"Well, I suppose Blent"s worth nine or ten thousand a year still?" The progress of Lord Southend"s thoughts was obvious.
"H"m. Seven or eight, I should think, as it"s managed now. It"s a nice place, though, and would go a good bit better in proper hands."
"Paterfamilias considering?"
"I don"t quite make the young fellow out. He"s got a good opinion of himself, I fancy." Iver laughed a little. "Well, we shall see," he ended.
"Not a bad thing to be Lady Tristram of Blent, you know, Iver. That"s none of your pinchbeck. The real thing--though, as I say, young Harry"s only got it by the skin of his teeth. Eh, Neeld?"
Mr Neeld laid down his napkin and pushed back his chair.
"Sit still, man. We"ve nearly finished, and we"ll all have a cup of coffee together and a cigar."
Misfortunes acc.u.mulated, for Neeld hated tobacco. But he was anxious to be scrupulously polite to Iver, and thus to deaden the pangs of conscience. Resigned though miserable, he went with them to the smoking-room. Colonel Wilmot Edge looked up from the _Army and Navy Gazette_, and glanced curiously at the party as they pa.s.sed his table.
Why were these old fellows reviving old stories? They were better left at rest. The Colonel groaned as he went back to his newspaper.
Happily, in the smoking-room the talk shifted to less embarra.s.sing subjects. Iver told of his life and doings, and Neeld found himself drawn to the man: he listened with interest and appreciation; he seemed brought into touch with life; he caught himself sighing over the retired inactive nature of his own occupations. He forgave Iver the h.o.a.rdings about the streets; he could not forgive himself the revenge he had taken for them. Iver and Southend spoke of big schemes in which they had been or were engaged together--legitimate enterprises, good for the nation as well as for themselves. How had he, a useless old fogy, dared to blackball a man like Iver? An occasional droll glance from Southend emphasized his compunction.
"I see you"ve got a new thing coming out, Neeld," said Southend, after a pause in the talk. "I remember old Cholderton very well. He was a starchy old chap, but he knew his subjects. Makes rather heavy reading, I should think, eh?"
"Not all of it, not by any means all of it," Neeld a.s.sured him. "He doesn"t confine himself to business matters."
"Still, even old Joe Cholderton"s recreations----"
"He was certainly mainly an observer, but he saw some interesting things and people." There was a renewed touch of nervousness in Mr Neeld"s manner.
"Interesting people? H"m. Then I hope he"s discreet?"
"Or that Mr Neeld will be discreet for him," Iver put in. "Though I don"t know why interesting people are supposed to create a need for discretion."
"Oh yes, you do, Iver. You know the world. Don"t you be too discreet, Neeld. Give us a taste of Joe"s lighter style."
Neeld did not quite approve of his deceased and respected friend being referred to as "Joe," nor did he desire to discuss in that company what he had and what he had not suppressed in the Journal.
"I have used the best of my judgment," he said primly, and was surprised to find Iver smiling at him with an amused approval.
"The least likely men break out," Lord Southend continued hopefully.
"The Baptist minister down at my place once waylaid the wife of the Chairman of Quarter Sessions and asked her to run away with him."
"That"s one of your Nonconformist stories, Southend. I never believe them," said Iver.
"Oh, I"m not saying anything. She was a pretty woman. I just gave it as an ill.u.s.tration. I happen to know it"s true, because she told me herself."
"Ah, I"d begin to listen if he"d told you," was Iver"s cautious comment.
"You give us the whole of old Joe Cholderton!" was Lord Southend"s final injunction.
"Imagine if I did!" thought Neeld, beginning to feel some of the joy of holding a secret.
Presently Southend took his leave, saying he had an engagement. To his own surprise Neeld did not feel this to be an unwarrantable proceeding; he sat on with Iver, and found himself cunningly encouraging his companion to talk again about the Tristrams. The story in the Journal had not lost its interest for him; he had read it over more than once again; it was strange to be brought into contact, even at second-hand, with the people whose lives and fortunes it concerned. It was evident that Iver, on his side, had for some reason been thinking of the Tristrams too, and he responded readily to Neeld"s veiled invitation.
He described Blent for him; he told him how Lady Tristram had looked, and that her illness was supposed to be fatal; he talked again of Harry Tristram, her destined successor. But he said no more of his daughter.
Neeld was left without any clear idea that his companion"s concern with the Tristrams was more than that of a neighbor or beyond what an ancient family with odd episodes in its history might naturally inspire.
"Oh, you must come to Blentmouth, Mr Neeld, you must indeed. For a few days, now? Choose your time, only let it be soon. Why, if you made your way into the library at Blent, you might happen on a find there! A lot of interesting stuff there, I"m told. And we shall be very grateful for a visit."
Neeld was conscious of a strong desire to go to Blentmouth. But it would be a wrong thing to do; he felt that he could not fairly accept Iver"s hospitality. And he felt, moreover, that he had much better not get himself mixed up with the Tristrams of Blent. No man is bound to act on hearsay evidence, especially when that evidence has been acquired through a confidential channel. But if he came to know the Tristrams, to know Harry Tristram, his position would certainly be peculiar. Well, that was in the end why he wanted to do it.
Iver rose and held out his hand. "I must go," he said. "Fairholme, Blentmouth! I hope I shall have a letter from you soon, to tell us to look out for you."
One of the unexpected likings that occur between people had happened.
Each man felt it and recognized it in the other. They were alone in the room for the moment.
"Mr Iver," said Neeld, in his precise prim tones, "I must make a confession to you. When you were up for this club I--my vote was not in your favor."
During a minute"s silence Iver looked at him with amus.e.m.e.nt and almost with affection.
"I"m glad you"ve told me that."
"Well, I"m glad I have too." Neeld"s laugh was nervous.
"Because it shows that you"re thinking of coming to Blentmouth."
"Well--yes, I am," answered Neeld, smiling. And they shook hands. Here was the beginning of a friendship; here, also, Neeld"s entry on the scene where Harry Tristram"s fortunes formed the subject of the play.
It was now a foregone conclusion that Mr Neeld would fall before temptation and come to Blentmouth. There had been little doubt about it all along; his confession to Iver removed the last real obstacle. The story in Josiah Cholderton"s Journal had him in its grip; on the first occasion of trial his resolution not to be mixed up with the Tristrams melted away. Perhaps he consoled himself by saying that he would be, like his deceased and respected friend, mainly an observer. The Imp, it may be remembered, had gone to Merrion Lodge with exactly the same idea; it has been seen how it fared with her.
By the Blent the drama seemed very considerately to be waiting for him.
It says much for Major Duplay that his utter and humiliating defeat by the Pool had not driven him into any hasty action or shaken him in his original purpose. He was abiding by the offer which he had made, although the offer had been scornfully rejected. If he could by any means avoid it, he was determined not to move while Lady Tristram lived.
Harry might force him to act sooner; that rested with Harry, not with him. Meanwhile he declined to explain even to Mina what had occurred by the Pool, and treated her open incredulity as to Harry"s explanation with silence or a snub. The Major was not happy at this time; yet his unhappiness was nothing to the deep woe, and indeed terror, which had settled on Mina Zabriska. She had guessed enough to see that, for the moment at least, Harry had succeeded in handling Duplay so roughly as to delay, if not to thwart, his operations; what would he not do to her, whom he must know to be the original cause of the trouble? She used to stand on the terrace at Merrion and wonder about this; and she dared not go to Fairholme lest she should encounter Harry. She made many good resolutions for the future, but there was no comfort in the present days.
The resolutions went for nothing, even in the moment in which they were made. She had suffered for meddling; that was bad: it was worse to the Imp not to meddle; inactivity was the one thing unendurable.
She too, like old Mr Neeld in London town, was drawn by the interest of the position, by the need of seeing how Harry Tristram fought his fight.
For four days she resisted; on the evening of the fifth, after dinner, while the Major dozed, she came out on the terrace in a cloak and looked down the hill. It was rather dark, and Blent Hall loomed dimly in the valley below. She pulled the hood of her cloak over her head, and began to descend the hill: she had no special purpose; she wanted a nearer look at Blent, and it was a fine night for a stroll. She came to the road, crossed it after a momentary hesitation, and stood by the gate of the little foot-bridge, which, in the days before enmity arose, Harry Tristram had told her was never locked. It was not now. Mina advanced to the middle of the bridge and leant on the parapet, her eyes set on Blent Hall. There were lights in the lower windows; one window on the upper floor was lighted too. There, doubtless, Lady Tristram lay slowly dying; somewhere else in the house Harry was keeping his guard and perfecting his defences. The absolute peace and rest of the outward view, the sleepless vigilance and unceasing battle within, a battle that death made keener and could not lull to rest--this contrast came upon Mina with a strange painfulness; her eyes filled with tears as she stood looking.
A man came out into the garden and lit a cigar; she knew it was Harry; she did not move. He sauntered toward the bridge; she held her ground; though he should strike her, she would have speech with him to-night. He was by the bridge and had his hand on the gate at the Blent end of it before he saw her. He stood still a moment, then came to her side, and leant as she was leaning over the parapet. He was bare-headed--she saw his thick hair and his peaked forehead; he smoked steadily; he showed no surprise at seeing her, and he did not speak to her for a long time. At last, still without looking at her, he began. She could just make out his smile, or thought she could; at any rate she was sure it was there.
"Well, Mina de Kries?" said he. She started a little. "Oh, I don"t believe in the late Zabriska; I don"t believe you"re grown up; I think you"re about fifteen--a beastly age." He put his cigar back in his mouth.
"You see that window?" he resumed in a moment. "And you know what"s happening behind it? My mother"s dying there. Well, how"s the Major? Has he got that trick in better order yet?"
She found her tongue with difficulty.
"Does Lady Tristram know about--about me?" she stammered.
"I sometimes lie to my mother," said Harry, flicking his ash into the river. "Why do you lie to your uncle, though?"
"I didn"t lie. You know I didn"t lie."