Breakfast over at the Elms, and no improvement in the weather.
Maximilian Bray said that it was impossible to go out, "bai Jove!" so he
was seated in a low _bergere_ chair in the drawing-room. He had taken a
book from a side table as if with the intention of reading; but it had
fallen upon the floor, Max Bray not being at the best of times a reading
man; and now he was busy at work plotting and planning with a devotion
worthy of a better cause. His head was imparting some of its ambrosia
to the light chintz chair-cover, for he had impatiently thrown the
antimacassar under the table. Then he fidgeted about a little, altered
the sit of his collar and wristbands, and at last, as if not satisfied
with his position, he removed his chair farther into the bay, so that
the light drapery of the flowing curtains concealed his noble form from
the view of any one entering the room, when, apparently satisfied, he
gazed thoughtfully through the panes at the soaked landscape.
Max Bray had not been long settled to his satisfaction when Laura
entered, shutting the door with a force that whispered--nay, shouted--of
a temper soured by some recent disappointment. She gave a sharp glance
round the room, and then, seeing no one, threw herself into a chair, a
sob at the same moment bursting from her breast.
"She shall go--that she shall!" exclaimed Laura suddenly, as she gave
utterance to her thoughts. "Such deceit!--such quiet carneying ways!
But there shall be no more of it: she shall go!"
Laura Bray ceased speaking; and, starting up, she began to pace the
room, but only to stop short on seeing her brother gazing at her with a
half-mocking, half-amused expression of countenance from behind the
curtain.
"You here, Max!" she exclaimed, colouring hotly.
"Bai Jove, ya-a-as!" he drawled. "But, I say, isn't it a bad plan to go
about the house shouting so that every one can hear your bewailings,
because a horsey cad of a fellow gives roses to one lady and thorns to
another?"
"What _do_ you mean, Max?" said Laura.
"What do I mean! Well, that's cool, bai Jove! O, of course nothing
about meetings by moonlight alone, and roses and vows, and that sort of
spooneyism! But didn't you come tearing and raving in here, saying that
she should go, and that you wouldn't stand it, and swore--"
"O, Max?" cried Laura passionately.
"Bai Jove! why don't you let a fellow finish?" drawled Max. "Swore, I
said--swore like a cat just going to scratch; and I suppose that you
would like to scratch, eh?"
"But, Max, did you really hear what I said?" cried Laura.
"Hear? Bai Jove! of course I did--every word. Couldn't help it. Good
job it was only me."
"How could you be so unmanly as to listen!" cried Laura.
"Listen? Bai Jove, how you do talk! I didn't listen; you came and
raved it all at me. And so she shall go, shall she?"
"Yes!" exclaimed Laura, firing up, and speaking viciously, "that she
shall--a deceitful creature! I see through all her plots and plans, and
I'll--"
"Tear her eyes out, won't you, my dear, eh? Now just look here, Laury:
you think me slow, and all that sort of fun, and that I don't see
things; but I'm not blind. So the big boy has kicked off his
allegiance, has he? and run mad after the little governess, has he? and
the big sister is very angry and jealous!"
"Jealous, indeed!" cried Laura--"and of a creature like that!"
"All right; only don't interrupt," said Max mockingly. "Jealous, I
said, and won't put up with it, and quite right too! But, all the same,
I'm not going to have her sent away."
"And why not, pray?" cried Laura with flashing eyes.
"Because I don't choose that she shall go," said Max coolly.
Laura started, and then in silence brother and sister sat for a few
moments gazing in each other's eyes, a flood of thought sweeping the
while across the brain of the latter as she recalled a score of little
things till then unnoticed, or merely attributed to a natural desire to
flirt; but, with the key supplied by Max Bray's last words, Laura felt
that she could read him with ease, and her brow contracted as she tried
to make him shrink; but that did not lie in her power.
"Max!" she exclaimed at last, "I'm ashamed of you! It's mean, and
contemptible, and base, and grovelling! I'm disgusted! Why, you'll be
turning your eyes next to the servants' hall!"
"Thank you, my dear!" drawled Max. "Very high-flown and grand! But I
shall be content at present with the schoolroom. And now suppose I say
I'm ashamed of you; and, bai Jove, I am! A girl of your style and
pretensions, instead of winking at what you've seen, or coming to your
brother for counsel, to go howling about the house--"
"Max!" half shrieked Laura. "I don't care--bai Jove, I don't!" he
exclaimed. "So you do go howling about the house like a forlorn
shepherdess, bai Jove, so that every one can see what a fool you are
making of yourself!"
"And pray what would my noble brother's advice be?" cried Laura
sarcastically.
Max Bray was another man for an instant, as, starting up in his chair,
he caught his sister by the arm, drawing her towards him until she sank
down in a sitting position upon the ottoman at his feet, when, with the
drawling manner and affectation gone, he leaned over her, talking in a
low earnest voice, and so impressively, that Laura's mocking smile gave
place to a look of intense interest. She drew nearer to him at length,
as he still talked on eagerly; then she clasped her hands together, and
rested them upon his knees.
"But no!" she exclaimed, suddenly starting as it were from something
which seemed to enthral her, "I will not be a party to it, Max!"
"Very good, my dear," he said cavalierly; "then you shall have the
pleasure of watching progress, and seeing yourself thrust out, if you
please. Bai Jove, though, Laury, I did think you were a girl of more
spirit! Seems really, though, a good deal smitten, does Charley."
Laura's countenance changed, and her teeth were set together.
"I shall let him go on, then, for my part, if you choose it to be so."
"I choose!" cried Laura, with the tears in her eyes. "O, Max, why do
you torture me?"
"Then look here!" said Max.
And once more he leaned over towards her, assuming a quiet ease, but at
the same time it was plain to see that he was greatly excited. He
talked on and on impressively, with the effect of making Laura's lips
part and her eyes to glisten with a strange light. Then a pallor
overspread her countenance, but only to be swept away by a look of
exultation as Max still talked on.
"But it is impossible, Max!" cried Laura, at length.
"Perhaps you'll leave me to judge about that, and think only of your own
part!" he said coolly. "Is my advice--are my offers--worth accepting?"
"O yes, Max, yes!" cried Laura excitedly; "I'd do anything!"
"I don't want you to do anything," said Max, smiling with triumph; "only
what I advise. Help me, and I will help you with all my heart. But I
always knew that you would. You say that you don't like my choice.
Well and good; I might say that I don't like yours. Perhaps my affair
will come to nothing; but, anyhow, you are the gainer. I won't say
anything about hating, but let you have your selection. Now let me have
mine. But if you have anything better to propose, I am ready to
listen."
"But I have no plans, Max. I only thought of her being sent away; I'm
half broken-hearted and worn-out with disappointment!"
"Yes, just so. I expected as much, and I was waiting here to see you,"
said Max. "I'm not blind, Laury, nor deaf either. I heard you two
shouting across the hall. So you've been telling the old lady that some
one shall go, have you?"
"Yes, I have!" exclaimed Laura, ignoring the past conversation; "and she
shall go too! Mamma did promise me."
"Ya-a-as, I know," said Max, relapsing into his drawl; "but that was
before she promised me. The second will counts before the first made.
But, as I said before, and we understand now, she's not going--so
there's an end of it."
"O, of course!" cried Laura passionately. "Everything must be as
mamma's dear boy wishes! He shall have everything he likes, and do as
he likes, and say what he likes, and every one else is to give way to
him!"
"Bai Jove, now, don't be an idiot!" exclaimed Max. "What's the good--
now that I'm working on your side, and we have got to understand one
another--of running back like this? I'm obliged to speak plain, and to
tell you that you are only a stupid child, Laury, and that you've taken
a liking for another stupid child--and there's a pair of you; but all
the same, if you do as I tell you, all will come right!"
Laura tossed her head, and seemed somewhat mollified, perhaps from being
reminded of her folly.
"There," said Max, "that will do for this morning; so now do just as I
tell you, and leave all the rest to me. But is it a bargain?"
Laura Bray was thoughtful for a few minutes. She was placed in a
position which required consideration: the languid brother, whom she had
hitherto almost despised, was asking her to forego one purpose for the
sake of an equivalent; but it was the fact of his asking her to trust
herself entirely to his guidance that troubled her; and for a while she
shrank from yielding.
"Well," he said again, "is it a bargain?"
Still Laura did not answer, but remained gazing fixedly at the speaker,
who watched her as attentively, his flushed cheek and eager eyes
displaying the interest he took in the affair. At last, though, she
leaned forward, and taking one of his arms between her hands,
"I never trusted you yet, Max," she said.
"Sisterly, very--but perfectly true," he exclaimed, laughing.
"But I will, Max, this time. But if you play me false--"
"Hush!" ejaculated Max, throwing himself back in his chair, and forcing
his glass beneath his brow to stare at the new-comer; for at that moment
the drawing-room door opened, and Ella Bedford stood upon the threshold.
Volume 1, Chapter XX.