"Let"s set things straight," he said, "before you go. My mother," he went on, addressing himself to Anne, "don"t think there"s much chance for us two of living comfortably together. Bear witness to the truth--will you? What did I tell you at breakfast-time? Didn"t I say it should be my endeavor to make you a good husband? Didn"t I say--in Mrs.
Dethridge"s presence--I wanted to make it up?" He waited until Anne had answered in the affirmative, and then appealed to his mother. "Well?
what do you think now?"
Lady Holchester declined to reveal what she thought. "You shall see me, or hear from me, this evening," she said to Anne. Geoffrey attempted to repeat his unanswered question. His mother looked at him. His eyes instantly dropped before hers. She gravely bent her head to Anne, and drew her veil. Her son followed her out in silence to the gate.
Anne returned to her room, sustained by the first sense of relief which she had felt since the morning. "His mother is alarmed," she said to herself. "A change will come."
A change _was_ to come--with the coming night.
CHAPTER THE FIFTY-FIRST.
THE PROPOSAL.
TOWARD sunset, Lady Holchester"s carriage drew up before the gate of the cottage.
Three persons occupied the carriage: Lady Holchester, her eldest son (now Lord Holchester), and Sir Patrick Lundie.
"Will you wait in the carriage, Sir Patrick?" said Julius. "Or will you come in?"
"I will wait. If I can be of the least use to _her,_, send for me instantly. In the mean time don"t forget to make the stipulation which I have suggested. It is the one certain way of putting your brother"s real feeling in this matter to the test."
The servant had rung the bell without producing any result. He rang again. Lady Holchester put a question to Sir Patrick.
"If I have an opportunity of speaking to my son"s wife alone," she said, "have you any message to give?"
Sir Patrick produced a little note.
"May I appeal to your ladyship"s kindness to give her this?" The gate was opened by the servant-girl, as Lady Holchester took the note.
"Remember," reiterated Sir Patrick, earnestly "if I can be of the smallest service to her--don"t think of my position with Mr. Delamayn.
Send for me at once."
Julius and his mother were conducted into the drawing-room. The girl informed them that her master had gone up stairs to lie down, and that he would be with them immediately.
Both mother and son were too anxious to speak. Julius wandered uneasily about the room. Some books attracted his notice on a table in the corner--four dirty, greasy volumes, with a slip of paper projecting from the leaves of one of them, and containing this inscription, "With Mr.
Perry"s respects." Julius opened the volume. It was the ghastly popular record of Criminal Trials in England, called the Newgate Calendar.
Julius showed it to his mother.
"Geoffrey"s taste in literature!" he said, with a faint smile.
Lady Holchester signed to him to put the book back.
"You have seen Geoffrey"s wife already--have you not?" she asked.
There was no contempt now in her tone when she referred to Anne. The impression produced on her by her visit to the cottage, earlier in the day, a.s.sociated Geoffrey"s wife with family anxieties of no trivial kind. She might still (for Mrs. Glenarm"s sake) be a woman to be disliked--but she was no longer a woman to be despised.
"I saw her when she came to Swanhaven," said Julius. "I agree with Sir Patrick in thinking her a very interesting person."
"What did Sir Patrick say to you about Geoffrey this afternoon--while I was out of the room?"
"Only what he said to _you._ He thought their position toward each other here a very deplorable one. He considered that the reasons were serious for our interfering immediately."
"Sir Patrick"s own opinion, Julius, goes farther than that."
"He has not acknowledged it, that I know of."
"How _can_ he acknowledge it--to us?"
The door opened, and Geoffrey entered the room.
Julius eyed him closely as they shook hands. His eyes were bloodshot; his face was flushed; his utterance was thick--the look of him was the look of a man who had been drinking hard.
"Well?" he said to his mother. "What brings you back?"
"Julius has a proposal to make to you," Lady Holchester answered. "I approve of it; and I have come with him."
Geoffrey turned to his brother.
"What can a rich man like you want with a poor devil like me?" he asked.
"I want to do you justice, Geoffrey--if you will help me, by meeting me half-way. Our mother has told you about the will?"
"I"m not down for a half-penny in the will. I expected as much. Go on."
"You are wrong--you _are_ down in it. There is liberal provision made for you in a codicil. Unhappily, my father died without signing it. It is needless to say that I consider it binding on me for all that. I am ready to do for you what your father would have done for you. And I only ask for one concession in return."
"What may that be?"
"You are living here very unhappily, Geoffrey, with your wife."
"Who says so? I don"t, for one."
Julius laid his hand kindly on his brother"s arm.
"Don"t trifle with such a serious matter as this," he said. "Your marriage is, in every sense of the word, a misfortune--not only to you but to your wife. It is impossible that you can live together. I have come here to ask you to consent to a separation. Do that--and the provision made for you in the unsigned codicil is yours. What do you say?"
Geoffrey shook his brother"s hand off his arm.
"I say--No!" he answered.
Lady Holchester interfered for the first time.
"Your brother"s generous offer deserves a better answer than that," she said.
"My answer," reiterated Geoffrey, "is--No!"
He sat between them with his clenched fists resting on his knees--absolutely impenetrable to any thing that either of them could say.