"Lord, Alfred!" said Mrs. Dare, contemptuously, "don"t make a scene before strangers. We"ve had our tiffs before now, and shall have again, I suppose. It"s the natur" of married people to fall out; but there"s no call to carry on before friends. Push up that lounge nearer the fire.
Won"t the other gentleman," turning to Mr. Alwynn, "come and warm himself? I"m sure it"s cold enough."
Mr. Alwynn, who was a man of peace, devoutly wished he were at home again in his own study.
"It is a cold morning," he said; "but we are not here to discuss the weather."
He stopped short. He had been hurried here so much against his will, and so entirely without an explanation, that he was not quite sure what he had come to discuss, or how he could best support his friend.
"What do you want?" said Dare, in the same suppressed voice, without looking at her.
"My rights," she said, incisively; "and, what"s more, I mean to have "em. I"ve not come over from America for nothing, I can tell you that; and I"ve not come on a visit neither. I"ve come to stay."
"What are these rights you talk of?" asked Mr. Alwynn, signing to Dare to restrain himself.
"As his wife, sir. I am his wife, as I can prove. I didn"t come without my lines to show. I didn"t come on a speculation, to see if he"d a fancy to have me back. No, afore I set my foot down anywheres I look to see as it"s solid walking."
"Show your proof," said Mr. Alwynn.
The woman ostentatiously got out a red morocco letter case, and produced a paper which she handed to Mr. Alwynn.
It was an authorized copy of a marriage register, drawn out in the usual manner, between Alfred Dare, bachelor, English subject, and Ellen, widow of the late Jaspar Carroll, of Neosho City, Kansas, U.S.A. The marriage was dated seven years back.
The names of Dare and Carroll swam before Mr. Alwynn"s eyes. He glanced at the paper, but he could not read it.
"Is this a forgery, Dare?" he asked, holding it towards him.
"No," said Dare, without looking at it; "it is right. But that is not all. Now," turning to the woman, who was watching him triumphantly, "show the other paper--the divorce."
"I made inquiries about that," she replied, composedly. "I wasn"t going to be fooled by that "ere, so I made inquiries from one as knows. The divorce is all very well in America; but it don"t count in England."
Dare"s face turned livid. Mr. Alwynn"s flushed a deep red. He sat with his eyes on the ground, the paper in his hand trembling a little.
Indignation against Dare, pity for him, anxiety not to judge him harshly, struggled for precedence in his kind heart, still beating tumultuously with the shock of Dare"s first admission. He felt rather than saw him take the paper out of his hand.
"I shall keep this," Dare said, putting it in his pocket-book; and then, turning to the woman again, he said, with an oath, "Will you go, or will you wait till you are turned out?"
"I"ll wait," she replied, undauntedly. "I like the place well enough."
She laughed and took up her work, and, after looking at her for a moment, he flung out of the room, followed by Mr. Alwynn.
The defeat was complete; nay, it was a rout.
The dog-cart was still standing at the door. The butler was talking to the groom; the gardener was training some new shoots of ivy against the stone bal.u.s.trade.
Dare caught up his hat and gloves, and ordered that his portmanteau, which had been taken into the hall, should be put back into the dog-cart. As it was being carried down he looked at his watch.
"I can catch the mid-day express for London," he said. "I can do it easily."
Mr. Alwynn made no reply.
"Get in," continued Dare, feverishly; "the portmanteau is in."
"I think I will walk home," said Mr. Alwynn, slowly. It gave him excruciating pain to say anything so severe as this; but he got out the words nevertheless.
Dare looked at him in astonishment.
"Get in," he said again, quickly. "I must speak to you. I will drive you home. I have something to say."
Mr. Alwynn never refused to hear what any one had to say. He went slowly down the steps, and got into the cart, looking straight in front of him, as his custom was when disturbed in mind. Dare followed.
"I shall not want you, James," he said to the groom, his foot on the step.
At this moment the form of Mrs. Smith, the house-keeper, appeared through the hall door, clothed in all the awful majesty of an upper servant whose dignity has been outraged.
"Sir," she said, in a clear not to say a high voice, "asking your pardon, sir, but am I, or am I not, to take my orders from--"
Goaded to frenzy, Dare poured forth a volley of horrible oaths French and English, and, seizing up the reins, drove off at a furious rate.
The servants remained standing about the steps, watching the dog-cart whirl rapidly away.
"He"s been to church with her," said the gardener, at last. "I said all along she"d never have come, unless she had her lines to show. I ha"n"t cut them white grapes she ordered yet; but I may as well go and do it."
"Well," said Mrs. Smith, "grapes or no grapes, I"ll never give up the keys of the linen cupboards to the likes of her, and I"m not going to have any one poking about among my china. I"ve not been here twenty years to be asked for my lists in that way, and the winter curtains ordered out unbeknownst to me;" and Mrs. Smith retreated to the fastnesses of the house-keeper"s room, whither even the audacious enemy had not yet ventured to follow her.
Meanwhile, Mr. Alwynn and Dare drove at moderated speed along the road to Slumberleigh. For some time neither spoke.
"I beg your pardon," said Dare at last. "I lost my head. I became enraged. Before a clergyman and a lady, I know well, it is not permitted to swear."
"I can overlook that," said Mr. Alwynn; "but," turning very red again, "other things I can"t."
Dare began to flourish his whip, and become excited again.
"I will tell you all," he said with effusion--"every word. You have a kind heart. I will confide in you."
"I don"t want confidences," said Mr. Alwynn. "I want straight-forward answers to a few simple questions."
"I will give them, these answers. I keep nothing back from a friend."
"Then, first. Did you marry that woman?"
"Yes," said Dare, shrugging his shoulders. "I married her, and often afterwards, almost at once, I regretted it; but _que voulez-vous_, I was young. I had no experience. I was but twenty-one."
Mr. Alwynn stared at him in astonishment at the ease with which the admission was made.
"How long afterwards was it that you were divorced from her?"
"Two years. Two long years."
"For what reason?"