"Because I love Lambert and I want to marry him."
"Marry him," said the millionaire hoa.r.s.ely, "and I"ll give you thousands of pounds. Oh! I forgot that you have a large income. But marry him, marry him, Miss Greeby. I shall help you all I can."
"I can do without a.s.sistance," said the woman coolly. "All I ask you to do is to refrain from fighting with Lambert."
"What?" Pine"s face became lowering again. "Is he at The Manor? You said--"
"I know what I said. He is not at The Manor, but he is stopping in the cottage a stone"s throw from here."
Pine breathed hard, and again had a spasm of coughing. "What"s he doing?"
"Painting pictures."
"He has not been near The Manor?"
"No. And what is more, he told me to-day that he did not intend to go near the house. I don"t think you need be afraid, Pine. Lambert is a man of honor, and I hope to get him to be my husband."
"He shall never be my wife"s husband," said the millionaire between his teeth and scowling heavily. "I know that I shan"t live to anything like three score and ten. Your infernal hot-house civilization has killed me.
But if Lambert thinks to marry my widow he shall do so in the face of Garvington"s opposition, and will find Agnes a pauper."
"What do you mean exactly?" Miss Greeby flung away the stump of her cigarette and rose to her feet.
Pine wiped his brow and breathed heavily. "I mean that I have left Agnes my money, only on condition that she does _not_ marry Lambert. She can marry any one else she has a mind to. I except her cousin."
"Because she loves him?"
"Yes, and because he loves her, d--n him."
"He doesn"t," cried Miss Greeby, lying fluently, and heartily wishing that her lie could be a truth. "He loves me, and I intend to marry him.
Now you can understand what I meant when I declared that I had honor enough to keep your secret. Lambert is my honor."
"Oh, then I believe in your honor," sneered Pine cynically. "It is a selfish quality in this case, which can only be gratified by preserving silence. If Agnes knew that I was a true Romany tramp, she might run away with Lambert, and as you want him to be your husband, it is to your interest to hold your tongue. Thank you for nothing, Miss Greeby."
"I tell you Lambert loves me," cried the woman doggedly, trying to persuade her heart that she spoke truly. "And whether you leave your money to your wife, or to any one else, makes no manner of difference."
"I think otherwise," he retorted. "And it is just as well to be on the safe side. If my widow marries Lambert, she loses my millions, and they go to--" He checked himself abruptly. "Never mind who gets them. It is a person in whom you can take no manner of interest."
Miss Greeby pushed the point of her bludgeon into the spongy ground, and looked thoughtful. "If Lambert loves Agnes still, which I don"t believe," she observed, after a pause, "he would marry her even if she hadn"t a shilling. Your will excluding him as her second husband is merely the twisting of a rope of sand, Pine."
"You forget," said the man quickly, "that I declared also, he would have to marry her in the face of Garvington"s opposition."
"In what way?"
"Can"t you guess? Garvington only allowed me to marry his sister because I am a wealthy man. I absolutely bought my wife by helping him, and she gave herself to me without love to save the family name from disgrace.
She is a good woman, is Agnes, and always places duty before inclination. Marriage with her pauper cousin meant practically the social extinction of the Lambert family, and nothing would have remained but the t.i.tle. Therefore she married me, and I felt mean at the time in accepting the sacrifice. But I was so deeply in love with her that I did so. I love her still, and I am mean enough still to be jealous of this cousin. She shall never marry him, and I know that Garvington will appeal to his sister"s strong desire to save the family once more; so that she may not be foolish enough to lose the money. And two millions, more or less," ended Pine cynically, "is too large a sum to pay for a second husband."
"Does Agnes know these conditions?"
"No. Nor do I intend that she should know. You hold your tongue."
Miss Greeby pulled on her heavy gloves and nodded. "I told you that I had some notion of honor. Will you let Lambert know that you are in this neighborhood?"
"No. There is no need. I am stopping here only for a time to see a certain person. Silver will look after Agnes, and is coming to the camp to report upon what he has observed."
"Silver then knows that you are Ishmael Hearne?"
"Yes. He knows all my secrets, and I can trust him thoroughly, since he owes everything to me."
Miss Greeby laughed scornfully. "That a man of your age and experience should believe in grat.i.tude. Well, it"s no business of mine. You may be certain that for my own purpose I shall hold my tongue and shall keep Lambert from seeking your wife. Not that he loves her," she added hastily, as Pine"s brows again drew together. "But she loves him, and may use her arts--"
"Don"t you dare to speak of arts in connection with my wife," broke in the man roughly. "She is no coquette, and I trust her--"
"So long as Silver looks after her," finished Miss Greeby contemptuously. "What chivalrous confidence. Well, I must be going. Any message to your--"
"No! No! No!" broke in Pine once more. "She is not to know that I am here, or anything about my true position and name. You promised, and you will keep your promise. But there, I know that you will, as self-interest will make you."
"Ah, now you talk common sense. It is a pity you don"t bring it to bear in the case of Silver, whom you trust because you have benefited him.
Good-day, you very unsophisticated person. I shall see you again--"
"In London as Hubert Pine," said the millionaire abruptly, and Miss Greeby, with a good-humored shrug, marched away, swinging her stick and whistling gayly. She was very well satisfied with the knowledge she had obtained, as the chances were that it would prove useful should Lambert still hanker after the unattainable woman. Miss Greeby had lulled Pine"s suspicions regarding the young man"s love for Agnes, but she knew in her heart that she had only done so by telling a pack of miserable lies.
Now, as she walked back to The Manor, she reflected that by using her secret information dexterously, she might improve such falsehood into tolerable truth.
Pine flung himself down again when she departed, and coughed in his usual violent manner. His throat and lungs ached, and his brow was wet with perspiration. With his elbows on his knees and his face between his hands, he sat miserably thinking over his troubles. There was no chance of his living more than a few years, as the best doctors in Europe and England had given him up, and when he was placed below ground, the chances were that Agnes would marry his rival. He had made things as safe as was possible against such a contingency, but who knew if her love for Lambert might not make her willing to surrender the millions.
"Unless Garvington can manage to arouse her family pride," groaned Pine drearily. "She sacrificed herself before for that, and perhaps she will do so again. But who knows?" And he could find no answer to this question, since it is impossible for any man to say what a woman will do where her deepest emotions are concerned.
A touch on Pine"s shoulder made him leap to his feet with the alertness of a wild animal on the lookout for danger. By his side stood Chaldea, and her eyes glittered, as she came to the point of explanation without any preamble. The girl was painfully direct. "I have heard every word,"
she said triumphantly. "And I know what you are, brother."
"Why did you come here?" demanded Pine sharply, and frowning.
"I wanted to hear what a Romany had to do with a Gorgio lady, brother.
And what do I hear. Why, that you dwell in the Gentile houses, and take a Gentile name, and cheat in a Gentile manner, and have wed with a Gentile romi. Speaking Romanly, brother, it is not well."
"It is as I choose, sister," replied Pine quietly, for since Chaldea had got the better of him, it was useless to quarrel with her. "And from what I do good will come to our people."
Chaldea laughed, and blew from her fingers a feather, carelessly picked up while in the thicket which had concealed her eavesdropping. "For that, I care that," said she, pointing to the floating feather slowly settling. "I looks to myself and to my love, brother."
"Hey?" Pine raised his eyebrows.
"It"s a Gorgio my heart is set on," pursued Chaldea steadfastly. "A regular Romany Rye, brother. Do you think Lambert is a good name?"
"It"s the name of the devil, sister," cried Pine hastily.
"The very devil I love. To me sweet, as to you sour. And speaking Romanly, brother, I want him to be my rom in the Gentile fashion, as you have a romi in your Gorgious lady."
"What will Kara say?" said Pine, and his eyes flashed, for the idea of getting rid of Lambert in this way appealed to him. The girl was beautiful, and with her added cleverness she might be able to gain her ends, and these accomplished, would certainly place a barrier between Agnes and her cousin, since the woman would never forgive the man for preferring the girl.
"Kara plays on the fiddle, but not on my heart-strings," said Chaldea in a cool manner, and watched Pine wickedly. "You"d better help me, brother, if you don"t want that Gorgious romi of yours to pad the hoof with the rye."