Lord Lynborough walked down to the edge of the terrace; Lady Norah stood half hidden in the shrubbery.
"And that, I suppose, ought to end the matter?" he asked. "I ought at once to abandon all my pretensions and to give up my path?"
"I just thought you might like to know it," said Norah.
"Actually I believe I do like to know it--though what Roger would say to me about that I really can"t imagine. You"re mistaking my character, Lady Norah. I"m not the hero of this piece. There are several gentlemen from among whom you can choose one for that effective part. Lots of candidates for it! But I"m the villain. Consequently you must be prepared for my receiving your news with devilish glee."
"Well, you haven"t seen it--and I have."
"Well put!" he allowed. "How did it happen?"
"Over something I said to her--something horrid."
"Well, then, why am I--?" Lynborough"s hands expostulated eloquently.
"But you were the real reason, of course. She thinks you"ve turned us all against her; she says it"s so mean to get her own friends to turn against her."
"Does she now?" asked Lord Lynborough with a thoughtful smile.
Norah too smiled faintly. "She says she"s not angry with us--she"s just sorry for us--because she understands----"
"What?"
"I mean she says she--she can imagine--" Norah"s smile grew a little more p.r.o.nounced. "I"m not sure she"d like me to repeat that," said Norah. "And of course she doesn"t know I"m here at all--and you must never tell her."
"Of course it"s all my fault. Still, as a matter of curiosity, what did you say to her?"
"I said that, if she had a good case, she ought to go to law; and, if she hadn"t, she ought to stop making herself ridiculous and the rest of us uncomfortable."
"You spoke with the general a.s.sent of the company?"
"I said what I thought--yes, I think they all agreed--but she took it--well, in the way I"ve told you, you know."
Lady Norah had, in the course of conversation, insensibly advanced on to the terrace. She stood there now beside Lynborough.
"How do you think I"m taking it?" he asked. "Doesn"t my fort.i.tude wring applause from you?"
"Taking what?"
"Exactly the same thing from my friends. They tell me to go to law if I"ve got a case--and at any rate to stop persecuting a lady. And they"ve both given me warning."
"Mr. Stabb and Mr. Wilbraham? They"re going away?"
"So it appears. Carry back those tidings. Won"t they dry the Marchesa"s tears?"
Norah looked at him with a smile. "Well, it is pretty clever of her, isn"t it?" she said. "I didn"t think she"d got along as quickly as that!" Norah"s voice was full of an honest and undisguised admiration.
"It"s a little unreasonable of her to cry under the circ.u.mstances. I"m not crying, Lady Norah."
"I expect you"re rather disgusted, though, aren"t you?" she suggested.
"I"m a little vexed at having to surrender--for the moment--a principle which I"ve held dear--at having to give my enemies an occasion for mockery. But I must bow to my friends" wishes. I can"t lose them under such painful circ.u.mstances. No, I must yield, Lady Norah."
"You"re going to give up the path?" she cried, not sure whether she were pleased or not with his determination.
"Dear me, no! I"m going to law about it."
Open dismay was betrayed in her exclamation: "Oh, but what will Mr.
Stillford say to that?"
Lynborough laughed. Norah saw her mistake--but she made no attempt to remedy it. She took up another line of tactics. "It would all come right if only you knew one another! She"s the most wonderful woman in the world, Lord Lynborough. And you----"
"Well, what of me?" he asked in deceitful gravity.
Norah parried, with a hasty little laugh; "Just ask Miss Gilletson that!"
Lynborough smiled for a moment, then took a turn along the terrace, and came back to her.
"You must tell her that you"ve seen me----"
"I couldn"t do that!"
"You must--or here the matter ends, and I shall be forced to go to law--ugh! Tell her you"ve seen me, and that I"m open to reason----"
"Lord Lynborough! How can I tell her that?"
"That I"m open to reason, and that I propose an armistice. Not peace--not yet, anyhow--but an armistice. I undertake not to exercise my right over Beach Path for a week from to-day, and before the end of that week I will submit a proposal to the Marchesa."
Norah saw a gleam of hope. "Very well. I don"t know what she"ll say to me, but I"ll tell her that. Thank you. You"ll make it a--a pleasant proposal?"
"I haven"t had time to consider the proposal yet. She must inform me to-morrow morning whether she accepts the armistice."
He suddenly turned to the house, and shouted up to a window above his head, "Roger!"
The window was open. Roger Wilbraham put his head out.
"Come down," said Lynborough. "Here"s somebody wants to see you."
"I never said I did, Lord Lynborough."
"Let him take you home. He wants cheering up."
"I like him very much. He won"t really leave you, will he?"
"I want you to persuade him to stay during the armistice. I"m too proud to ask him for myself. I shall think very little of you, however, if he doesn"t."
Roger appeared. Lynborough told him that Lady Norah required an escort back to Nab Grange; for obvious reasons he himself was obliged to relinquish the pleasure; Roger, he felt sure, would be charmed to take his place. Roger was somewhat puzzled by the turn of events, but delighted with his mission.