"You"ve killed her, you d.a.m.ned spy!"
"Then I have been more kind than you!"
"What are you going to do with her?"
"Take her home to her dying grandfather."
"You"ve hurt her, you devil! I know you have!"
"She is only frightened. She is coming to herself. I feel her waking!"
"You shall feel me presently!" cried Forgue. "Put her down, I say."
Neither of them spoke loud, for dread of neighbours.
Eppy began to writhe in Donal"s arms. Forgue laid hold of her, and Donal was compelled to put her down. She threw herself into the arms of her lover, and was on the point of fainting again.
"Get out of the house!" said Forgue to Donal.
"I am here on your father"s business!" returned Donal.
"A spy and informer!"
"He sent me to fetch him some papers."
"It is a lie!" said Forgue; "I see it in your face!"
"So long as I speak the truth," rejoined Donal, "it matters little that you should think me a liar. But, my lord, you must allow me to take Eppy home."
"A likely thing!" answered Forgue, drawing Eppy closer, and looking at him with contempt.
"Give up the girl," said Donal sternly, "or I will raise the town, and have a crowd about the house in three minutes."
"You are the devil!" cried Forgue. "There! take her--with the consequences! If you had let us alone, I would have done my part.--Leave us now, and I"ll promise to marry her. If you don"t, you will have the blame of what may happen--not I."
"But you will, dearest?" said Eppy in a tone terrified and beseeching.
Gladly she would have had Donal hear him say he would.
Forgue pushed her from him. She burst into tears. He took her in his arms again, and soothed her like a child, a.s.suring her he meant nothing by what he had said.
"You are my own!" he went on; "you know you are, whatever our enemies may drive us to! Nothing can part us. Go with him, my darling, for the present. The time will come when we shall laugh at them all. If it were not for your sake, and the scandal of the thing, I would send the rascal to the bottom of the stair. But it is better to be patient."
Sobbing bitterly, Eppy went with Donal. Forgue stood shaking with impotent rage.
When they reached the street, Donal turned to lock the door. Eppy darted from him, and ran down the close, thinking to go in again by the side door. But it was locked, and Donal was with her in a moment.
"You go home alone, Eppy," he said; "it will be just as well I should not go with you. I must see lord Forgue out of the house."
"Eh, ye winna hurt him!" pleaded Eppy.
"Not if I can help it. I don"t want to hurt him. You go home. It will be better for him as well as you."
She went slowly away, weeping, but trying to keep what show of calm she could. Donal waited a minute or two, went back to the front door, entered, and hastening to the side door took the key from the lock.
Then returning to the hall, he cried from the bottom of the stair,
"My lord, I have both the keys; the side door is locked; I am about to lock the front door, and I do not want to shut you in. Pray, come down."
Forgue came leaping down the stair, and threw himself upon Donal in a fierce attempt after the key in his hand. The sudden a.s.sault staggered him, and he fell on the floor with Forgue above him, who sought to wrest the key from him. But Donal was much the stronger; he threw his a.s.sailant off him; and for a moment was tempted to give him a good thrashing. From this the thought of Eppy helped to restrain him, and he contented himself with holding him down till he yielded. When at last he lay quiet,
"Will you promise to walk out if I let you up?" said Donal. "If you will not, I will drag you into the street by the legs."
"I will," said Forgue; and getting up, he walked out and away without a word.
Donal locked the door, forgetting all about the papers, and went back to Andrew"s. There was Eppy, safe for the moment! She was busy in the outer room, and kept her back to him. With a word or two to the grandmother, he left them, and went home, revolving all the way what he ought to do. Should he tell the earl, or should he not? Had he been a man of rect.i.tude, he would not have hesitated a moment; but knowing he did not care what became of Eppy, so long as his son did not marry her, he felt under no obligation to carry him the evil report. The father might have a right to know, but had he a right to know from him?
A n.o.ble nature finds it almost impossible to deal with questions on other than the highest grounds: where those grounds are unrecognized, the relations of responsibility may be difficult indeed to determine.
All Donal was able to conclude on his way home, and he did not hurry, was, that, if he were asked any questions, he would speak out what he knew--be absolutely open. If that should put a weapon in the hand of the enemy, a weapon was not the victory.
CHAPTER XLVIII.
PATERNAL REVENGE.
No sooner had he entered the castle, where his return had been watched for, than Simmons came to him with the message that his lordship wanted to see him. Then first Donal remembered that he had not brought the papers! Had he not been sent for, he would have gone back at once to fetch them. As it was, he must see the earl first.
He found him in a worse condition than usual. His last drug or combination of drugs had not agreed with him; or he had taken too much, with correspondent reaction: he was in a vile temper. Donal told him he had been to the house, and had found the papers, but had not brought them--had, in fact, forgotten them.
"A pretty fellow you are!" cried the earl. "What, you left those papers lying about where any rascal may find them and play the deuce with them!"
Donal a.s.sured him they were perfectly safe, under the same locks and keys as before.
"You are always going about the bush!" cried the earl. "You never come to the point! How the devil was it you locked them up again?--To go prying all over the house, I suppose!"
Donal told him as much of the story as he would hear. Almost immediately he saw whither it tended, he began to abuse him for meddling with things he had nothing to do with. What right had he to interfere with lord Forgue"s pleasures! Things of the sort were to be regarded as non-existent! The linen had to be washed, but it was not done in the great court! Lord Forgue was a youth of position: why should he be balked of his fancy! It might be at the expense of society!
Donal took advantage of the first pause to ask whether he should not go back and bring the papers: he would run all the way, he said.
"No, d.a.m.n you!" answered the earl. "Give me the keys--all the keys--house-keys and all. I should be a fool myself to trust such a fool again!"
As Donal was laying the last key on the table by his lordship"s bedside, Simmons appeared, saying lord Forgue desired to know if his father would see him.
"Oh, yes! send him up!" cried the earl in a fury. "All the devils in h.e.l.l at once!"
His lordship"s rages came up from abysses of misery no man knew but himself.