"Through thick and thin, both over bank and bush,
In hopes her to attain by hook or crook.
"You will begin to think me a fixture," says Hardinge with a somewhat
embarrassed laugh, flinging himself into an armchair.
"You know you are always welcome," says the professor gently, if
somewhat absently.
It is next morning, and he looks decidedly the worse for his
sleeplessness. His face seems really old, his eyes are sunk in his head.
The breakfast lying untouched upon the table tells its own tale.
"Dissipation doesn't agree with you," says Hardinge with a faint smile.
"No. I shall give it up," returns Curzon, his laugh a trifle grim.
"I was never more surprised in my life than when I saw you at your
sister's last evening. I was relieved, too--sometimes it is necessary
for a man to go out, and--and see how things are going on with his own
eyes."
"I wonder when that would be?" asks the professor indifferently.
"When a man is a guardian," replies Hardinge promptly, and with evident
meaning.
The professor glances quickly at him.
"You mean----?" says he.
"Oh! yes, of course I mean something," says Hardinge impatiently. "But I
don't suppose you want me to explain myself. You were there last
night--you must have seen for yourself."
"Seen what?"
"Pshaw!" says Hardinge, throwing up his head, and flinging his cigarette
into the empty fireplace. "I saw you go into the conservatory. You found
her there, and--_him_. It is beginning to be the chief topic of
conversation amongst his friends just now. The betting is already pretty
free."
"Go on," says the professor.
"I needn't go on. You know it now, if you didn't before."
"It is you who know it--not I. _Say it!_" says the professor, almost
fiercely. "It is about her?"
"Your ward? Yes. Your brother it seems has made his mind to bestow upon
her his hand, his few remaining acres, and," with a sneer, "his spotless
reputation."
"_Hardinge!_" cries the professor, springing to his feet as if shot. He
is evidently violently agitated. His companion mistakes the nature of
his excitement.
"Forgive me!" says he quickly. "Of course _nothing_ can excuse my
speaking of him like that--to you. But I feel you ought to be told. Miss
Wynter is in your care, you are in a measure responsible for her future
happiness--the happiness of her whole _life_, Curzon--and if anything
goes wrong with her----"
The professor puts up his hand as if to check him. He has grown
ashen-grey, and the other hand resting on the back of the chair is
visibly trembling.
"Nothing shall go wrong with her," says he, in a curious tone.
Hardinge regards him keenly. Is this pallor, this unmistakable
trepidation, caused only by his dislike to hear his brother's real
character exposed.
"Well, I have told you," says he coldly.
"It is a mistake," says the professor. "He would not dare to approach a
young, innocent girl. The most honorable proposal such a man as he could
make to her would be basely dishonorable."
"Ah! you see it in that light too," says Hardinge, with a touch of
relief. "My dear fellow, it is hard for me to discuss him with you, but
yet I fear it must be done. Did you notice nothing in his manner last
night?"
Yes, the professor _had_ noticed something. Now there comes back to him
that tall figure stooping over Perpetua, the handsome, leering face bent
low--the girl's instinctive withdrawal.
"Something must be done," says he.
"Yes. And quickly. Young girls are sometimes dazzled by men of his sort.
And Per--Miss Wynter ... Look here, Curzon," breaking off hurriedly.
"This is _your_ affair, you know. You are her guardian. You should see
to it."
"I could speak to her."
"That would be fatal. She is just the sort of girl to say 'Yes' to him
because she was told to say 'No.'"
"You seem to have studied her," says the professor quietly.
"Well, I confess I have seen a good deal of her of late."
"And to some purpose. Your knowledge of her should lead you to making a
way out of this difficulty."
"I have thought of one," says Hardinge boldly, yet with a quick flush.
"You are her guardian. Why not arrange another marriage for her, before
this affair with Sir Hastings goes too far."
"There are two parties to a marriage," says the professor, his tone
always very low. "Who is it to whom you propose to marry Miss Wynter?"
Hardinge, getting up, moves abruptly to the window and back again.
"You have known me a long time, Curzon," says he at last. "You--you have
been my friend. I have family--position--money--I----"
"I am to understand, then, that _you_ are a candidate for the hand of my
ward," says the professor slowly, so slowly that it might suggest itself
to a disinterested listener that he has great difficulty in speaking at
all.
"Yes," says Hardinge, very diffidently. He looks appealingly at the
professor. "I know perfectly well she might do a great deal better,"
says he, with a modesty that sits very charmingly upon him. "But if it
comes to a choice between me and your brother, I--I think I am the
better man. By Jove, Curzon," growing hot, "it's awfully rude of me, I
know, but it is so hard to remember that he _is_ your brother."
But the professor does not seem offended. He seems, indeed, so entirely
unimpressed by Hardinge's last remark, that it may reasonably be
supposed he hasn't heard a word of it.
"And she?" says he. "Perpetua. Does she----" He hesitates as if finding
it impossible to go on.
"Oh! I don't know," says the younger man, with a rather rueful smile.
"Sometimes I think she doesn't care for me more than she does for the
veriest stranger amongst her acquaintances, and sometimes----"
expressive pause.
"Yes? Sometimes?"
"She has seemed kind."
"Kind? How kind?"
"Well--friendly. More friendly than she is to others. Last night she let
me sit out three waltzes with her, and, she only sat out one with your
brother."
"Is it?" asks the professor, in a dull, monotonous sort of way. "Is
it--I am not much in your or her world, you know--is it a very marked
thing for a girl to sit out three waltzes with one man?"
"Oh, no. Nothing very special. I have known girls do it often, but she
is not like other girls, is she?"
The professor waves this question aside.
"Keep to the point," says he.
"Well, _she_ is the point, isn't she? And look here, Curzon, why aren't
you of our world? It is your own fault surely; when one sees your
sister, your brother, and--and _this_," with a slight glance round the
dull little apartment, "one cannot help wondering why you----"
"Let that go by," says the professor. "I have explained it before. I
deliberately chose my own way in life, and I want nothing more than I
have. You think, then, that last night Miss Wynter gave
you--encouragement?"
"Oh! hardly that. And yet--she certainly seemed to like--that is not to
_dislike_ my being with her: and once--well,"--confusedly--"that was
nothing."
"It must have been something."
"No, really; and I shouldn't have mentioned it either--not for a
moment."
The professor's face changes. The apathy that has lain upon it for the
past five minutes now gives way to a touch of fierce despair. He turns
aside, as if to hide the tell-tale features, and going to the window,
gazes sightlessly on the hot, sunny street below.
What was it--_what_? Shall he ever have the courage to find out? And is
this to be the end of it all? In a flash the coming of the girl is
present before him, and now, here is her going. Had she--had she--what
_was_ it he meant? No wonder if her girlish fancy had fixed itself on
this tall, handsome, young man, with his kindly, merry ways and honest
meaning. Ah! that was what she meant perhaps when last night she had
told him "she would not be a worry to him _long_." Yes, she had meant
that; that she was going to marry Hardinge!
But to _know_ what Hardinge means! A torturing vision of a little lovely
figure, gowned all in white--of a little lovely face uplifted--of
another face down bent! No! a thousand times, no! Hardinge would not
speak of that--it would be too sacred; and yet this awful doubt----
"Look here. I'll tell you," says Hardinge's voice at this moment. "After
all, you are her guardian--her father almost--though I know you scarcely
relish your position; and you ought to know about it, and perhaps you
can give me your opinion, too, as to whether there was anything in it,
you know. The fact is, I,"--rather shamefacedly--"asked her for a flower
out of her bouquet, and she gave it. That was all, and," hurriedly, "I
don't really believe she meant anything _by_ giving it, only," with a
nervous laugh, "I keep hoping she _did_!"
A long, long sigh comes through the professor's lips straight from his
heart. Only a flower she gave him! Well----
"What do _you_ think?" asks Hardinge after a long pause.
"It is a matter on which I could not think."
"But there is this," says Hardinge. "You will forward my cause rather
than your brother's, will you not? This is an extraordinary demand to
make I know--but--I also know _you_."
"I would rather see her dead than married to my brother," says the
professor, slowly, distinctly.
"And----?" questions Hardinge.
The professor hesitates a moment, and then:
"What do you want me to do?" asks he.
"Do? 'Say a good word for me' to her; that is the old way of putting it,
isn't it? and it expresses all I mean. She reveres you, even if----"
"If what?"
"She revolts from your power over her. She is high-spirited, you know,"
says Hardinge. "That is one of her charms, in my opinion. What I want
you to do, Curzon, is to--to see her at once--not to-day, she is going
to an afternoon at Lady Swanley's--but to-morrow, and to--you
know,"--nervously--"to make a formal proposal to her."
The professor throws back his head and laughs aloud. Such a strange
laugh.
"I am to propose to her--I?" says he.
"For me, of course. It is very usual," says Hardinge. "And you are her
guardian, you know, and----"
"Why not propose to her yourself?" says the professor, turning violently
upon him. "Why give me this terrible task? Are you a coward, that you
shrink from learning your fate except at the hands of another--another
who----"
"To tell you the truth, that is it," interrupts Hardinge, simply. "I
don't wonder at your indignation, but the fact is, I love her so much,
that I fear to put it to the touch myself. You _will_ help me, won't
you? You see, you stand in the place of her father, Curzon. If you were
her father, I should be saying to you just what I am saying now."
"True," says the professor. His head is lowered. "There, go," says he,
"I must think this over."
"But I may depend upon you"--anxiously--"you will do what you can for
me?"
"I shall do what I can for _her_."