"Aren"t you? You"re the darling, at present. I don"t grudge you the estates, Arthur."
"I never lifted a finger to get them," said Arthur, moodily. "And I shall find a way of getting out of them--the greater part of them, anyway. All the same, Corry, if I do--you"ll have to give guarantees."
"Don"t you wish you may get them! Well now"--Coryston gave a great stretch--"can"t we have a drink? You"re the master here, Arthur. Just order it. James, did you open your mouth while mother was here? I don"t remember.
You looked unutterable things. But n.o.body could be as wise as you look. I tell you, though you are a philosopher and a man of peace, you"ll have to take sides in this family row, whether you like it or not. Ah! Here"s the whisky. Give us a cigar. Now then, we"ll sit on this precious paper!"
He took up the roll his mother had left behind her and was soon sipping and puffing in the highest good humor, while he parodied and mocked at the legal phraseology of the doc.u.ment which had just stripped him of seventy thousand a year.
Half an hour later the brothers had dispersed, Coryston and James to their bachelor quarters, Arthur to the House of Commons. The front door was no sooner shut than a slender figure in white emerged from the shadows of the landing overhead. It was Marcia, carrying a book.
She came to the bal.u.s.trade and looked over into the hall below. Nothing to be heard or seen. Her brothers, she perceived, had not left the house from the drawing-room. They must have adjourned to the library, the large ground-floor room at the back.
"Then Mr. Lester knows," she thought, indignantly. "Just like Corry!"
And her pride revolted against the notion of her brothers discussing her mother"s actions, her mother"s decisions, with this stranger in the house.
It was quite true that Mr. Lester had been a friend both of Arthur and of Coryston at Oxford, and that Arthur in particular was devoted to him. But that did not excuse the indiscretion, the disloyalty, of bringing him into the family counsels at such a juncture. Should she go down? She was certain she would never get to sleep after these excitements, and she wanted the second volume of _Diana of the Crossways_. Why not? It was only just eleven. None of the lights had yet been put out. Probably Mr. Lester had gone to bed.
She ran down lightly, and along the pa.s.sage leading to the library. As she opened the door, what had been light just before became suddenly darkness, and she heard some one moving about.
"Who is that?" said a voice. "Wait a moment."
A little fumbling; and then a powerful reading-lamp, standing on a desk heaped with books midway down the large room, was relit. The light flashed toward the figure at the door.
"Miss Coryston! I beg your pardon! I was just knocking off work. Can I do anything for you?"
The young librarian came toward her. In the illumination from the pa.s.sage behind her she saw his dark Cornish face, its red-brown color, broad brow, and blue eyes.
"I came for a book," said Marcia, rather hurriedly, as she entered. "I know where to find it. Please don"t trouble." She went to the shelves, found her volume, and turned abruptly. The temptation which possessed her proved too strong.
"I suppose my brothers have been here?"
Lester"s pleasant face showed a certain embarra.s.sment.
"They have only just gone--at least, Arthur and Lord Coryston. James went some time ago."
Marcia threw her head back defiantly against the latticed bookcase.
"I suppose Corry has been attacking my mother?"
Lester hesitated; then spoke with grave sincerity: "I a.s.sure you, he did nothing of the kind. I should not have let him." He smiled.
"But they"ve told you--he and Arthur--they"ve told you what"s happened?"
"Yes," he said, reluctantly. "I tried to stop them."
"As if anything could stop Corry!" cried Marcia--"when he wants to do something he knows he oughtn"t to do. And he"s told you his precious plan?--of coming to settle down at Coryston--in our very pockets--in order to make mother"s life a burden to her?"
"A perfectly mad whim!" said Lester, smiling again. "I don"t believe he"ll do it."
"Oh yes, he will," said Marcia; "he"ll do anything that suits his ideas. He calls it following his conscience. Other people"s ideas and other people"s consciences don"t matter a bit."
Lester made no answer. His eyes were on the ground. She broke out impetuously:
"You think he"s been badly treated?"
"I had rather not express an opinion. I have no right to one."
"Mayn"t women care for politics just as strongly as men?" cried the girl, as though arguing the question with herself. "I think it"s _splendid_ my mother should care as she does! Corry ought to respect her for it."
Lester made a pretense of gathering up some papers on his desk, by way of covering his silence. Marcia observed him, with red cheeks.
"But of course you don"t, you can"t, feel with us, Mr. Lester. You"re a Liberal."
"No!" he protested mildly, raising his eyes in surprise. "I really don"t agree with Coryston at all. I don"t intend to label myself just yet, but if I"m anything I think I"m a Conservative."
"But you think other things matter more than politics?"
"Ah yes," he said, smiling, "that I do. Especially--" He stopped.
"Especially--for women?" The breaking of Marcia"s delightful smile answered his. "You see, I guessed what you meant to say. What things? I think I know."
"Beauty--poetry--sympathy. Wouldn"t you put those first?"
He spoke the words shyly, looking down upon her.
There was something in the mere sound of them that thrilled, that made a music in the girl"s ears. She drew a long breath, and suddenly, as he raised his eyes, he saw her as a white vision, lit up, Rembrandt-like, in the darkness, by the solitary light--the lines of her young form, the delicate softness of cheek and brow, the eager eyes.
She held out her hand.
"Good night. I shall see what Meredith has to say about it!"
She held up her volume, ran to the door, and disappeared.
CHAPTER III
"Her ladyship says she would like to see you, Miss, before you go."
The speaker was Lady Coryston"s maid. She stood just within the doorway of the room where Marcia was dressing for the Opera, delivering her message mechanically, but really absorbed in the spectacle presented by the young girl before her. Sewell was an artist in her own sphere, and secretly envious of the greater range of combination which Marcia"s youth and beauty made possible for the persons who dressed her, as compared with Lady Coryston. There are all kinds of subtle variants, no doubt, in "black,"
such as Lady Coryston habitually wore; and the costliness of them left nothing to be desired. But when she saw Marcia clothed in a new Worth or Paquin, Sewell was sorely tempted to desert her elderly mistress and go in search of a young one.
"Come in, Sewell," cried Marcia. "What do you think of it?"
The woman eagerly obeyed her. Marcia"s little maid, Bellows, did the honors, and the two experts, in an ecstasy, chattered the language of their craft, while Marcia, amid her shimmering white and pink, submitted good-humoredly to being pulled about and twisted round, till after endless final touches, she was at last p.r.o.nounced the perfect thing.
Then she ran across the pa.s.sage to her mother"s sitting-room. Lady Coryston had complained of illness during the day and had not been down-stairs. But Marcia"s experience was that when her mother was ill she was not less, but more active than usual, and that withdrawal to her sitting-room generally meant a concentration of energy.