The Churchwarden was right in his ideas, for, as the night wore on, Frank Mallow seemed to be trying to pique Rue by his strange bantering ways, while all the time he was so persevering in his free attentions to Sage that Luke"s face grew red, and a frown gathered upon his forehead.
Cyril saw it too, and as he found that his brother"s conduct annoyed both Sage and Luke, he increased his attentions, laughingly telling Frank not to monopolise the ladies, but to leave a chance for some one else.
"And they call themselves gentlemen!" thought Luke Ross, as he listened gravely to all that was said, and tried to keep from feeling annoyed at the free and easy way of the two brothers, who seemed to have put on their Australian manners for the occasion, and refused to believe in Mrs Portlock being troubled and her nieces annoyed.
They had the greater part of the conversation, and thoroughly spoiled the evening, so that it was with a feeling of relief that Luke heard Cyril Mallow say--
"Well, come along; we must get back. Past twelve; and the governor likes early hours in the country."
"Let him," said Frank Mallow, lighting his fourth cigar.
"But the mater said she should wait up to see you before she went to bed," said Cyril.
"Poor old girl! then I suppose we must go," said Frank, rising.
"Ladies, I kiss your hands, as we say in the east. Good-night!"
He shook hands all round, holding Rue Berry"s hand very tightly for a moment, at the same time that her brother had Sage"s little trembling fingers in his clasp.
"Good-night, gentlemen; you don"t go our way."
The next minute Mrs Portlock uttered a sigh of relief, for the dogs were barking at the visitors whom Churchwarden Portlock was seeing to the gate.
"There"s a something I like about that young fellow," said John Berry, breaking the silence, as the sisters stood hand clasped in hand, with Mrs Portlock looking at them in a troubled way. "I"ve heard a good deal of evil spoke of him, but a young fellow who is fond of his mother can"t be so very bad. Good-night, doctor; good-night, Mr Ross; good-night, Luke Ross. I"ll walk with you to the gate."
The "good-night" between Luke and Sage was not a warm one, for the girl felt troubled and ill at ease, but Luke was quiet and tender.
"She"s very tired," he said, "and I promised her--yes, I promised her--"
He did not say what he promised her, as he went thoughtfully home, leaving his father and Doctor Vinnicombe to do all the talking; but as they parted at the doctor"s door in the High Street, the latter turned sharply, and said--
"Good-night, Luke Ross. I say, Michael Ross, I don"t think you need envy the parson his good fortune in the matter of boys."
"I don"t envy him, Luke, my boy," said the little thin, dry old man, as soon as they were out of hearing; "and if I were you, my boy, I"d have precious little to do with these young fellows."
"Don"t be alarmed, father," said Luke, laughing; "they would think it an act of condescension to a.s.sociate with me."
"No," he said to himself, as he stood at last in his clean, plainly-furnished bedroom in the quaint little market-place, "I should be insulting Sage if I thought she could care for any one but me."
But all the same Luke Ross"s dreams were not of a very pleasant kind that night; and those of the two sisters of a less happy character still.
PART ONE, CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
THE PRODIGAL SONS.
To look at the red-brick gabled rectory, with its rose and wistaria-covered trellis-work, the latter at its season one ma.s.s of lovely pendent lavender racemes, and the former in some form or other brightening the house with blossoms all the year round, it might have been thought that it was the home of peace and constant content. The surrounding gardens were a model of beauty, the Rector sparing no expense to make them perfect in their way; but he had long enough before found that beauty of garden and choicest interior surroundings would not bring him peace.
His first great trouble had been the illness of his wife, who, after the birth of Cynthia, had for years and years been taken to this famous specialist, to that celebrated physician, and from both to springs all over the Continent, till, finding no relief, Mr Mallow had yielded to the suffering woman"s prayer.
"It is hopeless, dear," she had said, with a calm look of resignation in her pensive eyes. "Let us go home, and I will pray for strength to bear my lot."
They returned then, and it was for her sake that the garden was made to bloom with flowers, and the hothouses to produce the most delicious fruits. Their income was large from private resources, while the Lawford living was good, so that all that money could bring to alleviate the suffering woman"s trouble was there, and the Rector was almost constantly at her side.
But Fate, as has been said, who had endowed the Rev Eli Mallow with wealth, a handsome presence, and with good intellect, had not been chary in the matter of what commercial people term set-offs. Trouble besides his wife"s sickness came upon him thickly, princ.i.p.ally in the persons of his handsome, manly-looking sons.
Frank had been a difficulty from childhood. He had not been more spoilt than most boys are, though certainly his invalid mother had been most indulgent; but there was a moral bias by nature in his disposition, which somehow seemed to make him, just as he was apparently going straight for a certain goal, turn right off in a very unpleasantly-rounded curve.
Quite early in his youth he had to be recalled, to save expulsion from a certain school, on account of his heading a series of raids upon various orchards, and in defiance of divers corrections on the princ.i.p.al"s part.
He had to return home from his two next schools for various offences against their rules, and finally his college career came to an end with rustication.
Frank laughed, and said that he did not know how it was. One thing, he said, was evident: he was not cut out for the church, and he would not go back to college when the term of his rustication was at an end.
A clerkship was obtained for him then, through great interest, in the Treasury, and here for three or four years he got along pretty well, the confinement not being great, and the number of friends he met with being of a character to suit his taste.
There were bounds, though, even in those days, to the limits accorded to a gentlemanly clerk of good birth, and when Frank took to absenting himself from the office for a week at a time, matters became serious.
For the first time or two the plea of illness was accepted, but when another absence occurred, also from illness, and Mr Frank Mallow was seen by his superiors riding a showy-looking hack in the park, and was known to have given a bachelors" party in the same week, to which several fellow-clerks were invited, it became necessary to hint to the peccant youth that the next time he was unwell, a certificate to that effect would be necessary from some well-known medical man.
Frank was ill again, so he sent in word to the office, and stayed away for another week, after which, on presenting himself, he received a warning--one which he bore in mind for a couple of months, and then his head must have once more been very bad, for there was a fresh absence, and this endured so long that Frank"s seat in the Treasury knew him no more.
"Well, it don"t matter, mother," he said. "It was a wretched set-out, and I was sick of the eternal copying."
"But it was such a pity, dear," his mother said, in a tone of remonstrance.
"Pity? Stuff! Eighty pounds a year, and a rise of ten pounds annually!
Not bricklayer"s wages, and all the time people think it"s such a tremendous thing to be a Treasury clerk."
"Poor papa is so vexed and grieved, for he took such pains to get you the appointment."
"Then poor papa must get pleased again," said the young man, petulantly.
"I cannot, and I will not, stand a clerk"s desk. I"d sooner enlist."
"Frank!" cried his mother, reproachfully.
"Well, I declare I would, mother," he said, thrusting his hands into his pockets, and walking up and down the room.
"To find freedom?" said his mother, with a smile.
"Oh! I dare say there would be discipline to attend to, and officers to obey; but there would be some change. I should not have to be tied down to a wretched writing-table, copy, copy, copy, the whole day long."
"Change?" said Mrs Mallow, and she gazed wistfully in her son"s face.
"Yes, of course; one must have some excitement."
He stood gazing out of the window, and did not notice the strange despairing look in his mother"s eyes, one which seemed to tell of her own weary hours--weary years, pa.s.sed upon that couch, with no hope of change save that of some day sinking into the eternal rest. It was evident that she was contrasting the selfishness of her son and his position with her own, and she sighed as she closed her eyes and lay there in silence for a time, uttering no reproach.
Then came the day when the Rector was goaded almost to madness by the young man"s follies, and the reports constantly reaching his ears of Frank"s exploits at the princ.i.p.al hotel in billiard-playing and various unsavoury pursuits with one or other of the young farmers round.