III

When she woke next morning, a be-capped and be-aproned upper housemaid

was bringing in her early cup of tea.

"Yes, milady, we 'ave hall come. Mr. 'Ooper 'e 'ave come too, milady.

Indeed, if it 'adn't bin for Mr. 'Ooper, we should 'ave bin picking

hup cattle in that horful Minch till hevenin'; but 'e took it on

'imself to tell the capting as master would willin' pay hextra for us

to come as quick as might be. And thankful we was, milady, for some of

us mightn't 'ave lived to see land."

Jane looked as if she certainly would have been one of those to

succumb, and Lady Maud gave a sigh of relief.

"Tell Hooper to go to his master,--he wasn't very well last

night,--and tell Josephine I shall breakfast in my room."

"Mr. 'Ooper 'ave gone to master," replied Jane in a voice which

implied that the reminder was unnecessary; "and if you please, milady,

Capting Weeks 'e 'ave come too. We picked 'im up with some cattle in a

boat from some place as begins with an 'Hoich.'"

Lady Maud gave another sigh of relief. The sand-bags of civilization

were a great protection after all; and if Captain Weeks had come,

Eustace would go out shooting with him. That would give her a whole

day to face the situation. Honestly, she thought far more of possible

difficulties with him than with her husband. The shock had been

terrible at the time, but perhaps, after all, it was an isolated

offence. Heaps of men in society got drunk decently out of sight of

their legal womenkind, and no one thought-- The recurrence of the

phrase she had used the night before made her pause and hide her face

in the pillow in sudden horror at herself and him. No! without going

so far as that, one could still be rational. Edward was devoted to

her, and if a wife by her influence made a better man of her husband,

wherein lay the degradation? Last night--great heavens! what had come

over her last night? She had been taken by surprise, placed in

conditions which no one could possibly have foreseen, dragged by main

force from every shelter. Her face burnt as she remembered, and yet

how natural it had been! Natural and therefore absurd, ridiculous.

To-day, however, was different, and so the little pencilled note from

Eustace, which Josephine brought in with the breakfast, received no

reply save a message to say she was perfectly well and hoped he would

look after Captain Weeks, if Mr. Wilson was not able to go out. A bold

parry, which made Eustace Gordon set his teeth.

Yes! to-day was different; a new heaven and a new earth. The very

house transformed; for when she came down to lunch, the drawing-room

was full of tables, screens, photographs, and ferns, while in the

dining-room the butler stood ready to remove the silver covers, and so

let loose the pent-up energies of two footmen who, with bent heads,

seemed waiting for some one to say grace. Mr. Gordon, the report ran,

had taken Captain Weeks to the Carbost beat, and would not be back

till late. Her ladyship was to open any telegram which might come, as

it would relate to the yacht. Mr. Wilson had gone to shoot rock-pigeon

with the head keeper. The professor was exploring, and begged her

ladyship not to wait lunch for him. So said the butler gravely as he

filled her glass. Through the window she could see the Atlantic

guiltless of a white feather, and her own courage rose with the

outlook. As she strolled about the heathery knolls after lunch, a boy

on a pony appeared with the expected telegram. "Started, should be

with you to-morrow." So that was an end of one trouble. Then Cynthia

Strong and some others were to come by the next boat. Will Lockhart

was cruising about the coast and might look in on them at any time.

There would be no more solitude; not even to-day, since there across

the moor came Miss Macdonald, attired for calling, and beside her that

good-looking young sailor. Lady Maud liked boys, especially handsome

ones with palpable adoration in their blue eyes.

The professor, coming in very hot about tea-time, found the trio

having it like children out in a bieldy bit by the burn, but with the

butler solemnly presiding over the fire. A fire which gave James, the

under footman, the hugest delight until his enjoyment was crushed out

of him by his superior officer. For the butler knew his duty:

afternoon tea was afternoon tea wherever her ladyship chose to take

it; that is to say, a function at which a footman must preserve an

impassive face. So poor James put on the sticks with funeral calm and

burnt his fingers with great decorum.

"Here is a lady, professor," said Lady Maud,--"Miss

Macdonald--Professor Endorwick,--who will tell you everything you can

possibly want to know about the island. She is a mine of useful

information; at least I have found her so."

That gracious voice, face, and manner had been a sort of rapture to

young Rick Halmar for the last half hour, and when, after launching

the others into conversation, she turned to him with the undefinable

change in manner she could no more avoid in talking to men than the

magnet can keep its influence, his heart gave quite a throb.

"I didn't introduce you," she said, smiling, "because I only know your

Christian name; and I'm not sure of that."

"Rick! Rick Halmar," he replied with a blush which took him by

surprise; for he was not as a rule self-conscious.

"Rick?" she echoed curiously.

"Eric. My father was a Norwegian. But it was a boshy name and the

fellows on the _Britannia_ called me 'Little by Little'--after the

book, you know."

She laughed. "A very inappropriate name, Mr. Halmar. You must be six

feet."

He shook his head. "Five feet eleven and three-quarters. It's too big

for a sailor. You get in the way of the ropes and things."

"Not too big for a man--but listen! the professor is overcome already;

how delightful!"

In good sooth he was actually reduced to the position of listener, an

isolated assertion of interest being all the speech allowed him as

Miss Willina waxed eloquent over the crass superstitions of the

islanders and her own select beliefs.

Rick's face grew brimful of smiles.

"Aunt Will is as bad as the best, herself. Why, the other day I carved

out a sort of devil,--a thing they worship in the Caribbees,--and she

was in quite a taking because it was left out on a _harp_,--that's a

Viking's tomb, Lady Maud. She has some rigmarole about 'tribute to the

dead,' their sending back things to work evil to the living. But, do

you know, Lady Maud, it's awfully rum, but I couldn't find the thing

when I went to look for it yesterday morning."

"You couldn't find it? Mr. Halmar, don't speak loud; don't

attract their attention by looking surprised! Was it--the devil, I

mean--fearfully ugly?"

"The best I ever made."

"Had it white eyes with a shot stuck in them?"

"Lady Maud! did you find it?"

"Not I, but the professor did. It's a footstep of a discredited

belief, and he is going to lecture on it to the British Association.

Isn't it perfectly lovely? How we shall all laugh!"

"But you will tell him, of course?"

"Tell him! Why should I? These things are one of my chief joys in

life."

Rick Halmar winced. "But don't you see, Lady Maud, it's my fault more

or less? I oughtn't to go carving devils and leaving them about. It

isn't fair."

She raised her eyebrows. "When you are older, Mr. Halmar, you won't be

so eager to accept responsibility. By the way, does yours extend to

another devil of the same sort which was found on Grada Sands?"

He let his head drop into his hands in comic despair. "How one's sins

_do_ find one out! It must be the one Aunt Will flung into the Minch.

Everything comes round sooner or later to the sands. Has the professor

got it too?"

"No, Mr. Halmar. _I_ have it."

"You! Oh, Lady Maud--I am sorry."

"You well may be. I have put it into my own room because the professor

declared it was genuine--a real savage fate. No--that isn't true, so

don't distress yourself. I took a fancy to it. I have a habit of

taking fancies to _things_ and to _people_; so there it shall remain."

Rick's face lit up. "Let me make you a better one," he began.

"I said, Mr. Halmar, that I took a fancy to _it_; and now, don't you

think you should make your confession like a good boy?"

He made it very prettily, but with a frank enjoyment of the mistake,

which was infectious. So much so, that the chief sufferer, stimulated

into unusual playfulness by Miss Willina's wit, actually went into the

house for his discredited belief and brought it out for her to burn.

So, with much laughter, they stood round the fire, causing poor James

almost to burst under his efforts after dignity, till suddenly, with

something between a chuckle and a cough, the butler himself gave way

into the remark that "I 'adn't made a Guy Forks--_kck-kh-kh_--since 'e

was a boy,--_kh-kh-kh_,--but if 'er ladyship pleased, Jeames could run

round to the gun-room for some powder and 'e'd 'ave some squibs ready

in no time."

So Numbo Jumbo was burnt with all the honours, and the butler, going

back for his own tea to the housekeeper's room, hummed, "Remember,

remember, the fifth of November," until the cook, with a snort, asked

wherever to goodness he had picked up such a vulgar ditty.

"Now I have no doubt all you learned people think me very foolish,"

said Miss Willina, drawing on her gloves with the air of one who has

completed a good work; "but I really am immensely relieved in my mind.

I had a presentiment about that devil of Rick's; besides, these old

superstitions invariably have their origin in some fundamental fact or

law of Nature. Don't you think so, professor?"

"Undoubtedly, my dear madam; the Folklore Society--"

But Miss Willina had a profound contempt for all societies and

proclaimed it cheerfully. "Therefore, the only remaining thing to be

done," she continued, shaking her head at Rick, "is to make

restitution for that naughty boy's mischief. So, if you will walk over

to Eval some day, Mr. Endorwick, I will give you that bone ring with

the Runic inscription about which I was telling you."

"My dear lady," cried the professor with greed in his eyes, "I really

could not dream--"

"I don't want to give it to _you_, of course," she went on frankly;

"but my brother says it should be in a museum; so you can put 'Given

by Miss Macdonald through Professor Endorwick' on the ticket. And, by

the bye, it was found on Grada and Malcolm, Aig says."

Meanwhile Lady Maud had turned to Rick with a quizzical smile. "Do you

accept the responsibility of my fate, Mr. Halmar? or shall I have a

private _auto-da-fe_ in my room?"

The boy's face positively shone with pleasure as he took her hand to

say goodbye.

"I couldn't do anything that would bring you harm, I think--you are

too--too beautiful." The absolute simplicity of the statement rendered

it inoffensive, and Lady Maud laughed.

"Take your nephew away, Miss Macdonald; he is paying me compliments."

"I don't wonder at it," retorted the little lady, nodding her head,

"and compliments are pleasant things; at least, I used to find them

so."

"Why employ the past tense, dear lady?" said the professor with a bow,

as he shook hands, whereat Miss Willina declared that the only safety

lay in flight; and Lady Maud, as she went back to the house, told

herself once more that to-day was very different from yesterday. This

background of _persiflage_, with just a serious touch here and there

to help out the chiaro-oscuro, suited figures in modern dress.

Tailor-made figures guiltless of a wrinkle and oblivious of vitality's

claim for an uncrushed organ or two.

"If her ladyship please," said Josephine, when the dressing bell

brought her to her mistress' room, "Mr. 'Ooper, he desire a few word

of milady."

"Hooper! didn't they say he had gone with Mr. Wilson?"

"Monsieur 'ave just return; Mr. Gordon also wid Capitaine Veek

and--_Mon Dieu! quel gibier!_ Sall I bid him come?"

Lady Maud, at the writing-table, rested her head on her hand, feeling

a sudden need of courage. They had all come back, and some things must

be faced before life could run smoothly once more. Eustace must be

made to understand that there was to be no drifting, and her husband

must consent to let her hand be on the tiller ropes.

"Well, Hooper?"

Rather a diffident-looking man; nervous too in his manner. "I am sorry

to have to trouble your ladyship, but I think Dr. Haddon would wish

it, under the circumstances. It is about master, your ladyship."