George Macbean stood at the window of the rector's little study at
Thornby, gazing out across the level lawn.
Outside, the typical old-fashioned English garden, bright in the June
sunlight, was a wealth of flowers, while the old house itself was
embowered in honeysuckle and roses. Beyond the tall box-hedge stood the
ancient church-tower, square and covered with ivy, round which the rooks
were lazily circling against the blue and cloudless sky. Through the
open diamond-paned window came the fragrant perfume of the flowers, with
a breath of that open English air that was to him refreshing after the
dust and turmoil of the Eternal City.
"Getting tired of being a cosmopolitan--eh?" laughed the big,
good-humoured man, turning to him. "I thought you would."
"No. I'm not altogether tired," he answered. "But a change is
beneficial to us all, you know. I suppose my wire surprised you?"
"Yes, and no. Of course I heard three weeks ago that the Morinis were
returning to Orton for the wedding, and I naturally expected you to put
in an appearance. What a lucky dog you are to have got such an
appointment! And yet you grumble at your bread and cheese. Look at me!
Two sermons, Sunday school, religious instruction, mothers' meeting,
coal club--same thing each week, year in, year out--and can't afford to
do the swagger and keep a curate! I never get a change, except now and
then a day with the hounds or a dinner from some charitably disposed
person. But what about the marriage? We all thought it was to be in
Italy. He's French and she's Italian, so to be married in England they
must have had no end of formalities."
"Mary is a Protestant, remember--and a Cabinet Minister can do
anything--so they are to be married in Orton church," he added in a
strange tone, his eyes turned towards the sunlit lawn, over which old
Hayes, the groom-gardener, was running the machine.
"I ought to have called to congratulate her, but as you know I only
returned last night from doing duty over at Eye. I ought to drive over
after tea. Is the count there?"
"No. When we left Rome I came straight to London on some urgent private
business of His Excellency's, and they remained a week in Paris, where
Dubard was--to complete the trousseau, I suppose."
"It is one of Mary's whims to be married by special licence by the Canon
at Orton, I've heard. Is that so?" asked Sinclair.
The young man nodded. He had no desire to discuss the tragedy, for he
knew well that the marriage was a loveless one, and although his own
affection had been unspoken, he was beside himself with grief and
despair. He, who knew the truth, yet dare not utter one single word to
save her!
For ten days he had been in London, staying at his old chambers with
Billy Grenfell, and transacting business at the Italian
Consulate-General connected with the formalities of the marriage,
formalities which were expedited because his employer was Minister of
War. Paragraphs had crept into the press, the ladies' papers had
published Mary's portrait, and the marriage, because it was to take
place in a village church, was called a "romantic" one.
George Macbean smiled bitterly when he recollected how much more of
tragedy than romance there was in it. He adored her; for months her
face had been the very sun of his existence, and in those recent weeks
they had become so closely associated that even her mother had looked
somewhat askance at the secretary's attentions, to which she had seemed
in no way averse. A bond of sincerest sympathy had drawn them together.
She was in no way given to flirtation; not even her bitterest enemies,
those jealous women who were always ready to create scandal and invent
untruths about her, could charge her with that. No. She had accepted
George's warm, platonic friendship in the spirit it was given, at the
same time ever struggling to stifle down that strange and startling
allegation which Felice Solaro had made against him.
The very world seemed united against her, for even in George Macbean,
the man whom she had believed to be the ideal of honesty and
uprightness, she dared not put her absolute trust.
"The Court is full of visitors," George remarked a few minutes later,
"so I thought I'd come here and stay. I can drive over there every day.
Next week we go back to Rome again for another month, and then his
Excellency returns on leave to England."
"You're cultivating quite an official air, my dear boy," exclaimed the
rector, refilling his pipe and glad to change the subject of
conversation. "Your letters to me headed `Ministry of War--First
Division' are most imposing documents. I'd like to have a trot round
Rome with you. I've never been farther than Boulogne--
seven-and-sixpence worth of sea-sickness from Folkestone--and I don't
think much of foreign parts, if that's a specimen of them."
Macbean smiled at his uncle's bluff remarks, and then fell to giving him
some description of the Minister's palace in Rome, and of his position
in the society of the Eternal City.
After early tea Hayes brought round the trap, and the two men drove over
to Orton Court, where, on entering, there were signs everywhere for the
coming event, which, now that it was known who Camillo Morini really
was, created much excitement throughout the countryside. The decision
that the marriage should take place in England had been quite a sudden
one--but, curiously enough, it had been at Dubard's own instigation.
George had gathered that fact, and it held him mystified. The
bridegroom had some hidden reason in making that suggestion.
The instant the rector saw Mary he recognised what a change had taken
place in her. Within himself he asked whether it was due to the secret
that his nephew had confessed to him. Standing in the long,
old-fashioned drawing-room, with its big bowls of roses, he apologised
for not calling earlier, and congratulated her; whereupon she responded
in a quiet, inert voice--
"It is very kind of you, Mr Sinclair--very kind indeed. I don't know
if you've had a card, it has all been done in such a rush, but you will
come on Thursday, won't you?"
He accepted with pleasure, and glancing at his nephew, saw that the
young man's face told its own sad tale.
"Has not the count arrived?" asked Macbean of her.
"No. I had a wire this morning. He leaves Paris to-night, so he'll be
here after luncheon to-morrow."
Leaving Sinclair with Mary, George went along to the study, where he
found the Minister busy with some important despatches which had just
arrived by special messenger from the Italian Embassy in London,
therefore he was compelled to seat himself at the table opposite and
assist his chief.
So long did the correspondence take that the rector and his nephew were
invited to remain to dine informally, George being placed, to his great
delight, next the unhappy woman whom he so dearly loved. It was the
last time he would dine with her, he told himself during the meal, and
through his brain crowded memories of those happy hours spent at her
side amid the brilliant glitter of the salons in Rome when, although
hundreds were around him, he had only eyes for her, and her alone. And
he, by that relentless fate that held him silent, was compelled to stand
by and watch her noble self-sacrifice!