"Quite so."
"Of course, whether you return to Rhodesia or remain here is a matter of complete indifference to me."
"Precisely."
"But, should you elect to stay, you will be so good as to understand that, if you do call at Exham Park, you will be told that I am not at home. Good afternoon, Mr Morice, and good-bye."
"Good-bye, Miss Arnott. I had a sort of premonition that those orders would be re-issued, and that I should be shot if I was seen this side."
She had already gone some distance; but, on hearing this, stopping, she turned towards him again.
"Possibly if we raise the fence to a sufficient height, that will keep you out."
"Oh, I can scale any fence. No fence was ever constructed that I couldn"t negotiate. You"ll have to shoot."
"Shall we? We shall see."
"We shall--Miss Arnott?"
She stopped again.
"What is it you wish to say to me?"
"Merely that I have in my mind some half-formed intention to call on you to-morrow."
"You dare!"
"You have no notion what I do dare."
This time she was not tempted to a further rejoinder. He watched her as, straight as a dart, her head in the air, striding along the winding path, she vanished among the trees. He ruminated after she had gone,--
"She"s splendid! she magnificent! How she holds herself, and how she looks at you, and what eyes they are with which to look. I never saw anything like her, and I hope, for her own sake, she never saw anything like me. What a brute she must think me, and what a brute I am. I don"t care; there"s something about her which sets all my blood on fire, which rouses in me the instinct of the hunter. I wish old Baker would come along just now; gun or no gun, we"d have a pretty little argument.
It might do me good. There"s no doubt that what I said was true--the girl has her uncle"s temper, if I"ve my uncle"s manners; as I"m a sinful man I"ve as good as half a mind to marry her."
The lady was unconscious of the compliments which, mentally, the gentleman was paying her. When, returning home, she entered the apartment where Mrs Plummer, apparently just roused from a peaceful doze, was waiting for her tea, she was in a flame of pa.s.sion.
"I have just left the most unendurable person I ever yet encountered, the most ill-mannered, the most clumsy, the most cowardly, the most stupid, the most absurd, the most unspeakable!"
"My dear! who is this very superlative individual? what is his delightful name?"
"His name!" For some occult reason Mrs Plummer"s, under the circ.u.mstances, mild request, seemed to cause her pa.s.sion to flame up higher. "What do I care what his name is? So far as I am concerned such a creature has no name!"
CHAPTER VI
AN AUTHORITY ON THE LAW OF MARRIAGE
The next day Mr Hugh Morice fulfilled his threat--he paid his ceremonial call at Exham Park. The word "ceremonial" is used advisedly, since nothing could have been more formal and decorous than his demeanour throughout.
Miss Arnott and Mrs Plummer happened to be entertaining four or five people that afternoon, among them a Mr Pyecroft, a curate attached to one of Miss Arnott"s three livings. He was favouring that lady with a graphic account of the difficulties encountered in endeavouring, in a country place, to arouse interest on any subject whatever, and was ill.u.s.trating the position by describing the disappointments he had met with in the course of an attempt he had made to organise a series of local entertainments in aid of a new church organ, when his listener suddenly became conscious that a person had just entered the room, who, if she could believe her eyes, was none other than the unspeakable individual of the previous day. Not only was it unmistakably he, but he was actually--with an air of complete self-possession--marching straight across the room towards her. When he stood in front of her, he bowed and said,--
"Permit me, Miss Arnott, to introduce myself to you. I am Hugh Morice, of Oak Dene, which, as you are probably aware, adjoins Exham Park. I only arrived two days ago, and, so soon as I learned that I was honoured by having you as a neighbour, I ventured to lose no time in--with your permission--making myself known to you."
Miss Arnott looked at him with an expression on her countenance which was hardly encouraging. His own a.s.surance was so perfect that it deprived her, for the moment, of her presence of mind. He wore a suit of dark blue serge, which made him seem huger even than he had done the day before. In the presence of Mr Pyecroft, and of the other people, she could scarcely a.s.sail this smiling giant, and remind him, pointedly, that she had forbidden him to call. Some sort of explanation would have to be forthcoming, and it was exactly an explanation which she desired to avoid. Observing that she seemed tongue-tied, the visitor continued,--
"I have been so long a wanderer among savages that I have almost forgotten the teachings of my guide to good manners. I am quite unaware, for example, what, as regards calling, is the correct etiquette on an occasion when an unmarried man finds himself the next-door neighbour to an unmarried lady. As I could hardly expect you to call upon me I dared to take the initiative. What I feared most was that I might not find you in."
The invitation was so obvious that the lady at once accepted it.
"It is only by the merest accident that you have done so."
Mr Morice was equal to the occasion. "I fancy, Miss Arnott, that for some of the happiest hours of our lives we are indebted to accidents.
Ah, Pyecroft, so you have not deserted us."
Mr Morice shook hands with Mr Pyecroft--Miss Arnott thought they looked a most incongruous couple--with an air of old comradeship, and presently was exchanging greetings with others of those present with a degree of heartiness which, to his hostess, made it seem impossible that she should have him shown the door. When all the other visitors had gone--including the unspeakable man--she found, to her amazement, that he had made a most favourable impression on Mrs Plummer. That lady began almost as soon as his back was turned.
"What a delightful person Mr Morice is." Miss Arnott was so taken by surprise that she could do nothing but stare. Mrs Plummer went placidly on, "It is nice to be able just to look at him, the mere sight of him"s a satisfaction. To a little woman the idea of a man of his size is such a comfort."
The young lady"s manner was not effusive.
"We"re not all of us fond of monstrosities."
"Monstrosities! my dear! He"s not a monstrosity, he"s a perfect figure of a man, magnificently proportioned. You must admit that."
"I don"t."
"And then his manners are so charming."
"They never struck me like that."
"No? I suppose one judges people as one finds them. I know he was particularly nice to me. By the way, that dreadful person you spoke of yesterday, you might tell me what his name is, so that I might be on my guard against him, should our paths happen to cross."
"I repeat what I have already told you that, so far as I am concerned, he has no name; and anyhow, you wouldn"t recognise him from my description if you did meet."
It was odd, considering how much Miss Arnott disliked Mr Morice, how frequently he was destined to come, at anyrate, within her line of vision. And yet, perhaps, it was natural--because, although their houses were a couple of miles apart, their estates joined--they were neighbours. And then Miss Arnott was inclined to suspect that the gentleman went out of his way to bring about a meeting. Situated as they were, it was not a difficult thing to do.
To a certain extent, the lady had accepted the position. That is, she had allowed the acquaintance to continue; being, indeed, more than half disposed to fear that she might not find it easy to refuse to know him altogether. But she had been careful to avoid any reference to that curious first encounter. He, on his part, had shown no disposition to allude to it. So there grew up between them a sort of casual intimacy.
They saw each other often. When he spoke to her she spoke to him, though never at any greater length than, as it seemed to her, she could help.
With the lessons she had received from the Earl of Peckham still fresh in her mind she bought herself a motor car; almost simultaneously with its appearance on the scene her relations with Hugh Morice began to be on a friendlier footing. She was sitting in it one day, talking to the lodge-keeper, when Mr Morice came striding by. At sight of it he at once approached.
"That"s a strange beast."
She had become somewhat accustomed to his odd tricks of speech, and merely smiled a wintry smile.