"Ah, yes, I saw you when you pretended to find it. I saw you when you pretended to unlock that centre place. But now, of course, I know it never was locked. I"m very careless about locking things, Mr. Woods.
Ah, yes, that gave you a beautiful opportunity, didn"t it? So, when you were rummaging through my desk--without my permission, by the way, but that"s a detail--you found both wills and concocted your little comedy? That was very clever. Oh, you think you"re awfully smooth, don"t you, Billy Woods? But if you had been a bit more daring, don"t you see, you could have suppressed the last one and taken the money without being enc.u.mbered by me? That was rather clumsy of you, wasn"t it?" Suave, gentle, sweet as honey was the speech of Margaret as she lifted her face to his, but her eyes were tragedies.
"Ah!" said Billy. "Ah--yes--you think--that." He was very careful in articulating his words, was Billy, and afterward he nodded his head gravely. The universe had somehow suffered an airy dissolution like that of Prospero"s masque--Selwoode and its gardens, the great globe itself, "the cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples" were all as vanished wraiths. There was only Peggy left-- Peggy with that unimaginable misery in her eyes that he must drive away somehow. If that was what she thought, there was no way for him to prove it wasn"t so.
"Why, dear me, Mr. Woods," she retorted, carelessly, "what else could I think?"
Here Mr. Woods blundered.
"Ah, think what you will, Peggy!" he cried, his big voice cracking and sobbing and resonant with pain. "Ah, my dear, think what you will, but don"t grieve for it, Peggy! Why, if I"m all you say I am, that"s no reason you should suffer for it! Ah, don"t, Peggy! In G.o.d"s name, don"t! I can"t bear it, dear," he pleaded with her, helplessly.
Billy was suffering, too. But her sorrow was the chief of his, and what stung him now to impotent anger was that she must suffer and he be unable to help her--for, ah, how willingly, how gladly, he would have borne all poor Peggy"s woes upon his own broad shoulders.
But none the less, he had lost an invaluable opportunity to hold his tongue.
"Suffer! I suffer!" she mocked him, languidly; and then, like a banjo-string, the tension snapped, and she gave a long, angry gasp, and her wrath flamed.
"Upon my word, you"re the most conceited man I ever knew in my life!
You think I"m in love with you! With you! Billy Woods, I wouldn"t wipe my feet on you if you were the last man left on earth! I hate you, I loathe you, I detest you, I despise you! Do you hear me?--I hate you.
What do I care if you _are_ a sn.o.b, and a cad, and a fortune-hunter, and a forger, and--well, I don"t care! Perhaps you haven"t ever forged anything yet, but I"m quite sure you would if you ever got an opportunity. You"d be delighted to do it. Yes, you would--you"re just the sort of man who _revels_ in crime. I love you! Why, that"s the best joke I"ve heard for a long time. I"m only sorry for you, Billy Woods--_sorry_ because Kathleen has thrown you over--sorry, do you understand? Yes, since you"re so fond of skinny women, I think it"s a great pity she wouldn"t have you. Don"t talk to me!--she _is_ skinny.
I guess I know. She"s as skinny as a beanpole. She"s skinnier than I ever imagined it possible for anybody--_anybody_--to be. And she pads and rouges till I think it"s disgusting, and not half--not _one-half_--of her hair belongs to her, and that half is dyed. But, of course, if you like that sort of thing, there"s no accounting for tastes, and I"m sure I"m very sorry for you, even though personally I _don"t_ care for skinny women. I hate "em! And I hate you, too, Billy Woods!"
She stamped her foot, did Margaret. You must bear with her, for her heart is breaking now, and if she has become a termagant it is because her shamed pride has driven her mad. Bear with her, then, a little longer.
Billy tried to bear with her, for in part he understood.
"Peggy," said he, very gently, "you"re wrong."
"Yes, I dare say!" she snapped at him.
"We won"t discuss Kathleen, if you please. But you"re wrong about the will. I"ve told you the whole truth about that, but I don"t blame you for not believing me, Peggy--ah, no, not I. There seems to be a curse upon Uncle Fred"s money. It brings out the worst of all of us. It has changed even you, Peggy--and not for the better, Peggy. You"ve become distrustful. You--ah, well, we won"t discuss that now. Give me the will, my dear, and I"ll burn it before your eyes. That ought to show you, Peggy, that you"re wrong." Billy was very white-lipped as he ended, for the Woods temper is a short one.
But she had an arrow left for him. "Give it to you! And do you think I"d trust you with it, Billy Woods?"
"Peggy!--ah, Peggy, I hadn"t deserved that. Be just, at least, to me,"
poor Billy begged of her.
Which was an absurd thing to ask of an angry woman.
"Yes, I _do_ know what you"d do with it! You"d take it right off and have it probated or executed or whatever it is they do to wills, and turn me straight out in the gutter. That"s just what you"re _longing_ to do this very moment. Oh, I know, Billy Woods--I know what a temper you"ve got, and I know you"re keeping quiet now simply because you know that"s the most exasperating thing you can possibly do. I wouldn"t have such a disposition as you"ve got for the world. You"ve absolutely _no_ control over your temper--not a bit of it. You"re _vile_, Billy Woods! Oh, I _hate_ you! Yes, you"ve made me cry, and I suppose you"re very proud of yourself. _Aren"t_ you proud? Don"t stand staring at me like a stuck pig, but answer me when I talk to you!
Aren"t you _proud_ of making me cry? Aren"t you? Ah, don"t talk to me--don"t talk to _me_, I tell you! I don"t wish to hear a word you"ve got to say. I _hate_ you. And you shan"t have the money, that"s flat."
"I don"t want it," said Billy. "I"ve been trying to tell you for the last, half-hour I don"t want it. In G.o.d"s name, why can"t you talk like a sensible woman, Peggy?" I am afraid that Mr. Woods, too, was beginning to lose his temper.
"That"s right--swear at me! It only needed that. You do want the money, and when you say you don"t you"re lying--lying--_lying_, do you understand? You all want my money. Oh, dear, _dear!_" Margaret wailed, and her great voice was shaken to its depths and its sobbing was the long, hopeless sobbing of a violin, as she flung back her tear-stained face, and clenched her little hands tight at her sides; "why _can"t_ you let me alone? You"re all after my money--you, and Mr. Kennaston, and Mr. Jukesbury, and all of you! Why _can"t_ you let me alone? Ever since I"ve had it you"ve hunted me as if I"d been a wild beast. G.o.d help me, I haven"t had a moment"s peace, a moment"s rest, a, moment"s quiet, since Uncle Fred died. They all want my money--everybody wants my money! Oh, Billy, Billy, why _can"t_ they let me alone?"
"Peggy----" said he.
But she interrupted him. "Don"t talk to _me_, Billy Woods! Don"t you _dare_ talk to me. I told you I didn"t wish to hear a word you had to say, didn"t I? Yes, you all want my money. And you shan"t have it.
It"s mine. Uncle Fred left it to me. It"s mine, I tell you. I"ve got the greatest thing in the world--money! And I"ll keep it. Ah, I hate you all--every one of you--but I"ll make you cringe to me. I"ll make you _all_ cringe, do you hear, because I"ve got the money you"re ready to sell your paltry souls for! Oh, I"ll make you cringe most of all, Billy Woods! I"m rich, do you hear?--rich--_rich_! Wouldn"t you be glad to marry the rich Margaret Hugonin, Billy? Ah, haven"t you schemed hard for that? You"d be glad to do it, wouldn"t you? You"d give your dirty little soul for that, wouldn"t you, Billy? Ah, what a cur you are! Well, some day perhaps I"ll buy you just as I would any other cur. Wouldn"t you be glad if I did, Billy? Beg for it, Billy!
Beg, sir! Beg!" And Margaret flung back her head again, and laughed shrilly, and held up her hand before him as one holds a lump of sugar before a pug-dog.
In Selwoode I can fancy how the Eagle screamed his triumph.
But Billy"s face was ashen.
"Before G.o.d!" he said, between his teeth, "loving you as I do, I wouldn"t marry you now for all the wealth in the world! The money has ruined you--ruined you, Peggy."
For a little she stared at him. By and bye, "I dare say it has," she said, in a strangely sober tone. "I"ve been scolding like a fishwife.
I beg your pardon, Mr. Woods--not for what I"ve said, because I meant every _word_ of it, but I beg your pardon for saying it. Don"t come with me, please."
Blindly she turned from him. Her shoulders had the droop of an old woman"s. Margaret was wearied now, weary with the weariness of death.
For a while Mr. Woods stared after the tired little figure that trudged straight onward in the sunlight, stumbling as she went. Then a pleached walk swallowed her, and Mr. Woods groaned.
"Oh, Peggy, Peggy!" he said, in bottomless compa.s.sion; "oh, my poor little Peggy! How changed you are!"
Afterward Mr. Woods sank down upon the bench and buried his face in his hands. He sat there for a long time. I don"t believe he thought of anything very clearly. His mind was a turgid chaos of misery; and about him the birds shrilled and quavered and carolled till the air was vibrant with their trilling. One might have thought they choired in honour of the Eagle"s triumph, in mockery of poor Billy.
Then Mr. Woods raised his head with a queer, alert look. Surely he had heard a voice--the dearest of all voices.
"Billy!" it wailed; "oh, Billy, _Billy_!"
XXV
For at the height of this particularly mischancy posture of affairs the meddlesome Fates had elected to dispatch c.o.c.k-eye Flinks to serve as our _deus ex machina_. And just as in the comedy the police turn up in the nick of time to fetch Tartuffe to prison, or in the tragedy Friar John manages to be detained on his journey to Mantua and thus bring about that lamentable business in the tomb of the Capulets, so Mr. Flinks now happens inopportunely to arrive upon our lesser stage.
Faithfully to narrate how c.o.c.k-eye Flinks chanced to be at Selwoode were a task of magnitude. That gentleman travelled very quietly; and for the most part, he journeyed incognito under a variety of aliases suggested partly by a fertile imagination and in part by prudential motives. For his notions of proprietary rights were deplorably vague, and his acquaintance with the police, in consequence, extensive. And finally, that he was now at Selwoode was not in the least his fault, but all the doing of an N. & O. brakesman, who had in uncultured argument, reinforced by a coupling-pin, persuaded Mr. Flinks to disembark from the northern freight on the night previous.
Mr. Flinks, then, sat leaning against a tree in the gardens of Selwoode, some thirty feet from the wall that stands between Selwoode and Gridlington, and nursed his pride and foot, both injured in that high debate of last evening, and with a jackknife rounded off the top of a substantial staff designed to alleviate his present lameness.
Meanwhile, he tempered his solitude with music, whistling melodiously the air of a song that pertained to the sacredness of home and of a white-haired mother.
Subsequently to c.o.c.k-eye Flinks (as the playbill has it), enter a vision in violet ruffles.
Wide-eyed, she came upon him in her misery, steadily trudging toward an unknown goal. I think he startled her a bit. Indeed, it must be admitted that Mr. Flinks, while a man of undoubted talent in his particular line of business, was, like many of your great geniuses, in outward aspect unprepossessing and misleading; for whereas he looked like a very shiftless and very dirty tramp, he was as a matter of fact as vile a rascal as ever p.a.w.ned a swinish soul for whiskey.
"What are you doing here?" said Margaret, sharply. "Don"t you know this is private property?"
To his feet rose c.o.c.k-eye Flinks. "Lady," said he, with humbleness, "you wouldn"t be hard on a poor workingman, would you? It ain"t my fault I"m here, lady--at least, it ain"t rightly my fault. I just climbed over the wall to rest a minute--just a minute, lady, in the shade of these beautiful trees. I ain"t a-hurting n.o.body by that, lady, I hope."
"Well, you had no business to do it," Miss Hugonin pointed out, "and you can just climb right back." Then she regarded him more intently, and her face softened somewhat. "What"s the matter with your foot?"
she demanded.
"Brakesman," said Mr. Flinks, briefly. "Threw me off a train. He struck me cruel hard, he did, and me a poor workingman trying to make my way to New York, lady, where my poor old mother"s dying, lady, and me out of a job. Ah, it"s a hard, hard world, lady--and me her only son--and he struck me cruel, cruel hard, he did, but I forgive him for it, lady. Ah, lady, you"re so beautiful I know you"re got a kind, good heart, lady. Can"t you do something for a poor workingman, lady, with a poor dying mother--and a poor, sick wife," Mr. Flinks added as a dolorous afterthought; and drew nearer to her and held out one hand appealingly.
Petheridge Jukesbury had at divers times pointed out to her the evils of promiscuous charity, and these dicta Margaret parroted glibly enough, to do her justice, so long as there was no immediate question of dispensing alms. But for all that the next whining beggar would move her tender heart, his glib inventions playing upon it like a fiddle, and she would give as recklessly as though there were no such things in the whole wide world as soup-kitchens and organised charities and common-sense. "Because, you know," she would afterward salve her conscience, "I _couldn"t_ be sure he didn"t need it, whereas I was _quite_ sure I didn"t."