"I made myself a barrister three years ago, to please my mother. She thought I should do better in Parliament--if ever I got in. Did you ever hear of my mother?"
There was no escaping these frank, smiling questions.
"No," said Marcella, honestly.
"Well, ask Lord Maxwell," he said, laughing. "He and she came across each other once or twice, when he was Home Secretary years ago, and she was wild about some woman"s grievance or other. She always maintains that she got the better of him--no doubt he was left with a different impression. Well--my mother--most people thought her mad--perhaps she was--but then somehow--I loved her!"
He was still smiling, but at the last words a charming vibration crept into the words, and his eyes sought her with a young open demand for sympathy.
"Is that so rare?" she asked him, half laughing--instinctively defending her own feeling lest it should be s.n.a.t.c.hed from her by any make-believe.
"Yes--as we loved each other--it is rare. My father died when I was ten.
She would not send me to school, and I was always in her pocket--I shared all her interests. She was a wild woman--but she _lived_, as not one person in twenty lives."
Then he sighed. Marcella was too shy to imitate his readiness to ask questions. But she supposed that his mother must be dead--indeed, now vaguely remembered to have heard as much.
There was a little silence.
"Please tell me," she said suddenly, "why do you attack my straw-plaiting? Is a co-operative farm any less of a stopgap?"
Instantly his face changed. He drew up his chair again beside her, as gay and keen-eyed as before.
"I can"t argue it out now. There is so much to say. But do listen! I have a meeting in the village here next week to preach land nationalisation. We mean to try and form a branch of the Labourers"
Union. Will you come?"
Marcella hesitated.
"I think so," she said slowly.
There was a pause. Then she raised her eyes and found his fixed upon her. A sudden sympathy--of youth, excitement, pleasure--seemed to rise between them. She had a quick impression of lightness, grace; of an open brow set in curls; of a look more intimate, inquisitive, commanding, than any she had yet met.
"May I speak to you, miss?" said a voice at the door.
Marcella rose hastily. Her mother"s maid was standing there.
She hurried across the room.
"What is the matter, Deacon?"
"Your mother says, miss," said the maid, retreating into the hall, "I am to tell you she can"t come down. Your father is ill, and she has sent for Dr. Clarke. But you are please not to go up. Will you give the gentlemen their tea, and she will come down before they go, if she can."
Marcella had turned pale.
"Mayn"t I go, Deacon? What is it?"
"It"s a bad fit of pain, your mother says, miss. Nothing can be done till the doctor comes. She begged _particular_ that you wouldn"t go up, miss. She doesn"t want any one put out."
At the same moment there was a ring at the outer door.
"Oh, there is Aldous," cried Marcella, with relief, and she ran out into the hall to meet him.
CHAPTER III.
Aldous advanced into the inner hall at sight of Marcella, leaving his companions behind in the vestibule taking off their coats. Marcella ran to him.
"Papa is ill!" she said to him hastily. "Mamma has sent for Dr. Clarke.
She won"t let me go up, and wants us to take no notice and have tea without her."
"I am so sorry! Can we do anything? The dogcart is here with a fast horse. If your messenger went on foot--"
"Oh, no! they are sure to have sent the boy on the pony. I don"t know why, but I have had a presentiment for a long time past that papa was going to be ill."
She looked white and excited. She had turned back to the drawing-room, forgetting the other guests, he walking beside her. As they pa.s.sed along the dim hall, Aldous had her hand close in his, and when they pa.s.sed under an archway at the further end he stooped suddenly in the shadows and kissed the hand. Touch--kiss--had the clinging, the intensity of pa.s.sion.
They were the expression of all that had lain vibrating at the man"s inmost heart during the dark drive, while he had been chatting with his two companions.
"My darling! I hope not. Would you rather not see strangers? Shall I send Hallin and young Leven away? They would understand at once."
"Oh, no! Mr. Wharton is here anyway--staying. Where is Mr. Hallin? I had forgotten him."
Aldous turned and called. Mr. Hallin and young Frank Leven, divining something unusual, were looking at the pictures in the hall.
Edward Hallin came up and took Marcella"s offered hand. Each looked at the other with a special attention and interest. "She holds my friend"s life in her hands--is she worthy of it?" was naturally the question hanging suspended in the man"s judgment. The girl"s manner was proud and shy, the manner of one anxious to please, yet already, perhaps, on the defensive.
Aldous explained the position of affairs, and Hallin expressed his sympathy. He had a singularly attractive voice, the voice indeed of the orator, which can adapt itself with equal charm and strength to the most various needs and to any pitch. As he spoke, Marcella was conscious of a sudden impression that she already knew him and could be herself with him at once.
"Oh, I say," broke in young Leven, who was standing behind; "don"t you be bothered with us, Miss Boyce. Just send us back at once. I"m awfully sorry!"
"No; you are to come in!" she said, smiling through her pallor, which was beginning to pa.s.s away, and putting out her hand to him--the young Eton and Oxford athlete, just home for his Christmas vacation, was a great favourite with her--"You must come and have tea and cheer me up by telling me all the things you have killed this week. Is there anything left alive? You had come down to the fieldfares, you know, last Tuesday."
He followed her, laughing and protesting, and she led the way to the drawing-room. But as her fingers were on the handle she once more caught sight of the maid, Deacon, standing on the stairs, and ran to speak to her.
"He is better," she said, coming back with a face of glad relief. "The attack seems to be pa.s.sing off. Mamma can"t come down, but she begs that we will all enjoy ourselves."
"We"ll endeavour," said young Leven, rubbing his hands, "by the help of tea. Miss Boyce, will you please tell Aldous and Mr. Hallin not to talk politics when they"re taking me out to a party. They should fight a man of their own size. I"m all limp and trampled on, and want you to protect me."
The group moved, laughing and talking, into the drawing-room.
"Jiminy!" said Leven, stopping short behind Aldous, who was alone conscious of the lad"s indignant astonishment; "what the deuce is _he_ doing here?"
For there on the rug, with his back to the fire, stood Wharton, surveying the party with his usual smiling _aplomb_.
"Mr. Hallin, do you know Mr. Wharton?" said Marcella.