"I called while your ladyship was out," answered Nina. "So I walked about till I thought you must have come home again. You"ve never seen me before--I didn"t even know where you lived--I found your address in the Court Guide--O! I can"t say it properly, but I did so want to speak to you. I hope I haven"t done anything rude or wrong."
There was no mistaking the refinement of Nina"s voice and manner.
Lady Bearwarden recognised one of her own station at a glance. And this girl so like herself--how beautiful she was! How beautiful they both were!
"What can I do for you?" said her ladyship, very kindly. "Sit down; I am sure you must be tired."
But Nina had too much of her sister"s character to feel tired when there was a purpose to carry out. The girl stood erect and looked full in her ladyship"s face. All unconscious of their relationship, the likeness between them was at this moment so striking as to be ludicrous.
"I have come on a strange errand, Lady Bearwarden," said Nina, hardening her heart for the impending effort--"I have come to tell a truth and to put a question. I suppose, even now, you have some regard for your husband?"
Lady Bearwarden started. "What do you know about my husband?" she asked, turning very pale.
"That he is in danger," was the answer, in a voice of such preternatural fort.i.tude as promised a speedy break-down. "That he is going to fight a duel--and it"s about _you_--with--with Mr. Stanmore!
O! Lady Bearwarden, how _could_ you? You"d everything in the world, everything to make a woman good and happy, and now, see what you"ve done!"
Tears and choking sobs were coming thick, but she kept them back.
"What do you mean?" exclaimed Maud, trembling in every limb, for through the dark midnight of her misery she began to see gleams of a coming dawn.
"I mean _this_," answered Nina, steadying herself bravely. "Lord Bearwarden has found everything out. He has sent a challenge to Mr.
Stanmore. I--I--care for Mr. Stanmore, Lady Bearwarden--at least, I _did_. I was engaged to him." (Here, notwithstanding the tumult of her feelings, a little twinge crossed Lady Bearwarden to learn how quickly d.i.c.k had consoled himself.) "I"m only a girl, but I know these things _can_ be prevented, and that"s why I"m here now. You"ve done the mischief; you are bound to repair it; and I have a right to come to you for help."
"But I haven"t done anything!" pleaded Maud, in for humbler tones than she habitually used. "I love my husband very dearly, and I"ve not set eyes on Mr. Stanmore but once since I married, in Oxford Street, looking into a shop-window, and directly he caught sight of me, he got out of the way as if I had the plague! There"s some mistake. Not a minute should be lost in setting it right. I wonder what we ought to do!"
"And--and you"re not in love with Mr. Stanmore? and he isn"t going to run away with you? Lady Bearwarden, are you quite sure? And I don"t deserve to be so happy. I judged him so harshly, so unkindly. What will he think of me when he knows it? He"ll never speak to me again."
Then the tears came in good earnest, and presently Miss Algernon grew more composed, giving her hostess an account of herself, her prospects, her Putney home, and the person she most depended on in the world to get them all out of their present difficulty, Simon Perkins, the painter. "I know he can stop it," pursued Nina eagerly, "and be will, too. He told the other man nothing should be done in a hurry.
I heard him say so, for I listened, Lady Bearwarden, I _did_. And I would again if I had the same reason. Wouldn"t _you_? I hope the other man will be hanged. He seemed to want them so to kill each other.
Don"t you think he can be punished? For it"s murder, you know, _really_, after all."
Without entering into the vexed question of duelling--a practice for which each lady in her heart entertained a secret respect--the sisters consulted long and earnestly on the best method of preventing a conflict that should endanger the two lives now dearer to them than ever.
They drank tea over it, we may be sure, and in the course of that refreshment could not fail to observe how the gloves they laid aside were the same number (six and three-quarters, if you would like to know), how their hands were precisely similar in shape, how the turn of their arms and wrists corresponded as closely as the tone of their voices. Each thought she liked the other better than any one she had ever met of her own s.e.x.
After a long debate it was decided that Nina should return at once to her Putney home, doubtless ere now much disturbed at her prolonged absence; that she should have full powers to inform Simon of all the confidences regarding her husband Lady Bearwarden had poured in her ear; should authorise him to seek his lordship out and tell him the whole truth on his wife"s behalf; also, finally, for women rarely neglect the worship of Nemesis, that after a general reconciliation had been effected, measures should be taken for bringing to condign punishment the false friend who had been at such pains to foment hostilities between the men they both loved.
Lady Bearwarden had her hand on the bell to order the carriage for her visitor, but the latter would not hear of it.
"I can get a cab every twenty yards in this part of the town," said Nina. "I shall be home in three-quarters of an hour. It"s hardly dark yet, and I"m quite used to going about by myself. I am not at all a coward, Lady Bearwarden, but my aunts would be horribly alarmed if one of your smart carriages drove up to the gate. Besides, I don"t believe it could turn round in the lane. No; I won"t even have a servant, thanks. I"ll put my bonnet on and start at once, please. You"ve been very kind to me, and I"m so much obliged. Good-night!"
CHAPTER XXIX
NIGHT-HAWKS
Lord Bearwarden"s groom of the chambers, a person by no means deficient in self-confidence, owned that he was mystified. Amongst all the domestic dissensions with which his situation had made him familiar, he could recall nothing like his present experience. This bringing home of a shabby woman out of the street and ordering the best bedroom for her reception; this visit of a beautiful young person so exactly resembling his mistress that, but for the evidence of his own senses, when he brought in tea and found them together, he could have sworn it was her ladyship; this general confusion of household arrangements, and culpable indifference to the important ceremony of dinner, forced him to admit that he was in a position of which he had no preconceived idea, and from which he doubted whether he could extricate himself with the dignity essential to his office.
Returning to his own department, and glancing at the letter-box in the hall, he reflected with satisfaction how his professional duties had been scrupulously fulfilled, and how in accordance with his misconception of Lord Bearwarden"s orders, every packet that reached the house had been forwarded to its master without delay.
Hence it came to pa.s.s, that the vexed and angry husband received in due course of post a letter which puzzled him exceedingly.
He had only just digested Tom Ryfe"s unwelcome missive, announcing somewhat vaguely that the revenge for which he panted must be delayed two or three days at least, and had cursed, energetically enough, his own friend"s mismanagement of the affair, with the scruples entertained by the other side, when a fresh budget was placed in his hands, and he opened the envelopes as people often do, without looking at their addresses: thus it fell out, that he read the anonymous letter directed to his wife, asking for a meeting that same night, in the vicinity of his own house.
"A cruel mystery has deprived you of your husband." What could it mean? He studied the brief communication very attentively, particularly that first line. And a vague hope rose in his loving, generous heart, that he might have judged her too harshly after all.
It was but the faintest spark, yet he tried hard to kindle it into flame. The wariest rogue is never armed on all sides. He is sure to forget some trifling precaution, that, left unguarded, is like the c.h.i.n.k in a shutter to let in the light of day. Lord Bearwarden recognised the same hand that had penned the anonymous letter he received on guard--this argued a plot of some sort. He resolved to sift the matter thoroughly, and instead of forwarding so mysterious a request to his wife, repair to the indicated spot in person, and there by threats, bribery, compulsion, any or all means in his power, arrive at a true solution of the mystery.
It was a welcome distraction, too, this new idea, with which to while away the weary interminable day. It seemed well perhaps, after all, that the duel had been postponed. He might learn something to-night that would change the whole current of his actions, if not, let Mr.
Stanmore look to himself!
That gentleman, in the meantime, had completely forgotten Lord Bearwarden"s existence--had forgotten Mr. Ryfe"s visit the night before at his club, the unintelligible quarrel, the proposed meeting, everything but that Nina was lost. Lost! a stray lamb, helpless in the streets of London! His blood ran cold to think of it. He hastened down to Putney, and indeed only knew that he had made so sure of finding her there, by his disappointment to learn she had not returned home.
It made his task no easier that Aunt Susannah was in the garden when he reached the house, and he had to dissemble his alarm in presence of that weak-minded and affectionate spinster. "He was pa.s.sing by," he said, "on his way to town, and only looked in (he couldn"t stay a moment) to know if they had any message to--to their nephew. He was going straight from here to the painting-room."
"How considerate!" said Aunt Susannah; not without reason, for it was but this morning they parted with Simon, and they expected him back to dinner. "We have a few autumn flowers left. I"ll just run in, and get the scissors to make up a nosegay. It won"t take ten minutes. O!
nothing like ten minutes! You can give it to poor Simon with our dear love. He"s so fond of flowers! and Nina too. But perhaps you know Nina"s tastes as well as we do, and indeed I think they"re very creditable to her, and she"s not at all a bad judge!"
Then the good lady, shaking her grey curls, smiled and looked knowing, while d.i.c.k cursed her below his breath, for a grinning old idiot, and glared wildly about him, like a beast in a trap seeking some way of escape. It was provoking, no doubt, to be kept talking plat.i.tudes to a silly old woman in the garden, while every moment drifted his heart"s treasure farther and farther into the uncertainty he scarcely dared to contemplate.
Some women are totally deficient in the essentially feminine quality of tact. Aunt Susannah, with a pocket-handkerchief tied round her head, might have stood drivelling nonsense to her visitor for an hour, and never found out he wanted to get away. Fortunately, she went indoors for her scissors, and d.i.c.k, regardless of the proprieties, made his escape forthwith, thus avoiding also the ignominy of carrying back to London a nosegay as big as a chimney-sweep"s on May-day.
Hastening to the painting-room, his worst fears were realised. Nina had not returned. Simon, too, began to share his alarm, and not without considerable misgivings did the two men hold counsel on their future movements.
It occurred to them at this juncture, that the maid-of-all-work below-stairs might possibly impart some information as to the exact time when the young lady left the house. They rang for that domestic accordingly, and bewildered her with a variety of questions in vain.
Had she seen Miss Algernon during the morning? She was to think, and take time, and answer without being frightened.
"Miss Algernon! Lor! that was her as come here most days, along o"
him," with a backward nod at d.i.c.k. "No--she hadn"t a-seen her to-day, she was sure. Not _particler_, that was. Not more nor any other day."
"Had she seen her at all?"
"O, yes! she"d seen her at all. In course, you know, she couldn"t be off of seeing her at all!"
"When did she see her?"
"When? O! last week, every day a"most. And the week afore that too!
She wasn"t a-goin" to tell a lie!"
"Then she hadn"t seen her this morning?"
"Yes, she"d seen her this morning. When she come in, you know, along o" the other gentleman." Here a dive of the shock head at Simon, and symptoms of approaching emotion.
"Why you said you hadn"t at first!" exclaimed d.i.c.k, perplexed and provoked.
Forthwith a burst of sobs and tears.