There was no mystery to her in what Mrs. Hardy had said, but the thing she had done was very strange and very touching. It invested the Toorak House and all its belongings with a new charm that the orphan girl had never felt before with all the kindness that she had enjoyed there.
At no time in the fourteen or fifteen months that she had lived in it had it seemed so much her "home" as at this moment, when her aunt cried like a mother at parting from her--so desirable a place to stay in now that she had to go.
"Well," said Mr. Kingston, when the carriage was fairly out of the Hardy grounds, and he had waved a gracious adieu with the tips of his fingers to the woman at the lodge, who stood in her Sunday best and white satin cap-ribbons, smiling and curtseying, to see them pa.s.s; "well, that is a good thing over, isn"t it? Of all the senseless inst.i.tutions of this world, a wedding _a la mode_ is about the most preposterous. You look knocked up already, when you ought to be fresh for your travels."
He spoke with a little nervous irritation, and Rachel did not answer him. Her heart was beating very fast, beating in her ears and in her throat, as well as in the place where its active operations were usually carried on.
All her powers were concentrated upon a desperate effort to postpone that breaking-down which she had dreaded, and which she felt was inevitable, until she could shut herself within four walls again. But she could not postpone it.
Her husband took her hand and asked her what was the matter with her--whether she felt ill, or whether she was regretting after all that she had married him; whether she was going to make him happy, as she had promised, or to curse his life with its bitterest disappointment--speaking half in love, half in anger, with a sudden outburst of protesting entreaty provoked by her irresponsive silence.
And she began to cry--almost to scream--in the most violent and alarming manner.
"My dear love! my sweet child!" cried the bridegroom, aghast. "I did not mean to vex you, Rachel. I did not mean to blame you, my pet. Rachel, Rachel, hush! do hush! Don"t let that confounded coachman go back and say--Rachel, do you hear?"--giving her a little shake--"there are people pa.s.sing. For Heaven"s sake don"t make a scene in the street, whatever you do!"
Rachel was almost beside herself with excitement, but she was awake to the indecency of betraying her emotion to the servants and the pa.s.sers-by. Moreover, something in her husband"s voice steadied her.
By a strong effort she checked the headlong impulse to rave and scream that for a few seconds was almost overpowering, and held herself in with shut teeth and tight-locked hands, wildly sobbing under her breath, and by-and-bye, when the first rush of pa.s.sion had spent itself, she became quiet and tractable, fortunately, before they reached the railway-station.
Mr. Kingston was terribly shocked and outraged by this behaviour. He would have given anything to be able to scold her--in a gentle and judicious manner, of course--but he was afraid to attempt such a thing, or even to speak of the probable causes that had led to such deplorable impropriety.
He rummaged for his spirit-flask, and made her drink a few drops of brandy, which nearly choked her; he found some eau-de-Cologne and bathed her face; he got her to put on a thicker veil, which happened to be amongst the luxuries that her aunt and cousins had stuffed into her travelling-bag; and he kissed her and petted her, and when she attempted to explain and excuse herself, bade her "Hush! till another time," and would not listen to her.
His immediate anxiety was to restore her personal appearance and her powers of self-command. The more important matters could wait. And he succeeded in his efforts; she did not break down any more.
Their journey that day was not very far. An hour or two in the train, and then half a dozen miles in a comfortable covered buggy, and they reached the country house which had been placed at their disposal--the best subst.i.tute to be had for that charming residence on the sh.o.r.es of the bay at Sydney--where they were to spend two or three weeks in their own society before starting by the next mail to Europe.
As they were driving through the silent bush, in the dusk of that autumn day, and the bridegroom, wrapped in his fur-collared overcoat, was musing not very happily upon the success that had crowned his long-cherished hopes and plans, his young wife slipped her hand under his arm, and laid her cheek upon his coat-sleeve.
"Graham," she whispered softly.
He turned round quickly, and took her in his arms. It was the first time she had spoken his name and offered him a caress voluntarily, and he was greatly touched and cheered.
"Will you forgive me?" she said, not shrinking away from his embrace, but creeping into it as she had never done before. "And, oh, will you love me, in spite of it all?"
"Love you!" he echoed, tenderly. "My sweet, I have always loved you more than anybody in the world, and I always shall. It will not be on _my_ side that love will be wanting."
She said no more, but she lay still, with her head in its soft little sealskin cap on his breast, as if she liked to feel his arms about her.
It was so new to him, and so immeasurably delightful. He had never expected to feel happier (even on his wedding day) than he felt now, with his best beloved, who had been so impracticable, his own at last, giving herself up to him in this way.
Poor, parasitic little heart, full of spreading tendrils! It was essential to its very existence that it should have _something_ to cling to--which was a view of the case, that happily did not chance to strike him.
CHAPTER III.
A DISCOVERY.
There was a great ball at Toorak on the night of the wedding, and like all the nuptial ceremonies, it went off with great _eclat_.
Mrs. Hardy recovered her serenity very quickly after the bride"s departure, and appeared in the evening, clothed in smiles and sapphire velvet, looking the proud woman that it was generally conceded she had a right to be. Lucilla, at home for the first time since her sister Laura"s wedding, and since her accession to the dignities of maternity, and carrying herself very prettily as a personage of consequence amongst the unmarried friends of her girlhood, looked extremely well and very happy, and reflected great honour upon her family in a variety of ways.
Beatrice also was unusually brilliant, not only in her personal appearance, but in her mode of discharging the duties of the occasion--a little too much so, indeed, if anything.
Some elderly ladies, and a very few young men, were subsequently heard to express an opinion that she carried that sharp and satirical manner of hers to an excess that was unbecoming in a person of her s.e.x and years, even if she had married money and become a leader of fashion.
A little after midnight, these two young women, the one for the sake of her baby, and the other on account of her husband, excused themselves from further attendance on Mrs. Hardy, and drove back to South Yarra, where the Thornleys were staying, carrying their willing lords along with them.
When they reached home, where of course they found bright fires ready for them, the men retired to the smoking-room, Mrs. Reade having laid upon her brother-in-law the responsibility of keeping his host from getting "any worse than he was already;" and the ladies went upstairs to Lucilla"s apartment.
Lucilla having only arrived in town the day before, she and her sister had had no opportunity for what they called a good talk; and now the baby being found asleep and in his nurse"s charge for the night, they sat down to begin it, having previously got rid of ball-room finery and made themselves comfortable in their dressing-gowns.
"Does Ned often get--a--like this?" Mrs. Thornley began, with a compa.s.sionate inflection in her soft voice. She knew of course that one couldn"t expect everything, but still she was sorry that her sister"s excellent marriage should have this particular drawback, than which she could hardly imagine one more unpleasant and embarra.s.sing, and that a nice fellow like Ned, with a n.o.ble pedigree and the sweetest temper in the world, should take his social pleasures as a shearer would celebrate pay-day.
Mrs. Reade was thinking, at the same moment, that John was ageing very fast and getting immensely stout, and that his manner of addressing his wife, and his bearing towards her generally, was more peremptory and dictatorial than _she_ would feel inclined to put up with if she were in Lucilla"s place.
"Oh, no," said the little woman, sharply; "it is only on these festive occasions, when I am not able to look after him properly. And at the worst he is not very bad. He never gets obstinate and quarrelsome, as some men do--only vaguely argumentative and subsequently sleepy. I should think no husband, with so p.r.o.nounced a tendency that way could be easier to manage--if one knows how to manage."
"You were always a splendid manager, Beatrice."
"Well, I just hold him well in hand--that"s all. I know he can"t help it, to a certain extent, so I don"t keep always worrying at him about it. It is only now and then that I give him a real good talking to--to prevent his thinking I might grow indifferent, as much as anything."
"He is such a dear, good fellow," said Lucilla, "but for that."
"He is a dear, good fellow, in spite of that," replied Beatrice, who allowed no one but herself to disparage her husband. "He is better worth having, with all his faults--and that is about the only one he has--than most of your brilliant society men. I only hope Mr. Kingston will be as little trouble to Rachel as Ned has been to me--and half as good and kind to her."
"Yes, dear. I didn"t mean to say that he wasn"t the best of husbands--far from it. Indeed, we may both be thankful for our good luck in that respect--all of us, I should say. I should think no four girls in one family are more happily situated than we are."
"I hope so," sighed Mrs. Reade. "I hope we are all as happy as--as we are well off otherwise."
"Dear little Rachel!" said Mrs. Thornley, musingly. "I don"t think there is any doubt about her being happy. It is quite extraordinary to see how fond of her Mr. Kingston is--_really_ fond of her, I mean. Did you think he would ever marry such a young girl, Beatrice? and be so terribly anxious to do it, too? I didn"t. I suppose it was her beauty captivated him."
"No," said Beatrice; "it was the fact that she didn"t want to captivate him. That has been her charm all along--he has felt that his honour was concerned in making her, and it has been a difficult task."
"Oh, but I know he thinks a great deal about beauty, and she is really the prettiest girl in Melbourne, I do think, though she does belong to us. She did not look so pretty to-day though, as I expected she would.
That dead-white in the morning that brides have to wear does spoil even the best complexion. I thought hers could stand anything, but it can"t stand that. When she wears it in the evening, now--not dead-white, but transparent white--she is a perfect picture. At that ball of ours last year everybody was talking of her. She was in Indian muslin. John said she was like a wood anemone."
Mrs. Reade was gazing thoughtfully into the fire. The mention of the ball at Adelonga stirred many troubled thoughts. The real importance of that event, in its effect upon Rachel, had never been known to Mrs.
Thornley, who was led to suppose that the suspension of Mr. Kingston"s engagement in October was solely due to certain laxities on his part, which the girl would not condone.
Mrs. Hardy"s terror lest "people" should get to know that a member of her family had had any dealings of a compromising nature with such a person as she considered Mr. Dalrymple to be had been the cause of this extreme reticence.
A general impression prevailed amongst the guests who had attended the ball, that the handsome ex-hussar had admired the belle of the evening to an extent that had roused the wrath of her _fiance_ against him; but no one, strange to say, had been able to discover more than that.
Mr. Dalrymple himself never had confidantes in these matters; and Mr.
Kingston, when he was enlightened at Christmas, was as little desirous as Mrs. Hardy that the facts of the case should be published. Beatrice and Rachel, who alone discussed them freely, did so with the strictest secresy.
Mrs. Reade had no confidential intercourse with her mother, as of yore, on the subject of her cousin"s welfare. They had jointly resolved, just before the younger lady set out for her summer visit to Adelonga, that it would be safer to exclude Lucilla (as a married woman who told her husband everything) from any partic.i.p.ation in the knowledge of the mischief that Mr. Dalrymple had done, and of Rachel"s unfortunate infatuation for him--which did not seem so very serious at that time; and since then his name had scarcely been mentioned between them.