After dinner she put the letter into Christopher"s hand, and asked him quietly was there any truth in that: then her hands trembled, and her eyes drank him.
Christopher read it, and frowned; then he looked up, and said, "No, not a word. What scoundrels there are in the world! To go and tell you that, NOW! Why, you little goose! have you been silly enough to believe it?"
"No," said she irresolutely. "But DO you drive the brougham out every night?"
"Except Sunday."
"Where?"
"My dear wife, I never loved you as I love you now; and if it was not for you, I should not drive the brougham out of nights. That is all I shall tell you at present; but some day I"ll tell you all about it."
He took such a calm high hand with her about it, that she submitted to leave it there; but from this moment the serpent doubt nibbled her.
It had one curious effect, though. She left off complaining of trifles.
Now it happened one night that Lady Cicely Treherne and a friend were at a concert in Hanover Square. The other lady felt rather faint, and Lady Cicely offered to take her home. The carriages had not yet arrived, and Miss Macnamara said to walk a few steps would do her good: a smart cabman saw them from a distance and drove up, and touching his hat said, "Cab, ladies?"
It seemed a very superior cab, and Miss Macnamara said "Yes" directly.
The cabman bustled down and opened the door; Miss Macnamara got in first, then Lady Cicely; her eye fell on the cabman"s face, which was lighted full by a street-lamp, and it was Christopher Staines!
He started and winced; but the woman of the world never moved a muscle.
"Where to?" said Staines, averting his head.
She told him where, and when they got out, said, "I"ll send it you by the servant."
A flunkey soon after appeared with half-a-crown, and the amateur coachman drove away. He said to himself, "Come, my mustache is a better disguise than I thought."
Next day, and the day after, he asked Rosa, with affected carelessness, had she heard anything of Lady Cicely.
"No, dear; but I dare say she will call this afternoon: it is her day."
She did call at last, and after a few words with Rosa, became a little restless, and asked if she might consult Dr. Staines.
"Certainly, dear. Come to his studio."
"No; might I see him here?"
"Certainly." She rang the bell, and told the servant to ask Dr. Staines if he would be kind enough to step into the drawing-room.
Dr. Staines came in, and bowed to Lady Cicely, and eyed her a little uncomfortably.
She began, however, in a way that put him quite at his ease. "You remember the advice you gave us about my little cousin Tadcastah."
"Perfectly: his life is very precarious; he is bilious, consumptive, and, if not watched, will be epileptical; and he has a fond, weak mother, who will let him kill himself."
"Exactly: and you wecommended a sea voyage, with a medical attendant to watch his diet, and contwol his habits. Well, she took other advice, and the youth is worse; so now she is fwightened, and a month ago she asked me to pwopose to you to sail about with Tadcastah; and she offered me a thousand pounds a year. I put on my stiff look, and said, "Countess, with every desiah to oblige you, I must decline to cawwy that offah to a man of genius, learning, and weputation, who has the ball at his feet in London.""
"Lord forgive you, Lady Cicely."
"Lord bless her for standing up for my Christie."
Lady Cicely continued: "Now, this good lady, you must know, is not exactly one of us: the late earl mawwied into cotton, or wool, or something. So she said, "Name your price for him." I shwugged my shoulders, smiled affably, and as affectedly as you like, and changed the subject. But since then things have happened. I am afwaid it is my duty to make you the judge whether you choose to sail about with that little cub--Rosa, I can beat about the bush no longer. Is it a fit thing that a man of genius, at whose feet we ought all to be sitting with reverence, should drive a cab in the public streets? Yes, Rosa Staines, your husband drives his brougham out at night, not to visit any other lady, as that anonymous wretch told you, but to make a few misewable shillings for you."
"Oh, Christie!"
"It is no use, Dr. Staines; I must and will tell her. My dear, he drove ME three nights ago. He had a cabman"s badge on his poor arm. If you knew what I suffered in those five minutes! Indeed it seems cruel to speak of it--but I could not keep it from Rosa, and the reason I muster courage to say it before you, sir, it is because I know she has other friends who keep you out of their consultations; and, after all, it is the world that ought to blush, and not you."
Her ladyship"s kindly bosom heaved, and she wanted to cry; so she took her handkerchief out of her pocket without the least hurry, and pressed it delicately to her eyes, and did cry quietly, but without any disguise, like a brave lady, who neither cried nor did anything else she was ashamed to be seen at.
As for Rosa, she sat sobbing round Christopher"s neck, and kissed him with all her soul.
"Dear me!" said Christopher. "You are both very kind. But, begging your pardon, it is much ado about nothing."
Lady Cicely took no notice of that observation. "So, Rosa dear," said she, "I think you are the person to decide whether he had not better sail about with that little cub, than--oh!"
"I will settle that," said Staines. "I have one beloved creature to provide for. I may have another. I MUST make money. Turning a brougham into a cab, whatever you may think, is an honest way of making it, and I am not the first doctor who has coined his brougham at night. But if there is a good deal of money to be made by sailing with Lord Tadcaster, of course I should prefer that to cab-driving, for I have never made above twelve shillings a night."
"Oh, as to that, she shall give you fifteen hundred a year."
"Then I jump at it."
"What! and leave ME?"
"Yes, love: leave you--for your good; and only for a time. Lady Cicely, it is a n.o.ble offer. My darling Rosa will have every comfort--ay, every luxury, till I come home, and then we will start afresh with a good balance, and with more experience than we did at first."
Lady Cicely gazed on him with wonder. She said, "Oh! what stout hearts men have! No, no; don"t let him go. See; he is acting. His great heart is torn with agony. I will have no hand in parting man and wife--no, not for a day." And she hurried away in rare agitation.
Rosa fell on her knees, and asked Christopher"s pardon for having been jealous; and that day she was a flood of divine tenderness. She repaid him richly for driving the cab. But she was unnaturally cool about Lady Cicely; and the exquisite reason soon came out. "Oh yes! She is very good; very kind; but it is not for me now! No! you shall not sail about with her cub of a cousin, and leave me at such a time."
Christopher groaned.
"Christie, you shall not see that lady again. She came here to part us.
SHE IS IN LOVE WITH YOU. I was blind not to see it before."
Next day, as Lady Cicely sat alone in the morning-room thinking over this very scene, a footman brought in a card and a note. "Dr. Staines begs particularly to see Lady Cicely Treherne."
The lady"s pale cheek colored; she stood irresolute a single moment. "I will see Dr. Staines," said she.
Dr. Staines came in, looking pale and worn; he had not slept a wink since she saw him last.
She looked at him full, and divined this at a glance. She motioned him to a seat, and sat down herself, with her white hand pressing her forehead, and her head turned a little away from him.
CHAPTER XIII.