"Yes. Killed instantaneously. Did you know him?"
"I have met him in business. I wasn"t intimate with him."
"Isn"t he the man whose first wife was killed in a railway accident?"
said Clinton reflectively, glad to have diverted Merefleet"s thoughts. "I thought so. I met her once and was so smitten with her that I purchased her portrait forthwith. The most marvellous woman"s face I ever saw. The man I got it from spoke of her with the most appalling enthusiasm. "Mab Warrender!" he said. "If she is not the loveliest woman in U.S., I guess the next one would strike us blind." Here! I"ll show it you. Netta wants me to frame it."
Clinton got up and took a book from a cupboard. Merefleet was watching him with strained eyes. His heart was thumping as if it would choke him.
He rose as Clinton laid the picture before him, and steadied himself unconsciously by his friend"s shoulder.
Clinton glanced at him in some surprise.
"Hullo!" he said. "A friend of yours, was she? My dear fellow, I"m sorry.
I didn"t know."
But Merefleet hung over the picture with fascinated eyes. And his answer came with a curiously strained laugh, that somehow rang exultant.
"Yes, a friend of mine, old chap," he said. "It"s a wonderful face, isn"t it? But it doesn"t do her justice. I shouldn"t frame it if I were you."
CHAPTER XVI
"Isn"t he a monster?" said Mab, as she sat before the kitchen fire in Quiller"s humble dwelling with Mrs. Quiller"s three months" old baby in her arms. "I guess he"d fetch a prize at a baby show, Mrs. Quiller. Isn"t he just too knowing for anything?"
"He"s the best of the bunch, miss," said Mrs. Quiller proudly. "The other eight, they weren"t nothing special. But this one, he be a beauty, though it ain"t me as should say it. I"m sure it"s very good of you, miss, to spend the time you do over him. He"d be an ungrateful little rogue if he didn"t get on."
"It"s real kind of you to make me welcome," Mab said, with her cheek against the baby"s head, "I don"t know what I"d do if you didn"t."
"Ah! Poor dear! You must be lonesome now the gentleman"s gone," said Mrs.
Quiller commiseratingly.
"Oh, no," said Mab lightly. "Not so very. I couldn"t ask my cousin to give up all his time to me you know. Besides, he would come to see me at any time if I really wanted him."
"Ah!" Mrs. Quiller shook her head. "But it ain"t the same. You wants a home of your own, my dear. That"s what it is. What"s become of t"other gentleman what used to be down here?"
Mab almost laughed at the artlessness of this query.
"Mr. Merefleet, you mean? I don"t know. I guess he"s making some more money."
At this point old Quiller, who had been toddling about in the November sunshine outside, pushed open the door in a state of breathless excitement.
"Here"s Master Bernard coming, missie," he announced.
Mab started to her feet, her face in a sudden, marvellous glow.
"There now!" said Mrs. Quiller, relieving her of her precious burden.
"Who"d have thought it? You"d better go and talk to him."
And Mab stepped out into the soft sunshine. It fell around her in a flood and dazzled her. She stood quite still and waited, till out of the brilliance someone came to her and took her hand. The waves were dashing loudly on the sh.o.r.e. The south wind raced by with a warm rushing. The whole world seemed to laugh. She closed her eyes and laughed with it.
"Is it you, Big Bear?" she said.
And Merefleet"s voice answered her.
"Yes," it said. "I have come for you in earnest this time. You won"t send me away again?"
Mab lifted her face with a glad smile.
"I guess there"s no need," she said. "My dear, I"ll come now."
And they went away together in the sunlight.
"And now I guess I"ll tell you the story of the first Mrs. Ralph Warrender," said Mab, some time later. "I won"t say anything about him, because he"s dead, and if you can"t speak well of the dead,--well it"s better not to speak at all. But she was miserable with him. And after her baby died--it just wasn"t endurable. Then came that railway accident, and she was in it. There were a lot of folks killed, burnt to death most of them. But she escaped, and then the thought came to her just to lie low for a bit and let him think she was dead.
"Oh, it was a real wicked thing to do. But she was nearly demented with trouble. And she did it. She managed to get away, too, in spite of her lovely face. An old negro woman helped her. And she came to England and went to a cousin of hers who had been good to her, whom she knew she could trust--just a plain, square-jawed Englishman, Big Bear, like you in some respects--not smart, oh no--only strong as iron. And he kept her secret, though he didn"t like it a bit. And he gave her some money of hers that he had inherited, to live on. Which was funny, wasn"t it?"
Mab paused to laugh.
"And then another man came along, a great, surly, fogheaded Englishman, who made love to her till she was nearly driven crazy. For though Warrender had married again before she could stop him, she wasn"t free.
But she couldn"t tell him so for the other woman"s sake. It doesn"t matter now. It was a dreadful tangle once. And she felt real bad about it. But it"s come out quite simply. And no one will ever know.
"Now, I"ll tell you a secret, Big Bear, about the woman you know of. You must put your head down for I"ll have to whisper. That"s the way. Now!
She"s just madly in love with you, Big Bear. And she is quite, quite free to tell you so. There! And I reckon she"s not Death"s property any more.
She"s just--yours."
The narrative ended in Merefleet"s arms.
A few weeks later Quiller the younger looked up from a newspaper with a grin.
"Mr. Merefleet"s married our little missie, dad," he announced. "I saw it coming t"other day."
And old Quiller looked up with a gleam of intelligence on his wrinkled face.
"Why!" he said, with slow triumph. "If that ain"t what I persuaded him for to do, long, long ago! He"s a sensible lad, is Master Bernard."
A measure of approval which Merefleet would doubtless have appreciated.