Braddock cast a swift look at his questioner.
"I shall find the peculiar mode of Peruvian embalming," he replied abruptly, and somehow the way in which he spoke gave Hope the impression that the answer was an excuse. But before he could formulate the thought that Braddock was concealing something, Mrs. Jasher spoke frivolously.
"I hope your mummy has jewels," she said.
"It has not," replied Braddock sharply. "So far as I know, the Inca race never buried their dead with jewels."
"But I have read in Prescott"s History that they did," said Hope.
"Prescott! Prescott!" cried the Professor contemptuously, "a most unreliable authority. However, I"ll promise you one thing, Hope, that if there are any jewels, or jewelry, you shall have the lot."
"Give me some, Mr. Hope," cried the widow.
"I cannot," laughed Archie; "the green mummy belongs to the Professor."
"I cannot accept such a gift, Hope. Owing to circ.u.mstances I have been obliged to borrow the money from you; otherwise the mummy would have been acquired by some one else. But when I find the tomb of Queen Tahoser, I shall repay the loan."
"You have repaid it already," said Hope, looking at Lucy.
Braddock"s eyes followed his gaze and his brows contracted. "Humph!" he muttered, "I don"t know if I am right in consenting to Lucy"s marriage with a pauper."
"Oh, father!" cried the girl, "Archie is not a pauper."
"I have enough for Lucy and me to live on," said Hope, although his face had flushed, "and, had I been a pauper I could not have given you that thousand pounds."
"You will be repaid--you will be repaid," said Braddock, waving his hand to dismiss the subject. "And now," he rose with a yawn, "if this tedious feast is at an end, I shall again seek my work."
Without a word of apology to the disgusted Mrs. Jasher, he trotted to the door, and there paused.
"By the way, Lucy," he said, turning, "I had a letter to-day from Random. He returns in his yacht to Pierside in two or three days. In fact, his arrival will coincide with that of The Diver."
"I don"t see what his arrival has to do with me," said Lucy tartly.
"Oh, nothing at all--nothing at all," said Braddock airily, "only I thought--that is, but never mind, never mind. c.o.c.katoo, come down with me. Good night! Good night!" and he disappeared.
"Well," said Mrs. Jasher, drawing along breath, "for rudeness and selfishness, commend me to a scientist. We might be all mud, for what notice he takes of us."
"Never mind," said Miss Kendal, rising, "come to the drawing-room and have some music. Archie, will you stop here?"
"No. I don"t care to sit over my wine alone," said that young gentleman, rising. "I shall accompany you and Mrs. Jasher. And Lucy," he stopped her at the door, through which the widow had already pa.s.sed, "what did your father mean by his hints concerning Random?"
"I think he regrets giving his consent to my marriage with you," she whispered back. "Did you not hear him talk about that tomb? He desires to get money for the expedition."
"From Random? What rubbish! Sooner than that--if our marriage is stopped by the beastly business--I"ll sell out and--"
"You"ll do nothing of the sort," interrupted the girl imperiously; "we must live if we marry. You have given my father enough."
"But if Random lends money for this expedition?"
"He does so at his own risk. I am not going to marry Sir Frank because of my step-father"s requirements. He has no rights over me, and, whether he consents or not, I marry you."
"My darling!" and Archie kissed her before they followed Mrs. Jasher into the drawing-room. All the same, he foresaw trouble.
CHAPTER IV. THE UNEXPECTED
For the next two or three days, Archie felt decidedly, worried over his projected marriage with Lucy. Certainly he had--to put it bluntly--purchased Braddock"s consent, and that gentleman could scarcely draw back from his plighted word, which had cost the lover so much.
Nevertheless, Hope did not entirely, trust the Professor, as, from the few words which he had let drop at the dinner party, it was plain that he hankered after money with which to fit out the expedition in search of the mysterious tomb to which he had alluded. Archie knew, as did the Professor, that he could not supply the necessary five thousand pounds without practically ruining himself, and already he had crippled his resources in paying over the price of the green mummy. He had fondly believed that Braddock would have been satisfied with the relic of Peruvian humanity; but it seemed that the Professor, having got what he wanted, now clamored for what was at present beyond his reach. The mummy was his property, but he desired the contents of Queen Tahoser"s tomb also. This particular moon, which he cried for, was a very expensive article, and Hope did not see how he could gain it.
Unless--and here came in the cause of Archie"s worry--unless the five thousand pounds was borrowed from Sir Frank Random, the Professor would have to content himself with the Maltese mummy. But from what the young man had seen of Braddock"s longing for the especial sepulchre, which he desired to loot, he believed that the scientist would not readily surrender his whim. Random could easily lend or give the money, since he was extremely rich, and extremely generous, but it was improbable that he would aid Braddock without a quid pro quo. As the sole desire of the baronet"s heart was to make Lucy his wife, it could easily be guessed that he would only a.s.sist the Professor to realize his ambition on condition that the savant used his influence with his step-daughter.
That meant the breaking of the engagement with Hope and the marriage of the girl to the soldier. Of course such a state of things would make Lucy unhappy; but Braddock cared very little for that. To gratify his craze for Egyptian research, he would be willing to sacrifice a dozen girls like Lucy.
Undoubtedly Lucy would refuse to be pa.s.sed along from one man to another like a bale of goods, and Archie knew that, so far as in her lay, she would keep to her engagement, especially as she denied Braddock"s right to dispose of her hand. All the same, the Professor, in spite of his cherubical looks, could make himself extremely disagreeable, and undoubtedly would do so if thwarted. The sole course that remained, should Braddock begin operations to break the present engagement, would be to marry Lucy at once. Archie would willingly have done so, but pecuniary difficulties stood in the way. He had never told any one of these, not even the girl he loved, but they existed all the same. For many years he had been a.s.sisting needy relatives, and thus had hampered himself, in spite of his income. By sheer force of will, so as to force Braddock into giving him Lucy, he had contrived to secure the necessary thousand pounds, without confusing the arrangements he had made to pay off certain debts connected with his domestic philanthropy; but this brought him to the end of his resources. In six months he hoped to be free to have his income entirely to himself, and then--small as it was--he could support a wife. But until the half year elapsed he could see no chance of marrying Lucy with any degree of comfort, and meanwhile she would be exposed to the persecutions of the Professor. Perhaps persecutions is too harsh a word, as Braddock was kind enough to the girl. Nevertheless, he was pertinacious in gaining his aims where his pet hobby was concerned, and undoubtedly, could he see any chance of obtaining the money from Random by selling his step-daughter, he would do so. a.s.suredly it was dishonorable to act in this way, but the Professor was a scientific Jesuit, and deemed that the end justified the means, when any glory to himself and gain to the British Museum was in question.
"But I may be doing him an injustice," said Archie, when he was explaining his fears to Miss Kendal on the third day after the dinner party. "After all, the Professor is a gentleman, and will probably hold to the bargain which he has made."
"I don"t care whether he does or not," cried Lucy, who had a fine color and a certain amount of fire in her eyes. "I am not going to be bought and sold to forward these nasty scientific schemes. My father can say what he likes and do what he likes, but I marry you--to-morrow if you like."
"That"s just it," said Archie, flushing, "we can"t marry."
"Why?" she asked, much astonished.
Hope looked at the ground and drew patterns with his cane-point in the sand. They were seated in the hot sunshine--for the Indian summer still continued--under a moldering brick wall, which ran around the most delightful of kitchen gardens. This was situated at the back of the Pyramids, and contained a multiplicity of pot herbs and fruit trees and vegetables. It resembled the Fairy Garden in Madame D"Alnoy"s story of The White Cat, and in the autumn yielded a plentiful crop of fine-flavored fruit. But now the trees were bare and the garden looked somewhat forlorn for lack of greenery. But in spite of the lateness of the season, Lucy often brought a book to read under the glowing wall, and there ripened like a peach in the warm sunshine. On this occasion she brought Archie into the old-world garden, as he had hinted at confidences. And the time had come to speak plainly, as Hope began to think that he had not treated Lucy quite fairly in hiding from her his momentarily embarra.s.sed position.
"Why can"t we marry at once?" asked Lucy, seeing that her lover held his peace and looked confused.
Hope did not reply directly. "I had better release you from your engagement," he said haltingly.
"Oh!" Lucy"s nostrils dilated and she threw back her head scornfully.
"And the other woman"s name?"
"There is no other woman. I love you and you only. But--money."
"What about money? You have your income!"
"Oh yes--that is sure, small as it is. But I have incurred debts on behalf of an uncle and his family. These have embarra.s.sed me for the moment, and so I cannot see my way to marrying you for at least six months, Lucy." He caught her hand. "I feel ashamed of myself that I did not tell you of this before. But I feared to lose you. Yet, on reflection, I see that it is dishonorable to keep you in the dark, and if you think that I have behaved badly--"
"Well, I do in a way," she interrupted quickly, "as your silence was quite unnecessary. Don"t treat me as a doll, my dear. I wish to share your troubles as well as your joys. Come, tell me all about it."
"You are not angry?"
"Yes, I am--at your thinking I loved you so little as to be biased against our marriage because of money troubles. Pooh!" she flicked away a speck of dust from his coat, "I don"t care that for such things."
"You are an angel," he cried ardently.