"That beautiful but melancholy-looking young man whom we saw at Wardlock Church," said Lady Alice, forgetting for the moment that she had never divulged the result of her observations from the gallery to any mortal but Sir Jekyl. Beatrix, who forgot nothing, and knew that her brief walk at Wardlock with that young gentleman had not been confessed to anyone, was confounded on hearing herself thus, as she imagined, taxed with her secret.
She was not more secret than young ladies generally are; but whom could she have told at Wardlock? which of the old women of that time-honoured sisterhood was she to have invited to talk romance with her? and now she felt very guilty, and was blushing in silent confusion at the pearl ring on her pretty, slender finger, not knowing what to answer, or how to begin the confession which she fancied her grandmamma was about to extort.
Her grandmamma, however, relieved her on a sudden by saying--
"I forgot, dear, I told you nothing of that dreadful day at Wardlock Church, the day I was so ill. I told your papa _only_; but the young man is here, and I may as well tell you now that he bears a supernatural likeness to my poor lost darling. Jekyl knew how it affected me, and he never told me. It was so like Jekyl. I think, dear, I should not have come here at all had I known that dreadful young man was here."
"Dreadful! How is he dreadful?" exclaimed Beatrix.
"From his likeness to my lost darling--my dear boy--my poor, precious, murdered Guy," answered the old lady, lying back, and looking straight toward the ceiling with upturned eyes and clasped hands. She repeated--"Oh! Guy--Guy--Guy--my poor child!"
She looked like a dying nun praying to her patron saint.
"His name is Strangways--Mr. Guy Strangways," said Beatrix.
"Ah, yes, darling! Guy was the name of my dear boy, and Strangways was the name of his companion--an evil companion, I dare say."
Beatrix knew that the young man whom her grandmamma mourned had fallen in a duel, and that, reasonably or unreasonably, her father was blamed in the matter. More than this she had never heard. Lady Alice had made her acquainted with thus much; but with preambles so awful that she had never dared to open the subject herself, or to question her "Granny"
beyond the point at which her disclosure had stopped.
That somehow it reflected on Sir Jekyl prevented her from inquiring of any servant, except old Donica, who met her curiosity with a sound jobation, and told her if ever she plagued her with questions about family misfortunes like that, she would speak to Sir Jekyl about it.
Thus Beatrix only knew how Guy Deverell had died--that her grandmamma chose to believe he had been murdered, and insisted beside in blaming her father, Sir Jekyl, somehow for the catastrophe.
CHAPTER XXII.
How Everything went on.
"Go down, dear, to your company," resumed Lady Alice, sadly; "they will miss you. And tell your father, when he comes to the drawing-room, I wish to see him, and won"t detain him long."
So they parted, and a little later Sir Jekyl arrived with a knock at the old lady"s bed-room door.
"Come in--oh! yes--Jekyl--well, I"ve only a word to say. Sit down a moment at the bedside."
"And how do you feel now, you dear old soul?" inquired the Baronet, cheerfully. He looked strong and florid, as gentleman do after dinner, with a genial air of contentment, and a fragrance of his wonderful sherry about him; all which seemed somehow brutal to the nervous old lady.
"Wonderfully, considering the surprise you had prepared for me, and which might as well have killed me as not," she made answer.
"I know, to be sure--Strangways, you mean. Egad! I forgot. Trixie ought to have told you."
"_You_ ought to have told me. I don"t think I should have come here, Jekyl, had I known it."
"If I had known _that_," thought Sir Jekyl, with a regretful pang, "I"d have made a point of telling you." But he said aloud--
"Yes. It was a _sottise_; but _I_"ve got over the likeness so completely that I forgot how it agitated you. But I ought to tell you they have no connexion with the family--none in the world. Pelter and Crowe, you know--devilish sharp dogs--my lawyers in town--they are regular detectives, by Jove! and know everything--and particularly have had for years a steady eye upon them and their movements; and I have had a most decided letter from them, a.s.suring me that there has not been the slightest movement in that quarter, and therefore there is, absolutely, as I told you from the first, nothing in it."
"And what Deverells are now living?" inquired the old lady, very pale.
"Two first cousins, they tell me--old fellows now; and one of them has a son or two; but not one called Guy, and none answering this description, you see; and neither have a shadow of a claim, or ever pretended; and as for that unfortunate accident--"
"Pray _spare_ me," said the old lady, grimly.
"Well, they did not care a bra.s.s farthing about the poor fellow, so they would never move to give me trouble in that matter; and, in fact, people never do stir in law, and put themselves to serious expense, purely for a sentiment--even a bad one."
"I remember some years ago you _were_ very _much_ alarmed, Jekyl."
"No, I was not. Who the plague says that? There"s nothing, thank Heaven, I need fear. One does not like to be worried with lawsuits--that"s all--though there is and can be no real danger in them."
"And was it from these cousins you apprehended lawsuits?" inquired Lady Alice.
"No, not exactly--no, not at all. I believe that fellow Strangways--that fellow that used to live on poor Guy--I fancy he was the mover of it--indeed I know he was."
"What did they proceed for?" asked the old lady. "You never told me--you are so secret, Jekyl."
"They did not proceed at all--how could I? Their attorneys had cases before counsel affecting me--that"s all I ever heard; and they say now it was all Strangways" doing--that is, Pelter and Crowe say so. I wish I _were_ secret."
Old Lady Alice here heaved a deep groan, and said, not with asperity, but with a fatigued abhorrence--
"Go away; I wonder I can bear you near me."
"Thank you very much," said the Baronet, rising, with one of his pleasant chuckles. "I can"t tell you how glad I am to see you here, and I know you"ll be very glad to see me in the morning, when you are a little rested."
So he kissed the tips of his fingers and touched them playfully to the back of her thin hand, which she withdrew with a little frown, as if they chilled her. And by her direction he called in her maid, whom he asked very smilingly how she did, and welcomed to Marlowe; and she, though a little _pa.s.se_, having heard the fame of Sir Jekyl, and many stories of his brilliant adventures, was very modest and fluttered on the occasion. And with another little petting speech to Lady Alice, the radiant Baronet withdrew.
It is not to be supposed that Lady Alice"s tremors communicated themselves to Beatrix. Was it possible to regard that handsome, refined young man, who spoke in that low, sweet voice, and smiled so intelligently, and talked so pleasantly, and with that delicate flavour of romance at times, in the light of a goblin?
The gentlemen had made their whist-party. The Rev. Dives Marlowe was chatting to, not with, Lady Jane, who sat listlessly on an ottoman. That elderly girl, Miss Blunket, with the _nave_ ways, the animated, smiling, and rather malevolent countenance, had secured little Linnett, who bore his imprisonment impatiently and wearily it must be owned. When Miss Blunket was enthusiastic it was all very well; but her playfulness was wicked, and her satire gaily vitriolic.
"Mr. Marlowe is fascinated, don"t you think?" she inquired of harmless little Linnett, glancing with an arch flash of her fierce eyes at the Rev. Dives.
"She"s awfully handsome," said Linnett, honestly.
"Oh, dear, you wicked creature, you can"t think I meant that. She is some kind of cousin, I think--is not she? And her husband has that great living--what"s its name?--and no relation in the Church; and Lady Jane, they say, rules him--and Sir Jekyl, some people say, rules her."
Linnett returned her arch glance with an honest stare of surprise.
"I had no idea of that, egad," said he.
"She thinks him so wise in all worldly matters, you know; and people in London fancied she would have been the second Lady Marlowe, if she had not met General Lennox just at a critical time, and fallen in love with him;" and as she said this she laughed.
"Really!" exclaimed Linnett; and he surveyed Lady Jane in this new light wonderingly.
"I really don"t know; I heard it said merely; but very likely, you know, it is not true," she answered with an artless giggle.
"I knew you were quizzing--though, by Jove, you did sell me at first; but I really think Sir Jekyl"s a little spoony on that pretty little Mrs. Maberly. Is she a widow?"