THE ACCEPTED SUITOR
"Hark to the brute!" said Bunny.
A long, loud peal of laughter was echoing through the house. Maud
shuddered at the sound. The noisy wooing of her mother's suitor made
her feel physically sick. But for Bunny, she would have fled
incontinently from the man's proximity. Because of Bunny, she sat at a
rickety writing-table in a corner of the room and penned an urgent,
almost a desperate, appeal to the bachelor uncle in the North to deliver
them from the impending horror. No other consideration on earth would
have forced such an appeal from her. She felt literally distraught that
night. She was being dragged, a helpless prisoner, to the house of
bondage.
Again came that loud, coarse laugh, and with it the opening of a door on
the other side of the passage.
"Watch out!" warned Bunny. "They're coming!"
There was a hint of nervousness in his voice also. She heard it, and
swiftly rose. When their own door opened, she was standing beside him,
very upright, very pale, rigidly composed.
Her mother entered, flushed and smiling. Behind her came her accepted
lover,--a large, florid man, handsome in ascertain coarse style, with a
dissipated look about the eyes which told its own tale. Maud quivered
in impotent resentment whenever she encountered those eyes. They could
not look upon a woman with reverence.
He strolled into the room in her mother's wake, fondling a dark
moustache, in evident good humour with himself and all the world.
Lady Brian ran to her daughter with all a girl's impetuosity. "My dear,
it's all settled!" she declared. "Giles and I are going to be married,
and we're all going to live at "The Anchor" with him. And dear little
Bunny is to have the best ground-floor rooms. Now, isn't that kind?"
It was kind. Yet Maud stiffened to an even icier frigidity at the news,
and dear little Bunny's nose turned up to an aggressive angle.
After a distinct pause, Maud bent her long neck and coldly kissed her
mother's expectant face. "I hope you--and Mr. Sheppard will be very
happy," she said.
The happy suitor broke into his loud, self-satisfied laugh. "Egad, what
an enthusiastic reception!" he cried. "Have you got a similar chaste
salute for me?"
He swaggered towards her, and Maud froze as she stood. Her eyes shot a
blue flare of open enmity at him; and--almost in spite of himself--Giles
Sheppard paused.
"By Jove!" he said. "You've got a she-wolf here, madam."
Lady Brian turned. "Oh, Giles, don't be absurd! Maud is not like me,
you know. She was never demonstrative as a child. She was always shy
and quiet. They are not quite used to the idea of you yet. You must
give them time. Bunny darling, won't you give Mother a kiss?"
"What for?" said Bunny.
He was tightly gripping Maud's cold hand with fingers that were like
tense wire. His eyes, very wide and bright, defied the whole world on
her behalf.
"I'm not going to kiss anyone," he said. "Neither is Maud. I don't
know what there is to make such a fuss about. You've both been married
before."
The landlord of "The Anchor" gave a great roar of laughter. "Not bad
for a bantling, eh, Lucy? Didn't know I was to have a sucking cynic for
a step-son. You're quite right, my boy; there is nothing to make a fuss
about. And so we shan't ask you to dance at the wedding. Not that you
could if you tried, eh? And my Lady Disdain there won't be invited. We
are going to be married by special licence to-morrow afternoon, and you
can take possession of your new quarters while the knot is being tied.
How's that appeal to you?"
Bunny looked at him with a certain grim interest. "It'll suit me all
right," he said. "But I'm hanged if I can see where you come in."
Giles Sheppard laughed again with his tongue in his cheek. "Oh, I shall
have my picking at the feast, old son," he declared jovially. "I've had
my eye on your mother for a long time. Pretty piece of goods she is
too. You're neither of you a patch on her. They don't do you credit,
Lucy, my dear. Sure they're your own?"
"The man's drunk!" said Maud suddenly and sharply.
"My dear! My dear!" cried Lady Brian, in dismayed protest.
The girl bit her lip. The words had escaped her, she knew not how.
Giles Sheppard however only laughed again, and seated himself on the
edge of the table to contemplate her.
"We shall have to try and find a husband for you, young woman," he said,
"a husband who'll know how to bring you to heel. It'll be a tough job.
I wonder who'd like to take it on. Jake Bolton might do the trick.
We'll have Jake Bolton to dine with us to-morrow. He knows how to tame
wild animals, does Jake. It's a damn' pretty sight to see him do it
too. Gosh, he knows how to lay it on--just where it hurts most."
He chuckled grimly with his eyes on Maud's now crimson face.
"Now, Giles," protested Lady Brian, "you've promised to be good to my
two children. I'm sure we shall all shake down comfortably presently.
Dear Maud has a good deal to learn yet, so you must be patient with her.
We were foolish ourselves at her age, I have no doubt."
"Oh, no doubt," said her fiance, with his thick-lidded eyes still
mocking the girl's face of outraged pride. "We've all been foolish in
our time. But there's only one treatment for that complaint in the
female species, my lady; and that is a sound good spanking. It does a
world of good, takes the stiffening out of a woman in no time. I've had
a daughter of my own--a decent little filly she was too. Married now and
gone to Canada. But I had to keep her in order, I can tell you, before
she went. I gave her many a slippering, and she thought the better of
me for it too. She knew I wouldn't stand any of her nonsense."
"Oh, well," smiled Lady Brian, "we are not all alike, you know; and that
sort of treatment doesn't suit everybody. Now I think we all know each
other, and my little Bunny is looking rather tired. I think we won't
stay any longer. It means a bad night if he gets excited."
"Wait a minute!" interposed Bunny. "That man you were talking about
just now--Jake Bolton. Who is he? Where does he live?"
"Who is he?" Giles Sheppard slapped his thigh and rose. "He's one of
the best-known fellows about here--a bit of a card, but none the worse
for that. He's the trainer up at the stables--Lord Saltash's place.
Never heard of him? He's known as 'The Lynx' on the turf, because he's
so devilish shrewd. Oh yes, he's quite a card. And to see him break
one of them youngsters--well, it's a fair treat."
Mr. Sheppard's grammar was apt to lapse somewhat when his enthusiasm was
kindled. Maud shivered a little. Lady Brian smiled indulgently. Poor
Giles! He was a rough diamond. She would have to do a little
polishing; but she was sure he would become quite a valuable gem when
polished.
"Oh, he's Lord Saltash's trainer is he?" she said. "Lord Saltash is a
very old friend of ours. Is he--does he ever come down here?"
"Who? Lord Saltash? He has a place here. You couldn't have been very
intimate with him if you didn't know that. Just as well p'raps with a
man of his tendencies." Sheppard laughed in a fashion that sent the hot
blood back to Maud's face. "A bit too fond of his neighbour's
wife--that young man. Lucky thing for him that he didn't have to pay
heavy damages. More luck than judgment, to my thinking."
"Oh, Giles!" protested Lady Brian. "How you do run on! I did know that
he had an estate here. That was why I asked if he still came down. You
really mustn't blacken the young man's character in that way. We are
all very fond of him."
"Are you though!" Sheppard's laugh died; he looked at Maud with a hint
of venom. "Like the rest of your charming sex, eh? Well, we don't see
much of the gay Lothario in these parts. If that was your little game,
you'd better have stopped in town."
Maud's lips said, "Cad!", but her voice made no sound.
He bowed in ironical acknowledgment and turned to her mother. "Now, my
lady, having received these cordial congratulations, I move an
adjournment. As you have foretold, we shall doubtless all shake down
together very comfortably in the course of a few weeks. But in the
meantime I should like to inform all whom it may concern that I am
master in my own house, and I expect to be treated as such."
Again his insolent eyes rested upon Maud's proud face, and her slight
form quivered in response though she kept her own rigidly downcast.
"Of course that is understood," said Lady Brian, with a pacific hand on
his arm. "There! Let us go now! I am sure we are all going to be as
happy as the day is long."
She looked up at him with persuasive coquetry, and he at once succumbed.
He pulled her to him roughly and bestowed several resounding kisses upon
her delicate face, not desisting until with laughing remonstrance she
put up a protesting hand.
"Giles, really--really--you mustn't be greedy!" she said, and drew him
to the door with some urgency.
He went, his malignancy for the moment swamped by a stronger emotion;
and brother and sister were left alone.
"What a disgusting beast!" said Bunny, as the door closed.
Maud said nothing. She only went to the window, and flung it wide.