"Yet he is a gentleman by birth and education, handsome, most agreeable in manner, devoted to you, and my friend."
"I do not love him," she said again; "and the Darrells are too true a race to marry without love."
The allusion to his race pleased the baronet, in spite of his anger.
"Did Captain Langton give you to understand the alternative?" asked Sir Oswald. "Did he tell you my resolve in case you should refuse him?"
She laughed a clear, ringing laugh, in which there was a slight tinge of mockery. Slight though it was, Sir Oswald"s face flushed hotly as he heard it.
"He told me that you would disinherit me if I did not marry him; but I told him you would never ignore the claim of the last living Darrell--you would not pa.s.s me over and make a stranger your heir."
"But did he tell you my intentions if you refused him?"
Again came the musical laugh that seemed to irritate Sir Oswald so greatly.
"He talked some nonsense about your marrying," said Pauline: "but that of course I did not believe."
"And why did you not believe it, Miss Darrell?"
"Because I thought if you had wished to marry you would have married before this," she replied.
"And you think," he said, his face pale with pa.s.sion, "that you may do as you like--that your contempt for all proper laws, your willful caprice, your unendurable pride, are to rule every one? You are mistaken, Miss Darrell. If you had consented to marry Aubrey Langton, I would have made you my heiress, because I should have known that you were in safe hands, under proper guidance; as it is--as you have refused in every instance to obey me, as you have persisted in ignoring every wish of mine--it is time we came to a proper understanding. I beg to announce to you the fact that I am engaged to be married--that I have offered my hand and heart to a lady who is as gentle as you are the reverse."
A dread silence followed the words; Pauline bore the blow like a true Darrell, never flinching, never showing the least dismay. After a time she raised her dark, proud eyes to his face.
"If your marriage is for your happiness, I wish you joy," she said, simply.
"There is no doubt but that it will add greatly to my happiness," he put in, shortly.
"At the same time," resumed Pauline, "I must tell you frankly that I do not think you have used me well. You told me when I came here that I was to be heiress of Darrell Court. I have grown to love it, I have shaped my life in accordance with what you said to me, and I do not think it fair that you should change your intentions."
"You have persistently defied me," returned the baronet; "you have preferred your least caprice to my wish; and now you must reap your reward. Had you been dutiful, obedient, submissive, you might have made yourself very dear to me. Pray, listen." He raised his fine white hand with a gesture that demanded silence. "My marriage need not make any difference as regards your residence here. As you say, you are a Darrell, and my niece, so your home is here; and, unless you make yourself intolerable, you shall always have a home suitable to your position. But, as I can never hope that you will prove an agreeable companion to the lady who honors me by becoming my wife, I should be grateful to Miss Hastings if she would remain with you."
Miss Hastings bowed her head; she was too deeply grieved for words.
"It is my wish that you retain your present suite of rooms," continued Sir Oswald; "and Lady Darrell, when she comes, will, I am sure, try to make everything pleasant for you. I have no more to say. As for expressing any regret for the part you have acted toward my young friend, Aubrey Langton, it is useless--we will let the matter drop."
All the Darrell pride and pa.s.sion had been slowly gathering in Pauline"s heart; a torrent of burning words rose to her lips.
"If you wish to marry, Sir Oswald," she said, "you have a perfect right to do so--no one can gainsay that; but I say you have acted neither justly nor fairly to me. As for the stranger you would bring to rule over me, I shall hate her, and I will be revenged on her. I shall tell her that she is taking my place; I shall speak my mind openly to her; and, if she chooses to marry you, to help you to punish me, she shall take the consequences."
Sir Oswald laughed.
"I might be alarmed by such a melodramatic outburst," he said, "but that I know you are quite powerless;" and with a profound bow to Miss Hastings, Sir Oswald quitted the library.
Then Pauline"s anger burst forth; she grew white with rage.
"I have not been fairly used," she cried. "He told me Darrell Court was to be mine. My heart has grown to love it; I love it better than I love anything living."
Miss Hastings, like a sensible woman, refrained from saying anything on the subject--from reminding her that she had been warned time after time, and had only laughed at the warning. She tried to offer some soothing words, but the girl would not listen to them. Her heart and soul were in angry revolt.
"I might have been a useful woman," she said, suddenly, "if I had had this chance in life; I might have been happy myself, and have made others happy. As it is, I swear that I will live only for vengeance."
She raised her beautiful white arm and jeweled hand.
"Listen to me," she said; "I will live for vengeance--not on Sir Oswald--if he chooses to marry, let him--but I will first warn the woman he marries, and then, if she likes to come here as Lady Darrell, despite my warning, let her. I will take such vengeance on her as suits a Darrell--nothing commonplace--nothing in the way of poisoning--but such revenge as shall satisfy even me."
In vain Miss Hastings tried to soothe her, to calm her, the torrent of angry words had their way.
Then she came over to Miss Hastings, and, placing her hand on her shoulder, asked:
"Tell me, whom do you think Sir Oswald is going to marry?"
"I cannot imagine--unless it is Miss Rocheford."
"Elinor Rocheford--that mere child! Let her beware!"
CHAPTER XX.
CAPTAIN LANGTON DESPERATE.
A short period of calm fell upon Darrell Court. Miss Darrell"s pa.s.sion seemed to have exhausted itself.
"I will never believe," she said one day to Miss Hastings, "that Sir Oswald meant what he said. I am beginning to think it was merely a threat--the Darrells are all hot-tempered."
But Miss Hastings had heard more than she liked to tell her pupil, and she knew that what the baronet had said was not only quite true, but that preparations for the marriage had actually commenced.
"I am afraid it was no threat, Pauline," she said, sadly.
"Then let the new-comer beware," said the girl, her face darkening.
"Whoever she may be, let her beware. I might have been a good woman, but this will make me a wicked one. I shall live only for revenge."
A change came over her. The improvement that Miss Hastings had so fondly noticed, and of which she had been so proud, died away. Pauline seemed no longer to take any interest in reading or study. She would sit for hours in gloomy, sullen silence, with an abstracted look on her face.
What was pa.s.sing in her mind no one knew. Miss Hastings would go to her, and try to rouse her; but Pauline grew impatient.
"Do leave me in peace," she would say. "Leave me to my own thoughts. I am framing my plans."
And the smile that came with the words filled poor Miss Hastings with terrible apprehensions as to the future of her strange, willful pupil.
The captain was still at the Court. He had had some vague idea of rushing off to London; but a letter from one of his most intimate friends warned him to keep out of the way until some arrangement could be made about his affairs. More than one angry creditor was waiting for him; indeed, the gallant captain had brought his affairs to such a pa.s.s that his appearance in London without either money or the hope of it would have been highly dangerous.
He was desperate. Sir Oswald had hinted to him, since the failure of their plan, that he should not be forgotten in his will. He would have borrowed money from him but for that hint; but he did not care to risk the loss of many thousand pounds for the sake of fifteen hundred.
Fifteen hundred--that was all he wanted. If he could have gone back to London the betrothed husband of Pauline Darrell, he could have borrowed as many thousands; but that chance was gone; and he could have cursed the girlish caprice that deprived him of so splendid a fortune. In his heart fierce love and fierce hate warred together; there were times when he felt that he loved Pauline with a pa.s.sion words could not describe; and at other times he hated her with something pa.s.sing common hate. They spoke but little; Miss Darrell spent as much time as possible in her own rooms. Altogether the domestic atmosphere at Darrell Court had in it no sunshine; it was rather the brooding, sullen calm that comes before a storm.