Being in a bad temper, he vented it on unoffending Bob.
"How dare you follow me here, Sir?" The poor animal looked up wistfully, not knowing in what he had offended, since his master patted his head so caressingly as they stood outside the door together.
On the table was a half finished drawing, the paper still damp with the last touches, the brushes all scattered about; one had fallen on the edge of the paper; Charles took it up, carefully washed out the mark it had left, and laid it by carefully.
Amy"s work-box stood invitingly open. He looked in, and turned over the contents: there was a piece of embroidery; small holes that had been cut out and sewn over, the "_holy work_," as he called it, that he hated so much.
Somehow this small piece appeared to have a curious interest in his eyes, he looked at it, put it down and then looked at it again. There was the needle still in the half finished flower, and a small mark as though the finger had been injured in the sewing. This decided him, and with a half frightened, guilty look he put it in his pocket, just as Bob, evidently with the view of making friends, rubbed against his legs.
"Ah! my friend," said Charles, looking down, "Your warning comes too late. The deed is done."
"What is too late?" asked Frances advancing into the room, "and what have you done?"
"You here," stammered Charles.
"Yes, why not? since Mr. Charles Linchmore designs to come."
"Then I came--, that is you forget," said he recovering himself, "I sometimes take my nieces for a walk."
"I forget nothing," replied she, "my memory serves me well."
"Why are you here?" asked he, "surely you can have no excuse for coming."
"It was chance directed my footsteps," replied she carelessly.
This was scarcely true. Ever since Frances had seen Amy talking with her cousin on the evening of his arrival, a strange fascination to speak with the governess had taken possession of her; why she hardly knew or questioned; but now at this moment, as she stood so unexpectedly face to face with Charles and marked his confusion, a jealous hatred crept slowly, yet surely over her heart, a jealousy that was to be the bane of her after life, to influence her every action, almost thought, and lead her to follow blindly all its revengeful promptings, undeterred either by the oft-times whispered voice of conscience, or the evident and consequent sufferings of others.
What woman is not jealous of the one she fears is supplanting her, or obtaining an interest in the heart of him she loves? but here Frances had barely reason for her jealousy, Charles never having given her sufficient cause to think he cared for her, beyond a cousinly regard; yet she loved him as much as her proud heart was capable of loving.
"This drawing is beautifully done," said she, advancing and examining it closely. "What have you done with the copy?"
The copy? What if she had named the "Holy Work?"
He cast a furtive glance at his pocket as he replied, "I have not seen it. I suppose Miss Neville draws without one."
"I have never heard Isabella say she was an artist."
"I suspect my "brother"s wife."" This was a favourite term of Charles"s; he generally spoke of Mrs. Linchmore as my "brother"s wife." "I suspect my brother"s wife knows very little about Miss Neville"s accomplishments; she is not in her line; no two people could be more dissimilar."
"No. They are very different."
"Very."
"But you are wrong, Charles, in thinking Isabella does not trouble her head about her governess; she laughingly told me one day that she thought her rather inclined to flirt."
"Indeed!" said he, consciously. "When was that?"
"I almost forget--last month I think, she noticed it, so you see she must know something about her."
"Or next to nothing," replied he.
"I believe she thought _that_ her only fault; and you know it did not look very well to see her come home so late with Mr. Vavasour."
"With Vavasour! When was that."
"Oh! I forget when; just a few days before you came."
"Flirting with Vavasour!" exclaimed Charles, thrown off his guard by the suddenness of the announcement. "I won"t believe it!"
"You had better ask Anne, then; she can tell you all about it, as she and Mr. Hall walked home behind them, and talked about it afterwards; it made quite a stir at the time."
"I dare say. I don"t doubt you," said Charles, whistling apparently quite unconcerned, when in reality he was infinitely disgusted.
"Well, if you do, you have only to come to the window," said Frances triumphantly, "and judge for yourself."
With quick, hasty footsteps he was by her side in a moment. Yes, there was Miss Neville, picking her way over the snow with Vavasour beside her, the children some few yards ahead, so that the two were alone. _He_ had found out a way of meeting and joining her, though Charles had not; no doubt they had been carrying on this game for days, while he had been wasting his in hopeless guesses and surmises as to what had become of her, imagining her miserably dull, shut up in the school room.
Yes, the secret was out now. It was for him she had left the drawing so hastily, and all her things ruthlessly scattered about. For this he himself had waited so patiently, and had thought to wait half the day.
He would have s.n.a.t.c.hed the "Holy work" from his pocket and torn it into shreds if he could, but other eyes than Bob"s were on him now, and without another word he strode away, pa.s.sing through the door which separated these rooms from the large corridor, just as Amy"s and the children"s voices were heard on the stairs leading from the garden.
Frances watched his exit with a triumphant look; had she given him a bad opinion of Amy Neville? and had he believed her?
She remained where she was, still and silent, until the door opened and Amy came in, her face lighted up with smiles, and her cheeks glowing with a faint tinge of colour from her walk. Frances" face flushed hotly as she thought how beautiful she was; and pa.s.sing by her with a scornful bend of the head in acknowledgment of the governess"s greeting, she gained her own room, and bolted the door.
There throwing herself on her knees, she clasped her hands over her face as she murmured pa.s.sionately, "I hate her! But he shall not love her! He shall not love her!"
CHAPTER XII.
THE ACCIDENT.
"All shod with steel, We hissed along the polished ice, in games Confederate, imitative of the chace And woodland pleasures."
_Wordsworth_.
"I will forget her! All dear recollections Pressed in my heart, like flowers within a book, Shall be torn out, and scattered to the winds!
I will forget her!"
LONGFELLOW.
Alfred Strickland had chosen the breakfast-room as being the least likely to be visited by any one after the morning"s meal had been despatched, and had made himself tolerably comfortable before the fire in a large easy chair with a book, where he remained undisturbed by the rustling of dresses and crinolines.
No two people were more dissimilar than Alfred and his sister. Their features were as unlike as their tastes, disposition, and temper.
Indolence, not pride, was his failing; he seldom troubled his head about any one but himself, not that he was selfishly inclined; he was not, excepting on this one point of laziness, but would help any one out of a difficulty so long as it cost him little or no trouble, but if that "loomed in the distance," then his aid was very reluctantly given; advice you were welcome to, and might have plenty of it; it required no bodily exertion to talk, he could lie down and do that; but what inward sighs and groans if his legs were put into requisition!