Meanwhile, Mr. Larkhall, the valet, had gone to the earl's sitting-room
and made the announcement:
"Lord Leyton, my lord!"
The earl raised his steel-gray eyes, and, frowning slightly, said,
"Lord Leyton?" without any expression of surprise.
"Yes, my lord," said the valet, with the proper impassiveness of a
high-class servant.
The earl kept his eyes on the floor for a moment, then nodded as an
indication that Lord Blair was to be shown in, and Mr. Larkhall went
out to the drawing-room, where Lord Blair was waiting.
He was looking remarkably well this morning, and there were no traces
of his encounter with Mr. Pyke on his handsome face, which with its
prevailing suggestion of brightness and good humor, seemed to light
up the grand and rather too stately room. He was dressed in that
very comfortable and somewhat picturesque fashion, which is the mode
nowadays, and his shapely limbs displayed themselves, not without
grace, in knickerbockers and a shooting jacket of a wide check, which
made his broad shoulders look even more vast than they were. Take him
altogether he presented a very fine specimen of the genus man, at its
best period, when youth sits at the prow, and pleasure sings joyously
at the helm.
"This way, my lord," said Mr. Larkhall, and the young man followed the
valet into the earl's room.
As he entered, the earl rose and looked at him, and notwithstanding the
sternness of his face, a gleam of reluctant admiration shone in his
eyes. He held out the thin, white hand.
"How do you do, Blair?" he said.
Lord Blair shook his hand.
"I hope you're well, sir?" he said, and the light, musical voice seemed
to ring through the room, in its contrast to the elder man's subdued
tones.
The earl waved his hand to a chair, and sank back into his own.
Then a silence ensued. It was evident that the earl expected the young
viscount to account for his presence, and that Lord Blair found it
rather hard to begin.
"Not had the gout lately, I hope, sir?" he said.
"Thanks, no; not very lately," replied the earl.
"I'm glad of that," said Lord Blair. "I shouldn't have liked to worry
you while you were ill--and--and I ought to apologize for coming
uninvited----"
It was palpable that he was not used to apologizing, and he did it
awkwardly and bluntly.
The earl waved his hand.
"You are always free to come to the Court, Blair; you know that, I
trust?"
He did not say that he was welcome, or that he, the earl was glad to
see him.
"Thanks," said Lord Blair. "I shouldn't have come if I hadn't been
obliged--I mean," with a smile at his clumsiness, "I mean I wanted to
see you particularly on business----"
"Business?" said the earl, raising his eyebrows slightly. "Would not
Messrs. Tyler & Driver----"
Tyler & Driver were the family solicitors.
"No," said Lord Blair; "I didn't think so. The fact is, sir, that I'm
in a scrape." He said it with an air of surprise that made the earl
smile dryly. "Yes; I suppose you'll say I always am. Well, I dare say
I am. By George, I don't know how it is, either, for I'm always trying
hard to keep out of 'em."
"Is it money--this time?" inquired the earl, with an impassiveness that
was worse than any exhibition of ill-humor.
"Yes; it's money this time," assented Lord Blair laughing slightly, but
coloring. "The fact is----" he paused. "I don't know whether you saw
that my horse, Daylight, lost the Chinhester stakes?"
"I don't read the racing news," said his lordship gravely.
"Ah, I forgot. Well, it did. The fool of a jockey pulled at him too
long, and--but I'm afraid you would not understand, sir."
"Most probably not," was the dry response.
"Anyway, he lost, and as I'd backed him very heavily--too heavily as it
turned out--I lost a hatful of money. I've had a run of ill-luck all
the season, too," he continued, as cheerfully as if he were recounting
luck of quite another kind. "So I find myself completely up a tree. I
don't like asking you for any more money, I seem to have had such a
tremendous lot, don't you know, and it occurred to me that there was
that Ketton property, and I could raise the money on that."
The earl's face darkened.
"Of course I know I needn't have troubled you about it," went on Lord
Blair, "but I promised you I wouldn't raise any money without letting
you know, and so--well, here I am," he wound up cheerfully.
The earl sat perfectly still and looked at the carpet.
"Blair," he said, at last, "you are on the road to ruin!"
"It's not so bad as that, sir, I hope," said the young man, after a
rather startled stare and pause.
"You are a spendthrift and a gambler," continued the earl, his face
hardening at each word.
Lord Blair's face flushed.
"That's rather strong, isn't it, sir?" he said, quietly.
"It is the truth--the plain truth," retorted the earl, quickly.
"You are twenty-five, and you have run through--flung to the winds,
destroyed--nearly all your own property. Only Ketton remains, and
that is, you tell me, to go. What do you expect me to say? Have you
no conscience, no sense of decency? But, indeed, the question is
unnecessary, you have none."
The young man rose, and on his handsome face came a look that bore a
faint resemblance to that on the old man's.
"What do you mean?" he asked, shortly.
The earl raised his eyes.
"With this ruin impending over you, you come to me to ask my sanction
of the last step, and on the way here you amuse yourself by indulging
in a vulgar ale-house brawl with one of my people, outside my
gates--within sight of the house!"
Lord Blair sank into the chair, and smiled.
"Oh, that," he said, easily--"oh, that was nothing, sir. The fellow
deserved all he got and more. 'Pon my word I couldn't help it. It
was--but you've heard all about it, I daresay?"
"I have heard that you had a vulgar quarrel with one of the worst
characters in the place, and indulged in a fight with him, sir," said
the earl, his eyes flashing for a moment, then growing hard and cold.
"But I forget. You say it was nothing. That which I deem a degradation,
the future Earl of Ferrers may regard differently. But this I may be
permitted to ask: that you will choose some other locality than Leyton
for the exhibition of your brutality."
A hot response sprung to the lips of Lord Blair, but with an effort he
choked it back.
"We won't say any more about the affair, sir," he said, "except that if
it were to be done again, I'd do it!"
"I don't doubt you, sir," said the earl, coldly.
There was a pause, then the young man rose.
"I take it I can raise the money on Ketton, then?" he said.
The earl stared at the floor moodily.
"Hartwell gone, Parkfield mortgaged to the hilt, and now Ketton. What
next, sir? Thank Heaven, you cannot play ducks and drakes with this
place, or you would do it, I suppose! But I could forgive you all you
have done if you had spared Violet."
The color mounted to the young man's face, and he bit his lip.
"In her, and her alone, lay your chance of salvation. You flung it away
as ruthlessly as you have flung away your property. You have ruined
yourself and broken her heart, and you sit there smiling----"
As if he could endure it no longer, Lord Blair rose.
"Broken her heart! Broken Violet's heart!" he repeated, with mingled
amazement and incredulity. "Good Heavens, who told you that? I don't
believe she has a heart to break! We--we broke off the match by mutual
agreement. She was quite jolly about it! She--oh, come, sir, you don't
know Violet as well as I do. I'll answer for it she thinks herself well
out of it; as she is, by George! Any woman would get a bad bargain in
me, I'm afraid."
"I wish that I could contradict you," said the earl grimly. "I pity any
woman who trusts herself to your tender mercies. As for Violet Graham,
I am glad that she has escaped; but your conduct was dishonorable----"
The young man's face paled, and his hands clinched with a passion of
which he had shown no trace during the fight of yesterday.
"That will do, sir," he said, in a low voice. "No man, not even you,
has the right to use such a word to me! I tell you it would have
been dishonorable to have married Violet for her money; it was more
honorable to keep from it. I'm going. As to Ketton, it's my own----"
"For the present," put in the earl, with fearful sarcasm.
--"And I can do what I like with it. I'd rather sell it twenty times
over than marry Violet Graham, and get her money to save it! Good-bye,
sir!" He was going out of the room with this brief farewell, but at the
door he paused, and striding back held out his hand. "Look here, sir,"
he said, his voice softening, a gentler light coming into his eyes.
"Don't let us part like this! Heaven knows when we shall meet again, if
ever we do! I may have to clear out of England! I've some thoughts of
going in for sheep farming out West, or I may break my neck at the next
steeplechase. Anyhow, let us part friends."
The earl waved him to the chair.
If he had grasped the extended hand the warm heart of the young man
would have forgiven all the hard words that had been spoken--forgiven
and forgotten them.
"Sit down, please. You are right. Words are of no avail between us.
In regard to your proposition, I am averse to it. I will give you the
money. What is the amount?"
Lord Blair looked surprised, then grave.
"Thanks, sir," he said. "But I would rather you didn't. I have had too
much from you already. I'm ashamed to think how much. I'm a spendthrift
and a fool, as you say, but for the future I will spend only my own.
I'm not ungrateful for all you have given me! No, but--I can't take any
more from you."
The earl's lips came together tightly. He bowed.
"I have no right to combat your resolution," he said, "or to prevent
you ruining yourself in your own fashion. After all, it matters very
little whether the Jews have Ketton now or later; they will get it one
time or the other, doubtless."
"I'm afraid they will," said Lord Blair, with a short sigh; then he
rose. "Well, I'm off, sir."
"Stay!" said the earl; "our quarrel--if it can be called one--is over.
You will oblige me by remaining for one night at least. I do not
wish it to be said all over the country that we could not exist for
twenty-four hours under one roof, as it will be said if you go at once.
Stay, if you please."
"If you wish it, sir, certainly," said Lord Blair, not very joyously.
"But I'm afraid I shall bore you dreadfully, you know."
"The boring will be mutual, I have no doubt," said the earl grimly. "I
may remind you that we need meet only at dinner."
"That's true," said Lord Blair frankly. "Well, until then, I'll walk
round the place."
Then earl inclined his head, and rang the bell which stood at his elbow.
"Lord Leyton will remain here to-night," he said to Larkhall, and that
exemplary servant, holding the door open for Lord Blair to pass out,
hurried off to tell Mr. Stibbings and Mrs. Hale the extraordinary news
that the future earl was to sleep at the house which would some day be
his own.
Lord Blair had spent a remarkably bad quarter of an hour; but before he
had got half way down the broad staircase, with its carved balustrades
and magnificent cross panelling, he began to shake off the effects with
that wonderful good-humored carelessness which had lost him nearly all
his lands, and won him so many hearts.
He went down the stairs into the hall and looked round him with a
smile, as if his interview had been of the pleasantest description;
then he lit a cigar and, with his hat on the back of his head, went out
into the warm sunshine.
He walked along the terrace and across the lawns, and then as if by
instinct found his way to the stables. And be it remarked, and it is
worth noting, that he had not--as many a man in his position would have
done--given one glance at the magnificent place with the thought that
it would some day all be his.
Strange to say, for an heir, he didn't wish the earl dead. Blair
Leyton hankered after no man's property, not even his uncle's; whatever
sins may have been laid to his charge, he was innocent of that love of
money which is the root of all evil.
So without a spark of envy or covetousness or ill-will, he went to the
stables and, nodding pleasantly to the head groom, went into the stalls.
Of course the man knew who he was--the news had spread all over the
Court in five minutes!--and was respectful, and in a second or two more
than that; for Blair's manner was as pleasant with high, low, Jack, and
the game all round.
"Some good horses," he said.
The man shook his head doubtfully.
"Some, my lord," he assented. "But not what they ought to be for so big
a place--begging your lordship's pardon. You see his lordship the earl
only has the carriage horses--and them only once now and again--and
there's nobody to ride. I try to keep 'em up, but a man loses heart
like, my lord."
"I understand," said Lord Blair, sympathetically. "It's a pity. Such a
fine hunting country."
"Ah, isn't it, my lord!" said the man with a sigh. "If the earl 'ud
only take the hounds--but there"--and he sighed again.
Lord Blair went up to a big black horse and smacked him, a little
attention which the animal responded to by launching out viciously.
"Nice nag!" said Lord Blair, approvingly.
"All but his temper, my lord," said the man. "He's as crooked-minded a
hoss as ever I see."
Lord Blair laughed.
"He's straight enough in other ways," he said. "Put a saddle on him and
I'll take a turn."
The man hesitated a second.
"He's an awkward one to ride, my lord," he ventured.
"So I should think," said the young man, cheerfully; "but I like them
awkward."
The horse was saddled and brought out, and immediately commenced to
verify the character bestowed upon him.
"Ill-tempered dev--beast, I'll take him back, my lord," said the groom;
but, with a laugh, Lord Blair got into the saddle, and as the horse
reared brought him down in so neat a style that the groom's misgivings
fled.
"All right, my lord," he said, with an approving nod.
"Yes, it's all right," said the young man, with another laugh. "He's
rather hot just at present, but he'll come back like a lamb, and I
shall be hot, I expect," and off he rode.
"There," said the groom to a circle of his helpers, "that's my idea
of a young nobleman! There'd be some pleasure and credit in keeping a
stable for him."
"What a pity he's such a bad young man," murmured a maid-servant, who
had crept out to look on.
"He may be a bad young man," retorted the groom sententiously, "but
he's a darned good rider."
"He's dreadfully handsome," said the girl, with a little sigh, as she
ran in again, and they unconsciously expressed the general opinion of
the two sexes of Blair, Viscount Leyton.
The announcement that the young lord was to remain the night at the
Court threw Mrs. Hale into a state of excitement.
"I must see Mr. Stibbings about the lunch and dinner at once, and
there's the room to prepare. I shall have to leave you to yourself
to-day, my dear," she said to Margaret. "Bless me, if I'd only had
an hour or two's notice I could have got something nice for dinner.
The earl doesn't care what it is, and often sends the things away
untouched; but a young man from London, and used to the dinners they
get there at the London clubs, is very different."
"Don't mind me, grandma," said Margaret. "I suppose I can't help you at
all?"
"You?--Good gracious me, no!" said the old lady quite pityingly.
"Then I'll get my hat and go into the garden," said Margaret.
"Do, my dear; but keep this side of the house, mind, and do not go in
front of the earl's windows."
"Very well; I'll take care," laughed Margaret. "I suppose if the
earl should happen to catch sight of me twice in one day it would be
fatal!--or would he only have a fit?" But Mrs. Hale, fortunately for
her, did not hear this.
Margaret went out into the garden, and carefully kept out of sight of
the great windows. She was very happy, and now and again she would
break into song. The garden attached to this wing was a large one, and
filled with flowers, and when she came in to lunch she had a large
bunch of roses and heliotrope and pinks in her hand.
"There was no notice--'Do not pick the flowers!' grandma. I hope I
haven't been very wicked?"
"No, no, my dear," said Mrs. Hale, who was in a fine state of flurry.
"What a beautiful bouquet you have got!"
"Isn't it?" said Margaret, pinning a red rose in the bosom of her
dress. "Where shall I put these?" and she looked round for a vase.
"Anywhere you like, my dear. Oh, Margaret, how nice they would be in
Lord Leyton's room! It would make it seem more homely like; do what
you will, a room that hasn't been used for months does look cold and
formal."
"Doesn't it?" agreed Margaret. "And there is nothing like flowers to
take off that effect. His lordship is welcome to them; so there they
are, grandma."
"Yes, thank you," said Mrs. Hale, hurriedly. "I'll ring for Mary,
unless you wouldn't mind running up with them; you'll arrange them
decently, while she'll just throw them into a vase."
"Very well. Show me the way, Mary, to Lord Leyton's room," said
Margaret as Mary entered.
Mrs. Hale had given him one of the best rooms in the house, and
Margaret, who had never seen such an apartment, was lost in admiration
of the silken hangings which stood in place of paper on the walls, and
the old and priceless furniture.
She arranged the flowers in a deep, glass dish, and placed it on the
spacious dressing table.
"His lordship ought to be pleased, miss," said Mary, shyly, as they
were leaving the room.
Margaret laughed.
"I daresay he will think them very much in the way and throw them out
of the window. I hope he won't throw dish and all," she said.
As she entered Mrs. Hale's sitting-room, she saw Mr. Stibbings
approaching.
"I have been looking for you, miss," he said. "I have had a table put
in the gallery, as his lordship directed, and his compliments, would
you like any blinds put to the windows to shade the light?"
"Grandma, he did mean it after all," said Margaret, delightedly.
"How kind? Oh, thank him, Mr. Stibbings! No, nothing more. I've got
a portable easel and everything, and the light will do very well.
Grandma, I may go now?"
"Yes, I suppose so," said the old lady, absently; "but mind, dear, if
you hear the earl coming, you must get up and go away at once."
"Very well," said Margaret, with a smile, and she ran up and got her
folding easel and painting materials. Mr. Stibbings wanted to place
a footman at her disposal, but she laughingly declined, and with her
impedimenta under her arm, and her paintbox in her hand, she made her
way after lunch to the gallery.
"In the future, when I hear any one remark--'as proud as a lord,' I
shall correct them and say--'kind as a lord,'" she said to herself.
With all the eagerness of an artiste she set up her easel before the
picture and commenced at once; and in a few minutes she had become
absorbed in her work, and was lost to everything save the burning
desire to catch something of the spirit of the great original she was
copying.
"It is almost wicked to be so great!" she murmured. "How can I do more
than libel you, you beautiful face?"
The afternoon glided on unnoticed by her. She heard a great bell
booming overhead in a solemn fashion, but she gave it no attention
beyond the thought, "the dinner or dressing bell," and went on with her
copy.
She was so absorbed that she did not hear some one who had entered the
gallery, and it was not until the some one stood close beside her that
she knew of his presence.
With a start she looked up, and for a moment saw nothing but a handsome
young man in evening dress.
His beauty--of the manliest type--gave her a pleasant sensation--she
was an artist, remember--but the next moment she recognized him.
It was the young man whom she had called a savage; the gentleman who
had fought Jem Pyke. Her eyes grew wide and her lips opened, and she
sat and stared at him.
As for him, his astonishment equalled and surpassed hers. He had seen
her back as he was passing the door of the gallery, and being unable
to resist the temptation to ascertain what the face belonging to so
graceful a figure was like, he had entered and softly approached her.
Margaret was a beautiful girl, but she was never lovelier than when
under the spell which falls upon an artist absorbed in her work.
The clear, oval face grew dreamy, the large eyes softer and mystical,
the red lips sweeter with a suggestful tenderness.
It was the loveliness of the face as well as the recognition of it
which struck him--Blair Leyton, of all men--dumb and motionless.
They looked into each other's eyes while one could count fifty, then,
with an embarrassment quite novel, he spoke.
"I've disturbed you?"
"No," said Margaret, and the word sounded blunt and cold in his ears.
Who could he be, and how did he come here? Yesterday, fighting on the
village green, this evening at Leyton Court. Then it flashed upon her:
it was Lord Leyton! "No, I didn't hear you," she added.
"I came in quietly so as not to disturb you," he said, regaining
some of his usual composure, but not all of it, for her loveliness
dazzled, and her identity with the girl who had so sternly rebuked him
yesterday, bewildered him.
"You--you are an artist?" he said.
"I have that honor," she said.
He looked at the copy.
"And a very good one! Your picture is better than the old one."
"You are _not_ an artist, evidently," she said with a smile.
"No," he admitted; then a light shone in his eyes. "Oh, no, I am a
savage!"
A burning blush covered her face, and she took up her brush.
Mr. Stibbings appeared between the velvet curtains.
"Dinner served, my lord."
Lord Blair Leyton nodded impatiently without turning.
"Are you staying here?" he said.
"Yes," said Margaret, going on with her painting.
He stood looking at her, at the beautiful, intelligent "artist" face,
at the dove-colored dress, at the pink-white hand with its supple,
capable fingers.
"Are you not going to dinner, my lord?" she said, unable to bear his
silent presence any longer.
"I beg your pardon!" he said with a little start. "I was waiting for
you."
"For me?" she said, turning her face to him with wide-eyed surprise.
"Yes," he said; "we will go together. You are coming, are you not?"
"I?" she said, then she laughed; "I am Mrs. Hale's--the housekeeper's
granddaughter, Lord Leyton."
He reddened and bit his mustache.
"And you are not coming?" he said. "I am very sorry. I----"
"Dinner is served, my lord," said a footman in a low voice from the
doorway.
Lord Blair uttered an impatient exclamation, which, as it was something
remarkably like an oath, was fortunately unintelligible.
"Have you forgiven me yet?" he said, humbly.
"Forgiven?" said Margaret, as if she were trying to discover to what he
referred. "Forgiven?"
"Yes! That affair of yesterday--the set-to, you know," he explained.
"Oh!"--the monosyllable dropped like a stone from her lips--"I had
forgotten."
"That's right," he said, quickly; "if you've forgotten you have
forgiven. I assure you----"
"Dinner is served, my lord," said a solemn voice.
He turned sharply.
"Confound it all----"
"Whether I have forgiven you is not of the least consequence, my lord,"
said Margaret, "but the earl will certainly not forgive you if you keep
dinner waiting any longer," and she bent over her canvas with an air of
absorption which shut him out of her cognizance completely.
He stood for a minute, then with an audible "Confound the dinner!"
strode off.