools of them. Above all had he condemned, +with deepest scorn and intolerance--this, doubtless, owing in a measure +to his early religious training--that man who allowed himself to feel +the slightest attraction for a married woman; indeed, for such a one, he +felt nothing but scathing contempt. The whole subject of man's relation +to woman was one on which the doctor had been, even as a very raw and +shy youth, always ready to hold forth, warning and admonishing those +about him, especially his own sentimental countrymen cast up on the +lonely and yet siren-haunted sea of London life. + +Then, holding these views more than ever, though perhaps less eager to +discuss them, a chance had brought him to Chancton, there to fall +himself in the same snare which he believed in all good faith so easy to +avoid. After one determined effort to shake himself free, he had bowed +his neck to the yoke, gradually sacrificing all that he had once thought +made life alone worth living to a feeling which he had known to be +unrequited, and which for a time he had believed to be unsuspected by +the object of it. + +Who was he, Alexander McKirdy, so he asked himself during those days +when he watched with very mingled feelings Berwick and Barbara--who was +he to jeer, to find fault, even to feel surprised at what had now +befallen James Berwick and Barbara Rebell? And yet, as was still apt to +be his wont, the old Scotchman blamed the woman far more than the +man--for even now, to his mind, man was the victim, woman the Circe +leading him astray. This view angered the mistress of the Priory, but +not even to please Madame Sampiero would the doctor pretend that he +thought otherwise than he did. + +"Is this, think you, the first time she soweth destruction?" he once +asked rather sternly. "I tell ye, Madam, she cannot be so simple as ye +take her to be! I grant her Jamie"--falling back in the eagerness of the +discussion on what had been his name for Berwick as a child--"we all +know he's a charmer! But how about that poor stiff loon, Oliver +Boringdon? would you say that there she has not been to blame?" + +But the answering murmur was very decided, "I am sure it is the first +time she has sowed destruction, as you call it." + +"Well then, she has been lacking the opportunities God gives most women! +If she has not sowed, it has not been for lack of the seed: she has a +very persuasive manner--very persuasive indeed! That first night before +she stumbled into this house, I was only half minded that she should see +you, and she just wheedled me into allowing her to do so--oh! in a very +dignified way, that I will admit. Now as women sow so shall they reap." + +"That," muttered Madame Sampiero, "is quite true;" and the doctor had +pursued, rather ruthlessly, his advantage. "Can you tell me in all +honesty," he asked, peering forward at her, meeting with softened gaze +the wide open blue eyes, "if you yourself sowed destruction +innocently-like, that is without knowing it? Was there ever a time when +you were not aware of what you were doing?" + +For a moment the paralysed woman had made no answer, and then her face +quivered, and he knew that the sounds which issued from between her +trembling lips signified, "Yes, McKirdy, I always did know it! But +Barbara is a better woman than I ever was----" + +"Ay, and not one half so beautiful as you ever were!" The doctor had +remained very loyal to his own especial Circe. + + * * * * * + +It now wanted but a week to Lord Pendragon's coming-of-age ball, and +Chancton Priory shared in the general excitement. Madame Sampiero was +well aware that this would be her god-daughter's real introduction to +the neighbourhood, and she was most anxious that the first impression +should be wholly favourable. As regarded what Barbara was to wear, +success could certainly be achieved; but in whose company she should +make her first appearance at Halnakeham Castle was more difficult to +arrange, for it had come to Doctor McKirdy's knowledge that James +Berwick intended that he and Mrs. Rebell should share the long drive +from Chancton to the Castle. + +This the mistress of the Priory was determined to prevent, and that +without signifying her sense of its indecorum. The way out of the +difficulty seemed simple. Madame Sampiero intimated her wish that Doctor +McKirdy should be the third occupant of the Priory carriage, and that +with this strange-looking cavalier, Barbara should make her appearance +at the Castle: in that matter she thought she could trust to Berwick's +instinct of what was becoming, and further, she had little fear that he +would wish to attract the attention of the Duchess of Appleby and Kendal +to his friendship with Mrs. Rebell. But, to Madame Sampiero's +astonishment and chagrin, Doctor McKirdy refused to lend himself to the +plan. + +"Nay," he said, "I've been thinking the matter over, and I cannot make +up my mind to oblige ye. Your wit will have to find out another way." +There had been a pause, and he added, with one of his curious twisted +smiles, "It's not such as I who would dare to intervene at 'the canny +hour at e'en'!" + +"Then I must tell James it cannot be!" Madame Sampiero spoke the words +with the odd muffled distinctness which sometimes came over her +utterance. But Doctor McKirdy had been thinking carefully over the +situation: "Why not ask Mrs. Boringdon?" he growled out. "The woman does +little enough for the good living she gets here!" + +Madame Sampiero looked at her faithful old friend with real gratitude. +How foolish she had been not to have thought of that most natural +solution! But to her, Oliver Boringdon's mother was the merest shadow, +scarcely a name. + +And so it was that James Berwick's plan was defeated, while Barbara +Rebell, who had not as yet become as intimate with Grace Johnstone's +mother as she hoped to do, was made, somewhat against her will, to write +and invite Mrs. Boringdon and her son to share with her the Priory +carriage. + + + + + CHAPTER X. + + "Never, my dear, was honour yet undone + By love, but by indiscretion!" + + COWLEY. + + +It was the second day of the three which were being devoted to the +coming-of-age festivities of Lord Pendragon, and Miss Berwick had asked +herself to lunch at Halnakeham Castle. Because of the great ball which +was to take place that evening, this day was regarded by the Duchess and +the more sober of her guests as an off-day--one in which there was to be +a lull in the many old-fashioned jollifications and junketings which +were being given in honour of the son of the house. + +The Duchess of Appleby and Kendal had been a very good friend to +Arabella and to her brother, and that over long years. Owing to a +certain inter-marriage between her own family and that of the Berwicks, +she chose to consider them as relations, and as such had consistently +treated them. She was fond of James, and believed in his political +future. Arabella she respected and admired: both respect and admiration +having sure foundations in a fact which had come to the Duchess's +knowledge in the days when she was still young, still slender, and +still, so she sometimes told herself with a sigh, enthusiastic! This +fact had been the sacrifice by Arabella Berwick of the small fortune +left her by her parents, in order that some debts of her brother's might +be paid. + +At the present moment James Berwick was actually staying at the Castle, +and his sister had asked herself to lunch in order, if possible to see, +and if not, to hear, on what terms he found himself with that one of his +fellow guests whom his hostess, knowing what she did know of Arabella's +fears, should not have allowed him to meet under her roof. + +To Miss Berwick's discomfiture, Louise Marshall was at lunch, more +tragic, more mysterious in her manner, alas! more lovely, in her very +modified widow's dress, than ever; but Arabella's brother, so her host +informed her when they were actually seated at table, had gone over for +the day to Chillingworth! This meant that the sister had had a four-mile +drive for nothing--a drive, too, which was to be repeated that same +evening, for the whole of the Fletchings party, even Lord Bosworth, were +coming to the ball. + + * * * * * + +One of the most curious of human phenomena met with by the kindly and +good-hearted who are placed by Providence in positions of importance and +responsibility, is the extreme willingness shown by those about them to +profit by that same kindliness and good-heartedness--joined to a keen +disapproval when those same qualities are exercised on behalf of others +than themselves! + +There had been a time when the Duchess's rather culpable good-nature, +strengthened by her real affection for the two young people concerned, +had been of the utmost service to Arabella Berwick--when, indeed, +without the potent help of Halnakeham Castle, Miss Berwick would have +been unable to achieve what had then been, not only the dearest wish of +her heart, but one of the utmost material moment--the marriage of her +brother to the great heiress whose family had hoped better things for +her than a union with Lord Bosworth's embarrassed though brilliant +nephew and heir. + +But the kind Duchess's services on that occasion were now forgotten in +Arabella's extreme anger and indignation at the weak folly which had led +to Mrs. Marshall's being asked to meet Berwick. The sister had come over +to Halnakeham determined to say nothing of what she thought, for she was +one of those rare women who never cry over spilt milk,--the harm, if +harm there were, was already done. But the old habit of confidence +between the two women, only separated by some ten years in age, had +proved too strong, especially as the opportunity was almost thrust upon +the younger of the two by her affectionate and apologetic hostess. + +"Qui s'excuse s'accuse"; the Duchess, sitting alone after lunch with her +dear Arabella, should surely have remembered the wise French proverb, +the more so as she had not made up her mind how much she meant to say, +and how much to leave unsaid, concerning James Berwick's strange +behaviour during the few days he had been sleeping,--but by no means +living,--at the Castle. + +"Well, my dear, we need not have been afraid about your brother and poor +Louise Marshall--from what I can make out, he has hardly said a word to +her since he has been here! In fact, he has hardly been here at all. He +goes off in the morning and comes back late in the afternoon. He did +stay and help yesterday, and made, by the way, a most charming little +speech,--but then he took his evening off! I've been wondering whether +there can be any counter attraction in the neighbourhood of +Chillingworth--?" + +The speaker looked rather significantly at her guest. She had been at +some trouble to find out what that attraction could be which took +Berwick daily to Chancton, and as her own confidential maid was Mrs. +Turke's niece, and a Chancton woman, she had come to a pretty shrewd +idea of the truth. + +But Miss Berwick was absorbed in her grievance. "No," she said sharply, +"certainly not! James hasn't ever been over to Fletchings, and we have +no one staying there whom he could want to see. I suppose the truth is +he wisely tries to escape from Mrs. Marshall. Knowing all you know, +Albinia, and all I said to you last year, how _could_ you have the woman +here? I was really aghast when I heard that she was coming, and that +James was hurrying back to see her--of course everyone must be putting +two and two together, and he will find himself at last in a really bad +scrape!" + +The Duchess began to look very uncomfortable. "The poor soul wrote and +asked if she might come," she said feebly; "I do think that you are +rather hardhearted. It would melt your heart if you were to hear her +talking about him to me. She has paid a woman--some poor Irish lady +recommended to her--to look up all his old speeches, and she devotes an +hour every day to reading them over, and that although she doesn't +understand a word of what she's reading! It's really rather touching, +and I do think he owes her something. Of course you know what she would +like, what she is hoping for against hope--old Mr. Marshall was a very +rich man----" + +Miss Berwick knew very well, but she thought the question an outrage--so +foolish and so shocking that it was not worth an answer. Indeed, she +shrugged her shoulders, a slight but very decided shrug, more eloquent +than any words could have been from such a woman. + +The Duchess, kind as she was, and with a power of sympathetic insight +which often made her unhappy, felt suddenly angered. She took up a book. +It had a mark in it. "Reading this sentence," she said rather nervously, +"I could not help thinking of your brother." + +Miss Berwick held out a languid hand. She thought this rather a mean way +of avoiding a discussion. Then she read aloud the sentence-- + +"It is the punishment of Don Juanism to create continually false +positions, relations in life which are false in themselves, and which it +is equally wrong to break or to perpetuate." + +There was a pause. Arabella put the book down, and pushed it from her +with an almost violent gesture. "I cannot understand," she cried, "how +this can in any way have suggested James! I never met a man who was less +of a Don Juan. If he was so he would be happier, and so should I. +Imagine Don Juan and Louise Marshall--why, he would have made mincemeat +of such a woman; she would have been a mere episode!" + +"And what more has poor Louise been? No woman likes to be a mere +episode! I do not say"--the Duchess spoke slowly; she knew she had gone +a little too far, and wished to justify herself, also to find out, for +the knowledge had made her very indignant, if Arabella was aware of how +her brother was now spending his time,--"I do not say by any means that +your brother is a Don Juan in the low and mean sense of the term, but +circumstances and you--yes, you, in a measure--have made his relations +to women essentially false and unnatural. Yes, my dear girl, that sort +of thing _is_ against nature! You are amazed and indignant when I speak +of it as being possible that he should marry Louise Marshall, and yet I +am quite sure that James is a man far more constituted for normal than +for abnormal conditions, and that he would be happier, and more +successful in the things that you consider important for him if, like +other men, he realised that--that----" + +The Duchess stole a look at her guest's rigid face, then went on with +dogged courage-- + +"Well, that a certain kind of behaviour nearly always leads to a man's +having to take a woman--generally the wrong woman, too--to church, that +is, if he is, in the ordinary sense, an honourable man! I fear," +concluded the Duchess dolefully, "that you think me very coarse. But +James and Louise between them have made me quite wretched the last few +days, so you must forgive me, and really I don't think you have anything +to fear--Louise is leaving the day after to-morrow." + +The speaker got up; why, oh! why, had she allowed herself to be lured +into this odious discussion? + +Arabella had also risen, and for a moment the two women, perfectly +contrasted types of what centuries have combined to make the modern +Englishwoman of the upper class, faced one another. + +The Duchess was essentially maternal and large-hearted in her outlook on +life. She was eager to compass the happiness of those round her, and +thanked God daily for having given her so good a husband and such +perfect children--unconscious that she had herself made them to a great +extent what they were. Particular to niceness as to her own conduct, and +that of her daughters, she was yet the pitying friend of all black sheep +whose blackness was due to softness of heart rather than hardness of +head. On the whole, a very happy woman--one who would meet even those +natural griefs which come to us all with soft tears of submission, but +who would know how to avert unnatural disaster. + +To her alone had been confided the story of Miss Berwick's love passages +with Daniel O'Flaherty. To-day, looking at the still youthful figure and +proud reserved face of her friend, she marvelled at the strength of +character, the mingled cruelty and firmness, Arabella had shown, and she +wondered, not for the first time, whether the agony endured had been in +any sense justified by its results. Then she reminded herself that as +Mrs. O'Flaherty the sister could hardly have brought about, as Miss +Berwick had known how to do, her brother's marriage to one of the +wealthiest unmarried women of her day. + +"I think we ought to be going downstairs: and--and--please forgive me +for speaking as I did just now--you know I am simply tired out!" + +And indeed the Duchess had endured that which had gone far to spoil her +innocent happiness in her son's coming-of-age festivities. After each +long day of what was on her part real hard work, the poor lady, whom all +about her envied, would call on her only confidant, the Duke, to scourge +her for the folly to which her kindness of heart and platonic sympathy +with the tender passion had led her; and husband-wise he would by turns +comfort and scold her, saying very uncomplimentary things of both the +sinners now in full enjoyment of his hospitality. Berwick, generally the +most agreeable and serviceable of guests, was moody, ill at ease, and +often absent for long hours--behaving indeed in a fashion which only his +hosts' long kindness to him could, in any way, excuse or authorise. + +As to Mrs. Marshall, she made no effort to disguise her state of mind. +She gloried in her unfortunate and unrequited passion, and made the +object of it appear--what he flattered himself he had never yet +been--absurd. She made confidences to the women and entertained the men +with eulogies of Berwick. Now, to-day, she was looking forward, as her +hostess well knew, to the evening. At the ball it would surely be +impossible for her lover to escape her, though her anxiety--and this, +the Duchess's fatal knowledge of human nature also made clear to +her--was somewhat tempered by the fact that on this occasion, in honour, +as she plaintively explained, of dear Pendragon, and in order to cast no +gloom over the festivity, she would once more appear in a dress showing +the lovely shoulders which had once been described as "marmorean"--the +word had greatly gratified her--by a Royal connoisseur of feminine +beauty. + +The fact that the whole affair much enlivened the party and gave an +extraordinary "montant" to what would otherwise have been rather a prosy +gathering,--that her guests so much enjoyed an item which had no place +in the long programme of entertainments arranged by the Duke and +herself--was no consolation to the Duchess. + + * * * * * + +"One moment, Albinia!" + +The younger woman had turned very pale. The Duchess's words concerning +Berwick and his sentimental adventures had cut her to the quick. +Heavens! was this the way people were talking of her brother? The words, +"an honourable man," sounded in her ears. How cruelly, how harshly, men +and women judged each other! + +"Of course, what you said just now concerning James and his love +affairs,--if one may call them so,--impressed me. How could it be +otherwise? As you know, I have no sympathy, I might almost say no +understanding, of his attitude in these matters. There is a whole side +of life to which I feel," her voice dropped, "the utmost repugnance. I +have never allowed anyone to make me those confidences which seem so +usual nowadays, nay, more, I have never even glanced at the details of +any divorce case. I once dismissed a very good maid--you remember +Bennett?--because I found her reading something of the kind in my room. +I could not have borne to have about me a woman who I knew delighted in +such literature----" + +"But my dear Arabella----" + +"Let me speak! Bear with me a moment longer! Now, about James. Of course +I know he's in a difficult position--one that is, as you say, unnatural. +But, after all, many men remain unmarried from choice, ay, and even free +from foolish intrigues--to me such episodes are not love affairs. If +there is any fear of such folly leading to marriage, well then, for my +brother the matter becomes one of terrible moment----" + +"You mean because of the money?" The Duchess had sunk down again into a +chair--she was looking up at her friend, full of remorse at having +seemed to put Arabella on her defence. + +"Yes, Albinia, because of the money. You do not know--you have never +known--what it is to lack money. I have never wanted it for myself, but +I have longed for it, Heaven alone knows how keenly, simply to be +relieved from constant care and wearing anxieties. I seem to be the +first Berwick who has learnt how _not_ to spend! As for James, it is +impossible to imagine him again a poor man." + +"And yet he is not extravagant." + +Miss Berwick looked pityingly at the Duchess. "What is extravagance? +Perhaps in the common sense of the word James is not extravagant. But he +cares supremely for those things which, in these ignoble times of ours, +money alone ensures--Power--the power to be independent--the indefinite, +but very real, prestige great wealth gives among those who despise the +prestige of rank." + +"But do those people matter?" asked the Duchess, rather superbly. +"Snobbish radicals--I've met 'em!" + +"But that is just what they are _not_!" cried Arabella feverishly. "They +care nothing for rank, but they do care, terribly so, for money. The man +who is known to have it--fluid at his disposal (that's how I heard one +of James's friends once describe it)--at the disposal, if so it be +needed, of the party, commands their allegiance and their respect, as no +great noble, every penny of whose income is laid out beforehand, can +hope to do. If James, instead of marrying as he did do, had gone on as +he began, where would he be now? What position, think you, would he +occupy? I will tell you, Albinia,--that of a Parliamentary free-lance, +whose very abilities make him feared by the leaders of every party; that +of a man whose necessities make him regard office as the one thing +needful, who is, or may be, open to subtle forms of bribery, whose mouth +may be suddenly closed on the bidding of--well, say, of his uncle, Lord +Bosworth, because he gives him, at very long and uncertain intervals, +such doles as may keep him out of the Bankruptcy Court. Can you wonder +that I am anxious? To me he is everything in the world----" + +She stopped abruptly, then began speaking again in far more bitter +accents. + +"Louise Marshall! You spoke just now of his possible marriage to that +woman. She may be rich, but I tell you fairly that I would rather see +James poor than rich through her. I cannot find words to express to you +what I think of her. She sold herself, her youth, her great beauty, her +name, and her family connections--you among them, Albinia--to that +vulgar old man, and now that the whole price has been meted out to her, +she wishes to re-invest it in a more pleasant fashion. She has sold and +now she wishes to buy----" + +"My dear Arabella!" + +"Yes, it is I who am coarse,--horribly so! But I am determined that you +shall hear my side of the case. You speak of my brother's honour. Do you +know how Louise Marshall behaved last year? Do you know that, when that +wretched old man lay dying, she came to Bosworth House--to _my_ +house--and insisted on seeing James, and--and"--the speaker's voice +broke, the Duchess could see that she was trembling violently; "Why do +you make me remember those things--those horrible things which I desire +to forget?" + +Emotion of any sort is apt to prove contagious. The Duchess was very +sorry for her friend; but she had received, which Arabella had not, Mrs. +Marshall's confidences, and then she knew, what Arabella evidently did +not know, how James Berwick was now spending his time, and what had +dislodged--or so she believed--Louise Marshall from his heart. And so-- + +"As you have spoken to me so frankly," she said, "I also owe you the +truth. Perhaps I am not so really sorry for Louise as you seem to think +me, but, during the last few days, a fact has come to my knowledge--I +need hardly tell you that I have said nothing to Louise about it--which +has made me, I must say, feel rather indignant. I asked you just now, +Arabella, whether there could be any rival attraction at Chillingworth; +that, I confess, was rather hypocritical on my part, for there _is_ an +attraction--at Chancton Priory." + +"At Chancton Priory?" repeated Miss Berwick, "why there's absolutely no +one at Chancton Priory! Who can you possibly mean?" + +All sorts of angry, suspicious thoughts and fears swept through her +mind. As is so often the case with women who keep themselves studiously +aloof from any of the more unpleasant facts of real life, she was +sometimes apt to suspect others of ideas which to them would have been +unthinkable. She knew that her friend's maid was a niece of Madame +Sampiero's housekeeper. Was it possible that there had been any gossip +carried to and fro as to Berwick's attraction for some rustic beauty? +Well, whatever was true of him, that would never be true. To him +temptation did not lie that way. + +But it was the Duchess's turn to look astonished. "Do you mean," she +exclaimed, "that you have not seen and know nothing of Barbara +Sampiero's cousin,--of this Mrs. Rebell, who has been at Chancton for +the last six weeks, and whom, if I judge rightly from the very pathetic +letter which poor dear Barbara Sampiero dictated for me to that old +Scotch doctor of hers, she is thinking of making her heiress?" + +"Mrs. Rebell?"--Miss Berwick's tone was full of incredulous relief--"My +dear Albinia, what an extraordinary idea! Certainly, I have seen her. My +uncle made me call the very moment she arrived, and I never met a more +apathetic, miserable-looking woman, or one more _gauche_ and ill at +ease." + +"She did not look _gauche_ or ill at ease at the Whiteways meet." + +"Mrs. Rebell was not at the meet," said Arabella positively. "If she had +been, I should, of course, have seen her. Do you mean the woman who was +riding Saucebox?--that was some friend of the Boringdons." + +It was the Duchess's turn to shrug her shoulders: "But I spoke to her!" +she cried. "I can't think where your eyes could have been. She's a +strikingly attractive-looking woman, with--or so I thought, when I +called on her some ten days after she arrived at Chancton--a +particularly gentle and self-possessed manner." + +"Oh! but you," said Miss Berwick, not very pleasantly, "always see +strangers _en beau_. As to James, all I can say is that I only wish he +did admire Mrs. Rebell--that, at any rate, would be quite safe, for she +is very much married, and to a relation of Madame Sampiero." + +"You would wish James to admire this Mrs. Rebell? Well, not so I! To my +mind his doing so would be a most shocking thing, a gross abuse of +hospitality"--and as she saw that Miss Berwick was still smiling +slightly, for the suggestion that her brother was attracted to the +quiet, oppressed-looking woman with whom she had spent so uncomfortable +a ten minutes some weeks before, seemed really ludicrous--the Duchess +got up with a sudden movement of anger. "Well, you will be able to see +them together to-night, and I think you will change your opinion about +Mrs. Rebell, and also agree with me that James should be off with the +old love before he is on with the new!" + +"Albinia"--Miss Berwick's voice altered, there came into it something +shamed and tremulous in quality--"Sir John Umfraville has left us. When +it came to the point--well, I found I couldn't do it." + + + + + CHAPTER XI. + + "To the fair fields where loves eternal dwell + There's none that come, but first they fare through Hell." + + BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER. + + +It is wonderful how few mistakes are made by those who have the sending +out of invitations to a great country function. The wrong people are +sometimes included, but it rarely happens that the right people are left +out. + +Halnakeham Castle was famed for its prodigal hospitality, and on such an +occasion as the coming-of-age ball of the only son, the ducal +invitations had been scattered broadcast, and not restricted, in any +sense, to those for whom the word "dancing" was full of delightful +significance. In Chancton village alone, Miss Vipen could show the +Duchess's card, and so could Doctor McKirdy, while both the Cottage and +the Vicarage had been bidden to bring a party. + +This being the case, it was felt by Mrs. Kemp's neighbours to be very +strange and untoward that no invitation had been received at Chancton +Grange, but, as so often happens, those who were supposed to be the most +disturbed were really the least so. General Kemp and his wife were not +disposed to resent what Miss Vipen eagerly informed their daughter was a +subtle affront, and a very short time after the amazing omission became +known, Lucy Kemp received five invitations to join other people's +parties for the ball, and declined them all. + +Then came an especially urgent message from Mrs. Boringdon, brought by +Oliver himself. "Of course you will come with us," he said insistently, +"my mother is to have the Priory carriage, and," he added, smiling as if +speaking in jest, "I will tell you one thing quite frankly--if you +refuse to come, I shall stay at home!" + +Lucy gave him a quick, rather painful glance. What could he mean by +saying that to her?--but Mrs. Kemp, again dowered with that sixth sense +sent as a warning to those mothers worthy of such aid, asked rather +sharply, "Are you and Mrs. Boringdon then going alone, for Lucy's father +would not wish her in any case to remain up very late?" and Oliver +answered at once, "Oh! no, Mrs. Rebell will, of course, be with us--in +fact, in one sense we are going as her guests. It is she who is so +anxious that Lucy should come too, and you need have no fear as to our +staying late, for we are going especially early in order to be home +before one o'clock." And then, to Mrs. Kemp's surprise, Lucy suddenly +declared that she would come after all, and that it was very kind of +Mrs. Rebell to have asked her. + +On the great day, but not till five o'clock, the belated invitation did +at last arrive at the Grange, accompanied by a prettily worded sentence +or two of apology and explanation as to a packet of unposted cards. The +General and Mrs. Kemp, however, saw no reason to change the arrangement +which had been made; more than once Mrs. Boringdon had chaperoned their +daughter to local entertainments, and, most potent reason of all, every +vehicle in the neighbourhood had been bespoken for something like a +fortnight. If Lucy's father and mother wished to grace the ducal ball +with their presence, they would have to drive there in their own +dog-cart, and that neither of them felt inclined to do on a dark and +stormy November night, though there were many to inform them that they +would not in so doing find themselves alone! + + * * * * * + +Lucy Kemp had a strong wish, which she hardly acknowledged to herself, +to see Mrs. Rebell and Oliver Boringdon together. The girl was well +aware that Oliver's manner to her had first changed before the coming of +this stranger to the Priory, but she could not help knowing that he now +saw a great deal of Mrs. Rebell. She knew also that, thanks to that +lady's influence, the young man was now free to see Madame +Sampiero--that hidden mysterious presence who, if invisible, yet so +completely dominated the village life of Chancton. + +This, of course, was one reason why he was now so often at the Priory. +Indeed, his mother complained to Lucy that it was so: "I suppose that, +like most afflicted persons, Madame Sampiero is very capricious. As you +know, in old days she would never see Oliver, and now she expects him to +be always dancing attendance on her!" + +Lucy implicitly accepted this explanation of the long mornings spent by +her old friend at the Priory; but it may be doubted whether in giving +it, Mrs. Boringdon had been quite honest. On making Mrs. Rebell's +acquaintance, which she had not done till Barbara had been at Chancton +for some little time, the mistress of the Cottage realised that the +Priory now contained within its walls a singularly attractive woman. + +The excuse which Boringdon made, first to himself, and then to his +mother, concerning Madame Sampiero's renewed interest in village +affairs, was one of those half-truths more easily believed by those who +utter them than by those to whom they are uttered. During the fortnight +Mrs. Boringdon was away, Oliver spent the greater part of each day in +Mrs. Rebell's company; the after-knowledge of that fact, together with +his avoidance of Lucy Kemp, made his mother vaguely suspicious. She +also, therefore, was not sorry for the opportunity now presented to her +of seeing her son and Mrs. Rebell together, but she would have liked on +this occasion to be with them alone, and not in company with Lucy Kemp. + +In this matter, however, her hand was forced. Boringdon, when bringing +his mother's note to the Grange, told the truth, as indeed he always +did; the taking of Lucy to Halnakeham Castle was Mrs. Rebell's own +suggestion, and in making it Barbara honestly believed that she would +give her good friend--for so she now regarded Oliver Boringdon--real +pleasure. Also, she was by no means anxious for a drive spent in the +solitary company of this same good friend and his mother--especially his +mother. In Mrs. Boringdon, Barbara had met with her only disappointment +at Chancton. There had arisen between the two women something very like +antipathy, and more than once Mrs. Rebell had felt retrospectively +grateful to James Berwick for having given her, as he had done the first +evening they had spent together, a word of warning as to the mistress of +the cottage. + + * * * * * + +Certain days, ay and certain hours, are apt to remain vividly marked, +and that without any special reason to make them so, on the tablets of +our memories. + +Lucy Kemp always remembered, in this especially vivid sense, not only +the coming-of-age ball of Lord Pendragon, but that drive of little more +than half an hour, spent for the most part in complete silence by the +occupants of the old-fashioned, roomy Priory carriage. + +Lucy and Oliver, sitting with their backs to the horses, were in +complete shadow, but the carriage lamps threw a strong, if wavering, +light on Mrs. Boringdon and Barbara Rebell. For the first time the girl +was able to gaze unobserved at the woman who--some instinct told +her--had come, even if unknowingly, between herself and the man she +loved. + +Leaning back as far as was possible in the carriage, Barbara had a +constrained and pre-occupied look. She dreaded the festivity before her, +fearing that an accident might bring her across some of her unknown +relations--some of the many men and women who had long ago broken off +all connection with Richard Rebell and his belongings; for these people +Richard Rebell's daughter felt a passion of dislike and distaste. + +Barbara also shrank from meeting James Berwick in that world from which +she herself had always lived apart, while belonging to it by birth and +breeding; she found it painful to imagine him set against another +background than that where she had hitherto seen him, and she felt as if +their singular intimacy must suffer, when once the solitude with which +it had become encompassed was destroyed. + +That afternoon there had occurred in Mrs. Turke's sitting-room a curious +little scene. Barbara and Berwick had gone in there after lunch, and +Berwick had amused both Mrs. Rebell and his old nurse by telling them +something of the elaborate preparations which were being made at +Halnakeham Castle for the great ball. Suddenly the housekeeper had +suggested, with one of her half-sly, half-jovial looks, that Mrs. Rebell +should, there and then, go and put on her ball-dress--the beautiful gown +which had arrived the day before from Paris, and which had already been +tried on by her in Madame Sampiero's presence. + +For a moment, Barbara had not wholly understood what was being required +of her, and Mrs. Turke mistook the reason for her hesitation: "La, +ma'am, you need not be afraid that your shoulders won't bear +daylight--why, they're milky white, and as dimpled as a baby's, Mr. +James!" And then, understanding at last the old woman's preposterous +suggestion, and meeting the sudden flame in Berwick's half-abashed, +wholly pleading eyes, Barbara had felt inexplicably humiliated--stripped +of her feminine dignity. True, Berwick had at once altered his attitude +and had affected to treat Mrs. Turke's notion as a poor joke, quickly +speaking of some matter which he knew would be of absorbing interest to +his old nurse. + +But even so Mrs. Rebell, sitting there in the darkness, felt herself +flush painfully as she remembered the old housekeeper's shrewd, +appraising look, and as she again saw Berwick's ardent eyes meeting and +falling before her own shrinking glance. + + * * * * * + +"I don't know that we shall have a really pleasant evening"--Mrs. +Boringdon's gentle, smooth voice struck across the trend of Barbara's +thoughts. "It is certain to be a terrible crush--the Duke and Duchess +seem to have asked everybody. Even Doctor McKirdy is coming! I suppose +he will drive over in solitary state in one of the other Priory +carriages?" + +Mrs. Rebell stiffened into attention: "No," she said, rather distantly, +"Doctor McKirdy is going to the Castle with a certain Doctor Robertson +who lives at Halnakeham." Here Oliver interposed--"Robertson is one of +the Halnakeham doctors, and, like McKirdy himself, a bachelor and a +Scotchman; he is, therefore, the only medical man hereabouts whom our +friend honours with his intimate acquaintance." + +And then again silence fell upon the group of ill-assorted fellow +travellers. + + * * * * * + +One of the long low rooms on the ground floor of the Castle, a portion +of the kitchens and commons in the old days when Halnakeham was a Saxon +stronghold, was now turned into a cloak-room and dressing-room. There it +was that Lucy and Mrs. Boringdon--animated by very different +feelings--watched, with discreet curiosity, their companion emerging +from the long black cloak which concealed her gown as effectually as if +it had been a domino. + +Some eyes, especially when they are gazing at a human being, only obtain +a general agreeable or disagreeable impression, while others have a +natural gift for detail. To Lucy Kemp, the sight of Mrs. Rebell, +standing rather rigidly upright before a long mirror set into the stone +wall, presented a quite unexpected vision of charm and feminine +distinction. But, even after having seen Barbara for a whole evening, +the girl could not have described in detail, as Mrs. Boringdon could +have done after the first quick enveloping glance, the dress which +certainly enhanced and intensified the wearer's rather fragile beauty. +The older and keener eyes at once took note of the white silk skirt, +draped with festoons of lace caught up at intervals with knots of dark +green velvet and twists of black tulle--of the swathed bodice encrusted +with sprays of green gems, from which emerged the white, dimpled +shoulders which had been so much admired by Mrs. Turke, and which +Barbara had inherited from her lovely mother. + +Gazing at the figure before her with an appreciation of its singular +charm far more envious than that bestowed on it by Lucy Kemp, Mrs. +Boringdon was speculating as to the emeralds--might they not, after all, +be only fine old paste?--which formed the _leit motif_ of the costume. + +"Paris?" Mrs. Boringdon's suave voice uttered the word--the +question--with respect. + +Barbara started: "Yes, Peters. My god-mother has gone to him for years. +He once made her a gown very like this, in fact trimmed with this same +lace,"--Mrs. Rebell hesitated--"and of the same general colouring. I am +so glad you like it: I do think it really very pretty!" + +And then, suddenly looking up and seeing the vision of herself and her +dress in the mirror, again the memory of that little scene in Mrs. +Turke's sitting-room came over Barbara in a flash of humiliation. Now, +in a moment, she would see Berwick--Berwick would see her, and a vivid +blush covered her face and neck with flaming colour. + +"I hope you don't think the bodice is--is--cut oddly off the shoulders?" +she said, rather appealingly. + +"Oh! no--quite in the French way, of course, but very becoming to you." +Mrs. Boringdon spoke amiably, but her mind was condemning Madame +Sampiero for lending fine old lace and priceless jewels to one so +situated as was Barbara Rebell. It was such a mistake--such ill-judged +kindness! No wonder the woman before her had reddened when admitting, as +she had just tacitly done, that the splendid gems encrusted on her +bodice were only borrowed plumes. + +"You will have to be careful when dancing," she said, rather coldly, "or +some of those beautiful stones may become loosened and drop out of their +setting." + +Barbara looked at her and answered quickly--"I do not mean to dance +to-night,"--but she felt the touch of critical enmity in the older +woman's voice, and it added to her depression. Instinctively she turned +for a word of comfort to Lucy Kemp. + +In her white tulle skirt and plain satin bodice, the girl looked very +fresh and pretty: she was smiling--the very sight of the lovely frock +before her had given her a joyous thrill of anticipation. Lucy had never +been to a great ball, and she was beginning to look forward to the +experience. "Oh! but you must dance to-night, mother says that at such a +ball as this everybody dances!" The other shook her head, but it pleased +her to think that she had been instrumental in bringing this pretty, +kind young creature to a place which, whatever it had in store for +her--Barbara--could only give Lucy unclouded delight. + + * * * * * + +Walking with stately steps up the great staircase of Halnakeham Castle, +Mrs. Boringdon became at once conscious that her party had arrived most +unfashionably early, and she felt annoyed with Mrs. Rebell for having +brought about so regrettable a _contretemps_. While apparently gazing +straight before her, she noticed that her present fellow-guests were in +no sense representative of the county; they evidently consisted of folk, +who, like Barbara, had known no better, and had taken the ducal +invitation as literally meaning that the Duchess expected her guests to +arrive at half-past nine! + +Mrs. Boringdon accordingly made her progress as slow as she could, while +Lucy, just behind her, looked about and enjoyed the animated scene. The +girl felt happier than she had done for a long time; Oliver's manner had +again become full of affectionate intimacy, and she had experienced an +instinctive sense of relief in witnessing Mrs. Rebell's manner to him. A +woman, even one so young as Lucy Kemp, does not mistake a rival's manner +to the man she loves. + +At last, thanks to a little manoeuvre on the part of the older lady, she +and Lucy, with, of course, her son, became separated from Mrs. Rebell. +Barbara was soon well in front, speeding up the staircase with the light +sliding gait Oliver so much admired, and forming part of, though in no +sense merged in, the stream of rather awe-struck folk about her. + +The kindly Duchess, standing a little in front of a brilliant, smiling +group of men and women, stood receiving her guests on the landing which +formed a vestibule to the long gallery leading to the ball-room. There +came a moment when Barbara Rebell--so Boringdon felt--passed out of the +orbit of those with whom she had just had the silent drive, and became +absorbed into that stationary little island of people at the top of the +staircase. More, as he and his mother shook hands with the Duchess, he +saw that the woman who now filled his heart and mind to the exclusion of +almost everything else, was standing rather in the background, between +James Berwick and an old gentleman whom he, Oliver Boringdon, had long +known and always disliked, a certain Septimus Daman who knew everyone +and was asked everywhere. + +Down on Mr. Daman--for he was very short and stout--Mrs. Rebell was now +gazing with her whole soul in her eyes; and to-night old Septimus found +that his one-time friendship with poor forgotten Richard Rebell +conferred the pleasant privilege of soft looks and kindly words from one +of the most attractive women present. To do him justice, virtue was in +this case rewarded, for Septimus Daman had ever been one of the few who +had remained actively faithful to the Rebells in their sad disgrace, and +when Barbara was a little girl he had brought her many a pretty toy on +his frequent visits to his friends in their exile. + +But of all this Boringdon could know nothing, and, like most men, he +felt unreasonably annoyed when the woman whom he found so charming +charmed others beside himself. That Mrs. Rebell should exert her powers +of pleasing on Madame Sampiero and on old Doctor McKirdy had seemed +reasonable enough,--especially when she had done so on his behalf,--but +here, at Halnakeham Castle, he could have wished her to be, as Lucy +evidently was, rather over-awed by the occasion, and content to remain +under his mother's wing. In his heart, he even found fault with +Barbara's magnificent dress. It looked different, so he told himself, +from those worn by the other women present: and as he walked down the +long gallery--every step taking him, as he was acutely conscious it did, +further away from her in whom he now found something to condemn--his +eyes rested on Lucy's simple frock with gloomy approval. + +"Mrs. Rebell's gown?" he said with a start, "no, I can't agree with +you--Frankly, I don't like it! Oh! yes, it may have come from Paris, and +I dare say it's very elaborate, but I never like anything that makes a +lady look conspicuous!" + +So, out of the soreness of his heart, Oliver instructed Lucy as to the +whole duty of woman. + + * * * * * + +To the Duchess, this especial group of guests was full of interest, +and--if only Mrs. Boringdon had known it--she felt quite grateful to +them all for coming so early! On becoming aware of Mrs. Rebell's +approach, she was woman enough to feel a moment's keen regret that +Arabella Berwick was not there to see the person whom she had called +_gauche_ and insignificant, coming up the red-carpeted staircase. Even +the Duke had been impressed and interested, but rather cross with +himself for not knowing who it was, for he prided himself on knowing +everybody in the neighbourhood. + +"Who's this coming up alone?" he asked, touching his wife's elbow. + +"Poor Richard Rebell's daughter--I told you all about her the other day. +Barbara Sampiero seems to be going to adopt her; don't you see she's +wearing the Rebell emeralds? Remember that you saw and spoke to her at +Whiteways!" + +"Bless me, so I did to be sure! She looked uncommonly well then, but +nothing to what she does now, eh?" + +And so it was that Barbara successfully ran the gauntlet of both kind +and indifferent eyes, and finally found herself absorbed into the group +of people standing behind her host and hostess. + +Then the Duchess passed on to Mrs. Boringdon and her son, treating them +with peculiar graciousness simply because for the moment she could not +remember who they were or anything about them! She felt sure she had +seen this tall dark man before--probably in London. He looked rather +cross and very stiff. A civil word was said to Lucy and an apology +tendered for the mistake made about the invitation. "Let me see," the +speaker was thinking, "this pretty little girl is to marry Squire +Laxton's soldier cousin, isn't she? Pen must be told to dance with her." + + * * * * * + +An hour later; not eleven o'clock, and yet, to the Duchess's infinite +relief, every guest--with the important exception of the Fletchings +party--had arrived. She was now free to rest her tired right hand, and +to look after the pleasure of those among her guests who might feel shy +or forlorn. But, as the kind hostess filled up one of the narrow side +doors into the ball-room, she saw that everything seemed to be going +well. Even Louise Marshall, to whom the Duchess had spoken very +seriously just before dinner, appeared on the whole to be leaving James +Berwick alone, and to have regained something of her power of judicious +flirtation. She looked very lovely; it was pleasant to have something so +decorative, even if so foolish, about! Too bad of Lord Bosworth to be so +late, but then he was privileged, and a cordon of intelligent heralds +had been established to announce his approach; once the Fletchings +carriages drew up at the great doors, the Duchess would again take up +her stand at the top of the staircase. + +Lucy Kemp was thoroughly enjoying herself. Had she cared to do so she +could have danced every dance twice over--in fact, she would willingly +have spared some of the attention she received from the young men of the +neighbourhood, the sons of the local squires and clergy, who all liked +her, and were glad to dance with her. + +Oliver seemed to have gone back to his old self. He and Lucy--though +standing close to Mrs. Boringdon and an old lady with whom she had +settled down for a long talk--were practically alone. Both felt as if +they were meeting for the first time after a long accidental absence, +and so had much to say to one another. Mrs. Rebell's name was not once +mentioned,--why indeed should it have been? so Lucy asked herself when, +later, during the days that followed, she went over every word of that +long, intermittent conversation. Their talk was all about Oliver's own +affairs--especially they discussed in all its bearings that important +by-election which was surely coming on. + +Then something occurred which completed, and, as it were, rounded off +Lucy's joy and contentment. James Berwick made his way across the vast +room, now full of spinning couples, to the recess where they were both +standing, and at once began talking earnestly to Oliver, tacitly +including the girl by his side in the conversation. At the end of the +eager, intimate discussion, he turned abruptly to Lucy and asked her to +dance with him, and she, flushing with pleasure, perceived that +Boringdon was greatly pleased and rather surprised by his friend's +action. As for herself, she felt far more flattered than when the same +civility--for so Lucy, in her humility, considered it--had been paid her +earlier in the evening by the hero of the day, shy Lord Pendragon +himself. That Berwick could not dance at all well made the compliment +all the greater! + + * * * * * + +And Barbara Rebell? Barbara was not enjoying herself at all. It has +become a truism to say that solitude in a crowd is the most trying of +all ordeals. In one sense, Mrs. Rebell was not left a moment solitary, +for both the Duke and the Duchess took especial pains to introduce her +to those notabilities of the neighbourhood whom they knew Madame +Sampiero was so eager, so pathetically anxious, that her god-daughter +should know and impress favourably. But, as the evening went on, she +felt more and more that she had no real link with these happy people +about her. Even when listening, with moved heart, to old Mr. Daman's +reminiscences of those far-off days at St. Germains, when his coming had +meant a delightful holiday for the lonely little English girl to whom he +was so kind, she felt curiously, nay horribly, alone. + +With a feeling of bewildered pain, she gradually became aware that James +Berwick, without appearing to do so, avoided finding himself in her +company. She saw him talking eagerly, first to this woman, and then to +that; at one moment bending over the armchair of an important dowager, +and then dancing--yes, actually dancing--with Lucy Kemp. She also could +not help observing that he was very often in the neighbourhood of the +woman who, Barbara acknowledged to herself, was the beauty of the ball, +a certain Mrs. Marshall, whose radiant fairness was enhanced by a black +tulle and jet gown, and who was--so Mr. Daman informed her with a +chuckle--but a newly-made widow. And in truth something seemed to hold +Berwick, as if by magic, to the floor of the ball-room. He did not +wander off, as did everybody else, either alone or in company, to any of +the pretty side-rooms which had been arranged for sitting out, or into +the long, book-lined gallery; and yet Mrs. Rebell had now and again +caught his glance fixed on her, his eyes studiously emptied of +expression. To avoid that strange alien gaze, she had retreated more +than once into the gallery, but the ball-room seemed to draw her also, +or else her companions--the shadow-like men and women who seemed to be +brought up to her in an endless procession, and to whom she heard +herself saying she hardly knew what--were in a conspiracy to force her +back to where she could not help seeing Berwick. + +Oh! how ardently Barbara wished that the evening would draw to a close. +It was good to remember that Mrs. Boringdon and Lucy had both expressed +a strong desire to leave early. Soon her martyrdom, for so in truth it +was, would cease, and so also, with this experience--this sudden light +thrown down into the depths of her own heart--would cease her intimacy +with James Berwick. + +The anguish she felt herself enduring frightened her. What right had +this man, who was after all but a friend and a friend of short standing, +to make her feel this intolerable pain, and, what was to such a nature +as hers more bitter, such humiliation? There assailed her that instinct +of self-preservation which makes itself felt in certain natures, even in +the rarefied atmosphere of exalted passion. She must, after to-night, +save herself from the possible repetition of such feelings as those +which now possessed her. She told herself that those past afternoons and +evenings of close, often wordless, communion and intimacy yet gave her +no lien on James Berwick's heart, no right even to his attention. + +Sitting there, with Mr. Daman babbling in her ear, mocking ghosts, evil +memories, crowded round poor Barbara. She remembered the first time--the +only time that really mattered--when she had been told, she herself +would never have suspected or discovered it, of Pedro Rebell's +infidelity, of his connection with one of their own coloured people, and +the passion of outraged pride and disgust which had possessed her, +wedded to a sense of awful loneliness. Even to herself it seemed amazing +that she should be suffering now much as she had suffered during that +short West Indian night five years ago. Nay, she was now suffering more, +for then there had not been added to her other miseries that feeling of +soreness and sense of personal loss. + + * * * * * + +"Are you enjoying yourself, Doctor McKirdy?" His hostess was smiling +into the old Scotchman's face. She had seen with what troubled interest +his eyes followed Mrs. Rebell and James Berwick--the Duchess would have +given much to have been able to ask the doctor what he really thought +about--well, about many things,--but her courage failed her. As he +hesitated she bent forward and whispered, "Don't say that it's a +splendid sight; you and I know what it is--a perfect _clanjamfray_! +Confess that it is!" and as Doctor McKirdy's ugly face became filled +with the spirit of laughter, the Duchess added, "You see I didn't have a +Scotch mother for nothing!" + +And Mrs. Boringdon, watching the little colloquy with a good deal of +wonderment, marvelled that her Grace could demean herself to laugh and +joke with such an insufferable nobody as she considered Doctor McKirdy +to be! + + + + + CHAPTER XII. + + "Que vous me coûtez cher, ô mon coeur, pour vos plaisirs!" + + COMTESSE DIANE. + + +"Will you please introduce me to the lady with whom Mr. Daman has been +talking all the evening? I have something I very much want to ask her, +and I don't wish to say it before that horrid old man, so will you take +him aside while I speak to her?" + +Louise Marshall was standing before James Berwick. She looked beautiful, +animated, good-humoured as he had not seen her look for a very long +time, and the plaintive, rather sulky tone in which she had lately +always addressed him was gone. There are women on whom the presence of a +crowd, the atmosphere of violent admiration, have an extraordinary tonic +effect. To-night, for the first time since she had become a widow, Mrs. +Marshall felt that life, even without James Berwick, might conceivably +be worth living; but unfortunately for himself, the man to whom she had +just addressed what he felt to be so disquieting a request, did not +divine her thoughts. Instead, suspicions--each one more hateful than the +other--darted through his mind, and so, for only answer to her words he +looked at her uncertainly, saying at last, "You mean Mrs. Rebell?" + +She bent her head; they were standing close to the band, and it was +difficult to hear, but he realized that she had some purpose in her +mind, and there shone the same eager good-tempered smile on the face +which others thought so lovely. + +"Very well," he said, "I will take you across to her," and slowly they +skirted the walls of the great room, now filled with movement, music, +and colour. + + * * * * * + +Up to the last moment, Berwick had seriously thought of escaping the +ordeal of this evening. The mere presence of Louise Marshall in his +neighbourhood induced in him a sense of repulsion and of self-reproach +with which he hardly knew how to cope in his present state of body and +mind. And now had come the last day. Escape was in sight; not with his +good will would he ever again find himself under the same roof with +her--indeed, in any case he was actually going back to Chillingworth +that very night. Wisdom had counselled him to avoid the ball, but the +knowledge that Mrs. Rebell would be there had made him throw wisdom to +the winds. Why spend hours in solitude at Chillingworth while he might +be looking at Barbara--talking to Barbara--listening to Barbara? + +But when it came to the point Berwick found that he had over-estimated +the robustness of his own conscience. From the moment he had seen Mrs. +Rebell coming up the broad staircase of Halnakeham Castle, he had +realised his folly in not following the first and wisest of his +instincts. Although the two women were entirely different in colouring, +in general expression, indeed in everything except in age, there seemed +to-night, at least to his unhappy, memory-haunted eyes, something about +Barbara which recalled Mrs. Marshall, while in Mrs. Marshall there +seemed, now and again, something of Barbara. So strong was this +impression that at last the resemblance became to Berwick an acute +obsession--in each woman he saw the other, and as the evening went on, +he avoided as far as possible the company of both. + +Now it had become his hateful business to serve as a link between them. + + * * * * * + +For a moment Mrs. Marshall looked at Barbara, then smilingly shook her +head. "A string band would have been so much nicer, don't you think so, +but the Duke believes in encouraging local talent. I wonder if you would +mind coming out here for a moment--it is so much quieter in there--and I +want to ask you to do me such a favour!" + +Even as she spoke, she led the way from the ball-room into one of the +book-lined embrasures of the long, now almost deserted, gallery, and +Barbara, wondering, followed her. + +Louise Marshall put on her prettiest manner. "I do hope you won't think +me rude," she said, "but I am so very anxious to know if your beautiful +gown came from Adolphe Peters? I do not know if you have noticed it, but +of course I saw it at once,--there's a certain family likeness between +my frock and yours! They say, you know, that Peters can only think out +one really good original design every season--but then, when he has +thought it out, how good it is!" + +Mrs. Marshall spoke with a kind of sacred enthusiasm. To her, dress had +always been, everything considered, the greatest and most absorbing +interest of life. + +After having received the word of assent she sought, she hurried on, "Of +course, I felt quite sure of it! It is easy to see that he has followed +out the same general idea--la ligne, as he calls it--in my frock as in +yours. Several times this evening, I couldn't help thinking how awful it +would have been if our two gowns had been exactly alike! I am probably +going to India very soon"--Mrs. Marshall lowered her voice, for she had +no wish that Berwick, who was standing a few paces off, his miserable +eyes fixed on the two women while he talked to Septimus Daman, should +thus learn the great news,--"but I shall be in Paris for a few days, and +I have been wondering if you would mind my asking Peters to make me a +gown exactly like yours, only of grey silk instead of white, and with +mauve velvet bows and white tulle instead of green and black--that +mauve," she added eagerly, "which is almost pale blue, while yet quite +mourning! Well, would you mind my telling him that I have seen your +dress?" + +"No, of course not," said Barbara with some wonderment. "But I think +that you should say that the gown in question was that made to the order +of Madame Sampiero; he won't remember my name." + +"Thanks so much! Madame Sampiero? Oh! yes, I know--I quite understand. +Are you a niece of hers? Oh! only a god-daughter, that's a comfort, for +then you need never be afraid of becoming like her,"--a look of very +real fear came over the lovely, mindless face,--"I've often heard about +her, and the awful state she's in! Isn't it a frightful thing? Do you +think people are punished for the wicked things they do,--I mean, of +course, in this life?" + +Barbara stared at her, this time both amazed and angered. "Yes," she +said, slowly, "I am afraid one cannot live long in this world and not +believe that, but--but----" + +Mrs. Marshall, however, gave her no time to speak, and indeed Barbara +would have found it difficult to put into words what she wished to +convey concerning the courage, aye, the essential nobility, of the poor +paralysed woman whom she had come to love so dearly. + +"I wish you had been staying here during the last few days, I'm sure we +should have become great friends." The speaker took a last long +considering look at Barbara's bodice. "Your black tulle is dodged in and +out so cleverly," she said, with a touch of regret, "mine is not twisted +half so well, it looks more lumpy"--without any change of tone she +added, "Since you are Madame Sampiero's god-daughter, I suppose you have +known James Berwick quite a long time, as he is Lord Bosworth's nephew." + +"But I have never seen, and do not know, Lord Bosworth," Barbara spoke +rather stiffly. + +"How very strange! But you know he is expected here to-night. He's a +dear, splendid old thing, always particularly nice to _me_. But there he +is!--there they all are--the whole Fletchings party,--coming in now!" + +Barbara turned eagerly round. She was intensely desirous of seeing Lord +Bosworth, and she fixed her eyes, with ardent curiosity, on the group of +figures slowly advancing down the gallery. + +Slightly in front of the others came the Duchess, and by her side paced +a tall, large-framed man; now he was bending towards his companion, +listening to what she was telling him with amused interest. The Duke and +Arabella Berwick walked just behind them, and some half-dozen men and +women ended the little cortége. + +Men wear Court dress with a difference. To Lord Bosworth, the velvet +coat, the knee-breeches, and silk stockings, lent an almost majestic +dignity of deportment. The short stout Duke, trotting just behind him, +looked insignificant, over-shadowed by the larger figure--indeed, even +the Garter gracing the ducal leg seemed of no account when seen in +contrast with the red riband of the Bath crossing Lord Bosworth's +stalwart chest. + +As the procession came nearer, Barbara saw that the man in whom she took +so great an interest still looked full of the pride of life, and just +now his large powerful face was lighted up by a broad smile. His curling +grey hair had receded, leaving a large expanse of broad forehead, and +the shaggy eyebrows, which were darker than his hair, overhung two +singularly shrewd grey eyes. Thanks to the many months of each year now +spent by him in the country--thanks also to the excellent care taken of +him by his niece--Lord Bosworth's face was ruddy with the glow so easily +mistaken for that of health. Of the many who looked on him that night, +marvelling at the old statesman's air of robust power, and inclined +perhaps to criticise his long retirement from public affairs--for he had +been one of the most successful, and therefore one of the most popular, +Foreign Ministers of his generation--only two people--that is he himself +and a certain famous doctor who had come to the ball as member of a +house-party--were aware that Lord Bosworth would in all probability +never see old age, in the sense that many of his Parliamentary +contemporaries and former colleagues might hope to do. + +And now, as Barbara Rebell saw him walking down the gallery, talking +with mellow sonorous utterances, and now and again laughing heartily at +the remarks of the Duchess, there swept over her a sudden rush of revolt +and indignation. She contrasted the fine, vigorous figure, advancing +towards her, with that of the paralysed woman, whom she had left +to-night lying stretched out in that awful immobility; and she recalled +Madame Sampiero's last muttered words to herself--"I think you will see +Lord Bosworth to-night. I should like you to have word with him--you +will tell me how he looks--how he seems----" + +As the Duchess and her honoured guest drew close to the embrasure where +Barbara and Mrs. Marshall were standing, Lord Bosworth's acute +eyes--those eyes which had been early trained to allow nothing of +interest, still less nothing of an agreeable nature, to escape +them--became focussed on the charming group formed by the two women, the +one as dark as the other was fair, who stood together against the soft +deep background made by the backs of the Halnakeham Elzevirs. + +Lord Bosworth bent his head, and asked the Duchess a question--then in a +moment the whole expression of the powerful, still handsome face +altered, the smile faded from his lips, and a look of extreme gravity, +almost of suffering, came over the firm mouth and square chin. The +Duchess stayed her steps, and Barbara heard distinctly the +eager--"Certainly, I shall be delighted! I have been most anxious to +meet her. Yes--once, when she was a child, long ago, in France." + +A moment later the formal group had broken up; Barbara's name was +uttered, she felt her right hand taken in a strong grasp, and +unceremoniously Lord Bosworth turned away with her. Still holding her +hand, he led her aside and, looking down at her with a moved expression +on his face, "I have been wishing much to see you," he said, "but, as +you perhaps may know, I am not allowed to come to Chancton. I was +attached, most truly so, to both your parents." He hesitated, and added +in a lower tone, "Barbara,--that is your name, is it not?--to me the +most beautiful, the noblest of women's names!" + +Meanwhile, much by-play was going on around them, but of it all Mrs. +Rebell was quite unconscious. Even Berwick was for the moment forgotten, +and she did not see Arabella's mingled look of quick interest and slowly +gathering surprise as Miss Berwick realised with whom her uncle had +turned aside. + +Still less was Barbara aware that the Duchess was speaking rather +urgently to Mrs. Marshall. "There is no one in my sitting-room," she was +saying, "and you will never have such a good opportunity again to-night. +Do take him there now! I am sure, Louise, you will be acting wisely as +well as rightly, but do not be too long, for everyone wants to see +you,--even in the last few moments several people have come up and asked +who you were, and wanted to be introduced to you. I have never seen you +looking better than you look to-night." There was a commanding as well +as a caressing quality in the kind voice. + +Then the Duchess looked round, and in answer to her glance, Berwick, ill +at ease and looking haggard, came forward. He also had been watching his +uncle and Mrs. Rebell, wondering what they could have to say to one +another that seemed to move Barbara so much; but he was not given much +time for that or any other thought. Timidly, with more grace of manner +than she usually showed, Louise Marshall turned towards him. "The +Duchess," she said, nervously, "wants us to go into her sitting-room--I +have something to say to you there." + +For a moment, the man addressed looked round, as if seeking a way of +escape: then he realised that the moment he had so dreaded, and which he +had up to the present instant so successfully evaded, had come, and must +be both faced and endured. A feeling of rage came over him--a +self-scourging for his own exceeding folly in being here to-night. But +without making any answer, he followed her down the gallery, only +Arabella Berwick and the Duchess having overheard Mrs. Marshall's words, +and witnessed their result. + + * * * * * + +In matters of feeling and emotion, as in everything else, it is the +unexpected which generally happens. When at last James Berwick found +himself alone with Mrs. Marshall in the small, dimly-lighted room which +had but a few hours before seen the interview between the Duchess and +his sister, his companion's words--even her action, or lack of +action--took him entirely by surprise. He had expected, and was ashamed +for so expecting, that the woman who had compelled him to follow her to +this solitary place, would turn and fling herself into his arms with a +cry of "Jimmy!"--the name which she herself had invented for him, and +which he had always thought grotesque--on her lips. + +While walking quickly down the long corridors which led from the more +modern side of the Castle to this older portion, he had strung himself +up to meet any affectionate demonstration with good-humour and +philosophy, for, whatever else was not sure, this he was determined +should be the last meeting between them, even if he had to give up half +his friends and all his acquaintances in consequence. + +But Mrs. Marshall's behaviour was quite different from that which he had +expected. After he had shut the door of the boudoir, she walked away +from him, and sitting down began to play with the fringe of a table +cover, while he stood moodily staring down at her. + +"Must you stand?" she asked at last, in the plaintive tone which he so +much disliked. + +"Oh! no, not if you wish me to sit down," and he sat down, fiercely +waiting till it should be her pleasure to begin. + +How could he have allowed himself to be so entrapped? He had heard it +asserted that women never stood by one another--well, in that case the +Duchess was an exception! He ground his teeth with anger at the thought +of the trick which had been played him. But stay--now, at last, Mrs. +Marshall was speaking-- + +"Albinia has been talking to me. She has been telling me things which I +did not really know before,--I mean about your position, and how +important it is to you that you should remain free. You remember our +talk last year?" + +Berwick bent his head, but into his strained face there came no sign of +the inward wincing which her words brought with them. Still, he began +unconsciously to revise his opinion of the Duchess; she had meant well +by him after all, but he wished she had kept out of his affairs, and +left him to manage them himself-- + +Mrs. Marshall was again speaking: "I could not understand what you meant +by what you said then, it seemed so unkind! But now, of course, I +realise that you were right--in fact I've brought you here to-night to +tell you that I do understand." + +There was a long pause. Berwick was at an utter loss for words, and +every moment he expected the woman before him to make some more direct +allusion to the condition under which he held his fortune. He felt a +kind of helpless rage to think of his affairs being thus discussed, even +by one so good-natured and well-meaning as had evidently been, in this +matter, the Duchess of Appleby and Kendal. But what did all this +preamble signify? + +"I am glad you do understand," he said at last in a hoarse voice which +he scarcely recognised as his own. "I know I must have seemed a great +brute." + +"If you had only trusted me more," she said plaintively. "Of course I +should have understood at once! I should have known that what I could +offer was not enough--that there was no comparison----" + +Berwick made a sudden movement. Was it really necessary that he should +listen to this? Was it part of his punishment that he should endure such +unforgettable abasement? But, alas for him! Louise Marshall was in a +sense enjoying both the scene and the situation. While she was speaking, +there came into the still air of the room the sound of distant melody, +and she felt as if she were looking on at a touching last act in some +sentimental play. Also there was, after all, something uplifting in the +sensation--to her a novel one--of doing a noble action, for so had the +Duchess, with innocent cunning, represented her renunciation of James +Berwick. + +This frivolous, egoistical woman, ever guided by her instincts, never by +her heart or conscience, thoroughly understood, as many shrewd and +clever women fail to do, the value of money. From the plane whence Mrs. +Marshall took her survey of life, the gratification of that instinct +which she called love had always been a luxury, and the possession of +wealth with which to gratify all other instincts an absolute necessity +of existence. The contempt which most women, even those themselves +ignoble, naturally feel for a man whom they suspect of putting material +possessions before the deepest feelings of the heart, would to her have +savoured of gross hypocrisy. + +The Duchess--clever woman as she was, and dealing, in this case, with +one whose intellect she despised--would have been surprised indeed had +she known that what had really impressed and influenced Louise Marshall +during their painful talk that day, had been the short statement, thrown +in as an after-thought, of Berwick's financial position and of what he +would lose if he married again. That, so Mrs. Marshall at once told +herself, made all the difference. To her mind it absolutely justified +James Berwick in rejecting the offer practically made by her within a +few weeks of her husband's death, for what were her few thousands a year +compared to the huge income which he would lose on a second marriage? +She was, however, inclined to consider that he had shown false delicacy +in not at once telling her the circumstances of the case. Then, at any +rate, they might have sorrowed together over the inscrutable dictates of +Providence. But instead of taking that sincere and manly course, +Berwick, during that interview which even she shrank from recalling, had +actually implied that his distaste to her was personal, his horror of +marriage a singular idiosyncracy! Now it behoved her to beat a dignified +retreat. And so, "As things are----" + +Berwick began to realise that the woman before him had prepared what she +wished to say, nay more, that she had probably rehearsed the present +scene-- + +"As things are, Jimmy, I think it will be best for us to part, and so I +have made up my mind to go to India with the Thorntons." She hurried +over the words, honestly afraid of provoking in herself emotion of a +disfiguring nature, for the thought of her unselfishness naturally +brought the tears to her eyes. "That's all," she said in abrupt +conclusion, "and now I think we had better go back to the ball-room." + +She gave Berwick a quick, furtive look, and suddenly felt sorry for him. +How he must have cared after all! For, as he stood opening the door for +her to pass through, his face had turned ashen, and his blue eyes were +sunken. So might a man look who, suddenly relieved of an intolerable +weight, is, for a moment, afraid to move or to speak, lest the burden +should again descend upon his shrinking shoulders. + + * * * * * + +When once more in the ball-room, Berwick made +his way straight to his sister. Even before he stood by her, the +expression on his face had aroused her quick anxious attention. But +Arabella had learnt to spare her brother feminine comment. + +"Have you yet spoken to Mrs. Boringdon?" he asked her, rather sharply. + +"No, I have not even seen her; do you wish me to speak to her? I think +she must know many of the people here. Where is she?" + +"Over there, sitting with that old lady. I should be glad if you would +tell her that we--that is, that you--are going to drive Mrs. Rebell back +to Chancton to-night. The Boringdons have to leave early, and it would +of course be absurd for Mrs. Rebell to go away just when you have +arrived, and when the Duke has arranged for her to sit at supper next to +Monsieur Parisot." + +Now Monsieur Parisot was the French Ambassador. + +"Of course, if you really wish it, it can be managed." Miss Berwick +spoke hesitatingly; in these little matters she did not like to have her +hand forced. "But, James, it will not be very convenient." And she +looked at her brother with puzzled eyes. + +Was it possible, after all, that Albinia had been right and she wrong? +If so, why that obedient following of Louise Marshall out of the gallery +half an hour before, and why this strange look on his face now? Miss +Berwick had just spoken to Barbara Rebell, but her eyes were still +holden; indeed, her feeling as to Madame Sampiero's god-daughter, or +rather as to her beautiful gown and superb jewels, had not been unlike +that of Mrs. Boringdon, and would have translated itself into the homely +phrase, "Fine feathers make fine birds." Arabella did not credit, for +one moment, the Duchess's belief that the mistress of Chancton Priory +intended to make the daughter of Richard Rebell her heiress. Miss +Berwick had persuaded herself that Chancton would pass in due course +into her brother's possession, and she knew that there had been some +such proposal years before, in the heyday of Lord Bosworth's intimacy +with Madame Sampiero. This being so, it surely seemed a pity that Mrs. +Rebell should now be treated in a way that might ultimately cause +disappointment. + +"I do wish it, and it will be quite convenient!" Berwick's tone was very +imperious. "I myself am going back to Chillingworth to-night. I offered +long ago to leave here to-day, for they have every attic full. I have of +course arranged for an extra carriage, so you will be put to no +inconvenience,"--but his bright blue eyes, now full of strange fire, +fell before his sister's challenging glance, and the altered accent with +which she observed, "Oh! of course if you and Mrs. Rebell have arranged +to go back together----" + +Berwick's hand closed on his sister's arm and held it for a moment in a +tight, to her a painful, grip. + +"You have no right to say, or even to think, such a thing! The +arrangement, such as it is, was made by me, Mrs. Rebell knows nothing of +it; she is quite willing, and even eager, to go back now with the +Boringdons. The other proposal must come from you----" he hesitated, +then, more quietly, muttered, "I don't often ask you to oblige me." + +Arabella gave in at once, but with a strange mingling of +feelings,--relief that she had been wrong as to Louise Marshall's +hold on her brother; a certain pique that in this matter the Duchess +had understood James better than she had herself; and, above all, +there was a sensation of bewildered surprise that such a man as +Berwick, one so intelligent, so eagerly absorbed in public affairs, +should require this--this--Arabella did not know how to qualify, how +to describe, even to herself, her brother's passion for romance, his +craving for sentimental adventure. Well, if it was so, better far +that he should find what he sought, that he should follow his +will-of-the-wisp in their own neighbourhood, and, for the moment, +with so colourless--so the sister seeking for another word, could +only find that of respectable--yes, so respectable a woman as was this +Mrs. Rebell! + +Miss Berwick, on her way to Mrs. Boringdon, allowed her eyes to sweep +over the great ball-room. Barbara was standing talking to Mr. O'Flaherty +whom Lord Bosworth had just introduced to her. "She certainly looks +intelligent," said Arabella to herself, "and quite, yes quite, a lady. +Perhaps my first impression of her was wrong after all. But how foolish, +how wrong of poor Barbara Sampiero to let her wear those emeralds!" Yet +perhaps the jewels played their part in modifying her view of Barbara +Rebell. The wearing of fine gems is a great test of a woman's +refinement. + +Then Miss Berwick's gaze softened as it became fixed on Barbara's +companion. Thank Heaven, all men were not like James, or all women like +Louise Marshall. Daniel O'Flaherty had the steadfast, pre-occupied look +which soon becomes the mark of those men who are architects of their own +fortunes; such men can find time for a great passion, but none for what +the French happily describe as _passionettes_. As for Barbara Rebell, +there was a look of pride and reserve as well as of intelligence in her +dark eyes and pale face. "If James likes to flirt with her, and +Dan,"--her thought lingered over the homely name,--"likes to talk to +her, we must see about having her to Fletchings!" + + + + + CHAPTER XIII. + + "Friendship, I fancy, means one heart between two." + + GEORGE MEREDITH. + "I will hold your hand so long as all may, + Or so very little longer." + + ROBERT BROWNING. + + +Barbara Rebell, wrapped in her black domino-like cloak, bent forward and +looked out of the carriage window. + +There was something fantastic, magnificent, almost unreal in the scene +she saw. The brougham in which she sat by Berwick's side was gliding +quietly and smoothly between pillars of fire. The glare lighted up the +grey castle walls, and gave added depth to the forked shadows lying +across the roadway. Already the loud shouts, the sound of wheels and +trampling horses filling the courtyard, lay far behind. In a few moments +they would be under the tower, through the iron gates, now opened wide +to speed the parting guests, and driving down the steep streets of +sleeping Halnakeham town--so into the still darkness of the country +lanes. + +Suddenly, to the left of the Gate Tower under which they were about to +pass, there quickened into brightness a bengal light, making vividly +green the stretch of grass, and lending spurious life to the fearsome +dragons and stately peacocks which were the pride of the Halnakeham +topiarist. + +Barbara clasped her hands in almost childish pleasure. + +"Oh! how beautiful!"--she turned, sure of sympathy, to the silent man by +her side, and then reddened as she met his amused smile, and yet it was +a very kind and even tender smile, for he also felt absurdly +light-hearted and content. + +Till the last moment, Berwick had trembled lest his scheme should +miscarry. Well, Providence, recognising his excellent intentions, and +realising how good an influence such a woman as Mrs. Rebell could not +but exercise on such a man as himself, had been kind. He felt as +exultant as does a schoolboy who has secured a longed-for treat, and it +was a boy's expression which rose to his mind concerning his +sister--"Arabella behaved like a brick!" + +Looking back, he could still see the group of people standing in the +square entrance hall of the castle, himself gradually marshalling +Arabella's guests into the Fletchings omnibus and the Fletchings +carriage. Again he felt the thrill with which at last he had heard his +sister's clear voice say the words, "Now, Mrs. Rebell, will you please +get in there, and kindly drop my brother at Chillingworth on your way +back to Chancton?" + +The whole thing had been over in a moment. He himself had placed +Barbara, bewildered but submissive, in the little brougham which he had +bought that last spring in Paris, and which was supposed to be the +_dernier cri_ in coachbuilding luxury; and then, taking the place beside +her, had found himself at last alone with her. + +The old Adam in Berwick also rejoiced in having, very literally, stolen +a march on Madame Sampiero and Doctor McKirdy. These two good people had +gone to some trouble to prevent his being with Mrs. Rebell on the way to +the ball, but in the matter of her return they had proved powerless. And +yet, now that he came to think of it, what right had they to interfere? +Who could be more delicately careful of Barbara than he would ever +be?--so Berwick, sitting there, feeling her dear nearness in each fibre +of his being, asked himself with indignation. He had made every +arrangement to prevent even the most harmless village gossip. Fools all +of them, and evil-minded, not to divine the respect, the high honour in +which he held the woman now by his side! But he meant to be with her +every moment that was possible, and 'ware those who tried to thwart this +wholly honourable intention! + +Thinking these thoughts, and for the moment well satisfied, he turned +his head and looked at Barbara Rebell. Her lips were smiling, and she +looked absorbed in some happy vision. The long night had left no trace +of fatigue on her flushed face and shining eyes. Berwick, with a pang of +mingled pain and pleasure, realised how much younger she was than +himself. + +"You must be tired. Would you like to go to sleep?" his voice shook with +tenderness, but he put a strong restraint on himself. He was bound by +every code of honour to treat her to-night as he would have done any +stranger confided by his sister to his care. + +Barbara started slightly, and shook her head. She had been living again +the last three hours of the ball. How delightful and how unexpected it +had all been! She had enjoyed intensely her long talk with the French +Ambassador. He also had spent his childhood, and part of his youth at +St. Germains, the stately forest town where the brighter days of her +parents' exile had been passed. It is well sometimes to meet with one +who can say, "I too have been in Arcadia." Even Monsieur Parisot's +little compliments on her good French had reminded Barbara of the sweet +hypocrisies which make life in France so agreeable to the humble-minded, +and especially to the very young. + +Lord Bosworth had surely been the magician, for it was after his arrival +that everything had changed from grey to rose-colour. It was then that +James Berwick had again become to her what he always was in manner, and +the uncle and nephew had vied with one another in amusing and +interesting her. And then had come this delightful conclusion, the drive +back in this fairy chariot! + +"This is a very pretty, curious little carriage," her eyes met his +frankly; "I feel like Cinderella going to, not coming back from, the +ball!" + +Berwick allowed himself to look his fill. The brougham was lined with +some sort of white watered silk, and never would Barbara have a kinder +background, or one which harmonised more exquisitely with her rather +pale, dark beauty. Women were then wearing their hair cut straight +across the forehead, and dressed in elaborate plaits about the nape of +the neck; Barbara's short curls seemed to ally her with a more refined, +a less sophisticated age,--one when innocence and archness were +compatible with instinctive dignity. + +And yet, such being the nature of man, Berwick would have been better +pleased had she not been now so completely, so happily at her ease. He +felt that between them there lay--not the drawn sword which played so +strange and symbolical a part in mediæval marriage by procuration--but a +sheaf of lilies. Berwick would have preferred the sword. + +His had been the mood which seeks an extreme of purity in the woman +beloved. Till now he had been glad to worship on his knees, and where +she walked had been holy ground. But now he craved for some of the +tenderness Barbara lavished on Madame Sampiero. Could she not even spare +him the warmth of feeling shown by her when speaking of Grace and Andrew +Johnstone? Since that last interview with Mrs. Marshall he had felt +free--free as he had not felt for over a year. Was he to have no profit +of his freedom? + +"It is you who look tired, Mr. Berwick; I'm afraid you stayed on for my +sake?" + +Barbara was looking at him with real concern. How unlike himself he had +been all that evening! Perhaps, when she had been stupidly annoyed at +his supposed neglect of her, he had really been suffering. His face +looked strained and thin in the bright light thrown by a cunning little +arrangement of mirrors. She felt a pang of fear. How would she be able +to bear it if he fell ill, away from her, in that large bare house which +seemed so little his home? + +It was well perhaps that Berwick could not see just then into her heart, +and yet it was still an ignorant and innocent heart. The youngest girl +present at the Halnakeham Castle ball could probably have taught Mrs. +Rebell more than she now knew of the ways of men--almost, it might be +said, of the ways of love. Her father had had the manhood crushed out of +him by his great misfortune. Barbara, as child and girl, had +reverenced--not the chill automaton, caring only for the English papers +and a little mild play, which Richard Rebell had become in middle +life,--but the attractive early image of him sedulously presented to her +by her mother. She had had no brothers to bring young people to the many +homes of her girlhood. Then, across her horizon, had come the baleful +figure of Pedro Rebell, but at no time, after her marriage, had she made +the mistake of regarding him as a normal man. No, her first real +knowledge of the average Englishman had been during those weeks of +convalescence, spent at the Government House of Santa Maria, when she +had been slowly struggling back into a wish to live. There she had +known, and had shrunk from the knowledge, that all those about her were +aware of what sort of life she had been compelled to lead on her +husband's plantation. Every step of Mr. Johnstone's negotiations with +Pedro Rebell was followed by her new friends with intense sympathy, and +when at last the planter had been half persuaded, half bribed into +signing a document binding him not to molest his wife, her only longing +had been to go away, and never to see any of the people connected with +the island again. + +What could Barbara Rebell know of men--of such men as James Berwick and +Oliver Boringdon? She dowered them with virtues and qualities, with +unselfish impulses and powers of self-restraint, which would have +brought a Galahad to shame. She knew enough of a certain side of life to +recognise and shrink from such coarseness as was not the saving grace of +Mrs. Turke. She realised that that type of mind must see evil in even +the most innocent tie between a man and a woman, but on such minds she +preferred not to dwell. She knew how close had been the affection +between her mother and Madame Sampiero. Why should not some such +feeling, close and yet sexless, link her to James Berwick, to whom she +had experienced,--so much she had perforce to acknowledge to herself,--a +curious, intimate attraction from the first time they had met? + +So it was that to-night she looked at him with concern, and spoke with a +new note of anxiety in her voice, "I should have been quite content to +go back with the Boringdons--I fear you stayed on for my sake." + +"But I should not have been at all content if you had gone back with the +Boringdons! Why should I not stay on for your sake?" he was smiling at +her. She looked at him rather puzzled. When they were alone, they two, +with no third influence between them, Barbara always felt completely +happy and at ease. His presence brought security. + +"Only if you were tired," she said rather lamely, and then again with +that new anxiety, "Old Mr. Daman said to someone before me, 'James +Berwick's looking rather fagged to-night'----" + +"Let us talk of you, not of me," he said rather hastily. Heavens! what +might she not have heard during this evening concerning him and his +affairs? He lowered for a moment the window to his right and looked out +into the starless moonless night, or rather early morning. + +"We are now on the brow of Whiteways. I wish it were daylight, for then +you would see the finest view in Sussex." + +"But I have seen the view. I was at the meet, and thanks to your +kindness, for I rode Saucebox. Mr. Berwick, I do not think I have ever +thanked you sufficiently for Saucebox!" + +He turned to her with a quick movement. "I do not think there should +ever be a question of thanks between you and me. We are--at least I hope +so--too good friends for that." And with a certain gravity he added, "Do +you not believe friendship possible between a man and woman?" He waited +a moment, then hurried on, "Listen! I offer you my friendship; I have +never done so, in the sense I do now, to any other woman. Shall I tell +you who has been my best, indeed my only, woman friend? only my sister, +only Arabella. I owe her more than one debt of very sincere gratitude. +You will not grudge her place in my--" again he hesitated,--"in my +heart." + +Barbara smiled tremulously. What a strange question to ask her! She felt +a little afraid of Miss Berwick, and yet how friendly and gracious had +been her manner to-night. + +"Tell me," he said urgently, "you do not mind my saying this to you? I +only wish to seal an existent compact. Ever since we met, have we not +been close friends, you and I? I take it we are both singularly placed," +he bent down and tried to look into her downcast eyes, "I am very +solitary, and you have only Madame Sampiero--is not that so?" + +Barbara bent her head. She felt that Berwick's low, ardent voice was +slowly opening the gates of paradise, and drawing her through into that +enchanted garden where every longing of the heart may be safely and +innocently satisfied. + +The carriage was going slowly down the steep hill leading from Whiteways +to Chillingworth, and Berwick knew that he would soon have to leave her. +His voice dropped to a lower key--he ventured, for a moment, to take her +ringless left hand and hold it tightly: "I ask but little--nothing you +do not think it right to give. But your friendship would mean much to +me--would protect me from evil impulses of which, thank God, you can +know nothing. Even to-night I suffered from misdeeds--to put it plainly, +from past sins I should not have been even tempted to commit had I known +you when I committed them." + +His words--his confession--moved Barbara to the soul. "I am your +friend," she spoke with a certain difficulty, and yet with solemnity. +She looked up, and he saw that her eyes were full of tears. + +The carriage stopped, and they both, or perhaps it was only Berwick, +came down again to the everyday world where friendship between a man and +a woman is regarded as so dangerous a thing by the prudent. + +"Good-night! Thank you for bringing me." He added a word or two as to +the carriage and the Priory stables--his coachman was a Chancton +man--and then he was gone, leaving Barbara to go on alone, happy, +content with life, as she had never thought it possible to be. + + * * * * * + +James Berwick, making his way quickly up the steep path leading from the +wall built round Chillingworth Park to the high plateau on which stood +the house, felt less content and very much less happy. Had he not been +rather too quixotic in this matter of leaving Barbara to go on her way +alone? Why should he not have prolonged those exquisite moments? What +harm could it have done had he given himself the pleasure of +accompanying his friend to the Priory, and then driving back to +Chillingworth by himself? Perhaps there had been something pusillanimous +in his fear of idle gossip. Oh! why had he behaved in this matter so +much better than there was any occasion to do? + +So our good deeds rise up and smite us, and seldom are we allowed the +consolation of knowing what alternative action on our part might have +brought about. + +Thus it was an ill-satisfied and restless man who let himself in by a +small side-door into the huge silent house. He had given orders that no +one should sit up, and in such a matter disobedience on the part of a +servant would have meant dismissal. Yet Berwick was an indulgent master, +and when he walked into the comparatively small room which he always +used when at Chillingworth, the only apartment in the house which in any +way betrayed its owner's tastes and idiosyncrasies, he became aware that +his comfort, or what it had been thought would be his comfort, had been +studied; for a tray, laden with food and various decanters of wines and +spirits, stood on a table, and the remains of what had been a large fire +still burned in the grate. + +He stifled an exclamation of disgust. How hot, how airless the room was! +He walked over to the high window, pulled back the curtains and threw it +open. It was still intensely dark, but along the horizon, above the +place where he knew the sea to be, was a shaft of dim light--perhaps the +first faint precursor of the dawn. Leaving the window open he came back +to the fireplace and flung himself down in a chair, and there came over +him a feeling of great depression and of peculiar loneliness. + +Soon his longing for Barbara's soothing intimate presence became +intolerably intense. For the first time since they had come to know one +another well, Berwick deliberately tried to analyse his feeling towards +her. He was not in love with Barbara Rebell--of that he assured himself +with a certain fierceness. He thought of what he had said to her +to-night. In a sense he had told her the exact truth. He had never +offered any other women the friendship he had asked her to accept. He +had always asked for less--or more--but then, looking back, he could +tell himself that there was no one woman who had ever roused in him the +peculiar sentiment that he felt for Mrs. Rebell. The feeling he now +experienced was more akin, though far deeper and tenderer in texture, to +the fleeting fancy he had had for that pretty _débutante_ whom Arabella +had so greatly feared. But, whereas he had borne the girl's defection, +when it had come, with easy philosophy, he knew that his relation to +Barbara was such that any defection there would rouse in him those +primeval instincts which lead every day to such sordid tragedies in that +class where the passion of love is often the only thing in life bringing +hope of release and forgetfulness from ignoble and material cares. + +Berwick had many faults, but personal vanity was not one of them. He +considered Oliver Boringdon more a man to attract women than he was +himself, and he had thought his friend lamentably backward in making use +of his opportunities. Now, the knowledge that Boringdon was daily in +Mrs. Rebell's company was distinctly disturbing. Was Barbara the type of +woman--Berwick knew there were many such--who make a cult of sentimental +friendships? Then he felt deeply ashamed of the thought, and in his +heart he begged her forgiveness. + +A Frenchman, once speaking to him of an acquaintance whose unhappy +passion for a celebrated beauty was being much discussed, had observed, +"Il l'a dans la peau! Dans ces cas-là il n'y a rien à faire!" He had +thought the expression curiously apt, and he remembered it to-night. +More than once during the last few days he had found himself planning +his immediate future entirely by the light, as it were, of Chancton +Priory. By every post he was refusing invitations, and avoiding coming +political engagements. But there was one great exception. Even while +speaking to Arabella at the ball, he had been wondering whether he could +persuade her to secure Mrs. Rebell's inclusion in a very small and +entirely political house-party in Scotland, the occasion of which was a +series of important political meetings, and to which both brother and +sister had been for some time pledged. It would be good to be away with +Barbara, among strangers, far from Chancton and from Chillingworth. + +Berwick hated Chillingworth. When there he felt himself to be the +unwelcome guest of the man who had built the huge place, and whose +personality it seemed to express and to perpetuate, as houses so often +do the personality of their builders. The creator of Chillingworth had +been an acute early Victorian manufacturer, a worthy man according to +his lights, and a pillar of the Manchester School. He had taken fortune +at the flood, and his late marriage to a woman of slightly better birth +and breeding than his own had produced the sickly, refined daughter whom +Berwick had married. + +Chillingworth seemed plastered with money. Every room bore evidence of +lavish expenditure; money spent on furniture, on pictures, on useless +ornaments, during a period of our history when beauty seemed wholly in +eclipse; and this was all the more pitiable because the house was +gloriously placed on a spur of the down, and the views from its windows +rivalled those of Chancton Priory. + +Even had Berwick wished to do so, he could not have made any serious +alterations to the place, for the trustees of his marriage settlement +were the very people, distant relatives of his wife's, whose children +would benefit were he to forfeit his life interest in her fortune. To +these people Chillingworth spelt perfection, and was a treasure-house of +beautiful, because costly, objects of art. Occasionally, perhaps once in +two years, its present owner would fill the great mansion for a few +weeks with men and women--political acquaintances and their wives--to +whom an invitation to James Berwick's Sussex estate gave pleasure, but +otherwise he was little there, and the neighbourhood had long since left +off wondering and exclaiming at his preference for Chancton Priory. + + * * * * * + +"If Miss Berwick sends over for a carriage, the French brougham which +was used last night is not to go." + +"Very good, Sir." And then, after a short pause, "Anything wrong with +the carriage, Sir?" + +"No. By the way, it may be required at Chancton. I have told Madame +Sampiero that she may have the use of it for the lady who is staying +there. Where's Dean?" + +Berwick, haggard-looking, and evidently in a mood which his servants +knew and dreaded, was looking sharply round the stable yard. If he, the +master, was up and about by nine o'clock, the morning after the +Halnakeham Castle ball, then surely his coachman could be the same. + +"Dean's in trouble, Sir. He will be sending to ask if you can spare him +to-day. Wife was taken ill last night, babby dead." + +The laconic words struck Berwick with a curious chill, and served to +rouse him from his self-absorption. He was fond of Dean. The man had +been with him for many years. They were the same age,--Berwick could +remember him as a stolid Chancton child--and he had only been married +about a year, after one of those long, faithful engagements common in +those parts. Heavens! If Dean felt for his wife a tenth of what he, +Berwick, felt for Barbara Rebell, what must not the man have gone +through that night--that early morning? + +Muttering some expression of concern, he turned and went off into the +house, there to consult with the housekeeper as to the sending of +practical relief to the stricken household, and to write a note telling +Dean he could be absent for as long as he wished. + + + + + CHAPTER XIV. + + "Men may have rounded Seraglio Point: they have not yet doubled + Cape Turk." + + GEORGE MEREDITH. + + +Miss Vipen's cottage was exactly opposite the Chancton Post Office. Even +in winter it was a pretty, cheerful-looking little house closely covered +with evergreen creepers, the path up to the porch guarded by four lemon +trees cut into fantastic shapes. + +From her sitting-room window, the old lady could see all that went on in +the main street of Chancton village, and take note of the coming and +going both of familiars and of strangers, thus providing herself with +the material whereby she wove the web of the destinies of those about +her. + +They who exist only to sow spite and malice should always live in the +country. A town finds them at a disadvantage, for there those about them +have too much to do to find more than a very passing amusement in their +conversation. But in a country neighbourhood, such a woman as Miss Vipen +is a godsend, partly because, in addition to being a centre of gossip, +she is often the source of authentic news. People tell her things they +would be ashamed to tell each other, and, with the strange lack of +imagination or excess of vanity which afflicts most of us in certain +circumstances, each member of the large circle formed about such a +woman, and with whom she is often actually popular, believes himself or +herself exempt from her biting tongue. + +Here, in Chancton, each and all admired Miss Vipen's easy kindness,--a +quality which so often accompanies evil speaking. Yet another thing was +accounted to her for righteousness. She never mentioned the mistress of +the Priory,--never spoke either good or evil of Madame Sampiero, of the +one human being who had for long years provided even the staid and +prudent with legitimate subjects of scandal and gossip. + +As a matter of fact, Miss Vipen owed her cottage, her income, her very +position in Chancton, to the mistress of the Priory. Her father had been +land-agent to Madame Sampiero's father. The two women had been girls +together, and when finally the arrangements had been made which provided +for Miss Vipen's later life and for what she cared for so much more, the +keeping up of her adequate position in the neighbourhood where she had +spent her whole existence, her old friend had said to her: "I only ask +one thing. I beg you, Martha, never to speak of me again, kindly or +unkindly, in love or in anger!"--and Miss Vipen had faithfully kept her +side of the bargain. + +Only two people in Chancton had the moral courage steadily to avoid her +dangerous company. The one was Doctor McKirdy, who, as a young man, and +when still a stranger to the place, had extracted from her a written +apology for something she had said of him which identified him too +closely for his taste with the physiologists who were then beginning to +be much discussed. The other was General Kemp. Making one day sudden +irruption into her sitting-room, he had overheard a remark made by her +concerning his own daughter and Captain Laxton; at once he had turned on +his heel, and, after giving his wife a short sketch of what would have +happened to Miss Vipen had she worn breeches instead of petticoats, he +had declared it to be his intention never willingly to meet her again. + +Malice, to be effective, however vulgar in its essence, should on the +whole be refined in its expression. There were certain people, notably +poor Mrs. Sampson, the rector's wife, to whom Miss Vipen felt she could +say anything, sure of a fascinated, even if a fearful, listener. With +others she was more careful, and to Mrs. Boringdon she had soon become a +valuable ally, and a precious source of information. + + * * * * * + +This was the woman from whose company and conversation Oliver Boringdon, +two days after the Halnakeham Castle ball, came straight down the +village street to Chancton Grange. He had been to see Miss Vipen on a +matter of business connected with a slight leakage in her roof, but the +hawk-eyed old lady, as was her wont, had in a very few moments planted +an envenomed dart in his mind and brain. + +Partly perhaps because he knew her to be so intensely disliked by Doctor +McKirdy, and partly because she was one of the very few people who never +tried to extract from him information concerning Madame Sampiero and the +Priory, Oliver actually liked Miss Vipen. She was an intelligent woman, +and her kindnesses to the village people were intelligent kindnesses. +She would lend books and papers to the sick and ailing, and more than +once he had come across traces of her good deeds among the poor of the +place,--men and women with whom she had life-long links of familiarity +and interest. She was aware that Boringdon liked her, and she took +trouble to keep his good opinion. So it was that to-day her few +remarks--said more, or so it seemed, in pity than in anger, had been +carefully chosen--and only amounted to the regrettable fact that James +Berwick's frequent visits to the Priory, and the long hours he was said +to spend alone with Mrs. Rebell, were causing unpleasant remark both in +the village and in the neighbourhood. + +Boringdon had listened in absolute silence, then, taking up his hat and +stick, had gone, leaving his hostess rather uncomfortable. But Miss +Vipen's words had met with unquestioning belief, and they had made her +listener's smouldering jealousy and unhappiness--for in these days +Oliver was very jealous and wretchedly unhappy--burst into flame. + +Since the ball the young man had seen practically nothing of Barbara, +although she had been present at each of his daily interviews with +Madame Sampiero; and when one day, late in the afternoon, he had gone +contrary to his custom, to the Priory, the admirably trained McGregor +had informed him that Mrs. Rebell was "not at home," although Boringdon +had seen her shadow and that of Berwick cast on the blind of the blue +drawing-room. + +James Berwick's attitude towards women had always been inexplicable to +Oliver, for he was entirely out of sympathy with his friend's interest +in Woman _qua_ Woman. In no circumstances would the younger man have +been capable of imagining the peculiar relationship which had sprung up +between these two people, to each of whom--and it was an aggravating +circumstance--he felt himself bound by so close a tie. + +During the last two days his jealousy and suspicion of Berwick's motives +had almost prompted him to say something to Mrs. Rebell, but there was +that in Barbara which made it very difficult to approach such a subject +with her. Also, even if lacking in a sense of humour, Boringdon was yet +dimly aware that she might well retort with a _tu quoque_ argument which +he would find it difficult to meet. For there had been one fortnight in +which, looking back, he was obliged to admit to himself that he had +spent far more time in Mrs. Rebell's company than he could accuse +Berwick of now doing. He and she had walked together, ridden together, +and talked together of everything under heaven and earth. Even--fool +that he had been--he had told her much of Berwick, and all to that +dangerous sentimentalist's advantage. + +Then there had come a sudden change over his own and Mrs. Rebell's +pleasant and profitable relationship. Saucebox had kicked herself in the +stable, and had gone back, in disgrace, to Chillingworth, so the rides +had perforce come to an end. Little by little, or so it now seemed to +Oliver, he had been shepherded into only going over to the Priory in the +morning--made to feel that at other times he was not welcome. + +The young man remembered well the first time he had come over to the +Priory to find Berwick installed, almost as master, in the great hall, +and Barbara listening to this new acquaintance as she had hitherto only +listened to him, to Boringdon himself. And yet what was there to be +done? Madame Sampiero's attitude filled him with indignation; surely it +was her duty to save her god-daughter from the snares of such a fowler +as she must know Berwick to be? + +Boringdon had long been aware of the type of feminine companionship his +friend was always seeking, and dimly he understood that hitherto the +pursuit had been unavailing. But now?--Mrs. Rebell, so Boringdon, with +something like agony, acknowledged to himself, fulfilled all the +conditions of Berwick's ideal; and a nobler, more unselfish feeling than +mere personal instinct stirred him to revolt, while he was also swayed +by an anger born of keen jealousy, dignified by him with a hundred +names, of which the most comfortable to his self-esteem and conscience +was care for Mrs. Rebell's reputation. + +At certain moments he reminded himself how much Berwick had been at the +Priory before Mrs. Rebell's arrival, but even so, such a man's constant +presence there was terribly dangerous! Some kind, wholly disinterested +woman must tell Barbara that in England Berwick's conduct would surely +compromise her, whatever might be the case at Santa Maria or on the +Continent. + + * * * * * + +Casting about in his mind, Boringdon could think of but one person in +the neighbourhood who was fitted to undertake so delicate a task, and +who would, so he told himself, understand his own personal share in the +matter; this person was Mrs. Kemp. To the Grange he accordingly made his +way, after having listened in silence to Miss Vipen's softly uttered +remarks. + +From the first fortune favoured him, for Mrs. Kemp was alone. The +General and Lucy were gone to Halnakeham for the afternoon; and +Boringdon, coming in out of the late November air full of suppressed +excitement and ill at ease, felt soothed by the look of warmth and +comfort with which Lucy's mother always managed to surround herself. + +To Oliver's own mother, to Mrs. Boringdon, an appearance of comfort, +even of luxury, was all-important when guests were expected at Chancton +Cottage. Then everything was suitably lavish, and even luxurious. But +when the young man and his mother were alone, fires were allowed to burn +low, the food, poor in quality, was also limited as to quantity, and it +was well for Oliver that he cared as little as on the whole he did for +creature comforts. In Mrs. Boringdon's mind the page boy was set against +the sweets at luncheon and the cakes at tea which Oliver would have +enjoyed, but then in the country a man-servant was essential--an +essential portion of her own and her son's dignity. + +It was now four o'clock. At home Boringdon would have had to wait +another hour for tea, and so would any passing guest who could be +regarded as an intimate friend, but here, at the Grange, it appeared as +if by magic a few minutes after the visitor had sat down opposite Mrs. +Kemp, and Oliver soon felt heartened up to approach what even he felt to +be a rather difficult subject. + +The kind woman whose aid he was about to invoke made it easy for him to +begin, for she was very cordial; thanks to Boringdon, Lucy had +thoroughly enjoyed the ball at Halnakeham Castle, and the mother felt +grateful for even this small mercy. During the last two days she had +reminded herself more than once that affairs of the heart, when not +interfered with unduly, have an odd way of coming right. + +"I need not ask," he said, rather awkwardly, "if Lucy is no worse for +the ball." + +Mrs. Kemp was not sure whether she liked to hear Boringdon call her +daughter Lucy; he had only begun doing so lately, and she had not +thought it necessary to mention it to the General. There was still a +certain coolness between Oliver and Lucy's father--they avoided each +other's company. + +He went on without waiting for an answer: "Mrs. Rebell seems to have +found it a trying experience, and yet she did not dance at all. I went +to the Priory this morning, and she was too tired to come down." + +"But then she came back so much later than you all did. I understand +that she stayed on with the Fletchings party, and I heard some of their +carriages going through the village at four o'clock in the morning!" + +Boringdon looked at her with quick suspicion. He had just learnt from +Miss Vipen of Berwick's solitary drive with Mrs. Rebell. But the remark +Mrs. Kemp had just made was wholly innocent in intention; she never +dealt in innuendoes. + +"I wish," he said, impulsively, "that you would get to know Mrs. Rebell! +Everyone else in the neighbourhood has called on her; have you any +reason for not doing so?" + +She hesitated, then said slowly, "No. No real reason, except, of course, +that we have never received, during all the years we have been here, any +mark of attention or civility from Madame Sampiero, whose tenants after +all we are. Also I fancied, from something that Doctor McKirdy said, +that Mrs. Rebell did not wish to make many acquaintances in the +neighbourhood." + +"It's a great pity, for she must feel very lonely, and I'm sure it would +be much to her to have such friends as yourself, and as--as Lucy." + +The mother's heart hardened; Mrs. Kemp was no gossip, but she knew how +much time Oliver had spent at the Priory during the fortnight Mrs. +Boringdon had been away. + +"Yes, she must be rather lonely," and then she could not help adding, +"but you are a great deal over there, are you not?" + +His answer made her feel ashamed of what she had said. "I am over there +most days, but she cannot make a companion, a friend, of a man, as she +could of you or of Lucy." Now surely was his opportunity for saying what +he had come to say, but he found the task he had set himself demanded a +bluntness, a crudity of speech, that was almost intolerable to him. + +"Mrs. Kemp, may I speak frankly to you?" + +There was a strong note of appeal in the speaker's voice. Mrs. Kemp gave +him a quick, anxious look, and took her knitting off the table. +"Certainly, frankness is always best," she said, then wondered with +beating heart what he was about to tell her. She had felt, during the +last few minutes, that Boringdon was only marking time. He was once more +on his old terms of friendship with Lucy, indeed, the girl had lunched +at Chancton Cottage that very day. But his next words shattered Mrs. +Kemp's dream, and that most rudely. + +"I want you to call on Mrs. Rebell," he was saying in a low eager tone, +"and to come really to know her, because--well, because I fear she is in +some danger. It isn't a matter one wants to discuss, but James Berwick +is constantly at the Priory, and his visits there are already being +talked about in the neighbourhood. She is, as you know, a friend of my +sister, and I feel a certain responsibility in the matter. Someone ought +to put her on her guard." + +Mrs. Kemp put down her work and looked at him with a steady, +disconcerting look of surprise. He no longer felt sure, as he had done a +moment ago, of her sympathy, but he met her glance with a dogged +courage. He cared so little what she thought; the great point was to +enlist her help. Boringdon had known her do really quixotic things with +reference to certain village matters and scandals--and always with +healing results. + +It is fortunate that we cannot see into each other's minds. What would +Oliver have felt had he become aware of the feeling, half of dislike, +half of pity, with which he was being regarded at that moment by the +woman to whom he had made his appeal? Mrs. Kemp withdrew her eyes from +his face; it was possible,--just possible,--that it was as he said, and +that he was animated by worthy and impersonal motives. Berwick was not a +man with an absolutely good reputation as regarded women; his position, +too, was a singular one,--of so much even Mrs. Kemp was aware. + +"As you have spoken frankly to me, so will I speak frankly to you," she +said. "I have never known any good come from interfering,--or rather I +have never known any good come from speaking, in such a case, to the +woman. The person to reach is Mr. Berwick. If he is indeed compromising +Mrs. Rebell, he is doing a very wrong and treacherous thing, not only to +her, but to Madame Sampiero, who has always been, so I understand, +especially kind to him. Still, you must remember that, long before this +lady came here, he was constantly at the Priory. Also, may I say that, +if your information as to the gossip about them comes from Miss Vipen, +its source is tainted? I never believe a word she says about anything or +anybody!" + +"Miss Vipen did certainly say something--she had heard----" + +"What had she heard?" + +"That Berwick drove back with her"--Mrs. Kemp noticed the use of the +pronoun--"alone, the night of the ball, and that they sat up, talking, +till morning, in the hall of the Priory. No wonder Mrs. Rebell still +feels tired!" The speaker had gone grey in the lamplight. + +"Well, that story is false, vilely false! I do not know how, or with +whom, Mrs. Rebell came home; but by an odd chance I do happen to know +that Mr. Berwick went straight from Halnakeham to Chillingworth, and +that he was there in the morning. His coachman's wife, who is staying +here in Chancton with her parents, was taken ill that night. I was there +by six the next morning--perhaps you know that the poor baby died--and +the man told me that he had driven his master home, and that he would +send him over a message asking leave to stay with his wife. Mr. Berwick +is a very good master, they seem all devoted to him----" Then, struck by +his look, "Surely you believe me? Do you put Miss Vipen's piece of +spiteful gossip against what I tell you?" + +Boringdon hesitated. "I don't know what to believe," he said. "James +Berwick, when conducting an intrigue, is capable of--of----" + +"If you think so ill of Mrs. Rebell as that----!" + +"But I don't!" he cried hastily, "indeed I don't! It is Berwick, only +Berwick, that I blame in this matter. I think Mrs. Rebell is wholly +innocent! I feel for her the greatest respect! She is incapable, I feel +sure, of a wrong thought,"--he spoke with growing agitation. "But think +of the whole circumstances--of Madame Sampiero's past life, of Mrs. +Rebell's present position! Can you wonder that I feel sure your +friendship, even your countenance, might make a great difference? But +pray,"--he got up, and looked at Mrs. Kemp very earnestly,--"pray do not +suppose I think ill of Mrs. Rebell! Were it so, should I suggest that +you--that Lucy--should make a friend of her?" and wringing her hand he +left the room, eager to escape before the return of General Kemp and his +daughter. + + * * * * * + +There are times when the presence of even the best-loved and most +trusted grown-up son or daughter could be well spared by father and +mother. Mrs. Kemp, during the evening which followed Oliver's afternoon +call, thought constantly of the conversation she had held with him, and +she longed to tell her husband what had passed. Men were such strange, +such inexplicable beings! Doubtless Tom would be able to reassure her as +to Oliver Boringdon's interest in this Mrs. Rebell, whose charm had won +over Lucy too, for the girl spoke with enthusiasm of the beauty and of +the kindness of Madame Sampiero's god-daughter. But nothing could be +said in the presence of Lucy, who had regained, during the last day or +two, her old lightness of heart and manner, and who showed no wish to go +early to bed. + +At last Mrs. Kemp went up alone, and when, an hour later, the General +followed her, and she had the longed-for opportunity of telling her +tale, her listener proved most irritatingly quiescent. He went in and +out of his dressing-room, saying "Yes," and "That's it, is it?" at +suitable intervals. Still, when she stopped speaking, he would suddenly +appear in some leisurely state of _déshabillé_ and his wife would feel +encouraged, to go on, and even to ask for his opinion and advice. + +"And now, Tom, what do you _really_ think of the whole matter?" + +General Kemp came and stood before the fire. He wore his +dressing-gown,--a sure sign that he was ready for discussion, if +discussion should prove necessary. + +"Well, Mary, what I _really_ think can be put in a very few words." He +advanced till he stood at the foot of the large four-poster, and, with a +twinkle in his eye, declaimed the lines:-- + + "'And it was you, my _Berwick_, you! + The friend in whom my soul confided! + Who dared to gaze on her--to do, + I may say, much the same as I did!'" + +"Oh! Tom, you should not make fun of such a serious matter," but Mrs. +Kemp could not help smiling--the lines were indeed apt. + +"Well, my dear, what else is there to say? I can't say I should be sorry +if Boringdon were to burn his wings a bit! I hate your fellow who is +always trying to set the world straight. To take his information from +Miss Vipen too--!" The General had also heard of Oliver's renewed +interest in the Priory, and his wife's talk had not surprised him quite +as much as she, in the innocence of her heart, expected it to do. +"Berwick, from what you tell me, and from what I hear," he added in a +low voice, "knows what he's after, and that's more than your friend +Boringdon seems to do! I hate a man who goes dangling after a woman for +her good; that's what he told you, I take it?" + +"Well, something rather like it; but I think better of him than you do, +Tom." + +"They generally get caught at last." General Kemp gave a quick, short +sigh: "and then comes--unless the chap's as clever as Boringdon +doubtless means to be--pretty heavy punishment, eh, Mary?" + +And he went off back into his dressing-room, and Mrs. Kemp, turning on +her side, wet her pillow with sudden bitter tears. + + * * * * * + +Some days later Lucy and her mother called at the Priory, only to be +informed that Mrs. Rebell was at Fletchings, staying there as the guest +of Lord Bosworth and Miss Berwick till the following Saturday. This +then,--so thought Mrs. Kemp with a quick revulsion of feeling,--was why +Boringdon now found time hang so heavy on his hands, and why he had +been, of late, so often at the Grange. Life, even at Chancton, was full +of inexplicable cross currents,--of deep pools and eddies more likely to +bring shipwreck than safe haven to the creature whom she loved so +dearly, and for whom she felt that responsibility which only mothers +know. + + + + + CHAPTER XV. + + "But as we walked we turned aside + Into a narrow tortuous lane + Where baffling paths the roads divide + And jealous brambles prick to pain: + Then first I saw, with quick surprise, + The strange new look in friendship's eyes. + + "And now, in one stupendous dream, + We wander through the purple glades, + Which love has tinted with the gleam + Of wonderful, enchanting shades: + But I--would give it all away + For those dear hours of friendship's day." + + ELEANOR ESHER. + + +Mrs. Rebell had now been at Fletchings five days. It was Saturday +night--in three days more she would be back at Chancton. + +Standing before her dressing-table, she found herself counting the last +hours of a holiday which had proved more enchanting than she had thought +possible. How sorry she would be to leave the curious pretty room in +which she found herself! This room, and that next door now turned into a +dressing-room, had been fitted up when the wonders of China were first +becoming known to the Western world. It was instinct with the strange +charm so often found in those old English country houses where +Christendom and Goblindom fight for mastery. + +The greatest poet of his time had spent at Fletchings the honeymoon +which formed a beginning to the most disastrous of marriage tragedies; +and Septimus Daman, now Barbara's fellow guest, had managed to convey to +her his belief that the rooms which she now occupied had been those set +aside for the hapless pair. Was it here, so Barbara wondered--here, or +perhaps sitting at the lacquer table in the dressing-room--that the +bride had written the formal, yet wholly contented, letter to her +parents, with its concluding sentence: "I cannot tell you any more for +Lord Byron is looking over my shoulder!"--playful, intimate words, +written by the proud, headstrong girl who was to lead a later life of +such harsh bitterness. + +Barbara felt a vague retrospective pity for the long-dead writer of +these words. How far superior is friendship to what people call love! +Every day she was proving the truth of this, her own, and--yes, her +friend's--discovery. + +After those five perfect days, it seemed strange to remember that she +had wondered if she were acting rightly in accepting Miss Berwick's +invitation. There had not been much time for thought. The note had come +only two days after the ball at Halnakeham Castle, and, as she held it +in her hand, before telling any of those about her of its contents, +there had swept over Barbara Rebell a foreboding memory. Was she about +to expose herself to a repetition of what she had gone through during +those first hours at the ball? Was she to see Berwick avoiding her +company,--gazing at her, when he looked her way, with alien eyes? + +But then Berwick himself had come, full of eagerness, and with his +abrupt first words--"Has Arabella written? That's right!--I think you +will like it. My uncle wants me to be over there in order to see +something of Daniel O'Flaherty, and we are also to have old Septimus +Daman; he always spends part of November at Fletchings"--her fears, her +scruples had vanished. + +Just before leaving the Priory, Barbara's heart had again misgiven her. +Madame Sampiero, looking at her with the wide-open, dark-blue eyes which +could express so many shades of feeling, had murmured, "Do not be too +long away, child. Remember what befell the poor Beast when Beauty stayed +away too long!" How could she have had the heart to write, on the second +day of her visit, "They want me to stay on till Tuesday"? + +And now it was Saturday night. In a few days she would again take up the +life which till so very lately had seemed to fulfil each aspiration, to +content every longing of her heart. Now, she found herself dreading her +god-mother's glances of uneasy, questioning tenderness; Mrs. Turke's +eager interest in Berwick's comings and goings; most of all, and for +reasons of which her mind avoided the analysis, Barbara shrank from the +return to the long mornings--they had become very long of late--spent by +Boringdon at the Priory. + +In contrast to all that awaited Mrs. Rebell at Chancton, how happy these +few days at Fletchings had been! With the possible exception of Daniel +O'Flaherty--and, after all, both he and Arabella knew better--the six +people gathered there under Lord Bosworth's roof, were linked in close +bonds of old and new friendship, of old and new association. + +Barbara could tell herself in all honesty that she did not seem to see +very much of James Berwick, and yet, in truth, they were much together, +he encompassing her with a depth of voiceless tenderness, and a devotion +so unobtrusive that it seemed to lack every gross element of self. Then +again, her host had been especially kind. To Lord Bosworth she had been +"Barbara" from the first, and during that week he had talked much to her +of that wide world in which he himself had played so noted and agreeable +a part; of her own parents as they had been during the unshadowed years +of their life; of present politics which he had soon discovered +interested her in a singular degree. One day he had exclaimed--and had +been surprised to see the vivid blush his words called forth--"Why, we +shall make a politician of you yet!" During those days, however,--and +the omission pained her,--Lord Bosworth made no allusion to Madame +Sampiero. + +Perhaps, of all those at Fletchings, the most contented of the party was +Septimus Daman. Because he seemed to each of the others the odd man out, +they were all particularly kind to him, and eager that he should not +feel himself neglected. The old man did not, however, burden his +fellow-guests with much on his company, for he was busily engaged in +writing his recollections, and he rarely made his appearance downstairs +before the afternoon. + + * * * * * + +To-day, quite suddenly and for no apparent reason, Berwick's mood had +changed. Arabella was the first to become aware of it; she knew of old +the danger signals. The day had been spent by him and by O'Flaherty at +Laxgrove, where Squire Laxton was as proud of his coverts as of his +hounds. The two men came in wet and tired, and Berwick, after a long +fruitless search for his sister and Mrs. Rebell, at last found them +sitting together where Arabella so seldom entertained a guest--in the +powder closet. + +"I have been looking for you everywhere!" he exclaimed. "Daman is +wandering about downstairs, evidently afraid to pour himself out a cup +of tea and O'Flaherty has disappeared,--tealess,--to his room!" + +While he was speaking, gazing at his sister and her friend with an +accusing glance, Barbara went out, and for a moment the other two stayed +on alone together. + +Arabella rose and faced her brother. Her own nerves were not wholly +under control. Neither her conscience nor her heart was really at ease. + +"I don't know, James, and I don't inquire, what your relations to Mrs. +Rebell may be! But this I do know--you will not advance your friendship +with her by being savage to me. Besides, it is so absurd! However +delightful she finds your company, she may yet prefer to be occasionally +with me. I have been doing--I am doing--all I can for you." + +"What do you mean?" + +Berwick's steady, angry gaze disconcerted his sister, but she was +mentally adroit, and determined not to fear him in his present mood. + +"You know best what I ought to mean!" she cried. "You apparently take +pleasure in Mrs. Rebell's company, and it was to please you that I asked +her to come here. I mean nothing else. But I should like to add that, +now I know her, I have grown to like, and even to respect her." +Berwick's face softened, but again he looked at her in the way she +dreaded as she added, "I do not think you should act so as to make those +about you aware that you so greatly prefer her company to that of our +other guests. I am sure Mr. O'Flaherty has noticed it. Perhaps I ought +to add that I am speaking entirely for her sake." + + * * * * * + +On leaving Miss Berwick and her brother, Mrs. Rebell went up to her +room. There she sat down and fulfilled a neglected duty,--the writing of +a long letter to Grace Johnstone. She did not find the task an easy one. +She knew that her friend would expect to be told much of the occupants +of Chancton Cottage, and especially of Oliver. The writer was well aware +how letters were treasured at Santa Maria, and, till the last fortnight +she had written to the woman who had been so good a friend to her by +every mail. Suddenly she bethought herself of the ball. Why, here was a +subject all ready to her pen! But Barbara was no polite letter-writer, +and she found the description difficult; especially did her references +to Oliver and to his mother seem hypocritical. During those hours at +Halnakeham Castle she had been scarcely aware of the young man's +existence, while Mrs. Boringdon she actually disliked. + +One reason why Barbara had been glad to come to Fletchings had been that +it meant escape from Boringdon's constant presence at the Priory, and +the daily morning walk with him to the home farm. She had come to resent +Oliver's assumption of--was it brotherly?--interest in what she did and +left undone. The thought that in three days she would again be subject +to his well-meant criticism and eager, intimate advice certainly added +another and a curiously acute touch of discomfort to her return to +Chancton. + + * * * * * + +For the first time since Mrs. Rebell's stay at Fletchings, dinner, +served in a blue and white octagon room which seemed to have been +designed to serve as background to Miss Berwick's fair, delicate type of +beauty, passed almost silently and rather dully. Berwick and O'Flaherty, +tired after their long day in the open air, scarcely spoke; Mr. Daman +alone seemed entirely at ease, and he babbled away happily, trying to +extract material for his recollections from Lord Bosworth's better +garnished memory. + +And so it was with a sense of relief that Barbara followed her hostess +out of the room. During the last few days the two women had become, in a +sense, intimate. Each liked the other better than either would have +thought possible a week before. They had one subject in common of which +neither ever tired, and yet how surprised they both would have been to +learn how constantly their talk drifted to the political past, the +uneventful present, the brilliant nebulous future, of James Berwick! + +Arabella led the way up to the music gallery, and there, very soon, the +two younger men joined them. + +Miss Berwick was sitting at an inlaid spinet, playing an old-fashioned, +jingling selection of Irish melodies, and O'Flaherty, taking up his +stand by the fire-place, was able to look down at the player without +seeming to do so. + +Listening to the woman he had loved making music for him, Daniel +O'Flaherty's mind went back, setting out on a sentimental excursion, +dolorous as such are apt to be, into the past. No other woman's lips had +touched his since their last interview, thirteen years before; and yet, +standing there, his arm on the mantel-piece, his right hand concealing +his large rather stern mouth, he told himself that his love for Arabella +Berwick had burned itself out, and that he could now look at her quite +dispassionately. + +Still, love may go, and interest,--even a certain kind of +sentiment,--may remain. What else had brought him to Fletchings? Above +all, what else had made him stay on there, as he was now doing? +O'Flaherty still felt an odd closeness of heart,--aye, even of body,-- + +Miss Berwick, to this woman whom others found so unapproachable. The +years which had gone by, the long separation, had not made them +strangers. After she had left him, as he thought so cruelly, he had made +up his mind to put away all thought of her. He had believed it certain +that she would marry--indeed, during that last interview she had told +him that she intended to do so--and thinking of this, to a man so +callous and incredible a statement, his heart had hardened, not only to +her, but in a sense to all women. + +Then time had gone on, and Lord Bosworth's niece had remained +unmarried--wholly devoted, so said rumour, to her brother, but living +with her uncle instead of with James Berwick because of her filial +affection and gratitude to the older man. That O'Flaherty had known not +to be true, for no special tie bound Arabella to her uncle. The +arrangement was probably one of convenience on either side. + +And now, during these last few days? O'Flaherty acknowledged that Miss +Berwick's manner to him had been perfect--courteous and kind, nay, even +deferential, and then sometimes a look, a word, would subtly acknowledge +his claim on her special attention, while putting forward none of her +own. How could he help being flattered? From where he now sat, he could +see, without seeming to observe too closely, the delicate, cameo-like +profile, the masses of flaxen hair, less bright in tint than when he had +first admired what was still Arabella's greatest beauty. + +The barrister was under no illusion as to why he had received this +invitation to Lord Bosworth's country house. His present host, and of +course his hostess, wished him not merely to be on James Berwick's side +in the coming political struggle, for that he was already, but to ally +himself in a special sense with this future Cabinet-Minister, and to +join the inner circle of his friends and supporters. Neither of them yet +understood that in politics all O'Flaherty cared for supremely was his +own country, in spite of the fact that he had always sat for an English +constituency, and had never identified himself, in any direct sense, +with the Irish party. Whatever his future relations to Miss Berwick +might be, his attitude to her brother must be influenced by Berwick's +attitude to Ireland and Irish affairs. Perhaps it would be more honest, +so he told himself to-night, to let Arabella know this fact, for during +the last few days he had avoided any political discussion with his host +or his hostess. + +Daniel O'Flaherty had watched James Berwick's career with painful +interest. During his brief, passionate intimacy with the sister, the +young Irishman had disliked the brother intensely. He had despised him +for squandering,--as for a while Berwick had seemed to do,--his many +brilliant gifts. Perhaps O'Flaherty had also been jealous of those +advantages which came to the younger man by the mere fact of his name, +and of his relationship to Lord Bosworth. + +Then, with the passing of years, the barrister had become, as the +successful are apt to do, more indulgent, perhaps more understanding, in +his view of the other's character and ambitions. Also nothing succeeds +like success, and James Berwick had himself by no means lagged behind. +To O'Flaherty there had been nothing untoward in Berwick's marriage. He +had regarded it as one of those strokes of amazing luck which seem to +pursue certain men; and though a trifling circumstance had made the +barrister vividly aware of the young politician's conditional tenure of +his dead wife's fortune, the man who had fought his way to eminence +naturally regarded the other as belonging to that class which seems in +this country sufficiently wealthy, with the garnered wealth of the past, +to consider the possession of a larger or of a lesser income as of +comparatively small account. + +Daniel O'Flaherty was an Irishman, a lonely man, and a Roman +Catholic--thus traditionally interested in romance. And so, during these +days at Fletchings, he had become aware, almost in spite of himself, of +Berwick's evident attraction to Mrs. Rebell--to the gentle, intelligent +woman whom he, O'Flaherty, naturally regarded as Arabella's widowed +friend. It amused him to see the course of true love running smooth. +What amazing good fortune seemed to pursue James Berwick! + +True, the shrewder half of O'Flaherty's mind warned him that Miss +Berwick's action in deliberately throwing her brother with so charming a +woman as Barbara was an odd, an almost unaccountable move on her part. +But there was no getting over the fact that she was doing this, and most +deliberately. + +Well, all that money could do for Berwick had surely been accomplished. +The barrister, watching the two--this man and woman wandering in a +paradise of their own making--felt that Berwick was indeed to be envied, +even if he was on the eve of forfeiting the huge income which had for so +many years given him an almost unfair prestige and power among his +fellows. Still, now and again,--to-night for instance, when he became +aware that Berwick and Mrs. Rebell had retreated together to the further +end of the long, bare room,--he wondered if Arabella was acting +sentiently, if she really wished her brother to marry again. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Rebell and the man she called her friend stood together, half +concealed by the organ which gave the gallery its name. They were +practically alone, for the long room was only lighted by the candles +which threw a wavering light on Arabella's music-book. For the first +time since she had arrived at Fletchings, Barbara felt ill at ease with +her companion. Twice during dinner she had looked up and seen Berwick's +eyes fixed on her, or so she thought, coldly and accusingly. What had +she done? For what must she ask forgiveness? + +"Where were you before dinner?" he said at last, in a low +voice. "I looked for you everywhere. I found you, and then you +disappeared--utterly! We were close to the Priory to-day, and I went in +for a moment, thinking you would like to have news of Madame Sampiero. +By the way, McGregor gave me some letters for you." + +He put two envelopes down on the ledge of a prie-dieu behind which +Barbara was standing, and which formed a slight barrier between them. +She took the letters in her hand, and then, partly because of the dim +light, put them back again on the prie-dieu. One note, unstamped, was +from Oliver Boringdon,--she knew the handwriting, and so did Berwick. +Barbara was to have gone back to-day; doubtless this note concerned +some village matter which the writer was unwilling to mention to +Doctor McKirdy. The other envelope bore the peculiar blue West Indian +stamp. Why had not McGregor kept these letters till Tuesday? For the +moment Barbara wanted to forget Boringdon and his rather morbid +susceptibilities--to forget, till her next letter to the Johnstones, +Santa Maria. + +"Won't you read your letters?" Berwick was looking straight across at +her with a singular expression--was it of appeal or of command?--in his +eyes. + +"Why should I--now?" But a moment later she changed her mind, "Yes, of +course I will; Mr. Boringdon may have sent some message to my god-mother +which ought to be seen to at once----" She opened the note, glanced +through it, then put it down on the ledge of the prie-dieu. + +Berwick had turned away while she read Boringdon's note, but now he was +again staring at her with those strange, appealing eyes which seemed to +shine in the dim light. + +Reluctantly, as if in spite of herself, Barbara stretched out her hand +and took up the other letter. Yes, it was, as she thought, from Andrew +Johnstone--a bare word of kindly acknowledgment for the return of the +fifty pounds which he had lent her. + +She looked round, still holding the letter in her hand, but they were +far from the fire-- + +Berwick's face became set. Ah! no, that should not be. + +"Mrs. Rebell--?" + +He had not called her so, to herself, since the drive back from +Halnakeham Castle, and she had not noticed his avoidance of her name; +but now, the formal mode of address fell strangely on her ears. + +"Yes?" + +"May I read these two letters?" He added, almost inaudibly, "You cannot +think more ill of me than I do of myself." + +Barbara suddenly felt as if she were taking part in an unreal scene, a +dream colloquy, and yet she knew this was no dream. What had happened, +what evil magic had so transformed her friend? That maternal instinct +which slumbers lightly in the depths of every woman's heart, woke into +life; she did not stay to diagnose the disease of which this strange +request was a symptom: "Do read them," she said, and tried to speak +indifferently, "I do not think ill of you--far from it, as Doctor +McKirdy would say." + +She put Johnstone's letter down by the other, but Berwick left them +lying there; he still looked at her with a probing, suspicious look, and +she began to be desperately afraid. At Santa Maria she had once met a +miserable white man, the overseer of a neighbouring plantation, who was +said to have suddenly gone "fantee"--so had that man looked at her, as +Berwick was doing now, dumbly. Was this what he had meant when he had +spoken to her in the carriage of ungovernable impulses--of actions of +which he had afterwards felt bitterly ashamed? + +Very slowly, still looking at her, he at last took up the two letters. +Then, with a sudden movement, and without having looked at it, he put +Boringdon's back on the ledge of the prie-dieu. "No," he said roughly, +"not that one--I do not think he ought to write to you, but no matter!" +Barbara felt herself trembling. She was beginning to understand. +Berwick's hands fingered nervously the West Indian letter; at last he +held it out to her, still folded, in his hand. "Here it is--take it--I +won't read it!" + +"Oh! but do," she said. "It is from Mr. Johnstone, saying that he has +received the money you so kindly arranged to send back for me." + +But Barbara's words came too late. + +"Mr. Johnstone?" Berwick repeated the name, then laughed harshly. "Fool +that I was not to think of him! But all to-day, since McGregor gave me +that letter, I have been in hell. Of course you know what I +believed"--Barbara's lips quivered, and her look of suffering ought to +have disarmed the man who was staring at her so insistently, but he +was still possessed by a jealous devil. "Tell me"--and, leaning over +the prie-dieu, he grasped her hands--"We may as well have it out now. +Do you hear from him--from your husband, I mean? Do you write to +him--sometimes?" + +She shook her head, and Berwick, at last free to see the agony and +surrender in the face into which he was looking down, and to which he +suddenly felt his lips so near, was swept by an irresistible rush and +mingling of feelings--remorse and fierce relief, shame and exultant joy. + +"I think we ought to go downstairs,"--Arabella's clear voice broke into +and echoed through the silent room. + +Berwick straightened himself slowly. Before releasing Barbara's hands he +kissed first one and then the other. As he did so, passion seemed to +melt into tenderness. How fragile, how childish he had thought the +fingers resting on his arm that first evening of their acquaintance! He +remembered also the fluttering, the trembling of her ringless left hand +when for a moment he had covered it with his own during that drive from +Halnakeham to Chillingworth, when he had made so much--or was it so +little?--of his opportunity. + +The two walked down the gallery, towards O'Flaherty, who was still +standing by the wood fire, and Arabella, who was putting out the candles +with the rather disdainful thoroughness and care she gave to small +household matters. Lord Bosworth's servants were old, like himself, and +grew unmindful of their duties. + +Berwick suddenly left Mrs. Rebell's side, but not till he had reached +the door did he turn round and say, "I am not coming down, for I have +work to do, so good-night!" A moment after, he was gone, with no more +formal leave-taking. + + * * * * * + +That night Barbara cried herself to sleep, but to her tears brought no +relief--rather an added shame for the weakness which made them flow so +bitterly. She felt overwhelmed by a great calamity--face to face with a +situation out of which she must herself, unaided, find an issue. + +She had asked so little of the shattered broken life which remained to +her--only quietude and the placid enjoyment of a friendship which had +come to her unsought, and in which there could be no danger, whatever +Madame Sampiero or Mrs. Turke might think. Did not the feeling which +bound her to James Berwick enjoy the tacit approval of such a woman as +was Arabella Berwick? What else had made Miss Berwick say to her, as she +had done, that her brother could never marry? Surely the words had been +uttered with intention, to show Mrs. Rebell how desirable it was that he +should have--friends? + +Till to-night, love, to Barbara Rebell, had borne but two faces. The +one, that of the radiant shadow-like figure, half cupid half angel, of +her childhood and girlhood, was he who had played his happy part in the +love affair of her father and mother, binding them the one to the other +as she, Barbara, had seen them bound. It was this love--noble, selfless, +unmaterial in its essence, or so she had thought--that lighted up Madame +Sampiero's face when she spoke, as she sometimes did speak, in the same +quivering breath, of Lord Bosworth and her little Julia. + +Love's other face, that which she shuddered to know existed, had been +revealed to her by Pedro Rebell. It was base, sensual, cunning, +volatile, inconstant in its very essence, and yet, as Barbara knew, love +after all--capable, for a fleeting moment, of ennobling those under its +influence. Such, for instance, was love as understood by the coloured +people, among whom she had spent these last years of her life, and with +whose elementary joys and sorrows she had perforce sympathised. + +Now, to-night, she realised that love could come in yet a third +guise--nay, for the first time she saw that perhaps this was the only +true love of them all, and that her first vision of the passion had been +but its shadow. Some such feeling as that which now, she felt with +terror, possessed her body as well as her soul, must have made her +mother cling as she had clung, in no joyless way, to sombre, disgraced +Richard Rebell. + +Love again--warm, tender, passionate love--had linked together Lord +Bosworth and Barbara Sampiero for so many years, and had found +expression in their child. Thinking of those last two, Barbara lay and +trembled. Bitter words of condemnation uttered by her father leapt from +the storehouse of memory, as did the fact that her mother had once +implied to her that but for Madame Sampiero, but for something--was it +something wrong, or merely selfish and unwise which she had +done?--Barbara's father might have returned in time to England and made +some attempt to rehabilitate himself. + + * * * * * + +The maid who brought in her cup of tea in the morning laid a parcel down +on Barbara's bed. It was a book wrapped in brown paper, and fully +addressed to her with the superscription:-- + + "DEAR MRS. REBELL,--Here is the book I promised to send you. + + "Yours truly, + "JAMES BERWICK." + +Some instinct made her wait till she was alone. Then, opening +the parcel, she saw that, with the volume of Jacobite songs +Berwick had indeed promised to give her, was a large envelope +marked "private." From it she drew out slowly some twenty sheets +or more, closely covered with the as yet unfamiliar writing of +the man she loved. To the end of her life Barbara could have +repeated portions of this, her first love letter, by heart, and +yet, before going downstairs, she burnt each separate sheet. + +Over the last she hesitated. Indeed, she cut out the three +words, "my heart's darling." But the little gilt scissors had +belonged to her mother--how would her mother have judged what +she was now doing?--and the slip of paper went into the fire +with the rest. + + + + + CHAPTER XVI. + + "He smarteth most who hides his smart + And sues for no compassion." + + RALEIGH. + + +"Would you mind taking me with you to church this morning? Miss Berwick +tells me that her uncle won't be shocked." + +When Mrs. Rebell made her request, Daniel O'Flaherty was walking up and +down the small hall, waiting for the carriage in which he was to drive +that Sunday morning to the nearest Roman Catholic chapel. He had shared +with the two ladies a comparatively early breakfast, for the service he +was to attend took place at ten. + +"Yes, of course," he said, rather awkwardly, "I shall be very glad of +your company, but I'm afraid you won't be comfortable, for Mass is said, +it seems, in a little mission room." O'Flaherty had a vividly unpleasant +recollection of the last time he had taken "a smart lady" to church. She +had apparently expected to find a Notre Dame or Sistine Chapel in the +wilds of Herefordshire, and she had been very much annoyed with the +inartistic furnishings of the iron chapel. So it was that Mrs. Rebell's +request fell disagreeably on his ear. + + * * * * * + +Barbara's whole soul was possessed with the desire of putting off the +meeting with Berwick. How could she greet him before his sister? how +could she behave as if last night--as if his soul-stirring, ardent +letter, had not been? Berwick had written, among a hundred other +contradictory things, "Everything shall go on as before. I will school +myself to be content with the least you can give me." But even she knew +that that was impossible, and she blessed the chance which had now come +to her of escaping for a few hours the necessity of playing a part +before Lord Bosworth and Arabella. + +So absorbed was Barbara in her thoughts that she scarcely noticed Mr. +Daman, when she crossed him on the broad staircase on her way to her +room to get ready for her expedition. The old man, however, had seen the +light from a large window beat straight on her absorbed face. For the +first time Barbara reminded him of her father, of Richard Rebell, and +the reminiscence was not pleasing. Pretty women, he said to himself +rather crossly, should study their looks; they owed it to those about +them. They ought not to get up too early in the morning and go racing +upstairs! Why, it was now only half-past nine, and Mrs. Rebell had +evidently already breakfasted. He himself was up at this unwonted hour +because it was Sunday, and on Sunday everything should be done to spare +the servants in a country house. Septimus Daman lived up to his own +moral code much more completely than many of those who regarded him as a +selfish old worldling could pretend to do. Still, he did not like to be +baulked of innocent pleasures, and not least among them was that of +having his tea poured out for him on Sunday morning by a pretty woman. + +"Then you've breakfasted too?" Failing Barbara, Mr. Daman would have +liked the company of Daniel O'Flaherty. "Oh, I forgot! of course you're +going to your church"--a note of commiseration crept into the thin +voice; the old Queen's Messenger belonged to a generation when an +Irishman's religion was still the greatest of his disabilities. + +"Yes, and I'm taking Mrs. Rebell with me." Septimus Daman's vested +interest in Barbara amused the barrister. + +"Are you indeed?" Old Septimus always went to church on Sunday, but he +liked to have the duty sweetened by the presence of youth and beauty in +the pew. "You never saw her mother, did you?" + +"No. The Rebell Case took place some years before I came to London." It +was not the first time Mr. Daman had asked the question, but O'Flaherty +answered very patiently, and even added--also not for the first +time--"She must have been an exceptionally beautiful and charming +woman." + +"Perfection, absolute perfection! Her daughter isn't a patch on her as +to looks. I remember now the first time I saw Mrs. Richard Rebell I +thought her the loveliest creature I'd ever set eyes upon. Her name was +Adela Oglander, and people expected her to do uncommonly well for +herself. Awful to think what she did do, eh? But Richard Rebell was a +very taking fellow in those days. When I was a young man women were +content to look--well, as Mrs. Richard Rebell looked! One doesn't see +such pretty women now," Mr. Daman sighed, "I suppose our Mrs. Barbara +lost her complexion in the West Indies. Those climates, so I've always +understood, are damnation to the skin. Not that hers has roughened--eh, +what? And she can still blush--a great thing that, almost a lost art!" +he chuckled. "From what Bosworth tells me she had an awful time with the +brute she married." + +"Was he in the Army?" + +O'Flaherty was vaguely interested. He and Mrs. Rebell had had a +good deal of desultory talk, but she never alluded to her married +life. Those years--he roughly guessed them to be from twenty to +seven-and-twenty--seemed dropped out of her memory. + +"Not that I ever heard of. He's always been a sugar planter, a +descendant of a Rebell younger son who went out to the West Indies to +make his fortune a hundred years ago. Poor Barbara Sampiero told me +about it at the time of the marriage." + +"And how long has Mrs. Rebell been a widow?" + +"She's not a widow. Whatever gave you such an idea?" The old man shot a +sudden shrewd look at the barrister; O'Flaherty's face expressed +surprise, yes, and profound annoyance. Dear, dear, this was distinctly +interesting! + +Mr. Daman lowered his voice to a whisper, "Her husband's very much +alive, but he's signed, so Bosworth tells me, some kind of document +promising to leave her alone. Of course he keeps her fortune, such as it +is, for she was married before this act which makes women, I understand, +so very independent of their lords and masters. But that's rather a good +thing, for it takes away his only reason for molesting her. Still, +there'll be trouble with him, if, as I'm told, Madame Sampiero intends +to leave her well off. Good Lord, what a business we all had with +Napoleone Sampiero! He was a regular leech. Strange, isn't it, that both +these poor dear women--each, observe, a Barbara Rebell--should make such +a mess of their lives? However, in this case there's no _Bosworth_ to +complicate matters!" + +O'Flaherty wheeled round, and looked hard at the old man, but Septimus +Daman had spoken with no after-thought in his mind. He had come to the +stage of life when old people are curiously unobservant, or perhaps it +should be said, no longer capable of realising the proximity of passion. + + * * * * * + +Condemnation of James Berwick, who, it seemed to O'Flaherty, should +remember the fact that he was under his sister's roof, and a certain +pity for, and shrinking from Mrs. Rebell, the woman now sitting so +silently by his side in the victoria, filled the barrister's mind. He +was also aware of experiencing that species of bewilderment which brings +with it the mortifying conviction that one has been excessively, +inexcusably blind. O'Flaherty cast his mind back over the last week. +That which he in his simplicity had taken for love,--love capable of +inducing such a man as Berwick to make a great sacrifice,--was doubtless +but the preliminary to one of those brief intrigues of which he heard so +much in the world in which he now lived. + +And Mrs. Rebell? He had really liked her--unconsciously thought the +better of Arabella for having such a woman, one so gentle, kindly, +unassuming, for her friend. He knew the tragic story of Richard Rebell, +of his banishment from the pleasant world in which he had held so +prominent a place; and Barbara had been the more interesting, the more +worthy of respect in his eyes because she was in no sense ashamed of her +parentage. Was it possible that she was one of those women--he had +sometimes heard of them--who are said to possess every feminine virtue +save that on which, as he, the Irish farmer's son, absolutely believed, +all the others really depend? + +O'Flaherty had seen a great deal of Mrs. Rebell; they had had more than +one long talk together. Never had he met a woman who seemed to him more +pure-minded in the very essence of her. And yet--well, the Irishman had +seen--as indeed who could help seeing, save that self-centred and _naif_ +egoist, Septimus Daman?--that Barbara loved Berwick. The sight of these +two, so absorbed in one another, had deeply moved the one who looked on, +and quickened his own feeling for Arabella into life. + +The barrister had envied Berwick the devotion of such a woman, thinking +a fabulous fortune well forfeited in the winning of Barbara Rebell as +companion on that mysterious, dangerous journey which men call life. +Realising the kind of intimate sympathy which seemed to bind these two, +O'Flaherty had recalled the phrase, "a marriage of true minds," and he +had thought of all it would mean to Berwick, even as regarded his public +career, to have so conciliatory, so charming a creature by his side. +Arabella Berwick, in spite of her many fine qualities and intellectual +gifts, possessed neither the tact nor the self-effacement so essential +to the fulfilment of the _rôle_ of statesman's wife or sister. + +And now O'Flaherty learned that all the time he had been thinking these +things, Mrs. Rebell was well aware that there could be nothing permanent +or avowable in her tie with Berwick; while Berwick, on his side, was +playing the most delightful and absorbing of the great human games with +dice so loaded that, come what might, he was bound to win. The barrister +told himself that he had indeed been simple-minded to suppose that such +a man as Arabella's brother would sacrifice to love the wealth which +gave him an absolute and preeminent position among those he wished to +lead. "A marriage of true minds?"--an ugly look came over the plain, +strong face of the man sitting by Mrs. Rebell, and she, catching that +look, wondered what hateful thought, or sudden physical discomfort, had +brought it there. + +But, when once he found himself kneeling in the humble little iron +chapel, long habit acted on Daniel O'Flaherty's mind, cleared it of +sordid images, made him think more charitable thoughts of the woman who +crouched rather than knelt by his side, in what seemed a position of +almost painful abasement. Poor Barbara Rebell! Mingling with the prayers +he knew by heart, and which were, after all, one long supplication for +mercy and forgiveness, came the slow conviction that she might not be +deserving of so much condemnation as he had at first assumed. Perhaps +she had come here, with him, to-day, to be out of the way of temptation, +and not, as he had unkindly suspected, to satisfy an idle and not very +healthy curiosity. + +Busy as he had been last night in the music gallery with thoughts of his +own self and Arabella, O'Flaherty had yet been aware that an eager +colloquy was going on by the organ. He had heard Berwick's voice become +urgent and imperious, and he had put down the other man's rather +dramatic disappearance, and Mrs. Rebell's extreme quietude during the +rest of the evening, to some lovers' quarrel between these two, who up +to that time had required no such artificial stimulus to their passion. +Perhaps what had taken place between them had been more tragic, for Mrs. +Rebell looked to-day very unlike her gentle, composed self. + +Barbara had risen from her knees, and sat apparently listening to the +little sermon. The expression of her face suddenly recalled to Daniel +O'Flaherty an evening in his life--that which had followed his parting +from Arabella Berwick. He had been taken by friends to the play, and on +leaving the theatre had found that his mind had retained absolutely +nothing of what had gone on before him on the stage. Not to save his +life could he have recalled a single scene, or even the most telling of +the speeches to which he had been listening the last three hours. +Doubtless he had then looked as Barbara looked now; and a feeling of +great concern and infinite pity took the place of that which had filled +his mind during the drive from Fletchings. But this new-born charity did +not extend to Berwick; for him, O'Flaherty still felt nothing but +condemnation. + +They waited till the small congregation had streamed out, and then +walked slowly down the little aisle. "You don't look fit to walk back. I +expect I can easily get a carriage if you will wait a little while." + +But Barbara answered with nervous decision, "I would much rather walk, +in fact, I was about to ask you if you would mind going round by +Chancton; it is scarcely out of our way, and I want to see Madame +Sampiero." + + * * * * * + +"I beg you to send for me--to-day--home again. I am tired of being away +from you! Oh! do not refuse, Marraine, to do as I ask----" + +Barbara was kneeling by Madame Sampiero's couch, holding the stiff, +trembling hands, gazing imploringly into the set face and the wide open +eyes, now fixed on her with rather sad speculation and questioning. + +"Why should I refuse? Have I not missed you? Ask McKirdy if we have not +all missed you, child?" + +The muffled tones were even less clear than usual, but Barbara gave a +sigh, almost a sob, of relief. "You must insist on my coming back, at +once,--at once, Marraine--or they will want to keep me! Some people are +coming over to lunch to-morrow, and Miss Berwick will wish me to be +there." + +"Why go back at all?" + +"I must go back. Someone is waiting for me outside." Madame Sampiero's +eyelids flickered--"Oh, no, no! Marraine, not Mr. Berwick, but a Mr. +O'Flaherty. Besides, they would all be so surprised if I were not to +come back now. Send for me this afternoon." + +She bent over and kissed her god-mother's hands. "How nice it is to be +home again!" and her voice trembled, "What, darling Marraine? Was Lord +Bosworth kind? Yes, indeed--more than good and kind! I have been very +happy--very, very happy!" and then she turned away to hide the tears +rushing to her eyes. + + * * * * * + +While waiting for Mrs. Rebell, Daniel O'Flaherty looked with great +interest at the splendid old house before which he was pacing up and +down. This, then, was Chancton Priory, the place belonging to the woman +who some said had made, and others said had marred, Lord Bosworth's +life. + +The story had been widely known and discussed. Madame Sampiero had made +a desperate and an unsuccessful effort to break her marriage to the +Corsican adventurer whom she had married in a moment of headstrong, +girlish folly; and the world, hers and Lord Bosworth's, had been loud in +its sympathy. But for the fact that the ceremony had been solemnised +according to French law, she would easily have obtained release. + +For a while, all had gone fairly well. Each lived his and her own life; +Madame Sampiero had acted as hostess to Lord Bosworth's friends, both at +Chancton, and in her London house, for she was a wealthy woman, and all, +save the very strait-laced, had condoned a situation which permitted the +exercise of tolerant charity. + +Then had come the sudden appearance on the scene of a child, of the +little Julia concerning whose parentage scarcely any mystery was made, +and the consequent withdrawal of that feminine countenance and support +without which social life and influence are impossible in such a country +as England. + +O'Flaherty looked up at the mullioned windows sunk back in the grey +stone; behind which of them lay the paralysed woman, now bereft of +lover, of child, of the company of friends, of everything which made +life worth living to such as she? Septimus Daman had talked of Madame +Sampiero again and again during the last few days, and had apparently +rejoiced in the thought that Mrs. Rebell was so devoted to the mistress +of Chancton Priory. What a strange life the two women must lead here! +The barrister looked round him consideringly. November is the sad month +of our country year. Even the great cedars added to the stately +melancholy of the deserted lawns, and leafless beeches. + +Now, at last Mrs. Rebell was coming towards him from the porch; he saw +that she looked, if not happier, more at peace than she had done before +going into the Priory, yet her eyelids were swollen, and if victorious +she seemed one whose victory has cost her dear. + +As she led the way down the broad grass drive, she began to talk of +indifferent matters, making what O'Flaherty felt was rather a pitiful, +and yet a gallant attempt to speak of things which might interest him. + +Suddenly they touched on politics, "My father," Barbara's face softened, +became less mask-like, "cared so much about English politics. As a young +man he actually stood for Parliament, for in those days Halnakeham had a +member, but he was defeated. I have sometimes thought, since I have +heard Mr. Berwick and Mr. Boringdon talk--I don't know if you have met +Mr. Boringdon--how different everything might have been if my poor +father had been elected. He only lost the seat by thirty votes." + +When she mentioned Berwick, the colour had flooded her face, and +O'Flaherty had looked away. "Oh yes, I've met Oliver Boringdon," he said +quickly, and to give her time to recover herself he went on, "I remember +him in the House. But I had the luck to get in again, and he was thrown +out, at the last General Election. The two friends are an interesting +contrast. I regard James Berwick as the typical Parliament man; not so +Mr. Boringdon, who is much more the permanent official, the plodding +civil servant--that was what he was originally, you know--and Berwick +did him a bad turn in taking him away from that career and putting him +into Parliament." + +"But you do think well of Mr. Berwick? I mean, do you consider, as does +his sister, that he has a great future before him?" + +She looked at her companion in undisguised anxiety, and O'Flaherty felt +rather touched by the confidence Barbara evidently reposed in his +judgment. + +"I think," he said--and he offered up a mental prayer that he might so +speak as to help, not hinder, the woman by his side--"that James +Berwick's future will depend on the way he shapes his life. Do not think +me priggish--but the one thing that seems to me sure is that character +still tells more than ability in English public life. Character and +ability together are apt to prove irresistible." + +"But what," asked Barbara in a low voice, "do you exactly mean by +character?" + +"I mean something which Oliver Boringdon possesses to a supreme +degree--a number of qualities which together make it positively more +difficult for a man to go wrong than to go right, especially in any +matter affecting his honour or probity." + +"Then--surely you regard Mr. Berwick as a man of character?" + +O'Flaherty hesitated. The conversation was taking a strange turn, but he +made up his mind to tell her the truth as far as he saw it. "I think," +he said deliberately, "that it is very difficult for a man of great +ability to be also a man of flawless character. He is probably tempted +in a thousand ways which pass the less gifted nature by; on the other +hand, his fate is much more in his own control. Berwick has come very +well out of ordeals partly brought about by his own desire to succeed. +Take his rather singular marriage."--the speaker looked straight before +him--"Of course I well remember that episode in his life. Men marry +every day for money, but Berwick conducted himself with propriety and +dignity under extremely trying circumstances." + +"Did you ever see her?"--there was a painful catch in Barbara's +voice--"she was a friend, was she not, of Miss Berwick?" + +"Hardly a friend--rather a worshipping acquaintance. No, I never saw +Mrs. James Berwick. She was rather an invalid both before and after the +marriage. I think she did a very wrong thing by her husband--one that +may even yet have evil consequences. You are doubtless aware that in the +event of Berwick's making a second marriage he loses the immense fortune +his wife left to him." + +"That, then, was what Miss Berwick meant when she said he could never +marry." Barbara seemed to be speaking to herself, but the words fell on +O'Flaherty's ear with an unpleasing significance. His mind made a sudden +leap. Could Arabella be planning--oh! what a horrible suspicion +concerning the woman he had once loved! But it came back again and again +during the hour which followed. Had he not himself thought Miss Berwick +was doing all in her power to throw her brother and Mrs. Rebell +together? + +He went on speaking, as if impelled to say what he really thought. +"Well, such a thing as that is enough to test a man's character. From +being a poor man, practically dependent on his uncle, Berwick became the +owner of almost unlimited money, to the possession of which, however, +was attached a clause which meant that in his case none of the normal +conditions of a man's life could be fulfilled--no wife, no child, +friendship with women perpetually open, as I know Berwick's more than +once has been, to misconstruction." + +"And yet other men--?" Barbara looked at him deprecatingly, "You +yourself, Mr. O'Flaherty"--then she cried, "Forgive me! I have no right +to say that to you!" + +"Nay," he said, "I give you for the moment every right to say, to ask, +what you like! I have no wife, no child, no home, Mrs. Rebell, because +the woman I loved rejected me; and also because, though I have tried to +like other women, I have failed. You see, it was not that I had made a +mistake, such as men make every day, for she loved me too--that makes +all the difference. She was in a different position to my own; I was +very poor, and there was the further bar of my religion, even of my +nationality"--he spoke with a certain difficulty. "At the time she acted +as she thought best for both our sakes. But, whatever my personal +experiences or motives for remaining unmarried may be, I have no +doubt,--no doubt at all,--as to the general question. To my mind, James +Berwick's friends must regret that he has never, apparently, been +tempted to make the great sacrifice; and for my part, I hope the day +will come when he will meet with a woman for whom he will think his +fortune well lost, whom he will long to make his wife in a sense that +the poor creature he married never was, and in whom he will see the +future mother of his children." He paused, then added in a low voice, +"In no other tie can such a man as he find permanent solace and +satisfaction. If report speaks truly, he has more than once tried an +alternative experiment." + +He dared not look at her. They walked on in absolute silence. + +At last she spoke, "Please say nothing of our walk round by Chancton +Priory." And when, some hours later, there came a letter from Doctor +McKirdy declaring that Madame Sampiero was not well, and longed for Mrs. +Rebell's presence, Daniel O'Flaherty thought he understood. A pang of +miserable self-reproach struck his heart and conscience. What right had +he to have put this woman to the torture--to take on himself the part of +Providence? + +After they had all seen Barbara off, after he had noted her very quiet +but determined rejection of Berwick's company on the way to Chancton +Priory, Daniel O'Flaherty was in no mood to go for the walk to which +Miss Berwick had been looking forward all that afternoon. + + + + + CHAPTER XVII. + + "Look in my face: my name is Might-have-been, + And I am also called No-more, Too-late, Farewell." + + DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI. + + +The days following Barbara's return to Chancton Priory went slowly by, +and she received no sign, no word from Berwick. She had felt quite sure +that he would come--if not that same evening of her leaving Fletchings, +then the next morning; if not in the morning, then in the afternoon. + +During those days she went through every phase of feeling. She learnt +the lesson most human beings learn at some time of their lives--how to +listen without appearing to do so for the sounds denoting arrival, how +to hunger for the sound of a voice which to the listener brings +happiness, however indifferently these same accents fall on the ears of +others. She schooled herself not to flinch when the days went by +bringing no successor to that letter in which Berwick had promised her +so much more than she had ever asked of him. + +Even in the midst of her restless self-questioning and unhappiness, she +was touched and pleased at the gladness with which she had been welcomed +home again by Madame Sampiero, and even by Doctor McKirdy. It seemed +strange that neither of them spoke of the man who now so wholly occupied +her thoughts; no one, with the exception perhaps of his old nurse, noted +Berwick's absence, or seemed to find it untoward. Barbara had at first +been nervously afraid that Madame Sampiero would make some allusion to +the few moments they had spent together that Sunday morning, that she +would perhaps ask her what had induced her eager wish to leave +Fletchings; but no such word was said, and Barbara could not even +discover whether Doctor McKirdy was aware that her sudden return to the +Priory had been entirely voluntary. + +And then, as the short winter days seemed to drag themselves along, Mrs. +Rebell, almost in spite of herself, again began to see a great deal of +Oliver Boringdon. There was something in his matter-of-fact eagerness +for her society which soothed her sore heart; her manner to him became +very gracious, more what it had been before Berwick had come into her +life; and again she found herself taking the young man's part with +Madame Sampiero and the old Scotchman. Boringdon soon felt as happy as +it was in his nature to be. He told himself he had been a jealous fool, +for Barbara spoke very little of her visit to Fletchings, and not at all +of Berwick; perhaps she had seen him when there at a disadvantage. + +As Oliver happened to know, Berwick had left Sussex; he was now in +London, and doubtless they would none of them see anything of him till +Easter. The young man took the trouble to go down to the Grange and tell +Mrs. Kemp that he had been mistaken in that matter of which he had +spoken to her. He begged her, rather shamefacedly, to forget what he had +said. Lucy's mother heard him in silence, but she did not repeat her +call on Mrs. Rebell. So it was that during those days which were so full +of dull wretchedness and suspense to Barbara Rebell, Oliver Boringdon +also went through a mental crisis of his own, the upshot of which was +that he wrote a long and explicit letter to Andrew Johnstone. + +They were both men to whom ambiguous situations were utterly alien. +Boringdon told himself that Johnstone might not understand, or might +understand and not approve, his personal reason for interference; but +Johnstone would certainly agree that Mrs. Rebell's present position was +intolerable from every point of view, and that some effort should be +made to set her legally free from such a man as was this Pedro Rebell. +Once Barbara was free,--Oliver thrust back the leaping rapture of the +thought-- + +After much deliberation he had added, as a postscript: "I have no +objection to your showing this letter to Grace." + +Doctor McKirdy watched Mrs. Rebell very narrowly during these same early +December days, and as he did so he became full of wrath against James +Berwick. He and Madame Sampiero had few secrets from one another. The +old Scotchman had heard of Barbara's sudden Sunday morning appearance at +the Priory, and of her appeal--was it for protection against herself? He +made up his mind that she and Berwick must have had, if not a quarrel, +then one of those encounters which leave deeper marks on the combatants +than mere quarrels are apt to do. + +More than once the rough old fellow was strongly tempted to say to her: +"If you wish to make yourself ill, you are just going the way to do it!" +but Mrs. Rebell's determination to go on as usual, to allow no one to +divine the state of her mind, aroused his unwilling admiration, nay +more, his sympathy. He had known, so he told himself, what it was to +feel as Barbara felt now, but in his case jealousy, an agony of +jealousy, had been added to his other torments, and shame too for the +futility of it all. + + * * * * * + +Nine days after Barbara had left Fletchings she received a letter from +Berwick. It bore the London postmark, but was dated the evening of the +day they had parted,--of that day when she had successfully eluded his +desire, his determination, to see her alone. + +A certain savagery of anger, hurt pride, over-mastering passion breathed +in the few lines of the short note which began abruptly, "I have no wish +to force my presence on you," and ended "Under the circumstances perhaps +it were better that we should not meet for a while." Something had been +added, and then erased; most women would have tried to find out what +that hasty scrawl concealed, but if it hid some kinder sentiment the +writer, before despatching his missive, had repented, and to Barbara the +fact that he did not wish her to read what he had added was enough to +prevent her trying to do so. + +With deep trouble and self-reproach she told herself that perhaps she +had been wrong in taking to flight--nay, more, that she had surely owed +Berwick an explanation. No wonder he was hurt and angry! And he would +never know, that was the pity of it, that it was of herself she had been +afraid-- + +Then those about her suddenly began to tell Mrs. Rebell that which would +have made such a difference before the arrival of Berwick's letter. "I +suppose you know that James Berwick is in London? He was sent for +suddenly," and Boringdon mentioned the name of the statesman who had +been Prime Minister when Berwick held office. + +"Has he been gone long?"--Barbara's voice sounded indifferent. + +"Yes, he seems to have had a wire on a Sunday, on the day you came back +from Fletchings." + +And Boringdon had never told her this all-important fact! Barbara felt a +sudden secret resentment against the young man. So it had lain with him +to spare her those days of utter wretchedness; of perpetually waiting +for one whom she believed to be in the near neighbourhood; nay more, +those moments of sick anxiety, for at times she had feared that Berwick +might be ill, physically unable to leave Fletchings or Chillingworth. +But this most unreasonable resentment against Oliver she kept in her own +heart. + +The next to speak to her of Berwick had been Mrs. Turke. "So our Mr. +Berwick's in London? But he'll be back soon, for he hasn't taken Dean +with him. Sometimes months go by without our seeing the dear lad, and +then all in a minute he's here again. That's the way with gentlemen; you +never know when you have 'em!" And she had given Barbara a quick, +meaning look, as if the remark had a double application. + + * * * * * + +Then came a day, the 8th of December, which Mrs. Rebell became aware was +not like other days. For the first time since she had been at the Priory +Madame Sampiero inquired as to the day of the month. Doctor McKirdy was +more odd, more abrupt even than usual, and she saw him turn Boringdon +unceremoniously from the door with the snarling intimation that Madame +Sampiero did not wish to-day to be troubled with business matters. Mrs. +Turke also was more mysterious, less talkative than usual; she went +about her own quarters sighing and muttering to herself. + +A sudden suspicion came into Barbara's heart; could it be that James +Berwick was coming back, that they expected him to-day, and that none of +them liked to tell her? If so, how wise of McKirdy to have sent away +Oliver Boringdon! But then cold reason declared that if such was indeed +the case, to make so great a mystery of the matter would be an insult to +her, surely the last thing that any of them, with the exception perhaps +of the old housekeeper, would dare to do? + +Still, when at last, late in the morning, she was sent for by Doctor +McKirdy, and informed curtly that someone was waiting for her in the +grass walk, she made no doubt of who it could be. In her passion of +relief, in her desire to bear herself well, to return, if it might be +possible, to the old ideal terms on which she and Berwick had been +before he had been seized with what she to herself now characterised as +a passing madness, Barbara hardly noticed how moved, how unlike himself +the old Scotchman seemed to be, and how, again and again, he opened his +lips as if to tell her something which native prudence thrust back into +his heart. + +So great, so overwhelming was Barbara's disappointment when she saw that +the man leaning on the iron gate leading to the now leafless rosery was +Lord Bosworth, and not James Berwick, that she had much ado to prevent +herself from bursting into tears. But she saw the massive figure before +she herself was seen, and so was able to make a determined effort to +conceal both her bitter deception, and also her great surprise at +finding him there. + +"As you are doubtless aware," Lord Bosworth began abruptly, "I come here +three or four times a year, and McKirdy is good enough to arrange that +on those occasions I can visit my child's grave without fear of +interruption. I ventured to ask that you might be told that I wished to +see you here, because I have a request to make you--" + +He hesitated, and with eyes cast down began tracing with the heavy stick +he bore in his hand imaginary geometrical patterns on the turf. + +"If my daughter Julia had lived, she would have been seventeen to-day, +and so it seemed to me--perhaps I was wrong--to be a good opportunity to +make another effort to soften Barbara's heart." He put his hand on Mrs. +Rebell's shoulder, and smiled rather strangely as he quickly added, "You +understand? I mean my own poor Barbara's heart, not that of this kind +young Barbara, who I am hoping will intercede for me, on whom I am +counting to help me in this matter. I do not know how far I should be +justified in letting her know what is undoubtedly the truth, namely, +that I have not very long to live. McKirdy absolutely refuses to tell +her; but perhaps, if she knew this fact, it would alter her feeling, and +make her more willing to consider the question of--of--our marriage." + +And then, as Barbara started and looked at him attentively, he went on +slowly, and with a quiet dignity which moved his listener deeply: "Of +course you know our story? Sometimes I think there is no one in the +whole world who does not know it. There were years, especially after the +birth of our little Julia, when I think I may say we both had marriage +on the brain. And then, when at last Barbara was free, when Napoleone +Sampiero"--his face contracted when he uttered the name--"was dead, she +would not hear of it. She seemed to think--perhaps at the time it was +natural she should do so--that the death of our poor child had been a +judgment on us both. But now, after all these years, I think she might +do as I ask. I even think--perhaps you might put that to her--that she +owes me something. No husband was ever more devoted to a wife than I +have been to her. Now, and Heaven knows how many years it is since we +last met, I think of her constantly. She is there!--there!" He struck +his breast, then went on more calmly: "My niece knows my wishes, there +would be no trouble with her; and as for my nephew, James Berwick, you +know how attached he has always been to Barbara. Why, I'm told he's much +more here now than he is at Chillingworth!" + +He turned abruptly, and they walked slowly, side by side, down the broad +grass path till there came a spot where it became merged in the road +under the beeches. Here he stopped her. + +"You are surely not going to walk back all the way alone!" she cried, +for she saw with emotion that he looked older even in the few days which +had elapsed since he had bade her good-bye at Fletchings. + +"No, the carriage is waiting for me down there. I only walked up through +the park. Then I have your promise to speak to Madame Sampiero?" he held +her hand, and looked down with peculiar earnestness into her face. As +she bent her head, he added, "You'll let me have word when you can? Of +course, if she's still of the same mind, I'll not trouble her." He +walked on, and then turned suddenly back and grasped Barbara's hand once +more. "Better not use the health argument," he said, "doctors do make +mistakes--an old friend of mine married his cook on, as he thought, his +death-bed, and then got quite well again!" He smiled at her rather +deprecatingly, "I know my cause is in good hands," and she watched him +walk with heavy, deliberate steps down the leaf-strewn way. + +For the first time Barbara drew the parallel those about her had so +often drawn. Was James Berwick capable of such constancy, of such long +devotion as his uncle had shown? Something whispered yes; but even if +so, how would that affect her, how would that make her conduct less +reprehensible, were she ever to fall short of what had been her own +mother's standard? + + * * * * * + +Before her interview with Lord Bosworth, it had seemed to Barbara that +she constantly spent long hours alone with her god-mother; but, after +that memorable eighth of December, she felt as if those about Madame +Sampiero had entered into a conspiracy to prevent her being ever left +alone with her god-mother for more than a very few moments at a time. +Doctor McKirdy suddenly decided to have his house repapered, and he +accordingly moved himself bodily over to the Priory, where Barbara could +not complain of his constant presence in "Madam's" room, for he always +found something to amuse or interest his patient. + +Twice he spoke to Barbara of Lord Bosworth, each time with strange +bitterness and dislike. "No doubt his lordship was after seeing Madam?" +and, as Barbara hesitated: "Fine I knew it!--but he might just as well +go and kill her outright. I've had to tell him so again and again"-- + +Barbara kept her own counsel, but she could not resist the question, +"Then he comes often?" + +"Often?--that he does not! He's never been one to put himself out, he's +far too high! He just sends for me over to Fletchings, and I just go, +though I've felt more than once minded to tell him that I'm not his +servant. Madam's determined that he shall never see her as she is now, +and who can blame her? Not I, certainly! Besides, he hasn't a bit of +right to insist on such a thing." And he looked fiercely at Barbara as +he spoke, as if daring her to contradict him. + +"I think he has a right," she said in a low tone--then with more +courage, "Of course he has a right, Doctor McKirdy! I'm sure if my +god-mother could see Lord Bosworth, could hear him----" her voice broke, +and she bit her lip, sorry at having said so much. + +But the interview with Madame Sampiero's old friend, and the little +encounters with Doctor McKirdy, did Barbara good. They forced her to +think of something else than of herself, of another man than James +Berwick; and at last she made up her mind that she would tell her +god-mother she wished to speak to her without this dread of constant, +futile interruption. At once her wish was granted, for the paralysed +mistress of the Priory could always ensure privacy when she chose. + +But, alas for Barbara, the result of the painful talk was not what she +had perhaps been vain enough to think herself capable of achieving on +behalf of Lord Bosworth: indeed, for a moment she had been really +frightened, on the point of calling Doctor McKirdy, so terrible, so +physically injurious had been Madame Sampiero's agitation. + +"I cannot see him! He must not see me in this state--he should not ask +it of me." Such, Mrs. Rebell had divined, were the words her god-mother +struggled over and over again to utter. "Marriage?"--a lightning flash +of horror, revolt, bitter sarcasm, had illumined for a moment the +paralysed woman's face. Then, softening, she had added words signifying +that she was not angry, that she forgave--Barbara! + +Very sadly, with a heart full of pain at the disappointment she knew she +was about to inflict, Mrs. Rebell wrote to Lord Bosworth. She softened +the refusal she had to convey by telling, with tenderness and +simplicity, how much the man to whom she was writing seemed to be ever +in her god-mother's thoughts, how often Madame Sampiero spoke of him, +how eagerly she had cross-questioned her god-daughter as to the days +Barbara had spent at Fletchings and her conversations with her host. + +Mrs. Rebell wrote this difficult letter in the drawing-room, sitting at +the beautiful bureau which had been the gift of the man to whom she was +writing, and which even now contained hundreds of his letters. Suddenly, +and while she was hesitating as to how she should sign herself, James +Berwick walked, unannounced, into the room, coming so quietly that for a +moment he stood looking at Barbara before she herself became aware that +he was there. So had Barbara looked, on that first evening he had seen +her; but then he had been outside the window and gazing at the woman +bending over the bureau with cool, critical eyes. + +Now, he was aware of nothing, save that the hunger of his eyes was +appeased, and that he had come to eat humble pie and make his peace, for +in his case that prescription which is said to be so excellent for +lovers--absence--had only made him feel, more than he had done before, +that he could not and would not live without her. + + * * * * * + +An hour later Berwick was gone, as Barbara believed in all sincerity, +for ever. He knew better, but even he felt inclined to try another dose +of that absence, of that absorption in the business that he loved, to +compel forgetfulness. It was clear--so he told himself when rushing back +to Chillingworth through the December night air--it was clear that what +this woman wanted was a stone image, not a man, for her friend! + +For a while, perhaps for half the time he had been with her, standing by +the mantel-piece while she sat two or three yards off, there had been a +truce of God. Berwick had thought out a certain line of action, and he +tried to be, as some hidden instinct told him she wished to see him, +once more the tender, self-less, sexless friend. He even brought his +lips to mutter something like a prayer for forgiveness, and the tears +came into her eyes as with uplifted hand she checked the words. Poor +Barbara! She was so divinely happy, for his mere presence satisfied her +heart. She had never known him quite so gentle, quite so submissive, as +to-day. So glad had she been to see him that for a moment she had felt +tempted to show him how welcome he was! But he had chosen,--and she was +deeply grateful to him for this--to behave as if he had only parted from +her the day before. Fletchings, all that happened there, was to be as if +it had not been--as if the scene in the music gallery had been blotted +out from their memories. + +Then came an allusion on his part to his forthcoming visit to Scotland, +and to the invitation which he knew his sister had been at some pains to +procure for Mrs. Rebell, and which Barbara would receive the next +morning. + +"I cannot accept it; it is very kind of Miss Berwick, but how could I +leave my god-mother again so soon?" + +"Is that the only reason?" he said, and she heard with beating heart the +under-current of anger, of suppressed feeling in his voice. "If so, I am +sure I can make it all right. It would only be ten days, and Madame +Sampiero would like you to meet the people who will be there. But +perhaps"--he came nearer and stood glowering down at her--"perhaps that +is not your only reason!" + +And Barbara, looking up at him with beseeching eyes, shook her head. + +"Do you mean"--Berwick spoke so quietly that his tone deceived her, and +made her think him in amicable agreement with herself--"Do you mean that +you do not wish to find yourself again under the same roof with me? Did +what happened at Fletchings make that difference?" + +She hesitated most painfully. "I have been very unhappy," she whispered +at last, "I know we have both regretted----" + +"By God, I have regretted nothing--excepting your coldness!" He grasped +her hands not over-gently, and the look came into his eyes which had +come there in the music room at Fletchings. "Do you wish us to go back +to coldly-measured friendship?" Then he bent down and gathered her into +his arms, even now not daring to kiss her. "Tell me," he said with +sudden gentleness, "am I--am I--disagreeable to you, my dearest? I shall +not be angry if you say yes." And Barbara, lying trembling, and as he +thought inertly, unresponsively, in his arms, found the courage to +answer, "I do care--but not as you wish me to do. Why cannot we go back +to where we were?" + +On hearing the whispered words he quickly released her, and, turning, +made his way to the door. Barbara, for an agonised moment, nearly called +out to him to come back and learn from her arms--her lips--how untrue +were the words which were driving him away. + +But in a moment, or so it seemed to her, he had thrust her from him and +had gone, hastening down the great hall, and out through the porch into +the air. + + * * * * * + +By the morning she had taught herself to think it was better he should +never come back, for never would she find the strength to send him away +again as she had done last night. + + + + + CHAPTER XVIII. + + + "Nay, but the maddest gambler throws his heart." + + GEORGE MEREDITH. + + "L'orgueil, remède souverain, qui n'est pas à l'usage des âmes + tendres." + + STENDHAL. + + +The pretty Breton legend setting forth that, during the night, angels +take sanctuary from evil spirits in the neighbourhood of sleeping +maidens, often came to Mrs. Kemp's mind when she said good-night to +Lucy. There was something very virginal, very peaceful and bright, in +the girl's room, of which the window overlooked the paddock of the +Grange, the walled kitchen garden of the Priory, and beyond that a +splendid stretch of meadow land and beechwood. + +Small low-shelved mahogany bookshelves, put together at a time of the +world's history when women's hands were considered too fragile and +delicate to hold heavy volumes, made squares of dark colour against the +blue walls. Lucy Kemp had always been a reader, both as child and as +girl. Here were all her old books, from that familiar and yet rather +ill-assorted trio, "The Fairchild Family," "The Swiss Family Robinson," +and "The Little Duke," to "Queechy," "Wives and Daughters," and "The +Heir of Redclyffe," for their owner's upbringing had been essentially +old-fashioned. + +Lucy lay back in the dreamless sleep of girlhood. It was a cold January +morning, and the embers of last night's fire still slumbered in the +grate. Suddenly there broke on the intense stillness the rhythmical +sound of pebbles being thrown with careful, sure aim against the window, +open some inches from the top. The sleeper stirred uneasily, but she +slept on till a small stone, aimed higher than most of those which had +preceded it, fell into the room. Then Lucy Kemp woke with a great start +and sat up in bed listening. + +Yes, there could be no doubt about it, someone was standing in the +paddock below trying to attract her attention! She got up, wrapped +something round her, and then lifted the window-sash. In the dim light +she saw a man standing just below, and Boringdon's hoarse, quick tones +floated up to her. + +"Lucy--Miss Kemp! Would you ask your mother if she could come to the +Priory as soon as possible? There's been an accident there--a fire--and +I fear Mrs. Rebell has been badly burnt." + +His voice filled Lucy with varying feelings--joy that he had +instinctively turned to the Grange for help, horror and concern at what +he had come to tell. + +"Mother's away," she cried in a troubled tone. "She and father have gone +over to Berechurch for three nights. Should I be of any use? I shouldn't +be a moment getting ready." + +In less than ten minutes she joined him, and together they hastened +through a seldom opened door giving access from the garden of the Grange +into the Priory Park. Soon Oliver was hurrying her up the path, walking +so quickly that she could scarcely keep up with him, towards the great +silent mass of building the top windows of which, those which lay half +hidden by the Tudor stone balcony, were now strangely lit up, forming a +coronal of light to the house beneath. + +"What happened?" she asked breathlessly. + +"It's impossible to say what happened," Boringdon spoke in sharp +preoccupied tones, "Mrs. Rebell seems to have been reading in bed and to +have set fire to a curtain. She behaved, as she always does, with great +good sense, and she and McGregor--heaven knows how--managed to put out +the flames; not, however, before the fire had spread into the +sitting-room next her bedroom. McKirdy, it seems, has always insisted +that there should be buckets of water ready on every landing." Oliver +would have scorned to defraud his enemy of his due. "When the whole +thing was over, then they all--that stupid old Mrs. Turke and the +maids--saw that she was badly burnt!" + +The speaker's voice altered; he paused for a moment, and then continued, +"They sent for McKirdy, who, as bad luck would have it, went back to his +own house last week, and found him away, for he's been helping that +Scotch doctor at Halnakeham with a bad case. Then they came on to me. +Even now they're like a pack of frightened sheep! Madame Sampiero knows +nothing of what has happened, and Mrs. Rebell is extremely anxious that +her god-mother should not be agitated--why, she actually wanted to go +down herself to tell her that everything was all right." + +Lucy listened in silence. How Oliver cared, how dreadfully he cared! was +the thought which would thrust itself into the girl's mind. "Is Mrs. +Rebell very badly hurt?" she asked. "Oh! I wish that mother was here. +Have you sent for another doctor?" + +"I don't know how far she is hurt," he muttered, "her arm and shoulder, +some of her hair--" then, more firmly, "No, she won't let me send for +anyone but McKirdy. Besides, by the time we could get a man over from +Halnakeham, he would certainly be back. But it will be everything to her +to have you there, if only to keep order among the frightened, +hysterical women." + + * * * * * + +Lucy had never before been inside Chancton Priory; and now, filled +though she was by very varying emotions, she yet gazed about her, when +passing through into the great hall, with feelings of deep interest and +curiosity: it looked vast, cavernous, awe-inspiring in the early morning +light. + +A moment later they were hastening up the corner staircase. At the first +landing, they were stopped by Madame Sampiero's French maid, who put a +claw-like hand on Boringdon's arm--"Do come in and see my mistress, Sir. +She divines something, and we cannot calm her." + +Boringdon hesitated, then he turned to Lucy. + +"I must go," he said, "I promised I would. You go on straight upstairs, +as far as you can go; once there you will be sure to find someone to +show you the way to the room where we have put Mrs. Rebell." And the +girl went on alone, groping her way up the dark, to her they seemed the +interminable, stairs. + +An amazing figure--Mrs. Turke in _déshabillé_--awaited Lucy on the top +landing, and greeted her with considerable circumstance. + +"The young lady from the Grange, I do declare! A sad day for your first +visit to the Priory, missy! But la, never mind. I've often seen you, you +and your dear papa, and I read all about him in a book I've got. What a +brave gentleman! But reading about it gave me the shivers, that it +did--I would like to see that Victoria Cross of his! So Mr. Boringdon +thinks you may be of use to Mrs. Rebell? Well, miss, I'll take you in to +her. But she's made us all go away and leave her--she says she'd rather +be alone to wait for the doctor." + +Mrs. Turke preceded Lucy down the passage, and finally opened the door +of a pretty, old-fashioned bedroom; the girl went in timidly and then +gave a sigh of relief; the woman whom Oliver Boringdon had described as +having been "badly burnt" was sitting up in a large armchair. She was +wrapped in some kind of ample white dressing-gown, and a large piece of +wadding had been clumsily attached to her left arm, concealing the left +side of her face and hair. + +Mrs. Rebell's eyes were fixed eagerly on the door through which Lucy had +just come in. She did not show any surprise at seeing the girl, but at +once began talking to her eagerly; and as she did so Lucy saw that she +was shivering, for the room was very cold. A fire was laid in the grate, +but evidently no one had thought of lighting it. Three candles, placed +on the narrow mantel-piece, threw a bright light on as much of Barbara's +face as Lucy could see. Her cheeks were red, her dark eyes bright, with +excitement. + +"It is kind of you to have come," she said. "Mr. Boringdon told me he +would fetch your mother. I suppose Doctor McKirdy will be here soon? Has +Mr. Boringdon gone to fetch him?" + +"No," Lucy looked at her doubtfully; was it possible that anyone who +looked as Mrs. Rebell did now, so excited, so--so strangely beautiful, +could be really hurt, in pain? "He has gone to tell Madame Sampiero that +all danger is over, that there is nothing more to fear." + +A look of great anxiety crossed Barbara's face. "My god-mother is very +brave. I do not think she will give much thought to the fire, but I hope +he will tell her that I am not really hurt. Perhaps, after Doctor +McKirdy has come, I can go down, and show her that there is really +nothing the matter." + +As she spoke, she winced. "Are you much hurt?" asked Lucy in a low +voice, and her shrinking eyes again glanced at the sheet of wadding +which wholly concealed Mrs. Rebell's arm, left breast, and one side of +her head. + +Barbara looked at her rather piteously. "I don't know," she said; "It +hurt dreadfully at first, but now I feel nothing, only a slight pricking +sensation." She repeated, "It hurt dreadfully till they fetched Mr. +Boringdon, and then he found--I don't know where or how--the oil and +wadding, which he made poor old Mrs. Turke put on. He was so good and +kind!" She smiled at the girl, a friendly smile, and the look in her +eyes brought a burning blush to Lucy's cheeks. + +There was a pause; then Lucy, having taken off her hat and jacket, +lighted the fire. + +"Miss Kemp," Barbara's voice sank to a whisper, "I want you to do +something for me. That fire which you have so kindly lighted has made me +think of it. Will you go into my room, two doors from here, and bring me +a packet of letters you will find in my dressing-table drawer? The +drawer is locked, but the key is in my purse. When you have brought it, +I want you to burn the letters, here, before me," and as Lucy was +turning to obey her, she added, "Take one of the candles. Mr. Boringdon +said the two rooms were to be left exactly as they are, and everything +must be dripping with water, and in fearful confusion." + +Lucy never forgot her little expedition down the dark passage, and the +strange scene which met her eyes in the two rooms which had evidently +been, till that night, as neat, as delicately clean, as was her own at +the Grange. Well was it for poor Barbara that she had so few personal +treasures. But the dressing-table had escaped injury save from the +water, which in the bedroom had actually done more harm than the fire. + +When she got back into the room where Mrs. Rebell was sitting, it seemed +to Lucy that Barbara had changed in the short interval--that she looked, +not well, as she had done when Lucy had first seen her half an hour +before, but very, very ill. The colour now lay in patches on her cheek, +and she watched with growing feverishness the burning of the few +letters, from each of which, as she put it in the bright crackling fire, +Lucy averted her eyes, a fact which Mrs. Rebell, in spite of her +increasing dizziness and pain, saw and was grateful for. + +"Miss Kemp," the speaker's voice was very low, "come here, close to me. +Someone may come in, and I am feeling so strange----Perhaps I may forget +what I want to tell you. You know Mr. Berwick?" Lucy was kneeling down +by the arm-chair, and Barbara put her right hand on the girl's slight +shoulder--"But of course you do, I was forgetting the ball----Why, he +danced with you. If I die, only if I die, promise me----" an agonised +look came into the dark eyes-- + +"I promise," said Lucy steadily; "only if you die----" + +"If I die, you are to tell him that I cared as he wished me to +care,--that when I sent him away, and in the letters I have written to +him since, I said what was not true----" + +Lucy felt the burning hand laid on her shoulder press more heavily: "No +one else must ever know, but you promise that you will tell him----" + +"I promise," said Lucy again. "I will tell him exactly what you have +told me, and no one else shall ever know." + +A slight noise made her look round. Doctor McKirdy stood in the doorway. +He was bare-headed, but he still wore the great coat in which he had +driven from Halnakeham. He was pale, his plain face set in a watchful, +alert grimace, as his eyes took in every detail of the scene, of the +room before him. + +Barbara gave a cry--or was it a moan?--of relief. He turned and slipped +the bolt in the door. "Time for talking secrets will come next week," +then he took off his great coat, washed his hands--with a gruff word of +commendation at the fact that there were water, soap, a towel, in what +had been a disused room--turned up his sleeves, and bade Lucy stand +aside. + +"Now," he said, quickly, "would ye rather go away, Miss Lucy? If yes, +there's the door!" + +"Can I help you?" Lucy was very pale; she felt sick, a little faint. + +"If ye were ye're mother, I should say _yes_----" + +"Then I'll stay," said Lucy. + +"'Twould be an ill thing if such a brave pair had produced a +chicken-livered lass, eh?" + +He did not speak again till everything there was to see had been seen, +till everything there was to do had been done; it seemed a very long +business to Lucy, and by the time the doctor had finished tears were +rolling down her face. How could she have thought that perhaps Mrs. +Rebell was not much hurt after all? "Now ye're just to have a good sip +of that brandy ye've been giving Mrs. Rebell. I'm well pleased with ye +both!" And when Lucy shook her head, he gave her such a look that she +hastened to obey him, and suddenly felt a flash of sympathy for +drunkards. How wonderful that a few spoonfuls of this horrid stuff +should check her wish to cry, and make her feel sensible again! + +As Doctor McKirdy unceremoniously signified that he could dispense with +her presence, as he unlocked the door for her to pass through, something +in Lucy's face made him follow her, unwillingly, into the passage. "What +is it?" he said sharply. + +"Oh, Doctor McKirdy! Do you think she will die?" + +"Die? Are ye mad, my poor lass? There's no question of such a thing. +She's more likely to die o' cold than anything else! Now go downstairs +and send your fine friend Mr. Boringdon and McGregor this way. We've got +to move her to the Queen's Room. There have been big fires there all +this week--regard for the furniture, the apple of Mrs. Turke's eye, I +said they were to get it ready--but we shall have a business getting her +down there." + + * * * * * + +The long, painful progress down the winding staircase was safely over. +Barbara was comfortably settled in the great square canopied bed, where, +if tradition could be believed, Queen Elizabeth and her less magnificent +successor had both, at intervals of fifty years, reposed. Madame +Sampiero's Scotch attendant was installed as nurse, and there was +nothing left for Lucy Kemp to do but to go home to her solitary +breakfast at the Grange. Boringdon, after having done his part, and a +very useful one, in lifting and carrying Mrs. Rebell down the two +flights, had retreated into the broad corridor, and was walking up and +down waiting--he himself hardly knew for what. + +But Doctor McKirdy had quite made up his mind as to the next thing to be +done. "Now then, you must just take Miss Kemp home again, and I charge +you to see that she has a good breakfast! Take her down through the +Park. The village will be a buzzing wasps' nest by this time; half of +them seem to think--so Mrs. Turke's just told me--that we're all burnt +to cinders! You just stay with the poor lass as long as you can, and +don't let Miss Vipen or any other havering woman get at her to be asking +her useless questions. If I want you I'll send to the Grange." + +And so it was to Doctor McKirdy that Lucy owed the happy, peaceful hours +spent by her that morning. Boringdon had dreaded the going back to the +Cottage, to his mother's excited questionings and reflections, to her +annoyance that he had gone to the Grange, rather than to her, for help. +He knew he would have to tell her everything. She was not a woman from +whom it was possible to conceal very much, and in the long run she +always got at the truth, but just now it was much to be able to put off +his return home. + +Dear Lucy! How good, how sensible, how _quiet_ she had been! She +stumbled over the porch flag-stone, and he drew her arm through his. So +together they walked down to the Grange. Oliver had never before +breakfasted with the Kemps; how comfortable, how homely everything was! +The eggs and bacon seemed crisper and fresher, also better, than those +ever eaten at the Cottage; the tea poured out by Lucy was certainly +infinitely nicer--not for a moment would Oliver have admitted that this +was owing to the fact of its being a shilling a pound dearer than that +made by his mother! + +Each tacitly agreed not to speak of all that had just happened at the +Priory. They talked of all sorts of other things. Lucy heard with +startled interest that Oliver was thinking very seriously of giving up +his land agency, and of going back, if it were in any way possible, to +London. What had become the great central desire of his life must never +be mentioned to any human being, not even to his dear friend Lucy, till +its realisation was possible--legally possible. But even to talk of his +plans, as he was now doing, was a comfort; his present listener, unlike +his mother, always seemed to understand his point of view, and to +realise why he had altered his mind without his being compelled to go +into tiresome explanations. + +After to-day Lucy and Mrs. Rebell would surely become friends. Even +within the last few days Barbara had said to him, "I should like to +see more of Miss Kemp. It was a pity she and her mother called when I +was away." He liked to think of these two in juxtaposition. If the +thought of life without Barbara was intolerable, not indeed to be +considered,--once she was free from that West Indian brute, his great +love must, in the long run, win return,--the thought of existence with +no Lucy Kemp as friend was distinctly painful. He, Barbara, and Lucy, +would all be happy; and then, not yet, but in some years to come, for +she was still so young, his and Barbara's friend would marry some good +honest fellow--not Laxton, no, but such a man as he himself had been +till Mrs. Rebell came to the Priory, one to whom Lucy's fortune would be +useful in promoting a public career. + +At last, about twelve, he reluctantly rose, and Lucy went with him to +the door. Suddenly it struck him that she looked very tired, "Lucy," he +exclaimed--they had just said good-bye, but he still held her +hand--"promise me that you will rest all this afternoon. Perhaps you +would be wiser to go to bed, and then no one--not even Miss Vipen--can +come and trouble you!" He spoke with his usual friendly--one of those +near and dear to Lucy would have described it as priggish--air of +authority. She drew away her hand, and laughed nervously,--but he again +repeated, "Please promise me that you will have a good rest." + +"I promise," said Lucy. + + * * * * * + +"I promise"--Lucy, sleeping restlessly through the winter afternoon and +evening, found herself repeating the two words again and again. What had +she promised? That she would rest. Well, she was fulfilling that +promise. As soon as Oliver had left her, she had gone up, full of +measureless lassitude, to bed. Then she would wake with a start to hear +Mrs. Rebell's imploring voice, "Promise--if I die--" and then, "No one +must know--" + +How would Mr. Berwick take the piteous message? Lucy had always felt +afraid of him, but she had promised-- + +Then came the comforting recollection of Doctor McKirdy's gruff whisper. +Oh no, poor Mrs. Rebell was not going to die, and she, Lucy, would never +have to redeem her promise. But if Mrs. Rebell cared for Mr. Berwick, +would not Oliver be unhappy? + +And Lucy, sitting up in bed, pushed her fair hair off her hot forehead. +The whole thing seemed so unreal! Barbara Rebell was not free to care +for anyone. Of course there were horrid women in the world who cared for +other people than their own husbands, though Lucy had never met any of +them, but she knew they existed. But those were the sort of women who +rouged and were "fast"--not gentle, kindly souls like poor brave Mrs. +Rebell. + +General and Mrs. Kemp, paying a short visit to Anglo-Indian friends who +had taken a house in the neighbourhood, little knew the physical and +mental ordeal to which their absence had exposed their darling. + + * * * * * + +Three days had gone by since the fire. Doctor McKirdy was quite honest +in telling Madame Sampiero that he was pleased and astonished at the +progress Barbara had made, and yet the paralysed woman felt that her old +friend was keeping something back. + +"What is it?" she muttered. "You are not telling me everything, +McKirdy!" + +And so he spoke out: "When a human being has gone through such an +experience as that of the other night, what we doctors have to fear, +quite as much as the actual injury,--which in this case, as I tell you, +is not so very bad, after all,--is shock." He paused, and his listener +made him feel, in some subtle fashion, that she could have well spared +this preamble. "Now, the surprising thing about Mrs. Rebell is that she +is _not_ suffering from shock! Her mind is so full of something else, +perhaps 'twould be more honest to say of someone else, that she has no +thought to spare for that horrid experience of hers. She is concerned, +very much so, about her appearance," the old Scotchman's eyes twinkled. +"There she's as much the woman as any of them! But she has good +nights--better nights, so she confesses, than she had before the fire. +There she lies thinking, not of flames mind you, but of--well, you know +of whom she's thinking! She's wondering if any of us have written and +told Jamie of the affair; she's asking herself how he'll take it, +whether he'll be hurrying back, whether, if he does come, she'll be +informed of it. Then there's Boringdon's fashing himself to bits, +wondering how long it will be before he is allowed to see her, trying to +get news of her in devious ways, even coming to me when all else fails! +Mrs. Kemp's lass is the only sensible one among 'em. I've been thinking +of getting her to come and sit with Mrs. Rebell for a bit, 'twould just +distract her mind----" + +So it was that Lucy Kemp received a note from Doctor McKirdy asking her +to be good enough to come and see Mrs. Rebell, and Mrs. Kemp was struck +with the eagerness with which the girl obeyed the call. + +Lucy's parents had found her still tired and listless when they came +back, cutting short their visit as soon as they heard the news of the +fire, and the part their daughter had played; but with the coming of the +old doctor's summons all Lucy's tiredness had gone--"If you will come up +after you have had your tea," so ran the note, "you might sit with her +an hour. I have ascertained that she would like to see you." + + + + + CHAPTER XIX. + + "Il n'y a rien de doux comme le retour de joie qui suit le + renoncement de la joie, rien de vif, de profond, de charmant, + comme l'enchantement du désenchanté." + + +Oliver Boringdon held in his hand the West Indian letter which he knew +was an answer to the one he had written to his brother-in-law rather +more than a month before. For nearly a week he had made it his business +to be always at home when the postman called, and this had required on +his part a certain amount of contrivance which was intensely +disagreeable to his straightforward nature. He had missed but one +post--that which had come on the morning of the fire at Chancton Priory. + +Three days had gone by since then, but his nerves were still quivering, +not yet wholly under his own control, and to such a man as Boringdon +this sensation was not only unpleasant, but something to be ashamed of. +The hand holding the large square envelope, addressed in the neat clear +writing of Andrew Johnstone, shook so that the letter fell, still +unopened, on the gravel at Oliver's feet. He stooped and picked it up, +then turned into the garden and so through a large meadow which led +ultimately to the edge of the downs, at this time of the year generally +deserted. Not till he was actually there, with no possibility of sudden +interruption, did he break the seal of his brother-in-law's thick +letter. + +At once he saw with quick disappointment that what had so weighted the +envelope was one of his sister Grace's long letters; her husband's note +only consisted of a few lines:-- + + "Grace insists on your being told more than I feel we are + justified in telling. Still, I believe her information is + substantially correct. There would be very serious difficulties + in the way of what you suggest. By next mail you shall know + more." + +For a moment he felt full of unreasoning anger against Johnstone. He had +asked a perfectly plain question--namely, whether it would not be +possible for Mrs. Rebell to obtain a divorce from the man of whom Grace +had given so terrible an account; and in answer to that question his +brother-in-law merely referred him to Grace and spoke of "serious +difficulties"! Well, whatever these were, they must be surmounted. +Oliver had already made up his mind to resign his post of agent to the +Chancton estate, and he would use his little remaining capital in going +out to Santa Maria, there to do what lay in his power to set Barbara +free. Again he glanced at Johnstone's laconic note, and between the +lines he read considerable disapproval of himself. He set his teeth and +turned to the sheets of paper covered with Grace's large handwriting. + +Then, in a moment, there leapt to his eyes a sentence which brought with +it such a rush of uncontrollable relief that the sensation seemed akin +to pain,--and yet he felt a species of horror that this was so, for the +words which altered his whole outlook on life were these:-- + +"My darling Oliver, Pedro Rebell is dying." + +What matter if Grace went on to qualify that first statement +considerably,--to confess that she only knew of the wretched man's +condition from a not very trustworthy source, but that before next mail +Andrew would go over himself, "though he does not like the idea of doing +so," to see if the report was well founded? "Andrew says," she went on, +"that of course it will be his duty to try and keep him alive." + +Boringdon beat the turf viciously with his stick, and then felt bitterly +ashamed of himself. + +Only one passage in his sister's letter gave definite information-- + + "Is it not odd that a place where they send consumptive people + from home should have so many native cases? Pedro Rebell treats + himself in the most idiotic manner--he is being actually + attended by a witch doctor! I am more glad than I can say that + poor Barbara got safe away before he became suddenly worse. + Andrew confesses that he knew the man was very ill when we moved + her here, but he said nothing, so like him, because he thought + that if Barbara knew she simply wouldn't leave the + plantation----" + +Again Oliver turned to Johnstone's note--"still, I believe that her +information is substantially correct;" it was curious how immensely that +one dry cautious sentence enhanced the value of Grace's long letter. + +Boringdon walked slowly back into the village by the lovely lane--lovely +even in its present leafless bareness--down which Doctor McKirdy had +accompanied Mrs. Rebell the first morning of her stay at the Priory +three months ago. Oliver recalled that first meeting; it had taken place +just where he was now walking, where the lane emerged on the open down. +He remembered his annoyance when Berwick had stared so fixedly at the +old Scotchman's companion. + +James Berwick! The evocation of his friend's peculiar, masterful +personality was not pleasant. But a slight, rather grim smile, came over +Boringdon's lips. The moment Mrs. Rebell became a widow, she would be +labelled "dangerous" in the eyes of James and Arabella Berwick. Oliver +had known something of the Louise Marshall episode, and, without for a +moment instituting any real comparison between the two cases, his mind +unconsciously drew the old moral, "The burnt child dreads the fire." If +it became advisable, but he did not think it at all likely that it +would, he would certainly tell Berwick the news contained in Grace's +letter. + +When passing the Priory gates, he met Lucy Kemp. "Mrs. Rebell must be +much better," she said gladly, "for Doctor McKirdy has asked me to go +and sit with her for an hour." Oliver turned and went with her up to the +porch of the great house, lingered a moment to receive the latest good +but colourless bulletin, and then walked down to the estate office. + +He had not been there many moments when a carriage dashed furiously up +the steep village street, the horses galloping past the window of the +room in which Boringdon sat writing. + + * * * * * + +Doctor McKirdy was waiting in the hall, and, as Lucy came forward rather +timidly, he looked at her not very pleasantly. "You've been a long +while," he said crossly, "a very long while, and who was it came with +you to the door? But I won't trouble ye to answer me, for I heard the +voice--I've heard it more than once this day. I doubt that ye ever were +told, Miss Lucy, of the bachelors' club to which Rabbie Burns belonged +as a youth. Membership was only conferred on the spark who could prove +his allegiance to more than one lass. Your friend Mr. Oliver Boringdon +would ha' been very eligible, I'm thinking!" + +"I don't think you have any right to say such a thing, Doctor McKirdy!" + +"Toots! Toots!" The doctor felt like a lion confronted with an angry +lamb; he saw he had gone too far. Bless us, what a spirit the girl had! +He rather liked her for it. "This way," he said, more amiably; "not so +far up as the other morning, eh? When you're with her, you just chatter +about the things ladies like to talk about--just light nonsense, you +know. No going back to the fire, mind! She doesn't trouble her head much +about it, and I don't want her to begin." + +He opened a door, and Lucy walked through into the beautiful room where +Barbara now lay, in the immense canopied bed, her left shoulder and arm +outlined by a wicker cage-like arrangement. Her hair was concealed by a +white hood, Léonie's handiwork, and, as Lucy drew near, she lifted her +free hand off the embroidered coverlet, and laid it on that of the girl. + +Doctor McKirdy stood by. "Well, I'll tell old Jean she needn't disturb +you for a bit, and now I'll be going home. You'll see me after supper." +He nodded his head, but Barbara, still holding Lucy's gloved hand, was +speaking. "You won't forget the _Scotsman_----" in her eagerness she +moved, and in doing so she suddenly winced. + +"Never fear it! But the one we want to see won't be here till to-morrow +afternoon--the meeting was only last night." He spoke in a very gentle +voice, and then walked quickly to the door. + +"Sit down just there, behind the leaf of the screen, and then I can see +you. I'm afraid I gave you a great fright the other night? How good you +were to me! Doctor McKirdy tells me that it might have been much worse, +and that I shall be all right in a few weeks----" + +Suddenly Barbara lifted her head a little,--"Miss Kemp! Lucy! What is +the matter?" + +"Nothing--nothing at all! Doctor McKirdy made a remark that annoyed me. +It is stupid of me to mind." Poor Lucy tried to smile, but her lips +quivered; she repeated, "It really was nothing, but you know how odd he +is, and--and rude, sometimes?" + +The sound of a carriage coming quickly up through the trees, and then +being driven more carefully round the broad sweep of lawn, and so to the +space before the porch, put an end to a moment of rather painful +silence. Then the bell pealed loudly through the house--a vigorous peal. +"Someone coming to inquire how you are," suggested Lucy diffidently, but +Barbara made no answer, she was listening intently. Would McGregor never +answer that insistent summons? At last they heard the front door being +opened, and then quickly shut again. Now the carriage was driving away, +quite slowly, in very different fashion from that of its arrival. + +Barbara closed her eyes, absurdly disappointed. What reason had she to +suppose that Berwick would hasten back as soon as he heard of the great +danger she had been in? And even if something in her heart assured her +that in this matter her instinct was not at fault, who would have +conveyed the news to him? Not Oliver Boringdon, not Doctor McKirdy? Poor +Barbara was very ignorant of the geography of her own country, but she +knew that Scotland was a long way off, and the most important of the +meetings he had gone there to attend had taken place only the night +before. + +But hark! there came a sound of quick muffled footsteps down the short +corridor. A knock at the door, and Berwick was in the room--Berwick, +haggard, sunken-eyed, bearing on his face, now ravaged with contending +feelings, a look of utter physical fatigue. For a moment he stood +hesitating. McGregor had told him that Miss Kemp was with Mrs. Rebell, +but, as he looked round with a quick searching look, the room seemed to +him to hold only Barbara--he saw nothing but Barbara's little head lying +propped up on a large pillow, her eyes, her lips smiling at him with an +odd look of deprecating tenderness, as if his being there was the most +natural thing in the world, and yet as if she understood the dreadful +night and day he had gone through, and felt grieved to think he was so +tired. + +Very slowly, still held by her eyes, he came forward, and as he sank on +his knees, and laid his cheek on the hand stretched out on the coverlet, +he saw with shuddering pain by what her other hand and arm were +concealed, and he broke into hard, difficult sobs. + +Lucy got up, and almost ran to the door,--she felt a passion of sympathy +and pity for them both. Then she waited in the corridor, wondering what +she ought to do--what Barbara would wish her to do. But that point, as +generally happens in this world, was settled for her. Doctor McKirdy +suddenly loomed in front of her, and even before she saw him, as the +staircase creaked under his heavy footsteps, Lucy heard him muttering +something to himself. + +"Then he's in there, eh? And they've sent you out here?" + +"Nothing of the sort!" said Lucy briefly: "I came out without being +sent." + +"Well, now, you must just go in again, and I'll follow. A fine thing it +would be for the jabbering folk of Chancton to learn of these crazy +comings and goings!" And, as Lucy made no haste to obey him, he added +sharply, "Now you just knock and open the door and walk right in. We +don't want old Jean to be the one to disturb them, eh?" + +Lucy knocked, and opened the door with hesitating fingers. What she then +saw was James Berwick quietly engaged in putting some coal on the fire; +as the girl and Doctor McKirdy came in, he did not look round, but went +on mechanically picking up the little lumps and putting them noiselessly +into the grate. + +"Well now, you've had two visitors, that's quite enough for one +day,"--the doctor spoke very gently. "Here's Miss Kemp come to say +good-bye, and Mr. Berwick no doubt will do himself the pleasure of +taking her to the Grange, for it's a very dark night." He added in an +aside, "I'm always finding you cavaliers, eh, Miss Lucy?" + +Berwick came forward: "Yes, of course I will! By the way, I'm staying +here to-night, so will you dine with me, McKirdy?" + +"Well, no, I don't think I will. By the way, I'll be staying here too, +and you'll do well to have your dinner in your bed, I'm thinking." He +followed Barbara's two visitors to the door: "I can't make out how you +ever did it, man, if it's true the meeting didn't break up till after +twelve----" + +For the first time Berwick laughed. "Come," he said, "where are your +wits? Specials, of course--and if we hadn't had a stupid, an inexcusable +delay at Crewe, I should have been here hours ago!" + +And then, without again looking at Barbara, he followed Lucy out into +the corridor, and down into the hall. + +"Just one moment, Miss Kemp. I must put on my boots. I took them off +before coming upstairs." + +"But I can go home alone perfectly well." + +"No, indeed! I should like to take you. Mrs. Rebell has been telling me +how good you were to her the other night." + +And not another word was said by him or by Lucy till they exchanged a +brief good-night at the Grange gate. + + * * * * * + +The Priory and its inmates settled down to a long period of quietude. +With the possible exception of Lucy Kemp and Oliver Boringdon--who both +called there daily--little or nothing was known in the village save that +Mrs. Rebell was slowly, very slowly, getting better. No Chancton gossip +could discover exactly how much she had been injured, and even Mrs. +Boringdon could learn nothing definite from her son. + +At last there came a day when the mistress of Chancton Cottage thought +she would make a little experiment. "Is it true that Mrs. Rebell is now +allowed to be downstairs?" + +"Yes." + +"Then you are seeing her, I suppose?" + +"Yes, sometimes, for a little while." + +"Parliament met last week, didn't it?" The question sounded rather +irrelevant. + +Oliver looked up: "Yes, mother, of course--on the fifteenth." + +"Then Mr. Berwick won't be able to be here so much. Miss Vipen tells me +that the village people all think he must be in love with Mrs. Rebell!" + +Mrs. Boringdon's words had an effect very different from what she had +intended them to have. They drew from her son neither assent nor denial, +but they confirmed and made real to him certain facts from which he had +shrunk, and which he had tried to persuade himself did not exist. For +five long weeks he had been alive to the knowledge that Berwick was +continually with Barbara--in fact, that he was with her whenever he +chose to be, excepting during those few moments when he, Boringdon, was +grudgingly allowed to have a few minutes' talk, generally in the +presence of some third person, with the invalid. The state of things at +the Priory had made the young man so wretched, so indignant, that more +than once he had felt tempted to attack Doctor McKirdy. What did they +all mean by allowing James Berwick to behave as if he were Mrs. Rebell's +brother instead of a mere acquaintance? + +And so Mrs. Boringdon's words spurred her son to do that which he had +hoped would not be necessary. They showed him that the time had come for +a clear explanation between himself and Berwick. He told himself that +the latter would probably be surprised to learn how his constant visits +to the Priory were regarded; still, the matter could not be to him one +of vital concern, and when once the man who had been for so many years +his friend told him how matters stood, he would surely leave Chancton. + +Boringdon thought he knew only too well James Berwick's peculiar moral +code; certain things he might be trusted not to do. Thus, Oliver had +heard him speak with condemnation of the type of man who makes love to a +happily-married woman, or who takes advantage of his amatory science to +poach on an intimate's preserves. Surely he would withdraw from this +strange sentimental friendship with Barbara Rebell the moment it was +made clear to him that she would soon be free,--free to be wooed and won +by any honest man, and, as a matter of fact, already loved by Boringdon, +his friend of so many years' standing? Accordingly, after a day or two +of painful hesitation, Oliver wrote a note, more formal in its wording +than usual, and asked Berwick for an appointment. + +He received his answer--life is full of such ironies--in Mrs. Rebell's +presence, on the day when she was allowed to take her first drive in the +little French brougham, which, as Boringdon noted with jealous eyes, had +been sent over for her use from Chillingworth. Oliver happened to come +up to the porch of the Priory as Berwick was actually settling her and +the grim Scotchwoman, Jean, into the carriage. Barbara was flushed and +smiling--a happy light in her eyes. "I'm so sorry to be going out just +now," she cried, "Will you come to tea this afternoon, Mr. Boringdon? +Miss Kemp is coming, and I shall be down in the Blue drawing-room for +the first time. To-day is a day of first times!" + +Then Berwick turned round: "I didn't answer your note because I thought +I should almost certainly be seeing you to-day. Would you like to come +over to Chillingworth this evening? Come to dinner, and we can have a +talk afterwards----" + +But Boringdon answered quickly: "Thanks, I won't come to dinner, I'll +turn up about nine." + + * * * * * + +And now Berwick sat waiting for Boringdon in the room where he had spent +the rest of the night after his drive with Barbara from Halnakeham +Castle. + +He was in that delightful state of mind which comes so rarely to +thinking mortals,--when the thinker wishes to look neither backwards nor +forwards. It was worth while to have gone through all he had gone +through, to have won such weeks as had been his! Nay more, he was in the +mood to tell himself that he would be content were life to go on as it +was now for ever and a day, were his relations with Mrs. Rebell to +remain as close, as tender--ay, even as platonic--as they had been +during that strange period of her convalescence. With what emotion, with +what sympathy she had described to him her interview with Lord Bosworth; +there had been such complete comprehension of his attitude, such keen +distress that Madame Sampiero had repulsed him! + +But, deep in Berwick's heart, something told him that Barbara's attitude +to him and to their joint future was changing, and that she was in very +truth on the eve of surrender. Nature, so he assured himself to-night +had triumphed over convention, and, as a still voice also whispered, +proved stronger than conscience. Berwick's own conscience was not ill at +ease, but he experienced many phases of feeling, and went through many +moods. + +Lately he had asked himself boldly whether there was any real reason why +he and Barbara should not repeat, in happier fashion, the example set +them by the two beings for whom they both had so sincere and--yes, it +might be said, reverent--an affection? Those two, Lord Bosworth and +Madame Sampiero, had shown that it was possible to be grandly faithful +to a tie unsanctioned by law, unsanctified by religious faith. Already +Berwick's love for Barbara had purified and elevated his nature; surely +together they might use his vast fortune to better purpose than he had +done alone, for he had long ago discovered how tender, how charitable +were all her impulses. Then, again, he would acknowledge to himself, +with something like impatient amazement, that he loved Barbara too well, +too intimately, to ask her to do violence to her sensitive, rather +scrupulous conscience. She could scarcely be more his own than he felt +her to be now. + +Of the man for whom he was now waiting, Berwick had long ago ceased to +be jealous. He felt ashamed to remember that he had ever been so; nay, +he now understood from Barbara that Boringdon liked Lucy Kemp. Was she +not just the sort of girl whom he would have expected such a man as +Oliver to choose for a wife? As to Barbara Rebell, of course Boringdon +had liked to be with her,--had been perhaps, if all the truth were +known, caught for a moment by her charm, as who could help being? But +Berwick was not in a mood to waste much thought on such speculations, +and no presentiment of what Oliver was coming to say to him to-night +shadowed his exquisite content, or his satisfaction with himself, with +the woman he loved, and with the whole of this delightful world. + +In fact, he thought he knew quite well why Boringdon wished to see him. +The head of the public department in which Oliver had begun his suddenly +interrupted career as a member of the Civil Service, had lately said to +Berwick, "So your friend Boringdon wants to come back to us? I think in +his case an exception might be made!" And Berwick had done what was in +his power to gratify the other's rather inexplicable wish to get once +more into official harness. The Chancton experiment had evidently been a +mistake. Boringdon had not possessed the qualities necessary for such a +post as that of land agent to Madame Sampiero; he had not understood, +or, if he had understood, he had not chosen to take, his friend's hint +to keep on the right side of old McKirdy. Well, it couldn't be helped! +Of course Oliver must feel the telling of his news rather awkward, but +he, Berwick, would meet him half way, and make it clear that, though he +was personally sorry Boringdon was leaving Chancton, he thoroughly +understood his reasons for doing so, and, what was more, sympathised +with them. + + * * * * * + +As it struck nine from the various clocks which had been a special hobby +of the man who had built Chillingworth, Boringdon walked in, and his +first abrupt words confirmed Berwick's belief concerning the subject of +their coming conversation: "I am leaving Chancton, and I felt that I +ought to tell you my determination before speaking to Madame Sampiero. +There seems a chance of my getting back to the old shop!" + +Berwick nodded his head; he pushed a large box of cigars across the +table which stood between them. "I know," he said, "I met Kingdon last +week, and by a word he let fall I gathered that you were thinking of +doing this. Well, of course I'm sorry, but I know you've done your best, +and after all no one could have foreseen how difficult the position +would be! I suppose they will have to go back to the unsatisfactory plan +with McKirdy." But at the back of the speaker's mind was the thought +that, if he was as much at the Priory as he hoped to be, he might +himself be able to look into things rather more-- + +Neither man spoke again for a few moments; then Boringdon got up, and +stood with his back to the fire, "But that," he said, "is not all I have +come to say to you. I am really taking this step because it is my +intention"--he hesitated, and Berwick perceived that a peculiarly dogged +expression had come over the dark, rather narrow face,--"I wish to tell +you that it is my intention," repeated Oliver, "to ask Mrs. Rebell to +become my wife." + +His host looked up at him with frank astonishment, and a good deal of +concern. "But, my dear fellow," he began rather hurriedly, "is it +possible that you don't know?----" + +"I know everything." Boringdon raised his voice, then went on more +calmly, "But I do not suppose that you yourself, Berwick, are aware that +Mrs. Rebell's husband is dying, that there is every chance that in a few +months, or perhaps in a few weeks, she will be a widow--free, that is, +to accept an offer of marriage." + +In one sense Boringdon had certainly succeeded in his object. More than +he was ever destined to know, his words, his revelation, had brought the +man before him sharp up to his bearings. James Berwick was both amazed +and discomfited by this unexpected piece of news, and for the moment it +made him very ill at ease. + +He had been playing with a tortoiseshell paper knife; suddenly it +snapped in two, and, with an oath, he threw the pieces down on the table +and got up from the chair in which he had been lying back. + +"Are you quite sure of your information?" he said slowly. "It's ill +waiting for dead men's shoes." Then he felt ashamed of what he had just +said, and he added, more to give himself time for thought than anything +else: "Have you any reason to suppose that Mrs. Rebell----?" Then he +stopped abruptly, realising that he had been betrayed into making a +remark which to Boringdon must seem an outrage. + +But the other had not apparently taken it in that sense. "No, I have no +reason to suppose that Mrs. Rebell has ever thought of such a thing. I +think far too well of her to suppose it for a moment," Oliver was +speaking very deliberately. "I received the news of the man's state +within a very few days of the fire at the Priory, and it has since been +confirmed. He has, it seems, some kind of bad chest disease, +accelerated, I fancy, by drink. As yet she knows nothing of it. Perhaps +I ought to add that I have no reason to suppose that she will accept the +offer I mean to make her as soon as a decent interval of time has +elapsed. But, on the other hand, I should like to assure you that if she +refuses me I intend to go on asking her. Nothing, short of her marriage +to someone else, will make me give her up." He repeated, and as he did +so Boringdon fixed his eyes on his friend with a peculiar, and what +Berwick felt to be a terrible, look: "Nothing--you understand me, +Berwick--nothing but her _marriage_ to another man." + +The speaker of these strange words took a step forward. For a moment the +two stood opposite one another. The man Barbara loved was a brave man, +but he quailed before the other's eyes. "I have now told you what I came +to say. Of late you seem to have become very intimate with Mrs. Rebell, +and I wish to warn you that the day may come when I shall require your +good offices. Good-night,"--and without offering to shake hands with +Berwick, Boringdon turned on his heel and left the room. + + + + + CHAPTER XX. + + "Shall I to Honour or to Love give way? + + * * * * * + + For, as bright day, with black approach of night, + Contending makes a doubtful puzzling light, + So does my Honour and my Love together + Puzzle me so I can decide on neither." + + SPENSER. + + +As time went on, as harsh winter turned into soft spring, Boringdon +tried to assure himself that his conversation with Berwick had achieved +all that he had hoped. + +James Berwick was certainly less often at the Priory, but this was +doubtless owing in a measure to the fact that he had to be constantly in +London, attending to his Parliamentary duties. Even now he was far more +frequently at Chancton than he had been the year before, and Oliver was +still jealous, sometimes intolerably so, for some subtle instinct told +him that he was on a very different footing with Mrs. Rebell from that +on which she stood with Berwick. As to his own relation with the man +with whom his intimacy had once been so close, it had become, since +their conversation, that of mere formal acquaintance. Mrs. Boringdon +felt sure there had been a quarrel, but she was afraid to ask, so +taciturn, so unapproachable, had her son become. + +Oliver had one subject of consolation. To the amazement of those about +her, with the exception perhaps of Doctor McKirdy, the paralysed +mistress of the Priory now caused herself to be moved down each day to +the Blue drawing-room, and this, as Boringdon of course realised, made +it very difficult for James Berwick, when at Chancton, to see much of +Mrs. Rebell alone. + + * * * * * + +And Barbara? To her, as to Berwick, the weeks which had immediately +followed the fire had been a time of deep content and tranquil +happiness. She was well aware that there must come a day of painful +reckoning; but, unlike Berwick, she put off the evil moment of making up +her mind as to what form that reckoning would take. + +She looked back with a kind of shrinking horror to the mental struggle +she had gone through before the accident which had so wholly changed all +the circumstances of her life. Those days when she believed that Berwick +would never return to her were ill to remember. Then had come the fire, +followed by hours of physical pain and terror of death, but now she +looked back on those hours with positive gratitude, for they had surely +brought an experience nothing else could have given her. + +At once, with a resistless, quiet determination which had constrained +those about Barbara into acquiescence, Berwick had established his right +to be with her. The putting on of the coal--that act of service on the +first evening--had been, so Doctor McKirdy later told himself with a +twist of his thin lips, symbolic of what was to be his attitude to the +Queen's Room and its present inmate. Berwick soon came and went as +freely as if he had been the invalid's twin brother, or he a father, and +Barbara his sick child,--with, however, the one significant exception +that both he and she refrained wholly from caress. + +The old Scotchman won a deep and an abiding place in the hearts of the +two over whom he threw, during these days, the ample mantle of his +eccentricity and masterful disposition. He moved over to the Priory, +occupying a room close to Berwick's, and in some odd fashion he made +each member of the large household believe that it was by his order and +wish that Berwick was so often with his patient, concerning the extent +of whose injury many legends grew, for she was only tended by Scotch +Jean, French Léonie, Doctor McKirdy, and--James Berwick. And so it was +that, as often happens with regard to events which none could have +foretold, and which would have been described before they occurred as +clearly impossible, what went on excited, at any rate within the Priory, +no comment. + +The strange situation which had arisen did not pass wholly without +outside remark. Lucy Kemp at first came daily--indeed, sometimes twice a +day--to sit with Barbara and to read to her; and though at those times +Berwick kept out of the Queen's Room, there came a moment in Barbara's +illness when she perceived, with a sad feeling of humiliation, that +Lucy's visits were being curtailed, also that she never came to the +Priory unaccompanied. + +To the girl herself her father's sudden stern objection to her daily +visits to Mrs. Rebell had been inexplicable,--even more so her mother's +refusal to discuss the question. Then a word said before her by Mrs. +Boringdon, a question put to Oliver as to James Berwick's prolonged stay +at Chancton, had partly opened Lucy's eyes. + +"Do you dislike my going to see Mrs. Rebell because Mr. Berwick is +there?" + +With some hesitation Mrs. Kemp answered her: "Yes, my dear, that is the +reason your father does not wish you to go to the Priory so often." + +And then Lucy had turned and asked one of those questions, difficult to +answer truthfully to one who, even if in her parents' eyes a child, was +yet a woman grown: "Mother, I want to ask you something. Is it very +wrong, always wrong, for a woman to like another man better than she +likes her husband? How can she help it if the man to whom she is married +is such a man as Mr. Pedro Rebell seems to be?" + +But Mrs. Kemp answered with unwonted decision and sharpness: "There is a +moment--there is always a moment--when the matter is in a woman's own +hands and conscience. And in any case, Lucy, two wrongs don't make a +right!" + +And with this the girl had to be content, but the question made Mrs. +Kemp more than ever determined to discontinue her daughter's growing +intimacy with poor Barbara. First Oliver Boringdon, and then James +Berwick,--this Mrs. Rebell must indeed be an unfit friend for her little +Lucy! + +To Madame Sampiero, who lay at the other end of the corridor out of +which opened the Queen's Room, the doctor would sometimes declare, "I've +little mind for the part I am playing." But when she answered, with +perplexity and fear in her large blue eyes, "Why then do you play it?" +he would content himself with shrugging his shoulders, and muttering +between his teeth, "Because I'm a sentimental old fool!" + +But, whatever the reason, so well had Doctor McKirdy managed the +extraordinary situation, that not till Mrs. Rebell was promoted to +getting up and coming downstairs, did the long hours spent by Berwick in +her company provoke the kind of gossip which had finally reached the +ears of Mrs. Boringdon. Even then what was repeated had been said in +jest. Was it likely, so the humble gossips of Chancton would have +declared, that such a gentleman as Mr. Berwick would fancy a lady who +was by all accounts half burnt to a cinder! + + * * * * * + +When Madame Sampiero had suddenly made up her mind to be moved +downstairs, Barbara knew that the old Scotchman and her god-mother had +entered into a conspiracy to put an end to what she considered her +innocent, if peculiar, intimacy with James Berwick. There took place in +her heart a silent, but none the less strong, movement of passionate +revolt,--she thought this attempt to check their friendship the more +cruel inasmuch as Berwick had to be away a good deal and could only now +and again snatch a day from London. Still, it was then, not perhaps till +then, that Mrs. Rebell began to foresee the logical outcome of the +situation into which she had allowed herself to drift. + +Every day came his letters,--nearly always more than one together, by +each of the two daily posts,--but he never asked her--significant +omission--to answer them, for had she done so, all Chancton must have +known of the correspondence. And yet all the world might have seen the +letters Barbara cherished, and on which her heart lived from day to day; +they were a diary of the writer's doings, a history of what was going on +in the House, such brief, intimate notes as many a politician writes +daily to his wife. + +A woman is always quicker to perceive certain danger-signals than is a +man. Barbara was aware of the change of attitude in Doctor McKirdy and +in Madame Sampiero long before Berwick noticed it. That these two could +threaten or destroy his intimacy with Mrs. Rebell had never occurred to +him as being possible. On the other hand, he had resented deeply +Boringdon's interference, and, as far as was possible, he put out of his +mind what had been undoubtedly intended as a threat. The reminder that +Pedro Rebell lived had been an outrage; that Barbara's husband was +mortal, nay, on the eve of death, a piece of information which Berwick +could have well spared. For the present he was content, as was +apparently Barbara, to let things drift on as they were. + + * * * * * + +But there came a day when, after a long afternoon spent by them both in +Madame Sampiero's company, Berwick asked Barbara with sudden deep +irritation, "Why is it that we never seem to be alone together? I have +hardly spoken to you since I have been here! Is it impossible for you to +leave Madame Sampiero? Is there no room in the whole of this great house +where we can talk together in peace? I have a thousand things to say to +you!" + +They were on their way to the dining-room, there to be respectfully +chaperoned by McGregor, and Barbara had no answer ready. Suddenly +looking into her downcast face, he understood the unspoken answer to his +imperious questioning, and his eyes flashed wroth. And yet what could he +do? He could not, nay, he would not, ask her to stoop to any kind of +deception, to make secret assignations outside the house. On the other +hand, he no longer felt "on honour" as regarded the woman he loved; even +less was he bound to consider the feelings of Madame Sampiero. + +So it came to pass that Berwick was less often at the Priory; his +letters to Barbara altered in tone, and became those of an ardent, of an +impatient lover. Sometimes Barbara wondered whether he possessed secret +means of his own for knowing all that went on at the Priory, and of +obtaining news of its inmates. Occasionally she would be surprised, even +amused, at his apparent knowledge of little incidents which occurred +during his absences. The source of his information, if it was as she +suspected, must of course be Mrs. Turke! Mrs. Rebell felt a little +afraid of the old woman, of her far-seeing, twinkling eyes, and of her +sly hilarity of manner; she kept as much as possible out of the +housekeeper's way. + +To Boringdon, who came with pertinacious regularity, Barbara gave +scarcely any thought, save perhaps to wonder why Lucy Kemp was so fond +of him. In old days, when he had talked to her of politics, and of +things in which she had begun to take a new and keen interest, she had +liked to listen to him; but now he seemed tongue-tied when in her +presence, and she perceived that he was no longer on good terms with +James Berwick. + +With Madame Sampiero, Barbara's relations also seemed to have become +less affectionate, less intimate, than before the fire, and this +troubled them both. Mrs. Rebell knew herself to be the subject of +anxious thought on the part of her god-mother; for what other reason +than that of protecting her from some imaginary danger had Madame +Sampiero altered the habits of dignified seclusion to which she had +remained rigidly faithful for so many years? She did not see--or was it +that she saw only too well--the force of her own past example on such a +nature as that of her god-daughter? But it was too late now to try and +separate Barbara Rebell from the one human being who made life worth +living, and sometimes the younger woman longed to tell her so. + +At last there came a break in the monotony of a life which was beginning +to tell on Barbara's health and nerves. At the end of one of Berwick's +short, unsatisfactory visits, he mentioned that he would not be able to +come down again for another two or three weeks. + +And when he was gone, after a cold, estranged farewell, uttered perforce +in the presence of Madame Sampiero, Barbara turned her face away to hide +her tears. + +Almost at once her god-mother asked her, "Would you not like to go away, +with Léonie, to Paris for a few days?" She caught with feverish relief +at the proposal; it was good, it was more than kind, of Marraine to +suggest so delightful a plan! But she would prefer, honestly so, to go +alone, not to take the old French servant whom in her heart she well +knew the paralysed woman could ill spare. It would have been a great +pleasure to Barbara to have had the company of Lucy Kemp, but she had +not dared suggest it, being afraid of a refusal. If she could not have +Lucy for a companion, she felt she would rather go alone. And Madame +Sampiero had at last consented to this modification of her plan,--a plan +which had not met with Doctor McKirdy's approval, but as to which his +old friend, as was usually the case, got her own way. + + * * * * * + +And now had come the last night but one before Mrs. Rebell's departure. +She felt excited and pleased at the thought of the little holiday. +Berwick had evidently been told as soon as the household knew of her +coming journey, and yet, when writing, he had only once alluded to it, +and she had felt rather hurt, for to herself it was a matter of much +moment. This journey would be, in a sense, a pilgrimage; Barbara meant +to go to some of the places, within easy reach of Paris, where she and +her parents had spent most of their exile. During the last few days she +had passed much time in discussion with Doctor McKirdy as to what she +was to see, and in helping him to draw up a little plan of the places +she was to go to,--Versailles, St. Germains, Fontainebleau, with all of +which she had cherished associations! The moments went by so quickly +that, for the first time for many weeks, Barbara thought but little of +Berwick, and of her own strange relation to him. + +Now she was on her way to bed. She would have only two more nights in +the Queen's Room, for she had herself insisted that a humbler apartment, +but still one on the same floor as that of Madame Sampiero, should be +found for her, and the change was to take place on her return. She +looked round the beautiful room which had become to her a place of so +many memories, and as she did so a shadow came over her face. Would she +ever again be as happy as she had been in this room, so simply, +childishly content as during those days when she had lain on the great +canopied bed, while those about her ministered to her slightest +wish--when she had been the spoiled darling of Doctor McKirdy, of the +grim Scotch nurse, and last, not least, of James Berwick? + +There came a knock at the door--a hesitating, low knock, very unlike +that of Jean or Léonie. Barbara suddenly felt an odd pang of fear: "Come +in," she cried loudly,--what, after all, had she to be afraid of? + +There was a pause, and then Mrs. Turke, resplendent in the bright yellow +gown in which Barbara Rebell had first seen her, advanced tip-toeing +into the room. "Hush, Ma'am--I don't want anyone to hear us! Will you be +pleased to come down at once to my parlour? There's someone there been +waiting such a time, and most anxious to see you--!" + +Barbara seemed in no hurry to follow the old woman; a look of suffering, +of humiliation, came over her face. Must she and Berwick stoop to this? + +But Mrs. Turke was in an agony of impatience. "He's got to go back this +very night!" she whispered, and the jovial, sly look faded from her +rubicund face. "He's walked all the way from Halnakeham, that he has, in +the pouring rain, and he's wet through, that he is! Am I to tell him +that you won't come down then?" and she pretended to edge towards the +still open door. + +"No," said Barbara irresolutely, "of course I am coming down--" + +Mrs. Turke's account of Berwick's long walk in the rain had done its +work, and yet shame of a very keen quality almost blotted out Mrs. +Rebell's joy at the thought of seeing him, and of seeing him--the first +time for weeks--without fear of interruption. + +As she went quickly down, following Mrs. Turke's ample person, and so +through the stone corridors of what had been the mediæval monastery, +Barbara's heart softened strangely. Had he not made this hurried journey +to bid her good-bye, God-speed? And she had thought he did not care-- + +Mrs. Turke knew her place far too well to risk being present at the +meeting in her parlour. She stopped at the foot of the short flight of +stairs leading up to her own bedroom and Berwick's old nursery, but +Barbara clung to the fat, ring-laden hand: "Do come, Mrs. Turke,--I am +sure Mr. Berwick will want to see you----" + +"Bless you, _no_, Ma'am, that he won't! Why, I declare your hand's +burning! There's nothing to be afraid of, he's a most reasonable +gentleman, he wouldn't hurt a hair of your pretty head!" + +And then, rather to the old housekeeper's surprise, Mrs. Rebell suddenly +let go her hand, and walked forward, alone, down the passage. + +When she reached the door of the room to which she was bound, she +stopped irresolutely. But Berwick had been listening; he flung open the +door, and as she crossed the threshold he bent forward and took her +hands in a tight grip. + +Barbara said nothing, but she looked at him rather sadly, and as she did +so she perceived that he was dressed in a rough shooting suit she had +often seen him wear the autumn before. She understood, without a word, +that it was worn to-night as a half disguise,--he wished no one to know +of this secret visit to the Priory,--and again a feeling of shame, of +humiliation, swept over her. And yet how glad she was to see him, how +infinitely dear he had become to her! + +Suddenly she felt herself being drawn,--nay driven,--into the shelter of +his arms. His lips trembled on her closed eyelids, were pressed on the +slight scar left by the burn on her forehead, and then swiftly sought +and found her soft quivering mouth----. But even then Berwick was very +gentle with her, taking care to bruise neither the soul nor the body of +the creature who was now, at last, completely subject to his will. + +Barbara tried to withdraw herself from his arms, but he still held her +to him with a passion of mute feeling in his eyes; and then, while +looking down at her strangely, as if wishing to see into her very heart, +he suddenly exclaimed "Barbara, this can't go on! What is to happen to +you and to me? As long as they left us alone I was content--ah no, not +content, but submissive. But now? Do you think it is pleasant for me to +do what I have had to do to-night,--to come here like a thief? While I +was waiting for you, I told myself that doubtless you would refuse to +come down. I had no right to ask you to come to me. It is I--I--who +should always come to you----" + +He had released her, and drawn himself away. Now he was speaking with a +tired bitterness which frightened her, and in a moment the desire to +soothe, to comfort him, drove out from her every thought of self. "Of +course I came down,--I will always come when you want me," she smiled at +him with a look of shy, wistful tenderness. + +"Will you? Always? Is that true? Oh! Barbara, if I could only believe +you mean those words, I could find courage to ask you--to say to +you----" + +"What do you want to say to me?" Her voice sank to a whisper; then, +seized with a sudden rush of love, of pity, of self-abnegation, she +added, "Nay, I will tell you! You have come to ask of me what Lord +Bosworth must once have come to ask of Madame Sampiero, and, like her, I +will say, yes,--" she covered her face with her hands. + +And then she listened, very quietly, while Berwick told her, with broken +words of passionate gratitude and endearment, of the plan which he had +scarcely dared to believe he would have courage to propose. She knew he +had a house, an old hunting lodge built by Louis XIII., on the edge of +the Forest of St. Germains. It was a curious solitary pavilion, bought +by his father as a very young man, and dear to Berwick and his sister as +having been the scene,--the speaker's accents became more deeply +tender,--of their parents' honeymoon. Within a drive of this enchanting +spot was the little town of Poissy, where the mail train could be made +to stop and where, the day after to-morrow, he would be waiting-- + +Barbara sat listening. She had raised her head and was staring straight +before her. Berwick looked at her with entreating eyes--"It is close to +Paris! Besides, they know you will be moving about." + +"It is not that," she spoke with difficulty, hardly knowing why she felt +so torn by conflicting feelings of shame and pain. Perhaps it was only +because the evocation of St. Germains brought the presence of her mother +before her. + +She tried to tell herself that she had known that this would--nay, +must--happen. The battle had been fought and lost before to-night. +During the long solitary days Barbara had just lived through, she had +acknowledged that she could not give up Berwick,--rather than that they +must inevitably come to do what Lord Bosworth and Madame Sampiero had +done. And yet this discussion, the unfolding of this plan, filled her +with humiliation and misery. "When I come back," she said, looking at +him, for the first time straight in the eyes, "I shall have to tell my +god-mother--and--and Doctor McKirdy the truth." + +"You will do what you wish. We shall both do exactly what you think +right, my dearest!" Berwick could hardly believe in his own amazing good +fortune, and yet he also felt ill at ease. "Barbara," he said suddenly, +"before I go--and I ought to be going now, for I shall cross to France +to-morrow--I want to tell you something----" + +"Something else?" there was a tone of appeal in her voice. + +"Yes, it will not take long. Perhaps I ought to have begun by doing so. +Some time ago Oliver Boringdon made me a curious confidence. He told me +that, were you ever free to marry, he meant to make you an offer, and if +you refused,--he was good enough to intimate that he thought this quite +possible,--to go on doing so at intervals unless you became the wife of +another man!" + +Barbara looked at him, and then began to laugh helplessly, though the +words had jarred on her horribly. "Oliver Boringdon? You can't have +understood; how dared he say such a thing--about me?" and the tears ran +down her cheeks. + +"Nay, he was right, perhaps, to say what he did. In any case I am sure +you ought to know--it was my duty to tell you." + +"But why?" cried Barbara. "Why?" + +"A sop," he said with sudden sharpness, "to my own conscience." + +But conscience proved an unappeased, upbraiding companion during James +Berwick's four-mile walk to Halnakeham station. + + + + + CHAPTER XXI. + + "They have most power to hurt us whom we love; + We lay our sleeping lives within their arms." + + BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER. + + +A short avenue of chestnut trees, now in their scented glory of +rose-pink blossom, hid the square red-brick hunting lodge, still known +by its pre-Revolution name of Le Pavillon du Dauphin, from the broad +solitary roadway skirting the Forest of St. Germains. Under this avenue +James Berwick, his hands clasped behind him, his eyes bent on the +ground, was walking up and down the morning of the day he was expecting +Barbara to join him. + +It was seven o'clock--not early, according to French hours, for now and +again the heavy wheels of a market cart, the jingling of the tiny bells +hung on to the blue worsted-covered harness, the neighing of the horses, +would break on his ear, and serve to remind him that he was in +France--in the land where, if long tradition speaks truly, the thing +that he was about to do would find many more honest apologists than in +his own; in France which had given, close to this very spot, so +magnificent a hospitality to his own Stuart ancestors. All about him lay +the deep, mysterious, unbroken calm of the great forest; every trace of +last summer's merrymakers--if, indeed, such people ever made their way +to this, the further edge of the wooded peninsula,--had been completely +obliterated. What more enchanting spot could be found in the wide world +to form the setting of what he believed would be a life-long romance? + +Like most men, he had always seen something offensive, almost grotesque, +in the preliminaries now usual to conventional marriage. Heavens! what a +lack of imagination had the modern bride and bridegroom! Especially in +England--especially in his own class. Here the mating birds, amid +awakening spring, would sing his own and Barbara's epithalamium. + +And yet Berwick was not happy, as he had thought to be, to-day. Again +and again during the long wakeful night he had just passed he had caught +himself wondering whether his uncle, at the beginning of his long +intimacy with Madame Sampiero, had felt such scruples as these which now +tormented him. If so, they had soon vanished; Lord Bosworth, during many +years, had been supremely content with life, and all that life brought +him. + +Perhaps he, Berwick, was made of more scrupulous stuff. To-day he had to +face the fact that in his cup of honey there was a drop of exceeding +bitterness. The knowledge that Boringdon might be mistaken,--that +Barbara might, after all, never be free,--made the matter scarcely more +tolerable. Oliver had so spoken that at the time his words had carried +conviction. Berwick asked himself why he had not told her the whole +truth, and then let her be the judge as to what they should do. He had +always been aware that there were the two streaks in his character--the +two Stuart streaks--that of extreme nobility, and that which makes a man +capable of acts of inexplicable betrayal. + +In vain he tried to persuade himself that now was too late to change. +Human nature has its limits; in a few hours Barbara would be here, and +with quickening pulses he tried to think only of the immediate future. +Later on, there would--there must--come inevitable pain and difficulty; +they would have to face the reproachful gaze of Madame Sampiero, the +undoubted disapproval of Lord Bosworth, and yet whose example were he +and Barbara now about to follow? + +The present was his own, no one--no one, that is, but himself--could +deprive him of to-day's completed joy; and yet he would have given much +to hasten the march of the lagging hours, to sleep, to dream the time +away. Perhaps, when he was in the actual presence of the woman he loved +with a depth of feeling which, to a certain extent, purified and +rendered selfless his longing for her, he would find courage to tell her +the whole of what Boringdon had said-- + +This concession to his conscience lightened his heart, and he looked +with leisurely and pleased gaze at the finely proportioned building--a +miniature replica of what the central portion of the Palace of +Versailles must have looked like in the days of Louis XIII. No wonder +the curious, stately little pavilion had caught the fancy of his +father--that whimsical, unfortunate Charles Berwick, whose son thought +of him far oftener than he had ever done as a younger man. The Pavilion +du Dauphin, put up for sale in one of France's many political +convulsions, had only cost its English purchaser twenty thousand francs; +and now each year Berwick received an offer from the French Government +to buy the place back at five times that sum! He always refused this +offer, and yet he came there but seldom, sometimes in the autumn for a +few days, occasionally, perhaps once in two or three years, with +Arabella. Since the death of his own mother, no woman save James +Berwick's sister had enjoyed the rare charm of the old hunting lodge. + +The building was not fitted for ordinary life. It consisted of two vast +central rooms,--that above the central hall being little more than a +loft,--out of which opened smaller apartments, each and all bearing +traces of the prodigal wealth and luxurious fancy of that fermier +général into whose acquisitive hands the place had drifted for a while +during the last half of the eighteenth century. It was he, doubtless, +who had added the painted ceilings, the panels which Berwick's father +believed had been painted by Nattier, and which, if this were so, would +have made the Pavilion du Dauphin a bargain even at the price which +Berwick yearly refused for it. + +When Arabella was there, the brother and sister managed very well +without English servants, done for, and that most adequately, by an old +garde de chasse, Jean Lecerf, and his wife, whom Berwick paid generously +for looking after the property during the winter months of the year. + +This old couple,--with the solitary exception of Lord Bosworth, who +rarely alluded to his younger brother,--were the only people who ever +spoke to Berwick and his sister of their parents. Those eccentric +parents, whose marriage had been in itself a wilful, innocent romance, +culminating in a runaway wedding, had spent five summers here, bringing +with them, after the first year, their baby daughter. The stories the +Lecerfs had to tell of that time lost nothing in the telling! + +Mère Lecerf--a name generic of the soil in that part of Northern +France--knew very little of her present employer, saving the agreeable +fact that he must be very rich. She was quite unaware that he was a +widower, and she had accepted with apparent satisfaction, and quaintly +expressed felicitations, the story he had seen fit to tell her within an +hour of his arrival the day before--namely that he was now married, and +that his wife was coming to join him for a few days! + +Berwick would have preferred to make no such explanation, but something +had to be said, and, after all, would not he henceforth regard Barbara +Rebell as in very truth his honoured, his cherished wife? + +He walked from the outside air into the spacious room, into which the +morning sun was streaming through the one immense window which gave on +to a steep clearing, now carpeted with the vivid delicate green of +lily-of-the-valley leaves. One of the qualities which had most delighted +him in Barbara during the early days of their acquaintance had been her +perception of, and delight in, natural beauty. How charmed she would be +with this place! How the child which had awakened in her would revel in +the strangeness of a dwelling-place which so little resembled the +ordinary conventional house! + +Groups of fair shepherdesses, each attended by her faithful swain, +smiled down from the pale grisaille walls, but close to the deep +chimney,--indeed, fixed inside, above the wooden seat--was a reminder of +an age more austere, more creative than that of Nattier. This was a +framed sheet of parchment--a contemporary copy of Plantin's curious +sonnet, "Le Bonheur de ce Monde," whose _naif_ philosophy of life has +found echoes in many worthy hearts since it was first composed by the +greatest of Flemish printers. + + "Avoir une maison, commode, propre, et belle, + Un jardin tapissé d'espaliers odorans, + Des fruits, d'excellent vin, peu de train, peu d'enfants, + Posséder seul sans bruit une femme fidèle. + + "N'avoir dettes, amour, ni procès, ni querelle, + Ni de partage à faire avecque ses parens, + Se contenter de peu, n'espérer rien des Grands, + Régler tous ses desseins sur un juste modèle. + + "Vivre avecque franchise et sans ambition, + S'adonner sans scrupule à la dévotion, + Domter ses passions, les rendre obéissantes. + + "Conserver l'esprit libre et le jugement fort, + Dire son Chapelet en cultivant ses entes, + C'est attendre chez soi bien doucement la mort." + +With the exception, perhaps, of three or four lines, Berwick now found +himself in unexpected agreement with old Plantin's analysis of human +happiness. + +And Barbara? Ah! she undoubtedly would agree with almost every word of +it; he caught himself wondering whether the position he had won, and +which he owed in a measure,--perhaps in a very great measure,--to his +wife's fortune, would be really forfeited, were he to become again a +comparatively poor man. Berwick had by no means forgotten what it was to +be straitened in means; and he realised that want of substantial wealth +had been a great bar even to Lord Bosworth. Still, oddly enough, the +thought of giving up his wealth for the sake of Barbara was beginning to +appeal to his imagination. He went so far as to tell himself that, had +he come across her as a girl, he would of course have married her, and +forfeited his large income without a regret. + +So it was that, during the long solitary spring day, spent by him almost +wholly in the forest, Berwick experienced many phases of acute and +varying feeling, most of which tended to war with the course to which he +was being inexorably driven by his sense of honour rather than by his +conscience. + +But for Boringdon's revelation as to Pedro Rebell's state, Berwick's +conscience would have been at ease. So much he had the honesty to admit. +Apart from that one point which so intimately involved his honour, he +was without scruple, and that although he loved Barbara the more for +being, as he well knew she was, scrupulous, and, as he thought, +conscience-ridden. Nothing, so he told himself again and again during +those hours of fierce battle, could alter the fact that she belonged to +him in that special sense which is, as concerns a man and a woman, the +outcome of certain emotional experiences only possible between two +natures which are drawn to one another by an over-mastering instinct. + +In the days that followed the fire at Chancton Priory, there had arisen, +between Berwick and Barbara, a deep, wordless intimacy and communion, +which at the time had had the effect of making him divine what was in +her mind, with a clearness which had struck those about them as being +actually uncanny. And yet it was then, during those days, that Berwick +had sworn to himself that his love was pure and selfless in its essence. +As she had lain there, her hand quivering when it felt his touch, every +gross element of his nature had become fused and refined in the clear +flame of his passion. It had been during these exquisite, to him sacred +moments, that he had told himself that on these terms of spiritual +closeness and fusion he would be content to remain. + +But alas! that mood had quickly changed; and the interview with +Boringdon had reawakened the violent primeval instinct which had +slumbered,--only slumbered,--during the illness of Barbara. The +knowledge that another man loved her, with an ordinary, natural love by +no means free from that element of physical attraction which Berwick +himself had been striving, not unsuccessfully, to control in his own +heart, had had a curious effect upon him. His soul, ay, and something +much less spiritual and more tangible than his soul, rushed down from +Heaven to earth, and he began to allow himself, when in the company of +the woman he loved, certain experiments, slight, almost gossamer in +texture, but which he would afterwards recall with a strange mingling of +shame and rapture, for they proved him master of that most delicate and +sensitive of human instruments, a pure and passionate heart. + +The wide solitary glades carpeted with flowers, the chestnut groves, +skirting the great avenue of firs, which is one of the glories of the +Forest,--everything to-day seemed to minister to his passion, to bring +Barbara Rebell vividly before him. Coming on a bank from whose mossy +surface sprang high, delicately tinted windflowers, Berwick was suddenly +haunted by a physical memory--that of Barbara's movement of surrender +two days before. Again he felt her soft quivering mouth yielding itself +to his lips, and, still so feeling, he suddenly bent down and put these +lips, now sanctified, to the cool petals of a windflower. Was it a sure +instinct which warned him that Barbara's love for him, even if it +contained every element the natural man seeks to find in his mate, was +so far governed by conscience that she would never be really content and +unashamed so long as they were outside the law? More, if Boringdon were +right, if Pedro Rebell were indeed dying, and Barbara became in time +James Berwick's wife, would she ever forget, would she ever cease to +feel a pang of pain and remorse in, the fact of this episode, and of the +confession which would--which must--follow after? He had to ask himself +whether he was prepared to cast so dark a shadow over the picture of +these days, these hours, which her mind would carry into all the future +years of their lives. + + * * * * * + +More difficult, because far more subtle and unanswerable, was the +knowledge that Boringdon might after all have been wrong, and that +Barbara might never be free. In that case, so Berwick with fierce +determination told himself, he would be fool indeed to retard the +decisive step which would resolve what had already become, both to him +and to Barbara, if the truth were to be faced honestly, an intolerable +situation. + +But in his heart Berwick knew well that Oliver Boringdon had spoken the +truth. Even now, to-day, release might have come, and Barbara might be a +free woman. Slowly, painfully, as he fought and debated the question +with himself, he became aware that only one course was compatible with +his own self-respect. + +A secret misgiving, a hidden, unmentionable dread, which would have +troubled, perhaps with reason, many a man in Berwick's position, was +spared this man. He knew that he need have no fear that Barbara would +misunderstand, or question, even in her heart of hearts, his sacrifice. +It would not be now, but later, that she would suffer,--when they went +back to their old humiliating position at Chancton, as lovers +unacknowledged, separated, watched. + +And so, at last, the outcome of the struggle which saw him go through so +many different moments of revolt and sharp temptation, was that Berwick +brought himself to envisage that immediate renunciation, which seemed so +much more difficult to face than did the further, if less poignant, +sacrifice which still lay in the distant future, when, to make Barbara +his wife, he would give up so much that had hitherto, or so he had +thought, made life worth living. + +Slowly he made his way back to the Pavilion du Dauphin, there to set +himself grimly to do all that was possible to make his decision, if not +irrevocable, then most difficult of revocation. Mère Lecerf was abruptly +told that as her master must leave the hunting lodge that night she must +arrange to come and sleep there, in order that "Madame" should not be +alone in the solitary building. But that, as Berwick well knew, was by +no means enough, for Mère Lecerf would acquiesce in any change of plan +with joyful alacrity. + +So it was that six o'clock saw him passing into the Pavilion Henri IV., +the famous hostelry which terminates the long Terrace of St. Germains. +There he was well known, and could, in his present mood, have well +spared the delight with which his orders were received, as also the few +sentences in which the landlady's young daughter aired her English. "But +how so! Of course! The most beautiful of our rooms shall be ready for +Monsieur's occupation. Perhaps for three nights? La, la! What a short +sojourn! A carriage now, at once? Another one to be at the Pavilion du +Dauphin this evening? But yes, certainly!" + + * * * * * + +Barbara, stepping down from the high French railway carriage, looked +about her with a strange shrinking and fear in her dark eyes. From the +moment she had left the boat she had been reminded, and that +intolerably, of another journey taken, not alone,--on the day of her +marriage to Pedro Rebell. The last few months seemed obliterated, and +Berwick for the moment forgotten. She was haunted by two very different +presences,--that of her mother, and that of the West Indian planter, +whose physical nearness, which had ever, from their marriage day onward, +filled her with agonised revolt and terror, she seemed now to feel as +she had not felt it for years, for he had soon tired of his victim. Had +it not been that thoughts of Madame Sampiero, and of the duty she owed +to the paralysed woman, restrained her, she would have been tempted to +open the railway carriage door and step out into the rushing wind, and +so end, for ever, the conflict in her mind. + +There are women, more women than men, who are born to follow the +straight way,--to whom crooked paths are full of unknown terrors. Such a +woman was Barbara Rebell. And yet the sight of Berwick,--Berwick, pale +indeed, but quiet, self-possessed and smiling, as they advanced towards +each other across the primitive little station,--brought comfort, and +even security, to her heart. It was so clearly impossible that he would +wish to work her any ill-- + +No other passenger had got out at Poissy, and the station-master, who +knew the owner of the Pavillon du Dauphin, looked with curiosity at the +man and woman now going towards one another. The information given to +Mère Lecerf had already reached him, "Cold types, these English!" but he +cheered up when he saw Berwick suddenly bend down and kiss each of the +traveller's pale cheeks, in French husbandly fashion. "Salut Monsieur! +Salut Madame!" the familiar accents fell sweetly on Barbara's ear as she +walked through to the town square, where a victoria was waiting to take +them to the Pavillon du Dauphin. + +As she sat, silent by his side, Berwick took her hand in his. Again and +again he opened his lips to speak, to tell her of his decision. But +something seemed to hold him back from doing so now. Later, when they +were alone, would be time enough. + +And Barbara? Still full of vague, unsubstantial fears, she yet felt +free--absolutely free--from the presence which had journeyed by her +side. Berwick now stood between herself and Pedro Rebell, but, during +the long silent drive up the steep road leading from the valley to the +forest plateau, Barbara's mother seemed to stand sentinel between +herself and Berwick. + + * * * * * + +At last they were alone,--alone in the shadow-filled hall where the +beams of the May moon, slanting in through the wide, curtainless window, +warred with the light thrown by the lamp still standing on the table +where they had sat at supper half an hour before. + +As she heard the door shut behind Madame Lecerf, Barbara had risen and +gone over to the friendly glow of the fire. She was now sitting, rather +rigidly upright, on the wooden bench which formed a kind of inglenook +within the stone fireplace. Just above her head hung the faded gilt +frame containing Plantin's sonnet; her hands were clasped loosely over +her knees, and she was looking straight into the heart of the burning +peat. + +Berwick, himself in shadow, watched her in tense silence; there was +something enigmatical, and to him rather fearful, in her stillness,--in +some ways he felt her more remote from himself than he had ever felt her +to be since the night they had first met. + +When driving from Poissy, he had taken her hand, and she had let it rest +in his; but only for one brief moment, during the last two hours, had +the woman he loved shown any sign of emotion. This was when, as they sat +at table, the old French woman serving them had said, in answer to some +question: "Mais oui, Madame Berwick!" and Barbara's face had suddenly +become flooded with colour. + +At last she looked round from the fire, and sought to see where her +companion was sitting. Berwick thought the gesture beckoned; he leapt up +and came forward with a certain eagerness, and, standing before her, +smiled down into her serious eyes. + +Suddenly she put out her hand and touched his sleeve. "Won't you sit +down," she said, "here, by me?" + +He obeyed, and she felt his arm slowly gathering her to him, while he, +on his side, became aware that she first shrank back, and then gradually +yielded to his embrace. Nay more, she suddenly laid her cheek against +his lips with a curious childish abandonment, but he knew there was +something wanting,--something which had been there during the moment +that their souls, as well as their bodies, had rushed together the +last,--the only time, till now,--that he had held her in his arms. + +She made a slight, an ineffectual effort to disengage herself as she +asked in a low voice: "Why did your servant call me that? Call me, I +mean, by your name?" + +"Because," he answered, rather huskily, "because I told her that you +were my wife. I hope that name is what all will call you some day." + +Barbara's lips trembled. "No," she said very slowly, "I do not think +that will ever happen. God will not let me be so happy. I have not +deserved it." Yet even as she said the words, he felt, with quick, +overmastering emotion, that she was surrendering herself, in spirit as +well as in body, and that she came willingly. + +He turned and caught her more closely to him. + +"Listen," he said hoarsely, "listen while I say something to you that +perhaps I ought to have said before, earlier, to-night." + +Then, rather suddenly, he withdrew his arms from about the slight +rounded figure enfolded in them. The utterance of what he had made up +his mind must now be said had become immeasurably more difficult during +the last few moments. He asked himself, with rough self-reproach and +self-contempt, why he had so delayed, why he had allowed her to come +here to be so wholly at his mercy, and he--yes, he--at hers? He got up +and walked slowly to the other side of the great room, and came back, +even more slowly, to where Barbara was sitting. + +There he knelt down by her. + +"Barbara," he said, "be kind to me! Help me! My pure angel, what does +your heart tell you would be to-night the greatest proof of my love--of +my adoration of you?" + +And then the most amazing, and, to the man looking up at her with +burning eyes the most moving, change came over the face bent down to +his. Barbara had understood. But she said nothing,--only slipped down +and put her arms, a wholly voluntary movement of caress, round him, in a +strange speechless passion of gratitude and tenderness. + +"Ah, Barbara," he said, "you have made me know you too well. You have +allowed me to see too clearly into your heart not to know that I was a +brute to ask you to do this thing,--to do that which I knew you believed +to be wrong." And, as she pressed more closely to him, her tears wetting +his face, he went on: "But I promise,--I swear,--I will never ask it of +you again. We will go on as we did,--as we found ourselves able to +do,--after the fire." + +"But will not that make you unhappy?" Her lips scarcely moved as she +whispered the words, looking into his strained face with sad, beseeching +eyes. + +"Yes," he said, rather shortly, "if I thought it impossible, or even +improbable, that you would become my wife, it would make me very +unhappy, but that, or so I believe, is not impossible, not even +improbable. Ah, Barbara, must I tell you,--do you wish me to tell +you,--everything?" + +She looked up at him with a sudden fear and perplexity. What did he +mean, what was it he had heard and wished to keep from her? But she +would trust him, trust him to the end, and so, "No," she whispered, +"tell me nothing you would ever regret having told me. I am quite +content, nay, more than content, with your goodness to your poor +Barbara." + + * * * * * + +An hour later Berwick was driving away from the Pavillon du Dauphin, not +to the station as Mère Lecerf believed, but to St. Germains, within +easy, tantalising distance of the woman he had just left,--a very +tearful, a very radiant, a most adoring, and alas! a most adorable +Barbara. + +Looking out with absent eyes across the great moonlit plain to his left, +Berwick thought over the strange little scene which had taken place. He +hardly knew what he had said,--in any case far less than he had meant. +Not a word, for instance, of what Boringdon had told him,--how could he +have spoilt, with the image of death, such an evening as had just been +theirs? Heavens! how strangely Barbara had altered, even before that +whispered assurance that he would never, never ask her to do that which +she thought wrong. + +When he had first brought her into the Pavilion, there had been +something tragic, as well as touching, in her still submissiveness of +manner. But afterwards--ah, afterwards!--he had been privileged to see a +side of her nature--ardent, yet spiritual, passionate, yet pure,--which +he felt that he alone had the power to awaken, which had manifested +itself only for him. How happy each had been in the feeling of nearness +to the other, in the knowledge that they were at last free from +watching, even if kindly, eyes, and listening ears,--what happiness they +promised each other for the morrow! They would give themselves, so +Berwick told Barbara, three days in this sylvan fairy land, and then he +would take her to Paris, and go himself back to England. + + * * * * * + +Barbara Rebell never knew that those three days, of to her unalloyed +bliss, held dark hours for her companion--hours when he cursed himself +for a quixotic fool. But, even in the midst of that strange experience, +Berwick was able to write in all honesty to his sister, the only human +being to whom he confided the fact that he was in France,--might she not +already have learnt it from some less trustworthy source?--certain +cryptic words, to which she could then attach no meaning: "One word +more. I wish to remind you that appearances are deceitful, and also to +tell you that I have at last found that it is possible to be good, to be +happy, and also to have a good time." + + + + + CHAPTER XXII. + + "There are moments struck from midnights!" + + ROBERT BROWNING. + + +Within a week of her return to Chancton Priory, Barbara heard of Pedro +Rebell's serious condition. A short, dry note from Andrew Johnstone +conveyed to her the fact that he was dying, and that, whether he lived a +few weeks or a few months longer was in his own hands,--a question, +however, only of time, and of a short time. + +Berwick had judged truly the woman he had grown to love with so intimate +an understanding and sympathy. The news of approaching release let loose +in Barbara's mind a flood of agonising memories, which crowded out for a +while everything else. During the long years she had endured every +humiliation such a man as Pedro Rebell could inflict on so proud, and so +sensitive a human being as herself, she had never foreseen this way of +escape. He had ever seemed instinct with a rather malignant vitality, +and the young,--Barbara had remained in some ways very young after her +marriage,--are not apt to take death into their calculations. + +For some days she told none of those about her of the astounding news +she had received from Santa Maria, but the two in whose thoughts she +dwelt constantly divined her knowledge. It quickened Boringdon's desire +to leave Chancton, and, with that self-delusion to which men who love +are so often prone, in Mrs. Rebell's new coldness of manner to himself, +he saw hope. Not so James Berwick,--he, judging more truly, was seized +with a great fear lest Barbara should think it her duty to go back to +Santa Maria. Rather than that, so he told himself during those days of +strain and waiting for the confidence which she withheld, he would go +himself,--men have gone stranger pilgrimages on behalf of their +beloveds. + +At last he told her that he knew what was so deeply troubling her. "And +you are thinking," he said quietly, "that perhaps you ought to go back +and look after him till the end? Is not that so?" + +Barbara looked at him very piteously,--they were walking under the +beeches, and, having wandered off the path, were now utterly alone. But, +before she could speak, he again opened his lips: "If such action is +necessary, if you do not think he will be well cared for by those about +him, I will go for you." + +"You?" Barbara's dark eyes dilated with sudden fear--"Oh! no, not +you!----" + +"Indeed, you could trust me to do all that was possible. You do not +think, surely, that your actual presence would be welcome to him?" The +words were uttered very quietly, but, as he asked the apparently +indifferent question, Berwick clenched the stick he held with a nervous +movement. + +"No, I should not be personally welcome." Barbara spoke in a low voice, +almost in a whisper; she felt it impossible to make those confidences +regarding her life with Pedro Rebell which another woman would, perhaps, +in her place, have been eager to make. And yet she longed to convey to +Berwick how short-lived on his part had been the sudden attraction which +had led this half-Spaniard to behave, in those sad weeks just before and +after her father's death, so as to bring her to believe that marriage +with him was the only way out of a difficult and undignified situation; +how little, when once he was married to her, the man who was now dying +had taken her into his scheming, vicious life. + +But now she could say nothing of all this. And yet those few words with +Berwick comforted her, and made her see more clearly, even gave her +courage to telegraph to the Johnstones,--only to receive the decided +answer that all that could be done was being done, and that her coming, +from every point of view, was undesirable. + +Then, and not till then, did Mrs. Rebell tell her god-mother the news +which meant so much to her, indeed to them both. + +Madame Sampiero made but one comment--"James Berwick must have known +this before you went to France!" + +Barbara bent forward to hear the quickly muttered words. The suggestion +surprised her, perhaps troubled her a little. She hesitated,--but surely +such knowledge could not have reached him before it reached herself, and +so, "No--I do not think so," she said. + +"Ah! well, I do think so----" + +Madame Sampiero said no other word, but when her mind--that shrewd, +acute mind, as keenly able to weigh actions and to judge those about her +as ever it had been--pondered the confession Barbara had made to her +immediately on her return from France, her heart grew very tender to +James Berwick. She realised, what one who had been a better woman than +herself would perhaps not have understood so well, the force of the +temptation which must have assailed the man who loved Barbara with so +jealous and instinctive a passion. At last, too, Madame Sampiero +understood the riddle of Oliver Boringdon's sudden resignation of the +conduct of her business. It must have been from him that Berwick had +learnt that Mrs. Rebell was on the eve of becoming a free woman. But not +even to Doctor McKirdy did the paralysed mistress of the Priory say what +was in her mind; the old Scotchman divined that her view as to the +danger of the relation of her god-daughter and Berwick had altered, and +that the change had come about because of some confidence--or was it +confession?--made by Barbara within a few hours of her return from +Paris. Only Madame Sampiero,--and, long afterwards, Arabella +Berwick,--ever knew of those three days spent by Berwick and Barbara at +St. Germains. + + * * * * * + +The one person in Chancton, to whom Boringdon made any explanation +concerning his resignation of the post he had now held for nearly two +years, was Lucy Kemp. His mother told her many acquaintances that the +public office her son had left to enter Parliament had found it quite +impossible to carry on its portion of the nation's work without him, and +that a very great inducement had been held out to him to persuade him to +go back! But of these confidences of Mrs. Boringdon's he was happily +ignorant, and to Lucy alone Oliver felt a longing to justify the future +as well as the present. + +Shortly, baldly, making no excuse for himself, unconsciously trusting to +her sympathy, and to the instinctive understanding she had always shown +where he and his feelings were concerned, he told her the truth, adding +in conclusion: "You, now knowing her as you did not know her before the +fire, can understand my----" he hesitated, then brought the words out +with a certain effort,--"my love for her. I shall wait a year; I should +not insult her by coming any sooner. I do not expect to be listened +to--at first. She has suffered----" Again he stopped abruptly, then went +on: "Lucy, do you think it strange that I should tell you all this?" +And, as she shook her head, he added: "Lately she has seemed to avoid +me,--that is, since her return from France, in fact since I know that my +brother-in-law's letter must have reached her." + +A sharp temptation assailed Lucy Kemp. Would it be so very wrong to +break her promise to Mrs. Rebell,--that promise given so solemnly the +night of the fire? Could she not say a word, only a word, indicating +that he was making a terrible mistake? What hope could there be for +Oliver Boringdon if Barbara loved James Berwick? But the girl fought +down the longing, and Boringdon's next words showed her that perhaps he +knew or guessed more than she had thought possible. + +"Perhaps you have heard,--I know my mother has done so,--foolish gossip +concerning Mrs. Rebell and James Berwick, but I can assure you that +there is no truth in it. Berwick's financial condition makes it +impossible that he should think of marriage." And, as something in +Lucy's look or manner made him aware that she also had heard of, perhaps +had noticed, the constant presence of Berwick at the Priory, Oliver bit +his lip and went on, rather hurriedly: "I am not excusing him. I think +his assumption of friendship with Mrs. Rebell has been regrettable. But, +Lucy, I spoke to him about it, and though in doing so I lost his +friendship, I am quite sure that it made a difference, and that it +caused him to realise the harm he might be doing. In a country +neighbourhood such as this, a man cannot be too careful." Oliver +delivered himself of this maxim with considerable energy. + +He seemed to be about to add something, then changed his mind. One +further word, however, he did say: + +"I wonder if you would let me write to you sometimes, and if Mrs. Kemp +would mind your sometimes writing to me? In any case I hope my mother +will hear from you." + +And then, for a short space of time, a deep calm settled over Chancton. +Berwick, who was staying at Fletchings, came almost daily, spending, +'tis true, long hours in Barbara's company, but treating her, during +that strange interval of waiting, with a silent, unmaterial tenderness +which moved and rather surprised those about them. + + * * * * * + +Barbara and her god-mother were in the Blue drawing-room, spending +there, not unhappily, a solitary evening. Spring had suddenly become +summer. It was so hot that the younger woman, when coming back from the +dining-room, had left the doors deliberately wide open, but no sound +came from the great hall and upper stories of the Priory. + +Madame Sampiero preferred the twilight, and the two candles, placed far +behind her couch, left her own still face and quivering lips in shadow, +while casting a not unkindly light on her companion. + +Barbara had been fanning the paralysed woman, but during the last few +moments she had let the fan fall idly on her knee, and she was looking +down with a look of gravity, almost of suffering, on her face. She was +thinking, as she so often did think in these days, of Pedro Rebell, +wondering if she ought to have gone back to Santa Maria as soon as she +received Andrew Johnstone's letter. Had she believed that her presence +would bring pleasure or consolation to the man who, she was told, was so +soon to die, she might have found the strength to go to him,--her mother +would have said that in any case her duty was to be there,--but then her +mother had never come across, had never imagined--thank God that it was +so!--such a man as her daughter had married. And so little does even the +tenderest and most intelligent love bridge the gulf between any two of +us, that Madame Sampiero, taking note of the downcast eyes, thought +Barbara absorbed in some happy vision of dreams come true. + +A good and noble deed, even if it takes the unusual form of supreme +personal self-abnegation, often has a far-reaching effect, concealed, +and that for ever, from the doer. How amazed James Berwick would have +been to learn that one result of his renunciation had been to broaden, +to sweeten Madame Sampiero's whole view of human nature! She realised, +far more than Barbara Rebell could possibly do, the kind of heroism such +conduct as that of Berwick had implied in such a nature as his, and she +understood and foresaw its logical consequence--the altering, the +reshaping in a material form, of the whole of his future life and +career. + +Sometimes, when gazing at her god-daughter with those penetrating blue +eyes which had always been her greatest beauty, and which remained, in a +peculiar pathetic sense, the windows of her soul and the interpreters of +her inmost heart, the mistress of Chancton Priory wondered if Barbara +was aware of what James Berwick had done, and of what he evidently meant +to do, for her sake. + +To-night these thoughts were specially present to Madame Sampiero; +slowly, but very surely, she also was making up her mind to what would +be, on her part, an act of supreme self-humiliation and renunciation. + +"Barbara," she said, in the hoarse muffled tone of which the +understanding was sometimes so difficult--"listen--" Mrs. Rebell started +violently, the two words broke the silence which seemed to brood over +the vast house. "I have determined to receive Julian--Lord Bosworth. You +will prepare him"--she paused a moment, then concluded more +indistinctly, "for the sight he is to see." + +"But, Marraine, it is _you_ he loves, and not--not----" Mrs. Rebell's +voice was choked by tears. She slipped down on her knees, and laid her +two hands on Madame Sampiero's stiff fingers, while she looked +imploringly up into the still face. + +Suddenly, as she knelt there, a slight sound fell on Barbara's ears; she +knew it at once as that of the door, leading from the great hall to the +vestibule, being quietly closed from the inside. A moment later there +came the rhythmical thud of heavy footsteps making their way, under the +music gallery, across to the staircase. A vague feeling of fear +possessed the kneeling listener. Into her mind there flashed the thought +that whoever had come in must have walked across the lawn very softly, +also that the footfalls striking so distinctly on her ear were +unfamiliar. + +Then, in a moment, an amazing, and, to Barbara Rebell, a very awful +thing took place. The stiff fingers she held so firmly slipped from her +grasp, she felt a sudden sensation of void, and, looking up, she saw +Madame Sampiero, drawn to her full height, standing by the empty couch. +A moment later the tall figure was moving with steady swiftness towards +the door which stood open at the other end of the long room--Barbara +sprang up, and rushed forward; she was just in time to put her arms +round her god-mother as Madame Sampiero suddenly swayed--wavered-- + +There was a moment of tense silence, for outside in the hall the heavy +footsteps had stayed their progress-- + +"It is Julian." Madame Sampiero spoke quite distinctly, but she was +leaning heavily, heavily, on her companion, and Barbara could feel the +violent trembling of her emaciated body. "He used to come--in that +way--long ago--He thinks I am upstairs. You must go and find him--" + +To Barbara, looking back, as she often did look back during her later +life, to that night, three things, in their due sequence, stood out +clearly--the terrifying sight of the paralysed woman walking with such +firm swift steps down the long room; the slow and fearful progress back +to the couch; and then, her own fruitless, baffling search through the +upper stories of the Priory--a search interrupted at intervals by the +far-away, but oh! how clear and insistent voice, crying out "Barbara!" +"Barbara!" a cry which, again and again, brought the seeker hurrying +down, but with never a word of having found him whom she sought. + + * * * * * + +Doctor McKirdy, coming in as he always did come each evening, was the +only human being to whom Mrs. Rebell ever told what had occurred; and +she was indifferent to the knowledge that he discredited her statement +as to how far Madame Sampiero had walked before she, Barbara, had caught +the swaying figure in her arms. Would she herself have believed the +story, had it been told her? No, for nothing could have convinced her of +its truth but the evidence of her own eyes. + +As was his way when what he judged to be serious illness or disturbance +was in question, the old Scotchman was very silent, intent at first only +on soothing his patient, and on having her transported upstairs as +quickly and as quietly as possible. At last Barbara heard the words, "I +promise ye most solemnly I will look mysel', but no doubt he's away by +now, slipt out somehow"--uttered in the gentle voice he only kept for +the woman to whom he was speaking, and which he rarely used even to her. +And so, when Madame Sampiero was finally left with Jean--Jean, whose +stern countenance showed no quiver of curiosity or surprise, though she +must have known well enough that something very unusual had +happened--Mrs. Rebell followed Doctor McKirdy downstairs. + +"Then you do think it really was Lord Bosworth?" she asked rather +eagerly. + +"Indeed I do not!" he turned on her fiercely, "I just think it was +nobody but your fancy!" + +Barbara felt foolishly vexed. + +"But, Doctor McKirdy, some man undoubtedly came in, and walked across +the hall. We both heard him, quite distinctly." + +"And of whom were ye thinking,--ay, and may-be talking,--when ye both +heard this mysterious person?" + +It was a random shot, but Barbara reddened and remained silent. + +Doctor McKirdy, however, did not pursue his advantage. "Look ye here," +he said, not unkindly, "try and get that notion out of her head, even if +ye can't out of yours. If I thought he had come, that it was he"--he +clenched his hands, "'Twould be a dastardly thing to do after what I've +told him of her state! But, Mrs. Barbara, believe me, 'twas all +fancy,"--he looked at her with an odd twisted smile, "I'll tell you +something I've never told. Years ago, just after Madam's bad illness, I +went away, more fool I, for what they call a change. Well, wherever I +went they followed me--she and little Julia, as much there before me as +you are now! 'Twas vain to reason with myself. Julia, poor bairn, was +dead--who should know it as well as I?--and Madam lay stretched out +here. And yet--well, since then I've known that seeing is not all +believing. Once I got back,--to her, to them,--I laid their wraiths." + +Barbara shuddered. "Then you are not going to look any more? I quite +admit that whoever came in is probably gone away by now." + +"Of course I'll make a round of the place. D'ye think I'd break my word +in that fashion?" + +Together they made a long and fruitless search through the vast old +house, and up to the last moment Barbara thought it possible they might +find someone in hiding, some poor foot-sore sailor tramp, may-be, who +had wandered in, little knowing of the trouble he was bringing--but the +long search yielded nothing. + +"Are ye satisfied _now_?" Doctor McKirdy held up the hooded candle, and +turned the light on her flushed, excited face. + +"Yes!--no!--I mean that of course I know now there is no one in the +house, but someone, a man, certainly came in." + +For long hours Barbara lay awake, listening with beating heart for any +unwonted sound, but none broke across the May night, and she fell asleep +as the birds woke singing. + +At eight in the morning Léonie brought her a note just arrived from +Fletchings: "DEAREST,--Your kind heart will be grieved to learn that my +uncle died, quite suddenly, last evening. I nearly came over, then +thought it wisest to wait till the morning. Better perhaps make McKirdy +break it to her." + + + + + CHAPTER XXIII. + + "O sovereign power of love! O grief! O balm!" + + +A whole year had gone by, and it had been, so Chancton village and the +whole neighbourhood agreed, the dullest and longest twelve months the +place had ever known. What events had happened had all been of a +disturbing or lugubrious character, and even Miss Vipen confessed that +there had been really nothing pleasant to talk about! + +The Cottage was again empty, for Oliver Boringdon and his mother had +gone, and their departure, especially that of Mrs. Boringdon, had +certainly been viewed with sincere regret. She was such an agreeable, +pleasant person, and the village people on their side had soon regretted +Oliver's just dealings, which compared most commendably with the +favouritism and uncertain behaviour of Doctor McKirdy, who now, as +before Mr. Boringdon's brief tenure of the land agency, acted as +go-between to the tenants and Madame Sampiero. + +Another occurrence, which had certainly played its part in bringing +about the general dulness and flatness that seemed to hang over the +place as a pall, had been the death, from sudden heart failure, of Lord +Bosworth. The owner of Fletchings had been for many years the great man +of the neighbourhood; his had been the popular presence at all the local +functions he could be persuaded to attend, and there had been a constant +stream of distinguished and noteworthy folk to and from his country +house. Even those who only saw Lord Bosworth's distinguished guests +being conveyed to and from the station, shared in the gratification +afforded by their presence. The only day which stood out in the +recollection of both gentle and simple was that of Lord Bosworth's +funeral; quite a number of really famous people had come down from +London to be present. + +Then had followed many pleasant discussions, in Miss Vipen's +drawing-room and elsewhere, concerning the late peer's will. Lord +Bosworth had left everything that could be left away from his heir to +the latter's sister, and this of course was as it should be. But there +had been a few curious bequests; a considerable legacy, for instance, to +Madame Sampiero's old housekeeper, Mrs. Turke; the dead man's watch and +chain, a set of pearl studs, and a valuable snuff-box which had been +given to him by the Emperor of the French, actually became the property +of Doctor McKirdy, who--so said popular rumour--had begun by declining +the legacy, and then, in deference to Madame Sampiero's wish, had +accepted it! All agreed that it had been very generous of her to +interest herself in the matter, for strange, very strange, to say, her +name was not mentioned at all in the will! Oddest of all, in the opinion +of the neighbourhood, was the bequest to Mrs. Rebell of the portrait of +the child, described as that of "My daughter Julia"; but the picture +still hung in what had been Lord Bosworth's study at Fletchings. There +was a crumb of comfort inasmuch as the little estate had not been sold. +Perhaps the new Lord Bosworth, to whom such an insignificant possession +could be of but little account, intended to present it to his sister, +Miss Berwick. + +The fact that all the Priory servants had been put into mourning had +given most people subject for remark, and had rather scandalised +everybody; it seemed to dot the i's and cross the t's of the now +forgotten scandal. Indeed, the more charitable were inclined to think +that the servants' mourning was really worn because of the death of Mrs. +Rebell's husband, which had become known at Chancton two days after that +of Lord Bosworth,--a fact which had prevented its attracting as much +attention and comment as perhaps the event deserved. + +It had been noted, however, with a good deal of concern, that Mrs. +Rebell did not wear proper widow's weeds; true, she made her widowhood +the excuse for living a life of even greater seclusion than she had done +before, and she wore black, but no one--so those interested in the +matter declared--would take her for a newly-made widow. + +Yet another thing which had certainly contributed to the dulness of the +neighbourhood had been the absence, the whole summer and autumn through, +of the new Lord Bosworth,--for this of course had meant the shutting up +of Chillingworth. After making an ineffectual, and, so most of the +people belonging to that part of the world thought, a very ridiculous +attempt to assert his right to go on sitting in the House of Commons, he +had started "in a huff" for a tour round the world. But he wrote, so +said report, very regularly to Madame Sampiero, and to his old nurse, +Mrs. Turke. He had also sent to various humble folk in Chancton +wonderful presents; no one connected with Chillingworth had been +forgotten, not even Dean's new baby,--to whom, by the way, Dean's master +had acted, being of course represented by proxy, as god-father. + +Now, however, the neighbourhood was waking up a little; for one thing +the wanderer was home again, having hurried back to be present at the +distribution of the Liberal loaves and fishes,--strange though it seemed +that a peer should continue to be a Radical, especially such an +immensely wealthy peer as was the new Lord Bosworth. + +With only one group of people might time be said to have stood quite +still. These were General and Mrs. Kemp and their daughter Lucy. But +Lucy was certainly less bright--perhaps one ought to say duller--than +she used to be. On the other hand, she had become very intimate with +Mrs. Rebell; they were constantly together, and people could not help +wondering what the latter saw in Lucy Kemp. + + * * * * * + +It was the third of April. Miss Vipen prided herself upon remembering +dates; the anniversaries of birthdays, of weddings, of deaths, lingered +in her well-stored mind, and she also kept a little book in which she +noted such things. To-day was to be long remembered by her, for, having +most fortunately had occasion to go across to the post office just after +luncheon, she had seen, lying on the counter, a telegram containing a +most extraordinary and unexpected piece of news. + +Miss Vipen regarded telegrams as more or less public property, and she +had met the flustered postmaster's eye,--an eye she had known absolutely +from its infancy,--with a look of triumphant confidence. Then, by +amazing good luck, while on the way back to her own house, she had come +across Mrs. Sampson, the rector's wife, and from her had won ample, +overwhelming confirmation, of the most interesting event which had +happened in the neighbourhood for years and years! + +It was a delightful spring day and Miss Vipen decided that, instead of +waiting calmly at home until her usual circle gathered about her at tea +time, she would make a number of calls, ensuring a warm welcome at each +house by the amazing and secret tidings she would be able to bring. Mrs. +Sampson was still bound to silence, and only the fact that Miss Vipen +was already acquainted with the morning's happenings had made the +rector's wife reluctantly complete, and as it were, round off, the +story. + +Miss Vipen's first call was at Chancton Grange. Since General Kemp had +behaved so strangely some two years before, turning on his heel and +leaving her drawing-room before he had even said how do you do, she had +scarcely ever crossed Mrs. Kemp's threshold. But to-day an unwonted +feeling of kindness made her aware that the important piece of gossip +she came to bring would make her welcome to at least one of the Grange's +inmates, and to the one whom she liked best, for she had always been, so +she assured herself to-day, rather fond of Lucy. Poor Lucy, wasting her +youth in thinking of a man who would certainly never think of her, and +yet with whom, so Miss Vipen understood, her parents very wrongly +allowed her to correspond! + +The old lady was naturally delighted to find the inmates of the Grange +all at home, and all three sitting together in the room into which she +was shown. Both the General and his wife made what they flattered +themselves was a perfectly successful attempt to conceal their surprise +at seeing Miss Vipen, but they were not long left in doubt as to why she +had come, for she plunged at once into the matter, looking sharply from +her host to her hostess, and from Mrs. Kemp to Lucy, as she exclaimed, +"I suppose that you have not heard the great news? You have no idea of +what took place this morning? Here, in Chancton Church?" + +But General and Mrs. Kemp shook their heads, but their daughter began to +look, or so Miss Vipen thought, rather guilty. + +"Well, there was a wedding at our church this morning! But you will +never guess,--I defy any of you to guess,--who was the bride and who the +bridegroom!" + +Then the speaker saw with satisfaction that General Kemp gave a sudden +anxious glance at Lucy. "The lady has not lost much time," continued +Miss Vipen, "for her husband has only been dead four or five months. Now +can you guess who it is?" + +But Lucy broke the awkward silence. "Just ten months, Miss Vipen--Mrs. +Rebell became a widow early in June----" + +"Well, no matter, but can you guess the name of the happy man? Of course +one could give _two_ guesses----" + +But alas! Miss Vipen was denied her great wish to be the first to tell +the delightful piece of news, for, while she was enjoying Mrs. Kemp's +obvious discomfort, Lucy again spoke, and in a sharp voice very unlike +her own, + +"Why, Mr. Berwick--I mean Lord Bosworth, of course! Who else could it +be?" Then she looked rather deprecatingly at her parents: "I could not +say anything about it, because it was told me only yesterday, as a +great, a very great, secret." + +"And do you know," continued Miss Vipen in a rather discomfited tone, +"who were the witnesses?" + +"No," said Lucy, "that I do not." + +"Doctor McKirdy for Lord Bosworth, and Daniel O'Flaherty, that Home +Ruling barrister who is mixed up in so many queer cases, for Mrs. +Rebell! I can tell you another most extraordinary thing. She was +actually married in a white dress--not a veil of course, but a white +gown and a hat. And who else do you think were there? Mrs. Turke--it's +the first time to my knowledge that she's been in that church for +years--the Scotchwoman, Jean, the French maid Léonie, and the butler +McGregor! Mrs. Turke wore a pale blue watered silk dress and a pink +bonnet; she cried, it seems, so loudly that Mr. Sampson became quite +confused----" + +"And Miss Berwick?" said Lucy quietly, "was she not there too?" + +"Yes, of course; I was forgetting Miss Berwick. Well, this must be a sad +day for her--after all her striving and scheming for her brother! No +wonder he kept Fletchings, for I suppose they will have to live there +now," Miss Vipen spoke with deep and sincere commiseration. "What a +change for _him_ after Chillingworth! He becomes a pauper--for a peer, +for a Cabinet Minister, an absolute pauper! They are going to France +this afternoon for the honeymoon, but they are to be back soon." + + * * * * * + +When Miss Vipen had been seen safely out of the gate by General Kemp, he +came back to find his wife alone. Lucy had gone up to her room. + +"I suppose you expected this, Mary?" + +"Yes--no"--Mrs. Kemp had an odd look on her face--"and yet I always +liked Mr. Berwick from the very little I saw of him. But I confess I +never thought this would happen. Indeed, I was afraid, Tom,--there is no +harm in saying so now,--I was afraid that in time Oliver Boringdon would +obtain what seemed to be the desire of his heart----" + +"Afraid?" cried the General, "Nothing could have pleased me better, +excepting that I should have been sorry for Mrs. Rebell! I suppose that +now you are quite delighted, Mary, at the thought that Boringdon will +again begin haunting Lucy. It is not by my good will that you have +allowed them to write to one another." + +Poor Mrs. Kemp! She had no answer ready. During the last year she had +learnt what hatred was, for she had hated Oliver Boringdon with all the +strength of her strong nature; not only had he left Chancton taking +Lucy's heart with him, but he had made no effort to free himself of the +unwanted possession. Nay, more, almost at once a regular correspondence +had begun between the two, and though Lucy was not unwilling that her +mother should see his letters, Mrs. Kemp did not find much to console +her in them. + +And now? The mother realised that she must make haste to transform her +feeling towards Oliver Boringdon into something akin to liking. As a +beginning she now went up to Lucy's room, her heart yearning over the +girl, but with no words prepared. Perhaps now her child would come back +to her--the last year had been a long, sad year to Mrs. Kemp. + +Lucy was sitting idly by the rosewood davenport. There were traces of +tears on her face. "Mother!" she said, "Oh, mother!" Then she took Mrs. +Kemp's hand and laid her cheek against it. In a very different tone she +added, "I felt rather ashamed at not telling you yesterday. Barbara +would not have minded your knowing, but Lord Bosworth was anxious that +no one should be told." + +"Is that why you are crying?" asked Mrs. Kemp in a low voice. + +"No, no, of course not! I am afraid--Oh! mother! do you think it will +make _him_ very unhappy?" + +"For a little while," said Mrs. Kemp drily, "he will fancy himself so, +and then he will begin to wonder whether, after all, she was quite +worthy of him!" + +"Don't say that--don't think so unkindly of him!" Lucy stood up, she put +her hand through her mother's arm, "Do you think people ever leave off +caring, when they have once cared--so much?" + +"Lucy," said Mrs. Kemp, "have you ever wondered why your father and I +married so late? You know we were engaged--first--when I was only +nineteen----" + +"Because you were too poor!" cried Lucy quickly, "because father was in +India!" and then, as her mother looked at her quite silently, the girl +added, with a kind of cry, "Oh! mother! what do you mean?" + +"I mean,--I do not think that now he would be unwilling that you should +know, my darling,--that a woman came between us. Someone not so good, +not so innocent as Barbara Rebell,--for I do think that in this matter +she was quite innocent, Lucy." + +"But father always liked you best, mother? How could he help it?" + +"No," said Mrs. Kemp, "there was a time when he did not like me best. +There were years when he loved the other woman, and I was--well, +horribly unhappy. And yet, you see, he came back to me,--I fought +through,--and you, my dear one, will fight through, please God, to be as +happy a woman as your mother has been ever since you have known her." + + + THE END. + + + + + Transcriber Notes: + +Passages in italics were indicated by _underscores_. + +Small caps were replaced with ALL CAPS. + +Throughout the document, the oe ligature was replaced with "oe". + +Throughout the dialogues, there were words used to mimic accents of +the speakers. Those words were retained as-is. + +The illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up +paragraphs and so that they are next to the text they illustrate. Thus +the page number of the illustration might not match the page number in +the List of Illustrations, and the order of illustrations may not be the +same in the List of Illustrations and in the book. + +Errors in punctuation and inconsistent hyphenation were not corrected +unless otherwise noted. + +On page 3, "beautifu" was replaced with "beautiful". + +On page 37, the word after "the doctor" was unclear, but it is listed +as "repeated". + +On page 38, "tnat" was replaced with "that". + +On page 38, "t sight" was replaced with "the sight". + +On page 38, "who nly" was replaced with "who only". + +On page 58, a period was added after "wiped out". + +On page 83, "why it is" was replaced with "Why it is". + +On page 96, "rom" was replaced with "from". + +On page 96, "hours o" was replaced with "hours of". + +On page 97, " me," was replaced with "time,". + +On page 99, "conimprehensible" was replaced with "incomprehensible". + +On page 116, "ndoors" was replaced with "indoors". + +On page 121, " elling" was replaced with "telling". + +On page 144, a period was added after "herself". + +On page 226, "back to Chanc" was replaced with "back to Chancton". + +On page 226, "leave early, and" was replaced with "leave early, and it". + +On page 228, "woman s refinement" was replaced with "woman's +refinement". + +On page 237, a period was placed after "prudent". + +On page 239, "pirmeval" was replaced with "primeval". + +On page 240, " ar from" was replaced with "far from". + +On page 240, "he fel" was replaced with "he felt". + +On page 243, "exemp" was replaced with "exempt". + +On page 247, "nstinct" was replaced with "instinct". + +On page 258, "onging" was replaced with "longing". + +On page 279, "which he had been listening the last three hours.to" was +replaced with "to which he had been listening the last three hours.". + +On page 300, "L'orgueil, reméde souverain, qui n'est pas à l'usage des +âmes endres." was replaced with "L'orgueil, remède souverain, qui n'est +pas à l'usage des âmes tendres." + +Oh page 310, a comma was placed after "again repeated". + +On page 321, a period was placed after "night". + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Barbara Rebell, by Marie Belloc Lowndes + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42462 *** |