At a few minutes after nine, the following morning, the Marquis entered
the room where breakfast was usually served. The Duchess, in
travelling clothes and a hat, was lifting the covers from the silver
dishes upon the sideboard, with a fork in her hand. She welcomed him a
little shortly.
"Good morning, Reginald!"
"Good morning, Caroline," he replied. "Are you the only representative
of the household?"
She snorted.
"Charlie Grantham went off in his little two-seater at eight o'clock
this morning," she announced. "He is motoring up to town. Left
apologies with Gossett, I believe--telegram or something in the night.
All fiddlesticks, of course!"
"Naturally," the Marquis assented, helping himself from one of the
dishes and drawing his chair up to his sister's side. "So exit Charles
Grantham, eh?"
"And me," the Duchess declared, returning to her place and pouring out
the coffee. "I suppose you can send me to Fakenham for the ten o'clock
train?"
The Marquis considered for a moment.
"I am not sure, Caroline," he said, "that your departure is entirely
kind."
"Well, I'm jolly certain I don't mean it to be," she answered bitterly.
"I ask no questions, and I hate scenes. A week ago I should have
scoffed at the idea of David Thain as a prospective suitor for Letitia.
Now, my advice to you is, the sooner you can get them married, the
better."
"Really!" he murmured. "You've given up the idea, then, of taking the
young man to Scotland?"
"Entirely," the Duchess assured him emphatically. "I was an idiot to
ever consider it. When people of his class find their way amongst us,
disaster nearly always follows. You see, they don't know the rules of
the game, as we play it. Whilst we are on this subject, Reginald, what
are you going to do about it?"
The Marquis unlocked his letter case and shook out the contents.
"You mean about last night?" he asked. "Well, as I don't want to be
the laughing-stock of the county, I shall keep as quiet as I can. I
knew that something ridiculous would happen, with that poor lunatic
sitting in the garden, poring over the Bible all day long."
The Duchess looked distinctly malicious.
"I am not at all as sure as I should like to be," she said, "that the
old man is to blame for everything."
The Marquis looked at his sister intently. She bent over the milk jug.
"You leave me in some doubt, Caroline," he observed coldly, "as to what
frame of mind you are in, when you make such utterly incomprehensible
remarks and curtail your visit to us so suddenly. At the same time, I
hope that whatever your private feelings may be, you will not forget
certain--shall I call them obligations?"
"Oh, don't be afraid!" she rejoined. "I am not likely to advertise my
folly, especially at Letitia's expense. I don't care a jot whether the
young man came through a hole in the wall or dropped down from the
clouds. I only know that his presence in Letitia's bedchamber--"
"We will drop the discussion, if you please," the Marquis interrupted.
There was just the one note in his tone, an inheritance, perhaps, from
those more virile ancestors, which reduced even his sister to silence.
The Marquis adjusted his eyeglass and commenced a leisurely inspection
of his letters. He did so without any anxiety, without the slightest
premonition of evil. Even when he recognised her handwriting, he did
so with a little thrill of pleasurable anticipation. He drew the
letter closer to him and with a word of excuse turned away towards the
window. Perhaps she was wanting him. After all, it would be quite
easy to run up to London for a day--and wonderfully pleasant. He drew
the single sheet from its envelope. The letters seemed magnified. The
whole significance of those cruel words seemed to reach him with a
single mental effort.
Reginald, I was married to James Borden this morning. I suppose it is
the uncivilised part of me which has been pulling at my heartstrings,
day by day, week by week, the savage in me clamouring for its right
before it is too late.
So we change positions, only whereas you have atoned and justified
every one of your actions towards me since our eyes first met, I am
left without any means of atonement.
Will you forgive?
Your very humble and penitent
MARCIA.
The Marquis replaced the letter in the envelope. For several moments
he stood looking across the park, beyond, to the well-cultivated farms
rolling away to the distant line of hills. His brain was numbed.
Marcia had gone!--There was a mist somewhere. He rubbed the
windowpane, in vain. Then he set his teeth, and his long, nervous
fingers gripped at his throat for a moment.
"Your coffee is getting cold," his sister reminded him.
He came back to his place. She watched him a little curiously.
"Any message from our pseudo-Lothario?" she asked.
The Marquis gathered up his other letters.
"There is nothing here from him," he said, "but I must ask you to
excuse me, Caroline. There is an urgent matter which needs my
attention."
He crossed the room a little more slowly than usual, and his sister,
who was still watching him critically, sighed. There was no doubt at
all that his walk was becoming the walk of an old man. The stoop of
the shoulders was also a new thing. She counted up his age on her
fingers, and, rising from her place, looked at herself in the mirror
opposite. Her face for a moment was hard and set, and her fingers
clenched.
"Years!" she muttered to herself. "How I hate them!"
The Marquis selected a grey Homburg hat of considerable antiquity, and
a thicker stick than usual, from the rack in the hall. The front doors
stood wide open, and he walked out into the pleasant sunshine. It was
a warm morning, but twice he shivered as he passed down the broad sweep
of drive and, with a curious sensation of unfamiliarity, crossed the
little bridge over the moat, the few yards of park, and finally
approached the palings which bordered Richard Vont's domain. The mist
still seemed to linger before his eyes, but through it he could see the
familiar figure seated in his ancient chair, with the book upon his
knee. The Marquis drew close to the side of the palings.
"Richard Vont," he began, "I have come down from Mandeleys to speak to
you. Will you listen to what I have to say?"
There was no reply. The Marquis drew the letter from his pocket.
"You are a cruel and stubborn man, Vont," he continued. "You have gone
far out of your way to bring injury and unhappiness upon me. All your
efforts are as nothing. Will you hear from me what has happened?"
There was silence, still grim silence. The Marquis stretched out his
hand and leaned a little upon the paling.
"I took your daughter, Richard Vont, not as a libertine but as a lover.
It was perhaps the truest impulse my life has ever felt. If there was
sin in it, listen. Hear how I am punished. Month followed month and
year followed year, and Marcia was content with my love and I with
hers, so that during all this time my lips have touched no other
woman's, no other woman has for a moment engaged even my fancy. I have
been as faithful to your daughter, Richard Vont, as you to your
vindictive enmity. From a discontented and unhappy girl she has become
a woman with a position in the world, a brilliant writer, filled with
the desire and happiness of life to her finger tips. From me she
received the education, the travel, the experience which have helped
her to her place in the world, and with them I gave her my heart. And
now--you are listening, Richard Vont? You will hear what has happened?"
Still that stony silence from the figure in the chair. Still that
increasing mist before the eyes of the man who leaned towards him.
"Your daughter, Richard Vont," the Marquis concluded, "has taken your
vengeance into her own hands. Your prayers have come true, though not
from the quarter you had hoped. You saw only a little way. You tried
to strike only a foolish blow. It has been given to your daughter to
do more than this. She has broken my heart, Richard Vont. She grew to
become the dearest thing in my life, and she has left me.--Yesterday
she was married."
No exclamation, no movement. The Marquis wiped his eyes and saw with
unexpected clearness. What had happened seemed so natural that for a
moment he was not even surprised. He stepped over the palings, leaned
for a single moment over the body of the man to whom he had been
talking, and laid the palm of his hand over the lifeless eyes. Then he
walked down the tiled path and called to the woman whose face he had
seen through the latticed window.
"Mrs. Wells," he said, "something serious has happened to Vont."
"Your lordship!"
"He is dead," the Marquis told her. "You had better go down to the
village and fetch the doctor. I will send a message to his nephew."
Back again across the park, very gorgeous now in the fuller sunshine,
casting quaint shadows underneath the trees, glittering upon the
streaks of yellow cowslips on the hillside. The birds were singing and
the air was as soft as midsummer. He crossed the bridge, turned into
the drive and stood for a moment in his own hall. A servant came
hurrying towards him.
"Run across the park to Broomleys as fast as you can," his master
directed. "Tell Mr. Thain to go at once to Vont's cottage. You had
better let him know that Vont is dead."
The young man hastened off. Gossett appeared from somewhere in the
background and opened the door of the study towards which the Marquis
was slowly making his way.
"The shock has been too much for your lordship," the man murmured.
"May I bring you some brandy?"
The Marquis shook his head.
"It is necessary, Gossett," he said, "that I should be absolutely
undisturbed for an hour. Kindly see that no one even knocks at my door
for that period of time."
Gossett held open the door and closed it softly. He was a very old
servant, and in great measure he understood.