"Conquest must know that we love each other, too," he declared, with some bitterness.
"Perhaps he does; but, you see, every one has a different way of looking at life, and I don"t think that with him it"s a thing that counts greatly.
I"m not sure that I understand him in that respect. I only know that you and I, who owe him so much, can repay him by giving him what he asks for.
Will you promise me to do it?"
He continued to look downward, as though finding it hard to give his word; but when he raised his eyes again, he flung back his head with his old air of resolution.
"I"ll promise to do anything you ask me throughout our lives. I don"t admit that Conquest should demand this thing or that he had any right to let you offer it. But since you want to give it--and I can show you no other token of my love--and shall never again be able to tell you that I adore you--that I _adore_ you--I promise--to obey."
XXV
The inspection of the house was over, and they had come back to the drawing-room for tea. Conquest had lavished pains on the occasion, putting flowers in the rooms, and strewing handsome objects carelessly about, so as to impart to the great sh.e.l.l as much as possible the air of being lived in. To the tea-table he had given particular attention, ordering out the most ornamental silver and the costliest porcelain, and placing the table itself just where she would probably have it in days to come, so as to get the effect she produced in sitting there, as he liked to do with a new picture or piece of furniture.
On her part, Miriam had made the rounds of the rooms with conscientious care, observing, admiring, suggesting, with just that mingling of shyness and interest with which a woman in her situation would view her future home. Having got, by intuition, the idea that he was watching for some flaw in her manner, she was determined that he should find none. It was the beginning of that lifelong schooling to his service to which she had vowed herself, though the effort would have been easier had he not rendered her self-conscious by scanning her so keenly out of his little gray-green eyes. Nevertheless, she was pleased with the manner in which she was acquitting herself, giving him his tea and taking her own with no sign of embarra.s.sment. As on the preceding day, it was this perfection of acting, as he chose to call it, that exasperated his restless suspicion more than any display of weakness.
The thought that she was keeping her true self locked against him had, during the last twenty-four hours, become an obsession, making it impossible for him to eat or to sleep. In her serene, impeccable bearing he saw nothing but the bars up and the blinds drawn down. An instant of faltering or self-betrayal would have admitted him to at least a glimpse of what was pa.s.sing within; but through this well-balanced graciousness it was as difficult to get at her soul as to read the mind of the Venus of Milo in the marble n.o.bility of her face. He had led her from room to room, describing one, explaining another, and apologizing for a third, but all the while trying to break down her guard, only to find, as they returned to the point at which they started, that he had failed. It was with nerves all unstrung, and with a lack of self-command he would have been, in his saner senses, the first to condemn, that he strode up at last and rapped sharply at the door of her barricaded citadel.
"Why did you never tell me that you knew Norrie Ford--years ago?"
He was putting his empty cup on the table as he spoke, so that he could avoid looking at her. She was glad of this respite from his gaze, for she found the question startling. Before the scrutiny of his eyes was turned on her again she had herself in hand.
"I should probably have told you some time."
"Very likely. The odd thing is that you didn"t tell me at once."
"It wasn"t so odd--given all the circ.u.mstances."
"It wasn"t so odd, given some of the circ.u.mstances; but given them all--_all_--I should say, I ought to have known."
She allowed a few seconds to pa.s.s.
"I suppose," she said, slowly, then, "that may fairly be considered a matter of opinion. I don"t see, however, that it makes much difference--since you know now."
"My knowing or not knowing now isn"t quite the point. The fact of importance is that you never told me."
"I"m sorry you should take it in that way; but since I didn"t--and the matter is beyond remedy--I suppose we shouldn"t gain anything by discussing it."
"I don"t know about that. It seems to me a subject that ought to be--aired."
She tried to smile down his aggressiveness, succeeding partially, in that he subdued the quarrelsomeness of his voice and manner to that affectation of banter behind which he concealed habitually his real self, and by which he most easily deceived her.
"Very well," she laughed; "I"m quite ready to air it; only I don"t know just how it"s to be done."
"Suppose you were to tell me what happened, in your own language?"
"If Mr. Ford has told you already, as I imagine he has, I don"t see that my language can be very different from his. All the same, I"ll try, since you want me to."
"Just so."
During the few minutes she took to collect her thoughts he could see sweep over her features one of those swift, light changes--as delicate as the ripple of summer wind on water--which transformed her in an instant from the woman of the world to the forest maid, the spirit of the indigenous.
The mystery of the nomadic ages was in her eyes again as she began her narrative, wistfully, and reminiscently.
"You see, I"d been thinking a good deal of my father and mother. I hadn"t known about them very long, and I lived with their memory. The Mother Superior had told me a few things--all she knew, I suppose--before I left the convent at Quebec; and Mr. and Mrs. Wayne--especially Mrs. Wayne--had added the rest. That was the chief reason why I wanted the studio--so that I could get away from the house, which was so oppressive to me, and--so it seemed to me--live with them, with nothing but the woods and the hills and the sky about me. I could be very happy then--painting thinge I fancied they might have done, and pinning them up on the wall. I dare say it was foolish, but----"
"It was very natural. Go on."
"And then came up all this excitement about Norrie Ford. For months the whole region talked of nothing else. Nearly every one believed he had shot his uncle, but, except in the villages, the sympathy with him was tremendous. Some people--especially the hotel-keepers and those who depended on the tourist travel--were for law and order; but others said that old Chris Ford had got no more than he deserved. That was the way they used to talk. Mr. Wayne was on the side of law and order, too--naturally--till the trial came on; and then he began----"
"I know all about that. Go on."
"My own sympathy was with the man in prison. I used to dream about him. I remembered what Mrs. Wayne had told me my mother had done for my father. I was proud of that. Though I knew only vaguely what it was, I was sure it was what I should have done, too. So when there was talk of breaking into the jail and helping Norrie to escape, I used to think how easily I could keep any one hidden in my studio. I don"t mean I thought of it as a practical thing; it was just a dream."
"But a dream that came true."
"Yes; it came true. It was wonderful. It was the day Mr. Wayne sentenced him. I knew what he was suffering--Mr. Wayne, I mean. We were all suffering; even Mrs. Wayne, who in her gentle way was generally so hard.
Some people thought Mr. Wayne needn"t have done it; and I suppose it was just his conscientiousness--because he had such a horror of the thing--that drove him on to it. He thought he mustn"t shirk his duty. But that night at the house was awful. We dressed for dinner, and tried to act as if nothing frightful had happened--but it was as if the hangman was sitting with us at the table. At last I couldn"t endure it. I went out into the garden--you remember it was one of those gardens with clipped yews. Out there, in the air, I stopped thinking of Mr. Wayne and his distress to think of Norrie Ford. It seemed to me as if, in some strange way, he belonged to me--that I ought to do something--as my mother had done for my father. And then--all of a sudden--I saw him creep in."
"How did you know it was he?"
"I thought it must be, though I was only sure of it when I was on the terrace and saw his face. He crept along and crept along--Oh, such a forlorn, hopeless, outcast figure! My heart ached at the sight of him. I didn"t know what he meant to do, and at first I had no intention of attempting anything. It was by degrees that my own thought about the studio came back to me. By that time he was on the veranda of the house, and I was afraid he meant to kill Mr. Wayne. I went after him. I thought I would entice him away and hide him. But the minute he heard my footstep he leaped into the house. The next I saw, he was talking to Mr. and Mrs.
Wayne--and something told me he wouldn"t hurt them. After that I watched my chance till he looked outward, and then I beckoned to him. That"s how it happened."
"And then?"
"After that everything was easy. He must have told you. I kept him in the studio for three weeks, and brought him food--and clothing of my father"s.
It seemed to me that my father was doing everything--not I. That"s what made it so simple. I know my father would have wanted me to do it. I was only the agent in carrying out his will."
"That"s one way of looking at it," Conquest said, grimly.
"It"s the only way I"ve ever looked at it; the only way I ever shall."
"It was a romantic situation," he observed, when she had given him the outlines of the rest of the story. "I wonder you didn"t fall in love with him."
He smoothed the colorless line of his mustache, as though concealing a smile. He had recaptured the teasing tone he liked to employ toward her, though its nervous sharpness would have betrayed him had she suspected his real thoughts. While she said nothing in response, the tilt of her head was that which he a.s.sociated with her moods of indignation or pride.
"Perhaps you did," he persisted. Then, as she remained silent, "Did you?"
She resolved on a bold step--the audacity of that perfect candor she had always taken as a guide.
"I don"t know that one could call it that," she said, quietly.