Ruxton was still sitting on the heather, but his eyes were wide with astonished admiration, and his clean-shaven lips were parted, which added to his whole expression of incredulous amazement.
The woman standing before him was no vagrant, unless a vagrant could possess a queenly presence, and an attire which suggested the best efforts of London or Paris. He stared, stared as might some schoolboy budding into manhood at the sight of a perfect womanhood. Then, in a moment, questions raced through his head. Who was she, and where--where did she come from? What freak of fortune had set her wandering those cliffs alone--and at night?
She was beautifully tall and crowned with a royal wealth of hair which remained hatless. Its color was not certain in the moonlight, but Ruxton felt that it must be red-gold. He could think of no other color which could match such a presence. Her figure, sharply outlined in the moonlight, was superb. It suggested all he had ever seen in those ardent dreams of youth. Her face possessed something of the reflected glory of the moon lit by eyes whose color was hidden from him, but which shone like great dull jewels full of a living fire.
All these things he realized in one swift comprehensive glance. But in another moment his whole attention was absorbed by the rich voice, the tones of which were like the softest music of some foreign southern land.
"It is scarcely fair to blame the night," she said, in smiling protest.
All unprepared for the encounter Ruxton had nothing but a stupid monosyllable to offer.
"No," he said, and a sigh somehow escaped him.
Then, in a moment, the blood was set swiftly pulsating through his veins.
"May I sit down?" the woman enquired. "I have had a long walk, and am a little tired," she added in explanation.
But she waited for no permission. And somehow Ruxton felt that her expression of weariness was far below the mark. She appeared quite exhausted.
"You are more than a _little_ tired," he said, with urgent solicitude.
Now that her face was nearer to his level he could see that she was indeed very, very beautiful. Her eyes were large and almost oriental in their shape. Her cheeks were as delicate as the petals of a lily. The contour of her whole face was a perfect oval with just sufficient lengthening to give it character.
She did not deny him. But a smile lit her eyes.
"This is delicious," she said, with a sigh of content, turning her face towards the sea, and drinking in deep draughts of fresh, salt air.
Ruxton endeavored to gather his faculties, which had been completely scattered by the thrilling shock of the encounter. He felt himself to be like a callow youth of seventeen rather than a man of over thirty-five, a man whose public life had made intercourse with women of society a matter of every day.
"You have had a long walk?" he enquired wonderingly. "But at night? On these cliffs? You are ten miles from Dorby, and there is no habitation between--except Dorby Towers. Beyond this there is a village or two, but no railway for miles." He had made up his mind that she did not belong to this district. Her costume was still in his thoughts.
"I did not come from Dorby. Nor from any of those villages. Still, I have had a long walk. I have been on my feet nearly three hours."
As she offered no further explanation Ruxton urged her.
"Will you not explain--more?"
"Is it needed?"
The woman faced round, and her Eastern eyes were smiling frankly into his.
Ruxton had no alternative. He desired none. The situation had suddenly gripped him. He was caught in its toils, and delighted that it was so.
This woman"s beauty, her frank unconventionality, were wholly charming.
He asked nothing better than that she should satisfy her whim, and sit there, beside him, talking--talking of what she pleased so long as he listened to the rich music in her voice, and could watch the play of her beautiful, mobile features.
"No," he said deliberately. "There is no need." Then he made a comprehensive gesture with one hand. "The night is beautiful, it is a night of romance and adventure. Let us forget there are such things as conventionality, and just--talk. Let us talk as this silver night prompts. Let us try and forget that painful thought which daylight brings us all. As you say, the night is the time of truth, while daylight demands the subterfuge which conceals it."
But the woman did not respond to his invitation. A little pucker of sudden distress marred her brows.
"Conventionality. I had forgotten," she said. Then her manner became suddenly earnest. She leant slightly forward, and her shining eyes warned Ruxton of the genuineness of their appeal. "Yes, I had truly forgotten," she went on. "Will you--will you forget for the moment there is the difference of s.e.x between us? Will you forget that I am a woman who has wilfully thrust her presence upon a man, a stranger, and laid herself open to a dreadful interpretation of her actions? Will you simply regard me as some one who is striving to unravel those tangled skeins, which, just now, seem to be enveloping a helpless humanity, and, in her effort, has sought out the only man whom she feels can help her--Mr. Ruxton Farlow, the man who will one day rise to be a great ruler in his country?"
"You sought me out?" enquired Ruxton, ignoring the tribute so frankly spoken.
"That is why I have been on my feet for three hours. Will you do as I have asked?"
The charm of this beautiful creature was greater than the man knew. The situation, as she put it, was wholly impossible. Yet her fascination was such that he was impelled to hold out his hand.
"For the time, at least, we are comrades in a common cause," he said, smiling. "My hand on it."
The woman laid a white-gloved hand in his, and the thought in the man"s mind was regret at the necessity for gloves.
Ruxton stretched himself out on the heather again. This time he was on his side, supporting his head upon his hand and facing her. The moon was shining full down upon her uncovered hair, and illuminating the perfect features which held the man"s gaze.
"And now for the tangled skein," he said with attempted lightness, while his eyes lit whimsically.
"Ruxton Farlow doesn"t need a woman to point the dreadful tangle in which humanity is involved--just now. He knows more of the threads than perhaps any man of his country. He was thinking of them when he was run to earth here upon this scented waste of Nature"s riot. He was probably pulling apart the wretched threads himself, seeking hope in his endeavor, hope for the future, hope for the future of this land we both love, and for its people. Doubtless he, as others, has found the task something more than arduous, and no doubt he has searched the scene that lies below him, yearning for that peace of mind which oblivion has yielded in recent days to so many souls which have pa.s.sed beneath the shining surface which encircles this iron-bound coast."
Ruxton"s eyes devoured the entrancing animation which accompanied the words. An added amazement had leapt within him. She had fathomed his secret feelings as his eyes had searched the surface of the shimmering summer sea. Her understanding was even more uncanny than had been her sudden apparition. Who was she? he kept reiterating to himself. Who?
And where did she come from?
"I felt all that," he found himself saying.
"I know. I have felt it all, too. But your feeling had no inspiration in cowardice. It is the mind of the imaginative that sees an exaggeration in all that offends the sensibilities. It is the mind that distorts with painful fancy the threat which has not yet fallen. It is the mind which is inspired by a heart strong with hope, which in its turn owes its inspiration to a spirit possessed of a great power to do.
Of such spirit are the leaders of men. Their mental agony is theirs alone, they suffer and do for those others who do not possess power to do for themselves."
The woman"s eyes were turned upon the distant horizon again. Their gaze was introspective, and she talked as she thought, regardless for the time of the man beside her.
But he was more mindful. No word of hers was lost upon him. He was marvelling at her depth of understanding, he was marvelling at her simplicity of expression. And, through it all, he was noting and endeavoring to place that suggestion of foreign intonation in her perfect English accent. More and more was this splendid creature becoming an enigma. More and more was he becoming absorbed in her, and more surely was his promise of simple comradeship becoming an impossibility.
"And the threat--which inspires these phantasms?" he said, as the musical tones ceased, and the murmur of the sea came up to them in their eyrie.
"It is a reality."
Ruxton stirred. He sat up once more, and his gaze, for the moment, left the beautiful profile, and wandered towards the eastern horizon.
"I know," he said simply.
"I have seen," came the impressive rejoinder.
Ruxton"s eyes came back to the woman"s face.
"Will you tell me?"
His request was made without a shadow of excitement. That was his way when confronted with a crisis. Now he understood why she had worn herself to weariness for three hours on her feet. But for all the interest of the moment his mind was still questioning--Who?
"The telling would be worthless. It would convey simply--words. There is better than telling."
"But the world is at peace now," Ruxton suggested.