WAS YORKE HAPPY?
Lady Eleanor was happy, and, unlike a great many persons, was not
ashamed to admit that she was.
"Why should I be ashamed or try to hide my joy?" she said to Lady
Denby, who remarked her niece's high spirits, and her evident
satisfaction with her own condition and the world in general. "I am
happy! happy! happy! and every one may know it."
"They do know it, my dear," said Lady Denby, dryly.
"And they are welcome to!" retorted Lady Eleanor, laughingly. "I count
myself the luckiest girl in the world! I am young, not hideously plain,
rich--very rich, Mr. Duncombe says--by the way, aunt, you will be very
careful not to mention his name in Yorke's hearing--and I am going to
marry the man I have been in love with ever since I was so high. I wake
in the middle of the night--and I am glad to wake--and I tell myself
all this over and over again. It seems too good to be true, sometimes;
but I know it is all true when the morning comes. Oh, yes, I am happy
at last!"
"And Yorke is very happy, too?" said Lady Denby. And the moment after
the question had left her lips she was sorry she had asked it, and she
hastened to add: "But of course he is. Men generally look poorly when
they are particularly happy, I've noticed, just as they invariably blow
their noses when they want to cry!"
"Why shouldn't he be happy?" said Lady Eleanor, after a pause; but
her face had grown almost grave and almost troubled. "As you say, men
don't go about as if they were dancing to music, as we women do, and
they don't sing as we do. And--and if Yorke is not boisterous--Why did
you say that?" she demanded, suddenly changing her tone and turning
upon Lady Denby anxiously and nearly angrily. "Do you think he looks
dissatisfied--as if--as if he were sorry?"
"My dear child, your love for that young fellow is softening your
brain," responded Lady Denby, quietly. "Of course, I have noticed
nothing. He is quiet; but I suppose most men who are on the brink of
matrimony are quiet. They hear the clanking of their chains as they are
being forged, and are thinking of the time when they will be riveted
upon them. No man really likes being married."
"There shall be no chains for Yorke!" said Lady Eleanor, softly;
"or, if there must be, then I will cover them with velvet. You shall
see--you shall see!"
Certainly, Yorke did not go about as if to invisible music, or sing as
he went; and he was, as Lady Denby put it, quiet--very quiet. But if
he was not boisterous, he was everything else that a woman could desire
in a betrothed. He spent a portion of each day at Kensington Palace
Gardens. He was always ready to accompany Lady Eleanor to the park, the
theater, concerts, balls, and even shopping. Indeed, the patience with
which he would stroll up and down Bond Street or Oxford Street, smoking
cigarette after cigarette, while Lady Eleanor was shopping, was worthy
of the highest commendation, and immensely calculated to astonish his
wild bachelor friends. What he thought about as he paced slowly up and
down the hot pavements of those fashionable thoroughfares heaven only
knows! At any rate, it is well that Lady Eleanor didn't.
Every morning he rode with her in the park--there was no need to sell
his horse now or to sack Fleming--and the loungers on the rails as they
raised their hats to his beautiful companion growled enviously: "Lucky
beggar! going to marry the prettiest and richest girl of the season!
Some men get all the plums in this world's pudding!" Altogether he
spent a great deal of his time in the society of his betrothed; but
there were still some hours of the day in which he was free to amuse
himself after his own devices, and he might have passed a very pleasant
time, for there was still a large contingent of his friends in town,
and there were outings at the Riverside Club, drives to Richmond, and
so on. But Yorke was seen in none of the places where the youth of
his sex most do congregate; and he spent the hours of his freedom in
long walks into the country around London, or in the smoking-room of
the quietest of the clubs. And he was always alone--alone, with that
strange, absent look in his eyes--that far-away look which lets out the
secret, and tells all who see it that a man's mind is wandering either
backward or forward; generally backward.
All the world knew of his engagement, and every man who met him
congratulated him--all the world except the Duke of Rothbury, from whom
no word of congratulation had come.
"Have you written to Godolphin?" Lady Eleanor had asked, shyly, and
Yorke, with a little start, had said "no;" that there was no occasion.
He would see it in the papers. "But he may not. They only get Galignani
in Switzerland; at least, I never could get anything else," said Lady
Eleanor. But Yorke had put off writing. He would not have admitted it
to himself, but he shrunk from writing to Dolph and telling him that
he, the duke, was right, and that Leslie was forgotten. Forgotten! Of
what was he thinking as he strode through the country lanes, as he
sat in a corner of the smoking-room, silent and moody, but of Leslie?
Always Leslie!
The time comes when everybody--excepting a few millions--leaves London.
"Shall you go to Scotland, Yorke?" Lady Eleanor asked. She knew he
had half a dozen invitations this year. He was never without them
any autumn, but this year they were more numerous than usual. Yorke
Auchester running loose and up to his ears in debt, and Yorke Auchester
engaged to Lady Eleanor Dallas were two very different persons and by
a singular coincidence everybody who had a house and a moor in the
Highlands invited him. But he said he would not go to Scotland.
"I'm tired of it!" he said. "The place is eaten up by tourists at this
time of the year. I'd rather stay in London!"
"Well, then, I will not go. I was going to the Casaubon's, but I will
send an excuse--"
"Oh, no, don't do that!" he said, with the most unselfish alacrity.
"Don't you stay up in town for my sake; it's beastly dull now, I know."
Lady Eleanor thought a moment.
"I will tell you what I will do," she said. "Aunt and I will go to
White Place. It is just a nice distance from town, and--and if you
should ever think of running down, why--aunt will be glad to see you,
sir."
The ladies went to White Place, and Yorke stayed in town. But, of
course, he ran down to the big house very frequently, and when he went
he was made much of, as was only right and natural. Would not the place
be his own some day, or at any rate would he not be the lord and master
of the mistress of it? Indeed, the servants received him as if he were
already master, and understood that their quickest and shortest way
of pleasing their mistress was by winning the favor of this handsome
lover of hers. Everything was done that man--ah! and woman; and how
much quicker is woman--could do to amuse and please him. A stud of
horses filled the stables--his own being the most honorably housed--the
keepers received carte blanche as to the game; a suite of rooms in the
best position, and so luxuriously furnished that poor Yorke laughed
grimly when he first entered them--was set apart for him. Lady Eleanor
would have filled the house with guests, but it seemed that Yorke was
not in the humor for company. "Which is so nice and sweet of him!"
murmured Lady Eleanor. His favorite wine had been brought down from
London, and the cook had a list of the dishes to which his lordship was
most partial. Happy! If he was not happy he was the most ungrateful man
among the sons of them.
"You are spoiling him, my dear," Lady Denby ventured to remonstrate
gently. It was the morning that Lady Eleanor had given orders for
a special wire from the station to the house, so that his highness
might let them know when he was coming. "You are spoiling him all you
know how, and that's always a bad thing for a man, especially before
marriage; because, you see, when he is married he will expect to be
spoiled a great deal more--and you haven't left yourself any room."
"I dare say," Lady Eleanor retorted. "I don't care. Besides, it isn't
true. You can't spoil Yorke."
"Do you mean that nature has done it for you already?" said Lady Denby,
sweetly.
"Nature!" flashed Lady Eleanor, her face flushing proudly; "nature
spoiled him! Oh, where is there a handsomer man, a stronger, a finer
than my Yorke?"
"My dear, you are a raving lunatic," remarked Lady Denby, in despair.
Certainly if he were being spoiled Yorke did not grow less careful
in his devoirs. He was as ready, as on the day of his engagement, to
attend his betrothed; and when they walked and drove together he was
always close at her side, and never wanting in those attentions which
the woman finds so precious when they are paid by the man she loves.
And with it all she watched him so closely, was so careful not to bore
him. In the matter of business, for instance, most women having so
much money would have wanted to talk over with her future husband this
investment and the other; but Lady Eleanor knew Yorke better than to
attempt anything of the kind. Ralph Duncombe still remained her guide,
philosopher, and friend in business matters, and it was understood
between Ralph Duncombe and her--without a word having passed--that his
name was never to be mentioned in Lord Auchester's hearing, and that
they were never to meet.
One day, however--the day Yorke had galloped past Lucy in the lane,
they had very nearly met face to face, for Ralph Duncombe had left
the house only a few moments before Yorke had entered. Yorke had come
down from London for a few hours, and had ridden with Lady Eleanor,
and she had thought that he was going to remain for dinner; but quite
suddenly he had announced that he must get back to town; once or twice
lately he had had similar fits of restlessness, and had come and gone
unexpectedly. Lady Eleanor did not press him to stay; his chains, even
now, should be covered with velvet; and he had ridden off, having
arranged to leave his horse at the station, to be fetched by a groom.
He trotted down the drive quietly enough, looking back once or twice
to smile and wave his hand at Lady Eleanor, who stood on the steps
watching him; but once out of sight he stuck the spurs into the horse,
and the high-spirited animal bounded off like a shot from a gun.
And as he tore across the lawns and down the road, the devil that sat
behind Yorke Auchester taunted and upbraided him after the manner of
devils.
"You ungrateful hound! why can't you be happy? Why can't you rest
and be content? You are going to marry one of the loveliest women
in England; you are going to be rich--rich! you, who hadn't a
penny--haven't a penny of your own; you are envied by every man who
knows you, and thousands who don't, but have only read of you in the
papers! What do you want, man--what do you want?"
And all Yorke could answer with a groan was, "One more moonlit night at
Portmaris with Leslie by my side. Leslie, Leslie!"
The horse was in a lather when they reached the station; but his
master was not tired--that was one of his troubles, the difficulty of
getting tired enough to be sleepy--and directly he got to town he set
off walking, and the devil of unrest trudged behind him, as he had sat
behind him on the horse.
He, Yorke, and the demon with him, turned into the club at last, and
Yorke ordered some dinner. The footman brought him the carte de jour,
but Yorke flicked it from him.
"Bring me what you like," he said indifferently, and he was eating it
as indifferently when Lord Vinson sauntered up.
"Halloo, Auchester!" he said. Yorke nodded absently, not to say,
surlily. "All alone? I'll join you."
He sat down, and after studying the carte with devout attention,
ordered his dinner, and then, having disposed of his soup, wanted to
talk.
"Just seen Finetta," he said. Yorke looked up swiftly, but said
nothing; and Vinson went on, as he picked the bones from his red
mullet. "'Pon my soul, I think all women are mad--I do, indeed!"
"Why?" said Yorke. He was bound to say something.
"Why, take Fin, for instance. There she is at the top of the tree,
earning thousands a year, a regular popular favorite; and, hang me, if
she doesn't shirk her work at the theater three days out of six, and
actually talk about cutting the shop altogether! Seems to have lost her
senses lately. And she used to be so cute at one time, eh?"
Yorke said nothing, but bowed at his plate.
"By the way, you and she have had a row, haven't you?" said Vinson,
after a moment or two.
"A row? No. Why?"
"Oh, well, I didn't know. But when I mentioned your name the other day,
she just flared up in a way to make a man see stars. Awful! I don't
know what she isn't going to do to you!"
"She's welcome to do all she likes, when she likes, and how she likes,"
said Yorke, fiercely. "For God's sake talk of something else!"
Now, when a man is told to "talk of something else," he usually obeys
by talking of nothing; and Vinson made haste with his dinner, and left
the table, muttering something about wanting to see the evening papers.
"Seems to me that Auchester is going out of his mind," he said to a
friend; and he nodded behind the paper toward Yorke. "Snapped me up
just now as if he meant to knock my head off. Too much luck, that's
what's the matter! Who's the favorite for the sweepstakes, eh?"
He unfolded the paper as he spoke, and glanced down the columns, and as
he did so he uttered an exclamation.
"What's the matter with you?" demanded his friend.
"Hush!" whispered Vinson; and he clutched the man's arm and led him to
a part of the room out of reach of Yorke's glowering eyes. "By great
goodness! talk of luck! Look here! Oh, Moses! did you ever?"
"Let me see!" said his friend impatiently. "You clutch that paper as
if--What is it? Eh? Oh!"
They both stared at the paragraph to which Vinson pointed in silence
for a moment or two. Then Vinson said in a whisper:
"Do you think he has seen it?"
"Not he! Do you think he would sit like that?" retorted the other man.
"Then--then we ought to break it to him, eh?" said Vinson. "By George!
I don't half like the job. Here, you come with me!"
They both approached the table, and Yorke nodded to the other man, but
did not extend a warmer greeting.
"Not in Scotland, old man?" said Vinson, quaking a little.
"What do you mean?" demanded Yorke, glaring at him. "I'm here, as you
see."
"Not even yachting? Er--er--when did you see Lord Eustace last--your
uncle, you know?"
Yorke looked from one to the other as if he thought they had lost their
senses.
"What?" he said, impatiently. "When did I see--Why do you ask?"
"Oh, show it to him!" said Vinson, desperately. "I told you I should
mull it!"
The other man held the paper to Yorke and pointed to a paragraph, and
Yorke taking it--and not too courteously--out of his hand, read this:
"We regret to announce the death of Lord Eustace Auchester and his two
sons. His lordship was yachting in the Mediterranean, and the vessel,
being overtaken by a sudden squall, capsized. Their lordships and the
crew, four in number, were all lost. Lord Eustace Auchester was the
heir to the Dukedom of Rothbury, which will now descend to his nephew,
Lord Yorke Auchester."
Yorke gazed at the printed words for a time as if he failed to grasp
their significance. Then his face paled--paled slowly till it was white
as death.
"Hold up, old man!" said Vinson. "Dash it all, I wish I'd broken it
better! Here, take some wine!"
But Yorke, pushing the wine from him, rose, the paper still in his
hand, and, as if he had forgotten the presence of the two men, stared
wildly before him. Then, to their horror, he broke into a hoarse laugh.
"Why, she should have waited!" he exclaimed, bitterly, and as if he
were speaking to himself. "Yes, if she had waited she would have been a
duchess, after all!"