SIR ALLAN BEAUMERVILLE VISITS THE COURT
On the following day Sir Allan duly arrived, and in a very short space
of time Helen's fears had altogether vanished. His appearance was
certainly not that of an anxious wooer. He was pale and haggard and
thin, altogether a different person to the brilliant man about town who
was such a popular figure in society. Something seemed to have aged him.
There were lines and wrinkles in his face which had never appeared there
before, and an air of restless depression in his manner and bearing
quite foreign to his former self.
On the first evening Mr. Thurwell broached some plans for his
entertainment, but Sir Allan stopped him at once.
"If I may be allowed to choose," he said, "I should like to be
absolutely quiet for a few days. London life is not the easiest in the
world, and I'm afraid I must be getting an old man. At any rate I am
knocked up, and I want a rest."
"You have come to the right place for that," Mr. Thurwell laughed. "You
could live here for months and never see a soul if you chose. But I'm
afraid you'll soon be bored."
"I'm not afraid of that," Sir Allan answered quietly. "Besides, my
excuse was not altogether a fiction. I really am an enthusiastic
botanist, and I want to take up my researches here just where I was
obliged to leave them off so suddenly last year."
Mr. Thurwell nodded.
"I remember," he said; "you were staying at Mallory, weren't you, when
that sad affair to poor Kynaston happened?"
"Yes."
Sir Allan moved his chair a little, as though to escape from the warmth
of the fire, and sat where the heavily shaded lamp left his face in the
shadow.
"Yes, that was a terrible affair," he said in a low tone; "and a very
mysterious one. Nothing has ever been heard of the murderer, I suppose?"
"Nothing."
"And there are no rumors, no suspicions?"
Mr. Thurwell looked uneasily around, as though to satisfy himself that
there were no servants lingering in the room.
"It is scarcely a thing to be talked about," he said slowly; "but there
have been things said."
"About whom?"
"About my tenant at Falcon's Nest--Bernard Maddison, as he turned out to
be."
"Ah!"
Mr. Thurwell looked at his guest wonderingly. He could not quite make up
his mind whether he was profoundly indifferent or equally interested.
His tone sounded a little cold.
"There was a fellow down here in my employ," continued Mr. Thurwell,
lighting a fresh cigar, "who turns out to have been a spy or detective
of some sort. Of course I knew nothing of it at the time--in fact, I've
only just found it out; but it seems he ransacked Falcon's Nest and
discovered some papers which he avowed quite openly would hang Mr.
Maddison. But what's become of him I don't know."
"I suppose he didn't disclose the nature of the papers?" Sir Allan asked
quietly.
"No, he didn't go as far as that. By the bye, you know every one,
Beaumerville. Who is this Bernard Maddison? Of course I know all about
his writing and that; but what family is he of? He is certainly a
gentleman."
Sir Allan threw away his cigarette, and rose.
"I think I have heard once, but I don't remember for the moment. Miss
Helen promised us a little music, didn't she?" he added. "If you are
ready, shall we go and remind her?"
Sir Allan brought the conversation to an end with a shrug of his
shoulders, and during the remainder of his stay Mr. Thurwell noticed
that he carefully avoided any reopening of it. Evidently his guest has
no taste for horrors.
Sir Allan rose late on the following morning, and until lunch-time
begged for the use of the library, where he remained writing letters and
reading up the flora of the neighborhood. Early in the afternoon he
appeared equipped for his botanizing expedition.
"Helen shall go with you and show you the most likely places," Mr.
Thurwell had said at luncheon. But though Sir Allan had bowed
courteously, and had expressed himself as charmed, he had not said
another word about it, so when the time came he started alone. On the
whole Helen, although she was by no means ill-pleased, was not a little
puzzled. In London, when it was sometimes difficult to obtain a place by
her side at all, Sir Allan had been the most assiduous and attentive of
cavaliers; but now that they were quite alone in the country, and her
company was even offered to him, he showed himself by no means eager to
avail himself of it. On the contrary, he had deliberately preferred
doing his botanizing alone. Well, she was quite satisfied, she thought,
with a little laugh. It was far better this way than the other. Still
she was puzzled.
Later in the afternoon she started for her favorite walk alone. She
nearly always chose the same way along the cliffs, through the fir
plantation, and sometimes as far as the hill by the side of which was
Falcon's Nest. It was a walk full of associations for her, associations
which had become so dear a part of her life that she always strove to
heighten them even by choosing the same hour of the day for her walk as
that well-remembered one when they had stood hand-in-hand for a single
moment in the shadows of the darkening plantation. And again, as it had
done many times before, her heart beat fast, and sweet memories began to
steal back to her as she passed under those black waving branches
moaning slightly in the evening breeze, and pressed under foot the brown
leaves which in a sodden mass carpeted the winding path. Yes, it was
here by that tall slender fir that they had stood for that one moment of
intense happiness, when the thunder of the sea filling the air around
them had almost forbidden speech, and the strange light had flashed in
his dark eyes. She passed the spot with slow, lingering steps and
quickening pulses, and opening the little hand-gate, climbed slowly up
the cliff.
At the summit she paused and looked around. A low grey mist hung over
the moor, and twilight had cast its mantle of half-veiled obscurity over
sea and land. A wind too had sprung up, blowing her ulster and skirts
around her, and driving the mist across the moor in clouds of small,
fine rain. Before her she could just see the dim outline of the opposite
hill, with its dark patch of firs, and Falcon's Nest, bare and distinct,
close up against its side. The wind and the rain blew against her, but
she took no heed. All personal discomforts seemed so little beside these
memories tinged with such a peculiar sweetness. It is a fact that a
woman is able to extract far more pleasure from memories than a man, for
there is in his nature a certain impatience which makes it impossible
for him to keep his thought fixed steadfastly upon the past. The vivid
flashes of memory which do come to him only incite a great restlessness
for its renewal, which, if it be for the time impossible, is only
disquieting and discontenting. But for a woman, her love itself, even
though it be for the time detached from its object, is a sweet and
precious thing. She can yield herself up to its influence, can steep her
mind and soul in it, till a glow of intense happiness steals through her
whole frame; and hence her patience during separation is so much greater
than a man's.
And it was so to a certain extent with Helen. Those few moments of
intense abstraction had their own peculiar pleasure for her, and it was
only the sound of the far-off clock borne by the wind across the moor
from Thurwell Court which recalled her to herself. Then she started, and
in a moment more would have been on her way home.
But that lingering farewell glance toward Falcon's Nest suddenly changed
into a startled fearful gaze. Her heart beat fast, and she took an
involuntary step forward. There was no doubt about it. A dim moving
light shone from the lower windows of the cottage.
Her first wild thought was that her lover had himself returned, and a
thrill of intense joy passed through her whole being, only to die away
before the cold chill of a heart-sickening dread. Was it not far more
likely to be an intruder of the type of Benjamin Levy, a spy or emissary
of the law, searching amongst his papers as Benjamin Levy had done, for
the same hideous reason. Her heart sank with fear, and then leaped up
with the fierce defensive instinct of a woman who sees her lover's
enemies working for his ruin. She did not hesitate for an instant, but
walked swiftly along the cliff-side towards that tremulous light.
The twilight was fast deepening, and the cold grey tint of the dull
afternoon was gradually becoming blotted out into darkness. As she drew
nearer to her destination, the low moaning of the sea below became
mingled with the melancholy sighing of the wind amongst the thick fir
trees which overhung the cottage. The misty rain blew in her face and
penetrated her thick ulster. Everything around was as dreary and lonely
as it could be. The only sign of any human life was that faint
glimmering light now stationary, as though the searcher whoever he might
be, had found what he wanted, and had settled down in one of the rooms.
As she drew nearer she saw which it was, and trembled. All the rest of
the cottage was in black darkness. The light shone only from the window
of that little inner study on the ground floor.
She had passed through the gate, and with beating heart approached the
window. A few yards away she paused and looked in.
A candle was burning on a small bracket, and, though its light was but
dim, it showed her everything. The cabinet was open, and papers were
strewn about, as though thrown right and left in a desperate search;
and, with his back to her, a man was seated before it, his bared head
resting upon his arms, and his whole attitude full of the passionate
abandonment of a great despair. She had but one thought. It was her
lover returned, and he needed her consolation. With a new light in her
face she turned and moved softly toward the front door. As she reached
the threshold she paused and drew back. There was the sound of footsteps
inside.
She stepped behind a bush and waited. In a moment the door of the
cottage was thrown suddenly open, and the tall figure of a man stood in
the entrance. For one moment he hesitated. Then with a sudden passionate
gesture he raised his hands high above his head, and she heard a long
deep moan burst from his quivering lips.
The pity which swelled up in her heart she kept back with a strong hand.
A strange bewilderment was creeping over her. She had seen only the dark
outline of the figure, but surely it was not the figure of her lover.
And then she held her breath, and walking swiftly away, passing so close
to her that she could look into his white, strained face, Sir Allan
Beaumerville strode down the garden, and disappeared in the shadows of
the plantation.