"What did he say?" asked Tom, maliciously.
"He was very kind," she answered--the color came to her face; "he said I oughtn"t to be in London alone."
"Quite right!" and Tom thought that she was a nice girl not to betray her elderly lover; a proposal was a thing that every woman should regard as confidential--unless she accepted it, of course.
XXVI
Another week and the whole world had changed. Margaret forgot Hannah and Woodside Farm; sometimes she even forgot her longing to see her mother"s face again. She was blind to the people in the street, to everything about her; her ambition to be an actress was lulled into pleasant abeyance. A great happiness dawned in her heart--she did not try to put a name to it; she did not even know it to be there; but the whole world seemed to be full of it, and in the world there was just one person--Tom Carringford. He came to her every day; in some sort of fashion he const.i.tuted himself her guardian, though they preserved the happy playfellow terms of boy and girl. They made all manner of innocent expeditions together--to Battersea Park, where they rowed about in a boat on the lake, and then drove back to dine in Margaret"s little sitting-room (a simple dinner that Mrs. Gilman arranged); to Richmond, where they dined by an open window and drove back again before it was dark, for Tom, with all his exuberance, had an occasional uneasy sense of conventionality, though he said nothing about it to Margaret. "I don"t want to put her up to things; she is much too nice as she is," he thought. They went to Chiswick and Kew; they talked about Pope at Twickenham and walked along the tow-path; to Bushey and Hampton Court, and had tea--by an open window again--at the old-fashioned inn, and returned in the cool of the evening. One day they went to the Zoo, where they laughed at the animals and fed the monkeys, and again had tea, and ate so many cuc.u.mber sandwiches that they were ashamed to count them--for it was a proof of their youth and unsophistication that they generally made eating a part of their entertainment when they went out together.
They lived only for each other, yet neither stopped to realize it, till at the end of ten days Tom was roused to a sense of what was happening by a letter from Mrs. Lakeman. Lena was very ill indeed, she said, and had been waiting day after day for Tom; why hadn"t he come? She had heard from Sir George Stringer that the Vincent girl was in town--was Tom aware of it? Probably she was too much taken up with the young grocer from Guildford to have made a sign to him? This was an unwise remark for so tactful a woman as Mrs. Lakeman, for it made Tom snort indignantly, and it brought home to him the difficulties of Margaret"s position. Just as he was starting to meet her after the rehearsal that afternoon a telegram arrived:
"Come immediately; Lena dangerously ill."
"Whew!" he said, "I must go by the eight-o"clock mail this evening." He turned back to tell his man to pack a bag, take tickets, and meet him at Euston, then drove to the theatre to find that the rehearsal was over and every one gone. He went on as fast as possible to Great College Street.
Margaret tried not to show her consternation, but her face betrayed her.
"Oh, I"m so sorry. Sir George told me you belonged to Lena--but that isn"t true, is it?"
"Of course not," he answered, staring at her, and wondering that she could repeat anything so absurd; "but they have been very kind to me, and I ought to go. Besides," he added, for Tom was always loyal, "I like them both." He stopped a minute, and then he said, suddenly, "I wish you would give up the theatre."
"I can"t," but her tone was not so positive as it had been.
"You know," he began, slowly, "I have been thinking a great deal about things lately, and wondering--"
"Yes."
"I"m not sure that I want to tell you--I"m rather afraid; suppose we go and drive about a bit, and perhaps you shall know when we come in."
"It"s such a rum thing," he thought, when she had gone to get her hat, "that she should be living here alone; I feel as if I simply can"t go away and leave her. And if I say anything and she doesn"t care for me, it will be all up, and I shall find myself where poor old Stringer is. I wonder if he"s got over it a bit, and will come and look after her while I am away in Scotland." Sir George had returned from Dieppe the day before, but he had been shy of going near Margaret. Tom had seen him in the street and thought it wise not to recognize him.
Margaret came in ready to go out. She wore a white dress and a black hat that drooped a little on one side with the heaviness of its tr.i.m.m.i.n.g.
There was a thin gold chain round her neck; he knew that the locket attached to it contained her mother"s hair. He looked at her for a moment, at her blue eyes and proud lips, and her slim, tall figure, and his reticence went to the winds.
"I can"t bear to think I am going to-night," he said.
"And I can"t," she answered, almost without being aware of it.
Then it seemed as if fate took hold of him and forced him to speak.
"Margaret," he said, and his tone brought the color to her face, "this can"t go on; it will have to come to an end somehow. You know we like being together--it"s glorious, isn"t it? But--I have grown fond of you--I can"t help it. I wonder if you like me, if you care for me--it would make everything so easy. I love you--more than anything in the world, and you always seem happy enough with me. Do you think you could stand it always. Cut the theatre, you know, and all that at once, and marry me?"
"Oh, Tom!" she said, and without any rhyme or reason she burst into tears and sat down on the little sofa, for it seemed as if the floodgates of heaven had opened and poured its happiness into her heart--just as it had seemed to her mother once in the best parlor at Woodside Farm.
"My darling!" he said, "My little darling, what is the matter?" He knelt down by her and pulled her hat-pin out. "Ghastly long thing," he said to himself, even in that moment, "enough to kill one." He stuck it into the back of the sofa, took off her hat and flung it--her best hat--to the other end of the room, and gathered her into his arms and kissed her.
"Why, what are you crying for?" he asked. "I have not frightened you, have I?" But his tone was triumphant, for since she made no resistance he thought it must be all right, so he wisely went on kissing her, for there is nothing like making the most of an opportunity--especially a first one.
"Oh, you mustn"t--you mustn"t!" she said, afraid lest he should see the shame and the joy in her eyes.
"You know this is what it means," he said, holding her closer. "Why, we liked each other from the first, didn"t we? Think what a spree we had that morning when we came here with the flowers."
"I know," she whispered; "but I can"t be married."
"Why not?"
"It seems so strange."
"You"ll get used to it."
"And father is away."
"All the more reason."
"But we can"t, till he comes back."
"Yes, we can; there are plenty of churches about. By-the-way, you don"t go to one, do you? You know, I never thought much of those unbeliefs of yours."
"What do you mean?" she asked, struggling out of his arms and trying to be collected and sensible, but finding it rather difficult.
"Well, you know, I think people often believe in things and don"t know it, or don"t believe in anything and yet imagine they do. I can"t see that it matters myself, so long as one tries to do the right thing. If all the roads lead to heaven, it doesn"t matter what language one talks on the journey, or whether one arrives in a monk"s cowl or with a feather in one"s cap."
"You are talking nonsense," she said, looking at his face and thinking what a dear one it was.
"Of course I am; we are much too happy to talk anything else.
By-the-way, I ought to beg your pardon for thinking you cared about Garratt."
"I think you ought," she laughed.
"Though I don"t know whether I"m any better than he is," he added, modestly. "I say, you do care for me, don"t you? You know you haven"t said it yet."
"I do care for you," she said.
"When did you begin?"
"I don"t know; I don"t know a bit, Tom dear, but what I have felt is that--"
"Yes, go on."
"--That it was the greatest happiness in the world to be with you. Why, I have simply laughed for joy at the sound of your step, and when you are away I think of you all the time and every minute, and I don"t even care for the theatre now, or for being an actress."
"Good! good!" he cried, triumphantly. "Go on."
"And I am so happy now," she continued--"so stifled and overcome with happiness that I feel as if I should die of it."