"No, not the first, Oliver," she answered.
Coppinger"s brows knit.
"Who is this?" he asked.
"Oh! do you not know? Mr. Menaida"s son, Mr. Oliver."
The two men"s eyes met, their irises contracted.
"I think we have met before," said Oliver.
"That is possible," answered Captain Cruel, contemptuously, looking in another direction.
"When we met I knew you without your knowing me," pursued the young man, in a voice that shook with anger. He had recognized the tone of the voice that had spoken on the wreck.
"Of that I, neither, have any doubt as to its possibility. I do not recollect every Jack I encounter."
A moment after an idea struck him, and he turned his head sharply, fixed his eyes on young Menaida, and said, "Where did we meet?"
""Encounter" was your word."
"Very well--encounter!"
"On Doom Bar."
Coppinger"s color changed. A sinister flicker came into his sombre eyes.
"Then," said he slowly, in low vibrating tones, "we shall meet again."
"Certainly, we shall meet again, and conclude our--I use your term--"encounter.""
Judith did not hear the conversation. She had been pounced upon by Mr.
Desiderius Mules.
"Now--positively I must walk through a quadrille with you," said the rector. "This is all my affair; it all springs from me, I arranged everything. I beat up patrons and patronesses. I stirred up the neighborhood. It all turns as a wheel about me as the axle. Come along, the band is beginning to play. You shall positively walk through a quadrille with me." Mr. Mules was not the man to be put on one side, not one to accept a refusal; he carried off the bride to the head of the room and set her in one square.
"Look at the decorations," said Mr. Mules, "I designed them. I hope you will like the supper. I drew up the _menu_. I chose the wines, and I know they are good. The candles I got at wholesale price--because for a charity. What beautiful diamonds you are wearing. They are not paste, I suppose?"
"I believe not."
"Yet good old paste is just as iridescent as real diamonds. Where did you get them? Are they family jewels? I have heard that the Trevisas were great people at one time. Well, so were the Mules. We are really De Moels. We came in with the Conqueror. That is why I have such a remarkable Christian name. Desiderius is the French Desire, and a Norman Christian name. Look at the wreaths of laurel and holly. How do you like them?"
"The decorations are charming."
"I am so pleased that you have come," pursued Mr. Mules. "It is your first appearance in public as Mrs. Captain Coppinger. I have been horribly uncomfortable about--you remember what. I have been afraid I had put my foot into it, and might get into hot water. But now you have come here, it is all right; it shows me that you are coming round to a sensible view, and that to-morrow you will be at the rectory and sign the register. If inconvenient, I will run up with it under my arm to the Glaze. At what time am I likely to catch you both in? The witnesses, Miss Trevisa and Mr. Menaida, one can always get at. Perhaps you will speak to your aunt and see that she is on the spot, and I"ll take the old fellow on my way home."
"Mr. Mules, we will not talk of that now."
"Come! you must see, and be introduced to, Lady Molesworth."
In the meanwhile Lady Knighton was telling her story to a party round her.
"I was returning with my two children from India; it is now some years ago. It is so sad, in the case of Indians, either the parents must part from their children, or the mother must take her children to England and be parted from her husband. I brought my little ones back to be with my husband"s sister, who kindly undertook to see to them.
We encountered a terrible gale as we approached this coast; do you recollect the loss of the Andromeda?"
"Perfectly," answered Sir William Molesworth; "were you in that?"
"Yes, to my cost. One of my darlings so suffered from the exposure that she died. But, really, I do not think it was the wreck of the vessel which was worst. It was not that, not that alone, which brought this nervous tremor on me."
"I remember that case," said Sir William. "It was a very bad one, and disgraceful to our county. We have recently had an ugly story of a wreck on Doom Bar, with suspicion of evil practices; but nothing could be proved, nothing brought home to anyone. In the case of the Andromeda there was something of the same sort."
"Yes, indeed, there were evil practices. I was robbed."
"You! surely, Lady Knighton, it was not of you that the story was told?"
"If you mean the story of the diamonds, it was," answered the Indian lady. "We had to leave the wreck, and carry all our portable valuables with us. I had a set of jewellery of Indian work, given me by Sir James--well, he was only plain Mr. Knighton then. It was rather quaint in design: there was a brooch representing a b.u.t.terfly, and two emeralds formed the----"
"Excuse me one moment, Lady Knighton," said Sir William. "Here comes the new rector of St. Enodoc, with the bride, to introduce her to my wife. I am ashamed to say we have not made her acquaintance before."
"Bride! what--his bride?"
"Oh, no; the bride of a certain Captain Coppinger, who lives near here."
"She is pretty, very pretty; but how delicate!"
Suddenly Lady Knighton sprang to her feet, with an exclamation so shrill and startling that the dancers ceased, and the conductor of the band, thinking an accident had occurred, with his baton stopped the music. All attention was drawn to Lady Knighton, who, erect, trembling from head to foot, stood pointing with shaking finger to Judith.
"See! see! My jewels, that were torn from me! Look!" She lifted the hair, worn low over her cheeks, and displayed one ear; the lobe was torn away.
No one stirred in the ball-room; no one spoke. The fiddler stood with bow suspended over the strings, the flutist with fingers on all stops.
Every eye was fixed on Judith. It was still in that room as though a ghost had pa.s.sed through in winding-sheet. In this hush, Lady Knighton approached Judith, pointing still with trembling hand.
"I demand, whence comes that brooch? Where--from whom did you get those earrings? They are mine; given me in India by my husband. They are Indian work, and not to be mistaken. They were plucked from me one awful night of wreck by a monster in human form, who came to our vessel, as we sought to leave it, and robbed us of our treasures.
Answer me--who gave you those jewels?"
Judith was speechless. The lights in the room died to feeble stars.
The floor rolled like a sea under her feet; the ceiling was coming down on her.
She heard whispers, murmurs--a humming as of a swarm of bees approaching ready to settle on her and sting her. She looked round her. Every one had withdrawn from her. Mr. Desiderius Mules had released her arm, and stood back. She tried to speak, but could not.
Should she make the confession which would incriminate her husband?
Then she heard a man"s deep voice, heard a step on the floor. In a moment an arm was round her, sustaining her, as she tottered.
"I gave her the jewels. I, Curll Coppinger, of Pentyre. If you ask where I got them--I will tell you. I bought them of w.i.l.l.y Mann, the pedlar. I will give you any further information you require to-morrow.
Make room; my wife is frightened."
Then, holding her, looking haughtily, threateningly, from side to side, Coppinger helped Judith along--the whole length of the ball-room--between rows of astonished, open-eyed, mute dancers. Near the door was a knot of gentlemen. They sprang apart, and Coppinger conveyed Judith through the door, out of the light, down the stairs, into the open air.