"POOR GIRL!"
Ralph Duncombe stood looking at the ring as a man looks upon some
trinket he has happened on that belonged to some dearly loved friend
long since dead. The ring he had given to Leslie! Back in a flash came
the memory of that morning he had given it to her. The sea, the beach,
the lovely face floated before his eyes and made him giddy. He had just
asked this sweet, innocent girl to be his wife; he had no right, no
wish to think of Leslie as a lover, and yet--ah, well, in the heart, as
in heaven, there are many manoeuvres, and for the moment the old love
filled the biggest place in Ralph Duncombe's heart.
"What is the matter?" asked Lucy, with faint wonder at his silence and
stillness. "Is it so very precious a ring? Let me look at it. Would you
have been very sorry if you had lost it?"
"Very," he said, scarcely knowing what he said.
"How glad I am that I found it! You must have dropped it as you came
in. How careless of you!"
"No," he said, bravely; he could no more prevaricate before that sweet
innocence than lie outright. "No, Lucy, I did not drop it just now. I
parted with it a long while ago, and I have not seen it since until
now."
Lucy gazed up at him open-eyed.
"Then how did it come here?" she asked, in an awestruck whisper. "To
whom did you give it? A gentleman, of course?"
"No," he said, after a moment's hesitation. "It was to----."
Before he could add 'a woman,' a voice low and clear, a voice which
thrilled him and awoke the echo--thank God, for Lucy's sake--only the
echo--of his old passion, was heard in the doorway.
"Lucy, are you there?"
It was Leslie's voice! Ralph Duncombe started, and in the shock of
surprise seized Lucy's arm.
"Who is that?" he breathed, in a hushed whisper, his eyes fixed on the
doorway.
"Why, how nervous you are!" she said, laughing softly, but a little
timidly, for she had seen him start, and felt the pressure of his hand.
"Who should it be but my friend, Miss Lisle?"
"Miss--Lisle!" he repeated.
Something in his voice startled Lucy, and she shrank from him the
slightest bit in the world. But he noticed it, and he put his arm round
her.
"Your--your fellow teacher is called Leslie Lisle?" he said.
"I didn't say 'Leslie,'" said Lucy, half-frightened; "but it is Leslie."
As she spoke, a tall, slim figure in a white dress appeared against
the dim background of the open doorway, then came towards them, then
stopped.
"Is that you, Lucy? You are not alone----." As she stopped her eyes
glanced quickly from one to the other, dilating as she looked; then her
face grew crimson, and she spoke his name: "Ralph!"
"Leslie!" he answered, and made a movement towards her; then, as if
suddenly remembering the wondering, frightened girl on his arm, stopped.
"You--you know one another!" said Lucy, at last, in a kind of gasp.
"Oh, what does it mean?"
Ralph Duncombe, the ever ready, self-possessed city man, the man whose
clerks regarded him as of iron rather than flesh and blood, stood
biting his lip, and staring at the white figure motionless and dumb.
But the gods made women quick, and that glance from one to the other
had told Leslie all their story. Trembling a little, but outwardly
calm, she glided towards them.
"Yes," she said, slowly, distinctly, "Mr. Duncombe and I know each
other. We are old, very old friends----."
"Friends?" fell from Lucy's quivering lips, and spoke doubtfully in her
wide-open eyes.
"Yes, dear," said Leslie, softly, "great friends--nothing more." The
last two words were breathed rather than spoken, and Lucy's lips opened
with a deep sigh of relief, and the hand that had been gradually
slipping, slipping from Ralph's arm, tightened again.
"This--this is a surprise, Les--Miss Lisle," he said at last, and his
voice sounded almost harsh from his emotion. "Where have you been? What
has happened?" he glanced at the black scarf, at the black ribbons on
her sleeves, and his voice faltered.
Leslie's head drooped for a moment, then she raised it bravely.
"Yes!" she said, answering his unspoken question. "Months ago. I will
tell you about it--presently. Will you both go in? You have something
to tell me, I see," and she smiled. "I will come directly. I have lost
something----."
Lucy took Ralph's hand and held it up.
"It is found," she said, and pointed to the ring solemnly. "It was to
you he gave it, was it not, Leslie?" and a dark, a terrible fear, a
pang almost of jealousy shook her heart.
Leslie motioned to Ralph to be silent, and taking Lucy's hand drew her
towards her.
"Yes, Lucy," she said, in a low voice, every word thrilling intensely.
"The ring was given to me by Mr. Duncombe. It was given to me as a
pledge of friendship. It was a farewell gift. Given without requital; a
pledge and a token that if ever I needed the donor's help I had but to
send it as a message to find that help. Since the day he gave it to me
I have not seen Mr. Duncombe, but I have not forgotten him nor ceased
to cherish my ring. And yet," a sad little smile curved her lip. "I
have lost it twice----."
Somehow, these last few words went farther to reassure Lucy than
anything else could go. Lovers do not lose their love tokens! If Leslie
had cared for Ralph, she would have taken better care of her ring.
"I--I don't understand--ah, yes, I do! I see it all!" she said, with a
little sob, and looking from one to the other. "I understand it all! It
is very natural," her voice choked a little. "Who could see you, know
you, without loving you----."
"Hush, hush!" whispered Leslie in her ear. "That was so long ago that
he has forgotten it. There is only one woman in the world he loves, and
she is here!" and she drew Lucy's face against her bosom with a loving
pressure.
Ralph Duncombe stood, as a man in such a situation must stand, silent
and awkward. It seemed as if both had clean forgotten him, but suddenly
Leslie held out her hand to him.
"We have not shaken hands yet," she said, with a little laugh, "and we
are keeping you outside in the most inhospitable fashion. Pray come
in!" and she went in, still holding Lucy to her.
"Now let me turn up the lamp; how the evenings draw in, do they not?
Supper is ready, and----." Then she broke down, and sinking into a
chair, leant her head in her hands.
Lucy knelt beside her and soothed her.
"It is her father she is thinking of," she whispered to Ralph with
womanly instinct; she knew that Leslie would have died rather than weep
over a lost lover before that lover and the woman who had won him. "It
is of her father; the sight of you has brought it all back to her! Oh,
how wonderful it all is! To think that you----."
"I'd better go!" said Ralph, with a man's aptitude at doing the wrong
thing.
"No, no! wait till she has got over it. She will be all right in a
moment; you don't know how brave she is."
Indeed, almost in a moment Leslie had dried her tears.
"Forgive me!" she murmured penitently. "How selfish you must think me!
and I am so full of happiness at her happiness too! And it was to this
gentleman--this old friend of mine--you gave the fern root, and it was
he who drove you and Jenny home in the rain!"
"Yes! isn't it like a fairy story, Leslie? And you are really glad?"
she asked wistfully.
Leslie took the upturned face in her hand.
"Gladder than I have ever been in my life--than I have been for, ah! so
long!" she corrected herself. "If I could have chosen your future for
you I would have chosen just this that fate has planned. You will make
each other very, very happy, I know! Now sit down, Mr. Duncombe. I will
promise not to--not to cry again. Lucy, cut some bread. I will be back
in a moment."
As she left the room, Lucy stole half timidly up to Ralph.
"Oh, how could you think of me after--after loving her!" she whispered.
He bent his head and kissed her.
"Say no more, Lucy," he said gravely. "Let the past bury its dead. Yes
I--I loved her; but she--I was no more to her, never could have been
more to her, than just a friend. I know it now; are you satisfied,
dearest?"
She looked into his eyes for a moment, a look which seemed to sink
into his soul; then she let her head fall on his breast with a sigh
of peace. When Leslie came down there were no tears in her eyes, and
presently, of her own accord, she spoke of her father's death, and told
Ralph Duncombe how she had met with Lucy, and how they had passed their
exams and obtained the school. But not one word did she say of Yorke.
Ralph noticed this.
"And why did you not send to me?" he said reproachfully.
Leslie shook her head.
"You were too proud!" he said.
"Yes, that was it," she admitted quietly. "I was too proud."
"And it would have given me much pleasure to have helped you!" he said.
"Is there nothing I can do now? Can you think of nothing?"
Leslie shook her head with a faint smile.
"We have everything we want, have we not, Lucy?" she said.
Lucy blushed. She certainly had.
"No, there is nothing," continued Leslie, then she stopped and he
looked up quickly.
"There is something you have thought of?" he said.
Leslie's head drooped thoughtfully.
"Yes, there is something," she said. Lucy got up as if to leave the
room; but Leslie put out a hand and stayed her. "No, dear, it is no
secret; besides, if it were, you must not keep secrets from each other.
Wait a moment."
Lucy and Ralph exchanged glances.
"Do you know anything?" he asked.
Lucy shook her head.
"No," she replied in an awed whisper, "she has told me nothing of her
past--nothing. We love each other like sisters, and I think there is
no one in the world half so good or sweet as Leslie, but I should not
dare--yes, that is the word--to ask for her confidence."
Leslie came back into the room. She had a small packet in her hand, and
she laid it on the table before Ralph Duncombe.
"I am going to ask you to do something for me," she said with a smile
that flickered sadly, as if it were very near tears. "I wish you to
give this to the person to whom it is addressed."
Ralph Duncombe took up the packet.
"The Duke of Rothbury!" he said aloud.
Lucy opened her eyes.
"You may open it," said Leslie in a low voice. "It is of value--great
value, I believe. If it had not been I would have sent it by post. Yes,
open it."
Ralph Duncombe opened the packet and stared amazed.
"It is of great value," he said gravely; "and--and I am to give it to
the Duke of Rothbury?"
"Yes," said Leslie, her lips quivering. The sight of the sorrow which
she was trying to hide stirred him past repression.
"He gave you this?" he said.
"Yes, but--but do not ask me any questions, please," she faltered.
Her color came and went.
"It is not necessary," he said. "You have suffered, and at his
hands----."
"No--no----."
"But it is yes, yes!" he said, with restrained passion, and with a
strange perplexity. Great heaven, what a mistake Lady Eleanor had made!
It was not Lord Auchester then, but the Duke of Rothbury Leslie had
been going to marry.
"I will give it him," he said sternly.
Leslie looked up with a sudden glance of apprehension.
"Give it to him; but that is all!" she said meaningly. "There is
nothing to be said--or done."
"You mean that if--if he has injured you, you have forgiven him?" he
said.
"Long, long ago!" she breathed. "You may say that, if--if there should
be occasion, but no more."
He bowed his head.
"It shall be as you wish," he said; "your word is a law to me."
"I knew you would do it for me," she said in a low voice; "would
understand."
Then, as if she wished the subject to be closed, she began to talk of
his and Lucy's strange meeting, and their future.
"It is the greatest pity in the world that you should have happened to
be passing the day Lucy was frightened by the wild horseman, for the
Government will lose one of its best teachers."
"And I shall gain one of the best of wives!" he murmured. They talked
for half an hour, and Leslie seemed as light-hearted as they, but
presently she stole out of the room, looking over her shoulder in the
doorway with a "good-night."
"Do you understand it?" whispered Lucy, as he took her in his arms to
say farewell. "Does it mean that Leslie might have been a duchess?"
"Yes, I think so," he said. "I don't quite understand it; I feel as if
I were groping in the dark with just a glimmer of light. But, anyhow, I
know, I am sure that the fault, if there was any, was his, and I wish
that she had left me free to tell him so and exact reparation."
"Ah, but that is just what you must not do!" said Lucy sternly. "It is
just what Leslie does not want. You are to give him back the diamonds
and say nothing excepting that she forgives him!"
He nodded with a sigh.
"Poor Leslie! How she must have suffered!"
"Yes, you can see that by her face, even now; and it is ever so much
happier and brighter than when I saw it first. Ah, Ralph, I wish she
were as happy as we are!"
Ralph Duncombe, as he drove along the road to White Place with the
diamond pendant in his pocket, felt like a man struggling with a
tremendous enigma. Lady Eleanor had evidently made a terrible and
unaccountable blunder in stating and believing that it was Yorke
Auchester whom Leslie was going to marry. How could she have made such
a mistake? And what had happened to break off the marriage? Had the
duke jilted Leslie? At the thought--though he was in love with Lucy
now--his face grew red with anger and he felt that, duke or no duke, he
would have called him to account but for Leslie's injunction.
When he reached White Place he found Lady Eleanor pacing up and down
the room with an open letter in her hand, and she turned to greet him
with a smile on her flushed face.
"You have good news?" he said.
"Yes." She nodded twice with a joyous light in her eyes. "I have heard
from Lord Auchester. He is coming back the day after to-morrow. He and
the Duke of Rothbury----."
Ralph started, and his face darkened.
"The Duke of Rothbury?" he said. "I am glad of that, Lady Eleanor,
for I wish to see him. And, Lady Eleanor, I have something to tell
you--something you will be glad to hear. There has been a strange and
awkward mistake. It was not Lord Auchester who was going to marry
Miss--Miss Lisle, but the Duke of Rothbury."
Lady Eleanor's face paled, and she caught her breath.
"Not--Yorke! The duke! Ah, no, no! That cannot be!"
"Pardon me, but I am right," he said, rather sternly.
She shook her head.
"No, no; I saw--" She stopped, and the color flew to her face. "I saw
him buying the--the wedding ring."
Ralph stared at her, then he smiled grimly.
"He may have bought a ring, but not for himself," he said. "It may have
been for the duke, for it was the duke she was going to marry, Lady
Eleanor."
"How--how do you know?"
"Miss Lisle herself told me."
She started.
"She! Where--where is she?"
"She is the teacher at the school at Newfold."
Lady Eleanor sank into a chair, and looked up at him with frightened
eyes.
"Here--so near? Oh, let me think!" and she clasped her hands over her
eyes.
"That is what I have been doing; thinking," he said grimly. "It has
been a terrible blunder. I do not know all the circumstances--scarcely
any, indeed--of the case; I only know that it was the duke to whom she
was engaged."
"Was? Then it is broken off?"
"Yes," he said gravely. "By Miss Lisle--for good and sufficient
reasons, I am certain."
She looked at him keenly.
"You know her--you have known her all along." She saw him color, and
added in a breath--"Ah, I understand!"
"Yes," he said, "I have known Miss Lisle a long time. I had hoped once
to induce her to become my wife, but----."
"And now?"
"I am engaged to another lady," he said, rather stiffly. "Miss Lisle
refused me. That is all that need be said on that point, Lady Eleanor."
She inclined her head.
"It has been a terrible blunder," she said thoughtfully. "But--ah, what
a load your news has removed from my heart! Not Lord Auchester, but the
duke!"
She closed her eyes and drew a long breath. Yorke was all her own now!
"Can you tell me the duke's address. Lady Eleanor?" he asked after a
pause.
"His London house is in Grosvenor Square. He will go there, and not to
Rothbury, on his return to England. Do you want to see him?" she added.
"Why?"
"I have a small matter of business with his grace," he replied.
Lady Eleanor looked at his grave face apprehensively.
"You will not----."
"Tell him anything that has occurred? Scarcely, Lady Eleanor," he said.
"That which you and I did in regard to these bills and Lord Auchester's
money affairs must forever remain secret. Erase it from your memory."
"Ah, if I could!" she murmured. "When I think of the possibility of his
knowing----."
"It is not likely that he will ever know," he said. "The secret is
yours and mine alone. You say that Lord Auchester is returning the day
after to-morrow?"
"Yes."
"In that case, Lady Eleanor, my visits to White Place must cease. You
will not need any help of mine in the future--I need not say that I
should be as ready and willing to be of assistance to you as I have
ever been--but it will be better that all communication between us
should cease. You will not misunderstand me?"
"No, no! I understand," she said. "I am very grateful for all you have
done. But for you I should not be as happy as I am."
"I am glad to have helped you to that happiness, however slightly,"
he said. "And I trust that you may be happier still in the future.
Good-by, Lady Eleanor."
He held her hand for a moment or two, then left her. He had no desire
to see her again. If he could have done so, he would have wiped from
his memory the plot in which he had been concerned with her to drive
Lord Auchester into her arms; indeed, as he drove through the silent
night he felt heartily ashamed of it. He thought of Leslie and Lucy
throughout the journey with a strange sense of confusion. He loved the
gentle girl who had given him her heart, but he would remain Leslie's
friend and champion. That the Duke of Rothbury had in some way behaved
badly to her he felt assured, and but for his promise to Leslie he
would have called him to account. As it was, he had bound himself to
the simple return of the diamond pendant.
He carried it in his breast pocket for the two following days, and on
the third went to Grosvenor Square.
"Yes, sir; his grace is at home, but I do not know whether he can see
you. I will ask his gentleman."
Grey came into the hall, and shook his head as Ralph Duncombe preferred
a request for an interview.
"His grace only returned yesterday, and is very tired, sir," he said.
"I am afraid he cannot see you."
Ralph Duncombe wrote on the back of his card, "From Miss Lisle," and
enclosed it in an envelope.
"Give that to his grace," he said.
Grey came back after a few minutes.
"His grace will see you, sir. Follow me, if you please," and he led the
way to the study at the back of the hall.
The duke was lying on the adjustable couch, and the sight of his wasted
form and deathlike face startled Ralph Duncombe and drove all the anger
from his heart.
The duke signed to Grey to withdraw, then raised himself on his elbow
and looked at Ralph Duncombe keenly.
"You wish to see me?" he said.
"Yes," said Ralph, and unconsciously he lowered his voice.
"And you come from--Miss Lisle?" A faint, very faint color tinged the
transparent face.
"I do, your grace. I am charged with a simple mission. Miss Lisle bids
me return this to your grace," and he held out the packet.
The duke took it and opened it, and gazed at the pendant as it flashed
in the palm of his hand.
"She told you to return it to me? I did not give----." He stopped.
"I was to return it to the Duke of Rothbury," said Ralph, rather
sternly.
"To--the--Duke of Rothbury; yes, yes," said the duke in a low voice,
and the color deepened in his face. "You have come from Miss Lisle? You
know where she is; may I ask her address?"
"I cannot give it to your grace," said Ralph.
The duke flashed his eyes--they glittered in their dark rings--then he
let them fall, and sighed.
"I understand. At least you will tell me whether she is well and--and
happy?"
Ralph Duncombe's wrath smouldered.
"She is well now, and I trust happy," he said.
"Now? Has she been ill?"
"Ill and in great trouble. Her father is dead----."
The duke raised himself to an upright position, then sank back.
"Poor girl, poor girl!" he murmured.
Ralph Duncombe flushed.
"Miss Lisle neither asks nor would accept your pity, your grace," he
said, sternly. "I am ignorant of the events connected with that gift or
its return. I do not wish to know anything about it, but of this I am
assured--that Miss Lisle desires to hold no further communication with
you."
The duke was silent for a moment.
"Very good," he said at last. "I understand. But I think if she knew
how much I desire her forgiveness for the deceit I practised upon her,
and how near I am to that land which forgiveness cannot reach, she
would not refuse to forgive me."
"I have discharged my mission," said Ralph coldly. He could not bring
himself to convey Leslie's forgiveness.
The duke touched an electric bell.
"I wish you good day, sir," he said, and sank back with a sigh. But,
after Ralph Duncombe had gone, he opened his hand and looked at the
diamond pendant, which still lay in his palm.
"Yorke had given her this," he said musingly. "But why did she send it
to me? Why? What shall I do with it? Give it to him? Dare I do so just
now? Will it be safe to call up sleeping memories? Had I not better
wait until--until after the wedding?"
He decided that he would do so, and carefully placing the pendant in
the drawer of a cabinet that stood near his elbow, he sank back again
and closed his eyes. But his lips moved long afterwards, and "Poor
girl, poor girl!" came from them, as if he were still thinking of her.