"Yes! And you said "By Jove! I wonder if it"s possible----" Then you shut up like an oyster."
"I thought it wouldn"t do to go further, then, and excite you for nothing, maybe. I did promise to tell you afterward, but coming here we had the accident to talk about, and you forgot----"
"Never mind excuses. Tell me now. Had you seen him?"
"I wasn"t quite sure--thought I might have made a mistake. Away back near the door as we came in I caught sight of a chap who reminded me of March. But I never saw him before in London togs, you know, and it was dark in the church, with all that rain coming down outside. I couldn"t tell for certain, it seemed so dashed improbable that he should be there. Even if he was in London, he wouldn"t have been likely to get a card----"
"A card, indeed! Do you think any one with eyes in his head would ask Eagle March to show a _card_?"
"Well, anyhow," Tony defended himself, "why should he want to poke his nose in there? I judged him by the way _I_ should feel, supposing it was you being spliced to some other fellow. I"d sooner be at the North or South Pole than have to watch it done, unless I could bounce out with an impediment why you shouldn"t lawfully be joined together."
"I can think of reasons why a man might--might steel himself to see a woman he"d loved married to another man," I said; though in truth, I couldn"t see distinctly, and I wondered if the day would come when the mystery of Eagle"s presence at Diana"s wedding would clear itself up.
There was just one thing I could count on, though! It would never be from my trying to find out, but only when, and if, Eagle wished me to know. Meanwhile, I trusted him as always, and hardly needed to be told that the man in the back seat at St. George"s hadn"t flaunted himself in a conspicuous position.
"He was wedged in between two women"s hats," Tony went on. "I"d never have spotted him, if I hadn"t been rubber-necking at the crowd, sort of counting scalps. That"s not done by brides and grooms in our cla.s.s of life, so March might have felt as safe as a hermit crab, as far as giving the w.i.l.l.i.e.s to Lady Di or Vand.y.k.e was concerned. But just when I was rubbering, he happened to shove his head forward between hats to squint at you."
"Oh, Tony!" I couldn"t help breaking in. "He was looking at _me_?"
"That"s the way it struck me. But the ladies with the hats were after the same thing, so they closed their ranks in front of March"s nose, and swamped him. That"s why I didn"t get the chance to make sure whether it was he or his double. I rubbered some more, to see, but there was only a ma.s.sed formation of hats where the face had been. There"s nothing like hatpins to drive a man to the wall."
I shivered a little with the same electric thrill which had pa.s.sed through me in church. What a soulless thing I had been not to know, despite a barrier of a hundred hats, by instinct whose eyes had called mine. But Tony was going mildly on.
"That"s all, about the church," he said. "March must have been one of the first to get out, or he wouldn"t have been on the stage in time for the next act. Sounds like a kind of melodrama now, doesn"t it? Act one, scene one, inside St. George"s, Hanover Square; the wedding. Scene two, outside the church door. Only, in a melodrama, the bridegroom would be the hero, and the other fellow the villain. There"s no villain in this play."
"Oh, _isn"t_ there?" I sneered. "We won"t argue the question, though. I suppose the new motor car didn"t come after all, as I hear things about runaway horses."
"Then you have heard already? What"s the good of my repeating----"
"No--no! I"ve heard scarcely anything. I depended on you. I was sure you wouldn"t fail me."
That encouraged Tony, and soon I knew what he knew. He had been pumping Captain Beatty, and had learned from him how, before leaving the Savoy for St. George"s, Sidney had received a wire from his chauffeur. It said that the Grayles-Grice had safely arrived by a later train than promised, but that something was wrong with the motor. Better not depend on the car for church, though it would be pretty sure to be all right to go away in after the reception. This was a blow to Sidney, because he had grown quite superst.i.tious on the subject of reaching the house from St. George"s. He had told Captain Beatty about repeated dreams of a bomb startling a pair of horses. And a Bond Street clairvoyant had seen in her crystal a picture of him and a woman in white driving away from a church in a black-draped hea.r.s.e. Captain Beatty had mentioned casually to Tony that Vand.y.k.e used to have as good nerves as the next man, but that he"d got "jumpy" lately, and Beatty wondered whether it was like that with all fellows who were going to be married.
The only thing to do had been to order a motor or carriage to come to St. George"s for the bride and bridegroom. Di, appealed to by telephone, preferred a carriage. A smart-looking one had been sent accordingly, but the horses were fresh and had begun to dance impatiently even before Diana and Sidney came out of the church. The thin little coachman had difficulty in holding them in when it thundered. By the time Di and her husband appeared, the pair were prancing on their hind legs, and the crowd on the pavement waiting for the bridal couple were pushing nervously back, out of the way of threatening hoofs. Di had hesitated for an instant, but the coachman had a.s.sured Major Vand.y.k.e that the horses were only "playing a bit," and were as gentle as lambs. They"d come down to business the minute they were allowed to start. So Sidney had put Diana into the carriage and was in the act of getting in himself, when a man on a motor cycle suddenly tore round the corner into Hanover Square with the noise of ten thousand demons. That was the "limit" for the horses, said Tony. They bolted, with Di shrieking and trying to pull her husband into the brougham, Sidney clinging ignominiously to the door, and to a strap inside.
The policeman and another man or two ran forward, but the screaming of Diana and dozens of women on the pavement frightened the creatures more and more. The coachman lost control; the policeman was kicked, and stumbled back; the others couldn"t get to the horses, which were bolting across the street; and in another minute the bridegroom would certainly have been flung down, if a man just out of church hadn"t made a dash to the rescue. The next thing any one knew, he was hanging on to the animals" heads like grim death, and bringing them down from their hind feet on to all fours again. He was dragged a few yards before a couple of policemen could get to his side; but meanwhile, as he clung to the horses, like a brake on their speed, the brougham steadied itself, Sidney contrived to crawl inside and bang the door shut, for his own protection and Di"s. It all happened in a minute; and as the hatless man held on to the horses" heads, Captain Beatty in great astonishment recognized him as Captain March. It was Eagle who stopped the horses; but as the two policemen sprang to his aid, and staggering back he let go his hold, he must have been kicked by one of the beasts. What Captain Beatty did see was Eagle"s forehead streaming with blood, and when the rescuer had hurried away, insisting that the wound was of no importance, the bride was helped out of the carriage by the bridegroom and into a closed motor car which some one hastily offered. In the street where it had all happened was a stain of blood, Captain March"s no doubt; but in the excitement of changing the bride from one vehicle to the other he had time to vanish as completely as if he"d wrapped himself in an invisible cloak.
"Just as well, too, considering who he was, and who he"s saved," Tony finished ungrammatically. "It would have been mighty awkward for all parties if he"d fallen down in a faint, and Lord Ballyconal out of grat.i.tude had had to put him up here, where the wedding party"s going on. Or even if he"d been all right, but coralled by the crowd, the bride would have been called upon to address him as "my preserver"--what?
Can"t you see Vand.y.k.e obliged to shower blessings on March for saving both their lives?"
"And yet, how awful that he should go without a word of thanks--go wounded and bleeding!" The thought made me choke.
"I guess March is a bit like a sick cat that way," said Tony dryly.
"He"d rather crawl off and get well alone than be bothered by sympathy, even yours, my child. That"s like him. And like him to save the very man who"s spoilt his life. But blest if I can see that being there in church was like him, no matter what you say! Anyhow, it was a blamed good thing for every one concerned that he just dropped from heaven like manna in the nick of time, and then was absorbed back into clouds again, blood and all."
"Diana"s dress must have been baptized in that blood," I muttered, for my own benefit, but Tony caught me up. "Gee _whiz_! did she get her gown spattered with it?"
"A drop or two on her silver train. Poetic justice! The blood had been spilt for her."
"Dashed bad luck to get it on her wedding dress, though, I"ve heard superst.i.tious folks say--but what rotten nonsense to talk like this to you! Of course, there"s nothing in it."
"I"m not sure how Di would feel if she knew. But _I_ feel as if a drop of Eagle March"s blood would be like the blood of the prince in a fairy story I used to love. Just the faintest smear of it brought fortune for the heroine and all her family," I said. "Di doesn"t know. I didn"t tell what I saw. And would you believe this, Tony? My n.o.ble brother-in-law pretends to believe that Eagle got up the whole scene, like a plot in that melodrama you were talking about. I suppose he"d like Di to think that Eagle bribed the livery people to send nervous horses and a weak coachman, and that he hired a motor cyclist to swing round the corner on a cue at the right instant, in order that he himself might play the gallant hero. Rather elaborate! But that shows how a man judges another by what he would do in his place! Isn"t it a proof that the El Paso affair was a plot--a plot Sidney accuses Eagle of revenging in this wild way?"
"That"s quite a neat suggestion," said Tony, smiling an "indulge-the-poor-child" smile which made me want to box his ears--though not hard. "I don"t think you need be afraid, though," he hurried on, to calm me. "Vand.y.k.e won"t openly accuse March of anything more, I guess, unless in the bosom of his family where it won"t do much harm. If he dealt out any "plot" talk of that sort, he"d make himself a laughing-stock, and he wouldn"t stand for that. He"ll just try to forget the whole business, and help other folks to forget--cut it out."
"It will be better for him!" I said, as fiercely as a small dog growling in the kennel of a big one. "But Di and Sidney, too, both accuse _me_ of being in the "plot." They say I knew Eagle was in England, and secretly invited him to the wedding. I haven"t even heard from him since we came back from America."
"Haven"t you?" Tony"s face brightened. "Well, I shall never cease wondering what brought March to the church, till I know--which may be never. Unless you tell me when you hear."
"_If_ I hear!"
"I guess you"re sure to sooner or later. He must know now that he was recognized. No use hiding his head in the sand! He"ll want to explain why he--er--well, sort of intruded."
"No, he wouldn"t need to explain," I reiterated. "What"s the use of friendship, if it doesn"t understand and take things for granted?
And--if Eagle never writes, I shall know he doesn"t want me to seek him.
So I won"t do that, even though he has been hurt for us, and maybe is suffering."
"You"re a soldier," Tony complimented me. "March would be just the man to appreciate that if he could hear you now."
"I believe he would understand me as I understand him," I said. "Still it is hard not to know if he"s badly hurt."
"By the way he shot through the crowd like a streak of greased lightning, I should say it wasn"t fatal," Tony cheered me. "But if you"d like to have me do a bit of secret service work and "phone to a few hotels or hospitals----"
I shook my head decidedly. "I know the hotel where he goes," I said. "I shan"t send. I think if he were very badly wounded, he _would_ let me know. He"d trust me to stand between him and--the others. Now--let"s go and see Di cut her wedding cake. You can have a piece to dream on if you like."
"No good!" said Tony. "I always dream of you anyhow, when I dream at all--except when I eat welsh rabbit: then I dream of the devil." But he went with me like a lamb, and we spoke no more of Captain March.
CHAPTER XVI
I think if Sidney Vand.y.k.e had never taken the trouble actually to hate me, he exerted himself to that extent on his wedding day.
I kept my distance when the others gave the bride and bridegroom a send-off of waving hands and showering rice as they skimmed away in the Grayles-Grice car (ready at last); but I"d caught a wandering glance or two meanwhile from my new brother-in-law, and thanked my stars that Heaven hadn"t made me some poor private soldier under his command. Di turned her cheek with the look of a martyred saint when I was supposed to kiss her good-bye; and altogether I fancied that I should not be urged to visit in Park Lane when the happy pair came back in the autumn.
I intended to be at Ballyconal then; but a thousand things were fated to change my scheme and the schemes of all the other unsuspecting mice in England and Europe.
The first thing--oh, such a small thing compared to those that were to follow--which happened after Di"s marriage was an announcement from Father. He had proposed to Mrs. Main, and she had been "good enough to accept him." That was his formal way of breaking the news to me, for we had been on official terms only for some days following the wedding; though to his darling Di he would probably have put it "Look here, girl, she"s jumped at me! Hurrah! The luck of Ballyconal"s come right side up again!" And Di would have congratulated dear old Bally, reminding him that third times were always successful.
Of course, whenever I stopped to think of it, I had told myself that this announcement was bound to come, and to come soon. But my head had been full as a hive of bees with other thoughts; and besides, I hadn"t realized how I should feel the blow when it fell.
Vaguely, I"d taken it for granted that life would go on for me as before. I liked Kitty, and she didn"t dislike me, though, of course, Di had been brilliantly her favourite. I had told myself that Kitty and Father would trot off somewhere and leave me free at Ballyconal to hibernate in some neglected corner, while the place was glorified into a stately British home for an American millionairess. Then (I had gone on dimly planning) they would return in state, and Kitty would be duly honoured by a picturesque welcome from the hastily cleaned up tenants.
After that, n.o.body would take much notice of little Peggy. I should be tacitly permitted to play among my books, and the peasants I loved the best, for whose sake I had been trying to learn the art of nursing.
Father"s way of telling his news, however, showed me the truth about myself. I didn"t feel in the least related to him; and I decided to use the month before their return from the wedding journey in finding some other way of spending my life. I couldn"t make a "crowd" in that "company" of two!
I was nice to Father and charming to Kitty, and all the time I was polishing my brain as if it were the genie"s lamp, and summoning the genie to bring me inspiration. I couldn"t be a governess on the strength of languages alone. Not knowing the multiplication table, having to do hasty sums on my fingers, and being ignorant of princ.i.p.al rivers, boundaries, and all dates except that of Waterloo, was too big a handicap; and in sheer poverty of invention I seemed to be driven back to Billiken, that G.o.d of "things as they ought to be." Perhaps it was fate that I had been invited by Mrs. Dalziel to a "boy and girl" theatre party the very night when I had to congratulate Father, and wish wishes for Kitty which short of a miracle couldn"t come true.