She plucks a spray of roses from the open window behind her, as she sits on the great oak dresser, and shreds the delicate red petals all over the lap of her gown.
"Listen to me, Miss Honor, and cease your funning! This is no time to laugh and jest at a warning that comes from the saints themselves! That the masther is in danger of his life I know as well as if I saw the very bullet that was to shoot him. The grave was dug deep and broad--and deep and broad it would need to be, save us!--out there on yer own lawn, just forenent the drawing-room windies!"
She has left her ironing-table and come close up to the girl, her face--a delicate-featured face, peasant as she is--rigid with intense feeling, her eyes shining, her upraised hand tremulous.
"Oh, Miss Honor darlint, shure he"d follow you to the ends of the world! Take him away from this till the bad feeling has time to cool down. Things will right themselves, never fear--the old times will come round again; but, if the masther stays on at Donaghmore, he"ll never live to enjoy them."
"But if he will not go away?" says Honor, a tone of anxiety in her voice. "You know how obstinate he is; and that letter from Dublin about landlords running away from their posts has upset him dreadfully. Oh, no, Aileen, he"ll never leave Donaghmore!"
"Then the saints purtect him!" Aileen answers tremulously. "But as sure as my name is Aileen Walsh harm will come of it!"
CHAPTER III.
"As sure as my name is Aileen Walsh harm will come of it!"
The words haunt Honor. They ring in her ears night and day, and spoil many hour"s innocent pleasure for her.
But what harm can come? she asks herself. The country is quiet enough now to all appearance, though more than once, in the dusk, she has heard the shrill signal whistle pealing from hill to hill or dying away over the melancholy bog.
Of Power Magill she sees but little. He is now cold and absent, and so unlike himself that it is more a pain than a pleasure to be with him.
Brian Beresford she does not see at all. He has written to her father more than once since his abrupt departure, but she has not even seen his letters.
The squire blames her openly for snubbing "as decent a fellow as ever stepped in shoe-leather," and Launce stings her with covert hints to the same effect. It is all very miserable, but the girl bears it bravely. She must suffer, but she need make no sign. Even Launce"s keen eyes are deceived at last, and he tells Belle Delorme that they have been on the wrong scent altogether.
"Honor never cared a b.u.t.ton for the fellow--she never cared for any one but Power Magill, and never will, and that"s the truth! So you see what a faithful family you are marrying into, my dear!"
But Belle only shakes her pretty head.
"She takes it a deal too easy to please me. I"d rather she would fret a bit. Sure it would only be natural! But the loss of a man like that out of a dull country house is something worth fretting about."
"You don"t know Honor," Launce answers oracularly. "She"s not the girl to lose her heart in a fortnight or three weeks" time to the best man breathing."
"I"m not saying a word about her heart, Launce; but I do say he took a mighty strong hold on her fancy."
"You think that she loves him, then?"
"I think she would if he"d give her the chance," the girl answers, smiling.
"What a queer little creature you are!" her lover says, looking at her with amused yet wondering eyes. "How on earth did you find it all out?
I"ll vow Honor never spoke a word to you about it."
"How do I know that the sun is shining or that there is clover in that meadow? Haven"t I my senses like other people?"
So they pa.s.s on their way, laughing and happy; and the man coming out from the shelter of the larch-wood, which here borders the high-road, looks after them with a frown, and a word that is certainly not a blessing on his bearded lips.
"It"s not your fault," he says to himself bitterly, as he watches the two sauntering along in the yellow sunlight, "that she cares for Power Magill, or that she ever cared for him, for that matter."
As he stands there in his well-worn shooting-coat, although he is dressed little better than one of his own keepers, no one could mistake him for other than a gentleman. He is a handsome man, with keen hazel eyes set far back under brows as dark as a Spaniard"s, but his face, for all its comeliness, is almost forbidding in its sternness.
Turning off the road now, he makes his way across a field and down some rude stone steps to the bank of the river.
A little house stands here, nestling against the rocky bank. The old door hangs off its hinges, the one small-paned window is stuffed with rags.
Power Magill stoops as he enters the poor place, and his eyes, dazzled by the sunlight outside, look round the room in a vain search. He can see no one; a girl rises from a low stool by the hearth, where she has been coaxing a smoldering turf to light, and comes forward.
"Is your father in, Patsy?"
"He is not, your honor. He went to Derry to-day with one of Neil"s foals, and he will not be home till the morning!"
"And your brother--where is he?"
"I can"t rightly say, your honor! Maybe he is gone to the bog to----"
But he stops her, frowning impatiently.
"Tell them both that I came here for them. Say no more than that--they will understand."
Then he strikes out, glad to breathe the fresh air after that tainted atmosphere. The girl walks cautiously to the door and looks after him.
She is barefooted, and on the earth floor her tread makes no sound.
"Heaven forgive yez!" she says almost fiercely. "The innocent creatures never hurt man nor beast till yez came with your foine tongue and your yellow guineas, tempting and ruining "em! But I"ll be even with yez yet!"
From this fetid little cabin on the river"s side a brisk walk of ten minutes brings Power Magill to the gates of Donaghmore. As he pa.s.ses up the drive he stops and turns aside for an instant to look at the ruins of the old Abbey, standing grim and cold and gray in the yellow sunshine.
The refectory is still standing, its three windows looking toward the stone house on the hill. There is a low arched gateway, but the gate is gone, and beyond in the great quadrangle the stones lie as they have fallen.
"What a.s.ses we are, the best of us!" Power Magill says grimly, as he looks at this relic of a dead man"s wealth and power.
The old abbot--buried, so say the traditions of the family, under the ruins of the pile that he reared with such pride and vainglory--never lived to enjoy his riches. Twice he built the house, and twice it was destroyed; the first time partially, and by fire, the second time utterly. "For," so the story goes, "a wind rose in the night, and swept the great stones one from another, leaving the place as it is to this day." No Blake has ever been bold enough to rebuild it.
As Power Magill pa.s.ses into the quadrangle, an owl flies out of the ivy, and sweeps so close before his face that he draws back, startled.
The bird"s cry is caught up and echoed round the empty s.p.a.ces, till it seems as if the place must be full of mocking spirits. With a frown he turns and retraces his steps, never pausing to look back till he has gained the steps on Donaghmore. A dark cloud has obscured the sun, and the whole pile lies in the shadow.
Superst.i.tious under all his cynicism, Power Magill shudders.
"It is an omen," he says: and the next moment the heavy door behind him swings open, and Honor stands on the threshold.
Her cheeks flush, her eyes brighten at the sight of him.
"Oh, Power," she says, with a ring of pleasure in her voice, "I was just longing to see you! I want to talk to you," she adds, coming down the steps and slipping her hand within his arm; "and we can talk best out-of-doors."
They go together across the lawn, and through a small green door into a high-walled garden, richly stocked with old-fashioned flowers.
"Another letter came this morning, Power--such a dreadful letter, worse than all the rest!--and last night Launce"s bay mare was shot through the head. He is in an awful way about it, so is the _pater_. They have gone to Drum now to tell the police."
She is looking at him as she says this; and the cruel expression in his eyes and the mocking smile that stirs his lips make her heart beat with something like fear.