"What"s the man like?"
"A nice-spoken gentleman, my lady, and dressed very respectable."
"You never _saw_ General Lennox?"
"No, my lady, please."
Neither had Lady Alice; but she had heard him minutely described.
"A lean ugly old man is he, with white bristly whiskers, you know, and a white head, and little grey eyes, eh?"
They had no notion that their little confidence was so distinctly audible to the General without, who stood eyeing the panel fiercely as a sentry would a suspicious figure near his beat, and with fingers twitching with impatience to clutch his key.
"What sort of nose?" demanded the unseen speaker--"long or short?"
"Neither, please, my lady; bluish, rayther, I should say."
"But it is either long or short, _decidedly_, and I forget which," said Lady Alice--""_Tis_n"t he!"
The General ground his teeth with impatience, and knocked so sharp a signal at the door that Lady Alice bounced in her bed.
"Lord bless us! How dare he do that?--tell him how dare he."
"Lady Alice, sir, would be much obliged if you"d be so good not knock so loud, sir, please," said the maid at the door, translating the message.
"Tell your mistress I"m General Lennox, and must have my key," glared the General, and the lady"s-maid, who was growing nervous, returned.
"He looks, my lady, like he"d beat us, please, if he does not get the key, my lady."
"Sha"n"t have it, the brute! We don"t know he is--a robber, maybe. Bolt the door, and tell him to bring Monsieur Varbarriere to the lobby, and if _he_ says he"s General Lennox he shall have the key."
With trembling fingers the maid _did_ bolt the door, and once more accost the soldier, who was chafing on the threshold.
"Please, sir, my lady is not well, having nervous pains, please sir, in her head to-night, and therefore would be "appy if you would be so kind to bring Mister Barvarrian" (the name by which our corpulent friend was known in the servants" hall) "to her door, please, when she"ll try what she may do to oblige you, sir."
"They don"t know me," said the General, accosting Varbarriere, who was only half a dozen steps removed, and whom he had rejoined. "You must come to the door, they say, and tell them it"s all right."
Perhaps with some inward sense of the comic, Varbarriere presented himself at the door, when, his voice being recognised, and he himself reconnoitred through the keyhole and reported upon, the maid presented herself in an extemporised drapery of cloaks and shawls, like a traveller in winter, and holding these garments together with one hand, with the other presented the key, peering anxiously in the General"s face.
"Key, sir, please."
"I thank you," said the General, with a nod, to which she responded with such a courtesy as her costume permitted. The door shut, and as the gentlemen withdrew they heard the voices of the inmates again busy with the subject.
"Good-night," whispered Varbarriere, looking in the General"s blue eye with his own full and steady gaze.
"I know you"ll remember your promise," said he.
"Yes--what?"
"No _violence_" replied Varbarriere.
"No, of course, I said so. Good-bye."
"You must appear--your _manner_, mind--just as usual. Nothing to alarm--you may defeat all else."
"I see."
Varbarriere pressed his hand encouragingly. It felt like death.
"Don"t fear me," said General Lennox. "We"ll see--we"ll see, sir; good-bye."
He spoke in a low, short, resolute tone, almost defiant; but looked very ill. Varbarriere had never taken leave of a man on the drop, but thought that this must be like it.
He beckoned to him as the General moved toward the dressing-room door, and made an earnest signal of silence. Lennox nodded, applied the key, and Varbarriere was gone.
CHAPTER XXII.
In the Green Chamber.
General Lennox opened the door suddenly, and stood in the green chamber, holding his candle above his temple, and staring with a rather wild countenance and a gathered brow to the further end of the room. A candle burned on the table, and the Bible lay beside it. No one was there but the inmate of the bed, who sat up with a scared face. He locked the door in silence, and put the key in his pocket.
"Who"s there?--who is it? O my G.o.d! Arthur, is it you?" she cried. It was not a welcome. It was as if she had seen a ghost--but she smiled.
"You"re well? quite well? and happy? no doubt happy?" said Lennox, setting down his candle on the table near the bed, "and glad to see me?"
"Yes, Arthur; Arthur, what"s the matter? You"re ill--_are_ you ill?"
"Ho! no, very well, quite well--very well indeed."
There was that in his look and manner that told her she was ruined. She froze with a horror she had never dreamed of before.
"There"s something, Arthur--there is--you won"t tell me."
"That"s strange, and _you_ tell _me_ everything."
"What do you _mean_, sir? Oh, Arthur, what _do_ you mean?"
"Mean! Nothing!"
"I was afraid you were angry, and I"ve done nothing to vex you--nothing.
You looked so angry--it"s so unreasonable and odd of you. But I am glad to see you, though you don"t seem glad to see me. You"ve been a long time away, Arthur, in London, very long. I hope all your business is settled, I hope. And I"m very glad to hear you"re not ill--indeed I am.
Why are you vexed?"
"Vexed! ho! I"m vexed, am I? that"s odd."