THE HEIRESS OF STRATHLECKIE.
"Elizabeth an heiress! Elizabeth, with a fortune of her own!" said Mrs.
Heron. "It is perfectly incredible."
"It is perfectly true," rejoined her step-son. "And it has been true for
the last three days."
"Then Elizabeth does not know it," replied Kitty.
"As to whether she knows it or not," said Percival, sardonically, "I am
quite unable to form any opinion. Elizabeth has a talent for keeping
secrets."
He was not sorry that the door opened at that moment, and that
Elizabeth, entering with little Jack in her arms, must have heard his
words. She flashed a quick look at him--it was one that savoured of
reproach--and advanced into the middle of the room, where she stood
silent, waiting to be accused.
It was twelve o'clock on the morning of a bright, cold November
day. Mrs. Heron was lying on the sofa in the dining-room--a
shabbily-comfortable, old-fashioned room where most of the business of
the house was transacted. Kitty sat on a low chair before the fire,
warming her little, cold hands. She had a cat on her lap, and a novel on
the floor beside her, and looked very young, very pretty, and very idle.
Percival was fidgetting about the room with a glum and sour expression
of countenance. He was evidently much out of sorts, both in body and
mind, for his face was unusually sallow in tint, and there was a dark,
upright line between his brows which his relations knew and--dreaded.
The genial, sunshiny individual of a few evenings back had disappeared,
and a decidedly bad-tempered young man now took his place.
Mrs. Heron's pretty, pale face wore an unaccustomed flush; and as she
looked at Elizabeth the tears came into her blue eyes, and she pressed
them mildly with her handkerchief. Elizabeth waited in patience; she was
not sure of the side from which the attack would be made, but she was
sure that it was coming. Percival, with his hands thrust deep into his
pockets, leaned against a sideboard, and looked at her with disfavour.
She was paler than usual, and there were dark lines beneath her eyes.
What made her look like that! Percival thought to himself. One might
fancy that she had been lying awake all night, if the thing were not
(under the circumstances) well-nigh impossible! But perhaps it was only
her ill-fitting, unbecoming, old, serge gown that made her look so pale.
Percival was in the humour to see all her faults and defects that
morning.
"Why do you carry that great boy about?" he said, almost harshly. "You
know that he is too big to be carried. Do put him down."
"Yes, put him down, Elizabeth," said Mrs. Heron, still pressing her
handkerchief to her eye. "I am sure I have no desire to inflict any
hardship upon you. If you devoted yourself to my children, I thought
that it was from choice and because you had an affection for your
uncle's family. But you seem to have had no affection--no respect--no
confidence----"
A gentle sob cut short her words.
"What have I done?" said Elizabeth. Her face had turned a shade paler
than before, but betrayed no sign of confusion. "Lie still, Jack; I do
not mean to put you down just yet. Indeed, I think I had better carry
you upstairs again." She left the room swiftly, pausing only at the door
to add a few words: "I will be down again directly. I shall be glad if
Percival will wait."
There was a short silence, during which Mrs. Heron dried her eyes, and
Percival stared uncomfortably at the toe of his left boot.
"Surely Elizabeth has a right to her own secrets," said Kitty, from her
station on the hearth. But nobody replied.
Presently Elizabeth came down again, with a couple of letters in her
hand. It seemed almost as if she had been upstairs to rub a little life
and colour into her face, for her cheeks were carnation when she
returned, and her eyes unusually bright.
"Will you tell me what I have done that distresses you?" she said,
addressing herself steadily to Mrs. Heron, though she saw Percival
glance eagerly, hungrily, towards the letters in her hand.
"Indeed, I have no right to be distressed," replied Mrs. Heron, still,
however, in an exceedingly hurt tone. "Your own affairs are your own
property, my dear Lizzie, as Kitty has just remarked; but, considering
the care and--the--the affection-lavished upon you here----"
She stopped short; Percival's dark eyes were darting their angry
lightning upon her.
"A care and affection," he said, "which condemned her to the nursery in
order that she might indulge her extreme love for children, and save you
the expense of a nursery-maid."
"You have no right to make such a remark, Percival!" exclaimed his
step-mother, feebly, but she quailed beneath the sneer instead of
resenting it. Elizabeth turned sharply upon her cousin.
"No," she said, "you have no right to make such a remark. As you know
very well, I had no friends, no money, no home, when Uncle Alfred
brought me here. I was a beggar--I should have starved, perhaps--but for
him. I owe him everything--and I do not forget my debt."
"Everything," said Percival, incisively, "except, I suppose, your
confidence."
She turned away and walked up to Mrs. Heron's sofa. Here her manner
changed, it became soft and womanly; her voice took a gentler tone.
"What is it, Aunt Isabel?" she said. "I am ready to give you all the
confidence that you wish for. I will have no secrets from you."
"Oh, then, Lizzie, is it true?" said Kitty, upsetting the cat in her
haste, and flying across the room to her cousin's side, while Mrs.
Heron, taken by surprise, did nothing but sob helplessly and hold
Elizabeth's firm, white hand in a feeble grasp. "Is it really true? Have
you inherited a great fortune? Are you going to be very rich?"
Elizabeth made a little pause before she answered the question. "Brian
Luttrell is dead," she said at last, rather slowly. "And I am very
sorry."
"And the Luttrells are your cousins? And you are the heiress after
them?"
"Yes."
"But when did you know this first?" said Kitty, anxiously looking up
into her tall cousin's face.
"Yes, when did you know it first?" repeated Mrs. Heron, with a weak and
sighing attempt at solemnity.
"I knew that I was the Luttrells' cousin all my life," said Elizabeth.
There was a touch of perversity in her answer.
"Yes--yes. But when did you know that you were the next heir--or
heiress? You cannot have known that all your life," said Mrs. Heron.
"I did not know that until a few days ago. I had a letter from a lawyer
when Brian Luttrell went abroad. Mr. Brian Luttrell wished him to
communicate with me and to tell me----"
"Well?" said Mrs. Heron, curiously. "To tell you what?"
"That it was probable that the property would come to me," Elizabeth
answered, for the first time with some embarrassment, "as he did not
intend to marry. And that he wished to settle a certain sum upon me--in
case I might be in want of money now."
"And that was a fortnight ago?" said Percival.
"Yes," said Elizabeth, without looking at him, "nearly a fortnight ago."
"This is very interesting," said Mrs. Heron, who was languidly
brightening as she heard Elizabeth's story and recognised the fact that
substantial advantages were likely to accrue to the household from
Elizabeth's good fortune. "And of course you accepted the offer, Lizzie
dear? But why did you not tell us at once?"
"I waited until things should be settled. The matter might have fallen
through. It did not seem worth while to mention it until it was
settled," said Elizabeth.
"How much did he offer you? Mr. Brian Luttrell must have been a very
generous man."
"I think he was--very generous," said Elizabeth, looking up warmly. "I
considered the matter for some time, and I wished that I could accept
his kindness, but----"
"You don't mean to say that you refused it?"
"I did not refuse it altogether," explained Elizabeth, her face glowing.
"I told him my circumstances, and all that my uncle had done for me, and
that if he chose to place a sum of money at my uncle's disposal--I
thought that, perhaps, it would be only right, and that I ought not to
place an obstacle in the way. But I could not take anything for myself."
There was a little pause.
"Oh, Lizzie, how good you are!" cried Kitty, softly.
Percival took a step nearer; his face looked very dark.
"And, pray, what did the lawyer say to your proposition?" he inquired.
"He said he must communicate with Mr. Brian Luttrell, but he thought
that there would be no objection to it on his part," said Elizabeth.
"But he had not time to do so, you see. Brian Luttrell is dead. Here are
all the letters about it, Aunt Isabel, if you want to see them. I was
going to speak to Uncle Alfred this very day."
"Well, Lizzie," said Mrs. Heron, taking the letters from her niece's
hand, "I am glad that we are honoured by your confidence at last. I
think it would have been better, however, if you had told us a little
earlier of poor Mr. Luttrell's kindness, and then other people could
have managed the business for you. Of course, it would have been
repugnant to your feelings to accept money for yourself, and another
person could have accepted it in your name with a much better grace."
"But that is what I wanted to avoid," said Elizabeth, with a smile. "I
would not have taken one penny for myself from Mr. Brian Luttrell, but
if he would have repaid my uncle for part of what he has done for
me----"
Her sentence came to an abrupt end. Percival had turned aside and flung
himself into an arm-chair near the fire. He was the picture of
ill-humour; and something in his face took away from Elizabeth the
desire to say more. Mrs. Heron read the letters complacently, and Kitty
put her arm round her cousin's, waist and tried to draw her towards the
hearth-rug for a gossip. But Elizabeth preserved her position near Mrs.
Heron's sofa, although she looked down at the girl with a smile.
"I know what Isabel meant--what we all meant," said Kitty, "when we were
so disagreeable to you a little time ago, Lizzie. We all felt that we
could not for one moment have kept a secret from you, and we resented
your superior self-control. Fancy your knowing all this for the last
fortnight, and never saying a word about it! Tell me in confidence,
Lizzie, now didn't you want to whisper it to me, under solemn vows of
secrecy?"
"I'm afraid you would never have kept your vows," said Elizabeth. "I
meant to tell you very soon, Kitty."
"And so you are a rich woman, Elizabeth!" observed Mrs. Heron, putting
down the letters and smoothing out her dress. "Dear me, how strangely
things come round! Who would have dreamt, ten years ago, that you would
ever be richer than all of us--richer than your poor uncle, who was then
so kind to you! Some people are very fortunate!"
"Some people deserve to be fortunate, Isabel," said Kitty, caressing
Elizabeth's hand, in order to soften down the effect of Mrs. Heron's
sub-acid speech. But Elizabeth did not seem to be annoyed by it. She was
thinking of other things.
"I am sure that if any one deserves it, Elizabeth does," said Mrs.
Heron, recovering her usual placidity of demeanour. "She has always been
good and kind to everyone around her. I tremble to think of what will
become of dear Harry, and Will, and Jack."
"What should become of them?" said Kitty, in a startled tone.
"When Elizabeth leaves us"--Mrs. Heron murmured, applying her
handkerchief to her eyes--"the poor children will know the difference."
"But you won't leave us, will you, Elizabeth?" cried Kitty, clinging
more closely to her cousin, and looking up to her with tears in her
eyes. "You wouldn't go away from us, after living with us all these
years, darling? Oh, I thought that you loved us as if you were really
our own sister, and that nothing would ever take you away!"
Still Elizabeth did not speak. Kitty's brown head rested on her
shoulder, and she stroked it gently with one hand. Her lips were very
grave, but her eyes, as she raised them for a moment to Percival's face,
had a smile hidden in their hazel depths--a smile which he could not
understand, and which, therefore, made him angry. He rose and stood on
the hearth-rug with his hands behind him, as he delivered his little
homily for Kitty's benefit.
"I suppose you do not expect that Elizabeth will care to sacrifice
herself all her life for us and the children," he said. "It would be as
unreasonable of you to ask it as it would be foolish of her to do it. Of
course, she will now begin to enjoy the world a little. She has had few
enough enjoyments, hitherto--we need not grudge them to her now."
But one would have thought that he himself, grudged them to her
considerably.
"What do you mean to do, Lizzie?" said Kitty, dolefully, "shall you take
a house in town? or will you go and live in Scotland--all that long,
long way from us? And shall you"--lifting her face rather
wistfully--"shall you keep any horses and dogs?"
Elizabeth laughed; she could not help it, although her laugh brought an
additional pucker to the forehead of one of her hearers, who could not
detect the tremulousness that lurked behind the clear, ringing tones.
"It is well for you to laugh," he said, gloomily, "and, of course, you
have the right, but----"
"How interesting it will be," Mrs. Heron's, pensive voice was understood
to murmur, when Percival's gruff speech had come to a sudden conclusion,
"to notice the use dear Lizzie makes of her wealth! I wonder what her
income will be, and whether the Luttrells' kept up a large
establishment."
"Oh," said Elizabeth, suddenly loosening herself from Kitty's arms and
standing erect before them with a face that paled and eyes that deepened
with emotion, "does it not occur to you through what trouble and misery
this 'good fortune,' as you call it, has come to me? Does it not seem
wrong to you to plan what pleasure I can get out of it, when you think
of that poor mother sitting at home and mourning over her two sons--two
young, strong men--dead in the very prime of life? And Miss Vivian, too,
with her spoiled life and her shattered hopes--she once expected to be
the mistress of the very house that they now call mine! I hate the
thought of it. Please never speak to me as if it were a matter for
congratulation. I should be heartily glad--heartily thankful--if Brian
Luttrell were alive again!"
She sat down, and put her elbows on the table and her hands over her
face. The others looked at her in amaze. Percival turned to the fire and
stared into it very hard. Mrs. Heron, who was rather afraid of what she
called "Elizabeth's high-flown moods," murmured a suggestion to Kitty
that she ought to go to the children, and glided languidly away,
beckoning her step-daughter to follow her.
Percival did not speak until Elizabeth raised her face, and then he was
uncomfortably conscious that she had been crying--at least, that her
long eyelashes were wet, and that in other circumstances he might have
felt a desire to kiss the tears away. But this desire, if he had it,
must now be carefully controlled. He did not look at her, therefore,
when he spoke.
"Your feeling is somewhat over-strained, Elizabeth. We are all sorry for
the Luttrells' trouble; but it is absurd to say that we must not be glad
of your good fortune."
Elizabeth rose up with her eyes ablaze and her cheeks on fire.
"You know that you are not glad!" she said, almost passionately. "You
know that you would rather see me poor--see me the nursery-maid, the
Cinderella, that you are so fond of calling me!"
"Well," said Percival, with a short laugh, "for my own sake, perhaps, I
would."
"And so would I," said Elizabeth.
"But you know, Lizzie, you will get over that feeling in time. You will
find pleasure in your riches and your beauty; you will learn what
enjoyment means--which you have had small chance of finding out,
hitherto, in this comfortable household!" He laughed rather bitterly.
"You are in the chrysalis state at present; you don't know what it is to
be a butterfly. You will like that better--in time."
"I will never be a butterfly--God helping me!" said Elizabeth. She spoke
solemnly, with a noble light in her whole face which made it more than
beautiful. Percival turned away his eyes from it; he did not dare to
look. "If I have had wealth given me," said the girl, "I will use it for
worthy ends. Others shall benefit by it as well as myself."
"Don't squander it, Lizzie," said Percival, with a cynical smile,
designed to cover the exceeding sadness and soreness of his heart. "Your
philanthropist is not often the wisest person in the world."
"No, but I will try to use it wisely," she said, with a touch of
meekness in her voice which made him feel madly inclined to fall down
and kiss the very hem of her garment--or rather the lowest flounce of
her shabby, dark-blue, serge gown--"and my friends will see that I do
not spend it foolishly. You do not think it would be foolish to use it
for the good of others, do you, Percival? I suppose I shall be thought
very eccentric if I do not take a large house in London, or go much into
society; but, indeed, I should not be happy in spending money in those
ways----"
"Why, what on earth do you mean to do?" said Percival, sharply. "I see
that you have some plan in your head; I should just like to know what it
is."
She was standing beside him on the hearth-rug, and she looked up at his
face and down again before she answered.
"Yes," she said, seriously, "I have a plan."
"And you mean that I have no right to inquire what it is? You are
perfectly correct; I have no right, and I beg your pardon for the
liberty that I have taken. I think that I had better go."
His manner was so restless, his voice so uneven and so angry, that
Elizabeth lifted her eyes and studied his face a little before she
replied.
"Percival," she said at last, "why are you so angry with me?"
"I'm not angry with you."
"With whom or with what, then?"
"With circumstances, I suppose. With life in general," he answered,
bitterly, "when it sets up such barriers between you and me."
"What barriers?"
"My dear Elizabeth, you used to have faculties above those of the rest
of your sex. Don't let your new position weaken them. I have surely not
the least need to tell you what I mean."
"You overrate my faculties," said Elizabeth. "You always did. I never do
know what you mean unless you tell me. I am not good at guessing."
"You need not guess then; I'll tell you. Don't you see that I am in a
very unfortunate position? I said to you the other night that I--I loved
you, that I would teach you to love me; and I could have done it,
Elizabeth! I am sure that you would have loved me in time."
"Well?" said Elizabeth, softly. Her lips were slightly tremulous, but
they were smiling, too.
"Well!" repeated her cousin. "That's all. There's an end to it. Do you
think I should ever have breathed a word into your ear if I had known
what I know now?"
"The fact being," said Elizabeth, "that your pride is so much stronger
than your love, that you would never tell a woman you loved her if she
happened to have a few pounds more than you."
"Exactly so," he answered, stubbornly.
"Then--as a matter of argument only, Percival--I think you are wrong."
"Wrong, am I? Do you think that a man likes to take gifts from his
wife's hands? Do you think it is pleasant for me to hear you offer
compensation to my father for the trifle that he has spent on you during
the last few years, and not to be in a position to render such an
offering unnecessary? I tell you it is the most galling thing in the
world, and, if for one moment you thought me capable of speaking to you
as I did the other night, now that I know you to be a wealthy woman, I
could never look you in the face again. If I seem angry you must try to
forgive me; you know me of old--I am always detestable when I am in
pain--as I am now."
He struck his foot angrily against the fender; his handsome face was
drawn and lined with the pain of which he spoke.
"Be patient, Percival," she said, with a smile which seemed to mock him
by its very sweetness. "As you say to me, you may think differently in
time."
"And what if I do think differently? What good will it be?" he asked
her. "I am not patient; I am not resigned to my fate, and I never shall
be; does it make the loss of my hopes any easier to bear when you tell
me that I shall think differently in time? You might as well try to make
a man with a broken leg forget his pain by telling him that in a hundred
years' time he will be dead and buried!"
The tears stood in her eyes. She seemed startled by the intense energy
with which he spoke; her next words scarcely rose above a whisper.
"Percival," she said, "I don't like to see you suffer."
"Then I will leave you," he said, sternly. "For, if I stay, I can't
pretend that I do not feel the pain of losing you."
He turned away, but before he had gone two steps a hand was placed upon
his arm.
"I can't let you go in this way," she said. "Oh, Percival, you have
always been good to me till now. I can't begin a new life by giving you
pain. Don't you understand what I want to say?"
He put his hand on her shoulder and looked into her face. The deep
colour flushed his own, but hers was white as snow, and she was
trembling like a leaf.
"Do you love me, Elizabeth?" he said.
"I don't know," she answered, simply, "but I will marry you, Percival,
if you like."
"That is not enough. Do you love me?"
"Too well," she answered, "to let you go."
And so he stayed.