"I am so sorry," Bertha Greendale said, "so awfully sorry. I had no
idea that you thought of me like that. We were such friends so long
ago, and it has been so pleasant since you came home last year, and
I like you as if you were a big brother; but I have never thought
of you in any other light, and now it seems dreadful to me to give
you pain; but I feel sure that I should never come to love you in
that way."
And she burst into tears.
"Do not think anything more about it, dear," Frank Mallett said,
gently. "I have felt sometimes when we have been together, that you
were so kindly and frank and pleasant with me that you could feel
as I wanted you to. I ought to have known it always. But I suppose
in such cases a man deceives himself and shuts his eyes to facts.
You have certainly nothing to blame yourself about. Of course, it
is a hard blow, but no doubt I shall get over it as other fellows
do. At any rate, I know that we shall always be dear friends, and
you need not fear that I shall mope over my misfortune. I shall run
up to town for a bit, and as you are going up for the season next
week, I shall no doubt often meet you. Don't fret about me. I have
been hit pretty hard several times, though not in the same way, and
I have always gone through it, and no doubt I shall do so now.
"Goodbye," and when Bertha looked up, he had left the room.
"Oh, mamma," she said, when she went into the room where her mother
was sitting, "I am so sorry, so dreadfully sorry. Frank Mallett has
asked me to be his wife. I have never thought of such a thing and
of course I had to say no."
"I have thought such a thing likely for some time, Bertha, but I
thought it best to hold my tongue about it. In such matters the
interference of a mother often does more harm than good. I felt
sure, by your manner with him, that you had no idea of it; and I
must say that much as I like Frank Mallett, I should have been
sorry. I have great hopes of your making a really first-class
match."
"I could not make a better match," Bertha said, indignantly. "No
one could be kinder or nicer than Major Mallett, and we know how
brave he is and how he has distinguished himself, and he has a good
estate and everything that anyone could wish; only unfortunately I
do not love him--at least not in that way. He has never shown me
what I should consider any particular attention, and never talked
to me in the way men do when they are making love to a girl.
Nothing could be nicer, and it was all the nicer because I never
thought of this. I suppose it is because he is so different from
some of the men I met in town last season, who always seemed to be
trying to get round me. No, I know it is not a nice expression,
mamma, but you know what I mean."
"I know, my dear," her mother smiled. "Of course you are a very
good match, and though I do not want to flatter you, you were one
of the belles of the season. Though some of the men you speak of
were by no means desirable--younger sons and barristers and that
sort of thing--still, there were two or three whom any girl might
have been pleased to see at her feet, and who, I am sure from what
I saw, only needed but little encouragement from you to be there. I
was a little vexed, dear, you see, that you did not give any of
them that encouragement; but I understand, of course, that the
novelty of your first season carried you away altogether; and that
you liked the dancing and the fetes and the opera for themselves,
and not because they brought you in contact with men of excellent
class. So far as I could see, it was a matter of indifference to
you whether the man was a peer with a splendid rent roll, or a
younger son without a farthing, so that he was a good dancer and a
pleasant companion; but of course after a season or two you will
grow wiser."
"I do hope not, mamma," Bertha said, indignantly. "I don't mean to
say that it might not be better to marry, as you say, a peer with a
good rent roll than a younger son without a penny, other things
being equal; that is to say, if one liked them equally; but I hope
that I shall never come to like anyone a bit more for being a
peer."
Lady Greendale smiled, indulgently.
"It is a natural sentiment, my dear, for a girl of your age and
inexperience; but in time you will come to see things in a
different light."
Then she changed the subject. "What is Frank going to do? It is
fortunate that we are going up to town next week."
"He is going up to town himself tomorrow, and I am sure that you
will never hear from him, or from anyone else, what has happened.
We shall meet in town as usual, and I am sure that he will be just
the same as he was before, and that I shall be a great deal more
uncomfortable than he will. It is a very silly affair altogether, I
think; and I would give anything if it had not happened."
Lady Greendale did not echo the sentiment. She liked Frank Mallett
immensely. He had always been a great favourite of hers, but since
she had guessed what Bertha herself had not dreamed of, she had
been uncomfortable. It threatened to disturb all the plans she had
formed, and she was well contented to learn that she had refused
him. Lady Greendale was a thoroughly kind-hearted woman, but she
could not forget that she herself might have made, in a worldly
sense, a better match than she had; and her ambition had, since
Bertha was a child, and still more since she had shown promise of
exceptional good looks, been centred on her making a really good
match.
Frank went up to town next day, and the Greendales followed him a
week later. They did not often meet him in society, as Frank seldom
went out; but he called occasionally in the old friendly and
unceremonious way. It would have required an acute observer to see
any difference in his manner to Bertha, but Lady Greendale noticed
it, and the girl herself felt that, although he was no less kind
and friendly, there was some impalpable change in his manner,
something that she felt, though she could not define it, even to
herself.
"Have you had a tiff with Major Mallett, Bertha?" Mrs. Wilson asked
one day, when she was alone with her in the drawing room.
Frank had just left, after spending an hour there.
"A tiff, Carrie? No! What put such an idea into your head?"
"My eyes, assisted perhaps by my ears. My dear, do you think that
after being with you on the yacht last autumn, I should not notice
any change in your manner to each other? I had expected before now
to have heard an interesting piece of news; and now I see that
things have gone wrong somehow."
"We are just as good friends as we always were," Bertha said,
shortly; "every bit."
"You don't mean to say that you have refused him, Bertha?"
"I don't mean to say anything of the sort. I simply say that Major
Mallett and I have always been great friends, and we are so now.
There is no one that I have a higher regard for."
"Well, Bertha, I do not want to know your secrets, if you do not
wish to tell me. All that I can say is that, if you have refused
him, you have done a very foolish thing. I don't know any man that
a woman might be happier with. When we were out last year with you,
Amy and I agreed that it was certain to come off, and thought how
well suited you were to each other. Of course, in worldly respects,
you might do better; just at present you have the ball at your
feet; but choose where you may you will not find a finer fellow
than he is. Yes, I told Harry that it was lucky that I had not made
that trip on board the Osprey before I was irrevocably captured,
for I should certainly have lost my heart to Major Mallett. Well, I
am sorry, Bertha, more sorry than I can say; and I am sure that Amy
will be, too."
"I said nothing whatever, Carrie, that would justify this little
explosion, which I certainly don't intend to answer. I should
really feel very vexed, if I were not perfectly sure that you would
never tell anyone else of this notion that you have got in your
head."
"You may be quite sure of that, Bertha. At least when I say no one
else, of course I do not include Harry; but you know him well
enough to be certain that it will not go further. I am sure he will
be as disappointed as I am. In fact, he will have a small triumph
over me, for after the usual manner of men he saw nothing on board
the yacht, and has always maintained that it was pure fancy on my
part. However, I won't tell anyone else, not even Amy. She can find
it out for herself, which you may be sure she will do when she
comes back from the continent, if indeed her own happiness with
Jack has not blinded her to all sub-lunary matters.
"Well, goodbye, dear. You will forgive my saying that I am
disappointed in you, terribly disappointed in you."
"I must try to put up with that, Carrie. I am not aware that you
consulted me before you made your own matrimonial arrangements, and
perhaps I may be able to manage my own.''
"Well, don't be cross, Bertha. Remember that I am not advising or
counselling. I am simply regretting, which perhaps you may do
yourself, some day or other."
And with this parting shot she left.
The weeks went on, and when May came and Frank told her that the
Osprey was fitted out, and that he would join her in a day or two,
Bertha heard the news with satisfaction. The season was a gay one,
and she was enjoying herself greatly; the one little drop of
bitterness in her cup being that she could no longer enjoy his
visits as she formerly did. He had been the one man with whom she
was able to talk and laugh quite freely, who was really an old
friend, a link not only between her and the past, but between her
and her country life.
And now, she thought pettishly, he had spoiled all this, and what
annoyed her almost as much was that the change was more in herself
than in him. She no longer gave him commissions to execute for her,
nor made him her general confidant. She knew that he would be as
ready as before to laugh and to sympathise, that he would still
gladly execute her commissions, and she felt that he tried hard to
make her forget that he had aspired to be something nearer to her
than a brotherly friend. She felt that after what he had said they
could never stand in quite the same relation as before.
Accustomed as Frank was to read her thoughts, he was not deceived
by the expression of regret that she should now see but little of
him, as he saw the news was really pleasant to her. She was not
aware that it was a conversation that he had had the evening before
with Colonel Severn, which had decided him to go down to the Osprey
a fortnight earlier than he had intended.
"You are getting to be almost as regular an attendant here,
Mallett, as I am. I think you are altogether too young to take
regularly to club life. It is all very well for an old fogey like
me, but I don't think it a good thing for a young fellow like you
to take so early to a bachelor life."
"I don't want to do anything of the sort, Colonel. But I can't
stand these crushes in hot rooms; I cannot for the life of me see
where the pleasure comes in. I begin to think that I was an ass to
leave the army."
"Not at all, lad, not at all. When a man has got a good estate it
is much better for him to settle down upon it, and to marry and
have children, and all that sort of thing, than it is to remain in
the army in times of peace. I had Wilson and Hawley dining with me
here yesterday. We had a great chat over the pleasant time we had
last year on board your yacht. I don't know when I enjoyed myself
so much as I did then. Lady Greendale is a remarkably clever woman,
and her daughter is as nice a girl as I have come across for a long
time, and without a scrap of nonsense about her. I wonder that she
has not become engaged by this time. General Matthews, who, as you
know, goes in a good deal for that sort of thing for the sake of
his daughters, told me recently that he fancied from what he had
heard that Miss Greendale's engagement was likely to be a settled
thing before the season was over. He said there were three men
making the running--Lord Chilson, the eldest son of the Earl of
Sommerlay; George Delamore--his father is in the Cabinet, you know,
and he is member for Ponberry; and a man named Carthew, who keeps
race horses, and was a neighbour of hers down in the country. He
is, I hear, a good-looking fellow, and just the sort of man a girl
is likely to fancy. Matthews thought that the chances were in his
favour. As you are a neighbour of theirs, too, I suppose you will
know him?"
"I knew him at one time, Colonel, but I have not seen him now for a
good many years, beyond meeting him two or three times at dinners
and so on last season. He was away when I was at home before going
out to India, and he had sold his estate before I came back."
"They say he has been very lucky on the turf, and has made a pot of
money."
"So I have heard," Frank said; "but, you see, one generally hears
of men's good luck, and not of their bad. Besides, many men do most
of their real betting through commissioners, especially if they own
horses themselves. He is a fellow I don't much care for, and I hope
that whomever Miss Greendale may marry, he will not be the man."
"I thought, when you first asked me down last year, that you had
got up the party specially for her, Mallett, and that you were
going in for the prize yourself. But of course I soon saw that I
was mistaken, as you were altogether too good chums for that to
come about. I have often noticed that men and girls who are thrown
a lot together are often capital friends, but, although just the
pair you would think would come together, that they hardly ever do
so. I have noticed it over and over again. Well, she is an
uncommonly nice girl, whoever gets her."
Frank did not return to town until the end of June.
"I have to congratulate you upon the Osprey's victory," Bertha
said, the first time he called to see them. "You may imagine with
what interest I read the accounts of the yacht races. I saw you won
two on the Thames, and were first once and second once at
Southampton."
"Yes, the Osprey has shown herself to be, as I thought, an
uncommonly fast boat. We should have had two firsts at Southampton,
if the pilot had not cut matters too fine and run us aground just
opposite Netley; we were a quarter of an hour before we were off
again. We picked up a lot of our lost ground and got a second, but
were beaten eight minutes by the winner."
"Have you entered for the Queen's Cup at Ryde?"
"I have not entered yet, but I am going to do so," he said.
"Mamma and I will be down there. Lord Haverley--he is first cousin
to mamma, you know--has taken a house there for the month, and he
is going to have a large party, and we are going down for Ryde
week."
"Yes, and there will be the Victoria Yacht Club ball, and all sorts
of gaieties. I have not entered yet, but I am going to do so. The
entries do not close till next Saturday."
"You will call and see us, of course, Frank?" Lady Greendale said.
"Haverley has a big schooner yacht, and I dare say we shall be a
good deal on the water."
"I shall certainly do myself the pleasure of calling, Lady
Greendale."
"I warn you, Frank, that Bertha and I will be very disappointed if
the Osprey does not win the cup. We regard ourselves as being, to
some extent, her proprietors; and it will be a grievous blow to us
if you don't win."
"I do not feel by any means sure about it," he said. "I fancy there
will be several boats that have not raced yet this season, and as
two of them are new ones, there is no saying what they may turn
out."
Frank only stayed two days in town. He learned from Jack Hawley
that it was reported that Lord Chilson and George Delamore had both
been refused by Bertha Greendale.
"Chilson went away suddenly," he said. "As to Delamore, of course
as he is a Member he had to stop through the Session, but from what
I hear, and as you know I have some good sources of information, I
am pretty sure that he has got his conge too. I fancy Carthew is
the favourite. As a rule I don't like these men who go in for
racing, but he is a deuced-nice fellow. I have seen a good deal of
him. He put me up to a good thing for the Derby ten days ago. He
gives uncommonly good supper parties, and has asked me several
times, but I have not gone to them, for I believe there is a good
deal of play afterwards, and I cannot stand unlimited loo."
"Is he lucky himself?" Frank asked.
"No, quite the other way, I hear. I know a man who has been to
three or four of his suppers, and he told me that Carthew had lost
every time, once or twice pretty heavily."
"Carthew's horse ran second, didn't it, for the Derby?"
"Yes, the betting was twenty to one against him at starting."
"I wonder he did not give that tip as well as the other."
"Well, he did say that he thought it might run into a place, but
that he was sure that he had no chance with the favourite. As it
turned out, he was nearer winning than he expected; for the
favourite went down the day before the race, from 5 to 4 on, to 10
to 1 against. There was a report about that he had gone wrong in
some way. Some fellows said that there had been an attempt to get
at him, others that he had got a nail in his foot. The general
feeling had been that he would win in a canter, but as it was he
only beat Carthew's horse by a short head."
"Had Carthew backed his horse to win?"
"He told me that he had only backed it for a hundred, but had put
five hundred on it for a place, and as he got six to one against it
he came uncommonly well out of it."
"And do you think it likely that Miss Greendale will accept him?"
"Ah! that I cannot say. He has certainly been making very strong
running, and if I were a betting man I should not mind laying two
to one on the event coming off."
Frank joined the Osprey, which was lying off Portsmouth Harbour, on
the following day.
"I am back earlier than I expected, George," he said, as Lechmere
met him at the station. "I have got tired of London, and want to be
on board again."
"Nothing gone wrong in town, I hope, Major?" George said next day,
as he was removing the breakfast things. "You will excuse my
asking, but you don't seem to me to be yourself since you came on
board."
"Well, yes, George. I am upset, I confess. I am sure you will be
sorry, too, when I tell you that it is more than probable that Miss
Greendale is going to marry Mr. Carthew."
George put the dish he was holding down on the table with a crash,
and stood gazing at Frank in blank dismay.
"Why, sir, I thought," he said, slowly, "that it was going to be
you and Miss Greendale. I had always thought so. Excuse me, sir, I
don't mean any offence, but that is what we have all thought ever
since she came down to christen the yacht."
"There is no offence, George. Yes, I don't mind telling you that I
had hoped so myself, but it was not to be. You see, Miss Greendale
has known me since she was a child, and she has never thought of me
in any other way than as a sort of cousin--someone she liked very
much, but had never thought of for a moment as one she could marry.
That is all past and gone, but I should be sorry, most sorry, for
her to marry Carthew, knowing what I do of him."
"But it must not be, sir," George said, vehemently. "You can never
let that sweet young lady marry that black-hearted villain."
"Unfortunately I cannot prevent it, George."
"Why, sir, you would only have to tell her about Martha, and I am
sure it would do for his business. Miss Greendale can know nothing
about it. So far as I can remember, she was not more than sixteen
at the time. I don't suppose Lady Greendale ever heard of it. She
knew, of course, of Martha's being missing, because it made quite a
stir, but I don't suppose that she heard of her coming back. She
was only at home three weeks before she died. There were not many
that ever saw her, and father told me that he and the others made
it so hot for Carthew one day at Chippenham market that he never
came down again, and sold the place soon after. I don't suppose the
gentry ever heard anything about it. If they had, Lady Greendale
would surely never let her daughter marry him."
"No, I feel sure she would not; but still, George, I don't see that
I can possibly interfere in the matter. The story is three years
old now, and even if it had only happened yesterday, I, after what
has occurred between us, could not come forward as his accuser. It
would have the appearance of spite on my side; and besides, I have
no proof whatever. He would, of course, deny the whole thing. I do
not mean that he would deny that she said so--he could not do
that--but he might declare that she had spoken falsely, and might
even say that it was an attempt to put another's sin on his
shoulders. Moreover, as I told you, I have other reasons for
disliking the man, and, on the face of it, it would seem that I had
raked up this old story against him, not only from jealousy, but
from personal malice.
"No, it is out of the question that I should interfere. I would
give everything that I am worth to be able to do so, but it is
impossible. If I had full and unquestionable proofs I would go to
Lady Greendale and lay the matter before her. But I have no such
proofs. There is nothing whatever except that poor girl's word
against his."
George's lips closed, and an expression of grim determination came
over his face.
"I dare say you are right, Major," he said, after a pause; "but it
seems to me hard that Miss Greendale should be sacrificed to a man
like that."
Frank did not reply. He had already thought the matter over and
over again, and had reached the opinion that he could not
interfere. If he had not himself proposed to her, and been refused,
he might have moved. Up to that time he had stood in the position
of an old friend of the family, and as such could well have spoken
to Lady Greendale on a matter that so vitally concerned Bertha's
happiness. Now his taking that step would have the appearance of
being the interference of a disappointed rival, rather than of a
disinterested friend. He went up on deck, sat there for a time, and
at last arrived at a conclusion.
"It is my duty. There can be no doubt about that," he said to
himself. "If Bertha really loves Carthew, she will believe his
denial rather than my accusation, unsupported as it is by a scrap
of real evidence. In that case, she will put down my story as a
piece of malice and meanness. But, after all, that will matter
little. I had better far lose her liking and esteem than my own
self respect. I will tell Lady Greendale about this. The
responsibility will be off my hands then. She may not view the
matter as an absolute bar to Carthew's marrying Bertha--that is her
business and Bertha's--but at any rate I shall have done my duty. I
will wait, however, until Bertha has accepted him.
"I have made up my mind, George," he said, later on. "If I hear
that Miss Greendale has accepted Carthew, I shall go to her mother
and tell her the story. I have little hope that it will do much
good. It is very hard to make a girl believe anything against the
man she loves, until it can be proved beyond doubt, and as Carthew
will of course indignantly deny that he had anything to do with it,
I expect that it will have no effect whatever, beyond making her
dislike me cordially. Still, that cannot be helped. It is clearly
my duty not only as her friend, but as the friend of her father and
mother. But I wish that the task did not fall upon me."
"I am glad to hear you say that, Major," George said, quietly. "I
can see, sir, that, as you say, it would be better if anyone else
could do it, but Lady Greendale has known you for so many years
that she must surely know that you would never have told her unless
you believed the story to be true."
"No doubt she will, George. I hope Miss Greendale will, too; but
even if she does not see it in that light I cannot help it. Well, I
will go ashore to the clubhouse and find out whether they have
heard anything about the entries for the cup."
When he returned he said to the captain:
"I hear that the Phantom has entered, Hawkins. I am told that she
has just come off the slips, and that she has had a new suit of
racing canvas made by Lapthorne."
"Well, sir, I think that we ought to have a good chance with her.
She has shown herself a very fast boat the few times she has been
raced, but so have we, and taking the line through boats that we
have both sailed against, I think that we ought to be able to beat
her."
"I have rather a fancy that we shan't do so, Hawkins. We will do
our best, but I have met Mr. Carthew a good many times, for we were
at school and college together, and somehow or other he has always
managed to beat me."
"Ah! well, we will turn the tables on him this time, sir."
"I hope so, but it has gone so often the other way that I have got
to be a little superstitious about it. I would give a good deal to
beat him. I should like to win the Queen's Cup, as you know; but
even if I didn't win it I should be quite satisfied if I but beat
him."