"It"s a great compliment." Here Mary"s voice sounded quite straightforward and sincere. An odd little note of contempt crept into it as she added, "And it sounds--ideal!"
"Yes, it does," old Naylor agreed, with a private smile all to himself, whilst Mary still gazed into the fire. "Quite ideal. You"re a lucky young woman, Mary." He rose to take his leave. "So, with our young folk happily married, and you installed, and friend Beaumaroy suited to his liking--why, upon my word, we may ring the curtain down on a happy ending--of Act I, at all events!"
She seemed to pay no heed to his words. He stood for a moment admiring her; not a beauty, but a healthy comely young woman, stout-hearted, and with humanity and a sense of fun in her. And, as he looked, his true feeling about the situation suddenly burst through all restraint and leapt from his lips. "Though, for my part, under the circ.u.mstances, if I were you, I"d see old Irechester d.a.m.ned before I accepted the partnership!"
She turned to him--startled, yet suddenly smiling. He took her hand and raised it to his lips.
"Hush! Not another word! Good-bye, my dear Mary!"
The next day, as Mary, her morning round finished, sat at lunch with Cynthia, listening--or not listening--to her friend"s excusably eager chatter about her approaching wedding, a note was delivered into her hands:
"The C.M."s are in a hurry! She"s back! The window is boarded up again! Come and see! About 4 o"clock this afternoon. B."
Mary kept the appointment. She found Beaumaroy strolling up and down on the road in front of the cottage. The Tower window was boarded up again, but with new strong planks, in a much more solid and workman-like fashion. If he were to try again, Mike would not find it so easy to negotiate, without making a dangerous noise over the job.
"Such impatience--such undisguised rapacity--is indecent and revolting,"
Beaumaroy remarked. He seemed to be in the highest spirits. "I wonder if they"ve opened it yet!"
"They"ll see you prowling about outside, won"t they?"
"I hope so. Indeed I"ve no doubt of it. Mrs. Greeneyes is probably peering through the parlour window at this minute and cursing me. I like it! To those people I represent law and order. If they can rise to the conception of such a thing at all, I probably embody conscience. When you come to think of it, it"s a pleasant turn of events that I should come to represent law and order and conscience to anybody--even to the Radbolts."
"It is rather a change," she agreed. "But let"s walk on. I don"t really much want to think of them."
"That"s because you feel that you"re losing the bet. I can"t stop them getting the money in the end--that"s your doing! I can"t stop them cheating the Revenue--which is what they certainly mean to do--without exposing myself to more inconvenience than I am disposed to undergo in the cause of the Revenue. Whereas if I had left the bag in the water-b.u.t.t----! All your doing! Aren"t you a little sorry?"
"Of course there is an aspect of the case----" she admitted, smiling.
"That"s enough for me! You"ve lost the bet. Let"s see--what were the stakes, Mary?"
"Come, let"s walk on." She put her arm through his. "What about this berth that Mr. Naylor"s offering you? At Bogota, isn"t it?"
He looked puzzled for a moment; then his mind worked quickly back to Cynthia"s almost forgotten tragedy. He laughed in enjoyment of her thrust. "My place isn"t Bogota--though I fancy that it"s rather in the same moral lat.i.tude. You"re confusing me with Captain Cranster!"
"So I was--for a moment," said Doctor Mary demurely. "But what about the appointment, anyhow?"
"What about your partnership with Dr. Irechester, if you come to that?"
Mary pressed his arm gently, and they walked on in silence for a little while. They were clear of the neighbourhood of Tower Cottage now, but still a considerable distance from Old Place; very much alone together on the heath, as they had seemed to be that night--that night of nights--at the cottage.
"I haven"t so much as received the offer yet; only Mr. Naylor has mentioned it to me."
"Still you"d like to be ready with your answer when the offer is made, wouldn"t you?" He drew suddenly away from her, and stood still on the road, opposite to her. His face lost its playfulness; as it set into gravity, the lines upon it deepened, and his eyes looked rather sad.
"This is wrong of me, perhaps, but I can"t help it. I"m not going to talk to you about myself. Confessions and apologies and excuses, and so on, aren"t in my line. I should probably tell lies if I attempted anything of the sort. You must take me or leave me on your own judgment, on your own feeling about me, as you"ve seen and known me--not long, but pretty intimately, Mary." He suddenly reached his hand into his pocket and pulled out the combination knife-and-fork. "That"s all I"ve brought away of his from Tower Cottage. And I brought it away as much for your sake as for his. It was during our encounter over this instrument that I first thought of you as a woman, Mary. And, by Jove, I believe you knew it!"
"Yes, I believe I did," she answered, her eyes set very steadily on his.
He slipped the thing back into his pocket. "And now I love you, and I want you, Mary."
She fell into a sudden agitation. "Oh, but this doesn"t seem for me! I"d put all that behind me!--I----" She could scarcely find words. "I--I"m just Doctor Mary!"
"Lots of people to practise on--bodies and souls too--in the moral lat.i.tude I"m going to!"
Her body seemed to shiver a little, as though before a plunge into deep water. "I"m very safe here," she whispered.
"Yes, you"re safe here," he acknowledged gravely, and stood silent, waiting for her choice.
"What a decision to have to make!" she cried suddenly. "It"s all my life in a moment! Because I don"t want you to go away from me!" She drew near to him, and put her hands on his shoulders. "I"m not a child, like Cynthia. I can"t dream dreams and make idols any more. I think I see you as you are, and I don"t know whether your love is a good thing." She paused, searching his eyes with hers very earnestly. Then she went on, "But if it isn"t, I think there"s no good thing left for me at all."
"Mary, isn"t that your answer to me?"
"Yes." Her arms fell from his shoulders, and she stood opposite to him, in silence again for a moment. Then her troubled face cleared to a calm serenity. "And now I set doubts and fears behind me. I come to you in faith, and loyalty, and love. I"m not a missionary to you, or a reformer. G.o.d forbid! I"m just the woman who loves you, Hector."
"I should have mocked at the missionary, and tricked the reformer." He bared his head before her. "But by the woman who loves me and whom I love, I will deal faithfully." He bent and kissed her forehead.
"And now, let"s walk on. No, not to Old Place--back home, past Tower Cottage."
She put her arm through his again, and they set out through the soft dusk that had begun to hover about them. So they came to the cottage, and here, for a while, instinctively stayed their steps. A light shone in the parlour window; the Tower was dark and still. Mary turned her face to Beaumaroy"s with a sudden smile of scornful gladness.
"Aye, aye, you"re right!" His smile answered hers. "Poor devils! I"m sorry for them, upon my soul I am!"
"That really is just like you!" she exclaimed in mirthful exasperation.
"Sorry for the Radbolts now, are you?"
"Well, after all, they"ve only got the gold. We"ve got the treasure, Mary!"