He escorted me to the door, and walked in silence with me down a broad walk, bordered on either side by stately trees, till we came to his gates. He looked up at the venerable trees, then pointed to the tarnished coronets that crowned the ironwork, itself rather rusty.
"A fresh coat of paint wanted!" he observed with his chilly smile--and I really did not know whether his remark involved a reference to our previous conversation or not.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "_A fresh coat of paint wanted!_"]
CHAPTER XXVI
PEDIGREE AND BIOGRAPHY
The forms were observed most punctiliously; but before the forms began came Lacey, hot from his talk with Fillingford, amazed, almost bewildered, protesting against Jenny"s excessive munificence, pa.s.sionately anxious that she should be sure that he had not foreseen it.
"And how can you believe I never thought of it, when it"s just what I ought to have thought of--just the sort of thing you would be sure to want to do?"
"I haven"t forgotten your appalling misery, if you have," she retorted, smiling. "I was really afraid you"d kill yourself before Austin had time to get to the Manor. It was quite convincing as to your innocence of my wicked designs, believe me!"
"But I can"t possibly accept it," he declared. "It"s so overwhelming!"
"You"re not asked to accept a farthing, so you needn"t be the least overwhelmed. I give it to Margaret. No bride is to go from Breysgate without a dowry, Amyas. Come, you"d put up with ten times as much overwhelming for her sake." She threatened him playfully: "You can"t have her with any less--so take your choice!"
"Well, we shall always know who it is that we owe everything to." He took her hand and kissed it. She looked at his handsome bowed head for a moment.
"If you ever do think of anybody in that sort of way, try not to think of me only."
Standing upright again, he looked at her gravely. "I know what you mean." He flushed a little and hesitated. "I hope you know that--that he and I parted--that day--in a--a friendly way?"
"I know it--and I"m very glad," she said. "That"s all about the past, Amyas, in words at least. Keep your thoughts as kind as you can--and be very gentle to Margaret when she wants to talk about him. That"s a good return to me, if you want to make any. And love my Margaret."
"My love is for her. My homage is for you always--and all the affection you"ll take with it," he said soberly. "It"s little she"d think of me if that wasn"t so," he added with a smile.
Then came the forms, but the first of them--Fillingford"s coming--was no mere form to Jenny. She was not afraid or perturbed, as she had been about meeting Alison--she had done with confession--but she was grave, and preoccupied with it. She bade me look out for him and bring him to her in the library. "You must leave us alone, and we"ll join you at tea in the garden afterwards. Take care that Margaret is there when we come."
Nothing can be known of what words pa.s.sed between them, but Jenny gave a general description of their conversation--it was not a long one, lasting perhaps fifteen minutes. "He met me as if he"d never met me before, he talked to me as if he"d never talked to me before. He was a most courteous new acquaintance, hoping that our common interest in the pair would be a bond of friendship between us. I followed the same line--and there we were! But I couldn"t have done it of myself. I tried to thank him for that--that sort of message you gave me from him. The first word sent him straight back into the deepest recesses of his sh.e.l.l--and I said, "Come and see Margaret.""
"Oh, you"ll make better friends than that some day." I had no strong hope of my words coming true.
"You seem to have got nearer to him than I ever could. His shield"s up against--Eleanor Lacey! But he was kind to Margaret, wasn"t he?"
Yes, he had been kind to Margaret. He took her hand and looked in her eyes, then gravely kissed her on the forehead. "We must be friends, Margaret," he said. "I know how much my boy loves you, and you are going to take his mother"s place in my family." There was the same curious quality of careful deliberation as usual--the old absence of any touch of spontaneity--the same weighing out of just the right measure; but he was obviously sincere. He looked on her young beauty with a kindly liking, and answered the appeal in her eyes by taking her hand between both his and pressing it gently. Margaret looked round to Jenny with a smile of glad shy triumph. Amyas came and put his arm through his father"s.
"We three are going to be jolly good friends," he said.
Far more stately was the next ceremonial--the one that was, by my stipulation, to follow a few days later; yet I am afraid that we at Breysgate did not take Lady Sarah"s coming half so seriously as she took it herself. She had disapproved of us so strongly before there was--to her knowledge at least--any good ground for disapproval that her later censures, however well-grounded, had lost weight. Sinners cannot take much to heart the blame of those who have always expected to see them do wrong and come to grief--and clapped themselves on the back as good prophets over the event!
Here was no private interview. The whole of her adherents surrounded Jenny in the big drawing-room. Lady Sarah was announced by Loft--himself highly conscious of the ceremonial nature of the occasion. With elaborate courtesy Jenny walked to the door to meet her, spoke her greeting, and led her to one of two large arm-chairs placed close to one another; it was really like the meeting of a pair of monarchs, lately at war but bound to appear unconscious of the disagreeable incidents of the strife. Now peace was to be patched up by marriage. Margaret was called from her place in the surrounding circle. She came--and with courage. We had, I fear, deliberately worked her up to the resolution of being, from the very beginning, not afraid of Lady Sarah--pointing out that any signs of fear now would foreshadow and entail slavery for life. "You"ll get on much better if you stand up for yourself," Amyas himself a.s.sured her.
Margaret stood, awaiting welcome. Lady Sarah put on her eyegla.s.ses, made a careful inspection of her prospective niece, but offered no comment whatever on her appearance. She dropped the gla.s.ses from her nose again, and remarked, "I"m glad to become acquainted with you. I"m sure that you intend to make Amyas a good wife and to do your duty in your new station. Kiss me!" She turned her cheek to Margaret, who achieved the salute with grace but, it must be confessed, without enthusiasm. Lady Sarah did not return it.
"There will be a great deal to do and think of at Oxley," she pursued, "but I shall be very glad to a.s.sist you in every way."
"But there"ll be nothing to do, Lady Sarah. Jenny"s doing everything--every single thing."
"I"m going to give them a few sticks to start housekeeping on," said Jenny, with a lurking smile.
"Old houses have a style of their own; one learns it by living in one,"
Lady Sarah observed. Oxley was old--so was Fillingford Manor. Breysgate was hardly middle-aged in comparison. Lady Sarah cast a glance round its regrettable newness; Jenny"s refurnishing had not availed to obliterate all traces of that.
"I"m not following this model," said Jenny. "I"m taking the best advice--though I"m sure Margaret will be very glad of anything you can tell her."
"Of course I shall, Lady Sarah. But the people Jenny"s going to are really the best people in the trade--they know all about it."
"When you have seen the Manor--" Lady Sarah began impressively, but Lacey--who had been, the moment before, in lamentable difficulties between a yawn and a smile--cut in:
"Ah, now when shall she come and see the Manor?"
Lady Sarah was prepared with an invitation for the next day: that was another of the forms, to be carried out precisely, as Fillingford had undertaken. She turned to Jenny. "You"ve seen it, of course, Miss Driver?"
Jenny nodded serenely. Amyas flushed again--his fair skin betrayed every pa.s.sing feeling--as he said, "We shall be delighted if we can induce Miss Driver to come, all the same."
"Oh, very delighted, very, I"m sure," agreed Lady Sarah.
"You"ll enjoy showing it to Margaret all by yourself much better," said Jenny to Amyas. "I"ll come another day soon, and have tea with Lady Sarah, if she"ll let me."
"Very delighted, very," Lady Sarah repeated.
She rose to take leave; this time she did herself kiss Margaret on the cheek. I think we were all waiting to see whether, in her opinion, the terms of the treaty demanded a kiss for Jenny also. Lady Sarah decided in the negative; Jenny"s particularly erect head, as she held out her hand, may have aided--and certainly welcomed--the conclusion. We escorted her to her carriage with most honorable ceremony. Then we sighed relief--save Chat, who had been, from a modest background, an admiring spectator of the scene. "She"s not very effusive," said Chat, "but she has the grand manner, hasn"t she, Mr. Austin?"
"I never knew what it really meant till to-day, Miss Chatters."
"She probably never hated anything so much in her whole life," Jenny remarked to me, when we were next alone together, "so it"s really hardly fair to criticise her manner. But I rejoice from the bottom of my heart that she didn"t think it necessary to kiss me."
"Since you escaped this time, I should think you might escape altogether."
"Well, the wedding day will be a point of danger," she reminded me, "but I"m pretty safe against its becoming habitual. We both hate the idea of it too much for that."
Then--a week later--came the public announcement, made duly and in due form in the _Times and Herald_: "Between Lord Lacey, son and heir of the Right Honorable the Earl of Fillingford, and Margaret, daughter of the late Leonard Octon, Esq." The sensation is not to be described. So many things were explained, so many mysteries cleared up! Folks knew now why Lacey had been so much at Breysgate, Sir John Aspenick learned for whom Oxley Lodge was wanted, and Cartmell understood why he had been forced to disburse that much grudged five hundred pounds for early possession.
For, with the announcement, came an inspired leading article, revealing the main terms of the proposed settlement; a little discretion was exercised as to the exact figures, but enough was said to show that, besides the gift of the Oxley Grange estate as it stood, there were large sums to pa.s.s both now and in the future. Let the parties have been who they might, such a transaction would have commanded the universal attention of the countryside; when it took place between Lord Fillingford"s heir and the late Mr. Octon"s only daughter, people with memories recalled and retold their stories, and found newcomers ready indeed to listen. Once again Jenny filled all Catsford and all the neighborhood with gossip, speculation, and applause.
"I told you you"d have to undo the purse-strings to some style," I said to Cartmell. "What do you think of this, Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer?"
He winked his eye at me solemnly. "It"s great," he said. "What a mind she has! There she"ll sit at Breysgate--with the town under one foot, and Fillingford and Oxley under the other!"
"Hardly that!" I smiled.
"Look what she"s giving now! Aye, and, my boy, think of what she"s still got left to give! If human nature goes on being what it"s been ever since I remember, Miss Driver"s word will be law in both those houses--if not now, in a few years at all events. It"s a lot of money--but it"s not ill-spent. It makes her the queen of the place, Austin!" He laughed in enjoyment. "I wish old Nick Driver could see this! He"d be proud of his daughter."