"I suspect you"ve more than your match in young Weyburn, Mr. Morsfield,"
Lady Charlotte said, measuring them as they stood together. They turned at last.
"You shall drive back to town with me, Rowsley," said the fighting dame.
She breathed no hint of her triumph.
CHAPTER XVIII. A SCENE ON THE ROAD BACK
After refusing to quit the grounds of Steignton, in spite of the proprietor, Mrs. Pagnell burst into an agitation to have them be at speed, that they might "shake the dust of the place from the soles of their feet"; and she hurried past Aminta and Lord Ormont"s insolent emissary, carrying Mr. Morsfield beside her, perforce of a series of imperiously-toned vacuous questions, to which he listened in rigid politeness, with the e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n steaming off from time to time, "A scandal!"
He shot glances behind him.
Mrs. Pagnell was going too fast. She, however, world not hear of a halt, and she was his main apology for being present; he was excruciatingly attached to the horrid woman.
Weyburn spoke the commonplaces about regrets to Aminta.
"Believe me, it"s long since I have been so happy," she said.
She had come out of her stupefaction, and she wore no theatrical looks of cheerfulness.
"I regret that you should be dragged away. But, if you say you do not mind, it will be pleasant to me. I can excuse Lord Ormont"s anger. I was ignorant of his presence here. I thought him in Paris. I supposed the place empty. I wished to see it once. I travelled as the niece of Mrs.
Pagnell. She is a little infatuated.... Mr. Morsfield heard of our expedition through her. I changed the route. I was not in want of a defender. I could have defended myself in case of need. We slept at Ashead, two hours from Steignton. He and a friend accompanied us, not with my consent. Lord Ormont could not have been aware of that. These accidental circ.u.mstances happen. There may be pardonable intentions on all sides."
She smiled. Her looks were open, and her voice light and spirited; though the natural dark rose-glow was absent from her olive cheeks.
Weyburn puzzled over the mystery of so volatile a treatment of a serious matter, on the part of a woman whose feelings he had reason to know were quick and deep. She might be acting, as women so cleverly do.
It could hardly be acting when she pointed to peeps of scenery, with a just eye for landscape.
"You leave us for Switzerland very soon?" she said.
"The Reversion I have been expecting has fallen in, besides my inheritance. My mother was not to see the school. But I shall not forget her counsels. I can now make my purchase of the house and buildings, and buy out my partner at the end of a year. My boys are jumping to start. I had last week a letter from Emile."
"Dear little Emile!"
"You like him?"
"I could use a warmer word. He knew me when I was a girl."
She wound the strings of his heart suddenly tense, and they sang to their quivering.
"You will let me hear of you, Mr. Weyburn?"
"I will write. Oh! certainly I will write, if I am told you are interested in our doings, Lady Ormont."
"I will let you know that I am."
"I shall be happy in writing full reports."
"Every detail, I beg. All concerning the school. Help me to feel I am a boarder. I catch up an old sympathy I had for girls and boys. For boys!
any boys! the dear monkey boys! cherub monkeys! They are so funny. I am sure I never have laughed as I did at Selina Collett"s report, through her brother, of the way the boys tried to take to my name; and their sneezing at it, like a cat at a deceitful dish. "Aminta"--was that their way?"
"Something--the young rascals!"
"But please repeat it as you heard them."
""Aminta.""
He subdued the mouthing.
"It didn"t, offend me at all. It is one of my amus.e.m.e.nts to think of it.
But after a time they liked the name; and then how did they say it?"
He had the beloved Aminta on his lips.
He checked it, or the power to speak it failed. She drew in a sharp breath.
"I hope your boys will have plenty of fun in them. They will have you for a providence and a friend. I should wish to propose to visit your school some day. You will keep me informed whether the school has vacancies. You will, please, keep me regularly informed?"
She broke into sobs.
Weyburn talked on of the school, for a cover to the resuming of her fallen mask, as he fancied it.
She soon recovered, all save a steady voice for converse, and begged him to proceed, and spoke in the flow of the subject; but the quaver of her tones was a cause of further melting. The tears poured, she could not explain why, beyond a.s.suring him that they were no sign of unhappiness.
Winds on the great waters against a strong tidal current beat up the wave and shear and wing the spray, as in Aminta"s bosom. Only she could know that it was not her heart weeping, though she had grounds for a woman"s weeping. But she alone could be aware of her heart"s running counter to the tears.
Her agitation was untimely. Both Mrs. Pagnell and Mr. Morsfield observed emotion at work. And who could wonder? A wife denied the admittance to her husband"s house by her husband! The most beautiful woman of her time relentlessly humiliated, ordered to journey back the way she had come.
They had reached the gate of the park, and had turned.
"A scandal!"
Mr. Morsfield renewed his interjection vehemently, for an apology to his politeness in breaking from Mrs. Pagnell.
Joining the lady, whose tears were of the nerves, he made offer of his devotion in any shape; and she was again in the plight to which a desperado can push a woman of the gentle kind. She had the fear of provoking a collision if she reminded him, that despite her entreaties, he had compelled her, seconded by her aunt as he had been, to submit to his absurd protection on the walk across the park.
He seemed quite regardless of the mischief he had created; and, reflecting upon how it served his purpose, he might well be. Intemperate lover, of the ancient pattern, that he was, his aim to win the woman acknowledged no obstacle in the means. Her pitiable position appealed to the best of him; his inordinate desire of her aroused the worst. It was, besides, an element of his c.o.xcombry, that he should, in apeing the utterly inconsiderate, rush swiftly to impersonate it when his pa.s.sions were cast on a die.
Weyburn he ignored as a stranger, an intruder, an inferior.
Aminta"s chariot was at the gate.
She had to resign herself to the chances of a clash of men, and, as there were two to one, she requested help of Weyburn"s hand, that he might be near her.
A mounted gentleman, smelling parasite in his bearing, held the bridle of Morsfield"s horse.