"I promise," she replied eagerly. "I can make him do most things----"
"Except love you," interrupted the old man, with a horrible sneer; but the next instant his gouty hand, trembling a little, was outstretched to her in deprecation. "Excuse me, that should not have been said.
Well, you know as well as I do that this game is a real confidence trick. You must have heaps of evidence up your sleeve if you chose to bring it forward. But I"ll chance that. I haven"t seen many of your sort in my life. If I had, I mightn"t have been the cursed cripple I am; but I"ve had a rattlin" good life of it and I don"t regret anything--except having begot Pitt. So we will come to terms. I will send the colonelcy money to Marmaduke on condition that he consents to marry within the year. Is that agreed?"
"Agreed," she said firmly.
"In that case perhaps you"ll oblige me by ringing the bell."
She did so, but when the valet appeared, instead of the curt order to show her out Marrion had expected, the old man commanded the instant production of cake and wine.
"Nonsense!" he growled decisively to her protestations. "It is devilish cold. You haven"t on warm enough clothes, and you don"t leave this house without bite or sup, if only because your father Paul was a deuced good servant to my poor brother. Good fellow was Paul--always suspicioned he was a gentleman--think now he must have been.
Here"--the valet had come and gone, leaving the tray on the table--"pour yourself out a gla.s.s of port. Won"t get better anywhere, I"ll go bail. Only half a binn left, so I shall finish that before I die, thank G.o.d! Now," he eyed her narrowly, "drink to the health of Marmaduke Muir"s son, the heir to Drummuir!"
The room seemed to spin round for a moment. Then without a quiver she drank the health, put down her gla.s.s and turned to the door. Just as she reached it the old man said--
"Good-bye. I"m d.a.m.ned sorry that little chap of yours died; he would have been game, anyhow."
She gave back one sudden grateful look, and the memory of what she saw remained with her till the day of her death. The pearly whiteness of the snow outside showing behind the mountain of diseased flesh swathed in scarlet flannel, the gouty hands in the act of tearing up the paper they had been holding, a cruel smile in the old grey eyes, despite the words which had just fallen from the cruel lips.
"Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow."
The phrase recurred and recurred as she tramped her way down the beech avenue. There were many gaps in it now. How many trees would be left when Marmaduke"s heir came to his own?
CHAPTER III
The swing doors leading to the smoking-room of the fashionable club in London fell back with a slightly louder thud than usual, and more than one occupant of the room looked up--looked up, however, to smile, for the newcomer was a universal favourite. It was Marmaduke Muir, fresh from one of his many disappearances, for he was quartered at the new camp of Aldershot and his London visits were generally but a pa.s.sing flash on his way to find sport in the counties. At seven-and-thirty he showed almost more youthful than he had done at seven-and-twenty, for he was thinner, more alert, and the laughter in his face seemed to belong to him more absolutely. For the rest he was handsome beyond compare, and dressed faultlessly in a taste that had sobered itself from those early days in England when Marrion Paul had found him _flamboyant_. There was still a slight exuberance in the carnation in his b.u.t.tonhole and the immense size of the cigar he drew out of his case; but the case itself was simple, and there was a simplicity about his whole bearing which disarmed criticism.
"What you b"in after, old chap?" said an occupant of an armchair, laying down the "Ill.u.s.trated London News," in which he had been reading the pros and cons of beard and moustachios as against clean shaving. He felt his own chin doubtfully as he looked at Marmaduke"s upper lip; but then he, of course, was a soldier.
"Killin" somethin", I bet," yawned another. "What was it, Duke?"
"Not ladies, anyhow," put in a third. "Our Adonis is a regular misogynist; and yet, just look at his letters--faugh! they make the place smell like Truefitt"s."
"Better than your f.a.gs, anyhow, Mac!" laughed Marmaduke, as he took the pile of notes and letters which the attendant had brought in on a salver. Then, as he threw himself into the most comfortable chair vacant, he held up half the bundle with a gay--"Anyone like them?
They"re all invitations, I expect, and I have to go back to-night!"
"And moneylenders, Muir! Don"t forget Moses!" put in the man he had called Mac.
"Not so many of them either," retorted Marmaduke, "as you know Jack Jardine keeps us going. G.o.d bless him!" he added cheerfully.
"Here, hand us over a few, Major!" said a callow youth who lived to envy the more fashionable habitues.
"No go, Smithers!" remarked another youth less sallow; "even Nathan couldn"t make you up to his form."
But Marmaduke, after a hasty glance at the superscriptions, had dexterously flung a dozen or so of letters into the applicant"s tall hat, which was obstructing the way between his chair and the next. One smaller than the rest which Marmaduke had overlooked flew over it and lay on the carpet. It was directed in an uneducated hand.
"Hullo, pretty milliner, eh, Duke?" said Mac, taking it up and opening it. "No, no, fair play, you gave it----"
Marmaduke, standing over him, blushed like a girl as he glanced at the writing.
"It"s nothing, Mac," he began.
But Mac was not to be put off in a moment.
""Respekted and Honerd Sir"--can"t spell, anyhow," he read out. ""The money as you scent save my wife an" children from blank starvayshion""--he turned round and looked at Marmaduke reproachfully.
"And you owe me five pounds, you d----d Christian philanthropist."
Marmaduke Muir gave an apologetic laugh.
"The poor devil was in my regiment once--and as for the five pounds, here you are. I had a stroke of luck down in Norfolk at loo----"
"Save you from "blank starvayshion," eh, Mac?" growled a man who also owed money in the same quarter, whereat there was a general laugh, for Major Macdonald was known to be near.
Marmaduke, opening his letters rapidly, put most of them into the waste-paper basket. Invitations from people he scarcely knew to b.a.l.l.s and dances, others to festivities past and gone. Some few he put in his pocket, and one he sat and stared at as he smoked his cigar.
Luncheon--one o"clock--there was plenty of time; and Louisa Marchioness of Broadway was the most amusing old lady in town. An old friend of his father"s, too, though that wasn"t in her favour. Still she was interested in the family, and had always been particularly kind to him.
An hour later, therefore, he sat waiting his hostess" appearance in the tiny drawing-room of one of that row of tiny houses which, till a very few years ago, stood back from Knightsbridge Road, separated from it by a tiny secluded carriage-drive of their own and opening out with little narrow strips of back gardens to the park. He was seated at the window, but it seemed to him as if he were close to the roaring fire; indeed, all things were close to each other in the small room where the big, central, mid-Victorian table, with its broidered tablecloth, solitary vase of flowers, and besprinkling books of beauty seemed to monopolise all s.p.a.ce. One of these same books of beauty lay open at a simpering bottlenecked portrait subscribed in a fine feminine hand, "Louisa Broadway." It always did; the servant had orders to that effect.
"_a la bonheur, monsieur!_" came a voice from the door. It was the most ancient thing about Louisa Marchioness of Broadway. All else was open to manipulation and the manipulation was good. She did not, however, dye her hair. Spiteful folk said it was because powder had been the fashion when she was in the heyday of her beauty; but she was a very clever lady, and doubtless she realised how much more real a make-up seems when toned to white hair than to dark. As it was, the effect was still charming, and her figure was that of a girl of eighteen.
"_A moi l"honneur_," quoth Marmaduke gallantly, as he advanced to kiss the old lady"s outstretched hand and lead her to a chair.
In a certain set at that time there was a fashion for interpolating French into English--one of the signs of the coming war which was darkening the horizon of Europe.
So they sat and talked lightly of it, and of the Prince Consort"s unpopularity, and the coming opening of the King"s new Royal Palace of Westminster, which are now, forgetfully and conveniently, called the Houses of Parliament, until luncheon was announced, and Marmaduke had to pilot his hostess down the narrow stairs--a difficult task which he felt would have been far easier had he carried her. And with the thought came in a rush that delight in freedom, that fresh enjoyment of the unconventional, which always made him remember Marrion Paul. It sobered him a little and he talked with more effort. Not that it mattered, since his hostess was all sparkle and wit. And the luncheon itself was everything that could be desired. Marmaduke, a bit of an epicure in personal matters, found the snug little horse-shoe table, with its curve to the fire so that you could feel the warmth while you looked out of the window, very conducive to comfort, for you sat undisturbed by servings behind you. All that went on in front, and you could see what was handed to you without fear of ricking your neck or getting the gravy spilt over your clothes. The _menu_, too, if spa.r.s.e, was super-excellent. In her youth Louisa Broadway had been Amba.s.sadress at various European Courts; she was a _gourmet_ of distinction, so it was quite a complacent Marmaduke who at her invitation, after the servant left the room, turned his chair to the fire and joined his hostess in a gla.s.s of Madeira.
"And now for business," she said, while her face took on a new expression which obscured the paint and the prettiness, and left it wise yet kindly--wise with the wisdom of a worldly old age. "Now, you don"t suppose, do you, young man, that I asked you here to give you a good lunch--you"ll admit you have had one, I presume--and talk to you about things that don"t really matter a bra.s.s farthing to either of us? For what do you care about the Houses of Parliament, and what do I care about scandals--I have had plenty--_de trop_, in fact! No, I brought you here to introduce you to my grand-niece--Sibthorpe"s youngest daughter. She will be here immediately, and I want you to marry her."
"Really, Lady Broadway!" fl.u.s.tered Marmaduke.
"Rather crude, I admit," continued his hostess, "but I object to beating about the bush, especially when I want to get inside. The fact is, Marmaduke, I have heard from your father----"
"It is good of you to read his letters; they are not----" began the son stiffly.
"Don"t be silly, my dear lad," went on the old woman, "your father has his faults, but he was quite as good-looking as a young man as you are--at any rate, I thought so. Now, he wants you to marry, and he has every reason to wish it. It is the only chance of an heir to the t.i.tle, for Peter"s last escapade has about finished his hopes in that quarter."
"I can"t discuss----" began Marmaduke very stiff.
"Oh, yes, you can!" went on the old lady imperturbably. "We are _en pet.i.t comite_, and I"ll confess to being old, very old, old enough to be your great-grandmother. Now, Marmaduke, a great-great-grandmother--did I put in the two greats the first time?--can talk over things more sensibly than even a great-great-grandfather. You see, my dear, she has pa.s.sed through it all and left it all behind her. And so, my dear child--I nursed you as a baby, remember--why don"t you marry? Or perhaps you are married already?"
There was an exquisite lightness of raillery in the suggestion which absolutely barred offence, and there was kindness in the keen old eyes. Nevertheless, Marmaduke was uncomfortably aware that they took in his sudden flush. She gave him no time for interruption, however, and went on airily--
"For all I know the heir may already be in existence!" Here Marmaduke a.s.serted himself with great dignity. "My dear madam, if I had any children I should acknowledge them!"
Louisa Lady Broadway smiled gently. She had gained one piece of knowledge, anyhow. The obstruction, if there was one, was a childless wife.