Ruth was smiling. She could not think it difficult to keep a secret that seemed to her far too sweet and precious for the coa.r.s.er sympathy of the world. The sacredness of her marriage was rendered more profound by the silence that sanctified it to her mind.
But now the carriage stopped, and the driver was heard getting down from the box. Hurst looked out.
They were in a village through which the railroad pa.s.sed--not the one they had stopped at. They had been taken above that by a short route from the church, which the driver had chosen without consultation.
"So soon! Surely we are in the wrong place," said Hurst, impatient that his happiness should be broken in upon.
"You seemed particular about meeting the down train, sir, and I came the nearest way. It is due in five minutes," answered the man, touching his hat.
There was no time for expostulation or regret. In fact, the man had acted wisely, if "Norston"s Rest" was to be reached in time to save suspicion. So the newly-married pair separated with a hurried hand-clasp, each took a separate carriage, and glided safely into dreamland, as the train flew across the country at the rate of fifty miles an hour.
CHAPTER XV.
THE LADY ROSE.
"Norston"s Rest" was brilliantly lighted, for a dinner-party had a.s.sembled, when its heir drove up in his dog-cart that night, and leaping out, threw his reins to the groom, with some hasty directions about to-morrow. It was near the dinner hour, and several fair guests were lingering on the broad, stone terrace, or shaded by the silken and lace curtains of the drawing-room, watching for his return with that pretence of graceful indifference with which habits of society veil the deepest feeling.
One fair creature retreated from the terrace, with a handful of flowers which she had gathered hastily from a stone vase, and carried away when the first sound of wheels reached her; but she lingered in a little room that opened from the great hall, and seemed to be arranging her flowers with diligence in a vase that stood on a small malachite table, when young Hurst came in.
Unconsciously, and against her own proud will, she lifted her face from the flowers, and cast an eager glance into the hall, wondering in her heart if he would care to seek her for a moment before he went up to dress.
The young man saw her standing there quite alone, sweet and bright as the flowers she was arranging, and paused a moment, after drawing off his gloves; but he turned away and went up the broad, oaken staircase, with the thoughts of another face, dark, piquant, and more wildly beautiful, all bathed in blushes, too vividly in his mind for any other human features to throw even a shadow there.
The Lady Rose dropped a branch of heliotrope and a moss-rosebud, which had for one instant trembled in her hand, as Hurst pa.s.sed the door, and trod upon them with a sharp feeling of disappointment.
"He knew that I was alone," she muttered, "and pa.s.sed on without a word. He saw the flowers that he loves best in my hand, but would not claim them."
Tears, hot, pa.s.sionate tears, stood in the lady"s eyes, and her white teeth met sharply for a moment, as if grinding some bitter thing between them; but when Hurst came down-stairs, fully dressed, he found her in the drawing-room, with a richer bloom than usual on her cheeks, and the frost-like lace, which fell in a little cloud over the soft blue of her dress, just quivering with the agitation she had made so brave an effort to suppress.
As young Hurst came into the drawing-room, Sir Noel, who had been talking to a guest, came forward in the calm way habitual to his cla.s.s, and addressed his son with something very like to a reproof.
"We have almost waited," he said, glancing at the young lady as the person most aggrieved. "In fact, the dinner has been put back."
The old man"s voice was gentle and his manners suave; but there was a reserved undertone in his speech that warned the young heir of a deeper meaning than either was intended to suggest.
Hurst only bowed for answer.
"Now that he has come," the baronet added, smiling graciously on the young lady, but turning away from his son, "perhaps we shall not be entirely unforgiving."
Walton Hurst made no apology, however, but offered his arm to Lady Rose, and followed his father"s lead into the dining-room.
It was a s.p.a.cious apartment, brilliantly illuminated with gas and wax lights, which found a rich reflection from buffets loaded with plate, and a table on which gold, silver, and rare old gla.s.s gleamed and flashed through ma.s.ses of hot-house flowers. A slow rustle of silken trains sweeping the floor, a slight confusion, and the party was seated.
During the first course Lady Rose was restless and piqued. She found the person at her side so thoughtful that a feeling of wounded pride seized upon her, and gave to her manner an air of graceful defiance that at last drew his attention.
So Hurst broke from the dreaminess of his love reverie and plunged into the gay conversation about him. Spite of himself the triumphant gladness of his heart burst forth, and in the glow of his own joy he met the half-shy, half-playful attentions of the high-bred creature by his side with a degree of brilliant animation which brought new bloom to her cheeks, and a smile of contentment to the lips of the proud old man at the head of the table. This smile deepened into a glow of entire satisfaction when the gentlemen were left to their wine; for then young Hurst made an excuse to his father, and, as the latter thought, followed the ladies into the drawing-room.
Deep drinking at dinner-parties is no longer a practice in England, as it may have been years ago. Thus it was not many minutes before the baronet and his guests came up-stairs to find the ladies gathered in knots about the room, and one, at least, sitting in dissatisfied solitude near a table filled with books of engravings, which she did not care to open; for all her discontent had come back when she thought herself less attractive than the wines of some old vintage, stored before she was born.
"But where is Walton?" questioned the old gentleman, approaching the girl, with a faint show of resentment. "Surely, Lady Rose, I expected to find him at your feet."
"It is a place he seldom seeks," answered the lady, opening one of the books with a.s.sumed carelessness. "If he has left the table, I fancy it must have been him I saw crossing the terrace ten minutes ago."
Sir Noel replied, incredulously:
"Saw him crossing the terrace! There must have been some mistake. I am sure he spoke of going to the drawing-room."
She hesitated.
"He changed his mind, I suppose," she said at last, with a slight but haughty wave of her hand toward a great bay-window that looked out on the park. "I saw his face as he crossed that block of moonlight on the terrace, I am quite sure. Perhaps--"
"Perhaps what, Lady Rose?"
"He has some business at the gardener"s cottage. Old Jessup is a favorite, you know," answered the lady, with a light laugh, in which the old man discovered the bitterness of latent jealousy.
A hot, angry flush suffused the old man"s face; but this was the only sign of anger that he gave. The next instant he was composed as ever, and answered her with seeming indifference.
"Oh, yes, I remember; I had some orders for Jessup, which he was thoughtful enough to take."
The lady smiled again, now with a curve of distrustful scorn on her red lips.
"Perhaps he failed in giving your message earlier, and in his desire to please you has forsaken us."
"Perhaps," was the indifferent reply. Then the old man moved quietly away, and speaking a gracious word here and there, glided out of the room.
Later in the evening, Lady Rose had left her book of engravings, and stood shrouded in the sweeping draperies of the great window, looking out upon the park. Directly she saw the figure of her host gliding across the terrace, which, in that place, seemed flagged with silver, the moonlight lay so full upon it. The next moment he was lost in the blackest shadows of the park.
"He has gone to seek him! Now I shall know the worst," she thought, while quick thrills of hope and dread shot like lances through her frame. "I could not stoop to spy upon him, but a father is different, and, once on the alert, will be implacable."
While these thoughts were in her mind, the girl gave a sudden start, and grasped at the silken curtains, while a faint shivering came over her, that seemed like coming death.
For deep in the woods of the park, where the gardener"s cottage stood, she heard the sharp report of a gun.
"Great Heaven! What can it mean?" she cried; clasping her hands. "What can it mean?"
CHAPTER XVI.
ALONE IN THE COTTAGE.
Breathless with apprehension, which was made half joy by an undeniable sense of happiness, all the more intense because it was gained by so much hazard, Ruth Jessup--for she dared not breathe that new name even to herself as yet--reached that remote gate in the park-wall, and darted like a frightened hare into the thick covert of the trees.