Something like a startled cry burst from Leonora's lips as she thus
beheld that face beside her own--that fair, strong, handsome face that
was as familiar as her own--the face of Clive, Lord Lancaster.
She believed for a moment that his face had indeed arisen from the
depths of the enchanted pool, and after that one startled cry she was
silent, watching it with dilated eyes and bated breath, expecting every
moment to see it fade into the nothingness from which it had sprung.
But, instead of fading, it grew clearer to her sight; it changed its
expression. At first it had a half-mischievous smile upon the lips and
in the eyes; this changed to gravity, tenderness, and passion. It was
the face of a lover on which Leonora now gazed with rapt interest,
unconscious that--
"His eyes looked love
To eyes that spake again."
It was a moment of silent happiness.
The light wind stirred the lily-buds on the bosom of the lake that held
those two fair faces mirrored in its breast; the nightingale's song
pierced their hearts with exquisite pleasure that bordered on pain.
Leonora, wandering for one moment in the Land of Enchantment, was
recalled to the present and to the actual by the man's folly.
He should have stolen away as he had come, in silence, leaving her
alone with her beautiful, strange illusion, to bear its fruit in due
season; but--
"Men's hearts crave tangible, close tenderness,
Love's presence, warm and near."
He yielded to a tender impulse without trying to resist it. He was
close beside her; his cheek was near her own; his eyes looked into her
eyes as they gazed up from the water, and those soft orbs had a look
in them that made him dizzy with delight. He slid his arms around the
graceful bending form and whispered in her ear:
"Leonora, is it fate?"
Alas!
"A touch, a kiss! the charm was snapt!"
Like one startled from a dream, she looked up and saw him holding
her in that strong clasp, gazing into her face with a passion that
frightened her. She tore herself from his arms.
"How dared you? oh, how dared you?" she cried out, indignantly.
Her angry words, her scornful glance, chilled the fire that burned
within him. He realized his folly. Why had he touched her, frightened
her, and so broken the spell of enchantment that held her? She would
never forgive him, perhaps, for his temerity.
"Did you think, because you were my Lord Lancaster, forsooth, and I
only the housekeeper's niece, that you could insult me thus?"
Her voice broke cold and sharp on the stillness. The nightingales had
all flown away at the first sound of her angry tones.
"Insult you?" cried the culprit, agitatedly; he was too much shocked at
the result of his hasty act to speak calmer. "Believe me, Miss West, I
meant no insult. I did not think that you would take it so."
His words were unfortunate. They irritated Leonora even more.
"You did not think so?" she cried, gazing reproachfully at him. "And,
pray, sir, what cause had I given you to--to think that your caresses
could be agreeable to me?"
He stood gazing at her in silence.
If he told her the real truth--told her that the face in the Magic
Mirror had fooled him with its soft eyes and tender lips, and led him
on to the commission of that impulsive act--she would be more angry
than ever. She would deny that her own looks had tempted him, made a
fool of him. He would not stoop to exculpate himself from the anger of
one so manifestly unjust.
All the Lancaster pride flushed into his face as he stood looking down
at her from his haughty height, his arms folded over his broad breast.
"What cause had I given you," she repeated, stamping her little foot
angrily on the earth, "to think that your caresses were agreeable to
me?"
"She is a little shrew!" he said to himself, with sudden anger. "I will
never give another thought to her."
With that thought he answered, coldly:
"If you were like other women, Miss West, I might exculpate myself in
your eyes. But as it is, I can only say that I meant no harm, and I
humbly crave your pardon."
"Like other women!" she flashed, haughtily. "What do you mean, Lord
Lancaster? Does the misfortune of my poverty and lowly birth place me
beyond the pale of your respectful consideration? Perhaps, were I Lady
Adela Eastwood it would be different."
"What the deuce does she know about the earl's daughter?" he asked
himself, in extreme astonishment; but he answered, eagerly:
"Yes, indeed, it would be different, Miss West. I should not look into
the Magic Mirror over Lady Adela's shoulder, certainly; nor would I put
my arm around her waist, but--"
He could not say another word, for she interrupted him, glowing with
angry beauty.
"So you acknowledge the truth to my very face. For shame, Lord
Lancaster! You throw discredit upon your name of gentleman; you make me
hate and despise you for those words! No; I will never forgive you as
long as I live!" sobbed Leonora, bursting into angry tears; and then
she fled away from him in the moonlight, leaving him standing like one
dazed by the side of the Magic Mirror.
But it was only for a moment that he remained thus motionless.
He thought apprehensively.
"It was most unwise in Mrs. West to allow her niece to go roaming about
alone at this hour. Even upon my grounds she may lose her way, or meet
with some unpleasant adventure. I will follow her at a safe distance,
and see that she gets back safely to the Hall."
He set out hurriedly, and, turning the bend in the road, almost ran
over two figures standing motionless under the tall trees that bordered
the lane--Mrs. West, with Leonora sobbing in her arms.
The good woman, looking up, uttered a cry of relief.
"Oh, Lord Lancaster! I am so glad to see you," she exclaimed. "I am so
frightened. Something must have happened to Leonora. You see how she's
crying. Well, she came out for a breath of fresh air, and then she
wanted to hear the nightingales at the Magic Mirror, and so I sat down
and waited for her; but she stayed so long, I went to look for her; and
there she came flying into my arms, and crying like some hurt thing.
Did you see anything or any person, my lord?" anxiously.
He was intensely annoyed. The sight of Leonora sobbing grievously in
the woman's arms bitterly irritated him.
Why would she misjudge him so persistently? why misunderstand him
always?
He looked at the graceful black figure with its head bowed on Mrs.
West's plump shoulder, and said, curtly:
"Miss West is unnecessarily alarmed. She has seen no one or nothing but
myself. It was the sight of me that alarmed her."
"Oh, hush! I did not mean to tell her!" cried Leonora through her sobs.
There was a note of warning in her voice; but in his vexation he did
not heed it.
Mrs. West was looking at him anxiously.
"Of course, she would not have been frightened at the sight of you, my
lord!" she exclaimed.
"I--was not frightened at anything--I was only angry," Leonora said,
lifting her head at this moment, and hushing her low sobs into silence.
"He had no right, Aunt West," she added, incoherently.
"No right!" echoed the good woman, looking from one to the other in
amazement. "Why, what has he done, my dear?"
"Nothing; only looked over my shoulder into the water--and--and
frightened me. Please don't think me silly, Aunt West. I think I'm
nervous to-night. Let us go," said the girl, without looking at the
tall, handsome form standing so near her.
"Let me come to-morrow and explain," he said, humbly, coming nearer to
her; but she turned her face resolutely from him.
"No," she said, icily; "it is quite unnecessary. Come, Aunt West."
She dragged the good woman away, and left him standing there in the
moonlight, with a settled shadow upon his face.
"What a contretemps!" he said to himself, gloomily. "Ah! how little I
thought, when I came out to-night to smoke that solitary cigar, that I
should meet with such an adventure! How angry she was! Every time we
meet we drift further away from each other!"
He went back to Lady Adela and his guests after awhile. The earl's
daughter chided him because he had left them for that odious cigar.
"It was most ungallant!" she declared.
"You are mistaken. I went to consult that oracle, the Magic Mirror," he
replied.
Lady Adela had heard the old legend. She smiled and bridled.
"Did you see your fate?" she asked him; and he answered, in a strange
tone:
"I saw the woman I love in the Magic Mirror."
The earl's beautiful daughter was a little puzzled by his reply. She
wondered if hers was the face he had seen in the water, but she dared
not put the thought into words.