Others had risen early that morning. Leone had not slept well, for this July morning, which was to bring such mingled joy and sorrow to others, was a day of deepest emotion to her.
Her love-dream was to be realized. She was to marry the ardent young lover who swore that he would not live without her.
She had thought more of her love than of the worldly advantages it would bring her. She had not thought much of those until they stood, on the evening before their wedding-day, once more by the mill-stream. It was bright moonlight, for the smiling summer day was dead. It was their farewell to the beautiful spot they both loved.
"I am so glad," said Lord Chandos, "that we can say good-bye to it by the light of the moon. I wonder, Leone, when we shall see the mill-stream again? I have a fancy that the pretty water has helped me in my wooing."
As they sat there the wind rose and stirred the branches of the alder-trees. In some way the great wavy ma.s.ses of dark hair became unfastened, and fell like a thick soft veil over Leone"s shoulders. Lord Chandos touched it caressingly with his hand.
"What beautiful hair, Leone--how thick and soft; how beautiful those wavy lines are--what makes them?"
"A turn of Dame Nature"s fingers," she replied, laughingly.
"I should like to see diamonds shining in these coils of hair," he said.
"Leone, one of the first things we must do to-morrow when we reach London, is to buy a very handsome traveling-dress. I have written to-day to my father to ask him to meet us at Dunmore House."
She repeated the words.
"Where is Dunmore House?" she asked.
"I forgot," he said, "that all places so familiar to me are strange to you. One of my father"s t.i.tles is Baron Dunmore, and his London residence is called Dunmore House. We shall meet him there to-morrow, and then you will be my wife."
For the first time she realized what an immense difference there was in their positions. She glanced at him in sudden fear.
"Lance," she said, "shall I seem very much out of place in your home, and among your friends?"
"My darling, you would grace any home," he replied; "mine has had no fairer mistress in all the generations it has stood."
"I am half frightened," she said, gently.
"You need not be, sweet. Before this time next year all London will know and admire the beautiful Lady Chandos."
"It seems a long leap to take in life," she said, "from being Farmer Noel"s niece to bear the name of Lady Chandos."
"You will grace the name, Leone," he replied. "I shall be the proudest man in England--I shall have the most beautiful wife in England. This is our last separation, our last parting; after this, we need never part."
He stooped down and caught some of the running water in his hand.
"A libation," he said, as he poured it back again. "I feel as though I were losing a friend when I leave the mill-stream."
Loving and loved, no thought came to them there of how they should see the mill-stream again.
"Leone, Lady Chandos." More than once that evening she said those words to herself. It was after eight when she came in, and the farmer had long finished his supper; he sat thinking over his pipe.
"You are late, my lady la.s.s," he said; "sit down and talk to me before I go to rest."
Obediently enough, she sat down while he told her the history of his visits to the different markets. She heard, but did not take in the sense of one single word he uttered. She was saying to herself over and over again, that by this time to-morrow she should be Lady Chandos. Her happiness would have been complete if she could have told her uncle. He had been so kind to her. They were opposite as light and darkness, they had not one idea in common, yet he had been good to her and she loved him. She longed to tell him of her coming happiness and grandeur, but she did not dare to break her word.
Robert Noel looked up in wonder. There was his beautiful niece kneeling at his feet, her eyes dim with tears.
"Uncle," she was saying, "look at me, listen to me. I want to thank you.
I want you always to remember that on this night I knelt at your feet and thanked you with a grateful heart for all you have ever done for me."
"Why, my lady la.s.s," he replied, "you have always been to me as a child of my own," he replied.
"A tiresome child," she said, half laughing, half crying. "See. I take this dear, brown hand, so hard with work, and I kiss it, uncle, and thank you from my heart."
He could not recover himself, so to speak. He looked at her in blank, wordless amazement.
"In the years to come," she continued, "when you think of me, you must say to yourself, that, no matter what I did, I loved you."
"No matter what you did you loved me," he repeated. "Yes, I shall remember that."
She kissed the toil-worn face, leaving him so entirely bewildered that the only fear was lest he might sit up all night trying to forget it.
Then she went to her room, but not to sleep--her heart beat, every pulse thrilled. This was to be the last night in her old home--the last of her girlish life; to-morrow she would be Lady Chandos--wife of the young lover whom she loved with all her heart and soul.
The birds woke her with their song, it was their wedding-day. She would not see Robert Noel again; he took his breakfast before six and went off to the fields again. She had but to dress herself and go to the station.
Oheton was some three miles from the station, but on a summer"s morning that was a trifle.
They were all three there at last--Sir Frank looking decidedly vexed and cross, Lord Chandos happy as the day was long, and Leone beautiful as a picture.
"Look," said the young lordling to his friend, "have I no excuse?"
Sir Frank looked long and earnestly at the beautiful southern face.
"Yes," he replied; "so far as beauty and grace can form an excuse, you have one; but, Lance, if I loved that girl a thousand times better than my life, I should not marry her."
"Why?" asked Lord Chandos, with a laugh.
"Because she has a tragedy in her life. She could not be happy. She will neither have a happy life nor a happy death."
"My dear Frank, do not prophesy such evil on our wedding-day."
"I do not mean to prophesy, I say what I think; it is a beautiful face, full of poetry and pa.s.sion, but it is also full of power and unrest."
"You shall not look at her again if you say such things," cried Lord Chandos.
And then the good vicar, still distressed at being aroused so early, came to the church. Had it been less pitiful and pathetic, it would have been most comical, the number of times the old vicar dropped his book, forgot the names, the appalling mistakes he made, the nervous hesitation of his manner. Sometimes Lord Chandos felt inclined to say hard, hot words; again, he could not repress a smile. But at length, after trembling and hesitating, the vicar gave the final benediction, and p.r.o.nounced them man and wife.
In the vestry, when the names were signed, some ray of light seemed to dawn on the old vicar.
"Chandos," he said, "that is not a common name about here."
"Is it not?" said the young lord; "it seems common enough to me."
"Chandos," repeated the minister, "where have I heard that name!"
"I have heard it so often that I am tired of it," said the young husband.