"IT IS THE TRUTH."
Leslie looked at Ralph Duncombe vacantly for a moment, as if she had
failed to understand him; then the color began to ebb from her face and
left it white, and she strove feebly to release herself from Yorke's
enfolding arms.
He did not speak, but he glared at Ralph Duncombe in a kind of
half-dazed fury.
Lucy was the first to break the awful silence which followed Ralph's
announcement.
"Oh, no, no, it is not--it cannot be true! There must be some mistake,
Ralph," she exclaimed, almost inaudibly.
Ralph Duncombe bit his lip. He had spoken in the first heat of his
amazement and indignation, and was, perhaps, sorry that he had done so,
or, at any rate, that he had spoken so precipitately.
"It is true," he said doggedly. "Ask him! It is for him to explain."
All eyes were fixed on Yorke. The two women's with an anxious,
expectant look in them, as if they were only waiting for his
contradiction and denial.
But his face grew as white as Leslie's, and after looking round wildly
he hung his head and groaned.
Leslie drew herself away from him slowly, her gaze still fixed on him,
her bosom heaving, and dropped the locket from her hand. It went with a
dull thud to the floor. She had been in Paradise a moment or two ago,
had been filled with a joy which in its intensity almost atoned for the
past months of sorrow and anguish; and now she was plunged back into
the depths again.
It was Lucy who spoke again. Losing her timidity in her anxiety for the
friend she loved so dearly; she glided to Yorke, and put her hand on
his arm.
"Oh, speak, sir!" she implored him. "Say that it is not true! Don't you
see that she is waiting?" And she looked over her shoulder at Leslie.
Yorke followed her eyes, then looked down at her pretty, anxious face
despairingly.
"I cannot!" fell from his lips.
Lucy shrank back from him, and stole her arm round Leslie to support
her.
"You cannot! Oh!"
Ralph Duncombe came further into the room.
"He cannot deny it," he said. "I know--am a friend of Lady Eleanor
Dallas. I know this gentleman, though he does not know me. He is Lord
Auchester, the heir, now, to the Duke of Rothbury, and he is engaged
to marry Lady Eleanor. The wedding is to take place the day after
to-morrow. I am sorry--yes, I am sorry--that I blurted out the truth!
but the sight of him--well, I am an old friend of Miss Lisle's, and
I claim the right to protect her. If his lordship considers that I
have exceeded a friend's privilege he is at liberty to demand any
satisfaction I can give him."
Yorke raised his head. His face was set and white, his eyes heavy
with despair. He felt as the ancient gladiator felt at the moment the
fatal net caught him in its meshes, and the dagger was descending to
strike him to the heart; as the miserable wretch in the dock feels
when the sentence of death is being pronounced. For a moment it seemed
as if he could not speak, and he wiped the cold sweat from his face
mechanically; then he said in a low, broken voice:
"It is the truth!" He looked at Leslie, scarcely imploringly so much as
hopelessly, despairingly. "I had forgotten it! Yes," he went on almost
fiercely, "I had forgotten it! I was so happy that I lost all memory of
it! You, sir, who came as an accuser, who no doubt, think me an utter
blackguard and lost to all sense of honour, shall be my judge as well
as my accuser."
Ralph Duncombe shook his head.
"I do not wish----," he began; but Yorke silenced him with a gesture
that was full of the dignity of despair.
"Hear me, please! Miss Lisle and I were engaged to be married--that
is, months ago. We met at a place called Portmaris, and--" he glanced
at Lucy--"sir, I loved her as truly and devotedly as you can love this
young lady. We were to have been married----."
"You!" exclaimed Ralph Duncombe. "No, it was the Duke of Rothbury to
whom she was engaged."
Yorke sighed.
"No, it was to me," he said. "I exchanged titles with my cousin, the
duke; why, need not be explained. Leslie--Miss Lisle understands. It
was a foolish trick, and, like most follies, has brought trouble and
sorrow in its wake. But for that stupid freak--. We were to have been
married, but on the eve of our marriage we were separated, torn apart
by a wicked lie, which, aided by a wrongly addressed envelope, served
to ruin our happiness. Miss Lisle thought I had deceived her, and,
acting on the promptings of a heart that is all truth and purity, she
cast me off. I lost her in all senses of the word, and I felt that I
deserved to lose her. Now, sir, call your imagination to your aid. Look
on this young lady whom you love, and try and put yourself in my place.
Picture to yourself my state and condition, having lost all that made
life worth living! Ah, you can!" for Ralph Duncombe looked down and bit
his lip.
Yorke passed his hand across his brow and sighed heavily, and for a
moment seemed as if he had finished his explanation; then he looked up,
as if awaking suddenly.
"I was in that state in which a man might win pity from his worst
enemy; but I had an enemy--of whose existence I was and am still
ignorant--and he chose that moment to hunt me into still greater
straits. I have been a fool in more senses of the word than one. I was
heavily in debt. It was because of that millstone of debt that I had
induced Miss Lisle to consent to a secret marriage. My enemy, whoever
he was, discovered this; he bought up all my debts and liabilities,
and constituting himself my sole creditor, he came down upon me with
all the weight of those debts, meaning to crush me. I should have gone
under, never to rise again. I should have been ruined and disgraced,
should have brought disgrace upon the name I bear and all connected
with me. But----." He paused, and his face worked. "There was one
who--who had some little regard for me, and--and she stepped in and
saved me; lifted me out of the mire and set me on my feet again; saved
me from the consequences of my folly, and saved the old name from
shame. Gratitude is a poor word to describe what I felt toward her!
I--I made the debt I owed her still heavier by asking her to take
that which she had saved. And--and in the goodness of her heart she
consented! From that time until now--until now!--I have been true to
her in deed and intent. I have striven to forget the woman to whom I
had given my heart, there at Portmaris, the woman who was all the world
to me"--his voice broke--"the woman whom I lost on our wedding eve!
To-day, to-day only, have I heard from the woman who separated us a
full confession of the deception by which she effected her purpose. But
I knew it was too late to regain my lost happiness. Too late! I never
expected to see Miss Lisle again, scarcely hoped to do so, excepting
that it might be once before I died, that I might say to her, 'With all
my faults and follies, I was true to you, Leslie!'"
Leslie, standing rigid and motionless, moaned faintly.
He cast an agonized look at her.
"Then--then I came by the merest chance to this cottage. I heard her
voice. I stole in, and in the joy of meeting her, and reconciliation
with her, in that great joy the past was blotted out from my mind, and
I forgot--I say I forgot that I was betrothed to another, that I was
within a few hours of being wedded to another."
His voice died away, and he stood with downcast head and vacant eyes.
Then he looked up.
"There is my story, sir! You say that you are a friend of--of Miss
Lisle's. It is for you to demand--exact satisfaction for the wrong that
I have done her. But, mind, that wrong dates only from to-day! I have
loved her----." He broke down for a moment; then went on almost sternly,
"What I have to do, what I can do to atone, I will do! I--I can never
hope for Miss Lisle's forgiveness----."
Leslie's hands writhed together, and Lucy's arm held her still more
firmly.
"I can never hope to see her again. But I will say this in her hearing,
that I would lay down my life to wipe out the past, to render her happy
in the future."
Leslie's hands stole up to her face.
"For the rest," he went on, "I will tell Lady Eleanor all that I have
told you. It is her due. She shall be the judge; she shall dispose of
my future. I owe her much more than can be told."
He stopped, then looked up, and there was a light in his eyes which
made Lucy shrink.
"One thing more. I have spoken of the way in which I was hunted down.
That part of the business is a mystery still. But I am going to solve
it! I am going to find Mr. Ralph Duncombe."
Lucy broke from Leslie, and with a cry of terror flung herself on
Ralph's arm, and looked over her shoulder at Yorke's stern face.
Yorke stopped and started, his face grew red and then white, and he
strode forward.
"What!" he cried, under his breath. "Are you----."
Ralph Duncombe put Lucy from him gently, and came a step forward to
meet him.
"Yes," he said gravely, "my name is Ralph Duncombe."
"You!" said Yorke, as if his amazement over-mastered his anger. "Do you
mean that it is you who bought up my debts and hunted me down?"
"It was I!" said Ralph stolidly.
"But--but----." Yorke groaned. "Why? Why, what harm did I ever do you?
Why, man, I never saw you before to-day. I never saw your name until I
read it in the writs! Why? Why?" and he stood with clenched hands, the
veins standing out on his forehead.
Ralph bit his lip, but he looked full into Yorke's blazing eyes.
"Why did you do it?" demanded Yorke in a low voice, which was all the
more ominous for its quietude. "What was I to you that you should
concern yourself in my affairs? That you should try and ruin me? It was
you who drove me----," he was going to say "into a marriage with Lady
Eleanor," but he stopped himself in time. "Why did you do it?"
Ralph Duncombe remained silent for a moment, then he said:
"My lord, I desired to break off the engagement between you and Miss
Lisle."
"You? Why? Ah----."
The light flashed upon him; then he glanced at Lucy, who stood,
trembling, with one hand upon Ralph's arm.
"Yes," said Ralph. "But Miss Lisle had rejected me, she would never
have been my wife, and, in saying this, I will say no more! I have
another reason."
"That reason?" demanded Yorke, with barely restrained fury.
"I decline to answer," said Ralph.
Yorke made a movement as if to seize him or strike him. Lucy screamed,
Leslie seemed as if to spring between them, then flung herself on her
knees beside a chair, and this recalled Yorke to himself.
"Forgive me," he murmured, casting a glance at her; then in a loud tone
he said to Ralph significantly:
"This is not the place for a scene, Mr. Duncombe. I shall demand an
explanation from you elsewhere. I--I will go now." He put his hand
to his brow, and his face lost its fury as he turned it to Leslie,
kneeling, with her face in her hands. "Yes, I will go now. Good-by,
Les--Miss Lisle. Forgive me all the trouble and sorrow I have caused
you! God knows, as I said, I would lay down my life to win a day's
happiness for you! I--I think in your heart of hearts you know that.
I--I have been a wretchedly unfortunate man! It is all my own fault, I
dare say, and yet----. Well! All the talking in the world will not talk
out the past, will not help me through the future! Good-by! God bless
you, Leslie."
His voice broke into a kind of sob, and he strode toward the door.
As he did so, as, half-blind with misery, he fumbled at the handle, the
door opened from the outside, and a tall figure stood on the threshold.
It was Lady Eleanor Dallas! She was wrapped in a very dark cloak,
dripping wet, above which her beautiful face gleamed white as that of a
Grecian statue.
She held the door, and leaned against it to support herself, and the
hand she raised, as if to stop him, shook and quivered as if with ague.
"Stop, Yorke!" she moaned, rather than said.