"Come again soon--you"re always welcome; you wake us up, Madame Zabriska."
"You promised to say Mina!"
"So I did, but my tongue"s out of practice with young ladies" Christian names. Why, I call my wife "Mother"--only Janie says I mustn"t. Yes, come and cheer us up. I shall make the uncle a crack player before long.
Mustn"t let him get lazy and spend half the day over five o"clock tea, though."
This was hardly a hint, but it was an indication of the trend of Mr Iver"s thoughts. So it was a dangerous ball, and that clever little cricketer, the Imp, kept her bat away from it. She laughed; that committed her to nothing--and left Iver to bowl again.
"It"s quite a change to find Harry Tristram at a tea-party, though!
Making himself pleasant too!"
"Not to me," observed Mina decisively.
"You chaffed him, I expect. He stands a bit on his dignity. Ah well, he"s young, you see."
"No, he chaffed me. Oh, I think I--I left off even, you know."
"They get a bit spoilt." He seemed to be referring to the aristocracy.
"But there"s plenty of stuff in him, or I"m much mistaken. He"s a born fighter, I think."
"I wonder!" said Mina, her eyes twinkling again.
Finally there was the Major to be walked home with--not a youthful triumphant Major, but a rather careworn, undisguisedly irritated one. If Mina wanted somebody to agree with her present mood about Harry Tristram, her longing was abundantly gratified. The Major roundly termed him an overbearing young cub, and professed a desire--almost an intention--to teach him better manners. This coincidence of views was a sore temptation to the Imp; to resist it altogether would seem superhuman.
"I should like to cut his comb for him," growled Duplay.
Whatever the metaphor adopted, Mina was in essential agreement. She launched on an account of how Harry had treated her: they fanned one another"s fires, and the flames burnt merrily.
Mina"s stock of discretion was threatened with complete consumption.
From open denunciations she turned to mysterious hintings.
"I could bring him to reason if I liked," she said.
"What, make him fall in love with you?" cried Duplay, with a surprise not very complimentary.
"Oh no," she laughed; "better than that--by a great deal."
He eyed her closely: probably this was only another of her whimsical tricks, with which he was very familiar; if he showed too much interest she would laugh at him for being taken in. But she had hinted before to-day"s annoyances; she was hinting again. He had yawned at her hints till he became Harry Tristram"s rival; he was ready to be eager now, if only he could be sure that they pointed to anything more than folly or delusion.
"Oh, my dear child," he exclaimed, "you mustn"t talk nonsense. We mayn"t like him, but what in the world could you do to him?"
"I don"t want to hurt him, but I should like to make him sing small."
They had just reached the foot of the hill. Duplay waved his arm across the river toward the hall. Blent looked strong and stately.
"That"s a big task, my dear," he said, recovering some of his good-humor at the sight of Mina"s waspish little face. "I fancy it"ll need a bigger man than you to make Tristram of Blent sing small." He laughed at her indulgently. "Or than me either, I"m afraid," he added, with a ruefulness that was not ill-tempered. "We must fight him in fair fight, that"s all."
"He doesn"t fight fair," she cried angrily. The next instant she broke into her most malicious smile. "Tristram of Blent!" she repeated. "Oh well----"
"Mina, dear, do you know you rather bore me? If you mean anything at all----"
"I may mean what I like without telling you, I suppose?"
"Certainly--but don"t ask me to listen."
"You think it"s all nonsense?"
"I do, my dear," confessed the Major.
How far he spoke sincerely he himself could hardly tell. Perhaps he had an alternative in his mind: if she meant nothing, she would hold her peace and cease to weary him; if she meant anything real, his challenge would bring it out. But for the moment she had fallen into thought.
"No, he doesn"t fight fair," she repeated, as though to herself. She glanced at her uncle in a hesitating, undecided way. "And he"s abominably rude," she went on, with a sudden return of pettishness.
The Major"s shrug expressed an utter exhaustion of patience, a scornful irritation, almost a contempt for her. She could not endure it; she must justify herself, revenge herself at a blow on Harry for his rudeness and on her uncle for his scepticism. The triumph would be sweet; she could not for the moment think of any seriousness in what she did. She could not keep her victory to herself; somebody else now must look on at Harry"s humiliation, at least must see that she had power to bring it about. With the height of malicious exultation she looked up at Duplay and said:
"Suppose he wasn"t Tristram of Blent at all?"
Duplay stopped short where he stood--on the slope of the hill above Blent itself.
"What? Is this more nonsense?"
"No, it isn"t nonsense."
He looked at her steadily, almost severely. Under his regard her smile disappeared; she grew uncomfortable.
"Then I must know more about it. Come, Mina, this is no trifle, you know."
"I shan"t tell you any more," she flashed out, in a last effort of petulance.
"You must," he said calmly. "All you know, all you think. Come, we"ll have it out now at once."
She followed like a naughty child. She could have bitten her tongue out, as the old phrase goes. Her feelings went round like a weather-c.o.c.k; she was ashamed of herself, sorry for Harry--yes, and afraid of Harry. And she was afraid of Duplay too. She had run herself into something serious--that she saw; something serious in which two resolute men were involved. She did not know where it would end. But now she could not resist. The youthful uncle seemed youthful no more; he was old, strong, authoritative. He made her follow him, and he bade her speak.
She followed, like the naughty child she now seemed even to herself; and presently, in the library, beside those wretched books of hers, her old law-books and her Peerages, reluctantly, stumblingly, sullenly, still like the naughty child who would revolt but dare not, she spoke. And when at last he let her go with her secret told, she ran up to her own room and threw herself on the bed, sobbing. She had let herself in for something dreadful. It was all her own fault--and she was very sorry.
Those were her two main conclusions.
Her whole behavior was probably just what the gentleman to whom she owed her nickname would have expected and prophesied.
V
THE FIRST ROUND
Within the last few days there were ominous rumors afloat as to Lady Tristram"s health. It was known that she could see n.o.body and kept her room; it was reported that the doctors (a specialist had been down from town) were looking very grave; it was agreed that her const.i.tution had not the strength to support a prolonged strain. There was sympathy--the neighborhood was proud in its way of Lady Tristram--and there was the usual interest to which the prospect of a death and a succession gives rise. They canva.s.sed Harry"s probable merits and demerits, asking how he would fill the vacant throne, and, more particularly, whether he would be likely to entertain freely. Lavish hospitality at Blent would mean much to their neighborhood, and if it were indeed the case (as was now prophesied in whispers) that Miss Iver of Fairholme was to be mistress at the Hall, there would be nothing to prevent the hospitalities from being as splendid as the mind of woman could conceive. There were spinster ladies in small villas at Blentmouth who watched the illness and the courtship as keenly as though they were to succeed the sick Lady Tristram and to marry the new Lord. Yet a single garden-party in the year would represent pretty accurately their personal stake in the matter. If you live on crumbs, a good big crumb is not to be despised.