"Is London very gay just now, my lady?" asked the physician, understanding the face of affairs at a glance, and good-naturedly taking up his cue.
My lady, never at a loss for small talk, instantly plunged into an ocean of that diluted composition, and the minutes sped on.
At half-past seven, punctual to the second, came an imperative ring at the great door.
Margaret started up with a quivering face, murmured, "Excuse me," and glided out to conceal the terrible agitation of her features.
She took refuge in an ante-room and summoned the housekeeper.
"Show Colonel Brand in here instead of the reception-room," she said, "and stay with me while I speak to him."
"To act sheep-dog?" asked Chetwode, venturing on a pleasantry.
"Yes," shuddered the girl; "one can never depend on a wolf."
The colonel was accordingly ushered in, and the housekeeper, knitting in hand, took her seat at a distance, as if prepared for a long interview.
"How shall I get back my composure?" thought Margaret. "I dare not face Lady Juliana until I am calm, else she would jump at this man"s name."
"I have come in answer to a kind invitation from Miss Walsingham," said the man, approaching her with an insolent bravado of manner.
"Yes, I have work for you to-night."
"For or against my cause, fair lady? I decline to stand in my own light."
His evil eyes were fastened tauntingly upon her; his hand was toying with the breast of his coat.
"St. Udo Brand should fear nothing," mocked Margaret.
His eyeb.a.l.l.s quivered and fell; the veins grew black upon his brow.
"One of your silly women had a narrow escape from being torn to pieces,"
he said, sourly, changing the subject.
"Yes," retorted Margaret, "I hear you keep a dangerous dog--the sooner you _stab him_ the safer we shall feel."
His hand dropped from his bosom as if an adder had bitten him; her meaning was unmistakable.
"Tell the woman not to venture upon dangerous ground," he growled from beneath his closed teeth. "Argus is a fierce brute, and hates a spy."
"Do not apologize for your dog"s ferocity. I can well afford the loss of a cloak for the tableau I had the pleasure of witnessing."
Her pallid, daring face pointed her meaning. Colonel Brand bowed to hide his livid face as if he had received a fine compliment; those Satanic white spots were slowly disappearing when he ventured to speak again.
"Since it was my lovely hostess, and not an inquisitive kitchen-wench, who was frightened," sneered he, "Argus shall be consigned to the bottom of the mere."
"Argus knew his master Ulysses after they had been parted twenty years.
Would your dog recognize you by the name of St. Udo Brand, do you suppose?"
"Sweet lady, would that my understanding could keep pace with your wit!
But your prolific imagination suggested a riddle--which I have yet to find the meaning of, the word _conquered_!"
"Do not cry "hallo" until you are out of the woods. But come with me--I have a riddle which waits your solving."
Margaret entered the reception-room with Colonel Brand, and preceding him swiftly to Lady Juliana, stood aside and waited meaningly for the result.
There was a moment of disconcerted silence, then my lady, dropping a deep courtesy, cried:
"Good gracious, Captain Brand, I did not recognize you!" and coquettishly gave her hand.
The man"s face would have made a study for a demon-painter in its first blank stare at the blushing lady, and its instant blaze of fury at the merciless Margaret.
Intuitively he read her insulting intention to snare him before these witnesses. For a time blind rage threatened to choke him and help him into the pitfall.
But the filmy vail hooded his eyes, and he gazed with a transfixed smile at Lady Juliana, still holding her hand.
"Must I introduce Colonel Brand? Is his memory so short?" jibed Margaret, with goading scorn.
The colonel returned to present things; made a desperate effort to appear natural, and carried Lady Juliana"s hand to his lips.
"Fair as ever," he muttered, so absorbed as to appear heedless of aught else. "Ah, Lady Juliana Ducie, what an impossible task it is to forget you."
He led her to a distant sofa, and seating her, bent over her in an att.i.tude of devotion.
Margaret stood like a statue, and pale as marble, accepted her defeat.
She saw the flush of gratified pride, the entire credulity of Lady Juliana; she saw the half-pitying, half-contemptuous smile which the executors pa.s.sed with each other. She saw the stealthy look of wicked exultation with which her enemy repaid her ruse, and with a quick failing of strength and fort.i.tude, she burst into sudden tears, turned and glided from the room.
"He is armed at all points against surprise," she moaned, in terror; "he will win the game in spite of me. You wretch! how shall I escape your vengeance?"
When she returned to her guests, half an hour later, with a slight apology for her untimely illness, she found Colonel Brand and Lady Juliana improving the time by a desperate flirtation, eager and hopeful on her part, satiric and careless on his, as beseemed the character of St. Udo, when he met again the woman who had jilted him.
No one asked the cause of Margaret"s illness, or seemed at all struck by it; all had their private belief on the subject, my lady being neither slow nor reluctant to a.s.sure herself that extreme jealousy at St. Udo"s marked pleasure upon seeing herself, had driven the bride-elect from the room.
When the evening had pa.s.sed, like a queer, grim dream to poor Margaret, and the executors bade adieu, their ward accompanied them to the room door, and clung to Dr. Gay"s arm with a pitiful reluctance to let him go.
"I have failed," she whispered, sadly; "and he has the best of it. Don"t be angry with me for bringing you here to-night on such a fruitless errand. I am unhappy enough without your anger."
"It is not anger, my dear girl; it is concern that we feel for you----"
"Pho! it is anger! How long is this farce of yours to last, Miss Margaret? Will n.o.body but Rufus Gay and Andrew Davenport do to make up side actors for your serio-comic tomfooleries?"
"Bear with me a little longer," sighed the orphan, humbly. And then the executors went away.
The colonel with great reluctance also tore himself from the side of his charmer, and prepared to depart.
"We are quite good friends?" whispered my lady, with an arch glance into his eyes.