Arlington"s appearance. Though no doubt she is pretty,--in a certain style," concludes Miss Beauchamp, who is an adept at uttering the faint praise that d.a.m.ns.
"Trant is a gentleman," returns Guy, somewhat coldly. Yet as he says it a doubt enters his mind.
"He has the name of being rather fast in town," says young Musgrave, vaguely; "there is some story about his being madly in love with some mysterious woman whom n.o.body knows. I don"t remember exactly how it is,--but they say she is hidden away somewhere."
"How delightfully definite Taffy always is!" Lilian says, admiringly; "it is so easy to grasp his meaning. Got any more stories, Taffy? I quite begin to fancy this Colonel Trant. Is he as captivating as he is wicked?"
"Not quite. I am almost sure I saw him to-day in the lane that runs down between the wood and Brown"s farm. But I may be mistaken; I was certainly one or two fields off, yet I have a sure eye, and I have seen him often in London."
"Perhaps Mrs. Arlington is the mysterious lady of his affections," says Guy, laughing, and, the moment the words have pa.s.sed his lips, regrets their utterance. Cyril"s eyes descend rapidly from the ceiling and meet his. On the instant a suspicion unnamed and unacknowledged fills both their hearts.
"Do you really think Trant came down to see your tenant?" asks Cyril, almost defiantly.
"Certainly not," returning the other"s somewhat fiery glance calmly. "I do not believe he would be in the neighborhood without coming to see my mother."
At the last word, so dear to her, Lady Chetwoode wakes gently, opens her still beautiful eyes, and smiles benignly on all around, as though defying them to say she has slumbered for half a second.
"Yes, my dear Guy, I quite agree with you," she says, affably, _apropos_ of nothing unless it be a dream, and then, being fully roused, suggests going to bed. Whereupon Florence says, with gentle thoughtfulness, "Indeed yes. If Guy is to be up early in the morning he ought to go to bed now," and, rising as her aunt rises, makes a general move.
When the women have disappeared and resigned themselves to the tender mercies of their maids, and the men have sought that best beloved of all apartments, the Tabagie, a sudden resolution to say something that lies heavy on his mind takes possession of Guy. Of all things on earth he hates most a "scene," but some power within him compels him to speak just now. The intense love he bears his only brother, his fear lest harm should befall him, urges him on, sorely against his will, to give some faint utterance to all that is puzzling and distressing him.
Taffy, seduced by the sweetness of the night, has stepped out into the garden, where he is enjoying his weed alone. Within, the lamp is almost quenched by the great pale rays of the moon that rush through the open window. Without, the whole world is steeped in one white, glorious splendor.
The stars on high are twinkling, burning, like distant lamps. Anon, one darts madly across the dark blue amphitheatre overhead, and is lost in s.p.a.ce, while the others laugh on, unheeding its swift destruction. The flowers are sleeping, emitting in their dreams faint, delicate perfumed sighs; the cattle have ceased to low in the far fields: there is no sound through all the busy land save the sweet soughing of the wind and the light tread of Musgrave"s footsteps up and down outside.
"Cyril," says Guy, removing the meerschaum from between his lips, and regarding its elaborate silver bands with some nervousness, "I wish you would not go to The Cottage so often as you do."
"No? And why not, _tres cher_?" asks Cyril, calmly, knowing well what is coming.
"For one thing, we do not know who this Mrs. Arlington is, or anything of her. That in itself is a drawback. I am sorry I ever agreed to Trant"s proposal, but it is too late for regret in that quarter. Do not double my regret by making me feel I have done you harm."
"You shall never feel that. How you do torture yourself over shadows, Guy! I always think it must be the greatest bore on earth to be conscientious,--that is, over-scrupulous, like you. It is a mistake, dear boy, take my word for it,--will wear you out before your time."
"I am thinking of you, Cyril. Forgive me if I seem impertinent. Mrs.
Arlington is lovely, graceful, everything of the most desirable in appearance, but----" A pause.
"_Apres?_" murmurs Cyril, lazily.
"But," earnestly, "I should not like you to lose your heart to her, as you force me to say it. Musgrave says he saw Trant in the lane to-day.
Of course he may have been mistaken; but was he? I have my own doubts, Cyril," rising in some agitation,--"doubts that may be unjust, but I cannot conquer them. If you allow yourself to love that woman, she will bring you misfortune. Why is she so secret about her former life? Why does she shun society? Cyril, be warned in time; she may be a----, she may be anything," checking himself slowly.
"She may," says Cyril, rising with a pa.s.sionate irrepressible movement to his feet, under pretense of lighting the cigar that has died out between his fingers. Then, with a sudden change of tone and a soft laugh, "The skies may fall, of course, but we scarcely antic.i.p.ate it. My good Guy, what a visionary you are! Do be rational, if you can. As for Mrs. Arlington, why should she create dissension between you and me?"
"Why, indeed?" returns Guy, gravely. "I have to ask your pardon for my interference. But you know I only speak when I feel compelled, and always for your good."
"You are about the best fellow going, I know that," replies Cyril, deliberately, knocking the ash off his cigar; "but at times you are wont to lose your head,--to wander,--like the best of us. I am safe enough, trust me. "What"s Hecuba to me, or I to Hecuba?" Come, don"t let us spoil this glorious night by a dissertation on what we neither of us know anything about. What a starlight!" standing at the open cas.e.m.e.nt, and regarding with quick admiration the glistening dome above him. "I wonder how any one looking on it can disbelieve in a heaven beyond!"
Here Musgrave"s fair head makes a blot in the perfect calm of the night scene.
"Is that you, Taffy? Where have you been all this time?--mooning?--you have had ample opportunity. But you are too young for Melancholy to mark you as her own. It is only old folk like Guy," with a laughing though affectionate glance backward to where his brother stands, somewhat perplexed, beside the lamp, "should fall victims to the blues."
"A fig for melancholy!" says Taffy, vaulting lightly into the room, and by his presence putting an end to all private conversation between the brothers.
The next morning Lilian (to whom early rising is a pure delight), running down the broad stone stairs two steps at a time, finds Guy on the eve of starting, with Florence beside him, looking positively handsome in the most thrilling of morning gowns. She has forsaken her virtuous couch, and slighted the balmy slumber she so much loves, to give him his breakfast, and is still unremitting in her attentions, and untiring with regard to her smiles.
"Not gone!" says Lilian, wickedly: "how disappointed I am, to be sure! I fancied my bonbons an hour nearer to me than they really are. Bad Guardy, why don"t you hurry?" She says this with the prettiest affectation of infantile grace, accompanied by a coquettish glance from under her sweeping lashes that creates in Florence a mad desire to box her ears.
"You forget it will not hasten the train five seconds, Guy"s leaving this sooner than he does," she says, snubbingly. "To picture him sitting in a draughty station could not--I should think--give satisfaction to any one."
"It could"--willfully--"to me. It would show a proper anxiety to obey my behests. Guardy," with touching concern, "are you sure you are warm enough? Now do promise me one thing,--that you will beware of the crossings; they say any number of old men come to grief in that way yearly, and are run over through deafness, or short sight, or stupidity in general. Think how horrid it would be if they sent us home your mangled remains."
"Go in, you naughty child, and learn to speak to your elders with respect," says Guy, laughing, and putting her bodily inside the hall-door, from whence she trips out again to wave him a last adieu, and kiss her hand warmly to him as he disappears round the corner of the laurustinus bush.
And Sir Guy drives away full of his ward"s fresh girlish loveliness, her slender lissome figure, her laughing face, the thousand tantalizing graces that go to make her what she is; forgetful of Miss Beauchamp"s more matured charms,--her white gown,--her honeyed words,--everything.
All day long Lilian"s image follows him. It is beside him in the crowded street, enters his club with him, haunts him in his business, laughs at him in his most serious moods; while she, at home, scarce thinks of him at all, or at the most vaguely, though when at five he does return she is the first to greet him.
"He has come home! he is here!" she cries, dancing into the hall. "Have you escaped the crossings? and rheumatism? and your old enemy, lumbago?
Good old Guardy, let me help you off with your coat. So. Positively, he is all here,--not a bit of him gone,--and none the worse for wear!"
"Tired, Guy?" asks Florence, coming gracefully forward,--slowly, lest by unseemly haste she should disturb the perfect fold of her train, that sets off her figure to such advantage. She speaks warmly, appropriatingly, as one"s wife might, after a long journey.
"Tired! not he," returns Lilian irreverently: "he is quite a gay old gentleman. Nor hungry either. No doubt he has lunched profusely in town, "not wisely, but too well," as somebody says. Where are my sweeties, Sir Ancient?"
"My dear Lilian,"--rebukingly,--"if you reflect, you will see he must be both tired and hungry."
"So am I for my creams: I quite pine for them. Sir Guy, where _are_ my sweeties?"
"Here, little cormorant," says Guy, as fondly as he dares, handing her a gigantic _bonbonniere_ in which chocolates and French sweetmeats fight for mastery: "have I got you what you wanted?"
"Yes, indeed; _best_ of Guardys, I only wish I might kiss my thanks."
"You may."
"Better not. Such a condescension on my part might turn your old head.
Oh, Taffy," with an exclamation, "you bad greedy boy; you have taken half my almonds! Well, you shan"t have any of the others, for punishment. Auntie and Florence and I will eat the rest."
"Thanks," drawls Florence, languidly, "but I am always so terrified about toothache."
"What a pity!" says Miss Chesney. "If I had toothache, I should have all my teeth drawn instantly, and false ones put in their place."
To this Miss Beauchamp, being undecided in her own mind as to whether it is or is not an impertinence, deigns no reply. Cyril, with a gravity that belies his innermost feelings, gazes hard at Lilian, only to acknowledge her innocent of desire to offend.
"You did not meet Archibald?" asks Lady Chetwoode of Guy.
"No: I suppose he will be down by next train. Chesney is always up to time."