"THAT YOUNG FELLOW IN THERE."
A day or two after this Lord George did call at the deanery, but stayed
there only for a minute or two, and on that occasion did not even speak
of Mary's return to Manor Cross. He was considerably flurried, and
showed his wife the letter which had caused his excitement. It was from
his brother, and like most of the Marquis's letters was very short.
"I think you had better come up and see me. I'm not very well. B." That
was the entire letter, and he was now on his way to London.
"Do you think it is much, George?"
"He would not write like that unless he were really ill. He has never
recovered from the results of that--accident."
Then it occurred to Mary that if the Marquis were to die, and Popenjoy
were to die, she would at once be the Marchioness of Brotherton, and
that people would say that her father had raised her to the title
by--killing the late lord. And it would be so. There was something so
horrible in this that she trembled as she thought of it. "Oh, George!"
"It is very--very sad."
"It was his fault; wasn't it? I would give all the world that he were
well; but it was his fault." Lord George was silent. "Oh, George, dear
George, acknowledge that. Was it not so? Do you not think so? Could
papa stand by and hear him call me such names as that? Could you have
done so?"
"A man should not be killed for an angry word."
"Papa did not mean to kill him!"
"I can never be reconciled to the man who has taken the life of my
brother."
"Do you love your brother better than me?"
"You and your father are not one."
"If this is to be said of him I will always be one with papa. He did it
for my sake and for yours. If they send him to prison I will go with
him. George, tell the truth about it."
"I always tell the truth," he said angrily.
"Did he not do right to protect his girl's name? I will never leave him
now; never. If everybody is against him, I will never leave him."
No good was to be got from the interview. Whatever progress Lady Sarah
may have made was altogether undone by the husband's sympathy for his
injured brother. Mary declared to herself that if there must be two
sides, if there must be a real quarrel, she could never be happy again,
but that she certainly would not now desert her father. Then she was
left alone. Ah, what would happen if the man were to die. Would any
woman ever have risen to high rank in so miserable a manner! In her
tumult of feelings she told her father everything, and was astonished
by his equanimity. "It may be so," he said, "and if so, there will be
considerable inconvenience."
"Inconvenience, papa!"
"There will be a coroner's inquest, and perhaps some kind of trial. But
when the truth comes out no English jury will condemn me."
"Who will tell the truth, papa?"
The Dean knew it all, and was well aware that there would be no one to
tell the truth on his behalf,--no one to tell it in such guise that a
jury would be entitled to accept the telling as evidence. A verdict of
manslaughter with punishment, at the discretion of the judge, would be
the probable result. But the Dean did not choose to add to his
daughter's discomfort by explaining this. "The chances are that this
wretched man is dying. No doubt his health is bad. How should the
health of such a man be good? But had he been so hurt as to die from
it, the doctor would have found something out long since. He may be
dying, but he is not dying from what I did to him." The Dean was
disturbed, but in his perturbation he remembered that if the man were
to die there would be nothing but that little alien Popenjoy between
his daughter and the title.
Lord George hurried up to town, and took a room for himself at an hotel
in Jermyn Street. He would not go to Scumberg's, as he did not wish to
mix his private life with that of his brother. That afternoon he went
across, and was told that his brother would see him at three o'clock
the next day. Then he interrogated Mrs. Walker as to his brother's
condition. Mrs. Walker knew nothing about it, except that the Marquis
lay in bed during the most of his time, and that Dr. Pullbody was there
every day. Now Dr. Pullbody was an eminent physician, and had the
Marquis been dying from an injury in his back an eminent surgeon would
have been required. Lord George dined at his club on a mutton chop and
a half a pint of sherry, and then found himself terribly dull. What
could he do with himself? Whither could he betake himself? So he walked
across Piccadilly and went to the old house in Berkeley Square.
He had certainly become very sick of the woman there. He had discussed
the matter with himself and had found out that he did not care one
straw for the woman. He had acknowledged to himself that she was a
flirt, a mass of affectation, and a liar. And yet he went to her house.
She would be soft to him and would flatter him, and the woman would
trouble herself to do so. She would make him welcome, and in spite of
his manifest neglect would try, for the hour, to make him comfortable.
He was shown up into the drawing-room and there he found Jack De Baron,
Guss Mildmay;--and Mr. Houghton, fast asleep. The host was wakened up
to bid him welcome, but was soon slumbering again. De Baron and Guss
Mildmay had been playing bagatelle,--or flirting in the back
drawing-room, and after a word or two returned to their game. "Ill is
he?" said Mrs. Houghton, speaking of the Marquis, "I suppose he has
never recovered from that terrible blow."
"I have not seen him yet, but I am told that Dr. Pullbody is with him."
"What a tragedy,--if anything should happen! She has gone away; has she
not."
"I do not know. I did not ask."
"I think she has gone, and that she has taken the child with her; a
poor puny thing. I made Houghton go there to enquire, and he saw the
child. I hear from my father that we are to congratulate you."
"Things are too sad for congratulation."
"It is horrible; is it not? And Mary is with her father."
"Yes, she's at the deanery."
"Is that right?--when all this is going on?"
"I don't think anything is right," he said, gloomily.
"Has she--quarrelled with you, George?" At the sound of his Christian
name from the wife's lips he looked round at the sleeping husband. He
was quite sure that Mr. Houghton would not like to hear his wife call
him George. "He sleeps like a church," said Mrs. Houghton, in a low
voice. The two were sitting close together and Mr. Houghton's arm-chair
was at a considerable distance. The occasional knocking of the balls,
and the continued sound of voices was to be heard from the other room.
"If you have separated from her I think you ought to tell me."
"I saw her to-day as I came through."
"But she does not go to Manor Cross?"
"She has been at the deanery since she went down."
Of course this woman knew of the quarrel which had taken place in
London. Of course she had been aware that Lady George had stayed behind
in opposition to her husband's wishes. Of course she had learned every
detail as to the Kappa-kappa. She took it for granted that Mary was in
love with Jack De Baron, and thought it quite natural that she should
be so. "She never understood you as I should have done, George,"
whispered the lady. Lord George again looked at the sleeping man, who
grunted and moved, "He would hardly hear a pistol go off."
"Shouldn't I?" said the sleeping man, rubbing away the flies from his
nose. Lord George wished himself back at his club.
"Come out into the balcony," said Mrs. Houghton. She led the way and he
was obliged to follow her. There was a balcony to this house surrounded
with full-grown shrubs, so that they who stood there could hardly be
seen from the road below. "He never knows what any one is saying." As
she spoke she came close up to her visitor. "At any rate he has the
merit of never troubling me or himself by any jealousies."
"I should be very sorry to give him cause," said Lord George.
"What's that you say?" Poor Lord George had simply been awkward, having
intended no severity. "Have you given him no cause?"
"I meant that I should be sorry to trouble him."
"Ah--h! That is a different thing. If husbands would only be
complaisant, how much nicer it would be for everybody." Then there was
a pause. "You do love me, George?" There was a beautiful moon that was
bright through the green foliage, and there was a smell of sweet
exotics, and the garden of the Square was mysteriously pretty as it lay
below them in the moonlight. He stood silent, making no immediate
answer to this appeal. He was in truth plucking up his courage for a
great effort. "Say that you love me. After all that is passed you must
love me." Still he was silent. "George, will you not speak?"
"Yes; I will speak."
"Well, sir!"
"I do not love you."
"What! But you are laughing at me. You have some scheme or some plot
going on."
"I have nothing going on. It is better to say it. I love my wife."
"Psha! love her;--yes, as you would a doll or any pretty plaything. I
loved her too till she took it into her stupid head to quarrel with me.
I don't grudge her such love as that. She is a child."
It occurred to Lord George at the moment that his wife had certainly
more than an infantine will of her own. "You don't know her," he said.
"And now, after all, you tell me to my face that you do not love me!
Why have you sworn so often that you did?" He hadn't sworn it often. He
had never sworn it at all since she had rejected him. He had been
induced to admit a passion in the most meagre terms. "Do you own
yourself to be false?" she asked.
"I am true to my wife."
"Your wife! One would think you were the curate of the parish. And is
that to be all?"
"Yes, Mrs. Houghton; that had better be all."
"Then why did you come here? Why are you here now?" She had not
expected such courage from him, and almost thought more of him now than
she had ever thought before. "How dare you come to this house at all?"
"Perhaps I should not have come."
"And I am nothing to you?" she asked in her most plaintive accents.
"After all those scenes at Manor Cross you can think of me with
indifference?" There had been no scenes, and as she spoke he shook his
head, intending to disclaim them. "Then go!" How was he to go? Was he
to wake Mr. Houghton? Was he to disturb that other loving couple? Was
he to say no word of farewell to her? "Oh, stay," she added, "and unsay
it all--unsay it all and give no reason, and it shall be as though it
were never said." Then she seized him by the arm and looked
passionately up into his eyes. Mr. Houghton moved restlessly in his
chair and coughed aloud. "He'll be off again in half a moment," said
Mrs. Houghton. Then he was silent, and she was silent, looking at him.
And he heard a word or two come clearly from the back drawing-room.
"You will, Jack; won't you, dear Jack?"
The ridicule of the thing touched even him. "I think I had better go,"
he said.
"Then go!"
"Good-night, Mrs. Houghton."
"I will not say good-night. I will never speak to you again. You are
not worth speaking to. You are false. I knew that men could be false,
but not so false as you. Even that young fellow in there has some
heart. He loves your--darling wife, and will be true to his love." She
was a very devil in her wickedness. He started as though he had been
stung, and rushed inside for his hat. "Halloa, Germain, are you going?"
said the man of the house, rousing himself for the moment.
"Yes, I am going. Where did I leave my hat?"
"You put it on the piano," said Mrs. Houghton in her mildest voice,
standing at the window. Then he seized his hat and went off. "What a
very stupid man he is," she said, as she entered the room.
"A very good sort of fellow," said Mr. Houghton.
"He's a gentleman all round," said Jack De Baron. Jack knew pretty well
how the land lay and could guess what had occurred.
"I am not so sure of that," said the lady. "If he were a gentleman as
you say all round, he would not be so much afraid of his elder brother.
He has come up to town now merely because Brotherton sent to him, and
when he went to Scumberg's the Marquis would not see him. He is just
like his sisters,--priggish, punctilious and timid."
"He has said something nasty to you," remarked her husband, "or you
would not speak of him like that."
She had certainly said something very nasty to him. As he returned to
his club he kept on repeating to himself her last words;--"He loves
your darling wife." Into what a mass of trouble had he not fallen
through the Dean's determination that his daughter should live in
London! He was told on all sides that this man was in love with his
wife, and he knew,--he had so much evidence for knowing,--that his wife
liked the man. And now he was separated from his wife, and she could
go whither her father chose to take her. For aught that he could do she
might be made to live within the reach of this young scoundrel. No
doubt his wife would come back if he would agree to take her back on
her own terms. She would again belong to him if he would agree to take
the Dean along with her. But taking the Dean would be to put himself
into the Dean's leading strings. The Dean was strong and imperious; and
then the Dean was rich. But anything would be better than losing his
wife. Faulty as he thought her to be, she was sweet as no one else was
sweet. When alone with him she would seem to make every word of his a
law. Her caresses were full of bliss to him. When he kissed her her
face would glow with pleasure. Her voice was music to him; her least
touch was joy. There was a freshness about the very things which she
wore which pervaded his senses. There was a homeliness about her beauty
which made her more lovely in her own room than when dressed for balls
and parties. And yet he had heard it said that when dressed she was
declared to be the most lovely woman that had come to London that
season. And now she was about to become the mother of his child. He was
thoroughly in love with his wife. And yet he was told that his wife was
"Jack De Baron's darling!"