"I sha"n"t forget the jolly time I"ve had with you, and shall hope to meet you again when you come to town. You are inclined to treat me with severity, but I a.s.sure you that if you intend to treat every man severely, merely because he proposes, you have set yourself a task which would have been too much for the strength of Hercules."
His lordship returned then and there to London. On the road he sent a telegram to his mother which contained these two words only: "Been refused."
On her part, Miss Arnott did not at once return to the house. She chose instead a winding path which led to a certain woodland glade which she had already learned to love. There, amidst the trees, the bushes, the gorse, the wild flowers, the tall gra.s.ses and the bracken, she could enjoy solitary communion with her own thoughts. Just then she had plenty to think about. There was not only Lord Peckham"s strange conduct, there was also his parting words.
Her knowledge of the world was very scanty, especially of that sort of world in which she so suddenly found herself. But she was a girl of quick intuitions; and already she had noticed a something in the demeanour of some of the masculine acquaintances she had made which she had not altogether relished. Could what Lord Peckham had said be true?
Would every man who came within reach of her try his luck--in a certain sense? If so, a most unpleasant prospect was in store for her. There was one way out of the difficulty. She had only to announce that she was a married woman and that sort of persecution would cease at once.
She doubted, however, if the remedy would not be worse than the disease. She had grown to regard her matrimonial fetters with such loathing, that, rather than acknowledge, voluntarily, that she was bound about by them, and admit that her husband was an unspeakable creature in a felon"s cell, she believed that she was ready to endure anything. Certainly she would sooner reject a dozen men a day.
She came to the woodland glade she sought. It so chanced that the particular nook which she had learned, from experience, was the best to recline in was just on the other side of a rough fence. She crossed the fence, reclined at her ease on the mossy bank; and thought, and thought, and thought. On a sudden she was roused from her deepest day-dream by a voice which addressed to her an inquiry from above,--
"Are you trespa.s.sing--or am I?"
CHAPTER V
TRESPa.s.sING
She looked up with a start--to find that a man was observing her who seemed to be unusually tall. She lay in a hollow, he stood on the top of the bank; so that perhaps their relative positions tended to exaggerate his apparent inches. But that he was tall was beyond a doubt. He was also broad. Her first feeling was, that she had never seen a man who was at once so tall and so broad across the shoulders.
He was rather untidily dressed--in a grey tweed knickerbocker suit, with a Norfolk jacket, and a huge cap which was crammed right down on his head. He wore a flannel shirt, and a dark blue knitted tie, which was tied in a scrambling sailor"s knot. Both hands were in the pockets of his jacket, which was wide open; and, altogether, the impression was conveyed to her, as she lay so far beneath him, that he was of a monstrous size.
It struck her that his being where he was was an impertinence, which was rendered much greater by his venturing to address her; especially with such an inquiry. Merely raising herself on her elbow, she favoured him with a glance which was intended to crush him.
"There can be no doubt as to who is trespa.s.sing as you must be perfectly well aware--you are."
"I quite agree with you in thinking that there can be no doubt as to who is trespa.s.sing; but there, unfortunately, our agreement ends, because, as it happens, you are."
"Do you suppose that I don"t know which is my own property? I am Miss Arnott, of Exham Park--this is part of my ground."
"I fancy, with all possible deference, that I know which is my property better than you appear to know which is yours. I am Hugh Morice, of Oak Dene, and, beyond the slightest shadow of a doubt, the ground on which we both are is mine."
She rose to her feet a little hurriedly.
"What authority have you for what you say? Are you trying to amuse yourself at my expense?"
"Allow me to explain. You see that fence, which is in rather a doddering condition--it forms the boundary line between Exham Park and Oak Dene, a fact which I have a particular reason to remember. Once, before this was my ground, I was shooting in these woods. My bird--it was only a pigeon--dropped on the other side of that fence. I was no better acquainted with the landmarks then than you appear to be now.
Not aware that there was any difference between this side and that, I was scrambling over the fence to retrieve my pigeon when I was pulled up short by some very plain words, p.r.o.nounced in a very plain tone of voice. I won"t tell you what the words were, because you might like them even less than I did. I looked up; and there was an old gentleman, who was flanked by two persons who were evidently keepers. He was one of the most eloquent old gentlemen I had ever met. He commenced by wanting to know what I meant by being about to defile his ground by the intrusion of my person. I replied that I wasn"t aware that it was his ground, and that I wanted my pigeon. He asked me who I was. When I told him he informed me that he was Septimus Arnott, and desired me to inform all persons bearing my name what he thought of them. He thought a good deal--in a sense. He wound up by remarking that he would instruct his keepers, if ever they caught me on the wrong side of that fence, to put a charge of lead into me at sight. Towards the end of the interview I was as genially disposed as he was; so I retorted by a.s.suring him that if ever I caught anyone from Exham Park on this side, I"d do the honours with a charge of lead. This is the exact spot on which that interview took place--he was there and I here. But the circ.u.mstances have changed--it is Exham Park who is now the trespa.s.ser.
Shall I put a charge of lead into you?"
"By all means--if you wish to."
"I am not quite sure that I do wish to."
"If you have the slightest inclination in that direction, pray don"t hesitate."
"You mightn"t like it."
"Don"t consider my feelings, I beg. In such a matter surely you wouldn"t allow my feelings to count."
"No? You think not? I don"t know. Perhaps you"re right; but, you see, I haven"t a gun. I can"t put charges of lead into anything, or anyone, without one.
"Pray don"t let any trifling obstacle of that kind stand in your way.
Permit me to send for one."
"Would you? You"re very good. Who would you send?"
"Of course I would myself fetch you the indispensable weapon."
"And how long would you be, do you imagine? Should I have time to smoke a pipe while you were going there and back?"
Suddenly the lady drew herself up with a gesture which was possibly meant to be expressive of a judicious mingling of scorn with hauteur.
"It is possible, if you prefer it. I will admit that it is probable that my uncle was rude to you. Do you intend to continue the tradition, and be rude to me?"
"I was simply telling you a little anecdote, Miss Arnott."
"I am obliged to you for taking so much trouble. Now, with your permission, I will return to what you state to be my side of the fence."
"I state? Don"t you state that that side of the fence is yours?"
"My impression was that both sides were mine. I will have the matter carefully inquired into. If your statement proves to be correct I will see that a communication is sent to you, conveying my apologies for having been an unwitting trespa.s.ser on your estate."
"Thank you. Can I lift you over?"
"Lift me over!"
The air of red-hot indignation with which his proposition was declined ought to have scorched him. It seemed, however, to have no effect on him of any sort. He continued to regard her from the top of the bank, with an air of indolent nonchalance, which was rapidly driving her to the conclusion that he was the most insolent person she had ever encountered. With a view, possibly, of showing the full absurdity of his offer of a.s.sistance, she placed both hands on the top of the fence, with the intention of vaulting over it. The intention was only partially fulfilled. During her wanderings with her father among their c.u.mberland hills she had become skilled in all manner of athletic exercises. Ordinarily she would have thought nothing of vaulting--or, for the matter of that, jumping--an insignificant fence. Perhaps her nervous system was more disorganised than she imagined. She caught her knee against the bar, and, instead of alighting gracefully on her feet, she rolled ignominiously over. She was up almost as soon as she was down, but not before he had cleared the fence at a bound, and was standing at her side. She exhibited no sign of grat.i.tude for the rapidity with which he had come to her a.s.sistance. She merely put to him an icy question,--
"Was it necessary that you should trespa.s.s also?"
"Are you sure that you are not hurt? ankle not twisted, or anything of that kind?"
"Quite sure. Be so good as to return to your own side."
As he seemed to hesitate, a voice exclaimed, in husky tones,--
"By----, I"ve a mind to shoot you now."
He turned to see a man, between forty and fifty years of age, in the unmistakable habiliments of a gamekeeper, standing some twenty feet off, holding a gun in a fashion which suggested that it would need very little to induce him to put it to his shoulder and pull the trigger.
Hugh Morice greeted him as if he were an old acquaintance.
"Hullo, Jim Baker! So you"re still in the land of the living?"
Mr Baker displayed something more than surliness in his reply.
"So are you, worse luck! What are you doing here? Didn"t Mr Arnott tell me if I saw you on our land to let fly, and pepper you?"