Ida rode home all quivering with the pain of her meeting with Maude
Falconer. At first it seemed to her that she must leave Herondale--for
a time, at any rate; that it would be impossible for her to run the
risk of meeting the beautiful woman who had stolen Stafford from her;
but, as she grew calmer, her pride came to her aid, and she saw that to
run away would be cowardly. Herondale was her home, had been her home
long before the Villa had sprung up, and to desert it because of the
proximity of Maude Falconer would be almost as bad as if a soldier
should desert his colors.
But for the next few days she did not leave her own grounds. She grew
pale and listless, and Lady Bannerdale, when she came to look her up,
noticed the change in her, but was too tactful to make any remark upon
it.
"We have missed you so much, my dear," she said, affectionately.
"Indeed, my husband has been quite fidgety and irritable--so unlike
him!--and Edwin has been worse, if it were possible. Men are a great
trouble, my dear Ida. Though perhaps I ought not to say that of mine,
for I count myself lucky in both husband and son. Edwin has scarcely
given me a day's trouble since he was a child. I really think, if I
were asked what are the best gifts bestowed by the fairy godmother, I
should say 'a good digestion and a temper to match,' and I am quite
proud of Edwin's strength and amiability. But even he has been somewhat
of a trial for the last few days; so, my dear girl, do come over and
help me manage them."
Ida smiled rather absently, and her ladyship glided smoothly from the
subject.
"Since we last saw you we have called at the Villa," she said, "and we
were fortunate enough to find Miss Falconer at home. She is alone there
in that huge palace of a place, for her father has gone back to London;
and, though I was never very much taken with her, I could not help
pitying her."
"Why?" asked Ida, not absently now, but in her quiet, reserved manner.
"She looks so--well, actually so unhappy," replied Lady Bannerdale.
"She was in mourning, and her face--she is really an extremely
beautiful girl!--was like marble. And her reception of me was almost as
cold. I am afraid that she has had more trouble than we are aware of,
there was such a preoccupied and indifferent air about her. It occurred
to me that she was fretting for her absent _fiancé_, Mr. Stafford--oh,
dear me! I shall never remember to call him Lord Highcliffe!--and I
resolved to carefully refrain from mentioning him; but you know how
stupid one is in such a case, how one always talks about lameness in
the presence of a man with one leg; and in the midst of a pause in the
conversation, which, by the way, was nearly all on my side, I blurted
out with: 'Have you heard from Mr. Stafford Orme lately, Miss
Falconer?' 'I suppose you mean Lord Highcliffe, Lady Bannerdale?' she
said, turning her cold, blue eyes on my scarlet face. 'He is in
Australia, and is well. I do not hear very often from him. He is
leading a very busy life, and has little time for letter-writing, I
imagine.' Of course I got myself away as soon as I could after that,
and I'm afraid I left a very bad impression upon Miss Falconer."
Ida said nothing, but leant forward and stirred the fire, which may
have caused the colour which glowed for a moment or two on her face.
"I am sure I don't know why the young man should have rushed off to the
other end of the world: or why he doesn't rush back again and marry the
lady of his heart, who has enough money for both of them, and would
make an extremely handsome and stately countess. By the way, have you
ever seen the present Lord Highcliffe, my dear?" "Yes, I have seen
him," Ida replied in the tone which closes a subject of conversation.
"Shall I give you some more tea? No? Would you like to see how the
workmen are getting on? I think they are working very quickly. They
will want this part of the house presently, and I have an idea of going
away for a time; perhaps abroad," she added, though she had put the
idea away from her until this moment, and it was only Lady Bannerdale's
talk of Maude Falconer which started it again in her mind.
Lady Bannerdale, looked alarmed.
"Oh, don't do that, my dear!" she said. "If you are obliged to turn out
of the house, why not come to us? It would be so kind and sweet of
you."
Ida sighed a little wearily.
"Oh, I don't suppose they will insist upon ejecting me," she said. "I
think I can persuade them to leave me two or three rooms."
Lady Bannerdale went home and dropped her bomb-shell in the presence of
Lord Bannerdale and Edwin.
"Ida rather thinks of going abroad," she said in a casual way at the
dinner table.
Lord Edwin was raising his wine glass to his lips, but arrested it
half-way and set it down again; and his handsome face grew long and
grave.
"Oh! We shall miss her," remarked Lord Bannerdale, lamely, and avoiding
looking in his son's direction.
Not another word was said; but the next day Lord Edwin came into Lady
Bannerdale's room with that affectation of ease and indifference which
never yet deceived a mother.
"I'm going to call on Miss Heron, mother," he said. "Any message?"
Lady Bannerdale looked at him, her brow wrinkled with motherly anxiety.
There was nothing in the world she desired more than his happiness; and
she knew that the marriage with Ida would be in every way desirable:
the girl was one in a thousand, the Bannerdale estates almost joined
Herondale; both she and her husband were fond of Ida, who, they knew,
would prove a worthy successor to the present mistress of the Grange;
but just because it seemed so desirable and Lord Edwin's heart was so
passionately set upon it, the mother was anxious. She saw that he was
dressed with extreme care, and that his face was unusually grave.
"You will give Ida my love, Edwin, please, and tell her--" She turned
away that he might not see her anxiety. "That is all; but it means a
great deal, as you know, Edwin. I--I wish you every happiness, my dear
boy!"
"Thank you, mother," he said, by no means in an unmanly way. "My
happiness or unhappiness rests with her."
When he arrived at the Hall, Ida was just going out for a ride. She
turned back with him to the drawing-room, thinking that he had brought
a message from his mother, probably a definite invitation to stay at
the Grange, and in her mind she had already decided to decline it. As
he happened to stand with his back to the window the gravity of his
face did not enlighten her; and with something like a start she
received his first words.
"Miss Heron, my mother says that you have some thought of leaving
Herondale, of going abroad. If that is so, I cannot let you go
without--without my speaking to you; so I have come over this afternoon
to tell you, as well as I can, what I have on my mind and my heart. I'm
not very good at expressing myself, and I'm handicapped in the present
instance by--by the depth of my feeling. Of course I'm trying to tell
you that I love you. I thought you might have seen it," he said, with a
touch of wonder at her start and flush of surprise. "But I see you have
not noticed it. I love you very much indeed; and I feel that my only
chance of happiness lies in my winning you for my wife. I don't know
there's any more to be said than that, if I were to talk for a month. I
love you, and have loved you for a long time past." A few weeks, a few
months are "a long time" to youth when it is in love! "The very first
day I saw you--but I needn't tell you that, only I like you to know
that it isn't a sudden fancy, and one that I shall get over in a hurry.
I don't feel as though I shall ever get over it at all; I don't know
that I want to. Please don't speak for a moment. There was something
else I wanted to say. I'd got it all arranged as I came along, but the
sight of you has scattered it."
Ida had been going to speak, to stop him; but at this appeal she
remained silent, standing with her hands closing and unclosing on her
whip, her eyes fixed on the ground, her brows drawn straight. The
coldest woman cannot listen unmoved to a declaration of love, and Ida
was anything but cold.
"I only wanted to tell you," he went on, "that my people are very
anxious that you should say 'yes.' Both my father and mother are very
fond of you--I think you know that and--" he stammered a little here
for the first time--"and--well, there are the estates. You won't mind
my saying that both you and I have to think of them; they belong to us
and we belong to them, and--if we were married--But I don't lay much
stress upon the estates being so close. I'd come and ask you to marry
me if I were as poor as a church mouse or you hadn't a penny. It just
comes to this: that I love you with all my heart and soul, that if
you'll marry me I shall be the happiest man, and my people the proudest
people, in England."
There was a warm flush on his handsome face, an eager look in his
bright eyes, and he had pleaded his cause very well, in an outspoken,
manly way, which never fails to appeal to a woman. Ida was moved; the
crop nearly snapped in her hands, and her eyes grew moist. He saw it,
and tried to take her hand, but she, though she did not move, shook her
head very gently but very resolutely.
"No," she said, in a low voice, "I--I want to tell you, Lord Edwin, how
proud I am at the honour you have paid me. Like yourself, I am not good
at expressing my feelings--though, indeed, I think you have done
yourself an injustice: you have spoken, told me very well--and I am
very grateful. I wish I could say 'yes.'"
"Ah, say it!" he implored her, eagerly.
She shook her head again, and lifting her eyes and looking at him
straightly but sadly, she said in a still lower voice:
"Lord Edwin, I do not love you."
"I never said, thought, you did," he responded, promptly. "Why, you've
only known me such a short time, and I'm not such a conceited bounder
to think that you've fallen in love with me already. I only want you to
let me try and win your love; and--I think I shall do so," he said in a
modest but manly way, which would at once have won Ida's heart--if it
had not been won already. "If you will only give me some hope, just
tell me that I've a chance, that you'll let me, try--"
Ida smiled a sad little smile.
"If I said as much as that--But I cannot. Lord Edwin, you--you have
told me that you love me, and it would not be fair--ah, please don't
try to persuade me! Don't you see how terrible it would be if I were to
let you think that I might come to care for you, and I did not do so."
"For God's sake, don't say 'no,'" broke from him, and his face paled
under the tan.
She turned away from him, her eyes full of tears which she dared not
let him see.
"I--I must have time," she said, almost desperately. "Will you give me
a day, two days?" she asked, quite humbly. "I want to do what you want,
but--I want to think: there is something I should have to tell you."
He flushed to the roots of his hair.
"If it's anything that's happened in the past, anyone else--of course,
loving you as I do, I have seen that there has been something on your
mind, some trouble besides your father's death--but if it is past, I
don't mind. I know I can teach you to forget it, whatever it is. Ida,
trust yourself to me."
She drew away from him.
"Give me two days," she said, with a catch in her breath.
He caught at the hope, small though it was.
"I will give you two days, twenty if you like," he said. "Only, while
you are thinking it over, remember I love you with all my heart and
soul, that my people will love you as a daughter, that--Oh, I won't say
any more: I can't trust myself! I'll go now."
When he had gone Ida got on Rupert and rode to the top of the hill.
There she pulled up and thought with all her heart and mind. She could
not doubt his love; she could not but feel that if she surrendered
herself to him he would, indeed, in time teach her to forget. She knew
that it was her duty to marry; his word about the estates had not been
spoken in vain. Yes; if she became Lord Edwin's wife, she would in time
forget. But, alas! she did not want to forget.
Her love for Stafford was still as strong as ever, and with its
bitterness was mingled a sweetness which was sweeter than life itself.
And yet how great a sin it was, how shameful a one, that she should
love a man who was pledged to another woman, who was going to marry
her!
She came in late for dinner, and could scarcely eat. Her reason said
"yes," her heart said "no:" and she knew that she ought to listen to
her reason and turn a deaf ear to the still voice in her heart. She
paced up and down the drawing-room, pale and wan with the fight that
was going on within her. Then suddenly she resolved that she would
accept him. She would not keep him in suspense: it would not be
fair--it would be a cruel requital of his love and generosity. She went
to the writing-table, and hurriedly, as if she were afraid of
hesitating, she drew a sheet of paper towards her and wrote:
"Dear Lord Edwin--" She had got thus far when Donald and Bess, who had
been lying beside the fire, sprang up and ran to the door barking
loudly. She laid down the pen and opened the door mechanically; the
moonlight was streaming through the window in the hall; the dogs
bounded to the front door still barking vociferously. Still,
mechanically, she let them out, and they rushed across the terrace and
over the lawn to the group of trees beside the footpath. Thinking that
they heard Jessie, whom she had sent to Bryndermere, Ida,
half-unconsciously glad of the interruption, followed them slowly
across the lawn.
Their barking ceased suddenly, and convinced that it was Jessie, she
went on to add something to her message. Then, suddenly, she saw a tall
figure standing in the shadow of the trees. It was a man, and Donald
and Bess were jumping up at him with little whines of pleasure. Smitten
by a sudden fear she stopped; but the man raised his head and saw her,
and, with an exclamation, strode towards her. For an instant she
thought that she was dreaming, that her imagination was playing her
false, for it was Stafford's form and face. They stood and gazed at
each other; her brain felt dizzy, her pale face grew paler; she knew
that she was trembling, that she could scarcely stand; she began to
sway to and fro slightly, and he caught her in his arms.