"But not to you, miss. Yes, I will be honest to please you. And indeed, Miss Chesney, when I left home this morning I never meant to kill a thing. I started with a short oak stick in my hand, quite innocent like, and up by the bit of heather yonder this young one ran across my path; I didn"t seek it, and may bad luck go with the oak stick, for, before I knew what I meant, it flew from me, and a second later the bird lay dead as mutton. Not a stir in it. I was always a fine shot, miss, with a stick or a stone," says the accomplished Heskett, regarding his grouse with much pride. "Will you have it, miss?" he says then, holding it out to her.
"No, thank you," loftily: "I am not a receiver of stolen goods; and it is stolen, remember that."
"I suppose so, miss. Well, as I said before, I will be honest now to please you, you have been so good to me."
"You should try to please some One higher," says Lilian, with a solemnity that in her is sweeter than it is comical.
"Nay, then, miss,--to please you first, if I may."
"Tell me," says Lilian, shifting ground as she finds it untenable, "why do you never come to church?"
"It"s so mighty dull, miss."
"You shouldn"t find it so. Come and say your prayers, and afterward you may find it easier to be good. You should not call church dull," with a little reproving shake of the head.
"Do _you_ never find it stupid, Miss Chesney?" asks Heskett, with all diffidence.
Lilian pauses. This is a home-thrust, and her innate honesty prevents the reply that trembles on her lips. She _does_ find it very stupid now and then.
"Sometimes," she says, with hesitation, "when Mr. Austen is preaching I cannot think it quite as interesting as it might be: still----"
"Oh, as for him," says Heskett, with a grin, "he ought to be shot, miss, begging your pardon, that"s what he ought. I never see him I don"t wish he was a rabbit snug in one o" my snares as was never known to fail.
Wouldn"t I wring his neck when I caught him! maybe not! comin" around with his canting talk, as though he was the archbishop hisself."
"How dare you speak of your clergyman in such a way?" says Lilian, shocked; "you are a bad, bad boy, and I am very angry with you."
"Don"t then, Miss Chesney," piteously; "I ask your pardon humbly, and I"ll never again speak of Mr. Austen if you don"t like. But he do aggravate awful, miss, and frightens the life out o" mother, because she do smoke a bit of an evenin", and it"s all the comfort she have, poor soul. There"s the Methody parson below, even he"s a better sort, though he do snivel horrid. But I"ll do anything to please you, miss, an" I"ll come to church next Sunday."
"Well, mind you do," says Lilian, dismissing him with a gracious nod.
So Heskett departs, much exercised in mind, and in the lowest spirits, being full of vague doubts, yet with a keen consciousness that by his promise to Miss Chesney he has forfeited his dearest joy, and that from him the glory of life has departed. No more poaching, no more snaring, no more midnight excursions fraught with delicious danger: how is he to get on in future, with nothing to murder but time?
Meanwhile Miss Chesney, coming home flushed with victory, encounters Florence in the garden wandering gracefully among the flowers, armed as usual with the huge umbrella, the guardian of her dear complexion.
"You have been for a walk?" she asks Lilian, with astonishing _bonhommie_. "I hope it was a pleasant one."
"Very, thank you."
"Then you were not alone. Solitary walks are never pleasant."
"Nevertheless, mine was solitary."
"Then, Guy did not go with you?" somewhat hastily.
"No. He found he had something to do in the stables," Lilian answers, shortly.
Miss Beauchamp laughs a low, soft, irritative laugh.
"How stupid Guy is!" she says. "I wonder it never occurs to him to invent a new excuse: whenever he wants to avoid doing anything unpleasant to him, he has always some pressing business connected with the stables to take him away. Have you noticed it?"
"I cannot say I have. But then I have not made a point of studying his eccentricities. Now you have told me this one, I dare say I shall remark it in future. You see," with a slight smile, "I hold myself in such good esteem that it never occurred to me others might find my company disagreeable."
"Nor do they, I am sure,"--politely,--"but Guy is so peculiar, at times positively odd."
"You amaze me more and more every moment. I have always considered him quite a rational being,--not in the least madder than the rest of us. I do hope the new moon will have no effect upon him."
"Ah! you jest," languidly. "But Guy does hold strange opinions, especially about women. No one, I think, quite understands him but me.
We have always been so--fond of each other, he and I."
"Yes? Quite like brother and sister, I suppose? It is only natural."
"Oh, _no_" emphatically, her voice taking a soft intonation full of sentimental meaning, "not in the very _least_ like brother and sister."
"Like what then?" asks Lilian, somewhat sharply for her.
"How downright you are!" with a little forced laugh, and a modest drooping of her white lids; "I mean, I think a brother and sister are hardly so necessary to each other"s happiness as--as we are to each other, and have been for years. To me, Chetwoode would not be Chetwoode without Guy, and I fancy--I am sure--it would scarcely be home to Guy without me." This with a quiet conviction not to be shaken. "Perhaps you can see what I mean? though, indeed," with a smile, "I hardly know myself what it is I _do_ mean."
"Ah!" says Lilian, a world of meaning in her tone.
"The only fault I find with him," goes on Florence, in the low, prettily modulated tone she always adopts, "is, that he is rather a flirt. I believe he cannot help it; it is second nature to him now. He adores pretty women, and at times his manner to them is rather--er--caressing.
I tell him it is dangerous. Not perhaps that it makes much difference nowadays, does it? when women have learned to value attentions exactly at what they are worth. For my own part, I have little sympathy with those foolish Ariadnes who spend their lives bemoaning the loss of their false lovers. Don"t you agree with me?"
"Entirely. Utterly," says Lilian, in a curious tone that might be translated any way. "But I cannot help thinking Fortune very hard on the poor Ariadnes. Is that the dressing-bell? How late it has grown! I am afraid we must go in if we wish to be in time for dinner."
Miss Beauchamp being possessed with the same fear, they enter the house together, apparently in perfect amity with each other, and part in peace at their chamber doors. Lilian even bestows a little smile upon her companion as she closes hers, but it quickly changes into an unmistakable little frown as the lock is turned. A shade falls across her face, an impatient pucker settles comfortably upon her forehead, as though it means to spend some time there.
"What a hateful girl that is!" Lilian says to herself, flinging her hat with a good deal of vehemence on to the bed (where it makes one desperate effort to range itself and then rolls over to the floor at the other side), and turning two lovely wrathful eyes toward the door, as though the object of her anger were still in sight. "Downright detestable! and quite an old maid; not a doubt of it. Women close on thirty are always so spiteful!"
Here she picks up the unoffending hat, and almost unconsciously straightens a damaged bow while her thought still runs on pa.s.sionately.
So Sir Guy "adores pretty women." By the bye, it was a marvelous concession on Miss Beauchamp"s part to acknowledge her as such, for without doubt all that kindly warning was meant for her.
Going up to her gla.s.s, Lilian runs her fingers through the rippling ma.s.ses of her fair hair, and pinches her soft cheeks cruelly until the red blood rushes upward to defend them, after which, she tells herself, even Florence could scarcely have said otherwise.
And does Miss Beauchamp think _herself_ a "pretty woman?" and does Sir Guy "adore _her_?" She said he was a flirt. But is he? Cyril is decidedly given that way, and some faults run in families. Now she remembers certain lingering glances, tender tones, and soft innuendoes meant for her alone, that might be placed to the account of her guardian. She smiles somewhat contemptuously as she recalls them. Were all these but parts of his "caressing" manner? Pah! what a sickening word it is.
She blushes hotly, until for a full minute she resembles the heart of a red, red rose. And for that minute she positively hates her guardian.
Does he imagine that she--_she_--is such a baby as to be flattered by the attentions of any man, especially by one who is the lover of another woman? for has not Florence both in words and manner almost claimed him as her own? Oh, it is too abominable! And----
But never mind, wait, and when she has the opportunity, won"t she show him, that"s all?
What she is to show him, or how, does not transpire. But this awful threat, this carefully disguised and therefore sinister menace, is evidently one of weight, because it adds yet a deeper crimson to Miss Chesney"s cheeks, and brings to life a fire within her eyes, that gleams and sparkles there unrebuked.
Then it quietly dies, and nurse entering finds her little mistress again calm, but unusually taciturn, and strangely forgetful of her teasing powers.
CHAPTER XII.