"Well, Mr. Rayburn," said Vane, "this is a rather curious sort of
introduction, but I see that you are--I mean that I am quite satisfied
that you must have some very good reason for refusing to shake hands
with me. You are the first man who has ever done so, and as you have
come here as my father's guest, I may presume that it is not a personal
objection."
Vane could not help speaking formally; there was a strangeness about the
situation which forced him to do so.
"That would be impossible, Mr. Maxwell," replied the other, in a low,
hesitating tone. "I knew that I should meet you here when I accepted Sir
Arthur's invitation; in fact, we--I mean I came here on purpose to meet
you, and, to shorten matters, the reason why your father has left us
alone, is that I have a very serious and I am afraid a very difficult
confession to make to you."
"A confession!" said Vane, drawing himself up and looking Rayburn
straight in the eyes. "Do you wish me to hear it as a man, or a priest,
because if I am to hear it as a priest, it would be better kept for a
more suitable time and place?"
"I want you to hear it both as man and priest," replied Rayburn,
returning his look with perfect steadiness, "and I want you to hear
it--and, in fact, unless we are to go away at once, you must hear it
now."
"Very well," said Vane, a dim suspicion of the truth beginning to steal
into his soul, "it is a little mysterious to me, but I daresay we shall
soon understand each other."
He paused for a moment, and then, with a visible effort which made
Rayburn love and honour him from that moment forth, he went on:
"And perhaps it would simplify matters for both of us if you began by
telling me who _we_ are?"
"Your sister, or rather your half-sister," Rayburn began falteringly,
and then stopped.
He saw Vane wince and heard his teeth come together with a snap, and he
saw his hands clench up into fists and his face pale, already turned
ashen grey white that denotes utter bloodlessness. It was the face of a
corpse with living eyes that looked at him with an expression which
could not be translated into human words. Rayburn had looked death in
the face many a time and laughed at it, but he didn't laugh now. As he
said afterwards, he would have given anything to be a couple of miles
away from Vane just then. He didn't speak because he had nothing to say,
his thoughts would not be translated into language, and so there was
nothing for it but to wait for Vane to speak.
For a few moments more the two men faced each other in silence, yet each
reading the other's thoughts as accurately as though they had been
talking with perfect frankness. Then Vane spoke in a slow, hard, grating
voice which none of the congregation of St. Chrysostom would have
recognised as that of the eloquent preacher of the Sermon on the Mount,
to which Rayburn, who had heard that sermon, listened with a shock,
which, as he told Carol later, sent a shiver through him from head to
foot.
"Yes, Mr. Rayburn, I think I understand more fully now. My sister
Carol--she has come here with you to-night, and I suppose I am right in
thinking that you were to some extent responsible, quite innocently no
doubt, for her disappearance about a year ago. Is that so?"
"Yes," said Rayburn, "that's so, and that's why I wouldn't shake hands
with you. I did take her away. She has been round the world with me,
travelling with me as my wife, and she isn't my wife, and--well, that is
about all there is."
"And why isn't she your wife?" exclaimed Vane, with an unreasoning burst
of anger. Then, after a little pause, he went on in a tone that was
almost humble.
"I beg your pardon, Mr. Rayburn, that was a foolish thing to say, as
most things said in haste and anger are. You only did what any other man
with no ties and plenty of money would have done under the
circumstances. Forgive me! Only the hand of Providence itself saved me
from committing, without knowledge, an infinitely greater sin than
yours. I suppose Carol has told you how I met her and what happened,
and, of course, my father has told you about my getting out of the cab
that night at the top of the Gardens? No, no, I have nothing to forgive,
nothing to say except, as Carol's brother, to ask you why you have
brought her here? That, at least, I think I am entitled to ask."
"Maxwell," replied Rayburn, pulling himself together as a man might do
after being badly beaten in a fight, "I have been in a good many bad
places in my lifetime, but this has been about the worst, and I'd a
damned sight sooner--I beg your pardon, you know what I mean--I would
very much rather been talking to a South American Dago with a pistol at
my head, than having this talk with you, but it's got to be done.
"You know, I suppose, or at any rate your father knows, how I met Carol
and how we fixed it up to go away together. I admit, without any
reserve, that I did take her just as any man like myself, who had had a
pretty hard time for a few years and had come back with a ridiculous
superfluity of money, would have taken such a girl under such
circumstances; that is brutal, but at any rate, it is honest. Well, we
went round the world together, and it was only a fortnight ago--we've
been back three weeks now--that I found out who she was."
"Not from her?" exclaimed Vane, with almost pitiful eagerness.
"No," replied Rayburn, "she would have died first. Over and over again I
tried to get her to tell me who and what she was, because of course it
was perfectly easy to see--well, you know what I mean--but she wouldn't.
It was the one confidence that she never gave me; in fact, when I was
trying to insist upon it, she told me if I opened the subject again, she
would leave me there and then, whatever happened to her."
"Then how did you find out?" asked Vane, in the same dry, hard voice. "I
more than believe you when you say she would never have told you."
"Through the merest accident," replied Rayburn. "A day or two after we
landed, we went to dinner at Verrey's, and we had hardly sat down before
a friend of hers, Miss Russell, came in--well--with a friend, as they
say. She came and spoke to Carol, and the four of us dined together.
The next day Miss Russell came to see Carol, and you know, or perhaps
you don't know, that it was Miss Russell's friend who introduced me to
Carol. I got hold of Miss Russell afterwards--she's as clean-hearted a
girl as ever the Fates--however, you won't agree with me there perhaps,
you don't believe in Fate, I do. But that's neither here nor there. I
told her what I am going to tell you, and she told me Carol's story, and
that is why I am here to-night."
There was a good deal of meaning in the words, but for Vane there was
infinitely more in Rayburn's voice and the half-shamed manner in which
he spoke. Vane felt that if this talk went on much longer, the strain
would be too much for him to bear, for it was his sister, or at least
the daughter of his own mother that this man was talking about. He put
out his hand again and said:
"I think I know now, Mr. Rayburn, what you were going to say, and if I
am right, let me, her brother, say it for you and for her, you won't
refuse my hand this time, will you?"
"No," said Rayburn, "I won't, and for the matter of that," he went on as
their hands met, "I don't think there is much more for either of us to
say, except just for me to ask you one question."
"Yes," said Vane, "and what is that?"
"You are her brother and a priest. Will you take me for your
brother-in-law and marry us?"
Their hands were still clasped; each was looking straight into the
other's eyes, and the two faces, so different individually, and yet for
the moment so strangely alike, fronted each other in silence. Then Vane
dropped Rayburn's hand, put his hands on his shoulders, and said:
"You cannot be lying, you haven't the mouth or the eyes of a man who
tells lies. You have sinned, sinned deeply, for you have bought with
your money what should have no other price than lawful love; but love
has come to you, and love has made lawful and right what was sinful
before. You told me at first that you wanted to confess to me both as
man and priest. Very well, as man, as Carol's brother I forgive you, if
you have done anything that I have to forgive, and as a priest of God I
will marry you, and when you have taken the Sacrament of Matrimony from
my hands, as a priest, I will absolve you from your sin. It is a
miracle----"
"Yes," said Rayburn, "it is. I am not altogether of your way of
thinking, you know, but there, I am with you; it is a miracle in more
ways than one. I know I am expressing myself horribly badly, but, to put
it as shortly as I can, it is the sort of miracle that only a good,
clean-souled, pure-hearted girl like Carol, could have worked upon a
fellow like myself. I tell you, Maxwell, honestly, that if she wouldn't
have me now, I'm damned if I know what I should do. She is everything
that is good to me. I am worth nearly a couple of millions, and not a
cent of it would be worth anything to me if I lost her. And so you
really will marry us?"
"I will," said Vane. "Thank God and you into whose heart He has put this
saving thought of righteousness."
"Yes," said Rayburn, "I see what you mean, but really, the credit isn't
mine at all, it is all Carol's. Do you know, Maxwell, that I am going to
have one of the most delightful wives man ever won? If I could only tell
you just exactly how I fell in love with her--but of course a man could
never tell another man that, and after all it doesn't matter. I've got
the one girl in the world I want----"
There was another little pause, and then Rayburn went on, speaking as
shyly and hesitatingly as a schoolboy confessing a peccadillo:
"There's one other thing I should like to say, Maxwell, but I hardly
know how to say it."
He stopped again, and Vane said, smiling for the first time during the
interview:
"Then say it, as one man would say it to another. I think we understand
each other now. What is it?"
"Well, it's this," replied Rayburn, flushing like a girl under the tan
of his skin, "you know Carol and I met quite by chance, and I took her
away just as what she seemed to be. Then, after a month or two--you'll
hardly believe me, but it is the Lord's own truth--I began to fall in
love with her, honestly I mean, and in quite a different way. One
evening, it was in Japan, and we were coming back from a trip to Fuji. I
couldn't stand it any longer, I felt such a hopeless sweep, and I told
her. It was a queer sort of courtship, and it took me about six weeks to
bring her round--and then at last--we were in the Rockies then--she gave
in and confessed that she loved me in the same way that I loved her. I
kissed her. I could never tell you how different that kiss was from all
the others."
"Of course it was," said Vane, gently. "It was a pure one, a holy one,
and God was very near you, Rayburn, in that moment."
"I believe He was," replied Rayburn, simply, "for from that moment, we
were both absolutely changed. Since that kiss, Carol has been as sacred
to me as my own sister would be if I had one. That is what I wanted to
tell you."
"And God bless you for telling me!" said Vane, solemnly. "If I had any
doubts before, I have none now. After that, knowing all I do, I would
give you the blessed Sacrament to-morrow."
"On Sunday I hope you will give it to us both," replied Rayburn.
At that moment the door opened, and Sir Arthur came in.
"Dinner is nearly ready," he said. "Are you about ready for it? Ah, yes,
I see, you understand each other, don't you?"
"Yes, Sir Arthur," said Rayburn, swinging round with an almost military
precision of movement. "I've made my confession, and I am to receive
absolution when the happiest moment of my life comes, and you know when
that will be."
"I think I do," said Sir Arthur, with a look at Vane, who was staring
vacantly down into the flower-filled fireplace. "Then you have settled
it all between you, is that so, Vane?"
"Yes, with God's help, we have," he replied, and then, with a swift
change of tone and manner he went on: "and now as we have got our family
affairs settled to a certain extent, I suppose we can go and join the
ladies. I am longing to see Carol again."
"And so am I," said Rayburn, "let us go."