RALPH DUNCOMBE.
The "great artist" went on painting, making the sketch more hideously
and idiotically unnatural every minute, and was so absorbed in it that
Leslie could not persuade him to leave it even for his lunch, and he
maundered from the table to the easel with a slice of bread and butter
in his hand, or held between his teeth as if he were a performing dog.
Leslie had played and sung to him until she was tired, and she cast a
wistful glance from the window toward the blue sky and sunlit sea.
"Won't you leave it for a little while and come out on the beach,
dear?" she said, coaxingly.
But Francis Lisle shook his head.
"No, no. I am just in the vein, Leslie; nothing would induce me to
lose this light. But I wish you would go. It--it fidgets and unsettles
me to have any one in the room who wants to be elsewhere. Go out for
your walk; when you come back you will see what I have made of it; I
flatter myself you will be surprised."
If she were not it would only be because she had seen so many similar
pictures of his.
She put on her hat and dainty little Norfolk jacket of Scotch homespun,
and went out with a handkerchief of his she was hemming in her pocket.
The narrow street was bathed in sunshine; at the open doors some of
the fisher wives were sitting or standing at their eternal knitting,
children were playing noisily in the road-way. The women, one and all,
looked up and smiled as she appeared in the open doorway, and one or
two little mites ran to her with the fearless joyousness which is the
child's indication of love.
Leslie lifted one tiny girl with blue eyes and clustering curls and
kissed her, patted the bare heads of the rest, and nodded pleasantly to
the mothers.
"Mayn't we come with 'oo?" asked the mite; but Leslie shook her head.
"Not this afternoon, Trotty," she said, and ran away from them down the
street which led sheer on to the beach.
As a rule she allowed the children to accompany her, and play round her
as she sat at work, but this afternoon she wanted to be alone.
The arrival of the letter which her father had lost had disturbed and
troubled her.
The man from whom it had come was a certain Ralph Duncombe, and he was
one of the many unfortunates who had fallen in love with her; but,
unlike the rest, he had not been content to take "No" for an answer,
and gone away and got over it, or drowned himself, but had persisted in
hoping and striving.
She had met him at a sea-side boarding house two years before this, had
been pleasant and kind to him, as she was to everybody, but had meant
nothing more than kindliness, and was surprised and pained when he had
asked her to be his wife, and declined to take a refusal.
Since that time he had cropped up at intervals, like a tax collector,
and it seemed as if Leslie would never convince him that there was no
hope for him. His persistence distressed her very much, but she did
not know what she could do. He was the sort of man who, having set his
heart upon a thing, would work with a dogged earnestness until he had
got it; and could not be made to understand that women's hearts are not
to be won, like a town, by a siege, however long and stringent it may
be.
She went down to the breakwater, and sat down in her favorite spot
and got out her handkerchief; and two minutes afterward there was a
patter-patter on the stones behind her, and a small black-and-tan
terrier leaped on her lap with a joyous yap.
She laughed and hugged him for a moment, then forced him down beside
her.
"Oh, Dick, what a wicked Dick you are! You've run the needle into my
finger, sir!" she said. "Look there." And she held out a tapering
forefinger with one little red drop on it.
Dick smiled in dog fashion, and attempted to bite the finger, but to
his surprise and disgust Leslie refused to play.
"I'm too busy, Dick," she said, gravely. "I want to finish this
handkerchief; besides, it's too hot. Suppose you coil yourself up like
a good little doggie, and go to sleep----. Well, if you must you must, I
suppose!" And she let him snuggle into her lap, where, seeing that she
really meant it, he immediately went to sleep.
It was a lovely afternoon. There was no one on the beach excepting
herself, and all was silent save for the drowsy yawing of the gulls and
the heavy boom of the tide as it went out, for the sea was very seldom
calm at Portmaris, and in the least windy of days there was generally a
ground-swell on.
Leslie sat and worked, and thought, thought mostly of Mr. Ralph
Duncombe, her persistent suitor; but once or twice the remembrance of
the deformed cripple who had come to lodge at Marine Villa crossed her
mind, and she was thinking of him pityingly when the sound of footsteps
crunching firmly and uncompromisingly over the pebbles made her start,
and caused the terrier to leap up with the fury of its kind.
Leslie's brows came together as she looked up.
A middle-sized young man, with broad shoulders and a rather clumsy but
steady gait, was coming down the beach. He was not a good-looking man.
He had a big head and red hair, a large mouth and a square jaw; his
feet and hands were also large, and there was in his air and manner
something which indicated aggressiveness and obstinacy.
Sharp men who had seen him as a boy had said, "That chap will get on,"
and, unlike most prophets, they had been correct; Ralph Duncombe had
"got on." He had started as an errand boy in a city office, and had
risen step by step until he had become a partner. Rawlings & Co. had
always been well thought of in the city, but Rawlings and Duncombe had
now become respected and eminent.
His square, resolute face flushed as he saw her, but the hand with
which he took off his hat was as steady as a rock.
"Good-morning, Miss Lisle," he said, making his voice heard above the
dull roar of the sea and the shrill barking of the terrier.
Leslie held out one hand while she held the furiously struggling Dick
with the other.
He took her hand in his huge fist, and dropped heavily on the shingle
beside her.
"I didn't know you had a dog," he said, glancing at her and then at the
dog, and then at the sea, as a man does who is so much head-over-heels
in love that he cannot bear the glory of his mistress' face all at once.
"I haven't," said Leslie, laughing in the slow, soft way which her
adorers found so bewitching--and agonizing. "He doesn't really belong
to me, though he pretends that he does. He is the abandoned little
animal of Mrs. Merrick, our landlady; but he will follow me about and
make a nuisance of himself. Be quiet, Dick, or I shall send you home."
"I'm not surprised," said Ralph Duncombe, with a slight flush, and
still avoiding her eyes. "I can sympathize with Dick."
Leslie colored, and took up her work, leaving Dick to wander gingerly
round the visitor and smell him inquisitively.
"You got my letter, Miss Leslie?"
"No," she said. "I am very sorry; but papa lost it."
He smiled as if he were not astonished.
"It doesn't matter," he said. "It only said that I was coming and--here
I am."
"I--I will go and tell papa; you will come and have some lunch?"
"No don't get up," he said, quickly putting out his hand to stay her.
"I've had my lunch, and I can go and see Mr. Lisle presently if----," he
paused. "Miss Leslie, I suppose you know why I have come down here?"
Leslie bent her head over her work. She could guess. Such a man as Mr.
Ralph Duncombe was not likely to come down to such a place as Portmaris
in obedience to a mere whim.
"I've come down because I said that I would come about this time,"
he went on, slowly and firmly, as if he had well rehearsed his
speech--as, indeed, he had. "I'm a man who, when he has set his heart
upon anything, doesn't change or give it up because he doesn't happen
to get it all at once. I've set my heart upon making you my wife, Miss
Leslie----."
Leslie's face flushed, and she made a motion as if to get up, but sank
back again with a faint sigh of resignation.
"That's been my keenest wish and desire since I saw you two years ago;
and it's just as keen, no less and no more, as it was the first half
hour I spent in your society."
"You--you told me this before, Mr. Duncombe," said Leslie, not angrily
nor impatiently, but very softly.
"I know," he assented. "And you told me that it couldn't be. And I
suppose most men would have been satisfied--or dissatisfied, and given
it up. But I'm not made like that. I shouldn't be where I am and what
I am if I were. I dare say you think I'm obstinate."
The faintest shadow of a smile played on Leslie's lips.
"Yes!" she said. "But--but may I not be obstinate, too?" pleadingly.
"No," he said, gravely. "You are a woman, a girl, little more than a
child, and I'm a man, a man who has fought his way in the world, and
knows what it is; and that makes it different."
"But----."
"Wait a minute," he said. "You said 'no' because--well, because I'm not
good-looking, because I haven't the taking way with me which some men
have; in short, because there's nothing about me that would be likely
to take a romantic girl's fancy----."
Leslie laughed softly.
"Who told you that I am romantic, Mr. Duncombe?" she said.
"All girls--young girls who don't know the world--are romantic," he
said, as if he were remarking that the world is round, and that two and
two make four. "You look at the outside of things, and because I'm not
handsome and a--swell--you think you couldn't bring yourself to love
me, and that I'm not worth loving."
Leslie shook her head.
"I respect you very much. I like you, Mr. Duncombe," she said, in a low
voice.
"Very well. That's all I ask," he retorted, promptly. "Be my wife
and I'll change your respect into liking, your liking into love. I'm
satisfied with that. When a man's starving he is thankful for half a
loaf."
He didn't plead his cause at all badly, and Leslie's gray eyes melted
and grew moist.
"Don't shake your head," he said. "Just listen to me first. You know
I love you. You can't doubt that. If you did, and you knew what I've
given up to come down here, you wouldn't doubt any longer. And you
wouldn't if you knew what this love of mine costs me. A business man
wants all his wits about him if he means to succeed; he wants all his
thoughts and energies for his business; and for the last two years my
wits and my thoughts have been wandering after you. It's a wonder that
I have succeeded; but I have. Miss Leslie, though I'm plain to look at,
I believe I've got brains. If I can't offer you a title----."
Leslie smiled; it was so likely that anyone would offer her a title!
"I can at least make you a rich woman."
Her face flushed.
"Mr. Duncombe----."
"I know what you are going to say. All girls declare that they don't
care for money, and they mean it. But that's nonsense. A beautiful
woman's beautiful whether she's poor or rich, but she's more likely to
be happy with plenty of money. And you shall have plenty. I am a rich
man now, as times go, and I mean to be richer. I've been working these
two years with one object before me. I've made the money solely that I
might become less unworthy to offer myself. Miss Leslie, my heart is
yours already, such as it is. Be my wife, and share my home and fortune
with me!"
Leslie's lips trembled.
"Oh, if I could!" she murmured, almost inaudibly. "I am so sorry, so
sorry!"
He took up a pebble, looked hard at it, and cast it from him.
"You mean that you can't love me?" he said, rather hoarsely.
Her silence gave assent.
He drew a long breath.
"I expected you to say that, but I thought I should persuade you
to--try and trust yourself to me, and wait for the love to come." He
paused a moment. "Miss Leslie, do you ever think of the future?"
"Of the future?" She turned her startled eyes on his face, grave almost
to sternness.
"Yes. Forgive me if I speak plainly. You and your father are alone in
the world."
"Yes, ah, yes!" dropped from her parted lips.
"And he--well, even now it is you who are the protector; some
day--Leslie, it makes my heart ache to think of you alone in the world,
alone and poor. I know that the little he has goes with him. Don't
be angry! I am thinking only of you. I cannot help thinking of you
and your future. If you would say 'yes,' if you would promise to be
my wife, not only would your future be secure, but your present, his
present, would be easier, happier; for your father's sake if not for
your own----."
He stopped, for Leslie had risen, and stood looking down at him, her
lips quivering, her hands clasped tightly.
"No, no!" she panted; "not even for--for his sake! Oh, I could not! I
could not!"
He arose. His face was pale, making his red hair more scarlet by
contrast.
"I understand," he said. "It isn't that you do not love me, but that
you--well, yes, dislike me!"
"No!"
"Yes, that's it," he said, his eyes resting for a moment on the lovely
face with the wistful, hungry, half fierce look of a famishing man
denied the crust which might save his life. Then his eyes sank to the
stones. "I see now that I have been a fool to go on hoping, that my
case is hopeless. Don't"--for she had shrunk from his almost savage
tone--"don't be afraid. I am not going to bother you any more. I wish
I could say that I am going to give up loving you; but I can't do
that. Something tells me," he struck his breast, as if he were glad of
something to strike, "that I shall go on loving you till I die! See
here, Les--Miss Lisle. It's evident that I can't be your husband; but
I can be your friend. No,"--for she turned her head away--"no, I don't
mean that I am going to hang about you and pester you. I couldn't. The
sight of you would be torture to me. I hope--yes, I hope I sha'n't see
you for years. But what I want to say is this; that if ever you need a
friend remember that there is one man in the world who would give his
right hand to serve you. Remember that at any time--any time, in one
year, two, or when you are old and gray--that you have only to say
'Come!' to bring me like a faithful dog to your feet. That time will
never come, you think. Very good. But still you may need me. If you
do send to me. I devote my life to you--oh, there's no merit in it. I
can't help it. I'm romantic in a way, you see." He smiled with bitter
self-scorn for his weakness. "You are the one woman in the world to me.
Your case is mine, your friends shall be mine, your foes mine. If you
need a protector send for me; if one wrongs you, and you want revenge,
send to me, and as there is a heaven above us, I will come at your call
to help to avenge you."
His face was white, his eyes gleaming under their red brows. So
transformed was he by the master passion that if any one of his city
friends had seen him at that moment they would scarcely have recognized
him.
Ralph Duncombe talking the "rant" of melodrama! Impossible!
Leslie drew back, her eyes fixed on him in a fascinated kind of gaze,
her bosom heaving.
He made an evident effort to regain his self-command, and succeeded.
With a long breath he allowed his face to regain its usual hard,
self-possessed expression.
"I have frightened you," he said, still rather hoarsely, but calmly.
"Forgive me. I told you how I loved you, and you see a man doesn't tear
from his heart the hope that has grown there for two years without
feeling it. I am going now. You can make any excuse to your father, or
you need not tell him you have seen me. Good-by--Leslie! It's the last
time I shall call you so."
He held out his hand. It was firm as a rock, and gripped hers so
tightly that she winced.
"I've hurt you," he said; "I, who would lay down my life to save you
a moment's pain." He looked at his hand. "It was my ring. Ah!" he
exclaimed, as if an idea had occurred to him, and he drew the ring from
his finger. "Take this," he said, and he took her hand, opened it, and
placing the ring on her palm, closed her fingers over it gently and
yet firmly, as if he would accept no refusal. "If ever you need a
friend, either for yourself or another, if ever you need to be avenged
on a foe, send this ring to me--it will not be necessary to send a word
with it--and I will come to you. Good-by!"
He raised her hand toward his lips, then with a sound that was half
sigh, half groan, he let it fall, and without looking round climbed the
beach and was lost to sight.