Robert Asquith was in the garden before breakfast next morning, with
untroubled countenance, scrutinising objects in detail, now and then
suppressing a tendency to give forth a note or two of song. He walked
with his hands in his pockets, not removing them when he stooped to
examine the gardener’s inscription stuck by the root of a flower or
shrub. He had no special interest in these matters, but the bent of
his mind was to observation; he avoided as much as possible mere
ruminativeness. The course of his wandering brought him round to the
stables; the sight of their admirable order and of the beasts in the
stalls--the carriage-horse, the two beautiful ponies that Mrs. Clarendon
drove, and the five-year-old chestnut which at present she rode--gave
him an Englishman’s satisfaction. Isabel was as active and practical in
the superintendence of her stables as in every other pursuit which she
regarded as duty or pleasure; the most exacting squire could not have
had things in better condition. Here Robert came in contact with his
acquaintance, the groom, and received from him much information
about the animals, also concerning their predecessors in the stables.
Strolling back to the front lawn, accompanied by the house-dog, he met
Ada Warren. She wore her ordinary brown straw hat, and seemed to be
coming from the park. The dog began to leap about her, barking joyously.
She spoke a quiet good-morning, but did not offer to shake hands. Robert
talked a little about the fine weather and the pleasure of breathing
morning air; he elicited in reply a series of assents. Ada had taken
one of the dog’s silky ears in her hand, and the animal suffered himself
very patiently to be led thus.
“Do you remain at home this morning, Miss Warren?” Robert inquired, as
they approached the house.
“Yes.”
“In that case, may I ask if you will favour me with half-an-hour’s
conversation some time after breakfast?”
She looked round with frank surprise, only turning away her gaze when
she had assured herself of his seriousness.
“I shall be in the library till one o’clock,” she said.
“Thank you; I will come there.”
Watching her at breakfast, Robert thought he perceived some traces of
curiosity and anticipation in the girl’s face; once, too, he caught her
eyes straying in his direction. “Come,” he said to himself, “there is
something human in her after all. We shall see if we can’t make the
exhibition yet more pronounced.”
As soon as Mrs. Clarendon and Rhoda Meres were gone to church, Asquith
made his way to the library, carrying the document which Isabel had
entrusted to him the night before. The room remained very much as it had
been in Mr. Clarendon’s days. When gentlemen were at Knightswell, it was
used as a retreat for smoking; Isabel herself scarcely ever entered, but
Ada Warren used it regularly. There were on the shelves not more than
four hundred volumes, and half of these were calf-bound legal literature
and blue-books, representing periods of Mr. Clarendon’s career. On the
table lay volumes of a different kind, many of them showing Mudie’s
tickets; they were works of human interest of the day, food--or at least
refreshment--for an active and independent mind; French and German books
were here too. Asquith glanced at the names on one or two of the yellow
backs in passing, and suppressed a smile. But he thought all the better
of the girl for her intellectual enterprise.
Ada sat with her back to the window, reading; at his entrance she closed
her book, but did not move. He placed a chair at a little distance from
her, and leaned forward, as if about to talk in a familiar manner.
“I surprised you by my request?” he began, with a smile. “It was rather
formal, and necessarily so, for it is strictly a matter of business that
I wish to speak of.”
Ada’s position had not allowed him to get a clear view of her face at
first. Raising his eyes after this introduction, he was startled by what
he saw. The girl was the hue of death; all the natural tint had left her
cheeks, and her lips were unnaturally pale. She was pressing one hand
against her left side, and her eyes showed that she was suffering from
scarcely controllable agitation. He was in doubt whether to take notice
of it or not, when she suddenly rose from the chair.
“You are unwell, Miss Warren----?”
She turned sharply away, and walked the length of the room.
“Shall I postpone--this business?” said Robert, remarkably interested in
observing her.
“Thank you, no,” was her reply, as she seated herself further from him
than before. “I shall be obliged to you if you will speak plainly
and directly, whatever the business is. I have a headache; a long
conversation will be disagreeable to me.”
“I will speak as directly as possible. At Mrs. Clarendon’s request I
have undertaken to make known to you certain facts regarding your--your
future, of which, I understand, it has not been deemed necessary to
speak hitherto. I have, in short, to tell you what were the provisions
of the late Mr. Clarendon’s will; they concern you nearly.”
Ada’s aspect was calm, but he saw that her bosom rose and fell in a way
which showed an inward struggle. She gave no sign of a wish to speak.
“I have here a copy of the will,” he continued, unrolling the paper. “It
is long, and of course full of technicalities. Perhaps I shall do
best to put the gist of it into a few plain words. To begin then, Mr.
Clarendon made you heiress of all but the whole of his real and personal
estate, with possession upon your attainment of your majority, or,
should you marry before that age, then at your marriage. Under the will
two trustees are appointed, gentlemen who were Mr. Clarendon’s friends--
I need not mention their names. Until either of the events which should
give you possession, Mrs. Clarendon had the use of Knightswell, with
all it contained, and an income from the estate of two thousand pounds a
year; this, however, only on condition that she took you into her house
and brought you up in every way as her own child, with care for your
education such as the trustees should approve. If Mrs. Clarendon
declined to accept this condition, or if she married again prior to
your entering into possession, her benefit by the will was limited to an
annuity of three hundred pounds.”
Robert paused. His tone was as matter-of-fact as if he were
demonstrating a proposition of Euclid, but a smile had at length risen
to his face. It came of his observation of the listener. Ada had closed
her eyes; her hands were nervously clasped upon her lap.
“You follow this, Miss Warren?”
She raised her lids and regarded him. Her bosom had ceased to heave; she
seemed to have regained her ordinary state of mind.
“I follow it,” she said.
“Should you die, unmarried, before the end of your twenty-first year,”
Asquith pursued, “the whole of the estate goes to certain very remote
connections of Mr. Clarendon.--No other contingency is provided for.”
“No other contingency is provided for,” repeated the girl mechanically.
“What do you mean by that?”
“I mean----”
Robert interrupted himself, and resumed in an off-hand way:
“Oh, other possible cases which will occur to one thinking the matter
over.”
Ada appeared to reflect. Her face was turned slightly upwards, and a
restful expression had come upon it.
“Is it,” she asked at length, “within your province to tell me any more
than this?”
“I think,” Robert replied, “that I have nothing more to tell. If you
wish it, I will leave this copy with you; I understood Mrs. Clarendon to
say that you might keep it.”
“Thank you, I will do so.”
She rose and took it from his hand.
“There is one thing,” she said, “that I should like to ask you; I dare
say you will have no objection to answer. Are the provisions of this
will generally known--to Mrs. Clarendon’s friends, I would say?”
“In all probability they are,” was his reply.
“Thank you.”
Clearly there was nothing more to be said on either side. Any comment
from Asquith was of course out of the question, and Ada, at all times
so chary of her conversation, was not likely to give utterance to her
feelings under the present circumstances. She moved away, slightly
returned the other’s bow, and went from the room.
At luncheon Ada did not appear. It was not an uncommon thing for her
to take meals by herself; but Mrs. Clarendon and Robert felt that her
absence to-day had a significance. She was at dinner, however, and
behaved as usual. Nothing in her betrayed a change in her state of mind.
Whilst Rhoda was reading in the garden in the afternoon, Mrs. Clarendon
strayed apart with her cousin.
“You have told her?” she said, meeting Robert’s look.
“Yes, and left the copy of the will with her. It seems to have made her
oblivious of lunch.”
“Poor girl!”
The exclamation was a sincere one. Robert looked surprised.
“Did she ask you many questions?” Isabel continued.
“Two: whether I had anything more to tell her; and whether I thought
that the will was generally known? To the former I said ‘No;’ to the
latter ‘Yes.’”
“Whether it was generally known,” repeated Isabel, with a low laugh of a
not very mirthful kind. Then, after a pause, “What do people say of
me? What is the common talk about me? What do the men say? and--oh! the
women?”
“My dear cousin, you know perfectly well what they say; what they have
been saying since they first began to talk about you--that you are a
charming woman, and so good-hearted that no one can for shame breathe a
word against you.”
Isabel sighed.
“Rather, so shameless that gossip has not yet found the proper term to
characterise me. Well, never mind myself; happily I shall soon cease to
be an object of any general interest. But did she not ask any question
about the value of the property?”
“No word of it. She kept me strictly at arm’s length.”
“And she displayed no--no emotion?”
“At first, yes; she was extremely agitated. But she held it down. I
imagine she is what is called a woman of character. I had rather not be
her husband.”
Isabel made no reply, but walked on with her head bent.
“Will you let me ask you,” Robert began, “had you any particular reason
for wishing to inform her of these matters just now?”
“Yes, I had. There is no reason why I shouldn’t tell you. There is a
certain Mr. Lacour--you’ll meet him here to-morrow afternoon--a young
man whom I have known for some time as a friend of the Bruce Pages;
their place is at Hanford, five miles off. He’s a brother of Sir Miles
Lacour. Well, Mr. Vincent Lacour has called on me often in town, and a
week ago he lunched with us here; he’s staying at the Bruce Pages’
again. I rather like him, and I believe there’s not a bit of harm in him
really; but he seems to have been terribly wild, and he’s quarrelled
with his brother, the baronet. I don’t suppose he’s anything left to
live on, and Sir Miles refuses to help him any more. We learn all this
from young Lacour himself; he’s remarkably frank, embarrassingly so at
times. Now I half fancy he’s made an impression on Ada; certainly I
never knew her talk so freely with any one, or show such healthy signs
of interest. It wouldn’t be surprising; he’s a charming young fellow,
decidedly handsome, and the strangest talker. I fancied Ada looked
pleased when I mentioned that he was coming to the garden party
tomorrow. I don’t know whether he ought to be put in the girl’s way, but
I had to ask the Bruce Pages, and I couldn’t leave him out very well.
Now you see my reason. I have never before been obliged to think of such
a thing. It would be unjust to Ada to leave her in the dark as to her
true position.”
“This Mr. Lacour is doubtless aware of the circumstances?”
“Without a doubt.”
“And you think he might----”
“It is not impossible. He must be in desperate straits.”
“How old is the individual?”
“About three-and-twenty, I think. He had ten thousand pounds of his own
when he came of age.”
“Wherewith he has purchased experience. He must be rich in that
article.”
“I’m afraid he is; but I confess I like him. I don’t think he would be a
bad husband. I believe his oats are sown.”
“I can, of course, have no opinion; but the situation is an interesting
one.”
They turned about, and walked a stretch of the lawn in silence.
“I wish it were over,” Isabel said with a sigh. “I wish the poor girl
had a good husband and all were well settled. I am tired of playing the
farce.”
“You look forward with--with equanimity?” Robert said hesitatingly, with
a glance at her face.
“More, with eagerness. I want to throw off a weight. I shall be the
happiest woman in England.”
“On three hundred a year, cousin Isabel?” ventured Asquith.
“On three hundred a year, cousin Robert. I wish I had never had more.
Come, we must go back to Rhoda. Isn’t Rhoda a dear?”