The days passed calmly enough with Kate Wilton, and no more was said on
either side about communicating with anyone. Garstang was there at
breakfast, and left till dinner time, when he returned punctually.
Kate read and worked, and waited for him to speak, striving the while by
her manner to let her guardian see that she was trying to show her
gratitude to him for all that he had done. And so a fortnight glided
by, and then, unable to bear it longer, she determined to question him.
That evening Garstang came in looking weary and careworn. There was
evidently some trouble on the way, and as she rose to meet him she felt
that she must not speak that night, for her new guardian had cares
enough of his own to deal with.
But he began at once as he took her hands, smiling gravely as he looked
in her eyes.
"Well, my poor little prisoner," he said, half-banteringly, "aren't you
utterly worn out, and longing, little bird, to begin beating your breast
against the bars of your cage?"
"No," she said, gently; "I am getting used to it now."
"Brave little bird!" he said, raising both her hands to his lips and
kissing them, before letting them fall; "then I shall come back some
evening and hear you warbling once again. I have not heard you sing
since the last evening I spent in Bedford Square long months ago."
He saw her countenance change, and he went on hastily:
"By the way, has Sarah Plant bought everything for you that you
require?"
"Oh, yes," she said; "far more."
"That's right. I am so ignorant about such matters. Pray do not
hesitate to give her orders. Do you know," he continued, as he sat down
and began to warm his hands, gazing the while with wrinkled brow at the
fire, "I have been doing something to-day in fear and trembling."
"Indeed?" she said, anxiously.
"Yes," he said, thoughtfully, as he took up the poker and began to
softly tap pieces of unburned coal into glowing holes. "My conscience
has been smiting me horribly about you, my child. I come back after
fidgeting all day about your being so lonely and dull, with nothing but
those serious books about you--by the way, did they send in that parcel
from the library?"
"Yes. Thank you for being so thoughtful about me, Mr Garstang."
"Oh, nonsense! But I think, my child, we could get rid of that formal
Mr Garstang. Do you think you could call me guardian, little maid?"
"Yes, guardian," she said, smiling at him, as he turned to look at her
anxiously.
"Hah! Come, that's better," he cried; and he set down the poker and
rubbed his hands softly, as he gazed once more thoughtfully at the fire.
"That sounds more as if you felt at home, and I shall dare to tell you
what I have done. You see, I have been obliged to beg of you not to go
out for a bit without me, and I have not liked to propose taking you of
an evening to any place of entertainment--not a theatre, of course yet
awhile, but a concert, say."
"Oh no, Mr Garstang!" she said, hastily, with the tears coming to her
eyes.
He coughed, and looked at her in a perplexed way.
"Oh no, guardian," she said, smiling sadly.
"Hah! that's better. Of course not; of course not. Forgive me for even
referring to it. But er--you will not feel hurt at what I have done?"
She looked at him anxiously.
"Yes," he said, speaking as if he had been suddenly damped. "I ought
not to have done it yet. It will seem as if I were making it appear
that you will have to stop some time."
"What have you done?" asked Kate, gravely.
"Well, my child, I know how musical you used to be, and as I was passing
the maker's to-day the thought struck me that you would like a piano.
`It would make the place less dull for her,' I said, and--don't be hurt,
my dear--I--I told him to send a good one in."
"Mr Garstang!--guardian!" she said, starting up, with the tears now
beginning to fall.
"There, there, fought to have known better," he cried, catching up the
poker, and beginning to use it hurriedly. "Men are so stupid. Don't
take any notice, my dear. I'll counter-order it."
"No, no," she said gently, as she advanced to him and held out her hand
"I am not hurt; I am pleased and grateful."
"You are--really?" he cried, letting the poker drop, and catching her
hand in his.
"Of course I am," she said, simply. "How could I be otherwise? Don't
think me so thoughtless, and that I do not feel deeply all your
kindness."
"Kindness, nonsense!" he said, dropping her hand again, and turning
away. "But will it help to make the time pass better?"
"Yes, I shall be very glad to have it."
"And, er--you'll sing and play to me sometimes when I come back here?"
"Yes," she said, smiling through her tears; "and I would to-night, now
that you have come back tired and careworn, if it were here."
"Tired and careworn? Who is?"
"You are. Do you think I could not see?"
He looked at her with his eyes full of admiration, and then turned to
the fire again.
"I am most grateful, guardian," she said. "But shall I have to be a
prisoner long?"
"Hah!" he said with a sigh, and as if not hearing her question, "you are
right, my child. I have had a very, very worrying day."
"I thought so," said Kate, resuming her seat, and looking at him in a
commiserating way. "I hope it is nothing very serious."
"Serious?" he said, turning to her, sharply. "Well, yes it is, but I
ought not to worry you about it."
"They say that sometimes relief comes in speaking of our troubles."
"But suppose one gets relief, and the other pain?" he said, looking at
her quickly.
"Then it is something about me?"
He turned and looked at the fire again.
"Please tell me, guardian," she said.
"Only make you unhappy, my dear, just when you are getting back to your
old self."
She looked at him in a troubled way for some moments, and then with a
sudden outburst:
"You have seen Uncle James?"
He did not answer for a while, but sat gazing at the fire.
"Yes," he said, at last; "I have seen your Uncle James."
"And he knows I am here," she cried, clasping her hands, and looking at
him in horror.
He turned slowly and met her eyes.
"Then you don't repent the step you have taken, and want to go back to
Northwood?" he said.
"How could I when you have protected me as you have, and saved me from
so much suffering and insult?"
"Hah!" he said, with a sigh of relief, "thank you, my child. I was
afraid that you would be ready to return to him."
"Mr Garstang!" she cried.
"Guardian."
"Then, guardian, how could you think it? If I have seemed dull and
unhappy, surely it was not strange, considering my position."
"Of course not; but I was flattering myself with the belief that you
were really getting reconciled to your fate."
"I am reconciled," said Kate, warmly; "but I can not help longing to
take my old nurse by the hand again, and to see my friends."
"Friends?" he said, looking at her curiously.
"Yes; I made two friends down there whose society was pleasant to me,
and whom I have missed."
"Indeed! I did not know."
"But tell me, is uncle coming? Does he know I am here?" cried Kate,
excitedly.
"No, he is not coming, my child, and he does not know you are here,"
said Garstang, watching her searchingly.
"Ah!" ejaculated the girl, with a sigh of relief. "I could not--I dare
not meet him."
"That is what I felt. You can not meet him for some time to come, but
there are unpleasant complications, my dear, which trouble me a great
deal."
"Yes?" said Kate, excitedly.
"Such as will, I fear, make it necessary for you to remain still
secluded."
"But, Mr Garstang, suppose that he should come to see you one day when
you were out, and he were shown in to me."
"Ah, yes," he said, dryly, watching her troubled face narrowly, "what I
once said: that would be awkward."
"Oh, it would be horrible," cried Kate, springing to her feet. "I could
not go back with him. And he has a right to claim me, and he would
insist."
She began to pace the room excitedly, with her hands clasped before her.
"Yes, my child, it would be horrible," said Garstang, gently, "and that
is why, in spite of its giving you pain, I have been so particular lest
by any letter of yours he should learn where you were."
"But he might come as I said--to see you, in your absence," she cried.
"No, my dear," he said, reaching out one hand as she was passing the
back of his chair; and she stopped at once, and placed hers trustingly
within. "Don't be alarmed. I am an old man of the world, and for years
past I have had to set my wits to work to battle with other people's.
Uncle James does not know that you are here, and unless you tell him he
is not likely to know, for the simple reason that he is not aware that I
have such a place."
Kate uttered a sigh of relief, and let her hand rest in his.
"Poor fellow, he is horribly disappointed, and he is leaving no stone
unturned to trace you, and his hopeful son is helping him and watching
me."
"Oh!" ejaculated Kate, excitedly. "Yes, but they do not know of this
place, and are keeping an eye upon my offices in Bedford Row and my
house down in Kent. I little thought when my poor old friend and client
died and this place fell to me that it would one day prove so useful.
So there, try and stop this fluttering of the pulses, little maid; so
long as we are careful, and you wish it, you can remain in sanctuary.
Now let's dismiss the tiresome business altogether. I am glad, though,
that you are pleased about the piano."
"No, no; don't dismiss it yet," cried Kate, eagerly. "Tell me what he
said."
"Humph!" said Garstang, frowning; "shall I? No; better not."
"Yes, please; I can not help wanting to know."
"But I'm afraid of upsetting you, my dear."
"It will not now; I am growing firmer, Mr Garstang, my guardian," she
said. "Better tell me than leave me to think, and perhaps lie awake
to-night imagining things that may not be true."
"Well, yes--that would be bad," he said, nodding his head. "There, sit
down then, and draw your chair to the fender. Your face is burning, but
your hands are cold. That's better," he continued, as he took up the
poker again, and sat forward, gazing at the fire, and once more tapping
the pieces of coal into the glowing caverns. "You see, he has been to
me three times."
"And I did not know!" cried Kate.
"No, you did not know, my dear, because I did not want to upset you.
What do you think he says?"
"That I fled to you, and placed myself under your protection?"
"Wrong," said Garstang, looking round and smiling in the beautiful face
across the hearth, as he played the part of an amiable fatherly
individual to perfection. "Shall I say guess again?"
"No, no, pray don't trifle with me, guardian."
"Trifle with you?" he cried, growing stern of aspect. "No. There, it
must come out. He did not say that, and he did not accuse me of
fetching you away, for he and Master Claud are upon a wrong scent."
"Yes--yes," said Kate, eagerly.
"They say that Harry Dasent made an excuse of his friendship with Claud
to go down to Northwood with another object in view."
"Yes--what?" she said, looking at him wonderingly.
"You, my child."
"Me?" she cried, aghast.
"Well, to speak more correctly, your money, my dear; and that,
despairing of winning you in a straightforward way, he either came and
caught you in the humour for being persuaded to leave with him, having
on his other visits paved the way by making love to you--"
"Oh!" ejaculated Kate; "I never noticed anything particular in his
manner to me--yes, I did, once or twice he was very, very attentive."
"Indeed," said Garstang, frowning.
"But you said `either,'" cried Kate, anxiously.
"Yes; either that he had persuaded you to elope with him, or he had
climbed to your window and by some means forced you to come away."
"What madness!" cried Kate.
"Yes, and there's more behind; they accuse me of conniving at it, and
say they are sure you are married, and that I know where you are."
"Mr Dasent!" exclaimed Kate, gazing at Garstang wonderingly.
"Yes, Harry Dasent," he said, drawing himself up. "He is my poor dead
wife's son, my dear, and it so happens that he is giving colour to the
idea by his absence from home on one of his reckless, ne'er-do-weel
expeditions; but between ourselves, my child, I'd rather see you married
to Claud Wilton, your cousin, than to him; and," he added warmly, "I
think I would sooner follow you to your grave than--Yes--what is it?"
"I beg pardon, sir," said the housekeeper, "but the dinner's spoiling,
and I've been waiting half an hour and more for you to ring."
"Then bring it up directly, Mrs Plant, for we are terribly ready."
"Yes, sir."
"At least I am, my dear; I was faint for want of it when I came in.
Shall we shelve the unpleasant business now?"
"It is so dreadful," said Kate.
"Well, yes, it is; so it used to be with the poor folks who were
besieged by the enemy. You are besieged, but you have a strong castle
in which to defend yourself, and you can laugh your enemies to scorn.
Really, Kate, my child, this is something like being cursed by a
fortune."
She nodded her head quickly.
"Money is useful, of course, and I once had a very eager longing to
possess it; but, like a great many other things, when once it is
possessed it is--well, only so much hard cash, after all. It won't buy
the love and esteem of your fellow-creatures. Do you know, my dear, if
it were not for something I should be ready to say to you--`Let Uncle
James have your paltry fortune and pay off his debts.' That's what he
wants, not you. As for Claud, he'd break your heart in a month."
"Could I deliver the money over to him?" said Kate, looking anxiously in
her new guardian's face.
"Oh, yes, my dear, that would be easy enough. And then--I tell you
what: I have plenty, and I'm tired of the worry and care of a
solicitor's life. Why shouldn't I take a few years' holiday and go on
the Continent with my adopted daughter and her old maid? Paris, Berlin,
Vienna, Switzerland, Italy, Egypt--what would you say to that? It would
be delightful."
"Yes," said Kate, eagerly, "and then I could be at rest. No," she said,
suddenly, with the colour once more rising in her cheeks, "that would be
impossible."
"Yes," said Garstang, watching her narrowly, as she averted her face, to
gaze now in the fire. "Castles in the air, my dear."
"Yes," she said, dreamily, "castles in the air;" but she was seeing
golden castles in the glowing fire, and her face grew hotter as, in
spite of herself, she peopled one of those golden castles in a peculiar
way which made her pulses begin to flutter, and she felt that she dared
not gaze in her companion's face.
"Yes, castles in the air, my child," said Garstang again. "For that
fortune was amassed by your father for the benefit of his child and her
husband, and she must not lightly throw it away to benefit a foolish,
grasping, impecunious relative."
"The dinner is served, sir," said Mrs Plant.
Garstang rose and offered his arm, which Kate took at once.
"We may dismiss the unpleasant business now," he said, with a smile.
"Yes, yes, of course," she said.
"But tell me, you do feel satisfied and safe--at rest?"
"Quite," she said, looking smilingly in his face.
"Then now for dinner," he said, leading her to the door.
That evening John Garstang sat over his modest glass of wine alone,
fitting together the pieces of his plans, and as he did so he smiled and
seemed content.
"No," he said, softly, "you will not pocket brother Robert's money,
friend James, for I hold the winning trump. What beautiful soft wax it
is to mould! Only patience--patience! The fruit is not quite ripe yet.
A hundred and fifty thou--a hundred and fifty thou!"