The tragic and untimely end of the smart, pretty, wonderfully-dressed
Countess of Stanchester will still be fresh within the memory of
newspaper readers.
It will be recollected how, with her maid, she left Sibberton Hall for
Paris, and how in her room at the _Hotel Continental_ she was found
dead, having unfortunately taken an overdose of morphia.
At least such was the newspaper story, and happily so, for it spared
scandal and disgrace to one of England's noblest houses. To the public
the truth never leaked out, and as a consequence the society papers were
full of regrets that a woman so young, so popular and so full of life
and energy should have been cut off by accident in such a manner, while
everywhere the deepest sympathy was expressed towards her husband.
Keene and I accompanied him to Paris, and we three were the only
mourners at those terribly tragic last rites at Pere Lachaise. He stood
motionless with uncovered head until the final act, and then with a
great bursting sob he turned away, and for a week I saw nothing of him.
I returned to London on the following day, and in the great drawing-room
of Stanchester House, overlooking the Park, I stood and grasped the
hands of my well-beloved. In her plain black, she presented a wan and
fragile figure, yet upon her cheeks showed the flush of hope and
pleasure, and as our lips met in a soft sweet caress I knew that she was
mine--mine for ever.
We sat together at one of the long windows of that magnificent room
until the golden haze over the Park faded into dull crimson and the
London day drew to a close, talking of the future and of what it meant
to us, for she held in her hand a brief letter from her heart-broken
brother, posted in Brussels, in which he wrote:--
"I know that you love Willoughby and I have no objection whatever to
your marriage. I welcome it. He has saved your life, and he has saved
our house from dishonour. In such circumstances, my dear Lol, nothing
will please me better than a union between you. He is poor, but tell
him not to worry on that account. You have sufficient for yourself, but
I shall make over Chelmorton to you for your lifetime, which will
provide you both with income sufficient."
"Ah!" I cried joyfully when I read that letter. "Then, after all,
George does not object to my birth and station! He is indeed generous!"
"No, dearest," was her kindly answer as she placed her hand tenderly
upon my shoulder and bent of her own accord to kiss my lips. "He does
not object because he knows that we really love each other, and that no
man has greater claim to me than yourself."
The words spoken between us are surely of little import to you, my
reader, save to know that we mutually resolved that the name of Marigold
should never in all our lives again pass our lips. This and other firm
resolves we made, until the autumn dusk darkened into night and the
footman entering to switch on the lights and draw the curtains, recalled
us to the realities of the life about us.
Since that glad reunion when I held my love in my arms, and she promised
to be my wife, nearly two years have passed happily, blissful years that
have slipped by like mere weeks so unheeded has been Time.
And to-day? Well, there is little to record, save that this season the
famous Stanchester hounds are hunted by Frank Blew, the huntsman, for
the Earl has been, ever since our marriage, out in Mashonaland hunting
with his most intimate friend, the honest, big-handed, weather-beaten
sportsman, Richard Keene. Of Alfred Logan we see something on rare
occasions, for having been "set upon his legs" by George, he has now an
increasing architect's practice in Great George Street, Westminster,
enjoying the great advantage of being the architect to the Stanchester
estates.
And ourselves?
After the terrible anxiety and awful suspicion of those dark,
never-to-be-forgotten days all is now happiness. The barrier 'twixt me
and the rapturous peace I so long panted for is removed, and we have
both emerged at last from that fatal region of mystery and doubt. At
Chelmorton Towers, the beautiful old ivy-covered place in Sussex which
George so generously gave to his sister for our use during her lifetime,
I live in the sunshine of Lolita's matchless beauty, charmed by the
secret tenderness of her voice and thrilled by her soft caresses.
Nought else I desire. We have, both of us, found happiness in each
other's pure affection.
And as day succeeds day, and every rising sun blesses me with sight of
my sweet beloved and ushers in fresh ecstasy, I feel myself in full
possession of the world of joy. In vain have I re-dipped my pen to
trace the raptures that enchant me; but the thread is broken, and to
give to language what my soul conceals is not in me, nor in the brain of
human nature to impart.
Life and love are ours, and to us they are all-sufficient.
The End.