"AN ASHEN GREY DELIGHT"
"Mr. de Vaux!"
Paul turned quickly around in his saddle towards the young lady who
had addressed him. He looked into a fair, thoughtful face, whose
general amiability was discounted, just then, by a decided frown.
"I beg your pardon, Lady May! Didn't you say something just now?"
"Didn't I say something just now!" she repeated, with fine scorn.
"Upon my word, Mr. de Vaux, I think that you must have left your wits
in London! What is the matter with you?"
"The matter! Why, nothing! I'm sorry----"
"Oh! pray don't apologise!" she interrupted hastily. "I think I'll
ride on and catch papa up."
He laid his hand upon her rein. "Please don't, Lady May," he begged.
"I know I've been inattentive! I'm very sorry--really I am. Let me try
and make up for it!"
She looked into his face, and she was mollified. He was evidently in
earnest.
"Oh! very well," she said. "You mustn't think that I complained
without due cause, though, for I spoke to you three times before you
answered me. Oh, it's all right," she went on, as he commenced to
frame another apology. "I don't mind now, but I really should like to
know what is the matter with you. You have ridden all day like a man
who valued neither his own life nor his horse's. Some of your jumps
were simply reckless! I have heard other people say so, too! I like
bold riding, but there is a limit; and though I've ridden two hounds
since papa gave me my first pony, I've never seen any one try to jump
Annisforth brook below the bridge, before,--and don't want to again,"
she added, with a little shudder. "I know you ride fine horses, but
you are not generally foolhardy. I saw your dark bay mare being taken
home at Colbourne Spinneys, and I don't think she'll be fit to ride
again this season. Old Harrison had tears in his eyes when he saw
her!"
"Harrison is an old woman about horses! I never touched Meg with the
spurs. She was as fresh as paint, and there was no holding her."
"You can't deceive me or yourself," Lady May continued calmly. "You
have been riding for a fall, all day, and you may think yourself
pretty fortunate that you haven't a broken neck. It seemed as though
you were trying for one. And now that you haven't succeeded, you have
nearly ridden ten miles alone with me, and scarcely opened your mouth.
You are very provoking, Mr. de Vaux. I wish I had ridden home with
Captain Fellowes."
He was on the point of reminding her that the arrangement had not been
of his making, but he checked himself. After all, Lady May had some
grounds for her irritation. They had been friends since they had been
children, and Paul knew that every one expected him, someday, to ask
Lady May to become the mistress of Vaux Abbey. There had been a little
more than intimacy even in their friendship up till twelve months ago;
and Paul had certain recollections of their last interview, which had
made him more than once a trifle uneasy. As a matter of fact, Lady May
had quite made up her mind that Paul de Vaux would certainly ask her
to marry him some time; and she had, on his account, refused two very
eligible offers. Their people desired it, and, in her heart, Lady May
was conscious that Paul was a little more to her than any other man
could be. So she felt herself at first, aggrieved by his long silence
during their ride home, which, to tell the truth, she had carefully
planned for, and afterwards was just on the verge of being seriously
offended.
"Don't be angry with me, please," he said quietly. "You are right;
something is the matter. I am worried."
She was sympathetic and kindly at once. "I'm so sorry. Please forgive
me for bothering you. You used to tell me your troubles once! Are we
too old now?"
He shook his head. "I hope we never shall be," he said. "I can't tell
you all, but one thing is this. I had a letter from a man in town
to-day--a man whom I can trust--about Arthur. You know what an
impressionable, sensitive boy he is. Anyone who once obtains an
influence over him can do nearly what they like with him. He seems--so
my correspondent tells me--to have become completely fascinated with
a--a--dancer--Adrea Kiros I think she calls herself."
"I have heard of her," Lady May murmured. "She dances only at private
houses, I think. Everyone says she is wonderful."
"She is--wonderful," Paul said slowly. He was about to say more, but
he checked himself. Lady May was watching him, and he knew that he
could not speak of Adrea Kiros unmoved. So he went on:--
"I am not complaining, for after all it is perfectly natural, but
Arthur is certainly his mother's favorite son. You know how strict she
is in some of her notions; so you can understand what a shock it would
be to her if any rumors were to reach her ears. It would be a terrible
blow to her. But, apart from that, the thing is serious in itself.
Arthur was always delicate, and Cis--my friend--speaks of him as
looking ghastly ill. The girl is probably only amusing herself,
although she seems to have given him plenty of encouragement. But I
know Ad--Adrea Kiros. She is no ordinary girl of her class. In the
whole world I doubt if there breathes a more dangerous woman," he
wound up, in a low tone.
Lady May was quite sympathetic now, but a little mystified. "I am so
sorry," she said softly. "Ought you not to go to London, and try what
your influence can do with him? That is disinterested advice, at any
rate," she added, with a little laugh, "for I don't want you to go.
But Arthur always seemed to look up to you so! You might be able to
get him away. Don't you think it would be a good thing if you could
get him down here? We would make it as lively as possible for him up
at the Castle; and, I don't know how your preserves are, but ours
have been scarcely touched yet. Between the two of us, at any rate, he
could have as much shooting as he liked. And I would ask the Fergusson
girls to come and stay," she went on, getting more and more in love
with her plan. "He was so much taken with Amy, you know, when they
were down here before. We could get up some theatricals, or something,
and have quite a good time. What do you think of my plan?"
He was thankful for her long speech, for it had enabled him to get
over the slight agitation which the thought of that unavoidable
journey to London had called up in him. From the first he had felt
that it was his duty to go. He had received this disquieting letter
two days ago, and since then he had telegraphed twice and written to
Arthur without getting any reply. Yes, he must go. And mingled with
that reluctance and nameless apprehension which he felt at the thought
of returning into her neighbourhood, he was acutely conscious, all the
time, of a certain vague but sweet pleasure at the thought that fate
had so ordained it. Perhaps it would be necessary for him to see
her! A thrill of pleasure passed through him at the thought, followed
almost immediately by a reaction of keen and bitter disgust with
himself. He set his teeth, and quite unconsciously dug his spurs into
his horse's sides, with the natural result that she reared up, almost
unseating him, and then plunged forward. He had to gallop her along
the road for a few hundred yards, and then turned round and rejoined
Lady May. Fortunately she had not seen the commencement of the little
episode.
"Whatever was the matter?" she asked.
"I fancy my spurs must have pricked her," he said apologetically. "I
was riding quite carelessly."
"Well, please don't let it happen again," she begged, eyeing his
mare's flanks suspiciously. "Dandy is very tired now, and is generally
good tempered; but I don't think he would stand much of that sort of
thing."
"I'm really very sorry," he said.
She nodded. "All right. And now, what do you think of my plan? Are you
going to London?"
"I think your plan is a very good one indeed, and I shall run up
to town to-morrow," he said. "It is very good of you to be so
interested."
He looked down into her face, a fair, sweet face it was, and then
glanced away over the bare moorland which stretched on one side of
them. It was a late November afternoon, and a faint yellow light
was lingering in the west, where the sun had just set, colouring the
clouds which stretched across the sky in long, level streaks. A fresh,
healthy breeze, strong with the perfume of the sea, blew in their
teeth, and afar off they could hear the waves dashing against the
iron-bound line of northern cliffs. Inland, the country was more
cultivated, but hilly and broken up with masses of lichen-covered
rock, and little clumps of thin fir trees. He knew the scenery so
well. The rugged, barren country, with its great stretches of moorland
and little patches of cultivated land, with its silent tarns, its
desolation, and the ever-varying music of the sea, they all meant home
to him, and he loved them. It had always been so, and yet he felt it
at that moment as he had never felt it before. The prospect of that
journey to London was suddenly loathsome to him. The clear, physical
healthfulness of his North-country home was triumphant, for the
moment, over that other passion, which seemed to him then weak and
artificial. It seemed to him also, looking down into Lady May's
fresh, thoughtful face, that she was somehow in accord with these
surroundings,--that she was, indeed, the link, the safeguard which
should bind him to them, the good influence which should keep him fit
to breathe God's pure air, and to keep himself, as he had ever striven
to, _sans peur et sans reproche_. Paul was no sentimentalist, in the
idle and common sense of the word. In his attitude to every-day
life, he was essentially practical, sometimes perhaps a little too
practical. But he was capable of strong feeling, and it came then with
a rush. He leant over towards Lady May, and laid his hand upon her
saddle.
"You are very kind and sympathetic," he said softly. "You are always
kind."
She looked up at him, pleased, and with a soft look in her deep grey
eyes. "You do not give me very much opportunity," she said quietly.
"At one time you used to tell me all your troubles; do you remember?"
"Yes! I remember," he answered, almost in a whisper, for they were
riding up a grass-grown avenue,--a back way to the Abbey,--and their
horses' hoofs sank noiselessly into the soft turf. "Sometimes I have
dared to hope that those days may come again."
She was silent, and her head was turned away lest he might see the
tears trembling in her eyes. So they rode on for a moment or two,
walking their horses in the dim twilight; she in the shadow of the
grey wall and the overhanging trees, and he very close to her, with
his hand still upon her saddle and his reins loose in his hand.
"If ever they did, if ever I was so fortunate," he went on in a low
tone, "you would find your office no sinecure. I have troubles, or
rather, one trouble, and a great one, May."
She looked at him for a moment, her eyes full of sympathy. She dimly
remembered the time when strange stories were current in the county of
Martin de Vaux, and their echo had remained for years. It was not for
her to inquire about them, and she never had done so. But that their
burden should have fallen upon Paul; it was hard! Her heart was sore
with the injustice of it. A woman is a swift and censorious judge of
any one who brings trouble upon the man she loves.
He was a little closer to her still; and suddenly the hand which
carried her small whip felt itself grasped in strong fingers and held
tightly.
"May----"
It was not his fault this time that his mare stood still, and then ran
backwards, dislodging the topmost stones from the grey stone wall with
her hind quarters, and then plunging violently. This time there was
cause for her alarm. A tall, forbidding-looking figure stood in the
middle of the avenue, grasping the rein of Lady May's terrified horse.
He had come out of the twilight so suddenly, and his attire was
so unusual, that Paul and Lady May were almost as surprised as the
animals. Paul's first instinct was one of anger.
"What the----"
He stopped short. The man who had startled them so had quieted Lady
May's horse with a few soothing words, and now stood out of the deep
shade of the overhanging trees into the centre of the avenue. Even
here his face was scarcely visible, but his figure and attire were
sufficient. He wore the long robes and shovel hat of a Roman Catholic
priest.
Paul broke off in the middle of his exclamation, and the arm which had
been grasping his whip tightly sank nervelessly to his side. He was
thankful for the twilight, which concealed the grey shade which had
stolen into his face. Yet now that the blow had fallen, he was calmer
than he had been in some of his anticipations of it. For it had
indeed fallen! In the dusky twilight he had recognised the face of the
priest, changed though it was. He rode up, and addressed him.
"Have you lost your way?" he asked quietly. "This is a private road,
and the gate at the other end is locked."
The priest looked at him steadily for a moment, and then drew on one
side, as though to let them pass.
"I am sorry that I startled your horses," he said, in a soft, pleasant
voice, marked with a strong foreign accent; "I was standing with my
back to you, waiting for the moon to rise behind the ruins there,
and the soft ground made your approach noiseless. And, if I am
trespassing, I am sorry. The steward at the Abbey yonder gave me
permission to wander anywhere around the ruins. I have perhaps
exceeded a little his bounds."
"It is of no consequence," Paul said. "You find the ruins interesting,
then?"
"Very."
"There are some pictures in the Abbey you might care to see--mostly
modern, but there is a Rubens and two Giorgiones."
The priest removed his hat. "I thank you, but I am only interested in
ecclesiastical art. These ruins are more to me than any pictures--save
those which Rome alone possesses," he added. "I spend all my evenings
here, and hope to be allowed to, for the short time that I remain in
the neighbourhood."
"You have my permission to come and go as you please. I am Mr. de
Vaux," Paul said, touching his horse with the whip. "Good-evening!"
"Good-evening, sir! Good-evening, madam! I thank you!"
They rode on down the avenue, Paul silent and absorbed, and making no
attempt to pursue the conversation. At the bend of the lane he turned
round in his saddle. The priest was standing with his back to them,
motionless and silent as a figure of stone.