"I have not the honor to be Captain Brand," he said. "I am merely his messenger."
"What? Heh? Captain Brand didn"t come after all?" cried Mr. Purcell, recoiling from the dark, smiling face.
"Yes, he came; he will remain in Regis to-night, and when less fatigued will pay his devoirs to Mrs. Brand. He made me the bearer of a note to Miss Walsingham. Can I see her?"
The steward turned; the man looked up, his black, flashing eyes rested upon her. She stood not three feet away, looking down upon him, her white, electric face startling him in the chill radiance of the summer moon, her long garments sweeping in regal folds about her magnificent person, her blue-black hair curving in rich waves under the lace mantilla she had thrown over her head--a woman to mark, to remember.
She stretched forth a long, white hand, with a vehement gesture.
"Give it to me," she said. "I am Miss Walsingham."
The man forgot his courtly smile and his wary watchfulness; his artificial polish cracked in all directions and exposed a terribly startled man. He gazed at Margaret Walsingham with arrested eye, and his hands strayed unconsciously to his wrists as if they would find spectral shackles there.
The envelope he held dropped to his feet, he stooped with a muttered oath, and recovering it, reached it to her outstretched hand.
She did not retire to read the missive, the moonlight saved her the necessity, and the man stood awaiting an answer, as she tore the note from its crested envelope, and in a moment had mastered its contents.
A blaze of indignation spread over her brow and cheek.
"Heartless trifler!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed she, bitterly, and read these words aloud to the steward:
"St. Udo Brand presents his compliments to Miss Walsingham, and his thanks for her tearful invitations to join her in the melancholy duties of sick-nurse. Feeling that his vocation does not lie in soothing the nervous sufferings of the aged, he begs Miss Walsingham"s disinterested heart to hold him excused; and confidently commends his dear grandmother to the delicate care of her pet and _protegee_ until such time as she can a.s.sure him that his presence will not bring on another attack of the vapors upon Madam Brand. Hoping that you will both enjoy a good night"s rest, and that you may feel justified in receiving me some time to-morrow, I remain yours,
"ST. UDO BRAND."
"Captain Brand must come instantly," cried Margaret, and turned sharply upon the quailing amba.s.sador. "Do you hear, sir?"
She paused with a lady"s instinct--a lady"s aversion to address an unknown man.
"Roland Mortlake, Miss Walsingham," murmured the stranger coming out of his fog.
"Go tell Captain Brand that Mrs. Brand is dying--that she has but a few minutes to live, and that he must come instantly if he would hear her last words. You will remember, Mr. Mortlake? And say the will must be changed, or Captain Brand will be ruined. Tell him that. Now go, for Heaven"s sake!"
The stranger turned his wrapt scrutiny of herself into a keen and crafty attention of her words. He repeated them after her, with a significant pause after each clause, as if he longed to wrest the uttermost moiety of a meaning from her scant expressions.
"Symonds shall accompany you with the carriage, and bring Captain Brand," said Margaret. "Send him, Purcell."
The steward trotted away to dispatch the coachman, and the pair were left with each other.
The man on the lowest step and the woman on the highest gazed fixedly in each other"s faces. His fierce, envious, and inquisitive; hers cold, distrustful, and unflinching.
In that silent interview their souls stood forth, each revealing to the other, and doomed to future recognition under the most perfect masking which rascality could a.s.sume to compa.s.s its end, or purity devise to hide from peril.
Then Roland Mortlake bowed to the earth, and, striding back to his horse and his companion, uttered a terrible execration.
The other tossed his cigar over the low stone wall into a tulip bed, and, springing to his horse, followed his angry comrade as he galloped away.
"_Gardez-tu_, my friend," cried he, breezily. "You English take great news sourly, _ma foi!_ you curse Mademoiselle Fortune herself when she smiles upon you the blandest."
His clipped English rang out gaily on the summer breeze, and those careless words, listened to by Margaret Walsingham on that eventful night with unheeding ears, came back one day through the mists of forgetfulness, and took their place in the wild drama with strange significance.
Once more Margaret returned to her dying patroness, and met her eager, questioning eyes with mute looks of anguish.
Utterly silent now, she held her poor friend"s fluttering hand, and wiped the foam from her voiceless lips, and the kind old doctor turned away his br.i.m.m.i.n.g eyes, that he might not witness the harrowing spectacle of the woman"s love and grief while performing these last gentle ministrations.
The housekeeper sat at the foot of the bed, shaking with her sobs. A few of the old retainers of the household grouped near the door, stifling their lamentations as best they might. But never a word spoke poor Margaret, as she watched her last and only friend sinking from her clinging arms into the mysteries of death.
The minutes sped; the doctor laid his watch upon the table; Margaret"s eyes left the pallid face of the dying to watch its swift circling hands, with a tightening of the heart-strings.
"I give them thirty minutes to go and return from Regis," she murmured to the doctor at last. "Will she live thirty minutes?"
Dr. Gay answered nothing; but the vampire Death, fanning the sinking mortal into immortality, answered, by her convulsive face and twitching hands.
"_No!_"
Ten, fifteen minutes pa.s.sed, still the shrouded chest rose and fell in intermittent respirations; still the cold fingers sought Margaret"s; still the swimming eyes turned on hers with the dumb agony of the last pang. Twenty minutes, twenty-five, twenty-six, the closing eyes flew wide open, the relaxing chin took its comely place once more, the toiling breath ceased in a long, full sigh.
She looked long and tenderly at her poor Margaret Walsingham, then beyond her into the shadowy world she was entering, and a wondering smile broke dazzlingly over her whole countenance.
"Lift me up," she sighed, like a weary child.
Margaret lifted her to her breast.
"Higher," whispered she. "Ah! this is rest--rest!"
And as Margaret lifted the smiling face to her shoulder, the last thrill ran through the kind old heart, stopped, and she entered the everlasting gates.
So she went on her dim, mystic journey, not sped by the hands of her kindred; nor mourned by the hearts of her kindred; uncomforted and alone, save for the love of Margaret Walsingham--good, impulsive, generous Mrs. Brand.
Margaret laid her down and closed her sightless eyes; then arose from her finished watch and turned away.
She looked blankly about; her eyes fell upon the watch still lying upon the table, and noticed the hand resting upon the thirtieth minute, and immediately the clang of horses" hoofs and the roll of the carriage wheels stole to her ear. She put her hand suddenly to her forehead like one in physical pain; it fell to her bosom, and pressed convulsively there. She uttered a piercing cry, flung up her hands, and fell forward like one stabbed to the heart.
St. Udo Brand had come at last, and he was too late.
CHAPTER II.
READING OF THE WILL.
Mrs. Brand, in her lead coffin, in its rosewood sh.e.l.l, was slumbering in the stately vault of her ancestors, and Mr. Davenport held in his hands the last will of her whose will had in her life ever been law, and glanced around to see that all the legatees were there.
St. Udo Brand, the tardy heir, was present, quietly waiting to hear the reading of the will with that decorous gravity with which we wait to bear our honors.
Dr. Gay was there, because his departed friend had requested him to do so.