CUT ADRIFT.
Burgo Brabazon had many pleasant recollections associated in his mind
with his uncle's house in Great Mornington Street. He had nearly
always spent his holidays there when a lad, and very jolly times
they had generally been. But, on the present occasion, when once the
front door was shut behind him, he found himself in an unknown
country. Everything was changed. The sober, substantial, thoroughly
English-looking furniture, which seemed to match so well with the
dingy Georgian mansion, had all been swept away and the art
upholsterer, with his latest fads, had had full scope given him to
work his own bizarre will.
Burgo was ushered into the back drawing-room--a pleasant, home-like
room it had been in the old days, where he and his uncle had played
many a game of backgammon; but now it was transmogrified out of all
recognition, and a chill came over the young fellow's spirits as he
looked around. It had been more like home to him than any other place
in the world, and now he knew it no longer.
Presently the door opened and a tall, dark, handsome woman, whose age
might be anything between thirty and forty, came slowly forward.
"Mr. Brabazon, I presume."
"At your service, Lady Clinton," answered Burgo, as for a moment he
bent over the rather large, but beautifully shaped hand which was
extended for his acceptance.
"I have heard much of you, and am glad to see you. Pray be seated."
Her tones were clear and incisive, like those of a person in the habit
of giving orders and of having them obeyed.
When he had sat down, Burgo was enabled to observe her more at his
leisure.
Notwithstanding that the bloom and freshness of youth had left her for
ever, she was still a very handsome and presentable woman, and had
nothing of the typical adventuress in her appearance, as Burgo was
fain at once to concede.
Her complexion was dark--a clear, dark olive--without being in the
least degree sallow. (Burgo called to mind that Cusden had said
something about her being of semi-Italian parentage, and he could well
believe it) She had a plentiful mass of jet black silky hair, and
rather thick but finely-curved eyebrows. But the eyes themselves,
which in colour matched her hair, Burgo did not like. They seemed to
him cold, watchful, almost cruel. Her mouth was rather large and her
lips were ripe and full--a little too ripe and full some people deemed
them, while there were others who counted them as one of the most
attractive features of a more than ordinarily attractive physiognomy.
For so do opinions differ.
She looked best when she smiled and displayed her splendid teeth, and
she was quite aware of the fact.
There was a little pause after they had seated themselves, which Burgo
was the first to break.
"I trust that my uncle is quite well, Lady Clinton?" he said.
"I am sorry to say that dear Sir Everard is far from well. We had a
rough passage across, and it seems to have upset him considerably."
"When may I hope to have the pleasure of paying my respects to him?"
"That is more than I can say, in the present state of his health."
"But surely----" began Burgo, and then he stopped. He had been about
to say, "But surely he will see _me_, even although he may not be able
to see any one else," when he suddenly remembered that between himself
and his uncle there now interposed a barrier which all his wishes
might perchance prove powerless to overpass.
"It will, I trust, Mr. Brabazon, be sufficient if I state that at the
present time my husband is not in a condition to see any one--any one
at all." She laid a marked emphasis on the words "my husband."
The young man bent his head gravely. "I am sorry to hear you say that,
madam--very sorry indeed. I trust, however, that you will not fail to
convey my love and dutiful respects to my uncle, who has, indeed, been
both father and uncle to me for the last eighteen years." In Burgo's
voice there was an unwonted tremor.
"I will not fail to give your message to Sir Everard," said Lady
Clinton, with a half-smile which just showed the pearly line of her
teeth.
Burgo, watching her, said to himself, "This woman is my enemy."
He was at a loss to know whether he was now expected to rise and take
his leave. Had he been summoned to Great Mornington Street simply to
be told that his uncle was ill and declined to receive him?
But Lady Clinton did not leave him long in doubt.
"Pardon me, Mr. Brabazon," she went on after a momentary pause, "but
did you really come here to-day with the expectation that your uncle
would receive you with the same degree of cordiality and affection
which he has accorded you on so many previous occasions?"
"I certainly did, and I fail to see in what way such an expectation
was unreasonable."
"Excuse me again; but for the moment you seem to have forgotten the
sacrifice--for I can call it by no other term--which, only a few weeks
ago, Sir Everard was called upon to make for you."
"I presume your ladyship refers to the payment of my debts?"
Her ladyship gravely inclined her head.
"My uncle was not called upon by me to make any such sacrifice, as you
term it. I was asked to supply a list of my debts, and I did so."
"May I ask whether you were in a position to have paid them yourself?"
For the life of him, Burgo could not help colouring up to the very
roots of his hair. "That I certainly was not," he replied
unhesitatingly.
"Then it was perhaps as well that your uncle should pay them for you,
were it only to save the family credit."
"Confound this woman! I begin to hate her as much as she hates me,"
muttered poor Burgo under his breath.
"This is not the first occasion, I believe, on which Sir Everard has
had to relieve you from the burden of your extravagances."
Burgo writhed helplessly on his chair.
"Twice previously my uncle has had the melancholy satisfaction of
discharging my liabilities."
"Just so. And yet you come here to-day, and tell me coolly that you
expected to be received on precisely the same terms as if nothing had
happened!"
"Oh, madam!" cried the young man, a fine flame of indignation burning
in his eyes; "I have known my uncle all my life, and I judge him by a
different--a very different--standard from that which you seem to
judge him by. That he would have grumbled, that he would have scolded
me a little, as most fathers and uncles have a way of doing under such
circumstances, I was quite prepared to expect; but that he would
refuse to see me I would never have believed--never!" His voice broke
a little as he finished, and he turned away his head for a moment,
ashamed to think that he should have been so moved.
Lady Clinton sat regarding him with her coldly-critical half-smile.
She was one of those people who seem to derive a sort of semi-sensuous
enjoyment from witnessing the mental tortures and anguished
heart-throbs of their more susceptible fellow mortals. Such people
have keen powers for analysing in others a certain class of emotions
of the existence of which in themselves they have no cognisance.
Lady Clinton gave Burgo a few moments to recover himself, and then she
said in her clear, incisive tones: "May I ask, Mr. Brabazon, what your
plans for the future are?"
"My plans for the future!" he echoed, looking at her with unmitigated
astonishment. "Upon my word, madam, I am not aware that I have any."
"That is rather sad, is it not? And rather singular, too, if I may
venture to say so--considering your age."
"I fail to understand why your ladyship should see anything either sad
or singular in such a state of things. I have always left my fortunes,
both present and to come, in the hands of my uncle--as it has been his
invariable wish that I should do."
"Such being the case, may I assume that any wishes or desires your
uncle may choose to give expression to will be regarded as obligatory
by you?"
Burgo paused before answering. Then he said: "If my uncle himself had
put such a question to me three months ago, I should have answered
'Yes' unhesitatingly; but, seeing that it is your ladyship who puts
the question to me to-day, I am somewhat at a loss what to reply."
Burgo's barb pricked her. Her eyes dilated a little; two red-hot spots
flamed out for a moment on her cheeks and then vanished.
"If I have taken upon myself, Mr. Brabazon, to question you with
regard to your plans for the future, I have done so at your uncle's
special request. He presumes that, at your age, your future career
cannot be altogether a matter of indifference to you, and he is
desirous of knowing what views and wishes you may have formed with
regard to it."
"It seems somewhat strange, madam, that my uncle should all at once
profess to be so anxious about my future. On more than one occasion,
some four or five years ago, I acquainted him with my wishes in the
matter, but he chose quietly to set them aside as of no moment, and
since that time I have never troubled myself in the affair?"
"Even granting that such may have been the case at the period you
speak of," said her ladyship, "you can readily understand, Mr.
Brabazon, that certain circumstances which have happened since then
may have modified Sir Everard's views in many matters, and in the
particular one under consideration among the rest."
"Oh yes, I can quite understand that," answered Burgo, not without a
spice of bitterness.
"While fully aware that, in all probability, such would be the case,
you have not, to quote your own words, troubled yourself further in
the affair?"
"I have not--as I said before. When I left college, as I did not fail
to impress upon my uncle at the time, I was desirous of entering the
army, but it is too late to think of that now. Then it was that my
uncle took the responsibility of my future into his own hands, and in
his hands it still remains."
Lady Clinton did not at once reply, but sat gazing through the window
like one deep in thought.
Presently Burgo spoke again.
"Your ladyship will pardon me, but, from what you have already said, I
can only presume that when you asked me to come here to-day, it was
because you were in a position to impart to me some information, or to
put before me some definite proposition on my uncle's part with
respect to my future. If such be the case, I shall be glad to listen
to whatever message you may be charged with, with as little further
preface as may be."
It was an audacious speech, and her ladyship felt it to be such;
indeed, to her it seemed nothing less than a piece of consummate
impertinence. She stared at him for a moment in icy surprise, but he
met her gaze unflinchingly. Evidently there was more in this young man
than she had given him credit for.
"When you were requested to call here to-day, Mr. Brabazon, it was not
in order to obtain your assent to some proposition which I had been
commissioned to lay before you (_that_ would have been too
ridiculous), but to inform you of the decision which your uncle has
come to in respect of matters between yourself and him."
"That is the point, madam, about which I am anxious to be
enlightened."
"Very well. Here is Sir Everard's decision in a nutshell. The
allowance which his lawyer has been in the habit of paying you
quarterly will cease from to-day, and in lieu thereof, and further, as
a quittance in full of any imaginary claim which you may have assumed
yourself to have on your uncle's pecuniary resources, he requests your
acceptance of this cheque for one thousand guineas."
As her ladyship ceased speaking, she opened her _porte-monnaie_, which
she had held clasped in one hand all this time, and extracted
therefrom a narrow folded slip of paper, and rising, laid it on the
table close by where Burgo was sitting. Then she resumed her seat.
It is not too much to say that Burgo was literally stunned. He
repeated her ladyship's words automatically to himself before he could
feel sure that he had heard aright. For a moment or two he saw
everything through a haze, as one sees things in a half-dream, and
when the film had cleared away it was to leave him conscious that Lady
Clinton's eyes were fixed on him with a cynical and, as he fancied,
somewhat contemptuous smile. The sight acted on him like an ice-cold
douche, and brought him at once to himself.
"So," he said, speaking not without an effort, "the statement I have
just heard from your ladyship's lips embodied my uncle's ultimatum, so
far as I am concerned?"
"It is Sir Everard's ultimatum--the word is your own, Mr. Brabazon."
"And it is you, madam, whom I have to thank for it."
Lady Clinton set her lips tight, but did not reply.
Burgo rose, and taking up the cheque opened it, and let his eyes rest
for a moment or two on the familiar signature.
"This is my answer to the offer of which you are the bearer," he said,
looking her straight in the face; and with that he deliberately tore
the cheque in four, and dropped the pieces on the table. "Never will I
touch another shilling of my uncle's money as long as I live."
He turned and took up his hat. "I need not detain you further, Lady
Clinton," he said. "But I cannot go without complimenting you on the
thoroughly businesslike way in which you have carried out the task you
set yourself to do. Madam, I have the honour to wish you a very good
day."
He swept her a low bow, and as he did so his eyes crossed fire with
hers. There was no flinching on either side. They both felt that
henceforth it was a duel _à outrance_ between them. But already Lady
Clinton had drawn "first blood."
She rose as the door closed behind Burgo, and drew a deep breath. "So
far the day is mine," she said, "but I shall be greatly surprised if I
have seen the last of Mr. Burgo Brabazon. If I ever read mischief in
anybody's eyes, I read it in his. I would give something to know what
step he meditates first. In any case, it will be nothing dastardly,
nothing underhand. Any one not a gentleman would have taken that
cheque and have remained my enemy just the same. I am glad I have seen
him; under other circumstances I feel that I could both like and
admire him--and yet I must brush him from my path. He is the one great
obstacle I have to contend against, and he _must_ be sacrificed. If
only he would have contented himself with the thousand guineas, and
have given no further trouble! And now to give Sir Everard my own
version of the interview," she added, as she took up the portions of
the cheque and tore them into still smaller fragments.