I strolled back up the long beech avenue to the Hall, apprehensive and
puzzled. The stranger's manner, his curious expression when he had
spoken of Lolita, and the bold way in which he had sent her the
announcement of the return of Richard Keene were ominous. What, I
wondered, did the letter contain, sealed as it was with the arms of some
noble house?
I scented mystery in it all; mystery that somehow concerned myself.
Why? Well, I will confess to you now--at the very outset. I, although
but a paid servant of the Stanchesters, like any of that army of footmen
and grooms, loved Lady Lolita in secret, and although no word of
affection had ever passed between us, I nevertheless felt that her
interests were my own.
My position was, I admit, a unique one. Lolita and I had been friends
ever since our childhood days in India, when her father held the highest
official position in the East and mine was his confidential assistant,
and now, her brother having succeeded, she seemed to regard me as a
harmless and necessary director of things in general. Very frequently I
was invited to luncheon or to dinner, and treated always as one of the
family, even though I was but a paid dependant. Yes, both the young
Earl and his sister were extremely kind and considerate, and surely I
had no cause for complaint, either in matter of salary, which was a
handsome one, or in that of social standing.
So thoroughly had I mastered all the details of the great estate during
the haughty old Earl's lifetime that I suppose my existence was
necessary for the well-being of my college friend who had so suddenly
found himself a millionaire. Indeed, he had admitted to me that he had
never met several of his estate agents in various parts of the country,
therefore I had the absolute control of them and generally superintended
the revenue and expenditure, an office which entailed considerable work,
inasmuch as besides Sibberton, the family possessed Stanchester House,
that big white mansion in Park Lane, Stanchester Castle in Warwickshire,
Dildawn and its great deer-forest in Argyllshire, Chelmorton Towers in
Sussex, and the Villa Aurora on the olive-clad hill above San Remo.
Sibberton Hall was, however, the seat which the young Earl preferred,
and where he usually spent the few weeks of summer between the season at
Cowes and that of the moors. As I came up the straight shady avenue of
ancient beeches which met overhead for more than a mile, the magnificent
facade of the splendid old place with its countless windows, its towers
and high twisted chimneys stood in the soft crimson haze of the
brilliant afterglow, its delicate traceries and marvellous architecture
giving it almost the appearance of an illustration from some fairy tale.
Built in the early days of Elizabeth by the first Earl of Stanchester,
her celebrated minister, it was in the form of a quadrangle with wings
abutting from the sides and ending at the extremities in towers, while
its princely proportions were such as to place it among the largest and
most notable family mansions in the country.
The last rays of sunset flashed upon its many windows as I emerged from
the avenue, and then passing across the level lawns and ancient
bowling-green, I entered the great hall with its wonderful ornamental
fireplace and stands of armour, and proceeded along one corridor after
another to the cosy room in the west wing which served me as study.
From the window where I stood for a moment in deep reflection I
commanded a view for several miles across the great level park which was
some ten miles in extent, and where, in the distance, rose another low,
old-fashioned Jacobean building with clock-tower, the kennels of the
Earl's famous foxhounds. My room was an old-fashioned one, like
everything else in that fine mansion. Lined from floor to ceiling with
books and in the centre a big writing-table, it had been given over to
me by the old Earl when I had first entered upon my duties ten years
before. The floor was of oak, polished like a mirror, and over the
arched chimney was carved in stone the greyhound courant of the
Stanchesters, with the date 1571.
I glanced at severed notes that had been dropped into the rack in my
absence, and then casting myself into an easy chair lit a cigarette and
continued my apprehensive reflections.
The summer dusk darkened into night, and having a quantity of
correspondence to attend to, I went to the room I sometimes occupied,
changed, dined alone, and then about nine o'clock returned to my study
to finish my work.
Not a sound penetrated there. That wing was but little used, for above
was the long picture-gallery with the dark old family portraits by
Vandyke, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Kneller, and others, as well as priceless
examples of Gainsborough, Turner, Hobbema, and the world-famous Madonna
of Raphael. The room had been given to me so that I should not be
disturbed by visitors who, owing to the enormous proportions of the
place, usually wandered about hopelessly lost in their attempt to reach
their rooms without a servant as guide.
The name of Keene was puzzling me. Somehow I had a distinct and vivid
recollection of having heard it before, but in what connexion I could
not recollect, although I had been racking my brains ever since I had
left the village inn. I took down the old address-book used by my
predecessor, but there was no entry there. No, I felt somehow that I
had heard the name outside my connexion with the family, but where, or
in what circumstances, I could not for the life of me remember.
My hands were clasped behind my head, and with my work cast aside, I was
smoking vigorously, when there came a low tap at the door, and in
response to my permission to enter, Lady Lolita came forward gaily, a
sweet almost girlish figure in her cream dinner-gown girdled with
turquoise blue, exclaiming--
"Mr Woodhouse, I do wish you would do me a favour, would you?"
"Most certainly," I exclaimed, springing quickly to my feet. "What is
it?"
"I want you to copy out something for me, will you?" And seating
herself at my writing-table, she took up a pen and scribbled some lines.
Her gown suited her to perfection, the low-cut bodice revealing her
white throat, around which sparkled a splendid necklet of diamonds that
flashed beneath my lamp with a thousand fires. Upon her white wrist was
a quaint Chinese bracelet cut from a solid piece of bright green stone.
Her face was perfect in its symmetry, and her finely-chiselled features
were almost an exact reproduction of those of Lady Mary Sibberton in Sir
Joshua's picture in the gallery above. The loveliness of the Sibberton
women had been proverbial back in the Jacobean and Georgian days, and
assuredly Lady Lolita inherited the distinctive beauty of the female
members of the family. The delicately-moulded cheeks, the pointed chin,
the sweet, well-formed mouth, the even set of pearly teeth, the wealth
of auburn hair and the laughing blue eyes so full of mischief and
merriment rendered her peerless among women, while her wit and
easy-going good-humour endeared her to all, rich and poor alike.
As I stood by, watching her bent head beneath the lamplight, I saw that
although she tried to write, her small white hand trembled so that the
attempt was by no means successful. She seemed nervous and upset, for I
now noticed for the first time that her breast rose and fell quickly
beneath her laces, and that she was trying in vain to repress a wild
tumult of agitation that raged within her.
"No," she cried, throwing down the pen and looking up at me, "I can't
write. I--" And she stopped without concluding her sentence, fixing her
beautiful eyes upon me. She was magnificent. That look of hers was
surely sufficient to make any man's head reel.
"Do you know," she exclaimed suddenly, bursting into a nervous laugh, "I
didn't really want you to write a letter at all! I only wanted an
excuse to come into this den of yours--to speak to you."
Her laugh somehow sounded unnatural. With her woman's subtle tact she
was, I knew, trying to conceal her agitation.
"To speak to me? What about?"
She grew grave again in an instant, and rising, crossed towards me. I
saw that all the colour had died from her face and that she grasped the
edge of the table to steady herself.
"I wanted to ask you--I wanted to see if you would do something for me,"
she said in a low tremulous voice, very harsh and intense.
Was it possible that Warr had already seen her and delivered the note
and message from that mysterious stranger?
"What do you wish me to do?" I inquired eagerly.
"I want you to help me, Willoughby," she said. "I am in peril--deadly
peril. You can save me if you will."
"Peril? Peril of what?"
"Ah! That I cannot tell you," she answered; then suddenly losing all
control of herself she exclaimed wildly, "The past has risen against me,
to torment me, to hound me down to the very depths of hell. Ah!
Willoughby, save me--you will, won't you? You are my friend. Say you
are--say you will help me," she implored with clasped hands.
"But what do you fear, Lady Lolita?" I asked in the hope of learning
her secret.
"I fear death," she cried hoarsely. "The blow has fallen, and I am
lost--lost."
"No, no," I said, taking her soft hand gently in mine and finding it
cold, trembling in fear. "Do not anticipate the worst, whatever may be
your danger."
"Ah! if I could tell you all--if I only dared to tell you," she sighed.
"But even then you wouldn't believe it--you couldn't."
"But may I not know something of this peril of yours?" I urged. "If
you tell me, I shall then know how to deal with it."
"You can only serve me at great risk to yourself," was her quick reply.
"In any way I can serve you, Lolita, do not hesitate to command me," I
said, deeply in earnest and still holding her trembling hand in mine.
By that wild look in her beautiful eyes I saw that her heart was gripped
by some nameless terror, and that she was in desperation. Then, in a
moment of deep sympathy, recollecting the stranger's ominous words, I
added: "I love you now, Lolita, with the deepest devotion with which any
man has loved."
And before she was aware of it, I had raised those thin white fingers
reverently to my lips and imprinted upon them a tender lingering kiss.