on board the steamer. Diana had then devoted herself to the display of the house, and her maid had helped Miss Merton to unpack. The process had been diversified by raids made by Miss f.a.n.n.y on Diana"s own wardrobe, which she had inspected from end to end, to an accompaniment of critical remark. According to her, there was very little that was really "shick" in it, and Diana should change her dressmaker. The number of her own dresses was large; and as to their colors and make, Mrs.
Colwood, who had helped to put away some of them, could only suppose that tropical surroundings made tropical tastes. At the same time the contrast between Miss f.a.n.n.y"s wardrobe, and what she herself reported, in every tone of grievance and disgust, of the family poverty, was surprising, though no doubt a great deal of the finery had been as cheaply bought as possible.
By luncheon-time Diana had shown some symptoms of fatigue, perhaps--Mrs.
Colwood hoped!--of revolt. She had been already sharply questioned as to the number of servants she kept and the wages they received, as to the people in the neighborhood who gave parties, and the ages and incomes of such young or unmarried men as might be met with at these parties. Miss Merton had boasted already of two love-affairs--one the unsuccessful engagement in Barbadoes, the other--"a near thing"--which had enlivened the voyage to England; and she had extracted a promise from Diana to ask the young solicitor she had met with in the train--Mr. Fred Birch--to lunch, without delay. Meanwhile she had not--of her own initiative--said one word of those educational objects, in pursuit of which she was supposed to have come to England. Diana had proposed to her the names of certain teachers both of music and languages--names which she had obtained with much trouble. Miss f.a.n.n.y had replied, rather carelessly, that she would think about it.
It was at this that the eager sweetness of Diana"s manner to her cousin had shown its first cooling. And Mrs. Colwood had curiously observed that at the first sign of shrinking on her part, Miss f.a.n.n.y"s demeanor had instantly changed. It had become sugared and flattering to a degree.
Everything in the house was "sweet"; the old silver used at table, with the Mallory crest, was praised extravagantly; the cooking no less. Yet still Diana"s tired silence had grown; and the watching eyes of this amazing young woman had been, in Mrs. Colwood"s belief, now insolently and now anxiously, aware of it.
Insolence!--that really, if one came to think of it, had been the note of Miss Merton"s whole behavior from the beginning--an ill-concealed, hardly restrained insolence, toward the girl, two years older than herself, who had received her with such tender effusion, and was, moreover, in a position to help her so materially. What could it--what did it mean?
Mrs. Colwood stood at the foot of the stairs a moment, lost in a trance of wonderment. Her heart was really sore for Diana"s disappointment, for the look in her face, as she left the house. How on earth could the visit be shortened and the young lady removed?
The striking of three o"clock reminded Muriel Colwood that she was to take the new-comer out for an hour. They had taken coffee in the morning-room up-stairs, Diana"s own sitting-room, where she wrote her letters and followed out the lines of reading her father had laid down for her. Mrs. Colwood returned thither; found Miss Merton, as it seemed to her, in the act of examining the letters in Diana"s blotting-book; and hastily proposed to her to take a turn in the garden.
f.a.n.n.y Merton hesitated, looked at Mrs. Colwood a moment dubiously, and finally walked up to her.
"Oh, I don"t care about going out, it"s so cold and nasty. And, besides, I--I want to talk to you."
"Miss Mallory thought you might like to see the old gardens," said Mrs.
Colwood. "But if you would rather not venture out, I"m afraid I must go and write some letters."
"Why, you were writing letters all the morning! My fingers would drop off if I was to go on at it like that. Do you like being a companion? I should think it was rather beastly--if you ask me. At home they did talk about it for me. But I said: "No, thank you! My own mistress, if you please!""
The speaker sat down by the fire, raised her skirt of purple cloth, and stretched a pair of shapely feet to the warmth. Her look was good-humored and lazy.
"I am very happy here," said Mrs. Colwood, quietly. "Miss Mallory is so charming and so kind."
Miss f.a.n.n.y cleared her throat, poked the fire with the tip of her shoe, fidgeted with her dress, and finally said--abruptly:
"I say--have all the people about here called?"
The tone was so low and furtive that Mrs. Colwood, who had been putting away some embroidery silks which had been left on the table by Diana, turned in some astonishment. She found the girl"s eyes fixed upon her--eager and hungry.
"Miss Mallory has had a great many visitors"--she tried to pitch her words in the lightest possible tone--"I am afraid it will take her a long time to return all her calls."
"Well, I"m glad it"s all right about that!--anyway. As mamma said, you never know. People are so queer about these things, aren"t they? As if it was Diana"s fault!"
Through all her wrath, Muriel Colwood was conscious of a sudden pang of alarm--which was, in truth, the reawakening of something already vaguely felt or surmised. She looked rather sternly at her companion.
"I really don"t know what you mean, Miss Merton. And I never discuss Miss Mallory"s affairs. Perhaps you will kindly allow me to go to my letters."
She was moving away when the girl beside her laughed again--rather angrily--and Mrs. Colwood paused, touched again by instinctive fear.
"Oh, of course if I"m not to say a word about it--I"m not--that"s all!
Well, now, look here--Diana needn"t suppose that I"ve come all this way just for fun. I had to say that about lessons, and that kind of thing--I didn"t want to set her against me--but I"ve ... Well!--why should I be ashamed, I should like to know?"--she broke out, shrilly, sitting erect, her face flushing deeply, her eyes on fire. "If some one owes you something--why shouldn"t you come and get it? Diana owes my mother _money!_--a lot of money!--and we can"t afford to lose it. Mother"s awfully sweet about Diana--she said, "Oh no, it"s unkind"--but I say it"s unkind to _us_, not to speak, when we all want money so bad--and there are the boys to bring up--and--"
"Miss Merton--I"m very sorry--but really I cannot let you talk to me of Miss Mallory"s private affairs. It would neither be right--nor honorable. You must see that. She will be in by tea-time herself.
Please!--"
Muriel"s tone was gentle; but her att.i.tude was resolution itself. f.a.n.n.y Merton stared at the frail slim creature in her deep widow"s black; her color rose.
"Oh, very well. Do as you like!--I"m agreeable! Only I thought perhaps--as you and Diana seem to be such tremendous friends--you"d like to talk it over with me first. I don"t know how much Diana knows; and I thought perhaps you"d give me a hint. Of course, she"ll know all there was in the papers. But my mother claims a deal more than the trust money--jewels, and that kind of thing. And Uncle Mallory treated us shamefully about them--_shamefully_! That"s why I"m come over. I made mother let me! Oh, she"s so soft, is mother, she"d let anybody off. But I said, "Diana"s rich, and she _ought_ to make it up to us! If n.o.body else"ll ask her, I will!""
The girl had grown pale, but it was a pallor of determination and of pa.s.sion. Mrs. Colwood had listened to the torrent of words, held against her will, first by astonishment, then by something else. If it should be her duty to listen?--for the sake of this young life, which in these few weeks had so won upon her heart?
She retraced a few steps.
"Miss Merton, I do not understand what you have been saying. If you have any claim upon Miss Mallory, you know well that she is the soul of honor and generosity. Her one desire is to give everybody _more_ than their due. She is _too_ generous--I often have to protect her. But, as I have said before, it is not for me to discuss any claim you may have upon her."
f.a.n.n.y Merton was silent for a minute--staring at her companion. Then she said, abruptly:
"Does she ever talk to you about Aunt Sparling?"
"Her mother?"
The girl nodded.
Mrs. Colwood hesitated--then said, unwillingly: "No. She has mentioned her once or twice. One can see how she missed her as a child--how she misses her still."
"Well, I don"t know what call she has to miss her!" cried f.a.n.n.y Merton, in a note of angry scorn. "A precious good thing she died when she did--for everybody."
Mrs. Colwood felt her hands trembling. In the growing darkness of the winter afternoon it seemed to her startled imagination as though this black-eyed black-browed girl, with her scowling pa.s.sionate face, were entering into possession of the house and of Diana--an evil and invading power. She tried to choose her words carefully.
"Miss Mallory has never talked to me of her parents. And, if you will excuse me, Miss Merton--if there is anything sad--or tragic--in their history, I would rather hear it from Miss Mallory than from you!"
"Anything sad?--anything _sad_? Well, upon my word!--"
The girl breathed fast. So, involuntarily, did Mrs. Colwood.
"You don"t mean to say"--the speaker threw her body forward, and brought her face close to Mrs. Colwood--"you are not going to tell me that you don"t know about Diana"s mother?"
She laid her hand upon Muriel"s dress.
"Why should I know? Please, Miss Merton!" and with a resolute movement Mrs. Colwood tried to withdraw her dress.
"Why, _everybody_ knows!--everybody!--everybody! Ask anybody in the world about Juliet Sparling--and you"ll see. In the saloon, coming over, I heard people talk about her all one night--they didn"t know who _I_ was--and of course I didn"t tell. And there was a book in the ship"s library--_Famous Trials_--or some name of that sort--with the whole thing in it. You don"t know--about--Diana"s _mother_?"
The fierce, incredulous emphasis on the last word, for a moment, withered all reply on Mrs. Colwood"s lips. She walked to the door mechanically, to see that it was fast shut. Then she returned. She sat down beside Diana"s guest, and it might have been seen that she had silenced fear and dismissed hesitation. "After all," she said, with quiet command, "I think I will ask you, Miss Merton, to explain what you mean?"
The February afternoon darkened round the old house. There was a light powdering of snow on gra.s.s and trees. Yet still there were breathings and bird-notes in the air, and tones of color in the distance, which obscurely prophesied the spring. Through the wood behind the house the snow-drops were rising, in a white invading host, over the ground covered with the red-brown deposit of innumerable autumns. Above their glittering white, rose an undergrowth of laurels and box, through which again shot up the magnificent trunks--gray and smooth and round--of the great beeches, which held and peopled the country-side, heirs of its ancestral forest. Any one standing in the wood could see, through the leafless trees, the dusky blues and rich violets of the encircling hill--hung there, like the tapestry of some vast hall; or hear from time to time the loud wings of the wood-pigeons as they clattered through the topmost boughs.
Diana was still in the village. She had been spending her hour of escape mostly with the Roughsedges. The old doctor among his books was now sufficiently at his ease with her to pet her, teach her, and, when necessary, laugh at her. And Mrs. Roughsedge, however she might feel herself eclipsed by Lady Lucy, was, in truth, much more fit to minister to such ruffled feelings as Diana was now conscious of than that delicate and dignified lady. Diana"s disillusion about her cousin was, so far, no very lofty matter. It hurt; but on her run to the village the natural common-sense Mrs. Colwood had detected had wrestled stoutly with her wounded feelings. Better take it with a laugh! To laugh, however, one must be distracted; and Mrs. Roughsedge, bubbling over with gossip and good-humor, was distraction personified. Stern Justice, in the person of Lord M."s gamekeeper, had that morning brought back Diana"s two dogs in leash, a pair of abject and convicted villains, from the delirium of a night"s hunting. The son of Miss Bertram"s coachman had only just missed an appointment under the District Council by one place on the list of candidates. A "Red Van" bursting with Socialist literature had that morning taken up its place on the village green; and Diana"s poor housemaid, in payment for a lifetime"s neglect, must now lose every tooth in her head, according to the verdict of the local dentist, an excellent young man, in Mrs. Roughsedge"s opinion, but ready to give you almost too much pulling out for your money. On all these topics she overflowed--with much fun and unfailing good-humor. So that after half an hour spent with Mrs. Roughsedge and Hugh in the little drawing-room at the White Cottage, Diana"s aspect was very different from what it had been when she arrived.
Hugh, however, had noticed her pallor and depression. He was obstinately certain that Oliver Marsham was not the man to make such a girl happy.
Between the rich Radical member and the young officer--poor, slow of speech and wits, and pa.s.sionately devoted to the old-fashioned ideals and traditions in which he had been brought up--there was a natural antagonism. But Roughsedge"s contempt for his brilliant and successful neighbor--on the ground of selfish ambitions and unpatriotic trucklings--was, in truth, much more active than anything Marsham had ever shown--or felt--toward himself. For in the young soldier there slept potentialities of feeling and of action, of which neither he nor others were as yet aware.
Nevertheless, he faced the facts. He remembered the look with which Diana had returned to the Beechcote drawing-room, where Marsham awaited her, the day before--and told himself not to be a fool.