"Yes," whispered Rachel. "But how _could_ there be any sufficient reason for such a terrible crime?"
"Don"t call it a crime," he protested. "That is how they speak of it who know nothing about it--that is how they will represent all my life, which has been different from theirs--to make you shun and shrink from me as if I had the small-pox. Wait till you know a little more."
He was leaning forward with an elbow on his knee, and looking into her face. She met his eyes now in the uncertain moonlight, which was shining on her and not on him; and he saw no sign of shrinking yet.
"Why did you do it?" she asked sorrowfully.
"Long ago," he said, after a pause, "he and I fell in love with--some one; and she loved him best. At least I think she did--I don"t know.
Sometimes I fancy she would have cared most for me, if we had had our chances. But we had no chances; I had to give my word of honour not to stand between her and him--not to try to win her, unless she distinctly showed a preference for me."
"I understand," whispered Rachel. She knew this part of the story already.
"At any rate," he continued, "she made choice of him. He sold out of the service, and they went away together. I had sold out myself not long before, and went away too--travelling about the world. I was very lonely at that time; I didn"t much care where I went or what became of me. It was several years before I saw or heard of her again."
"Yes?"
"And one night, when I had come back home to look after my property, I met her in London streets. It was the middle of winter--it was raining--she was all alone--she was almost in rags--"
"Don"t tell me any more!" implored Rachel, beginning to tremble and cry.
"No," he said, and he drew a deep long breath, "I _can"t_ tell you any more. Only this--she died. I did all I could to save her, but it was too late. She died of consumption--brought on by exposure and want, and misery of all sorts--a week or two after I found her. And now you know why I killed him. _That_ was why!"
There was a long pause, broken once or twice by Rachel"s audible emotion. She had still her own views as to the right and justice of what he had done; but she did not dream of the presumption of giving them now.
This tremendous tragedy of love and revenge dwarfed all her theories of life to the merest trivialities. She could only wonder, and tremble, and cry.
"It is an old story now," said Mr. Dalrymple, more gently. "And I try not to think too much of it. It was all fair, thank Heaven!--I comfort myself with that. I could have shot him once before in Canada; but he was unprepared then. He did not see me, and I would not take him at a disadvantage. I try not to think of it now. I don"t want you to think of it either--after to-night. Will you try not to? And try not to let them persuade you that I am quite a fiend in human shape?"
Rachel blew her nose for the last time, put her handkerchief in her pocket, and smiled a tearful smile.
"I am afraid you are not very good," she said, shaking her head, "but I know you can"t be a really wicked man."
"How do you know it?" he asked eagerly.
"How? I"m sure I don"t know--I feel it."
"Thank you, thank you," he said, in a low, rapid under tone. "You don"t know how I thank you for saying that. At any rate, I have _some_ rudimental morality. I am honest, to the best of my power. I tell no lies to myself, or to any man--or woman. What I say I mean, and what I do I own to--if called upon, that is. You may trust me that far. And I _hope_ you will."
"I will," said Rachel, without a moment"s hesitation.
How often they thought afterwards of their first strange talk, all alone in that shadowy place. It was as if they had known one another in some other world, and had met after long absence; they felt--widely unlike as they were--so little as strangers usually do beginning a conventional acquaintance in the conventional way. However, it did occur to both of them that it would be as well to go back to the drawing-room before they should be missed.
"I am glad to have had this opportunity," said Mr. Dalrymple, who rose first. "I shall hope--I shall feel sure--that you will not let yourself be prejudiced unfairly by anything you may hear. For the rest, I hope you will try not to think of this painful story again."
And he began to saunter back, and she to saunter beside him.
As they entered the drawing-room by the gla.s.s door, they heard Mrs.
Hardy calling:
"Rachel! Rachel! Why, where is Rachel gone to?"
The girl glided into the broad, warm light, a little confused and dazzled, and, of course, dyed in blushes, which deepened to the deepest pink of oleanders--nay, to the still richer red of that lapageria which had attracted Mr. Dalrymple"s attention just now--as she became conscious of the curious observation of the a.s.sembled guests, who, she well knew, would not regard this characteristic demonstration as lightly as those did who knew her.
"I am here, Aunt Elizabeth," she replied, in an abject voice, as if she had been caught in something very disgraceful.
"Oh!" responded Mrs. Hardy, "I thought you were gone to bed." She looked sharply at the girl"s downcast face, and then more sharply at Mr.
Dalrymple, who met her eyes with a stately and distant air of not putting himself to the trouble of remembering who she was that she found very offensive and aggravating. "You had better go, my dear," she said peremptorily. "It is late, and you have had a tiring day. I shall be having Mr. Kingston complaining if I let you knock yourself up."
Rachel was only too glad to say good night and go. The other ladies began to rise and stir about, gathering up fans and fancy work, but she left the room before they had come to any unanimous decision about separating. Mr. Dalrymple held open the door for her. "Good night," she whispered hurriedly, not looking at him. He answered by a strong pressure of her hand in silence. She did not understand it then, but looking back afterwards she knew that that first brief hand-clasp stirred her erstwhile latent woman"s soul to life. She was never the same afterwards.
Half an hour later, when she was sitting by her own fireside, dreamily brushing her long auburn hair over a blue dressing-gown (blue was her specially becoming colour), Mrs. Hardy tapped at her door, and entered.
"I have brought you a little wine and water, dear," said she, looking very friendly and amiable. "I know you seldom take it, but to-night it will do you good. And Lucilla says you are to be sure not to get up to breakfast if you feel tired in the morning."
"Oh, thank you, auntie, but you know I _never_ lie in bed! And I am not in the very _least_ tired. I have had a delightful day."
"Yes; it has been a pleasant day. I am glad you have enjoyed it so much. I am only sorry we had to bring that Mr. Dalrymple back with us.
I consider him a most objectionable, a most disreputable, young man--not so very young either; he will never see forty again, unless I am much mistaken. But Lucilla and Mr. Thornley are both so much attached to Mrs.
Digby; for her sake they are obliged to be civil to him."
Rachel was silent.
"You will, however, be careful, dear, I know, not to get more intimate with him than necessary," Mrs. Hardy continued. "Mr. Kingston would dislike it very much. He is a very wild young man--he has not at all a good character."
"You said Mr. Kingston was wild, auntie," the girl suggested timidly.
It was her sole feeble effort in defence of her absent friend.
"Nonsense! I"m sure I said nothing of the kind. He is a man whom everybody looks up to. There is no question of comparison between them.
At any rate," she added, with solemn severity, "Mr. Kingston has not taken a fellow-creature"s life, as this man has. _That_ is reason enough why we must none of us have more to do with him than is absolutely necessary. You will remember that, Rachel? Be civil to him, my dear, of course, but no more. I should not have allowed you to come into contact with such a man if I could have helped it, and we had no idea of seeing him to-day. However, they will all be gone after to-morrow, and you need not recognise him again. The Digbys are coming to the dance next week, but Mrs. Hale says he means to start again for Queensland on Monday. Let us hope they won"t break their traces a second time. Good night, my dear; you will remember what I say? It is what Mr. Kingston would wish if he were here, I know."
And Mrs. Hardy kissed her niece affectionately and went away to bed, with a sense of having done her duty, and without the least suspicion that as a domestic diplomatist, she had covered herself with disgrace.
CHAPTER XI.
MR. DALRYMPLE HAS TO CONSULT GORDON.
Of course it is well understood, without further explanation, that Mr.
Dalrymple and Rachel were in the position of the Sleeping Beauty and her prince when the spell that held life in abeyance was--or was about to be--broken. At the same time it is not to be inferred that the man, with his years and experience, fell in love at first sight with a merely pretty face, nor that the girl was more than ordinarily impressionable and inconstant, or had any const.i.tutional weakness for wild young men.
Perhaps it is not necessary to essay the difficult task of finding a theory to account for it. Everybody knows that if there is a law of nature that will not lend itself to system, it is that which governs these affairs.
The greatest force and factor in human life comes to birth by a mere chance--in Roden Dalrymple"s case by the breaking of a trace, which was in itself the result of a whole series of trivial and quite avoidable circ.u.mstances; and then it thrives or languishes by the favour of petty accidents--until time and sanctifying a.s.sociations put it beyond the reach of accident. That is its superficial history, taking a general average.
Quality and potency are questions of temperament; vigour of growth depends in great measure on what may be called climatic influences. But, as with some other great mysteries of this world, human understanding can make very little of it.