It was a lovely morning in the sylvan solitude by The Towers, and
leaving Mrs James and Mrs Dennis Clareborough in the drawing-room,
Marion took her sunshade and a book, to wander away across the lawn to
the gate in the ring fence, and then along the path at the edge of the
beech wood, ostensibly to find a seat in the shade of one of the great
spreading trees, and have a calm, quiet read.
But ere she had gone a couple of hundred yards the fever in her blood
and the throbbing of her temples told her that the idea of calm and rest
was the merest farce.
She had hailed the departure of the gentlemen for Paris, as they had
said, as a relief from the quiet, insidious siege laid to her by James
Clareborough, who rarely spoke but on the most commonplace topics, and
was always coldly polite; but there were moments when she met his eyes
and read plainly enough that his intentions were unaltered, and that
sooner of later he would again begin to make protestations of his love.
Her position seemed harder than she could bear. His wife hated her with
a bitter, jealous hatred, but she was too much crushed down and afraid
of her fierce lord to show her dislike more openly, though there were
times when she seemed ready to break out into open reproach.
"Oh, if I could only end it all!" thought Marion again and again. "Will
Rob never break with them?
"Never," she said to herself, despairingly; "they would never let him
go. And yet surely the world is wide enough, and somewhere surely he
might find peace.
"No, he would never settle down to another life. It is fate. There is
neither peace nor happiness now for me."
She had wandered on for quite a mile before, feeling hot and wearied,
she seated herself on one of the great gnarled mossy buttresses of a
beech and leaned her head upon her hand, thinking of him whom she could
not keep out of her thoughts, but still only in despair. Then her
thoughts turned once more to James Clareborough, and, brave and firm as
she was, a thrill of horror ran through her at the dread which oppressed
her and set her heart throbbing wildly.
What if this Parisian journey was only a ruse and James Clareborough
were back on purpose to try and gain a meeting with her while her
brother was not by her side?
The thought was horrible, and it grew more intense, her cheeks flushing
and then growing ghastly white from her emotion.
"What madness to come out here alone!" she thought. "He would have been
watching for me, and be ready to read it as an invitation."
She looked round wildly, and started as a sharp tap was heard close at
hand.
"Am I growing such a nervous, feeble coward," she said, "that I am
afraid of a rabbit? What have I to fear from him?"
She laughed at her weak folly, and to prove to herself that she was no
longer under the influence of dread she took her book and opened it at
random, but did not read a word, for her musings began again.
"It is excusable," she thought. "All these years of dread of discovery,
of some end coming to their plans, and for the sake of what? A
miserable gilded life of luxury that is hateful to me and makes me
shiver when I look into his pleading eyes. He loves me and would marry
me to-morrow in his ignorance; and then what would he say when he knew
the truth? I cannot bear it; there must--there shall be an end. It is
not life; it is one miserable nightmare of fear."
She sprang to her feet, uttering a faint cry of horror, and turned to
run. For there was some truth in her suspicions; she had been followed.
There was a quick step behind, and she had run some little distance
before, glancing back, she saw that it was not James Clareborough, but
Chester, standing beneath the trees which had sheltered her, and now
gazing after her with a look of anger and despair.
She stopped, and he came up to her side.
"Have I grown so hateful to your sight?" he said bitterly.
"No, no!" she cried, holding out her trembling hand, which he seized and
pressed passionately to his lips. "I thought it was James
Clareborough."
"Then he has dared to insult you again?" said Chester, angrily.
"No, no; indeed, no," she cried.
"But you live in fear of him. Oh, Marion, Marion, how long is this
weary life to last? Once more let me plead. Would not a quiet life
with my devotion be a happier one than this miserable luxury, where you
are constantly persecuted by a scoundrel?"
"Oh, hush, hush!" she murmured. "I have told you it can never be."
"Yes, but these are words. Your woman's honour forbids you to stay."
"Hush, for pity's sake! You torture me," she cried. "Must I explain,
but you must see and know that I am tied down to it, that I cannot leave
my brother--that he would never let me go."
"I cannot--I will not believe but that all this is imaginary," said
Chester, firmly. "Will you not trust me? Will you not tell me what it
all means, and let me, a man, be the judge?"
"No," she said, mastering her emotion and speaking calmly now. "Once
more, I cannot, I will not explain. Why have you come down here?"
He shrugged his shoulders.
"You know," he said. "Where should I be but near the woman who is my
very life?"
"But it is madness--it is misery and torture to me."
"Poor wretch that I am," he said bitterly. "Still, I cannot help it."
"But," she cried imploringly, "your life would not be safe if they knew
of your being here."
"Indeed? Well, what of it? My presence is a torture to you. I am a
torture and misery to myself. They would not dare to kill me. I don't
know, though," he said, with a mocking laugh, "by accident, perhaps."
"Dr Chester," cried Marion, appealingly, "does it please you to inflict
this agony upon me?"
"No, no," he said, snatching at her hand. "I would give my life to save
you pain."
"Then go. Leave me and forget me. I am not the true, innocent woman
you think. I am not fit to be your wife."
"What!" he cried, turning ghastly pale, while as she saw his agony her
face grew convulsed and she half raised her hands to him pleadingly, but
let them fall.
He saw the movement and snatched them to his breast.
"It is not true," he cried proudly. "Some false sentiment makes you say
this. I will not believe it of the woman I love."
She did not resist until he tried to take her to his heart. Then she
shrank away.
"No," she said. "You must not touch me like that. Once more, believe
me, all this must end. You must think of me no more--you must go at
once, and we must never meet again."
"You have told me that before," he said, "but I am not a free agent. I
was obliged to come. I have been here these three days past, watching
for an opportunity to speak to you; and when I do you once more cast me
off--you drive me away. Well, I have borne it so long; I can go on
bearing it till you relent, or--I die," he added softly.
She looked at him wildly for a moment, and his hopes rose, for the
relenting seemed close at hand, but she was stern and cold again
directly.
"And your betrothed wife," she said. "What of her?"
He was silent for a few moments, and then he made a deprecating sign
with his hands.
"What do you know of her?" he said.
"Everything," she replied. "How basely and cruelly you have behaved to
her. Is this your honour as a man?"
He heard a deep sigh.
"I have only one thing to say in my defence," he said slowly. "I
believed that I loved her; but then I had not seen you. I was not under
this spell."
"It is no spell," she said firmly. "Go to her, and forget me. I tell
you that I am not worthy to be your wife, and that such a union is
impossible for reasons which I dare not explain. You hear me?"
"Yes," he said sadly, "I hear you."
"Then good-bye for ever."
She turned from him, but a piteous moan escaped her lips, and the next
moment he had clasped her to his heart.
"Marion, my own!" he whispered, as he pressed his lips to hers; "then
you do love me!"
"Yes," she said, as she clung to him, and for a moment or two returned
his embrace. "You know I love you and shall never love another, but go
now, for Heaven's sake! I tell you it is impossible. Good-bye--
good-bye."
She tore herself from his grasp and fled through the wood, not daring to
turn her head to see if he followed, lest in her woman's weakness she
should give way and dare everything for his sake.