Just at this period a singular change came over Mr. Austin Ambrose's
mode of life. As a rule he rarely left London. At a certain hour of the
day you would find him in his chambers, at another riding or walking in
the park, at another he would be dining at his club, and every night
you were sure of seeing him at the whist table at any rate for an hour
or two. But immediately after Margaret's promise to marry Lord Blair,
Mr. Austin Ambrose took to taking little excursions in the environs
of London, and the special objects of attraction for him seemed to
be, strangely enough, seeing that he could by no means be called a
religious man, the various churches in the villages dotted about Kent
and Surrey. The smaller and more out of the way the village, and the
more dilapidated and neglected the church, the more Mr. Austin Ambrose
seemed to be attracted by them.
He chose the churches where the congregation is small and the clergyman
old and feeble, and he would sit and listen as the old parsons
dribbled out their prosy sermons, and the scattered people in the great
pews nodded and slept.
One church he appeared to have a special liking for. It was situated
in one of the small villages in Surrey called Sefton. There were only
a few cottages and a farm, and the church was in a very dilapidated
condition, and the clergyman seemed almost as worn out.
He was a very old man and nearly blind, and how he got through the
service only those who are acquainted with similar cases can understand
or believe. So past his time and dead to everything did the old
gentleman appear that one could easily understand the point of the
poet's lines:
"He lived but in a living sleep,
Too old to laugh or smile or weep."
"If one were to be married or buried by him on Monday he would forget
it on Tuesday," Austin Ambrose murmured to himself as he sat at the
back of one of the high backed pews and watched the old gentleman.
There was a parish clerk, too, who droned out the responses, and slept
through the sermon--and snored--who was almost as old as the clergyman,
and Mr. Austin Ambrose waylaid him and got into conversation with him
after the service. It could scarcely be called conversation, however,
for the old man merely grunted a "Yes," or "No," and smiled a toothless
smile to Austin Ambrose's questions and remarks.
He seemed to remember nothing--excepting that "It were forty-two years
agone since the small bell were cracked, and that's why we doan't ring
'em at marriages; they do seem so like a tolling, sir."
"You don't have many weddings, I suppose?" asked Mr. Ambrose.
The old man shook his head.
"Not a main sight," he said without exhibiting the faintest trace of
interest. "Moast of our folks is too old to marry, and the young 'uns
goes to the big church at Belton--away over there."
"When was the last?" asked Mr. Ambrose.
The clerk took up his hat slowly and scratched his head.
"I do scarce remember, sir," he said; "my memory ain't what it were.
I'm getting on in years, you see--nearly eighty, sir; me and the parson
runs a closish race," and he chuckled. "When was the last? Lemme see!
Well, I could tell 'ee by the book, but the parson keeps that. I dare
say he could put his hand upon it."
Mr. Ambrose laughed softly.
"You seem half asleep here at Sefton," he said pleasantly.
The old clerk grunted.
"I think we be sometimes, sir," he said. "But, you see, it's a
miserable place now the coach has given up running through. Them
railways and steam indians have a'most ruined the country."
"How long ago is it since the last coach ran?" asked Mr. Ambrose.
The poor old man looked bored to death.
"Thirty--forty year," he said. "I can't call to mind exactly; my memory
hain't what it were."
Mr. Ambrose wished him good-day, and without tipping him--he did not
want to fix himself in the old man's feeble memory--and repaired to the
inn.
He called for a glass of ale, which he took care not to drink, and
asked for a paper.
The landlord brought him a local one.
"Could I see a London one?" asked Mr. Ambrose.
The landlord shook his head.
"All the news as we care about, such as the state of the crops, and
the prices at Coving Garden Market, is in that there paper; we don't
trouble about a Lunnon one," he said.
Mr. Ambrose nodded and smiled, paid for his ale, and went back to
London.
"Sefton is the place," he said. "It is so out of the world that they
never see a London newspaper; so asleep that the noise of the great
world rushing onward never wakes it, and the parson and clerk are
faster asleep than anything else in it!"
He described the place in glowing colors to Margaret and Blair, a few
nights afterward, as they three were sitting in a cool corner of the
Botanical Gardens.
"A most delightful nook, my dear Miss Margaret; quite a typical old
English village. I could spend the rest of my days there, and if I were
going to be married--alas! why should it be one's fate to assist at
other people's happiness, and have none oneself?--it is the place of
all others I should choose for the ceremony."
"What does it matter where the church is?" said Blair, in his blunt
fashion, and with a point-blank look of love at the sweet, downcast
face beside him.
"It matters a great deal, my dear Blair; but I'm addressing Miss
Margaret, who can appreciate the beauties of a scene, being an artist.
I assure you it is a most charming spot, and it is so quiet and out
of the way that I really think one might commit bigamy three times
running there in as many weeks, and no one would be any the wiser. Why
did you start, Blair?"
Margaret looked up at Blair at the question, and he met both her and
Austin Ambrose's gaze with astonishment.
"Why did I _what_? Start? I didn't start," he said. "Why should I? What
were you saying? To tell you the truth, I was looking at Madge's foot
at the moment, and wondering how anybody could walk with such a mite,
and comparing it with my own elephant's hoof. I didn't hear what you
said quite."
Margaret drew her foot in, and looked up at him rebukingly.
"You shouldn't be frivolous, sir," she said.
"You shouldn't have such a small foot, miss," he retorted, in the
fashion which is so sweet to lovers, and so silly to other people.
"Now, what was it you said, Austin?"
Austin Ambrose laughed.
"Oh, some joke about bigamy, not worth repeating. I thought I had said
something funny, you started so."
"But I _didn't_ start," replied Blair, with a laugh.
"All right," assented Austin Ambrose; "you didn't, then. But I was
going to say that another advantage is that Sefton is on the main line,
and that you start from the church to that place in Devonshire where
you are to be happier than ever two mortals have ever yet been. What is
the name of it?"
"Appleford," said Blair.
"You will be down there about five o'clock," continued Austin Ambrose.
"Just in time for dinner."
"What do you say, Madge?" asked Lord Blair, in a low voice.
Austin Ambrose rose and strolled toward some flowers.
"I say as you say, dearest," she answered, with a little sigh.
He looked at her.
"Just give me half a hint that you don't like all this secrecy----" he
began; but she stopped him, raising her eyes to his with a trustful
smile.
"We won't open all that again, Blair," she said. "Yes, Sefton will do."
"And you won't mind doing without the bridemaids and the white satin
dress, and the bishop, and all that?" he asked, with half anxious but
wholly loving regard.
Margaret returned his gaze steadily and unflinchingly.
"I care for none of them," she said, quietly. "If I could have had my
choice I should have liked my grandmother; but we haven't our choice,
and so nothing matters, Blair."
"You are the best-natured girl that ever breathed, Madge!" he said
in a passionate whisper. "All my life through I shall remember what
sacrifices you made for me. I shall never forget them! Never!"
"Have you made up your minds?" asked Austin, coming back.
"Yes; it is to be Sefton," said Madge herself.
"Very well, then," he answered. "Then, all the rest of the arrangements
I can make easily."
And he was as good as his word.
He went down with Blair to get the special license; he engaged a sweet
little cottage at Appleford; he saw the parson's clerk, and informed
him of the date of the wedding; he even went with Blair to his tailor's
to order some clothes.
The day approached. Margaret had made her preparations. They were
simple enough, wonderfully and strangely simple, seeing that the man
she was going to marry was a viscount, and heir to one of the oldest
coronets in England.
"Don't buy a lot of dresses, Madge," Blair had said. "We shall be going
to Paris and Italy after Appleford, and you can buy anything you want
at Paris, don't you know."
She gave notice to quit to her landlady, and wrote a line or two to
some of her companions. She did not say that she was going to be
married, but that she was going for a long stay in the country, and she
did not add what part.
The morning--the wedding morning--was as bright and even brilliant as
a real summer morning in England can be--when it likes; and the sun
shone on the new traveling dress--which was to be her wedding dress as
well--as bravely as if it had been white satin itself.
All the way down to Sefton, Blair looked at her with the loving,
wistful admiration of a bridegroom, and seemed never tired of telling
her that she was all that was beautiful and lovable.
Austin Ambrose had gone into a smoking carriage and left them to
themselves, but when the train pulled up at Sefton he came to the door.
"Are we going to walk?" inquired Blair.
"No, there is a fly," said Austin, and he led them to it quietly and
got them inside.
Blair laughed.
"Poor old Austin! Upon my word, I think he enjoys all this mystery!
He'd make a first-rate conspirator, wouldn't he? I say, he was right
about the place, though, wasn't he? It is dead and alive!"
Margaret looked through the window. There were a few scattered
cottages, one solitary farm, and at a little distance, half hidden
amongst the trees, the old dilapidated church.
"It is quiet," she said; "but it is very pretty."
"Quiet!" and he laughed. "I'd no idea there were such spots near
London. Austin must have had some trouble in finding such an
out-of-the-way place."
And he spoke truly. Mr. Ambrose _had_ taken a great deal of trouble.
The fly drove up to the church door, and Austin Ambrose got down from
the box.
"You need not wait," he said to the flyman; "we are going to take a
stroll through the church. It looks interesting."
The flyman pocketed his fare--the exact fare--and concluding that they
were sight-seeing, drove sleepily off.
"Come along," said Austin Ambrose in a matter-of-fact fashion, and they
followed him.
But the door was locked, and there was no sign of parson, or clerk, or
pew-opener.
Austin Ambrose bit his lip, then laughed.
"I know where the old fellow lives," he said; "I'll rout him out."
He went to a little ivy-grown cottage just outside the churchyard, and
presently returned with the ancient clerk.
"Mornin', miss; mornin', sir," he said, touching his battered old
beaver. "I begs ten thousand pardons, but I quite forgot as how there
was a wedding this mornin'; but I dessay the parson have recollected.
Howsomever, I'll open the church," and he unlocked the door and signed
for them to enter.
Margaret tremblingly clung a little closer to Blair's arm and he
murmured a few words of encouragement.
"Hang it, Austin!" he said, aside; "it scarcely seems as if we were
going to be married. It only wants a hearse----"
Austin laughed.
"Nonsense. It is just what you want. They have forgotten you are to be
married, and they'll forget all about it half an hour after it is over.
Here is the parson; I did his memory an injustice!"
The old gentleman came shuffling up the porch and blinked at them over
his spectacles.
"Good-morning, Mr. Stanley," he said.
Blair stared, then, remembering that that was the name he had arranged
to assume, returned the greeting.
The pew-opener, an ancient dame, with a "front" slipping down nearly to
her nose, now made her appearance, and the party went into the church.
The clerk assisted the clergyman into his surplice, and got out the
register, and Blair, pressing Margaret's hand, walked up to the altar.
Austin Ambrose paused a moment before accompanying, and whispered to
Margaret:
"You will take care not to address either of us by name?"
She made a motion of assent, and, pale and trembling, followed with the
pew-opener and clerk.
The service began. It was scarcely audible; at times the old clergyman
was taken with a cough that threatened to shake him, and the book he
held, and, indeed, the church itself, into pieces, but he struggled
through it; and in a few minutes Margaret found herself leaning upon
Blair's arm, and heard him murmur--with what intensity of love!--"My
wife!"
"Now, if you'll sign the book," said the clerk. "Lemme see; what is the
name?" and he peered at the license.
"Here is the name!" said Austin Ambrose. "It is rather a long one, and
I've written it down," and he handed him a slip of paper.
Blair, to whom the remainder of the formalities was _caviare_, was
bending over Margaret at a little distance, and buttoning her gloves.
"Ah! yes! ahem! thank you!" said the clerk. "Now, if you'll sign,
please."
They signed, the old clergyman peering down at them with a benign and
utterly senile smile.
He had never heard of Lord Ferrers or of Lord Leyton, and this string
of names might belong to some young shopkeeper's assistant for all he
knew or cared; but he did inquire for the license.
"I put it in the book," said Austin Ambrose. He had got it in his
pocket.
"Oh, very well! Yes, thank you! Well, I trust you will be happy, young
couple; yes, with all my heart. You have got a beautiful morning; and
where are you going to spend your honeymoon?"
"In France," said Austin Ambrose, blandly. "So we must hurry away.
Good-morning, sir," and slipping their fees into the hands of parson,
clerk, and pew-opener, he made for the door.
"My wife!" said Blair again. "George! I can scarcely believe it is
true!" and he looked round with a half-dazed glance; but it changed to
one of triumph and happiness as he drew her arm within his and pressed
it to his side.
"Yes, you are man and wife," said Austin Ambrose, "and I echo the good
old clergyman's wish, 'May you be very happy,'" and he held out his
hand.
Blair seized it and wrung it.
"Thank you, Austin," he said simply, but with a ring of deep feeling in
his voice. "You have been a true friend to us both, eh, Madge?" and he
passed the hand on to her.
She took it and looked at the owner. Then suddenly she started and drew
back. For a moment--in his secret exultation--Mr. Austin Ambrose had
been off his guard, and there shone a light in his eyes that almost
betrayed him.
It was gone in an instant, however, and with the pleasant, friendly
smile, he pressed Margaret's hand.
"We mustn't try her too much, my dear Blair," he said. "It has been
an exciting morning. Would you like to rest, or will you go on, Lady
Leyton? There is just time to catch the train."
Margaret started. Lady Leyton!
Blair laughed.
"Margaret doesn't know her own name!" he said. "Which will you do, my
lady?"
"Let us go on," she murmured, a desire that was almost absorbing
possessed her--the longing to get rid of Mr. Austin Ambrose. It was
very ungrateful, but so it was.
"All right," said Blair.
They walked to the station. As Austin Ambrose had said, there was just
time to catch the down train to Devon, and in a few minutes it came
puffing up.
A faithful friend to the last, Austin Ambrose got them a carriage, and
tipped the guard.
"Good-bye," he said, standing on the step and waving his hand;
"good-bye, and Heaven bless you!" and there seemed to be something
really like tears in his voice.
And, indeed, he was paler than usual as he walked up and down the
platform, waiting for the train to London.
Sometimes our very success frightens us.
The train reached Waterloo pretty punctually, and Mr. Austin Ambrose
sprung out and got into a cab.
"Drive to No. 9, Anglesea Terrace," he said.