THE OLD LOVERS
After a little while I went away and left them together.
Uncle Luke came with me to the dining-room door and lit my candle for me
as though he had never gone away. When he had lit it he went with me
outside the door, and, partly closing it, he said to me--
"Tell me, Bawn dear, did Mary Champion believe those lies?"
"She knew nothing of them," I answered. "They would not tell her the
things Garret Dawson had said. But she would not have believed them. She
was vexed with them for being afraid, because she said she never would
believe that you had done anything which could bring disgrace on any one
who loved you."
"My brave girl!" he said softly; and then he said to me with a smile
that I had the handsomest and noblest gentleman in the world for a
lover, and that my Anthony was coming to me as fast as he could and
that they two were sworn brothers.
I ought to have slept the soundest and sweetest sleep in the world,
especially as the storm had died down and the ghosts cried no longer and
there seemed an atmosphere of peace and happiness over all the house.
But I was disturbed in my dreams by the face of Richard Dawson, who had
loved me so much to his own hurt and in my dream I was weeping.
The household was barely astir when I awoke next morning and there was a
frosty air. I lay watching the window awhile as the dark gave place to
dusk. It would be an hour yet before the sun should rise; and a maid
came to light my fire and bring me my tea and my bath-water. But I was
too excited to sleep, so I got up and dressed myself in the half light,
and when I was ready I put on my outdoor things and went down the
stairs. I met only a young maid sweeping the stairs with her brush and
dustpan, and she looked at me as though she thought the joy had driven
me mad.
"I shall be back to breakfast, Katty," I said. "It is a beautiful frosty
morning for a walk."
"You're not going to walk in the dark, Miss Bawn?" she said, and stood
staring after me over the banisters when I answered her that the sun
would soon be up.
I liked the frosty keenness of the air, and this morning my heart was
very light. Although it had rained so heavily in the night the frost had
turned everything hard and stiff; but as I ran on my way down the long
avenue, and heard the sleepy twittering of the birds, I could have sung
for the new, healthy life that was in my veins. I had not gone far
before the sun sent his golden rays above the horizon, and the blue came
out in the sky overhead and it was day, and all at once the robins began
to sing.
The early walk gave me a pleasant sense of adventure. I was on my way to
Castle Clody, and was wondering if I should find my godmother up and how
I would tell her the good news.
By the time I arrived there the whole lawn and the hedges were shining
with the diamonds of the frost in the good golden light, and glancing up
at my godmother's window I saw that her blind was up, and said to myself
that she must be awake and about. Of course she was always an early
riser, though she would have me lie late a-bed when I stayed with her,
saying it was good for young people to sleep.
The doors and windows of Castle Clody were always open to the fresh air;
and as I went in by the open hall door I saw my godmother coming down
the stairs.
"Why, bless me, it is Bawn!" she said. "What brings you so early, child?
There is no bad news, I trust. Your grandmother?"
"Was never better in her life. Godmother dear, so many things have
happened that I do not know where to begin."
"Begin somewhere," she said, after one quick look at me, and led the way
into the little room where we usually had our meals together. The fire
was lit and the table set for breakfast, and the room looked very
pleasant. "Dido is not with you," she said, closing the door behind us.
"No," I returned.
"And how is that, Bawn? How did she let you come alone?"
"As I came down the stairs in the dusk of the morning she lay on the mat
outside Uncle Luke's door, and when I called to her to come she wagged
her old tail and would not come. For the first time she would not follow
me. Godmother dear, isn't it a strange thing that Maureen should have
prepared his room yesterday, saying that he would be with us before
night?"
"Bawn, Bawn," cried my godmother, very pale, "if you do not mean that
Luke L'Estrange has come home I can never forgive you."
"And I should deserve not to be forgiven," I said. "He has come home."
"I knew he was not dead."
"He is alive and well, and one of the first inquiries he made was for
you."
"Now they shall see," she said exultantly, and her lips curled, "how
much truth there was in those slanders of Garret Dawson's. Dear old
souls! why were they afraid? Why would they not let me challenge him?"
"They were not so foolish," I said. "He held papers. If Uncle Luke had
not come home we could not have disproved them."
"And there is an end to your marriage?" she asked breathlessly.
I held out my hand to her. It no longer carried Richard Dawson's ring.
"He set me free last night," I said, "before we knew who was coming
home. You must clear him in your thoughts, godmother. He never knew how
his father had obtained our consent to the marriage. He was furious when
he knew and he set me free. I wish I knew what had become of him."
"Don't trouble about him, child. Presently you will find a lover worthy
of you."
I said nothing, but my heart leaped. I was a proud woman to think that
Anthony Cardew loved me, and still I was grieved for the others.
"You will breakfast with me, child?" she went on.
"I am furiously hungry," I replied. "And afterwards--will you come back
with me to Aghadoe?"
"I think not. If your uncle wants me he will find me here."
"I think he will see Garret Dawson first. He will not come to you till
all that is cleared up."
"It need never be cleared for me. Whatever the story was, it is for me
as though it never existed."
I made a most prodigious breakfast. I had no anxiety as to what they
might think about my absence at Aghadoe; I felt they would know where I
was.
I said no more to my godmother about returning with me. I felt she was
right in waiting for Uncle Luke where she was, and I was sure he would
go to her when he had confronted Garret Dawson and wrung the truth from
him. But after breakfast, lest they should be waiting for me at
Aghadoe, I returned home the way I had come, feeling as though I walked
on air. I could have run and leaped, except when a thought came to me of
Richard Dawson, and then my heart was suddenly heavy.
I entered the woods by the postern gate, and hurried along with a heart
full of gratitude to the kind God who had brought good out of evil and
had delivered us from our troubles.
Just at the edge of the wood some one stepped from one of the side paths
full in my way. It was Richard Dawson, and I was amazed at the havoc the
sufferings of one night had wrought in him.
"Don't be afraid of me, Bawn," he said. "I'm not here to trouble you,
only there is something I want to give you. Here are those precious
papers my father held. I have been waiting here for some chance
messenger to take them. They are my gift to you. Let Lord St. Leger see
that he has everything and then destroy them."
He held out a sealed packet to me and I took it.
"Everything is there," he said. "Henceforth we are as harmless as a
snake that has had its poison-bag out. Think kindly of me, Bawn. I am
going a long journey. I have had a scene with my father. He swears that
not a penny of his money shall come to me. What matter? I shall do
without it very well. Good-bye, Bawn."
"God-speed," I said, altering the word of farewell.
He turned round and came back to me.
"Nay, not God-speed," he said harshly. "God has little to do with such
as I am."
And then he was gone.