THE THING KNIGHT WANTED
When Dr. Torrance, who was to give her away, and the Marchese di Morello,
who was to be Knight's "best man," had been introduced to Annesley, she
laughed at the stupid "scare" which had chilled her heart for a moment.
If Knight had remained with her after his friends finished their call,
she might have confessed to him how she had fancied in the tall, dark
young man a likeness to one of the dreaded _watchers_. Until Knight spoke
their names she had feared that the pair looking in at the door were
there to spy; that one, at all events, was disguised--cleverly, yet not
cleverly enough quite to hide his identity. But Knight said good-bye, and
went away with his friends, giving the girl no chance for further talk
with him.
They did not meet again until--with the Countess de Santiago--Annesley
arrived at the obscure church chosen for the marriage ceremony. There Dr.
Torrance awaited them outside the door, and took charge of the bride,
while the Countess found her way in alone; and Annesley saw through the
mist of confused emotion her Knight of love and mystery waiting at the
altar.
During the ceremony that followed he made his responses firmly, his eyes
calling so clearly to hers that she answered with an almost hypnotized
gaze. His look seemed to seal the promise of his words. In spite of all
that was strange and secret and unsatisfying about him, she had no
regrets. Love was worth everything, and she could but believe that he
loved her. This strong conviction went with the girl to the vestry, and
made it easier to turn away when his name--his real name, which she,
though his wife, was not to know--was recorded by him in the book.
They parted from Torrance, Morello, and the Countess at the church door,
an arrangement which delighted Annesley. In the haste of making plans,
she and Knight had forgotten to discuss what they were to do after the
wedding and before their departure; but Knight had found time to decide
the matter.
"These people were the best material I could get hold of at a moment's
notice," he remarked, coolly, when he and Annesley were in the motor-car
he had hired for the journey to Devonshire. "We've used them because we
needed them. Now we don't need them any longer. It seems to me that a
newly married couple ought to keep only dear friends around them or no
one. Later we can repay these three for the favour they've done us, if
you call it a favour. Meanwhile, we'll forget them."
Knight had neglected no detail which could make for Annesley's comfort,
or save her from any embarrassment arising from the hurried wedding. Her
luggage had been packed by a maid in the hotel, and--all but the
dressing-bag and a small box made for an automobile--sent ahead by rail
to Devonshire. She and Knight were to travel in the comfortable limousine
which would protect them against weather. It did not matter, Knight said,
how long they were on the way.
At Exeter they would visit some good agency in search of a lady's maid.
Annesley said that she did not need a woman to wait on her, since she had
been accustomed not only to taking care of herself but Mrs. Ellsworth.
Knight, however, insisted that his wife must be looked after by a
competent woman. It was "the right thing"; but his idea was that, in the
circumstances, it would be pleasanter to have a country girl than a
sharp, London-bred woman or a Parisienne.
In Exeter an ideal person was obtainable: a Devonshire girl who had been
trained to a maid's duties (as the agent boasted) by a "lady of title."
She had accompanied "the Marchioness" to France, and had had lessons in
Cannes from a hair dresser, masseuse, and manicurist. Now her mistress
was dead, and Parker was in search of another place.
She was a gentle, sweet-looking girl, and though she asked for wages
higher than Mrs. Ellsworth had paid her companion, Knight pronounced them
reasonable. She was directed to go by train to the Knowle Hotel at
Sidmouth (where a suite had been engaged by telegram for Mr. and Mrs.
Nelson Smith and maid) and to have all the luggage unpacked before their
arrival.
Flung thus into intimate association with a man, almost a stranger,
Annesley had been afraid in the midst of her happiness. She felt as a
young Christian maiden, a prisoner of Nero's day, might have felt if told
she was to be flung to a lion miraculously subdued by the influence of
Christianity. Such a maiden could not have been quite sure whether the
story were true or a fable; whether the lion would destroy her with a
blow or crouch at her feet.
But Annesley's lion neither struck nor crouched. He stood by her side as
a protector. "Knight" seemed more and more appropriate as a name for
him. Though there were roughnesses and crudenesses in his manner and
choice of words, all he did and said made Annesley sure that she had been
right in her first impression. Not a cultured gentleman like Archdeacon
Smith, or Annesley's dead father, and the few men who had come near her
in early childhood before her home fell to pieces, he was a gentleman at
heart, she told herself, and in all essentials.
It struck her as beautiful and even pathetic, rather than contemptible,
that he should humbly wish to learn of her the small refinements he had
missed in the past--that mysterious past which mattered less and less to
Annesley as the present became dear and vital.
"I've knocked about a lot, all over the world," he explained in a casual
way during a talk they had had on the night of their marriage, at the
first stopping-place to which their motor brought them. "My mother died
when I was a small boy, died in a terrible way I don't want to talk
about, and losing her broke up my father and me for a while. He never got
over it as long as he lived, and I never will as long as I live.
"The way my father died was almost as tragic as my mother's death," he
went on after a tense moment of remembering. "I was only a boy even then;
and ever since the 'knocking-about' process has been going on. I haven't
seen much of the best side of life, but I've wanted it. That was why, for
one reason, you made such an appeal to me at first sight. You were as
plucky and generous as any Bohemian, though I could see you were a
delicate, inexperienced girl, brought up under glass like the orchid you
look--and are. I'm used to making up my mind in a hurry--I've had to--so
it didn't take me many minutes to realize that if I could get you to link
up with me, I should have the thing I'd been looking for.
"Well, by the biggest stroke of luck I've got you, sooner than I could
have dared to hope; and now I don't want to make you afraid of me. I know
my faults and failings, but I don't know how to put them right and be the
sort of man a girl like you can be proud of. It's up to you to show me
the way. Whenever you see me going wrong, you're to tell me. That's what
I want--turn me into a gentleman."
When Annesley tenderly reassured him with loving flatteries, he only
laughed and caught her in his arms.
"Like a prince, am I?" he echoed. "Well, I've got princely blood in my
veins through my mother; but there are pauper princes, and in the pauper
business the gilding gets rubbed off. I trust you to gild my battered
corners. No good trying to tell me I'm gold all through, because I know
better; but when you've made me shine on the outside, I'll keep the
surface bright."
Annesley did not like the persistent way in which he spoke of himself
as a black sheep who, at best, could be whitened, and trained not to
disgrace the fold; yet it piqued her interest. Books said that women had
a weakness for men who were not good and she supposed that she was like
the rest. He was so dear and chivalrous that certain defiant hints as to
his lack of virtue vaguely added to the spice of mystery which decorated
the background of the picture--the vivid picture of the "stranger
knight."
When they had been for three days in the best suite at the Knowle Hotel,
and had made several short excursions with the motor, he asked the girl
if she "felt like getting acquainted with her cousins."
She did not protest as she had at first. Already she knew her Knight
well enough to be assured that when he resolved to do a thing it was
practically done. She had had chances to realize his force of character
in little ways as well as big ones; and she understood that he was bent
on scraping acquaintance with Lord and Lady Annesley-Seton. Had he not
decided upon Sidmouth the instant she mentioned their ownership of a
place in the neighbourhood? She had been certain that he would not
neglect the opportunity created.
"How are we to set about it?" was all she said.
"Oh, Valley House is a show place, I suppose you know," replied Knight.
"I've looked it up in the local guide-book. It's open to the public three
days a week. Any one with a shilling to spare can see the ancestral
portraits and treasures, and the equally ancestral rooms of your
distinguished family. Does that interest you?"
"Ye-es. But I'm a distant relation--as well as a poor one," Annesley
reminded him with her old humility.
"You're not poor now. And blood is thicker than water--when it's in a
golden cup. It's Lord and Lady Annesley-Seton's turn to play the poor
relations. It seems they're stony. Even the shillings the public pay to
see the place are an object to them."
"Oh, I'm sorry!" exclaimed Annesley.
"That's generous, seeing they never bothered themselves about you when
they had plenty of shillings and you had none."
"I don't suppose they knew there _was_ a me."
"Lord Annesley-Seton must have known, if his wife didn't know. But we'll
let that pass. I was thinking we might go to the house on one of the
public days, with the man who wrote the local guide-book. I've made his
acquaintance through writing him a note, complimenting him on his work
and his knowledge of history. He answered like a shot, with thanks for
the appreciation, and said if he could help me he'd be delighted. He's
the editor of a newspaper in Torquay.
"If we invite him to lunch here at the Knowle, he'll fall over himself to
accept. Then we'll be able to kill two birds with one stone. He'll tell
us things about the heirlooms at Valley House we shouldn't be able to
find out without his help--or a lot of dreary drudgery--and also he'll
put a paragraph about us in his newspaper, which he'll send to your
cousins. Now, isn't that a combination of brilliant ideas?"
"Yes," laughed Annesley. "But why should you take so much trouble--and
how can you tell that the editor's paragraph would make the
Annesley-Setons want to know us?"
"As for the paragraph, you may put your faith in me. And as for the
trouble, nothing's too much to launch my wife on the top wave of society,
where she has every right to be. I want Mrs. Nelson Smith to have her
chance to shine. Money would do the trick sooner or later, but I want
it to be done sooner. Besides, I have a feeling I should like us to get
where we want to be, without the noisy splash money-bags make when
new-rich candidates for society are launched. Your people will see
excellent reasons why their late 'poor relation' is worth cultivating.
"But trust them to save their faces by keeping their real motive secret!"
with a touch of sarcasm. "I seem to hear them going about among their
friends, whom they'll invite to meet us, saying how charming and unspoilt
you are though you've got more money than you know what to do with----"
"I!" With the protesting pronoun Annesley disclaimed all ownership of her
husband's fortune, whatever it might be.
"It's the same thing. You and I are one. Whatever is mine is yours. I
don't swear to make you a regular, unfailing allowance worthy of the new
position you're going to have, because you see I do business with several
countries, and my income's erratic; I'm never sure to the day when it
will come or how much it will be. But there's nothing you want which you
can't buy; remember that. And when we begin life in London, you shall
have a standing account at as many shops as you like."
Annesley made no objection to Knight's plan for luring the journalist
into his "trap," which was a harmless one. According to his prophecy, Mr.
Milton Savage of the Torquay _Weekly Messenger_ accepted the invitation
from his correspondent, and came to luncheon on the day when the public
were free to view Valley House.
He was a small man with a big head and eyes which glinted large behind
convex spectacles. Annesley was charming to him, not only in the wish to
please Knight but because she was kind-hearted and had intense sympathy
for suppressed people. Mr. Savage was grateful and admiring, and drank in
every word Knight dropped, as if carelessly, about the relationship to
Lord Annesley-Seton.
Knight allowed himself to be pumped concerning it, and also his wife's
parentage, letting fall, with apparent inadvertence, bits of information
regarding himself, his travels, his adventures, and the fortune he had
picked up.
"I'm the exception," he said, "to the proverb that 'a rolling stone
gathers no moss.' I've gathered all I want or know what to do with; and
now I'm married I mean to take a rest. I haven't decided yet where or
how, but it will be somewhere in England. We're looking for a house in
London, and later we might rent one in the country, too."
Annesley admired his cleverness in touching the goal; but somehow these
smart hits disturbed rather than amused her. Knight's complexity was a
puzzle to her. She could not understand, despite his explanations, why
these fireworks of dexterity were worth while. Knight was a brave figure
of romance. She did not want her hero turned into an intriguer, no matter
how innocent his motive.
After luncheon they drove five or six miles in the motor to Valley House,
a place of Jacobean times. There was an Italian garden, and an English
garden containing every flower, plant, and herb mentioned by Shakespeare.
Each garden had a distant view of the sea, darkly framed by Lebanon
cedars and immense beeches, while the house itself--not large as "show"
houses go--was perfect of its kind, with carved stone mantels, elaborate
oak panelling and staircases, leaded windows, and treasures of portraits,
armour, ancient books, and bric-à-brac which would have remade the family
fortune if all had not been heirlooms.
There was not a picture on the walls nor an old piece of jewellery in the
many locked glass cabinets of which Mr. Milton Savage could not tell the
history as he guided the Nelson Smiths through hall and corridors and
rooms with marvellous moulded ceilings. The liveried servant told off to
show the crowd over the house had but a superficial knowledge of its
riches compared with the lore of the journalist; and the editor of the
Torquay _Weekly Messenger_ became inconveniently popular with the public.
He was not blind to the compliment, however; and, motoring into Torquay
at the end of the afternoon with his host and hostess, expressed himself
delighted with his visit.
That night was his night for going to press, but he found time to write
the paragraph which Nelson Smith expected. Next morning a copy of the
_Messenger_, with a page marked, arrived at the Knowle Hotel, and
another, also marked, went to Valley House.
The bride and bridegroom were at breakfast when the paper came. There
were also three letters, all for Knight, the first which either had
received since their marriage.
Knight cut open the envelopes slowly, one after the other, and made no
comment. Annesley could not help wondering if the Countess had written,
for an involuntary glance had made her sure that one of Knight's letters
was from a woman: a purple envelope with a purple monogram and a blob of
purple wax sealed with a crown. He read all three, put them back into
their envelopes, rose, dropped them into the fire, watched them burn to
ashes, and quietly returned to his seat. Then, as if really interested,
he tore the wrapping off the Torquay _Messenger_.
"Now we shall see ourselves in print!" he said, and a moment later was
reading to Annesley an account of "the two most interesting guests the
Knowle Hotel has entertained this season." Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Smith were
described with enthusiasm. They were young and handsome. He was immensely
rich, she was "highly connected" as well as beautiful, having been a
Miss Annesley Grayle, related on her mother's side to the Earl of
Annesley-Seton.
The modesty of the young couple was so great, however, that, though the
bridegroom was a millionaire well known in his adopted country, America,
and the bride quite closely linked with his lordship's family, they had
refused to make their presence in the neighbourhood known to the Earl and
Lady. Instead they had visited Valley House with a crowd of tourists on a
public day, expressing the opinion to a representative of the _Messenger_
that it would be "intrusive" to present themselves to Lord and Lady
Annesley-Seton. They were spending their honeymoon in Devonshire, and
might find, during their motor tours, a suitable country place to buy or
rent.
In any case, they would look for a house in which to settle on their
return to London.
"Good for Milton Savage," laughed Knight. "Now we'll lie low, and see
what will happen."
Annesley thought that nothing would happen; but she was wrong. The next
morning a note came by hand for Mrs. Nelson Smith, brought by a footman
on a bicycle.
The note was from Lady Annesley-Seton.