"Believe me, I would not allow your cousin to marry my niece if I were not truly convinced that it will be for the eventual great happiness of them both. Will you promise me something, Lady Ethelrida? Will you help me not to permit any one to interfere between them for some time, no matter how things may appear? Give them the chance of settling everything themselves."
Ethelrida looked back at him, with a seriousness equal to his own as she answered, "I promise." And inwardly the sense of some unknown undercurrent that might grow into a rushing torrent made itself felt, stronger than before.
Meanwhile Lady Coltshurst, who could just see Zara"s profile all the time when she put up those irritating, longhandled gla.s.ses of hers, now gave her opinion of the bride-elect to Lord Charles Montfitchet, her neighbor on the left hand.
"I strongly disapprove of her, Charles. Either her hair is dyed or her eyes are blackened; that mixture is not natural, and if, indeed, it should be in this case then I consider it uncanny and not what one would wish for in the family."
"Oh, I say, my lady!" objected Lord Charles, "I think she is the most stunning-looking young woman I"ve seen in a month of Sundays!"
Lady Coltshurst put up her gla.s.ses again and glared:
"I cannot bear your modern slang, Charles, but "stunning," used literally, is quite appropriate. She does stun one; that is exactly it.
I fear poor Tristram with such a type can look forward to very little happiness, or poor Jane to any likelihood that the Tancred name will remain free from scandal."
Lord Charles grew exasperated and retaliated.
"By George! A demure mouse can cause scandal to a name, with probably more certainty than this beauty!"
There was a member of Lady Coltshurst"s husband"s family whom she herself, having no children, had brought out, and who had been perilously near the Divorce Court this very season: and she was a dull, colorless little thing.
Her ladyship turned the conversation abruptly, with an annihilating glance. And fortunately, just then Zara rose, and the ladies filed out of the room: and so this trying dinner was over.
CHAPTER XIII
Nothing could exceed Zara"s dignity, when they reached the drawing-room above. They at first stood in a group by the fire in the larger room, and Emily and Mary tried to get a word in and say something nice in their frank girlish way. They admired their future sister-in-law so immensely, and if Zara had not thought they were all acting a part, as she herself was, she would have been touched at their sweetness. As it was she inwardly froze more and more, while she answered with politeness; and Lady Ethelrida, watching quietly for a while, grew further puzzled.
It was certainly a mask this extraordinary and beautiful young woman was wearing, she felt, and presently, when Lady Coltshurst who had remained rather silently aloof, only fixing them all in turn with her long eyegla.s.ses, drew the girls aside to talk to her by asking for news of their mother"s headache, Ethelrida indicated she and Zara might sit down upon the nearest, stiff, French sofa; and as she clasped her thin, fine hands together, holding her pale gray gloves which she did not attempt to put on again, she said gently:
"I hope we shall all make you feel you are so welcome, Zara--may I call you Zara? It is such a beautiful name I think."
The Countess Shulski"s strange eyes seemed to become blacker than ever--a startled, suspicious look grew in them, just such as had come into the black panther"s on a day when Francis Markrute whistled a softly caressing note outside its bars: what did this mean?
"I shall be very pleased if you will," she said coldly.
Lady Ethelrida determined not to be snubbed. She must overcome this barrier if she could, for Tristram"s sake.
"England and our customs must seem so strange to you," she went on. "But we are not at all disagreeable people when you know us!" And she smiled encouragingly.
"It is easy to be agreeable when one is happy," Zara said. "And you all seem very happy here--_sans souci_. It is good."
And Ethelrida wondered. "What can make you so unhappy, you beautiful thing, with Tristram to love you, and youth and health and riches?"
And Zara thought, "This appears a sweet and most frank lady, but how can I tell? I know not the English. It is perhaps because she is so well bred that she is enabled to act so nicely."
"You have not yet seen Wrayth, have you?" Ethelrida went on. "I am sure you will be interested in it, it is so old."
"Wr--ayth--?" Zara faltered. She had never heard of it! What was Wrayth?
"Perhaps I do not p.r.o.nounce it as you are accustomed to think of it,"
Ethelrida said kindly. She was absolutely startled at the other"s ignorance. "Tristram"s place, I mean. The Guiscards have owned it ever since the Conqueror gave it to them after the Battle of Hastings, you know. It is the rarest case of a thing being so long in one family, even here in England, and the t.i.tle has only gone in the male line, too, as yet. But Tristram and Cyril are the very last. If anything happened to them it would be the end. Oh! we are all so glad Tristram is going to be married!"
Zara"s eyes now suddenly blazed at the unconscious insinuation in this speech. Any one who has ever watched a caged creature of the cat tribe and seen how the whole gamut of emotions--sullen endurance, suspicion, resentment, hate and rage, as well as contentment and happiness--can appear in its...o...b.. without the slightest aid from lids or eyebrows, without the smallest alteration in mouth or chin, will understand how Zara"s pools of ink spoke while their owner remained icily still.
She understood perfectly the meaning of Ethelrida"s speech. The line of the Tancreds should go on through her! But never, never! That should never be! If they were counting upon that they were counting in vain.
The marriage was never intended to be anything but an empty ceremony, for mercenary reasons. There must be no mistake about this. What if Lord Tancred had such ideas, too? And she quivered suddenly and caught in her breath with the horror of this thought.
And who was Cyril? Zara had no knowledge of Cyril, any more than of Wrayth! But she did not ask.
If Francis Markrute had heard this conversation he would have been very much annoyed with himself, and would have blamed himself for stupidity.
He, of course, should have seen that his niece was sufficiently well coached, in all the details that she should know, not to be led into these pitfalls.
Ethelrida felt a sensation of a sort of petrified astonishment. There is a French word, _ahuri_, which expresses her emotion exactly, but there is no English equivalent. Tristram"s fiance was evidently quite ignorant of the simplest facts about him, or his family, or his home! Her eyes had blazed at Ethelrida"s last speech, with a look of self-defence and defiance. And yet Tristram was evidently pa.s.sionately in love with her.
How could such things be? It was a great mystery. Ethelrida was thrilled and interested.
Francis Markrute guessed the ladies" lonely moments would be most difficult to pa.s.s, so he had curtailed the enjoyment of the port and old brandy and cigars to the shortest possible dimensions, Tristram aiding him. His one desire was to be near his fiance.
The overmastering magnetic current which seemed to have drawn him from the very first moment he had seen her now had augmented into almost pain. She had been cruelly cold and disdainful at dinner whenever she had spoken to him, her contempt showing plainly in her eyes, and it had maddened and excited him; and when the other men had all drunk the fiances" health and wished them happiness he had gulped down the old brandy, and vowed to himself, "Before a year is out I will make her love me as I love her, so help me G.o.d!"
And then they all had trooped up into the drawing-room just as Ethelrida was saying,
"The northern property, Morndale, is not half so pretty as Wrayth--"
But when she saw them enter she rose and ceded her place to Tristram who gladly sank into the sofa beside his lady.
He was to have no tete-a-tete, however, for Jimmy Danvers who felt it was his turn to say something to the coming bride came now, and leant upon the mantelpiece beside them.
"I am going to be the most severe "best man" next Wednesday, Countess,"
he said. "I shall see that Tristram is at St. George"s a good half-hour before the time, and that he does not drop the ring; you trust to me!"
And he laughed nervously, Zara"s face was so unresponsive.
"Countess Shulski does not know the English ceremony, Jimmy," Tristram interrupted quickly, "nor what is a "best man." Now, if we were only across the water we would have a rehearsal of the whole show as we did for Darrowood"s wedding."
"That must have been a joke," said Jimmy.
"It was very sensible there; there was such a lot of fuss, and bridesmaids, and things; but we are going to be quite quiet, aren"t we, Zara? I hate shows; don"t you?"
"Immensely," was all she answered.
Then Sir James, who felt thoroughly crushed, after one or two more fatuous remarks moved away, and Zara arose in her character of hostess, and spoke to Lady Coltshurst.
Tristram crossed over to the Duke and rapidly began a political discussion, but while his uncle appeared to notice nothing unusual, and entered into it with interest, his kind, old heart was wrung with the pain he saw his favorite nephew was suffering.
"Mr. Markrute, I am troubled," Lady Ethelrida said, as she walked with the host to look at an exquisite Vigee le Brun across the room. "Your niece is the most interesting personality I have ever met; but, underneath, something is making her unhappy, I am sure. Please, what does it mean? Oh, I know I have promised what I did at dinner, but are you certain it is all right? And can they ever be really at peace together?"
Francis Markrute bent over, apparently to point to a _bibelot_ which lay on a table under the picture, and he said in a low, vibrating tone.