But that night Adrien Leroy could not sleep. Dismissing his valet, he
threw himself into a chair, and began to review the events of the day,
which had affected him more deeply than he would confess to. Then the
mere sight of Lady Constance with Lord Standon had convinced him that
any hope of ever winning her for his wife was at an end. For so many
years had he himself been wooed and sought after, without response, that
he was as ignorant of the rules of the game of love as any child. Love!
he had sneered at it, jested at its power all his life; but now he was
beginning to suffer from its pangs himself. He rose hastily, and
throwing open the window of his dressing room, stepped out on the
balcony.
It was an exquisite night, and the stars shone like diamonds. Yet their
very distance and detachment from all things earthly only served to
deepen Adrien's melancholy. Before him stretched, in seemingly endless
vista, the woods and lands of his heritage. As far as eye could reach,
the earth and all within it and upon it belonged to him; and yet he
sighed for the love and devotion of one frail girl, which, had he but
known, were already his.
As he walked to and fro, he was again assailed by a wholesome distaste
of his present empty, aimless existence, and a great longing came over
him to break away from it and start afresh. Yes! he was very tired of it
all. The men and women with whom he had up to this spent his time were
becoming abhorrent to him. The thought of the soft lips and glances that
had hitherto beguiled him, and lulled him into a state bordering upon
stupor, now filled him with shame. Love, that marvellous panacea, had
driven out the false, the impure visions of his heart, as surely and as
thoroughly as ever Hercules cleansed the Augean stables.
The blood of his race stirred with him; he would have liked to have
snatched Constance, and borne her away on his trusty steed, as his
forefathers would have done. But instead he must stand aside, and see
her married to another. Nay, he himself would be asked to attend the
wedding, perhaps even give her away to the man who was surely no more
worthy of her than Adrien himself.
Jasper Vermont had indeed done his work well. No sooner had he seen the
light of love shining in his friend's face, than he had set to work;
and, like the grim spider of evil he resembled, had filled Adrien's mind
with the suggestion that Constance loved--in fact, was secretly engaged
to, Lord Standon.
His reasons for this were twofold. If Adrien married Constance, Ada
Lester would--whether with or without cause--hold him responsible, and
was more than capable of carrying out her threat to unmask him to his
patron. Moreover, Jasper looked upon Lady Constance with an appreciative
and covetous eye, and felt that if he could ever ingratiate himself with
her sufficiently for her to promise to become his wife, the summit of
his ambition would be reached.
Adrien was easily deceived; for, with all his faults, he was not
conceited. He did not guess that Constance's very openly expressed
pleasure in the company of Lord Standon was to prevent the discovery of
her real and passionate longing for that of her cousin.
Henceforth, he told himself, he must do his best to hide the pain that
was gnawing at his heart. Henceforward, the pleasure of life would be as
Dead Sea fruit to him. His hand fell on the balustrade in his
unconscious despair; and at that moment, another window farther down the
long balcony opened, and the figure of Lord Barminster stepped out into
the moonlight.
Adrien was in no humour to meet even his father; he was too weary in
spirit to confront the old man's satire with his usual calm; so he
shrank back into the shadow of the buttress against which he leaned. But
Lord Barminster's eyes were quick to perceive him; and, striding
forward, he laid his hand on his son's shoulder.
"Well, Adrien," he commenced, "what is wrong? Can't you sleep, or are
you given to spending the small hours in star-gazing?"
"I might retort in kind, sir," returned Adrien, pulling his scattered
thoughts together, and smiling faintly.
"Ah! I am old," said his father. "Age has its penalties as well as its
privileges; and the freedom to speak plainly is one of the latter. Come,
my boy, what is wrong? At your age I was happy enough; but you seem to
have taken the troubles of the world on your shoulders. Are you ill?"
"No, sir, I am well enough," returned Adrien quietly.
"Then are you worrying over your debts through that unlucky horse?
Because, although, as you know, I do not interfere with your money
matters as a rule, you are quite at liberty to draw on my bank if you
care to do so."
His son turned to him affectionately.
"No, no, sir," he said gratefully. "I don't suppose they are as bad as
all that. Jasper will see to them."
The words were scarcely out of his mouth when he regretted them. His
father's face darkened; his eyes grew fierce.
"Jasper! always Jasper," he snarled, even as Mortimer Shelton had done.
"It's a pity he didn't break his neck this morning, instead of his
miserable tool."
Adrien uttered a protesting exclamation; he would have sacrificed
anything sooner than have given his father this opportunity to revile
his friend.
"You must be blind, sir," continued Lord Barminster, now working himself
up into a rage. "Did not you see and hear enough from that jockey this
morning to make you realise what that precious friend of yours had done?
I tell you, Adrien, that Jasper Vermont bribed that miserable man to
rope your horse. For him, you have allowed your friends, my guests, to
be swindled out of their money."
It was the first time in Adrien's recollection that the proud old man
had ever even hinted that Barminster Castle was not entirely his son's
yet; that the guests were those of his father's choice as well of his
own.
Adrien's eyes blazed.
"Father," he said in a low voice, but as hard as steel, "I know you have
always hated Mr. Vermont, but this goes farther than hate. Forgive me if
I ask you, but surely you have some proofs? Otherwise you would not have
accused him of such villainy. Give them to me, and I promise you to
punish him as severely as you yourself could wish."
"Proofs!" his father repeated sternly with knitted brows. "What proofs
would such a clever scoundrel leave about? This morning's work should be
sufficient proof even to satisfy you."
Adrien drew himself up to his full height, and confronted his father
with a resolute air.
"It is no use, sir," he said. "I cannot take a drunken jockey's
ramblings as proof of such an awful thing as that. Jasper is my friend,
and besides, it is more to his interest to help me than to hate me."
Lord Barminster sighed deeply. The experience of age had taught him the
impossibility of convincing youth against its will.
"Well, my boy," he said, "have your own way, but mark my words, you will
live to repent your folly! I have no more proof, and to me no more is
needed. Men on their death-beds do not lie, and I am as firmly convinced
that Jasper Vermont forced that man to sell the race, as though I had
the confession on paper. Still, I will say no more; you are young, and
'Youth knows All.' Find out for yourself the man's character, I shall
not warn you again. You are placing your faith in a thankless cur; don't
grumble when he turns round and bites the hand that has helped him. As
for me, I will wait. Believe me, I would far rather know myself to be
wrong than deal you any further unhappiness, so let us drop the subject
for a time. I did not mean to bring up the man's name. I want to speak
to you of far more important things."
His voice grew more grave, indeed almost solemn.
"Adrien, I am an old man, nearing the grave, and, as is only natural, my
thoughts turn to the future of our race. You are the last of our line,
it is to you I look to carry it on. You are no longer a boy, with a
youth's follies and tastes; it is time you took up your
responsibilities."
Adrien made as if to speak; but his father checked him, with a gesture
of his hand.
"Stay, hear me out," he said. "When I was your age, your mother was at
my side, I had given the House of Leroy its son and heir. I was married,
and had left the lighter loves of the world for a more lasting and
responsible one. You know I have never interfered much with your life;
but though I am no longer of the gay world, I yet hear something of its
doings. You 'live the pace,' they tell me, and are the idol of the smart
set. Barminster Castle, Adrien, looks for something higher than that in
its lord and master. I repeat, sir, at your age I was married."
"And loved," said Adrien softly.
"Yes, indeed," exclaimed Lord Barminster, his face lighting up at the
thought of the woman whom he had lost, and mourned so long. "Your mother
was that which ranks above rubies, a good and virtuous woman, worthy of
any man's love."
Adrien turned his pale face away, as if to avoid scrutiny, then he said
gently:
"I admit your right to speak like this, sir, and if it rested with me I
would obey you at once."
"It does rest with you, Adrien," returned his father quickly. "Surely
you are blind, not to see that Constance Tremaine loves you with her
whole heart."
Adrien started up, his face alight and quivering with excitement.
"Impossible, sir!" he exclaimed. "Would to heaven it were true; for I
know no other woman to whom I would so gladly devote my life."
The grim old face softened and relaxed. He had not expected such an
overwhelming victory.
"Why do you say it is impossible?" he asked.
Adrien did not answer for a moment, then he slip hoarsely:
"She is already engaged to Lord Standon."
An exclamation of astonishment burst from the old man's lips. He put out
his hand in involuntary sympathy, and the two so strangely alike, yet so
wide apart in years, clasped hands. Then, as if ashamed of the momentary
emotion, the old man turned away, saying quietly:
"This is, of course, a surprise to me. Its truth yet remains to be
proved, but I should feel inclined to doubt it myself." With which he
went back to his own apartments.
Left alone once more, Adrien walked restlessly to and fro.
"If Constance really cared for me," he said to himself, "nothing else in
the world would matter. Lucky Standon! I dare not think of the future,
it what Jasper said was true."
At last he, too, returned to his room; but it was almost morning before
he fell into a troubled slumber.