It was a beautiful morning toward the end of August; the balmy
sweetness of spring had given way to the glowing radiance of summer.
The golden corn waved in the fields, the hedge rows were filled with
wild flowers, the fruit hung ripe in the orchards. Nature wore her
brightest smile. The breakfast room at Earlescourt was a pretty
apartment; it opened on a flower garden, and through the long French
windows came the sweet perfume of rose blossoms.
It was a pretty scene--the sunbeams fell upon the rich silver, the
delicate china, the vases of sweet flowers. Lord Earle sat at the head
of the table, busily engaged with his letters. Lady Earle, in the
daintiest of morning toilets, was smiling over the pretty pink notes
full of fashionable gossip. Her delicate, patrician face looked clear
and pure in the fresh morning light. But there was no smile on Ronald's
face. He was wondering, for the hundredth time, how he was to tell his
father what he had done. He longed to be with his pretty Dora; and yet
there was a severe storm to encounter before he could bring her home.
"Ah," said Lady Earle, suddenly, "here is good news--Lady Charteris is
positively coming, Rupert. Sir Hugh will join her in a few days. She
will be here with Valentine tomorrow."
"I am very glad," said Lord Earle, looking up with pleasure and
surprise. "We must ask Lady Laurence to meet them."
Ronald sighed; his parents busily discussed the hospitalities and
pleasures to be offered their guests. A grand dinner party was
planned, and a ball, to which half the country side were to be invited.
"Valentine loves gayety," said Lady Earle, "and we must give her plenty
of it."
"I shall have all this to go through," sighed Ronald--"grand parties,
dinners, and balls, while my heart longs to be with my darling; and in
the midst of it all, how shall I find time to talk to my father? I
will begin this very day."
When dinner was over, Ronald proposed to Lord Earle that they should go
out on the terrace and smoke a cigar there. Then took place the
conversation with which our story opens, when the master of Earlescourt
declared his final resolve.
Ronald was more disturbed than he cared to own even to himself. Once
the words hovered upon his lips that he had married Dora. Had Lord Earl
been angry or contemptuous, he would have uttered them; but in the
presence of his father's calm, dignified wisdom, he was abashed and
uncertain. For the first time he felt the truth of all his father
said. Not that he loved Dora less, or repented of the rash private
marriage, but Lord Earle's appeal to his sense of the "fitness of
things" touched him.
There was little time for reflection. Lady Charteris and her daughter
were coming on the morrow. Again Lady Earle entered the field as a
diplomatist, and came off victorious.
"Ronald," said his mother, as they parted that evening, "I know that,
as a rule, young men of your age do not care for the society of elderly
ladies; I must ask you to make an exception in favor of Lady Charteris.
They showed me great kindness at Greenoke, and you must help me to
return it. I shall consider every attention shown to the lady and her
daughter as shown to myself."
Ronald smiled at his mother's words, and told her he would never fail
in her service.
"If he sees much of Valentine," thought his mother, "he can not help
loving her. Then all will be well."
Ronald was not in the house when the guests arrived; they came rather
before the appointed time. His mother and Lady Charteris had gone to
the library together, leaving Valentine in the drawing room alone.
Ronald found her there. Opening the door, he saw the sleeve of a white
dress; believing Lady Earle was there, he went carelessly into the
room, then started in astonishment at the vision before him. Once in a
century, perhaps, one sees a woman like Valentine Charteris; of the
purest and loveliest Greek type, a calm, grand, magnificent blonde,
with clear, straight brows, fair hair that shone like satin and lay in
thick folds around her queenly head--tall and stately, with a finished
ease and grace of manner that could only result from long and careful
training. She rose when Ronald entered the room, and her beautiful
eyes were lifted calmly to his face. Suddenly a rush of color dyed the
white brow. Valentine remembered what Lady Earle had said of her son.
She knew that both his mother and hers wished that she should be
Ronald's wife.
"I beg your pardon," he said hastily, "I thought Lady Earle was here."
"She is in the library," said Valentine, with a smile that dazzled him.
He bowed and withdrew. This, then, was Valentine Charteris, the fine
lady whose coming he had dreaded. She was very beautiful--he had never
seen a face like hers.
No thought of love, or of comparing this magnificent woman with simple,
pretty Dora, ever entered his mind. But Ronald was a true artist, and
one of no mean skill. He thought of that pure Grecian face as he would
have thought of a beautiful picture or an exquisite statue. He never
thought of the loving, sensitive woman's heart hidden under it.
It was not difficult when dinner was over to open the grand piano for
Valentine, to fetch her music, and listen while she talked of operas he
had never heard. It was pleasant to watch her as she sat in the
evening gloaming, her superb beauty enhanced by the delicate evening
dress of fine white lace; the shapely shoulders were polished and
white, the exquisite arms rounded and clasped by a bracelet of pearls.
She wore a rose in the bodice of her dress, and, as Ronald bent over
the music she was showing him the sweet, subtle perfume came to him
like a message from Dora.
Valentine Charteris had one charm even greater than her beauty. She
talked well and gracefully--the play of her features, the movement of
her lips, were something not to be forgotten; and her smile seemed to
break like a sunbeam over her whole face--it was irresistible.
Poor Ronald stood by her, watching the expression that seemed to change
with every word; listening to pretty polished language that was in
itself a charm. The two mothers, looking on, and Lord Earle felt
himself relieved from a heavy weight of care. Then Lady Earle asked
Valentine to sing. She was quite free from all affectation.
"What kind of music do you prefer?" she asked, looking at Ronald.
"Simple old ballads," he replied, thinking of Dora, and how prettily
she would sing them.
He started when the first note of Valentine's magnificent voice rang
clear and sweet in the quiet gloaming. She sang some quaint old story
of a knight who loved a maiden--loved and rode away, returning after
long years to find a green grave. Ronald sat thinking of Dora. Ah,
perhaps, had he forsaken her, the pretty dimpled face would have faded
away! He felt pleased that he had been true. Then the music ceased.
"Is that what you like?" asked Valentine Charteris, "it is of the
stronger sentimental school."
Simple, honest Ronald wondered if sentiment was a sin against
etiquette, or why fashionable ladies generally spoke of it with a sneer.
"Do you laugh at sentiment?" he asked; and Valentine opened her fine
eyes in wonder at the question. Lady Earle half overheard it, and
smiled in great satisfaction. Matters must be going on well, she
thought, if Ronald had already begun to speak of sentiment. She never
thought that his heart and mind were with Dora while he spoke--pretty
Dora, who cried over his poetry, and devoutly believed in the language
of flowers.
The evening passed rapidly, and Ronald felt something like regret when
it ended. Lady Earle was too wise to make any comments; she never
asked her son if he liked Valentine or what he thought of her.
"I am afraid you are tired," she said, with a charming smile; "thank
you for helping to amuse my friends."
When Ronald thought over what he had done, his share seemed very small;
still his mother was pleased, and he went to rest resolved that on the
morrow he would be doubly attentive to Miss Charteris.
Three days passed, and Ronald had grown quite at ease with Valentine.
They read and disputed over the same books; Ronald brought out his
large folio of drawings, and Valentine wondered at his skill. He bent
over her, explaining the sketches, laughing and talking gayly, as
though there was no dark background to his life.
"You are an accomplished artist," said Miss Charteris, "you must have
given much time to study."
"I am fond of it," said Ronald; "if fate had not made me an only son, I
should have chosen painting as my profession."
In after years these words came back to them as a sad prophecy.
Ronald liked Miss Charteris. Apart from her grand beauty, she had the
charm, too, of a kindly heart and an affectionate nature. He saw how
much Lady Earle loved her, and resolved to tell Valentine all about
Dora, and ask her to try to influence his mother. With that aim and
end in view, he talked continually to the young lady; he accompanied
her in all her walks and drives, and they sang and sketched together.
Ronald, knowing himself so safely bound to Dora, forgot in what light
his conduct must appear to others. Lady Earle had forgotten her fears;
she believed that her son was learning to love Valentine, and her
husband shared her belief.
All things just then were couleur de rose at Earlescourt. Ronald
looked and felt happy--he had great faith in Valentine's persuasive
powers.
Days passed by rapidly; the time for the grand ball was drawing near.
Lady Earle half wondered when her son would speak of Miss Charteris,
and Valentine wondered why he lingered near her, why oftentimes he was
on the point of speaking, and then drew back. She quite believed he
cared for her, and she liked him in return, as much as she was capable
of liking any one.
She was no tragedy queen, but a loving, affectionate girl, unable to
reach the height of passionate love, or the depth of despair. She was
well disposed toward Ronald--Lady Earle spoke so much of him at
Greenoke. She knew too that a marriage with him would delight her
mother.
Valentine's favorable impression of Ronald was deepened when she saw
him. Despite the one great act of duplicity which shadowed his whole
life, Ronald was true and honorable. Valentine admired his clear Saxon
face and firm lips; she admired his deep bright eyes, that darkened
with every passing emotion; she liked his gentle, chivalrous manner,
his earnest words, his deferential attention to herself, his
affectionate devotion to Lady Earle.
There was not a braver or more gallant man in England than this young
heir of Earlescourt. He inherited the personal beauty and courage of
his race. He gave promise of a splendid manhood; and no one knew how
proudly Lord Earle had rejoiced in that promise.
In her calm stately way, Valentine liked him; she even loved him, and
would have been happy as his wife. She enjoyed his keen, intellectual
powers and his originality of thought. Even the "dreadful politics,"
that scared and shocked his father, amused her.
Ronald, whose heart was full of the pretty little wife he dared neither
see nor write to, gave no heed to Valentine's manner; it never occurred
to him what construction could be put upon his friendly liking for her.