"His letter is a very short one. To be candid, I have hardly made myself acquainted with its contents as yet."
"You are fencing with me. You know, and you will not tell."
Her mood changed so rapidly that Pyne was not wholly prepared for the attack.
"It is a good rule," he said, "never to pretend you can handle another man"s affairs better than he can handle them himself."
He met her kindling glance firmly. The anger that scintillated in her eyes almost found utterance. But this clever woman of the world felt that nothing would be gained, perhaps a great deal lost, by any open display of temper.
She laughed scornfully.
"Mr. Traill is certainly the best judge of those worthy of his confidence. Excuse me if I spoke heatedly. Let matters remain where they were."
"Just a word, Mrs. Vansittart. My uncle has written you fairly and squarely. He has not denied you his confidence. If I understood you, he has promised it to the fullest extent."
"Yes, that is true."
"Then what are we quarreling about?"
He laughed in his careless way, to put her at her ease. She frowned meditatively. She, who could smile in such a dazzling fashion, had lost her art of late.
"You are right," she said slowly. "I am just a hysterical woman, starting at shadows, making mountains out of molehills. Forgive me."
As Pyne went on up the stairs his reflections took this shape:
"The old man shied at telling her outright. I wonder why. He is chock full of tact, the smoothest old boy I ever fell up against. He thinks there may have been little troubles here, perhaps. Well, I guess he"s right."
In the service-room he found Brand cleaning a lamp calmly and methodically. All the stores had been carried downstairs, and the store-room key given over to the purser.
"I am glad you have turned up," said the lighthouse-keeper. "Oblige me by opening that locker and taking back the articles I purloined recently. If the purser asks for an explanation, tell him the truth, and say I am willing to eat this stuff now for my sins."
Pyne noticed that Brand"s own letters lay in a small pile on the writing-desk. With two exceptions, they were unopened. As a matter of fact, he had glanced at the superscriptions, saw that they were nearly all from strangers, and laid them aside until night fell and the lighting of the lamps would give him a spare moment.
"I"ll do that with pleasure," said the American, "but there"s one thing I want to discuss with you whilst there is a chance of being alone. My uncle says he has written to you."
"To me?"
"Yes. It deals with an important matter, too. It concerns Enid."
"Mr. Traill has written to me about Enid?" repeated Brand, stopping his industrious polishing to see if Pyne were joking with him.
"That"s so. See, here is his letter. It will tell its own story. Guess you"d better read it right away."
The young man picked up one of the sealed letters on the table and handed it to the other.
Setting aside a gla.s.s chimney and a wash-leather, Brand lost no time in reading Mr. Traill"s communication.
Save that his lips tightened, and his face paled slightly, there was no outward indication of the tumult the written words must have created in his soul, for this is what met his astonished vision:
"Dear Mr. Brand--I hope soon to make your acquaintance. It will be an honor to meet a man who has done so much for those near and dear to me, but there is one reason why I am anxious to grasp your hand which is so utterly beyond your present knowledge that I deem it a duty to tell you the facts, to prepare you, in a word.
"Circ.u.mstances have thrown me into the company of Lieutenant Stanhope. We had a kindred inspiration. He, I understand, is in effect, if not in actual recorded fact, the accepted suitor of your adopted daughter, known as Miss Enid Trevillion. I, although an older man, can share his feelings, because I am engaged to be married to Mrs. Vansittart, a lady whom you have, by G.o.d"s help, rescued. Hence, Mr. Stanhope and I have almost lived together, ash.o.r.e and afloat, during these troubled days. Naturally, he spoke of the girl he loves and told me something of her history. He described the brooch found on her clothing, and a Mr. Jones, retired from the lighthouse service, who was present when you saved the child from speedy death, informs me that her linen was marked "E. T."
"These facts, combined with the date and Mr. Jones"s description of the damaged boat, lead me to believe that the girl is my own daughter, Edith Traill, whom you have mercifully preserved to gladden the eyes of a father who mourned her death, and the death of her mother, for nineteen years.
"I can say no more at present. I am not making inferences not justified in other ways. Nor am I setting up a father"s claim to rob you of the affections of a beautiful and accomplished daughter.
I will be content, more than content, if she can give to me a t.i.the of the love she owes to you, for, indeed, in Mr. Stanhope, and in all others who know you, you have eloquent witnesses.
"Yours most sincerely,
"CYRUS J. TRAILL.
"P. S. Let me add, as an afterthought, that only my nephew and you have received this information. The agonized suspense which the ladies must have endured on the rock is a trial more than sufficient to tax their powers. If, as I expect, Mr. Stanhope meets you first, he will be guided wholly by your advice as to whether or not the matter shall be made known to your Enid--to my Edith--before she lands."
Brand dropped the letter and placed his hands over his face. He yielded for an instant to the stupor of the intelligence.
Pyne, as Constance had done, came near to him and said, with an odd despondency in his voice:
"Say, you feel bad about this. Guess you"ll hate our family in future."
"Why should I hate anyone who brings rank and fortune to one of my little girls?"
"Well," went on Pyne anxiously, "she"ll be Mrs. Stanhope, anyhow, before she"s much older."
"That appears to be settled. All things have worked out for the best.
Most certainly your excellent uncle and I shall not fall out about Enid.
If it comes to that, we must share her as a daughter."
Pyne brightened considerably as he learnt how Brand had taken the blow.
"Oh, bully!" he cried. "That"s a clear way out. Do you know, I was beginning to feel scared. I didn"t count a little bit on my respected uncle setting up a t.i.tle to Enid!"
CHAPTER XVI
STEPHEN BRAND EXPLAINS
They were interrupted. Elsie, with her golden hair and big blue eyes, pink cheeks and parted lips, appeared on the stairs. All that was visible was her head. She looked like one of Murillo"s angels.
"Please, can Mamie "n" me see the man?" she asked, a trifle awed. She did not expect to encounter a stern-faced official in uniform.
"What man, dearie?" he said, and instantly the child gained confidence, with that prompt abandonment to a favorable first impression which marks the exceeding wisdom of children and dogs.
She directed an encouraging _sotto voce_ down the stairs: