Margaret stood perfectly still, her eyes downcast, yet seeing quite
plainly the tall patrician figure enveloped in the folds of violet
velvet.
What should she do? Pass by him without a word, or murmur some kind of
apology? How upset and annoyed her grandmother would be when she heard
of her trespass, and its discovery by the earl, of all people. And the
earl himself, what was he thinking of her? He was, no doubt, setting
her down, in his mind, as an ill-bred, forward girl, who had intruded
out of sheer impudence! The idea was almost unendurable, and smarting
under it, the color came slowly into her face and her lips quivered.
Meanwhile, the earl, who had been indifferently wondering who she was,
moved slowly, his hands behind him, along the gallery and toward her.
His movements nerved her, and bending her head she made for the door,
but slowly. The earl may have thought that she was one of the higher
servants, but as she came nearer--for she had to pass him to leave the
gallery--he must have seen that she was not one of the establishment,
which was far too numerous for him to be familiar with.
"Do not let me drive you away," he said, in a low-toned, but
exquisitely clear and musical voice, which had so often moved his
fellow peers in the Upper House.
"I am going," said Margaret, flushing. "I--I ought not to have come."
She had never spoken to a nobleman in her life before, and did not know
whether to say "my lord" or "your lordship," at the end of her sentence.
"Ought you not?" he said, with a faint smile crossing his clear-cut
features.
"No--my lord," she faltered, venturing on that form; "I--I came here by
accident. I lost my way. I am very sorry."
"Do not apologize," he said, bending his piercing eyes on her face,
and smiling again as he noticed her abashed expression; "it is not
a deadly sin. Are you----" he hesitated. It was evident that he did
not want to add to her distress and confusion, and was choosing his
words--"Are you staying here?"
"Yes," said Margaret; "I am staying with Mrs. Hale, my grandmother, my
lord."
"Ah, yes!" he murmured. "Yes. Mrs. Hale. Yes, yes. You are her
granddaughter. What is your name?"
"Margaret--Margaret Hale," she said.
"And how long have you been here?" he asked.
"I came last night, my lord," said Margaret.
"Last night? Yes. And you were on a voyage of discovery----"
"Oh, no, no!" she broke in, quickly. "I was looking for Mrs. Hale,
and--opened the wrong door; when I came into the corridor outside I saw
the pictures, and"--her color rose--"I was tempted to come in," and,
with an inclination of the head, she was moving away.
His voice stopped her.
"Are you fond of pictures?" he asked, as one of his age and attainments
would ask a child.
"Yes," said Margaret, simply, refraining even from adding, "very."
His glance grew absent.
"Most of your sex are," he said, musingly. "All life is but a picture
to most of them. The surface, the surface only"--he sighed very faintly
and wearily, and was pacing on, to Margaret's immense relief, as if he
had forgotten her, when he stopped, as if moved by a kindly impulse,
and said: "Pray come here when you please. The pictures will be glad of
your company; they spend a solitary life too often. Yes, come when you
please."
"Thank you, my lord," said Margaret, quietly, and without any fuss.
Perhaps the reserved and quiet response attracted his attention.
"Which was the picture I saw you admiring when I came in?" he asked.
"You were admiring it, I think?"
"It was the head by Guido, my lord," she answered.
He looked at her quickly.
"How did you know it was Guido's?" he asked, and he went and stood
before the picture, looking from it to her.
Margaret stared. How could it be possible for any intelligent person
not to know!
"It is easy to tell a Guido, my lord," she said, with a slight smile.
"One has only to see one of them once, and I have seen them in the
National Gallery fifty--a hundred times."
He looked at her, not curiously--the Earl of Ferrers, famed for his
exquisite courtesy, could not have done that--but with a newly-born
interest.
"Yes? Do you recognize other masters here? This, for instance," and he
raised his hand; it stood out like snow in front of the violet velvet,
and a large amethyst on the forefinger gleamed redly in the downward
light.
"That is a Carlo Dolci, my lord; but not a very good one."
"Right in both assertions," he said, with a smile. "And this?"
"A Rubens, and a very fine one," she said, forgetting his presence
and grandeur, and approaching the picture. "I have never seen more
beautiful coloring in a Rubens--but I have not seen the Continental
galleries. It would look better still if it were not hung so near that
De la Roche; the two clash. Now, if the other Rubens on the opposite
side were placed----" but she remembered herself, and stopped suddenly,
confused and shamefaced.
"Pray go on," he said gently. "You would hang them side by side. Yes.
You are right! Tell me who painted this!" and he inclined his head
toward a heavy battle piece.
"I do not know, my lord," said Margaret.
He smiled.
"It is a pleasant discovery to find that your knowledge is not
illimitable," he said. "It is a Wouvermans."
Margaret looked at it, and her brows came together, after a fashion
peculiar to her when she was thinking deeply, displeased, or silent
under pressure.
"Well?" he said, as if he had read her thoughts; "what would you say?"
"It is not a Wouvermans, my lord," she said.
The earl smiled, and stood with folded hands regarding her.
"No, my lord. That is, I think not. It is not even a copy, but an
imitation--oh, forgive me!" she broke off, blushing.
"No, no!" he said, gently; "there is nothing to forgive. Tell me why
you think so? But I warn you--" and he smiled with mock gravity--"this
picture cost several thousand pounds!"
"I can't help it," said Margaret, desperate on behalf of truth. "It is
not a Wouvermans! He never painted a horse like that--never! I have
copied dozens of his pictures. I should know a horse of his if I met
it in the streets, my lord," and her eyebrows came together again in
almost piteous assertion.
He looked at the picture keenly; then, with a slight air of surprise,
he said:
"I think you are right! But it is a clever forgery----"
"Oh, clever!" said Margaret, with light scorn.
"Are you an artist?" he asked, after a second's pause.
"Yes, my lord," she said, modestly.
"Yes! Ah, I understand your inability to keep outside the gallery. An
artist"--his piercing eyes rested on her downcast face--"my pictures
are honored by your attention, Miss Hale. Permit me to repeat my
invitation. I hope you will pay the gallery many visits. If you should
care to copy any of the pictures, pray do so!"
"Oh, my lord!" said Margaret, and her face lit up as if a ray of
sunlight had passed across it.
There was no ill-bred admiration in his gray eyes, only a deep and
steady regard.
"Copy any you choose," he said. "As to the De la Roche----"
He paused, for a hurried footstep was heard behind them, and Mrs.
Hale's voice anxiously calling "Margaret."
At sight of the earl she stopped short, turned pale, and dropped a
profound curtsey.
"Oh, my lord! I--we--beg your pardon! My granddaughter lost her
way----" then she seemed unable to go any further.
The earl turned to her with the calm, impassive manner he had worn when
Margaret had seen him first.
"Do not apologize, Mrs. Hale," he said. "Your granddaughter is
perfectly welcome. She is an artist, I hear?"
"Yes, my lord," faltered the old lady, as if she were confessing some
great sin of Margaret's.
"Yes, and a capable one I am sure. She will probably like to copy some
of the pictures. Please see that she is not disturbed."
Then, leaving the old lady overwhelmed and bewildered, he inclined his
head to Margaret and moved away. But as he raised the heavy curtain at
the end of the gallery, he turned and looked aside at her with a grave
smile.
"The De la Roche shall be re-hung, and the false Wouvermans removed."
Then murmuring "would that it were as easy to depose every other false
pretender!" he let the curtain fall and disappeared.
Margaret stood looking after him, her brows drawn together dreamily,
and seemed to awake with a start when, with a gasp, the old lady turned
to her, exclaiming:
"Well, Margaret! To think that the earl--that his
lordship--that--that----When I came in and saw him with you here I
felt fit to sink into the ground! Oh, my dear, how ever did you come
here?"
"'My wayward feet were wont to stray,'" quoted Margaret, with a laugh.
"What do you say?"
"Oh, it was only a line from a poem, grandmamma. I lost my way, and the
earl came in and found me----"
"And--and spoke? And he wasn't angry? My dear, if I had been in your
place, I should have longed for the earth to open and swallow me up!"
Margaret laughed softly.
"Of course you mustn't pay any attention to what he said: you mustn't
take advantage of his offer about the copying of the pictures. Copy the
pictures! Good gracious! as if you'd take such a liberty!"
Margaret opened her eyes.
"I certainly did think of taking it," she said.
"Oh, dear, no; it would never do!" exclaimed the old lady. "It was only
politeness on his part to make you feel at your ease, and to show that
he wasn't angry. As to his meaning it, why of course he didn't!"
"I had an impression that great noblemen like the earl always meant
what they said; but that's only my ignorance, grandma, and, of course,
I'll do as you wish. But," with a wistful glance down the gallery, "I
had looked forward to painting some of them."
"Well, never mind, my dear," said the old lady soothingly; "you can
come and look at them--sometimes, when the earl's out or away from the
Court. It would never do for him to find you here again."
"No. I suppose next time he wouldn't find it incumbent upon him to be
polite. Well, let's go now, grandma," and she turned with a sigh.
"Not that way!" exclaimed Mrs. Hale, in a horrified whisper, as
Margaret went toward a door; "that leads direct to his lordship's
private apartments."
Margaret laughed.
"It is quite evident that I mustn't venture out of your rooms alone
again, grandma, or I shall get into serious trouble!"
"That you certainly will. But it's excusable, my dear; there aren't
many places so big, and such a maze like. It took even me a long time
to find my way about."
She opened the proper door as she spoke, and nearly ran against a
portly gentleman, who was dignified looking enough to be the earl's
brother.
"Bless my heart, Mr. Stibbings!" exclaimed Mrs. Hale. The butler puffed
out a response in a hushed voice--everybody's voice was hushed at
Leyton Court--then looked at Margaret and made a respectful bow.
"My granddaughter, Margaret, Mr. Stibbings," said the old lady, proudly.
The butler appeared surprised. He had taken Margaret for a visitor, and
had been wondering how on earth she had got into the place without his
knowing it?
"In--deed, Mrs. Hale! Glad to see you, miss."
"Yes, Mr. Stibbings; and, would you believe it, she's been in our
picture-gallery, and----"
But Mr. Stibbings seemed too hurried and full of suppressed excitement
to attend.
"Mrs. Hale, ma'am, you'll scarcely credit it, but----" he drew nearer
and lowered his voice to a whisper.
"Bless my heart!" exclaimed the old lady. "Dear, dear me! What is to
be done? Will he stay, do you think? You'll let me know at once, there
will be a great deal to see to----"
"Yes, yes," said the butler. "I'm going to find out. He has only
just been announced. I don't know yet whether the earl will see him.
Extraordinary, isn't it?" and he hurried on his way.
"Ex--tra--ordinary!" responded the old lady, staring at Margaret.
"What has happened, grandma?" asked Margaret, with a laugh.
"It's no laughing matter, my dear!" said the old lady, gravely. "Lord
Blair Leyton has come."
"Has he?" said Margaret, with less interest than the matter deserved.
"Yes, and who knows what will happen? Perhaps the earl won't see him;
perhaps they won't meet after all."
"I suppose they won't kill each other if they do, will they?" said
Margaret.
The old lady looked at her aghast; such levity was terrible.
"My dear," she said, "you don't know what you are talking about. Kill
each other--the earl and his nephew! Why, how ever could you say such a
thing? Great people never fight, let alone kill each other."