Not only on her own account, but on that of the Marquess, Celia
regretted keenly the advent of Lord and Lady Heyton at the Hall. Of the
man, Celia had formed a most unfavourable opinion, and she could not but
see that his wife, beautiful as she was, was shallow, vain, and
unreliable, the kind of woman who would always act on impulse, whether
it were a good or evil one. Such a woman is more dangerous than a
deliberately wicked and absolutely heartless one.
The coming of these two persons had broken up the quiet and serenity of
the great house; she felt sorry for the Marquess, who had been forced
almost into an open quarrel with his son on this first night; and she
felt sorry for herself; for she had taken an instinctive dislike to Lord
Heyton, and knew that she would have hard work to avoid him. There are
men whose look, when it is bent upon a woman, is an insult; the touch of
whose hand is a contamination; and Celia felt that Lord Heyton was one
of these men. She shut herself up in the library the next morning, and
though she heard him in the hall, and was afflicted by the pungent
cigarette, which was rarely out of his lips, he did not intrude on her;
but as she was passing through the hall, on her way for a walk, she met
him coming out of the smoking-room. His was a well-groomed figure, and
save for the weak and sensuous lips, and the prominent eyes with the
curious expression, he was, physically, by no means a bad specimen of a
young man; but Celia was acutely conscious of the feeling of repulsion,
and she quickened her pace. With his hands still in his pockets, he
almost intercepted her.
"Good morning, Miss Grant!" he said, with the free-and-easy manner of a
man addressing a dependent. "First-rate morning, isn't it? Going for a
walk?"
"Yes, my lord," replied Celia, giving him his title with a little
emphasis, and speaking coldly, with her eyes fixed on the ground, her
hands touching Roddy, who had not offered to go to Lord Heyton, but
gazed up at Celia as if he were saying, "I don't like this man. Let us
go for our walk and get away from him."
"Not a bad idea, a walk; tip-top morning," said Heyton. "I'll come with
you, if you'll allow me."
Celia bit her lip, and flushed angrily; for the request for permission
was so evidently a mere matter of form.
"I would rather go alone, my lord," she said. "I am going to call on a
friend."
"Oh, but I can go as far as the door with you, surely," he said, with
the smile of a man too self-satisfied to accept a woman's rebuff
seriously. "Two's company and one's none."
"But there are already two," said Celia, forcing a smile and glancing at
Roddy. "It is very kind of your lordship, but I would rather be alone."
She moved on quickly, her heart beating rather fast with resentment, her
face crimson. Heyton followed her to the door, and stood looking after
her, an evil smile on his face.
"Pretty high and mighty for a typewriting girl," he muttered. "By jove!
she's pretty. I like that swing of hers. All right, my girl; I'm not
taken in by that mock shyness. You wait awhile. Yes; she's deuced
pretty. I wonder how the old man picked her up!"
Celia had gone some distance before she recovered her equanimity.
Certainly, this son of the Marquess was a hateful creature, and she
could not help wondering how even so shallow and frivolous a woman as
his wife could have married him. She had reached the bend of the road,
when she stopped short and stared with amazement at a group which
presented itself a little farther down.
On the bank adjoining the pathway was seated Lady Gridborough; her hat
was on one side, her face was flushed, her mantle dusty and disarranged;
but her good-natured face was wreathed in smiles as she watched a young
man, standing beside the Exmoor pony and attempting to keep it from
rearing and plunging.
"Oh, whatever is the matter?" demanded Celia, as she ran forward.
Lady Gridborough looked up, laughed, and wiped her eyes.
"Good morning, my dear," she said; "you've come just in time to enjoy a
little comedy." She nodded at the young man and the frisking pony. "Turk
took it into his head to bolt just now, coming down the hill there. I
suppose it was only his fun, but we ran up on to the path, the cart
overturned----"
"Oh! Are you hurt?" demanded Celia, anxiously.
"Not a bit," replied Lady Gridborough; "but I might have been, for I was
mixed up with the cart in some extraordinary fashion. I don't know what
might have happened if it hadn't been for that young man there. He
appeared on the scene as if he had dropped from the clouds; he
disentangled me somehow, set the cart up again, and is now trying to
persuade that fool of a pony that this isn't a circus."
At the sound of Celia's voice, the young man had turned his head and
uttered an exclamation, and now that Celia saw his face, she, too,
uttered a cry of astonishment; for she recognized Mr. Reginald Rex, the
young man of the British Museum.
She sprang up and went to him with a hand extended; he grasped it, and
they stared at each other for a moment in astonished silence; then Celia
burst into laughter.
"Why, how ridiculous!" she said. "To think of meeting you here, and in
this way!"
"It's--incredible!" he retorted. "What are you doing here?"
"I may ask you the same question," said Celia.
"I'll tell you directly," he replied, "as soon as I've persuaded this
pony that we've finished the trick act."
"Celia!" called Lady Gridborough from the bank. "Come here at once. What
does this mean? Do you know that young man? You greet each other as if
you were life-long friends!"
"Well, we're not quite that," said Celia, laughing. "We've met at the
British Museum. He is a novelist."
For an instant Lady Gridborough looked slightly disappointed; but it was
for an instant only.
"Well, he's a plucky young man all the same, my dear," she said. "He
really did show great presence of mind, and has been awfully nice
throughout the whole business. Fancy your meeting here in this way! What
is his name?"
As Celia told her, Reggie, having secured the harness sufficiently,
brought the now placid and subdued Turk to his mistress.
"Oh, is it all right?" said her ladyship. "Well, Mr. Rex, I'm very much
obliged to you. And so you know this young lady, my friend, Miss Grant!
Dear me, how extraordinary. My dear, is my hat straight?"
It was resting on one ear; and Celia, laughingly, but gently, put it
straight.
"I was going into the village," said Lady Gridborough; "but I suppose
I'd better go home."
"Yes, yes; of course you had!" said Celia. "You must be very much
shaken, if you are not actually hurt."
"Very well, then," said her ladyship. "Get in, my dear. And you, too,
Mr. Rex, if you've not already had enough of me, and Turk."
"I'll come, and drive," said Rex, with marked promptitude.
"Yes, do; though a child might drive him with a match and a piece of
cotton now. This is a very interesting meeting for you two. May one
inquire what you are doing in this locality, young man?"
"I'm taking a bit of a holiday--well, scarcely a holiday; for I'm
thinking out a new novel," said Reggie, modestly, and with a little
blush.
"Dear me, you don't say so," said the old lady, opening her eyes wide.
"Wonder how you do it! Come in search of character, I suppose? Well,
here's your heroine, anyway."
"Yes, she is," said the boy, now blushing outright and nodding at Celia.
"She's been my heroine ever since I first saw her--in the British Museum
Reading Room, you know."
"That's a candid avowal," observed her ladyship, dryly, as Celia
laughed.
They chatted in this pleasant fashion, and, in due course, reached the
Grange. It was quite a merry little lunch, through which Reggie talked
incessantly, to the increased amusement of his good-natured hostess, and
confirming her good opinion of him.
"Now, you two children can go and sit on the terrace while I have my
nap. Wiggins, give Mr. Rex a cigar."
The two went out on the terrace; and scarcely waiting for him to light a
cigar, Celia demanded "his story."
"Oh, well; I've had a stroke of luck," he said, with a long breath. "And
it's all owing to you."
"To me!"
"Yes. You remember that 'short' I sent you? But, of course, you don't."
"Oh, yes, I do," Celia assured him. "It was an awfully good story."
"Well, backed up by all the fine things you said, I sent it to the
editor of the _Piccadilly Magazine_. He accepted it--perhaps he wasn't
well at the time--and more than that, he sent for me. I thought,
perhaps, he wanted to shoot me; but, bless you, no! He liked the thing
so much that he commissioned me to write a 'long, complete,' twenty
thousand words; so I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone, run down
into the country for a holiday and business combined. But, look here,
before I say another word, you've got to tell me what you're doing
here."
Celia told him as briefly as she could.
"Oh, but that's splendid!" he cried, seizing her hand and shaking it,
just as if she were another boy. "I say, you _are_ a swell; and amongst
such swells; marquesses and lords and ladies of high degree! But, I say,
I am glad. How happy you must be!"
"I am," said Celia. "But go on, tell me about your novel; what kind of a
novel is it to be?"
"Do you remember my telling you, that afternoon at the A.B.C. shop, how,
if ever I got a chance, I meant to go in for character, psychology? Good
word, psychology! Well, I've got my chance, and I'm going for it
bald-headed. Since I saw you, I have been studying Lavater; the
physiognomy man, you know--wonderful book!--and I've been fitting
imaginary histories to everybody, man or woman, I've met."
"I used to do that," said Celia, dreamily; and back came Brown's
Buildings.
"Yes? Of course, one may make an awfully bad shot sometimes; but I'm
inclined to think that, as a rule, one is pretty accurate. I mean, that
you can judge the character of a man from his face--not so often that of
a woman, because she's more difficult, she knows how to mask her
feelings----"
"Thank you," interjected Celia.
"Oh, you know what I mean! She's been the slave of the man for
centuries, and she's been obliged to deceive him."
"Thank you very, _very_ much!"
"Oh, but she's getting past that, now; she's coming into her own,
whatever that may prove to be; and presently she'll go about with an
open countenance, and it may be easier for me to study her."
"It's to be a detective story, I suppose?" said Celia.
"Right the first go off!" he assented, admiringly. "Yes; but something
out of the ordinary, I hope. I've been through a course of Gaborieau,
and the rest of the detective-story men, and I want to come out with
something fresh. Of course, what I need is real experience. I suppose I
ought to have served my term as a criminal reporter; do murders and
forgeries, and all that kind of thing. But, then, I haven't. I must
trust to luck and chance. You don't happen to know whether a nice little
murder I could sleuth down has been committed here?"
"I'm afraid there hasn't," replied Celia, laughing.
"Rather a pity, isn't it? Never mind! Oh, are you going?"
"Yes, I must go," said Celia. "I won't disturb Lady Gridborough. Will
you say good-bye to her for me?"
"Oh, but I'm coming with you," he said, decidedly. "I'll walk with you
as far as your place and then come back and make my adieux to her
ladyship."
They set off, laughing and talking; and presently, as they came to
Susie's cottage, Susie herself, with the baby in her arms, was standing
at the door. At sight of Celia's companion, Susie drew back; but Celia
called to her and ran up to her.
"Oh, Susie, I'm so sorry!" she said, remorsefully; "but I meant to speak
to Lady Gridborough to-day about the christening. I have seen her; but
she met with an accident; she is all right, quite all right. I will go
up to the Grange again to-morrow, and come in to tell you what we have
arranged."
She had taken the child in her arms and was hugging and kissing it;
then, seeing that Susie wanted to retreat, she gave her the child and
returned to Reggie, who had been standing by the gate, his eyes fixed on
them. He drew a long breath as they turned away, and exclaimed, in a low
voice:--
"I say! What an awfully pretty woman! Was that her baby? She looked
quite a girl."
"Yes," said Celia, gravely. "Susie is only a girl."
"She must have been married very young," said Reggie, with, evident
interest. "What beautiful eyes! But, I say, why did she look so sad?
Isn't--isn't her husband good to her?"
Celia was silent for a moment, her eyes fixed on the ground, a faint
colour in her cheeks. If he were staying in the neighbourhood, he must
inevitably learn something of Susie's story. Would it not be well for
her to tell him?
"She is not married!" said Celia, in a whisper.
"Oh, lord," said Reggie, "I'm sorry! Poor girl!"
There was no more light-hearted chatter; he became absent-minded;
indeed, they were almost silent till they were close upon the lodge
gates.
"You must go back now," said Celia.
"Must I? I say, when can I see you again; and how soon? May I write to
you and fix up an appointment, or will you write to me? You will, won't
you, Miss Grant?"
"Yes," said Celia. "I want to hear how the novel goes on. Perhaps Lady
Gridborough will let us come to tea at the Grange, if I ask her."
They were shaking hands, when they both saw Lord Heyton crossing the
lawn. Reggie looked at him in silence for a moment; then he said:--
"That one of the swells of the house?"
"That is Lord Heyton, the Marquess's son," said Celia.
"Friend of yours?" Reggie inquired.
"No!" escaped Celia's lips.
Reggie turned his eyes to her quickly.
"Glad of that!" he said. "Because, if there's anything in the science of
physiognomy, that gentleman is a decidedly bad lot."
Celia turned away from the gate and walked slowly beside Reggie.
"You jump at conclusions," she said. "You have only seen him for a
moment or two, and at a distance."
"I've got very good eyes," said Reggie; "and a moment or two's long
enough; it's the first impression that's valuable; and, as I say, if
there's any truth in the theory that you can read a character by facial
characteristics, that gentleman is about as bad as they make 'em."
"But--forgive me--that you should be able to judge so swiftly sounds
absurd."
"Well, it may be," admitted Reggie, grudgingly. "But I'll bet my last
dollar that I'm right. Why, don't you see," he went on, earnestly,
insistently, "the man's got all the wrong points; the low, shelving
brow, the weak chin, the--the wrong lips. Did you notice the trick he
has of looking sideways under his lids? You know what I mean, the
furtive 'does-anyone-know' look?"
"I have noticed it," said Celia, reluctantly. "I have only seen him once
or twice. I--I agree with you partly, and I don't think he's a good
man."
"_Good_ man!" retorted Reggie, with a laugh of derision. "You take it
from me that he's as bad as they make 'em. It's my belief that he's done
something already--something he's ashamed of; something he's afraid may
be found out. Oh, laugh if you like; but, look here, Miss Grant, you
take my advice and keep clear of that man."
"I mean to," said Celia, as lightly as she could. "And so, as he's in
the front of the house, I'm going in at this side door. Good-bye; I'll
write to you."
Reggie walked on towards the Grange, and as he approached Susie's
cottage, his step grew slow, so slow that, when he came to the gate, he
almost stopped; and his eyes searched the door and the window eagerly;
but he was not rewarded by a sight of the sad, pretty face which had
moved him so deeply.