"WHAT A MESS I'M IN!"
Lady Eleanor pulled her horse up beside the railing, as Finetta had
done, and smiled down upon Yorke. She had a beautiful smile which,
beginning in her brown eyes, spread over her face to her lips, the
well-formed, cleanly cut lips, which more than anything else gave her
countenance the patrician look for which Finetta--and others--hated
her. And she did not smile too often.
"Well, Yorke," she said, and her voice was low and clear, and sweet,
with just a touch of languid hauteur in it that was also aristocratic.
"What a lovely day. Why aren't you riding?"
She didn't ask him, as Finetta had done, where he had been. That would
have been a mistake which Lady Eleanor was far too wise to make.
"Horse is lame," he said.
"Oh, what a pity!" she exclaimed, nodding to some friends who were
passing. "Just when you want him, too."
"Yes," he said, "though I am going to sell him."
She turned her eyes upon him, and raised her brown eyes with a faint
surprise.
"Going to sell Peter! I thought he suited you so well."
He nodded, and laughed rather uneasily. The announcement that he
intended to sell his horse had been a slip of the tongue.
"Oh, he suits me well enough, but I shall sell him all the same. What a
lot of people there are here to-day."
"Aren't there!" she said, bowing and smiling to one and another of the
men who saluted her. "Nearly everybody one knows. By the way, I haven't
seen the duke this morning."
"Dolph's down in the country," he said.
"Oh!"
She would not have asked where, even had she not known; that would
have been another mistake of which she would not have been guilty
for worlds, but her "oh" gave him a chance to tell her if he chose.
Apparently he did not choose, for he changed the subject.
"How did the Spelham's dance go off last night?"
"Very well," she replied. "But it was terribly crowded. The princess
was there. I saved a couple of dances for you as long as I could."
"I'm sorry," he said. "I couldn't get back."
She looked quite satisfied with the explanation, or rather want of one,
quite satisfied and serenely placid.
"You missed a very pleasant ball," was all she said. "I must go on now.
Will you come in to luncheon? Aunt will be very pleased to see you."
"And you too?" he said, as a matter of course.
He always had a good supply of such small change about him.
She smiled.
"And I too, certainly," she said, and with a nod rode on.
Yorke looked after her thoughtfully, and gnawed his mustache.
The last two days had been the happiest in his life. He had spent
them with Leslie, had walked with her through the lanes and on the
beach, and had driven her to Northcliffe, and every moment of the
delicious time his love had increased; it had seemed to him that he
had not really loved till now, and that his past existence had been a
sheer waste; and he had been happy notwithstanding that he was still
deceiving her, that she still thought him the Duke of Rothbury, and
that he had come to town to break off with two women who loved him.
It is well to be off with the old love before you are on with the new,
even when there is only one old love; but when there are two!
It had cost him a great deal to tear himself away from Leslie, even for
a few days, but he had done so. And all the way up to town he had been
hard at work forming most excellent resolutions.
He would reform, and reform altogether. He would sell his horse, send
in his resignation to two or three of his most expensive clubs, would
give up cards and betting, especially betting. He didn't see why he
shouldn't do without a man-servant. Fleming, his valet, had been a
faithful fellow, and suited him down to the ground; but, yes, Fleming
must go.
And then--well, then he would go to Mr. Lisle and ask for that pearl of
great price, his daughter,--and marry!
His heart leaps at the thought. Marry Leslie! He pictured her as a
bride, drew delightful mental sketches of the time they would have. He
would take her to the Continent for their wedding-trip, and then they'd
settle down in a cottage. It would have to be a cottage.
"Love in a cottage!" Great goodness, how often he had laughed at the
idea, how he had pitied the poor devils who had committed matrimony and
gone out of the world to live in respectable poverty with cold mutton
and cheap sherry for luncheon!
But cold mutton and cheap sherry didn't seem so bad with Leslie to
share them.
He would have to give up a great deal of course, and live within the
small income left of his mother's dower. What a fearful lot of money he
had spent! He had never thought of it before, but now he went through a
little mental arithmetic, and was quite startled. Would anybody believe
that gloves, button-holes, stalls at the Diadem, cigars, dinners at
Richmond, could run up to such a sum?
What would he give for some of the money now? He took out the duke's
check and looked at it. It was a large sum; but he owed all that and a
great deal more.
Then he put dull care behind him, and gave himself up to thinking of
Leslie, her beautiful face ten times more lovely than when he had first
seen it, how that her love for him was shining in her eyes. What eyes
they were! Eleanor's were nice ones, Finetta's were handsome ones--but
Leslie's!
And her voice, too! He could hear it now calling him, half-shyly,
"Yorke!"
He reached town, and went to his rooms in Bury Street, and Fleming had
got his London clothes, the well-fitting frock coat and flawless hat,
all ready as if he had expected him. And Yorke's heart smote him as he
thought that he would have to give that faithful servant notice.
Then he went out, still thinking of Leslie and the dark gray eyes which
had grown moist and tender as she said "Good-by!" and then had come
Finetta and Lady Eleanor!
Yes, he had got his work cut out for him! But he would do it! He would
devote his life to the dear, sweet girl down at Portmaris, whose pure,
unstained heart he had won; he would reform, cut London, and go and be
happy in a cottage for the rest of his life.
Meanwhile he had promised to lunch with Lady Eleanor, the woman whom
the duke and the world at large had decided that he was going to
marry; and he had promised to sup with Finetta, who doubtless thought
that he should marry her.
He had made love to both these women. It was so easy for him, with
his handsome face and light-hearted smile. He had only been half
in earnest! if so much had meant--well, what had he meant--by soft
speeches just murmured, by tender glances, by eloquent pressures of the
hand? But they? How had they taken this easy love-making of his? He
knew too well.
"Oh, lord, what a mess I'm in!" he muttered, as he made his way slowly
toward Lady Eleanor's house in Palace Gardens.
Lady Eleanor rode home rather quickly, and as she entered the
morning-room in which her aunt, Lady Denby, was sitting, there was a
brightness in her soft eyes and a color in her cheeks which caused the
elder lady to regard her curiously.
"Yorke is coming to luncheon," she said, and Lady Denby at once knew
the cause of her niece's vivacity. "I wonder whether they can send up
some lobster cutlets; he is so fond of them, you know. At any rate,
will you see that they put on the claret he likes, the '73 it is, isn't
it?"
"Oh, yes, we will serve up the fatted calf," said Lady Denby, with a
smile. "So his gracious majesty has come back?"
"Yes," said Lady Eleanor, moving about the room restlessly, and
flicking her habit-skirt with her whip. "Yes, and he looks very well,
but----."
"But what?"
"Well, I scarcely know how to put it. He seemed grave and more serious
than usual this morning. It isn't often Yorke is serious, you know."
"He has been up to something more reckless and desperate than usual,
perhaps," suggested Lady Denby.
"Perhaps," assented Lady Eleanor, coolly.
"You say that with delicious _sang froid_," remarked Lady Denby. "I
suppose if he had been committing murder or treason it would make no
difference to you."
"Not one atom," said the girl, her color deepening.
"The only crime that would ruin him in your eyes would be matrimony
with some one other than yourself."
Lady Eleanor started, and bit her lip, then she forced a laugh.
"I don't know whether even that would cure me," she said. "I should
hate his wife, hate her with an active hatred which would embitter all
my days; but I would go on caring for him and hoping that his wife
might die, and that I might marry him after all."
Lady Denby shrugged her shoulders, and looked at the proud face, with
its tightly drawn lips, and now brooding eyes.
"Yours is about the worst case I think I have ever met with, Eleanor,"
she said.
"Oh, no, it isn't," responded Lady Eleanor. "Only I'm not ashamed to
admit how it is with me, and other women are. But you needn't be afraid
on my account. I only wear my heart on my sleeve for you to peck at. I
keep my secret from the rest of the world."
"Or think you do," said Lady Denby. "And how is it going to end?"
"God knows!" exclaimed Lady Eleanor, with an infinite and pathetic
wistfulness. "Sometimes I wish I were dead, or he were----."
"What?"
"Yes! I'd rather see him dead than the husband of another woman!"
"My dear Nell!"
"You are shocked. Well, you must be so. It's the truth. Sometimes I
wake in the night from a dream that he has married, and that I am
standing by and see him put the ring on, and I feel----," she stopped,
and laughed with a mixture of bitterness and self-scorn. "What weak,
miserable fools we women are! There is not a man in the whole world
worth one hundredth part of the suffering we undergo."
"Certainly Yorke Auchester does not!"
Lady Eleanor swung round on her with a kind of subdued fierceness.
"What have you to say against him? I thought he was a favorite of
yours!"
"So he is; but I'm not blind to his faults----."
"His faults! What are they?"
"He is selfish, for one thing----."
"Selfish. He would give away his last penny----."
"I dare say; he hates coppers----."
"Would go to the end of the earth to save a friend. Is truth itself.
And where is there a braver man than Yorke Auchester?"
Her voice softened and faltered as she spoke his name.
"Or a more foolish and infatuated girl than Eleanor Dallas," said her
aunt. "There!" and she stroked the golden head which Eleanor had let
fall on her hands; "you can't help it, I suppose, and we must make the
best of it. I'll see that he has what he likes for luncheon. Thank
Heaven, if we know nothing more about men, we know the nearest way to
their hearts."
Lady Eleanor put out her hand to stop her aunt for a moment.
"I--I saw that woman this morning," she said, in a low voice.
"You mean Finetta?"
"Yes, she had come into the park to meet him, I believe, I saw them
talking together. She is a beautiful woman--very."
"She is that."
"I don't wonder at his being--fond of her and liking to be with her."
"I hear they are seldom apart," said Lady Denby, gravely. "That ought
to cure you, if anything would, Eleanor."
Lady Eleanor shook her head.
"It only makes it worse," she said, with her face hidden. "Jealousy
doesn't kill love----."
"But wounded pride should do so!"
"No, no! It's true I'm proud enough to the rest of the world, but it
all goes, slips away from me when--when I am near him! Oh, dear! Why,
this morning when I saw him my heart----! And he looked up at me as if
he had seen me only an hour or two ago! But there, what is the use of
talking! I hope they will have some of these cutlets!"
Lady Denby shrugged her shoulders, and shook her head.
"It's a pity that Yorke does not know what is good for him. He could
have lobster cutlets and '73 claret for the rest of his life, and all
manner of good things, if he would only throw his handkerchief in the
right direction."
Lady Eleanor smiled up at her almost defiantly.
"It is of no use your taunting me," she said. "You are right; if he
threw his handkerchief, as you put it, I should be only too glad to go
on my knees to pick it up."
A servant came to the door, with a card on a salver.
Lady Denby took it, and glanced at it.
"It is Mr. Ralph Duncombe," she said.
"I cannot see him this morning. Say that I am not at home."
Lady Denby signed to the footman to wait.
"Ought you not to see him?" she said in a low voice. "It may be
important business."
"Oh, very well. Show Mr. Duncombe into the library."
"That's right," said Lady Denby, approvingly, "You can't afford to
offend such a man as this Mr. Duncombe. There are not too many men who
are willing to work for you for nothing. I suppose he has come about
those mines?"
"I suppose so," assented Lady Eleanor, bitterly.
"I will go and see."
Ralph Duncombe had been a friend of Lady Eleanor's father. The late
earl had been fond of dabbling in the city and had met the successful
young merchant there and found him extremely useful. It had been
chiefly owing to Ralph Duncombe's advice and counsel that the late earl
had made the fifty thousand pounds which he had left to Lady Eleanor.
He had done nothing for some years before his death without consulting
the keen man of business, and Lady Eleanor had followed her father's
example.
She would not have been a particularly rich woman with fifty thousand
at three per cent., but Ralph Duncombe had invested it for her in such
a way that it had brought in sometimes ten and fifteen. He had bought
shares and sold them again at a big profit; had dealt with her money as
if it had been his own, and had been as lucky with it. The greatest and
latest piece of good fortune had only just turned up. He had purchased
some land on the coast, calculating to dispose of it to a building
company, but while negotiating with them discovered traces of copper;
and it was on the cards that he had by one of those flukes which seemed
to come so often to Ralph Duncombe, found a large fortune for her.
"How do you do, Mr. Duncombe?" she said. "What a shame that you should
have to come all this way from the city."
"It does not take long by the Underground," he said, in his grave
voice, as he shook hands; "and I have some important news for you."
"Yes," she said, and she motioned him to a chair.
As he sat down she noticed that he looked graver than usual, and that
there was a tired and rather sad expression in his eyes.
"Is it bad news?" she said.
"Bad?" He looked at her with faint surprise.
"I thought you looked graver than usual, and rather disappointed," she
explained.
He flushed slightly and forced a smile.
"We business men seldom look elated," he said, with something like a
sigh. "Money making is not an exhilarating pursuit, Lady Eleanor."
"I should have thought otherwise," she said; "but I don't know much
about it. I only know that it is very kind of you to take so much
trouble over my affairs."
"Not at all. It comes natural to me," he said, with a slight smile.
"I was your father's adviser--if I may put it so--for so long and so
intimately that it seems a matter of course that I should continue to
be his daughter's. But about this copper, Lady Eleanor. We were not
mistaken; the indications are particularly distinct, and there is every
reason to believe that the land contains a vast quantity."
"Yes," she said; "that is good news. I suppose it will make me very
rich?"
He nodded.
"Yes, immensely so. The thing to decide now is how to work it. I have a
plan which I should like you to consider," and he went on to explain it
to her.
She listened not very attentively.
"I leave it all to you," she said, when he had finished. "I suppose you
will think that is very cool of me; but I don't know what else I could
do. That is, if you will undertake the business for me."
He nodded.
"I will do so, and not altogether disinterestedly, for I shall ask your
permission to take some shares in the company."
"Why, yes, of course," she said at once. "I consider that it belongs as
much to you as to me; you found it."
He shook his head, with a smile.
"Scarcely that," he said; "but I shall have an interest in it. We shall
get to work at once, and I think I may say, positively, that you will
be, as you put it, very rich, before many months are out."
"Very rich," she murmured; "thank you."
It was rather a strange way of accepting the information, but she was
thinking of how little use the money would be if a certain person
refused to share it with her.
Ralph Duncombe glanced at his watch and got up.
"You will stay to lunch?" she said....
"Thank you, Lady Eleanor, not this morning.
"I have to attend a board meeting, and shall be late as it is."
"I am sorry."
She gave him her hand, and as he held it she said, as if at a sudden
thought:
"Did you--did you get those bills I asked you about?"
"Lord Auchester's?" he said, and he noticed that her hand quivered.
"Yes, I bought them up." He looked at her gravely. "It cost rather a
larger sum than I expected."
"You mean that he was very much in debt?" she said, in a low voice, and
with downcast eyes.
"Yes, very much," he replied, laconically.
She bit her lip softly, and still evaded his keen gaze.
"Tell me," she said. "You know I do not understand such matters;
but--but, supposing that you were to compel him to pay these bills,
what would be the result?"
"You mean try to compel him?" he said, with a smile. "You cannot
get water from a dry well, Lady Eleanor, and from what I hear, Lord
Auchester is a very dry well. If you forced him to take up those bills,
you would ruin him."
"Ruin him!"
"Yes. That means that you would make a kind of outcast of him. A man
who cannot meet his engagements is dishonored; he would have to give up
his clubs and leave London. I don't know where such men go now; to some
corner of Spain, I believe. Any way, he would be ruined and thoroughly
finished."
She drew a long breath.
"And I--and I could do that?" she said, in a very low voice.
"You could do that, as I hold the bills for you, certainly," he replied.
"Thank you," she said, with a laugh that sounded forced and unnatural;
"I only wanted to know. I'm afraid you must think me sublimely
ignorant."
"Not more so than a lady should be of business matters," he replied,
politely.
There was a moment's pause. He took up his hat and gloves. Then,
suddenly, Lady Eleanor said:
"Do you know a place called Portmaris, Mr. Duncombe?"