Why all this magnanimity for people who certainly have been keeping you out of what was your own, and treating your claim to it as a knavery?"
"You might please to remember that we are related."
"Of course you are nothing of the kind. If _you_ be the true prince, the others must be all illegitimate a couple of generations back. Perhaps I am imbittered against them by that cruel fraud practised on myself.
I cannot bring myself to forgive it. Now, if you really were that fine generous creature you want me to believe, it is of _me_, of me, Lady Augusta Bramleigh, you would be thinking all this while: how to secure _me_ that miserable pittance they called my settlement; how to recompense _me_ for the fatal mistake I made in my marriage; how to distinguish between the persons who fraudulently took possession of your property, and the poor harmless victim of their false pretensions."
"And is not this what I am here for? Is it not to lay my whole fortune at your feet?"
"A very pretty phrase, that does n"t mean anything like what it pretends; a phrase borrowed from a vaudeville, and that ought to be restored to where it came from."
"Lord and Lady Culduff, my Lady, wish to pay their respects."
"They are pa.s.sing through," said Lady Augusta, reading the words written in pencil on the card presented by the servant. "Of course I must see them. You need n"t go away, Count; but I shall not present you. Yes, Hislop, tell her Ladyship I am at home. I declare, you are always compromising me. Sit over yonder, and read your newspaper, or play with Felice."
She had barely finished these instructions when the double door was flung wide, and Marion swept proudly in. Her air and toilet were both queenlike; and, indeed, her beauty was not less striking than either.
Lord Culduff followed, a soft pleasant smile on his face. It might do service in many ways, for it was equally ready to mean sweetness or sarcasm, as occasion called for.
When the ladies had kissed twice, and his Lordship had saluted Lady Augusta with a profound respect, dashed with a sort of devotion, Marion"s eyes glanced at the stranger, who, though he arose, and only reseated himself as they sat down, neither lifted his glance nor seemed to notice them further.
"We are only going through; we start at two o"clock," said she, hurriedly.
"At one-forty, my Lady," said Lord Culduff, with a faint smile, as though shocked at being obliged to correct her.
"It was so kind of you to come," said Lady Augusta; "and you only arrived this morning?"
"We only arrived half an hour ago."
"I must order you some lunch. I"m sure you can eat something."
"My Lady is hungry; she said so as we came along," said Lord Culduff.
"Allow me to ring for you. As for myself, I take Liebig"s lozenges and a spoonful of Curacoa--nothing else--before dinner."
"It"s so pleasant to live with people who are "dieted,"" said Marion, with a sneering emphasis on the word.
"So I hear from Bramleigh," interposed Lord Culduff, "that this man--I forget his name--actually broke into the house at Casteilo, and carried away a quant.i.ty of papers."
"My Lord, as your Lordship is so palpably referring to me, and as I am quite sure you are not aware of my ident.i.ty, may I hasten to say I am Count Pracontal de Bramleigh?"
"Oh, dear! have I forgotten to present you?" said Lady Augusta, with a perfect simplicity of manner.
Marion acknowledged the introduction by the slightest imaginable bow, and a look of cold defiance; while Lord Culduff smiled blandly, and professed his regret if he had uttered a word that could occasion pain.
"Love and war are chartered libertines, and why not law?" said the Viscount. "I take it that all stratagems are available; the great thing is, they should be successful."
"Count Pracontal declares that he can pledge himself to the result,"
said Lady Augusta. "The case, in fact, as he represents it, is as good as determined."
"Has a jury decided, then?" asked Culduff.
"No, my Lord; the trial comes on next term. I only repeat the a.s.surance given me by my lawyer; and so far confirmed by him that he has made me large advances, which he well knows I could not repay if I should not gain my cause."
"These are usually cautious people," said the Viscount, gravely.
"It strikes me," said Marion, rising, "that this sort of desultory conversation on a matter of such importance is, to say the least, inconvenient. Even the presence of this gentleman is not sufficient to make me forget that my family have always regarded his pretension as something not very far from a fraud."
"I regret infinitely, madam," said Pracontal, bowing low, "that it is not a man has uttered the words just spoken."
"Lady Culduff"s words, sir, are all mine," said Lord Culduff.
"I thank your Lordship from my heart for the relief you have afforded me."
"There must be nothing of this kind," said Lady Augusta, warmly. "If I have been remiss in not making Count Pracontal known to you before, let me repair my error by presenting him now as a gentleman who makes me the offer of his hand."
"I wish you good-morning," said Marion. "No, thank you; no luncheon.
Your Ladyship has given me fully as much for digestion as I care for.
Good-bye."
"If my congratulations could only shadow forth a vision of all the happiness I wish your Ladyship," began Lord Culduff.
"I think I know, my Lord, what you would say," broke she in, laughingly.
"You would like to have uttered something very neat on well-a.s.sorted unions. There could be no better authority on such a subject; but Count Pracontal is toleration itself: he lets me tell my friends that I am about to marry him for money, just as I married poor Colonel Bramleigh for love."
"I am waiting for you, my Lord. We have already trespa.s.sed too far on her Ladyship"s time and occupations." The sneering emphasis on the last word was most distinct. Lord Culduff kissed Lady Augusta"s hand with a most devoted show of respect, and slowly retired.
As the door closed after them, Pracontal fell at her feet, and covered her hand with kisses.
"There, there, Count, I have paid a high price for that piece of impertinence I have just uttered; but when I said it, I thought it would have given her an apoplexy."
"But you are mine,--you are my own!"
"_Noud en parlerons_. The papers are full of breaches of promise; and if you want me to keep mine, you "ll not make it odious to me by tormenting me about it."
"But, my Lady, I have a heart; a heart that would be broken by a betrayal."
"What a strange heart for a Frenchman! About as suitable to the Boulevards Italiens as snow shoes to the tropics. Monsieur de Pracontal," said she, in a much graver tone, "please to bear in mind that I am a very considerable item in such an arrangement as we spoke of. The _whole_ question is not what would make _you_ happy."
Pracontal bowed low in silence; his gesture seemed to accept her words as a command to be obeyed, and he did not utter a syllable.
"Is n"t she handsome?" cried she, at length. "I declare, Count, if one of your countrywomen had a single one of the charms of that beautiful face she "d be turning half the heads in Europe; and Marion can do nothing with them all, except drive other women wild with envy."
CHAPTER LVII. AT THE INN AT CATTARO.
When L"Estrange had carried off Jack Bramleigh to the inn, and had seen him engaged with an excellent breakfast, he despatched a messenger to the villa to say that he was not to be expected home by dinner time, but would be back to tea "with a friend," for whom he begged Gusty Bramleigh"s room might be prepared.
I shall not delay to chronicle all the doubt, the discussion, and the guessing that the note occasioned; the mere fact that George had ventured to issue an order of this kind without first consulting Julia investing the step with a degree of mysteriousness perfectly inscrutable. I turn, however, to Cattaro, where L"Estrange and Jack sat together, each so eager to hear the other"s tidings as to be almost too impatient to dwell upon himself.