She had hardly gone three paces when she stopped again.
"Coward that I am," said she, "to pry upon his actions; to seek these miserable means of learning his pursuits. He trusts me wholly. I will ask him what he does there visiting so often; and if--if he loves her better, let him go. I would set free an Emperor, if he was willing to be released. I"ll not go on. I"ll learn nothing this way."
She was gasping for breath. Hubert Gage turned without another word, and held out his hand to conduct her back again, but she repulsed him, and stood clasping her temples with a force that seemed designed to hold in her reason.
"If you think," said she very slowly, for she was collecting her ideas, "that I shall like you better when I have learned to hate him, know, once for all, that you will be more intolerable in my eyes than Claude himself."
He looked distressed, but made no answer.
She paused a moment, and then said in a more quiet tone. "Be sure you say nothing of all this to my uncle; it would so vex him. He is not well enough--"
He gave her this promise; and having reached the garden fence, he said he would wait for her while she went down the terrace walk. She made him a sign of silence, and stole gently forward till she came under the verandah. The drawing-room windows were unclosed, and she heard and saw all that pa.s.sed within. A sofa was drawn close to the window, on which reclined a girl of seventeen, who still retained much of the graceful beauty that had distinguished her. Tall and slight, the full muslin wrapper in part concealed the wasting influence of that disease which had so nearly fulfilled its task. Her eyes, with their long black fringes, seemed to take a disproportioned share in her face, and her profuse dark hair, which had been wound in large folds at the back of her head, had fallen in long tresses like broad ribbons over the cushions that she lay upon. She was reclining, half supported in a sitting posture by Mr. Haveloc. Her head leaned on his shoulder, and her splendid eyes rested on his face as if she knew there was a very little time for her to impress every feature on her memory. He sat quite silent for some minutes, and Aveline"s wasted hand lay pa.s.sively in his. At last she said with a soft smile, still gazing at him as though she feared to lose a moment of his sight,--
"The moon will change soon, will it not, Mr. Haveloc?"
"To-morrow, I think," said he, kindly, not tenderly, for his was not a nature that could feign, though Margaret was too dizzy to mark the difference. They were silent for a few moments, and then on some restless movement of Aveline"s, he employed himself in altering the cushions.
Mrs. Fitzpatrick, who had been leaning her head against the mantel-piece as she sat, looked up at the slight noise which they made, and then dropped her head again, with that mute expression of anguish which the att.i.tude can so eloquently convey.
"I hope you will not go away so early to-night, Mr. Haveloc," said Aveline, as soon as her pillows were properly arranged, "You went so very early yesterday, and it is of no use, for I do not sleep the sooner for it."
Mrs. Fitzpatrick raised her head, and cast a look at Mr. Haveloc as though she would have said, "humour her," but she sank into her former position without speaking.
"I am sure, as long as you are not tired," he said, "I will stay until Mrs. Fitzpatrick thinks proper to turn me out of doors."
"Is mamma asleep?" said Aveline, who was listening for her mother"s voice.
"Asleep, my love!" said Mrs. Fitzpatrick, in a tone that thrilled through Margaret, there was in it so much despair.
"We are all half asleep," said Mr. Haveloc. "Shall I ring for candles?"
"Do," said Aveline; "stay! do you see a figure--a shadow--there, in the verandah?"
Margaret heard no more. She turned, rushed from the terrace down the steps to the beach on the sands until the foam of the waves broke over her feet.
"Good Heavens!" exclaimed Hubert Gage, who had hastened after her. "What is it you intend? What are you going to do?"
"What should I do but go home?" said Margaret, turning quietly round. "I have seen what I came to see."
And turning away again, she began to walk rapidly.
"Speak to me," said he, after he had followed her in silence for some time. "Tell me--am I to blame?"
Margaret shook her head.
"I cannot bear this silence," he said, after another pause. "Say something to me."
"What should I say?" asked Margaret, still walking on.
"Do you detest me?"
"You!--No."
They arrived before the gate of the cottage.
Margaret held out her hand to him.
"Good night," said she, in a calm voice. "Let me see you to-morrow."
CHAPTER XIII.
Steig" empor, o Morgenroth, und rothe Mit purpurnem Kusse Hain und Feld!
Saus"le nieder, Abendroth und Flote Sanft in Schlummer die ers...o...b..ne Welt; Morgen--ach! Du rothest Eine Todtensflor, Ach! und du, o Abendroth! umflotest Meinen langen Schlummer nur.
SCHILLER.
"There is no one in the verandah," said Mr. Haveloc, coming back to the side of Aveline. "It was your fancy. You have not yet forgotten the gipsy."
Aveline smiled, and signed to him to take a chair close to the sofa.
"I am easy now," she said. "I will not move again." He looked anxiously at her, and thought there was something strange in the expression of her features. It seemed as if she had lost her control over them, and that her smile was involuntary.
"Mamma!" said she suddenly, in a quick, sharp tone.
Her mother hastened to her side.
"Keep close to me, mamma," she said.
Mrs. Fitzpatrick, seated on the side of the sofa, held her daughter"s hand.
"Do you feel worse, my love?" she whispered.
"No; better," returned Aveline, in a clear voice.
Mrs. Fitzpatrick trembled excessively, but controlled all other sign of emotion. She looked anxiously at Mr. Haveloc, as she often did, to read his opinion. His eyes were fixed on the ground.
"Mr. Haveloc," said Aveline, in a voice perfectly free from emotion, "you will recollect to tell Mr. Fletcher that Mr. Lucas was very kind, and gave me much comfort."
"He returns to-morrow. I hope you will be well enough to see him yourself," said Mr. Haveloc.
Aveline looked at him, and marked the unquiet expression of his face.
"See how few wishes I have," said she; "how everything has been antic.i.p.ated by your kindness," turning her eyes upon her mother. "I have nothing left to say at this hour."