THE cool shadows were creeping across the velvet grass next afternoon
when Nettie Harding lay languidly content in a canvas chair on the Low
Wood lawn. Behind her rose a long, low, red-roofed dwelling, whose gray
walls showed only here and there through their green mantle of creeper,
but in front, beyond the moss-covered terrace wall, wheatfield, coppice,
and meadow flooded with golden sunlight melted through gradations of
color into the blue distance. It was very hot, and the musical tinkle of
a mower that rose from the valley emphasized the drowsy stillness.
Opposite her, on the other side of the little table whereon stood dainty
china and brass kettle, sat her hostess's daughter, Hester Earle, and
she smiled a little as she glanced at Nettie.
"You are evidently not pining for New York!" she said.
Nettie Harding laughed as she looked about her with appreciative eyes.
"This is quite good enough for me, and we don't live in New York," she
said. "Nobody who can help it does, and it's quite a question how to
take out of it the men who have to work there. Our place is on the
Hudson, and it's beautiful, though I admit it is different from this. We
haven't had the time to smooth down everything and round the corners off
in our country, though when we are as old as you are we'll have
considerably more to show the world."
Hester Earle nodded tranquilly. She was typically English, and
occasionally amused at Nettie, with whom she had made friends in London.
Her father was chairman of a financial corporation that dealt in
American securities, and having had business with Cyrus Harding, thought
it advisable to show his daughter what attention he could.
"You were enthusiastic over Northrop church and the Palliser memorials
yesterday," she said.
"Yes," said Nettie, "I was, but I should like to see the kind of men to
whom they put them up. From what you said there are still some of them
living in this part of your country?"
"There is one at Northrop just now, and it is rather more than likely
that you will see him this afternoon if he suspects that Violet Wayne is
coming here. I think I hear her now."
There was a beat of hoofs and rattle of wheels behind the trees that
shrouded the lawn, and five minutes later Violet and Tony Palliser
crossed the strip of turf. Miss Earle lighted the spirit lamp, and for a
space they talked of nothing in particular, while the pale blue flame
burnt unwaveringly in the hot, still air. Then when the dainty cups were
passed round Violet Wayne said--
"I think you told me yesterday the effigy reminded you of somebody you
had seen, Miss Harding."
"Yes," said Nettie, "it did. I don't mean that the face was like his,
because that would be too absurd, but it was the expression--the strength
and weariness in it--that impressed me. The man I am thinking of looked
just like that when he kept watch one long night through."
"How do you know he did?" asked Hester.
"Because I was there. I sat by a little lattice and watched him, knowing
that my safety depended upon his vigilance."
"That was why Miss Harding was anxious to see you, Tony," said Hester
Earle. "I almost fancy she is disappointed now."
Tony, who sat with half-closed eyes, teacup in hand, in his chair,
looked up and smiled languidly. "I think it is just a little rough on me
that I should be expected to emulate the fortitude an unknown sculptor
hewed into a marble face hundreds of years ago," he said. "I wonder if
Miss Harding would tell us about the man she is thinking of."
Nettie glanced at Violet Wayne, and fancied that she showed signs of
interest. Besides Miss Harding was not averse to discoursing to an
attentive audience.
"Well," she said, "I'll try. It was in Cuba, and he was an Englishman. A
little while before the night I am going to speak about he and his
American partner captured a Spanish gun."
"Then I don't see why you should have expected me to resemble him," said
Tony plaintively. "As everybody knows I should never have done such a
thing! Will you tell us about the engagement?"
Nettie flashed a keen glance at him, and Violet Wayne, who saw it, felt
a slight thrill of impatience, but not with the girl. It was, she
fancied, evident that Nettie Harding agreed with Tony.
"It was in a hot barranco among the hills, and the Spaniards had turned
the gun on the Sin Verguenza, and were sweeping them away, when he and
the American lowered themselves down the rock side by creepers right
into the middle of the loyalist troops. They hurled the gun over a
precipice into the barranco, and when it had gone the rest of the Sin
Verguenza drove the troops off with rifle fire. It was their colonel
told me this. I did not see it."
"Would you mind telling us who the Sin Verguenza were?" said Tony.
"The men without shame--that's what it means in Spanish--an insurgent
legion. They took the town in which my father and I were staying--a
handful of ragged men, with two companies of drilled troops against
them--and I lost my father in the crowd of fugitives. Then I hid in a
church, and some drunken brigands were chasing me through the dark
streets when I met the Englishman, who took care of me. The Sin
Verguenza were breaking into the houses, and I was alone, horribly
frightened and helpless, in that Cuban town. He was one of their
officers, and he took me to the house they had made their headquarters."
"You went with him?" asked Hester Earle.
"Yes," said Nettie slowly, while a faint flush crept into her face, "I
did. Nobody was safe from the Sin Verguenza then, and I felt I could
trust him. There are men who make one feel like that, you know."
For no apparent reason she glanced at Violet Wayne, who sat with a
curious expression in her eyes, looking--not at Tony, as Miss Harding
noticed--but across the valley.
"Yes," she said, "there are. Go on, please!"
"I went with him to the rebel headquarters, and then very nearly tried
to run away again, because it was like walking into the lion's den. The
patio was littered with the furniture they had thrown out of the
windows, and I could hear the men roystering over their wine. Still,
when I looked at the man with me, I went in."
She stopped and sat silent a space of seconds, while none of the others
spoke. They felt it might not be advisable to ask questions.
"Well," she continued, "he hid me in a room, and then sat down on the
veranda that ran round the patio outside it where I could see him from
the lattice. The city was in a turmoil, the insurgent leaders were
carousing in the house and you will remember they were the Sin
Verguenza. There was only that man and his American comrade between me
and those horrors. I think he fancied I rested, but all that awful night
I scarcely took my eyes off him. He was very like the marble knight just
then."
"Isn't that a little rough on the effigy?" said Tony with a smile. "The
man was, I think you told us, a leader of shameless brigands."
Violet Wayne saw the gleam in Nettie's eyes, and noticed the faint ring
in her voice as she said, "There are not many men who could lead the Sin
Verguenza, but you would understand what I mean if you had seen him. He
was ragged and very weary, and had been hurt in the fighting, but he sat
there keeping himself awake, with his rifle across his knees, and every
time I looked at his face it reassured me. It was haggard, but it was
grim and strong--and I knew that man would have to be torn to pieces
before any harm could come to me. He was keeping vigil with something
entrusted to him which he would guard with his life--and that, I think,
is the fancy that stirs one when one looks at your marble knight."
Hester smiled as she admitted that this was probably what the sculptor
had wished to express, but it was in Violet Wayne's eyes that Nettie saw
the most complete comprehension.
"That man almost deserved so stanch a champion," said Tony. "Eventually
your father found you?"
"Yes," said Nettie. "The Sin Verguenza marched out in the early
morning."
Then there was silence until Tony rose languidly. "I think I'll go and
bring some more cake," he said. "You sit still, Hester. I'll ask Mrs.
Grantly for it."
Hester Earle laughed. "She is out. Perhaps you had better show him where
it is, Violet."
The two who were left were silent for awhile, and then Hester Earle
smiled at her companion as she said, "You wanted to see Tony Palliser."
Nettie glanced suggestively towards Tony, who was then coming back
across the lawn, carrying a tray.
"There is no reason why he should not do that kind of thing--but the
trouble is that it seems quite natural to him, as though it was what he
was meant to do," she said.
"Don't you think he could do anything else?"