“The fact is, I am a little put out by having to change my quarters so
abruptly,” said Arthur Arden. “I am going to Scotland in the beginning
of September, but that is a long way off; and to go to one’s lodgings in
town now is dreary work. Besides, I said to the Pimpernels when they
drove me out--they actually turned me out of the house--I told them I
was coming here. It was the only way I could be even with them. If there
is a thing they reverence in the world it is Arden; and if they knew I
was here----”
“It does not entirely rest with me,” said Edgar, with some
embarrassment. “Arden, we had a good deal of discussion on various
subjects before I went away.”
“Yes; you went in order to turn me out,” said Arthur meditatively. “By
George, it’s pleasant! I used to be a popular sort of fellow. People
used to scheme for having me, instead of turning me out. Look here! Of
course, when you showed yourself my enemy, it was a point of religion
with me to pursue my own course, without regard to you; but now, equally
of course, if you take me in to serve me, my action will be different. I
should respect your prejudices, however they might run counter to my
own.”
“That means----?” said Edgar, and then stopped short, feeling that it
was a matter which he could not discuss.
“It is best we should not enter into any explanations. Explanations are
horrid bores. What I want is shelter for a few weeks, to be purchased by
submission to your wishes on the points we both understand.”
“For a few weeks!” said Edgar, with a little horror.
“Well, say for a single week. I must put my pride in my pocket, and beg,
it appears. It will be a convenience to me, and it can’t hurt you much.
Of course, I shall be on my guard in respect to Clare.”
“I prefer that my sister’s name should not be mentioned between us,”
said Edgar, with instinctive repugnance. And then he remembered Mrs.
Murray’s strange appeal to him on behalf of his cousin. “You have all
but as much right to be in Arden as I have,” he said. “Of course, you
must come. My sister is not prepared; she does not expect any one.
Would it not be wiser to wait a little--till to-morrow--or even till
to-night?”
“Pardon me,” said Arthur; “but Miss Arden, I am sure, will make up her
mind to the infliction better--if I am so very disagreeable--if she gets
over the first shock without preparation. Is it that I am getting old, I
wonder? I feel myself beginning to maunder. It used not to be so, you
know. Indeed, there are places still--but never mind, hospitality that
one is compelled to ask for is not often sweet.”
It was on Edgar’s lips to say that it need not be accepted, but he
refrained, compassionate of his penniless kinsman. Why should the one be
penniless and the other have all? There was an absence of natural
justice in the arrangement that struck Edgar whenever his mind was
directed to it; and he remembered now what had been his intention when
his cousin first came to the Hall. “Arden,” he said, “I don’t think, if
I were you, I would be content to ask for hospitality, as you say; but
it is not my place to preach. You are the heir of Arden, and Arden owes
you something. I think it is my duty to offer, and yours to accept,
something more than hospitality. I will send for Mr. Fazakerly
to-morrow. I will not talk of dividing the inheritance, because that is
a thing only to be done between brothers; but, as you may become the
Squire any day by my death----”
“I would sell my chance for five pounds,” said Arthur, giving his
kinsman a hasty look all over. “I shall be dead and buried years before
you--more’s the pity. Don’t think that I can cheat myself with any such
hope.”
This was intended for a compliment, though it was almost a brutal one;
but its very coarseness made it more flattering--or so at least the
speaker thought.
“Anyhow, you have a right to a provision,” Edgar continued hastily, with
a sudden flush of disgust.
“I am agreeable,” said Arthur, with a yawn. “Nobody can be less
unwilling to receive a provision than I am. Let us have Fazakerly by all
means. Of course, I know you are rolling in money; but Old Arden to
Clare and a provision to me will make a difference. If you were to
marry, for instance, you would not find it so easy to make your
settlements. You are a very kind-hearted fellow, but you must mind what
you are about.”
“Yes,” said Edgar, “you are quite right. What is to be done must be done
at once.”
“Strike while the iron is hot,” said Arthur, languidly. He did not care
about it, for he did not believe in it. A few weeks at Arden in the
capacity of a visitor was much more to him than a problematical
allowance. Fazakerly would resist it, of course. It would be but a
pittance, even if Edgar was allowed to have his way. The chance of being
Clare’s companion, and regaining his power over her, and becoming lawful
master through her of Old Arden, was far more charming to his
imagination. Therefore, though he was greedy of money, as a poor man
with expensive tastes always is, in this case he was as honestly
indifferent as the most disinterested could have been. Thus they
strolled up the avenue, where the carriage wheels were still fresh which
had carried Clare; and a certain relief stole over her brother’s mind
that they would be three, not two, for the rest of the day. Strange,
most strange that it should be so far a relief to him not to be alone
with Clare.
Clare received them with a seriousness and reserve, under which she
tried to conceal her excitement. Her cousin had deceived her, preferred
a cottage girl to her, insulted her in the most sensitive point, and yet
her heart leapt into her throat when she saw him coming. She had
foreseen he would come. When he came into church, looking at her so
wistfully, when he followed her out, asking to walk with Edgar, it
became very evident to her that he was not going to relinquish the
struggle without one other attempt to win her favour. It was a vain
hope, she thought to herself; nothing could reverse her decision, or
make her forget his sins against her; but still the very fact that he
meant to try, moved, unconsciously, her heart--or was it his presence,
the sight of him, the sound of his voice, the wistfulness in his eyes?
Clare had driven home with her heart beating, and a double tide of
excitement in all her veins. And then Arthur, too, was bound up in the
whole matter. He was the first person concerned, after Edgar and
herself; they would be three together in the house, between whom this
most strange drama was about to be played out. She waited their coming
with the most breathless expectation. And they came slowly up the
avenue, calm as the day, indifferent as strangers who had never seen
each other; pausing sometimes to talk of the trees; examining that elm
which had a great branch blown off; one of them cutting at the weeds
with his cane as undisturbed as if they were--as they thought--walking
quietly home to luncheon, instead of coming to their fate.
“Arden is going to stay with us a little, Clare, if you can take him
in,” Edgar said, with that voluble candour which a man always exhibits
when he is about to do something which will be disagreeable to the
mistress of his house--be she mother, sister, or wife. “He has no
engagements for the moment, and neither have we. It is a transition
time--too late for town, too early for the country--so he naturally
turned his eyes this way.”
“That is a flattering account to give of it,” said Arthur, for Clare
only bowed in reply. “The fact is, Miss Arden, I was turned out by my
late hostess. May I tell you the story? I think it is rather funny.”
And, though Clare’s response was of the coldest, he told it to her,
giving a clever sketch of the Pimpernels. He was very brilliant about
their worship of Arden, and how their hospitality to himself was solely
on account of his name. “But I have not a word to say against them. My
own object was simply self-interest,” he said. He was talking two
languages, as it were, at the same moment--one which Edgar could
understand, and one which was addressed to Clare.
And there could be no doubt that his presence made the day pass more
easily to the other two--one of whom was so excited, and the other so
exceedingly calm. They strolled about the park in the afternoon, and got
through its weary hours somehow. They dined--Clare in her fever eating
nothing; a fact, however, which neither of her companions perceived.
They took their meal both with the most perfect self-possession,
hurrying over nothing, and giving it that importance which always
belongs to a Sunday dinner. Dinner on other days is but a meal, but on
Sunday it is the business of the day; and as such the two cousins took
it, doing full justice to its importance, while the tide rose higher and
higher in Clare’s veins. When she left them to their wine, she went to
her own room, and walked about and about it like a caged lioness. It was
not Clare’s way, who was above all demonstration of the kind; but now
she could not restrain herself. She clenched her two hands together, and
swept about the room, and moaned to herself in her impatience. “Oh, will
it never be night? Will they never have done talking? Can one go on and
go on and bear it?” she cried to herself in the silence. But after all
she had to put on her chains again, and bathe her flushed face, and go
down to the drawing-room. How like a wild creature she felt, straining
and chafing at her fetters! She sat down and poured out tea for them,
with her hand trembling, her head burning, her feet as cold as ice, her
head as hot as fire. She said to herself it was unlady-like, unwomanly,
unlike her, to be so wild and self-indulgent, but she had no power to
control herself. All this time, however, the two men made no very
particular remark. Edgar, who thought she was still angry, only grieved
and wondered. Arthur knew that she was dissatisfied with himself, and
was excited but not surprised. He gave her now and then pathetic looks.
He wove in subtle phrases of self-vindication--a hundred little
allusions, which were nothing to Edgar but full of significance to
her--into all he said. But he could not have believed, what was the
case, that Clare was far past hearing them--that she did not take up the
drift of his observations at all--that she hardly understood what was
being said, her whole soul being one whirl of excitement, expectation,
awful heartrending fear and hope. It was Edgar at last who perceived
that her strength was getting worn out. He noticed that she did not hear
what was said--that her face usually so expressive, was getting set in
its extremity of emotion. Was it emotion, was it mania? Whatever it was,
it had passed all ordinary bounds of endurance. He rose hastily when he
perceived this, and going up to his sister laid his hand softly on her
shoulder. She started and shivered as if his hand had been ice, and
looked up at him with two dilated, unfathomable eyes. If he had been
going to kill her she could not have been more tragically still--more
aghast with passion and horror. A profound compassion and pity took
possession of him. “Clare,” he said, bending over her as if she were
deaf, and putting his lips close to her ear, “Clare, you are
over-exhausted. Go to bed. Let me take you up stairs--and if that will
be a comfort to you, dear, I will go and read them now.”
“Yes,” she said, articulating with difficulty--“Yes.” He had to take her
hand to help her to rise; but when he stooped and kissed her forehead
Clare shivered again. She passed Arthur without noticing him, then
returned and with formal courtesy bade him good-night; and so
disappeared with her candle in her hand, throwing a faint upward ray
upon her white woe-begone face. She was dressed in white, with black
ribbons and ornaments, and her utter pallor seemed to bring out the
darkness of her hair and darken the blue in her eyes, till everything
about her seemed black and white. Arthur Arden had risen too and stood
wondering, watching her as she went away. “What is the matter?” he said
abruptly to Edgar, who was no better informed than himself.
“I don’t know. She must be ill. She is unhappy about something,” said
Edgar. For the first time the bundle of old letters acquired importance
in his eyes. “I want to look at something she has given me,” he added
simply. “You will not think me rude when you see how much concerned my
sister is? You know your room and all that. I must go and satisfy
Clare.”
“What has she given you?” asked Arthur, with a certain precipitation.
Edgar was not disposed to answer any further questions, and this was one
which his cousin had no right to ask.
“I must go now,” he said. “Good-night. I trust you will be comfortable.
In short, I trust we shall all be more comfortable to-morrow. Clare’s
face makes me anxious to-night.”
And then Arthur found himself master of the great drawing-room, with all
its silent space and breadth. What did they mean? Could it be that Clare
had found this something for which he had sought, and instead of giving
it to himself had given it to her brother, the person most concerned,
who would, of course, destroy it and cut off Arthur’s hopes for ever.
The very thought set the blood boiling in his veins. He paced about as
Clare had done in her room, and could only calm himself by means of a
cigar which he went out to the terrace to smoke. There his eyes were
attracted to Clare’s window and to another not far off in which lights
were burning. That must be Edgar’s, he concluded; and there in the
seclusion of his chamber, not in any place more accessible, was he
studying the something Clare had given him? Something! What could it
be?