"No! no! It is nothing," says she, with a little laugh that is full of pain. She makes a movement that almost repulses him. "But I am your friend, if nothing else; and the world--the world is beginning to talk about you, Maurice!"
"About me!"
He has drawn back with a sharp pang. She sees that this new idea that touches him, or that little fool (as she has designated t.i.ta in her mind), has destroyed his interest in her for the moment.
"Yes! Be warned in time."
"Who is daring to talk about me?"
"Not about you directly; but about Lady Rylton."
Some strange feeling compels him to put a fresh question for her, though he knows what the answer will be.
"My mother?"
"This is unworthy of you," says Marian slowly. "No; I meant t.i.ta!"
CHAPTER XXIII.
HOW MARIAN FIGHTS FOR MASTERY; AND HOW THE BATTLE GOES; AND HOW CHANCE BEFRIENDS THE ENEMY.
"t.i.ta! You wrong her!" says he. "Why speak of her? You should not; you always disliked her."
"True." She is silent for a moment, looking down into the silent garden. Then she lifts her head, and gazes straight at him. "You know why I disliked her. You must! You--you only. Some instinct from the very first warned me against her. I knew. I _knew_ she would rob me of all that life had left me. I knew"--with a quick, long sob--"she would take _you_ from me!"
Rylton, who has been leaning on the railings beside her, raises himself, and stands staring at her, a terrible anguish in his eyes.
"Marian--think," says he hoa.r.s.ely.
"Oh, _why_ did you marry her?" cries she, smiting her hands together as if half distracted. "There was always so much time--time!"
"There was none."
"There is always time!" She is silent for a moment, and then, with an increase of pa.s.sion in her tone, repeats her question: "Why did you marry her?"
_"You_--to ask me that!" exclaims he fiercely.
"It was not like you," says she, interrupting him in a measure, as though unable to keep back the words, the accusations, that are rushing to her lips. "I have known you so long--so long. Ah! I thought I knew you. I believed you faithful. I believed you many things. But, at all events"--with a sad and desolate reproach--"I never believed you fond of money."
"Marian!" She has laid her hand upon his arm, and now he flings it from him. "That _you_ should accuse _me!_ Money! What was money to me in comparison with your love? But you--you----"
He does not go on: it is so hard to condemn her. He is looking at her in the tender light with eyes that seek to read her heart, and he is very pale. She can see that, in spite of the warm, pink glow of the lamps behind them.
"Well--and I?" questions she, with deep agitation.
How handsome he is! how lovable! Oh for the good sweet past she has so madly flung aside!
"You refused me," says he slowly, "you, on whom my soul was set."
"For your own good," in a stifled voice.
"Don"t repeat that wretched formula," exclaims he vehemently. "It means nothing. It was not for my good. It was for my d.a.m.nation, I think. You see how things are going."
He stops abruptly here, as if thinking of something, and she knows and resents the knowledge that his mind has gone back to t.i.ta--resents it, though his thought has been condemnatory of his wife. Why can"t he forget her altogether?
"Yes I meant it for your good," says she, in a whisper.
Her heart is beating wildly.
"You refused me," persists he, in a dull tone. "That is all I remember. You refused me--how many times?"
She turns away from him.
"Once too often, at all events," replies she, in a low, wretched voice.
She makes a movement as if to go back to the lighted rooms beyond, but he catches her and compels her to stay with him.
"What do you mean?" demands he sternly. "To say _that_ to me--and now--now, when it is too late."
"Too late, indeed!" echoes she.
Her voice sounds like the voice of one dying. She covers her face with her hands. He knows that she is crying. Very gently he takes down one of the hands and holds it between both his own, and presses it to his lips. How dear she has always been to him! He realizes in this moment how dear she still _is._
"Marian, have pity on me," says he hoa.r.s.ely. "I have suffered a great deal. And your tears----"
"My tears! They will avail me nothing," says she bitterly. "When _you_ have forsaken me, what is left?"
_ "Have_ I forsaken you?" He pauses, as if to control the agitation that is threatening to overcome him. "When all I cared for was lost to me," he goes on presently, his eyes upon the ground, "when you had told me that marriage between us was impossible, then one thing remained, and one only--ambition. The old place had been ours for two centuries--it had its claim on me. If love was not to be my portion, I felt I might as well do all I could for the old name--the old place."
"And your wife? Was that honourable towards _her?"_ She smiles, but her smile is a sneer. "After all, she would not care," says she.
"She carried her point! She has compelled you to raise her from the mud to the sky!"
Rylton draws back suddenly. All at once recollection comes to him.
His wife! Yes, t.i.ta _is_ his wife, and honour binds him to her. He drops Mrs. Bethune"s hand.
"I have been quite honourable," says he coldly. "I arranged matters with her. She knows--she is content to know--that----"
"What?" Mrs. Bethune has felt the change in his manner ever since she mentioned t.i.ta"s name. "That you once loved me!"
"No," frowning, "I have not told her that."
"Ah!" cries she, with a sort of pa.s.sionate relief, "I thank you for that, even though your love for me may now be dead. I thank you for that; and as for your wife, what is she to you?"
"She is my _wife!"_ returns he gloomily. "I shall remember that--always!"