The major----"
"What business had the major in London?" questioned Captain Fennel impatiently.
"You can ask him," said Charles equably, "I didn"t. He is back again.
Well, Major Smith, being questioned, made no bones about it at all; said Griffin and Griffin"s money both wanted looking after. Upon that, the daughter came straight off, arriving here on Sunday morning; she settled things yesterday, and has carried her father away to-day. He was as pleased as Punch, poor childish old fellow, at the prospect of a voyage in the boat."
Whether this information put a check upon any little plan Captain Fennel may have been entertaining, Charles Palliser could not positively know; but he thought he had never seen so evil an eye as the one glaring upon him. Only for a moment; just a flash; and then the face was smoothed again. Charley had his ideas--and all his wits about him; and old Griffin had babbled publicly.
Captain Fennel strolled by his side towards the port, talking of Pontipette and other matters of indifference. When in sight of the harbour, he halted.
"I must wish you good-day now, Palliser; I have letters to write," said he; and walked briskly back again.
Lavinia and Nancy were sitting together in the salon when he reached home. Nancy was looking scared.
"Edwin," she said, leaving her chair to meet him--"Edwin, what do you think Lavinia has been saying? That she is going to leave us."
"Oh, indeed," he carelessly answered.
"But it is true, Edwin; she means it."
"Yes, I mean it," interposed Lavinia very quietly. "You and Nancy will be better without me; perhaps happier."
He looked at her for a full minute in silence, then laughed a little.
"Like Darby and Joan," he remarked, as he put his writing-case on the table and sat down to it.
Mrs. Fennel returned to her chair by Lavinia, who was sitting close to the window mending a lace collar which had been torn in the ironing. As usual Nancy was doing nothing.
"You _couldn"t_ leave me, Lavinia, you know," she said in coaxing tones.
"I know that I never thought to do so, Ann, but circ.u.mstances alter cases," answered the elder sister. Both of them had dropped their voices to a low key, not to disturb the letter-writer. But he could hear if he chose to listen. "I began putting my things together yesterday, and shall finish doing it at leisure. I will stay over Easter with you; but go then I shall."
"You must be cruel to think of such a thing, Lavinia."
"Not cruel," corrected Lavinia. "I am sorry, Ann, but the step is forced upon me. The anxieties in regard to money matters are wearing me out; they would wear me out altogether if I did not end them. And there are other things which urge upon me the expediency of departure from this house."
"What things?"
"I cannot speak of them. Never mind what they are, Ann. They concern myself; not you."
Ann Fennel sat twirling one of her fair silken ringlets between her thumb and finger; a habit of hers when thinking.
"Where shall you live, Lavinia, if you do leave? Take another apartment at Sainteville?"
"I think not. It is a puzzling question. Possibly I may go back to b.u.t.termead, and get some family to take me in as a boarder," dreamily answered Lavinia. "Seventy pounds a-year will not keep me luxuriously."
Captain Fennel lifted his face. "If it will not keep one, how is it to keep two?" he demanded, in rather defiant tones.
"I don"t know anything about that," said Lavinia civilly. "I have not two to keep; only one."
Nancy chanced to catch a glimpse of his face just then, and its look frightened her. Lavinia had her back to him, and did not see it. Nancy began to cry quietly.
"Oh, Lavinia, you will think better of this; you will not leave us!"
she implored. "We could not do at all without you and your half of the money."
Lavinia had finished her collar, and rose to take it upstairs. "Don"t be distressed, Nancy," she paused to say; "it is a thing that _must be_. I am very sorry; but it is not my fault. As you----"
"You can stay in the house if you choose!" flashed Nancy, growing feebly angry.
"No, I cannot. I _cannot_," repeated Lavinia. "I begin to foresee that I might--might die of it."
XI.
Sainteville felt surprised and sorry to hear that Miss Preen was going to leave it to its own devices, for the town had grown to like her.
Lavinia did not herself talk about going, but the news somehow got wind. People wondered why she went. Matters, as connected with the financial department of the Pet.i.te Maison Rouge, were known but imperfectly--to most people not known at all; so that reason was not thought of. It was quite understood that Ann Preen"s stolen marriage, capped by the bringing home of her husband to the Pet.i.te Maison Rouge, had been a sharp blow to Miss Preen: perhaps, said Sainteville now, she had tried living with them and found it did not answer. Or perhaps she was only going away for a change, and would return after a while.
Pa.s.sion week pa.s.sed, and Easter week came in, and Lavinia made her arrangements for the succeeding one. On the Tuesday in that next week, all being well, she would quit Sainteville. Her preparations were made; her larger box was already packed and corded. Nancy, of shallow temperament and elastic spirits, seemed quite to have recovered from the sting of the proposed parting; she helped Lavinia to put up her laces and other little fine things, prattling all the time. Captain Fennel maintained his suavity. Beyond the words he had spoken--as to how she expected the income to keep two if it would not keep one--he had said nothing. It might be that he hardly yet believed Lavinia would positively go.
But she was going. At first only to Boulogne-sur-Mer. Monsieur Jules Carimon had a cousin, Madame Degravier, who kept a superior boarding-house there, much patronized by the English; he had written to her to introduce Miss Preen, and to intimate that it would oblige him if the terms were made tres facile. Madame had written back to Lavinia most satisfactorily, and, so far, that was arranged.
Once at Boulogne in peace and quietness, Lavinia would have leisure to decide upon her future plans. She hoped to pay a visit to b.u.t.termead in the summer-time, for she had begun to yearn for a sight of the old place and its people. After that--well, she should see. If things went on pleasantly at Sainteville--that is, if Captain Fennel and Nancy were still in the Pet.i.te Maison Rouge, and he was enabled to find means to continue in it--then, perhaps, she might return to the town. Not to make one of the household--never again that; but she might find a little pied-a-terre in some other home.
Meanwhile, Lavinia heard no more of the proces, and she wondered how the captain was meeting it. During the Easter week she made her farewell calls. That week she was not very much at home; one or other of her old acquaintances wanted her. Major and Mrs. Smith had her to spend a day with them; the Miss Bosanquets invited her also; and so on.
One call, involving also private business, she made upon old Madame Sauvage, Mary Carimon accompanying her. Monsieur Gustave was called up to the salon to a.s.sist at the conference. Lavinia partly explained her position to them in strict confidence, and the motive, as touching pecuniary affairs, which was taking her away: she said nothing of that other and greater motive, her superst.i.tious fear.
"I have come to speak of the rent," she said to Monsieur Gustave, and Mary Carimon repeated the words in French to old Madame Sauvage. "You must in future look to Captain Fennel for it; you must make him pay it if possible. At the same time, I admit my own responsibility," added Lavinia, "and if it be found totally impracticable to get it from Captain Fennel or my sister, I shall pay it to you. This must, of course, be kept strictly between ourselves, Monsieur Gustave; you and madame understand that. If Captain Fennel gained any intimation of it, he would take care not to pay it."
Monsieur Gustave and madame his mother a.s.sured her that they fully understood, and that she might rely upon their honour. They were grieved to lose so excellent a tenant and neighbour as Miss Preen, and wished circ.u.mstances had been more kindly. One thing she might rest a.s.sured of--that they should feel at least as mortified at having to apply to her for the rent as she herself would be, and they would not leave a stone unturned to extract it from the hands of Captain Fennel.
"It has altogether been a most bitter trial to me," sighed Lavinia, as she stood up to say farewell to madame.
The old lady understood, and the tears came into her compa.s.sionate eyes as she held Lavinia"s hands between her own. "Ay, for certain," she replied in French. "She and her sons had said so privately to one another ever since the abrupt coming home of the strange captain to the pet.i.te maison a cote."
On Sunday, Lavinia, accompanied by Nancy and Captain Fennel, attended morning service for the last time. She spoke to several acquaintances coming out, wishing them good-bye, and was hastening to overtake her sister, when she heard rapid steps behind her, and a voice speaking.
Turning, she saw Charley Palliser.
"Miss Preen," cried he, "my aunt wants you to come home and dine with us. See, she is waiting for you. You could not come any one day last week, you know."
"I was not able to come to you last week, Mr. Charles; I had so much to do, and so many engagements," said Lavinia, as she walked back to Mrs.
Hardy, who stood smiling.
"But you will come to-day, dear Miss Preen," said old Mrs. Hardy, who had caught the words. "We have a lovely fricandeau of veal, and----"
"Why, that is just our own dinner," interrupted Lavinia gaily. "I should like to come to you, Mrs. Hardy, but I cannot. It is my last Sunday at home, and I could not well go out and leave them."
They saw the force of the objection. Mrs. Hardy asked whether she should be at church in the evening. Lavinia replied that she intended to be, and they agreed to bid each other farewell then.
"You don"t know what you"ve lost, Miss Preen," said Charley comically.