"And pray how do _you_ know?" he retorted quickly, a little amused and a great deal irritated by her highly indiscreet behaviour. "I don"t suppose that you have heard all that I have--at any rate, I _hope_ not."
"I know enough," she stammered hurriedly; "I know the worst anyone can say against him."
"I hope not," repeated Mr. Kingston, with ominous gravity.
"And I know he has done wrong--done very wrong, indeed; but he has had such terrible provocations--he has been, oh, so dreadfully unfortunate!"
she went on, wishing heartily that she had not undertaken her new friend"s defence, yet finding it easier to go through with it now than to turn back and desert him. "And, whatever he may have been once, he is doing nothing to harm anybody now; and it is cruel of people to be always raking up the past, when it is done with and repented of, and throwing it in his teeth. Any of us would think it hard and unfair--you would yourself."
"Never mind me, my dear; my past is not being called in question that I am aware of."
Mr. Kingston"s not very placid temper was rising.
"He is doing nothing wrong now," she repeated, frightened but reckless; "if he were, Mr. Thornley would not invite him here--he said so himself.
And Lucilla, though she does not like him--n.o.body likes him, indeed--says he would never do a mean action, and that he has perfect manners, and that he is a thorough gentleman every way. I think they all agree about _that_."
"And yet don"t like him. That is rather inconsistent. And what about yourself, Rachel? If it is not a rude question--are you an exception in this respect, or not?"
He had taken his hands from her shoulders, and was standing sideways in the embrasure of the window, so that he could see her face; and he was smiling in a most unpleasant manner.
Rachel had never seen him like this before, and the first seed of active dislike was sown where as yet there had been nothing worse than indifference. The familiar colour rose and flooded her white brow and her whiter throat. She clenched her hands to still the flutter of her heart. She shut her teeth and struggled in silence against an ignominious impulse to cry.
But Mr. Kingston continued to watch her with that sardonic curiosity; and presently, like the traditional worm, she turned on him.
"Yes," she said, "I am an exception. I like Mr. Dalrymple very much--what little I know of him. I have seen no reason to do otherwise.
I do not pay any attention to vulgar gossip."
A timid woman, trying to be defiant, generally fails by overdoing it; and so did she, poor child. Mr. Kingston heard the emphasis of strong emotion, that she would have given worlds to keep back, vibrating through her tremulous accents, and it drove him beyond those considerations of policy and politeness which he made a boast of as his rule of life and action--especially in his dealings with women. Rachel, however, in the category of women, was exceptionally placed with respect to him; and I suppose one must do him the justice to concede that this was an exceptional emergency.
"I"ll tell you what," he said, smiling no longer, and speaking with a rough edge to his voice that betokened the original rude nature, usually so carefully clothed, and that she instinctively resented as an indignity, "Thornley can do as he likes about the people he brings here to a.s.sociate with his wife, but I won"t have you making acquaintance with a vagabond like that."
"I have already made his acquaintance," she said quietly.
"Then I beg you will break it off."
"How can I break it off while he is in the same house with me?"
She was surprised to find how strong she was to withstand this incipient tyranny; and yet her heart contracted with a pain very like despair.
"There will be so many people that one--and he a man--may be easily avoided, if you wish to avoid. And you _will_ wish to do what would please me, wouldn"t you, dear?" he demanded, perceiving that he was bullying her, and trying to correct himself.
"Yes," she replied; "certainly. But I hope you will not ask me to be rude to one of my cousin"s guests. I don"t mind what else I do to please you. And when I am married, I will of course know n.o.body but the people you like."
"You are as good as married to me already," he said, putting his arm round her shoulder as she stood before him, with all sorts of changes and revolutions going on within her. "And of course I don"t want you to be rude--I don"t want you to be anything. Simply don"t take any notice of Dalrymple--he will quite understand it; don"t dance with him, or have anything to do with him."
"Not dance with him!" she broke out sharply.
Her evident dismay and disappointment, together with her unconscious efforts to evade his embrace, exasperated his already ruffled temper afresh.
"Certainly not," he said, with angry vehemence. "I shall be exceedingly annoyed and vexed if I see you dancing with that man."
Rachel did not know until now how much she had secretly set her heart upon doing this forbidden thing; as her exigent lover did not know until now that he had it in him to be so horribly jealous.
"He will be sure to come and ask me," she said, with a despairing sigh.
"Very well. If he does, I beg you will refuse him."
"Then I must refuse everybody."
"Not at all. He will quite understand that there are reasons why he should be exceptionally treated."
"And do you think I will make him understand _that_?" she burst out, with pathetic indignation that filled her soft eyes with tears. "Do you think I would be so--so infamously rude and cruel? Oh, Mr.
Kingston"--she never called him "Graham" except in her letters, though he tried his best to make her--"you don"t want to spoil all my pleasure to-night, which was going to be such a happy night?"
"Your pleasure doesn"t depend on dancing with Mr. Dalrymple, I _hope_."
"No--no; but may I not treat him like all the rest, for Lucilla"s sake--for common politeness" sake?"
"No, Rachel. I don"t want to be unkind, my dear, but you must remember your position, and that now you belong to me. A lady who understands these matters can quite easily manage to get off dancing with a man if she wishes, without being rude. You must learn those little social accomplishments, and this is a very good time to begin. Now let us change the subject. Kiss me, and don"t look so miserable, or I shall begin to think--but that it would be insulting you too much--that you have fallen in love with this disreputable ruffian."
Mr. Kingston tried to a.s.sume a light and airy manner, but his badinage had a menacing tone that was very chilling.
Rachel, strange to say, did not blush at all; she quietly excused herself on the plea that she must go and arrange her dishevelled costume, and (having no private bedroom to-night) went a long way down the garden to a retired harbour for half an hour"s meditation.
CHAPTER III.
"WHERE THERE WAS NEVER NEED OF VOWS."
When Rachel came back to the house it was nearly five o"clock.
There was to be a great high tea at six, for which no dressing was required, in place of the ordinary dinner; and as she did not feel inclined to meet the crowd of company that was a.s.sembling in the drawing-room sooner than was necessary--to tell the truth, she had been crying, and her eyes were red--she returned by a back way to the ball-room, which she knew would be to all intents and purposes, empty.
As an excuse for doing so she carried in her arms some long wreaths of spiraea which she had discovered on a bush at the bottom of the garden, with which she intended to relieve the ma.s.ses of box and laurestinus that made the groundwork of her decorations.
Lightly flitting up a stone-flagged pa.s.sage at the rear of the house, she suddenly came upon Mr. Dalrymple. He emerged from the door of the laundry, which had been a.s.signed to him for sleeping quarters, just as she was pa.s.sing it.
"Oh!" she cried sharply, as if he had been a ghost; and then she caught her breath, and dropped her eyes, and blushed her deepest blush, which was by no means the conventional mode of salutation, but more than satisfied the man who did not know until this moment how eagerly he had looked for a welcome from her.
"How do you do?" he said, clothing the common formula with a new significance, and holding her hand in a strong grasp; "I was wondering where you were, and beginning to dread all kinds of disasters. Where are you going? May I carry these for you?"
He saw by this time the traces of her recent tears, and the cheerful cordiality of his greeting subsided to a rather stern but very tender earnestness.
Silently he lifted the white wreaths from her arm, and began to saunter beside her in the direction of the ball-room, much as he had led her away into the conservatory on that memorable night, which was only a week, but seemed a year ago.
All the time she was thinking of Mr. Kingston"s prohibition, and dutifully desiring to obey him; but she had no power in her to do more.