My blood was roused; she would not be Niono"s if I could prevent it. I would s.n.a.t.c.h her from him, even if I had to do so across the wedding-cake!
But when I reached the well-known door and raised the familiar knocker--a fist clutching a cast-iron wreath--in my trembling fingers, there were no sounds of festivity within; the house was dark and deserted.
I waited in the bitter January air; the street lamp opposite--the identical one under which Lurana had first agreed to marry me--flickered at every gust of the night wind, as though troubled on my account. They must have transferred the feast to the Circus, or to some adjacent restaurant; evidently there was no one there.
I was just turning hopelessly away, when I heard the bolt being withdrawn, and the door was opened by a maid.
"Where is your mistress?" I asked breathlessly. I could not bring myself to ask for Lurana as Mrs Onion.
"In the drawing-room, upstairs," was the unexpected reply, "with the "istericks."
So long as she was not with Niono, I cared little; I bounded up, and found her alone.
As I entered, she raised her flushed, tear-stained face from the shabby sofa on which she had thrown herself. "Go away!" she cried, "why do you come near me now? You have no right--do you hear?--no right!"
"I know," I said humbly enough, "I deserve this, no doubt; and yet, if you knew all, you would find excuses for me, Lurana!"
"None, Theodore," she said; "if you had really loved me, you would never have deserted me!"
"I could not help myself," I retorted; "and really, Lurana, if it comes to desertion----!"
"Ah, what is the use of wrangling about whose fault it was," she moaned, "now, when we have both wrecked our lives! At least, I know I"ve wrecked _mine_! Why was I so insane as to set my heart on our being married in a den of disgusting lions? If you had only been firmer, Theodore, instead of giving way as you did!"
"At least it was not cowardice," I said. "When I show you the state of my chin----"
"Theodore!" she cried, with a little scream, "you are hurt! Tell me; was it the tiger?"
"It was not the tiger," I said. "Never mind that now. I was betrayed by that infernal Onion, Lurana. I never knew till it was too late--you _do_ believe me, don"t you?"
"I do; we were both deceived, Theodore. I should never have acted as I did if that horrid Frenchwoman hadn"t told me--Oh, _what_ would I not give if all this had never been?"
"If you are truly sincere," I began, "in wishing this unlucky marriage cancelled----"
"If I am! Are _you_, Theodore? Oh, if only there is a way!"
"There may be, Lurana. It all depends on whether my name was used at the ceremony or not. Try to recollect and tell me."
"But I can"t, Theodore. You were there--you must know!"
"Mr Skipworth wouldn"t speak up; and I was much farther away than you were."
"Than _I_ was, Theodore! But--but I wasn"t there at all!"
"Not present at your own wedding?" I cried, "but I saw you!"
"It was not me!" she said, "it was Mlle. Leonie. Is it possible you didn"t know?"
My heart leaped. "For heaven"s sake, explain, Lurana; let us have no more concealments."
"When I arrived," she said, "Mademoiselle explained about the tiger, and how sorry she was it was too late to remove it, since she understood I had an antipathy to tigers; and I said, not at all, I adored tigers, so she took me to see the cage, and I--I only tried to tickle the tiger, but he was so dreadfully cross about it--I nearly fainted. And she said it was simply madness for me to go in, and that you were every bit as frightened as I was."
[Ill.u.s.tration: "If only you had been firmer, Theodore."]
"She had no right to say that," I said; "it"s absolutely untrue!"
"I know, Theodore," she replied; "you have proved that you, at least, are no coward--but I believed her then. And I wrote you a line to say that I had altered my mind, and did not think it right to expose you or myself to such danger, and that I would wait for you by the Myddelton Statue. She promised to give you the letter at once!"
"I never got it," I said.
"No, she took care you should not. And I waited for you--how long I don"t know--_hours_, it seemed--but you never came! Then I saw the people beginning to come out, and--and I went across and asked someone whether there had been any marriage or not, and he said, "Yes, it had gone off without any accident, the bridegroom looked pale but was plucky enough, and so was the bride, though he couldn"t tell how _she_ looked, because of her veil." And then of course, I knew that the deceitful cat had taken my place and managed to make you marry her!
And at first I wanted to go back and stab her with my hat pin, but I hadn"t one sharp enough, so I came home instead. And oh, Theodore, I _do_ feel so ashamed! After boasting so much of my Spanish blood, and taunting you with being afraid as I did, to think that you should have shown the truer courage after all!"
I could not triumph over her then; I was too happy. "Courage, my darling, is a merely relative quality," I said. "Heaven forbid that we should be held accountable for the state of our nerves--even the bravest of us."
"But this marriage, Theodore," she said, "what can you do to have it set aside?"
"Do! Nothing," I replied; "after what you have told me, I no longer care to try."
"You despise me, then, because I broke down at the critical moment?"
"Not at all. I can never be grateful enough to you!"
"Grateful! Then do you mean to say you prefer that coa.r.s.e, middle-aged, lion-taming person to me, Theodore?"
"Lurana," I said, "prepare yourself for a great surprise--a _pleasant_ surprise. If anybody is now that lady"s lawful husband it is Niono--not I; and a very suitable match too," I added (I saw now why the authorities had been compelled to waive their objections to it).
"The fact is, I never went into the cage at all."
"You didn"t go into the cage, Theodore! but how, why?"
"Do you imagine," I asked, "can you really suppose I should be capable of entering that cage with anybody but yourself, Lurana? How little you know me! Of _course_ I declined!"
"But you didn"t know I had run away _then_, Theodore! Why, you thought only a few minutes ago _I_ was the person Mr Niono married! Perhaps you will kindly explain?"
For the moment I was in a fix, but I saw that the moment had arrived for perfect candour, and accordingly I told her the facts pretty much as they have been set down here.
She could hardly blame me for having behaved precisely as she herself had done, or refuse to admit that by taking any other course I should have imperilled our joint happiness, and yet I thought I could see that, with feminine unreason, she was just a _little_ disappointed with me.
The true explanation of that marriage, if it was a marriage, in the den of lions, I have never been able to discover, nor for that matter have I been particularly curious to inquire whether Onion attempted to get rid of me in order to secure Lurana; whether Mdlle. Leonie played upon Lurana"s fears with the hope of becoming my bride, or his; or whether the Lion King and his fellow artist gallantly sacrificed themselves to get the management out of a difficulty, I don"t know, and, as I say, I haven"t cared to ask.
But however it was, they were ably seconded by old Polkinghorne, who was naturally unwilling to be called upon to refund the money he had got for his free tickets, and by Miss Rakestraw and Archibald Chuck, whose reputations were also more or less concerned.
Nevertheless, although every effort was made to keep the public off the scent, and the circus people behaved, I am bound to say, with commendable discretion, sundry garbled versions of the facts _did_ get about, and altogether Lurana and I have found the task of denying or correcting them such a constant nuisance that I have felt compelled, as I said at starting, to furnish, once for all, a statement of what actually occurred.
Now that it is written I have no more to add, except to append a cutting from an announcement which appeared not long ago in the princ.i.p.al papers. The arrangements for its publication were entrusted to Archibald Chuck, who I think must have added the last two words on his own responsibility.
_Blenkinsop_--_De Castro_.--On the 15th inst., at the Parish Church of St Mary, Islington, by the Rev. Merton Sandford, D.D., Vicar, THEODORE PIDGLEY BLENKINSOP, of Highbury, to LURANA CARMEN DE CASTRO, only daughter of the late Manuel Guzman de Castro, formerly Deputy Sub-a.s.sistant Inspector of Spanish Liquorice to the Government Manufactory at Madrid. No lions.
THE END.